It is remarkable that the late Dr. Bala Usman’s book, ‘The Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria: 1977-1987’, was published in April 1987. Yet, over two and a half decades after, the problem of religious intolerance and violence remain as virulent and destabilizing as ever in contemporary Nigeria. Interestingly, the prologue to the book is an instructive excerpt from a speech made on 22nd June, 1981, by Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, who was then Governor of Kaduna State and it reads: “Our state is at the heartland of the northern parts of this country, in every sense of history and culture, economically and politically. But we do not belong to the retrograde north of feudalists, slave-holders, crooks, parasites and foreign agents. We are of the cultured north of democracy, liberation and social progress for all the people of Nigeria”. This prologue reflects the spirit in which Bala Usman’s book was written. Incidentally, Dr. Usman served as Secretary to the Kaduna State Government during Governor Balarabe Musa’s tenure. Like his earlier book, ‘ For The Liberation of Nigeria’, which we reflected on last week, ‘The Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria’, is a collection of lectures, essays and letters written and delivered over a decade on the question of religion and the national cohesion, viability and stability of Nigeria. It must be said that these two books were attempts by Dr. Usman to reach beyond the Ivory Tower and enable a wider cross section of Nigerians to understand and appreciate the real roots of their country’s protracted socio-economic and political underdevelopment. Those who are interested in Dr. Usman’s more academically substantial work in his sphere of specialization, history, will have to consult the relevant journals and his more theoretically rigorous publications.
Some of the incidents of religious violence that Dr. Usman analysed and clinically dissected in his book include the Maitatsine uprising in Kano City from 18th to 29th December, 1980 leading to the loss of 4,177 lives; the Bulukuntu riots in Maiduguri from 28th to 30th October, 1982 with a death toll of over 400 persons; the acrimony that attended the Sharia debate in the run up to the second republic; the attempt to read religious meanings into the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed and the riots in Kaduna from Friday, 29th to Saturday, 31st October, 1982 as well as the violent demonstration in Sabon Garin, Kano by the Muslim Students Society on Saturday, 30th October, 1982. Dr. Usman’s commentary on the last incident is significant and deserves to be quoted in full. In his words, “…Only two people were killed according to newspaper reports. But the great significance of this incident is that it involves for the first time, the calculated destruction and burning of Christian churches in what seems to be a violent assertion of the ‘Islam Only’ slogan painted all over the streets of Zaria in an aggressive demonstration by the Muslim Students Society in 1980. The attack on and destruction of Christian churches in Sabon Garin Kano, marks the highest and most dangerous, point this systematic manipulation of religion has reached in its opposition to the unity of the people of this country”. This dispassionate analysis reflects the fierce patriotism and selflessness of Bala Usman, himself a Hausa/Fulani and Muslim.
Over two and a half decades after the publication of Dr. Bala Usman’s book, the attack on churches in various parts of the North has become routine courtesy the Boko Haram insurgent group. Religious fundamentalism both of the Muslim and Christian varieties have become more deeply entrenched in Nigerian society. But does Dr. Usman’s theory of manipulation still explain the phenomenon of religious intolerance and violence in contemporary Nigeria? I believe it does even if the context and mechanisms of the manipulation have changed in a number of ways. Bala Usman defines manipulation as “essentially controlling the action of a person or group without their that person or group knowing the goals, purpose and method of that control and without even being aware that a form of control is being exercised on them at all”. Thus, Dr. Usman links the manipulation of religion in Nigeria to the ever deteriorating material living conditions of millions of Nigerians and the few ruling class elements who benefit from the unjust status quo. According to him, “Within Nigeria, millions of Nigerians are increasingly realising that the present economic and social system in this country has nothing for them except landlessness, indebtedness, unemployment, destitution, disease, illiteracy and chronic and pervasive insecurity”. He thus sees the perpetrators of this exploitative and iniquitous system as the prime perpetrators of manipulation who “cover themselves with religious and ethnic disguises in order to further entrench division among our people”.
Since Dr. Usman penned these words, Nigeria has slipped into a deeper socio-economic morass. Unable to find a way out of a quagmire that is largely a function of their own greed and parasitism, factions of the ruling class, easily resort to manipulating ethnic, religious and regional sentiments to legitimate their otherwise tenuous hold on power. Is this not the best way, for example, to explain the ferocity with which some northern governors at the beginning of this political dispensation in 1999 pursued the Sharia agenda in utter contempt for the supposed secularity of the Nigerian State? Are those who willingly turn themselves into suicide bombers on behalf of Boko Haram not victims of the kind of manipulation Bala Usman talks about? Are the king-pins of Boko Haram themselves within Nigeria not most likely unwitting victims of external religious extremists who perceive the Nigerian ruling class as siding with neo-imperial forces in the war against terrorism and are thus working clandestinely for a religious-driven implosion of the country? Is it not a strong possibility that the millions of ordinary Muslim northerners who reportedly have some sympathy for Boko Haram, not victims of a psychological manipulation that convinces them that their existential material conditions will dramatically improve with the emergence of a theocratic Islamic state?
If Dr. Bala Usman were alive today, he would certainly not be silent in the face of the on-going Boko Haram debacle. He would use his intellectual prowess to explain the foundational issues to the masses and help ensure the restoration of sanity. For instance, after the 6th March, 1987, religious riots that rocked most of the major cities and towns of Kaduna resulting in the destruction of churches, mosques, hotels, cinemas, businesses and vehicles, Dr. Usman mobilized 21 other academic colleagues at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to issue a strongly worded statement published in the New Nigerian on the 20th March, 1987, and The Guardian on the 25th March 1987. The academics were unequivocal in their demand: “We call on the Federal Military Government to shed all ambiguities and hesitation, and to declare and reaffirm that the Nigerian State is SECULAR and one of its most fundamental responsibilities is to protect the right of every citizen and resident to practice the religion of their choice. We call on the Federal Military Government to implement this decisively and clearly by identifying publicly and punishing according to the law, all the rich and powerful individuals who are known to be behind the campaign of violent religious politics aimed at destroying our country…We are convinced that the sinister and utterly reactionary forces behind this campaign of violent religious politics with the aim of destroying our country are made up of a tiny oligarchy determined to maintain its power, wealth and privileges at all costs including violent and well organized mobs in the name of religion”. Some two and a half decades after, do these words not still speak to us so poignantly today?
