The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Religion

  • Religion not factor for office holders

    Chief Imam, Lagos State House of Assembly Mosque, Alhaji Abdullateef Abdulhakeem, has enjoined Lagosians not to allow the faith of a candidate to determine who they will eventually elect to take over from Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola in 2015, but rather look for who will continue his good work in office.

    The cleric, who was speaking on the need for religious tolerance as preached by Islam, cautioned Nigerians not to allow religious issues divide them as some people were trying to do to achieve their diabolical agenda.

    He spoke at Seventh Annual Iftar Saim (Feeding the Fasting Muslims) organised by Deputy Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rotimi Abiru at the Igeyin Adun Primary School, Bariga.

    “The faith one belongs to should not be a determining factor in choosing who should take over from Fashola, but instead we should look for who will continue with the good work of Fashola.

    “So we should not allow such in our society, we should continue with the religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence among us here,” he said.

    He enjoined religious leaders to lead the crusade to pick the best replacement for Fashola.

    Abiru has urged Nigerians, especially, Muslims, use the  Ramadan period to pray fervently for the safe return of over 200 Chibok school girls abducted by members of the Boko Haram sect in Maiduguri.

    Abiru made this appeal at his Seventh Annual Iftar Saim (Feeding the Fasting Muslims) at the Igeyin Adun Primary School, Bariga.

    He said fervent prayers of believers would go a long way in bringing the girls back.

    The lawmaker, who is representing Shomolu 2 constituency explained that the month of Ramadan is usually a season of peace and tranquillity in all parts of the society as the Muslims are expected to be kind, generous, and patient as possible.

    “In other words, we put ourselves in total restraint for about 29-30 days. This exercise is a great lesson for us all; we are expected to turn out as better Muslims in all ramifications by the end of the month and for the rest of our life.

    “People wake up nowadays and are not sure of whether they will be victims of abductors, bomb explosions, violence, ritual killers or armed robbers. We can no longer afford to sleep with the two eyes closed, as we are not sure of seeing tomorrow for lack of security, yet, there is hunger and poverty everywhere,” the lawmaker said.

  • Too much religion is our problem, says Bishop

    The Bishop of Kaduna Diocese, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Josiah Idowu-Fearon has said that Nigeria’s major problem was too much religion which has not reflected on the nation and its people.
    Fearon who spoke while addressing newsmen at his residence in Kaduna on Saturday said it was unfortunate that despite the amount of religion being professed by Nigerians, corruption has continued to eat deep into the nation’s fabrics.
    He challenged the media to assist in the fight against corruption and corrupt leaders.
    He said noted that both Muslims and Christians in the country have not lived up to expectation, adding that those who have been found wanting in corruption cases are either Christians and Muslims.
    He was of the opinion that since politicians who are either Christian or Muslims have continued to disappoint Nigerians, perhaps, the nation should begin to search for leaders who does not belong to the two religion, but are honest in their dealings.
    Bishop Fearon argued that Nigerians have become a laughing stock as men and women who profess Christianity and Islam have continued to play politics with insincerity.
    According to him non Christians and Muslims appeared more truthful and sincere in the affairs even though they are not too visible and vocal in the society.
    He also expressed disappointment with religious leaders in the country whom he said have not been able to organize successful and simple elections within their religious community, saying such leaders have lost the moral right to tell politicians about how to organize free and fair elections.
    “It is a tough thing, but I will want us to either forget about religion and look for people, who are neither Muslims nor Christians, but they are honesty to lead us, and we have them. You don’t see them in churches, you don’t see them in Mosques, but if they tell you this thing is black, you will get it to be black when you investigate. We have people like that. We need to begin to encourage people to put into practice what our religions teach us
    “There are too many sermons we are hearing all over about how to organize elections, how to do this, how to do that. Let the Christian community live by example, you heard of the Methodist election, the prelate, some people went to court, and so on and so forth.
    “These things are not right, you cannot tell me not to steal, and I find you stealing. If the Christian community and the Muslim Ummah cannot organize simple elections, they have no right to tell politicians anything about elections.”

  • ‘Religion must not drive culture around’

    ‘Religion must not drive culture around’

    The Second Ekiti State Festival of Culture and Arts Expo tagged Arts, Culture and Tourism: Tools for social transformation held last week was more than a celebration of culture. Jimoh Aliu’s Imole De, a drama performance says it all, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) Ozolua Uhakheme.

    After a brief scintillating drama sketch by the visiting Oyo State Cultural Troupe on the open lawn of Ikogosi Warm Spring and Resort, it was time for an evening of poetry performances and reading. Venue was the Conference Hall of the resort. US-based Nigerian scholar and poet Prof Niyi Osundare and Erelu Olufunke Fayemi were guest readers at this year’s Ekiti State Festival of Culture and Arts Expo. Akeem Lasisi of Punch Newspaper presented special poems for the evening last Thursday.

    Dressed in a white top on a black pair of trousers, Prof Osundare, who kicked off the evening walked up to the podium, holding a bottle of water on one hand and copies of his books on the other. He was full of smiles. His mission was to share his literary experiences with his kinsmen for the second time in his state. He returned to the country a day earlier for the festival.

    “This is Ikogosi water,” he said in a low tone after a sip from the bottle of Gossy water packaged from Ikogosi warm spring. In a homage to the state, he said the rocky landscape of Ekiti is well-endowed and has produced the mindscape from which emerged lots of brilliant and successful Nigerians.

    “There is no miracle in Ekiti, it is forthrightness and hard work. These are the memories that made me strong and which I want to share with you this night,” he said amid performances. He read and performed some of his poems ,such as Invocation of the word, The rocks rose to meet me, Ewi Adamo, A song for Olosunta and Tender Moment, a parting love song he rendered both in English and Yoruba language. His love for nature and his rocky hometown of Ikere-Ekiti was overwhelmingly demonstrated in his presentations. He recalled with nostalgic feelings how he grew up in the conundrum of myths, tales and fables about the Olosunta rock in Ikerre. Little wander he dedicated A song for Olosunta to the historic rock. Also, he did not deny the audience his mother’s favourite song, Aremo So Loye, which he rendered effortlessly in Ekiti dialect.

    However, he lamented the continued decline in the tempo and size of the Olosunta Festival, saying, Olosunta crowd would continue to fade out like every other thing. “Unfortunately, we don’t appreciate our heritage. Christianity and Islam should not drive culture aground. Our culture is very important. There is so much culture and wisdom in Olosunta Festival.”

    Osundare, who was attending a cultural event for the first time in Ekiti State, stressed that science does not stand in the way of culture and vice versa. According to him, Ifa has given mankind everything including physics, biology and medicine. “Unfortunately, for a long time, we have been looking into the sky for what is in our pockets,” he said, noting that poems can be written in Ekiti dialect.

    Beyond his performances and readings, Osundare commented on the on-going transformation programmes of Governor Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State, the need to promote Yoruba culture, especially the Olosunta Festival among others.

    He said a lot is happening in Ekiti State, and that is how change begins. He said he sees promise, which must be held with both hands for growth in the state. “Allowing the women not to rot away in men’s kitchens and parlours is another way of empowering the women folks,” he noted.

    Wife of Governor Fayemi who did three brief readings from her book, Speaking for myself and speaking above a whisper recalled those political periods after the re-run gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State. She read, particularly, from the chapter that dwells on the many experiences and encounters she had with political opponents, the police, INEC officials and thugs. In fact, her readings were like replays of episodes from a political drama. Her parting poem, The day the devil came to drink water, was the high point of the reading as the audience went wild in laughter after she translated the meaning of the poem in Yoruba to mean Ojo buruku esu gbo mimu.

    According to her, the title of the poem was derived from response from a witness at the election tribunal sitting on the election case at Ilorin.

    The festival, which ran from December 9 to 13 also featured arts expo, colloquim, women extravaganza, film show, traditional cuisine, traditional games, story telling and command performance of Jimoh Aliu’s Imole De. The drama featured artistes such as Peter Fatimilola, Folasade Aliu, and Toyin Olanrewaju.

    The colloquim lead paper titled: Public/private parternship as a viable option for the promotion and branding of festivals and heritage sites in Ekiti, was presented by the Director-Genmeral of Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation (CBAAC), Prof. Tunde Babwale at the Fountain Hotel,Ado Ekiti.

  • Religion in age of social and moral crises

    One of the most notable developments in religion in Nigeria since Islam and Christianity supplanted the indigenous systems of belief and worship is the transformation of the adopted exogenous faiths themselves. A particularly momentous phase of this transformation began in the last five or so decades, in the course of the socio-economic turbulence that has characterised much of the postcolonial era.

    Like most changes in the country since independence, the developments in religion have not been particularly positive, or done much to sustain the values and ideals of religion. For one thing, the country has lacked the political/intellectual/clerical leadership capable of applying the essence of the adopted faiths to the practicalisation of a functional ideology or ethic. And even though the universities have done little to explore the ancestral religions for their philosophy and potential in spiritual and moral values, devotees of the dominant proselytising faiths have proved largely incapable of assimilating their adopted creeds’ basic ideals.

    These ideals themselves have subsequently all but disappeared into the maws of postcolonial adversities. Thus, what passes for religion today is little more than a compulsive recourse to vacuous, superstitious rituals, for evoking supernatural “breakthroughs” to prosperity. Practically devoid, if not contemptuous, of values or genuine spirituality, the most “successful” of the new churches are veritable commercial ventures. Besides, while posing as a salvationist institution, like politics with which it has become closely allied, religion has become a major component of the country’s fundamental problems.

    Ironically, the impetus for what grew to become an unconscionable “materialisation” (or despiritualisation) of religion began as a crusade for “holiness”. This mission was organised by university students in western Nigeria, who were members, in the early 1970s, of the then students’

    Christian associations. The prayer and bible-reading groups eventually started a revival emphasising the fundamentals of Christian belief and the need to be “born-again”. From the universities at Ibadan and Ile-Ife, the new movement gathered strength and spread to other parts of western Nigeria and the rest of the country, especially the large urban centres. Most significantly, it was individual members of this students movement that subsequently founded or reinforced what became the “Deeper Christian Life” and the “Living Faith” (a.k.a. Winners Chapel), the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and other big charismatic Christian churches.

    Within the constraints of the experience and resources of its organisers, the Nigerian university students’ Christian awakening of the 1970s would compare favourably with the 18th Century evangelical revival in Europe, especially its Wesleyan manifestation in England. One might find the revival’s fundamentalist worldview and the fetishisation of the Bible medieval, but the spiritual aspirations appeared to have been genuine, while the idea of turning away from old ways, and of making restitution for moral infractions were taken seriously. However, the striving after “holiness” soon yielded to a harnessing of faith with crass materialism, with far-reaching adverse consequences for societal mores and values.

    Although the prosperity gospel was developed in the United States, the aggravation of socio-economic instability in Nigeria from the early 1980s made the new doctrine attractive as a magic-formula remedy to all problems, material or spiritual. Yet, what was generally being interpreted as spiritual issues and therefore amenable to prescribed rituals and faith, were basically existential and psychological problems arising from the failure of governance. This is why Pentecostalism has been truly described as a Third World phenomenon.

    The prosperity doctrine itself is simple enough: Believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Thereafter, since God can do all things (and there are scriptures aplenty to “prove” this), all that is needed is faith. Thus the prosperity gospel became the fountain of unlimited hope (some would say illusion) regardless of the reality of ever-declining prospects of minimal survival for most people.

    This was the beginning of an explosion in the building of churches and mosques, many of them ramshackle structures. There was also a new class of clerics, the so-called pastors many of whom were produced outside the established mission churches. As long as these barely literate preachers could read the Bible and pay for half-an-hour air time on public television, they were in the business of making a living off the dissemination of pseudo-spiritual, often socially toxic, doctrines.

    The ensuing commercialisation of religion was a product of multiple factors, for example unemployment and growing destitution, which created clients of disoriented folk that needed the services of freelance “pastors” posing as diviners and undertaking “deliverance” from “demons”, “witches”, and other occult malevolent forces allegedly responsible for every imaginable distress. It was graduate charismatic pastors, like Oyedepo and Oyakhilome, who transformed evangelisation into big business, while the likes of Adeboye brought their neo-Christian Pentecostal churches into increasing liaison with incumbent rulers.

    Meanwhile, the Pentecostal explosion had compelled the established churches to modify their mode of worship and to adopt some of the Pentecostal doctrines in order to survive. The influence of Pentecostalism on Islam has been no less profound. It is not far-fetched to see the rise of militancy within Muslim sects and the violent uprisings that began in northern Nigeria about the mid-1980s as reactions, at least in part, to the spread of neo-Christian influence.

    Among the factors which ultimately changed the face of religion in Nigeria was the predatory materialism of a bubble prosperity from an oil rentier economy. The crisis in this economy in the late 1970s, and from the early 1980s to the end of the millennium and beyond, was another factor. These crises fueled instability and engendered considerable hardships. Above all, one of the measures for safeguarding economic collapse, namely currency devaluation, under a “structural adjustment programme”, evoked massive erosion of societal values unprecedented since colonial times.

    The socio-economic upheavals ultimately translated into social, psychological and medical problems which failure of governance practically put beyond anything but fitful amelioration. This was the background to the pretensions of religion as the panacea to every problem facing the country. Accordingly, a metaphysical explanation ascribing these problems to evil and other occult powers was put forward. Then, a comprehensive therapy consisting of “deliverance”, “exorcism”, and wish-making a.k.a prayers) was introduced. These “ministrations” at “revivals” and “vigils” have gone on now for over four dacades. Yet, the problems, rather than ameliorate, have worsened. But the crowds at the vigils and religious houses have not abated, nor has the faithfuls’ hope diminished that, someday, the prophetic panaceas will, with prayers, materialise. In the meantime, the combination of faith in magical prosperity, which preachers have encouraged believers to crave and expect, in addition to increasing aggravation of socio-economic woes, has begotten what may, for want of a better term, be called a “popular religion” which has become a symbol of Nigeria’s identity, as well as an accessory to decadence and widespread corruption.

    Popular religion is a complex of conditioned attitudes, rituals, and beliefs, acknowledging the supernatural as a “power” resource to be invoked for magical success in all ventures, and for the solution of all imaginable problems. Essentially composed of beliefs, mythologies and rituals of Semitic provenance, it also displays basic traditional African elements, as well as imprints of contemporary socio-economic turmoil. However, the amalgam is neo-Christian in the garb it wears, in its doctrines, and in rhetoric.

    Popular religion is, nevertheless, not to be equated with Pentecostalism from which it has, admittedly, borrowed several elements. Indeed, popular religion owes a lot to popular culture and worldview, and it is as much a cultural phenomenon as a development in religion. Besides, many who may be seen as being within the psychological ambit of popular religion usually belong to various other religious denominations. Muslim politicians consult reputedly powerful sooth-saying pastors, and Muslim women often attend Christian vigils. In general, the elastic fold of popular religion embraces members of the intellectual, bureaucratic and political elite, as well as workers, market women, shopkeepers and artisans – that is, people from all strata of society, especially those weighed down by deprivation, and by inability to meet basic everyday needs.

    Apart from deprivation and worldly cares, ambition could also push one into the mystical embrace of popular religion. It could predispose the well-to-do hustler to explore metaphysical avenues to advancement and power. The aspiring politician, the business executive, the avaricious bureaucrat and banker, and the advancement/power-craving academic – all are susceptible to the pretensions of mountebank “men-of-God” claiming to have the power to conjure “breakthroughs” via the agency of a God supposedly ever preoccupied with the interminable vanities of miserable mortals.

    The crux of the matter is that popular religion has developed a quasi Darwinian ethic in which the only recognised moral imperative is success and survival. Thus, just as every organism strives to survive by adapting so as to live by all means possible, the contemporary popular religious faithful equates morality with what it takes to “master his environment”, if need be by cannibalism, so as to achieve success/prosperity. This is why pious Nigerian rulers, in order to perpetuate themselves in office, appropriate and loot public resources, rig elections, and rid themselves of human obstacles, after which they proceed to the mosque or to the church in ecstasy, saying, “To God be the glory”, or “God is great”!

    “Civilization” and development, as well as other utility objectives that were part of the proselytising faiths’ mission in Nigeria, were supposed to be a prelude and foundation for the introduction of the putative higher social, moral and spiritual values of Islam and Christianity. Unlike today, “prosperity”, per se, was thus not the preoccupation of the new faiths. Similarly, the determination by the agents of Islam and Christianity to root out the indigenous religions was due to the assumption that the latter were lacking in the new faiths’ spiritual essence. What an irony, then, that these same adopted faiths have proved largely incapable of meeting postcolonial challenges without practically losing their values. The question thus arises: is the current devalued form of the adopted religions (that is, contemporary popular religion) the answer to the country’s problems, as is usually glibly claimed by Nigerian rulers and clerics?

    Obviously, the country’s problems are essentially socio-economic. They are, thus, ultimately, matters of governance and of competent, dedicated leadership. Religious institutions and leaders have neither the authority, nor the means to address socio-economic problems, or to enforce compliance with social/legal regulations, norms, and values. Pretentions to such powers through any metaphysical agency on the part of “magicians”, charlatans, and influential pastors who are past masters of spiritual scams, have transformed much of contemporary religion into criminal enterprise. This would explain why corruption and crime are escalating with the explosion of religious houses advertising spurious powers to wipe out the ills of society.

    Dr Akinola contributed this piece from Ibadan.

  • Religion has failed Nigeria, says cleric

    Religion has failed Nigeria, says cleric

    Nigerians have been advised to depend on God and demonstrate love to their neighbours for national growth and development.

    The Bishop Manna Prayer Mountain, Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe, made this made call last week at the bi-annual prayer and fasting service of the ministry in Lagos.

    The theme of the service, which held simultaneously in Benin, Abuja, Southern America, Australia and other parts of the world, was “The owners of evil load must burn.”

    Kwakpovwe said many Christians are carrying the loads belonging to the devil out of ignorance and failure to believe God.

    The pharmacist- turned- preacher emphasised that God is still in the business of saving souls, healing those oppressed, delivering the broken-hearted and setting the captives free from every bondage and shackle of life.

    According to him: ‘’God will not lie concerning His precious promises and His power to do the miraculous still remain efficacious as ever before in our generation.”

    He attributed increasing cases of corruption, injustice, marginalisation and civil unrest to the absence of love among Nigerians.

    The preacher said these unpalatable are consequences of religious sentiments, saying, focusing on religious differences leads to neglects of goods among others.

    He said Nigerians must break down the walls of religion and build ladders of tolerance and mutual respect.

    Kwakpovwe, who was ordained bishop recently, pointed out that Christianity has failed.

    He lamented that many bishops are killing, poisoning and tearing themselves apart because of money, fame and power.

    He stated: “God wants me to take the title of a Bishop to cleanse the system polluted with sin and occultism.

    “What Bishop means to us is the zenith of Christendom but it has become a den of occultism.

    “It is a highly exalted office but polluted as some Bishops have become politicians and lost the original message God gave to them. They set themselves up, they poison and kill themselves.”

    He called on Nigerians to focus on genuine love towards their neighbours regardless of religious differences.

  • Devotees celebrate Yoruba religion

    Devotees celebrate Yoruba religion

    We have a story to tell,” Prof Wande Abimbola, a retired academic and culture exponent, declared during an interactive session with participants at the 10th Orisa World Congress held at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State. It was a defining statement about the place of Yoruba religion and culture, also known as Orisa tradition, in a global village of multiple faiths. Earlier, while making a contribution to a discussion during the five-day programme, Abimbola went directly to the nub of the matter, saying, “Ifa is the heart and soul of the culture and philosophy of the Yoruba people. It is not dead, but parts of it are going into oblivion.”

    Ile-Ife, which is regarded as “the source” and cultural capital of the Yoruba race, was an appropriate setting for a focus on the challenges of the Orisa way of life, especially in the context of a diverse globe, and contending faiths, some of which have the advantage of apparent numerical dominance. The variegated gathering, which included participants from the United States of America (USA), Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico, demonstrated the appeal of the religion beyond its local provenance, and brought instructive international perspectives. An all-male family of four from Cuba, a Chinese couple who live in Venezuela and a densely bearded white American were among the alluring sights.

    There is no doubt about the international status of Yoruba religion, which is reinforced by the fact that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005 added the Ifa Divination system to its list of the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

    Ironically, however, it would appear that the religion is, to a large extent, unrecognized among Nigeria’s Yoruba population in this day and age, majority of them reportedly either Christians or Muslims. This observation was rejected by Dr. Kola Abimbola, an academic, the international coordinator of Orisaworld and son of Prof Abimbola. Both of them are also Ifa priests, Babalawo. “Orisa religion and culture is the largest indigenous culture of the world,” said the younger Abimbola. He argued, “As you know, I went to the London School of Economics and Political Science, so it is very difficult for statistics to be used as wool to cover my eyes. I don’t accept that in Yoruba society, Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions. It is not true.”

    Giving grounds for his rather unusual position, he reasoned, “For example, let’s just use simple arojinle- philosophical analysis. Yoruba/Orisa religion doesn’t have this standard Christian and Muslim approach of having churches and mosques. So, for us, counting Orisa temples is not a good way of determining how many practitioners of Orisa/Yoruba religion there are. Secondly, any honest Yoruba person will tell you that when people run into trouble, almost everyone who claims to be a Christian or a Muslim goes to Babalawo or Iya Onifa, Iyalorisa to divine.”

    According to him, “If you go to church, you also go to a diviner; then, you are practicing the two religions. So how can you count yourself as being a Christian and not as being the other? People are not bold enough to say what they really do. There are those like me who have absolutely no reservations whatsoever practising what we practise. So tell me, are there more Christians and Muslims than practitioners of Yoruba religion? I don’t think there are, we are more. That’s the problem: statistics and figures. There is one book which I use to teach Statistics or Mathematical Logic; How to lie with statistics-that’s the title.”

    A multitude of gods or orisa makes up the Yoruba pantheon, with Ifa as the oracular mouthpiece of Olodumare, the Almighty in Yoruba religion. Who would have imagined that Orisa tradition could prove relevant to the Boston Marathon bombings in USA on April 15, 2013, when two pressure cooker bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring 264 others? One woman who lives in Boston, 47-year-old Clemencia Lee, an American of Columbian origin initiated into the religion 10 years ago, said being a devotee of Yoruba gods saved her and members of her family from the bombings. According to her, “It was definitely the Orisa that watched over us to not be there and right where the bomb was.” She attended the congress with her husband, Tony Van Der Meer, an American academic of Suriname-Dutch origin and Orisa devotee, and her second daughter who is also an initiate with a Yoruba name, Adetutu.

    There was an unmistakable irony in the insistent efforts by many of the foreign participants to speak Yoruba language, especially in the context of exchanging greetings with others. Such cultural projection was food for thought, considering the observed societal trivialisation of the language in favour of English. A panelist in one of the several round-table discussions, Prof Segun Gbadegesin of Howard University, USA, highlighted this absurdity, saying, “Seventy percent of Yoruba elite discourage the use of Yoruba language by their children in domestic settings.” It was also interesting to see foreigners who were devotees prostrate themselves in a customary Yoruba way while greeting others.

    Some of the foreign visitors were simply captivated scholars, and not adherents of the religion. It was William Cullinan’s first visit to Africa and Nigeria. A white American Christian, 64 years old, from Philadelphia, he said, “I came to Orisa World Congress because I’m interested in learning about different religions and cultures, and I had always wanted to come to Nigeria because Ile-Ife is considered to be the centre of civilisation according to the Yoruba.”

    A striking highpoint of the event was the declaration by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, the community’s revered traditional ruler and Grand Patron of the Orisa tradition and religion, that July and August will be celebrated as “Yoruba cultural months” from next year. “I implore all descendants of Oduduwa to return home every year during these to celebrate our culture and religion,” he said, at the opening ceremony of the congress at Oduduwa Hall, OAU, on July 24. Oduduwa, regarded as the progenitor of the Yoruba people, is artistically represented by an imposing wooden sculpture carved by Lamidi Olonade Fakeye, which was unveiled at the front of the university theatre in 1987 by Sijuade himself.

    Speaking on the launch of the cultural months, Sijuade declared, “All my children in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo Republic, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Sudan, invite all lovers of Yoruba culture to the homeland during the months of July and August. Celebrate the values, virtues and treasures of our towns and cities. Hold public events, conventions and activities that showcase the invaluable riches of Yoruba culture and religion. These are the treasures that have made Yoruba culture and religion a global heritage of humanity.”

    Stimulating discussions on various issues of interest in the context of Yoruba religion and culture took place at Oduduwa Hall and Institute of Cultural Studies on the campus, with wide-ranging topics including Ifa, Education and Culture; Youth Rights, Elder Rights: Generational Integration; Poverty Eradication; Youth, Education and Spiritual Development; Globalization and Cultural Identity; and Nollywood versus Hollywood: Images of Orisa in Movies. It was a reflection of the times that the subject of homosexuality came up, and many were curious about the position of the religion on this controversial question. After a lively debate, it was Prof Abimbola who had the last word. According to him, “We cannot say exactly how Ifa views this. There is no need for us to get involved in this controversy.”

    A major aspect of the programme was the first Awo Ifatoogun Lecture delivered by Prof Moses Akinola Makinde, a retired university teacher of Philosophy and DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo, Osun State. Although not an initiate, he is respected for his work in the area of African Philosophy and Yoruba cultural thought. He revealed to the audience that he had been influenced to rethink the labelling of his scholarly work as African Philosophy, rather than “Yoruba Philosophy” which formed the basis; and he made an argument for “Yoruba Philosophy as a sub-set of African Philosophy.” He attributed his new perspective to his son, Olumide Okunmakinde of the Institute of Cultural Studies, OAU.

    The Awo Ifatoogun Lecture, in honour of an outstanding Ifa priest and university teacher, Prince Babalola Adeboye Ifatoogun, who died in 2009 at age 85, provided a platform for Makinde to explore the concept of Ifa as “a repository of knowledge.” According to him, “Ifa’s many branches encompass the whole of human knowledge.” He coined the term “Ifaology”, which he likened to Epistemology or philosophy of knowledge in Western Philosophy.

    Central to Makinde’s lecture was “Ifa and the concept of Omoluabi,” which considered Yoruba religion and culture in the context of “morality, social and political philosophy.” Ever conscious of intellectual integrity, Makinde also gave credit to his son for helping to further clarify the concept of Omoluabi as captured by Ifa. Omoluabi, according to Makinde, defines “a good, cultured and virtuous person” in relation to “his expected contributions to society” based on “honesty, integrity, transparency, accountability, good governance and other good things concerning the life of a man in a sane society.” This lecture, significantly, projected the inclusiveness of Ifa, showing that it was not only about religion, and should not be seen in ritualistic terms alone.

    When the time came to go to the Ooni’s palace in town, there was a predictable eagerness among the participants. A pleasant surprise awaited them. July 27 was also Prof Abimbola’s 80th birthday, but the news didn’t leak. So, in a large decorated hall with shimmering lights, the Royal Court Band played danceable melodies, and the participants socialised in a setting that reflected monarchical grandeur. Their host, Oba Sijuade, 83, was resplendent in a white flowing robe over purple attire. He wore purple shoes and a glittering white cap. “Eating in the Ooni’s palace is a privilege,” said the MC of the congress, Chief Yemi Ogunyemi. It was a memorable birthday for Prof Abimbola who holds the chieftaincy title, Awise Agbayie, conferred on him by Oba Sijuade in 1981, in recognition of his services to Yoruba religion and culture. It was momentous that three devotees were installed as Cultural Ambassadors at the party. They were: Suriname-Dutch American Tony Van Der Meer, Chinese Chiu Ming Ho, and one of Prof Abimbola’s wives, Michelle, a white American. There was a mystic dimension to their installation as each went briefly into an enclosure formed by powerful traditional chiefs who created a human screen, preventing any view of their encounter with the Oba.

    There was an infectious festivity in the air all through the congress, with displays of the rich resources of the indigenous culture, ranging from fabrics and adornments to music and songs, from poetic performances to vibrant dances. Two foreign musical groups were part of the show: Omo Alagba/Miyaasu/Ibori Records and WolfHawkJaguar. Founded in 1981 by Prof Abimbola, Orisaworld is “an organisation of practitioners and scholars of Orisa tradition, religion and culture.” The group “promotes culture, education and peace in a world where Orisa tradition and culture plays a central role in the day-to-day lives of over 100 million people,” and has “individual and institutional members from over 50 countries.” The tenth edition of Orisa World Congress in Ile-Ife, with the theme “Culture and Global Peace,” was the fourth in the ancient town, starting from the first one 32 years ago, and six others have been held in Brazil, USA, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba. While serving as an umbrella to all other Orisa and Yoruba cultural organisations, the group’s overriding aim is “to revitalise and rejuvenate the Orisa culture and all its traditions.” Prof Abimbola announced that future congresses would be held in Nigeria, and that the next one would take place in 2016 in Ile-Ife.

    At the opening ceremony of the 10th congress, Oba Sijuade declared with poetic overtones, “I hereby make the following proclamation: the religion of Yoruba land; the religion of Oduduwa who descended from Heaven on a chain of iron; the religion of Oranfe who lives in a house of perpetual fire in Heaven; the religion of Ifa, witness of destiny; the religion of Sango, the great warrior and giant, child of Oranmiyan; the religion of Oya nicknamed oriirii, eater of she-goats, the female warrior who wears a sword as part of her outfit; the religion of Osun nicknamed ewuji the greatest mother of all; the religion of Obatala, owner of ancient Iranje; will never perish.”

  • 2015: Religion can’t divide North

    2015: Religion can’t divide North

    Prominent Northern leaders have dismissed as invalid and of no effect whatsoever, an alleged deal between President Goodluck Jonathan and some leading Islamic scholars aimed at ensuring his success in the 2015 presidential election.

    Reacting to the deal allegedly brokered by former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Yerima, the Northern leaders described the move as an attempt to divide the region and present Jonathan as having a solid support base in that part of the country.

    Second Republic House of Representatives member, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, who is among the fierce agitators for power shift to the North, said that the move by the President to divide the North would fail and claimed that Yerima has no clout in the North to get the people behind the President.

    He said the senator’s action will not affect the resolve of the North to press for power shift in 2015.

    “Yerima Sani has an outstanding case with the EFCC. He was arrested by the former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for alleged stealing and embezzlement. He is trying to do the bidding of some people who he feels can bail him out. But I tell you that he does not command our respect,” he said.

    Dr. Mohammed added: “Ribadu arrested him for stealing and embezzlement from the coffers of Zamfara State. He was taken to the court of law. He has been trying to get out of the matter. He brought blackmail upon himself.”

    Mohammed said neither Yerima nor Vice President Namadi Sambo can convince the North to embrace the President.

    He said: “Yerima is creating confusion to demonstrate relevance. He is absolutely nothing in the North. Quote me: Yerima Sani is nobody in Islam and North.”

    Mohammed also punctured the so-called meeting of the clerics with the President, pointing out that the former governor lacked the qualification to facilitate any such meeting.

    “You can see the level of decadence and desperation on his part by trying to mobilise the Muslim scholars. What about his association with the Egyptian minor? What is the population of Zamfara, compared to Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa? Can somebody who cannot deliver Zamfara deliver the North to Jonathan? He is nobody in the North. He does not command the respect of Muslims in the North because of his controversies”.

    Mohammed maintained that the North would insist on the Presidency on 2015, adding that the divide and rule tactics of the President would not achieve its intended objective.

    He said: “We are insisting on the Presidency based on agreement, justice and fair play as Nigerians from the North. That is our position and we stand by it”.

    On his part, erstwhile Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav described the alleged pact as a ruse. According to him, the President, through his foot-soldiers, is just trying to hoodwink Nigerians into thinking he still has some support bases.

    He said of the alleged deal: “I think it is just an attempt by the President to woo people to his side. It is the idea of his men and nothing more. Senator Yerima has denied it. And I can also tell you that I know some of these clerics very well. They are not politicians and so they will never go to Aso Rock to endorse anybody.

    “I have heard Senator Yerima explain that the clerics went to Aso Rock to pray for the nation. He said during Obasanjo’s regime, he led some clerics to Aso Rock to pray for the country. This is the same thing Jonathan asked for and Yerima went with clerics to do just that.

    “If Jonathan and his men are now trying to use that to woo Nigerians, it will not work. The President knows that he has failed. He cannot win in 2015 even if he gets the endorsement of one million clerics. He has lost credibility and Nigerians will reject him.

    “Why are we bothered about the visit of clerics to Aso Rock when governors who are the real politicians are paying solidarity visits to Governor Rotimi Amaechi? They have rejected Jonathan and they will tell their people not to vote for him in 2015.

    “If Jonathan wants to do well, he should caution his wife. He doesn’t need clerics to caution his own wife. He is building and the woman is destroying.”

    Another prominent northerner and a Northern Union (NU) chieftain from Nasarawa State, Dr. Halilu Giade, advised Nigerians to be wary of the antics of the presidency, the ruling PDP and some betrayers among the progressives.

    The medical doctor turned politician said the visit by Yerima and the clerics to Aso Rock at a time like this cannot be explained as harmless by the former Zamfara State Governor.

    “At a time when all progressives are closing ranks to free this country from the menace called PDP, it is wrong for the distinguished Senator to be caught in this kind of political web carefully spun by Jonathan to cause disaffection among the progressives and to deceive the people.

    “This is clearly an attempt to divide the North and hoodwink Nigerians but it will not succeed. The clerics are not the ones who will tell Nigerians how to vote. The endorsement amounts to nothing. Yerima should have been more careful if truly he was not part of the plot.”

    President Jonathan had met with Northern Islamic scholars on his second term ambition, which certain leaders from the region have vowed to resist in 2015.

    He was said to have been so impressed by the turn- out of the Islamic scholars at the meeting and the role played by Yerima in mobilising them that he is allegedly considering having him as his running mate in 2015.

    Sources said that Yerima, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, directed his associate and deputy governor of Zamfara State, Ibrahim Wakala, who served under him as the Commissioner for Religious Affairs for eight years, to mobilise the selected Muslim scholars to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, for the meeting.

    Although the scholars were earlier scheduled to hold another meeting at Ibadan, Oyo State, for the purpose of forging unity among the faithful, they deserted the Ibadan meeting for the Aso Rock meeting where the President reportedly solicited their support for his political aspiration.

     

  • Religion and politics in Osun

    Religion and politics in Osun

    Earlier in the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the State of Osun, the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, felt decidedly miffed to proceed to court in defense of the governor. It was alleged that the administration planned to Islamize the state. CAN, at that point, was a friend of the administration.

    Now, flip the pages. In March 2013, the religious body has sauntered into public space with tones of generally incredible and particularly mundane allegations of islamization against the governor it earlier poignantly defended. In Osun, it is barely a year to gubernatorial election in which the governor would be seeking re-election. In our clime where elections are nothing else but a make or mar affair, old bonds of friendship are often too tenuous to stand the slightest exertions. It is time for friend to abandon friend.

    In reality, the Aregbesola administration is not a stranger in the dingy surgical theatre of spin doctors. This latest onslaught against the administration presents the imprimatur of an earlier lurid one about secession of the state allegedly plotted by the governor single-handedly without other states in the South -west in the picture. Several months after, how the masterminds or this ill-fated idle engagement expected anyone to believe them still beats logic. In quick succession came opposition PDP-backed campaign about non-constitution of the cabinet culminating in the patently devilish question mark on the state of health of the governor in which the Osun helmsman was alleged to have collapsed at every public function extending beyond two hours. Bristling with misapplied ingenuity, they manufactured the now famous but fake cancer tale against Ogbeni.

    It is, however, instructive to know that these baseless allegations came after a bigger grand plot to impeach the governor fell flat on its face. Less than a month in office of Ogbeni in 2010, the trio of Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark and Senator Iyiola Omisore sponsored PDP state assembly members to Abuja where the incendiary plot was hatched.

    By its sheer antecedent, ascribed and enunciated objectives, the issues put forward by a religious body of the status of CAN ought to provoke interest and sympathy. This one, however, is a little off- side. Every issue raised by the Osun CAN – from allegation of fixing state events for Sunday morning to the visit of the Sultan of Sokoto – oozes so much partisanship that the official opposition to the ACN government of the State of Osun could not have done a better job.

    Among others, CAN allege that the governor changed “the state official brand point from “the state of living spring” to the state of the virtuous” to spite the Christians who refer to Jesus Christ as living spring. By simple extension of the underpinning logic, this assertion by CAN presupposes that the state, despite its secularity in the face of its multi – religious character, has officially been packaged as a Christian enclave all along. Besides, is Omoluabi – to which “the virtuous” translates – not more elegant and edifying to a people who are outstandingly moralistic?

    The visit of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar ,to the state was also lampooned by CAN. The nationally respected traditional ruler was accused of being in the state, of course at the instance of Ogbeni, to prepare the ground for a Jihad “following the Sultan’s request for amnesty for Boko Haram members. It will utterly be difficult for any sensible mind to ascribe to Osun CAN any iota of nationalism with this lousy claim.

    The derelict state of most infrastructures in public schools, whether in the state of Osun or elsewhere, is well known to everyone. The obvious transformative agenda of the governor in demolishing and replacing these archaic relics is the butt of vitriolic attack by CAN in the state. In the self-righteous view of the religious group, this government gesture is a prelude to changing the schools into madrasas or fortress of Islamic evangelism. Instead, the collapsing buildings – complete with all their health hazards and aesthetic debasement – should have been left in memory of the lofty legacies of alien missionaries of yesteryears.

    The plot of this drama of the absurd in Osun similarly incorporated other scenes including allegation of imposition of hijab dress code on female students in the state as well as declaration of a strange holiday which the government termed Hijra holiday to mark the commencement of Islamic calendar. It does not matter to this set of CAN leadership in the state of Osun that the now globally accepted Gregorian calendar is Christianity – based without anyone raising a divisive hell in a country that is populated by Christians, Muslims and traditionalists in almost equal proportion.

    The prodigious reality of the hijab brouhaha must have breathtakingly been lost on CAN. Otherwise the organization should have come to terms with the presumptuousness of its endeavor considering the fact that it is the Muslims themselves in the state who, incidentally, dragged Ogbeni administration to court, seeking enforcement of their fundamental human rights to wear hijab .The case is still pending in the state high court of justice. A particularly interesting aspect of CAN’s problem with Ogbeni consists in the allegation that he, in the heat of the campaign for the 2007 election in Iwo, distributed hijab to students in the town. What really is the worth of a serious politician who, confronted with the grim task of soliciting for vote in a catholic enclave, fails to seize the moment to distributed rosaries and images of Virgin Mary! Indeed, fathoming partisanship in all these is not rocket science. For one, the inglorious exercise is nothing more than an attempt to put the whammy on the salient life – changing strides being wrought by Ogbeni administration.

    Landmark economic and infrastructural transformation is alien to the state until Aregbesola came along. In one fell swoop 20, 000 youths got employed. Close to 400 roads spread across the state are getting face-lift. The elderly, the young and the invalid have never had it so good. Educational rebirth, espoused through capacity building of teachers, infrastructural renewal and reclassification of educational segments sits pretty well with the people of the state.

    As the Christian religious body in the state launched its attack on the governor over alleged islamization on one hand, it, on the other, accused the Ogbeni administration of promoting traditional religion “bothering on idolatry and sorcery “. In the account of CAN, the state government refused to officially inaugurate the state chapter of National Inter Religious Council (NIREC) because of the refusal of both Muslims and Christian’s leaders to incorporate traditional religionists into the membership of the body.

    Pray what manner of Islamization would promote traditional religion? Not a few people would attest to the fact that Osun of the Aregbesola era is about the only state in the country where traditional religionists are officially recognized at public functions where they have their prayer slot like the Muslims and the Christians. It is imperative therefore to implore CAN to take steps to promote the subsisting religious harmony in the state rather than stoke embers of faith-based conflagration. The nation already has its hands full.

    • Lawal is Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, Ogun State.

  • Making religion work for peace

    Making religion work for peace

    It  Sallah time, when the total submission of a man to the will of his maker is recognised and celebrated, it is appropriate to reflect on religion and the potentials it has for peace and prosperity. The paradox of our contemporary life is that an institution that originated in the desire for peaceful co-existence has been turned into a veritable agent of war and destruction. Certainly, the various objects of human religious devotion couldn’t have been pleased with this turn of events.

    Religion speaks to the heart with a message of love; and to the soul, with a promise of redemption and salvation. The major religions understand the fallen nature of humans and the need for divine favor to overcome sin and. This is what gives one inner peace—knowing that one is in tune with the Almighty.

    No believer, whatever his or her faith, fails to make this his or her ultimate goal. Of course, there are other purposes, including the materialistic hope of miraculous prosperity. I dey serve my God, e dey do am for me. And sometimes when the latter overwhelms the former, we have cases of unfulfilled expectations, leading to frustration and psychosis.

    I am sure that I am not alone in being perplexed when believers of all faiths fail to translate the pursuit of inner peace that their religion affords to the pursuit of social peace. If each person is at peace with God because of his or her belief in the divine will of God, why is it so difficult to be at peace with others who are equally at peace with the divine will of God?

    In the matter of social peace, it is interpersonal relations that matter, and while the various religions promote inner peace of adherents, they have not been very successful in the matter of promoting interpersonal relations. I want to believe that it is not intrinsic to the religions that they neglect interpersonal relations that promote social peace. Rather, I think there is something in human nature that prevents the message of inner peace from being translated effected into a pursuit of social peace. If it is not in the nature of religion but just in the nature of humans, perhaps there is hope of transcending the aspect of human nature that makes it difficult for religious believers to promote social peace.

    There is a powerful argument against what I just proposed. It goes as follows. While there is nothing inherently opposed to social peace in each religion, a pluralism of religions in a common space is not likely to promote peaceful coexistence among adherents. But we know that there is hardly a society without a multiplicity of religions or at least sects of the same religion. Therefore the argument is that if not by nature, then by circumstance of modern life, which brings people of different faiths and sects into a common nationspace, it is naïve to expect religion to be an agent of peace. Why not?

    Looking at the injunctions of each of the major religions, it is hard to defend the foregoing position. Christianity is a religion of peace, with its injunction to believers to be peacemakers so they can be blessed. One of the major commandments, summed up in the teachings of Christ is to love one’s neighbours as oneself. Indeed, Christ himself is the truest symbol of love for laying down his life for the sake of others. If love of others is a precondition for social peace, then Christianity should be considered a foremost promoter of social peace.

    The Islamic faith is based on the teachings of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). Like other major religions, Islam preaches peace and the social obligations of believers derive from and reinforce their religious duties. They are enjoined to maintain peace and love their fellow human beings. Leaders are instructed to be righteous and it is the religious duty of believers to take care of the poor and wretched.

    Traditional African religions of all shades cannot be ignored in the context of our society. Dwindling in numbers, they are still in reckoning in communities across the nation. And it cannot be overemphasised that these religions are integral to the communal foundations of traditional African societies with emphasis on the community and its well-being. In a sense, then, they have a mission to preserve and promote the peace of the community. More than the two Abrahamic faiths, traditional religions demonstrate a capacity to enforce their injunctions regarding the promotion of social peace.

    Given the position of each of these religions on the important issue of peaceful coexistence, while would anyone suggest that religious pluralism is antithetical to the promotion of social peace? The answer is that it is not just the injunction of each religion in the matter of peace that counts, the tragedy of our time is the fact of the politicisation of religion. The messages of Christ and Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) have been politicised beyond reason. In the service of self-interest, later day prophets have turned these messages on their heads and have sown seeds of hatred and war. In the circumstance, it is naïve to expect that adherents who listen to the messages churned out by religious leaders today are going to be moved to promote peace among people of different faiths.

    This history of Christianity and Islam cannot be complete without reference to the crusaders and jihadists and the ensuing intolerance in their wake. These are motivated by the proselytising injunction fundamental to each religion. Yet, both Prophets Muhammed and Christ could not have intended their injunctions to evangelise to result in conflict and violence. You could evangelise and preach the gospel without instigating violence. There is religious violence and conflict because the various devotees are intolerant of the views of rivals.

    Religious intolerance is deep and troubling and it can be explained in terms of the distorted understanding of devotees concerning their roles in spreading the good news of their faiths. On the part of leaders, there appears to be an instrumental conception of religion in terms of the material gain it affords. The more the adherents, the greater the good things of earthly existence and religion have been turned into an irresistible source of wealth and primitive accumulation by many religious leaders.

    If religion is to contribute to the promotion of social peace and refrain from being an instrument of conflict and violence, religious leaders must come to terms with their social responsibilities and enjoin their followers to be tolerant of other people’s religious beliefs. In the final analysis, the social enterprise is more important because it makes the religious structures thrive. If the nation is in turmoil, the practice of religion is in grave danger. Happy Sallah!

  • Religion, politics and global security 

    The shocking news  on the internet that 48  students of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi  in Adamawa  state were killed in cold blood by attackers who stormed their hostels at night, called out their names and killed  them with knives and guns, set the tone for the topic of today. Internet news had it that the  students union of the Polytechnic had just had an election that had religious and ethnic coloration and that the killings reflected this dark politicization  of events. A statement credited to  a former president of the National Association of Nigerian Students – NANS – one Mr Henshaw noted that the winner  of the students elections was a Christian as well as the Rector of the institution, and that there had been resentment of these facts amongst some sections  of the institution   and it was no coincidence that the winner of the election was killed.

    That and the sheer savagery as well  as the number of those killed showed that the mix of politics, religion  and security has misfired most violently at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi where I    taught Economics as a youth corper when it was founded as the Federal School of Arts  and Science several years ago. It  is my contention  here that what  happened at the Polytechnic in Mubi is a reflection of a larger   and pervasive malaise that is affecting the  global  political system,  nations and   institutions  generally.    It   is  a dangerous trend that  is setting the tone for  real friction and hostilities  amongst the various social, political and  religious entities that make up the modern nation state    and it is solidifying-   very  dangerously- divisions amongst peoples of different faiths and beliefs even   within  nations that claim to run secular constitutions  like Nigeria where Mubi  is located.

    I  am using events that  happened on the global scene in the past week to illustrate my   viewpoint here   and without sounding alarmist I think all of us should take another look at the role of religion in our environment especially with regard to our politics and general security  globally.   From  Turkey’s intervention in Syria which NATO  says it supports;  to the presidential debate in the US between Obama  and Mitt  Romney,  religion plays an underlying role that gives value to the type of politics and security that emerges in every part of the world nowadays. Either in Islam or Christianity it is obvious that the fault lines are getting wider in terms of  global cohabitation and tolerance  and that politics is getting charged and overheated   locally  and globally, subsequently.

    Let us start with Turkey sending its planes to bomb positions inside Syria  after  Syrian forces had killed innocent Turks  –  five of them including children according to reports – inside Turkey.  On the surface Turkey,  has a right to defend its territorial integrity which Syria had violated- ostensibly because Syrian rebels were fleeing into Turkey after attacking Syrian troops. Turkey’s government has already  taken parliamentary approval to attack Syria even though it said it does not want war with Syria. But  the situation is not that clear cut and is full  of real and potential diplomatic mischief. Turkey has been seeking EU  membership for over 50 years now  to no avail, for the simple reason that most EU members are not comfortable with Turkey’s proud  Islamic credentials.

    Turkey claims to be running  a secular constitution under the monitoring  of  its  military – which in recent times has had its former generals who planned coups and ran dictatorships – being put on  trial by a popular government with fundamentalist sympathies that have tested Turkey’s secularity   dangerously  of late.

    Now before a shot had been fired,  NATO nations say they stand by Turkey  even though at best Turkey is just a member of a military alliance and not a full -fledged member of the EU  as the Turks have  always wanted. Now,  by attacking Syria in the present crisis,  is Turkey and its leaders aiming to kill two birds with one stone—   namely   to  nail a bothersome neighbor and clinch EU membership in the process? Before this   no less a person than  former Cardinal   Joseph Ratzinger   now Pope Benedict XVI and current German Chancellor Angela Merkel   were  on record  as saying  that Turkey cannot be a member  of the  EU because Europe is Christian and cannot afford for its security to have   a Muslim   member nation  in the heart of Europe.

    In  addition the present Turkish government should be careful in the way it attacks an Arab nation in spite of the present isolation of the unpopular Assad regime. Egypt  and the Arab League may call for the fall of the Assad dynasty but the geopolitical equation changes once Turkey  a non – Arab, but Muslim   nation  attacks another Arab and Muslim nation like Syria  ostensibly on behalf of Western Europe. In addition,  it remains to be seen if Russia and China will stick to their guns and veto  proposed  UN resolution to intervene in Syria,  Libya  style, in the face of Syrian provocation and Turkey’s retaliation. It  is of note that the present Turkish government has won three elections so far back to back in spite of the grumblings and suspicion of the military about its religious fervor in Turkey’s secular environment. It is therefore well advised to watch  before  it leaps into trouble over Syria at the expense of its home grown religious popularity in spite of  the attraction of EU membership  or   the lure  of regional leadership   in the Middle East while looking over its shoulders at Egypt and Iran.

    At  the end of the  US presidential debate last Wednesday,  the general conclusion was that Barak  Obama  lost the debate to his challenger   Mitt  Romney who was trailing at the polls before the TV debate and who performed creditably   and with a commanding presence. The behavior and performance of the two well  prepared candidates reminded me of that between former President Ronald Reagan of the Republican Party and incumbent President Jimmy Carter   who was famous for his cheerful toothy smile but who allowed Reagan to annoy him  during their  TV   Debate with the taunt  – there you go again-  anytime  Carter charged that Reagan  if elected  would lead the US to war.

    Carter lost the election after the debate and ended up as a one term president while Reagan went  on to have two terms. Romney used Reagan to tease Obama successfully in this week’s TV debate  by saying that Obama was quoting Reagan on tax cuts for  the rich while charging that Romney   a Republican like Reagan was taxing the poor more than the rich. Romney then stunned a speechless  or tongue- tied Obama with the charge that the US president was  an ‘expert on raising taxes, raising government expenditure and raising regulation‘. To  me the debate was between a champion of laissez faire capitalism – Romney  –  and the welfare state – Obama .

    On the day, however,  like   a commentator said, it was as if Obama’s mind was on his 20th wedding anniversary on that same day, and not on the debate. On  a personal note  really,  the debate and Obama’s loss reminded me of another painful spectacle  in boxing when Larry Holmes, the great  Mohammed Ali’s sparring partner defeated his hero over 15  rounds to retain his World Heavyweight title in the US . I  waited vainly  then for Ali to produce the wonder punch to take Holmes to the cleaners and end Holmes insolence. That punch never came just as Obama was not able to match Romney’s mastery of issues last Wednesday  till  the end of the one hour TV debate.

    Nevertheless  the  religion connection however is  still there in the US presidential election and showed its ugly face in Mitt Romney’s earlier private video  categorization of Palestinians as not wanting peace in the Middle East and his  total support   for the state of Israel. He  had problems with this but has refused  to  change his utterances on this as well as the 47%  categorization in which he said such a percentage of Americans will not vote for him because they are government handout beneficiaries.  But then in terms of religion both Obama and Romney can be said to be change catalysts in US politics .Whether that change in   US politics   is for good or bad – only time will tell.  Both are also  what  I will call  ‘unthinkables’ in US politics.

    Obama  is the first US black president   and Romney is aiming to be the first Mormon one. They follow the charismatic pedigree of  the first  Catholic American president –  John Fitzgerald  Kennedy (JFK). While Romney has already alienated himself with Arab Americans  Obama too is at loggerheasds with the US Catholic Church  whose leading Cardinal attended Romney’s consecration  at the GOP  convention,  just to say prayers and not to endorse,  as the Cardinal insisted. But then the Cardinal and others had gone to court to challenge the Obama’s administration meddling in Education in violation of the US  constitution by  asking  employers to fund birth control for their employees of which the Catholic Church has millions in schools and hospitals all over the US.  This pitches Obama against US Catholics especially the Latinos who are the fastest growing immigrants in the US – even far more that blacks. If the Latinos obey their Church as expected of them Obama will have problems on November 6. But the pundits are focusing on the so called  swing states   and some are saying the debates may not change the polls or decrease  Obama’s lead which to me is like a dog barking at the moon.

    Overall, religion hangs like a sword of Damocles over contemporary local and international politics and relations, as well as security.  On  the Federal  Polytechnic, Mubi, the government must put its  feet down firmly and not assign the murder and mayhem as usual to the Boko Haram menace – as even the usual claim of responsibility was not forthcoming from them in the first instance. Student politics must never be allowed to degenerate to barbaric murder at night as happened at Mubi – Sabon Dale as the Polytechnic is not a religious or state institution but a federal one, open to all Nigerians as teachers, workers and students.

    Student politics  is a universal process of leadership growth and learning   and should not be grounded because some students have  murder in their hearts because of a loss of an election. It  is therefore the  most important  duty of government to punish those involved maximally to serve as  a  deterrent to others. That,  to me is the only way to secure peace in Mubi and hopefully Nigeria and the world at large   in the face of rampant global religious provocations.