Religious, Ethnic Politics And Nigeria’s Democracy: The Experiences That I Witnessed
The Oasis Reporters
February 24, 2023
@gregabolo
@Theoasisreport1
As a young man in the 50s, my father sojourned in the geographical area then called Northern Nigeria. He lived specifically at a town called Bisichi near Jos as a worker in the Tin Mines.
So, when he needed to get married, he asked his older brother in their then Delta District of Western Region, known today as Delta State, to find a bride, pay the price and send her to him.
My mother’s bride price was paid and she was sent to my father.
Therefore my early childhood and primary school was spent in the north till the aftermath of the unfortunate January 15, 1966 military coup which shattered our lives, thus turning us into “refugees” in our home region of the new Mid-West region.
The National Youth Service Corps Scheme sent me back to Kano, where I lived for over two decades, getting married there and having children. But owing to one crisis or the other, we had to relocate.
Now this is where the story gets really interesting because my friends in Kano, especially my very close Yoruba Muslim friends were partly behind my family and I relocating to Ibadan, South West Nigeria.
They said in Ibadan, Muslims and Christians live together in perfect harmony in the same family. Christians and Muslims intermarry. All that was new to me, because of the events that I had experienced in life.
It was very wrong for pastors of major Christian denominations to get involved in endorsing candidates. They did not think ahead. Today is Friday. All over the North, it would be hard to convince Muslim leaders not to retaliate. I pray we learn from this in 2027. #TableShaker
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) February 24, 2023
We relocated to Ibadan and I was bemused that a governor called Ladoja, a Muslim had fallen out of favour with his godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, also another Muslim and the godfather ensured that the governor was impeached by the State House of Assembly. The godfather insisted that the constitutional provision be followed and Ladoja’s deputy, a Christian, Christopher Akala stepped in as governor.
That move drew the anger of Christians in Ibadan.
Came the time for the governorship election next time around, while some Muslims were backing Christopher Alao Akala, Christians in the state were consulting Ladoja, asking to vote who his choice was.
It was so very interesting.
Before that political dispensation, Nigeria had had the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Bashorun Moshood KO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe running on the SDP ticket. The now defunct National Party of Nigeria (NRC) had the religiously balanced ticket of Alhaji Bashir Tofa and Sylvester Ugoh, an Igbo.
Yet Christian leaders, pastors and members backed the Abiola ticket. They trusted the Muslim Bashorun. He was mentioned in Christian circles as the answer, but General Babangida annulled the election. A lot of Christians put their lives on the line to fight for the restoration of the ticket. Many of them were Igbos, Yorubas, Niger Deltans ( nobody would forget the likes of Chief Anthony Enahoro), Chief Alfred Rewane ( who was even assassinated for fighting to have that Abiola victory revalidated.
And of course, many Muslims too paid the supreme price.
Politics should be beyond religion. Endorsements by Pastors or Imams do go beyond pronouncements to interrogating the competencies of each candidate. That is what really matters.
Written by Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
