What religious Scriptures (Bible or Quoran) are we busy quoting in Nigerian streets and media platforms to justify or condemn Tinubu’s certificate saga since 1999? Is it not the lacuna in our constitutional and deceptive interpretation that our lawyers and judges have adopted?
Rev. Solomon Umazi
It is high time we begin to interrogate some self-imposed and baseless propaganda against Africa and Africans. Most of these baseless narratives are gradually taking root in the space of public opinion as if it’s the truth.
How come we are being forced to believe the lie that Africans go on pilgrimage to Israel and Saudi Arabia more than the rest of the world? A simple Google search will reveal that Asians and not Africans are the dominant Moslem pilgrims while North Americans go to Israel the most. Africans have never been and can never be more religious than Asians. There are more Hindus and Muslims in Asia than Christians and Muslims in Africa. This is a pure fact. Our problem is not a religion at all but a case of bad and backward leadership and a greedy elite class.
Rwanda is a very religious country mostly populated by Christians. Why are we not relating their current progress to religion the same way we relate the failure of other African countries to religion?
The leaders and govt of Rwanda did not isolate religion because they were able to identify ethnicity/tribalism as the main causes of their hitherto backwardness and strictly deemphasized them. And boom, the country was set on its current prosperous trajectory.
In the same vein, leaders in Egypt and Morroco isolated religion, without deemphasizing it, they instead promoted nationalism above it. And boom, they are making tremendous progress while practicing their religion.
The USA remains the epicenter of Christianity and the HQ of everything Christian both in practice and national outlook/policies. There are more churches in the streets of the USA than in any African country. Even with the downturn of Christianity in the global North, proportionally, more people in the USA patronize the churches in terms of attendance and donations than in any country in Africa. Yet the USA remains the most prosperous nation on earth today because its leaders have tremendous regard for their laws originally founded on the Bible and the institutions created to enforce those laws.
How did Islam make the DG SSS refuse to obey a clear court order? What role did Christianity and Islam play when our Supreme Court justices ruled that Lawan could be in the 10th senate when he never contested the primaries for it? What passage of the Bible Emefiele was carrying taught him to steal money from CBN, which he now wants to return in a plea bargain? Is his integrity failure no longer squarely his responsibility? Why should his religion, whose tenets he refused to abide by bear to blame? What religious Scriptures (Bible or Quoran) are we busy quoting in Nigerian streets and media platforms to justify or condemn Tinubu’s certificate saga since 1999? Is it not the lacuna in our constitutional and deceptive interpretation that our lawyers and judges have adopted?
If we all agree, that there was no Govt College in 1970, should Tinubu be considered a graduate in Nigeria even if CSU says he is? Is that singular boldface misrepresentation (which follows a litany of his past patterns) not forgery enough? What has that to do with Islam and Christianity?
The bottom line, it is a false narrative that Africa is the most religious continent. Asia and North America are truly the most religious continents in terms of the number of ardent (if not fanatical) followership and national outlook/perception index. In these two continents, no one is calling out religion as a problem. Why is that narrative forced on Africa?
Friends, the earlier we properly diagnose and isolate our Africa’s major problem, the better. Let’s call the spade, a spade! And without mincing words, BAD POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS THE BANE OF AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT.
I stand to be corrected.
