Islamisation on a slippery slope

FROM the 1914 amalgamation, Nigeria has sought to remain
a united country. At first, it was fondly called unity in
diversity.
Admittedly, Nigeria has been a nation of constitutional
instability. Our colonial masters gave us six Constitutions
within a short space of 46 years – Lugard Constitution
(1914); Clifford Constitution (1922); Richards Constitution
(1946); McPherson Constitution (1951); Lyttleton Constitution
(1954); and the Independence Constitution (1960). Most of
the earlier Constitutions were not political instruments per se
as they were put together merely to regulate commerce,
which was the main interest of the colonialists.
A pluralist society like ours needed to have knotty questions
like Federal Character properly entrenched in its governing
instrument. Yet, this serious issue was not given any
consideration until the 1979 Constitution, and subsequent
ones, where it found its classic expression in Section 14(3):
“The composition of the Government of the Federation or any
of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried
out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of
Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also
command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall
be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a
few ethnic or sectional groups in that Government or any of
its agencies”.
However, we now know that religion is stronger than politics.
Before the 2015 general elections, Edo State had been
properly entrenched as an APC State. Based on the goodwill
we had already garnered, we thought we could approach any
election and win even with the least preparation. But religion
changed all that.
As soon as Muhammadu Buhari’s name appeared on the
ballot, religious bigots went to work and came up with the
ugly rumour that Buhari was coming to Islamise Nigeria. The
rumour quickly spread like wild fire in the harmattan.
When we were pointing to the Federal Character principle
and the numerous constitutional guarantees against
marginalisation we were merely wasting time. Our Christian
women and youths had run away with the rumour. And that
was how, in the predominantly Christian South and Central
Senatorial Districts of Edo State, those fine APC candidates
lost the Federal elections that were held on the same day
with Buharis, no thanks to religious bigotry.
That explains why a fortnight later, when we went for the
House of Assembly election, APC virtually swept the entire
poll!
We think the religionists were right and we were damn
wrong! What do we see today? We see the collapse of the
Federal Character principle; we see emerging signs of an
administration embarking on wholesale ethnic or regional
cleansing; and above all, we see an administration
descending a dangerous slippery slope of Islamisation.
We reject the idea that Federal Character applies only at the
entry point. It must also apply mutatis mutandis at every
point, including the exit.
Who still wants to argue that the Federal Character principle
has not totally collapsed after seeing the recent purge in the
military, where about 90% of the 46 officers affected hail
from Southern Nigeria as shown below?
South-South – 16 Officers: Maj. Gen PAT Akem, Maj. Gen ED
Atewe, Maj. Gen Letam Wiwa, Maj. Gen FO Alli, Brig. Gen
Ogidi, Brig. Gen Koko Essien, Brig. Gen PE Ekpeyong, Brig.
Gen Bright Fiboinumama, Brig. Gen. M. Onoyiveta, Brig. Gen
IMD Lawson, Brig. Gen Bashir Mormo, Brig. Gen AH Sa’ad,
Col. Tonye F Minimah, Lt. Col. GC Nyekwu, Lt. Col. Adimoha,
Lt. Col. OC Egemode,
South-East – 11 Officers: Maj. Gen TC Ude, Maj. Gen LC Ilo,
Maj. Gen IN Ijoma, Maj. Gen O Ejimai, Brig. Gen GO Agachi,
Brig. Gen Okonkwo, Col. CK Ukoha, Col. OU Nwankwo, Col.
N. Achinze, Lt. Col C. Enechukwu, Lt. Col CO Amadi.
South-West – 6 Officers: Maj. Gen Mobolaji Koleoso, Brig.
Gen Oyefesobi, Brig. Gen AI Onibasa, Col. FD Kayode, Lt.
Col. T.E Arigbe, Lt. Col TO Oladuntoye.
Middle Belt (North Central) – 5 officers: Maj. Gen SD Aliyu,
Col. Ojogbane Adegbe, Col. Audu, Lt. Col. Baba Ochankpa,
Lt. Col. DB Dazang.
The Core North – only 8 Officers: Maj. Gen. MY Ibrahim,
Brig. Gen M.G. Ali, Brig. Gen. L.N. Bello, Brig. Gen D.
Abdusalam, Col. D.R. Hassan, Col. M.A Suleiman, Lt. Col. A.
Mohammed, Lt. Col. A.S. Mohammed.
Whereas the Core North was virtually spared in the purge,
the same Core North has totally dominated the entire
National Security structure of Nigeria. The Core North as
applied here is the name for Northern Muslim Hausa-Fulani
hegemony.
Today, the Chief of Army Staff; Inspector General of Police;
Minister of Defence; Minister of Internal Affairs; National
Security Adviser; D-G, Department of State Security, DSS;
Chief of Staff; ADC to President; CSO to President; Protocol
to President; Private Secretary to President, D-G, Customs;
DG, EFCC; DG, Nigeria Prisons; D-G, Immigration; Minister of
Petroleum Resources; and FCT Minister, are all of the
Muslim Hausa-Fulani extraction of the Core North.
The two Heads of the National Assembly; and the two Heads
of the Judiciary are also from the North.
Contrariwise, even at gun-point, so to say, one issue that
almost blew off the roofs of the International Conference
Centre in our Constituent Assembly, CA, days was the Sharia.
We raised voices and got near exchanging blows. Neither the
several adjournments nor the shrewd tactics of the
combination of President Ibrahim Babangida and the
Secretary to the CA, Amb. Babagana Kingibe, could deter us.
We fought like wounded lions.
Yet, the penultimate week, the Bill for the extension of the
criminal aspects of Islamic Sharia Law to be applied
throughout the 36 States and the FCT smoothly scaled its
second reading in the House of Representatives – a House
where there are Christian Representatives, whether elected
or rigged-in; and a House where the Speaker is supposedly at
least a nominal Christian! Islam has never had it so good!
Meanwhile, some of the Christian leaders who should take up
the fight are pre-occupied with frivolities like visiting their
political cohorts in EFCC detention! Who, then, will halt this
steady glide towards Islamism?

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