By by Erasmus
Ikhide
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has been unfortunate to be voted in as the
“accidental governor” of Kaduna
State . Since 1980, the
crocodile state has been floating on the river of blood visited on it by those who
find it nauseating to reside in the same neighbourhood and space as those who
do not share the same faith and religion. How we arrive at this mind-wrecking
and anti-humanistic station in our journey into nationhood — even when all
religion preach tolerance and peaceful cohabitation is something that
constitutes a blight on us, as people.
*Gov El-Rufai |
The latest
Christian and Muslim clash in Southern Kaduna that took place at Kasuwan Magani
town in Kajuru Local Govenment Area of Kaduna State ,
over which over a 1,000 houses were torched and several souls lost two days ago
is not salutary to whatever efforts the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police
claimed to have made.
The
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Austin Iwar acknowledged that the police was aware
of earlier skirmishes two weeks ago in the area but queries the 45 minutes
distance between
Without any
fear of contradiction, anarchy looms lurks at our doorsteps since the Nigerian
Police can openly display its incompetence and hopeless readiness to arrests
internal insurrection in record time. The Nigerian Police has not only failed
itself in the area of intelligence gathering but has also failed a nation in
traumatic transition. Without a pro-active police force what can a governor do
with the mere notional impression as the chief security of the state when the
police is less able to function mentally, technically, and in a digital
forensic manner? How can the governor and government of a state prosecute those
who take laws into their own hands when security officials either callously
take sides with offenders on account of religion or complains of mobility to
the scene of crime scene after suspects have been allowed to escape? What can
the police actually do when the government fails to equip the police with the
necessary modern tools to make things easier and other ancillary motivation?
Who can truly redeem the police institution that has been lobotomizing gross
failure on flimsy excuses?
Governor
El-Rufai gave an intriguing insight into the historical crisis of religion
intolerance that have been plaguing Kaduna
State and the attendant
harvest of deaths that come with it. The governor revealed the scale of human
toll religious hostility had caused the state when a delegation led by the
President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) paid
him a visit at the Government House, Kaduna .
“Since
1980, about 10,000 to 20,000 were killed in Kaduna State
during crisis and government did not prosecute anybody. We are determined to
end the killings in Kaduna .
Henceforth, the law will fully apply without fear or favour. We have made some
arrests and you will be shock to see the calibre of perpetrators that we are
going to arrest and prosecute. No matter highly the person is we will bring him
or her to face the full wrath of the law to serve as deterrent to others who
may want to sponsor crisis”, he said.
At another
time, the governor harped on the romote and immediate causes of religion
intolerance in Kaduna
state. Frustratingly, Governor Nasir El-Rufai actually sniffed out the problems
early enough. He told journalists a few months into his administration that,
“One of the challenges we are facing in this state is that everything seems to
be politicised or ethnicised or religionised. A very simple problem that can be
discussed and resolved by logic and facts becomes converted into issues of
ethnicity and religion, and so on. So, these are some of the challenges we have
to face but we are doing the best we can.
“Our
religion is our personal business. Most people in this country believe in one
God. We believe we are worshipping the same God in different ways. The moment I
got elected, the number of people that came to me who wanted to be the
secretary of Muslim Pilgrims Board showed to me that there was a problem.
Nobody wanted to be commissioner of finance and so on. That means there is
something happening there in the name of religion. But honestly, one of the
legacies Arch. Barnabas Bala Bantex and I want to leave behind in this state is
the complete separation of religion from governance and hypocrisy associated
with it.
“I say
hypocrisy because the same person that preaches and incites people against a
Christian has no problem going to the hospital to see a Christian doctor if the
doctor is good. He would not remember that the doctor is a Christian then. In
my opinion, they are just blowing this thing to cause problem and distract
ordinary people, while they take advantage of the situation and system. We want
to eliminate that in Kaduna ,
we want everyone to feel that in this state you can practice your religion
without hindrance and your religion and ethnicity would not be a factor in
getting government services and appointment. It must be your capacity and
competence to deliver; that’s all.
“The problem
that we found in Kaduna
State is that ethnicity
and religion come first, competence and capacity last. We want to reverse that;
because we believe that those who work, those that are competent, those that
can deliver benefit to everyone. I don’t need to have someone from my local
government if the government is working. But if the government is not working
and then everybody is stealing, then I would want to have a representative
there. This is what has turned our heads. I am appealing to you as our partners,
as those that communicate with the general public to help us in our effort to
make this state better. When a government works, it works for everybody.
Government cannot choose to have schools for one ethnic group or one religion
alone. That is what we want to move away from and you can help”.
There is no
question whether or not Mallam El-Rufai has proffers reasonable solutions to
religious intolerance in Kaduna
State that has triggered
relentless anarchy and turmoil, overtime. He needs to do more in the areas of
monitoring religious education in schools, including comparative religious
studies, so as to promote religious understanding and prevent radicalization,
particularly among the youth. The givers of religious studies must be properly
trained and thoroughly regulated as stipulated by the law passed under Governor
El-Rufai administration by Kaduna State House of Assembly.
The
governor should make it a point of duty to regularly organise parleys and
dialogues between religious leaders and government at the state and local
levels once or twice in a month so as to encourage inter-religion harmony. The
security concerns must at all times promptly and decisively move to deal with
religion related skirmishes before they escalate into full blown crises in any
part of the state. The security agents must be well-trained and adequately
equipped to carry out intelligence and surveillance on religious bodies and
preachers that show tendencies toward extremism and radicalism.
More also
the government must act fairly and should not be one-sided in its intervention.
Most importantly, the Government must address the socio-economic problems and
unemployment in the state and the resultant deprivation, pain, frustration,
agony, hunger and anger of the citizens, especially the youth, which make them
vulnerable and susceptible to crime. The government or any of its agent should
—as much as possible — deemphasize using religion as a subject of campaign
during elections. The Federal Government have to secure our porous and land
borders in order to prevent influx of illegal aliens that have seemingly
constitute security threat to the country.
So far, Governor
El-Rufai’s initiative has been commendable. But the challenge has been that the
forces who are bent at frustrating the religious reform agenda of his
government are more daring and mindless at their masochistic obsession.
The
governor has one option: constant interrogation, validation and activation of
government’s monopoly of instruments of violence against individuals or group
of persons. Mallam El-Rufai can’t afford to do otherwise because the salvation
of religious tolerance in Northern Nigeria
rests squarely on his slander shoulders. His urbane education, positive
worldview and clarity of thoughts must be employed to redeem Northern
Nigeria and purge it of religious extremism.
*Erasmus Ikhide is a Public Affairs Analyst (ikhideerasmus@gmail.com)
*Erasmus Ikhide is a Public Affairs Analyst (ikhideerasmus@gmail.com)
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