mibelema@bellsouth.net
Most people are familiar with the age-old question, “What do women want?” For Nigeria, the variant to that question is, “What do Muslims want?” It is a question that arises only in the context of an important relationship in which one side finds the other perplexing.
“Who can honestly claim knowledge of what women truly want?” writes Daniel Bergner, the author of a top-selling book on the subject.“Obviously, no one. Women themselves can’t even say for sure.” For men, desperately looking for an answer, there can’t be a more disappointing summation by an expert. Still, life goes on between men and their wives.
Regarding what Nigerian Muslims want, there probably won’t be a much better answer. Still, it is a question worth posing and discussing frankly—and often. Even in the absence of definitive answers, there still might be deeper understanding.
First some caveat. The question of what Nigerian Muslims want is not fair to some. In the South-West, for example, Muslims are largely committed to Nigeria as a secular state in which people of different faith coexist. To a considerable extent, the same could be said of Muslims in the North Central region or the Middle Belt.
With due apology to the many Muslims in the North-East and North-West who are similarly committed, it is in those regions that the question of what Muslims want truly arises. The recent allegation that a sitting governor is a Boko Haram commander is evidence of that. Even if false, the claim would never have been made were it not for the inherent misgivings.
Despite the myriad ethnic flashpoints and political machinations, the most destabilising cleavage in Nigerian politics today is Islamists restiveness. So, the question bears restating, “Are Muslim leaders on a quest to Islamising Nigeria?” And, if so, would they openly say so to allow for open dialogue?
The question is, of course, not for Boko Haram and related groups. They have declared their intent to that end. The question is for those politicians who seem committed to Nigeria’s secular governance and diversity in religion, but may be surreptitiously undermining those bases for co-existence.
The US-based Christian Broadcasting Network recently aired a segment in which a US army general asserts that Nigeria is a target for Islamisation not just by local operatives, but by Islamists around the world. Though this is not a new claim, the evidence is piling up.
“The top general of US Special Operations Command in Africa is warning that al Qaeda, ISIS and other Islamic terror groups are now trying to take over parts of the continent’s most populous nation,” the broadcast states.
Specific regions currently being targeted, according to the report, are the South and North-West regions. The North-East and the Middle Belt have already been under siege. “We stay fully engaged with the government of Nigeria to provide them with an understanding of what these terrorists are doing,” Major General Dagvin Anderson said in the broadcast.
Among other things, the broadcast cites the bloodbath in southern Kaduna and the recurrent mass killings by herdsmen in the Middle Belt and elsewhere.
“Their goal? Eventually turn Nigeria into a Muslim country and force Christians who make up half the country’s population to either leave or convert,” the CBN narrator continued. “Nigeria’s president, a Muslim, has so far done very little to stop the bloodshed. His police and army are also mostly made up of Muslims.”
Dede Laugesen, a spokeswoman for the group Save the Persecuted Christians, added details to the implied complicity. “The attackers are never captured. They are not prosecuted,” Laugesen said, “The security services respond very slowly. A full day can go on with attacks happening and no security shows up. And frequently the government officials will provide cover.”
This damning account was not only broadcast in the US, it is being circulated on YouTube and other social media. So, it is being watched by Nigerians in and out of Nigeria. And the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission can’t suspend the broadcaster’s licence.
To be sure, CBN is by no means a disinterested broadcaster. But the core of the programme was corroborated by a US army general, who has firsthand information about the quest to Islamise Nigeria by force.
President Muhammadu Buhari has sought to dismiss any notion of an ethnic or religious agenda in the jihadist violence by pointing out that more Muslims than Christians have died in the hands of the terrorists. It is a very valid argument. But then it might merely point to a disagreement in method. Jihadists apparently consider expendable those Muslims who don’t join their cause, even those who are pursuing Islamisation through peaceful means.
In this respect, it is plausible to conceive of Miyetti Allah and their patrons as an embodiment of both approaches. On the one hand, they are pursuing Islamisation through “cow colonies,” Ruga, and the like. On the other hand, they have armed herdsmen who massacre local communities at night and are defended by Miyetti spokesmen by day.
By whatever means, Islamisation is destabilisation. And given that Nigeria is by constitution a secular state, it may well be treasonous. An Islamic state is a theocratic state. As such, commitment to Islamisation ought to disqualify one from running for office. This is not to be confused with mere proselytising, which most religions undertake at the personal or group levels.
And here lies the tragic irony. Jihadists are bent on converting others to their faith by all means. Yet, they kill people they so much as suspect of attempting to convert Muslims. That was recently the fate of five Nigerians who were delivering COVID-19 aid to villages in Borno State and were abducted and executed.
Beyond the bloodshed, that’s a gross violation of the very basis of a modern society, the reciprocity that enables coexistence. Mercifully, the vast majority of Nigerians —Christians and Muslims — subscribe to that philosophy. It is the minority who don’t that threaten to tear the country apart. Some operate from the bush and some from public offices. More about that next Sunday.
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