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Shettima and religious preaching in Borno -By Bayo Olupohunda

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Kashim Shettima
Shettima addressing the people after prayer

Shettima addressing the people after prayer

A very commendable and heartwarming executive action taken recently by the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, to curb intolerance and extremist religious preaching should attract the attention of Nigerians. Given the vexed nature of religion in our country, I have always viewed government intervention in religious matters with suspicion. The reason for scepticism cannot be far from insincerity of politicians who have always exploited religion for their own selfish ends.

But Shettima has done the unusual just like in Kaduna State where the attempt by the governor, Nasir el-Rufai, who had also attempted to regulate religious preaching through a bill seemed misunderstood and generated controversy. The Borno variant deserves commendation in a state where religious extremism has led to so much devastation given the murderous activities of the Boko Haram sect since they began their terror campaign in 2009.

According to news reports, the governor had decided to check the activities of religious preachers whose actions, he believed, have led to the spread of fundamentalist ideologies which has bred terrorism and religious intolerance. Shettima was reported to have inaugurated a body of scholars with a mandate of regulating Islamic preaching across the 27 Local Government Areas of Borno State and to also deploy community-based system to spy on preachers who may want to spread violent doctrines in towns and villages.

While inaugurating the board, Shettima had said that by checking the preaching among the Muslim communities, suspicious preaching and un-Islamic teachings that could stoke trouble would be avoided. As he put it, “We must take firm, consistent and knowledge-based steps to continuously separate between those clerics who preach in the name of Allah and those who kill innocent souls in the name of Allah…The job of the Borno State Islamic Preaching Board is not only to set preaching standards but importantly, to be alert in spotting unusual and suspicious preaching among Islamic clerics”.

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l want to commend the governor for this laudable and bold move to curb the reckless extremism of some religious preachers propagating hatred and intolerance in the name of religion in a state that has been laid waste due to fundamentalist ideologies that gave birth to Boko Haram.

But as significant as the governor policy was, I am surprised that such an important frontal action on religious extremism that has the potential to shape the fight against Boko Haram and check religious intolerance in our country almost went unnoticed. Compare this silence with the uproar that heralded the bill to check the excesses of religious institutions in Kaduna by el-Rufai and you get the point I am driving at. What is the difference?

For many years now, discerning Nigerians have been worried about the rhetoric of religious preachers. Many times, preachers from all faiths have gone beyond the tenets of their faiths to incite hatred and violence against people of other faiths. Many religious conflicts in our country were caused when so-called religious preachers sow discord among members and incite them to violence. Such situations have led to violence in the country leading to the loss of lives and property.

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Indeed, one has lost count when violent rhetoric by hate preachers has brought the country to the brink. The 1990s marked a defining epoch in Nigerian history when religious extremism led to violence and wanton destruction of lives and property.  Let me state here that this situation is not peculiar to the Islamic faith.

Some years ago in Lagos, violence almost broke out when a Christian preacher said some unprintable words about another religious organisation. I was in a bus from the Okokomaiko area of Lagos to Oshodi. A soon as the journey began, a man who had been calm on the while suddenly broke into a Christian song and began preaching thereafter. I remember vividly how he condemned people of other faiths admonishing them to accept his own religion otherwise, according to him, they risked perishing in “hell fire.”

It was a big public bus before the advent of the Bus Rapid Transit system. As if in a movie, another man challenged the preacher to shut up and not speak ill of his own religion. Before long, the man’s supporters had descended on the preacher and almost lynched him. The driver parked the bus while the man was rescued and let off safely from the bus. That was several years ago.

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As insignificant as the incident was, because it happened within the confines of a public bus, the situation could have been worse. It could have escalated into violence in another situation and in another clime. In Lagos, the passengers intervened and a potential situation that could have spiralled into violence was quickly defused. I had imagined then if we were in the core north, the situation could have degenerated and many lives and property could have been lost. The country has witnessed gory situations where people lost their lives because some adherents of a certain faith perceived some utterances and actions as disrespectful of their faith.

Sadly, Nigeria’s history has been defined by this bloody past. In October 1991, protest over religious crusade of the German preacher, Reinhard Bonnke, led to widespread riots that left several hundreds dead and churches and mosques burnt. But the beheading in December of the same year of Gideon Akaluka, a young Igbo trader, who allegedly desecrated the Koran was one example of how intolerance and hate preaching can wreak havoc in a country and her people.

Since the 1990s, Nigerians have lost count of incidences of religious violence. An octogenarian was killed recently in Kano after she was thought to have spoken against another faith. The terror war which has devastated Borno State and the entire North-East was caused by extremism of preaching and incitement that had led to the birth of the extremist Boko Haram.

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Since 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 20, 000 Nigerians with millions of children and women in displaced people’s camps. Now, it is said that about $9bn will be needed to rebuild the devastated North-East. This was just because a certain Muhammed Yusuf, Boko Haram founder, was allowed to stoke intolerance with his preaching and tolerated by unscrupulous politicians. This is why Shettima must be commended for recognising the danger of allowing the so-called religious preachers to continue to spread hate and intolerance through their preaching.

There is the urgent need to curb the excesses of religious preachers and their fanatical followers. Their penchant to heat up the polity in the practice of their religion is condemnable. Our country can no longer afford the acts of violence that result from extremist preaching and intolerance we have witnessed as a nation. Our political leaders must also separate religion from politics and desist from playing one religion against the other. Shettima’s laudable action should be a model for the country. Enough of hate preaching.

Follow me on Twitter: @bayoolupohunda

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