It’s unlikely Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo residents have religion -By ’Tunji Ajibade

Of recent, there have been criminal acts perpetrated against residents of Ogun, Ondo and Oyo States by bandits popularly referred to as herdsmen. But I take note of one point: It’s never mentioned that members of some religion are being killed or their religion persecuted. Is it that residents of these states don’t have any religion? I ask because, as I stated in the past, when criminals operate in other parts of the country, it’s noised even in ‘mainstream’ media that it’s people of a particular religion who’re persecuted. When criminals are accused of the same offence in the south-west and south-east, however, the religion of victims is never mentioned.

It’s important that we pay close attention to this phenomenon because some people are using  religion to cause division in this nation, and it’s dangerous. They take security matter and repaint it in such a manner that could cause disaffection among Nigerians. As such this is another piece in my Lest-we-forget series.  We mustn’t  forget this moment when the people of the southwest are on the receiving end of acts of criminality, but no one says their religion is being persecuted. Why is this important? Dealing with acts of criminality is different from dealing with allegations relating to persecuting a religion or an ethnic group. The two don’t have the same causes, and both the consequences and the solutions are never the same. Security issue is easier to handle, more objectively handled. Criminals are limited in number, easier to isolate and cut like cancer tumour. When any matter is given religious or even ethnic interpretation it becomes emotive, highly inflammable. In that state many people can lose their emotional balance and no one can predict when the fire that ensues will be quelled.

This is the consuming inferno that religious leaders in some parts of Nigeria are toying with. Even religious leaders in the south-west help them to sound this false note. These religious leaders see what criminals do in Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo to their members but they neither speak up nor call it persecution of any religion. What they should wholistically see as a security matter in other parts, they join those who manipulatively call it persecution of a religion to spread the poison.

Each time some, who see what is happening in Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo, repeat the view that members of a religion are being persecuted in some parts of the country, I ask the simple question: Is it that they don’t see the link between the acts of criminality in Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo, as well as Zamfara, Sokoto, Jigawa,  and what’s happening in areas where claims of religious persecution are being made? Reprisals are going on in such places, which lead to escalation of violent attacks. The origin of the violence is in herdsmen-farmer issues, but it has since spiraled. Nevertheless, some stick with the narrative of religious persecution. Those who further spread this narrative online are supposed to be educated people, but linking a local issue to the larger picture of a dysfunctional national security is too tough for them to digest. Instead their biases make them they repeat the manipulative messages that some religious leaders who have become ethnic champions send out. Take note that the same religious leaders take the stance that people of certain ethnic origin shouldn’t live in their parts of the country. Is that what the religion they claim to have teach them to do? The state governor who says such disposition isn’t acceptable to any government is regularly insulted.

Compare this governor’s position to what the governor of Imo State equally says regarding people of other ethnic groups who reside in his state. Hope Uzodinma said the duty of government is to protect all Nigerians who’re doing legitimate business. He says government has no problem with such people. He adds that herdsmen and farmers have been living together peacefully in the state; only those who engage in crime and criminality will have issues with his government. This was at a meeting he conveyed for the purpose of promoting peace between  farmers and herders.

The fact is that in the face of security challenges in this nation, some religious leaders have become manipulative because of the narrow ethnic agenda they pursue. They’re fighting for ethnic groups, rather than promote peace among all men as the founders of their religions instruct them to do. That many in Nigeria overlook this misstep and follow such religious leaders is a phenomenon that I find shocking. Such followers must be people who don’t  understand the fundamentals of the religion they claim to have. The few religious leaders that stand against using religion to pursue ethnic agenda are regarded as enemies. Religious leaders who have a good understanding of what the Book they carry asks them to do and they are doing exactly that are in the minority. The majority have lost focus of why they are religious leaders, deliberately manipulating a largely security challenge for the purpose of pursuing narrow tribal agenda.

Perhaps the findings of other observers in regard to security challenges that drive the current rate of criminality will put my view in context. Recently, Ayodele Ozungbakun of TVC News returned from a trip during which he had investigated acts of kidnapping supposedly carried out by herdsmen. Ozungbakun said he found that the criminals were mostly foreigners from places such as Mali. They pose as herders and  use the bush as their operational headquarters. They engage in kidnapping and collect ransoms. Of course foreigners see that our security architecture is weak and they exploit it. In the past I had severally stated on this page what Ozungbakun said.

I had also cited what farmers in some Emirates in north-east Nigeria said herders who came in from Niger did to their ready-to-harvest farm produce. These people in the Emirates said once herders carried out the same criminal acts in places with minority ethnic groups where there were people of other religions, they quickly tagged it an attack on their religion and their ethnic group.

In looking at the religion that’s generally accused of persecuting members of another religion, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Saad Abubakar, cannot but come into the picture. The Sultan had said repeatedly that he wasn’t aware of any plan to kill members of a religion other than his. He assured his fellow religious leaders that he would never condone such an act. He added that his reading of the situation was that acts of criminality were taking place across the country, and where any herdsman was caught doing anything contrary to the law, he should be prosecuted. He said this is what should be done rather than demonizing the whole of any ethnic nationality as it is currently the case.

I took note that the last time Nigeria’s religious leaders of different faiths gathered for their normal meeting in Abuja, the Sultan strongly expressed his disappointment regarding the action of his counterparts across the faith line. He said he had been doing his best to assure them that what was happening was act of criminality which should be handled as a security matter. He said he had actively been working with his counterparts on the other side of the faith line to find lasting solutions. But regularly his counterparts still took to the streets, and the media,  to noise it as usual that criminal attack in their area was a persecution of their religion.

I take note too that at this said meeting, Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Federal Government, states that from where he stands, he sees no persecution of any religion in Nigeria as some allege. All that is happening is act of criminality and it’s a security challenge which all must join hands to curb, he added. Well, those who want to help manipulators spread a narrative of religious persecution will continue. As for those who make this imaginary claim, they mustn’t  forget that residents of Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo states are on the receiving end of crimes committed by the herders they accuse, and these residents have religions too. But they can  continue to deceptively use religion to promote ethnic agenda. Not all Nigerians are fooled though.

’Tunji Ajibade;   tunjioa@yahoo.com;  08036683657