Nairaland Forum

^Enough of the attitude plz.

Makes you look foolish.

SOUTH WESTERNERS beware of the schism that is happening in the North and destroying its economy. The South West is noted and acclaimed for religious tolerance. That is why almost ALL the south western Governors are Muslims and no one cares; the citizens hold them to account based on THEIR performance not whether Fashola or Arabgesola prays 5 times a day or says Mass. This allows the SW political leadership to concentrate on governance without dangerous distractions thus making them the most politically cohesive/focused block in the country.

If the SW imports this northern intolerance, the genie will leave the bottle and before you know Christians will start claiming marginalisation in politics (politics and religion are a dangerous mix) as some arealready making mundane claims now and the result is that the regions stability will go south.

If south western Muslims are complaining about marginalisation in PRIVATE businesses, there are limited options really except to continue to highlight what binds them as a people so as to correct the problem.  But there are equally big Muslim business moguls/companies in the southwest who are doing their thing and can correct perceived lopsidedness if any. Moreso the SW is sufficiently competitive enough to punish companies that emphasize on anything other than performance and qualifications in recruiting workers. I must say I work for southwesterners and never saw religious prejudice at play. maybe I am not looking hard enough to see/imagine motives behind their  business decisions.

As per press coverage, unless its hardcore news, everybody knows that a lot of coverages in the media are paid for. Many editors may not think it important to devote space to news about responses from the southwest for an event they largely see as a northern problem. Honestly, between news of a statement on Boko Haram from say an Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) member  and Lateef Adegbite, which do you think is more news worthy? I would rather read about the major ''actors" so to speak.


Moreso, a lot of the issues going back and forth about boko haram et al are largely  paid press releases. I expect the learned Doctor to do the same if he feels that their press releases are not carried well enough. Also, I find it hard to believe that there is an official gang up against releases from the Muslim community of the SW. But if it is so, its enough impetus to make one of their own launch a national paper of their own. The SW Muslim community has more than enough men with brains and deep pockets to do so.

If I may ask isn't the Nation Newspaper ( a National Newspaper) owned by Bola Tinubu, a Muslim?

^Well said but of course they wont listen.

Deols has already started going on rampage here.

Anyway, yorubas say e je ki dauda da nkan to fe da.

BetaThings:


It takes two people to come together for peace
When President Jonathan constituted the Presidential Advisory Council, both the Chairman and his deputy were  Christians
Muslims did not accuse of President Jonathan of trying to christianise the country

Stop being trivial. The Advisory Council were just it, advisory. Not a statutory body, but just to advice on specifics. When Yardua formed his kitchen cabinet of Abba Ruma, Tanimu Yakubu, Shamsudeen Usman and Adamu Aleiro did anybody accuse Yaradua of an Islamisation agenda?

The former CBN governor (Professor Soludo, a christian) started an Islamic banking project and filed an application with the Islamic Financial Services Board for Nigeria to join the board. This did not draw any criticism from christians
Yet when a Muslim succeeded him as governor of CBN and continued some of the projects (one of such projects was the decision by Prof Soludo to fix the number of years that a bank MD can spend which decision he did not implement though), christian started to say that Muslims wanted to islamise the country

Initially CAN was against the idea of Islamic banking BECAUSE it would involve the CBN setting up RELIGIOUS BASED organs within it (CBN) to REGULATE the system. CAN was against the use of STATE institutions to foster a religion over others. Of course later it modified its stand as CBN also modified its Islamic Banking Guideline. This was to effect that it had no problem with it  as long as the CBN does not use government money to promote  a religion based system. Which is in essence what our laws should be about. There should be no state sponsorship of religious activities else someone is bound to be discriminated against eg sango worshipers, humanist, aeithist etc who are bonafide citizens with every right as you and I. What ought to be was CBN issuing guidelines and letting business/ religious leaders take the cue. Typical example is the insurance industry, the Stock market and even banks who were offering Islamic favoured/based products evolved and marketed by companies themselves  (not regulators - who were at the time manned by Muslims except CBN). IBTC for example kept spamming my email with their ethical fund products for which I was tempted but for the stock crash. Bank PHB was offering interest free banking. did Christians complain? of course no. Why Sanusi choose to makes his like this, I can only guess.

But of course many did not want to listen to what CAN had to say and helped themselves with their own understanding of what the body meant. Of course there were some pastors and Christian leaders who made matters worst by granting interviews and stating their own positions which were at variance with CAN's

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/07/we-don%E2%80%99t-want-islamic-banking/

The frequent alarms raised by the current CAN president has tended to increase distrust between muslims and christians

What differentiates this CAN president from others is that this man will not shy away from controversy and will say his mind publicly. The issues he is raising are not new; they have been with us for decades. Past CAN leaders are more subtle; writing letters, leading delegations etc. What it has achieved is debatable but this man prefers to lay his cards openly. Whether this change in strategy will work, we shall see. All I can say is that many  feel its their country too and must not shy from challenging the status quo and discussing matters openly.

When the National Security Adviser, a christian appointed by  president Jonathan came to Channelstv, he said the following about Jos, capital of Plateau State with a Christian governor
(1) When you are governor, you must have the interest of EVERYBODY at heart
(2) it is not correct for the governor to say the security agencies did not listen to him; rather it the fact is that the governor might not have listened to security advice
(3) It is not right to say that people should not go to the praying ground

Governor Jang is sure a lousy governor that has no business being there. But I disagree with the NSA for the simple reason that in the North, once there is hint of trouble, the authorities have in the past taken the steps to bar the use of certain worship grounds, close routes or even CANCEL religious events. It is a known fact that several religious even Christian events have been cancelled as a result of security reports in the past. There has been no serious reaction except for the usual grumbling of course. But only God knows how many lives have been saved if people choose to stay off. If plateau state advice had been heeded perhaps the hundreds of lives that were lost that day could have been saved, so what is the NSA talking about?