ON Christmas day, a bomb exploded at
St. Theresa's Catholic Church, Madalla,
in Niger State, killing over thirty people
and wounding a significant number of
other innocent citizens who had come
to worship their God as the first part of their Christmas celebrations. Barely two days later, we heard of the
tragic and mindless killings within a
community in Ebonyi State in which
over sixty people lost their lives with
property worth millions of naira
destroyed and hundreds of families displaced. In the midst of all this, on
New Year's Day, the President
announced the withdrawal of fuel
subsidy and threw an already angry
and frustrated nation into convulsion. Right now, I feel like the friends of Job
(Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar), who
came to visit their sick friend and
found the burden beyond
comprehension. For, as we know,
when they came and found Job in his condition, they spent seven days and
seven nights, and uttered not a word
(Job 2:13). Right now, no one can claim
a full understanding of the state we
are in. However, even if we cannot
understand the issues of the moment, our faith compels us to understand
that God's hand is in all this. The
challenge is for us to have the patience
to let His will be done. The tragedy in Madalla was seen as a
direct attack on Christians. When Boko
Haram claimed responsibility, this line
of argument seemed persuasive to
those who believed that these
merchants of death could be linked to the religion of Islam. Happily,
prominent Muslims rose in unison to
condemn this evil act and denounced
both the perpetrators and their acts as
being un-Islamic. All of this should
cause us to pause and ponder about the nature of the force of evil that is in
our midst and to appreciate the fact
that contrary to popular thinking, we
are not faced with a crisis or conflict
between Christians and Muslims.
Rather, like the friends of Job, we need to humbly appreciate the limits of our
human understanding. In the last few years, with the
deepening crises in parts of Bauchi,
Borno, Kaduna, and Plateau states,
thanks to the international and
national media, it has become fanciful
to argue that we have crises between Christians and Muslims. Sadly, the
knee-jerk reaction of some very
uninformed religious leaders has lent
credence to this false belief. To
complicate matters, some of these
religious leaders have continued to rally their members to defend
themselves in a religious war. This has
fed the propaganda of the notorious
Boko Haram and hides the fact that
this evil has crossed religious barriers.
Let us take a few examples which, though still under investigation across
the country, should call for restraint on
our part. Some time last year, a Christian
woman went to her own parish
Church in Bauchi and tried to set it
ablaze. Again, recently, a man alleged
to be a Christian, dressed as a Muslim,
went to burn down a Church in Bayelsa. In Plateau State, a man
purported to be a Christian was
arrested while trying to bomb a
Church. Armed men gunned down a
group of Christians meeting in a
Church and now it turned out that those who have been arrested and are
under interrogation are in fact not
Muslims and that the story is more of
an internal crisis. In Zamfara State, 19
Muslims were killed. After
investigation it was discovered that those who killed them were not
Christians. Other similar incidents have
occurred across the country. Confusing debris Clearly, these are very troubled times
for our country. But they are also very
promising times. I say so because
amidst this confusing debris of hate,
anger and frustration, we have had
some very interesting dimensions. Nigeria is changing because Nigerians
are taking back their country from the
grip of marauders. These stories, few
as they may be, are the beginning of
our song of freedom. Christians are
now publicly crossing the artificial lines created by falsehood and bigotry.
Let us take a few examples of events
in the last week alone: In Kano, amidst
fears and threats of further attacks on
Christians, a group of Muslims
gathered round to protect Christians as they worshipped. In Minna and
recently, in Lagos, the same thing
repeated itself as Christians joined
hands to protect Muslims as they
prayed. In the last week, Christians
and Muslims together in solidarity are protesting against bad governance and
corruption beyond the falsehood of
religion. Once freed from the grip of
these dark forces, religion will be able
to play its role as a force for harmony,
truth and the common good. Clearly, drawing from our experiences
as Christians, we must note that God
has a message for us in all this. To
elicit what I consider to be the
message, I will make reference to
three lessons and I know there are far more. First, these times call for prayer.
At the height of our confusion during
the Abacha years, the Catholic Bishops
Conference of Nigeria composed two
sets of prayers; one, Against Bribery
and Corruption and second, for Nigeria in Distress. Millions of Catholics have
continued to recite these prayers and
we must remain relentless in the belief
that God hears our prayers and that
God's ways are not our ways. We
know that our Muslim brethren and millions of other non-Christians feel
the same and are also praying in a
similar way for our country. Two, these times call for solidarity of
all people of faith. We are a nation of
very strong believers and despite what
anyone else may say, millions of our
Christians and Muslims do take their
religion very seriously. However, you might ask, if that is true, why do we
have so many killings in the name of
God and of religion? We live in a state of ineffective law
enforcement and tragic social
conditions. Corruption has destroyed
the fabric of our society. Its corrosive
effect can be seen in the ruination of
our lives and the decay in our society. The inability of the state to punish
criminals as criminals has created the
illusion that there is a conflict between
Christians and Muslims. In fact, it
would seem that many elements
today are going to great extremes to pitch Christians against Muslims, and
vice versa, so that our attention is
taken away from the true source of
our woes: corruption. As Nigerians,
Christians and Muslims, we must stand
together to ensure that our resources are well utilized for the common good.
This is why, despite the hardships we
must endure as a result of the strike,
the Fuel Subsidy debate must be seen
as the real dividend of democracy Three, religious leaders across the
faiths must indeed stand up together
and face the challenge of the times by
offering a leadership that focuses on
our common humanity and common
good rather than the insignificant issues that divide us. We therefore
condemn in very strong terms the
tendency by some religious leaders to
play politics with the issues of our
collective survival. Religious leaders Rather than rallying our people, some
of our religious leaders have resorted
to divisive utterances, wild allegations
and insinuations against fellow
adherents of other religions. In the last
five or so days, text messages have been circulating across the country
appealing to some of our worst
demons We are told that many senior
clerics either believed or encouraged
the circulation of these divisive and
false text messages. We must condemn this for what it is. For those Christians who have reacted
in fear, they require conversion. If we
wait for these evil men or women to
decide when we shall stand for Christ,
then we have surrendered our soul to
the devil. If we fear to stand up for Christ now, let us remember that He
has already said: Whoever
acknowledges me before others, I will
acknowledge before my father in
Heaven, Whoever denies me before
others, I will deny him before my father in Heaven(Mt 10: 32). Again, Jesus warns that rather than
fear at times of uncertainty, adversity
or upheavals, we should be confident.
He said: When these things begin to
take place, stand erect; hold your
heads high, because your liberation is near at hand(Lk. 21: 28). Furthermore,
St Paul has assured us that; If we die
with Him, we shall live with Him. If
we endure with Him, we shall reign
with him( 2 Tim 2: 11-12). Surely,
those who are asking us to go under our beds, to flee in the face of
persecution must be reading a
different Bible. These are difficult times but they are
also times of promise. Our country has
turned its back on all forms of
dictatorships. Our hands are on the
plough and we are resolutely
committed to democracy. Like a Catholic marriage, we may not be
happy but we cannot contemplate a
divorce. God does not make mistakes. Although the freedom and growth
promised by democracy are not here
yet, we must remind ourselves that a
better tomorrow is possible, a more
united and peaceful Nigeria is possible.
The challenges of the last few days have shown the resilience of our
people and their commitment to
democracy and a better life. We
believe this is possible. The
government must strive to earn the
trust of our people. All sides must take lessons from the demonstrations and
resolve to build a better and stronger
nation. Let us hold on to the words of the Holy
Father, Pope Benedict XV1 when he
told the President, religious, traditional
rulers and people of the Republic of
Benin in the Presidential Palace on
November 19: Do not cut off your peoples from their future by
mutilating their present, There are too
many scandals and injustices, too
much corruption and greed, too many
errors and lies, too much violence. All
peoples desire to understand the political and economic choices which
are made in their name; they wish to
participate in good governance. No
economic regime is ideal and no
economic choice is neutral. But these
must always serve the common good. Kukah is the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto
Diocese

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