24th February, 2018
By Akeem Soboyede
Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recently found it very necessary to issue a public statement that clarified the religious status of his (Osinbajo’s) future son-in-law. Yes, that statement was so important it had to be issued by the person who is probably Osinbajo’s most senior media aide, Laolu Akande (and not, for example, a nondescript family-member of the Osinbajos, making an off-hand remark to a reporter from one of the so-called “junk magazines”).
So, what was the issue all about that Akande, obviously at the behest of Nigeria’s Number 2 Man, Osinbajo, had to take precious time from more pressing issues to deal with personally? That Osinbajo’s daughter, Damilola, was not only getting married, the lucky husband-to-be was not, REPEAT, NOT a Muslim!
I understand Yemi Osinbajo is a Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), one of the premier Pentecostal denominations in Nigeria today, led by the man fondly called “Daddy GO”, Pastor Enoch Adeboye. I also get it that Osinbajo has worn this distinction on his sleeve with pride; it is not for nothing that many studies have concluded Nigerians are probably the most religious people on Planet Earth, which is great too. I am religious also. And I am a member of the Islamic faith.
Unfortunately for Osinbajo, especially in the context of the recent “clarificatory press release” issued by no less an aide than Akande, he is also the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a country with a significant Muslim population, especially in the city of Abuja where Osinbajo presides over the affairs of Nigeria as an able and effective lieutenant to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, who is a Muslim.
The statement Osinbajo caused to be issued through Akande, of course, was meant for an audience not only in Abuja but far beyond same. While the two men (Osinbajo and Akande) might not have consciously intended such, the short statement certainly reflected the tensions thrown up by the religious fault lines that have long rocked the Nigerian polity, particularly those keen observers like myself are aware have long rankled the Body of Christ in Nigeria: the fact that most of Nigeria’s leaders, before the emergence of Obasanjo as civilian president in 1999 and Goodluck Jonathan soon after him, have been Muslims; the Boko Haram menace that many Christians in Nigeria have interpreted as another attempt to “dip the Koran into the Atlantic Ocean”; and the current unfortunate and unchecked killings in many communities in the southern and north-central states of Nigeria, blamed on Fulani herdsmen, etc.
I have had a very vantage point, as a Muslim who was born and raised in the southern part of Nigeria (a Yoruba from the Southwest) to observe the angst of fellow Nigerians (and Yorubas) who are Christians and who have lived through the events and circumstances (and more) I briefly outlined above. Perhaps these circumstances of my birth and upbringing explain why many of the persons I count (and hopefully still count!) as close friends in Nigeria today are of the Christian faith. In fact, many of my close family relatives (first cousins, nephews, nieces) are Christians who were born into the faith (their parents are / were Christians). Such has been the unique and very commendable nature of Christian / Muslim relations in southern (especially Southwestern) Nigeria, and which should continue unchanged.
While I do know that Osinbajo and his wife (and thus their daughter) are southern Nigerian / Yoruba Christians, I am not very aware of the tribal background of the daughter’s husband-to-be. And I’m not even interested in knowing that. But from his name that has lately made the rounds in the Nigerian media, especially in the wake of Akande’s ill-conceived “clarification”, I can surmise that he has some roots in Southwest Nigeria.
Which makes the Osinbajo/Akande “He’s Not a Muslim!!!!!” clarificatory press release even more unfortunate and un-called for, despite the politics and persecution complex that I am aware must have prompted such a move.
Yes, I did “utter” those words: persecution complex—even if such a sentiment can appear justifiable on the part of Nigerian Christians, especially in the wake of certain recent events in the polity.
Ever since Ibrahim Babangida’s ill-fated attempt to “smuggle” Nigeria into the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in the 80s, I have noticed the stated and unexpressed apprehension on the part of Nigerian Christians, especially those in the Southwest /Southeast and the Middle Belt, that certain forces (Muslims, of course) are determined to “Islamize” Nigeria. Such sentiments or apprehensions also coincided with the rise of the Pentecostal Christian movement in the country (especially in the Southwest / Southeast) and the latter’s peculiar mix of doctrinaire Biblical preachings suffused with an unrelenting emphasis on the gospel of Prosperity. The latter really raised the Pentecostal stakes, so to speak, since there can conceivably be no “prosperity” for the flock (and thus the Called) if certain elements in the other religion managed to shape the entire country solely in the image of their own faith (i.e. “dip the Koran in the Atlantic”).
Then throw in the nasty, bloody Boko Haram insurrection that a Christian President (of all people!) failed to extinguish even when he reputedly had a lot of resources to do just that.
I will not pretend to know exactly why Christians in Nigeria’s Southwest choose to treat many things Muslim—especially their fellow Southwesterners who also usually happen to be neighbours or even family members— with an unexplainable trepidation, caution, fear or even disdain (I recall a Christian / Yoruba friend once remarking: “why must the Yoruba Adegbite always be the mere announcer, while his master or the man whose words he quotes remains the Hausa-Fulani Sultan?”) But I can definitely attest to that reality. Still (and thankfully!) I am also quite the wrong person to shine a too-critical spotlight on Christianity; I have long been “into” the religion and such an enterprise will simply sunder my immediate and extended family, many of whom are Christians, and whom I love dearly.
Nevertheless, in the wake of the very personal “not-a-Muslim” clarification by Osinbajo / Akande, I am now also inclined to publicly engage in a certain series of very personal introspections (pardon me): is the fact that I am a Muslim from the southwest responsible for the many disappointments I have endured at the hands of certain (largely-Christian) friends and acquaintances in Nigeria, especially in the past decade or so that I have sought certain things in Nigeria, from far-away America? Why, despite my many privations and extended exertions while there “on the ground” in Nigeria—especially during the June 12 struggle, up till July 6, 1998 when victory appeared sooooooooo close!—has it been difficult for certain high-level friends and acquaintances in Nigeria to bring into fruition my desire to serve in the present political dispensation, in my country (and home state) of birth and nurture (and which I still identify with, in all facets), despite my oft-stated desire and physical / financial efforts in that direction?
During such endeavours in the past decade I have met the ultimate facilitator / make-dreams-come-true Jagaban Borgu twice, in the US and in Nigeria, in meetings I believed were sincerely facilitated by friends and former senior journalism colleagues who are now his trusted / senior aides. But nothing came of such efforts.
Could it be because such friends (or potential benefactor, whom I will continue to love and respect) were Christians or, if Muslims, have wives /spouses who are senior Pastors in the well-known Pentecostal Churches?
It gets even more strange (and suspicious): the past three years have been difficult ones, not least because of a painful separation and divorce here in the US from a spouse of more than two decades. Around the onset of that painful personal experience (which still subsists), I reconnected with a long-term friend and former professional colleague (a Christian), who subsequently had the good grace of being appointed a senior media aide to the newly-elected President of Nigeria. In fact, I played some (admittedly) minor media role in ensuring that victory, and also in seeing to it that my friend settled well into his role, for which I have copious proof. Since then, my (Christian) friend has left me in the lurch, so to speak, even while promising to “speak with Baba” on my behalf, but with “nothing happening”.
Or is it the case that I practice the “wrong religion”, albeit one my friend’s boss also claims and practices?
What about my PhD programme in a Nigerian university that was inexplicably cut short, with all relevant dramatis personae being Christians, aside from myself (surely a story for another day)?
I wish Osinbajo’s daughter and her husband-to-be marital bliss. But the parent of this particular bride-to-be should have spared us (Christian and Muslim Nigerians) a pre-wedding “clarification” that was as unsettling as it was unnecessary.