“We must never remain silent in the face of bigotry. We must condemn those who seek to divide us. We must teach tolerance and denounce racism, antisemitism and all ethnic or religious bigotry wherever they exist as unacceptable evils. We have no place for haters in America, none whatsoever.” – Ronald Reagan
Religious shackles debilitate the mind and it’s unfit for every noble enterprise. Religion is the most popular business in Africa today. It has mostly been used as a means of exploitation especially in Nigeria but what else do you expect the poor masses to rely on. It was supposed to bring peace, security, progress and justice to most of its adherents but rather has been responsible for most killings, looting, deceit, slavery, wars division and complacency in the world. Religion has failed but most people refused to see it and use theirs to justify their crappy bigoted beliefs.
“Those who will not reason are bigots, those who cannot are fools, and those who dare not are slaves.” – Lord Byron. Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother. It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end up as superstition. Superstition is the religion of feeble-minds. Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.
In Africa, religion is a tool in the hands of both political and spiritual manipulators. A classic case is the Nigerian predicament where a few individuals in politics and religion have successfully hoodwink the gullible masses and shortchange the system to the disadvantage of the unsuspecting citizens, including the use of religion as campaign strategy.
The recent controversy surrounding the personality of Isa Pantami “Pandemic” the mininster of communication was not entirely strange, if we consider the stand of Major General Muhammadu Buhari himself in issues of religious bigotry and nepotism. The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Ibrahim Pantami is a man of questionable identity. He is as a terrorist sympathetizer and extremist from his public utterances overtime.
It is not just only Pantami who is sympathetic to terrorist organizations like Taliban and Alqaeda. Prior to the emergence of Boko Haram, majority of northerners were often deluded as to believe that the activities of Taliban and Alqaeda were justified in Islam. Osama bin Laden was so popular after the 9/11 that a lot of people named their children after him. Bauchi Radio Corporation was running a programme Duniya Ina Labari in which it updated people with the activities of Alqaeda, Taliban, and other terrorist organizations around the world.
The programme was very popular. Sheikh Ahmad Sulaiman, the famous Buhari supporter who used to recite prayers for him in the campaign trails still has an audio praying for Taliban in Afghanistan, Alqaeda in Iraq and Al-shabab in Somalia. The truth is that it is the public anger against the humanitarian catastrophes Boko Haram have brought to the people that made many of such sympathizers flinch from publicly aligning with terrorist organizations.
The average African mind is feeble, shallow and easy to manipulate. All those hogwash of the media apologizing was a scam. This is the reason why the fight against terrorism in Nigeria is a mirage. Lives of innocent People are wasted for nothing while the real enemies and criminals are right in the government. Major General Muhammadu Buhari is ready to protect Isa Pantami the same way he has protected Buratai and many others because they are likeminds.
It’s expedient we wake up from slumber and smell the coffee. Nepotism and religious bigotry robs one of the ability to think for themselves. Once people’s mind become free, the sky can only be the starting place for them but you become the enemy of the nation when you start saying the truth. And the truth is that this government is deteriorating each passing day and we still have another two years for them to go, sad realities and very unfortunate.
THE RECENT BIOMETRIC AND COLLECTION OF DATA OF OUR COMPATRIOTS SHOULD BE VIEWED WITH SUSPICION AND THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY SHOULD TAKE JUDICIAL NOTICE.
Richard Odusanya is the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI.
