Between the Christian court and its opponents

There are many reasons Nigerians are rated the happiest people on earth despite our huge poverty burden. One of the things that make us to thrive is our proclivity to mischief and comedy, sometimes coming from the most unlikely quarters.
Take, for instance, the country’s Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, who is everything but sporty. The nation’s female football team, the Super Falcons, has just won the AWFCON but could not be paid their allowances because the nation did not expect them to win and so did not prepare to pay them either. The same scenario greeted our bronze-winning Dream Team at the last Olympics. It took the benevolence of a philanthropic Japanese to rescue the ‘orphan’ footballers because of Nigeria’s traditional foul up of things. Kits for the game could not arrive until a few days to end of tournament; even team members had to struggle to pay hotel bills from their own pockets. What a way to treat your athletes!
Being an adroit ambassador of this sleepy government, Dalung even told the world that you don’t need much preparation to win major tournaments. We laughed over it. The boys still went ahead to win bronze. The Falcons had been blackmailed to abandon their protest, with threats to blacklist the players from future engagements. I honestly think that carrying out the threat to the letter would be a great favour indeed.
As if that is not enough, yet another flank of comedy has been opened, this time on the religious turf.  The umbrella body of all Muslims in Nigeria, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has thrown up an issue that has made many Nigerians have a very hearty laugh. In fact, there is no better comic way to end a year in recession. The body has rejected the Bill for Ecclesiastical or Christian Courts in Nigeria, saying it would result in anarchy. The bill, which is sponsored by Hon. Gyang Dung (PDP) from Plateau State and eight other members of the House of Representatives, has scaled the second reading, but SCIA isthreatening to demand for Wednesday as work-free day if Christians insist on having their court. The Secretary-General of NSCIA, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who is also Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), described the demand for Christian courts as the height of intolerance. According to him, Christians enjoy Sunday, as Sabbath Day while the cross is the symbol of hospital without Muslims complaining. He said any ‘informed Christian’ would not insist on the Christian court because if they did, Muslims would demand the removal of anything they consider as vestiges of Christianity.
One title I cherish so much is professor and it still rankles each time I remember how circumstances abridged my quest. For this kind of reasoning to ensue from a person that has attained such academic standards is quite surprising.
The SCIA should go beyond asking for Wednesday as work-free day. They should also ask for Friday, making two work-free days for Muslims. With Saturday as normal weekend and Sunday as Christian Sabbath, we would already have four days to worship our God. The remaining two or three days shall be left for atheists, freethinkers and traditional religionists. We can then sit at home and rest. After all despite all our years of work and schooling what have we got to show for it?
Oloyede talked about our wise forefathers. Sure, he is right; our forefathers were better Muslims and more considerate and sensitive than modern-day Muslims. Because they never saw the need for Sharia courts all over the place, except for where they are applicable. Likewise, the Christians among them were as considerate and sensitive as they, probably more than modern-day Christians because they never faced the challenges we face today.  They were never incinerated inside their places of worship. There was never a governor brashly sponsoring Hara-kiri against Christians; they were never banned from evangelising and their daughters were never conscripted into marriage and forced to convert to Islam.
It is because of all these that modern-day Christians would rather be ‘misinformed’ unlike their forebears. If misinformation would save the Christian tribe, so be it. It was because we were ‘informed’ that we allowed several obnoxious anti-Christian policies in this country; it was because we were ‘informed’ that we had continued to lie supine and cringing like frightened rabbits, as Christians are slaughtered by those whose birthright it is to foment trouble; it was because we were ‘informed’ that Agbahime and many others had been guillotined without a whimper.
The days of ‘misinformation’ have come for Christians. Never again must Christians allow the blood of the innocent to be wasted anyhow. Those asking Christians to defend themselves are right, especially considering that what we pass through as in Kaduna is state-sponsored.  But never will Christians offend their tenets of faith. We will still love and pray for those who oppress us but when pushed to the wall, we must fight to live else we die and if all Christians die, the enemy wins. Never!
Oloyede’s argument against the cross as a symbol in hospital is mischievous. Let him put anything he likes on his own hospital, but it is laughable that he would use such mundane thing as hospital symbol to reject Christian courts while holding up Sharia. If Sharia is good for Muslims, Christian courts will be as good, if not better for Christians and must go as far as they take Sharia.
Talking about Christian vestiges, does Oloyede think Christians are fools to ignore the ‘mosque’ they call Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power? Perhaps, Christians should equally demand for its demolition, especially as insiders say demons have taken over the monstrous edifice.