Nigeria is gradually degenerating from a multi-ethnic and religious but united nation to a competition ground for dominant Abrahamic religious groupings. The intense struggle for theological supremacy between the two dominant religious groupings in Nigeria, Christianity and Islam, as well as the more intense struggle for doctrinal supremacy among the various sects and denominations within these two religions are reflections of a deeper phenomenon of a conflict between faith and citizenship. In this conflict between faith and citizenship, the former is increasingly prevailing over the latter to such an extent that law and order have been nearly supplanted by traditional religious practices, leading to a state of insecurity and instability.
Nigerians so affected by this conflict of faith and citizenship are increasingly drawn away from their geographic reality towards an imaginary global religious empire that in their imagination is represented physically by Middle East nations that are self-appointed champions of these religious ideals and essence.
It is common for some Nigerian Sunni Muslim to empathise more with fellow Muslims of Rohingya ethnicity that are being persecuted by state-backed Burmese nationalists than fellow Nigerians of predominantly Christian faith in Benue State whose population are being decimated by rampaging killer herdsmen from neighbouring West and Central Africa. Similarly, some Nigerian Christians imagine themselves to be Israelites who must prevail over every Egyptian (Muslims) in his life. Since 1979, when the Iranian revolution birthed the Islamic Republic of Iran, Shism has become increasingly intricately woven with Iranian cultural identity and national interests. An average Shite member in Nigeria is no longer able to distinguish between his religious beliefs and Iranian national interests. He thrusts himself into the Iran-Western debacle, which has nothing to do with faith but purely human economic and political interests, with such religious fervour that he forgets the enormous amount of aid money coming into key sectors of the economy of Nigeria from Western donors and fails to appreciate their profound humanitarian interventions in health and education of Muslim children.
On international affairs, the typical Nigerian view is narrowed through the prism of religious bias. In the current civil war in Syria, there is a tendency for Nigerian Sunni Muslims to take sides with the various Saudi-backed Sunni rebel groups fighting to overthrow of the Allawite Shite and Iranian-backed Assad ruling dynasty, citing popular dissent, while Nigerian Shite Muslims have demonstrated unreserved solidarity with their comrades in faith and justified the murderous activities of the regime. Flip the page of conflict to Yemen and see a dramatic reversal of roles.
A trip across the Golan Heights from Syria into Israel opens another theatre of religious entanglement with regional geo-politics of economic and national security interests of concerned nations. Whereas, most Nigerian Christians are unreservedly pro-Israel and turn a blind eye to the Jewish state’s brutal repression of the Arab Palestinians that are seeking self-determination, citing Biblical description of Palestine as “a land flowing with milk and honey” promised the children of Israel by Yahweh, Nigerian Muslims on the other hand are united in their disdain for Israel and are opposed to its right to even exist at all, also citing verses from the Quran that describes “Jews as an avowed enemy” to Muslims. An average Sunni Muslim sees himself more as a member of a global Muslim community [Ummah] with headquarters in Saudi Arabia, while a typical Shite Muslim considers Shism synonymous to Iranian citizenship and Christians love to imagine they are part of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Alas, being a Sunni Muslim does not confer on a Nigerian the right and privilege of any other “brother Sunni Muslim” country in the Arab Gulf neither does being a Shite Muslim confer on a Nigerian Muslim citizenship right and privileges of the Islamic Republic of Iran. similarly, a Nigerian Christian does not enjoy automatic Israeli citizenship despite his unsolicited solidarity for Zionism.
The conquest of Christian Jerusalem in 637 AD by Muslim forces under the supreme command of Caliph Umar, which is contrary to Allah’s exhortation against aggression and non-compulsion in religion [Quran 2: 256], is, however, presented as a worthy cause in the defence and propagation of faith in Muslim history.
Similarly, in a prelude to the launch of the crusades, Pope Urban II wasn’t speaking for Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace, when he made a passionate appeal at the Council Clermont in 1095 for Christian Europe to unite in arms and recapture the holy land from a “foul race” that is steep in heathen worship, with a charge that “Christ himself commands this.” A Christ that in life on earth praised the virtues of love, patience, peace and forgiveness, as recorded in Matthew 5:9, thus “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” and Luke 6:29 as follows “If someone slaps you one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them,” cannot turn around in his life after life on earth to command a violent crusade that left “blood flowing up to the knees of our horses.” In both instances, enemies had to be made out of each other using religious differences as a justification to propagate hate and destruction of fellow mankind.
Unfortunately, when Christianity and Islam berthed in Nigeria, the core of the theology and doctrine of both religions largely retained the imprints of the enormous influence of empire builders. And because empire building continues today in modern-day politics of who gets what, when and how, the major players have found religion very useful as much as their ancient predecessors. However, while political Islam is alive and raging, political Christianity has since declined with the rise of the age reformation, which has progressively reduced the influence of the church over state affairs in Western Europe through a mechanism of clear separation several centuries ago.
Today, Nigeria is in desperate need of a conversation that is aimed at resolving the conflict of faith and citizenship in favour of the latter, if its continuous stability and cohesion is to be sustained. Nigerians across religious and sectarian divides have failed to realise that faith cannot and should not be allowed to supplant their geo-political reality. The various theatres of proxy wars in the Middle East between regional rivals Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have displaced millions of Muslims across both divides but none of the competing powers are taking in refugees. Saudi Arabia is not freely accepting Sunni refugees neither is Iran concerned about the plight of Shite refugees. The burden of taking Muslim refugees of both Sunni and Shite sectarian divides rests largely on the shoulders of Christian Europe. Heeding the passionate appeal of His Holiness Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ and the Bishop of Rome (may Allah be pleased with him), European leaders opened the gates of the great cities of Europe to millions of Muslim refugees to find peace and security. Herein lies a fundamental lesson for Nigerians; Sunni and Shite Muslims that refused to tolerate each other by living in peace are now compelled to live together in pieces as refugees in a foreign land that is neither Sunni nor Shite.