Why government must stop sponsoring pilgrimage
Monsignor (Prof.) Obiora Ike, a delegate representing Enugu State is known for his frankness. In this chat, the cleric, who was a member of the Committee on Religion, insisted that government must hands off the sponsorship of pilgrimage. He also speaks on a number of other issues.?
You served in the Committee on Religion. From your interaction at the committee, what do you see as the reasons Nigerians often fight over religious matters??
Religion is an essential aspect of human life. It is the faith dimension where people’s relation with their God goes beyond their entire earthly levels. The Committee on Religion had a very exhaustive and interesting interaction. It was a very successful deliberation. All of us, 11 Moslems and equivalent number of Christians, discovered that on religion, we have virtually one substance; the acceptance that in Nigeria, religion must be an instrument for unity and not for disunity. We established the constitutional provision in Section 10 of the Nigerian constitution, which states that no government in Nigeria, at federal, state or local government level, shall adopt any particular religion as state religion.
This means that in practice and in theory, no state can be, or should be favourably disposed to support one group over another. This was generally acclaimed and accepted by the committee. Another issue is that neither the federal, state nor local government should sponsor people on religious pilgrimages.
Therefore, a proposal was made to the effect that no one federal, state or local government should spend public funds in sponsoring people on religious pilgrimages.
This does not stop government from creating environment where people could go to procure visas and travel safely for such religious observations. It simply says public funds should no longer be spent on such pilgrimages. So, the committee rejected the idea of government using public funds to sponsor religious affairs.
Another point that was of critical import to our work is that because we need a platform of equity and fairness, we agreed it was necessary to create a religious equity commission. With this, government will outsource religious works, which it normally does to commission which will set the people free to manage their issues at their own levels. The Commission will be made up of people of all religions. This, therefore, creates an environment for Nigerians to progress, live in peace and practise their religion with freedom of conscience and peace of mind and enjoy freedom of religion without being disadvantaged. So, whether for minorities of Christians, living in the North or minorities of Muslims, living in the South, there must be a level-playing environment.
When religion is mentioned in Nigeria, reference is made to Christians and Moslems. How about Nigerians, who do not subscribe to either of these faiths? What sort of representation did they get?
People like us represent the interest of all Nigerians. Though I am a Christian, I spoke even for those who don’t subscribe to the main religions. Our country is originally made up of traditional African religion worshippers and so, when a clause is made about freedom of religion, it automatically applies to everybody. So, they are covered.?
In the light of the new development, what will be the role of government in religious matters beyond setting up a new commission??
Government has no business in religion.
Government has business in government. Religious groups should handle their religious matters. Government has only one role and that is to create an environment where people can get access to land to build their churches and mosques, protect the security of those places and make it accessible to be able to practice their religion without being unduly converted or harassed. What we have tried to do at the Committee is to insist that religion should be for us, in Nigeria, a tool for social development; a tool for the advancement of human dignity and not one for division. We discovered that there are people who instrumentalise religion for political purposes. This is not proper. Even Boko Haram was discussed. Why should people say that they are fighting in the name of Boko Haram to disenfranchise others? We also looked at the issue of Organisation of Islamic Countries. Nigeria is not an Islamic country. Nigeria is a secular country, but we know that we are under God. It is a secular country under God. And as Africans, we have values, we respect God and believe in our sacred traditions and so I am sure that the entire conference will adopt the proposals that we have made. Our committee also looked at the role of government as just that of supervisory and regulatory on the fringes of guaranteeing people’s educational needs but not poking nose into religion or advancing one religion against the others.?
How did your committee address the issue of extremism arising from extremists preaching from both major religions in the country??
This was very seriously addressed.
There are discriminatory aspects that we outlined; there are 22 of them, including hate speeches, hate sermons, incitements and such issues. We labelled as discriminations and anti-religion and therefore must be condemned. We also looked at the equity commission as the model where the implementation of such matters, including criminal investigations and prosecution of people who engage in such things, can be addressed. We believe that there must be a court to handle these matters arising.?
Are you satisfied that government has been unable, so far, to damp down on extremist preaching which usually create tensions and often lead to the breach of the peace in society??
I wonder how government can legislate people’s consciences. If someone is mad, what law do you make for him not to be mad? Mad people start not from government, but from their families. We expect too much from government forgetting that civil society has a role to play. We also forget that missions and nongovernmental organisations have roles to play. Tribes and ethnic groups, even families, have great roles to play. Therefore, we cannot expect government to be the rallying point for everybody’s problem. We have rather located the responsibility to ourselves. We agree that each Nigerian has a role to play in this. Nigeria is an expansive country and each Nigerian must have a role to play in enhancing a progressive and tolerant nation.
So, how does religious leaders move in. what do you expect them to do to curb such extremism in the face of the freedom of religion?
That was one aspect our committee looked at deeply and said religious leaders must act responsibly and should also know the doctrines of their faith. Every religion, basically preach peace, human love, tolerance, brotherhood and discipline. What it means is that those who act contrary do so against their religion. So, I believe the Equity Com-mission will be doing a lot of work along this line such that if any preacher offends me with his preaching, I should be able to take it up in the court. As it is now, inter-religious dialogue is more than called for.
Are you confident that this conference will be able to move Nigeria from point A to point B in terms of stemming religious violence?
A conference is a dialogue moment and the best brains Nigeria are assembled at this conference at this moment and so, I am hopeful that our aspirations and efforts here will yield the desired result. Whether our efforts will be thwarted by someone along the line is beyond comprehension now. But the examples we set here will become signals to people who try to think that they can use religion to divide us in the future that they are wrong.?
When you say Nigeria is a secular state, some people would say that the expression of religion at the top political leadership levels is tantamount to identifying, and promoting, one religion against the other. How do you respond to this??
First of all, the Nigerian constitution has a sentence which reads, ‘Nigeria is a seccular country under God…