THE NATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN NIGERIA MUST RISE IN CHALLENGE OF ISLAMIC EXTREMISM.
Nothing is more challenging to the Christian faith in Nigeria today than the audacity of the Muslim Muslim ticket being adopted by Tinubu and the APC as their strategy of winning the 2027 election. If the Muslim Muslim was an aberration and mistake of history in 2023 elections, it comes off today as an affront, dangerously insensitive, divisive, intolerant and therefore unconstitutional in so far as its inconsistency with our corporate existence as a nation.
In a nation with the Christian community not less than a hundred million, it is inexcusable for the APC as a major and ruling party to continue to insist on foisting a Muslim president and Muslim vice president on our fragile democracy. It is impunity taken to unacceptable limits, a betrayal of the Corporate existence of all religious persuasion in this country, it defies the multi-Religious statutes of the Nigeria state, it denies our multi-ethnic origination, it compels the strong arguments for the partitioning of this nation along the line of the Christian and Muslim state for peace to reign.
But very compelling arguments already hold it in self evidence that the Muslim Muslim adumbration is a subtle introduction of Sharia Islamic domination of Nigeria. The same line of arguments also holds that the islamists of northern Nigeria are decidedly separatists who deserve to be treated as seccessionists on account of their unconstitutional imposition of Sharia in parts of the Nigeria soil. The doctrinal practice of Hisbah in largely northern Nigeria territories is intolerant of the Nigeria constitution.
The Christian states must, therefore, evolve to mutually coexist with the hardline islamists to create a balance of extremism. What it all entails is that the Christian faith must weaponize its doctrine of practice to accommodate extremist groups in defense of our Lord Jesus Christ. The era of turning the other chic upon being attacked by unbelievers should be a thing of the past.
Over the past 500 years, Islamic extremists have spread their religion using the sword. This was also the same tactics used by the Christian avengers, catholic sovereign order of the knights, the knights Templars, the Knights of Malta and other terror groups in the medieval church bent on spreading Christianity by force at that time of history. During this period in medieval history, 1100 to 1200 AD was the time of the greatest recorded growth of the christendom known to scholars.
The Christians in Nigeria today must adopt the Bible or the sword approach by weaponizing the catholic knighthood, the evangelicals etcetera and begin to arm them to resist political imposition against the church or outright persecution of the church. The church in Nigeria must cultivate internal order of disobedience to state immorality like we have it in Nigeria today where Christians are slaughtered, mowed down by islamist groups while the state turn the other way.
The immorality of a political party presenting a Muslim Muslim ticket in a nation with a hundred million Christian population demographics must also not go unchallenged by defenders of the Christian faith. Time has finally come for us to start fighting for our God. No one has a monopoly of religious extremism.
But most egregiously perplexing is the silence of Christian religious leaders in Nigeria in the midst of animalistic persecution and subjugation of the Christian faith. The question must be asked why the Christian leadership in Nigeria should be silent and only watch such vexatious issues as Muslim Muslim ticket being normalized in a multi-religious nation like Nigeria.
The Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, Pastors; Adeboye, Oyedepo, Oyakhilome, Ibiyemi, Bakare, Oritsejafor, Suleman, Bishop Kukah etal, your silence in this highly provocative Muslim Muslim affront by the APC and Tinubu are no longer golden. You guys feeding fat from the congregation must show leadership by confronting the Tinubu establishment because this country is not the property of the Muslim groups. This is perhaps the greatest evidence of Christian persecution and genocide in Nigeria being accused by the Trump administration.
Allowing Tinubu, a Muslim and Shettima, another Muslim to be number one and two of this country for straight 8 years, will be insulting the Christians and telling us in our faces that we “zilch to nadir”. We must activate all our faith avengers and fight this injustice with all our might. The Christian community must unite in purpose in order to escape annihilation by these Islamic vandals, masquerading against our peaceful coexistence.
Dr. Engr. Odo Ijere
