On the 28th of January, 2014, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) convened an interactive session of prominent Muslims and Christians. It was so amazing that many professors and respected Muslims from different States of the Northern part of Nigeria responded to the invitation. At about 2.45pm, the hall in the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja was full. The journalists from the different print and electronic media were not left out of this extraordinary convention of the two religions. The meeting started with prayers and the introduction of participants. Preliminary remarks were made and the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor stated his reasons for calling the meeting. His affirmation that he loves Muslims and the corporate existence of Nigeria storms the hall like an earthquake. Silence visited the hall akin to the loud silence of the desert monks. This silence was broken by Malam Ashafa who said, “Before we begin this conversation, let us agree that we shall be frank. Let us agree that we shall not deceive one another”. The whole assembly agreed to be frank in telling the truth about how Muslims and Christians feel about the operations of each other.
On the 28th of January, 2014, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) convened an interactive session of prominent Muslims and Christians. It was so amazing that many professors and respected Muslims from different States of the Northern part of Nigeria responded to the invitation. At about 2.45pm, the hall in the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja was full. The journalists from the different print and electronic media were not left out of this extraordinary convention of the two religions. The meeting started with prayers and the introduction of participants. Preliminary remarks were made and the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor stated his reasons for calling the meeting. His affirmation that he loves Muslims and the corporate existence of Nigeria storms the hall like an earthquake. Silence visited the hall akin to the loud silence of the desert monks. This silence was broken by Malam Ashafa who said, “Before we begin this conversation, let us agree that we shall be frank. Let us agree that we shall not deceive one another”. The whole assembly agreed to be frank in telling the truth about how Muslims and Christians feel about the operations of each other.
The president of CAN defined his concept of dialogue as,”putting our cards on the table” and talk frankly. Almost every participant at the end of the meeting accepted that the meeting was a good beginning and a taste of the many good things that would happen between the Christians and the Muslims in Nigeria. The resolutions at the meeting indicated that Christians and the Muslims need each other for the promotion of peaceful coexistence in Nigeria. The fruit of the meeting shows that there is a lot Muslims and Christians can do together to resolve the security challenges in Nigeria. However, the truth and frankness of the meeting revealed the following suspicions:
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Intra Christian Suspicion
Intra Muslim Suspicion
Muslim-Christian Suspicion
Intra-Christian Suspicions: Some Christians feel betrayed and threaten by Christians who are involved in dialogue with Muslims. The feeling is that some Churches who claim to know how to dialogue with Muslims are insensitive to the massacre of Christians who are being slaughtered and deprived of the freedom to worship in the terrorist empires. On the other hand, some Christians who are in dialogue with Muslims perceive Christians who do not see anything good in Muslims as extremists who do not understand the principles and the scriptural mandate of dialogue. This intra-Christian suspicion needs urgent healing at the level of CAN to show the frankness of the new dawn of dialogue.
Intra Muslim suspicion: There appears to be some divisions in the Muslim community. For instance, in Pakistan, the Sunnis are killing the Muslims of other sects who do not believe in their ideology while in Nigeria many Muslims do not accept that the Boko Haram sect has anything to do with Islam, yet the members of Boko Haram kill some Muslims who deny that members of Boko Haram are Muslims. There are also some Muslims who do not see any reason why a Muslim should dialogue with a Christian. This intra-Muslim suspicion also needs urgent healing at the level of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA)
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Muslim-Christian suspicion: At the meeting of January 28, 2014, a Muslim was frank enough to tell the president of CAN that before the meeting, he hated him with passion but having heard him speak, his negative opinion about him has changed. Some Muslims gave their different testimonies of how badly they feel about the attitude of some Christians. Some were very positive about Christians. They testified that they are what they are today, because they attended Christian schools. Some Christians also narrated their bitter experiences with Muslims and why they do not think of having anything to do with some Muslims. Some went as far as saying that the feeling among some Christians is that some religious riots and violence are planned in the Mosque.
The meeting was adjourned with serious hopes. The résumé of the next meeting would be a further exposé of what the Christians do not frankly like in the Muslims and what the Muslims do not frankly like in the Christians. It is hoped that this would enable both religious adherent to “put their cards on the table” to find common grounds in the concerns of Nigeria, namely, the transformation agenda. It is hoped that the Christians and the Muslims who were involved in this conversation have reached a point where they can continue to “Think Nigeria” which was the theme of the meeting. This meeting, if sustained would be a miraculous breakthrough for Muslim / Christian relations in Nigeria.
The mutual suspicions expressed overtly or covertly are sustainable in the face of the recurrent insecurity saga in the world. The argument goes beyond misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misrepresentation in a situation where some people are in a dialogue conference room while houses of worship and worshippers are in flames somewhere in the same country. These suspicions will end if Peace-builders of all the religions take the message to the real physical actors of violence and terror. Otherwise, the argument that we are dialoguing with the wrong people who are harmless remains sustainable. The only argument that can negate these suspicions is witness of life where every suspect would practically show a deeper commitment to peace building at all levels.
Very often, the vision, mission and objective of some Christians and Muslims appears to exclude God in their mode of operation. This is shown when talents and proficiency are politicised by men and women of God who should show the way to paradise and the kingdom of God. Nigeria should look up to the religious leaders in thinking a robust nation instead of seeing religion as the problem. Christians and Muslims should take seriously the scriptural dictum, “physician heal yourself”! Given the extent to which security has been wounded in Nigeria, everything about dialogue, local or national could end in verbosity unless the NORTH agree to have an intra-North dialogue and be frank about the root causes of the violence that is tearing the region apart. Their frankness about it could bring about a lasting and permanent solution. Let the other regions and zones do the same to proffer solution to their endemic problems. Then, the national dialogue will have a clear focus, mission and vision. Majority of Nigerians are either Muslims or Christians not withstanding the existence of the traditional religions. The time has come for us to move towards the kingdom of God that has no divisions.
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja and Consultor of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City ([email protected]).
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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