In this compelling piece, a Nigerian writes on the drama involving Apostle Suleman and the Nigerian state.
Apostle Johnson Suleman
Every law abiding Nigerian should be appalled by the audacity of
the video where Apostle Johnson Suleiman, General Overseer of the Omega
Fire Ministries, asked members of his church to resort to premeditative
self-help at the sight of Fulani herdsmen near their church premises.
Suleiman, who recently came into public consciousness, appears to
be comfortable in the embrace of controversy, a number of which he has
been involved lately. Most of these are to the eternal irritation of
those with no aptitude for spiritual dramatics.
An example was his declaration, read prophecy, that the Governor of
Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, would die if he failed to reverse his
proposal to amend the “Religious Preaching Law 1984.” It was not clear
whether this was a personal declaration on the strength of a special
relationship with God or a communication from the Supreme Being, but it
sure came across as an abuse of prophetic liberty.
Even if this law were to affect only Christians, the office of a
cleric is a public one. It bears a measure of responsibility and should
not lend itself to temperamental outbursts. But such outbursts are more
of the rule than the exception for Suleiman, all culminating in a
reservoir of public resentment against him. Then, enter the video under
discussion.
In the three-minute video, apparently recorded during a church
session, the fiery cleric advised congregants to “kill” any herdsman
found loitering around the church. He even prescribed the mode of
execution as cutting of the head! At the end of it all, you would wonder
if this was a country governed by any set of rules.
But it would be dishonest to pretend not to see Suleiman’s point
even if he sounds anarchistic in that video. He claimed that a
particular man had warned him about an impending attack on him and his
church. The unnamed source reportedly gave him a description of how the
irruption would be unleashed and tacitly suggested that the cleric fled
for his life.
Suleiman said he dismissed the idea and rather, assured this source
of his readiness to confront the would-be assailants. The call to war
in that video is, therefore, part of his preparation for the attack that
might come.
We can pontificate about how much this order flies in the face of
the very essence of love and perseverance that Christianity preaches but
this is what you get when a country shirks its fundamental duty of
protecting people and their property.
Suleiman asked that his people should cut the head of the enemy
before the adversary gets the better of them. The cleric gave the
example of David killing Goliath in the Bible but I propose that Peter
drawing the sword against those who came to arrest Jesus Christ is a
more apt instance of the human being’s basic instinct for
self-preservation, no matter how godly he is.
Jesus, who cautioned Peter in this incident and restored the man
whose ear was chopped off to perfect health, was according to Christian
theology, part God, so we should not have the same expectation of men.
It is also possible to cite the instance of people like Stephen,
who willingly submitted to martyrdom, but there are two things to note
here. The first is that men have different levels of grace when
reacting to such pressures. Secondly, what is happening in Nigeria at
the moment is not just persecution on the basis of religion. It includes
the avaricious conquest of properties and forceful acquisition of wives
of harmless men who would have been killed.It seems to me that religion
isn’t really the issue. It is just accidental that the two sides
adhere to different faiths.
Now, nothing demeans a man like an inability to prevent the
colonisation of his territory, the killing of his children and the rape
and forceful acquisition of his wife and daughter(s). The only restraint
against the savagery of killing before you get killed when you grapple
with situations like this is the assurance that your nation is ready to
protect you. In the absence of this, every man returns to that primal
state in which the self is prime. Nigeria is unfortunately in that state
at the moment.
Ask yourself how many people have died at the hands of Fulani
herdsmen in the past 18 months. From the Agatu massacre in Benue State
to the Nimbo massacre in Uzo-Uwani of Enugu State, to the violence in
Delta State, the killings in Ekiti and Adamawa states, to the genocide
in Kaduna State, thousands of Nigerian lives have been snuffed out by
these criminals without as much as one single arrest!
There is currently no part of Nigeria that has not had a taste of
these vicious attacks, yet the state has failed to address the
situation. The best we have had are feeble instructions to the security
agencies to fish out the perpetrators and the ridiculous offer by
el-Rufai to appease the killers with money. El-Rufai says these monetary
offerings were compensatory for the cattle killed in the 2011
post-election violence as well as incentives for the killers to stop
their rampage. But what the governor communicates to us here is the
incapacity or reluctance of the state to deal with these evil men.
There are conspiracy theories that the latter is the case. Movers
of these theories suggest that being Fulani themselves, President
Muhammadu Buhari and el-Rufai are indisposed to tackling their kinsmen
who have become totally consumed by murderous and covetous spirits.
This conjecture is strengthened not just by the fact that the
murderers rampage on without check but also by a recall of a 2012
el-Rufai tweet as follows: “We will write this for all to read. Anyone,
soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no
matter how long it takes.”
The man who guaranteed the implacability of his folks is now
governor of the state where no fewer than a thousand lives were lost
within days. He is also buddy cum kith and kin with the First Citizen of
the country where, at least another 2,000 have died through Fulani
herdsmen without repercussion! And we think people will not defend
themselves?
The situation is worsened by the ancillary injustice all around the
country. When the Nigerian state is treating marauding herders with
kid’s gloves, harmless protesters of other ethnicities are being shot
dead and hounded into prisons all over the country daily.
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim
El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenah Ibraheem, have been in detention for
over one year, in spite of court orders for their release. They were
arrested after soldiers allegedly summarily executed hundreds of members
including women and children more than one year back.
Penultimate week, 11 members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra
were reportedly shot dead by soldiers while on a solidarity march for
newly sworn in President Trump of the United States. Forty five others
were rounded up and later arraigned in court for treason.Nnamdi Kalu,
who founded the group, has been in prison for allegedly running an
illegal radio to pursue his cause.
But for the peculiar landscape of the Niger Delta, the Buhari
administration would have gone all out to fish out militants who
sabotage the economy of Nigeria just as it did loads of militants who
strayed into the creeks in the South-West to terrorise citizens. So,
virtually every other part of the country where there has been any form
of uprising has received some ward off from the state except for
cattlemen.
So, what does the ordinary citizen do in this circumstance? A
circumstance that is worsened by harsh and unchecked economic realities,
increasing insecurity and the unwitting liberalisation of the
legitimate use of force.
Our leaders should realise that Nigeria is currently on its path to
failing and this is not alarmist in anyway. With pressures including
emigration and brain drain, social inequalities, increasing specialised
corruption, violation of human rights, illegal security mechanism and
rising citizens’ distrust of government, a lot of caution is needed.
Were he alive today, unforgettable political sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, would have considered writing those words he once offered
President Shehu Shagari to the current leadership. But thank God for the
durability of the written word, we should offer Buhari these words
without charge. Dear President Buhari, “…the ship of state is heading
inexorably towards the rock and you, as the chief helmsman, owe it a
duty to steer the ship away from it…” otherwise, we replicate more
Suleimans in Nigeria.
-By Niran Adedokun
Twitter@niranadedokun
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