Bishop of Catholic Diocese of
Oyo, Most Reverend (Dr) Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, has stated that Muslims have
a right to Islamise Nigeria because one of them is in power.
He lambasted Christians crying
foul, noting that they had the opportunity to ‘christainize’ Nigeria but failed
to do so.
Badejo said Christians in high
offices only know how to engage in bickering and fight for positions, leaving
out policies that would favour them.
“I’ve always shared the view of
one of our leaders, John Cardinal Onaiyekan. I believe that Muslims have an
Islamisation agenda, and they have a right to have it”, he told Tribune.
“Do Christians have a
Christianisation agenda? Yes, I hope so and we have a right to have it. The
Muslims are pursuing an agenda; why are we not pursuing ours?
“Nigeria, for many many years,
had a larger number of Christians in power. We failed when we should have
worked, and that even now, instead of trying to catch up on our lapses, we’re
busy pointing fingers.
“It’s part of Islam to Islamise;
is it not part of our own programme too to evangelise? How much of it are we
doing? The education curriculum, which caused so much row recently, was
approved when a Christian was chair of the body.
“Christians are not an
insignificant population in Nigeria. The next question to ask is: what kind of
Christians? A large part of Christians today are Christians in name, who pursue
power, position, privileges. That’s not Christianity.
“And that’s where I come to the
issue of the prosperity gospel. We have not yet done research on how much
damage prosperity gospel has done to the psyche of Christianity in our country.
“Prosperity gospel provides cheap
solutions to complex realities of life and so many people have heard it. They
believe that it is actually possible to have cancer and pray it away, when
doctors are actually available; that it is possible to fail exams, and still
become the director of a bank, if you pray enough.”
This is a sermon from the pit of drunkenness. Pitting one religion against another and by extension forcing the religion upon everybody? Religionizing governance? There are other religions other than Christianity and Islam. Still there are people who confess no Faith. In modern countries of the world where the acceptance of all human beings isn't based on religion, everyone is allowed to live their own way. There are secular countries and Nigeria is one of them. Badejo, neither Christianity nor Islam should be forced on anybody. No religion should be made a mode of governance, in whole or in part. Unfortunately, time is limited.
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