Kukah is playing a familiar game; namely the manipulation of religion for political ends. In 2014, some Muslim clerics convinced the populace that the source of our woes was Jonathan’s identity; he’s the ‘other’, a Southern Christian who must be replaced with one of our kind- a Northern Muslim- if we were to get out of the woods. How has that worked for people who fell for that propaganda is anyone’s guess.
Now as politicians shift their attention to the next election circle, Kukah is resorting to the same game; this time though the audience is the Northern Christian population.
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The fact is that the masses, regardless of which faith they profess, suffer the consequences of bad governance equally. We all suffer same killings, kidnapping, bad roads and skyrocketing inflation. Political clerics – politicians in religious garb – like Kukah will continue to market the jejune idea to gullible followers that our problem is simply the identity (religion, ethnicity) of the man in charge so we should do everything to ensure that your kind is in charge.
Religion is an asset; however when it’s left in the hands of people like Kukah and his co-travellers, it risks becoming a national liability.
Is it any wonder then that despite the huge crowds in mosques and churches, Nigerians are known not for being godly or pious but for all the wrong attributes.
Ibrahim Adamu, Kaduna State University
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