A Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir, early last week, called attention to himself by saying things most of us aren’t courageous enough to utter. And his exploding reservoir of bigotry has hurt many of my Christian brethren.
Four things Jingir said in Kano: Nigeria is a Muslim country, therefore a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket such as that of Tinubu-Shettima is in order; he called Christians infidels; the problem of insecurity was a “plot” by Christians to make the Tinubu-Shettima Muslim presidency “look bad” and Jingir verbally attacked fellow Islamic scholars for “welcoming Peter Obi, an Igbo politician and dressing him in Hausa robes. He said, ” We [Muslims apparently] will never forgive the Igbos,” referencing the January coup that killed several northern military and political leaders.
Some Nigerians have called out the fiery and feisty sheikh, accusing him of hate speech and demanding his prosecution. A former northern emir Mustafa Jokolo said in a long statement that the security forces “should immediately take steps to arrest and interrogate”Jingir for endangering “the security of the country.” I have no problem with Jingir. As a matter of fact, it’s good that he spoke his mind even if the way he did it failed to resonate with a lot of my compatriots. Words in themselves don’t amount action. By giving vent to his thoughts, my venerable sheikh Jingir hasn’t committed a crime but merely has taken advantage of his right of freedom of speech. It is only if he goes from here to lead armed attacks on those he calls infidels that he commits a crime. As for his labelling Christians infidels, what about it. A true Christian wouldn’t be bothered by that because his living faith hasn’t been taken from him. Rather the one to fear isn’t he who can only touch your body but can’t take your soul. Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian religion made this point repeatedly during his ministry. He said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me…” [Matt. 5:12]
My Christian brothers who are pouring invectives on Jingir are reminded of the teaching of their faith: first remove the log in your eye so you can see clearly the speck in another’s eye. In other words, those of us who call ourselves Christian have more to worry about ourselves than about others who profess a different faith. Two anecdotes to illustrate this point: firstly, a “Christian brother” fell in love with a “sister” and proposed marriage. The two families accepted the arrangement, but not the church the young lady was a member of. The girl was Baptist while the young man was Anglican. But ain’t we told the Church is one body, the body of Jesus Christ, who is the head?
Now the second anecdote. A man left his village in the North to visit an uncle in Lagos. Close to Ibadan, the vehicle he boarded broke down and it was already night. Luck smiled on him, he thought. Nearby there was a church building with one of its doors ajar. He hurried inside and saw a man praying. He waited for the man he believed was the pastor to finish saying his prayer. Then he leaned forward and said lovingly, “Good evening, pastor.” “Good evening, young man,” the pastor answered as he turned to look at the visitor. “What can I do for you?” he asked. “I’m stranded, the vehicle I boarded for Lagos broke down. It’s night already and I don’t know anybody in this town to pass the night with. I wonder if you will put me up for the night.” A minute of thought-filled silence. “Are you a Christian?” “Yes,” the young man replied enthusiastically. “What denomination?” The man gave Methodist. “I’m sorry,” said the man of God. “As you can see, this is a Cele church. You have to find a Methodist church or another to accommodate you.” And he left the visitor to his fate. Those were two supposedly Christian brothers, failing disappointingly to accept each other as such.
The Christian brotherhood is broken, maybe irreparably so. Rather than worry about a sheikh calling us “infidels”, shouldn’t we, as Christians, turn around to address the harm we are doing to the body of Christ? I think we should.
