One cannot but wonder about the many peripheral issues some weave into the false narrative that accompanies the many challenges confronting Kaduna State. There are, for instance, security challenges regarding which many have lost every sense of clarity, including even some religious leaders. Instead they mix all manner of issues in their effort to tell their own version of what is happening, shocking people who are clear-minded in the process. But not all leaders are this petty in their thinking. We still have some who see things clearly and who would say it as they see it. One of such persons is the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, who visited Kaduna State and its governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, of late.
Kaduna State government battles with bandits and other criminals who are security threats to residents. The efforts being made by the government is in the public space for all to see. Even when the state governor had the army brought to some parts of the state to forestall criminality, everyone heard some voices saying they rejected the move. In fact, the structures planned for construction by the state government in aid of the military were destroyed by some people who were equally the most vociferous critics of the government in its effort to seek peaceful resolution to the current security challenges. Adeboye’s visit came at a time when some, including religious leaders, have taken the stance that even in the face of the need to find solutions to the current challenges, enmity is what they want to keep with the current political leadership in Kaduna State. One would wonder why any well-meaning person would take such a position where the political leadership of their state, the only authority with the powers to facilitate the security of all residents, is concerned.
We know that Kaduna State is one political entity that has experienced ethno-religious conflicts in past years. At the time, Kaduna metropolis was seriously hit by crisis, leading to the adoption of some measures that could be considered bizarre, such as the separation of people along ethnic and religious lines into northern and southern Kaduna LGAs under a previous administration. Such a move amounts to capitulating to ethnic and religious bigots, people who have made up their minds that the residents of Kaduna State must never be united. Such a decision as was taken in the past has since been rejected by the current administration in the state, preferring instead to ensure that every resident lives wherever they choose. It is the move being pursued in every other part of the state. But we know many who have vowed that those they consider non-indigenes should not live in their area.
Such people are also at the forefront of mixing acts of criminality with ethnic and religious issues. Acts of criminality carried out by bandits are stated by such people to be an attempt to wipe out people of their ethnic stock. They claim what is an act of criminality is an effort to wipe out their religion, that is if their utterances and the hatred they display for fellow humans show them as people who have a religion in the first place. Yet these same elements see the lawlessness perpetrated by bandits in places such as Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Ebonyi, and they and the religious leaders who lead them do not say such acts are an attempt to destroy the religion of the victims in the states mentioned.
The other time, we even heard some mixing the issue of a church building in a market area in Sabongari Zaria with an attempt by the state government to persecute their religion. To what extent would these people not mix all manner of issues to back their narrative which shows their intolerance for the current administration in the state? Nonetheless, even as they do, there are still few religious leaders such as Pastor Adeboye who would not belong to the bandwagon of people that spew hatred, rather than love, people who preach division rather than unity. One can suppose that only people who claim religion but have no religion in them would encourage others to hate fellow human beings. For how can religious leaders be preaching hatred when their religion says they should preach love, and they are comfortable with it? How could religion say anyone should forgive and seek peace rather than preach vengeance, yet what many religious leaders are doing in Kaduna State is to the contrary? Which true religious leader whose Book says that the blood of the innocent that is shed would cry for vengeance would applaud it when his people kill in reprisal attacks. They may claim revenge, but those who know their Book know that blood will never cease flowing in a land where the blood of the innocent is shed even under the guise of revenge. As such no true religious leader would advocate revenge, reprisal or whatever name some give it.
The matter is even becoming dramatic as some go abroad to tell British parliamentarians to come and resolve conflicts in their communities in Kaduna State. They go to the United States to call on lawmakers and a former president to come and resolve crisis that, if they themselves cooperate with their state government, they would easily find solutions to. While these persons are adamant, mixing even the matter of the political party they support into the hatred they have for the current administration in Kaduna State, a servant of God such as Adeboye speaks the message of peace. He acknowledges the effort being made by the Kaduna State government to find lasting solutions to the security challenges in the state. Members of his church were kidnapped in March. Rather than go to the public space to make unfounded and imagined accusations as some are fond of doing, he said he had been praying for Kaduna State. He told the governor of the state that he knew he had been doing his best. He added though that human efforts alone would not resolve the challenges, there was the need for divine intervention. He encouraged the governor by saying that, as a servant of God, he believed there shall be a turnaround in the challenges facing the state soon.
One would want to suppose that this is the manner servants of God, real servants who hear from their God, are known to talk. But what do we see and hear these days? People with religious titles who finger-point aggressively, people with religious titles who speak with anger and hatred. They hate fellow human beings that their religion asks them to win over. They speak hatred against the government that they say their Book instructs them to pray for. Haven’t some people mixed things up too far? These are religious leaders who have become ethnic champions, fighting for ethnic group, abandoning their calling even when they hold tenaciously to the religious titles that give them relevance.
It is a relief though that there are still servants of God such as Adeboye around. He visited Kaduna State and he showed what is expected of anyone who claims to be a servant of God. He shows, though the words he utters, that he rejects any disposition that doesn’t project a servant of God as one. He shows that a servant of God should focus on his calling and leave ethnic fight to ethnic fighters. He shows that no servant of God has the mandate of the Book he carries to tell lies, falsely and deliberately calling act of criminality an attempt to wipe out his religion. (For the same act of criminality is happening in other states, but no one says it is an attempt to wipe out the religion of the victims).Adeboye shows in the course of his visit to Kaduna State that the work of the servant of God is different from what some in the state seem to think it is. Yes, there are challenges. Seeking for solutions, and cooperating with others (including the state government) who seek for solution is what religious leaders should be doing. This is what Adeboye shows by his visit to the governor. It is contrary to the current situation where some beat the drums of division, hatred, and from their utterances show they wish evil even for a government that their religious book says they should pray for.
