Discrimination Against Christians in N/ Nigeria is a structural and institutionalized matter. (4)

Continued from yesterday

Discrimination against Christianity in favor of Islam is a matter of everyday experience for those who live in the Northern part of Nigeria. It is not an isolated phenomenon. It is something structuralized and institutionalized.

This is further compounded today with the extension of the scope of Sharia from merely affecting matters that are personal and civil in nature to those that now affect the criminal dimensions of our existence, where some states now own their Islamic Police force called Hisbah that enforces the Sharia law.

In most instances when Christians and Muslims are involved in criminal activities such as violence through insurgency and looting that sometimes accompanied such crisis and both are arrested and brought to face Justice before the judiciary, the Muslim culprits often get released during trial while the Christian suspects are left languishing in detentions and sometimes in prisons over offences that both sides committed.

This is one of the dangers of operating a dual legal system or ideology in one country. In some places in Northern Nigeria where Sharia operates, Muslims sometimes get away with murder cases, as was the case with the Christian woman (Bridget) in Kano. She was lynched to death over trumped up charges of blasphemy. Her killers were quickly acquitted and discharged under a Sharia Court. Discrimination and marginalization of Christians in Northern Nigeria are common daily experiences. The areas where these evils are perpetrated are many and are widely spread and entrenched in the length and breadth of the Northern Region. Christians for instance suffer persecution and marginalization in the following areas:

1. Refusal of Government to grant permit or Certificate of Occupancy for the building of Churches. This makes the situation of our Churches vulnerable to demolition by over enthusiastic state governments, especially those that have adopted Islam as a state religion contrary to the prohibition of this by the Nigerian Constitution in Section 10.
2. Destruction of Churches at the slightest provocation by government and sometimes by extremists who like taking the law to their hand. A recent example of this is the destruction of two big churches in Jigawa state, belonging to the Redeem Christian Church of God and The Lord Chosen churches in that state.
3. Discrimination and unequal opportunities in the areas of employment, recruitment or admissions in public educational facilities, lopsided nature of appointments into key offices of government and parastatals.
4. Forceful take-over of Mission Schools in 1972 and lack of compensation for the owners. Some of these Schools had their Christian names changed to Islamic names.
5. The refusal to allow the teaching of Christian Religious knowledge in Government Schools.
6. The abduction and forceful conversion of under aged Christian girls to Islam
7. None broadcast of Christian programs particularly in the State owned mass media.
8. None provision of burial grounds for deceased Christians etc…
9. Lack of fairness in establishing Federal Presence: In Kaduna State for instance, there are 19 Federal institutions in the Northern senatorial zone, 29 in the Central zone and not a single Federal tertiary School in the Southern Senatorial Zone.
10. Unjust delineation of electoral wards, constituencies. This has put the Southern Senatorial Zone in Kaduna State in a politically disadvantaged position. This policy that is often described as rigging election from the source has effectively made it impossible for anyone from SK to ever emerge as the governorship flag bearer of any major political party. Neither can SK ever decide any issue in the State House of Assembly, because of the great preponderance of representation from the Muslim side.

All these are expressions of injustices perpetrated in the name of religion. We are also witnesses of the systematic proselytization through stealth, forced migration and now the use of UNSPEAKBLE AND UN-IMAGINABLE violence often expressed in martyrdom and mass murder of the indigenous people of the Middle Belt in Northern Nigeria

Conclusion:

Despite these imbalances in our Nation and in our state, here we are again celebrating another feast of the resurrection of Christ. The fact of our Lord’s resurrection revolutionized the lives of the disciples of Christ.

It transformed them from being a timid and sometimes a seemingly clueless group of disciple, to a fearless and courageous team that turned Jerusalem at some point upside down. Our faith therefore in the risen Christ must so influence and transform our lives as it did to the lives of the disciples of Christ particularly at the times of persecution such as we are facing.

The injustices in our society not withstanding, we exhort believers not to be fainthearted but courageous in facing the challenges of our time. We are to renew our faith and commitment to the living and resurrected Jesus, who triumphed over death and evil as the way to surmounting all the abuses and discrimination that we suffer in Nigeria today.   Concluded

 Bagobiri is the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese and Chairman, Southern Kaduna Christian Leader’s Council.

* This piece does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Thisage and its owners