Ishaaq Abdulmumuni
AS far as multicultural societies go, the state of Lagos has been a successful experiment. It is not for nothing that it is regarded as a no man’s land, even if no place qualifies as such. It is a melting pot of identities that speaks, primarily, the language of commerce. Everyone gets equal chance at fluency and material success along with all the trappings that come with it. No ceiling or limitations, you go as far as your talents and hard work can carry you. It is a land of dreams many arrive with only the clothes on their backs but manage to acquire great wealth and influence. Holidays – whether Islamic or Christian, Nigeria’s two major religions – are celebrated with equal pomp and flair in the state. Nearly every family in Lagos, particularly those of the indigenous Yoruba people who account for the majority, has adherents of both faiths that go back several generations. Besides, residents welcome every chance to avoid the chaos on the streets – notably the city’s infamous traffic that sometimes lasts several hours – opting instead to stay home and merry. The same could be said of other South-Western states, minus the grueling traffic which foregrounds Lagos bustling population as hundreds of Nigerians troop into the state daily from all parts of the country, drawn by its commercial success and motivated by the desire to replicate the grass-to-grace story of so many who have come before.
The Yoruba people have largely built societies that reflect the dynamic complexities of their family units; inclusive, tolerant, and multi-religious. Okun ajobi (the ties of consanguinity, which means common descendance from the same ancestors) and ajogbe (which means co-residency) unite and take preeminence over other artificial divisions. The final result is a society that embraces difference not punish it, and one that understands the uniting power of trade conducted within a framework that protects the interests of all participants. None of these easily verifiable facts reinforced by virtually anyone who has spent time in the South West mattered to Prof. Farooq Kperogi. In a recent essay, the notorious theorist who basked in the fleeting attention he enjoyed while presenting discredited reports from unnamed sources on the President’s health, painted the image of a Lagos and other South Western states where members of the Muslim faith are subjected to widespread discriminatory treatment.
He built his disturbing argument on the allegations of an individual Muslim who claimed that religious bias shown towards him by the late Lagos developer and owner of the collapsed 21-story Ikoyi building, Mr. Femi Osibona, a Christian, unfairly denied him an employment opportunity. The sad episode soon turned his saving grace as it allegedly prevented him from being in the defective building when it came crashing down, killing dozens including Mr. Osibona himself. Using this example, and a couple of other anecdotal accounts of the experience of friends in other southwest states, Prof. Kperoogi reimagined a Lagos state and South-West region where such incidents of religious bigotry are commonplace. Two problems immediately surface with the professor’s purported evidence of bigotry in a region otherwise regarded as the most welcoming of multiculturalism. The first is that the job applicant’s story derives its relevance from the assumption that it is an honest and complete account of what really transpired, given that the accused is apparently incapable of presenting his own side of the story. Indeed, since then, counterclaims of the deceased well-established record of working with Muslims have been brought to light.
Secondly, anyone familiar with Professor Kperoogi’s brand of meta-journalism is aware that he never runs out of convenient anecdotes and ready accounts from “friends” who just happen to have lived experiences that neatly align and buttress whatever agenda he is pushing per time. Most of his discredited reports in the past all prominently featured ‘he said, she said’ from ‘friends’. Added to this is the well-known fact that the plural of anecdote is not data. No professor worth his title would extrapolate a broader rule about millions of people from the experiences of a handful of “friends” he knows. Most astonishing, perhaps, is Prof. Kperoogi’s insistence that the routine election of Muslims in the South-West to the highest political office is proof of the region’s bigotry. In the estimated two decades since Nigeria returned to democracy, Muslims have held power in Lagos for a combined 16 years, and the two recent Christian governors, including the incumbent, ran with Muslim deputies. In fact, the present Lagos deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, is from a prominent Muslim family and never hides the fact.
Unaware of the absurdity of the claim, Prof. Kperoogi argued further that the marital and other social links the prominent Muslim office holders share with the Christians in the region serve to douse the anger of the bigoted people – even though this dynamic reflects a broader trend amongst the people. Nearly every family in the South-West has a healthy mix of Christians and Muslims living without tension. Prof. Kperoogi’s essay is riddled with similar mental gymnastics as he struggled desperately to argue that a region where the evidence of peaceful diversity is surplus is one where, in fact, a band of bigots roams the streets restricting opportunities to only Christians. Of course, this is manifestly false, not because bigoted people cannot be found in the region (indeed, every gathering of human beings is guaranteed to produce one), but because bigotry – and the consequent discrimination – is frowned against by the Yoruba people and cannot, therefore, be reasonably claimed to be the basis upon which their states are structured.
These contradictions and misrepresentations reveal Kperoogi’s essay as a projection; an attempt to color a group of people with his bigoted mind set. He cleaved a largely harmonious society in two, creating the false impression of a people in a bitter religious contest. His convenient cherry-picking of events and facts has all the marks of a determined propagandist. This professor’s motive is worth investigating.
- Ustaz Abdulmumuni writes in from Ibadan.
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