“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist” – Indira Gandhi
The vitriolic reaction of Bishop Abiodun Ogunyemi of St. George’s Anglican, Church Sabon Gari, Zaria to the apology tendered by the Anglican Church of Nigeria to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, over the orchestrated media campaign by Ogunyemi and the Reverend Joesph Hayab led Christian Association of Association (CAN), by the powerful delegation led by the highly respected Dean of the Anglican Church Archbishop Buba Lamido, is a confirmation that Ogunyemi’s mission was to “sufficiently provoke” and force the Kaduna state government to demolish the St. George’s Anglican Church, Sabon Gari, Zaria. This assertion is as certain as saying the sun will rise from the East, going by his conduct.
The clear motive behind the acerbic reactions of Ogunyemi and Hayab are manifestly political. Some so-called opposition had boasted prior that they would ensure the defeat of El-Rufai in the 2019 general elections and having woefully failed, they have shifted the battle to the 2023 presidential elections, which many believe El-Rufai would contest, despite his vehement denial that he hasn’t given the top job attention. But this hasn’t stopped the plot to hang the toga of a religious fanatic and tribal warlord around his neck, which they hope would “kill” his rumored presidential ambition. This apparently is at the root of the false allegation concocted by Ogunyemi, who was hastily posted out of Yobe state, due to his cantankerous nature and Hayab, whose open partisanship has made CAN irrelevant. According to Ogunyemi, “The governor (El-Rufai) is being prepared for 2023 elections. The governor (El-Rufai) should know that he will never be president of Nigeria. I speak prophetically as a servant of the living God.” Thankfully Ogunyemi is not God! Ogunyemi and his ilks, including those who predicted the day El-Rufai would die, have refused to learn from their failed predictions in the past, which explains their haughty predictions, which most certainly would also fail in the future.
A brief history of the St. George’s Anglican Church matter, which would have sparked a religious crisis due to the unnecessary politicisation by Ogunyemi and Hayab, of what was clearly an innocuous mistake, but for the tact handling of the matter by the Kaduna state government and the Primate of the Anglican of Nigeria Nicholas Okoh, who also sensibly sidelined Ogunyemi from the negotiations that saw the state government reiterating what has consistently been its position since 2016, that the historic Church would not be demolished to pave way for the redevelopment of the Sabon Gari market, which by the way has engulfed the church, because of its history. It must be stressed that El-Rufai has a sense of history, which is why he reverted Muhammadu Buhari Way, to Waff road its original name, due its historic background. Waff, acronym forWest African Frontier Forces, is a reminder of the great exploits of the multi-battalion field force, formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia.
On assumption of office in 2015, the El-Rufai administration undertook an extensive study of previous reports into the various crises that had bedeviled the state. The reports shockingly revealed that lack of adequate market shops were at the root of virtually all the crises- from Kasuwa Maigani, Kajuru to the Zangon- Kataf crises, all had their origin at the markets- which unfortunately always assumed sectarian/ethnic dimensions. Like El-Rufai said, “contentions over the location of markets and access to them have been implicated in the legacy of violence that has blighted some of our communities.” For instance, the decision of the then chairman of the Zangon Kataf local government to relocate the market triggered the deadly 1992 Zangon Kataf crisis which was to eventually engulf the entire state. The Kasuwan Magani crisis like that of Zonkwa, Kafanchan, and Kajuru all started in and around markets.
The conclusions garnered from the reports and the post conflict assessment of the 2018 Kasuwan Magani crisis further convinced the government to as a matter of urgency address the market issue. It consequently adopted a two pronged approach of embarking on massive redevelopment of markets as a strategy of attacking the root cause of the crises and as part of the administration’s programme of promoting equal opportunity and economic development of the various communities.
It’s this resolve to address the question of markets that brought the St. George’s Anglican Church Sabon Gari into focus. What Ogunyemi and Hayab have bluntly refused to tell the world, because it doesn’t fit into their evil plot of demonising El-Rufai, is that 45 houses, including several mosques were marked for demolition and for which compensation had been paid, and that the church was never valued and so no compensation was paid and so even when the quit notice was mistakenly issued to the church it amounted to nothing because the church had not been compensated. If not mischief, why would Ogunyemi feign ignorance about the solemn pledge by El-Rufai at the Anglican Synod which held at Owerri to the entire Anglican Church of Nigeria that he would not demolish the historic church, in addition to previous official letters to that effect. If Ogunyemi can’t remember, the Most Reverend Bennett Okoro of the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province can testify to this fact.
The Kaduna state government, contrary to the lies being bandied by Ogunyemi and Hayab, never shelved any plan to demolish St. George’s Anglican Church, because in the first place there wasn’t any such plan. If there was, the Church would have been valued and paid compensation, as demanded by the law. The gospel truth is that Ogunyemi and Hayab thought they finally had their archenemy El-Rufai in a tight corner, which explains the resort to the media, rather than engaging with the government and resolving in a peaceful manner whatever issue that had cropped up. Ogunyemi also in his desire to scandalise, vilify and portray El-Rufai as a religious fanatic bluntly refused to consult with the leadership of the Anglican of Nigeria on the way forward, just as he refused to reach out to the government when the quit notice was mistakenly served on the Church. The insults and abuses rained on the official delegation from the Anglican Church of Nigeria, the custodians of the church, by Ogunyemi is a confirmation of his disappointment at the resolution of the a crisis that he had created and had hoped to use in his stop El-Rufai “presidential ambition”.
On a final note, Ogunyemi who claims to be a servant of God should stop playing God by boasting that El-Rufai would never be president of Nigeria. Nor does Ogunyemi calling his fellow bishops “fake Christians and religious spies placed in our Church by a particular religion” show him as a man of peaceful disposition. He should find out from many others who had predicted dates that El-Rufai would die or the margin by which Isa Ashiru would defeat him, how they woefully failed. That El-Rufai continues to wax stronger in spite of the evil machinations of the likes of Ogunyemi and Hayab is a testimony to his goodness. The Anglican of Nigeria deserves the commendation of all men of goodwill for putting Hayab who had questioned the decision of the church to visit El-Rufai in his place, by telling him that they didn’t need his permission to visit the governor. Hayab, clearly seeks relevance, but because he lacks an unflinching commitment to truth, he seeks it in vain.
Musa writes from Kaduna
