BISHOP MATHEW HASAN KUKAH’S CROSS

            On the 8^th of September this year, an event of monumental significance took place in Sokoto, the spiritual heart of Nigerian Muslims. Thousands of Nigerians, Muslims, Christians and those who couldn’t care less all made the long and potentially hazardous journey to witness the ordination and installation of the new Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah. A former President, and a whole army of V.I.Ps, along with simple, faithful Christians jostled with Muslims in a city with quite possibly less than 10,000 catholics, and then moved in a long motorcade to pay respects to the symbolic head of all Nigerian Muslims thereafter. It was a very happy event for everyone, not least for those who travelled to Sokoto with some fear and apprehension. It was a moving event that had many lessons for our nation which is going through some agonising soul-search over its ability to hold on to the idea that differences in faith and tongue are not in themselves impediments to building a nation that is united, and large enough for everyone to find full expression of their own beliefs and peculiarities.

          But for the foresight to transmit this epochal event live across the nation, many members of the Nigerian elite would not even have known it took place. Even with that, Nigerians who had no television sets, or power sources, or the time to watch television, and who are the victims of the cynical manipulation of religion by the elite, did not even know the event took place. A small literate group with the resources to buy a newspaper read about it, but most missed its profound significance. Then, just when the event was almost slipping into history and was being swallowed by daily and depressing news about killings by robbers and Boko Haram militants, the new Bishop himself writes a from-the-heart article thanking Nigerians and Nigerians for an event which he said allowed Nigerians an opportunity to show that a great people and a great country can still show their sense of solidarity. Bishop Kukah’s article will be a useful reminder that his ordination and installation as Bishop of Sokoto Diocese should be noted as a major benchmark in terms of inter-faith relations in Nigeria.

          One major benchmark set by the happy and peaceful installation of Bishop Kukah in Sokoto relates to the resounding defeat against the dangerous perception that Muslims are instinctively intolerant; and in the context of our current political limitations, that there are hostile no-go areas for Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. A few months ago, Muslims and Christians killed each other in their thousands in the north. Even as we speak, Boko Haram bombs and bullets kill Muslims and Christians almost daily. In Jos and parts of Kaduna State just being a Muslim or Christian alone is sufficient ground for being murdered by mobs. Yet Islam has set very strict and rigid ground rules under which human life can or may be taken. Similarly, one of the Christian commandments says no Christian shall commit murder. Muslims tend to lose the propaganda war in Nigeria and at the international level, and are generally portrayed as intolerant and prone to violence. Yet when Bishop Kuhah was installed in Sokoto, not one Muslim citizen threw a stone; or shouted an obsenity; or detonated a bomb, or threatened the thousands of visitors and Sokoto – based Christians who rejoiced at receiving a catholic Bishop who had a solid global image as one of their own. What the installation did was to remind Nigerians and the world that it has nothing to fear from Muslims; and to remind Muslims that they have nothing to fear from non-Muslims once they hold on to their faith. It also reminds the world that respect begets respect. If the Pope can send an emissary to the seat of the Sokoto Caliphate, and he is accepted and accorded the dignity and respect he deserves; authorities and symbols of christianity in Nigeria and beyond should accord muslims commensurate respect and tolerance to live as muslims.

          A second major benchmark set by the installation of Bishop Kukah is that Nigerian Christians and Muslims must examine why and where exactly their relationship went wrong. The public side of the installation represented only a tiny portion of the response and involvement of muslims and christians in the installation. Rather sadly, a man who is valued as a global icon of peace comes from a State where thousands of refugees live in squalid camps, and may never relocate back to villages where they had lived for decades, and from which they escaped after hundreds of men and young boys were slaughtered. He represents peace, compassion and tolerance, but comes from a State whose capital city, Kaduna, is split right down the middle between Christians and Muslims. He comes from a part of the nation where the fires of religious intolerance have fed unspeakable levels of violence in  Jos, in Bauchi, in Kaduna and in Borno. He is being installed as a Bishop in the heart of a Caliphate whose leader is being repudiated by spokespersons of Boko Haram. Even as he bestraddles these scary divides, Bishop Kukah knows that the distance between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is growing wider; and politics in feeding off these divides, and building fortresses around hate and intolerance. Whole generations are growing up knowing nothing but hate and bitterness against particular groups. The installation of a good man in a environment which welcomes him and does not judge him on the basis of his faith will not transform Muslim-Christian relations in itself. What it can do is to alert Nigerians to the dangers of intolerance; and the escalating violence falsely erected around God.

          A third benchmark set by the historic installation of Bishop Kukah is that a good man will be a good man anywhere, whether he is Christian or Muslim. The thousands of Christians who travelled to Sokoto, or watched the installation of Bishop Kukah on television did so because a man whose life has been the embodiment of humble service to God and humanity has been elevated by God. Thousand of Muslims who have known the life and works of Bishop Kukah would also appreciate the fact that a good Christian who will build bridges between faiths and hearts has been given a bigger responsibility to do so. The life and elevation of Bishop Kukah is lesson for all leaders to lead with the fear and love of God, and to stay in touch with the basic humanity which is in all of us. Bishop Kukah says he is a missionary without borders. He lives the life of one as well. He touches lives in every endeavour he is involved in. His proximity to the seat of the Caliphate should be a beacon of hope that Nigerian Muslims and Christians can find sustainable peace. His extraordinary intellect and ability to connect, which gave him automatic access to just about every Nigerian should afford him greater opportunities to do more of God’s will as he works with the Sultanate to reclaim lost ground.

          In these depressing times when we are running out of answers to the many questions around our co-existence as Nigerians, Bishop Kukah’s bountiful optimism and a willingness to go further than most in the belief that God created us to live in peace will be very useful. Every time our political system demeans our faith by turning fellow citizens who do not worship our God into instant enemies, Nigerians will need to remember that neither Muslims nor Christians will leave this country for the other. We can either work hard and live in peace; or fight against each other and destroy each other. Those among us with faith should remind politicians that we are on the brink, and will not fall over. If they can only acquire power after we have killed each other in the name of our faith, then they represent the enemy. Father Kukah is a missionary, in a nation desperate to hear and live as God wishes. The cross he bears is to constantly remind us that there are better ways to live than we do.