By Ibrahim Ahmed
Last week in the City of Putrajaya, Malaysia\'s new administrative capital, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference concluded its Tenth Islamic Summit Conference. The Conference brought together leaders of countries with appreciable Muslim population as well as those where Muslims are in minority. Mozambique\'s President Joaquim Chisano, Chairman of the African Union was there. Also present was the Russian president Vladimir Putin, who expressed the wish of his country to join the OIC so that the Russian Muslim population would have a platform to interact with their fellow Muslims from all parts of the world. Apart from Russia, countries like India, South Africa, Liberia and Philippines are all hoping that the Organisation would give a nod to their applications to join the OIC either as observers or as full members.
While those countries wish to join the OIC, the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, with a population of not less than 60 million Muslims, the largest in Africa, is said to be working hard to pull Nigeria out of the Organisation. The question that arises is: why, if at all this is the thinking of the Obasanjo administration, should the Nigerian government consider this the right course of action? That neither Chief Obasanjo nor his deputy or any top Nigerian government official attended the Summit is not the question. No Nigerian leader has attended the OIC Summit since Nigeria became a full member of the Organisation in 1986 under General Ibrahim Babangida, although Nigerian ambassadors in Saudi Arabia have always represented Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto also once represented Nigeria at the Tehran Summit in 1997. One would wonder why Nigeria has never had a high-level official representation. Could it mean that General Babagida joined the OIC because he is a Muslim and Chief Obasanjo wants to remove Nigeria because he is a Christian? Which ever way, the aim behind this contribution is to put the issue of Nigeria\'s membership in the OIC back on the centre stage so that under democracy the Nigerian people might be told all that they wish to know about the OIC.
Given the fact that even as a member Nigeria has not been active at the OIC and its subsidiary organs, many reasons could be adduced for the state of affairs. One theory espoused by Professor Omo Omoruyi, the founding director of the Centre for Democratic Studies established by the Babangida administration, is that neither Babangida nor the three Muslim Generals who ruled Nigeria after him could be active at the OIC because they knew in their hearts that Nigeria\'s membership in the OIC is not in order. It can as well be suggested that considering the Christian reaction back then in 1986, which led to the formation of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), those Muslims leaders have been cautious about Nigeria\'s membership, even if it is to show that since 1986, Nigeria has not been turned into an Islamic republic.
It could be argued that they have taken such positions out of respect for Nigerian Christians and in an effort to maintain a form of balance between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria. Nowhere was the skill to maintain such a balance more displayed than under the Babangida administration. It was Babangida who normalized relations with the State of Israel in order to balance the act of taking Nigeria into the OIC. I am not suggesting that normalization of relations with Israel means a service to Christianity, but probably out of ignorance, many Christians in Nigeria equated Israel with Christianity. But the truth is that Israel and Christianity belong to different camps. Nigeria was one of the first places visited by Pope John Paul II on becoming the head of the Catholic Church in 1978, when Alhaji Shehu Shagari received him in 1980. His second visit to Nigeria was made in 1998 shortly before the death of General Sani Abacha.
All these gestures point to one thing: past Nigerian Muslim leaders have done more to maintain a balance between Islam and Christianity. Not too long ago, the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress Adam Oshiomole, cautioned General Obasanjo on the danger of directing that a certain parcel of land belonging to the Nigeria Airways should be sold to a Church. Before then Muslim organisations had raised alarm that the Federal Executive council as presently constituted is too much in favour of Christians. Equally disturbing is the way the Nigerian Television Authority has been turned into a Christianity propaganda machine since Obasanjo became president. Here he is again, his diplomats in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, attended the OIC Summit seeking to be accredited as observers, obviously with instructions from Abuja. Nothing could be more embarrassing for a country whose national flag with those of other full-fledged member countries beautifully adorned the Putrajaya Convention Centre, venue of the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference.
This is the latest turn of events in Nigeria\'s troubled membership in the OIC. For whoever is advising our president to take this course of action, the president should better know that leaders before him were cautious about religion because they know how volatile the issue is in our society.
Putting sentiments and emotions aside, why are non-Muslims afraid or bitter about Nigeria\'s membership in the OIC? To answer this question, one cannot speak for the Christians. Unfortunately those who are competent to speak for Christians make uninformed comments. How does one begin to respond to someone who says OIC means the Organisation of Islamic Countries and that the Organisation is out to wipe Christianity off the surface of the earth? Hear one of the newly appointed Cardinals of the Catholic Church, our own Most Reverend Olubunmi Okogie who once said to the Guradian: \"the issue of the Sharia is not a new thing. I hope you can remember that this Sharia is one of the demands of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries). Any nation which is in OIC must have Sharia. Apart from this key ministries such as petroleum, education, finance and two or three others must be held by the Moslems. So for Nigeria to demonstrate that it is a full member of the OIC, they must operate Sharia.\" (February 23, 2000). This is someone who should know but either does not know or has chosen to misinform. Okogie was a former CAN president.
The OIC was established in 1969 as rallying point for all people of good will to defend the Palestinians whose land was seized and their religious places desecrated by the State of Israel. Since then the Organisation has developed into a platform of social economic and cultural cooperation among Muslims. What Nigerian Christians are not being told is that Palestinians are Muslims and Christians, whose legitimate rights to their land have been usurped by the Israelis. The birthplace of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem is part of the sites desecrated by the Israelis. Defenceless Palestinian children are killed daily because they are brave to confront occupation. What is the difference between the support we gave to South Africa\'s struggle against apartheid and the efforts being made by the OIC and other members of the international community to bring peace to Palestine through numerous United Nations resolutions? With apartheid gone, South Africa is obviously a better place. Similarly if peace returns to the Middle East our world will equally be a better place.
Remember what happened to the Church of Nativity in Palestine. Ask Nigerian Christians who go on pilgrimage about their experiences with the Israeli authorities. The whole of the international community except the United States condemn Israel. The United Nations funded UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is doing a lot of work to assist Palestinian refugees in building schools, hospitals, orphanages and in the provision of essential services. It is through contributions made by Christians, Muslims, and followers of other religions from all over the world, including Nigeria that the United Nations embarks on these programmes. Nigerian Christians have not asked the Nigerian government to stop paying its contributions to the United Nations. Nothing the OIC does about the Palestinian question is different from what the United Nations, the Non-aligned Movement, the OAU and now the AU are doing.
The OIC is not a clandestine Organisation. It has an observer status in the United Nations, with offices in New York and Geneva, working in close cooperation with the UN for humanity and taking firm positions on issues of major international concern - terrorism, human rights and the rights of the child among others. An Organisation that issues resolutions yearly condemning Israel for desecrating Muslim and Christian holy places cannot at the same time want to wipe out Christianity. Christianity has not been wiped out in Uganda, Mozambique, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Benin, Ivory Coast Sierra Leone and other African countries that are members of the OIC. Nor Islam is the state religion in Turkey, Lebanon and Guyana that are also members of the OIC.
In January this year, Ghana\'s President John Kuffuor on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana hosted an OIC Conference of Muslim minority in Africa, titled Islam, World Peace and Development. President Kuffuor himself was there and the Ghanaian press was fair in the reportage of the events, in a manner devoid of rancour or any ill feeling, because they realized that what the OIC is doing is an attempt to foster understanding among Muslims and non-Muslims. Ghana after all is a predominantly Christian country. Ghana\'s bid to join the OIC as observer is going to be considered at the next OIC ministerial conference. A similar Conference was held in New Zealand in June 2003, where Muslim and Christian scholars sat together to explore ways of promoting understanding. That is in addition to numerous forms of cooperation such as the OIC-EU forum between the OIC and European institutions like the European Union and the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Professor Omoruyi in an article entitled \"THE ORIGIN OF NIGERIA: GOD OF JUSTICE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH AN UNJUST POLITICAL ORDER Appeal to President Obasanjo not to rewrite Nigerian History\", which probably was among the documents that formed the intellectual background to Obasanjo\'s behaviour and explains why the president is headed on a collision course with Islam and Muslims in Nigeria asked what Nigeria stands to gain from its membership in the OIC. Asking such a question about the OIC is perfectly in order.
However, Omoruyi\'s inability to search for an answer or perhaps his deliberate cover up of an obvious answer is the pinnacle of mischief making.
Within six years of creating the OIC, a development financial institution known as the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) was established in 1975 for the economic development of Member Countries. The IDB grants interest-free loans for development projects in member countries and extends assistance to Muslims in non-Member countries. The only condition of becoming a member of the Islamic Development Bank is membership in the OIC. With Nigeria\'s membership of the OIC, no one other than Obasanjo and his advisers can explain why Nigeria, in view of the state of our economy and the enormity of the benefits we can get from richer members of the IDB is not a member of the IDB.
I have often thought that one fear nursed by Nigerian Christians about the OIC and the IDB is the term \"Islamic\" which is attached to the two institutions. But in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding such a fear need not be entertained. The effort to get Israelis and Palestinians to stop fighting is for the good of humanity. There is absolutely nothing wrong in good initiatives that are clearly for the sake of humanity coming from Christians or Muslims. The Muslims too should be seen as contributing their quotas to the good of humanity. The Guardian Newspaper of 21 October 2003 reported that the appointment of Reverend Okogie as a Cardinal brought honour to Nigeria. One should have no qualms about that. To me it is a respite, even if temporary. At least it is better to call Nigeria a country of Godly man than to have us listed as the second most corrupt nation in the world. That is notwithstanding the fact that not all Nigerian Christians are Catholics, to say nothing of the non-Christian majority.
There is really nothing special in the use of the term \"Islamic\" in the name of an organisation. The United Kingdom\'s Financial Services Authority for example is presently working to give approval to the establishment of Islamic Banks in Britain. For them, what is involved is more than the term \"Islamic\". Instead they want to meet the yearnings of their minority Muslim population who want a separate Islamic banking system that is compliant with the tenets of Islam. The good thing is that such banks are in no way against the regulations of the FSA and are going to have Muslims and non-Muslim customers. It should strike anyone to see this happen in the West, a bastion of Christianity. The same is happening in the other parts of Europe and the United States. Take another example of the African Development Bank, which has as members, countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United States of America, Britain and other non-African countries. This institution is about development with resources of non-African development partners; it is about bettering the lots of humanity and attaining lofty objectives, similar to those of the Islamic Development Bank.
Despite that, the little assistance that Nigerian students gained from the IDB scholarships has gone into training medical doctors some of who use their knowledge to treat Nigerians, Muslims and non-Muslims. If the IDB were to finance the building of new refineries in Nigeria, for instance, will the Muslims be the only ones to enjoy steady availability of fuel? The IDB financed special assistance projects in Ghana, a non-member country, such as hostel accommodation for university students. Muslims and non-Muslims students make use of those facilities. The same thing applies in Cameroon, Togo and other poorer African countries. For students from IDB member countries, Muslims and non-Muslims, they can benefit up to $15,000 from IDB Young Researchers Support Programme. The IDB\'s development objective centres on pooling of resources from the better-off member countries to finance development projects in less-off member countries with a view to empowering people to make the world prosperous for all. Can Nigeria afford not to take an interest-free loan with the comatose state of her economy? A loan from the IMF or World Bank carries with it an interest payable over the period of the loan, whereas with IDB\'s loan a country is only charged a service with no penalty for default.
In April 2001, one would recall the visit of the IDB president to Nigeria during the remembrance anniversary marking the death of Alhaji Shehu Yaradua\'s. Nigerian newspapers reported the meeting of the IDB president with President Obasanjo during which Nigeria\'s membership in the IDB was raised. Since then the matter has not received any favourable response from the Obasanjo administration.
If President Obasanjo is so particular about leaving an enduring legacy, attempting to remove Nigeria from the OIC or forcing the sale of Nigeria\'s airways land to a church or the using of the NTA to promote Christianity are not the ways to proceed, just as those actions cannot wipe out Islam from Nigeria. Rather Obasanjo should work to foster harmonious relationship among all sections of the country. By subscribing to such lofty projects as the Dialogue among Civilisations initiated by the OIC, Obasanjo would go down in history as the Christian president who has successfully launched Nigeriaon the path to repairing the existing atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust among Nigerian Muslims and their Christian counterparts, and indeed among the different tribes that make up Nigeria.
In sum, the Obasanjo administration is fighting Islam both openly and secretly. Its attempt to downgrade Nigeria\'s membership in the OIC to an observer is an oddity an of course a slap in the face of Nigerian Muslims.
All well-meaning Nigerians should resist any attempt to pull Nigeria out of such an important organisation.
It is time for all of us to mobilize all Muslims and peace and justice loving people in Nigeria to deplore Obasanjo\'s secret agenda to humiliate Muslims. Never in the history of Nigeria has our membership in any international organization been downgraded to an observer status and Muslims should not fold their arms to allow this to happen to them.
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