Many decades ago, Benjamin Franklin was asked at the U.S. constitutional convention what kind of government America had just adopted. He simply replied, A republicif you can keep it. In the same manner, Nigerians adopted a democratic rule in 1999; since then, however, whether the system is going to last long or long has been the concern of many observers, especially in a society wracked by political mob and a growing Islamic terrorist group freshly graduated armed from looted arsenal of some rich and power-hungry politicians in the North.But knowing that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted, the shrewdest of all democratic observers, Alexis de Tocqueville, warned after he had gone on search for the secret of Americas greatness by saying that, Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!At this point, we can perfectly understand how Abraham Lincoln felt when he said: I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.But for now, the citizens of goodwill who are keeping Nigeria great will never cease to pray against the nightmare scenario invoked by the fundamentalist group on collision course with Christians in our own country. And we will continue to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson that: if we will not be governed by God who gave us life and gave us liberty at the same time, we must be governed by tyrants; and let those who profit from violence in the society recognise one more time without compromising our principles and standards that Nigerian citizens are a great people.For example, it was the citizens of Nigeria who successfully fought for their independence from the British. And as we all know, it was Nigerians who, after incredible suffering and sacrifice, who played the indispensable and primary role to make the present democracy possible by defeating the dictatorship. Their powers of resilience are legendary, and, unfortunately, are usually underestimated by those who have not experienced such ordeals.Martin Luther King once said, We have learned through the grim of realities of life and history that hate and violence solve nothing. Somehow, the moronic fanatics in our midst dont understand that most of the Muslim world today does not march to the beat of fundamentalists drum. They also fail to realise that fundamentalist regimes are now a minority in the 21st Century, comprising only eight per cent of the Islamic worlds population. And if people of the Muslim world continue to chart their own destinies, particularly in the age of western civilisation, extreme fundamentalism will not triumph. After all, modernist regimes range from open societies such as Turkey and Pakistan to relatively open countries like Egypt and Indonesia. And to provide a compelling alternative to extreme fundamentalism for those who seek a better life in their societies, leaders of these nations try to combine the best of the Muslim and western cultures, rather than to turn back the clock to the 12th Century like those who want us to believe they are some kind of patriots in our country when they are, actually, nothing more than ideological fathers of bin Laden.For over a decade now, for example, these political maniacs who believe it is their right to rule Nigeria no matter what kind of mediocrity they have to bring into the government again, have been trying to import the idea of Sharia into the entire country, using political propaganda, subversion and even naked aggression to impose Islamic law on Nigerians at the time the democratic government should offer the rest of the world an example of a great people enjoying religious and socio-economic freedom!Nevertheless, the awkward and unavoidable truth for the present administration is that if President Goodluck Jonathan mishandles the issue of fundamentalist group in Nigeria by continuing to ignore religious violence in which Christians are always the victimsone of the most disgraceful chapters of the post-military eraa clash of civilisation could pit the church against Islam in our society.Whereas the real danger is not that this clash is not inevitable but that by our inaction, we will make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, the recent massacre of scores of innocent Christian worshipers and their children in the North would certainly not have occurred had the Federal Government acted sooner on religious violence, which has become a dominant characteristic of the post-military rule in Nigeria.The point is that Jonathan must remember the examples of the former Soviet Union and Lebanon where Christian and Muslim militias had slaughtered one another for many years, and quickly heed the advice of the late U.S. president, Ronald Reagan that, Beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggression impulses of an evil empire and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, and good and evil.Failure to do that will further tarnish the reputation of this administration and contribute to the image promoted by Muslim fundamentalists that the Nigerian government is callous to southern Christians but always protective of Almajaris in the North.Adeyeye is proprietor, Crown Heights College, Ibadan, Oyo State.
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