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12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

The government seems to have adopted strange methods in approaching issues of national interest and general concerns while at the same time promoting sectional and personal interests, even though its appointees have continuously contended with several nasty issues affecting governance and development.

Attempting to bring back the water resources bill that was rejected in 2018 will never be in the interest of  Nigerians.

The bill seeks to tamper with the land use act and empower those with self-centered agenda to further their hidden interests.

Obviously there are a number of those in government, who are desperate to control resources across the six geo-political zones, an agenda of the present administration that was never disclosed to Nigerians.  This indeed has brought to the fore the anti-people plans of the Executive and the Legislature which would not augur well for a nation that is still struggling with its myriad of challenges.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right provided for in the 1999 amended constitution.

The constitution also prohibits the adoption of an official religion by the government at all levels, just as the separation of government and religion is a constitutional imperative.

Indeed, religious leaders have crucial roles to play in making sure that the freedom of religion is assured for all Nigerians. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olgoke advise Nigerians to make concerted efforts to rescue Religion from those holding it captive. Excerpts :

How in your views do you think that present administration in Nigeria can ensure the separation of Government and Religion in a way that would not negatively affect the freedom of religion?

The clamor for restructuring needs to beam its searchlight into the areas of culture, religion, education, and government with respect to their freedom and interconnectivity ab initio by the design of nature or almighty God, there is no way you can separate one from the others because each of them focuses in terms of service and benefits on mankind and humanity.

The cultural segment is deceptively neglected but always sourced by the other three segments of existence. In the political arena, the  Obaship, Emirship, and Obiship is more recognized by the segment than the religious sector because the apex bodies of these segments are regarded as the custodians of our culture and traditions which are the primary functions to be jealously guided by the regarded fathers of the land through whom government or political parties believed to be important factors in reaching out to the people while traditional rulers enjoy the patronage and remuneration of government.

They are, however, puns in the hands of the government, who by the design of the constitution, which is a social contract can be removed at will, when they don't dance to the tune of the government in power, while the culture continues to suffer under the resistance of collusion of religion and idiosyncrasies of merging civilization.

The culture itself becomes unguided to lose a grip of ethics and the much-needed discipline of an environment that is needed for the people to live in harmony without any traces of insanity.

The constitution on the issue of religion looks very much contradictory because of a lack of understanding of the divine concept of it.

Generally, the government and the people view religion as Karl Marx's perception of it, as being the opium of mankind.

The constitution on one hand states that Nigeria is secular instead of been a multiferous religious system, by this, the implication is that religion is trivialized into a speck in an environment where the services of God are not needed, hence religion loses the grip of sourcing for us, the necessary divine intervention, most especially in the times of travails.

This, on assessment, has put all worshippers into a state of no scripture compliance and mere religious commercial merchants to the generality of the adherents. Religion becomes so weak to sanitize the environment as well as reforming them into morally conscious, disciplined people. By this failure, every successive government in Nigeria that claim to wage war on institutional indiscipline and corruption always end up as failures because the situation has always weakened the fabric of the network of all agents of socialization to be able to get strong enough into the expected responsibilities of reasonable and rational change agents. Under this fatal condition, the project of education-non-formal, formal and informal- get affected to the detriment of helping school attendants to attain the altitude of their life's desire to be true community leaders, nation builders, and ethically based professionals, individuals, and organizations. The environment equally eats into the fabric of the management of the home front to eventually lack good parenting for the society to suffer so much for it.

If religion is so vital to human life why do we need to trivialize it into having no freedom?

It is unfortunate that 90 percent of Nigerian religious leaders are fraudulent and unpatriotic to the nation by capturing religion into captivity, making it to be hostile to culture, instead of allowing it to work together for the possible reformation of our religious beliefs like Mary Slessor did in Calabar when she put an end to the killing of twins. The apex body of every religion should not be trivialized into political tools, giving religion the necessary independence would be a direct challenge for the leadership of all religions face the need to eradicate poverty among the majority of their adherents and to be able to use the scripture to correct anomalies of profanity in the houses of God-Tim.16-17, Quran 2: 185.

The constitution needs to be amended to allow religion which by definition is a school of faith-building where the primary concern must be a focus on perfecting man-God relation for the system to be able to enjoy corporate governance in government, due process in procurement to avoid fraudulent practices, justice management in the Judiciary by incorruptible Judges, equity in material management and distribution, peaceful co-existence and sustainable development among others.

No religion teaches evil, let us all rescue religion from its captors, for our leaders to become Solomonic in knowledge, wisdom, and power of discerning mind which will never come if we continue to trivialize the issue of religion, bastardize the content of the scriptures by not walking the talk.

Only the independence of religion in terms of management can address the present areas of weaknesses and threats, so that we are able to have the light at the end of the tunnel, after darkness. The study guide on this includes-Isaiah 29: 11-16, Quran 87: 6-9, and 2: 269.

Religious people, if thoroughly bred through their houses of worship would be best in management and administration in the process of governance and leadership because hey would be fraud-free. Religious leaders in their various capacities are supposed to be unbiased advisers and opinion molders for government services to be result oriented.

The President and State Governors took oaths of allegiance and office at the commencement fo their different tenures.  

However, happenings across the federation revolving on crime and criminality-killings and ritual killings, kidnappings, armed robbery, rape among others, are indications that the above mentioned political office holders are yet to justify the oaths they took during their inauguration. Even though the President and State Governors have held regular meetings with all their appointees, the general and domestic and foreign policies of the present administration remain subject to unending debate among confused and distraught Nigerians. 

Indeed,  the citizenry wishes to know 1) If the political office holders are conversant with the real meaning of good governance. 2) If political appointees are without controversy, qualified for the positions they presently occupy. 3) If the above mentioned are not responsible for the worrisome situation in the country presently.

Of note is the fact that mediocrity, ignorance, illiteracy, and lack of adequate knowledge have become major challenges affecting political office holders and the citizenry. 

The essence of religious houses is to have a school structure whereby adherents of each religious denomination or sect shall be taught lessons of life through the faith-building process to achieve morally based ethics in an environment of discipline to be able to keep sustainable good man/God relationship.  The house of God, therefore, needs to be structured and equipped with the scripture and highly committed clerics or pedagogues that would be able to not only teach the scriptures but become a role model and operationalize the book of life in order that the adherents are able to achieve the much-desired tranquility of the mind and peace driven environment that would be safe and secured. Failure to have qualified clerics in place will lead to poor processing of the adherents and poor maintenance of the house of God, where commercial activities will dominate the expected giving of the much-desired spiritual diet as the bread of life.

In this wise, religious houses will become havens for fraudsters and sources of anti-societal menace with complete lack of the grace of divine intervention.

The Holy Quran 3: 187 speaks volumes on this, '' I remember Allah took a covenant from the people of the book to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide, but they threw it away behind their backs and purchased with ti some miserable gains!  And vile was the bargain they made !''

To the above effect, the penalty is aptly expressed in Quran 3: 188-189, Think not that those who exult in what they have brought about and love, to be praised for what they have not done,-think not that they can escape the chastisement. For them, is a chastisement grievous indeed, to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens  and the earth; and Allah has power over all things.''

The situation in the country is that of deplorable institutional discipline because we fail to role model ideals by not teaching aright and learning correctly. The situation of the nation is aptly described y the Hole Quaran 5: 62,'' Many of them doest thou see raising each other in sin and transgression and their eating of things forbidden. Evil indeed is the things they do.'' To corroborate the stand of the almighty Allah in the above verse of the Holy Quran is Prov. 22: 22-23,'' It is easy to steal from poor people, but don't do it. And don't take advantage of the poor people's court.

The Lord is on their side He would avenge their cause. He supports them and He would take things away from them.''

People in affluence or positions of power oppress their people, sending signals of poverty, hunger, and diseases with threats of jail or imprisonment in an environment of injustice. If the governance circle is into this rot of poor performance, the almighty Allah challenges the judiciary to correct the anomalies as expected in Quran 5: 63, '' Why don't Rabbis and the Doctors of law forbid them from their habit of uttering sinful words and eating what is forbidden? Evil indeed is their works. Let us, therefore, restore sanity into the land through institutionalizing discipline and establishing zero tolerance for corruption. 

Prof. Sabitu Olagoke

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria