Religion and official public life

How much religion is enough in official public life? That Nigerians are mostly a religious people is undisputable; being a godly people is a different matter entirely. Given that fact, therefore (that is, that most of us are religious), it is normal that there would be some demonstration of it in all aspects of our lives, both private and public. Thus, we begin and end every single gathering with prayer, alternating between a Christian and Muslim version at the beginning and at the end of the meeting.
In recent times, however, maybe out of a growing sensitivity to those who do not belong to either of the two main religions, or possibly due to a desire to temper the presence of religion in public life, some organisers of meetings are introducing other forms of prayer; for example, asking participants to pray silently individually. Another growing tendency is to use the second stanza of our National Anthem as the opening prayer. Obviously, there are some concerns among Nigerians regarding religion in our public life – which is a positive development.
The just-concluded Ramadan fast has witnessed a big demonstration of religious activity in our official public life, and especially on the part of President Muhammadu Buhari as well as some other highly-placed Muslims. The President spent several evenings breaking the fast with different groups of people, both high and low. The evening of Monday, July 4, was a particularly special one, as the President hosted the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), artisans and other “ordinary” Nigerians (not the high and mighty). What was particularly touching about that gathering was that the President personally served his guests, and photographs showing Mr. President dishing out food to a young girl on a wheelchair later graced the front pages of several newspapers and also went viral on the social media. It was a good sight to behold, one that Nigerians are not used to – seeing our leaders actually “stoop down” to serve us in physical, tangible terms. Personally, that was the only iftar event that I found meaningful. The other ones with the high and mighty, the rich and powerful, I take with a pinch of salt.
The most worrisome occurrence, it could be argued, were the visits to President Buhari by several individuals on Wednesday, July 6. The evening news on several television stations carried reports of highly-placed Nigerians – politicians, traditional rulers, Christian and Muslim clerics – visiting the President, who appeared like he was holding court and had his subjects come around to pay homage and sing his praises. These people, led by none other than the Vice President himself, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, used the occasion of a religious holiday signalling the end of the month of Ramadan, to gather to blow the trumpet of a human being and turn our attention away from truly spiritual matters. Yes, that person could well be our President, a mere mortal nonetheless.
Two questions come to mind regarding these issues. First, who was paying for all the daily largesse being shown by the President in providing these lavish feasts? Did the money come from his private pocket, or was all this done at the expense of the state? Many of us are only too happy to be among the favoured few who would be chosen to participate at such events, but this is actually not the best use of our resources. And it is not a good model for democratic governance either. We need to get away from the mentality of governance as largesse – distribution of pepper grinders, sewing machines, motorcycles, etc. – activities which simply palliate the poverty of a select minority without fundamentally addressing the underlying systemic nature of that poverty which makes those donations necessary in the first place.
The second question concerns the urgent need we have as a country to fully understand what a democratic mode of government means, and to stop according to our leaders unnecessary, god-like attributes – in the sense that their presence has to be all-pervasive and that they almost have to be worshipped. And this should best be done in the realm of religion. Why can’t we just leave our President alone to be a Muslim or Christian privately? Why should the practice of their religion take the front burner in our public affairs? If something they are involved in is their private affair, why should we not leave it as such?
Some people would quickly retort that President Barack Obama too shared iftar with some Americans during Ramadan. I hope they would equally think of the obvious differences. For one, President Obama is not known to be a Muslim; thus his gesture was purely symbolic. In particular, at a time Muslims in America had reason to be concerned about their status (what with all the attacks on them coming from the Republican candidate, Donald Trump), it was important for Obama to make a gesture that would reassure them – and that was what he did by inviting some Muslims to the White House for iftar.
President Buhari could have contented himself with a symbolic gesture too: rather than make breaking the fast with various groups a daily affair, he could simply have invited that final group of underprivileged Nigerians (IDPs, artisans, etc.), mindful of the difficult economic times that many of his country’s citizens were going through. We must determine how much religion we will allow in our official public life.