Letter to Christian Association of Nigeria

By KHALIL MONSUR

I stumbled over an untitled letter by a Nigerian Muslim simply called Bn Sulayman with a note at the foot, bit which I decided to title in my own way as per the above headline. I consider this letter addressed to Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) worthy and have adopted it for publication. Excerpts:

Dear Christian Association of Nigeria , for long, you have played religious politics.

You have asked Pastors or engineered your members to vote along the carthage of religion, christianity.

I will inform you that, if Muslims of Nigeria start playing RELIGIOUS politics, no Christian will be President and Deputy. That is the worse. But I can assure you that no Christian will be a President in Nigeria ever again.

Nigeria was polarized by you in the 80s (see article written by Simon Kolawole. And also a book called, An account of genocide on Southern kaduna Muslims by Southern kaduna Muslims).

This is our ball game and game ball that you never learned how to play in.

Muslims in Nigeria have cadre of religious teachers, guidance, and reformers.

The lowest of all is

1. Mallam and Alfa

There are more Mallam than Pastors and Bishops. These Mallams are quiet as you are flexing muscles. When they start campaigning on the basis of religion because of your incitement, nobody can stop them.

The next are
2. Imams.

There are also more of these than your religious leaders. These ones, when they start. Kiss your luck goodbye.

The next is
3. Ustadz
These are young brilliant muslim men of 20s to late 30s. If they start, you will either have a choice to cry or run mad.

The next is
4. Sheikh
These group are often/mostly the elderly. Believe me, no sane person want to incite the elderly.

The next group is
5. Qadi
Islamic judges. It is better not to provoke these people. Anything they put hand is or should be Islamic. You know what I mean.

The next is
6. Muhamiyy
These are lawyers. Just be careful.

The next are
7. Muslim kings/Amir/Emir.
In many places these people possess the master stroke.

The last is
8. Sultan.
If you vex sultan, you don vex all of us. Just be careful.

DON’T allow your greed and bitterness to incite these people in to next year election on the basis of religion.

We all can start writing in arabic. If you think Google translate or some arabic speakers among you will help out, we can switch into Ajami. We can write arabic in pidgin in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and any other Nigerian languages. So be careful. We can write in transliteration. Some of us can write and read in Hebrew. Just be careful.

Always keep this at the back of your mind:
One man one wife is never equal to one man two wives or one man four wives. A word is enough for the wise.
____
Bn Sulayman Note: apart from the first four cadre, others are written arbitrarily.