It will be a celebrated effort if religious leadership in Nigeria would take full advantage of the present war-cry by Muslims to declare total war on the “Destroyer” (fraud and corruption). This will be a blessing accruing from the unfortunate statement by the Sharia Council.

The issue at stake is not one that calls for vamping or anger between the religious leaders. It provides a golden opportunity for religious leaders to wake up against the shame that envelopes Nigeria and Nigerian people.

Let us save Mr President any further distractions and help him out of error. Let him settle down to work. He has been so distracted that his priority amidst numberless very urgent and pressing national issues is the unimportant need to amend our Constitution altering tenure of service for Mr. President and their Excellencies to one term of six years. Bravo!

The leaders of Christian and the Supreme Council for Sharia need team up together to fight the common enemy: The Destroyer called Fraud and Corruption. Let them all empty their armoury and go into full scale war against the “Destroyer” starting by dealing with the purveyors of the “Destroyer” who dominate their rank and file.

There is this hypocrisy about Christian religion and Muslim religion as the two major opposing religions in Nigeria. This is a ruse. It is all hypocrisy. There is a third major encompassing religion in Nigeria representing a meeting point of the two religions: Christian religion and Muslim religion. That religion is the governing religion in Nigeria. It surfaces on issues bordering on “Steal, Kill and Destroy Nigeria”. Any semblance of disagreement between the leaders of the two religions is a farce. The name of the unifying and premier religion in Nigeria is “Fraud and Corruption” appropriately named “Destruction”.

In this religion Mammon is the god and both adherents involuntarily unite and bow in adoration. The Friday and Sunday separation is for the ignorant adherents of the two religions.

Christianity as I know it is NOT A RELIGION: IT IS LIFE. The faulty one is a religion.

I conjecture that the implications of what the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria mean when it says that it is prepared to go to war about the Islamic banking is actually saying that they will wage war against poverty in Nigeria. If my assumption is right, then that will be a justifiable war. I make this assertion on the understanding that the attendant benefits of the Islamic Banking system: (If truly interest free banking) could be to assist the poor and also starve the funding of projects that are likely to be hurtful to society. In other words, it might sanitise the North of Nigeria.

The North of Nigeria parades the largest population of poor and backward Nigerians. How does one explain that in Borno State, for example, in this decade, only about seven per cent of the children there go to school? What is the future of the deprived 93 per cent? “Boko Haram” in my discernment, is a violent expression of disgust, bitterness and anger against the heartless infliction of abject poverty and humiliation on a people by their people who through the privilege of acquisition of Western education have become tyrants to the poor.

There is abject poverty in the North of Nigeria and their leaders have violently exploited them over the years. Prostitution is in a strong position where it is taken for granted as a normal available means of survival. In the North of Nigeria, probably until recently, no constructive battle is raged against squalor. Rare and multiple infectious diseases abound in the North where patronage of the “Boka” (native herbalist) is still inevitable and imperative.

Begging is encouraged as absolutely necessary for survival, and Fridays are set aside to promote and strengthen this dehumanising industry. Poor children begin to smoke cigarettes at 10 years old. Hard drugs circulate freely in the North of Nigeria. Child marriage is a norm; usury is a common practice as a means of further depriving the poor and needy. Most of the industries in the North still indulge in daily paid labour and such labourers earn slave wage.

Adashe known as contributions is a vital practice, almost a custom in the North of Nigeria. It is meant to assist the very low wage earners through necessity and self-discipline to accumulate funds by regular faithful and equal contributions to a united central fund. It is run on mutual agreement and trust. What you put in you earn in turns. No bank charges. You get into Adashe with a fixed project in mind. Participants are usually very faithful. It is rare to hear of a defaulter.

If Islamic Banking will help the poor entrepreneurs to start off their own businesses and progressively step out of poverty, please let it be allowed. If even not encouraged, let it be allowed to find its level in the normal Nigerian way of life and living. It will be interesting to see how the Yellow Slave Raider who I conjecture is the strength of this project, get involved faithfully in bailing out the poor and setting his captives free.

I wish the fuming hypocrites will give constructive consideration of this issue vis-à-vis the predominant plight of the millions of poor restive Almajiris in the North. Let these songs of war and the strip teasing dance by the Sharia Council and the lords spiritual be over and let them dare confront the “Destroyer”.

The greatest threat to Nigeria is the “Destroyer” that has successfully camouflaged and goes under the misnomer: “Corruption and Fraud”. I do not see how this battle against Islamic Banking can be won legally. You might change the name and accept or tolerate it, but that will simply mean hypocrisy.

There is also the indulgence in premeditated murder resulting in calculated slaughtering of Christians in Northern Nigeria. It just happened again recently on the Plateau. Is this not worthy of some fire-spitting by our lords spiritual? It would appear that the fierce battle of word between the “brethren” may have stressed them. They better deeply yawn and let the dogs continue to sleep.

Let the Islamic bank dialogue continue if it could work together for good for the learning of the greedy, selfish and arrogant Nigerians who believe that to be affluent is their exclusive right.

Adherents of Christian religion and Muslims who go to the extreme in accumulating wealth and showing it off to the poor as a means of tormenting them could learn therefrom. It could be a blessing in disguise to all. Who knows?

THE BATTLE MUST BE WAGED SEVERELY AGAINST THE DESTROYER called FRAUD and CORRUPTION. Let the lords spiritual and the Supreme Council for Sharia empty their armouries and go into full scale war not against one another but against the Destroyer starting by looking inwards and dealing with the scoundrels and cheats in their leadership cadre.

Dr. Moses Iloh   , a clergyman and President of Eclectic Network, wrote from Lagos