By BASHIR ADEFAKA

Captain Mohammed Joji, a former Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian Airways, is one of the Arewa Consultative Forum leaders. At his home in Kaduna, Joji expresses concerns over politicisation of security challenges suggesting ways out of the doldrums. Excerpts:

But why do you think that some people could go the extent of using religious dimension as a tool to fight political cause?
This is a Christian from the western world where probably only ten percent of their population believing in God, anyway. But the guy went up and said he wanted the centre of Islamic banking to be in the United Kingdom. Cameron, the current Prime Minister, is now going to borrow money from Islamic banking system and has adopted Islamic financing. He said it is the best place to go and borrow money.

During the time of Obasanjo, what happened? He looked at our currency and saw that there is Arabic inscription on N10 note. They wrote ‘ten naira’ in English; and ‘naira goma’ in Arabic letters.
They are not against ‘naira goma’ being Hausa Language but they wanted it changed because of it is Arabic. Now, what do we have here is insincerity. English is a biblical and Christian Language. Are we Muslims saying ‘ten naira’ must be canceled from N10 note?

We don’t rule by religion. Shamelessly our national Language is English but English is the language of the Bible. We accepted it even as Muslims and we don’t complain about it. Instead, we take our time to, on our individual level, learn to know the language of our own religion and the Qur’an. Why should we complain in the first place?

Are Christians or Christianity not creatures of Allah? Is there anybody who can beat his chest and say he comes from a supernatural being other than Allah? But about our own religious sensibility they must make noise, shout and fight. These are the kind of people that are creating problems in this country. How can we grow this way?

Some people infer that most countries in crises are Muslim countries, what relationship does Islam has with crises?
Who instituted the crises? Arab Springs. The best standard of living in Egypt was during Hosni Mubarak. Then they would mention Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia. Those countries used to have the best standards of living. What is happening there now? These are the people that grew up in the West. They have been brainwashed in the way of dictatorship. Saudi Arabia is monarchy, the same with Kuwait and Bahrain. Why don’t you ask them to demolish their monarch systems?

So, the crises you see in those countries are creation of the West. What is happening there is war against Islam You called Gaddafi a dictator but what is happening in Libya now? Libya is finished. In Syria, the people were proud of themselves; they never went hungry. But now, they are in sorry situation. Iran put down its foot and that is why they are surviving because they knew that they couldn’t touch Iran in any circumstances.

So, let us be careful when they say Muslim, Muslim, Muslim! They allow it to happen by instituting weak leaderships. You cannot install a weak leader and still remain the same. That is the problem you have in those places.

You see, democracy is relative. Britain’s democracy is over 500 years ago. America’s democracy is over 300 years ago. If you read some Asian stories, you will discover that even the Greeks who invented democracy regretted it once upon a time. Is this really a civilized institution where you are saying a man can marry a man or a woman can marry a woman under the disguise of human rights? Was any of them born out of homosexuality?

Like I said, if there is no law and order, a man is worse than an animal. An animal can kill for two reasons: it can kill to defend itself and it can kill for food. It does not kill for pleasure. How many people were maimed and how many people have been killed?

What solution for the Boko Haram insurgency?
This is the major problem we have at our hands at the moment. But why don’t you go to the root of it especially now that all military actions appear to have failed?. Any problem that has a cause is no longer a problem. You simply have to go to the cause and remove it. For God’s sake, we never had this kind of problem before. You go and find out, what is their agenda?

Why are they troubling the nation? How can you say a small group of people is stronger than the government? The government that has the powers to stop the Boko Haram insurgency people is saying the insurgents are more powerful than them, so, they now bash the Muslims. That is unfair to us. I am a Muslim and I am proud to be. To label Muslims criminals in the light of the Boko Haram is unacceptable and on that I stand.

If you think because you want to destroy Islam because you are following this Western ideology, I want tell you that, you cannot achieve it. What we need to do here in Nigeria is for us to come to our senses and do things normally and we will be okay as a people and as a nation. God, Himself created Muslims, He created Christians and He created pagans. If you know that you cannot change it, and of a surety you cannot, why don’t you just accept it the way God has made it and work with it?