The furore generated in the public domain by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), that the recent attendance of President Muhammadu Buhari, to the 14th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in Saudi Arabia, inferred a direct move to Islamise Nigeria, was nothing short of an absurdity, a mischief and myopic attempt to further widen the religious dichotomy between adherents of the two major FAITHS and incite them to "war, war" instead of dwelling together in harmony!

The body condemned the trip which it described as unconstitutional and queried if the President would attend the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES or send his Vice to represent him whenever the members met?
It warned government not to overheat the polity through lopsided appointments in which people of the same ethnic and religious group as the President's, dominated the others and added that, "The preponderance of the Fulani people at the corridors of power is what Chief Obasanjo referred to as Fulanisation agenda."

SHOULD (CAN) FAN THE EMBERS OF A RELIGIOUS WAR BECAUSE SOME MISGUIDED (CAN) DIRECTORS WERE DISAPPOINTED THAT BUHARI WON HIS SECOND TERM BID ELECTION?
We believe that God favoured Buhari to serve for two terms according to our prophecy of 2014 and turned a deaf Ear to CAN supplications, intercessions, chain prayers, white fastings and night vigils for the opposition candidates to prevail, at both elections in 2015 and 2019! CAN's sing-song about Islamisation of Nigeria has assumed the sound of a broken record because the group did the same in 1986, when Nigeria official joined the OIC in order to shore up the nation's dwindling economy.
AND IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS, 1999-2019, OIC HAS RECORDED THE ATTENDANCE OF FOUR NIGERIAN PRESIDENTS TO ITS VARIOUS SUMMITS - TWO CHRISTIANS AND TWO MUSLIMS!!
For 58 years, consecutive Nigerian Governments (military and democratic), had guarded jealously, the freedom of its citizens to religious association and worship because the individuals of different FAITHS, cut across genders, tribes, traditions, cultures, castes, etc, in order to avoid volatile situations that could occur through any form of rivalry or the assumption of superiority of one religion over another!

The two major religious Faiths - Christianity and Islam - control large number of adherents across Nigeria; the North, predominantly of the Islamic stock, while the South is domicile with Christians. Although their are other smaller religious groups and beliefs across all sides of the Niger and Benue Rivers, the drafters of the Nigerian Constitutions, had in their wisdom avoided any alignment of State to any religion!
According to this very sacred documents, Nigeria is described as a SECULAR STATE - that is, a State that allows for freedom of worship and does not adhere to a particular religious ideology to govern the country because global history is replete with the disastrous/devastating nature of religious wars of the past, which turned out to be very gory and inhumane, because of intolerance and rivalries! In addition to this status quo, Nigeria's foreign policy is predicated on the NON-ALIGNMENT plank!


WHO IS A RELIGIOUS VIOLATOR - AREMU OBASANJO, CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CAN), OR MUHAMMADU BUHARI?
First it was ex-President, Aremu Obasanjo who, in his usual manner of seeking a lost political relevance, claimed that the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari, was executing an agenda to "Fulanise and Islamise" Nigeria!

Second, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), condemned in strong terms, President Buhari's attendance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, formerly, Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Summit, which held in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, from Thursday, 30th May, to Saturday, 1st June, 2019, and defended ex-President Obasanjo's allegation that the incumbent President was bent on "Fulanising and Islamising" Nigeria, or;

Third, President Buhari, who hit the ground running immediately on the second day of his swearing- in ceremony on 29th May, 2019 to attend the OIC's 14th Summit in Saudi Arabia, with a mission to solicit for more support to end Nigeria's insecurity situation and also to secure assurances that would attract more international investments to boost Nigeria's economy?

NIGERIA JOINED OIC SINCE 1986!
Nigeria became 46th of the 57-member countries of the organisation in 1986 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. OIC which had been in existence since 1969, is an organisation that advocates international economic cooperation through trade, science/technology, banking, environment, health, higher education, humanitarian, cultural, social and family affairs/women empowerment channels, that would enable member countries to grow rapidly, enjoy equal opportunities and be in better positions to cater for their citizens!

In 33 years of Nigeria's membership of OIC which has a population of 1.8 billion, FOUR Presidents of Nigeria, Aremu Obasanjo, late Umaru Ya'Ardua, Ebele Jonathan and the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, have attended past summits! In 2013, Jonathan and wife were delegate and guest respectively at that Summit! It is also on record that ex-Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian, sent a Nigerian delegation led by Alhaji Abubakar Gumi, to represent Nigeria at the very first inaugural session of OIC in 1969! WHY SHOULD (CAN), NOW SPEARHEAD A PROPAGANDA OF CALUMNY AGAINST PRESIDENT BUHARI?
OIC's advocacy in about five decades of existence, no doubt has continued to prove that Islam was not a religion based on violence and that Muslims by nature were peaceful people because there had existed, a universal mis-conception that Jihadism (an act of holy war), which occurred in the 12th Century, was an act of terror against Islamic non-adherents; but this assumption has been denied severally by Islamic scholars who described ISLAM AS A RELIGION OF PEACE!



BUHARI PRAISED OIC FOR INTERVENTION IN FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM IN NIGERIA & AFRICA!
The President who read the collective statement of African countries at the Summit, passed a vote of confidence on several intervention programmes of the member States all over Africa and especially in Nigeria in the areas of banking, industry, health, agriculture, trade, investment and most importantly, the fight against terrorism!
He said that the robust interventions of the various OIC Institutions and principally the Islamic Development Bank Group, had also been effective in rural development, food security, science, technology and innovation, poverty alleviation as well as women and youth empowerment. In the specific case of Nigeria, the President acknowledged the support of OIC Member States in countering the menace of terrorism and armed criminality in West Africa, the Lake Chad area and the Sahel Countries. He appreciated their contributions in the alleviation of the humanitarian crisis arising from the insurgency but urge them to do more.
He also highlighted the Inter-Water Basic transfer, aimed at re-charging, the Lake Chad, the National Food Security Programme, the Second Niger Bridge,, various Road/Schools rehabilitation projects, in Nigeria that have attracted the support of OIL Institutions adding that African members needed more support to overcome serious security problems of violent extremists and armed criminals, where they existed, etc, etc.


WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES OF OIL!
It is very instructive to note that apart from Nigeria, the following countries in the West African sub-region are also members of OIL: Republics of Mali (1969), Guinea (1969), Niger (1969), Chad (1969), Senegal (1969), Sierra Leone (1972), Cameroun (1974), Gambia (1974), Gabon (1974), Burkina Faso, formerly, Upper Volta (1974), Togo (1997), Benin (1983), and Cote d' Voice (2001). The theme of the 2019 Summit was #Session of Hand in Hand Toward the Future.


ARAB COUNTRIES DO NOT SUPPORT TERRORISM!
SAUDI ARABIA FORCES in concert with other Arab countries and the United States of America between 2014-2017, dislodged Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), militants which took advantage of the Syrian war to carve out an illegal "State" from where they launched attacks on other Arab States, including Saudi people and also bombed their mosques. ISIS which is reputed for violence and brutality, including beheadings and floggings, met its match in the allied forces, were defeated, disgraced and driven out of their illegal occupation! ISIS like Boko Haram has been tactically defeated degraded and has such resulted to suicide attacks/hit-and-run tactics to remain relevant!


TERRORISTS ARE MERCENARIES!
Most terrorists groups across the world have proved to be MERCENARIES who have no particular ideologies nor personal political convictions/motivations other than the acquisition of illicit money and illegal power! They are no respecter of persons, governments or constituted authorities! Most times, We, as social critics and political commentators wonder why mosques, churches and other places of worship are bombed indiscriminately; or why soft targets of innocent people at motor parks/bus stations, market places, remote communities domicile by law-abiding and peaceful peasants were deliberately attacked by gunmen, bandits, militia men, marauders, who also kidnap lots of them for ransom, used them as human shields, the women as wives, sex slaves, and cooks?

Terrorism has become big business, big industry! Who sponsors the heinous crimes through supply of logistics: arms/ammunitions, information, communications, transportation, food, medicine, clothing’s, etc,! Why do governments negotiate with terrorists and pay huge sums of money for the release of kidnapped victims? Why do governments exchange terrorists commanders/prisoners of war (POW), in exchange for abducted citizens and the cycle of atrocities continue unabated because they (governments), indirectly or inadvertently, supply huge funds for them (terrorists), to purchase more arms to continue the "thriving business" with precious human lives!
MAN'S INHUMANITY AGAINST MAN HAS DESTROYED WHAT IS LEFT OF THE SANCTITY OF LIFE; BUT INCITEMENT FOR A RELIGIOUS WAR WILL BE MUCH DISASTROUS!

This unfolding vicious scenario has nothing to do with Muslims or Christians, Religion or Faith - it has to do with the bestiality that is inherent in an average man who has no fear of GOD in him! And the earlier, Christians and Muslims close ranks and pray fervently to the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth, for divine intervention, not much will be achieved with human wisdom or understanding because Satan, the evil archangel is bent on truncating the PEACE, which has been promised to the entire humanity by the Lord Jesus Christ, who says, "In me, you will find peace, but in the world, you will find tribulation: but be of good cheer; for I have conquered the world." (John. 16:33).
Tribal, ethnic, chieftaincy, land or border disputes/conflicts, can be tamed; but RELIGIOUS WAR IS WILD FIRE THAT CANNOT BE QUENCHED AND MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS! LET US ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT ISHMAEL AND ISAAC CAME OUT FROM THE LOINS OF ABRAHAM! WE MUST BE OUR BROTHERS KEEPER!

THE WHOLE WORLD IS NAMED AFTER GOD!
‘’If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land’’(2 Chron 7:14)


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.