The Bishop of the Diocese of Calabar (Anglican Communion), Rev. Nneoyi Onen Egbe, has warned that Christians will not hesitate to demand for their republic in Nigeria if the need arises.
Rev. Egbe was reacting to a reported call for ‘Islamic Republic of Nigeria’, in a viral video, by the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam El-Rufai.
El-Rufai is quoted in the video as narrating during a meeting with some Muslim clerics how Islam was used to secure victory for President Bola Tinubu in the February general elections.
But In an interview with Vanguard, the professor of radiography at the University of Calabar, lamented that despite such utterance that could tear the country apart, the person involved is working freely without any arrest, adding that if it was to be from other religions, earth would have been let loose.
He warned that if El-Rufai calls for Islamic Republic, he shouldn’t forget that Christians and other religious sentiments also have equal rights to declare their own republic.
He said in the interview: “Mallam El Rufai can create whatever he desires with his family, certainly NOT NIGERIA. Nigeria is too big for such to happen. When statements are made like this, one need not forget that one’s listeners also have the right to declare their own republics. Such unguarded utterance is meant to escalate bad blood among stakeholders in the Nigerian project.
“My worry is that someone makes such statements and is still walking freely in the streets. If this statement were made from another sector of our polity, many voices would have arisen to vilify him.
“Truth be told, if he calls for an Islamic Republic, we also call for a Christian Republic, and then republics for all other religious sentiments. Such talk is to create diversion for them, politicians, to engage in their misrule while we are busy debating responses to their statements.”