ALHAJI ISHAQ KUNLE SANNI

FATHER CORNELIUS OMONOKHUA, PROLIFIC INFLUENTIAL WRITER AND UNCOMMON ADVOCATE OF INTERRELIGIOUS HARMONY IN THE WORLD

Ishaq Kunle Sanni

Foundation Member NIREC

Co-chairman IDFP (Interreligious Dialogue Forum for Peace)

I did not have any intimate interface with Father Cornelius Omonokhua until he became the Executive Secretary of the prestigious NIGERIAN INTERRELIGIOUS COUNCIL (NIREC).

When his work began it was like love at first sight between us. But as somebody who had been injured psychologically at an impressionable young age by religious bigots at the other side of the divide, I was cynical and took his seemingly affection towards me with circumspection and if you like it a pinch of salt. It did not take a long time for me to realise this is no theatrical exhibition of affection but something genuine that emanates from the heart.

We, despite doctrinal differences, have a lot in common; we see humanity as one. We don't perceive criminals from primordial lenses of ethno-religious bigots. If a man is a criminal even if he is a Christian call him by his name not by his religion. If a man is a rapist don't call him by his Islamic faith, call him by his name not by his religion. We are not carried away by the stereotyping and profiling the trademark of pollutants and religious demagogues.

Father Cornelius does not carry on his head the arrogance of a celebrated intellectual. That is why he would condescend so low to ask an intellectual lilliputian like me to edit what he a professor had written. For the information of those who don't know my academic pedigree I don't even possess a PhD. What Father Omonokhua had succeeded in his love for an intellectual upstart is to stampede me inadvertently to become a research fellow trying to satisfy the yearnings of a fertile brain who loved to write to create a near perfect religious coexistence in the society of his domicility.

Our generalissimos in NIREC, His Eminences the Sultan and CAN president would have been amazed by the calm and equanimity with which Father Cornelius took their criticism when he was just cutting his teeth as Executive Secretary of NIREC. Today he is the doyen of these great religious leaders as he now has the image of a perfectionist in his job even when working under impossible condition of ill health

STATE OF THE NATION

Father Cornelius and I even when there is no prior discussion are always on the same page on National issues. Amnesty for surrendering Boko Haram members As I feel elated on the surrender of thousands of these devilish deviants called Boko Haram, I cannot fathom the unreasonable idea of granting them amnesty. My initial idea,

borne out of ignorance of international law that it is criminal to kill a surrendering soldier, I would have unabashedly advocated wasting these callous criminally inconsiderate vagabonds who have slaughtered thousands of innocent men and women. Be that as it may they should face trial for war against the nation and spend the rest of their lives in jail. They are obviously surrendering because of the unprecedented and superior fire power of the Nigerian Airforce which was the giant stride gleaned from the sophisticated super Tucano helicopter recently acquired from USA, which has resulted in their decimation and annihilation in thousands.

For Boko Haram members to be granted amnesty is like allowing them to dance on the grave of thousands they have eliminated unprovoked. The Military high command should not let off their guards for the materialistic conquest that comes in the wake of war prolongation. If they succeed, posterity will write their names in gold.

Hate speech and verbal diarrhoea

Though the Secretary to the Federal government was mischievously misquoted for calling for the arrest of Muslims and Christian priest who instigate violence, I want to advice that any Muslim or Christian cleric propagating hate speech or instigating his members to violence should be arrested and prosecuted. If Gold should rust, what should we expect from lesser metals. The modus operandi behind these unwholesome acts is the wave of clerics who crave for heroism by spewing innuendos at the inglorious expense of peace and harmonious religious tranquillity of this potentially great country. Religious leaders should be harbingers of peace, not of violence.

Sack of ministers

If we have in the past rightly or wrongly almost crucify the president for being unrepentantly nepotic, we should at least give kudos to him for the courageous step in sacking the Minister of power and the Minister of Agriculture for alleged unwholesome misdemeanours. For this country to be great there should be no sacred cows. If all those big fishes arrested for kidnapping and banditry have been summarily dealt with these levels of criminal impunity would have subsided considerably.

People are asking why Wadume, who wasted the lives of security men who went to arrest him, when without any equivocation he had been pinpointed as the kingpin of kidnapping for ransom in Katsina. What of Evans the billionaire wicked murderer probably the richest of kidnappers in the history of Nigeria still doing in the gulag after he was sentenced to death.

Youth empowerment

At the last meeting of NIREC a delegation met leaders of security agencies to give some words of advice which I think was the right step in the right direction. I suggest all the thirty-six Governors and Minister of FCT should also be interfaced with. They should be

told the gospel truth. The only way to checkmate the criminal tendencies of our youth is to provide them with sustainable empowerment. Most of our Governors embark on white elephant projects which is just for political grandstanding and unnecessary propaganda.

Can you imagine a Governor renovating a stadium with over five billion naira in a state with a battalion of employed youths? As God would have it, the rain exposed the chicanery and sophistry, as rains came in torrents showing a wishy-washy job was done on the fixing of the roofs.

Our leaders should tell them to create jobs through industries and technology propelled farms not stadium or airports that services only the elites.

CONCLUSION

The job of securing our polity from the bandits and criminally inclined marauders is principally that of the government but we all have roles to play. political gangsterism being perpetrated by political juggernauts is metaphor for crudity and trivialisation of the fear of the Almighty.

We are the most Religious on earth but one of the most Godless. Religiosity will not win us paradise, Godliness will.

I congratulate my brother Father Cornelius Omonokhua on the launch of these books. More ink to your pen.

May Allah fertilise your brain more and more and endow you with good health and longevity of life.

Safe trip to all our guests

May Allah's peace and unfathomable blessings envelope you all God bless you