Southwest Nigeria and Religious Tolerance By Tunde Akinloye

The very first primary school I attended as a kid was a Catholic school. Interestingly, it was where I first attended classes in Islamic Religious Knowledge and Arabic. Ironically, when I was moved by my mum to Epe, I was enrolled at Zumuratul Islamiya Primary for the last 2 years of my elementary education. And again, it was where I attended classes in Christian Religious Knowledge.

What brought about my mixed religious background, however, was that my family had members from the three main religions. As a matter of fact, while my paternal heritage was more of Muslims and traditional worshippers, my maternal side was half Muslims and half Christians. My grandfather, on my mum’s side, was a famous Alhaji while my grandmother’s side was nearly all Christians. As a child, my family made two yearly visits to Ijebu-Ode. One during ‘Ileya’ to celebrate with my grandfather, and another at Christmas to be with my grandma’s family.

Get this. All of my grandpa’s grown children, at the time, were Christians. Not just Christians, some were ministers of God and preachers of the Gospel. But Alhaji would never purchase his Salah rams until we all arrived in Ijebu-Ode and went with him to the ram market. Not only that, we all went with him to prayer ground on Salah days, mostly in elaborate convoys. We performed similar activities during Christmas at my grandma’s family home.

And without boring you with too many details, let me just add that even on my father’s side, my dad – a Muslim, did go to church. And we all joined his mum in celebrating Egungun, Sango, Oya, and Ogun festivals.

I am very sure my story is not unique. As a matter of fact, it is the story of most Yoruba homes, particularly those of my generation. The beauty of this is that we all got along fine. Religion was never an issue. And, that is what made the Yoruba race unique. You were first and foremost, a Yoruba before you were described based on your religion. But sadly, it appears certain elements are gradually using religion to systematically break the unity in Yoruba land. This is further disturbing considering that those we elect to lead us are championing this new dangerous trend. Every well-meaning Yoruba person must resist attempts by those carrying out the “Larubawa” agenda in Yoruba land. And to think that we are now using our children, for whom we should be ensuring quality education, to destabilize schools in the name of religion is even more disheartening.

Ogbeni Aregbesola almost rubbished his achievements in Osun State during his tenure as governor due to attempting to create religious confusion in the state. Shouldn’t we have learnt a thing, or two from that? I believe we need to separate religion from government and allow it to be a personal contract between an individual and whichever god they choose to worship.

Akinloye is a United States based public affairs commentator