It’s mostly about geography! By Donu Kogbara,
On a Youtube podcast I posted a few days ago, I briefly discussed conflicts that destroy or undermine relationships. One such conflict recently occurred in my life and it revolved around religion.
In a nutshell, a former friend and I are no longer on speaking terms because she took offence when I politely refused to share all of her opinions about murders of Christians and Muslims in the North.
I might have a different worldview if I’d been born into a Muslim family. And she might have a different worldview if she’d been born into a Christian family. But the questions I keep asking myself are:
Why on earth do people take religious differences so seriously and even kill or risk their lives to promote or attack particular religions?
Don’t they realise that the religions we wind up with rarely boil down to personal choice and mostly boil down to accidents of geography?
My late mother was an uncompromising Roman Catholic who saw little or no merit in other Christian denominations – Anglican, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc – never mind other faiths like Buddhism or Islam.
I couldn’t understand her attitude because, as I pointed out to her during numerous arguments about her denunciations of “rival” religions and insistence that the Catholic Church was the only true church on the planet, she didn’t actually CHOOSE Catholicism. She simply inherited it.
Furthermore, she had never embarked on in-depth comparisons of Catholic doctrine and alternative teachings, so she had no idea whether Catholicism was really superior on every single level.
Then there is the fact that Mummy freely admitted that some of the worst people she had ever met were Catholics, while some of the nicest were not.
Finally, were Islam and Christianity not imported religions that were forced on or vigorously introduced to conquered Africans by colonial missionaries and old school jihadi conquistadors?
So, sure it is fine to be enthusiastic about the religions your ancestors willingly embraced or reluctantly succumbed to. But is it fine to carry these religions on your head in an I-go-die frame of mind?
For all I know, Methodism might suit me more than Catholicism does. But I have never gotten around to educating myself about Methodism and I am a predictably typical human being in this sense.
Very few people bother to examine other religions to find out whether they have something better to offer. Very few convert. Most of us just passively accept the cards we were dealt by our parents.
And the bottom line is that if my mother had been born in an Islamic area, she’d probably have been a Muslim. Just as if my Muslim ex-chum had been born in a Christian area, she’d probably be a Christian.
Let us all please remember these inescapable facts when we are tempted to pick fights around religion and associated political issues!
I couldn’t agree more!
I picked this commentary up
online and I have slightly edited it for reasons that are too complicated to explain here.
The author is unknown, which is a pity because he or she deserves applause for his or her searingly intelligent observations, especially the sentences I have highlighted in bold type:
Sometimes I genuinely wonder whether we are a serious people in this country. I have watched Nigerians who parade themselves as conscientious and principled, shouting in outrage over Tinubu’s ambassadorial appointments.
But let’s pause and ask a very simple question:
Are we now the ones to dictate who he appoints?
Have we, knowingly or unknowingly, accepted his government as legitimate to the point where we are now debating the moral quality of his nominees?
Because if you’ve accepted the premise, you must accept the consequences.
Let’s speak truth without fear.
Tinubu simply selected people who reflect him; in character, in attitude, in political conduct, and in the elasticity of their principles.
Why the shock?
Why the disappointment?
Did anyone honestly think he was going to nominate Rufai Oseni? Or Chimamanda Adichie?
He didn’t pick his nominees on moral grounds.
He picked them because they embody the very traits that power in Nigeria thrives on: political shape-shifting…and a willingness to serve any master who feeds their ambition.
As for me, I cannot be bothered about who Tinubu appoints.
A man will always gather people who resemble his philosophy.
A leader attracts his kind.
A system selects its mirror.
But let’s shift from the noise and look at the deeper lesson.
Tinubu is an experienced politician.
He understands the power of networks, the usefulness of structures, and the importance of rewarding loyalty, not because it strengthens national progress, but because it strengthens his hold on power.
He does not honour virtue; he honours usefulness.
He does not elevate saints; he elevates strategists.
He does not promote people for who they are, but for what they offer him.
Once he identifies your relevance to his political machinery, he will position you; not for your sake, but for his survival.
And that is the central lesson Nigerians must understand: political appointments are rarely moral decisions; they are strategic decisions.
Tinubu is simply honouring those who mirror the traits his political ecosystem requires, people flexible in principle, aggressive in self-interest, loyal to power rather than to truth.
In the end, the ambassadorial list is not a reflection of Nigeria.
It is a reflection of Tinubu.
And perhaps the real question is this:
Why are we shocked when a system produces exactly what it was designed to produce?
The post It’s mostly about geography! By Donu Kogbara appeared first on Vanguard News.
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On a Youtube podcast I posted a few days ago, I briefly discussed conflicts that destroy or undermine relationships. One such conflict recently occurred in my life and it revolved around religion. In a nutshell, a former friend and I are no longer on speaking terms because she took offence when I politely refused to share […]
The post It’s mostly about geography! By Donu Kogbara appeared first on Vanguard News.
, , Emmanuel Okogba, {authorlink},, , Vanguard News, January 9, 2026, 2:58 am
