How Nigeria Joined OIC

By Mojirade Ojo

Time flies. It has been 32 years already since the generally known rental criers called Nigerian Press began an unwarranted brouhaha over this country’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in January 1986.
That incident is another conspicuous goof mischievously exhibited in a press conference recently by a group that calls itself National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF). It is however on record that the baseless press conference turned out to be an exercise of self ridicule.
It was in the same press conference that NCEF displayed its ignorance by maliciously quoting a shamelessly fabricated speech credited to Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Membership of OIC
Although ‘The Message’ column had punctured the anatomy of the fabricated speech upon which NCEF ignorantly relied to dish out blatant lies to Nigerians in its press conference, exposing the real fact about Nigeri’s membership of OIC is also necessary here not only to educate Nigerians who knew little about that episode but also to further expose the hypocrisy of the so-called NCEF.
What was most amazing in NCEF’s claim of ‘Islamization’ over Nigeria’s membership of OIC is that the highly venerated General Yakubu Gowon who is listed as a member of that self appointed body could not uphold his charisma by cautioning other members of the group against bringing themselves to public ridicule. That shows the hypocrisy of some Nigerians of today who are claiming to be leaders in one capacity or the other.
Gowon’s Role in OIC
While the Press brouhaha continues to sound loud over Nigeria’s membership of OIC, not many Nigerians know the role of General Yakubu Gowon in the historical episode ushered Nigeria into that Organization. But as a charismatic statesman that he is perceived to be, one would have expected General Gowon to have openly told Nigerians about his role in that controversial venture.
Background Information
The Organization of Islamic Conference generally known as OIC was established in 1969 when General Yakubu Gowon was Nigeria’s Head of State. Nigeria was then embroiled in a civil war that began in 1967 and ended in 1970 after 30 months. In his desperation to win that war, General Gowon, as Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, took certain steps that later turned out to be generators of unbridled controversies. One of such steps was to take Nigeria into an Organization of a group of countries called OIC (although in observer status). Another was the ceding of Bakasi area of Nigeria to Cameroon in the same year (1969) in exchange for the latter country’s support for Nigeria. But we are more concerned about OIC here.
How It Happened
It was during Nigeria’s civil war years (1967-1970) that General Yakuba Gowon approached his fellow military Head of State in Egypt, General Gamal Abdul Nasir who transformed himself into a civilian President in that country. General Gowon approached the man for assistance in winning the Nigerian civil war in the spirit of Pan Africanism which President Nasir championed at that time. And in addition to helping General Gowon with some sophisticated military wares, President Nasir also introduced General Gowon to OIC Conference which was established that year in the belief that Gowon could get further help from other member States of the Organization. But seeking such help internationally was not peculiar to Gowon. The leader of the then rebellious Eastern region then called Biafra, Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, also sought and got the assistance of some countries like France, Pottugal and others in his bid to succeed in the region’s secession from Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Observer Status in OIC
For 17 years, Nigeria remained an observer member of that Organization until 1986 when she regularized her membership.
Yours sincerely, as the then Deputy Foreign Editor of the now defunct Concord newspaper was one of the only two Nigerian journalists that covered that regularization event in Fez, Morocco. The other Nigerian Journalist was Alhaji Liad Tella who was then the Group News Editor of the same Concord newspaper.
Before then, Nigeria had been severally pressurized by the Organization to regularize her membership. By then, her observer status, after a decade, had embarrassingly become a matter of suspicion to other members of the Organization. And in 1985, she was given an ultimatum of one year (1986) to either regularize her membership of that Organization or get out of the group. If she had failed to regularize her membership of the Organization when she dis in 1986, she would have been expelled and disgraced out of that body and that would have amounted to a public diplomatic ridicule in the comity of nations.
The summary here is that it was General Yakubu Gowon (a Christian) as Nigeria’s Head of State that took Nigeria into OIC and not the self-styled Evil Genius, General Ibrahim Babangida, as often ignorantly reported by Nigerian press. And if the Organization is really about ‘Islamization’ as often claimed by some ignorant bigots what would countries like Cameroon, Uganda, Mozambique, Gabon Togo, Cote’Divoire and several others be doing in it? Over to NCEF.
Islam in Africa Conference
One of the allegations of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria by NCEF was the conference named ‘Islam in Africa’ and hosted by Nigeria in the city of Abuja in 1986. That was the year that the Nigeria’s National Mosque, Abuja, was commissioned. Many African Muslim leaders who attended the commissioning were so impressed that they fortuitously proposed an annual conference that could unite African Muslims in the practice of their religion as a way of checking fanaticism that could breed terrorism. That conference was not exclusive to Muslims. Many African Christian leaders including some members of the so called NCEF were invited and they attended it with the expression of their opinions and advice. If the conference was truly aimed at ‘Islamizing’ Nigeria as mischievously alleged, would Chritian leaders have been invited? And knowing very well that Nigerian media was heavily dominated by Christian journalists at that time, would those journalists have been allowed to cover the event? In its solo or chorus, the song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria can be heard only from mischievous brigands who are parading themselves as religious clerics or priests.
The 1953 West African Synod
Nigerian Muslims are not oblivious of the problem with NCEF, CAN and some other Christian leaders in Nigeria who are constantly and monotonously shouting the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria. That problem is about a dangerous spectre which they had clad in the cassock of a masquerade and has now grown up monstrously to be theirs chaser days and nights.
Genesis
Seven years before Nigeria’s independence, a synod of West African Christians was held in The Gold Coast (now Ghana) with active participation of Nigerian Christian leaders, some of whom are still alive today. Synod is a conference of Bishops and other Christian topmost Priests at which fundamental decisions are taken which would become the basis of Church operations in evangelism. It was at that Synod that a esolution was adopted to use Western education as an instrument of Christian evangelization. By that resolution, any Muslim child that wanted acquire Western education in a Christian Missionary school must be converted into Christianity in spite of his or her payment of any charged fees. Their fear was that despite all efforts made by the then available Churches, Islam kept spreading spirally to the greatest amazement of the Chritian evangelists in the sub-region. And to curb such a trend, an evangelization policy must be incorporated into the educational system in the Continent. It was therefore decided that to change the trend of religious preaching in Africa, education must be used to convert the Muslim youths whose parents were eager to see their children educated in the Western Western way. The objective was to indoctrinate all converted school children in a way to sow in their hearts the seed of hatred towards their parents for sticking to the religion of Islam and thereby force those parents psychologically to jettison their religion and embrace Christianity or to renounce those children who would then become the foot soldiers of Christian evangelism. With such a resolution that was backed up with a White Paper which became a permanent policy of the Christian Mission in Africa, Christianity, according to their plan, would become such a strong rival of Islam that within just half a century, Islam would have been surpassed by Christianity and relegated to a second class religion especially in Nigeria. Thus, most of the vocal antagonists of Islam in Nigeria today are men and women with Islamic background who fell into the dragnet of that tendencious plot of the 1953 Synod.
It is the fear of that plot that is now pushing the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria into their mouths in respect of Islam in Africa Conference of 1989. They think that like their Synod, Muslims too might take a decision which could be devastating to Christian evangelism in Africa.
As for the random and fraudulent cry by Nigerian Churches for the return of the missionary schools taken over by the government in 1975, look out for the genesis and the implication of that owlish cry in this column soon.