Most Nigerians are known for being religious and ethnically oriented in their approach to various endeavours. The Yoruba are predominant in the South West, and comprise about 21 percent of the population. The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Yoruba culture and religion date back 5,000 years to West Nigeria. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.
For over 400 years, the Yoruba have straddled two geocultural spheres: one reaching north over the Sahara to the world of Islam, the other linking them to the Euro-American world via the Atlantic. These two external spheres were the source of contrasting cultural influences, notably those emanating from the world religions. Many Yoruba are now Muslims or Christians, but aspects of their traditional religion survive. The Approximately half of the Yoruba are Christian and half are Muslim.
Over 700 years ago, Islam came to Nigeria through the northern part of the country. While Islam in Yoruba land which started in the early 18th century. The first Christians came in contact with Nigerians in the fifteenth century, when Roman Catholicism was introduced by the Portuguese. Christianity brought about western education, which the Muslims and Government later complemented in the establishment of schools from primary to university level.
The travail of Yoruba Muslims started with the coming of British Christian missionaries who denied the Muslim children of getting western education except they convert to Christianity. Many were converted. Many of those Yoruba Christians you see today had Islamic background. Many Muslims refused their children from going to school. Many hide their identities as Muslims so as to get western education. Ahmadiyah came to rescue Yoruba Muslims when they (Ahmadiya) had been rejected by the Muslim World but Yoruba Muslims had no option than to accept them.
Then, there came the Ansarudeen (The helper of the religion of Allah) that built schools across Yoruba land. The travail of Yoruba Muslim Students gave birth to Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) which we all can proudly associated with throughout the country today. If Yoruba Muslims were coward and always depend on Yoruba Christians, we would not have started MSSN which serve as umbrella body for all Muslim Students in Nigeria. The Yoruba Muslims’ notion of the self and the other had, since 1960s, had profound impacts on their socio-religious lives and engendered intra-faith conflicts and controversies.
Farooq Kperogi, a journalist, newspaper columnist and Ph.D holder recently published an article titled, “Ikoyi Tragedy and Casual Bigotry Against Yoruba Muslims.” The insight was published after a video story of one Adebowale Sikiru whom Fourscore MD Femi Osibona (who sadly died in the collapsed building) denied a job only because of his Muslim faith to call attention to the time-honored casual bigotry and inferiorization of Muslims of Yoruba origin by their own people in their own land.
Nevertheless, we have ample evidences of adherents of Islamic faithful being victims of hatred, prejudices and bigotry affecting all aspects of their existence. Read the stories of Muslims who in the past had suffered bigotry in South West, Nigeria.
Kabir
If someone is denying that Muslims were seriously oppressed in the southwest, perhaps he or she didn’t school here. Or is just being mischievous.
The reason why we still have the highest number of thugs and touts in the garages is because a lot of Muslims refused to go to western schools because it was used to Christianize muslims. This is just plain history.
While we , my generation, escaped the direct Christianizing drive , the indirect one persisted. For 9 years of my young life I did BK ( Bible knowledge) in primary school, CRK ( Christian Religious knowledge) in secondary school. I never ever came near anything remotely related to Islam.
Look, I even still have a bit of those songs in my head till today , I can serenade you with ” Angels from the realms of glory ” , wax lyrical with “Jerusalem on high, my song and city is”
When the Muslim students society ( MSS) came to our secondary school for the first time , we Muslims were even too ashamed to identify as Muslims. There were no Friday prayers and even if we were allowed the assembly it was too scanty for me to remember.
Then what about employment?
They bloody told some of us to our face we can’t be employed because of Hijab , beards or even Salah.
I remember a brother who was struggling then and was told point blank to come to church if he wanted to be employed.
Not all Christians are like these fanatics but southwest Muslims are far far far more tolerant than these dan iskas
You know what ?
I think it was very, very good. It forced a lot of us into thinking more about our Islam. For me, it helped my dawah I knew Christian doctrine very well when I started engaging in dawah.
They also assisted brothers to become entrepreneurs and made some of them aim only for multi nationals or travel out.
So they had to shove their poor paying employments into their whatever orifice.
It’s not yet Uhuru.
But now we are a force to reckon with.
P.s.
By the way I still enjoy singing :
“All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
‘Twas God that made them all”
Abdulkabir
I see a lot of people trying hard to say Christians don’t discriminate in the Southwest based on the trending video. You people have me smiling. There are literally millions of Muslims systematically sidelined and it started from missionaries forcing Muslim children to be Christians to get an education. Up till today, there are many organizations where the make-up of the staff is not reflective of the pool of manpower out there from both religions.
I have personally invited a qualified Muslim to an interview in an organization led by a Christian and all he and his panel worried about was the Muslim would want to go for prayers. This person will proudly tell you he has Muslim relatives. The same person requires you to practice Christian worship with him in his organization every morning as a staff. We guests have to wait till they are done.
Muslims are not a minority in the Southwest but these systemic impediments have been there and remain firmly entrenched.
Watch as some Muslims begin to try to counter these facts, they are part of the problem, they are not able to understand and own the Muslim identity and nominally claim it as it pleases them.
Murtala
Hmmmm, I am a victim of their hostility
I was sent out of examination hall and had to carry an exam I scored 80,70 and 60 respectively, that I had extra year just because I approached a Christian lecturer who fix classes during Jum’ah.
My HOD denied receiving results on elective courses where I actually score highest mark.
They claimed to be friendly and peaceful while their act is contrary.
We Mustn’t hide being a Muslim as well be quiet during persecution and denial of our religious rights.
I had met a brother whom his direct boss ask him to submit his resignation to the superior boss if he cannot shave his beard, while doing that, the said to the superior boss that he doesn’t his beard has anything to do with his work with the company, then boss said yes and ask this brother to continue his work and shouldn’t mind his direct boss who asked him for his resignation.
Allaahu Musta’an
Ghaneeyah
You see the hostility in Ilorin despite being a majority Muslim town, it is plenty, very plenty. What a particular woman(Admin boss) showed me from day one after I got employed several years ago is untalkable (if there is any word like that). To tell you that we had Muslim bosses ho were even her own boss. And she had the guts to always victimize me.
My neighbor was moving from house to house to invite Christain be neighbors for house fellowship while I was jejely seated in front of my husband’s house o. We greeted and she told me her mission and we both laughed at the fact that she barely even know anyone around (she doesn’t greet them). Na so she said, abi e ma wa?( Will you come?). Even though she showed she was joking but it don’t think it was necessary. Edakun, knowing fully well that my religion is gadagba all over me. Infact, when I told my husband, he was angry. He was like ki lo fe fayen? Iru ikoja aye wo niyen.( What is the meaning of that? Isn’t she trespassing?)
A lot of instances that cannot be related here.
Ganiyah
They never tolerate us, and the most annoying part are our brethren that makes it easy for them to treat us that way.
A postgraduate student had to go set drumsticks Abi drumset in the church so he can pass just because his supervisor/advisor is a pastor. He’s not even allowed to seek permission to pray if he’s around the so-called supervisor.
No Muslim will invite his student to church in the first place, but this people do it again and again and if they’re able to see who draw the line, they start crying Boko Haram!
Aisha
I always tell people that the so called religious tolerance in the Southwest is infact, meekness of the Muslim community. The discrimination ehn!
Towards call to bar, there is a form aspiring lawyers are expected to sign and benchers (a group of some lawyers and judges that have attained a certain height) will need to sign same for the bar candidates. So, you would usually find these lawyers-to-be seeking benchers to sign this form for them.
So, in our set, it happened that a friend (a fellow Muslim) sought one of the so called benchers in Ibadan and before forms could be signed, praise and worship was compulsory and afterwards, he invited him to his church.
In my UI class, we were just about 5 or so Muslims and I was the only female. You could imagine the voicelessness! So many extra classes were fixed for Jumah and our dissent would not matter. We would rather be laughed at infact.
Ibraheem
They preach love but show hatred both subtly and glaringly, so don’t be deceived by their sermons. Suffice it to say that it’s not all of them but at the same it won’t be wrong to say majority are like that. I feel sorry for Muslims that feel inferior with their religion. If someone has to ask if you are a Muslim or a Christian despite knowing your name and seeing you physically then something is probably wrong somewhere.
Radhiyyat
I have been made aware of Muslims (especially women) being denied employment simply because they were Muslims in the time past. You may refuse to employ people for whatever reasons. But going out of your way to tell them it’s because of their religion is a kinda psychological attack. You might have never heard about it, but I have, many times. Aside this, I have read about some on social media. Such kinda stories have been around even before this Sikiru’s guy video.
And Muslims coming out to narrate their ordeals in the form of religious intolerance and attempts at domination should not be seen as a taboo. Are these things happening or not? How do we curb or bring an end to it if they are true should be our focus.
When Muslims raise concerns, it’s never about fighting for God or defending Him. But just as a Christian can go about with his religious identity, proclaim and defend it without being tagged a terrorist, a Muslim in Nigeria would want to enjoy same without being made to feel sorry or defensive about his religion.
That Muslim children and women be allowed to use hijab in public schools and work places to generate much noise should be enough an inkling of what’s possible in the private sector.
Hafiz
Before gaining admission at Unilorin in 2007, I had sought admission through direct entry at FUTA in 2006.
One of my uncles gave me a letter to the VC of prominent University in the Southwest at that time who was from my hometown. He wanted the VC to assist with an admission slot even though I had very good results.
A 2.1 National Diploma grade, in addition to 5 Bs, and 2Cs in GCE would easily merit a slot but you know how these things work at times. You needed to know somebody to stand a chance.
Unfortunately, the VC wasn’t on seat but I met the secretary and delivered my credentials to her.
The secretary checked my results and shook her head in amazement. Then she asked if I was a Muslim and observed my five daily prayer. I answered in the affirmative.
She then said something in the lines of… “you have an excellent result… are you sure thus isn’t fake? Any way, the school would still verify. If you can accept Jesus as your Lord and personal savior, I will help you.”
I was shocked to the bones 😳. I couldn’t belive my ears. Why should you give me such a silly condition? Well, I said NO and walked away but in my heart, I knew I had lost that admission.
I felt so unhappy throughout my journey back to Lagos. Coincidentally, one mumu lady was still trying to preach to me in the bus because she she saw me reading an Islamic text.
We only get to read stories like these in the book or hear them from others. This time it happened to me personally and the experience is still fresh in my mind.
A few months later, Allah gave me something better. An admission at the “better by far” University of Ilorin. A school that mounded me into what I am today and changed my life.
This is my story.
Kazeem
You want to see an embodiment of discrimation of Muslims in South West Nigeria?Look no further,College of health sciences in OAU is the perfect example. The department of surgery is the factory where they are being brewed.Any OAU health science person should come out and deny this so that I can finally bring out the names of the professors and doctors.
Let this table be shattered totally!
Ibraheem
Muslims have been turned to apologetic personalities.
When they have not even offended anyone.They apologise for being Muslims. They want to be acceptable by the society by compromising their beliefs.
Most often, Muslims are confronted with situations where they need to defend and apologetic about their chosen religion. The situation is not peculiar to a place , it happens all over the world. Even in a society populated by Muslims.
When those who did not give a damn talk and act according to Islamic dictates, you see the apologetic Muslims trying to water it . They want people to tell them that, they love their own type of Islam.
As Muslims, you need not to be apologetic about your religion, you only need to please your Lord and not individuals.
