By EMMANUEL OGEBE

It was amidst this horrendous massacre that I read Prof Kperogi’s article claiming that the election of Osinbajo as President will ignite a religious war. This was my response to the author:

“This is purely a sophist hypothesis and one of your worst yet. You claim Osinbajo will “ignite religious civil war” but do not say he will start one. Rather you imply but do not clearly state that you actually mean Muslims will start a religious war.

Secondly you erroneously claim Osinbajo is a PFN member. He isn’t – not being a head of a Pentecostal denomination. Cobbling quotes from PFN to attribute them to him is thus disingenuous.

Thirdly if Christians are only praying for others to convert and peacefully requesting representation in politics, that is better than Boko Haram who are doing so by violence and those who promised to mix the blood of baboons and hyenas. In fact it is a credit to the people of Lagos that their peaceful agitation for a Christian governor was harkened to unlike the north where even deputy governor usually consigned to Christians was pilfered in Kaduna and other states.

I have disagreed with Osinbajo vehemently myself throughout his tenure but your extreme characterization of him is unwarranted.

It is ironic that after an extremist like Buhari who is so dangerous that even Tinubu and El-Rufa’i fellow Muslims called him out, anyone would call Osinbajo an extremist. He was good enough to be used to mitigate Buhari’s Islamic extremism but is not good enough to be president?

The saddest thing is that no mention was made about his qualification for the job, his intellectual superiority to Buhari or even his basic competence which was self-evident during his time as acting President. An Osinbajo can NEVER be worse than a Buhari.

If anyone ignites religious war in Nigeria, it is not Christians. If you’re threatening that Muslims will start a religious war in Nigeria, you’re rather late. There are at minimum three religious wars currently ongoing:

1. Boko Haram ISWAP

2. Fulani killer militia

3. Buhari’s non-violent Fulanization of the Federal govt.

Nigerians should be thankful that Christians practice prayer and not violence. That’s been the saving grace of Nigeria.

I would like to take this opportunity to caution Pro Kperogi and others to be guided by what is happening in Ukraine before beating drum beats of war. The west will respond quickly to their fellow whites but not likewise to us. I am fully aware that some have made extensive investments and linkages with Niger, Dubai and U.K. so they can run away after they have destroyed Nigeria but millions of Nigerians have no other place to go. If a few million Ukrainian refugees can overwhelm Europe, tens of millions of Nigerian refugees will overwhelm the world!

In conclusion, I published a report about the threat by bandits that churches be closed down in Zamfara state and Prof Kperogi challenged me, saying: “This isn’t a religious issue. Stop making it one.”

I responded thus: “So this very specific threat reported above is non-existent in your mind or is not religious? How can I make non-religious an issue the terrorists have made religious?

“Firstly prof, it appears you did not read my statement. The article was a republication of Sahara Reporters which, love them or hate them, cannot be called “not credible” more so when the police has confirmed the threat.

“We can’t debate empirical established fact. That’s simply a non-starter.

“Secondly I gave a history of documented similar threats and listed victims I personally know and met this month and have assisted with at least six surgeries over the years. Again I won’t debate my clinical experiential knowledge of their travails spanning years on the basis of a one paragraph anecdotal text.

“Thirdly my recent trip was not regarding school abductions which I have written extensively about ad nauseum over the past decade. It simply did not feature in my instant report and I will not gratuitously inject into the current report extraneous issues willy-nilly.

“Fourthly the specific threat was the closure of churches in the north NOT the closure of mosques which has practically never happened. There is simply no moral equivalency on the level of animus against Christianity in the north which though being from Kwara, you certainly saw first-hand in BUK.

“Fifthly your appeal to so-called “humanity” is your iteration of the White “all lives matter” counter trope.

“Finally as an academic I respect I would appreciate it if in future you don’t send me a text simply saying I should “stop” expression of a researched thesis as though it was a joke text. That should be a minimum courtesy, prof.”

Prof Osinbajo and Prof Kperogi are both respected Nigerian academics. Ironically I publicly challenged Prof Osinbajo in a Houston townhall on this same issue as Kperogi, when the VP said more Muslims were being killed than Christians.

We need the slaughter of Nigerians to stop whether Christian or Muslims and it is unacceptable for anyone to categorically declare there will be a war if anyone is elected president.

I understand that Prof Kperogi’s post has been shared online by thousands and translated to Hausa language and distributed widely. I call on him to do the right thing and repudiate this unfortunate and dangerous hypothesis.

•Emmanuel Ogebe, Esq, an expert on the Nigerian judiciary and head of the US Nigeria Law Group, writes from Washington USA.