I had no idea that Ibrahim Magu, embattled former acting chairman of the EFCC, is a “multi-religious” man who attends a church.
I thought he was just a Muslim, although northern Nigeria is so complex that merely bearing a “Muslim name” is not sufficient to conclude that one is a Muslim. (Read my December 24, 2017 column titled “Hausa-Speaking Northern Christian Names: An Onomastic Analysis.”)
In the 1 billion naira lawsuit Prophet Emmanuel Omale just threatened to file against the News Agency of Nigeria for reporting that he laundered “re-looted funds” for Magu in Dubai, his lawyer wrote, among other things,
“1. That our client is the General Overseer of an Inter-denominational/Multi-religious Prayer Ministry, which Mr. Ibrahim Magu attends.”
Note that the verb the suit chose is “attends,” which means it is habitual action, not a one-off event.
Assuming that Magu is a Muslim, what does attending “an Inter-denominational/Multi-religious Prayer Ministry” mean?
There is only meaning I can deduce: What corruption has joined together, let no religion put asunder!
*Kperogi is a US-based Nigerian academic and sociopolitical commentator. This piece was originally published on farooqkperogi.com on Monday.