Taofik Bankole: Enough of Muslims constituting nuisance by praying on major roads!
Religious sentiments and fanaticism, like Prof. Wole Soyinka said few months ago, might be the death of us as a nation.
It was gathered that, on Friday, Muslim worshippers took over a Federal highway, between Malumfashi and Funtua, an area in Katsina state, to observe the weekly Jum’at prayers.
That action inevitably caused a traffic gridlock for road users.
“You need to see the length of the queued cars behind me what if emergency vehicles are on that road?” a road user, who was affected by the ensuing traffic, lamented.
Now that, is very wrong on all levels!
Sadly, the incident in Katsina is not an isolated event as Fridays, the highly revered day for Muslims to converge and worship God, has been seen by some Muslims as an opportunity to cause the breakdown of law and order.
Many road users in several parts of the country have been victims of these “religious” persons who block major highways to pray.
Do I, as a Nigerian, suspend any intended trip just because I know my brothers would have taken over all major roads?
What if there was an emergency? A rush to save a life? An important meeting to attend with a deadline to meet?
And as someone rightly pointed out, sitting in the middle of the road poses a huge safety risk in itself, as an oncoming vehicle may have lost its brakes.
In as much as it is the government’s responsibility to protect the rights of every citizen and avoid chaos, religious leaders must also make it a duty to ensure their followers don’t engage in breakdown of law and under under the guise of worshipping God.
Even God would frown at that.
And though it is hugely necessary, and Godly, to imbibe the virtue of religious tolerance, it is just as Godly to respect the right to free movement by every citizen.
This doesn’t leave out the Christians who constitute similar nuisance on major roads.
These acts of disregard for other citizens’ rights need to stop and the government needs to act!
