Primate Elijah Ayodele

By Fola Ademosu

Recently, Primate Ayodele Elijah, the leader of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Home, launched a mosque project, which he intends to build for members of the Nupe Community in Lagos. At the groundbreaking ceremony of the project, Nupe leaders including the representatives of Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar –who originally was meant to perform the role–eulogized Primate Ayodele’s altruism and compassion towards the poor and underprivileged in society.

The mosque-building mission underscores Primate Elijah’s character as a promoter of peace, unity, and interfaith solidarity. Beyond mere brick and mortar, his action is a positive statement that caring for our fellow human beings is a significant demonstration of faith in God. Importantly too, it epitomized a message of understanding and respect, and one reflective of the core tenets of the Abrahamic faiths: love, acceptance, and service to humanity.

Certainly, the impact of his action will be long-lasting as generations of Muslims will worship in the mosque. The import of this also is that building bridges across tribal, cultural, and religious divides is a quicker and most assured path to the terminus of peace and harmony in Nigeria. Religion and humanity are intertwined, so much so that practicing one without the other seems like paying lip-service to a critical divine precept: love.

Had God not loved humanity, despite its shortcomings, He would simply have shut up the tap from which grace flows. What is life without divine grace, anyway? Absolute emptiness! It is also in this context that we must understand that religion is fundamentally a human activity for self-development. It is to make an individual a better person and to forge a close relationship with God. The definition of self-development, therefore, cannot be hostility and profanities that merely incite adherents to violence and wanton destruction. Definitely not!

Ironically, religion is in the hands of mischief makers a manipulative tool to mangle peace and destabilize society. Muslims and Christians are not immune of blame in the weaponising of religion for the unaltruistic and sinister purpose at any time. Happily, there are some exceptional cases that will continue to serve as beacons, against the negative rhetoric and actions of some mischievous leaders in society. One of such exception, undoubtedly, is the Primate Ayodele.

Primate Ayodele’s action also reminds one of the remarkable stories of Italian poet and Catholic friar, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, otherwise known as Saint Francis of Assisi. The saint’s renowned encounter with the Sultan of Egypt Muhammad Al-Kamil at the height of the Christian and Muslim tension, known as the Crusades, would later be adapted into a 2018 film titled “The Sultan and The Saint.”  Saint Francis of Assisi had, in 1219, embarked on a peace mission to Al-Kāmil at Damietta in northern Egypt during the Fifth Crusade. He held religious dialogue al-Kāmil, in the bid to end the Christian-Muslim war. He did succeed, and the historical meeting between them ultimately birthed a common vision of universal peace, reconciliation, and interfaith cooperation. This, I believe, is the underpinning of Primate Ayodele’s message.

His relentless pursuit of peace among diverse peoples and religions is admirable and exemplary. Good and evil definitely cohabit in the human sphere. Therefore, every religion has its share of opposites.

One incident to further drive home my point was the noble act by Imam Abdullahi Abubakar during a 2022 religious crisis that engulfed Yelwa Gindi Akwati village of Plateau State in 2022. While the merchants of death on both sides were busy at work, Abubakar instead made his home a refuge for several Christians fleeing the carnage.

For his bravery and humanitarian gesture, then-President Muhammadu Buhari decorated Imam Abubakar a national honour. In the same vein, Primate Ayodele has demonstrated that only in peace can our divine and human aspirations make their full expression. Even beyond his promoting religious tolerance, Primate Ayodele has become a moral compass in Nigeria, using his prophesies to the nation to warn, particularly, the political and economic class of likely dangers at different times.

In addition, the series of economic empowerment programmes Primate Ayodele carries out have lifted several Nigerians, whom he might not know personally, out of poverty. He has shown himself to be a friend of the affluent and powerful, as he is with the downtrodden, orphans and widows. The bakery he recently founded, which is intended to sell bread to the poor at a relatively cheaper price, attests to his public-spiritedness. This and several other benevolent deeds have made his Oke-Afa, Isolo church to become a refuge to which his followers and others run and are comforted, forgetting the challenges that spurred their visits in the first place. Primate Ayodele combines philanthropy with patriotism, and it is commendable that he has been consistent on this path for several decades. Primate Ayodele’s deeds are a direct call on others to foster bond of love, respect diversity and promote inclusion.

Ademosu writes from Lagos