Being Christian and Human in Nigeria's Muslim North by Moses Ochonu: A Superb Analysis of the Appeal of Sheikh Masussuka to Christians
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Dec 7, 2025, 6:26:18 AMDec 7
to usaafricadialogue, usaafricadi...@gmail.com
I just watched Sheikh Yahya Masussuka’s speech to a largely Christian audience in Jos. The audience lapped up every word he served. There are several takeaways from the event:
1. Most Nigerians, especially in the north, are tired of the charged, adversarial, toxic, and violent religious environment. They long for, miss, and forlornly wish to recreate a religious relational reality that we now sadly only speak of in the past tense. This lost religious ecumenism, however imperfect it was, is something that most people now wish they hadn’t taken for granted when it existed in Northern Nigeria. Now that that era is gone, hearing Masussuka preach religious harmony and interreligious toleration is a refreshing, if perhaps unrealistic, pointer to the possibility of reviving the old order.
2. Muslims would be similarly enthusiastic about and receptive to a Christian cleric who goes to them with a similar message anchored on our common, complementary humanity and nationality. We’re all just weary of the combative religious relations, rivalry, and intolerance. They have brought us nothing but mass death, terrorism, and destruction. They have destroyed northern Nigeria, rendering large swathes of it uninhabitable. They have brought calamity and bitter insularity to both Christian and Muslim communities. This is not the natural order of things and it has brought misery to everyone.
3. The average Nigerian Christian does not understand or care about the creedal and sectarian leaning of Masussuka, his Qur’an-only, hadith-skeptical exegesis, which has made him the bete noir of Izala/Salafi Muslims. Christians are thus not invested in the esotric doctrinal debates and differences that make Masussuka such a lightening rod of controversy and contrarian angst among some Muslims. Christians are only attracted to the refreshingly novel ecumenical foundation of Masussuka’s creed. If the same message of tolerance and mutual respect and recognition were to come from an Izala cleric, Christians in Northern Nigeria would be similarly drawn to it. This is all to say that, no, Christians are not embracing Masussuka or his teachings to stick it to Ahlus Sunna Muslims.
4. Finally, tone, label, and nomenclature matter, and Masussuka strikes a different, more accepting and humanizing tone when talking about Christians than many of his Ahlus Sunnah clerical contemporaries who speak about Christians as if they’re an inevitable nuisance rather than as a great part of our wonderous quilt of ethno-religious diversity. Christians’ receptiveness to Masussuka is not even deep or hard to understand. At a very basic level Sheikh Masussuka accords respectful recognition to Nigerian Christians, something that, as philosopher Axel Honneth argues, is a basic human quest, along with the quest for redistributive rights. Christians reciprocate the gesture. Again, it’s very basic. Whereas for decades, Christians in Northern Nigeria, especially Hausaphone Northern Nigeria, have endured the dehumanizing pain of being called “arna” and “kafirai” by Ahlus Sunnah clerics, Masussuka calls them by the dignifying name they call themselves: Christians. This may not be a big deal to some people, but when you’re a religious or ethnic or other minority, something as basic as being called by your proper name and not by a term of Othering and devaluation can go a long way in convincing you that the person on the other side is a well meaning interlocutor and compatriot
1. Most Nigerians, especially in the north, are tired of the charged, adversarial, toxic, and violent religious environment. They long for, miss, and forlornly wish to recreate a religious relational reality that we now sadly only speak of in the past tense. This lost religious ecumenism, however imperfect it was, is something that most people now wish they hadn’t taken for granted when it existed in Northern Nigeria. Now that that era is gone, hearing Masussuka preach religious harmony and interreligious toleration is a refreshing, if perhaps unrealistic, pointer to the possibility of reviving the old order.
2. Muslims would be similarly enthusiastic about and receptive to a Christian cleric who goes to them with a similar message anchored on our common, complementary humanity and nationality. We’re all just weary of the combative religious relations, rivalry, and intolerance. They have brought us nothing but mass death, terrorism, and destruction. They have destroyed northern Nigeria, rendering large swathes of it uninhabitable. They have brought calamity and bitter insularity to both Christian and Muslim communities. This is not the natural order of things and it has brought misery to everyone.
3. The average Nigerian Christian does not understand or care about the creedal and sectarian leaning of Masussuka, his Qur’an-only, hadith-skeptical exegesis, which has made him the bete noir of Izala/Salafi Muslims. Christians are thus not invested in the esotric doctrinal debates and differences that make Masussuka such a lightening rod of controversy and contrarian angst among some Muslims. Christians are only attracted to the refreshingly novel ecumenical foundation of Masussuka’s creed. If the same message of tolerance and mutual respect and recognition were to come from an Izala cleric, Christians in Northern Nigeria would be similarly drawn to it. This is all to say that, no, Christians are not embracing Masussuka or his teachings to stick it to Ahlus Sunna Muslims.
4. Finally, tone, label, and nomenclature matter, and Masussuka strikes a different, more accepting and humanizing tone when talking about Christians than many of his Ahlus Sunnah clerical contemporaries who speak about Christians as if they’re an inevitable nuisance rather than as a great part of our wonderous quilt of ethno-religious diversity. Christians’ receptiveness to Masussuka is not even deep or hard to understand. At a very basic level Sheikh Masussuka accords respectful recognition to Nigerian Christians, something that, as philosopher Axel Honneth argues, is a basic human quest, along with the quest for redistributive rights. Christians reciprocate the gesture. Again, it’s very basic. Whereas for decades, Christians in Northern Nigeria, especially Hausaphone Northern Nigeria, have endured the dehumanizing pain of being called “arna” and “kafirai” by Ahlus Sunnah clerics, Masussuka calls them by the dignifying name they call themselves: Christians. This may not be a big deal to some people, but when you’re a religious or ethnic or other minority, something as basic as being called by your proper name and not by a term of Othering and devaluation can go a long way in convincing you that the person on the other side is a well meaning interlocutor and compatriot
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