Religion was not quite a major divisive issue in the community in which we lived in the Old Cross River State in my days as a student there. On Sundays, students felt free to attend church service either within the campus or outside. I do not recall any major religious upheaval in the largely Christian community that the old Cross River was.In those days, there was the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (Olumba Olumba), the indigenous Qua Iboe church, the Presbyterian church, the Anglican Church, the African Church, the Apostolic Church, the Foursquare Church, the AME Zion and the Methodist. The Pentecostal Churches were beginning to spread and take root. On campus, there was the formidable, evangelical Scriptures Union.
So much has changed between then and now. The return to civilian rule has worsened the political exploitation of religion in Nigeria, and the old Cross River is not exempted. The politicians who took over from the soldiers after Nigeria’s second independence in 1999, have made it all the more tragic, as the lines between religion and politics have become blurred. No part of the
