St. Paul, the Pope and IBB comparison

I will like to look at the advert from two perspectives. First, comparing the conversion of Saul to St. Paul with IBB's first coming and his ambition to rule this country again is an insult. IBB cannot equate himself with the conversion of St. Paul. His attitude and utterances certainly do not reflect a man that has repented and ready to atone for all the atrocities committed during his stay in power. When God called St. Paul, the conversion led to positive things for the Christian world. Are Engr. Idris and Tola Adekoya saying that God has called IBB? Please spare us that story. Men of God are known and you do not need a binocular to know them except those who are willing to be deceived.

In the same manner, comparing Pope Benedict XV1 with IBB does not arise at all. They are two separate people with different beliefs. Against all odds, labelling the Pope in the advert as a Nazi also cannot hold water. Your categorical statement in the advert saying "yes, a whopping six million Jews were murdered by Adolf Hitler's Nazi, among who was Ratzinger, the present Pope!" is rather a very ignorant and lazy statement. There is no iota of truth in that statement! It is wrong to assume that all living Germans during the reign of Hitler were Nazis.

For the avoidance of doubt, the role of Pope Benedict XV1 during the German persecution of the Jews is stale news. It has been well documented and a simple research would have guided you in writing your advert. Pope Benedict XV1's membership of the Hitler Youth was not voluntary but compulsory and you must remember that Ratzinger, the son of an anti-Nazi policeman, was only 16 years old during the period in question.

It must be stated that as a young seminarian he was registered compulsorily as a member of the Hitler Youth which he deserted as soon as he left the seminary. Even when he knew that the membership of the Hitler Youth will guarantee him the tuition reduction he really needed, this did not deter him from distancing himself from the youth group of Hitler.

It must be stated clearly that the world is well advanced; IBB and his cohorts in the Initiative for Equal Co-Existence should know that if Pope Benedict XV1 had been a Nazi sympathiser, then it would undoubtedly have become evident and brought to light during the past 65 years. Please note that as part of his responsibilities in the church, even before he became the Pope, Ratzinger distinguished himself in the field of Jewish-Catholic relations.

I really do not know what the campaign team in the Initiative for Equal Co-Existence wants to gain by pushing the presidency of IBB on the platform of religion. In a multi-religious country like Nigeria, it is rather insensitive for the group to toe that line knowing fully well that it can lead to religious unrest. It is better imagining if a Moslem prophet or leader had been the subject of such aspersion and unfounded comparison by a Christian or even a Moslem politician; the story would have taken a new dimension since the day the advert was published. Certainly a Fatwa would have been proclaimed against the politician, the campaign team and even the newspaper that published it.

If the IBB group wants attention and a new direction for his political future, they should do so without casting aspersions on religious personalities to justify an insatiable lust for power. If the truth must be said, the description of General Ibrahim Babangida in the advert as a man that should be given a second chance is unacceptable. The concluding statement that, "IBB has not committed any crime in the magnitude of above leaders..." gives food for thought. So has he committed some crimes? It will be good for him to come out and state those "small" crimes for the world to know so that he may be forgiven. He does not have to rule to be forgiven.