Adamu Garba cracks a dangerous religious joke... Why no one laughed

Reacting to the news of fake catholic bishops attending the unveiling of the All Progressive Congress APC candidate's running mate, Adamu Garba tweeted a photo that has caused a fresh religious uproar among Nigerians on twitter.

In his tweet-pic, he has an obviously edited bishop's cap on his head, followed with the caption "Ladies and gentlemen it appears I have a new title..."

At the time of filing this report, Mr Garba has taken down this tweet due to the backlash it attracted to him, from both christians and muslims.

The general sentiments were that this is blasphemy, and also a display of double standards.

Adamu Garba is widely known for his support for democratic Islamization of Nigeria. A recent proof of this was that he returned to the APC (barely 2 months after leaving bitterly) just for the fact that the party was presenting a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket to the Independent National Electoral Committee INEC.

The ticket has stirred up strings of reactions with support from aligned politicians, and general resistance among citizens, for reason that it is insensitive to the fragile relationship between the two most populated religions in Nigeria: Islam and Christianity.

The Christian Association of Nigeria CAN had taken a stand against Tinubu's decision to pick a muslim as his running mate. Hence, it was rather a national shock that a number of unknown and unnamed bishops were in attendance of the official unveiling of Shettima as Tinubu's running mate. CAN tagged the bishops "fake" and "hired", daring the APC to publish their names.

Garba defended his joke, saying that he was not the originator of the image; however, he reinforced a joke that was to be directed at him.

Nigerians have been quick enough to recall that just two months ago, Garba defended the lynching of Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a second-year Christian college student, who was killed by a mob of Muslim students in Sokoto, Nigeria, after being accused of blasphemy.

In his words, "There is no muslim that dont respect the sanctity and divinity of Jesus Christ. And certainly, there is no muslim that would ever tolerate denigrating or beloved prophet Mohammed.

"Insulting him is our uncompromising REDLINE. Respect our sensibilities and avoid it."

Garba, as of the time of this report, is being dragged by young Nigerians on Twitter, who are openly condemning his open disrespect on Christianity, and for even endorsing the post in the first place. A tweep, Fatima Abubakar, nicely put...

A general stand this reporter reinforces is the belief that as young Nigerians, we need not inherit the same problems that have made for a broken Nigeria. While it may gratify our sense of belief, it simply deepens the national divide that should have ended generations ago. Respect for difference is the goal.

Garba would find a hard time reinventing perception of himself among young and progressive Nigerians...