Humanism holds the key to a great and glorious future for this country. And all of us who subscribe to the humanist outlook must rise up to the historic challenge of unlocking our country’s humanist potentials and promises.

In this world we can choose to be indifferent, we can also choose to make a difference. I believe all us in this hall have chosen to make a difference. Today one way we can use to make a difference in Nigeria is by defending secularism. Secularism entails the separation of religion and state and the non-involvement of religion in the organization of society, in policy making and in education.

l Because we live in a religiously and philosophically pluralistic country, it is imperative we defend secularism.
l Because we want to build a nation that is free, open and democratic, we must defend secularism
l Because we want to build a state that can be an impartial arbiter and guarantor of the rights and liberties of all citizens whether they are religious believers or non-believers, we must defend secularism
l Because we want to realize a nation where no human being is oppressed or discriminated against on the basis of his religious belief or unbelief, we must uphold the separation of religion and state. Because we want to build a nation where we can send our children to schools without the fear that they will be indoctrinated and brainwashed with religious dogmas and fanatical creeds, we must defend secularism.
l Because we want Nigeria to produce thinkers, inventors, innovators and discoverers of cures to diseases and solutions to the socio-economic problems that afflict humanity and not suicide bombers, jihadists, crusaders and holy warriors, we must defend secularism.
l Because we want to realize a Nigeria where science, technological intelligence, critical thinking, human rights, freethought and free speech will flourish without the threat of fatwa, blasphemy and inquisition we must uphold the separation of church/mosque and state.
l Because we live in a nation that has lost so many lives to religious bloodletting, sectarian violence, ritual murder and witch killing, we must defend secularism.

Religion belongs to the private domain of individual believers, and should not define or direct public good, legislation and education. The public space belongs to everybody and should be a market place where all ideas and beliefs – religious, nonreligious, theistic, non-theistic, scientific, nonscientific, dogmatic, non-dogmatic, transcendental and mundane can interact openly and freely. Hence a situation like in Zamfara, Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and other muslim majority states in the Northern Nigeria where the government legislates, organizes and administers justice and public order on the basis of one religion and one “holy book” is totally unacceptable.

Let us make no mistake about it, a government under the rule of divine laws is not a democracy but a theocracy.

So, in the spirit of democracy and secularism, the Nigerian government must stop the implementation of sharia law and other religious laws at all levels. Nigeria must stop funding religious courts, religious schools and religious pilgrimages. The Aso Rock Chapel and other state owned and state-run churches, mosques and places of worship nationwide must be closed down.

Humanists, Secularists and Freethinkers must strive to loosen the dark and dangerous grip of religion on Nigerian thought, culture, politics, conscience and civilization. We must mobilize and lobby to enthrone an open secular society where every individual will be judged not by the religion he professes or the church or mosque she attends or the holy book he believes or disbelieves in, but by the content of her character.

l Secularism stands for justice, equality and freedom.
l Secularism stands for the liberation and emancipation of humanity.
l Secularism is critical to Nigerian democracy, unity, development, peace and progress.
l Secularism is imperative to the realization of African Renaissance, planetary humanism and New Enlightenment.

So let us all strive to defend the ideals of secularism and separation of religion and state vigorously at this conference and beyond.

Leo Igwe is Executive Secretary of Nigerian Humanist Movement and an IHEU’s Growth and Development Committee representative in Africa.

“We Nigerians use our Christianity as a drunken man uses the street lamp-post, for physical support only. I know of no other country where the profession of Christianity is more noisily trumpeted than it is in Nigeria, and yet I doubt whether there is any other country where there is greater rapacity, worse corruption and more disregard of the golden rule.

“Nigeria of thirty years from now would be much less corrupt, much more thorough, much more socially responsible, but certainly much more religiously disinclined, formally speaking, unless history fails to repeat itself and thus yield grounds to those of your present teachers and my old ones who, being static and conservative, have continued to be ignorant, self- centred transmitters of dead or moribund traditions”.