By ENGR. Y. ADAMU DAURA
The role played by religious organizations and associations (Christian Association of Nigeria, Northern States Christian Elders Forum, Izala Group, The Supreme Council of Shariah etc) in 2023 elections, poses clear danger to Nigeria’s democracy and our continuous existence as a people and a country.
We have since 1960, been playing our politics without using religion but unfortunately from 2003 when Buhari appeared on the political scene the religious card reared its ugly head.
His fielding of pastors as his running mates never raised any concerns from the Muslim ummah and the clerics. It was only in 2023 that it became an issue at national level and in particular, Kaduna State.
We have witnessed during the 2023 electioneering campaign by Islamic clerics, waging war against themselves and at the same time, igniting and inciting another religious war between Muslims and Christians by their unguarded comments, statements, lies and concocted stories and twisted version of Islam. These acts are threat to Nigeria’s existence and survival.
This senseless intra religious war we went through during the electioneering campaign, if no studded actions are taken, may lead to the collapse of not only the democracy, but our togetherness as a people and a country. They have reopened old wounds and created new ones.
They sowed seeds of discord. We are now more divided than at any time in our history. Healing or correcting this may be very difficult.
These clerics have virtually raised politics as an article of faith, while forgetting the constitution we operate is not Islamic and Nigeria is a secular state. We are multi religious, multi ethnic and multi-cultural society. They ignored the very basic fundamentals of Islamic religion of tolerance and compassion.
These clerics are a bundle of contradictions. They have over the past eight years, been sitting on the fence, when fellow Muslims are killed, displaced, kidnapped, thrown into poverty, inflation, cash crunch and other policy failures.
They watched leaders betraying their oath of office, betraying public trust, corruption and outright stealing of public fund, growing number of out of school children, graduate unemployment, failing and poor educational standard, collapsed of security and the economy yet they campaign for these very people who put us in this mess. Is this Islamic?
The biggest culprits in this are the Supreme Council for Shariah and the notorious Izala Group. The Supreme Council for Shariah operated behind the scene, teleguiding and manipulating uninformed Imams and Ulamaah, spreading lies and conspiracy theories.
The hypocrisy of these groups knows no bounds and some of them can be placed alongside the hypocrites of our Beloved Prophet SAW struggled within both Makkah and Medina.
They have turned Tafsir and Jummat Sermons even Daawah into political platforms. What these Islamic clerics are doing is not based on Islamic teachings and tenets This is totally out of tune with what our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW and His companions did. Islam is against racism and hate.
I want draw the attention of these groups that Islam spread far and wide from Makkah to Indonesia, China, and the Far East, including Caribbean. Islam was in Spain for over 700 years. How did it reach there? Is this through the kind of actions and behavior of these Groups?
How did we find ourselves in this situation?
We must find, trace and identify how we got into this mess. Presently, we have so many Dr. Sheikh, Mallam this and that, but there is no system of checks and balances to know who is a mallam or sheikh or Dr. This brings me to the point that JNI under the Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu Borno is responsible for this. The JNI looks like moribund. It is sitting by idly, watching half – baked fortune seekers and unfits and misfits so called sheikhs take over, causing havoc to the religion of Islam and the Muslim North.
The Sultan, the Shehu of Borno and flagbearers have betrayed our founding fathers who fought and promoted Islam and its tenets. The sultan has no excuse in this.
It is disappointing that Sultan of Sokoto reduced his status to a low-level status of a once annual event of announcing the arrival and departure of the Holy Month of Ramadan.
The other Muslim organization, the Supreme Council of Sharia is more pathetic. This council is in bed with these Islamic clerics if not worse, and may be behind what is going on. All these going-ons are as a result of money-money which is stolen from public treasury. Money which is meant for development.
The advent of social media has added to the mess we are in. These same clerics have weaponized it by using it to advance their interests and spread their version of Islam.
We must find solution to this. The Sultan and Shehu must take actions to prevent these forces of evil who are hell-bent in destroying the Islamic values and moral to continue their havoc. They must not be allowed to take control of our religion. Listening to them will reveal how shallow they are in knowledge of the deen.
I suggest the followings: –
JNI should be reactivated, reinvigorated and empowered to deal with the situation. JNI should serve as a clearing house/regulator for all Muslim activities in the North.
JNI must set – up a SHURA SYSTEM that can be used to sanitize the system and restore the glory of Islam in Nigeria. South Africa, Saudi Arabia to some extent Pakistan are doing this. We can learn from them. This SHURA system will put in place guidelines for preaching, control, monitoring and enforcement mechanism.
Enforcement of the Provisions of CAMA 2020, especially accounting for non-governmental organizations.
EFCC and Financial Intelligence Unit must wake-up to their responsibilities
This is URGENT and NECESSARY.
The remaining original Sheikhs like Dahiru Usman Bauchi and Shariff Saleh should speak out on this.
I wish to finally appeal to the Sultan of Sokoto to arrange a meeting of the JNI urgently to review the situation and take measures. This country has enough problems and we cannot afford a religious crisis at this stage,
Engr. Y. Adamu Daura sent in this piece from Unguwan Kanawa in Kaduna
