Opinion

Dear Buni,

We need to talk; governance is beyond speeches. It requires actions, commitment and foresight. There is no place in history for those that failed to deliver the mandate given to them in any democratic polity. The world’s political leaders continue to champion the ideal democracy, tell voters you know the best, use your voice to bring change and take ownership of your destiny in knowing the details and aspects of governance. This gives prudent leaders the zeal and passion for taking responsibility, for leading by example. To incorporate new ideas and creativities, which provide an avenue for feedback and to believe in criticisms. These are the attributes that make them stand out amidst many challenges.

However, if we are to measure the growth and progress of our society, the indices we can use is education because acquiring quality and functional education is the concern of every community. That is why scholars in the field of public policy emphasize that, when it comes to educational policy, the stakeholders and actors are paramount to the policy’s success. They need to be integrated, involved, and allowed to participate freely without hindrance from the policy formulation and implementation stage. All their ideas and contribution need to be examined, analyzed and incorporated into the policy. They need to feel important in every step of the policy process. This will give them ample opportunity to take ownership and responsibility for its success and bring about a higher level of commitment in implementing the objective of the policy.

You declared a ‘state of emergency on basic and secondary education’ on your assumption of office. We all cheered and understood something needed to be done to save the sorry state of education. We believe in your powerful speeches on the first-ever ‘Educational Summit’ held in Yobe state. You declared that “I know there are a lot of complaints about some teachers, who are not qualified to teach, and complaints about some teachers who are not able to speak or write well in [the] English Language. This has to change”. We all hailed again, thinking the messiah and symbol of hope had arrived.

From your oratory speeches, we develop confidence that today’s governance transcends what had happened in the previous administrations. We all got a sigh of relief and hoped new ideas and philosophies would guide your administration. The people of outstanding calibre would be called to serve the state, people with foresight and reason.

The problems facing the Basic and Secondary Education policy are many. The broad objective of the policy was in papers, and in practice, it did not demonstrate what it entails. The problem emanated from the formation of the team or committee saddled with the responsibility to craft the policy and to non-involvement and proper participation of actual stakeholders: Teachers, Headmasters/Headmistress, Education Secretaries, etc. Supervisors, Zonal Inspectorates, former and serving Principals and parents of the pupils/students. These are the most important actors and stakeholders alongside the legislative and civil society organizations (CSOs).

This action makes the policy a product of educational elitism or an avenue of wasting state resources. It did not reflect the wishes and aspirations of the general populace. It did not cover every stakeholder because most of the committee members are teaching in higher institutions of learning. They don’t have actual expertise in what it takes to make primary and secondary education functional. The committee lacks the wisdom or vision to go beyond their thinking to involve the real stakeholders in generating the policy ideas.

Since the signing of the committee’s report on January 16, 2020, by you, and declared that “all hands must be on deck to actualize the goals of the policy”, eleven months later, on December 16, 2020, Daily Trust released a survey of the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria by Nigerian Education Data Survey (NEDS). Yobe state has 57 per cent of school children in the country, and this figure corresponds with the technical committee’s report that 40% of Yobe children are out of school.

What have you done to improve the students’ enrollment and retention in the state, enhance teachers’ capacity, and employ new ones to fill the gap? The emergency is not about pronouncing a word; it requires action, and, in this part, you failed to lead and hold the oath of office you took to manage the affairs of state that you’re ready to make education functional and accessible. Leadership is all about making an impact in people lives you promise to govern.

I was surprised by the emergency in education, particularly the deduction of teachers’ salaries in August and September. Everybody knew there was uncertainty in revenue generated and allocated to the state, but this would not be an excuse. You need to understand, the critical stakeholders in achieving the goals of your policy are teachers. How can you declare an emergency on a sector hoping to improve it but end up eating their hard-earned cake?

You need to double teachers’ salaries and allowances, provide proper capacity building training, provide accommodation, and motivate them to work hard. This singular action smeared the image of your administration. Unless you reverse this policy of salaries deduction and apologize to them for the hardship and problem your administration causes them, you’re heading in the wrong direction.

Moreover, as we all know, the significant source of revenue to finance all the intended projects are Federal Allocation. Due to uncertainties in the global oil market, the government should review the policy and allow all relevant stakeholders to review and execute the policy. The government should cut the cost of governance, reduce unnecessary expenses, and accommodate all the projects you intend to achieve in realizing functional education in the state.

In all the projects done in some schools across the state, the major funders of these projects are donor agencies and development partners in collaboration with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and North East Development Commission. However, what is the role of other institutions, especially the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, in complementing the efforts of these Donor agencies in making and realizing the objective of the policy? Unfortunately, we do not see their visibility, even the recruitment of SUBEB, for almost a year, there is no result.

Given the background above, we need to sit down and talk about governance. History is there to those who leave a golden legacy or otherwise ensure your government adopts a participatory approach to policymaking involving all stakeholders. The policy should be the product of citizenry wishes and aspirations by allowing them to participate in policy design and implementation, enhance teachers’ and administrators’ capacity with the sole aims of improving their productivity and increasing their salaries and allowances.

Funding is key to achieving the policy’s objectives; 26% of budgetary should be allocated to education and ensure proper utilization. In addition, you need to create a Basic Education Trust Fund (BETF), be managed by accomplished education administrators, and provide robust and proper collaboration and partnership with Donor Agencies and Development partners. What we want from you is action and taking responsibility to show you can do it.

Umar Yahaya Dan-Inu wrote from Hausari Ward, Nguru. He can be contacted via umarnguru2015@gmail.com.

By Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan

Audu Bako, a Police Commissioner, the first military governor of the old Kano State from April 1967 to July 1975, was a wonderful human who executed superhuman projects that were, to this day, unsurpassed. When he came, Kano was the most educationally deprived among the 12 states created in 1967. Nevertheless, he made it compete with the rest before he left.

Together with his dutifully well-meaning permanent secretaries and commissioners, Audu Bako charted a good Kano development plan that was followed by successive governments up to the year 2000. Only a few changes were effected in the last 20 years. However, he was regarded as the most insightful governor of Kano to date.

Audu Bako gave Kano life when he came despite having met only 743 staff in the entire state, most of them junior officers; no single Kano indigene that could operate a bulldozer; only 241 primary schools, 16 post-primary schools and 139 teachers; no tertiary institutions in the whole state except Bayero University College and Advanced Teachers College, ATC Kano.

With the take-off grant of N10 Million on 1st April 1968, Audu Bako created six ministries, (1) Agriculture, (2) Forestry and Community Development, (3) Justice, (4) Education, (5) Finance, Industry and Commerce, and (6) Works and Surveys, as well as three other commissioners under the governor’s office who took charge of Home Affairs, Local Government and Information Division.

To bring the government closer to people, Audu Bako established 8 administrative headquarters: (1) Kano North Central -Ɗambatta which includes Ɓaɓura, Garki, Ringim, Gabasawa, Gezawa and Minjibir; (2) Kazaure, Comprising Roni, Yankwashi and Amaryawa; (3) Gumel which includes Sule Tankarkar, Maigatari, Ɗanzomo and Gagarawa.

The fourth (4th) was Haɗejia comprising Birniwa, Malam Madori, Guri, Kirikasamma, Auyo, Bulangu and Kafin Hausa. (5) Kano West with headquarter at Gwarzo includes Dawakin Tofa, Bichi and Ƙaraye. (6) Kano South-East with headquarter at Birnin Kudu has Gaya, Jahun, Dutse, Sumaila and Gwaram. Then (7) Kano South-West -Rano, Dawakin Kudu, Kura, Ƙiru, and Tudun Wada. Lastly, (8) Kano Metropolitan that comprises Ungoggo, Kumbotso, Kano and Waje.

This way, the far-sighted governor touched the lives of everyone in the state. Among his accomplishments, Audu Bako expanded the government house, built administrative area offices, the famous Gidan Murtala, the Audu Bako secretariat and the State Fire Service. He also built the Bagauda Housing Estate at Dakatsalle, Bagauda Lake Hotel, 13 junior Staff quarters, the 500 Housing Units at Tiga workers village, the bedroom houses at Suleiman Crescent and WRECA Staff quarters at Challawa and Gari Dams.

He also built 130 housing units at the pilgrims camp and junior staff quarters at Haɗejia and Gumel. Similarly, he built Teachers’ Housing Estate at Gwammaja as well as Waziri Giɗaɗo Flats at Lagos. As for roads, he laid tarred roads at Gwagwarwa, Tudun Wada, Kano City, Gyaɗi-gyaɗi, Tarauni, Nassarawa, Sabon Gari and other places.

He dualized Murtala Muhammad Way, from Ahmadu Bello way to Triumph Junction; BUK Road, from Ƙofar Nassarawa BUK; Aminu Kano way; Triumph Roundabout -Ƙofar Mazugal, Ƙofar Ruwa, Katsina Road Junction; Ibrahim Taiwo to Ƙofar Mata, Ƙofar Ƙwaru, Ƙofar Kudu, Kasuwar Rimi to Ƙofar Nassarawa. Still, he dualized State Road from Silver Jubilee Roundabout to Audu Bako way. Others are Lagos Street, Airport Bridge, Mandawari to Ƙofar Kabuga and Suleiman Crescent.

These were part of his achievements in infrastructure. The next write up will look at his success in Kano rural areas, Agriculture, education and health sectors. Indeed there were leaders who, because of their honesty, integrity, political will and commitment, achieved, in about 8 years, what present leaders put together can not achieve in 30 years.

May we learn from this past!

Mal. Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan is a Lecturer at Alƙalam University, Katsina and writes from Kano State.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

I begin, after praising Allah and sending blessings to the beloved Prophet peace be upon him, with three stories from Nigeria. They are all real. The first is of a rich man who died and was survived by a wife and her two children. His estate included mansions in choice areas, high worth investments, company shares, farmlands, etc. This “beloved” wife was advised to make a waqf (perpetual charity) of just a mosque as a source of everlasting reward for the late husband from the hard-earned wealth he spent his life gathering. She was reminded that less than one per cent of his wealth could do it.  The wife answered in one word: “Impossible”! Rather, she offered to cook rice and beans every Friday and give to the begging Almajiris around as sadaqah. To be fair to her, she did so for some months until she met a new darling husband with whom she now enjoys her inherited, halal fortune! End of story!

The second story is that of a religious and highly influential personality who died and left behind several sons and daughters, all of whom had already grown wealthy and influential. The deceased’s bosom friend, who was the custodian of many of his possessions, approached the heirs. He pinpointed a plot of land in a choice area in one of the largest Nigerian cities and offered that if they would designate it as a perpetual charity, he would build an ultramodern Islamic centre there as a waqf for their late father. This, he said, was to create a ceaseless flow of rewards to their late father. Alas! To his face, they simply said no! And the rest is history.

The third is the story of a woman philanthropist who was the wife of an influential person. She was known for her dedication to building mosques, schools, among other charitable interventions. After her demise, the husband learned of several uncompleted mosques and schools that were part of her charitable initiatives. He called her children to a conference and suggested that from her inheritable wealth, they should dedicate what would be enough to complete such ongoing projects. And what a small portion of her wealth was that! They unanimously rejected his offer, departing in a “just give us our money” mood. It was the father who used his resources to finance the completion of the projects. I gather that he was lucky to have learned some lessons here and begin to emulate his late philanthropist wife. He actually increased his budget for Islamic philanthropy as he was already known for charity also. May Allah accept it for him, and for her.

I am sure by now you, my dear reader, have started to recollect several similar stories you have heard on several occasions or which might have even happened close to you. I also have many to share. But these ones suffice as examples. At least for now. What lesson, then, have you learned from this?

Now, remember the Prophetic hadith in which he explains that the moment a person dies, his reward fetching deeds terminate except three; waqf or perpetual charity being the first of them. The other two reward sources are the prayer of a pious child and beneficial knowledge. Interestingly, in the hadith is an equitable distribution of reward sources of some sort. The wealthy folks no doubt have access to the “lion share” in terms of perpetual charity. Beneficial knowledge is the share of the scholars essentially. For the non-rich, non-scholar believer, giving a good upbringing to his/her children guarantees them prayers from pious children and a continuous flow of reward.

Many owners of surplus resources miss the opportunity of making a waqf due to procrastination and other flimsy considerations. By doing so, they deny themselves the most important investment of their lifetime. How can Allah give you the opportunity of making an investment that may pass a millennium fetching you rewards only for you to refuse to do so? Daniel Crecelius explains to us that several waqfs, created for the provision of various social, religious, educational, economic and welfare services free of charge to the public, have survived for five centuries, and some for over a millennium. Now! Imagine yourself, in your grave, receiving “alerts” of rewards daily while charting with the Angels! Can you imagine the amount of reward you would earn by continuously creating benefits, solving problems, drawing happiness to thousands or millions of needy and poor lives for decades, centuries or even a millennium after your departure from this deceptive world? Consider the following stories.

You already know the third caliph of the Prophet, Uthman bin Affan (may Allah be pleased with him). After the migration to Medina, access to water became a great challenge for the believer. They had to buy from a Jew who owned a well called Ruma. The Jew was so wicked, charging exorbitant prices, and making life difficult for the believers. The solution was for the Muslim community to own it. The Prophet peace be upon him announced a guaranteed direct entry certificate to Jannah for whoever purchased it. Uthman did. He surrendered it as a waqf. People now could get water at zero cost. This charity became blessed and continued to expand. During the Umayyad period, it began to grow date palm trees in its surroundings. Many grew. The Ottoman Empire paid particular attention to developing the trees generating income from them. The returns would then be shared into two; a portion distributed as charity and the other saved. Later, the Saudi Arabian authorities opened a bank account in the name of Uthman Bin Affan. They save half of the returns and distribute half in charity. As the savings grew, a hotel was built in Medina, still in the name of Caliph Uthman. Half of the returns is reinvested while the other half, amounting to about 500 million Riyals annually (equivalent to about USD14 million) is distributed in charity. 1400 years of ceaseless reward, thanks to waqf!

Then the story of the great philanthropist, lady Zubaiyda, daughter of Ja’far al-Mansūr, granddaughter of the second Abbasid Caliph Abū Ja’far al-Mansūr; wife of the 5^th Abbasid Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd and mother to the 6^th Abbasid Caliph, al-Amīn. Although she died in 216 AH (832 CE) in Baghdad, her source of reward is still yet to! In 186 AH (802 CE), she visited the Holy land as a pilgrim. She then noticed the serious difficulty people experienced in Mecca vis-à-vis accessing water. There were no reliable wells and springs from where to fetch portable water. The people rather relied on rainfall or poor wells that were irregular in providing water. She then ordered her treasurer to look for “world-class” engineers and professionals from different cities to embark on the work of constructing a befitting well. Having observed how difficult the project would be due to the nature of the soil which was rocky and hard, she declared her readiness to pay a dinar for every single digging, until they reached water level. Soon, highly professional engineers and experts flooded Mecca and started work, surveying between hard rocks until they were able to sink the well. In the end, they parted with the dinars and she parted with the never-ceasing reward! She dedicated the well as a waqf for the residents and visitors of Mecca. Water became abundantly available. Water scarcity became history.

But not only this. Zubayda also did a waqf for the waqf; waqf of rentable houses and landed properties for the maintenance of the water wells.  The ‘Ayn Zubaydah has been described as the largest waqf known in history in terms of the cost of its capital, the magnificence of its design, as well as its contributions to welfare in a sustainable manner. Importantly, the Well of Zubaydah, as it came to be known, has remained functional and productive to date. About 1200 years? It is being utilized by the people of the city as well as visiting pilgrims to the Holy land.

Dear reader! Make a waqf. Look around you. Investigate; what is the greatest problem of the poor around you? Food? Water? Lack of a clinic? Lack of a school for their children? Lack of capital for the poor widows who need money-generating ventures? Make a waqf to provide a sustainable solution for them. Build a plaza, a shopping complex, a rentable house, a garden or buy shares and dedicate as waqf for funding such charitable courses. Do not wait for your wife to make sadaqah of rice and beans for you on Fridays! If you want to enjoy your wealth perpetually, why not just make a waqf NOW?

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido is the Chairman, Zakah & Waqf Foundation, Gombe, Nigeria. He can be contacted via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Ahmadu Shehu, PhD.

Recently, my friend Dr Mohammed Dahiru Aminu took a step further in realizing his promised greatness. He joins PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as Manager in Sustainability and Climate Change consulting. PwC is one of the ‘big four’ accounting/management consulting firms and the world’s second-largest professional services networks, operating in 157 countries with over 742 locations. The annual revenue generation of the company is around $42.4 billion, which is greater than Nigeria’s annual budget.

Dahiru, as he is known and called by persons close to him, was born in Yola to Dr Aminu Raji’s family, a descendant of Modibbo Raji—one of the most prominent 19^th-century Islamic scholars in northern Nigeria and the most important scholar in the Fombina emirate. Dahiru earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Maiduguri and a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from London South Bank University. In addition, he holds a PhD in carbon capture and storage from Cranfield University.

Upon completing his master’s degree, Dahiru launched a career in academia as an Assistant Lecturer at the Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology before moving to the American University of Nigeria as an Assistant Professor of Petroleum Chemistry. Brief as it may seem, Dahiru’s academic career is a story of success. He is amongst the world’s first generation of PhDs in the emerging carbon capture and storage area and has produced consequential papers in the leading journals in that discipline. One of his papers, entitled “A review of developments in carbon dioxide storage”, published in Applied Energy—a leading journal within Energy and Environmental Science—is arguably the broadest published paper in the open literature on any aspect of carbon dioxide storage. Other contributors to the article were Professor Vasilije Manovic and Dr Syed Ali Nabavi of Cranfield University, and Dr Christopher A. Rochelle of the British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK.

Because of the paper’s relevance within the field, it won an award as one of the most cited papers ever published in Applied Energy since the journal’s inception in 1975. The award was announced at the International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE) in 2020, which was scheduled to hold in Bangkok (Thailand), but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was held in a virtual conference in December 2020.

Similarly, all chapters of Dahiru’s thesis, completed under a research program entitled “Carbon Dioxide Storage in the UK Southern North Sea: Experimental and Numerical Analysis”, were published in leading scientific journals as the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control and Heliyon.

Dahiru has also been actively involved in community service and is a member of several advisory boards, councils, and committees. He is a member of the Roster of Experts of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn, Germany; and serves as member and secretary of the Working Group on Solid Waste Management for implementation of the Nigeria Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP), Federal Ministry of Environment, Abuja; amongst others.

Although Dahiru’s scholarly achievements in academia were remarkable, nonetheless, those of us who know him have always felt that the academic career path was a transitional phase. His expertise would be better harnessed for the more public good in the private or policy sectors, where he could apply his training and knowledge in a more instrumental setting. This move should also offer him greater visibility and voice in meaningful African conversations around sustainability and climate change.

Beyond academia, Dahiru’s profile reaches into the arena of public commentary and public service. He is one of Nigeria’s prolific and influential young public intellectuals. His writings and talks on national issues and sharp analyses and prognoses of Nigeria’s economic and developmental challenges are as informed as they are illuminating. He publishes opinion pieces in Nigeria’s leading online and traditional newspapers. He is also a visible and strident voice in Nigeria’s vibrant cyberspace. As Dahiru joins the world of consulting, where he will work on finding solutions to the problems posed by climate change as one of humanity’s greatest challenges, he will undoubtedly deploy his expertise and experience in a more hands-on approach, now more than ever.

Dr Ahmadu Shehu holds a PhD in Linguistics and writes from Yola, the Adamawa state capital. He can be reached on ahmadsheehu@gmail.com

By MA Iliasu

This one is a personal experience about our society’s current state of affairs and the ills they may be carrying instead of any brainstorming discourse. It started a little more than two years ago when a young man, pressed by the excessive frugality of his godfather, looted his quarterly savings and ran away to Cote d’Ivoire. Fortunately, the godfather didn’t get mad at him on the belief that the boy ran away with what was worthy of his long years of servitude. Months later, he came back, maybe after receiving assurance about his immunity. Most people developed an interest in the bold-albeit-stupid young man, mostly about why he would betray his godfather cum cousin’s trust. But knowing people’s tendency for moral hazard, I thought it shouldn’t surprise anyone why he did it. Quite differently, I am more interested in why he chose Cote d’Ivoire above all the places to run within Nigeria and nearby. To me, the choice seemed very odd, which surely can’t be a coincidence. I shall explain why.

Firstly, the place is very far from here, and in my experience, our people aren’t very fond of distance. Secondly, the excessive cultural and linguistic variation would shake the thoughts of any young man of such age and education, who are primarily monolingual and inept on homogeneity. Thirdly because of the infamous homesickness and risk aversion. Thus, what warrants the overlooking of such defining factors should rationally be investigated beyond the naivety of a scared young man. But it may also be wondered why would I be so interested in something that doesn’t directly concern me.

As a rule, a wise guardian tasked with the responsibility of an immature youth that can’t be within his sight all the time is only right to extend surveillance on the developments surrounding new trends, norms, habits and idiosyncrasies that inform the conduct of the respective age bracket. The young man belongs in the age bracket that must interest any guardian.

He said, “a kola nut trader who used to stop at Mariri (a kola nut market in Kano) arrived in Ujile (another kola nut market in the metropolis) once told us about the opportunities that await in the kola nut farms and industries in Cote d’Ivoire. He portrayed that as far better than any job we do here”. I smiled because I predicted that. “And what did you discover when you arrived? Was he telling the truth?” I asked him. “He was, but partially,” the boy replied. “The opportunities aren’t better than the ones here. But the environment in Ivory Coast is far more liberating and nourishing. You can’t separate the rich from the poor based on food. They’re not very sensitive to what happens between a man and a woman, even if she’s not his wife. And that alone is a reason for me to stay,” he added.

“Holy God,” I sighed. The boy’s account was revealing and taking an exciting dimension, so I asked him again, “How many of you went there (Ivory Coast)?” He replied: “We were seven. But many others were aiming to reach Libya and Algeria to work in the goldmines or become professional footballers. Other groups were set to follow also.”

I became dumbfounded that many young men have taken the risk of fleeing to the far West and North Africa for different reasons and confessed my concern to a friend who lives in a neighbourhood away. To my utmost surprise, he told me that his younger brother too had, four weeks ago, led a group of young men and ran away to work in the goldmines in Libya. More unfortunate is that it’s against their mother’s wishes. I lamented at how a tragedy of such magnitude could occur without myself being informed. And he laughed it off with the claim: “it is nothing serious. Such has been the norm for a while down here”.

A month later, he informed me that the boy had made it to Libya. They started working but later got apprehended and sold into slavery. I couldn’t believe it. Slavery in the 21st century? But he erased my doubts when he outlined the financial plan they were putting in place to buy the boy’s freedom. “Merciful God,” I said, “man has turned into a commodity”. In a short while, the boy made it back alone to meet the troubles of other boy’s parents, who blamed him for their children’s departure.

The depth of my grief grew big; emigration as a function of trade and brain drain isn’t particularly worrying. After all, the young men have attained the age of choice. What they do within the boundaries of the reason is even welcoming. But the unique circumstances surrounding the decisions of those youths must worry any sane person.

I pondered how the young men came from a society where the emerging youths are characterised by risk aversion, phobia to distance, homesickness, monolingualism and relative poverty of world-class skills. And they’re certainly not traders; they are relatively ignorant and unskilled labourers. On the other hand, some of them are pretty talented in sports and athletics. So it’s obvious, what’s happening isn’t brain drain but a willed-slavery. Indeed the forces that rattle the youths into overcoming those fears heedlessly warrant an investigation.

Let me say the obvious: the ravaging unemployment has since become the fuel of thuggery, pick-pocketing, phone-snatching, armed burglary. The rotten state of public education has produced more cunning kids who discovered they should rather hawk sachet-water than waste their time in a place that resembles a poorly-kept third-world prison than a school. The parental nonchalance plagues the family institution is graduating malnourished, under-schooled, undisciplined, wicked, and mentally unprepared rotten eggs. Coupled with the unfortunate trend of social organisation, people no longer serve as their brother’s keepers. Immorality, especially amongst youths, is being granted a place in the code of conduct, excuse in the intelligentsia and warming reception in the mainstream opinion. While the moral police are either questioned on a far-fetched basis or upon a deliberate loyalty for cancel culture.

It wouldn’t require an expert to predict how the future looks bleak. Critically it asks the question of the accuracy of the relative size of any sample. However, it’s scary that when a menace breakout like a bushfire, a small sample only tells the story of the little that appears obvious. The reality in Kano, amidst the meagre of the sample size, is an emerging bracket of youths being radicalised into emigration-cum-slavery in North Africa. And the weak social forces can only hope to stop them.

MA Iliasu can be contacted via muhada102@gmail.com.

By Adamu Usman Garko

By Barrister Nura Sunusi

For some misguided individuals and those who consume everything online hook, line and sinker, David Hundeyin’s ‘Cornflakes for Jihad: The Origin of Boko Haram Story’, which he and his cohorts call ‘investigation’, would have been left to die a natural death like many before it. However, if allowed unchallenged, lies may be sold as truth, and the world will be blind. And those who know will not allow this. Besides, Hundeyin’s story is packed with journalistic chicanery of epic proportion.

Hundeyin’s sole aim was to push the lies he concocted down the throat of his readers/audiences. This is my concern. It is for this, I believe, such intellectual dishonesty has to be stamped out completely.

One cannot give what they do not have. Before I go far, Hundeyin deserves some quick bath; then let me stripe him naked first.

An Annang Christian ‘journalist’ from Akwa Ibom State in the South-South, Hundeyin is utterly ignorant of the vast northern region and its intentional predicates: background, history, language, culture, religion, etc. At this point, it is instructive to note that Hundeyin is not a lone walker in the use of this pure sophistry. There are some people in our midst toeing this path.

Izala, particularly Alhaji Shahru, Sheikh Yakubu Musa, Isa Pantami and other personalities belonging to the religious body, have been a target of a sustained campaign of calumny for its ability to bestride the earthly and heavenly with such ease. Of particular is a Nigerian ‘historian’, mind the quotation marks, who teaches at an American University.

This confused dude like Hundeyin has been at the forefront of this campaign for some time. Had he been allowed, he would have formed an empire, which modus operandi is to silence and blackmail the most peaceful, 40-year-old registered religious organization in Nigeria. About two years ago, perhaps long before that, the said ‘historian’ raised a finger in this corridor, and some intelligently educated youths called his bluff. He left mentally wounded.

I have learnt that Hundeyin’s hit-and-run piece has struck the ‘historian’, who has been mum all this while like a spent horse, as an energizer.

My perception of this saga is this: since those folks had test-flied this campaign severally and woefully failed, now Hundeyin is hired to try his luck and dead is his attempt on arrival.

That notwithstanding, to set the record straight, Hundeyin‘s piece deserves some response, which I give below, stitching facts and figures. Then let us take it one at a time.

Nomenclature of terrorism

First, the blurry line demarcating what terrorism is and what it is not, who is a terrorist and who is not is, is one of the factors breathing life into liars like David Hundeyin.

Although I intend to restrict this piece to Alhaji Shahru Haruna’s side of the argument, I will touch on some of the issues Hundeyin raised in his article to unravel the intricacies involved.

Hundeyin is overzealously blind in the sense that every passing picture of Islam or a Muslim forms in his mind a mental image of what he calls terrorism or terrorist. No wonder! Nigeria is full of academically certified but ignorant people. We will see this in the subsequent paragraphs.

Nigeria is not an opponent of GSPC

GSPC stands for “Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat” (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). According to Wikipedia, GSPC was an armed Islamic group UNTIL 2004!

The group had only one opponent, which was not Nigeria, but Algeria. Therefore, how did Alhaji Shahru Haruna or Sheikh Yakubu Musa become the GSPC’s agents?

Politics of origin

The moment he tried to conjecture up a triangular of Izala, terrorism, which he barely understands, and finance, Hundeyin shot himself in the foot. His is a weak argument full of lacunas, fabricated evidence, and disjointed analogies. Is there anything hatred cannot drive one to do?

From Sheikh Abubakar Gumi to Alhaji Shahru Haruna, Sheikh Yakubu Musa to Isa Aliyu Pantami, the current minister of Communications and digital economy and others, Hundeyin has failed to come up with even a single irrefutable proof linking any of them with terrorism. Instead, his submission heavily relied on hearsay, including social media posts.

First, Izala’s deeply established manifestoes/objectives to non-politically strive and promote the pure teaching of Islam and proselytizing, which is acknowledged even by non-Muslims in the West, is for anyone to see.

Second, Izala’s leading figure, Sheihk Abubakar Gumi, the Grand Khadi of the Northern region of Nigeria between 1962 and 1967, was a champion of democracy. He encouraged Islamic and Western educations; and associated with upright political figures like Aminu Kano, Sa’adu Zungur and Sardauna of Sokoto.

Moreover, Izala is a progressive organization. It has established schools, libraries, hospitals, Islamic centres, and satellite TV stations, and now Assalam Global University in Jigawa is in the pipeline. Unlike its nemesis, its members participate in political activities, and they vote and are voted for into political offices. In addition, they are into academia and civil service.

In contrast, Boko Haram, which is the opposite, is an insurgent group engaged in continued rebellion against the constituted authority. The insurgent group ideology is rooted in a gross misinterpretation of Sunni and Salafi Islam, and it primarily attracts poorly educated and overzealous youths that lack even basic Islamic knowledge.

Where is the link?

Consequently, that in 2011 bombs went up at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, a fringe of Abuja and Gadaka in Damaturu; and during the trial of one Kabiru Sokoto, a ‘masked’ witness testified that an Islamist group in Algeria provided funding and support worth N40,000,000 ($250,000 at the time) to carry out the attacks, is not enough reason to inculpate either Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, Shahru Haruna, Yakubu Musa or other Izala personalities, is it?

Let’s try this formula to see if it works this way: on October 1, 2010, bombs went off, killing 15 people during Nigeria’s fiftieth anniversary. An ex-MEND leader, Henry Okah and one Nwabueze were convicted of terrorism.

If Kabiru Sokoto or attacks by Boko Haram insurgents were to be linked to Izala and Alhaji Shahru for a simple reason that Izala is an Islamic organization and Shahru is a Muslim and a member, as Hundeyin would have us believe, who sponsored Henry Okah and his accomplice?  Hundeyin, who is also an overzealous Christian and a southerner?

From the inception of Boko Haram to date, Izala, as against other violent religious movements, has never been on the same wavelength with any insurgent group.

Facts speak for themselves, they say. Had Izala clerics been complicit in the activities of the insurgents, Boko Haram leadership would never have called for the heads of Pantami, Sheikh Jaafar Mahmud Adam or Sheikh Muhammad Auwal Adam Albaniy Zaria.

It seems those who planted the piece have not briefed Hundeyin of the fate of the two fiercest critics of Boko Haram in the Izala cycle: Albaniy Zaria and Ja’afar. Boko Haram murdered both in an attempt to silence the persistent voice that had been voicing the irreligiosity of Boko Haram and insurgency of any type.

One does not need to strain himself. Videos showing Izala Ulama in a heated debate with the Boko Haram founder, Muhammad Yusuf, are on YouTube. An example is that of Sheikh Pantami.

Journalist or religious bigot

Nigeria’s media space is saturated with ethnic and religious bigots, and David Hundeyin happens to be one of them.

He quickly cited that ‘the scholar(s) states that Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim as ruler, which can be interpreted as a call for insurrection against a Christian Nigerian President’. However, he could not tell his readers how pastors ascended the pulpit of churches and made similar calls, which can also be interpreted as another call for insurrection against a Muslim Nigerian President as we see today?

Ideology of Finance

Who deceives who? If there is anything Hundeyin succeeded in linking Alhaji Shahru Haruna to is his tie with Izala and his being an owner of legitimate businesses – nothing more.

Citing CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele’s argument that BDC operators sell dollars to some people ‘to go and buy arms and ammunitions to come back to hurt us’ is no clear-cut evidence to implicate Alhaji Haruna.

A call to CBN

It is high time for CBN to furnish the public with the reason for its instruction to banks to block bank accounts of some entities such as Zahraddeen Shahru Haruna’s (Alhaji Shahru Haruna’s son).

I believe that the failure of the apex bank to provide the information is one of the chief reasons behind Hundeyin’s evil pen attempt to link the Zaharaddin’s account blockage to terrorism.

Shahru’s media trial

Shahru Haruna’s media trial began sometime in 2004. And to understand this better, I will refer the reader to a defunct Weekly Trust newspaper front cover story in 2004 titled ‘Detention Without Trial’.

The paper narrated a sympathetic story of how Alhaji Shahru Haruna was arrested and detained by DSS without trial for six consecutive months.

However, the interesting part of the story is how the secret police discharged him unconditionally. Since then, there has been no re-arrest by the DSS or any other relevant security agency. What does that imply?

My conclusive argument is that Hundeyin of Akwa Ibom’s piece is yet another failed smear campaign against Alhaji Shahru Haruna, Sheikh Yakubu Musa, Izala and some of its personalities. It is another mischief that has its sponsors.

Barrister Nura Sunusi writes from Kano. He can be reached via nurasunusi6@gmail.com.