|
Writers Articles And Opinions |
|
|
|
12 August 2009 By Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana
In the last few days, precisely since 30th
July, 2009, Nigeria has been in the eyes of the news,
for what best qualifies as the conundrum of a failed
state. This was not as result of the villainous
activities of the Niger-Delta Militia, but a bizarre
incident which took place in Maiduguri. This wacky and
squalid incident was consequent upon a gory squabble
that broke out between a group of people and men of
the Nigeria police. It was peculiar for its religious
undertone, governmental and media response and the
stance of the northern ‘ulama. This group has
been christened the ‘Boko Haram Sect,’ by the
mainstream media and the Nigeria government. This
piece therefore set-out to beam historical binoculars
into the appropriateness of the discrete naming of the
group as ‘Boko Haram Sect.’ Against this backdrop, our
discourse will be situated within the wider gamut of
the local media response, the ideology of the group in
question cum its historiographical sketch and the
specifics of the leadership harm-fistedness in the
northern part of our country.
To
set the ball rolling within our outlined specifics, it
is critical to ask, is ‘Boko Haram’ the actual name of
this group?; what qualifies it to be a SECT as
so pronounced by the mainstream media and the Nigeria
government? A vivid and factual response to these
leading questions will therefore necessitate a sojourn
into the history of this group. Hence, another set of
questions, who formed the group and what was or were
his/their motivations? A reliable insider’s report has
it that the group was founded in 2002 by the slain
Muhammad Yusuf. Yusuf was once a follower of Mallam
Ibrahim Zak-Zaky, the paramount leader of a
Shia religious sect that is based in Zaria. He left
the latter for his avowed Shiism since he, Yusuf, was
of the Sunni mainstream. This dusked his romance with
Shiism and marked the beginning of his journey as a
self-certificated independent da’iyah (i.e.
caller or preacher). It suffices to emphasize that
Yusuf lacked the credential to take up such
responsibilities because evidence abound suggests he
was a self-certificated Islamic scholar. He was
neither well fed with the fundamentals of the faith
nor was he certified by any scholar of note to lead a
group or assume the rostrum of religious leadership.
Trailing this aside, the most probable attraction that
propelled him into the orbit of Zak-Zaky’s brand of
religious advocacy was perhaps the outspokenness of
the latter as opposed to the doctrinal somnambulism
cum ill-disposition of the majority of the northerner
‘ulama to the insensitivity and stark
abandonment of state onerous responsibilities by the
northern political elites. In other words, degenerate
‘ulama and deprave political elites were his
immediate drive.
Agitated by the aforesaid, more so, the lessening
religiousity of the Northern Muslims, particularly,
the Youths, Yusuf began the ultimate search for the
root of the menace. In spirit and deed, Yusuf was
merely practicalizing what Arnold Toynbee, a renowned
historian, theorized as ‘Challenge and Response.’ He
spotted secularism as the focal problem, hence, his
long search for how to de-establish the northern
Nigeria of its secular politico-cultural configuration
by re-establishing the Caliphate. It was within this
praxis that he began his de-establishment campaign by
raising grave, yet germane questions about the
horrendous corollaries of secularism vis-à-vis wanton
sexual indulgence, divisive nationalistic leaning, the
banishment of God from the public to the private
domain, survival of the powerless at the altar of the
merciless consumerist mightful and etcetera. It
was only natural that western education comes into the
fringe of his ideological purview as did blind
westernism. To press home his message to
his immediate audience, it behooves that he
contextualizes it in the light of the medium and the
message, with the source and audience as determinant
of how the message is to be placed within the medium.
It was within this brace that he deplored the word
Boko, a catchphrase in the Northern lexicon,
particularly among the rural dwellers. As observed by
one Mr Abolore in his incisive but loosely pieced
article on the Boko turmoil, there are various
usages of Boko which include Boko Yana Hana
AlBarka, (western education prevents blessing) and
Boko ‘Owulo, (useless). Interestingly, Abolore,
a Yoruba resident of Maiduguri, now a student in
Malaysia, informs that Boko is further used to
depict the debacle faced by university or college
graduates who upon bagging a degree, sadly end up in
the farm due to the lack of job. This leaves us with
two-nodal stream of usages and perhaps interpretation.
One, disillusionment with western education owning to
its secularist outlook and the other, northern
leadership failure. It was within this perspective
that Yusuf was addressing the question of western
education and its continuous relevance to the people
of the Northern Nigeria. He went as far as condemning
it as Haram, (forbidden), hence his call for
its rejection. Thus, the big question, how appropriate
is the phrase ‘Boko Haram’ as the discrete
shorthand/naming of his group. A terse response to
this query may require a masterly understanding of the
science of periodization.
Periodization is a tool mostly deployed by social
scientists, particularly historian to lurk historical
events within the diversity of its aura and theme into
a condensed discrete name. It is so done as to
objectify the metaphor which underlies the events
being historiograhically depicted. For instance, the
Odi Mascare is one of such shorthands impregnated with
implicit historiographical meanings of an event which
transpired during the wasted 8-years of Obasanjo’s
brutish and corrupt reign in office. Same is the
September 9-11 attacks on the twin tower and some
other places in the United State of America. Note be
taken of September 9-11 as discrete naming and Al-Qaeda,
the name of the group, which allegedly masterminded
the real but most debatable ‘attack.’ Using these two
words or better still naming interchangeably will be
historically undeserving and scientifically untenable.
This will be misleading and defective of the
intellectual crust which underpins the science of
periodization. When such error is committed, the
immediate and most probable reason may be a deliberate
or an unconscious attempt to leave readers with a
prejudiced construct of what transpired or so
constitute such historical event. Technically, this is
referred to as “Designed Intent.” Doing this will blur
the line between history and fiction. For this reason,
the historical significance inputted into the
Maiduguri imbroglio suffers from prejudice and
deliberate attempt to recast and reconstruct the
actual event being depicted. One can decipher this in
the rhetoric which trailed the naming of late Muhammad
Yusuf’s led group as ‘Boko Haram Sect’ by the
mainstream media and the government of a stuttering
state, called Nigeria. Establishing this claim thus
requires a review of how some leading Nigeria
newspapers reported the saga and the rhymes which
dotted the response of the government and the northern
‘ulama.
The
most riveting report that took the lead was the one
written by Reuben Abati of the Guardian
Newspaper. ‘Entitled, Boko Haram and the Evil of
Ignorance,’ Abati framed his analysis of the mayhem
within the broader picture of the fissures in the
Nigerian polity and politics and the travails of the
nation and its hapless masses; albeit some religious
undercurrents. His was the most exhaustive of what
can be best considered as the story which offered the
direction for further rendition. Reeling in his usual
Islamophobism, Abati launched polemical attack against
Muhammad Yusuf’s rant against western education and
wasted no time to place shari’ah within the
same milieu. Quoting his words will bring to the fore
some of his ulterior undercurrents. He avers, “we
seem to be paying the price for the failure of the
Federal Government to deal decisively with the Sharia
mischief under the Obasanjo administration.” It
was this mentality that possibly made him locate the
Maiduguri bedlam within the background of a sectarian
crisis. This thesis suffered in depth because Muhammad
Yusuf’s group was not a sect but merely a religious
association or society. Not to bore readers with what
makes a group to be so called a sect, I beg readers’
attention to study why Ahmadiya, Shiites and Mahdiya
are Islamic sects. Attributively, this owns to
complete or partial deviation(s) in their ideological
and religious orientation from that of the Sunni
mainstream. Also, our erudite friend failed in this
article and the subsequent ones to trace the root of
the mêlée which led to the skirmishes which saw
Yusuf’s group sadistically burn down a police station.
This fell short of investigative journalism and seems
unpardonable.
Wallowing in Abati’s sectarian rhetoric, the Nation
newspaper supplied the conspiracy theory which added a
new torch and perhaps opened a new vista through which
the event was regurgitated. They were more interested
in the internal dynamics of the group’s operations and
the possibility of establishing external linkages.
They went as far as claiming that the group had the
support of Jamatu Salafia, an Algeria based Islamist
movement. Also, was the grave allegation that they
imported ammunitions from Afghanistan. A good student
of Mid-Eastern Studies will never for a second takes
such a reckless claim so serious. This is for the
simple fact that Afghanistan neither produces weapon
nor is it strategic for Taliban to supply a
sister-group weapons, when they are in dire need of it
the most. The Algeria claim falls into the same realm
of within the news- room mental re-creation and
phantasm. Force fitting themselves into the
opinionated mindset, which in the first instance
provoked the tagging of the group as ‘Boko Haram
Sect,’ offers insight into such naive and thoughtless
journalistic adventurism. Other newspaper’s reports
can either be assimilated within these two that have
been so far reviewed, hence sharing in their
deficiencies.
The
response of the government and of the northern ‘ulama
followed same typology. One will expect nothing less
because birds of a feather flock together. No right
thinking Nigerian will expect a sick president to
issue a healthy order because he is simply, bodily and
mentally handicapped to do just that. So, there is no
need for further comment on that. However, of the
Northern governors, particularly, Ali Modu Sheriff,
the Governor of Maiduguri, that was about the best
response they can also muster. Their refusal to
provide their people good education and dividends of
good governance was what Muhammad Yusuf capitulated
and capitalized on. No sane person would in the least
be moved by such type of call being propagated by
Yusuf if only these ‘leaders,’ have provided their
people with the right ambiance of life. As regards the
northern ‘ulama, particularly, those who are on
the state pay roll, they glutton in self-aggrandizing
desires and reckless abandon of doctrinal obligations.
They eat from the state treasury as do their political
cohorts, thus, leaving a void, which was to be filled
by Muhammad Yusuf and co. The power of the minbar
was used in servicing and oiling the inept tendencies
of the northern political leaders, thereby providing
corruption and ham-fistedness a repugnant religious
legitimacy. This was too bitter a bitter for Yusuf to
swallow. So naïve and forgetful they were as to put
the record straight that Yusuf’s group was not a
religious sect. Corruption and protecting the interest
of their ‘Friends in Power,’ as Abati will graciously
pronounce, was their major preoccupation. Accordingly,
Yusuf was only trying to take up the roles which the ‘ulama
has deserted. With this in mind, one can easily
comprehend why the response of the government and the
degenerate ‘ulama provided the catalyst for the
conspiracy theory and sectarian thesis to thrive.
At
this juncture, while in the attempt to link the
Maiduguri anarchy with the ‘Boko Haram’ shorthand, one
may end up heedlessly wandering, if cognizance is not
taken of this alternative stream of thought. On the
one hand, there is no relationship between Boko
(western education) and police station which was the
object of attack. Also, the event which was being
addressed and covered by the media was not western
education, but the very one which led to the razing of
the police station. So, from all perspectives, the
phrase ‘Boko Haram,’ is totally uncalled for and can
best serve a pre-meditated line of thought than depict
the actual historical occurrence.
To
fill the void in the Maiduguri news reporting, we may
also need to remind our friends in the media and
concerned Nigerians that effort be exhausted to
unearth the particular incident which orchestrated the
outbreak of this unfortunate crisis. Some alleged that
it began when the police prevented the group from
burying one of its members. Others have it that the
origin was the 2004 Yusufari Yobe incidence. It was
also acclaimed in some quarters that Sheik Jafar’s
death is strongly connected to what gave birth to this
uprising. Another version contends that Muhammad Yusuf
is just a leader of the group which has since split
into two factions. Exponents of this view contend that
Yusuf’s faction was averse to a forceful engagement
with the state, hence his isolation from the desert
based group. Before we can make affirmative statements
on this incident, there is the need to penetrate into
the heart of the various versions of what orchestrated
this grubby imbroglio. There is also the need to also
beam our investigate radar on the political thesis
used by some individuals to demystify the hurriedness
with which the alleged sponsor of the group was
killed. This herculean task will help in righting what
seems to be masquerading as fact and perhaps halt it
from spreading and spiraling like a wild fire.
Mr
Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana was a former Student Union
President in UNILAG. He can be reached through
abudugana2000@yahoo.com
EsinIslam.Com
|
Save
Add Comments To This Story