You Fight Almighty Allah When You Fight Boko Haram – Sultan of Sokoto
opera.comFeb 23, 2020 7:25 AM
By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
Things are working out
Towards their dazzling conclusions,
So it is neither here nor there what ticky-tackiese befuddle ourselves with - Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo stated in her book, Our Sister Killjoy, 1977
NIGERIA has been fighting the Almighty Allah in the presumed battles against Boko Haram. That is why the war is unwinnable, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar lll, said on Thursday. The fight against Boko Haram, he said, was pointless since the insurgency was a punishment from the Almighty on Nigerians, for their sins.
The Sultan, a retired senior army officer, spoke in Abuja at the 5th International Conference on Love and Tolerance: Countering Violent Extremism for Peaceful Co-existence. He said the solution to insurgency laid in Nigerians adhering to the teachings of the Quran and the Bible. He was not the first to say that the solution to the ravaging of the North East, and the regime of terror that Boko Haram has spread round the country, need a spiritual solution.
The Nigerian Army in September 2019 held a seminar themed, Countering Insurgency and Violent Extremism Violence in Nigeria Through Spiritual Warfare. The event passed without much attention because the army's directorate of chaplain services Roman Catholic, Protestant and directorate of Islamic affairs, that organised, looked more at understanding ideologies that drive insurgency than suggesting prayers and penitence, the option the Sultan offered. Moreover, there was no voice at the event as loud as the Sultan's.
Major-General Mohammed Yusuf, Chief of Administration, who declared the army seminar open had said, "By its nature, ideologies have the power to manipulate what people think, inform their opinion and direct their attitude. It is a well-known fact that terrorism and terrorist groups will not be totally eliminated by mainly military actions. This means focusing our effort on the under-laying narratives through ideologies that are employed by these terrorist groups to lure innocent citizens into their fold."
Yusuf held that communities and the States needed common purpose in rejecting the ideology of insurgent groups. In place of the ideologies of insurgency, he proffered that appropriate counter narratives targeted at the ideology of the terrorist group would enhance the battle to halt insurgency.
Emir of Jiwa, Dr. Idris Musa, who represented the Sultan of Sokoto on Thursday, blamed sin for insurgency. "It is part of the punishment we are receiving based on our sins. If we can stop committing sin and abide by God's words, things will change. The security challenge is our problem. The Holy Quran is a message to mankind. The Holy Bible is a message to mankind. If we cannot listen to what the Bible and Quran have taught us and we continue in our bad ways, what do we expect?," the Sultan asked.
How would a pious life be the weapon for fighting insurgents who are holding Nigerians hostage? Did people not go to war in the Bible and in the Quran? What exactly was the Sultan's point? When did he, in the 11 years or so of the fights against insurgents, realise that the approach was wrong?
The Sultan's recourse to the Almighty being responsible for insurgency in Nigeria is frightening. It is also not a new as retort to a major national problem. At the height of the meningitis outbreak in Zamfara State, three years ago, Governor Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari said flagrant disobedience to God caused renewed outbreak of meningitis. He specifically said fornication was the main reason God was punishing Nigeria with meningitis.
"What we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the Type A virus. The World Health Organisation has carried out vaccinations against this Type A virus, not just in Zamfara, but in many other States. However, because people refused to stop their nefarious activities, God now decided to send Type C virus, which has no vaccination," Governor Yari.
"People have turned away from God and He has promised that 'if you do anyhow, you see anyhow.' That is just the cause of this outbreak, as far as I am concerned.
"There is no way fornication will be so rampant and God will not send a disease that cannot be cured."
According to Governor Yari, the most important thing was for the people to maintain a good relationship with God. Everything would be alright if the people repented, Yari said.
The Sultan is not an ordinary traditional ruler. He is addressed as His Eminence, a title that barely captures the influences he wields as a premier traditional and religious leader in the North, with global-spanning reaches. Many take his words for truth from the Almighty. His statement that Boko Haram was the Almighty's punishment would be a new angle to how the Sultan's followers would see the fight against Boko Haram.
Sultan Sa'ad Abubakar III had a pedigreed 31 years' military service that was abbreviated when he became the Sultan in 2006. He was already a Brigadier-General. Abubakar was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1977 and served in the Armoured Corps. He headed a presidential security unit of the Armoured Corps of President Ibrahim Babangida. He commanded a battalion of African peacekeepers in Chad that the Organisation of African Unity set up, and was a Military Liaison Officer for the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, before appointments as Commanding Officer 241 Recce Battalion, Kaduna in 1993, from 1995 to 1999, ECOWAS Military Liaison officer and Commanding Officer, 231 Tank Battalion (ECOMOG Operations) in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2000. He served as Defence Attaché to Pakistan (also accredited for Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan) from 2003-2006.
Should he be the one to suggest that a cancer like insurgency should be treated with painkillers? Is the Sultan's position not surprising for someone with his background of fighting troublemakers? Is his position isolated?
Remarkably, in the same week, a bill was pacing through the Senate to set up special comforts for repentant Boko Haram fighters. There are oppositions to it, but for a government that has been releasing captured Boko Haram members, while the war rages in the North East, it just seems like a matter of time for the bill to become law.
When Boko Haram attacks, the Sultan said, Nigerians should go into prayer, meekly accepting the attacks as divine angst from the Almighty. Nigerians dare not fight Boko Haram, their punishment, otherwise they would have elected to fight the Almighty.
The Sultan has just added another ridiculous dimension to the indecisions on Boko Haram. He may not be speaking for himself.
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