Buhari and the Reformed Izala

Last week there was an International Islamic conference in Abuja. It was organized by Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah wa ikamatissunna, or Izala as it is popularly known. Virtually all those who call the shots in the Nigerian Muslim community were there. In addition to the President himself, the senate president was in attendance. So were governors, ministers and other politicians. Traditional rulers led by the Sultan were conspicuously present. This is in addition to foreign participants like the Executive Secretary of the World Muslim League.

The gathering is an indication of the tremendous transformation that Izala has gone through over the years. Izala was formed in the 1970s by some students of Late Sheikh Abubakar Gummi with the sole aim of eradicating innovations in Islamic belief and worship. The founders of Izala believed that the only route to the practice of true Islam is by strict adherence to the teaching of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). This brought the new group at loggerheads with various Darika groups, especially the Tijjaniyya group. Roughly a decade before the formation of Izala, a Senegalese scholar by name Ibrahim Inyass had gone round West Africa to spread his version of the Tijjaniyya order. In the process, he made a good number of enemies like Sheikh Abubakar Gummi who saw him as a heretic and his calling unIslamic. Some even believed that Sheikh Inyass might have been sponsored by the French to divert the attention of West African Muslims from any possible agitation for Shariah Law at a time when African countries were gaining independence.

But what set Izala against the majority of Muslims was their mode of preaching which was characterized by rudeness and name-calling by some of her most vocal preachers. Emirs, traditional scholars and ordinary people were not spared. Many people that would have ordinarily helped Izala were repelled by this approach. As a result, a wide gap was created between those who accepted Izala and those who rejected it with the former seeing the latter as apostates.

Two things helped Izala out of her initial mess. One was the very bold decision to stop some of the rude preachers and the other factor has to do with the new crop of more learned scholars that later joined the group. Thus for sometime Izala has been involved in fence-mending with various groups and individuals by trying to convince them that it is no longer the Izala they used to know. Even their approach to Darika has become softer with the two groups intermingling and attending meetings on different platforms. Of course, Izala has never initiated any violence and even when faced with it in the course of her preaching, members have always been disallowed from taking revenge.

One of the people that Izala had to reconcile with is the former Head of state later turned politician General Muhammad Buhari who for a long time Izala group considered as an adversary. During his reign as a military ruler, General Muhammadu Buhari took several decisions that did not go down well with Izala. A case in point is the retirement of Sheikh Abubakar Mahmoud Gummi, the main patron of Izala, from his position as the consulting Grand Khadi of Northern Nigeria, a position Buhari administration considered redundant because there was officially nothing like Northern Nigeria. Each of the then Northern states had a Grand Khadi and a Sharia court of appeal but there was no similar court at federal level. What, however, attracted the attention of Buhari Government to Sheikh Gummi, as said by the Sheikh himself, was his criticism of the Buhari Government for detention of politicians without trial and the conviction of those tried to outrageous jail terms that ran into tens of years.

Another problem that created disharmony between Izala and Buhari was his ban on preaching which was the main activity of the Izala group. Since Izala could not stop preaching, the group had to hide under the war against indiscipline of the Buhari administration to continue with its activities. But even then the anger was well pronounced in their preaching. That is why the group was happy with Buhari’s immediate successor who did not only let Izala and other preachers to continue with their preaching business but also allowed Izala to be registered as a recognized group, a thing they were denied by previous governments.

But the relationship between Buhari and Izala has since changed for the better. For example, throughout his four attempts at the presidency, Izala did not only indicate her support for Buhari, it openly campaigned for him at no cost. President Buhari must have realized how strategic the Izala group is in the Nigeria’s political equation of today. As arguably the largest organized Islamic group in Nigeria, this group that started as a handful of preachers forty years ago is not a thing any Nigerian politician can afford to ignore. 

Published in Blueprint Newspaper of 23rd March 2016