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 

Begging as a Failure of Leadership

Recently, His eminence the Sultan of Sokoto was quoted saying that almajirci has nothing to do with Islam and that it is people who are too poor to send their children to school that resort to sending them for begging. He said it while chairing a meeting on the girl child education in Kaduna.

Let me start by saying that I respect the office of Sultan and that my intention here is not to malign his person or the traditional institution that by the circumstances of our history provides the leadership of the Ummah in this part of the world. 

The notion given by the traditional ruler that almajirci and begging are the same is the kind misconception that has impeded the solution to the problem of child begging in Northern Nigeria. Begging is the act of seeking assistance from someone often in form of money, food or clothing. Begging is not Islamic and the Holy prophet (peace be upon him) spoke against begging with such a frequency and emphasis that most of his companions stopped from making even ordinary requests for the rest of their lives. The very few exceptions to this rule are detailed in relevant Islamic books.

Almajiri on the other hand is the distortion of the Arabic word almuhajir, meaning someone who has left his home in search of security, food, knowledge, etc. Commenting on the first Hadith of his popular collection of 40 traditions, Imam Alnawawiy listed many reasons for which Hijra is recommended in Islam. One of them is search of knowledge. The Qur’an (Q9:122) has made it an obligation for each community to sponsor people from among themselves who will engage in such movements in search of Islamic knowledge. As a matter of fact, the founders of Sokoto Caliphate belong to this group.

It is therefore necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. While almajiranci is Islamic, begging, whether it is done by children or adults is unislamic. A collective, thorough and sustained effort must be made to see to the end of this menace without affecting Islamic scholarship. As the spiritual leader of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, the Sultan is supposed to lead the way.

And when His eminence spoke about sending children to school, which school is he referring to? Is it the western education type popularly called makarantar boko by his people? If so, he doesn’t have to worry. There is currently a big Federal ministry of Education, 36 state ministries of Education, 774 local Education departments with thousands of teachers, curriculum experts and other employees aimed at promoting those schools. What is missing, which is what everybody expects to be the Sultan’s business, is a comprehensive guideline on the establishment, running and content of Islamic schools. Because of the absence of such guidelines, every community operates their Islamic schools the way they like. At the grassroot level where Islamiyya schools are established and run, the NSCIA and JNI are vividly absent. In many cases, even the Headmasters do not have a blueprint of what is supposed to be taught in their schools.

When referring to the conventional western-style schools, what I thought should be the worry of the Sultan is the Islamic studies content in those schools. Apart from IRK (or IS as it is now called), there is no other subject or program aimed at teaching our children about their religion, especially in public schools. The IRK is deficient in many ways. For example, it does not make the child to be able to recite Qur’an. Again, a child may pass IRK in flying colours without knowing how to write their names in Arabic, which is the language of Islam. The JNI/NSCIA is supposed to come out with a realistic framework to correct this anomaly for adoption by state governments especially in Shari’ah states. One of the best models I have seen is that of a private girls’ school in Kano. The school has a comprehensive program by which a child will complete Qur’anic recitation in the second or third year of their senior secondary school. In addition, whether a girl is in Science or Arts option, she must take Arabic. Thus, by the time they finish the school, all pupils are able to recite Qur’an correctly and know basic Arabic that will help them learn their religion from the source. My reader will be interested to know that the percentage pass in both WAEC and NECO is always 100.

My advice to the Sultan and indeed the JNI/NSCIA is to first and foremost realize that it is their inaction that has made begging to persist among Nigerian Muslims. The more they cry aloud about this problem, the more ridiculous they appear. They should therefore stop living in the past and live up to their responsibility. That is the only panacea for integrity and well being of their people.

Published in Blueprint Newspaper of 16th March, 2016

THE ORDEAL OF AISHA ORURU: WHY PMB MUST INTERVENE

Sometime in February 2013, a lady by name Charity Uzochina then a student of the federal Polytechnic Bida embraced Islam. As is the practice, she changed her name to Aisha, a popular Muslim name. At that time, Aisha was 25 and thus by any standard an adult who could decide for herself.

In a nation whose constitution allows for freedom of religion with respect to its choice and practice, one would expect no dust to be raised at that development. However, the father of Aisha, who is also a pastor tried to forcefully take back Aisha in order to force her back to Christianity. He was backed by the Christian Association of Nigeria and all manners of so-called human right activists. Out of fear for her life, the lady approached a Shariah court in Niger state which asked the Etsu Nupe to give her protection. She thus dropped her studies and took refuge in the Emir’s palace. A year later, she got married to the Muslim lawyer who handled her case. It is important to note that Aisha succeeded only because of the resilience of the Emir of Nupe who refused to release her to those wolfy set of people who were not ready to accept anyone of them to embrace Islam even if their conversion is as Aisha herself put it, “strictly personal, gradual and well thought-out” and even if no law of the land prevents it from taking place. One irony is that none of the so-called human right groups came out to defend the right of adult Aisha to decide for herself the religion she wanted to follow and indeed the husband she wanted to marry.

If the Emir of Bida stood his ground to protect a helpless lady who was adamant on exercising her right of choice, the Emir of Kano was not forthcoming in this regard. I m particularly referring to the story of Ese (Aisha) Oruru which has dominated the headlines over the first several days. This story is one of pity and persecution. It has also revealed the timidity of the Nigerian Muslim community and the dysfunctionality of their leadership. Ese Oruru is a teenager born to a Christian family in Bayelsa state. At a stage in her life she decided to change her religion to Islam. Conversion to Islam in Nigeria is not new. Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth that people across all continents continue to embrace. In the case of young Ese she embraced Islam through one Yunusa who is a native of Kano state. Not only did the young man preached Islam to Ese, he took her to his village and married her. According to the news, there was an attempt by Ese’s family to take her back to Bayelsa but she refused because she was comfortable living as a Muslim with her husband of choice.

Like the case of her name-sake in Niger state, the story of Ese has attracted a lot of noise by the traditional noise makers in Nigeria. A lot has been said to the extent that many people who should ordinarily sympathize with Aisha for her ordeal have become confused and are busy condemning people whose guilt has not been legally established.

Here, there are many questions in need of answers. First, how old is Aisha? The initial story was that Ese is 18. But later we were told that she is now 14 but was 13 as at the time she was ‘abducted’. There has been no independent investigation to determine her actual age. What I expect the self-acclaimed champions of child right to have done is to launch and publish an independent investigation to ascertain the actual age of Aisha (Ese). This will clearly establish whether or not she has the right to decide for herself.

And what determines the age of maturity?  It is relative depending on the issue at stake and the legal system in place. According to the laws we inherited from the British, a girl who willingly submits herself to a man is not considered to have been raped unless she is below the age of 14. In other words, marriage aside, if Ese willingly submitted herself to Yinusa for sex at the age of 14, he can validly accuse anyone who calls him a rapist of character assassination. This is obviously the reason why our so-called advocates of child right reduced the age of Aisha to 13 in order to have a reason to make the public believe that the ‘minor’ was abducted and raped.

Now, how neutral is the Nigerian Police? Anyone who has listened to the explanations of the Nigerian Police would doubt the neutrality of the Force on this issue. For example, since the ‘rescue’ of Aisha and her return to Abuja, they have been hiding her from the public and disallowing her access to the press. In spite of this, a national daily published an interview purportedly given by Aisha in which she corroborated the claim that she was hypnotized. The ‘interview’ is available on the popular Linda Akija’s blog as I am writing this piece.  If the Police truly allowed the interview to take place and denied other journalists access to her, then it is not fair. And if the interview is false, I expect the Nigerian Police to arrest the publishers for misleading the public and ridiculing the Force.

Another threat to the well being of Aisha is the statement from her family that they will be taking her to TB Joshua.  This is because according to her father Mr. Charles Oruru, “Ese had declined to come home after being released into the custody of the Police, fearing she may have been hypnotised”. This statement from Mr. Oruru, published in the Vanguard of 2^nd March 2016 raises another dust. The Police must have forced Aisha to Abuja and that is why she has been hidden from the Public. And why take her to TB Joshua? TB Joshua is a Christian preacher who does not share the same faith with Aisha. Assuming Aisha is bundled and taken to TB Joshua who is believed by his admirers to have extra-spiritual powers, how will he react when she refuses to accept his advice to return to Christianity? Can we rule out torture? Who is there to make sure that this young person is not maltreated? Her desperate parents who have been made to believe that their daughter has been hypnotized by Muslims and want her to be hypnotized back to Christianity by TB Joshua or Joshua’s disciples who believe in the supernatural powers of their leader? Nigerians would definitely be interested to know TB Joshua’s method of hypnotisation to make sure that it does not contain any form of maltreatment.

In conclusion and with due respect to the Emir of Kano, he should not have handed over Aisha (Ese) without getting assurance that she will be safe and following to make sure that she is not tortured for her belief whether or not she has reached the age of puberty. But it is not late. He, along with other leaders must follow this matter to logical conclusion and make sure that Aisha stays alive and safe. But above all, Mr. President should come in to make sure that this helpless Nigerian has been safely handled.