It was the very day protesters violated Capitol Hill in America over allegation of rigged polls that the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) in Nigeria pronounced death sentence over the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Hassan Kukah, who has a double jeopardy of being a prominent indigene of Southern Kaduna, a community that has been at the receiving end of terror for years now.
JNI, the apex Muslim organisation in Nigeria, proclaimed a fatwa on the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev Matthew Hassan Kukah, over his 2020 Christmas Day homily, wherein he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of sacrificing the dreams of Nigerians on the altar of nepotism by allegedly pursuing northern hegemony.
JNI described Kukah’s message as “a calculated attempt to insult Islam which is typical of him” and that the “veiled insinuation that Muslims have a pool of violence to draw from, is disgusting, disheartening, as well as condemnable.”
It further described the message which had unsettled the Presidency “as a poisoned arrow fired at the heart of Islam and Muslims in Nigeria”, hence its intervention.
Based on the foregoing, the JNI proclaimed: “By this and his several similar inane attacks against Islam and the Muslims, the Bishop has lost the friendship and the hospitality of the entire Muslim populace.”
It wondered: “How can the Muslims ever trust a man who smiles at their faces in the day and hold dagger against them in the night? How can the Muslims continue to be hospitable to the one who proves to be ingrate many times over? How can the Muslims be comfortable in associating with a bitterly vindictive person disguised in the garb of religious clergy?”
The JNI’s proclamation was captured in a statement signed by Dr Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, Secretary-General, and issued to journalists in Kaduna last Wednesday.
The Muslim umbrella body said its attention was drawn to “an irresponsible and seditious Christmas message” issued by Rev Kukah.
JNI argued that responsibly, Christmas homilies should come with messages of hope, unity, mercy, the forgiveness of the Supreme Being, and resilience through prayers, especially in this trying time. But they can pass death on a fellow citizen in the new year without being a law court and without reference to similar virtues from their Holy Book!
My friends in the innermost rooms in America told of the frantic calls coming from Nigerian Senior officials as events were unfolding at the Capitol complaining about the Republican supporters who were rioting just as some Nigerians under the guise of religion were passing a death verdict on a Bishop of another faith.
One of the leaders of the faith, who must be watching this with interest while possibly shedding some crocodile tears at the American event where they are happy that their judgement day at the ICC has been postponed indefinitely, is the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the one whose pastime was abusing and poking jokes at Jesus Christ with no consequence till date .
The same governor made a very shocking confession on December 3, 2016, on how he had been settling foreign Fulani killers of Southern Kaduna people with taxpayers’ money. He said: “For Southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (Rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post-election violence. “Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment rain starts around March and April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle.
“So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back for revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but, of course, after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is a Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There were one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.”
The same governor was more audacious than the leader of Boko Haram, Malam Shekau, when he threatened to mow down foreign observers during the 2019 elections. The Guardian of 7th February, 2010 recorded el-Rufai as threatening elections observers that they would not leave Nigeria alive if they intervened in local elections. Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State further threatened that foreign nationals who interfere in the general elections would be given ‘body bag treatment’.
A body bag is one used for carrying a corpse from a battlefield or the scene of an accident or crime to either a mortuary or place of burial.
The governor’s threat came barely a week after the Federal Government accused foreign powers, including the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (U.K.) and the European Union (E.U.) of actions that could be deemed as “interference”.
He went further to say on live television that: “You can comment, but when you make statements on the internal affairs of a country without facts, that is interference and is very irresponsible. Those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for those that will come and intervene, they will go back in body bags.”
el-Rufai described Nigeria as an independent entity whose sovereignty would never be compromised in servitude to foreign powers..
It is a practical joke of sort when people talk about the Nigerian national. There is no such thing anywhere and there can never be one in the midst of their clash of civilisations where some people can rise to threaten others with death without consequences, because of our dual mandate and law within the law that make some citizens above the ether.
There can never be equality in such a polity where some superior groups treat others like underdogs, with disregard of not being equal human beings.
There are two incidents currently playing out in the unending domination of Nigeria and the continued servitude of sections of it to the dominating partner. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo recently raised alarm over the Police Service Commission that saw 37 officers promoted with the North West having 12, North East 8, South West 7, South South 5, North Central 4 and South East 1.Its also being alleged that there is a surreptitious move to by-pass the next qualified person for the IG post from the South South in favour of geo-political injury and imbalance.
The second was reported by Sahara Reporters of plans to retire Yusuf Kasalli Oladipo who should be appointed as the next Comptroller General of Nigerian Correctional services to allegedly pave way for a Northerner. Oladipo is the most senior Assistant at the moment.
These fellows will do these injustices and get away with them but how long will Nigeria survive these shenanigans?
Credit: Yinka Odumakin