Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu
The Sunday Tribune of 15 June 2014, reported a story on page
7 captioned - How I Stopped Boko Haram in Niger State – Gov Aliyu.
The report was on the ‘22nd graduation ceremony of’ Adesoye College,
Offa where Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, the Niger State Governor ‘explained
how he prevented Boko Haram insurgents from having security base in the state
by sacking the Darul Islam sect from their Mokwa Local Government base in 2010.’
In the same report the Governor was further quoted as saying,
‘ “We were proactive in managing Boko Haram insurgents from having a base in
Niger State. Imagine having Boko Haram in the middle of Nigeria? A governor
must at all times seek ways of protecting the lives and properties of people in
his state”
Darul Islam had no connection whatsoever with Boko Haram. Darul
Islam had been in existence years before the emergence of Boko Haram. I visited
the community in 2004 together with the current Archbishop of Canterbury, when
he was then known as Reverend Canon Justin Welby, Co-Director of International
Centre for Reconciliation. Bishop Welby led a team from Coventry Cathedral,
United Kingdom, to Nigeria in order to convene an international conference on
peace in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC). I and
Sheikh Muhammad Sani Isa, Imam, Waff Road Mosque, and current Special Adviser
to Kaduna State Governor on Islamic Affairs were members of the Local
Organising Committee (LOC) for the Coventry Cathedral-NIREC Peace Conference.
We visited the Taliban, in Maduguri and Yobe,
which later metamorphosed into Boko Haram, but actually, we started with Darul
Islam in Niger State. The purpose was to reach out to extremist as well as
moderate groups so they may key into the peace project and participate in the
conference. Therefore, it is apparent from this that Darul Islam was in
existence even before the appearance of Boko Haram.
This is what I wrote on these pages in 2010 on our visit to Darul
Islam:
‘Darul Islam was more than a mere group; it was a community
on the outskirts of Niger State. This was a peace-loving community. Members of
the LOC for the Peaceful Coexistence Conference of the Coventry Cathedral were
welcomed; with a few introductory remarks to the leader of Darul Islam (Malam
Bashir) on the purpose of our visit, we (Muslims and Christians) were ushered
into the masjid (mosque) without discrimination. I want to see another group of
Muslims in this country that will admit Christian clergy into its mosque for
the purposes of dialogue and interfaith discourse! I am saying this because
whenever we take Christian (foreign) visitors for the tour of the National
Mosque the ignorant among the people would look at us with disapproval, and
suspicion. Some even mutter curses under their breath, something about traitors
going to Hell and so on.
‘The leader directed a crier to summon people in Darul Islam
to the mosque for ‘an urgent and important matter.’ Within 15 minutes,
there was no room left for the faithful to sit in the mosque; every available
space was occupied. Many leaned on the walls, and many more stood outside
behind the windows. Women in complete Islamic attire, and children were at the
rear of the masjid; you could not hear even the slightest din. Everything was
calm, peaceful. Nobody uttered a word without the consent of the leader (Ameer).
‘With the permission of the leader, I briefly introduced the
LOC members to the Darul Islam community, and stated our mission. Later, The
Reverend Canon Justin Welby, Co-Director of International Centre for
Reconciliation, directed a number of questions at the leader of the community.
‘Sheikh,’ he began, ‘we wonder what will make you choose to stay
here, far away from civilization, and basic amenities of modern life.’
‘‘You are right Reverend,’ started the leader of Darul
Islam, ‘we chose to be here because we want to be governed by Allah’s Laws.
Darul Islam means the Abode of Peace, Islam; whoever comes here will be in
peace. We don’t belong to any sect be it Izala, Tariqah, Shia or whatnot. We
are Muslims for that is what Allah calls the adherents of Islaam in the Qur’an.
We don’t fight anybody, kill or destroy property. Darul Islam has its market,
‘health centre’, a school for our children where they are taught Islaam and
what will not harm their faith of the so-called Western Education, and even
abattoir. We farm what we eat; we need nothing from anywhere. We are content
with what Allah has provided for us here. Our wells are overflowing with water,
these Lister engines you see around our mud-built houses are the source of
energy that illumines our homes; we are not in need of NEPA. Ours is a modest
life. The Governor (Abdulkadir Kure of the time) personally came here to plead
with us to leave, that he has earmarked a large plot of land for us within the
city. We showed our gratitude to, and prayed for him; we made him understand
that we prefer to stay here. He conceded, and left us alone. It may be that he
had seen that we pose no threat to anybody; we are peaceful.’’
In November 2012, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation held its
official launch at Transcorp Hilton with Mr Tony Blair himself in attendance. Also
present was Bishop Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury Designate at the
time. Others were President
Goodluck Jonathan, represented by the Minister of Housing, Ms Pepple, His
Eminence Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto, His Royal Highness,
Estu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Most Reverend Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the
Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor,
President, Christian Association of Nigeria. During question time, I had the
floor, and I said:
‘I’m happy His Royal Highness, Estu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya
Abubakar is here. Let me remind Bishop Welby of Darul Islam, a peaceful
community in the outskirts of Niger state that hosted us during our
fact-finding trip, and allowed us to dialogue with its members in their mosque.
It will interest the Archbishop of Canterbury Designate to know that the
peaceful community he visited no longer exists today. It has been wiped out,
its men, women and children banished and their dwellings levelled to the ground.’
I mentioned many things concerning our visits to Taliban in Yobe
and Borno states as well as other issues concerning the final report written by
the Coventry Cathedral.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Designate was grieved by that
gruesome banishment of a peaceful community. He later sent me email in which he
stated his thoughts on Darul Islam and the ill-treatment they received on the
expulsion.
Boko Haram kill Christians and Muslims who do not share their
views; they do not dialogue with them. How could the Niger State Governor boast
of stopping Boko Haram by expelling, from their dwellings, a people that had
nothing to do with Boko Haram? The ‘sacking’ of Darul Islam was not
analogous to preventing ‘Boko Haram insurgents from having security base in
the state…’ It was rather a heartless exhibition of the antithesis of a
civilised society where those who choose to be different are respected. Darul Islam
was in every inch similar to the Amish Christians in the United States of
America, where members farm what they eat, children go to school within the
community, and people there have less to do with the modern world. You have the
equivalent of these two in the many ‘camps’ along expressways across the
country. There is a camp of the Hindu Guru Maharaji sect along the Lagos-Ibadan
expressway; there is a complete mini town for the Redeemed Christian Church of
God (RCCG), the Winners’ Chapel and Deeper Life Church along the same road.
Some have banks, hospitals, hotels and filling stations in them. They employ a
large number of people and they pose no threat to anyone just like Darul Islam.
The security forces sent to banish Darul Islam pounced on the
inhabitants at dawn while they were in the mosque for the Fajr prayer. Though there
were Muslims among these uniformed personnel, they did not have the courtesy of
going into the mosque to speak to the people on their ruthless mission. They ordered
them out of the mosque. What an irony! A Christian delegation was admitted into
the mosque for dialogue, but Muslims who should also be observing the Fajr
prayer at the time could not go into the mosque. They told everybody to come
out, and told them that the government was not comfortable with the existence
of that community. No other charges were made. No mention of Boko Haram at all
or of anybody harbouring members of the dreaded sect, as the Governor stated in
his Offa address. No weapons of any sort were recovered or discovered. No hate
messages or deviant ideologies were evidenced in their recorded lectures,
utterances or deeds, just plain ascetism.
These people were ordered by the security agents to huddle
together while guns were trained at them and a group of the agents went into
each room of each dwelling in the camp and ransacked them for alleged weapons.
Just as Bush did in Iraq, they found nothing, because there was nothing to be
found.
I have my reservations against the Darul Islam group and
their hijrah method; that is not what I set out to discuss, it is that
these peace-preaching, peaceful people would be tarred with the same brush as
the maniacal, evil and deviant group called Boko Haram that is riling and
unfair. It stretches the truth too far and I think it was just to score an
unnecessary political point.
The topic of the Governor’s address should have been ‘How I
Supported Boko Haram’, because you expelled a whole community that had its
means of livelihood, made hundreds of able-bodied men jobless, and, by that,
you created a handy resource for Boko Haram recruitment!
In every group of religious people, we have those willing to
go to the fringes if the conditions are right. It has always been the duty of
their spiritual leaders and the political leaders to keep them in check before
they become a violent fanatical group. It was, and remains, the duty of the
governor to watch out for potential troublemakers. To that extent, he was right
to investigate the group and ascertain what threat they posed to peace in the
state. Where I believe he went off course was to scatter these people forcefully
when nothing was ever recorded against them. The rallying head of the group now
absent, His Excellency has given the less religiously educated among them a
chance to explore means of squaring the perceived injustice meted out on them -
just what Boko Haram recruiters will love!
No nation let alone a state ‘in the middle of Nigeria’
can honestly boast of stopping lunatics of the ilk of Boko Haram, Al-Qaida,
etc. America has not succeeded in its war against terror, as there are bombs,
kidnappings, and killings everywhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, etc.
– billions expended without abatement of the crises. In addition, no state in
Northern Nigeria is immune from the atrocities of Boko Haram. It is not fitting,
therefore, for the governor of any state to claim stopping a band of fake jihadists
that could strike as and when they want.
Expelling Darul Islam was a shameful operation, not something
to be proud of or what could be used for cheap political aggrandisement.
My advice to His Excellency, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu
is to concentrate on leaving good legacies in Niger State, giving his electorates
better life and good infrastructure, rather than making apocryphal speeches. After
all, well done is better than well said!
