Political
Shariah: Aren’t the Fulanis Pushing Us to the Abyss?
By
Femi
Awoniyi
Speyer,
Germany
The
dismal performance of our minister of state for foreign affairs, Dubem Onyia, on
the CNN news programme Q&A, in the evening of August 28, once again, brings
to a poignant fore the absurdity of the Nigerian situation.
Chief
Onyia would like the world to believe that Shariah was introduced by its
practising Northern states ”to divert attention” from the failures of their
governments to address the basic needs of the people.
Minister
Onyia‘s brief was to allay international concerns arising from the latest
Shariah court verdict, confirming the death sentence by stoning of an
”adulteress”, in Funtua, Katsina State.
But
Onyia cut a sorry picture on CNN, trying to deceive the world. For one could
easily see the folly of his position and it was difficult to be impressed by our
minister’s rehearsed hopeless assurances.
The
Onyia CNN outing suggests, before the whole world, that our leaders either
don’t have a clear appreciation of the enormity of the Nigerian dilemma or are
recklessly playing Russian roulette with the fate of 120 million human beings.
For Shariah has far more to do with the internal politics of these states as our
minister, obviously on an errand for President Olusegun Obasanjo, explained.
Shariah
in Nigeria, in its current variant form, is not about Islam. In fact, it is
anti-Islam. The Fulani-inspired Shariah represents an aggressive and deliberate
politicisation of Islam for political ends. Its objective, by creating a climate
of religious intolerance and fanaticism, is to demonize non-Muslim Nigerians and
delineate them as the others, fragment our land culturally and give the
Fulani elite the capacity to incite mass violence in their struggle for power in
the country.
The
Obasanjo-led federal government has been denying this reality since 1999,
thereby toying with a bobby-trap which could explode in our face soon.
Sudan
provides the scare picture of the terrible consequences of instrumentalizing
Islam for the purpose of politics. More than 1.5 million people, mostly black
Africans, according to UN figures, have perished, since 1983, in the tragic
stalemate caused by the introduction of Shariah in the country. And Shariah in
Sudan is the weapon of Arab supremacy.
In
Nigeria, Islam is the excuse for Fulani privilege. And the Fulani elite continue
to ruthlessly abuse this religion of truth for their selfish ends. A Fulani emir
who secretly receives illegal allocation of crude oil, who sponsors businessmen
for dubious government contracts and shares in the booty parades himself
publicly as the Leader of the Muslim Faithful in his domain.
And
the notorious one-time Fulani army officer, who, not so long ago, achieved
infamy by smuggling into Nigeria 53 briefcases (containing who knows what!), in
league with his father, is today supposed to be the Shepherd of the Believers
in Gwandu.
That
is how much Fulani leaders have rubbished Islam in Nigeria!
Obasanjo
puts up the brave appearance and he assures us that he is not afraid. But one
must be afraid of those who are not fearful of God, who openly and brazenly
abuse the name of God and His injunctions for their selfish and unholy pursuits.
Our
president says Shariah will ‘fizzle away’. But Fulani political Islam, of
which the latest Shariah is only an expression, has not fizzled away since
Othman dan Fodio treacherously rose against his benevolent Hausa hosts nearly
two hundred years ago.
The
obvious threat of Fulani-inspired political Shariah to the secular order of
our polity continues to be underplayed. The drawback of Shariah, by
discouraging both local and foreign investors from investing in Nigeria, to the
emancipation of our land from economic and social stagnation continues to be
disregarded. The enormous and proven potentials of this evil political ideology
to cause bloodletting on a horrendous scale continues to be ignored.
Is
Obasanjo not repeating the Ironsi mistake by his politics of Fulani appeasement?
And
finally: True Muslims in Nigeria must make their voice more audible in the
defence of their Faith, a religion of peace, which is being ruthlessly
politicised to cause trouble in our land. When the Fulani leader talks about
Islam we accord his words importance instead of outrightly dismissing him as a
merchant of deceit. If true Muslims do not challenge the Fulani elite, Islam in
Nigeria will continue to be soiled.
Moreover: The battle against Fulani trouble-making must be taken to Hausaland where the Hausa man is so thoroughly and hopelessly marginalized. We must free him from the evil shackles of Fulani political Islam because only then will we have sustained peace in Nigeria.