A Rejoinder To  Abdu Isa Kofar Mata – Sunusi Lamido Sunusi, You Got It All Wrong!

By

Jazuli A. Lawal

Jazuli_lawal@yahoo.com

 

 

I refer to your rejoinder to the writeup of Sunusi Lamido Sunusi on Gamji website and hereby commenting on the whole article for better understanding by our people.  I found it really amazing and very much unnecessary to write a rejoinder on issues of religious undertone. In my years of publications, no one article has ever made me feel really thrilled like the one written by my senior colleque Sunusi Lamido Sunusi (In defence of Reverend Father Kukah).  The article was very rich in sense and meaning.  Perhaps, the direction and manner the writer phrased his argument was well formatted and structured.

 

Why I feel obliged to write a rejoinder on this issue was the fact that, even though Sunusi Lamido Sunusi had already clarify sensitive issues with detailed explanation of the matter and made his position clear in the introductory part of his paper, I intend to explain my own view point on the same issue where religion is being used by our northern elites and the ruling class in disguise to perpetrait evils and injustice to the poor christians and muslims alike in the Northern Nigeria.  In other words, I do not intend to go into endless argument with my country man,  I would only try to analyse the position of intellectuals scholars and democratic humanist like Late Aminu Kano and Sunusi Lamido Sunusi respectively.

 

Even though I share some common grounds with some intellectuals when it comes to fighting for justice and other scholarly enquiries, one should not conclude that I totally agree with every point made by the defendant, but as an intellectual one needs to see and accept facts from any reasonable person be it christian or muslim.  It is in our history in the fast three decades, Malam Aminu Kano (a renowned scholar in the North) has fought series of wars against the elites and the ruling class.  His position was persived by the elites and other ruling class as offensive, which in the process many people lost their lives in the course of fighting againts injustice. 

 

In Northern Nigeria today and in the past, religion has been used as a weaponry to win the hearts of the illiterate masses.  The elites have been manipulating various elections to  super impose their candidates in political offices with the pretence of being a muslims or scholars.  How much have those people done to improve the social welfare of their fellow muslim brothers?  For how long will they continue in darkness?  What is the level of crimes and social vices being perpetrated by the elites and ruling class in our campuses and homes today?  I feel ashamed of myself to be decieved by those religious bygotes and hypocrites through the use of Islamic religion to code and control my thinking against uprise for justice, fairness and equity in our society. 

 

The discussion made by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was straight to the point and does not require further clarifications. The most important thing to note down here is that, among those claiming Islam in the North, how many Ulamahs and Imams are not stinckingly richmen today?  How did they come by?  We all knew that most of them have no business or other source of income to generate such wealth to them.  They own big jips and own mighty bungalows while preaching peace where there is no justice, equity and fairness.  I believe strongly that our Imams and Malam have no moral obligation to proclaim or question someone Islamic credentials. 

 

In my own opinion how do you expect a man to accept and practice religion when the rulers and the preachers are stacking billion of Nairas in their respective bank accounts without fear of God?  Indeed, you might have misunderstood the position of Lamido Sunusi  about those Northern elite who to them religion is a business investment for profit making.

 

My dear brother Abdu, have you ever taken your time to trace the causes of those crisis in the north?  Surely most of them where caused by political rivalry.  But if we should be fair to ourselves, it was basically because of the high degree of injustice, unfair dealing and looting of the Nigerian treasury by our elites and the military politicians.  I recommend that every Muslim Northerner should never accept or follow any elite and other politicians blindly. 

 

We are not unaware of our current political hardship, poverty, insecurity and political crisis in our society.  It is no doubt that, they contributed so much to our suffering circumstances; for many have taken favours from the past and the present politicians to sponsor set of Ulamas to Holy Land to pray for them even though they new their clients lack credibilities and their characters are questionable.  For instance can you imagine the kind of drama our elites are playing on the floor of the National Confab?  They would stand decieving youth from the north by calling the name of Allah. What kind of share mockery to my religion?

 

Similarly, you have also labelled an allegations that Sunusi Lamido Sunusi has spent so much time and energy to undermined shari’a and Islam at large.  In a more subtle manner, I disagree with your argument because throughout his writeups, which I have been following with keen interest and respect, there have never been a place he discredited Islam or Sharia, rather, many times his position remain clear and consistent on enlightening the masses of the north against the use of Islamic religion to lure them into deception.

 

You have equally pointout that, what were the criteria used in selecting Reverand Kukah who is a minority from Kaduna State,  whereas Hausas that are more than 20,000,000.00 in the same zone where not selected or elected?  Perhaps you were only being tribalistic in your approach to argument.  Can you tell us how many of your tribes’ members and muslims where head of states in Nigeria?  What have they done to alleviate the suffering of their people, did they bring justice, equity and fairness to the majority population of Nigeria?  How many years have your muslims representatives selected on whatever criteria to head Political offices and have done credibly well in Nigeria?  Let us not be miopic in our reasoning. 

 

In summary, as an economist, and a lecturer, I find Sunusi Lamido Sunusis’ arguments and position very relevant to every Nigerian.  His arguments have been in the defence of masses welfare as it centres around economic issues such as poverty, mismanagement of resources, stealing and corruption among others.