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On El-Sanusi’s Defense: Silence Would Have Been The Best Answer To Jazuli A. Lawal By Bala Sidi-Ali Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Mallam Jazuli A. Lawal wrote a rejoinder to Mal. Abdu Isa Kofar Mata’s article- “Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, You got it wrong”, I would have abided by the saying that “Silence is the best answer to a fool”, but I believe that in this case there is a need to speak-out.
It is surprising that somebody will rise-up in defense of El-Sanusi who is well- known as someone who derives pleasure in raising controversy; if it is not pure academic discuss, it will probably be an issue on Islamization, or question on the implementation of Shari’ah, or maybe championing the Fulani race, etc., etc. Thus I will not waste much breath in addressing the issues raised by my brother El-Sanusi since other brothers like Mallam Mohammed Haruna and Nasiru Musa Yauri have done so.
What is worth mentioning, however, is that Jazuli A. Lawal did a bad job of comparing the late Mallam Aminu Kano, of blessed memory, with El-Sanusi. These two persons have nothing in common other than their Fulani lineage, Kano, and Islam. Jazuli mentioned that you don’t “expect a man to accept and practice religion when the rulers and preachers are stacking billion Nairas in their respective bank accounts without the fear of God”, mhm, so you cannot practice your religion when such persons exist in the society? This is interesting, so have you performed Hijra? You asked Abdu Isa Kofar Mata how many of his tribes’ members (?) and muslims where head of states (sic) in Nigeria and what they have done to alleviate the suffering of their people, and whether they brought justice, equity and fairness to the majority population of Nigeria. I don’t know whether you have read something of Nigerian history, but I know that the performance of people like Tafawa Balewa/Sardauna, Murtala and Buhari is unquestionably closer to being fair and just than the present charade. Even Shagari’s administration was more nationalistic in terms of distribution of posts and performance than what obtains at present. I am certain that if to say Obasanjo is a muslim the Lagos/Ibadan axis press would not have given him any breathing space if the composition of the present administration was in favour of muslims as it was now in favour of Christians. Now, Mallam Jazuli, who is being miopic (sic)? For your information my friend, even El-Sanusi, the person you are defending said, in his article on “Religion, the cabinet and a political economy of the ‘north’”, while commenting on Obasanjo’s cabinet, that “True, Obasanjo should have done a little better by showing some more sensitivity to the religious diversity…. Not doing this was bad politics” (emphasis mine). In yet another of his write-ups entitled “Power-shift and rotation: Between emancipation and obfuscation”, El-Sanusi mentioned that “In a democracy that works (even imperfectly) the president shall soon find that he can have no project sited, no ministers and advisers appointed, no ambassadors posted, no law promulgated without the support of the entire nation”, In this same article he went on to say that “The south currently enjoys a tremendous amount of goodwill. Only reciprocity and assuarances that a southern president will be a president for all Nigerians are required for a southern president to emerge”. Can El-Sanusi and people like Jazuli tell us that Igbos and Muslims of this country will agree with them that Obasanjo’s rule depicts him to be a president for all Nigerians?
The defense of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi by Mallam Jazuli A. Lawal is not only shallow but empty as well and, like an empty barrel, designed to make noise. How can you step on somebody’s toe and then slap him for bringing your attention to the fact that you are stepping on his toe? Are we as muslims expected to be more Christian than the Christians themselves, i.e. “turn the other cheek?” I think it will do people like Jazuli Lawal a world of good to read the balanced article of Brother Mohammed Haruna on “Muslims and the National conference: the case of blaming the victim”, I am sure he will learn a thing or two. As for the “president” I will leave him with the ghost of his illegitimacy which will continue to haunt him even after his tenure. I will seriously advise my fellow Nigerians to henceforth be on the look-out for people with the “little-man syndrome”, another one of them with a nickname of an Argentine drug addict footballer is trying to stage a comeback, we don’t pray for a worst leadership than the present. I seek Allah’s forgiveness, Allah knows best. |