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Demystifying Yariman Bakura By Ali Liman Abubakar
Department of Mass Communications, Bayero University, Kano
Very few knew him prior to the 1999 General Abdussalami Abubakar’s elections. The few who knew him then could rarely predict the character that he cuts today. Yariman Bakura as he is popularly known was then young, energetic, and what one can easily call progressive. He used to spot a clean chin that matched an innocent look, giving the whole world an image of a dynamic and exuberant leader. I believe the people of the young state of Zamfara must have at that point started counting themselves lucky of the lot for having him as their governor. Whether they are still lucky today is left to them to judge.
But for a good observer of people especially a psychologist, it was easy to guess where the young man was heading, beginning from the time of his electioneering, when he apparently exploited the credulity of the very religious people of Zamfara, that his would be an Islamic state, where peace, justice and equity would reign. It was therefore to the utter disbelief of the whole world when Yarima announced just few months into his administration, that he was introducing the Islamic legal code-the Shari’a- including its criminal aspects, which provides penalties as chopping of arm for stealing and stoning to death for adultery.
When Malam Bello Jangebe, alias Kare Garke, became the first casualty of Yarima’s brand of Sharia, everybody shouted ‘it was politics’ and ‘it would not last’. President Obasanjo at one of his numerous journeys swore it was targeted at his administration, but assured the ‘civilized world’ that it was political and would soon fizzle out. And Obasanjo’s prophesy you would all agree with me, had since come to pass.
This step taken by Yarima was no doubt a bold one, and definitely one that should be sustained if anything, to prove to the world the universality of Shari’a, which they were cynical about, especially in this ‘modern age’. Yarima and his pet project became so popular so much at that time, there was no issue as newsworthy as the ‘introduction of Shari’a in the Northern Nigerian state of Zamfara’. Yarima was suddenly the bride of the Western media, who scrambled to interview him. Whatever station you tuned to, and at whatever time of the day, the news of the Shari’a would confront you.
It is not my intention here to argue whether it is good or otherwise to introduce Shari’a in a predominantly Muslim population, or what brand of Shari’a Yarima should have introduced, because that has long been debated by people far more vast and learned than me. But my bitterness about it all is how Yarima used us, how he traded us for international fame. Throughout the globe today, the name of Sani Ahmed Yariman Bakura does not only ring a bell but is a household one. How people use God’s name to subjugate fellow humans sometime puzzles me. Why on earth should he start what he cannot finish in the first place? Where is Yarima and his Shari’a today? Is Zamfara state more peaceful and tranquil or prosperous today than it was six years ago? Where is the whole lot of money said to be given to him by some Muslim countries and organizations to support the Shari’a implementation? How many people from any other state have migrated to Zamfara today in search of greener pasture? How many Zamfara state indigenes have we heard, had actually relocated from the South back home to enjoy the just rule of Yariman Bakura?
After six years of Shari’a in Zamfara and indeed in other states that copied Yarima’s innovation, one can only say that Muslims in northern Nigeria have been used. We were made the instruments of playing politics, and we accepted it. It appears we are weak which perhaps explains why we are vulnerable to all sorts of ill-treatment, that anything religious is acceptable to us irrespective of the character of persons that brought it, every person can come with his product and brand it Islam, and we jump at it. When some Muslims advanced that governments operating under Shari’a should rather de-emphasize the criminal aspects they were shouted down, but I believe those people today feel vindicated.
We suddenly began to see Yarima and his cohorts growing long thick beard, wearing turbans on their heads and disrespected those wearing no beard or turban, as if they are part of the pillars of Islam. At a time, we knew when it was reported that people in the government of Zamfara state were maltreated for failing to grow thick beard as ordered by the ‘Imam’ of the Zamfara state. Any good Muslim knows that this is sheer deception, because even the prophet (SAW) said ‘attaqwa haa huna’, that the fear of God shouldn’t be made to look like something of ostentation, it is in the mind.
The consequences of Yarima’s Shari’a today are very glaring and we all know are too much for us, in fact they are more than we bargained for. We are branded fundamentalists anywhere we go; many lives have been lost in Kaduna, Kano, Jos and even Abuja. The North today is no longer one single entity, but polarized into core North and the North, or what others call the Middle Belt. Kaduna an d Jos were hitherto peaceful cities until Yarima’s emergence. People there now live in areas where majority are members of their faith. The implication for this is that we are retreating back to our shell, we don’t look beyond our nose, instead for us to reach out, we are retreating back to our territory and thus not being accommodating as the Prophet (SAW) himself urged us to be, so that others too could come and join the religion. The moment Yarima introduced his own Shari’a, people began to think this country may never be the same again.
But Allah (SWT) would not allow those who use His religion to satisfy their selfish means to go just like that. Why did Yarima start what he could not finish? The Jangebes are watching and praying ardently for God to give them justice, not the one Yarima gave them. The unsuspecting people of Zamfara would also join in praying to God for justice. I believe they must have learnt from the people of Kano who refused the Zamfara type of Shari’a when it was rumored to be in the offing for them not too long ago.
Nemesis is just about to catch up with Yarima. The time for the whole world to see the clear picture of the Shari’a apostle I think is now. His posters are all over the country as one to vie for the plum job of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2007. Yarima has apparently turned his back on the person who made him win the second term in office. Yarima is nursing the dream of contesting the presidency along side someone he ought to pay back, someone he should support, someone he should work for in 2007.Yarima, together with all the seven ANPP governors, have betrayed a trust, as well as their people, for they have ditched the man who single-handedly gave them the power so to say, which they flaunt and misuse. By this singular act, Yarima has disqualified himself as someone worthy of trust, because the religion that he is posing to d efend has taught us never to be chameleons. We were taught to be morally upright. One may marvel then where all the claims of being champion of shari’a had gone?
What is happening nowadays is vivid to all right thinking humans. Yarima, the erstwhile Shari’a champion is bracing to be a decoy come 2007. The powers that be have paid up the huge price to have him stand against the presumed powerful candidate in the opposition party, the ANPP, so as to help pave the way for them to have easy ride back to the corridors of power. Why Yarima should squander his hard ‘earned’ money toward supporting a project he himself knew from the bottom of his heart that he stands no iota of chance to get, you may all wonder.
Again, the bait being used to lay ambush on us is religion, especially here in the North. I believe by now we have all seen the posters. Is Yarima not in his trademark beard and turban? What about those posters on display in the South? Do they parade him in his funny appearance? For where? The man is suit-ed.
It may interest Yarima and anybody nursing the idea of using Shari’a or religion in the North come 2007, that they should have a rethink, now! because we have all opened our eyes. We cannot be used again by any poser. Let them implement their own brand of Shari’a first in their homes, cut their own arms and those of their morally decadent progeny, then purge themselves of their selfish motives before attempting to extend it to the wider society. We are not going to be deceived by fame-seeking, self-enriching elements again. And when the time comes, they would know if what I am saying is right or wrong, it is not a threat. May Allah help us, Amin!
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