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The Information Minister Lied! By Sule Ya’u Sule
What would you do when salt loses its salty taste, when sugar fails to sweeten, when elders conspire to cheat and mislead, when a country’s principal purveyor of information comes out to mislead the nation? Mr Frank Nweke Jr, Federal Minister of Information and National Orientation recently lied against the Kano State Government and his pack of lies cannot go unchallenged. The Minister pronounced Kano guilty of running an Illegal Police Force, which he tagged a constitutional breach. That would indeed be right were the State Government truly running a Parallel Police Force.
But what the Minister tagged a parallel police force is the Hisbah, a para-security organisation set up by the State Government to guide the people on Shari’a Laws. I doubt if the Minister, Harvard trained, experienced in government, does not know the real difference between a police force and a para-security outfit with no mandate to arrest, prosecute or detain offenders. Was it deliberate mischief, hoodwink, or was the minister misled into reading a statement of which content he little understood?
Let me first of all begin by enlightening the Hon Minister that Hisbah is not a Jihad outfit and that the word HISBAH means PROTECTOR, an organisation set up to protect people from committing sin or infracting on the Commandments of Allah. Hisbah is an organisation that guides the conduct of people on the dictates of Shari’a Law and if the Hon Minister could recall, the Kano people unanimously yearned for Shari’a and voted the present Administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau because of their unshaken confidence that Malam would implement Shari’a.
If Shari’a, not political Shari’a, is to be truly implemented, the following Agencies must be established because they are the Pillars upon which genuine Shari’a can stand: 1. Hisbah Board 2. Shari’a Commission, and 3. Zakat and Hubsi Commissions
When the present Administration came in it responded to the yearnings of the people to institutionalise functional Shari’a and so it established the three Agencies.
Nine thousand unemployed youths were recruited and trained in conformity with the injunctions of Islam as Hisbah Guards. The Hisbah is never a security outfit and was never meant to harass or intimidate Muslims or non-Muslims let alone compete with the Police.
Hisbah is rather meant to guide the observance of Shari’a Law and Shari’a derived practices because in any community if laws are promulgated, there must be both the will and means to police it otherwise they would be flouted with impunity. It turned out the Minister was only making excuses to justify a clearly insensitive, politically motivated and clearly unlawful decision of the Federal Government to clamp down on the Hisbah and return Kano to the Days of Darkness and social immorality. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Sunday Ehindero was quoted as categorising Hisbah as a parallel police outfit, hence unlawful. Reports say he has ordered Hisbah disbanded but the most agonising aspect of his illegal encroachment is the unjustifiable arrest of Hisbah Commander-General, Sheikh Yahaya Farouk Chedi and his Assistant, Alhaji Abubakar Rabo. They are still being held without charges at the Police Headquarters in Abuja. These men to us are prisoners of conscience and they should be released without delay with full compensation and an apology. They are paying a high price for federal lawlessness and executive rascality. The ban on Hisbah and the arrest of top Hisbah Commanders is an affront on the 1999 Constitution. The Federal Government should have followed Due Process and sought the interpretation of a court of competent jurisdiction. Hisbah was set-up following an Act of the Kano State House of Assembly which was duly signed by the Executive Governor. If another tier of Government disagreed with the philosophy and content of the Law, it should have asked the Supreme Court to clarify the issue. The Federal Government is promoting lawlessness and disrespect for rule of law by the brigandage manner it ordered Hisbah disbanded and swooped on the Commanders. This is a real threat to our nascent democracy.
Kano State, under Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, is a Law Abiding Government that would not set-up a parallel police outfit. Where were Mr Ehindero and Mr Nweke when the Shekarau Administration committed huge resources to assist the State Command of the Nigeria Police, providing them with logistical and equipment support to fight crime in the state by donating 32 pick-up vans, one truck, 20 motorcycles, 20 horses, 100 searchlights as well as 20 patrol tents and booths to the Command. If he had wanted a parallel Police force, why would he expend so many funds equipping the Police, which is a Federal responsibility, he could as; well have diverted them to Hisbah, but he did not, indicating that Malam understands that the two are thematically different. The idea is they complement one another in the fight against lawlessness and social immorality.
The Minister was also quoted in the report as accusing the Kano State Government of writing a letter to the Iranian and Libyan Embassies through Hisbah Board seeking assistance from their respective Governments to train 100 Hisbah Guards on Intelligence Gathering and Jihad? in order to destabilize or wage Jihad on Nigeria.
This is complete misinformation unfortunately coming from someone whose duty is to convey Government information factually. Neither Jihad nor Intelligence Gathering falls under the schedule of Hisbah. Moreover, Jihad is serious business and is not something you train 100 people for.
The purported letters were forged, the Letter-headed Papers were forged and the signatures said to be those of the Commander-General of Hisbah, Sheikh Farouk Yahaya Chedi, were also forged. To further expose the Minister’s gullibility and culpability going by the date on which the letters were allegedly written, Commander-General Yahaya Chedi had not even been appointed to that position. So, how could he have written the letters before his appointment?
A bigger credibility puzzle remains hanging; the reference numbers on the letters to the Embassies of the countries in question do not exist in the record of the Hisbah Board.
It is unfortunate that all these underground scheming has the blessing of some big Kano indigenes who claim to be Muslims trying to jeopardise Islam because this action is not only geared at inhibiting the work of the Kano State Government but is a clog in the wheel of progress of Islam. Can these people still call themselves Muslims and defend their selfish actions in the presence of Allah?
In all these premeditated confusion and deliberately contrived blackmail, we take solace from the resolute convictions of our beloved Governor. In a State-Wide Televised Broadcast, Malam preached principled opposition to Federal Government’s siege against the Government and People of the state. He described it as a fight to finish? He has stoutly condemned the action of the Federal Authorities, even threatening to resign if that is all I need to do to pursue the yearnings and aspirations of Kano people? That is Malam for you; to him the well being of Kano people is an irreducible constant, every other thing is a variable.
Knowing the stuff Malam is made of, his principled convictions and non-compromising stance on matters affecting their lives and welfare, I have no doubt Kano people, already mobilized around the issues at stake, will overcome this latest provocative action of a Federal Government that preaches Due Process but direly falls short in practice. Victory belongs to Allah.
Sule Ya’u Sule is Director of Press and Public Relations to the Executive Governor, Kano State
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