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Between An Invading Centre And A Marauding Periphery: The Shari’ah Based Governance Of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau: Essay On Achievements Through Hurdles
By Ahmad Yahya Department of Islamic Studies Federal College of Education, Kano E-Mail : ahmadfaggekano@yahoo.co.uk
The recorded human history witnessed a variety of systems evolved by humankind with the sole aim of administering their affairs. Eventually, essential flaws in these systems destroy their own fabrics and engender their imminent extinction. Come to think of them, totalitarianism, fascism, communism, capitalism, etc to mention just a few. From time immemorial people have been making attempts to run their affairs without resorting to God while Prophets, at the same time, kept on drawing their attention to His existence and the countless bounties which obedience to Him entails. While Prophets emphasized administering peoples’ affairs through God’s laws, recalcitrant always prefer to follow their whims and sentiments as per their economic, political and social life, for instance. This situation ensues in our contemporary time.
Shari’ah is not only a system of governance but a way of life which Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, for the benefit of not only humankind but the entire world of flora and fauna. Shari’ah, as one scholar puts it, is holistic or eclectic in its approach to guide the individual in most daily matters. Government, law and religion are one in Islam. Shari’ah controls, rules and regulates all public and private behaviors. This includes personal hygiene, diet, sexual conduct, child rearing, etc. Therefore, while civil law focuses only on public behavior Shari’ah focuses on both public and private behaviors. So long as one becomes a Muslim he is to be guided by the dictates of the Shari’ah in his social, economic, political, e.t.c. life and is not allowed to transcend its boundaries.
Islam reached Kano about a thousand years ago and for centuries it has been under Shari’ah governance up to the coming of colonists who replaced it with an apparently Christian and quasi secular one. For almost a hundred years Kano people have been forced to be governed by an alien system, which is completely repugnant to their cultural, religious, economic, social and political heritage. Nevertheless, they tried to maintain their cultural and religious identities to such an extent that even the then devouring colonialists were forced by our traditional rulers, such as the late Abdullahi Bayero and sir Muhammadu Sunusi of blessed memory, to accommodate some elements of Shari’ah legal system in their administration.
The long-awaited opportunity availed itself in 1999 with Governor Ahmad Sani of Zamfara State incorporating Shari’ah in the running of the state affairs. Thousands of people from Kano attended the special ceremony organized to that effect. Coming back home they expected the then secular-oriented governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, to do the same. To their dismay and shock he refused. He was unaware of the fact that the fire of positive revolt, which is ingrained in the habit of the Kano people, was being kindled. He was consequently forced to, though nominally, respond to their demand. Committees were set up without any law backing their formation. They were also starved of finance with the hope that the clamour for Shari’ah would naturally and gradually die down.
They translated their anger in ousting Rabi’u Musa kwankwaso from office in the 2003 election. A saviour, in the person of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, was voted in as the governor of Kano State. On his swearing in ceremony he made it categorically clear that his government would go beyond mere exuberance, as every thing would be guided by Shari’ah. To prove what he said established the Shari’ah Commission, Hisbah Board and Zakkah and Hubsi Commission backed up by appropriate laws, which make them an integral part of government. Based on the purpose of Shari’ah, which is protection the five important indispensables life, religion, intellect, descent and property Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau made human development the focus of his administration. similarly, in accordance with the Islamic principles of probity and accountability his government, through the commissioner of Finance, explains to the public, on monthly basis, what the state government was able to generate including federal grant, and how the money is spent, specifying the remainder whenever there is any. In line with its determination to foster accountability in public and civil service, social justice and social cohesion and to guarantee the right of the weak and vulnerable members of the society in accordance with the teachings of Shari’ah, the administration of Mallam Ibrahim, in April 2005, established the public complaints and Anti-corruption Directorate. The Directorate has so far received more than five hundred complaints and petitions. The long forgotten custom of adhering strictly to budgetary provisions as per government’s expenditure was revived. Mallam does not corner money earmarked for a particular project to a different one. Contracts are only awarded when the money is already available. Moderation in expenditure is now observed. The Tamburarwa New Water Treatment Plant, with a capacity of supplying 150 million litres of drinking water daily was awarded at less than 6 Billion Naira with neither internal nor external loan. Compare this with a similar one in one of the northern ststes with a capacity of less than 60 million litres daily which was awarded at 8 billion Naira or the one to be jointly constructed by both the federal government and one state govt. at the same cost and with same capacity. Similarly, the contract for the dualization of Kofar Gadan Kaya to Mallam Aminu Kano’s house was awarded by the Kwankwaso administration at a cost of almost 200 million Naira. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau dualisedthe road from Dangi roundabout to zoological garden at a cost of 9 million Naira. The latter road is a little more than half of the former one. To curve the exuberance of some Muslim youth and the half-baked legal verdicts of some Mushroom scholars, the government formed the state Shura Council, which comprises scholars of unquestionable scholarship, piety and erudition. To give listening ears to the people from the grassroots, the governor and other top government functionaries, including commissioners, advisors, heads of parastatals, etc. frequently avail themselves in phone-in programmes where grass root grudges and complain are responded to.
Coming to the aid of those who are unjustly imprisoned, the Shari’ah Commission, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice traced the cases of those inmates whose offences do not entail imprisonment but remained in prison for many years. They were not only set free but were given something to start their lives afresh.
In accordance with the Islamic injunction of feeding the needy, the government introduced a Ramadan Feeding Programme (IFTAR) where nutritious breakfast is distributed freely to the needy, including prison inmates, rehabilitation centres, schools, mosques, etc. About 5 million people benefit from this exercise daily.
The warm hands of Shekarau’s Shari’ah based government now appease families of those who are murdered. The old custom was to accord prerogative of mercy to some prison inmates, including convicted murderers. This increased the pain of the murder victims as they now watch the murderer of their brother walking freely because the president pardons him. Adhering strictly to the Islamic Law of Qisas, beneficiaries of the so-called prerogative of mercy were not set free. Families of their respective murder victims were contacted and informed that they are free to pardon or insist on their execution. Those convicted killers whose murder victim families insisted on their execution were shot -listed and taken to the governor. He wasted no time in signing the approval of their execution.
To avoid a possible confrontation with the constitution, which does not recognize any religious law in its textual form, the scholars embarked on the most onerous and tedious task of itemizing all the dos and donts of the Shari’ah based on the Maliki school of law. Consequently, the hitherto voluminous Kano State laws are now Islamised. The government accorded these great scholars all the necessary support they needed and the mission is now successfully accomplished.
Observing the Islamic principles of avoiding the illegal intermingling of the sexes, especially in commercial transports, the government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau purchased about One thousand five hundred tricycles, which are all placed at the services of woman only. What remains is for other affluent people of Kano to complement the effort of the government.
To eradicate social vices such as prostitution, wine drinking, e.t.c. the government employed a gradual approach so that chaos may not be created in a sensitive state like Kano. This is now bearing fruits. About 9000 Hisbah guards, most of whom are youth, were employed in order to enhance its activities. Besides constructing the state Headquarters of the Hisbah Board, the government procured about 192 branch offices in the 44 local governments. The Board is categorized into three: The state headquarters with Director General and his Deputy, three directors, twenty five staff and 850 male and female Hisbah Guards. The local government chapter consists of an Advisory Committee with 660 members from the 44 local governments and executive committee with 220 members and 8000 Hisbah guards from the 44 local governments. At the ward level about 484 Zaurukan Sulhu (Reconciliation Forum) in the 44 local government were formed with 7260 members. Besides intensive training of the Hisbah Guards (about 19 times) they are put on the state payroll and equipped with 12,000 uniform, 66 buses and 83 motorcycles. Through this Board the government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau provided security at over 1556 occasions, resolved amicably about 23,167 conflicts of various types, converted about 4512 people to Islam, repatriated about 1951 lost and the runaways to their respective families, assisted about 4679 sick people, married off about 40 people, offered various assistance to about 2878 less privileged, established about 314 study centres, provided funeral shrouds to about 33 dead people and settled about 466 ownership disputes.
The Board also succeeded in confiscating 33 trucks, conveying 11550 cartons of wine and 38,821 bottles and 24 jerry cans. Similarly, about 13 out of 452 beer parlours have been successfully sealed off, while about 8 are turned to schools.
In the same vein about 186 out of 405 brothels were closed and out of the 44 local governments in the state, prostitution is completely eliminated in 23. About 229 juveniles, hitherto being trained to become hooligans by some selfish individuals were repatriated to their respective parents. The barbaric custom of staying the night with very young girls of tender age on market days was successfully obliterated in 75 markets both in the rural and urban areas. About 26 people suspected of sexually abusing children were handed over to the police. Seminar was organized for 1324 prostitutes, 236 brothel owners and 4675 commercial motorcyclists in order to make kano devoid of such social vices like prostitution, illegal intermingling of the sexes, and taking women on motorbikes. These are some of the achievements of the Shari’ah-based admin of M.I.S through this Board.
Through the Shari’ah commission, government of Mallam Shekarau purchased books worth one hundred million Naira, which deal with many branches of Islamic studies and distributed them to Qur’anic and Islamiyyah schools in Kano. The Shari’ah commission has a Chairman, a director general, two commissioners and about 16 Senior Staff. Through this commission the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau purchased about 40,000 audio cassettes containing lectures from erudite scholars and distributed them to various government functionaries at both state and local government levels to enhance people’s awareness on Shari’ah. About two meetings were held with 250 hotel owners in Kano to highlight them on the dictates of both the Qur’an and the Bible as per prostitution, gambling, adultery and wine drinking. Shari’ah councils were established in all the 44 Local Governments in the state to ensure that the divine system is well understood from the grassroot. First of the month of Al-Muharram, which is the first month of the Hijri Calendar was declared a work-free day by the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. To ease life of its workers during Ramadan and the Id-Ad-Hiyah, the government introduced the Ramadan bonus and the Ram allowance respectively. These are 50% of a worker’s basic salary.
The government also donated a bus to each of the 45 Islamic Missionary Organizations in the state to ease the spread of Allah’s word among the people. In addition to this they were given 8 Video projectors, 12 sets of computers, 11 video cameras, 9 video recorders, 9 T.V sets of 30 inches, 14 loud speakers and amplifiers, 500 copies of the Qur’an, 110 bundle of roofing sheets, cloth worth One million, one hundred thousand Naira and a cash contribution of Six million, six hundred thousand Naira. Consequently, about 7000, pagans and 492 Christians embraced Islam. About two million, eight hundred and thirty thousand Naira was spent on providing them with cloth, medical and other assistance and in settling their rent fees. About 3 houses were purchasedt to accommodate those of them who were chased out by their families or masters because they converted to Islam, in order to educate them on the teaching of the faith and allow them to settle down and prepare for a fresh life.
During the Yalwa Shandan crisis, the Shari’ah commission, donated 166 pieces of cloth, 9 bags of rice, 9 bags of beans, 5 bags of cassava flour, 7 jerry cans of cooking Oil, four bags of table salt, two mud’s of detergent, 15 dozen pairs of shoe, some drugs and a financial assistance of one hundred thousand Naira. The commission also settled about 200 disputes of various kinds. It also introduced a daily sermon delivered by scholars in all the ministerial and other parastatal’s Mosques. These are but few of the many achievement of the Shari’ah based administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, through this commission. The government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, through the Zakkah and Hubsi commission undertook a free optical service in the state. It distributed more than four hundred million Naira as Zakkah to the needy.
Haji is one of the five pillars of Islam, which for many years remained in total or partial neglect. With the coming of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau pilgrimage now wears a new look. As an administration with a sincere approach towards Shari’ah, Kano pilgrims were made to appear distinct from other states’ pilgrim. The government has been subsidizing the cost of pilgrims’ accommodation, as the amount they pay cannot fetch them befitting houses at Saudi Arabia. To begin with, about 83 million Naira was spent to that effect in one year alone. A financial assistance 50 Saudi Riyal to each Kano pilgrim is now introduced and also a new system of weighing luggages without necessarily the physical involvement of the pilgrims, which saved them lots inconveniencies. About 82 toilets/bathrooms were constructed at the Kano pilgrim’s camp. The administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau also organized, for the first time in the history of Kano State, an induction course for pilgrims at Sani Abacha Indoors Stadium where a practical demonstration of Haji rites were held. This replaced the old custom of publicly, embarrassing a pilgrim by asking him an irrelevant question the failure of which denies him the right to perform the Hajji.
During this year’s Haji exercise, out of the 3000 Kano pilgrims who were not covered by the Kano State quarters as per numbers of allotted to it, the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau added up to about 300 million Naira in order to enable 2000 of them to board international flight. This was never done by the previous administrations.
A leader , in Islam, is duty bound to see to it that his subjects become productive and not merely passive consumers. The only way to realize this is to do away with unemployment for it is the breeding ground for most social vices. Umar Ibn Al-khattab, the second caliph, would ask a governor shortly after his appointment ‘’ what would you do if a thief is brought to you!’ his reply would be ‘if it is proved beyond reasonable doubt, I will choff off his hands’. ‘Umar would then say to the governor ‘By Allah if I find a single person in your domain hungry or unemployed I will also choff off your hands.’
With this teaching in mind, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau set out to sincerely deal with the problem of unemployment. He directs his attention to the greatest employer in the state which is farming and addressed some of its problems in order to further enable it to employ more people. To begin with, about one million, three hundred and eighty six thousand, two hundred and twelve acres of land are cropped and about one hundred thousand tonnes of fertilizer are procured and sold at a subsidized rate of one thousand Naira per bag. High quality seeds and agro-chemicals are distributed to farmers. 25 new Fadama areas are developed through the tube-wells aid hash-bores and one thousand units of irrigation water pumps and accessories were procured and distributed. In addition to this over three thousand farmers are now fully engaged in wet and dry season farming at Kadawa, Bunkure, and Jaruma Baka irrigation Projects. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau renovated the five Vet nary Clinics in Dambatta, Gaya, Dawakin Tofa, Tudun Wada and Gwale local governments and provided them with adequate drugs.
The administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau also turned to skill acquisition in order to enhance self-employment. About forty two million Naira worth of material was procured and distributed to 592 woman co-operatives societies. About 8 million worth of vocational materials were distributed to VVF patients and widows to empower them. Along this line, about 6.6 million Naira, was spent on 265 women for an empowerment scheme and about 295 Kano indigenes were assisted to secure jobs at the Federal level. To cap it all, the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau employed about 32 thousand workers.
In the area of Islamic education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, as a shari’ah oriented governor, gives it the desired attention. The traditional system of Qur’anic education, which has been in Kano for many centuries, and which was never recognized by most post-colonial administration as a distinct system which is far from being informal, is now accorded the respect and care it deserved. According to a statistic carried out be the office of the Special Advisor to the Kano State governor on Education and Information Technology, there are about 13,335 Tsangaya (Study centres) and Makarantun Allo (Traditional Qur’anic school) in Kano with 45,454 teachers and 1,272,884 students. About 30 seminars were organized in all the 44 local governments where Alarammomi, for the first time in history, were invited, commended and availed to governmental care and assistance. To make the Qur’anic schools self-reliant as per food production, the government distributed two oxens, chart, hoe and cultivator to one Allaramma from each of the 36 rural local government and two alaramma from each of the 8 local governments from the metropolitan. In addition to this they were given 9 bags of millet, corn and maize each. They were also provided with fertilizers at a subsidized price of N1000 and many types of seed.
The younger Alarammomi were provided with many skills which includes computer science, tailoring, calligraphy and embroidery, leather works, carpentry and electrical engineering. A total number of 656 alarammomi across Kano State have so far benefited form this skill-acquisition programme. To adequately and carefully address the problem of begging, the government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau introduced a pilot-feeding programme.
Breakfast, launch and dinner is provided to the selected Tsangaya of Makoda, Ajingi and Warawa local governments. Fifty Naira is spent daily on each student. The foodstuffs distributed to such schools are maize, millet, rice, beans, sweet potato, palm oil, salt and sauce and money for tomatoes, pepper, onions and other condiments. This sharply contrasts with the usual approach of arresting the effects and forgetting the cause. The government first consulted leading Alarammomi to get their views and suggestions as to how Qur’anic education can be improved in the state. To sensitize wealthy individuals and groups in the state as well as the general public to render their contributions for the betterment of the welfare of Alamirai, a regular weekly Radio and TV programmes was introduced.
Naturall disasters, physical or mental disabilities are inevitable as far as the worldly life is concerned. Shari’ah demanded a leader to take sincere and appropriate measures to alleviate the sufferings of the victims of such calamities or their families. In compliance with this directive the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, through the State Emergency Relief Agency, disbursed about 10 million Naira to take care of the Yalwan Shandan victims of Kano State origin in Plateau and Bauchi States. This kind of gesture is not only extended to Kano indigenes but to non-indigenes as well. Some Igbos from Kano had accident on their way to Lokoja. Each family of those who died was given N100,000 and those hospitalized in Dala Orthopedic was given N50,000 each. About 160 people with a variety of problems were provided with items worth N9 million relevant to their respective chosen professions.
We can go on and on describing the monumental achievements of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau as a governor of Kano State. These are but a mere tip of an iceberg as per the successes so far recorded by the Shekarau administration. The governor was aware that there bound to be some hurdles on the way of his shari’ah implementation but never anticipated it to be so ungodly and even satanic. The innocent and God minded Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, as sincere as he is with regard to his approach to shari’ah, stepped into the shoes of many, including the government at the centre and those who attack from the periphery.
The police force, which has the constitutional prerogative to make arrests and present offenders before a court of law totally refused to co-operate with the shari’ah based government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. The force began with denying the governor, as the chief security officer in the state, to hold a rally in his state along with his guest, General Muhammadu Buhari in 2004. They fired tear gas at the rally and embarrassed the governor before his guest. As the police are constitutionally duty bound to protect the laws of each state, Kano state was made an exception. Up to the time of writing this paper the police refused to appoint its representative in the Hisbah Board. Bills were passed by the state house of assembly prohibiting unjust measure in the market, prostitution, gambling, mixing men and women in commercial transports, taking women on commercial motorbikes, taking more than one passenger on commercial motorbikes and other social vices. Mobile courts were established headed by qualified judges with the intention of prosecuting there and then those who violated these laws. Ironically the police refused to attach its men to these courts so that they make the arrest, as provided for by the constitution, and present to the courts. The highest the Hisbah guards can do is to inform the police or present suspects to the police. Laws without a force to protect them are no more than rhetoric. This explains why these Islamic laws are violated everywhere because those who are supposed to monitor and ensure their compliance, the police, deliberately refused to do so.
Contrary to their constitutional responsibility of maintaining law and order, the federal government, through the police force, went extra mile and assumed the duty of the judiciary. This is because the Inspector General of Police declared only the Kano Hisbah Board as unconstitutional and labeled it a terrorist organization, without any proof from the constitution. This was on Thursday 9th February 2006. What was a mere suspicion was made to appear a hard fact. The minister of Information and National Orientation declared only the Hisbah Guards of Kano as unconstitutional as their establishment contravened section 214, sub-section 1 of the 1999 constitution which bars the establishment of any force other than the police force. The Minister alleged that Kano State has converted the Hisbah Guards into a parallel security outfit, which has sought foreign assistance to train 100 Jihadists in the areas of intelligence and the practice of Jihad. It may interest the leader to Kano that had Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau maintained the status quo ante of the Hisbah without legal backing, the whole Hisbah would have gone into oblivion by this single statement of the IG and the Information Minister. Contradicting himself the minister added that the federal government had ordered investigation into the intelligence report though he had already made the allegation look like the truth. Similar statement was not made with regard to Boys scout, Girls Guide, Red Cross, Red Crescent, Civil Defense Corps, etc. which are neither mentioned in the constitution nor established by law but recognized by the police force. The proven of the Hisbah is like that conferred on the public to avert whoever commits an offence publically and hand him over to the police. According to the Kano State Hisbah Board law No. 4 of 2003, section 7 (4) the Hisbah Guards are empowered to render necessary assistance to the police and other security agencies, especially in the area of prevention, detention and reporting of offences. This same power is provided for in criminal procedure code, applicable in Northern Nigeria and the Criminal Procedure law, applicable in Southern Nigeria and the criminal Procedure Act. In order to distort facts the Minister referred to the Hisbah Guards as ‘corps’, which is not its true and legal name. Had Hisbah Guards were referred to as ‘corps’, which implies an extra-legal core-group of armed men and women meant to assume conventional police powers, this would have justified its proscription.
The Chairman and Commander General of the Kano Hisbah Board along with his deputy were consequently arrested and imprisoned for three months. This was when a final crusade against social ills was about to be launched. This act of the federal government was done with the intention of enraging the people of Kano and making things out of control so that at the end of it a state of emergency would be declared and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau would be replaced by a sole administrator. The end of would be a reverse of all the successes so far recorded in Shari’ah implementation. This declaration of the Inspector General of Police and the subsequent arrest of the Hisbah leaders, forced the activities of the Hisbah to become, more or less epileptic. This is as a result of the law-abiding nature of the administration. The Hisbah Guards, who are the vanguards of shari’ah were, forcefully humiliated and frustrated by the police in such a way that a criminal would be released some minutes after they handed him over to the police and sometime they would be beaten up to the level of hospitalization.
Now if the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is able to record so much an achievement as mentioned before despite this singular invasion by the federal government then it should be given a pat on the back.
Another manifestation of the conspiracy from the government at the centre against the shari’ah-based administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is the Nuhu Ribadu’s led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It was established to eschew corruption and avert financial misappropriation in Nigeria. Unfortunately it will be recalled that in the early days of this administration a 4 Billion-Naira contract was awarded for the purchase of fertilizer. The government released an advance payment of 2.6 Billion Naira on condition that by a specified period of time, the fertilizer should start arriving. The period expired without a single tone of fertilizer by the contractor. Consequently the intervention of EFCC was sought by the administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau in order to arrest the situation. The contractor remained under the custody of EFCC for three months being questioned on whether any of the government officials received anything as a kick back from him. He said neither did he give anything nor was he asked to give. The EFCC retrieved 1.8 Billion Naira from him and 300 Million Naira worth of fertilizers. The balance is to be accrued through auctioning of his assets.
However, because politics has taken its turn, the EFFCC boss completely brushed this aside. He was quoted on Monday 27th February 2007 as saying whether they were asked to intervene in the 4 billion Naira fertilizer contract or not they have done their job and retrieved some money. This is in order to insist that Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau Is not trust worthy.
Another thing worth mentioning here is that what the EFCC still capitalizes on is Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau awarded a 4 billion Naira contract without the approval of the executive council. This is in spite of the fact that the state house of assembly has approved it along with the supplementary budge submitted to that effect, as provided for in the constitution. Despite all this, the Federal Government, through the EFCC is determined to take Shekarau to court based on administrative technicalities along with those who have stashed billion of Naira from the public treasury. What a justice!
The EFCC also, though shamelessly, indicted
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau based mainly on anonymous petitions, the content
of which defies establishment. The EFCC boss admits on Monday that his
commission cannot establish these allegations which means official
character assassination as Mallam was already portrayed as untrustworthy
the basis of which included what has not been proved. Another thing is
indicting Mallam because he was three days late in declaring his assets to
the code of conduct bureau prior to his assumption office. The highest
punishment meted to those who even defaulted is
Ironically, in the white paper issued by the federal government its only answer with regards to charges labelled against Mallam is the ‘government notes’ and not ‘the government accepts’. According to section 182 of the Nigerian constitution one stands indicted when a committee is set up and it gives enough time for the accused to defend himself and he is found guilty of embezzlement and fraud and the government accepts its report or he is declared a defaulter by the code of conduct bureau. It is clear from the report submitted by this type of committee to the federated government that Mallam is neither found guilty of embezzlement and fraud, nor refused completely to declare his assets. But he stands indicated. What a paradox! The aim therefore is to tarnish the image of the innocent mallam.
Another form of central invasion against the Shari‘ah based administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is the so–called war against terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism. The Islam phobia inflicted nations of the west have since marked the administration of mallam Ibrahim Shekarau as a suspect. The issue of polio and the initial recalcitrance of Mallam created the fear that their interest in Nigeria stands threatened so long as such types of leaders continue to hold power in any of the Nigerian states. What they wanted is a value free democracy and not a religious (especially an Islamic) one. If much can be achieved with meager resources and within just a period of four years as exemplified by the Shari’ah oriented mallam, then Islamic consciousness will soon be awakened in the Muslims and this spells doom on the future of the so–called liberal world. Consequently, there may be some hidden forces breathing down the neck of the federal government to willy-nilly portray Shekarau as untrustworthy and obliterate the Shari’ah factor from the Nigeria polity. Time will prove or disprove my assertion.
These are some of the invasions from the center through which the shari’ah based administration of mallam Ibrahim Shekarau manages to push its way.
As to the peripheral maraud; I have already explained some in my earlier write up “season of apolitical opposition and blind hatred, a critical examination of the force”. All these notwithstanding I will attempt to peruse into some, even if briefly. Journalism as a noble profession not only informs but educates.
A true journalist should be objective and fair–minded in disseminating information and in analyzing events that are daily occurring. This is not so with some of our media organizations that disregard all these qualities and chose to become apparently biased in matters of state and national interest.
Some private media corporations in Kano, throughout the four years of this administration, portray mallam Ibrahim shekarau more as a devil than as a saint. Rule of justice demands that in as much as one criticizes he must as well be ready to commend. They leave no stone unturned in stigmatizing mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and his administration. On one hand they insist, in most of their programmes, that Mallam Shekarau is not implementing Shari’ah and on the other hand they fault any attempt made by him in its implementation. A good example here is an advert they always broadcast that shari’ah’s is not the intention of this government and that because many social vices are now rampant, the government is lying as par shari’ah governance. To further supplement this they try to portray the scholars who support mallam as mere boot lickers with no regards to shari’ah whatsoever. In one of their programmes they play their lectures ( the scholars who are in government and are actively involved in the Shari’ah implementation) during the harsh times of kwankwaso in order to show the public that they are now quiet and are not doing anything. A similar programme which is highly prejudiced aims at completely discrediting the government and its functionaries. Ironically, when commercial motorcyclist were prohibited from taking women, the same media outfit went on air to castigate the Hisbah guards as those who are ill- equipped and ill- prepared mentally and physically. As the self acclaimed sincere shari‘ah advocates, they should have persuaded the motorcyclists to abide by the law of Allah
Another unfortunate thing is constant broadcast of crime of all sorts as if these happen every single hour. Today it is a man of 40 raping a child of 4 and tomorrow is a child of three raped and murdered by young men. Many people expressed their disavowals over this kind of broadcast. They went to such an extent that they apply the English common law of evidence to sentence a suspected criminal who is before a shar’ah court.
The peripheral maraud is also manifest in some print media and some online columnists. For a newspaper to print mere allegations and its editor saying ‘’He should repatriate the peoples’ money he has stolen to the public treasury as we won’t allow anybody to squander public wealth’’ to that effect smacks an abuse on peoples psyche. This shows that in addition to the well accepted duty of the journalist that is information dissemination, these journalists also judge and sentence. It seems to have one target: eliminating the shari’ah factor from the Nigeria polity by stigmatizing its governors at all cost. As for the online columnists, we will have time to dwell on them.
Looking at how the administration of mallam Ibrahim shekarau is sandwiched by these central invasions and the peripheral marauds, one cannot fail to appreciate the monumental achievements it has recorded with regard to true shari’ah implementation which goes beyond mere exuberance and pretensive piety. Posterity will judge as to what we say about mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. Any sentimental criticism and biased analysis aim at discrediting mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is to us nothing short of ‘’Zuba hatsi a bayan kwarya”.
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