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Muslim Leadership, Elite Failure and Boko Haram By Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u (Views expressed strictly personal)
The recent confrontation between the government of Nigeria and the group called Boko Haram (western education is forbidden) is a wake-up call for the Muslim Community in Nigeria to look inward and address certain fundamental issues within our community. I don’t think this is an issue that can be resolved through a simplistic understanding of the aims of this group. The Muslim Community needs to answer a number of critical questions if a lasting solution is to be achieved regarding the emergence of this group. Against this backdrop, I will suggest addressing three issues around which this whole problem resonates. These are: poverty; ignorance and elite failure.
Elite failure, I would suggest, is central to the crises bedevilling northern Nigeria. And it is by no means an exaggeration to state that the care-free attitude of the elite from northern Nigeria is at the root of some of the political and civil disturbances that currently symbolize the region. By elite here I mean the educated class, be they politicians, bureaucrats, the Ulama (Islamic Scholars), serving or retired military top shots etc. Members of this group have been fortunate to receive the best from the region. Majority of them came from a humble background, but were privileged to acquire western and or non-western education. This effectively accelerated their access to and eventual mounting of the ladder of success - if becoming a governor, president, minister, civil or Islamic judge, military general etc is a parameter for measuring such success.
Ironically, there is little from members of this class to reciprocate the gesture done to them from the resources of the region. Instead they have chosen to live a life that completely isolates them from the ordinary members of the society. Under their watch, our educational system pathetically collapsed such that people have more confidence to send their kids to any school even if it is lowly rated in terms of quality, as long as it does not belong to the government.
They are least concerned about problems confronting the community that sacrificed so much to better their today and by extension the futures of their successive generations. Thus, they have turned their faces against vices like thuggery (daba), prostitution (karuwanci), drug addiction (shan kwaya), ignorance (jahilci), lack of focus (rashin hangen nesa), lack of community cohesion (rashin hadin kan al’umma) to mention but a few, which are sadly a commonplace.
A clear manifestation of this wanton neglect of a worthy ‘benefactor’ is that they are opposed, in fact and in principle, to extending the privilege of western education (ilmin boko) to anyone outside of their immediate family members and close associates. It is such a shame they are denying others what actually oiled them to success; even their immediate neighbours!
Another prominent feature of their meanness is their flat refusal to invest their wealth, rightly acquired or ill-gotten, in their locality, so that the children of the poor and downtrodden can be employed and also live a decent life. In a society that is characterised by this attitude, where hopelessness, and bad leadership define relationship amongst people, where poverty is having a field day, it is easy to understand why the twin-evil of poverty and ignorance could provide an army of recruits for people like Muhammad Yusuf, the leader of the Boko Haram group.
The group’s choice of name is, in itself, enough to suggest their lack of understanding of the position of Islam regarding knowledge. It is a simplistic view to assume that there is knowledge which is western. Its origin might be from the west, but even the so-called western education was not built in a vacuum. It must have benefited from other civilizations, including Islamic civilization.
Islamic education, it must be emphasized, has immensely contributed to the scientific and technological advancement of the west. The Muslim Spain, which is buried today in the rubble of history, had street lights before there were street lights in England or France. And as Dr Abdullah Hakeem Quick, the American historian would argue, there was a university in Timbuktu (Mali) before there was a university in London.
So what is the basis of the group prohibiting ilmin boko (western education)? Of course, western educated elites have failed the people of Nigeria and nothing better depicts this than the decision of President Umaru Musa ‘Yar’aduwa to travel to Brazil in the midst of this crisis.
The ideology of this group will do nothing but retard the progress of the Muslim community in Nigeria. But the elite must wake up and understand that the more they flourish in affluence while the children of their neighbours wallow in poverty and ignorance, the more they refuse to invest in education and employment, the more they neglect their primary responsibility of making life comfortable for their neighbours, the more we see deviant groups like Boko Haram emerging and making peaceful coexistence Haram in the polity. I hope someone who cares to listen will learn a lesson or two.
Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u is PhD candidate at Sheffield University, UK |