Last Sunday, the attention of the nation was drawn to the killings of
innocent Nigerian Muslims, including unsuspecting travellers on the
Kaduna-Abuja Highway, by Christians as a reprisal attack to Boko Haram
bombings of churches in Kaduna and Zaria. A number of Mosques and shops
were also burnt that Sunday in Christian-dominated neighbourhoods in the
southern part of the city. In all the attacks, as at the last offical
count, has killed 21 Christians, while the reprisals killed 29 Muslims
and hundreds werreinsured. As a result, I will pause my series on Kano
to say a word about the matter.
Before we continue, however, I have a confession to make. Writing on
matters of religion in Nigeria and especially where lives and places of
worship are involved is very difficult for commentators that would like
to remain impartial. So many times, as we try it, a writer finds it
difficult to walk the tight rope of objectivity, balance and reason.
Yet, the mettle of a writer is not tested by his treatment of populist
topics or points of view but by how delicately he handles tough issues
with equanimiyt and fearlessness. In the midst of high tension and
soaring tempers, a voice of reason, even if faint, is most welcome.
The fact that a group of Muslims in the name of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnati
Lil Da’awati wal Jihad – popularly known as Boko Haram - has been
attacking churches in Northern Nigeria is a settled one. Its leader,
Malam Abubakar Shekau, has twice featured on YouTube claiming its
responsibility, and so does his spokesperson, Abu Qaqa, in the aftermath
of many such attacks. The fact that there are Christians found involved
in church bombing activities – and there are many reported and
unreported cases – or in supporting Boko Haram as I once wrote on this
page does not renounce the confession of Boko Haram; it only complicates
our analytical equation by introducing more variables and, thus, making
it less linear than most of us would wish.
Targeting churches and Christians with bombings by Boko Haram is a
matter that has saddened every well meaning Muslim and Christian in this
country. Attacking worshipers is not only un-Islamic but also cheap. The
command of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to his companions on this is clear. A
Muslim must not have a better model on religion than him. Demolition a
place of worship is an act of fasad – or corruption of the world,
as clearly stated in Suratul Hajj, ironically in the very verse that the
leader of the group quoted in his first video to justify its resort to
arms, though he did not complete it.
A worshipper is a guest of God. When a delegation of Christians once
paid a visit to the Prophet in Medina, he not only camped them in his
mosque but also asked them to use it for their worship. That is how the
sanctity of worshippers and their place of worship became a settled
issue among Muslims of various sects. That is why destruction of
churches are hard to find in Muslim history. Muslims have left churches
and even idols in Jerusalem, Syria, Europe, Egypt and Asia intact to
date. The Taliban that destroyed the idol of Buddha in Afghanistan a
decade and half ago was widely condemned by Muslim scholars across the
world.
I am yet to come across a Nigerian Muslim – a scholar or a layman like
me - that approves of the demolition of churches and attack on
worshippers. That was how the first claim by Boko Haram came to the
Muslim community as a great shockand shame. Of course, Muslim rioters
have burnt churches before and they continue to do so, just as
Christians also burn mosques when there are unrests. The difference is
in organization. Those are acts of mobs. The ones of Boko Haram are
organized operations of a sect that claims to be waging a holy warfor
Islam, for God. But what is its justification, if we may ask?
Fortunately, the group is unequivocal on its reasons. It seeks to
legitimise such operations based on the principle of retaliation. It is
true, as it says repeatedly, that Muslims in the past twenty years
became targets of barbarous attacks by some Christians in areas where
the latter dominates. The examples of Kafanchan, Tafawa Balewa, Zangon
Kataf, Kaduna, Plateau and Zonkwa cannot be denied. It is not the
barbarity of such attacks that worries Muslims most, however but how
Christians get away with the crimes so easily. Many accuse the Christian
dominated security and law enforcement agencies of complicity.
It is difficult to recall any substantial prosecution or even arrest of
Christians in all these despite the presence of hardcore evidence,
including videos, in the hands of security agencies and the general
public. The most recent of them are the attack on Muslims on Eid ground
in Jos and the cannibalization of their bodies in the presence of law
enforcement personnel and that of how Muslim villagers were massacred in
Southern Kaduna during the post election violence, both in 2011. On the
other hand, the violent reactions of Muslims to these atrocities are
greeted by severe punishments by tribunals, courts and law enforcement
agents that play the prosecution and the judge at the same time. From
Karibi-whyte tribunal of 1987 to the latest arrests on the Plateau, it
is Muslims who consistently receive the butt.
It is this selective justice and indifference of Nigerian authorities to
Muslim blood, property and dignity that gives Boko Haram the pretext to
retaliate on Christians. But here too, the group is wrong. No doubt, God
has permitted the Prophet to retaliate against the polytheists of Arabia
who transgressed against Muslims for over a dcade. In issuing that
permit, however, God was specific about the target and the proportion of
the retaliation:
“Whoever transgresses against you, transgress (in return) against him in
proportion to his transgression against you, and know that God is with
those who fear Him (i.e. those who follow his command without
retaliating beyond the proportion of the offence they received).
(Chapter Baqarah)
In another verse He said,
“And fight those who fight you and do not transgress (beyond the
proportion that you were attacked with). God doesn’t like those who
transgress.” (Chapter Baqarah again)
This is equal to the principle of proportionality in international law.
The interpretation of Boko Haram that every Nigerian Christian bears the
burden of the crime that another Christian committed is absolutely
untenable Islam:
“And no soul would bear the burden of another soul…” (Chapter Fatir)
Therefore, the actions of Boko Haram on these matters do not conform
with the provisions of the Qur’an. Throughout his life, the Prophet of
Islam was specific in punishing those who wronged Muslims on the few
occasions he could not forgive them. For example, he never generalized
punishment on the polytheists of Arabia then. When he was fighting those
of Mecca, he was fighting those of Mecca alone. Neither did he treat the
different tribes of Jews and Christians then in Arabia as one. He
treated each on its own merit, befriending them except those who proved
hostile to Islam. This is the provision against collective punishment in
international law, again.
In the same manner, even if we were to accord amargin for retaliation,
which I will discount later in the discussion, we must accept that
Nigerian Christians cannot be treated as one organic collection of
murderers that deserve a carpet treatment of bombs and bullets. In this
case, the task is even made easier because the communities where these
atrocities are perpetrated are known; so are the names and pictures of
people who committed the crimes.
Why would Boko Haram then target innocent worshippers for God’s sake?
Why not go for the criminals specifically? If it would avenge the
cannibalization of Muslims on the Eid grounds of Rukuba for example, let
the it obtain the video, take the pain of identifying the attackers and
go after them with a surgical precision. Why then attack a cheap target
of Christian worshippers in Gombe or Kaduna and leave those in Zonkwa or
Rukuba? Come on. This is not Islam.
I remember the fatwa once given by Sheikh Salisu Abubakar Suntalma of
Ahmadu Bello University during the Kafanchan crisis of 1987. He said,
agreed that innocent Muslims were killed in Kafanchan, it does not
warrant any Muslim to attack any church or Christian in Kaduna or Zaria.
If you can find the culprits in Kafanchan and attack them, you may have
a point, he said. Islam does not sanction attacking an innocent person,
he concluded. During the same episode, Ibrahim Zakzaky expressed the
same view. (Ironically, the Karibi-Whyte tribunal that was set up on the
crisis jailed Zakzaky for five years, despite his opposition.) It is
difficult to come across any scholar, leader or informed person in Islam
that holds a contrary view.
So, though Boko Haram is in every sense right to become worried about
the impunity with which some Christians commit barbaric actions against
Muslims and go unpunished by the Nigerian authorities, the group
misfired in its answer to situation even from the perspective of Islam.
The Muslim community in Nigeria has repeated this objection times
without number. This is not to mention the group’s lack of locus standi
even from the Islamic perspective since in Islam only the judge can
order the killing of a criminal if so ordained by the law.
By way of summary, if I were to grade the script of Boko Haram here, I
would give it minus one (-1).
Now let us turn to our Christian brothers. The answer of some Christians
in some Northern communities is, sad to note, a mirror reflection of
that of Boko Haram. They too have collectivised Nigerian Muslims, as
Boko Haram generalized Nigerian Christians, and made their blood and
property targets of their retaliation. If Boko Haram has attacked a
church, what stops the Christians from identifying Boko Haram, if they
need to, and deal with them?
I question the need because the Christians have the mighty Nigerian
security, law enforcement and military apparatus behind them, at their
disposal, if we go by the sacred-cow treatment they enjoy from them. Why
then resort to killing innocent travellers, burning mosques and shops?
So if Boko Haram is wrong in attacking innocent worshippers and
churches, what makes the attack by Christian fanatics on innocent Muslim
travellers and burning their mosques legitimate? This is the wrong
answer to the challenge of Boko Haram.
It is also wrong from the point of view of practicality. In how many
communities are such Christians fanatics ready to barricade the highway
and cowardly kill innocent Muslims? In how many states or communities in
the North can they do it? Honestly, I see that possibility only in
Plateau and Kaduna, in the very communities where those atrocities
against Muslims have been repeatedly committed due to ethnic reasons and
where there are state governors who would mastermind their protection
from the law. (I was once told Yakowa is married to Jang’s sister but
now I have confirmed that it is not true. The two only share the same
local government of origin, Jaba. Yakowa's wife actually has her
ancestry in Tafawa Balewa, in my state of Bauchi. I apologize for the
inaccurate information I earlier published on this blog about the two
sisters of mine.)
Man is a rational animal though he sometimes behaves stupidly at
sub-human level especially when propelled by the spur of religion.
Normally, he calculates his degree of safety before taking any risk on
his life. Few are the fools that would dare start a fire that would
consume them. Even in Kaduna State, why did not the Christian reprisal
attack take place in Kaduna North or Zaria?
So, I grade the Christian answer script as minus one (-1), too.
When we add up the two, we end up with -2, two failures in the two
negative quadrants of the Nigerian security equation. This is worse than
where we were without either or both of them. That is where we are
today. The fact is that retaliation could only serve as a deterrent for
a short while. It often produces a vicious cycle of violence. Christians
in some communities carry out war crimes against Muslims. Boko Haram
says it retaliates but under the hidden tactic of bombings. Then
Christians retaliate in areas they too think Muslims are weak. Both do
it against innocent citizens, against places of worship, against God,
though purportedly in the name of God.
This circle of cowardice can continue forever except we find a way to
cancel the negatives and arrive at a positive digit. And to this we turn
in the remaining part of the essay.
Christian leaders and opinion shapers have appealed to Muslim leaders to
use their weight to restrain Boko Haram. But sincerely, which citizen
would restrain any Nigerian that carries arms today? There is none. In
the same vein, I have heard many Berom leaders saying that their youths
are beyond their control. When some chiefs of Niger Delta tried to stop
its militants from terrorist activities in the mid-nineties, the youths
accused them of complicity and murdered them. Righ now, Nigeria has a
high deficit of willing martyrs among its leaders.
The truth is that when it comes to violence, the answer lies with the
law and nothing else. The law it is that can cancel those negatives. It
is the instrument that stripped all citizens of the right to possess
firearms. If people had the right to protect themselves adequately, some
of these atrocities would not be committed. (Though think about it
honestly: if all of us would possess arms, it will be 160million guns
and billions of ammunitions. How would there be peace? We would be
facing another form of instability.) However, in most contemporary
states, the law has entrusted the security of lives and property to the
state. In Nigeria, keeping that trust has been in the decline for
decades now. Unless we are interested in replacing the state with
anarchy, we must rise to strengthen the law.
Strengthening the law means using it appropriately as an arbiter when
injustice is perpetrated and getting the right people to enforce it,
whenever possible. Muslims, as I have maintained, should, in the absence
of any interest to bring the criminals that have been perpetrating
crimes against them to justice locally, refer the matter to the
International Court of Justice. They must be prepared to walk the ladder
to its top. Armed with hard evidence like the ones we mentioned earlier,
it is inconceivable that they will not be offered justice there. So the
question of their retaliation is cancelled, ab initio.
Christians on their part must also resort to the law and support it.
They must ensure that the law enforcement agencies that they control
have risen to the challenge. They must also be patient with them until
they succeed without complicating matters through retaliation. The
current President is their making. They boasted of supporting him to
victory during the last elections. In his hands lie the keys to our
peace. He is the commander-in-chief. They must get him to act
appropriately. Making a President is the beginning, not the end, of his
service.
I will be dishonest to say that the government is doing nothing about
Boko Haram. Achievements are recorded daily, albeit not enough to see us
through completely yet. But when the President’s primary constituency
dismisses him and resorts to taking the law into its hands by killing
innocent travellers, I would think he has a problem at hand. He should
not claim to be helpless, as he has often expressed in church services.
He is not Moses. And we are not the Children of Israel on the bank of
the Red Sea. Appealing to God without working hard maximally will only
embolden the agents of destabilization. He must yield the stick as well
as the carrot to both Boko Haram and his Christian counterparts in
Plateau and Kaduna. Only this democratic distribution of justice would
finally bring peace to our nation.
Ordinary citizens like me who have a voice must come out and speak
boldly. The Christians have often emphasized that there is not enough
voice of condemnation heard among Muslims. True. But that has to do more
with the lack of protection from the government for those who would dare
to do so. Man is a rational animal. Again, our dear Goodluck comes into
the equation.
The Christians, on their part, often forget that they have been most
economical with their voice against acts of sectarian violence. It is
very hard, very rare, and very unusual to hear a Christian voice – a
leader or opinion shaper – condemning the atrocities committed by his
fellow Christians against Muslims, except Sam Nda-Isaiah of course,
which mbay Christian fanatics say he is with Muslims. I cannot remember
even a few, specifically directed at Christians. The best I would hear,
if I am lucky on those rare occasions, are general statements condemning
violence and calling for peace.
Has any Christian leader called for the prosecution of the massacres in
Zonkwa or other villages of southern Kaduna of recent, for example? No.
Have Nigerians heard the voice of any pastor on his pulpit condemning
the Christians that attacked Muslims in Eid ground, roasted their bodies
on vehicle bonnets and ate them in the presence of security agents? No.
And so was it with every occasion of violence, including the latest
killings on the Kaduna – Abuja Highway. What we only hear is the
expression of shock, but not a single call for arrest. As usual, none is
arrested and none will be arrested, anyway. There was never a time when
any Christian cleric or traditional ruler even admitted that his people
were at fault. The closest we heard was the recent statements by our
Rev. Hassan Mathew Kukah. The videos are there. Let them join us in
calling for the prosecution of the culprits. The truth, I must tell my
Christian brothers, is that Nigeria cannot clap with one hand.
There are many other ways we can express our voice to garner support for
peace though. For example, someone online has suggested mass rallies for
peace across Northern Nigeria. Yes. I have seen the federal government
and politicians rent crowds to show their solidarity for a cause or a
candidate. Why cannot the president go beyond the pulpit and march
across the road to the Eagle Square for the sake of peace? Why would not
state governments summon all their ulama and priests and their followers
to a peace rally in the largest public square of their states? These
guys enjoy free largesse to Hajj, Umra Jerusalem and Rome. This is the
time to ask for a pay back. Ehe now! Let us reassure the world
with the pictures of oceans of peace loving Nigerians on international
television screen. It will refute the notion that majority of Nigerians
are murderers. It will also tell the agents of destabilization how
insignificant they are in our midst.
As for the other forces that are interested for various reasons in
aggravating the conflict in Northern Nigeria – those within the region
and beyond – I wI'll say that it is our negligence that has given the
allowance for the expression of their nefarious interests, using Boko
Haram and Christian groups. The people of Northern Nigeria, and those of
other regions, will continue to remain where they are, each in his own
domain. In the North particularly, God has enriched us with diversity.
It is a blessing, not a curse. And so shall we remain together long
after the guns of Boko Haram and those of Christian fanatics are put to
silence.