ZAMFARA AND THE URCHINS
By
Wada Nas
Since the launch of the Sharia in Kano, ThisDay turned its pagesover to anti-Sharia writers and commentators. There is hardly a columnist who has not written one or two insulting articles against the system, Islam and Muslims.
The paper is not alone in this. It has become the tradition of virtually all the Lagos based newspapers and magazines, perhaps without any exception. This is hardly surprising. Nor is it surprising that they have never bothered to look at their backyard when describing what happened to the Zamfara cow thief as primitive. Even some of their elders symbolized by the patriots have not been doing so.
The South East urchins called Bakassi Boys, in the name of providing security have been murdering and killing innocent persons through jungle justice on mere allegations that they were armed robbers. The place has never been safe for anybody.
Recently, when the police allegedly attempted to dislodge them, surprisingly, instead of supporting the police, in freeing them from the rule of jungle justice, the people demonstrated in support of the urchins who kill at will. Yet they might have been among those who have been condemning Zamfara for sentencing a cow thief to hand amputation. It speaks of our attitude as Nigerians that some of us are happy when hooligans take to the streets killing the innocent at will, massacring others in their bedrooms but at the same times protest when legal justice is applied to an offender. Had the Zamfara cow thief been in say Enugu, Onitsha, Lagos and Ibadan, the Bakassi and the OPC terrorists would have roasted him alive in the tradition of their primitive conduct and jungle justice, supported by those who have been shouting Zamfara and anti-Sharia slang.
Writing in the Vanguard newspaper of July 19, 2000 Mcphillips Nwachukwu, narrates how a bus loaded with passengers escaped from the hands of OPC boys in Lagos, who were told, very falsely, that all those in the bus were armed robbers. The OPC terrorists were after them but they were lucky they escaped.
An Igbo chap was not that lucky. Again, according to Nwachukwu, the boy disagreed over some matters with his landlord, and there upon took him to court. Instead of doing same, the landlord, a Yoruba went to the terrorists branded the boy an armed robber, and there upon he was instantly killed. Had he been in Zamfara the worst that would have happened to him was amputation not death by primitive justice. The Igbos of Alaba market protested, and Tinubu had to warn that he may close all the markets in the area.
But this is not all. The whole of Lagos, so to speak, has been on fire, for almost the past one week as the terrorists were going about killing, murdering and burning Police Stations. By some accounts about 50 people have so far been reported dead.
These happenings are not in Sharia states but in the Kingdom of the patriots who have been blind to how urchins have taken over in their backyard, how the innocent have massively been killed daily and how jungle and primitive justice is now the rule, under their very patriotic eyes without them meeting to protest or issue out a communiqué castigating the hooligans, and without them telling their NYSC kids to stay in doors and not to venture into the extreme violent streets of Lagos, and further without This DAY, its columnists and other papers, turning their pages to anti hooliganism practices, occurring with such menacing persistency in their own backyard. This is why I keep on saying that some Nigerians are very dishonest in their approach to issues, otherwise how could some characters, who have been witnesses to the jungle justice that has been going on uninterrupted in the south, complain over only one episode that occurred in the North? Are we not right to say that suck people prefer the jungle justice that has been in practice in their backyard to the Islamic legal system which discourages such primitive practices and indeed, the taking of life?
The patriots, in their unpatriotic wisdom, called on the Directorate of the NYSC not to post their sons and daughters to Sharia states, on account of violence, while violence has been the major characteristics of their own society for the past six years or so. But you see, the patriots are honorable citizens but unfortunately spoke very dishonorably and in violation of all sense of logic and honesty.
The best they could have done was to have asked the NYSC not to post any corp member to the non-Sharia states in the south in order to ensure their safety.
Presently, we do not know if some NYSC members have not become victims of the vandalism that has been going on in these areas since their postings. Nothing has happened to them in the North. The region has proved safer for them than the South where Urban terrorism has gradually being gaining firm ground.
Northerners have never engaged in the senseless burning of police stations. APC has never been an equivalent of the terrorist OPC or Bakassi boys because they have never even once engaged in street violence or burnt people alive. They have never attempted to take over the functions of the police. Rather, they have been making their position through all known civilized ways, unlike others.
In the face of the realities on the ground, the patriots the ThisDays, columnists etc should call on the NYSC to post all Corp members serving in the South to the North, in the interest of their own safety, a place where law and order is respected, where human lives are valued and where there is respect for the constituted authority. Failure to appeal to the organisation along this line means support for urban terrorism.
Having said this, let me make some observations on the so called expanded Sharia as critics describe the Zamfara project. Up here in the North and also the South West there is a limit to which any one could go in insulting any of the religions and their followers for, in most homes, you have a mixture of Christians and Muslims of the same father and mother.
Thus, when some writers insult not just Muslims but Islam as well, as their own contribution to the Sharia debate, they are equally insulting those Christian brothers, mothers and fathers of the Muslim. John Yahaya Madaki, a former Governor of Katsina State and a Christian built a Mosque in his village and sponsored his mother and father, all Muslims, to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Dan Suleiman , is a Christian from a Muslim father and mother. So also Ambassador Jolly Tanko Yusuf one of whose daughter is also a Muslim.
It is doubtful if such people would ever take kindly to anybody insulting Muslims or Islam, a religion which their parents belonged to and being practiced by their brothers and sisters.
Thus, while some writers and leaders indulge in such unbecoming utterances many across the board cannot afford it. I doubt if any member of the Awolowo family would indulge in such because one of Awolowo's sisters was /is a Muslim. Several papers have allowed their pages for such practices and the more they do the more many think of them otherwise.
The essence of our religions admixture is to teach us the virtues of tolerance and the appreciation of our differences. It is alright, for some, for instance, to say that they would take control of their oil resources on account of the Sharia. Others may freely say that they would also take account of their agricultural produce and potential solid mineral resources. The truth about our economic status is that the fact that the discovery of oil has undermined the development of other sectors does not mean that others have no economic potentials. Indeed, the potential economic greatness of others were undermined the development of other sectors does not mean that others have no economic potential. Indeed, the potential economic greatness of others were undermined because of oil. So if equal treatment has been accorded all sectors with equity and fairness oil revenue and this could still be done, perhaps even at a higher level given the right people in place ready to render selfless service as they did. No one area of this country has the exclusive monopoly over all resources as the OPC wars at Mile 2 once demonstrated.
There is the belief by some commentators that Sharia is being imposed by the so called Sharia Governors on the people. This is a narrow view of the entire project. The truth is that it is the people who are imposing Sharia on their leaders. Apart from Ahmed Sani, none campaigned on the basis of the Sharia. But when Zamfara opened their eyes to the matter, the people took it as personal assignment to impose its evolution on their leaders. Perhaps many such writers have not heard how some Governors where being ridiculed for dragging their feet over the issue. Sharia could be described as a grassroots inspired revolution of sorts where decisions came from down to up believing that they were not doing anything outside the constitution and also strongly believing that their demands once implemented would not harm their Christian brothers.
This, therefore, dismisses the notion that Sharia was a reaction to Obasanjo as being propagated by even some knowledgeable elders. When Ahmed Sani was promising Sharia, Obasanjo was still not a presidential flag bearer. Perhaps, he was not even a member of the PDP. The truth about the matter is that the so called Sharia Governor have been too busy trying to save their necks from the Sharia fire to even think of Obasanjo. With them, it has been self survival from what may occur in 2003.
To this extent, Sharia is indeed pro-Obasanjo to the extent that the re-acceptability of "Sharia Governors" in 2003 means his own possible re-acceptability by the "Sharia People". The project, therefore, is in the greater interest of Obasanjo if looked at from this angle. If ever it turns out to be against him, it is only if he turns his back against it depending on his approach, Sharia could be a vote catcher or otherwise and I suspect, he knows better than most of us think, In democracy there is always some bargaining chip.
When the vice President rationalized in Sokoto recently that Sharia was the voice of the people, he certainly wasn't speaking against Obasanjo, nor was it a sign of divided Aso Rock as many tend to see. Rather it was a way of paving a path for Obasanjo to get a bite of the Sharia meat come 2003. Ask yourself why OPC is being handled softly. There is something 2003 about it which apolitical mind may not readily appreciate. The truth is that these are becoming powerful centers of democratic power, which no politicians in their midst could ignore with ease. True, overtime, the political class may seize the spearhead but certainly not now and Atiku is plotting along this line and certainly not against Obasanjo. Perhaps, he is a thorough anti-Sharia personality as most of his PDP governors are, but the vote consciousness can hardly desert a calculating politician. The earlier we stop saying therefore that Sharia is anti-Obasanjo the better for his future political horizon. Thus only anti-Obasanjo elements would continue to propagate Sharia as anti-Obasanjo. It is not and it has never been. If anything, it would turn out to be pro Obasanjo and the anti-Sharia campaigners, who believe they love him than the so called Sharia people, have a role to play.
Awo would have reacted differently to Sharia from the way Adesanya has been doing. If you look at the composition of the patriots, non has any stake in the future electoral process of the polity, and so they could afford to rant high sounding anti-Sharia slogans. They could therefore be excused. So also most columnists who perceiver it from only a negative angle. Most do not have political minds or perhaps never thought of it deeply beyond the usual stereotype. Others have no hope for wider political participation beyond being local champions.
Okadigbo, is about the only up coming political figure that read the political arithmetic of Sharia and OPC correctly during a recent interview. The interview recommends itself to those who have a narrow view of the development beyond the usual insults we read daily. Of course, Sharia never kicked off as a political game plans, consciously designed for that purpose. Agitation for it has been long and Zamfara just provided the opening such that it is assuming a growing dynamic force mid-stream of its take off, perhaps having been suppressed for years.
Finally, for those who see it as anti Obsanjo, let them not forget that the General put it in the 1979 constitution. Was he against himself then? Sentiments must not blind us to the fair assessments of events and issues for they may retard purposeful discourse and encourages intellectual laziness, in which so many of us indulge. Obasanjo has no reason to fear Sharia unless he fears himself or lured into pandering more to popular sentiments, otherwise he may peacefully reap the dividends of Sharia in the long run.
You can read more about my views in my webpage http://www.gamji.com/wada.htm
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