LAST week’s suspension and the eventual sack of Sheikh Nuru Khalid as Chief Imam of the Apo Legislative Quarters’ Juma’at mosque indicate how Nigerians may be their own worst enemies.
While his employers reserve the right to hire and fire him at will, the mosque committee did not fire this cleric for any reason other than his criticism of the government! The committee said as much.
In a dismissal letter signed by its leader, Sa’idu Dansadau, the committee insinuated that “mischief makers” and enemies of the country could take advantage of Khalid’s utterances to unleash their “devilish agendas.” The committee went on to affirm the conviction that its decision to sack the Imam would elicit reactions “given the penchant of many Nigerians” to criticise the government of the day. Regardless of this, the committee felt it had a duty to restrain people like the Imam from commenting on the many failures of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
That is curious because even prominent members of Buhari’s All Progressives Congress are already beginning to speak out about the disappointment that the government they helped install has become.
For instance, on Tuesday, a chieftain of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was in Kaduna to commiserate with the governor and people of Kaduna State regarding the March 28 terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna service of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
Speaking at the Government House, Tinubu, who now aspires to be president in 2023, declared that Nigeria was bleeding and that the attack on the train, where the terrorists killed eight and abducted a yet unknown number of people, was a disaster.
The former governor of Lagos State said, “We are facing the current challenges seriously and we have to do more. Nigeria bleeds on behalf of everybody. We need to fight terrorism with all our energy and whatever we have. It’s not shameful for people to be poor but it’s unacceptable to accept poverty as a norm.”
By this, Tinubu implies that someone is shirking their responsibility, which is not too different from what the committee punished Sheikh Khalid for. Now, you will recall that Tinubu played one of the most prominent roles in getting Buhari (who had failed in his ambition three previous times) elected in 2015. Yet he spoke truth to power, even if you might argue that a presidential aspirant is now speaking up to win the sympathy of Nigerians.
Responding, el-Rufai, one of the principal promoters of Buhari’s candidacy, said, “Nigeria is at a crossroads, a critical crossroads, and we must take difficult decisions to get the right leaders that would take us out of the multiple quagmires that we are going through.” A few days earlier, el-Rufai had sworn that governors of states in the North-West would engage mercenaries if Nigeria’s security agencies continued to fail at stemming the grave insecurity in the area.
Suppose el-Rufai and Tinubu, stalwarts of the APC, good friends of the president and relatively well-off people, are insulated from most of the commoner’s challenges. How do you justify ordinary Nigerians to whom religious leaders like Dansadau hold obligations?
What exactly did the Imam say to warrant the anger of the leaders of the Apo mosque? During his Jumat sermon on Friday, he pointed out that leaders, including himself, have failed the country. He then narrowed in on Buhari, on whose talk the buck stops. He spoke about the level of insecurity in the country, with people getting killed without consequence. He noted that bandits have declared sovereignty in some parts of the country and that the Nigerian situation currently runs contrary to Buhari’s campaign promises.
One question to ask the religious leaders, who turned against Khalid, is whether there is any form of falsehood in the comments he made during his sermon. Secondly, what exactly is the call of a religious leader in circumstances like the ones faced by Nigeria now? Are leaders of religions supposed to support the government of the day regardless of whether they do right or wrong, speak on their behalf and encourage the people to take back their country or dissemble and steer clear of political issues?
By their calling itself, clerics are supposed to be most concerned about what is true and the welfare of their congregation. This is more so in Nigeria, where the failure of governance has turned the majority into paupers, relying on handouts from everyone, including religious organisations. Though it is possible that Apo, where this mosque is located, is populated mainly by the political class, there must be ordinary Nigerians for whom a cleric also holds some responsibility. Most importantly, the Nigerian democracy necessitates a high level of active participation on the part of the citizen. Without being partisan, leaders of various faiths are, as a result, expected to sensitise their congregations as to how much of a contribution they must make to national development.
One of the mistakes Nigerians make is to forget that the best politicians are still politicians and by the nature of their trade love no one but themselves.
Regardless of what ideology they profess, they do not always work for the common interest. In politics, it is the survival of the fittest; it is the interest that currently satisfies the end that the politicians of the day want to achieve. Sometimes they act as if they share the same interests as the average person but this is just a ruse. Even things like building the Second Niger Bridge and going all over the world to take loans so that trains will function in the country are about making their electoral capital. It is either winning a second term or retaining their political party in power. The philosophy that guides the average politician (even when they have the right vision) anywhere in the world is political survival. Whether in Nigeria or the United States of America, politicians will always be politicians. People like former French leader Charles De Gaulle, who implied in his statement that politics is too serious a business to leave in the hands of politicians, are never deserving of our complete trust.
While we are still debating the sense behind the sacked Imam’s intervention, 15 Nigerian soldiers were killed again around Kaduna on Tuesday. How is it that a part of the country is becoming almost inaccessible and some leaders think it is appropriate to be quiet?
Nigeria needs more people in the Khalid frame. Going into the 2023 elections, those who genuinely love Nigeria must begin to sensitise the people about the right questions to ask those who aspire to lead them and how to keep them under close watch even after being elected. Citizens of this country must realise that they cannot afford to get entangled or love-struck by any candidate for any primordial reason forthwith.
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