By Ahmad Salkida
As the only journalist who
dispatched the first ever report on late Muhammad Yusuf’s activities in
Maiduguri, on the 23rd of July 2006, at a time when the sect was relatively
unknown to many Nigerians, I should be able to give an insight into the Boko
Haram saga.
I have closely followed the
activities of the Boko Haram sect. In fact, I was invited by the late Yusuf at
that period to establish and head an Al-mizzan styled newspaper for him.
However, in the course of our deliberations, I tabled the following issues that
set us apart: I wanted to be partner in the project, I wanted editorial freedom
to edit out anything I may find to incite the public in the publication and I
wanted to introduce a regular column that totally disagrees with his ideology.
I think, my conditions, at a time
when I hadn’t any gainful employment, shocked the prospective investor who
thought any budding journalist would rush at the opportunity to become an
editor-in-chief especially of a promising paper, on account of the large
follower ship and the group’s loyalty to their Imam.
However my relationship with late
Mohammed Yusuf continued as he visited me when I lost my 8 months old son that
died of malaria. Perhaps, he saw me partially as one of his students and
partially as a dissenter due to my independent disposition. But, to be fair to
him, I admire his depth of knowledge, oratorical prowess and apparent
willingness to emulate Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
In early 2002, Yusuf was seen by
many as a likely heir to the renowned late Sheik Ja’afar Mahmud Adam in
Maiduguri on account of his brilliance and closeness to the late renowned
scholar. But all that changed shortly when one late Mohammed Alli approached
late Yusuf with reasons to boycott democracy, civil service and western
oriented schools. Late Yusuf then disengaged his service with the Yobe state
government.
Then, in a 2006 press release
signed by the sect’s Shura (Consultative) Council, they stated that, Islam
permits them to subsist under a modern government like Nigeria but has
explicitly prohibited them from joining or supporting such governments in so
far as their systems, structures and institutions contain elements
contradictory to core Islamic principles and beliefs.
However, the late Alli argued
that the sect must embark on Hijra (migration), but late Yusuf declined and
Alli proceeded to Kanamma in Yobe with his faction, and one thing led to
another, the group launched an insurgent attack on the Police that resulted in
the loss of many lives and property in Kanamma and later in Gwoza in Borno
state. Although the insurgents, a renegade group that called itself “Taliban,”
led by Alli, fiercely disagreed with late Yusuf and many of the escapees later
returned to Yusuf.
Unlike Alli, Yusuf went on
undeterred, though he was prevented from preaching in several mosques and was
denied TV/radio appearances in the state. But he setup a preaching outlet in
the front of his house at the railway quarters and at Angwan Doki,
millionaires’ quarters among others. The demand for his tapes increased by the
day all over the north and the proceeds there from increased tremendously. He,
then asked his landlord and in-law, late Baba Fugu Mohammed to allow him to
build a mosque whom he named Ibn Taimiyya Masjid.
It was in Ibn Taimiyya Masjid
that late Yusuf together with his hard-line top lieutenant Abubakar Shekau
alias `Darul Tauhid,’ began to build an imaginary state within a state. Together
they setup Laginas (departments), they had a cabinet, the Shura, the Hisbah,
the brigade of guards, a military wing, a large farm, an effective micro
finance scheme, and late Yusuf played the role of a judge in settling disputes,
each State had an Amir (leader) including amirs in Chad and Niger that gave
accounts of their stewardship to Yusuf directly.
The sect, led by Yusuf took
advantage of the poor quality of our educational system, the incessant strike,
cult activities, widespread malpractices and prostitutions that is made worse
with no offer of jobs after graduation to wheedle many youth to abandon school
and embrace Yusuf’s new and emerging state that promises to offer them a better
alternative.
Late Yusuf also took advantage of
the irresponsible leadership at all levels of government as unemployment,
poverty, corruption and insecurity become the order of the day. And, as he
points out such failures, citing verses of the Qur’an and the sayings of the
Prophet, the youth see him as the leader that will indeed deliver them from
malevolence to the promised land.
In my write-up of February 28,
2009 in the Sunday Trust I wrote about the sect, where I alerted the general
public about the sect’s total disregard for civil obedience. The report in
question warned that to disregard the simmering cauldron “smells like
rebellion…and it will be irresponsible of any authority to wait for the
occurrence of violence before it acts in the face of impending threat to law
and order,” in subsequent reports and during my interactions with senior
security agents, I did not only predict the crisis but hinted on the strategy
of the sect. But, typical of investigative journalism, instead of these
revelations to catch the attention of the relevant agencies, their attention
was shifted on how to frame me. Apparently, the plan was never to prevent a
crisis but to allow it to occur.
However, in fairness to the
government of Borno state that is living witnesses to the unruly behaviour of
the sect and its extreme dislike for government institutions, the state
government like other governments in northern Nigeria saw the need to halt this
nuisance in their states; they were alarmed that the sect that started with a
handful of people is hitting the 7-digit mark and one day (if not very soon)
the likelihood that the sect may determine the politics of the land cannot be
dismissed.
According to Isa Yuguda, the
Governor of Bauch state in a recent interview with a weekly newspaper, “When
the Boko Haram issue came, I sat down and scientifically organised a Commando
raid on their stronghold. We identified them over a period of time and made
sure the Ulamas came and preached against them for two weeks and they in return
issued fatwa against the Imams that are preaching against them. We had to
attach policemen to the Imams because the Boko Haram people threatened to
slaughter them. We planned for them.
“We cordoned off their area
around 3a.m. in the morning and phoned my neighbours in Borno and Yobe states
about the operation I was going to carry out because their leader was there at
that time. After exchanging gunshots for some time, we smoked them out of their
houses. They were fully armed with grenades, machine guns and rocket
launchers,” said Yuguda.
Having kept track of political
activities in the state, I knew very well that Ali Sheriff, unlike Yuguda,
could not afford to strike first, Borno could take anything from him but not an
attack on Muslims. However, the government in Borno setup a joint security
patrol nicknamed, `operation flush’ in order to serve as a constant check on
the sect.
As the crisis started in
Maiduguri, reporters did the obvious; `live and tell the story’ and they stayed
mostly in the Government House (GH) and most of them contacted me directly or
indirectly to get briefed because I chose to do the `unexpected’, which is to
`risk my life to tell the story.’ Indeed, I took undue risk which exposed me to
the unimaginable that would form the subject of a book I am now writing.
On Tuesday 29th July 2009 when I
made a stop at the Borno state Government House, a staff of the GH, one Yusuf
dragged me into the office of the Chief Security Officer to the Governor,
insisting that the governor’s aide wanted to see my face for the first time.
The aide wanted to know from me why I did not shave my beards and lower my
trousers below the ankle to avoid the wrath (Alas! bullets) of the security
agents.
I, then, told him that it is
wrong for security agents to brand innocent people that wear beards as Boko
Haram and even killed them based on that. In fact, to keep beards, to wear
turbans and nisfusaak (trousers above the ankle) are part of the prophet’s
Sirah, which is recommended to every Muslim over 1400 years ago, and it is seen
as a deeply spiritual task by many Muslims all over the world.
I started a career in journalism
as a staff reporter with Insider Weekly Magazine, from 2001 to 2002.
Thereafter, I had a stint with Crystal Magazine as a Special Projects Editor
and later a founding staff with New Sentinel and freelanced for several
mediums. Currently, I work as a reporter with the Media Trust Limited. I do not
posses any formal educational qualification beyond primary school; however I
was self educated through years of extensive reading of books.
As a primary school pupil in the
early 80’s, when late Yusuf was a little kid himself, I would choose to climb a
tree and read a story book while my mates were in school. Somehow I managed to
complete my primary school but my disdain to learn under the four square walls
of a classroom continued during my Secondary School and my father decided to
discontinue funding my education. Although, I was visible in the University of
Maiduguri, not as a student but sadly, as a commercial final year project
writer to nearly a hundred undergraduates and a handful of master’s degree
thesis as well, anyway this is a story for another day.
Although there was a
extraordinary effort by the correspondents chapel and the Nigerian Union of
Journalist in the area to secure my release but as my wife who is yet to
recover from the trauma of that crisis argued, the NUJ should have demanded for
my release and out rightly condemn my arrest but instead, they pleaded and
pleaded until I was released; this is an admittance that indeed one of their
own is guilty as alleged and as my wife always said, this allegation will hang
over my head for the rest of my life.
Recently, when Al-jazeera showed
video footage of extra-judicial killings the world became aware of some of our
experiences in Maiduguri, and typical of Nigerians, we heard calls for probe.
The most disturbing call for probe is the one by the very government that
ordered the summary executions in the first place. Can a military or police
officer go to town and harvest corpses without an order from above? If this is
possible, then it should not be a probe of extra-judicial killings instead,
government should probe insubordination and total breakdown of law and order
amongst security agents leading to numerous deaths. And, let us not forget,
what happened to the previous probes setup by the federal government? I have a
disturbing video that confirmed what security agents told me during my arrest.
“No prison for Boko Haram members, we want them all death.” Is it the governor
of Borno state that gave such an order or Mr President that has absolute
control over the police and military under the constitution? Oh, ours is a
country where the constitution is always disregarded.
Why did they execute Yusuf
together with Baba Fugu Mohammed and Bugi Foi before any trial? Was it to cover
the dirty tracks of under cover agents that worked for years with late Yusuf,
leaving the impression that these two (that are the richest people close to
late Yusuf) funded the uprising? Why are the sophisticated guns of Boko Haram
that was used to keep Nigeria’s defence forces away from their enclave for
three days not displayed to the public along side corpses? What we saw was
mostly bow and arrows.
Where is Abubakar Shekau? The
police said he died from injuries he sustained during the crisis. Can we
believe them after all? They said late Yusuf died in a shootout when in fact
over 50 mobile police men shot him behind my detention room, at the armoury
right inside the police headquarters. In my opinion, Abubakar Shekau, the
second in command of late Yusuf may be alive.
Over the years, the failure of
security agents to prevent crisis that often times leads to loss of lives and
property worth billions of naira goes unpunished. We never hear any apology or
resignation from political leaders or heads of security agents. The only
punishment is, erring commissioners of Police are transferred to an obscure
department of special duties at the Force Headquarters’ in Abuja, as was the
case with the commissioners during Boko Haram and the recent Jos crisis.
Were it not for a country like
Nigeria, where government have failed to provide basic life support for its
citizens, late Yusuf may have never thrived. A functional environment with
opportunities for all, equal justice for all, fairness to all and governed by
leaders that are responsible for their people, the rude and retrogressive teachings
of late Yusuf would have not received the attention of about a million
followers all over the north. Indeed, late Yusuf’s teaching was an abuse to
Algebra, reproductive health and the science of astronomy that has its roots in
Islam, if indeed it is true that he said boko is haram.
From my interaction with him, he
never said boko is haram plainly; in fact the name Boko Haram came to being
during the crisis. What he always said was, as long as anything that
contradicts the teachings of Islam (in his own view) exists in the educational
system then it is haram to go to that school unless such things ceased to
exist. As members of the sect realised, they cannot ensure such change,
especially in a secular state like ours; they withdrew from schools completely.
But I am aware that late Yusuf had plans to set up a school, a hospital and a
market in the future to complement the sect’s micro finance scheme and other
Laginas.
Unfortunately, late Yusuf’s
teachings that caused crisis and death of hundreds of our gallant security
agents and made it inhuman for people like Yusuf to survive, contradicts not
only Islam which he claims to be preaching to his followers but his very
existence. I saw when members of the sect slaughtered a police sergeant, L.
Adamu. He pleaded with them that he was never against them and said he was a
fellow Muslim but yet they slaughtered him like a goat. Was this the reason why
the police and military summarily executed the suspected sect members in the
same manner the sect did to their colleagues?
Suffice it to say here that
government should investigate why the sect took up arms against it. What were
the issues that led to the armed struggle? And what are the chances of
recurrence of violence. Government must as a matter of urgency police our
porous border because Shekau may be living close by. Government through
religious and traditional leaders must dialogue with the displaced family
members of Boko Haram and ensure that their children all go back to school.
Government must begin to locate
them and assure them of a fair trial at home in order not for them to easily
fall as fodders to any al-Qaeda advances. Religious institutions like the one
headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III should be
empowered to independent and be able to effectively regulate and censor
religious activities in the country.
This article first appeared on Salkilda.com
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