Let me begin with nostalgia about beautiful, peaceful Nigeria of the 1970s where religious tolerance was manifest, violent cults were unknown and one can travel any time, even all night, without any fear. Today, Nigeria has changed, for the worse, as extremist religious dissidents, communal warriors, violent criminals and other sundry deviants ravage the land.
One recent incident brought these nostalgic thoughts into bold relief: the army’s confrontation with Sheikh Ibraheem El Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement in Zaria, Kaduna State between December 12-14, 2015. It highlighted the near state of anomie in the land in which various dissident groups have carved out ‘kingdoms’ over which they preside, according to their own rules. This is why a religious group could so brazenly bar the country’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, from ‘trespassing’ over ‘its territory’! It is the height of provocation, an arrogant repudiation of state authority denying the army chief’s official entourage passage on a public road. We cannot mince words or become mealy-mouthed in this kind of encounter.
For law and order to be restored in this country, the authority of the state must be asserted at all times. Revelations since the encounter indicate El Zakzaky runs a fiefdom in Zaria with non members of his movement being literally ‘hostages’, which informed the jubilation by neighbours who felt liberated by the army’s showdown with the sect. That the group had successfully intimidated the former Kaduna State governor, Ramalan Yero, who was denied passage on that road earlier in 2015, must have emboldened El Zakzaky’s faithful to attempt to face down the army chief. It amounted to El Zakzaky, wittingly or unwittingly, inducing his flock to commit suicide. Spiritually and psychologically enslaved religious fanatics are prone to this type of tragedy. An American Christian evangelist had, decades ago, taken his flock to Guyana in Central America and induced them to drink cyanide, a poison, to go to heaven– of course, they all died.
In relating with the military, we need to understand the mentality of army personnel – soldiers, especially infantry men and commandos, are trained to kill and against the background of humiliation recently suffered by the army from the Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, the El Zakzaky dare would seem to the soldiers one more humiliation by a religious group that cannot stand and should not stand. I believe the greater blame should be on the leadership of the Islamic Movement for putting its followers in harm’s way. For El Zakzaky who reportedly lost three sons in an earlier encounter with security agents, one would expect some level of soberness. We need to ask: What does the Islamic Movement stand to gain in its mindless, avoidable confrontation with state authorities? How do such confrontations improve their religious purity? What is the value-added to the Movement? El Zakzaky, we are told, is a First Class graduate of Economics from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Brilliant guy. Why then has he chosen this path? Are there no people such religious leaders like El Zakzaky respect who can be a moderating influence on them? El Zakzaky reminds one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, celebrated author of the classic Sherlock Holmes series who once noted, with respect to Prof. Moriaty whose criminal exploits became a European nightmare, that when a brilliant mind turns anti-establishment, to crime, he is most dangerous.
One wonders whether at any point in time El Zakzaky takes the sanctity of life of his followers into consideration. Why would a leader with such faithful followership, create a situation where such followers become cannon fodder in his confrontation with the state? An interview in the Nigerian Tribune of Jan. 9, with Isa Waziri Gwantu, a mass communication lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and an El Zakzaky devotee, is illustrative of the frightening level of indoctrination and mindset of those hooked on the opium of religion. Asked why the sect is always having problems with security operatives, Gwantu asserted: “it is not unconnected to the war declared on Muslims all over the world by ‘globalists’. It is not a secret that the Nigerian security agencies are proxies of the forces behind the ordeals of Muslims in different parts of the world like Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Myanmar”. Does this not smack of El Zakzaky followers being brainwashed to perceive security operatives as enemy forces that must be resisted?
The army has been accused of overkill in its reaction and various bodies are putting the military on the spot. While we await the outcome of the investigations and probes, the public and its component groups must appreciate that in a Nigeria edging towards a lawless jungle, the essence of government is to maintain public order, a responsibility of armed security agencies, and people are better advised not to engage in conduct bordering on anarchy that will incur serious repercussions. It is a practical reality. The army, speaking through the General Officer Commanding (GOC) One Mechanised Division, based in Kaduna, Maj. Gen. Adeniyi Oyebade, at a press conference on January 6, had been unequivocal that it had no apology for the encounter with the Islamic Movement. The GOC had declared: “ The so-called clash was avoidable, the Nigerian Army has no issues with the Shi’ite members … We have problem with those who choose to challenge the authority of the state, who do not recognize the laws of the land…So, in the cause of doing our work we make no apology to any group”. The army, in the circumstances, cannot be expected to surrender to orchestrated public opinion, including those of bleeding heart Columnists and editorial writers, who often fail to call renegade groups and neo-anarchists to order but would rather make excuses for these public-disorder elements. This disposition cannot foster the peace we all so earnestly desire in the land.
The showdown between the Islamic Movement and the Nigerian Army has lessons for the government and members of the public. A major function of government is surveillance of the environment which entails monitoring activities of groups –religious, communal, cultural, ethnic, professional as well as individuals. Religious leaders should, particularly, come under continuous surveillance, because these leaders have a hold on people’s hearts and emotions that no other institution of society commands. This monitoring is to preempt deviant and hate preaching. But government must also strive to regain people’s trust by being pro-people in its policies. Many perceive government as an oppressive institution from which they escape to seek spiritual refuge in the religions which makes it possible for religious leaders, Muslim and Christian, to play God.
As for the public, we need to relate with armed security operatives with caution and restraint considering that are often irritable and seem to be permanently under stress. That is the reality we have to deal with, for now, till our security agencies become more civil. To tauntingly provoke or confront an armed person is suicidal. Period.
- Dr. Olawunmi, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Bowen University, Iwo is former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
