Some Nigerians are really of queer breed. They act, reason and attempt to curry support on issues and matters that are completely in dissonance with the virtues of truthfulness, patriotism and commonsense.
A perusal of the published article with the title, “Zaria Massacre is an Act of State Terrorism,” authored by Abdulmumin Giwa, apparently, a pen pusher, terrorists sympathizer and a disoriented soul, mocks the tenets of sanity. He desperately, but very poorly attempted to shift the burden of blame the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) or the Shiites led by Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky’s earned by self-inflicted wounds to President
Muhammadu Buhari, the Kaduna state government and the Nigerian Army.
His narrative was fraught with serious incoherence, disjointedness and steeped in the vile propaganda to protect aggressive and violence-prone Shiites sect members in Nigeria, by pushing their inherent intolerance of lawful foibles authorities and personalities.
But I wish to remind the author that Nigeria is a country that belongs to all Nigerians. And it is not a lawless nation and, no country inhabited by sane human beings operates without laws. The IMN members cannot import strange religious doctrines into Nigeria; share affinity with terrorist sects in the Iranian republic or the ISIS and conduct their affairs in Nigeria in a manner that traduces the sacred prescriptions of public safety and peace. Neither Nigerians nor the Federal Government of Nigeria can keep quiet for such a morass to fester, not even under the conviction of the gods they worship. We are not in the jungle and all Nigerians must submit themselves to the laws governing us.
Has it occurred to the author and his cursed sponsors of terrorism acts in the Nigeria, why IMN has refused to register itself with the government of Nigeria for the over 40 years of its existence in the country? The Shiites are not the only religious sect in Nigeria. But if other religious sects have lawfully brought the fact of their existence to the attention of government as required by our laws, what makes the case of El-Zakzaky’s IMN an exemption? It reveals a mindset of evil; it says more than merely portraying them as outlaws. They are in fact criminals who should be languishing in jail. And in spite of this liberty, Shiites do not pretend to profess their links with the most dangerous external terror sects.
Government is rather soft on the offensives of the Shiite sect members in Nigeria. The fact of leading an illegal and unlawful organization in Nigeria alone makes El-Zakzaky an instant culprit for trial on criminal charges. Time is ripe for government to explore this dimension and charge the Shiites and his members on this score accordingly.
On the so called “massacre” of Shiites members in Zaria when they came out to attack Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai, the twisted and embellished aspects of the encounter, as reinvented by the author of the piece cannot alter its veracity. Ask and ask me again, I will plainly and conscientiously swear that the Zaria episode was an assassination plot IMN sect members were paid to execute against Buratai.
Buratai had incurred the wrath of the Iranian Republic, when he marshaled forces that moved with deafening aggression against Boko Haram terrorists in the Nigeria’s northeast. We also know of the sponsorship of Boko Haram terrorism by the same Iran. And it sensed that the manner Buratai’s army went after the terrorists’ criminals, the tendency to soon decapitate and defeat was ominous. And truly, it later came to pass like a prophecy.
And the Iranian terrorism kingpins were unhappy with the development and the only way they contemplated to halt the advancing and suppressive force of the Nigerian troops against Boko Haram insurgents was to eliminate Buratai, the brave soldier who gave fillip to the anti-terrorism campaigns in Nigeria. IMN sect members accepted the briefs of their Iranian bosses to assist to the survival of Boko Haram insurgents by murdering the Army Chief.
It accounted for why IMN sect members ambushed his thoroughfare in Zaria. It explains why Sheik El-Zakzaky declined pleas on phone by Kaduna state Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai to prevail on his berserk sect members to open the path for the Army Chief to proceed on his official trip. It is reason the incensed Shiites sect members pulled the trigger first at the Army Chief’s entourage. The intention was to create a rowdy and violent scenario to detonate the bombs always in their possession when on so called religious processions.
Elsewhere in the North, the Shiites members are on a voyage in processions to their ceremonies, security agents apprehend them for carrying dangerous weapons like bombs, guns, swords, machetes, knives and so forth. They illegally assail public thoroughfares and buildings and strike down to death any Nigerian who dares to question their offensiveness. Which god do they worship with arms outside the undisguised identity as terrorists? Are they the only Islamic sect in Nigeria?
It is also for the same reason, Shiites refused to honour the invitation by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the clashes between the sect and the Nigerian Army in Zaria set up by the Kaduna state government. They fretted away this golden opportunity to explain to the world their presumed innocence. At the burial of Shiites members who died in Kano state following the sect’s violent clashes with Nigerian Police last year, El-Zakzaky’s deputy leader, Shiek Abubakar Koki publicly persuaded his members never to obey constituted authorities in Nigeria or any law of the Nigerian federation.
Therefore, Giwa’s puerile and illogical arguments will never make sense to any sound mind. If not madness, Nigerian Army had demonstrated beyond the ordinary its aversion to terrorism and no one in his right senses would claim otherwise. Again, this mentality of dragging the President into any security breach to give the incidents some feigned weight is wrong.
Giwa argued that President Buhari sponsored state attacks on Shiites and was only forced to comment on the incident during a media chat. But what is the exigency of the presidential comments for a sect which vows it is above the law? Were these comments necessary when the appropriate security agencies had already arrested the situation? But Giwa failed to explain to Nigerians why El-Zakzaky failed to heed to Governor el-Rufai’s pleas to prevail on his members to open the way for the Army boss to proceed on his official engagement.
Erudite Professor Chinua Achebe said in “Things Fall Apart, “that an elder who brings maggot infested meat home should not complain when flies come visiting. You do not deliberately block the way of soldiers to provoke them because you would shout extra-judicial killings and you have agents in international human rights bodies like Amnesty International to cook reports in your favour. This is indefensible absurdity.
The writer could as well tell us about the verdict of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) in Kaduna and the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria about the Shiites/Army clash. The sect members were infinitely indicted. And JCI recommended the prosecution of Shiek El-Zakzaky for the perceived intransigence of violating Nigerian laws by his adherents. Has he ever glanced the JCI report?
But I appreciate the pseudo analyst for one thing. He was able to enumerate the traits of terrorists, which his Shiites sect in Nigeria embody head and toe. He said, “The basic concept of terrorism is that of instilling fear, intimidation and creating unhealthy suspense in ….”
It laughable to claim security agents moved against IMN terrorists because its leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky is conscientising them to resist America, Israel and Saudi Arabia’s exploitation of Nigeria’s Human and natural resources. Aside their capacity for mischief and violence, what is the numerical strength of IMN members? And assuming the postulations are anywhere near the truth, is that why Shiites cannot subordinate itself to Nigerian laws; Is that why they embark on religious processions with dangerous weapons and murder Nigerians who resist them in cold blood, or force conversion of children into the Shiites sect and kill anybody who resists it before the presence of El-Zakzaky? Is that why El-Zakzaky spread hate sermons and instigates his members against the Nigerian state? It is silly wisdom.
The likes of Giwa and his cohorts must realize that Nigeria is not a terrorist nation and it cannot be allowed to drift into such abyss under a Buhari Presidency. To claim that other Muslims and Christians also love the messages of “hope” from El-Zakzaky smacks of desperate hoopla. If that were the case, why did both the Muslims and Christians in Kaduna state protest against IMN sect’s presence and building of a house in their communities? Nobody is interested in a wretched soul like El-Zakzaky. But what cannot be permitted is the infringement of our laws and breach of public peace and security.
Abiodun, an anti-insurgency campaigner writes from Ibadan, Oyo State.
