Today, I am writing on a weighty subject. I am not even certain that this column, due to its spatial limitations, is the right place to discuss religion and radicalisation in the North. However, considering recent events in the country, it seemed uncharacteristic to ignore the issue. So consider this an opening of a conversation, one I would be pleased to discuss further with readers.
Two things happened this week. One was the brutal assassination of the Islamic preacher, Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim Masussuka, and the other, the trending video of Umar Gandi, a member of the First Aid Group of the Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’ah Wa Ikamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS).
I had heard of Masussuka before now through the controversy surrounding his preaching. The one video of him I had seen prior to his death, however, was one in which he was preaching peaceful coexistence between different faiths. I thought that sort of preaching was refreshing because for far too long, faith leaders across the lines have advanced hatred, sowing and nurturing the seed of violence that has been engulfing the country for years.
My cursory look into his theology showed some radical departures from mainstream Islam-and this had nothing to do with interfaith coexistence. Upon investigating, I immediately understood the friction between him and other Muslim clerics. I did not think this was anything different because such frictions, of course, have always been normal in theology. It existed between Sunni, Salafist, Sufi and Shi’a scholars, and even between different factions of the Izala group, for instance, who are all Sunni. It is also true of Anglican, Pentecostal, and Catholic clergy and sometimes even intradenominational.
As we are unsure who is responsible for his death-as even claims that the Boko Haram offshoot, Ansaru, has claimed responsibility have themselves become controversial- it would be hasty to conclude about the motives. Which is why we must hope that the authorities hurry up and conclude their investigations by arresting the culprits so we can have some definitive answers. Yet, to hope would be to wilt in waiting. The assassinations of Sheikh Jafar Adam (2027), and Sheikh Muhammad Auwal Albanin Zaria (2014), killed in similar fashion, have remained unsolved. Both crimes have been claimed by Boko Haram, against whom both scholars have been very critical and have preached against.
The controversy surrounding Masussuka’s death somehow got entwined with the controversial video of an individual who has now been identified as Umar Ibrahim Gandi, from Zamfara, who was leading children in a training exercise and singing a radicalising motivational song that encourages killings of Christians. Of course, coming from a man dressed in the uniform of a group affiliated with a popular Muslim group, it genuinely raised concerns about the radicalisation or normalisation of radicalisation in the North.
The question here is that the First Aid Group of JIBWIS, to which the man and the children belonged, is supposed to be a first aid group, not a militia kitted in a knock-off version of the Saudi Police uniform.
In addition to their roles in organising religious gatherings, instead of training these young volunteers in First Aid and other emergency medical services that could actually benefit society through interventions in cases of natural disasters or other tragedies, it is sad to see their training emphasis being on pseudo-paramilitary exercises, sometimes with wooden guns as props. It seems like a waste of potential for the group. But worse is to see children being indoctrinated through songs like that to consider interfaith violence as normal or something to aspire to.
The uproar against the video has been overwhelming. While one commends JIBWIS for quickly distancing itself from the act, identifying the culprit and handing him over to the authorities for investigation, its hastiness to dissociate itself from Gandi, by claiming that he did not even have a group ID, misses the point. The fact that he himself felt vindicated in singing that song, having it recorded and posting it on his social media, is indicative of a deeper malaise that the group needs to address-and this is the fact that the group has created an ambience that allows for the nurturing of such sentiments.
That hastiness papers over a cultivated groupthink. There is a recording of one of the group’s leading clerics praising the militarisation of the First Aid Group, boasting that they are more populous than the police and should be on standby to change the country. Of course, the cleric in question can explain exactly what he means by that, but any Hausa speaker who hears it won’t miss the insidious undertones in his word choices and tone.
Which brings me to the more concerning issue of the reactions to both the videos and the assassination of Masussuka. I have seen members of JIBWIS, including one claiming to be a member of the First Aid Group, denouncing the actions of Gandi; however, some have gone out of their way to claim that the videos, which the man himself posted on his socials, were AI-generated or doctored. The desperation to make that claim is again in keeping with the notion of avoiding a reality that needs confronting. The North has a radicalism problem that it desperately needs to address.
This manifests further in the reactions to Masussuka’s assassination, where some comments have been celebratory even, including ones that addressed very unkind remarks to the man’s grieving widows. This followed a rather baffling interview some journalists conducted with one of them hours after the man died.
I understand that some of those reactions, especially the ones denying that Masussuka had been killed, derived from the preacher’s own denial of the killing of the Prophet’s grandson, Hussein (RA), because, according to him, it was not mentioned in the Qur’an. It intends to apply the same parameters he applied to other historically factual events-vis-à-vis-since his death is not mentioned in the Qur’an, it did not happen. My understanding has always been-and this too is fundamentally derived from Islam-that a disagreement over theology should not warrant threats of death or celebrations of it, as that should be seen as a missed opportunity to engage the said party with superior intellectual arguments.
We must recognise that Nigeria’s North is fertile ground for religious radicalism. Incidentally, this is across the board and results from decades of resource competition and gaps in the political system. As far back as the 1920s, the colonial administration was concerned about the rise of the Tijaniya sect as a radical ideology to challenge colonial rule. What allowed the rise of that ideology was the gap in the power structure created by the colonial takeover that divested the emirs of power. The colonial administration’s desire to respect the ‘natural characteristics’ of the people by not interfering in religious matters, and the emirs’ lack of political power to address those issues, allowed room for those ideas and sects to emerge and take shape. While the Tijaniya group has since moved away from that initial radical ideology, succeeding governments have maintained the structure that continues to allow the gaps for radicalisation to sneak in and subsist.
On the other hand, one must understand that the version of Christianity introduced into Northern Nigeria as championed by the German missionary and strategist Karl Kumm (1874-1930) positioned Christianity as a buffer and antithesis to Islam. It specifically targeted what were then the pagan tribes who were not particularly fond of the caliphate and their slave raids into their territories. Thus, Islam and Christianity in Northern Nigeria met on the tip of a sword, at a point of conflict that fosters mutual enmity, mutual distrust, and hatred.
With a population of 230 million people, with 50 million between the ages of 18 and 30, and the appalling social conditions in the country, Nigeria provides an amenable population that can easily be radicalised on either side and attracts the interests of fanatics from elsewhere. The preaching of both faith leaders has continued to foster this atmosphere. I could go into detailed examples of how radicalised groups have emerged among both faiths but there is not enough space for it here.
However, not to digress from the point, it is a good thing that Mr Gandi has been handed over to the security operatives for investigations into his hate messaging and indoctrination of minors. I hope this will be a first step in checking religious radicalisation and hateful preaching across the country. A standard must be set. What we have failed to do as a nation is to be very deliberate about national unity beyond slogans and banners. We have failed to install guardrails to curtail hate rhetoric, preaching, and indoctrination. It is about time that changes. His controversial Islamic theology aside, the loss of Masussuka on the front of building interfaith harmony is a significant one.