Friday Tadhkirah: Another Sad Week; O Allah! Have Mercy on Us and the Kidnapped Students

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O Allah! Why is Nigeria always in the news for the bad reason? Is Nigeria jinxed not to ever get things right? Should we just conclude that it is our sins? Many have concluded already. But this conclusion is problematic. In so far as I agree that our state (Nigeria) is a failed state; I also agree that we are the World Capital of Poverty; are we also the World Capital of Sinners? But those rating institutions are yet to rate us thus. It puzzles me to believe that the serial calamities avalanching us are as a result of our sins only.
More puzzling is the fact that the Americans and the Europeans are also very sinful; they are even shameless in their sinfulness. Why are these things happening to us but not happening to them? Or is the COVID 19 Pandemic their own punishment for their own sins? If this is correct, why are their leaders seen very proactive and reactive? Even the Doubting Trump help cushion the effects of the Pandemic in terms of distributive palliatives to American citizens and denizens.

In Nigeria, the cushioning was in form of looted and re-looted palliatives. Hence, Nigeria’s problem is more of leadership. It is either there is no leader at all (this is most unlikely) or there is a leader who does not lead. This is precariously precarious!
We woke up on Saturday only to be fed with the thorny morsel of the bad news that students of Government Science Secondary School Kankara were ‘stolen’, kidnapped, or rather, abducted on Friday night. They were rustled (herded) like cattle. Or, how do you explain this kind of abduction? More than 500 hundred students carted away, not in lorries or Marcopolos, like the Chibok and Dapchi girls; but rustled like cattle in that large number below the radar. Funny! This is mass abduction taken to the next level. It is unprecedented, certainly in Nigeria, and probably in the globe. “This will make an entry into the Guinness Book of Record”; said some security experts.

Is Nigeria turning into a big movie industry featuring only horror films? For, this do not, and cannot happen; even in movies. But it happened in some kilometres away from the President’s town (Daura) where the school is located.

We are all aware that the President arrived Daura on that Friday before the ‘deed was done’. The following day the President was reportedly spotted in his farm in Daura, suggestively, paying a courtesy visit to his cows instead of visiting the crime site or addressing the melancholically distraught parents of the abductees. Though the noisiest of his criers (spokespersons) claimed the President came to know about the incidence afterwards; not before he went to his farm. Hmmm! Do you believe this? Well, we are gullible!

Should we say this happened because of the President’s visit, in spite of his visit, or both? Either way, it is sad! In a previous article, I prayed and hoped that not-getting-military-clearance’s stenchy explanation given for Zabarmari massacre should be the last absurdity of this government this year. Disappointedly, here is another absurdity: a claim that ONLY TEN students got missing when most accounts by escaped students put it at five hundred and above. What is above 500 is where there are discrepancies. Governor Bello Masari puts it at 333. Whichever number you choose to believe, the absurdity that the abductees are TEN is itself absurd.

It is laughable to think the President will act differently (being at home in Daura). It is also derisory to think we have functioning leadership in the Country. Let’s just hinge our hope on Allah and put our trust in Him; “And upon Allah let the believers rely.”(Q14:11). To say leadership is our problem in Nigeria is to reiterate the obvious. If Jonathan was said to be clueless when Chibok girls were abducted in Borno while he was in Abuja, how do you qualify the serving President being in Daura vis-à-vis Kankara’s abduction?
As it was argued then, by some, that the abductors abducted Chibok girls because they were predominantly Christians. Now that the abductees are predominantly Muslims, what religious explanation do you give to this? Is it not better to condemn a crime and call a bad government its bad name than trying to magnify the flash points? Instead of telling the government that it has failed woefully in all the subjects it registered in 2015 (government, economics and Security Studies), some opinion/religious leaders are busy praising the government that it has done better than the previous one. I ask: in what? It disturbs me that I don’t know (I wish I knew) when acrobatic religiosity (not religion), gymnastic ethnicity, and athletic regionalism will stop to befog our common sense and right thinking.

We address issues subjectively with minds infested with lurking hatred. And the Qur’an warns: “and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.”(Q5:8).

The Prophet (SAW) said: “The best of your rulers are those whom you love and who love you, who invoke Allah’s blessings upon you and you invoke His blessings upon them. And the worst of your rulers are those whom you hate and who hate you and whom you curse and who curse you. It was asked (by those present): shouldn’t we overthrow them at this? He said: No, as long as they establish prayer among you. Mind you! One who has a governor appointed over him and he finds that the governor indulges in an act of disobedience to Allah, he should condemn the governor’s act, in disobedience to Allah, but should not withdraw himself from his obedience.” (Muslim).

Going by this hadith, let’s use our thinking faculty to judge if our president is best or worst? This hadith, perhaps, explains why protests are not embraced in northern Nigeria to express grievances against bad government. The grievances are there but protests are avoided in obedience to the Prophet (SAW). What if it is contended that there were protests in the north against bad governance during the previous administration; how do we respond? If the assumption that northern Muslims do not protest against this failed government is in obedience to the Prophet, it means protest against previous government is sheer hypocrisy.
Be that as it may, it is incumbent upon every Muslim who is loyal to the Prophet (SAW) to hate bad government and bad governance. Soft-pedaling hatred for (or not hating) bad leaders because they are Muslims, or from our regions, or from our family is a flagrant disobedience to our beloved Prophet (SAW).

So do we curse our rulers as it is glaring that they hate us? The hadith quoted above only paints a real situation, cursing leaders is actually not the ideal thing to do as followers. The Prophet did not instruct us to curse them, though, apparently, their acts deserve curse. We will rather pray for them. If asked: why should we pray for those who hate us and whom we hate? It is because our affairs are temporarily under their stewardship and the masses do not intrinsically hate them. What the masses hate is their wickedness and horrible management of affairs. To better our affairs, it’s better we pray for them.

On this note, we ask Allah to give this rudderless government direction and guide the leaders towards managing our affairs selflessly and purposely for His pleasure. We ask Allah’s intervention for the return of the kidnapped students; and all those in captivity.
As this article was about to be published, I learned of their release. Kudos to the government! We still pray they return to their parents safely and wish them quick recovery from the trauma. Ya Allah, forgive our sins. You, and You Alone grant success. Wallahu-l-Musta’an.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen writes from Gashua
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
@salahuddeenAbd

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