Elrufai, stop the arrogance and egocentrism, save the lives of innocent kidnapped students in Kaduna!

By Abdulmumin Giwa

The solution to the current problem of insecurity in Kaduna is not by allowing innocent kidnapped students to die in the hands of their abductors just to prove your arrogance and egocentrism Mr Governor.

If at all you are honest and you mean well, why not save the lives of the kidnapped students first, which is the most important thing at the moment, and then go after their abductors thereafter. The bandits have been there before, they are there now and will be there tomorrow but the kidnapped students might not.

If you honestly want to fight the bandits you know where they are and how to get them. You have the intelligence, the military and the police to do that. Stop deceiving the people and placing the lives of innocent students at stake. Save the students first, save their lives. Then go after the bandits if you are truly honest.

But it is now clear that you are not doing or planning anything to save the lives of the students or end end banditry. All you are concerned about is your political statements that have worsened insecurity in Kaduna state. All the useless grammar you are making in the media will not solve the problem, they will only aggravate them as they have been aggravated since you started.

Already they have started killing the students in batches and you are still pretending all is well and turning your face the other way. Please keep your arrogance and egocentrism aside and save the lives of the students. Thereafter, if you are truly serious that you want the bandits crushed you go after them to prove you want them all dead. Stop deceiving the public. Go and bring back the students alive using all options available including negotiations. That is what matters at the moment and not the noise making.

Buhari Institutionalizing Injustice by Backing Pantami and Incarnating Zakzaky

By Abdulmumin Giwa

Unfolding events in Nigeria have worsened the way the public view the dispensation of justice by the Nigerian government. The APC led government under President Muhammadu Buhari is seen to be unfair and unjust to a lot of Nigerians based on positions it is taking against them.

The most recent incident is that of the support and backing it gave to its Minister of Communication Dr. Isah Pantami who has been said to have in the past abetted terrorism in his preachments and religious activities. He also never denied it but claimed that he was young with low awareness and therefore apologised for his misdoings now that he is a minister.

More so, the Nigerian government never denied that he abetted terrorism, but put it to the public that he had changed stance thereby placing its full weight behind him.

Some of the things Sheikh Pantami had preached before becoming a minister included supporting known terrorist organizations Alqaeda, Boko Haram and Taliban and even claiming alliance. He described them as his brothers. He even confirmed that some young people have dropped out of school and joined the terror groups as a result, but he was able to call some to order.

He had also preached against Christians and called on Muslim leaders to declare Jihad to fight them for killing Muslims in Yelwan Shandam, Langtan and other places. What is worse is his position on other Muslims like the Shi’a and Tariqah who he sees more as infidels. In fact this position had drawn him closer to the Saudi regime and its activities of spreading hate among Muslim denominations.

All these speeches and preachings he did are easily accessible on social media especially YouTube.

Also, he had never for once came out to declare to the world that he had withdrawn from such terror abetting and promotion of religious conflicts among Nigerians until the issue recently came up and what happened forced him to make the declaration.

The Nigerian government under president Buhari defended and backed him on this telling the world that he will continue as Minister.

This is the same government that has sent the Nigerian Army troops to clampdown on another religious scholar, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his followers, in their centres in Zaria, Kaduna state for no crime other than belonging to the Shi’a denomination of Islam.

The Shi’a are announced by the government to be influenced by Iran while the government is also hypothetically having diplomatic relations with Iran. The President Muhammadu Buhari even visited the Shi’a leader Ayatullah Sayyid Khamenei in Iran in one of his several travels abroad and was given red carpet reception.

The unarmed Shi’a were butchered by the Buhari government thereby killing men, women and innocent children some burned to death and others buried alive in mass graves along with dead bodies. The Kaduna state government under Governor Nasiru Elrufai confirmed to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up to look into the massacre that they buried 347 in a mass grave in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Peaceful protests have been attacked by the Nigerian government and hundreds are still being killed for calling for the release of their religious leader.

It is still in memory that Sheikh Zakzaky was at his residence with his family in December 2015 when he was attacked and three of his sons were brutally killed, his wife shot in the tommy, he was shot in the eye and limb, his elder sister and nephew were both burned alive by the Nigerian army during the attack. The residence of Shaikh Zakzaky was demolished after burning it down and the rubbles were packed away.

This state terror act was perpetrated against Sheikh Zakzaky who had received several recommendations from far and wide for being peaceful and promoting peace. He had been leading a group of Nigerians that have become the largest blood donors to the National Blood Transfusion Commission in the country. His followers have been received by hundreds of Churches across the country on courtesy calls promoting peace and other unity events.

He has no single record of any crime or terror linked activities or even negative preachments. He had preached against injustice and corruption and had promoted wake up calls to Nigerians seeking developmental progress. In fact he was a victim of the Boko Haram bomb attack where 23 of his followers were killed while on a religious activity.

To cap it all up, officials of this APC led government paid him a hypocritical condolence visit when the first set of his three sons were killed towards the end of the Jonathan’s administration in 2014, because they knew him as a peace promoter. Even President Jonathan was said to have apologized for what happened then.

Sheikh Zakzaky has been proven by a court of competent jurisdiction, the Federal High Court in Abuja to be innocent of all the concocted lies against him by the government. The court ordered that he be released and paid compensation of N50 million, and a house be built for him in any state of his choice in the North. The government acted in contempt of the court and refused to obey the court.

Several groups have called on the Nigerian government to respect the court and release the innocent Sheikh but all to no avail. Among them are credible human rights organizations like Amnesty International, International Human Rights Watch and Islamic Human Right Organization of London, and highly respected religious bodies like the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN. But the government turned deaf ears on all these calls and continue to incarcerate Sheikh Zakzaky and concocting lies against him.

Just of recent, the United States of America in a report declared that Sheikh Zakzaky is a political prisoner and has nothing to do with terrorism, meaning that he was only being jailed for political purposes and not that he had committed any crime or is linked to any.

If the Nigerian government can accept, defend and promote Sheikh Pantami, who it confirmed abetted terrorism and promoted religious crises in Nigeria, then it has no moral right to continue to jail Sheikh Zakzaky who is known to be a peace activist. It has completely lost its morality in the eyes of the world by this. It implies that it has no commitment whatsoever to the fight against the pandemic of terrorism. It implies that the government is not interested in stopping terrorism which some parts of the country have been confirmed to have been taken over by the terrorists.

This singular act by the Nigerian government only depicts it as institutionalizing injustice and unfairness to the citizens and promoting nepotism, a situation that is worsening the tranquillity in the country and promoting calls by some Nigerians for restructuring of the country. Indeed Nigerians are regretting voting this government to power.

Why gazetting to defend Pantami and government’s double standard? ….Free Sheikh Zakzaky

By Abdulmumin Giwa

It is necessary to speak to those making up lies to justify the past of the Communication Minister Dr Isah Pantami while also supporting government’s double standard. Despite his past dangerous utterances Dr Pantami is backed by the Nigerian government while Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky whose suppression was condemned by the Federal High Court is still kept in illegal detention.

Already, there are audio and video clips of all the things he is being accused of doing the round on social media, he himself didn’t deny uttering, the Nigerian government didn’t also deny that he uttered them. They only said he did them while he was young and less informed. And that today he has reverted from abetting terrorism, promoting interdenominational hate speeches among Muslims and being active in promoting religious disharmony between Muslims and Christians. Both himself and the government have not denied it. They only confirmed that he has now changed.

Hence, people cannot be constructing lies and putting make ups on English to deny what both what the Minister himself and the government have confirmed. If it is not true, the presidential statement declaring government support for him will not confirm it. There is no point going about telling lies and dressing up the utterances Dr Pantami had committed in the past. He said them and he did them, but now regrets.

If he, or the government have denied all these from the beginning then the suggestions his defenders are raising would be tenable and justifiable.

I think they should rather concentrate on trying to convince people that he is truly a changed person now and people should view him as such. But the more they try to deny or dress those things up with cosmetics they expose him the more.

More so, this puts the government’s morality more at stake and in question by placing itself on a double standard thereby prompting injustice among citizens and hatching more enemies for the government.

On the other hand, we can all recall that with mischief and hypocrisy, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, otherwise called Shi’a was attacked without any justifiable reason. It was later made up that his followers blocked the way for the Army Chief, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai to justify why hisen spent three days murdering the Shi’as.

Because of this, without arresting and prosecuting those who actually blocked his way, the army clampdown on the Shi’a for three consecutive days killing innocent and unarmed men, women and children who have come to celebrate the commencement of the birth Month of Prophet Muhammad SAWA in their religious centre in Zaria in December 2015, the army engaged in a killing spree and even burned people alive, as they chanted “No More Shi’a”. They killed unarmed citizens just because of their faith. As if that was not brutal enough, the army also invited touts and rogues to scavenge the dead bodies and steal their personal possessions that included rings, pocket money and female jeweleries.

They burned down the Sheikh’s residence and later demolished and even packed the rubbles away. The Sheikh was abducted and taken to Abuja and held in illegal detention since then even as he was shot at in the eye and limb. Three of his sons were shot dead in his presence while his wife was also shot in the tommy.

The Movement took the case before the Nigerian court in Abuja, the Federal High Court, a court of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria and the government was condemned for this act and ordered to pay the Sheikh damages of N50 million, to build a new house for him and that he be released immediately. The government refused to obey this court order and acted in contempt of court. It is now the sixth year and there is no sign of justice for Sheikh Zakzaky from the Nigerian government.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry, JCI set up by the Kaduna state governor Nasiru Elrufai to investigate the Zaria massacre accused the Nigerian army of acting beyond their rules of engagement, condemned the government for violating the Geneva Convention and burying 347 of the victims in a mass grave, all of which were not reflected in the white paper issued by the state governor who banned the Islamic Movement calling it an “unlawful society”.

This is the government fighting an individual for no just cause but because he does not share the same religious views with them and defending another individual for what he had actually committed that have contributed in setting the country on fire.

Unless the government becomes fair and just and obeys the court’s judgement and release Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, then there is no morality in backing and defending Pantami after both the government and Pantami have confirmed he is guilty of the negative utterances that have contributed in setting Nigeria on fire today. The government should therefore hasten to release Sheikh Zakzaky who has always been know to be a peace advocate.