Redress injustice against Boko Haram
SIR: Haram has no other meaning than corruption, which connotes cheating, injustice, embezzlement and abuse of power. Nigeria is known for all of them. And all of them are responsible for terrorism in Nigeria. The Boko Haram community started as a peaceful secluded community in 2002. Who provoked it to take up arms in 2009, during the tenure of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua? Ask the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA). Why did the Police kill the Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, extra-judicially in their own (Police) cell? Ask the Nigeria Police. Ask the judiciary whether justice was done thereafter.
No, I am no longer a Christian in the conventional sense. I recognise God as my Creator and Sustainer, as I learnt it from my family that practised African Traditional Religion (ATR). I also practised ATR. I was taught about morality, not that of hatred of sex and “indecent dressing”, but fear of repercussion in matters of conscience and altruism. I love Jesus for His teachings about mercy and compassion. He did not extort money from people in the name of religion, daily and weekly as many churches do today. I love Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for the way he ruled Medina with fairness. And he never said Islam and politics are inseparable. He himself didn’t start Islam by being a politician. For more than a decade as a Prophet, he had nothing to do with politics. No, not all good Muslims are politicians.
Yes, the current scenario of all-out war against Boko Haram is a perpetuation of abuse of power, which turned the peaceful secluded Boko Haram community into an arm-wielding community during the reign of Yar’Adua. President Muhammadu Buhari was not elected President primarily to fight Boko Haram but corruption, and the type of politico-religious haram that led to the terrorism of Boko Haram.
Many Nigerian Christians and Muslims dodge the truth and contribute to the haram that is consuming Nigeria, financially and infrastructurally.
Does Nigeria’s constitution not declare Nigeria a secular state?
• Pius Abioje, University of Ilorin
