Sharia court in S/West: He who sows the wind...

THE Sharia conundrum being orchestrated or promoted vociferously by bigoted Yoruba professors is sad, disappointing, disgusting, and very unfortunate. The reason is not far-fetched. It appears that these individuals are under unimaginable spells judging by their inability to positively utilize that divinely endowed freedom of choice. It must be emphasised that the Sharia implementation by 12 states in the North that are generally alluded to, originated as a game plan to undermine the government of President Obasanjo. Upon the latter’s assumption of duty, there was serious clamoring from a section of the society for him to institute an inquiry into General Babangida’s perceived looting of the treasury. However, as a loyal soldier, he blatantly refused to carry out such an assignment which did not sit well with the agitators. The protest thereafter grew vehemently for which he was compelled to make a pronouncement that he would only probe the General if there was sufficient and incontrovertible evidence to that effect. No sooner the statement was made than a prominent Nigeria basketball player inthe United States singlehandedly launched an investigation into financial malpractices and irregularities of the gap-toothed General.

This was a high-powered inquiry involving millions of dollars expended by the basketball player. It was thereafter revealed that the former Head of State possessed several accounts all over the world where our pillaged national patrimony was stashed. The President, having been inundated with this shocking revelation, decided it was the right time to commence the probe of his benefactor. The latter having got wind of this imminent calamity immediately alerted his cronies or protégés to save him from the embarrassment. The rest as they say is history. The point being made is that there was no public implementation of Sharia in the North before this time in 1999. Although there is no denying that there were negligible practices in the core North, it was restricted to the downtrodden and not as pronounced as it is now. The Sharia which spread like wildlife at that time was to undermine the government of a Yoruba man. It is pathetic and disturbing that the people advocating for its implementation in the Southwest are foolishly ignorant of this. It has always been their strategy. It is very clear that the unparalleled zeal being demonstrated by these Yoruba stooges of the caliphate vis-à-vis Sharia imbroglio will be amusing to the latter as it is beyond their expectation.

Please do recall the President Jonathan debacle when he refused to abide by a purported agreement to relinquish power to a northerner. It was a similar strategy though with slight modifications. They enthusiastically capitalized on the destructive agenda of Boko Haram insurgents to perpetrate violence to undermine the government of Jonathan. Boko Haram began as a conglomeration of peaceful Islamic fundamentalists with a unique ideology based on hatred of Western education and posed no threat ab initio to anyone until a governor recruited them as political thugs. What led to the atrocities perpetrated by the group was the failure of the Governor to honor the gentleman agreement with their leader Mohammed Yusuf who was executed extra-judicially which incidentally coincided with the period the Northern Mafia was opposed to Jonathan’s rule. Some of the insurgents were later recruited and bankrolled by the Northern Mafia who were bent on making the country ungovernable for him. The man eventually succumbed to their shenanigans due to the overwhelming security challenges.

It was a similar story when Tinubu mounted the saddle. Anytime the Northern Mafia perceived that any policy from the government headed by a Southerner is inimical or counterproductive to them, they always resorted to this stratagem of destabilization by drawing upon their reservoir of hardened and gullible terrorists. It was last year or thereabout when they felt marginalized, maligned, replaced and some prosecuted by the present government for their financial malfeasance during the incognizant Buhari-led government that they renewed the strategy. It provoked a flurry of visitations to the latter’s abode in Katsina by some northern politicians. It was almost immediately after that meeting some suicide bombers were dispatched to a busy marketplaceand blew up themselves thereby maiming countless numbers of innocent individuals in the process.

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Why will some Yoruba academics volunteer to deliberately destabilize their community and destroy completely the unity they benefitted from while growing up all in the name of religion? It is beyond belief. I remember vividly one Alhaji Lateef Adegbite who was the Secretary of their Islamic Society some time ago. He never agitated either subterraneously or publicly for the implementation of Sharia in the Southwest. Incidentally, his brother was an elder in Scripture Pasture Christian Center; a Pentecostal church in Ibadan. The Alhaji was a highly respected gentleman, a legal luminary who was an embodiment of decency and decorum;promoted peaceful co-existence, camaraderie, and brotherly kindness among his people. He was never fanatical or dogmatic as corroborated by his children in his biography, unlike these bigoted Yoruba academics who are acrimonious, impulsive, evil-minded, insensitive, inhumane, implacable, co-conspirators, collaborators, incorrigible and subversive elements that are bent on annihilating their people in the name of religion. My problem might not be with them as it is the body of Christ in the South-West. It is unacceptable that such calamity is steering us in the face and yet no pronouncement from the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. Therefore, I wish to state without equivocation that if after six months the harassment and intimidation by these two bigoted academics (and other proponents of Sharia whom I consider inconsequential) do not cease, all the churches should be closed down due to apparent spiritual morbidity and moribundity.

I wish to sound a note of warning that in the interest of peace and tranquility, no individual from the North regardless of how highly placed that person may be should meddle in the affairs of our people but prioritize emancipating his people from self-inflicted corrosive poverty, economic deprivations, educational backwardness and endless cycle of insecurity that are stereotypic of that region regrettably for so many years now. Until there is Justice for Deborah Samuel and other Christians killed occasioned by religious intolerance the peace and progress they so desired will forever remain a pie in the sky for them as Jesus Christ our Lord lives.