Don’t negotiate for Chibok girls, Muslims tell Sultan
Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar III
The Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic
Affairs has warned the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, against
holding talks with the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, until he
receives an official approval from the Federal Government.
The apex body of Muslims in the country
fears that the Sultan might be blackmailed by the government if he goes
ahead to negotiate with the terrorist group, especially on the over 200
pupils of Government Girls’ Secondary School abducted by the sect on
April 14, without an official consent.
The council warned that the Islamic
leader should not be hoodwinked into making such moves by those calling
for his intervention in the insurgency by the sect.
Some Islamic elite, under the aegis of
Concerned Muslim Professionals, had written to the Sultan earlier in
July, asking him to lead the dialogue with the Boko Haram sect.
The group told the monarch, who is the
President-General of the NSCIA, to use his position and engage members
of the sect in dialogue that would make them stop their campaign of
killings.
Similarly, a human rights activist based
in the North and President, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Shehu
Sani, had earlier in May asked the Sultan to spearhead the moves to
secure the release of the
abducted pupils from the group’s captivity.
Sani, in a letter to the religious
leader, had said, “You (Sultan) have a moral duty and a spiritual
responsibility to be visibly and actively involved in seeking the
resolution of this impasse happening within areas you have religious
influence.”
However, the Secretary-General of the NSCIA, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, while speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH
on Thursday, warned that the President-General of the council should
not be hoodwinked into taking up the task of negotiating with the
terrorists.
He said, “The Muslim community had always
been taking action; it had always been appealing to the people (Boko
Haram) but Muslim leaders are also cautious because in your process to
go out to look for these people; if in the process you’re caught talking
with them, the government can even turn against you and say you’re part
of part of Boko Haram.
“No matter the level of the Muslim
leader, he has to think twice before he begins to communicate with these
people (sect) because the same government that you want to work for can
turn against you and accuse you of complicity; and you will be on your
own.
“They (government) have enough machinery
to present you as a devil such that members of your family will believe
that you’re a devil.”
When asked if such could be done to the
Sultan, the professor insisted that the Islamic leader could be
implicated without the backing of the government, especially at a time
when “many of us are being unduly monitored.”
He added, “I am not the Sultan but
fortunately the Sultan has dual status; traditionally, he is the Sultan
of Sokoto; religiously, he is the leader of the Muslim community. I
relate with him as far as his mandate as the leader of the Muslim
community is concerned.
“In that capacity, I will not advise him
to hold any unilateral action with the sect without having the full
confidence of the government of the day. If anybody makes such calls,
somebody like the Sultan should think twice before venturing into
searching for people you do not know.”
Oloyede asked why the Federal Government
kept the findings by the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful
Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, which was chaired by
the Minister of Special Duties, Taminu Turaki.
“I believe that by now, as Muslims
leaders, we should have access to the findings; we don’t. We are just
working in darkness. By now, even if the report had not been released,
we should have had access to it. Then, we will be able to have some
clues to what is happening,” the NSCIA scribe stated.
Also, an Islamic pressure group, Muslims
Rights Concern, said it was the responsibility of the Federal
Government, and not the Sultan, to seek an end to the insurgency by the
group.
The Founder, MURIC, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, told SUNDAY PUNCH
in an interview on Friday that the Sultan had spoken out against the
activities of the sect on several occasions, “what else do they want him
to do?”
He said, “I stand by the decision of the
Supreme Council; it is a very correct position. The Sultan cannot
negotiate, particularly without the Federal Government’s green light. We
don’t support the idea of the Sultan negotiating because he would be
seen as somebody who has vested interests. Why can’t the Federal
Government take that up?”
The Professor of Islamic Eschatology
stated that there was no reason for the Muslim community to rise up to
the challenge separately, as it would be “tantamount to sedition,
separatism and rising when the Federal Government should rise.”
Efforts to get the Presidency for
comments on Friday and Saturday proved abortive. Calls made to the
mobile phones of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public
Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, and the Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, respectively, were not picked.
Also, they did not reply to text messages sent to them.
In the letter to the Sultan, the
President, Concerned Muslim Professionals, Alhaji Mohammed Saidu, said,
“A failure on the part of the Muslim leadership (under His Eminence the
Sultan) to discharge these responsibilities/actions to the later will
render it of questionable ability, doubtful recognition, decimal loyalty
or an outright dismissal as a mere smoke-screen. As obedient and
loyalists to His Eminence the Sultan, our hearts bleed on these
realities.”
Sani, in an exclusive interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, had stated that the sect would prefer Islamic clerics as its negotiators.
He said, “The group (Boko Haram) is
mostly comfortable with Islamic clerics. The insurgents are more
comfortable with people that are considered neutralists. .
“For the purpose of negotiation, if the
government is setting up a team, I strongly advise that the team should
be made up of Islamic clerics, who are going to reach out to them to
seek the release of the girls.”
Just as the Islamic bodies have
requested, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had insisted that
President Goodluck Jonathan must approve his planned move to secure the
release of the Chibok schoolgirls.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV
on May 31, 2014, the ex-President had said while he had not been
officially mandated to lead the mediation, his next step was to get an
approval from the government. He insisted that the President must know
about his moves.
Again on June 12, 2014, in an interview
with the BBC Hausa Service, Obasanjo had expressed his regret that the
Federal Government had not yet given him the green light to reach to the
insurgents for the release of the girls.
The Federal Government had, however,
insisted that Obasanjo had access to President Jonathan, if he truly
wanted to make inputs. Sources at the Presidency had also expressed
doubts over Obasanjo’s sincerity with his plan.
Source: The Punch