The Emir’s call to arms was made in the same mosque that was attacked by Boko Haram and he usually led prayers there when he was around. The traditional ruler was away to Saudi Arabia at the time of the attack, a fact which may not have been known to the insurgents.
Analysts said the call for self-defence by the Emir amounted to a Fatwa (death sentence) on Boko Haram and its brand of Islam from the respected Muslim leader. With the attack, Boko Haram may be saying he had no respect for the way Islam was practised in the Kano mosque. Haruna agreed that the Emir may have provoked the attack: “If the Emir was quoted correctly, it was an unwise thing for him to have said because, given Boko Haram’s past response to such threats, it was like waving a red flag before a bull. Actually, worse; with a bull you know what you were dealing with, whereas with the Boko Haram phenomenon, no one knows for sure, at least not anymore.”
But the Emir was defiant when he came back to the country a day after the attack, vowing that the terrorist group would not scare Muslims from practising their faith during a visit to the Central Mosque to see the damage done to it by the insurgents. He ordered that the mosque should be cleaned so that prayer can continue there. The Emir, who expressed his sadness at the attack, added that terrorists would not be able to deter Muslims from Islam. Condemning the terror attack, the Emir urged Muslims to see the violence as a surmountable test of their faith, adding that the faith of Muslims must grow in their worship of God for peace and harmony.
The traditional ruler added that the attacks had nothing to do with his recent call for communities to stand up and protect themselves. According to him, the attack was an act of evil that Nigerians must stand up against.
Before retiring to his palace, the Emir led prayers in memory of the victims killed in the bomb blasts and gunshots as well as the survivors currently receiving medical treatment. “The attack on the Central Mosque should, I think, be seen as a direct challenge to both the secular state, symbolised by Governor Kwankwaso, and the traditional Islamic establishment, symbolised by Emir Lamido Sanusi. The Emir may himself see it that way; on Saturday he led the prayers at the Central Mosque and in remarks is reported as saying that Muslims will not be intimidated into abandoning Islam. So, the Emir posits establishment Islam as the true Islam.
“The Islamic radicals called Boko Haram claim that theirs is the true Islam. Among other things, the struggle in northeast Nigeria is a civil war within Islam,” John Campbell of Council of Foreign Relations, an international think tank, said. The call to arms against Boko Haram has been reinforced by the undisputed leader of Muslims in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Saad. The Sultan, who is also the President-General of the Jamatu Nasil Islam, JNI, in a statement he issued through the Secretary-General of the association, Dr. Abubakar Kahlid, condemned the attack on the mosque in Kano while calling on all Muslims all over the country to remain calm and keep vigil over happenings around them. The Sultan, who said those perpetrating the acts of terrorism were not true worshipers of Allah, called on Imams and their respective followers all over the country to ‘intensify special prayers’, as it was the only weapon to overcome the insurgents. He also urged the people to take all defensive measures within the purview of the laws to protect themselves since government had clearly failed. The Sultan expressed worries that the Boko Haram attacks always escalate whenever there was agitation for the extension of the state of emergency in the troubled North-East states. Apart from the JNI, the Council of Imams and Ulamas in Northern Nigeria also called on Muslims to defend themselves against attacks by the insurgents.
Disputing Boko Haram Myths
But in what seemed to be a continuation of the conspiracy theories being woven around Boko Haram, the JNI hinted in the statement that the attack on the Kano mosque was precipitated to justify government’s request for extension of emergency rule in the three North-East states. President Jonathan had last month written the National Assembly requesting an extension of the emergency the three states. But both chambers have not been able to make up their minds on the necessity of extending it for the fourth time, arguing that the action has not be effective in curbing the Boko Haram insurgency.
However, Nigeria’s military chiefs have argued that they need the emergency rule to enable the military defeat the insurgents. “But must blood be spilled to justify the extension of state of emergency? Why is it that any time the ineffective state of emergency is about to elapse and/or an extension is being sought, attacks are carried out with sophistication?” JNI pointedly asked in the statement. Sources told this magazine that it was to refute such assertions that Vice-President Namadi Sambo quickly disassociated the government from the attack on the Kano mosque when he went to visit survivors of the attack. He also said it was inconceivable that government would wilfully unleash violence on the citizenry just to extend emergency rule. “The casualty list of Boko Haram insurgency in the country clearly shows that that the sect neither respects creed nor tribe. The history of the group’s operation indeed shows that it targets any large gathering of people, be it religious worshippers, school or market. Since 2011, thousands of Nigerians have been killed by the sect and properties worth several millions of naira destroyed. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that no less than 650,000 people have been displaced by the insurgency in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. And, these numbers of internally displaced Nigerians cut across both the Christian and Muslim faiths,” a commentator in a national newspaper noted in an article he wrote last week.
In the same vein, analysts also argued that recent attacks by the sect disproved some of the myths that it is linked to politics, as has been argued by the Peoples Democratic Party and supporters of President Jonathan.
The ruling party had taken advantage of attacks by the terrorist group to level accusation against the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, as having a hand in the festering of Boko Haram insurgency. After the 14 April bomb attack which claimed about 100 lives in a bus station in a suburb of Abuja, Olisah Metuh, national publicity secretary of PDP, had issued a statement in which he put the blame on some “unpatriotic persons, especially those in the APC, who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and blood-letting as a means of achieving political control”. Metuh, who had also in the past likened the opposition party to the deadly Janjaweed and anti-Seleka rebels, added that “their hearts have been hardened and they are embittered by the fact that they have been rejected by the people”.
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