TheCable

BY NAFIZI DAWUD

Just as Nigerians continue to reel from yet another senseless attack by bestial terrorists on innocent citizens on the Abuja-Kaduna bound train last week, Senator Sa’idu Dan Sadau has chosen to assault our collective sensibilities.

He chose to do this without an iota of consideration for the pains we are all going through largely due to their monumental failure as leaders to meaningfully address the onslaught of terrorists in almost all parts of the country but particularly in the north-western flank of the country.

Being from Zamfara state—the bastion of deadly banditry attacks—where citizens are routinely murdered, kidnapped and raped in the most horrendous ways imaginable, any right-thinking person would have thought that Dan Sadau, who represented Zamfara Central senatorial zone years ago, will be among the leading voices calling for the end of the bloodbath being experienced in the country.

Alas, for reasons only he could understand, Dan Sadau chose to retreat into silence while his people alongside their neighbours in Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi continue to be butchered by cold-blooded beasts.

Apparently, for Dan Sadau, the wave of killings and kidnappings as well as the crushing poverty and hopelessness in Nigeria has nothing to do with the brutal failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration but has everything to do with our “sins”.

But yet he has forgotten that even if our troubles are directly linked to our sins, Allah almighty has also placed on their necks, as leaders, the responsibility of securing our lives and properties even if we all decided to live the lives of Sodom and Gomorrah.

That was why most Nigerians found the outrageous removal of Sheikh Nuru Khalid from his post as the Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters mosque in Abuja, amusing.

Like all well-meaning Nigerians, Sheikh Khalid had expressed his constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech by reminding the federal government for the umpteenth time of the oaths they swore with their Holy scriptures to protect the lives and properties of their compatriots.

The Islamic scholar had advised ordinary Nigerians that if elections are the only language politicians understand in order to take action on the blooming insecurity that pervades the country, then they should be ready to stay away from the polling booths until the government demonstrates the real spirit to end the persistent bloodshed.

But Dan Sadau saw nothing wrong with the killing and kidnapping of hapless citizens but everything wrong with asking voters to stay away from polling booths until their lives can be secured.

To demonstrate his opposition against the idea, he immediately exercised his role as a member of the Apo mosque committee to quickly hit the messenger, Sheikh Khalid, instead of working to act on the meaningful message.

Explaining his decision to suspend Sheikh Khalid, Dan Sadau told the BBC Hausa service that he found it disturbing that the cleric would contemplate asking Nigerians not to vote as their way of forcing leaders to act.

When the journalist asked the senator how he would have preferred the message to be passed he replied: “He (Sheikh Khalid) should have called for patience because the whole country is witnessing a serious crisis.

“But asking people not to vote is a serious offence.”

According to the senator, the solution to the unprecedented security problems in Nigeria is for people “to repent and rededicate themselves to Allah because we are paying for our sins”.

If that is the case, then I can only ask Dan Sadau to do us one favour. He should lead from the front and sack all his personal security guards as well as those who guard his house in Zamfara so he could join us every day in praying to Allah to forgive our sins so that our security situation will disappear.

I know Dan Sadau will not take this advice because he is probably aware of a hadith in which it was narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) asked a man to tether his camel before putting his trust in Allah to protect it, instead of just allowing it to wander and simply relying on faith in Allah’s protection.

What Dan Sadau ought to understand as an elder and leader is that even though our problems might be a result of our sins, leaders have been entrusted by Allah with the responsibility to make efforts to resolve those problems.

And if they fail to do that, then a day awaits them in which they will be held accountable for their actions or inactions.

Finally, if anything, the removal of Sheik Khalid from the pulpit for voicing his concern on insecurity in Nigeria has only propelled him to fame.

The obnoxious move against the cleric has succeeded in creating a Streisand Effect—a phenomenon that occurs when an attempt to hide, remove or censor information has the unintended consequences of increasing awareness of that information—in his favour.

Dawud, a former journalist, writes from Kano. He can be reached via [email protected]