Brig. Alabi-Isama, Maitasine, and Boko Haram
By: Deji Yesufu
A few days ago, the internet reminded us of the life and bravery of Lt. Col. Abu Ali. He was killed on the 4th of November, 2016 by Boko Haram. For a number of months before his death, Col. Ali had become a thorn in the flesh of the terrorist group. He almost singlehandedly recovered communities after communities from Boko Haram, after the insurgents had taken over those places in Borno State. With the help of his armored tank, Col. Ali would enter into the den of those animals, mow them down, and other soldiers will come from behind to mop up what he had done. It is said that the attack that took his life was specifically designed to kill him. Boko Haram had had enough of him and they ensured that he was eliminated. It is important that Nigeria keeps remembering the men that have paid the ultimate price to keep this country going, and it is the reason why those of us who mold public opinion with our writing, have a duty to share ideas in a responsible manner. We must do everything to build this country up and not to tear it down. It is in the bid to do this that my attention was drawn to a comment by Brig. Godwin Alabi-Isama (ret’d).
Brig. Alabi-Isama was speaking with Edmund Obilo on his internet broadcast, State Affairs. Among other things, he mentioned that he was part of the Nigerian army effort to quell the Maitasine riots of the 1970s. When he was asked how he did it, Alabi-Isama explained that he would be sharing those experiences in his next book. He then made the point that informed this essay: he said he is eighty-five years old. That during his youth, he did his bit to bring peace to the social fabric called Nigeria. He fought a civil war; he helped to quell riots in the north; and for all these, he was dismissed unceremoniously from the Nigerian Army. He then explains that it is the duty of young men to ensure that peace reign in the country they live in. He would not be coming out of retirement to fight Boko Haram at his age.
For those who may not know, the Maitasine riots were a series of events in the 1970s and 1980s in Nigeria that revolved around the preaching of an Islamic cleric called Muhammad Marwa. Marwa taught an unorthodox form of Islamic doctrine, where he raged against the Nigerian state and roused public sentiments against the government – especially the police. Marwa instigated young men through his preaching, who then began to fight the police and the soldiers. In the process, thousands of people were killed. Marwa himself was killed in 1980, but an element within that sect tried to resuscitate itself in the early 1980s but was forcefully put down by the Nigerian military. The Maitasine riots are the precursor to Boko Haram. Boko Haram was founded on the teaching of another Islamic cleric called Muhammad Yusuf. Yusuf also taught violence against the Nigerian state and, in the same fashion with Marwa, began to kill policemen and burn government institutions. The Nigerian police eliminated Yusuf in 2009, but his doctrine had spread far and wide. Other things that helped to spread his teaching were the coming of international terrorists’ groups like ISIS, who have since teamed up with Boko Haram to make the Nigerian state ungovernable. The simple question remains: Why has Nigeria not succeeded in bringing an end to insurgency on its territory? I will use the rest of this essay to suggest a few reasons.
First. The first would be a lack of professionalism within Nigerian law enforcements. Alabi-Isama mentioned that he and his team were able to round up quite a number of Maitasine faithful without killing any of them. The cold-hearted manner with which Muhammad Yusuf was murdered in 2009 still remains a stain on the conscience of this country. While, understandably, his followers had killed many law enforcement agents, at the same time, the Nigerian police should have been professional enough to bring that young man to justice. Unfortunately, he was summarily executed by some trigger-happy policeman, at the point where he had already been apprehended and was in police custody. How this country has managed to populate the rank and file of its police with men who can not think is something that is beyond me. In fact, one word that characterizes so much in Nigeria is this same lack of professionalism in many of our public institutions. Everybody is seeking money; no one is concerned about doing a job well. It is sad.
Second. We can not avoid the question of militant Islam. Many Muslims take umbrage with me for including the word “Islam” with terrorist groups like Boko Haram and Maitasine. They say that those groups are fringe Muslim groups and should not be considered to be the same as mainstream Islam. This is true because there are fringe groups in Christianity, too, and many of us Christians would not wish to be associated with some of these people’s ideas. What I, however, continue to insist on is the fact that many people in northern Nigeria are yet to come to grasp with the sociological implication of identifying with a country called Nigeria. Probably because of ravaging poverty and very little education, many northerners see themselves first as Muslims before they see themselves as Nigerians. Their allegiance is first to the religion before they make a commitment to the state. In fact, the lack of education in Northern Nigeria leaves them vulnerable to radical preachers who bring ideas that are against the Nigerian state. And before one knows it, these people would have raised an army of unemployed young men and plunged communities into disarray. The whole idea of saying that Western civilization is haram is an idea that is still endemic in many parts of northern Nigeria. Boko Haram are only willing to back their ideas up with violence. Therefore, there will be no end to these kinds of violent groups in the North until northerners themselves make the commitment to the Nigerian state in the same manner that they are committed to their religion.
Third. I am not convinced that Muslims in the south of Nigeria are making as much effort at educating their northern counterparts as they should. The impression I get of many Muslim groups in the south of Nigeria is one of tacit support of the activities of their brethren in the North. If Muslims in the south have made the same effort at condemning the activities of Boko Haram, in the same forceful manner with which they campaign for the hijab to be introduced to secondary schools in Osun State and other south-west states, we might have seen the end of Boko Haram by now in our body polity. Sincerely, the matter still boils down to the question that even our northern brothers have failed to answer. Have Muslims in Nigeria made a commitment to this nation in the same level that they make to their religion? The impression that I get is that many educated Muslims in the south still see Nigeria as a “Christian” entity, and they will welcome any effort to change it. The constitution of this country regards this nation as a secular space. Nigeria is neither Christian nor Muslim, although it gives freedom to all religious and non-religious groups to associate in peace. This freedom should, however, not be at the expense of the well-being of our country.
In conclusion, it is important that we ask ourselves as a people: how much blood of innocent Nigerians will warrant a re-think on how we all have been doing things in this country? Who among us, particularly the elites, will allow our sons and daughters to join the Nigerian army or police? Is it not true that most of the people who join many of these government institutions are persons who do not know anyone and then join the military mainly so that they can survive? We owe it to the memory of the dead and to ensure that our young men and women are not brought to their early grave because of needless crisis in society. If it is true that Alabi-Isama helped quell the Maitasine riots in the 1970s without shooting a bullet, perhaps the Nigerian army will need to call that man out of retirement; apologize to him for his unceremonious discharge from the army; pay him his dues; and then ask him how he did it. Following this, they can then train men in intelligence who will help to bring this needless bloodshed to an end in Northern Nigeria.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached [email protected]
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