BOKO HARAM – SOLVING THE PROBLEM
At the moment, we, as a nation, are still facing the problem of the rage and violence in our country particularly in the North whereby the sect called Boko Haram is dealing death and destruction with people and property about. Attempts are being made left, right and centre to quell the rage of the group. Some people even question the ideology of the group to the extent that their belief is misplaced, to the extent that people have cited passages of Holy Qur'an and Hadith that western education originated with the Muslims in the 7th century. Hence, they further advanced the philosophy that we cannot destroy what we created.
Opinions differ from one quarter to the other with regard to the necessary approach to bring an end to this alarming and destructive situation. By and large, there are two schools of thought. One thought is that force must be met with force and that the Government should continue with the use of force to quell these destructive acts. Hence, the Joint Task Force (JTF) has been assigned the duty of carrying out the force which they have been performing till now but it seems the violence from Boko Haram's end continue unabated. However, people are anxious and becoming rather impatient to see the end to this unfortunate violent acts which had already taken the lives of hundreds of people.
The other school of thought advocated dialogue. To this end, even our former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo tried unsuccessfully to hold dialogue with the sect. But recently, the Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo opened the door of dialogue on the part of the Government to Boko Haram. This is where I stand.
Now, religious bodies got worried and felt seriously concerned about what is going on in Nigeria particularly with the problem of Boko Haram. So, the World Council of Churches (WCC) from Geneva and the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (RAABIT) from Jordan with many religious leaders from many parts of the world arrived in Abuja on Tuesday, the 22nd of May 2012, with the aim of finding solution to this problem. Some of the important people that took part in the visit are: Professor Dr. H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Chairman of the Board of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Chief Advisor to H.M. King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein for Religious and Cultural Affairs, and Personal Envoy of H.M. King Abdullah II; H.E. the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Dr Mustafa Ceric; H.E. Shaykh Dr. Hussein Hasan Abakar, Imam of the Muslims, Chad President, Higher Council for Islamic Affairs, Chad; H.E. Professor Din Syamsudin, President of Mohammadiah Party, Indonesia; and H.E. Mustapha Ali, general Secretary, African Council of Religious Leaders. Others are: Revd Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches; Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin; Bishop Dr Alex Gehaz Malasusa, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania, Vice-President of the Lutheran World Federation; Revd Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC President, USA; Bishop Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, formerly Bishop President of the Methodist Church of Ghana, Vice-President of the All Africa Conference of Churches; A delegate of the Coptic Orthodox Church; and Most Revd John Onaiyekan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Co-Chair African Council of Religious Leaders. I was invited not only as a Chartered International Adjudicator and Arbitrator but also as a member of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan and Islamic Mission for Africa.
The delegation visited Kaduna where they met the Governor and his executive and also had dialogue with those affected one way or the other on religious conflicts. The Governor, Patrick Yakowa, after giving them the history of Kaduna as the seat of government of Northern Nigeria during the colonial era and after Independence, also narrated all his efforts on serious attempts being made to resolve interfaith conflicts referring to the efforts of the Ministry created for this purpose together with other activities of other people of Kaduna State while still seeking for permanent peace for that State.
The delegation also visited on Jos on Thursday, the 24th of May, 2012, where they met with the Governor with all the members of his executive. He equally narrated the efforts that he had made to resolve interfaith disputes in that State. Mention was also made of the incident that occurred on 28 November 2010 consequent upon which a Judicial Commission of Inquiry was set up under my chairmanship.
On returning to Abuja on Friday, the 25th of May 2012, the delegation continued its work where it went to dialogue with the Chairman and the Board members of the Abuja National Mosque. One of the speakers explained the meaning of Boko Haram. Two other members criticised the activities of the Christians in the North but the Chairman ended by pleading for peace in the country and urged that this should prevail. Thereafter, the delegation moved to the National Christian Centre where two of their members spoke about their trials and tribulations in particular. Reverend Akanji who is the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Abuja Branch, expressed his opinion about his people that were killed at different places in Kaduna.
In the evening of the same day, further deliberations took place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and a press release was given, part of which is quoted as follows:
“We are a delegation of Muslims and Christians from a number of countries around the world, with senior roles in our respective religious communities. We have come on this working visit to Nigeria, under the auspices of the Royal Jordanian Aal Al-Bayt Institute and the World Council of Churches to express to the people of Nigeria, and to their religious and political leadership, the concerns and anxieties of the international community about the current situation in this country. We have been told that we are the first high level international interreligious delegation of Christians and Muslims to visit Nigeria, certainly in recent years. We have valued being accompanied also in our visit by a number of Nigerian Muslims and Christians leaders. We hope by our visit to demonstrate and international model of Muslims and Christians working together in interreligious engagement aimed at fostering peace and harmony between people of different religions. We bear witness that we believe that both Christianity and Islam are religions which long for peace, and that in both our faiths love of God and love of our neighbour must belong together.
Before coming to our country, in preparation for our visit, we met with the Ambassadors of Nigeria in a number of our own lands. One Ambassador, in commending the visit, challenged the group to 'Seek out the truth and share it'. This we have sought to do, and will seek to follow up, in spite of the inevitable constraints on our work due to the length of our visit. As well as meeting members of the Muslim and Christian communities here in Abuja to, we have visited Kaduna and Jos and met with community representatives in both places.
In hearing the pain of those who have spoken to us we also caught a glimmer of their dreams, and the hopes of many, both religious leaders and ordinary people, that a transformed reality is possible. We express our admiration of all those who spoke to us in a way that made it clear that they it clear that they did not want their faith to be used as a pretext to propagate violence. We look forward to the day when the Christians and Muslims of Nigeria may offer an example of working together to the international community.
We now need to digest what we have seen, heard and experienced, and we are committed to writing a detailed report of our experience within the coming month. In this, we will make some recommendations as well as a specific suggestions relating to our continued commitment to the welfare of Nigeria and Nigeria's people. We have been very grateful for the welcome and hospitality we have received during our visit. We give particular thanks for the preparatory work and support of the Christian Council of Nigeria and the Office of the Sultan of Sokoto, without which our work here would not have been possible.”
The delegation concluded that this is their first visit to Nigeria but definitely not the last one. In general, they are of the view that this first mission is one of fact-finding and that many meetings will still take place in and outside Nigeria. They observed however, that many of those people who spoke during the time of the dialogue on various problems in Nigeria such as acts of lawlessness where people committed offences with impunity without any sanction against them which in fact, encourage a lot of such acts all over Nigeria and particularly in the North. Many people also complained about injustice, poverty, abuse of the rule of law, unemployment and corruption. The delegation was also privileged to meet two important religious leaders, that is, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto, who welcomed us wholeheartedly to Abuja and expressed great delight in order to assist in solving some of the problems facing Nigeria. He expressed a view that Nigeria had faced so many problems in the past and happily, overcome it and this will not be an exception. He expressed the view that there were instances and his involvement in settlement of a lot of disputes jointly with other Emirs and indeed he was the one who asked the Emir of Kano to meet us in Kaduna in order to deliberate with us during the dialogue there. We must also point out here that the Emir of Kano emphasised the need for peace in the whole of Nigeria and particularly the North. Narrating further the view of Sultan of Sokoto, he was of the view that very soon the whole problem would be over that he had warned the Boko Haram people that enough is enough. Generally, the Sultan was optimistic that the whole problem would soon be over. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, in his discussion with us complained bitterly that the Christians are badly maltreated because many of them were killed, their homes and churches destroyed. However, he expressed the view that dialogue would still be the ultimate because he was of the opinion that there are some people who could expose positively and effectively on so many of those people so that they would listen to them. However, he was rather ambivalent with regard to the people to be dialogued with.
In conclusion, he urged for prayers before he left for another engagement. Thereafter, one of their members deputised for him.