In the olden years, people saw it as taboo for one to question or criticize what religious scholars say regardless of how illogical it sounded to them, but as people started becoming more wiser and educated, they discovered that religious scholars as fellow human beings can understand and misunderstand laws, religious statements and concepts. Thus their statements subject verification, reconstruction and even falsification.
What happened to Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara that led to his imprisonment in Kano due to his inability to depend his statements that were considered as blasphemous serves as a motivative factor for holding religious scholars accountable to safeguard; religious faith, peace and unity and good understanding of religions among Nigerian populace.
Many people see the case of a known Bauchi-based Islamic scholar Sheikh Idris Abdulazeez as being similar to that of Sheikh Abduljabbar which led to the imprisonment of Sheikh Idris too, but is it true that Sheikh Idris is being imprisoned for blasphemy or for political reasons?
To answer this question, let me take us back to some historical antecedents. Sheikh Idris Abdulazeez is a religious scholar that sees himself as a representive of his people and believe that as a citizen of Nigeria should be politically active to improve efficiency in governance and promotion of welfare of the citizenry.
Sheikh Idris supported and criticized political leaders which seems to be for public good, the scholar condemned the actions of the state government when Barr. Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar SAN who believed in constitutionalism, application of rule of law and full exercise and grant of human rights was the state’s governor from 2015-2019. The Sheikh saw the then leadership as dust to the people of the state, thus needed elimination. And the then governor allowed him to voice out his opinions as indigene of the state, the scholar condemned the ruled APC government and endorsed the incumbent state’s governor under the platform of PDP.
After the victory of the incumbent governor of the state Sen. Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir in the 2019 general election, the government started doing activities contrary to what the scholar believed to be right, for this, he started criticizing the government and was tagged as an enemy. In the recent 2023 general elections, the scholar directed his followers to vote for the former Nigerian Chief Of Air Staff Baba Sadiq (Air Marshall) of the All progressive congress (APC) against his counterpart Sen. Bala Mohammed of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but Bala Mohammed got reelected.
Some see the case which led the imprisonment of the religious scholar as a revenge for he was not given opportunity to depend his statements like what happened to Sheikh Abduljabbar in Kano where Islamic scholars of different sects were gathered for him to intellectually depend his statements in a public gathering which failure to do so bagged him imprisonment.
Most of the people believe that, not allowing Sheikh Idris Abdulazeez to depend himself originated from the fact that he has legal evidences for his statement and how deeply educated religious scholars influx into Bauchi from several states to attest to his statement before the organized debate was cancelled due to these reasons which could set the scholar free and he was later took into court and got jailed. Not Sheikh Idris alone who is into jail for nearly a month over the so-called public disturbance. This week, Some of traditional rulers have been dethroned by the state governor for what he describes as “involvement in partisan politics” during the 2023 general election.
The truth is, someone who can’t endure opposition shouldn’t go into politics in a democratic state.
Zaharaddeen Muhammad Azare writes from Bauchi state and could be reached via zahmuhaza@gmail.com
