The current #EndSARS protests in the country are warnings from Allah to the government and the authorities and it is only a tip of the iceberg. It is not acceptable that people are being killed, kidnapped and left in severe pain, misery and yet cannot talk. When peaceful protest started earlier in the North, youth leaders were immediately apprehended and threatened to silence. Just yesterday, about 27 people were killed again in Zamfara, in continuation of series of daily killings. Not long ago I came back from Sokoto, they told me that about 79 people were murdered in cold blood. On daily basis you hear about people being killed, women and girls raped, and there is hunger, squalor while many cannot go to school. While the government is deceiving itself about achieving food security, it is clear that insecurity has denied many to go to the farm. Killing of innocent people no longer attract even newspaper headlines. We have provoked Allah and sadly the leaders are still using the option of force that can never work instead of addressing the real genesis; come back to Allah, address issues of poverty, unemployment and make those in position of authority and responsibility to be accountable.
The government should be told that they are sleeping. Nothing is working in Nigeria. The #EndSARS protests has its genesis, it is the result of bad governance otherwise there won’t be protest from the first place.
It is true that the protest have been infiltrated and the legitimate demands altered and it is the government that benefits from this. We all must understand that the reforms Nigerians are yearning for are not in any way limited to the disbanding of a Unit in the Police. The whole country needs total overhaul from the military, the police, the economy, the legislature and all strata of government. There is, in fact, no unit of the government that is not supposed to be reformed.
The government must be told the truth and be awaken from its deep slumber. Enough of the sycophancy from the ruling elites and others of like minds. It should be told that all the blood being spilled on the land leaders will surely account for it before Allah. Nobody should tell you that protests of this nature as long as they are peaceful are unlawful; the government needs to be awaken anyhow and doing this is also Jihad. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said the best Jihad is that when a person finds the courage and strong will to stand, face those in position of authority and tell them look what you are doing is wrong. Any government that cannot tolerant being corrected is not a good government. Do they receive special massages from Allah? No they don’t. So they must listen and take advice. What is important is that all such things abhorred by Islam like killings, looting and even abusing must not form part of the protests. There must be decency and decorum in any protest.
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*Sheikh Dr Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi is a renowned scholar in Islamic Jurisprudence, a medical doctor and a retired Army Officer. Extract from his interview with DWTV*
DH
