by M. M. Umar,
Actually I don’t intend to say a word on the current issues centered on Emir Sanusi utterances but I now feel intimidated and disappointed by one write up that my eyes have sighted with high sense of regret, the write up
contains so many false accusations, astonishing claims and irrational lies, thus, it’s full of vulgarities it’s contempted and it lacks clarity.
The underlined issues or accusations are: Emir Sanusi is controversial and his articles reflect controversy in their entirety, the Emir is biased to the large section of the Sunni, the Emir is talkative, the Emir is Anti – Islam, Sharia, North and lastly, the Emir has not done anything positive for the North, be it political, economic and social.
When I read the above accusations I felt as if the ground would crack and swallow me for I have read a sinful write up that attracts capital punishment, when I went through the write up for the second time I was shocked that I had to tremble and went out of my conscious for a little moment. It’s indeed frustrating and irritating when someone constructed meaningful and knowledgeable something but just of a sudden another person without rigorous investigation about that thing casted ignoramus claims on it with the stupid intention of refuting suggestion that is a by product of knowledge and vast life experience.
I expected to see the writer disagreed with the substance of the Emir’s argument but to the best of my surprise he ended up making personal attacks on Emir left the contending issues untouched.
Something worthy of understanding is, opinions are bound to differ, but it doesn’t mean when we see things differently in life we have to hold ourselves enemies. If someone brought an issue that you found difficult to understand, the supposed thing you should do is to query him to clarify the things in an understandable way not making unnecessary barrack as if you are ordinary Street thug.
To start with the issue of controversy, the Emir is said to be controversial, yes, indeed he is a controversial and I don’t see anything bad in that. Sanusi is a challenger of conventional wisdom and he has to be so, with the extreme knowledge he has in various fields. The point I want to make is, all the issues you have been accusing Sanusi of, are not baseless, but because of your refusal to accept the truth attitude you resort to distort the things in way that will enable you to blackmail him and leave the substance of his argument untouched by hiding yourselves under the umbrella of religion and portraying him (Emir) as anti religious (particular Islam) somebody.
The writer also accused Emir of being bias to the large section of Sunni and their disciples. In this juncture, I can hold the writer guilty of making controversy himself, yes of course, the term Sunni is controversial term, ascriptive and impressionistic, Sunni can be Izala, Tijjaniyya, Qadiriyya and others that called themselves Ash arites, which group among the above mentioned you referred as Sunni? If you mean the combination of all of them I can then ask you this question, when Emir Sanusi condemned the incidence of Zaria and tagged Shi’ites as people that don’t respect laws, was he also bias to them ?
Moving swiftly on, the issue of Royal muteness, as the title of the write up “The Fall of the Royal Muteness” indeed Royal muteness has fallen and it will never rise again, the Royal intellectualism has taken over it’s position. The Emir is talkative and he is talkative because he has something to say rationally, it’s the highest level of conservatism to say the behavior of Royal can’t change; change is the most constant thing in life, as time goes on things keep on changing, we must change so many things, reshape them in a way that can suit the present situations of 21st century. The society is no longer what it used to be, new things have come in and settled, a lot of things have gone out , we must change as the time changes. The question that I usually ask the people that are advocating the toxic idea of muteness is, if someone that has the vast knowledge of sharia,cosmology, rocket science, philosophy and economics is silenced or denied to address societal ills , who do you think is the right person we should be looking forward to? Does being an Emir in any way mean somebody with enormous knowledge like this has to keep his mouth quite while dangerous and ignorant people are busy ruining the future of present and many generations to come? If you say yes, do you think the future ahead will be bright? Definitely no.
The most hilarious accusation and at the same time, the most frustrating and irritating thing is, the Emir is “Anti-Islam, anti sharia and anti North”. No doubt,there are people( like this writer) whose horse of riding is religion, they use it against any body that goes contrary to their wish. If Sanusi said “zamfara state is the state that implemented sharia first in Nigeria but has the highest rate of poverty” you have to inquire why is it so? Why did the Emir say so? What were the motivating factors of his statement? Was he accusing religion or those that used religion to deceive people? Unfortunately, people are just eager to see Emir’s fault or something that can be interpreted as fault, that’s why it’s none of their interest to ask one of the above questions. To say Sanusi has not done anything for the North is a sophomoric insult and it’s the same as saying Nelson Mandela, Sardauna, Hitler had never existed in the world. I will not waste my time telling you the contributions of Sanusi to the North, I can only challenge you to go and make a thorough research in order to repent your sin.
I can conclude that, the writer represents the campaign that aimed at creating single story of the Emir which is dangerous as noted by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adiechi, if the writer and his likes want to be fair to the Emir they have to balance the story of the Emir by exposing his good deed as well.
*M. M. UMAR (Advocate of Justice)*
Department of Political Science and International Studies
A.B.U ZARIA