Interview with Imam, University of Abuja, Professor Taofeek Abdul Azeez :
What is the solution to insurgency in Nigeria?
Insurgency cannot be permanently resolved because it is a monster that will always
escape. It would run away. It may come back, it is difficult to kill. The factors that
generated it are still there and nobody seems to be ready to address them. The
factors are government’s negligence, irresponsibility, poverty, ignorance, etc. The
government does not have the capacity to address these issues but as long as they
remain present and active, we will always have insurgency. Therefore, what we can
do is to control it and minimise it and perhaps stop the spread. But stopping the
spread is also difficult.
When we say insurgency, we should not zero in on only Boko Haram. Kidnapping and
bombing and vandalism of oil pipelines are also insurgency, terrorism. The factors
that generated Boko Haram generated these [crimes], too. If we say it is simply
because people are not educated, we are making a big mistake, because very soon,
the South-West that is most educated may experience a more sophisticated
insurgency. This is because there are no jobs for up to 10 percent of those who
would be coming out of school and then form an army of the unemployed and the
unemployable. Due to the quality of education, these graduates will become more
and more unemployable. And the army of the unemployed and unemployable people
will join those who are already on ground. People want to survive. You have given
them a very strange hope that the solution to all their problems is education. They
have gone to school. They have come out of school. The education did not prepare
them for independence, empowerment. There is no way they will eventually not take
it out on the society. It is a reaction: ‘this society lied to me. This society deceived
me. And this society is going to pay. It is either I deal with the society or I die.’ That
is the thinking. That is what makes an armed robber take arms and then take other
people’s property by force because he knows he cannot survive and he sees ordinary
fools around making it, stealing ‘legally.’ So, he wants to also make it illegally. So,
we should address the issue of education.
Seventy percent of those who are in higher institutions have no business being
there. It is because we don’t know what education really means and what purpose it
is expected to serve that we engage our children in this frivolity called Western
education. Urgent action should be taken from home, from individuals. There should
be practical action taken for empowerment, encouraging family business, for example
and making children go to school to acquire skills.
Even if the country is able to solve some of these problems that you have mentioned
by focusing on right system of education, what about the global network of terrorism
that exists today?
That is why I said it cannot be stopped. It can only be controlled. When you give the
right education to people and this education empowers them, you control it. Look at
it: if a professor earns N400,000 and an insurgent that does not go to school earns
N500,000 at recruitment, do you expect this lucrative job to be ignored? If at
recruitment, a Boko Haram person earns N500,000, even if he is a professor, you
don’t expect him to abandon that kind of group. So, education will not necessarily
solve the problem, because it [Boko Haram] is brigandage. And there is international
connection. There is the [Central Intelligence Agency] CIA connection. There are so
many other connections that will continue to make it lucrative. That is why you can
only control it, to a large extent, from your own country end but you are not likely
to be able to stop it altogether.
But maybe it can be solved if there is genuine, true Islamic education. But any
education, enlightenment or world view that is not accompanied by material gain will
make it difficult. The average righteous parents are looked down upon today as
idiots, fools. What do your children think about you? We feel we have done our best
by sending them to the best schools but they look at us as mere fools.
Corruption has gone on for so long in high places in Nigeria and the reality of it is
coming to fore with the present anti-fight war of President Muhammadu Buhari. Do
you think this war is winnable?
We are on a good footing with respect to fighting corruption in Nigeria today. We
have a man who is morally qualified and competent to do so, and that is the
president. With everybody’s support, we are on course. It is almost certain that we
are going to make it.
What do you make of recent discoveries of Arabic inscriptions depicting, in most
cases, the Kalima Shahadat or the word “Allah,” in unusual places like the bark of a
tree?
They may portend two things. They may portend that Allah is taking on the dawah
Himself. They may also portend that something else is just happening. Maybe the
devil is just creating an impression and causing confusion. But I do not see anything
significant to all these. If those things are happening truly, we should also ask, what
about other things that are not related to Islam and Arabic that are being discovered
too?
There is hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two leading Islamic countries in the
world. What would you say about this?
It is an old animosity. They have only brought it to the realm of religion - Shi’ite
and Sunni, the Sunnis being the majority and the Shi’ites being the minority.
Basically, it is being fuelled by the enemies of Islam, the United States and the rest
of them. What is strange, however, is our [Muslims’] capacity to be available to be
used all the time. This is the thing that is wrong with us. Saudi, for example, will
always do the bidding of the US. If the US asked Saudi and other Sunni countries to
fight anybody, including the Shi’ites, they would do so without asking questions. It is
unfortunate but it is a fact.
The world seems to be no longer at ease. There is unrest. Virtually everywhere, there
is some form of war or terrorism...
That is an indication that the world is coming to an end. These have been predicted
long before.
Source : Nigerian Tribune
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