2015 can be a time bomb —Sheik Gumi
Hassan Ibrahim -Kaduna Nigerian Tribune
THE Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi, on Tuesday, said going by the politics of intrigues and how religion could possibly be manipulated in the next election, 2015 could be a time bomb.
This was as he said some of his children had received threat calls from unknown callers, adding that such could be the development if anyone of the contestants in 2015 was declared loser.
Gumi, on his Facebook page on Tuesday, in an update, entitled: “Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) v All Progressives Congress (APC): it’s not about religion,” said “surely, there is religion in politics and politics in religion. However, the 2015 PDP v APC is not about religion. It’s a time bomb and God is not the author of mischief.”
According to the scholar, “security members have clamped down on APC members and took away their computers, while some irrational youths are threatening the lives of PDP members with their families in the North. PDP posters are vandalised in some places.
“People like me, who had all along been critical about the government, dare not speak or express my personal opinion if it’s not in support of General Muhammadu Buhari. One must have been bribed or be a PDP agent. Just this early morning, around 2.30 a.m., my three male children individually got threatening phone calls from Hausa speakers on a private number. Already, a ‘cult’ is formed.
“All these are harbingers of what is coming up when anyone of the contestants is declared loser. With intimidation from both sides, it shows that a truly one hundred per cent free and fair election will be an illusion.
“What is now paramount and of highest priority is peace and stability. Every life must be protected, minorities - Muslims and Christians - should be secured also, putting another extra burden on the already exhausted military and the police.
“It’s good that both presidential candidates of PDP and APC have re-emphasised that the 2015 presidential contest is not a religious one. The two parties have also reiterated same. Therefore, the 2015 elections is not a crusade vs jihad and consequently there is no martyrdom. The only ethical obligation on the clergy of both religions, Christians and Muslims, is to explain it to their congregations to avoid violence.”
He further added that “Nigeria doesn’t need another religiously tainted war, as the Boko Haram has already tormented all,” lamenting that “men of religion will surely be messed up and ‘dirtied’ in the next election.
He said with the APC going for a Christian, especially a pastor as the running mate to its presidential candidate, Muslims had become sensitised too, adding that “a Sheikh will soon be on the list and a U-turn to another religious conflict - inter-faith and intra-faith will ensue.
“The choice of a pastor to deputise for Buhari is meant to shake to the core, Christians, who were made to see the candidate as a religious fanatic and also the Muslims alike, who saw the General as having some Islamic aura.
“It should then effectively neutralise the ‘demonisation’ of PDP as a Christian party. it’s now the Church not just Christians that have a foot engrossed in APC, a privilege the mosque cannot said to enjoy in any of the two parties.
“Therefore, both parties are a group of Nigerian Muslims and Christians joined together for a common interest, each with its winning slogan and strategy. Each can only promote its religion on personal basis, but the union is purely secular and worldly, the essence of our democratic union.
“So no Muslim or Christian should be demonised for joining any of the parties. Muslims and Christians should all freely choose which party they like without any compromise on their religious obligations. It’s a matter of mundane desires and preferences. No party is holy or is making brief for the Almighty God.”
He challenged to voters to take precautionary steps, vote and protect their votes, while cautioning against violence.
“As for Islam for which I speak for, since there are Muslims on both sides, any Muslim who will kill or die fighting another Muslim will be condemned to hell for eternity. Likewise, whoever that will also kill another non-Muslim Nigerian because of the constitutional treaty of peaceful coexistence between Nigerians will not smell the fragrance of Paradise.
“In a Hadith narrated by both Al-buhari and Muslim, the Noble Prophet said: “when two Muslims fight each other with their swords, the killer and the killed are in Hell.
“In another Hadith, the Prophet said: ‘whosoever will kill any soul of non-Muslim under peace treaty will never smell the fragrance of Paradise, which can be found from a distance of 40 years,” he said.
The scholar added that Islam abhorred mutiny and treason, offences he said were culpable felonies, deception, breach of trust, rigging, lying, material and spiritual corruptions.
While charging the voters, he said “the democracy has been unconstitutionally raped repeatedly by the military and polls rigging, yet your civility, patience and prayers had always been our only remedy and the strength of our unity.”
