Opinion
A Billion for Ruin: Faith Misplaced, Society Destroyed
Ruqayyah Hamidu Muhammad (PhD) and Hauwa Shehu Usman
I was deeply moved by a video from a prominent cleric highlighting how drug abuse devastates the youth in Northern Nigeria, and how a single individual that publicly attends the five daily prayers in congregation, invests hugely in this destructive act while the society watch and perhaps even celebrates him. Ya Allah! It is highly distressing to think that someone (son, brother, uncle, husband and father) would invest such a significant amount of money into activities that harm society rather than contributing to its growth and well-being.
This act underscores the stark contrast between religious practice and ethical behaviour. Islamic religion emphasizes not only the rituals of worship but also the principles of justice, compassion, and responsibility toward one another. Using vast resources to perpetuate drug abuse reflects a lack of ethical responsibility and empathy. Instead of creating opportunities that uplift lives, such actions contribute to the destruction of the younger generation and the moral fabric of society. Drug abuse destroys families, reduces productivity, and increases crimes. By targeting the youth, these actions undermine the future of the society, as youths are the backbone of development.
With a billion Naira or even less of it, one could establish businesses, create jobs, fund education, or provide skills training for youths, reducing unemployment, begging, and hunger, addressing root causes of societal problems.
Performing the five daily prayers and selling drugs, contradict the very purpose of this ritual, which is to purify the soul and lead to righteousness, prays lose their essence if not accompanied by moral integrity. Allah says in the Quran: “Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing…” (Surah Al-Ankabut, 29:45).
Islam strongly condemns actions that harm others. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 2341).
The prophet (SAW) further said:
“Do you know who is the bankrupt?” They said: ‘The bankrupt among us is the one who has no money or property.’ He said: ‘The bankrupt of my people is the one who comes on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting, and zakat, but he comes having insulted this one, falsely accused that one, consumed the wealth of this one, shed the blood of that one, and beaten thatone. So, he will be seated while his victims will be compensated from his good deeds…” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2581).
Even more disturbing than the actions of the individual is the community’s acceptance of such people. Instead of condemning this behaviour, many people turn a blind eye or even extend admiration for the individual’s outward piety. This silence emboldens wrongdoers. The community’s refusal to “frown upon this evil,” as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) instructed, enables harm to thrive. The Prophet said: “Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand [by action]; if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he cannot, then with his heart [by hating it], and that is the weakest of faith.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 49).
In failing to speak out, the community becomes compliant in the destruction of its own members. Are we not those people (Ummah) Islam calls for enjoining good and forbidding evil?
“You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.” (Surah Al-Imran, 3:110).
Islam, emphasizes the sanctity of life, the importance of justice, and the duty to uplift the less fortunate. The Quran repeatedly warns against harming others and exploiting the vulnerable. Take a look at this verse: “And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly or send it [in bribery] to the rulers in order that [they might aid] you to consume a portion of the wealth of the people in sin, while you know (it is unlawful).” (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:188).
Necessary Actions
Stronger Regulation: Authorities must intensify efforts to track, regulate, and penalize illegal drug activities. As an Islamic state with strong sharia upliftment and practice, the authorities, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Kano Road Transport Authority (KAROTA), Police and HISBA, should work harmoniously to implement the prescribed punishment by Allah (SWA). Allah says in Surah al-Ma’idah Ayah 33.
“The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off on the opposite sides, or be exiled from the land.”
The punishment is severe? I am in full support of it in order to stop the crime, after all a severe crime warrant severe consequences. When people are held accountable and given punishment no one else will dare to follow their footsteps. The severe penalties can discourage individuals from engaging in high-risk, harmful activities like trafficking. Harsh sentences can incapacitate dangerous offenders, preventing them from causing further harm. Societies often see justice as a balance; a significant crime demands a significant response to maintain order and reinforce moral boundaries.
When advance countries like USA, China, Canada, UK Saudi Arabia, Singapore exhibit zero tolerance to drug trafficking, by meting severe punishment that include, life-prisonment and dead sentences, I wonder what Nigeria is waiting for to implement such.
The first step in addressing this crisis is holding individuals accountable for their actions. Law enforcement, politicians, community leaders, and religious authorities must fear Allah and work together to ensure that such harmful activities are stopped and those responsible face justice. Remember Allah says in Surah Ibrahim(14:42):
“And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a Day when eyes will stare [in horror].” Any individual who harm society through their actions must remember that their deeds are not hidden from Allah. They will be held accountable for the harm they inflict.
United Community
A united community against drug trafficking is a powerful force for combating the drug trade and its associated harms. Let come together as a community, educate the another about the dangers of drug abuse and trafficking. Instead of allowing our children to fall victim to such exploitation, parent must be steadfast in shouldering the responsibility of their families, train and invest in their education, skills, and other fruitful opportunities.
The community should create a strong and united front to support the law enforcements in identifying and dismantling trafficking networks without sentiments. The community must also stop turning a blind eye to evil. Silence is complicity, and every member of society has a duty to condemn and stop wrongdoing, no matter who the perpetrator is. True faith requires courage and honesty, even when it is uncomfortable. Society must collectively reject such practices and uphold the values of fairness, justice, and righteousness as outlined in the Qur’an.
Ruqayyah Hamidu Muhammad (PhD) and Hauwa Shehu Usman
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Opinion
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Opinion
𝐊𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐨’𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥
Aliyu Isa Aliyu, Ph.D
During my time as the financial secretary of NNPP in Kano state and other political engagements, I saw clearly how many of the so-called fake Kwankwasiyya loyalists behaved. They always came with sweet promises, showing deep respect for Kwankwaso’s leadership and pretending to be his strongest disciples. They claimed they would defend the party’s ideology even with their lives. But the moment they got what they wanted, whether it was an election victory, recognition, or political favour, they slowly pulled away. Their loyalty was never to the Kwankwasiyya movement, but only to their own ambitions. Personally, I never regarded their loyalty, never praised them, and never wasted my time writing about them.
What surprised me most was Kwankwaso’s ability to take all of this without holding any grudges. Time and again, he welcomed them back whenever they were politically stranded. Instead of shutting them out, he gave them another chance, teaching us that leadership is not about revenge but about building bridges, even with those who once betrayed you. Many of us in the party leadership found it hard to understand this level of patience, but over time, I came to see it as part of what makes him a rare politician in Nigeria.
This same cycle has repeated itself in every election season. Politicians who abandoned kwankwasiyya the most critical times would always return in desperation, and Kwankwaso would open the doors again. For him, the bigger picture has always been the growth of the movement and the empowerment of the masses, not the small politics of exclusion. But from my own experience, I have seen both the strength and weakness of this approach. The strength is Kwankwaso’s unmatched generosity and forgiveness, but the weakness is the opportunism of those who treat leadership as a shortcut to power. In 2024, some of them worked tirelessly with all kinds of deceit just to secure tickets for their boys as local government chairmen, but thankfully Madugu Kwankwaso was firm and did not fall into their trap.
Now the time has come for our leader, Senator Kwankwaso, to reflect on his political generosity and take the right stand. It is better to lose an election with true loyalists than to win with those sabbatical politicians who only come for their selfish gains. Nobody can deny that they contributed to NNPP’s growth in Kano, but the truth is that the sacrifices Kwankwaso made for them are far greater than what they have done for him or the movement. Before their defection to NNPP in 2022, there were committed people already vying for those positions, but they were pleaded to step down and hand over the tickets for free. You cannot build a political movement with people who carry two faces. In politics, you are either here or there; there is no middle ground. Kwankwasiyya is not only about winning elections, it is also about discipline and sacrifice. We won clearly in 2019 before the election was declared inconclusive, and we still won in 2023 despite the odds. If Almighty Allah has destined our victory in 2027, no betrayal can stop it, no matter who leaves Kwankwasiyya.
– Aliyu Isa Aliyu, Ph.D
Opinion
A reply to Dan’uwa Rano’s from makafi to awakai: the display of blind plotics and political idolatry
Ibrahim Bello-Kano
I’ve read Danuwa Rano’s post as a trained and professional critic of prose works, both fictional and non-fictional (the kind of writing in which the writer and the narrator are the same person, and in which there is a direct mode of address to the purported reader of the writing, the text). Thus, my response to this post, shared on this platform, is three-fold.
1. The writer, Danuwa Rano, is a well-known member or sympathiser of the APC in Kano and a supporter of an aspiring APC candidate for the position of the Gov. of Kano State, despite his critical yet digressive comment on the Gov of Jigawa, Namadi, Abubakar Rimi, and Aminu Kano, to cite just those three. In my academic field, we train our students in the literary criticism of non-fictional texts to look for the writer’s MOTIVE for writing. Usually, in this kind of writing, the writer does not reveal his motive (which is usually hidden) for writing directly but takes detours, digressions, and other textual strategies of establishing some nuggets of “authenticity”. Just a ploy to deceive the unsuspecting or the gullible reeader, to say the least. If and where the writer is well known, we also seek to read his previous works, including his podcasts, interviews, or open attitudinal-ideological stance in relation to public discourse.
2. We also probe the text for its linguistic “unsaids” or “non-saids”, namely its TONE and the perspectival presentation of events and people (we call this reading or interpretive strategy “symptomatic reading”). It’s interesting that the writer himself reveals that his text was inspired by a previous one critical of Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiyya movement, written by Auwal Anwar.
3. After a thinly veiled ideological bad faith on the part of Danuwa Rano, he delves into a moralistic discourse, namely that God/Allah has created human beings with dignity and with self-worth, higher than those of the animals such as “goats”; and much more integrative than the blind (“makafi”). But Danuwa Rano is clearly not very educated in how language, in this case Hausa and English, work. In language, in Hausa, we call or regard someone that is a maestro, a highly gifted person, in any vocation or an endeavor, as, or by describing him as “shege” or “maye” in or about something that we admire or value (masterly). Why is that? Language has both DENOTATION and CONNOTATION. In any Hausa dictionary, the denotation of “Shege” would be “bastard” (illegitimate within the marriage-kinship and cultural system). But when used in the context of connotation, “Shege” describes someone with admirable skills, in appreciation of his or her skills, mastery, and distinguished capacities. Alas, this is what Danuwa Rano has missed. So, in every linguistic comminity, symbolism, figuration, and emblematic descriptions are never far away from the symbolic sphere of experience. Here’s another example from the English language. Expressions such as “evil genius” and the Latinate “maestro” exist because symbolisation or figural descriptions are creative, a way of coming into the undecidable space of appreciation and appropriation, including the anxiety about what we denote in the cultural-linguistic game, and in our unconscious.
4. Rather bizarrely and crudely, perhaps even maliciously, Danuwa Rano fails to see, blinded by his ideological moralism, that whenever the Kwankwasiyya people call themselves “makafi” and “awaki” they are, in fact, ENGAGING IN the SYMBOLIC PARODY of their opponents, that is, those who criticise them for being resolute and committed political agents in a certain way. To borrow a metaphor from Michel Foucault, it is the Kwankwasiyya people’s way of “self-presentation” in the political and democratic arena. Indeed, it was the same process at work when the British Workers called themselves “Chartists” (based on their Charter of Demands). But we know that a group of human beings cannot be a List or a Charter. Rather, in language, any group can identify with a colour (“Red” for communists and Marxists; Green for Muslims; or with emblems (the Crescent Moon, The Cross, or the Hammer and Sickle, or just an Effigy; a country’s or a state’s “coat of arms”). Should we assume, then, that the Kwankwasiyya followers are physically, intellectually, or ideologically blind? But if they were, they would not work for someone, Senator Kwankwaso (RMK), that they couldn’t have literally “seen”.
5. Danuwa Rano is such a poor writer, such a poorly educated person on how language and symbolisation actually work, that he mistook a figural statement as intransitively real and factual. What a pity! In fact, I am tempted here to cite the famous argument of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, that language as such is only a doxa (opinion) rather than (a) truth (episteme). In this view, language is a kind of rhetoric and thus inherently rhetorical. For example, in the Hausa “Kirari” system, any one can call themselves a lion, a mouse, an elephant, or even a fox, or even, indeed, a “merciless killer”, one who does not and would not spare his enemies. I recall, in my youth, my father admiringly calling my mother “uwar garke” (“the mother of the herd”, his herd) but does that mean she was a cow, the female head of a herd of cows? Certainly not!
6. It is a mark of Danuwa Rano’s ideological project that he mistakes linguistic and symbolic parody for the literal thing. Hence, his weak, unconvincing, and flat moralistic attacks on RMK and the Kwankwasiyya people. The latter are saying that they are deeply committed to their political projects, that they are not the typical political opportunists, fortune chasers, and the “fair weather people” that one finds in the Kano APC. In addition, the Kwankwasiyya “Makafi” are also saying that they see clearly where their principled allegiance lies.
7. If Danuwa Rano were a careful, perceptive thinker or writer of political innuendo, he would have seen something prevalent in the history of Kano since the 18th century, namely the tradition of following religious, sectoral leaders, as seen in the mass of committed followers in Kano of the Tariqa, the Shia, and the Izala, to mention just those three. It’s hard not to find a Kano man or woman that is not openly oriented to those three groups.
8. It is, without a doubt, the same temperament that one still finds in the secular political sphere in Kano. Expecting otherwise in the political sphere of the community is either short-sighted or willful blindness or sheer ignorance, all all three. Or, one might ignore all this in furtherance of his un-stated ideological-political agenda.
9. Let me reiterate a point that I have always argued in public: Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is, without a doubt, a veritable political leader for many reasons. There is not one politician in Kano today who has the deep and wide charisma as to draw a huge crowd of enthusiastic supporters, with the charm and grace that can score, or in fact has scored, over one million votes in Kano State in the elections. His party’s candidate for Governor scored well over a million votes in the 2023 elections. Even Tinubu lost in Lagos in the 2023 elections (only scored anout 600, 000 votes). For that reason and many others (RMK’s cosmic patience, personal Promesean and Sysipusian endurance, his political sagacity and capacity for brilliant and moving political oratory— the “Ma-a-ha chant”), he is the target of disgruntled enemies, the object of deep malice but that is obscured or hidden as “objective analysis”.
10. But hate him or love him, despite Kwankwasiyya movement or not, one must accept that RMK is simply the modern expression of the new politics that is gripping the imagination of young people and that of perceptive, politically committed intellectuals, those who know what is at stake in the political future of Kano State and Nigeria as a whole.
11. Imagine a political leader, the one whose previously opportunistic followers had deserted when he left office, the man who stayed out of power and elective office for eight years, the man who founded a political party within eight months to the national elections, and yet him and his party swept the board, won virtually all the elective offices, including the Govenorship. I daresay such a man, RMK, is naturally the target of malice, envy, and bruised political egos. Danuwa Rano’s virtuperations on RMK and the Kwankwasiyya movement is one more example of crudely malicious, badly conceived, poorly written attacks on modern Kano’s most successful person and his movement.
Ibrahim Bello-Kano.
