At a first glance on the latest bombshell dropped by Mr. Farooq Kperogi on his 10 reasons while he felt Vice President Yemi Osinbajo should not be trusted as a presidential hopeful for Nigeria, I wanted to ignore like many Nigerians would do, but on a second thought about the position of the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammed on leadership, fairness and justice, I saw the need to help the scholar out of his disillusionment.
Considering Mr. Kperogi's perceived deep Islamic knowledge, it will be wrong to classify the scholar as a novice but with his submission, it is obvious that things of the world, especially politics, has beclouded his sense of reasoning, hence the need to point his attention to some verses of the Quran and the Hadith of the prophet on what awaits a mischief makers in the day of the judgment.
In the Quran, the word(s) "mischief-makers" appears 10 time(s) in 10 verse(s) and all the verses try to caution Muslims from creating havoc or confusion in the land the way Mr. Kperogi has been doing in recent times. In addressing the matter at hand, I find Surat An-Naml, Chapter #27, Verse #14, very apt; “And they denied them unjustly and proudly while their soul had been convinced of them; consider, then how was the end of the mischief-makers.
Except for hypocrisy, Mr. Farooq Kperogi, knows the truth about Osinbajo but decided to look away to please his pay masters, who are desperately looking for every opportunity to discredit and blackmail the respected Vice President. I draw this conclusion because it’s against common sense that despite Osinbajo’s track record while working with many Muslim leaders now and in the past, an individual would hide under religion to conclude that Osinbajo would one day plunge Nigeria into the depths of a smoldering religious volcano that will hasten its self-immolation. Haba! This is the height of hypocrisy.
Looking back, before Prof Osinbajo was unanimously pushed forward to deputize President Muhammadu Buhari, it is on record that he had in the past worked successfully with Prince Abdul Jabar Bola Ajibola as personal assistance while the latter served as Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, he has worked under the late Professor Jelili Omotola, a former Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos and he has worked as no 1 Law Officer under fomer Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos. In all these references, the current vice President left a clean record without blemish and without using his office to promote Christianity over Islam. Beyond this, in practical terms, Prof. Osinbajo has, in the last few years, extended hands of fellowship to Muslim leaders more than any leader living today in Nigeria. During the holy month of Ramadan and during Eid Kabir, he has consistently reached out to leaders across the country. Of course, this hasn’t gone unnoticed as prominent Muslim leaders, including the Emir of Daura, Dr Umar Umar, who, on number of occasions described the Vice President as a trustworthy leader.
Now, why do I feel Muslims in Nigeria are not helping the scholar in question and by extension not helping ourselves? One needs not go far for the answer as Prophet Mohammed is clear about this. The Prophet says; “Whoever of you sees wrong being committed, let him rectify it with his hand, if he is unable, then with his tongue, and if he is unable, then with his heart, and this is the weakest of faith (iman)”.
This being the case, it is clear that enjoining right and prohibiting wrong is one of the greatest good works that we have been ordered to do.
Enjoining right and forbidding wrong being one of the greatest obligations or commendable acts in Islam, it is essential that the benefit therein outweigh its negative consequences. This is the general spirit of the messages of the prophets and the revealed books, and Allah does not like chaos and corruption.
Besides, it’s appalling if not blasphemous for Muslims to look away from the teaching of the prophet and Islam about justice and Christianity. In a letter which was issued by the Messenger of Allah, who is sent to all the people as a trust on the part of God to all His creatures, that they may have no plea against God hereafter, the prophet clears the air about his position on Christians, fairness and justice.
The letter reads in parts; “This letter is directed to the embracers of Islam, as a covenant given to the followers of Jesus the Nazarene in the East and West, the far and near, the Arabs and foreigners, the known and the unknown.
“This letter contains the oath given unto them, and he who disobeys that which is therein will be considered a disbeliever and a transgressor to that whereunto he is commanded.
“Whenever Christian monks, devotees and pilgrims gather together, whether in a mountain or valley, or den, or frequented place, or plain, or church, or in houses of worship, verily we are at the back of them and shall protect them, and their properties and their morals, by Myself, by My Friends and by My Assistants, for they are of My Subjects and under My Protection.
“I shall exempt them from that which may disturb them; of the burdens which are paid by others as an oath of allegiance. Their judges should not be changed or prevented from accomplishing their offices, nor the monks disturbed in exercising their religious order, or the people of seclusion be stopped from dwelling in their cells.
“No one is allowed to plunder these Christians, or destroy or spoil any of their churches, or houses of worship, or take any of the things contained within these houses and bring it to the houses of Islam. And he who takes away anything therefrom, will be one who has corrupted the oath of God, and, in truth, disobeyed His Messenger”
With the above letters to the Muslims by our leader, who Allah describes as a role model for humanity ( Laqad kaana lakum fee rasoolullahi uswatun hasanah) Q. 33 verse 21, it’s surprising that some Muslims can still be so self-serving to the extent of twisting the truth.
For Mr. Farooq Kperogi and other sponsored writers of divisive articles, whose main objective is to create havoc in Nigeria, one may be forced to condemn them as agents of destruction. As far as I’m concerned as a Muslim, they are not speaking for us but working for their money. It is sad that in the last few months, this writer has been in the forefront of spreading rumour and giving twisted interpretations to please his paymaster(s). One incontrovertible fact is that Kperogi and his co-travellers are bent on altering the reality of well-meaning Nigerians who know and can readily attest to the character of the Vice President as a liberal, tolerant and accommodating leader who embraces Nigeria’s diversity, and has worked committedly to make it a source of strength.
Mr. Kperogi’s academic career may have hit an untimely decline, likely due to his now well-noted inclination for pushing dubious agenda and the use of untrustworthy sources for the purpose. But he has since found the usefulness of that crooked skill in the field of politics where there is no shortage of clients willing to offer good money for the execution of smear campaigns and blackmail attempts premised on the construction of an alternate reality through seductive but false claims.
It is obvious to any discerning observer that his obsession with Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is due to the strength of his candidacy as a potential successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, and the fact that there are those who are not pleased by the development. His choice of religion as the primary tool of blackmail was also deliberate for apparent reasons, but none that has to do with the country’s stability or concern for Nigeria’s Muslim population, as he falsely portrays in his now weekly diatribes.
Mr. Farooq Keprogi has no respect for Muslims neither does he care about their well-being or status in Nigeria of today or in the future. The evidence of this isn’t farfetched; you only have to look up his well-documented attacks against Islam and Muslims in the recent past, particularly from 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence and subsequent re-election in 2019 was a source of pain to his clients and recruiters.
An example is his 2017 article titled “Why Buhari is wildly popular in the Muslim north” in which he attributed the President’s goodwill in the northern region to “Muslim clerical tyranny”. The entire piece was a shameful and condescending disparaging of Muslim northerners as a monolith group incapable of prosecuting or examining a matter with sense and logic once the matter of religion is introduced.
In another similar piece, this time from December 2021, Mr. Farooq Kperogi had this to say about the Muslim north: “You can smolder the northern masses with economic asphyxiation, as Buhari is doing now, and they would make peace with their fate with listless acquiescence, but blaspheme their religion or even icons of their religion, and they would rise up in arms and murder indiscriminately.”
Here again, he was pushing the dangerous and reductive stereotype of Muslim northerners as religious extremists who kill at will and indiscriminately in defense of their religion.
Given his rich history of such offensive characterization of Muslims and the denunciation of Islam, it is worth asking how and why the same man has appointed himself the spokesperson of Muslims on the subject who is tolerant of their faith, as well as presents the best chance for Nigeria’s stability as a multi-religious state - a project he has repeatedly placed in jeopardy with his reckless articles which encouraged hatred against Islam and Muslims.
The answer is that Mr. Farooq Kperogi is merely executing a script. He is serving the interest of those who, having found nothing to smear the Vice President with (due to his spotless public service records), have now zeroed in on Nigeria’s ethno-religious fault-lines to scaremonger and cause disaffection.
Mr. Kperogi himself hinted at the effectiveness of this evil strategy in another piece where he said: “Appeal to religion is the easiest way to ignite the raw emotions and solidarity of the [northern] masses.” His frivolous and baseless accusations against the Vice President must then be understood as an execution of this strategy in collusion with opposing political figures who are threatened by the VP’s rising profile.
Regardless, to assuage the fears of those who may have been lured by Mr. Kperogi’s sophistry and seductive propaganda, it becomes important to address the questions asked on Prof. Yemi’s Osinbajo’s tolerance of difference in faith and worship, and whether he is a man capable of joining or initiating a plot aimed at the ‘Christainization’ of what is a historically diverse country.
While I will urge Mr. Kperogi to “Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word” as directed by Allah, I will advise Osinbajo to remain straight forward as Allah will never forsake a righteous man
By Ibrahim Abdullahi
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