If you were born on the first of October 1960, have a father who is the first grand khadi of the old northern region who was instrumental in the Islamization of Northern Nigeria, and have close ties with the Imam of the Grand Mosque Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, Saudi Arabia – Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais, it would be difficult for you to escape Islamic fundamentalism. So, when Sheikh Ahmed Gumi called on the Federal Government to compensate bandits with lands, I was stunned and had to do a little research on the man many are calling the Sheikh from Shaitan. Gumi has been quoted saying “Kidnapping children from school is a lesser evil because in the end, you can negotiate and now bandits are very careful about human lives.” In February 2021, a viral online video showed Gumi making remarks alleging that non-Muslim Nigerian soldiers were responsible for insecurity in Nigeria. The many controversial views of Sheikh Gumi can be said to be the ramblings of an unenlightened extremist, but you will be very wrong.

Gumi for starters is not unenlightened. He studied medicine and later enlisted with the Nigeria Defence Academy and served as a medical officer in the Nigerian Army Medical Corps. He later moved to Saudi Arabia to further his Islamic education at the Umm al-Qura University where he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Usul ul Fiqh (Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence). Studying Gumi will bring you to many conclusions, but the most glaring is that he is the son of his father. Meaning he wants to achieve what his father achieved. His father’s claim to greatness in the Islamic world started with his scholarship, continued with his collaboration with Ahmadu Bello to Islamize northern Nigeria, and culminated in the adoption of Sharia in northern Nigeria. If you analyze his achievements, you will understand the utterances, actions, and inactions of his son – Sheikh Ahmed Gumi. Nigeria is fast becoming a country deeply divided along religious lines like how Korea was divided along ideological and other lines that resulted in the country becoming two very different nations. One is renowned for her economic and technological advances with unicorns like Samsung and Hyundai and the other is known for poverty and nuclear arms.

Presently, the President of the Senate and Speaker House of Representatives who control the legislation of Nigeria are Muslims who rubber-stamp any and every of Buhari’s requests, including the criminal loans from China and other financial institutions. One of the notable facts of the present polity is that Nigerians now know Muslims leaders are as corrupt or even more corrupt than their Christian counterparts when you take EFCC bosses, Abacha and Buhari who glaringly signed a heavily padded budget recently into consideration. An irony of the move on Islamization by the likes of Gumi and Nasir El Rufai is that countries who pride themselves as custodians of the religion like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are reforming themselves and abandoning extremist views suffered more by women and the poor. Northern elites like Aliko Dangote have seen the writing on the wall and know the North is setting itself up for implosion. Hence, his investments are shifting to Southern Nigeria or abroad. The masses of Northern Nigeria will continue to suffer the consequences of the actions of Gumi and co whose major concern is to promote Islam than to promote peace, prosperity, and progress in any part of Nigeria.

Ata Ukuta, Editor – Towncryyers