Iftār Mubarak Ya Sheikh. And congratulations on your disengagement as the Imam of the Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque. I understand that this is coming after you criticised the Buhari–led administration for their irresponsibility and timidity in handling the lingering insecurity in the North.
Ya Sheikh, I congratulate you because a voice of reason, conviction, and truth like you does not belong to an environment where the alleged custodians of reason observe [anti]social distance with the truth.
Ya Sheikh, it’s true that if you’d accepted your place and remained silent amidst the irresponsibility and timidity of our leaders, there would be peace and you wouldn’t be disengaged. But it would be a peace boiled down to stagnant complacency, deadening passivity; and if peace means this, then we don’t want peace.
Ya Sheikh, If peace means keeping your mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, we don’t want peace!
Ya Sheikh, they can disengage you or anybody all they want but they cannot disengage the truth, they cannot disengage you from the truth. Because basic truth do not change. What was true then [before your disengagement] remains true today — that the Buhari–led administration is an abject failure. This is a truth that has been embraced by everyone. It’s a truth that lies in the heart of every Nigerian whether Muslim or Christian, Northerner or Southerner.
Ya Sheikh, the country needs a few good people like you. People who are as true to truth as the needle to the pole. Ya Sheikh, with your truth, you’ve set the tone why standing with the truth is necessary in tragic times like these not only for our religious leaders but for every influential voice out there.
Ya Sheikh, conscience is an open wound which only the truth heals. And truth, like a water course, always finds its way. Ya Sheikh, your ability to say the truth no matter whose ox is gored and irrespective of who bears the brunt makes you a rare find.
Ya Sheikh, the harvest of truth and justice is plenty but the labourers are very few. Ya Sheikh, because you have spoken honestly and with conviction, may truth always be your shield.
Ya Sheikh, like millions of Nigerians, I stand with you today and always. May Allah continue to guide, protect, and bless you.❤
On a last note, to Sen. Dansadau, it’s midnight in Nigeria, and at midnight colors lose their distinctiveness and become a sullen shade of gray, like how moral principles lose their distinctiveness. Be reminded, Senator.
Muhammed-Bello Buhari (MB Buhari) is a human rights activist and public affairs commentator, he writes from Kaduna and can be reached via [email protected]