fight corruption: Buhari will end up shooting himself on the foot if he continue- Shiekh Abubakar Gumi (Islamic scholar)

 Buhari is not free from corrupt and he may  end up shooting himself on the foot. This was the position Shiekh Abubakar Gumi (a famous Islamic scholar), in an interview some excerpts I have lifted and posted on my wall. It is incisive and well articulated. please take time and read it.

Excerpts:

Q:What in your opinion caused the PDP failure in the last general elections after 16 years of uninterrupted rule?

GUMI:
We are just hearing people saying that PDP lost because of the lack of internal democracy and the imposition of candidates in the party. These arguments are also in other political parties. Former President Goodluck Jonathan failed because of the activities of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau. This is the man that defeated and chased out Jonathan. The former president was not able to muster or garner forces to counter the menace of Boko Haram. The inability to combat Boko Haram eroded the confidence of the people in his own constituency, to the extent that they wanted change by whatever way it comes. The people were just blind, and all they wanted was change because the man could not deliver and the apex of his failure happened when the Chibok girls were abducted. The abduction attracted the sympathy of the whole world and that was why Jonathan failed. It was obvious that Jonathan could not hold the country and people just wanted change anyhow, anything. So, at the dying minutes, Jonathan decided to take the right steps and doing the right thing, but it was too late for him.

Q: Shekau saw himself as fighting an Islamic cause. Was he really fighting Jonathan?

GUMI: Shekau saw himself as an Islamic puritan, just purifying Muslims and to establish a pure Islamic State even within the modern state. l call it modern state because it is modern apparatus of government. The modern apparatus of governance is democracy that involves the election of police, army officers, politicians and all manners of people. Shekau wanted a deviant government to establish a caliphate. For instance, a Muslim or a Christian, if a Christian is informed that Jesus is coming to establish his kingdom, it is a government too, and will any Christian object to that? The Christians will not object to Jesus coming back to establish his kingdom on earth. But the problem is when somebody, not Jesus, said he is establishing his kingdom; he will be telling lies against Jesus, and will just establish his own kingdom but be claiming to be the kingdom of Jesus. This is the problem with the Shekau caliphate. If it is a true caliphate, every Muslim will like it, because it reflects the religion. But the problem is that it is not the Prophet that will establish it or his companion.

Q: Are you saying that Shekau was ignorant of modern reality?

GUMI: A human being that is ignorant for that matter, you could see his ignorance in establishing his kingdom. When he wants to establish his kingdom, it is just a delusion, so he can cause more damage, because it is delusion and one thing if you notice about them, they truly mean what they are saying and they are ready to give anything, their lives, the lives of their children and everything about them for that cause. Dedication, I don’t doubt it, but the method and the approach will lead them to sedition, destruction. This is the Boko Haram that Jonathan did not understand from the beginning. He thought he could play with it at a point, then, it engulfed him and the PDP.

Q: You mean it was not because of corruption that PDP government lost the election?

GUMI: ... Let me say it very clearly, every Nigerian is corrupt. Human beings by nature are corrupt. Every man should fight the corruption first within himself, because the soul always command people to do bad, but if by your faith and knowledge, then, you suppress the bad image not to do bad. So, you become better but not an angel. The Holy Qur’an said if God were to take people by what they commit; He will not leave any creature on earth because everybody is a sinner. During the time of Jesus, a woman was caught in adultery. After bringing her to Jesus, he said anybody that had not committed sin; let him be the first person to stone her. Did anybody stone her? No, because we are all sinners. It is not corruption that destroys Jonathan. I am yet to see a Nigeria that will show me that he is not a corrupt person. The whole world is corrupt. When you talk about the Americans and the UK, these countries only have systems to check corruption so that they don’t steal, but if they have ways to steal easily like we have in Nigeria, they will steal. If you want to fight corruption, build good systems; educate the people so that you will be able to fight corruption. It is not by jailing people. No, you can’t fight and win that way, it is sacrosanct and it will fight back, when corruption fights back, it destroys. Nobody had a head-on collision with corruption that it did not crush him, because its beneficiaries have money to fight. Some people have already bought the world into their hands; they don’t see anything in this world difficult to handle. If you pursue them hard, they will fight you back. It is not how you fight corruption, but how ready are you to continue the fight. You fight it by educating the people and having a checking system of accountability, and then corruption will disappear naturally. It is not by the bulldozer’s approach; instead it breeds corruption the more.
You can imagine all the military coups we have had before. The main reasons for these coups were hinged on need to tackle corruption, but what comes after? It is super mega corruption and the succeeding coups never cured corruption. Most people are now talking about corruption or they want to tackle corruption, they have to be careful, otherwise, it becomes delusional like that Shekau attempting to create a Caliphate.

Q: But the people are in support of the present government?

GUMI: The nation is in delusion because the whole thing is delusional. The whole politics was done in delusion; people are becoming extremist. Extremism cannot put people of different persuasions together. If you want to govern a nation, you have to be in the middle. Extremism with extreme ideas and measures do not work. You have to go to the middle and carry everybody along, the corrupt and the uncorrupt, the saints and the non-saints; this is what will move Nigeria forward, not extremism. Extremism means you take an idea with action to the extreme. Some Nigerians in search of answers are going extreme, they don’t need to. Experience is vital in life. If you take cake that is baked by two different women, the cakes hardly taste the same? So, human experience determines perfection. Many Nigerians need experience in whatever thing they do; very few have experience even in governance, except the leaders that have led the country for years that have story to tell. I told you that Jonathan, before he finished, realized and understood what governance was, but, then, it was too late. You don’t govern Nigeria without experience.

Q: Do you see President Buhari moving the nation forward from its present predicaments?

GUMI: My take on the governments of Jonathan and President Buhari, right from the word go, was very clear. It is not a personal issue, but l am looking at the nation that we need to give a big sacrifice and those sacrifices entail forgetting the past completely and bringing a new phase in our lives.
Personally, l have children. l want to live a habitable life for them, so l want a peaceful Nigeria and you cannot have peace in Nigeria once you said you will unearth the rotten things that have taken place in this country. The best thing is to start a fresh way of life with fresh people, but Nigerians did not get the message. If there is any problem, it is the past that is hunting us up till now. We should not be seen looking at the past, because the past is making us to say who are we going to give this or that, the past has to go. If he should now bring all new faces, those whose shoulders were used to win or clamp to the top will react. Those people will feel cheated ‘how can l suffer and have nothing’ if you bring them back and challenge other people? What change do you have? So, you are taking contradiction.
Nigerians, let’s forgive ourselves and start afresh and bring new faces, bring the Obamas of Nigeria, because when Bush messed up America and fought Iraq and other countries, they have to completely look at somebody, not even from the military to put America back on track of human relationship in the world. They have somebody who has never shed anybody’s blood or somebody who has never sent anybody’s child to war, a peaceful man and that is the man Nigeria need now so that everybody’s nerves will calm down, but now there is apprehension. It should not be so. We need a peaceful environment, we are facing reality now, and a lot of people in their millions are clapping and screaming: “Catch the thief and probe.” They don’t for one second think about the consequence of doing that. It is like a thread in a cloth when you start pulling it, it will undo the whole cloth. We felt there is no end; i t is corruption that did everything. So, where do you start and where do you end. Jonathan was a school boy who knew it better than his master. Whatever he did, his master did it. But he could have done it better and harmlessly more than the master. Whatever Jonathan did, his master did it but in a more magnified form and so the master is just objecting the magnitude. So, the question is not magnitude because it has become a norm in our governance.

Q: Are you saying people should not go to jail for corruption?

GUMI: No, but how can l put somebody in jail and feel comfortable, while l know that there are many others that did the same thing and l cannot imprison them. How can l have such moral to do such a thing? Both PDP and APC took from the government treasury, and so who will you judge and who will you not judge? What Nigerians need now that we are becoming more conscious and more democratic is to put a system to punish stealing. Leaders should not follow the masses to clap hands for them for doing nonsense job. Who doesn’t have corruption loots in Nigeria? Nobody! When late General Murtala came to power, they just investigated some sections and corruption fought back and killed him. They declared him dangerous. Let’s be matured in what we are doing. We have our own children and generation to come, if all the money stolen is the price we have to pay for the peace we need in the country, it is not too big. Look at Syria, if you tell Syrians that all their money will be taken for them to have peace, they will say, “Take it and give us peace because children, women and adult are being killed.” There is no amount that is too much for peace.

Q: Some people believe that Jonathan had no choice than to hand over power?

GUMI: Who told them? This election could have been disrupted and nothing would have happened. Chairman of INEC, Prot Attahiru Jega, could have been removed and nothing would have happened. On June, 12 1993, an election was conducted in the country and it was nullified, what happened to it? The last election could have been nullified. If they go to court, 10 years later, nothing will happen. A government can do anything. But they followed the right way, l told you that towards the twilight of the Jonathan administration, the government decided to tread the path of peace, but it was too late for him. That is what the present government should take, the way of peace, not the way of trying to instigate trouble in the country, because of some delusional way of life. Who is there that did not take from government budget?

Culled from forefront.ng