Femi Fani-Kayode: Sheikh Ahmad Gumi and his hate messages

Anyone, no matter how powerful, influential, wealthy, well-connected, loved, revered or highly placed, who tries to use religion or ethnicity to divide our people, trouble our peace, undermine our security or destabilise our country will not only face the full wrath of the Living God and the Nigerian people but will also be brought to justice.

 

I am a Christian. I was born one and I will die one. I take my faith very seriously and I count it as being more important to me than anything else in life.

 

Despite this, I supported and campaigned vigorously for a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election because I believe that religion has no place in politics and that competence is the relevant factor when it comes to leadership rather than faith.

That does not however mean that as a Christian I will stand by quietly and allow anyone to denigrate my faith.

I believe that both Christians and Muslims should and must be given their due respect in this country and that the adherents and leaders of both of these two great faiths must let love guide their every word and action, and they must strive to live together in unity, peace and harmony.

I also believe that where we see danger signals and identify circumstances and individuals that may threaten our peace and harmony, we must challenge and expose them, call them to order before it is too late, and bring them to the attention of the authorities.

It is for these reasons that I have made the following well-researched and detailed contribution about Sheikh Gumi.

We saw the face of hate and the spirit of ISIS manifest itself in the most barbaric and profound manner when Hamas unleashed its unadulterated savagery on the people of Israel on the 7th of October.

On that day the Jewish state experienced its darkest hour.

Sadly, that face is raising its blood-lusting and bloodthirsty head in Nigeria today.

The inciting, provocative and deeply insulting words which I shall quote in this contribution, from a man who hates Christians, Middle Belters and Southerners with what the Holy Bible describes as “a perfect hatred” and who is a dangerous subversive will prove it.

His name is Sheikh Ahmad Gumi.

I am constrained to begin this essay with a link to his sermon (as repugnant as it was), which was delivered in a Kaduna mosque a few days ago.

The words were exclusively translated from Hausa by Newsonline Nigeria and here is the link to the full text: EXCLUSIVE: Sheikh Gumi’s Full Statement against FCT Minister and Christians in Nigeria

 

I suggest that readers open the link and go through it carefully, so that they can fully appreciate the gravity and depravity of his dangerous allegations and perverse assertions.

 

It is clear that there are some hidden, yet sinister and dark forces, both within and outside Nigeria, that are behind this man and that are encouraging him to continue to tread this reckless and dangerous course.

 

He is a believer in the doctrine of ‘Taqfir’ and a committed adherent of the hardline Salafist ‘Wahabi’ philosophy, which forms the bedrock and foundation of the evil organisation that the Arabs describe as ‘Daesh’.

 

His late father, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, was an equally controversial cleric with a massive following and a committed hard-line Islamist.

 

Such was the senior Gumi’s zeal for Islamic fundamentalism and obsession for our country to be transformed into an Islamic state that he once infamously proclaimed, before a massive congregation of his followers and disciples, that a Christian would only rule Nigeria “over his dead body.”

 

It is instructive to note that the man died not too long after that and a Christian by the name of Chief Ernest Shonekan became head of state in what was then described as our Interim Government.

 

The dark forces that Ahmad Gumi, his father Abubakar Gumi, and those that think like them represent have little to do with the great and compassionate faith of Islam, which insists on equity, justice, tolerance, submission to the will of God and peace.

 

The fact that they are unable to accommodate and live peacefully with others, including real Muslims and Christians, in a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic nation like ours makes them enemies of the Nigerian state and the Nigerian people.

 

Un-Islamic, anti-Christiaan, intolerant, aggressive, delusional, stubborn, intemperate, intransigent, uncompromising, ignorant, blind, deaf, dumb, intellectually deficient and wholeheartedly relentless in their arrogant assertions and archaic proselytising, these extremists are not only a danger to all but they also present an existential threat to our nation.

 

When he was confronted with a barrage of criticism and outrage from Nigerians after his sermon, Ahmad Gumi expressed no remorse and instead he said, “I will not respond to irritants in democracy!”

 

What an insensitive and arrogant soul he is.

This is the kind of man who would have been celebrating and having multiple orgasms whilst watching the slaughter and massacre of innocent and helpless Jewish women and children by the beasts of Hamas on CNN on 7th October.

 

The only saving grace in this whole ugly episode is the fact that some Northern elders have displayed true leadership and commitment to the peace and unity of Nigeria and disowned Gumi over his threats.

When he says Southerners and Christians “cannot be trusted with security”, that the FCT Minister is “satanic” simply because he received the Israeli Ambassador in his office and that those of us who supported a Muslim/Muslim ticket are worthless hypocrites, money-mongers and accursed citizens who chased dollars for pleasure and worldly purposes, it is clear that he has lost touch with reality and is looking for trouble.

Again the Chief E.K. Clark-led PANDEM, which spoke for the people of the South-South and Niger Delta and the Middle Belt Forum, which spoke for the people of the Middle Belt also put him in his place.

Bishop El Buba, Sunday Igboho and Asari Dokubo have also spoken out against him and his divisive rhetoric on behalf of the church, the South-West and the South-South respectively.

 

This is commendable and encouraging.

For the record, my response to his malodorous and repugnant diatribe is as follows.

The scripture that came to my spirit after reading his dangerous and utterly outrageous incitement was Psalm 59:2, which says, “may the Lord deliver us from bloodthirsty and evil men.”

I am simply astounded by the hateful disposition, poisonous venom, putrid verbiage, puerile assertions, malicious deceit, perfidious falsehood and divisive rhetoric coming from a man who lays claim to being a pious and peaceful religious leader!

Gumi is clearly a man who delights and revels in carnage, butchery, bloodshed, strife, war, and perpetual and never-ending conflict.

He is also the face of hate and the full embodiment and living manifestation of the spirit of ISIS.

Thankfully, he does not represent the Muslim community in our country: He only represents Daesh, ISWAP, ISIS, Al Shabab, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Hamas and Boko Haram.

He does not represent reasonable, rational, peace-loving, pious and serious-minded Northern Muslim leaders like the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano, the Shehu of Borno, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, Professor Isa Pantami, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, Sheikh Muhammad Sani Yahaya Jingir Jos, Sheikh El Zak Zaky and so many others who we know and whose integrity and commitment to the peace and unity of Nigeria we can vouch for: He only represents the violent, extremist and murderous beasts that are on the lunatic fringe.

Yet, whichever way you view him, one thing is clear: Gumi is attempting to ignite a religious and ethnic war in Nigeria and someone needs to call him to order before it is too late.

When he says Southerners and Christians “cannot be trusted with security”, that the FCT Minister is “satanic” simply because he received the Israeli Ambassador in his office and that those of us who supported a Muslim/Muslim ticket are worthless hypocrites, money-mongers and accursed citizens who chased dollars for pleasure and worldly purposes, it is clear that he has lost touch with reality and is looking for trouble.

Someone should please tell this dangerous, deluded, malevolent, mendacious and misguided little person that there is no longer any place for religious or ethnic politics and bigotry in Nigeria.

He dismisses the fact that the President, the Vice President, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of State of Defence, the National Security Advisor, the Director-General of the Department for State Services (DSS), the DG of NIA, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Staff to the President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chief Justice of the Federation are ALL Muslims and insists that Muslims must also be in charge of the command and control structures of ALL our security and intelligence agencies and the three arms of the military, namely the Army, Navy and Airforce.

Of course, he was ecstatic when under the Buhari administration, every single one of Nigeria’s 17 security agencies and branches of the military were under the command and control of not just Muslims but Northern Muslims.

That arrangement, despite its blatant disregard for the principles of Federal Character and ethnic and religious balancing, gave him joy.

Clearly he wants us to return to that unjust, unacceptable and dangerous arrangement.

Better still, given his words and by his warped and asinine logic, he would prefer us to remove ALL Christian personnel from our military, intelligence and security agencies, ban them from joining these services and allow only Muslims to serve.

Yet, his nonsense did not stop there. He went on to say that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not be allowed to remain in power for the next four or eight years, unless he met their demands.

Finally, he made his most absurd and asinine point when he ended his sermon by saying that because Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who happens to be a Southerner and a Christian, received the Israeli Ambassador in his office, it meant that the Tinubu government is planning to turn Abuja “into Tel Aviv where Muslims would be targeted and killed.”

Two questions are relevant here.

Do Christians and Southerners have the right to be Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and does Nigeria have diplomatic relations with the state of Israel?

If the answer to both are in the affirmative, then I really do not understand what all the fuss is about.

I do not believe or subscribe to the erroneous notion that being the Minister of the FCT is the exclusive preserve of Northern Muslims and neither do I believe that Nigeria, a nation with over 120 million Christians, should EVER sever its diplomatic ties with the state of Israel.

He said so many other explosive and provocative things which can be seen in the full text of his sermon, including the absurd, wild and unsubstantiated allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan, a man who is regarded by many as one of the most restrained, gentle, kind, compassionate and rational presidents that Nigeria has ever had and one who simply refused to abuse power, had planned to murder him when he was in power, simply because he was a Muslim!

A Christian cannot head the FCT because it is in the North but a Muslim can head the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), whose oil is in the South?

Is this not a warped logic? As a pastor friend of mine asked, “are we not mad in this country?”

Gumi also said Christians always kill Muslim leaders when they are in power and when they have the opportunity to do so.

He said that power should not have been given to the South earlier this year and expressed the view that if this had to be, so there should have been concrete security guarantees from the new order that all Northern Muslims would remain safe and not be butchered.

This assertion betrays the fact that he and those he represents do not regard our President as a Muslim. That is the implication of what he has said.

Worse still, deep down, those who think like him do not regard any Yoruba or Southern Muslim as a real one.

That is the pitiful and shallow level of their ignorance, bigotry and effrontery.

He went on to indulge in a mischievous and nonsensical journey of historical revisionism, making all sorts of wild and inaccurate claims.

He said Nigeria was safer when Muslims were in power and when they controlled the guns, and that Christians cannot be trusted with power.

At this point, I really do wonder whether this man is above the law and I am amazed at the fact that he has not been arrested.

Can any Christian leader talk to his flock from the pulpit like that about Muslims without being arrested?

He said so many other explosive and provocative things which can be seen in the full text of his sermon, including the absurd, wild and unsubstantiated allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan, a man who is regarded by many as one of the most restrained, gentle, kind, compassionate and rational presidents that Nigeria has ever had and one who simply refused to abuse power, had planned to murder him when he was in power, simply because he was a Muslim!

Quite apart from that, he alleged that President Jonathan was responsible for the brutal murder of General Mohammed Shuwa, who was gunned down in his own home by Boko Haram and that he was in full control of the terrorists and responsible for all the atrocities they committed when he was in power.

Those who managed to stomach reading his nauseating gobbledegook can testify to its toxicity and subversive intent.

The question needs to be asked: Is he mentally stable? Is he suffering from mental illness?

Are his mental faculties still intact or has he totally lost his already fragile mind?

Needless to say, I have always despised him and I have always known that there is something dark and sinister about his more than cosy relationship with the bloodthirsty and heartless ISWAP and Boko Haram terrorists that have plagued our nation but now I have cause to question his sanity as well.

This is a man who, a few weeks before the 2023 presidential elections, said “Don’t vote for those who will fight bandits. The fighters (bandits) are our people. So please vote for those who, after attaining power, will call and negotiate with our people (bandits) so as to give them what they want for peace to reign.”

Swap the word “bandits” for “terrorists” and you will really appreciate what this deluded and dangerous man represents and stands for.

Attempting to draw from his shallow knowledge of the military and its history as an unaccomplished and sacked Major from the Medical Corps of the Nigerian Army, he made reference to Christians killing Muslim leaders in various military coups.

He mentioned the fact that Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Tafawa Balewa and other Muslim leaders were killed by mutinous Christian soldiers on the night of 15th January 1966.

He conveniently forgot to mention the fact that Chief S.L. Akintola, Brigadier Ademulegun, Colonel Unuigbe, Chief Festus Okotie Eboh, Colonel Yakubu Pam, Colonel Sodeinde and many other Christian political leaders and military officers were killed by the same people on the same night.

He failed to mention the fact that the mutinous soldiers, led by Major Emmanuel Ifejuana and Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, murdered BOTH Christian and Muslim leaders on that terrible night.

He refused to acknowledge the fact that it was not only Muslim leaders who were targeted.

Was a Christian in power in 1998 when Chief M.K.O Abiola, the winner of the 1993 presidential election and the symbol and hero of Nigeria’s democracy, was poisoned with Abuja tea and brutally and callously martyred whilst he was in the custody of the military Government?… Did Gumi ever complain about or make any reference to this great injustice done to a fellow Muslim or is it that Southern Muslims are not Muslim enough?

Even though it is true that the 15th January 1966 coup was primarily a Christian one, it is also true that it was crushed and aborted by primarily Christian officers like Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Captain Paul Tarfa, Lt. Col. T.Y. Danjuma, Lt. Col. Martins Adamu, and so many others.

In the Northern Officers’ revenge coup of 29th July 1966, which came six months later, 300 Christian Igbo officers were killed, alongside a Christian Head of State, General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi and a Christian governor of the old Western Region, General Adekunle Fajuyi.

This “revenge coup” was led by Northern officers of both Christian and Muslim extraction like Lt. Col. T.Y. Danjuma, Lt. Col. Martins Adamu, Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon, Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed, Lt. Ibrahim Babaginda, Lt. Muhammadu Buhari, Lt. Col. I.B.M Haruna, Lt. Sani Abacha and others.

He said Christians killed the Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, in the 1976 Dimka coup but he forgot to mention the fact that Lt. Col. A.R. Aliyu, Lt. Col. T.K. Adamu, Lt. A.B. Umaru, Capt. A.A. Aliyu, Lt. Mohammed and a number of other Muslims were also involved in the execution of that coup and that Christian officers like Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa were also killed by the plotters.

However, if he insists on arguing that the 1976 coup was a Christian coup then he must concede the fact that the officers that thwarted it were also mainly Christian and were led by General T.Y. Danjuma, the then Chief of Army Staff.

He said only Christians are involved in coups in which blood is shed, forgetting that the 1983 coup which removed President Shehu Shagari from power and brought in General Muhammadu Buhari and in which one of the master minds, Brigadier Ibrahim Bako, was mysteriously shot in the back of the head by one of his own fellow coup plotters, whilst attempting to arrest the President, was not planned, organised, led or effected primarily by Christian officers.

Most of the key planners and senior officers involved in that mutiny, including General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha, General Tunde Idiagbon, General Muhammadu Buhari and many others, happened to be Muslim and sadly during the course of the event, blood was shed.

Coming to the 22nd April 1990 coup, which was led by Major Gideon Orkar, Lt. Col. Tony Nyiam, Major Saliba Daddy Mukoro, Captain Victor Tolofari and others, and in which they attempted to remove the Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida from power, there is no doubt that it was indeed a Christian coup and indeed much blood was shed.

However, it must again be conceded that it was also foiled by primarily Christian officers led by Major General Joshua Dogonyaro, Brigadier General David Mark, Brigadier General Tunde Ogbeha, Brigadier General John Shagaya, Colonel Ishaya Bamayi, Colonel John Yahaya Madaki, Lt. Colonel Gideon Zidion, Major Jonathan Temlong and so many others.

Somebody should please make it clear to this meddlesome and confused individual that religion and matters of faith are never a factor when people are plotting coups d’etat and military insurrections. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly blinded by his own bigotry.

He says Christians like to kill but can he tell us if it was Christians who killed over 100,000 innocent Igbo Christian civilians in three months of genocidal pogroms in core Northern Nigeria in 1966?

Was it Christians who butchered hundreds of thousands of Christians over 50 years all over the North and specifically in places like Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Sokoto, Yobe, Southern Kaduna, Zangon Kataf, Numan, Nassarawa, Niger and even in parts of the South?

Are the foot soldiers of ISWAP and Boko Haram Christians? Were the members of the murderous Maitatsine cult in Kano, Christians?

Are those who have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims all over the North and in parts of the South over the last 10 years Christians?

Are those who have wiped out entire communities in the name of ethnic cleansing and stolen their land Christians?

Are those who bomb and burn down Churches and burn Christian clerics and their congregations alive Christians?

Was a Christian in power from 1994 till 1998 when thousands of innocent June 12th foot soldiers and NADECO leaders were viciously persecuted, jailed, tortured, maimed, bombed, slaughtered and driven into exile simply for standing up for Chief M.K.O Abiola and his 12th June 1993 presidential mandate and opposing military rule?

Was a Christian in power in 1998 when Chief M.K.O Abiola, the winner of the 1993 presidential election and the symbol and hero of Nigeria’s democracy, was poisoned with Abuja tea and brutally and callously martyred whilst he was in the custody of the military Government?

Did Gumi ever complain about or make any reference to this great injustice done to a fellow Muslim or is it that Southern Muslims are not Muslim enough?

Was a Christian in power when Mrs Kudirat Abiola, Chief M.K.O Abiola’s wife, was brutally gunned down in the streets of Lagos by officers of the Armed Forces, for fighting for her husband’s rights and opposing military rule?

Was a Christian in power when in 1997 General Shehu Musa Yar’adua, the elder brother of President Umaru Yar’Adua, was forcefully given an AIDS injection whilst in prison and murdered in cold blood?

This is a road we must never go down because it is known as the road to Kigali.

The bitter truth is that Gumi’s attempt to depict our peaceful Christian faith into one which takes pride and relishes in taking life and shedding human blood is unacceptable.

There are good Christians and there are evil ones, just as there are good Muslims and there are evil ones.

Sadly most of those who constitute the Nigerian elite and ruling class, including politicians, clerics on both side of the religious divide, intellectuals and professionals, have chosen to ignore this cantankerous and utterly insidious man over the years and allowed him to get away with his evil out of a sense of political correctness, fear and cowardice.

No one should attempt to demonise or paint ALL of the adherents of either of these two great faiths in the colours of psychopaths and cold-blooded murderers.

More often than not, both Christians and Muslims manifest and display love and kindness to others.

The fact that some do not is not a reflection of their faiths but rather a reflection of their personal dispositions, human failings and characters.

This is the point that men like Gumi fail to appreciate and conveniently ignore and we will not sit by silently and allow them to do so.

Anyone, no matter how powerful, influential, wealthy, well-connected, loved, revered or highly placed, who tries to use religion or ethnicity to divide our people, trouble our peace, undermine our security or destabilise our country will not only face the full wrath of the Living God and the Nigerian people but will also be brought to justice.

Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic secular state and therein lies our strength, pride and joy.

There are Nigerian Muslims and Nigerian Christians and each of these groups have every right under our constitution to express their views, practice their faith and aspire to man any public office in the land.

We do not practice racial segregation, racism, religious bigotry or apartheid here and we do not harbour slaves and slave masters.

By the grace of God our nation and our people are ONE and nobody, not even a self-seeking, self-obsessed, vicious, divisive, destructive, fiendish and mischievous little rabble-rouser and ethnic and religious bigot like Ahmad Gumi can divide us!

Worse of all is the fact that during the course of his sermon he referred to Christians as “infidels.”

This provocative and incendiary rhetoric must stop before it ignites a full scale religious and ethnic war in our country!

I call on the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force to call this reckless malefactor to order before he sets Nigeria on fire.

Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following.

Sadly most of those who constitute the Nigerian elite and ruling class, including politicians, clerics on both side of the religious divide, intellectuals and professionals, have chosen to ignore this cantankerous and utterly insidious man over the years and allowed him to get away with his evil out of a sense of political correctness, fear and cowardice.

This has emboldened him and I consider it to be unacceptable.

I refuse to be counted amongst those who remains silent in the face of such tyranny and evil.

Unlike others the man has not died in me and I fear none but God.

This is why I can confidently make bold to say that Ahmad Gumi’s evil has no limitation and knows no end. He is the darkness that seeks the darkness.

Gumi’s spokesman, one Tukur Mamu, who is the publisher of the Desert Herald, was arrested at Cairo Airport just over one year ago for being involved with terrorists and extremists, deported back to Nigeria and has been in the custody of the DSS ever since.

It has been alleged that hundreds of millions of naira were collected from the families of kidnap victims over the years by this network of serpents and at least N400 million of that money was channeled back to Gumi’s aide and used for all manner of sinister and evil purposes.

That is the measure of the man we are dealing with and no-one should be surprised by his hate speech and inflammatory utterances.

Gumi’s intention appears to be the assistance of terrorists, provocation of a religious and ethnic war, destabilisation of our country, bringing down the Federal Government and establishing a new order in Nigeria, where Christians, Middle Belters, Southerners and Muslims who do not share his worldview are subjected to the worse forms of humiliation, oppression, torture, murder and disgrace, and are considered as nothing but slaves.

May God deliver our nation and people from such men.

For now I will sheath my sword and go no further. Peace be unto Nigeria.

Femi Fani-Kayode, the Sadaukin Shinkafi, is a former Nigerian Minister of Aviation and the former Minister of Culture and Tourism.