On Bauchi Governor’s Alleged Alienation of Shia Community -By Sheikh Tahir Umar

While the Bauchi State governor, Bala Muhammad has been able to record remarkable achievements as he closes in on the end of his first term in office, we want to draw his attention to a minority voice that he appears to conclude they don’t matter anymore, yet, this neglected group of a minority can make or mar his chances, just like our votes proved crucial to his victory as the first democratically elected governor to ever defeat a serving governor in Bauchi. I am sure without our roles, he would not have won the tightly contested election.

It is true that the general perception of our population believes the Nigerian Shiites don’t recognize the state institutions, and therefore don’t votes simply because the vast majority of them are staunch followers of the outlawed Islamic Movement in Nigeria under Sheikh Zakzaky, but the truth is there is a sizable number of Shia community in Bauchi who are proud to be Nigerians, who exercise their civic rights as citizens and partake in the democratic process.

I could remember how in the 2019 elections, Shia community played a crucial role in garnering thousands of votes to Bala Muhammad simply because we wanted to be parts of his transformation agendas which aimed to see the governor leading by examples and uniting Bauchi people without alienating any community irrespective of their ethnic or denominational backgrounds.

Sadly, almost four years in office, His Excellency Bala Muhammad has done a lot to many religious establishments just because they have bigger concentrations of voters while ignoring the hapless Shia community in the state despite the vital roles they can still play in his attempt to seek reelection next year.

As a well-known Shia cleric in Bauchi, I was able to convince thousands of people in our community in the build-up to the 2019 election that the Shiites would in no way be sidelined under this government. They went out en mass to vote for him, some of them were voting for the first time only to be snubbed by the way the governor rules his subjects unfairly, appreciating those whose votes he cares much about. The Shia community felt left behind with no development in the areas they concentrate and any tangible gesture to show he really never forgot us.

It should be noted that we, the Shia community, have yet to decide our next course of action because our hope is the governor still has more time to live up to the expectation, but his current policy of furtive alienation of the most persecuted religious group in Nigeria could not only weaken and risk his reelection chances, but could also see him go down in history as yet another governor who, even if he does not engage in persecuting them, does not care about their pitiable state of affairs even though he swore to take everybody alone. Sadly, the situation is unlikely to change. We are not pessimistic though.

Sheikh Tahir Umar is a chairman, Attaqreeb Unity Foundation, an organization that aims to unite the Shia and Sunni community for the betterment of Bauchi. He wrote in from Bauchi.