Setting The Record Straight: Tijjaniyya’s Lies And Infractions In ABU Zaria -By Jamal Garba Al-Bagdadi

Last week a quintessential mutumin kirki and dattijon arziki of unimpeachable character, ABU Zaria Chief Security Officer, Mallam Ashiru Zango came under attack by online thugs through a grudgingly slanderous post by a group of thugs on “Tijjaniyya Online”. An online platform that has become acutely notorious for making vile posts that that are sacrilegious to established Islamic doctrines in the process of deifying their ‘Shaihus’. The said post mischievously claimed that some Tijjaniyya adherents were arrested, detained and beaten by the University Security Services.

The Tijjaniyya Online platform, to support their baseless claim posted Mallam Ashiru’s picture on Facebook and made him a punching bag for their weed-smoking members. Last year they did same to Dr. Munir Ari, an Islamic preacher who is highly respected and revered by the university community. By the way, that’s their habit, what their patrons advise and encourage them to do all the time, to insult respected adherents of the sunnah of our noble Prophet (SAW). Among their patrons, there is one with protruding eyes, and moustache like the whiskers of a castrated bulldog, I learned he is a professor of history. This man, in the next post I will attach his caricature, is the mastermind of the Tijjaniyya crisis in ABU Zaria. He is notorious for using the Hausa daring phrase “Ba uban da ya isa…” to encourage Tijjaniyya students to violate the university regulations and constitute nuisance to the university community. This same bulldog of a professor has attempted to set fire of crisis on other campuses in Kaduna state, notable among them were Kaduna Polytechnic , and School of Health Makarfi where this professor was warned to keep off the school.

It is true that some students were invited by the University Security Services for violating university directives and regulations; the university management had earlier on issued a circular suspending all activities in hostel mosques on the university campuses, except the obligatory five daily prayers. The activities in question included daily MSSN Ta’alimat and the unsanctioned incantations around a white fabric that the Tijjaniyya adherents call ‘wazifa’. This circular was a prelude to the reopening of the ICSA/Ramat Hostel mosque that was shut down in order to prevent the escalation of violence that was triggered and fueled by the conduct of this wazifa in the hostel mosques. However, these students continued to carry out wazifa in those mosques in outright disregard of the university directive that was intended to forestall break down of law and order.

On the day they claimed to have been arrested, detained, and beaten, eye witness accounts report that when the University security men arrived at the venue of the wazifa they did not use force on the students. They only asked the students to follow them. But these students went on social media to concoct lies in order to destroy the good image of the University security chief, Mallam Ashiru, simply because they see him as Ahlul-Sunnah, one who adheres to the noble teachings and practices of our noble Prophet (SAW).

The simple summary of the root cause of inter-sectorial clashes in ABU Zaria emanates from the blatant violation of university regulations by these unruly Tijjaniyya students. They are merchants of crisis and unrest.

While ABU Zaria maintains a rigorous culture of order, decorum and tranquility which has placed it among the most peaceful universities in Africa today. However, the emergence of this group calling itself “Tijjaniyya Muslim Students Association of Nigeria” on the university campuses presents a new threat to the peace and stability that we are known for. It equally raises concerns on the place of rules and regulations in this university, on whether any Tom, Dick and Harry could just wake up any time to create and run an organization in the University without registration or observing existing regulations.

No human society anywhere, not even the most primitive of human societies have ever existed without any form of laws, guidance, regulations or codes of behavior. It is this axiom that affirms our superior position above multitudes of other creations of Allah and additionally supports our dominance and mastery of the tools in our host environment.

Without any doubt, we are fundamentally a representation of the laws and codes of behavior that has guided our society to this very moment. ABU Zaria must not be allowed to drift away from this standard path. Our understanding of the dynamics of social order and societal decorum compels us to bring to light questions concerning the place of codes of behavior in a heterogeneous university community with a population of over fifty thousand students of diverse religious, political, economic, and underlying ideological cleavage.

This compels us to raise questions on existing University regulations regarding the registration and operation of this group of students calling themselves “Tijjaniyya Muslim Students Association”. Interestingly, there is the University Undergraduate Handbook which clearly responds to this burning question. The guidelines for registration of students’ associations, according to the Undergraduate Handbook, on page 108 state;

“The following guidelines come into force in the 2000/2001 session and they are meant to regulate the activities of all students’ associations in the University.”

Still under the heading of Students’ Organizations, the Undergraduate Handbook went further on page 109 to clearly categorize those organizations into four with accompanying unambiguous explanations thus as follows;

a. Faculty based or professional Association; There shall be one for each faculty.

b. Religious associations; they are namely, the F.C.S, N.F.C.S., and M.S.S.

c. One state association from each state if necessary.

d. Any other Club may be established with clear consent of the University Administration after serious scrutiny and approval.

This categorization therefore, establishes the University’s clear recognition of M.S.S. as the only religious organization representing the Muslim students. This invariably implies that no other association can be registered in this respect. This is further reiterated in page 110 of the Handbook;

“Any un-registered association shall not be recognized by the University and will not be allowed to operate on any of the campuses of the University.”

These regulations are simple and unambiguous, but the Tijjaniyya students and the misguided persons parading themselves as their patrons are too blind and dumb to understand and follow due process. They would rather forcefully take over mosques, constitute public nuisance, and insult respected Islamic scholars and leaders whenever they are called to order.

In conclusion, it is important to highlight these important facts; firstly, TIMSAN is not a registered association in ABU Zaria, therefore its operations on any of the university campuses is totally illegal. Secondly, all hostel mosques are built and managed by the MSSN, and the use of such mosques for any activity outside the obligatory five daily prayers requires explicit and tacit approval by the MSSN. It is on record that the TIMSAN does not seek for such permission when carrying out wazifa in the hostel mosques either from the MSSN or the University management. Thirdly, if the contention of the TIMSAN is that they are not represented in the leadership structure of the MSSN, that is an absolute lie. I know very well that the current Auditor-General of the MSSN is a staunch carbi-carrying member of the TIMSAN.