Who Killed Sheikh Goni Aisami And Why Was He Killed? -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

The killer of Sheikh Goni Aisami is known. He is John Gabriel—a Christian soldier. I will come to this later. Why he was he killed could, at best, be said to be under investigation. But the preliminary confession by the killer, if that is anything to go by, reveals that it is an act of criminality. Can a soldier be a killer and a thief? Yes, in the case of John. Ideally, a soldier shouldn’t be a thief. Yet a soldier can be a killer. If one chooses to sound infantile, one may say a soldier is a killer.  Or if a child is asked; who is a soldier and what does a soldier do for a living? It shouldn’t be surprising if they say; “a soldier is a killer and a soldier kills”.

But why does a soldier kill? To steal cars and rob people of their possessions? Definitely no. A soldier kills to save lives. To that extent, military is a noble profession. However, John, along with his accomplice, Adamu Gideon, desecrated the profession by killing to steal. He heartlessly killed his benefactor who gave him a free ride. His benefactor thought a soldier (Christian or Muslim) deserves some honour and should be trusted with one’s life and deserves one’s companionship on a journey—especially in a country where citizens’ souls are worthless.

One cannot blame this Sheikh for thinking positively about the military; John proved him wrong. He took away his soul; but was unable to waste it. The Sheikh’s soul refused to be wasted. It ‘resurrected’ to inform those around that it has been brutally killed by a brutal soldier. Subsequently, this soldier was arrested by some policemen. Police arrested soldier? Though not unheard of, it is not a good news to the Nigerian military.

If this soldier had killed an ordinary man in the manner he did, his punishment should be death. But he killed a scholar who alone makes a community. He splashed the pages of Yobe’s history—especially that of Gashua where Goni Aisami hailed from—with the blood of one of its finest scholars. This is serious! As I averred in some previous articles that under any circumstance “kill and go” is alien to Islam, the wrath of the law should be quickly unleashed on this criminal. The law should be made to walk and work fast; there should be no time to waste time on this killing.

I have heard many Muslims saying the Sheikh was killed by a Christian soldier. This is meant to emphasize that this trigger-happy criminal is a Christian. It is apparently intended to pay the Nigerian Christians back in their coin. Many Muslims have claimed that if it had been the other way round; that is, a Muslim soldier killed a Christian cleric, the front pages of our national dailies would have been awash with different captions and headlines like: “Nigerian Military Jihadist Kills a Bishop,” “Nigerian Christians are on the Verge of extinction”, “Boko Haram Spares all Muslims and Kills all Christians”, “There is a Plot to Islamize Nigerian by Some Military Jihadists” etc. Some of these reactions are funny and make me laugh.

Look, senselessness should not, in this case, be confronted with senselessness. Nigeria is too fragile for that at the moment. John is a criminal and his criminality has nothing to do with Christianity or Nigerian Christians as far as the Muslims are concerned—except if investigation proves otherwise. Muslims need not flare-up in anger with these sorts of headlines; whoever dominates the media editorializes the narratives. What the Nigerian Muslims need do is to embrace journalism, military, legal profession etc.; and reject all these anti-progress and myopic interpretations of religion which forbid some of these professions that are core requirements for any meaningful progress in the modern world.

What is more, the combined criminalization of politics and theologization of democracy is doing us some damages. While the former could be as a result of the ugly portrayal of politics through the actions of our politicians, the latter is championed by some who claim to be salafists among the Muslims. It is interesting to note that even in this salafism, there are two major strands when it comes to participation in politics (democracy). One rejects it completely and tags participation in itkufr(disbelief). This is found majorly in the Southwest of Nigeria. The other strand of salafism sees democratic politics and participation in its electoral process as a necessity—even if not ideal. This strand is the mainstream in the North of Nigeria.

In the case of Sheikh Goni Aisami, he is not only a salafist, he is also political and modernizing (that is, a modernizer). This is known to those who know him. Those who do not know him should listen to his last lecture which he delivered as if he was advised by the Angel of Death to say his last words. There are things he mentioned in that lecture which ordinarily, in my humble opinion, shouldn’t have been for the public. But we thank God for the content of his last lecture; it should be treated as aWasiyyah(will) by a salafi scholar who calls a spade a spade. May Allah grant him Paradise.

SOME SNIPPETS FROM SHEIKH GONI AISAMI’S LAST LECTURE

The Sheikh advised the youth against their obsession with sport, especially football. Though not bad in and of itself, through it, the youth have resorted to gambling and have become gamblers which the Sheikh vehemently condemned. He reproached his audience, and by extension every Muslim, to be very wary of the so-called malams who are practically fortune tellers and soothsayers but pretend to be pious. He admonished against lasciviousness and sexual perversion which is very common—even among house wives.

The Sheikh bemoaned lack of space in our mosques for women worshippers. This is not peculiar to Gashua, it is the norm in the far North of Nigeria not to have women section in mosques. This is not only un-Islamic, it has some serious repercussions and impedes social and spiritual development of the Muslim women. I personally appreciate the Sheikh for this.

On politics, the Sheikh participates and encouraged participation. He criticized—as incorrect—the notion that clerics should not participate in politics. He waded into what he considered unnecessary altercation between the people of Nguru and Gashua in Yobe State vis-a-vis the location of certain projects. He is full of praise for the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan who also hailed from Gashua. That is an irony of life. The Senate President was described as tomato seller by a politician—whose recent ‘attire challenge’ is trending—but praised by the late Sheikh for some goodness he credited to him. Anyway, politics, according to the Sheikh, should be competitively healthy; not acrimonious.

The Sheikh’s emphasis on death sounds as if he announced his death. He warned against reckless driving and opined that driving beyond 120km/h is suicidal. He lamented the growing number of orphans and families without bread winners due to sudden death which has become ubiquitous. The Sheikh passionately explained that it is a duty on members of the community to generously cater for widows and orphans. It is unknown to the Sheikh that his wives and children will, some moments after his lecture, be widowed and orphaned respectively. Allahu Akbar!

As we continue to seek Allah’s forgiveness and mercy for this Sheikh to ease his path to Paradise which we desire for him, the good people of Gashua should see catering for his family as a religious obligation. The State Government has made a nice gesture, many individuals should follow suit. May Allah reward every good doers.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen.

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

@salahuddeenAbd