In 1989, when President Ibrahim Babangida was in power, the founder of the Izala Muslim sect, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, said it would only be over his dead body that another Christian would rule Nigeria.
He died three years later and one year after that, a Christian by the name of Chief Ernest Shonekan became Head of State.
In 2021, his son, Sheik Ahmed Gumi, told Fulani terrorists (who he claims are fighting an “ethnic war” because they have been neglected by Government and who he believes ought to be forgiven, compensated and rehabilitated for their crimes against humanity) that Muslim soldiers are not the ones that are killing them but rather the Christian ones.
He also told them to stop kidnapping Muslims as it causes them to lose sympathy amongst the Muslim population.
His father’s comments were bad enough but Sheik Ahmed’s comments are worse: they are irresponsible, reckless, dangerous and incendiary and could spark off a a chain of events that can cause Nigeria and West Africa to be engulfed in the fire and horror of war for the next 50 years.
I appreciate his efforts to rescue the kidnapped but must this be at the expense of Christian blood?
Are the Christians of the North expendable? Should they be the whipping boy and the sacrificial lamb for the barbaric savages and terrorists?
I really do wonder why the Gumis hate Christians so much. Is it genetic or are they just irredeemably heartless and insensitive? To make matters worse, Sheik Ahmed has said we must not refer to these terrorists and bandits as criminals! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry and had I not known better, I would have had cause to question this man’s sanity. What else do you call cold-blooded killers of defenceless women and children if not cowards and criminals? Would he prefer we call them saints and kind-hearted charity workers?
The bottom line is as follows. Inciting Fulani terrorists to target and butcher members of the Christian community in Nigeria and appealing to them to attack and kill only Christian soldiers whilst sparing the Muslim ones does not augur well for national cohesion, peaceful co-existence and unity.
It will only lead to further division and as a matter fact, it is the path to a full scale and full blown ethnic and religious war the likes of which have never been seen. This must NEVER be allowed to happen in our country.
We must, as Christians and Muslims, come together and fight the terrorists AS ONE. There can be NO peace or dialogue with mass murderers ethnic cleansers and genocidal maniacs.
In this war, we must give no quarter. Ours is to use all means available to resist and crush them and despatch them to the afterlife. It is left to God to forgive them.
