By Sulaiman Maijama’a
May peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you, Ya Sheik. I believe offering prayers to your late parents, is what you love the most on this earth. May the Almighty Allah forgive them, bless your family and may He keep empowering you the strength to stick firm on righteousness as you are.
These days, I’m saddened by the spate of controversies over the preposterous lie first published by “Daily Independent” Newspaper. Thought, the report was retracted and the paper apologized to you, some ill will individuals keep on fueling the issue, misquoting your past utterances, assassinating your character and calling for your resignation as minister. To me, this has not come with a surprise.
Let me make this clear, i just grew to love you and your preachings for the sake of Allah. I have been an ardent listener of your preachings, especially from 2008, when you lunched “Masjidul Qur’an” in Bauchi. There is a little or none of your preachings, from that period till date, which I have not listened to. To mention but, a few, I have followed your Tafseer from Masjidul Qur’an, Bauchi up till now in Annur Masjid, Wuse2, Abuja. I also listened, in full, how you intellectually, in a debate, embarrassed Muhammad Yusuf, the pioneer leader of Boko Haram. I was able to listen to your series of lectures in Bauchi, such as: ‘the message’, ‘the best nine of all’, ‘hisnul musmul’, ‘hajatuna ilah-ikhlas’, ‘ishiruna dariqatan lir-riya’.
I was as well opportune to
listen to your Juma’a sermons in London and your ‘ta’alim’ in a book, ‘Shama’ilun Nabeey’, which you deliver in Annur ‘Masjid’ from lecture 1 to 100. To be blunt, your preachings have, over the years, had a great impact on my life. But, surprisingly, with all this excessive consumption of your preachings, I have never been incited to hold any extremists’ ideology. In fact, I’m currently a level 300 student at the Bayero University, Kano. I know also that, most of your students have in Islam have acquired secular knowledge, some of whom you sponsored. All your children attend ‘boko’ and one of your daughters even reads medicine. This alone is enough to prove wrong those behind the attacks against you.
To be honest, I have not only been following your ‘Da’awah’, but, also monitor your performance since when you became the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and now a Minister. Let me confess with apology, Yaa Sheik, that, I monitor even your personal life, in order to compare your utterances with your actions. Your exceptional track record brightened and brought the NITDA to limelight which made president Buhari to elevate you to ministerial position. With your emergence as Minister, I need not to mention how Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy is rising and shining. Your successor at the NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa whose appointment you recommended, is also following your footsteps.
Yaa Sheik I have always seen a corroboration between your utterances and actions, so, I believe the driving force for the achievements you record, is nothing but, stickness to your Islamic philosophy of leadership, among which include honesty and incorruptibility. However, as it is like a tradition in ministries, there exist some crooks who do not mean well for the country and who are devoured and blinded by corrupt practices. To these people, to be honest is the greatest crime one could commit against them. These gladiators, in whose midst you find yourself, are the masterminds behind all these mischievous lies.
They are trying to portray you in a bad light, presenting a distorted image of your person by linking you with a terror groups such as Alqa’ida and Hoko Haram in Nigeria, in order to paint you black at the global scene, which they think could result in taking you off your ministerial seat, so that they would continue having a free access to their dirty businesses. They failed to recall that, way back in 2007, while you were the only scholar who intellectually put the then Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf to a shame in a debate to counter extremists’ ideology, you equally practically take bold steps as communication minister to put an end to terrorists’ attacks through your revolutionary policies on cyber security and information security.
In your wisdom, when you ordered the disconnection of unregistered sim cards in Nigeria in order not to avail an opportunity for the criminals to operate freely, the country had witnessed an unprecedented peace and tranquility over a long period of time, because most of the Boko Haram attacks must use unregistered sim cards to arrange. You became an obstacle to the Boko Haram. This is even the main reason their leader, Abubakar Shekau released a four minutes video, threatening to assassinate you. But today, some people with a small mind, with improper cognitive ability are linking you with the ideology you have been fighting, almost throughout your life ( both through your preachings and your IT skills).
I’m happy that it’s from you I heard that “leadership is a calamity”. So whoever is tested with a burden of leadership and he wants to stick to the oath he has taken between him and his creator, there must come ungodly predators who can go to whatever extent to eliminate him. Never compromise, I know you will not, never!
Let me end my letter with verse 128 in ‘Surah Nahl’ of the Glorious Qur’an: “Indeed, Allah is with those who fear Him and those who are doers of good.”
Maijama’a, writes from Faculty of Communication, BUK.
sulaimanmaija@gmail.com
