VIDEO OF SHEIK EL ZAKZAKY RELIGIOUS MEETING AND RITUAL

[Samuel Zalanga]

Hello Everyone,

If the reader is on Facebook, he or she can watch this religious meeting and ritual service under the leadership of El Zakzaky. I can imagine that such a ceremony will create serious concerns for the Emir of Zaria or any emir in the North for that matter. The issue is not that El Zakzaky or anyone for that matter does not have the right to religious worship. But it is the context and manner of the worship. Furthermore, I am not sharing this to justify any killing, but rather to show the deeper problems in the Nigerian society and social structure. One feels deeply concerned for such a nation. Here is a link to the video:

https://www.facebook.com/musa.azare.5/videos/vb.100002438910035/926082194149736/?type=2&theater

The way things are unfolding seem to be like, El Zakzaky is almost creating a state within a state. He has his own "palace" and flags or if you like "state headquarters."  It is natural to see the flags as a threat to the Nigerian state. It does not look like in the territory where the event is taking place, Nigerian law is supreme or respected at all. In this respect, you wonder whether Nigeria can survive as a nation. Cohabitation requires compromises, otherwise, the end result is everyone must go his or her way even if it is a marriage.  But El Zakzaky is not the only problem.

There are many things that take place in Nigeria in the name of religion (Christianity for instance) that make you wonder  whether there is any law in Nigeria that regulates what happens to human beings in the name of religion. In the name of religion, there is so much that is virtually abuse of human beings. If White people were to treat Black people the way some religious leaders do in Africa, it will be said the behavior is racist. But when it is committed by fellow Blacks many condone it under religion. Abuse is abuse if we have a clear understanding of human dignity.

Here is this film (the first one below) that was shown on Sunday in my church as an example of false prophets. I did not know that it exists. The second one demonstrates how witches prefer maybe tropical climate, so to say.  Both are on Youtube. Viewer discretion is advised because you can be offended by what you see:

a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn81nLNkEgI


b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXqwbU8z9aU

Religion and other things can combine to destroy Nigeria, if this is the way things will go. This is one reason why the issue is not religion per se but what takes place in the name of religion.

Samuel

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

SZ, 

Who is threatened by the Sheik- the Emir of Zaria or the Nigerian state if one may ask? Were the killings an attempt to protect the Emir from

his enemies/opponents or to keep public order in Zaria? Whichever it was, why the military and not civil authorities to take care of the situation? Why the army and not the police? Whose army is the Nigerian Army any way?

oa

oa

oa

Sent from my iPhone

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[Samuel Zalanga]

Dear OA,

The questions you raised are beyond my immediate interest, but I find them meaningful. I will share with you how I think about some of these issues.

1) Who is threatened by the Sheik? I will say both the Nigerian state and the Emir. Indeed, including some ordinary citizens. I know the Sheik since when I was an undergraduate at Bayero University, Kano. I remember that he was a good speaker but at that time he was more like a firebrand critique of the system in general. He is now clearly the leader of a religious sect that has strong connections with Iran and maybe Southern Iraq. I will add that many Nigerian Muslims feel uncomfortable with the Shi'a sect. But that is not surprising, the early Christians in the Roman Empire were considered anti-social as well. They had to work hard to mainstream their faith. Religious organizations compete for market share and in the process they do accuse each other a lot in order to legitimize their brand.

 In some northern local communities, even the Izala people are not fully embraced because of their teaching, although one of my classmates in Bauchi is Izala and we still talk regularly. Some of my undergraduates classmates were also Izala and we used to discuss it I remember.  I read about Izala in the biography of Sheik Gumi and sociologically, I thought they generated some interesting theological issues that challenged traditional Islam in the North. The book was co-written by Gumi and someone at BUK called Isma'ila Tsiga.

You may or may not be familiar maybe with the traditional structure of power in Northern cities. If you are familiar with that, it is easy to sense that the kind of veneration that the Sheik receives in the video is traditionally only reserved for the traditional rulers, even though this is religious. Indeed, some of the veneration the traditional rulers receive is more than that of the governor of a state when I was growing up.

We used to laugh in Bauchi when we discussed how one guy who is a civil servant mistakenly called a number and they said was the Emir of Bauchi palace. The man instinctively removed his shoes in the office out of the natural feeling to venerate or respect the institution. It is a sociological fact that when people are recognized as traditional authority in a place, any encroachment on what looks like their prerogative can definitely cause tension. The Sheik has surely created a competing center of power. I can observe that this will not be taken kindly since his teaching is not the type that will make a traditional ruler comfortable for good reasons.  Whether this is is good or bad, is a matter of the reader's  personal opinion. But I am just making an empirical observation. In some of the things I read, it was obvious that some people in the community while not supporting violence clearly felt the presence of the Sheik and his people as nuisance. It is a free market though. If the Sheik wants to takeover the North, he would have to innovate and accommodate as rational choice theorists like Rodney Stark would say. Competition even in religion force innovation. Whether that is good or bad is another matter.

As for the state, if you were able to read Hausa, the guys who commented on the video in Hausa who do not seem to be very high ranking people in the society were saying that seeing the kind of ceremony the Sheik had, it is obvious that the government will feel threatened. I think this is not the only place the Nigerian government feels threatened in my view. Religious communities in Nigeria in many respects constitute an alternative social order. This has become more pronounced over time. Some governors are going to religious leaders to seek for relevance politically. Al Ghazali is very unhappy about that. He prefers that no visit takes place between the political elite and religious leader but if it has to, he prefers the political elite visiting the religious leader. Al Ghazali is concerned about the possibility of corruption.

 Indeed, in my assessment, because many religious organizations or communities form an alternative social order, their concept of citizenship is different from the one envisaged in the Nigerian constitution. I am not sure whether many realize that or not.  For most of them, true citizenship is based on religious righteousness whether Christian or Muslim. The religious leaders, whether we like it or not, tend to have more influence on the minds and choices of many ordinary citizens than the state. This indicates a limit to the degree of state penetration in Africa, a point that Joel Migdal discusses at length, showing the implications of that for development in developing countries in his book, which is referenced here: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/4280.html

We are talking about need for leaders in Nigeria. While we all agree on that, I am more interested in not just that being sated but seeing the complex situation on the ground which conceptual analysis can easily ignore because of its need for abstraction. Concrete attention to mechanism and process on the ground is very important for any serious political-economic analysis. Our modern state elites are not always the most powerful or influential people in the society as they appear formally, except for the money they control. Traditional rulers and religious leaders cannot be ignored. I have heard of people seeking position in the modern state (e.g., becoming a vice chancellors) but they had to go through a traditional ruler.

2. What was the purpose of the Killing? I think this is a question that is relevant to ask in many situations in Nigeria, and not just the situation in Zaria. I will on my part encourage a look at the morality rate in Nigeria and the causes, the classes of people affected, and the process it happens. I made a presentation on maternal mortality rate and I had to look at the statistics in Nigeria, especially, the North. It is shocking.

On another note, Moses Ochonu made an important observation about the effort of the soldiers to persuade the people after watching the other video that someone posted, which I think is relevant for those who do not understand Hausa. If one takes note of the way the Nigerian military behaves, especially given past experience, the two high ranking soldiers pleaded a lot in Hausa language with the people. They truly pleaded a lot which for me is an indication of a different kind of military than the one I knew before that used to call us "bloody civilians" which is a derogatory term.

In my assessment, the issue cannot be understood by just looking at the event. But looking at the event on video, I felt like it was just a matter of time before there will be some clash. For one, the people were shouting derogatorily to the military guys. Meanwhile, the issue was access to a public road. If the group is going to use the road and want to deny the pulbic access, ideally, there should be procedure for applying for permission from the state. Such a process will be good for the state and for the Sheik and his people. In that respect, a sign should be put from a distance to prevent a person from coming close to the people. The person will be warned from afar that there is no access ahead. They do that in the U.S. and people change direction.  What if a lady wearing jeans happened to be there in her car with a boyfriend etc. This kind of encounter can easily lead to regretful incidences.

But more importantly, my main concern is that what I saw there is not the same thing as what used to be in the North that I grew up in. in the past, there was a lot of order and respect for constituted authority even though there was inequality and unfairness. The idea that people can just violate the law, whether Christians or Muslims is not healthy for a society. I know because of the sentimental nature of religion, people's emotion can easily be mobilized.

 I spoke with a friend in Bauchi and he told me that there was a time the road from Kano to Bauchi, the main access road through Ningi was blocked for several days because there was a religious program. Many business people suffered because this kind of blockade of the road is not announced in advance and there are no quick alternative roads. And often it is done in the name of religion. The modern state has to anticipate this kind of situations and work with religious leaders as a matter of policy and order to avoid this kind of situation. What if there is an emergency and someone is being rushed to the hospital? I have no problem personally if the state needs to build such groups stadium with parking places for the sake of public order. It will help avoid this kind of unnecessary conflict that comes because of people blocking the road in the name of God. Often we wait until bad things happen and then we are sorry. It is just like road accidents in Nigeria. If you keep a record of all accidents and the contexts, many of them are avoidable. But people drive fast, they do not maintain their vehicles very well etc etc.

The killing in my view happened because of escalation of the conflict. I can sense the soldier was trying to handle it calmly but the young people seemed excited that they have been able to frustrate a constituted authority in uniform. When you allow such situations to happen the result is open-ended. A gunshot was the immediate incident that led to the first world war. But anyone carefully observant knows that there are other long term conditions and processes that crated that tension. 

We regret the killings but I think if we are going to be honest, we should not focus on just the event but the situations and social processes that resulted in this kind of incident. Focusing on the event is not satisfactory to me. Moreover, there are many Nigerians that are killed slowly everyday because of failure of public institutions or negligence that can be directly associated with the role of certain government officials, not necessarily soldiers. My sister was one such victim in a private clinic. No one investigated it. My brother was returning from a wedding and some people ambushed him, overpowered him, tie his feet and hands and slaughtered him like a goat and went with his head. No one investigated it. Many of such killings take place in Nigeria and we should be concerned equally about why they happen. It is consistent with the commitment to valuing life that leads to the concern with the killings in Zaria. We should not cherry pick certain killings.  They told me it was predestined. There are many cases like this but because they are not killed with guns and in a dramatic way, many either ignore that or are unaware of that. I hope our care and concern will also be extended to such people and not just those being killed through dramatic acts of violence. many die in Nigeria without going to the hospital because they do not have the money. Hospital services are now "cash and carry."

3. Keeping Public Order: Using Durkheimian insights, the police, no matter how good they are, cannot be the main source of maintaining social order in a society. Using external constraints to compel people to behave normally works but only up to a point. The best way to maintain social order according to Durkheim is to train or socialize people effectively to internalize societal values, norms and social expectations, so that they do not need anyone to compel them to do the right thing. They themselves will do the right thing and even given the opportunity to do the wrong  thing (i.e., violate the law), they will not, and if they did, they will be worried.

For instance, they say America is a free society, but who will in his or her house, even though free, when alone, after shower will just come and sit naked in the living room watching TV. Something will tell the person that there is something wrong with that. The person has internalized societal norms. So ideally we should only use police officers for deviants or deviant cases which Durkheim said there will always be some. It will be difficult for a society to maintain law and order if their primary approach to that is through the threat of external constraint using the police or prisons. That should be the ultimate or last option.

The question then is, what are the institutions in Nigerian or African societies that are charged with socializing the individual to cultivate or internalize societal values, norms and social expectations? Are they functioning well? Have they been weakened over time? If the answer is in the positive, then I do not think the police can be of much help. In any case, I was in Nigeria last summer and I have heard horrible stories about even the police. This is not to say that all the Nigerian police are bad. But I think what happened in Zaria in my view is far more serious than a simple question of police or military, important as that distinction is.

4. Whose Army is the Nigerian Army Anyway? My answer to that question will begin by another question: from whose perspective do you want me to answer the question? The answer will vary with standpoint I take. The constitution of Nigeria in serous critique of Nigerian society is just one standpoint. For one, the legal system of every society tends to reflect the power relations and dynamics n in that society, whether it is ancient Greece, Brahmin India, Rome, or Mansa Musa's Mali. Many of the laws that protect ordinary people in the West, came into existence as a result of certain serious social struggles or shocks in the societies, which necessitated reform. The first U.S. constitution did not recognize the humanity of Blacks.  The inclusive laws came as an attempt to accommodate certain interests that have organized to challenge the system.

Given this, frankly, in a class society like Nigeria, one cannot just say easily because of the constitution that the Nigerian army and police are for the people or masses. Just ask the masses this question in Nigeria and note what they will respond. Anyone  with a thorough understanding of class society and its dynamics , knows that the reality is not necessarily a reflection of the constitution. So first, there is the whole question of the process of law-making being disproportionately influenced by the upper and privileged classes in every society. Even in the U.S., there is evidence that some laws were drafted by corporate lawyers and given to a congress person to read on the floor e.g., bankruptcy law. Power and social struggle are what make law fairer and inclusive. Without the women's or civil rights struggles, many laws that are inclusive in the U.S. today will not be in existence today.

Ideally, the Nigerian army and police are to protect all Nigerians. But if you go to Nigeria and ask very ordinary people this same question, they will laugh because for them, the answer is obvious. Sometimes, the military or police as institutions have their own substantive interest. And sometimes, it is in their interests or please the powers that be. Of course there are professionals among them who truly want to serve Nigeria or any African country for that matter well. The question is why is it that such people do not have the opportunity to be in charge. This is a process issue and cannot be solved by an academic answer.

5. The Role of Civil Authorities: In theory, our civil authorities should be able to handle what you saw in the video. Indeed, in those days, a word from the Emir of Zaria alone, or his representatives can end the situation. But you assume in my view that even civil authorities are always functioning very well in Nigeria. What the video indicates is a certain attitude that has become a sign of anomie which is a kind of normlessness.

 We will always have conflict situations in society, but when people are well-integrated, which is a whole big question, and when there is respect for law and order, such conflicts should be resolved amicably. I must say that when it comes to social order, I have been seriously influenced by Thomas Hobbes. One does not have to agree with his recommendation of what might be considered authoritarian leadership before embracing the significance of social order. But when he wrote in the mid-1600s, he saw the real problem of social order.  When we discussed his theory of social order and I was going to be out of town and made my students to watch a documentary on ISIS and the failed state in Somalia, I was amaze at how they got so excited about Thomas Hobbes' theory when I returned from my trip.

 Without social order there will be no civilization. I know that social order can be just or unjust. If Nigerians or any group of Africans want a just social order, I want to say that they cannot just speak it out. They have to work hard on that. We cannot be creating conditions that undermine social order and then magically expect something else. We should look at the role of school, religion, etc. etc. in socializing people to do the right thing and not feel like obeying laws is something  for poor people or a way you can show you are somebody in your community. Those that are rich and privileged can get away with it. As one person said in a Nigerian movie, to demonstrate his power,  he warned someone insulting him that: "There are those who own this town, and there are those who own the owners of the town." Why should we  have such a mentality in the country?

We all regret the death or killings of Nigerians, (not just those in Zaria), but we should pay as much attention to the social processes and long term sequence of events that resulted in an ugly situation as we do to the event itself. There are so many negligent deaths in Nigeria but either people are unaware about hat or do not think it merits our righteous anger. My family has been a victim of such death as many other families, even though it was not by the military but still tied to the question of law and order.

Thank you for your attention. I hope this helps you to understand my thinking better.

Samuel

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

Dear SZ,

Thank you for your detailed response to my last post. I agree with you mostly.  I share your concern and sentiments. I am heartened by the knowledge and diligence you expend in your usually well reasoned contribution to conversations in this forum. Unlike some, you try to build not pull done. You do by educating, edifying, and sharing the benefits of your earned intellectual and moral development and growth. You expend, spare your valuable time. May you get better and more kind. I commend you.

Unlike some, I am quite simply unhappy with the rigmarole that continues to describe Nigerians' experimentation with, not practice of statesmanship. The country in my mind, has run out of excuses and explanations for her failures to become one that works for most not a few of her citizens. A mostly functional country is not beyond Nigerians' capacity if the truth be told. Her failures are a choice. From time to time, my frustration with the country's leaders' apparently conspiratory determination to not do things well gets the better of me. Nigeria's leaders can get rich while doing things well most of the time can they not? Leaders do in many successful countries. Why they choose to do differently is beyond me. Thank you again.

oa

Sent from my iPhone

[ebere onwudiwe]

This is a recent piece in ThisDay. Hope you find time to look at it.

Be well colleagues, and Merry Xmas,

ebere

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