Perhaps, today (21/09/2026), I have gotten a novel opportunity to express a heart-felt and long-held opinion that I have kept to myself for more than half a decade about a man that I got to know during a very difficult emotional period of my life when my conscience bled as I ruminated in my mind on an imaginary and precarious scale of justice, the inhumanity of man to man.
Overtaken by empathy, I irresistibly indulged in this mental and emotional exercise to seek out whether there could be any balance whatsoever in the scale of justice that I imagined in my consciousness, between the wickedness of some men on the earth and the purposes of God for all men on the earth. I will explore this later as I say a few words about a bosom friend.
Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu is the Waziri Gwantu III of Gwantuland. Waziri Gwantu is a highly-regarded office in Gwantuland. Gwantu is the headquarters of Sanga Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State.
I got to know the Waziri through a Shiite Muslim friend, Sekiani during the early months of 2021 shortly after I had started to write a four-part work on the brutal massacre of many vibrant Muslim youths who were members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), the umbrella body of Shiites Muslims in Nigeria.
Isolated killings of young Shiites in Nigeria had happened severally before that time, my work was fired by that of Tuesday, 10th September 2019, the 10th Muharram 1441AH (Islamic Calendar) which happened simultaneously in Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto States, during the annual Ashura mourning procession of the IMN.
As the IMN struggled to seek justice from the Nigerian authorities and the news continued to spread across the world, my attention was once again drawn to the massacre.
That was the period I referred to as a very sad period in my life as I noticed that the Nigerian government authorities were doing nothing about the killings and were actually trying to cover up a mass murder in that magnitude. So, I had actually done my research and published the first part of that work before I met Sekiani.
Sekiani got me through to another person in Gwagwalada who got me through to Waziri Gwantu who gave me a deeper knowledge of how the then government in Nigeria deliberately decided to pulverize and completely annihilate the Nigerian Shiite Muslim Community.
By the way, since this work is a birthday eulogy for my friend and not a treatise to explore the rivalry between two Islamic religious sects, I must revert to my reason for this work, but I must quickly add that my interest on the matter at the time was “for what reason or reasons whatsoever must a country decide to kill her youths,…undergraduates, lecturers, etc”. That was too much for my emotion to deal with!
Meanwhile, I will enclose here below that first part of the work on the massacre of Shiite Muslims in Nigeria as an addendum to this eulogy.
In continuation of my eulogy, first, I understand Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu as a devout Muslim with a very open mind to the views of other religions because I know how he encourages me in my Christian practice.
Born in the year of Nigeria’s most gruesome and widely-spread political upheavals six years after the country’s independence, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu is a man whose actions are deeply guided by his Islamic religious belief system. A very scrupulous man, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu is very careful in his choice of words as he communicates with you, and is always ready to apologize to you if he suspects that he has offended you.
I also know him to be an unrepentant humanist and a versatile journalist who is strictly interested in upholding the humanity in all of us as he goes about doing his work.
He is also a very hard worker because even in our age, I find him awake almost every night as both of us burn the proverbial night candles. He would chat me up and say, “Abuchi, don’t you sleep?” but he is awake, asking me to sleep!
A veteran journalist of the New Nigerian Newspaper Era of the Northern Nigeria media axis, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu is presently a lecturer in the Mass Communication Department of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He has been on the saddle of news-hunting, news-gathering, news-vetting and news-vending for the past thirty four years, from his middle twenties.
Severally, he has practiced his trade with such other renowned media houses like the Daily Times, Al-Mizan Newspaper, The Pointer Express, Daily Trust etc.
Taking a literal “Sabbatical” from the journalism profession, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu was the pioneer Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission.
Known for youth mentorship in Sanga Local Government area and the environs where he doubles as both a traditional authority and motivator, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu is a total media practitioner and an academic scholar popular and well-beloved by and among his undergraduate students as he is also a sound and smooth mass media educator and educationist.
Sitting at the helm of affairs of several media outfits, Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu pioneered a specialized form of inter-disciplinary journalism across the Ivory Towers in Nigeria with a premium mass media/newspaper publishing company, The Education Monitor Group of Newspapers where he is the Publisher and the Chief Executive Officer.
As I get close to ending this special birthday eulogy that is very dear to my heart, I revert now to a rhetorical question that I had asked at the beginning of this work, viz: “did I find any balance on my imaginary scale of justice in what some human beings do to others because such human beings are temporarily privileged to possess certain fleeting political powers, in comparison with the purposes of God for all human beings on the earth?” of course not.
I have found no balance whatsoever as regards the actions of some men to others and the several purposes of God for all men on earth. More discussion on this should be for another day in an entirely different forum, but before that time, I shall enclose the first part of that article that got me to know Mallam Waziri Isa Adamu for the relevant and concerned authorities in Nigeria to contemplate and chew on so that peace will reign between the Sunni Muslims and Shiites Muslims in Nigeria.
In closing this work, Doc (I call you Doc. because I already know and have experienced your intellectual erudition and your scholarly capabilities), I must say that I am happy for you.
I am sure that some people may have thought that you would break after losing four of your undergraduate children in that madness that was crafted by the then Nigerian government and masterminded by some remotely-interested religious fanatics wearing the deceptive garbs of government officials, security agents, et al. We were happy that you didn’t break. We thank God for that.
As for your erstwhile traducers, those people whose devilish orders culminated in the cutting down the innocent lives of your bright and aspiring children, I have begun to see a certain shift in the position of the pendulum of divine justice to redress your emotional, psychological and spiritual wounds, though the pendulum is yet to run full circle in line with the law of divine balance to equate all the evil acts of men with commensurate punishment.
It is no wonder, therefore, that some of these confused, wicked and insane men, beasts and sadists in forms of human beings, are cooling down their mortally evil minds in the dungeons, with the swing of the pendulum.
My prayer for you is that God in his infinite love and mercy will continue to keep you as you have joined our rank of SENIOR CITIZENS.
I also pray that God will continue to protect you and bless the years of your grey hairs with more knowledge, abundant wisdom… all emblazoned in good health and comfort as it may please God in his sovereignty… AMEEN”
Happy 60th birthday to you!
ABUCHI OBIORA
(Abuchi Obiora is an Author, Journalist and Media Consultant. He is also a Biographer, Public Affairs Analyst and the Web Content Creator of a Web Resource Channel called “The Master’s Chamber”).
The Kaleidoscope Archives
https://globalupfront.com/section/the-kaleidoscope
Website: https://abuchiobiora.com.ng
E-mail: abuchiobioraonline@gmail.com / abuchiobiora@gmail.com
ADDENDUM
KILLINGS IN GOD’S NAME AND THE TRAVAILS OF NIGERIAN SHI’A MUSLIM COMMUNITY (PART I)
By ABUCHI OBIORA – Global Upfront Newspapers – The Kaleidoscope Archives
abuchiobiora@gmail.com Published: April 24, 2021
Since the time man became conscious of himself and his environment as he indulged in human socialization, man has asked questions as to his origin.
Observing his limitations and sundry mysteries around him, man believed that a hidden power far greater than his own – a power which actually controlled him and the mysteries he observed, existed.
Man’s search for knowledge to explain this superior power and other things that perplex him as well as explain his origin created the vacuum which has been filled with the sundry religions that spread from multiple cultures in different locations around the world.
In his natural self-protective instinct, protecting himself and all of his own, man began to assert a selfish authority over the religion which he discovered as a tool to cement his origin from that ultimate superior source which he called God. In time, he seems to breathe in an air of exclusivity, asserting ownership of this God over whom he also claims sole knowledge of. Growing in selfish pride and ego, man institutionalised the process of dismantling all obstacles to his belief in the God he has just discovered, including killing fellow human beings in God’s name.
In his investigative, best-selling book titled “In God’s Name”, David Yallop takes a swipe on the business activities of the Roman Church in what he called “Vatican Incorporated” to examine the reasons preceding the 1978 accidental murder of Pope John Paul I, who refused to play ball and also the businessmen in cahoots at the Vatican to continue their multi-billion dollars swindles, after the Pope’s selection to the papacy by the college of cardinals.
Apart from the Pontiff, so many other people were either poisoned, assassinated or suicided in that gruesome duel between the power of light and that of darkness, a duel which read like an epic fictional drama cast by international celebrities.
Rome did not go to war to force England back to the Church of Rome, as no human blood was shed in that split.
However, several centuries before, precisely in 1170 before the Church of England split from the Church of Rome, something happened. The playwright, T. S. Eliot composed an epic drama on a true life story in England. This true life story is the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of Church of England, Anglican Communion, who was later canonized and declared a saint by the Church of England.
Thomas Becket presided over the Church of England between 1162-1170 A.D. Eliot told the story in his play titled, “Murder in the Cathedral”, which was historically committed on 29th December, 1170 A.D. The murder was the culmination and the end of the struggle, the conflict between the Crown, represented by King Henry II, and the Church, represented by Thomas Becket.
Killing in God’s name is not exclusive to the Christian religion. As a matter of fact, more killings have been recorded in the religion of Islam than Christian religion. Killings in the religion of Islam are done either as a result of Islamic Fatwa, or as a result of inter-sects squabbles. One of such inter-sects squabbles started immediately after the death of Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) in 632 A.D. and what is known as Shi’a Islam was formed.
SHI’A AND SUNNI ISLAM SEPARATED
Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) began preaching Islam at Mecca before migrating to Medina from where he united the tribes of Arabia into a singular Arab Muslim religious polity. With Prophet Mohammed’s death (S.A.W) in 632 A.D., disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. According to WIKIPEDIA, while Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin, was still alive, and the rest of Mohammed’s close family were waiting for the prophet’s body for burial, the tribal leaders of Mecca and Medina had a secret gathering at Saqifah to decide who will succeed Mohammed as head of the Muslim state, disregarding what the sectarian Muslims, the Muhajirun regarded as Mohammed’s appointment of Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khumm.
DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SHI’A AND SUNNI ISLAM
Shi’a and Sunni split in the aftermath of the succession struggle following the death of Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) in 632 A.D. This struggle was as a result of the politics of the early Caliphs. Due to the Shi’a belief system that Ali should have been the first Caliph, the three Caliphs that preceded, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman before the actual separation were considered illegitimate usurpers.
It is also suspected that the interpretations of these Caliphs had been influenced by some pagan practices of the Quraysh tribes and Arabian practices which the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) fought to stop among the conquered people in his lifetime. Somehow, the conquered people with some of the practices condemned by the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) have become the modern-day visible transmitters for the religion with headquarters stationed in Saudi Arabia, one of the conquered territories.
In the absence of a clear Hadith such as in situations involving marriage and prayers, the Shi’a Muslims prefer the words and actions of the Imams (members of the prophet’s family) on the similar level as the Hadith of the prophet himself over other ways. But a school of Islamic thought believes that flexible application of the Hadith in these circumstances has led to the theological elevation of the Imams as being infallible.
Shi’a Muslims also say that apart from peace which Ali desired amongst Muslims as a true and anointed successor to Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W), and his blood relationship with and love for the Holy Prophet (S.A.W), he also reasoned that the conquered people of the Arabian nations would have had an opportunity to backslide from the religion if and when a war erupted.
EARLY HISTORY OF SHI’A ISLAM
In this Part I of a four-part discourse, we shall take an introductory look on Shi’ism from a historical perspective, tracing its origin from the death of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) in 632 A.D. Apart from taking a brief history of the advent of Shi’a Islam in Nigeria through the well-charged efforts of a prominent servant of Allah (S.W.T.), Sheikh Ibrahim Yaqub El-Zakzaky, the subsequent parts of this discourse shall take a pathetic look on the trials and tribulations of the Nigerian Shi’a Muslim community, and the resilience and endurance of an uncommon Islamic Religious community who has held its peace in spite of the unending, malicious and senseless killings of its members by the Nigerian constituted authorities.
This includes the massacre of Shi’ites during their annual religious processions – the Ashura mourning processions – in Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto States, and particularly the December 2015 Zaria massacre where a representative of the Kaduna State Government said to the commission of inquiry that 347 bodies were handed over by the army for a secret mass burial. But despite the evidence, the army claimed it killed only seven Shi’ites who blocked a public road and attempted to assassinate its Chief, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general.
The discourse will end with the suggestions of possible options for the attainment of a lasting peace within the folds of the Nigerian Shi’a and Sunni Islamic religious sects with the greater chances to serve the purpose for which the religion of Islam was founded by Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W.). It will also recommend how peace among the Muslim community in Nigeria may be achieved through the inspiration of its faith from the 1,400 year-old effort initiated by the first Sunni Caliph and encouraged and sustained by subsequent generations of grand Caliphs to pulverize the Shi’a sect through the chronicles of the appointed local Caliphs.
TO BE CONTINUED
ABUCHI OBIORA, abuchiobiora@gmail.com
FOR: Global Upfront Newspaper, http://www.globalupfront.com
REMARK: Read Similar Posts by ABUCHI OBIORA as archives in The Kaleidoscope
https://globalupfront.com/category/the-kaleidoscope/
[Document reconstructed from Google Cache – Original site http://globalupfront.com – Cached 2021-04-24]
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