Assalaam Alaikum,
My Dear Sheikh Abubakar
Shekau
THIS IS A PASSIONATE APPEAL TO YOU AS A
BROTHER IN ISLAM
It is not by chance that you are reading from me today. You
know as much as I do that Friday (Juma’at) is a special day in ISLAM to offer
the Zuhr (noon) obligatory prayers.
It is a day when the Muslim Ummah
meet in a central place, preferably a mosque, know another other and display
uncommon love, mercy and assist each other. I am sure it is a day you and your
Comrades like every other Muslim holds dare to their hearts. It is a day for
sober reflection.
Therefore, it is with heavy heart and misty eyes I
communicate this message to you and through this medium because it is the only way
I can reach you. The socio media is the only option left for me to reach you
and as fast as possible because I am aware you are connected 24 hours. I do not
have any other means to do that-not your GSM or Thuraya phones through which I
could have communicated to you via SMS, I don’t have your email nor the Post
Office Box or Private Mail Bag (that is P.O. Box or P.M.B) either. Bro, you have proved your point, time
and time again or how else could I assess your effort than looking at the fact
that whilst the Federal Government have no solution to your incursions, it has
maintain its foolish pride refusing blunting to negotiate with you to back off
to save the lives of the commoners who are killed daily and investments (both
public and private) which are razed down.
Bro, it is as a
result of these, I am compelled to be interested in your activities at this
point in time because the elderly and the young, as well as the disabled people
and women and now GIRLS, our daughters who are the future mothers and leaders of
Nigeria are now your victims. ISLAM advised that this category of people should
be protected and not harmed even during war situations. Though, I have been
restless all the while you invaded Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok,
Borno State and made away with those innocent, impressionable young girls, I nevertheless
chose not to add my voice to the various global appeals to you to ‘Bring Back Our Girls’. However, since
you have refused to heed the clarion calls and have instead elected to show the
world the true state of the girls who you have given a new life, I felt
relieved that they are looking boisterous and not ruffled as most of us
expected.
Apparently, there has been a silent debate as to whether
those girls you presented to the world through your You Tube account and all looking robust and happy were actually our
daughters you abducted weeks back. Thank Allah (SWT) some parents have
identified them as those you actually took away that fateful day; meaning that
you did not play hanky-panky game on us through that video. To me, this was a
sweet relief (despite claims by the Nigerian military that you are not the REAL
Abubakar Shekau saying you have been killed long time ago). I am happy you have
been able to show the girls compassion after all; since the popular thinking is
that you would mishandle them with bestiality. But almost 30 days on, and with
the girls getting used to their new environment; in spite of the despondent and
calamitous state their parents have been forced to live; we MUST begin to take
our appeal to you to the next level, particularly with the coming of the United
States Marine and the Israeli anti-terrorist experts among others because they
may want to use force to rescue the girls from you. This is why the new plea
should be, ‘DON’T HARM OUR DAUGHTERS
PLEASE-FREE THEM’. This is imperative because I still don’t think the US
and Israel as well as their allies who are interested to invade your camp at
the Sambisa Forest have the know-how to succeed. It would end up in a wild
goose chase.
My Bro, I have
continually remembered you and what you represent in my supplications,
especially during my Tahajjud (Naflah)
non obligatory night prayers, which perhaps may be the reason for my new found happiness
and new line of thinking. This boils down from the fact that you have proved some
people wrong. I am referring of those who think you don’t have human blood
flowing in your vein any more. They say you are brutal and that the only
language you understand is force and destruction. They say you do not listen to
pleas; that some of our elders have been sent to you in the past by the Federal
Government to placate you, and they could not make any impact on you. They have
repeatedly disclosed that the only language you understand is that spoken by
your smoking guns and mortars. But, I don’t reason with them. For me, I speak
on behalf of the people, especially the downtrodden and as we both know, the
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE VOICE OF GOD. So, I believe you would heed the voice
of Allah (SWT) as it is far and above the voice of the Federal Government led
by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Bro, I have to
re-state at this juncture that you have proved your point and that you have
made your mark, it would not be an understatement, because it is not easy to
hold a giant nation like Nigeria hostage and spellbound for like three years
now. It is indeed not a tea party. And no matter what anyone would say, you are
now a global phenomenon who would definitely be a reference point for today’s
scholars and the ones to come in future. You
see Bro; I don’t care what the world
feels about me. WHOEVER you are, I admire your guts and resilience.
But Bro, I hope
you still remember what our Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Unto Him) and other
great scholars of ISLAM teaches us; that religion is not by compulsion, but by
conviction. By this, we have grown to know and believe that ISLAM is a religion
of peace. Perhaps, if we must let the world really understand ISLAM’s peaceful
standpoint or preposition in the
faith (which to me is the best for mankind), you should not be provoked to harm
those daughters of ours who you have taken charge of in your camp. Continue to
be at PEACE with them. In fact, you should not harm anyone else from now on, because
doing so is only making life very miserable for the ordinary people who I know
was initially not necessarily your primary motive.
At this point Bro,
I beg you in the name of ALLAH (SWT) to ask those men who you have married our
daughters without the consent of their parents to return them to you
immediately. This is the best thing to do in this circumstance, because it is
mandatory to us to continue to portray ISLAM in its true perspective. Marriage
is consummated with the approval of both parents or wards of the spouses and they
should be present or represented in the various ceremonies that has to do with
the wedlock. Even if it must be done by proxy, at least one family member from
both sides must consent to it.
WHAT’S MORE? It is
wise to quit when the ovation is loudest. I WANT TO RE-EMPHASIZE ONCE AGAIN
THAT YOU HAVE PROVEN A POINT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. We must accept the fact that for God to make our Nation a secular state
is for a reason and we MUST learn to live with the realities. If your revered
leader, MOHAMMAD YUSUF is to be alive today, I’m sure he would have quit or at
best approached the situation differently. The ordinary Nigerian citizens who
have been ripped to the bone marrow would have applauded you if you have dissipated
this effort in fighting our CORRUPT leaders, those officials of government who
strip our coffers bare and shamelessly plunder our commonwealth; our collective
resources. Religion, whether ISLAM or CHRISTIANITY or ANIMISM is meaningless to
them when they do this; what matters to them is their (un)common interest to
enrich themselves and their immediate families and cronies to the detriment of
impoverished lots. They are the ones some of us see as the real terrorists. Having
said all these, it is right for you to learn from the mistakes of the likes of
OSAMA BIN LADEN and SADDAM HUSSEIN who failed the retrace their steps after
making their point. Leaving while the ovation is at the highest should be a
virtue to imbibe.
Maybe, I should refresh your memory that Nigeria as a nation
forgives in a hurry and so, some day, somehow, you may be given a Federal
appointment and many universities and institutions as well as traditional
rulers and the civil society groups would struggle for you to recognize them by
simply accepting their honorary degrees, awards and chieftaincy titles. Believe
me, if you have time to watch proceedings at the National Conference, you would
have seen faces of yesterday’s villains who are today’s heroes sitting at the
Confab and they are most vociferous on the floor. Once again, this is Nigeria.
I thank you for sparing some time from your busy schedule to
read this appeal and I believe in Allah (SWT) that it would leave a positive
impression on you because I speak on His behalf.
Bi salaam.
I am your Bro,
MALAM SALIHU OTHMAN
ISAH (Hotman), FCAPC, MAGN
Vice President (North West), Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN)
Executive Director, Peace and Unity Media Advocacy (PUMA)
& Chairman (North West), Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO)
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