By Muhammad Sagir Bauchi
Few months ago, the country witnessed a terrifying incident that made the news all over, where boarding School students were abducted by gunmen. The incident rendered both the society and the parents of the abducted children in a situation that it magnetites cannot be describe.I
As we all know, the incident of Kankara wasn’t the first in history, but a repetition of past incidents. Also, Kidnapping is/was not the only vices bedevilling our society, but it is just a fraction of our numerous problems which include; the activities of Boko Haram, increased of rape cases, drug abuse among the Youth, sex abuse and some vices that cannot be counted.
For over a time, people are left with no clue of how and why we are faced with such persistent problems that seems to become part of the society. Even though, the problem is still persistent, but seems like their solutions are yet unknown! Despite that I’m not an expert to bring their proper solution, but I think I’m in a position to aire my view and understanding of the situation.
In Nigeria, there are numerous regions, and all the regions are blessed with different Religion, tribes and ethnicity: and all the ethnics has their origin differently. So, by virtue, there mode of life most differ, and what is “NORM” in one society may be otherwise in the other. But despite all that, Knowledge of whatever kind is always the same in all settings.
In a normal circumstances, the best weapon to use in tackling vices within a particular society is nothing more than EDUCATION. when I said Education, here, I’m not referring to western education alone, but a combination of both western and Religious education.Education in it’s generality is the important asset that every sensible society could invest in order to harvest a lot. Education teaches morality. So, uneducated person has the tendency of living in an abnormal way, adopting all sorts of immoral way of life, unlike the educated that always behave rightly.
A little boy born in a setting that has neither standard western School nor Religious school, has no clue on the value of human beings other than his parents and relatives. The only living things he value most are the animals or people around him. He loves them to the extend that he can sacrifice whatever he possess in their defense. How do you expect such a boy to wake up one day and become useful to a society other than where he herd his cows? But by educating such boy with proper Religious knowledge, he’ll be guided to understand that, in life, there are valuable things other than his cows, and the value of such cow(s) is not in anyway above the value of human life.
From all indication, some religious clerics are on their way to fish the root cause of the problem of banditry, there by risking their lives to educate the inhabitants of some villages. This is indeed a wonderful direction that need the intervention of all Islamic religious scholars irrespective where they belong in terms of school of though. There’s nothing that could easily change the perception of Someone that has an inch of faith in God other than the words of God. And there’s no religious scholar that’s not calling people with anything other than the Holy Qur’an. So, they all need to join Dr Ahmad Gumi, in providing those villagers with sound Education that can shackle them from the chain of ungodly life.
I’ll also like to call on government at all level not to intervene in to this his gigantic effort except in place of providing Securities to accompany him and providing social amenities Such as schools, Hospitals and Roads to the villages he visited. Because, some unpatriotic imbeciles could use that opportunity to divert his attention from what he intended to achieve, thereby politicking the initiative. But with the intervention of Islamic base NGOS, his aims could be achieved within a slide short of time.
Although the incident of Kankara was a bad incident, but we can see it as a blessing in disguise, for it open the room for the intervention of Traditional and Religious leaders toward seeing the ending of this lingering banditry. We hope that another room could be created where Boko Haram terrorist could easily be fought intellectually rather than using weapons, since that they also possessed all the sort of weapons used in fighting them, but lack the best weapon to win a big war which is “KNOWLEDGE”. Most, if not all of them are illiterate, no semiliterate that twist the meaning of Qur’anic verses and Hadith to suite their selfish interest. But given them something different from what they received from their SHEIKHS would left the sincere ones among them to think and reflect, and that could bring the end of their ungodly life. Therefore, we need the likes of Dr Gumi in all the Islamic Sects, in order to win this war together.
Sagir writes from Bauchi and can be reached through: ibrahimsagir1227@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
