Nasir El Rufai gathered some Islamic clerics to thank them for the vital role they played during the last elections. Indeed, Mallam didn’t stop at Thanksgiving. He segued into new recipes for state and national unity. He praised the clerics for showing integrity when some other agents got money and absconded treacherously.
Perhaps, if party men had done their jobs, quintessential Mallam Elrufai wouldn’t have needed the holy men to win Kaduna where he had performed outrageously well. He exalted them for helping to defend the Muslim Muslim option. He confessed to them that he had pooled wool over the eyes of the public by telling them the Muslim-Muslim ticket in Kaduna was about merit and not religion.
Sins, once confessed, are easily forgivable. But Mallam shouldn’t have gone that far in public. He could have said it behind closed doors. After all, truth isn’t supposed to be so naked. Because even truth has private parts, which must not be exposed indecently in public.
Well, Mallam is an honest and bold man. A perishing stock amongst Nigerian politicians. Many days after saying what he said, Mallam hasn’t bothered to issue an apology. He isn’t one of those crooked politicians who will utter an abomination and then deny it by saying they were ‘quoted out of context’. Mallam told the Muslim clerics that the enthronement of Muslim-Muslim tickets in Kaduna for 20 consecutive years would convince the Christians that all-Muslim rule was good for them.
Mallam is brilliant. His idea is coherent and practical. But he could have been a bit more circumspect. The Sultan had once attested to Mallam’s exploits at the Barewa College, where he dominated his class with giant ideas. Perhaps Mallam is onto another gigantic political idea that can tame the volatility of Kaduna. The Muslims are the majority. Since the Christians in Kaduna are apprehensive of Muslim domination, the best way to cure their paranoia and get the irrational fear out of their anxious heads might be to force-feed them Muslim-Muslim rule for such a long time, till they became desensitized to their phobia. Mallam could be a master psychologist.
Mallam always speaks with the power of moral conviction. While speaking to the clerics, he said they wouldn’t allow any Christians to lie their way to power in Kaduna. Perhaps Christians always lied about oppression and staged pity parties. Perhaps they always lied about their weak numerical strength. Whatever the deception was, Mallam’s point was that, under effective Muslim-Muslim leadership, the Christians haven’t been and wouldn’t be marginalized. And if they haven’t been marginalized, but a certain section that voted massively for Mallam’s party got a little bit more in projects, then the Christians must keep their mouths shut. If they want more than their entitlements, then they must submit their votes to Muslim -Muslim leadership.
Who can fault Mallam’s lucid logic? Then he talked a little about Peter Obi and how his attempt to ride on Christian sentiments to power was checkmated. Perhaps Peter Obi deserved what Mallam dished him. He was disobedient to the Muslim-Muslim enterprise.
Being forthright and spontaneous is righteousness, but the great Mallam could have avoided mocking CAN. Let’s call a spade a spade. Had he avoided them, no one would have accused him of religious bigotry. Perter Obi’s case is a non issue. But Mallam made another mistake by dragging in Jagaban. Not sure Jagaban would be comfortable with Mallam’s brand of triumphalism. Because If Jagaban’s Muslim-Muslim triumph has quietened the obstreperous Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), then Mallam should have just let sleeping dogs lie for Asiwaju’s sake.
He should have just left the bruised egotistical Bishops and prophets in their dejected state. From that position, he could have quietly taught them an extended political lesson by enthroning Muslim-Muslim rule over the country for a century. After twenty years of victorious Muslim-Muslim rule, Christians would begin to understand Mallam’s point of view that Muslims love them more than even the pretentious CAN. That way, there would be no more Christian trouble and there would be enduring national unity. The logic is simple. Once the Christians discover the Muslims are better than them at being president and vice president, they will stop struggling to be president because the Muslims can help them better than themselves. They would yield. In addition, since the people have been successfully deceived that it’s not about religion, but merit, the Christians would co-operate, and CAN would become well-behaved.
But since the great Mallam advocated Muslim-Muslim rule for his state and country for the overall benefit of Christians, some noisy detractors have called him names. Some have insinuated that he was desirous of taking over Buhari’s mantle by assuming the championship of Islam. These folks need to have their heads checked. For Christ’s sake, Mallam’s pedigree speaks for itself. Erudite Fani Kayode who used to propound theories about Islamization has exonerated Mallam.
Mallam is of the prestigious Fulani stock, but he doesn’t flaunt it. He kneels down to greet our leaders and his elders. He has many friends from across tribes and religions. His cooks and steward might even be Christians. His political godfather, Obasanjo, is a renowned Christian. So how can anyone say that his Muslim-Muslim prescription is anti Christian? Mallam is an objective and pragmatic intellectual. He must have looked at the situation dispassionately and figured out that the only way to settle religious polarization in Kaduna and elsewhere was to stuff their mouth of infantile CAN with Muslim-Muslim political lactogen.
But who can stop Nigerians and their voracious appetite for excavating and extrapolating? Idle folks have gone back to the 10-year-old issue of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. An innocent retweet by a holy Mallam. And how can good Christians hoard grudges for so so long? After all, didn’t Jesus ask them to turn the other cheek? If only some of these folks knew that all good Mallams have great regard for Jesus. And many of them would even frown at a fellow Mallam who dared to tarnish Jesus’s image.
So let nattering half-wits stop referencing the misconstruing facts. Mallam has never committed blasphemy. Their ploy to score cheap political points and perhaps dissuade Jagaban from appointing the good Mallam, an astute administrator who brought peace to Kaduna, to a high national office will fail insha Allah. Mallam is a man of destiny. If Muslim-Muslim rule becomes the norm, soon his turn will come.
Credit: Vanguard
