Why Brother Abubakar Shekau (Darul Tawheed), Leader of Boko Haram Should Stop This Jihad

SUBJECT: PLEASE RECONSIDER AND HAVE MERCY ON US

I call you brother not because I am the son of your mother or a fellow Muslim brother. But you are my brother because we are both Nigerians, although you have told us currently that you are the newest Caliph in the world. Brother I know you have respect for Usumah bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Ladin (may God Most High admit him into Paradise) and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Al-Husseini Al-Qurashi but I want to draw your attention to Sheikh Uthman dan Fodio (may God Most High admit him into Paradise), the most influential Islamic scholar in the history of Islam in West Africa and probably Africa because he was closer to us than the other two jihadists.

Brother Abu, in September 1804 Shehu Uthman dan Fodio declared the first jihad in Nigeria against the rulers of Gobir. His reasons for the jihad were;
a. The people of Gobir mix Islam with paganism. The Hausa people were mingling the teachings of the Prophet (s.a.a.w) with aspects of the traditional regional religion.
b. The rulers of Gobir imposed heavy tax on the poor and oppressed the peasantry.
c. The government of the Habe or Hausa rulers were corrupt and inefficient. Citizens could not obtain administrative justice in the law court without the payment of bribes.
d. The law courts administered customary instead of Islamic justice. The main penalties for breaking the law were heavy fines which helped to swell the income of the state.
e. Commercial laws to safeguard the society against extortion were not enforced.
f. The Fulani (Uthman dan Fodio’ kinsmen) were excluded from the higher levels of government even though they were more educated.
g. The assassination attempt on the life of Uthman dan Fodio by Yunfa the ruler of Gobir.

Darul Tawheed, on the 9th day of August, 2009, your sect Boko Haram, declared war on Nigeria. According to your spokesman the reasons for the declaration of war was as follows;
a. The adoption of a Civilised or Western constitution with provisions like the right and privileges of women, the idea of homosexualism, lesbianism, multi-party democracy, blue films rape of infants, prostitution, drinking beer and alcohol and many others that are opposed to Islamic civilisation.
b. The killing of your first leader Mallam Yusuf (may God Most High admit him into Paradise) in a callous, wicked and malicious manner.
c. The non-adoption of Sharia rule in Nigeria and
d. The existence of wicked political parties leading the country, the corrupt, irresponsible, criminal and murderous political leadership of Nigeria.

Brother Abu, I know I am not qualified to address you because I am not your calibre both in age, wealth, size, education and fame. Also my dedicated fellowship with the “people of the Book” is a great disadvantage in speaking to you. Please have mercy on me. I strongly perceive that the jihad of Sheikh Uthman dan Fodio which inspired early jihadist like Ahmadu Seku, Alhaji Umar, Samori Ibn and Lafiya Toure also have a great influence on you. A critical look at the reasons for the jihad of Uthman and your own shows some similarities. But I want to state categorically that some of the reasons for your struggle are genuine while some are not justifiable.

Darul Tawheed, the Nigerian state has never made laws to encourage women to disrespect their husbands, neither have they stopped women from getting married. All we have done is to make laws that protect women from being treated like animals. They need to be educated and not used as household utensil. Uthman dan Fodio was strongly vocal in women’s education. He brought the women out of their houses and put them in one area and the men in another area and began to regularly lecture them. My brother, Nigeria is not guilty of this accusation.

The Nigerian National Assembly regardless of all the pressures from the West recently enacted the Anti-Gay Law, which shows that Nigeria is against lesbianism and homosexualism. I am very sure that our leaders will continue to resist every internal or external force pressuring them to legalise these abominable acts. I feel we are not guilty of this accusation. Also, this nation has laws that prohibits drug trafficking and rape and several offenders has been duly punished. We are against drug trafficking totally and our land forbids rape. But your actions might be reasonable because the nations corrupt law enforcement agents and the judiciary, which sometimes abandon or turn the law upside-down due to influence of bribe. But by the grace of God all corrupt government officials will soon be erased from Nigeria.

Senior brother, the issue of multi-party democracy, blue films, prostitution, drinking beer and alcohol and many others that are opposed to Islamic civilisation are more complex. On the subject; multi-party democracy, Sir I cannot say much about that because I feel the people should elect their leaders. I think I know your grievance, all leaders should be chosen by the Almighty. But, I also think that the voice of the upright majority is a pointer to the will of God. A free and fair election will produce a good leader.

Pornography, prostitution and alcoholism are all menace to the society. They have caused more harm than good. Although our government has not made laws that forbids these acts, but I solely support the prohibition of these societal vices. Almost all the religions in Nigeria preach against Pornography, prostitution and alcoholism. I also suggest that we teach Nigerians the good news of the Holy Book to avoid the mingling the teachings of the Prophet (s.a.a.w) with aspects of the other religion.

The killing of your first leader Mallam Yusuf (may God Most High admit him into Paradise) in a callous, wicked and malicious manner is highly condemnable. He was not given fair hearing but was killed mercilessly. We are guilty of murder. My only comment on this issue is; have mercy, show compassion and forgive us of our sin. We cannot replace his life but I know we have learnt our lessons the hard way.

My brother what I speak now is just a personal, the component entities that made up Nigeria are not all Muslims. Islam was predominantly the state religion in most part of the northern Nigeria and other regions had their own religion. Nigeria has never been an Islamic State because the amalgamation of 1914 brought different religion together and insisting that citizens should be converted to a particular religion might not be possible. Even Sheikh Uthman dan Fodio never forced Pagans to convert to Islam; rather they were subjected to protection tax. The Nigerian nation has the Sharia Court that has the power to try all Islam related cases. I suggest that every Muslim should maximize the wisdom of the Sharia Law, while other citizens should be allowed to practice their own religion because jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions. It is worth noting that the Holy Koran specifically refers to Jews and Christians as “people of the book” who should be protected and respected. All three faiths worship the same God. Allah is just the Arabic word for God, and is used by Christian Arabs as well as Muslims. As long non-Muslims remain meek and willing to live peacefully among the believers and has no intention to overpower the Muslims, your divine obligation is to treat them peacefully, despite their denial of Islam. Brother, come and make a treaty with the government.

Brother you raised the issue of wicked political parties leading the country, corrupt, irresponsible, criminal and murderous political leadership of Nigeria as one of the reasons for the jihad. My brother I am your first witness in this matter. Corruption has eaten deep into the fibres of this nation. Today corrupt politicians are conferred with National Honours and chief titles. They fly in private jets because they don’t want to drive on bad roads. They travel abroad for medicals because they know that they have turned our hospitals to death den. Their children school in the best schools abroad because they know that our schools hardly produce graduates that can compete favourable with their counterparts because of misappropriation of education funds. Abu, we shout and they pretend that they are deaf. We cry but it seems our tear is unseen. Poverty and death is now the order of the day. Nigerians die daily in thousands because of these heartless and wicked politicians. In fact, the number of people that have died because of the looting of national funds is less than the number you and your sects have killed. If we sum the number of Nigerians that die daily in vehicle accidents because of bad roads, those that lose their lives due to lack of drugs or people that have died during fire outbreaks because of lack of electric power you will agree with me.

If indeed one of your reasons for this jihad is to clear wicked political parties, corrupt, irresponsible, criminal and murderous political leadership of Nigeria, then the masses is solidly behind you because they are our main problem not you. Brother, I have one question for you, since you started this jihad how many corrupt politician have you punished? All of them and their family members can afford the best security gadget that will keep them temporary safe. Some of them have even decided to live outside the country and fly into the country in their private jets. The victims of the jihad are the poor who you claim to be fighting for. Abu, they are killing us daily and you are also doing the same, what do you want us to do?

Brother, all these bombings, kidnapping and killing should stop. They promised us that in six months if they are in charge of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno, Boko Haram will be crushed. We gave it to them and they asked for another six months which they also got. Now that want another six months and people are asking; the child you could not beat when he was crawling how can you beat him now that he has started walking?

My heartfelt purpose for writing this article is to say sorry. We are sorry for killing you great leader. We are sorry for promoting pornography, alcoholism and prostitution. I also apologise on the behalf of our greedy and wicked politicians have mercy on them. Remember that Prophet Mohammed told his followers returning from a military campaign: “This day we have returned from the minor jihad to the major jihad,” which he said meant returning from armed battle to the peaceful battle for self-control and betterment. That is you can protect the faith against others using legal, diplomatic and economic to political means. Darul Tawheed, tell the government what you want and stop killing those you want to protect.