Milestones towards liberating Al-Quds

(Link on Daily Trust)

Though clear references to Al-Aqsa mosque and its environs i.e. Al-Quds city were made in the Noble Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah, the city including the mosque remained under Byzantine occupation all through the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (SAW). 

Al-Aqsa mosque is the third of the only three mosques with exceptional holiness in Islam, with the Haramain mosques in Makkah and Madinah being the first and second respectively. Likewise, Al-Quds city, where the mosque is located, is the third of the only three holy cities in Islam. 

Al-Quds city was liberated during the era of the second rightly-guided Caliph, Umar ibn Al-Khattab (RA); and it remained a Muslim city for over four hundred years before it fell to Christian Crusaders due to the accumulated failure of successive Muslim generations over the centuries. Since then and until its current Zionist occupation, control over it had alternated among Muslims, the Crusaders and other non-Muslim empires. 

The Zionists completed the occupation of Al-Quds city including Al-Aqsa mosque in 1967 during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. By the way, though the Muslim Ummah as a whole had already been on the decline, the fall of Al-Quds to the Zionists represented the lowest extent to which the Ummah could decline. 

The defeated largely Arab nationalism-inspired military coalition under the charismatic Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser had deployed its maximum military capabilities amid an unprecedented atmosphere of passionate Arab nationalism across the Arab world. 

In the aftermath of the defeat and amid overwhelming shock and sorrow across the Arab and Muslim world, people began to question the efficacy of Arab nationalism as the driving philosophy of the struggle against the Zionist occupation of Al-Quds and the Palestinian territories at large. Besides, with Gamal Abdel Nasser’s acceptance of responsibility for the defeat and his subsequent resignation, sentiments against Arab nationalism as a political philosophy grew further.

In the meantime, there was a growing realization among Muslims that the loss of Al-Aqsa mosque and Al-Quds city at large was a lesson Divinely meant to chastise the Ummah for its inadequate commitment to its religious obligations. Consequently, there was a gradual but quite noticeable revival in commitment to religiosity in the region and elsewhere in the Muslim world, which would later grow into a phenomenon known as “As-Sahwa”.  

However, since then, the struggle for the liberation of Al-Aqsa mosque, Al-Quds and the entire Palestinian territories has been increasingly entangled in the complexities of global conspiracies, geopolitical tussle, and power struggle among the Palestinian elites, which collectively keep the struggle persistently difficult and indeed make it look unachievable for that matter.     

Whereas, it’s and will indeed remain achievable albeit only when the following interdependent milestones are strictly followed:

Redefining the struggle: All along, the struggle has been wrongly defined. Starting as an “Arab-Israeli conflict”, it shrank into a “Palestinian-Israeli conflict”, and has now ended up as a mere struggle charade between Israel, on the one hand, and various feuding Palestinian factions under their various self-centred political elites, on the other.

For the struggle to be on the course to success, it has to be given its real identity, which Islam and nothing but Islam as exclusively contained in Noble Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah according to the perception of the Pious Predecessors. That necessarily makes it a Muslim resistance against the occupation of Al-Aqsa mosque, Al-Quds and the Palestinian land.  

Working accordingly: This necessarily involves substantive organizational structures with trustworthy, charismatic, creative and competent minds fully conversant with the underlying dynamics of the crisis and the intricacies of the local, regional and international politics surrounding it, on the one hand, and the details of Islamic jurisprudence as it relates to politics and diplomacy, on the other. They should then embark on reaching out to major relevant local, regional and international players in a respectful, diplomatic yet determined approach while vigorously promoting authentic awareness on the struggle across the Muslim world. 

Unity: Of course, the foregoing can only be achieved based on unity and unity of purpose among, at least, the leading political players of the Muslim Ummah. After all, it’s the extent to which the Muslim Ummah is united that determines its ability to not only liberate Al-Quds but reclaim lost its glory as well.  

Military power: Appropriate not necessarily superior military power under substantive Muslim governments, not groups, is equally indispensable in the struggle. The collective military capabilities at the disposal of Muslim governments committed to the cause should be formidable enough to represent a deterrence against potential aggression. For instance, a collective military power made up of at least several medium-range nuclear weapons, a few thousand medium-range ballistic missiles, a reasonable number of advanced fighter jets, quite sophisticated air and marine defence systems including several warships and submarines, a few million combat-ready soldiers with teams of special forces, advanced intelligence-gathering equipment and networks of highly professional secret agents, is enough to constitute that deterrence.      

It’s equally enough to put the Muslim negotiators on a par with their counterparts from whatever country, regional or international organization. After all, regardless of the supposedly civilized world we are in, might is still right; and a country’s influence on the global stage is largely determined by its military might.  

Though admittedly that course with its milestone is long and challenging, it remains the only way for the Muslim Ummah to liberate Al-Quds and indeed regain its lost formidability on the global stage. 

Until then, the Palestinian cause would continue to be manipulated by selfish and power-hungry Palestinian political elites both the supposed nationalists e.g. the Mahmud Abbas-led Fatah faction, and the purported Islamists e.g. Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Stillborn prosecution of terror sponsors

 (Link on Daily Trust)

As much as it’s disappointing that more than a decade since the eruption of the Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria the authorities still betray inexcusable naivety in terms of the politics of the war on terror, the way they are handling the planned prosecution of some alleged Boko Haram sponsors is even more disappointing. Because while the former involves intelligence and diplomatic complexities, which require extensive engagements with foreign governments and organizations, it only takes basic competence to accomplish the latter. 

Given the intricacies of the process of facilitating terror financing where the financiers and facilitators are obsessed with not leaving any trace, an investigation into it is painstakingly and discreetly conducted with intelligence mechanisms. After irrefutable evidence against the accused has been collected up, they (accused) are caught off guard and picked up quietly unless when doing so unquietly is absolutely unavoidable. Also, after extended sessions of exhaustive interrogation and further investigations, they are subjected to prosecution in a special and mostly closed court. Details of the circumstances of the arrests including the identities of the arrested are released only when it won’t in any way undermine the investigation and/or prosecution.  

Now, the Nigerian authorities have revealed that arrests have been made including some prominent Nigerians accused of terror financing; and according to Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, once the investigation is concluded the details will be released, which he says, will surprise many Nigerians. Likewise, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, confirmed the involvement of “certain higher-profile individuals and businessmen across the country” in terror financing. 

However, making that disclosure at this juncture isn’t only premature but counterproductive as well. The disclosure should be made only when all the suspects have been picked up and all the investigations and interrogations have been concluded. 

With that disclosure and the planned release of the details of the arrests, which may probably include the identities of the arrested, the authorities are inadvertently undermining the investigations and indeed effectively rendering the planned prosecution of the accused stillborn eventually. Because their accomplices out there who haven’t been picked up have been effectively given an opportunity on a silver platter to either escape from the country or embark on moves to discredit whatever evidence being collected up against them to make their arrests “legally” impossible and indeed prevent their conviction even when they are eventually prosecuted. 

After all, with the degree of corruption pervading the government including all relevant security agencies and the judiciary in the country, all it takes a prominent Nigerian terror sponsor to evade justice is his willingness to part with an appropriate fortune to corruptly induce corrupt security investigators and judicial personnel who unfortunately hugely outnumber the incorruptible in all government agencies. 

And depending on how deep-pocketed he is, he can even mobilize public sympathy in his favour by, say, crying witch-hunt or persecution on political or ethnoreligious grounds, which many compromised or simply misled public commentators, hired human right activists and apologists on social media would keep repeating until his purported innocence becomes a “fact”.  

Besides, those already in detention may equally capitalize on that premature disclosure to undermine the cases against them the same way through their lawyers and connections out there. 

That way, and thanks to poor handling of the investigations, the authorities may not be able to eliminate the terror-financing network fueling insurgency and other subversive activities in the country.  

As much as one tries to find understandable explanations to some instances of tactical incompetence that the Nigerian authorities exhibit in their handling of different issues, one cannot help but conclude that many, if not most, of those handling the issues, aren’t equal to the task, to say the least. That’s why even with more than a decade of experience in tackling terrorism, there is hardly a single conclusive prosecution of any captured terrorist or financier. Instead, many purportedly repentant Boko Haram terrorists who had been captured in action have been released on various occasions with many of them reportedly rejoining the terror group afterwards. 

Also, contrary to Garba Shehu’s claim, the Nigerian authorities weren’t even in the picture when their counterparts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tracked down, prosecuted and convicted some Dubai-based Nigerians accused of facilitating Boko Haram financing. 

Interestingly, though a very few Nigerian newspapers had reported the convictions, it was my column titled “Who are Alhaji Sa’idu,Alhaji Ashiru?” (Daily Trust, Friday, August 21, 2020) several months later and the subsequent Daily Trust cover story on the matter that got it trending thereby attracting the interest of the Nigerian authorities. 

The two Nigeria-based Alhajis in question were repeatedly mentioned in the UAE court’s case file as coordinators of almost all the transactions. The former was the one coordinating the handover of the cash to the Dubai-based Nigerian facilitators, then he would collect its Naira equivalent from their accomplices in Kano for onward delivery to the Boko Haram terrorists. The latter was, according to the file, a Nigerian government official who would secure some of the cash from funds stolen from the government.  

Yet, though the Nigerian authorities have picked up hundreds of suspected Boko Haram financiers and their forex operators accomplices, it’s not clear if the two Alhajis and others of their status in the crime network are included; after all, the list released so far doesn't include any prominent name. 

Terror financing network is so sophisticated and it requires equally sophisticated intelligence means to track down transactions and link them to the real financiers. Likewise, investigating and prosecuting terror financing cases requires specific expertise and meticulous diligence to secure convictions against the accused.   

Secession threat as a tool of blackmail

(Link on Daily Trust)

Since at least the early 90s, and in reaction to the military’s apparent foot-dragging to restore democracy in Nigeria then, clamour for secession has always been used as a tool of political blackmail against the Northern Nigerian political establishment.

It's widely assumed that Northern Nigeria's particular commitment to a united Nigeria is purely for economic reasons, as it’s believed that the region is economically unviable without the regular statutory allocation from the proceeds of crude oil resources from the southern part of the country. After all, given the tendency of the region’s political establishment to make any compromise, concession and even sacrifice for the sake of the country’s corporate survival, that commitment is even perceived as desperation.  

In the geopolitics among the country’s primary regions i.e. North, Southwest and Southeast, the Northern Nigerian political establishment has always been blackmailed with a tacit threat against the survival of the federation. For instance, the region was blackmailed into conceding to the unconstitutional arrangement to rotate the presidency among the regions thereby effectively rendering its population advantage irrelevant. It’s also so with the disproportionate revenue distribution formula among the federating states, and many other policies.

Also, though the protests that ensued following the controversial annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election that was believed to have been won by late MKO Abiola were understandable, the Southwest political establishment and its press soon manipulated the situation by portraying it as a Northern conspiracy to prevent the emergence of a Yoruba as president. Interestingly, that’s even though Abiola defeated his main contender, Bashir Tofa, even in Kano, his birthplace and supposed political stronghold. 

Anyway, with their sustained, systematic and well-oiled propaganda machinery, they even managed to portray the situation as a grand Northern plot against the emergence of any southerner as president. Violent protests persisted across the Southwest in particular amid threats against the country’s corporate survival by the region’s political elite under their umbrella organization, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that somehow gained the sympathy of the influential Euro-American axis and its powerful media, which adopted and vigorously promoted the NADECO narrative of the events in the country.  

Also, following the sudden death of the then Head of State General Sani Abacha, and with the start of the democratic transition process under General Abdus-Salam Abubakar, the Northern Nigerian political establishment had already been blackmailed into tacitly accepting the responsibility for the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election by the then military regime, the imprisonment of the supposed winner, Abiola, and his subsequent death in prison, simply because the heads of the military regimes i.e. Babangida and Abacha respectively were northerners.  

That paved the way and indeed made it easier to further blackmail the “guilty” North into conceding the presidency to the “wronged” Southwest on a silver platter to pacify it in the interest of “national cohesion”. That was how the convicted Obasanjo was released from prison, rehabilitated and literally imposed on Nigeria.

Since then the apparent desperation of the Northern Nigerian political establishment for the country’s corporate survival has grown, which explains the growing trend of blackmailing the region with secession and other threats against the country's continued corporate existence.  

It’s now quite common, for instance, to learn that northerners living in the South have been rounded up and deported back to the North. This, in addition to other discriminatory actions, is becoming more systematic following the establishment of well-armed regional security outfits in the Southwest and Southeast while the South-south is equally considering its own, all in a blatant disregard to relevant constitutional provisions.  

Interestingly, those secession threats aren’t actually genuine after all; the only genuine secession attempt was the Odumegwu-Ojukwu-led session attempt that triggered the Nigerian civil war more than half a century ago. Since then secession threats have always been mere tactics for political blackmail against the North, as the individual and collective interests of the Nigerian elite as a whole has over the decades grown too interdependent to survive the secession of any region in the country.

That explains why no incumbent political officeholder, civil servant or any beneficiary of the status quo even from the regions particularly notorious for secession threats has ever been openly involved in the clamour for secession knowing that his involvement in it and his stay in government are mutually exclusive. Instead, only opportunists desperate for relevance, broke and frustrated public figures with hardly anything to lose get involved in it. 

Besides, though Nigeria as a corporate entity has always been fragile, its peculiar circumstances make it too fragile to disintegrate. Yet, Northern Nigeria will continue to be politically blackmailed until it addresses its self-inflicted socio-economic disadvantage, which the other regions capitalize upon to blackmail it with a secession threat.

Until it develops its massive economic potential into real and instantly exploitable resources and turns its huge population into the 21st century-standard economically productive population, the region will continue to be blackmailed into making further concessions until it gets to a point where it may have to literally beg to be kept in the federation.