Many analysts have attributed the disturbances to unemployment rather than religion. An American envoy recently attributed it to the rivalry between the south and north. Yet again, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi attributed it to the revenue sharing formula. Yet another northern elder, Adamu Ciroma, a Yobe indigene and a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria blamed bad leadership. Nothing could be more misleading.
It is true that Yobe state had its own share of problems emanating from the Nigerian state, nobody can deny the fact that the various governments of the state allowed religion to steal the peace of the people only for it to turn round to blame poverty and ‘disgruntled elements in the society’. Take for example, as poor as Yobe state is, it boasts of probably the largest Mosques in West Africa (or so it was thought when it was commissioned some few years back).
The mosque which was strategically located along Maiduguri-Potiskum road has Koranic schools and Islamic library all built at government expenses. No similar edifice was built for the Christians even though the state belongs to both Muslims and Christians alike.
But Boko Haram, Emeka Okereke, an Igbo resident of the state responded ‘The state gets its own share of oil allocation as at when due. If they decide to use their own share to promote religion rather than provide essentia, whose fault?”
The painful thing however is that all of us living here are paying the price of the attempt to Arabize the state at all cost.”
Then there are several Koranic schools where people were indoctrinated from childhood. It is on records that that the foot soldiers of Boko Haram were trained in the local Koranic school where the pupils are taught that their primary allegiance goes to Islam and not the state and that they have the duty as Muslims to work towards enthroning the ideal Islamic state in Nigeria during their lifetime.
So when Mohammed Yusuf came with his message of replacing the man made laws with the laws of God, thousands flocked to him in drove as the messiah they had been waiting for.
He lambasted western democracy which Nigeria has adopted as anti-Islam and attributed the spread of corruption and poverty to the system. He advocated the enthronement of the ideal Islamic state as the recipe to the Nigeria problem of poverty and corruption.
Non Muslims who could understand his sermons in Hausa shivered as the preaching were practically inciting Muslims against the non-Muslims in the state. Although Yusuf was regularly invited by the security agencies that put him under watch, nothing came out of it as his disciples always bailed him out. He was the beautiful bride courted by top government officials, judicial officers, politicians and students. He was very popular because he said the things people were trained from childhood to accept as gospel truth. Politicians went to him for counseling and for successes in their endeavors.
Business men went to him for prayers. Students approached him for success in their examinations. In return, they supported his ‘missionary endeavors’. At Kanama in Yobe in the early 200s, his group was called ‘The Talibans’. A popular member of the group then was the son of a former governor of the state.
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