“Until the philosophy, which holds, One superior and another, inferior. Is finally, and permanently, discredited, and abandoned.
Everywhere is war. Me say war.
That until there no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation…” Bob Marley
Is it tribalism, nepotism and/or it’s a deception, the chief executive is simply running a divide and rule?
A chief executive of and in a state, is quoted as saying rather repeatedly that “WANNAN GOMNATI BA NA HAUSA-FULANI BANE, NA KABILA NE,” speaking with, in and using one of the same language (Hausa) he despised without established reason.
The words that formed sentences in the quotation marks above, making the centre of The Periscope Global editorial, can crudely be interpreted to mean, “THIS GOVERNMENT ISN’T FOR THE HAUSA-FULANI, IT’S FOR THE OTHER TRIBES or TRIBESMAN”.
Apart from addressing those who cared or are made to hear in one of the same languages the chief executive despised, another rather vague word in the sentence “KABILA”, which is TRIBE or TRIBESMAN,
Did and/or does the chief executive intend to mean “…BA NA KABILU BANE”, meaning, “…NOT FOR TRIBES or TRIBESMEN” or he is simply dedicating his administration to a singular, among the other tribes and/or whether or not he is personalising the government?
Is he impliedly redefining the democracy that decided him as the elected to mean “government of the KABILA by the KABILA and for the KABILA either as a person or as a tribe and/or both?
Does this, if impliedly, not amount to a betrayal of trust? Or would the elected chief executive, in all honesty, want to deny the votes generated for him by the honest party members and the aggrieved electorates who are in the majority Hausa-Fulani and/or Fulani-Hausa in the community?
Are there no Hausa-Fulani and/or Fulani-Hausa either appointed or promoted and/or employed under his watch? Or are the suppressed being frustrated in carrying out their assigned responsibilities?
Is there inequality in terms of employment and appointment aimed at disfavoring the Hausa-Fulani and/or Fulani-Hausa?
One of the Qutba yesterday, Friday, was admonishing the leaders to be fair and just in their leadership relationship with and to the led; to suppress one’s unconscious bias in favour of justice and equity and equality before God and man.
If the chief executive were to be a man of faith, is it morally, rather religiously justified to be boldly public with the defined diatribe against the Hausa-Fulani?
Verses in the untainted scripture of the revealed religion on antir-acism, Prophetic defence of Bilal against Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari’s diatribe and the last sermons of the Prophet Muhammad SAW that put the final nail on racism ought to be enough a lesson.
Buttressing the point, the Irish-Italian American scholar of Islam, author and a faculty member of the Department of Sociology at Rice University with experience in filmmaking, having directed the documentary film Journey into America, Craig Considine would articulate that “Prophet Muhammad’s anti-racist views are seen in his friendship with Bilal ibn Rabah, a black slave who rose to a leading position within the Muslim community of 7th century Arabia.
“One story relates how the Prophet defended Bilal after Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari, one of the Prophet’s companions, called Bilal “the son of a black woman.” Annoyed with this emphasis of identifying people by skin color, the Prophet criticised Abu Dharr by stating ‘you are the man who still has the traits of ignorance in him.’
“The Prophet’s reference to Abu Dharr’s ignorance refers to the ‘pre-Islamic’ state of jahiliyyah, an Arabic term meaning ‘the state of ignorance of Divine guidance.’ This period of Arab history before Muhammad’s arrival was marked by ‘barbarism’ and ‘lawlessness,’ as described in the Quran.
“The Prophet’s anti-racist mentality helped lead Arabs out of this darkness and into the light by guiding them onto the path of justice and equality.
Considine would add that the “Prophet’s Last Sermon at Mount Arafat in 632 AD is perhaps his most noteworthy manifestation of anti-racism.
“In his speech, The Prophet SAW stated that ‘An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab … a white person has no superiority over a black, nor does a black have any superiority over white except by piety and good action.’
“The Last Sermon is the culminating point of Muhammad’s life. He challenged a disunited population that was constantly engaged in warfare by calling on people to unite under a banner of humanity. By distancing himself from the tendency to categorize others based upon ethnicity, the Prophet SAW preceded the words of Martin Luther King Jr., whose ‘I Have a Dream’ speech called for African Americans to be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”.
Allah SWT in the noble Qur’an, Surah “Al-Hujurat,” translated as “The Apartments” Chapter: 49, Verse: 13) admonished that “O humankind! Surely We have created you from a single (pair of) male and female, and made you into tribes and families so that you may know one another (and so build mutuality and co-operative relationships, not so that you may take pride in your differences of race or social rank, and breed enmities). Surely the noblest, most honorable of you in God’s sight is the one best in piety, righteousness, and reverence for God. Surely God is All-Knowing, All-Aware, ” (Ali Yusuf’s translation).
The votes of your tribesmen only, can’t guarantee your victory at the poll in a multiethnic society, not even to consider you as coming from the minority, democratically speaking.