A Letter to Boko Haram: What Would Dan Fodio Do? By Malcolm Fabiyi, PhD

Recently, your group declared that
it would no longer dialogue with the
Federal Government. You have
publicly stated that Boko Haram has
two fundamental objectives. The
first is to Islamize Nigeria, expel
Christians from Northern Nigeria and
re-establish the legacy of Shehu
Dan Fodio. The second is to bring
an end to the practice and
propagation of western education in
Nigeria. With such hardline
positions, it is difficult to see what
the basis for any negotiations would
be. Dialogue presumes there is the
capacity to find middle ground, and
the possibility that the two sides to
a conflict have certain common
positions on which they can agree.
The Nigerian constitution
guarantees the rights of all
Nigerians to choose their faith and
to worship as they please.
Educational access is also protected
under the Nigerian constitution.
Because your demands violate the
constitutional rights of other
Nigerians, no representative of the
Nigerian government is
constitutionally empowered to
negotiate on any of the issues you
have identified as being
fundamental to your cause. It is
therefore unlikely that any serious
government will enter into
negotiations regarding amnesty for
your members without requiring
that the demands that you have
made which are not aligned with the
constitution are dropped.
It has also been implied that the
model for the negotiations between
your group and the government is
the Niger Delta Militants amnesty
program that was initiated by late
President Umaru Yaradua. It is
unclear whether that is in fact an
appropriate model. No objective
Nigerian can argue with the facts
that the petroleum induced
environmental degradation of the
Niger Delta, and the lack of
economic opportunities in a region
from which most of Nigeria’s
resources are derived is an assault
to decency and fairness. Few will
also argue with the fact that
successive governments had
systematically ignored the Niger
Delta. MEND’s stated objective was
ensuring fairness for the Niger Delta
in the use and allocation of
revenues derived from oil and gas
resources sourced from the region.
Redressing these wrongs was well
within the powers of the Nigerian
government to implement. In fact, it
can be argued that the failure of
government to address these issues
earlier was in violation of both the
spirit and letter of the Nigerian
constitution.
No one doubts that Northern Nigeria
is in crisis. However, where well-
meaning Nigerians will likely differ is
in deciding where the blame for the
North’s predicament should lie. To
blame southerners, Christians, or
western education for the woes of
the North is to misplace the source
of responsibility for our
predicament. The North has been
blessed with the privilege of leading
this nation for much of its history.
What did our leaders do when they
were in office? Apart from the brief
period of growth and progress in
Northern Nigeria under the
leadership of the Sardauna
(Ahmadu Bello) and Prime Minister
Tafawa Balewa, what have northern
leaders done to uplift the Northern
masses? What improvements to the
lives of the Ja’maa and the Talakawa
have occurred under the rule of
Northern leaders since 1966? What
improvements to the lives of their
citizens are Northern political
leaders implementing today?
As a Nigerian and a Northerner who
is aware of the legacy of Shehu Dan
Fodio, and as a father whose son is
named for the Shehu, your
insinuation that your struggle is
linked with the restoration of the
legacy of Shehu Dan Fodio is
offensive. If you are truly concerned
about the Shehu’s legacy, you
should look first at what has
become of that legacy in the North.
It might interest you to know that
Shehu Dan Fodio was a firm believer
in education, even in the type that
you derisively refer to as western
education. Ibraheem Sulaiman,
author of “A Revolution in History”,
an authoritative treatise on the life
and times of Shehu Dan Fodio tells
us that “the Shehu utilized the
sciences (ulum) in his efforts to
transform society; the science of
tawhid, the science of hadith, the
science of tafsir, the science of fiqh,
as well as the sciences of medicine,
astronomy and mathematics.” It is
our good fortune that this work is
readily available for inquisitive
minds to review ( http://nmfuk.org/
danfodio/
IbrahimSulaimansBook.pdf). It
might also interest you to know that
the love for the sciences and
mathematics was not restricted to
the Shehu alone. Hugh Clapperton,
the first European to document the
conditions in Northern Nigerian after
the Shehu’s Jihad, recorded finding
the Shehu’s son, Sultan Mohammed
reading a copy of the classical
mathematical text by Euclid during
a visit to the Sultan in 1827.
Whatever your agenda is, it is clear
that by opposing “western
education” you seek to destroy, not
enhance, the legacy of Shehu Dan
Fodio.
What exactly do you even mean by
western education? Do you not
realize that you belittle the
contributions that Africa and Arabia
made to science by using such a
term? Do you not see that by calling
a body of knowledge to which all
races, peoples and civilizations have
made a contribution by the name
“western education” belittles the
role of Africa and Islam in the
development of modern science?
Mathematics is the language of
science. Are you aware that Algebra,
the most fundamental of the
branches of mathematics is derived
from the Arabic word Al-Jabr, coined
by the Persian Mathematician
Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
who published the earliest known
comprehensive treatise on the
subject in 820 AD. Are you aware of
the Rhind Papyrus, an ancient
Egyptian (African) mathematical
text containing groundbreaking
mathematical concepts dated to
about 2000 BC, clearly
demonstrating the African origins of
modern mathematics? Do you know
that Euclid, the father of modern
geometry actually lived and studied
in Egypt? Do you know that the
number system that underlies all of
modern science is called the Arabic
numeral system – not the German,
French, or English numeral system?
Some inconsistencies in your
position on education need to be
addressed. Your discussion with
journalists was carried out by
mobile phone, a technology
developed by “western education.”
You use improvised explosive
devices that incorporate timer
mechanisms developed by western
education. These explosives derive
their destructive power from violent
chemical reactions and exothermic
processes that have been tamed
only through a deep knowledge of
chemistry and physics. The cars
that you load your bombs in are
powered by an internal combustion
engine developed from
thermodynamic principles which we
understand only because of
“western education.” The rifles that
you carry, the camera that you use
to record your messages, the
computers on which you type and
process your messages, the internet
that allows you to reach the entire
world with your views, the printers
that publish your positions, the
compact disks and thumb drives
that you use in sending your
messages – all these are products of
the western education that you
claim to despise.
Dr Datti Ahmed, who is mediating
with the government on your
behalf, is a medical doctor, trained
in the foremost western traditions. I
am hopeful that you have had
occasion to ask him what he truly
thinks about western education. I
am also hopeful that he and the
other northern leaders you say you
have respect for have been upfront
with you about what they really
think about western education. Ask
our political, religious and business
leaders in the North like Dr Datti
Ahmed, Adamu Ciroma, General
Buhari, Nasir El Rufai, Alhaji Umaru
Muttalab, Nuhu Ribadu, Aliko
Dangote, Sultan Abubakar, and
Sanusi Lamido where their own
children are. If we should find that
their own children are in the west –
at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard,
Stanford, Manchester, LSE – gaining
the most that they can from
western education, we must
question their silence at this critical
period of Northern and National
existential crisis. We must ask them
to state publicly and clearly what
their views are about western
education, and what they believe its
role should be in society.
There is another irony to consider.
While you are calling for an end to
“western education,” purporting to
do so in the name of Islam, Muslim
nations all over the world are
tightening their embrace of
education. Do you know how many
Nigerian academics – Christian and
Muslim – have been poached by
institutions such as King Fahd
University in Saudi Arabia to teach
“western education” to their
citizens? Are you aware of the
radical social and economic
transformations that are occurring
in predominantly Islamic nations like
Malaysia, Qatar, Iran, Pakistan, and
Turkey, powered by western
education? In an age where Iran is
at conflict with the rest of the world
because of its deepening pursuit of
Nuclear capabilities, where Pakistan
has built a Nuclear bomb, where
Malaysia and Indonesia are
becoming technological and
commercial powerhouses, you are
calling for an end to the pursuit of
science and progress in Nigeria.
Let us now go back to the issue of
amnesty and negotiations. The
negotiations with MEND yielded two
things. Firstly, the government
increased its commitment to the
Niger Delta, creating a ministry for
the region and a special projects
parastatal focused on infrastructural
development. Secondly, the
militants negotiated personal
development programs for
themselves, and many have been
enrolled into training programs
where they are developing the
necessary skills to serve as
engineers, drillers, divers, sailors
and support personnel in the oil and
gas industry. If your negotiations
move forward with the government,
what developmental programs will
you demand for the North and for
yourselves? What will the fate of
your 500,000 members be when
your guns finally go silent? What
useful careers or jobs can be
created for them if they do not have
any western education?
Finally, to claim that Boko Haram
seeks to re-establish the legacy of
Shehu Dan Fodio by disrupting
society, maiming and killing
innocents and calling for the
cessation of the pursuit of
knowledge is to dishonor the legacy
of the Shehu. The Shehu’s true
legacy was about leadership by
example and selfless service. The
Shehu decried all materialism, he
hated corruption and hypocrisy, he
refused the crown after his victories,
preferring worship and the pursuit
of knowledge to the pomp and
pageantry of office. Shehu Dan
Fodio’s Jihad was a campaign
against corruption and selfishness
by leaders. If indeed you seek to
restore the Shehu’s legacy and to
engage in the revolutionary
principle of Tajdid, then your focus
should be on those leaders who
have led the North to ruin, those
who amass wealth, steal from the
people, build palatial homes, and
concentrate solely on the acquisition
of worldly possessions, while their
own people suffer. The real villains
are those leaders who destroy
schools, fail to fund hospitals, and
do to the children of the North what
they would not do to their own
children. The true enemies of the
North are those leaders who
hypocritically maintain a complicit
silence when western education is
denounced yet send their own
children to the best western schools
that money can pay for. There is no
difference between the oppression
that these leaders impose on the
North today and what the Habe
Kings were doing to the Ja’maa in
the days of Shehu Dan Fodio.