By Deji Yesufu
Your recent video, where you successfully linked the inception of Boko Haram to the political fall-out between Ali Modu Sheriff, Governor of Borno State from 2003 to 2011, and Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram, has occasioned this open letter to you. I am particularly thankful to you for successfully bridging broadcasting with the history of our country. The quest to be the first to report news has made Nigerian media houses forget that current happenings in the country cannot be divorced from our history – including recent histories. Even those of us who were adults between 2002 and 2009 can very easily forget how the Boko Haram menace began.
Your video was a timely reminder that Boko Haram started when northern Muslims began to clamour for Sharia Law to be implemented fully in their various States. I was concluding my studies at Ahmadu Bello University in 2001, when the debate came to Kaduna State. It led to religious riots, where innocent people, mostly Christians, were killed for mainly being of the opposite religion. Zamfara State was the first to adopt Sharia Law in October 1999 – only five months following the country’s return to civilian rule. Borno State adopted Sharia Law in June 2001.
As your video carefully reminded us, Ali Modu Sheriff and Mohammed Yusuf fell out on the extent to which Sharia Law would be implemented in Borno State. Yusuf wanted to have the hands of petty thieves cut off. The Governor would not have it; and that was it! Yusuf termed the Governor an apostate; his man, Boji Foi, who was in the Governor’s cabinet, resigned; there was a heavy crack down on the sect that led to the death of Yusuf, Foi, and many other leading sect members; even Abubakar Shekau, who would lead the murderous activities of the sect later, escaped death by the whiskers; and the rest is history. My argument in this letter is to show you and the public that the religious crisis in the north cannot be separated from the basic teachings of the Quran, and that if there is to be social cohesion in this country in the days to come, the country must agree to have a proper separation of religion from state matters.
Since we are talking history, I want to invite you to look carefully at a current global world crisis: the American war on Iran. I have listened to you long enough to know where your sympathies are on that war, and I do not wish to change those. I, however, want to help you to see the Islamic connection with that crisis, also. Iran, being a Middle Eastern country, has always had a thriving Muslim population. But in the 1960s and early 1970s, Iran was not led by radical Muslims like it is today. Iran had a monarchy led by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The country was greatly influenced by the liberal democratic ethos of the West – which many countries, including Nigeria, are trying to imitate.
The Shah had his issues, and two opposing ideologies stood against him. They were the radical Left Marxists and the Shiite Muslims led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. These two groups called for a change of government, and the United States of America, led then by the Democrat Jimmy Carter, and France were sympathetic to their plight. The Shah was ill and lacked the political will to hold on to power. He resigned and left the country in January 1979. The Marxists and the Shiite Muslims took power. Edmund, please, kindly fact-check this information: Ayatollah Khomeini and his Muslim supporters rounded up the Marxists and had them all killed.
In less than two years, the Shiite Muslims had complete control of the government of Iran, and it has remained so till today. Iran has always had brilliant minds. In the world of chess, which I follow, there are at least three Iranians among the top 20 players in the world. The Muslim clerics oversaw the government, while the country used its extreme oil wealth to build a formidable infrastructure, making Iran a leading exporter of unmanned aerial vehicles, drones and ballistic missiles. Iran has also invested in human development, rivalling Israel in scientific and technological advancement.
All these would have been fine, except that Iran chooses to direct its scientific advancement towards destroying the USA and Israel. This is why they sponsor proxy terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, to wage war on Israel, the worst attack being the October 7th, 2023 terrorist attack on that country. It is true that Muslim nations are not friends with Israel. But many of them are finding working relationships with the Jews today. Bahrain and the UAE have signed the Abrahamic Accords with Israel, where they see Israel as a brother nation in the Middle East, rather than as an enemy, because the Quran teaches this. October 7 changed Israel’s relationship with all its enemies. Rather than maintain a Cold War posture with Iran, Israel chose war with them. It is what led to the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei on the 28th of February, 2026, and this is what is at the root of the war America is waging on Iran today.
Edmund, as far as the Quran is concerned, there is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim. The true Muslim is Boko Haram, ISIS, ISWAP, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and all other Muslim groups that are committed to eradicating Christians and Jews from the face of the earth. The “moderate” Muslim, in the eyes of these extremists, has been corrupted by Western values, and it is the reason why the extremists very easily term them as apostates and also include them in the list of those to be exterminated. These extremists do what they do because the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet, written in the Hadiths, command them to do these. Here are a few scriptures from the Quran for you to consider:
𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝟱:𝟱𝟭: “O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends: they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely, he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people”.
𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝟵𝟴:𝟲: “Verily, those who disbelieve from among the people of the scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikun will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures.”
𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝟵:𝟮𝟵: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax (Jizyah) in acknowledgement of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.”
Sahih Muslim is one of the trusted Hadiths on the life of the Prophet, and this is what it quotes Mohammed as saying:
𝗦𝗮𝗵𝗶𝗵 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗺 𝟰𝟯𝟲𝟲: “I will expel the Jews and the Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims”.
𝗦𝗮𝗵𝗶𝗵 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗺 𝟲𝟵𝟴𝟱: “The last hour will not come unless the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say (it), for it is the tree of the Jews.”
The moderate Muslim regards these writings as relevant for the time of the Prophet. Other Muslims practice taqiyya with regard to these scriptures. They hold contempt for Christians and Jews at heart, but would smile at their faces. And when push comes to shove, the true content of their heart shows. For example, in Northern Nigeria, many Muslims who were hitherto at peace with their Christian neighbours would suddenly turn against them the moment the mob arrive. Another example is the support that someone like Mayor Mamdani of New York City gives to the Palestinian cause. Mamdani’s hatred of Benjamin Netanyahu has little to do with any supposed genocide in Gaza. It all comes from those scriptures above. A well-taught Muslim is instructed to hate Jews.
It is very easy to read a letter like this and conclude that the author is trying to set two dominant religions in the country against themselves. Some readers could say that the author is a Christian extremist. Far be it that such a label would be placed on me. My desire is to show a fundamental problem with our country, and to engender dialogue and ultimately policies within society that would allow for social cohesion, progress, productivity, and prosperity amongst our people groups. But there is no way to solve a problem if we cannot understand its root causes. With the kidnapping incident that occurred in Orire Local Government recently, we are all agreed that radical Islamic extremism and their activities have reached our doorsteps. What then is the way forward?
1. Oyo State, or any state in southern Nigeria, must not countenance adopting Sharia Law. Any effort at this must be resisted at all costs.
2. Interfaith dialogues must not be stifled. Muslims and Christians must continue to debate the heart of their religion, while they find middle ground to work with.
3. Nigeria is not immune to events happening in the international sphere like the war on Iran.
4. Our society must pay attention to the matter of comprehensive education. Boko Haram knows very well that the first step towards liberation from religious bondage is an enlightened mind, and they would not wish for Nigerians to have this.
5. The media, as the fourth estate of the realm, must join in the effort to rid Nigeria of religious fundamentalism. Up till the moment, the media have tended to excuse Islamic extremists – rather than condemn them.
6. Finally, Jesus says you know the nature of a tree by the fruit it bears (Matthew 7:16). Christian ideas led to the progress and prosperity that Nigeria has reached today. What does the Islam of Boko Haram wish to impose on us? The bondage that people in Iran are witnessing today is a testament to what it would look like to be under a Jihadist government.
Thank you for reading.
Deji Yesufu is a Christian public affairs analyst. He is the author of HUMANITY. He lives in Ibadan with his family.
