Nigeria is a multicultural and highly diverse nation of many peoples and interests – any clamour at marshaling a crusade that does not appeal to this variegated cross-section on both passionate and dispassionate levels will be dead on arrival. It is however a matter of practical necessity that an enterprise of such grand magnitude should ride on the crest of the original Sokoto Jihad. This historical event is about the only thing that still commands the hearts and minds of a critical mass of the population of the Northern half of the country. Coopting the Southern half which is largely non-Muslim and/or antagonistic to the legacies of the event in question into a cause that breathes a second wind into its sails is indeed the tallest of orders, but it is nevertheless a task that must be done.
The technical meaning of jihad is the perpetual struggle against the self-destructive urges of the carnal self. All other forms of jihad, including martial jihad through kinetic warfare or any type of physical struggle are secondary derivatives of this gold standard. The bare-minimum pop culture characterisation of jihad as a tool of terror has taken a firm root in the manipulative light of complex geopolitics and the clash of divergent cultural ethos and this outcome is quite understandable, given the human instinct of regression into the base form once survival is at stake.
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The coattails of the first Sokoto Jihad are a means to an end, an expedient choice given their success in solving problems that are almost identical to those we face today. Its aftermath united Hausaland for the first time into a single political entity under the theocratic authority of the Sultan. This put a decisive end to the deadly power struggle between the competing states and the trail of carnage left in its wake, secured borders and highways, cemented a common cultural and political identity, fostered a collective vision towards the improvement of life and opened up the extremities of the country to contact with the world through cultural exchange, commerce, diplomacy and scholarship.
For the first time in the history of Hausaland, the governors (emirs or sarkis) were accountable to the law through the judiciary as guided by an established code of conduct for the ruling class. By the time the Europeans arrived, Sokoto already had its own systems of public administration including the judiciary, economy and education systems, all derived from Islamic canon. It is therefore not too far-fetched given this background that the resistance Sokoto mounted against a colonial takeover by the Europeans who brought with them social systems that negated its fundamental ideologies from certain perspectives is yet to completely die down. Their Jihad, their popular revolution, was cut and they dream of bringing it back to life.
But the rub is that we now share a common unbreakable political bond with other people with whom we do not share this cultural history and social identity. To some of these other people, the word ‘jihad’ is just short of a demonic perversion that connotes sadistic bloodletting. Yes, the rabbit hole goes much deeper than this shallow moral and intellectual consciousness, but if this is such a terrible reality, then we are all guilty of it. The onus falls on our shoulders as heirs of the Sokoto revolution and heralds of a rematch to disabuse their minds of this fallacy and demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt to our brethren from across the Niger that what we extend is a hand of sincere camaraderie and purpose.
Huzaifa Jega wrote from Abuja
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