The vows for and against General Buhari’s victory

Four weeks after the March 28, 2015 presidential election is a period long enough for Okupe to have found a suitable alternative from among hundreds of native and borrowed Nigerian names. His defensive statement that the prerogative of changing his name is his rather portrays him to be more cowardly than a wild duck. If by May 29, 2015 Okupe fails to keep his vow, Nigerians including this writer will present and ask him to select from a list of names half of which will derive from his cowardice.
Another Nigerian, this time a fan of General Buhari, vowed to trek from Lagos to Abuja if the four-times presidential candidate emerged winner in the 2015 presidential election. Unlike the timidly coward Doyin Okupe who is hesitant to keep his promise, Hashimu Suleiman (a native of Kastina state) has lived up to his 2-year old vow. On hearing that General Buhari has been announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as President-elect, Hashimu embarked the following day on the 746km walk from Lagos to Abuja. On arrival in Abuja on Monday April 20, 2015; Hashimu told journalists that he undertook the solo trek “to express the love he has for the leader of Nigerian masses General Muhammadu Buhari”.
The long walk, which according to Hashimu lasted thirteen walking days condemned five pairs of his canvass shoes. He used to close at 6:00pm to resume the following morning. He left Lagos on the first day of his trip about 5:00am and got to Ibadan about 6:00pm. He then continued from Ibadan to Oyo, then to Ogbomoso, and then Ilorin where people escorted him until he stopped at Oloru. He said he received much hospitality at Jebba where about twenty residents joined him in his expedition. However, Hashimu said eighteen of them turned back after walking for several kilometers. He narrated how he encountered armed robbers near Mokwa in Niger state; and one of them whom he had met at Jebba gave him N200 out of pity to buy sachet water.
Hashimu continued walking until he got to Kudu, then Kutigi, then Bida where he stopped (being a Katsina man) to ‘pay homage’ to Etsu Nupe; passing a night there. He thereafter continued to Agaie and then Lapai; stopping over in both towns to pay homage to the Nupe emirs. He arrived at Suleja and went to Sarkin Zazzau’s palace to greet the emir. He passed a night there and continued to Abuja where thousands of spectators had gathered along the Kubwa expressway to catch a glimpse of him.
A rather unfortunate of the vows made by General Buhari’s antagonists is the one ascribed to a man from Lapai in Niger state, the birthplace of the former PDP governor of Niger state (1999-2007) Engr Abdulkadir Kure. The man whose name is given as Alhaji Audu (also known as Kakan) vowed to die if the APC presidential candidate General Buhari won in the 2015 general elections. Alhaji Audu who is a carpenter by trade lived in Gwaja ward (Efu Gwaja in Nupe) of Lapai. Soon after General Buhari was declared winner of the 2015 presidential election, Alhaji Audu died from electrocution in Lapai. What a vow of man fulfilled by God! While a Muslim reserves the right to make a vow, such must be within the limits permitted by Islam. Alhaji Audu’s kind of vow is outrageous and therefore forbidden in Islam.
A vow is simply an earnest promise or pledge binding the person making it that he will or will not do a certain thing or things. Once a vow is made, it becomes a binding commitment that must be executed even after one’s death. In case the avower dies before accomplishing the terms of the vow, his heirs are to fulfill it on his behalf. Imam Malik (RA) narrates in his magnum opus Al-Muwatta on the authority of Abdullahi bn Abbas that Sa’d bn Ubada asked the Messenger of Allah (SAW) and said “My mother died while she still had a vow which she had not fulfilled” The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “Fulfill it for her”. Allah (SWT) exhorts us to fulfill our promises. He (SWT) states in Qur’an 5:1 “O ye who believe! Fulfill (all) obligations”.  
It is also related in Al-Muwatta that Yahaya bn Sa‘id said “I vowed to walk (to Makkah to perform hajj) but I was struck by a pain in the kidney. So, I rode (on my beast) until I arrived at Makkah. I asked Atah bn Abi Rabah and others and they said ‘You must sacrifice an animal’. When I came to Madinah, I asked the scholars there and they ordered me to walk again from the place where I was unable to walk. So, I walked”. We hope Hashimu Suleiman did as done by Yahaya bn Sa‘id in the above tradition. Allah (SWT) asserts in Qur’an 17:34 “…and fulfill (every) engagement, for (every) engagement will be enquired in to on the Day of Reckoning”.
Any deviation from the execution of a vow in the most ideal way that is known to tradition and customs of the people amounts to breaking it. It is related by Malik (RA) that Abdullahi bn Umar said: “If someone breaks a vow which he stressed, he has to free a slave, or cloth ten poor people. A person who breaks his vow which he did not stress only has to feed ten poor people. Each poor person is (to be) fed with a measure (i.e. the prophetic measure) of the staple food in his community. A person who does not have the means for doing that should fast for three days”. If General Buhari had no cause to vow over his mission, it is needless of anybody to engage in extreme vow(s). May Allah (SWT) guide us against being misled by man’s worst enemy, the Shaytan, into making fanatical vows, amin.