Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Suyi Ayodele, a columnist for the Nigerian Tribune, is a contributor to USAfricaonline.com
A Muslim friend, at the weekend, drew my attention to a 58-second video of how Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) responded to the woman who daily hauled debris at the Prophet whenever he passed by her house.
According to the narrator, the woman, who lived in Mecca during the time of the Great Prophet (PBUH), disliked the Prophet so much that every morning, whenever the Prophet passed by her house, she would throw debris at the man. The Prophet, the narrator said, would silently walk through the debris, saying nothing. That act went on for a long time.
Then one day, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) walked by the woman’s house and he noticed that nobody threw any debris at him. The Prophet found that unusual and asked about the woman. A neighbour told the Prophet that the woman was sick. There, on the spot, the Prophet entered the woman’s house to inquire about her health.
The woman, upon sighting Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), was said to have broken down in tears and asked: “You came to help me, even after all I did to you?” The Prophet’s response is my key point here: “Yes. Kindness my way.” The Prophet responded! The video ended. I asked those knowledgeable about Islam what happened thereafter, and I was told that the woman became the most adherent follower of Prophet Mohammed (PBUNH) and his teachings.
Because of the way and manner, the Islamic religion was introduced to my part of the country in the 19th century, the people responded to the new faith with a lot of resentment. They labelled the practitioners of the religion as ìmòle (people of religion of force). Converting many of the people to Islam became a herculean task.
The adherents of the religion too did not relent. A lot of efforts were made to disabuse the minds of the people about the religion, its tenets and outlook. One of such efforts resulted in the composition of the following lyrics:
E má pe Mùsùlùmí ló ni ìmòle – Don’t call Muslims as people of religion of force
Èsìn àlááfià kìi se ìmòle – A religion of peace is not a religion of force
Ení bá pe Mùsùlùmí ló ni ìmòle – Whoever calls Muslims as people of religion of force
Kò kéwú, kògbedè aláìmòkan ni – Is he who does not learn Quranic recitation, nor understands Arabic, a complete ignoramus
The above is known as Waka in Yoruba Language. The Islamic-oriented Yoruba music genre was introduced to convince the people then that contrary to the perceived forceful nature that the generation of adherents of Islam adopted in selling the new faith to the people, the religion is peaceful after all.
Waka, therefore, became a praise song to sermonise the peaceful nature of the religion, and the fact that whatever negative connotations ascribed to it were fuelled more by ignorance than the reality of the nature of the religion. It is mostly sung during crusades known as Waasi, and other social gatherings where Islamic scholars of yore often quoted relevant verses of the Quran to show that the religion does not allow anyone to kill anybody based on his or her faith.
In our contemporary time, nothing demonstrates the message contained in the lyrics more than the 2018 episode in Nghar village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, where an Islamic leader and Chief Imam of the village, Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, saved the lives of 262 Christians who were on the verge of being killed by some Islamic fundamentalists.
Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, who died on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at the ripe age of 92, was 84 years old when he risked all he had to save the lives of the Christians in his community. The story of Imam Abubakar’s heroic deed went global. Ten communities in the locality were under attack during the June 2018 crisis in Plateau State.
Gunmen who claimed to be Islamic fundamentalists subjected the Christian communities in the area to untold hardship. Many were pursued and killed in brutal manners. The news of the attack spread like a wildfire. When it got to Nghar village, Imam Abubakar did what the Holy writ, Quaran, stipulates in Quran 68:8, to wit: Non-Muslims of goodwill and peace should not be targets of war simply due to their faith.
While other people in the village shut their doors against the fleeing Christians who had suddenly become endangered, Imam Abubakar opened not just the doors of his mosque, but those of his home to shield the would-be victims from their attackers.
I have tried to picture the situation in my mind. I have tried to imagine a frail-looking 84-year-old man standing by the door, talking to gun-wielding men and some others carrying other lethal weapons. What was he telling them? How did he summon the courage to hide those 262 Christians? What verse of the Quran did he recite to convince the murderous crowd?
Again, and more importantly, what if the attackers had overpowered him? What would have been the fate of members of his immediate family who were equally holed up in the mosque and the house where the fleeing Christians were quartered? Who takes such a risk Imam Abubakar took when he refused to surrender the victims to their attackers even when he came under direct threat of the assailants?
One account of that incident stated that Imam Abubakar told the assailants that, having sought refuge in his mosque and home, the Christians inside had automatically become Muslims and the Holy Prophet, Mohammed (PBUH), forbade anyone to kill them. He was said to have further argued with the bloodthirsty assailants that the Christians running into the mosque and his home could be likened to the holy flight of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), from Mecca to Medina, adding that Islam supports the concept of asylum. How persuasive could an 84-year-old man be?
Tragically, about 80 other Christians who could not make it to Imam Abubakar’s abode were mercilessly slaughtered by their attackers. If the Islamic cleric had not risked his life for the ones who sought refuge in his house, the casualty figure would have been 342 souls lost to cold hands of death in the hands of those who claimed to be fighting Allah’s battle! What a beautiful soul Imam Abubakar was!
While reflecting on Imam Abdullahi Abubakar’s life and times, two issues defined his heroic deed of June 2018. The first is humanity, and the second is patriotism. On the issue of humanity, especially as preached by many great Islamic scholars,
This narrative is the real definition of humanity. Humanity without a touch of kindness amounts to bestiality. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) says: Yes. Kindness is my way”, no matter the circumstance. Only a man with milk of kindness would risk his life for the safety of people of a different faith the way Imam Abdullahi Abubakar did in 2018. There is no record to show that he was lettered. He was simply a man convinced about the tenets of his faith
Today, in the same Nigeria where Imam Abubakar lived and died, we have professors and PhD holders, who, if they found themselves in the position of Imam Abubakar, would have supplied the matchets for the mass slaughtering of the 262 Christians the Imam saved.
And we should get this right: Imam Abubakar did not protect those hundreds of Christians because they were Christians. He protected them because the milk of kindness, which epitomises humanity, runs in his veins. If Imam Abubakar were to hail from my part of this country, his name would have been: Ìwàlèsìn (Character is religion). Only a man of character, not faith, does what the Islamic leader did. Little wonder he lived to a very good ripe age amid his people. Isiah the prophet says: “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds” (Isaiah 3:10). That prophecy, I submit here, is fulfilled in Imam Abubakar!
And this brings us to the late Imam’s sense of patriotism. Reflecting deeply on that June 2018 heroic deed, I concluded that the late Abdullahi Abubakar’s sense of patriotism must have been top-notch! One could imagine the ripple effects if he had allowed the attackers access to their would-be victims. How would the people from the ethnic stock of the victims have reacted?
Patriotism goes beyond the denotative implication of ‘one being devoted to or supportive of one’s country’. It entails giving all for the betterment of one’s nation. Sadly, this is the most important quality our leaders lack. Beyond singing the National Anthem and reciting the National Pledge, our leaders have nothing speaking for them in terms of patriotism. That is why they don’t blink while pilfering our patrimony.
Nigeria today is a Federal Republic because some men and women fought a gruesome 30-month civil war to keep the nation one. During that war (May 1967-Janury 1970), over two million Nigerians were killed on both sides of the divide (Nigeria and Biafra). To commemorate the sad event, a day was set aside on January 15 of every year to honour the memories of those who paid the supreme price for Nigeria to be one.
Known as Armed Forces Remembrance Day, this year’s own was celebrated without the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being present. Pray, which nation celebrates its Armed Forces Remembrance Day without its C-in-C in attendance? That is how unpatriotic our leaders could be!
The argument advanced for the absence of the President at such a national memorial event is that he was in a foreign country on an assignment for the economy of the nation. But like the proverbial crab and its-three-year-labour at the mill without its palm oil filling a small tin (Odún méta tí alákàn ti ńse epo, kò kún agolo, òfo ló já sí) what has been the benefits of the numerous globe-trotting by President Tinubu since he assumed office in 2023?
Good enough that Tinubu remembered to pay tribute, despite his ‘tight schedule’ overseas, to Imam Abubakar at his passing. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to impose it on the President that it is not enough to use flowery words to describe the late Islamic leader as a man who “stood firmly on the side of peace, benevolence, and conscience”, choosing “humanity over division, love as opposed to hatred, and embrace rather than rejection.”
President Tinubu should walk the talk by showing that level of ‘benevolence’ displayed by Imam Abubakar. The President should have pity on the hapless citizens who suffer daily under the weight of the traumatic economic policies of his administration. He should save Nigerians from imminent deaths from hunger and starvation the way Imam Abubakar rescued those 262 Nigerians from the jaws of death. That is humanity; that is kindness.
Tinubu should also stand on the side of good ‘conscience’, be humane and also ‘exemplify’ “the kind of humanity and moral courage” Imam Abubakar exhibited by staying focused in confronting the problems bedevilling this nation. The greatest tribute our President can pay to Imam Abubakar is to halt his decoyed medical tourism and the vomitous act of disappearing without notifying the people as if he were not elected by human beings. Even if he has succeeded in capturing the nation and its people, President Tinubu should stop flaunting that at our faces all the time!
Imam Abdullahi Abubakar died a hero. His children and relations alike should be consoled that, in addition to reaching a ripe age, their patriarch represented the true definition of humanity. Theirs is a glorious and proud heritage! In my small library are two portraits of my father and my father-in-law, two men whose deeds indicated that humanity exists. I am adding a third portrait, and you can guess whose it would be: Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, the Grand Humanity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GHFRN). He showed us what humanity looks like in its physical form! Rest on, Imam Abdullahi Abubakar.
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