The Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, (SAN) who headed the very delicate Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North has revealed that the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-da’wa wal-Jihād), popularly called Boko Haram has some of the brilliant minds in Nigeria in its fold.
The minister disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Trust, in which he gave an insight into the activities of the committee, its encounters with Boko Haram sect leaders, some of the recommendations of the committee to government and the prospect of further dialogue with the insurgents.
According to the minister, the committee traversed many states in the country and met with adherents of Boko Haram’s style of Islam, and in the process, was shocked by the kind of discoveries the committee made.
Alhaji Turaki said, “We met a young man among their members who made first class in Electrical Engineering and has a Master’s and was on his way to the group’s training camp in Mauritania. He was arrested in Niger Republic by the Nigerien security agents. Yes, a lot of them are well-lettered and are intelligent. When you discuss with them, you realise this. There are motivators among them, as there are orators. They are a phenomenal kind of people. Many of them are well-educated, even in Western education.”
The minister added that, contrary to the supposition that the sect’s activities are like the agitation in the Niger Delta, Boko Haram could not be appeased by financial inducements. This is because their conviction is based on religious ideology passed down to them by the leaders of the sect.
He revealed that, “If you read a pamphlet written by the late Jama’at Ahl-as Sunnah lid-da’wah wal-Jihad leader, Muhammed Yussuf, titled, “This is our dogma”, you will find substantially that what is contained there is something that is within acceptable Islamic principles and injunctions. But more often than not, in their course of practising and practicalising it, they gradually get to a point of departure where they steadily veer off-course.
“Often, they would take Quranic verses out of context. And when you take Quranic verses out of context, chances are you miss the flavour and the lessons those verses are trying to teach. You also miss the message behind those verses.
“During the committee’s sitting, those who are well-versed in Islamic knowledge among us would take them up and begin to discuss with them. We had to make them realise that they were taking those verses out of context and point out to them the right context that they should use them. In the course of these serious dialectical discussions between them and members of the committee, we saw them conceding to superior reasons and superior arguments and then admitting they were wrong. A lot of them accepted that they were misguided.”
Source: Daily Trust
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