I am a Christian. I was born one and I will die one. I take my faith very seriously and I count it as being more important to me than anything else in life.
Despite that I supported and campaigned vigorously for a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election because I believe that religion has no place in politics and that competence is the relevant factor when it comes to leadership rather than faith.
That does not however mean that as a Christian I will stand by quietly and allow anyone to denigrate my faith.
I believe that both Christians and Muslims should and must be given their due respect in this country and that the adherents and leaders of both of these two great faiths must let love guide their every word and action and strive to live together in unity, peace and harmony.
I also believe that where we see danger signals and identify circumstances and individuals that may threaten that peace and harmony we must challenge and expose them, call them to order before it is too late and bring them to the attention of the authorities.
It is for these reasons that I have made the following well-researched and detailed contribution about a man that I believe can best be described as the Cleric of Blood.
We saw the face of hate & the spirit of ISIS manifest itself in the most barbaric & profound manner when Hamas unleashed its unadulterated savagery on the people of Israel on October 7th.
On that day the Jewish State experienced it’s darkest hour.
Sadly that face is raising its bloodlusting & bloodthirsty head in Nigeria today.
The inciting, provocative & deeply insulting words which I shall quote in this contribution, from a man that hates Christians, Middle Belters & Southerners with what the Holy Bible describes as “a perfect hatred” & a man that is a vicious psychopath, a dangerous subversive & an unrelenting & insidious religious & ethnic bigot will prove it.
He is indeed the cleric of blood, destruction and carnage & his name is Sheik Ahmad Gumi.
I am constrained to begin this essay with a link to his sermon (as repugnant as it was) which was delivered in a Kaduna mosque a few days ago.
The words were translated from Hausa & here is the link of the FULL text: https:/newsonlineng.com/exclusive-sheikh-gumis-full-statement-against-fct-minister-and-christians
I suggest that readers trace the link on google and go through it carefully so that they can fully appreciate the gravity & depravity of his dangerous allegations and perverse assertions.
It is clear that there are some hidden yet sinister and dark forces both within and outside Nigeria that are behind this evil man and that are encouraging him to continue to tread this reckless and dangerous course.
He is a believer in the doctrine of ‘Taqfir’ and a committed adherent of the hardline Salafist ‘Wahabi’ philosophy which forms the bedrock and foundation of the evil organisation that the Arabs describe as ‘Daesh’.
His late father, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, was an equally controversial cleric with a massive following and a committed hard-line Islamist.
Such was the senior Gumi’s zeal for Islamic fundamentalism and obsession for our country to be transformed into an Islamic state that he once infamously proclaimed, before a massive congregation of his followers and disciples, that a Christian would only rule Nigeria “over his dead body” .
It is instructive to note that the man died not too long after that and a Christian by the name of Chief Ernest Shonekan became Head of State in what was then described as our Interim Government.
The dark forces that Ahmad Gumi, his father Abubakar Gumi and those that think like them represent have little to do with the great and compassionate faith of Islam which insists on equity, justice, tolerance, submission to the will of God and peace.
The fact that they are unable to accomodate and live peacefully with others, including real Muslims and Christians, in a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic nation like ours makes them enemies of the Nigerian state and the Nigerian people.
Unislamic, anti-Christiaan, intolerant, aggressive, delusional, stubborn, intemperate, intransigent, uncompromising, ignorant, blind, deaf, dumb, intellectually deficient and wholeheartedly relentless in their arrogant assertions and archaic proselytising, these extremists are not only a danger to all but they also present an existential threat to our nation.
When he was confronted with a barrage of criticism & outrage from Nigerians after his sermon Ahmad Gumi expressed no remorse & instead he said, “I will not respond to irritants in democracy!”
What an insensitive & arrogant soul he is.
This is the kind of man that would have been celebrating and having multiple orgasms whilst watching the slaughter and massacre of innocent and helpless Jewish women and children by the beasts of Hamas on CNN on October 7th.
The only saving grace in this whole ugly episode is the fact that some Northern elders have displayed true leadership & commitment to the peace & unity of Nigeria & disowned Gumi over his threats.
Again the Chief E. K. Clark-led PANDEM who spoke for the people of the South South & Niger Delta & the Middle Belt Forum who spoke for the people of the Middle Belt also put him in his place.
Bishop El Buba, Sunday Igboho and Asari Dokubo have also spoken out against him and his divisive rhetoric on behalf of the Church, the South West and the South South respectively.
This is commendable and encouraging.
For the record my response to his malodorous & repugnant diatribe is as follows.
The scripture that came to my spirit after reading his dangerous and utterly outrageous incitement was Psalm 59:2 which says “may the Lord deliver us from bloodthirsty & evil men”.
I am simply astounded by the hateful disposition, poisonous venom, putrid verbiage, puerile assertions, malicious deceit, perfidious falsehood & divisive rhetoric coming from a man who lays claim to being a pious & peaceful religious leader!
Gumi is clearly a man that delights & revels in carnage, butchery, bloodshed, strife, war & perpetual & never-ending conflict.
He is also the face of hate & the full embodiment & living manifestation of the spirit of ISIS.
Thankfully he does not represent the Muslim community in our country: he only represents Daesh, ISWAP, ISIS, Al Shabab, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Hamas & Boko Haram.
He does not represent reasonable, rational, peace-loving, pious and serious-minded Northern Muslim leaders like the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano, the Shehu of Borno, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, Professor Isa Pantami, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, Sheik Muhammad Sani Yahaya Jingir Jos, Sheik El Zak Zaky and so many others that we know and whose integrity and commitment to the peace and unity of Nigeria we can vouch for: he only represents the violent, extremist and murderous beasts that are on the lunatic fringe.
Yet whichever way you view him one thing is clear: Gumi is attempting to ignite a religious & ethnic war in Nigeria & someone needs to call him to order before it is too late.
When he says Southerners & Christians “cannot be trusted with security”, that the FCT Minister is “satanic” simply because he received the Israeli Ambassador in his office & that those of us that supported a Muslim/Muslim ticket are worthless hypocrites, money-mongers & accursed citizens who chased dollars for pleasure & worldly purposes, it is clear that he has lost touch with reality & that he is looking for trouble.
Someone please tell this dangerous, deluded, malevolent, mendacious & misguided little creature that there is no longer any place for religious or ethnic politics & bigotry in Nigeria.
He dismisses the fact that the President, the Vice President, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of State of Defence, the National Security Advisor, the DG of DSS, the DG of NIA, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Staff to the President, the Speaker of the House of Reps & the Chief Justice of the Federation are ALL Muslims & insists that Muslims must also be in charge of the command & control structures of ALL our security & intelligence agencies & the three arms of the military, namely the Army, Navy & Airforce.
Of course he was ecstatic when under the Buhari administration every single one of Nigeria’s 17 security agencies & branches of the military were under the command & control of not just Muslims but Northern Muslims.
That arrangement, despite its blatant disregard for the principles of Federal Character & ethnic & religious balancing gave him joy.
Clearly he wants us to return to that unjust, unacceptable & dangerous arrangement.
Better still, given his words & by his warped & asinine logic, he would prefer us to remove ALL Christian personnel from our military, intelligence & security agencies, ban them from joining & allow only Muslims to serve.
Yet his nonsense did not stop there.
He went on to say that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not be allowed to remain in power for the next four or eight years unless he met their demands.
Finally he made his most absurd & asinine point when he ended his sermon by saying that because Nyesom Wike, the Minister of FCT who happens to be a Southerner & a Christian, received the Israeli Ambassador in his office it meant that the Tinubu Government are planning to turn Abuja “into Tel Aviv where Muslims would be targeted & killed”.
Two questions are relevant here.
Do Christians & Southerners have the right to be Minister of the Federal Capital Territory & does Nigeria have diplomatic relations with the State of Israel?
If the answer to both are in the affirmative then I really do not understand what all the fuss is about.
I do not believe or subscribe to the erroneous notion that the Minister of the FCT is the exclusive preserve of Northern Muslims & neither do I believe that Nigeria, a nation with over 120 million Christians should EVER sever its diplomatic ties with the State of Israel.
A Christian cannot head the FCT because it is in the North but a Muslim can head NNPC whose oil is in the South?
Is this not warped logic? As a Pastor friend of mine asked “are we not mad in this country?”
Gumi also said Christians always kill Muslim leaders when they are in power and when they have the opportunity to do so.
He said that power should not have been given to the South earlier this year and expressed the view that if this had to be so there should have been concrete security guarantees from the new order that all Northern Muslims would remain safe and not be butchered.
This assertion betrays the fact that he and those he represents do not regard our President as a Muslim. That is the implication of what he has said.
Worse still, deep down, those that think like him do not regard any Yoruba or Southern Muslim as a real one.
That is the pitiful and shallow level of their ignorance, bigotry and effrontery.
He went on to indulge in a mischievous & nonsensical journey of historical revisionism making all sorts of wild and inaccurate claims.
He said Nigeria was safer when Muslims were in power & when they controlled the guns & that Christians cannot be trusted with power.
At this point I really do wonder whether this man is above the law & I am amazed at the fact that he has not been arrested.
Can any Christian leader talk to his flock from the pulpit like that about Muslims without being arrested?
He said so many other explosive & provocative things which can be seen in the full text of his sermon including the absurd, wild and unsubstantiated allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan, a man that is regarded by many as one of the most restrained, gentle, kind, compassionate and rational Presidents that Nigeria has ever had and one who simply refused to abuse power, had planned to murder him when he was in power simply because he was a Muslim!
Quite apart from that he alleged that President Jonathan was responsible for the brutal murder of General Mohammed Shuwa who was gunned down in his own home by Boko Haram and that he was in full control of the terrorists and responsible for all the atrocities they committed when he was in power.
Those who managed to stomach
reading his nauseating gobbledegook can testify to its toxic & subversive intent.
The question needs to be asked: is this man well in the head? Is he mentally stable? Is he suffering from mental illness?
Are his crumbling mental faculties still intact or has he totally lost his already fragile mind?
Needless to say I have always despised him & I have always known that there is something dark & sinister about his more than cosy relationship with the bloodthirsty & heartless ISWAP & Boko Haram terrorists that have plagued our nation but now I have cause to question his sanity as well.
This is a man who, a few weeks before the 2023 presidential elections, said “Don’t vote for those who will fight bandits. The fighters (bandits) are our people. So please vote for those who, after attaining power, will call & negotiate with our people (bandits) so as to give them what they want for peace to reign”.
Swap the word “bandits” for “terrorists” and you will really appreciate what this deluded and dangerous man represents & stands for.
Attempting to draw from his shallow knowledge of the military & its history as an unaccomplished & sacked Major from the Medical Corps of the Nigerian Army he made reference to Christians killing Muslim leaders in various military coups.
He mentioned the fact that Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Tafawa Balewa & other Muslim leaders were killed by mutinous Christian soldiers on the night of January 15th 1966.
He conveniently forgot to mention the fact that Chief S. L. Akintola, Brigadier Ademulegun, Colonel Unuigbe, Chief Festus Okotie Eboh, Colonel Yakubu Pam, Colonel Sodeinde & many other Christian political leaders & military officers were killed by the same people on the same night.
He failed to mention the fact that the mutinous soldiers, led by Major Emmanuel Ifejuna & Major Kaduna Nzeogwu murdered BOTH Christian & Muslim leaders on that terrible night.
He refused to acknowledge the fact that it was not only Muslim leaders that were targeted.
Even though it is true that the Jan 15th 1966 coup was primarily a Christian one it is also true that it was crushed and aborted by primarily Christian officers like Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Captain Paul Tarfa, Lt. Col. T. Y. Danjuma, Lt. Col. Martins Adamu and so many others.
In the Northern Officers revenge coup of July 29th 1966 which came 6 months later, 300 Christian Igbo officers were killed together with a Christian Head of State, General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi & a Christian Governor of the old Western Region, General Adekunle Fajuyi.
This “revenge coup” was led by Northern officers of both Christian & Muslim extraction like Lt. Col. T. Y. Danjuma, Lt. Col. Martins Adamu, Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon, Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed, Lt. Ibrahim Babaginda, Lt. Muhammadu Buhari, Lt. Col. IBM Haruna, Lt. Ibrahim Abacha & others.
He said Christians killed the Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, in the 1976 Dimka coup but he forgot to mention the fact that Lt. Col. A.R. Aliyu, Lt. Col. T.K. Adamu, Lt. A. B. Umaru, Capt. A. A. Aliyu, Lt. Mohammed & a number of other Muslims were also involved in the execution of that coup & that Christian officers like Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa were also killed by the plotters.
However if he insists on arguing that the 1976 coup was a Christian coup then he must concede the fact that the officers that thwarted it were also mainly Christian & were led by General T. Y. Danjuma, the then Chief of Army Staff.
He said only Christians are involved in coups in which blood is shed forgetting that the 1983 coup which removed President Shehu Shagari from power & brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power & in which one of the master minds, Brigadier Ibrahim Bako, was mysteriously shot in the back of the head by one of his own fellow coup plotters whilst attempting to arrest the President was not planned, organised, led or effected by primarily Christian officers.
Most of the key planners and senior officers involved in that mutiny including General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha, General Tunde Idiagbon, General Muhammadu Buhari and many others happened to be Muslim and sadly during the course of the event blood was shed.
Coming to the April 22nd 1990 coup which was led by Major Gideon Orkar, Lt. Col. Tony Nyiam, Major Saliba Daddy Mukoro, Captain Victor Tolofari and others and in which they attempted to remove the Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, from power there is no doubt that it was indeed a Christian coup and indeed much blood was shed.
However it must again be conceded that it was also foiled by primarily Christian officers led by Major General Joshua Dogonyaro, Brigadier General David Mark, Brigadier General Tunde Ogbeha, Brigadier General John Shagaya, Colonel Ishaya Bamaiyi, Colonel John Yahaya Madaki, Lt. Colonel Gideon Zidion, Major Jonathan Temlong and so many others.
Somebody please make it clear to this meddlesome and confused despot that religion and matters of faith are never a factor when people are plotting coup d’etats and military insurrection. Anyone that thinks otherwise is clearly blinded by his own bigotry.
He says Christians like to kill but can he tell us if it was Christians that killed over 100,000 innocent Igbo Christian civilians in 3 months of genocidal pogroms in core Northern Nigeria in 1966?
Was it Christians that butchered hundreds of thousands of Christians over 50 years all over the North and specifically in places like Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Sokoto, Yobe, Southern Kaduna, Zangon Kataf, Numan, Nasarawa, Niger & even in parts of the South?
Are the footsoldiers of ISWAP & Boko Haram Christians? Were the members of the murderous Maitatsine cult in Kano Christians?
Are those that have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims all over the North & in parts of the South over the last 10 years Christians?
Are those that have wiped out entire communities in the name of ethnic cleansing & stolen their land Christians?
Are those that bomb and burn down Churches & burn Christian clerics & their congregations alive Christians?
Was a Christian in power from 1994 till 1998 when thousands of innocent June 12th footsoldiers and NADECO leaders were viciously persecuted, jailed, tortured, maimed, bombed, slaughtered and driven into exile simply for standing up for Chief MKO Abiola and his June 12th 1993 presidential mandate and opposing military rule?
Was a Christian in power in 1998 when Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the 1993 presidential election and the symbol and hero of Nigeria’s democracy, was poisoned with Abuja tea and brutally and callously martyred whilst he was in the custody of the military Government?
Did Gumi ever complain about or make any reference to this great injustice done to a fellow Muslim or is it that Southern Muslims are not Muslim enough?
Was a Christian in power when Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, Chief MKO Abiola’s wife, was brutally gunned down in the streets of Lagos by officers of the Armed Forces for fighting for her husbands rights and opposing military rule?
Was a Christian in power when in 1997 General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the older brother of President Umaru Yar’Adua, was forcefully given an Aids injection whilst in prison and murdered in cold blood?
This is a road we must never go down because it is known as the road to Kigali.
The bitter truth is that Gumi’s attempt to depict our peaceful Christian faith into one which takes pride & relishes in taking life & shedding human blood is unacceptable.
There are good Christians & there are evil ones just as there are good Muslims & there are evil ones.
No-one should attempt to demonise or paint ALL of the adherents of either of these two great faiths in the colours of psychopaths & cold-blooded murderers.
More often than not both Christians & Muslims manifest & display love & kindness to others.
The fact that some do not is not a reflection of their faith but rather a reflection of their personal disposition, human failings & character.
This is the point that men like Gumi fail to appreciate & conveniently ignore and we will not sit by silently & allow them to do so.
Anyone, no matter how powerful, influential, wealthy, well-connected, loved, revered or highly placed, that tries to use religion or ethnicity to divide our people, trouble our peace, undermine our security or destabilise our country will not only face the full wrath of the Living God & the Nigerian people but will also be brought to justice.
Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic secular state & therein lies our strength, pride & joy.
There are Nigerian Muslims and Nigerian Christians & each of these groups have every right under our constitution to express their views, practice their faith & aspire to man any public office in the land.
We do not practice racial segregation, racism, religious bigotry or apartheid here & we do not harbour slaves & slave masters.
By the grace of God our nation & our people are ONE & nobody, not even a self-seeking, self-obsessed, vicious, divisive, destructive, fiendish & mischievous little rabble-rouser & ethnic & religious bigot like Ahmad Gumi can divide us!
Worse of all is the fact that during the course of his sermon he referred to Christians as “infidels”.
This provocative & incendiary rhetoric must stop before it ignites a full scale religious & ethnic war in our country!
I call on the DSS & the NPF to call this reckless malefactor to order before he sets Nigeria on fire.
Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following.
Sadly most of those that constitute the Nigerian elite & ruling class, including politicians, clerics on both side of the religious divide, intellectuals & professionals have chosen to ignore this cantankerous & utterly insidious little man over the years & allowed him to get away with his evil out of a sense of political correctness, fear & cowardice.
This has emboldened him & strengthened his leperous hand & I consider it to be unacceptable.
I refuse to be counted amongst those who remain silent in the face of such tyranny & evil.
Unlike others the man has not died in me & I fear none but God.
This is why I can confidently make bold to say that the creature known as Ahmad Gumi’s evil has no limitation & knows no end. He is the darkness that seeks the darkness.
Permit me to share just a few examples of his perfidy here.
During the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo it was this same Ahmad Gumi that introduced & recruited young Omar Mutallab, the underwear bomber, into Al Qaeda whilst in Saudi Arabia.
He also facilitated meetings between him & Anwar Al Awlaki, the Yemeni leader of AQIAP who was later eliminated by the CIA.
Omar, who later became one of the world’s most notorious & dangerous suicide bombers, tried to blow up a plane filled with passengers in America & was caught in the process.
Today he is in an American prison serving time & he will be there for the rest of his life.
On his part Gumi was caught, arrested & deported from Saudi Arabia & banned from ever going back there due to his links with terrorists & jihadists.
He has not been there since. Instead of him to live his life quietly & consider his good fortune at not being hanged or jailed for his crimes whilst in Saudi Arabia he came back to Nigeria & after a few years set up a dangerous network of questionable individuals who prided themselves on negotiating, fronting for & collecting ransoms on behalf of terrorists, murderers & kidnappers that have killed & tormented our people over the last 15 years.
His spokesman, one Tukur Mamu who is the publisher of the Desert Herald, was arrested at Cairo Airport just over one year ago for being involved with terrorists & extremists, deported back to Nigeria & has been in the custody of the DSS ever since.
It has been estimated that hundreds of millions of naira were collected from the families of kidnap victims over the years by this network of serpents & at least 400 million of that money was channeled back to Gumi’s aide & used for all manner of sinister & evil purposes.
That is the measure of the man we are dealing with & no-one should be surprised by his hate speech & inflammatory utterances.
His intention is to assist the terrorists, provoke a religious & ethnic war, destabilise our country, bring down the Federal Government & establish a new order in Nigeria where Christians, Middle Belters, Southerners & Muslims that do not share his world view are subjected to the worse form of humiliation, oppression, torture, murder & disgrace & are considered as nothing but slaves.
May God deliver our nation & people from such men.
For now I will sheath my sword & go no further. Peace be unto Nigeria.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), lawyer and politician, lives in Abuja
CULLED FROM METROWATCH