Influential moderate Islamic preacher, Sheikh
Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has advised former
military Head of State, General Muhammadu
Buhari to forgo his presidential ambition for the
peace and political stability of Nigeria.
In an open letter addressed to the retired General
on Tuesday, Sheikh Gumi hailed Buhari for his
humility, excellent record in public service and
tough stance against corruption but hinged his
advice on the former soldier’s inability to control
his supporters, describing it as his point of
weakness.
Gumi ended the letter by alerting Buhari of a plot
to use him to truncate the current democratic
dispensation just like he was used to overthrow
the civilian government of Shehu Shagari in 1983.
The full text of his letter reads:
“Assalamu Alaikum
The Humble People’s General.
I know I have access to your privy but this is
meant for others to learn also.
The prophet -peace be upon him- told one of the
most honest and truthful of his companions Abu
Zar Algafary: “oh Abu Zar, I truly love for you
what I love for myself. I indeed see that you are
weak so never accept to lead even two people
and never accept safekeeping of the orphans
wealth’
An honest and candid advice from the prophet
that is still valid today for any leader whose
weakness borders on leadership qualities.
The reason for Abu Zar’s weakness has nothing
to do with his credibility or truthfulness. Never!
The prophet was narrated as saying: “there is
nobody under the shadows of trees or bare sun
that is more honest in speech than Abu Zar.”
Abu Zar – May Allah be pleased with him- is
ascetic and inmaterialistic. Abu Zar is
incorruptible. And yet he is not suitable for
leadership.
I am not claiming to be even by an atom’s weight
anything close to our noble prophet, yet I am
encouraged to give you this same advice by the
virtue that you are not also close to Abu Zar in
piety. We are living in a time of great tribulations
and fitnah especially for this Ummah because of
our collective iniquities, ignorance of religious
instructions and the love of Dunyah.
Sir, your weakness is not in your past impeccable
record of accountability of public wealth and the
fight against corruption and indiscipline. Your
weakness is in your inability to control men
compounded further by your strict and obsessive
rejection of corruption.
Don’t be surprised. You may need to understand
that Islam being a pragmatic religion allows the
use of Zakkat and public wealth as an instrument
to pacify and lure influential people for the sake
of righteousness, peace and stability. In modern
governance today it translates into the security
vote.
Thus men are also controlled by money. So if
your policy of governance is ostensibly centered
on sealing tight the use of money you will have
great problem with men. An Arab poet said: “a
fool cannot be the leader of his people but the
true leader of the people must feign foolishness”.
It’s convenient for your ardent supporters to
quote copiously from the annals of history your
great achievements but when your failures and
weaknesses were pointed out they say that was
in the past. Are the lessons of past history only
good for the positive achievements? Doesn’t that
also explain our incessant failures?
Your Excellency, good intentions are never
enough. In the past, because of your clean
records and straightforwardness you were lured
by men who want only the vanities Dunya to
uproot a young democracy on the caprices of
fighting corruption. Corruption is no doubt an evil
but there is a more monstrous evil than
corruption. That is turmoil and insecurity. Peace
and stability are the most important part of
governance that no price is too high for them.
The lack of peace, stability and security is the
major predicament of this nation since
independence. So when you were naively used by
men to derail one, that is the greatest disservice
you committed to the nation the ills of which we
are yet to recover from. Do you truly believe Allah
is still not in cognizance of that? You were lead
to uproot a duly elected leader and incarcerated
him for close to two years knowing fully well that
he has no charge of even the corruption that was
labeled against him. Yes, Shagari was the leader
and therefore he bears all the responsibility of
misdeeds in his government, so also you were a
leader and you should bear all the responsibility
of derailing the peace and stability of governance
in this country as a consequence of that putsch.
You weakness in control of men became evident
when the very people that used you to revolt
against a constituted authority came back to
uproot you from the seat of power. Your own
kinsmen without a gun cocked in your defense.
Today the corruption you were deceived to fight
against has reached unimaginable level coupled
with the worst state of insecurity and peace in
the nation. There was just recently an attempt on
your life like many of us.
All this because you the honest people that are
given the privilege of strengthening the Armed
forces left it to meddle in politics. We thus lost
everything. Neither the power nor the security.
A believer is not stung from the same hole twice.
Men used your innocence before to get power and
dump you. Please be sensible today. Some other
men still want to use you to get power and surely
they will dump you again. You don’t share the
same philosophy at all. Even though as I
explained later, your obsession and philosophy of
fighting corruption is not the priority of Nigeria
today. What Nigeria needs utmost now is peace
and stability. This can only be achieved when the
religious ethnic and regional divide is tamed. And
you can only tame it with people without much
precedence. People without much following. Yet
people that are constructive and have the ability
to control men.
If Sardauna today is alive in your situation he will
never contest for the presidential seat because of
his deep understanding of what the nation needs.
He will step down for a more acceptable younger
person. It’s on record that Sardauna even at the
age of under 60 said he was not going to contest
again preparing his only house in Rabah for
retirement.
I’ll give you a similitude to buttress my point of
priority. A person seriously injured and fractured
from a road traffic accident when brought to the
emergency room, the first priority of the doctors
is to secure an intravenous line. Meaning get a
drip set working into his veins to protect his vital
organs like the heart and kidneys from the effects
of shock and loss of blood. The fractures even
though serious and the source of the blood loss
may take days and weeks before they are even
attended to beside the superficial dressings.
Nigeria now needs peace and stability first. Then
we talk of good governance later even though it’s
the source of the predicament we are facing.
The present government has already charged the
situation and played the religious divide to its
advantage. It’s in circulation now, a SW pastor
calling on Christians and the church to vote
Jonathan as their only Savior. This religious card
will be used to cover for his deficiency in
governance.
Your Excellency, you should understand too, that
many if not most of your supporters are also
looking up to you to protect them from the
onslaught on their religion and region. This also
the Christian will never believe the otherwise.
Therefore the stage is set for religious
confrontation which is the least the nation needs.
What we need as a priority is peace and stability.
From my view if APC can support as an example
Ameachi or Okorocha/Kwankwaso or El-rufai or
Tambuwal ticket and the PDC will have Akpabio/
Muazu or Ribadu or Shekarau, the next four years
will. – insha Allah – witness stability both in the
north and south. And the electoral body will get
the necessary infrastructure that subsequently the
next election will be free and fair and the true
reflection of Nigerians.
If you may ask, why can’t this same peace be
achieved with you and another Christian running
mate?
Gen. you have antagonist, and they are many and
also as ardent as your supporters. Your
supporters have the biggest proportion of the
underprivileged of the society which is the petrol
that can be easily ignited by the slightest spark.
The spark will be when you’re declared the loser.
And you know you can very well lose if the
Christians follow their church -and why not in this
era of mediocrity.
On the other hand if Jonathan comes back. BH
will be real not the political one we see. The
turmoil will engulf the whole country not only the
north. That is why I also call on PDP to present
some other candidates.
My Brother in Islam, please listen to the words of
wisdom. And don’t follow the whims of the riff
raff. Before they used you the first time to disrupt
the second republic, my father advised you
against it. Today I am also advising you against
contesting in the 2015 presidential elections
because you will be used to ignite the nation -a
dream well orchestrated several years ago- and
also be used by bad people as a ladder to grab
regional and local powers.
I rest my case here.
My best regards and condolence to your recent
loss.
May Allah guide you and protect you from the evil
men and the jinn. Amin.
Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi.”
Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has advised former
military Head of State, General Muhammadu
Buhari to forgo his presidential ambition for the
peace and political stability of Nigeria.
In an open letter addressed to the retired General
on Tuesday, Sheikh Gumi hailed Buhari for his
humility, excellent record in public service and
tough stance against corruption but hinged his
advice on the former soldier’s inability to control
his supporters, describing it as his point of
weakness.
Gumi ended the letter by alerting Buhari of a plot
to use him to truncate the current democratic
dispensation just like he was used to overthrow
the civilian government of Shehu Shagari in 1983.
The full text of his letter reads:
“Assalamu Alaikum
The Humble People’s General.
I know I have access to your privy but this is
meant for others to learn also.
The prophet -peace be upon him- told one of the
most honest and truthful of his companions Abu
Zar Algafary: “oh Abu Zar, I truly love for you
what I love for myself. I indeed see that you are
weak so never accept to lead even two people
and never accept safekeeping of the orphans
wealth’
An honest and candid advice from the prophet
that is still valid today for any leader whose
weakness borders on leadership qualities.
The reason for Abu Zar’s weakness has nothing
to do with his credibility or truthfulness. Never!
The prophet was narrated as saying: “there is
nobody under the shadows of trees or bare sun
that is more honest in speech than Abu Zar.”
Abu Zar – May Allah be pleased with him- is
ascetic and inmaterialistic. Abu Zar is
incorruptible. And yet he is not suitable for
leadership.
I am not claiming to be even by an atom’s weight
anything close to our noble prophet, yet I am
encouraged to give you this same advice by the
virtue that you are not also close to Abu Zar in
piety. We are living in a time of great tribulations
and fitnah especially for this Ummah because of
our collective iniquities, ignorance of religious
instructions and the love of Dunyah.
Sir, your weakness is not in your past impeccable
record of accountability of public wealth and the
fight against corruption and indiscipline. Your
weakness is in your inability to control men
compounded further by your strict and obsessive
rejection of corruption.
Don’t be surprised. You may need to understand
that Islam being a pragmatic religion allows the
use of Zakkat and public wealth as an instrument
to pacify and lure influential people for the sake
of righteousness, peace and stability. In modern
governance today it translates into the security
vote.
Thus men are also controlled by money. So if
your policy of governance is ostensibly centered
on sealing tight the use of money you will have
great problem with men. An Arab poet said: “a
fool cannot be the leader of his people but the
true leader of the people must feign foolishness”.
It’s convenient for your ardent supporters to
quote copiously from the annals of history your
great achievements but when your failures and
weaknesses were pointed out they say that was
in the past. Are the lessons of past history only
good for the positive achievements? Doesn’t that
also explain our incessant failures?
Your Excellency, good intentions are never
enough. In the past, because of your clean
records and straightforwardness you were lured
by men who want only the vanities Dunya to
uproot a young democracy on the caprices of
fighting corruption. Corruption is no doubt an evil
but there is a more monstrous evil than
corruption. That is turmoil and insecurity. Peace
and stability are the most important part of
governance that no price is too high for them.
The lack of peace, stability and security is the
major predicament of this nation since
independence. So when you were naively used by
men to derail one, that is the greatest disservice
you committed to the nation the ills of which we
are yet to recover from. Do you truly believe Allah
is still not in cognizance of that? You were lead
to uproot a duly elected leader and incarcerated
him for close to two years knowing fully well that
he has no charge of even the corruption that was
labeled against him. Yes, Shagari was the leader
and therefore he bears all the responsibility of
misdeeds in his government, so also you were a
leader and you should bear all the responsibility
of derailing the peace and stability of governance
in this country as a consequence of that putsch.
You weakness in control of men became evident
when the very people that used you to revolt
against a constituted authority came back to
uproot you from the seat of power. Your own
kinsmen without a gun cocked in your defense.
Today the corruption you were deceived to fight
against has reached unimaginable level coupled
with the worst state of insecurity and peace in
the nation. There was just recently an attempt on
your life like many of us.
All this because you the honest people that are
given the privilege of strengthening the Armed
forces left it to meddle in politics. We thus lost
everything. Neither the power nor the security.
A believer is not stung from the same hole twice.
Men used your innocence before to get power and
dump you. Please be sensible today. Some other
men still want to use you to get power and surely
they will dump you again. You don’t share the
same philosophy at all. Even though as I
explained later, your obsession and philosophy of
fighting corruption is not the priority of Nigeria
today. What Nigeria needs utmost now is peace
and stability. This can only be achieved when the
religious ethnic and regional divide is tamed. And
you can only tame it with people without much
precedence. People without much following. Yet
people that are constructive and have the ability
to control men.
If Sardauna today is alive in your situation he will
never contest for the presidential seat because of
his deep understanding of what the nation needs.
He will step down for a more acceptable younger
person. It’s on record that Sardauna even at the
age of under 60 said he was not going to contest
again preparing his only house in Rabah for
retirement.
I’ll give you a similitude to buttress my point of
priority. A person seriously injured and fractured
from a road traffic accident when brought to the
emergency room, the first priority of the doctors
is to secure an intravenous line. Meaning get a
drip set working into his veins to protect his vital
organs like the heart and kidneys from the effects
of shock and loss of blood. The fractures even
though serious and the source of the blood loss
may take days and weeks before they are even
attended to beside the superficial dressings.
Nigeria now needs peace and stability first. Then
we talk of good governance later even though it’s
the source of the predicament we are facing.
The present government has already charged the
situation and played the religious divide to its
advantage. It’s in circulation now, a SW pastor
calling on Christians and the church to vote
Jonathan as their only Savior. This religious card
will be used to cover for his deficiency in
governance.
Your Excellency, you should understand too, that
many if not most of your supporters are also
looking up to you to protect them from the
onslaught on their religion and region. This also
the Christian will never believe the otherwise.
Therefore the stage is set for religious
confrontation which is the least the nation needs.
What we need as a priority is peace and stability.
From my view if APC can support as an example
Ameachi or Okorocha/Kwankwaso or El-rufai or
Tambuwal ticket and the PDC will have Akpabio/
Muazu or Ribadu or Shekarau, the next four years
will. – insha Allah – witness stability both in the
north and south. And the electoral body will get
the necessary infrastructure that subsequently the
next election will be free and fair and the true
reflection of Nigerians.
If you may ask, why can’t this same peace be
achieved with you and another Christian running
mate?
Gen. you have antagonist, and they are many and
also as ardent as your supporters. Your
supporters have the biggest proportion of the
underprivileged of the society which is the petrol
that can be easily ignited by the slightest spark.
The spark will be when you’re declared the loser.
And you know you can very well lose if the
Christians follow their church -and why not in this
era of mediocrity.
On the other hand if Jonathan comes back. BH
will be real not the political one we see. The
turmoil will engulf the whole country not only the
north. That is why I also call on PDP to present
some other candidates.
My Brother in Islam, please listen to the words of
wisdom. And don’t follow the whims of the riff
raff. Before they used you the first time to disrupt
the second republic, my father advised you
against it. Today I am also advising you against
contesting in the 2015 presidential elections
because you will be used to ignite the nation -a
dream well orchestrated several years ago- and
also be used by bad people as a ladder to grab
regional and local powers.
I rest my case here.
My best regards and condolence to your recent
loss.
May Allah guide you and protect you from the evil
men and the jinn. Amin.
Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi.”
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