The Burkina Faso’s new policy on Shari’ah Law Study Abroad and the Funny Reactions by Some Nigerian Media Actors

By SHAMSUDEEN ABAS

This guy is building his country up from the ruins of many decades that the West – which you carry on top of your heads as Nigerian public speakers on the television, radio or in the print/online media – subjected it to. Under the previous governments of Burkina Faso, which were the makings of the same West you eulogise in Nigeria even when you know in your hearts that they are responsible for all the confusions you see, because of the level of ruins and poverty, the people had no choice than to toe the line of what they were told by their Western inflicted leaders who made them believe that only worship without trade was the best. But that is against the establishment of Islam: Allah in His Glorious Qur’an and His Messenger his Hadiths encourage Muslims to struggle for survival concurrently with their worship of their Creator.

Before your watch, let me speak to those that – in reaction to Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore’s new decision on citizens studying Sharia Law abroad – sit on Nigerian television adding their own saying: “In this age that people are talking of AI, science and technology, in Nigeria people are talking of why Arabic is not in the educational curriculum”.

Now, let me ask you: “When did you as Nigerian Broadcaster start commenting on the rich words of Burkina Faso’s Traore? Oh! Now because he talked about something that resembled what you hate with passion, you now make it a central point of your television morning discussions. I will educate you about Traore and Burkina Faso because when we stood by that military president against the West because of which you didn’t regard him for anything, you were either joining the lies being peddled against him or dodging to be part of the struggle for your own ineptitude.

Now, Traore once said Saudi Arabia wanted to build mosques all over his country and “I asked them to bring the money and use it to build schools for my people.” You didn’t find that easy for your evil spread because you knew you would not be popular for it. That didn’t mean he didn’t want Muslims to pray in the mosques anymore but that the mosque, as a non-business centre, doesn’t need to be proliferated. Now, what he said about Sharia is peculiar to his own country.

This guy is building his country up from the ruins of many decades that the West – which you carry on top of your heads as Nigerian public speakers on the television, radio or in the print/online media – subjected it to. Under the previous governments of Burkina Faso, which were the makings of the same West you eulogise in Nigeria even when you know in your hearts that they are responsible for all the confusions you see, because of the level of ruins and poverty, the people had no choice than to toe the line of what they were told by their Western inflicted leaders who made them believe that only worship without trade was the best.

But that is against the establishment of Islam: Allah in His Glorious Qur’an and His Messenger his Hadiths encourage Muslims to struggle for survival concurrently with their worship of their Creator. You cannot sit with worship or learning Arabic or Shari’ah only without learning a trade. Is that clear? Okay, what makes you a lawyer in Nigeria? Is it not the same thing you condemn in Shari’ah? But because your country has employment and other provisions for those that study the Christian (Canon) Law upon which Nigeria’s legal system – like the Burkinabe – is fashioned, you can proudly say, “I want my son or daughter to be a lawyer”. That is fine. The same situation the West inflicted on our Nigeria is what Traore’s Burkina Faso is suffering from, so there are no popular economic benefits attached to post-Sharia Law Study.

So, “At this stage of our national reformation and reconstruction, especially when we see misapplication of rich Islamic laws, moral values and cultures by those sponsors who don’t mean well for our country hence using those students as recruitment ground for terrorism that the country – like Mali and Niger – battles with, let them come back home to do studies that have economic benefits attached to them.” That is what President Traore is saying.

Now that you now add your own to the needless controversy attacking Arabic Language study being in educational curriculum in Nigeria, you can’t be anything less than hypocrite because you know that your point essentially overshoots the runway of the talks. You simply mean hate and that should be condemned by all. You do know very well that English speakers are not up to the number of Arabic speakers in the world even in Nigeria. But that English Language is the channel of communication for education (against mother tongues) and official duty in Nigeria. Imposed by the West! The same West that took away all your cultural identity and moral values as Africans and replaced them with Christianity they blindfolded you against knowing deeply. Otherwise, you won’t be quoting the Bible from one part that suits you while covering up the others that put realities right before your very eyes. Yet, Arabic is not just a channel of communication for a large number of Nigerians but the compulsory language of worship for the larger population of people who are Muslims.

Alas! You are attacking that Arabic Language so it has no mention in Nigeria’s education system. Yes, you accept that Muslims can do Islamic Studies. What about Arabic? You have no choice in this matter especially when it does not concern you. If you are one of those champions of English Language and French studies, which we have no problem about, you should be champion of Arabic studies because your lack of that championship only relegates you to the pit of a biased mind. What is the importance of French Language in Nigeria’s education system if not for international business reasons?

English is the only of these languages without economic, moral or cultural values, else, why should the owners of that language be invading the nations of Africa and Arab World with terror killing innocent people, creating and inflicting terrorism and banditry among their populations to destabilise them, while stealing and carting away their natural resources? If there are any languages that have values in the world today, they are Arabic, French, even Russian, even Hausa, Fulfude, Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu, Ashantie, which are languages of the owners of those resources the West invade to steal with force. Definitely not English.

So, let them be careful, journalists and public speakers of Nigeria who know more but allow themselves to be overshadowed by ethnic jingoism and religious bigotism thus, by so doing, avoid to face the cause of the challenges but willfully aid the Western generated security crisis in the country, and stop the nonsense. Arabic, Islamic Studies and Sharia Law are a tripod stand that cannot be separated. Stop beating needless drum of controversy to the pure mindedness of Burkina Faso’s Traore because he doesn’t send you any such message.

Traore is a Muslim. Burkina Faso is almost 100 percent Muslim. So, you as Nigerians should stop being the selling ground for jokes and comedies manufactured in serious societies like Burkina Faso, which has commissioned hundreds of thousands of kilometres of road networks, educational, hospital and industrial facilities and military complex across its territory in two years without celebration or media show unlike your country that dwells more in celebrating and turning even an ordinary flag off into ceremony with no reality of hope it gets to be executed, talk less of being completed.

This area of concern should matter to Nigerian broadcasters and public speakers not creating viral controversy over valid policies that a working country like Burkina Faso is issuing to build its human capacity.

*Abas is a regular writer and editorial contributor in Nigeria.