Deep Sigh! As long as you are active on any social media platform, by now, you should have read, or someone must have shared the trending David Hundeyin’s article “Cornflakes for Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story” (https://westafricaweekly.substack.com/.../cornflakes-for...) with you. Regardless of his political positions, David Hundeyin dug up the…

Deep Sigh! (Estimated Reading Time 25 minutes — 5,460 words) INTRODUCTION Bismillah! On 10 August 2020, Khadi Muhammad Ali Kani sentenced Yahya Sharif Aminu to death by hanging for blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). The Shariah court arraigned Yahya Sharif Aminu on a one-count charge of insulting religious creed contrary…

The ancient city of Zaria, Zazzau, or Zakzak is a major center of learning and the springboard of modern education and literacy in northern Nigeria. Not only was the Katsina Training College transferred to Zaria in 1949 and later renamed Barewa College, but Zaria is also home to my Alma…

Deep Sigh! “A person must be informed, not disinformed. And if you have the feeling that you are being disinformed then it is your job to study the issues involved” — Marshall Meyer, WFAS Interview 1986, Marshall T. Meyer Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University …

THE CONTEXT: HISTORICITY AS A SITE OF CONTENTION On December 15, 2017, Professor Moses Ochonu wrote an article “Modernity and Morality in Northern Nigeria” as a contribution to the debate that engulfed the cyberspace of Northern Nigeria following the publicity of the viral pictures of two Izala clerics Shaykh Bala…

In his lecture on 12 June 2009 titled “Open Letter to the Nigerian Government” (Part 5), Muhammad Yusuf issued the first implicit sanction for suicide bombings in the predictable showdown with the Nigerian government. He said: “Everything that you are asked to do, even if you will die, go and…

One way of understanding what drives Boko Haram members is by focusing on the Hausa and Arabic poetry (nashīds) that speaks of the group’s vision and the underlying theme of an apocalyptic battle or cosmic war between good and evil, most of which cannot be put in plain terms except…

In his 2008 lecture titled ‘Tarihin Musulmai’ (History of Muslims), Muhammad Yusuf, the slain leader of Boko Haram, cited the unequivocal insult of the Prophet of Allah as one of the reasons for his group’s advocacy for jihad in Northern Nigeria. Yusuf said: “They insulted the Prophets, Jesus, and Muhammad…