Mr Yahaya Jingir and the Lies Tinubu Hears -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

I understand his followers call him Sheikh. I have stopped calling them Sheikhs — those clerics who combine their core duty of admonition and propagation of the religion with dirty politics. Note that I said dirty politics, not just politics. The politics some of these clerics play in the name of religion is too dirty. Many may not ask me for evidence if I say that politics by clerics is even dirtier than that played by full-time politicians.

This is not to say that the clerics — the ulama — should not be politicians. It is a choice. But when a cleric chooses to participate in politics, it is better for him not to be saddled with open propagation of religion. If he chooses to combine both, which is also not bad, he should exhibit good manners and avoid telling unnecessary and avoidable lies. Telling lies may not dent his image as a politician, but it will definitely dent his image as a cleric. This is where Mr. Jingir gets it wrong. I will pay more attention to Mr. Jingir later.

But before I do that, let me state clearly again: I am not saying the ulama should not play politics. If I were to sound Aristotelian, I would even say every man is a political animal. In that sense, the ulama and the rest of us must all play politics in one way or another.

Yet, I do not agree with Aristotle on this. There are people who, not necessarily out of dislike for politics, are inexplicably apolitical. They are apathetic to anything political, even at the level of workplace and family. If I were to align my thought with Aristotle at another level of analysis, I would say it is abnormal to be completely apolitical.

So, if anyone says the ulama should stay away from politics — and of course, some have said so — I am clearly not one of them. My name will always be found among the authors of the article titled “Roles of Nigerian Ulama in Politics and Nation Building: The Controversy, Achievements and Recommendations.” This was a 2025 paper published by the Future Journal of Social Science — a publication of Future University in Egypt.

In that paper, it was clearly explained, contrary to what many think, that the ulama are those who, in addition to being conscious of Allah, are thoroughly grounded in Islamic scholarship and willing to give life to the Qur’an through the implementation of its injunctions. I do not know how telling mischievous lies as a cleric gives life to the Qur’an through the implementation of its injunctions.

At this juncture, it is time to return to Mr. Jingir. Recently, on one occasion, Mr. Jingir made a claim which many find difficult to believe. What readily comes to mind is to discard the claim and conclude that it was artificial intelligence at work by those committed to making Mr. Jingir look shameless.

As Nigeria continues to bleed, as insecurity continues to send Nigerians to their graves, as the number of Nigerians in kidnappers’ dens continues to balloon, Mr. Jingir asserts that the claim that there is no security at all in Nigeria is propaganda. He wonders how anyone could claim there is no security in Nigeria when people travel from Illela, a border town in Sokoto, to Port Harcourt, day and night, without any cause for fear.

There was also a time he allegedly travelled by air from his base in Jos to Kebbi State and claimed he did not witness any case of kidnapping until he returned to his base. On these occasions, Mr. Jingir either denies the existence of insecurity completely or gives the impression that killings and kidnappings rarely occur.

In any case, Mr. Jingir, in an attempt to defend the regime as an establishment cleric at all costs, displays a total lack of emotional intelligence. To say there is security in Nigeria and that claims of insecurity are mere propaganda is, in other words, to mock Nigerians in pain — victims of insecurity — by a so-called cleric whose duty, among others, is to soothe those in pain and give solace.

Though Nigerians have reacted. They have called him names — too unprintable to mention in this column. Some wish him bad luck. They want him kidnapped like other jobless so-called clerics who were kidnapped on their way to Abdulaziz Yari’s invitation to pray for Tinubu’s second-term victory. They strongly pray that he should become a victim of the insecurity he claims is propaganda, so that he will have a firsthand experience of what people go through.

I do not wish him that. The Jingir I have carefully observed would probably be unrepentant even if he were a victim. He seems to have vowed under oath to defend this regime, no matter how devilish and destructive its acts of commission and omission are.

My honest wish for Mr. Jingir is that he should realize, before it is too late, that there is accountability before our Creator in the hereafter. He should also realize that stubbornness displayed by a cleric who denies reality like a pathological prevaricator does not change reality.

It should now be clear to those who defend Mr. Jingir’s eccentricity on the Muslim-Muslim ticket that it has little to do with his experience with Christians in Plateau State, but more to do with defending a failed regime.

I have heard people say Jingir comes from a state where religion totally influences politics and where it is always a zero-sum game in favour of Christians. In other words, Muslims are completely manoeuvred out of the political game. They argue that Jingir’s Muslim-Muslim bigotry is retaliatory. If, for the sake of argument, we accept this to be true, what about the lies of reducing insecurity to mere propaganda? Is this not defending nonsense?

Although I have always doubted Mr. Jingir’s scholarship, I strongly believe there are many intelligent and knowledgeable people in the faction of the Izala group he heads as spiritual leader. They should advise him to defend Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim government, which he must defend, within the limits of decency. He has the constitutional right to be an APC cleric with a palm regularly or occasionally greased with millions of naira. But while exercising that right, he should not insult Nigerians who do not, and could not, think like him. The old man should always respect himself because Nigerians are angry and Muslims are particularly disappointed — onlookers would think he represents Islam and the Muslims.

Who knows, perhaps President Tinubu is not the bad ruler many think he is. Who knows, maybe he is only surrounded by people who tell him lies. Who knows, perhaps the lies he hears are that all reports of insecurity, killings, and kidnappings are propaganda. When a president is surrounded by sycophantic liars, it takes heavenly intervention for the ruler not to fail. I wish President Tinubu success, though not in the forthcoming 2027 presidential election. I must be frank about this.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com