By Mahdi Garba
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria and its indefatigable leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky have continued to weather the storm for more than four decades. The resilience and doggedness of the movement’s leader have made all efforts to blackmail the movement futile.
Critics, foes, archenemies and sanctimonious persons have shouldered the responsibility of launching campaigns of calumny against this tenacious movement and its vibrant leader since the inception of the Islamic Movement that is rescuing Nigerian masses from the jaws of rogue authorities.
In their never-ending attempt to blackmail the movement, the foes are at it again. One Kuanum Terrence earlier this year had launched what he called a book titled ‘Fatal Arrogance: How El-Zakzaky Hypnotized IMN Members into Killing Themselves while Protecting Him’. As ridiculous as the name may sounds, the content is not far from that too.
Terrence who looks more of a stooge doing the bidding of his paymasters gathered his ilk to unveil the book. Months after the so-called book had been launched, no Nigerian is discussing about it. No reviews, no comment no book reading sessions and nothing about the book. One would not be totally wrong to conclude that ‘Fatal Arrogance’ died the day it was birthed!
Today September 9, 2020, some bizarre clips alongside shorts from a movie location surfaced on the internet. In the duo, half-claded women dressed in a Ku Klux Klan-like outfits, heads covered with scarfs, with sharp swords gripped to their hands, with others holding banners and flags displaying a man bearded man in turban and gown while chanting meaningless protest-like slogans.
In a normal circumstance, this kind of clips can be dismissed but not at times like these when Nigerian authorities are sponsoring faceless writers like Kuanum Terrence and security operatives to launch offensive on the Islamic Movement that has a reputation for upholding peace even at the peak of unprovoked attacks.
Evidently, for every Nigerian these clips are meant to cartoon the peaceful movement and portray it to the world as a violent armed movement. Also, the movie on the pipeline has also the same titled with Terrence’s book that died on its arrival.
The mischievous clips in question were released by one Yakubu Mohammed on his verified Instagram account (@yakubumohammed_), who according to a quick google search is “a Nigerian film actor, producer, director and script writer.”
There was a heated controversy over this post on his page, with fierce criticisms trailing the post. A member of the Islamic Movement who was also disturbed by this development personally contacted the actor. In his response, in Hausa the double-dealer said that the movie was not an attack on Sheikh Zakzaky’s personality. According to him, the film was sponsored by an anonymous human rights group to bring to the limelight the injustice being meted on the leader of the Islamic Movement.
Isn’t that funny? Portraying how Sheikh Zakzaky is oppressed without any consultation? With the people parading themselves as his supporters in the movie with dangerous weapons? Yakubu Mohammed must have thought that everyone is a fool like him, if he truly thinks that way. Whatever the situation might be, Yakubu’s movie like Terrence’s book will die on its arrival.