By Richard Ikiebe
THERE is something ominously sobering about the recent controversy surrounding Nigerian Muslim cleric, Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir; and something consequential and exemplary about Alhaji Almustapha H. Jokolo’s intervention. Jingir’s remarks were made at Kano State’s Auren Gata mass wedding of 1,500 couples, attended by the sitting governors of three States – Abba Kabir Yusuf (Kano), Umar Namadi (Jigawa), and Dikko Umar Radda (Katsina), alongside other senior government officials.
Jingir has since declined to withdraw his controversial remarks, describing Christians and other non-Muslims as “infidels” and urging Muslims to “show the infidels their limit” at the polls, and framed continued support for the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket as proof of Muslim numerical dominance in Nigeria.
He turned religious difference into an instrument of electoral mobilisation, and the governors seem elated enough to celebrate with abandon. The backlash came swift and hard, drawing a raft of condemnations across parties; even from the NDC vice-presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso, a Muslim. But Almustapha Jokolo’s intervention stands out.
Jokolo, the 19th Emir of Gwandu, described Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir as a “misguided preacher.” As a senior figure of the northern traditional establishment, Jokolo called Muslim religious leadership to account from within the Islamic tradition, rather than from outside it.
His intervention drew on Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Counsel for Kings, or Nasihat al-Muluk. Al-Ghazali, among Islam’s most influential theologians, jurists and spiritual writers, wrote with acute concern for the moral burden of power. Political authority, in this tradition, is not simply an instrument of control; it is a trust. Justice is not an ornament to legitimate rule but foundational to it. And those who stand close enough to counsel rulers carry a corresponding obligation: to speak truth, rather than flatter power.
Jokolo reportedly invoked this tradition in an earlier letter to President Bola Tinubu. And in responding to Jingir, he also recalled the example of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam’s historic relationship with Christians, while calling on Muslim institutions and the state to act where a cleric has crossed the boundaries of responsible religious speech.
This raises a deeper question for contemporary Nigeria: who counsels those who counsel the king? Nigeria has no shortage of Muslim scholars, clerics, traditional rulers and Islamic organisations with access to political power. But how often do they use that access to challenge Muslim political leaders when they are wrong, clerics when religious authority is abused, or governments when political conduct falls beneath the moral principles invoked in its defence?
The question is especially urgent as Nigeria moves towards another electoral cycle. The Muslim-Muslim ticket of 2023 produced deep anxiety among many Christians and reservations among some Muslims; its possible continuation in 2027 is already politically charged. In a country marked by killings, kidnappings and religiously associated insecurity, reckless rhetoric is never merely speech. It is tinder awaiting a spark.
Religious and intellectual leadership therefore cannot be merely reactive. Moral authority must be exercised before a crisis becomes catastrophe. A cleric who sees inflammatory rhetoric has a responsibility to challenge it; a traditional ruler who sees religion being exploited politically should counsel restraint; and a scholar who sees injustice committed in Islam’s name should say so plainly.
The public killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto in May 2022 remains a painful test. Murdered by fellow students after being accused of blasphemy, her death was condemned, and arrests were made, but the case ultimately failed to deliver the accountability many expected. The tragedy was therefore doubled: a young woman was killed, and the subsequent failure of justice risked conveying that religious violence could be publicly condemned yet ultimately go unpunished.
Al-Ghazali’s counsel insists that mere public condemnation is not enough; that those with moral authority must also demand that the rule of law prevail; that they owe it a duty to challenge those within their own community who want to justify or excuse injustice. This applies to all religions without exception.
Jokolo has demonstrated that Muslim accountability of Muslim authority is possible. He has reminded Muslim leaders that Islamic principles cannot be selectively invoked when convenient, and his intervention challenges other Muslim thought leaders to speak when the offender is one of their own.
This is not an argument against Islam; it is an argument for taking Islamic moral thought seriously. A religious tradition becomes politically meaningful not merely when it provides identity and mobilisation, but when it places moral limits upon power. The scholar’s highest service to the ruler may sometimes be to tell him what he does not want to hear.
That is the deeper wisdom of Counsel for Kings: rulers need counsel because power can isolate them from reality; counsellors, however, need courage because proximity to power can corrupt independence. When access to power becomes more important than truth, counsel becomes flattery.
Nigeria needs religious leaders who understand this distinction. Muslim scholars should speak for justice, defending Muslims when they suffer injustice and Christians when they do. They should challenge Muslim politicians who abuse power and Muslim clerics who abuse religious authority. The same principle must apply to Christian leaders.
As 2027 approaches, the main issue for religious leaders has gone beyond preaching peace; the issue is this: will they possess the courage to speak truth to power and to their own communities before political competition turns religious difference into a bloody conflict?
The oldest counsel remains the most relevant: power is a trust, justice an obligation, and no ruler or religious authority is above accountability. Those entrusted to give that counsel must possess the courage to do so.
Dr Richard Ikiebe is a Media and Management Consultant, Teacher and Chairman, Board of Businessday Newspaper
