A retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sheriff Abubakar Rabiu, has set off a storm in Northern Nigeria’s religious and political circles with a fiery open letter that has gone viral across WhatsApp groups, mosque forums, and police veterans’ networks.
In the hard-hitting message, the outspoken ex-officer accused a section of Northern Islamic clerics of “poisoning the minds of our youth with vituperative, inciting and dangerously divisive sermons,” turning mosque pulpits into “platforms of warfare against Christians.”
“Nobody has the key to Jannatul Firdausi except Allah,” Sheriff wrote. “Yet any Tom, Dick and Harry with myopic knowledge of Islam wakes up, grabs a microphone, and starts calling our Christian brothers ‘Arna’, ‘Kafurai’, ‘infidels destined for hell’. This is not Islam. This is madness. And this madness gave birth to Boko Haram.”
The retired police chief, who once served as Chief Security Officer to former Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako, didn’t mince words about what he called the two-headed monster dragging Northern Nigeria to ruin — hate preaching and the Almajiri system.
“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” he warned. “Those street children you see begging today are tomorrow’s recruits, dummies, and foot soldiers for every new terrorist franchise that promises them paradise for killing ‘infidels’.”
“Let’s Stop Blaming America”
Rabiu’s most explosive remarks came when he turned his fire on his own community, rejecting the widespread outrage over the U.S. government’s decision to list Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern.”
“Instead of shouting that Donald Trump or America is Islamophobic,” he said, “let us go back to our drawing board. Why did America put us on that list? Because some of our preachers behave like they are above the law. Try that kind of sermon in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, even Cameroon — you’ll be arrested and executed the same day. But here in secular Nigeria, they insult Christians from Friday to Friday and nobody touches them.”
A Challenge to Tinubu, Governors, and Lawmakers
Rabiu issued a direct challenge to President Bola Tinubu, urging him to work with the National Assembly, Northern governors, and local government chairmen to enact and enforce tough laws that would:
- Criminalise calling any Nigerian “arne” or “kafir” from the pulpit
- Ban street begging by children (the Almajiri system)
- Punish hate speech disguised as religious preaching
“Do this sincerely,” he warned, “and America will see we are serious. Fail, and we invite the same digital war machinery that turned Afghanistan and Iraq into graveyards.”
“Bring Back the Peace of the 1970s”
Rabiu ended with a nostalgic plea that has deeply resonated online:
“If we implement these measures, Nigeria will return to the peace we enjoyed in the early 1970s when Muslims and Christians drank from the same cup, married each other’s sisters, and buried each other’s dead.”
By Saturday evening, the letter had been shared across more than 40 Northern WhatsApp groups, some with up to 5,000 members.
In Kano’s Hotoro suburb, a youth leader who requested anonymity told our correspondent:
“This is the first time a big Muslim officer has spoken the truth to our face without fear. If our governors ignore him, they are the real enemies of Islam.”
Attempts to reach the Kano Hisbah Board for comment were unsuccessful, but a senior official, speaking off-record, admitted:
“Mallam Sheriff has said what many of us whisper in private. The question is — who will bell the cat?”
As Northern Nigeria braces for what may become the most consequential religious debate in a generation, one thing seems clear:
A retired cop has drawn a red line — and the radicals know their free ride may finally be over.
God bless all our secular religious faiths.
God bless Nigeria.
* Source: TGNews
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