Ibraheem Musa
7 September 2008
analysis
Until recently, Mohammed Bello Abubakar Masaba has been living with his harem of 86 wives peacefully in Bida but media expose have pitched him against Islamic clerics and Muslim ummah in general, as well as the traditional institution.
So far, he has defied all entreaties, pressures and threat of banishment, as he is yet to comply with the Islam's ceiling of not more than four wives at a time.
As a prince and a military man, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar was used to giving and receiving orders but as Estu of Nupe, his word is now a command. Last week, the paramount ruler of Nupeland delved into a religious and social riddle in Bida, after Islamic clerics, social commentators and rights activists tried in vain. Peace and social relations were threatened and crisis loomed before his intervention. And Mohammed Bello Abubakar Masaba, the dog in the manger, did not help matters as his obstinacy, half baked Islamic knowledge as well as his hide-and-seek, raised tempers. Masaba, as he is known, had married 86 wives and he had been living happily with them in Bida until recently.
Aminiya, a Hausa publication, reported Masaba's harem on February 8 but due to limited circulation, the story's impact was minimal. Weekly Trust, Aminiya's sister publication, translated the article into English a week later and the story had a wider reach. Newsline, a national television programme, went to Bida six months later and beamed Masba and his wives to its audience. The story, across the nation, was aired on August 17 and expectedly, it had the farthest reach. Thereafter, Masaba's peace and quiet as well as Bida's solitude were disturbed as journalists, Islamic clerics, including curious country men, went to the town to behold the man with 86 wives.
Significantly, Masaba justified his action, quoting Qur'anic verses out of context to support his deed. Islam, he had argued, enjoins its followers to marry but neither the Qur'an nor Hadith, places a ceiling on the number of wives that a Muslim can have. Masaba's position, especially the Qur'anic citations, jolted Islamic scholars and promptly, Jama'tun Nasirl Islam (JNI), through its committee of Mullahs, went to see Masaba. The scholars, according to reports, engaged him and they argued back and forth, particularly about Suratul Nusa'i. Neither camp yielded ground and in the end, JNI'S emissaries left Bida but rather than keep quiet, Masaba granted BBC another interview, restating his intransigence.
On August 18, JNI issued a Fatwa or legal opinion on the issue. Any Muslim, according to JNI, who "marries more than four wives either by mistake or out of ignorance, is instructed to choose but only four and seek Allah's forgiveness. Similarly, anyone that contravenes Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) sayings, the ulamas also said, and marries more than four wives, is not a Muslim. Such a person, according to the Fatwa, should either repent within three days or "shall be sentenced to death according to shariah."
This directive, in the main, raised tension and security concerns. Specifically, in Bida, Masaba was given police protection as opinions against the Fatwa mounted. Particularly, Sheikh Muhammad Sanusi Gumbi, a Kaduna-based cleric, took exception to the legal opinion. JNI, according to him, has no right to pass a death sentence on Masaba as only the authorities can do so. In Islam, spilling a Muslim's blood is permissible on three accounts, he pointed outÂÂ--"if he commits adultery and it has been proven that he did it, if he kills another Muslim, or if he goes out of the religion."
Significantly, owing to tension, controversy and differing opinions, JNI stepped down its Fatwa and on August 25, it clarified its position in a press statement. In summary, it denied issuing the death sentence on Masaba, insisting that it only condemned his act and asked him to repent. In addition, the Islamic body told Masaba, according to JNI, the consequence of his in an Islamic theocracy, especially for deliberately misrepresenting the Qur'an and Hadith. Earlier, in an interview, Masaba had challenged Islamic scholars, clerics and the entire Muslim Ummah, according to JNI, to show him where the Qur'an forbids marrying more than four wives. JNI, the Fatwa committee said, merely picked Masaba's gauntlet.
After the Fatwa storm, Mohammed Masaba and his colony of wives got some reprieve but only temporarily. However, unknown to him, JNI had not relented as it merely devised another strategy. T he Islamic body wrote to Etsu Nupe, the chairman Niger state council of chiefs, urging him to wade into the issue. Specifically, it asked Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar to summon Masaba and explain the Islamic law to him. The Etsu, with military dispatch, called his recalcitrant subject to his palace, where Imams were waiting for Masaba. The malams, led by Adamu Yakatu, acting chief Imam of Bida, read out relevant Hadiths and Qur'anic verses, where Muslims are limited to four wives. However, instead of making relevant citations, especially from the Qur'an and Sunnah, to buttress his position, Masaba strayed into arguments which indicated ignorance or mental instability. Since 1988, according to him, he had stopped reading the Qur'an, after meeting Allah but before then, he had been reading the Holy book but has never seen a verse that condemned what he did.
At this point, the Imam chided his blasphemy and the Etsu weighed in and read a riot act. Point blank, he told Masaba to either divorce 82 wives and remain with four, or "we can not guarantee your safety in Bida and the entire Nupe kingdom". Masaba, in his own interest, was asked to pack his "load and leave" and on that note, Etsu closed the case. Pleading and lobbying, Masaba sought for two weeks to weigh his options but the monarch gave him only two days. To reduce his harem, Masaba pleaded, requires "a lot of negotiations and one has to think of the children and what becomes of them." Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar assured the polygamist that the state sharia commission will take care of the divorcees while the social welfare department will look after the siblings.
Behind the scene, several meetings held between Masaba and a committee of Nupe scholars and on September 1, a truce was reported in the media. The Etsu, according to reports, extended his deadline and instead of two days, Masaba was given "some days" to relocate the divorcees to their parents. To seal the deal, he was asked to swear an oath of compliance, bring along photographs of the four bonafide wives to the Etsu's palace and his life and property will be safe. However, since the agreement was reached, Masaba has become elusive and as yet, he has not gone to the palace with evidence of divorce. In fact, on kept the Etsu Nupe, committee of Islamic scholars and members of Niger state shariah commission waiting, as he refused to bring to the palace, documentary evidence of having divorced his 84 wives. The committee, after waiting for hours on end, sent a palace aide to Masaba and the dogari, according to reports, met a locked house; Masaba was nowhere to be found.
Having defied JNI and wriggled out of a Fatwa, Mohammed Bello Abubakar Masaba seem set to skirt round Estu Nupe's directive by remaining in Bida and still retaining his harem of 86 wives. Will he be twice lucky? Will Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar's threat of banishment be carried out? In the event it is, will the action be constitutional? The answers to these questions are buried in the womb of time.
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