ABUJA — The reported abduction of Islamic clerics who attended a political-religious gathering associated with Senator Abdul’aziz Yari has triggered fresh questions about the growing intersection of religion, politics and insecurity in Nigeria.
Reports published on Sunday said five Islamic clerics, rather than two, were abducted after attending a prayer gathering at Yari’s residence in Talata Mafara, Zamfara State. The clerics were reportedly among more than 2,000 Islamic scholars and imams who assembled for prayers for peace, national unity and the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.
The reported victims include Imam Yahuza, the First Juma’at Imam in Dogon Madacci; Magawata Abdullahi, the Second Juma’at Imam; Malam Shehu Dakko; Imam Bala Fagon; and Na’ibi Tasi’u of Tungar Nagudai. They were said to have travelled from communities in Bakura and Talata Mafara Local Government Areas.
The development is particularly disturbing because the clerics were reportedly returning from an event at the residence of a prominent political figure who is now serving as Director-General of Tinubu’s 2027 Presidential Campaign Council. Yari’s appointment was formally welcomed by the Zamfara State Government, which described it as a strategic development for Tinubu’s re-election campaign.
Yari has openly campaigned for Tinubu’s re-election. In May, he told Islamic clerics in Talata Mafara that the North-West should support Tinubu, arguing that the region should reciprocate the support the South-West gave former President Muhammadu Buhari between 2015 and 2023.
Against that background, the reported abduction raises an uncomfortable question: what becomes of political endorsements when the same citizens mobilised to celebrate or promote political power return home and encounter the insecurity that government is expected to defeat?
It would, however, be premature and irresponsible to suggest that the clerics were abducted because they endorsed Tinubu, or that the incident was punishment for their political position. There is currently no evidence establishing such a motive. Reports attribute the abductions to bandits, while police and other security agencies had not issued an official statement at the time of publication.
But politically, the irony is difficult to ignore.
Religious leaders command enormous moral influence in Nigerian communities. When they participate in partisan political mobilisation, they inevitably expose themselves to questions about whether their spiritual authority is being deployed to serve the public interest or political interests.
The tragedy becomes even more striking in Zamfara, a state that continues to face serious kidnapping and banditry. Recent attacks in Talata Mafara have demonstrated that the security crisis remains severe despite repeated political promises to restore peace.
The lesson should therefore not be that the clerics are somehow responsible for their fate. They are victims and deserve immediate rescue, regardless of their political persuasion.
Rather, the episode should force a larger national conversation: if political leaders can assemble thousands of religious scholars to campaign for electoral victory, why can the same political machinery not mobilise comparable urgency to protect those citizens from the criminals terrorising their communities?
Nigeria does not need religious leaders to become casualties of political loyalty. It needs political leaders to deliver the security, justice and good governance that Nigerians are repeatedly asked to pray for.
And if prayers are being used to seek divine support for political power, Nigerians are equally entitled to ask those wielding that power what concrete measures are being taken to protect the people who pray for them.
Faith should not become a campaign instrument while insecurity becomes the people’s inheritance.
