Archieves material :
MAITATSINE, The Story of Nigeria’s
Religious Terror of the 1980s
BY NAIJARCHIVES · MARCH 17, 2015
It was over 34 years ago, the 18 th of
December, 1980 to be precise. A Fulani
teacher named Shehu Shagari was the
first elected civilian Nigerian President
but the nation he was leading was in
flames, set alight by a skinny but
energetic man who spoke high-pitched
Fulani like him too. The security forces
were helpless and even the Commander-
in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces
seemed confused. The violence, the
horror and the terror that ensued from
the wild ideas of one old man who was
not even a Nigerian was about to
consume the nation. Sheer madness was
mixed with agonizing destruction as
major cities burned.
MAITATSINE: Nigerian security forces
pose with him after an arrest. Image
credits: Engr Shamsuddeen Lukman El-
Shams/Nigeria Nostalgia Project.
Untamed hordes of insurgents
brandishing all sorts of primitive
weapons like bows and arrows, dane
guns, leopard skins to serve as
bulletproof vests, and powdered charms
went from house to house in the
northern state of Kano and went on
looting, maiming, burning, raping and
killing as they wished. But despite the
low sophistication of their weapons,
their pattern of destruction was so brutal
and complete that in a matter of just
days, about 5,000 Nigerians lay dead.
Considering the fact that Boko Haram’s
activities have claimed the lives of over
15,000 Nigerians since 2009, you will
appreciate the scope and degree of
violence of this red-faced sect that killed
so much Nigerians in just 12 days.
Maitatsine had become a terror and a
fast-growing one, with 12,000 followers
ready to march to the death on the
vehement orders of their much-revered
spiritual leader. For the first time in the
history of Nigeria, religious differences
would lead to the loss of thousands of
lives and Nigerians would witness a
horror that would be surpassed only by
the Nigerian Civil War which had ended
ten years earlier.
SEEDS OF TERROR: THE ORIGIN
The founder of the Maitatsine sect, Alhaji
Mohammed (Muhammadu) Marwa was
not a Nigerian even if his activities
would later lead to the loss of thousands
of precious Nigerian lives. He migrated
from the town of Marwa (Maroua) in
northern Cameroon to Kano State in
1945. Marwa, which is a center of cotton
industry is also the capital of the Far
North Region of Cameroon (see picture
below) and the predominant religion
there is Sufi Islam. Maitatsine settled in
the warm and hospitable city of Kano,
acclimatized and adapted to the ways of
life. Fulfulde, the language of the Fulanis
was the common language in Marwa
where he came from so it is safe to
assume that blending in would not have
been a major issue. Not much was
known about his activities in the ancient
city of Kano up until the early 1960s
when the story changed all of a sudden.
The origin of Maitatsine is Maroua
(Marwa) located in northern Cameroon.
Image credits: Creative Commons.
Before then, Maitatsine had gained a
reputation in Kano as a noble scholar
and an expert in the interpretation and
commentary of the Holy Qu’ran. He was
so good at it that he was named Mai
Tafsiri meaning the ‘Tafsir scholar’ .
Tafsir is the exegesis, in-depth
explanation or critical interpretation of
the Qu’ran. In 1960, Nigeria became an
independent nation but the politics that
would follow in Kano State was far from
peaceful. The senseless jostling for power
by the politicians led to an entropy in
the society, and Maitatsine, who was
already gaining some followership, took
advantage and rode on this resultant
wave of disorder initially generated by
the power-hungry politicians.
Unemployment soared, crime rate
increased, poverty was not abating,
people were disgruntled and the citizens
were already tired of the fumbling and
corrupt politicians. It was at that time
that Maitatsine decided to launch his
own movement. His message was simple
but brutally efficient: to oppose the
government and even orthodox Islam
itself. He had transformed himself into
another creature, one that would
terrorize the world’s most populous
black nation.
LOVE, FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
Maitatsine was reportedly a caring
husband and father but it is not clear the
precise layout of his familly but he was
polygamous. His children lived above
and outside the law. One of his sons,
Tijani, once told a neighbour that the
amount of weapons under the bed of his
father in his room alone would wipe out
the entire police force. It is believed that
the death of Tijani, Maitatsine’s son was
a turning point in his life. One fateful
day, Tijani went out with his friends to
one of their wild parties as usual. A very
sad piece of news would later reach
Maitatsine that his son was dead, he was
shot in unclear circumstances. As
Maitatsine set his eyes on the blood-
stained lifeless body of his son, he cried
in agony saying:
‘Oh the people of Kano, what have I done
to you to deserve this? ’
Maitatsine believed the death of his son
was orchestrated by his enemies i.e the
government forces and that the people of
Kano would definitely pay for it. His
tone change markedly from that point
on.
THE TEACHINGS AND THE SPREAD
MAITATSINE: Nigerian security forces
pose with him after an arrest.
At this point, a little background
information would be helpful.
Maitatsine was just one of the many sects
of Islam in northern Nigeria as at that
time. Others included the Shiites (as at
the initial time of writing this piece, the
home of the Shiite leader, Sheikh
Ibraheem Zakzaky was reportedly
attacked by hired youths in Zaria and
left many dangerously wounded with
machete cuts), Izala and the Tariqa.
These other sects are still active and
there is a precarious swing of harmony
and violence. It has been like that for a
while with occasional but very turbulent
clashes. However, out of these four main
sects Maitatsine stood out as the most
radical. While other sects still cooperated
to a reasonable extent with the
government, Maitatsine was absolutely
against the government and anything
that represent constituted authority.
Even the Emir of Kano was not safe from
his wrath. He would later be known for
his fierce and curse-filled speeches
against the Nigerian government. It was
this practice that earned him the
nickname Mai Tatsine. That was because
he would mount the pulpit and lash out
in his red-hot speeches in a not-too-
perfect Hausa:
Allah ya tsine maka albarka!
(Meaning: May God deprive you of His
blessings!)
He would continue thus:
Whoever uses wristwatches, radios or
ride bicycles,
Allah ya tsine maka albarka!
In no time, the people of Kano quickly
labelled him Mai Tatsine which can be
loosely translated to mean ‘ the one with
curses ’ or ‘the one who curses’.
But that was not all. There was another
dimension to Maitatsine’s teachings that
alarmed millions all over northern
Nigeria: he preached clearly against the
conventional form of Islam. He came
with his own brand of puritanical Islam
and condemned everything else. The
Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi,
pictured below (who incidentally was the
grandfather of the former Central Bank
Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
and now the Emir of Kano) was shocked
at Maitatsine’s audacity. A majority of
the city’s clerics were also appalled and
outraged at Maitatsine’s teachings and
the challenge that he would pose as an
obstacle to constituted authority, both in
the religious and political spheres. But
the man from Cameroon did not even
send anyone of them, including the all-
powerful Emir. He continued his fiery
‘preachings’ and scary sermons to his
amused followers, who obviously lapped
up and enjoyed everything he said.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi,
pictured below (who incidentally was the
grandfather of the former Central Bank
Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
and now the Emir of Kano) was shocked
at Maitatsine’s audacity.
Maitatsine’s teachings were quite
interesting indeed. Although many may
see Boko Haram as a new creation or
novel development, the truth of the
matter is that this is not the first time in
the history of Nigeria that a
fundamentalist religious sect would
challenge the state with their audacious
teachings and unleash maximum
destruction in a bid to establish their
own version of how a society should
operate. Maitatsine spoke with anger
and instructed his followers that:
-Western education is a sin.
-The use of money is not important and
even accumulating too much money is a
grave sin. He preached that sleeping with
more than one naira was lack of trust in
Allah. He encouraged his followers to
dress simply and they were engaged in
low-paying occupations as begging,
transient labourers, cart pushers, petty
traders and tea sellers.
-They should do away with all tools of
modernity such as wristwatches, radios,
television sets, cars, bicycles and the rest.
Considering the fact that many of his
followers were even already too poor to
afford such luxuries, the teaching was
quite easy to follow and enforce. Even
those of his followers who had these
items gladly smashed their black-white
Philips television sets.
THE POWER
At the height of his power, the terror of
Maitatsine gripped all of Kano, seen here
from across the famed Dala Hill. Image
credits: Creative Commons.
Maitatsine’s genius laid in his ability to
utilize the contemporary social problems
like poverty, despair, corruption and
unemployment as tools to indoctrinate
hopeless youths and then turn them
against the government, simultaneously
blaming the government as the source of
their misery. His cult was massive and
as at December 1980, he had between
8,000 and 12,000 members (Falola, 1998,
143 ). He would send his followers out in
small groups of three to five to preach at
major junctions near the Sabon Gari
Mosque or in places around Koki and
Kofar Wombai where they ferociously
attacked secularism, modernity,
corruption and blasted the other clerics.
It was rumoured that Maitatsine was
supported by one of the wealthiest
contractors in Kano and that he even got
assistance from politicians but there is
no evidence for this. His mystique was
fed by tales of his magical powers, tales
of cannibalism and human slaughter,
hypnotized students and brainwashed
women.
As he spoke with considerable rage from
his pulpit, his gleeful supporters and
frenzied followers nodded in agreement
to everything Maitatsine said. To them,
he was nothing but an angel, God’s own
manifestation on the face of the earth.
Many swore they would lay down their
lives for him, and they were not joking.
At the height of his power and influence,
Mohammed Marwa was the toast of the
high and mighty. Influential
personalities paid him visits in his Kano
powerhouse seeking his services as a
marabout. High-ranking clerics also
visited his sprawling quarters. That the
high political class and the religious elite
have worked hand in hand to unleash
terror upon the populace for their selfish
gains is an unfortunate recurring
decimal in Nigeria’s history. But what is
even more unfortunate is the desperate
attempts by some Nigerians (who are
already bearing the brunt of the
stupidity of the ruling class and suffering
on a daily basis as a result of this unholy
marriage of the exploitative clergy and
the parasitic politicians) to either justify
the actions or even shift blames.
At a point, Marwa had become so
powerful to the extent that he operated
his own autonomous enclave. Because
his followers regarded other Muslims as
heretics, they avoided the general
population and lived in an isolated
section of the city. You know, in the
Reverend Jim Jones style. Like the
Hamaliyya sect of the Tijanniya order,
the Maitatsine preferred to live in their
own hermit kingdom, creating a
minuscule North Korea in the heart of
Kano. Interestingly, one of the fastest
and most efficient ways to indoctrinate
anyone is to isolate them or cut them off
from relatives and friends and then
subject them to a constant stream of
sweet propaganda. Maitatsine and his
followers lived in an area of Kano called
Yan Awaki, it was a vast tsangaya
(community) on its own. In this enclave,
he was the absolute ruler and the king
that no one dared question. He was
clearly, a power unto himself.
From within the comfort provided by
the confines of his Yan Awaki residence,
he launched scathing verbal assaults
against the city’s imperial ruler, Emir
Sanusi who was the traditional leader of
all Muslims in the city. With thousands
of eager youths at his beck and call,
flanking him on all sides and ready to
carry out his even his flimsiest
instructions to the last, Maitatsine felt he
had the height of it all. He became
bolder, more confrontational and even
more daring as the sun rose and set.
But the Emir, the government and the
security agents were not finding his
astronomical rise and popularity funny
at all. The royal institution in ‘collabo’
with the religious establishment and
with the tacit support of the state
government, decided to act fast before
this volcano blew up on their turbaned
heads. So in the year 1962, the Emir
released a royal edict indicting Marwa of
various crimes. He was accused of
preaching illegally and for engaging in
what is called shatimati or abusive
speech in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
An obstinate Maitatsine was then
brought before a qadi (Muslim judge) to
face proper judgment. It was not funny
at all. The qadi sentenced him to 90 days
in jail and after serving out his sentence,
he was promptly deported to Cameroon.
Many thought that was the end but the
battle had just started. Maitatsine would
return, full of renewed vigour, hate and
anger. When he was catapulted into
Cameroon from Kano, he continued with
his subversive teachings much to the
anger of the local authorities in
Cameroon who then bundled him again
and threw him into Gongola State in
another wave of ‘repatriation’ in early
1963. That same year, Maitatsine’s old
enemy, the Emir of Kano would abdicate
the throne and the coast was finally
clear: Maitatsine sneaked back into
Kano. The Nigerian populace would
suddenly be rudely woken up to the
latest brand of terror in town. There was
no regulatory force to keep him in check
and he quietly resumed his job as a
Quranic scholar indoctrinating countless
homeless and illiterate boys and youths.
After Maitatsine managed to slip back
into Nigeria (na wa for our immigration
pipu sef) and made his way back to
Kano, he properly settled in his Yan
Awaki area. Bitter and enraged, he
would once again warm his way into the
hearts of his followers who believed that
he was unjustly victimized by the Kano
elite and monarchy. It must be pointed
out that a vast majority of Maitatsine’s
followers were street beggars and
destitute, called almajiris or gardawas in
the local dialect. Many of these people
learnt the Qur’an from him and got high
on his bold and eloquent teachings. To
them, the state was nothing but a sheer
representation of evil and oppression, as
exemplified by the imprisonment and
deportation of their highly-revered
leader.
A very clever and intelligent man,
Maitatsine was not blind to all these
developments and in time, he would
make his boldest claim ever. He told his
enthusiastic followers that he was the
forerunner of the much-awaited Mahdi
(Saviour or Messiah) who would wipe
away all their tropical tears and take to
the much-desired Promised Land. He
said he was the saviour to rescue them
from the tyranny of the establishment.
He would banish the infidels, bring
peace to the land, erase all their
wheelbarrow-pushing suffering and
water-hawking stress. For centuries,
West African Muslims (and others across
the globe) believed (and still believe) that
a Mahdi would eventually emerge to get
rid of all the injustices of this world.
Maitatsine cashed in on this age-long
belief of the people and kukuma declared
himself as the one they’ve been waiting
for, the one to come before the Mahdi
himself. He even compared himself to
the late Fulani scholar-warrior, Uthman
Dan Fodio. The other Kano clerics could
not get their head over Maitatsine’s
latest pronouncements, which many of
them regarded as nothing but heresy.
But while they were trying to grapple
with what Maitatsine was saying, he
fired another shot. He declared all the
hadiths and sunnah (recorded actions,
sayings and traditions of Muhammad,
the Prophet of Islam) as false and that no
one should follow them. Maitatsine did
not stop there. He went further to ban
his followers from facing Mecca, Saudi
Arabia while praying. This clearly went
against the standard requirement in
Islam that mandated that worshippers
face the Ka’aba in Mecca while praying.
But that was not Maitatsine’s business.
He would release another damning
pronouncement: no one must say Allahu
Akbar (God is Great) while praying and
whoever said so was condemned to
Hellfire. Christians, Muslims,
government, traditional worshippers,
Maitatsine criticized and fought with
everybody.
You thought he would end there but he
did not. The Emir of Kano and the clerics
were more than alarmed but Maitatsine
was yet to drop the real shocker. He
simply declared himself the nabeey
(Prophet) after initially making demands
to be addressed as a prophet in 1976.
His excited followers happily shouted his
praise and truly believed in his new gift
of prophethood. Still riding his wave of
power and influence, he stated that
Muslims in northern Nigeria should not
mention the name of Prophet
Muhammad again, as they regarded him
as any other Arab. Reports have it that
after his death, copies of the Qu’ran
found in Maitatsine’is home were
already altered: Prophet Muhammad’s
name was replaced with Maitatsine’s
name. But that was not even the
strangest part. The most curious part was
yet to come.
He declared that while the Holy Qu’ran
was indeed the true word of God, no one
but him was in the right position to
interpret and explain the contents of the
Qu’ran and issue new proclamations in
his new status as a prophet. A deafening
howl of approval from his thousands of
followers assured him that all was well.
But all was far from well or even
borehole. Just as Maitatsine was busy
proclaiming himself the overall lord of
the heavens, the earth and all that was
in between, his terrified enemies knew
that they had to do something really
quick if not they would have willingly
signed their own documents of
annihilation because Maitatsine and his
overzealous band of followers would
stop at nothing to bitterly fight the
opposition this time around. Once bitten,
the shame of 1962 would never repeat
itself again. For Maitatsine and his
followers, their actions were justified
and they were backed by God Himself
with His Divine Armed Forces with
invisible jet fighters.
A petrified government watched
helplessly as events snowballed. Other
Muslims in the city were not just angered
at Maitatsine’s arrogant and heretical
pronouncements, they were also
genuinely worried about the menace he
was rapidly constituting. The clerics also
knew that more masculinization of
Maitatsine and his adherents would
mean a catalysis of the progressive
erosion of the power and influence they
had enjoyed unbridled for centuries.
Something really decisive had to be
done.
But as his foes were planning,
Maitatsine too was not sleeping, he was
scheming. But his plans were interrupted
suddenly in 1973 when the military
government of General Yakubu Gowon
started a wave of arrests and
incarceration of religious leaders who
were brainwashing kids for anti-social
activities. Maitatsine was one of those
that they picked up in Kano and he was
promptly given a room in jail. But when
Gowon was overthrown in July 1975 by
Murtala Muhammed, people like
Maitatsine regained their freedom and
once again, he was on his way to Kano,
this time around, with some really new
and devastatingly efficient strategies to
ultimately wreak maximum havoc.
Upon reaching Kano, Maitatsine quickly
rallied his lieutenants and divided them
into three wings for recruitment of new
members, each for one sector of Kano
City. The job of the first wing was to
recruit members from the railway
stations and public transport garages.
The other two wings would focus on
public parks and parking lots, the most
ideal location to see the constant troops
of ambitious but jobless youths
streaming into the commercial city of
Kano in search of the greener pasture.
Many of these naïve boys would soon be
ensnared to become fighters for
Maitatsine. They were recruited for
doom. Some of them were refugees from
Chad, Niger and Cameroon who joined
simply because they would be
guaranteed food, clothing and a roof
over their dusty heads. That was the
initial motivation for many to join.
But being the troublemaker that he
was, Maitatsine would soon land in hot
soup again in April 1978 when he was
arrested. His violence-laced teachings
had brought wahala on his head again.
He would spend one horrible year in
prison with hard labour before he was
released. Following his release, he
stopped making public appearances,
seemed to melt into the background but
his followers became noticeably more
outspoken and violent. By October 1979,
the military regime of General Olusegun
Obasanjo handed over to the civilian
president, Shehu Shagari.
With the iron-fisted military gone and a
less repressive civilian government in
power, the time was perfectly ripe for
Maitatsine to emerge from the shadows.
He became bolder, expanded his colony
(which now had over 6,000 people),
forcefully took the property of
neighbours and erected illegal structures
on it. He even had a kangaroo court in
his Yan Awaki colony where offenders,
infidels kidnapped by sect members and
disloyal members were made to face
‘justice’. He was a law unto himself and
built his own ‘state within a state’.
RATTLED: President Shagari. Image
credits: Creative Commons.
As he continued his arrogant strides of
defiance, Nigerians in Kano became
tired and frustrated and increased
pressure on the government to act and
do something. Finally, in 1980, the Kano
State House of Assembly summoned
courage to introduce a bill that would
clearly combat abusive religious
preaching. But you know the amusing
thing? The bill did not pass. Members of
the house were afraid they would lose
patronage of the powerful and
influential religious clerics so the bill
failed.
Towards the end of 1980, there were
widespread rumours that Maitatsine and
his sect would overrun and take over two
of the city’s most important mosques. By
then, the Governor of the state, the late
Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi, later
Sani Abacha’s minister, felt he had had
more than enough. On the 26 th of
November, 1980, Rimi fired an
instruction that Maitatsine’s illegal
enclave in the Yan Awaki area be broken
up or Maitatsine and his followers would
regret the day they were born. (Before
Rimi’s action, between October and
November 1980, the Kano State
Commissioner of Police had asked for
reinforcements and approval to use lethal
force against Maitatsine but his requests
were declined).
Governor Rimi of Kano
State.
But for a man used to so much impunity
and scoffing at the political leaders right
in their faces, Maitatsine brushed Rimi’s
order and deadline as not just some
laughable comedy but an empty threat.
Rimi would not budge and Maitatsine
too would not blink. The order from
Governor Rimi stated that Maitatsine
should vacate the premises, disband his
sect and demolish all illegal structures
within two weeks or face ‘ appropriate
action’. The stage was set for was has
been described as the second most
violent incident in Nigeria, second only
to the civil war.
Kano in 1966, an era when Maitatsine
was residing in the city. Image credits:
Uyi Obaseki/Nigeria Nostalgia Project.
THE BLOODBATH
Either using the benefit of hindsight or
simply taking time to orchestrate the
most effective strategy to invade Yan
Awaki and flush out Maitatsine and his
die-hard loyalists, Governor Rimi did not
immediately act on his threat even when
the deadline came and passed. He even
sent emissaries to Maitatsine in the
background that Maitatsine could ignore
the order if he would negotiate, Rimi
was clearly pandering to Maitatsine
because of political reasons. But
something would later happen that
would force Rimi to invite the combined
forces of the Nigerian Police officers,
Nigerian Army soldiers and the heavy
federal might of an angry President
Shagari to crush the terrorist sect.
Maitatsine was on the edge. He
summoned his thousands of followers
near and beyond to come to his aid and
join him in the mother of all battles
against the infidels. They heeded his call
and flocked in in their thousands.
Maitatsine was to lead the attack and all
the plans were fine-tuned and perfected.
All the ‘holy warriors’ were at alert and
ready to fight at the slightest flick of
Maitatsine’s slim fingers. The residents
of Kano knew trouble was going to
explode soon but no one had any precise
idea of where and when. Finally, the D-
Day came and the venue where demons
descended on earth that day was the
football field of the Shahuchi Playing
Ground where Maitatsine had camped
his followers and was giving his usual
fiery sermons.
Security forces were around his venue
to maintain law and order but in an
instant, a skirmish broke out between
the armed followers of Maitatsine and
the Nigerian Police, four police units
were actually on a mission to arrest
some of his preachers. In a matter of
seconds, police officers were killed and
their vehicles were in flames. The crisis
had started and Maitatsine was not
looking back and the whole thing spread
to Yan Awaki, the base of the Yan
Tatsine and others areas like Koki, Fagge,
Kofar Wamba and so on. On that day,
18 th of December 1980, bright-red blood
of Nigerians was flowing on the streets
of Kano. It remains one of the bloodiest
days in Nigeria’s history. For the next
three days, the only thing that was
visible on the skyline of Kano were
plumes of thick, black smoke. There were
corpses everywhere, on the roads, in
trucks leaving the city and more fighters
came in from outside Kano, six buses full
of Maitatsine’s supporters coming all the
way from Sokoto were intercepted.
But what happened? An uprising by the
Maitatsine sect and led by the leader,
Marwa himself, had taken the ancient
city of Kano with its old mud walls by
the storm in what he called a jihad
against the infidels and a direct ticket to
paradise. His army of crazed fighters
was very excited to embark on the one-
way trip to heaven. Maitatsine had later
developed paranoia over Rimi’s order of
eviction and he concluded it was actually
a declaration of war and a notice of an
imminent attack on him and not even
Rimi’s overtures of peace could convince
him. He was sure he was going to be
attacked but he felt that attack was the
best form of defence and that he had to
act first. He lashed out at the governor
saying that he took over the land and
that ‘ all land belonged to Allah’.
For a people used to living in impunity
and believing they were in their own
republic, free of any government, the
followers of Maitatsine regularly clashed
with the Nigerian Police. But this
particular clash was extremely bloody.
Considering the fact that the government
was already planning on how to smoke
Maitatsine and his followers out of their
fortress and that the populace was
already fed up, the government decided
to land the blows one after the other. By
the time the madness ended, about 5,000
Nigerian lives were wasted. Maitatsine
was one of the dead, he was killed in the
first wave of fighting. According to the
Nigerian soldiers, Maitatsine’s fighters
fought with so much bravery and
fearlessness that even the federal troops
sent to exterminate them were
impressed. The military crackdown led
to the arrest of almost 1,000 people, of
which 224 were foreigners. Under
Buhari in 1984, he would step up the
expulsion of unregistered foreigners
(aliens) following attacks of the
Maitatsine sect (New African, Issues
196-207, IC Magazines Limited, 1984,
pages 29, 44) .
While a frenetic BBC crew ran into the
center of action to interview fleeing
Nigerians, government security forces
responded brutally. Frantic efforts to
control the madness led to hundreds of
suspects rounded up by the Nigerian
police and military to be summarily
executed. It was a desperate time and
extremely desperate measures were
taken by the Nigerian government,
making some costly mistakes in the
process, especially with the extrajudicial
killings.
THE WATERLOO
With about 5,000 Nigerians dead and
Maitatsine still at large, there was
palpable tension in the land. The old and
romantically beautiful city of Kano had
suddenly turned into a horrible scene of
war, a theatre of speeding bullets,
stabbing machetes and wheezing arrows.
There was confusion all over the place
and as the death toll continued to rise,
the Kano State government had to admit
that they had underestimated the
strength of Maitatsine and his sect, who
responded with so much ferocity that the
State Governor had to call on the
Nigerian President to assist. The state
command of the Nigerian Police was
totally overwhelmed by the raging
Maitatsine and his sect.
An enforcement of more mobile police
(MOPOL) units from neighboring states
could not quench the fire too. When the
combined forces of the police and the
mobile units could not tame the
overwhelming force of Maitatsine,
weapons were borrowed from the
Nigerian Army arsenal but nothing
tangible happened to reduce Maitatsine
and his irate army. It was time to call in
the federal troops. According to Toks
Ekukinam, who was then the Assistant
Legal Adviser to President Shagari, a
request for help from the Kano State
Government reached the Chief of Army
Staff and it was discussed in the Cabinet,
and approved by President Shagari in his
capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of
the Armed Forces.
A battle-ready contingent led by Colonel
YY Kure from the Nigerian Army was
finally drafted to the ‘battlefront’ and
what followed was another round of
butchering interspersed with the
ceaseless gunfire of furious Nigerian
soldiers. In the ensuing scrimmage, the
Nigerian soldiers progressed and went
deeper into the heart of the Yan Awaki
enclave, the evil empire of the dreaded
sect. A continuous pounding with
artillery, mortars and machine guns by
the Nigerian Army changed the tide of
the battle. The military entered the battle
on December 29.
From the heavens, warplanes of the
Nigerian Air Force rained bombs on his
household. The sect incurred very heavy
losses and Maitatsine fled Kano
metropolis with a handful of followers,
wives and children as the heat of the
gunfire, consistent shelling and aerial
bombardment became unbearable. They
escaped and marched out of the city into
the western districts along the Gwarzo
Road. His time was up but his followers
would not just give up on their prophet
like that. They launched an assault to
save their spiritual leaders from the
crushing jaws of the Nigerian Army but
in the crossfire, Maitatsine himself was
hit. A bullet flying from nowhere lodged
itself in his leg. He let out a piercing
shriek of pain and agony and would
later die of the wounds he sustained. He
reportedly bled to death. Maitatsine met
his end at the Rijiyar Zaki suburb of
Kano (while some others believe it was at
Rimin Abzinawa village that he met his
waterloo). The Nigerian Army met the
band of his mourning followers who had
just buried him hurriedly by a roadside
grave but he would later be exhumed by
the government forces and kept at a
local mortuary for several days before it
was finally cremated.
THE END
Image credits: Reworking Modernity:
Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent by
Allan Pred, Michael Watts.
After Maitatsine’s death, his defeated
followers took his body and quickly
buried it. However, the exhausted Kano
State government would have none of
that. The soldiers got a tip-off of the
location of the shallow grave and an
order was given that Maitatsine’s body
be exhumed. His grave was cleared up
and his corpse was brought to the
surface. It was then embalmed and
presented before the Commission of
Enquiry. Jubilant police officers even
posed with the corpse. What followed
next is as dramatic as it was puzzling.
The government was so determined to
crush anything that left of Maitatsine
that his corpse was set on fire. He was
cremated. Today, his badly-burnt teeth
and bone fragments are safely sealed
away in a bottle at the Nigerian Police
laboratory in Kano State. In a corner of
an unused, dark and dusty room that
reminds one of an evil dungeon, lies
Maitatsine in a bottle. On the specimen
bottle, is an official seal and an
inscription that goes thus:
“The remains of Late Malam
Muhammadu Marwa alias Allah Ta-Tsine
or Maitatsine.”
The remains of Maitatsine were kept
in a local mortuary for some days
before the authorities requested that
they be burnt to ashes.
THE AFTERMATH
But his sect did not die with him. In fact,
in October 1982, his followers would
launch another round of violence. This
time, it was not in Kano but in the town
of Bulunkutu (Bullumkutu) near
Maiduguri in Borno State which would
later be under siege by the rampaging
Boko Haram. What sparked this crisis
was the attempt of the police to arrest
the sect members. Mohammedu Goni
was the Governor of Borno State that
time and he was also taken aback with
the scale of the ferocity of the Maitatsine
sect and the attack spread to Kaduna
where 39 members of the sect were
killed by the vigilante group (total killed
was 44 in Kaduna and at least 452
people had already lost their lives in the
Maiduguri attack). It was a brutal assault
launched by the surviving remnants of
the sect that fled from Kano. (Please note
that the Kano crisis of 1982 in which
Bala Muhammed, the beloved Secretary
to the State Government, SSG of
Governor Rimi was murdered in cold
blood was a different incident).
The government records indicate that
188 civilians and 18 police officers
mainly in Maiduguri were killed and 635
arrested but the Commission of Inquiry
hinted that the deaths could have been
well over 500. But that was not all. On
27 th of February 1984 (after it was
banned in November 1982 with its
members rounded up and others
subjected to surveillance), the surviving
members of the sect escaped from jail in
Jimeta and launched a series of
devastating and indiscriminate attacks
on the Yola, the capital city of Adamawa
State (then Gongola State) and they also
made attempts to enforce their brand of
Islam on everyone – Christians and
Muslims alike.
The military head of state, Major-
General Muhammadu Buhari, who had
barely spent two months in office,
responded with a deafening ferocity. He
moved in his forces to wipe off the sect
from existence with the same
ruthlessness that he pursued Chadian
forces under President Shagari. General
Buhari had flown into Yola to personally
on a Wednesday oversee the military
offensive against the sect (AF Press Clips,
United States Department of State,
Bureau of African Affairs, 1984 ), this
include the bombardment of the sect’s
hideout at Rumde, a suburb of Yola. The
counterattack was so brutal that the
Jimeta Main Market was destroyed, over
700 people had died and 30,000 were
displaced from their homes by the time
the smoke cleared. With constant
artillery pounding, the unrest was finally
controlled and Maitatsine was severely
decimated, the blow was clearly a mortal
one.
Nigerians were very excited with the
offensive with various personalities like
Dele Giwa hailing the military campaign.
They made their last show of rebellion,
which was to start riots in April 1985
when the police made attempts to arrest
Maitatsine’s successor under the
Babangida regime in what is now Gombe
State (then Bauchi State) which led to the
deaths of over 100 people and the arrests
of 146 suspected members of the sect,
three police officers were killed and
100,000 rounds of ammunition were
discovered in Maitatsine caches. That
was the last time they would disturb
public peace. But from inception till
their final attack in April 1985, the total
death toll was at least 5,646 lives. After
their attack in February 1984, the
Buhari-led military regime set up its own
panel headed by Mr. Justice Mohammed
Lawal Uwais to investigate the causes,
remedies and incidental matters of the
crisis.
(I must state that under the Buhari
regime, the suppression and crackdown
on militant religious sects were second to
none. The military dictator launched a
terrifying wave of repression against
sects as the ‘Yan Izala with many of their
members imprisoned and tortured by the
secret service. Donors like Alhaji Haruna
Danja who funded the ‘Yan Izala sect
were imprisoned under the charges of
corruption. These multiple suppression
tactics severely weakened religious sects
that had the ability and capability to
foment trouble, disturb public peace or
undermine state security. However, this
would change when Buhari was
overthrown on the 27 th of August, 1985
and the incoming regime of General
Ibrahim Babangida relaxed the rules and
provided a broader political context for
sects as the ‘Yan Izala and others.
Babangida released the jailed ‘Yan Izala
members and supporters, Sheikh
Abubakar Gumi was reinstated to his old
position as a religious adviser to the
president and his sect resumed its
controversial preaching and activities ). –
Islamic Reform and Political Change in
Northern Nigeria by Roman Loimeier,
pages 220 – 223.
The late Sheikh Gumi of the Yan’ Izala
sect, opposed Maitatsine and his ideology.
Following his death, Maitatsine’s enclave
was demolished and all his illegal
buildings levelled. His own house was
converted to a magistrate court.
President Shagari signed into law the
Unlawful Society Order of 1982 and it
clearly prohibited the formation and
operation of groups such as the
Maitatsine under whatever name or
form.
THE SECRETS OF MAITATSINE
Remember the three recruitment wings
of Maitatsine? Yes, once they got batches
of new recruits, what followed next was
a bizarre initiation ceremony in which
they all met Maitatsine who would then
administer hypnotizing potions and
concoctions on them, special tattoos are
made on their abdomens after which
they pledged eternal allegiance to him.
The new recruits, many of them in their
teens would also be given charms and
amulets that were supposed to protect
them from bullets and other weapons.
The military training and combat
rehearsal sessions were handled by the
sect members who were former officers
in the Nigerian Police or the Nigerian
Armed Forces. Many people feared them
and this made them have this aura of
invincibility like Abubakar Shekau has
today but in actual sense, all na wash.
The ends of violent actors like Maitatsine
are usually very shameful indeed.
However, it must be said that although
there were widespread rumours on the
sect receiving weapons from Libya and
Israel, the government commission of
inquiry set up to look into the crisis
found no evidence of any foreign
support. In fact, Maitatsine fighters
made use of the crudest weapons such as
machetes, daggers, bows, knives, arrows,
spears and a few rifles but which they
used with the devastating efficiency of a
King Shaka-led Zulu army. Their main
source of financing was alms collecting
and that was surely not enough for them
to procure arms from overseas. All in all,
they launched four devastating series of
attacks: Kano (December 1980),
Bullunkutu (October 1982), Rigasa
(October 1982) and Yola (February
1984).
THE RESURGENCE
For those who felt that the death of
Maitatsine meant the end of his sect,
they were sorely mistaken. In 1982, the
surviving members of the sect
collaborated with another sect named
Kala-Kato and unleashed untold violence
in their base in Bullumkutu, Borno State.
Before the government security forces
could react, almost 120 people were
already killed, with property worth
millions of naira damaged. Before the
smoke of Bullumkutu died down, the
Maitatsine sect under the command of
Maitatsine’s second-in-command,
Mallam Musa Makaniki launched
another round of terror in 1984 in the
old Gongola State (now Taraba and
Adamawa States) in places like Yelwa,
Jimeta, Dobeli, Zango, Va’atita,
Nassarawa and Rumde. Before the police
could respond again, almost 570
Nigerians had already lost their lives
with countless property destroyed in the
carnage. That was not the end.
Maitatsine did not stop there.
After their strings of ‘victory’ in Borno
and Gongola States, they launched
another strike in the Patami Ward of
Bauchi State (now in Gombe State) from
the 26 th to the 28 th of April, 1985.
Before the security forces could
intervene, over 100 lives were lost.
General Buhari would then launch a
devastating assault on the sect, leading to
the arrest and prosecution of many of
them, with the others fleeing.
THE ESCAPE
One of those who fled and escaped to
Cameroon was Musa Makaniki, the one
who took over the sect following
Maitatsine’s death in 1980.
THE RE-NABBING
You may find this difficult to believe but
Makaniki would not be caught until the
year 2004 under the presidency of
Olusegun Obasanjo. Makaniki was
initially sentenced to death by hanging
but he was later freed upon appeal in
May 2012.
ANY CONNECTIONS WITH BOKO
HARAM?
Boko Haram is like a resurrection of
Maitatsine. The similarities between the
two are eerie.
-Max Siollun, historian and expert on
Nigerian military history.
Some Nigerians believe that the present-
day Boko Haram is an offshoot or a
mutation of the Maitatsine. Those who
believe this state that the uncle of the
Mohammed Yusuf, the late Boko Haram
leader, was actually one of the senior
commanders of Maitatsine but he
narrowly escaped from Kano to
Maiduguri during the heavy military
onslaught on the sect. This uncle of his
was said to have raised Yusuf as a child.
However, that is not to say that there
other factors did not contribute to the
growth and emergence of Boko Haram
and it is not clear if Boko Haram has
confirmed or denied this relationship.
There are many similarities between
the two sects but Boko Haram has
remained a far more resilient
organization. Both sects were anti-
government, had their own autonomous
enclaves and organized charismatic
sermons against the use of Western
items. Just as Maitatsine also had ties
with the politicians of Kano State, Boko
Haram was also linked with the
politicians of Borno State. As a matter of
fact, a suspected financier of the group,
Alhaji Buji Foi, was summarily executed
by the police. Foi was a Commissioner
for Religious Affairs during Governor Ali
Modu Sheriff’s first term in office.
Before then, Foi was twice the Chairman
of Kaga Local Council in addition to
other top public offices that he held in
Borno State. Here is a video of his
execution:
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT
MAITATSINE
-Although Maitatsine banned his users
from possessing and using modern
devices like the radio and television, he
was smart enough not to ban guns,
knives, explosives and other weapons.
-Some analysts like Paul Collier and
Nicolas Sambanis do not see the
Maitatsine event as either a riot or an
uprising but they have classified it as a
full-blown civil war, and even refer to it
as the ‘Maitatsine War’. Basis for this
classification was given in their book,
Understanding Civil War: Africa.
–Today, the name Maitatsine has come to
be associated with religious intolerance
in the nation. Anytime a new violent
outflow of religious intolerance is
noticed, people reflexly mention or make
reference to Maitatsine.
-Maitatsine was described as an ‘isolated
fanatic ’. He has also been described as a
cultist and magician masquerading as a
cleric.
-Owing to the fact that Maitatsine had a
squint in one eye, there were some
Muslims who took this to be a sign that
he was indeed, the Dajjal (Anti-Christ)
who would combat Islam and hasten the
end of the world.
MATTERS AND ISSUES ARISING
EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS
Although while agreeing that an
onslaught by the military was necessary
to maintain order, the summary
execution of Nigerians without fair trial
is a very disturbing trend indeed. When
Lawrence Anini, the notorious armed
robber was caught in 1986, he was shot
in the legs, taken to a military hospital,
treated with courtesy and care, allowed
to confess and name all his collaborators
before facing trial and eventually the
executioners. On the other hand, the late
Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf
was summarily executed even when he
was already subdued. The manner with
which Nigerian police officers and
members of the armed forces descend on
everyone during insurrections and
public disturbances is alarming.
THE POLITICAL ANGLE
While Maitatsine as a phenomenon
cannot be said to be a creation of the
greedy politicians, the growth and
strengthening of the sect can be linked to
the direct actions and inactions of the
political class. In the Maitatsine case,
politicians deliberately played ludo with
the whole scenario until it became a full-
blown monster. One political party
would be blaming the other while also
trying to shore up their respective
political bases. At the end of the day,
who suffers? Innocent Nigerians. That
the Kano State government could put
down the riots in less than two weeks
show that they were not hampered in the
real sense by the needed resources but
by an embarrassing lack of political will.
When the government was ready to wipe
Maitatsine out, it was done quickly.
Political will is always important in
quashing fundamentalist insurrections.
LAX POLICING METHODS
In a nation where police officers are in
the pockets of politicians, it is very
difficult to combat crime. Maitatsine had
been arrested before a couple of times
but on each occasion, he called on his
friends in high places and secured his
freedom. With each bout of liberation,
he became more emboldened until he
transformed into a monster that almost
swallowed up the politicians themselves.
PERVASIVE SUPERSTITIONS
In 2011 the World Bank released a
report stating that the Northern region
of Nigeria has the highest rate of
illiteracy not in Africa but on earth. As
if that was not enough, in April 2013, the
former Central Bank Governor, Mallam
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi revealed that 93%
(read that again, 93%) of girls in
northern Nigeria are illiterate. In such
an environment with such a thick
atmosphere of ignorance, it is very easy
for superstitious beliefs to spread about
people like Maitatsine. During his time,
many believed that he even had magical
powers and bullets could not penetrate
his followers. The fact is that no matter
the amount of the magical powder you
rub on your body, a bullet will not sweat
before piercing your skin. If you need
real ayeta, go get the latest Kevlar vests.
A very negative impact of these baseless
superstitions is that they demoralize the
police. During the onslaught on
Maitatsine, many police officers were
very reluctant to go smoke him out, some
officers did not even bother to report for
work at their respective stations, they
simply disappeared (who wan die) while
the few unfortunate ones drafted out to
confront the full wrath of Maitatsine
were already psychologically defeated,
they were fighting from a position of
fear and trepidation, all because of
superstitious rubbish. Education, is the
key. For Nigeria to bloom, she must
experience an explosion in information
technology and a revolution in the
education sector. That time, we will stop
holding up criminal elements as mythical
and indomitable figures.
THANKS YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR
TIME.
ABIYAMO.
REFERENCES
1. Encyclopedia of African and African-
American Religions edited by
Stephen D. Glazier
2. Understanding Civil War (Volume 1:
Africa) Evidence and Analysisedited
by Paul Collier, Nicholas Sambanis, a
publication of the World Bank.
3. From Cultural Justice to Inter-Ethnic
Mediation: A Reflection on the
Possibility of Ethno-Religious
Mediation in Africa by Basil Ugorji.
4. Cities and Citizenship edited by
James Holston.
5. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and
Change Among the Yoruba by David
D. Laitin
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/
p0127jsh
7. http://www.ifra-nigeria.org/IMG/
pdf/N-_D-_DANJIBO_-
_Islamic_Fundamentalism_and_Secta
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Far_North_Region_(Cameroon)
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroua
10. http://allafrica.com/
stories/201205090224.html
11. http://saharareporters.com/news-
page/hired-youths-attempted-attack-
sheik-zakzaky%E2%80%99s-home-
nigerian-shiites-say
12. http://
beegeagle.wordpress.com/2010/05/08
from-maitatsine-to-boko-haram/
13. Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms
and Symbolic Discontent by Allan
Pred, Michael Watts.
14. Petrotyranny by John Bacher.
15. Islamic Reform and Political Change
in Northern Nigeria by Roman
Loimeier, pages 220 – 223.
16. Peace and Violence in Nigeria:
Conflict-Resolution in Society and the
State: Panel on Nigeria since
Independence History Project by
Tekena N. Tamuno, University of
Ibadan Secretariat, 1991.
17. Crisis and Conflict Management in
Nigeria since 1980 by Mahmood
Yakubu, Nigerian Defence Academy,
Volumes 1-2, January 2005.
18. The Voice of the Voiceless: Pastoral
Letters and Communiques of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of
Nigeria, 1960 – 2002, Catholic Church,
Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, Daily
Graphics, Nigeria, 2002.
19. The Killing Fields by Shehu Sani,
Spectrum Books, 2007.
20. African Recorder, Volume 23, M.H
Samuel, 1984, pages 6516 – 6517.
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