For controversial Soviet-trained medical doctor and Second Republic House of Representatives member, Junaid Mohammed, the curtain fell in a rather dramatic manner last Thursday.
The politician with rather maverick outbursts reportedly died at 73, at an isolation centre in the city of Kano. But a family member, who confirmed Junaid’s death, said the politician died at his residence in Kano after a brief illness. The deceased lawmaker, he said, was Coronavirus-free as of the time of his final home-calling.
He was buried in accordance with Islamic rights on Friday morning at the Muslim Cemetery in Turaini, an affluent neighbourhood of Kano. The only son of the deceased, Samil Muhammad, who spoke to ThisNigeria at their Lamido Crescent Road residence, said his father breathed last on Thursday night “at a government health facility”.
Describing his father as an honest and dogged fighter, Samil noted that the deceased believed in justice. “We will sorely miss him”, Samil added. Just a few days prior to his death, the social critic blamed the worsening cases of banditry and kidnapping, especially in Northern Nigeria on the ‘greed and selfishness’ of those whom, he said, ‘kept looking for power like there is no tomorrow’.
An ally of Junaid, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that the deceased passed away at about 11pm on Thursday. According to him, the news of the late politician’s demise was greeted with controversy owing to some issues. The source declined further comments on this. The late Junaid is survived by his wife and children.
The man, Junaid Mohammed
A confounding leftist, with sometimes worrisome-looking stand on political issues, Junaid was one of the founding members of the late Alhaji Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in 1976.
Neck-deep in politics rather than medical practice for which he was trained, the late Junaid was also the National Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the North-West. His last visible platform in political landscape was in October 2018, when he was picked to run for the presidential ticket as the running mate to ex-Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, on the platform of the SDP. Very outspoken about political matters, Junaid was seen in many quarters as a fierce critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
In one of his recent interviews, he accused Buhari of not basing his appointments on merit. He as responding to a scathing criticism in the December 24, 2020 Christmas eve homily in which the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, had accused the president of nepotism. Junaid had aligned with the bishop’s comment, stating that the president had favoured certain sections of the country over others. It was a surprising twist to a drama.
A serial critic
In life, Junaid spared no government or ethnic group of his caustic commentaries. On Buhari administration’s alleged bent towards nepotism, Junaid said, “I have to admit that the core issue Kukah raised about nepotism is real, and of course, marginalisation of some certain sections of the country is real, and that nepotism is in favour of people that are close to Buhari, particularly his friends, cronies, relations and in-laws. Over 99 per cent of the appointments Buhari made were not based on merit,” he had said.
And this was the kind of stance he made in successive administrations in the country’s history. For instance, he once described the Jonathan presidency as “simply a concession to blackmail”. Also, Junaid described the agitators for Biafra in the South-East as terrorists. Pressed hard to justify this, he asked, “What is the difference between what they are doing and what Boko Haram terrorists did, or are still doing?
Junaid, however, added, “I insist they should be heard and be allowed to secede, provided they are peaceful… My understanding is that in every society, people will have to be persuaded, to see the benefit of living together. But where that fails, I think people should be allowed to go their separate ways in peace”.
He did just the same to the South-West, in the heat of the war over the controversial Western Nigeria Security Network, alias Amotekun. In a post entitled: ‘Junaid Mohammed’s Echo Chamber and the Amotekun Civil War’ on January 26, a former President Goodluck Jonathan aide, Reno Omokri, dwelt on the late Junaid’s earlier ‘warning’ that Nigeria might experience another civil war if Amotekun was allowed to go ahead.
Junaid’s exact words were, “This idea of Amotekun was an act of recklessness. Those who are at the forefront of the Amotekun, while in Abuja they are APC, but when they go back to their respective states, they are something else. It shows you that these people are actually unreliable. If care is not taken, they will drag us into another civil war, and I don’t believe the country can survive another civil war.”
But Omokri noted, “This, I fear, is what is happening to Junaid Mohammed. By raising the spectre of civil war, Dr. Mohammed perhaps hopes to frighten the Southwest into abandoning the self-defence idea for Amotekun…If you divide Nigeria into four quadrants of Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast, you will realise that we are already fighting several civil wars in Nigeria.’’
View on insurgency
In an interview with a national newspaper, Junaid took time to X-ray the phenomenon of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Asked to comment on the acts of insurgency by the militant group, Junaid simply referred to Boko Haram members as miscreants. In other words, they are no better than area boys.
He said, “Their idea that you can create an Islamic state within the Nigerian state is simply stupid. If they have had any form of education, they would have understood that. The only solution in the case of Boko Haram is to simply decimate them, they can be subdued and perhaps, remove the useless propaganda, especially among the girls and young men they have been recruiting as conveyors of terrorist bombs and what have you.
“Now, the country should from henceforth after demolishing Boko Haram terrorism, fight poverty and see that she has meaningful development. Most of the Boko Haram terrorists are illiterate in terms of education; illiterate in terms of Islamic education.
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“They have tried so far to articulate a political agenda, what is it exactly they want, you don’t want. But even before Boko Haram, the miscreants in the South-South had done so too. Though they have not quite succeeded, at least, they were able to extract through blackmail and through violence certain political concessions from the Jonathan administration.
“Next to the Boko Haram is the South-East terrorists, who have been on, but very soon they are going to be demolished, like it is being done to Boko Haram.
Reactions
The Northern Elders’ Forum, in a condolence message signed by its spokesperson, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, showered encomiums on Junaid. The NEF described him as “an outstanding medical doctor who carved an irreplaceable path as a politician and who combined principled activism with ideological politics.
“He had been a key player in the nation’s political fortunes and was always involved in nurturing the democratic process. He had served in the House of Representatives in the Second Republic.
“His outstanding intellect was always available to the North and Nigeria, and he died at a moment when he was deeply involved in the search for a new of life for our country”.
