Abdurrazaq ibn Zubayr: Aboo Nabeelah

Muslim:Father:Trained Public Administrator: Historian: Peace & Development Analyst: Environmental Peace Advocate.

[Abdurrazaq ibn Zubayr: Aboo Nabeelah @YommyBackryn]

No one is left untouched by dire situation of Nigeria but our meaningful vituperation should not push us to chaotic thinking...

[ABBAkatiti👳‍♂️🇳🇬🇵🇸 @Jr_deedat]

THE TRUTH IS BITTER. A VERY TOUGH PILL TO SWALLOW BUT IT STILL REMAINS THE TRUTH.

[qāsim ibn a.a. @_drqasim]

Incase you have debts as high as a mountain, this du'a is what you need, bi idnillah.

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

The loudest cry for help is most often silent; absolutely silent. To hear it, one has to use one’s eyes.

[Inside Ilorin NG 🇳🇬 @InsideIlorin_NG]

We should all live in PEACE.

[Sherifdeen of Nigeria 🇳🇬 @AbuUbayy1]

Alhamdulillah for the blessings of Sunnah.

[Abdurrazaq ibn Zubayr: Aboo Nabeelah @YommyBackryn]

@DefenseNigeria Quite painful that the Cold War taught the world how to be fragmented and fight asymmetry wars. More painful, is that the citizens are directly affected

[Ibraheem Oloye (AbuMustaeina) @AbuMustaeina]

Omo alaubarika, omo daada

[Sherifdeen of Nigeria 🇳🇬 @AbuUbayy1]

Lessons from Maqbarah

I was invited by my friend to attend janazah rite of someone brought to nearby maqbarah in our community. Since it is meritorious act, I couldn't turn down the offer, so I answered the invitation. On getting there, the door was opened for them to have access to the cemetery to give their deceased Islamic befitting rites. After the deceased was covered with Sand as usual. One of the family members who happened to be a female was making Du'a for the deceased which I over heard.
She said " lagbaja (original name withheld) don't disturb your children and wife you left behind and never scare them". And later she added May Allâh give you ability to answer the questions you would be asked.

Upon hearing the great mistakes committed by the woman unknowingly which is related to aqeedah and tantamount to kufr, I have to intervene in line with hadith of forbidding evils. I politely told the little congregation that the deceased in the grave is dare in need of our assistance by making Du'a for him and that he is powerless now and he could neither harm or benefit anyone again.
This same blunder done by this innocent woman is same belief many Muslims have in their heads towards the deceased and this is against the teaching of Islaam. Once someone is dead, he can never render any protection, assistance and harm to those he left behind.

Another thing also happened in the cemetery where an elderly man and Alfa who accompanied the corpse to the cemetery did naseehah to the family of the deceased and he encouraged them to be dutiful to their Lord. After that, my friend equally reminded the congregation things that are stated in the hadith that can be of benefits to the deceased. And he warned them from wasting any money all in the name of doing 3rd or 8th day fidaau for the deceased. As result of this, the elderly Alfa interrupted that as old as he is now he could no longer learn any work again and it is taboo for him to criticise his Alfas for not exposing them to learn work rather they were restricted to collection of money in aqeeqah, wedding and fidaau ceremonies as these are the only source of income for them to pay bills and feed the family. As for him he had learned his lesson and took steps to right the wrongs by training his children to add work or education to kewu.

Me: Baba had learned his lesson that Alfa should have alternative work and shouldn't depend on Alfa work. To the younger students and Alfa, I urge you to strive and get lawful jobs and never depend on people's fortune or misfortune. Jalabi is unlawful, detest from that and look for lawful jobs. Basic works should be equally included in our madrasah curriculum. May Allâh grant us lawful means
Barakallahu fiikum

Ustadh Abdulqaadir Jamiu

[Abdurrazaq ibn Zubayr: Aboo Nabeelah @YommyBackryn]

@FemiBabafemi @ndlea_nigeria Very well done. The silence in the southwest land border could be a deafening cause of proliferation of hard drugs. Surveillance and Institutional capacity must be built and discipline must spread through operatives to contain unwholesome relationship with transporters

[Sherifdeen of Nigeria 🇳🇬 @AbuUbayy1]

I want to divorce my husband because he is not romantic, what should I do?

Question and answer with Shaykh Dr Sharafudeen Gbadebo Raji

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

CHARCOAL FUELD VIOLENCE:

In the Lake Chad Basin, a region spanning parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, insurgent and criminal groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have shifted from opportunistic tactics like kidnapping and bank raids to a highly structured "economy of violence".

A major pillar of this parallel economy is the illicit trade and taxation of charcoal.

Because millions of people across the region rely on solid fuel for cooking, charcoal remains a highly lucrative and constantly demanded commodity.

The Mechanics:

How the Trade Works
Insurgents do not usually chop the wood or burn the kilns themselves; instead, they exploit control over geography and desperate local populations to extract wealth at every step of the supply chain.

1. Territorial Control and Forced Logging
Insurgents occupy densely forested areas, such as the Sambisa Forest or the remote islands and woodlands of the Lake Chad Basin. They leverage this territorial control by pushing displaced civilians and impoverished local communities into these danger zones to fell high-quality timber (such as Acacia trees).

The Dynamic:

Local loggers are forced into a coercive, symbiotic relationship. They enter insurgent-controlled territories because they have lost their traditional livelihoods (like farming and fishing) due to the conflict.

2. "Access Levies" and Direct Taxation
Once loggers or local producers are in the forest, insurgent commanders enforce strict "taxation" systems resembling state structures:

Taxes in cash or kind: Loggers must pay heavy "entry fees" or hand over a significant portion of their harvested bags of charcoal as a tax (sometimes masked under religious terms like zakat).

The Consequences: Anyone refusing to pay these fees is met with asset confiscation, expulsion, or brutal violence.

3. Collusion with Middlemen and Smuggling
To turn the charcoal into cash, insurgents rely on network pipelines;

Middlemen:
Local traders act as intermediaries. They buy the taxed charcoal from the forests at incredibly depressed prices and transport it out of insurgent territory.

Smuggling Routes:

Convoys move at night along secondary forest tracks, crossing the porous borders of the Lake Chad Basin. The charcoal is smuggled into neighboring Chad, Niger, and Cameroon—often disguised as legitimate trade or pushed past border checkpoints using bribes.

4. Integration into Urban Markets
Once smuggled into major hubs (such as Maiduguri in Nigeria or N'Djamena in Chad), the charcoal is sold to urban consumers. Because it is mixed with legally sourced charcoal, it becomes virtually impossible for end-consumers to tell if their cooking fuel funded an insurgent group. The laundered cash is then moved through informal financial networks (like hawala) or converted into digital currencies to buy weapons, pay fighters, and sustain operations.

The Double-Whammy: Environmental and Humanitarian Fallout
The charcoal economy creates a highly destructive feedback loop in the region:

Severe Deforestation: The unregulated and rapid felling of trees inside protected forests like Sambisa strips the land.

Climate Vulnerability:
Stripping the vegetation exacerbates soil erosion, speeds up desertification, and disrupts water tables. This makes the region even more vulnerable to the severe droughts and floods associated with climate change.

Deepening Poverty:

As the local environment degrades, traditional farming and grazing lands disappear, forcing more desperate locals to turn to insurgent-controlled logging just to survive.

[Sherifdeen of Nigeria 🇳🇬 @AbuUbayy1]

I give birth yearly, but my husband hardly assists me with chores, help me admonish him.

[Sherifdeen of Nigeria 🇳🇬 @AbuUbayy1]

O deep!!!

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“What we need and what we want is to moralize politics, not to politicize morals.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, and low self-esteem mesh to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin… Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

“Under the influence of great fear, almost everybody becomes superstitious. Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity towards those who are not regarded as members of the herd. Fear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to justify cruelty. Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”

[servant of Allah @alouibrahim92]

The Cattle Barons of the LCB:

In the Lake Chad region, "cattle barons" are wealthy, transnational livestock merchants who use heavily armed networks to move vast herds across porous borders. Their operations rely on the exploitation of conflict zones, linking the pastoral economy directly to regional terrorism, organized crime, and the severe insecurity in northern Nigeria.

Relationship with Terrorism, Insurgency, and Organized Crime:

• Insurgency Financing: Armed groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) use cattle theft as a tool of economic warfare and a primary source of funding. A single large raid can generate tens of thousands of dollars in liquid capital to purchase weapons and fund recruitment.

•The "Meat Mafia": Cattle barons operate as "meat mafias" who profit from this stolen wealth. They launder thousands of rustled cattle through informal regional markets, working with corrupt officials and middlemen to mix stolen herds with legally acquired livestock.

•"Cattle Round-Tripping": Terrorists and illicit syndicates often execute raids in communities with weak security, imposing "cattle taxes" and using specialized smuggling routes to move stolen assets across national boundaries.

Relationship with Insecurity in Northern Nigeria:

•The Crime-Terror Nexus: The vast, ungoverned forest spaces in Nigeria's northwest and the marshlands of the Lake Chad Basin are exploited by both local bandits and transnational terrorist groups. Cross-border rustling syndicates often supply weapons and logistical support to local gangs engaged in mass kidnappings.

• Transhumance Disruption: As environmental degradation and violence shrink available grazing land, traditional herders from northern Nigeria are forced to alter their historic routes. This mass displacement heightens the deadly competition for resources with local farmers in Nigeria's Middle Belt.

-Proliferation of Small Arms: The smuggling corridors used by cattle barons to move livestock are also heavily utilized to traffic illicit firearms across borders. This influx of weapons arms local militias, severely escalating the lethality of the farmer-herder conflicts.

The intersection of these criminal economies and insurgent networks presents a massive challenge for the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad Basin. The illicit proceeds from the cattle trade continue to prolong and deepen the violence plaguing the region.