News

How a 92-year-old cleric silently halted Iraq’s slide back into war

Published

2 years ago

September 3, 2022

When a pronouncement by a religious scholar in Iran drove Iraq to the brink of civil war last week, there was only one man who could stop it: a 92-year-old Iraqi Shi’ite cleric who proved once again he is the most powerful man in his country.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani said nothing in public about the unrest that erupted on Iraq’s streets. But government officials and Shi’ite insiders say it was only Sistani’s stance behind the scenes that halted a meltdown.

The story of Iraq’s bloodiest week in nearly three years shows the limits of traditional politics in a country where the power to start and stop wars rests with clerics – many with ambiguous ties to Iran, the Shi’ite theocracy next door.

The Iraqis who took to the streets blamed Tehran for whipping up the violence, which began after a cleric based in Iran denounced Iraq’s most popular politician, Moqtada al-Sadr, and instructed his own followers – including Sadr himself – to seek guidance from Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Sadr’s followers tried to storm government buildings. By nightfall, they were driving through Baghdad in pickup trucks brandishing machine guns and bazookas.

Armed men believed to be members of pro-Iranian militia opened fire on Sadrist demonstrators who threw stones. At least 30 people were killed.

And then, within 24 hours, it was over as suddenly as it started. Sadr returned to the airwaves and called for calm. His armed supporters and unarmed followers began leaving the streets, the army lifted an overnight curfew and a fragile calm descended upon the capital.

To understand both how the unrest broke out and how it was quelled, Reuters spoke with nearly 20 officials from the Iraqi government, Sadr’s movement, and rival Shi’ite factions seen as pro-Iranian. Most spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those interviews all pointed to a decisive intervention behind the scenes by Sistani, who has never held formal political office in Iraq but presides as the most influential scholar in its Shi’ite religious centre, Najaf.

According to the officials, Sistani’s office ensured Sadr understood that unless Sadr called off the violence by his followers, Sistani would denounce the unrest.

“Sistani sent a message to Sadr, that if he will not stop the violence then Sistani would be forced to release a statement calling for a stopping of fighting – this would have made Sadr look weak, and as if he’d caused bloodshed in Iraq,” said an Iraqi government official.

Three Shi’ite figures based in Najaf and close to Sistani would not confirm that Sistani’s office sent an explicit message to Sadr. But they said it would have been clear to Sadr that Sistani would soon speak out unless Sadr called off the unrest.

An Iran-aligned official in the region said that if it were not for Sistani’s office, “Moqtada al-Sadr would not have held his press conference” that halted the fighting.

‘BETRAYAL’

Sistani’s intervention may have averted wider bloodshed for now. But it does not solve the problem of maintaining calm in a country where so much power resides outside the political system in the Shi’ite clergy, including among clerics with intimate ties to Iran.

Sistani, who has intervened decisively at crucial moments in Iraq’s history since the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, has no obvious successor. Despite his age, little is known publicly about the state of his health.

Meanwhile, many of the most influential Shi’ite figures – including Sadr himself at various points in his career – have studied, lived, and worked in Iran, a theocracy that makes no attempt to separate clerical influence from state power.

Last week’s violence began after Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, a top-ranking Iraqi-born Shi’ite cleric who has lived in Iran for decades, announced he was retiring from public life and shutting down his office due to advanced age. Such a move is practically unknown in the 1,300-year history of Shi’ite Islam, where top clerics are typically revered until death.

Haeri had been anointed as Sadr’s movement’s spiritual advisor by Sadr’s father, himself a revered cleric who was assassinated by Saddam’s regime in 1999. In announcing his own resignation, Haeri denounced Sadr for causing rifts among Shi’ites and called on his own followers to seek future guidance on religious matters from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – the cleric who also happens to rule the Iranian state.

Sadr made clear in public that he blamed outsiders – implicitly Tehran – for Haeri’s intervention: “I don’t believe he did this of his own volition,” Sadr tweeted.

A senior Baghdad-based member of Sadr’s movement said Sadr was furious. “Haeri was Sadr’s spiritual guide. Sadr saw it as a betrayal that aimed to rob him of his religious legitimacy as a Shi’ite leader, at a time when he’s fighting Iran-backed groups for power.”

Sadrist officials in Najaf said the move meant Sadr would have to choose between obeying his spiritual guide Haeri and following Khamenei, or rejecting him and potentially upsetting older figures in his movement who were close to Sadr’s father.

Instead, Sadr announced his own withdrawal from politics altogether, a move that spurred his followers onto the street.

The Iranian government and Sadr’s office did not immediately respond to the request for comment for this story. Haeri’s office could not immediately be reached.

Specialists in Shi’ite Islam say Haeri’s move to shut his own office and direct his followers to back the Iranian leader would certainly have appeared suspicious in an Iraqi context, where suggestions of Iranian meddling are explosive.

“There’s strong reason to believe this was influenced by Iranian pressure – but let’s not forget that Haeri has also had disagreements with Sadr in the past,” said Marsin Alshammary, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“He directs followers to Khamenei when there’s no (religious) need to do so. And it seems unlikely a person in his position would shut down his offices which are probably quite lucrative,” she said.

VIOLENCE IS ONE OF THE TOOLS

As gun battles raged in central Baghdad, Sadr stayed silent for nearly 24 hours.

During that time, Shi’ite religious figures across Iraq tried to convince Sadr to stop the violence. They were joined by Shi’ite figures in Iran and Lebanon, according to officials in those countries, who said pressure on Sadr was channelled through Sistani’s office in Najaf.

“The Iranians are not intervening directly. They’re stung by the backlash against their influence in Iraq and are trying to influence events from a distance,” an Iraqi government official said.

Baghdad was calm on Friday, but the deadlock remains.

Sadr insists on new elections, while some Iran-backed groups want to press ahead to form a government. Clashes broke out late in the week in oil-rich southern Iraq.

The government has been largely silent. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Tuesday he would step down if violence continued, in a statement made hours after fighting had already stopped.

“Where is the prime minister, the commander-in-chief, in all of this?” said Renad Mansour of the London-based Chatham House think tank. More violence was possible, Mansour said.

“Sadr’s main focus is to become the main Shi’ite actor in Iraq, and so he wants to go after his Shi’ite opponents. In Iraq, violence is one of the tools used to compete.”

Courtesy Reuters

Featured

Ilobu Community Mourns late COAS, Lagbaja, suspends celebrations

Published

1 month ago

November 7, 2024

FocusMag

The passing of the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoheed Abiodun Lagbaja has thrown the ancient community of Ilobu, in Irepodun local Government area of Osun State into deep mourning.

“We are downcast and in sorrow. He is not just the son of the soil, but one of the shinning stars of the entire Yoruba race. If you go round the community, you will see a community that is in deep sorrow”, Oba Olaniyan muttered.
The community was in the thick of hosting the 2024 Ilobu Day celebration slated for November 9, when the sad news filtered in that their most prominent son, General Lagbaja has passed in in a private hospital in Lagos, Lagos State.

“Ilobu is a very happy town, but this morning, the sun suddenly snatched away from our sky.”
But in a twist, Oba Olaniyan told newsmen that the Ilobu Development Union executives had an emergency meeting, where they decided that Ilobu Day 2024 celebration be suspended indefinitely.
www.focusmagazineonline.com gathered authoritatively that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu spared nothing to save the live of the gallant infant Officer. He was said to have instructed that all necessary medical facilities should extended to him while on sick bed.

The traditional ruler of Ilobuland, Oba Ashiru Olaniyan, the hometown of late Lt. Gen. Lagbaja, was short of words when a correspondent of the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) visited his palace Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the confirmation of his passing by the Federal Government.

The traditional, who was seen in a deep mourning mood when the NAN correspondent visited his palace in Ilobu, directed the National President of the Ilobu-Asake Development Union, Oluremi Salako, to speak on his behalf.
He said that the town was planning its annual “Ilobu 2024 Day” slated for this coming Saturday (November 9) before the sad news of Lagabaja’s death filtered in.

www.focusmagazineonline.com © November 2024

Featured

Tinubu Appoints Gen. Oluyede as Acting COAS

Published

2 months ago

October 31, 2024

FocusMag

….Lt Gen. Lagbaja still Indisposed.
With a huge cloudy of uncertainties currently surrounding the state of health of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Major General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede as hold forth for him pending his arrival.

According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser Information and Strategy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the 56-year-old Major General Oluyede, however, will act in the position pending the return of the indisposed substantive Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Lagbaja.
Until his appointment, Oluyede served as the 56th Commander of the elite Infantry Corps of the Nigerian Army, based in Jaji, Kaduna.
Oluyede and Lagbaja were coursemates and members of the 39th Regular Course.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1992, effective from 1987. He rose to Major-General in September 2020.
Oluyede has held many commands since his commissioning as an officer. He was Platoon Commander and adjutant at 65 Battalion, Company Commander at 177 Guards Battalion, Staff Officer Guards Brigade, Commandant Amphibious Training School.
General Oluyede participated in several operations, including the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Mission in Liberia, Operation HARMONY IV in Bakassi, and Operation HADIN KAI in the North East theatre of operations, where he commanded 27 Task Force Brigade.
Oluyede has earned many honours for his meritorious service in various fields of operations. These include the Corps Medal of Honour, the Grand Service Star, Passing the Staff Course, and Membership in the National Institute.
Others are the Field Command Medal, the Field Command Medal of Honour, and the Field Training Medal.
Oluyede also received the coveted Chief of Army Staff Commendation Award.
He is married and has three children.

News

A Great Nigeria is Possible, Bola Tinubu Assures Nigerians

Published

1 year ago

November 1, 2023

FocusMag

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU AT THE 2023 CABINET RETREAT FOR MINISTERS, PRESIDENTIAL AIDES, PERMANENT SECRETARIES AND TOP GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONARIES AT THE STATE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2023

It is a great morning in Nigeria and I am humbled and happy to stand before you on this retreat, with forward-looking determination to embark on a very strong, bold endeavour to rebuild our country’s economy and our people’s hope renewed.
2. Thank you very much for your attendance. With strong determination, we are brought together the best brains, the best hands to navigate the future of this country.

3. We are not looking backwards; we can’t compare and give excuses. This is our country we have to build it; we have to renew the foundation. We have to give hope to the populace, to Nigerians in doubt whether democracy and economic growth will be the pathway to their prosperity.

4. I’m here to assure you and walk with you the best brains we can put together in civil service, the brain that we can put together in our democratic parliament and have been chosen for us by the public.

5. It is a good thing that the chairman of our party is here but the President is the president of all, whether affiliated with some political parties, regardless of religious, ethnic or otherwise, we are one.

6. A great Nigeria is possible, and a greater Nigeria will come under your commitment, guidance, and resolute determination to give the country a direction.

7. I’m with you. And please be assured that this great country is one family in one house, geographically located, partitioned, and living in different rooms. But we are all one family.

8. And we are here to make allegiance and give direction to that one family, making sure that relationships can only be stronger if we give hope to our people. We can only achieve our mission with boldness and strong determination with collaboration.

9. As I’ve stated before, no one succeeds alone. You the civil service, you must not see a minister as he or she will come and go and you will be there. You must make a positive team for the good of this country.

10. Yes! I admit and accept the asset and liability of my predecessor. It’s part of the definition in my professional background.

11. But you are in this ship. You will make good of it but not wreck it. You are a member of a great family; don’t see that minister as opportunistic. See, he or she as a partner that we must take the ship forward. Navigate it through turbulence and clear weather.

12. We are lucky we have a nation; the challenges are all over the world. You can see the chaos all around you. But be focused, like a man driving in the tunnel, don’t see the sky, don’t look up, face your direction. Be committed to the value and principle of results that will affect you, your neighbour, and the entire nation.

13. We’ve spent the last six months reviewing and evaluating ourselves, we’ve come a long way, but we set the agenda. Healthcare is a priority. Education of our people is a must. There is no other weapon against poverty than education. You have the opportunity to change things.

14. Recently, three days ago, we received the Chancellor of the Republic of Germany and his delegation of investors. One of their key complaints and the question is whether they can bring their capital, repatriate their dividend, or, if not satisfied, take their capital away. The Minister of Trade and Investment was called upon by me to explain further, that those obstacles are gone, never to come back again. We are open for business.

15. That is why we established the Result Delivery Unit. At the end of this retreat, you’re going to sign a bond of understanding between you, the ministers, the permanent secretaries, and myself.

16. If you are performing, nothing to fear; if you miss the objective, we’ll review; if there is no performance, you leave us. No one is an island, and the buck stops on my desk.

17. I assure you, you have a free hand. You must be intellectually inquisitive to ask how, why, when, and why it must be immediate. You have the responsibility to serve the people.

18. I’ve taken a young lady very dynamic, Hadiza Balla Usman, to head that delivery unit. If you have any complaints about her, see me. If you’re ready to work with her, stay there. Delivery, yes! we must achieve it for the sake of millions of people.

19. Yes, we are talking about the population of this country. What do you do with it? Make it an asset or a liability? Focus on its progress and come up with bold endeavours. We are great talents around the world, the biggest intellectually sound country in Horn of Africa.

20. Yes, we have challenges in the Sahel, we have challenges of climate change, south and north of Nigeria is battered, with ocean surge, we have desert encroachment in the north, but we are still blessed with arable lands. We can do it; we can build our country.

21. It’s not about theorizing. It’s about practical determination and focused evaluation. Yes, it is our country. We have no other one. Let’s be proud that we are Nigerians. We can do it, we can show leadership, we can fight to make democracy a lasting reference for the rest of Africa.

22. Don’t be afraid to make decisions, but don’t be antagonistic of your supervisor. If they are wrong, debate it. I stand before you and I’ve claimed on several occasions and I’m saying today again as the president, I can make mistakes, point it to me I would resolve that conflict, that error, perfection is only that of God Almighty. But you are there to help me succeed. Success I must achieve by all means necessary.

23. We have great minds, great intellectuals, great intellects, and all that we need.

24. When we were discussing this retreat, I said other than members of diplomatic corps to give us goodwill and inspiration, don’t invite any foreigner to give me a lecture about governance. I’ve been through it, and I believe in Nigeria.

25. It started from the day I was sworn in, and that bold endeavour is only achieved through courage, determination, and focused leadership.

26. We are going through the reform, painfully, and we still have other challenges. Don’t be a clog in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress.

27. Let us look forward. Let us be determined that corruption will go, progress will be achieved, better wages for our workers, and living wages.

28. We will transform the economy to work for millions of our citizens. We must take 50 million people out of poverty. We must build healthcare that works for all. Look around. Don’t be wicked. Look at the standard of education, look at the classrooms, and look at the roads. We can only spend the money, we will find it, we can not spend the people.

29. No crime in borrowing. Thank you, World Bank, for being a lending friend. But let your achievement be homegrown. The determination that Nigeria can do it is here.

30. If it had not started six months ago, we are here to switch off the light, make you included, and make all Nigerians included. Our path for tomorrow is charted for our children and grandchildren. Don’t be selfish about it.

31. Poverty is not a shameful thing. It’s only unacceptable. And we have to banish it because it’s unacceptable. Let’s work on other identifiable areas.

32. Because a memo is submitted to you doesn’t mean that is the end of that matter. Think through it. Be inquisitive. Ask how, when, why.

33. I’m ready to enjoy the retreat going forward. We are not retreating from progress. We are just to talk to one another and chart a path for progress and prosperity of this nation. I’m honoured to declare this brainstorming session open. Thank you.