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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2012
•Some of his wives
•Abubakar Masaba
Six years ago, he was harassed by security agencies who also detained him because he had 86 wives. Today, the number of his wives has risen to 97. In this interview with JIDE ORINTUNSIN, Nigeria’s super polygamist and Islamic cleric, 88-year-old Alhaji Mohammed Bello Abubakar Masaba Bida, says he is not done yet. He also speaks about his rumoured death in his Bida country home. Excerpts:
L
AST Saturday, the news of your death was everywhere. How did you feel about the incident that threw many of your followers into confusion? At about 1: 30 am on Saturday, I received a phone call but I did not know who the caller was. When I
picked the call and tried to exchange pleasantries with the caller, he responded in Hausa language. He requested to speak with Alhaji Mohammed Bello Masaba and I said I was the one speaking. I asked how he got my telephone number, but instead of answering
I would have taken only two wives but I’m fulfilling a divine assignment — Super polygamist Masaba the question, he expressed surprised that I was still alive. According to him, he had been fed with the false news of my sudden death. The caller, who told me that he was calling from Kano State, said the rumour going round the state was that I was dead. I thanked him for his concern about my well-being. I also told him that if my time was up, I would definitely die. I pleaded with him to help me tell his people that I was hale and hearty and that I suffer no ailment. At the last count, I received about 125 phone calls from within and outside the country on Saturday. I received phone calls from Kano, Sokoto, Abuja, Nasarawa and even from so many people in Lagos State where I resided before I returned home some years ago. So many people also trooped to my house to catch a glimpse of me and to ascertain that I am not dead. I am alive, despite the wicked
rumour being peddled by my detractors who want me dead. They may have wished me dead, but they are not God who created me. It is from God that I came, and to Him I shall return. But it is not yet time for me to die, because I am yet to accomplish the tasks Allah assigned me to do here on earth. I know that after I must have fulfilled the tasks given to me, He will ask me to come back to Him. With the volume of telephone calls and the people who trooped in to know if you were actually dead, are you not afraid that you may die soon and leave your 97 wives and many children in crisis? I am not afraid at all because I am a servant of Allah. I am more emboldened that those disgruntled elements who are opposed to what I am doing are ungodly people and they had tried so many times in the past to cause distraction for me. But I am not
bothered because God has always made me to triumph over them despite their evil machinations. I do not nurse ill-feelings against them because they are so insignificant even in the presence of God. The only person I can be angry with is the devil and all his handiworks. In the past, those who have seen me as their enemies that should be conquered have tried unsuccessfully to harm me in the spirit world. Their occultism has no effect on me and my household. These people I am referring to are not Christians, but my fellow Muslim brothers who are not comfortable with what I am doing. But my hope is in God Almighty who has been shielding me from their evil plans. These people are in the habit of destroying men of God for saying the truth, and I think this is not good enough. Why are they fighting you? The fact remains that those who