Jelili Gbadamosi
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a Nigerian Islamic scholar, has criticised Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, over his position on Sharia and governance, warning that his approach could strengthen extremist groups.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi described Traoré as inexperienced and lacking the depth of understanding required to navigate the complex relationship between religion, society and global politics.
According to the cleric, policies perceived as being against Sharia could provide extremist groups with an opportunity to recruit more supporters by exploiting public sentiment.
He stressed that governing a country requires more than military experience, arguing that leaders must also understand the social and geopolitical realities shaping their nations.
“Captain Ibrahim Traoré (born 14 March 1988), with his anti-Shariah stance, at the age of 38, with nothing but military training on his resume, is too naive to understand even the complexity of the society he is ruling under the gun, let alone the dynamics of contemporary geopolitics.
“He has given the extremists the weapon they need to conscript more foot soldiers against his secular regime,” Gumi wrote.
