I will expatiate on this point but first I ask the reader to recall, incidentally, that the thesis Yola is critical of was written in support of Dr. Uthman Bugaje, a well-known activist. It was not primarily an attack on the Islamic Movement. I mean rather the bulk of the Ummah , those poor people called masses whose illiteracy, ill health, penury, degradation and despair cry out for a liberator. The moderate wing of the Islamic movement speaks like an elite, in the interest of the elite. It is interested in having a Muslim Brother as an Adviser, or a Minister, or a Vice-Chancellor and regards these as the signposts of its success.
Progress becomes a chance to share , to be part of the system rather than to change it.
The radical wings are more revolutionary . Their members are generally uneducated, poor people who find outlets for expressing their anger in confrontation with real and imagined opponents of Islam. A large number of them have the death-wish, the love for martyrdom which may be equally a reflection of complete faith in God or total despair in this world, leading to the search for a quick way out. Yet the courage and revolutionary character notwithstanding, these groups are hampered by limitations which are a necessary feature to their composition, primarily a pedestrian intellect and a simplistic, metaphysical approach to political reality. Somehow , if they continued demonstrating and rioting, they believe the government of Nigeria, the state machinery, will collapse.