Category: Femi Abbas

If any time can demand for a bail out from impossible ailment of man, it is now. There is no better time in human life to seek a permanent rescue from the tempest the twilight of this life. In getting such a rescue, recourse to the Prophet’s medicine is a sine qua non.

This article is a deliberate diversion of readers’ attention from the madness of the moment in Nigeria. Such diversion becomes necessary as a relief from the current overwhelming tension in a country where every news item is a sad development that turns, every grain of hope into an atom of forlorn. A worthy columnist must know when to bite and when to blow editorially with pen if only to sustain the readership of his/her column. This is the time of mental, physical and psychological ailments that are tied to commerce. And, there must be a medicament for each. The most appropriate medicament for all diseases in human life is the one prescribed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) about 1500 years ago which still remains potent and will keep remaining relevant for the rest period of human existence on earth. Please, read how it all began:

Adam, the primogenitor of mankind, was hardly one hour old when he started prescribing medicaments against ailments. He was commanded by Allah to teach the Angels, the names of all things which they (the Angels) had confessed not to know. By teaching the Angels, Adam could be said to have carried out the duty of a teacher which suggests that teaching was probably his first profession. But, those in the information sector could as well, argue that what Adam did was more of information dissemination than teaching.

Thus, for the purpose of academic exercise, a fierce debate might ensue between teachers and journalists, over what can be called the first profession of the first human being. But the truth is that both professionals (teacher and journalist) are right. By teaching, a teacher informs. And, by informing, a journalist teaches. Thus, the two professions are mutually complimentary.

 

Adam cures ailments

What Adam actually did by teaching the Angels was to cure the worst disease in them as well as in man. That disease is ignorance. Shortly before the creation of Adam, Allah informed the Angels that He was going to create a new living being and put him in charge of the garden to be called the earth. But, due to feigning knowledge, the Angels kicked against the plan and advised their Lord not to do it. Allah then told them in a tone of finality that “I know what you do not know”. (Q.2:31). It eventually took Adam, by Allah’s command, to heal those Angels of their disease (ignorance).

If Adam had not taught them the names of all things on earth, as revealed in the Qur’an, the Angels would have remained ignorant forever. And, Allah’s messages to mankind, as contained in the divinely Revealed Books, would not have come through them.

In ordinary man’s view, medicine is the substance required to cure an ailment. Such substance may be natural or artificial. It may also be as crude as herbs or as sophisticated as surgery. However, it is generally believed that a person does not need medicine unless he is ill. That is why the Western conventional medicine is rather curative than preventive. Illness resides in the body just as ignorance makes the mind its abode. Today, in most cases, people neither go to the hospitals nor take medicine unless they are sick.

Though unlettered, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had known this before he diagnosed two basic ailments and prescribed two fundamental medicines for them. The first of those ailments is ignorance. The second is poverty. And, poverty in this case is not lack of material wealth alone as many people erroneously believe. It is lack of many things including health and conscience. Thus, in Islam, ailment is basically of two types: ignorance and poverty. Many people are victims of one. Many more are victims of both.

A person is said to be poor-sighted when he cannot see well without artificial aid. He is deemed poor in memory when his remembering ability becomes weak. He is also pronounced poor in health when some of his organs malfunction or he lacks some active enzymes or minerals or vitamins. Thus, man may be poor, not in terms of money or material needs, but despite his possession of both.

 

The Prophet’s prescription

As an antidote for ignorance, the Prophet prescribed the Qur’an. And for body ailment, he prescribed honey. Qur’an is the encyclopeadia of life which personifies knowledge in all  ramifications. There is nothing about knowledge, whether spiritual or mundane, in this world, or the hereafter, that is not contained in the Qur’an.

By recommending the Qur’an as medicine for ignorance, the Prophet simply provided cure for the ailment of the mind. And by prescribing honey for body ailments he simply encouraged prolongation of life expectancy through a boost to the immune system. It is not by accident that a whole chapter in the Qur’an (Chapter 16) is named after the insect that produces honey. Verse 68 of that chapter reads thus:

“And your Lord revealed to the bee (saying): Build your homes in the mountains, in the trees and in the hives which men shall make for you. Feed on every kind of fruit and follow the trodden path of your Lord’.

“From its belly comes forth a fluid of many hues as healing (drink) for mankind. Surely in this, there is a sign for those who can reason….” And, in the Bible, references are made to the use and efficacy of honey in more than 25 places.

Contrary to general belief, honey is not the only product of the bee. There are five others so far known to man. These are: propolis; pollen; royal jelly; bees wax; bee venom and bee bread. More can be discovered, as research continues in line with the Qur’anic challenge. Each of these products has specific functions in maintaining and immunizing he human hormone system.

To produce honey alone, the bees make contact with at least 250,000 plants picking branches and the Flower nectars. It is possible for them to contact more plants depending on the richness of the vegetation in which they dwell. ( Nectar is the main raw material which the bees use to produce honey). Propolis, on the other hand, is produced by the bees from the resin of certain specific trees.

 

Propolis

Through research, propolis has come to be known as the strongest anti-biotic ever discovered by man. This product is used not to protect the living alone but also to preserve the remains of the dead. At least it is on record that the famous historic Egyptian mammies were embalmed with propolis several millennia ago. This same propolis is the product used by the bees, themselves, to sterilise their bodies against bacteria and secure their hives against viruses brought into those hives by predators. Whenever the bees sting such predators to death, it is propolis they use to embalm them to prevent their decaying bodies from polluting the hive.

Pollen is the secret of longevity. It heals almost all the old age diseases like prostate, arthritis, pneumonia and bronchitis. It rejuvenates the nerves and reinvigorates the hormonal glands especially in the aged people.

 

Royal Jelly

Royal jelly on the other hand does not only solve the problem of infertility in men and women. It also rejuvenates its consumers agewise and in physical look. Besides, Royal Jelly acts as the exclusive food of the queen bee which enables her to lay an average of 2000 eggs every day. And bee venom is a natural vaccine which strengthens human immunity against all diseases. It works like magic in the human system especially when applied through the natural acupunctural points in the body.

 

Bees Wax

Bees wax, as distinct from other products, is used to produce non-chemical cosmetics and to coat pharmaceutical tablets and capsules while bee bread is used to prevent or heal children’s diseases.

The use of each of these products to heal human ailments depends on the extent of knowledge of apitherapy possessed by the user. (Apitherapy is the use of bee products to prevent or heal human or animal ailments). A specialist in this field is called apitherapist.

The uniqueness of using these products for healing or prevention of diseases is in the fact that they do not entail any negative side effect. And that is a major sharp difference between them and the synthetic drugs manufactured chemically by the conventional pharmacists.

Honey is the only known product in the world that serves as both food and medicine. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once reportedly told his patients while prescribing honey for them thus: “let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food”. There is no known nutritional value in terms of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that is not proportionally present in honey.

Raw honey, for instance, contains about 80 different substances that are most important for human nutrition. Besides glucose and fructose, honey contains all of the B-complex minerals like vitamins A, C, D, E and K as well as trace elements such as magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus, iron, calcium, chlorine, potassium, iodine, sodium, copper and manganese. The live enzyme content of honey is one of the highest of all existing foods. Honey also contains hormones and antimicrobial and antibacterial factors.

The composition and nutritional value of honey differ in relation to the floral sources honeybees have visited. For example, recent research supports the claim that dark coloured honeys have larger amounts of antioxidants. The inorganic contents of honey, minerals and other trace elements, play a significant role in human metabolism and nutrition. Owing to its chlorine content, honey is appreciated as an excellent tonic and helps people to overcome suffering from constipation and other enteric problems.

(38.2% fructose, 31.0% glucose,17.1% water, 7.2% maltose, 4.2% tri-saccharine & other carbohydrates, 1.5% sucrose, 0.5% minerals, vitamins, enzymes).

Whereas no synthetic medicine can and should be taken by any ill person without doctor’s prescription, honey requires no such prescription for anybody who is not allergic to it. Honey is a multipurpose food and medicine. It can be taken along with other foods or alone.

And, as an antiviral and antibiotic substance, honey is the best medicine for the eye and the ear diseases, tooth ache, insomnia, staphylococcus, constipation and whitlow as well as for burns and wounds.

 

Components of Honey

After many centuries of disputing these facts ignorantly, conventional doctors have finally come to realise that no medicine is as effective in sealing up surgical wounds and healing sores as honey. Today, honey is used for these purposes in most public hospitals in various parts of the world, including Nigeria.

Besides the above medicaments, the bees also assist mankind in producing foods by pollinating their crops. At least, these wonderful insects are responsible for pollinating about 80 per cent of the crops anywhere in the world. It is, therefore, an understatement to say that without the bees, humanity would starve to death. Bees are a vital part of our environment. Killing them is like killing oneself.

If most people were knowledgeable about the efficacy of the bee products in preventing and healing diseases, hospitals would have been less congested and substantial percentage of their incomes would have been saved to enhance the quality of their lives. The world of bees is a wonderful world. It takes only those who know it to appreciate it and benefit from its healing miracle.

Through divine instinct, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had known this almost one and a half millennia ago and he had recommended it to humanity accordingly. The fact that honey is still a subject of scientific research today is a further confirmation that the unlettered Prophet from Arabia was a divine genius.

The case of bee and honey is like that of hen and egg. No one can tell which first came into existence. Without bee there can be no honey. And without honey, the bees cannot exist since honey is the food upon which they depend for survival.

But, how can one recognise genuine honey in this era of rampant adulteration? That is one of many questions to be answered in this column in the future God willing.

The story of the insect called bee is inexhaustible despite centuries of research on it. It is therefore impossible to tell it all in a one page column of this type. Much, more will be said on this subject subsequently if only to assist Nigerians in safeguarding their health matters thereby enhancing the quality of their lives.

That Prophet Muhammad (SAW) knew this much even as an unlettered person at a time when the world was assailed by blatant ignorance and primitivism is a further confirmation of Michael Hart’s classification of him as the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. But then, what makes the difference between the bees and other insects? What type of life do the bees live vis a vis other insects? What is the relationship between the bees, the plants and human beings? How do the bees conduct their communal life and how do they make honey? Besides honey, how do they produce other substances useful for human health? These and other relevant questions about the insect called BEE will be answered in this column next Friday in sha’Allah.

 

 

Monologue

History is not just a teacher of all times for all living human beings. It is also a permanent school that constantly reminds mankind of the lessons to learn from the various events and experiences of the past as a means of guidance towards the future.

About 900 years ago, an Arab poet of the second Umayyad Dynasty, in Spain, came up with a bewildering stanza that is now more relevant to Nigeria than his own nation and his own time. An  excerpt from the poem went thus:

“Here is the period in human life about which we had been seriously warned in the words of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and those of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud; Here is the period in which truth is meant to be totally rejected; And falsehood as well as evil machinations are to be warmly accepted and upheld as societal norms; Should this period continue to swing dangerously (like a pendulum over our nation) without any positive change, the world will surely forage into a stage in life when grief over deaths will become an aberration even as rejoice over the birth of new babies will become an anathema”.

 

Observation

Today, judging Nigeria’s situation, by what we can see and feel against what we are yet to witness or experience, can any prediction be more accurate and more appropriate for our country than the above quoted poem?

With the seeming ongoing resistance to positive change and persistent entrenchment of evil machinations as we are witnessing today, how can there be any hope for a better future? Yet, the charlatans who use religion as an instrument of threat and intimidation through propaganda and blackmail refuse to see the possible danger ahead.

 

Axis of Evil

Today, Nigeria is dangerously entangled in a triangular axis of evil, the consequences of which cannot be foretold with precision. That axis is like a crushing pendulum swinging restlessly over Africa’s most populous country with a threat of ruins. That triangular axis consists of three dominant, vocal  blocks of evil. Each of them is an implacable enclave serving as an abode for its designers. One of those enclaves is the abode of politicians, another is for the palace of the clergy and the third is for the igloo of the media.

While the Politicians stand out as the engine room of virtually all the evils afflicting our country, the clergy represents the dangerous chimney through which the polluting smoke of that evil oozes out to suffocate the populace spiritually in the name of God. On its own, the media serves as the megaphone for both the politicians and the so-called clergy through the instrumentality of satanic propaganda.

 

Disappointing Leg

Of the defined evil axis above, the most disappointing leg is the clergy. From time immemorial, religion had stood out as the societal salt used as a preservative for all other ingredients with which to prepare a delicious soup of life for the consumption of all and sundry at any stage. But with the sudden adoption of ‘ashes’ to replace salt as the main ingredient of preservation in the 20th century, courtesy of the capitalist West, how can the soup of life be tasteful anymore to its consumers?

Ordinarily, Salt should be salt in its natural form. To pour ashes on it in the name of spiritual preservative is to deprive it of its natural value and render it totally useless to its consumers. Thus, with the importation of a hitherto unknown brand of a religion from the West, which is bitterly coated in capitalism, Nigeria has dangerously become a polluted country with a suffocating smoke. Those who are responsible for this situation are the fraudsters parading themselves as prophets and are issuing satanic statements with which they deceptively rationalize their claim of prophet-hood.

 

The Role of Money

Incidentally, the bottom line for all these evil machinations is nothing other than the vanity called money. Let money be removed from Nigeria’s mode of worship today and sanity will return fully to our society with required serenity.

Today, with importation of ashes as a replacement for salt, religion, like politics, has become a big business in which greedy merchants and charlatans are desperately engaged for unbridled avarice and unlimited aggrandizement at all costs without consideration for decency and even conscience. In that case, of what use is the claim of religion without conscience?

 

Commercialization of Religion

Commercialization of religion which enables private individuals to invest in building of castles, as business ventures, has seriously diminished the value of religion in taste and in substance.

In Nigeria, today, our only respite, as Muslims, is that Nigerian Imams are not engaged in hateful sermons and public incitement to boost their religious businesses that fetch them private, executive jets illegally at the expense of their congregations.

Were Nigerian Imams also to commercialize Islam and preach hatefully like some self-hipped charlatans in the name of religion, Nigeria would have ceased to be a country by now.

 

Warning

Those who take religion as a ‘do or die’ business that must fetch them luxurious lifestyle should know that they do not have monopoly of provocation and threat as the patience of Nigerian Muslims is getting exhausted. Elasticity has its limit.

 

Yellow Journalism

When journalism was a real profession in Nigeria, its practitioners knew that they were like Eskimos living in Igloo. If anything happened to Igloo, the Eskimos’ lives became exposed to danger. Today, however, it has become evident that journalism is just a matter of nomenclature.

What matters to the journalists of today, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria, is the conspicuous immoral padding that reportorial entails. That profession is now virtually a matter of cash and carry in favour of the highest bidder. That is why news reports these days are mere expression of wishes and fabricated stories with which to justify the brown envelopes that serve as padding for most of those parading themselves as journalists.

As for the politicians, nothing is strange. It is a common knowledge that the enclave in which they dwell is the real home of the Lucifer.

But to think that their ruinous actions can continue unabatedly is nothing other than self-deception. Where are the politicians of yesteryears? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Long live Nigeria!

 

In Remembrance of a Political Icon

When the demise of Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was announced a couple of years ago the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a press statement with which it condoled with all Nigerians including the family of the deceased. The full contents of the statement were as follows:

When the media waves came up with breaking news announcing the demise of a Nigerian political icon, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari with a reverberation effect across the world, many Nigerians with rich experience in various aspects of life began to dust their diaries for a recount of the episodes that propelled the deceased to have made history as much as he, himsel, was made by history.

 

Like an Elephant

The late President Shehu Shagari’s life was like a huge elephant surrounded by blind men and women of letters and substance.

To describe the features of that proverbial elephant, each of the persons that surrounded it would only be able to give an account of the area he/she is able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and not the whole of it.

Besides, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was such a household name, that no serious political operator or aspirant can afford to discountenance in Nigerian history without incurring an expensive cost.

 

Religious Concern

The aspect that concerns the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) most in Alhaji Shagari’s life’s odyssey was religion.

It can be recalled that it was he (Alhaji Shagari) as Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, that approved the sum of N10 million each for the commencement of building a National Mosque and a National Ecumenical Church in Abuja at a time when naira was really strong and the foundation of Abuja as Nigeria’s new capital city was just being laid.

That Presidential gesture, which no religious group rejected, was a confirmation that Nigeria is indeed a multi-religious and not a secular country as being mischievously peddled, in certain quarters, for selfish reasons.

Today, the two houses of worship are conspicuous in Central I area of Abuja with their grandiose postures, to the finite attraction of foreign tourists who see them as symbols of national unity.

 

Maitatsine Crisis

It is historically unforgettable how the late Executive President tackled, diplomatically and militarily, a frightening national crisis engendered by a dangerous charlatan called Muhammad Marwa Maitatsine from Cameroon, who wrecked devastating havocs in most parts of Northern Nigeria, in the guise of religion, during the country’s second republic. It was his presidential determination to keep the unity of Nigeria intact  that checkmated that unforgetable menace.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari was, though, a quiet and easy going personality, nonetheless, he never wavered in taking necessary decisions in the interest of national unity in the country.

 

His Lifestyle

As a Muslim, Alhaji Shagari never hesitated in upholding the principles of justice, fairness and equity which his religion (Islam) emphasizes.

As a teacher in the early part of his life, he was exemplary in touching the lives of his students positively and in grooming those students for future leadership.

As a politician, he displayed such a special trait that distinguished him as a template designer and a dark horse in Nigeria’s political racecourse.

 

His Political Sagacity

The late President Shagari’s political sagacity was like a major Faculty in the University of Life, into which many forward-looking leadership aspirants in Nigeria were eager to seek enrolment for specialization in African political education.

Alahji Shehu Shagari was the eminent Dean of that faculty even as the vibrancy of his tenure which remains unequalled, till date, is a testimony to the template he set for Nigeria’s democratic dispensation.

 

Lesson to Learn

For Nigerian generations of the colonial era as well as those of the first and second republics, a major falcon of reference vacated the stage forever leaving some of his surviving political peers to mere dreams in non-effective communication.

Today, the country is still yearning for a replica of his exemplary personality in leadership. We pray the Almighty Allah to give us a leader worthy of emulation in our era. Amin.

 

Monologue

Temptation, in human life, is the silhouette of Satan. Although that silhouette is cleverly pouched in a cloak of imagination, its vivid reflection behind the screen, is a confirmation that Satan is truly a diabolical reality in both silhouette and picture.

And, for people who detest its presence in their lives, the only means of preventing it from hooking their hearts is by cultivating an effective resistance to it.

 

REMINDER

It will be recalled that yours sincerely made a promise, in this column, last Friday, to entitle today’s article, as ‘Muslim/Muslim ticket’. That promise, aimed at relaxing flexed muzzles, by putting the record straight, over the controversial subject matter that is currently generating an unwarranted brouhaha, reverberatingly, in Nigerian media, would have been shoved aside by an intruding temptation.

With a genuine token of intended fulfillment, however, the promise was strictly kept in the yoke of my heart, even as some other urgent developments suddenly began to creep into the uppermost chamber of my chest, with impregnable threat to abort that fulfillment with the instrumentality of satanic silhouette.

One of those developments was a ridiculous viral video, in which some Nigerian miscreants with fanatical religious inclination, were seen, roaming the streets of Abuja with rickety placards, protesting against ‘Muslim/Muslim ticket at the American Embassy’, under the guise of religion. Typical of Nigerian brand of hysteria, that obnoxious scene was nothing other than an   exhibition of a laughable combination of blatant ignorance and unpardonable folly.

But, all said and done, with Allah’s divine guidance, yours sincerely was able to surmount that   unprovoked temptation by resisting it resiliently. Otherwise, it would have prompted a diversion from fulfilling the well intended promise, made voluntarily, as a Muslim.

Thus, coming up with today’s title, as earlier announced, is, as usual, due to the grace of Allah. Alhamdu liLlah!

 

Preamble

It is a global fact, primordially and contemporarily acknowledged, that history is graciously resplendent, with certain fundamental facts and figures that are regularly chronicled in a remarkable archive which serves as an indelible refresher of human memory.

This assertion reconfirms that history is not just the teacher of teachers, but, also, the principal reminder of the past events and occurrences in human life, as well as in the natural environment that regulates the shapes of those facts, based on relevant circumstances of time and space.

 

Reminiscences

Ordinarily, if not for the purpose of fulfilling a voluntarily made promise by ‘The Message Column’, this topic would not have deserved any prominent treatment here today. This is not only because the subject matter, in it, has almost become anachronistic through unnecessary over-flogging, but also because of the big question mark with which the justifiability of that title is being queried.

 

Points to note

The case of wrapping religion in the abominable rag of politics is not new in Nigeria. The current trend, which is now being painted in a new colour of confusion, is only making it look like an old wine in a new bottle.

Dressing politics in a gorgeous cassock of religion, in Nigeria, is as old as the time of incursion of the British colonial democracy into the cultural identity of African setting. And, this is not peculiar to Nigeria alone.

But, in Nigeria, it all started in the early 1950s, when a doyen of politics in the country, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Oyeniyi Awolowo, now of blessed memory, devised and adopted a potent campaign strategy for winning political power in Nigeria. The experimentation of that strategy, which   was evidently Christian, in theory and in practice, started in the country’s Middle Belt with the carriage of dresses, foot wears and other material utensils to the Animist areas of that region, where many people were still moving around in nudity, bare- footedly. Using that gesture to lure those people into Christianity could not have been a bad idea if the intention did not transcend that level. But adopting it as a cunning way of currying political patronage was what became abhorrent to those people. After all, Chief Awolowo was not known as an evangelical messiah coming to emancipate them from the manacles of imperial oppression. Thus, when those people realized that the gimmick was a sheer political bait intended to lure them into the dragnet of servitude, the game was brought to an abrupt end.

Perhaps, that was why no attempt was made to extend such gesture to any Muslim area of the North.

Besides, since the gesture was intended to play the role of a single stone with which to kill two birds   at the same time, no objective of extending it to the Muslim areas of the North could have yielded any result beyond futility.

Thus, in the end, the largess proved to be a mere Greek gift which was bereft of any meaningful worth beyond ‘calling a dog ‘a good name’ to be able to lure it to the sharp blade of an waiting guillotine.

Taking dresses to the Muslim areas of the North, as a campaign strategy, at that time, could only have meant the same as taking limestone from Nkalagu, in Eastern Nigeria to Lancaster in the United Kingdom.

It eventually took the political intervention of Chief Joseph Sarwuan Tarka of the Tiv clan, in today’s Benue State, who was then just emerging as an acknowledged indigenous leader of his people, to checkmate or even terminate that seemingly deceptive strategy for good.

And, under Chief Awolowo’s reign as the Premier of Western region, at the time, virtually all the political appointees in his government, including his Deputy, Chief Sanuel Ladoke Akintola, were Christians, in a region where overwhelming majority of the votes that put him in office were cast by Muslims.

How else can a country or a region be Christianized?

However, with his trial for treasonable felony and eventual imprisonment, in 1962, as well as the subsequent occurrence of a military coup which later paved way for his release and invitation to serve as Minister of Finance in the military government, then headed by General Yakubu Gowon, in the latter part of 1966, the need for a repackaging of his political strategy became a necessity.

But when the military handed governance to the politicians, in 1979, the expected correction, from Chief Awolowo, was not affected.

Rather than becoming sensitive to the ethno- religious plurality of the country, Chief Awolowo chose a fellow Southern Christian, from the Eastern region (Chief Phillip Umeadi), as his Presidential running mate. Yet, he expected the entire North, with its nonesuch population, to vote for him as President of Nigeria.

On the other hand, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Christian Easterner who was very conscious of the need of a national outlook for Nigeria as a country, could only find a Northern mate  Professor Ishiah Audu, an erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University and a fellow Christian, as his running mate. And, no Muslim group or individual raised any alarming voice over it it.

Also, during the same second republic (1979-1983), all the States in Southern Nigeria, except Lagos, had Christian Governors and Christian Deputy Governors without any brouhaha coming from the Muslim quarters.

At a time when the political struggle for power was based on regionalism, the frontline Christian champions of that struggle, in the South, were clandestinely planting the seed of religious discord in Nigerian politics in the belief that the Muslims were in deep sleep and the full Christianization of Nigeria should be completed before the latter would wake up from their sleep.

At the commencement of the fourth republic in 1999, when the North voluntarily conceded the Presidency to the South West, the two candidates (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falae)  for whom the entire country had to vote into office as President, were Christians. And, the Muslims did not complain in whatever form. What else is called Christian/Christian ticket?

 

June 12, 1993 Election

When the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, won by Chief MKO Abiola, a Muslim, was annulled, it was Chief Ernest Sonekan, a Christian, that was tipped to replace him as the country’s interim President. Yet, the cry of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria never ceased to rent the air from time to time. It can still be vividly remembered that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s own crusade for of Northern Nigeria, after he had won the Presidential election, was to choose, the then newly elected Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku as Vice President, to pave way for a Christian, Boni Haruna, a Christian, who Deputy Governor to Atiku, to become the Governor of the State that is overwhelmingly Muslim in demography. It was, apparently, on the advice of the same President Obasanjo that President Goodluck Jonathan had to choose the new Governor of Kaduna State, Architect Namadi Sambo as his Deputy in order to pave way for another Christian, in the person of Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, to become the Governor of State. And the Muslims of that State, did not contest it despite their overwhelming majority status. Yet, when Governor Nasir El-Rufai of that state later considered gender sensitivity in politics and chose a woman from Southern Kaduna, Hajiya Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe as deputy, the issue, a medical doctor, the issue of zoning in power sharing became relegated to the background as the noise of Islamization returned to vogue immediately. And, as usual, it was the South West media that championed that frivolously provocative noise.

Now, in all these, if we may ask, who is religion-zing politics in Nigeria, to pollute the whole political system in the country for today and tomorrow, Muslims or Christians?

 

First Republic

Meanwhile, it should not be forgotten that from 1954 to 1959, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the Premier of the Western Region, his duputy was Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a fellow Christian. And, when the duo parted ways, due to an intra party political tsunami, in 1962, the latter formed a new political party in alliance with another party and chose Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunbo Fanikayode, also a Christian, as his own deputy thereby leaving the overwhelming Muslim majority, in the region, to errand running for the ‘masters’. Are the Muslims fools?

Throughout that time, the Nigerian media did not see or report anything in the semblance of Christian/Christian ticket, even when the NPN Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a Northern Muslim, chose Dr. Alex Ekweme, a Christian from the Eastern region, as his running mate in 1979. As far as the Christian dominated media the  was concerned, at that time, that arrangement was normal. What has never been seen as normal is a situation where a Muslim could peer with a fellow Muslim as the running of governance. And the perceived abnormality in that would then push the Christian Association of Nigeria to take an official position to renounce its official position to Nigerians, in favour of Christianization of the country. It happened in 1993. It is now happening again. Where is CAN’s political destination in Nigeria? And, what kind of Nigeria is the South West media planning for the future of this country?

 

SECOND REPUBLIC

When the country’s political system was changed from Parliamentary to Presidential, under General Mathew, Okikiolakan, Aremu, Obasanjo, as military Head of State, in 1978, six new political parties emerged in readiness for a national election with which to grab power. Four of those parties were based in the North while the remaining two were based in the South. The Parties were as follows:

National Party of Nigeria (NPN) with Sheu Usman Shagari as Presidential Candidate;

Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) with Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Presidential Candidate;

Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) with Dr. Bejamin Nnamdi Azizkiwe as Presidential Candidate;

Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) with Mallam Aminu Kano as Presidential Candidate;

Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) with Alhaji Waziri Ado Ibrahim as Presidential Candidate;

United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) with Joseph Tarka as Presidential Candidate

But a ridiculously laughable scene, shamelessly circulated through the social media, last week, prompted the publication of this article here today.

In that scene, some idle but blindly fanatical elements carried placards, in protest, to the American Embassy, in Abuja, with the chanting of ‘NO MUSLIM/MUSLIM TICKET’ in Nigeria. Isn’t that laughable? But if such a scene was not circulated, how would the sane world confirm that Nigeria is truly the habitat of idiocy in Africa? Does America, which those latent elements and their godfathers expected to sit in judgment over Nigeria, have anything different from Christian/Christian ticket in their political system? If, for the purpose of argument, such a country is privileged to give a verdict on the issue in question, what yardstick would she use? That obscene sight is a typical example of the difference between education and mere literacy in a foreign language, as analyzed here last Friday. This scenario is capable of raising a question thus: to which embassy did the Americans who invaded American Capitol, in year 2020 carry placards when Donald Trump lost that year’s Presidential election? And, was the crisis not resolved after a while? However, knowing the role of literacy without education in blatantly ignorant like Nigeria, can it be surprising that some hungry miscreants engaged themselves in such a sarcastic comedy.

 

Monologue

Facts are sacredly constant. They have neither varieties nor alternatives. But they sometimes have an abstract way of teaching practical reality to all people (including Christians and Muslims), who may be doubtful of their existence.

Naturally, facts have no colours and, can, therefore, not be described as colourful. They are perpetually immaculate even as they are genuinely coated in invisible pouch of bitterness. Perhaps that is why they remain permanently unattractive to most people across nations and generations, who are flamboyantly garlanded in the robe of ostentation and are customarily adapted to only sweet taste of deception.

 

Preamble

It is a fact rarely acknowledged, that today’s Muslims, in Nigeria, are perennially indebted to their Christian counterparts. This fact is though taken for granted, because of its abstract feature, its esoteric reality cannot be denied.

Ordinarily, indebtedness cannot be a crime if it is well shrouded in good and implementable intention for payment,   in full measure, at an appropriate time. Such a timely payment of debt is a fulfillment of promise as a reconfirmation of one Prophetic Hadith that goes thus:

“There are three signs by which a hypocrite can be identified; when he speaks, he lies; when he promises he reneges; And, when he is trusted, he betrays”. However, payment of debt can, sometimes, be circumstantial. It may be prompt or deferred just as it may be positive or negative, depending on the circumstance that warrants the indebtedness in the first place. Nevertheless, this derivative from the above quoted Hadith may be a subject of different interpretations among scholars.

 

Question

How can Muslims be said to be indebted to Christians in a country like Nigeria? That is a lucid question which most readers of this column are likely to ask in a soliloquy while reading this article. However, it should be recalled that, without the incessant verbal missiles being bellicosely hauled at Islam in Nigeria, by Nigerian Christians, especially those of Pentecostal denomination, with the motive of smearing Islam and denigrating Prophet Muhammad (SAW), to prop up their materialistic interest, today’s noticeable consciousness in Nigerian Muslims, about their religion, might never have been aroused. How else can Muslims be indebted to Christians? That indebtedness may now look trivial in the pace of progressive advancement of Islam in Nigeria, but one can imagine where the Muslims, in this country, would have been today, without the incessant Christian jabs of threat coming to them torrentially from every conceivable angle.

Ironically, however, the Nigerian Christians, too, to whom Muslims are said to be indebted, do not seem to realize the altruistic implications of their ceaseless antagonistic posture towards Islam today and tomorrow. If they had ever thought of it and sat down to sincerely assess its implications, they would have probably seen it as the real impetus that the Muslims need to trigger the necessary consciousness needed in them to foster Muslim unity in this country and strengthen the spirituality of Islam. That same Christian posture, which is now obviously devoid of the real teachings of Jesus Christ, is also the stimulant that spurs curiosity in many non-Muslims, who are eagerly prompted to adopt Islam by conversion today. This means that Christian hostility to Islam in Nigeria is of immense benefit to Allah’s divine religion. As a matter of fact, if the Muslims had not been spiritually cautioned against unnecessary reprisals, over hostility to their religion, this country would have long, been wildly inflamed, by religious wars of attrition.

 

Observation

However, if the obviously hostile posture of the Pentecostal Christians, had not been so dominantly injected into Gospel avocation   in today’s Nigeria, the   current Nigerian Muslims would have permanently remained on their imaginary beds, dreaming of an Islamic spiritual mirage.

If anything, therefore, Nigerian Muslims should be grateful to their Christian counterparts for the regularly engendered   intimidating outbursts, in the media, that keep Muslims unwaveringly stable on their toes.

 

Expression of Gratitude

Given the above mentioned assertion, therefore, ‘The Message Column’, on behalf of millions of Nigerian Muslims, hereby doffs its hat to express a big ‘THANK YOU’, in capital letters, to Nigerian Christians for keeping the Muslims of this country consciously awake through ubiquitously negative preaching on the Church pulpits, even to the extent of religionizing politics without thinking of its consequences.

We are very grateful, not because we appreciate your way of practicing the religion of Christ, but because that method of yours hase become a dose of spiritual consciousness as well as a constant hint of agrand plan ahead.

At least, today, unlike in the past decades, Nigerian Muslims are so much conscious of their faith that whenever a voice is about to emerge, either from the enclave of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) or from any denominational Church, they (Muslims) can easily guess what the contents would be, and, their readiness for response has automatically become a matter of alacrity. Although, in most cases, Muslims do not react promptly to the incessant vituperations oozing out, like a suffocating smoke, from certain Church chimneys, which is aimed at polluting the country’s socio-political polity with the instrumentality of religion, such random Muslim aloofness is strictly in tandem with the Islamic discipline impacted on the generality of Muslims as a matter of divine norm. After all, it is universally acknowledged that the only invariable reason why a barrel can make the loudest noise is emptiness. And, to respond to such noise, every time it comes up with its nauseating bluster, is an indication of momentary idleness. Incidentally, Muslims, by the effective teaching of the tenets of their religion, are supposed to be so spiritually engaged that idleness will find no room in their spiritual space.

 

Islam in Nigeria Today

Today, in Nigeria, unlike in the past few decades, there is no professional field of human endeavour in which Nigerian Muslims are not distinctively found. That alone is enough to warrant implacable provocations from those who had surreptitiously consigned Islam and the Muslims to the periphery of material life in their self-deceptive perception of Allah’s divine religion. But, if not for the constant bullish tendency of Nigerian Christians to suppress Islam and the Muslims, by all means, the latter would not have gone, all out, to seek the so-called Western education which now encourages them to abide by the adage that says “when the going gets tough, only the tough keeps going”. In other words, the arena of the so-called Western education in Nigeria would have been exclusively dominated   by the Christians alone, in the belief that literacy, in English language, (which they ignorantly call education) is mainly for seeking administrative jobs and that only the menial aspect of those jobs should be reserved for the Muslims because their illiterate in English language.

Those who constitute the engine room of this frivolous concept can hardly remember that the euphoria of literacy in English language that often prompts them to gallivanting arrogantly around does not go beyond Nigerian borders with her French speaking neighbor countries. And that is what distinguishes education from literacy.

 

Education and Literacy

In Islam, there is a Clear-cut dichotomy between education and literacy. That is why the Muslims, in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), lay a very strong emphasis on education that is inheritably beneficial to the entire humanity, rather than on mere literacy that is of temporary benefit to the literate person alone. Aftera all, the most educated human being that ever lived is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who was an illiterate.

When Islam first arrived, in the vast territory that later came to be named Nigeria, over one thousand years ago, the attitude of its earliest adherents was to embrace that divine religion basically for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. And, that continued for centuries without any thought of attributing the Arabic literacy that came with it to any material benefit.

But when the British colonialists perched on the shores of this same territory, in about 1861, with emphasis on mere literacy in their own (English language) which was backed up with certificate, as meal ticket, materialism automatically gained an upper hand, especially in the South West of today’s Nigeria, where those colonialists finally settled down with head office in Lagos, which was later endorsed as Nigeria’s capital city.

It was, therefore, the effect of materialism foisted on our people, through literacy in English language, that instigated the religious discrimination and intimidation that we are now witnessing in the sphere of what is labeled education in Nigeria. Today, the massive rural-urban migration that has come to drastically reduce the agricultural economy of Nigeria is masterminded by literacy in English language and the South West Nigeria is mostly guilty of this. That is the region where English language has virtually replaced the natural Yoruba language often ignorantly called vernacular. It is through literacy in English language that those who have perpetually enslaved themselves to that colonial language do generate ethos of enmity in Nigerian society especially in the religious sphere.

There are much more to discuss about this psycho-linguistic issue and its implications for the development of Nigeria. But because of lack of space, now, further discussion on it, in this column, will be deferred to a future date. Meanwhile, readers of ‘The Message’ column are implored to look out for comments of this column, next Friday, God willing, on the currently trending Muslim/Muslim ticket issue that is fiercely   gathering impregnable momentum. God spare our lives.

Monologue

Were it possible for the dead to wake up from their graves at will, Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), the great son of Prophet Ya‘qub (Jacob), would have resurrected in Nigeria at the request of hungry Nigerians. And, his mission would have been the interpretation of a dream like that of a Pharaoh of some millennia ago, which saved Egypt of yore from the scourge of a looming hunger.

But, alas, the absence of a Yusuf from the surface of the earth, today, has rendered the situation in this country hopeless. Despite unlimited human and material resources available in this so called ‘Giant of Africa’ Nigeria continues to wallow helplessly under a jaundiced economy like a centipede crawling into a brook of uncertainty.

By this time tomorrow, Muslims, all over the world, will be celebrating ‘Idul Adha. But unlike their brothers and sisters in most other parts of the world, overwhelming majority of Nigerian Muslims will celebrate that festival without any festivity. At the instance of injustice based on avarice and aggrandizement of a few privileged Nigerians, the ingredients of festivity have been banished in this country. Thus, many worshippers will celebrate this year’s ‘Idul Adha with hunger and despair.

This iron period in which consistent promise of eliminating the scourge of hunger, starvation and abject poverty seems to have become a pleasant dream turned into a painful nightmare which is an indicator of indefinite despair.

 

Preamble

Generally, today, there is nostalgia in the land, not only for the days of oil boom when life was relatively comfortable for all and sundry but also for the era of abundant farm products when the thought of feeding was not much of a concern for most citizens. Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims alike are today yearning for the return of those days when wives could confidently ask their husbands for festival gifts and children could demand for new dresses, shoes and wrist watches from their parents. Those were the days when festival seasons were really festive and the graph of marriage carried some indices of value. Those were the days of friendliness among neighbours, sincere wishes among colleagues, mutual confidence among spouses as well as general peace and tranquility in the society.

Now, those days are gone. And, they seem to have gone forever. Today, we have found ourselves in a situation against which we had long been warned in a couplet rendered by an Arab poet quoting two disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) i. e. UbayyiBnKa’b and Abdullah BnMas’ud thus:

“This is the period in which truth is rejected in its totality while falsehood, corruption and betrayal of trust are held aloft; should this period linger with its woes and tribulations, the world, may soon assume a situation where people will neither rejoice over the birth of  new babies nor grieve over the demise of dear relatives”.

 

Sensible Questions

Nigeria is fast becoming a dramatic entity mysteriously coded in parables. It may take an unprecedented revolution to dislodge some Nigerian economic vampires who subjected the citizenry to that situation. Ordinarily, in normal circumstances, a forward-looking country would have encouraged her citizenry to ask some probing questions thus: Who are we? Where are we coming from? And, where are we going from here? Those are some of the questions which all rational human beings should ask themselves from time to time. If only to re-package their self induced destiny

But such questions have been rendered irrelevant in Nigeria because the circumstances of life in this country have changed the priorities of ordinary citizens. The only question now in vogue, which virtually everybody in government seems to be asking tacitly, is this: ‘what personal benefit will I get in this office?

That very question is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerian civil servants days and nights. It is the question that robes Nigerian Police in a garment of open shamelessness with a banished conscience. It is the question that crowns money as a demigod which forbids human feeling. It is the question that fosters greed and fetters Nigeria to the stake of endemic corruption. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerians as the only valuable substance worthy of pursuit.

What can we say of a man who fixes his eyes on the sun but does not see it? Instead, he sees a chorus of flaming seraphim announcing a paroxysm of despair. That is the parable of the country called Nigeria. Like the Israelis of Moses’ time, Nigerians have become gypsies wandering aimlessly and wallowing in abject poverty in the midst of abundance. What else do we expect from Allah beyond the invaluable bounties with which He has blessed us?

Nigeria is not lacking in forest and arable savannah. She is rich in rivers and mountains all of which are great resources for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive. What this country lacks is a class of responsible and patriotic leaders who can sincerely highlight its priorities according to the yearnings of the ordinary people. That food is becoming a threat to Nigerians today is an irony emanating from naivety and massive corruption entrenched on her soil, especially since 1999 when the current democracy first beamed a ray of hope to the people but which did not take much time  before turning into despair.

 

Cost of governance

In Nigeria today, the cost of running the government alone is enough to render the country bankrupt. The retinue of federal ministers and a galaxy of Presidential and gubernatorial Advisers as well as the unlimited allowances of the legislators are major causes of poverty in the country. Even America with her huge economic resources, large population and financial wherewithal has only about ten functional ministers at the federal level. Why must we have separate ministers for agriculture and water resources? Where is the federal government’s farm to justify this? Why must we retain an obnoxious immunity clause in our constitution which facilitates monumental corruption for the serving Governors who, until recently,  are merely hypocritically chased around but never caught for trial on the allegation of embezzlement after they might have left office? And, now, the new political cliché is ‘State Pardon’ for unrepentant official thieves.

Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances running into billions of naira for our legislators without anything to show for it at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food? No one would have thought in 1999 that artificial hunger could be added to the abysmal level of poverty in Nigeria despite the unprecedented rise in price of oil in the international market. The ubiquity of beggars and lunatics in our cities and towns is a confirmation of this assertion.

 

Style of Governance

Governance in Nigeria has become an artful trick adopted by a cabal to bamboozle the populace into blind submission to the whims and caprices of heartless politicians.

Now, despite the undeniable fact that Nigeria has become a country without roads, without electricity, without functional rail transportation system, without jobs for majority of the able-bodied citizens and even without food on our tables, we were still being cajoled into believing that Nigeria, the only country without coins, would become one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in year 2020. Wasn’t that a deliberate and audacious deception? And, now, that 2020 has come and gone, where is Nigeria on the map of economic progress?

No country in history has ever been known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

The government needs to be told, in no ambiguous language that no miracle can yield any economic success based on the ramshackle foundation laid down by one man (from the prison) who, as President, could hardly reason beyond the siege mentality of a prisoner. A fire brigade approach to food crisis in a country like Nigeria is a shameful reaction to an avoidable melancholy.

 

Egyptian Experience

Yusuf (Joseph), the son of Ya’qub (Jacob), did not know that he could have any solution to a fundamental problem of a country other than his own. Neither did his brothers who sold him into slavery know that he could be a solution to a major problem in another land. But the accident of history never ceases to play itself out with repetition. Without Yusuf, only Allah knows what the history of Egypt would have been today. And without a Pharaoh’s dream of drought, the story of Yusuf would have been totally different from what we now know it to be.

If Egypt had any major plight when Yusuf was in prison in that country, it was Pharaoh’s dream. It turned out that Yusuf’s imprisonment in Egypt was a blessing, not only for Egypt but also for Yusuf and his family. What could have been a repeat of that episode, when we took the first shot of Nigeria’s fourth republic in 1999 when a new formidable foundation was supposed to be laid, only turned out to be a regrettable bizarre. The rest is left to history.

Yours sincerely was a student in Egypt in the 1970s when the hostility between that country and Israel was fierce. Egypt was then an ally of the (now defunct) Soviet Union while Israel was polically a satellite of the United States by proxy. Not only did Egypt suffer isolation from NATO member countries of Europe and America but the Soviet Union which was supposed to be her main ally was also not forthcoming with any meaningful assistance beyond the supply of scanty weapons. Thus, the Egyptian government had to take its destiny in its own hand by buckling up firmly in order to fend for her people at that critical time.

Realizing the importance of food supply, especially in a war situation, what Egypt did was to mobilize all her agricultural resources around River Nile and forgot about any food importation. The result was tremendous and thus, the fear of food insecurity was averted.

In the mid 1990s, Uganda, a sub-Sahara African country, found herself in the position of ancient Egypt. A colossal drought broke out in that country killing thousands of people and virtually wiping out the entire cattle in the country. No Pharaoh had any dreamed premonition and no Yusuf was in a prison to translate any dream into a solution.

 

Ugandan Experience

What the Ugandans did to find a solution, at that time, was to reset the country’s agricultural focus. Rather than concentrating on tilling the land and rearing the cattle, which drought had eroded, a new focus was brought to bear. Uganda took to ‘bee farming’ as a relieving alternative. The seriousness which the government of that country paid to the new focus was such that Uganda today is a country to reckon with in the production and supply of honey and other bee products to the European communities. A substantial amount of honey consumed in Europe is currently supplied   by Uganda as well as Kenya and Tanzania. And, those products have become the second biggest foreign exchange earner for Uganda after coffee.

Today, Nigeria is not afflicted by drought or famine. Neither is she engaged in any political war. Yet, the Nigerian government has learnt no lesson from any of the above named countries simply because there is oil in large deposit. Now, the general fear in the land is that of hunger even in times of festivals.

The narrative of how Nigeria arrived at such a deadly scourge is irrelevant for now. What is relevant is how to get out of it. Like Egypt of yore, Nigeria will need a Yusuf to unravel the mystery surrounding the dream that brought this scourge about.

 

An Irony

It is ironic that people who live by the river bank can’t get water to drink when those living in the desert can find a reliable oasis to combat any drought. Given all the resources with which we are endowed, Nigerians should have no business with poverty let alone food crisis.

Capitalism, which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism, has moved a step ahead, especially in Nigeria where official theft has become a profession. Capitalism is now a religion through which its adherents worship money. To such adherents, accountability is a mere riddle which only the poor may wish to unravel.

It is only in the interest of those in government, especially those in the executive and legislative arms, who are most active in sharing public funds, to let the national wealth spread across board legitimately if only to avoid the current Nigerian elite situation where every house has become a prison in which the occupants are voluntarily jailed. To ignore the rule of law and shun justice in a land blessed with milk and honey is to cultivate insuperable trouble, permanently, with insecurity in all its ramifications. Today’s silence must be seen as a terrible omen for tomorrow’s mourning. To be forewarned is to be fore armed. God save Nigeria!

 

Say oh Lord! The Sovereign of all dominions! You bestow power to whomever You wish and withdraw power from whomever You wish; You exalt whomever You wish and abase whomever you wish; In Your Hand lies all that is GOOD. You embed the night into the day and the day into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. You grant sustenance to whomever you wish beyond reckoning” Q 3: 26-27

Monologue

 

Life is like a horse that surrenders itself to humans for riding. If it surrenders itself to you today do not be reckless in riding it. You may become the horse for life to ride on tomorrow. Nights are pregnant. They invariably give birth to wonders during the days. All pleasant or unpleasant events found in the records of history were conceived in the nights. The belly of nights is a mystery that cannot be easily explained through the successes or failures of human dreams.

 

Observation

Man is a mere spectator watching the environmental drama going on around him in the theatre of life. He only reacts to that drama randomly as it affects his immediate interest. The main actor in that drama is the phenomenon called destiny. And, the only antidote for the poison that destiny may sometimes constitute in the life of man is to be clad in the armour of faith.

In history, great empires and nations have reputation for rising to the peak of their glory at a time. And, at another time, they are known for falling unexpectedly to the abyss of life’s dungeon, when they might have reached the elasticity limit of their power wielding. And as it is with nations, so it is with rulers. In this situation, what obtained in the past still obtains in the present. This confirms that humans are like flakes of history they rise today and fall tomorrow according to the dictates of momentary tempest.

 

Comment

Nigeria is fortunate as a nation to be endowed with large-hearted men and women who have tentials to enhance that rare fortune but fail to utilize such potentials.

“The occurrences of life, as you can see them, change from time to time like weather. A person who is gladdened today may be saddened tomorrow”. In that circumstance, how much a man is able to cope with the harshness of life or relish in its comfort depends depends largely on the treatment he gaves clemency when the latter is at his disposal. Yet the world surges ahead without looking back at actions or reactions that dot the various lands of circumstances of life. Thus, within the twinkling of an eye, the Almighty Allah may change many things in human life to the amazement of man.

 

Efficacy of prayer

At a time in Nigeria when the elasticity of hardship unleashed on Nigerians by the country’s leadership was fast approaching its elasticity limit, we raised up our hands in prayer to the Almighty Allah to grant us a leader who would truly and sincerely serve the nation rather than someone who would turn himself into a master to be served by the nation. This was in response to Allah’s covenant with mankind when He said: “And, when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad (SAW) about me, tell them that I am very close to them and I answer the prayer of any well intentioned seeker, if he/she seeks my favour. Let such seekers trust My willingness to accept prayers so that they may be guided aright”. Q. 2: 186.

 

Analysis

Based on the above quoted verse of the Quran, we raised up our hands in prayer thus:

“Oh Allah! Give us a leader who will know that the greatest wealth of a nation is her human resources and develop such wealth for the future of the nation. Imbue us with a leader who will know the meaning of education and therefore give our schools and Universities priority in government policies. Appoint a leader for us who will be a good example for the country, abiding by the law and not choosing which of the court rulings to obey. We pray for a leader who will hold security of lives and property sacrosanct, not one who will be indifferent when his personal interest is not affected by insecurity in the land. That prayer was divinely accepted. But with our habitual greed, carice and untamable aggrandizement, we chose to reject the divine bounties of Allah in the satanic belief that Allah’s choice for us is not as good as our own ephemeral choice of vanity.

 

We need a Leader

Today, we are back to a new season of prayer askkng Allah to give us a leader who will sincerely stand by his oath of office and not one who will rule by his wills and caprices on the basis of religious bias and ethnic sentiment to the detriment of the country’s constitution.

We pray for a leader who will not crudely and greedily discard certain provisions of the constitution in a desperate bid to rule us despotically forever. We pray for a leader who will see himself as a servant rather than the master of the nation and therefore address the citizenry with due respect in decency and gentleman’s language.

We pray for a leader who will be just enough to spread the privileges and opportunities in the land across board without any atom of discrimination. We pray for a leader who will not destroy the legitimacy of his leadership and start running away from his own shadow at the tail end of his tenure. And, finally, we pray for a leader who will be large-hearted enough to be gallant in defeat and magnanimous in victory; not one who will be so vindictive as to play tribes against tribes, unions against unions and religion against religion.

We believe that the leadership qualities for which we are hereby praying are those that embody civilisation in all its ramifications. And, we are confident that Allah will be merciful with us in accepting this prayer.

 

Agitations

However, while we are eagerly anticipating the acceptance of this new prayer, some myopic and visionless agents of the Lucifer are still vigorously agitating for balkanization of this country in anticipation of their selfish material gains. Such vissionless elements do not see any lesson to learn from the experience of Southern Sudan Sudan or that of Southern Cameroon. Where are we going from here?

Oh Allah, we are at Your door, raising up our hands to You in prayer and placing our final hope on You without an iota of doubt. Kindly guide us to build a nation of hope and to elect a leader who will be loved and admired by all and not one whose natural trade in stock is hidden hatred for certain citizens and open indignation for others. To You we pray and from You alone we expect mercy.

 

History is not just a teacher of all times for all living human beings. It is also a permanent school that constantly reminds mankind of the lessons to learn from the various events and experiences of the past as a means of guidance towards the future.

About 900 years ago, an Arab poet of the second Umayyad Dynasty, in Spain, came up with a bewildering stanza that is now more relevant to Nigeria than his own nation and his own time. An  excerpt from the poem went thus: “Here is the period in human life about which we had been seriously warned in the words of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and those of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud; Here is the period in which truth is meant to be totally rejected; And falsehood as well as evil machinations are to be warmly accepted and upheld as societal norms; Should this period continue to swing dangerously (like a pendulum over our nation) without any positive change, the world will surely forage into a stage in life when grief over deaths will become an aberration even as rejoice over the birth of new babies will become an anathema”.

Observation

Today, judging Nigeria’s situation, by what we can see and feel against what we are yet to witness or experience, can any predictionbe more accurate and more appropriate for our country than the abovequoted poem?

With the seeming ongoing resistance to positive change and persistent entrenchment of evil machinations as we are witnessing today, how can there be any hope for a better future? Yet, the charlatans who use religion as an instrument of threat and intimidation through propaganda and blackmail refuse to see the possible danger ahead.

Axis of Evil

Today, Nigeria is dangerously entangled in a triangular axis of evil, the consequences of which cannot be foretold with precision. That axis is like a crushing pendulum swinging restlessly over Africa’s most populous country with a threat of ruins. That triangular axis consists of three dominant, vocal  blocks of evil. Each of them is an implacable enclave serving as an abode for its designers. One of those

enclaves is the abode of politicians, another is for the palace of the clergy and the third is for the igloo of the media.

While the Politicians stand out as the engine room of virtually all the evils afflicting our country, the clergy represents the dangerous chimney through which the polluting smoke of that evil oozes out to suffocate the populace spiritually in the name of God. On its own, the media serves as the megaphone for both the politicians and the so-called clergy through the instrumentality of satanic propaganda.

Disappointing Leg

Of the defined evil axis above, the most disappointing leg is the clergy. From time immemorial, religion had stood out as the societal salt used as a preservative for all other ingredients with which to prepare a delicious soup of life for the consumption of all and sundry at any stage. But with the sudden adoption of ‘ashes’ to replace salt as the main ingredient of preservation in the 20th century, courtesy  of the capitalist West, how can the soup of life be tasteful anymore to its consumers?

Ordinarily, Salt should be salt in its natural form. To pour ashes on it in the name of spiritual preservative is to deprive it of its natural value and render it totally useless to its consumers. Thus, with the importation of a hitherto unknown brand of a religion from the West, which is bitterly coated in capitalism, Nigeria has dangerously become a polluted country with a suffocating smoke. Those who are responsible for this situation are the fraudsters parading themselves as prophets and are issuing satanic statements with which they deceptively rationalize their claim of prophet-hood.

The Role of Money

Incidentally, the bottom line for all these evil machinations is nothing other than the vanity called money. Let money be removed from Nigeria’s mode of worship today and sanity will return fully to our society with required serenity.

Today, with importation of ashes as a replacement for salt, religion, like politics, has become a big business in which greedy merchants and charlatans are desperately engaged for unbridled avarice and unlimited aggrandizement without consideration for decency and even conscience. In that case, of what use is the claim of religion without conscience?

Commercialization of Religion which enables private individuals to invest in building of castles, as business ventures, has seriously diminished the value of religion in taste and in substance.

In Nigeria, today, our only respite, as Muslims, is that Nigerian Imams are not engaged in hateful sermons and public incitement to boost their religious businesses that fetch them private, executive jets illegally at the expense of their congregations. Were Nigerian Imams also to commercialise Islam and preach hatefully like some self-hipped charlatans in the name of religion, Nigeria would have ceased to be a country by now.

Warning

Those who take religion as a ‘do or die’ business that must fetch them luxurious lifestyle should know that they do not have monopoly of provocation and threat as the patience of Nigerian Muslims is getting exhausted. Elasticity has its limit.

Yellow Journalism

When journalism was a real profession in Nigeria, its practitioners knew that they were like Eskimos living in Igloo. If anything happened to Igloo, the Eskimos’ lives became exposed to danger. Today, however, it has become evident that journalism is just a matter of nomenclature.

What matters to the journalists of today, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria, is the conspicuous immoral padding that reportorial entails. That profession is now virtually a matter of cash and carry in favour of the highest bidder. That is why news reports these days are mere expression of wishes and fabricated stories with which to justify the brown envelopes that serve as padding for most of those parading themselves as journalists.

As for the politicians, nothing is strange. It is a common knowledge that the enclave in which they dwell is the real home of the Lucifer.

But to think that their ruinous actions can continue unabatedly is nothing other than self-deception. Where are the politicians of yesteryears? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Long live Nigeria!

In Remembrance of a Political Icon When the demise of Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was announced a couple of years ago the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a press statement with which it condoled with all Nigerians including the family of the deceased. The full contents of the statement were as follows: When the media waves came up with breaking news announcing the demise of a Nigerian political icon, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari with a reverberation effect across the world, many Nigerians with rich experience in various aspects of life began to dust their diaries for a recount of the episodes that propelled the deceased to have made history as much as he, himself, was made by history.

Like an Elephant

The late President Shehu Shagari’s life was like a huge elephant surrounded by blind men and women of letters and substance.

To describe the features of that proverbial elephant, each of the persons that surrounded it would only be able to give an account of the area he/she is able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and not the whole of it. Besides, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was such a household name, that no serious political operator or aspirant can afford to discountenance in Nigerian history without incurring an expensive cost.

Religious Concern

The aspect that concerns the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) most in Alhaji Shagari’s life’s odyssey was religion. It can be recalled that it was he (Alhaji Shagari) as Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, that approved the sum of N10 million each for the commencement of building a National Mosque and a National Ecumenical Church in Abuja at a time when naira was really strong and the foundation of Abuja as Nigeria’s new capital city was just being laid.

That Presidential gesture, which no religious group rejected, was a confirmation that Nigeria is indeed a multi-religious and not a secular country as being mischievously peddled, in certain quarters, for selfish reasons.

Today, the two houses of worship are conspicuous in Central I Area of Abuja with their grandiose postures, to the finite attraction of foreign tourists who see them as symbols of national unity.

Maitatsine Crisis

It is historically unforgettable how the late Executive President tackled, diplomatically and militarily, a frightening national crisis engendered by a dangerous charlatan called Muhammad Marwa Maitatsine from Cameroon, who wrecked devastating havocs in most parts of Northern Nigeria, in the guise of religion, during the country’s second republic. It was his presidential determination to keep the unity of Nigeria intact  that checkmated that unforgetable menace.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari was, though, a quiet and easy going personality, nonetheless, he never wavered in taking necessary decisions in the interest of national unity.

His Lifestyle

As a Muslim, Alhaji Shagari never hesitated in upholding the principles of justice, fairness and equity which his religion (Islam) emphasizes. As a teacher in the early part of his life, he was exemplary in touching the lives of his students positively and in grooming those students for future leadership.

As a politician, he displayed such a special trait that distinguished him as a template designer and a dark horse in Nigeria’s political racecourse.

His Political Sagacity

The late President Shagari’s political sagacity was like a major Faculty in the University of Life, into which many forward-looking leadership aspirants in Nigeria were eager to seek enrolment for specialisation in African political education.

Alahji Shehu Shagari was the eminent Dean of that faculty even as the vibrancy of his tenure which remains unequalled, till date, is a testimony to the template he set for Nigeria’s democratic dispensation.

 

Lessons to Learn

For Nigerian generations of the colonial era as well as those of the first and second republics, a major falcon of reference vacated the stage forever leaving some of his surviving political peers to mere dreams in non-effective communicationToday, the country is still yearning for a replica of his exemplary personality in leadership. We pray the Almighty Allah to give us a leader worthy of emulation in our era. Amin.

“The words of elders are words of wisdom. If those words do not materialise in the morning, they will surely materialize in the evening”.

Monologue

The above quotation is an axiomatic Yoruba adage that can only be faulted at one’s own peril. The dastardly massacre that occurred at a Catholic Church, in Owo, Ondo State, penultimate Sunday, which devilishly terminated dozens of human lives, was a vivid reminder of the altruistic feature of the above quoted Yoruba adage.

 

Analysis

Because of the special intuition with which they are distinctly endowed, elders are classified as sages of their respective times. Their utterances and actions are mostly influenced, not only by their exposure to a wide range of events and occurrences, but also by the experiences which they were privileged to have garnered, for years, through that exposure. Thus, the combination of their past experiences with those of the present, in their life’s odyssey, is capable of giving them a futuristic vision that can make them ‘pseudo prophets’.

 

Preamble

Elderliness, in certain distinguished human beings, is not necessarily due to old age. It is quite possible for a middle aged person or even a relatively younger one, to be classified as an elder because of the wisdom with which he is naturally endowed, based on experience.

 

Example

Given the understanding of the above analysis, it becomes convincingly acknowledged that one of the foremost elders in Nigeria, today, is His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto, who is also the President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

This exemplary monarch is one of the three charismatic Sultans in the entire world today. The other two are those of Oman, in the Gulf Region of the Middle East, and, Brunei in the South West of Asia. However, the peculiarity of Dr. Abubakar as the only Sultan in Africa, can be vividly seen, in the combination of certain distinguished qualities, in him, which are not common in his peers.

Incidentally, despite the royal blood in him which was not known, even to many of his close friends and associates, until he ascended the throne of his forefathers in 2006, came to accentuate exemplary humility. Before he became Sultan, he was only seen, among his kinsmen, either as an ordinary military man or a common diplomat. It took the contents of a well researched thesis which he wrote on ‘Conflicts and Peaceful Resolutions’, during his postgraduate studies, to expose his naturally endowed leadership qualities. And, that was one of the factors that gave him an edge over other contenders for the exalted seat of the Sultanate at the most appropriate time that Nigeria needed a national bridge builder.

 

Voice of Reason

Perhaps, the devastating specter of terror that is now implacably chasing the ghost of Nigeria, would not have arisen if the Nigerian government had been akin to the ‘words of the elder’ in him, when he first started to dish out those words of wisdom.

 

Reminiscence

As far back as October 3, 2011, this Sultan of Sokoto had delivered a lecture entitled ‘Islam and Peace Building in West Africa’ at an international forum. It was not surprising that the echo of that lecture widely reverberated through the international media waves, across countries and continents of the world. The lecture was delivered at Harvard University, in the United States. When that lecture was published in this column a few weeks after its delivery, 11 years ago, it was re-entitled ‘A Voice from Harvard’.

 

The Lecture

In the 33 page historic lecture, His Eminence enumerated the causes and effects of violent crises in the West African sub-region with particular reference to Nigeria. He blamed such crises on three major issues: (1) Political struggle for supremacy between the elite and the poor masses, especially in democratic dispensations

(2) Bad governance on the part of the ruling class and

(3) Primordial ethno-religious sentiments in most countries in the region.

The most prominent of these three issues, according to His Eminence, is bad governance which often engenders corruption, joblessness, poverty, exploitation, mutual suspicion and general bitterness in the land. Yet, today, 11 years after that lecture, Nigeria is still roaming aimlessly on a mission of uncertainty in her pursuit of an unreachable oasis that is a mirage in a wild desert.

For the benefit of those who did not read the article, as published in this column, at that time, here is another opportunity for reading it in a summary form.

 

Excerpt

“….Many people (outside our country) consider Nigeria as a theatre of absurd conflicts and interminable crises.  They may be justified in holding this view. With the Jos crises festering for years, with post-election violence and suicide – bombings, it is difficult to think otherwise.  When we consider Nigeria’s population of more than 150 million (at that time), which was about half of the population of West Africa, its over 250 ethnic and language groups, its regional and geo-political configurations, its landmass as well as  its diversity in religion and culture, we may be constrained to reach different conclusions.

Nigeria may, after all, be a paragon of stability which, as God Almighty has willed, shall undergo all the trials allotted it early enough in its national history.

But, in all fairness, systemic ethno-political and religious crises, like the ones we have witnessed persistently, in recent years, or are witnessing currently, the conclusion will be that, though we do not have a long history, as a country, the short one we have has been quite turbulent. These crises began in the late 1980s, following the intense competition for power and influence, especially among the Western educated elite. The Kafanchan crisis of 1987, in Southern Kaduna, was quickly followed by that of Zangon Kataf and others, all in the same vicinity.

The democratic dispensation, which began in 1999 also came with its own set of problems, the most visible one being the Shari ‘ah crisis and the first Jos crisis which led to the declaration of a state of emergency in Plateau State.

 

Primacy of Politics

“….We often witnesses the primacy of politics in almost all conflicts in Nigeria because of the primordial culture which we inherited.  In the struggle for power and political supremacy, we exercise no restraint in aggravating the socio-religious and ethnic cleavages, which characterise the geo-politics of the Nigerian state.  It should not be forgotten that the second Jos crisis of November 2008 was also ignited by a botched Chairmanship election in Jos North Local Government.

The second dimension to these crises, especially in Kaduna and Plateau States, is the indigene/settler dichotomy, which is yet to be addressed properly by the Nigerian state.

Besides, many ethnic groups in these conflict areas see the other ethnic groups as foreigners who should not enjoy the full rights of bona fide residents.  Incidentally, most of the disenfranchised Nigerians in these crises happen to be Muslims. Whereas as Nigerian citizens, people have full right to reside wherever they wish and pursue their legitimate businesses without let or hindrance, this fact is never taken into consideration in the actions and reactions of conflict instigators.

After all, no one can be a settler in his/her own country.

The third dimension of Nigeria’s ethno-religious crises in any region is its potential to become a systematic national crisis.  When a person is killed in any of the areas of conflict, his co-religionists, especially in cities and towns react violently and begin to kill anyone they think is related to the killer(s).  This often triggers further reprisals from other parts of the country where victims come from.  It took a lot of efforts by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), which I co-chair, and other state authorities, to treat each crisis independently and reduce the risk of systemic reprisals.

 

Poor Leadership

“…The fourth dimension of Nigeria’s crises is poor leadership and the bad governance usually associated with its management.  Many of those charged with authority in the states where these conflicts occur are also parties to the crises.  They make feeble efforts to control the violence and do so only when much of the damage might have been done…

 

The Promise of Dialogue

“….When I became the Sultan of Sokoto in November 2006, some of the major problems I found on ground were the after-effects of the riots, especially in Kaduna, Jos and some parts of the North East as well as a disturbing atmosphere of mistrust, fear and hostility, especially between the leaderships of Nigeria’s two major religions: Islam and Christianity.

To resolve these knotty issues, we chose the path of positive engagement, which we thought would engender meaningful discourse, improved communication and understanding as a way of changing the dynamics of the conflicting situation of our environments to that of mutual trust and confidence…

 

Looking ahead

“…Understanding the multifarious nature of Nigeria’s ethno-religious crises should strengthen our resolve and determination to deploy all the energies and resources at our disposal to see to their resolution.  Our inability and reluctance to take meaningful action have become a challenge not only to our common humanity but also to our self-worth.

 

Recommendation

I must point out that it was also our view that inter-faith action should transcend conflict resolution. For it to be effective, it must affect the life of the common man. NIREC floated the Nigeria Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA) to take up this challenge and, it has been very active in the control of the dreaded tropical disease: Malaria. We also find that we must act together to address issues related to electoral reform, good governance and anti-corruption. I am also glad to state that the goodwill and understanding which these activities were able to generate, have given impetus to the development of inter-faith dialogue to a new level. I always remember, with happiness, the seminar organized by the CAN in April 2010, on ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, where I presented a paper on the topic. The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) gracefully reciprocated by inviting CAN members to its formal meeting in Kaduna, where the CAN representative gave a lecture on Islam in the eyes of a Christian and both Muslim and Christian scholars, gave inspiring responses on the scriptural basis of mutual co-existence. Despite serious setbacks in recent months, many of us remain committed to this positive engagement and to the promise that dialogue offers the resolution to Nigeria’s ethno-religious crises.

Looking ahead

”…Understanding the multifarious nature of Nigeria’s ethno-religious crises should strengthen our resolve and determination to deploy all the energies and resources at our disposal to see to their resolution.  Our inability and reluctance to take meaningful action go to challenge not only our common humanity but also our self-worth.  It is, therefore, important for us to appreciate, first and foremost, the importance of consensus building within the polity, with a view to ameliorating the current state of political polarization in it.  The Nigerian political class must be able to speak and understand one another as well as to develop a minimum national agenda to chart the way forward.  The political class must also be able to open dialogue on a variety of national issues, including the perennial problem of power rotation and willingly enter into agreements that they can honour with dignity….

 

Governance

“….Also, governance, at all levels, must translate into tangible benefits for all Nigerians, regardless of their ethnic and religious affiliations.  Nigeria has the resources to make life more pleasant for its people.  It is equally imperative to address the poverty problem as well as the needs of the youth population both in all the geo-political areas of the country.  In a situation where over 50 per cent of our population is jobless at less than 19 years of age, we are definitely sitting on a time bomb much deadlier than that of Boko Haram, unless we take urgent action to defuse it….

“….Furthermore, there should be renewed determination to address both the Jos and Boko Haram sectarian crises.  The Federal Government must take seriously its security responsibilities and effectively contain these crises.  But beyond that, a genuine dialogue must be initiated, to begin healing festering wounds and to bring genuine understanding and reconciliation amongst the entire people of Plateau State and beyond.  The social dimension of the Boko Haram cannot also be resolved by the mere use of force.  This is the reason why I have consistently suggested dialogue and education to counteract its message, especially those aspects dealing with modern education.

Millions of Muslim pupils are already outside the school system.

Millions more will definitely follow if urgent intervention is not undertaken to enlighten the younger generations.  And the question I have always asked is What kind of society can we build in the 21st century when our youth turn their back on science and technology and are unable to produce the next generation of doctors, engineers and other specialisations necessary for sustaining the socio-economic development of the society?….

 

Conclusion

“….Finally, we should not neglect the impact of the international environment on Nigeria’s ethno-religious crises.

The happenings in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, Norway, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France are as current and relevant as the events in Jos, Maiduguri and Abuja (at that time). We must preach tolerance internationally and moderately. The fight against extremist groups should never be perverted to become a fight against Islam and its doctrines. We should all remember that in the final analysis, it is not what the perpetrators of violence do that really counts.  It is the actions we take, individually and collectively, that would (eventually) shape the fate of humanity….”.

 

Comment

More from that lecture may be published as may necessarily be required, in the near future in sha’Allah.