Category: Femi Abbas

Monologue

On Tuesday, November 16, all roads will lead to Iseyin, Oyo State, where His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto,and President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, will be hosted as a special guest by the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN).

His Eminence’s mission in this region, this time around, is dual. As the Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, the Sultan will grace the convocation and 70th Founder’s Day of that premier citadel of learning. That is on November 17. But before the convocation, the beloved royal father will be in Iseyin to commission an historic Islamic Centre.

His Eminence’s historic visit to that city will be the first ever by any Sultan.

 

Why Iseyin?

One of the evidences of this Sultan’s magnanimity modestly pouched in humility is to reach out to any part of the country where Muslim communities are available, no matter how remote such communities may be. Since ascending the throne as the Sultan, in 2006, there has been no part of Nigeria that His Eminence has not visited for one reason or another. His coming to Iseyin this time is just one of many trips he has taken to the Southwest to give the Muslim Ummah a sense of togetherness.

 

Royal presence in Iseyin

The people of Iseyin will witness the rise of a magnificent royal sun that His Eminence personifies, with its undisputable ability to photosynthesize all the proverbial plants around if spiritually. And, the impact of that photosynthesis will forever remain indelible in the archive of that city.

 

Symbolic Epitaph

Epitaph is not just an inscription conspicuously placed on the mausoleum of a demised person. It is also a practical symbol of the legacy of the demised, which may continue to serve as a reminder of his/her passage through this ephemeral world. We live in today’s known world to build the foundation of tomorrow’s unknown destination. This means that epitaph, like a valid coin, has two sides. One side is theoretical while the other is practical. The combination of both is what forms the chapters of history in the memory of man. Thus, a practical epitaph emphasizes the role of history as a teacher of teachers, through generations.

 

Citadel of Glory

The exemplary centre to be commissioned by His Eminence that day is a citadel of glory that will change the course of the history of that city spiritually and psychologically.

The provider of that citadel is Barrister Ahmed Raji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who wants to use the provision of the citadel as a means of correcting a fundamental error that has virtually become perennial in Yoruba land. That error is the judicial system which is incompatible with the practice of Islam in the South West.

This son of the soil, Ahmed Raji had found a sort of abhorrence in the judicial system that compels the dissolution of Muslim marriages by customary courts without any consideration for the Islamic culture that was used in consummating such marriages in the first instance.

Barrister Raji believes that the best way of curbing such anomaly is to provide a legitimate alternative to it. He, therefore, built a multi-million naira magnificent court with all necessary facilities, at which all civil conflicts, especially matrimonial disputes among Muslim couples can be settled with statutory Islamic ethos.

The centre also harbours a grandiose Mosque where the Salatul Jum’ah can be observed by large congregations with ease and candour. And, within the vast compound of that centre is an extra modern library that is capable of guarantying any thorough research of modern standard to the benefit of the Ummah.

 

Who is Barrister Ahmed Raji?

Barrister Ahmed Raji is not just a Lawyer but a leading Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He is also the Founder/Principal at Ahmed Raji & Co Chambers. At a time, in the current fourth republic, he was appointed by the Federal Government, as a Resident Electoral Commissioner during which he served in five (5) different states for a period of eight years. His expertise and experience extend to diverse and broad areas of practice, including litigation, mediation, arbitration, banking, corporate finance, maritime admiralty, election matters and telecommunications.

 

Law Practice Experience

As a Lawyer, Barrister Ahmed Raji has practiced for well over 30 years in areas of administrative and constitutional matters; criminal law; debt recovery; and other areas. He was a member of the legal team that successfully defended Nigeria’s National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) in an international arbitration against Petree INC (a US Company). This man is well known for his astute legal approach to client’s cases with keen attention to details and ability to give advice on complex transactions and matters on-the-spot. Barrister Raji is a holder of Masters Degree in Law from King’s College, University of London, UK, where he obtained distinction in Telecoms Law.

 

Spectacular Cases

As a member of the Consortium of five top law firms constituted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to handle all pre-election and commercial matters on its behalf, Barrister Ahmed Raji has personally been involved in more than 100 cases at trial and Appellate Courts. He has also played a key role in arbitrations arising from agreements touching some Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) and Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs). He represents private individuals, government agencies and corporate bodies in a wide-range of transactions and matter.

Besides, Barrister Ahmed Raji has led lawyers in his firm and other reputable law firms in high profile cases including criminal matters and various civil suits. His practice has exposed him to the intricate workings of the Telecom industry and regulatory agencies generally. He is a Certified Capital Market Solicitor and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK).

 

Dedication

With a very solid Islamic background, Ahmed Raji believes that one major way of showing gratitude to the Almighty Allah for His bounties is to facilitate a legacy that can benefit people intellectually and spiritually, hence the building of the centre which he is dedicating to his mother.

That the unique centre is to be commissioned by His Eminence is a way of authenticating good deed as an encouragement. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose Barrister Ahmed Raji’s mother in eternal bliss. Amin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monologue

Time flies. It has been 15 years, just like that, since a unique Prince ascended the throne of the great Sokoto Empire as the 20th Sultan on that throne. The precise date of that great event was November 6, 2006. And, the name of the Prince in question is Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, a Brigadier-General in the Nigerian Army. By virtue of that royal ascension, the new Sultan also statutorily became the President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). Ever since he assumed that exalted royal office, the impact of his leadership as a royal father and Commander of Nigerian Muslim Ummah (Amirul Muminin), has been unprecedentedly historic.

 

Reminiscence

When this Sultan was five years old on the royal throne in 2011, yours sincerely wrote an article in this column, in commemoration of that great event. And, the article remains as current today as it was then. Thus, an excerpt from the article is hereby republished for the records:

“In every crowd of horizontal men there must be one vertical man who deserves special reverence, not much because of his vertical position but because of the significant difference which that position makes to all people irrespective of ethnic and religious dichotomy”.

 

History and Man

History and man are like Siamese twins or a pair of scissors. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. And, the reciprocal baton continues to exchange hands between them unabatedly. Fifteen years ago, an innocent human crescent lay hidden in the firmaments of the orbit waiting to be sighted before prompting the Muslim Ummah into a united folk. That crescent is the towering personality generally known today as the SULTAN. The gentleman’s name did not ring any bell in Nigeria before he was named and crowned as ‘THE SULTAN OF SOKOTO’ in November 2006. Thus, the emergence of Brigadier General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (rtd) as the successor to the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Empire without any controversy came as a surprise to many Nigerians. At 50 years of age then, many people thought that this Prince was one of the youngest men to emerge as the Sultan of Sokoto in many years. But he disagreed with such impression and recalled that his own father, Sultan Abubakar Sadiq III who demised in 1988 ascended the throne at the age of 37.

 

Equipment for Royalty

With the combination of a sound military background and an impeccable diplomatic prowess that equipped him for the royal office, this Sultan has no comparison in the annals of Sokoto history and his choice for that royal office was exemplary. Since coming into office as a millennial royal Captain divinely designated to successfully pilot the affairs of Islam and the Muslim Ummah, the hitherto trend of intra Islamic quarrels has finally vamoosed.

 

Philosophers’ Assertion

Philosophers who once asserted that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be quite right after all. The example of His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office in 2006, this great man has convincingly exemplified all the qualities of genuine leadership in the contemporary time. Every statement he has made socially, religiously or politically and every action he has taken officially or privately has proved to be a school in which all well-meaning people have learnt one positive lesson or another.

Read Also: Sultan to African leaders: Find solution to challenges facing the continent

As ABU Chancellor

Five years after his Eminence’s assumption of office, the symbiotic relationship of history and man zoomed out for reconfirmation in Zaria. That was on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), when a galaxy of well-meaning men and women, from different parts of the world, assembled to say “we are here to bear witness to your greatness”.

It was the day His Eminence was installed as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. The occasion was just one of many magnetic laurels accruing to Dr. Abubakar since he assumed office as Sultan.

 

Leadership Qualities

An American President, Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), once described a leader as “a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it”. By his activities and functions so far, Sultan Abubakar has proved Truman right by demonstrating to the Muslim Ummah that the time has come for reformation, not only of the NSCIA but also the Sultanate.

When this Sultan assumed office 15 years ago, he hinted the world that the Sultanate would be put on the internet to enable Muslims, home and abroad, to gain direct access to their leader.  And, that was at a time when the use of the internet as well as that of the computer was strictly exclusive to a few elites which was why this Sultan decided to start the reformation of the Sultanate through the instrumentality of the internet. Thus, as an exemplary leader with exemplary foresight, he began to demonstrate his leadership prowess with master fingers on the computer.

 

The Mystery in Human Names

There is something mysterious about names which humanity is yet to grasp comprehensively. A puzzling secret seems to exist in the vocabulary of life which sticks to every human being like a second skin. That secret, pearled like an oyster in the pouch of name, is an effective evidence of destiny in man. Our names are the light that glows at night to brighten up our ways towards the glare of the days in the threshold of life. And, when the dawn comes to render the glowing light ineffective, the bearer bows out into the recluse of demise leaving behind an indemnified signature on the sands of time.

This was the case with Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the greatest man that ever lived on the surface of the earth. Even as an unlettered son of Arabian desert who was born in an era of blatant ignorance, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) introduced into the world, an unprecedented civilisation that opened the eyes of humanity to everlasting guidance.

 

Leadership Qualities

Good leadership, according to sages, is recognised, not by official position held or by any use of force at one’s disposal. Genuine leaders are mostly known by their utterances and actions through the magnanimity of their conducts. Such are leaders who never say YES when they mean to say NO. They never make promises and renege on them just as they never betray people who trust them. Those were the qualities embedded in Prophet Muhammad (SAW) which prompted the Almighty Allah to say as follows about him in Qur’an 33:31: “There is, surely, an excellent example for you (Muslims) to emulate in Prophet Muhammad for those of you who believe in Allah and the hereafter and also remember Him (Allah) at all times.”

This Sultan knows all these with consciousness and practical inclination towards implementation. Without education, adequate transmission of information, to the benefit of mankind, would have been impossible. And, without adequate information there would have been no progress. That was why Sultan Abubakar started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of education. It is only with education that most problems in this world can be solved without much ado. Sultan Abubakar also believes that education without social harmony is like a virtue without value and that there can be no harmony in a society where people are overwhelmed by ignorance and penury.

 

Consistency

Believing fervently in the ability of education to the brute in man, Dr. Abubakar has consistently focused on both education and social harmony in his advocacy for a serene society that is dominated by peace and tranquility in Nigeria.

At his installation as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University in 2011, Sultan Abubakar told the crowd that the current socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He lamented that despite the nation’s abundant resources, development had failed to match human and material wealth.

In his words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks, fuelling and confounding social conflicts and inter-communal crisis have extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property… Persistent insecurity, (even at that time), had generated panic and anxiety in Nigeria” and he concluded that “our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation. According to him, “the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decadence engendered by ignorance and greed.”

He also noted that the reform of the tertiary education sector could not be effective without putting in place, the progressive developments required in the basic and senior secondary education sectors. He insisted that “our state governments, especially those of the North, must begin to realise the enormity of the challenges facing the education sector and take urgent and necessary steps to address those challenges. While lauding the founding fathers of the ABU, especially, the late Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sultan urged the authorities of the institutions to continue to abide by the cardinal principles on which those institutions were founded.

That is the renascent Sultan for you, a man who is at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort but feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who seem to be deliberately consigned to the weeding of the shrubs without any hope by the power that be. Ever since, His Eminence has never relented in his advocacy for good governance and denunciation of corruption and religious acrimony.

Which other leader in Nigeria has ever made such touching statements to give the underprivileged masses a ray of hope on this land of despair called Nigeria?

If those in governments at the Federal and State levels had heeded His Eminence’s admonition and counsel, perhaps, Nigeria would not have been plunged into the evil dragnet in which she is today. The words of foresighted elders are words of wisdom which can only be ignored by those who are awaiting their peril.

 

His Interfaith Inclination

When the Sultan was invited in January 2010 as a Special Guest of Honour to a religious seminar organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) with the theme: ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, he delivered an historic speech that reverberated meaningfully across the entire world. And, in May, same year, he also invited the leadership of CAN to a special conference of the NSCIA held in Kaduna. The theme of that conference was: ‘Islam in the Eyes of the Christians’. He is the first Nigerian first class Monarch ever to engage in such an interfaith affair at the national level and his speech on that occasion was also electrifying. Excerpt from that speech: “….we initiated, as we had done for the JNI, a thorough review of the activities of the NSCIA and an extensive reform of its structures. It is our firm belief that these reforms are not only desirable but necessary, to reposition the Council to play its strategic role as the apex Islamic body in the country and to respond, effectively and meaningfully, to the challenges facing the Muslim Ummah in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society like Nigeria.”

By speaking out incessantly against policies which seem to deliberately impoverish ordinary Nigerians across board, this Sultan has brought a rare hope to Nigeria and the Muslims are the luckiest for it. Such a leadership deserves allegiance, loyalty and regular prayer from the Ummah. If this Sultan had not been who he is, even his 15 years on the throne so far, would have looked longer than 50 years.

We pray the Almighty Allah for elongation of this Sultan’s life with very sound health and continued divine guidance. Amin!

Monologue

The world is a school in which all human beings are students individually or collectively. The only invariable oxygen of that school is life. Learning in the school of life is a matter of chance. But grasping, meaningfully,  the lessons taught and learnt in that school, often depend on the perspective from which the teacher introduces the subject matter. From time to time, human beings remind themselves of the forgotten lessons of life by taking a retrospective view of the past. Through that retrospect, the students of yesteryears may become the teachers today. That is the notion that warranted the writing of this article.

 

Preamble

It is man’s to propose. And, it is Allah’s to dispose. Those are the permanent norms upon which human life is based. That norm is a clockwise phenomenon that can never be turned anti-clockwise. You may call it an evidence of destiny or an accident of choice. The contents proposed for this column, today, are not what readers are about to read here. While planning an article that would be somewhat relevant to the currently trending event in the Muslim world ie: the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Allah’s divinely guided will came in to intervene. This article had been due for publication since last August. But there is nothing any mortal being could do about the permanent norm of life called destiny.

 

Human Pilgrimage

Human life is a pilgrimage from

the unknown to the unknown. No one knows whence he emanated from or whither he is bound. The process by which man evolves is a tapestry which size and shape cannot be measured in whatever terms. All we know about life is that we naturally migrate from womb to womb and finally arrive in a larger transit which we call the world. For a period, we were in our fathers’ natural hollow cave where we struggled vigorously for space and for survival. And, in the attempt to shoot out through the iron gate of life, we suddenly find ourselves swimming along with billions of others, in the name of spermatozoa. At that stage, human beings can be compared to fingerlings, in their millions, struggling to become juveniles. It takes those in the fishery sector of agriculture to understand this analogy better.

Then, from that stage, we move into another hollow space inside our mothers’ wombs and sojourn therein for a while before zooming into this complex world from where we are to migrate into another hollow space, in the belly of the earth, called grave. And, finally, we shall all move forth from the grave into another world not yet known to anybody.

 

The Process of Human Journey

The process of human journey is both complex and sophisticated. When we were in the loins of our fathers, no one knew of the existence of a place called pregnancy. Yet, we were made to pass through it with little or no option. Thereafter, when we moved into the wombs of our mothers, no one knew of the existence of another place called the world. Yet we fortuitously came to find ourselves in it only to embark on another journey of uncertainty. In the process, we are led to pass through the grave into an unknown destination that will become known to us eventually. The mass settlement in that final destination will be determined, not by mere wish, but by an invisible scale upon which the practicability of the lessons learnt in the world is meticulously inscribed. Thus, the world of man is like a cloud moving forwards and backwards, from time to time, and, gathering momentums for a rain to fall. After its dispersal, one of two occurrences becomes a noted experience. Either the rain falls to give the earth a renewed life or there is no rain at all. In the latter case, the sky becomes clearer as fresh air renews the oxygen of the world. Who, among human beings, can ever skip the process of that natural phenomenon?

 

The Galaxy

Human beings, in their multitudes, are like a galaxy of stars which float incessantly in the orbit while illuminating the spheres for all living organisms. Some of those stars are, in many folds, larger than the earth. But because of their distance from the human view, they look small. However, each of those stars functions according to its pre-destined assignment. ALLAH AKBAR!

 

The Functions of Stars

As the situation of the galaxy is with the stars so is that of the world with human beings. Some people are great in life and in death. Some are great only while alive and, as soon as they are demised, their greatness becomes like a dispersed cloud paving the way for a clearer atmosphere. Some times, this scenario functions positively, and, some other times, it functions negatively. But, after they might have all departed this world, history takes the centre stage revealing both the hidden and the manifest aspects of each person’s life. It is from such revelations that those who are left behind do pick the relevant substances that can form the guiding factors of their lives.

 

Searching the Archives

Going through the archives of history, it is difficult to find a Nigerian of the contemporary time who has ever captured the above painted scenario as much as Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. In the introduction to his autobiography ‘MY ODYSSEY’, published in 1970, he observed as follows: “…Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his courses of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both…”

 

The Root of Philosophy

Incidentally, it was at Zik’s media stable that Nigeria’s doyen of modern journalism, Dr. Ismail Babatunde Jose, began his career in Journalism through a newspaper called Daily Comet.

 

Like Lion like Cat

That Dr. Ismail Babatunde Jose was a student of such philosophy in his life time cannot be strange to anybody who knew his background.

By a dint of experience which he garnered through his ‘Walking A Tightrope’ (which was the title of his autobiography), this man was able to accurately define what a school of learning should be and who should be worthy students therein. In his sojourn in life, Dr. Jose practically dichotomised between idealism and materialism through a unique ability to understand that the material well-being of every individual could positively or negatively influence the code of his or her conduct. And, based on that understanding, he did not see any reason in being unnecessarily materialistic. Rather, he was convinced that only an adaptation to the concatenations of the spiritual life could successfully pilot a genuine ‘pilgrim’ to the genuine Holy Land.

 

The Anchor Occurrence

It didn’t sound unusual to genuine the Muslims on August 2, 2008, when the radio waves throbbed with the news of Dr Jose’s demise. Generally, news of death can never be shocking to Muslims. We have been thought, through the Qur’an, that “every soul shall taste of death”. But as explicit as the Qur’an is on the inevitability of death, it does not give the time, the place or the manner. So, every Muslim should prepare for it at all times.

As for Dr Jose, his preparation for death started at age 60. Unknown to many people, it was at that age that he fully prepared his burial luggage which included the complete shroud with which he was to be interned and kept jealously in his bedroom. Despite being a laity, the lesson he taught clerics along that line is quite symbolic. Although, he took a step ahead of us in death, we shall all join him some day. Now, after taking flight from the earth, like a falcon, leaving the falconers behind, he has become a conspicuous and inevitable chapter, not only in the history but also in furthering our understanding of Islam. It is now left to those still alive to cultivate the clauses of guidance from or those of encouragement or even of warning against the vanity of human wishes.

This is not another obituary of Dr Jose. It is rather a mirror to see ourselves and reassess the essence of our existence. After all, it is no news that Dr Jose was a professional colossus who held Journalism with a hand of revolution to change its stream for a pleasant sip that it has become today.

 

His Ladder of Rise

Although, Dr Jose rose from the status of a mere trainee reporter to become the Chairman and Managing Director of Daily Times newspaper which he turned into an empire, his greatest achievement in that sphere was the unprecedented building of human skill which gave Nigeria the most vibrant practice of Journalism in Africa. Next was his unprecedented contentment in a society where greed is considered as the yardstick for greatness. At an agile age, when he was carefully negotiating the sharp corners of the middle age, he turned down an offer by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to become the Minister of Information at a time when some hawks were lobbying for that post. Dr. Jose told Balewa that he was satisfied with his professional job and he preferred the post of Managing Director of Daily Times, which he had already attained, to that of a ministerial post. That was a very rare choice in Nigeria especially at a time when political limelight was like a visa to the paradise of life.

And, when, in 1975, a clandestine schism and rebellion by his staff began against him in Daily Times, and, the Military Government, under Murtala/ Obasanjo regime, took advantage of that situation to acquire 60 per cent of ownership in the Daily Times establishment, Dr Jose simply resigned his appointment, saying he would not overstay his welcome. A petition by those staff against him was investigated by the then government and he was cleared of all allegations levied against him while the petitioners were all sacked. Thereafter, the government tried to persuade him to withdraw his resignation and retain his post. But he declined the gesture, saying it was time for him to quit.

‘The News’ magazine described that episode vividly in its special publication entitled: ‘People in the News’ A survey of Nigerians of the 20th century (1900-1999) as follows: “Jose’s robust and fulfilling career in Daily Times came to an end with the advent of Murtala/Obasajo regime in 1975. A reshuffle of Daily Times top staff triggered a crisis that gave birth to the Joint Action Committee of Staff and Management of the Daily Times Limited simply known as JAC. The pressure, which consisted of nine top officers including Jose’s deputy, Mr. Odukomaiya and notable editors like Areoye Oyebola, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Sola Odunfa and Ayo Adefolaju, spearheaded an agitation for Jose’s removal. It was at this time that the federal government moved in to acquire 60 per cent interest in the company. Beyond the JAC lobby, it was believed that the government’s action was more to check Jose’s domineering powerful profile. Although he was retained as Managing Director after the takeover, a new Chairman, Alhaji Aliko Muhammed was imposed on the reconstituted board.

“For Jose, it was time to go. Although he was exonerated by the panel set up to investigate JAC’s allegation of impropriety against him, and the members of JAC were sacked. Nevertheless, Dr. Jose felt it was just enough that his name had been cleared. Even though the government agreed that it was misled into taking over the Daily Times group, the action was not reversed.  Jose who had lost the Chairmanship position clearly saw the handwriting of decline on the wall. His notice of resignation was dated 11 February 1976. He claimed that he had forgiven all his dismissed accusers, he, however, turned down all entreaties for the withdrawal of his letter…”

Perhaps Alhaji Jose’s greatest achievement was his determination to be great in life despite his relatively low educational background. He did not have more than Secondary School Certificate when he chose journalism as a career at the age of 16 in 1941. Yet he reached the topmost echelon of the great Daily Times empire where education was supposed to be the greatest implement for managing that empire. That he was able to manage the Daily Times in that capacity for 14 good years without blemish is a confirmation that literacy is not the same as education.

 

The Rising Sun

In modern Nigerian journalism, no one has been able to attain the feat of Alhaji Jose. He was the sun, among stars, that generated the energy which dispelled the cloudy atmosphere and photosynthesized the struggling plants with enlivening oxygen. That is why he was generally acknowledged as the ‘Doyen of Modern Journalism’ in Nigeria. If any star was eclipsed in his time, Dr. Jose was there to supply energy with which to bring it back into existence. But which star could ever rescue the sun if it eclipsed?

 

Meeting Point

I first met Alhaji Jose in 1972 at Ahmadiyya College Agege, Lagos, where I was then a teacher. He was at that time the President of Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, the organisation that later metamorphosed into Anwarul-Islam Society of Nigeria. I got closer to him later in the mid 1990s when he became the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Nigeria/Pakistan Association (a chamber of commerce) of which I was the Secretary General when the late Minister of Communication, Alhaji Aruna Elewi was the President of that Association. That was the time I discovered how deeply religious Alhaji Jose was. I had earlier travelled with him to Saudi Arabia in solidarity with the late Sheikh Abubakar Muhmud Gumi, a one-time  Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria. The latter had won King Faisal Foundation Award.

 

Recognition

Knowing me as a student of Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, the great proprietor of the great Markaz, Agege, Baba Jose often engaged me in religious discussions wanting to know many things hitherto unknown to him about Islam. And, on most occasions when he was alone, recitation of the Qur’an was his pastime hobby. His religiousness became obvious through the ascetic lifestyle he adopted later in his life.

 

Attestation

Amb Oladapo Fafowora who was Director General of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) when Baba Jose was the Chairman of that Chamber of Commerce attested to this fact in a remark he once made in writing about Baba Jose’s ascetic lifestyle. He said: “Dr Jose is disdainful of personal wealth, a reflection of the deep religious faith that has been the dominant influence of his life and public career. As the Chairman of MAN, he never drew any allowance, at all, from MAN. Given his immense talent and organisational ability, courage and determination, Dr. Jose would still have been a roaring success in whatever he turned his hands to. He is both complex and simple. He is driven relentlessly to excel in whatever he chooses to do. He is a man who cares deeply about his family, his friends, and his business associates and about the future of the nation. He has a great compassion for the needy and the downtrodden…”

 

Comment

If such a life cannot be emulated, which one will be? ‘THE MESSAGE’ hereby joins millions of Nigerians, not only in remembering this incomparable colossus but also in reminding the current generation the true ladder of greatness in human life. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose Baba Jose’s kind soul in eternal bliss. Amin!

Monologue

Governance in Islam, is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Its duration is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her well being. Ironically, the product of that pregnancy is claimed, not by the carrier of the pregnancy but by the impregnator. There is no pregnancy without semen actively planted in the womb of a woman. And, the planter of that semen is the man who, in this case, is called the impregnator. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers, rather than those of their mothers, as surnames.

 

Analogy

By analogy, one can compare governance to a  woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The similitude of an impregnator here is the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule over them. And, just as the child produced by that womb, the child belongs to the impregnator as a matter of legitimacy so should dividend of governance be the property of the electorate. In a patriarchal culture, any child who bears his mother’s name as surname rather than that of his father is nothing but a bastard. That is always the case where dividend of governance is cornered by those who are privileged to be in government.

 

Security and Law

After security, law and justice, all of which reflect strong faith in Allah, nothing else is held more sacrosanct in Islam than governance. Governance can be compared to a magnificent umbrella under which the people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic environment, such umbrella is owned, not by the politicians but by the citizenry. The bearer of the proverbial umbrella, in democracy, is just a servant holding it in trust for the people. Perhaps that is why the late President Musa Yar’Adua called himself a servant leader on his assumption of office in May, 2007.

 

Messengers of the People

In Islam, rulers are statutorily, servants of God and messengers of the people. They are employees who must always report back to their employers. Where rulers behave contrary to this norm, a fundamental deviation must have occurred which may be tantamount to rebellion against the people. That is what is happening in the Nigerian politics.

 

Reminiscence

In an open letter that yours sincerely wrote to President Yar’Adua in this column, in June, 2007 and of which I reminded him in May, 2008, I cited example of two of his namesakes (Umar) in history during the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Makkah. One of them, Umar Bn Khattab, eventually became the Caliph. Another Umar upon whom there was a very high hope eventually became an infidel. But a third one, not mentioned in that letter, later emerged as a Caliph some decades after the Prophet’s demise. His name was Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, a famous Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. He became Caliph about 85 years after the demise of the Prophet.

This third Umar became a reference point in history because of the unique way in which he managed the economy of the Caliphate during his regime. In a particular year during his reign, the state generated so much income that the problem which the state faced was how to spend it.

The tradition, according to Islamic injunction, was for the state to dispense Zakah to the poor among the citizenry from the much resources garnered through the collection of Zakah. But, when its distribution  was to be done, it turned out that nobody in the entire state was so poor as to be a recipient of Zakah. The huge amount earmarked for Zakah that year had to be returned to the treasury. It is taken for granted here that a state without poor people is surely a state without beggars.

A similar situation arose, a few decades ago, in Saudi Arabia where the government could not find any couple among the indigenes to receive some scores of cars donated as Zakah by car merchants. It became known that there was no single Saudi couple in the country without a car at that time. The cars had to be distributed to non-indigene couples resident in that country, including a Nigerian. It should be remembered that both Saudi Arabia and Nigeria belong to the same Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). That those cars had to be given out to non-indigenes is an indication of good governance in that country and an evidence of honesty on the part of the citizenry. If such a situation had arisen in Nigeria, what could have happened is left to the imagination of readers.

 

Who was Umar Bn Abdul Aziz?

Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz who became  famous in history as an ingenuous economic manager, ruled for only three years from 717 to 720 C.E. Yet, he died at the age of 37. The secret of his success was his ability to identify two major areas of economic management in governance. One was to regulate the cost of governance by harmonising the salaries and allowances of political appointees with those of government employees. This was to ensure that those employees were not enslaved to the privileged political appointees or elected officers. And, there was an independent body responsible for the determination of public workers’ remunerations. Neither the legislators nor the appointed officials were allowed to fix their own salaries or allowances by themselves.

According to Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, “fixing your own salary, as an appointed or elected   government  officials, is nothing but theft”. He held that both the government and the resources of the state belonged to the people and nothing was to be done to the lives of the people through formulation of policies without their consent. That can be compared to the situation in Nigeria where the legislators fix their own salaries and allowances and are now proposing to earn such salaries and allowance as pension forever after leaving office.

 

The Noose of Indebtedness

Going by the above narration, one can see why the cost of governance has become a noose on the neck of the populace in Nigeria. How can the country progress in such a circumstance?

Caliph Umar’s second secret of success was his official recognition of the middle class as the greatest employer of labour. He knew that if two million professionals or artisans in the state could employ three staff each, the burden of gross unemployment would be off the neck of the government because eight million people would have been effectively employed. And that would not only have ordinarily brought the rate of crime to its lowest ebb, it would have also enhanced the economy tremendously.

What he did, in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), therefore, was to use the resources of the state to encourage self-employment through professionalism and artisanship. He knew very well that whatever was spent on such a vital venture would return to the treasury in many folds through taxation and Zakah.

This economic ingeniousness has since become the heritage of the Western countries and they are thriving gloriously in it today in the name of privatisation. Any government that eliminates the middle class as in the case of Nigeria automatically opens the gate of poverty and crime to the populace.

When the late President  Yar’Adua pronounced economy as his first, second and third priorities, it lifted the hope of the ordinary citizens to an undreamt pedestal. But, incidentally, death did not allow him to follow that pronouncement up with implementation.

 

Japan for Instance

Japan is one good case study to behold. That country is an exclusive island without mineral resources. Her natural farm land is very limited. If there is anything she has in abundance, it is water. Yet, she shares it with some other countries in accordance with the international law of water boundaries.

To manage her national economy, what Japan depended heavily upon was human brain. She knew that without human resources there could be neither sufficient economic resources nor effective economic management. Hence, Japan concentrated seriously on human training and manpower development. And, today, the result is manifest.

 

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, education is totally free from the primary school to the University. Everyfee, including those of tuition, hostel accommodation, books, feeding and transport is provided free by the government. In addition, all students are paid monthly stipends to solve personal problems that can divert students’ attentions from studies. And, in summer, all foreign students are issued free tickets to travel to their home countries on holidays.

What it takes to enjoy all these is to be qualified for admission and every other thing would automatically follow. But to be so qualified, as a foreigner, you must have come from a manifestly poor country and not an OPEC member nation like Nigeria. I know this much because I was a beneficiary at King’s University in Jeddah where my first degree was obtained.

 

Change of Policy

Shortly after Nigerians of my generation graduated from King’s University in the early 1980s, the government of Saudi Arabia changed its policy on scholarship for foreign students. The doors of foreign scholarships were shut against Nigerians. No reason was given.

But I got to know the details of that new policy when I met my former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abdullah Umar Nasif at an international conference in Morocco in 1986 where I engaged him in a private discussion. I enquired from him the reason for Saudi Arabian stoppage of scholarship for Nigerians. And, he told me frankly that his government adopted the new policy because it saw no reason in spending its own earnings from oil to finance the education of citizens from fellow OPEC member countries. “If Saudi Arabia should be financially responsible for the education of the citizens of your own country, on what will Nigeria spend her own oil money”? He queried with a tone of finality. And can such logic be faulted?

 

Saudi’s Industrial Cities

Today, Saudi Arabia has driven her wealth beyond oil and other mineral resources. The two gigantic industrial cities of Yambu’ and Jubail alone which she established in the 1980s are enough to see her through the future in the absence of oil. And what is more, that country does not depend on oil for survival anymore despite her position as number one oil exporter in the world. Besides, there is no aspect of human development in vogue that  eludes Saudi Arabian investment and attention, including agriculture, tourism, shipping and aviation. And most of these are publicly owned. No dubious deregulation, no ‘blind trust’ and no deceptive privatisation or ambiguous monetisation policy. And, the government is stable.

 

Economic Management

Managing economy is not by mere theory or magic. The defunct Soviet Union toyed with all sorts of economic theories jumping from socialism to communism only to finally arrive at an ideological waterloo after almost 74 years of catastrophic experiments. Today, the greatest bane of Nigerian economy is not just the elimination of the middle class but also the extremely high cost of running the government. And, unless these two major anomalies are properly addressed, this country may continue to wander aimlessly, in economic wilderness.

Today, the economic reality of our country has manifested itself thereby cautioning the government against further unrealizable dream.

Virtually all the companies manufacturing power generators in the world are in business because of Nigerian market. Yet the ordinary fuel with which to power those generators is not   affordable for most citizens. Judging by the number of generators in this country today who says Nigeria is not qualified as the greatest contributor to the depletion of the Ozone Layer?

Waiting for the federal government to do everything for the nation despite federalism to which Nigeria lays claim is nothing but a regimental siege exposing the hypocrisy of the so-called politicians at the State level.

In modern economic management, there can be no place for the middle class in the absence of necessary infrastructures And, without the middle class, no economy can thrive to the benefit of the populace.

The current lopsided situation which puts over 97 per cent of the national wealth in the hands of about three percent of Nigerians deliberately is ungodly. And, it is not in the long run interest of those who designed it as such.

Forcing people to pay international price for the local consumption of their own product under the callous theory of subsidy is a wicked extortion by official fiat. Even if there is any subsidy at all, as often claimed by our rulers, shouldn’t Nigerians, who own the oil, be entitled to such subsidy? The posture of owner and seller of petroleum products assumed locally by our federal government is not only immoral it is also a betrayal of people’s trust. And that is the main breeder of the cancerous monster in this country today called corruption. As a matter of fact, the populace seems to have lost total confidence in the presidential style of governance. Most of the policies formulated by the past regime can be described as dead horse which no one should try to kick. Any attempt to pursue those policies in the name of ‘continuity’ can only amount to political suicide bid.

Even the frequent threats of strike by every Tom, Dick and Harry that often rents the air is more than suicidal to the economy. Yet, those in government do not seem to recognize the fact that Nigeria does not have the type of economy that is capable of sustaining presidential system of governance. To any developing country, such a system is an unsustainable luxury that can ruin the future. It is a system that engenders corruption and also encourages retardation of a potential country. Let the system of governance be changed and the orientation of Nigerians will automatically change. That is a major task upon which our history may be based positively in future.

Monologue

Disunity is a fact about the Muslim Ummah, world wide, which no one can sincerely dispute.

It is obvious that there is an artificial crack on the wall

of Islam which the Muslims who once put it there cannot now find easy to obliterate. That crack is called ideology. As the anchor Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) never preached any ideology as a component of Islam. But after his demise, the first generation of Muslims introduced different contradictory ideologies as strategies for victory in their struggle for power.

In response to a question posted to this column, by some readers, sometime ago, about Muslim disunity, especially in contemporary time, yours sincerely decided to explain here, how disunity crept into the ranks of the Muslim Ummah.

 

Spiritual Virus

Today, nothing bothers an average genuine Muslim, anywhere in the world, as much as disunity. This seemingly implacable spiritual virus is responsible for many problems confronting the Muslim Ummah globally today, despite Allah’s assurance of the preservation of Islam.

Whereas unity is a paramount factor in Islam which the Almighty Allah called His own rope and advised all Muslims to hold together, for the purpose of unity. But unfortunately, the Muslims’ deviation from that advice is the cause of their spiritual restiveness which provides the antagonists of Islam the opportunity to ride roughshod over them. To most Muslims in the world today, the rope of ideology takes priority over Islam. That is why the mutual antagonism between the so-called Sunni and Shiite ideologies, as well as those between Izalah and Tariqah sects in Nigeria seems to be permanently irresolvable.

Although the disunity among the adherents of some other religions, especially Christianity, is much deeper than the one among the Muslims, the adherents of those other religions are able to manage their differences in such a way that the impact of the division among them is not as manifestly pronounced as the one among the Muslims. Thus, the disunity among other religionists cannot be used as a justification for the one among Muslims.

 

Effect of Disunity

Today, nothing shows the effect and consequences of disunity among the Muslims as much as the Middle East crises. Those crises have virtually become a finger of destiny which the West is constantly and maliciously pointing towards all directions of Islam, with the intent of obliterating the traits of that divine religion from the surface of the earth. And, the nomenclature given to that finger of destiny, as a mark of blackmail, is terrorism. This is because the Muslims of that region have incorporated their different political ideologies into their different religious orientations.

In theory and practice, the Middle East crises are now a master stroke with which the West is dealing, directly or indirectly with any nation that claims to have Islamic trait. And, that trait has perennially become a symbol of power. Yet, it is to the Middle East that the rest of the Muslim world is looking for leadership.

 

Genesis of the Middle East Crises

How did the Middle East crises come about? At what stage are those crises now and how are they adversely affecting Islam?

The answers to the above questions are what prompted a Muslim association, in Lagos State, to invite yours sincerely to address in a public lecture as far back as 2010.

An excerpt from that lecture, which was delivered at the Syrian Club, Ikoyi, Lagos, went thus:

“….It is difficult to understand the ‘Middle East’ crises without understanding the features of that sub-region historically, geographically, politically and economically. Incidentally, no full details of those crises can be discussed on a single occasion even if it lasts a whole year. Whatever is discussed on this subject on an occasion can only be a brief summary of a fringe in those crises.

 

Reminiscence

What is called ‘Middle East’ today was known, in the primordial time, as Anatolia. Situated between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, this Western part of Asia was once the world’s greatest axis of power before the emergence of Islam. It was in that axis that Empires like Mesopotamian, Assyrian, Phoenician, and Persian, held sway, at one time or another, before they started falling one by one through the millennia. With time, the baton of control shifted further to the West and such empires as Greek and Roman rose and fell only to pave way for what can be called ‘Islamic Empire’.

It was only centuries into the statehood of Islam that the name of the sub-region was changed from Anatolia to Asia Minor. This was to delineate between Asia proper and its peripheral link to the West.

However, to suit the economic ambition of the Western powers, the name, again, came to be called ‘Middle East’, after oil was discovered in that area in the 19th century. The main objective of re-naming that area ‘Middle East’, at that time, according to some historians, was to severe it, if psychologically, from the continent called Asia, as a way of precluding the latter from competing with the West for the wealth of that peninsular in future.

Read Also: Ugwuanyi hands over two rebuilt mosques to Muslim community in Nsukka

Analysis

The name ‘Middle East’ is, therefore, a political nomenclature coined by the West to enable the region serve two fundamental purposes. One purpose was for it to serve as the bastion of the energy to be used in propelling the emerging Western industrialisation. The other was to use the area as a fortress against any cultural incursion of the East into the West.

The West was able to realize these two objectives due to irreconcilable differences between the Arabs and the Persians on the one hand, despite the cord of Islam that binds them together, and to initiate a permanent dissension among the Arabs themselves generally, on the other hand. Britain was, of course, in the forefront of this schism. And, politically speaking, it is in the interest of the West that the two blocks (Sunni and Shia) do not unite. If they had been allowed to unite, the power equation of the world, as currently constituted, would have tremendously been to the benefit of Islam and the Muslims. And, that would have propelled Islam beyond the imagination of the entire world powers.

 

Explanation

Today, the ‘Middle East’ consists of two main blocs: the Arabs and the Persians. The former includes the North African countries. The latter includes the South East of the now defunct Soviet Union. It must be remembered that the great Islamic scholar and narrator of Hadith, Abu Abdullah Ibn Isma’il, Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Al Mughirah Al-Bukhari, simply known as Imam Al-Bukhari, was a Persian from a country called Uzbekistan today. His home town in that country was Bukhara, which was why Bukhari was part of his name. Uzbekistan shares a border boundary with Iran.

The differences between the Arabs and the Persians became irreconcilable because of the two racial-based political ideologies which engendered power struggle between them. One of those ideologies is Sunni. The other is Shi’a. But the real truth is that both blocs only came under the cover of Islam for undisclosed agenda which is power acquisition.

When the seat of the Islamic Caliphate shifted to Turkey in 1453 CE, it was thought that the ranks of the Muslim Ummah would be closed if only to further the course of Islam. But that did not happen.

For almost 500 years that the Ottoman Empire lasted, the concentration was rather on power grabbing than a focus on strengthening Islam.

After the final fall of the Islamic Caliphate in Turkey in 1924, what the remnants of that empire did was to recline into its pre-Islamic status by replacing Islamism with racial or tribal nationalism. The only unifying factor that remained intact among the Turkish people, thereafter, was language. The fact that some ancient races like the Mesopotamians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians and the Barbarians of North Africa had lost their languages to Arabic, several centuries back, made it impossible for those races to break relationship completely with the real Arabs of the Gulf region. But each race under the old imperial nomenclature preferred to remain as the head of a dog rather than the tail of a lion. That was the ambitious concept that lured the late President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to the inordinate ambition of expansionism which eventually drove him to the gallows in 2006.

More will soon be written about disunity among Muslims especially the intra disunity. Please, watch out.

 

By Femi Abbas

Monologue

Of all the causes of human restlessness and, even war, none is as dangerous as religion. This is because religion is mostly a fixation of mind with little room for flexibility. The danger often engendered by religion becomes worse when religion is commercialized and tied to materialism as in the case of Nigeria where competition, especially between Islam and Christianity has virtually become a tacit symbol of enmity.

Preamble

Islam and Christianity are not the only religions in any part of the world. But because of certain similarities between them, some traits of artificial rivalry seem to have characterized their coexistence especially in Nigeria where religion has been turned into a mega market for certain merchants of faith who are claiming to be clerical leaders. If money is removed from religion today, there will be nothing called religion in our country. And, that will surely reduce spiritual restlessness to its lowest ebb.

 

The Role of History

History, being the permanent teacher of mankind, can never cease to play  the role of a reference point in human life. The historic charter which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) led his noble companions to sign with some Christian leaders in the 7th century is a vivid reminder of the role which history plays in the life of man.

Perhaps no man in history preceded Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in recognizing this fact in history.

In recognition of Prophet Isa (Jesus) the son of Maryam (Mary) as his predecessor and fellow Apostle, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed a charter with some Christian leaders in 628 CE and the charter remains valid, in principle, till today. The signing of that charter by Allah’s anchor Prophet was also a clear indication that Islam recognises the authenticity of the mission of Jesus as a continuation of Allah’s divine religion earlier preached by Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham).

How it happened

In the year 628 CE, a Christian delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery travelled to the city of Madinah, to meet Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and seek from him, protection of the Islamic government under his command. That was four years before the demise of Prophet Muhammad. The objective of that delegation was to solicit for the protection of the Islamic government as an assurance for the security of the the Christians against the aggression of the then Persian Empire.

(St. Catherine’s Monastery is the world’s oldest Monastery located at the foot of Mt. Sinai which has a huge collection of Christian manuscripts second only to those of the Vatican City and, it is known as a world heritage site).

The Charter

In response to the request of the above mentioned delegation, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) granted them a written charter of rights, the very first of its type in religious sphere, in history. The contents of that charter are as follows:

“This is a message from Muhammad the son of Abdullah serving as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, that we (Muslims) are with them. Verily, I and all the servants of Allah, as well as the helpers of Islam (ie: the hosts of Prophet Muhammad in Madinah) hereby make promise to defend Christians because they are my citizens and by God, I stand out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them (concerning their way of worship). Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one should destroy a house of their religion or damage it or loot it. Whoever violates this charter has breached Allah’s covenant with mankind and disobeyed His Apostle.

Verily, Christians are my allies and have my secure charter against all they hate. No one should force them to fight for a course in which they have no belief or compel them to migrate against their wish.

Neither is the sacredness of their covenant to be violated nor their Monasteries to be disrespected. And, if any damage should happen to their Monasteries by chance, they must not be prevented from repairing them. No Muslim should disobey this charter till the Last Day (end of the world)”.

Before the Charter

Prior to the charter mentioned above, several verses of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) acknowledging the divine mission of all the Prophets preceding him (Muhammad (SAW) including that of Jesus the son of Mary. And, because of those Qur’anic revelations, no Muslim can claim to be a true believer in Islam without accepting Prophet Isa (Jesus), the son of Mary, as well as other Prophets ordained as Apostles of Allah. One of those Qur’anic revelations states as follows:

“The Apostle of Allah (Muhammad SAW) believes in what was revealed to him and so do the entire Muslim faithful. Every one of them believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books and His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say “we hear and we obey (the laws brought by those Apostles). Grant us Your forgiveness Oh Lord! To you we shall all return….” (Q. 2: 285).

Brethren in Faith

The above charter shows that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) recognized a bond of brotherhood in faith between Muslims and Christians and that none of them should fight against the other (physically or psychologically) for the reason of differences in their modes of worship. And, by validating the charter till the great Day of Judgment, the Prophet had precluded any future attempt to revoke the privileges contained in that charter by any nation, group or individuals.

Implications of the Charter

By implication, the inalienability of the privileges contained in the above charter remain irreversible from the primordial time to the contemporary time. Besides, one remarkable aspect of the charter is that it did not stipulate any condition for Christians to enjoy those privileges. It is because of that unprecedented charter that Muslims, all over the world, neither malign the personality of Jesus nor subject Christianity to mockery as a while preaching Islam, as some Christians do with impunity in various parts of the world.

 

Reciprocation

Believing that being followers of Jesus Christ was enough a condition to enjoy the privileges contained in the above charter, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) assumed that the Christians, would also be civilized enough to reciprocate that unprecedented gesture whenever and wherever they coexist with Muslims, not only by tolerating the latter’s mode of worship and way of life, but also by refraining from any naked or avowed act of provocation or disdain against them, which could precipitate a religious rancour. Another noticeable aspect of the charter is the Prophet’s silence on any payment by the protectorate Christians which was the general norm among nations in those days.

Thus, that ‘Charter of Rights’ was a free gift. And from it the reason becomes clear why the Islamic State under the command of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) or any of his rightly guided companions who became Caliphs after his demise never crossed swords with any Christian group or nation throughout their regimes. If any wars like those of the crusades ever broke out centuries later between Christians and Muslims such could only be attributed either to a breach of the charter by ignorant adherents of both religions. And, that does not have anything to do with the tenets of the two religions.

 

Upholding the Charter

In upholding that charter, the second Caliph in Islam, Umar Bn Khattab, refused to observe Muslim prayer (Salat) inside the Church of Jerusalem when he visited the area, following the liberation of that region by the Islamic State from the Persian Empire in which Zoroastrianism (worshiping of fire) was the religion. On that historic occasion, the Church of Jerusalem had been cleared by Muslim soldiers for the observance of Salat which Caliph Umar, as Head of State, was to lead. But when he was invited to lead the Salat, he simply declined and rather ordered the soldiers to find another place for Salat and keep the Church intact for the Christians to worship therein in their own way. He said he would not do what Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prohibited before his demise. He then warned the Muslims who accompanied him never to convert Churches to Mosques for that would amount to religious aggression which was capable of breaching the Prophet’s charter with Christians.

 

Prophetic Revelation

Before the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah, in 622 CE, a Qur’anic revelation came to him in 616 CE  confirming the brotherhood of Islam and Christianity. That revelation which formed a whole chapter in the Qur’an was entitled ‘The Chapter of Rome’. It reads thus:

“Rome, (the nation of the Christian Greeks) has been defeated in a neighbouring land. But after their defeat, they shall (themselves) gain victory within a few years. Allah is the Supreme Commander before and after. On that day (when they become victorious), the believers (Muslims and Christians) will rejoice in Allah’s help.

Allah gives victory to whoever He wills. He is Mighty and Merciful. That is Allah’s promise; He never reneges on His promise” (Q. 30: 1-5).

And true to that divine revelation, the Roman Empire surprisingly defeated the Persian Empire to the ecstasy of the Muslims just nine years after it was revealed. Besides, it will be recalled that the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned more than 37 times in the Glorious Qur’an giving more details of his birth and disappearance rather than crucifixion. Also a whole chapter of the Qur’an is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus confirming her chastity and the miraculous birth of Jesus. It is only in the Qur’an that the report of how Jesus spoke as an infant was revealed. That chapter is called ‘The Chapter of Maryam (Mary). How else can the unity of religious mission from the unity of God be confirmed?

 

Conclusion

The doctrine of one God one mission purportedly shared in the world today by three religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot be from the same perception. Each of these religions has its own revealed Book and their adherents practice their faiths according to the doctrines contained in those Books. It will therefore be wrong of the adherents of one particular religion to adjudge those of others as deviants or infidels who must be exterminated.

Religion is like an examination. Those who sit down to write it with blue ink pen must not turn themselves into examiners using red ink pen to mark it. Paradise is Allah’s own domain. He admits whoever He wishes into it. And this is done not necessarily by sheer mortal charlatans’ recommendation. Only the Almighty Allah who chose our parents for us without our knowledge or input before we came into this world and, who knows where each of us would finally be buried, has the final say on everybody’s destination. If the truth must be told, the real cause of religious conflicts in Nigeria is not intolerance as often hypocritically claimed by some people but greedy provocation emanating from avarice in the guise of religion. Nigerian press is particularly guilty of this by fueling such provocations. It is wrong to expect that tolerance would thrive in a society where provocation and injustice refuse to abate. Propagating a religion by denigrating another religion is an act of satanic provocation. And those who want peace to prevail in Nigeria must desist from such intolerable act.

“Here is the period, in human life, about which we had been carefully admonished through the words of Ubayyi Bn Ka’b and those of Abdullah Bn Mas’ud;

Here is the predicted era in which the truth (as foretold), would be totally rejected while falsehood and rebellion would be loftily upheld with deceptive glorification;

Should this period be allowed to linger beyond now, without a positive change, the world could zoom into a stage where the bereaved would rather smile than cry over the demise of a deceased relative and parents would rather cry than rejoice over the birth of a new baby”.      – Arab poet

Monologue

In the life of any serious-minded person, every day is a beginning of one end or another. Such an end may be positive or negative, depending on the mode of operating the activities therein, based on the intention of the operator. And, the world continues. But, surely, the impracticable Machiavellian theory of ‘the end justifies the means’ has no moral basis in any environment where the fear of Allah is considered as the climax, rather than the beginning of wisdom.

Ordinarily, the planned article for publication in this column, today, is not what you are about to read here. If published, as planned, it would have been for the celebration of a very rare exemplariness of qualitative leadership in the unique personality of an eminent Nigerian whose enviable profile can neither be queried nor challenged in the archive of history. Although, due to his humanitarian nature, that personality does not believe in celebrating birthday ostentatiously, in a society like ours, where artificially endemic poverty has virtually become a crushing claw for most Nigerians, even in the midst of plenty, nevertheless, his impending attainment of 65 years of age next Tuesday, August 24, 2021, calls for a celebration of royal exemplariness in him. The modest lifestyle of this personality, despite the ‘blue blood’ in his veins, is an incontrovertible attestation to the exemplariness that eminently qualifies him to be the Nigerian man of the century.

That exemplary personality is no other person than His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). Whoever wants to know what qualifies him for that assertion in this 21st century should keep date with ‘The Message’ column in ‘The Nation’ newspaper next Friday, in sha’Allah.

 

Preamble

The title of today’s article, in this column, was not coined by yours sincerely. It was rather culled from the late Dr. Tai Solarin’s style of writing while he was alive. In his heydays as a versatile columnist, in the Tribune newspaper, Dr. Tai Solarin, a renowned educationist and atheist, had a way of casting the titles of his articles to suit his ideas and thoughts as well as to attract the conscious attention of his readers. One of such titles is the one adopted here today. It was the title of an article he wrote in 1974 as a reaction to General Yakubu Gowon’s U-turn on his earlier promise to restore democracy to Nigeria in 1976.

In that year (1974), General Gowon surprisingly turned round to renege on that landmark promise by announcing to Nigerians, in a nation-wide television broadcast, that returning power to civilians in 1976 was unrealistic after all. He did not specify any new date for restoring democracy to this Africa’s foremost country.

 

Follow Up

The above narrated scenario was what prompted Tai Solarin to write his famous article titled “The Beginning of the End”, in reaction to General Gowon’s audacious military assault, fortuitously hauled at Nigerian populace, at a time when the general yearning for democracy was almost at its peak in the country. And, incidentally, that article was the premonition that culminated in a military coup which swept General Gowon out of power, unceremoniously, in July 1975 after nine years in office as a military Head of State. That episode was a beginning of an end to Gowon’s regime and the rest became history.

 

How Abuja became Nigeria’s Capital

It was the same Tai Solarin that wrote another article titled “I will bomb Lagos”, in 1975, which led to the idea of changing Nigeria’s capital city from Lagos to Abuja. In the latter article Tai Solarin did not only describe Lagos of then as unbefitting to any civilized country in the world, as capital city, he also said he would have bombed it (Lagos) with the intention of rebuilding it if he was the Head of State. Characteristic of him, Dr, Tai Solarin did not stop there. He also gave a vivid geographical and environmental description of a place in Nigeria’s Middle Belt called Abuja which he recommended as the country’s new capital.

Through that famous article, which captivated many Nigerian elites, at that time, Solarin could be called the initiator of the change of Nigeria’s capital city. And, that was why he was appointed as a member of the Justice Akinola Aguda panel that worked out the modalities for the establishment of the new federal capital called Abuja. Today, the same Abuja is being seriously threatened by certain miscreants who do not care about the implications of their actions even as we hope that such actions will not constitute a beginning of another end.

 

In Retrospect

When an article was first published in the Message column, under this same title (“The Beginning of the End”), in 2013, by yours sincerely, it was warranted by the circumstance of that time which was similar to the ongoing experience in Nigeria, today. However, the focus of that (2013) article was more on corruption through manipulation of figures in public offices and untamable greed of certain politicians for stinging to power with political bile, by all means. That time can be called a season of ridiculous letter writings that exposed the true natures of Nigerian politicians.

 

The First Letter

That time was tagged the season of Letters’ because of the barrage of tendentious and damning open letters flying across the wishes and interests of certain political, economic and religious demagogues who seemed to be married to ephemeral politics of transient power. First among those letters was from the then Governor of the Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who, for a patriotic reason wrote a probing letter to the Presidency on September 25, 2013 reporting the failure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to remit 19 months proceeds of oil sales to the Central Bank as statutorily required by the constitution.

According to him, the total quantity of Nigerian oil that was sold between January 2012 and July 2013 was 594.02 million barrels and the unremitted amount of money accruing from the sale of that quantity was $49.8 billion which amounted to N8 trillion. Mallam Lamido said the total amount of money remitted so far within the mentioned period constituted only 24% of what ought to be remitted while 76% could not be traced by the CBN. Based partly on Sanusi’s revelation and partly on his own personal  observation, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, openly accused President Goodluck Jonathan of reluctance or unwillingness to fight corruption. Many other well-meaning Nigerians spoke on the matter in the like manner. As a columnist, yours sincerely also wrote about it in this column. Thus, those who dogmatically believe, albeit ignorantly, that religion and politics are on two parallel lines that should never meet can now see why Islam is rather a total way of life than a mere dogmatic religion. In Islam, the theory of ‘giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’ holds no water because both Caesar and whatever he portends to own belong to God alone who never slumbers nor dies. For instance, in a situation where public funds are brazenly stolen with impunity in public glare, Muslims cannot and should not keep silent even if the thievs claim to be Muslims. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once counseled Muslims about this kind of situation through one Hadith. He said: “Whoever sees something obnoxious among you should change it (physically) with his hands. If he is incapable, let him change it with his tongue (by condemning it). And if he is still incapable, he should then endeavour to change it with his mind (by praying for its stoppage)”. He however added that “the last option signifies the weakest form of faith”.

In a situation like the one currently being witnessed in Nigeria, should religious people, especially the Muslims, keep silent and watch helplessly how their future is being eroded by those who do not care about other people’s lives? It is rather an iniquity for Muslims to keep silent in the presence of tyranny, oppression and criminal acts. From whichever angle such crime are viewed, the will eventually be discovered to constitute the beginning of an end.

 

The Second Letter

The second letter was written to President Goodluck Jonathan by Ex- President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on December 2, 2013. It was a kind of epistle loaded with undisguised missiles of allegations that came frontally to the nation through the media. The main gist of that letter contained allegations of corruption, bad governance and insecurity. It was heavily pregnant with political bile the summary of which can be called a tit for tat. The contents of the letter are a bundle of message that conspicuously outweighed the messenger. And reading carefully between its lines, the letter can be compared to a pot trying to paint a kettle black. In a nutshell, the addresser and the addressee can be described as two sides of an un-spendable coin.

Although the contents of that letter generated a loud brouhaha across the land, it ended up as   a mere rhetoric with which Nigerians had long been quite familiar. If anything sounded strange in that letter, it was the allegation of a killer squad leveled by the addresser against the addressee. In that allegation, Chief Obasanjo accused Dr. Jonathan’s Presidency of planning to descend on about 1000 political opponents and other perceived enemies of the government. Funny as that episode might sound at the time, it was a beginning of an end. The only seeming issue of interest in that letter, however, was the washing of the supposed leaders’ linens in the open which the populace watched with unbridled embarrassment. It gave the impression that the only expected legacy from the crop of the 21st century Nigerian leaders was nothing more than despair in spite of the rare opportunities those so-called leaders had in preserving the tranquility of the country. What lesson could the youths have learnt from such a ridiculous political rancour engendered by calamitous greed of politicians, based on selfishness?

To politicians, sadistic political drama can never be strange. But the peculiarity in that open letter writing case was the tacit mobilization of the suffering masses as archers deployed to forage around on their feet while the shameless political gladiators remained gangling on horses.

 

Observation

Like an accursed nation, Nigeria has the misfortune of engaging misfits, in the name of leaders, to pilot their affairs, especially in a very cloudy environment. Or how can one classify a situation where two supposed national leaders decided to strip naked for competitive dance in a market place and expected sellers and buyers in that market to clap for the winner. If this period in Nigeria still looks like the beginning of another catastrophic end, its genesis should be traced to the shameless leaders we had in the recent past with the intention of grooming sailors who are in possession of effective compass with which to cross the bubbling Atlantic ocean of life without any further disastrous accident.

God save Nigeria!

FEMI ABBAS

 

The appearance of the  title of today’s article  (HAPPY NEW YEAR) in this column once in a year often looks strange and even sounds odd to most Nigerian readers because it does not come in January.  In Nigeria, like in most other African countries south of the Sahara, the idea of ‘New Year’ is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to January which is the first month of Christian Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of colonial scar on the smooth body of the African continent.

From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a thick Christian colouration that still portrays African culture in a rainbow of colonial Christian religion and tradition.

 

Public Holidays in Nigeria

It is a well known fact that out of the 109 days of official religious holidays in Nigeria today, Islamic religion enjoys only five  days as public holidays (two days for Eidul-Fitr, two days for Eidul-Adha and one day for Mawlidun-Nabiyy). The remaining 104 days are for Christianity.

At least, it is undisputable that in every one of the 52 weeks in a year, two days (Saturday and Sunday) are conceded to Christianity as religious holidays. From the colonial era until 1972, the official religious holidays in Nigeria did not exceed 57 days. It was in 1972 that General Yakubu Gowon, the then Christian military Head of State, dashed every Saturday of the year to the Seventh day Adventist Christian denomination, with fiat, as a worship day. The total population of that denomination, in that year, was just about 700,000 out of Nigeria’s population of 58.67 million people.

Yet, when the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was formed four year later (1976), it maliciously and irritatingly began to sing a sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria with loud voice especially whenever a Muslim assumes office as President.

Even at the State level, the monotonously sour song of ‘Islamization’ often gets loudest whenever a Muslim is elected as Governor. And, the hatchet job is invariably done by the Christian dominated media. Incidentally, this media irredentism originates mostly from the Southwest of the country where the main hub of Nigeria’s media Islamophobia is based, despite the semographic majority of the Muslims in that part of the country.

 

Why this Article?

The event that motivated the publishing of this article today will come up at the Liberty stadium, Ibadan, this coming Sunday in sha’Allah. That event is the celebration of 1443 Hijrah day, which often comes up on the first day of Muharram,  the first month of Islamic year of Hijrah calendar. That is an occasion that is yearly celebrated by over one billion Muslims around the world, in commemoration of Prophet Muhammad’s triumphant entry into the city of Madinah as the climax of his emigration from Makkah, for safety, following a plot to kill him in his birth place by the pagans of that city, in 622 CE.

The celebration of that event has been on course for almost one and a half millennia.

 

NACOMYO’s Frontline Role

Thus, with the beginning of 1443rd  Hijrah year, the National Council of Muslim Youth Organization (NACOMY) will be celebrating the victorious day on Sunday. This is without minding the cancelation of that public holiday in Oyo State, for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) by the Chrtistian Governor of the State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, who is vigorously championing a crusade against Islam in the State. It is however necessary here to remember the immediate past Governor of the State, the late Senator Ishaq Abiola Ajimobi who graciously granted Hijrah holiday officially on the principle of fairness and equity. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in eternal bliss. Amin!

 

Implication

In a country like Nigeria, celebration of new Hijrah year is like a coin with two sides. Any deformed face of one side on that coin can neither debase the coin nor render it invalid.

While the celebration of this festival brings victorious joy to Muslims, it ironically attracts sadness to the antagonists of Islam. But unknown to those sadists,, Islam is like the Sun which aids the ventilation of oxygin to all living organisms and photosynthesizes all plants in the environment. Any blind person may claim not to recognize the existence of the Sun because of his/her inability to see it. But such a person cannot deny its burning effect on his/her head whenever it fully bulges out of the orbit.

Besides, any sincere observer will notice that this divine religion called Islam is like a train. The barking at it by over one trillion dogs can never halt its unstoppable surge.

 

The Fastest growing Religion

Despite all odds, intrigues, blackmail and evil machinations being constantly and surreptitiously erected on its way, by its antagonists, Islam continues to wax stronger even as it remains the fastest growing religion in the world today. Alhamdu Lillah!

 

Colonial Rule

Throughout the 99 years of the British colonial rule in Nigeria (1861-1960), the Southern Muslims were never granted any public holiday to celebrate their festivals. It took Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to address that malicious injustice by granting religious holidays officially to Islamic festivals at national level after independence in 1960. Hitherto, the recognized religious festivals that were granted public holidays by the British colonialists and their immediate Nigerian successors in the Southern part of the country were Easter, Christmas and the so-called New Year. That was in addition to the weekly holiday every Sunday.

 

Islamic Education

It takes well- educated Muslims to understand the facts stated here and relate them to their religious lives. It is such education that prompted the former Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to be the first Nigerian Governor to declare a public holiday for new Islamic year in Osun State in 2013.

That historic declaration by Ogbeni Aregbesola was not only an exhibition of sound Islamic understanding and civility on his part, it was also a clear evidence of dispensation of justice which had for long, been denied to Nigerian Muslims in that State despite their demographic majority. And, was he not frontally attacked and called all sorts of names in the Southwest media for declaring that holiday? That is Nigeria for you as far as religion is concerned.

 

Islamic Calendar

Islam has its own calendar called Hijrah calendar. And, like in other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Islamic year which consists of 12 months. However, unlike those other calendars, the Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained because it originated from the Almighty Allah who created the universe and sustains it. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows: “Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”.

That verse is also a confirmation   of Islam as Allah’s divine religion.

 

Significance of Hijrah Calendar

The first day of the Hijrah month (1st of Muharram) is one of the most significant days in Islam. Without ‘the great Message of Islam’ Prophet Muhammad (SAW) would not had had any cause to migrate from Makkah to Madinah.

It was that Great Message that compelled him to migrate to Madinah for safety, an incident which eventually paved the way for him to become the greatest man that ever lived.

 

Benefits of Hijrah Calendar

Basically, the Prophet’s migration (Hijrah) from Makkah to Madinah, institutionalized three important aspects of Muslim lives in that city. These are social, economic and political aspects of life. When the Qur’anic revelations started coming to the Prophet (SAW), in Makkah, in 610 CE, he devoted a period of twelve (12) years to the incubation of the principles of Islam and their implimentations in the minds of believers at a time when no pattern of a collective life, based on any true religious concept, could be presented to the world. As a result, the status of the individual Muslims in Makkah at that time gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or rather, believing in the mission of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was a personal affair which concerned only the Hereafter and had nothing to do with people’s collective life in the present world.

 

Social Effect

It was only after the Prophet’s migration (Hijrah) that people began to see Islam clearly as a total way of life which paid attention to, and reformed every facet of human existence. It then became evident that Islam was the divine religion that gave mankind directions regarding almost every moment of a believer’s conscious life. Hijrah also enabled the Arabs, in particular, to see what a Muslim’s matrimonial home should be in a Muslim society as against what it was in the days of ignorance. Hence, it was only after the Prophet’s migration that the world could see the aspect of human social decency and decorum prescribed by Allah through Islam.

 

Note

Further details about Hijrah calendar will be published in this column in a foreseeable future in sha’Allah.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

By Femi Abbas

 

Monologue

Last Tuesday,  July 20, 2021, was Eidul-Adha day of year 1442 AH throughout the world. The Arabic word Eid means is a festival of joy and festivities in Islam which reminds the religious ancestry of Prophet Ibrahim’s faith with reconfirmation.

It is the anticlimax of the last pillar of Islam called Hajj. EidulAdha was first observed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Makkah shortly after he was divinely ordained as a Messenger of Allah.

 

Preamble

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 millions of hungry Nigerians. And, his mission would have been the interpretation of a dream similar to that of a Pharaoh of some millennia ago, which saved Egypt of yore from the scourge of a looming famine.

But alas, the absence of a Yusuf on the surface of the earth today has rendered the possibility of any solution to such a dream in this country hopeless. Despite unlimited human and material resources with which    this so called ‘Giant of Africa’, is endowed, most of her citizens continue to grapple helplessly with a jaundiced economy like a centipede crawling sorrowfully into a brook of uncertainty through the path of ashes. When will this perennial debacle come to an end for a people who are eagerly waiting to hand over the baton of the present to the generations of the future?

 

No Festivities

While Muslims, all over the world, are supposed to be celebrating ‘Eidul-Adha’ with joy, in festivities, overwhelming majority of Nigerian Muslims are celebrating this same festival with a combination of hunger, fear and despair. At the instance of unbridled avarice and aggrandizement of a few privileged Nigerians who are in government, the ingredients of festivities for majority of Muslims have been tacitly banished in this country. Thus, many Muslims are celebrating this year’s ‘Eidul-Adha’ in despair as usual.

This iron period in which consistent promise of eliminating corruption, rampancy of banditry and terrorism on the one hand and the scourge of hunger, starvation and abject poverty on the other, seems to be a coded omen in which a pleasant dream of the past is rapidly culminating in a painful nightmare. That is an indicator of indefinite despair for a hapless country.

 

Nostalgia

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 without hardship was taken for granted by 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. They 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 not only gone but seem to have gone forever.

 

A Couplet of Warning

Today, we are in a situation against which we had long been warned in a couplet rendered by an Arab poet who was quoting two disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) i. e. Ubayyi Bn Ka’b and Abdullah Bn Mas’ud. The Couplet goes thus:

“This is the period in human life against which we had been warned through the admonitions of Ubayyi Bn Ka‘ab and Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud; it is in this period, as had been foretold, that a rejection of truth in its totality would become manifest while falsehood, corruption and betrayal of trust would be held aloft; should this period linger beyond now 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 close relatives”.

 

Probing Questions

As Nigeria is fast becoming a dramatic entity mysteriously shrouded in coded parables, it may take an unprecedented revolution to dislodge some Nigerian economic vampires who are fund of subjecting the citizenry to that to irredeemable penury. Ordinarily, in normal circumstances, a forward-looking country would have encouraged her citizens 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 probing   questions which all rational human beings should normally ask themselves randomly as a means of paving the way for progress.

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

That very question is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerian civil servants, the politicians, the legislators, the law enforcement agents and the judicial officers, in their quest for wealth through fraudulent means. It also 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, as a country, to the stake of endemic corruption. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerians as the only valuable substance worthy of pursuit.

 

The Reality

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, mineral resources and promixing mountains, all of which are great sources of wealth for people who are seeking reasonable comfort without self-deception. What this country lacks is a class of responsible and patriotic leaders who can sincerely highlight her priorities according to the yearnings of the ordinary people. That food has now become a threat to Nigerians is an irony emanating from naivety engendered by massive corruption entrenched on her soil especially since 1999 when the current democracy first beamed a ray of hope on the people but which was turned into a forlorn by the politicians.

 

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 salaries and allowances for the legislators are the real causes of poverty in the country. Even America, with her huge economic resources, large population and financial wherewithal, does not live in such reckless opulence. Why must we have separate ministers or Commissioners for agriculture and water resources? Where are the federal and State government’s farms to justify that? Why must we retain an obnoxious immunity clause in our constitution for certain political demagogues to facilitate monumental corruption?

Besides al these, 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 and dying of hunger? 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 at that time. The ubiquity of beggars and lunatics in our cities and towns nowadays is a confirmation of this assertion.

Style of Governance

Governance in Nigeria has become an artful trick adopted by a vicious political cabal to bamboozle the populace into blind submission.

Now, despite the undeniable fact that Nigeria has become a country without roads, without electricity, without functional without jobs for majority of able-bodied citizens and even without food on our tables, we are still being cajoled into believing that Nigeria, a country without coins, has a frontline role to play in the global economy. Isn’t that a deliberate and audacious deception? No country in history has ever been known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

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 find solution to a major problem in another land. But the accident of history never ceases to play itself out. 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 came to know of it.

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 historical repetition of that episode here in Nigeria, turned out to be a regrettable forlorn. The rest is left to history.

 

Irony

It is ironic that people who live at 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.

 

Effect of Capitalism

Capitalism which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism has moved a step forward, 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 self-jailed. To ignore the rule of law and shun justice in a land blessed with milk and honey is to cultivate trouble with insecurity in all its ramifications. “Allah will not change the situation of a community until the people in such a community change their evil attitude”. Q. 13;1

Although this year’s Eidul Adha has come and gone, nevertheless, the expression of gratitude to Allah continues by sayinh EID MUBARAK!