FEMI ABBAS

“Let there become of you a nation that shall call for righteousness, enjoin justice and forbid evil. Such are men that shall surely triumph”.                                                                                 Q. 3: 104.

Monologue 

In a few days’ time, precisely on October 1, 2020, Nigeria, the presumed Africa’s main hope for Blackman’s growth and development, will be 60 years old as an ‘independent’ Country. Thus, traditionally, a few privileged beneficiaries of the woes that have come to envelope the mystery called ‘Nigeria’s Independence’ will joyously troop out, that day, to celebrate their largess, with fanfare, at the expense of national growth and development while millions of the underprivileged Nigerians will spend the same day mourning the same ‘Independence’ with hunger and sorrow in the corners of their various prisons called

houses.

Preamble

Coming as a sermon from the pulpit of ‘The Message’ column, this article is supposed to be a letter to Nigerian politicians of today, as a reminder of the past political experience that wrecked our dear country. It is also meant to serve as a warning against the danger awaiting our country’s future generations.

Similar letters had been written randomly, in this column, to some other Nigerian politicians who preceded the current ones in office. But so far, nothing has changed for the better. Wrting a similar letter here is, therefore, an unambiguous clarification in support of what may become posterity,

when tomorrow comes.

The Letter

Dear Nigerian politicians,

This is an open letter being addressed to you with the intention of drawing you back from the path of stray which most of you have consistently and unrepentantly been plying since two decades ago when you mounted the hill of political ruins in the name of politics.

Although letters of this type seldom come to politicians like most of you who have banished your consciences and, whose political lifestyle seem to be inherently dependent on whim with impunity even as self- aggrandizement insensitively remains your ultimate goal.

Coming up at this precarious period of political labyrinth in Nigeria, this letter is necessitated by the current frightening political tension that is fast becoming a bubble which may burst anytime from now, at your instance, unless the Almighty Allah decides to save our country, by His special Grace, from becoming another ‘Warsaw that once saw War’ far away in Poland of yore.

If you, Nigerian  politicians of today, think that you can escape any calamitous consequence of your ongoing political machinations which you are tendentiously weaving around Nigeria’s political vestige, you may be day-dreaming. Those who engaged in similar machinations before you in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s never survived its consequences. And yours is very unlikely to be different when tomorrow comes.

The Function of Conscience

“Conscience”, according to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where and when it has not become cancerous like it is with you now.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once gave a vivid description of the signs by which hypocrites can be identified.

He said “hypocrites are known by three signs: When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege on it and when they are trusted they betray”.

Most of you (Nigerian politicians of today) so much typify this definition that one wonders if the great Prophet of Islam actually had you in mind when he was expressing that axiom. Unfortunately, this may be meaningless to you today, in the presence of ‘flowing naira’, but you will surely get its meaning in full when tomorrow comes.

Deceptive Motive

It will be recalled that when most of you started agitating for a return to democracy in the late 1990s while a despotic military demagogue held sway, your seeming focus was on liberation of Nigerian citizenry from the crushing claw of the then military despotism. And you did that in the name of freedom fighters and human rights advocates. But hardly had you succeeded in rallying the masses to drive away the military boys than most of you began to quest for your selfish interest by claiming to want ‘to serve your people’.

That claim, which turned out to be the bait with which you deceptively lured ordinary Nigerians into the struggle that culminated in raising your own political platforms to the height upon which you stand today, was a covenant. And, that covenant was not just between you and the people you claimed to want to serve but much more between you and the Almighty Allah who knows every manifest and hidden agenda. And, He (Allah) will surely hold you accountable for it when tomorrow comes.

In Retrospect

Please, be reminded that as some of you once shamelessly graded figure 16 higher than figure 19, on a political platform, some years back, in the glare of your children and grandchildren, and, as you audaciously classified looting the national treasury as a lesser crime than corruption, all in the name of politics, you must remember that God’s judgment can neither be manipulated nor be appealed. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s justice will come to prevail upon you, perhaps when you least expect. As fathers and mothers who politically arrogate the nation’s leadership and wealth to yourselves without thinking of the lessons that the younger ones can learn from your example on their way to the top, you have evidently demonstrated that you are grossly unqualified to bequeath any sensible legacy to the future generations of Nigeria.

If anything, your thoughtless public utterances, your shameless public actions and counter actions as well as your devilish body language often arrogantly displayed, are the real causes of the misfortune bedevilling our dear country today in the names of insurgency, banditry, yahoo yahoo fraud and robbery as a culture across the land. All of these, which you audaciously top with reckless looting, have been the cause of woes for Nigeria.

As a matter of fact, you, Nigerian politicians of today, can be called anything but gentlemen or women of honour which you call yourselves even as you have become, unprecedentedly, a disgrace not only to Nigeria as a country but also to Africa as a continent.

And, now that you seem to have permanently enlisted immorality, especially corruption, as a vital instrument of politics without thinking of its consequences, how can you be seen as gentlemen or women? And, based on the above facts, you are now behaving like intoxicated horses without reins. But, mind you, what you are reading in this letter is the very true picture of you, which history will present to the world when tomorrow comes.

Life without Justice

In Islam, two issues are fundamentally sacrosanct both of which Allah does not take lightly. These are sacredness of life and dispensation of justice. It is a great iniquity for any human being to engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extra-judicially in the name of politics or economy or religion or ethnicity or religion is nothing but a human vampire of sadistic nature. In Islam, such a grievous sacrilege cannot be perpetrated without commensurate penalty, if not here on earth, definitely in the hereafter.

Actually, nothing draws the wrath of Allah as fast as those two crimes, a fact which Satan may continue to ask you to ignore at your own peril. Murder is physical termination of the life of a fellow human being directly or indirectly. Injustice, on the hand, is killing a person mentally, psychologically, politically, economically or spiritually by denying him his legitimate right. Now, which of these has not occurred severally at your instance, in the course of your political journey towards power grabbing and illegal wealth? How will you explain this in defence of yourselves against un-appealable judgment of Allah when tomorrow comes?

Legislative Duty 

In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is invariably built. Those of you who manipulated your ways into legislating for the rest of us hardly see yourselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not betray the course of justice. But, are you not doing that with audacity? As legislators, you are expected by most Nigerians to behave like honourable leaders. But the oppose is the case.

You cannot deny the fact that you inherited a dignified fortune from the Legislators of the First Republic, who limited themselves to sitting allowances in their various chambers. But you have turned that fortune into a disgraceful misfortune by allotting full salaries and unimaginable allowances, in to yourselves at the expense of over 95% of poverty stricken Nigerians. That you are Legislators today

is due to sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which gives room for audacious gerrymandering and manipulation of political gear with impunity. If such opportunity comes your way, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike at the right time in future.

And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the extent of its effect. You are, therefore, advised to readjust that gear for for a good name when tomorrow comes.

The June 12, 1993 Saga

As politicians, at least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of all Nigerians even after almost three decades of licking our political wounds. And, yet, the scale of judgment is awaiting all the participants in that misfortune, which history will reveal with full exposition when tomorrow comes.

Subversion

Due to lack of conscience, most of you, today’s politicians, may have forgotten, but you need to be reminded that shortly after you took oath of office either in 1999 or 2003 or 2007 or in 2011 or in2015 or in 2019, you started subverting the covenant into which you voluntarily entered with the people who elected or nominated you directly or indirectly. That covenant is to serve them (the people). And, those who serve are nothing but servants. But no sooner had you been sworn into office than you started calling yourselves leaders and not servants again. By implication, you have so dangerously promoted desperation and impunity to the front burner of Nigerian politics that whoever thinks of serving the country, today, through any public office, is seen as a devil that must be kept at an arm’s length. From your public conduct, any right-thinking person can vividly see the types of families you are breeding for the nation. People like you, who do not care about their family names, will surely not care about the country’s name anywhere, anytime. But whether you care or not, your befitting judgment will be pronounced when tomorrow comes.

Executive Duty  

As members of the Executive arm when you travel abroad officially, at people’s expense, you are never alarmed by the way the systems work in those countries. You never bother to ask questions about the effective functions of electricity, the smoothness of roads, the flow of portable water even on the 50th floor of a sky scraper and the excellent educational system that promotes patriotism with probity and decorum in those countries. Rather, your primary concerns are the personal, ephemeral gains accruable to you at the expense of the present and the future generations. For the past 20 years of Nigeria’s fourth republic you have been at the saddle of government without any ability to show in concrete terms what value has that length of time added to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Your emphasis is on wielding ‘power’ rather than governance and you often go about it in such a ridiculous manner that gives the impression that government is much more about destruction than construction. And with this kind of conduct, where will your name be in the history of Nigeria when tomorrow comes?

Nigeria as OPEC Member

You, today’s Nigerian politicians, do not even feel ashamed that Nigeria is the only OPEC country that imports refined petroleum products for domestic consumption simply because you are beneficiaries of the corrupt device which you deliberately put in place in the name of subsidy. Nothing exhibits Nigeria’s level of corruption than exportation of crude oil for the purpose of importing refined fuel for local consumption. It is like exporting raw yam and importing pounded yam for consumption. How can that be explained to Nigerians of the future when tomorrow comes?

Electricity

Even if Nigeria never had electricity before and she wanted to start one to boost her economy, is a period of 20 years not enough to provide a functional electricy especially given the enormous amount of wealth with which this country is endowed? What can be more ridiculously shameful for a country, in the 21st century, than to be without electricity? With what can such a country think of mass employment and development? What can be more primitive than a situation whereby people are forced to pay for unavailable electricity? Does Nigeria really belong to the modern world?

Is it necessary to start preaching here and now, at this age of of internet, that in modern time, no technological device provides as much opportunity for jobs and economic growth as electricity? Yet, it is that major device that you, today’s Nigerian politicians deliberately hold down to deprive the populace of the wherewithal with which to rise mentally and intellectually so that you can turn them into perpetual slaves to be ruled forever. In such a situation, should anybody be surprised that corruption has been unconscientiously legislated into legitimacy and executed as such? Now, Nigeria is held to a standstill because every one of you, politicians, must personally have a chip of any juicy future, today, without caring about what may become of your own children tomorrow.

Most of you, Nigerian politicians of today, are fathers and mothers who will want your children to grow up as responsible men and women, yet, you there is nothing in you that can serve as good examples for those children. You tell lies with relish. Yet you want your children to be truthful. From where do you expect them to inherit truthfulness? You steal public funds with unbridled audacity. Yet you do not want your children to called thieves. What other names should the children of thieves bear other than thieves?

Duties of public Servants

Ordinarily, your duty as government officials, whether in the executive, legislative or judiciary arm of government, is to serve your country in such a way that you can create a historical window for yourselves through which the future generations can retrospectively peep into your lives with reverence. But since everything in Nigeria has been peculiarly monetized (courtesy of former          President Obasanjo regime), it has become a rule that those who hold sway in government, in whatever capacity, must take the lion’s share of our national cake through our lean annual budget. That is why you randomly but embarrassingly throw some damaging pebbles into our political brook to cause unnecessary ripples in the serenity of that brook to the total disadvantage of today and that of tomorrow.

Ironically, some of you think or talk of impeachment of a President only when your salaries, allowances or extra budgetary largess suffers a reduction or a delay. It does not matter to you whether or not the serving or retired workforce in Nigeria remains unpaid for years. Once you are able to amass whatever comes your way legally or illegally the rest of the populace can go on hunger strike forever. It is rather shameful and disappointing that even some of you who claim to be Muslims are participating in such an evil charade despite your proclamation of Islam.

Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know about. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And, a person without conscience is like a wild horse without rein. That is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) admonished the Muslims thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are a nonentity who can even strip naked in the market place in readiness for a brawl. That is how most of you, Nigerian politicians are viewed today, if you did not know.  We can all see the example of this in a former President of this country who is regularly menstruating through his mouth at any public place and notoriously writing laughable letters to his successors who are are perceived as antagonists, through the media. Where will that put him in history when tomorrow comes?

Now, which of the issues mentioned above is worth celebrating in the name of ‘Independence’ by a civilized nation?

 Sermon

As a relevant sermon, ‘The Message’ column hereby implores you Nigerian politicians of today, to look back once  again, and draw from the experience of the past heroes to  readjust your workings and re-equip yourselves in preparation for  God’s judgment when tomorrow comes.

Nothing is Permanent

Remember that some people had governed this country in the past. Among them were those who combined the roles of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary arms of government  together, in the name of military rule that was  made possible by military coup d’état. Where are they today?

Governance has its tenure. Four years may look endless for parochial, power drunk elements who can’t see public office as a momentary fool’s paradise. But for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening  which only a fool will rely upon to walk his way through the darkness of the night. You are in government today. But remember that you will soon become former this or former that just like those before you. And, the only reminding record of your former tenure is history that will be read by the future generations when tomorrow comes.

By Femi Abbas

This article is not appearing in this column, today, for the first time. It had been published before as a presentation of naked facts against the incessant falsehood with which Nigerians have been perennially fed through untenable propaganda shamelessly mounted by certain Nigerian media irritants who are well known for exhibiting gullible bigotry.

Facts are as much constant as they are sacred.

Points to Note

Four major and fundamental points should be well noted in this article for historical records as well as for posterity. And, the four points are quite verifiable.

The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) was established in 1969 with Nigeria as a foundation member.

Contrary to the wide spread misinformation in Nigeria, it was General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian Head of State, and not General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a Muslim Head of State, that took Nigeria into OIC.

Four Nigerian Presidents have attended OIC Summits so far. They are Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo (Christian), Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Muslim), Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (Christian) and Muhammadu Buhari (Muslim).

About 30 African countries, none of which can claim to be an Islamic State, are, like Nigeria, members of OIC and their citizens are not in any frivolous noise of Islamization.

Preamble

This is Nigeria’s time of digital facts. And to reveal those facts as succinctly as they are and not as they are deceptively and mischievously presented in Nigeria media, is to appropriately create an indelible archive of digital facts for posterity sake. Falsehood of any form, in any place and at any time, is like a blind horse which may run berserk in its hurried bid to convey its rider to his/her presumed destination. Should that horse, in its blindness, mistake a dungeon for its rider’s destination, the trip in question may become ‘a journey of no return’.

Reminiscence

Time flies. It has been 34 years already since Nigeria’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) sparked off a wild, national brouhaha in Nigeria’s local communication den of rental criers called Nigerian media.

That unwarranted brouhaha over this country’s membership of OIC was an open evidence, either of the blatant ignorance with which most Nigerian journalists practice journalism as a profession or as a deliberate mischief of some political/business charlatans who have been perennially masquerading in the cloak of religion or both. For such charlatans, religion is a silhouette through which they can call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

Background Information

The Organization of Islamic Conference popularly known as OIC was established in  September 1969 when General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian from today’s Plateau State, was Nigeria’s Head of State. Nigeria was then embroiled in a civil war that raged fiercely from 1967 to 1970. In his desperation to win that war, General Gowon, as Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, took certain steps that later turned out to be generators of unbridled controversies in Nigerian history. One of such steps was to take Nigeria into the then newly established international Organization called OIC. Another was the ceding of Bakasi area of  today’s Cross River State to Cameroon in exchange for the latter’s support in a bid to win the civil war and to prevent the emergence of a rebellious region named Biafra as a separate country. But our immediate concern here is more about Nigeria’s membership of OIC which led to the coinage of the word ‘Islamization’ as a religious blackmail in Nigeria by certain business Christian charlatans who are parading themselves as clerics.

Gowon’s Role in OIC

While the brouhaha in Nigerian media continued to reverberate ceaselessly over the country’s regularization of her membership of OIC in 1986, only a few, well educated and civilized Nigerians, knew the role played by General Yakubu Gowon in the historical episode that ushered Nigeria into that Organization. And, as a charismatic statesman that he is perceived to be in certain quarters, one would have expected General Gowon to openly come out to tell Nigerians about his role in that controversial venture.

How It Happened

It was during Nigeria’s civil war years (1967-1970) that Yakubu Gowon, a Northern Christian General in the Nigerian Army and the country’s Head of State, approached the then Egyptian military Head of State, General Gamal Abdul Nasir, who later transformed himself into a civilian President in that country for help. General Gowon asked that Egyptian President for assistance in winning the then ongoing Nigerian civil war in the spirit of Pan Africanism which President Nasir championed along with the then President Kwami Nkruma of Ghana at that time. And, in addition to helping General Gowon with some sophisticated military wares, President Nasir also introduced him to OIC, which was established in September 1969, in the belief that Gowon could get further help from other member States of the Organization. After all, seeking foreign help internationally was not peculiar to Gowon or Nigeria as a country. The leader of the then rebellious Eastern region, Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, also sought and got military and financial assistance from some countries like France, Germany, Portugal, Israel and others in his bid to succeed in pulling his region out of Nigeria by all means.

Thus, by participating in the very first meeting of of that Organization in 1969, Nigeria became a member of OIC from its inception.

Nigeria’s Observer Status in OIC

For 17 years (1969-1986) after joining OIC at its inception, Nigeria remained an observer member of that Organization until 1986 when her membership was regularized.

As a Deputy Foreign Editor in the now defunct Concord newspaper, at that time, yours sincerely was one of the only two Nigerian journalists that covered that event in Fez, Morocco in January 1986. The other Nigerian Journalist that was in attendacne to cover the conference was Alhaji Liad Tella, the then News Editor of the same Concord newspaper.

Process of Regularisation

Before 1986, Nigeria had been severally pressurized, by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), to regularize her observer membership status. That observer status had embarrassingly become a matter of suspicion to other members of the Organization. And in 1985, Nigeria was given an ultimatum of one year (1986) to either regularize her membership of that Organization or pull out of it. At that point, if Nigeria had failed to regularize her membership of OIC in the following year (1986),  she would have been disgraced out of the body and that would have amounted to a public diplomatic ridicule in the comity of nations.

The Cry of Owl

One of the loudest allegations of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria in recent times is from a dubious, self-appointed   Christian body that names itself National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF). Besides OIC membership, that mischievous body has also severally referred to another Muslim Conference called ‘Islam in Africa Conference’ which was hosted by Nigerian Muslims in the city of Abuja in 1989. That was the year that the Nigerian National Mosque, in Abuja, was officially commissioned. Many African Muslim leaders who attended the commissioning of that Mosque were so impressed that they fortuitously proposed an annual conference under that name, which could unite African Muslims in the practice of their religion as a way of checkmating any act of fanaticism that could breed terrorism. Perhaps if that proposal had materialized, the mence of terrorism that is rampant in Africa today would have been minimized.

Christian Participation

The 1989 Islam in Africa Conference (IAC), held in Abuja was not exclusive to Muslims. Many African Christian leaders including some members of the now so called NCEF were invited and they participated in it with the expression of their opinions and advice on various religious issues in Africa. If the conference was truly aimed at ‘Islamizing’ Nigeria as mischievously alleged by NCEF and CAN, would Christian leaders have been invited? And knowing very well that Nigerian media was heavily dominated by Christian journalists, at that time, would those journalists have been allowed to cover the event?

In its solo or chorus voice, the song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria can be heard only from mischievous brigands who are parading themselves as religious clerics or Priests.

The 1953 West African Synod

About 16 years before General Gowon took Nigeria into OIC, a Christian West Africa Synod was held in Ghana. Many Nigerian Christian clerics who attended that Synod did not participate in it as ordinary members but as vocal leaders. Yet, Nigerian Muslims did not raise any senseless noise that could engender unwarranted religious rivalry on it by tagging that Synod as a venture of Christianizing Nigeria. Nevertheless, Nigerian Muslims are not oblivious of the problem with NCEF, CAN and some other Christian bigots in who are constantly and monotonously shouting the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria as if they have the monopoly of such provoking noise. That the trumpeters of that owlish noise do not see it as a dangerous phantasm, which may cause un-foretold consequences, is a conspicuous  evidence of blatantly dangerous ignorance on the part of the so-called NCEF and even CAN.

Genesis of the Noise

Seven years before Nigeria’s independence, a West African Christian Synod was held in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) with active participation of certain Nigerian Christian leaders, some of whom are still alive today. No Muslim was invited to that Synod.

Synod is a conference of Bishops and other Christian topmost Priests at which fundamental decisions are taken which would become the basis of Church operations in evangelism. It was at that 1953 Synod in Ghana that a resolution to use Western education as an instrument of Christian evangelization in the West African sub-region was adopted. By that resolution, any Muslim child that wanted to acquire Western education in a Christian Missionary school must be converted into Christianity in spite of his or her payment of any charged fees. The fear of the Christian conferees at that Synod was that despite all efforts made by the then available Churches to stop the spread of Islam, that divine religion kept spreading spirally to the greatest amazement of the Christian evangelists in the sub-region. And, to curb such a trend, only an evangelization policy through the use of Western education as a magnet could work like magic. Thus, incorporation of educational system into African Continental evangelism became a fundamental policy through which the trend of religious preaching in Africa could favour the growth of Christianity.

It was by that policy, which had the tacit backing of the Colonial masters, that the use of Western education as an instrument of evangelism became possible. Through that policy, Muslim youths whose parents were eager to see their children educated in the Western way had to adopt Christianity as their religion.

Objectives of the Policy

One of the objectives of the policy formulated at the 1953 West African Synod  was to indoctrinate all converted school children in a way to sow in their hearts the seed of hatred towards their parents for sticking to the religion of Islam and thereby force those parents to psychologically jettison their religion and embrace Christianity or to renounce their children who would then become the foot soldiers of Christian evangelism.

Evangelical Resolution

With such a resolution, as mentioned above, that was backed up with a White Paper which became a permanent policy of the Christian Mission in Africa, Christianity, according to the Synod’s plan, would become such a formidable rival of Islam that within just one half of a century, Islam would have been completely effaced from the surface of African continent and thereby relegated to a second class religion especially in Nigeria. Thus, most of the vocal antagonists of Islam in Nigeria today are men and women with Islamic background who fell into the dragnet of that tendentious plot of the 1953 Synod.

It is the seeming failure of that plot that is now pushing the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria into the mouths of the Christian archers.

Their Clandestine Thought

The front line advocates of that plot are thinking that like their Synod, Muslims too might take a decision which could be devastating to Christian evangelism in Africa.

Conclusion

Now, from all indications, the era of falsehood in religious sphere may be fast approaching its end in Nigeria as it once happened in Europe, since Nigeria’s lifestyle, as a colonial country, is based on the template of that of Britain that colonized her. And, when that happens, the monotonous sour song of ‘islamization’ being echoed almost daily with irritating reverberation will become a faint solo without any chorus.

• ERRATA

In the article entitled ‘Whenever the Sultan Speaks’ published in this column last Friday, August 30, 2020, some errors were inadvertently made which need to be corrected here, for records purpose.

The appointment of Brigadier-General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar as Sultan of Sokoto was announced on November 3, 2006 and not his installation as stated here last Friday.  His Eminence’s installation as Sultan and his assumption of office was in March 2007.

Please, let these facts be noted for record purposes. God bless you all!

FEMI ABBAS

Monologue 

The  Sultan of Sokoto and President General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, is 64 years old. He attained that golden age precisely last Monday, August 24, 2020, a date of birth he shares with the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, the Nigerian President-elect who was prevented from assuming office.

His Eminence was about 50 years old when he ascended the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Caliphate in November, 2006 as the 20th Sultan of that Caliphate. But typical of his exemplary humility and dedication to man’s humanity to man, His Eminence does not celebrate birthday for two reasons:

In emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), he deliberately abstains from ventilating a joyous atmosphere for himself in a situation where many ordinary people are wallowing in penury.

He personally perceives aristocracy of birth, if there is one at all, as a rare privilege rather than a right. To him, such a privilege must not be flamboyantly celebrated in a way to arouse any psychological chagrin in underprivileged people. Thus, instead of sitting down glamorously, last Monday, in his royal palace to celebrate birthday in royal regalia, like his royal colleagues, His Eminence was in Kaduna to deliberate with the Governor of that State and share thoughts and ideas with him on how to settle the crisis in the Southern part of that State. That was because, as usual, the Sultan abhors any act of violence let alone killings and counter killings as a perennial case in that State.

That is Sultan Mahammad Sa’ad Abubakar for you. And, he had embarked on similar mission severally in most parts of the country ever since he ascended the Sultanate’s throne in 2006.

Preamble

Leaders are not those who ascribe leadership to themselves politically by whim or by caprice. The real leaders are the very few ones who are sincerely acknowledged by their followers, publicly or privately, as effective leaders in intent and in action. This Sultan is a typical example of the latter category. The great man’s leadership traits are not, in anyway, hidden. He neither speaks just to be heard nor acts just to be seen. His utterances which are in tandem with his actions, are always timely and meaningful, not just for the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, but also, for the entire black race. And, he combines certain qualities, the likes of which distinguished the second Caliph in Islam, Umar Bn Khattab, clearly among the first four Caliphs.

For Nigerian Muslims of today, Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar is a vivid reminder of Umar Bn Khattab’s leadership prowess at the early stage of Islam. This Sultan is a bold and charismatic soldier like Umar Bn Khattab. He is visionary, firm, humble and affable like Umar Bn Khattab. And, he believes so much in leadership by example just like Umar Bn Khattab. Perhaps that is why he is so close to the ordinary people in his day to day running of the Sultanate administration in Sokoto and that of the NSCIA just as Umar Bn Khattab was.

His royal antecedent

Over a decade ago, Sultan Abubakar spoke passionately with touching concern, at a public function, on three important issues, each of which is now vividly manifesting in Nigeria. First, he advised the three tiers of government to use the then booming oil revenue to ventilate the economic environment for possible mass employment of the teeming youths in the country. Secondly, he warned the people in government, at that time, against sustenance of mass unemployment of youths which he described as a time bomb that could explode anytime. Thirdly, he attributed the rising rate of criminal tendencies in the country to mass unemployment of able bodied youths and ravaging poverty in the land. He then cautioned those in government against criminal consequences of that ugly situation. At the time the Sultan made that speech, the menace of banditry, kidnapping and Boko Haram /ISWAP insurgency had not become as much a threat as they are today.

Admonition

On the occasion at which he delivered the above mentioned highly valuable speech, His Eminence also admonished Nigerian Muslims not to be bellicose towards non-Muslims in reaction to provocative utterances and obnoxious conducts of some disgruntled charlatans in the country who were masquerading in the cloak of religion.

He counselled the Ummah to rather educate any non-Muslim who might want to tread the path of religious transgression against Islam than resort to hate speech and mudslinging. In that speech, His Eminence concluded that it was only in a peaceful atmosphere that people of diverse spiritual and temporal backgrounds could comfortably co-exist in a multi religious and multi tribal society like Nigeria.

Impact of his leadership

Since his assumption of office as the Sultan, the impact of His Eminence’s leadership both as a royal father and the Commander of Nigerian Muslim Ummah as well as the CUSTODIAN OF NIGERIA’S NATIONAL MOSQUE, has been unprecedented in history. This Sultan is one of the most mobile personalities in thoughts and in action in Nigeria as well as in the entire world. The reverberating echoes of the historic lectures about peace and harmony which he delivered at Harvard and Oxford Universities in 2011 are vehement attestation to the above assertion about his leadership.

In Retrospect

When this great man was five years old on the throne in 2011, yours sincerely wrote an article about him in this column which remains as relevant today as it was then. An excerpt from that article is as follows:

“In every crowd of horizontal men there is always one vertical man who deserves honour not much because of his vertical position but because of the significant difference which that position makes in a society.”

History and Man

“History and man are like Siamese twins or a pair of scissors. The one cannot function effectively without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. And, the reciprocal baton that symbolises their togetherness continues to change hands between them as long as they remain in existence”.

“In November 2006, an official announcement of the sighting of a human crescent which had remained hidden in the firmaments of the orbit was made. That crescent turned out to be the towering personality generally known today as the Sultan of Sokoto. His name, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar did not ring any bell in Nigeria before the referred historic announcement. But thereafter, he was crowned ‘The Sultan of Sokoto’ precisely on November 6, 2006.

Thus, the emergence of Brigadier General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (rtd.) as the successor to the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Caliphate without any controversy came as a surprise to many Nigerians. At 50 years of age then, many people thought that he was one of the youngest men to ascend that throne in many decades. But he humbly disagreed with that assumption as he recalled that his own father, Sultan Abubakar Sadiq III who died in 1988 ascended the throne at the age of 37.

His pedigree

With a sound military background coupled with a sound intellectual aristocracy and a high level diplomatic exposure, this Sultan has been perceived, since coming into office, as a millennial royal Commander divinely designated to pilot the affairs of Islam and the Muslim Ummah with unequalled success.

Philosophers’ assertion

Given the qualities highlighted above, only a few people will want to disagree with the Philosophers who once asserted that every new century has a way of producing a great leader. The example Dr. Abubakar is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office of the Sultan 14 years ago (2006), this great man has convincingly exemplified all the qualities of genuine leadership in an aura of personification. Every statement he has made socially, religiously or politically and every action he has taken publicly or privately has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people continue to learn one lesson or another.

As ABU Chancellor

Five years after his assumption of office, the symbiotic relationship of history and man was reconfirmed in Zaria, on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), when a galaxy of well-meaning men and women from all walks of life and from all parts of the world, assembled to say “we are here to bear witness”. That was the day His Eminence was installed as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. The occasion was just one of many on which laurels that have been accruing to him since he assumed the royal office as Sultan.

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 Ummah that the time has come for the reformation, not only of the NSCIA, but also of the Sultanate.

Education in Islam

In Islam, education is the first law. It is only through it that man can understand life in all its ramifications. That was why Allah’s very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Qur’an, ordained education for Muslims thus: “Read in the name of Allah Who created; He created man from clots of blood; Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught man by the pen; He taught man what he (man) did not know…”Q. 96:1-4.

To further emphasise the compelling need for education in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said in one Hadith that “knowledge is a lost treasure. Muslims should search for it and pick it wherever they could find it”.

But information is the main source of education just as education is the source of knowledge. Without information there can be no education. And without education there can be no progress. That is why the Sultan started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of education. It is only with education that most problems in man’s 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 poverty as in Nigeria. Thus, he has consistently focused on both.

Installation as Chancellor

At his installation as the Chancellor of ABU 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 the fact that despite the nation’s unprecedented resources, development had failed to match the national wealth.

In his words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks, fueling and confounding social conflicts even as inter-communal crisis has extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property”. He went further to say that: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.” He also noted that no reformation of the tertiary education sector in the country could be effective without putting in place, the progressive developments required in the basic and senior secondary education sectors”. His Eminence insisted that: “our state governments, especially those of the North, must begin to realize the enormity of the challenges facing the education sector and take urgent and necessary steps to address these challenges.” He lauded the founding fathers of the ABU, particularly, the late Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and urged the authorities of the school to continue to abide by the cardinal principles on which the institution was founded.

Royal voice against corruption

This Nigeria’s renascent Sultan is a man who, though at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort still feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who are hopelessly consigned to the weeding of the shrubs by official policies. He has never relented in his advocacy for good governance, denunciation of corruption and religious intolerance.

Interfaith Engagements

When His Eminence was invited in January 2010 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 quite electrifying as usual.

Electoral Reform

In his special counsel to the National Assembly, and indeed all tiers of Government, His Eminence said those in government should not relent in their efforts to engineer electoral reform and to ensure that Nigerians have a genuine electoral process that guarantees free and fair elections. “Unless and until we do that, our nation will continue to be haunted by the unholy alliance between fraudulent elections and illegitimate electoral outcomes, the consequences of which we all know very well. We must break away from this vicious circle and confer on Nigerians the power and indeed the ability to decide, freely and willingly, who leads them at all levels of governance”.

“….There is also the urgent need for us to re-evaluate our conception of leadership as a nation…. needless to add, that there is no way we can make genuine progress as a nation when a significant number of our populace wallows in abject poverty unable to secure the requisite means for their sustenance and to cater for the health and educational needs of their families. Democracy must build a humane society capable of looking after the legitimate needs of its citizenry. For it to be truly successful, it must be able to bring real progress to all sectors of our diverse society. “Finally we must all work hard to limit the influence of wealth in our society and to support those values that promote social responsibility, excellence and hard work”. Now, where is the role of birth in all these?

Grassroots Interaction

Sultan Abubakar is, no doubt, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them in solving those problems. Through his humble interaction with all Muslims in Nigeria irrespective of tribal or geographical boundaries, he has become the first Sultan to create a strong feeling of a united Muslim Ummah under a competent and kind leader. And 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 leader deserves allegiance, loyalty and regular prayer from the Ummah. We pray for the elongation of his life with very sound health and continued Allah’s guidance. Amin!

By Femi Abass

Breaking news are invariably the causes of throbs in the media waves. They hardly come without carrying with them some disturbingly touching effects. Sometimes such effects may be positive and comforting but most times they are negative, discomforting and heart breaking.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020, was another day of throbbing news that fortuitously ravaged the global media waves with a reverberating effect that broke the hearts of many Nigerian Muslim brothers and sisters.

The mission of that breaking news was to report the saddening sudden death of the Director of Administration of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Mallam Yusuf Chinodezie Nwoha who died in a road accident in Okene, Kogi State, on his way to Imo State for the celebration of Eidul Adha festival.

The jitters that accompanied that news alone were like missiles of thunderbolt which often hit to kill.

That was the fortuitous situation that came to forcefully remind us of a philosophical statement with which Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, succinctly opened the introduction to his autobiography entitled ‘My Odyssey’ which was published in 1970. The statement went thus:

“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 causes 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”.

Preamble

When the great sage popularly known as ‘ZIK of AFRICA’ was writing that philosophical analysis of human life he hardly had the thought of any serious Igbo Muslim in mind. But incidentally, just nine years after the publication of that book, a young Igbo man by name Clifford Chinodezie Nwoha, from today’s Imo State, got an unusual divine guidance that prompted him to change his faith and to adopt a new name, Yusuf, as a reflection of the beaming light of Islam that brightly illuminated his way in life within the darkness of his cultural environment.

Thus, like Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer ever in history, who fortuitously embraced Islam in Kenturkey, United States, in 1961, Yusuf became a rightly guided Muslim in 1979 at Bayero University where he embarked on an intellectual journey in search of a spiritual identity. And, also, like Muhammad Ali, Yusuf Nwoha held on tenaciously, not only to the guiding light of Islam but also to the unbreakable universal cord of Islamic brotherhood until he left the shores of the earth 48 hours before the Eidul Adha of 1441 AH (year 2020) lat week.

Igbo Muslims

One major fact that most Muslims do not seem to know about Igbo Muslims is their utmost readiness to be well informed about Islam, an intellectual trait that has made them the most Islamically educated tribal group of Muslims. They are though conspicuously overwhelmed by the gross disadvantage of minority within their tribal environment; they have, nevertheless, succeeded in turning that disadvantage into a formidable advantage. Without them, Islam would have remained alien to the Southeast. Today, an average Igbo man or woman does not embrace Islam except on the template of knowledge with which he/she can confirm the required spiritual conviction.

Meanwhile, like most Muslim brothers and sisters from the Eastern region, Mallam Yusuf Nwoha effectively exemplified that impeccable trait. Alhamdu Lillah!

REACTIONS

Following the reverberating effect of the breaking news that revealed brother Yusuf Nwoha’s demise, a torrent of lamentations started to fall like a heavy rain across tribes, regions and nations. He was like an autumn comet that was eclipsed by a densely thick cloud. Some spectacular excerpts from those lamentations are quoted here for brothers and sisters who may care to read them for posterity sake. They are as follows:

NSCIA

After a long period of unspeakable devastation arising from Nwoha’s demise, the Secretary General of NSCIA, Prof Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede reluctantly spoke. Here is what he was able to mutter on behalf of the Council:

“When it comes to talking about this transient life only Allah knows what is next for every soul from minute to minute. As human beings, our track is abstract. And, that track is our destiny which is inscribed on an invisible slate.

Who could have foreseen or guessed that 48 hours before Eidul Adha, last week, Mallam Yusuf Chinodezie Nwoha would be no more alive?

He was a gentleman to the core, a true Muslim for that matter. He was quite intelligent, cool-headed, deeply calculative and thorough in thought and in actions.

His assumption of office as Director of Administration of NSCIA was not just a glittering hope but also a stabilising factor for the council. But now, that factor has become in an unforeseeable forlorn. It was his dignified personality that encouraged the council to nominate him to the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) as a Commissioner to represent NSCIA on that Board. The exit of Mallam Nwoha is not, in anyway, minor.

While praying for the repose of his distinguished soul in eternal bliss and seeking Allah’s mercy to make Al-Jannah Firdaws his final abode, the NSCIA also seeks Allah’s mercy for his family’s divine fortitude with which to bear the loss.

Prof Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede,

NSCIA Secretary General

NAHCON

As soon as the hint of the road accident that claimed Mallam Yusuf Nwoha’s life came with confirmation, the Chairman/CEO of the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan rose like a commander on a battle arena and promptly partnered with NSCIA’s Secretary General, Prof Ishaq Oloyede in arranging the next line of action. They jointly sent a delegation of two staffs each from NSCIA and NAHCON with enough amount of money to settle the cost of ambulance, mortuary and conveyance of the corpse from Kogi State where the accident occurred to Imo, the home State of the deceased. And, like Prof Oloyede, Alhaji Hassan quietly but reluctantly expressed his feeling about Nwoha’s demise as follows on behalf of NAHCON:

“As decreed by the creator of the universe, “every soul shall taste of death….With this reality and total submission to the will of the Most High. I, the Chairman, the Board members, management and the entire staff of NAHCON received the shocking news of the fatal accident that claimed the life of one of our own, Mallam Yusuf Chinodezie Nwoha.

Until his death, Mallam Nwoha was a NAHCON Board member representing the NSCIA. Within the short life of this Board, the deceased made meaningful suggestions on improving Hajj participation from Nigeria’s South-East region, his birth place.

Mallam Nwoha’s short spell in the commission conjures up an image of a focused and dedicated operative ever willing to break new grounds for the development of his set goal. His demise has left a void far more profound than can be imagined.

May I  also use this solemn period to remind us all how transcient life is with the hope that we may utilise the time we have in impacting positively on advancement of mankind.

May the Infinite Lord have mercy on Mallam Yusuf Nwoha’s kind soul and console his family on this insuperable loss.

NAHCON Chairman/CEO Alhaji Zikrullah Hassan

JAIZ BANK

Being a bank for both NSCIA and NAHCON, with which Mallam Nwoha was quite familiar while alive,  the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Charity and Development Foundation of that Bank, Dr Abdullahi Shuaib, became so passionately disturbed that he chose to express his personal feeling about the sad event in writing as follows:

“….My relationship with Mallam Yusuf Nwoha started over a decade ago when I served as Private Confidential Secretary (pro bono) to the late Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, the former Secretary-General of the NSCIA at several meetings under the auspices of NSCIA.

I met the late Mallam Yusuf when the late Dr Adegbite had a parley with some of the leaders of the Igbo Communities in the Southeast. Mallam Yusuf was very quiet and humble at the parley. He talked only when the need became necessary for him to elucidate a point. He was also very intelligent and eloquent”.

According to Dr. Shuaib, “Mallam Nwoha was a grassroots Igbo Muslim leader who had the interest of his people, both Muslims and non-Muslims at heart. He was detribalised and respected both the young and the elderly so much so that he earned the respect and love of the Igbo communities, especially in Owerri, Imo State. What made Nwoha stand out vertically among his contemporaries was that Mallam Yusuf was a principled person in his dealings with people of different walks of life as he had zero tolerance for injustice”….

“Alhaji Nwoha was well accepted by the Imolites on both sides of religious divide because of his exemplary character.” Which made him “a rare gem….”

Dr. Abdullah Shuaib

CEO, Jaiz Charity and Development Foundation

KUNLE SANNI

What a season of death, what a season of sadness.

Alhaj Yusuf Nwoha has also left us. Yusuf was unequivocally one of the best among us. He accepted Islam in 1979 and acquired the necessary knowledge of Islam with the speed of sound. He was educated at Bayero University Kano. We, in NACOMYO, employed  him as Director  of our Islamic  Propagation Center In Owerri financed by the then Baba Adinni  of Yorubaland, Alhaj  MKO Abiola, before he was employed by INEC where he retired  as Deputy Director sometime last year. Due to his dynamism and honesty  he was  employed  as the Director  of  Administration  of NSCIA. We spoke on Monday, July 27, 2020 without knowing that we were I was discussing with him for the last time. Yusuf was one of the most dedicated brothers from theSoutheast. He was dynamic and humble to a fault.  Oh Allah! You know why you are taking away the best among  us but we seek  your mercy, halt this trend, forgive Yusuf and admit him to Al-Jannat  Firdaws. Make his family steadfast on the part of Islam.

Kunle Sanni

Chairman, Oyo State Muslim Community

MSSN

We appreciate Allah for the life of our brother, Alhaji Yusuf Nwoha. We testify that he lived a meaningful life and served well in the path of da’awah. He was one of the brothers who usually facilitate MSSN activities in Southeast region of the country where Muslims are in the minority. His commitment to the religion of Islaam despite the non-conducive nature of the area lend credence to his commitment to virtue that he believed in.

May Allah reward him with Al Jannah and grant his family and the Ummah the fortitude to bear this serious loss.

Taofeeq Yekinni, MSSN National Amir

NACOMYO

The late Nwoha was a reliable gentleman and strong Islamic devotee who can be trusted with responsibility. Brother Yusuf was quiet thorough, organised, trustworthy and a dependable Islamic worker.

He was quiet, yet a goal getter whose noble conduct qualified him for nomination to represent the NSCIA on NAHCON’s Board.

We pray Allah to forgive his shortcomings and grant him divine mercy that his soul can be reposed in eternal bliss.

Kamaldeen Akintunder

Former National Amir of NACOMYO 

MMPN

Words cannot express the depth of our grief but as Muslims we have no choice other than to submit to Allah’s will. We take solace in the good life Brother Yusuf led. We testify that he was a Muslim who lived a life of service to Allah and to humanity.

May Allah accept his contributions as sadakatun jarriyyah. May Allah reserve for him a noble place in Al-Jannah Firdaus.

Hajiya Fatima

National Amirah, FOMWAN

MMPN

The news of the sudden death of our dear Brother and media-friendly administrator,  Malam Yusuf Nwoha on Wednesday July 29, 2020 came to us as a rude shock.

The death of Malam Nwoha is a reminder to all of us that death is certain and we should prepare for it at any time.

Events culminated to his death when he had an accident in Okene on his way to his home town Owerri for Eid- Adha celebration with his family was quite unfortunate.

It is disheartening that the Ummah lost Yusuf Nwoha when his services are needed most, especially at the NSCIA, where he was the Director of Administration

We are, however, consoled that he died as a Martyr and pray to Allah to grant his immediate family, the NSCIA and the entire Muslim Ummah the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss and grant him Al-Janah Fridaws. Aamin.

Abdur-Rahman Balogun (ARAB) 

National President, Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN)

FEMI ABBAS

Monologue 

Today, Friday, July 31, 2020, is Eidul Adha day of year 1441 AH throughout the world. This Eid is a festival of joy

and festivities in Islam which confirms the religious ancestry of Prophet Ibrahim’s faith.

It is the anticlimax of the last pillar of Islam called Hajj. Eidul Adha 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 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 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 festivity for majority of Muslims have been banished in this country. Thus, many Muslims are celebrating today’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 ending up in a painful nightmare. That is an indicator of indefinite despair.

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. Those were the days of friendliness among neighbours, sincere wishes among colleagues, mutual confidence among spouses as well as general peace and tranquility in the society.

Now, those days are gone. And they seem to have gone forever.

A Couplet of Warning

Today, we have found ourselves in a situation against which we had long been warned in a couplet rendered by an Arab poet quoting two disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) i. e. 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 situation.

Ordinarily, in normal circumstances, a forward-looking country would have encouraged her citizenry to ask some probing questions thus: Who are we? Where are we coming from? And where are we going from here? Those are some of the probing   questions which all rational human beings should ask themselves constantly.

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

That very question is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerian civil servants, politicians, legislators, the law enforcement agents and judicial officers, days and nights in their quest for wealth through fraudulent means. It is the question that robes Nigerian Police in a garment of open shamelessness with a banished conscience.

It is the question that crowns money as a demigod which forbids human feeling. It is the question that fosters greed and fetters Nigeria to the stake of endemic corruption. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerians as the only valuable substance worthy of pursuit.

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 mountains all of which are great sources of wealth for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive. What this country lacks is a class of responsible and patriotic leaders who can sincerely highlight its priorities according to the yearnings of the ordinary people.

That food 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 turned into despair.

Cost of governance

In Nigeria today, the cost of running the government alone is enough to render the country bankrupt. The retinue of federal ministers and a galaxy of Presidential and gubernatorial Advisers as well as the unlimited allowances for the legislators are major 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’ farms to justify this? Why must we retain an obnoxious immunity clause in our constitution for certain political demagogues to facilitate monumental corruption?

Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances running into billions of naira for our legislators without anything to show for it at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food 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 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 rail transportation system, without jobs for majority of the 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.

No learn Lesson

Today, Nigeria is not afflicted by drought or famine.

She is not engaged in a war. Yet, Nigerian government has not learnt any lesson from any of the above named countries simply because there is oil in large deposit. Now, the general fear in the land is that of hunger even in times of festivals.

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

Irony

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

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 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”. Eid Mubarak!