The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Abbas

  • In Quest of a ‘Yusuf’

    Monologue

    This article is not new. It was first written and published in this column about one decade ago. Yet, the situation that warranted its writing and publication at that time has not waned a bit. Thus, a repeat of its publication here today is at the request of some readers who still consider it potent.
    From all indications, Nigeria is a divinely blessed country that ironically functions like an accursed nation. After 59 years of independence from the British colonialism, this country’s stagnancy remains unprecedented in contemporary time. She is like a beheaded python in the only continent of the black race. And her citizens live like orphans without hope in the midst of hungry predators. In this circumstance, how to reconcile hope with despair in those orphans remains a fundamental question that requires a fundamental answer.

    Preamble

    This world is a dramatic entity mysteriously coded in parables. Every living thing therein sees it and relates to it according to its own nature of existence. It takes history to decode it only after the actors might have left the stage. Who are we? Where are we coming from? And where are we going from here? Those are some of the questions which all rational human beings should be asking themselves from time to time.

    But such questions have been rendered irrelevant in Nigeria because the circumstances of life have changed the priorities of the citizens. The only question now in vogue, which everybody seems to be answering, is this: ‘what am I getting from this?’ It is a material world that paved the way for what now becomes an endemic corruption in the land.

     

    A Dramatic Question

    The question above is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerians of all strata. It is the question that crowns money as the king of the world. It is the question that fosters greed with the milk of callousness and fetters humanity to the stake of Satan. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerian youths as the only substance worthy of pursuit. Incidentally, however, no genuine attempt to proffer a befitting answer to that all-time question has ever been made by any government in power. And in reality, if proffered, such an answer would have confirmed the ephemerality of this world against the common yearning for illicit prosperity which even most of today’s so-called clergy are preaching to the detriment of societal decency.

     

    The Parable of a Country

    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 Israelites of Moses’ time, Nigerians have become typical gypsies just wandering about 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?

    What is Nigeria not blessed with? We have land in abundance, not in terms of size alone but also in terms of agrarian soil and rich vegetation. At least over 77 million hectares of land is said to be arable in Nigeria. Out of this, less than 34 million hectares is reportedly being cultivated for various agricultural activities including husbandry. This has even dwindled to about 23 million square hectares as insurgency and banditry keep forcing more and more rural youths to troop to cities and towns for survival and imaginary greener pastures.

     

    Nigeria’s Endowments

    As a country, we are blessed with rainfalls to water our plants from the sky and to graze our animals to satisfaction. We are endowed with variety of nourishing food crops that are enough to feed us from generation to generation without importing any edible from anywhere.

    The Qur’an testifies to this in chapter 80 thus: “Let man reflect on the food he eats; how ‘We’ pour down the rain in torrents and cleave the earth asunder; how ‘We’ bring forth the corn, the grapes, the fresh vegetables, the olive, the palm products, the thickets, the fruit-trees and the green pasture for you and for your cattle to delight in…” Allah’s favour is regular and incessant. We cannot deny it for any reason.

     

    The Country’s Workforce

    In addition to the aforementioned, we have energetic and dedicated work force that is married to the farmlands, plants, fishery and animal husbandry in Nigeria. We also have intellectual brains that engage in researches days and nights to ensure agricultural enhancement of our country.

    Nigeria is not lacking in forest and savannah. She is rich in rivers and mountains all of which are great resources for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive.

    What we had consistently lacked as a nation is a responsible leadership that should care to preserve our foremost heritage which is agriculture. That shortage of  foods is becoming a threat to Nigerians’ existence today is purely due to lack of responsible leadership especially since the commencement of the fourth republic in 1999.

     

    First Baton of Misfortune

    Nigeria’s misfortune started when the first baton of the Presidency in 1999 was handed over to a parochial ‘prisoner’ who had lost contact with reality of free world of the modern time. On his assumption of office in that year, some die hard Nigerian optimists saw him as a reincarnate of the Yusuf of yore would rescue Nigeria from an impending scourge of famine. But no sooner had he become President than Nigerians realized that the man who was thought to be a Yusuf coming from the prison to transform Nigeria’s dream into reality was actually a parochial Mathew.

    As a farmer that he claimed to be, he had been expected to act like Chairman Mao of China who started the revolution of his country with agricultural self-sufficiency. But this Mathew eventually confirmed that a man cannot give what he lacks. He proved that that he was never tutored in any decency that could facilitate good governance. Those who imposed him on Nigeria have since openly confessed their calamitous error expressing a belated regret and liking their bleeding fingers with internal agony. Today, Nigeria is worse than she was two decades ago with successive display of mediocrity by those taking turns to be at the helm of affairs.

     

    Evidence of Parochialism

    Not only did the first relay leg of Nigeria’s fourth republic parochially promote cassava alone, of all crops, and pushed many farmers into cultivating it as a cash crop, he also ensured that most small scale farmers made no headway in their efforts. No rural roads were provided to enable those farmers transport their farm products to markets in cities and towns and no iota of incentive for those farmers from his government. And when the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), an active arm of the United Nations, attempted to bail out Nigeria from his devilish antics by granting small scale farmers a substantial financial aid in the name of ‘FADAMA’, the news only ended on radio as a mere announcement.

    The money, (N50 billion naira), meant to boost agriculture through peasant farmers became a booty for the hawks among some government officials and their lackeys in the private sector.

    Those poor farmers ran helter-skelter for some time seeking loans that were pegged at N250000 naira per head without getting one kobo. All sorts of huddles were erected on their ways until they became frustrated and rested their case with God.

    The only farmer who was conspicuously known to have benefited directly from that money was the President himself who arrogantly announced on a television network, during a Presidential media chart in 2006, that he got a whopping N2 billion for his farm as loan from the money meant for the peasants. Can you imagine that callous greed?

     

    The State Governments

    Most of the State Governors of that time did not help the matter. Rather than focusing on agriculture which was the natural occupational endowment of their respective States, those gold diggers preferred to depend on oil largesse coming to them from the federal government through the so-called allocation revenue sharing. To them, such a quicker way of making money for themselves rather than for their States was more beneficial than investing in agriculture which could only yield results perhaps years after they might have left office.

     

    The Cost of Democracy

    In Nigeria, the cost of a democratic dispensation alone is enough to run the country aground. As a third world developing country, what are we doing with over 40 federal ministers and scores of Presidential Senior Special Advisers as well a retinue of personal Assistants when even America with her huge economic resource, large population and financial wherewithal has only about ten ministers? Why must we have different ministers for agriculture and water resources? Where is the federal government’s farm to justify that?

    Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances for Senators and other legislators, at the federal and state levels costing the country billions of naira, especially at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food which is a foremost necessity of life?

    No one would have thought 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 during the wasted years of 2003 to 2014.

     

    Artful Trick

    Governance in Nigeria has become an artful trick adopted to bamboozle the populace into blind submission. The propaganda in the 1980s spearheaded by Professor Gerry Gana, the then Chairman of Mass Mobilization for Structural Adjustment (MAMSA) was almost hypnotizing: ‘food and shelter for all in the year 2000!’ That slogan was changed in the 1990s to: ‘Vision 2010!’ And when year 2010 was fast approaching, the slogan changed again to: ‘Vision 2020!

    Now, in 2019 without roads, without electricity, without rail transportation system, without jobs for majority of the able-bodied citizens, without security and even without food on our tables, how can we hope to become one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in year 2020 as the propagandists had deceptively projected? Isn’t that a day dream? It takes two to tango. If the deceivers can pretend not to know that a game of deception is in place, the deceived populace surely know even if they also pretend to play along. No country in history is ever known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic wand. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

     

    FAO Report

    In an FAO report some years ago, about 300 Nigerians were said to be dying of hunger daily. Only God knows what that figure has risen to become now. Yet, rather than reacting to that sad news positively to the rescue of the people, our callously deceptive government continued to assure us of becoming one of the biggest economies in the world in year 2020 even as the easy money accruing from our petroleum resources was being audaciously stolen with unbridled impunity to the detriment of the masses.

    However, by some actions he took during his tenure, the late President Musa Yar’Adua of the blessed memory remains commendable for showing the example of governance with human face and human heart. At least as a first measure, he earmarked N80 billion for food importation and announced a suspension of all tariffs on imported food items to the immediate relief of all and sundry at that time. He also released grains from the national silos to check inflation and pumped N400 billion into the economy for the purpose of creating about 10 million jobs then. Though, such measures were far from being adequate for a country which was aspiring to become one of the biggest economies in 2020, the move was generally seen as a good beginning of a hopeful future.

    However, as soon as Yar’Adua died, all progressive steps were suspended and the national treasury was thrown open for audacious thieves to scoop upon with impunity. Thereafter, open day official theft became a means of winning medals and earning national honour than the shameful act it used to be in the time of Yar’Adua.

    Now, the government needs to be told that no miracle can yield any success based on a ramshackle foundation laid down for Nigerian economy by a Mathew (from the prison) who, as President, could hardly reason beyond the siege mentality of the prison yard from where he had emerged.

     

    Memory Lane

    Yusuf (Joseph), the son of Ya’qub (Jacob), did not know that he could have any solution to a fundamental problem of a country other than his own. Neither did his brothers who sold him into slavery know that he could be a solution to a major problem in another land. But the accident of history never ceases to play itself out. Without Yusuf, only Allah knows what the history of Egypt would have been today. And without a Pharaoh’s dream of drought, the story of Yusuf would have been totally different from what we now know 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 repeat of that episode here in Nigeria, turned out to be a regrettable bizarre as most national assets were sold and bought by the so-called rulers in the name of privatization. The rest is now left to history.

    I was a student in Egypt in the 1970s when the hostility between that country and Israel was fierce. Egypt was then an ally of the (now defunct) Soviet Union while Israel was virtually a satellite of the United States. Not only did Egypt suffer isolation from NATO member countries of Europe and America but the Soviet Union which was supposed to be the main ally of Egypt was not forthcoming with any meaningful assistance beyond the supply of light and medium range weapons. Thus, the Egyptian government had to buckle in firmly in other to fend for its people at that critical time.

     

    Egyptian Template

    Realizing the importance of food supply especially in a war situation, Egypt mobilized all her agricultural resources around the River Nile and forgot about any food importation. The result was tremendous. Till today, food supply is not a major problem in that country.

     

    Uganda for Instance

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

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

    Today, besides the flooding in some States, Nigeria is not afflicted by drought or famine. Neither is she engaged in a major war besides fighting insurgency and banditry. Yet, the general fear in vogue now, is hunger compounded by insecurity. How the country 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.

    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. President Yar’Adua’s short time leadership was a lesson for those who want to learn. Given all the resources with which we are endowed as a country, Nigerians should have no business with poverty let alone food crisis.

     

    Cause of Insecurity

    In one of the reactions to this column which I received and published recently, a reader raised alarm over the persisting poverty in Nigeria pointing out that “about 97% of Nigerian wealth is in the hands of 3% of Nigerians who are mainly in government”. This has consistently been the hub of Nigeria’s version of democracy which led to the collapse of the country’s first, second and third republics. The implication of that reader’s observation is that 97% of the populace is being forced to scramble for the remaining 3% of the national wealth. Why won’t there be insecurity in the land? Wherever injustice replaces law, restiveness must serve as a consequence.

    Capitalism, which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism, has moved a step ahead, especially in Nigeria where official theft has become a profession.

     

    Effect of Capitalism

    Capitalism is now a religion through which its adherents worship money. To such adherents, accountability is a mere riddle which only the poor may want to unravel.

    It is only in the interest of those in government, especially the legislators who are most active in sharing public funds, to let the national wealth spread across board legitimately if only to avoid the current situation of Nigerian estates 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 an encounter with insecurity in all its ramifications.

    Where people are well educated and conscious of their rights; where they perceive wealth as a matter of opportunity and not the exclusive right of any group; where they see themselves as qualified but denied their legitimate entitlements; nobody can consign them to ignominy indefinitely. They will react in no uncertain terms. That has started in Nigeria but it must not be allowed to linger. Let Nigeria grow from a country into a nation that we may all be proud to be her citizens.

  • Trump’s World War Plan

    This article is an update to of the previous one earlier published in this column on the same subject. The need for the update is due to the diehard nature of the subject in question.

    Preamble

    Today, if for a tentative relief as a matter of change, ‘The Message’ column is migrating from the chronic insanity of Nigeria’s political tempest to an implacable global imbroglio being vaingloriously engineered by a disastrous American ‘Trump’ through a disastrous American war furnace. Perhaps through such a migration, a way of ventilating a momentarily peaceful atmosphere for peace-loving innocent Nigerians may be paved.

     

    Trump’s Predation

    At the instance of an accidental American President, Donald Trump, who seems to be the modern day American Fuhrer, an unexpected global war may soon break out, the consequences of which no contemporary human being may be able to predict with precision. As a matter of fact, this assertion had been on the global front burner for quite some time gathering momentum for a possible cataclysmic shudder and signalling a dangerously swinging pendulum of war. And that signal was coming from nowhere other than the devil’s own country called the United States of America (USA).

    When and how that impending war will break out is now a curious matter of guess for genuinely concerned people of the world.

     

    Genesis of the Imbroglio

    A few days ago, Al-Jazeera Television throbbed with breaking news of an American military drone that was fortuitously shot down by the Iranian National Guards in Iranian territory. That was the second time a dangerous   accident of that nature would occur in the same territory in less than a decade. It is on record that about years ago, an American war plane strayed into the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the troops of the latter nation promptly sot it down. The incident occurred when Dr. Barak Obama was the President of the US. And that incident looked like the climax of an American allegation that Iran was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, especially, nuclear armaments. That disturbing development which dragged Iran to the United Nation’s Security Council for explanation further heightened the already existing tension between the US and Iran which had been mutually antagonistic to each other for decades.

    The tension between both countries started in 1979 with the Iranian revolution that uprooted Iran’s imperial despotism that had caged the Iranian people for scores of years under that country’s last despotic monarch, Muhammad Pahlavi.

     

    US’ Reaction

    In reaction to the fortuitous incident of the US intrusion, about four years ago, which led to Iran’s prompt military reaction, the US authorities said that the destination of the shot American military aircraft was Afghanistan and not Iran. They explained that the pilot of the   plane only accidentally lost control and strayed into Iranian territory.

     

    A Siege on British Embassy

    Shortly before the above narrated incident, Some Iranian students had laid siege on the British Embassy, in Tehran, in protest against what they called an intolerable meddling by the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s government, in the internal affairs of Iran. And in retaliation to that siege, Britain quickly evacuated her diplomats in Tehran and sent the Iranian diplomats in London packing despite Iran’s regret and apology over those students’ unauthorized action. And in solidarity with Britain, the French government also followed suit by issuing a 48 hour ultimatum to Iranian quit France.

     

    Reoccurrence

    In reaction to the reoccurrence of the above incident last week, the American ‘Fuhrer’, Donald Trump, said “Iran had made a big mistake for which she would pay heavily”. But when the world media pressed him to further explain what he meant by that statement, he simply asked them to wait and see what would happen next. His argument was that Iran had no right to shoot down the American drone because that drone was operating at the international and not Iranian territory. However, a detailed show of the encounter by Al-Jazeera confirmed that the drone actually intruded into Iranian territory without the permission of Iranian authorities.

     

    Genesis of Faceoff

    The genesis of the faceoff between the West and Iran actually took roots in the latter’s unexpected revolution of 1979 which caused a diplomatic row between the two geographical blocks. That row actually started in February 1979, when Iran jumped democratically onto the world stage with a fortuitous revolution that held the Arab States of the Gulf region spellbound. The revolution was the climax of the struggle, in Iran, which began in 1963 between the oppressed people who were seeking emancipation from the shackles of proxy American imperialism and the implacable internal oppressors who wanted to keep that country’s innocent peasants in perpetual subservience to enable them maintain the ugly status quo of the time.

    It was the miraculous success of that revolution that altered the grand design of the Western powers for the Muslim world.

     

    The Grand Design

    The West’s grand design for the Muslim world through the Middle East was first expressed in 1902 by a British Prime Minister, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman when he observed as follows: “There are people who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources.  They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language and the same aspiration. No natural barriers can isolate them from one another….If, per chance, these people were to be unified into one state it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never- ending wars. It could also serve as a spring board for the West to gain its coveted objects”.

     

    Follow Up

    Sir Bannerman’s observation was in further pursuit of an earlier demand by an Austrian Jewish lawyer and Journalist, Theodor Herzl, the initiator and leader of the Zionist movement founded in 1879. In the euphoria of a chauvinist’s ambition, shortly after the establishment of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, made a demand thus: “Let sovereignty be granted us (the Jews) over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation. The rest, we shall manage by ourselves…”

     

    The Balfour Declaration

    In response to the West’s clandestine agenda many decades after Herzl’s demand, another British Prime Minister, James Arthur Balfour, issued a devastatingly insensitive declaration that now bears his name in history. That seemingly conspiratorial declaration, which forcefully conceded a major chunk of Palestinian land to the Zionists as a home, became a thorny point in the serenity of the world.

    Since then, the infamous Balfour declaration has put the Middle East in an incessant turmoil to the discomfort of the world’s peace and harmony. The declaration read partly as follows: “His majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective…. The rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country shall not be prejudiced by the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”

     

    Implementation

    To facilitate the implementation of that agenda effectively, some other Middle East countries had to be decapitated economically and politically by excision from them, some juicy chunks of their lands.

    Thus, Lebanon was excised from Syria and Kuwait from Iraq. The strategy was to cause a dissention among the citizens of those countries with the intention of breaking the yoke of the Muslim unity which Bannerman had targeted in his infamous observation quoted above.

     

    Iran Connection

    Now, how does Iran come into this picture when she is not an Arab country? That is the logical question that anybody who is not quite familiar with the Middle East and the intricacies of its political and economic set up may ask. Naturally, Iran is affected by three major factors: Culture, economy and politics. By culture here, we mean ISLAM. Iran is a foremost Muslim country even if her official language is not Arabic.

    And, as a Muslim Country, whatever affects other Muslim countries must affect her. Thus, as a major neighbour to the Arabs in the Gulf, she cannot but play a role in the politics of the region. Also, as an economically strong nation in the primordial and contemporary times, Iran occupies a very strategic position in the Middle East especially with her proximity to the Persian Gulf.

     

    The Emergence of Ayatullah Khomeni

    It was the possibility of the same situation under Muhammad Pahalavi that prompted the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatullah Ruhullah Mousavi Khomeini to embark on the liberation struggle in 1963 that culminated in a successful revolution of February 1979. Contrary to Ataturk’s thinking, however, Imam Khomeini knew that the greatest virtue that could be lost in the life of man was culture. He knew that without a clear-cut culture man couldn’t be better than a beast. He knew that such values as law, education and religion, which guide man in his peregrinations on earth, are the attributes of culture. He knew that a nation, which surrenders its culture and adopts that of another nation, has enslaved herself permanently to the caprice of the latter nation. Thus, Khomeini saw Islam, (the culture of over one billion Muslims in the world at that time), as the target of the Western imperialists, which needed defence and protection.

     

    The Iranian Revolution

    No one believed in 1979 that a mass protest which started like a small political billow, engendered by the country’s unarmed Mullahs could eventually grow into such a great magnitude of political ‘earthquake’.

    By the time the foggy dust finally settled, a new Iran had emerged from the debris of the old. Against the wish and expectation of the capitalist West, the secular, monarchical Iran became a democratic, Islamic republic. The drama was quite electrical.

    Characteristic of the West, all hands were on deck, at that time, to ensure that an Islamic republic did not succeed the tyrannical monarchy headed by the Shah Pahlavi and heavily backed up by the oppressive West. America was most active in that ambitious but vainglorious effort. She would not easily allow the massive benefit she had been enjoying for decades in that oil-rich country, under the Shah regime, to slip out of her hands just like that. Thus, under the pretext that she wanted to rescue her citizens from the siege laid by Iranian students on that country’s embassy, in Tehran, the US attempted an invasion of Iran.  The espionage activities by the American diplomats, inside that embassy, against the new Islamic government in Iran had warranted the siege.

     

    The Strategy

    While a number of US F15 bomber jets deployed were approaching Iran, the then American President Jimmy Carter engaged his country’s press in a chat without giving any hint of the impending military operation in Iran. The tactics was to divert the attention of the press and that of the country from the illegal Pentagon’s military expedition. But no sane person can ever fault the contents of the Qur’an. About 1400 years before that incident, a verse of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thus: “They (the unbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed. Allah is the supreme schemer”. Q. 3:54. Jimmy Carter’s thought was that by the time he would be finishing his press address, the news would have reached him that America had successfully invaded Iran to restore imperialism by reinstating the Shah Pahlavi. He had therefore intended to announce the news of his ‘great’ successful scheme to the press as the epilogue of his address. And that would have served as his impetus for wining that year’s election for a second term in office. But, as Allah would have it, instead of the expected news, what he got was a shocker of his life.

     

    The failure of the Strategy

    Two of the F15 fighters deployed for the operation miraculously collided in the air just at the point of entering Iran crashing with their contents, and consuming the lives of 16 top air force officers on board while the other jet fighters had to turn back haven run into confusion. When that devastating news reached Carter, it was too much for him to hide and it quickly became a public knowledge.

    Thus, the mighty America failed woefully, with her technology, in circumstances she has never been able to analyze and explain convincingly. With that scheme, it became obvious that Jimmy Carter of the Democrat Party had dug his own political grave. Of course, he lost the election to the cowboy turned Politician, (Ronald Reagan) of the Republican Party who succeeded him in office. For about 444 days (well over a year), 52 American diplomats held hostages remained under the siege of the Iranian students. It took high-level diplomacy, through third party countries, to get them released much later.

    Yet, America was not done. She went ahead to freeze Iran’s foreign reserve of about $80 billion in addition to imposition of economic sanctions with the intention of running that country’s economy aground. The only Iran’s offence in that case was to have charted an independent political course that could liberate her citizens from the manacles of the Western imperialism. Ever since, the relationship between America and Iran has remained icy.

     

    Iran’ Nuclear Project

    However, the relationship between America and Iran further deteriorated recently when the latter started a nuclear project with which to prop up her economy. America responded with a threat saying the United States would not tolerate any nuclear project in Iran because the latter could not be trusted with such a project.

     

    The World’s Greyhound

    Only a fool will not know that the UN, as presently constituted, is the greyhound of the US through which the latter barks randomly at the rest of the world.

    But for the recent Iraqi episode that became regrettable for the self-appointed policeman of the world, and of course, the North Korean case, which has become a cancerous sore on the head of the US, another Gulf war would have either ensued or become advanced in plan by now. The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the

    world is neither in technological advancement, nor military

    superiority per se. The failed rescue mission in Iran shortly after

    that country’s revolution has confirmed that. It is a historical fact that the secret of America’s military successes in various wars around the world are rather due to her ability to cause dissension among some other nations and races.

    Iran has never been a prey to America’s direct military aggression, even when the Shah Pahlavi was in power, because that Gulf country has never played a fool dancing to the sour music of the predatory country called America in a seeming military market.

     

    Sanction as a Weapon

     

    Now, with a recent threat of invasion of Iran by Israel on the one hand and economic and political sanctions against that country by the US on the other, will history repeat itself? One fact has become clear about the US political trend ever since her withdrawal from her self-isolationism in 1945: The success of her internal politics has been regularly dictated by her aggressive foreign policy. Thus, many American Presidents have won or lost elections at home due to the foreign policy of the concerned President. Will the same also repeat itself? The days ahead will answer this fundamental question as events continue to unfold. But with the stern objection by Russia and tacit indifference by China to the use of suffocating economic sanctions against the people of Iran, the US may need to watch her steps carefully especially with respect to the aloofness of most European countries that are members of NATO. Iran is neither Iraq nor Afghanistan. The world cannot afford another World War now. No country should attempt to plunge it into one by taking that country’s military capability for granted. A word is enough for the wise.

  • Islamic solution to leadership problem

    Monologue

    Like in any other week, the competition for attention by emerging issues, for this column this week is extraordinarily intense. The choice of one of those issues by any columnist must thus become a problem capable of causing confusion. The case of yours sincerely cannot be an exception. That is a confirmation that the dilemma of any worthy columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them.

    For instance, which national or international contemporary issue in today’s world does not deserve attention of ‘The Message’ column now?

    Is it the sudden demise of the former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi in a suspicious circumstance or the implacable tension between Trump’s American government and the Islamic Republic of Iran or the severe persecution of Muslims in China and Myanmar or the seemingly endemic plight of the Kashmiri people who, as Muslims, are being forcefullyd subjected to Hindu rule in India or the callous murder of an American based Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in cold blood in Istanbul or  the         frightening menace of banditry and kidnapping across Nigeria or even the incessantly ravaging atrocities of certain voluntary agents of Satan called Boko Haram? Looking at all these issues and many more, not mentioned here, the tendency is to conclude that the modern world is fast approaching its end. Yet, the role of leadership in in making success of most of these issues cannot be underestimated. Without leaders, there are no nations.

    Preamble

    The title of today’s article in this column is not originally a coinage of ‘THE MESSAGE’. It is rather the theme of a public Ramadan lecture organised by Mstapha Akanbi Foundation (MAF) in Ilorin to which yours sincerely was invited as the guest lecturer on August 29, 2010.

    Read Also: Experts meet on Islamic finance

    Who is Mustapha Akanbi?

    The name Mustapha Akanbi cannot be strange to any educated Nigerian of co cotemporary time. That was a household name in Nigeria and beyond especially for those who are familiar with the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related offences) Commission (ICPC). The first Chairman of that Commission was Justice Mustapha Akanbi, an erstwhile President of the Federal Court of Appeal of Nigeria. For the entire 35 years of his service in the judiciary, all that can be called his property was just a modest three bedroom bungalow in which he lived in Ilorin till his demise recently.

     

    The MAF Foundation

    Established in September 2006 shortly after its founder (Justice Mustapha Akanbi) voluntarily resigned as the Chairman of ICPC despite the overwhelming pressure on him to continue his service, MAF is a non-governmental and non-partisan organisation dedicated to the uplift of mankind and to the enthronement of justice, equity and fair play as well as the promotion of the quintessential virtues of honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability in all human activities.

    The Foundation is committed to being in the vanguard of revolutionary changes aimed at reforming and transforming our society from being a body of self-serving individuals to a nation that places high premium on selfless service for the common good of all. MAF Foundation, therefore, has, as its focus, the building and sustenance of a great nation founded on sound ethical values and good governance capable of holding its own in the comity of nations. It is in line with its focus that the Foundation chose the theme of today’s article and invited yours sincerely as the guest lecturer. At the occasion which was held in the month of Ramadan, I alluded briefly to the significance of Ramadan in the life of an average Muslim.

     

    Point of Reverence

    This is a period of relevant reference in Nigeria. This is a time when history displays its duty as the teacher of man. The current trend of dirty banters in the country is both a reminder and a point of reference for men and women of decent pedigree and impeccable dignity. This is a time when disciplined parents and patriotic citizens are identifiable. This is the time in Nigeria’s contemporary history when human wheat can be separated from human chaff. This is the time of distinguishing between shame and shamelessness on the one hand and decency and indecency on the other. This is the time when lovers and haters of Nigeria can be known. It is the above mentioned issues that make this article a point of reference. And the reference is the lecture that yours sincerely delivered at the MAF Foundation in 2010.

     

    The lecture

    As a preamble, I told my audience that thinking of leadership in terms of those who are privileged to govern the country alone can never solve the problem of bad leadership in Nigeria. Leadership does not start from the top. It is rather a matter of good home management and excellent upbringing of children. Leadership is like a pyramid which has a base and an apex. Whoever wants to assess leadership in a society must start from the base rather than the apex. It will be unreasonable to start sighting major faults at the roof of a house when the foundation of the same house is evidently faulty. Generally, children learn from their parents’ actions much more than from the latter’s preaching.

    Any parent who starts the upbringing of his or her children with lavish celebration of birthday without teaching such children the act of legitimate money making early in life has initiated such children into the cult of reckless spending spree. The tendency for such children when they grow up is to look for money to spend from any source including pilfering, stealing, kidnapping and ritual killing for money. What will be virtuous to such children is to get money to spend. It will never matter to them how they come about such money. And that is the root of corruption in a society like Nigeria where parents assist their children to cheat in examinations or to get admitted into higher institutions with fraudulent pre-requisites.

     

    Leadership in Islam

    In Islam, leadership is so sacrosanct that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) never relented in warning all leaders and aspirants to leadership

    about the delicate nature of ruling the people. In his farewell sermon in 631 CE, he reminded the Muslim Ummah that leadership is a great responsibility entrusted to an individual by the society as ordained by the Almighty Allah. The Prophet also admonished the people on their responsibility to both the state and leadership quoting Qur’an 4, Verse 59 thus: “Oh you, who believe, Obey Allah, obey the Messenger (of Allah) and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger if you do believe in Allah and the last day. That is best and most suitable for final determination”. Q…..

    However, he did not stop there. He went further to explain that obedience to those charged with authority is conditioned by their (those in authority’s) own obedience to God in their deeds as well as the rule of law that governs them. In one of his statements, he said there is no obedience or loyalty to any human being, ruler or otherwise, who is not himself, obedient to God and the rule of law. He concluded that: “Whoever entrusts a man to a public office, where, in his society, there is a better man than this trustee, has betrayed the trust of God and His Messenger as well as the people of that society”. Hadith.

     

    The Prophet’s Exemplary Leadership

    The exemplary leadership of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his great teachings were scrupulously followed by the Caliphs who succeeded him in office. When, shortly after the Prophet’s demise, Abubakr was elected as the first Caliph, his primary objective was to continue the pious administration which the Prophet left behind. He took the mantle of leadership with which he was saddled as a responsibility to Allah. In his acceptance speech as new Head of State, he addressed the people as follows: “Oh people behold me charged with the cares of government.

    Yet, I am not the best of you. In carrying out this great responsibility, I need your advice and assistance. If you find me doing well, please support me. If I make mistake, counsel me. To tell the truth to a person commissioned to rule is faithful allegiance. So long I obey God and act according to law, obey me. But if I neglect the law of God and His Prophet, I have no more right to your obedience. The strong among you shall have no right over the weak on the basis of his strength. Neither shall there be any room for sycophancy, nepotism or undue favouritism. Authority, power and sovereignty belong to Allah alone in whose hand is dominion over all things….”

     

    Comment

    From the foregoing, and contrary to what is happening today, especially in Nigeria, it is clear that leadership is a privilege rather than anybody’s right. It is a public trust which should not be betrayed under any circumstance. It is a responsibility to be carried out, not just with human face but also with human heart. It is a covenant between God and rulers on the one hand and rulers and the ruled on the other. It is a measure of conscience, piety and discipline. No one who is bereft of these traits should be entrusted with leadership.

    Other Caliphs after Abubakr followed suit and lived ascetic lives despite their access to unlimited state resources. Ali Bn Abi-Talib, in particular, did not limit those qualities to himself. He extended them to his appointed Governors.

    While appointing Malik bn Ashtar as the Governor of Egypt he gave him certain instructions in writing and admonished him to follow those instructions to the letter in his governance in that country. Those instructions were not about the executive arm of governance alone. They also touched legislation and judiciary morally and legally.

     

    Parable of Governance

    Governance in Islam is like pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The duration of such pregnancy is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her wellbeing. And, after delivery, the baby is claimed, not by the carrier of the pregnancy but by the impregnator. There is no pregnancy without semen firmly planted in the womb of a woman. And the semen planter is a man who will eventually be called the father of the baby. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers rather than those of their mothers as surnames. By analogy, one can compare governance to a pregnant woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The impregnator in this case is the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule them. And just as the product of the womb (the child) belongs to the impregnator as a matter of legitimacy so should dividend of governance be the property of the governed populace. A child who bears his mother’s name as surname is nothing but a bastard.

    After life, security, law and justice, nothing else is held as sacrosanct in Islam as governance which can be compared to a magnificent shade under which people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic setting, such a shade is owned by the citizenry. Those who claim to be its custodians are just servants holding it in trust for the people.

     

    Democracy in Islam

    In Islam, democracy is not about voting and power alone. It is fundamentally about justice in all its ramifications according to the rule of law. It is about tending the lives of others for the overall good of the nation. It is about providing the needs of the people according to the available resources in the nation. It is about protecting the interest of the weak against the oppression of the strong. It is about managing the wealth of the nation with diligent sense of accountability. It is about securing the lives of the citizenry in terms of jobs, feeding, shelter, health and education. It is about boosting the horizon of the youths and sharpening their hope for the future. It is about guaranteeing adequate income per capital and ensuring a standard life expectancy. Any government that claims democracy without all the aforementioned is oppressive and hypocritical. That was Nigeria’s lot between 1999 and 2015, the continuity of which we fervently prayed Allah to forbid.

    Governance, like culture, has a variety of colours, flavours and tastes. What is called democracy in a State may amount to despotism in another State. Governance, whether democratic or monarchical, is fundamentally a function of culture. That is why a country like Britain claims to operate politically on a constitution that is partly written and partly conventional. Borrowing a foreign culture to practice democracy through a constitution written in a foreign language is like borrowing another man’s mouth to eat. Into whose stomach will the food go?

    If those entrusted with authority and power with which to care for the masses are the ones stealing public funds with audacity and reliability on ethnic or religious inclination, what moral right do they have to govern? Nigeria has now reached a stage where justice, the last hope of the common man, is for sale even as the citizenry continue to be impoverished. For a country that hopes to progress, to where does this lead?

    Justice Mustapha Akanbi was an exemplary judge with an exemplary template in delivery and administration of justice with the fear of Allah. He lived a clean life and groomed some others to follow suit with the expectation that Nigeria would be great.  We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in eternal bliss. As for those who have deviated from the path of decency left behind by Justice Akanbi, we pray Allah to guide them aright and rescue them from the manacle of Stan to which they are sternly tied. However, such people should know that:

    “Allah does not change a people’s lot unless they change the evil acts in their hearts. If Allah decides to afflict them with a calamity, no one can ward it off. Besides Allah, there is no protector for them”. Q. 13:11.

  • JAMB’s 2019 Policy Meeting

    “You can never change things in a society by fighting the existing reality.
    To change something, you can only build a new model that can render the old one obsolete’’. Anonymous

    It was a unique gathering of who is who intellectual in Gbongan, Osun State, last Tuesday, June 11, 2019. The venue was Bola Babalakin (Executive) Auditorium. And the purpose was for distinguished stakeholders in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to put heads together and jointly determine the Cut-off Pass Mark for 2019/2020 admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions as a matter of policy. The one day session which brought hundreds of Vice-Chancellors, Proprietors, Rectors, Provosts and relevant Professionals of various fields of discipline together was coordinated by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

     

    Cut-off Marks

    After serious deliberations by those stakeholders, the following conclusions were unanimously reached and approved:

    1. That the Cut-off Mark for candidates who wrote this year’s JAMB examination and are seeking admission into Nigerian public Universities, the Cut-off Mark is 160.
    2. For candidates seeking admission in 2019/2020 into private Universities, the Cut-off Mark is 140.
    3. For candidates who are seeking admission into public Polytechnics, in 2019/2020, the Cut-off Mark is 120.
    4. For candidates seeking admission into private Polytechnics in 2019/2020, the Cut-off Mark is 110.
    5. For candidates seeking admission into Colleges of Education, the Cut-off Mark is 100.

     

    Possible Cut-off Marks Increase

    However, as jointly agreed, any tertiary institution may raise its Cut-off Mark above the agreed figures. But none should lower the Cut-off Mark below the approved figures. This means the Cut-off marks of some public Universities may rise up to 180 or even 200 depending on the arising situation.

     

    Limit of Admission Time

    It was also agreed that admission processes into public tertiary institutions should be concluded by December 19, 2019 while that of the private institutions should end by February 15, 2020. These decisions were taken not by JAMB but by consensus of stakeholders including the representatives of all institutions.

     

    Between Literacy and Education

    After the meeting, some participants who read an article entitled ‘JAMB’s New Policy’ written by yours sincerely and published in ‘The Message’ column last year, requested me to republish the article to serve as a further enlightenment for members of the public. And since readers, like customers, in a market, are kings and queens in their own rights, who must be venerated, I decided to publish an excerpt from the article. Here it goes: “If most literate Nigerian city dwellers called elite hear or read about JAMB’s new policy, the tendency is for them to react, if tacitly, with the usual Nigerian    reprobate as follows: This JAMB again! Why   is it toying with different ideas from time to time?

    Despite the claim of education-based civilization by those elite, it has virtually become a permanent tradition for them to seek progress without wanting to pass through a process of change. Yet, nothing guarantees progress as much as change through the rule of law”.

     

     Rule of Law

    “Rule of law in any sane society is not a mere expression of wishes. It is rather the real basis of guaranteeing enduring serenity. A society or organization without rule of law is like an episode in George Orwell’s allegorical plot in his famous novella entitled ‘Animal Farm’ in which all animals are said to be equal in theory but some are practically seen to be more equal than others.

    JAMB is not an ‘Animal Farm’ that can be given conflicting interpretations according to conflicting perceptions. But when writing about unique Board, making an allusion to George Orwell’s book may serve a light-throwing reference”.

     

    Innovation

    “Like any trustable and sustainable Board or Organization that genuinely serves the people, JAMB is not resting on its oars in ensuring firmness of the rule of law for furtherance of serenity in the country.

    That is why it (JAMB) created a broad-based  ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ in 2017, as a way of carrying along well-meaning concerned members of the public with their various specialized expertise, thereby making the Board a truly service-oriented public institution for the country’s development”.

     

    Critical Stakeholders Forum

    “Since its establishment in 2017, JAMB’s ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ has tremendously assisted the management of that Board in engendering a positive departure from the hitherto public perception in which the institution was negatively shrouded. The inputs of the ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ into the policies of JAMB have come to confirm significantly that it is quite possible to run an institution like JAMB democratically, even in a country like Nigeria, despite all overt and covert odds. Thus, today, the formulation of policies in JAMB is no longer an exclusive burden for which the Registrar or Management staff of that institution can be taken to ransom. Most of those policies are now jointly formulated at an open door annual meeting of virtually all professionals whose diverse expertise are effectively tapped for the advancement of JAMB and the progress of Nigeria. This dynamic action initiated by the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, in less than six months after his assumption of office has not just facilitated a thorough understanding of JAMB operations by Nigerian public; it has also become a quiet but constructive revolution that can be globally emulated and possibly equaled but not surpassed”.

     

    Biometric Verification

    “One of JAMB’s recent policies that were formulated for effective execution during the 2019 UTME is mandatory biometric verification which all candidates for year 2018 examination were made to pass through for the first time ever.

    Thus, the candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and those of the future are now aware that biometric verification is compulsory for them and without it, there will be no admittance into the examination hall”.

     

    No Alternative

    “The JAMB’s Biometric Verification policy which has no alternative is an official scrutiny of any candidate’s claim of an identity.  It is an authentication formality with which every candidate will be admitted into the examination hall. Any candidate without certified biometric verification will not be allowed to write the examination.

    And no candidate without biometric verification should expect a reschedule of his/her missed examination for any reason. This policy, being emphatically presented here, is already contained in Vol. 1, N0 11 of the official weekly bulletin of JAMB which can be found in JAMB’s website and has equally been disseminated to Nigerian media for publication or broadcasting. Thus, parents of UTME candidates who consider it their duty to follow their teenage children or wards to examination centers, despite those children’s age and exposure, should note this policy very well and be prepared to abide by it scrupulously in the future. The summary is that no biometric verification, no examination. JAMB officials too should note that any candidate who cannot be verified should not be kept waiting to loiter around the examination hall. Such a candidate should immediately be advised to get in touch with JAMB office through the already known means”.

     

    Handicapped Candidates

    “As for handicapped candidates, JAMB has made adequate provision for them through the use of certain devices with which they are quite familiar. They are therefore advised to follow the instructions given to them by JAMB officials and simply abide by the rule of law in order not to regret anything after the exam”.

     

    Attendance Register

    “All candidates should know as well that there is no attendance registration other than biometric verification. Any available photo album found at an examination center will have no space for marking ‘present or absent’. And all examination officials including security agents are strictly advised in their own interest to comply with these guidelines”.

     

    Prohibited Materials

    “Besides the introduction of biometric verification which is now compulsory for all candidates with no exception, JAMB has listed some materials that are prohibited in its Computer Based Test Centers (CBTC). Such prohibited materials include: books, mobile phones, ink pens and biros, pencils and erasers, wrist watches and jewelries as well as calculators, miniature electronic devices, smart eye lenses, ear pieces, blue tooth devices, bitsy microphones, teeny secret recorders and similar cheating devices. In the case of spy reading glasses which some candidates cannot do without, such must be surrendered to JAMB officials for scrutiny”.

     

    Timeliness

    “All UTME candidates are strictly advised to arrive at their examination centers well ahead of the time earmarked for the commencement of examination. Lateness of any candidate to the examination center may constitute a hindrance for his/her participation in the examination”.

     

    Effect of Change

    “The changes that had caused human progress from time to time in history were never compatible with the existing perennial traditions of those humans because of the revolutionary tendencies of those changes. Whether in the primordial or contemporary time, revolution has effectively proved to be the main determinant of human progress. Therefore, a society without revolution,  will surely be stagnant”.

     

    History of JAMB

    “When the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established 42 years ago (1977), it came as a revolution which the then existing system of seeking admission into tertiary institutions through concessional examination first tried to resist. At that time, only about six full- fledged Universities were in existence in Nigeria. They were called ‘First Generation’ Universities. The six Universities were the bUniversity of Nigeria, Nsuka, founded in 1960; the University of Lagos, founded in 1962; Ahmadu Bello University founded in 1962; the University of Ife, founded in 1962; the University of Ibadan, upgraded to a full-fledged University in 1963 and the University of Benin, founded in 1970.

    Until its upgrade into a full-fledged University in 1963, the University of Ibadan which was established in 1948 as a college of the University of London was the only Higher Institution in Nigeria foreign University”.

     

    Comment

    “At no time in the history of JAMB have stakeholders been involved in the process of UTME as now facilitated by the current administration in that Board. This is an indication that the real revolutionary motive of JAMB is becoming more manifest than ever before. JAMB is not only a pace setter for revolution in all sectors of public service in Nigeria, it is also the main template for distinction between education and literacy”.

  • Eclipse of Iconic Sun

    Preamble

    It is man’s to propose and Allah’s to dispose. Those are the permanent norms upon which human life is realistically based. Those norms are a clockwise phenomenon that cannot be turned anti-clockwise by any means. And that is what most faithful Muslims tag as evidence of destiny.

    The proposed contents of this column today are not what you are about to read here. While trying to weave the web of an article into another vestige of thought for readers, Allah’s disposing will suddenly came to intervene with divine authority. And the title, as well as the contents of today’s article had to be changed.

     

    Throbs of Obituary

    On Thursday, the 25th day of the month of Ramadan in this year 1400 AH which coincided with the 30th day of May, 2019, Nigeria’s media waves throbbed with the breaking news of an eclipse of a human sun. That human sun was Alhaji Muslim Adio KolawoleAnimasaun, a Nigerian colossal journalist and legendary columnist of international repute. He was reported to have departed this ephemeral world in the night. By human calculation, that night could have been the Night of Power. It was that fortuitous news that caused a change of title and contents of the article originally planned for today in this column.

    Despite the strictness of this Friday column (The Message) in ‘The Nation’ newspaper, if certain eminent people deserved special attention or dedication of an article in it, Alhaji Kola Animasaun should be foremost among them.

    This is not only because he facilitated my employment as Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board of Vanguard newspaper at a time when I badly needed a job, but also because he was my mentor and my confidant. I first met him in November 1992 when the funeral of Alhaja Simbiat Abiola brought us together at a gathering in the Ikeja residence of Bashorun MKO Abiola. But our closeness began in September 1996 when I joined the Editorial Board of Vanguard as his deputy. From thence, we became like Siamese twins in thought and in action. His column, ‘Voice of Reason’ in Sunday Vanguard had been a must read for me since 1984 when that newspaper debut. I was then in the now defunct Concord newspaper.

     

    Human Life

    Human life is a pilgrimage from the unknown to the unknown. No one knows whence he emanated or whither he is bound. The process by which man evolves is a special tapestry which size and shape cannot be measured in whatever form. As humans, all we know about life is that we naturally move from womb to womb before arriving in the puzzling transit which we globally call the world. For a period, we were in our fathers’ natural loins where we struggled for space and for survival. And in the attempt to shoot out through the iron gate of life we suddenly found ourselves as molecules swimming in the midst of 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 in the aquatic world. Those in the fishery sector will understand this analogy better.

     

    Mother’s Womb

    Then, from our fathers’ exclusive loins, we moved into another hollow space inside our mothers’ womb and sojourned therein for a while before zooming into this complex world from where we shall eventually move into another hollow space called grave in the belly of the earth. And finally, we shall move forth from there into another world not yet known to anybody.

    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 as a transit for a period on our ways to the world. But then, while we were in pregnancy, no one knew of the existence of another place called the world. Yet, it was from the pregnancy that we came to find ourselves here on earth fortuitously and the pilgrimage continues.

     

    The World of Man

    The world of man is like a cloud moving forwards and backwards from time to time and gathering momentum for a paradoxical rain to fall. After the dispersal of that cloud, one of two occurrences becomes experienced. 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 can fault that natural phenomenal process?

    Human beings in their multitudes are like a galaxy of stars which float incessantly in the orbit while jointly illuminating the spheres. Some of those stars are by far larger than the earth. But because of their distance from the human view, they look small. Some are moderate in size while some are actually small. Consequently, each functions according to its pre-destined assignment. ALLAH AKBAR!

    As it is with the stars so it is with human beings. Some are great in life and in death. Some are great only while alive but as soon as they are demised, their greatness becomes like a dispersed cloud paving the way for a clearer atmosphere. Some function positively. Some function negatively. Some cannot be placed at all with regards to their functions. And after they might have all departed this world history takes the centre stage revealing both the hidden and the manifest aspects of their lives individually. And from such revelations, those left behind pick the relevant substances that form the continuation of their lives.

     

    Philosophy of Life

    Perhaps no Nigerian intellectual has ever captured the above painted scenario philosophically in the contemporary time better than Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe. In the introduction to his autobiography ‘MY ODYSSEY’, published in 1970, he observed 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 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…”

    Alhaji Kola Animasaun (now of blessed memory) was a student of that philosophy. By a dint of experience, he was able to dichotomize between idealism and materialism by understanding that the material well-being of every individual could influence the code of human conduct. Based on this, therefore, he did not see any reason in being materialistic. Rather, he was convinced that only an adaptation to the concatenations of the spiritual world could pilot a spiritual ‘pilgrim’ like him to the holy land.

     

    A Programmed Phenomenon

    Death, like life, is a programmed phenomenon. Both are like the day and the night exchanging baton at specific hours as divinely scheduled.

    It couldn’t have sounded unusual to most genuine Nigerian Muslims last Thursday when the radio waves throbbed with the news of the demise of this colossus barely one month before he attained the age of 80 years. News of death can never be shocking to those who believe in Allah; His Angels; His Revealed Books; His Apostles, the Last Day and Destiny. We have been taught repeatedly in the Qur’an that “every soul shall taste of death”. But neither the Qur’an nor any other revealed book has told us when and how. Now, Alhaji Kola Animasaun has moved a step ahead of us in the pilgrimage of life. We shall all join him some day just as he has joined those who preceded him on that unavoidable journey.

    Now, having gone to the world beyond ours, his life has become a chapter in the history of Nigeria. And from that chapter, it is left to those of us still alive to cultivate clauses of guidance or those of encouragement or even those of warning against the vanity of human wishes.

     

    Inevitable Alternative

    To many people in Nigeria and abroad who, out of ignorance, see death as an intruder, Alhaji Animasaun’s death might have come as “a rude shock” even at the age of 80. But to Muslims who understand their religion very well and know that death is an inevitable alternative to life, it couldn’t have been a shocker. Such Muslims know that death will come to lay its icy hand on man when it is time divinely scheduled for it and that every Muslim should prepare for it. When man’s time to die comes, no one can save him from the scourge of death. And no one can die for another. Just as we came into the world one by one and no one eats or defecates or sleeps for another so can no one help another to bear the scourge of death. Every soul, according to the programme of Allah, the Immortal Creator and Sustainer of all lives, shall bear his burden and face the consequences of his earthly actions. Wealth, position and fame are no barrier to death. Children may die while their parents remain alive. The healthy may die while the sick remains in coma. The wealthy may die while the poor keeps begging for daily meal. Death, the leveller of mankind, will come when it will come.

    Adam, the primogenitor of man who came into the world without a father or a mother died. Hawau, the first created woman who came into the world without a mother, died. Prophet Isa who came into the world without a father is no more. All men and women born of fathers and mothers who have sojourned at one time or another in this world have fallen prey to the icy hand of death. All the Apostles of Allah dispatched to the world to guide mankind died. Who then is that mortal being that will escape the dragnet of death?

    It is possible for those whose time has not come to start speculating on the immediate or remote causes of someone’s death. It is possible for the ignorant ones to blame someone’s death or misfortune on another. But the fact remains that death is a phenomenon which no Jupiter can change or alter. It is an attribute of destiny. In a famous stanza which has been universally acknowledged, an Arab poet once said about death:

    “Whoever does not die by firing squared will surely die by another means; the causes of death are many but death itself is only one”.

     

    Prophet Muhammad’s Demise

    When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) demised in 632 CE, some Muslims (including Umar Bn Khattab who later became the second Caliph) refused to hear such news describing it as heresy. It took the courage and maturity of Abubakr to stand on the podium and address the crowd of the Muslim Ummah who wanted a confirmation or denial of the news of Prophet Muhammad’s demise. In a quivering but clear voice he said: …”Those of you who have been worshipping Muhammad be informed that Muhammad is no more. But those who have been worshipping Allah should know that Allah is immortal”.

    Abubakr said this in further reiteration of Qur’an 2vs255 which has stood out for over 1400 years as a perfect answer to an heretical question of a deeply ignorant unbeliever who, in search of food, spent his entire life writing a whole book to ask a one sentence question thus: “Who is this Allah?”. The cited Qur’anic verse had provided the answer to that stupid question thus:

    “Allah; there is no God besides Him, the living and the eternal One. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. His is what the Heavens and the earth contain. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows all about the affairs of men at present and in the future. They (human beings) can grasp only that part of His knowledge by His wills. His throne is beyond the sizes of the Heavens and the earth, and the preservation of both does not weary Him. He is the Exalted, the Immense One”.

    Like all those who had passed through this world before him Alhaji Animasaun is no more. Thus, all other things about him are now history. But from that history is a lesson for those succeeding him in private and public life to learn. His is now a closed chapter in the history of Nigeria.

     

    A Reassessment Mirror

    This article is not much about the obituary of Alhaji Kola Animasaun as it is about a mirror with which to see ourselves and reassess the essence of our existence on earth. It is no news that Alhaji Kola Animasaun was a journalist in his life time. It is no news that he rose vertically through the ranks in the midst of his horizontal colleagues to become a professional template as the Chairman of the Editorial Board of Vangaurd newspaper after a diplomatic sojourn for about two decades. It is no news that he served his country meritoriously at various spheres of human endeavour.

    What can be called news about his life was an unprecedented contentment in a society where greed and avarice were taken for yardstick of pecuniary greatness. He once turned down a confidential offer by his boss and employer, Uncle Sam Amuka Pemu, to assume the position of the Editor of Vanguard newspaper. His reason was that the position was better and more fitting to a younger journalist with enough experience. He also turned down an offer by his friend and professional colleague, Chief Segun Osoba, when the latter was the Governor of Ogun State. He wanted Alhaji Animasaun to be the Chairman of Abeokuta North Local Government at a time when some hawks were lobbying for that post. But contrary to Chief Osoba’s expectation, Alhaji Animasaun told him that he was absolutely satisfied with his professional job and that he preferred the post of the Chairman, Editorial Board of Vanguard newspaper to that of a Local Government. It took the intervention of Uncle Sam Amuka Pemu, to whom Governor Osoba reported the case, before Alhaji Animasaun reluctantly agreed to serve in that capacity. Yet, he did not touch the bulk of the salaries and allowances he earned on that job until he vacated office.  And he used the money so realized to build a Mosque in his house as a service to Allah his Creator. That was a very rare decision in Nigeria especially at a time when political limelight was like a visa to the paradise of life.

     

    His Religious life 

    One of the huddles of our own generation as journalists was the oddity of being Muslims in the profession that was seen as an exclusive preserve of Christian journalists. But Alhaji Animasaun remained undaunted as he observed his daily prayers at their right times during the office hours. In his persistence on observing every Salat at the right time, he was always going out of Vanguard premises in search of a Mosque to observe those prayers. After observing him closely for some time, Uncle Sam Amuka who revered him very much because of his professional competence and sincerity of purpose decided to provide a Mosque within Vanguard premises to relieve the few Muslim workers, including yours sincerely, in that outfit. Thus, a Mosque was provided within the premises of the company, not only for daily prayers but also for weekly Jum’at prayer. The Mosque is still there today.

     

    Spiritual Incentive

    While in Vanguard, Alhaji Animasaun was the Chairman, Editorial Board and yours sincerely was not only his deputy but also the Imam of the Mosque.

    Our combination strengthened the few other Muslims in the establishment against inferiority complex and persecution. Not only that, the Mosque in Vanguard also served as an incentive for Muslims in other media houses to stand up vertically in defence of Islam.

    With his professional, religious and social life, Alhaji Animasaun could be likened to a summer sun that photosynthesizes the professional and social lives of other people, irrespective of their tribes and creeds, either by facilitating gainful employments for them or by guiding them aright morally and intellectually.

    Although Alhaji Animasaun has left the stage, his footprints on the sands of time remains an exemplary template for today’s and future generations of Nigerians who want to be patriotic to their motherland.

    “Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and walks the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the holy land”. Louis F. Benson

    The above quoted poem is as fitting to Alhaji Kola Animasaun as a scepter in the hand of a magnificent king. We were all witnesses to that fact. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in eternal bliss and grant his family the     needed fortitude to bear his absence and to surge ahead in life with continuity of uprightness. Amin!

    INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILAYHI RAJI’UN!

     

  • Ramadan: A summary of facts

    Preamble

    At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence be more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth.

    Some people fasted actively in this month, last year, but are no more today. Some put their feet at the door step of Ramadan this year but were not privileged to enter it. Some enthusiastically commenced fasting in it this year but fell by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month.

     

    Segments of Ramadan

    At the beginning of this sacred month, an analysis was done in this column classifying the 30 or 29 days of Ramadan into three segments.

    The first segment was said to contain the first ten days of the month during which the blessings of Allah came to the faithful Muslims freely and in abundance. Except for meeting that segment with faith and good intention, there was no working for it. That segment ended after 10 days paving way for the second segment that began on the 11th day of Ramadan.

     

    The Second 10 Days

    During the 10-day period of the second segment, most fasting Muslims intensified worship (Ibadah) by spending their days and nights seeking Allah’s forgiveness and by chanting Istighfar. But such forgiveness was neither automatic nor free. Usually, conditions were attached to it. One of such conditions was for every fasting Muslims to admit his/her misdeeds and repent of them. The second was to voluntarily and genuinely seek forgiveness. And the third condition was to resolve never to return to such misdeeds again.

     

    Prophetic Counseling

    To seek Allah’s forgiveness during the month of Ramadan, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said that “if you want to speak with Allah, make your request on prostration. And if you want Allah to speak to you recite the Qur’an”. No one who abided by the above conditions and followed it scrupulously would ever be disappointed.

    Allah is both promising and fulfilling. He never reneges on His promise. In Qur’an 2:186 He promises thus: “…when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad) about me, tell them that I am very close to them. I answer the prayers of whoever seeks my favour if he seeks from me (without any intermediary). So, let them expect my favorable response and trust in me so that they may be rightly guided”

     

    Midway Ramadan

    Those second ten days were not just to consolidate on the blessings of the first ten days, they were also to prepare the fasting Muslims for the last ten days when they were expected to be fully liberated from the evil machinations of any Satanic forces.

    Human life is not measured by the time or manner of his or her death.

    In Islam, death is neither the consequence of sin nor the repercussion of ignorance. There are instances when the sinless dies and the sinful lives. There are also instances when the learned dies while the ignorant lives. The schedule of life and death is not in the custody of any human being. Death is a debt which every living being owes and must pay.

    Not even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was spared of death or given a foreknowledge of it. Allah ordered him to say in the Q. 10:49 thus:

    “Say I have not the power to benefit or to harm myself except what Allah pleases. Unto every nation is a fixed term. When their terms expire, they cannot delay it by an hour nor can they bring it forth before its time”.

    This is a verse of the Qur’an which the ignorant ones have severally quoted and interpreted according to their whim. In their imagination, they want the Prophet to claim infallibility to enable them call him a liar.

     

    Nostalgia

    Some people dream but never live to realize their dreams. Some look but never see. It is only in the imagination of man that age should be a factor of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever is privileged to pass through this year’s Ramadan successfully should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after the sacred month. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

    In a few days’ time, this year’s Ramadan will come to an end by the grace of Allah and we shall continue to look back with nostalgia to the good things we have done in the sacred month.

     

    The Role of Women

    We shall remember that in no other month of Hijrah calendar is the role of Muslim women more pronounced than in Ramadan. Like in other months, they display the roles of wives, mothers as well as that of their husbands’ confidants. But more than in other months, they exhibit their religious dedication in Ramadan.

    Even as they assist their husbands financially in maintaining the homes, they still take care of those husbands as well as the children and relatives domestically. At the time of the day when the husbands are knocked out by fatigue arising from fasting, the wives are still busy in the kitchen preparing Iftar for the household. At the time in the night when some husbands are engaged in Tahajjud, or are snoring in bed, the wives are already up in the kitchen preparing the Sahur for the family.

    Some of these women are pregnant. Some are suckling their children.

    Some of them are knowledgeable enough to do the Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an) like their husbands. Some are even rich enough to finance the home fully or partially.

    And, in all these activities, they never feel tired. Where and when they feel tired, they never show it. If any month has ever depicted the virtues of women, it is Ramadan and the women activities in it. If for the reason of their activities in Ramadan alone, they deserve tenderness and dignified treatment in the hands of their husbands.

    We shall also remember the role of our children in the month and then endeavour to ensure the continuity of those rewarding activities.

     

    Allah’s greatest gift

    Children are Allah’s greatest gift to man. Their presence in a house is blessing. Their contribution is immense. Those are children for you. They can play the role of teachers just as they can do that of students. They learn fast, they teach fast. They are a major security for parents in any given environment.

    Children play both temporal and spiritual roles in a matrimonial life.

    And with such roles, they sometimes create hope for humanity and sometimes, they signal despair. They are the greatest asset in the possession of parents in time of peace. They are also the greatest weapon for those parents against the forces of Satan.

    Because of their innocence, they pave way for God’s forgiveness and quick acceptance of prayers. And, most importantly, children guarantee the continuity of man’s existence on earth. It is only with them that the fulfillment of today’s promise is possible tomorrow.

     

    Children in the Qur’an

    In the Qur’an, children are mentioned many times and most often with reverence. They are treated in that glorious book as a major issue in the life of man. As orphans, they do not only have a role to play, they also compel some adults to play a role relating to them.

    As heirs to their parents, they have substantial shares in inheritance. Muslim children are like cubs. They follow the footstep of their parents or guardians very closely. They are often with their parents during the five daily prayers. They watch their parents as the latter give charity to the poor. They accompany them to public lectures and Islamic social gatherings.

    And, in Ramadan, children are part of the Muslims’ total spiritual package. They wake up with them at night. They fast with them in the day. They break the fast with them at sunset. They join their parents at Tafsir and night lectures. They participate in Laylatul Qadr and in giving Zakatul Fitr to the poor. Who can substitute the role of children in a matrimonial home?

    In all the above mentioned activities, children are supposed to be encouraged. At the tender age of seven, they should be guided to fast even if for half a day. And when they reach the age of 10 they should be strengthened in faith and in religious deeds. They should be provided with necessities of life both on the temporal and spiritual grounds. With these, they will grow up to become the fulfillment of their parents’ dreams.

    Most children grow up as good or bad citizens by emulating their parents. A child is therefore what his parents make him. If advantage of Ramadan is not taken by Muslim parents to mould their children into good Muslims what other platform will be used? Your child is your sun.

    Make hay with it while it shines.

     

    Neighbours

    We shall also recall how we related to our neighbours, especially the non-Muslims among them in that month. In Islam, neighbours are as important as the next of kin. And, Islam attaches so much respect to them. According to Bukhari and Muslim, Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) was reported to have sworn by Allah three times on a particular occasion saying: “he does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! And when he was asked who? He replied by saying: whoever creates fear in his neighbours atrociously”

    In another Hadith also reported by Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet was quoted as saying that “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day let him be nice to his neighbours and respect his guests”

    In the month of Ramadan a good Muslim is expected to wear a new toga of sobriety and repentance. He doubles his good deeds to his neighbours, extending generosity to them and cultivating a new atmosphere of friendliness and trust with them. He genuinely gives them as much impression of love and brotherhood as he does with his consanguine relatives.

    It does not matter whether those neighbours are Muslims or non-Muslims. Neither does it matter whether they are tribesmen or non-natives. The Prophet did not discriminate in his Hadith when he was admonishing on neighbours. And that is the inalienable position of Islam on neighbourliness. Whoever had quarreled with his neighbours before Ramadan, therefore, let him/her go and settle the quarrel before the end of Ramadan.

    Besides abstaining from foods, drinks and sex, in the month of Ramadan, a good Muslim must mind his relationship with people around him, including neighbours.

     

    Fasting in Full Measure

    Fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot be taken in half measure.

    Whoever wants to receive full rewards for his religious activities in Ramadan should treat his neighbours well. And, when Ramadan is over, the good deeds must continue. Ramadan is not made a pillar of Islam by accident. Its purpose is to return man to the original state of purity in which he was created. That Allah entrusts the world to man is also not by accident. Allah consulted widely before entrusting this great responsibility to man when the latter volunteered to bear it. This much is revealed in Qur’an 33:71 thus: “We offered the trust (of the world) to the heavens; the earth and the mountains they all turned it down and were afraid of it. Man undertook to bear it but he has proved to be insincere and deceitful”. For man to re-examine himself, repent over his misdeeds and become redeemed, therefore, Allah brought Ramadan as a means of rescue.

     

    Needs and wants

    It is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives.

    Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not, ordinarily, given to WANTS. They are more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

    Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He (Allah) knew that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what informed the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam and Hawau.

    By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been shed. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man.

    And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

    The effect of WANTS first became known when Qabil (Cain), the first son of Adam preferred his brother’s wife to his. In the argument which ensued, Qabil (Cain) killed his brother Habil (Abel) and combined the latter’s wife with his. Thus, greed and avarice became ingredients of man’s culture. And WANTS rather than NEEDS became the domineering factor in the life of man. These are some of the anomalies in man that Ramadan comes to correct every year. If you are a witness to it this year, utilise your experience maximally. You don’t know whether or not you will have that opportunity again. Ramadan Karim!

  • The issue of Nisab

    As stated in this column yesterday, Zakah is of two types. One is Zakatul Mal (levy on wealth). The other is Zakatul Fitr (levy for festivity). The two are obligatory and paid annually. But while Zakatul Mal is to be paid only by those who have excess in their custody after one full year, Zakatul Fitr is a flat levy to be paid at the end of Ramadan by every Muslim irrespective of age, gender and financial status.

    Zakatul Mal is paid not only on the amount of money kept in one’s bank account but also on fixed property like commercial house(s), land, farm crops as well as animals. Each of these has a taxable amount called ‘NISAB’. For Zakah of money, the NISAB prescribed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is 200 Dirham or 20 Dinar. Both amounts are equal in value at the exchange rate.

    The use of silver or gold as a means of determining NISAB as earlier recommended by the Prophet was later relaxed with the Qur’anic revelation which ordered the wives of the Prophet to pay Zakatul Mal. None of the Prophet’s wives was rich enough to meet the NISAB by gold or silver after the demise of Sayyidah Khadijah. And Zakah did not come as a pillar of Islam until after Khadijah’s demise.

    With the revelation ordering them to pay Zakah, the Prophet’s wives had to comply despite their pecuniary handicap.

    Caliphs Umar bn Khattab and Ali bn Abi Talib in particular laid emphasis on the monetary NISAB of 200 Dirham or 20 Dinar prescribed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in order to make payment of Zakah easier for majority of Muslims. Otherwise, Zakah would have been an exclusive pillar of Islam for the rich alone. And that would have defeated the welfare purpose which Zakah was meant to serve and it would have excluded most Muslims from that pillar of Islam.

    For Nigerian Muslims of today, the Dirham of the United Arab Emirates is chosen by ‘THE MESSAGE’ as the mode of determining the NISAB not only because it is the most consistent in exchange rate especially against the American Dollar having remained almost same since 1982 but also because it is the only one with which most Nigerian Muslims are familiar. And its current rate against American Dollar is 200 Dirham to 54 US Dollars which translates to N8210. Whoever is in possession of a minimum of N8210 therefore as net income after one full year must pay Zakah of N205.25 which is one over forty or two and a half percent of the NISAB. And if the net income is higher than that then, the payable amount is worked accordingly.

  • Is Stoning to Death Islamic?

    “Laws are like spider’s webs. If anything small falls into them, they ensnare it. But large things break through and escape”.
    Solon, Athenian statesman and poet, (638-559 B.C.)

    Preamble

    Europeans who likened law to an ass may have generalized but they were

    not far from the truth after all. Laws generally are what human beings make them in the guise of interpretation. No law in any given society is naturally controversial. What brings about controversy is interpretation. All human laws, written or conventional, emanate from societal norms. Those norms only become laws when they are executed by governing authorities.

     

    Sources of Islamic Law

    In Islam, the body of the laws that govern the lives of Muslims is called Shari’ah. This constitutes what is known as Islamic law or culture. It is derived from four main sources which are:

    • Qur’an, the direct words of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through the Arch-Angel Jubril
    • Hadith: the divinely guided but personal expressions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), through which the meaning and interpretation to the contents of the Qur’an are explained.
    • Ijma’: the consensus of opinions of the learned Muslim scholars which must not contradict any of the first two sources above.
    • Qiyas: a scholarly analogy deduced from the first three sources above.

    These sources are in sequence of authority. Qur’an is the first and foremost among them. No other source can supersede or equal the contents of the Qur’an. If any other source contradicts the Qur’an, that source automatically becomes null and void.

    Because the Qur’an was revealed in coded language, the need to decode it for the purpose of understanding necessitated the adoption of Hadith as the second source of Islamic law. No one other than Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was competent to give accurate interpretation of the Qur’an because he was the divinely appointed messenger of Allah who received its revelations from Allah through Arch-Angel Jibril. The Prophet himself acquired the knowledge of interpreting the Qur’an through informal interactions with Arch-Angel Jibril as well as the informal revelations he received while sleeping which are called ‘Hadith-ul-Qudsi’.

    The third source (Ijma’u) is the consensus of opinion of highly informed Muslim scholars based on the provisions of the Qur’an and Sunnah. It came into being as a result of scholarly understanding of the first two sources by credible Muslim clerics. This source became necessary to harmonize Islamic jurisprudence even if environments and circumstances would still leave room for variations in language and presentations.

    The fourth and last source is Qiyas, meaning analogical deduction which arose from peculiar situations in which clerics might find themselves at certain times and in certain places. This source allows for logical deductions that could be made from the first three sources without contradicting any.

     

    Order of Authority

    In sequence of authority, therefore, it becomes clear that it is only in the absence of Qur’anic provision that Hadith can become the supreme legal authority in Islam. And, neither ‘Ijma’ nor ‘Qiyas’ can become point of reference where the Qur’an and Hadith are available. (Hadith is the collection of the divinely guided utterances of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) while Sunnah is his exemplary actions and conducts.)

     

    Classification of Shari‘ah

    Like any other law, Shari‘ah is classifiable into civil and criminal aspects. As relevant here, adultery is within the criminal aspect of Shari’ah. In Islam, adultery is a crime which incurs a severe sanction. And the sanction is clearly prescribed in Qur’an 24:2 as follows:

    “The woman and the man who are found guilty of adultery, give each of them one hundred strokes of the cane. Let no compassion in their case prevent you from obedience to Allah, if you truly believe in Allah and the last day; and let their punishment be witnessed by a group of believers”.

    The above quoted verse is Allah’s prescribed punishment for adulterers and adulteresses as well as for fornicators (male and female). In Arabic language, there is no distinction between adultery and fornication. Being an illegitimate sexual intercourse, the word generally used for both is ‘zina’ which is a crime in Islam. An adulteress is called ‘zaniyah’ while an adulterer is called ‘zani’.

    And those are the precise words used for the two respectively in the Qur’an.

    As it is general with all laws, the interpretation of this verse of the Qur’an varies from scholar to scholar and from school of thought to school of thought. While some scholars believe that the quoted verse refers to unmarried people, others contend that since the word zina applies to both fornication and adultery, the verse must be in reference to the two categories of people (married and unmarried).

    There is no distinction in the punishment prescribed for both.

     

    Proof of Law

    As for stoning to death, no specific chapter or verse of the Qur’an can be cited as evidence for its prescription or application. In other words, the Qur’an does not mention stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses. The actual word mentioned as punishment for either fornication or adultery is ‘flogging’. Islamic law, as mentioned earlier, is a combination of sources. And we had been warned by Allah that:  “It is not for true believers, male or female, to have a choice (but to abide) when Allah and His Apostle decree on an issue.

    Whoever disobeys Allah and His Apostle has strayed far indeed”. (Q.33:36.)

    However, one fact is clear: In Islam, no decree on penal law is divinely left to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for promulgation. This is because the Prophet was neither given the power to forgive crime on behalf of Allah nor authorized to prescribe sanction for a crime. If he ever had a role to play in relation to crime at all, it was the execution of the divine law enacted by Allah.

    Meanwhile, there are many narrated versions of how and when stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses became a law. But all the available evidences advanced in favour of this law are based on unauthenticated Hadith and Sunnah quoted by some Muslims. The vital question is this: when did the Prophet’s expression or action to authorize stoning vis-à-vis the Qur’anic revelation on flogging quoted above? Was it before or after the revelation on flogging? If it was after, could the Prophet have given a verdict that would contradict the contents of the Qur’an? If it was before, shouldn’t such Hadith or Sunnah be superseded by the Qur’anic revelation that came after it?

     

    Homosexuality and Lesbianism

    Besides fornication and adultery, there is also the issue of homosexuality and lesbianism both of which deserve even more severe punishment. What punishment was prescribed for them? Or can the proponents of stoning to death say that the Prophet discountenanced sodomy and lesbianism while prescribing stoning for adultery?

     

    Knowledge of Islam

    With deep knowledge of Islam and thorough understanding of Islamic jurisprudence, the issue of stoning as punishment for adulterers should not, ordinarily, generate any controversy. The position of the Qur’an on this issue, as revealed by Allah, is very clear. What brought controversy into it is the attempt by some scholars to equate Hadith with the Qur’an.

    Given the antecedence of the record of Hadith, any informed Muslim must be careful in using Hadith against the contents of the Qur’an especially as a legal code in Islam. Statutorily, Hadith is meant to explain and interpret the Qur’anic contents as a compliment rather than a counter force to them. Where the former seems to conflict with the latter, the Qur’an prevails.

    If any of these two major sources of Islamic law was ever controversial it could only have been the Hadith and not the Qur’an.

    And, it was for this reason that Hadith was subjected to such serious scrutiny that led to scholastic separation of the wheat from the chaff in what came to be known as science of Hadith.

     

    Documentation of Hadith

    It must be remembered that the official scrutiny and compilation of Hadith did not take place until several decades after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). And what led to that exercise by some Muslim scholars like Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn At-Tirmidhi, Abu Daud, An-Nisai, Ibn Maja and a host of others was the rampant fabrication of statements attributed to the Prophet by some mischievous elements.

    Unlike the Qur’anic revelations which were promptly documented officially as instructed by the Prophet himself, Hadith and Sunnah were not authorized for documentation by the Prophet. His (Prophet’s) position was that such documentation could lead to a conflict of Hadith with the contents of the Qur’an and therefore cause confusion among the Muslims. That fear was never fully allayed after all, despite the efforts of the mentioned scholars. And, today, we still have thousands of Hadith classified as ‘weak’, ‘unauthorized’ and ‘rejected’. Yet, they bear no names other than Hadith.

    In such a melee, it will be fool-hardy to depend exclusively on Hadith in giving a verdict as fundamental as stoning to death especially when the Qur’an is silent on it. Though yours sincerely is not a Mufti, nevertheless, I personally believe that if Allah had intended stoning as penalty for adultery, He wouldn’t have left its pronouncement to the Prophet since He (Allah) was categorical in respect of flogging as punishment for adultery.

     

    Categories of Adultery

    In Islam, adultery is not limited to married men and women alone. The acts of homosexuality (i.e. man to man sex) as well as lesbianism (i.e. woman to woman sex) are equally treated as adultery. And this is where the logic of stoning becomes questionable. It is through the Qur’an that we came to know of a whole city of the people of Prophet Lut (Lot) which Allah wiped out for committing homosexuality otherwise called ‘sodomy’. The Qur’an does not tell us of a similar punishment meted out to any other group of adulterers in history. Yet, homosexuals and lesbians are still given the opportunity to repent with a promise of Allah’s forgiveness.

    This is how the Qur’an puts it:

    “Against those of your women who commit adultery (lesbianism), call witnesses, four in number, from among yourselves; and if they bear witness, then keep the women in confinement until death releases them or Allah paves their way out of it. And if two (men) of you commit it (homosexuality), then punish them both; but if they repent and show remorse, leave them alone. Verily, Allah is forgiving, compassionate.

    1. 4:15-16. Now, how logical will it sound that an adulterer or adulteress is stoned to death while a homosexual or a lesbian is left unpunished because he or she has repented. Shouldn’t an adulterer or adulteress be entitled to repentance?

     

    Fabricated Hadiths

    Many versions of Hadith were relayed in respect of stoning. One of them was that a married woman once reported herself to the Prophet confessing adultery. The Prophet pretended not to hear until the woman repeated herself three times saying she had become pregnant as a result of adultery. The Prophet thereafter asked her to come and repeat the confession after delivery. It was thought that the woman would never come back having known the implication. But surprisingly, she came back after delivery and repeated the same confession three times.

    There and then, the Prophet was said to have ordered some of his companions present on that occassion to pelt her with stone. This act was carried out as the woman took to her heels. When those companions returned to inform the Prophet that they had stoned the woman to death, he felt scandalized and scolded them for carrying out such a dastardly act saying he did not send them to kill her.

    One would wonder why the Prophet who was so compassionate and cautious about anything life would rush to give such a verdict without investigating the matter conclusively. For instance, nothing in the referred Hadith tells us anything concerning the woman’s sexual partner (i.e. the man who impregnated her) before the judgment was allegedly given. That could not have been the exemplary Prophet described by Allah in the Qur’an thus: “you have a good example in Allah’s Apostle for anyone who looks to Allah and the last day and remembers Allah always” (Q. 33: 21).

     

    Relevant Questions

    Some questions can be raised in respect of the process of applying the penalty for adultery. Some of the questions are as follows: when can a man or a woman be pronounced an adulterer or adulteress? How can such a person be tried? Who should pass judgement on him or her?

    To ascertain that a man or a woman has committed adultery, there must be convincing evidence. An example of such evidence is for the married woman to be pregnant outside the wedlock. Another is for the woman or the man to voluntarily confess to adultery. However, the sexual partner must also voluntarily admit that adultery was actually committed between both of them. The third is for other people to prove catching them in action. Anybody who came up with such allegation without proof must bring four male witnesses or eight female witnesses. Each of the witnesses must have seen the accused duo in action. This means they must have all seen the physical insertion of the male organ into the female organ. And they must be made to swear to an oath that they actually saw the act. This is to avoid any possibility of conspiracy. Anything less than that should be considered mere suspicion which cannot warrant any penalty because adultery is not committed in the open.

    If, through open evidence (like pregnancy outside wedlock) or voluntary self-confession by both sexual partners, a man or a woman is found guilty of adultery, the next step is prosecution in a Shari‘ah court. In the absence of an official Shari‘ah court the accused person should be tried by a judicial committee of a Mosque headed by a Mufti.

    Such an accused person must have attained puberty, he or she must be sane and the act must have been committed with his or her consent and not through rape.

    In the case of the woman becoming pregnant, the court or the Mosque must allow her to deliver the child before any judgement is executed.

    And if she alleges rape, she is automatically free if her claim is found to be true. But the best is to defer the judgement till after delivery to avoid any psychological complication that may affect the innocent child in her womb. Such deferment will also allow for thorough investigation before judgement is given.

    As for the male partner, the penalty may be carried out as soon as the judgement is delivered if enough evidence is established against him.

    That penalty as prescribed in the Qur’an is flogging which should be done publicly and witnessed by members of the community in order to serve as a deterrent to others.

    However, banishment from the community for one year after flogging may be waved, according to Imam Hanafi, if the culprit repents sincerely and promises never to repeat the crime, depending on the discretion of the judge or the Mufti.

     

    Essence of Punishment

    The essence of any punishment in Islam is to enable people repent and desist from evil deeds. But what is amazing about the application of stoning as punishment for adultery is that it gives no room for repentance. And besides, only the lowly people in the society are caught and punished for it even when it is obvious that adultery is more rampant among the makers and shakers of the society especially the law givers. Why is it that no single highly placed person has ever been caught and punished by stoning for adultery either in Nigeria or elsewhere?

    Besides ‘shirk’ (associating something with Allah), no act is more annoying to Allah than miscarriage of justice especially against the helpless people. Adultery is a very grievous crime in Islam and no true Muslim will solicit for adulterers or adulteresses. But, in applying the law against this monstrous crime, due process must be followed without any discrimination. Justice is the hallmark of Islam.

    Let those who administer justice in this sphere fear Allah. And let those who claim to be Muslim scholars endeavour to understand the depth of Islamic law semantically and interpretatively. Using Hadith of the basis for stoning Muslim adulteresses and adulterers to death does not only portray Allah and his messenger in wrong posture, it is also a glaring jurisprudential fallacy.

  • Abuse of Ramadan

    It is rather ironic that today’s world takes Muslims for the mirror through which Islam is perceived when the opposite should actually be the case. Just as it is wrong to measure knowledge, in a citadel of learning by the quantity or quality of the architectural structures available therein, so it is wrong to use Muslims as the mirror through which to measure the value of Islam nakedly and avowedly. On the contrary, Islam is the mirror as well as the scale with which Muslims are supposed to be seen and measured respectively, not the other way round. For instance no reasonable person will ever blame Nigerian constitution for any   misconduct of some maleficent Nigerians abroad. Nigerian constitution is one thing misconduct of Nigerians is another. The one is not and cannot be a corollary of the other.

     

    Emergence of Islam

    When the sacred religion called Islam emerged through Prophet Muhammad (SAW) almost 1,500 years ago, it was with certain fundamental norms meant to guide humanity towards all   virtuous acts in life. One of the most formidable pillars of that divine religion is fasting in the month of Ramadan. With it, all genuine Muslims are supposed to fortress themselves against any satanic recklessness that could turn them into wild beasts.

     

    Qur’anic revelations

    Now, we are in the sacred lunar month in which the revelation of the Qur’an began in 610 C.E. It was in this divine month that the last divine constitution with which to liberate mankind from the shackles of Satan was revealed. The real spiritual essence of Ramadan is to show mankind the right path to Paradise through a phenomenal transit called the world.

    This allegorical month is like a school in which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was both the pioneer student and the pioneer teacher. All other students who passed through this school or are still passing through it are heirs to those   forerunners.

     

    Duties of Shepherds

    The duty of those heirs is to serve as shepherds for the wandering flocks of the universe. It is this duty that confirms man as Allah’s vicegerent on earth.

    Anyone who is in a   position to serve as a shepherd but does otherwise has surely contravened the rules of his or her Creator.

    Ironically, most of those we perceive as shepherd in our society are worse than the lost sheep they are supposed to guide aright. For those who know and appreciate it, the opportunity of rebirth provided by this sacred month has no duplicate. It is like a ‘once in a while’ train which everyone should endeavour not to miss. Missing it is like missing a lifelong destiny of fortune. But will the recalcitrant ones heed the warning?

     

    A Season of jamboree

    With the arrival of Ramadan this year, a scene of jamboree took over most radio and television stations as usual, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria. Many pseudo Alfas who had become redundant before Ramadan quickly dusted their gowns and turbans for the purpose of sharing from the annual largess which they believe the sacred month had brought for them. Such pseudo Alfas who might have taken advantage of some ignorant Muslim money bags in the society by asking them to sponsor Ramadan preaching on radio and television stations swarmed the airwaves like bees on a hive. With little or no knowledge at all, those pretenders posed like scholars and dished out rubbish by arrogating to themselves the knowledge they did not possess. Their displayed symbols of scholarship included big gowns, turban, unkempt beards and irrelevant long rosaries.

     

    Clerics or charlatans?

    One of the characteristics of such charlatans in their preaching was to spend the first 10 minutes or thereabout in singing the praises of their sponsors and in chanting some irrelevant slogans even as they relayed primordial stories with neither roots nor any bearing with Islam. Their trade in stock was to seek fraudulent recognition for themselves by showing their faces on television stations or by airing their voices on radio just to be accorded the status of Alfas. Such are people who have no Islamic knowledge and do not see the need for seeking it. Rather than guiding the multitudes of uninformed Muslims aright, which is the primary duty of qualified, genuine Muslim clerics, they further mislead them.

    To this category of so-called Alfas, all that matters is the money they want to make through their deceptive appearances as well as the cheap fame they want to gain as a boost to their fraudulent gimmicks.

    That is their annual deed in the month of Ramadan. And through those deeds, the impression they invariably give is that Ramadan is an annual festive booty celebrated with fanfare.

     

    Faulty Recitation

    The most embarrassing aspect of their action is not only the faulty recitation of the Qur’anic Verses but also the shameless misinterpretation they give to those Verses. This, on its own, is not just an abuse of Ramadan but also a flagrant abuse of the Qur’an. That is how the charlatans turn the sacred month into a gross abuse of Islamic religion. What those charlatans do not understand is that the Qur’an in its original form is not just any book that any charlatan can dust up once in a year as a means of fetching money for selves.

     

    Reading Method

    For the learned ones, reading any book at all has a purpose and a method. No good reader will ever read a book without taking note of its author, its publisher and its date of publication. And to read any new book, the very first point of call is its contents which tell you the topics and the subjects you will read about in it. Then, to have an idea of the entire book in its summary form, before reading it, a good reader goes straight not only to the introduction or preface to such a book but also to the foreword written on it. The combination of both will surely give the reader a pretty idea of what the book is all about. This is the shortest means of familiarizing oneself with a new book before going through its chapters.

     

    Language of the Qur’an

    Most Muslim clerics read the Qur’an in its original language (Arabic) without compreending what they are reading because they do not understand that language.  Some read it as a means of solving their imaginary problems thus taking the Qur’an for a charm which must yield result if manipulated towards their whims. Others believe that the melody of reciting the Qur’an alone, if well mastered, can serve as a means of making money.

    The Qur’an is not meant for that purpose. It is rather the manual of life for man by which he lives his daily life and conducts his daily affairs.

     

    The Meaning of Qur’an

    The word Qur’an means continuous recitation and understanding. It is so called because of its inimitable origin which makes it a compelling daily reading throughout the world, across nations and ages. It is the unsurpassed word of Allah not only in the grandeur of its diction and splendour of its rendition but also in the depth of its meaning, substance and profundity.

     

    Profile of the Qur’an

    The revelation of this Book to mankind through an unlettered desert Arab, Muhammad son of Abdullah and Aminah, began in the month of Ramadan in year 610 CE. It lasted for about 22 years and three months (10 years in Makkah and12 years plus three months in Madinah). The book contains 114 chapters and 6,246 verses (not 6,666 verses often announced by most Imams and Alfas). Any individual can verify this by checking the number of verses in each chapter and adding them together. It does not take more than one hour to do this.

    Of the 114 chapters contained in the Qur’an, 86 were revealed in Makkah and 28 in Madinah. But the 28 chapters revealed in Madinah constitute two thirds of the entire Book. And this is because the Makkah chapters are short and rhythmic while those of Madinah are long and prose-like.

    Although the Qur’an was revealed orally, its writing began almost immediately the revelations started. The writing was however done on primitive materials like wood, animal hides, back of trees and others of the like which were then readily available. It was only much later, after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), that those writings were brought together and rendered into a book form. And one of the wonders of recording the Qur’an in writing is the classification of those revelations into chapters and verses by the Prophet himself despite his illiteracy.

     

    Manner of Presentation

    The manner of presenting the Qur’anic revelations is simple and direct. It employs neither artifice nor conventional poses. Its main appeal is to man’s intellect, feelings and imagination. It does not only touch the anecdotes of the past Prophets in different ages and nations as well as the accounts of earlier revelations, it also covers the period from the beginning of creation to the very last Day of Judgment and beyond.

    Not only that, Al-Qur’an also gives insight into some natural phenomena like sphericity and revolution of the earth (Q. 39:5) the formation of rain (Q. 30:48); the fertilisation of the wind (Q. 15:22); the revolution of the sun, the moon and the planets in their fixed orbits (Q. 36:29-38); the aquatic origin of all creatures (Q. 21:30); the duality of the sex of plants and other creatures (Q. 36:35); the collective life of animals (Q.6:38); the mode of life of the bees (Q. 16:69) and the successive phases of the child in the mother’s womb (Q. 22:5 & 23:14). Yet, the purpose of this Book is not to teach history, astronomy, philosophy or sciences. The details of these will be spelt out fully after Ramadan under a theme to be called ‘ANATOMY OF THE QUR’AN’ in sha’Allah.

     

    Unnecessary Controversy

    Meanwhile, there is a raging controversy among Muslim scholars over the first and last revelations in the Qur’an. Much as this controversy is unwarranted, it may be necessary to clear the coast here (without laying any claim to authority) if only for the purpose of authenticating history.

    It is almost a consensus that the first revealed chapter in the Qur’an is Suratul ‘Alaq (Chapter of the Clot). But the very first revelation reaching   Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through Angel Jibril is ‘BASMALAH’

    (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful) which precedes every chapter in the Qur’an except one (Suratut-Tawah).

    As a Messenger of Allah to another Messenger of Allah, Angel Jubril couldn’t have commanded Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to read anything without doing so in the name of Allah who sent him with the message.

    Thus, Suratul ‘Alaq, as preceded by ‘BASMALAH’, could only have been the first revealed chapter but not the first revelation. And that is logical.

    As for the last revelation in the Qur’an majority of Nigerian Muslim scholars believe that it is chapter 5, verse 3 of the Qur’an which says: ”Today, I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favour on you. And, I am pleased with Islam for you as religion”.

    That verse of the Qur’an that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) at ‘Arafah while performing his farewell Hajj couldn’t have been the last revelation. It came 81 days before the demise of the Prophet (SAW). And there was another revelation, thereafter, which came about nine days before the Prophet fell sick and died. This can be found in Qur’an 2: 281 which says: “And fear the day when you shall all return to Allah; the day when every soul shall be requited according to its desert and none shall be wronged”.

     

    Clarification

    The earlier verse was an accentuation of Hajj as the last pillar of Islam. And that was why it came on Arafah Day. The latter is a reminder of man’s final destination and the account of his worldly activities. These and many more are what readers of the Qur’an should know inside out. But the big question is this: who will teach them when the supposed teachers have sold out to money and ignorance? To Muslims who are conscious of their spiritual affinity and retain their conscience for the day they will meet their Creator and account for their deeds on earth ‘The Message’ says RAMADAN KARIM!

     

     

  • How Ramadan heals

    Every year, most Muslims perceive Ramadan from economic, social, moral and spiritual perspectives. What they don’t seem to know is that the practical lessons of this sacred month are far beyond those scopes.

    Science is in a state of continuous evolution and new discoveries follow one another’s heels. A large flow of information often come like a spring from scholarly mediums and put the modern man on the right path of knowledge.

    Biologically, human beings grow old and eventually die. Very few people ponder over this occurrence. We have all accepted it as a natural phenomenon which we must abide by willingly or unwillingly.

    Apart from old age, most people die not because they are naturally ripe for death but because the blood flowing through their coronary arteries clots sometimes prematurely and render their body systems partially or fully ineffective.

    Because of the excessive consumption of certain improper diets, and other defective factors in our biological set-ups, human arteries become hard and rusty hence the mad rush for treatment in hospitals or traditional apothecaries.

    This process of rustiness in human system is medically called Atheroma. And many theories have been advanced to explain its mechanism especially how it causes rustiness in human blood vessels.

    One of the great advantages of fasting especially in the month of Ramadan, is to increase the power of the blood to dissolve blood clots whether those clots are in the coronary arteries of the heart that cause heart attack or in the cerebral arteries that cause stroke. This is where fasting comes handy as a miraculous healer.

    Fasting does not only lower blood pressure and alleviate severe chest pain (angina pectoris) resulting from a reduced supply of blood and oxygen to the heart, it also prevents an arterial disease (arteriosclerosis) occurring especially in the elderly as characterized by elasticity and thickening of the blood flow. Not only that. Fasting also reduces the mortality rate of heart attack.

    The blood sugar is maintained at a steady level during fasting even as the glucose  being formed at that level from glycogen and natural fat mobilized to dispose tissue function effectively.

    In a nutshell, Ramadan brings about an increase in secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary which causes an increase in human weight and acceleration of linear growth with widening epiphysis (the end of the lung at the point where it was previously separated by cartilage to allow bone to grow) especially in young animals. Thus, with fasting in Ramadan, a competent doctor can be said to have been imported into the workings of the body system.