The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Abbas

  • The Cost of Governance

    “Occurrences of life have tendency to force men/women to grow grey
    hair. And life itself is like a horse. If it allows you to ride it
    today, do not take it for granted for it may turn round to ride you
    tomorrow”.
    The above quotation is from an Arab poem.

    Preamble

    Governance in mundane life is a transit in which some political travellers take a momentary sojourn at a time when others are exiting from it. Politics itself is a package of both realizable and unrealizable wishes. And the worst of such wishes is the one based on self-deception and self-aggrandizement. The just concluded election in Nigeria is a clear attestation to this assertion. With a fortuitous exit from their political transit, as surprisingly determined by that election, where will many flamboyant Nigerian Senators and other so-called Honourable Legislators, who had deserted those who elected them, be for the next four years? That is life for you. When the political horse turns round to ride its riders, hardly will those riders be remembers again. Where are the riders of yesteryears?

     

    Governance in Islam

    In Islam, governance is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Its duration is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her wellbeing. And the product of such pregnancy is claimed, not by the carrier but by the impregnator.

    Naturally, there is no pregnancy without semen actively planted in the womb of a woman. And the planter of that semen is the man who in this case, is called the impregnator. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers rather than those of their mothers as surnames.

     

    Analogy

    By analogy, one can compare governance to a pregnant woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The impregnator here is, proverbially, the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule over 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 populace.

    In a patriarchal setting, any child who bears his mother’s name as surname rather than that of his father is nothing but a bastard. That is always the case where dividend of governance is cornered by those who are entrusted with the custody of governance.

     

    The Norms of Governance

    In Islam, after security, law and justice, all of which reflect strong faith in Allah and adherence to His divine guidance, nothing else is held more sacrosanct than governance. Thus,  governance can be compared to a magnificent canopy under which the people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic environment, such canopy is owned, not by the politicians but by the citizenry who, otherwise, are known as the electorate. In other words, the bearer of the mentioned proverbial canopy is just a servant keeping it in trust for the people. Perhaps that is one major fact that the late President Musa Yar’Adua realized when he called himself a servant leader on assumption of office in May. 2007.

     

    Servants and Messengers

    In Islam, rulers are statutorily the servants of God and the messengers of the people. They are employees who must always report back to their employers. Where rulers behave contrary to this norm, a fundamental breach of protocol is likely to occur which may be tantamount to rebellion against the people. In such instance, those rulers no longer have any legitimate authority to rule over the people.

     

    Memory Lane

    In an open letter that yours sincerely wrote to the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in this column in June, 2007, shortly after his assumption of office as President, I cited example of two of his namesakes (Umar) in history. One of them was Umar Bn Khattab who eventually became the second Caliph in Islam. The other was Umar Bn… who eventually became an infidel. But a third one, not mentioned in that letter, emerged some decades after Prophet Muhammad’s demise. His name was Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, a famous Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty.

    He became Caliph about 85 years after the demise of the Prophet.

    This third Umar became a reference point in human history because of the unique way in which he managed the economy of the Caliphate. In a particular year during his reign, the state made so much money from Zakah collection that the problem was how to spend it.

    The tradition, according to Islamic injunction, was for the state to dispense the zakah to the poor among the citizenry from the much money made through the collection of zakah. But when this was to be done, it turned out that nobody in the entire state was so poor as to be a zakat recipient. The huge amount earmarked for zakah distribution that year had to be returned to the state treasury.

     

    Umar Bn Abdul Aziz

    The mentioned Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, who became so much famous in history as an ingenuous economic manager, ruled for only three years from 717 to 720 C.E. Yet, he died at the age of 37.

    The secret of his success was his ability to identify two major areas of economic management in governance. One was to regulate the cost of governance by harmonizing the salaries and allowances of political appointees with those of government employees. This was to ensure that those employees were not enslaved, if psychologically, to the privileged political appointees or those elected to legislate for the state. And there was an independent body responsible for the determination of public workers’ remunerations.

     

    Umar’s 1st Success Secret

    In the cited case, neither the legislators nor the appointed officials were allowed to fix their own salaries or allowances by themselves.

    According to Caliph Umar bn Abdul Aziz, “fixing your own salary as appointed or elected government officials is nothing but theft”, which is punishable in Islam. He held that both the government and the resources of the state belonged to the people and nothing was to be done to the lives of the people through government policies without their consent.

    That can be compared to the situation in Nigeria today where the legislators fix their own salaries and allowances and are to earn such salaries and allowance forever even after leaving office. One can now see why the cost of governance has become a noose on the neck of the populace. How can the country progress in such a situation?

     

    Umar’s 2nd Success Secret

    Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz’s second secret of success was his official recognition of the middle class as the greatest employer of labour in any society. He knew that if two million professionals or artisans in the state could employ four staff each, the burden of gross unemployment would be off the neck of the government because 10 million people including those employers would have been effectively employed. And that would not only have ordinarily brought the rate of crime in the state to its lowest ebb it would have also enhanced the state economy tremendously.

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

    This economic ingenuity, which is now being partially borrowed by Nigerian government under President Muhammad Buhari, through n-power and trader money has since become the heritage of the Western countries and they are thriving gloriously in it today.

    Any government that eliminates the middle class as in the case of Nigeria automatically opens the gate of poverty and crime to the populace.

     

    Bane of Nigerian Economy

    Today, the greatest bane of Nigerian economy is not just the elimination of the middle class but also the extremely high cost of running the government. And, unless these two are properly addressed, this country may continue to wander aimlessly, in economic wilderness, just like the Egyptian gypsies of yore. One of the deceptive measures imbibed by Nigeria’s past governments was  to name year 2020 as a date of economic Eldorado even when all positive indices that could propel such a dream into realty were non-existent. There is even no assurance that Nigeria’s electricity would have become stable by that year let alone the other major factors of a viable economy.

     

    Economic Calamity

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

    Shortly after the south-west governors assumed office in 1999, yours sincerely wrote an open letter to them, which was published in Vanguard newspaper where I was then a member of the Editorial Board.

    In that letter, I suggested three major areas of economic success with which they could sustain that region’s pace-setting in the country.

    First was a regional power generating centre with which to permanently stabilize electricity supply in that region. With this, I argued that not only would industrialization take a sound footing but also that most unemployed young men and women would be self- employed to the greatest relief of those governments.

    Secondly, I suggested an establishment of regional railway system that could serve, not just as a mass transit for the commuters, but also as a cargo currier for all the goods, especially farm products in the region. With such a regional railway in place, the region would have become the doyen of commerce in the country and every able hand would have been effectively engaged without bothering the state governments.

    Thirdly, I suggested the establishment of a common refinery that could fill the vacuum created by constant non-availability of oil products.

    In that letter, I emphasized that each of these projects could be jointly put in place by the six South-West states since they were on the concurrent list and they belong to the same political party which was then called Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    If the then governors (Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, Segun Osoba of Ogun State, Lam Adesina of Oyo State, Bisi Akande of Osun State, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State and Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State) had accepted even only one of those suggestions, the economic situation of the south-west would have been wonderfully different today and the other regions of the country would have followed suit in a new progressive economic competition. That was the kind of competition that shot the Asian tiger states ahead of Africa.

    However, today, 20 years after those suggestions, where is the South-West, economically?

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

     

    Absence of Middle Class

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

    The current lopsided situation which deliberately puts over 97% of the national wealth in the hands of about 3% of Nigerians is not only ungodly but suicidal. And it is not in the long run interest of those who designed it as such.

     

    Economic Aberration

    The posture of owner and seller of petroleum products assumed locally by some politically privileged demagogues in Nigeria who award oil wells to themselves by fiat is not only immoral, it is also a betrayal of people’s trust. And that is the main breeder of the cancerous monster called corruption in this country today. As a matter of fact, the populace seems to have lost total confidence in the federal style of governance after decades of deception and inhuman policies which continue to make them wallow helplessly in abject poverty even in the midst of plenty. Restoring that confidence should now take a front burner in the policy formulations of the current administration as a way of fulfilling its promise of ‘the next level’. Most of the policies formulated by the last regime can be described as dead horse which no one could kick back to life. Any attempt to pursue those policies in the name of ‘continuity’ can only amount to rigmarolling into political Siberia.

    Now, the threats of industrial strike by every Tom, Dick and Harry, especially over minimum wage is sensitive enough for President Buhari to note with special attention in his ‘next level’ tenure. In that case, the first step to focus is the issue of the legislators’ salaries and allowances as Nigeria does not have the type of economy that is capable of sustaining presidential system of government. To any developing country, such a system is an unnecessary luxury that may serve as the bastion of corruption at advanced level. And spending too much time to beam searchlight on  pathologically corrupt elements in a country like Nigeria, where corruption has become a culture, is like searching for a missing needle in the Atlantic Ocean. Let the system of governance be changed institutionally and the orientation of Nigerians will automatically change. That is a major task upon which the history of Nigeria’s change mantra may be based in the future.

    God bless Nigeria!

  • Nigeria’s Democratic Cobweb

    “….Whoever deviates from my (divine) guidance will surely live a hanging life and he/she will be resurrected as a blind person on the Day of Judgment”. Q.

    Besides being man’s natural teacher, history continues to serve as man’s principal reminder about the past occurrences and human experiences in handling those occurrences. Such is for the purpose of shaping the future, in proper perspective, to the benefit of mankind.

    This is a period in Nigeria when history’s role as a reminder can be most active.

     

    Memory Lane

    At the main entrance of the University of Cordoba in Spain, a unique, historic inscription was conspicuously hung. The contents of that inscription are as follows: “The world is sustained by four formidable pillars: the wisdom of the learned; the justice of the great; the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave”.

    For centuries, that inscription served as an impeccable template that guided people seeking knowledge acquisition through academic prowess and exemplary conduct in the ivory towers of all other Universities subsequently established around the world.

    University of Cordoba was the very first University ever established in the world. It was established by the Muslim Arabs of the second Umayyad dynasty in Spain, in the 9th century. After its establishment, that University came to partner with another tertiary research institution that had preceded it existence and named Baytul Hikmah (Home of Wisdom).

    Baytul Hikmah was established in the early 9th century, by the Abbasid dynasty, in Iraq.

    However, It was the University of Cordoba that opened the eyes of the entire world to tertiary education and enabled the Caucasian race of the West to attain unthinkable pinnacle of technological heights in human history.

    It must be remembered that the three oldest Universities in the world today are offshoots of the University of Cordoba. They are the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; the Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and the Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Those three Universities were established about the same time in the 10th century.

    Each of them   had celebrated 1000th years of existence in the 1970s.

    If the managers of Universities around the world had held on tenaciously to the contents of the mentioned inscription hung at the entrance of the University of Cordoba or anything similar to it,perhaps, the world would not have become as restive intellectually, politically and economically as it is today.

     

    Democracy of Doom

    Philosophers who came up with the idea of democracy and defined it in the primordial time as the government of the people by the people and for the people, might be right, relative to their time and their cultural situation. But in contemporary time, that definition seems to have become obsolete and inconsistent with the reality of today.

    In theory and in practice, the aims and objectives of initiating democracy as an alternative to monarchy have so drastically changed that the original meaning of democracy has been stripped of the real civilized value.

     

    Democracy by Manipulation

    Apparently, because of the situation in their own time, the originators and definers of democracy did not consider the changing nature of man vis-a-vis the possible manipulation  that democracy could pass through in its implementation by man’s innate desperation and greed for power. It is therefore clear now that with the frequency of change in  eras as well as in the nature of man, the definition of democracy has been rendered practically unsuitable for the cultural situation of the 21st century. And this is not peculiar to Nigeria or Africa. It is evidently global. The point here here is not that democracy is bad for the contemporary world. But its handling by the selfishly desperate people is its Calamitous bane.

     

    Evidence of Rigging

    In the United States of America, where democracy is globally believed to be referentially entrenched, the fierce political battle between

    George H. W. Bush junior and Anold Al Gore, during the 1999/ 2000 election in that country, remains an eye opener of historic reference.

    In the political logjam that ensued and lasted about six weeks, unbelievably, at that time, Al Gore of the Democratic party, who had been Vice-President to Bill Clinton, scored much more votes than Bush.

    But the latter was declared the winner and sworn into office as President for two undisclosed ambiguous reasons:

    1. Bush’ younger brother, Jeb, was the Governor of Florida, where the raging controversy over that election was most pronounced and he was firmly on ground to manipulate the results of the election in his State in favour of his brother.
    2. The father of both Bush, ie: Bush the Presidential candidate and Bush the Governor of Florida, was the 41st US President that preceded

    Bill Clinton as   President. What else is called hegemonic democracy?

    It was that unpalatable historic election that brought a new political paradigm called ‘too close to call’ into American democratic dispensation for the first time since that country’s declaration of independence in 1776. And incidentally, the outcome of that volatile election was said to be in the overall interest of America as a nation even at the dawn of the 21st century.

    Also, in 2015, the fierce presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton which put the latter ahead of the former by over three million votes, ended up with a historic award of Presidency to Trump of the Republican party through a controversial international manipulation that allegedly involved a  clandestine Russian hand under the watch of Vladema Putin. And the deed was sealed and justified with the claim of ‘national interest’.  Yet, it is the same America that some Nigerian political demagogues are banking on to reap

    political fortune. If we may ask, in whose national interest was the mentioned 2016 political abracadabra in America upheld by an unbeatable cabbal? And with that, who says democracy, even in the United States, has no hegemonic window?

     

    The June 12 Saga

    Here in Nigeria, after some decades of post- independence political rigmarole, the Almighty Allah deliberately guided the citizenry aright and showered them with a rare political mercy in the name of Option A4 which came with only two political parties: Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC). Besides instilling unprecedented political discipline in all the citizens of Nigeria that ingenuous political invention had no better alternative in economic management of politics anywhere in the world. And nothing else has, since June 12, 1993, shown Nigerians any factor of peace and harmony in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society other than that year’s election. Even the weather of that day, throughout the country, joyously came with an unfathomable clemency to bear witness to the impeccable serenity of the day. It was one special mercy from Allah which the supposed beneficiaries refused to acknowledge with gratitude. That was an election that cost the government virtually nothing as there was no need either for polling booths or for ballot boxes or even ballot papers. The voting pattern was such a clear evidence of discipline and political tolerance that most foreign observers started to think of selling the idea of recommending it to their home governments for adoption.

    At the voting centers, the candidates’ posters with their parties’ logos and their photographs were displayed side by side and the electorates were asked to queue up in front of their preferred candidates or parties. The system was so apt that it required no heavy security.

    After queuing up in the open, the voters were counted openly and everybody knew the results immediately while those results were promptly endorsed by the party agents any controversy.

    On that historic day, the two presidential candidates were Bashorun Moshood Kashimowo Olawale (MKO) Abiola for SDP and Alhaji Bashir Tofa for NRC. It did not take more than three hours before the final results were known throughout the country, even though, the official announcement of those results were delayed for the reason of a hidden agenda which the designers of the system had surreptitiously kept in secrecy like a land mine meant for an enemy.

    The suspicious lull that followed that historic exercise after some days turned the psychological cloud of the nation into an unpredictable pregnant womb.

    Exactly 11 days after that historic election (on June 23, 1993, a flimsy radio announcement was made which claimed to have annulled the Presidential election. It turned out that the same self-acclaimed military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida who had acted as the giant spider that weaved the democratic cobweb was the destroyer of that cobweb.

    That was how Nigeria’s democratic mercy was rejected by the military cabal without a replacement. Now, after spending almost 300 billion naira and losing so many lives, will tomorrow’s general election pave way for hope or for despair? That is a major question for today awaiting a major answer in the near future. More will be written about June 12, 1993 election in this column, in a foreseeable future in sha’Allah.

     

    Analysis

    Anybody who is well familiar with the contents of the Qur’an will understand that that Glorious Book of divine Law was revealed, by Allah, to mankind, through Prophet Muhammad (SAW), in coded language.

    And to decode that language for the purpose of meaningful understanding, the need to resort to expository analysis is a necessity. But since such expository analysis can only be obtained from the words and actions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the adoption of Hadith and Sunnah as supplementary divine laws is a sine qua non.

    That is why the analysis of every verse of the Qur’an requires deep and thorough analysis

  • Readers’ comments

    As promised in this column last week, today’s article is a follow up to that of last Friday, it contains some past reactions of some readers of this column. Please read on.

    Column writing is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Like an expectant mother,the experience garnered by the columnist in the weekly process of its conception through its delivery can hardly be fully recounted. As once expressed in this column, the problem of a genuine columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them.

    Choosing a theme alone out of many that are throwing themselves at you vigorously and competitively is enough a problem. Besides, a columnist is like a bull’s eye targeted by every desperate hunter. And a participatory column like THE ‘MESSAGE’ is like a refuse bin where all sorts of rubbish are dumped in the name of reactions. The same article in a column that fetches commendations from certain quarters may also attract criticisms or outright condemnations from others. Every reader seems to expect his favourite column to reflect his line of thinking.

    Where this fails to happen, disappointment is bitterly expressed.

     

    Preamble

    The principle of reader’s participation adopted by ‘THE MESSAGE’ from its inception in 2006 has not waned a bit. If reactions were not published in recent times it was due to certain irresistible circumstances. Henceforth, publishable reactions will be published from time to time as usual. But as a reminder, it is necessary to emphasise here, once again, that only reactions which meet the standard already set in this column in terms of relevance, reason, logic and language will see the light of the day.

    Reactions to this column come in various forms either as comments, observations, advice or questions through phone calls, text messages

    and e-mail, thanks to technology. What is unique about ‘THE MESSAGE’ as a column is its readership which cuts across religions, tribes, callings, age strata and genders. Through these angles, readers’ reactions come accordingly.

    Sometimes, reactions are published according to geographical spread.

    Sometimes, they are published according to issues involved and sometimes according to the standard of presentation. If some reactions are published and others are not, it is not because those published are superior to those not published. The criteria are clear.

     

    Reactions in the kitty

    Right now, there are hundreds of reactions in the kitty. And since it is impossible for all of them to be published here at once, we go by the laid down criteria. But criteria or no criteria, reactions to the ongoing elections will not be published here because such reactions cannot be relevant to the  contents of this column at this time. This is not only to avoid committing contempt of any tribunal or court of law but also to refrain from adding fuel to fire on that highly volatile issue on which readers’ reactions on all sides are mostly a reflection of temperamental vituperations. Please read on the publishable ones:

    Your opinion on terrorism was a piece of historical enlightenment. As a student of history, it broadens my horizon of world view. Bravo!

    Ochada Jerry, Lokoja, Kogi State

    In my text message to you in October, 2009, I said that the car accident involving you and your children was a blessing in disguise.

    If that accident did not occur perhaps something worse could have happened. I concluded that your miraculous safety in that terrible accident was divinely to enable you serve Islam and humanity more and better. Now with your recent series on terrorism Nigerians are beginning to appreciate your great potential which is yet to fully germinate. Thank God that we have a Muslim like you as a columnist.

    Please, keep flying us. We are in the hands of a safe pilot in you. Remain blessed.

    Abdullah Yahaya, Nasarawa State.

    I am a Christian and I do not miss your commentary (The Message) every Friday in The Nation. You are simply good.

    Ajakaiye

    I am one of your staunch fans. I enjoy your column and the well researched writings therein. Your writings on Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and terrorism really captivated me. From your column, I learn more, every week, about the American and Western deception. I‘ll be grateful if you can send me books on Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and military as well as political and economic deceptions of the West.

    Sani Mohammed, Bauchi.

    Your article on Osama was my first time of ever reading The Nation as it adds enormously to my knowledge on the Middle East. I have since taken The Nation as my favourite newspaper. Thank you for a thorough job.

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    It is encouraging to note that there are Muslims who think the way you do. Thank you very much for your write up ‘Who is Osama Bin Laden?

    Please, write on religious crises in northern Nigeria. Ajor, 08052517797

    I salute your courage and truthfulness in writing. Let us continue to stamp out terrorism by letting people know true, undiluted teaching ofIslam. Muslims should emulate the love Prophet Muhammad had for the Jews which enabled them to embrace Islam. Only love can cure terrorism because it is a mental illness.

    Dr. Sakeeb

    Sir, wa Llahi, you are a blessing to the Ummah. So that’s Osama! With that huge amount of money he inherited, he would have supported the Islamic banking worldwide. May Allah forgive him. Please, train younger Muslims so as to perpetuate and disseminate this worthy message.

    Olohungbebe Awwal

    I am highly disappointed in your view and conclusion on Osama Bin Laden. If you knew how Israel killed the Palestinians you would have no choice than to pick up gun against the enemies of Islam. Osama is a real jihadist. Your view is like that of the enemies of Islam.

    Alabi Ahmad, Abuja.

    How I wish the Muslim youths could abide by the last paragraph of your commentary in The Nation today. What we need is peace and not war to live in harmony as human beings.

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    There is no solution to terrorism be it in Nigeria or elsewhere. If there are no terrorists in Nigeria, they are plenty in Abia State.

    Kenneth Azuikpe

    I am not a Muslim but I never agree with your submission sir. In as much as you can not call America and others involved in violent acts terrorists you have no right to call Osama and his likes terrorists.

    It takes two to tangle and you can only reap what you sow. I think it is Americans that sowed the seed of violence in the Middle East and they deserve the violence they are getting in return. Why is it okay when America drops bombs that kill thousands of Arabs and nobody labels it as an act of terrorism? You can only fight with what you have. Americans have weapons of mass destruction but what the Arabs have is suicide bombers. Let Americans change their evil ways and there will be peace in the world.

    Falaye Oreoluwa Steve 08098117071

    My name is Mufutau Aderemi Azeez. I developed interest in your Friday column in The Nation when providence brought me in contact with your write up on terrorism. Please ride on with the ‘GIFT OF LIFE’ in you.

    Your article in The Nation of today is very educative. America sowed the wind and it will continue to reap tornado for as long as it constitutes itself into an ENEMY FOR ISLAM. No person or country that made friendship with America has ever escaped being turned into a carcass.

    Ibrahim F. G.

    “Terrorism: The Madrasa Connection” is a well researched, well articulated piece. If USA can shed the toga of arrogance and hypocrisy and engage in meaningful dialogue with the aggrieved organisations, the world will know peace. You are an asset to Islam.

    R.O. Hussein, Ibadan.

    I just write to appreciate your commentary with the topic ‘Islam Without the Arabs’. More grease to your elbow. Please keep enlightening us. With you, we now know that Islam can do without the so-called Arabs.

    Ishaq, Kano.

    I read your column on January 1, 2010 with much enthusiasm. Before then, I didn’t know the reason behind all the crises in the Middle East. The article must be widely circulated throughout the world to let the Arabs know that most of their activities are against the preaching of Islam. I have distributed copies of the article to my Christian friends so that they can know Islam as a religion of peace.

    Eng. Wale Kreem, Ore.

    Reading you is like reading many professors together. Even as a Christian, I learn so much from your highly researched work. Perhaps you do not know, through The Message’ you teach philosophy, logic, ethics, language and religion. But above all, you teach morals and the courage with which to demonstrate it. Man, you are great. Please make it an inexhaustible spring from which generations to come may drink and drink.

    Abraham Sen, Benue State.

    I found in you an excellent teacher relating to all your readers on a common level. Your column is understandable to all across board. And there is a reflection of humility in your writings which actually makes you a true Muslim. But in all I have read in your column about terrorism, there has been no single case of a woman leading violence.

    On the other hand, it is women and their children who are mostly the victims of terrorism everywhere. Don’t you see that women generally personify peace while men are the agents of violence? Please do a piece along this line, perhaps it may help humanity to restore peace

    in the world. Thank you.

    Zainab A. Yusuf, Katsina.

    Femi Abbas! It is unimaginable that a one time obscure Arabic pupil who never had the opportunity of a secondary school could become such a global tutor of knowledge and discipline as you are today. I remember how we used to make jest of you by calling you Alfa. Our thought then was that going to Arabic school was the dead end for anybody to achieve anything through education in life. How I wish we could realise our folly then. Your case has further confirmed that greatness in life is never tied to Western type of literacy. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) never attended any school at all. Neither was he literate in any language. Yet he became the greatest teacher that the world has ever seen. Who can thwart the work of Allah? Femi, all my friends and I read The Nation every Friday because of you and it is as if we are back in the classroom. It was Yakubu Oorelope, I hope you still remember him, who drew my attention to your column. You are doing us proud. Please, teach on. You have students in us. One day we shall meet again and compare notes. I am sure none of us will have the courage to call you by your first name that day. God give us life and time. I hope you can still remember Taoreed Adeshina Aderibigbe, the stubborn goal keeper at Ogba, Agege stadium in the hopeless days of the late 1960s? Until we see physically let me continue to see you in The Nation.

    ‘Shina Show’, Agege, Lagos.

    I can no longer be surprised by your standard in writing. You have proved your mettle as you once told me that you dropped Foreign Affairs job for Journalism after the NYSC service, to prove a point.

    And, indeed, you have done that beyond any reasonable doubt. I only wish to remind you once again that you should compile all these invaluable articles into a book form as an indelible legacy. May God help you.

    Idris O. Gasper, Abuja.

    I am a fresh graduate of ABU Zaria, from Plateau State. I’ve been reading from your Da’awa regarding the position of Islam in our country Nigeria. As a matter of fact, I am so much happy that Allah has sent to us a relief concerning briefing on Islamic affairs through you in the media. May Allah continue to bless you more and reward you on this particular assignment you are always undertaking.

    Please, consider me as one of your permanent readers. But I want you to focus more on the issue of international as well as national terrorism and the world of Islam. This is so because I think there is need to take our Muslim youths through proper guidance so that we should not be looking at terrorism as any rightful act and see those engaged in it as heroes. Our hero will always remain the Great Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and not half-baked mediocres.

    Mohammed A. Danjuma, Kaduna

    Your article has been able to expose the facts within a secular perception, which could not be faulted.

    However, the other side of the coin is the teachings of Islam as distinct from personal/race agenda. The religion’s teachings are universal and not for the Arabs.

    We should dwell more on the Muslims living to emancipate humanity from the shackles of parochial thinking in the superiority of one over the other based on material acquisitions.

    Let us continue to dialogue and learn for the human race to get to the desired state of mind that will bring about equity, justice, peace not only in the immediate communities, but within the human race generally. Nigeria needs this urgently.

    Kamaldeen Ayodeji, Abeokuta, Ogun State

  • NGO, religious leaders seek peaceful poll

    A non-governmental-organisation (NGO), Strength in Diversity Development Center (SDDC) and some religious leaders have urged politicians to ensure peace reigns during tomorrow’s and March 2nd general elections.

    They made the submission at inter-religious and inter-denominational prayers for peaceful election.

    SDDC, in a communiqué signed by its Executive Director, Imam Shefiu Abdulkareem, said a national week of prayers and rally were held between February 8th  and 10th.

    The resolutions including reduction of hate speeches by educating the people to understand its consequences and urging religious leaders to desist from the act of hate speech.

    SDDC also bemoaned the act of vote buying, which it said has denied Nigerians from enjoying the good governance.

    “There must be penalty for such act (both the seller and buyer). The punishment must be enforced as well,” the group said.

    The Sarkin Fulani of Lagos, Alhaji Muhammed Bambado, at the conference, urged religious leaders to use their influence by calling on politicians within their domains to show commitment in preventing electoral violence.

    “Beyond ensuring peace, it has also become imperative for leaders to enlighten their subject and followers and encourage them to ask questions and seek clarification before going out to vote,” he said.

    The Chief Missioner of Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Ahmad, said fake news and hate speech are worrisome trend that has bedevilled Nigeria, noting that fighting it has become a matter of urgency.

    He urged religious leaders to desist from circulating fake news and hate speech in their sermon.

    He said: “We are the one suffering the threat of social media not the owner, It is better we act now by exploring common humanity and not emphasising on parochial interest”.

    Bishop Mathew Daniels said vote buying creates a big distortion and hindrance to the democratic idea of a free and fair election that ensures that the electorates elect the leaders they deem fit to rule them.

     

     

  • Leadership problem: Islamic solution

    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.

     

    Whio is Mustapha Akanbi?  

    The name Mustapha Akanbi cannot be strange to any contemporary educated Nigerian. It is a household name in Nigeria and beyond especially for those who are familiar with the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other offences) Commission (ICPC). The first Chairman of that Commission is 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 (Justioce 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 sight a major fault 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 words.

    Any parent who starts the upbringing of his or her children with lavish celebration of birthday without teaching such children the act of money making early in life has initiated them into the world 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 and stealing. 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 in cheating in the examination or in getting 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 sanctioned 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 and obey the Messenger (of Allah) and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything among 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”.

    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 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 with human heart as well. It is a humane and not sadistic public duty. 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 against 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 had 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.

     

  • Oloyede: Honour for the Honourable

    Today is another day of glory and history in Lagos. All ways from different parts of Nigeria will lead to the Centre of Excellence. At the instance of ‘The Sun’ newspaper, a gathering of Nigeria’s who is who will take place once again and the venue is Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island where a glorious recognition session will be held in honour of some great Nigerians who deserve honour. Among those to be honoured are some outstanding Nigerians in various fields of endeavour and flamboyant politicians who are considered to be frontline performers in their political terrain.

    The occasion is meant to be a show of recognition to certain patriotic Nigerians as an incentive for relentlessness in their excellent performances in public service.

    The most likely focused personality on today’s occasion is the current Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL, who is being honoured as the Most Outstanding Public Servant of the Year 2018. He won the same award two years ago (2017) at a similar occasion organised by New Telegraph and this article is similar to what yours sincerely wrote at that time in this column.

    This man’s unique patriotism and honesty at this period of epidemic corruption in Nigeria, especially among public servants, have become a special historic point of reference. His remittance of about N16 billion to the treasury of the Federal Government of Nigeria in less than just about two years of his assumption of office as JAMB Registrar, compared to remittance of less than N2 billion in almost twenty years in the same JAMB, is unprecedented in the history of this country.

     

    Who is this Prof Oloyede?

    He is the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and the current Registrar of JAMB. Any citation about his birth, growth and schooling may not be relevant here since the award to be given to him today is about integrity and not academic qualification.

     

    Observation

    For every age of human life there are particles of history that relay to us the successes or failures of the previous ages. And from such successes or failures humanity endeavours to draw a guide for itself which may serve either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both.

    At a time like this when anything new and progressive is a great reminder of the sad flight of hope in Nigeria and its replacement by despair, it behoves only some die hard patriotic optimists to take a positive and progressive leap as an indication that all is not lost in our country after all. One of such optimists is Prof Oloyede.

     

    His Intellectual Prowess

    From his early age, this man has consistently been a bookworm as there was no book within his reach that he would not want to read and digest. His excellent academic performance in the University he attended as well as his exceptional administrative acumen as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin could therefore not have come as a surprise to those who know him closely.  But besides academic brilliance, what actually lifted him in life is his genuine goodwill and sincere selfless service which he is always eagerly ready to render towards helping others. His sacrifices in this sphere are quite legendary and his phenomenal rise can only be classified as a reward for it from Allah.

     

    His Tenure as VC

    If, during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor, the University of Ilorin could rise so loftily from a very modest foundation and tower above many other Universities that preceded it in Nigeria then the hope that a new Nigeria could still emerge from the debris of the old can no longer be a national nightmare.

     

    The Worth of Institutions

    “Institutions are worth no more than the men who work them”. This quotation is  culled from a speech once delivered by Prof O. O. Akinkugbe, the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin. That quotation is partially in tandem with a verse of the Qur’an thus: “Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change the evil contents of their minds…” It was on the premise of that pregnant quotation that Prof Oloyede built his unsurpassable achievements as the Vice-Chancellor of the same University of Ilorin between 2007 and 2012 as a way of encouraging the Nigerian youths of today on the pleasant possibilities of tomorrow. For some of those youths, that tomorrow has earnestly begun with the same Prof Oloyede as their model in JAMB. The men described by Prof Akinkugbe in that quote are not by any means ordinary. And the soils from which they sprang are not by any standard restricted to any particular area of study or style of life. Thus, since the tree of life has many branches and roots, no topmost twig should presume to think that it alone has sprung from the mother earth. There is no restriction of the signpost of life to any particular person, place or time.

     

    Parable of Greatness

    Greatness is like a magnet which attracts only the relevant elements to itself.

    It was because some people including a British writer and poet, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), who won Nobel Laurel in 1907 were unmindful of the above quote that the world is in turmoil today. In the conclusion of one of his poems, Rudyard Kipling once asserted thus: ”Oh! East is East and West is West; never the Twain shall meet…” That poem later came to intensify the perennial hostility between the East and the West which the latter came to adopt as a permanent policy to the detriment of global peace and harmony. But what neither Kipling nor the West seemed to understand about the seeming natural divide in the world is the existence of an abstract confluence similar to a knuckle that holds the blades of a pair of scissors together. Just as the scissors cannot operate effectively with one blade so can no man with one focused educational eye correctly claim to be the main signpost in any field of human endeavour. That is what distinguishes Prof Oloyede from many others. He combines the Eastern and the Western education together with the intention of utilising both jointly to the benefit of humanity. And that is now manifesting nationally.

     

    The JAMB Registrar

    Prof Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede is a household name in the academia not only in Nigeria or Africa but also in the entire world just like the University he was privileged to head for five years in Ilorin. What qualified him for such a vertical position is an interesting question for which most inquisitive minds may earnestly seek an answer. And the answer is not far-fetched.

    Like some rare men of letters and knowledge, Prof Oloyede wears an intellectual binocular with which he sees life from a bird’s eye view. And this is evident not just in his management of the University of Ilorin for five years but also in the humility, selflessness and patriotism with which he demonstrates civility in all its ramifications. The difference between a man of letters and that of knowledge is quite clear. While the one sees life through the common eye, the other sees it through an uncommon binocular.

    In the days of Socrates, Aristotle and Herodotus, when education was an adorned virtue used as a yardstick for measuring civility and value, no one cared about the material gains accruing from it. Bastardisation of education only set in when certificate was introduced as a means of evaluating its material worth. Thus, with certificate, mere literacy began to be misconceived as education. Whereas literacy is just an added value to education the modern day man has ignorantly but arrogantly interpolated the one for the other. This is what Prof Oloyede resented in his academic odyssey when he chose to combine Eastern education with that of the West with a determination to use the advantage of both as a fertilizer for the academic soil of Nigeria’s future which was why he specialized in Arabic and Islamic Studies even at the professorial level.

    Many ignorant Nigerians including journalists had queried Oloyede’s educational background, even as Vice-Chancellor, in their vainglorious belief that Arabic and Islamic studies had nothing valuable to offer a progressive nation. Apparently, such blind sceptics did not know that some other Nigerian celebrities like the renowned literary  Prof Kole Omotosho, the author of ‘Just Before Dawn’ and the current Alake of Egbaland Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo as well as Prof Isaac Ogunbiyi and even the former First Lady of Ondo State, Mrs. Funke Agagu obtained their first University degrees in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Ibadan. Yet, all of them and others are Christians. Looking at these mentioned personalities and many others like them very well which sensible person can show how their educational backgrounds diminish their greatness in life. Arabic which is naturally spoken by about 400 million people in the world is one of the few languages used to conduct meetings and conferences at the United Nations.  It is only in Nigeria that such naivety with which to denigrate a person for making a choice of career can thrive.

     

    His Philosophy of Life

    Prof Oloyede’s philosophy of life seems to tally with that of Daniel Webster who in a memorable poem stated as follows:

    “If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instil in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon tablets which no time can efface but will brighten to all eternity”.

    This is the philosophy that propelled him to adopt contentment as a personal principle right from his early age. While giving his reason for contesting for Vice-Chancellorship of the University of Ilorin, he once told some medical students of that University who paid him a congratulatory visit on his assumption of office as the new Vice-Chancellor that he never intended to contest for that office. He however made a clarification that when an academic charlatan with an ulterior motive in the same University threatened to expose him if he dared contest, he (Oloyede) saw it as a challenge to put his privacy on a public table. His intention was not to contest but to see what would be exposed in his privacy. But as God would have it he emerged as the Vice-Chancellor without an iota of blemish.

    Before contesting for that post he had served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor twice. First he was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics and later Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration in the same University of Ilorin where he had spent his entire tertiary academic life. Yet, it was only by a mere dint of fortuity that he contested for the post of Vice-Chancellor of that University.  He relayed the story above to the visiting students as a form of admonition that nothing in life is comparable to conscientious service to humanity with humility and patriotism.

     

    Evidence of His Patriotism

    As the President of African Vice-Chancellors, when he noticed that the position of the Executive Secretary of the Association of African Universities (AAU) was more important and more beneficial to Nigeria than that of the President which he occupied, Prof Oloyede encouraged some of his Nigerian colleagues to apply for that post promising that he would resign his Presidential position in that Association to enable a Nigerian emerge as Executive Secretary. But typical of Nigerians, most of his colleagues did not believe him. However, when the time came and one of them applied, Oloyede surprisingly resigned just after two years in an office where he was supposed to spend four renewable years. Following that patriotic display of strategy, Nigeria began to benefit greatly from the post of Executive Secretary which was then held by Prof Jegede, a former Vice- Chancellor of National Open University (NOUN). And to show appreciation to Prof Oloyede over his large heart and patriotism, the AAU Board appointed him as a Board Member of that Association.

    Only a few Nigerians in the academic field can surpass this humble man’s record when it comes to the ‘nitty gritty’ of academic prowess, discipline and integrity. Yet, you can hardly notice it in his demeanour.

     

    His Ladder to the Top

    Prof Oloyede was not only the first ‘FIRST CLASS’ graduate of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ilorin and the very first alumnus of that University to obtain a PhD in that same University, he was also the first Director of Academic Planning and first alumni President to be a member of the Governing Council of the University. Oloyede is the first Unilorin alumnus to become a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and subsequently the first alumnus to become the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

    Not only that, he is the first Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria to introduce Computer-Based Test (CBT) as a method of screening applicants for admission into the University. An invention which institutions like WAEC and NECO later adopted. This ingenuous personality was also the first Vice-Chancellor to lead a second generation University to the number one position in Nigeria based on external ranking. He also became the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to emerge as President of the Association of African Universities (AAU) and at the same time the Chairman of Association of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU).

    He was also the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to combine the Board membership of International Association of Universities (IAU) with those of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Association of African Universities (AAU).

    With the above listed ‘FIRSTS’ he was able to make Unilorin the first Federal University in Nigeria to run an uninterrupted academic calendar throughout his tenure and this made it possible for Unilorin to be internationally ranked as one of the very best 20 Universities in Africa. Also, through Prof Oloyede’s astute academic administration, the University of Ilorin was able to maintain the first position among Nigerian Universities for three consecutive years (2009, 2010 and 2011).

    While giving his first annual report entitled ‘I BELIEVE’ barely one year after he became the Vice-Chancellor, he reflected on that determination thus: “History tells us that Julius Caesar with his legions sailed over the channels from gaol and arrived in today’s England. He did a very clever yet incongruous thing to ensure the success of his army. Halting the soldiers on the chalk cliffs of Dover, he burnt every ship by which they crossed, leaving them with nothing but determination to succeed or perish, with the only means of retreat consumed by the red tongues of fire. It was that determination, powered by courage that made the legions to advance and conquer. They did not look back and the rest is history”.

    “I believe”, he continued: “that with the caesarean determination of avoiding destruction and being focused on the set goals, the University of Ilorin, by all standards, a great University can be greater. Our goals are to fulfil our mission, attain our vision and engrave the name of the University on the psyche of global reckoning through the adoption of best practices. I believe that this is possible along the dictum that says “whatever human mind can conceive and believe man can achieve”. “I believe that we can do it if we are determined”. It is that courageous belief that is now seeing him through the hitherto turbulent voyage of JAMB.

     

    Conclusion

    “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”.

    Professor Oloyede has done precisely that and Nigeria is a witness. It is now left for the present days to raise up their voices in prayer saying GOD BLESS YOU so that the future days can chorus AMEN in response.

  • TMC to political parties: let there be no violence

    The Muslim Congress (TMC) has urged various political parties to eschew violence in going about the forthcoming general elections.

    Its Amir (President) Dr Luqman AbdurRaheem at the Quarterly state of the Nation briefing on Saturday in Lagos, said no one should see the coming General Elections as a do-or-die-affair especially as we have had assurances from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Presidency and the President that the elections will be credible, free and fair.

    AbdurRaheem said: “Let us believe these assurances and play our part in ensuring a peaceful election. Let there be no violence, vote-buying and vote-selling. INEC staff, security personnel and politicians should conduct themselves in the best possible manner since the election is a serious affair in the progress and survival of the nation.”

    AbdurRaheem, an Associate Professor urged Nigerians to must desist from circulating unofficial and fake results on the social media.

    This, he said, is capable of breaching public peace.

    He called on the religious and traditional rulers to use their respected offices in creating an atmosphere of peace and security.

    “Whichever candidate becomes victorious in any of the elections, what is paramount is the development and progress of the nation. Victorious candidates should know that the people have become more aware of their circumstances and their rights and would therefore not tolerate bad governance. The right dividends of democracy are what the people want after sacrificing to vote at the elections. For those that run afoul of the election and electioneering laws, the rule of law must be allowed to take its course as they receive deserved punishment that will serve as deterrent to others,” he said.

    He hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment not to use government money for electioneering campaigns.

    This, he said, is a boost to eliminating corruption in campaign financing in the nation since cash payment to voters corrupts the electoral process.

    He said: “In times past, we know how our economy would have been awash with federal government’s money and other illicit monies all in the name of electioneering campaigns. It would have been time to share not just naira but dollars and other foreign currencies with different Aso-Ebi to the bargain. Nigerians would have been in carnival mood with the usual rent-a-crowd agents, outdoor entertainment equipment owners and caterers making huge gains running into billions of naira. “But everywhere is quiet now and money launderers are awash with the fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). There is therefore little money available for electioneering campaigns. This has reduced money politics that has not allowed credible-but-not-wealthy candidates to emerge as candidates let alone win elections. It simply means that the candidates who emerged under the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Law stand a better chance against other older and probably wealthier candidates. This is a positive development that should be sustained in the years ahead as it allows government money to be strictly used for developmental purposes. But governors and local government chairmen across the states and local governments have not made similar commitments not to spend such monies. It would be a bigger impact if they can also commit themselves.”

  • MURIC warns politicians to stop insulting Qur’an

    The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned to political parties to stop messing up with the Holy Quran.

    According to the Islamic human rights outfit, a certain “prominent” political party in the country is fond of using the Qur’an in its political rallies without following laid down rules.

    MURIC in a statement by its Director, Prof Ishaq Akintola, described this as laughable, provocative and totally unacceptable.

    Akintola said: “Our office has been inundated with a Tsunami of complaints about a prominent political party that has been abusing the use of the Qur’an in its political rallies. Such an attitude exposes the political party as a body that is insensitive to the feelings of Muslims. It is laughable, provocative and totally unacceptable.

    “Exempli gratia, we are in possession of a video clip in which a notorious lawmaker cum comedian who is obviously a non-Muslim recited the Surat Al-Fatihah (chapter one of the Glorious Qur’an) wrongly in one of the party’s rallies about two weeks ago. The question is why was a non-Muslim allowed to recite an Islamic prayer using verses of the Glorious Qur’an in a political rally?

    “We don’t want to be misunderstood. Anybody can pray but decorum must be applied when doing that in public. It is most unwise for a non-Muslim to venture into praying in Arabic when he is not sure he can do it well. A Muslim should offer the Muslim prayer and vice versa. Prayer is a serious spiritual exercise. It is communication between the creature and the Creator. It is not something you can trivialise. But what we saw on that day was the transfer of the usual parliamentary theatricals that has been associated with the National Assembly in recent times.

    “In another trending video, a woman was seen struggling with the recitation of Surat Ash-Sharh (Qur’an chapter 94) at another rally of the same political party. She ended it all by mixing up the verses and wordings.

    “MURIC is not just raising false alarm or sounding unnecessarily demagogic. The fact is that the implications of reciting a verse or chapter of the Glorious Qur’an wrongly in an attempt to offer prayers are very serious. An inexperienced reciter may end up raining curses instead of offering prayers due to errors of pronunciation, wording or incorrect reading of verses. This can be terrible in a rally organised by a political party because instead of actually praying for the country and the political party, the person may end up inadvertently cursing the party and the country (may Allah forbid that).

    “That is why political parties need to have religious advisers among its officials. Such religious advisers must be made up of qualified Christian and Islamic clerics. They are the ones who should be called upon to offer prayers in public programmes, not parliamentary rascals whose only value lies in their capacity to constitute public nuisance.

    “We like to place it on record for public awareness that the rules guiding the recitation of Christian and Islamic scriptures are different and the yardsticks of one should not be used to judge the other. For instance, a person wishing to recite any portion of the Glorious Qur’an must first perform ablution. The rule is that you cannot read the Qur’an if you are not pure. The Qur’an itself set the rule when it says ‘Only those who are clean can touch it. It is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds’ (Qur’an 56:79 – 80).

    “The recitation made by the woman at that political event is also contentious from another angle. Apart from the fact that she may not have performed ablution, she may not be clean. She may be in her menstrual period and Islam does not permit women to do such things in that state. That is one of the reasons Muslim women are not usually called upon to read the Qur’an in public. She does not have to make her condition public and this may happen if she is so invited.

    “In conclusion, we charge political parties to demonstrate seriousness in spiritual matters. We also advise political parties to consult their religious advisers before taking any step that has spiritual implication. We urge all churches and mosques to pray for a peaceful general election and a stable polity thereafter”.

  • School holds Walimatul Quran

    The Al-Imtiyaz Arabic School has held Walimatul Quran in Isolo.

    The graduands wowed the gathering with display of the knowledge of the Qur’an. The audience where amazed when Quranic verses were picked at random and the graduatings read it fluently.

    The school’s proprietor, Imam Aderibigbe Is-haq, said the lessons taught in the school emphasises on Islamic creed and values, adding that the knowledge of Quran is simply the instruction manual for the human beings.

    Imam Is-haq said the school is one of the contemporary Arabic schools bridging the gap between the modern and traditional teachings.

    “We have put in place different logic to make our students assimilate faster. Within two months, the students would have master the act of reading Arabic letters,” he said.

    He enjoined Muslim parents to take their wards to madrasah (Arabic schools) to reduce the rate of immorality in the society.

    The guest speaker, Shaykh Abdulfattah Ibrahim Aderibigbe, hailed the school for combining Al-Quran and modern education.

    He commended the proprietor of the school, for introducing a standard system of teaching the Holy Quran by introducing courses that would enable the students get the appropriate knowledge of the Holy Quran.

    He said: “The solutions to economic, political, spiritual or marital challenges are enshrined in the Holy Quran.”

    The Chairman on the ocassion, Alhaji Ibrahim Oloko, praised the proprietor’s effort in ensuring the students stand out from the crowd.

    He advised parents not to relent in the effort to ensure their children continue to acquire the knowledge of Islam.

    “Parent should endeavour to do follow up on their children; the ummah is losing the younger generation due to negligence on the part of the parents.  Many of the Muslim children are deviating from the part of Islam,” he said.

     

  • Aisha Lemu: A fulfilled risky life

    Human life is a journey from the unknown to the unknown. No one knows whence he/she emanated or whither he/she is bound. Every inch of the various paths through which human beings pursue the attainment of their goals in life is littered by substances that are either thorny or slippery. To toe any particular path, without hesitation, towards achieving a goal in life, is to, consciously or unconsciously, confirm the supremacy of destiny. And that is precisely where the risk of life resides.

     

    Preamble

    There is hardly any better way of putting the above assertion in proper perspective as succinctly and as philosophically  did by Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the introduction to his autobiography (My Odyssey), published in 1970.

    Here is how he put it:

    “Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities, absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his causes of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance, either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

     

    Generational Template

    Whether in the primordial or contemporary time, every generation of human beings is divinely endowed with a template that may be adopted positively or negatively. However, the proper utilization or otherwise of such a template is invariably dependent not on the intention of its designer but on that of its adopter. This is where the case of a British/Nigerian woman (Hajiya Bridget Aisha Lemu), whose demise in Mina, Niger State, Nigeria, last Saturday, sent different signals to different parts of the world, becomes handy.

     

    Who Was Aisha Lemu?

    Being a household name in Africa, any introduction of the uniquely exemplary woman called Aisha, in a small forum like this, can only come in summary. And such a summary is better excerpted from a press release issued by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) earlier this week, to commiserate with her family, the entire African Muslim womanhood and the Nigerian Muslim Ummah.

     

    The NSCIA Press Release

    Below are the contents of the NSCIA’s Press Release entitled Aisha Lemu’s Demise:  An Un-fillable Vacuum: “Barely one week after the demise of Nigeria’s first Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, who was buried on the last Saturday of December 2018, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah was bombarded with another breaking news, last Saturday, of the demise of an exemplary woman, Hajiya Aisha (Honey) Lemu.

    She was reported to have stopped breathing last Saturday, (January 5, 2019) after a brief illness.

    Her demise has come to create a new leadership vacuum for Nigerian Muslim womanhood the like of which a onetime American woman convert, Margaret Marcus, (who adopted the name Maryam Jameelah after accepting Islam), left behind following her demise in Pakistan, in 2012.

     

    The Great Duo

    “Incidentally, the two great women were contemporaries in birth and in lifestyle.

    While Maryam Jameelah was born in New York city in 1934, Aisha Lemu (who was named Bridget Honey at birth), was born in Poole Dorset, England in 1940.

    Both women coincidentally embraced Islam in the same year (1961) and their roles in Islamic propagation were as similar as if they jointly planned them.

    Thus, Aisha Lemu, a Briton, became to Nigeria what Maryam Jameelah, an American, became to Pakistan in Islamic propagation, in motivational preaching and in character molding even as one of them married a Pakistani and the other married a Nigerian, each being a second wife.

    Like Maryam Jameelah, Aisha Lemu’s life was fully dedicated to Islamic propagation and grooming of younger women propagators of Islam. She was a professional teacher and a passionate moral conduct builder.

     

    Methodology

    Unlike previously known, the methodology adopted by Hajiya Lemu for training young women in decent and qualitative propagation of Islam, in a complex country like Nigeria, was quite unique.

    As a matter of fact, Hajiya Lemu’s acceptance of Islam at the time she did and her resolution to migrate to Nigeria for Islamic propagation were the timely catalyst that Nigerian Muslim women needed to play their destined role in propelling the divine religion.

    With her arrival in Nigeria, in the late 1960s, the participation of Nigerian Muslim women in Islamic propagation took a new positive dimension which particularly geared the northern Muslim sisters into an action never

    hitherto dreamt of in the country before.

     

    Establishment of FOMWAN

    It was Hajiya Aisha Lemu who initiated the idea of bringing all Nigerian Muslim women under a common umbrella called ‘Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) which is vividly and effectively present in all corners and crannies of Nigeria today. And she was the first National Amirah of that solidly organized and highly respected Muslim group.

    Today, FOMWAN has chapters in all the 36 States of the federation and as well as in countries like Ghana, Seirra-Leone, Gambia, Mauritius, and Niger Republic. It also has more than 500 Muslim women organization affiliated to it.

     

    Formation of IET

    Hajiya Lemu also cooperated fully with her husband, Justice Ahmad Lemu, in establishing an intellectual Non-Governmental Organization named ‘islamic Education Trust’ (IET) that is very well recognized globally today for its vigorous pursuit of qualitative advancement of Muslim youth education. Like Maryam Jameelah, Aisha did not preach Islam by words of mouth alone. She also wrote many books either for academic purposes or for general Islamic understanding, to further confirm that the foundation of the divine religion called Islam is knowledge.

     

    Effect of Her Activities

    Through her various propagation activities, Hajiya Lemu did not only facilitate job opportunities for many young Nigerian Muslims, she also opened ways to scholarships, home and abroad, for many indigent but intellectually aspiring young Muslims who are seeking attainment of higher levels in education. Besides, many Nigerian young  women in cities and villages across the country have voluntarily reverted to islam through those activities.

    Hajiya Lemu’s demise last Saturday is a further confirmation that Allah has wonderful ways of doing certain unimaginable things that cannot elicit questions from any mortal being.

     

    Similarities

    That these two great women (Maryam Jameelah and Aisha Lemu) from different continents, thought alike,  lived alike, acted alike and were demised alike is one of those wonders.

    Maryam Jameelah, an author of scores of Islamic books,  left the world at the age of 78 and was buried in Pakistan, her husband’s home country in 2012. Hajiya Aisha Lemu, also an author of dozens of books and public lectures, had her last breathing at the age of 79, on January 5, 2019, and was buried in Nigeria, her husband’s home country on Sunday, January 6, 2019. Yet, it is doubtful that the two personalities ever met in their lifetimes.

    Now, there is a big question: Who fills the big vacuum left by iconic Hajiya Lemu after her exit from of the surface of the earth?

     

    Observation

    Judging by the rate at which Islam is spreading in the West in the contemporary time, one may not see any exclusive news in Hajiya Aisha Lemu’s spiritual itinerary in the last half of a century.  She was not alone in taking a decision to embark on a spiritual voyage without a concrete assurance of an effective compass. Almost immediately after the World War II, many European and American young men and women began to troop into Islam in grosses with determinations, to fulfill the Will of Allah by volunteering to be the spiritual agents of making the West the real home of Islam in the 21st century. Already, that trend is rapidly becoming more vivid in the two continents (Europe and America) especially among the women fold.

    That is what led to the publication, in December 1995, of a famous book entitled: ‘Daughters of Another Path’ which was jointly written by 53 American young women who were compelled to face problem of ostracization, in their parents homes, for embracing Islam.

    Excerpts from that book will be published randomly in this column in the near future, In sha’a Allah.

     

    The Difference in Aisha Lemu’s Case

    In the case of Hajiya Aisha Lemu, However, what really makes news is her unbeatable courage to have migrated from the advanced society of Europe, where comfort permanently resides, to an underdeveloped country like Nigeria where  squalor evidently constitutes the living environment for the people and even electricity is a luxury. Yet, with a strong determination based on a very strong faith, she surged ahead with her resolution not minding any difficulty or hardship she could encounter along the line.

    That is the difference between the Caucasian (white) race with cultural orientation for production and the African (black) race with natural orientation for consumption. While the concern of an average European is what mankind can benefit from his/her existence, the concern of an average black African is how  he/she can consume all available products and even accumulate as much as possible for the future of his or her children and even grandchildren.

     

    Commiseration

    Like the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), ‘The Message’ Column hereby commiserates with the entire African Muslims, especially the women fold as well as the Nigerian Muslim Ummah including the family of the deceased, praying the Almighty Allah to repose her soul in eternal bliss with a forgiven posture and grant all her relatives, associates and followers the fortitude with which to bear the agony of her demise. We are all from Allah, and to Allah we shall all return. Amin! Inna Lillah, wa inna ilayhi raji’un!.