The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Abbas

  • Islam and global warming

    Islam and global warming

    In Retrospect

    This article is not new. It was first published in this column in March 2013 as a reaction to a fortuitous incident that required a fortuitous reaction. Sometime early in January 2010, a rumour flew around in Nigeria through the e-mail and mobile text messages. It warned people against what was called an acid rain expected to fall in March that year. According to the message, anybody beaten by the rain would automatically become a victim of skin cancer. Although some people linked the rumour to a source in the US, the real source of the rumour remains a mystery even today as it could not actually be traced to the US. But trust Nigerians, they believe as much in superstition as they fear anything that can link them to death. Yet, they do not care about any solution to global warming.

     

    Preamble

    Climate change in the life of humans can be likened to the causes of life and death. We live by the climate and virtually depend on climate for survival. What is true of humans in this case is equally true of all other living organisms including wildlife and plants. Without a clement weather, survival becomes threatened and the ecosystem becomes the principal cause of that threat. Global warming is a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. It is a foremost factor of climate change.

    Yours sincerely was in London in January 1986 when the international symposium on global warming and its implications for human existence began. The prediction then was that with the prevailing climate trend at that time, Africa might assume the weather of Europe by the year 2050. That prediction was a matter of consensus among the most participating scientists in that symposium.

     

    International Summit on Global Warming

    Recently, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to South Africa to join his colleagues from other countries of the world in attending an international conference on global warming. While still there, some Nigerian arm-chair critics started to accuse him of gallivanting wastefully around the world saying he had no business in such a global conference. Their perception of global warming is as crude as their way of handling local politics. In no other participating country will citizens criticise their President for attending such a crucial summit because they know that besides the subject of the summit, there could be some other beneficial issues. Here in Nigeria, once the issue on the table does not entail money it cannot be worthy of discussion. We are our own problem.

     

    Islamic perspective

    From its inception, Islam has been very explicit on the issue of environment and meteorology. This further confirms the fact that this divine religion is not for a particular time or people. It is a religion of knowledge for all times and all races. The meteorological explanation rendered by Islam is not meant for this column today. It will be brought in full in the very near future In sha’ Allah. But at a recent international conference on global warming, an Islamic scholar gave some Qur’anic insight into the causes and effects of global warming thus:

    “One of the issues that give the world a concern currently is global warming. Experts around the world have been warning about this for decades and have been urging governments to act faster in slowing down the rate of global warming.

    They warn that there is a 75% risk that global temperatures will rise a further two to three degrees in the next 50 years.

    The consequence of this would be dramatic. In fact a rise of just one degree would melt the Greenland ice sheet and drown the Maldives, but a three degree increase would kill the Amazon rainforest, wipe out nearly half of all species facing extinction and wreak havoc with crop yields due to weather changes.

     

    Pace of change

    Whilst the global climate goes through hot and cold cycles, what is worrying about the current phase is the pace of change that could send humanity first into a final spin. Although man has certainly benefited from technological advancements that have given us plastics, air travel and cheap food – what is important is to maintain a balance so that excessive consumerism does not ride roughshod over nature’s harmony.

    In Islam, man is given the role of trusteeship over the earth, which is a huge responsibility. In the past, man had to be careful how he treated his local environment since excessive grazing or agriculture could bring ruin to his livelihood. His knowledge was also limited but in the event of a disaster either through ignorance or abuse at least he could resort to moving elsewhere and start again. Now we should have no excuse for ignorance and we should have learnt from our past to avoid misuse. But what is worrying is that the impacts of our behaviour are not just local anymore, they are global. If we fail to act in a responsible manner, then we cannot simply relocate because there will be nowhere to go. It is, therefore, vital that as producers, manufacturers and consumers, we ensure that we give due consideration to the impact of our actions. Such a responsibility is not just that of the east or the west but a responsibility for all of us.

     

    Moderation for harmony

    Islam teaches us that God has continued and will continue to provide us with ample resources for all times. But through man’s misuse, this balance may change. It is this personal greed of man that makes them squander these resources and deprive others who may need those resources. The Holy Qur’an warns mankind in Chapter 7, verse 32 thus: “O children of Adam! Eat and drink but exceed not the bounds; surely He (Allah) does not love those who exceed the bounds”

    The overall message of Islam is that it promotes harmony by advising moderation. It accepts that we need to use resources for our progress but this should be done wisely and in a sustainable manner, so that a satisfactory medium is found. The Holy Qur’an relates in Chapter 25, verse 68: “those who, when they spend are neither extravagant nor niggardly but moderate between the two.

    So, as individuals, we should act on the Qur’anic injunction that promotes balance and prohibits excess even as nations need to be more willing to share knowledge for the sake of the planet rather than for profit and take collective action in line with their collective responsibility. By doing so we shall be able to win the pleasure of God and honour our trusteeship of the earth for the benefit of the present and the future generations”.

     

    Stakes of danger in global warming

    A few years ago, a top scientist conference in Britain raised the stakes for the dangers of global warming, with concerned scientists outlining a timeframe for the massive horrors awaiting the globe unless swift actions were taken at the right time. The findings in that conference were not in any way different from the position of Islam on the subject 1430 years ago.

    The three-day conference held in the South Western British city of Exeter focused on scientists’ latest assessment of the global warming problem, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

    The conference was bluntly told that global warming would boost outbreaks of infectious disease, worsen shortages of water and food in vulnerable countries and create an army of climate refugees fleeing uninhabitable regions.

    Scientists even gave a detailed timetable of the destruction and distress that global warming was likely to cause to the world, according to the British daily ‘The Independent’.

     

    Scale of impacts

    The scale of these impacts varies according to the speed and degree with which fossil fuel pollution is tackled as well the growth rate of the world’s population and how well countries can adapt to climate shift.

    Whole species of animals from frogs to leopards, living in vulnerable areas and with nowhere else to go, face extinction due to global warming, they said, according to the daily.

    “The study pulls together for the first time the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies across the earth, for given rises in global temperature expected during the next hundred years.

    “The resultant picture gives the most wide-ranging impression yet of the bewildering array of destructive effects that climate change is expected to exert on different regions, from the mountains of Europe and the rainforests of the Amazon to the coral reefs of the tropics.”

     

    Environmental refugees

    Produced through a synthesis of a wide range of recent academic studies, it was presented as a paper to the international conference on climate change held at the UK Met Office headquarters in Exeter by the author Bill Hare, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany’s leading global warming research institute.

    According to a study quoted by Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN’s top scientific authority on climate change, by 2050 as many as 150 million “environmental refugees” may have fled coastlines vulnerable to rising sea levels, storms or floods, or agricultural land that may become too arid to cultivate, AFP said.

    In India alone, there could be 30 million people displaced by persistent flooding, while a sixth of Bangladesh could be permanently lost to sea level rise and land subsidence, according to the study.

    The Independent  revealed that the conference was called personally by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair as part of Britain’s attempts to move the climate change issue up the agenda during the UK presidency of the G8 group of rich nations, and the European Union.

     

    Manifest effects

    There were already disturbing warnings from the latest climate research, including the revelation from the British Antarctic Survey that the massive West Antarctic ice sheet might be disintegrating – an event which would raise sea levels around the world by 16ft (4.9 metres) daily if it really happened.

    “Hare’s timetable shows the impacts of climate change multiplying rapidly as average global temperature goes up, towards 1 C above levels before the industrial revolution, then to 2 C, and then 3 C.

    “It is when the temperature moves up to 2 C above the pre-industrial level, expected in the middle of this century – within the lifetime of many people alive today – that serious effects start to come thick and fast, studies suggest.”

     

    Collapse of Amazon Rainforest

    When the temperature, the paper added, moves up to the 3C level, expected in the early part of the second half of the century, these effects will become critical. There is likely to be irreversible damage to the Amazon rainforest, leading to its collapse, and the complete destruction of coral reefs is likely to be widespread.

    The conference, however, ended up on a positive note, with the forum showing how far the argument for carbon sequestration has come, with a series of experts insisting it could be transformed from fiction to fact. Whole species of animals from frogs to leopards, living in vulnerable areas and with nowhere else to go, face extinction due to global warming, they said, according to the daily.

     

    Conclusion

    “The study pulled together for the first time the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies across the earth, for possible rises in global temperature expected during the next hundred years.

    “The resultant picture gave the most wide-ranging impression yet of the bewildering array of destructive effects that climate change was expected to exert on different regions, from the mountains of Europe and the rainforests of the Amazon to the coral reefs of the tropics.” Should   Nigeria be indifferent to all these? That is a major question that requires a major answer.

  • Stoning to death

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

     

    Information

    Global radio waves throbbed with the breaking news of a penal judgment given in Saudi Arabia last week. The news painted a gory story of an adulterous woman (not a Saudi) who was sentenced to death by stoning while her male partner in sexual crime was sentenced to 100 lashes of the cane. The judgment has since become a global subject of debate in which personal opinions are being expressed across nations and religions. As usual, ‘The Message’ column picked up this sensitive but controversial issue for discussion today.

     

    Preamble

    Europeans who likened law to an ass may have generalised but 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 backed up 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 Islamic culture. It is derived from the following four main sources:

    1.Qur’an, the direct words of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through the Arch-Angel Jubril

    2.Hadith, the divinely guided but personal expressions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which give interpretations to the contents of the Qur’an.

    3.Ijma’, the consensus of opinions of the learned Muslim scholars which must conform to the first two sources above.

    4.Qiyas, a scholarly analogy deduced from the first three sources above.

     

    Analysis

    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 became a necessity for Hadith to be adopted as the second source of Islamic law.

    No one was as competent to give accurate interpretation of the Qur’an as Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who received its revelations from Allah through Arch-Angel Jibril. The Prophet himself acquired the knowledge of interpreting the Qur’an through informal tutelage from Arch-Angel Jibril as well as the informal revelations he received either while sleeping or through divine inspiration which are called ‘Hadith-ul-Qudsi’

    The third source is the consensus of opinion of highly informed Muslim scholars (Ijma’) 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 for harmonisation of Islamic jurisprudence even if environments and circumstances would still leave room for variations in language and presentations.

    The fourth and last source is analogical deduction (Qiyas) 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.

     

    Clarification

    In sequence of authority, therefore, it becomes clear that only in the absence of Qur’anic provision can Hadith 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 while Sunnah is his exemplary conducts.)

     

    Qur’anic Reference

    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. It is a crime that incurs a serious sanction as its punishment is clearly prescribed in Qur’an 4 verse 2 as follows:

    “The adulterer and the adulteress, give each of them one hundred lashes of the cane. Let no compassion in their case prevent you from obedience to the law of Allah, if you truly believe in Allah and the last day; and let their punishment be witnessed by a number 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 an adulterer and a fornicator. The word for illegitimate sexual intercourse generally is ‘zina’ which is a crime in Islam. An adulterer is called ‘zani’ while an adulteress is called ‘zaniyah’. And those are the precise words used for the two respectively in the Qur’an. The two words are equally used for fornicators.

     

    Proof of law

    As for stoning to death, no specific chapter or verse of the Qur’an can be cited as evidence for its application. In other words, the Qur’an does not prescribe stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses as it does in prescribing flogging for both. It is rather in the revealed Book (Thawrah), of Prophet Musa (Moses) otherwise known as Old Testament of the Bible that death is prescribed as punishment for adultery. (See Leviticus 20:10). Many versions of Hadith are often quoted to show how and when stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses became a law. All the available evidences advanced in favour of this law are based on Hadith and Sunnah. But the question as to when the Prophet’s expression or action authorised stoning vis a vis the Qur’anic revelation on flogging quoted above remains unanswered.

    Was it before or after its revelation? 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? Yet, there is the issue of homosexuality and lesbianism and the punishment prescribed for them by the Qur’an and Sunnah.

     

    Comment

    Given the antecedent of the record of Hadith, especially as exhibited by Abu Hurayrah, any informed Muslim must be careful in using any Hadith that contradicts the contents of the Qur’an, especially as a legal code in Islam. Statutorily, Hadith is meant to explain and complement the Qur’an and not to supersede the latter in any form. Where any Hadith conflicts with any verse of the Qur’an, the latter prevails. If any of these two major sources of Islamic law has ever been controversial as in the case of stoning, it could only have been the Hadith and not the Qur’an.

    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 while alive, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not allow any documentation of his utterances in the name of Hadith. His position on this 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 Thus, because of his objection, many Hadiths that were already documented had to be burnt. But that fear was never fully allayed after all as we still have thousands of Hadith in circulation today classified as ‘weak’ (da‘if), ‘un-authorised’ (mawdu‘u)  and ‘rejected’. Yet, they bear no names other than Hadith. It is an undeniable fact that the official compilation and documentation of Hadith did not take place until several decades after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). What led to that exercise by great scholars like Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Maja, Abu Daud, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nisai and a host of others was the rampant fabrication of statements credited to the Prophet by certain mischievous elements.

    One of such elements was one Abdus-Shams Ibn Shakhr Ad-Dawsi Al-Azdi who was later renamed Abdur-Rahman after embracing Islam but was popularly known as ABU HURAYRAH. This man associated with Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as a companion for only 22 months. Yet, he claimed to have obtained 5,375 Hadith which was by far more than the combined number of Hadith transmitted by Abub Bakr, Umar Bn Kahattab, Uthman Bn Affan, Ali Bn Abi Talib and Aisha (the wife of Prophet Muhammad). The history of Hadith and that of Abu Hurayrah will be told in this column in the very near future in sha’Allah.

     

    Clarification

    Unlike the Qur’anic revelations which were promptly documented officially as instructed by the Prophet himself, Hadith and Sunnah were not authorised for documentation by the Prophet. In such a melee, it will be foolhardy to depend exclusively on Hadith in giving a verdict as fundamental as stoning human beings to death, especially when the Qur’an is silent on such law.

    Searching for evidence to justify stoning, some charlatans have claimed that an abrogated verse of the Qur’an contained stoning to death as the punishment for adultery. Such a pedestrian statement could only have come from evil minds and be meant only for ignorant people. The issue of Qur’anic abrogation is another topic to be discussed in this column on another day.

     

    Categories of adultery

    In Islam, adultery is one major sexual crime committed by married men and women. The acts of homosexuality (i.e. man to man sex) as well as lesbianism (i.e. woman to woman sex) are another. If homosexuals and lesbians are given the opportunity in Qur’an 4, verses 15-16 to repent with a promise of Allah’s forgiveness, why not the adulterers? The quoted verses go thus: “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 release them or Allah shall make for them a 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”.

     

    Fabricated Hadith

    Many versions of Hadith were relayed in respect of stoning. One of them was that a married woman confessed to the Prophet three times that she committed adultery and got pregnant as a result. The Prophet reportedly 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 to pelt her with stone. This act was reportedly carried out as the woman took to her heels. When those companions returned to the Prophet after several hours and informed him that they had stoned the woman to death, he was alarmed and scolded them for carrying out such a dastardly act saying he did not send them to kill her but merely to chase her away with pebbles.

    One would wonder why the Prophet who was so trustworthy, just, compassionate and cautious about anything life generally would rush to give such a verdict (as reported) 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 is not 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). Such Hadith could only at best be suspect.

     

    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 Islamic punishment for adultery is that 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 rulers and law givers themselves. Why is it that no single highly placed person has ever been caught and punished for adultery elsewhere in the contemporary world?

    Let those who administer justice fear Allah.  Like many other Hadith fabricated and credited to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for authenticity, the commonly quoted Hadith about stoning sounds very much fabricated not only because it contradicts the Qur’anic contents and misrepresents the just personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

     

    ERRATA

    The Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, drew my attention to some errors in last Friday’s article entitled ‘Ekiti: A Taste of History’ in this column. Those errors are being corrected here thus:

    1.The idea of establishing the League of Imams and Alfas of South West, Edo and Delta States was initiated by the founder of MARKAZ, Agege, Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory in 1964 and not 1967 as reported in the column last week.

    2.The first Secretary-General of the League was Jum‘ah Bamgbola and not Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory who nominated him to that post.

    Apologies for the errors.

  • Ekiti: A taste of history

    Ekiti: A taste of history

    Of course, the path of honour doesn’t lie down in flat miles. It’s in the imagination with which you perceive this world and the gestures with which you raise your banner that the honour finds its domicile”.

     

    Preamble

    Saturday, November 21, 2015 was a day of honour in Ekiti State. For two days before that Saturday, Ado Ekiti, the capital of the state, had come alive with a memorable history. The people of the state trooped out in their thousands to take a glimpse of a rare guest on a rare occasion. The guest was no other personality than His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for (NSCIA). He was there as the first Sultan ever to visit Ekiti State.

    The occasion was for the installation of an indigene of the state and a gentleman of honour as the President of the League of Imams and Alfas of Yoruba Land.  He is Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello who incidentally is also the Grand Imam of Ekiti State. It was a special day of joy on the part of Ekiti people as it was on the part of the Sultan.

    Two days earlier (Thursday, November 19, 2015, His Eminence had travelled down to Ado-Ekiti from Ibadan where he had been installed as the new Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. The day of Imam’s installation in Ado Ekiti was his sixth day in Southwest Nigeria. Shortly after his arrival in Ado Ekiti, penultimate Thursday, His Eminence paid a courtesy visit to His Royal Majesty, Oba (Dr.) Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi 111, CON, JP, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti (at his palace) who hosted him and his entourage including yours sincerely with the grandeur of royalty.

     

    Observance of Jum’at Prayer

    On Friday, November 20, 2015, His Eminence commissioned the newly renovated city’s Central Mosque after paying a courtesy visit to the State Governor in his office. The Jum’at prayer observed in that Mosque was led by the Rector of the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Culture, (Markaz) Agege, Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdllah Al-Ilory. In his sermon, Sheikh Al-Ilory laid emphasis on the duties of an Imam and the importance of Mosques in Islam. He counseled the new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas on the challenges ahead of him and how he could surmount those challenges. While admonishing the Muslim Ummah against hearsay and tutored them on the need for cooperation with their leaders for the purpose of   unity.

     

    Dignitaries

    Among the dignitaries that observed the Jum’at prayers were His Eminence, the Sultan, His Royal Majesty, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti (though a Christian) who regarded joining His Eminence in the Mosque as part of hospitality. Others were His Royal Majesty, Oba Akadiri Momoh the Olukare of Ikare; His Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Sakariyau Olayiwola (S. O.) Babalola, OON, DSC, President of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) who made the highest single monetary donation to the installation day; the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL,  the Head of Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr. Kamil Koyejo Oloso and all the chiefs and senior Imams of the six states of the Southwest as well as those of Edo and Delta states.

    Some of those dignitaries included Chief S. O. Babalola; the Magajin Rafi and Galadima of Sokoto; Professor T. G. Gbadamosi; Dr. Abdullah Jibril Oyekan; members of MUSWEN’s Secretariat Task Force as well as a retinue of other Muslim dignitaries from various states had been parts of the entourage of His Eminence since his arrival in the Southwest the previous Monday. The Vice Chairman of the Task Force, Alhaji Murziq Bidemi Siyanbade’s role in this was particularly distinct as he virtually relocated to Oyo State Government House, Ibadan, where His Eminence was officially hosted and was shuttling between that place and the University of Ibadan to ensure that the protocol was properly maintained.

     

    Grand Finale

    At the grand finale held at the Ado-Ekiti pavilion, a galaxy of traditional rulers, Imams and Alfas as well as representatives of various Islamic Organisations were present in their joyful mood, an indication that the long awaited unity of the Southwest Ummah had come at last.  Governor Ayodele Fayose was represented by his wife, Feyisara; Delegates of Hausa communities from various states and representatives of some emirs who came from the North were also there to grace the occasion.

    The Chairman of the occasion was Alhaji Khamis Tunde Badmus of Osun State who was ably represented by Senator Adebayo Salami and made a very handsome monetary donation.

    The President-General designate was presented to His Eminence, the Sultan and the public for turbanning by the Secretary-General of the League, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe who also gave the welcome address. And the installation lecture was delivered by Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, the Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, who is well renowned for apt oration and electrifying delivery power. In the lecture, he spelt out duties and responsibilities of an Imam globally and locally. He emphasised the fact that the President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas would now have more time for his office than for his office. The President of MUSWEN, Chief (Dr.) Babalola also gave a goodwill message.

     

    Profile

    The 63-year-old  President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West, Edo and Delta, Sheikh Muhammad Jamiu Kewulere Bello, was born on January 2, 1952. After his primary education at Ansar-ud-Deen, Ajilosun, Ekiti, he attended the famous Arabic/Islamic Institute (Zumratu Diyau Salihin) and later became a student at Aabic Training Centre, established by Sheikh Mahally Badrudeen, Ami of Iwo in Osun State. He was also a student of Sheikh Agbarigidoma of Ilorin in Kwara State and a number of other renowned scholars were his teachers.

    Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello briefly dabbled into transportation business before he was persuaded to become the Chief Imam of Ado Ekiti in 1985. He was turbaned by the then Chief Imam Yusuf Olatunji Ogunlayi of Ikole Ekiti. When Ekiti State was created from the old Ondo State in 1996, the Muslim leadership in Ekiti State unanimously appointed him as the Grand Imam of Ekiti State.

     

    Appointment

    On June 4, 2015, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello was unanimously appointed as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West, Edo and Delta at a meeting of the League thereby becoming the 5th Imam to occupy that post. After his installation by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, the new President-General thanked everybody who played a role in his emergence and in making the occasion a success. He then promised to strengthen the Unity of the South West Muslim Ummah on the one hand and that of the latter and the Northern Muslim Ummah on the other.

     

    Acceptance Speech

    In his word Sheikh J. K. Bello said: “At this juncture, I wish to say with humblest humility and spirit of devotion to Allah (SWT) that I accept this responsibility that you have all placed on my shoulders via my appointment as President-General, League of Imams and Alfas, South Western, Edo and Delta states. As you are all aware, the responsibility of the office is enormous. However, with the special grace and assistance of Allah (SWT) coupled with the cooperation of all and sundry, I hope to contribute my quota to move forward the entire Muslim Ummah in all states of my jurisdiction in particular and the nation in general……”

    The new President-General also said: “Essentially, I would be ready to work with all Islamic organisations, groups, sects and associations to further the frontiers of Islamic religion towards achieving greater peace, progress, unity and development in our midst and in the nation at large. Good initiatives towards achieving peaceful co-existence and societal peace among various other faiths shall be supported…….”

     

    Chronology

    Among his predecessors in that office were the late Chief Imam Muili Basunu of Ibadan, Oyo State; the late Chief Imam Armiyau Parakoyi of Ijebu Ode, Ogunm State; Chief Imam Yayi Akorede of Akure, Ondo State and Chief Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe of Osogbo, Osun State.

     

    History

    The League of Imam and Alfas was established in 1967 at the instance of Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory of the great Institute of Arabic and Islamic Culture (MARKAZ) Agege who served as its first Secretary-General. Other Secretaries-General who served after him include Sheikh Sadrudin Biobaku of Gbagura, Abeokuta, Ogun State and the current Chief Imam Ahmad Aladesawe of Owo, Ondo State.

     

    Comment

    The establishment of the League of Imams and Alfas of Southwest, Edo and Delta was a turning point in the unity of the Southwest Muslim Ummah especially in speaking with one voice on matters of common interest and in fighting for the rights of the Muslims in the region. With the establishment of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria, that unity became formidably strengthened as both bodies began to work together like a pair of scissors. Today, Yoruba Muslims and their Edo and Delta brothers and sisters are one and the same. Their spiritual union has created a strong synergy between the Northern and Southern Muslim Ummah in Nigeria.

     

    Central Planning Committee

    Members of the planning committee for the installation were selected from the states that constitute the League. They included the following: Imam Ahmad Aladesawe (Secretary-General), Owo, Ondo State; Alhaji Morufu Olawale Isola and Imam Rabiu Salahudeen, Osun State; Dr. M. T. A. Alayinde, Imam Wasiu Nuru, (markaz) and Alhaji Saadullah Bello, Lagos State. Others were Imam S. S. Bamgbola, Ogun State, Grand Mufti Batuta, Ondo State; Alhaji Fatai Muili Alaga, Oyo State; Alhaji Abdul Fattah Enabulele, Edo State and Chief Imam of Delta State.

     

    Local Organising Committee

    Some of the Local Organising Committee members included the following: Alhaji Barrister Yakubu O. Sanni (Chairman); His Excellency, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal, former Deputy Governor and Chairman, Finance Committee; Aare Sulaiman Afolabi Ogunlayi, Chairman Programme and Publicity Committee;Alhaji Jimoh Dayo Ajayi, Chairman, Security Committee; Alhaja Maryam Ogunlade, Chairman, Welfare and Entertainment Committee; Dr. Ibraheem Azees, Chairman, Medical Committee; Alhaji Ganiyu Ibrahim, Secretary, LOC and Alhaji Jamiu Babalola, Assistant Secretary, LOC and a host of others. Some members of the LOC were also members of the Central Planning Committee.

     

    The Role of MUSWEN

    Since its inception in 2008, the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), being one of the two main pair organs of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in partnership with Jam’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) of the North has been playing a very vital role in solidifying the unity of the Muslim Ummah in the South West Nigeria. For instance, the former Secretary-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, the late Sheikh Sadrudeen Biobaku was a member of the Board of Trustees of MUSWEN until his demise. Also, the late President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe was Vice-President of MUSWEN. And in furtherance of of that unity, the newly installed President-General of the League Sheikh J. K. Bello as well as the current Secretary-General of the League, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe have been officially invited to be members of the Central Working Committee of MUSWEN.

    Besides, a special team from MUSWEN, led by its President, Chief (Dr.) S. O. Babalola paid a courtesy visit to Ekiti Muslim Community in the residence of the President-General designate of the League last August in the spirit of unity and cooperation. These and many other gestures are pointers to the fact that MUSWEN’s hand of fellowship is always out for the League to grab with love. Also, last month, another MUSWEN team led by its Executive Secretary, Prof. D. O. S. Noibi paid a courtesy visit to Ondo Muslim community and even observed the monthly meeting of that Community. If all these efforts by MUSWEN are adequately reciprocated and complimented by other stake holders in the Southwest, any tendency for fanaticism and consequent terrorism may be easy to nip in the bud.

     

    Observation

    This is an era of religious uncertainty. What we call religion these days is nothing more than a fraudulent cloak for fraudulent activists. The more we claim to be religious the deeper we sink into the quagmire of iniquities. Some people who claim to be men of God are nothing more than men of evil. There is hardly any crime in the world today that is not aided or even generated by people who masquerade day and night in the cloak of religion. The modern day generation has turned religion into a capitalist mercantile. It is the duty of and responsibility of both MUSWEN and the League of Imams and Alfas to stem any spate of such ugly trend and return sanity to Islam in the region. Meanwhile, ‘The Message’ hereby joins MUSWEN in congratulating both the League of Imams and Alfas and its newly installed President-General. CONGRATULATION!

  • Crescent University’s 7th Convocation Lecture

    Monologue

    University is a city of perspiring dream which some people turn into inheritable reality but which others keep in perpetual suspense.

    The knowledge that propels the world into great hopes may sometimes be packaged in the University classrooms or laboratories.

    But the basis of such knowledge is surely outside the University. The most knowledgeable human beings in history never knew anything called University. Yet, they ventilated the environment that brought University into being.

    Crescent University, Abeokuta held its 7th convocation on Saturday, October 10, 2015. But its Convocation Lecture which yours sincerely was privileged to deliver came up a day earlier (Friday, October 9, 2015).

    The theme of the lecture was ‘Moral Education and Nation Building’. The intention was to publish that lecture in this column today. However, since the lecture was too lengthy to be published in a single edition of ‘The Message’ column, culling an excerpt from it may not be a bad idea. Please, read on:

     

    Preamble

    Any time I remember an historic inscription once placed conspicuously at the main entrance of the University of Cordoba in Spain, my heart throbs. The inscription goes as thus:

    “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”.

    It must be noted that the key words in that inscription are four: Learning, Justice, Righteousness and Bravery. Those words are the real factors of ethics and morality embedded in the University curriculum from inception. The factors were coined to accentuate the high level of discipline and fear of Allah required to form the character of an average University graduate.

    Those factors simply summarise the essence of temporal and spiritual life of man in all ramifications through the vehicle of education. Without them, no life can be said to be worthy of living and no education can be rightly proclaimed.

     

    University of Cordoba

    For those who did not know, University of Cordoba was the very first formal and standardised University ever established in the world. It was established in the mid 10th century CE by Caliph Abdur-Rahman III of the second Umayyad dynasty who ruled in Spain from 912 to 961 CE. University of Cordoba preceded the three oldest universities in the world today: Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Each of these universities is well over 1000 years old now.

    It was at the University of Cordoba that the Christian Europe first came in contact with the yoke of the knowledge that fetched it what is now called modern civilisation. Thus, at a time when the city of Cordoba under the Muslim rule, was styled ‘The Jewel of the World’ by the Europeans because of its beauty, serenity and grandeur, the University of Cordoba stood out as a second to none citadel of learning in the entire world.

     

    Attestation

    To attest to this fact, a French Historian of the 20th century and author of ‘The Civilisation of the Arabs’, Gustave Le Bon, had the following to say:

    “At an epoch when the rest of Europe was plunged into the darkest barbarism, Baghdad and Cordoba, the two great cities where Islam held sway, were centres of civilisation which illumined the whole world with the light of their brilliance”.

     

    Arabic Numerals

    If some people in the present generation are still in doubt over the above narration and quotes, then, we can shift our focus to a related but more familiar terrain that has no shadow and cannot be doubted.

    At least most of us can still recall that the numerals which we inherited from our colonial masters are called Arabic numerals. Those are the numerals with which we were taught mathematics in schools when we were young. They are the same numerals with which we now conduct our economic activities. It was through those numerals that Muslim intellectuals introduced the figure called zero (0) into the world thereby bringing decimal system into being. Today, everyone knows that without decimal system the achievement of any scientific advancement would have been impossible.

     

    The Roman Numerals

    Before the invention of zero by the Muslims, Europe had relied heavily on the clumsy system of Roman numerals which required enormous expenditure of time and labour. For instance, while the decimal system makes it easy to write such figure as 1848 in only four numerals and within a second, the Europeans used to write the same figure as follows: MDCCCXLVIII in Roman numerals.

     

    Essence of Zero

    The real essence of inventing zero (0) by the Muslim intellectuals was not just to advance the course of science and technology for academic purpose but also to boost human morality by facilitating transparency in economic transactions that could be devoid of manipulation and thereby prevent corruption.

    This further confirms that the end result of education in those days was not just to obtain certificate but to pave way for civility. But can there be any civility in the absence of good human conduct? This is where the question of ethics and morality comes in. It is through high level of discipline and sound ethics that exemplary leaders emerge.

     

    Qualities of Leadership

    University is so named because of the universality of certain human norms and mannerism that distinguish between man and animal. This does not however make it for anybody aspiring to leadership to pass through a university. The greatest leaders in history never passed through a university education even as the most educated human being that ever lived (Prophet Muhammad (SAW), was an illiterate. Yet from the fountain of his education many nonentities have become professors in various fields of learning while many more (literate or illiterate) people across nations and continents have become employees of Islam.

     

    Education and Literacy

    The difference between education and literacy is grossly misconceived in Nigeria. While the one is universally beneficial to all and sundry, the other is beneficial only to the so-called literate. Whereas education is about knowledge, cultural value, responsibility and legacy, literacy is about momentary material benefit that can never become a legacy or a heritage. The death of a literate person connotes the end of literacy in him while an educated person lives on even long after his demise. Prophet Muhammad is a typical example of the latter.

     

    Benefits of education

    Our ancestors who domesticated plants and turned them into edible foods did not attend any school and were therefore not literate. It was from their education that we came to inherit how to turn cassava into gari and eba and yam into yam flour (amala) and pounded yam (iyan) and maize into pap (Eko). It was from their knowledge also that we came to turn melon (egusi) as well as locust beans (Iru) into nutritious soup. It was also those ancestors who cultivated cotton and silk without learning textile technology in any classrooms, and turned them into fabrics with which they designed a variety of dresses for men and women of different generations.

    Thus, if we wear such dresses as Buba and Iro as well as Agbada, Danshiki, Oyala and the likes today it is due to the sound education of our illiterate ancestral fathers and mothers rather than the ingenuity of our literacy. As a matter of fact, the modern Professors have not added anything tangible to those foods and dresses despite their five star certificates in nutrition and textile technology. If anything, they have rather used their so-called literacy to bring various diseases and immorality into the world through malnutrition and nudism. Whereas education abhors corruption literacy encourages and upholds it.

     

    Pseudo-Education

    Today, what remains of most Nigerian universities is mere nomenclature attributable only to literacy rather than education. Even such literacy has so evidently dwindled to a stage of mockery that one sometimes wonders if university as an institution of learning in Nigeria still has anything tangible to contribute to education for the benefit of mankind. The quality of most Nigerian graduates today is so un-befitting to the status of the tertiary institution called university that the phrase ‘University Education’ has virtually a mockery. This is because the main objective of seeking admission into Nigerian universities these days is just to obtain certificate that can serve as meal ticket rather than education that can pave way for quality life.

    The heavily pregnant inscription quoted at the beginning of this speech, in respect of the University of Cordoba, is quite symbolic of the intellectual and humanitarian qualities of the initiators of university education. It enabled the Muslims of that time to pilot the world, with knowledge, into the realm of what is now termed ‘Modern Civilisation’. It constitutes the summary of good leadership theoretically and practically whether in the primordial or contemporary times.

    It connotes the necessary equanimity with which excellent leadership is managed and maintained in any sane society. That is what a well-focused university should be. That is what Crescent University is grooming its graduates to become. We pray Allah to enable the Crescent University also become as great in history as the notable universities that preceded it. Amin.

  • Evidence of leadership

    Evidence of leadership

    A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do, and like it”.                                                                        

     Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972) Former U.S. president

     

    Preamble

    In a few days time, The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar CFR, mni, will storm the city of Ibadan in a rare academic regalia. As the Chancellor of that Premier University, His Eminence will grace the Institution’s 67th convocation an occasion at which he will formally be installed as the Chancellor with a grandeur having been so appointed by the Federal Government early this year. The occasion will further confirm the qualities of good leadership in him.

    Good leadership is recognised not by official position or use of force. Genuine leaders are mostly known by their utterances, their actions and their conducts. Such are leaders who never say YES when they mean to say NO. They never make promise and renege on it. Such are people who   never betray those who trust them.

    Those were the qualities in Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that prompted the Almighty Allah to say as follows about him: “There is surely an excellent example for you (Muslims) to emulate in Prophet Muhammad for those of you who believe in Allah and the hereafter and also remember Allah at all times” Q. 33: 21

     

    Good Leadership

    Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be right after all. The example of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted throne of the Sultanate about nine years ago, this great man has convincingly demonstrated all the qualities of genuine leadership. Every statement he has made socially, religiously and politically and every action he has taken officially or personally has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people have learned one thing or the other.

    Like any other thing modern, this Sultan is modern by all standards. He knew on assumption of the royal office that the most effective link between the Sultanate and Nigerians (especially the Muslim Ummah) is the internet and he put that royal institution online as soon as he ascended the throne. Thus, as an exemplary leader, he demonstrates his leadership prowess by possessing mastering fingers on the computer.

     

    Historical perspective

    In the days before the official emergence of Nigeria as a country through the amalgamation of certain tribes and regions by the British colonialists, Sokoto Empire was beyond today’s Nigerian map. It consisted of a vast area of today’s Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Benin Republic and some parts of Togo and Ghana.

    However, with the partition of Africa into various colonial entities in 1884, the Sultanate of Sokoto became drastically reduced with a large chunk of its territory falling under various colonial authorities.

    In the days of Uthman Dan Fodio and his brother, Abdullah Bn Fodio, the main glory of the Empire was education which became its heritage through the descendants’ line. It is on record that Clapperton, a British colonial agent once had an encounter with the first Sultan, Muhammad Bello, the son of Uthman Dan Fodio in 1824, in an interesting intellectual circumstance. After the encounter which came in form of a tacit debate, Clapperton had to admit thus: “He (Muhammad Bello) continued to ask me several other theological questions, until I was obliged to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious subtleties to resolve these knotty points”.

    And, when Clapperton returned to Sokoto two years later, (1826) and presented Bello with a copy of Arabic Euclid, he was shocked to learn that his host already possessed one. Both Muhammad Bello and his father, Uthman Dan Fodio, made such complex linguistic, theological and legal studies that the one had 97 books to his credit while the other had 93.

     

    Genesis of literacy in Nigeria

    When the Europeans first came to our own part of Africa in the 16th century, the only literate part of what is called Nigeria today was the north. And that was because Islam had reached that part of the country with its Arabic literacy since the 11th century. The British colonialists confirmed this when they arrived in the 19th century.

    The only reason why the colonialists did not retain Arabic literacy in the north was that they did not understand it. If they had not ignored Arabic literacy, the north would not have been perceived as backward educationally today. At least by 1919, when the South was just beginning to embrace literacy with less than a score of schools, the North already had over 25000 schools where various subjects were taught and learnt in Arabic language.

     

    Philosophical assertion

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

    Five years after his ascending the throne in November 2006, the symbiotic relationship between history and man was reconfirmed in Zaria, on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), where a galaxy of well-meaning men and women from all walks of life assembled to say “we are here to bear witness”. That was the day His Eminence was installed as the CHANCELLOR OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA. The occasion was just one of many laurels accruing to him since he became the Sultan. And that same year, he was also named the 16th most influential Muslim leader in the world as his global itinerary in pursuit of peace and tranquility has come to confirm his unique royal mission.

     

    The role of education

    In Islam, education is the first law. It is only through it that man can understand life in all its ramifications. That was why Allah’s very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) ordained education thus: “Read in the name of Allah who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood; Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught man by the pen; He taught man what he (man) did not know…”Q. 96:1-4. To further emphasise the compelling need for education in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said in one Hadith that “knowledge is a lost treasure. Muslims should look for it and pick it wherever they could find it”.

    Without education there can be no information. And without information there can be no progress. That is why the Sultan started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of information based on education. It is only with education that most problems in this world can be solved without much ado. Sultan Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar also believes that education without social harmony is like a virtue without value and that there can be no harmony in a society where people are overwhelmed by ignorance and penury as is the case in Nigeria today. Thus, he has consistently focused on these two areas in his global campaigns.

     

    Historic quotes

    At his installation as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University in 2011, Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar said that the current socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He blame the failure of the country’s unprecedented resources, development to match the national wealth on corruption.

    In his words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks, fueling and confounding social conflicts and inter-communal crisis has extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property”. He went further to say that: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.”

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

    That is the Sultan for you, a man who is at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort but feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who are consigned to the weeding of the shrubs without any hope in life through official policies. He has never relented in his advocacy for good governance and denunciation of corruption as well religious intolerance and avoidance of provocation

     

    Interfaith inclination

    When he was invited in January 2010 as a special guest of honour to a religious seminar organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), with the theme: ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, Sultan Abubakar delivered an historic speech that reverberated meaningfully across the entire world. And in May, same year, he also invited the leadership of CAN to a special conference of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) held in Kaduna. The theme of that conference was: ‘Islam in the Eyes of the Christians’. He is the first Nigerian special class monarch to engage in such an interfaith affair at the national level and his speech on that occasion was also electrifying. Please read an excerpt from that speech as presented below:

    “….the task of overcoming Nigeria’s problems calls for sacrifice, dialogue and understanding; and all national stakeholders must overcome the myopia of greed and self-centeredness to move this great nation forward and safeguard its strategic interests….we must begin to look into the future with hope and confidence and to ensure, first and foremost, that we shore up the foundations of our political system. The National Assembly, and indeed all tiers of government, should not relent in their current efforts at electoral reform and in ensuring that Nigerians have a genuine electoral process that guarantees free and fair elections. Unless and until we do that, our nation will continue to be haunted by the unholy alliance between fraudulent elections and illegitimate electoral outcomes, the consequences of which we all know too well. We must break away from this vicious circle and confer on Nigerians the power and indeed the ability to decide, freely and willingly, who leads them at all levels of governance”.

    “….There is also the urgent need for us to re-evaluate our conception of leadership as a nation…. needless to add, that there is no way we can make genuine progress as a nation when a significant number of our populace wallows in abject poverty unable to secure the requisite means for their sustenance and to cater for the health and educational needs of their families. Democracy must build a humane society capable of looking after the legitimate needs of its citizenry. For it to be truly successful, it must be able to bring real progress to all sectors of our diverse society.

    “Finally we must all work hard to limit the influence of wealth in our society and to support those values that promote social responsibility, excellence and hard work”.

     

    Conclusion

    That is Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them with a view to solving those problems. He has since delivered similar, captivating lectures of historic records at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in Britain as well as at Harvard University in the United States on the invitation of those institutions. As he will be installed as the Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, ‘The Message’ column joins thousands of Nigerians at home and abroad to say to His Eminence: CONGRATULATIONS!

  • Crescent University’s 7th Convocation Lecture

    Monologue

    University is a city of perspiring dreams which some people turn into inheritable reality but which others keep as dreams in perpetuity. The knowledge that propels the world into greater hopes may sometimes be packaged in the University but its basis is surely outside the University. The most knowledgeable human beings in history never knew anything called University yet they ventilated the environment that brought University into being.

    Crescent University, Abeokuta, held its 7th convocation on Saturday, October 10, 2015. But its Convocation Lecture which yours sincerely delivered came up a day earlier: Friday, October 9, 2015. It was a lecture too lengthy to be published in a single edition of this column and ‘The Message’ doesn’t serialise articles. But an excerpt from it is brought here today. Please, read on:

     

    Preamble

    Any time one remembers an historic inscription once placed conspicuously at the main entrance of the University of Cordoba in Spain, the heart throbs. The inscription read 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”.

    It will be noticed that the key words in that inscription are four: Learning, Justice, Righteousness and Bravery. Those words are the real factors of ethics and morality embedded in the University curriculum from inception to accentuate the high level of discipline and the fear of Allah required to reflect in the life of an average University graduate.

    Those factors simply summarise the essence of temporal and spiritual life of man in all ramifications through the vehicle of education. Without them no life can be said to be worthy of living and no education can be rightly proclaimed.

     

    University of Cordoba

    For those who did not know, University of Cordoba was the very first formal and standardised University ever established in the world. It was established in the earlier part of the 10th century CE by Caliph Abdur-Rahman III of the second Umayyad dynasty who ruled in Spain from 912 to 961 CE. University of Cordoba preceded the three oldest Universities in the world today: Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Each of these Universities is well over 1000 years old now.

    It was at the University of Cordoba that the Christian Europe first came in contact with the yoke of the knowledge that fetched it what is now called modern civilisation. Thus, at a time when the city of Cordoba under the Muslim rule, was styled ‘The Jewel of the World’ by the Europeans because of its beauty, serenity and grandeur, the University of Cordoba stood out as a second to none citadel of learning in the entire world.

     

    Attestation

    To attest to this fact, a French Historian of the 20th century and author of ‘The Civilisation of the Arabs’, Gustave Le Bon, had the following to say:

    “At an epoch when the rest of Europe was plunged in the darkest barbarism, Baghdad and Cordoba, the two great cities where Islam held sway, were centres of civilisation which illumined the whole world with the light of their brilliance”.

     

    Introduction of zero

    If some people in this generation are still in doubt over the above narration to which some well known historians have attested as quoted, then, we can shift our focus to a related but more familiar terrain that has no shadow and cannot be doubted.

    At least most of us can still remember that the numerals which we inherited from our colonial masters are called Arabic numerals. Those are the numerals with which we were taught mathematics in schools when we were young. They are the same numerals with which we now conduct our economic activities. It was through those numerals that Muslim intellectuals introduced the figure called zero (0) into the world thereby bringing decimal system into being. At least, everyone knows that without decimal system the achievement of any scientific advancement would have been impossible.

     

    Europe’s adoption of Arabic numerals

    Before the invention of zero, Europe had relied heavily on the clumsy system of Roman numerals which required enormous expenditure of time and labour. For instance, while the decimal system makes it easy to write such figure as 1848 in only four numerals and within a second, the Europeans used to write the same number with 11 numerals as follows: MDCCCXLVIII in Roman numerals.

     

    Essence of Zero

    The real essence of inventing zero (0) by the Muslim intellectuals was not just to advance the course of science and technology for academic purpose but also to boost human morality by facilitating transparency in economic transactions that could be devoid of manipulation and thereby prevent corruption.

    This further confirms that the end result of education in those days was not just to obtain certificate but to pave way for civility. But can there be any civility in the absence of good human conduct? This is where the question of ethics and morality comes in. It is through high level of discipline and sound ethics that exemplary leaders emerge.

     

    Qualities of Exemplary Leadership

    University is so named because of the universality of certain human norms and mannerism that distinguish between man and animal. This does not however pave way for a tradition in which leaders must have passed through any University before emerging as leaders. The greatest leaders in history never passed through University. Even as the most educated human being that ever lived (Prophet Muhammad (SAW), was an illiterate. Yet from the fountain of his education many nonentities have become professors in various fields of learning while many more, literate or illiterate, people across nations and continents have been employed so permanently that they can never be jobless again.

     

    Education and Literacy

    The difference between education and literacy is grossly misconceived in Nigeria. While the one is universally beneficial to all and sundry, the other is beneficial only to the so-called literate. Whereas education is about knowledge, cultural value, responsibility and legacy literacy is about momentary material benefit that can never become either a legacy or a heritage. The death of a literate person connotes the end of literacy in him while an educated person lives on even long after his demise. Prophet Muhammad is a typical example of the latter.

     

    Benefits of Education

    Our ancestors who domesticated plants and turned them into edible foods did not attend any school and were therefore not literate. It was from their education that we came to inherit how to turn cassava into gari and eba and yam into yam flour (amala) and pounded yam (iyan) and maize into pap (Eko). It was from their knowledge also that we came to turn melon (egusi) as well as locust beans (Iru) into nutritious soup. It was also those ancestors who cultivated cotton and silk without learning textile technology in any classrooms and turned them into fabrics with which they designed a variety of dresses for men and women of different generations.

    Thus, if we wear such dresses as Buba and Iro as well as Agbada, Danshiki, Oyala and the likes today it is due to the sound education of our illiterate ancestral fathers and mothers rather than the ingenuity of our literacy. As a matter of fact, the modern professors have not added anything tangible to those foods and dresses despite their five star certificates in nutrition and textile technology. If anything, they have rather used their so-called literacy to bring various diseases and immorality into the world through nutrition and nudism. Whereas education abhors corruption literacy encourages and upholds it.

     

    Pseudo-Education

    Today, what remains of most Nigerian Universities is mere nomenclature attributable only to literacy rather than education. Even such literacy has so evidently dwindled to a stage of mockery that one sometimes wonders if University as an institution of learning in Nigeria still has anything tangible to contribute to education for the benefit of mankind. The quality of most Nigerian graduates today is so unfitting to the status of the tertiary institution called University that the phrase ‘University Education’ has virtually become meaningless. And this is because the main objective of seeking admission into Nigerian Universities these days is just to obtain certificate that can serve as meal ticket rather than education that can pave way for quality life.

    The heavily pregnant inscription quoted at the beginning of this speech  in respect of the University of Cordoba is quite symbolic of the intellectual  and humanitarian qualities that enabled the Muslims of that time to pilot the world, with knowledge, into the realm of what is now termed ‘Modern Civilisation’. It constitutes the summary of good leadership theoretically and practically whether in the primordial or contemporary times. It connotes the necessary equanimity with which excellent leadership is managed and maintained in any sane society. That is what a well-meaning University should be. That is what Crescent University is grooming its graduates to become. We pray Allah to enable Crescent University also become great in history. Amin

  • The dilemma of a columnist

    No information can be as tenable as that of an eyewitness to an incident”.  

    By Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

    Monologue

    It has been asserted severally in this column that the similitude of column writing in a national newspaper on a weekly basis is like a pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. Such a pregnancy carrier can hardly have any respite until she has been delivered of her pregnancy. In the same token, the problem of a quality columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them. No columnist of worth will ever be in search of vocabulary to use or facts to be presented comprehensibly to his or her readers. A strong linguistic background and many years of experience in column writing would have taken proper care of that. Thus, a worthy columnist only faces a problem when it comes to choosing the subject of his writing. And that is a weekly intellectual agony which any newspaper columnist anywhere in the world is compelled to pass through regularly.

    As a columnist, while ruminating on a subject to write on, several other subjects often spring up and start throwing themselves torrentially at you in such a manner that you may fall into a dilemma or even confusion sometimes. That is the case with yours sincerely this week.

     

    Debunking a rumour

    The rumour making the rounds that the leader of this year’s National Hajj   Coordinating Team, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, had ruled out the participation of Nigerian pilgrims in the future throwing of pebbles at the Jamrat. This rumour is not founded. What the leader of the team said was logically conditional. This is how he put it: “The throwing of pebbles at the Jamrat is not worth the blood of any Pilgrim. If throwing of pebbles will be the cause of deaths for Nigerian pilgrims that aspect of Hajj rites might be reviewed in such a way that Nigerians may skip it in future since those pilgrims are not on Hajj to die. His Royal Highness cited an example of a group of pilgrims who came on Hajj riding camels. When those pilgrims complained about the problem faced by their camels at Mina during Hajj the Prophet advised them to stay put in Makkah to be able to save the lives of their camels. His Royal Highness therefore concluded that if the Prophet could permit camel riders to abstain from throwing pebbles at the Jamrat just to save the lives of their camels why can’t the lives of human beings be saved from being perished through stampedes”. He also requested the Saudi Authorities to reconsider the location of Nigerian pilgrims at Mina in relation to the distance between that location and the Jamrat. Thus, since the throwing of pebbles is only symbolic it should not be the cause of death for pilgrims. After all, the opinion of His Royal Highness which was based on Qiyas (one of the four sources of Islamic Law) is not mandatory on all pilgrims. It is only meant for those who may not want to lose their lives at the Jamrat if they are threatened.

     

    A promise is a promise

    As promised last Friday in this column, the idea of today’s contents was to continue the reappraisal of the stampede in Makkah that caused the termination of thousands of pilgrims’ lives including those of hundreds of Nigerians. That was meant to suggest to Nigerian government what it could do to prevent its citizens from falling victims of a similar occurrence in the future. Such a reappraisal was meant to enable Nigerians to know the immediate and remote causes of that unfortunate incident and therefore device a means of avoiding its likes in the years ahead.

    However, as soon as yours sincerely started putting together the contents of today’s column last Wednesday, many other equally important issues began to surface, as usual, to compete for my attention and choice. And which of those issues does not deserve attention anyway especially for someone who just returned to the country after about one month of spiritual sojourn in Saudi Arabia?

    There is the new Islamic year (1st of Muharram, 1437 AH) globally being celebrated in the Muslim world. There is also the speculative apprehension being caused in Lagos and some other Southern States at the instance of the satanic terrorist group called Boko Haram. There is also the unbecoming rampant spate of rape in Nigerian cities and towns that seems to have turned some Nigerians into heartless beasts.

    There is also the ridiculous brouhaha from some diehard tribal bigots over the presidential nominations for ministerial appointments. There is also the newly emerging artificial scarcity of fuel being currently experimented by some Nigerian Shylocks called oil barons in readiness for another round of callous exploitation of ordinary Nigerians. There is also the shameless tribal eulogy for a onetime public criminal who got a tribal official pardon and whose extradition was being sought in another country for prosecution. There is also the seemingly ignored petitions against certain ministerial nominees whose nominations are generally perceived as rewards for corruption.

    Besides, I was privileged to deliver the 7th convocation lecture of the Crescent University, Abeokuta last Friday at the invitation of the authorities of that University. And characteristically, such a lecture deserves immediate publication in this column if only to enable the readers of ‘The Message’ column and other Nigerians to benefit from it. Now, which of these is not strong enough to draw a columnist’s attention?

     

    Sacredness of life

    However, given the fact that human life is or should be sacred in any sane society and at any given circumstance, I decided to choose the last option. Though the dust on the recent Makkah stampede that consumed thousands of lives has now settled, its reverberating effects on the affected homes are yet to settle. What of the bleeding hearts of wives who suddenly became widows or those of husbands who fortuitously became widowers or even those of teenagers who are now orphans at the instance of that unforgettable stampede? Though the general focus has been on the lost lives because of their sacredness, the amount of money lost in that stampede was also incalculable. Because of the nature of Hajj and the spiral movements of the pilgrims during the sacred days of the Dhil-Hijjah every pilgrim carried his or her money about. Thus, millions of Saudi Riyals, European Euros, American Dollars, British Pound Sterling, French Francs, German Deutsche Marks and the likes were lost in the stampede but nobody is talking about that.

     

    A Chronicle of previous Hajj Disasters

    It is never expected that an annual gathering like Hajj that accommodates millions of pilgrims can completely be devoid of deaths and injuries either due to unavoidable natural disaster or human error. But when such disasters are becoming more frequent than normal tongues must wag and comments must be made. For hundreds of years, the Hijaz area of the country now called Saudi Arabia has maintained the two most sacred sanctuaries in Islam creditably well without blemish and she has consistently taken credit for that. It is therefore expected that if on a particular occasion or occasions there is any lapse in the same exercise she should humble enough to take responsibility for it.

    Saudi Arabia’s maintenance of the two sanctuaries as well as the activities of Hajj around them is voluntary. And if for any reason she had needed the assistance of some other Muslim countries she would have sought such assistance. Thus, by not seeking assistance, Saudi Arabian government might have indicated her readiness to accept any responsibility arising from any administrative lapse on her part.

     

    Personal observation

    From my personal observation, there is hardly any country in the world that can maintain Hajj better than Saudi Arabia in terms of infrastructure, security and administration. This country has such a tremendous experience in Hajj matters that calling for withdrawing the administration of Hajj maintenance from her may only amount to sheer envy. But whoever can happily take credit for a job well done must also be ready to take blame for a job not well done.

    So far, Saudi Arabia has tried her very best on Hajj matters but shifting blames in times of lapses shows neither good intention nor reflects sense of responsibility. Any government that voluntarily takes charge of an institution like Hajj must be ready to accept any responsibility associated with it.

     

    Stampede update

    In what became the latest update about the Makkah stampede of September 24, 2015 so far, as it concerns Nigerian pilgrims, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) disclosed last Wednesday (October 14, 2015) that the death toll of Nigerian pilgrims in that stampede had risen to 168. NAHCON also revealed that the official figure of death toll admitted by the Saudi government was 769 as against over 4000 alleged by the international media. It added that seven out of the 42 Nigerians previously admitted into hospitals for various degrees of injuries were yet to be discharged and added that the figure of the hitherto declared missing Nigerians had reduced from 165 to 144. Thus, as of today Nigerian pilgrims who participated in year 1436 AH can be said to have gone to war only to return as vanquished. Meanwhile, in the melee of conflicts in death toll figures the Saudi Interior Ministry has claimed that only 934 pilgrims were missing without giving the details of the nationalities of those missing.

     

    Saudi Arabia’s Reaction

    In a spontaneous but embarrassing reaction to the devastating stampede the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior blamed the cause of that stampede on what it called unruly attitude of African pilgrims whom it described as a bunch of illiterate that understood neither Arabic nor English. But when that insulting comment attracted a barrage of media criticisms from various parts of the world the Ministry quickly retracted its statement and denied ever making such a remark. For those who witnessed the agonizing scene, nothing could have been further from the truth in that unfortunate remark. As an eye witness to that tragedy, I could not personally put the population of black Africans in it beyond 3% of the entire pilgrims involved. How could such a tragedy be then blamed on Africans?

    After a similar stampede in 2006, Saudi authorities instituted single-direction pathways for pilgrims going to or coming from the Jamrat to avoid commotion. In the past decade or so, the Saudi government had worked with a wide range of architects and designers, including the famed international firm Gensler, to improve flow and safety at all of the hajj’s major sites including the Central Mosques in the tent locations of Mina and Arafah.

     

    Crowd management

    Reflecting on the various causes of stampedes during Hajj in the past decades an American columnist, John Seabrook wrote an opinion article in 2011 in which he stated as follows:

    “In the literature on crowd disasters, there is a striking incongruity between the way these events are depicted in the press and how they actually occur. In popular accounts, they are almost invariably described as “panics.” The crowd is portrayed as a single, unified entity, which acts according to “mob psychology”—a set of primitive instincts (fear, followed by flight) that favor self-preservation over the welfare of others, and cause “stampedes” and “trampling.” But most crowd disasters are caused by “crazes”—people are usually moving toward something they want, rather than away from something they fear, and, if you’re caught up in a crush, you’re just as likely to die on your feet as under the feet of others, squashed by the pressure of bodies smashing into you. (Investigators collecting evidence in the aftermath of crowd disasters have found steel guardrails capable of withstanding a thousand pounds of pressure bent by crowd force.)

    In disasters not involving fire, panic is rarely the cause of fatalities, and even when fire is involved, such as in the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, in South-gate, Kentucky, research has shown that people continue to help one another, even at the cost of their own lives”. Other issues not accommodated in this column today will be published in the subsequent weeks in sha’Allah.

  • A fateful Hajj

    A fateful Hajj

    Indeed, only Allah knows the Hour (of silence); He sends down the rain and knows what is contained in the wombs (of prospective mothers). No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow; no soul knows in what land it will die or be buried. Indeed, Allah alone is all-Knower and all-Acquainted”.

    1. 31:34.

     

    It was like an earthquake penultimate Friday, September 11, 2015, when the global electronic media throbbed with the news of a crane accident that occurred (for the first time) within the premises of the sacred sanctuary (Haram) in Makkah. And its immediate effect forced the global tree of the pen profession to tremble down to its tap root.

    It was another 9/11 day albeit with smaller scale. According to the toll figure, 134 mainly pilgrims, including six Nigerians, fatally fell victim of the accident. Three hundred and ninety four (394) others were seriously or partially hospitalised, following various degrees of injuries they sustained in that fortuitous accident.

     

    The breakdown of the victims as at the time of writing this article in Saudi Arabia is as follows:

     

    DEAD                   HOSPITALISED

     

    Iranians        25                             15

    Bangladeshis  25

    Egyptians       23

    Pakistanis       15                          51

    Indonesians    11                          42

    Indians             11                         15

    Turkish            8                          21

    Malaysians      6                         10

    Nigerians        6

    United Kingdom  2                   3

    Algerians                                    1

    Afghans                                       1

     

    The tragedy occurred three days after yours sincerely arrived in Madinah for Hajj 1436 AH.

     

    Saudi Government’s Reaction

    The incident was the deadliest crane accident in human history. After visiting the site on Sunday, September 13, 2015, King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia ordered an investigation into the tragedy and vowed to sanction the culprits.

    He, immediately, suspended work on the site and announced the revocation of the contract handled by the popular Bin Ladin Construction Company and, a couple of days later, he ordered the payment of 1 million Saudi Riyals (N65 million) as compensation to each of the dead victims and SR 500000 (N30 million) to each of the injured and hospitalised victims.

     

    Lamentations

    The fortuitous accident simply mirrored the fang of destiny and precipitated untold agony across the globe. This was followed by lamentations and wailings which only presented the semblance of medicine applied to the corpse of a lifeless body. The rest is a story not meant for today. Inna Lillah wa inna ilayhi raji‘un!

     

    Irony of Life

    If life is said to be ironic this disturbing accident is a confirmation of that assertion. Or how can one explain the situation of a journey that took millions of Muslims to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage from various countries of the world. What is more ironic about it is that the area of the Haram where the accident occurred is almost exclusive as only a few pilgrims have business there. To what else then could such an accident be attributed other than destiny? Such accident did not occur at densely populated areas, such as King Abdul Aziz entrance. It did not occur at Babus-Salam through which most pilgrims prefer to enter the Haram. It did not occur at the Ka‘bah where hundreds of thousands of people were circumambulating.

    It did not occur between Safa and Marwah where male and female pilgrims struggle for space in their trot in service to Allah. It rather waited for those Mutawwifin to complete their Tawaf and step out of the Haram. If that accident had occurred at any other place in Saudi Arabia outside Makkah and Madinah some people would have put the blame on impatience or carelessness on the part of the victims. But here we are. Upon what else apart from destiny do we put the blame? Why those victims and not some other people?

     

    Natural Demarcation

    The demarcation between life and death is like the diaphragm between the   thoracic and abdominal cavities. It takes only the grace of Allah for that diaphragm to sustain the natural but mysterious demarcation that keeps man intact until the otherwise happens.

    Death, like birth, is a divinely scheduled programme in the life of man. It is a phenomenon specially shrouded in mystery. The circumstances that precede death are beyond the predictions or permutations of man. They cannot be foretold except by sheer deception. Every soothsayer will die with his soothsaying and no atom of the world will feel his exit. Kings die as much as slaves. Masters die as much as servants. And all together will lie helplessly beneath the earth without distinction.

    Because of its invisibility death is known only to the living as no dead person ever knows what has happened to him even as he cruises ahead in his dream-like sojourn to an unknown destination. The painful lamentations that follow the death of a person by his relatives and associates can never remedy that natural occurrence. Times and places may be different, but we shall all join the train of death one day.

     

    Parable of Coffin

    From the very first day of conception in the mother’s womb, a parable has occurred in the life man. That parable is of a coffin. When a child is perfectly pearled in the womb of a mother, it hardly occurs to anybody that what we generally call pregnancy is a coffin in which the child lives all alone to enjoy the naturally provided facilities. While there, he knows neither the source of those facilities nor his next destination. But when he is eventually delivered into the world he feels ejected from the home of pleasure and cries out profusely in protest. Yet, it is that cry that gives assurances and comfort to those who usher him into the world.

     

    The ever expanding earth

    Yes, the world, in the eyes of sheer mortal beings, is quite large but it remains a coffin for everybody as its large size is only to enable it to accommodate as many humans as possible which a woman’s womb cannot contain. Even as small as the womb of a mother is it sometimes accommodates two or three or four or even more children to confirm the concept of coffin in which man lives.

    Just as twins or triplets or quintets are born on the same day, from the same womb and into the same hands so do people randomly die in singles or doubles or multiples sometimes at the same hour and at the same place even if they never knew one another. We only ignorantly move about in our individual coffins of life and behave as if the pendulum of death has nothing to do with us. And when the unexpected occurs the remembrance of whence we emanated or wither we are bound is completely lost on us.

    The terrestrial planet called the earth is nothing but one big graveyard in which billions, even trillions of people, had been buried through the millennia. There is no single piece of land (even one foot) on earth that has not served as a grave in which remains of human beings have been buried. Yet the same earth keeps beckoning to us in drones, indicating that she still has space in abundance for those whose time is up for transiting from life to death. And as we had no say in the choice of the mothers who piloted us into this world so we have no say in the choice of that portion of the earth that will pilot us into the hereafter. Our world is a transit along the unknown journey that transforms us from the living to dead. The choice of place and time of where death will occur are determined only by the Supreme Being who created us and will ask us for the account of our existence on this earth.

     

    Experience

    Were an unborn baby to have a choice on whether or not to exit from its mother’s womb it would have preferred to stay put. But if the baby did not exit from its mother’s womb, how would it enjoy the pleasurable bounties of this world? This is the scenario which Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, gave a deep thought in the introduction to his autobiography (My Odyssey) when he wrote thus: “Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his causes of action; but then, he dies; nevertheless, his biography remains a guide for those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as an example or both….”. Incidentally, Dr. Azikiwe was a journalist.

     

    Inseparable Web

    Death is the inseparable web of life from which no man can escape. The time, the place and the mode are the factors that make it a mysterious phenomenon. Whenever we are inside or outside our residences we must be conscious that we are in a coffin. Whenever we are in a vehicle, in an aircraft, in a ship or a train, we must not forget that we are in a coffin. If that coffin has not been closed on us it is only because the time is not yet ripe for death to lay its icy hand on us. There is no armour against death. That is why the Almighty Allah says in the Qur’an thus: “Say, verily, the death from which you are fleeing is bound to overtake you and then you will be brought back unto Him who knows all that is beyond the reach of human perception as well as all that cannot be witnessed by a creatures’ senses or mind, whereupon He will make you truly understand all that you were brought to do in life”.  Q. 62: 8

     

    Destiny

    Let no true believer ascribe the death of a person to another person or carelessness. Death is only ascribable to destiny. The time to come into the world and exit from it is destined only by the Almighty Allah the Creator and Sustainer of all things. In Islam, the Angel of death is called ‘Asrail’. That Angel does not work by whim. Its operation is in tandem with divinely appointed times. And if we were not consulted before coming into the world how can we expect to be consulted before exiting from it? The Angel of death has no respect for age, wealth or position. The activities or plans of man are not his concern. What matters to him is the duty which he is divinely assigned to carry out and when it is time to do that, he goes ahead to do it without looking back. In Islam, there is no untimely death and there is nothing like reincarnation. The difference between reincarnation and resurrection is that while the earlier is satanic the latter is divine.

    As mortal beings we always find reasons for occurrences in our lives. And that shows the limit of our faith. Those of us who are still alive are neither wiser nor closer to God than those who died. The fact is just that our own coffins have not yet been closed up. When it is time for that, nobody can stop it. Once again, Nigeria has been afflicted by a calamity which no one can reverse or remedy. Inna Lillah wa inna ilayhi rajiu’n. We are surely from God and to Him we shall all return.

    Among the countries and prominent religious groups that commiserated with the victims’ families and associates are the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Nigerian government, Nigerian Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) the Jama‘atu Nasril Islam, Muslim Ummah of the Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) and a host of others from all parts of the world. Their messages signed by Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede and Professor D. O. S. Noibi are as follows respectively.

    The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of its President General and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar, received with deep grief and sorrow, the news of the crane accident in Makkah  which claimed the lives of 118 pilgrims of different nationalities. About 394 others were seriously injured and hospitalised.

    Coming to add to the grief inflicted on the world by terrorism and insurgency, such a disturbing incident could only amount more agony for the entire world. The irony of life in this case is that destiny cannot be evaded by any human being despite any level of carefulness.

    While commiserating with the families of all the deceased and the peoples of their nations we can only pray the Almighty Allah to repose the souls of the victims in eternal bliss and grant their relatives the fortitude with which to bear the grief.

    We also invoke the mercy of the Almighty God to ensure a speedy recovery for those who were wounded in the accident and protect the lives of the teeming other Nigerian pilgrims still in Saudi Arabia for Hajj rites. ng them.

     

    MUSWEN condoles

    Sad news is like a whirlwind which has neither a scheduled time nor place. Its overwhelming effect on man can hardly be measured in terms of agony or sorrow. Or how else can we describe the crane accident of last Friday at the Holy Land?

    We also pray for speedy recovery of those who were injured in the accident and need intensive health care just as we praise the prompt actions groups and individuals who quickly rallied round the injured ones to ensure their survival.  But we also implore all and sundry to intensify such efforts in order to avert further deaths through this calamitous incident.                                                                                                                       Finally, we pray for continuous safety of all other journalists in the country as well as professionals in other fields who often face hazards in the performance of their service.

  • Not by desperation

    Who are those arrogating the right of distributing of your Lord’s blessings to themselves? It is We who do distribute among peole their livelihoods in this world and We exalt some in rank above others so that some may employ the services of the others. Your Lord’s mercy is better by far than all their hoarded treasures”. Q. 43: 32

     

    Peamble

    History is resplendent with leasons for people whose steps in life are in tandem or not with Allah’s guidance. There is no life’s odyssey without a divine warning. Heeding or shunning such a warning is however a matter of choice. And the consequences or otherwise of such a choice will eventually become the heritage of the concerned person.

    We live in a world, today, that is quite different from that of the centuries past when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). But surprisingly, nothing in the contemporary world has run counter to the predictions of that sacred Book or those of the last Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    For instance, business transactions in the time of the Prophet might not involve high technology but the norms which guided business in those days are still as vital today as they were then. Not even the introduction of mundane ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism has altered those norms. So far, the source of the wealth of the world has not changed from what it was in the past millennia. That source is the earth from which everything is explored. Even the materials used to manufacture satellites or space shuttle aircraft are from the earth.

    Thus, from agriculture to nuclear device, no new norm has been introduced to warrant any new world order that can affect the faith of the Muslims. As a matter of fact, the world has witnessed the collapse of communism and that of socialism within a period of 74 years despite its overbearing influence when it held sway. It is just a matter of time for the current pervading capitalism to go the way of socialism and communism.

     

    Economic ideology

    An unlettered personality like Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not need to formulate any mundane economic ideology to run a great Islamic government. He was not just a political leader but also an economic expert, a great law giver and an army general of impeccable disposition.

    Without necessarily going into details on how he managed the economy of the Islamic state which he established and ruled from the scratch, it is obvious that even his ascension to the seven planets which paved way for modern man’s exploration of the space is of immense economic value to the contemporary world which no sensible critic can logically dispute. Although the Quran which was revealed to an unlettered Muhammad (SAW) is seen by some ignorant people as a mere religious book, the economic value of that Book has remained unquantifiable and will remain so forever. The fast spreading Islamic banking in the West today is a clear evidence of that fact.

    Being the most read book in the world, the Quran has been translated into hundreds of languages making it possible for millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to be employed at the various segments of the world’s economy. For instance, the writing of the Qur’an, its recitation, its proofreading, its printing, its marketing, its teaching, its translation, its interpretation and even criticism by unbelievers are all sources of economic survival for millions of people in the world irrespective of their religions. The global engagement in research on that glorious Book by various scholars and intellectuals either for acknowledgement of facts or for criticism are an attestation to the above assertion. There was no book like the Qur’an before its revelation and there will never be a book like it till the world will come to an end. The mounting hostility to it in certain quaters is largely due to ignorance about it. And that cannot continue forever.

     

    The Prophet as employer of labour

    If only one quarter of a billion people is gainfully employed in the workings of the Quran alone, today’s world economy would have been remarkably upheld by the religion of Islam. And, apat from the Qur’an, millions of people are engaged in various businesses relating to Hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tarikh (Islamic History), Tawhid (Faith in the oneness of Allah) and Thaqafah (Islamic Culture) among others.

    Even, for hundreds of years that the Orientalists were busy trying Islam through their satanic publications, it was undeniable that those destroyers were benefiting from the economic legacy of Islam through the sale of those publications.

    Today, as the same Orientalists are busy reversing themselves on what they had maliciously published about Islam in the past they are still benefiting economically from that great religion.

    Despite the vast economic advantages provided by Islam, however, some unscrupulous Nigerian Muslims still engage in illegal businesses that contravene the tenets of that divine religion. Some of such Muslims are among the thousands of Nigerians who are now languishing in various prisons around the world. Some others are even sentenced to death by hanging as punishment for their crimes. Incidentally, some of such people do commit their atrocities under the cover of Isalm. This happened even during the current Hajj rites.

    This reminds yours ssincerely of a fortuitous encounter with one of them as far back a 1981 which keeps quivering my heart even today. I had once relayed that ugly encounter in this column but decided to repeat it here today because it was an experience from which young Muslim men and women of today can draw a lesson a lesson from.

     

    Illicit act

    A Nigerian youth of about 30 years of age called Akram (not real name) did not have anything like poultry in his dream when he was going into Saudi Arabian prison as a convict in 1981. His only prayer was for Allah to influence the minds of the Saudi Authorities to have mercy for him and grant him amnesty after two or three years in prison. His service term was fifteen years. He had earned the sentence through drug trafficking engendered by blind ambition to be quickly rich by all means.

    Akram, a quiet, easy going young man from the Southwest graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. I first met him in 1978 when I went for a first degree in that country. His University was in Madinah while mine was in Jeddah. He left Saudi Arabia after graduating in 1980 and settled down in Nigeria following a one year compulsory national service to the nation. In his plan, Akram did not want to work for anybody. His ambition was to be a big merchant of automobile and electronics. However, since there was no ready-made capital with which to start off such a business, he decided to take a short cut typical of Nigerian style. And he found Saudi Arabia, the country that funded his University education, as most suitable for such a dirty business. Thus, he embarked on his first illicit ‘business trip’ to the country of his Alma Mata in 1981. It was on my way back to school from a summer holiday of the same year that I met him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). After embracing and exchanging pleasantries, we decided to sit together in the aircraft in order to have a chat on the good old days and the expected future. And from Lagos to Jeddah (a journey of five and a half hours), we really chatted to our fill. When we arrived at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah after five and half hours, it was as if we had not spent one hour.

     

    Youthful dream

    As bachelors, we discussed various issues ranging from marriage, bearing of children to monogamy and polygamy as well as family structure. We gossiped on the political trend in our country as championed by the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We compared Nigeria’s pace of development with that of Saudi Arabia and concluded that our government neither had focus nor plan, a situation which made Nigerian youths abroad feel like orphans.

    We also talked about world peace, the then cold war between the Western World championed by the United States and the Eastern Socialist Block championed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Reublic (USSR) and the future of Islam in Africa and the Middle East. We analysed the Middle East crises and the role of the two opposing world powers in those crises. We also veered into Nigeria’s micro economy by discussing the role of small and middle scale businesses in our country compared to those of other countries with similar status like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Egypt. And without gazing through any crystal ball, we concluded that with no middle class in place, our country might have no hope except through an accidental miracle. We also reviewed the use to which Nigerian oil was put vis-a-vis that of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Algeria. On this, we concluded that oil in Nigeria was a blessing from Allah which the country’s ruling class turned into a curse. But we were experienced enough to suggest solution.

    Thus, in that long conversation touching virtually all issues affecting the corporate life of Nigeria and her citizens we agreed on some and disagreed on some. However, we were satisfied to have delivered our minds of their pregnancies if only for widening our horizon.

     

    Point of departure

    On arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, my friend quickly dashed into the toilet and requested me to help push his baggage to the security desk for checking and promised to join me shortly. It was almost my turn for checking before an instinct gingered me into consciousness. For more than 30 minutes after he entrusted his baggage to me and went into the toilet, my friend did not resurface. Something just told me to abandon his baggage as I was approaching the checking desk and I did. My own baggage was checked and I went out of the arrival hall to wait for him at the taxi garage. After about one hour of waiting and Akram did not surface, I decided to proceed to my hostel where he was to pass the night in my room as already agreed.

    While still expecting him in my hostel, the electronic waves throbbed with breaking news. The Saudi Television reported the arrest of a Nigerian who smuggled drugs into the holy land. His name was ‘Akram’. That was at 9pm Saudi local time. We had arrived in Jeddah at about 11am that day. And about one hour after the breaking news, my friend was brought to the glee of the nation through the tube and paraded on the Saudi national television as the suspected culprit in the illicit drug trafficking. That was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Akram wanted to be rich and I was to pay the cost of his richness.

    What would have happened if I had not heeded the warning of my instinct? Who could have imagined that a seeming gentleman like Akram would ever think of trafficking in drug for whatever reason? If I had been caught with Akram’s baggage, what explanation could have exonerated me? Those were the questions that immediately ran through me like milk through water and changed my mind about sentimental friendship with people no matter how innocent they might look. There and then, I decided never to assist anybody again in carrying his or her baggage while on a journey.

    After about three months of trial, Akram was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was lucky that drug trafficking at that time in Saudi Arabia had not attracted death as penalty. If it were now, the punishment would have been death sentence by beheading. I was also lucky that at that time the Saudi immigration authorities had not adopted the use of secret camera to monitor passengers.

     

    Prison for reformation

    For 15 years thereafter (from 1981 to 1996), Akram remained behind bars languishing in Saudi Arabian Prison as an inmate among criminals and expecting to be let off the hook one day. But one good thing about Saudi Arabia as a country or any other Islamic country for that matter is the concept of reformation which imprisonment entails. Inmates are not just imprisoned as punishment for crimes they are also prepared for a better post-prison life and re-orientated for better world outlook. Besides, prisoners are paid a specific amount of money daily for their labour in prison. And that gives them hope of reintegration into the society after leaving the prison. Such money is kept in a special bank account opened for them. The total amount is paid to each inmate after his or her prison term.

    Thus, when Akram left the prison in 1996, the post-prison money paid to him became his main lot in life. He was deported to Nigeria but not without that prison labour reward that became his capital for a poultry business. And within a couple of years thereafter, he had become a big poultry farmer but whether or not he learnt any lesson from that incident is another matter.

     

    Qur’anic admonition

    Most of the young men and women of today do not seem to believe in crawling before walking. To them, what matters most in their lives is how to quickly get money to spend and not how such money is made. And that is the main cause of the high rate of crimes witnessed around the world today and the entailed short life span for those youths. In Qur’an, Chapter 43, Verse 32 quoted above, Allah had warned Muslims against desperate accumulation of wealth over 1,400 years ago even when desperate quest for wealth was unfashionable. However, the refusal by today’s youths to heed that warning and the aggressive greed of the privileged elders in power constitute the main cause of restiveness and insurrection around the world today.

    In I slam, desperation for accumulation of wealth is prohibited because it encourages a focus on the end result rather than the means and its entailed morality. In the past decades, Nigeria had sunk so deep into the valley of corruption that no one care to ask about the source of any wealth again even as corruption became the taproot of Nigeria’s tree of existence. Now, with parents, teachers and even legislators getting so desperate to become rich even right before their children what future is expected for those children?

     

    Parochial wealth estimation

    Desperation is not what fetched Nigeria the enormous oil wealth of today. If desperation ever had any role to play in accumulating wealth, perhaps Nigeria would have long become a country in penury. This is because people who were more desperate in this same country and had lived and died some centuries back would have discovered this oil wealth and they would have exhausted it long before our own generation. But in consonance with the quoted Qur’anic verse above, Allah deliberately preserved it for our own generation for a reason best known to Him. Yes, oil may be the source of wealth at this time, it is surely not the last wealth in this country. There are other sources of wealth preserved for the future generations which no desperate ‘awks’ in this generation can discover. Those who see oil as the climax of wealth and want to own its control or die for it should engage in a rethink. You can only have the privilege of presiding over the wealth of a nation for a while and not at all times. The experience of the immediate past regime in Nigeria should serve as a sufficient lesson. And those in government today should also note this very well. The privilege of the past did not extend to the present and that of the present will not extend to the future. Every era is a transit. And every transit has a term.

  • Not by desperation

    Who are those arrogating the right of distributing of your Lord’s blessings to themselves? It is We who do distribute among people their livelihoods in this world and We exalt some in rank above others so that some may employ the services of the others. Your Lord’s mercy is better by far than all their hoarded treasures”. Q. 43: 32

     

    Preamble

    History is resplendent with leasons for people whose steps in life are in tandem or not with Allah’s guidance. There is no life’s odyssey without a divine warning. Heeding or shunning such a warning is however a matter of choice. And the consequences or otherwise of such a choice will eventually become the heritage of the concerned person.

    We live in a world, today, that is quite different from that of the centuries past when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). But surprisingly, nothing in the contemporary world has run counter to the predictions of that sacred Book or those of the last Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    For instance, business transactions in the time of the Prophet might not involve high technology but the norms which guided business in those days are still as vital today as they were then. Not even the introduction of mundane ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism has altered those norms. So far, the source of the wealth of the world has not changed from what it was in the past millennia. That source is the earth from which everything is explored. Even the materials used to manufacture satellites or space shuttle aircraft are from the earth.

    Thus, from agriculture to nuclear device, no new norm has been introduced to warrant any new world order that can affect the faith of the Muslims. As a matter of fact, the world has witnessed the collapse of communism and that of socialism within a period of 74 years despite its overbearing influence when it held sway. It is just a matter of time for the current pervading capitalism to go the way of socialism and communism.

     

    Economic ideology

    An unlettered personality like Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not need to formulate any mundane economic ideology to run a great Islamic government. He was not just a political leader but also an economic expert, a great law giver and an army general of impeccable disposition.

    Without necessarily going into details on how he managed the economy of the Islamic state which he established and ruled from the scratch, it is obvious that even his ascension to the seven planets which paved way for modern man’s exploration of the space is of immense economic value to the contemporary world which no sensible critic can logically dispute. Although the Quran which was revealed to an unlettered Muhammad (SAW) is seen by some ignorant people as a mere religious book, the economic value of that Book has remained unquantifiable and will remain so forever. The fast spreading Islamic banking in the West today is a clear evidence of that fact.

    Being the most read book in the world, the Quran has been translated into hundreds of languages making it possible for millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to be employed at the various segments of the world’s economy. For instance, the writing of the Qur’an, its recitation, its proofreading, its printing, its marketing, its teaching, its translation, its interpretation and even criticism by unbelievers are all sources of economic survival for millions of people in the world irrespective of their religions. The global engagement in research on that glorious Book by various scholars and intellectuals either for acknowledgement of facts or for criticism are an attestation to the above assertion. There was no book like the Qur’an before its revelation and there will never be a book like it till the world will come to an end. The mounting hostility to it in certain quaters is largely due to ignorance about it. And that cannot continue forever.

     

    The Prophet as employer of labour

    If only one quarter of a billion people is gainfully employed in the workings of the Quran alone, today’s world economy would have been remarkably upheld by the religion of Islam. And, apat from the Qur’an, millions of people are engaged in various businesses relating to Hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tarikh (Islamic History), Tawhid (Faith in the oneness of Allah) and Thaqafah (Islamic Culture) among others.

    Even, for hundreds of years that the Orientalists were busy trying Islam through their satanic publications, it was undeniable that those destroyers were benefiting from the economic legacy of Islam through the sale of those publications.

    Today, as the same Orientalists are busy reversing themselves on what they had maliciously published about Islam in the past they are still benefiting economically from that great religion.

    Despite the vast economic advantages provided by Islam, however, some unscrupulous Nigerian Muslims still engage in illegal businesses that contravene the tenets of that divine religion. Some of such Muslims are among the thousands of Nigerians who are now languishing in various prisons around the world. Some others are even sentenced to death by hanging as punishment for their crimes. Incidentally, some of such people do commit their atrocities under the cover of Isalm. This happened even during the current Hajj rites.

    This reminds yours ssincerely of a fortuitous encounter with one of them as far back a 1981 which keeps quivering my heart even today. I had once relayed that ugly encounter in this column but decided to repeat it here today because it was an experience from which young Muslim men and women of today can draw a lesson a lesson from.

     

    Illicit act

    A Nigerian youth of about 30 years of age called Akram (not real name) did not have anything like poultry in his dream when he was going into Saudi Arabian prison as a convict in 1981. His only prayer was for Allah to influence the minds of the Saudi Authorities to have mercy for him and grant him amnesty after two or three years in prison. His service term was fifteen years. He had earned the sentence through drug trafficking engendered by blind ambition to be quickly rich by all means.

    Akram, a quiet, easy going young man from the Southwest graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. I first met him in 1978 when I went for a first degree in that country. His University was in Madinah while mine was in Jeddah. He left Saudi Arabia after graduating in 1980 and settled down in Nigeria following a one year compulsory national service to the nation. In his plan, Akram did not want to work for anybody. His ambition was to be a big merchant of automobile and electronics. However, since there was no ready-made capital with which to start off such a business, he decided to take a short cut typical of Nigerian style. And he found Saudi Arabia, the country that funded his University education, as most suitable for such a dirty business. Thus, he embarked on his first illicit ‘business trip’ to the country of his Alma Mata in 1981. It was on my way back to school from a summer holiday of the same year that I met him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). After embracing and exchanging pleasantries, we decided to sit together in the aircraft in order to have a chat on the good old days and the expected future. And from Lagos to Jeddah (a journey of five and a half hours), we really chatted to our fill. When we arrived at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah after five and half hours, it was as if we had not spent one hour.

     

    Youthful dream

    As bachelors, we discussed various issues ranging from marriage, bearing of children to monogamy and polygamy as well as family structure. We gossiped on the political trend in our country as championed by the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We compared Nigeria’s pace of development with that of Saudi Arabia and concluded that our government neither had focus nor plan, a situation which made Nigerian youths abroad feel like orphans.

    We also talked about world peace, the then cold war between the Western World championed by the United States and the Eastern Socialist Block championed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Reublic (USSR) and the future of Islam in Africa and the Middle East. We analysed the Middle East crises and the role of the two opposing world powers in those crises. We also veered into Nigeria’s micro economy by discussing the role of small and middle scale businesses in our country compared to those of other countries with similar status like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Egypt. And without gazing through any crystal ball, we concluded that with no middle class in place, our country might have no hope except through an accidental miracle. We also reviewed the use to which Nigerian oil was put vis-a-vis that of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Algeria. On this, we concluded that oil in Nigeria was a blessing from Allah which the country’s ruling class turned into a curse. But we were experienced enough to suggest solution.

    Thus, in that long conversation touching virtually all issues affecting the corporate life of Nigeria and her citizens we agreed on some and disagreed on some. However, we were satisfied to have delivered our minds of their pregnancies if only for widening our horizon.

     

    Point of departure

    On arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, my friend quickly dashed into the toilet and requested me to help push his baggage to the security desk for checking and promised to join me shortly. It was almost my turn for checking before an instinct gingered me into consciousness. For more than 30 minutes after he entrusted his baggage to me and went into the toilet, my friend did not resurface. Something just told me to abandon his baggage as I was approaching the checking desk and I did. My own baggage was checked and I went out of the arrival hall to wait for him at the taxi garage. After about one hour of waiting and Akram did not surface, I decided to proceed to my hostel where he was to pass the night in my room as already agreed.

    While still expecting him in my hostel, the electronic waves throbbed with breaking news. The Saudi Television reported the arrest of a Nigerian who smuggled drugs into the holy land. His name was ‘Akram’. That was at 9pm Saudi local time. We had arrived in Jeddah at about 11am that day. And about one hour after the breaking news, my friend was brought to the glee of the nation through the tube and paraded on the Saudi national television as the suspected culprit in the illicit drug trafficking. That was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Akram wanted to be rich and I was to pay the cost of his richness.

    What would have happened if I had not heeded the warning of my instinct? Who could have imagined that a seeming gentleman like Akram would ever think of trafficking in drug for whatever reason? If I had been caught with Akram’s baggage, what explanation could have exonerated me? Those were the questions that immediately ran through me like milk through water and changed my mind about sentimental friendship with people no matter how innocent they might look. There and then, I decided never to assist anybody again in carrying his or her baggage while on a journey.

    After about three months of trial, Akram was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was lucky that drug trafficking at that time in Saudi Arabia had not attracted death as penalty. If it were now, the punishment would have been death sentence by beheading. I was also lucky that at that time the Saudi immigration authorities had not adopted the use of secret camera to monitor passengers.

     

    Prison for reformation

    For 15 years thereafter (from 1981 to 1996), Akram remained behind bars languishing in Saudi Arabian Prison as an inmate among criminals and expecting to be let off the hook one day. But one good thing about Saudi Arabia as a country or any other Islamic country for that matter is the concept of reformation which imprisonment entails. Inmates are not just imprisoned as punishment for crimes they are also prepared for a better post-prison life and re-orientated for better world outlook. Besides, prisoners are paid a specific amount of money daily for their labour in prison. And that gives them hope of reintegration into the society after leaving the prison. Such money is kept in a special bank account opened for them. The total amount is paid to each inmate after his or her prison term.

    Thus, when Akram left the prison in 1996, the post-prison money paid to him became his main lot in life. He was deported to Nigeria but not without that prison labour reward that became his capital for a poultry business. And within a couple of years thereafter, he had become a big poultry farmer but whether or not he learnt any lesson from that incident is another matter.

     

    Qur’anic admonition

    Most of the young men and women of today do not seem to believe in crawling before walking. To them, what matters most in their lives is how to quickly get money to spend and not how such money is made. And that is the main cause of the high rate of crimes witnessed around the world today and the entailed short life span for those youths. In Qur’an, Chapter 43, Verse 32 quoted above, Allah had warned Muslims against desperate accumulation of wealth over 1,400 years ago even when desperate quest for wealth was unfashionable. However, the refusal by today’s youths to heed that warning and the aggressive greed of the privileged elders in power constitute the main cause of restiveness and insurrection around the world today.

    In I slam, desperation for accumulation of wealth is prohibited because it encourages a focus on the end result rather than the means and its entailed morality. In the past decades, Nigeria had sunk so deep into the valley of corruption that no one care to ask about the source of any wealth again even as corruption became the taproot of Nigeria’s tree of existence. Now, with parents, teachers and even legislators getting so desperate to become rich even right before their children what future is expected for those children?

     

    Parochial wealth estimation

    Desperation is not what fetched Nigeria the enormous oil wealth of today. If desperation ever had any role to play in accumulating wealth, perhaps Nigeria would have long become a country in penury. This is because people who were more desperate in this same country and had lived and died some centuries back would have discovered this oil wealth and they would have exhausted it long before our own generation. But in consonance with the quoted Qur’anic verse above, Allah deliberately preserved it for our own generation for a reason best known to Him. Yes, oil may be the source of wealth at this time, it is surely not the last wealth in this country. There are other sources of wealth preserved for the future generations which no desperate ‘awks’ in this generation can discover. Those who see oil as the climax of wealth and want to own its control or die for it should engage in a rethink. You can only have the privilege of presiding over the wealth of a nation for a while and not at all times. The experience of the immediate past regime in Nigeria should serve as a sufficient lesson. And those in government today should also note this very well. The privilege of the past did not extend to the present and that of the present will not extend to the future. Every era is a transit. And every transit has a term.