The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Abbas

  • Beware of friends

    Beware of friends

    Your Excellency,

    This is the first letter coming out of ‘The Message’ column to Your Excellency General Muhammadu Buhari (GCON) as Nigeria’s next President. At the least expected time in your life, the same ladder that had failed you several times in several years suddenly lifted you to the pinnacle of your life’s ambition. And by the time you are sworn in on May 29, 2015 as the substantive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by the grace of Allah, the reality of Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith will dawn on you that “the leader of a community is actually the servant of that community”.

    The first lesson to learn in this is that no human being, no matter how rich or famous, can occupy any position in life without the consent of the Almighty Allah. Thus, your ascension to that exalted seat is not because you are wiser, more pious, better informed or more experienced than others. It is rather a fulfilment of Allah’s promise thus:

    “Who are those that arrogate the duty of portioning out your Lord’s mercy (according to their whims) to fellow human beings? I (Allah) am the sole distributor of those sustaining bounties in this world (being their Creator) and I elevate some people above others in positions to enable some to be servants while others are masters. Surely the mercy of your Lord is better and more prosperous than the material wealth they amass”. Q. 43:32

     

    Power as a sword

    Your Excellency, power in the hands of a ruler is like a sword in the hands of a warrior. It can be used to attack (foes) or to defend (friends). It is also like destiny which can be used to demote the aristocrats or promote the hopeless downtrodden peasants. Power may serve as an instrument for dismantling hegemonies and enthroning hope in the hopeless masses. It is capable of being used to appoint or disappoint people across tribes, religions and interests. It can also be used to elongate or terminate lives depending on who wields it.

    But, sir, beyond every human power there is a Supreme Power which neither wanes nor ends. It is to that Supreme Power that all the power wielders in this world will finally surrender and render their accounts especially on how they used the power entrusted to them. As a Muslim sir, you must understand that everything in this world is ephemeral. The world has witnessed, in various countries and millennia, how men of ‘timber’ and ‘calibre’ ruled positively or negatively and what eventually became of them. History has always been an eyewitness.

     

    Basic attributes of governance

    Your Excellency, after security, law and justice, nothing else is held more sacrosanct in Islam than governance which can be likened to a magnificent canopy under which the people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun.

    In a democratic environment, such canopy is owned, not by those who keep custody of it but by the citizenry who entrust its custody to them. Its custodians are just servants keeping the canopy in trust for the people. Perhaps that was one fact which most of your predecessors did not realise during their tenures.

    Sir, a similar letter was written to  former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan through this column shortly after their assumption of office in 1999, 2007 and 2011 respectively. But it seems that the lotus of office was too overwhelming for each of them (except Yar’Adua) to resist. In the letter, yours sincerely reminded each of them of two important incidents in the history of Islam both of which today serve as indelible models for world rulers, especially those of the West.

    One of the incidents was a letter which the fourth Caliph in Islam, Ali Bn Abi Talib wrote to Ashtar Bn Malik whom he appointed as Governor of Egypt. The other was the practical example of good governance exemplarily demonstrated by Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz who ruled the Umayyad dynasty about 85 years after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

     

    Caliph Ali’s Letter

    Your Excellency, please, find below an excerpt from Caliph Ali’s letter which has since served as a code of conduct in governance for all people who aspire to rule well. You may have some benefits to derive from it. It goes thus:

    “In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Be it known to you Oh Malik, that I am sending you to a country which had experienced in the past both just and unjust rule. The people you are going to rule will scrutinise your actions with searching eyes just as you used to scrutinise the actions of those before you. They will speak of you just as you did speak of those before you. Note that the public speak well only of those who do well. It is they, who furnish the proof of rulers’ actions. Hence, the richest treasure that you may covet should be the treasure of good deeds.

    Keep your desire under control and deny yourself that which you have been warned against. By such abstinence alone, you will be able to distinguish between good and bad”.

    “Develop in your heart the feeling of love for your people and let it be the source of kindness and blessing to them. Do not behave to them like a barbarian in power and do not appropriate to yourself that which belongs to them. Remember that the citizens of the state are of two categories. They are either your brothers in religion or your brethren as human beings. Some of them are subjects of infirmity who are prone to making mistakes. But you must forgive them as you would like God to forgive you”.

    “Bear in mind (you Malik) that you are placed over those people as I (Caliph Ali) am placed over you. And there is God Almighty above him (Ali) who has given you the position of a Governor in order to look after those under you and be sufficient for them. You will be judged by what you do for or to them”.

     

    Temptation

    “Do not be tempted to use power and authority of office without exhausting investigation and facts concerning the matter at stake as that will corrupt your heart, weaken your faith in religion and create disorder in the state.”Never take counsel of a miser, for, he (or she) will vitiate your magnanimity and frighten you with poverty around. Do not seek advice from a coward, he (or she) will weaken your resolution and dampen your morale. Do not take counsel of a greedy person, he (or she) will instil greed in you and turn you into a tyrant. Miserliness, cowardice and greed deprive man of piety and push him into unbridled desperation. The worst counsellor is one who had served a tyrant before and shared his crimes. Do not appoint such a person as your adviser. He will lure you into crimes and turn you into a criminal”.

    “Great care should be exercised in revenue administration to ensure, not only the prosperity of the tax payers but also that of the masses. You should regard the proper upkeep of the land in cultivation (or economic resources of the nation) as of greater importance than the collection of revenues. He who demands revenue without helping land cultivators (or the workforce) ruins the state”.

     

    Plight of the Poor

    “Fear God when you are dealing with the problems of the poor who have none to patronise or protect their interest. They are forlorn, indigent, and helpless as they have become victims of the vicissitude of time. Assign for their uplift a portion of the state exchequer (Baytul Mal) wherever they may be. Let no state preoccupation slip them away from your mind for no excuse whatsoever, will be acceptable to Allah for neglecting their rights.….”

    “Finally, dear Malik, shun self-adoration. Do not indulge in self-praise nor encourage others to extol you because of all the viruses that undo good deeds of pious men, Satan relies most on praise and flattery. Breach of promise annoys God and man alike. Do not act in haste nor defer the execution of a good decision. Do not insist on wrong doing or slackness in rectifying the wrong already done”.

    “When people as a whole agree upon a thing, do not impose your own view on them just because you are in power. Note that power is transient and you will eventually exit or be forced to exit from it one day. And, remember that you will be called upon to render account to God while you remain in the negative chapter of history if your performance is abysmal….”

     

    Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz

    Your Excellency, Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz who was cited above as the second historical incident was a famous Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. He became Caliph about 85 years after the demise of the Prophet.

    In a particular year during his reign, the state made so much money from the collection of Zakah that the problem was how to spend it. The tradition, according to Islamic injunction, was for the state to dispense Zakah to the poor among the citizenry from the much money made through the collection of zakat just as social welfare is dispensed to the jobless, the aged and weak in some sane countries today. But when this was to be done, it turned out that nobody in the entire state was so poor as to be a zakat recipient. The huge amount earmarked for zakat that year had to be returned to the state treasury. It is taken for granted here that a state without poor people is surely a state without beggars.

    Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, who became so famous in history as an ingenuous economic manager, ruled for only three years from 717 to 720 C.E. Yet, he died at the age of 37. The secret of his success was his ability to identify two major areas of economic management in governance. One was to regulate the cost of governance by ensuring that those in government were neither too many nor paid undeserved salaries even as he ascertained that the poor public employees were not enslaved (if psychologically) to the privileged political appointees or those elected to legislate for the state. And there was an independent body responsible for the determination of public workers’ remunerations.

     

    Second Secret

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

    What he did, in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), therefore, was to use the resources of the state to encourage self-employment through professionalism and artisanship. He knew very well that whatever was spent on such a vital venture would return to the state treasury in many folds through taxation. Not only that sir, he also facilitated an education curriculum to suit that design.

     

    Heritage of the West

    Caliph Umar’s economic genius thus became the heritage of the Western countries and they are thriving gloriously in it today. Any government that eliminates the middle class as in the case of Nigeria automatically opens the gate of poverty and crime to the populace.

    Your Excellency, this is not the time to tell Nigerians any gory story of bad economy and a possible removal of fuel subsidy. They already know how economically ruinous the outgoing government had been in the past six years. And they do not believe in the existence any fuel subsidy which they had unwillingly accepted as an instrument of slavery.

     

    Oil Subsidy

    Most Nigerians are at a loss over the issue of subsidy because they are yet to know what the billions of Dollars realised annually for years from the oil sector has been used to achieve, especially when the Federal Government alone takes a lion’s share of 52 per cent of accruing oil revenue.

    To most if not all Nigerians, the year 2012 was a year of Armageddon. That was the year in which new vehicle number plates were rolled out and every vehicle owner was forced to purchase at exorbitant amount, despite the overwhelming poverty that had gone viral in the land. It was also the year in which new drivers’ licences as well as new vehicle particulars were introduced all at unaffordable prices and at a time when the removal of oil subsidy was being forced down their throat willy-nilly. Till date, the question remains unanswered about what became of the money realised from the ‘fuel subsidy’.

     

    Electricity

    Your Excellency, you do not need to be told much about the situation of electricity in Nigeria because you are a Nigerian living in Nigeria. Until a couple of weeks before the Presidential election that you just won, the electricity tariff had been spirally increased without the consent of the people. And that was done in anticipation of improved generation and distribution of that essential energy which was transferred to certain privileged Nigerians in the name of privatisation. All these are telling on them economically. Yet, power remains, shamelessly, a luxurious commodity today in a country where it is supposed to be a dire necessity. With stable power supply the problem of mass unemployment will be solved to a great extent and that will drastically reduce the crime rate in the country.

     

    Insecurity

    Your Excellency, as a retired Army General of worth, you do not need to be tutored on the issue of insecurity. It is a familiar terrain for you. But by and large sir, in steering the ship of this giant country, I pray the Almighty Allah to give you the faith of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), the patience of Prophet Ayub (Job), the courage of Prophet Musa (Moses), the bravery of Prophet Daud (David), the wisdom of Prophet Sulayman (Solomon), the innocence of Prophet Isa (Jesus) and the truthfulness and trustworthiness of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Through the constant and genuine prayers of the ruled, rulers are able to measure their performance and their acceptability. Remember that the bitterest enemies are invariably found among friends. Only those who are close to you can kiss or bite you.

    Sir, gold and silver, this column (THE MESSAGE) has none to offer you. But a genuine piece of advice based on pure intention may be more valuable than all the ornaments of this world.

    As-Salam alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu

  • Anti-aging tips for Buhari in change era (1)

    All things being equal, as economists say, former Military Head of State Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) should succeed President GoodLuck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan on May 29. The choice of this date as a political succession day for Nigeria’s president, governors and parliaments may have petty origins on the surface, but, deep down, plugs into an important date in the universe. Traditionally since independent on October 1,  1960, this October day in which British colonialists transferred sovereignty to Nigerians has been Nigeria’s political transition day until the switch to May 1 now described as Democracy Day. In some spiritual circles world-wide, may 29 regarded as the peak of Pentecost, the outpouring of power from the Holy Spirit for the maintenance of creation.

    Christians recognise Pentecost as a one-off event when disciples of the Lord Jesus received power from on High after his earthly departure. But, say the spiritual circle aforementioned, Pentecost happens every year.

    From the highest planes of the spiritual realms, power surges downwards into creation like blood pumped out by the heart, for the maintenance and strengthening of everything which absorbs it. The regeneration observed in the spring season has been linked to the outpouring. So has the energising of human character and deeds, for good or ill. For this power, like electricity or atomic energy, is neutral, pliable into any form for which the “potter” bears personal responsibility.

    Commenting on this subject a few years ago, this column suggested many riots which have occurred in Nigeria’s history in this season, including the onset of Nigeria’s Biafra civil war (1967-70) on May 27, may have been due to the forging of this power into negative ends.

    For it merely helps to actualise inherent volition. Ideally, the inherent volition of man should be the transformation of earth-life into paradise-like beauty. But since his soul filled with poison, his use of this power can only be for ignoble ends.

    As we stand in the era of change, which president-elect Buhari promised in his election campaigns, our prayer is that he be clarified about these matters, see himself as an upbuilding tool in the hands of his creator, connect and attach to Him, act only under His guidance, open himself to the helping rays of the power of Pentecost which transcend religious frontiers and, as Nigeria’s leader of the moment lead us to loftier heights.

    If he does this, change would have meaning, significance and impact in our lives.

    Road to change

    The journey will be rough, we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. For the last thing many people desire and resist is change. And is because the spirit, tenant in the physical body we all legs about in, is in deep slumber.

    When I was 40, in 1990, I took one day off work and traveled to Abeokuta, Ogun State to re-connect with the radiations of the town in which I grew up. I found, to my shock that if I was blindfolded, I would on my own find my way from the high on which I parked my car, to St. Andrews Primary School, Ileara, where, thanks to Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s free Primary School education project, I began school in January 1956, the year Chief Awolowo began free education in Western Region. My father was a colonial policeman and may have been unable to afford the bill. Nothing has changed in the environment between 1950 and 1990. The neighborhood was blighted.

    Even the once lushful lawn of the parade ground of Ibarra police barracks where a reception was held for Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 had become patched and blighted.

    Since the spirit forms the physical environment where it exists, it can be assumed that the state of the environment is the state of the spirit. Nigeria is replete with stories of successful people hesitant to build houses or make other investments in their villages out of fear that they may be killed.

     

    Aging Buhari

    There is no doubt that, at over 70, Gen. Buhari (rtd) is aging and would require bouncing health and energy to pull through his promises of four million jobs in one year, free education at all levels of schooling, steadying  electricity all day long, curb of corruption, improvement of security and professionalism in the military, among many others. Add to these subtitle picture of voting patterns in the presidential election of March 28 which has led many people to conclude that wounds of the 1967 to 1970 Biafran war are far from healed. Thus manifested in grave ethnic divisions that need to be addressed.

    Ethic division.

    The voting pattern was the geography of the biafran war… the Eastern- Region (South- East and South- South) pitched against the North and the West. Some political observers blame it all on the  South–West. Their thesis is that nowhere in history does the victor nation in a war relinquish power to the loser.

    They site Germany and Japan as examples. Both nations lost the second world war to Britain. The United States, France and the Soviet Union (now Russian). Till this day both nations are forbidden to manufacture offensive military weapons. Besides, foreign troops from the victor nations except perhaps China are stationed in Germany and Japan to monitor them. By this logic, Dr Ebele Goodluck Jonathan should not have become Nigeria’s President after President YarA’dua’s death midterm in office.

    The North opposed his ascension. But the South–West, backing constitutionalism, literally made him President. It is instructive that the bitter struggle between the North and the South–West, Dr Ebele Jonathan, as Vice-President, kept mute, like the South-East and the South-South regions. With victory achieved for Jonathan in both the left over two years of YarA’dua’s tenure and, later, a full four years term for himself, President Jonathan would display open pathological hatred for the South-West vengeance against the North. He was to describe South-Western as a pack of “rascals”,  re-engage in puletic office known foes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West, who set the stage for Dr Ebele Jonathan, as governor of Bayelsa State, to become Vice President of the YarA’dua Presidency.

    The South-West was diminished in key appointments as well. As for the North, President Jonathan adopted a carrot and stick approach. The carrot was key appointments, especially in the security terrain. The “stick”  came in the form of folding arms pretending to have no immediate solution for the Boko Haram insurgency, before which the well-respected Nigerian military would appear to flee. President Jonathan said he was not a “general”, in response to call that he engage the insurgents. Some critics of his Administration say the plot was to let a North –on-North war weaken the North for an easy political rout during the next Presidential election.

    This would be facilitated by a sudden and victorious military assault as Boko Haram which would position President Jonathan as a tie-President who was latter left alone for another term. But it would seem the agenda, if there was one, miscalculated politically that the North and South-West, sworn political enemies since 1959, could offer a common political front in Nigerian history, and even fracture fortresses of the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP). That the North/South-West coalition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was able to defeat President Jonathan was not just a question of the game of numbers but more of intellectual sagacity.

    While President Jonathan and the PDP were busy trying to destroy the person and image of Gen. Buhari (rtd) and image of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a master architect of the APC, the APC was busy abroad internationalising the coming election.  They knew the APC would win the polls and the PDP would attempt  to rig them and deploy soldiers to suppress protests. They were dead right in what happened in Port Harcourt and Abia State, among other discomfitures of the elections.

    Many people have said President Jonathan played the Statesman by unconditionally accepting defeat, a feat, it is said, for an incumbent African President. Somehow I do not share this view. I believe the President merely succumbed to international pressure reigned against him and accepted a negotiated settlement for a soft landing in which he would not be probed personally.

    There is a veiled reference to this in Gen. Buhari’s reply to President Jonathan’s congratulatory message in which the President–elect promised that the President would be treated with “respect” and “understanding”.

    We must now proceed from the geography of the presidential election to the psychological war inflicted ethnic injuries which a Buhari administration should tackle, which may sap his energy and for which, in the coming series of this column, it would be shown how again people like him can make themselves biologically younger than their calendar or calendaric ages and fulfil all their tasks as if they are young people and without a scratch or dent in their health

     

    Ethnic war injuries

    The South–East  has a grouse with the (1) North (2) South–West and (3) parts of the South–South.

    The North

    Hundreds of thousands of igbos were killed genocidically in the North in 1966 which security forces, either helplessly or in full support, looked the other way. Naturally Igbos fled eastwards, to their homeland. It was a clear lesson that the generosity or warmness of a host land, not withstanding, there is no place on this earth that is a NO MAN’S LAND. It is better to invest the fruits of adventure back home and not seek to make a home of a host land.

    Even Igbo soldiers in the Nigeria army returned home after skirmishes in the barracks in which some of them were killed by Northern soldiers. The mood in the East was for a breakaway from Nigeria. Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon, Head of State of Nigeria at 32, found this a daunting challenge. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of thought in the West, made the remarkable Statement: “If by commission or omission the East is allowed to go, the West will also follow.” The situation called for mediation and reconciliation. Ghana threw its doors open to Nigeria. All the regions met in Aburi, Ghana, Where Lt. Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, military governor of the Eastern regions, as opposed to federation, and Lt. Col. Gowon agreed. Lt. Col. Gowon rejected the agreement on his return to Nigeria, when the implications were explained to him. As was to be expected, Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu stuck to his guns, stating ON ABURI WE STAND. Chief Awolowo was to head for the East for a reconciliation meeting. It was at this meeting that the East said Chief Awolowo promised the East that, in the event of war between the East and the North, the West would fight in the side of the East.

     

    The West

    This thinking dominates the thinking of the average man and woman in the East today, and explains why the East persists in its traditional opposition to anything originating from the West, however good or beneficial to the East, and why the East would wish the West dismantled and its star city, Lagos, regarded as a no man’s land.

    Yet Chief Awolowo, in post-war speeches and in the books, have denied making  such a promise at the meeting with Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu. A tape of the meeting recovered by Federal troops in Enugu following the fall of the capital city, and reviewed by the Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Gen. Gowon (as he later became) found no such promise. Even Odumegwu Ojukwu after his return from exile did not insist such a promise was made.

    The gap in this Eastern thinking and reality has led scholars to conclude that a promise of support from the West for secession by the East must have been invented by pro-seccession and pro-war intelligentia in the East to galvanise the population for a war of seccession.

    Incapacitation of the West

    The bitterness in the East over the West fighting alongside the North during the Biafra War takes no account of how the co-alition Federal government of the East (NCNC) and the North (NPC) emasculated the West in the civil service and the Armed forces, excused the Mid-West region (later called Bendel State, now Edo and Delta State) from the West as a part of that emasculation, encourage break up of the Action Group (AG), government party in the West, and sent the leader of the region, Chief Awolowo, to 10 years imprisonment on charges that he plotted to overthrow the NPC/NCNC Federal government. Reasonable people should have asked: how would Chief Awolowo have done this when his Yoruba kinsmen were little present in the Army under the said emasculation? An evidence of the emasculation presents itself in the story of Brigadier Ogundipe. After the killing of Maj. Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo, who was the Head of State of Nigeria, in the counter coup of July 1966, Brig. Ogundipe was the most senior Nigerian Army officer around. But when he commanded a northern private, the latter declined to obey until the head received instruction from a northern officer. Brig. Ogundipe had no Yoruba soldiers to enforce his order. So, like Igbo officers, he took refuge… in a naval ship commanded by a fellow Yoruba, who took him to England. With this kind of scenario, how did the East expect the West to fight a war. In any case, northerners controlled all the army barracks which rank up the West.

    In Lagos, there were Myong Barracks, Abalti Barracks, Bonny Camp, Doddan Barracks, Ojoo Cantonement and Ikeja Cantonement. There were army garrisons in Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode and other towns. In any case, the Yoruba are guided by the wisdom of the proverb of the elders that “ti owo omode ko ba ba ida, kii bere iku to pa baba re”, that means until he has firmly gripped the handle of the sword, a child doesn’t seek vengeance against the killers of his father.

    In the East at the time, Lt. Col. Banjo, a Yoruba, was in the custody of Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu. Lt. Col. Banjo was one of the four officers who staged the first coup in January 1966. They handed over to Gen. Ironsi when the coup failed. Banjo and Ifeajuna were released by Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu to work with him. When it would appear the West was not forth coming in striking a military blow, Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu decided on an invasion of Lagos from across the Niger through Benin. Banjo and Ifeajuna objected. He had them executed. Biafran troops from Onitsha crossed to Asaba and seized Bendel State which they renamed Republic of Benin.

    From Benin, they moved towards Lagos but were stopped at Ore by troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Muritala Muhammed. Had Biafran troops succeeded, it was possible a Republic of Oduduwa would have been declared. But many people in the West doubt this intention.

    Why, they wonder, did Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu not make the East the theatre of war by invading the North through the East-North border. Why force a war on the defenceless West? In any case, what were the justifications for the air bombings of a supposedly friendly or neutral Lagos?

  • Not yet Uhuru

    Not yet Uhuru

    Say oh Lord! The Sovereign of all dominions! You bestow power to whomever You wish and withdraw power from whomever You wish; You exalt whomever You wish and abase whomever you wish; In Your Hand lies all that is GOOD. You embed the night into the day and the day into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. You grant sustenance to whomever you wish beyond reckoning” Q. 3: 26-27

    Life is like a horse that surrenders itself to humans for riding. If it surrenders itself to you today do not be reckless in riding it. You may become the horse for life to ride on tomorrow. Nights are pregnant. They invariably give birth to wonders during the days. All pleasant or unpleasant events found in the records of history were conceived in the night. The belly of nights is a mystery that cannot be easily explained through the successes or failures of human dreams.

    Man is a mere spectator watching the environmental drama going on around him in the theatre of life. He only reacts to that drama randomly as it affects his immediate interest. The main actor in that drama is the phenomenon called destiny. And the only antidote for the poison that destiny may sometimes constitute in the life of man is to be firmly clad in the armour of faith.

     

    Rein of power

    In history, great empires and nations have reputation for rising to the peak of their glory at a time. They are also known for falling unexpectedly to the abyss of life’s dungeon at another time when they might have reached the elasticity limit of their power wielding. And as it is with nations so it is with rulers. In this, what obtained in the past still obtains in the present. This confirms that humans are like flakes of history they rise today and fall tomorrow according to the dictates of momentary tempest.

    Nigeria is fortunate as a nation to be endowed with large-hearted men and women who take it as a duty to further enhance that rare fortune.

    “The occurrences of life, as you can see them, change from time to time like weather. A person gladdened today may be saddened tomorrow”. In that circumstance, how much a man is able to cope with the harshness of life largely depends on the treatment he gave clemency when the latter was at his disposal. Yet the world surges ahead without looking back at actions or reactions that dot the various circumstances of life. Thus, within the twinkling of an eye, the Almighty Allah may change many things in human life to the amazement of man.

     

    Heroes and Villains

    Among the rare, large-hearted men with whom Nigeria is endowed today are two principal personalities (President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and President-elect Muhammadu Buhari) in the recently concluded presidential election. The one is gallant enough in vanquishness to concede defeat while the other is magnanimous enough in victory to embrace his political rival. Thus, with their large hearts, the great duo has saved Nigeria of a hitherto impending calamity that would have afflicted the country and probably spelt her final doom.

    That election has thrown up some heroes with historic fame just as it has exposed some villains with indelible notoriety. One of the great heroes of this time is Prof Attahiru Muhammadu Jega who served as the chief umpire (Chairman) of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the historic election. His comportment and display of maturity, civility and experience was a saving grace against the truncation of the democratic process at very delicate stage of the presidential election.

    The chief villain in this case is the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sulaiman Abba, whose viciously avowed partisanship throughout the 2015 electoral process has further dented the image of the police. Posterity will take care of the heroes and the villains.

    Efficacy of prayer

    At a time in Nigeria when the elasticity of hardship unleashed by the country’s leadership was fast approaching its elasticity limit, we, Nigerian Muslims and Christians raised up our hands in prayer to the Almighty Allah to grant us a leader who would truly and sincerely serve the nation rather than someone who would turn himself into a master to be served by the nation. This was in response to Allah’s covenant with mankind when He said: “And when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad (SAW) about me, tell them that I am very close to them and I answer the prayer of any well intentioned seeker if he/she seeks my favour. Let such seekers trust in my ability and willingness to accept prayers so that they may be guided aright”. Q. 2: 186

    Based on the above, we raised up our hand in prayer thus:

    “Oh Allah! Give us a leader who will know that the greatest wealth of a nation is her human resources and develop such wealth for the future of the Nigeria. Imbue us with a leader who will know the meaning of education and therefore give our schools and Universities priority in government policies. Appoint a leader for us who will who will be a good example for the country, abiding by the law and not choosing which of the court rulings to obey. We pray for a leader who will hold security of lives and property sacrosanct, not one who will be indifferent when his personal interest is not affected.

     

    Give us a leader

    Give us a leader who will sincerely stand by his oath of office and not one who will rule by his wills and caprices on the basis of religious bias and ethnic sentiment to the detriment of the constitution.

    We pray for a leader who will not crudely and greedily discard certain provisions of the constitution in a desperate bid to rule us despotically forever. We pray for a leader who will see himself as a servant rather than a master of the nation and therefore address the citizenry with due respect in decency and gentleman’s language.

    We pray for a leader who will be just enough to spread the privileges and opportunities in the land across board without treating non-members of his political party or religious belief or ethnic clan as enemies to be kept at bay. We pray for a leader who will not destroy the legitimacy of his leadership and start running away from his own shadow at the tail end of his tenure. And, finally, we pray for a leader who will be large-hearted enough to be gallant in defeat and magnanimous in victory; not one who will be so vindictive as to play tribes against tribes, unions against unions and Muslims against Christians.

    We believe that the leadership qualities for which we are hereby praying are those that embody civilisation in all its ramifications. And, we are confident that You will be merciful with us in accepting this prayer. Here we are at your door oh! Allah, raising up our hands to You in prayer and placing our final hope on You without an iota of doubt. Kindly appoint for us a leader who will be loved and admired by all and not one whose natural trade in stock is hidden hatred and open indignation. To You we pray oh! Allah and from You alone we expect mercy.

     

    Oliver asks for more

    With the latest political development in Nigeria today, we believe fervently that our prayer has been divinely accepted. And we thank the Almighty Allah for this wonderful gesture. But like Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens’ novel, we shall ask for more as follows:

    Oh Allah! Please, guide our leaders aright and endow them with wisdom knowledge and equanimity with which to sail our shaky ship through the stormy sea of life. Enrich our leaders in conscience and in faith that they may know the evil effect of greed and distance themselves from it. Imbue them with the spirit of truthfulness, contentment, meekness and justice that the strong and the weak alike may free from becoming victims of injustice through tribalism, nepotism and religious discrimination. Give those leaders the courage with which to fight corruption and deal with corrupt elements in the land. We pray to You oh Allah and we believe that like the earlier prayer You will also accept this. Otherwise, it can be concluded that the current situation of Nigeria, despite the pleasant change experienced so far, there is yet no reason to claim Uhuru.

     

    MUSWEN’s gratitude messages

    Meanwhile, the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) has issued a press release to show gratitude to Allah for accepting the series of prayers led by that apex body of the Southwest Muslim organisations. It went as follows:

    “If you are grateful, We (Allah) will surely grant you more (of Our favours) …”(Q 14:7). Coming from Allah (to Whom be all praise), those words of guidance and assurance should serve as Reminder and Incentive for the whole of our nation.

    The Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) cannot afford to wait any longer before congratulating the entire Nigerian nation on Allah’s quick and full response to our prayers for FREE, FAIR, CREDIBLE and PEACEFUL elections. Despite all pessimism arising from our past experiences, Allah has granted us a presidential election that had all the features of FREEDOM, FAIRNESS and CREDIBILITY as well as those of PEACE. The eyes of the whole world were on us and, by the special grace of Allah, we did not disappoint them.

    We congratulate the humble winner, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari on his resilience and his humility even in victory. But we also congratulate Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on being such an honourable loser. His statesmanlike gestures in conceding victory to Major-General Buhari even before the announcement of the last results, and in appealing to his own supporters to accept the verdict of the people deserve acknowledgement and kudos.

    Obviously, the commendable role of Prof Attahiru Jega and his team at INEC in bringing about this success is by no means a mean one. Allah has used them as worthy instruments to bring about free, fair and credible elections the first set of which has been concluded. We congratulate them too.

    However, it is the people of Nigeria who are the ultimate victors, by the special grace of Allah. They are the ones who have thus been saved from potential danger the kind of which usually characterised past elections.

    We appeal to the people of this nation to reflect profoundly so that we may see the success of the elections as a mark of Allah’s favour and His merciful response to our prayers. It is only then that we would truly deserve further favours from Allah as promised by Him in the above statement. And obviously, we do need further grace from Him, particularly for the success of the elections of April 11.

    So, as MUSWEN congratulates the nation on this great event in the history of our country, we urge all Nigerians to continue with our prayers with the trust that Allah will respond favourably as He did to our previous prayers.

    Prof Dawud O. S. Noibi OBE, FISN, FIAC

    Executive Secretary, MUSWEN

  • Renaming Nigeria

    Renaming Nigeria

    Man is history after his demise. Therefore, endeavour to be a pleasant history for others to read after you might have left the stage”.

    By an Arab poet

     

    Preamble

    Man is both a product and a producer of history. He lives by history and leaves history behind as his legacy at the time of his departure from this ephemeral world. This confirms the fact that man and history are like Siamese twins. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. The synergy between the two makes them look like a peer of scissors in which one blade cannot effectively function without the other.

    This is a period in Nigeria when recalling history is a necessity. How did Nigeria come into being as a country and as a name? Is this name fitting and appropriate for the country that bears it? Can the name be changed and can changing it make any reasonable difference? These are some of the questions that ‘The Message’ seeks to answer today.

     

    Accident of history

    On January 8, 1897, an article appeared in Financial Times which suggested a name for the vast land around river Niger which had then been colonised by the Royal Niger Company on behalf of the British Empire. The suggested name was Nigeria and the author of the article was one Miss Flora Shaw, a 45-year-old journalist. She was then the colonial editor of Financial Times as well as the writer of a weekly column named ‘The Colony’ in that newspaper.

    In coining the name Nigeria, Flora Shaw logically took many facts into consideration. One: the area in question had no specific name by which it could be called other than a protectorate of the ‘Royal Niger Company’. Two: She considered an earlier suggested name ‘Central Sudan’ as aberrational since that name already belonged to an area around the Nile River occupied by a population of Black Africans now called Sudan. She equally considered the name ‘Slave Coast’ which the colonialists had attempted to give to this area as derogatory and finally settled for ‘Nigeria’, which she coined from ‘Niger Area’.

    Born at 2, Dundas Terrace, Woolwich, England on December 19, 1852, Miss Louisa Shaw (fourth of her parent’s fourteen children) was a novelist and frontline, versatile female journalist who gained fame through her pungent analyses of African colonial economy. She was later to become ‘The Honourable Dame Flora Lugard, the wife of Frederick John Deatry Lugard of Abinger who colonised and amalgamated the southern and northern parts of what came to be known as Nigeria in 1914.

    Flora was six years older than Frederick who was born in India on January 22, 1858. The two historic personalities married in 1902 and lived together without children for the rest of their lives.

    Four historical facts are manifest here. First: the name Nigeria had come into existence far away in England long before the country that now bears that name became a country.

    Second: the name was coined five years before Flora Shaw married Frederick Lugard. Therefore, contrary to the general erroneous belief that it was Mrs. Lugard who named our country Nigeria, Flora was Miss Shaw and not Mrs. Lugard when she coined the name.

    Third: it can be said that Nigeria came into existence through the efforts of a bachelor and a spinster who later became a couple.

    Fourth: by sheer coincidence, Nigeria’s second First Lady, Flora Azikiwe, the wife of Nigeria’s first President, shared the same first name with the wife of Lugard: FLORA.

     

    Lord Fredrick Lugard

    Baron Frederick Lugard was a military adventurer and an ardent administrator who played a major part in Britain’s colonial history between 1888 and 1945, serving in East Africa, West Africa, and Hong Kong. His name is particularly associated with Nigeria, where he served as High Commissioner (1900–06) as well as Governor and Governor-General (1912–19). He was knighted in 1901 and raised to the peerage in 1928.

    As at the time of Lugard’s incursion, most of the vast region of over 300,000 square miles (800,000 square km) was still unoccupied and even unexplored by Europeans. In the southern areas were mostly animists and in the northern areas were multitudes of Muslims with city-states and large walled cities.

    Lugard’s intention was to merge these two people with diverse cultures and spiritual inclinations and manage them as a single people in a single nation. Within three years of his expedition, he had established a British control of the large territory by diplomacy or by swift use of his meager force.

    Although in hastening to take the major states of Kano and Sokoto he engaged the hands of his more cautious home government, only two serious local revolts marred the widespread acceptance and cooperation that he obtained. His policy was to support the native states and chieftainships, their laws and their courts, forbidding slave raiding and severe punishments as well as exercising control centrally through the native rulers.

     

    Historic marriage

    After his marriage to Flora Shaw in 1902 and the latter could not stand the Nigerian climate, Lugard felt obliged to leave Africa and accept a junior position of the governorship of Hong Kong which he held from 1907 to 1912. It was like stepping down as president to accept that of a governor. Only a very few Africans would accept such.

    But the bushwhacker from Africa achieved a surprising degree of success and, on his own initiative, founded the University of Hong Kong. Thereafter, Lugard and his wife joined the southern and northern parts of Nigeria in an historic marriage that is yet to prove union right.

     

    How far so far?

    Ever since the exit of the British colonialists in 1960, Nigeria has remained a country without focus, despite the enormous resources at her disposal. In less than half a decade after independence, the crude hands of African inexperience began to show vividly in her administration as ethnic and religious flavours were added to her republican ethos. Then came the insuperable mountain of corruption that kept overwhelming the citizenry and drowning all hopes till today. Then, a military incursion was introduced with sweet tongue to right the wrong but which eventually turned forlorn.

    Now, after 100 years of absurdity called merger, Nigeria continues to wallow hopelessly in a paroxysm of despair as the last four years became unprecedented in the country’s history of corruption. Today, the language is no longer mere corruption but corruption with unbridled impunity.

    As if in a nightmare, we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where figure 16 is said to be higher than figure 19 and theft is officially defined and treated as to outside the framework corruption. Billions of dollars are said to be missing from our treasury just as our foreign reserves are daily being depleted even as ministers and other governmental cronies are living like princes and princesses under an unquestionable emperor.

    Now, Nigeria is at a crossroads over where to go from here. Like Laurent Gbagbo’s tenure in Cote d’Ivoire Nigeria is anxiously waiting for a period of uncertainty but fervently praying that such period never comes. Typical of African greedy leaders, we now have a situation at hand where ‘the monarch must not be deposed democracy or no democracy. The rule of the game is either ethnicity or religion.

    And to prevent the deposition of the monarch, the military must be mobilised against the ‘bloody armless civilians’ for the purpose of election. Thus, election has become a war that must be fought and won with massive arsenal by the government in power no matter whose ox is gored. Where are we going from here?

     

    Democratic tenure

    Four years is a long period in a democratic tenure of a nation. It is long enough to lay a solid foundation for a nation. It is long enough to build a formidable edifice that can be inherited from generation to generation. If 16 years of democracy cannot do any of these in Nigeria can one century do any? If a journey of one year cannot take a traveller anywhere who says 10 years will take him anywhere?

    As an OPEC country, we have abundant oil wealth but we must import refined fuel for domestic consumption. We have a massive army of unemployed youths and we cannot provide electricity to enable them to be self-employed. Yet, we are insisting that we must continue like this even as billions of dollars are being stolen daily. Where are we going from here?

     

    Obama’s counsel

    In his direct presidential address to Nigerian populace on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, the American President Barrack Obama said of tomorrow’s elections and the subsequent ones as follows: “Hello.  Today, I want to speak directly to you—the people of Nigeria.

    Nigeria is a great nation and you can be proud of the progress you’ve made.  Together, you won your independence, emerged from military rule, and strengthened democratic institutions.  You’ve strived to overcome division and to turn Nigeria’s diversity into a source of strength.  You’ve worked hard to improve the lives of your families and to build the largest economy in Africa.

    Now you have a historic opportunity to help write the next chapter of Nigeria’s progress—by voting in the upcoming elections.  For elections to be credible, they must be free, fair and peaceful.  All Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear.

    So I call on all leaders and candidates to make it clear to their supporters that violence has no place in democratic elections—and that they will not incite, support or engage in any kind of violence—before, during, or after the votes are counted.

    I call on all Nigerians to peacefully express your views and to reject the voices of those who call for violence.  And when elections are free and fair, it is the responsibility of all citizens to help keep the peace, no matter who wins.

    Successful elections and democratic progress will help Nigeria meet the urgent challenges you face today.  Boko Haram—a brutal terrorist group that kills innocent men, women and children—must be stopped.

    Hundreds of kidnapped children deserve to be returned to their families. Nigerians who have been forced to flee deserve to return to their homes.  Boko Haram wants to destroy Nigeria and all that you have worked to build.  By casting your ballot, you can help secure your nation’s progress.

    I’m told that there is a saying in your country: “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”. Today, I urge all Nigerians—from all religions, all ethnic groups, and all regions—to come together and keep Nigeria one.  And in this task of advancing the security, prosperity, and human rights of all Nigerians, you will continue to have a friend and partner in the United States of America”.

    Ordinarily, such a cross-Atlantic presidential speech would have been unnecessary if we had learnt from the examples of great African leaders such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Sam Njoma of Namibia, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Ahmadu Ahidjo of Cameroon.

    But since the uncheckable greed in us will not allow us to learn from good examples we must to listen to an American Obama who talks to Nigerians rather than talk with Nigerians. Whatever name we now give Nigeria, positive or negative, we shall not relent in saying: God save Nigeria!

  • Breaking the Muslim chord of unity

    Breaking the Muslim chord of unity

    When a matter of trust is kept in the custody of an untrustworthy person, expect the end of time”.

    Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

     

    Preamble

    If anything is called Satan, and that diabolical entity truly lives in the midst of humans, Nigeria must be his abode. As a mysterious entity, Satan may not be physically perceived but his shadow is evidently vivid in the evil machination generally called politics. And the elements in the society often called politicians are his undeniable agents.

    Politics is like infectious leprosy. Any contact it makes with human fingers will surely render those fingers ineffective with contagious implication. The evil of politics in any given society is like the slough of a snake which has no life of its own but scares the people around with its empty appearance.

    Since her independence in 1960, Nigeria has hardly experienced any calamity that did not emanated from politics. Thus, like the Island of Ithaca of yore in Greek mythology, Nigeria harbours a sphinx today that poses unanswerable question to her citizens. And any individual or group that fails to answer the question correctly may be instantly devoured by the mythological sphinx.

     

    Paradoxical Odyssey

    Today, Nigeria has become a paradoxical odyssey on which the only ferrying vessel is politics. And the driving engine of that vessel is money which seems to be the main determinant of individuals’ Hell or Heaven on earth. We are now in an era when the source of money no longer matters as much as money itself. What really matters today is not how decent you are as a person but how rich no matter the source.

    In a nutshell, a rich rogue is by far more relevant and more important in Nigerian society than a poor gentleman. As a matter of fact, there is no gentlemanliness without money. The size of your purse determines the status by which you are recognised in the society. And that is the new definition of pedigree.

    It is not surprising therefore that men and women of letters as well as high caliber professionals are now struggling to become servants to mere nonentities who by hook or crook have stuck the opportunity to occupy public positions in a clueless government and thereby control a treasury. The world has changed so much that the same money which used to serve man in the past is now the master that man serves with relish. In the face of money, conscience has become a lost paradise that no one seeks again. And with its disappearance, human dignity has also become an old wife’s tale. Whither Nigeria’s tomorrow in this?

    In the wilderness of avarice and aggrandisement imposed by money, Nigerians of today have lost the culture of dignity highly cherished by Nigerians of yesterday and there is no sense of nostalgia for it.

    In solo and chorus, the song of this era is ‘STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE’.

    When a hopeful country finds itself in this kind of situation she quickly resorts to the last bastion for solution. The last bastion in the case of Nigeria is religion which is supposed to be the first estate of the realm. But can there be religion without clerics? Where are the clerics in Nigeria? That is the indication that Nigeria, as of now, is a hopeless country.

     

    Sailors without compass

    The so-called clerics in both Islam and Christianity in Nigeria today are like sailors on a strenuous voyage who have lost the compass that guides  them through the waves of water while their congregational passengers continue to pray fervently for safety on a turbulent ocean.

    To them (the clerics) religion is no longer the path to salvation but a means to material wealth even as they have relegated morality to the background.

    Here is a country where clerics do not only preach material prosperity but also live in stupendous affluence in the midst of their wretched congregations. Here is a country in which clerics are either known for trafficking in drugs or gun running or patronage contract for supply of ammunition to the government as in the notorious episode of a recent South Africa mission that ended up in a fiasco or even for taking bribe from the government as in the case of alleged N7 billion that caused wild brouhaha in Nigeria recently. Here is a country where neither conscience nor morality has a role to play in religion any more as the so-called clerics have banished both and thus become not just accomplices of political rogues but also their dogs.

     

    Meetings without agenda

    As a result of self-denigration by these clerics, the government has turned them into a willing tool in the game of political machinations to the benefit of the political gladiators. And in their desperate search for votes in recent times, the politicians have consistently chased the clerics around with money knowing very well that nothing remains of religion these days in Nigeria beyond money for which the so-called clerics will fall anybody.

    Just this week, a stone was deliberately thrown into the serene brook of Nigeria’s Southwest Muslims by politicians with the intention of causing implacable ripples in that brook. A clandestine meeting of the League of Imams and Alfas was initiated by the presidency and scheduled to take place in Akure, Ondo State last Monday. The agenda of the meeting was not disclosed but its timeliness and manner of mobilisation clearly suggested its undisclosed purpose.

    A similar clandestine meeting had earlier been arranged for Lagos penultimate week by the same Presidency which was botched by the region’s Muslim leadership for fear of being politically blackmailed.

    Yet another clandestine meeting was initiated also by the Presidency this time with the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) which was scheduled for the Presidential Villa in Abuja. This is yet to take place as the arrow head and chief mobiliser for the meeting is finding a brick wall on the assignment. The Nigerian media has widely reported these clandestine moves by the government with the headline that read thus: ‘Meeting: Yoruba Muslims Snub Presidency Again’.

     

    Media report

    Here is how the media reported the incident: “Yoruba Muslim clerical leaders under the aegis of the League of Imams and Alfas have snubbed the Presidency over an invitation to them for a meeting that was apparently meant to lure them into endorsing the joint ticket of a particular party (Jonathan/Sambo ticket) in the forthcoming presidential election.

    The meeting in which Vice-President Muhammad Namadi Sambo was to represent his boss was earlier scheduled for last Monday in Akure, Ondo State but had to be shifted to last Wednesday in the same state for lack of adequate mobilisation.

    Learning from the experience of their Christian counterparts who were recently enmeshed in a controversial N7 billion scandal that has caused a crack among Nigerian Christians, the leadership of the League of Imams and Alfas in the six Southwest states plus Edo and Delta decided not to be involved in an embarrassing meeting that could cause a crack in the rank of the Muslim Ummah.

    A similar meeting earlier arranged with Yoruba Muslim leaders and fixed for Lagos by the Presidency recently was equally aborted for the same reason cited by the League of Imams and Alfas just a day before it was to come up.

    Our reporter’s investigation revealed that the leaders of the League contacted one another and resolved not to be part of any meeting with any political group or individuals at this time to maintain their neutrality as worthy clerics.

    The Akure meeting said to be coordinated by the Chief Imam of Owo, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe, who incidentally, is the current Secretary-General of the league. He (Aladesawe) was said to be passionately involved in mobilising his colleagues in the league might for the meeting which ended up in a fiasco.

    Besides Imam Aladesawe, some other Imams who flouted the decision of the League and attended the meeting for a seeming personal gain were the Chief Imam of Osogbo, Alhaji Rabiu Animasaun and the Chief Imam of Ekiti, Alhaji Bello Keulere. The few others who claimed to have attended the meeting as Imams were quite peripheral and not prominent at all in the league.

    From Ibadan, Lagos, Markaz, Agege, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Osogbo, Ilaro, Ado Ekiti, and Auchi as well as other major cities of the region, the common question on the lips of the Imams was “why now?

    Following the failure of the Lagos meeting, the Presidency, in a bid to break the ranks of the Yoruba Muslim Ummah, embarked on an alternative meeting with the League of Imams and Alfas and another with the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN).

    The President of MSSN, Alhaji Sirajudeen Abdul Azeez, who volunteered to mobilise the leaders of the group for the meeting with the Presidency, despite a resolution at a recent leadership meeting in Akure, Ondo State, not to attend any such controversial meeting could be said to be acting on his own.

    Reflecting on the repercussion of such controversial action, the leadership of MSSN resolved to disown any such meeting at this politically volatile period and warned that nobody should use the name of the group for any selfish political gain.

    No particular date has been fixed for the Presidency’s purported meeting with the leadership of MSSN but inside information suggested that is supposed meeting would come up at the Presidential Villa in Abuja before the Presidential election on March 28, 2015″.

     

    MUSWEN’s Communiqué

    Meanwhile, the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) has called on the Muslims in the region to once again pray congregationally for peace in Nigeria as the 2015 general elections approach.

    The apex body of all Muslim organisations in the region made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of a three- day retreat that was held between 13th and 15th of March, 2015 at the Wale Babalakin Estate in Gbongan, Osun State. The communiqué was signed by its executive secretary, Prof. Dawud Noibi.

    MUSWEN specifically slated Sunday, March 22, 2015 for the prescribed prayers that are expected to hold at the Eid praying grounds or local Mosques in every town within the region.

    Quoting the Prophetic Hadith that classifies prayers is the weapon of the Muslims the Organisation implored the Muslims not to relent in offering prayers especially at this precarious time of the nation’s history.

    MUSWEN however decried the lukewarm attitude of the Southwest Muslims to the institution of Zakah, saying the consequences of such attitude are very detrimental to the propagation and progress of Islam in the region.

    Leaders of prominent Muslim Organisations from Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun states, who participated in the retreat said the necessity for prayers by Muslims was most apt this given the prevailing cloudy political atmosphere in the horizon.

    The Apex Islamic body in the Southwest also stressed the need for unity of Muslims in line with the mission and vision of the Organisation stressing that without unity there could be no progress.

    In another vein, the Organisation frowned at the lopsidedness in the federal appointments to political offices from the Zone, saying such appointments clearly put the Southwest Muslims at a great disadvantage and paved the way for unnecessary suspicion.

    It therefore called for equity, fairness and justice by the Federal government in its treatment for the people of the zone irrespective of their religious inclinations.

    Prominent among the Muslim personalities who attended the retreat were Alhaji Najeem Awodele, Professor Is-haq  Oloyede, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Justice Abdul Fatah Adeyinka, a retired Chief Judge of Lagos State, Alhaja Latifah Okunnu, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, the Iya Adini of Yorubaland and Dr. Jubril Oyekan.

    Delegates at the retreat also paid a courtesy call on Justice Bola Babalakin (Rtd), the former acting President of MUSWEN in his Gbongan country home.

    Members also prayed for the repose of some of its late founders such as Prof. Aliu Fafunwa, (Pioneer President), Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Arisekola- Alao, Dr AbduLateef Adegbite and Sheikh Sadrudeen Biobaku.

    The theme of the retreat was ‘MUSWEN: SUSTAINING THE MOMENTUM’.

  • Miscellany of issues

    Miscellany of issues

    Conscience is an open wound”; only the truth can heal it”. Usman Dan Fodio, 1754-1817

    Preamble

    With a neighbour like Chad no country should look for a foe. For now, this West African former colony of France may be seen as doing a marvelous job by confronting Boko Haram insurgents on behalf of Nigeria. But very soon the motive will come to the open. Here is a country that was very much involved in the complicity of Boko Haram conundrum as well as a secret deal with Nigerian government on the puzzling insecurity in the north-eastern Nigeria. She is suspected to be the main haven of for that deadly insurgency group. Sometime late last year, President Goodluck Jonathan, in company of  former Bornu State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, paid a secret visit to the Chadian President Idris Deby. No official reason was disclosed for that visit but the general impression was that it had to do with the ongoing insurgency in the areas of Nigeria that border Chad.

    The visit was first denied but when a photograph of the trio at the Chadian Presidential Palace was displayed on the internet, some Nigerian government cronies began to rationalise it as a way of curbing insurgency. Thereafter, Chad, in league with Mali and Niger Republic as well as some few other West African countries came up with the idea of rescuing Nigeria from the crushing claw of Boko Haram.

    And, right now, the mission is on course.

     

    Neighbourhood assistance

    It is jolly well for a country to assist its neighbour to overcome any difficulty like that of Boko Haram insurgency. But in international diplomacy such adventure is never engaged for free. The common diplomatic cliché that ‘there is no free tea in London’ succinctly attests to that. What is the cost of Chad’s military engagement in Nigeria? What are the terms of that engagement? And what does Nigeria stand to benefit from such venture in the short and long runs?

    As citizens, Nigerians need to know the details of the secret pact that brought Chadian soldiers to Nigerian war arena. It can be recalled that a similar secret pact between Nigerian and Cameroonian governments in the late 1960s eventually led to the Bakassi episode that pitched both countries against each other at the International Court of Justice at a colossal loss for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the generation that engendered that pact had left the stage. Now, the zeal with which Chad is executing the Boko Haram war in the north-eastern Nigeria is suspicious and cannot be without a cost. What is the cost?

     

    Hall of shame

    A couple of months ago, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan muted a new political idea that has come to enrich the country’s political vocabulary. He called it ‘HALL OF SHAME’, which he promised to establish as a ‘harem’ for public office holders who might be caught in criminal acts as well as other notorious Nigerians who are qualified for official blacklisting.

    If implemented, the idea which is a direct opposite of the well known prestigious ‘HALL OF FAME’ will qualify President Jonathan for a whole chapter in the famous ‘Guinness Book of Records’. We have heard of Hall of Fame into which great men and women of honour are admitted in many countries. But typical of Nigeria where figure 16 is officially acknowledged to be greater than figure 19 and colour white is often recognised and called colour black, something new must come up if only as a way of demonising political opponents. After all, Nigerian government is never in want of words when it comes to preventing real or imaginary enemies from shinning.

     

    Qualifications for entry

    Ordinarily, ‘HALL OF SHAME’ should be a welcome idea if it does not entail a sinister motive. But where will its inmates come from when most of the people who are presumably qualified to be its inmates have been granted official pardon? We can recall the case of a governor who once travelled out of the country as a man but had to come back in the wrapper of a woman to escape the dragnet of law. He was alleged to have illegally trafficked in foreign currency which was part of his loot in government. He was tried and sentenced to a prison term while he remained a wanted man in some foreign countries, including Britain.

    But now, having been granted a questionable state pardon by Nigeria’s Federal Government, he is walking the streets a free citizen qualified to hold another public office.

    We also remember the case of a notable political gladiator who was sentenced to two years in prison for looting the public treasury via port related office. He was also tried and sentenced to a prison term which he served with hard labour as criminal that he was. But after serving his term, a jamboree reception was organised for him, which some government officials attended with fanfare. He is now a frontline campaigner for his political party in anticipation of a questionable state pardon and another public office.

    There was also the case of a woman minister who illegally spent hundreds of millions of naira to purchase three bulletproof cars for herself. She was forced by public opinion to resign from office with ignominy. She is now being shamelessly prompted by a political party to become a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Her fellow female minister still in government also dipped her hands into the national treasury and spent about N10 billion  on chartered aircraft for the private use of her family even as she is neck deep in controversial $20 billion allegedly missing. Now, she remains a frontline minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria despite the public outcry and call for official sanction against her.

    There are still hundreds of such men and women of notoriety in Nigerian government who believe that neither rain nor sunshine can touch them as long as they hide under a political ‘umbrella’. If all these are not inmates in the proposed ‘Hall of Shame’, where will the inmates come from? Food for thought!

     

    Democracy as war

    Nigerians are in fear. This is not much as a result of insurgency that has consumed thousands of lives but due to the political restiveness in the land which shows no sign of abating. There is democracy in every country that claims to be a republic. And that is the only hope that seems to bring succour to citizens who cherish freedom and justice. But the case of Nigeria is different. In this so-called giant of Africa governance seems to be a matter of matter of cash and carry rather than that of enhancing the well-being of the citizens. Here is a country where everything is shrouded in secrecy and the operating officers behave like cultists.

    Is it not strange that for almost one and a half decade of democracy in the country’s Fourth Republic Nigerians are yet to know how much of their revenue is paid as salaries and allowances to those governing them? Until recently when the social media revealed the details of the salaries and allowances of our legislators it was a stringent secret not to be discussed in public. Most people have wondered why politics is so hot in Nigeria. The secrecy surrounding the salaries and allowances of those in government is a confirmation of the extent of corruption entrenchment in Nigeria.

     

    In the cooler

    People had been kept on the speculation ladder for years in respect of the salaries of our legislators, our judicial staff as well as that of the men and women in the executive arm of government. By such secrecy, the government has left a big room for rumours. Thus, if the government refuses to disclose the salaries and allowances of official functionaries, the unofficial sources on the internet will surely become legitimate. With the amazing revelations on the internet the reason becomes clear why politicians are ready to kill or be killed to become legislators or ministers. The only difference is that of the judiciary which consists mostly of professionals who are less conspicuous. Below is the list of salaries and allowances of Nigerian senators and parliamentarians as quoted from The Economist through the Internet:

    Basic Salary (B.S) – N2 484 245.50

    Hardship Allowance (50 per cent of B.S) – N1 242 122.70

    Constituency Allowance (200 per cent of B.S) – N4 968 509.00

    Newspapers Allowance (50 per cent of B.S) – N1 242 122.70

    Wardrobe Allowance (25 per cent of B.S) – N621 061.37

    Recess Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) – N 248 424.55

    Accommodation (200 per cent of B.S) – N4 968 509.00

    Utilities (30 per cent of B.S) – N828 081.83

    Domestic Staff (70 per cent of B.S) – N1 863 184.12

    Entertainment (30 per cent of B.S) – N828 081.83

    Personal Assistants (25 per cent of B.S) – N621 061.12

    Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75 per cent of B.S) – N1 863 184.12

    Leave Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) – N248 424.55

    Severance Gratuity (300 per cent of B.S) – N7 452 736.50

    Car Allowance (400 per cent of B.S) – N 9 936 982.00

    Total monthly salary = N29 479 749.00 ($181 974.00)

    Total annual salary = N29 479 749.00 x 12

    = N353 756 988.00 ($2 183 685.00)

    •Source: The Economist

     

    Other countries

    As at Friday, December 5, 2014 when the above figures were published the rate of exchange was $1=N162. Compared to those figures in Nigeria, please, read below the list of legislators’ pay in some other countries of the world:

    Britain $105 400; United States $174 000; France $85 900; South Africa $104 000; Kenya $74 500; Saudi Arabia $64 000; Brazil $157 600; Ghana $46 500; Indonesia $65 800; Thailand  $43 800; India $11 200; Italy $182 000; Bangladesh $4,000; Israel $114 800; Hong Kong $130 700; Japan $149 700; Singapore $154 000; Canada $154 000; New Zealand $112 500; Germany $119 500; Ireland  $120 400; Pakistan $3 500; Malaysia $25 300; Sweden $99 300; Sri Lanka $5 100; Spain  $43 900; Norway$138 000.

    • The reported figures above are annual payment

     

    Comment

    Given the above jumbo pay to our legislators compared to the minimum national wage of N18000, it will take an average Nigerian worker 1,638 years to earn the annual salary of a Nigerian Senator. And we live in the same country and purchase in the same markets.

    Nigeria is a country that was born in aberration and lives in aberration. And from all indications, she may end up in aberration.

    Going through the above quoted figures thoroughly once again, an intelligent person will discover that something is conspicuously missing: CONSCIENCE! Wherever it is missing, a nation or society is said to be lost. Who will find Nigeria?

  • Afenifere: Generals without troops

    Afenifere: Generals without troops

    There are good men in every land; the tree of life has many branches and roots; let not the topmost twig presume to think that it alone has sprung from the mother earth; we did not choose our races by ourselves; Jews, Muslims, Christians, all alike are men; let me hope I have found in you a man.”

    Jonathan Von Goethe

     

    Proverbial Adage

    Leaders are not those who ascribe leadership to themselves by whim and thus become unworthy impostors. Real leaders are those who are acknowledged as leaders by their followers and are willingly assisted by those followers to pilot the affairs of the people.

    A Yoruba proverbial adage which informs that “all sorts of knives surface on a day of an elephant’s death” may not be far from the truth after all. Politics in Nigeria today is like that proverbial elephant.

    It throws up all hidden agenda and exposes all clandestine moves by some dubious characters in the society. In other words, the satanic cloak under which some obscure, chameleonic politicians masquerade in a bid to benefit from Nigeria’s new political paradigm called ‘stomach infrastructure’ seems to have become an implacable calamity that devours the vestiges of peace in the land.

    The Yoruba Muslims of the current generation who were never privileged to witness the political and religious trauma to which their parents were subjected in the 1950s and 1960s in the old Western region, when Yoruba Muslims had not fully imbibed Western literacy, can still feel the impact of that trauma today.  They may however take advantage of today’s atrocious spectacle to view the religious cloaks of those years and use it to unmask some dubious characters who then masqueraded under those evil cloaks.

     

    The sun and the brook

    An Arab poet once observed thus in one of his poetic stanza: “…..It does not bother the sun that some blind people deny the existence of its rays just as it does not bother a brook that some herd boycotts its water”.

    If the above quotation is thoroughly analysed by men of literary prowess it would be discovered that the blind men who deny the existence of the sun rays are the ones to lose out in their animosity.

    Their refusal to recognise the rays of the sun can neither diminish the grandeur of the sun nor enable their blind eyes to see. Yet, they will suffer severely under the burning heat of the sun rays.

    Likewise, boycotting the brook water by some herd can never affect the brook in any way. If anything, it is the herd which boycotts the brook water that may end up dying of thirst.

     

    The parable of owl

    The similitude of the above analogy is like that of a self-adulated group in Yoruba land called AFENIFERE which, like an owl, cannot freely interact with credible, well-meaning Yoruba men and women on issues of substance. Like the owl which, by its own design, is essentially a bird of the night that cannot comfortably associate with other birds in the day, AFENIFERE is now a pariah group that can only arrogate leadership to itself on the pages of some pariah newspapers in its search for relevance. If we may ask, at what forum did the well known and globally acknowledged Yoruba leaders of thought appoint the so-called AFENIFERE to serve as the megaphone of the Yoruba tribe?

    Even if the group was ever appointed the megaphone for the Yoruba tribe does that confer leadership on it? When did Yoruba leadership become so cheap that any pariah group can rise from an obscure corner of the region to start claiming it on the pages of newspapers? The theory of stomach infrastructure which just crept into Nigeria’s political thesaurus has surely brought a new dimension to the cultural value in Yoruba land.

    For people who know the owl very wellwith its queer operation in the forest, the antics of the AFENIFERE political demagogues cannot be strange. Here are people of yesteryear who had spent their time and the time of their children as well as that of their grandchildren and are yet seeking to spend the time of their great grand children to their own benefits alone. At a time when vision rather than improvidence is the order of the day it is strange that this group’s deleterious political activities are still geared towards the search for any relevance even where relevance for them has become impossible.

    But what else can be said of a group that once claimed to be progressive but now turns round to become ultra-conservative?

     

    Living in the dark

    With some dead woods and half baked elements in Yoruba land as its members today, AFENIFERE is currently arrogating Yoruba leadership to itself and claiming to be the megaphone of that Nigerian major tribe as it once did unchallenged in the remote past. That group which still lives in the dark days of the primitive past seems to be too visionless to coin a contemporary name for itself other than that of its progenitor in the early 1950s. Thus, in its failure to keep pace with the modern reality, the group still believes that the situation of the 1950s is the same as that of today an indication that it has long outlived its time and its relevance.

    The group (AFENIFERE) was recently reported in the media to have told a particular presidential candidate in the forth coming general elections that Yoruba people had decided to give him their block voting. That report has not been denied. And that was not the first time the group has fraudulently made unsolicited claims on behalf of Yoruba people.

    Sometime early last year, the same group hijacked the Southwest presidential nomination to the national confab and put 15 of its members (all non-Muslims) on the list of that nomination to the exclusion of the entire Muslims in the region whose numerical strength cannot be underestimated.

    When, in reaction to that clandestine act, the Muslim Ummah of the South West of Nigeria (MUSWEN) wrote a memo to the National confab to put the records straight, the group quickly but deceptively wrote a letter to MUSWEN inviting the latter to a meeting of mutual understanding. But the meeting never came up as AFENIFERE began to play its usual chameleonic hide and seek game that is still on course till this moment.

     

    Evidence of ignorance

    What these people do not and may not know in a foreseeable future is that with the coming of Internet and social media the definition of literacy has tremendously changed from mere reading and writing of tales and fables to that of modern browsing and messaging through the Internet in the 21st century. And without such standard of literacy this time around any person who still claims to be literate is half-dead. However, it takes only the seeing to recognise the light and make the best use of it. Therefore, it cannot be a surprise that the members of this group are still snoring in their primordial bed while expecting others to be off like them.

    Even in Yoruba land where AFENIFERE is supposed to be based the group merely operates in a certain obscure corner of the region only to randomly roar out to impress its ignorant backers in Abuja through the pages of some obscure newspapers. But since the dance of a dragon fly on the surface of stream water can only be in mandatory rhythm of the drum beat beneath the water no one should expect the owl to come home to roost.

    Judged by the public utterances and conducts of its members, AFENIFERE has become a ridiculous paradox between yesterday’s fictitious dream and today’s disappointing nightmare. Had the members of the so-called AFENIFERE group known how much they have become a laughable stock in Nigeria today they would have probably reclined into their obsolete cloak and stopped behaving like the owl among birds.

    But how can they know when they can hardly realise that the trend of literacy which once gave them the opportunity to be relevant in the region has since changed when most of them cannot put their fingers on the computer let alone prying into the modern world of literacy through the Internet.

     

    Yoruba Muslims in the 21st Century

    To this so-called AFENIFERE group, the usefulness of the Muslim multitudes in the Western region does not transcend voting and clapping for the region’s ‘lotus eaters’ which it (AFENIFERE) typifies. Despite the glaring difference between the Muslims of the 1950s who were treated like slaves and those of the 21st century who are highly sophisticated in essence and substance the groups still pretends not to take note hence the ignorant wish to maintain the anachronistic status quo.

     

    Warning

    Let it be known to this self-elevated group that the antics of the yore with which the so-called AFENIFERE outsmarted and relegated Yoruba Muslims to the background in the past have gone with the irritating particles of the past. And any further attempt to want to continue such primitive antics to the detriment of Yoruba Muslims will be adequately resisted in letters and in law. We have paid our due in terms of tolerance, patience and endurance. Elasticity has its limit.

    No group of sheer opportunists that still ignorantly believes in the deception gimmicks of the past will be allowed anymore to ride roughshod over the Muslims of the Southwest. Enough is enough. Though the unofficial policy of ‘stomach infrastructure’ of this era seems to have taken away the once valued wisdom associated with old age there can be no substitution of light for darkness now.

     

    Conclusion

    Gone are the days when wisdom was genuinely attributed to old age because old age then personified experience. Today, from the experience of technology and its effect on the modern society, the human wisdom of the bicycle age seems to have been rendered anachronistic by that of the internet age. Like the rise of a modern building from the debris of the old, the Yoruba Muslims of this generation have come of age and can no longer be swept with the rubles of irrelevance into the refuse bin. We do not need a borrowed mouth to speak out when necessary and nobody has a right to speak for us without our mandate.

    As it takes two to tango it must also take a give-and-take relationship to ventilate a peaceful environment in a mufti-religious society. No group should assume any vain superiority over others and expect peace to thrive. To live side by side and cohabit in harmony, mutual respect must be in the front burner of our relationship.

  • Killed in cold blood

    Preamble

    This column, The Message’, will never be tired of quoting from a famous stanza of an Arab poet whose ingenuous poem has become a timeless axiom from which humanity continues to learn. For as long as the situation that warrants repeated quotation of that poem persists quoting the poem repeatedly will not abate. It goes thus: “Here is the period of life against which we had been admonished through the wisdom of Ubayyi Ibn Ka‘b and that of Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ud.

    Here is the time in life when truth becomes totally abhorrent while falsehood and rebellion are loftily upheld. Should this period linger and nothing changes in it, the world may (soon) reach a stage where the bereaved will rather rejoice than grieve over the demise of a close relation and parents will rather grieve than rejoice over the birth of a new baby”.

    Nigeria is a country where the lives of the citizens are not worth more than those of mere fouls that can be terminated anytime and anyhow by the so-called security agents especially the police.

    Examples of such brutal extrajudicial killings by Nigerian police abound. We can still recall the agonising case of Oko Oba seven of the early 1990s in which a septuagenarian grand pa and six of his grandchildren, including a corps member were ordered to face the wall inside their Oko Oba, Agege house and mowed down brutally like weeds in cold blood. Their bodies were then loaded into a police vehicle and driven to a bush where they were labeled as armed robbers and displayed through the media with local guns and charms as exhibits against them.

    After some years of court trial on the case, the fact surfaced that the innocent family was murdered extra-judicially, following a land dispute with another family in which some policemen were illegally hired to deal with the deceased family. And the police were eventually adjudged guilty and made to pay a chunk of money ransom.

    We also remember the 2006 Apo Six in which some Igbo motor spare parts dealers were whisked away from their homes to an obscure place in Abuja and gunned down in cold blood only to labeled armed robbers with some local guns and charms attached to their lifeless bodies as evidence of armed robbery. At the long end of the case it became evident that those dealers were innocent and the zealous policemen who killed them were said to be reprimanded.

    We also remember another case of Apo Nine about three years ago in which some innocent water vendors were murdered in cold blood while sleeping in a house in the area during the night. In this last dastardly act, the victims were labeled Boko Haram insurgents by the Department of  State Security  (DSS). And in the end, it was proved to be sheer extra-judicial killing. We are yet to hear the conclusion of the court case on that callous act. While the list of such heinous acts by Nigeria’s so-called security agents is too long to be exhausted here a new one has just come up again.

    Narration

    On Sunday, February, 15, 2015, the Kano State Police Command announced that its men killed two men believed to be Boko Haram kingpins. The deceased whose name was given as Ahmad Falaki was said to have attacked a police station in Kibiya LGA the preceding Saturday.

    According to the Command’s spokesman, Magaji Majia, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), the insurgents on motorcycles had attacked Kibiya police station at about 5.30pm on Saturday preceding the announcement day.

    He said: “On the spot, two of the sect members were killed and two others were arrested by the villagers. The remaining members ran towards Ningi Road that leads to Bauchi State.”

    ASP Majia announced the development with such zealousness that gave the impression of euphoria of victory and said that the remaining two insurgents were arrested by the villagers who handed them over to the police. Meanwhile, as usual, the fact of the matter abundantly contradicted the claim by the police even as highly valuable lives have been illegally terminated.

    Petition by the family

    In the emerging facts subsequently, it became known that one of the two  persons killed and alleged to be members of Boko Haram insurgents was Ahmad Mustapha Falaki, a renowned Professor of Agronomy and lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). He was on an official trip to some rural areas in some states when he unfortunately fell into the web of some murderers operating in the police uniform.

    It took the Vice-Chancellor of ABU to reach out to the Inspector-General of Police before the latter who must have known Prof Falaki personally could order a full investigation into the gory murder.

    Meanwhile, what really transpired was contained in a petition addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) written by the murdered professor’s family and signed by his brother, Aminu Mustapha Daneji. The petition went thus:

    “On Saturday February 14, 2015, at the village of Fala, Tudun Wada Local Government Area, Kano State, at about 18.30hrs, Prof Ahmad Mustapha Falaki of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, was attacked by police personnel on the pretext that he was a suspected member of Boko Haram. He was a renowned Professor of Agronomy and substantive Director of the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) of the ABU, and was the former Country Director of the SASAKAWA Project in Nigeria. He is survived by three wives and 18 children.

    “[Professor Falaki] was in the company of his driver, Lawal Ahmad and younger brother, Abbas Mustapha Falaki [on the trip leading to his death]. The account given by the police was that they [the police] had killed one Boko Haram member and injured two others who were in their custody. This was broadcasted over the radio. Another version the police offered was that the deceased and his fellow travellers were lynched by a mob in the village.

    Testimony by the survivors

    “Based upon the testimony of the accounts of the survivors of the attack and other eye witnesses to the events of that day, we stoutly dispute both versions and briefly state our understanding of what transpired that fateful evening as follows:

    “At about 16.00hrs, when Prof Falaki realised that their Hilux Van had had a slightly deflated tyre, he asked his driver to park by the roadside and replace it… Just then, some unknown persons, nine in number and riding three motorcycles, descended upon them and demanded for the vehicle’s key. The deceased immediately directed his driver to hand over the key. The nine riders sped away with the vehicle, abandoning a motorcycle on the scene.

    “Using his mobile phone, the deceased made frantic attempts to notify his transport officer at ABU to have the vehicle electronically tracked. Meanwhile, members of the public from the village were milling around and sympathising with the deceased and his party on this apparent armed robbery. At this point, the professor notified his family members by phone on their predicament. For close to two hours, the deceased was busy making contacts with ABU staff as well as friends in Bura village and Kano, and mingling with the villagers. In fact, they even observed prayers at the scene.

     Role of the police

    “Suddenly thereafter, some persons who identified themselves as policemen appeared on the scene, allegedly in pursuit of Boko Haram members who had earlier laid siege to the Police Post in Kibiya town of Kano State. Prof Falaki identified himself to them, presenting them with his ABU Identity Card and his Driving Licence. The driver also identified himself with his Driving Licence.

    “For some inexplicable reasons, the policemen ignored the identification insisting that for all they cared the deceased professor and his entourage were members of Boko Haram who had escaped from Kibiya. They then began to strike the professor and his fellows with machetes, clubs and gun butts. The deceased was struck such fatal blows that he died instantly at the scene. Abbas, the brother, sustained deep cuts on his forehead, face and body. Out of fear, the driver attempted to flee but was chased and apprehended, and also beaten up terribly.

    “The body of the Prof Falaki was transported to Murtala Muhammed Hospital in Kano by the police. The driver and Abbas were chained and detained at SARS in the premises of the State Police Command, Bompai, Kano. Therefore, the police account of ‘lynching’ is not true at all.

    The deceased was not lynched by the villagers of Fala. In fact, the deceased had mingled with the sympathetic Fala villagers for over two hours before the arrival of the police. He had even prayed there.

    Demand by the family

    “In view of the foregoing, we make the following demands:

    1.That this suspected act of extra-judicial killing be thoroughly investigated and any person who had a hand in it be appropriately dealt with, as provided by law;

    2.That the report of the investigation be made available to the members of the family of the deceased and his employers at A.B.U, Zaria;

    3.That pending the conclusion of the investigation, we request for retraction of the statement by the police that the deceased and his entourage are members of Boko Haram, and the retraction must be given the widest publicity possible.

    4. “For the avoidance of any doubt, we reserve our legal rights to pursue other remedies in other appropriate fora including the enforcement of their rights, as guaranteed by law and the Nigerian constitution”.

    Logical questions

    The questions here are many. For instance why did the police conclude without any investigation that the professor’s identity card was fake?

    If somebody was brought to the police station on mere suspicion by some people should the police judge such a person without charging him to court? This was the same situation that sparked off the monstrous calamity now called Boko Haram in 2009 when Muhammad Yusuf, the original founder of the Islamic group that later metamorphosed into Boko Haram was shot by the police in his cell even while handcuffed.

    Observation

    The idea of riding roughshod on the law of the land with impunity by the police has been very dangerous for Nigeria and it is getting more dangerous by the day. A recent episode of the National Assembly where law makers were tear gassed and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sulaiman Abba, refused to recognise the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the claim that the latter had decamped to another political party is still fresh.

    Conclusion

    Extra-judicial killings by the police cannot be strange to anybody who lives in Nigeria and has been following the mode of operation of those we call security men in this country. After all, most Nigerians could not have forgotten so soon what happened to the family of Mallam Ibrahim Al-Zakizaki just a few months ago in Zaria where three of his grown up children (all of them university students) were gunned down by the so-called security men within two days. The allegation, as usual, was spurious. It should be recalled that the incident that led to wide spread revolution in the Arab world recently began in Tunisia where the reckless misconduct of that country’s police force made President Zainul Abidin to flee the country and never return. To think that the same cannot happen in Nigeria is to create an abode for oneself in a fool’s paradise. A police that calls themselves the friend of the people must not behave like the enemy of the people.

    Adieu! Professor Falaki

    The late 66-year-old Prof Falaki began his teaching career in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in 1975. He was reputed to be one of Africa’s leading agriculturists. Prof Falaki, according to his profile on the ABU website, was a brilliant, versatile academic of rare breed from Africa. In the course of research, he visited 75 countries in world’s five continents. The gentle, amiable and affable professor had over 85 published academic works to his credit and he was seen as a friend of all as well as model for upcoming Nigerian youths who are akin to intellectualism. He was a National Amir of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria when that organisation was virile.

    Falaki’s friends and associates described the murdered don as a “jolly good fellow who ran an open door policy to all.” In a sane country, the likes of Professor Falaki would rather be adorned than killed like a fowl. But that is Nigeria for you. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in eternal bliss and grant his family the needed fortitude to bear the indelible agony. Inna Lillah wa inna ilayhi raji’un!

  • From Moscow to Siberia

    From Moscow to Siberia

    Say oh Lord! The Sovereigof all dominions! You bestow power to whoever You wish and withdraw power from whoever You wish; You exalt whoever You wish and abase whoever you wish; In Your Hand lies all that is GOOD. You embed the night in the day and embed the day in the night; You bring forth the living from the dead as You bring forth the dead from the living. You grant sustenance to whoever you wish beyond reckoning” Q. 3: 26-27

     

    Nights are pregnant. They invariably give birth to wonders during the days. All pleasant or sad events found in the records of history are often conceived in the night. The belly of nights is a mystery that cannot be easily unraveled   through the success or failure of human dreams. Man is a mere spectator watching the environmental drama going on in the theatre of life. He only reacts to the drama randomly as it affects his interest. The main actor in that drama is the phenomenon called destiny.

     

    Rein of Power

    In history, great empires and nations have reputation for rising to the pinnacle of their glory at a time. They also have the notoriety of falling unexpectedly to the abyss of life’s dungeon at another time when they might have reached the elasticity limit of their power wielding. And as it is with nations so it is with individual rulers.

    In this, what obtained in the past still obtains in the present. And this confirms that humans are like flakes of history they rise today and fall tomorrow according to the dictates of momentary tempest. Yet the world surges ahead without looking back at them.

    That is the situation which an Arab poet once observed very closely and put succinctly in a famous couplet that has become an axiom through the centuries. This is how he put it:

    “Those are the situations of life as you can witness them; Whoever is gladdened by a situation today must be ready to be saddened by many other situations tomorrow”

    There seems to be a striking similarity between the events and developments that precipitated the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) and those prevailing in Nigeria today. In terms of culture, tradition, growth and development, the two countries may not have much in common but they significantly seem to share a common destiny that pilots their affairs separately. Like the defunct Soviet Union, Nigeria was forcefully fused together as a country in 1914 and subjected to the hegemony of the British colonial empire.

    That was three years before the USSR came into existence as an amalgamated country in 1917.

    Last year, Nigeria was said to be 100 years old in theory. But in practice, she remains a teething country crawling like a tortoise towards an unstable boat with which she aims to sail across the rough sea of life.

     

    The Soviet Experience

    For the Soviet Union, the 74 years between 1917 and 1991 can be described as the most turbulent in the 20th century history. That period symbolised the nearest signal towards the end of human world.

    It was an era of blind ambition for mutual destruction between the capitalist West and the communist East of Europe through unbridled competition for unwarranted armament. It was an era that kept the existing historians of that time as busy as the bees in an active apiary.

    In those years, the competition between capitalism which later came to be championed by the US and communism as championed by the USSR was so fierce that the entire world was incessantly restive. It took only the grace of Allah to keep our world peacefully propelled till date.

    That frightening ideological Cold War however took a dramatic turn in December 1991 when the world watched helplessly as the awesomely mighty Soviet Union suddenly crumbled like a pack of cards and amazingly disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. According to analysts, “Its collapse was hailed by the West as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and an evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had swung ceaselessly like a pendulum over the two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world’s political situation thereby leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military realignments all over the globe”.

    What led to that monumental historical event deserves a good study by students of international affairs but that is of less concern here than its political implications for contemporary Nigeria. Going the memory lane, one may recall that the Soviet Union was built on approximately the same territory as that of the Old Russian Empire that it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that brought the USSR into existence, the newly-formed government developed a Socialist philosophy with gradual and eventual transition to Communism. The philosophy was intended to overcome ethnic differences and create one monolithic state based on a centralised economic and political system. However, the iron rein of power led the government to transform USSR into a totalitarian state in which the Communist leadership had total control.

     

    The Gorbachev Debacle

    By the time the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, rose to power in 1985, the country had slipped into a situation of severe stagnation, with deep economic and political problems which required a ‘surgical operation’ to effectively confront and overcome. Recognising this situation on assumption of power, Gorbachev introduced a two-tier policy of reform. One was glasnost which meant freedom of speech; the other was perestroika meaning economic reform. And based on these two policies, Gorbachev released many political prisoners in February 1987 and called for the blank pages of Soviet history to be filled. He also renounced the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’ saying the Kremlin would no longer intervene militarily in the Eastern Bloc’s internal affairs. This was  interpreted to mean that the states in the Eastern bloc would henceforth become economically self-sufficient.

    Glasnost was the cornerstone of alleviating Cold War tension aimed at drastically reducing Soviet military spending and creating an international reputation of a liberal leadership for Gorbachev.

    In doing these, what Gorbachev did not realise was that by granting complete freedom of expression to the people, he was unwittingly removing the carpet of governance from his own feet. This meant that he inadvertently awakened in the people the insatiable economic yearnings and political emotions that had been bottled up for decades which could now become powerful enough to burst the bubble.

    Unfortunately, Gorbachev’s policy of economic reform (perestroika) did not bring the immediate results which he had envisage and publicly predicted. The Soviet people, having become aggressively impatient, seized the opportunity of their newly granted freedom of speech to criticise Gorbachev for his failure to improve the country’s economy.

    Thus, Gorbachev’s miscalculation led to un-foretold collapse of the Soviet Union at a time when some dozens of countries around the world were looking up to USSR for rescue from the claw of Western imperialism. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union with the intention of transforming the economy and easing Cold War tension because he realised that the USSR could no longer compete with the United States in the Cold War arms race as its economy had become significantly dwindled and far weaker than that of its rival.

    While surging ahead with his ‘Reformation Agenda’ of glasnost and perestroika coupled with liberalisation of the Soviet military might, Gorbachev did not realise that what actually sustained communism for a long time in Eastern Europe was the Red Army which became neutralised.

    He strongly believed that with the implementation of his two newly formulated policies the USSR could allow the Warsaw Pact states to operate autonomously without the threat of Soviet military intervention even as those countries remained allies to the Soviet Union.

     

     Brezhnev Doctrine

    Hitherto, Gorbachev’s predecessor, Leonid Brezhnev’s policy towards the Eastern European Bloc, known as the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine,’ had forbidden any democratisation or economic integration with the West amongst Warsaw Pact states. And before Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin had also maintained the Eastern Bloc as Soviet’s satellite states through the threat of force. However brutal those previous policies looked, they were actually the cornerstone of the stability of the Soviet’s Eastern Blocs.  The main reason why the Eastern Europe remained communist and under the Soviet’s sphere of influence, was the use of the Red Army as an instrument of threat.

    By September 1989 when Hungary opened its borders with Austria thereby paving way for East Germans to cross into West Germany through Austria it became obvious that communism was approaching its end. About eleven thousand East Germans thus fled the communist rule which indicated that a vivid anti-communist feeling had begun as people took to the streets to show their resentment. This culminated in the collapse of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November, 1989 an incident that eventually led to the unification of Germany and the collapse of communism.

    The West German population enjoyed a much higher living standard than that of the East, and therefore East Germany was willing to join West German governance. The East German thinking allowed the then Chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, to reunify Germany under Western conditions. This meant a reunified Germany would join NATO and the European Community. Gorbachev planned to allow cooperation between Europe’s capitalist and communist camps, but did not anticipate East Germany to join the capitalist camp outright.

    That historic unification prompted the then President George H.W. Bush of the US to openly proclaim, during a November 1990 speech in Paris, that “the Cold War was over”. Thus, like Gorbachev, Nigeria’s Jonathan allowed a misconception of power by caving in to the parochial opinions of some political and religious rats at the corridor of his power to turn him into an ethnic President and a sectional religious captain both of which have now seriously become his political albatross.

     

     Doctrine of Necessity

    The refusal of many African rulers to learn from the foregoing episodes led to their political downfall and descent into permanent oblivion. Such leaders had taken the will of the people for granted so much that they never thought of any possible downfall for themselves.

    Going the memory lane, we can still recall the political tsunami that swept away such powerful African leaders such as Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, Jean Bede Bokasa of Central Africa Republic, Siad Bare of Somalia, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor of Liberia, Laurent Gbagbo of Cote D’Ivoire, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Zainul Abidin of Tunisia and lately Blaise Campaore of Burkina Fasso as well as Saddam Hussein of Iraq. All of these came to power by what was called doctrine of necessity and they all went by that same doctrine.

     

    Conclusion

    For Nigerian leaders, there are many lessons to learn not only from the rise and fall of the Soviet Union as a country but also from the incidents of the listed past leaders of African States. Those episodes cannot be dismissed with the wave of the hand. It must be remembered that what brought President Jonathan to power in 2009 was the same doctrine of necessity which came up at the instance of the sickness and eventual death of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua. And that doctrine is not a mere hired usher. It is rather a political phenomenon that opens and closes the door of power according to necessity. If the door of power is pleasant at its entry point it must not be bitter to exit from it when the time comes.

    When the Bolshevik regime led by Vladimir Lenin zoomed to power like an hurricane in 1917 hardly was it envisaged that it would end the way it did in 1991. Like the defunct Soviet Union, Nigeria is now toying with the tail of a tiger through what is manifestly becoming desperation with impunity. After an unwinding economic and political rigmarole which unprecedentedly precipitated insecurity in the land, the government seems to be reluctant to conduct a general election that had been scheduled over one year ago. The shoddy manner in which that announcement became a policy and the lopsidedness that characterized

    the selection of participants in it as well as the dictatorial tendency it entailed have since polluted the environment with a stench of suspicion.

    Besides ethnic and religious tendencies, two major factors are particularly militating against any doctrine of ‘incumbency must win’ around this time. One is the current fragility of the country as engendered by corruption and insecurity. The other is the will of the people to collectively pilot their affairs through the use of their ballot papers. The one is as sensitive as the other. In such a situation, to continue to pretend not to see or feel the presence of a surging furnace through a pervading fog is to be determined to sit on a keg of gunpowder without minding its consequences. Whoever rides on the back of a lion must think of how to alight from it. A Nigerian Gorbachev at this precarious time may be too costly for our country. God save Nigeria. If other leaders have failed in such a venture let no one think that he/she can be an exception. Tsunami knows neither ethnicity nor religion and sheer desperado with impunity can never be a panacea. Those who find no comfort in Moscow should try a sojourn in Siberia.

    •NB: This article is republished here today based on popular demand by readers.

  • An umpire’s role

    An umpire’s role

    Here is the period of life against which we had been warned through the wisdom of Ubayyi Bn Ka‘b and that of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud. Here is the time in life when truth becomes totally abhorrent while falsehood and mischief are loftily upheld. Should this period linger and nothing changes in it, the world may (soon) reach a stage where the bereaved will rather rejoice than grieve over the demise of a close relation and parents will rather grieve than rejoice over the birth of a new baby”.

    By an Arab poet

     

    Preamble

    Read the above quotation once again and compare it with the current social, political and economic trends in Nigeria. In a situation like this where suicide through insurgency is in vogue for teenagers; where throwing away of newly born babies by young, unmarried women is taken for civilisation; where kidnapping has become a lucrative business and oil theft is now a unique profession; where rebellion and terrorism are the order of the day, one can hardly see anything other than the signals of the end of time.

    For majority of Nigerians today, life is so much upside down that the children of textile magnates now walk the streets in rags even as the children of meat sellers of yore now eat bones. The highly valued norms of our society that once constituted the pinnacle of glory in the life of Nigerians have sadly become objects of ridicule while vagabondism and unbridled brigandage have replaced those norms. Like prodigal children of history, Nigerians now live in a land of unrealisable dream and peregrinate aimlessly in the desert of pauperism. And the compass with which to find the way to the Cape of Good Hope has been lost by those who are claiming to be the crew on our nation’s boat. Where are we going from here?

     

    Memorial Inscription

    Whenever I remember an inscription once placed, conspicuously, at the entrance of the University of Cordoba, in Spain, my heart bleeds. In the antiquity of that inscription is the summary of what the world should be as against what it is today. I first saw the inscription in 1985 when I accompanied the late Bashorun MKO Abiola to Spain where he delivered a lecture on ‘Islamic Economic System’. It read thus: “The world is held together by four formidable pillars: the wisdom of the learned, the justice of the great, the prayer of the righteous and the valour of the brave”. (University of Cordoba is the very first University ever established in the world. It was established by the Muslim Arabs in Spain in the seventh century CE).

    At the foundation of the four pillars mentioned above are two key words that link man directly to God. The two words are: TRUTH AND JUSTICE. Without those two abstract but ruling words, it would have been impossible for humanity to remain in peace and harmony.

    Perhaps no scholar in the contemporary world has given a more connotative definition to TRUTH than Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio did. In that axiomatic definition which The Guardian  of Nigeria has adopted for its official insignia, the great scholar described Truth as “an open wound which only the conscience can heal”. And, in Islam, JUSTICE is a corollary of TRUTH. Both are the armour with which two unique persons are fortified in the course of their responsibilities.

    The two persons are the umpire and the witness.

     

    Truth and Justice

    Uthman Dan Fodio’s definition of TRUTH was based on his understanding of Allah’s counsel for mankind thus: “Do not encapsulate truth in falsehood, nor hide the truth deliberately….” Q. 2: 42. And Prophet Muhammad (SAW) also admonished the Muslims thus: “Speak the truth even if it be against you”.

    Truth and Justice are like a pair of scissors. They work together inseparably. And, just as no scissors can function effectively with just one blade so can no building stand without a foundation. Truth is the foundation of Justice. Wherever the two are constantly found, all vices disappear into permanent oblivion.

    In Islam, nothing is more important than Truth and Justice. In 245 places in the Qur’an, Allah talks of the essence of Truth in the life of man with emphasis. Also, in 28 places, in the same Glorious Book, He guides mankind on Justice and frowns emphatically at injustice.

    That is why, (in a genuine Islamic society), no man can become an Imam, a Judge, an umpire or even be accepted as a witness unless there is evidence that he is truthful and just.

     

    Breach of Trust

    The first step towards the breach of trust can be found in a situation where a person who is involved in a case is the one to appoint the judge. This happens in various forms. For instance, injustice is expected to occur where the coach of a football team is responsible for assigning a referee to a match involving his team. A better example is a situation where a ruling party or a contestant in an election is the one to appoint the umpire in such election as it happens in Nigeria. With that alone, the basis of trust has been destroyed, especially if that umpire reports to the same person who appoints him. In such a situation, no amount of verbal assurances or persuasion can convince anybody. And any contest based on that situation is based on injustice.

     

    Down the memory lane

    Students of Arabic grammar should be able recall an episode during the golden era of Abbasid dynasty in Iraq. That was the time when Islamic knowledge flourished almost to its peak and Arabic grammar was taking its final formation. Two famous schools of Arabic language coexisted in Iraq at that time. One was in Basrah. The other was in Kuffah. They were headed by Sibawayh (a Persian) and Kisai (an Arab), respectively.

    The Basrah School specialised in syntax. The Kuffah School specialised in morphology. But both schools were in a fierce competition and none could be said to be superior to the other.

    However, some concerned scholars who wanted to establish the base of superiority between the two schools decided to put both to test. A grammatical question was raised. And the two leaders were invited to answer it analytically. Here is the question: “I have always thought that the hornet was more poisonous than the scorpion”. Two answers were provided for that question. One was “and it happens to be so”. The other was “and it is exactly so”. The examinees were expected to pick only one answer.

    What Sibawayh and Kisai were requested to do in answering the question was to analyse the full complement of any question they picked grammatically. Kisai chose the first answer while Sibawayh chose the second. The panel of judges was divided on the matter but the opinion of the leader of the panel prevailed. Kisai was thus declared the winner and Kuffah School was proclaimed superior.

    Disappointed that the judgment was partial in favour of his rival Sibawayh who was impeccably renowned, intellectually, did not return to his home base in Basrah. Rather, he migrated to a remote village where he spent the rest of his life in frustration and died miserably.

    It was many years after his death that the incident was revisited and Sibawayh was found to be correct while Kisai was wrong. But then, the die had been cast as the demised victor could not rejoice over his victory.

     

    Nepotism

    Going into why the first judgment was faulty, researchers discovered that the head of the first panel was Kisai’s cousin. And so, the judgment was deliberately given to reflect nepotism. Over 1,000 years after that episode, Nigeria staged a similar show in 1993 at a macro level. And it ended in a fiasco called the June 12 debacle. In the show, an MKO Abiola won the freest and fairest election ever held in this country but was denied victory and made to die miserably in prison.

    The result is the ongoing spectre casting a political spell on Nigeria and constituting a pendulum of uncertainty on the citizenry.

     

    Neutrality of an umpire

    Whoever is appointed an umpire or finds himself in such a position must bring his conscience to bear. He must not only be truthful, just, upright and conscientious, he must also see himself as being in the presence of the Almighty God in his open conduct and secret deeds. An umpire can be a judge in a court of law, an arbiter in a dispute, a referee in a boxing ring, a moderator in an election or a ruler of a nation. Each of these is expected by God and by man to be just in his arbitration, rule or dealings. As such, he must not just wear the garb of neutrality; he must also be vividly seen in that garb. It hoped that the INEC boss, Professor Attahiru Jega would read this article.

    As an umpire, pitching tent with an individual or a group against another in a contest can only amount to a breach of natural law, a betrayal of trust and a violation of justice all of which can incur the wrath of God. No man in the position of an umpire has ever betrayed the course of justice without paying dearly for it in the end.

    Where the chief executive officer of a country becomes the chief law breaker through deliberate falsehood, vicious treachery, audacious injustice, treasury looting, and playing of god-fatherism to illegality and gangsterism, it is only natural to expect repercussion in whatever form. A former one time Governor of Kaduna State, Group Captain Usman Jibrin (now of blessed memory) warned Nigerian Muslim leadership against injustice in 1994, at a meeting of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs held in Arewa House, Kaduna, and headed by the former Sultan, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki.

    When some Muslim elders present at that meeting, who were expected to uphold the truth, started to speak from both sides of their mouths on the June 12, 1993 election annulment, Group Captain Jibrin rose courageously to call a spade its name quoting the following verses of the Qur’an: “And guard against a calamity that may descend not only on evil perpetrators but also on their aides as well. And know that Allah’s punishment can be very severe.”

     

    Truth like gold

    Truth is like gold. It can be smelted and panel-beaten after taken through the furnace. But when it becomes an adorned ornament its beauty remains forever. The misfortune of history as a teacher is that people refuse to learn from its lessons. In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, greed is the very basis of injustice. Every action by the so called leaders is measured in terms of dollars and Euros accruing to their pockets from the national treasury. But Allah is patient. He allows unjust rulers and political demagogues to pull a long rope before they end up hanging themselves with the same rope.

    Who can be a better judge of actions and intentions than Allah?

    Democracy is stable in the Western world because greed is not vivid in the culture of that world. The former American President, Bill Clinton, was living in a four bedroom bungalow before he assumed office in 1992. It was to that same bungalow that he returned in year 2000 after serving two terms of eight years as President of the world’s most powerful country. Can the same be said of Nigerian leaders after Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Murtala Muhammed? And, given this situation, in which Nigeria finds herself today, does one need to gaze through the crystal ball to know why the life span in Nigeria came down to 43 years in 2006 from 52 years that it was in 1999 even as winning the coming elections has been declared ‘a do or die affair’?

     

    INEC under watch

    Now, we are going through another acid test in the hands of justice.

    All eyes are on the umpire called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) even as the world waits to see the direction to which Nigeria will head through the general elections that start in a week’s time. Confidence has been eroded. Fears have been expressed in various quarters. Prayers have been offered by millions of Muslims and Christians in the country. It is our hope that INEC will live by the name of an umpire if for posterity sake. It is also our fervent prayer that the Almighty Allah will allay all fears in the land and rescue Nigerians from the crushing manacle with which Satan has fettered this country to its own stake. Amen.