Category: Femi Abbas

Dear Nigerian youths,

This letter being addressed to you through this medium (The Message)is not by design but by accident. Nigerians of my age and beyond (60+) never had an opportunity to be so addressed. Let it be known to you that except life and sound health, none of Allah’s bounties to man is as treasure-able as youthfulness. The definition of youth varies from place to place and from faith to faith. But generally, youthfulness spans from the age of puberty (at 16) to that of reasoning (at 40).

That is the second stage of human life as it follows that of adolescence. It can be said therefore that the juiciest part of human life is what people call youth. And whoever is blessed with it is blessed with all hopes of life.

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Youth is the spur of ambition and risk. It is the period of determination and resolution. It encourages attraction between genders and engenders association across boundaries. All efforts in human life that yield results in old age are made at youthful age. To an average youth anywhere in the world, the sky is never the limit. There are still many other firmaments beyond the sky. Youth is the stage of hard work. It is the stage of planning. It is the stage of vision and mission. That is why the youths of any nation are seen as the bone marrow of such a nation and the beacons of the future. And fortunately, youths invariably constitute majority of the existing people at any given time in any given nation.

Youths before now

In the years past when life had meaning and culture had value, youths were seen as the pride of the nation. They were the natural arrows fixed to the parental bows which were often shot through the iron gate of life. This was the case in Nigeria before and during the colonial era. And after the country’s independence, the youths constituted the glory and hope of their parents. Their role in the family encouraged the bearing of many children as they partnered their fathers in tilling the farm land and harvesting the crops. In short, they formed the live wire of their families.

When a father was said to be rich in those days, it was only because he had many children (male and female) who constituted the workforce of the family. The father’s pride then was not just the number of children he had but the volume of contribution made by those children to his wealth. Thus, children were considered as wealth.

In those days, youths were not just helpers of their parents on the farms or in   their trades they also assisted them in training the younger ones. Yet, they had the highest esteem for those parents in their utterances and in their conduct. The level of discipline in those days was such that boys were handled by their fathers while girls were mostly handled by their mothers. And the mothers dared not utter a word while any child was being subjected to discipline by the father. In a nutshell the upbringing of a child was the main key to societal serenity.

Change of trend

Today, Nigeria is a different story altogether. The youths of yesteryears have become the elders of today. They have left the chord of discipline that escorted them into the world of decency to the new train of indecency. And that chord is no longer suitable for either today or tomorrow as the trend has changed dramatically. The current trend began in January 1966 when some uncultured youths in military uniform, spurred by blind ambition, threw the value of age and experience to the winds and killed the then leaders of the Nigerian nation in what was called a military coup d’état. By that unfortunate act they plunged the nation into a precipitate civil war that rendered the youth wild and eroded the value of youthfulness.

For 13 years thereafter, the vagabonds remained in power using whim in place of experience. And when a brief civilian interlude came on board in 1979 for only four years, the vagabonds perched on the governance again and like hungry vultures, they fed on the carcass of democracy to their fill. Through that unbridled usurpation of power, the so-called Nigerian military weaned themselves from the ladle of integrity and destroyed whatever was left of their nomenclature.

Here we are today, looking desperately like a starved hawk and hanging restlessly in the balance like a gagged hyena. Virtually every Nigerian has forgotten the real cause of our calamity. The cry everywhere is now about the effect of that calamity on the nation. No one endeavours to look back and see where the downfall started from.

And without looking back, there can never be any correction as to how to rise again. A Yoruba adage states axiomatically that when a toddler falls down he looks forward (to see if there is any adult around to lift him up). But when an adult falls he looks backwards (to see the cause of his fall). That is the difference between experience and potential.

Banking on potential to govern a nation that requires experience as did the eaglet Nigerian military can never bring any meaningful result. Both potential and experience have their role and chance in any society. But neither can take the place of the other.

The difference

You the youths of today are different from those of yesteryears in many ways and the differences are clear. The youths of the past were very hardworking and dedicated. They served their parents diligently and stood by them in all circumstances. They sought their parents’ advice and learned from the latter’s experiences. You the youths of today are very lazy, slothful, time wasting and lackadaisical in your attitude to life even as you are served by your parents from infancy to old age. Yet you despise those parents and treat them with disdain like nonentities. You believe that those parents had worked on your behalves and that you are only in the world to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

The youths of the past were patient contended and full of respect for the elders. They were humble, obedient, always eager to know as they queued up to learn.  You the youths of today are very inpatient, greedily ambitious and you see yourselves as masters of knowledge when in actual fact you are slaves of ignorance. Unlike the youths of the past, you the youths of today are mostly empty-headed, very arrogant, highly materialistic and hastily avaricious.

You always want to start your lives from the peak of your parents’ achievements without asking about what those parents had gone through before reaching the peak.

You spend money lavishly without working for it and you never think of bearing any responsibility either in the homes or in the society. You are generally characterised by all the conducts that were classified as shame in the past. To you shame has its price. And as long as you can pay that price in coins by whatever means, you are important in your own estimation. Thus, shame, as far as you are concerned, is a vital aspect of culture which has no negative effect on your lifestyle. As a matter of fact you have taken shame for pride.

If a few youths of the past can be described as a bunch of problems for their society, due to their misbehaviour, majority of you today’s youths are the real cogs in the societal wheel of progress. To you, life has no meaning except it is heavily coded in money.

Your slogan that “long life is irrelevant in the absence of money” is a testimony to this assertion. That life span in Nigeria has dropped so drastically is due to your disappointing lifestyle which often creates hypertension for your parents and leads to their early death. Few parents talk of heirs nowadays because those of you who are supposed to be their heirs have long thrown away the toga of worthy heirs. In the past, mothers were not known for staying with their daughters in the latter’s matrimonial homes while leaving their husbands behind without care. This strange but new trend that has almost become a part of Nigerian culture arose because of the incompetence of today’s young women, even after many years of training, is questionable. Thus, despite the ubiquity of young men and women, there is scarcity of husbands and wives just as there is dirge of fathers and mothers.

Virtually everything that matters to you today’s youths is devoid of our known core value. By your measure, the value of life can be found only in the volume of naira.

Causes of generational change

Whenever there is cause to review the generational trend with the intention of righting the wrong, you the youths of today are often quick in pointing accusing fingers mischievously at the generations ahead of you saying they caused the debacle. But while pinching the back of the elders you often forget that sooner or later you may become elders whose back will be pinched by the youths who succeed your own generation. You have forgotten that most of the scientific discoveries and technological advancement of your age which lured you into roguery were not available for the past youths.

 There were no such things as hard drugs, cyber crimes, armed robbery, sophisticated fraud through manipulation of figures and forgery of signatures. There were no cases of rape, child trafficking, audacious prostitution and day light murder with impunity as are rampant among you today.

To you, all these crimes are either professions or callings in which you   actively engage. Thus, you do not believe in the existence of any demarcation between decency and indecency an indication that ‘family name’ which was highly valued in the past has no meaning to you. Unlike most youths of the past, you were sent to school but your goal was mere certificate rather than knowledge. And what you acquired in those schools in the name of education is hardly worth the paper on which your certificates are printed. For most of the years you spent in school, your preoccupation was either cultism or other frivolous activities that have no bearing with education. That is why most of you turn out to be unemployable University or Polytechnic graduates. A few of you who secured public employments have been discovered to be sheer misfits on those jobs as your competence remains questionable.

Implications

The implications of all these are many. While most of you are not quite useful to the present you are also not hopeful about the future.

There is hardly any major crime in Nigeria today that is not principally committed by you today’s youths all in the quest for money. It seems that the only language you understand is money and only those who can speak the language of money command your respect.

Many centuries before our time, an Arab poet intuitively came up with a sonnet fits perfectly into today’s Nigerian situation. He said: “Here is the era against which we had been warned through the admonitions of Ubayy Bn Ka’ab and that of Abdullah Bn Mas’ud; an era in which truth would be totally rejected while falsehood and insurgence would be glorified and held aloft; Should this era linger without any change (of attitude) neither cry at a funeral nor smile on the announcement of a new birth would be experienced”.

Which of the situation expressed in the above poem is not applicable to Nigeria today. What impact does religion have on the society again?

We used to know of motor spare parts. Today, spare parts are no more of motor but of human beings. And the most active merchants of this queer business are you the youths of today. When we talk of illegal oil bunkering, it is the business of the youths. When we talk of kidnapping, it is the business of today’s youths. When we talk of suicide bombing and terrorism, it is the business of today’s youths.

And all these are for money and nothing else. Where is Nigeria going from here?

Conclusion

The aim of this expository article is not to malign or denigrate the youths of today. All the children of this columnist are today’s youths who do not constitute a separate island. But preaching is like a mud surrounded by men and women in immaculate regalia. No one of them will be spared if the mud is splashed. As a onetime youth and now a father qualified to be called an elder, it is not expected of my type to start throwing stones while residing in a glass house. But truth knows no boundary. It cruises on like a surging train without minding whose ox is gored. To rekindle Nigeria’s old hope or create a new one for the future, the youths of today must return to the established values of the past. It was through those values that the tranquility of the world was solidly upheld. And it was through deviation from it that the world became as restive as it is today. If tranquility must return as wished by many, you the youths of today must change your loins. And that is the only atonement that the world requires to return to tranquility.

Preamble

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

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

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

Observance of Jum’at Prayer

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

Dignitaries

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

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

Grand Finale

At the Ground Finale held at the grandiose Ado Ekiti pavilion, a galaxy of traditional rulers, Imams and Alfas as well as representatives of various Islamic Organizations were present in their joyful mood, an indication that the long awaited unity of the South West Ummah had come at last. The Governor of the State, Ayodele Fayose was represented by his wife Mrs. Feyisara Fayose; Delegates of Hausa communities from various States and representatives of some Emirs who came from the North were also there to grace the occasion. The Chairman of the occasion was Alhaji Khamis Tunde Badmus of Osun State who was ably represented by Senator Adebayo Salami and made a very handsome monetary donation.

The President-General designate was presented to His Eminence, the Sultan and the public for turbanning by the Secretary-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe of Owo, Ondo State, who also gave the welcome address. The installation lecture was also delivered by Sheikh Habibullah Adam AbdullahAl-Ilory, the Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, who is well renowned for apt oration and electrifying delivery power. In the lecture, he spelt out duties and responsibilities of an Imam globally and locally. He emphasized the fact that the new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas would henceforth devote more time to his office than to his family and urged him to be well focused in carrying out his God-ordained duty. The President of MUSWEN, Chief (Dr.) Babalola also gave a goodwill message in which he emphasized the unity of the Ummah and   further reiterated Sheikh Al-Ilory’s lecture.

 Profile

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

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

Appointment as President-General

On June 4, 2015, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello was unanimously appointed as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West at a meeting of the League thereby becoming the 6th Imam to occupy that post. After his installation by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, the new President-General thanked everybody that played a role in his emergence and in making the occasion a success. He then promised to strengthen the Unity of the South-West Muslim Ummah on the one hand and that of the latter and the Northern Muslim Ummah on the other.

Acceptance Speech

In his acceptance speech, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello said: “At this juncture, I wish to say with absolute humility and spirit of devotion to Allah (SWT) that I accept this responsibility placed on my shoulders through my appointment as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the Southwest States. As you are all aware, the responsibility of the office is enormous. However, with the special grace and assistance of Allah (SWT) coupled with the cooperation of all and sundry, I hope to contribute my quota to move forward the entire Muslim Ummah in all States of my jurisdiction in particular and the Nation in general……”

He stated further thus: “Essentially, I would be ready to work with all Islamic Organizations, groups, sects and Associations to advance the frontiers of Islamic religion towards achieving greater peace, progress, unity and development in our midst and in the Nation at large. Good initiatives towards achieving peaceful co-existence and societal peace among various other faiths shall always be supported…….”

Chronology

Among his predecessors in that office were the late Chief Imam Muili Basunu of Ibadan, Oyo State; the late Chief Imam Armiyau Parakoyi of Ijebu Ode, Ogun State; Chief Imam Yayi Akorede of Akure, Ondo State, Chief Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe of Osogbo, Osun State and Chief Imam Aruna Shuara of Ibadan, Oyo State (who was not formally installed before his death in 2015).

History

The League of Imams and Alfas was established in 1964 at the instance of Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory of the great Institute of Arabic and Islamic Culture (MARKAZ), Agege who served as its second Secretary-General. At the inception of the League, Sheikh Adam Al-Ilory was nominated as President-General but he turned it down and opted for the post of Secretary-General. When the post was conceded to him, he chose to nominate Alhaji Jimoh Bamgbola of Abeokuta, Ogun State. The latter was both a scholar and a publisher.

Other personalities that later served as Secretary-General after Sheikh Adam Al-Ilory were Sheikh Sadrudin Biobaku of Gbagura, Abeokuta, Ogun State and the current Chief Imam Ahmad Aladesawe of Owo, Ondo State. With that arrangement, the league succeeded in creating a formidable unity forum for all Imams and Alfas in the South-West region.

Comment

The establishment of the League of Imams and Alfas of South West was a turning point in the unity of the South West Muslim Ummah especially in speaking with one voice on matters of common interest and in fighting for the rights of the Muslim clerics in the region. And with the formal establishment of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) in 2008, that unity became formidably strengthened as both bodies began to work together like a pair of scissors. Today, Yoruba Muslim clerics and their elite brothers and sisters are one and the same in brotherhood. Their spiritual union has created a strong synergy between the Northern and Southern Muslim Ummah in Nigeria.

Central Planning Committee

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

Local Organization Committee

Some members of the Local Organization Committee for the installation  included the following: Late Alhaji Barrister Yakubu O. Sanni (Chairman); His Excellency, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal, former Deputy Governor (Ekiti State) and Chairman, Finance Committee; Aare Sulaiman Afolabi Ogunlayi, Chairman Programme and Publicity Committee; Alhaji Jimoh Dayo Ajayi, Chairman, Security Committee; Alhaja Maryam Ogunlade, Chairman, Welfare and Entertainment Committee; Dr. Ibraheem Azees, Chairman, Medical Committee; Alhaji Ganiyu Ibrahim, Secretary, LOC and Alhaji Jamiu Babalola, Assistant Secretary, LOC as well as a host of others. As can be seen on that list, some members of the LOC were also members of the Central Planning Committee.  

The Role of MUSWEN

Since its inception in 2008, the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), being one of the two main pair organs of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in partnership with Jam’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) of the North has been playing a very vital role in solidifying the unity of the Muslim Ummah in South West Nigeria. For instance, the former Secretary-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, the late Sheikh Sadrudeen Biobaku was a member of the Board of Trustees of MUSWEN until his demise. Also, the late President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe was the Vice-President of MUSWEN. Thus, in furtherance of that unity, the newly installed President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello as well as the current Secretary-General of the League, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe have been officially invited to be members of the Central Working Committee of MUSWEN. Besides, a special powerful delegation from MUSWEN, led by its then President, the late Chief (Dr.) S. O. Babalola paid a courtesy visit to Ekiti Muslim Community in the residence of the then President-General designate of the League in August 2015 in the spirit of unity and cooperation. These and many other gestures are pointers to the fact that MUSWEN’s hand of fellowship is always out for the League to grab with love. Also, in October 2015, another MUSWEN team led by its Executive Secretary, Prof. D. O. S. Noibi paid a courtesy visit to Ondo Muslim Community and even observed the monthly meeting of that Community. If all these efforts by MUSWEN are adequately reciprocated and complimented by other stake holders in the South West, any tendency for deviation that could cause fanaticism and consequent terrorism may become easy to nip in the bud.    

Observation

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

Meanwhile, ‘The Message’ joined MUSWEN in rejoicing with both the League of Imams and Alfas and its  installed President-General by saying: CONGRATULATIONS!   

Monologue

Following the defence of the budget of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, (JAMB) by JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede recently, two questions fortuitously arose publicly, for which some Nigerians are eagerly seeking answers.    

One of those questions was about the secret of Professor Ishaq Oloyede’s unbeatable template. The other was about the tenure of his appointment as the Registrar of JAMB. The answers to both questions had tacitly been given by President Muhammad Buhari, in both oral and body language, albeit codedly, even before those questions were raised. Please, read how it happened below: 

Preamble

In appreciation of Professor Oloyede’s unique dynamism in laying a formidable foundation for tertiary education in Nigeria by clipping the wings of corruption, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred a well deserved National Productivity Order of Merit Award on him. That was on Thursday, November 28, 2019. The award was an additional golden feather to the glorious cap of this hardworking, honest and patriotic Nigerian citizen, popularly known as Nigeria’s ‘Model of Change’.

Antecedent

Long before he became the Registrar of JAMB, Oloyede had been a household name, not only in Nigeria or Africa, but also in the entire world, just like the University he was privileged to head, as Vice-Chancellor, over a decade ago.

Qualification

What qualified this onetime ‘Madrasah Boy’ for such a vertical position, in an horizontally cloudy country like Nigeria, is an interesting question for which most inquisitive minds may be earnestly seeking an appropriate answer. And, the answer is not far-fetched.

Binocular Focus

Unlike most Nigerian men of letters in the Ivory Tower, Professor Ishaq Oloyede wears a binocular spectacle with which he sees life from two opposing sides of the world. One side is the West and the other is the East. This became evident, not just in his management of the University of Ilorin within just one tenure of five years, but also in the humility, selflessness and patriotism with which he demonstrated civility par excellence in that office. Through his exemplary performance, Nigerians came to see, with evidence, the difference between a man of letters and that of knowledge. While the one sees life with the common eye, the other sees it with an uncommon vision.

In the days of Socrates, Aristotle and Herodotus, when education was an adorned virtue used as a yardstick for measuring civility and human value, no one cared about the material gains accruing from it.

However, some thousands of years after that era, bastardization of education set in when certificate became a means of evaluating the material worth of learning. Thus, with acquisition of certificates, by all means, mere literacy began to be misconceived as education. And, today, Nigerian Universities have been reduced to mere centers of advanced literacy rather than that of citadel of knowledge that they used to be.

Literacy And Education

Whereas, literacy is just an added value to education, the modern day man has ignorantly and arrogantly interpolated the one for the other. This is what Professor Oloyede resented in his academic odyssey when he chose to combine Eastern system of education with that of the West with a determination to take advantage of both in fertilizing the academic soil of Nigeria’s future. For those who didn’t know, Professor Oloyede’s ascetic lifestyle is the driving force of his rising fame. And that can simply be called the fervour in his burner.

Philosophy of Life

By the philosophy he adopted right from his adolescent years, Professor Oloyede had imbibed contentment as a permanent principle of life. On a particular occasion, while relating his reason for contesting for the office of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, he told some medical students of his University, who went to congratulate him, on his assumption of office, as Vice-Chancellor, that he never intended to contest for that office. But when, according to him, an academic charlatan, in the same University, who harboured ulterior motive, threatened to expose him if he dared contest for the VC’s post, in that University, he (Oloyede) saw it as a challenge to his integrity. He therefore took that challenge as an opportunity to put his privacy on a public table. His real intention, according to him, was actually not to contest but to see what would be exposed in his privacy. And, contrary to the expectations of skeptics, he surprisingly emerged as the Vice-Chancellor without an iota of blemish.

His Previous Posts

Before contesting for VC’s post, he had served twice as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and  Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, in the same University of Ilorin where he had spent his entire academic life as a student, as a lecturer, as a Director in several areas and, as a Professor. Thus, he had seen that University inside-out and, that was enough to propel an ambition in him to target the highest office in the Citadel, for which he was eminently qualified. Yet, there was no such level of ambition in him until he was triggered into magnetizing an unprovoked challenge that made him a Vice-Chancellor.

That Professor Oloyede relayed that episode of his unintended contest for the highest office in his University, to his students, was not an act of mere bravado but a token of encouragement for those students towards service to humanity with humility and patriotism.

Evidence of Contentment

As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Oloyede was nominated and elected as the President of the African Vice-Chancellors.

But when he noticed that the position of the Executive Secretary of the Association of African Universities was more meaningful and more beneficial to Nigeria than that of the President, which he then held, he decided to relinquish his own position as President to enable another Nigerian to occupy that of the Executive Secretary. He therefore encouraged some of his Nigerian academic colleagues to apply for that post and promised to resign from his own Presidential position in that Association to allow a fellow Nigerian to occupy the office of the Executive Secretary to the benefit of Nigeria. Incidentally, most of his colleagues did not believe him at first. But when the time came and one of them indicated interest, in the post of the Executive Secretary, perhaps as a way of testing Oloyede’s sincerity, he (Oloyede) surprisingly resigned as President of African Vice-Chancellors just after two years in an office where he had opportunity to spend two terms of five years each.

However, the Professor who benefited from Oloyede’s unbelievable large-heartedness by assuming the office of the Executive Secretary of African Universities, later ventured into Nigerian local politics and opted for the post of the Secretary to a State Government (SSG) thereby opening the door for another Professor from another country to occupy the post.

By that greedy decision, the man deprived Nigeria the benefit for which Oloyede had resigned as President. The comparison of both   personalities in this circumstance is better left to reasonable readers of this article. 

Academic Administration

Only a few Nigerians in the academic arena can equal Oloyede’s record when it comes to the ‘nitty gritty’ of academic administration. Yet, you can hardly notice it in his demeanour. This ascetic Professor is not just the first alumnus of the Faculty of Arts, in the University of Ilorin, to graduate with a ‘FIRST CLASS’, he is also the first alumnus of that University to obtain a PhD from the same University. Not only that, Professor Oloyede scored many other ‘FIRSTS’ in that University to the admiration of the upcoming students, as a template for those who might be nursing aspiration among them to similarly rise astronomically.

His Chain of Firsts

In the reverential archive of the University of Ilorin, Professor Oloyede was the ‘FIRST’ Director of Academic Planning and the first alumni President to be a member of the Governing Council of that University. He was also the first Unilorin alumnus to become a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and subsequently the first alumnus to become the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

Introduction of CBT

It is incontrovertible that Professor Oloyede was the first Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria to introduce Computer-Based Testing (CBT) method of screening applicants for University admission in the country, just as he was the first Vice-Chancellor to lead a second generation University to the number one position in Nigeria, based on international rating. He also became the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to emerge as the Chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU). Still not done, he is the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to combine the Board membership of International Association of Universities (IAU) with those of the Association of the Commonwealth Universities (ACU) as well as with that of the Association of African Universities (AAU) at the same time.

University Calendar

With the above listed ‘FIRSTS’ he was, as Vice-Chancellor, able to make Unilorin the first Federal University in Nigeria to run a decade of uninterrupted academic calendar which prompted that University to be internationally rated as one of the very best 20 Universities in Africa. Also, through his astute academic administration, the University of Ilorin was able to maintain the first position in the national rating for three consecutive years (2009, 2010 and 2011). Another major plus in this man’s life, but which most people hardly noticed, is arbitration factor.

Conflict Resolution

Professor Oloyede does not only resent conflicts in whatever form, he also regards arbitration as a duty for him wherever he is. Thus, whenever he notices any sign of conflict in his vicinity, be it interpersonal, intertribal or interreligious, he immediately initiates arbitration and reconciliation process to ensure resolution without minding the cost. And, his impartiality in doing this is generally acknowledged and revered across all borders. With his post as the Registrar of the Joint Matriculation and Admission Board (JAMB), he has added a rare feather to his exemplary cap in a way that fetches him a tacit title of ‘A Model of Change’.

A Guiding Lifestyle

In Professor Oloyede is a great example for those who aspire to be great in a world where greatness is a slippery land. His life has become a guide for the younger professionals and artisans who need guidance “either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

With His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni, at the helm of affairs of the NSCIA and Professor Oloyede as the Secretary-General of that apex body for the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, who does not see that a right step is now on course on the right path for Nigerian Muslim Ummah of the contemporary time?

Epilogue

With vertical men of this stature on Islamic stage in Nigeria, at this point in time, who says Muslims are non-existent in the scheme of modern life? Today, there is no aspect of human endeavour where Muslim men and women do not stand out as signposts of life like summer crescents quietly moving towards zooming into full moon. And, now, with such fervour in his burner, who can say that Oloyede’s shining star, as a historic signpost for Africa, does not transcend the firmament of the globally known sky that we see daily?  We pray the Almighty Allah to spare this man’s life with His divine guidance. AMIN!   

Preamble

Dear legislator,

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

 Let me start this letter with a congratulatory message and a prayer. I congratulate you for becoming our ‘Honourable’ lawmakers an organ that is most crucial in a democracy. With your legislative role the destiny of Nigeria will be determined or reshaped. But more importantly, I pray the Almighty God to grant you listening ears and tamed minds against greed and avarice that became the undoing of your predecessors. Amen.

Just as it happened to the session before yours, this letter is coming to you both as a counsel and an admonition. What qualifies yours sincerely to write this letter to you is that the column called ‘The Message’ is a stake holder in the great project called Nigeria. This country is like a ship in which we are all voyaging together through a storming ocean. And we must all be vigilant enough to ensure that it does not hit the rock.

A similar letter was twice written in this column to the legislators of the 8th and 9th National Assembly. The first was in 2015 barely nine months after some of them resumed in their respective legislative houses. The second was a reminder in 2019. But like a dog destined to end up in perdition would refuse to hear the hunter’s cautioning whistle, your predecessors refused to heed the admonition contained in those letters. You all know the consequence of their refusal today.

Role of conscience

“Conscience”, according to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where it has not become cancerous. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) told us in one Hadith that hypocrites are known by three signs: “When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege and when they are trusted they betray”. Most of your predecessors so much typify that Hadith that it seems as if the Prophet had Nigerian legislators in mind when he expressed that axiom. I hope you will learn a lesson from their case.

You will recall that when you started nursing the ambition to become legislators, whether at the federal or state level, or even as chairmen or councillors in local governments, your first announcement was that you wanted ‘to serve your people’. Based on that announcement, people rallied round you and embraced you as their representatives.

That announcement was your first political covenant. It was not between you and the people in your constituencies alone. Since it entailed your promise and the trust of the people, Allah’s hand was in it and He will surely hold you accountable for it because you made such promise voluntarily. It does not matter whether you were genuinely elected or rigged into office as usual.

Deception

Your original intension for making the announcement will be weighed against your action on getting to office. And you will be judged accordingly when you leave the office. That is quite different from a possible rigging that fetched you the status of a legislators as well as the title of ‘Honourable’.

In the process, some of you deprived your fellow politicians of those positions which rightfully belonged to them. Just as you will call on God for justice if you were in their shoes so they will take your case to God’s court. And the prayer of a cheated person, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), never suffers divine denial.

You must remember that it is only God’s judgment that can neither be manipulated nor appealed. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s judgment will be executed perhaps when you least expect. On that, you are left to your consciences if you have any.

In Islam, two issues are exceptionally fundamental which Allah does not treat lightly. These are sacredness of life and justice. It is a great iniquity for any human being to engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extra-judicially in the name of religion is nothing but a pagan. In Islam, killing of a fellow human being deliberately is such a grievous sacrilege that cannot and should not occur without commensurate punishment.

Besides paganism, nothing draws the wrath of Allah as fast as these two crimes which Satan may continue to ask you to ignore at your own peril.

Murder is physical termination of the life of a fellow human being. Injustice is to kill a person mentally, psychologically and spiritually by denying him his or her right.

In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is built. Those who voluntarily chose to legislate for others must see themselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not, advertently or inadvertently, betray the course of justice. Can this be said of you?

Where is your Honour?

Honourable legislators, you are addressed as honourable today neither because you are more dignified and more intellectually qualified than those for whom you are legislating nor because you are wiser and more experienced than them. What makes most of you legislators is sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which has not been perfected against gerrymandering.

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If such opportunity comes your way illegally, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike in future. And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the extent of its effect.

At least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of Nigeria even after two decades of licking the wound.

The covenant you made with the people is to serve them. And those who choose to serve are nothing but servants. But no sooner had your predecessors been sworn into office than they started calling themselves leaders. That is why most of them found it difficult to bend a little backwards and report back to their constituencies. Today, where are they? And their constituencies remain intact albeit backward.

Surrogate spouses

Since most of your predecessors resumed in Abuja or their state capitals without their spouses, the first thing they did after settling down was to search for alternative but illegitimate sexual partners who acted as their surrogate spouses. And the cost was borne by the same betrayed electorate. Not only that, they also began their primary duty of legislating by first fixing their own salaries and allowances against all norms of morality and at the expense of those who made it possible for them to become legislators.

You turned the privilege of legislating into a right and used it to intimidate the poor masses and ride roughshod over them. When they occasionally pretend to interact with those masses it was for the purpose of preparing their minds for the next election in which they hoped to be returned to Parliament where sharing money was the priority.

Some of them spent about eight years in those legislative houses without any sign in their immediate constituencies that anybody was representing the people of those constituencies. It is hoped that your session in this era of ‘CHANGE’ will show a remarkable difference.

Self Aggrandisement

When your predecessors travelled abroad officially, with people’s money, they were never alarmed by the way political and economic systems worked in those countries. Rather, their primary concern was the latest cars plying the roads of those countries and the most magnificent mansions that they could copy back home to match new status as legislators. That is why virtually every political office holder in Nigeria between 1999 and now was either riding or eager to ride the newest vehicle from Europe, America or Asia even as they owned Nigeria’s choicest estates. In a nutshell, politics to them was a short term business that must bring profit by all means.

Thus, at their instance, Nigeria was held to a standstill as they doctored the annual budget presented to them by the executive arm in order to share the national cake with the Executives in the spirit of ‘rub my back I rub yours’.

Most of them were fathers and mothers who would want their children to grow up as responsible men and women, yet, refused to serve as good examples for those children. How could Nigeria be good?

Reminder

As new legislators, perhaps it is necessary to remind you that everything in this world is based on condition. The world itself did not come into existence without condition. Man was originally created and appointed as Allah’s vicegerent on earth on condition that he would serve Allah. And all other living or unliving things were divinely ordered to obey and serve man on condition that he (man) would also obey and serve Allah. That service was not an imposition. It was voluntary.

Before putting man in charge of the world at all, Allah had consulted far and wide with all the stake holders concerned. Each of them declined responsibility except man who, out of greed and arrogance, volunteered to take charge and be responsible for it.

Allah states this clearly in Q. 33 V. 72 thus: “We offered the ‘TRUST’ (of the world) to the heavens; to the earth and to the mountains; but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it. Man, who undertook to bear it, has proved to be unjust, foolish”.

By consulting so far and wide, Allah had elicited and got covenant from every creature. Those among them, that declined responsibility cannot and will not be asked to account for the occurrences therein. Accountability of the world solely rests on man’s shoulder according to the covenant he reached voluntarily with Allah.

Covenant with Allah is the most fundamental law of existence. It is not one sided. As man has responsibilities to bear so does Allah has obligations to fulfil. It is from the covenant with Allah that all other covenants in the life of man, including those of marriage, trust and confidentiality, are derived. That covenant is what others call oath.

Oath of office

In Islam, oath, whether private or public, does not necessarily require Muslims to carry the Qur’an in one’s hand as done in Nigeria particularly at this time when oath of office has become a meaningless symbol. No oath is ever made without Allah being a witness to it. Besides, He has assigned two Angels (Raqib and ‘Atid) to every human being as secret police officers. The duty of these Angels is to record all utterances and secret actions of each person to whom they are assigned. The one records good deeds, the other records evil deeds. Their recordings are both in video and audio forms.

This fact is contained in Q.50: 16 where Allah states that: “We surely created man and ‘We’ know the promptings of his mind and are closer to him than his jugular vein. We assign two guardians to watch him, one on his right and the other on his left. No utterance (from him) or action shall escape the records of these vigilant guardians….”

It is from the functions of these invisible police that researchers came about the idea of video, audio and other technological devices used especially for espionage.

Rare opportunity

Legislating is a rare opportunity to serve one’s nation meritoriously. But most of your predecessors turned that opportunity into one of self-enrichment as well as that of securing the future of your own children at the expense of the lives of other children. All these are done at the expense of the wretched people around them whose role in democracy was relegated to voting once in four years. They forgot that wealth is Allah’s endowment which cannot be inherited except by Allah’s will.

My dear honourable legislators; search your conscience and fear God. Remember that some people had legislated for this country in the past. Some usurped the roles of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary together, in the name of military rule, made possible by coup d’état. Where are they today?

Legislation, like governance, has its tenure. Today, four years may look endless, but for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening  which only a fool may want to rely upon while walking his way through the darkness of the night.

Peculiar factor

You are in the legislative houses to make laws for today’s generation and that of tomorrow. Ordinarily, that duty should be on part time and not full time basis in a serious country where patriotism holds sway. But since everything in Nigeria has a peculiar factor, it has become a rule that those who are legislating for us must take the lion’s share of our national cake even through the budget. That is why some of your predecessors randomly roared to the total embarrassment of the country that the President or the Governor must be impeached.

Such impeachment became a serious business only when their salaries, allowances or social welfare were not provided as at when due or at the expected volume. It did not matter to them whether or not the entire workforce in Nigeria remained unpaid for years or all the Universities in the country closed down completely and permanently. And in all these charades, religion had no role to play an indication that politics is indifferent to God’s ordinances in Nigeria.

Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know of. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And that is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) admonished thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are such a nonentity that can even choose to strip naked in the market place. That was some of your predecessors did while in office.

Service to humanity

Honourable legislators, let it be kept permanently in your hearts that the only thing which keeps people alive in history even long after their demise is service to humanity. Prophets Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad (SAW), had neither bank accounts nor estates to bequeath to anybody. Their heritage is more than any material wealth for the entire world today. That heritage is service to humanity. What is your own planned heritage if only for posterity? That is a big question which only people with conscience can answer. The rest is left to you. While wishing you a memorable era in Nigeria’s democracy, I pray Allah to guide you aright that you may not end up like your predecessors. Amin

Monologue

This is the season of Hajj. It comes up in the month of Dhul Hijjah every year.

                Hajj means an aspiration towards a higher pedestal in spirituality. It is, divinely, a pillar of Islam made obligatory for Muslims who can afford it once in a lifetime. Hajj is not a mere tourism. Thus, the visa issued to Muslims who perform Hajj, annually, is that of pilgrimage and not of tourism. Whilst pilgrimage is a spiritual exercise, tourism is a pleasurable journey.

Preamble

The similitude of Hajj in the life of a Muslim is like that of pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The experience may vary from one woman to another, as the foetus in the womb undergoes various stages before reaching the stage of delivery. By the time the child is finally delivered, the mother feels a relief of her life while the child assumes a tabula rasa (clean slate) that makes it absolutely innocent.

Spiritually, a pilgrim is like a newly born baby, if he strictly performs Hajj as prescribed by Allah. But if he returns into the world of vanity after Hajj, he automatically becomes like a person in snow-white attire who finds his way into a palm oil market. Unless he spiritually guides his loins, he may immediately become a tainted person both in body and in soul.

The Rigours of Hajj

Pilgrims going on Hajj must be prepared to go through series of rigours both spiritually and physically. The rigour of getting the money to perform Hajj; getting the travelling documents including visa; taking care of the home front before embarking on the Holy journey; boarding the plane with a sense of high risk; going through the security check at the embarkation point as well as the disembarkation point in Saudi Arabia;  performing the Tawaf and Sa’y; moving from Makkah to Mina on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah and, to Arafah, on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, and back to Mina via Muzdalifah on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah; throwing the pebbles at the Jamrat in Mina on the three or four days known as Ayamu-t-Tashrik; performing Tawaful Ifadah at the Sanctuary in Makkah after the first day of throwing pebbles; performing the farewell circumambulation otherwise known as Tawaful Wida’I; all in the midst of millions of people can be too much to forget so soon  after Hajj.

Admonition

Whoever is not bothered by the money spent on Hajj should at least be bothered by the various stages of the rigour involved including that of visiting Madinah. To lose all these to the forces of Satan after Hajj is like losing one’s travelling passport after obtaining visa. The prayer of every genuine pilgrim is to retain the validity of Hajj forever.

Conditions for Hajj Performance

Performance of pilgrimage must be based on genuine intention and high spiritual standard. An intending pilgrim must have attained puberty. He must have been an ardent practitioner of the first four pillars of Islam: (Salat, Zakah, and Sawm) all of which are fervently based on faith (Iman). Hajj without these pre-requisites is like a tree without roots.

Money is a major pre-requisite for Hajj but it is not absolute.

Hajj, the last pillar of Islam shows very vividly, the similitude of what mankind will experience on the Day of Judgment. Looking at the unique way in which pilgrims dress for Hajj and how they assemble at Arafat, leaving their luggage behind in Makkah, one will realize how ephemeral this world is.

Purpose of Hajj

The various stages of preparation through which pilgrims pass before arriving at Arafat are symbolic of our peregrinations in life as human beings. Like the Day of Judgment, Arafat is the climax of Hajj performance. Anybody who misses Arafat misses Hajj. But Arafat is not by physical appearance alone. It takes a combination of factors to participate effectively in that great assembly which serves as the climax of Hajj.

For Hajj to serve its spiritual purpose in the life of a pilgrim, certain steps must be taken before leaving home. They are as follows:

Fine-tuning the first four pillars of Islam very sincerely; making the intention to perform Hajj; Ensuring the security of the way; Providing for the family and dependants at home; Paying all the outstanding debts including fulfillment of promises; Ascertaining the condition of health; Assuming a mood of humility like that of a servant approaching his master and Readiness to endure hardship and to tolerate fellow pilgrims’ abnormalities.

Intention

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once said: “Actions shall be judged according to intentions. Whoever embarks on a spiritual journey for the sake of Allah will be adjudged on that basis. And, whoever bases his/her intention for pilgrimage on marriage or material gains, should not expect any reward beyond that for which his/her intention is based”.

The steps to follow in the performance of Hajj are as follows:

 Al-Miqat which is the specified place for the wearing of Ihram dress. There are five of such places in all. Tawaf which means circumambulation of the Ka’bah. The very first to be performed by pilgrims on entering Makkah is Tawaful Qudum. It is performed before a pilgrim settles down in any residence. Tawaful Qudum is an obligatory Sunnah from which only residents of Makkah among pilgrims are exempted.

Residence in Makkah or Madinah

Most Nigerian pilgrims often seek their accommodations in Makkah or Madinah close to the Haram. This is to enable them walk to and from the Haram conveniently at the time of any Salat. To minimize pilgrims’ regular occurrence of missing their ways, they are provided with hand bands which bear the addresses of their residences. Pilgrims are therefore advised to wear such bands at all times to enable them show it to either the Hajj guides or policemen whenever they miss their road. It is also important for pilgrims to always be with the identity cards provided for them by National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) or private agents. This is to enable them to be identified in case of sickness, accident or even death.

 Movement to Mina

Pilgrims must be ready to undergo some rigours in the process of moving to Mina from Makkah. The rigour, which normally affects all pilgrims, is engendered by limited time available for millions of pilgrims who must move to that spiritual camp before the sunset on the day preceding Arafah day.

 The Day of Arafah

At the Plain of Arafat, pilgrims are advised to stay under their tents and concentrate on the spiritual activities. They must reach Arafat by mid-day when Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr should be observed combined. Anybody who is not at Arafat by mid-day is considered not to have taken part in the assembly and therefore missed Hajj. Immediately after observing the combined Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr, the Imam who led the two Salat is expected to give a sermon. Listening to such sermon is as compulsory as giving it.

The great assembly of Arafat terminates shortly before sunset (Maghrib) and the pilgrims return to Mina via Muzdalifah.

 Muzdalifah Transit

At Muzdalifah, pilgrims are expected to halt their journey to observe Maghrib and ‘Ishai combined. They are also expected to pass the night there and observe the Salat-s-Subh the following morning before proceeding to Mina. Muzdalifah is adjacent to Mina and is therefore a walking distance.

 Jamrat

Stoning the symbolic devils (Rajmu Jamrat) begins a day after Arafat and continues for the next three or four days that the pilgrims are supposed to spend at Mina. This exercise is obligatory and without it, Hajj is incomplete. There are three points at which stones are to be thrown. Seven pebbles are to be thrown at each point on every one of the three or four days to be spent in Mina.

While going for the pebble-throwing exercise, pilgrims are advised to take their pebbles along with them. Except for the first day when seven pebbles are supposed to be thrown at only one spot, pilgrims are required to throw twenty one pebbles each day, seven of those pebbles are to be thrown at the each of the three spots provided while they remain in Mina.

Picking such pebbles at the point of throwing them is forbidden. All pebbles must have been picked before leaving the tent for the ‘Jamrat’ or on each day.

 Majzarah (Abattoir)

Slaughtering of sacrificial animals is done at the abattoir in Mina. Pilgrims do not need to bother themselves by going to the abattoir for the purpose of carrying out this compulsory obligation. They can simply buy the guaranteed ticket sold by designated Saudi agents. The ticket is the evidence that one has performed that duty. The slaughtering is done on behalves of the pilgrims by some authorised artisans who are paid by the Saudi Hajj authorities from the money which the pilgrims had paid for those animals. The animals to be slaughtered at Jamrat range from rams to camels. A pilgrim should slaughter one ram or more while seven pilgrims may combine to slaughter one camel or five of them may jointly slaughter one cow.

 Tawaful Ifadah

For pilgrims who can afford to go to Makkah from Mina, after throwing the first seven pebbles, it is good to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. For those who cannot, the exercise can be deferred till the end of Tashrik, when they are supposed to finally leave Mina for Makkah

The only reason for any pilgrim to go to Makkah from Mina during the camping period is to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. No pilgrim should break camping rule by going to Makkah without performing Tawaf-ul- Ifadah. And, after performing Tawaful Ifadah, no pilgrim should remain in Makkah or elsewhere without returning to Mina before sunset.

Tawaful Wida’i

With the completion of the camping days in Mina and the performance of Tawaful Ifadah on arrival of all the pilgrims in Makkah, Hajj has been completed except for Tawaf Wida’i  otherwise called farewell Tawaf. That Tawaf is also compulsory.

It is then left for pilgrims to decide whether or not to go to Madinah, if he had not gone before. Going to Madinah is not compulsory as it will be spiritually odd for any pilgrim to choose not to visit the Prophet’s Mosque.

Conclusion

Throughout the Hajj exercise, what should be uppermost in the mind of a pilgrim is the spiritual benefit. On arriving home finally, pilgrims are not expected to start organizing parties in celebration of a successful Hajj performance as ignorantly done by some Nigerians. Maintaining Hajj is a necessity for those who know the value of doing that. Whoever is privileged to perform Hajj once in his/her life, should forever be grateful to Allah as no one is sure of getting another chance.

For those going on Hajj this year, the Message says HAJJAN MABRURA!

Preamble

Greatness of a nation is invariably determined not by those who govern her but by the use to which the ordinary citizens of such a nation put their endowed talents and skills. No nation can ever be great in the absence of her citizens. As a matter of fact, nothing is called a nation without the people who inhabit the landmass of the concerned area and deploy their skills for the development of its resources. In a nutshell, it is the combined greatness of individual citizens that often constitutes the greatness of any nation. That is why all responsible governments encourage citizens of their countries to strive for lofty heights in all field of human endeavour. Ironically, however, while some nations become great because of their citizens’ skills, others remain static because of their governments’ inaction. Nigeria belongs to the latter. But despite the continuous inaction of her government, this most populous African country luckily continues to enjoy the benefit of international glory often wrought by the personal efforts of her talented citizens.

When and Where?

Saturday, November 29, 2012 was a unique historic day of glory for Nigeria at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the 2012 global Annual Youth Conference was held. Two special themes were chosen for the conference which is generally known as Annual Youth Assembly (AYA). One of those themes is ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG). The other is ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG). The main objective of AYA is to encourage some focused world youths to exhibit their intellectual prowess in proffering solutions to contemporary and future global challenges. It is organised at the instance of the ‘Friendship Ambassadors Foundation’ (FAF).

Present at the November 2012 conference were some shakers and movers of global events from all parts of the world including permanent representatives of the various countries at the United Nations. They clustered the venue of the conference like a galaxy of stars waiting to usher the world’s most ingenuous leaders of tomorrow into today’s Hall of Fame with a chorus of KUDOS! The event was beamed live to virtually all parts of the world through various TV Cable Networks. The historic announcement of the winners which climaxed the one week event was greeted with a thunderous applause and overwhelming ovation. Out of the 700 contestants from more than 70 countries of the world, three best winners emerged at the occasion. One of them was from Africa. Another was from Asia while the third was from South America. When the glorious moment of announcing the very best of the three finalists came, a grave but anxious silence descended on the hall. This was followed by a lone baritone voice that announced thus: “…..And the winner is RAHMAH ADERINOYE FROM NIGERIA!!!!! The audience roared into an unprecedented ecstasy of jubilation, hugging and shaking hands with one another just as the chanting of CONGRATULATIONS rented the air for several minutes with songs of joy.

Reason

Rahmah had beaten the two other finalists from China and Haiti to the second and third positions respectively. It was indeed, a rare moment of glory for a comatose country like Nigeria dangling ceaselessly like a pendulum with a noose on the altar of dysfunction. History was made once again by a Nigerian for Nigeria but without an input from the latter. An unfortunate incident at that moment, however, was the conspicuous absence of any official from Nigeria. While all other participants were officially accompanied and supported by the representatives of their countries, as usual, no notable Nigerian official representative was there. Unlike what obtains in focused countries, Nigeria does not attach any importance to assisting or supporting her own citizens in making any glory of that sort. As a country, she prefers to proclaim any individual who, out of personal effort, makes glory as her worthy citizen. And that preference was demonstrated again at the 2012 AYA conference. That Nigeria was not officially represented on such a glorious occasion cannot be a surprise to anybody who knows this country very well. After all, a similar incident occurred in March 1987 when a onetime Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria, the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi won the prestigious King Faisal Award just six months after Wole Soyinka won Nobel Laurel in September 1986. And while the foreign press was celebrating the honour days and nights, the same Federal Government which sent a powerful delegation to accompany Wole Soyinka to Stockholm (in Sweden) six months earlier remained nonchalant. It took yours sincerely to write on the matter severally (then in The Concord) pointing out the government’s hypocrisy and religious bias before something could be done at the federal level. And by the time the then General Ibrahim Babangida-led government decided half-heartedly to congratulate Sheikh Gumi and accept to play a role, all arrangements had been privately completed by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola who volunteered to bear the entire cost.

Who is Rahmah Aderinoye?

The common question on the lips of most people who witnessed the 2012 MDG event and which may also become the main question from many readers of this column is the one above. Who is Rahmah Aderinoye? And the answer to that question is not far-fetched. Rahmah Adebodun Aderinoye is a tender female University student with the heart of a brave male. She is the fifth and last child of her parents but also the fourth daughter.

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Her natural visage betrays her intellectual mien. In appearance, she looks half her father and half her mother an indication that she cuts a chip of each of the two parents. Rahmah Aderinoye, a Nigerian student of Biology at the University of Texas (USA), is vigorously proving to be a sucker rather than a bud in her family tree. And like any potent sucker, her burning desire is to outgrow the stem and foliages of that consanguine tree without minding any local tradition accorded her gender. Her pedigree is strong, no doubt, but her towering surge is independent of that pedigree as she charts her course ahead with little expectation of any assistance from any particular individual. She has caught a niche for herself in a world where even older adults refuse to be weaned from their parental ladle. Born to Professor Rasheed and Hajia Bilqis Aderinoye in Ibadan about 23 years by the time she won the award and christened Rahmah (meaning Blessing) this courageous young woman is truly becoming a universal blessing not only to her parents or her country but also to African continent as well as the global Muslim Ummah. Already, without prompting, she has chosen to be an Ambassador Plenipotentiary for her fatherland as she flies the latter’s green-white-green flag loftily and admirably at the international level without asking the forbidden question of ‘what can my country do for me?.

Epitomy

By all means, Rahmah epitomises the new dream generation with a life ambition to put Nigeria on the special map of success story. Now a final year biology student at the University of Texas, Arlington, USA, Rahmah had her elementary education at the University of Ibadan Staff School and her secondary education at the International School, UI, Ibadan before proceeding to South Carolina University from where she moved to the University of Texas on scholarship.

What Qualified Her For This Laurel?

Motivated by a burning desire to give a helping hand to fellow Nigerians in alleviating the crushing poverty and squalor in the land, Rahmah established a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) named ‘Youth for Intellectual Interaction Initiative (YIII) with more than 20 volunteers in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the US. It was this NGO that she used in applying for participation in the 2012 MDG project that fetched her the glorious laurel that now makes her a global star. And with that laurel she has automatically become a ‘Fellow of (UN) Resolution’. Already, she has been commissioned by UNICEF to develop and work on a concept to empower the vulnerable youths in Africa an assignment which she sees as a veritable opportunity to further propel the African youths into continental development through a deserving renaissance. Thus, she is a UNICEF global Ambassador.

Shortly before the announcement of the results of the competition, Rahmah called her father on phone to inform him of her nervousness having been overwhelmed by the galaxy of other contestants. But in response, her father, an experienced professor of education, told her to calm down saying: “I won’t be surprised if you win”. And when the event was over, she made the following confession: ‘So, when my name was announced, I became frightened and was shaking. Three winners emerged at the end of the day from three continents (Asia, Africa and South America) and these were a Nigerian, a Chinese and a Haitian. I was proudly thrilled to represent Nigeria at the Youth Assembly at the UN. For me, participating in that Social Challenge Venture was pretty exciting but it involved a lot of work. I had to submit some drafts before presenting my project in front of over 700 delegates from the world and face the judges and the crowd. I was really, really nervous…”

Resolution

Throwing light on the real nature of the competition, she said: “At the annual youth assembly, Resolution Project looks at youthful students in colleges, asks them to present a problem peculiar to their localities and suggest possible solutions to such a problem. If the proposal is accepted, the project then gives both mentoring and financial assistance to help them bring about the solution they proposed.” She continued: “I was supposed to pick a problem staring Nigerians in the face and propose a solution to it. So the problem I chose was poverty which is the number one set goal of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. I proposed empowerment through skills acquisition. This means that I will basically be empowering people in some vocations thereby making them self-sufficient and ultimately working towards the set goals of the UN. Thus, the solution I proposed was empowerment through skills acquisition.”

Narrating her planned approach to tackling poverty especially in Africa, Rahmah said: “The best approach to tackling poverty as far as I am concerned is to train people in some vocations, stressing that “what we will be doing is training people in some vocations such as baking, bead making, farming, tailoring and some couple of others but it’s going to be one vocation at a time. Now, after these people are trained, we will provide them with basic materials they need to start up and that way, they can start making money for themselves.”

Asked to state specifically what she will now be doing as a Fellow of (UN) Resolution and UNICEF Ambassador the 23 year old eloquent student of Biology said: “I presently volunteer with UNICEF USA to raise funds and create awareness for various projects. Recently, for instance, I led a number of fellow youths in the US to raise funds for the Children of Syria who are being subjected to all sorts of abuse and insecurity of life. We were trying to get more relief materials for them in their various refugee camps. And now, I am working on what is called Zero Project. It is estimated that about 19,000 children die daily of preventable causes and this figure comes from just five countries in the world. Sadly, Nigeria happens to be one of them. “At UNICEF, USA, we believe that number can be reduced to ZERO. For this reason we raise funds to be invested in the affected countries and we shall continue to do so until we get to ZERO level.

Future Plan

As for her future plans this is what Rahmah has to say: I want to complete my undergraduate studies at the end of the current academic session and start post graduate studies. Also, I am planning to go ahead with my project in Nigeria if only as a fulfillment of my dream of bringing zero project to my country alongside my proposed solution at the United Nations. So I need every Nigerian to team up with me and my teammates in this initiative.”

When ‘THE MESSAGE’ asked Rahmah’s father to comment on his daughter’s performance he simply said “I am highly impressed Alhamdu Lillah”. Professor Aderinoye, a Professor of Education at the University of Ibadan who is currently the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) however explained that he earlier entertained fear about the project because his daughter started it when her examination was approaching. But she assured him that she would cope.

Perhaps if Osun, the ‘State of Integrity’ had not been Rahmah’s indigenous state, nothing would have been heard about her great achievement from any government circle in Nigeria. It was Osun State  alone that officially invited her for the establishment of a branch of her NGO in that state and provided an office for it. The state government, represented by the Commissioner for Youths and Women Affairs, Mrs. Folake Adegboyega and the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Women Empowerment, Mr. Abdullah Binuyo also sponsored the launching of the NGO. And such is quite in line with Osun State’s policy of youth empowerment.

Lesson to Learn

For parents who discriminate in the training of their children, this is a lesson. Rahmah is the fifth and last child of her parents. Only one of those children is a male. And all of them are doing as fantastically well in their respective callings as the only male child among them. What else does any sensible person want in a child? More than 90 per cent of Nigerian problems are currently caused by male children. And on the contrary, it is female children who take care of their parents better in old age. Besides, isn’t it ingratitude to Allah on the part of those who think parochially that male children are better than female children? That is a food for thought. We pray the Almighty Allah to prolong and protect the life of Rahmah Aderinoye with further guidance and blessings even as we implore Allah to give our Ummah many more of her type. Amin.