“There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done ; there are thousands to prophesy failure; there are thousands to point out to you one by one the dangers that wait to assail you; but just buckle in with a bit of a grin; just take off your coat and go to it; just start to sing as u tackle the thing ; “ that cannot be done’’ and you will do it’’ . Edgar A. Guest
Preamble
Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may not be wrong after all as their assertion has historically proofed axiomatic. Or how can the coincidence of a unique centenary confluence between two great icons (Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio and Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory) be classified? The one died in April 1817 while the other was born in April 1917 and the exchange of baton between them was smooth in spite of the 100 years gap. That centenary coincidence between death and birth is the unique confluence that brought a galaxy of human stars to The University of Lagos penultimate Monday to chorus the historic chanting that “we are here to bear witness”. To discerning men and women of primordial and contemporary times, both icons had been relevant and they will continue to be relevant for many centuries to come.
For the very first time since its establishment in 1962 The University of Lagos hosted on behalf of Markaz a qualitative human galaxy that beat its imagination. And perhaps for the next one century UNILAG may not play host to a similar galaxy. It was unique in all its ramifications. In any event where great personalities like The Sultan of Sokoto, frontline Emir and other traditional rulers as well as governors, Senators, Ministers, federal and state legislators, CEO’s of giant industries, Proprietors and Vice Chancellor of Universities, Professors and other tertiary academia, Imams and Alfas as well as male and female business moguls from all part of the country, no limit can be ascribed to any description.
On the occasion series of historic speeches and remarks were made by people of timber and caliber from all walks of life. Some excerpts from such speeches and remarks are as follows
•The Sultan:
“Islamic education not backward”
The Sultan of Sokoto and President General Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), His Eminence Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni said that Islamic education is robust and not backward as some people often skeptically say.
“We cannot allow people to bring our heads down and say we are useless. We are highly educated. We need to take this challenge up and ask ourselves, ‘Why do people look at us Muslims as illiterates?’ I don’t understand how someone who is very fluent in reciting the Quran offhand with strong ability to read and write in Arabic language be called an illiterate because he doesn’t speak English.
Islamic education is perpetually an entity of self-discipline, which involves physical and spiritual training of man. It is the balanced growth of man through training of intellect. The bulk of Islamic education is meant to facilitate the proper growth of the total personality of man. It is a way of life. When we are talking about Islamic education, don’t think we are being backward because it is the making of a total human being and when you become one, you would shun corruption and avoid illegal dealings.
Al-Ilory was the founder of the great Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (Markaz Agege,Lagos). He was a renowned Islamic preacher and still acclaimed even after his death in 1992.
Shaykh Adam Al-Ilory was not just a preacher but also a prolific writer who communicated his thoughts and ideas not only to his contemporaries but also to the younger generations. The evidence of his intellectual footprint on the sands of time is manifest today even decades after his demise. Those who want to be like him should emulate his efforts as he emulated the efforts of Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio. May Allah repose the souls of the two great icons with eternal bliss…….”
•Dr. Bukola Saraki
The then Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, appealed to the audience to continue to do their best for education to ensure it works.
“For those of us who have been opportune, we will ensure that a place like Markaz continues to grow…….. ”
•Ibikunle Amosun
In his own speech, the then Governor of Ogun state, Ibikunle Amosun, said there was no better way to tell the Islam story than through education.
“Markaz satellite Campus will be established in Abeokuta and this will be with the support of the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar. We will support the growth of Islam with whatever we have because Islam is a religion of peace……”
•Dr. Wale Babalakin
The then Pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin said that for Markaz to complete its proposed university it will need more funds.
“I am aware that Markaz needs to expand its premises and needs to buy neighboring properties but there is no feasibility to do that apart from the opportunity we have now at this gathering…….”
There were several other extemporaneous speeches and remarks made by other prominent personalities but which cannot be published here because of lack of space. However three lectures were scheduled for delivery at the occasion by the Sarkin kano, Alh. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Prof. Razaq ‘Deremi Abubakre and Prof. Is’haq Olanrewaju Oloyede respectively. But only two of those lectures were delivered because his royal highness, The Sarkin Kano was inevitably absent.
The First Lecture
By Professor Razaq ‘Deremi Abubakre
“There are telepathies in the air, or is it a convergence due to commonality of culture or similarity of experiences, between Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and Alhaji Muhammad Gidado the Waziri of Kano who mooted the idea of establishing the Northern Provinces Law School, Kano, subsequent to his visit to the Gordon College now University of Khartoum in the Sudan in the early 1930s while on his way to the holy pilgrimage in Makkah. This was achieved with the approval of the Emir of Kano, Emir of Katsina, Waziri Gidado himself and support of the Sultan of Sokoto, Siddique Abubakar III, SarkinMusulmi, all of whom were constituted as a Committee chaired by the Deputy Governor, a British, to establish the College.
The same thing exists between Al-Ilory and Shaykh Muhammad At-Turkumami, Waziri Bida who was a lad followed his dad to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj and chose to stay behind in Egypt to further his education. The same similarity of purpose made Shaykh Ahmad At-Tijani Awelenje, Alfa Shaki (1897-1967), to undertake Hajj in the 1930s but elected to stay in Sudan for a year to benefit from the educational system in that country. This in turn enabled him to demand certain rights for the Muslim children in the prevailing colonial and missionary schools that were busy proselytizing Christianity through education among Muslims and non-Muslims in Yorubaland.
There was communication between Shaykh Al-Ilory and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria as he embarked on Islamization of colonial education in spite of the cynicism of the colonial masters on the matter. The Sardauna, himself, a product of Government College, Katsina, where impeccable English was taught had a cause to minute as follows to the Minister under him as Premier of the North during the colonial time as follows:
I have gone through pp.11-13 but I regret I have seen nothing that attracts my mind to show that any immediate help is forthcoming to our Koranic Schools. I know your Ministry is full of British officials who are only out to help the Missionaries to firmly establish their own faith in this country and for that reason the large amounts of money you give to Voluntary Agencies are nothing compared to what I am asking for our people who are in majority.
This memo emanating from the desk of the Premier addressed to the Minister of Education in 1960, Alhaji Isa Kaita, showed that ‘the rich also cry’ so to speak when the concluding part is considered.
I am sorry to be so critical but I feel if anything at all is to be done for our common people which they can see in the near future it has to be done without delay. I have done my work as a leader but I leave the judgment to God.
I am sending copies of this minute to M. Ibrahim Musa Gashash, Alhaji Ahman Pategi and Alhaji Ibrahim Biu.
This was how the stage was like when Shaykh Al-Ilory established his Arabic and Islamic Training Centre, our beloved alma mater, first at Abeokuta in 1952 which was moved to Agege in 1954.
It is instructive to note that one century before the establishment of Markaz in Abeokuta, the Church Missionary Society headed by Henry Townsend was active here in the Christian evangelism. He was publishing the Iwe Iroyin fun Awon Egba ati gbogbo Yoruba. This environment encouraged Bamigbola to establish the Arabic Printing Press here with the literary prowess of Al-Ilory feeding the Press and nurturing it. However, it is in spite of and because of the experiences of Al-Ilory that he was the first to establish a modernized Arabic school with known curriculum, use of register, clear-cut division of students to different levels according to their performance, use of school uniform, use of students chairs and desks as well as teachers’ tables and chairs in a well-ventilated classroom with learning aids such as chalkboard, learning and instruction charts placed on the walls of the classrooms, use of jingle bells to announce assembly, change of period, and break for recess as well as closing….
One striking activity of the Shaykh which has made an indelible mark on the minds of the students was his introduction of external examination system for final year students. For us who ran through the ladder of education in Nigeria and beyond, we were amazed that the Shaykh was totally committed to quality assurance right from the 1950s towards the mid-60s when we passed out of the College. It also sent a message to the students about the impeccable integrity of the examinations which are to be vetted externally both in the quality of questions set and the quality of answers given by the students. Students had to therefore gird their loins as the standard of the examination cannot be impugned.
In 1957, Shaykh Al-Ilory wrote what can be termed in language taxonomy a diachronic study of the emergence of the scheme of teaching with focus on the Muslim world but not without delving at length into what happens in the Euro-Christian hemisphere. This book, Nizamu ‘t-Ta‘limu’l-‘Arabiyy wata’rikhuh fi’l-‘Alami’l-’Islami which was published in subsequent editions in Beirut 1967 and Damascus 1981. This book is one centrally written on education which stands out among other scores of publications issued out during his life time and those published after his demise by his noble son Shaykh Habeebullahi Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory OON, his indefatigable scion who is working tirelessly to keep the Markaz flag raised aloft…..
Shaykh propagated interfaith understanding and cooperation especially at the twilight of his life. He emphasized unity, solidarity and positive focus on matters that unite Nigerians irrespective of ethnic or religious differences. He always corroborated this virtue with the fact that when he was honored by the Egyptian government as a laureate of Arabic and sciences, he noted that a female scientist who was a Christian from Europe was also honored along with him and the doyen of Islamic literature in the Arab hemisphere Mahmud A’qqad….
In the task of purification of the society, Al-Ilory established League of Imams and Alfas in the Southwestern Nigeria after the tenth anniversary of Markaz and made Ibadan its headquarters. Here, he united the Muslim scholars in a way never hitherto achieved. He also set for himself the task of guiding many Muslim philanthropists who would spend their resources purely on mundane matters to have a rethink to seek the ways of Allah. Such philanthropists include Are Ariskeola Alao, a man of Ibadan make and stuff, Basorun MKO Abiola and Alhaji Tunde Badmus among others. MKO Abiola’s recognition of Shaykh Al-Ilory as his spiritual guide, contributed in no small measure to the blessings of right guidance bestowed on him by Allah soon after the death of Shaykh when he contested a universally adjudged free and fair election and he was presumed to have won.
One concluding remark is that the same method adopted by non-Muslims to convert Muslim children to another religion when Al-Ilory was reacting with his activities over 66 years ago, lingers on now. The case being handled with levity and disinterestedness by the contemporary Muslims in spite of their stupendous wealth is the lop-sidedness of Muslim owned private universities vis-à-vis others with just six for the Muslims in the whole of Nigeria. Of these six, two are in the Southwest, Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State and Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State. There are also two in the North Central both of which are in Kwara State with Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin and Summit University, Offa. There is one in the Northeast with America University of Nigeria, Yola, established by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Adamawa State. The last one is from the Northwest with Al-Qalam University, Katsina State. It is ominous that the remaining 68 private universities across the country are owned by non-Muslims.
Second Lecture
By Prof Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL. Former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin. Registrar, JAMB, Abuja and Secretary-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
“War against Corruption and indiscipline (WAI) in the life of the people and government: the journey so far
An excerpt from this lecture is as follows:…
How could I begin to tell the story of a crime being perpetrated by citizens of a great nation such as ours and not risk being misunderstood? For me this problem becomes particularly more pertinent given my current assignment and more importantly given the current situation in this country where books are being written on indiscipline by those who abhor discipline like death; books are being written on corruption by those who drink and eat corruption and sleep on beds of corruption everyday. Thus I considered the assignment doubly difficult when it is meant to mark the centenary of the birth of a scholar who detested corruption and indiscipline, a Shaykh who fulminated scum and sleaze and an ideologue whose ministrations and evangelizations were circumscribed by campaigns against indecency of all types. Shaykh Adam Abdullah al-Ilori was one of those ornaments of this world who wrote against what he referred to as Taqalid al-Jahiliyyah- the ways and methods of the days of ignorance. If there were sermons and exegetical postures of shaykh which brought out his intellectual acumen, such could be seen in the way he caricaturized and attacked acts of indiscipline and corruption by all segments of the Nigerian society over three decades ago. When I reviewed some of those written and audio-visual materials in which Shaykh deprecated acts of indiscipline and corruption in our society it was as if he wrote and delivered all of them only yesterday.
But again I took all of the above along my stride. I concluded that such is their way; the way of great men. They are great those who take action with the vision of bringing what is beyond the eyes of mere men into reality for them to come to a certain realization. He is great; they are great those who gave people reasons to reason, showed people the essence of life and cleared the path to take people on a journey of self-discovery. It is always their duty, the duty of great men to unearth the forgotten, to make connections that were denied, to cite alternative courses of action. As a great scholar, Shaykh Adam represented all of the above and more. If anyone is still in doubt about how great our Shaykh was/is, let him or her contemplate the assemblage of the ornaments of society in this hall today.
But I must proceed like Shaykh Adam Abdullah al-Ilory would have wanted me to proceed for this lecture. If he were to be alive, he would have loved to be questioned once again on the subject matter of today’s lecture. He would have loved to engage the topic afresh as if he never did before; the topic of indiscipline and corruption. Shaykh Adam would have sought to remind us, like he always did, that to talk about indiscipline is to talk about corruption and to talk about corruption is to talk about indiscipline.
Thus my approach in this lecture becomes clear. I propose to explore the two categories of indiscipline and corruption as mutually dependent or interdependent categories. I intend to account for the reasons indiscipline and corruption have become fashionable today and its costs for our nation or any nation. I equally hope to remind us of the reason why Islam has prescribed harsh punishments as deterrents for the two infractions. I propose to lace my discussions up with interventions from Shaykh Adam on these two cankerworms.
Grappling with Indiscipline
“…..At the individual level, indiscipline is manifested through unruly behavior, disobedience to constituted authorities, involvement in all acts and actions which run foul of decorum and decency. In our schools and institutions of higher learning, indiscipline is seen among students when they flout school rules, when they come late to school, when they refuse to turn in their assignments, when they cheat during examinations, when they wear sagging and deliberately torn trousers to schools, when they riot in the dining hall, when boys wear earrings in the name of fashion, when girls wear jalabiyyah, etc.
Again, indiscipline in our school system becomes manifest when teachers and lecturers come late to school, to classes and to lectures as the case may be; when teachers turn schools to market square for hawking shoes, shirts and other items; when teachers and lecturers engage in immoral relationships with their students; when teachers and lecturers turn lecture rooms and classrooms to missionary grounds where souls are bought in “his” name.
One way the government of former military head of state and then Head of state Muhammad Buhari sought to fight the war against indiscipline in our communal life in 1984 was along two main axes: that of instilling order and decorum in public places and that of criminalizing culture of filth and dirt which had become ‘fashionable’ all around the country. Before his military emergence, Nigerians were in the habit of never waiting for their turns in banks, in hospitals, in pharmacy stores etc. Everybody was always in a hurry. Before the coming of Buhari regime, Nigerian cities had the inglorious reputation of being the dirtiest in the world. Some Nigerians would defecate in the extremities of their backyard and would have no shame while throwing their insuperable stuff in the middle of the road.
But that was not all. In the days gone by we came to appreciate the evil of indiscipline in public offices. We became aware of the indiscipline in the civil service, where files would not move from one table to the other because money had not yet changed hands or the officer in charge had absconded. The indiscipline in government offices where civil servants would resume late for work and close before 4p.m was being challenged.
Causes of Indiscipline
“…..Indiscipline is caused by three major factors namely, bad home influence, lack/incomplete/bad education and most importantly incidences of corruption in the society. In our society today, some of our children have no place to call their home. This is because some parents have little or no time for their children anymore. From age five or seven, a child is taken to nursery or kindergarten school and would not return home until late in the night when the parents would have come back from their pursuit of material comforts….
“……Our society contributes in no small way to the wave of indiscipline assailing us as a nation. Indiscipline pays because there appears to be no punishment in our statutes for it; corruption festers because our laws target not the big men and women who perpetrate corruption but the smaller elements who indulge in sleaze and lucre at the lower level. Unfounded allegations of corruptions also stimulate corruption because the guilty may plead victimization….”
This lecture is too important to publish an excerpt from it. Its full length will be published in this column in the nearest future In Sha ’Allah.
