The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Who bombed Buhari?

    Bloody significance: Just imagine for a moment that blood, when spilled, does not quickly congeal and transmute and dry up; if by a certain alchemy blood synthesises to a non-drying liquid when spilled, Nigeria, the north of Nigeria to be specific, would be a sea of blood now. Since 2009, a faceless gang has remorselessly attacked the sovereign entity known as Nigeria without let, killing and maiming in tens and hundreds. In the last few months, it has been a daily fare of blood fest. But last week’s attacks in Kaduna and Kano come with – shall we say a bloody significance. Not to brooch the matter of the growing band of teenaged girls suicide bombers unleashed unto the ancient city of Kano; girls apparently drugged,  indoctrinated and deceived into desecrating their hijab and their souls. This will be story for another day.

    In Kaduna last Wednesday, in a twin attack, two personages were targeted. The one was a highly respected Muslim cleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi and the other, a former military president and now political leader, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. In the botched attempt to slay the duo, no fewer than 150 innocent lives were blown to pieces in an infernal orgy of senseless rage. While one would expect that a grief-stricken nation would be in sober mourning, contemplating the constitution of the bombers mind and how the ‘giant of Africa’ is being made the plaything of desert thugs. Nay, we have switched to our banal mode – we have been bickering, pointing fingers and throwing tantrums. We are carrying on like an unwieldy mob that has been roused with an IED.

    Our President, Goodluck Jonathan, set the ball rolling: the country would have boiled had Buhari died in the blast, he wagered. Meaning that the roiling multitude of the hoi polloi are good to die and the heavens will not fall abi? So the country is not boiling yet or it has not reached a presidential Fahrenheit? But our president’s faux pas is nothing compared to the rash of comments from elements with sympathies for the ruling and opposition parties. Comments exemplified by a certain Femi Fani-kayode, Asari Dokubo and Nasir el Rufai. Not contemplative about the root of the problem, they have become a part of the problem: they work up a rabble and everything (including commonsense) is lost in the ensuing gale of dust.

    I can tell you who targeted and bombed Buhari:I can tell you who has been bombing a large chunk of the Nigerian soil these past few years and there is no genius in figuring that out. And mind you it is not Boko Haram or its local and foreign collaborators; these are mere symptoms of a deep-rooted problem. Buhari was bombed by nemesis. Indeed, Nigeria is being worsted by nemesis. And mark you, this is just the beginning of Nigeria’s troubles. It will get worse; it will indeed become really bad before it gets better if there is still a Nigeria. We suffer yet from the mis-governance; the sins of yesterday, while today’s misdeeds rise to the skies like an evil totem waiting to haunt us tomorrow.

    Buhari and his co-military travellers who pretended to run Nigeria for nearly four decades set Nigeria up for its current spin. When they were damaging all the institutions that held the sovereign entity together, they thought the world was coming to an end. But it wasn’t, now is time for nemesis for all. Let’s illustrate with just one example: the military. For about 40 years, they stymied Nigeria’s military and security institutions: huge budgets were allotted year-on-year for defence and security, but they were embezzled and siphoned. So over these years, our military, security and police establishments suffered atrophy to the point that at a time, Cameroon or South Africa could have so easily overrun Nigeria. We had no jets, we had no warships, we did not upgrade our security facilities and gadgets and our men were not afforded requisite professional trainings. Our barracks remained the way Lord Lugard left them.

    Let us stretch the security scenario a little further. The Department of State Security, DSS (formerly State Security Service, SSS) is supposed to have functional offices in every local government. Those offices ought to have upgraded over the years into a formidable spider-web of security surveillance across the country. But what we heard was that hapless operatives were left to languish and scrounge in some of theses remote areas most times with hardly an office or basic communication gadget. We had (and still have) scenarios in which the entire local governments are ‘defunct’, police posts are forlorn and military bases are distant and far between.

    Nigeria: a vast unmanned wasteland:Thus for so many years, our so-called leaders were running a vast territory of unmanned, ungoverned and unsecured wasteland. Do you see why Boko Haram can seize a chunk of the land and hold it for about five years? Do you think any terrorist gang can take even an inch of South Africa or Egypt over night without being rounded up almost immediately? This is because every inch of their land is covered. Our leaders cover only their stomach but ironically their behinds are left vulnerable.

    So we wonder who bombed Buhari and I say it is nemesis; the result of long years of misrule. The sorry bit is that Buhari is the best of the gang that ravaged this country for many years in the guise of leading us. But bad things are wont to happen to good people as they say. The greater tragedy, however, is that the country is even today, in the same ship sailing nowhere so our troubles have just begun. We are walking straight into it aren’t we all? Sheep, marching merrily to the slab…

  • One year after

    One year after

    For all the reasons that are too familiar to rehash, a viable opposition is indispensable in a democracy. An opposition is not viable when it consists of multiple political groupings, spread over the nation, each of which is dominant within an enclave, none of which poses any significant threat to the ruling party. And without a threat of being replaced by a strong opposition waiting in the wings, the ruling party bestrides the nation like a colossus, acting with impunity, leaving helpless and hopeless citizens in a state of despair. What follows that kind of sordid scenario is eerily woven into the fabric of our national history.

    A year ago, I thought to myself that finally we were going to lay the ghost of governance with impunity; that the era of a de facto one-party state was about to end and there was a good chance for the opposition to not only offer a constructive critique of the ruling party, but more importantly to present itself as a viable alternative ready to take up the reins of power on behalf of the people. My hope, as that of many citizens tired of how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken the country for a ride in the last 15 years, was raised astronomically with the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    It was a thoroughly exciting moment that day when the news broke. Opalaba thought that it was “a small step for a party, but a big step for democracy.”

    Then after the initial excitement, it occurred to both of us that the needful must be emphasised:

    “But it’s just the beginning, and the end is most definitely important. My only hope is that this beginning is not thwarted; that the leadership of the new party learns from experience; that internal democracy is their watchword; that they are sensitive to the presentation of a uniquely democratic alternative to the electorate because in the final analysis, it is what matters most. It’s a game of numbers.”

    What a difference a year makes! Don’t get me wrong, I am still excited about the coming into being of the APC and I still hold high hopes for the role it can play in this fragile democracy, not just as a credible opposition but more importantly, as a party with a mandate to govern for the benefit of the masses of our people.

    Of course, like all opposition parties especially in Africa, APC faces a number of challenges, not the least of which is that of a ruling party with a ruthless determination to hang on to power at all cost. Surely, Nigeria is not an authoritarian state and government cannot outlaw the opposition. But as a party, the PDP would rather not have an opposition despite its importance in a democracy. This is why the ruling party is not satisfied with its control of the centre and more than half of the states. It must have all and in perpetuity.

    With an unlimited access to state resources for which it is not accountable to anyone, and a shameless practice of withholding state allocations to punish the opposition, the PDP-led central government is able to outspend the opposition without having to worry about its performance. But that path, as shady as it is, is still short of the use of raw power. And since the ruling party must demonstrate its will to power, it is not reluctant to embark on the obnoxious practice of impeaching APC governors to emasculate and neutralise the opposition. It does not matter that if and when that happens, we have to bid democracy farewell.

    We cannot be so confident that it would not happen. APC emerged as the only credible alternative to PDP. Other parties, including Labour and APGA, conscious of the ruthlessness of the ruling party, have presented themselves as co-travellers with the PDP juggernaut. This was certainly the case with Anambra’s governorship elections and with how Governors Obi and Mimiko collaborated with PDP governors in the infamous NGF election. Neither of these two parties has any ambition to challenge the ruling party for the star prize at the centre. Should APC be deactivated, democracy is in serious danger. This is why what the ruling party chooses to do to APC is not just a matter for the latter, it must be a concern of all democrats to stand up and speak out. The use of state power and resources to decapitate the opposition is an unacceptable abuse of power.

    To be sure, APC has other challenges, including that of public perception for which the party may be partially responsible, but which is spawned out of the womb of PDP propaganda machine. When at the inception of APC, a presidential spokesperson argued that ACN, one of APC’s legacy parties, had by merging with others, lost the Southwest, not a few observers brushed it aside as a thoughtless proposition. Little did it occur to us that the vulgar propaganda war, for which the Presidency is the brigade commander, had just begun, with atrocious labels—islamists, terrorists, Boko Haram sponsors—pinned on APC and its leadership. When the Federal Government is unable to fight a ragtag militant group tormenting the Northeast, it resorted to the politicisation of security, blaming the opposition for the evil that ails the nation. And in its desperation, the ruling party almost succeeded in hanging the opposition just by calling it a bad name.

    How has the APC responded? How might it respond? Determined to show the nation that performance matters in governance, APC-controlled states went to work on infrastructural development and urban renewal programmes, the kind that make Fashola’s Lagos the pride of the nation. Those who criticise such development programmes as elitist must be forgiven for their ignorance or mischief. APC states also focus like a laser beam on innovative approaches to education, as typified by Aregbesola’s Opon Imo, an African ingenuity that has gained international acclaim. Health and social welfare programmes have not been neglected with models of free health missions in most APC states, including Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti.

    In truth, then, policy-wise, APC has delivered on its manifesto in all the states it controls. What else might the party do in the wake of its recent loss in Ekiti and the PDP ruthless machine of deception and intimidation? First, the opposition must come to terms with the reality that the battle of propaganda has been lopsided in favour of the ruling party, which has been on the offensive, especially with its embarrassing politicisation of religion or its benefit. With a sophisticated electorate, this may backfire. But the challenge is there, and the approach to this challenge requires not a reverse propaganda, but an intellectual and practical demonstration of what APC stands for and does well. The performance of the governors in the various sectors of the society in the APC states needs to be showcased for all to see through various media outlets.

    Second, if propaganda has a role, it is best played by the APC caucus in the National Assembly. Its members are in a position to x-ray the inadequacies of the ruling party in the legislature and executive. They have information about executive actions and policies. They have first-hand knowledge of the state of the nation as determined by Federal Government policies.

    Third, there is no denying the needless personality conflicts within the hierarchy of party leadership in several states. While one cannot rule out the corrupting influence of the ruling party and its aggressive effort to win back some of its defecting members, the APC must face the reality of serious internal disaffection that has nothing to do with greed. If it’s a game of numbers, a struggling opposition cannot afford to lose any of its supporters and must aggressively reconcile all factions.

    Finally, the leadership must take a cue from the Awolowo playbook. The Avatar rarely gave off-the-cuff remarks. But when he made a pronouncement on a national issue, it was always oracular. And as he would add: Verbum sap.

     

     

  • Osun poll: The passion of Ogbeni…

    Prelude to the June 21 Ekiti State election, this column waded in on the side of the incumbent Kayode Fayemi because it was the right thing to do, taking cognisance of his antecedent and his performance in office. Also judging by the puny personality of his major contender in terms of integrity quotient, record in office, possession of the requisite gravitas and nobility for high office, this column insists that Fayemi and not Fayose is more deserving of the office even though one cannot help but respect the choice of Ekiti people.

    In the same manner and going by the parameters listed above, this column will vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to remain as the governor of Osun State on August 9. The Ogbeni advantage, just as in Fayemi’s, is made seemingly unassailable when ranged against an opponent, Iyiola Omisore, who is weakened and compromised by an odious antecedent. In the days of yore when elders were the spirits of the land and taboos were indeed, abominations to the living and the dead, an Omisore would not deign to be a leader in Yoruba land. In those days, elders would sit at dawn at the first crow of the cock and speak as one with the gods; pour libation and set the land aright, an Omisore would never have found the face to stand before the people to seek to lead them.

    But this is an age that is at once licentious and forgiving; an age that easily changes black in white, using confounding ‘means and machinery’. We are in an age that not only gets away with murder (in a manner of speaking), the more dastardly murderous a man can dare to be, the better he is ‘regarded’ in the society. It is in this kind of weird world that an Omisore would stand a strong contender in a governorship election.

    It is not to say that Ogbeni is the quintessence of humanity or a citizen of the celestial realms. It is just that he has a track record and a reference point that even his opponents cannot fault. Ogbeni is also a man of immense passion; burning passion for the people; passion to drive change, to improve and to make good. You may quarrel with his method or even the fiery intensity of his passion, but it is often in the quest for the greatest good for the people.

    This column had occasions to prick and jab him on some of his actions, especially his dalliance with religion in his state, but his finer motive it turned out, is to upgrade learning and education in his state. Though Christians may have misconstrued it as antagonism towards their faith, what are we to then make of his government’s move to catalyse the building of a mega Christian centre, perhaps the largest of its kind in the country, in his state. Of course, Muslims would see this as deploying the state’s machinery for the propagation of the Christian faith, but for the Ogbeni, the nobler motive is to tap into Christianity’s huge economic potentialities to develop his state.

    Such is Ogbeni’s passion, which had been manifest right from his days as the commissioner for works in the Bola Tinubu years in Lagos. He is part of the mastermind and architect of some of the great developmental strides that have unfurled under Babatunde Fashola in Lagos. Of course, Ogbeni is not only a master of the grassroots; he is the essential man of the people who eats his roast corn with the people both on and off camera. The people of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, his constituency and domain, would testify to this.

    If half of the governors are half as passionate about working for the people as Ogbeni, there would be less strive in the land and the country would progress in leaps and bounds. In nobler climes, Ogbeni would not have had to campaign to be returned to office. But this column wagers that the Ogbeni passion would carry him through: for a man who is credible both on the streets and in the State House, who has rolled out as much physical infrastructure as the fabled stomach substructure, the people of Osun will be utterly nihilistic not to return him. They need to be vigilant too.

    Purchased impeachments

    We are back to the desperate days of power-at-all cost once again. Why don’t Nigerian politicians grow up for a change? Who would think the day would ever break again when elected governors would be hounded like rabbits in this country as we witnessed in the Olusegun Obasanjo era? Who would imagine that a Goodluck Jonathan presidency would allow itself to journey through such path of perdition once again? Recall that Obasanjo had singled out erstwhile Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha for roasting and he had assailed the entire federal might against him. Obasanjo chased Alams (as he is known) to his political death and near physical death. Alams was Jonathan’s boss and godfather. It took a Jonathan presidency to pardon and resurrect Alams and return some of the remains of his life to him only recently.

    Almostthe same treatment was meted out to ex-governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau State); Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo State); Chris Ngige (Anambra State) and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. Former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State was engaged in a furious auto chase on the highways between Jos and Lokoja by Obasanjo’s federal goons in one of those moments of madness. It was his dexterity that saved him from an ignominious ousting or even a fatal crash. But more notably is that none of those governors accused and ‘impeached’, some in hotel rooms and at night time through Obasanjo’s sleight of hand ever got prosecuted much more convicted. Alams, the only one convicted (through the help of the British judiciary), was recently pardoned and perhaps absolved of the treasury looting he was accused. Fayose was still being ‘tried’ when he was made the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ekiti governorship election.

    From hindsight, Obasanjo will today rue his rascality and bad faith in plotting to rout the governors elected just as he was, and corrupt as he was. If he is capable of some deep thinking, he would worry that he damaged Nigeria’s fledgling democracy by his actions, which were clearly born out of vendetta and megalomania. And finally, because he is equally as culpable as they come, he too stands to give account (and face a worse fate) as long as he lives; and indeed, even posthumously.

    This is why we remind President Jonathan that we all have walked this path of perdition before and it leads only to a dead end. It is folly to deny that the presidency has no hand in the gale of impeachments blowing through the land… Adamawa is ‘downed’, Nasarawa is ‘lined’ and others are in the works. Denial is futile because no state legislature can impeach any governor in the land today; that is the real tragedy of Nigeria’s situation.

    LAST MUG: Putin putting the world on fire: What shall we do with Russia’s strong man Vladimir Putin? He seems set finally on miring what is left of this fragile world. The Russian Federation is the largest nation in the world and potentially the richest, but the economy is still weak largely because of poor leadership. There is therefore so much to occupy any Russian leader who craves hero status. But Putin seems only interested in annexing even more empires. Not satisfied with wrenching Crimea from Ukraine recently as the world watches, he has worked up rebels, sons of Belial, to scourge their fatherland Ukraine and vigorously fuel a civil war in which hundreds die daily. And last week, a commercial Malaysian plane MH 17 was downed, perishing 298 poor souls. We ask: shall we hand Putin the entire world to run?

  • Misplaced optimism?

    Misplaced optimism?

    I have a special love for Reggae, and one of the two foremost priests of the genre is Jimmy Cliff. On two occasions in the recent past, I jubilantly and optimistically embraced his lyric of some years ago:

    “I can see clearly now the rain is gone// I can see all obstacles in my way// Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind// It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day//. Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone//All of the bad feelings have disappeared//Here is that rainbow I have been praying for//It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day.”

    I embraced Jimmy Cliff’s lyric, not as a personal affirmation of any new development in my life. I am thankful to God for who I am and what He has made of me. I seek no further affirmation that I have been blessed through His Grace. But like Nehemiah of old, I see the ruin in my Jerusalem. I see the downing of its fence. I see the shattered young lives, the sea of heads that roam aimlessly the streets of our urban centres, the hopeless and hapless ones in rural enclaves that are deceived into finding excitement in dope. I see a future so bleak that nothing but miracle can redeem.

    Then as I cried on account of what appeared to be a lost hope, it suddenly appeared that an end was in sight for the pain and gloom to cease. The dark cloud hanging over the future was about to disappear and the rainbow of a new era for dear country was about to emerge.

    Such was my optimistic reaction to two national events in the last 12 months. The first was the registration of what appeared to me to be a real opposition party that could at least offer a serious alternative to the party that has held the nation hostage for 15 years or so. I will get to this later. The second was the President’s reversal of his opposition to the convocation of a national conference to deal with the major structural defects of the polity. When some major stakeholders cried foul and canvassed skepticism and cynicism, I declared for the message of hope that I thought the President delivered even when I saw some contradictions in his inaugural address to the conferees.

    What now? You may ask. Where is the nation at the end of the conference? And yes, where is the future for a real democratic process as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Leviathan triumphantly rampages the land? What, indeed, is the chance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a game that appears to be violently rigged against it and in which it appears to be a willing contestant? And yes, where is the hope of the nation in the event that both of these seemingly optimism-inspiring initiatives take a back seat and the status quo ante remains? I shiver at the thought of an answer.

    Why is the impasse that has come to be the lot of the National Conference so illogical and so painful?

    First, it is because everyone knows or at least ought to know that the present system cannot be sustained. Therefore, causing or permitting the failure of a life safer of sort is contrary to the interest of the country and its citizens. In a sense, then, if the delegates were truly committed to making the experiment that is still Nigeria work, they would have patiently and prudently worked to resolve the issues that divided them. This much they owed to the President, assuming, of course, that Mr. President himself held high hopes for the success of the parley, and he didn’t just cleverly fly a political kite.

    Second, conference participants from the six geo-political zones and various interest groups represent the cream of the Nigerian state. Among delegates in the elder statesmen category are individuals who have served the country in various capacities since the First Republic. They have invested precious time and mental resources in the Nigerian project. Younger conferees have been no less committed. Indeed, a good number of participants in this category believe rightly that the future is theirs to fashion. It is therefore not for lack of experience or enthusiasm that the conference failed to resolve the most critical issues.

    Thirdly, for anyone who still believes, as I do, that making Nigeria work is still far better because it is far more in the interest of everyone than the alternative, the failure of the conference and the collapse of the hope that its success had promised is extremely disappointing. Now the future is bleak. Now, plenty of lethal ammunition has been supplied into the arsenal of the enemies of a united federation of equal entities where no one is oppressed. This was the ideal encapsulated in the eternal lines of our first national anthem: a federal structure that respects pre-colonial cultures and structures, but brings them together to build a new nation in which the differences of tribe and tongue do not prevent the unity of purpose of a Black African republic that inspires the Black race throughout the world. Where is that hope now when the status quo ante, with its obvious anomalies, is preserved? And if Nigeria cannot be that inspiration, who can?

    Fourthly, I have certainly argued and canvassed for a true federation on the ground of its pragmatic effectiveness for a nation of diverse linguistic and cultural differences. Of course, I do not believe as some do, that it is divinely ordained. It was the wish and determination of Britain through the instrumentality of its colonial agents that an entity named Nigeria must be. It was a creation of force, maintained by force for 46 years and then granted independence. We managed ourselves for seven years and concluded that we must be together. We fought a war of unity and unity won the battle. The victory was, however, illusory because we avoided the needed corrective action. In the circumstance, much hope was placed on this conference to address and come up with a sustainable solution. And then it failed to agree on the most critical issue of structure and power devolution.

    Fifthly, I am sure that no one is now counting on either the President or the National Assembly to take up the mantle. The latter has not hidden its resentment of the idea behind the conference in the first place. In anticipation of its unlikely success, feelers had been sent out by the leadership of the Assembly about its reluctance to lend a hand to do the desirable with respect to an enabling legislation. Now, they don’t have to worry about being blackmailed by the nation. On his part, Mr. President can simply wash his hands off. After all, he has done what he was supposed to do. He initiated a National Conference as desired by the people. What can a Technical Committee achieve where the people’s delegates failed?

    The most painful aspect of all these, however, is that the conference failed because delegates failed to compromise on the matter of the distribution of revenue accruing to the nation from its natural resources. Without doing much about revenue generation, delegates bickered over its distribution. Why can’t serious consideration be given to the appalling conditions under which our compatriots in the creek areas of the Niger Delta live, knowing fully that they bear the brunt of the development of oil and gas that fills the coffers of the nation? How can patriots be so obsessed with self-interest that they cannot even think rationally about the overall good of the nation? The news that some delegates rejected the establishment of state police by those states that want it and can afford it is unbelievable. For it remains unclear why, in a federal system, what some states want for the security of their citizens and can afford should be the concern of anyone.

    I will get to the matter of opposition politics next week.

     

     

     

  • Bye for now!

    Dear Ramadan,

    In the name of the Almighty Allah and with His mercy and blessings, which you brought to us, we salute you. For the past 27 days, you have been our guest. And in the next couple of days you shall remain in our midst serving as the forum through which Allah’s compassion is showered on us. With your visit, you have transformed our lives positively and rekindled our hopes spiritually.

    Before you first descended on this world about 1435 years ago, what we used to know of hospitality was the entertainment which the host offered his guest. But with your arrival, that tradition was reversed in a revolutionary manner. You became the only known guest in the world, who entertains his host to satisfaction. Yours is a hospitality that cannot be measured in quality or quantity. And, that is why the universal preparation for your arrival, every year is unequalled.

    Premium recompense

    With your awful and charismatic nature, you arrive in the world every year with a splendour that re-jigs the souls of mankind and reconditions their daily routine. History is yet to show us a guest like you who engages his hosts days and nights even as he places premium on their recompense. But for your annual visit, who could have dared waking us up from our tactless deep sleep for a whole period of 30 or 29 days and nights? Who could have been recalling us back from our stray into the wilderness of avarice and ostentation? Not even the day of Arafat in Hajj has any means of competing with you in whatever way. Arafat plays host to only a few millions of pilgrims in a single day. You engage the entire humanity for a whole month, days and nights in their domain except those who reject your offer.

    Even the unbelievers are forced to recognise your presence with veneration despite your invisibility. For instance, all the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, all over the world prepare for your arrival if only to take advantage of your grandiose presence to do brisk business. Today, the greatest persecutors of Islam in Britain and the US are forced to pretend to be friends of that divine religion by hosting Muslims to Iftar in London and Washington. Yet, each time you come around, most of us receive you reluctantly. But, when it is time for you to go, we hardly want to part with you again.

    And when we are eventually forced to say bye for now according to the law that established our relationship, we do so only in tears.

    Timeliness

    No other time of the year injects into us, the vivid consciousness of our faith as you do. No other pillar of Islam instils in us the high level of discipline which you take us through for a whole month. We acknowledge the effect of your role in our lives and we pray the Almighty Allah to sustain that effect in us so that the door to AL-JANNAH which you evidently represent may not be locked against us when it is time to take our place in that everlasting home of bliss.

    With your coming once a year, we learn that life is never static.

    Neither are the things inside it. No man of reason and letters stays put at a particular spot. Human body system gets strong only by shifting positions and moving around. Meeting and parting with fellow human beings from time to time are what make life interesting.

    Interacting and intermingling with other elements of nature are the ingredients that fertilise the soil of harmony on our terrestrial planet.

    The sun would have been boring, despite its usefulness to mankind, if it does not rise in the east at dawn and set in the west at twilight.

    No water spring would have been drinkable if it had remained stagnant on a permanent basis. Had the arrow refused to part with the bow, it would not have been able to hit its target.  The regular exchange of baton between days and nights is what makes calendar possible for humanity.

    We came into the world as travellers in transit. Our travel from father’s port of semen to the confines of mother’s womb in form of foetus is a transit. Our transformation from stage to stage inside that womb as vividly described by the Qur’an is a transit. And, following our arrival in this world, we naturally embark on a pilgrimage from the unknown to the unknown. Thus, any stage or condition in which we find ourselves in life at any given time is a transit. Without such transit human life would have been monotonously valueless. Ditto other forces of nature, seen or unseen, animate or inanimate.

    Not by Fortuity

    Our world, the earth, did not come into existence by fortuity. Our ancestors, Adam and his wife, Hawa’u (Eve) were not created to take charge of the earth by fortuity. The divine law by which this world is governed was not coined to guide us by fortuity. And man’s peregrination in it, towards the world hereafter, is not by fortuity.

    All these are a ground design of a great revolution through which the meaning of the universe is to be understood. That design is the handiwork of the Supreme Being known to Muslims as ALLAH.

    The divine signature appended to that design is what came to be known as the Qur’an which you (Ramadan) facilitated through a single night inside you, that Allah described as “more beneficial than 1000 months.

    That signature (The Qur’an) is inimitable and unsurpassable not only in the grandeur of its diction and the splendour of its contents but also in its connotation, essence and profundity. Its summary is what is known to humanity as ‘REVOLUTION’.

    By implication, the Qur’an can be semantically called ‘THE GREAT REVOLUTION’ that transformed the world from the sphere of obscurity into that of unimaginable sophistication. Yet, it is through the great night inside you, called ‘LAYLATUL QADR’ that such a great revolution came to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). If only the Qur’an is what humanity is privileged to access through your motherly belly it would have been enough. And what is more, your contribution to the guidance of mankind transcends the Qur’an alone.

    A former American President, John F. Kennedy, did not know that he was describing the Qur’an when he once said: “We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age- the freedom and fulfilment of man”.

    Other Pillars of Islam

    In your absence, the other four pillars of Islam could presumably be engaged in an imaginary debate each claiming to be the key to paradise. Faith, for instance, might claim that without her, all other pillars could only exist in vain.

    To counter her claim, Salat might describe her five daily appearances in the life of a Muslim as the impetus that gives faith a deserved relevance. Zakah, on its own, may recount to the first two that whoever would be faithful enough to observe Salat ought to be married to Zakah either as a giver or as a receiver. And, at that point, Hajj might come in to contend that only a semblance of the ‘Hereafter’ (Yawmul Qiyamah), which she represents, can authenticate the spiritual visa with which humanity would ushered into paradise through the wagons of other pillars. She might claim that without her as an emancipator of rightly guided humanity from the shackles of Satan, no one would have had the slightest idea of what that Great Day would be.

    When you are around, dear Ramadan, all other pillars fall in line conceding leadership to you without any argument. You are not just the undeniable evidence of faith in man; you are also the most reliable witness of Salat, Zakah and Hajj.

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) attested to this through one Hadith-ul-Qudsi when he quoted Allah as saying that “Fasting (in Ramadan) is mine and I am the one to give reward on it”.

    To fast while you are around, faith must not only be present, it must also be a formidable foundation. Salat must also convincingly increase the tempo of her spiritual vitality. Whoever is not dressed in the toga of faith and feather his hat of Salat will only be wasting his time if he claims to be fasting. And when you are about to return home according to your tradition, Zakah must appear before you to pay homage in the name of ‘Sadaqatul Fitr’. Even Hajj which, statutorily, should not meet you, must also send an envoy to pay homage to you in the name of Umrah (Lesser Hajj).

    By making this observation, one is not trying to crown you as the king of the pillars of Islam. But with the awful role you play every year, the position of a coordinator may be ascribed to you directly or indirectly.

    In the light of the aforementioned, we cannot persuade you to stay with us permanently since going and coming once every year adds to the legendary grandeur that makes us crave for you passionately on your arrival.

    We fervently pray the Almighty Allah to grant us further opportunities to benefit in the years ahead, from the unlimited bounties which you are privileged to bring to us every year. With tears flowing through our eyes, we bid you adieu for now hoping we shall meet again by the grace of Allah.

    Nostalgia

    Prior to your arrival, dear Ramadan, some people dreamt but never lived to realise their dreams. Some looked but never saw. It is only in the imagination of man that age or illness should be the cause of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever was privileged to have passed through your endearing presence successfully this year should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after your departure. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

    In about two days’ time, you will bid us bye by the grace of Allah.

    But we shall continue to look back with nostalgia to the good things we have done under your influence while you were around. For instance, we shall remember that in no other month of Hijrah calendar is the role of Muslim women more pronounced than whenever you are around.

    Like in other months, they often display the roles of wives, mothers as well as those of their husbands’ confidants. But more than in other months, they exhibit their religious dedication to your divine admiration.

    During your sacred presence this year, they fasted like their men counterparts. They prayed five times daily like men did. They also joined those men in observing Tarawih. Some of them even attended Tafsir and public lectures. Yet they engaged in their daily work just like their men counterparts either in the offices, shops, or farms.

    And they never relented in carrying out their matrimonial duties.

    Even as they assisted their husbands financially in maintaining the homes, they still took care of those husbands as well as the children and relatives domestically. At the time of the day when the husbands were knocked out by fatigue arising from fasting, the wives were still busy in the kitchen preparing Iftar for the household. At the time in the night when some husbands were engaged in Tahajjud, or were snoring in bed, the wives were already up in the kitchen preparing the Sahur for the family.

    Some of these women were carrying pregnancy. Some were suckling their children. Some of them were knowledgeable enough to do the Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an) like their husbands. Some were even rich enough to finance the home fully or partially.

    And, in all these activities, they never felt tired. Where and when fatigue seemed to set in, they never showed it. If any month ever depicted the virtues of women and their activities during your visit, it is you Ramadan. Thus, for their activities in Ramadan alone, they deserve tenderness and dignified treatment in the hands of their husbands.

    Needs and wants

    It is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives.

    Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not, ordinarily, given to WANTS. They are more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

    Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He knew that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what informed the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam.

    By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been shed. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man.

    And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

    The effect of WANTS first became known when Qabil (Cain), the first son of Adam preferred his brother’s wife to his. In the tantrum that ensued from that unfortunate episode, Qabil (Cain) killed his brother Habil (Abel) and combined the latter’s wife with his. Thus, greed and avarice became ingredients of man’s culture. And WANTS rather than NEEDS became the domineering factor in the life of man. This is one of the vices which you often come to correct in man.

    Summary of facts

    At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence be more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth.

    Some people fasted actively last year but were no more to witness this year. Some put their feet at the door step   of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some felt by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month. Some sat on the fence with one leg here and the other there. However, none was hidden from Allah.

    Now, all is over. But we shall keep remembering those days with indelible nostalgia. We shall recall our anxiety while looking towards sighting the moon that would usher us into the glorious month. We shall not forget the compensating evenings of Tarawih and the marvellous nights of Thajjud and Sahur. We shall look back to the immaculate days of Tafsir and the exclusiveness of ‘Itikaf. Yes our minds will not be off the great expectations embedded in the majesty LAYLATUL QADR as well as the great pleasure in the payment of Zakatul Fitr. All these will surely enable us to take a retrospective look at your grandiose annual presence with nostalgia. Bye for now until we meet again.

  • Wanted: A university for parenting

    Wanted: A university for parenting

    The way of Philistines: We are all caught up in the iniquitous whirl of Nigeria’s daily minutiae: Boko Haram, Chibok girls, PDP, APC, 2015, INEC elections, power outages, contrived impeachments and all such. These banalities have so much taken up our lives that we never seem to stop and reflect any more or better still we do not have the capacity for deep reflection in this age. Nigeria seems to have been boiled down (or dumbed down if you like) to money and power. We are so engrossed in our inanities that we do not seem to realise that our Nigerian universe is sitting on its head. We, all of us, are caught in the vortex of this raging monster and it seems we cannot help ourselves.

    I was going to do a pot-pourri of the fallout of the Malala visit, the $1 billion loan to fight Boko Haram, the yanking of Nyako from his seat and the Federal Government’s Victim Support Fund. But the Tolani Ajayi case kept tugging at my subconscious. Last week I had re-run an old piece about another young man who butchered his father in cold blood but the matter refused to grow cold in my mind. And the more I dwell on it, the more I came to the realisation that we are daily troubled (or would you prefer consumed) by symptoms and outcomes while incognizant of the origins of our troubles.

    One would expect the pathetic story of Tolani Ajayi to give us some sort of national heartburn and stop us short in our mired tracks, but no, it’s just another story in our sad saga. But Tolani’s is not another ordinary story. The 21-year-old 300 level student of Redeemers’ University early in July stabbed his father with a knife and not done, reached for a machete and hacked him to pieces. He packed the body and hauled it to a nearby dumpsite. He returned to the house and coolly went about other chores as if nothing happened, but for the trail he left that led back to the scene of the crime.

    How to kill a good father: Why would a young man, an undergraduate commit such atrocity against one that sired him, a lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)?

    Tolani said: “He was a good father and actually took care of us very well. I was just angry that day.” But what this matter has thrown up are the issues of family and parenting, religion and delinquent behaviours. In other words, it is calling to question the state of our overall human and social milieu. Family units around here have been in distress largely as a result of sustained grinding poverty inflicted on the people by our various governments. By pocketing our commonwealth, our leaders constrict our economic space, shrinking opportunities for many and causing fault lines in families.

    There is the adjunct issue of parenting. Besides the fact that many parents are distraught by the sheer quest for survival, quite a large number of men and women who come together in matrimony have no clue about parenting and child rearing. The mindset is that children are gifts from God and only He can take care of them. This is why one wishes there was a school where couples may be certificated on the art and science of child-rearing before they begin to procreate. While many do not even know the rudimentary, especially about the early stage management of children, in this digital age, at merely 10, most children have become far more exposed and smarter than their parents. And at this stage, parents and children hardly speak the same ‘language’ anymore. The other day at a crowded airport lounge, a little boy of about two or three years, restless and seemingly unrestrained, simply set the entire place afire. His poor young mother was helpless, adding to the bedlam by screaming herself hoarse. If a child is uncontrollable as a toddler, at 12 he would probably be out of hand or even the house.

    God will do it? Many simply hide under the shadow of religion, drag their children under its nebulous cover and assume all is well. Religion is okay if children are properly oriented into it and if parents have true understanding and are pious; but it becomes dangerous if it is a mere placebo, a cure-all pill. In the Tolani example, the young man suggested that he was angered by his father waking him at 1am for a prayer and forcing him to respond “amen”. Because he would not respond, his father hit him and even bit his shoulder, the story goes. If this be the case, there is something anomalous about compelling a 21-year-old man to pray. At 21, to pray or not ought to be a personal choice.

    Lastly, it has been suggested that the young man Tolani may have been on drugs and may have exhibited some extreme deviant behaviours; he is under a panel in his school. The lesson here is that parents must respond quickly and seek professional help immediately they notice their children may be into drugs or exhibit any psychotic tendencies. Prayers are good, but they must be deployed hand-in-hand with professional help. Living in a prayer house, hiding the fact that a child is into drug use or having a mental trouble will only compound the problem.

    There is also the matter of absentee parents who can only afford what they term ‘quality’ time for their children and we ask: what happens to the rest of the ‘quantity’ time? Parenting is so complex, so dynamic and so crucial to our very existence, yet it is hardly treated at all anywhere, not even with levity. Again, why aren’t there schools where parents could take refresher courses.

    LAST MUG: To the master, Dr. Dare, at 70

    Just the way you begin to feel that everything has been written about our genius of all times, Wole Soyinka, who turned 80 last week, one is bound to seek new words to qualify Dr. Olatunji Dare who hit the landmark age, 70,  yesterday. But if you knew Dare at all, you will never be in want of what to say about him. For instance, in 1985 as an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, he published my first article in the op-ed page of The Guardian. I will never forget the headline: “Re: Those stunted stalactites”. It was a little biting rejoinder to his article of same title and I had sent it in prospectively not knowing whether he would publish it.

    But to my elation, he did not only publish it, he also published many more from me and the experience was like walking in the moon around the campus those days. And I never needed to meet him. He is not only among the best minds that held a pen in Nigeria in this age; he is the kind of human that may have become extinct in this part of the world these days: urbane, humane, civil and so unprepossessing. He is so prim and proper one begins to think it would be interesting to know what blemishes dot his pristine linen. In more civilised climes he would be a much sought after national asset; he would be among the comity of ‘saints’, guiding the soul of the state. But unfortunately, not here.

  • Abuse of Ramadan

    Abuse of Ramadan

    It is rather ironic that today’s world takes Muslims for the mirror through which Islam is perceived when the opposite is actually the case. Just as it is wrong to measure knowledge in an institution of learning by the quantity or quality of structures available therein so it is wrong to use Muslims as the mirror through which to see Islam in its naked and avowed nature. On the contrary, Islam is the mirror through which Muslims are supposed to be seen. Not the other way round. No reasonable person will blame Nigerian constitution for the gross misconduct of some maleficent Nigerians abroad. Nigerian constitution is one thing the misconduct of Nigerians is another. The one is not and cannot be a corollary of the other.

    When this sacred religion was revealed to mankind through Prophet Muhammad (SAW) almost 1,500 years ago, it was with certain fundamental norms meant to guide humanity towards all that is virtuous. One of the

    most valuable embodiments of Islam is the month of Ramadan. With it, all genuine Muslims rein themselves against satanic recklessness.

    Qur’anic revelations

    Here is the sacred month in which the revelation of the Qur’an began in 610 C.E. It was in this divine month that the last divine constitution with which to liberate humanity from the shackles of Satan was revealed. The real spiritual essence of Ramadan is to show mankind the right path to Paradise by guiding them through the transit called the world.

    This symbolic month is like a school in which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was both the pioneer student and the pioneer teacher. All other students who went through this school or are still going through it are heirs to the forerunners.

    The duty of those heirs is to serve as shepherds for the wandering flock of the universe. This duty confirms man as Allah’s vicegerent on earth. Anyone who is in a position to serve as a shepherd but does otherwise has surely kicked against the rules of his creator.

    Ironically, most of those we perceive as shepherd in our society are worse than the lost sheep they are supposed to guide. For those who know and appreciate it the opportunity of rebirth provided by this sacred month has no duplicate. It is like a ‘once in a while’ train which everyone should endeavour not to miss. Missing it is like missing a lifelong destiny. But will the recalcitrant ones heed the warning?

    Season of jamboree

    With the arrival of Ramadan this year a scene of jamboree took over most radio and television stations as usual especially in the Southwest of Nigeria. Many pseudo Alfas who had become redundant dusted their gowns and turbans for the purpose of sharing from the annual largess which the sacred month came with. Such pseudo Alfas who might have taken advantage of some ignorant Muslim money bags in the society by asking them to sponsor Ramadan preaching will begin to swarm on the airwaves like bees on a hive. With little or no knowledge at all, those pretenders will pose as learned scholars and start dishing out rubbish by arrogating to themselves the knowledge they do not possess.

    Clerics or charlatans

    One of the characteristics of such ‘Alfas’ is to spend the first 10 minutes or thereabout singing the praises of their sponsors and chanting some irrelevant slogans even as they tell primordial stories which have neither roots nor bearing with Islam. Their trade in stock is to seek relevance by showing their faces on television or by airing their voices on radio just to be recognised as Alfas. Such are people who have no knowledge and do not seek it. Rather than guiding ignorant Muslims, which is the primary duty of genuine Muslim clerics, they further mislead them.

    With this category of Alfas, all that matters is the money they want to make through deception as well as the cheap fame they want to gain.

    Thus, year in and out, this is their deed in the month of Ramadan. The impression they give is that Ramadan is an annual religion celebrated with fanfare only in the sacred month.

    The most embarrassing aspect of their action is the faulty recitation of the Qur’an and the shameless misinterpretation they give it. This on its own is not just an abuse of Ramadan but also a flagrant abuse of the Qur’an. Thus, they turn the sacred month into one of gross abuse of Islamic religion. What they do not understand is that the Qur’an in its original form is not just any book which any charlatan can dust up once in a year in order to fetch money for self.

    For the learned, reading any book at all has a purpose and a method.

    No good reader will ever read a book without taking note of its author, its publisher and its date of publication. And to read any new book, the very first point of call is its contents which tell you the topics and the subjects you will read about in it. Then, to have an idea of the entire book in its summary form, before reading it, a good reader goes straight not only to the introduction or preface to such a book but also to the foreword written on it. The combination of both will surely give the reader a pretty idea of what the book is all about. This is the shortest means of familiarising oneself with a new book before going through its chapters.

    Language of the Qur’an

    Most Muslim clerics read the Qur’an in its original language (Arabic) without understanding what they are reading because they do not speak that language.  Some read it as a means of solving their imaginary problems thus taking the Qur’an for a charm which must yield result if manipulated towards their whims. The Qur’an is not meant for that purpose. It is rather the manual of life for man by which he lives his daily life and conducts his daily affairs.

    The word Qur’an means continuous recitation and understanding. It is so called because of its inimitable origin which makes it a compelling daily reading throughout the world, across nations and ages. It is the unsurpassed word of Allah not only in the grandeur of its diction and splendour of its rendition but also in the depth of its meaning, substance and profundity.

    Profile of the Qur’an

    The revelation of this Book to mankind through an unlettered desert Arab, Muhammad son of Abdullah and Aminah, began in the month of Ramadan in year 610 CE. It lasted about 22 years (10 years in Makkah and12 years plus a few months in Madinah). The book contains 114 chapters and 6,246 verses (not 6,666 verses often announced by most Imams and Alfas). Any individual can verify this by checking the number of verses in each chapter and adding them together. It does not take more than one hour to do this.

    Of the 114 chapters contained in the Qur’an, 86 were revealed in Makkah and 28 in Madinah. But the 28 chapters revealed in Madinah constitute two thirds of the entire Book. And this is because the Makkah chapters are short and rhythmic while those of Madinah are long and prose-like.

    Although the Qur’an was revealed orally, its writing began almost immediately the revelations started. The writing was however done on primitive materials like wood, animal hides, back of trees and others of the like which were then readily available. It was only much later, after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), that those writings were brought together and rendered into a book form. And one of the wonders of recording the Qur’an in writing is the classification of those revelations into chapters and verses by the Prophet himself despite his illiteracy.

    The manner of presenting the Qur’anic revelations is simple and direct. It employs neither artifice nor conventional poses. Its main appeal is to man’s intellect, feelings and imagination. It does not only touch the anecdotes of the past Prophets in different ages and nations as well as the accounts of earlier revelations, it also covers the period from the beginning of creation to the very last Day of Judgment and beyond.

    Not only that, Al-Qur’an also gives insight into some natural phenomena like sphericity and revolution of the earth (Q. 39:5) the formation of rain (Q. 30:48); the fertilisation of the wind (Q. 15:22); the revolution of the sun, the moon and the planets in their fixed orbits (Q. 36:29-38); the aquatic origin of all creatures (Q. 21:30); the duality of the sex of plants and other creatures (Q. 36:35); the collective life of animals (Q.6:38); the mode of life of the bees (Q. 16:69) and the successive phases of the child in the mother’s womb (Q. 22:5 & 23:14). Yet, the purpose of this Book is not to teach history, astronomy, philosophy or sciences. The details of these will be spelt out fully after Ramadan under a theme to be called ‘ANATOMY OF THE QUR’AN’ in sha’Allah.

    Controversy

    Meanwhile, there is a raging controversy among Muslim scholars over the first and last revelations in the Qur’an. Much as this controversy is unwarranted, it may be necessary to clear the coast here (without laying any claim to authority) if only for the purpose of authenticating history.

    It is almost a consensus that the first revealed chapter in the Qur’an is Suratul ‘Alaq (Chapter of the Clot). But the very first revelation reaching   Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through Angel Jibril is ‘BASMALAH’

    (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful) which precedes every chapter in the Qur’an except one (Suratut-Tawah) .

    As a Messenger of Allah to another Messenger of Allah, Angel Jubril couldn’t have commanded Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to read anything without doing so in the name of Allah who sent him with the message.

    Thus, Suratul ‘Alaq, as preceded by ‘BASMALAH’, could only have been the first revealed chapter but not the first revelation.  And that is logical.

    As for the last revelation in the Qur’an majority of Nigerian Muslim scholars believe that it is chapter 5, verse 3 of the Qur’an which says: ‘’Today, I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favour on you. And, I am pleased with Islam for you as religion’’.

    That verse of the Qur’an that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) at ‘Arafah while performing his farewell Hajj couldn’t have been the last revelation. It came 81 days before the demise of the Prophet (SAW). And there was another revelation, thereafter, which came about nine days before the Prophet fell sick and died. This can be found in Qur’an 2: 281 which says: “And fear the day when you shall all return to Allah; the day when every soul shall be requited according to its desert and none shall be wronged”.

    Clarification

    The earlier verse was an accentuation of Hajj as the last pillar of Islam. And that was why it came on Arafah Day. The latter is a reminder of man’s final destination and the account of his worldly activities. These and many more are what readers of the Qur’an should know inside out. But the big question is this: who will teach them when the supposed teachers have sold out to money and ignorance? To Muslims who are conscious of their spiritual affinity and retain their conscience for the day they will meet their Creator and account for their deeds on earth ‘The Message’ says RAMADAN KARIM!

  • Reappraising Ramadan

    Reappraising Ramadan

    At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence

    be more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth. Some people fasted actively last year but are no more today. Some put their feet at the door step of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some fell by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the train with no idea of their destination in the month.

    At the beginning of the sacred month, an analysis was done in this column classifying the 30 or 29 days of Ramadan into three segments.

    The first segment was said to contain the first ten days of the month during which the blessings of Allah came to the faithful Muslims freely and in abundance. Except for meeting that segment with faith and good intention, there was no working for blessings. That segment ended on July 8, 2014 paving way for the second segment that began the following day.

    With the commencement of this middle 10 days period, most sincere fasting Muslims began to intensify worship (‘Ibadah) by spending their days and nights seeking Allah’s forgiveness and by chanting Istighfar while observing Tarawih and Tahajjud in addition to the normal five daily obligatory Salawat. Most of them also engage vehemently in Tilawah, Tafsir and attendance of public lectures for better understanding of Islam. However, forgiveness in this circumstance is neither automatic nor free. Usually, conditions are attached to it.

    One of such conditions is for all fasting Muslims to admit his/her misdeeds and repent on them. The second is for such Muslims to voluntarily and genuinely seek forgiveness. And the third condition is to resolve never to return to such misdeeds again. To seek Allah’s forgiveness during this segment, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said that “if you want to speak with Allah, make your request on prostration. And if you want Allah to speak to you recite the Qur’an”. And that was what Muslims of understanding are now doing.

    No one who abides by the above conditions and follows it scrupulously will ever be disappointed. Allah is both a promising and a fulfilling God. He never reneges on His promise. He promises in Qur’an 2:186 thus: “…when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad) about me, tell them that I am very close to them. I answer the prayers of whoever seeks my favour if he prays to me (without any intermediary). So, let them expect my favourable response and trust in me so that they may be rightly guided”. Money or material possession which constitutes vanity is not an evidence of acceptance of prayer in Islam.

     

    Second Segment

    This second segment of ten days is not just to consolidate on the blessings of the first ten days it is also to prepare the fasting Muslims for the last ten days when all genuine Muslims are expectedly ready to be fully liberated from the evil machinations of any Satanic forces. The last ten days which constitute the last segment are the most heavily pregnant in terms of spiritual activities. In that segment are such activities like I‘tikaf, Laylatul Qadr and Zakatul Fitr to be found. Zakatul Fitr can be called the climax of Ramadan while ‘Idul Fitr is its anti-climax. Whoever passes through that segment therefore without any blemish is qualified to profit here on earth and in the hereafter.

    However, gaining spiritual achievement is not as important as maintaining such achievement. It will be foolish of anybody to go through such a rigour for a whole month only to turn back and throw away the gains there from. That will seem like returning to one’s own vomit. If some people passed through the same rigour last year and did not see this year’s Ramadan it would be expected of those who are alive to learn a lesson from that. There is no automation in fasting every year. Only the grace of Allah can ensure that for some.

    Human life is not measured by the length of life or time and manner of   death. In Islam, death is neither the consequence of sin nor the repercussion of ignorance. There are instances when the sinless die and the sinful live. There are also instances when the learned one may die while the ignorant one lives. The schedule of life and death is not in the custody of any human being. Death is a debt which every living being owes and must pay.

     

    Jesus and Muhammad

    Not even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was spared of death or given a foreknowledge of it. Allah told him in the Qur’an: “Say I have not the power to benefit or to harm myself except what Allah pleases. Unto every nation is a fixed term. When their terms expire, they cannot delay it by an hour nor can they bring it forth before its time”. Q.10:49. And more than six hundred years before Prophet Muhammad (SAW), another Prophet, Isa (Jesus) the son of Maryam (Mary) had made a similar statement thus: “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me”. See John 5:30 and he expressed the same statement in another way in John 20:28 thus: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me”.  The statements by both Prophets though at different times, were made out of humility and exemplariness.

     

    Between dream and

    fulfilment

    Some people dream but never live to realize their dreams. Some look but never see. It is only in the imagination of man that age or accident or disease should be a cause of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time through the destined means. Therefore, whoever is privileged to pass through this year’s Ramadan successfully should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after the sacred month. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

    Let men remember the role of their wives during the month and renew their love for those wives. Let women recall the intimacy which Ramadan rekindles between them and their husbands during the month and sustain such intimacy if only for the sake of the children. Let parents’ happiness be derived from the role of their children in the sacred month and further encourage such children to do good in order to curry the favour of Allah. Let everybody remember the tremendous improvement which the month of Ramadan has brought to our relationship during the month and strive to sustain such relationship irrespective of tribe, language or religion.

     

    Relationship

    We should also review our relationship with our neighbours especially the non-Muslims among them in that month. In Islam, neighbours are as important as the next of kin. And, Islam attaches so much respect to them that Bukhari and Muslim quoted Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as saying three times that: “he does not believe in Allah whoever creates fear in his/her neighbours”. And in another Hadith also reported by Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet was quoted as saying: “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day let him be nice to his neighbours and respect his guests”

    In the month of Ramadan a good Muslim is expected to wear a new toga of sobriety and repentance. He doubles his good deeds towards his neighbours by extending generosity to them and by cultivating a new atmosphere of friendliness and trust with them. He genuinely gives them as much impression of love and brotherhood as he does with his con-sanguine relatives. It does not matter whether such neighbours are Muslims or non-Muslims. Neither does it matter whether they are fellow tribesmen or non-natives. The Prophet did not discriminate in his Hadith when he was admonishing his disciples on what relationship with neighbours should be. And that is the inalienable position of Islam on neighbours. Therefore, whoever, had quarreled with his neighbours, therefore Ramadan, let him go and settle the quarrel during Ramadan.

    That is an additional value to fasting in the sacred month.

     

    Needs and wants

    Fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot be taken in half measure. It is an act of ‘Ibadah that stands as a whole pillar of Islam. Whoever wants to receive full rewards for his religious activities in Ramadan let him continue to abide by the foregoing after the sacred month.

    Ramadan is not made a pillar of Islam by accident. Its purpose is to return man to the original state of purity into which he was created.

    That Allah entrusts the world to man is also not by accident. Allah consulted wide and far before entrusting this great responsibility to man having volunteered to bear it. This much is revealed in Qur’an 33:71 thus: “We offered the trust (of the world) to the heavens; the earth and the mountains they all turned it down and were afraid of it.

    Man undertook to bear it but he has proved to be insincere and deceitful”. For man to re-examine himself, repent his misdeeds and be redeemed, therefore, Allah brought Ramadan as a means of rescue.

    It is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives.

    Muslims, by their faith and orientation, should not, ordinarily, akin to WANTS. They should rather be more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS.

    The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

    Allah, the creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He knew ab initio that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond

    NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what caused the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam and Hawa’u.

    By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been shed. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man.

    And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

     

    Renaissance

    It is however delightful to note in the sacred month that Nigerian Mosques are full of Muslim youths an indication that a silent Islamic renaissance is on course despite the satanic confusion in the land caused by manifest agents of Satan. With this development, two great possibilities are expected to see Islam through the coast of good hope in the 21st century. One is the return of the Mosque to its original objective without delving into violence as currently being done by some vandals claiming to be Muslims. The other is the inalienable continuation of Islamic intellectual dynamism in reshaping the destiny of mankind. The hope that these two possibilities are achievable in the hands of today’s teeming Muslim youths is in fulfilment of a fundamental prophesy about the signs of the last days.

    One of these signs is that ‘the sun will start rising where it used to set’. The reference here is not to the physical sun. The Prophet was referring to the spiritual photosynthesis of the souls of mankind for the ultimate metamorphosis of those souls from mortality to immortality. The photosynthesis in reference here is Islam. And the fulfilment of this prophesy is gradually being confirmed today not only by the rate at which the Westerners are embracing Islam in their thousands, despite the grand plan to blacklist that divine religion with implacable hatred, but also by technology and science.

     

    Functions of mosque

    When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) established the very first Mosque in Madinah (Masjid Al-Qubah) in 622 A.C, the purpose was more than just Salat. Thus, to the Muslims, the Mosque is not supposed to be just a house of worship. It should also be a school, a library, a hospital, a court, a media centre, a parliament and a place of work for some Muslims. Without the Mosque, the unity of the Muslims would have been impossible.

    Mosque is the meeting place for offering Salat five times a day. It is the centre of congregation for Jum’at prayer every Friday. It brings the Muslims together twice in a year for congregational observance of Eidul-Fitr and Eidul-Adha. Yet, the meeting place called ‘Arafah which is the climax of Hajj is a Mosque.

    The Mosques in Makkah, Madinah, and Quds (Jerusalem) serve the same purpose as those in Cairo, Jakarta, Islamabad and Sydney. And, in purpose and intent, there is no difference between the Mosque in Sokoto and the one in Vancouver.

    Generally, the Mosque plays a central role in fortifying the unity of the Muslims wherever they are. But unfortunately, for personal benefits, the Mosque has been relegated to just a place for Salat alone thereby becoming grossly underutilised. That is the real cause of the backwardness in which the Muslim Ummah is now wallowing. With the experience of the sacred month, every fasting Muslims has an opportunity to gain bounteously here on earth and in the hereafter.

    Such bounties must not be lost. This year’s month of Ramadan may be running fast to its end, its lessons will continue to live with us practically until they are renewed again next year with the return of this same month in sha’Allah. RAMADAN KARIM!

  • Beware, your child may be dangerous!

    This article was first published under this column last year (06/07/13). Last weekend, a similar incident happened; 21-year-old Tolani Ajayi of the Redeemer’s University went about butchering his SAN father in a most gruesome manner. This article seems quite handy once again, isn’t it?

    Of unleavened evil: This must be the age of ‘unleavened’ evil for want of a more suitable word; a time when we must always expect the worst each day. Evils that never happened before, even in the dark ages, seem to be returning from the pit of hell to torment mankind every new day. A 64-year-old man, Chimezie Osuigwe, who is a former school principal somewhere in Oguta, Imo State is said to have kept his mother’s corpse in his house for about 10 years. It is yet to be ascertained whether he killed his mother and for ritual purposes as suspected. And he won’t say why he embalmed and co-habited with his mother’s remains for a decade.

    From Akwa Ibom State is a recent report that a teenage mother buried her child alive and from Gusua in Zamfara State, 25-year -old Kamal is reported to have killed his mother and two sisters and dumped their bodies in Gusua River. In Odukpani, Cross River State, Samuel Nsa picked up a machete and hewed his father down as if he were a tree. Samuel had allegedly stolen a goat on May 27, 2013 and when the youths brought a complaint to his father, the 78-year-old tired of his son’s criminal life, denounced him whereupon an enraged Samuel reached for the machete…The other day in Woolwich, England, we and the entire world saw the two British-born Nigerians butcher a man right in the middle of the road in broad daylight. More disturbing however, is the story of 18-year-old boy, Olanrewaju kayode-Aremu. That Olanrewaju killed his 46-year-old father, Victor kayode-Aremu, is not terrifically shocking, but the story is in the manner he committed the act.

    Seeing my father makes me angry! At about 10pm on May 1, 2013, as the rest of the family watched television downstairs in their duplex house in Eti-Osa,  Lagos, Olanrewaju trailed his father upstairs to his room and attacked him with a kitchen knife. His father managed to make it downstairs to the sitting room but son pursued father and right before his mother and younger siblings, Olanrewaju stabbed his father repeatedly as if possessed by a demon. Olanrewaju is said to have stabbed his father about 10 times leaving him no chance to live.

    “I killed my father because seeing him makes me angry,” said Olanrewaju. “The truth is that I always feel sad and angry anytime I see my father. I was just getting angrier when I was stabbing him because he didn’t love me…He forced me to study Geology in the university (instead of his preferred Biochemistry)… my dad knew (I hated him) because I am always cold when he is around me.”

    Of ‘cyber-psychotics’ and info-maniacs: The world is surely in distress. The world is assailed by what I want to call ‘cyber-psychosis’ or ‘info-mania’.  It is the death of abomination; the Internet age is damaging our children irretrievably; there is no abhorrent material they cannot find on the net. The more violent and bestial computer games are today, it seems the more profitable for the hawkers. Parenting today has become doubly difficult. For instance, yesterday, our parents worried about teenage pregnancy, today it is about young girls in the business of making babies for a fee. It is a tough age to be a good parent.

    Here is a supplement I found in my Bible (The Living Bible, Parents Resource Bible, page 1165) written by ROLF ZETTERSTEN. It is titled: THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR. I hereby reproduce it with the title:

    What parents can do

    It is called March Madness, and to millions of basketball fans it is the sporting event of the year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association selects America’s top 64 teams and pits them in do-or-die contests. For several weeks the tournament is held in arenas across the country, and roundball fans are glued to their television sets.

    The capper to March Madness is appropriately called the Final Four – when the surviving quartet of teams meet to determine the national champion. The site of the three-game play-off becomes a Mecca for basketball enthusiasts. One year I had the opportunity to attend the Final- four tournament at New Orleans, Louisiana, where more than 80,000 fans gathered to celebrate and witness the sporting contest.

    All the main events were held at the Superdome, a massive indoor coliseum that normally hosts professional football games. Even though I had no particular allegiance to any of the teams, it was not hard to get swept up in the excitement inside the enclosed stadium. Bands from each school blared fight songs as their respective supporters sang along. The cheerleaders motivated their fans to participate in chants and yells. People were dressed and painted in their team’s colours.

    Of course, once the games began, the cheering intensified. I was sitting in front of a large section of University of Michigan alumni. Every time their team scored, they applauded, hooted and screamed as if their lives depended on it. Many of the fans brought signs with them that conveyed clever slogans.

    I’ll never forget one such poster because it suddenly brought me back to reality. At one point in the game, after the Michigan team made a comeback, one man got up from his seat and began parading up and down the aisles holding a large cardboard sign above his head with this message: This is What We Live for.

    Although many people in the crowd apparently agreed with his theme, it had an adverse effect on me. I suddenly had a healthy dose of proper perspective. I turned to my friend who was also reading the sign and said, “I’m sure glad this isn’t what I live for.”

    I was reminded of the apostle Paul; if he held a sign above his head, it would have said, “For me, living means opportunities for Christ, and dying – well, that’s better yet!” (Phil.1:21). In other words, his existence had only one purpose – to serve and glorify God. And Paul viewed his inevitable death as a promotion because it would take him to the Lord’s presence.

    So what do we live for? “Opportunities for Christ.” I believe they can begin at home, where we demonstrate our faith in simple, everyday ways. We live for accepting and loving our spouse. We live for teaching our children the wonderful truth of God’s creation. We live for demonstrating God’s forgiveness when our family members fail. We live for supporting our relatives when they need help. We live for encouraging children. We live for teaching them God’s Word and leading them to faith in Christ. We live for enjoying quiet moments with loved ones. We live for laughter around the dinner table. We live for achieving the intimacy that God wants us to have. We live for demonstrating the benefits of a disciplined lifestyle. We live for modelling charity, hospitality and equality to others outside our family circle.

    Sure, I’m crazy about competitive sporting events. The Final Four, the World Series, the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, and the NBA Finals are thrilling highlights of every year. But they are nothing compared to the excitement of a family intent on living for God.

    So, what do you really live for in your household?

  • A salad of troublous issues

    It the end of my tethers as to what matter to interrogate this week, I began to draw a list of what I called troublous issues in the public arena in the last one week. In a short while I had a list of over a dozen items. Permit me to serve you this salad of issues as food for your soul. In no particular order, let us see how many can be accommodated.

    Boko Haram: Despatches from Cameroon: Recall that for about five years this plague called Boko Haram came upon Nigeria, our Francophone neighbours, Cameroon, pretended it never existed until recently when the Chibok dimension happened and France practically summoned us all to Paris. Since then, Cameroon has swung into action in its fight against the insurgent gang. In a professional and methodical manner, her gendarmes have taken to the northern border towns routing the miscreants.

    The latest report last weekend is that about 50 Nigerian businessmen, who have been collaborating with the hoodlums, have been nabbed. In an intensive and clinical sweep through border villages, the Cameroonian soldiers also confiscated vehicles and large caches of arms. Did you ever hear our military arrest any sponsor? Since Boko Haram seems to have permeated our institutions, maybe we should bring in the Cameroonian gendarmes?

    Our Super higgles: Members of our national team, the Super Eagles, are a smart bunch, but sorry to say that only by half. They probably knew they were at the end of the road at the tournament so they insisted on getting all their cash upfront before the day of debacle. Their Ghanaian neighbours did the same. Our dotting president was forced to effect a trans-Atlantic cash shipment before the eve of that last game against a better-squared French team.

    But it is just as well that they made their cash call because as they know too well, they would never have got their due. What is due to them would have been lost in the dark, hoary entrails of our football officials without anyone asking questions. Not even the presidency would have been able to help them. It happens all the time, it has become our stock-in-trade. Our football house has over the years become unashamedly mercantile and lost in such state of pedestrianism, our football is the worse for it.

    The team has done its best within its poor, wingless, circumscription. How could a bunch of old balding eagles be expected to soar too high? Though they won’t say it, I wager that the average age of that team would be about 35. A 35-year-old can only run so much against a 25-year-old. Have you ever wondered the average age of players in our local league? Don’t you feel the lads that won the under-20 World Cup (the Iheanachos and Alampasus) if groomed by a sound coach, should have been playing in Brazil? Do we really want to play football or do we want to play around?

    ASUP for supper: We are a country assailed by ribald incongruities aren’t we? In a world where nations can only rise to greatness through scientific learning and technological know-how, our polytechnics have been virtually in the doldrums since 2001. That was the year the Federal Government reached what seemed like a ground-breaking agreement with members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). But 12 years down the line, government has reneged on that agreement (which in itself must have become badly jaded now). Now for nearly one academic session, ASUP has been on strike making a 12-year-old from the government.

    Do we have an education minister? What on earth is he doing allowing this strike to last an academic session? Something must be wrong with that office; or the government or both. One doubts whether this can happen anywhere else on earth. Yet the minister organised a jamboree he termed: Education Sector Transformation under President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration. What manner of transformation might that be if an entire chunk of the sector is left behind. Something terrible has befallen our education indeed; Philistines rule supreme.

    De-looting Abacha loot: One day someone would sit down and draw up a list of a thousand incongruities that form the fabric of the polity called Nigeria. Why has our government become so awkward and left-handed (or under-handed if you like)?Mohammed Abacha, the son of the late junta head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, who is being prosecuted by the Federal Government for warehousing about N446 billion stolen by his father may soon be a free man. More galling, he may be handed a ticket by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), run for the governorship of Kano State.

    Charges have recently been dropped against him by the government ostensibly to make him return close to $1billion stashed away across the globe by his light-fingered father. When Transparency International (T.I.) kicked against government’s penchant for oiling impunity and corruption, government insists it is all for a bargain.

    But the message to Nigerians is simple: if you have access to the treasury, loot it well enough so that you may just return a little and be free from prosecution and punishment. Only those stupid enough to steal a little will go to jail. Let us call it de-looting or re-looting if you please; plea-bargaining is the new graft industry, the murky water where secondary corruption is legitimised. Weep not T.I.

    Doctors too down tools: What really do ministers do? One would think the minister of health would go out of his way to ensure that workers under his ambit, especially medical doctors, never go on strike. Not after a prolonged warning. But in spite of the fact that doctors across the nation under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) gave ample notice to government, nothing was seen to have been done and a strike of doctors had to be called last Monday.

    This is sad indeed when government officials are perceived be starkly insensitive. It does not seem to matter to anyone how many compatriots would suffer and how many souls will perish in all of this. We have become so stone-hearted; no milk of kindness flow in us anymore. It is worse with our fattened government officials. What a pity!

    And many more: We can only take so many but so many more are left on my list. One is the reported threat by ex-Niger Delta militants to cut off oil supply to the North if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned for a second term. So this is where we are today – an illiterate country being dictated to by miscreants who should be behind bars. Why don’t these fellows simply decree the abolition of elections in Nigeria! There is also the forming of the National Unity Forum (NUF) by some members of the National Conference; people like Mantu, Ita-Giwa, Jo Anenih, Jerry Useni, etc. We knew it would come to this. We knew perfidy would rise and subvert the so-called talk. Here they go, ‘generals’ of that noxious art…

    Finally, two more points: one, the U.S. declares they have no idea where the Chibok girls are and two, the U.S. will dominate ‘light ‘crude export soon. You may use your tongue to count your teeth on these. Cheers.