The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • The Boko Haram conundrum

    Preamble

    It was an all stars affair last Sunday at Abuja National Mosque where an intimidating group of Muslim Scholars and clerics, Muslim traditional rulers, governors and ministers, Muslim leaders and elite as well as Muslim Professionals and students from all parts of the country clustered like a galaxy in the milky way. The motive was to offer an appealing congregational prayer to the Almighty Allah for peace and security in Nigeria. The prayer was organised by Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of the Council’s President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar who initiated the idea. It was moderated by the Secretary-General of Council, Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede and led by the Chief Imam of Abuja National Mosque, Ustaz Musa Muhammad. The Vice-President, Muhammad Namadi Sambo, was in attendance along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, governors, ministers, legislators and government officials. And yours sincerely was there as a participant.

    Prior to last Sunday’s prayer, the Sultan, in his capacity as the President-General of the NSCIA, had requested all Mosques in Nigeria to recite Al-Qunut, Ayatul Qursiyy and Suratul Quraysh several times on a daily basis not just for peace to reign but also for the perpetrators of the so-called Boko Haram atrocities and their godfathers to be exposed and apprehended. Besides, the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) had also organised a similar prayer penultimate Sunday at the same venue invoking the mercy of Allah to descend on Nigeria and wipe out all forces of evil. Thus, last Sunday’s outing was to reinforce the prayer believed to have been continually but generally offered across the country in torrents by the Muslim faithful.

    Conundrum

    In what looks like a conundrum, insecurity in Nigeria has become like mysterious sphinx in Greek mythology as contained in Sophocles’ epi-tragic drama entitled Oedipus Rex. The setting of the drama was in a city called Thebes where all living things were subjected to a devilish siege of the sphinx. What the Thebesians of that time did to overcome their un-foretold tribulation should be a case study for Nigerians of today.

    There is something strange about human secrecy which makes people feel that they can be invisible while hiding behind one finger to perpetrate evil. It seems that the story of human secrecy is about back entrances and side doors as it is about evil elevators and clandestine ways of getting to the ‘top’ while avoiding being caught in the act. But in the end, the dangling noose of suicide anxiously awaits any evil perpetrator who wears the mask of secrecy. The hypothetical name of that noose is NEMESIS.

    Perhaps nothing typifies social conundrum in Nigeria like today’s evil perpetrations by series of groups commonly known as Boko Haram. The conundrum is such that the evil phenomenon called Boko Haram can no longer be specifically identified with any particular group as it has become a mysterious cloak under which all evil elements in the country now masquerade.

    Osun’s Boko Haram coinage

    For instance, how does one classify a case in Osun State two weeks ago in which some Church members of a remote town (Ikonifin) under Olaoluwa Local Government (near Iwo) of the state were arrested and now under investigation for attempting to create a scaring scene by giving the impression that Boko Haram had arrived in Osun State.

    Although the principal perpetrators of that act were claiming to be acting a drama, the real motive, as usual, was to smear Islam as a religion and subject the Muslims in the State of Osun to blackmail, ridicule and intimidation just to enable those perpetrators to ‘win new souls’ and thereby gain more tithes in a seeming dangerous religious trade.

    About five perpetrators of that evil act are now in police custody at the Special Investigation Department (SID), Osogbo, where they are being ‘investigated’ so to say. The case was about to be swept under the carpet through the usual religious power play before the Osun State Muslim Community stepped in with a petition alerting the authorities of the danger inherent in the backlash of treating the case with ‘glove kit’. Nigerians are waiting for the outcome of that investigation. And unlike in past, it will be followed to a conclusive end.

    The case of alleged Boko Haram coinage in Osun State cannot be strange to anybody who has been following the trend of satanic religious propaganda in Nigeria recently with the obvious conspiracy of the press. It will be recalled that sometime in February 2012, eight able-bodied men were arrested in Bauchi for similar evil act when they were trying to bomb a Church in the name of Boko Haram.

    Witnesses said the men, (all Christians) who lived around the area, came with sophisticated weapons and explosive devices with which they tried to set them off in the COCIN Church but were overpowered by local people and handed them over to soldiers, who took the suspects to Bauchi for further investigations. The report of the investigations is yet to be released two and a half years after.

    The suspects, who were said to be members of the church located at Unguwar Rimi along Bauchi-Jos road. They had been seriously beaten by a mob before some policemen from the Toro Divisional Police Office came to their rescue by transferring them to the state police command in Bauchi where they were detained for investigation. The outcome of that investigation is yet to be made public.

    The Lagos State angle

    Meanwhile, another pastor in Lagos called Pastor Jehovah Sharp-Sharp has alerted the public that Boko Haram had already arrived in Lagos State. He said the group was rehearsing its terror act in a particular Mosque which he was not ready to for disclose now.  He added that the some top government officials were behind the group but he was not ready to name them as he had passed the information to the security personnel. It is quite interesting that a Church pastor could discover what the security men could not discover. The outcome of this is also being awaited.  And just a couple of days ago, breaking news revealed that somebody was arrested in Jos while trying to plant a bomb. The security agents said they were not ready to disclose the identity of the person yet. We are waiting to know his identity.

    The arrested suspected bombers above in Bauchi in 2012 are: (1) Lamba Goma, (2) Filibus Danasa, (3) Joshua Ali, (4)Danjuma Sabo, (5) Joseph Audu, (6) Simon Gabriel, (7) Bulus Haruna, (8) Yohanna Ishaya and Daniel Ayuba (who was the immediate past secretary of a political party at Tilden Fulani Ward, Toro LGA, Bauchi State).

    Shortly before the Bauchi incident, a COCIN church in Jos was rocked by an explosion which claimed 3 lives (including that of the bomber) and injured 38 others on a Sunday morning. Jos has since been embroiled in seeming  attritional ethno-religious clashes that haveclaimed hundreds of lives.

    On Friday, January 13, 2012, ThisDay newspaper ( page 6) reported a story it culled from the BBC in which a Britain-based arms dealer, Gary Hyde was being prosecuted in a London court for unlawfully arranging the shipment of about 80000 guns and 32 million rounds of ammunition in 2007 from China to Nigeria. The question which was neither asked nor answered in that case was about the recipients of such a huge cache. If the recipients were the Boko Haram members why was the supply by a Christian? If the consignment was meant for non-Boko Haram members what was the motive?

    On March 28, 2012, Daily Trust reported a case of two Nigerians (Sunday Eze from Anambra State and Samuel Taiwo from Ogun State) who were arrested in Ghana for trying to smuggle large ammunition into Nigeria. From their names and their States of origin, it was obvious that the two men were Southerners and non-Muslims. One may then ask if they were running errands for Boko Haram or just trading with the latter. And if they were on their own in business it then becomes necessary to ask: for which terror group were they trying to import the cache or were they preparing for a premeditated civil war. On Tuesday, April 10, 2012 a 38-year- old man named Monday Dayou was arrested while planting a timed bomb at Makera weekly market in Riyom Local Government of Plateau State. His intention was to commit mass murder believing that such act would only be blamed on Boko Haram. If Monday Dayou had succeeded in his devilish mission, someone would have posted Boko Haram’s admission of that crime on the internet and that would have provided an opportunity for ‘a reprisal’.

    On February 20, 2012, Daily Sun newspaper (page 12) reported the arrest of five armed men led by one Evangelist Wale Adelu of an old generation Church in Akure. The men were said to have been holding meetings in the Parish of the Evangelist to perfect their plans.

    Although the Police said they were armed robbers, but the question is if such men had offer to commit terrorism for money wouldn’t they do it?

    Also, on March 10, 2012, Saturday Sun (page 10) reported an illegal importation from South Africa of a consignment of arms and ammunition intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Servicemen at the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The consignments, according to reports, were meant for a company named Miero Marble Granite in Kaduna State which was represented by Mr. Michael Awara Ernest who was present to collect the explosives at the cargo terminal of the airport. The Customs Area Comptroller at that time, Mr. Charles Eporwei Edike in his comment while parading the suspect said: “If these items were released to him they could have been used to cause mayhem. We are going to hand him and the items to the Police for further investigations. Till today, the outcome of those investigations remains a matter of silence.

    On February 22, 2012, The Leadership newspaper (page 10) reported that the Police Public Relations Officer,  Alaribe Ejike said four persons (all men) were arrested while trying to detonate explosives at the St. Theresa Catholic Parish in Makurdi, Benue State and added that “the arrested men were Christians and not Boko Haram members as speculated by members. It remains one thing and as soon as we find it out we shall inform you accordingly. More than 30 months after, that information is yet to be released.

    It will be recalled that Rev. Father Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese had mentioned in January 2012, the case of Christians disguising as Muslims to burn Churches in some parts of the North (see The Guardian  of  January 17, 2012, page 45). Also, Prof. Jean Herskovits of the State University of New York who has been writing on Nigerian politics since 1970 earlier sounded a similar note of caution in the New York Times. This was reported in The Nation of January6, 2012, page 43.

    The Muslim Ummah of the Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) alluded to most of these facts in its Press press Advertisement published in The Nation of March 6, 2012 where it alerted the nation of a clandestine ground plan by some non-Muslims in Nigeria to cause religious war by all means in the name of Boko Haram. MUSWEN in that advert entitled ‘FACTS ARE SACRED’ called on the Federal Government to pay serious attention to the issue of insecurity in the country without any bias.

    JNI versus CAN

    Earlier on February 17, 2012, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) which is the Muslim umbrella body in the North issued a communiqué following a three-day retreat on peace and security in Nigeria held in Kaduna. The communique was published on Page 59 of The Nation.

    In the communiqué, the JNI charged the security agencies in the country to investigate an act on allegations that some Christians were disguising as Muslims to burn down Churches in the northern parts of the country.

    But in a sharp reaction the northern chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) accused JNI not only of standing the truth on its head but also of fanning the ember of discoed in the northern region.

    Denying the involvement of any Christian in terrorism in the name of Boko Haram CAN concluded that “if the Sultan of Sokoto, through the JNI is accusing Christians of terrorism and Pastor Oritsejafor, through CAN, is condemning attacks on Churches, who is heating the

    polity?”

    Warning

    Now with the above loaded undeniable facts and figures above who can actually be called Boko Haram with definite identity in Nigeria? We do not want the spread of Boko Haram terrorist activities in Southern Nigeria. Those who are clandestinely weaving its web should watch their steps very well. From all indications, it seems that Boko Haram is a religious business in Nigeria in which some religious merchants are thriving. Such merchants should however know that If any fire of terrorism is ignited in the Southern part of the country its inventors will not be able to escape its furnace. The value of peace is never realised until there is a war. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

  • As terror ventures out

    As terror ventures out

    As terror ventures out of its base, the imperative of a truly secular polity becomes categorical.

    At the inception of its campaign of terror, the haven of Boko Haram was the Northeast where it has ravaged families and battered innocent lives. Then, it bared the fangs of its horror at Abuja, the ultimate symbol of the nation’s strength and pride, and sadly for our bloated sense of national honour, the terrorists claimed victory. Now, basking in its “successes” against the weak “infidels”, as it describes all individuals and institutions that reject its jaundiced jihadist religious ideology, Boko Haram has ventured into the North Central, which has had a tradition of mixed religious identities since the beginning of times. If it succeeds in the Middle Belt, nothing prevents these agents of death and self-appointed soldiers of a God of peace, from marching south.  What will stop them? Who can stop them?

    It is not as if nobody saw this coming. As recent as the beginning of the fourth republic, the seed of religious discontent and confrontation was sown by bigots and watered by both the legislature and the executive who chose to look elsewhere. Sharia Law was legislated in the name of religious freedom at the same time that opportunity for functional and quality education was curtailed for the youth, who then got recruited into the army of God. We have a constitution that is secular only in name because politicians and elected officials lack the essential spine of political courage to stand up to religious bigots and career religionists. The deliberate politicisation of religion at the highest level of government is sickening.

    Some years ago, I suggested that the spread of terror across the North pointed to the urgency of a dialogue over the place of institutional religion in a secular state like Nigeria. I made this point at that time because, then, as now, the avowed reason for the anger of Boko Haram is its demand for the complete islamisation of the entire North in particular, with the propagation and enforcement of Sharia Law.

     An update is warranted because lately, the sect has moved the goal post further. Now it would not accept a non-Muslim to rule over its members and all who subscribe to its hatred of other religions. This is its rationale for venturing out of its base.

    Granted that the publicised grievance of the sect may diverge from its unspoken gripe against the state; it is reasonable to assume that religion is central to its raison d’etre and it is the source of its angst. In the circumstance, it’s unclear how a secular state can oblige the sect without undermining its secularity.

    This may explain why the focus of the reaction of concerned citizens has been the poverty index and the impact this has had on the psychological and material wellbeing of the people. A hungry man is an angry man and the resentment emanating from a state of acute poverty can find an exit in any number of outlets, including a pseudo-religious one. The reasoning then is that religion is a camouflage for the underlying effect of poverty. Treat the disease of poverty and all will be well.

    If poverty is the foundation and religion is only a superstructure, one can keep hope alive that the cause of peace and stability is not beyond the nation’s reach provided that the political will is summoned to combat poverty. We can get at poverty and expect desirable results in due course. I confess that I sympathised with this reasoning as an important element of the crisis. But Shehu Sanni recently disclosed his encounter with university graduates who confirmed to him that they shredded their diplomas in order to be recognised as authentic members of the sect. This should not be a surprise. The masterminds of the 9/11 attack in New York were university-trained engineers.

    It is safe to assume that not all members of the sect are complete outliers with regard to western education. Even if most of them are out of the box of western education, the leadership of the group isn’t. Furthermore, I would like to assume that in view of the resources that they have access to in the conduct of their deadly campaigns, they must have a close affinity with those whose educational attainment give access to comfortable living and giving. With all these assumptions, I hypothesise that the group is benefitting from Western education which it has roundly condemned and rejected as sin.

    Of course, one may benefit from something that one truly finds to be evil and sinful, not necessarily by being a hypocrite; it may just as well be out of ignorance, as in not knowing that the said benefit is from a sinful or evil source. But it seems to me unlikely that Boko Haram members are innocently ignorant of western education as the direct or indirect source of some of the resources at their disposal, including access to video technology and YouTube.

    While the sect’s recent attacks (in Abuja, Bauchi and Jos) have been indiscriminate, it has not always been vague about its targets, which have included churches and security agents and agencies; the latter presumably because they are the instruments of the state campaign against it. With respect to churches, the message does not get clearer. The sect perceives churches as evil and worshippers as demons. Is this perception poverty-driven? Perhaps the suicide bombers that attacked churches during Sunday worship hours were paid handsome compensations to carry out their mission in addition to the promised reward of a paradise of blissful lives ever-after, giving them an additional motivating force. Yet this doesn’t detract from the religio-spiritual persuasion without which material compensation is meaningless.  If we ignore this, we fall into the same mistake of explaining ethnicity as essentially a symptom of the disease of poverty.

    We have to accept that just as there is the disease of poverty, for which an adequate cure is required and which a capable state would effectively deal with; there is also the disease of extreme and radical religiosity which the state cannot afford to accommodate because its fury is limitless and is capable of consuming the state.

    A policy of non-accommodation of radical religiosity is the normative ground for affirming the secularity of the state, especially in a multi-religious state where people of different faiths are inextricably welded together. Paradoxically, it is the educational achievement levels of its members that facilitate, though without guaranteeing, the affirmation of secularity, and the rationale for a secular polity in a pluralistic society.

    Educational levels enhance the probability of individuals understanding that freedom of religion, that is the liberty to make choices of religious doctrines and affiliations, is essential because spirituality cannot be forced even in monolithic societies since each person must account for him or herself on the judgment day.  If education enhances this understanding, it is not a surprise that religious fanatics and spiritual radicals would find it evil and sinful. This is why Boko Haram is against western education.

    If education is loathed and, therefore, prevented from performing its task of opening the eyes and clearing the mind of its idols, what is the recourse of a state focused on peaceful coexistence among peoples of different faiths?

    To prevent the looming religious war that is being dangerously canvassed by Boko Haram, we must uphold the secularity of the state; guarantee the freedom of religious affiliation anywhere and everywhere in the country; and identify radicals and fanatics, including political opportunists that stand in the way, enemies of the nation. At a time such as this, the hope of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Nigerian nation depends solely on the collective will of our political leaders and their religious and traditional counterparts.

    Will the Committee on Religion at the ongoing Confab place the career interests of religious bigots above the nation’s interest in a secular state that provides opportunities for religious freedom but no preferences for any particular religion? Conference delegates must send a clear message to agents of hate and religious bigots: Nigeria is a secular state and secularism is her strength.

  • Nta’s tabernacle

    When the Lord spoke to Moses saying: “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge and in manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.

    “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they make all that I have commanded you: the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle —  the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base – the garments of ministry, the holy garments of Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.” (Exodus 31: 1-11 NKJV).

    The tabernacle of God is with men: If only every leader were a high priest of sort and the office he occupies, his tabernacle. That is the impression that comes to mind each time one reads the intriguing passage above. One has lifted so copiously from it to showcase God’s originality and purity in enacting his first sanctuary of worship – the tabernacle.

    In the making of the tabernacle, we are apprised with the majesty of omniscience. We see how He named every material for use by name and every measure to the finite unit. Aren’t you struck by the strict code of production up to the colours of garments and the ingredients of anointing oil and sweet incense. And of course, these are followed by unambiguous injunctions about code of conduct and mode of worship. This is at the beginning of the book. At the end; in the book of Revelation (21: 3), it says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.”

    The corruption of theft: This rather long excursion into the Bible had been triggered by the comment credited to the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, to the effect that Nigerians mistake stealing for corruption. In receiving members of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria in his office in Abuja, the anti-corruption czar took an especial umbrage, noting that “Stealing is erroneously reported as corruption. We must go back to what we were taught in school to show that there are educated people in Nigeria.”

    Mr. Nta was simply re-echoing his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, who had spoken in like manner and logic during a Presidential Chat recently. Nta and the president seem to be upbraiding Nigerians for construing every misdemeanor as corruption. They are trying to educate us on the fine distinction between plain stealing and perhaps the more dignified ‘art’ of corruption. But Mr. Nta would have done well to explain that fine difference between theft and corruption; something beyond the analogy he furnished the visiting engineers that tagging theft as corruption is like calling a roadside mechanic an engineer.

    Chief priests of tainted tabernacles: But there is no validity to what is clearly Mr. Nta’s Freudian slip: stealing is not just corruption, it is the most invidious kind. Here are some examples. When the chairman of a commission favours his front company to win a contract in his commission, he has not only corrupted the procurement system, he has stolen the commission’s funds. Two, when a director steals about N27 billion of pension funds, he has not only managed to damage the pension scheme, he is liable to corrupt the judiciary and the police prosecutorial and investigatory order, especially in a regime of weak institutions like our. It will be difficult to convict such a thief because he can buy his way through. So is a minister who has unrestrained access and indeed helps herself to her ministry’s treasury; even the ICPC would not dare probe her. Three: Mr. Nta must tell us why he has never been able to successfully prosecute any former governor so far (including a certain James Ibori) in spite of ample evidence before him that some of them stole their states blind? And he still thinks stealing is not the heart and soul of corruption? And why, if we may ask, is Nta splitting his already gray hairs on the semantics of corruption; are there definitional impediments to jailing the corrupters despoiling our land?

    While one would sympathise with Nta and other apparatchiks of government superintending over tainted and putrid tabernacles, we think he would do well to also leave us alone and refrain from provoking us. We understand that he is helpless, supine and fiercely dependent but we only wish he would quietly enjoy his booty, grow fat and bloated on it like his colleague at the EFCC. It’s sheer folly to expect a fry to chase after sharks in this crimson sea of corruption called Nigeria. That would be hara-kiri. Perhaps ten years hence, when he is long done as the chief priest of a rubbishy tabernacle, he just might drop a tear for us and for himself; just might.

  • Bodija: A centre like a grandeur

    Bodija: A centre like a grandeur

    Mosques are surely Allah’s (sanctuary). Do not therefore desecrate them by associating anything with Allah” Q. 72:18  Today, Friday, May 23, 2014 is a day of history in Ibadan, Oyo State.

    In that Africa’s second largest city, all roads lead to Bodija Estate where His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, (NSCIA) will commission an historic Islamic Centre for the Muslim residents of the estates and its environs. The construction of the strategically sighted Centre began in 1996 four years after the establishment of the Muslim Community in the area.

    The idea of establishing a Muslim community in Bodija germinated like a potent seed in 1992 when the late Professor Ismail Ayinla Babatunde (IAB) Balogun, who had then just retired from the University of Ilorin, returned to his house in Ibadan for permanent residence. He went round the houses of other Muslims who were resident in Bodija Estates and Environs and invited them for observance of the year’s Ramadan Tarawih at his residence. Before his arrival in Ibadan, some Muslim faithful had been observing Tarawih in Alhaji G.A.O. Oladimeji’s residence. However, following Professor Balogun’s appeal, in 1992, most of the Muslims in the area came together to observe that year’s Tarawih in his residence as he requested.

    Rallying Point

    Impressed by this laudable move, some notable Muslim leaders, including Aare Abdul – Azeez Arisekola Alao and Alhaji (Omooba) Rasheed Adesokan, rallied round the group and gave their support to the conceptualisation and formation of the Community. There and then Omooba Adesokan promised to be hosting the Community’s Laylatul Qadr every year. And he did this until the Islamic Centre became ready for public use. The initial meetings of the Community were also hosted by him for the first couple of years until September, 1994 when some other members requested to host it. And this continued in rotational form until the Islamic Centre assumed a good enough shape for functional use.

    Although the process for incorporating the Community by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) commenced as soon as the Community was established in 1992, the certificate of incorporation was not ready until year 2000. Today, the Community, having been formally issued with registered Certificate No. 12,859 dated 28th April, 2000, has a total registered membership of 342 made up of men and women. And the number of children using the Centre for religious and social activities, including Madrasah almost doubles that of the adult.

    The Centre

    The main building of the Centre is the Mosque which consists of three floors. Its architectural, structural and electrical/mechanical drawings were done gratis by Architect M.A.T. Mogaji from Lagos, N.G.B. Fashola, Lagos and Tafa Salami of Ibadan respectively. The two storey edifice may not be as gargantuan as that of Ijebu Ayepe, Ogun State. But it proudly has the following facilities:

    1.Ground Floor which conveniently accommodates about 1000 worshipers with provision for ablution and parking space

    2.First Floor which accommodates about 500 female worshipers and ablution area

    3. Second Floor which harbours a library, a sick bay and a multipurpose hall meant for public functions such as weddings and conferences.

    A unique hallmark feature of the building is the taste of the Makkah Sanctuary with which it is garlanded in a special grandeur. That taste is in form of the external extraordinarily beautiful marble of the sanctuary. The Centre is simply a cynosure for all its beholders.

    Commissioning

    To commission the Centre today is Nigeria’s foremost bridge builder, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar CFR; mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs despite his very tight schedule. His presence and function in Ibadan today is the third of the like in the past one month in the Southwest region alone. He has consistently confirmed his able leadership as well as his nontribal inclination. And to be with his Eminence are the Governors of Lagos, Ogun and Osun states while that of Oyo will be the Chief Host. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Rt Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal will also be present. It is indeed a day to last in the memory of well-meaning Muslims.

    Executive Committees

    Since its inception, the Community has had eight sets of Executive Committees each headed and administered by a Chairman who held office for a maximum period of three years if so re-elected on an annual basis at the Community’s Annual General Meeting. Thus, eight distinguished members have held the post of Chairman of the Community at different periods and thereby contributed immensely to the growth and achievements of the Community over the past 22 years. They are Professor Mohammed A. Badamas, an I.T. Specialist/Lecturer; Engineer M.A.B. Amao; Alhaji (Chief) L.B. Giwa, a Lawyer, late Alhaji A.R.O. Dele, an Accountant; Alhaji Jimo Alihu, a Pharmacist; Alhaji (Chief) R.S. Aruna, a Lawyer; Alhaji G.A.O. Oladimeji, an Educationist/Lecturer; and Alhaji K.T. Giwa, a Medical Laboratory Scientist and current Chairman of the Community.

    Board of Trustees

    The highly venerable Trustees of the Community so far are: Alhaji Abdul – Azeez Arisekola Alao (Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland), Alhaji (Omooba) Rasheed Adesokan (Baale of Bodija), Professor Lateef A. Salako, Late Prof. Rauf Sobulo, and Barrister (Chief) L.B. Giwa.

    Functions

    The functions of the Mosque adequately tally with the principal aims and objectives of the Community at inception. These include:

    1.Propagation and spread of Islam in the Bodija Estates and Environs and Ibadan in general;

    2.Construction and maintenance of a befitting Mosque and Islamic Centre for its activities;

    3.Motivation of Muslim youths through attractive social activities and lectures on Islam;

    4.Congregational prayers and lectures for good and healthy interaction of Muslims;

    5.Organising Islamic Education for both the adult and youth members through modern methods, including the use of computer.

    hallenges

    Being like a lily by the mossy stone, the establishment of the Bodija Estates and Environs Muslim Community was not an easy task. Initially, the two Bodija Estates (old and new) had five places designated as official sanctuaries of worship but all of them were allocated to churches. Thereafter, 45 other unapproved Churches emerged through conversion of residential buildings in the two estates. Yet, when Bodija Muslim Community applied to the Oyo State Housing Corporation for a space to build one and the only Mosque in the area, the reply was that the spaces available had already been allocated to some other religious bodies (all of which were denominations of Christian religion) and that no land was available any longer to meet such a request from the Muslims. Thus for a very long time, successive regimes in the Oyo State Housing Corporation did not see any reason why the Muslims should have a place of worship.

    And when it pleased the Almighty Allah to pave way for securing a plot of land for building a Mosque in the vicinity, some non-Muslims in the Estates quickly went to court to challenge the right of the Muslims to build a Mosque. By that time, there were about 50 legal and illegal Churches in the two estates and no single Mosque. However, when it dawned on the challengers that they were going to lose judging by the trend of the case, they tactically opted for settlement out of court thanks to the high professional prowess of Barrister Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) who defended the Muslim Community without asking for one kobo.

    Thus, today, the only Mosque in Bodija stands out conspicuous at the choicest place in the estate facing the famous Independence Square like the rock of Gibraltar. Alhamdu Lillah!

    Mosque and Imam

    Mosque and Imam are like message and messenger. There can hardly be any access to one without going through the other. In Islamic doctrine, the functions of a Mosque are both spiritual and temporal.

    For Muslims, none of these can be taken for granted. The word Mosque is the corrupt English pronunciation of  the Arabic word ‘MASJID’ (called ‘Masgid’ in Egyptian dialect) which means a place of prostration.

    Contrary to the general misconception here in Nigeria, Mosque is not meant for SALAT alone. It serves many other purposes each of which has a fundamental significance. For instance the very first Mosque established in Islam by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Madinah was a multipurpose one. It was established in 622 C.E. That Mosque named the ‘Mosque of Qubah’ did not serve as a place of worship alone, it also served as a school, a library, a clinic, a court of law and even a parliament for the Muslim community.

    That was why the very first University in the world, (University of Cordoba), established in 967 CE by the Muslims in Spain, started as a Mosque. And, it will be recalled that even the three oldest Universities in the world today: Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia, (each of which is well over 1000 years old) started as a Mosque.

    One cannot seriously talk about Mosque without fundamental reference to Imams and the congregations they lead. Actually, nothing is called Mosque without the congregations and their Imams.

    The First Mosque in Islam

    When the Prophet established the Mosque of Qubah, he did not design itfor Salat alone. He knew that Muslims would seek knowledge and therefore attached school and library to it. He knew that Muslim women and children would need thorough education about Islam and therefore provided for their learning. He knew that by the nature of Islam, Muslims would always need to clean up before offering Salat. He therefore attached toilets and baths to the Mosque. He knew that members of his congregation would disagree on certain issues and seek resolution or redress. He therefore attached court to the Mosque. He knew that some Muslims would fall sick and require medical care. He therefore attached clinic to the Mosque. He knew that there would be need to plan strategy for propagating Islam and for protecting Muslim interest against internal or external aggression. He therefore attached a deliberation forum to the Mosque in the name of parliament.

    He knew that his congregation would need a secure place to keep their money and other valuables and therefore attached a bank called ‘Baytul Mal’ to the Mosque. Thus, the Mosque is the centre of all Islamic activities, including legitimate business transactions. That is why Islam is the total way of a Muslim’s life rather than a mere dogmatic religion in which secularism is confusedly proclaimed based on the theory of separation of state from faith.

    Today, most Islamic activities have virtually been severed from our Mosques and that is why Nigerian Muslims are contented with just a small space to build a small Mosque where they can offer Salat and disperse. Even in doing this no thought is ever given to any possible future increase in the population of the congregation. The result is that most of our Mosques have no space for anything other than Salat.

    Imams are appointed as leaders not just because they lead their congregations in Salat but much more because they are charged with the responsibility of guiding the Ummah aright and admonishing them against wrongdoings. They are supposed to be typically what Prophet Muhammad (SAW) called shepherds. And their congregations are supposed to be their herds.

    That our Mosques have not lived up to expectation is not the end of the story. Righting the wrong is one of the foremost characteristics of Islam. It is better to be late in doing the right thing than not doing the right thing at all. We can still start to put things right as from today.

    As a special elite Muslim Community, Bodija and Environs Islamic Centre must be different from the general perception of Muslim Communities in Nigeria. It must stand out of the pack. It may start this by taking the census of its congregation with a view to knowing the worshipers more closely. It must ensure the setting up committees such as for social welfare; for education; for health; for conflict resolution; for Zakah; for guidance and counseling; for economic growth and skill building; as well as for information and publicity.

    Each of these committees should have experts in the listed areas as their chairmen while competent persons should be put in charge of those committees and direct them as to what to do and how to do it.

    And as a matter of trust and sincere commitment to the service of Allah, this Centre should not operate without an economic blueprint that can enhance the economic wherewithal of its members.

    As a Muslim community, we have lived with a system for hundreds of years without achieving the necessary objective. In the process, we have lost most of our best hands and even our best brains to the other side of the bridge. We cannot afford to surge ahead with an unprofitable venture. We must change the system! The Muslim Ummah must be made to see why they need the Mosque as much as why the Mosque needs them. Experimenting with a new system will not only put a stop to basking in the euphoria of the past, it will also engender a durable legacy for the current generation of Nigerian Muslims. Those who want progress for Islam must adhere strictly to the guiding norms of Mosques as prescribed by Islam.

     

  • Looking back…and moving forward

    Looking back…and moving forward

    Whereas when a child stumbles he or she looks forward in the direction of his or her journey, an adult in a similar situation looks backward. While the child is in a hurry to get to his or her destination, the adult takes time to see the obstacle that causes him or her to stumble. Taking note of the obstacle enables the adult to avoid it should it be encountered again in the course of the journey. The child in a hurry lacks the capacity to avoid the future occurrence of a fall and thus may not achieve the objective of reaching his or her destination. The wisdom in the observation belongs to the elders.

     The ongoing confab is an occasion for looking back in search of the cause of an embarrassing national stumble. Where did the rain start beating us? And as rational beings, we are expected to remove the stumbling blocks that have tragically littered our path to nationhood. For if we fail to look back and identify those obstacles, and we continue on the same path, we are most probably not going to reach that destination of national greatness.

     Not a few would affirm that the stumbling block had been there right from the beginning of the journey of this creature of circumstance. The initiative wasn’t from within. Folks didn’t get together to declare an interest in common citizenship. The idea was someone else’s but we have read into it a divine blessing. As J. S. Coleman, the preeminent biographer of Nigerian nationalism, sums it up, the British are the sole creators of the political entity known as Nigeria.

    Coleman goes on to support his “elementary truth” with quotable quotes by two of the leading political icons of the new political entity, Obafemi Awolowo and Tafawa Balewa in 1947 and 1948 respectively. While Awolowo’s reference to Nigeria as a mere geographical entity is the more popular and better analysed of the two, Balewa’s is no less frank and incisive. According to Balewa, “Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any sign of willingness to unite.” And he goes on to declare that “Nigerian unity is only a British intention for the country.”

    The British wanted a united Nigeria; they knew that it would take a long time for this to be achieved (some of them suggested a century at least); but then they did little to move the idea forward from 1914 to 1960 when they left a country completely divided along the original fissures of language and religion. If a united Nigeria was the objective of Britain, why did she pursue a policy of regional development and cultural autonomy?

    It turns out that Britain was not being deceptive or malicious, and the unity that His Majesty’s Government (at the time) wanted for Nigeria was based on the English conception of nationalism which accommodates a hierarchy of loyalties, “each supreme in its own sphere and all perfectly “natural,” because all are “traditional.” This is the Burkean concept of nationalism, according to Coleman, citing Carlton Hayes. It then makes sense that Britain did not see any contradiction in the goal of promoting national unity and encouraging cultural and linguistic autonomy. Here is Hayes on Burke: “Man is and should be loyal to his family and to his locality or “region”; “regionalism” is traditional and hence natural, and the nation should respect and foster it as a necessary preliminary to love of an extensive country or nationality.”

    In his remark on his approval of the proposals of the Nigerian General Conference on the Constitution of 1950, James Griffiths, then Secretary of State for the Colonies stressed “how much importance I attach to the principle of regional autonomy. One of the great advantages of encouraging the regions to develop each along its own characteristic lines will be that by that very process the unity of Nigeria will be strengthened.” Of note is that in his judgment, such an approach does not threaten the unity of the country; it in fact enhances it.

    The question, then, is this: where and why did we veer off the path of regional autonomy?

    It should be noted that from the onset, not all nationalists were in favor of such an approach. While the North stood out in favor of regionalism and was supported by the colonial masters, the South was initially suspicious of the intent. This was especially because many southern nationalists believed that the British policy was intent on protecting the North and promoting its isolation from the rest of the country.

    Despite these initial reservations, however, regionalism prevailed and devolution of power to the regions was the highlight of the constitutions from Richards and Macpherson to the Independence Constitution.

    We stumbled at the point where we pronounced the wrong verdict on regionalism and indicted it of culpable responsibility for national disunity. We sacrificed cultural autonomy in the elusive search for unity even when we sloganise about unity in diversity.

    The choice before the delegates to the National Conference is not just then about revenue allocation or political representation. It is less about state creation or rotational presidency. It is about reemphasising the importance of unity in diversity and empowering every culture and language to blossom.

    In the decades before and up until 1960 the nation made a giant stride in educational and cultural development. Our schools taught English alongside indigenous languages and other subjects. Students developed good skills in oral and written English as well as in indigenous languages. That era produced our only Nobel Laureate in English Literature.

    Since the end of the civil war, however, subsequent governments have moved farther and farther away from regional and cultural autonomy to a more uniformitarian idea of the polity. And we have been the worse for it in every respect. Education is in the tank. Economy is in shambles. Culture is in decline. Crime is in ascendancy. And religious conflict is the norm. How is it so difficult then to see where and why we stumbled?

    That our conferees still bicker over insignificant issues is regrettable. While it is true that there are many challenges that the country faces, it is also true that an overriding one is our departure from the path of a true federal system, in which as Chief Awolowo, its chief proponent, puts it, “each group, however small, is entitled to the same treatment as any other group, however large” and “opportunity must be afforded to each to evolve its own peculiar political institution.”

    It is time to restore the regions, enable small linguistic groups to form regional units, allow regional constitutions alongside the national constitution, encourage healthy competition among regions and, yes, promote national security by promoting regional and local security with the decentralisation of security operations and involving regions and communities in the security of their peoples.

  • Readers’ reactions

    It has been quite some time since readers’ reactions were published in this column. This is because most readers of this column do not care anymore about grammar and the use of English language. And since it is easier to write a fresh article than to edit badly written ones, yours sincerely chose to concentrate on the writing of the column.

    Nigerians, especially the youths of today, seem to have lost touch completely with the use of language for the purpose of communication as they just write all sorts of garbage while leaving the correction to the columnist.

    Ordinarily, the readers should possess the ‘red fingers’ (i.e. they should act as the examiners not in terms of grammar but in terms of facts, ideas and observations while the columnist should be like a student writing an examination). But the irony is that the case is the other way round. If every reaction were to be published as written by most readers the columnist would spend days and nights every week marking the junk submitted to his column in the name of reaction. This further confirms the extent of intellectual deterioration in Nigeria where communication is no longer a matter of understanding but one of guessing. When intellectualism was genuinely pursued by virtually every well-meaning Nigerian because of its value, writing a column was just a privilege as there were better writers among the readers who had no access to such privilege. The case is different today.

    Since this busy columnist has little time for marking most readers’ comments on a weekly basis it becomes necessary to avoid any cumbersome intellectual comment that is capable of compounding his busy schedule. However, there are occasions when looking back briefly may become necessary if only to give the interest of readers a priority. This is one of such occasions. The article entitled ‘Letter to Nigerian Youths’ which was published in this column last Friday attracted so many reactions that it became almost impossible to resist the publication of some of them. Thus, a few correctable ones among those reactions were selected for publication here today. Please, read on:

    “Dear Mr Abbas,

    Good Morning! Your above piece which appeared on page 42 of the Friday, May 9 edition of The Nation is timely, cogent and poignant.

    I always relish perusing your articles despite the fact that I am not a Moslem (sic). But the salient issues raised in your piece are worrisome and symptomatic of the magnitude of degeneration, loss of focus, lasciviousness and all sorts characterising Nigerian youths these days. Given the penchant of our media for the burlesque, outlandishness and the inanity,  I am not surprised that your very salient issue didn’t generate the kind of attention it should have generated.

    I am really worried at the state of the nation and the future of this country (i.e when you have youths that have discountenanced the essence of scholarship, tenacity, hard work, progression and decency). Look around you everywhere and all you see is gloom and comatose (sic). All we see are young musicians and comedians singing and talking gibberish and nonsense, winning fake awards and we are clapping that all is well. No! Nothing is well. The future of Nigeria lies not in these folks! We want youths that can stand up for the nation; youths that can be counted on to move the nation forward; youths that have socio-economic, scientific, intellectual, moral, conscientious, technological and political edge and strides!

    This has been the object of my focus for some years now as I have tried to highlight some of these issues to Nigerian youths, but the message is just not sinking. I am highly demoralised when you see youth graduates who can’t read, who don’t even know what is happening anywhere, who can’t analyse simple issues and don’t even have any iota of ideals, ideas and ideology! When majority of youths start to venerate musicians, idolise scammers, revere corruption and celebrate men of questionable characters and opprobrious antecedents, then something is fundamentally and critically wrong. When majority of our youths readily accept what is morally questionable, socially wrong, economically immoral and politically aberrant (sic), then what hope is there for the nation? In those days, we used to look up to people like Obafemi Awolowo, Tai Solarin, Sekou Toure, Bala Usman, Balarabe Musa, Julius Nyerere, Adekunle Ajasin, Ayodele Awojobi, Mokwugo Okoye, Nguyen Gyap, Marcus Garvey, Agustino Neto, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara etc as role models. But now its so disturbing and distressing that youths of today view footballers, Hollywood actors and actresses and political fraudsters as role models.

    It just reaffirms what a popular Professor of Sociology espoused about 20 years ago that ‘Nigeria is dying gradually, because if youths are really the future of the country, the I am telling you that Nigeria is virtually on life support. Just what is the way out of this impending

    morass? What is the solution to this abyss or nadir that we have inexplicably found ourselves today? The other day I was speaking to some youths on the essence of hard work and industry and some of these boys were openly deriding and jeering at me! I just shook my head in pity not at them but their future and the future of the nation. I need answers, what can be done? we need something practical, something pragmatic lest we are doomed!

    Once again, thank you and God bless”. Adekunle Theophilius

    Alhaji Femi Abbas,

    It is my pleasure to write a few lines here as a reaction to your column of May 9, 2014 entitled ‘Letter to Nigerian Youths’. I hope you will find time to read it. As one of the youths to whom your open letter was addressed, I felt the heat while reading it. My first reaction was that you old people are now turning the heat on us after ruining our lives. But going through the article again and comparing it to what my father had told me some years back, I totally agree with your analysis about today’s youths. All that you wrote about us are very correct and I respect your sense of presenting the article particularly your conclusion in which you alluded to the fact that your own children too are today’s youths.

    What baffles me most about today’s youths in Nigeria is their imitation attitude which reflects no sense of reasoning at all. Can you imagine our boys plaiting their hairs and wearing ear rings shamelessly like lunatics just because some criminal prisoners are doing same in Europe and America? Can you imagine the wearing of trouser jeans by our youthful girls of today who virtually leave their breasts and buttocks bare all in the name of civilisation? Even the music they play and their driving pattern speak volume about their character.  Can you imagine the extent of desperation and eagerness to be rich by today’s youths which is pushing them to all criminal acts?

    The truth is that most of us (today’s youths) have completely deviated from the norms which once constituted the values dearly cherished by our parents. The wind of capitalism seems to have so much overwhelmed us that we can hardly believe that we have parents whose lifestyles are completely different from ours. And unfortunately, we do not care to ask why this is so.

    On the other hand, however, the elders will still share a major part of the blame. They are responsible for formulation of policies and their implementation; they are responsible for enactment of laws and their execution. They are also responsible for beaching those laws with impunity in the very presence of their children. They paved the way for corruption through manipulation of figures and through election rigging. They openly called white black and abuse justice on the platter of ethnicity and nepotism. They introduced hooliganism into local politics and openly aided and abetted corruption in all shades. Yet they do not their children to be like them.

    Sir, I have been privileged to travel to many countries. But I have never seen a country where leaders trample on the law of the land like Nigeria. And this is shamelessly done with impunity. Have you ever seen a Nigerian resigning from a public office no matter the gravity of his/her official crime? Here is a country where innocence is heavily punished while criminality is officially extolled. Examples of ministers, legislators, judges and chief executives of banks and other private companies abound who are pushed out of office not by their employers but by the press. Even most of the so-called religious leaders who are loudest in preaching against corruption are the biggest beneficiaries of the massive corruption in the land. That is why the possession of executive jets has now become a matter of competition among them.

    Sir, the youths are merely used as instruments for perpetrating all these crimes and in the process they end up surpassing their teachers.

    Sir, do you know that more than half of the approved budgets in virtually all the federal ministries are shared among the civil servants and their ministers? Do you know that even some messengers and gatemen in those ministries own many houses and cars in Abuja today? How much salary do they earn? Sir, Nigeria is doomed more at the instance of the so-called leaders rather than the followers and the only seeming panacea is REVOLUTION. That is what whipped Ghana into the line of sanity. There can be no alternative in the case of Nigeria. Alhaji Abbas, you always sound factual in your writings. I hope you will have the courage to publish this ‘bleeding’ reaction of mine? God save Nigeria.

    Isaac Bello-Osagie, Gwagwalada.

    Thank you, Dr. Femi Abbas, for providing us with a new spectacle to see our youths more vividly. The problem is multidimensional. Parents do not know their children any longer because of the pursuit of money.

    They believe that with money those children are already being taken care of. By the time they realise how wild the children have grown it would have become too late to rectify. I sincerely believe that the plight of today’s youth was wrought by the parents who once gullibly fed their children with cow milk instead of human milk from mothers’ breasts. When those children grew up with the character of cows it became a problem.

    Look at today’s youth very closely and you will discover that the reasoning faculty is conspicuously missing in them. With the exception of human features in them they are virtually cows that only pursue  food and water. As a mother, I know what a child should be, given the right situation. Today’s youths had been deprived the milk of kindness at infancy. They cannot be expected to be kind either to their parents or anyone else. And when a child is deprived of the milk of kindness he is automatically deprived of shame. That is why our male youths dress like females and the females dress like male. Unfortunately the blood of animal can only produce animals. Therefore, for some generations to come we can only have animals in the frames of humans. The die is already cast.

    Another angle to it is the reckless freedom of allowing foreign films to influence the lives of our children. More than 90% of the crimes committed by Nigerian youths are copied from foreign films. And our local artist have started copying those films without thinking of the implications on our youths. The arrival of the unregulated internet has now worsened the situation. We cannot endorse absolute freedom for our children and expect discipline from the same children. The rot is from the very top. When the home leaks the society must bleed. That is the case with Nigeria today.

    In my opinion, some major areas of our public life must be refocused.

    These are the civil service, the police, the political class the business class and the theatre artists. Unless these areas of our society are properly addressed discipline wise, Nigeria will remain a rotten society with inescapable calamity. If you notice very well, you will discover that those we call rulers like president and governors are mere captives in the hands of certain hidden hawks who actually wield the power on their behalves. Look at the so-called First Ladies.

    Look at the professional politicians. Look at the security agencies. When you remove the menaces of all these from the governance of the country you will discover that sanity will prevail.

    Our youths are watching all these on a daily basis and they are aspiring to share in the illegal largess. If today’s youths are used to measure tomorrow’s leadership the conclusion will surely be that there is no tomorrow for Nigeria. The quality of today’s leadership (i. e. that of work and eat) does not provide for Nigeria’s tomorrow.

    Most of today’s so-called leaders are only occupying positions for which they were never trained. How can they train others? We are in danger. With this kind of situation who will now put things in proper perspective? That is the big question waiting for a big answer. Once again, thank you very much my brother. I have been reading your column for quite some time. I admire your style and consistency though I am not a Muslim. Your contribution to Nigerian progress through your column is not mean. Please keep it up. Posterity will vindicate the righteous ones. God bless you.

    Mrs. H. A. B. Dangana, Bida

    Hello Mr. Abbas! I do not miss your weekly column (The Message) because of its unique quality. There is always something new to learn from it. And your language competently carries the weight of your thoughts. It is only through your column that I became a strong Muslim that I am today. Most of the well researched issues you discuss in your column are never addressed in Friday sermons in our Mosques. Your vast knowledge of the West, the East and global current affairs has enriched my understanding of Islam tremendously. It has also confirmed that Islam is truly a complete way of life rather than a mere dogmatic religion. Please, train some younger ones who will continue the good work and do not relent in your efforts. God bless you.

    The case of today’s Nigerian youths is like that of a plant. You can only reap the fruit of any seed you plant and not your wish. No nation wants to degenerate but the factors of degeneration always dictate the extent of a nation’s retrogression.

    Any nation that deifies money is surely on the road to perdition. That is the plight of Nigeria where the emphasis is overwhelmingly on money. Everything including mere greetings is tied to money. The role of politicians in this does not help the matter. They publicly give the impression that money and only money is the issue in the country.

    This has forced the youths to become desperate especially when there are no available jobs for most of them. It is rather pathetic that we expect our youth to be cultured when those who are supposed to be their role models are uncultured. By not serving as good examples for the youths we are ruining the future of our country. These youths are already wild. They need to be tamed. But the instruments with which to tame them are not there. All of us and not government alone must do something urgently. Otherwise, we are doomed as a nation. Thank you.

    Sefinat B. Owoseni (Mrs.), Sango Otta.

  • Our Chibok epiphany

    Would Chibok be Nigeria’s epiphany? Is this our moment of illumination? What would this violent de-flowering of Nigeria by this Chibok phenomenon portend for us all? What auguries would it herald? What on earth is Chibok? What is her metaphysics? Where on earth is Chibok? You may never find it on any map; hardly more than a few hundred people had heard about Chibok before April 15, the day Boko Haram terrorist invaded a girls’ school in Chibok in the dead of night and herded away over 200 teenage girls. Since then and as each day dawned, Chibok, a small town in the eastern-most end of Borno State, northeast of Nigeria, near the Cameroun border has become a cause célèbre for the people of the world.

    The Chibok anthologies: Chibok literally caught fire before our eyes. More than 30 days on as confusion reigned over the number and whereabouts of the abducted Chibok girls, the entire world is roused as one in strident demand for their rescue. The world went Chiboky, so to speak, thanks to Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili and others who launched the #Bringbackourgirls protests in rain and in shine; the peoples of the world have never been united on any single issue like this for a long time. Chibok took a global life of its own becoming an anthology of tales. Let us review some of the themes:

    Chibok unfrocked: Chibok is an unmapped little place near the far, right hand end on Nigeria’s map; near the verdant tropical forests that spreads wildly into the Cameroun mountains. Did you ever think such a place would be the abode of such a well-appointed, all-girls school with such large number of students who are predominantly Christians? If Chibok graduates over 200 high school girls, imagine the total number of teenagers Nigeria churns out from secondary schools nationwide yearly? Does that say something about the latent greatness of this enclave called Nigeria? Marvel at how a modicum of quality leadership could transform this country into a global powerhouse in a very short time. Why don’t we elect to discover the little Chiboks in our small towns and villages and build them into international brands? But not by default as Borno’s Chibok has turned out but by careful planning and painstaking execution.

    Chibok as a de-mystifier: Chibok also unfrocked the presidency and exposed its huge, bare backside to a bewildered world; prompting the world to dash down to Nigeria in a rush, seeking to cover our nakedness. Chibok is the shame of the modern world, a testimony of how a country could fall on its face and break to pieces in a twinkle of an eye if the world did not move to steady it. A band of miscreants was on the verge of hijacking the sovereignty of a big, bumbling country but for the world community. Who could tell what might have been in another fortnight had Nigeria been left to her wiles – an implosion?

    It is a cliffhanger of an irony that Chibok is Nigeria’s new day shame and her saving grace: had the Chibok girls not been taken, Nigeria would have continued to trudge inexorably down the cliff; she was indeed poised to drift to her utter destruction. This abduction must be a divine act in our sovereignty script in which some foreign powers would para-shoot into the country and save us from local thugs hard on gunning down our nationhood. Now that the U.S., U.K., France, China, Israel (and who else?) is here to chase back the dusty insurgents, it plays up another sweet irony: to the effect that you have to be deflowered in order to begin to enjoy sex. Foreign military/security experts are foraging our land and turning us inside out so that we may live.

    Even one month after the Chibok quagmire, a pusillanimous presidency has continued to lumber; suffused in utter confusion and lethargy, there was no deterrence to attacks just as there was no urgent pursuit of hoodlums. And no apparent coordinated intelligence trail in the wake of the abduction. Up until recently, the president was on national television appealing to parents of the girls to help government find the abductors. Not to be left out of the drama, the wife of the president plebified a national calamity with her comical performance also on national television. To think that no formal bilateral alliances were forged all these years of Boko Haram torment; to think that the National Security Adviser (NSA) was reportedly paying millions of dollars to some phony U.S. lobbyist trying to reach the White House through the back door…Chibok as waterloo and epiphany: Not even the Boko Haram insurgents will be the same again after Chibok. As at last Monday, they were already raising a white flag. For the first time since they took this path of madness, they have initiated a peace deal seeking to swap prisoners for the abductees.

    As the whole world encircles them, they must have realised that evil has no hiding place when there is a concert of efforts by the good. Now that we are at it, we must totally rid ourselves of these irritants, these fiends from hell.

    We must reclaim our country from James Town in Akwa-Ibom to Bosso on the north-most tip of Borno; from Badagry in Lagos to Birnin-Konni in Sokoto. We must regroup. It is salutary that prominent northern voices like Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and the Sultan of Sokoto, who had hitherto been squeamish and un-resolute in condemning the rascals, are speaking up. We must seize the momentum of the current upwelling of support from the world to work out our rebirth. We must ensure that this foreign intervention is a clean-and-go effort. Most important, and more threatening than Boko Haram, we must resolve our urgent and present 2015 political logjam. We may yet forge a formidable black nation if we imbibe this Chibok spirit. We just might find our rebirth, our epiphany…after we have brought back the girls.

  • The unfolding American sorcery

    An old Igbo street speak insists that nwa beke wu agbara, which translates roughly to mean that the whiteman is a spirit. It is an evocation which emanated from my brothers marveling at the inventive capacity of this long-nosed, funny-complexioned fellow. For instance, the thought of a giant mass of iron (ship) floating on water or a huge iron bird cruising in the skies would often elicit the thought that whoever wrought such a magical act must have transcended the realm of the human. He must indeed be a spirit of sort.

    If you thought the above is street talk, what shall we say of America’s prediction of the terminality of this political entity call Nigeria in 2015? About 10 years ago, a U.S. organ had supposedly made a study and determined that the Nigerian state had an expiry date. The government of the day had dismissed the prediction nonchalantly as they are wont to react to almost all serious matters of state. There was no attempt to ascribe to the report, the thought and seriousness it required by setting up a think-tank to study it and follow through some of the indications. Absolutely no reasoned response than to abuse the Americans for wishing us evil; yes, President Olusegun Obasanjo who was at the helm then merely made a joke of such piece of early warning intelligence.

    Of intelligence, sorcery and sabotage: Today Nigeria unravels so speedily that the question on our lips now is: will Nigeria survive beyond 2015? Things are happening so rapidly, they indeed cascade beyond our control. The American script plays out unyieldingly, un-forgivingly towards a catastrophic destination. It seems intelligence has combined with sorcery (and laced with a bit of sabotage?) to force the expiration of this land.

    Intelligence: The auguries were conspicuous over a decade ago that Nigeria was indeed a failing state and devoid of a critical intelligent elite or leadership, it was bound to go to pieces.

    Sorcery: How come the Nigerian political system threw up the weakest and worst leadership in her history at this critical moment?

    Sabotage: Is America fuelling the fire of Nigeria’s disintegration and demise?

    America’s post-Nigeria strategies: If the U.S. had foreseen the end of Nigeria, she surely has a post-Nigerian script prepared. What it means is that if Nigeria’s life after life is more expedient for the U.S., it makes strategic sense to orchestrate the demise of this current shambling contraption. Who’s noting, who’s working? Here are a few posers to ponder upon: was the Yar’Adua-Jonathan ticket a happenstance after all? Is this Boko Haram insurgency ordinary? Who are the masterminds and tacticians? Who are the financiers and how come we can’t track the huge funds required for this magnitude of operation? Where are the arms, ammunition (tanks and RPGs inclusive) and logistical supplies coming from? How come the U.S. has paid only lip service to this incipient terrorism in Nigeria five years on? Why has the U.S. established quasi military bases with drones and all, north and south of Nigeria?

    Why is the U.S. issuing incessant terror alerts in Nigeria, the latest being last weekend when the U.S. Department of State (USDS) warned that “groups associated with terrorism planned to mount an unspecified attack against the Sheraton Hotel in Nigeria near the city of Lagos.” If the U.S. could pick this kind of information in her radar, how come she misses the movement of funds and arms fuelling the Boko Haram activities?

    Finally, was that a gloved hand recently when the U.S.DS made a statement that the Federal Government had failed in “addressing grievances among the northern populations.” This assertion is said to be contained in the U.S. Bureau of Counter-Terrorism 2013 Country Report. According to the report, “The government of Nigeria’s efforts to address grievances among northern populations, which include high unemployment and a dearth of basic services, made little progress. Some of the state governments in the North attempted to increase education and employment opportunities, but with almost no support from the Federal Government.”

     The Federal Republics of Northern and Southern Nigeria? And now see who is here at the nick of time to rescue the girls and solve all the terror problems – the Americans. This must be sheer sorcery? Well, Korea was split; Vietnam was split; so were Ireland and Congo, and most recently, Sudan and Ukraine. Might Nigeria be split? What is the game plan?

    Again where is the NSA?

    We had echoed this question on this page recently as the Boko Haram terrorists gain the upper hand in the war and many people rushed in defence of the National Security Adviser, (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd). But this was before the abduction of the Chibok school girls and the Nyanya I and II bombings in Abuja. The sect leader (Shekau) was supposed to have been killed yet he still sends us scare videos. When is the next blast and where?

    Upon his appointment we were made to believe that he had influence among the trouble makers and, indeed, he could open a link with the sect. But about two years on, we even forget these days that we have an NSA. Even the U.S. report quoted above indicts him thus: “…While counter-terrorism activities of these agencies and ministry were ostensibly coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser, the level of inter-agency cooperation and information sharing was limited.”

    Where in the maze is our NSA?

    WEF: our illusion of grandeur.

    It’s so sad that Nigeria is currently saddled with leaders with no grand vision or the ability to drive even the basic and ordinary run of business. Were they imbued with such virtues they would understand that even in the best of times, Nigeria does not have the capacity to host the world or any major international event right now. Second, the World Economic Forum, Africa (WEF) is a private sector-led showpiece (jamboree) suited for advanced countries like Switzerland, which has long overcome the basic worries of development.

    But Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her cronies choose to ignore this point. You can’t deign to host the world when you don’t have electricity, you don’t have basic potable water; pupils still sit on bare floor or study under the shade of trees; you still grapple with common diseases like cholera and polio. Serious leaders would tackle these basic worries fiercely instead of competing with Switzerland to host WEF. By the way, how much is WEF costing Nigeria, don’t we have a right to know? Why is it that members of our economic team are adept at showmanship and at grandstanding; smart talkers but poor workers? The economy withers under them yet they pretend all is well. They are leading us no where and we know it.

  • Fallacious reasoning for centralised security regime

    Fallacious reasoning for centralised security regime

    The President’s advice to the national conference delegates was to think of national interest in all their deliberations. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that whatever understanding of national interest the delegates had prior to their arrival in Abuja has been the prime mover of their contributions to conference debates. This is by no means to be lamented. Delegates come from different backgrounds and they will prioritise the interests that they perceive as directly congruent to their respective conditions.

    It would appear then that in a situation where delegates present conflicting proposals based on their interests, there can be no arbiter or objective umpire. For contrary to the idealist belief that political deliberation and voting is a process of discovering the truth, what we are faced with is a different reality.  Where interests are prioritised, reference to truth must take a back seat. That is to say, there is no truth to be discovered, only interests to be canvassed and promoted.

    Contrary to the mindset captured in the preceding paragraph, I would like to argue that even if interests are prioritised, there is still room for an objective determination of the means to achieving those interests.

    Confab delegates certainly have an interest in security because their various constituencies, including ethnic nationalities, professional groups and religious organizations, understand that without adequate security, they cannot satisfy any of their other interests. For this reason, there is a committee on National Security and at least one of the other sub-committees includes security as part of its mandate. This is the Committee on Devolution of Powers.

    From the reporting on the conference deliberations, however, it appears that both of the subcommittees that focus on security have rejected the proposal for the institutionalisation of state police in the constitution. From the Committee on Homeland Security, we have a recommendation for scrapping the Ministry of Police Affairs and replacing it with the Ministry of Homeland Security, which is to coordinate the “activities of the National Guard, Nigerian Police Force, Civil Defense Corps and the Nigerian Prisons Service”. What is significant, however, is not so much what the committee included but what it rejected. For while it endorsed the creation of a Ministry of Homeland Security, it rejected the creation of a decentralised police structure and opted instead for the continuation of the failed centralised security system that has demobilised us for almost fifty years.

    It is unclear from the reports what arguments the committees proffered for their support for a centralised and against a decentralised security regime. But if precedent can be a rational guide in these matters, the arguments are too familiar and remain fallacious on all counts. If there is a common interest in security, the question we must answer is, “has a centralised system been effective since 1966?” The answer clearly is “no.” If we are rational human beings, we must be willing to jettison a failed approach and embrace one that has been shown to be successful in other places and make it work for us.

    In the recent past I have had to deal with the spurious arguments against state police and at the risk of repetition I shall once more rebut those closet unitarists whose idea of a federal system is the extreme antithesis of what it is.

    The arguments against decentralised (state) police are samples of immature and unsound reasoning. The first is that state police has the potential for abuse by politicians, especially governors and the party in power. The second argument is about funding the system.  So, there is widespread agreement on (i) the present perilous state of internal security, (ii) the inadequacy of the federal police to deal with it, and (iii) the universally acknowledged effectiveness of state and local police in dealing with internal security in any nation. But because of the fear—imagined or real—that politicians, especially governors are likely to use it as an instrument of oppression, plus uncertainty about funding, otherwise reasonable people are against the institution of state police.

    Neither of these concerns is unresolvable. They are challenges that reasonable people can meet and overcome. Take the case of funding. If security is the foremost responsibility of government, surely state governments can be expected to source for the means of discharging this responsibility even if it requires moderating expenses in other sectors. What is more, an effective system of internal security has the potential for generating internal revenue that not only pays for itself but also yields substantial dividends for investment in other sectors. Certainly such a regime can expect to attract a decent amount of domestic and foreign investment into the state. With business and industrial investment, opportunities are created for youth employment which in turn creates buying power, which leads to more investment and the circle can only be a virtuous one.

    There is a second consideration about funding. Even now that the police falls under the exclusive list of the Constitution, governors cannot be unconcerned about resources available to the police commands in their states, for they are still responsible for securing their citizens. A good number of governors have created State Security Commissions that raise funds for the police, while some raise their own vigilante groups.

    The major concern of opponents, however, is that in the hands of governors, state police is a weapon of harassment. This is not an imaginary fear because it happened during the First Republic.  But the reality of the experience of almost half a century ago, vivid as it might be in our minds, cannot be a reliable yardstick for determining how we should now live our lives. The mark of our humanity is rationality and with this endowment we are able to think through the most efficient and effective means of meeting the challenges that we face and identifying the most efficient means of satisfying our wants and needs.

    If we are wary of the experience of the past—premiers using state police to torment opponents—and we know that federal police has not worked efficiently and effectively to secure us—the blind can see it—then we must put on our thinking caps and device an effective means of avoiding the unacceptable experiences of the past. We could ensure that governors have no monopoly of supervisory authority over the state police by creating a civil and apolitical policing system. Each state might have a transparently independent Police Commission, with representation from major sectors of the civil society and financially autonomous, with constitutionally guaranteed revenue.

    Secondly, if we are fearful that governors may use state police to rig elections—harassing political opponents while empowering the rigging industry of supporters—then again we must device a means of avoiding such an inauspicious outcome. In any case, if the first proposal is acceptable and there is an independent supervisory agency, then the fear of using the police to rig elections would have been misplaced.

    For far too long, there has been one constant refrain against proposals for changing our way of doing those things that we all agree are not working. Whether it is change from dictatorship to democracy or unitarism to federalism, the opposition has always expressed a baffling lack of confidence in our collective maturity. We were told that we were not mature for democracy; that the kind of federalism we seek is dangerous in light of our present political circumstance. And state police is for mature societies which ours is not.

    The people making these claims consider themselves mature. This is what gives them the audacity to advise us against attempting what they believe the country is not ready for. While I cannot pronounce on the veracity of their claims to maturity, what is clear to me is that their arguments are self-serving and short-sighted as such.  Federal control of security serves their self-interest. They forget, however, that control of the center is unpredictable and a failed security regime is an equal opportunity victimiser against which nobody has proven immunity.  Hopefully, the entire conference at its plenary will vote for a decentralised police system. It is an important measure of a successful conference.

  • Letter to Nigerian youths

    Dear Nigerian youths,

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

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

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

    Youths before now

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

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

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

    Change of trend

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

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

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

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

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

    The difference

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Causes of generational change

    Whenever there is cause to review the generational trend with the intention of righting the wrong, you the youths of today are often quick in pointing accusing fingers mischievously at the generations ahead of you saying they caused the debacle. But while pinching the back of the elders you often forget that sooner or later you may become elders whose back will be pinched by the youths who succeed your own generation. You have forgotten that most of the scientific discoveries and technological advancement of your age which lured you into roguery were not available for the past youths. There were no such things as hard drugs, cyber crimes, armed robbery, sophisticated fraud through manipulation of figures and forgery of signatures. There were no cases of rape, child trafficking, audacious prostitution and day light murder with impunity as are rampant among you today.

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

    Implications

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Conclusion

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