FEMI ABBAS

 

Monologue 

Today’s article is a follow up to that of last Friday as demanded by many dignified readers of this column   around the world. Yours sincerely could not resist such a demand since it is, only through the readers’ recognition that a writer can become a signpost of meaningful hope for the world of today and that of tomorrow.

 

Chain of Events

Perhaps, no platform provides a better opportunity for the explanation demanded by readers, in today’s article, than a historic publication of an edition of ‘The News’ magazine in 1999.

 

The Publication

At the twilight of the 20th century, in 1999, the management of ‘The News’ magazine, , thought of putting together, in a centenary compendium, the most prominent 100 Nigerian men and women of the 20th century. The publication was entitled ‘PEOPLE IN THE NEWS 1900-1999: A Survey of Nigerians of The 20th Century’.

 

Contributors

Like an encyclopedia, that compendium attracted some prominent writers in the country, who were approached by the publishers of ‘The News’ Magazine, to contribute to its publication from different perspectives.

Most of those approached were famous Nigerian newspaper editors, seasoned columnists and versatile (non-journalist) writers. They were selected for the historic assignment, based on their impeccable experiences and professional credibility.

As a columnist and Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board of Vanguard newspaper at that time, yours sincerely was one of those selected as contributors. And, the two personalities assigned to me to write about, were the late Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and the late Shaykh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi. The latter was the former Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria. What qualified Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory as one of the most prominent 100 Nigerians of the 20th century was his revolutionary reformation of the primordial Arabic schools (Madrasahs) in the South West of Nigeria.

 

The Compendium

The 498 page historic compendium was publicly presented by ‘The News’ publishers with pump and pageantry at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, in Lagos, in the same year of 1999. That compendium can be called Nigeria’s 20th century ‘Hall of Fame.

 

Who is Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory?

To know who this colossal personality was, please, read below, what I wrote about him and his established Institution of learning, as published in the mentioned centenary compendium. The writing went thus: “To Muslim communities of West Africa, two names: (Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and Markaz) have always been synonymous and often used interchangeably. For a long time, only a few people knew that Markaz was a name of an Institution while Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory was the name of its founder. Both names jointly symbolized revolution, not only in the method of propagating Islam in West African sub-region but also in entrenching Arabic, as the divine language of the Qur’an, in the hearts and brains of those Muslims.

 

His Profile

Before his demise in 1992, Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory was both an Islamic scholar of international repute and a revolutionary teacher of teachers. The quality of over 60 internationally recognized books he authored and published continues to speak of him posthumously today.

 

The Citadel called Markaz

With the famous Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies, (Markaz) in Agege, Lagos State, still waxing stronger, today, there is a vivid testimony to the indelible legacy which the ingenuously cerebral personality of Shaykh Adam left behind.

 

Reminiscence

The great Institute of learning called Markaz was established in  Abeokuta, the capital city of today’s Ogun State, in 1952, by Shaykh Adam Abdullah A[-Ilory. It was through that Institution that he introduced an unprecedented modernity and standardization into the study of Arabic and Islamic learning in West African sub-region, starting from Nigeria.

 

Scholarship

Perhaps no 20th century Muslim scholar, dead or alive, has had such a profound impact on West African Muslim communities in terms of Arabic scholarship and Islamic propagation as Shaykh Adam. Before he established Markaz, there were clerics and there were Madrasahs, no doubt. But such clerics and their Madrasahs only operated within a very narrow scope as the teaching methodology used for the students under their pupilage was very crude, archaic and anachronistic.

 

His Reformation

Shaykh Adam, who also passed through that pseudo servitude system, under certain Qur’anic teachers, at his early life, noticed with concern, the anomaly in that archaic system and resolved to change it by the grace of Allah when he grew up and possessed the wherewithal. However, to succeed in that seemingly queer venture, he realized that he needed to equip himself adequately with necessary education and not mere literacy. Therefore, after moving from scholar to scholar, in Nigeria, in search of relevant  knowledge that could assist him in fulfilling his dream, he decided to travel abroad for acquisition of deeper knowledge.

 

Academic Sojourn

On his arrival in  Cairo, in the early 1940s, Sheikh Adam saw with admiration, a thorough administration of Madrasahs and he began to dream of establishing one of the like, on his return to Nigeria. He, therefore, studied the Egyptian curricula of education and teaching    methodology at the elementary and secondary school levels in preparation for the realization of his dream.

 

Back in Nigeria

On returning home at about the age of 30 years, in 1947, Shaykh Adam worked briefly as a missionary under Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria to enable him settle down financially in preparation for the realization of his long term dream. In a short while, his burning desire to reform Madrasah system in Nigeria spurred him to start planning for the establishment of a model Madrasah that would serve as a model for other. That Madrasah was named Markaz.

Thus, with just meager financial resources but relentless determination, the great scholar started his dreamt Madarasah in Abeokuta, now Ogun State, on April 16, 1952, with just 19 pupils and four teachers including Shaykh Adam himself. However, the founder’s foresight would not allow Markaz to remain in Abeokuta for long. He moved the Institution to Agege in 1955.

 

The Uniqueness of Markaz

The uniqueness of Markaz is not to be seen only in the quality of education taught to the   students therein. The modern teaching methodology and reformation with which the Institution is characterized confirm that uniqueness. For instance, the use of chalk and blackboard for teaching Arabic and Islamic education; the use of standard education curriculum; classification of studies into subjects; distribution of pupils into classrooms according to their levels; introduction of school uniform to Madrasah students; enabling Madrasah pupils to sit on chairs rather than bare floor; writing with pencils and pens in  notebooks of class lessons and other innovations were first introduced in Markaz.

Not only those, it was also in Markaz that written examination was first conducted as a means of assessing and promoting pupils from class to class while certificates were issued to successful Madrasah graduates as a measure of their level of education. Besides, Markaz was also the first Madrasah to provide social facilities like dormitories, library, printing press and clinic.

The intended effect of all these was to  wipe off, from the foreheads of those students, any sweat of inferiority complex that could discourage them from attending the Madrasah. It was also meant to serve as an impetus of hope for them in respect of the future. Given the circumstance of that time, how else could the Madrasah system have been reformed in Nigeria?

 

Antagonism

Incidentally, as characteristic of black Africans, Shaykh Adam was confronted with implacable hostility by some parochially envious local clerics, who thought that teaching students such ‘strange’ subjects like syntax, morphology, logic, semantics, philosophy, geography, History, mathematics, and literature, with which they (local clerics) were not familiar, could put them at a disadvantage. And, since they saw that  revolution as a cultural affront, they resolved to resist it, by all means. Their adopted instruments of resistance were intimidation and frustration. That hostility became aggravated when Shaykh Adam added a Jum’at Mosque to Markaz and started delivering weekly sermons in Arabic and translating them into Yoruba language for thorough understanding by his congregation. But then, relying on a formidable protection of Allah, the courageous scholar remained undaunted even as he was indifferent to the unwarranted hostility of those clerics.

 

First Graduation Ceremony

With the first graduation ceremony of the primary section of Markaz in 1957, however, which many people watched with admiration and encomiums, Sheikh Adam won a landmark victory for his extraordinary revolution that eventually turned Markaz into a Citadel of knowledge. Following that graduation, some hitherto malicious local Alfas had to swallow their pride by shelving their envy and by enrolling in Markaz, as students, to also improve their knowledge by undergoing a new, modern tutelage in a scientific teaching methodology that could qualify them to become as famous as Shaykh Adam.

Some of those local Alfas came from various parts of Nigeria as well as neighbouring countries like Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cote de Voire, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon as well as Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal.

After graduation, all of them went back to their home countries to establish similar Institutions in their domains under the supervisory umbrella of Markaz. That may explain the reason why Almajiri menace is not as rampant in the South West of Nigeria as it is in the North.

 

Products of Markaz

Today, thousands of products of Markaz and those of the affiliate Institutes are University graduates in various fields of discipline. Scores of them are highly placed in their professional callings.

Today, Markaz can proudly regale in the galaxy of its alumni who are holding sway in virtually all fields of human endeavour. Among those who graduated from Markaz with exemplary laurels are  Professors like Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and now the Registrar of JAMB; Professor Abdur-Razak Deremi Abubakr, a former Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State; the late Professor Shuaib Uthman, a former Deputy Vice Chancellor of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; Professor Murtada Aderemi Bidmus, a former Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, to mention, just a few. There are many other Markaz alumni with tertiary degrees in various academic and non-academic lines, who are playing leadership roles in various sectors of Nigeria today. Also among them are professionals like Medical Doctors; Lawyers; Engineers; Ambassadors;  Journalists (including yours sincerely), Architects; Accountants; Bankers; Pharmacists; Surveyors; Civil Servants; Business men and women as well as Secondary School Principals and teachers of high repute. Today, they are all proud of Markaz as much as Markaz is proud of them. Alhamdu Lillah!

 

League of Imams and Alfas

As a way of advancing the course of Muslim unity and elevating the status of the Muslim clerics in the South West of Nigeria, Shaykh Adam initiated the formation of the League of Imams and Alfas to serve as a common forum of unification for the Imams and Alfas in the South West of Nigeria. Following the establishment of that League, in 1963, he was unanimously nominated by consensus to be the President-General, but he turned it down and rather preferred to serve as Seretary-General, the position he held in that League, till his demise in 1992.

 

Translation of the Qur’an

Shaykh Adam was the initiator and leader of the ten man team that translated the Qur’an from Arabic into Yoruba language. Some of the graduates of Markaz were part of that team. And, the circulation of the copies of that translated Qur’an was personally supervised by him.

 

Publications

As an author of scores of scholarly books and booklets, Shaykh Adam was internationally acknowledged as a towering Islamic scholar whose contribution to Islamic scholarship and propagation in West Africa was unequalled in the 20th century. Some of his books were used in some Universities in the Arab world. And in writing all those books, he used no language other than Arabic.

 

Awards

Shaykh Adam was the first black African to win the coveted Egyptian intellectual Gold Medal Award in Arabic Literature, which was presented to him by President  Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 1989. He had earlier, in 1975, won the Mauritanian International Award for Islamic Scholarship, which was presented to him by the then President Moukhtar Ould Dada of that country.

 

Conclusion

Now, given the above historical analysis, which parent will not be proud to see his children passing through a Madrasah like Markaz? God bless the readers of this column!

FEMI ABBAS

 

Monologue 

It should not be strange to readers of ‘The Message’ that this column is coming up, today, with such a memorable title as presented here. A newspaper columnist, who is also a veteran Journalist, is like a human octopus that deals with issues and occurrences from different conceivable angles just as he relates to those issues according to his perception. Thus, sharing any experience garnered from such perception, with the readers of this column, is, essentially, one of the fundamental indices of the profession called journalism. It is also a major ingredient of the beauty of that profession.

Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide, who died early this year, was a Nigerian frontline lawyer and a politician of prominence. He was also one of the most ardent readers of ‘The Message’ column when alive.

 

The Encounter

On a particular Saturday in 2010, the iconic political juggernaut and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) called me by telephone and requested me to please see him at his Idi Isin residence, near NIHORT in Ibadan. On entering his living room, a ‘hill’ of newspaper cuttings sitting on one of the stools by his side, caught my attention. The sight of that ‘hill’ was a confirmation of the fact that the man was truly an ardent newspaper reader. After exchange of pleasantries with me and offer of drink, Chief Akinjide asked me to formally introduce myself to him, which I promptly did. He then decided to play the role of a journalist by interrogating me in a cross-examination manner with which lawyers are typically renowned in a law court. And, when he started quoting copiously from the various articles in my  column, and picking out copies of those articles from the ‘hill’ of newspaper cuttings by his side, It became clear to me that the ‘hill’ was deliberately placed on that stool in readiness for my coming.

 

Impression

By Chief Akinjide’s disposition in the course of our conversation, I noted a double edged impression which he created. One of those impressions was for me while the other was for him. On my side, I noticed a very sharp, juvenile brain with a uniquely active memory in him despite his octogenarian age.

This man, who had become a Federal Minister when I was in the elementary school, so much dazed me with his analysis of my writings that I felt he would have been one of the best newspaper columnists in Nigerian history if he had chosen journalism as a profession. He vividly reminded me of the quality of Western education which his generation acquired during the colonial rule in Nigeria. In fact, Chief Richard Akinjide was Allah’s special gift to Nigeria even if Nigeria did not appreciate that gift as much as expected. One of the pungent questions he threw to me, which warranted the writing of this article, was about my educational background. He said: “which secondary school did you attend?” And, in answering that question, I simply told him that it was MARKAZ. He asked me to repeat the answer and I proudly told him once again that it was MARKAZ. And, from his inquisitively agitated visage, I could see that he never heard that name before. There and then, he asked me to tell him the language by which that name was coined, its meaning as well as the location of the school.

It was during my explanation that he discovered that I could speak, write and comprehend Arabic language very well.

 

Akinjide’s Surprise

I told him that MARKAZ was the name of an Arabic school (madrasah) established by the late Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, in Agege, Lagos State. And when I also told him that I was not privileged to attend a conventional secondary school because my father could not afford it, he was highly surprised. His next question was: “then, how did you come about the high standard English language with which you are writing your column?”. My explanation on how I learnt English language privately, after I left the Arabic school, sounded so much unbelievable to him that he confessed that he had thought that I attended either Oxford or Cambridge University in UK, for my degree course, perhaps after completing my secondary school education at King’s College, or St. Gregory’s College in Lagos. However, in response to that guess, I told him that I attended King’s University, Jeddah, for my degree and I read English. But he was still surprised that I obtained my first degree in English Language and Literature in the Arab World. He did not know that virtually all my lecturers at King’s University were Britons and Americans. There and then, he tactically left that angle and asked me to tell him something about Arabic language and its usefulness. But to my amazement, Chief Akinjide’s surprise became heightened when I told him that all science subjects that brought about technology and the modern civilization originated from Arabic language. For instance, I told him that such subjects like Chemistry (Kaymiyau), Physics (Fisiyau), Algebra (Aljibrau), mathematics (Ar-Riyadiyat) and several others in sciences were originally Arabic. I also told him that the very first University ever established in human history was University of Cordoba which was established by the Muslim Arabs of the second Umayyad dynasty in Spain, in the 9th century. I did not stop there. I added that it was the Muslim Arabs that invented figure zero (0) which paved way for digital system in mathematics made technology possible. That conversation lasted about three hours but from his body language, Chief Akinjide needed more information about Islam’s contribution to human civilization. He then told me that he would continue to invite me for further discussions on that subject whenever the need arose for it.

 

Another Meeting

About four weeks after that first encounter, Chief Akinjide called me again, by telephone, to his residence. I then thought of getting a witness to that intellectual conversation because of the future. I asked my brother, Dr. Wole Abbas (now a Professor and Head of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, to accompany me to Chief Akinjide’s residence. I narrated to him what had transpired between us in our previous meeting. And, being an intellectual rendezvous, my brother was ready to be a witness.

On reaching the place, the conversation began again. And for another period of over three hours, the conversation continued with the active participation of Professor Wole Abbas. At the end of that second conversation, the man asked a puzzling question thus: “where were people like you when we were rigmarolling in search of religious right path? Or don’t you know that I was born a Muslim and I was given the name Rasheed at birth? It was because I did not understand the meanings of the Arabic recitations to which I was subjected that I later decided to become a Christian”. “And, now, is it possible to combine? And, is it not too late to change? That last question clearly showed the confused situation of Chief Akinjide’s mind on religious matter. But the opportunity of another meeting with him, thereafter, did not come. From that conversation, I discovered that, unlike molst Nigerian politicians, Chief Akinjide was a serious-minded realist whose lifestyle was a template of emulation by today’s Nigerian politicians.

 

Reminiscence

The above related episode came to throw a challenge to Nigerian Muslim clerics over two conspicuous issues that jointly put a question mark on the practice of Islam in Nigeria today.  One is about the Qur’anic schools in Nigeria. The other is the Mosque affair. The two are closely interrelated.

Informed Muslims will recall that Islam first reached some parts of what is now called Nigeria in the 11th century CE. That was over 1000 years ago when no one could have dreamt of a country to be called Nigeria. Even the colonialists who caused the emergence of Nigeria as a country were, at that time, still wallowing in total ignorance as they foraged wildly and aimlessly in the darkness of life. It took about 500 years after the arrival of Islam before Christianity came to Nigeria in the 16th century. Today, if the two religions are compared in terms of education and material progress in this country, one will be found obviously ahead of the other by far. As a matter of fact, it will seem as if Christianity preceded Islam in Nigeria by 500 years. There is a fundamental question here not yet asked let alone answered. Where did things begin to go wrong for the Muslims?

It is only logical that a question like this is asked at this stage before any answer can be provided. From a Yoruba adage we learn that “when a kid suddenly slips and falls down he looks forward to someone who can lift him up. But when an adult slips and falls down, he looks backwards to see the cause of his fall”. After over 1000 years in Nigeria, Islam is eminently qualified to be called an adult. Thus we can jointly look back to see where things started going wrong for Islam to remain a crawling adult?

If the past generations of Nigerian Muslims did not ask the above question, it wasn’t because they lacked intellect or foresight that could ginger them into asking such a question. Even if they asked a similar question, their political and economic hindrances would have posed as lack of wherewithal to answer it effectively. They could therefore be pardoned. The circumstances in which they embraced Islam and practiced it were quite different from those of today. That they even stood firmly by Islam in those days at all, despite the implacable persecutions they faced, was an impeccable testimony to their steadfastness in faith.

 

The Difference

Unlike Christianity which was escorted down to Nigeria by its European propagators and was strengthened by the colonialists after assuming power, Islam only migrated to Nigeria unaccompanied. That it emerged as a force to be reckoned with was only due to the grace of Allah. Nothing beyond education encouraged certain great scholars like Usman Dan Fodio and his brother, Abdullah Dan Fodio and Sultan Bello to rise up and embark on vigorous propagation of Islam which enabled that divine religion to retain its vitality till today. It should be remembered that both Usman Dan Fodio and his son (Muhammad Bello) made such complex linguistic, theological, scientific and legal studies that the one wrote 93 books while the other wrote 97 books.

 

Clapperton’s Encounter with Sultan Bello

It is on record that Hugh Clapperton, a British colonial agent, once had an interesting intellectual encounter with Sultan Muhammad Bello in 1824. After the historic intellectual encounter that took both of them through a compex web of knowledge display, Clapperton had to admit thus: “He (Muhammad Bello) continued to ask me several other theological questions, until I was obliged to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious subtleties to resolve those knotty points”.

And when Clapperton returned to Sokoto two years later (1826) and presented Sultan Bello with a complete copy of Arabic Euclid he (Clapperton) was shocked to learn that his host already possessed one. (Euclid is an ancient geometry book of 13 volumes named after its Greek originator).

 

Literacy in Northern Nigeria

When the Europeans first came to the territory now called Nigeria in the 16th century, the north was the only part that was literate. And, that was because Islam had reached that part of the country since the 11th century, with its Arabic literacy. The English colonialists confirmed this on their arrival in Nigeria for colonization in the 19th century. And that was why they were much more cautious in their dealings with the northerners than they were with the southerners.

That the colonialists did not retain Arabic literacy in the north was due to the fact that they could not communicate in that sophisticated language. If they (the Europeans) had not ignored Arabic literacy, the north would not have been perceived as backward literarily today by the southerners. At least by 1919 when the South was just beginning to embrace literacy, in the Western way, the North already had about 25000 schools where students were taught various subjects through Arabic language.

Today, however, over 80% of Nigerian Christians are conveniently lettered either in English which is the official language of Christianity in this country or in their vernacular languages through the Roman alphabets.  That has enabled them to translate the Bible into about 21 Nigerian languages.

But on the contrary, less than 5% of Nigerian Muslims can be said to be realistically familiar with Islam through literacy in Arabic. And, without adequate literacy in Arabic language, there can be no thorough understanding of Islam which is the total way of life for any serious Muslim.

Today, despite the age of Islam in Nigeria and the population of the Muslims, the Qur’an has just been translated into about than five Nigerian languages. Even that was only possible because the two initiators of those translations (the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi and Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory) were well educated in the language of the Qur’an. They were later emulated by some scholars from tribes other than  Hausa and Yoruba.

 

Problems of Qura’anic Schools

Many Nigerian Muslims who passed through the Qur’anic schools in Nigeria and care now claiming to have graduated (through celebration of Walimah) have ended up being serious embarrassments to Islam because of the shallow depth of knowledge they possess.

The problem of Qur’anic schools in Nigeria is not just about faulty curriculum but also about anachronistic teaching methodology still being used.

 

Arabic Language

Language is the prima facie of any culture. A culture that is not entrenched in a language is only bidding its time of oblivion. Islam is a foremost culture with a foremost language. But with due apology, the attitude of some of Nigerian clerics who are teaching in Qur’anic schools has virtually changed the colour and the taste of Islam, as a culture, in Nigeria for the worse. Rather than being an attractive place of learning, most Qur’anic schools have been turned into scaring centres for our children. And, only a very few of those children are now willing to attend Qur’anic schools. The result is that no seriousness is attached to those schools in our society any longer.

Qur’an is the encyclopedia of Islam. It is not meant for recitation alone. It is the final source of all researches in all fields of learning for those who know its value. Anybody who wants to claim authority in Islamic knowledge must, of necessity, be able to read, write and comprehend Arabic language very well.

In Islam, Qur’an is the house in which the Muslims’ minds reside. The foundation of that house is Arabic language. Without understanding Arabic language, it is impossible to comprehend any literature written in Arabic, be it the Qur’an or Hadith. Only modernization of Arabic schools can change the situation of Al-majirai in Nigeria.

FEMI ABBAS

 

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

 

Monologue 

In a few days’ time, precisely on October 1, 2020, Nigeria, the presumed Africa’s main hope for Blackman’s growth and development, will be 60 years old as an ‘independent’ Country. Thus, traditionally, a few privileged beneficiaries of the woes that have come to envelope the mystery called ‘Nigeria’s Independence’ will joyously troop out, that day, to celebrate their largess, with fanfare, at the expense of national growth and development while millions of the underprivileged Nigerians will spend the same day mourning the same ‘Independence’ with hunger and sorrow in the corners of their various prisons called

houses.

 

Preamble

Coming as a sermon from the pulpit of ‘The Message’ column, this article is supposed to be a letter to Nigerian politicians of today, as a reminder of the past political experience that wrecked our dear country. It is also meant to serve as a warning against the danger awaiting our country’s future generations.

Similar letters had been written randomly, in this column, to some other Nigerian politicians who preceded the current ones in office. But so far, nothing has changed for the better. Wrting a similar letter here is, therefore, an unambiguous clarification in support of what may become posterity,

when tomorrow comes.

 

The Letter

Dear Nigerian politicians,

This is an open letter being addressed to you with the intention of drawing you back from the path of stray which most of you have consistently and unrepentantly been plying since two decades ago when you mounted the hill of political ruins in the name of politics.

Although letters of this type seldom come to politicians like most of you who have banished your consciences and, whose political lifestyle seem to be inherently dependent on whim with impunity even as self- aggrandizement insensitively remains your ultimate goal.

Coming up at this precarious period of political labyrinth in Nigeria, this letter is necessitated by the current frightening political tension that is fast becoming a bubble which may burst anytime from now, at your instance, unless the Almighty Allah decides to save our country, by His special Grace, from becoming another ‘Warsaw that once saw War’ far away in Poland of yore.

If you, Nigerian  politicians of today, think that you can escape any calamitous consequence of your ongoing political machinations which you are tendentiously weaving around Nigeria’s political vestige, you may be day-dreaming. Those who engaged in similar machinations before you in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s never survived its consequences. And yours is very unlikely to be different when tomorrow comes.

 

The Function of Conscience

“Conscience”, according to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where and when it has not become cancerous like it is with you now.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once gave a vivid description of the signs by which hypocrites can be identified.

He said “hypocrites are known by three signs: When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege on it and when they are trusted they betray”.

Most of you (Nigerian politicians of today) so much typify this definition that one wonders if the great Prophet of Islam actually had you in mind when he was expressing that axiom. Unfortunately, this may be meaningless to you today, in the presence of ‘flowing naira’, but you will surely get its meaning in full when tomorrow comes.

 

Deceptive Motive

It will be recalled that when most of you started agitating for a return to democracy in the late 1990s while a despotic military demagogue held sway, your seeming focus was on liberation of Nigerian citizenry from the crushing claw of the then military despotism. And you did that in the name of freedom fighters and human rights advocates. But hardly had you succeeded in rallying the masses to drive away the military boys than most of you began to quest for your selfish interest by claiming to want ‘to serve your people’.

That claim, which turned out to be the bait with which you deceptively lured ordinary Nigerians into the struggle that culminated in raising your own political platforms to the height upon which you stand today, was a covenant. And, that covenant was not just between you and the people you claimed to want to serve but much more between you and the Almighty Allah who knows every manifest and hidden agenda. And, He (Allah) will surely hold you accountable for it when tomorrow comes.

 

In Retrospect

Please, be reminded that as some of you once shamelessly graded figure 16 higher than figure 19, on a political platform, some years back, in the glare of your children and grandchildren, and, as you audaciously classified looting the national treasury as a lesser crime than corruption, all in the name of politics, you must remember that God’s judgment can neither be manipulated nor be appealed. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s justice will come to prevail upon you, perhaps when you least expect. As fathers and mothers who politically arrogate the nation’s leadership and wealth to yourselves without thinking of the lessons that the younger ones can learn from your example on their way to the top, you have evidently demonstrated that you are grossly unqualified to bequeath any sensible legacy to the future generations of Nigeria.

If anything, your thoughtless public utterances, your shameless public actions and counter actions as well as your devilish body language often arrogantly displayed, are the real causes of the misfortune bedevilling our dear country today in the names of insurgency, banditry, yahoo yahoo fraud and robbery as a culture across the land. All of these, which you audaciously top with reckless looting, have been the cause of woes for Nigeria.

As a matter of fact, you, Nigerian politicians of today, can be called anything but gentlemen or women of honour which you call yourselves even as you have become, unprecedentedly, a disgrace not only to Nigeria as a country but also to Africa as a continent.

And, now that you seem to have permanently enlisted immorality, especially corruption, as a vital instrument of politics without thinking of its consequences, how can you be seen as gentlemen or women? And, based on the above facts, you are now behaving like intoxicated horses without reins. But, mind you, what you are reading in this letter is the very true picture of you, which history will present to the world when tomorrow comes.

 

Life without Justice

In Islam, two issues are fundamentally sacrosanct both of which Allah does not take lightly. These are sacredness of life and dispensation of justice. It is a great iniquity for any human being to engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extra-judicially in the name of politics or economy or religion or ethnicity or religion is nothing but a human vampire of sadistic nature. In Islam, such a grievous sacrilege cannot be perpetrated without commensurate penalty, if not here on earth, definitely in the hereafter.

Actually, nothing draws the wrath of Allah as fast as those two crimes, a fact which Satan may continue to ask you to ignore at your own peril. Murder is physical termination of the life of a fellow human being directly or indirectly. Injustice, on the hand, is killing a person mentally, psychologically, politically, economically or spiritually by denying him his legitimate right. Now, which of these has not occurred severally at your instance, in the course of your political journey towards power grabbing and illegal wealth? How will you explain this in defence of yourselves against un-appealable judgment of Allah when tomorrow comes?

 

Legislative Duty 

In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is invariably built. Those of you who manipulated your ways into legislating for the rest of us hardly see yourselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not betray the course of justice. But, are you not doing that with audacity? As legislators, you are expected by most Nigerians to behave like honourable leaders. But the oppose is the case.

You cannot deny the fact that you inherited a dignified fortune from the Legislators of the First Republic, who limited themselves to sitting allowances in their various chambers. But you have turned that fortune into a disgraceful misfortune by allotting full salaries and unimaginable allowances, in to yourselves at the expense of over 95% of poverty stricken Nigerians. That you are Legislators today

is due to sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which gives room for audacious gerrymandering and manipulation of political gear with impunity. If such opportunity comes your way, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike at the right time in future.

And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the extent of its effect. You are, therefore, advised to readjust that gear for for a good name when tomorrow comes.

 

The June 12, 1993 Saga

As politicians, at least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of all Nigerians even after almost three decades of licking our political wounds. And, yet, the scale of judgment is awaiting all the participants in that misfortune, which history will reveal with full exposition when tomorrow comes.

 

Subversion

Due to lack of conscience, most of you, today’s politicians, may have forgotten, but you need to be reminded that shortly after you took oath of office either in 1999 or 2003 or 2007 or in 2011 or in2015 or in 2019, you started subverting the covenant into which you voluntarily entered with the people who elected or nominated you directly or indirectly. That covenant is to serve them (the people). And, those who serve are nothing but servants. But no sooner had you been sworn into office than you started calling yourselves leaders and not servants again. By implication, you have so dangerously promoted desperation and impunity to the front burner of Nigerian politics that whoever thinks of serving the country, today, through any public office, is seen as a devil that must be kept at an arm’s length. From your public conduct, any right-thinking person can vividly see the types of families you are breeding for the nation. People like you, who do not care about their family names, will surely not care about the country’s name anywhere, anytime. But whether you care or not, your befitting judgment will be pronounced when tomorrow comes.

 

Executive Duty  

As members of the Executive arm when you travel abroad officially, at people’s expense, you are never alarmed by the way the systems work in those countries. You never bother to ask questions about the effective functions of electricity, the smoothness of roads, the flow of portable water even on the 50th floor of a sky scraper and the excellent educational system that promotes patriotism with probity and decorum in those countries. Rather, your primary concerns are the personal, ephemeral gains accruable to you at the expense of the present and the future generations. For the past 20 years of Nigeria’s fourth republic you have been at the saddle of government without any ability to show in concrete terms what value has that length of time added to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Your emphasis is on wielding ‘power’ rather than governance and you often go about it in such a ridiculous manner that gives the impression that government is much more about destruction than construction. And with this kind of conduct, where will your name be in the history of Nigeria when tomorrow comes?

 

Nigeria as OPEC Member

You, today’s Nigerian politicians, do not even feel ashamed that Nigeria is the only OPEC country that imports refined petroleum products for domestic consumption simply because you are beneficiaries of the corrupt device which you deliberately put in place in the name of subsidy. Nothing exhibits Nigeria’s level of corruption than exportation of crude oil for the purpose of importing refined fuel for local consumption. It is like exporting raw yam and importing pounded yam for consumption. How can that be explained to Nigerians of the future when tomorrow comes?

 

Electricity

Even if Nigeria never had electricity before and she wanted to start one to boost her economy, is a period of 20 years not enough to provide a functional electricy especially given the enormous amount of wealth with which this country is endowed? What can be more ridiculously shameful for a country, in the 21st century, than to be without electricity? With what can such a country think of mass employment and development? What can be more primitive than a situation whereby people are forced to pay for unavailable electricity? Does Nigeria really belong to the modern world?

Is it necessary to start preaching here and now, at this age of of internet, that in modern time, no technological device provides as much opportunity for jobs and economic growth as electricity? Yet, it is that major device that you, today’s Nigerian politicians deliberately hold down to deprive the populace of the wherewithal with which to rise mentally and intellectually so that you can turn them into perpetual slaves to be ruled forever. In such a situation, should anybody be surprised that corruption has been unconscientiously legislated into legitimacy and executed as such? Now, Nigeria is held to a standstill because every one of you, politicians, must personally have a chip of any juicy future, today, without caring about what may become of your own children tomorrow.

Most of you, Nigerian politicians of today, are fathers and mothers who will want your children to grow up as responsible men and women, yet, you there is nothing in you that can serve as good examples for those children. You tell lies with relish. Yet you want your children to be truthful. From where do you expect them to inherit truthfulness? You steal public funds with unbridled audacity. Yet you do not want your children to called thieves. What other names should the children of thieves bear other than thieves?

 

Duties of public Servants

Ordinarily, your duty as government officials, whether in the executive, legislative or judiciary arm of government, is to serve your country in such a way that you can create a historical window for yourselves through which the future generations can retrospectively peep into your lives with reverence. But since everything in Nigeria has been peculiarly monetized (courtesy of former          President Obasanjo regime), it has become a rule that those who hold sway in government, in whatever capacity, must take the lion’s share of our national cake through our lean annual budget. That is why you randomly but embarrassingly throw some damaging pebbles into our political brook to cause unnecessary ripples in the serenity of that brook to the total disadvantage of today and that of tomorrow.

Ironically, some of you think or talk of impeachment of a President only when your salaries, allowances or extra budgetary largess suffers a reduction or a delay. It does not matter to you whether or not the serving or retired workforce in Nigeria remains unpaid for years. Once you are able to amass whatever comes your way legally or illegally the rest of the populace can go on hunger strike forever. It is rather shameful and disappointing that even some of you who claim to be Muslims are participating in such an evil charade despite your proclamation of Islam.

Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know about. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And, a person without conscience is like a wild horse without rein. That is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) admonished the Muslims thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are a nonentity who can even strip naked in the market place in readiness for a brawl. That is how most of you, Nigerian politicians are viewed today, if you did not know.  We can all see the example of this in a former President of this country who is regularly menstruating through his mouth at any public place and notoriously writing laughable letters to his successors who are are perceived as antagonists, through the media. Where will that put him in history when tomorrow comes?

 

Now, which of the issues mentioned above is worth celebrating in the name of ‘Independence’ by a civilized nation?

 

 Sermon

As a relevant sermon, ‘The Message’ column hereby implores you Nigerian politicians of today, to look back once  again, and draw from the experience of the past heroes to  readjust your workings and re-equip yourselves in preparation for  God’s judgment when tomorrow comes.

 

Nothing is Permanent

Remember that some people had governed this country in the past. Among them were those who combined the roles of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary arms of government  together, in the name of military rule that was  made possible by military coup d’état. Where are they today?

Governance has its tenure. Four years may look endless for parochial, power drunk elements who can’t see public office as a momentary fool’s paradise. But for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening  which only a fool will rely upon to walk his way through the darkness of the night. You are in government today. But remember that you will soon become former this or former that just like those before you. And, the only reminding record of your former tenure is history that will be read by the future generations when tomorrow comes.