The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • The fury of the demos and the task ahead

    Elections are over–or almost over — pending the conclusion of those determined as inconclusive. Congratulatory messages have been pouring into the camp of winners while losers have probably been having some serious soul-searching for answers about what went wrong.

    Winners certainly deserve our congratulations. They worked hard and apparently earned the trust of the electorates. Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Lagos, Dapo Abiodun in Ogun, and Seyi Makinde in Oyo plus all the House of Assembly members in the various states. As charity begins at home, I congratulate my home-state governor-elect, Engr. Seyi Makinde. Since 2011, he has been a perpetual candidate for the position he eventually got. As such he became a household name in Ibadan and across the state. He campaigned hard and got significant help from a ruling party that scored own goal.

    I had bet on Bayo Adelabu winning because of his famous last name. In the 50s it was one Adelabu, one Ibadan. Penkelemes was charming, adorable and charismatic. With that warm love for a worthy son of the soil, you can understand my firm belief that Ibadan will stand by the scion of the illustrious Adelabu family. Was I ever so wrong!

    It’s the fury of the demos. And there’s something progressive about it also. I just got out of elementary school when Adelabu died in 1958. It’s been more than sixty years! Two thirds of the electorate of this year were not born when Adelabu bestrode the state. And for the Millennials who supported Makinde, what they know from history books may not endear them to the old warrior who opposed everything Awolowo stood for. Still I kept hope alive hoping that Oyo would stay in the progressives’ camp. I underestimated the fury of the demos this time.

    About this time, eight years ago, I was jubilant for what, in my column that year, I termed the “Revenge of the Demos” that brought progressives back to power across the Southwest. That revenge swept Governors Ajimobi and Amosun into power in Oyo and Ogun respectively. Governor Fashola got a second term in Lagos while Governors Aregbesola and Fayemi held Osun and Ekiti in place. The year was 2011. The party was Action Congress of Nigeria. Its symbol was the broom.

    In 2014, ACN joined with CPC, ANPP and a faction of APGA to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) This new and young party went on to defeat People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party in the 2015 presidential election and retained the governorship of Oyo, Osun, Ogun, and Lagos. Ondo later joined the fold, and in 2018, Ekiti was back. APC waxed stronger in the Southwest again, thanks to the support of the masses and the diligence of the leaders.

    Then something went awry in some states. Hubris did what it knows best to do. Incessantly, the masses were talked down. Traditional rulers became foot-mats. The youth were told they were expendable. Workers were treated with contempt. Even aides who worked their hearts out and made their governors look good were sidelined and forced out. Then they were also assailed for leaving. You work diligently and your reward is badmouthing. But God is the avenger.

    “Man is not God” declared Prince Dapo Abiodun, governor-elect of Ogun. That was a profound summary of what we just witnessed in his state and elsewhere. Governors who played God just got put in their place as mortals. Perhaps, like many observers of the new politics of hubris, I am still at a loss about the mindset of Governors Amosun and Okorocha of Ogun and Imo States respectively.

    You insisted on your candidate even though he lost the primary election. You floated another party for him to contest even when you yourself contested for a Senate seat under APC, your party. You won your Senate seat with APC support. Then you campaigned against APC and for your candidate in a different party for the governorship. That kind of political calculation can only come from an immoral self-conceited mind.

    But man is not God. And voters apparently saw through the subterfuge and served Amosun right. They voted the APC candidate in as governor. Former Governor Segun Osoba and Asiwaju Tinubu, both mocked ad nauseam by Amosun and his cohorts, are having the last laugh. As for Okorocha, he just gave away the governorship that would have been retained by APC to PDP. The suspension by NWC must be sustained by NEC and hopefully, a presidential sentiment of friendship loyalty will not stand in the way of strict party discipline.

    Did I just discuss Ogun without a reference to former President Obasanjo? How is that even conceivable? If man is not God as Abiodun proclaimed, is Obasanjo man and not God? From his letters and pontifications during the campaign and up to the eve of the elections, you would be right if you thought his was the voice of the divine being and the oracle that anoints presidents. And then the true God spoke on February 23 and it was a repudiation of fake gods. Then we expected a consolation prize for the fakes on March 9. And again, the true God reaffirmed his preeminence. Truly, man is not God.

    How about Kwara State, and the “O to ge” phenomenon? There is no way to spin the campaign and the results of the two elections without seeing it as a fury of the demos. Who would ever entertain the thought, one year ago, that the Saraki political engine will crash like a pack of cards right before our eyes? With the swagger of an over confident master of the game, Saraki challenged his chi and got a thumping and fatal political beating.

    In several viral videos, we saw how wealth was ridiculed and money was mocked. The young people shouting “ole” at Saraki’s entourage didn’t care for his money. They picked up paper currencies thrown at them from moving vehicles, tore them in pieces and threw them into the air. They shamed money and its owners. That puts to rest the theory that money is everything. No doubt there is still a lot of hustlers, thugs, and ordinary folks who seek after money. But it is not universal. Kwara just confirmed this.

    And Lagos! The campaign was initially issue-based: education budget, health care, taxation, planning, etc. The debates were well-organized and informative. Then it was hijacked by self-serving operatives who introduced ethnic baiting and it suddenly turned nasty. There was even a last-ditch effort to replicate the Kwara strategy with the infamous “o to ge Lagos” slogan. It all failed because Lagos is not Kwara. In the latter, the state’s resources were used for political campaigns and personal enrichment. In Lagos, there is copious evidence of development that people appreciate. What comparison is there if not an opportunistic divide and conquer tactic?  The Lagos fury was in the reverse direction, affirming continuity.

    What next? The task ahead for elected leaders and representatives, around the country is to take to heart lessons learnt from the elections. First, leaders are servants of the people, not their masters. They should stop behaving as Lords of the Manor.

    Second, the demos are not crazy. They know what is best for their interests and with the right environment, they will always choose what they deem best for them.

    Third, and most importantly, do your best for the development of our human resources. Education is key. Our public institutions have been abandoned and these are the institutions that educate most of our children. What future lies ahead for them, and for the nation is anybody’s guess.

    Governors must cross party lines with a unity of purpose. Southwest integration is an ongoing effort championed by DAWN. We do not need to wait for national restructuring. Fortunately, we have a history to follow, and Seyi Makinde, as the lone PDP governor, has sounded positive about cooperation. He reportedly promised to retain the best talents in the outgoing administration. Therefore, he should have no problem working with his peers across the zone to deliver the best for our people.

     

    Godspeed!

     

  • Letter to Nigerian Youths

    “We cannot always build the future for our youths but we can build our youths for the future”. Franklin D. Roosevelt

    Preamble

    The writing of this letter to Nigerian youths of today is warranted by the seeming thorny path to the future which is  lying ahead of them and threatening their passage. This letter is in response to a Yoruba axiomatic adage that charges the elderly to prevent the fall of the young ones from falling without hope of rising on his way to the future. The youths are the heirs to the elderly who must be prepared for worthy heritage. Here is the letter:

     

    Dear Nigerian youths, this letter being addressed to you through this medium (The Message) is not by accident but by design. Nigerians of my own age and beyond (about 70) never had an opportunity to be so addressed.

    Let it be known to you that besides life and sound health, no Allah’s bounties to man is as treasure-able as youthfulness. The definition of youth varies from place to place and from culture to culture. But generally, youthfulness spans from the age of puberty (at about 16 years) to the age of reasoning (at 40).

    That is the second stage of human life after 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.

     

    Spur of Ambition

     

    Youthfulness is the spur of ambition and propeller of risk taking. 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. Youthfulness is the stage at which hard work becomes manifest. 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.

     

    Experience

     

    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 as well as that of the nation. Their role in the family encouraged the bearing of many children as the males among them partnered their fathers in tilling the farmland and in harvesting the crops while the females among them joined their mothers in making the families comfortable for the society to thrive gloriously. In short, the youths of those days unconsciously formed the live wire of their families and by extension, that of the nation.

     

    Family Wealth

     

    When a father was said to be rich in those days, it was not because of the money or property he possessed but because of the many children (male and female) he had, who constituted the needed workforce and economic security for his family. Ironically, father’s pride, then, was not just the number of children he had but the volume and quality of contribution made by those children to his wealth. Thus, children were considered to be nonesuch wealth for their parents.

    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 among their siblings. Yet, they had the highest esteem for those parents in their utterances and conduct. The tradition in those days was such that boys were handled by their fathers in terms of discipline and responsibility while girls were mostly handled by their mothers in terms of marital training and societal decency. And, in the process of bringing up their children, no mother ever dared to 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 all together. 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 and joined the new train of indecency. And that chord is no longer seen as 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 nation in what was called a military coup d’état that was evidently tribal and religious. By that unfortunate act they plunged Nigeria into a precipitate civil war that turned the youth wild and eroded the value of youthfulness.

    For 13 years thereafter, the military vagabonds remained in power using whim in place of discipline and experience. And when a brief civilian interlude came on board in 1979 for only four years and three months, those vagabonds perched on the governance again like hungry vultures 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.

     

    Outcome

     

    Here we are today, looking desperately like starved hawks hanging restlessly in the balance like gagged hyenas. 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, dedicated, patriotic and forward-looking. They served their parents diligently and stood by them in all circumstances. They sought their parents’ advice and learned from the latter’s experiences. Unlike you, they built their hope on hard work, contentment and destiny.

    On the contrary, 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 almost 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 acquire knowledge and gain experience as they queued up to learn from the elders.  You the youths of today are very inpatient, pompous, 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. That is why some of you joined politics by contesting for the Presidency in the stupid idea of ‘Nut Too Young To Rule’ which some of your fathers who had stolen public funds tried to see through legislative acts in favour of their own children who they expect to inherit them in politics.

    You, the youths of today, 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 characterized by all the conducts that were classified as shame in the past. To you shame has its price and going by your myopic perception, it only takes money to pay that price. That is why you worship money, day in and day out as your ultimate god. And as long as you can pay that price by all means in whatever currency, 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 both pride and prestige.

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

     

    Life Span

     

    Your slogan that “long life is irrelevant in the absence of money” is a testimony to the above 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 the incompetence of today’s urban 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 a 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 accessible to you.

     

    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 before you by saying they caused the prevailing debacle. But while pinching the back of the elders you often forget that sooner or later you too may become elders whose back will be pinched by the youths who will 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, cybercrimes, armed robbery, sophisticated pen 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.

     

    Professional Crimes

     

    To you, the youths of today, all the above mentioned crimes are either professions or callings in which you actively engage with strong desire for perfection. 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 today. Unlike most youths of the past, you were sent to school but your goal was mere certificate that will legitimize your anticipated fraudulent meal ticket rather than useful education and beneficial knowledge. And, now, what you acquire in the schools you attend, which you call certificate, in the name of education is hardly worth the paper on which those certificates are printed. For most of the years you now spend in higher institutions, your preoccupation is 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 after leaving those institutions.

    A few of you who might have secured public employments by whatever means, 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 time you are also not hopeful about the future.

    There is hardly any major crime in Nigeria today that is not principally committed by you, all in the quest for money. It seems that the only language you understand either orally or in writing is money and only those who can speak or write the language of money can command your respect.

    Many centuries before our time, an Arab poet intuitively came up with a sonnet which 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 kept aloft; Should this era linger on without any change, there will neither be any sorrowful mood at a funeral nor any joyful feeling on the birth of a new baby”.

    Now, which of the situations narrated 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 those of motor but of human beings. And the most active merchants of this queer business are you the youths of today (male and female, clerics and laity). 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.

     

    GOD BLESS NIGERIA!

  • Politics of principle or division?

    These are dangerous times. Electoral politics is undermining rationality in otherwise rational circles as the rebellion against reason seeks to elevate the politics of division, masquerading as politics of principle by a deliberate exploitation of our differences.

    The Yoruba are, by a wide margin, the most accommodating nationality in the Nigerian geographical space. This attitude is derived from an understanding that (a) humanity is one big family and (b) life experiences are reversible. A landlord here may become a renter elsewhere. An indigene here may become a foreigner elsewhere. Life is a pendulum, swinging back and forth. If you would like to be accommodated in a foreign land, accommodate foreigners in your midst.

    Indeed, the Yoruba have been known to not just love foreigners in their midst, but to side with them against indigenes when their case is morally sound.

    A vivid example of the politics of principle played out in the early days of nationalist movement in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). In 1941, a vacancy occurred in the Nigerian Legislative Council. NYM needed to choose a candidate to contest the bye-election. Both the President, Chief Ernest Ikoli and his deputy, Oba Samuel Akinsanya, expressed interest.

    NYM had a pre-existing policy that gave preference to its President in such matters. Based on this policy, Chief Awolowo supported Ikoli. The Executive Committee of the organization voted in support of the candidacy of Ikoli. Though Oba Akinsanya congratulated Ikoli, when the list of candidates was published, Ikoli and Akinsanya were the two contestants. Awolowo campaigned for Ikoli against Akinsanya, a fellow Yoruba and Ijebu. Ikoli won. That was politics of principle.

    Since the beginning of party politics, the Yoruba have been split in their party choice, but the majority have always embraced progressive politics that prioritize the welfare of the masses. From AG to UPN; from SDP to AD; from ACN to APC, plural majorities of Yoruba have rallied round these parties. However, other parties have had inroads into the Zone. From NCNC to NNDP, from NPN to NRC, and now PDP, the Yoruba like to brag concerning their fierce independence in matters of politics. Diversity of affiliation is an acceptable way of life.

    Therefore, we should expect that individuals may pitch their political tent wherever they fancy, whether based on moral principle or simple self-interest. Therefore, we should not fault anyone for choice of affiliation even if it means their voting against an illustrious son of the soil. Many voted against the Sage.

    The Yoruba have always sought alliances outside their zone. In 1959 Chief Awolowo initiated discussions with Dr. Azikiwe but the latter preferred to partner the North. 1n 1964, a southern alliance came through as UPGA, led by with Dr. Okpara after the NPC-NCNC alliance broke down. In the same year, Chief Akintola’s NNDP partnered NPC to form the NNA alliance, another reminder that the Yoruba have never slept facing one direction. The January 1966 coup ended both alliances.

    The coup decimated the rank of Northern political and military leaders. The West had its share of the loss. Moreover, the counter-coup of July 1966 demonstrated clearly the Yoruba principle of accommodation and willingness to pay the supreme sacrifice when principle requires it. Col. Fajuyi offered himself for death if his guest, General Ironsi, was to die. Their captors granted his request. During the civil war, Igbo residents in Western region had all the support they needed to survive and prosper, and after the war, returnees and new residents were welcome with open hands.

    Yet, in 1979 at the inception of the Second Republic, Chief Awolowo was demonized for his role as Vice Chair of the Federal Executive Council and Commissioner for Finance. However, with an Igbo Vice President, and an NPP-NPN coalition, the Igbo were fully reintegrated into the polity. Chief Ojukwu returned from exile and pitched his tent with NPN, the ruling party. The Yoruba never complained. Of course, the NPN-NPP alliance soon broke down again. But it hardly mattered as the Second Republic also got booted in December 1983.

    June 12, 1993 election was fought by SDP and NRC and ethnicity hardly played a role in the electioneering as all ethnic nationalities featured prominently in both parties. That was, until the military annulled the election after Abiola had won the presidency. The struggle for the mandate and against the military was led by NADECO, an umbrella of all pro-democracy groups whose leadership cut across the regions.

    Soon, however, it became clear that the military had its strategy to break the coalition. Chief Ojukwu and Chief Tony Anenih, who had been the Chairman of SDP, led a delegation to the US to canvass for the support of the superpower for the Abacha dictatorship. At a forum, Chief Ojukwu insisted that the Igbo could not support the prodemocracy groups because Nigeria was founded on a tripod and one leg of the tripod was missing in the Abiola-Tofa ticket. It hardly mattered that the Yoruba didn’t complain in 1959 and 1979.

    The present republic began in 1999. Initially, Yoruba progressives found themselves in the same political associations with their counterparts from the Southeast and the North. In 1998, Chief Ige was a key participant in the drafting of the constitutions of the various political parties, including PDP and ANPP before he and others formed AD.

    AD governors focused on the development of the Southwest, using the Awolowo 1951 template. Lagos, under Asiwaju Tinubu, championed an ethnicity-blind coalition that embraced all residents. He assembled a team of technocrats and experienced political operatives. The result was the beginning of the magical developmental strides that continue till today. Envisioning a mega-city, he increased internally generated revenue geometrically and created agencies and institutions for the development of the state.

    Concerned for the welfare of the masses, Tinubu did not countenance any difference between the various groups and ethnicities in the state. From payment of WAEC fees to the recognition of excellence in school children, it was open opportunity or all. Igbo children who excelled in Spelling Bee competition served as Governor-For-a-Day. Civil service was open to all and large numbers of Igbo took advantage of this as heads of agencies and Commissioners.

    Igbo men and women serve in various capacities in the party. So, in terms of symbolic and substantive outreach to Igbo residents who take advantage of their gesture, the Tinubu, Fashola, and Ambode administrations deserve a lot of credit.

    It must also be acknowledged that until 2015, there has been no serious friction between the administrations, the party, and the Igbo. Since 1999, 2015 was the year when politics of ethnic solidarity appeared to surface in Lagos. Unfortunately, it was unscrupulously exploited by indigenes for partisan reasons hiding behind a facade of restructuring as a litmus test. This is what is most unnerving.

    Since 1999, Lagos under AD, ACN, and now APC, has led the struggle for state rights. It struggled for an Independent Power Project, which the Obasanjo administration blocked before the courts decided in favor of the state. The state exercised its right to create local governments and Obasanjo administration chose to withhold its local government funds. Even after the Supreme Court decided in favor of the state, the funds were not released until a new president was inaugurated.

    Since 1999, Lagos, under various administrations and the same political family, has focused on good governance with visible results for every resident. This is one of the few states in which workers don’t complain of late payment of salary.

    Since 1999, Lagos has executed liberal policies of life more abundant for all without discrimination.

    In the face of all the progressive developments open to all and the accommodating gesture and policies of subsequent administrations since 1999, what is the rationale for a politics of division that seeks to drive dangerous wedges between ethnic nationalities in Lagos? How does it benefit anyone to ever go this route if not for misguided calculations of political self-interest?

    It is my hope that rational residents shine their sight and know what is best for them, especially in the present reality of a progressive government at the center.

     

  • Without a leader like him…..2

    Preamble

    Politics, especially in Nigeria, is like a pond of mucky water in which politicians swim and sling mud on decent people who are not in the pond with them.

    As usual, a baseless rumour broke out last week and quickly went viral in the social media, early this week, about the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, who is also the President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

     

    The Rumour

    In the obnoxious rumour, a stalwart of a particular political party was quoted as saying that if the gubernatorial candidate of his party wins tomorrow’s election in Sokoto, His Eminence should consider his Sultanate throne vacant. What an infra dignitatem in the arena of politics?

    Although a denial of that rumour has been publicly denied by the topmost echelon of the mentioned party, the fact remains that the thought of such a senseless idea by anybody, in the first place, is a peculiar fallacy that is capable of enticing a  peculiar reaction from Nigerian  Muslim Ummah.

    Given the fact that the Sultan is the national leader of Nigerian Muslim Ummah (Amirul Muminin), his royal office is rather national than regional. And no regional figure or State Governor can tamper with that office without the consent of the entire Nigerian Muslim Ummah.

    The Sultanate is neither a political party nor an affiliate of a politicking entity. And the Sultan, who sits on the throne of that Sultanate is not a politician. That office is rather about Islam, a major religion in Nigeria with majority of citizens as its adherents than about an individual. It is therefore clear that any occupier of that royal stool is an institution that cannot be toyed with for a flimsy reason.  Without Islam, there can be no Sultan and without a beloved and highly respected Sultan like Dr Abubakar, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah would look like a beheaded body. Thus, in a society where Islam is well established, who will allow any political butcher to be-head the Ummah?

     

    Baseless Threat

    Whoever threatens the royal seat of the Sultan willingly or inadvertently automatically threatens, not just millions of Nigerian Muslims but also the very existence of Islam as a religion in this Africa’s most populous country. It is therefore beyond any individual politician or political party to think of any obnoxious idea about the seat of the Sultanate.

     

    Reminder

    The above narrated incident is a reminder of an article that yours sincerely wrote in this column, in November 2016, when His Eminence was 10 years old on the throne as Sultan. An excerpt from that article is as follows:

    “How time flies. It has been ten years since His Eminence, Dr.  Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, ascended the royal throne as the 20th Sultan of the Sokoto Empire and, by extension, the Presidency of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). The historic date of his ascension was November 6, 2006. Until then, the lofty man’s name did not ring any bell in Nigeria. And he was probably not conscious of the royal blood in him. If he was ever conscious of it at all, his humble nature did not reflect it. But the thinking of man is quite different from the will of Allah. And when the thinking of man clashes with the will of Allah, the latter automatically prevails.

     

    Ascension to the throne

    For Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, ascending the throne of the great Sokoto Empire was like the rise of the sun ‘Anon Meridian’. When it beams its rejuvenating rays over the world, all the stars in the galaxy take their bow.

    History and man are like Siamese twins. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. And the reciprocal baton continues to change hands between them as long as they mutually remain in existence.

    Thus, the sudden emergence of the then 50-year-old Brigadier General, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, as the successor to the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Empire without controversy came as a surprise to many Nigerians. His own father, Sultan Sadiq Abubakar ascended the same throne at the age of 37. Surely, the name ‘Muhammad Sa’ad’ played a significant role in the emergence of its bearer as Sultan.

     

    The mystery in name bearing

    There is something mysterious about name which humanity is yet to comprehend fully. A puzzling secret seems to exist in the vocabulary of life which sticks to every man like a skin. That secret, pearled in the yoke of name, is an effective evidence of destiny in man. Our names are the light that glows at night to lighten up our ways towards the glares of the days through the threshold of life. And when the dawn comes to render the glowing light ineffective, the bearer bows out into the recluse of death leaving behind an indelible signature on the sands of time.

    This was the case with Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the greatest man that ever lived on the surface of the earth.

     

    Unlettered Son from Desert

    Even as an unlettered son from  Arabian desert, who was born in an era of blatant ignorance, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) introduced into the world, an unprecedented civilisation that opened the eyes of humanity to everlasting guidance. In recognition of his human exemplariness, the Almighty Allah said of him in Q 33: 21 thus: “You have a good example in Allah’s Apostle for anyone who looks to Allah and the Last Day and remembers Him always”.

     

    Peculiarities in name

    Sultan’s first name is Muhammad (meaning Praiseworthy) which he bears in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). His second name is Sa’ad (meaning ‘Good Luck) which makes him a name-sake of one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions (Sa’d Bn Abi Waqqas) who was a great Army General of Islam. And his (Sultan’s) surname is Abubakar (meaning father of youths), an inherited name which he shares with the first Caliph in Islam (Abubakr Siddiq). In every one of these names is a profound meaning with profound influence on the personality and conduct of the current Sultan.

    As an Army General, like Sa’d Bn Abi Waqqas, Sultan is demonstrating the courage of a brave leader. As the father of the youths, like Abu Bakr, he is bridging the gap between leadership and follower-ship by breathing a breeze of hope into Nigerian Muslim youths, irrespective of tribes, from time to time.

     

    Identity of a Leader

    A leader is known, neither by the aura of the office he occupies, nor by the enormity of the power wielded in that office. Rather, a leader is known   by the magnanimity with which he exercises the power entrusted to him and the humility he demonstrates in his interaction with the people he leads. This is the lesson that Prophet Muhammad’s leadership taught Muslim rulers in one of his Hadith when he said: “A powerful person is not the one who can oppress people (with the instrumentality of office) but the one who can resist the temptation to use such power”.

    Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar seems to have exemplified this prophetic teaching as a Muslim ruler and a faithful one for that matter. And through his humble interaction with all Muslims in Nigeria, irrespective of ethnic or geographical boundaries, he has become the first Sultan to create a strong feeling of a united Muslim Ummah in Nigeria under a competent leadership.

     

    Philosophers’ Theory

    Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be difficult to fault. The example of Dr Abubakar, is a manifestation of that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office of the Sultan, ten years ago, this great man has convincingly exhibited all the qualities of genuine leadership by all standards. Every statement he has made socially, religiously, economically or politically, and every action he has taken privately or publicly, has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people of Nigeria have learnt one gainful lesson or another.

     

    Reformation of NSCIA

    At the instance of His Eminence, a forward looking reformation has been going on in the Nigerian Supreme  Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) since he ascended the Sultanate throne in 2006. For instance, he has set up a number of committees to take charge of certain necessities concerning the NSCIA and the National Mosque. These have given the Nigerian Muslim Ummah the needed comfort with which to surge ahead as a single body of believers.

    Besides, he has also reformed the Abuja National Mosque in such a way that no Muslim part of the country feels neglected again. Thus, since the reformation, the Friday sermon in that Mosque has not only been delivered in the three major languages (Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba) in addition to Arabic and English, he also appointed three deputy Imams to assist the Chief Imam in rendering the Jum’at sermon in rotation every Friday. Those Deputy Imams who are from the Northern, the Southern and the Middle Belt regions of Nigeria have all been promoted as full-fledged Imams following the demise of the pioneer Chief Imam of the national Mosque.

     

    As Chancellor of ABU

    At the first convocation he attended under his Chancellorship of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in November 2010, His Eminence told the audience that the then socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He lamented the dwindling standard of education and the growing rate of poverty in the land despite the nation’s unprecedented wealth which he said had failed to aid national development.

    In his words: “…Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks thereby fuelling social conflicts and inter-communal crises which have extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property….”. He went further to say: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.”

    At home in Nigeria, this Sultan has never relented in his advocacy for good governance and denunciation of corruption and religious intolerance just as he has consistently campaigned for religious peaceful coexistence at various international conferences and seminars he has attended in African European, American and Asian countries.

     

    Conclusion

    That is Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar for you, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them in solving those problems. Without a leader like him, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah would have gone asunder.

    If, as a Muslim Ummah, we have a leader of this type and caliber at this crucial time of our life, why should anybody, who claims to be a Muslim think obnoxiously about him or the Sultanate? The Message hereby calls on all genuine Muslims in Nigeria to further pray the Almighty Allah to stand by this Sultan with further divine guidance and formidable protection in all circumstances. Amin!

  • Reflections on the 2019 presidential election

    The 2019 presidential election is over. President Muhammadu Buhari has been offered a second term of four years. The reelected president deserves our congratulations. Of course, he must be the first to admit that there are numerous challenges ahead. But before we go into this, there are some takeaways from the concluded elections.

    First, it is pleasing that the nation is tending toward a two-party system as indicated by the performance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the elections. This means that each of these two parties has a good chance of becoming the ruling party every four years, ensuring a keen competition for the endorsement of the electorates, thus raising our hope for good governance.

    I am not suggesting that a multi-party system is bad for the country. But in this matter, “the more, the merrier” is not in the best interest of the country’s nascent democracy. This election featured more than seventy political parties contesting for the presidency. That is simply ridiculous. There must be more stringent criteria for registering political parties.

    Second, from intra-party competition for nomination to inter-party electoral contests, our elections are still bedeviled by the influence of money and wealth. This prevents talented individuals without deep pockets or godfathers from having a good chance to serve. Worse, it gives an undue advantage to proven thieves and corrupt individuals, who have illegally and immorally appropriated the wealth of the nation, to exploit the system. To combat this unwholesome trend, there must be a collective endeavor to curb the influence of money with necessary legislation. More importantly, such legislation must be back by strong enforcement measures.

    Third, while it cannot be denied that regionalism or ethnic nationalism is alive and well across the land, its role in this last election is debatable. For one thing, both presidential candidates are from the same ethnic nationality and their tickets show that they have inroads into other zones. And though their running mates are of different ethnicities, it didn’t appear to have made much of a difference.

    For rising above bigotry and chauvinism, we could pat ourselves on the back. The heavy presence of PDP in the Southeast and South-south predated the choice of Obi as Atiku’s running mate. It even predated the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan. And while Osinbajo is from the Southwest, PDP showed a footprint in Oyo and Ondo. On the electoral map, you could see a red island on a sea of green from Northeast to Southwest. That island is Oyo. Hopefully, the era of ethnic politics and the politicization of ethnicity is passing.

    Fourth, to the credit of the contestants, this election has been fought most effectively on issues, including the state of the economy, candidate integrity, political restructuring, and party reputation. These are legitimate issues that will always be relevant in our politics going forward. And while the victorious party may rightly claim vindication of its positions by its victory, there is good reason for it to take a good look at the people’s complaints, which the opposition had tried to tap into.

    Fifth, intra-party crisis, fueled by indiscipline, especially within the rank of leaders, played a decisive role in the conduct and outcome of the elections in some states, including Oyo, Ondo, Imo, Rivers, and Ogun, where the governor was implicated in an attack on the presidential election campaign rally in the state. The loss of APC in Oyo, Ondo, and Imo, where the party is in power, and the failure of APC to present National Assembly candidates in Rivers state, are direct outcomes of intra-party crises.

    Sixth, every citizen who has faith in popular democracy and in the ability of our people to choose wisely based on their interests must be happy that the cabal of retired generals who seek to impose their will on the nation are now truly disgraced and retired for good. You do not have to be a sympathiser of Buhari or the ruling party to appreciate the fact of his victory despite the vindictive campaign orchestrated by former President Obasanjo who has constituted himself as the kingmaker.

    How is it ever fair or decent that General Obasanjo would choose voluntarily to support a candidate for election and within a year later, he turns against him with public letter-writing. What good does that practice accomplish? Even the Almighty gives his creatures a longer time period for them to change and repent. Yet every aspiring candidate runs to this “all-knowing” human for endorsement. Now that for the first time, the candidate he ridiculed publicly has won reelection and the one whose sins he forgave on our behalf has lost, it is time for Obasanjo to honorably retire from active politics, if he has any honor left to preserve.

    APC and Buhari must be pleased and be thankful to God that despite their rejection by the military cabal and the generality of the elite whose fortunes have been damaged by their policies, they are beneficiaries of the undiluted devotion of the masses, the poor and working class, whose support made the President’s victory possible.

    For the reason of the support from the poor and downtrodden that puts the president on top, it’s only fair to expect, and indeed, urge that the second term will come up with policies and programs that put the masses in the driver’s seat. This is especially urgent if the party and the president still adhere to their progressive ideology. Fortunately, the party would still have a majority in the National Assembly, one that one hopes is more aligned with its progressive mandate.

    Read also: PDP calls for cancellation election in Kwara

    To this end, it is fitting to bring to memory the advice of this column to President-elect Buhari in 2015: “General Buhari has a mandate that comes with great expectations. It is not an easy spot to be on. But….there is a lot of goodwill, considering the ecstatic jubilation across the land…. The people’s general cannot afford to disappoint!!!! He must build trust. And he must satisfy the yearnings of the youth and the elderly for the dividends of democracy.”

    Continuing, I noted that “the APC manifesto is the political Holy Book of President-elect Buhari. He referred to it incessantly and campaigned on the three priorities that the manifesto highlighted. He promised that he will provide adequate security of life and property for citizens; that he will attack corruption at its root; and that he will reboot the engine of the economy and will diversify it to tackle youth unemployment.”

    That was four years ago. There is no doubt, however, that the same advice is apt today. While APC has moved from “Change” slogan to “Next Level”, the party has not changed its priorities which remain focused on anti-corruption war, economic recovery, and security.

    The Next Level slogan, which also should be the administration’s mantra going forward, is a nod to its modest achievements on the three fronts in the first term, and a dedication to up its act in the new term. The election has been cast as a referendum on the president’s performance in the last four years. That he won is evidence that the electorate gave him a passing grade.

    However, while the victory is not undeserved given the progress in the key areas, especially infrastructure, there is always good reason for introspection and retrospection. On top of the agenda of the party leadership and the presidency must be party discipline, without which it would again start on a wrong foot. Recall, how Saraki and Dogara defied the party and got away with it in 2015. Every challenge that the administration had to struggle with emanated from the way that gross indiscipline was handled. A hands-off approach by the President will most certainly lead to the same unfortunate outcome this time.

    President Buhari “must not be tempted to surround himself with sycophants who only tell him what pleases him. He must tap into the wise counsel of those who will boldly disagree with him with good and unselfish reasons. The bulk stops with him now.” These last words from me in 2015 are still valid in 2019.

  • The Cost of Governance

    “Occurrences of life have tendency to force men/women to grow grey
    hair. And life itself is like a horse. If it allows you to ride it
    today, do not take it for granted for it may turn round to ride you
    tomorrow”.
    The above quotation is from an Arab poem.

    Preamble

    Governance in mundane life is a transit in which some political travellers take a momentary sojourn at a time when others are exiting from it. Politics itself is a package of both realizable and unrealizable wishes. And the worst of such wishes is the one based on self-deception and self-aggrandizement. The just concluded election in Nigeria is a clear attestation to this assertion. With a fortuitous exit from their political transit, as surprisingly determined by that election, where will many flamboyant Nigerian Senators and other so-called Honourable Legislators, who had deserted those who elected them, be for the next four years? That is life for you. When the political horse turns round to ride its riders, hardly will those riders be remembers again. Where are the riders of yesteryears?

     

    Governance in Islam

    In Islam, governance is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Its duration is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her wellbeing. And the product of such pregnancy is claimed, not by the carrier but by the impregnator.

    Naturally, there is no pregnancy without semen actively planted in the womb of a woman. And the planter of that semen is the man who in this case, is called the impregnator. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers rather than those of their mothers as surnames.

     

    Analogy

    By analogy, one can compare governance to a pregnant woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The impregnator here is, proverbially, the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule over them. And just as the product of the womb (the child) belongs to the impregnator as a matter of legitimacy so should dividend of governance be the property of the populace.

    In a patriarchal setting, any child who bears his mother’s name as surname rather than that of his father is nothing but a bastard. That is always the case where dividend of governance is cornered by those who are entrusted with the custody of governance.

     

    The Norms of Governance

    In Islam, after security, law and justice, all of which reflect strong faith in Allah and adherence to His divine guidance, nothing else is held more sacrosanct than governance. Thus,  governance can be compared to a magnificent canopy under which the people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic environment, such canopy is owned, not by the politicians but by the citizenry who, otherwise, are known as the electorate. In other words, the bearer of the mentioned proverbial canopy is just a servant keeping it in trust for the people. Perhaps that is one major fact that the late President Musa Yar’Adua realized when he called himself a servant leader on assumption of office in May. 2007.

     

    Servants and Messengers

    In Islam, rulers are statutorily the servants of God and the messengers of the people. They are employees who must always report back to their employers. Where rulers behave contrary to this norm, a fundamental breach of protocol is likely to occur which may be tantamount to rebellion against the people. In such instance, those rulers no longer have any legitimate authority to rule over the people.

     

    Memory Lane

    In an open letter that yours sincerely wrote to the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in this column in June, 2007, shortly after his assumption of office as President, I cited example of two of his namesakes (Umar) in history. One of them was Umar Bn Khattab who eventually became the second Caliph in Islam. The other was Umar Bn… who eventually became an infidel. But a third one, not mentioned in that letter, emerged some decades after Prophet Muhammad’s demise. His name was Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, a famous Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty.

    He became Caliph about 85 years after the demise of the Prophet.

    This third Umar became a reference point in human history because of the unique way in which he managed the economy of the Caliphate. In a particular year during his reign, the state made so much money from Zakah collection that the problem was how to spend it.

    The tradition, according to Islamic injunction, was for the state to dispense the zakah to the poor among the citizenry from the much money made through the collection of zakah. But when this was to be done, it turned out that nobody in the entire state was so poor as to be a zakat recipient. The huge amount earmarked for zakah distribution that year had to be returned to the state treasury.

     

    Umar Bn Abdul Aziz

    The mentioned Umar Bn Abdul Aziz, who became so much famous in history as an ingenuous economic manager, ruled for only three years from 717 to 720 C.E. Yet, he died at the age of 37.

    The secret of his success was his ability to identify two major areas of economic management in governance. One was to regulate the cost of governance by harmonizing the salaries and allowances of political appointees with those of government employees. This was to ensure that those employees were not enslaved, if psychologically, to the privileged political appointees or those elected to legislate for the state. And there was an independent body responsible for the determination of public workers’ remunerations.

     

    Umar’s 1st Success Secret

    In the cited case, neither the legislators nor the appointed officials were allowed to fix their own salaries or allowances by themselves.

    According to Caliph Umar bn Abdul Aziz, “fixing your own salary as appointed or elected government officials is nothing but theft”, which is punishable in Islam. He held that both the government and the resources of the state belonged to the people and nothing was to be done to the lives of the people through government policies without their consent.

    That can be compared to the situation in Nigeria today where the legislators fix their own salaries and allowances and are to earn such salaries and allowance forever even after leaving office. One can now see why the cost of governance has become a noose on the neck of the populace. How can the country progress in such a situation?

     

    Umar’s 2nd Success Secret

    Caliph Umar Bn Abdul Aziz’s second secret of success was his official recognition of the middle class as the greatest employer of labour in any society. He knew that if two million professionals or artisans in the state could employ four staff each, the burden of gross unemployment would be off the neck of the government because 10 million people including those employers would have been effectively employed. And that would not only have ordinarily brought the rate of crime in the state to its lowest ebb it would have also enhanced the state economy tremendously.

    What he did, in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), therefore, was to use the resources of the state to encourage self-employment through professionalism and artisanship. He knew very well that whatever was spent on such a vital venture would return to the state treasury in many folds through taxation.

    This economic ingenuity, which is now being partially borrowed by Nigerian government under President Muhammad Buhari, through n-power and trader money has since become the heritage of the Western countries and they are thriving gloriously in it today.

    Any government that eliminates the middle class as in the case of Nigeria automatically opens the gate of poverty and crime to the populace.

     

    Bane of Nigerian Economy

    Today, the greatest bane of Nigerian economy is not just the elimination of the middle class but also the extremely high cost of running the government. And, unless these two are properly addressed, this country may continue to wander aimlessly, in economic wilderness, just like the Egyptian gypsies of yore. One of the deceptive measures imbibed by Nigeria’s past governments was  to name year 2020 as a date of economic Eldorado even when all positive indices that could propel such a dream into realty were non-existent. There is even no assurance that Nigeria’s electricity would have become stable by that year let alone the other major factors of a viable economy.

     

    Economic Calamity

    Virtually all the companies manufacturing power generators in the world today are in business because of Nigerian market. Yet the ordinary fuel with which to power those generators is either not affordable or sometimes not available at all. Thuis, Judging by the number of generators in this country today who says Nigeria is not qualified as the greatest contributor to the depletion of Ozone Layer?

    Shortly after the south-west governors assumed office in 1999, yours sincerely wrote an open letter to them, which was published in Vanguard newspaper where I was then a member of the Editorial Board.

    In that letter, I suggested three major areas of economic success with which they could sustain that region’s pace-setting in the country.

    First was a regional power generating centre with which to permanently stabilize electricity supply in that region. With this, I argued that not only would industrialization take a sound footing but also that most unemployed young men and women would be self- employed to the greatest relief of those governments.

    Secondly, I suggested an establishment of regional railway system that could serve, not just as a mass transit for the commuters, but also as a cargo currier for all the goods, especially farm products in the region. With such a regional railway in place, the region would have become the doyen of commerce in the country and every able hand would have been effectively engaged without bothering the state governments.

    Thirdly, I suggested the establishment of a common refinery that could fill the vacuum created by constant non-availability of oil products.

    In that letter, I emphasized that each of these projects could be jointly put in place by the six South-West states since they were on the concurrent list and they belong to the same political party which was then called Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    If the then governors (Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, Segun Osoba of Ogun State, Lam Adesina of Oyo State, Bisi Akande of Osun State, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State and Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State) had accepted even only one of those suggestions, the economic situation of the south-west would have been wonderfully different today and the other regions of the country would have followed suit in a new progressive economic competition. That was the kind of competition that shot the Asian tiger states ahead of Africa.

    However, today, 20 years after those suggestions, where is the South-West, economically?

    Waiting for the federal government to do everything for the States despite federalism to which Nigeria lays claim is nothing but a regimental siege exposing the hypocrisy of the so-called politicians.

     

    Absence of Middle Class

    In modern economic management, there can be no place for the middle class in the absence of such infrastructures as mentioned above. And without the middle class, no economy can thrive to the benefit of the populace.

    The current lopsided situation which deliberately puts over 97% of the national wealth in the hands of about 3% of Nigerians is not only ungodly but suicidal. And it is not in the long run interest of those who designed it as such.

     

    Economic Aberration

    The posture of owner and seller of petroleum products assumed locally by some politically privileged demagogues in Nigeria who award oil wells to themselves by fiat is not only immoral, it is also a betrayal of people’s trust. And that is the main breeder of the cancerous monster called corruption in this country today. As a matter of fact, the populace seems to have lost total confidence in the federal style of governance after decades of deception and inhuman policies which continue to make them wallow helplessly in abject poverty even in the midst of plenty. Restoring that confidence should now take a front burner in the policy formulations of the current administration as a way of fulfilling its promise of ‘the next level’. Most of the policies formulated by the last regime can be described as dead horse which no one could kick back to life. Any attempt to pursue those policies in the name of ‘continuity’ can only amount to rigmarolling into political Siberia.

    Now, the threats of industrial strike by every Tom, Dick and Harry, especially over minimum wage is sensitive enough for President Buhari to note with special attention in his ‘next level’ tenure. In that case, the first step to focus is the issue of the legislators’ salaries and allowances as Nigeria does not have the type of economy that is capable of sustaining presidential system of government. To any developing country, such a system is an unnecessary luxury that may serve as the bastion of corruption at advanced level. And spending too much time to beam searchlight on  pathologically corrupt elements in a country like Nigeria, where corruption has become a culture, is like searching for a missing needle in the Atlantic Ocean. Let the system of governance be changed institutionally and the orientation of Nigerians will automatically change. That is a major task upon which the history of Nigeria’s change mantra may be based in the future.

    God bless Nigeria!

  • A conspiracy of evil forces

    Last week, my friend did not give me a chance to respond after he announced his vote. On Wednesday morning, he woke me up with a mournful voice, boiling with rage inside.

    “It is worse than you ever imagined”, Opalaba announced. “There is a conspiracy of satanic forces. Even the visually impaired can see it. How can a country prosper with such an alignment of evil forces against it? This is becoming unbearable for me.”

    “You sound terrible, my friend” I said. “Last week you were upbeat. Though you didn’t tell me who you were voting for, you were damn sure who wouldn’t get your vote. What is the matter now? Is it the postponement? But the new date is upon us and before you know it, it’s all over.”

    “It’s more than the postponement. It’s about the remote causes of the postponement. It’s about our mental and spiritual state as a country. It’s about wickedness in higher places. It’s about powers and principalities. It’s about the rulers of the darkness of this world who refuse to let the country make progress. My friend, it’s about our godlessness, soullessness, and shamelessness. It’s about an inspiring ideal that confronts a dreadful reality.”

    At this point, I knew Opalaba was up to something profound that has agitated his sharp mind for some time. I chose to listen rather than interrupt with questions which might provoke negativity.

    “This is a serious matter, and I am absolutely not in a joking mood today. We approach the 59th anniversary of our existence as an independent country with little to nothing to show for it in terms of physical development. But more problematic is the reality of our moral degeneration. Churches and mosques litter our land-space while we deviously pay obeisance to mammon. We have sold our soul to the god of money, the root of all evil.

    “Poverty is a terrible disease that afflicts millions of our fellow citizens. But as the Prince of Peace once remarked, the poor have always been and will always be around. We were poor at independence. The Brits fleeced us to the bones. But our leaders inspired the best in us with outstanding examples of thrift and modesty. They embarked on the development of human resources across the land with the West laying initial example of investment in public good.

    “Convinced that education is an effective antidote against poverty, they invested heavily in public education and we and our generation are evidence of their success. As politicians, they had to seek the mandate of the people. But they held their heads high and only needed to point to their fulfilled promises. The people trusted them. They needed neither to buy votes nor to deceive.

    “Of course, even at that time, there were enemies of people’s progress. In every generation, there are progressives who care for the masses, and there are reactionaries whose self-interest is always the gauge of public policy. In the days of the advancement of free education policy, naysayers railed against the benefit of the scheme.

    “Those naysayers are no more, but they left behind equally terrible offspring. Oka bimo sile o bi oro (The cobra can only produce poisonous offspring). For these modern cobras, feeding school children amounts to bribery. Providing loans for poor market-women selling plantain or pepper and tomato for a living is vote buying. They are children of their fathers who decried free education because it would prevent children from helping their parents on the farm. This is the mental state of exploiters. They are happy if ordinary people are poor and dependent. For, they could use them at appropriate time during elections by buying their PVCs or tossing #1000 which doesn’t fill their pot of soup.

    “In a North Central state where his father has always been the feudal lord, it is alleged that a senator has disbursed in the last week of campaign more than 800 million Naira in one city. His associates fanned out across the state with truckloads of money to share out in their various communities. Your guess is as good as mine where that money comes from. Why are there no developmental projects? Why is there no public infrastructure?

    “In the southwest, the pacesetter region and the origin of all good developments that other regions emulated in those days, where our hardworking parents were satisfied with their modest means but sought and appreciated the provision of public goods by the government, a new language of empowerment has emerged. In Ogun State, a law-maker used his constituency funds to provide town halls, classrooms, bore holes, etc. Some party leaders were allegedly not impressed because they were not empowered personally. They would rather those funds were given to them to share.

    “You could say that our people are so impoverished that their sense of right and wrong has been fatally assaulted. You would be partially right. But you could not compare the level of poverty today with what used to stare our parents in the face in the 50s and 60s. Yet they were not this morally bankrupt. Those who were harassed to join NNDP to avoid huge tax assessment (agbeka) had their game plan. They knew which party was going to get their votes. Of course, we also know how things turned out with the rigging industry.

    “Our parents were poor, but we had good education, thanks to a sense of public good that animated politicians imbued with the ideology of life more abundant for all. However, generations following us were not that lucky. Theirs was the era of new breed politics masterminded by the corrupt institution of the military and their sponsors.

    “With a conviction that anyone can be bought and pocketed, the military led an era of impunity and gross indiscipline. This culminated in the neglect of rural development and public education from primary and secondary to higher institutions. Subsequent governments did not fare better.

    “This criminal neglect left the country with hordes of youths with no skills to offer to secure gainful and honorable employment. With sheer muscle, they massed on the streets of our major cities, hopeless and visionless. Politicians take advantage of their hopelessness, arm them with weapons, and deploy them to maim and kill opponents, snatch ballot boxes, or burn down INEC offices.

    “The Yoruba know too well that if we spend our fortune on building mansions all over the land and we fail to build up our children, those children will end up pawning off the mansions. The same is true of the nation, and it is what is happening before our eyes. Do we really expect our hopeless youths to have a sense of respect for national assets? What does a utility pole mean to them but a bunch of wires they could vandalize and sell to make ends meet? What passion does an INEC office conjure for them if they are offered #5000 to burn it down?

    “To make matters worse, these youths don’t even now have many role models in the adult population. Those in positions of authority, by virtue of their education and/or parentage have hardly demonstrated any love of nation above self. They acquire assets by dubious means. They use their positions to thwart the cause of justice and good governance. The allegations of corrupt enrichment against the CJN should not have divided a nation with a sense of common good. But few in the political class have such a sense. Many see everything in terms of their self-interest.

    “Governors want to replace themselves with their clones. Thus, a governor running for a senate seat on the platform of one party sponsors his protege to run as governor as candidate of an opposition party. How do you even describe this kind of lunacy? And he chose the presidential campaign rally to unleash terror on the president and party leaders. And is it alleged that he has the president’s blessing?  Stranger than fiction! I am done contemplating any good coming out of this contraption.”

    Opalaba thus ended his solemn reflections on mother Nigeria. And he hung up without a goodbye.

  • Nigeria’s Democratic Cobweb

    “….Whoever deviates from my (divine) guidance will surely live a hanging life and he/she will be resurrected as a blind person on the Day of Judgment”. Q.

    Besides being man’s natural teacher, history continues to serve as man’s principal reminder about the past occurrences and human experiences in handling those occurrences. Such is for the purpose of shaping the future, in proper perspective, to the benefit of mankind.

    This is a period in Nigeria when history’s role as a reminder can be most active.

     

    Memory Lane

    At the main entrance of the University of Cordoba in Spain, a unique, historic inscription was conspicuously hung. The contents of that inscription are as follows: “The world is sustained by four formidable pillars: the wisdom of the learned; the justice of the great; the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave”.

    For centuries, that inscription served as an impeccable template that guided people seeking knowledge acquisition through academic prowess and exemplary conduct in the ivory towers of all other Universities subsequently established around the world.

    University of Cordoba was the very first University ever established in the world. It was established by the Muslim Arabs of the second Umayyad dynasty in Spain, in the 9th century. After its establishment, that University came to partner with another tertiary research institution that had preceded it existence and named Baytul Hikmah (Home of Wisdom).

    Baytul Hikmah was established in the early 9th century, by the Abbasid dynasty, in Iraq.

    However, It was the University of Cordoba that opened the eyes of the entire world to tertiary education and enabled the Caucasian race of the West to attain unthinkable pinnacle of technological heights in human history.

    It must be remembered that the three oldest Universities in the world today are offshoots of the University of Cordoba. They are the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; the Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and the Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Those three Universities were established about the same time in the 10th century.

    Each of them   had celebrated 1000th years of existence in the 1970s.

    If the managers of Universities around the world had held on tenaciously to the contents of the mentioned inscription hung at the entrance of the University of Cordoba or anything similar to it,perhaps, the world would not have become as restive intellectually, politically and economically as it is today.

     

    Democracy of Doom

    Philosophers who came up with the idea of democracy and defined it in the primordial time as the government of the people by the people and for the people, might be right, relative to their time and their cultural situation. But in contemporary time, that definition seems to have become obsolete and inconsistent with the reality of today.

    In theory and in practice, the aims and objectives of initiating democracy as an alternative to monarchy have so drastically changed that the original meaning of democracy has been stripped of the real civilized value.

     

    Democracy by Manipulation

    Apparently, because of the situation in their own time, the originators and definers of democracy did not consider the changing nature of man vis-a-vis the possible manipulation  that democracy could pass through in its implementation by man’s innate desperation and greed for power. It is therefore clear now that with the frequency of change in  eras as well as in the nature of man, the definition of democracy has been rendered practically unsuitable for the cultural situation of the 21st century. And this is not peculiar to Nigeria or Africa. It is evidently global. The point here here is not that democracy is bad for the contemporary world. But its handling by the selfishly desperate people is its Calamitous bane.

     

    Evidence of Rigging

    In the United States of America, where democracy is globally believed to be referentially entrenched, the fierce political battle between

    George H. W. Bush junior and Anold Al Gore, during the 1999/ 2000 election in that country, remains an eye opener of historic reference.

    In the political logjam that ensued and lasted about six weeks, unbelievably, at that time, Al Gore of the Democratic party, who had been Vice-President to Bill Clinton, scored much more votes than Bush.

    But the latter was declared the winner and sworn into office as President for two undisclosed ambiguous reasons:

    1. Bush’ younger brother, Jeb, was the Governor of Florida, where the raging controversy over that election was most pronounced and he was firmly on ground to manipulate the results of the election in his State in favour of his brother.
    2. The father of both Bush, ie: Bush the Presidential candidate and Bush the Governor of Florida, was the 41st US President that preceded

    Bill Clinton as   President. What else is called hegemonic democracy?

    It was that unpalatable historic election that brought a new political paradigm called ‘too close to call’ into American democratic dispensation for the first time since that country’s declaration of independence in 1776. And incidentally, the outcome of that volatile election was said to be in the overall interest of America as a nation even at the dawn of the 21st century.

    Also, in 2015, the fierce presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton which put the latter ahead of the former by over three million votes, ended up with a historic award of Presidency to Trump of the Republican party through a controversial international manipulation that allegedly involved a  clandestine Russian hand under the watch of Vladema Putin. And the deed was sealed and justified with the claim of ‘national interest’.  Yet, it is the same America that some Nigerian political demagogues are banking on to reap

    political fortune. If we may ask, in whose national interest was the mentioned 2016 political abracadabra in America upheld by an unbeatable cabbal? And with that, who says democracy, even in the United States, has no hegemonic window?

     

    The June 12 Saga

    Here in Nigeria, after some decades of post- independence political rigmarole, the Almighty Allah deliberately guided the citizenry aright and showered them with a rare political mercy in the name of Option A4 which came with only two political parties: Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC). Besides instilling unprecedented political discipline in all the citizens of Nigeria that ingenuous political invention had no better alternative in economic management of politics anywhere in the world. And nothing else has, since June 12, 1993, shown Nigerians any factor of peace and harmony in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society other than that year’s election. Even the weather of that day, throughout the country, joyously came with an unfathomable clemency to bear witness to the impeccable serenity of the day. It was one special mercy from Allah which the supposed beneficiaries refused to acknowledge with gratitude. That was an election that cost the government virtually nothing as there was no need either for polling booths or for ballot boxes or even ballot papers. The voting pattern was such a clear evidence of discipline and political tolerance that most foreign observers started to think of selling the idea of recommending it to their home governments for adoption.

    At the voting centers, the candidates’ posters with their parties’ logos and their photographs were displayed side by side and the electorates were asked to queue up in front of their preferred candidates or parties. The system was so apt that it required no heavy security.

    After queuing up in the open, the voters were counted openly and everybody knew the results immediately while those results were promptly endorsed by the party agents any controversy.

    On that historic day, the two presidential candidates were Bashorun Moshood Kashimowo Olawale (MKO) Abiola for SDP and Alhaji Bashir Tofa for NRC. It did not take more than three hours before the final results were known throughout the country, even though, the official announcement of those results were delayed for the reason of a hidden agenda which the designers of the system had surreptitiously kept in secrecy like a land mine meant for an enemy.

    The suspicious lull that followed that historic exercise after some days turned the psychological cloud of the nation into an unpredictable pregnant womb.

    Exactly 11 days after that historic election (on June 23, 1993, a flimsy radio announcement was made which claimed to have annulled the Presidential election. It turned out that the same self-acclaimed military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida who had acted as the giant spider that weaved the democratic cobweb was the destroyer of that cobweb.

    That was how Nigeria’s democratic mercy was rejected by the military cabal without a replacement. Now, after spending almost 300 billion naira and losing so many lives, will tomorrow’s general election pave way for hope or for despair? That is a major question for today awaiting a major answer in the near future. More will be written about June 12, 1993 election in this column, in a foreseeable future in sha’Allah.

     

    Analysis

    Anybody who is well familiar with the contents of the Qur’an will understand that that Glorious Book of divine Law was revealed, by Allah, to mankind, through Prophet Muhammad (SAW), in coded language.

    And to decode that language for the purpose of meaningful understanding, the need to resort to expository analysis is a necessity. But since such expository analysis can only be obtained from the words and actions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the adoption of Hadith and Sunnah as supplementary divine laws is a sine qua non.

    That is why the analysis of every verse of the Qur’an requires deep and thorough analysis

  • 2019 Election and national values (2)

    I received several private communications since the publication of the first part of this piece last week. It is not unexpected because of the passion that this election has generated for politically conscious citizens. Today, I will address a couple of the most fervent reactions.

    A respected elder asked whether we have any national values and, if not, what leg does my position have to stand on? And a professional colleague of many years challenged my claim that political preferences are reflections of moral values. For him, preferences are merely likings. Just as my preference for vanilla cake does not reflect any deep-seated moral value, so my preference for Buhari or Atiku carries no moral connotation.

    My response to the first reaction is that a nation without core national values cannot expect to survive, talk less prosper. Core values cement the various building blocks of the nation, preventing them from collapse.

    Fortunately, our national values are succinctly articulated in the holy book of the republic. Chapter 2 of the 1999 constitution declares: ”The motto of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress (15 (1)). “The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power (15 (5)). And more clearly, Article 23 states that “The national ethics shall be Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social Justice, Religious Tolerance, Self-reliance and Patriotism.”

    A lot is packed into the quoted statements of our national values. But if we truly see ourselves as a nation, what these statements require of us can be attained. And part of what it requires of us is to choose leaders who embody the national ethics as our constitution stipulates, or who, at least, aspire to attain its requirements. An undisciplined person or one who lacks integrity, doesn’t appreciate the dignity inherent in labour, is intolerant, corrupt, and therefore, unpatriotic, is a clear opposite of what our national values prescribe. To that extent, he or she cannot be trusted to lead.

    To suggest that our preferences in national election for the choice of national leaders is a simple expression of taste is to trivialize the significance of this vital aspect of democracy. Therefore, I stand by my position that this election and its outcome, would be an expression of our national values.

    Now, what I just stated in the last sentence is deliberately ambiguous. The first arm of the ambiguity is that national values could mean those expressed in the constitution as our national ethics. Certainly, there could be a coincidence of the outcome of our preferences and our stated national values. If we choose candidates who have integrity, are incorruptible, appreciate the dignity of labour, and are champions of social justice, then, our preferences and our national values are in sync. And the election would be regarded as an expression of our constitutionally mandated national values.

    Second, however, we could make our preferred choices based on individual value systems without respecting our constitutionally mandated national values. If I prefer a kidnapper as president, it means that kidnapping is not in conflict with my values. If majority of my fellow citizens also prefer a kidnapper as their president, then we would elect a kidnapper as president. And while our constitutionally mandated national values would be diametrically opposed to this outcome, there is a sense in which we could still say that our choice reflects our national values, where national values here simply mean a summation of our individual values.

    What I am suggesting here is that our individual values may be opposed to the national values articulated in our constitution. When this is the case, and the majority have values that diverge from constitutionally articulated values, the outcome of elections reflects that divergence.

    Let me put the foregoing in context. Four days ago, a Twitter subscriber posted a thread which describes the findings of a US Senate Committee on the investigation of former Vice President Atiku, the PDP presidential candidate. The findings include an allegation of money laundering and deposits of various dollar amounts in US banks. They are enough to raise eyebrows.

    However, what caught my attention was the reaction from other Twitter users. I quote here one which speaks to my point: “Yes, we know that Atiku is a thief. But we still prefer him to a 100 times Buhari’s Integrity.” Another challenged the writer to set up her shop with EFCC and it won’t deter them from their choice of Atiku. Of course, there are also others who insist that Atiku cannot be trusted with the presidency because of this question of integrity. When minds are made up this way, and question of ethics plays a back role in the choice of leaders, then, a nation gets the leader it deserves on account of the diverse values of her citizens.

    There is another level to this issue. Where there is an assortment of national values, citizens may decide to emphasize one or the other based on what they think are national priorities at any point in time.  For example, an individual may believe that social justice is the most important national value and then choose a candidate or vote against another because they are judged to be right or wrong on issues of social justice. Thus, those who accuse President Buhari of favoring the North in his appointments may close their eyes against the national value of a corruption-free society, which he has championed with fervor.

    We should note, however, that voters have other considerations that may not be as expressly specific to national values but are still tangentially related. Since 1999, the development and maintenance of national infrastructure has suffered gravely in the hands of successive PDP governments. There were abandoned road construction contracts from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to Shagamu-Benin roadway. Railroads were neglected. Airways was scrapped. The power sector was ignored despite a purported investment of sixteen billion dollars. PDP was voted out in 2015 based on citizens’ disenchantment with its record in the destruction of the economy and national infrastructure.

    Buhari administration apparently came in with a strong determination to impress the citizenry with its investment on infrastructure as well as the diversification of the economy in favor of mining and agriculture. In these areas, it has a record of achievements that it has been highlighting in its campaign for reelection. I just saw an impassioned commercial by an APC lady supporter on road construction across the country. For comical effect, she referred to Buhari’s magnanimity in rehabilitating even the road at the backyard of a former president who didn’t care for it when he was in power. Could that be Baba Obj? Ouch!

    The questions, then, are these: value voters have a choice to make in this election. If not all, which of our core national values do you prioritize? Discipline or something integrity? Dignity of labour or a society without the burden of corruption? Religious tolerance or social justice? Do you place value on using the resources of the country for the betterment of the lives of her people or for benefitting a few special interests? Do you prefer to reward failure and impunity or selfless efforts that yield abundant success for all? Then, just go ahead and vote your value and your conscience.

    Remember, however, the words of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, which I have paraphrased here: “Elections belong to (you), the people. It is (your) decision. If (you) decide to turn (your) back on the fire and burn (your) behind, then, (you) will just have to sit on (your) blisters.”  There are good reasons to choose wisely. It is unwise to get fooled twice.

    As I was finishing this piece, Opalaba, my friend, called. He had also read the last piece and was concerned about my “philosophical twist and turn” as he put it. Call a spade a spade, he shouted. “In any case, as for me and my household, for what PDP did to this country for 16 years, I will never vote for any of its candidates. Never. Do you hear me?” And he hung up.

    Happy voting.

     

     

     

  • Readers’ comments

    As promised in this column last week, today’s article is a follow up to that of last Friday, it contains some past reactions of some readers of this column. Please read on.

    Column writing is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Like an expectant mother,the experience garnered by the columnist in the weekly process of its conception through its delivery can hardly be fully recounted. As once expressed in this column, the problem of a genuine columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them.

    Choosing a theme alone out of many that are throwing themselves at you vigorously and competitively is enough a problem. Besides, a columnist is like a bull’s eye targeted by every desperate hunter. And a participatory column like THE ‘MESSAGE’ is like a refuse bin where all sorts of rubbish are dumped in the name of reactions. The same article in a column that fetches commendations from certain quarters may also attract criticisms or outright condemnations from others. Every reader seems to expect his favourite column to reflect his line of thinking.

    Where this fails to happen, disappointment is bitterly expressed.

     

    Preamble

    The principle of reader’s participation adopted by ‘THE MESSAGE’ from its inception in 2006 has not waned a bit. If reactions were not published in recent times it was due to certain irresistible circumstances. Henceforth, publishable reactions will be published from time to time as usual. But as a reminder, it is necessary to emphasise here, once again, that only reactions which meet the standard already set in this column in terms of relevance, reason, logic and language will see the light of the day.

    Reactions to this column come in various forms either as comments, observations, advice or questions through phone calls, text messages

    and e-mail, thanks to technology. What is unique about ‘THE MESSAGE’ as a column is its readership which cuts across religions, tribes, callings, age strata and genders. Through these angles, readers’ reactions come accordingly.

    Sometimes, reactions are published according to geographical spread.

    Sometimes, they are published according to issues involved and sometimes according to the standard of presentation. If some reactions are published and others are not, it is not because those published are superior to those not published. The criteria are clear.

     

    Reactions in the kitty

    Right now, there are hundreds of reactions in the kitty. And since it is impossible for all of them to be published here at once, we go by the laid down criteria. But criteria or no criteria, reactions to the ongoing elections will not be published here because such reactions cannot be relevant to the  contents of this column at this time. This is not only to avoid committing contempt of any tribunal or court of law but also to refrain from adding fuel to fire on that highly volatile issue on which readers’ reactions on all sides are mostly a reflection of temperamental vituperations. Please read on the publishable ones:

    Your opinion on terrorism was a piece of historical enlightenment. As a student of history, it broadens my horizon of world view. Bravo!

    Ochada Jerry, Lokoja, Kogi State

    In my text message to you in October, 2009, I said that the car accident involving you and your children was a blessing in disguise.

    If that accident did not occur perhaps something worse could have happened. I concluded that your miraculous safety in that terrible accident was divinely to enable you serve Islam and humanity more and better. Now with your recent series on terrorism Nigerians are beginning to appreciate your great potential which is yet to fully germinate. Thank God that we have a Muslim like you as a columnist.

    Please, keep flying us. We are in the hands of a safe pilot in you. Remain blessed.

    Abdullah Yahaya, Nasarawa State.

    I am a Christian and I do not miss your commentary (The Message) every Friday in The Nation. You are simply good.

    Ajakaiye

    I am one of your staunch fans. I enjoy your column and the well researched writings therein. Your writings on Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and terrorism really captivated me. From your column, I learn more, every week, about the American and Western deception. I‘ll be grateful if you can send me books on Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and military as well as political and economic deceptions of the West.

    Sani Mohammed, Bauchi.

    Your article on Osama was my first time of ever reading The Nation as it adds enormously to my knowledge on the Middle East. I have since taken The Nation as my favourite newspaper. Thank you for a thorough job.

    08058074660

    It is encouraging to note that there are Muslims who think the way you do. Thank you very much for your write up ‘Who is Osama Bin Laden?

    Please, write on religious crises in northern Nigeria. Ajor, 08052517797

    I salute your courage and truthfulness in writing. Let us continue to stamp out terrorism by letting people know true, undiluted teaching ofIslam. Muslims should emulate the love Prophet Muhammad had for the Jews which enabled them to embrace Islam. Only love can cure terrorism because it is a mental illness.

    Dr. Sakeeb

    Sir, wa Llahi, you are a blessing to the Ummah. So that’s Osama! With that huge amount of money he inherited, he would have supported the Islamic banking worldwide. May Allah forgive him. Please, train younger Muslims so as to perpetuate and disseminate this worthy message.

    Olohungbebe Awwal

    I am highly disappointed in your view and conclusion on Osama Bin Laden. If you knew how Israel killed the Palestinians you would have no choice than to pick up gun against the enemies of Islam. Osama is a real jihadist. Your view is like that of the enemies of Islam.

    Alabi Ahmad, Abuja.

    How I wish the Muslim youths could abide by the last paragraph of your commentary in The Nation today. What we need is peace and not war to live in harmony as human beings.

    07033583506

    There is no solution to terrorism be it in Nigeria or elsewhere. If there are no terrorists in Nigeria, they are plenty in Abia State.

    Kenneth Azuikpe

    I am not a Muslim but I never agree with your submission sir. In as much as you can not call America and others involved in violent acts terrorists you have no right to call Osama and his likes terrorists.

    It takes two to tangle and you can only reap what you sow. I think it is Americans that sowed the seed of violence in the Middle East and they deserve the violence they are getting in return. Why is it okay when America drops bombs that kill thousands of Arabs and nobody labels it as an act of terrorism? You can only fight with what you have. Americans have weapons of mass destruction but what the Arabs have is suicide bombers. Let Americans change their evil ways and there will be peace in the world.

    Falaye Oreoluwa Steve 08098117071

    My name is Mufutau Aderemi Azeez. I developed interest in your Friday column in The Nation when providence brought me in contact with your write up on terrorism. Please ride on with the ‘GIFT OF LIFE’ in you.

    Your article in The Nation of today is very educative. America sowed the wind and it will continue to reap tornado for as long as it constitutes itself into an ENEMY FOR ISLAM. No person or country that made friendship with America has ever escaped being turned into a carcass.

    Ibrahim F. G.

    “Terrorism: The Madrasa Connection” is a well researched, well articulated piece. If USA can shed the toga of arrogance and hypocrisy and engage in meaningful dialogue with the aggrieved organisations, the world will know peace. You are an asset to Islam.

    R.O. Hussein, Ibadan.

    I just write to appreciate your commentary with the topic ‘Islam Without the Arabs’. More grease to your elbow. Please keep enlightening us. With you, we now know that Islam can do without the so-called Arabs.

    Ishaq, Kano.

    I read your column on January 1, 2010 with much enthusiasm. Before then, I didn’t know the reason behind all the crises in the Middle East. The article must be widely circulated throughout the world to let the Arabs know that most of their activities are against the preaching of Islam. I have distributed copies of the article to my Christian friends so that they can know Islam as a religion of peace.

    Eng. Wale Kreem, Ore.

    Reading you is like reading many professors together. Even as a Christian, I learn so much from your highly researched work. Perhaps you do not know, through The Message’ you teach philosophy, logic, ethics, language and religion. But above all, you teach morals and the courage with which to demonstrate it. Man, you are great. Please make it an inexhaustible spring from which generations to come may drink and drink.

    Abraham Sen, Benue State.

    I found in you an excellent teacher relating to all your readers on a common level. Your column is understandable to all across board. And there is a reflection of humility in your writings which actually makes you a true Muslim. But in all I have read in your column about terrorism, there has been no single case of a woman leading violence.

    On the other hand, it is women and their children who are mostly the victims of terrorism everywhere. Don’t you see that women generally personify peace while men are the agents of violence? Please do a piece along this line, perhaps it may help humanity to restore peace

    in the world. Thank you.

    Zainab A. Yusuf, Katsina.

    Femi Abbas! It is unimaginable that a one time obscure Arabic pupil who never had the opportunity of a secondary school could become such a global tutor of knowledge and discipline as you are today. I remember how we used to make jest of you by calling you Alfa. Our thought then was that going to Arabic school was the dead end for anybody to achieve anything through education in life. How I wish we could realise our folly then. Your case has further confirmed that greatness in life is never tied to Western type of literacy. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) never attended any school at all. Neither was he literate in any language. Yet he became the greatest teacher that the world has ever seen. Who can thwart the work of Allah? Femi, all my friends and I read The Nation every Friday because of you and it is as if we are back in the classroom. It was Yakubu Oorelope, I hope you still remember him, who drew my attention to your column. You are doing us proud. Please, teach on. You have students in us. One day we shall meet again and compare notes. I am sure none of us will have the courage to call you by your first name that day. God give us life and time. I hope you can still remember Taoreed Adeshina Aderibigbe, the stubborn goal keeper at Ogba, Agege stadium in the hopeless days of the late 1960s? Until we see physically let me continue to see you in The Nation.

    ‘Shina Show’, Agege, Lagos.

    I can no longer be surprised by your standard in writing. You have proved your mettle as you once told me that you dropped Foreign Affairs job for Journalism after the NYSC service, to prove a point.

    And, indeed, you have done that beyond any reasonable doubt. I only wish to remind you once again that you should compile all these invaluable articles into a book form as an indelible legacy. May God help you.

    Idris O. Gasper, Abuja.

    I am a fresh graduate of ABU Zaria, from Plateau State. I’ve been reading from your Da’awa regarding the position of Islam in our country Nigeria. As a matter of fact, I am so much happy that Allah has sent to us a relief concerning briefing on Islamic affairs through you in the media. May Allah continue to bless you more and reward you on this particular assignment you are always undertaking.

    Please, consider me as one of your permanent readers. But I want you to focus more on the issue of international as well as national terrorism and the world of Islam. This is so because I think there is need to take our Muslim youths through proper guidance so that we should not be looking at terrorism as any rightful act and see those engaged in it as heroes. Our hero will always remain the Great Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and not half-baked mediocres.

    Mohammed A. Danjuma, Kaduna

    Your article has been able to expose the facts within a secular perception, which could not be faulted.

    However, the other side of the coin is the teachings of Islam as distinct from personal/race agenda. The religion’s teachings are universal and not for the Arabs.

    We should dwell more on the Muslims living to emancipate humanity from the shackles of parochial thinking in the superiority of one over the other based on material acquisitions.

    Let us continue to dialogue and learn for the human race to get to the desired state of mind that will bring about equity, justice, peace not only in the immediate communities, but within the human race generally. Nigeria needs this urgently.

    Kamaldeen Ayodeji, Abeokuta, Ogun State