The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • School holds Walimatul Quran

    The Al-Imtiyaz Arabic School has held Walimatul Quran in Isolo.

    The graduands wowed the gathering with display of the knowledge of the Qur’an. The audience where amazed when Quranic verses were picked at random and the graduatings read it fluently.

    The school’s proprietor, Imam Aderibigbe Is-haq, said the lessons taught in the school emphasises on Islamic creed and values, adding that the knowledge of Quran is simply the instruction manual for the human beings.

    Imam Is-haq said the school is one of the contemporary Arabic schools bridging the gap between the modern and traditional teachings.

    “We have put in place different logic to make our students assimilate faster. Within two months, the students would have master the act of reading Arabic letters,” he said.

    He enjoined Muslim parents to take their wards to madrasah (Arabic schools) to reduce the rate of immorality in the society.

    The guest speaker, Shaykh Abdulfattah Ibrahim Aderibigbe, hailed the school for combining Al-Quran and modern education.

    He commended the proprietor of the school, for introducing a standard system of teaching the Holy Quran by introducing courses that would enable the students get the appropriate knowledge of the Holy Quran.

    He said: “The solutions to economic, political, spiritual or marital challenges are enshrined in the Holy Quran.”

    The Chairman on the ocassion, Alhaji Ibrahim Oloko, praised the proprietor’s effort in ensuring the students stand out from the crowd.

    He advised parents not to relent in the effort to ensure their children continue to acquire the knowledge of Islam.

    “Parent should endeavour to do follow up on their children; the ummah is losing the younger generation due to negligence on the part of the parents.  Many of the Muslim children are deviating from the part of Islam,” he said.

     

  • Aisha Lemu: A fulfilled risky life

    Human life is a journey from the unknown to the unknown. No one knows whence he/she emanated or whither he/she is bound. Every inch of the various paths through which human beings pursue the attainment of their goals in life is littered by substances that are either thorny or slippery. To toe any particular path, without hesitation, towards achieving a goal in life, is to, consciously or unconsciously, confirm the supremacy of destiny. And that is precisely where the risk of life resides.

     

    Preamble

    There is hardly any better way of putting the above assertion in proper perspective as succinctly and as philosophically  did by Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the introduction to his autobiography (My Odyssey), published in 1970.

    Here is how he put it:

    “Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities, absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his causes of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance, either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

     

    Generational Template

    Whether in the primordial or contemporary time, every generation of human beings is divinely endowed with a template that may be adopted positively or negatively. However, the proper utilization or otherwise of such a template is invariably dependent not on the intention of its designer but on that of its adopter. This is where the case of a British/Nigerian woman (Hajiya Bridget Aisha Lemu), whose demise in Mina, Niger State, Nigeria, last Saturday, sent different signals to different parts of the world, becomes handy.

     

    Who Was Aisha Lemu?

    Being a household name in Africa, any introduction of the uniquely exemplary woman called Aisha, in a small forum like this, can only come in summary. And such a summary is better excerpted from a press release issued by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) earlier this week, to commiserate with her family, the entire African Muslim womanhood and the Nigerian Muslim Ummah.

     

    The NSCIA Press Release

    Below are the contents of the NSCIA’s Press Release entitled Aisha Lemu’s Demise:  An Un-fillable Vacuum: “Barely one week after the demise of Nigeria’s first Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, who was buried on the last Saturday of December 2018, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah was bombarded with another breaking news, last Saturday, of the demise of an exemplary woman, Hajiya Aisha (Honey) Lemu.

    She was reported to have stopped breathing last Saturday, (January 5, 2019) after a brief illness.

    Her demise has come to create a new leadership vacuum for Nigerian Muslim womanhood the like of which a onetime American woman convert, Margaret Marcus, (who adopted the name Maryam Jameelah after accepting Islam), left behind following her demise in Pakistan, in 2012.

     

    The Great Duo

    “Incidentally, the two great women were contemporaries in birth and in lifestyle.

    While Maryam Jameelah was born in New York city in 1934, Aisha Lemu (who was named Bridget Honey at birth), was born in Poole Dorset, England in 1940.

    Both women coincidentally embraced Islam in the same year (1961) and their roles in Islamic propagation were as similar as if they jointly planned them.

    Thus, Aisha Lemu, a Briton, became to Nigeria what Maryam Jameelah, an American, became to Pakistan in Islamic propagation, in motivational preaching and in character molding even as one of them married a Pakistani and the other married a Nigerian, each being a second wife.

    Like Maryam Jameelah, Aisha Lemu’s life was fully dedicated to Islamic propagation and grooming of younger women propagators of Islam. She was a professional teacher and a passionate moral conduct builder.

     

    Methodology

    Unlike previously known, the methodology adopted by Hajiya Lemu for training young women in decent and qualitative propagation of Islam, in a complex country like Nigeria, was quite unique.

    As a matter of fact, Hajiya Lemu’s acceptance of Islam at the time she did and her resolution to migrate to Nigeria for Islamic propagation were the timely catalyst that Nigerian Muslim women needed to play their destined role in propelling the divine religion.

    With her arrival in Nigeria, in the late 1960s, the participation of Nigerian Muslim women in Islamic propagation took a new positive dimension which particularly geared the northern Muslim sisters into an action never

    hitherto dreamt of in the country before.

     

    Establishment of FOMWAN

    It was Hajiya Aisha Lemu who initiated the idea of bringing all Nigerian Muslim women under a common umbrella called ‘Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) which is vividly and effectively present in all corners and crannies of Nigeria today. And she was the first National Amirah of that solidly organized and highly respected Muslim group.

    Today, FOMWAN has chapters in all the 36 States of the federation and as well as in countries like Ghana, Seirra-Leone, Gambia, Mauritius, and Niger Republic. It also has more than 500 Muslim women organization affiliated to it.

     

    Formation of IET

    Hajiya Lemu also cooperated fully with her husband, Justice Ahmad Lemu, in establishing an intellectual Non-Governmental Organization named ‘islamic Education Trust’ (IET) that is very well recognized globally today for its vigorous pursuit of qualitative advancement of Muslim youth education. Like Maryam Jameelah, Aisha did not preach Islam by words of mouth alone. She also wrote many books either for academic purposes or for general Islamic understanding, to further confirm that the foundation of the divine religion called Islam is knowledge.

     

    Effect of Her Activities

    Through her various propagation activities, Hajiya Lemu did not only facilitate job opportunities for many young Nigerian Muslims, she also opened ways to scholarships, home and abroad, for many indigent but intellectually aspiring young Muslims who are seeking attainment of higher levels in education. Besides, many Nigerian young  women in cities and villages across the country have voluntarily reverted to islam through those activities.

    Hajiya Lemu’s demise last Saturday is a further confirmation that Allah has wonderful ways of doing certain unimaginable things that cannot elicit questions from any mortal being.

     

    Similarities

    That these two great women (Maryam Jameelah and Aisha Lemu) from different continents, thought alike,  lived alike, acted alike and were demised alike is one of those wonders.

    Maryam Jameelah, an author of scores of Islamic books,  left the world at the age of 78 and was buried in Pakistan, her husband’s home country in 2012. Hajiya Aisha Lemu, also an author of dozens of books and public lectures, had her last breathing at the age of 79, on January 5, 2019, and was buried in Nigeria, her husband’s home country on Sunday, January 6, 2019. Yet, it is doubtful that the two personalities ever met in their lifetimes.

    Now, there is a big question: Who fills the big vacuum left by iconic Hajiya Lemu after her exit from of the surface of the earth?

     

    Observation

    Judging by the rate at which Islam is spreading in the West in the contemporary time, one may not see any exclusive news in Hajiya Aisha Lemu’s spiritual itinerary in the last half of a century.  She was not alone in taking a decision to embark on a spiritual voyage without a concrete assurance of an effective compass. Almost immediately after the World War II, many European and American young men and women began to troop into Islam in grosses with determinations, to fulfill the Will of Allah by volunteering to be the spiritual agents of making the West the real home of Islam in the 21st century. Already, that trend is rapidly becoming more vivid in the two continents (Europe and America) especially among the women fold.

    That is what led to the publication, in December 1995, of a famous book entitled: ‘Daughters of Another Path’ which was jointly written by 53 American young women who were compelled to face problem of ostracization, in their parents homes, for embracing Islam.

    Excerpts from that book will be published randomly in this column in the near future, In sha’a Allah.

     

    The Difference in Aisha Lemu’s Case

    In the case of Hajiya Aisha Lemu, However, what really makes news is her unbeatable courage to have migrated from the advanced society of Europe, where comfort permanently resides, to an underdeveloped country like Nigeria where  squalor evidently constitutes the living environment for the people and even electricity is a luxury. Yet, with a strong determination based on a very strong faith, she surged ahead with her resolution not minding any difficulty or hardship she could encounter along the line.

    That is the difference between the Caucasian (white) race with cultural orientation for production and the African (black) race with natural orientation for consumption. While the concern of an average European is what mankind can benefit from his/her existence, the concern of an average black African is how  he/she can consume all available products and even accumulate as much as possible for the future of his or her children and even grandchildren.

     

    Commiseration

    Like the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), ‘The Message’ Column hereby commiserates with the entire African Muslims, especially the women fold as well as the Nigerian Muslim Ummah including the family of the deceased, praying the Almighty Allah to repose her soul in eternal bliss with a forgiven posture and grant all her relatives, associates and followers the fortitude with which to bear the agony of her demise. We are all from Allah, and to Allah we shall all return. Amin! Inna Lillah, wa inna ilayhi raji’un!.

  • FOMWAN, MSSN mourn Aisha Lemu

    The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) and the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) said their hearts are still flowing with sorrow and grief over the death of British-born educationist Bridget Aisha Lemu.

    The late Hajia Lemu, 79, died on Saturday after a brief illness.

    The FOMWAN founder and pioneer National Amirah (President) has been buried according to Islamic rites in Minna.

    A statement by FOMWAN National Amirah Dr Halimah Jibril and Public Relations Officer Dr Sumaye Fadimatu Hamza said it is hard to believe that “our own Aisha Lemu has answered the Divine call; we know that every soul shall taste death.

    The group said: “The demise of the founding member of our association came as a great shock to the members of this great Islamic women association, and the entire women folk in general.

    “Until her death, she was the Chairperson of the FOMWAN National Board of Trustee. She was a symbol of unity, sincerity, integrity, justice and piety. She did her best to propagate Islam with her wealth and health using FOMWAN and other vibrant religious avenues as good platforms.

    “She took FOMWAN beyond Nigeria and remained a role model to Muslim women. Her memory and the inspiring legacy she left shall forever remain in our minds and in the history of spreading the message of Islam across the globe. We pray to Allah to forgive her shortcomings, reward her efforts and grant her Al Jannatul- fridaus.

    MSSN Lagos State Area Unit Amir Dr Saheed Ashafa condoled with the Lemu family and the FOMWAN.

    He described the late Lemu as an incomparable icon.

    Ashafa said: “the late Aisha Lemu left her footprint in the sand of time. She made immeasurable contributions to Islamic education with her valuable books for students of Islam.

    “Her approach and style were unique and unparalleled. She will also be remembered for successful parenthood. Her children stand out among peers and take after their parents to bear the torch towards the corner of darkness.”

  • Making 2019 work for the nation

    Last week, I argued for the conclusion that every new year is our creation. It is not an invisible spirit from an ethereal world.

    Today, I want to suggest that in addition to creating a new year, we also make it what we want. In other words, what it is in the end, is what we make it to be. This simply extends the notion that we are the architects of our fortune; and it applies to many things in nature.

    Surely, there are natural events which have been determined to be beyond human agency. Rainstorms, floods, landslides, hurricanes, tsunamis are supposedly forces of nature. We also know, however, that much of what nature has turned out to be in centuries of industrialization and decades of technology-driven economies has to do with human agency run amok. Think climate change.

    Specifically, relevant to this concern is the matter of flooding. Is it pure nature behaving badly, or does it also have to do with human bad behavior? Look around you as you read this piece. Is the ground around littered? Can you see nylon food wraps? How about pure water satchels? And plastic water and soda bottles? Did all this fall on the ground with rain drops? Or they are carelessly dropped and dumped by human beings deprived of a sense of responsibility? And since these tons of litters cannot self-dispose, they are helped by rain to block whatever is left of our already poor drainage system. Flooding is inevitable in the circumstance. Then, of course, we blame nature or government for our self-inflicted woes. Or we curse at the year!

    A most intriguing constant at the end of one year and the beginning of another is the phenomenon of prayer and prediction for a happy new year. They have been woven into the fabric of our sensibilities that it is unimaginable not to have them as part of the ritual. Prayer is our wish for the fulfillment of our hearts’ desires. Prediction satisfies our urge to not be in the dirt regarding the future. They both supposedly deal with the spiritual realm to which only the spiritually endowed have access.

    It is foolhardy to begrudge genuine claims to spirituality of which there are many. At the same time, however, genuine spirituality does not deny the importance of certain foundational principles without which prayers are in vain. Thus, as spiritual as traditional Africans are, work, for them, is an antidote against poverty. They will not indulge laziness while praying for wealth. Now, we have a different mindset that prioritizes the miracle of stupendous wealth with no corresponding effort to work hard. And some men and women of God cheer them on.

    Individuals make the year for themselves, to their happiness or misery, in a variety of ways. Of course, no one deliberately sets out to pursue misery. But as the wise ones teach us, no one plans to fail, but many fail to plan, and failure to plan is a certain precursor to failure.

    Take the case of a student who fails to plan her time and resorts to cramming borrowed notes an hour before a major examination. Under normal circumstances, failure is the assured result, followed by a shattered dream. To rely on prayers in such a situation is to unreasonably test God. If a good education still ranks high in the ladder of long-term success, our student may be on the road to long-term failure. There are numerous examples around our neighborhoods.

    But the circumstances are not always normal, and to the detriment of the system and a nation that is shortchanged in the end, it is this anomalous nature of our contemporary circumstances that such a student and many like her bet on with confidence. Think examination malpractice. Think sex for grades. Think parental collusion with miracle centers. And you have the nightmare of a nation held hostage and cornered at every front. Without paying serious attention to all that individuals engage in which places the nation under stress of negative development, we pray in vain for a happy new year.

    Only a mischievous reading of my argument this far would suggest that I am against prayers. Far from it, I am aware of the power of prayer. But reliance on prayer without hard work is futile and it is a shame if our religious leaders fail to point this out at every gathering of the faithful. For, it is clear to me that many of them are great examples of hard work and smart thinking, which makes up a disproportionate part of their success. It is this that the followers should make serious effort to study and emulate, subsequent to which prayer is in order.

    With a nation of about 200 million, a greater percentage of who profess one faith or the other, and multiple thousands of houses of worship, which make prayer their key, we should wonder why we still have the terrible statistics of armed robbery, kidnapping, increasing terrorist attacks, and political tumult.

    The nation makes the year for herself through the instrumentality of individuals, officials, and institutions in a variety of ways.

    An undeniable principle of prayer effectiveness is that we must be the enablers of the success of our prayer. This is what we have not done in our national life. We ask men and women of God to pray without ceasing for the country. But when we and those who are in public service and their active associates fail to do our part with diligence and integrity, we embarrass the God of prayers.

    As politicians, civil servants, security agents, educators in high and low places, doctors, nurses and matrons, customs and immigration officers, police, judges, contractors, oil marketers and market women, drivers and house-helps, and many other groups, we are all implicated in the disappointment of unanswered prayer. How so?

    Let us reference here just the totally unimaginable in this sordid and messy state of affairs in which corruption has placed our dear country. A house help defrauds his master by inflating the cost of food items bought from a local market and keeps the change. It is perhaps the slightest sample of our national malaise; but it has its tap root in our conflicted culture of ostentatious living and runaway greed for luxury beyond our means. Our young house-help learns the art from the grown-ups whose stock in trade is an irresponsible and nonchalant display of unearned wealth every day of the year.

    A National Assembly member who has fallen out with his state governor recently told his audience about the boastful rant of the latter who bragged of having such a stupendous wealth now that nothing can touch, and he is therefore fulfilled. The same governor confessed that he rode into office with huge help and funds from diverse sources. If he wasn’t sufficiently wealthy to fund his campaign for the governor’s seat, shouldn’t we ask how, after four or at most eight years, he now boasts of a bottomless wealth? Yet we keep praying for miracle for the nation to develop.

    The National Assembly (NASS) is the Naira guzzler of the republic, and it has also proven to be the retirement hub for state governors. With little accomplishment by way of meaningful legislation, it has not led by decent example in the matter of modest living. To make 2019 work for every citizen, NASS members must look in the mirror and ask probing questions: what is true public service? What sacrifice does it require of me? How can the institution to which I belong contribute to the rediscovery of national values?

    How shall we make 2019 work? For a start, we can make 2019 a year of new beginning for the nation. That it is an election year is a plus. That the election comes in the first quarter of the year is a blessing. If only citizens as electorates are well informed and they know what the nation must be for their individual hopes and aspirations to be fulfilled, then we can look forward to the future with confidence.

     

    Happy New Year!

  • Nigeria’s Triangular Axis of Evil

    History is not just a teacher of all times for all living human beings. It is also a permanent school that constantly reminds mankind of the lessons to learn from the various events and experiences of the past as a means of guidance towards the future.

    About 900 years ago, an Arab poet of the second Umayyad Dynasty, in Spain, came up with a bewildering stanza that is now more relevant to Nigeria than his own nation and his own time. An  excerpt from the poem went thus: “Here is the period in human life about which we had been seriously warned in the words of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and those of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud; Here is the period in which truth is meant to be totally rejected; And falsehood as well as evil machinations are to be warmly accepted and upheld as societal norms; Should this period continue to swing dangerously (like a pendulum over our nation) without any positive change, the world will surely forage into a stage in life when grief over deaths will become an aberration even as rejoice over the birth of new babies will become an anathema”.

    Observation

    Today, judging Nigeria’s situation, by what we can see and feel against what we are yet to witness or experience, can any prediction be more accurate and more appropriate for our country than the above quoted poem? With the seeming ongoing resistance to positive change and persistent entrenchment of evil machinations as we are witnessing today, how can there be any hope for a better future? Yet, the charlatans who use religion as an instrument of threat and intimidation through propaganda and blackmail refuse to see the possible danger ahead.

    Axis of Evil

    Today, Nigeria is dangerously entangled in a triangular axis of evil, the consequences of which cannot be foretold with precision. That axis is like a crushing pendulum swinging restlessly over Africa’s most populous country with a threat of ruins. That triangular axis consists of three dominant, vocal  blocks of evil. Each of them is an implacable enclave serving as an abode for its designers. One of those enclaves is the abode of politicians, another is for the palace of the clergy and the third is for the igloo of the media.

    While the Politicians stand out as the engine room of virtually all the evils afflicting our country, the clergy represents the dangerous chimney through which the polluting smoke of that evil oozes out to suffocate the populace spiritually in the name of God. On its own, the media serves as the megaphone for both the politicians and the so-called clergy through the instrumentality of satanic propaganda.

    Disappointing Leg

    Of the defined evil axis above, the most disappointing leg is the clergy. From time immemorial, religion had stood out as the societal salt used as a preservative for all other ingredients with which to prepare a delicious soup of life for the consumption of all and sundry at any stage. But with the sudden adoption of ‘ashes’ to replace salt as the main ingredient of preservation in the 20th century, courtesy of the capitalist West, how can the soup of life be tasteful anymore to its consumers? Ordinarily, Salt should be salt in its natural form. To pour ashes on it in the name of spiritual preservative is to deprive it of its natural value and render it totally useless to its consumers. Thus, with the importation of a hitherto unknown brand of a religion from the West, which is bitterly coated in capitalism, Nigeria has dangerously become a polluted country with a suffocating smoke. Those who are responsible for this situation are the fraudsters parading themselves as prophets and are issuing satanic statements with which they deceptively rationalize their claim of prophet-hood.

    The Role of Money

    Incidentally, the bottom line for all these evil machinations is nothing other than the vanity called money. Let money be removed from Nigeria’s mode of worship today and sanity will return fully to our society with required serenity.

    Today, with importation of ashes as a replacement for salt,religion, like politics, has become a big business in which greedy merchants and charlatans are desperately engaged for unbridled avarice and unlimited aggrandizement at all costs without consideration for decency and even conscience. In that case, of what use is the claim of religion without conscience?

    Commercialization of Religion

    Commercialization of religion which enables private individuals to invest in building of castles, as business ventures, has seriously diminished the value of religion in taste and in substance.

    In Nigeria, today, our only respite, as Muslims, is that Nigerian Imams are not engaged in hateful sermons and public incitement to boost their religious businesses that fetch them private, executive jets illegally at the expense of their congregations.

    Were Nigerian Imams also to commercialize Islam and preach hatefully like some self-hipped charlatans in the name of religion, Nigeria would have ceased to be a country by now.

    Warning

    Those who take religion as a ‘do or die’ business that must fetch them luxurious lifestyle should know that they do not have monopoly of provocation and threat as the patience of Nigerian Muslims is getting exhausted.

    Elasticity has its limit.

    Yellow Journalism

    When journalism was a real profession in Nigeria, its practitioners knew that they were like Eskimos living in Igloo. If anything happened to Igloo, the Eskimos’ lives became exposed to danger. Today, however, it has become evident that journalism is just a matter of nomenclature.

    What matters to the journalists of today, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria, is the conspicuous immoral padding that reportorial entails. That profession is now virtually a matter of cash and carry in favour of the highest bidder. That is why news reports these days are mere expression of wishes and fabricated stories with which to justify the brown envelopes that serve as padding for most of those parading themselves as journalists.

    As for the politicians, nothing is strange. It is a common knowledge that the enclave in which they dwell is the real home of the Lucifer.

    But to think that their ruinous actions can continue unabatedly is nothing other than self-deception. Where are the politicians of yesteryears? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Long live Nigeria!

    Shehu Shagari: The Demise of a Presidential Icon Following the announcement of the demise of Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari last Friday, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a press statement with which it condoles with all Nigerians including the family of the deceased. The full contents of the statement are as follows:

    When the media waves came up with breaking news announcing the demise of a Nigerian political icon, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, last Friday with a reverberation effect across the world, many Nigerians with rich experience in various aspects of life began to dust their diaries for a recount of the episodes that propelled the deceased to have made history as much as he was, himself, made by history.

    Like an Elephant

    The late President Shehu Shagari’s life was like a huge elephant surrounded by blind men and women of letters and substance.

    To describe the features of that proverbial elephant, each of the persons that surrounded it would only be able to give an account of the area he/she is able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and not the whole of it.

    Besides, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was such a household name, that no serious political operator or aspirant can afford to discountenance in Nigerian history without incurring an expensive cost.

    Religious Concern

    However, the aspect that concerns the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) most in Alhaji Shagari’s life’s odyssey is religion.

    It can be recalled that it was he (Alhaji Shagari) as Nigeria’s first elected Executive President, that approved the sum of N10 million each for the commencement of building a National Mosque and a National

    Ecumenical Church in Abuja at a time when naira was really strong and the foundation of Abuja as a city was just being laid.

    That Presidential gesture, which no religious group rejected, was a confirmation that Nigeria is indeed a multi-religious and not a secular country as being mischievously peddled in certain quarters for selfish reasons.

    Today, the two houses of worship are conspicuous in Abuja with their grandiose postures to the finite attraction of foreign tourists who see them as symbols of national unity.

    Maitatsine Crisis

    It is historically unforgettable how the late Executive President tackled diplomatically and militarily, as then warranted, a frightening national crisis engendered by one Cameroonian charlatan called Muhammad Marwa Maitatsine in most parts of Northern Nigeria in the guise of religion during the country’s second republic. It was his presidential determination to keep the unity of Nigeria intact  that checkmated that devastating menace.

    Alhaji Shehu Shagari was, though, a quiet and easy going personality, nonetheless, he never wavered in taking necessary decisions in the interest of national unity in the country.

    His Lifestyle

    As a Muslim, Alhaji Shagari never hesitated in upholding the principles of justice, fairness and equity which his religion (Islam) emphasizes.

    As a teacher in the early part of his life, he was exemplary in touching the lives of his students positively and in grooming those

    students for future leadership.

    As a politician, he displayed such a special trait that distinguished him as a template designer and a dark horse in Nigeria’s political racecourse.

    His Political Sagacity

    This man’s political sagacity was like a major Faculty in the University of Life, into which many forward-looking leadership aspirants in Nigeria were eager to seek enrolment for specialization in African political education.

    Alahji Shehu Shagari was the eminent Dean of that faculty even as the vibrancy of his tenure which remains unequalled till date is a testimony to the template he set for Nigeria’s democratic dispensation.

    Lesson to Learn

    For Nigerian generations of the colonial era as well as those of the first and second republics, a major falcon of reference has flown away forever leaving some of his surviving peers to mere dreams in communication encounter.

    The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of its President General and Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, and the entire Nigerian Muslim Ummah hereby

    commiserate with the Federal and Sokoto State governments as well as all the citizens in the country imploring them to learn from the exemplary lifestyle of this icon and emulate it for the progress of Nigeria.

    The NSCIA particularly condoles with his family and Chieftains of the Sultanate of Sokoto State among whom he was a front liner in his life time.

    We pray the Almighty Allah to repose the soul of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in etrnal bliss and grant his immediate and extended families the fortitude with which to bear the agony that may arise from his demise.

    “Surely we are all from Allah and to Allah we shall all return”. “Inna Lillah, wa inna ilayhi raji’un”.

  • 2018’s mix of anguish and joy

    The year of our Lord, two thousand and eighteen, is bidding us a farewell, having stopped by for three hundred and sixty-five days with a mix of fury and blessings. Like many of her chronological predecessors, 2018 means different things to different peoples, nations, and cultures. To many, it has been a year of blessings. To others, she has been a calamitous guest who they won’t miss.

    The last sentence however raises an important question regarding our relationship to time and seasons: who is the host and who is the guest? Do we host time or does time host us? What does it matter?

    Our use of language in relation to the matter is interestingly vague. We say time does not wait for anybody. We also say time goes and we pursue it. These give the impression of time as an itinerant who pops in and out of our sight. The thought has a calming effect. If one season is terrible in her visit, we can hope for the next to be friendly.

    But let’s entertain another thought. What if we are the itinerants whose movements and activities impact the times and seasons? In turn, time affects us by giving back to us that which we throw at it. This is consistent with geographical knowledge according to which the earth rotates on its axis on 24-hour cycle and revolves around the sun on a 365-day cycle. From which it follows that our world creates the seasons. What we do on each of the 24-hour rotational cycles, and 365- day revolution cycles, is implicated in what we experience as seasonal changes and climatic events.

    Therefore, we must move away from the fetishization of time and seasons. For we are creative agents in charge of what they turn out to be. 2018 is not some monstrous alien invading our space. We were responsible for its birth.

    Furthermore, the reality of the events that traumatize us in the course of a year is mitigated by the reality of bounteous blessings that we receive. Sometimes individuals, families, and nations experience this mix in the course of one year. At other times, there is more of one than the other for individuals and families.  Whatever our situation, however, we must always be reminded of the timeless truth of the songwriter’s creative genius in a moment of anguish: Count your blessings; name them one by one; you will be surprised what the Lord has done.

    The world experienced a mix of anguish and joy in the passing year. There were natural disasters, including the recent tsunami in Indonesia which killed more than 900, the California wild fires which leveled a whole town, and hurricanes Michael and Florence which ravaged towns and counties in the United States.

    There were human-made tragedies that call to question our basic humanity, including the brutal killing of Saudi Journalist Jamal Kashoggi inside a Saudi embassy in Turkey by Saudi agents. Yemen continues to experience humanitarian crisis as a result of a civil war in which Saudi Arabia is also a big player.

    There are also a few positive developments around the world this year. On our continent, Eritrea and Ethiopia finally signed a peace deal after 18 years since the end of the war between the two neighbors.

    Relevant to the subject of time, researchers have reportedly discovered an antioxidant that could reduce blood vessel aging by up to 20 years, potentially increasing human life span. Still on time, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos reportedly invested $42 million in a clock to be placed in a hollowed-out mountain in West Texas. It is expected to keep the time for 10,000 years. Don’t ask if that amount could have been spent more productively for ending poverty and starvation around the world. He is probably doing something about that as well.

    In our corner of the world, can we point to more joy than misery this year? We crossed over to 2018 heaving a sigh of relief concerning the Boko Haram affliction. They were being vanquished by our gallant soldiers. Suddenly a reversal of fortunes in the war against terror occurred.

    In February, the terrorists invaded Dapchi, kidnapped boarding school girls and took them to their hideout. Weeks later, they were released but one had died, and they refused to release Leah Sharibu who had reportedly refused to convert to Islam. Leah’s ordeal has continued since. In a society where life means nothing special, and human feeling is a rare commodity, what is happening to the young girl is better imagined than experienced.

    As if we haven’t had enough trauma with the Boko Haram criminals, the Middle Belt erupted with callous beheading of human beings even as security agents felt helpless. Gun-toting herdsmen reportedly invaded villages along their herding routes and killed at will. Thankfully, it appears that sanity has prevailed, and quietude has returned after months of senseless horror. The South experienced mindless kidnapping of innocent victims, extortion being the sole purpose.

    Focusing on these clearly indefensible acts of brigandage, we are used to asking the question: what happens to our values? But we should ask this question in relation not just to violent acts of terrorists and kidnappers, but also with regards to pen-robbers and selfish leaders who fleece the nation.

    Thankfully, our nation continues to relish democracy as norm of government, and despite the efforts of a few, religious harmony prevails.

    Politically motivated tragedies are senseless and preventable. That they occur incessantly is a terrible blemish on our sense of decency. But there are sad occurrences that have no political motivation except indirectly. Such are cases of unexpected death of good people. This year saw a disproportionate number of such incidents, and it hurts.

    Professor Akinwumi Ishola, (aka Honest Man), left an indelible footprint on the sand of time, intellectually, culturally, and socially. A talented artist, he enriched our cultural repertoire with his immense influence. We miss him already. Shortly after Ishola’s passing, one of his chief mourners, Alhaji Gboyega Arulogun (aka Before Before) also joined the ancestors. A good-natured man, ever ready to lend a hand of help, Alhaji Arulogun lives on in our memory.

    Dr. Fredrick Fasheun, founder of Odua People’s Congress lived a life of struggle for the cultural democracy that we desperately need in this country. He was brutalized by the military and civil leaders. In all, Fasheun was unrelenting. He left behind a legacy of tenacity of purpose and an organization that is still to be reckoned with.

    Alhaja Amina Abiodun, Iyalode Ibadan, had an inner beauty that was at par with her external beauty. A genuine human being with selfless love for everyone that crossed her path, she was a mother with the proverbial milk of mercy. I am confident she is already resting in peace.

    The tribe of Nigerian philosophers lost two of its shining stars. Professor Moses Akin Makinde was a philosopher of many parts. After studying Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science with the best minds in Canada and the United Kingdom, he invested his fierce intellect in the development of African philosophy. We miss him.

    Professor Sophie Oluwole is the latest of our new ancestors, having just succumbed to the cold hands of death a week ago. A philosopher of African cultural tradition, Oluwole opened a treasure trove of ideas for many lifetimes of philosophizing on and about Africa. She lives on.

    The Yoruba believe that when death that takes away an age-mate, it is a warning to survivors. My good friend, Sope Moyosade, recently succumbed to a long illness. So did Peju Adeyemo, wife of my best friend, Bayo Adeyemo. Knowing them both for so long, I am short of words. I bid them farewell.

    In February 2018, I survived a car crash. In April and May, my wife and I welcomed two new grandsons.  In September and October, I had two Emergency Room treatments. This month, I had two eye surgeries. Truly, then, for the world, our nation, and for me, 2018 has been a mix of trauma and blessings. We bid her farewell and welcome 2019 full of hope and enthusiasm.

     

     

     

     

     

  • MSSN to governorship candidates: support hijab, get our votes

    The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State Area Unit has maintained that unconditional approval for pupils to wear hijab in schools will be one of the criteria for voting for any governorship candidate in the state.

    Its Amir, Dr Saheed Ashafa, said this at a briefing on the state of the nation and the organisation’s ongoing 106th Islamic Vacation Course (IVC) holding at the Human Capital Development Center (HCDC), Noforija, Epe.

    He said: “Let me get something clear. MSSN Lagos is not a political organisation but millions of our members are qualified voters. We have sensitised them enough to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and the need to be peaceful during the election. We have been very careful in taking a position on the governorship elections in Lagos State, but we will not support any candidate that will deny us any of our rights. We also urge the candidates to engage on issue-based campaign.”

    According to him, assault on pupils wearing hijab is a violation of their right.

    He warned principals and teachers who still punish pupils for using hijab despite the circular from government to desist from doing that.

    Such action, he said, was capable of endangering the peaceful coexistence of people of different faiths in the state.

    “We know the implication of a matter in court and the implication of working contrary to that. However, every assault that happens in Lagos is taken up by the society. Probably people think we will take to the street and create chaos. We are not going to do that. We will follow the constitutional procedures in seeking redress.

    “Recently, a Vice-Principal was removed from office due to assault on pupils in hijab. This is a step in the right direction, even though we are not after removal of anyone from office, but what we are saying is that the pupils should be able to enjoy their right to use hijab,” Ashafa said.

     

     

     

  • Muslim’s death and funeral

    Monologue

    The world is shrinking in time and in space. Even despite the geometrical growth of human population across the globe and the unprecedented advancement in technology, today’s world keeps lamenting a dearth of quality men and women. We now live in an era in which societies are full of people without virtues and families are merely a matter of nomenclature because marriages have become an institution with no meaningful connotation.

    Unlike in the past few decades, it is the parents that teach their children how to steal public funds and property and how to kill as a means of facilitating the accumulation of illegal wealth. It is from parents that today’s children learn the avarice and aggrandisement through a notorious capitalist theory of “the end justifies the means”. In that satanic theory, all that matters is to acquire wealth without regards for conscience, morality and feeling for others. That is the main trait that Nigerian politicians can publicly exhibit with unbridled audacity to confirm their superiority over the evidently wretched Nigerian populace whose wealth they are using any available political system to steal insatiably.

     

    Undisputable reminder

    This article is an undisputable reminder to many Nigerians, especially Muslims, whose pattern of life has no template and who live by devilish imitation rather than decent emulation. Such are Muslims who, like most non-Muslims in the country, have exchanged the perpetual goodness of their hereafter for an ephemeral comfort of this temporary life which can fetch them everlasting retribution after death.

    The reference here is not to Muslims alone but to most Nigerians, especially politicians, who, like wild mammals, wonder aimlessly about in towns and villages mainly in search of sheer vanity. Such Nigerians have a choice between accepting and rejecting this bitter reminder depending on how they want their ends to be in life.

     

    Preamble

    Mother earth can be described as man’s inseparable companion. She accompanies man day and night, in life and in death. She surpasses biological mothers in playing her role in the life of man. It is from a chip of the mother earth that man is said to have been created.

    Allah informs us through Qur’anic revelations thus: “From her (the earth), We created you and into her (the earth’s) belly We shall return you”. Q. 20:55. Incidentally, it is on that same earth that certain devilish Nigerians are committing all sorts of atrocities without minding the consequences.

     

    Mother’s role

    In playing the role of a mother, the earth carries man on her head when the latter remains alive and transfers him into her belly after his death, for necessary incubation in readiness for the resurrection that will see him through the inevitable Day of Judgment. In that process, there is a similarity between the duties of a primary mother (the earth) and that of a secondary one called biological mother.

    While the biological mother cares for man only when she and man are alive, the mother earth cares for both in life and in death. Unlike that of the biological mother, which is temporary and definite, the life span of the mother earth is permanent and indefinite.

     

    Age of the Earth

    Some scientists have endeavoured to give us different ages of the earth using all sorts of geological and technological devices. But we came to realise that the only authentic knowledge of that wonderful creature is obtainable only from the Almighty Allah Who created her and scheduled her life span. However, if scientists insist on their knowledge of the age of the earth, do they also know her life span?

    The earth is not just a carrier of unlimited weight; she is also a scale of unlimited measure. From time to time, she weighs the load on her head as well as the one in her belly and balances up both for natural equanimity.

    Without the earth, creatures like forests, deserts, mountains and oceans would have no habitat to call their own and the long term fossils which turn into what we now call minerals would have had nowhere to hibernate for terminal incubation. Before all these and millions of others matters yet to be identified, that are pearled in the soil, the earth had been in existence. And by the time all of them might have vanished into permanent oblivion, according to their scheduled time, the earth will continue to be in existence until Allah’s scheduled time for her termination comes. But that is beyond any human knowledge.

     

    Our Knowledge of the Earth

    Through Allah’s revelations, we came to know that man was created from the earth. We also came to know that the belly of the earth serves as the main store for most living and non-living things even as it provides habitat for many others on her head. What we are yet to know is the source of the earth in creation. From what was the earth created? In luring us to reasoning, Allah has severally called the attention of man to the nature of certain creatures like the mountains, the valleys, the oceans and the seas, the minerals and the human and animal fossils buried in the belly of the earth as well as the varieties of plants and insects which dot the earth like a galaxy of stars on the Milky Way. He (Allah) has also challenged man to observe the very nature of the wonderful carpet called the earth and create its like if he can.

    All these are to enable man to know that all things except the grace of Allah will perish. And Allah confirms severally in the Qur’an that a divine record is being kept for reassessment of the existence and functions of all things on earth.

     

    The parable of the Hereafter

    Any Muslim who has performed Hajj with full consciousness of piety will understand the gravity of the mysterious phenomenon called death. We came into the world naked. We brought nothing into it except the placenta. And, as soon as we settle down as babies on the laps of our biological mothers, we forget completely about the journey that brought us into this ephemeral transit called the world as well as the ephemeral luggage called placenta that accompanied us into the world.

    No one remembers again how he or she travelled down into the world. No one can describe the features of the womb through which he or she sailed into the transit port called the world. Even the real purpose of our mission in the world becomes lost on us until we are taken through a new earthly tutorial that makes us what we grow up to become. Except by imagination and mere guessing, no book or document has shown the role of human placenta in the journey of life. Or could that natural hand luggage have been in vain?

    Placenta in the life of man is just a symbol of vanity which life represents. A sincere pilgrim prepares for Hajj as if he is preparing for death. His journey for that mission is unpredictable. No one knows for sure who will return from the journey and who will not. That is why an intending Muslim pilgrim makes all necessary provisions for his family and leaves vital instructions or advice behind including his or her will. It is a way of saying “in case I do not return from this journey, these are the steps to follow in my absence as a way of keeping the family life going according to the will of Allah”.

     

    Causes of Death

    At the end of every Salat in both Sacred Mosques in Makkah and Madinah, especially during Hajj, there is a funeral prayer (Salatul-Janazah) for a number of deceased people which confirms that people die in virtually every minute of life. Some people die while observing Salat. Some die while eating. Some die in toilets. Some die while talking. Some die by domestic or automobile accidents. Some die in the market with their wares for sale or purchased goods for consumption even as the wristwatches on their hands keep working.

    Some people die while stealing other people’s property. Some die in the process of killing some other people. Death in such circumstances is either a matter of destiny rather than ill health or old age. It is only in our own part of the world that death is ignorantly presumed to be caused by ill health or old age. If regular thinking of death is one of the items in every human programme of life, this world would have been a very peaceful abode for all and sundry.  That is why an Arab poet crafted a stanza to remind man that death could strike at any time by any means. This is how he put it: “Whoever does not die of sword may die of anything else; There are many ways of dying but death itself is only one”.

     

    Impact of Death

    Just as no man can remember to ask about his placenta after settling down in life so can no dead person can remember to ask about his property or his money after   death. As a matter of fact, no dead person knows that he or she has left the shores of this world. Death is like a dream. You move from one spot to another as if you are alive. You interact with people, at times dining and wining with them and at other times rejoicing or grieving with them without knowing that you are already dead

     

    Care for Cemeteries.

    Meanwhile, one important role of the living Muslims is to take care of the cemeteries in which their departed fellows are buried. No cemetery should be allowed to grow bushy or be left un-kept. The environments of those buried in the cemeteries deserve as much care as when they were alive. And the living should always remember that sooner or later, they will join those in the belly of the earth.

    Muslim cemetery should be like a settlement of equal beings where no traces of segregation can be found. Such a cemetery should be kept tidy by the living and protected against any possible invasion or destruction. A non-Muslim should not be assigned or employed to watch over a Muslim cemetery because of the differences in religious dictums which he/she may not be familiar with. The cemetery should be constantly weeded and even swept at all times. The maintenance of a Muslim cemetery should be the responsibility of every member of the concerned community either in terms of service delivery or contribution to the payment for such service. But such contribution should not come from stolen money or corrupt act. No funeral ritual bath (Ghuslul-Janazah) or funeral service (Salatul- Janazah) should be performed in a cemetery. It is desirable to plant trees in the cemetery either for the purpose of protecting it against erosion and sand storm or for making it cool and serene.

    It is preferred that a Muslim be buried where he or she died and not be transported to a very distant location or country which may cause delay in burial or require an embalmment for the corpse. The corpse of a deceased Muslim is laid in the bare grave without a coffin (if permitted by local law and if the grave is not water lodged). And the corpse is laid on his or her right side, facing the Qiblah.

     

    Prayer for the Dead

    While most Muslim members of the concerned community are expected to attend the funeral prayers, only men and not women in the community should accompany the corpse to the gravesite. This is to avoid the emotional weeping that is natural with women and which may cause distraction in the process of Salatul-Janazah. The relatives of the deceased may observe a three-day mourning period without necessarily displaying signs of joy and ceremony. Widows are to observe an extended mourning period (Iddah) of 4 months and 10 days privately in accordance with Qur’anic prescription. See Q, 2:234.

    During the Iddah period, the widow is prohibited from remarry or wearing of ostentatious clothing and jewelleries until the Iddah period is over. Observing the third day or eighth day or 40th day after burying the deceased as a day of entertainment is an act of extravagancy which Allah abhors.

    When a person dies, everything he/she possesses in this earthly world is left behind, and there are no more opportunities to perform any acts of righteousness and faith. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once said that three things may, however, continue to benefit a person after death.

    These are charity given during lifetime which continues to help others, imparted knowledge from which people continue to benefit and regular prayers of righteous children for their deceased parents.

     

     

    Life as a Transit

    Life is a transit. There is a time to be conceived in the mother’s womb. There is a time to be born into the world. There is a time to grow up and become a man or a woman. There is a time to work and earn a living. There is a time to marry and bear children. There is a time to rejoice over the pleasantries of life. There is a time to grieve over certain calamities or tribulations. There is a time to be strong.

    There is a time to be weak. And finally, there is a time to die and be buried as a corpse. No time can be substituted for another. In all these, the earth has a role to play. Her role can neither be substituted nor denied. And when the time comes, we shall all be assembled in the presence of the Almighty Allah to give the account of our sojourn on earth. And, based on such account, each person shall take his final abode in paradise or hell. Thus, death is like a visa which authorises the right of entry into paradise or into hell where greed, avarice and all other evil machinations have no role to play. The prerequisites are there to choose from.

     

  • The self-regarding political ingenuity of NEF

    Give it to them, of all the ethnic nationalities in the country, the North is the most politically sophisticated.  And of all ethnic nationality organisations, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) is the most politically sagacious.”

    “Wow? Opalaba! That is a mouthful! On what side of your aging body did you wake up this early morning?” I asked my friend.

    “On the thinking side, my friend. I have long thought about the players on our national political field. If you have been as keen an observer as I have been, you will agree with my conclusion. You simply must give it to the North. They are unbeatable in this game, and we all have to learn a lesson or two from them.”

    “I am all ears, my friend. I am not too old to learn.”

    “Excellent, you are changing. And that is a good thing.

    “Remember that Sunday School favorite of elders focused on turning us into industrious men and women: “Go to the ants, thou sluggard. Learn its way and be wise.”  Turn that around and you have the most important lesson for your folks: “Go to the North, thou politically naive. Learn their way and be wise.”

    “Ok, my friend. Enough of this preamble. I just told you I am ready to learn. So, what is it about the North that you just discovered at 73?

    “Well, I did not just discover this. And I can go as far back as you want for hard evidence. Of course, NEF is a relatively recent entity. But its members have been in the loop forever, and their old wine just gets better with age.

    “Think way before flag independence. Recall the hard ball played by the Northern delegation to the constitutional conferences. While securing independence from Britain was considered the most nationalistic agenda for Southern nationalists; for the North, being in a state of readiness vis-a-vis indigenous human resources was a priority. That human resources were plentiful nationwide for work anywhere in the country was not a solution for them. They forced the delay of independence on this account.

    “Who can blame them for that position?”

    “I am not blaming. I am only giving you a hard evidence of Northern political sophistication. While you all think national in a heterogenous country with multiple nationalities with no abiding commonality save the artificiality of geography, the North thinks North. Remember “One North, One destiny”?

    “The late Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, was the master strategist of the North.

    “How do you know that?”

    “In an insightful interview during the June 12 crisis, the late elder statesman and leader, Alhaji Maitama Sule, revealed that the Sardauna ensured that many Northern youths were enrolled in military service. As we now know, it was a visionary move that guaranteed that the North controlled not only the armed forces but also the national politics for 24 out of the 28 years of military rule. If that was not political genius, I don’t know what it is. The generals are still around and making waves in national politics.

    “It was during that period of military rule that the federal structure of the country was changed to a unitary one. Ironically, as you know, it was a Southern general that introduced the unitary command system of the military with a view to decreeing uniformity over the entire country. And it was partly responsible for the Northern revolt which toppled Ironsi. It turned out that the unitary system was embraced by the Gowon regime and subsequent military regimes. The North fully embraced it, especially with the prospect that national oil revenue could also be used by non-oil producing states.

    “Abiola was denied the presidency. While that could be attributed to military power grab, there is no denying the fact that many Northern elites raised no finger. It backfired spectacularly, and the North calculated that it had to yield the presidency to the South. But the Northern genius didn’t take a back seat. Between Olu Falae, the candidate of Afenifere, and Obasanjo, it was clear to the Northern elite who their friend was.

    “With Obasanjo in power, the agitation for restructuring since the mid-eighties fell on deaf ears. Political survival forced Jonathan to touch it half-heartedly. Have you wondered why APC, which controls the three arms of government and had restructuring on its agenda, could not pass a devolution bill? A breakdown of the votes for and against is a good place for an answer.

    “But the most glaring demonstration of political sagacity this season is the recent declaration by NEF that it has decided not to support the reelection of President Buhari. The political novice would think that it is because the elites of NEF are against Buhari as a person. I beg to disagree. They are aware of how Buhari has helped the North in the last three plus years.

    “In a recent WhatsApp, evidence-based analysis, posting by Ali Abubakar Sadiq, we have a compelling account of Buhari’s intervention in the economy of the North, from Anchor Borrower program, which disbursed 150 billion Naira to the farmers in the region, to the Mambilla power plant, the Ajaokuta Steel Mill, the Baro port up the Niger, and many road construction projects completed or ongoing in the North. So, it is not Buhari’s alleged neglect of the North that motivates NEF.

    “Sadiq suggests that NEF elites are worried that a second term of Buhari will negatively impact their group interests as opposed to the interest of the masses. That might well be so. But there is something more germane, which bears eloquent testimony to my assessment of the Northern political genius.

    “Buhari is fighting for a second term of four years. He has done well for the North in his first term. But Atiku, a fellow Northern Fulani is fighting for a first term. If Atiku is supported and he wins, there is a good potential for him to serve not one but two terms of eight years. Who does not understand mathematics? Ango Abdullahi is a retired professor and a former Vice Chancellor. Eight is better than four. Therefore, only a novice will support a candidate who has at most four years left when they could have an eight-year stint at the helm of affairs.

    “My good friend, I respect your logic, but I am not impressed by your conclusion. Candidate Atiku Abubakar has pledged to serve only one term. Your conspiracy theory is a sham. So, what do you have to say to that?” I taunted Opalaba.

    My friend exploded with unprintable words. “You just confirmed my hypothesis that you so-called egg heads from the South are far behind in your understanding of politics. Didn’t Buhari promise one term?” Didn’t Jonathan make the same promise?”

    “I am not aware of those pledges. And I cannot vouch for the veracity of your claim”, I replied.

    That’s alright. But it is true. All I want to tell you is that you cannot rely on such promises.

    “But Atiku has promised to restructure the country, a declaration that has excited the South across its three zones.”

    “There you go again with your pathetic ignorance of the way of politics and its masters. It’s called the art of deception; and blessed be the deceiver who masters the art, for he shall have many credulous followers.  Have you ever considered why Obasanjo would give Atiku a full-throated endorsement if he was certain that Atiku was going to restructure the country? Do you really think that Ango Abdullahi will abandon Buhari for Atiku if he ever believed that Atiku will restructure? In any case, a president cannot single-handedly restructure. He must have not only the National Assembly but also the State Assemblies on board. A presidential candidate always has that reality as his or her fall back excuse.

    “Again, if you want to know, it is the ingenuity of NEF that is in full glare. And for them, I doff my gobi. The rest of us have a long catching up to do in this business of self-regarding political ethos.”

    Thus, saith Opalaba, the folk sage.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Afenifere: The Cry of Owl

    “O Allah! Rescue us from (the evil) of this (Yoruba) nation of oppressors and raise for us a formidable leader who can stand as our guardian in the face of treachery and oppression…” Q. 4:75

    Preamble

    In Yoruba mythology of yore, there was a bird called owl to which a strange myth was attached to the detriment of its coiners. According to that mythology, the owl was a symbolic bird that was highly respected for playing the role of alerting other birds regarding their times of sleeping and of waking up, as considered necessary, to save them from falling prey to predators. That special   but voluntary role made the owl a distinguished bird with awful posture wherever and whenever it appeared in the midst of other birds. But with time, the owl began to feel important as it started turning its voluntary service into an obligation for which others must pay even at the expense of their convenience. With that clandestine design, it stopped working for self-survival and went round to demand payment of compulsory tax from other birds on a daily basis in the wrong belief that without its own voluntary service, no other bird could survive.

    When it became apparent that the owl’s new flamboyant lifestyle was fully dependent on the sweat of the other birds, a joint decision was taken to do away with its voluntary service that was being turned into an enslaving imposition.

     

    How the Owl Became Pariah

    Through a unanimous decision of all the birds at a meeting, the payment of compulsory tax which the owl had cunningly imposed on the

    other birds was stopped. By then, those other birds had adapted to the times of sleeping and waking up without any disturbing noise by the

    owl. On the other hand, the owl also had fully adapted to feeding itself from the sweat of other birds haven taken its voluntary service for a full time job. Thus, with the stoppage of the owl’s unnecessary service, the latter became a disturbing idle entity which the other birds generally avoided.

     

    Like Owl, Like Afenifere

    The similitude of the owl of yore is like that of a Yoruba Christo-political group called Afenifere which today cries out disturbingly at random to make an untenable Christo-political demand from the generality of the Yoruba people of the the Southwest Nigeria.

    The group clandestinely assumed the position of a self0appointed megaphone for the Yoruba nation even as it illegally proclaims itself as the symbol of Yoruba thought on public issues including political decisions.

    Like the above cited mythological owl, Afenifere does not realize how irrelevant it has become in Yoruba land haven lost the service it once voluntarily decided to render to that sophisticated tribe in Nigeria.

     

    Meaningful Life

    Human life is like a coin with two sides. While one side bears the symbol of a crowned head, the other bears the sign of an animal’s tail. And the choice of head or tail is left to the custodian of the coin as determined by the contemporary democratic dispensation.

    Today, as in the primordial time, the essence of a meaningful life for any conscientious human group or individual in any decent society is not just to live and let live but also to work for posterity by nurturing the younger ones decently for an enduring heritage and by grooming them for impeccable continuity of a meaningful life. Anything contrary to that is nothing other than a fake life to which no decent individual person or group will want to be associated.  That is the factor that now makes Afenifere a pariah entity among the Yoruba people just like the owl of yore among other birds in the forest.

     

     The Nature of Owl

    Anybody who knows how the mythological night-marauding owl rigmaroles with its nauseating antics will not be surprised by the abominable role that the so-called Afenifere group is playing comically through the Southwest media today in Nigeria to the detriment of the overwhelming majority of Yoruba people who are Muslims. Here is a Christo-political group that operates like a fish in a shallow well which ignorantly proclaims itself the king of all aquatic animals including whales, sharks and hippos. The tendency for such a fish is to deceptively perceive its hollow environment inside the shallow well as larger than all oceans and seas in the world. And that is exactly what  the octogenarian members of Afenifere are doing with their deemed eyes of the past, to proclaim themselves as the leaders, in Yoruba land, who must dictate to the modern Yoruba people on what to do or not to do about their political and religious lives. Ironically, these are men and women of yesteryears who had spent their time and the time of their children as well as that of their grandchildren running after ephemeral benefits for themselves alone but still not satisfied with their accumulated wealth. Even at the twilight of their lives, these mostly octogenarian grandpas and grandmas are still seeking an opportunity to spend the time of their great grandchildren for their own parochial benefits alone.

     

    Weak Vision and Improvidence

    At a time when vision rather than improvidence is the order of the day, it is strange that this group’s deleterious political activities are still geared towards the search for self -relevance even where and when relevance for their primitive wish has become anachronistic. But what else should be expected from a group that once claimed to be progressive but has now terribly retrogressed into ultra-conservatism in the sheer belief that conservatism is today’s real bastion of stomach infrastructure for septuagenarian and octogenarian citizens who are in the twilight of their lives? Isn’t that belief a euphemism for advanced corruption? What legacy can such Nigerians leave behind for young Nigerians of today and tomorrow?

     

    Glass House

    Living in a glass house is a proverbial cliché connoting dignity in all its ramifications. In the English culture, anybody who is said to be an inhabitant of a glass house is deemed to be exemplarily dignified in utterances, actions and conduct. In virtually all civilized cultures of the world, that cliché is mostly attributable to elderly people who, because of their seeming leadership qualities, are deemed to be exemplary in knowledge and experience. It is only where a deviation occurs that pestering of verbal or written missiles becomes a weapon of ‘infra dignitatem’ from the victims of oppression. Those who are close to the so-called Afenifere should let that group know that today’s world is fast changing in such a way that the onetime values of pedigree are no longer a measure of dignity.

     

    The Plight of Yoruba Muslims

    The Yoruba Muslims of the current generation in the Southwest of Nigeria who were never privileged to witness the political and religious trauma which their parents and grandparents suffered in the hands of Yoruba oppressors in the 1950s and 1960s in this region, when Yoruba Muslims had not fully imbibed Western literacy, are still feeling the impact of that trauma today.  They may however take advantage of today’s atrocious spectacle to retrospectively view the religious cloak of those years and use same to unmask some dubious characters, who hid under those evil cloaks to stifle lives out of their parents socially and psychologically in those years to the detriment of today’s Muslim generation in the region.

     

    Religious Politics

    In 2015, when the general election was approaching in Nigeria, Afenifere told a particular Presidential candidate that Yoruba people had decided to give him their block voting. That insulting pronouncement in the name of Yoruba tribe, in anticipation of a richer stomach infrastructure, for its obscure members alone elicited a common question. Who mandated Afenifere to make such an fraudulent proclamation in the name of Yoruba nation? And,  eventually, both the Presidential candidate and the proclaimers of the fraudulent statement failed woefully. But characteristic of shameless people who often pursue their desired ambition desperately, the proclamation was repeated a couple of weeks ago as a confirmation of shamelessness on the part of those whose permanent political hallmark is self-aggrandizement. The fact that no one can give what he does not possess cannot be faulted. The days of abracadabra in local politics are gone forever.

     

    2014 National Confab

    Sometime early in 2014, this same group which sold the idea of national confab to President Goodluck Jonathan desperately hijacked the Southwest list of the Presidential nominees to that confab and chose 15 of its members (all non-Muslims) to the exclusion of the entire Muslim populace in the region whose numerical strength cannot be underestimated. It took the rebellious formation of a splinter group named A’fenifere Renewal Group’ for the greedy Afenifere to concede only one seat to the leader of that splinter group who was said to be the representative of millions of the Southwest Muslims at the national confab.

    When, in reaction to that clandestine act, the Muslim Ummah of the South West of Nigeria (MUSWEN) wrote a memo to the National confab to put the records straight, Afenifere quickly but deceptively wrote a letter to the Southwest Muslim Ummah (MUSWEN) inviting the latter to a meeting of mutual understanding. But characteristically, that deceptive meeting never saw the light of the day as Afenifere displayed its usual chameleonic prank as a way of dodging the meeting which it initiated.

    If a group of octogenarian members of Afenifere can still be known for such pranks even at the twilight of their lives, what legacy will they leave behind for the future leaders in the region?

     

    Evidence of Ignorance

    What these people do not and may not know in a foreseeable future is that with the coming of internet and social media the definition of literacy has tremendously changed from mere ability to read and write some old wives’ tales and fables to that of modern browsing and messaging through the internet in the 21st century. And without such standard of literacy this time around any person who still claims to be literate is half-dead. However, it takes only the seeing to recognize the light and make the best use of it. Therefore, it cannot be a surprise that the members of Afenifere group are still snoring in their primordial sleep while expecting others to be off line like them.

    Even in Yoruba land where Afenifere is supposed to be based, the group merely operates in certain obscure corners of the region only to randomly roar out to impress its ignorant allies in the Middle Belt and the Southeast on the pages of some obscure newspapers. But since

    the dance of a dragon fly on the surface of a brook can only be in a mandatory rhythm of the drummer beneath the water, no one should expect the owl to come home to roost for a meaningful purpose.

    Judged by the public utterances and conducts of its members, AFENIFERE has become a ridiculous paradox between yesterday’s fictitious dream and today’s disappointing nightmare. Had the members of the so-called Afenifere group known how much they have become a laughable stock in Nigeria today, they would have probably reclined into their obsolete shell and stopped behaving like the owl among birds.

     

    The 21st Century Southwest Muslims

    To this so-called Afenifere group, the usefulness of the Muslim multitudes in the Western region does not transcend voting and clapping for the region’s ‘lotus eaters’ which Afenifere typifies.

    Despite the glaring difference between the Muslims of the 1950s who were treated like slaves and those of the 21st century who are highly sophisticated in essence and substance, the group still plays an ostrich by pretending not to take note of that conspicuous change hence the ignorant wish to maintain its primordial status quo.

     

    Warning

    Let it be known to this self-elevated group that the antics of the yore with which the so-called Afenifere outsmarted and relegated Yoruba Muslims to the background in the past have gone with the irritating particles of the past. And any further attempt to want to continue such primitive antics to the detriment of Yoruba Muslims will be adequately resisted in letters and in law. We have paid our due in terms of tolerance, patience and endurance. Elasticity has its limit.

    No group of sheer opportunists that still ignorantly believes in the deceptive gimmicks of the past will be allowed anymore to continue riding roughshod over the Muslims of the Southwest. Enough is enough.

    Gone are the days when wisdom was genuinely attributed to old age because old age then personified wisdom based on experience. Like the rise of a modern building from the debris of the old mud building, the Yoruba Muslims of this generation have come of age and can no longer be swept into the refuse bin with the rubbles of the past. We do not need a borrowed mouth to speak out for us and nobody has a right to speak for us without our mandate.

    As it takes two to tango it must also take a give and take relationship to ventilate a peaceful environment in a multi-religious society. No group should assume any vain superiority over others and expect peace to thrive. To live side by side and cohabit in harmony, mutual respect must be in the front burner of our relationship.