The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Nigeria: Episodes of Islamophobia

    Preamble

    Decency is like gold which gives value and confidence to its custodian.. If it rusts the custodian loses dignity.

     

    NCEF’s Press Conference

    A group of self acclaimed National Christian Elders Forum (NCFF) addresses a press conference last week to draw the attention of Nigerians to certain facts about what the forum called Islamization of Nigeria.

    The first cited evidence in that press conference was a  speech credited to the first and only Premier of Northern NIigeria, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. While quoting copiously from that speech, without disclosing when and where it was made, the forum  exposed itself to ridicule of blatant lies and insensible fabrication just to curry undeserved dignity.

     

     Proof of assertion

    To prove this assertion, the Message hereby brings the genuine speech made by Premier Ahmadu Bello vis a vis the fabricated one quoted by NCEF. And the places, as well as the dates of both speeches, will be disclosed here with evidence to further confirm that NCEF’s ‘gold’ actually a meer copper.

     

     The genuine Premier’s speech

    At a time before Nigeria’s independence in 1959 when entire Southern Nigeria considered it as an abomination to grant any Muslim festival a public holiday because the then rulers felt the only existing religion, as far as they were concerned, was Christianity, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, a Muslim did not only declare a public holiday for Christmas, he also made a public radio broadcast to felicitate with the Christian citizens of the Northern Region who were grossly in the minority. That message was not limited to the radio. It was widely published in all major Nigerian newspapers of that time and it is still available in the archives of those newspapers. Here is an excerpt from the 30 minutes broadcast:

    “…Fellow Northern Nigerians, we are people of many different races, tribes and religions, who are knit together by common history, common interests and common ideals. Our diversity may be great but the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us. On an occasion like this, I always remind people about our firmly rooted policy on religious tolerance. Families of all creeds and colour can rely on these assurances. We have no intention of favouring one religion at the expense of another. Subject to overriding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have absolute liberty to practice his belief. It is befitting on this momentous day, on behalf of my ministers and myself, to send a special word of gratitude to all Christian missions…”

    “…Let me conclude this with a personal message. I extend my greetings to all our people who are Christians on this great feast day. Let us forget the difference in our religion and remember the common brotherhood before God, by dedicating ourselves afresh to the great tasks which lie before us….”

    The above speech was made on Thursday, December 24, 1959 on the eve of that year’s Christmas which fell on a Friday And this is verifiable in the calendar.

     

     The fabricated version

    Several decades after Ahmadu Bello’s unjustifiable assassination, some evil elements in the media, in active conspiracy with certain mischief makers among  political demagogues went to fabricate another version of the broadcast statement and credited it to the same Premier Ahmadu Bello. The concocted statement was said to have been published by an unknown newspaper called ‘The Parrot’ which cannot be traced in the history of print media in Nigeria. Here is it:

    “…The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.”

    Funningly, this fabricated statement joyously quoted by the so-called NCRF was said to have been made by the same Ahmadu Bello on October 12, 1960. The question is this: how can a Christmas message by any sane leader in Nigeria be made in October? Is Christmas a festival for October?

    That further confirms that blatant liars and mischief makers never think of the implications of their devilish lies.

     

    Truth and falsehood

    Now, looking at both statements very carefully, any sensible person without blind religious bias should be able to see clearly, a distinction between truth and falsehood, between gold and copper and between dignity and shame.

    Conscious Nigerian Muslims should note here that  Premier Ahmadu Bello’s genuine Christmas message quoted above was made on Thursday, December 24, 1959 through a radio broadcast and it was published by all newspapers in the country including the vociferous ‘West African Pilot’ owned by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the boisterous ‘Tribune’ owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the clamorous ‘Daily Times’ jointly owned privately by certain prominent individuals at that time. That speech was equally published by many other smaller newspapers in Nigeria at that time. All those newspapers are identifiable in Nigeria’s media history even though most of them are now defunct. On the other hand, the place and occasion of the fabricated statement credited to Ahmadu Bello ang ingloriously quoted by the so-called NCEF was not indicated and cannot be traced in Nigeria’s newspaper history. The fabricated speech credited to Premier Ahmadu Bello is a confirmation of the hatred for Islam and public Officers in Nigeria who happen to be Muslims.

     

    Evidence of fabrication

    The first time any genuinely existing newspaper ever made reference to that fabricated statement was on November 13, 2002 (42 years and one month after it was purportedly made. And ‘The Tribune’ newspaper that published it only claimed to have culled it from an online column published on October 24 2002 by a purported Yoruba Journalist (name withheld) who entitled it ‘the northern Agenda’. It can therefore be deduced that the statement was actually fabricated not in the 1950s or 1960s but in October 2002, by the so-called columnist who credited it to a newspaper that never existed. The objective was to give it an undeserving credibility. What a country! What a people! What a shame! This is a typical case of an obvious mischief by heartless mischief makers who trade in Islamophobia just to fetch for themselves euphemeral fame and illegal income.

    The belief of the fabricators and those quoting them was that once such a fabricated article appears on the internet and is ignorantly quoted by some inconsequential writers as well as self acclaimed Christian Elders, it would automatically become a document of facts. That is Nigeria for you.

    This is a further articulation of the authenticity of the Qur’an where it was revealed thus:

    “The truth has come and falsehood has vamoosed; surely, falsehood is meant to vamoose (in the presence of the truth)”.  Q. 17: 81

     

     A premier’s charisma

    Of the Premiers in Nigeria’s first republic, only Ahmadu Bello was bold and sincere enough to allay the fear of the minority groups in Northern Nigeria by making a public policy statement about his government’s stand concerning tribalism and religious bigotry. And this man of the blessed memory was the poorest of the premiers despite the enormous public wealth at his disposal.

     

    His flanks

    Among the four Premiers in Nigeria at that time, only Ahmadu Bello could not in any way be evidently linked to corruption. Unlike others who lived opulently, Ahmadu Bello was an ascetic personality who served his people patriotically without any blemish. He left only a small residential bungalow in his hometown of Raba in Sokoto at the time of his death. Who else left such a flank? Sir Ahmadu Bello could also not be singularly accused of tribalism because tribalism was the basis of all the existing political parties of the time. No Premier from 1954 to 1966 could be exonerated from it directly or indirectly. They were all guilty of it.

    It can be recalled that certain tribal groups such as Ibiobio State Union (IBU), Ibo Federal Union (IFU) Egbe Omo Oduduwa (EOO) and ‘Jam’iyyar Al-Ummar Nigeriya to Arewa’ translated as Northern Elements Progressive Association (NEPA) which later transformed into Northern Elements Progressive Union  (NEPU) were all tribal socio-cultural organizations that metamorphosed into political parties. All those parties preceded ‘Jam’iyyar Mutane Arewa’ meaning Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to which Ahmadu Bello belonged. Many other ethnic-based political parties later emerged to broaden tribalism in Nigerian politics. If anything, Ahmadu Bello was the least tribally inclined Premier of his time.

     

    Xenophobia versus Islamophobia

    Nigerians who are mature enough to know how British visa was obtained by Nigerians before 1986 will testify to the fact that as citizens of the British Commonwealth, one didn’t need any visa to enter that country until 1986. As a student in the 1970s and early 1980s, yours sincerely travelled to Britain severally without a visa. It was at the point of entery at Heathrow or Gatwick airport that his or her passport would be stamped with entry visa. And the minimum period of validity for such visa was six month in the first instance.

    However, that situation changed in Summer of 1986 under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who deliberately introduced visa as a prerequisite for entering Britain. That policy was a reaction to Nigeria’s championing the third world members of the Commonwealth countries to boycott that year’s Commonwealth Games hosted by the United Kingdom. At that time, General (now Chief Olusegun Obasanjo) was Nigeria’s Military Head of State. It was at the instance of Nigerian government, many British colonial countries from Africa and Asia boycotted that great event that rendered Britain nonplussed.  The reason for boycotting the event was that the British government allowed the Apartheid regime of South Africa to participate in the Games in defiance to the Nigeria’s vehement protest.

    It will be recalled that at that time, Nigeria was the foremost African country that championed the emancipation of black South Africans from the manacles of the white Arpatheid government in that country.

    In that year, yours sincerely was the Deputy Foreign Editor of Concord Newspaper owned by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola who later won the June 12, 1993 Presidential election that was sadistically annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-acclaimed Evil Genius.

    After calculating the anticipated gain which Britain would have made from the abortive Games, Madam Thatcher decided to punish Nigeria and other African countries that joined her in the boycott by introducing payment for entry visa into Britain which was hitherto not the case.

    Now, the same Nigerians who stood firmly by South Africa in her days of racial persecution are now being subjected to xenophobia to the great resentment of the government and people of Nigeria. Yet the same people who abhor xenophobia are the champions of Islamophobia in their home country. What an irony? What a shame?

     

    Further episodes

    Still on Islamophobia, a catalogue of episodes is being collated by ‘The Message\ column which will soon be published. For instance, who took Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Conference? When? Why? The details of this will soon be exposed in this column in sha’Allah. Then, there are many other sensitive episodes of Islamophobia in Nigeria that will soon be exposed in this column. Readers should please look out for them soon.

  • The allure of pre-1966 Constitution

    “So, I feel like if we have a constitution in this country that allows each of the zones to develop at their own pace, to manage their own resources, to make adequate contributions to the centre so as to sustain the centre and strengthen the units and weaken the centre, without making the centre subservient to the federating units, we can live together as a nation where no man is suppressed. It is the issue of suppression, it is the issue of marginalisation that usually pushes people to want to go their own ways. But I think we are better off going it together than going it our separate ways. That is my own position.”
    —Archbishop L. S. Ayo Ladigbolu, The Nation Saturday Interview, November 1, 2012

    In the Abrahamic Faith, the tradition of a spiritually endowed clergy with a social conscience imbued with a sense of justice is strongly displayed in the Old Testament scripture. There, fearless prophets of Yahweh, speaking truth to power, challenged kings and priests alike on the evil of social injustice.

    Those prophets did not seek favor from powerful kings and their elitist enablers. Many, like John the Baptist, suffered hardship and death. Jesus the Christ took the tradition to its highest level, challenging the Pharisees and Sadducees as hypocrites who were only adept in quoting the law without following its precepts. He suffered the consequences of His obduracy with death on the cross. But His spirit was never quenched, and it continues to radiate in the lives of His believers to date.

    Since the introduction of Christianity to Nigeria, we have had a mixed experience of the tradition of spiritually endowed clergy with a social conscience. Against colonial invasion and imperialistic Christianity, there were fearless defenders of the African culture such as Mojola Agbebi, Ladejo Stone, Edward Blyden, James Johnson, etc. They pioneered a cultural nationalism that sought to indigenize Christianity and served as the precursor of the political nationalism which wrestled power from the British. Along the way, these pioneer clerics taught the nation a thing or two about social justice and social transformation.

    The story of Nigeria’s independence is therefore intricately connected with the story of the cultural nationalism championed by clerics. Thereafter, their involvement in the political affairs of the nation in the post-independence era was a mixed experience. Party politics had a polluting effect on the sacred institution of the church, and it is not unusual to find the clergy as a group on different sides of the political divide, with some sometimes justifying the clearly unjustifiable, based on political calculations as opposed to the conviction of their religious principles.

    Thus, whereas the pioneer clerics raised a united voice against political and religious imperialism, the twin evils of their time, and prepared the ground for political emancipation, it has not been practicable for contemporary clerics to sing the same tune against some of the fundamental challenges of our contemporary political life. These include the issues of military dictatorship, political corruption, inequality, lopsided political structure, and gender discrimination.

    Thankfully, there are those on the right side of history, who take their call seriously, and follow the tradition of engaged prophets of old. Of these, Emeritus Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu stands out among his peers. He has been an inspiring voice in the demand for justice and equity. He has been a dependable leader in the struggle for constitutional reforms. He has been a reliable participant in the pursuit of the welfare and happiness of the generality of our people. My opening quotation above was from his interview with The Nation in November 2012, and it demonstrates the veracity of my claim.

    Archbishop Ladigbolu is a man of many parts, adept in merging religion, culture, and politics. Where others see conflict, he sees harmony, and excels in bridging gaps. As a clergy with a social conscience, he has served in various capacities in which he tends to the body, mind, and soul of the people across religious and political divide. His in-depth knowledge of Yoruba culture is an immense blessing in this regard.

    Baba Ladigbolu was a founding member of Yoruba Parapo in the late 1990s. He is the Deputy Chairman of Yoruba Unity Forum, an umbrella social-cultural organization of the Yoruba. He has spoken out forcefully on the issues of marginalization, dehumanization, and the challenges of farmers-herdsmen clashes and the various proposed solutions.

    As he turns 80, I am confident that Archbishop Ladigbolu’s fervent prayer is that Nigeria may have a constitutional framework that provides for her progressive development and the wellbeing and happiness of citizens. Therefore, it is to this desire and prayer of his that I dedicate this column today, with a further focus on the constitutional need of the country.

    Not long ago on this page, I responded to a position attributed to Dr. Ganduje, the Governor of Kano state, who argued for mind restructuring as opposed to political restructuring, suggesting that the United States was able to achieve her enviable position because of her leaders’ ability to harness the skills and talents of a diverse populace.  Against that position, I argued that “if the structure wasn’t right to start with, the mind of the population couldn’t be harnessed effectively for the task of development.”

    In the case of the United States, I noted that the political structure was settled very early in the intensive debates before the constitution was adopted. The debate on the merits of federalism over confederalism engaged the attention of the convention delegates for years before they finally settled for federalism.

    With the political structure of the United States, the right of each state over its finances, economy, education, health, agriculture, cannot be overridden at will by the federal government. Each state has its constitution, state police, state anthem, state symbols and other paraphernalia of governance side by side with those of the federal government. States control the minerals under their soil and, based on the revenue that accrue to them from taxation on the extraction of such minerals by private companies, some states, such as Texas, do not charge their residents state income tax. This is how heterogeneity works and diversity benefits the entire country.

    “Now, since the structure has been given adequate thought from the beginning and it works, the United States has no need for restructuring. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Nigeria also got it right at the beginning with the independence constitution of 1960 and the Republican Constitution of 1963. But in 1966, something snapped seriously and, in our effort to put it right, we went for the wrong medication. The military chose to fix a problem of leadership with a change of structure. It is this wrong move that now needs fixing.”

    IBK, an Opalaba-like young activist, forcefully challenged me on this topic recently, reminding me again about how the pre-1966 Nigerian Constitution placed us on the path of national advancement. Regions were semi-autonomous, and they developed at their own pace with astounding results. It was also the outcome of a genuine effort of the people’s representatives, unlike its military-tailored elite successors. But for the blatant hubris on the part of some greedy agents of the state who abused their privileged positions, and the in-built lopsidedness of the regions orchestrated by the British, the 1963 Constitution should serve this country well.

    Those fault lines are still pretty much present to the eyes. Greed still afflicts political actors. And though the creation of states appears to have corrected the lopsidedness of the regions, it has created more problems, especially with states now more like puppets of the federal government. This was not the design of the founding fathers. It is what needs our attention now.

    The resistance to political restructuring is inexplicable in view of the evidence of the weakness of the structure to deliver on national advancement. Fortunately, we have an option. We started from somewhere in 1960 and then in 1963. Going back to the source of our strength in the pre-1966 constitution is our reasonable option.

    Happy Birthday, Baba! Aseyisamodun!

     

     

     

  • Case for a new constitution

    Today, I share with readers, a statement issued by the Yoruba International Network (YIN) on the state of Nigeria as a federal democracy. YIN mobilized diaspora Yoruba for struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria following the annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential election. The statement was signed by Dr. Femi Folorunso, Convener, Yoruba International Network:

    “June 12, 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the June 12 Presidential election which was won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, but irresponsibly annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.

    “The Buhari administration caught the whole country by surprise when a week to this anniversary it announced that June 12 will henceforth be marked as “Democracy Day.” This was in addition to awarding the nation’s highest honour, GCFR, to Chief M.K.O Abiola post-humously.  This is a significant gesture, even if it took so long in coming and despite that no important member of the government had mentioned June 12 in any political forum since the Buhari administration came into power three years ago.

    “YIN acknowledges the significance of the declaration and gives credit to the administration for the gesture even if there is a political motivation lurking behind. After all, others, including the Obasanjo administration which was the first direct beneficiary of June 12 crisis, simply looked away.

    “Nevertheless, the gesture of admitting the importance of June 12 as another watershed in the political history of Nigeria must not obscure the lingering critical questions about constitutional democracy and governance in Nigeria. These questions have become even more pertinent because of the general unease in the country.

    “Nigeria’s abysmal record on human development and well-being of citizens is now compounded by the growing and ever-changing demands on governments. There is persuasive evidence that the pursuit of economic and social reform only succeeds where it is supported in the political sphere through democratic accountability and institutional structures that have credibility and is rooted in transparent commitment to fairness.

    “A common explanation for the unease is failure of governance occasioning brazen looting of the national treasury by elected and unelected officials of state. This however is a one-dimensional view and too weak a formulation. What continue to afflict Nigeria are the reservoirs of its political history. Put simply, it means what constitutional arrangement is best for a multi-national state with over 200 linguistic groups? A fast-growing awareness is that only an unfettered federal constitution can answer this question.

    “As is the case in countries with configurations such as Nigeria’s, there are three fundamental issues at the heart of the demand for unfettered federalism. These are democracy, prosperity, and equity and fairness. It means each national unit will have a government that is as close to its wishes and values as possible and each sub-national government will have control over its resources, its wealth and determine how to use both for the benefits of its people, while also working cooperatively with a national government to promote the well-being and national security of the whole country.

    “Riddled with jargons and laboured technicalities, the current constitution of Nigeria is a flawed article of association, not a consensus document on how to organize a federal system of governance.

    “Indeed, the constitution has proved itself to be a document that demobilizes more than it can mobilize citizens towards democracy and development. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, states have been treated less as federating units than as a collection of viceroyalty of whoever reigns as president in Abuja. This has constrained the ability of states to meet future challenges that face them. Many if not most elected governors have taken the absurdity further by behaving as unconscionable viceroys who will stop at nothing to please their sovereign in Abuja. Elected governors have become mostly fawning panglossians more interested in power than in addressing the complexity of governance and socio-economic development in critical times such as the present.

    “For example, the population of Nigeria is estimated to be 183,523,432 in 2015. In comparison, it was 37,860,000 in 1950.  Population by its very nature can be a force for good, but this is when it is guided by policies that are set within appropriate framework for social and economic development.

    “The South-Western states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti occupy a land area of 78,505.17sq.km and are estimated to have a population of 36,282,583 by 2015.

    “Although Western Nigeria is 8.38 percent of the total land area of Nigeria, it houses 19.77 percent of the population of the entire country. The six states in Western Nigeria have a combined population density of 482 people per sq.km. The population density will rise to 1032 people per sq.km by 2050 if the current rate of increase is maintained.

    “This unfolding scenario has put critical pressure on land management across Yorubaland. Land is a fundamental, but finite resource. As a result, the complexity of land in relation to achieving successful economic development, sustainable environment, and communities has never been more critical for the southwest.

    “It is imperative therefore that the Yoruba region give priority to population management, land use, and the management of physical and natural environment in a way that may be different from the rest of the country. The importance of land to the Yoruba culture and civilization cannot and must not be subject to heartless political or constitutional manipulation.

    “This calls for a more efficient and effective governance in the region than the states in the region currently deliver, and especially given the history of the region in championing forward-looking and informed citizen-centered governance.

    “If democracy is a means by which citizens can participate in the affairs of their country by freely choosing their representatives, constitutionalism is what places limits on what those so chosen are permitted to do. In this sense, every constitution serves two overlapping purposes: first to protect the rights of individuals, and second, to prevent the tyranny of the majority by making it impossible for them to make political changes at the expense of the whole.

    “In 2016, one of the representatives in the national assembly, Sadiq Ibrahim, presented a draft bill for the creation of grazing reserves across Nigeria. The draft bill was laden with cultural and political meanings that taken together represented an affront on our democracy as a multi-ethnic, multi-national country. And last month, the Buhari presidency submitted A Bill for An Act to Establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, and provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management, Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter.

    “Following the hostile public reaction to the bill, including from southern members of the national assembly, the government has unsurprisingly resorted to what is best described as shameless cognitive dissonance by suggesting that the proposed law was harmless, constitutional and designed for the interest of all. A close reading of the bill suggests otherwise, however.

    “The bill is a classic case of the devil being in the detail. The question is should such a bill that derogates from the power of subnational governments to have control over policies for food and water provision and security for their people have been brought to the federal parliament in the first instance?  A similar question applies to the withdrawn cattle grazing reserve bill.

    “These two events demonstrate that the case for connecting democracy and constitution, and the need for a renewed vigilance for both, has never been clearer or more urgent in Nigeria. After all, the constitution is the bedrock of our democracy and the principle that underlines it is that Nigeria will be a federal republic. The whole point of federalism is that federating units will cooperate to promote the common good and not one regional power or group forcing domination on the others through willful abuse of democratic process and the underlying principles.

    “The 1999 Constitution imposed on the Nigerian federation by departing military dictators at the end of the Transition to Democracy in 1999 is not a constitution that fosters federal democratic governance. It needs and MUST be replaced with a federal constitution duly negotiated by the peoples of Nigeria.”

     

     

     

  • June 12: Nigeria’s own Sphinx

    “…And beware of a calamity that may not spare many innocent people among you, if it descends; and know that Allah’s retribution can be very severe”. Q. 8: 24

    Preamble

    For obvious reason, today’s article in this column is delibrately  given the title seen above. The word sphinx simply means a winged monster in Greek mythology, which had the head of a woman and the body of a lion. This monster was noted for terrorizing people who refused to subject themselves to the scourcge of its spell.

     

    Genesis of Sphinx

    Nigerians who are well familiar with European literature must still remember an historical riddle of a sphinx in the city of Thebes. That city was once the capital of ancient Greece. In a tragic drama entitled ‘Oedipus Rex’ and produced in 411 BC by a Greek dramatist called Sophocles who lived between 496 and 406 BC, we learnt of a curse that once befell the land of Thebes. As a result of the curse, not only were citizens afflicted by mysterious ailments that were killing them in droves, the cattle and the herds too were  gripped by an epidemic of reindeer-pest just as the crops on the citizens’ farms were terribly blighted.

    It was at that precarious time that one young man whose name was Oedipus emerged as the king. He had earned his people’s trust with a reputation of integrity and was determined to solve  the prevailing insuprable problems of the time which he inherited from his predecessor.

    As an adolescent, Oedipus had saved Thebes from a strange calamity wrought by a monstrous sphinx which mysteriously took its permanent seat on a rock by the roadside in the middle of the city. The sphinx had divided the city into two thereby splitting the citizens into separate camps where no side could interact with the other.

    That sphinx had a riddle which it put across to every passerby. And any accosted person that failed to solve the riddle was promptly devoured. Thus, for a long time, the city of Thebes remained under the plague of the monstrous sphinx which was feeding fat on the flesh and blood of the citizens.

    The sadness and hopelessness engendered by that unprecedented calamity turned  Thebes into a permanently  mourning city of passive inhabitants.

     

    Effect of the Calamity

    In such a situation, when the population of the city was decreasing at an increasing rate, how could any thought of mating by spouses for the purpose of procreation ever cross the mind of anybody? At that time in Thebes, citizens could only be sure of the moment in which they were  consciously alive without any hope for the next moment. Many people went on hunger strike without fasting. Many committed suicide to avoid the inevitable agony of that calamity while many more embarked on endless seclusion.

    That was the situation in Thebes until Oedipus found a solution to the problem of his time by getting rid of the sphinx which took  a leap, from its stool in despair and dashed out into permanent oblivion.

    Thus, the veil of the mysterious curse was lifted on the city of Thebes and Oedipus wo later became the king was immortalized as the saviour of the Thebesians.

     

     Nigeria like Thebes

    The similitude of that sphinx is like that of a  government in Nigeria which had a civilian body and a military head. A  self-styed military President who historically put an unprecedented democratic process in place to the admiration of all and sundry ended up destroying the process by his own whim on his own volition.

    With that scenario culminating in the infamous annulment of the freest and fairest election ever in Nigerian political history, the year 1993 became an unforgettable epoch turned into a spell that plagued Nigeria with a rainbow of depair for one quarter of a century.

     

    Politics as a Phenomenon

    The world of humans is predominantly governed by a pervasive phenomenon called politics. No individual or group or even family can escape the web of that phenomenon no matter how little. Overtly or covertly, politics, particularly in Africa, is without doubt, a devastating cankerworm cruising recklessly through the veins of most living men or women and eating gridily and deep into their fabrics. In the continent of the black race, Politics is one phenomenon that permeates all spheres of human life directly or indirectly and showers those spheres with a dew of acid.

    In Nigeria, like in some other countries of the world, there is as much politics in economic, social, cultural and religious aspects as there is in education and even sports.

    The emergence, in 1993, of a political billow  called June 12  which  metamorphosed into an implacable sphinx that plagued Nigeria for 25 ramshakle years  was not by fortuity.

     

    Obasanjo Versus Abiola

    Before analyzing the mentioned billow, it may be interesting to recall an episode here as a   preliminary insight into the real background of the emergence of a sphinx in Nigeria.

    Shortly after wide agitations began in the Sothwest of Nigeria in reaction to the satanically motivated annualment of the June 12 Presidential election  of 1993, an  unwarranted altercation fortuitously came up between two Chieftains of Abeokuta in Ogun State who were once schoolmates. One of them was General (now Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo. The other was Bashorun MKO Abiola. That altercation came in form of venomous salvos at a time when targeting the eye of the bull was almost an abomination especially in the Sothwest of Nigeria. The first of those salvos was fired without provocation,  by General Obasanjo thus:

    “I know Abiola very well. He was my classmate. He is not the messiah we need in Nigeria now…”.

    And in a prompt retortion, Bashorun Abiola fired back as follows:

    “Obasanjo has always been a liar. His love for falsehood is unparalleled. He was never my classmate. He was a year junior to me in school. He didn’t want to join the military but had to reluctantly because his school performance couldn’t carry him far academically and in those days, military was an option for students like him. My campaign slogan is HOPE and people see me as their HOPE. They voted for me to give them HOPE. Those people are the ones I represent, not Obasanjo”.

    The popular June 12 Presidential election of HOPE was devilishly annulled through a hand-written tarse statement of one paragraph allegedly delivered to Radio Nigeria by the then Press Secretary to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was then the Vice-President. The cry and hue that greeted the announcement of that annulment was the immediate precipitate of what grew into a gargantuan sphinx in Nigeria.

    Perhaps, if that democratic process that brought about two party system and a unique electoral formula called option A4 had not been obliterated by the fiat of its architect, Nigeria would have beome a political Eldorado lifting the African continent to a distinguished pedestal that would have been the destination of most countries of the  world today.

    Option A4 was an African invented democratic  voting formula that was not only exceptionally transparent but also economically viable. Formula A4 was an open voting system that required neither ballot boxes nor ballot papers. And it gave no room either for political thugery or monetary inducement. All that was required for any citizen to exercise his/her legitimate franchise was to register for voting and then queue up behind the portrait of his or her chosen candidate for counting after verification and clarance. If there was need for the government to spend any money on election at all, at that time, it was just on electoral officers’ allowances and transportation. No electoral process in the history of democracy in any part of the world had ever been as economical as that of June 1993.

    Unfortunately, that ingenuously deviced electoral formula became a victim of annulment in the hands of its principal designer.

    If such a monster with a civilian body and a military head which Bashorun Abiola described as a criminal diachy   was not a satanic sphinx what other name could it have been called? It was the  plague of that monster that gripped Nigeria’s jugular for the past 25 years until an Oedipus in the name of Muhammadu Buhari who emerged three years ago (2015) as President with a determination to rescue the Nigerian cizenry fron the mancles of Nigeria’s military sphinx by solving the riddle of that sphinx. And looking at the situation of Nigeria today, it will not be out of place to conclude that the Greek sphinx of yore had come to  reincarnate in our country at the instance of a military hegemony headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida wh self-styled himself President.

     

    June 12 as Democracy Day

    With the conferment of the highest national honour in the countryie: Grand Commander of the Federal Republic  (GCFR) on the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election by President Muhammadu Buhari, last week Wednesday, June 6, 2018, the coast of injustice became clare with a glowing light as Nigerians were  greatly relieved of  a seemingly endless  agony.  “…The truth has come and the falsehood has vamoosed. Surely, falsehood, like darkness, is meant to vamoose in the presence of the truth”. Qura’n….Afterall, truth is the main healer of the open wound which conscience constitutes in the life of man.

     

    GCFR Award Before MKO

    The conferment of that honour  on Bashorun MKO Abiola who was not sworn into office as President despite winning election  was not the first in Nigeria. Such honour  had earlier been conferred  on another colosal Nigerian who was not a President. That person was the late  Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the then Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). And the conferment was done in 1982 by the then President Sheu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). If there was any remarkable difference between  the two conferments it was the historic declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s democracy day as well as the official national apology that accompanied it. The apology was to pacify over 14 million Nigerians  voters in June 1993 whose great hope was heartlessly turned into a paroxysm of depair. Neither a declaration of public holiday nor a national apology could have accorded Chief Awolowo’s conferment because he never won any election at the national level that could warrant such.

    Although the 1982 conferment gesture was seen by some people as politically motivated to pacify Chief Awolowo who lost to Alhaji Shagari in the Presidential election of 1979, the honour did not generate any controversy as in the case of Abiola’s posthumous one. That further confirms that politics in Africa is a product of envy and mischief and it may remain so for a very long time.

     

    Danger of Military Rule

    Today, Nigeria, like Thebes of yore, is passing through an experience of a similar spell in terms of corruption, insecurity and economic woes . The difference, however, is that Nigeria’s case is taking a triangular dimension with different interpretations. The impression created by this siruation is that there seems to be no obvious presence of an Oedipus here with a real capacity to handle the sphinx in such a way as to bring succour to Nigerians as did Oedipus of Greece and thereby become a hero. That impression is an evidence of corruption.

    Rather than one sphinx encountered by the Thebesians, Nigeria is encountering three at the same time. There is the vivid presence of Boko Haram vandals in the North; there are the economic pirates called militants in the Southsouth and there are the devilish human vampires called kidnappers in the Southeast.  All of these seem to have jointly hijacked the governance of the country albeit tacitly. The only part of the country that is seemingly less restive for now is the Southwest. And, incidentally, that is the region from where the Nigerian stream is being clandestinely polluted for all and sundry through the media.

    Today, Nigeria has become an unsafe haven in which dangerous tribal and sectarian specters are operating with unbridled audacity under various guises thereby making any hope to look like despair.

     

    In Retrospect

    Retrospectively, it was all like a comic drama in October 1986 when a frontline Nigerian journalist (Dele Giwa) was blown up with a letter bomb in the living room of his residence in Ikeja, Lagos. That criminal act was widely followed by public lamentations and condemnations. But the politics of the time under the military government never allowedthe incident to go beyond that level as no reports of the inquiries into the dastardly incident saw the light of the day. With that, wicked incident, an evil precedent was laid in a country where imitation of evil practices has become a fundamental norm. That evil act can never be recalled any day without tracing it to the military government. Since that unfortunate incident, many others of   its like had occurred killing Nigerian men, women and children in scores and dozens. For instance on May 31, 1995, a bomb exploded and killed many innocent Nigerians. Also on January 18, 1996 a bomb detonator died at Durbar Hotel in Kaduna while trying to unleash havoc on innocent people. And about two days later, another bomb exploded at Aminu Kano Airport in Kano.Also on November 14, 1996, a bomb exploded at Murtala Muhammd Airport, Ikeja, killing a Chief Security Officer. Even  The number is unlimited. Even on October 1, 2010, a public bomb blast in Nigeria occurred at the Eagles Square in Abuja while the country’s 50th anniversary of independence was being celebrated under President Goodluck Jonathan. The bomb killed several people and injured many more others. But rather than nipping a reoccurrence of that incident in the bud, it provided the politicians with another opportunity to trade politics as usual at the expense of peace and tranquility in the country.

    Today, Nigeria is grappling with more insuperable problems of insecurity than ever before.

     

    Essence of History

    The real essence of history is for human beings to learn from its lessons. Without such lessons, history would have served no purpose in the life of man. Governance is like driving in which no one can claim to know all or see all. The essence of having people around you as a leader is to seek and utilize their constructive advice so that if any failure occurs you will not bear the brunt all alone. No human being has monopoly of wisdom and nothing in governance destroys as much as an individual’s sheer whim.

     

     Yar’Adua for Instance

    The late President Yar’Adua did not act alone when he declared unconditional amnesty for the Southsouth pirates. He must have surely done it in consultation with some people. And no section of the country raised any objection to it. Perhaps without that singular policy, more than 50,000 former Southsouth pirates who later  enjoyed the Nigerian amnesty programme in various forms would have remained in the jungle killing and maiming innocent people as the Boko Haram terrorists are now doing and vandalizing oil pipelines as well as other economic installations.

    Rather than throwing ridiculous tantrums like that between Chief Obasanjo and General Babangida in which the two were mutually calling themselves ‘fool’, Nigerian leaders should learn from history and act what they learn from it. Thry must always remember that history makes man just as man makes history. God bless Nigeria!

  • 25 years later, apology and honour

    No one saw it coming. But everyone with a sense of history received it with utmost joy. Why?

    First, it was a gesture that many Nigerians least expected now after the injustice of June 23, 1993, when the Babangida regime annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election which was globally recognised as the freest and fairest in the history of elections in Nigeria.

    Second, several administrations, both military and civilian had come and gone since 1993, including the transition government of Abdulsalam Abubakar under whose watch the winner of the election, MKO Abiola was killed in detention. This recognition and this honor could have been done by Abubakar for the sake of closure. He failed. Then, the hope of the fair-minded populace turned to the greatest beneficiary of the martyrdom of Abiola. In 1999, they expected newly elected president Olusegun Obasanjo to right the wrong. They waited in vain.

    And so, with the stroke of a master strategist, Buhari shamed and silenced all the co-conspirators.

    Notice that what was uppermost in the minds of those who resented the calculated injustice against June 12 was the acknowledgement that a wrong was done, a national apology for it, and a restitution that is appropriate to the wrong. A symbolic gesture was made by the Jonathan administration with the renaming of the University of Lagos after MKO. For many, that was ill-advised because it was inadequate, having appeared to regionalize MKO’s achievements and sacrifice.

    Third, then, the difference between Buhari’s gesture and the last symbolic attempt at righting the wrong cannot be clearer. For, as Femi Falana, SAN, rightly noted, Buhari has virtually declared Abiola as the winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election. The truth has come out at last, and that is soothing for both the immediate family of Abiola, who have suffered tremendous harm over the last 25 years, and for the many leaders and foot soldiers in the struggle for the realization of Abiola’s mandate, many of whom also died in the process, and most of whom suffered serious deprivation.

    Fourth, Buhari not only recognised Abiola as the winner of that momentous election, he also, on behalf of the federal government and the nation, apologised for its annulment. That is not something that I imagined would ever come from a man with a no-nonsense military background. But Buhari pulled it off to the delight of democrats across the nation. And the commendation is swift and unreserved.

    Is there a self-serving motivation behind the gesture? Who knows? And, really, who cares? Others before him could have done it with whatever motivation, selfish or altruistic. They failed. So why must anyone be bothered about motivation, which only the agent of an action, in this case, Buhari, is privy to? Truly, good and selfless motive grants moral worth to an action, as Kant would argue. However, motives do not detract from the rightness of an action. Buhari has performed a right action here, whatever his motive.

    While many, including lawmakers have commended the President’s action in conferring national honors on Abiola, his running mate and the late national gadfly, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), some have questioned the legitimacy of granting national honor posthumously or declaring June 12 as Democracy Day. It is easy to dismiss such a position as sheer sophistry. But it deserves to be taken seriously and addressed if only to expose its faulty reasoning.

    Surely, posthumous honors are not uncommon, and the objectors know it. The specific reference is to the constitutional provision which requires that a national honor be conferred on a Nigerian citizen. And for some strange reasoning on the part of the objector, a dead Nigerian is not a Nigerian. Therefore, either the constitution is amended, or the honor is illegal. It appears, from this reasoning that when we make reference to, and appreciate, the “labours of our heroes past”, we do not recognize them as Nigerians. They belong to the land of the dead, and not to Nigeria. This is so at odds with any of our indigenous belief systems and world views that it hardly warrants a response. But it came right from the sacred chambers of our lawmaking institution.

    With respect to the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day instead of May 29, the president supported his declaration with cogent reasoning. It was on June 12, 1993 that Nigerians voted for a united nation, despite their differences in language and religion. And they voted peacefully and overwhelmingly for a (Muslim-Muslim) ticket that they embraced. They exercised their democratic rights in an atmosphere of peace and freedom.

    It was an affirmation of unity and democracy. Why did it not occur to General Abdulsalam Abubakar and President Obasanjo that June 12 was the most appropriate Democracy Day? Your guess is as good as mine. And what was the uniqueness of May 29? Does a day become uniquely identified with democracy just because after a long period of military rule the new president was sworn in on that day? Does it not matter that the military would not have been in power for that last long if they had respected the voice of the people clearly articulated on June 12, 1993? It does, and once the injustice was addressed, there is a need to also address the symbolism of dates.

    What now needs to be taken care of is the anomaly of inaugurating a new administration on May 29 marking the end of four years of an outgoing administration, and celebrating Democracy Day only a few days later, on June 12. If there is a will there is a way. The political will must be summoned to find a way to regularize this potential anomaly to give effect to the presidential declaration.

    As many have pointed out, Buhari’s gesture, though momentous and justly commended, is only the beginning of the end of a self-inflicted trauma that consumed the nation 25 years ago. Much more needs to be done to assure every section of the nation that they belong. This requires as much courage as has been summoned thus far in correcting the injustice of June 12.

    Abiola has been virtually declared winner of the election. Therefore, he is a former president. This should be formalized, and his entitlements be tendered to his family. NASS has rightly requested Professor Nwosu’s NEC to formally declare the winner of the election. It should follow it with a legislation retroactively proclaiming Abiola as elected president in 1993. This is what truth and reconciliation demand. In this holy month of Ramadan, it is what is required of the faithful.

    Finally, due to the lopsidedness of its structure, the nation is still far from its potential as a nation bound in freedom, peace, and unity. Many are rendered unfree because they do not have the basic needs to live in freedom. Unrest and violence, rather than peace, has been the portion of the majority across the six geopolitical zones. And these have detracted remarkably from any sense of national unity as we have seen in the rise of sectional and sectarian agitations.

    Many reasonable voices, including from this page, have been raised concerning the need to attend to the structure which has exacerbated the dangers of sectionalism and sectarianism before they consume the nation. Restructuring has been the rallying cry across the zones since 1999, and before then in the demands and agitations of the various pro-democracy movements. While the latter could rejoice in the partial victory of the recognition of June 12 and the honor done to its foremost champion, they would even be more appreciative of efforts in the direction of restructuring because this portends more benefits for the nation.

    Buhari can write his name in a bold platinum of history with an unflinching support for restructuring, starting with a fulfillment of the promise of his party to amend the constitution for devolution of power to the states. Together with the National Assembly, this can be completed in a jiffy, and they will be the proud beneficiaries of the gratitude of a nation truly bound in freedom, peace, and unity.

     

     

  • Sallah: Companion, MSSN felicitate with Muslims

    The Companion and Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Lagos State Area Unit have congratulated Muslims worldwide over their successful completion of the 1439AH Ramadan.

    According to The Companion National Amir, Alhaji Thabit Wale Sonaike, the last one month has been a period of consciousness and closeness to Allah by all Muslims with the hope of earning His pleasure and paradise.

    Sonaike said: “We call on Muslims to celebrate in moderation bearing in mind that several Muslims are in deprivation in one form or another. We remember fellow Nigerians in Internally Displaced (I.D.) Camps and call on the federal government to accelerate restoration to normalcy so that the people can return to their homes to live normal lives.

    “The Companion is also worried that national budget has not been signed into law by the President several weeks after receiving the Appropriation bill from the National Assembly. This is definitely not good for any economy much less an economy that has just recovered from the recession. This avoidable delay and lackadaisical attitude towards the budgetary process can never promote accelerated economic development much less our aspiration to be among the top 20 economies of the world. We call on the government at both executive and legislative arms to jointly and objectively overhaul the current budgetary process in the overall interest of the national economy.”

    MSSN Amir Dr Saheed Ashafa thanked Allah for the relative peace enjoyed in the country in the holy month, adding that Muslims must not relent in engaging in continuous prayer for Nigeria.

    He urged Nigerian leaders to be sincere with their electoral promises as the 2019 general election approaches.

    Ashafa said: “Our leaders should always remember that they will account for their actions before God. Regardless of our diverse nature, they should champion positions that would foster unity, growth and development of our dear country.

    “They should shun politics of violence and hatred in all their conducts. As the 2019 election is near, we appeal to them not to trigger hatred, disaffection and as well breach peace in the society.”

  • A compromised foundation

    We are witnessing tragic manifestations of compromised foundations. Religion and ethnicity are this nation’s master fault lines. They determine what leaders see and do despite hypocritical denials. With a handful of exceptions, leaders live and breathe sectarianism and sectionalism. As for the exceptions, they only exhibit surface-deep pan-Nigerian credentials.

    Theirs is even more sordid than the commitment of sectarians and sectionalists to some entity beyond themselves. These are absolute egoists using the forum of politics for personal gains. Therefore, they will align with anyone across religious and ethnic divides, provided something is in it for them. But where there is no common commitment to an ideology that transcends self-interest, a virulent competition of self-interests ensues without the possibility of reconciliation.

    With a mixture of sectarianism, sectionalism, and egoism as the materials upon which the nation was founded, the inevitable conflict in their interaction leads ineluctably to a breach of the foundation, and ultimate weakening of the edifice. Absent necessary repair at the most basic level, the nation will continue to slouch toward structural collapse. But because the tendencies that are tethered to sectarian, sectional, and egoistic interests are each fighting for domination so they can impose on others, they are unconcerned about the looming destruction of the whole.

    Consider this illustration. The battle for economic survival on the one hand, and the preservation of a way of life on the other hand, need not conflict because one does not harm the other. For an Okeogun farmer, tilling the ground is both a means of economic survival and a way of life. He could move from hoe and cutlass subsistence farming to tractor and fertilizer commercial farming. He could go into partnership with friends and family members in cooperative association for production and/or marketing purposes.

    Through such ventures, they could bring more land into production by buying from others. With this, the two objectives of economic survival and preservation of a way of life are advanced. Government may help in various ways: extensions services, including education about best practices, improved seedlings and fertilizer at affordable cost, coordination of cooperative societies, farm settlements and agricultural research institutes.

    Notice here that no one is an unwilling partner in the furtherance of our farmer’s interest and he has not encroached on the interest of others. With his original subsistence farm, and his advancement to commercial farming, he has refrained from harming the interest of others.

    Now compare another economic venture and its potentials for furthering interest and avoiding conflict with the interest of others. The herdsman also has an interest in economic survival and preservation of a way of life. He starts with a few heads of cattle. He lives in a settlement on the edge of town and he moves his cattle around the area for pasture and water. In the evenings, he returns to his settlement. Provided he restrains his cattle from encroaching on farmland and thus jeopardizing the farmer’s interest in economic survival and preservation of his own way of life, there is no conflict.

    That has been the case in the interaction between farmers and herdsmen in Okeogun from the 1940s to the turn of the century. Suddenly, farmlands were deliberately invaded by cattle. In dry season, bushes around farmlands were set on fire so fresh pasture can sprout as soon as the first rains fell. The  frequency of these breaches in interaction with conflicts in the interests of both parties for economic survival and cultural preservation cannot but lead to serious conflicts. How could these be handled?

    Just like farmers, the interest of herdsmen in economic survival and cultural preservation could be handled with strategic political-economic thinking. As the herdsman acquires more cattle warranting the need for greater access to pasture, he needs more land under his control. For better economy of scale, he could enter into partnership with other herdsmen to form cooperative herdsmen association to purchase land and ranch their cattle.

    As with farmers, government could provide extension services, including training in breeding techniques, supply of new breeds, and production of feed at subsidized prices. Thus, a way of life is being preserved and the economic interest of the herdsman is being promoted. Besides, these objectives are being realized for both groups without the threat of a perennial conflict. Why has this potentially effective solution not being canvassed?

    The sectarians, sectionalists, and egoists have all been busy with the politics of domination to the detriment of harmonious accommodation. And as they advance their self-interests, the foundation is further compromised and the edifice threatened.

    The disease of sectarianism, sectionalism, and egoism has also afflicted the political party, and here, the pursuit of self-interest self-contradictorily jeopardizes itself. This affected the fortunes of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections when many of its leadership decamped as nPDP.

    To be sure, having ruled the nation for sixteen years, PDP was already experiencing the onset of diminishing returns and the electorate was ready for change. APC rode on the disenchantment of the people. But there is no denying the help it received from nPDP.

    Politics is a game of numbers and it is interest that motivates politicians. But, like the rest of us, politicians have differing ideas of what their interests are and the best way to pursue them. For a few, the fundamental interest is the pursuit of the common good, the outcome of which they expect to promote their own self-interest too. Such a group will dedicatedly develop an agenda of national cohesion which mobilizes the entire population for progress.

    Others see their interest in the promotion of sectional and sectarian agenda for which they become local champions. As their minions look up to them for protection and promotion, the larger task of national advancement is truncated.

    For others yet, it is what they can materially acquire at the shortest possible time that matters to them. Eyi teye je leye n gbe fo. The philosophy of immediate gratification is not the monopoly of any one group or party. It has become the symbol of political affiliation and no leader can claim to be immune. What this does, however, is limit the potentials for national advancement as individuals and groups, without an enduring allegiance to the common good, jump from one ship to another in search of a larger catch from the political ocean. nPDP has just vividly illustrated this tendency.

    Consider the fact that four years after its decamping from PDP to APC, this group still self-identifies as nPDP. This self-identification suggests a failure of group synergy with APC, thus ensuring a destructive factionalization. This is in spite of the positions of critical importance that some of its members occupy in the various branches of government, including the National Assembly.

    Two points need to be noted here. First, as hinted earlier, nPDP is just the latest manifestation of a tendency that is ingrained in our system, which focuses on the fairness of distribution rather than the task of production. We are least concerned with the production of the proverbial national cake, only with its distribution, with everyone jostling for the most share.

    Second, this sharing mindset jeopardizes the common interest in the stability of the system, which further threatens the foundation, and with it, the entire structure. With the case of farmers that I started with, assume that a group of cooperative farmers only indulge in sharing whatever they make with no saving or reinvesting. Their venture cannot prosper and they’ll soon hit the rock of debt and bankruptcy. The same fate awaits a nation of only sharers and no producers.

    On the other hand, however, the reality of our predilection for sharing is that those who feel left out have good reasons to complain and to take whatever action they deem necessary for them to not lose out in the political activity of possessive individualism. We are guilty of hypocrisy if we fail to call out other groups, including legacy parties, such CPC and ANPP, which use the political power at their disposal at the federal and state levels, to look after the interests of “loyalists” to the chagrin of others.

     

  • If gold rusts

    Preamble

    In contemporary times, no scholar has defined Conscience as succinctly and axiomatically as Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio did in the 18th century. In a very rare display of an impeccable height of intellectualism, the great sage defined that abstract but invaluable substance in man as follows:

    “Conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal it”.

    Ever since Uthman Dan Fodio came up with that impeccable definition, no scholar in any part of the world has faulted it in any way or given a comparable alternative to it. Even here in Nigeria, where critical noise of hatred for Islam and the Muslims is loudest, no one has been able to give an alternative definition of Conscience that is comparable to that of Dan Fodio depite the mobid hatred for the sage in some parts of the country. As a matter of fact, the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria which started publication with scholarship hipe in 1983 had to swallow its pride and adopt Dan Fodio’s definition as its motto when it could not get a better alternative. With that historic definition of conscience, Dan Fodio was able to resolve some knotty issues of his time if tacitltly.

    Today, we have similar knotty issues at hand in Nigeria which have, as usual, been subjected to innumerable interpretations and innuendoes without an iota of regard for conscience. Some of those issues were addressed at a public Ramadan Lecture in Lagos last Monday (May 4, 2018). The lecture which took place at the premises of the Lagos State Television (LTV) was organized by Right Development Limited’, publishers of ‘The Point’ newspaper and the Guest Lecturer was Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL, the indefatigable Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Nigeria’s undisputable Model of Change. He delivered the lecture in his capacity as the Secretary-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). The title of the lecture, as designed by the organizers, was:

    “Achieving Peace, Stability and Good Governance in a     Multi-Religious and Multi-Ethnic Nation:

    The Islamic Perspective” In the lecture, Professor Oloyede addressed some pressing issues of concern to most Nigerians.

    The issues were about peace in the land, good governance, economy, ethnicity, religion, and security.

     

    Comment

    The intention of this columnist was to publish the entire lecture vabatim. But due to lack of enough space, only an excerpt from each segment will be presented here in summary as follows:

     

    Definition of Peace

    “….Even in a monolithic Nation of one particular faith and ethnic group, attainment of peace, stability and good governance cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, many monogamous families are known to be in inter-personal turmoil which defies internal resolution and even tasks external mediators including courts. It is therefore expected that a Nation like Nigeria distracted by double or multiple divergences requires extra-ordinary efforts to maintain absolute focus on National Development for which peace and good governance are a sine qua non.

    My approach here is to use good governance as the basis of addressing the topic. This is because peace, as you all know, is not the absence of war, but a situation where people are able to resolve their conflicts without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives.

    It involves everyone living in safety, without fear or threat of violence, and no form of violence is tolerated in law or in practice. There is equality before the law and the justice system is trusted to be fair and to protect the rights of citizens. Peace also means that everyone is able to participate in shaping political decisions and the government is accountable to the people. Everyone has fair and equal access to the basic needs for their wellbeing – such as food, clean water, shelter, education, healthcare and a decent living environment. It also means that veryone has an equal opportunity to work and make a living, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other aspect of identity.

    Peace is therefore more than the absence of violence. It is the totality of condition of well-being felt by individuals, groups and the society at large”.

     

     Good Governance

    “Whether there is peace or not is a matter of how a society is governed. Governance itself has several definitions. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation which looks at how African countries are governed and tries to assess and rank them on the basis of certain internationally adapted criteria defines it as “the provision of the political, social and economic public goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from their state, and that a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens”.

    “The World Bank defines governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”. Others have defined it as “the way organisations are directed and controlled to ensure that they are effective in achieving their objectives”.

    “While those definitions are different, what is common to them is the provision of services that citizens or members have the right to expect and which the society or the organization has the responsibility to deliver to citizens or members. In order to distinguish good governance from bad governance, there is a set of principles that have been identified as the main distinguishing features or characteristics of good governance”.

     

     Nigeria and  Ethnicity

    “Overlapping and dynamic identities are at the root of recurrent problems in Nigeria. An identity assumed by a person or group of persons in Nigeria is not static but dynamic depending on what is at stake and for how long. A person who is a religious champion can within a twinkle of an eye become a social-class-champion or an ethnic champion. Current or momentary interest dictates identity and its tenure.

    Nigeria is a federation of geo-political entities presently referred to as “State”, the combination of what used to be “Regions”. In Nigeria, what we now call  States are generally not monolithic in terms of ethnic composition. They appear to be generally arbitrary and circumstantial in origin”.

     

    Demographic Delineation

    “As of today, over 250 ethnic groups with more than 500 languages have been identified in Nigeria. While it will be wrong to regard ethnic group as a unit of the Nigerian Federation, it is also true that ethnic loyalties are very strong in Nigeria.

    At the risk of stirring controversy, let me quote a statistical account of ethno-linguistic groups in Nigeria thus:

    Hausa-Fulani –  29% (Hausa 21%, Fulani 8%)  Yoruba     –         21%  Igbo          –        18%

    Ibiobio     –        5.6% Kanuri      –        4%

    Edo            –        3% Tiv             –        2%

    Ijaw           –        2% Bura          –        2%

    Nupe        –        1% Others      –        10%

     

     Religion in Nigeria

    Another identity that is constantly invoked in Nigeria is religion. Unlike ethnicity, the Constitution of Nigeria pays major attention to religion vis-à-vis the Nation. Sections 10 and 38 of the Constitution are the most prominent of the provisions. The “non-adoption” and the “freedom of Religion” clauses have been extensively dealt with in a recent publication (I.Oloyede et-al: The Operational Complexities of the “free exercise” and “adoption of religion” clauses in the Nigerian Constitution, in Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa.

    It is important to note that while the Nigerian media choose to constantly refer to Nigeria as “Secular”, no constitution of Nigeria has ever used the word “Secular” to describe the Nation. That notion was derived from Section 10 which is “non-adoption of religion-clause”.

     

    Tiv-Fulani Conflict in Benue Valley

    The age-long conflict between Tiv and the Fulani, as bad as it is, is being aggravated by political and religious irredentists assisted by irresponsible media. If not for political expediency, the sociology of Tiv-Fulani relations and linguistic dynamics of asking, “where are my cows” by Fulani man and the response of “munchi” (I have eaten it) by a Tiv man would have resonated a long history of such inter-group relations. But where desperate politicians seek relevance, any straw can be held on to gain cheap political points. Nigerians should not fall for the propaganda whether from the politicians or from religious bodies with soiled corrupt hands.

    A deep reflection of what is being presented as a new clash would have shown that it is a conflict that is as old as Nigeria. The Colonial Masters created grazing routes, forest reserves and mediating teams to address the economic and social friction between the Tiv-farmers and the roving herdsmen.

     

    Leah Sharibu’s Case

    The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) recently escalated the state of insecurity with its threat that should Leah Sharibu die in captivity of Boko Haram, there would be religious war!!!

    With that kind of threat I became as astonished as the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) who recently expressed shock at that destructive and counter-productive statement.

    Boko Haram has never hidden its mission of setting Nigeria ablaze through a religious war. Whose interest was the call by CAN to serve? Definitely, not that of the innocent Nigerian Lady, Leah Sharibu. Is it fair, religious or Godly for the sake of political grandsterism to endanger the life of such a precious, principled and promising girl?

    I am sure the immediate family members of the Lady would not subscribe to such politicisation of the misfortune.

     

    Relocation of Embassy

    The recent call by CAN on Nigeria to relocate her embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and its expression of support for President Trump’s relocation of the United States of America’s embassy to Jerusalem is not only appalling to all men of conscience but a (direct) manifestation of acute bigotry, abject ignorance and lack of understanding not only of the ‘Biblical prophecy’ but indeed of religious demography of the State of Israel today.

    An informed Christian Leader, Pope Francis made an impassionate plea against the decision which he said “would add new elements of tension in a world already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts”. He said further: “I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in recent days and, at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations,”. “Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace,”.

    “It is therefore strange that a Christian group would substitute “love” for pathological hatred and oppression just to hurt their Muslim brothers.

     

    The Massacre in Tafawa Balewa

    In Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi State, today, the same community that produced the first and only Nigerian Prime Minister, there is no Mosque let alone the call to prayers. Apart from killing them mercilessly, all the Muslims were exiled from the community. Those Muslims still remain in disarray today as they have become internally displaced people in various communities other than theirs.

     

    Nigeria – Unity,

    It must be emphasised that religion, when practised as expected, is a veritable tool for unity in heterogeneous societies. Islam as a religion preaches morality, justice, equity, and service to humanity. These are sublime virtues which are crucial to the unity and peace of any given society. The goal of Islam is to make life pure and beautiful. Islam encourages the stretching of hands to other religions or other people who are sincere and in sympathy with Islamic ideal of a morally safe world. That is to establish a united society, where love is shared, hatred is detested, and cooperation is established.

  • Memory-challenged politics (For Femi Falana and Kunle Ajibade)

    Femi Falana (SAN) is 60. Kunle Ajibade is 60. It is a big deal. The hazards of life in this divinely blessed country of ours are well known. There is also the specificity of the dangers of Kunle’s chosen profession. And there are the perils of Femi’s conscious decision to get out of the comfort zone of the learned profession where his peers make cool wealth, to wade into the tortuous waters of human right and political activism.

    That both are alive despite the fragility of existence in our native land is God’s own doing. That both are free men today, even as their erstwhile oppressors are long gone and probably groaning in hell, reminds us that the just shall live by faith.

    In the thick of the struggle for democracy which started with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, I used to assure my peers and fellow activists that each of us was writing a story which was bound to endure no matter what happened to the struggle.

    Femi and Kunle suffered the indignities of the struggle. They were harassed by agents of the state. They were bundled into detention and maximum prison several times. Kunle was given a life sentence for not divulging the source of a story that his paper ran. He only regained his freedom upon the death of General Sani Abacha.

    Both Femi and Kunle have not given an inch to despair in what the Fourth Republic has turned out to be- a caricature of democracy and pseudo federalism. Yet they are human and have had to witness the death of a dream for dear country. In his own way, each has used the tool at his disposal to continue the struggle for a better country. Even against all odds.

    Femi and Kunle were born days apart in May 1958. That was only a few months after Western Region achieved a self-governing status. It was a period of exemplary leadership in the region when the Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, challenged the priorities of colonial powers and insisted on developing the state with or without federal support. It was three years after the introduction of one of the most progressive innovations in education, the Universal Free Primary Education. It is therefore not a coincidence that they both turned out to be exemplary activists for progress. Imagine if they had been given the opportunity for political leadership.

    Yet it would be grossly unfair to wholly attribute how they turned out to environmental factors, political or otherwise. Individual choices matter. After all, they both had peers who also got a head start from the conducive political and economic environment that Awolowo and his associates created but who either did not make the most of it, or did, and only chose to mind their own business. That Femi and Kunle chose as Awolowo did even when his peers looked elsewhere for pleasure, and as they suffer maximally in the process, is our gain. For this we must be grateful to them and their loving families.

    As I reflect on our predicaments as a nation, it occurs to me that a country that deliberately denies political activists with a conscience access to political participation at the leadership level cannot make progress. What we see and appreciate in developed countries is the conscious effort to recruit skilled and politically passionate men and women to enter politics. Once identified, these– veterans, professionals, and talented business owners– are targeted and funded to run for offices. In Nigeria, however, they are craftly schemed out, even from progressive political camps. And when, out of the goodness of their hearts and deep concern for the nation, they offer suggestions and advice on key issues, they are shamelessly shunned. And we still don’t understand why Nigeria is at a standstill?

    We recycle old vessels ad infinitum. Or the grumpy old men refuse to leave the scene even when they have proven incapable in the past. I am not into ageism. I am by no means arguing for the exclusion of old men or women from political participation because of their age. That would be morally unjustifiable. I am arguing, however, that the old should know when to quit the scene, when their contribution is on a diminishing scale of usefulness. Or when they have made themselves the issue and thus are spewing negativities against the progress of the nation.

    While Femi has not framed his latest observations on Dr. Obasanjo in terms of age, and I am not, I see a convergence of concern on the negativities that the former president has allowed himself to become. It is as if he thinks the rest of us are inflicted with a memory challenge.

    Dr. Obasanjo is a three-term President/Head of State of Nigeria. He has consistently challenged and accused every one of his civilian successors (all of whom he enthroned or endorsed for office) of incompetence and criminal weakness. Which means that he has been the only competent President or Head of State since 1975.

    In his latest outing, Obasanjo wants a new group to change Nigeria. He floated the CNM ostensibly as a grassroots movement without partisan affiliation, promising to leave the movement as soon as it morphed into a political party. He would rather be a statesman. Well, CNM has recently joined ADC as a group. But Obasanjo is still championing the cause of the movement. Why the pretense?

    In his campaign against the Buhari administration, Obasanjo has tried to seek all the help he can get. In the process, he wants us to have memory loss concerning his recent past in his dealings with the groups he is now courting. But we cannot, because his tactic dealt a fatal blow on the progressive development of the country, especially since 1999.

    Obasanjo has reached out to Afenifere for cooperation in defeating Buhari, hoping that we would forget the mortal wound he inflicted on Afenifere as a political heavy weight in the SW. He schemed out the group from serious political relevance when he appointed the late Chief Ige as a Minister in his cabinet and engineered the formation of Yoruba Council of Elders to challenge Afenifere. The bad blood created by that move is still flowing in the veins of Yoruba progressives.

    Notwithstanding Obasanjo’s hands in the crisis that beset it, Afenifere agreed to meet with him in 2002 when he proposed a working relationship with them. Afenifere elders agreed. Having won them over, Obasanjo ditched them. You need to hear from the elders how Obasanjo’s attitude changed from one of a humble son when he needed them to that of an arrogant master after he got them. In 2003, he used the federal might to rout the entire southwest except Lagos because Tinubu refused to play the good son game.

    What is Obasanjo’s selling point to Afenifere elders now? “Remember how I worked with you before”? Or “remember how much I did for the Southwest before”? Or “never mind about my past, I am a changed man wanting the same thing that you want”?

    On any of the above hypothetical selling points, Obasanjo has nothing to sell except the same 419 goods. How did he work with Afenifere before? What did he do for the Southwest in the 8 years of his presidency? The roads that he failed to construct are now being pursued with vigor by Buhari. So are the railway lines.

    How is Obasanjo a changed man and what is the common ground between what Afenifere wants and what he wants? Does he want restructuring? Is restructuring in CNM or ADC platform? Why did he oppose the SDP as the party for CNM?

    I am not sure what assurances Afenifere gave Obasanjo at the meeting he held with the group. But I know that the fighting spirits of Obafemi Awolowo, Michael Ajasin and Abraham Adesanya are watching the group. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

    Femi and Kunle, Happy Birthday o jare. Remain blessed.

     

    • Follow me on Twitter:

    @SegunGbadeg2002

    @HarvestDayPubs

     

     

     

  • The mirror of life

    “Do you not see how Allah has set forth a parable of a meaningful ‘WORD’ like a fruitful tree which roots are firmly planted in the earth while its branches sprout magnificently into the firmament of the sky, yielding delicious fruits every season by Allah’s grace? Allah gives parables to men (of reason) that they may ponder and be mindful…” (Q. 14: 24).

    It is rather ironic that even in this age of internet , many Africans (including ignorant Muslims) still perceive Islam as a mere dogma in which riddles, rituals and superstitions thrive. This is quite far from the reality. But it takes only people with functional eyes to perceive the light. Ignorance is a disease which knowledge alone can heal.

    Since the creation of Adam, man has continuously enjoyed the guidance of Allah in one form or another. Prophets have been sent to various societies. Books have been revealed through those Prophets. Parables have been used with references drawn from the past. And warnings as well as admonitions have been divinely issued in those Books. Practical lessons such as the great deluge, the cataclysm of Sodom and Gomorrah, the defeat of Jalut (Goliath) by Daud (David), the doom of the tyrannical Pharaoh, and most recently, the waterloo of Adolf Hitler of Germany have come to man as lessons through which he can re-assess himself.

    All these and many other occurrences have been used as allusion by Allah to remind man of human mortality and to see him through a successful life’s odyssey. But unfortunately, man has always been blind to genuine divine guidance. He has been deaf to warnings and resistant to reasoning as much as he is insensitive to thoughts and inflexible to ideas. In his choice to form freemasonry with Satan (the custodian of ruins and deception), man has ignorantly strayed into a quagmire of sorrow through the millennia. Taking Satan for his best friend, man refuses to use the long spoon with which he is provided by Allah to dine with the damned Lucifer. This was the situation until 610 CE when  Allah decided to chronicle the activities of man from the very beginning of human existence and make it an eternally concrete ‘MIRROR’ through which the descendants of Adam can continue to see life in its past, its present and its near and far future. This ‘MIRROR’ is the Qur’an, the anecdote that heals man’s blindness, the manure that fertilizes the brain and the greatest treasure in possession of mankind.

     

    Features of the Qur’an

    For the rightly guided minds, Qur’an is the eyes with which to see, the ears with which to hear and the sense with which to reason. It is the bridge across the valleys of life, the insurance against damnation, the passport for salvation and the only reliable redeemer of man.

    Qur’an leaves no aspect of life untouched. It leaves no privacy unprotected and no secret unexposed. Problems and solutions; history and lessons; crimes and penalties; justice and righteousness; discipline and courage; friendship and trust; governance and methodology; marriage and divorce; widowhood and orphanage; childhood and inheritance; poverty and wealth; politics and economy; opinion and reason; facts and figures; life and death; darkness and light; war and peace; leadership and power; angels and man; heavens and earth; all these and many other matters form subjects of discussion and guidance in the ‘Divine Diary of Life called ‘Al- Qur’an’.

    For people on the right path, therefore, life begins and ends with the Qur’an, Allah’s own tradition and the only authentic fountain from which man can draw wisdom with which to solve any problem. The sense that reasons with the Qur’an makes no mistake. The mind that thinks with it is never bedevilled. The eye that sees with it incurs no sore. The tongue that talks with it never stammers. The power that rules with it never falls. And the Almighty Allah warns in the Qur’an thus: “But whosoever deviates from My tradition, verily for him is life of subjugation and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Judgment” (Q. 20: 124).

     

     Proof of the Qur’anic revelations

    Charlatans who perceive Islam as a dogma continue to ask for the proof of the genuineness of Qur’anic revelation as if other revelations before the Qur’an do not require proof. In reason and logic, asking for the proof of the Qur’an is like asking the sun to prove its rays. Can anybody reasonably ask for the proof of the hair growing on his head? It is the nature and character of unbelievers to deny the truth and refute the manifest. But does it ever bother the sun in any way that a blind man denies its rays? Or can a brook be affected if a herd boycotts its water?

    To Muslims who deeply understand the tenets of Islam, all the genuine Prophets are from Allah and all the revealed ‘BOOKS’ are series of the same ‘MESSAGE’. This fact has been firmly established in the Qur’an and that is why Muslims are not known for maligning any Prophet or revealed ‘BOOK’.

    Right from its very first day of revelation, the Qur’an has come with undeniable proof. But it takes only a divinely cleansed heart to acknowledge such proof. Qur’an itself is the proof of all other celestial messages that preceded it. It is the final divine revelation which has no human interference or human tampering. Neither Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that ‘MESSAGE’ to mankind nor any of his associates and disciples had a say in it. This Book of the greatest divine message contains no chapters or verses according to anybody besides ALLAH.

     

    Doubting ‘Thomases’

    During the revelation of this Book, Allah had foreseen the reaction of doubting ‘Thomases’ across generations of races whose hymns of denial would come from the abyss of falsehood even as they would cling pathologically to the chord of ignorance. To such ‘Thomases’, the Qur’an owes neither explanation nor apology.

    Qur’an is like gold which everybody seeks directly or indirectly because of its immeasurable value but which only a few can recognize in its raw form. It takes geologists to identify the soil in which gold is buried. It takes miners to mine it out just as it takes smelters to smelt it before the goldsmith can transform it into a beautiful ornament. In the same manner, it takes categories of pious intellectuals to pursue the reading, understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an to a loftily appreciable level.

     

     Islam’s contribution to civilisation

    That the Qur’an is the only revealed ‘BOOK’ in the world today which retains the originality of its language and contents for over 1445 years is enough a testimony to the proof of its divine origin. That also confirms Arabic as one of the oldest languages in the world today.

    If the proof of the Qur’an is not seen in the social, economic and political context of its exegeses, it must be seen in its scientific hypotheses through which Europe came in contact with civilization. It is from those hypotheses that the modern world zoomed into technological advancement through the adoption of ‘Al-Jibrau (called Algebra), Al-Kaymiyau (called Chemistry), Al-Fisiyau (called Physics) as well as the introduction of ‘ZERO’ into numerals which led to the replacement of Roman figures in the 13th century, with Arabic numerals that brought about decimal system and paved way for scientific breakthrough in Human life. It should be recalled that the numerals used in schools today are called Arabic numerals as a mark of their origin.

    Before adopting the Arabic numerals, Europe had relied upon the clumsy system of Roman numerals which called for enormous expenditure of time and labour. For instance, while the Arabic numerals makes it easy for the world to write such date as 1948 in only four figures within a second, it requires eleven figures to write the same number in Roman numerals thus: MDCCCXLVIII. Even if  Islam has contributed nothing more than the decimal system to the modern civilization it has done much more than any other religion. And what is more, the idea of what is called UNIVERSITY today originated from that divine religion. The very first University in the world (University of Cordoba) was established by the Muslims in Spain in the late 9th century based on their Qur’anic guidance. And the three oldest existing Universities in the world today were established by Muslims in the 10th century. They are Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fes, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Yet, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that wonderful ‘MESSAGE’ to humanity was unlettered. However, despite his unlettered status he remains the greatest human being that ever lived throughout the history of man.

     

     Attestation

    It was in reference to this non-such Islamic contribution to human civilization that the renowned French historian of the 20th century, Gustav Le Bon wrote in his book: ‘The Civilization of the Arabs’ thus:

    “At an epoch when the rest of Europe was plunged in the darkest barbarism, Baghdad and Cordoba, the two great cities where Islam held sway, were centres of civilization which illumined the whole world with the light of their brilliance”.

     

     The Prophet’s biography

    Perhaps from the creation of Adam, the first human being till today, no man’s biography has been as much written and read as that of Muhammad (SAW) the Prophet of Islam. This man’s biography has been globally written from all perspectives by various men and women of diverse backgrounds in the past 1445 years or thereabout. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively today in uncountable languages.

     

    The message and the messenger

    Through the writing of his biography, some people have zoomed into undreamed fame. Others have sunk into permanent oblivion. No other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from believers and non-believers, from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Every aspect of his life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke and the wives he married has come to form chapters in his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another.

    Why is the concentration so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia? The answer to this Question is not far-fetched. The world has never produced another personality like him and it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all traces of what a decent man should be. From him alone can the obedience to genuine law be learned from all conceivable angles.

     

    Evidence of greatness

    If  Prophet Muhammad had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide mankind on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to inheritance.  If   he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an example for sensible people to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently over-sighted. If   he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been lost totally on humanity. If   he had not been a father, the care for children by parents would have been totally relegated to the background.

    If this great man had not been an emigrant , the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today would not have been championed by Islam. If he had not been a warrior, the law of war, armistice and peaceful resolution would not have come into existence. If he had not been a conqueror, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man. If he had not been a negotiator, perhaps there would never have been anything called diplomacy. If he had not been an arbiter, the virtue of justice would have probably been thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest alone.

    If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been a ruler, the relationship between the ruled and the rulers all over the world today would not have been different from that of slaves and their masters. If he had not been a democrat , dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If he had not been poor, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilized societies in the world today in favour of the poor would not have been possible. And, if, despite all these great qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have dominated the characters of all privileged people.

     

     Challenge

    Who else can be compared to this man in history? In which other single person have all these qualities ever been combined in history? There can be little wonder then why the concentration is so much on the person of this extraordinary man especially by ordinary foes. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) alive and in death is like a living elephant surrounded by blind men. If every one of those blind men is to give a description of the elephant he would only be able to do so from the perspective of the part he is able to touch on the mammoth animal and not the whole of it. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the like of whom the world had never seen before his arrival and can never see again after his departure. This writing contained a Ramadan lecture that yours sincerely once delivered in a foremost University in Nigeria sometime ago.  Judging by the contents of this article, what else could have served as The Mirror of Life for the wise?. RAMADAN KARIM!