The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • All the way: Serving with conscience (3)

    All the way: Serving with conscience (3)

    Today I bring some more fragments from my memoir which comes up for public presentation on December 21, 2015.  The formation of Egbe Omo Yoruba, North America in 1995 was, for the Yoruba Diaspora, the tipping point in the struggle against military dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. The meaning of that struggle for those who participated in it, its impact on the events that eventually led up to the return of civil rule, and the modest contributions that others and I made to it, is a significant part of the book.

    Egbe Omo Yoruba Presidency, 1997-1999

    The 1997 Houston convention (of Egbe Omo Yoruba) ended with the election of new officers. I was elected President with an executive comprised of Tokunbo Marcarthy, Vice President; Banji Ayiloge, General Secretary; Olu McGuinnis Otubusin, JD., Legal Secretary; Haziz Adekunle Ajayi, Treasurer; James Oni, Financial Secretary; and Harrison Akingbade, Ph.D., Publicity Secretary.

    At the end of the convention, Egbe Omo Yoruba had the following 15 local chapters as members: Yoruba Community Association, Toronto, Canada; Egbe Omo Yoruba Kansas City; Yoruba International Union, Dallas; Egbe Ilosiwaju Yoruba ni Kolorado; Yoruba League, Long Beach, CA; Egbe Isokan Yoruba, Washington, DC; Egbe Omo Oduduwa, New York City; Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Chicago; Kiriji Movement-San Francisco; Oduduwas, Houston; Yoruba Community of Massachusetts, Boston; Egbe Omo Yoruba, Philadelphia; Egbe Omo Yoruba, London, Ontario, Canada; Oduduwa Unity Club, Greensboro, NC; and Yoruba People’s Congress, Chicago, IL.

    The new National Executive Committee, having carefully read the mood of the association and listened attentively to the messages conveyed by speakers at the convention, knew that they had a marching order and wasted no time in getting down to business in pursuit of the mission of the Egbe.

    The convention ended on Sunday, April 27, 1997. First thing in the week of April 28, I sent a package to every chapter president. The package included the convention communiqué, my prepared address, contact information for the newly elected officers of the association, and a cover letter.

    In the letter, I thanked all the members for their sacrifice of time and money to the convention and the confidence they placed in the executive committee. I reminded them that the association was only as strong as its membership especially at the local chapter level. In reference to the grievances of some members and a few chapters, I assured everyone that if they trusted us with the fate of the Egbe, they should also give us a chance to give our association a new lease of life and nurse old wounds.

    On behalf of the executive, I promised that we would make extra effort to rejuvenate the interest of existing chapters and provide a big tent that can accommodate various interests. Finally, I charged member chapters to be cognisant of our goals and aspirations and what we will need to realise them, most important of which was funding. Therefore, it was important for us to put our money where our mouths were. I welcomed fundraising ideas and initiatives and assured chapters that the national executive will collaborate with them effectively on the matter of fundraising.

    Following my message, I received a large number of heart-warming messages of congratulations and promises of cooperation from chapter presidents and individuals. One of these was from Mr. Remi Saseun, one of the strong advocates for a strong national organisation. Based in California, he was one of the pillars of the Yoruba League, which hosted the 2nd National Convention in January 1995. Mr. Saseun was also the Chairman of the Political Action Committee that had been set up at the convention of which I was also a member. On account of this, we had been close and had a mutual respect for each other.

    Part of his note to me read as follows: “I think that we finally got things right this time! I am particularly heartened that you agreed to serve, knowing that what our organisation needs most now is CREDIBILITY (emphasis supplied in original), which I have no doubt you will bring to the organisation.” He went on to give excellent suggestions on dealing with and consolidating chapters, setting up action committees, open door policy on finance and effective communication lines.

    I took seriously Mr. Saseun’s advice and ensured that I communicated regularly with local chapters. Unfortunately, the ugly side of human relationship took a toll on the Yoruba League and not being able to resolve the organisational issues, the chapter withdrew from the Egbe not long after the Houston convention. In fairness to him, my friendship with Mr. Saseun did not suffer on account of his chapter’s withdrawal and we met every now and then when the association’s convention or other events were close to his base.

    The hard work had just started. The association had just made its debut. Its official communiqué had been widely disseminated and received with a mixture of approval and denunciation. Yet, the association existed mostly on paper. There was no physical office location as of April 1997, two years after its constitution was ratified and its first officers elected. So we had to run, not walk. Perception is always dangerously ahead of reality by miles.

    We determined that we had to have an office in Washington, DC, the headquarters of the association. Since the executive officers were not in one location, we had to rely on the assistance of local chapter members who were always ready and more than happy to help. Chief among these were my colleagues in Egbe Isokan Yoruba: Ropo Sekoni, Sola Ogunbode, Hakeem P. Fahm, Mumini Adekunle Badmus, Adeleke Adekoya, Samuel Ayodele, Kayode Adenaiya, Mobolaji Aluko, Dauda Jolaoso, Abiodun Adepoju, Adeniran Adeboye, and a host of others too numerous to mention here.

    We scouted the city for good locations for a befitting office space. By this time, two exiled NADECO members, General Ipoola Akinrinade (rtd) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had relocated to the Washington metro area. They were fully involved in our efforts. Incidentally, their generous donation to the Egbe at the Houston convention was the seed money that we relied on to commence our search for an office space.

    On the day that we found an office space, both Senator Tinubu and General Akinrinade were on our search team. I recall that as soon as we pulled up at 7600 Georgia Avenue, NW, Senator Tinubu gave an approving shout: “Yes, this is it!” he exclaimed in approval. We all agreed. We applied for Suite 405 and signed the lease with Capital Building on June 27, 1997 with a down-payment of $2400.

    For the next seven years, the office served as the headquarters of a most celebrated or reviled organisation depending on which side of the appraisal you stood. For our compatriots who understood the cause for which we struggled, Egbe Omo Yoruba made them extremely proud. For our detractors whether they were military apologists or partisan ideologues, our members were simply a bunch of rascals seeking attention.

    Once we secured an office space, the enthusiasm of our members was unparalleled. Banji Ayiloge, the General Secretary, lived in New York City. He secured his own key to the office, and before I woke up every Saturday morning, Banji was already in the office on Georgia Avenue, working for the Egbe. He drove four hours each way. Sometimes, when he chose to let me know he was coming, I insisted that he stop by the house for breakfast, which my wife generously prepared. We would then head together to the office.

    Members of Egbe Isokan Yoruba, the Washington local chapter of Egbe Omo Yoruba, also made 7600 Georgia Avenue, NW their after-office retreat venue. There was always something going on, and our folks were eager to offer help whether by stuffing envelopes for mailing, or searching the Internet for news from home and disseminating same to members. Chief Enahoro had also then relocated to Alexandria VA and was offered an office space in the suite that Egbe Omo Yoruba occupied. Therefore the suite served NADECO and World Congress of Free Nigerians (WCFN) as well.

  • Arisekola-Alao’s twin brother

    Arisekola-Alao’s twin brother

    Very few people knew that the late Aare Abdul Azeez Arisekola-Alao had a twin brother. Those who knew that fact either took it for granted or did not duly acknowledge it. Like most human beings, the colossus was not born all alone. He was accompanied by another child who twinned with him into this mortal world. That other child was HUMILITY which Aare personified throughout his life.

    In his lifetime, Arisekola-Alao was like the sun. Whenever it bulged out of the orbit with the magnificence of its rays, no star could dare attempt to rise. And when he eventually demised the entire world chorused the lamentations of a rare eclipse.

     

    A colossus

    This article ought to have been entitled ‘In Memory of a Colossus’. But the expediency of the moment would rather prefer a more befitting title as found here. Aare was not the only moneybag in the Southwest while alive. What clearly distinguished him from all others was his second twin (humility) which never parted with him even in his grave. Like a famous actor, Arisekola-Alao left the stage when the ovation was loudest but he did not forget to leave behind a legacy that cannot be inherited by any fair weather charlatan. Anybody may aspire to be like Aare Arisekola-Alao or gain his God’s endowed fame but nobody can ever wear his obviously oversized shoes. He was as great in death as he was alive. At least, his humility ensured that. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in perfect, eternal bliss.

     

    Tribute

    At his demise, ‘The Message column published a tribute about him that will for long remain a tribute in the memory of his family and those of his associates. It was entitled ‘Sunset @ Noon’. An excerpt from that tribute went thus:

    “…..The echoes of his death reverberated through the length and breadth of the world confirming the fallibility of man… What immediately became shocking in those echoes was not the announced death per se but the consequence of that fortuitous death for hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries of his incessant largess across tribal, religious and ideological divide.

     

    Tripod of fortune

    Before now, there were three great Muslim philanthropists in the Southwest of Nigeria who were jointly called ‘a tripod of fortune’. Each of them had a national tentacle that formed a formidable fortress against the poisonous arrows of poverty in the land. But with time, they started leaving the stage one by one. First to go was Bashorun Moshood Kasimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, the Baba Adini of Yoruba land, a man often described as ‘larger than life’. He was followed by the quiet, easy going but kind-hearted Chief (Dr.) Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo, CON, the Baba Adini ‘of Nigeria’. Both of them left behind a very big vacuum that kept most Muslims wondering if there could be any replacement for them.

    But surprisingly, Aare Arisekola-Alao the third but anchor leg of the tripod took up the challenge and courageously combined the vacuums left behind by the duo of Abiola and Folawiyo with that of his own. He extended his philanthropic tentacles to areas hitherto covered by his two former colleagues so much that most people hardly remembered that there was once a tripod.

     

    Philanthropy

    Like Abiola and Folawiyo, Aare was a stupendous philanthropist with an ever open hand that knew no boundaries of tribe, age, gender or creed. His generosity was legendry and unlimited. And he was never tired of giving the same individuals or groups of people repeatedly. At least, his fervent belief in the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) which says that “an upper hand is far more reward-able than the lower hand” guaranteed the philanthropy in him. Which area of his largess can one really recount with precision? The story of Arisekola-Alao’s generosity can never be fully told either by individuals, groups or institutions in volumes of books.

     

    Attestation

    A versatile American poet who came up with the following axiomatic poem could not have imagined that his thoughts might germinate in Africa and nurtured to fruition by an African. Here is how he put it:

    “Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and works the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the Holy Land”.  We are all witnesses.

     

    Comment

    Perhaps no contemporary Nigerian is as fitting to the above quoted poem as Alhaji Abdul Azeez Arisekola-Alao, CON, the erstwhile Aare Musulumi of Yoruba land and Deputy President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), who lived like a sun photosynthesising all the ‘living plants’ around and giving all of them the fulfilled dreams of their lives.

    However, like a falcon that suddenly took a flight leaving the surrounding falconers to wonder, this man’s sun fortuitously set at noon when its rays was most needed by the needy. He lived like an era in the epoch of human history and died like an era at the climax of its function.

    The similitude of Aare Arisekola-Alao among the sundry elite and masses of Yoruba people of the Southwest in particular and other people of tribal and religious diversities in general is like that of the Queen in a bee hive. Take it out and the rest of the bees in the hive will automatically become stranded.

     

    A case study

    Aare Arisekola-Alao’s life is a case study for all well-meaning intellectuals and people of wherewithal. He was a unique colossus whose life and death should serve as a lesson from which to learn the conduct of life. He was political without being a politician. He was religious without being a cleric. He was sociable without being a socialist. He was traditional without being a traditionalist. Yet, he fitted perfectly into each of these segments of life like a scepter in the hand of a king. Aare was a man of peculiar lifestyle with a peculiar focus. He lived for service to humanity just as service craved his penchant for philanthropy. It may take Nigeria another century to produce the like of this impeccable colossus.

     

    Zooming into limelight

    As a young man in the early 1970s, this man zoomed into limelight like a crescent of hope despite his limited educational background and subsequently grew into a full blown moon brightening the lives of multitudes that would have remained in rigmarole through the darkness of life. His Midas touch was like an antidote against any potential pecuniary poison.

    Arisekola-Alao’s death reminds us of a potent question which some companions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) posed to him out of fear of the unknown. They said: “Oh Prophet, the men of wealth seem to have gone with all the virtues; they worshipped as we are now worshipping; they fasted as we are now fasting and they competed actively among themselves in the realm of philanthropy. And in response, the Prophet pointed out to them that Allah had equally endowed them with a variety of philanthropic means saying that glorification of Allah was an act of philanthropy, so was gratification of Allah and the like. That dialogue has since become a credible Hadith due to its entailed spiritual wisdom.

     

    Solace

    There is solace for Muslims in that Hadith which can see them through the ‘Cape of Good Hope’. As a community, they had perennially relied too much on certain endowed individuals in their midst without thinking of what would become of the community should anything happen to those individuals. Now, the reality seems to be dawning on them. Still, the die is not yet cast. Those who have just prominently departed this world amongst us were men of monetary wherewithal. There are still thousands of others whose wealth was not monetary but who need to be studied and emulated in preparation for their possible departure. Some of such people are of wisdom and intellectualism while others are of truthfulness, contentment and integrity. Without adequate preparation for their exit, the shock awaiting the Ummah may be more devastating than that arising from the death of the wealthy few.

     

    Memory Lane

    Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, did not take cognizance of the lifestyle of Arisekola-Alaos of this world when he alluded to it in the introduction to his autobiography published in 1970 thus:

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

     

    Aftermath

    There was similarity in the aftermath situation of the death of the trio of Abiola, Folawiyo and Alao which no era before theirs had witnessed in Nigeria. The funeral of each of these great men was either physically attended by everybody that matters including President, governors, ministers, high caliber legislators, topmost personalities of the judiciary and chief executives of the business world as well as politicians and intellectual gurus.

    In the case of Arisekola-Alao which is the most recent, it is almost impossible to enumerate the caliber of people who were present to say ‘we are here to condole’. Of all the comments notably made, no one was more precinct than that of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the Governor of Oyo State who described Aare’s death as ‘the end of an era’. But His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto perfected that comment during his condolence visit to the house of the deceased when he said that “if the title AARE is reversed, it would become ERA”. In other words, Aare simply means an era.

     

    Conclusion

    From all conceivable angles, Aare Arisekola-Alao seemed to have studied and imbibed the thoughtful philosophy of another American of notable fame, William Webster, who once coined the following poem to the benefit of mankind:

    “If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it. If we rear temples they will crumble into dust. But if we work upon immortal minds and instill in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon a tablet which no time can efface but will brighten into all eternity”.

    As the Deputy President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and a strong pillar and member of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) as well as a patron of over 100 Muslim organisations, the entire Nigerian Muslim Community bids you farewell and pray for the repose of your soul in eternal bliss. We also pray Allah to grant your immediate and remote family members as well as your close associates the fortitude to bear the agony of your departure. We shall keep remembering you.

    Rest in peace Aare Arisekola-Alao, as GOD blesses your soul!

  • A note for Pa Audu Ogbeh

    This column had been distracted from its original plan last week. One had quickly had to change course when a fellow columnist with The Punch, Abimbola Adelakun, came out on the back page of her paper to state categorically that: “God cannot solve our problems for the simple reason that he has never solved any country’s problems.” One needed to correct that notion of God; at least the Christian God one know if only for the sake of her numerous readers who may happen to be Christians, so that they are not misled or confused. Our God solves and can solve all problems, but only according to his own designs.

    I also discerned from Ms Adelakun’s piece, taken in context, that she was only expressing her frustration with the state of the nation. She had made reference to Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, two honchos of this administration speaking out exasperatedly at the very sad turn of things in the country in the first few months of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. “How does a government that promised massive “change” begin to write its own epitaph so early?” is Ms Adelakun’s damning question.

    I honestly feel her pain. I am probably more pained and Nigerians of goodwill must have their face badly furrowed by worry today. These days you catch yourself already throwing those harsh words we threw at ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. Less than one year after crusading so much to usher in PMB, one has already written nearly a dozen critical articles against his administration. We never bargained for this.

    But it is the sense of hopelessness that galls most critics. The utter inertia and rudderlessness currently pervading the polity have left even die-hard supporters of PMB disillusioned.

    Many federal civil servants have not been paid for about three months. “Even Jonathan’s time was not like this,” many are heard saying now. Fuel scarcity never lingered for so long a spell in Jonathan’s time, is the refrain at filling stations, as Nigerians go through harrowing time over a problem that ought to have been managed six months ago.

    Over the weekend, an aide of the president told Nigerians that PMB never promised to reduce the aircraft in the presidential fleet. This manner of ‘yam-headedness’ only fuels the notion that this presidency is reading the script upside down or had none from the outset. There, we were bursting our knuckles and lampooning former President Jonathan about the folly and profligacy of running an ‘airline’ from the presidency, while airlines in the country were withering.

    Why do we love the company of few cranky republics like Russia (24), Mexico (18), Pakistan (14), Morocco (11), Kuwait (13), Philippines (10) and Nigeria (14, now 9) have at least a dozen craft in their presidential fleet? Most others have less than five and some like Britain has none at all with her prime minister flying public airlines, such as British Air or Virgin Atlantic. US, probably world’s number one manufacturer of aircraft, has only two jets designated to the presidency, while Saudi Arabia with all the money in the world also has two. Whatever the case may be, whether he promised or not, cutting the number of aircraft in the presidential fleet is one of the quick wins Nigerians expected from a Buhari administration, considering that it ought to be an exemplar of frugality and good sense. Especially so, now, that the country is in dire straits and needs to shed fat quickly. Apart from Arik Air, it is doubtful if any other Nigerian airline can boast of 10 planes in its fleet. Why then would the presidency keep all these planes and for what purpose? And the impertinence of insinuating that he not promised rectitude and good governance!

    It is for some of these reasons that one wanted to direct one’s humble thoughts towards some crucial ministries and some tested individuals manning key MDAs. Chief Audu Ogbeh, the current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), is one such.  Over the years, he has grown to be one of the better respected politicians of his time. Going by his trajectory in public life, he was a minister at a young age in the 80s and can be said to be the ‘last’ chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s final annexure of the party.

    One actually expected Chief Ogbeh to play more advisory roles in the PMB era, but being a farmer, it is just as well that he mans the agric beat, which is probably most crucial today. And if Chief Ogbeh fails, Nigeria would have sunk deeper into economic morass. Unfortunately, he hasn’t much time, thus he must identify the quick wins and win them quickly.

    He said recently in Kano that Nigeria expends N1.3 trillion on food importation annually. It is great that he has those grave numbers, but we are not interested in them. The last person on that seat, a popinjay, spent over four years bandying outlandish figures and doing little. The next time chief throws a figure at Nigerians, it must be followed by his immediate, medium and long-term measures to turn the tide of massive food importation in the next three years.

    Here are a few ideas for him to ponder upon: on July 24 (“A ‘drumstick’ for PMB”) and August 14 (“Chicken season”) this year, one had said it all on this page. And the idea is simple: we can start a fresh agric revolution beginning with poultry economy. Consider the economic effect of producing all our poultry products in a Nigeria of about 170 million people. Consider the entire poultry value chain.

    Poultry products were banned in Nigeria 15 years ago but no enforcement. Customs officials and their co-travellers (smugglers) have been the chief beneficiaries of that law. Chief Ogbeh can pick the gauntlet now. He can rally all the stakeholders; Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) led by Dr. Ayoola Oduntan has been doing marvellous work. They need structured, institutional support.

    Chief Ogbeh must rally the Customs, the chicken producers, the feed-millers, the maize farmers, cold room owners, chicken and egg processing groups, vets, Ministry of Information (for massive campaign), governors, etc. By Christmas 2016, Nigerians must consume wholly home-grown poultry; that will be a huge milestone to celebrate, that will be the real agric revolution. In two years we can consume wholly Nigerian rice and in four years, we should have banished imported milk from our shores with model ranches boasting milk and meat processing lines. If these things are as difficult as rocket science, I want to be educated.

    We trust that Chief Ogbeh can drive this change through the MARD and begin to deliver quick, concrete results in no time.

  • Islam and global warming

    Islam and global warming

    In Retrospect

    This article is not new. It was first published in this column in March 2013 as a reaction to a fortuitous incident that required a fortuitous reaction. Sometime early in January 2010, a rumour flew around in Nigeria through the e-mail and mobile text messages. It warned people against what was called an acid rain expected to fall in March that year. According to the message, anybody beaten by the rain would automatically become a victim of skin cancer. Although some people linked the rumour to a source in the US, the real source of the rumour remains a mystery even today as it could not actually be traced to the US. But trust Nigerians, they believe as much in superstition as they fear anything that can link them to death. Yet, they do not care about any solution to global warming.

     

    Preamble

    Climate change in the life of humans can be likened to the causes of life and death. We live by the climate and virtually depend on climate for survival. What is true of humans in this case is equally true of all other living organisms including wildlife and plants. Without a clement weather, survival becomes threatened and the ecosystem becomes the principal cause of that threat. Global warming is a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. It is a foremost factor of climate change.

    Yours sincerely was in London in January 1986 when the international symposium on global warming and its implications for human existence began. The prediction then was that with the prevailing climate trend at that time, Africa might assume the weather of Europe by the year 2050. That prediction was a matter of consensus among the most participating scientists in that symposium.

     

    International Summit on Global Warming

    Recently, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to South Africa to join his colleagues from other countries of the world in attending an international conference on global warming. While still there, some Nigerian arm-chair critics started to accuse him of gallivanting wastefully around the world saying he had no business in such a global conference. Their perception of global warming is as crude as their way of handling local politics. In no other participating country will citizens criticise their President for attending such a crucial summit because they know that besides the subject of the summit, there could be some other beneficial issues. Here in Nigeria, once the issue on the table does not entail money it cannot be worthy of discussion. We are our own problem.

     

    Islamic perspective

    From its inception, Islam has been very explicit on the issue of environment and meteorology. This further confirms the fact that this divine religion is not for a particular time or people. It is a religion of knowledge for all times and all races. The meteorological explanation rendered by Islam is not meant for this column today. It will be brought in full in the very near future In sha’ Allah. But at a recent international conference on global warming, an Islamic scholar gave some Qur’anic insight into the causes and effects of global warming thus:

    “One of the issues that give the world a concern currently is global warming. Experts around the world have been warning about this for decades and have been urging governments to act faster in slowing down the rate of global warming.

    They warn that there is a 75% risk that global temperatures will rise a further two to three degrees in the next 50 years.

    The consequence of this would be dramatic. In fact a rise of just one degree would melt the Greenland ice sheet and drown the Maldives, but a three degree increase would kill the Amazon rainforest, wipe out nearly half of all species facing extinction and wreak havoc with crop yields due to weather changes.

     

    Pace of change

    Whilst the global climate goes through hot and cold cycles, what is worrying about the current phase is the pace of change that could send humanity first into a final spin. Although man has certainly benefited from technological advancements that have given us plastics, air travel and cheap food – what is important is to maintain a balance so that excessive consumerism does not ride roughshod over nature’s harmony.

    In Islam, man is given the role of trusteeship over the earth, which is a huge responsibility. In the past, man had to be careful how he treated his local environment since excessive grazing or agriculture could bring ruin to his livelihood. His knowledge was also limited but in the event of a disaster either through ignorance or abuse at least he could resort to moving elsewhere and start again. Now we should have no excuse for ignorance and we should have learnt from our past to avoid misuse. But what is worrying is that the impacts of our behaviour are not just local anymore, they are global. If we fail to act in a responsible manner, then we cannot simply relocate because there will be nowhere to go. It is, therefore, vital that as producers, manufacturers and consumers, we ensure that we give due consideration to the impact of our actions. Such a responsibility is not just that of the east or the west but a responsibility for all of us.

     

    Moderation for harmony

    Islam teaches us that God has continued and will continue to provide us with ample resources for all times. But through man’s misuse, this balance may change. It is this personal greed of man that makes them squander these resources and deprive others who may need those resources. The Holy Qur’an warns mankind in Chapter 7, verse 32 thus: “O children of Adam! Eat and drink but exceed not the bounds; surely He (Allah) does not love those who exceed the bounds”

    The overall message of Islam is that it promotes harmony by advising moderation. It accepts that we need to use resources for our progress but this should be done wisely and in a sustainable manner, so that a satisfactory medium is found. The Holy Qur’an relates in Chapter 25, verse 68: “those who, when they spend are neither extravagant nor niggardly but moderate between the two.

    So, as individuals, we should act on the Qur’anic injunction that promotes balance and prohibits excess even as nations need to be more willing to share knowledge for the sake of the planet rather than for profit and take collective action in line with their collective responsibility. By doing so we shall be able to win the pleasure of God and honour our trusteeship of the earth for the benefit of the present and the future generations”.

     

    Stakes of danger in global warming

    A few years ago, a top scientist conference in Britain raised the stakes for the dangers of global warming, with concerned scientists outlining a timeframe for the massive horrors awaiting the globe unless swift actions were taken at the right time. The findings in that conference were not in any way different from the position of Islam on the subject 1430 years ago.

    The three-day conference held in the South Western British city of Exeter focused on scientists’ latest assessment of the global warming problem, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

    The conference was bluntly told that global warming would boost outbreaks of infectious disease, worsen shortages of water and food in vulnerable countries and create an army of climate refugees fleeing uninhabitable regions.

    Scientists even gave a detailed timetable of the destruction and distress that global warming was likely to cause to the world, according to the British daily ‘The Independent’.

     

    Scale of impacts

    The scale of these impacts varies according to the speed and degree with which fossil fuel pollution is tackled as well the growth rate of the world’s population and how well countries can adapt to climate shift.

    Whole species of animals from frogs to leopards, living in vulnerable areas and with nowhere else to go, face extinction due to global warming, they said, according to the daily.

    “The study pulls together for the first time the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies across the earth, for given rises in global temperature expected during the next hundred years.

    “The resultant picture gives the most wide-ranging impression yet of the bewildering array of destructive effects that climate change is expected to exert on different regions, from the mountains of Europe and the rainforests of the Amazon to the coral reefs of the tropics.”

     

    Environmental refugees

    Produced through a synthesis of a wide range of recent academic studies, it was presented as a paper to the international conference on climate change held at the UK Met Office headquarters in Exeter by the author Bill Hare, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany’s leading global warming research institute.

    According to a study quoted by Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN’s top scientific authority on climate change, by 2050 as many as 150 million “environmental refugees” may have fled coastlines vulnerable to rising sea levels, storms or floods, or agricultural land that may become too arid to cultivate, AFP said.

    In India alone, there could be 30 million people displaced by persistent flooding, while a sixth of Bangladesh could be permanently lost to sea level rise and land subsidence, according to the study.

    The Independent  revealed that the conference was called personally by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair as part of Britain’s attempts to move the climate change issue up the agenda during the UK presidency of the G8 group of rich nations, and the European Union.

     

    Manifest effects

    There were already disturbing warnings from the latest climate research, including the revelation from the British Antarctic Survey that the massive West Antarctic ice sheet might be disintegrating – an event which would raise sea levels around the world by 16ft (4.9 metres) daily if it really happened.

    “Hare’s timetable shows the impacts of climate change multiplying rapidly as average global temperature goes up, towards 1 C above levels before the industrial revolution, then to 2 C, and then 3 C.

    “It is when the temperature moves up to 2 C above the pre-industrial level, expected in the middle of this century – within the lifetime of many people alive today – that serious effects start to come thick and fast, studies suggest.”

     

    Collapse of Amazon Rainforest

    When the temperature, the paper added, moves up to the 3C level, expected in the early part of the second half of the century, these effects will become critical. There is likely to be irreversible damage to the Amazon rainforest, leading to its collapse, and the complete destruction of coral reefs is likely to be widespread.

    The conference, however, ended up on a positive note, with the forum showing how far the argument for carbon sequestration has come, with a series of experts insisting it could be transformed from fiction to fact. Whole species of animals from frogs to leopards, living in vulnerable areas and with nowhere else to go, face extinction due to global warming, they said, according to the daily.

     

    Conclusion

    “The study pulled together for the first time the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies across the earth, for possible rises in global temperature expected during the next hundred years.

    “The resultant picture gave the most wide-ranging impression yet of the bewildering array of destructive effects that climate change was expected to exert on different regions, from the mountains of Europe and the rainforests of the Amazon to the coral reefs of the tropics.” Should   Nigeria be indifferent to all these? That is a major question that requires a major answer.

  • Good tidings from IGP Arase

    Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, has been quietly tinkering with the police and making the right overtures. The recently established Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the police, for instance, will give Nigerians more say and more leeway in the activities of the Nigeria Police.  Now there are numbers you can call if any police personnel infringes on your right or behaves in a manner that debases the uniform. This is a crucial milestone.

    He has succeeded largely in keeping the police off the roads; a programme started by his predecessor, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar. He must not relent in his quiet reforms: quality training, improved welfare and discipline are the ingredients that make for a modern police. We must reclaim our police; we want a police with ample self-esteem, one we can be proud of.

  • All the way: Serving with conscience (2)

    All the way: Serving with conscience (2)

    Today, I bring another relevant excerpt from my memoir coming up for public presentation on December 21, 2015. The point of this entry is to underscore the shaky foundation on which the pillars of our national structure were built. Even when the enormity of the task of national rescue was so glaring and so demanding of an unadulterated unity of purpose, age-old pettiness of spirit and self-centredness crept into the gaping holes in the walls of the nationalist struggle.  It sounds very familiar even in contemporary struggles.

    Background to Life: War, peace and the struggle for self-determination

    My ground zero was 1945, one of the most eventful years of the 20th century. Among other significant world events, 1945 saw the end of the Second World War fought by what is called the greatest generation.

    It was the war of freedom, we were told. However, my parents, grandparents and their generation of Africans, two levels removed from the back alleys of the First World that dictated the terms and conditions of war and peace in our common terrestrial globe, were drawn into that war without the slightest idea of what it was about. It did not matter that they were also victims of an unjust imposition of Western imperialism; they were also being co-opted to fight a war of freedom thousands of miles away with its assurance of economic hardship and loss of life and limb.

    As events unfolded, it was clear that the war-time economic condition was becoming unbearable for the people. Severe inflation had impacted the real income of public sector workers, whose fixed salaries cannot cope with runaway inflation, and peasants who had no luxury of regular salaries, but still had to pay through the nose for regular needs such as salt.

    On the basis of the reality of inflation, government had granted a cost of living adjustment to salary earners in 1942. However, by 1945, the condition had deteriorated drastically with cost of living rising more than 200 per cent without any further salary adjustment since 1942. At the same time, there had been an intense activity on the part of labour organisations due to the formation of the Nigerian Trade Union Congress as the rallying point for all labour unions from the different sectors of the economy.

    In June 1945, workers from 17 unions, representing some of the most important wings of the economy, including railway, post and telegraphs, and civil service, went on a strike that lasted about five weeks and effectively crippled the economy and governmental activities. It was significant that the strike was effective despite the fact that the labour leaders had revoked the order to go on strike before it was to take effect. It meant that the workers, and not their union leaders, deserve commendation for the success the strike recorded. This sounds familiar.

    In spite of the hardship that Africans encountered with the wartime colonial economy, however, there was a redeeming aspect of the war and the involvement of Africans in combat. It was a self-reassuring experience as well as an eye opener to what could be. Africans not only had stories of courage to spread around the village squares back home, but they also had words of encouragement concerning the prospect of freedom for Africa. If Europe used Africans to fight their war of liberation, Africans can now ask for their liberation from European imperialism. Three events contributed to this upsurge of hope.

    The first event was the establishment of the Atlantic Charter, following a meeting in 1941 between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Atlantic Charter caught the attention of African nationalists in general and Nigerians in particular, and re-energised them for the struggle. Article 3 of the charter expressed “respect (for) the right of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live; and (the) wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.”

    The second event that sowed the seeds of hope was the 5th Pan-African Congress held in Manchester, Great Britain, which as George Padmore shows in The History of Pan-Africanism, “unanimously supported the members of the West African delegation in declaring that complete and absolute independence is the only solution to the existing problems.” This resolution galvanised the activities of the nationalist movement in Nigeria and elsewhere, including Ghana and Kenya.

    The third event was the June 26, 1945 Charter of the United Nations Organisation (UNO), which reaffirmed “faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small” as contained in Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, 1945. While nations under colonial rule were not parties to the formation of the United Nations, it was important to them that their colonial masters were. There was therefore a moral burden for the latter to discharge and the intellectual and educated elite of the colonies did not fail to hold them to account.

    Nigerian political elite and the educated class were not unaware of the developments during the war and the external initiatives that affected their condition as colonial subjects. They took up the fight for political and economic liberation in style and, because of the events highlighted above, 1945 was a special landmark in the struggle. While the war propaganda had not prevented the agitation for liberation from colonial imposition, and while nationalists had turned the propaganda of Allied Forces to their side in some cases, the end of the war gave them a greater latitude and justification to put pressure on the colonial government without the danger of being accused as saboteurs of the war efforts.

    It was of course easier said than done and the doing part was hampered by what has become even a more glaring malady in contemporary nation-space: personal ambition and ethnic suspicions that mar organisational effectiveness. As James Coleman succinctly narrates, a new movement named the Lagos Youth Movement had been founded in 1934 by Ernest Ikoli, Samuel Akinsanya, J. C. Vaughn and H. O. Davies as a rallying point for nationalist agitation, and in 1936 its name was changed to the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). Unfortunately, not much later, its promise had been eclipsed by pettiness and economic and professional considerations by the key players.

    The collapse of the NYM left a bad taste for many of its members and observers such that many recoiled into their shells and subsequent efforts to organise on a national level proved abortive.

    The prospect of success finally emerged when young students, including those from secondary schools in and around Lagos took the initiative and pressured Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikwe to provide leadership. The result was the formation of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which held its Constitutional Convention in January 1945 with the objectives of struggling for the extension of democratic principles, advancing the interests of colonial peoples and imparting political education to the people of Nigeria with a view to achieving self-government.

    This was the political climate in Nigeria when I made my debut on this terrestrial globe. The peace that marked the end of the Second World War did not really matter for Nigeria because her journey towards independence was to be marked by war of words between nationalists and colonisers. The struggle for freedom and independence, which others took for granted, had just begun.

     

     

  • Making Nigeria better – with God

    Today, I have had to break with our unspoken professional code, which quietly admonishes that we columnists should never pick on each other. Not in public and particularly so, not using our columns to counter each other or seeming to attack one another’s opinion as held in his or her column space.

    But here today, I am constrained to break with that tradition. Columnnauts would have noticed that the above title is derived from Abimbola Adelakun’s title on the back page of The Punch, yesterday, December 3, 2015. She had written: “Making Nigeria better without God.” In my reckoning, Abimbola is perhaps the best female keeping a column in Nigeria today. She reminds of Amma Ogan and Doyin ‘Lipstick’ Okojie. Feisty, irreverent and sometimes gung-ho, she lays it light, smooth and fluid. It is a style readers do not fail to connect with and enjoy.

    Though her title turned out eventually, to appear a bit superfluous and strained, she crossed the line enough for this intervention. (Back to it later.)

    The other infraction is as appears in the boxed piece: “Wabara: column as calumny” That speaks for itself and requires no further explanation.

    Of course, one had things lined up for the space, which had to be swept aside especially for this fresh and compelling matter of our Maker being dragged into the Nigerian mire. There is no doubt that most of us are currently suffering what I once tagged, “Acute Disillusion Syndrome” (ADS). This term was first used by yours truly during the days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was repeated in early 2012 during the ‘subsidygate’ protests. You recall that the then President Goodluck Jonathan after his election victory seemed to have responded with an astronomic fuel price hike on the first day of 2012. This had spawned a widespread protest across the country. From then, it was a downward spin for his government. Nigerians got so disillusioned that they could not stand him any longer. You know the rest of the story.

    Just six months after President Muhammadu Buhari’s ascendance to power, this debilitating ADS has crept in on us once again. Everything seems to stand askance, everything seems to be going wrong and suddenly, no one seems to have any answer anymore. Columnists are buffeted with a gush of ominous auguries and there is a suffusion of sad tales for writers to bear.

    The Faleke fallacy One had meant to put in a word in the Kogi conundrum. One wanted to ask what James Faleke’s point is? Why is he foolhardily throwing spanner in the works? Until the election process is fully and logically concluded, he has no legitimate mandate; he is still a ‘property’ of his party and under the will of INEC. He is not yet a political persona or entity.

    One is surprised that one is not hearing the cries of ‘party supremacy’ now that that principle is truly being infringed upon. Faleke ought to know that you cannot contest a guber election if you did not contest in a party’s primary. It’s too early for him to feud with his party and pick bones with INEC. Did his party make a mistake in making him running mate? He must remember it is a rare privilege.

    If his principal did not pass on, he would still be number two. Now that his boss is dead, should he make succession a do-or-die affair? If his party that gave him the opportunity in the first place, in their wisdom, chose someone else to replace the fallen candidate, he should simply toe the party line. The wisdom of an Igbo adage is that a man must resist the temptation to challenge his benefactor to a duel just because he thinks he has grown up to him.

    Presidential junket Recall that President Obasanjo did it, President Jonathan did it and now President Muhammadu Buhari is doing it. You must remember that nursery rhyme from the last election. Why do Nigerian presidents enjoy being airborne? Those who are taking tabs say President Buhari has travelled to 20 countries in six months; making him perhaps the most travelled president in the world – another bad sign.

    It is either that he is more comfortable abroad in which case we can safely conclude that he is running (escaping) from his (our) sad reality or he is doing something out there more important to him than the good of the country. Nigeria is back at the nadir of the worst days of the Jonathan presidency, yet our president is in flight.

    So much to be said, so much pain to be borne; the pain of disappointment and the grief of dashed hopes and expectations; the grim prospects of tomorrow as a shroud. So much to say that prose has grown prosaic and trite. The wild grass we uprooted and burnt are standing again today.

    Yes we can make  Nigeria better… with God There is also the need to drop a note for the new ministers, but all these have to wait. The overwhelming despair in the land would get to any man of goodwill, not the least a columnist and one of Adelakun’s conscientiousness. One understands her pain. She is particularly piqued that Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, had quipped that Nigeria’s troubles were beyond the ken of mere men and thus must be taken to the realms of God.

    And here is where Adelakun crossed the line when she wrote: “Where do we go from here? Definitely not to God like el-Rufai suggested. God cannot solve our problems for the simple reason that he has never solved any country’s problems. Countries have, in fact, had to repudiate God to progress.”

    My old mother hearing this kind of assertion would have been so aghast she would insist you spit immediately (bu pu asu!) so that you do not swallow blasphemy!

    My dear Bimbo, one does not know how to put this in the fewest most effective lines for you, but being an intelligent woman, it would suffice to say that you need a bit more understanding of the essence of God. God cannot be repudiated; God still solves problems – individual and collective. And God can solve Nigeria’s problems – in His own way and in His own time.

    He tells us (who know him) not to be overly troubled when we see these things happen. He has purposed them, He made everything… “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales;…” Isaiah 40: 15. I recommend Isaiah 40 to Abimbola but am afraid she may need to read it 40 times over to begin to appreciate it.

  • Wabara: Column as calumny

    I fear to do this, but one is most constrained. For the fact that Ebere Wabara is not just a colleague of the pen, but a friend. However, only a true friend can speak truth to another. In the past couple of years, Wabara has found and even enjoyed a certain obsession to malign the immediate past governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji (TA). Hardly any two weeks pass without Wabara deploying his column to abuse and heap insults on his traducer.

    In November alone, four out of five weeks, Wabara has lent his column to his indecent and indecorous pass-time. Here are samples: November 2, 2015: (1) “In December last year, the immediate past governor of Abia State and the worst ever in the annals of the state, nay Nigeria, Theodore Ahamefule Orji (TA) (clownishly known as Ochendo)…”

    (2) Novemeber 9, 2015, Wabara writes: “I do not know what is holding EFCC,” laying all manner of accusations on the graft agency because it has not done its bidding on TA. (3) November 16, 2015, Wabara writes: “Just an appetiser to whet your appetite: do you still recollect that immediate-past governor of Abia State, Theodore Ahamefule Orji (stupefactiously known as Ochendo).” Here he reminds President Buhari how TA dealt him a bad hand during electioneering. Ouch!

    (4) November 30, 2015, Wabara writes: “It is the final word on the tragedy, which hallmarked governance in God’s Own State between 2007 and 2015 – when TA ingloriously held sway.”

    All of this in just one month; consider what has been in the last 36 months and you would understand the quantum of damage and injury that has been heaped on one man just because another man has access to a space in a national newspaper. If you were not a columnist would you have raised an IED? What about the law courts?

    My friend this cannot be right, this cannot be fair by any measure and this certainly is unethical and unprofessional. And we must say so lest some young people in journalism schools across the country begin to think this is the way it is done.

  • All the way: Serving with conscience (1)

    All the way: Serving with conscience (1)

    In grateful commemoration of the 70th anniversary of my arrival on mother earth, a public presentation of my new memoir, All the Way: Serving with Conscience, is scheduled to take place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on December 21, 2015. Based on my considered judgment that my discussions in the book may be of interest to my readers, in the next few columns, I plan to release excerpts from the book. Today, I start with the preface titled “The Bondage of Conscience”.

    “On Monday, June 27, 2005, I departed Washington Dulles Airport for Lagos to spend about three weeks with my children and grandchildren and attend to some business. The Air France flight from Washington had a late departure because the incoming aircraft was delayed due to bad weather. So, instead of leaving Washington at 6:45 pm, the plane did not take off until 9 pm. We landed in Paris about 10:00 am on Tuesday, but because we had to be transported by bus from the aircraft parking lot at De Gaulle airport to the terminal, we missed the Lagos-bound flight. The plane took off as we were being bused to the terminal. Naturally disappointed, there was nothing we could do. We had to wait until the following day.

    “As I lay on the bed that night at Campanile Hotel, pondering the whole situation, some thoughts kept running through my mind. Why did I and other Nigerians have to go through Europe to get to Nigeria? Why could we not fly directly to Lagos from either Washington or New York? Why do we not have a national carrier? Why are we at the mercy of foreign airlines? Why? Why?

    “Although I had some idea of the answers to my questions, this was not what came to my mind as I lay on my bed. Instead, I found myself wanting to engage more purposefully in philosophical reflections on many of the issues that I have contemplated over the years: the mystery of birth, the excitement of childhood, the responsibility of adulthood and some landmarks in the checkered history of a nation.

    “This is not a typical memoir of recounting personal actions and involvement in matters of local, national or professional importance. There is some of that; but this is meant as much more than a diary of events.

    “My personal story of involvement up till now in issues that require action has a backdrop in events that predated my birth. The trauma of the Middle Passage and the indignity of colonisation are both significant landmarks that impacted fatherland and the trajectory of its fortunes. The condition that my grandparents and their peers faced was not of their making. Neither were my peers and I responsible for those conditions that we had to engage and confront.

    “In the life of a nation as in that of individuals, there are such unplanned, undeserved and undesirable intrusions. The mark of our humanity is the inbuilt devices that enable us to confront these intrusions and supersede them. For the nation, however, unless we subscribe to the idea of a national soul, which in my view is a chimera, it is the individuals that make up the nation who have the responsibility, through their inbuilt devices, which they may (or may not) choose to unleash at the appropriate times, to save the nation from unwanted intrusions and cultivate it to the highest level attainable. Needless to add, in so doing, the individuals also cultivate themselves to the highest level of their potentials. And when they fail, they short-change themselves irredeemably.

    “I had a childhood that oriented me in the direction of positive action. I had an education that prepared me for activism in support of just causes. I was morally wired and politically activated.  Therefore, it was not difficult for me to commit my professional life to the struggle for the uplift of motherland. Surely I was free to live my life in peace without getting involved in any form of activism. I could focus on my professional life and shun the urge to confront evil and social injustice. And I could justify such a course by reference to the futility of any such engagement or confrontation. I did not choose that course because I felt palpably the pang of conscience with its incessant taunting and challenge to action.

    “Bishop Joseph Butler was the pre-eminent authority on the supremacy of the principle of reflection and conscience. Of the 15 sermons that the Anglican Bishop preached in the 18th century, two were on conscience and more had discussions of the principle sprinkled all through them. He argued that the highest principle in human beings and that which is designed to guide morals and actions is the principle of conscience. Since conscience belongs to our nature, it is absurd for us to act without the reflection of conscience. If we do not allow the intrusion of “interest and passion”, then it is certain that “reflection and conscience” will always prevail and in prevailing will lead us to always approve “an action of humanity rather than cruelty.”

    “Animals are governed by instincts and passion. Humans also have instincts and passions. However, in addition, we also have reflection and conscience and this is the distinguishing mark of our human nature. It is what separates us from brutes. Therefore to the extent that reflection and conscience guide our actions and overrule our instincts and passions, we behave true to type. The human being, whether Christian, Muslim, Atheist, or Orisa devotee, has written in his or her heart a natural disposition to “kindness and compassion”, provided other “interests and passions” do not interfere and “lead him (or her) astray.” But there are always those competing interests and passions and they could be as strong as the natural disposition to “kindness and compassion.” The problem is that we have no way of knowing and determining which of them is placed in us by nature!

    “The predisposition to inflict harm on an innocent person, or the instinct to annul a free and fair election on the basis of personal interest or animosity is as strong and as natural as the disposition to honesty and patriotic magnanimity. The disposition to corruptly enrich oneself from the common treasury is as strong as the conscientious determination to act honestly.

    “What principle then is there in us to offer a judgment on which of the “natural dispositions” is right? It is the principle of reflection and conscience. It is there in everyone of us. It enables us to distinguish between good and evil. It taunts us as it passes judgment on our actions, prospectively and retrospectively: “What you did was wrong! You should be ashamed of yourself!” We feel it in our heart as the rebuke of conscience sinks into the veins and vessels of our being. It also urges us to certain conduct and does not withdraw until we act. If we do not, it places the blame on us and we feel a sense of shame.

    “I have always been in bondage of conscience. It is no wonder that I chose the study of philosophy. I was most assuredly attracted to the field because of its synchronisation with my pre-career convictions.

    “In Philosophical Consciencism, Kwame Nkrumah, the hero of Ghana’s independence and for much his life, the unrelenting crusader for the freedom of Africa on the continent and in the diaspora, aptly observed that for an African student of philosophy, the subject could not have the same meaning that it has for an average Western student. In the West, while the struggle for freedom and genuine democracy may still be said to be an ongoing process, in Africa at the turn of the 21st century, it has hardly begun. Therefore for its African student, philosophy must live up to its Socratic meaning as the gadfly, the conscience of humanity. If philosophy truly responds to experience, my career orientation has not been an exception.”

  • Stoning to death

    Laws are like spider’s webs. If anything small falls into them, they ensnare it. But large things break through and escape”.                                                    • Solon (638-559 B.C.), an Athenian statesman and poet

     

    Information

    Global radio waves throbbed with the breaking news of a penal judgment given in Saudi Arabia last week. The news painted a gory story of an adulterous woman (not a Saudi) who was sentenced to death by stoning while her male partner in sexual crime was sentenced to 100 lashes of the cane. The judgment has since become a global subject of debate in which personal opinions are being expressed across nations and religions. As usual, ‘The Message’ column picked up this sensitive but controversial issue for discussion today.

     

    Preamble

    Europeans who likened law to an ass may have generalised but not far from the truth after all. Laws generally are what human beings make them in the guise of interpretation. No law in any given society is naturally controversial. What brings about controversy is interpretation. All human laws, written or conventional, emanate from societal norms. Those norms only become laws when they are backed up by governing authorities.

     

    Sources of Islamic law

    In Islam, the body of the laws that govern the lives of Muslims is called Shari‘ah. This constitutes what is known as Islamic law or Islamic culture. It is derived from the following four main sources:

    1.Qur’an, the direct words of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through the Arch-Angel Jubril

    2.Hadith, the divinely guided but personal expressions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which give interpretations to the contents of the Qur’an.

    3.Ijma’, the consensus of opinions of the learned Muslim scholars which must conform to the first two sources above.

    4.Qiyas, a scholarly analogy deduced from the first three sources above.

     

    Analysis

    These sources are in sequence of authority. Qur’an is the first and foremost among them. No other source can supersede or equal the contents of the Qur’an. If any other source contradicts the Qur’an, that source automatically becomes null and void.

    Because the Qur’an was revealed in coded language, the need to decode it for the purpose of understanding became a necessity for Hadith to be adopted as the second source of Islamic law.

    No one was as competent to give accurate interpretation of the Qur’an as Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who received its revelations from Allah through Arch-Angel Jibril. The Prophet himself acquired the knowledge of interpreting the Qur’an through informal tutelage from Arch-Angel Jibril as well as the informal revelations he received either while sleeping or through divine inspiration which are called ‘Hadith-ul-Qudsi’

    The third source is the consensus of opinion of highly informed Muslim scholars (Ijma’) based on the provisions of the Qur’an and Sunnah. It came into being as a result of scholarly understanding of the first two sources by credible Muslim clerics. This source became necessary for harmonisation of Islamic jurisprudence even if environments and circumstances would still leave room for variations in language and presentations.

    The fourth and last source is analogical deduction (Qiyas) which arose from peculiar situations in which clerics might find themselves at certain times and in certain places. This source allows for logical deductions that could be made from the first three sources without contradicting any.

     

    Clarification

    In sequence of authority, therefore, it becomes clear that only in the absence of Qur’anic provision can Hadith become the supreme legal authority in Islam. And, neither ‘Ijma’ nor ‘Qiyas’ can become point of reference where the Qur’an and Hadith are available. (Hadith is the collection of the divinely guided utterances of Prophet Muhammad while Sunnah is his exemplary conducts.)

     

    Qur’anic Reference

    Like any other law, Shari‘ah is classifiable into civil and criminal aspects. As relevant here, adultery is within the criminal aspect of Shari‘ah. It is a crime that incurs a serious sanction as its punishment is clearly prescribed in Qur’an 4 verse 2 as follows:

    “The adulterer and the adulteress, give each of them one hundred lashes of the cane. Let no compassion in their case prevent you from obedience to the law of Allah, if you truly believe in Allah and the last day; and let their punishment be witnessed by a number of believers”.

    The above quoted verse is Allah’s prescribed punishment for adulterers and adulteresses as well as for fornicators (male and female). In Arabic language, there is no distinction between an adulterer and a fornicator. The word for illegitimate sexual intercourse generally is ‘zina’ which is a crime in Islam. An adulterer is called ‘zani’ while an adulteress is called ‘zaniyah’. And those are the precise words used for the two respectively in the Qur’an. The two words are equally used for fornicators.

     

    Proof of law

    As for stoning to death, no specific chapter or verse of the Qur’an can be cited as evidence for its application. In other words, the Qur’an does not prescribe stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses as it does in prescribing flogging for both. It is rather in the revealed Book (Thawrah), of Prophet Musa (Moses) otherwise known as Old Testament of the Bible that death is prescribed as punishment for adultery. (See Leviticus 20:10). Many versions of Hadith are often quoted to show how and when stoning as punishment for adulterers and adulteresses became a law. All the available evidences advanced in favour of this law are based on Hadith and Sunnah. But the question as to when the Prophet’s expression or action authorised stoning vis a vis the Qur’anic revelation on flogging quoted above remains unanswered.

    Was it before or after its revelation? If it was after, could the Prophet have given a verdict that would contradict the contents of the Qur’an? If it was before, shouldn’t such Hadith or Sunnah be superseded by the Qur’anic revelation that came after it? Yet, there is the issue of homosexuality and lesbianism and the punishment prescribed for them by the Qur’an and Sunnah.

     

    Comment

    Given the antecedent of the record of Hadith, especially as exhibited by Abu Hurayrah, any informed Muslim must be careful in using any Hadith that contradicts the contents of the Qur’an, especially as a legal code in Islam. Statutorily, Hadith is meant to explain and complement the Qur’an and not to supersede the latter in any form. Where any Hadith conflicts with any verse of the Qur’an, the latter prevails. If any of these two major sources of Islamic law has ever been controversial as in the case of stoning, it could only have been the Hadith and not the Qur’an.

    It was for this reason that Hadith was subjected to such serious scrutiny that led to scholastic separation of the wheat from the chaff in what came to be known as ‘Science of Hadith’.

     

    Documentation of Hadith

    It must be remembered that while alive, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not allow any documentation of his utterances in the name of Hadith. His position on this was that such documentation could lead to a conflict of Hadith with the contents of the Qur’an and therefore cause confusion among the Muslims Thus, because of his objection, many Hadiths that were already documented had to be burnt. But that fear was never fully allayed after all as we still have thousands of Hadith in circulation today classified as ‘weak’ (da‘if), ‘un-authorised’ (mawdu‘u)  and ‘rejected’. Yet, they bear no names other than Hadith. It is an undeniable fact that the official compilation and documentation of Hadith did not take place until several decades after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). What led to that exercise by great scholars like Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Maja, Abu Daud, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nisai and a host of others was the rampant fabrication of statements credited to the Prophet by certain mischievous elements.

    One of such elements was one Abdus-Shams Ibn Shakhr Ad-Dawsi Al-Azdi who was later renamed Abdur-Rahman after embracing Islam but was popularly known as ABU HURAYRAH. This man associated with Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as a companion for only 22 months. Yet, he claimed to have obtained 5,375 Hadith which was by far more than the combined number of Hadith transmitted by Abub Bakr, Umar Bn Kahattab, Uthman Bn Affan, Ali Bn Abi Talib and Aisha (the wife of Prophet Muhammad). The history of Hadith and that of Abu Hurayrah will be told in this column in the very near future in sha’Allah.

     

    Clarification

    Unlike the Qur’anic revelations which were promptly documented officially as instructed by the Prophet himself, Hadith and Sunnah were not authorised for documentation by the Prophet. In such a melee, it will be foolhardy to depend exclusively on Hadith in giving a verdict as fundamental as stoning human beings to death, especially when the Qur’an is silent on such law.

    Searching for evidence to justify stoning, some charlatans have claimed that an abrogated verse of the Qur’an contained stoning to death as the punishment for adultery. Such a pedestrian statement could only have come from evil minds and be meant only for ignorant people. The issue of Qur’anic abrogation is another topic to be discussed in this column on another day.

     

    Categories of adultery

    In Islam, adultery is one major sexual crime committed by married men and women. The acts of homosexuality (i.e. man to man sex) as well as lesbianism (i.e. woman to woman sex) are another. If homosexuals and lesbians are given the opportunity in Qur’an 4, verses 15-16 to repent with a promise of Allah’s forgiveness, why not the adulterers? The quoted verses go thus: “Against those of your women who commit adultery (lesbianism), call witnesses, four in number, from among yourselves; and if they bear witness, then keep the women in confinement until death release them or Allah shall make for them a way out of it. And if two (men) of you commit it (homosexuality), then punish them both; but if they repent and show remorse, leave them alone. Verily, Allah is forgiving, compassionate”.

     

    Fabricated Hadith

    Many versions of Hadith were relayed in respect of stoning. One of them was that a married woman confessed to the Prophet three times that she committed adultery and got pregnant as a result. The Prophet reportedly asked her to come and repeat the confession after delivery. It was thought that the woman would never come back having known the implication. But surprisingly, she came back after delivery and repeated the same confession three times.

    There and then, the Prophet was said to have ordered some of his companions present to pelt her with stone. This act was reportedly carried out as the woman took to her heels. When those companions returned to the Prophet after several hours and informed him that they had stoned the woman to death, he was alarmed and scolded them for carrying out such a dastardly act saying he did not send them to kill her but merely to chase her away with pebbles.

    One would wonder why the Prophet who was so trustworthy, just, compassionate and cautious about anything life generally would rush to give such a verdict (as reported) without investigating the matter conclusively. For instance, nothing in the referred Hadith tells us anything concerning the woman’s sexual partner (i.e. the man who impregnated her) before the judgment was allegedly given. That is not the exemplary Prophet described by Allah in the Qur’an thus: “you have a good example in Allah’s Apostle for anyone who looks to Allah and the last day and remembers Allah always”. (Q. 33: 21). Such Hadith could only at best be suspect.

     

    Essence of punishment

    The essence of any punishment in Islam is to enable people repent and desist from evil deeds. But what is amazing about the application of Islamic punishment for adultery is that only the lowly people in the society are caught and punished for it even when it is obvious that adultery is more rampant among the rulers and law givers themselves. Why is it that no single highly placed person has ever been caught and punished for adultery elsewhere in the contemporary world?

    Let those who administer justice fear Allah.  Like many other Hadith fabricated and credited to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for authenticity, the commonly quoted Hadith about stoning sounds very much fabricated not only because it contradicts the Qur’anic contents and misrepresents the just personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

     

    ERRATA

    The Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, drew my attention to some errors in last Friday’s article entitled ‘Ekiti: A Taste of History’ in this column. Those errors are being corrected here thus:

    1.The idea of establishing the League of Imams and Alfas of South West, Edo and Delta States was initiated by the founder of MARKAZ, Agege, Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory in 1964 and not 1967 as reported in the column last week.

    2.The first Secretary-General of the League was Jum‘ah Bamgbola and not Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory who nominated him to that post.

    Apologies for the errors.