The Nation Newspaper

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  • Revitalising the research and education sector

    Revitalising the research and education sector

    • By Tosin Samuel Afeniforo

    A nation’s strength in the global pursuit of growth and development lies not only in its natural resources or economic prowess but, primarily, in the depth of its research endeavours and the quality of its education. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s education and research sector have experienced a significant deterioration in recent years, which poses a serious threat to the country’s development. For Nigeria to effectively utilize its human potential and remain competitive in the global arena, it is important to embark on a comprehensive and well-planned revitalization effort.

    Our nation’s research and education sector faces a significant challenge due to inadequate financing. UNESCO recommended that member states allocate 4 to 6% of GDP or 15 to 20% of public expenditure (annual budget) to fund education. However, in Nigeria, the allocation to this sector in the annual budget has been woefully insufficient (5.4% in 2022, 8.2% in 2023), leading to little or zero funds available for genuine research, dilapidated infrastructure, outdated equipment, and a general decline in the quality of education. To overcome these challenges, we must take a constructive approach by increasing the budget allocation for research institutions, as well as basic and higher education. This will help attract top-tier researchers and educators and provide students with the necessary resources and facilities to excel academically.

    Encouraging research culture is a critical driver of progress and development. The long-term failure to invest in the research and education sector has led to much brain drain (recent exodus of young researchers) in various research institutions, hampering the nation’s development. It was reported recently that over 5,000 exceptional scholars and competent lecturers leave Nigeria each year for other countries. By investing in research, we can stop the massive brain drain, and unlock new opportunities for innovation, technological advancements, and economic growth.

    Likewise, it is essential to establish an environment that supports research and development, including creating more research centres of excellence, fostering collaborations between academia and industry, and incentivizing researchers through grants and recognition. By doing so, we can promote our research culture and improve our society through various innovations.

    Reinvigorating education requires revising and modernizing the curriculum to keep pace with the ever-evolving world. To equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to tackle the complex challenges of modern society, curricula must integrate problem-solving, critical thinking, and practical skills. Additionally, it is essential to encourage vocational and technical education to ensure that graduates are well-rounded and possess the practical skills necessary to succeed in the job market. We call on the Bola Tinubu administration to motivate the relevant stakeholders to review our curriculum and modernize it to meet global standards.

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    To achieve a successful resurgence of research and development, it is important to have a constructive partnership between the public and private sectors. It is essential to acknowledge that the government cannot address all the challenges alone. Therefore, the private sector’s support is crucial in bridging the gaps in infrastructure, financing, and expertise. The constructive partnership between the two sectors can take several forms, such as funding research projects, offering internship programs, and setting up scholarship funds. However, the government must create an enabling platform that can encourage the private sector to invest in research and development. By working together, both sectors can leverage their strengths and create a more robust and sustainable environment for research and education.

    Nigeria’s research and education sectors need revitalization, but with a collaborative and comprehensive strategy, we can achieve this goal. The government, academia, industry, and society have a vital role to play in demonstrating their commitment to this cause. The advantages of investing in a well-funded and research-focused educational system are huge; this will not only position Nigeria as a hub for innovation and creativity, but it will also produce a skilled and competitive workforce.

    It is high time Nigeria redeemed itself in today’s world. The country cannot afford to fall behind in the drive for development and prosperity on a global scale. To create a strong foundation for a better and more successful future, Nigeria must embrace public-private partnerships, update the learning curriculum, invest in education, and promote a culture of research. Nigeria has the potential to achieve significant rewards by taking action. It is a call to action that Nigeria cannot afford to ignore. I implore the current administration to consider these recommendations seriously and take bold steps toward transforming our research and education system. Visionary leadership has the potential to leave an indelible mark on the history of our great nation.

    I remain hopeful for a brighter and more prosperous future for Nigeria.

    •Afeniforo is a sustainable development practitioner and Ph.D. scholar at the IUSS Pavia, Italy.

  • Leveraging infrastructure funds for development

    Leveraging infrastructure funds for development

    By Akorede Folarin

    Infrastructure development plays a pivotal role in promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development goals globally. In Africa, where over 50% of the population lacks access to electricity, the road access rate stands at a meagre 34%, and hundreds of millions lack access to essential services such as drinking water and basic sanitation and hygiene services, infrastructure gaps have severe repercussions on living conditions.

    According to the World Bank, Africa’s decrepit infrastructure curtails its economic growth by up to two per cent annually and cuts productivity by as much as 40 per cent. This underscores the critical need for substantial investments and strategic development in the continent’s infrastructure.

    However, infrastructure projects are typically large-scale and capital-intensive, and traditional public sector funding and commercial bank loans are often insufficient to address the extensive infrastructure requirements of emerging economies such as in Africa.

    Addressing Africa’s Infrastructure Deficit

    To bridge this gap, infrastructure funds have emerged as a powerful tool, and can potentially prove instrumental in transforming Africa’s infrastructure. Leveraging on the over $100 trillion assets under management globally, infrastructure funds mobilize private capital to execute medium- to large-scale infrastructure projects that might otherwise be difficult to finance through traditional means. As specialized investment vehicles, infrastructure funds pool capital from diverse investors, including institutional investors, private equity firms, and development finance institutions (DFIs) to finance infrastructure projects across sectors, thereby enabling efficient deployment of capital and risk-sharing.

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    Professional Management and Structured Investment

    Managed by professional investment managers with expertise in infrastructure investing, these funds identify and assess investment opportunities (including greenfield and brownfield projects), negotiate deals, and manage the assets once they are acquired or developed. Typically structured as closed-end investment vehicles, investors commit capital to the fund for a fixed period of time, ensuring stability and long-term focus.

    Infrastructure funds allocate investments across a range of sectors, including transportation, energy, and telecommunications, and may extend to water and sanitation facilities, and social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. These funds exhibit flexibility in their investment destinations, spanning both developed and developing countries; however, there has been an uptick in funds focused majorly on emerging economies (like Africa) where there is a large infrastructure deficit and significant potential for economic growth.

    Benefits for Investors

    Infrastructure funds offer investors the opportunity to diversify their portfolios and access a new asset class. With long-term contracts or regulatory structures/incentives that provide long-term stable income, these investments are attractive to institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies, who have long-term liabilities that require correspondingly long-term assets. Furthermore, by occasionally partnering with public sector financiers and multilateral development banks, these funds can help de-risk infrastructure projects thereby mobilising/attracting significant additional private capital for development projects.

    Aligning Commercial and Societal Goals

    Infrastructure funds can also provide a pathway for investors to achieve both commercial and social or environmental objectives. Many infrastructure projects have significant social or environmental benefits, such as improving access to clean water, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or creating employment opportunities. Funds focusing on these types of projects can, therefore, enable investors to simultaneously achieve financial returns and positive social or environmental impact.

    Challenges and Risk Mitigation

    Despite their benefits, infrastructure funds face challenges in Africa, including project complexity and political and regulatory risks, particularly in emerging economies like Nigeria. Projects can be subject to delays and disruptions due to changes in government policies or political instability, creating uncertainty for investors and making it more difficult to achieve the desired returns. To this end, proper risk management and oversight are crucial, involving strategies such as diversification across asset types, hedging, sovereign guarantees, and other financial instruments such as put/call option agreements (PCOA), first-loss provisions, etc.

    Infrastructure funds can also benefit from partnerships with other investors and stakeholders, including public sector entities and development finance institutions, leveraging their unique industry expertise, resources, governmental concessions, etc. By working together, these stakeholders can help mobilize the resources (fiscal, human, etc.) needed to reduce the infrastructure gap in emerging economies and promote sustainable economic growth.

    Conclusion

    Infrastructure funds offer a promising avenue for development finance. By structuring attractive investment opportunities and mobilizing much-needed private capital, these funds can help to address the infrastructure deficit in emerging economies (and Africa in particular) while also allowing investors to achieve both financial returns and positive social impact. However, careful management and oversight are essential to navigate the complexities of infrastructure investments and ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.

    • Folarin is an associate at the law firm, Banwo & Ighodalo, where he specializes on private equity and M&A and project finance.

  • Now that the draft UNSC resolution on Gaza has collapsed

    Now that the draft UNSC resolution on Gaza has collapsed

    • By Femi Mimiko

    With the United States veto of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) draft resolution on humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, it has become clear that the solution to the current conflict in the territory may not lie with the UN. This is not a surprise, though, as it had become evident soon after the world body was created in 1945 that it would only be effective in resolving conflict situations when the five veto-holding member-states – US, USSR (now Russia), UK, France, and China – were in agreement. The implication of the US veto of the UAE draft resolution is that the carnage in Gaza, which started October 7, may continue unabated. 

    Lest we forget, the primary objective of the Israeli government in invading Gaza is the complete annihilation of Hamas. But the truth is that Hamas is not just a mere organisation, which can be so easily isolated and taken out by force of arms. It is also an idea, which has context. It draws life from the reality on ground in the Middle East – i.e., denial of the aspiration of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own, on parts of the territories occupied, either wholly or partially, by the State of Israel. It is thus obvious why the objective of stamping out Hamas, desirable as it may seem or sound, will not happen. It will, at best, remain a mere façade to justify the continued destruction of innocent life and infrastructure in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

    The foregoing has made it imperative for the world to find alternative pathways to stopping the expanding scope of this war, the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, and the disruptions and killings underway in the occupied West Bank.

    In the circumstances, recourse to some form of ‘eyeball-to-eyeball diplomacy,’ the type of which was employed to end the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, may have become inevitable. On each occasion, the now defunct Soviet Union, under Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev in 1956 and 1973 respectively, forged the pathway to peace by simply issuing, each, a firm ultimatum, to end the conflict. Khrushchev’s ultimatum was on the tripartite alliance of Britain, France and Israel, to halt their joint invasion of Egypt, designed to seize the Canal and depose Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nassar; failing which Moscow would consider a nuclear attack on Western Europe! The three parties complied almost immediately. US failure to fully back the tripartite expedition, it must be noted, was also quite helpful in this regard. 

    Embarrassed by the possibility of Israeli liquidation of columns of Egyptian troops in the Sinai, the Soviet leader, Brezhnev, on October 24, 1973, wrote to his US counterpart, President Richard Nixon, threatening unilateral intervention in the war – ostensibly to stop the fighting forces – if the IDF failed to immediately end its encirclement and planned destruction of the Egyptian troops, and further advancement into Egypt. By the second day, the war, which had started on October 6, 1973, came to a screeching halt!

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    The USSR was able to act as a countervailing force in 1956 and 1973 because it had the power and influence requisite for commanding compliance. It is doubtful if Russia, the main rump, and successor nation to the former Soviet Union, is appropriately positioned to do as the predecessor nation did in 1956 and 1973.  What is more; Russia is currently comprehensively engaged, nay, bogged down, in its war in Ukraine. China, another power with a veto vote in the UN that could credibly fill the void, is obviously not inclined to gamble on Gaza, where it presently has no direct interest at stake. No core member of the Western alliance, including veto-vote holders, Britain and France, is going to go this route either. That leaves Turkiye as a possible candidate for redeeming the increasingly desperate situation in Gaza. 

    Turkiye does not have a nuclear weapon, as yet; or at least nothing contrary has been announced. But the country has enough clout and credentials in the Middle East, for decisive action; as it was the core of the defunct Ottoman Empire, which held suzerainty over the entire region up until the First World War. In addition, Turkiye, like most Palestinians, is wholly Islamic; and has the second largest military in NATO, after the US. Ankara has also really never stopped being militarily engaged in the region. Besides, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Turkish state, is a very strong leader, a maverick, not known to fret about making tough, even if risky and unpopular decisions. 

    Though this may sound a little farfetched, if not awkward, but obtaining the acquiescence of nuclear holding North Korea, may actually serve the purpose of making such a Turkish ultimatum on Israel to stop the killings in Gaza, quite credible. The US, and indeed, Israel – in spite of its bravado – may not want to gamble on a possible escalation of the Gaza conflict; especially, such as may be ignited, for the US, by a fellow NATO member-state. 

    An unorthodox and definitely delicate ‘eyeball-to-eyeball diplomacy’ of this nature may actually hold the key to halting the carnage in Gaza and, ultimately, becoming a starting point in the solution to the Palestinian question.

    I had broached this idea in my presentation at a webinar, organized by the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), on November 21, 2023. It may be time now for the regional actors, with the requisite agency, to examine these possibilities, as the world figures out how to bring ongoing destruction of Gaza, including of children and women, to an end. 

    The October 7, invasion of Israel; massacre of 1,200 innocent Israelis; and taking into captive of more than 300 others by Hamas, were horrific and stand condemned. But even these can hardly continue to provide justification for the killing of 17,000 Gazans, and still counting! Yet, Hamas – which extermination Israel seeks – does not look like anywhere near liquidation. The world cannot continue to sit idly by, or helplessly watch. All options must be on the table to stop the Gaza carnage.

    • Mimiko mni writes via femi.mimiko@gmail.com
  • National Assembly; time to clean up budget process

    National Assembly; time to clean up budget process

    • By Tunde Bamise

    It is budget season again for Nigeria. Last month, President Tinubu assented to the 2023 Supplementary Budget, and, a few weeks later, presented the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly. Naturally, this has been followed by a lot of debate and conversation about the details of the budget. President Tinubu, in his presentation speech to the National Assembly, described it as “Our Budget of Renewed Hope; a budget which will go further than ever before in cementing macro-economic stability, reducing the deficit, increasing capital spending and allocation to reflect the eight priority areas of this administration.”

     With an aggregate expenditure of N27.5 trillion, it is fairly impressive, with about 30 percent of this devoted to capital expenditure.  However, the Renewed Hope ambition of this budget will be muted or of no effect if the budget is not implemented in a credible and efficient manner.

     One of the biggest ongoing challenges being faced in federal budgeting in Nigeria is the issue of “padding”, where various line items are inserted into the budgets of agencies which should ordinarily have no business with those projects. In his speech at the signing ceremony for the 2022 Appropriation Speech, President Muhammadu Buhari had cause to complain about some “worrisome changes” that were made to the proposal originally submitted by the executive. Among other things, the then president lamented that “Provisions made for as many as 10,733 projects were reduced while 6,576 new projects were introduced into the budget by the National Assembly.”

    It is unimaginable that the National Assembly can unilaterally include more than 6,000 projects into a federal budget, without consultation with the president whose signature turns the Bill into an Act.

     It is necessary to quote the former president in some detail, to drive home the magnitude of the problem: “Most of the projects inserted relate to matters that are basically the responsibilities of state and local governments, and do not appear to have been properly conceptualized, designed and costed.

    Many more projects have been added to the budgets of some MDAs with no consideration for the institutional capacity to execute the additional projects and/or for the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.”

    The same pattern played out in the 2023 Appropriation Bill as returned to the president by the 9th National Assembly. Again, President Buhari raised the alarm: “I have also noted that the National Assembly introduced new projects into the 2023 budget proposal for which it has appropriated N770.72 billion.” But there is no evidence that anything was done to address this.

    There is no proof that anything will change in this 2024 Appropriation Bill cycle. Going by the already established pattern, Nigerians should expect that the National Assembly will again toe the path of introducing hundreds if not thousands of new projects into the Bill, and also move things around without regard for the “institutional capacity to execute the additional projects and/or for the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.”

     Nigerians need to pay greater scrutiny to these issues. Insanity, it is said, is repeating the same things while expecting different results. It is imperative that the National Assembly reject any budgetary items that are out of place. During the 2023 Budget defence, the Senate questioned and rejected the insertion of N11 billion worth of contracts in the Ministry of Defence Budget, including N2.25 billion for Safe School Initiatives that should have been in the budget of the Ministry of Education. Sometimes these insertions are done by legislators themselves.

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    I have heard from reliable NASS sources that it has become a habit for some legislators to include constituency projects like roads and water projects in the budgets of agencies and parastatals whose mandate has nothing to do with such. In 2022, BudgIT, a civil society organization found that that 64 percent of the budget of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) was allocated to the procurement of street-lights, motorcycles and other contracts with no relevance or connection to the mandate of the agency.

    The River Basin Development Authorities have also been reported to face these challenges. Similarly, it has been reported that the Services of the Nigerian Armed Forces also suffer heavily from these insertions – there are reports of the budgets of the Army, Navy and Air Force being padded year after year with constituency projects by some legislators.

     For example, the 2022 and 2023 budgets of one of the Armed Services are said to contain several inserted constituency road projects in Plateau State, amounting to billions of Naira.

    This is a state where the Nigerian military has significant existing security responsibilities — so why are they being forced to pay for road construction contracts that should be taken care of by federal and state ministries of works? I recall that, recently, a former spokesperson of the Nigerian Air Force, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu (Rtd), speaking on Arise TV, disclosed that the Nigerian military typically does not even receive all of its legitimately allocated annual budgets in the first place, because of recurring constraints with funding the budget.

     At a time when Nigeria is facing multiple security challenges that require determined investment, it is therefore most unwise and unfair to divert these already limited military resources to projects completely unrelated to their primary responsibility. Not only does the military have no business doing constituency project contracts for legislators, this practice also ends up reducing what is available for them to spend on the critical task of securing Nigeria and catering to the welfare of personnel.

     It is my hope that the 2024 budget will be speedily considered and passed for presidential assent by the National Assembly, to enable its benefits kick into action in a timely manner. But most importantly, it must be given an unprecedented level of scrutiny, to ensure that the dysfunctions of previous budgets are not allowed to replicate themselves in this much-awaited Budget of Renewed Hope.

  • Is global opinion shifting against Israel?

    Is global opinion shifting against Israel?

    • By Leila Nezirevic 

    The initial sympathy for Israel in the immediate wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks is diminishing as Tel Aviv’s response is widely viewed as disproportionate.

    Nearly 17,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, with an estimated 70% being women and children.

    After Oct. 7, ruling elites, government officials, establishment media and mainstream intellectuals were solidly pro-Israel, but there seems to be a shift as many scholars are now suggesting that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is using the attacks as a pretext to commit genocide against Palestinian people.

    A group of UN experts last month also called on the international community to “prevent genocide against the Palestinian people,” warning that violations committed by Israel “point to a genocide in the making.”

    Government officials in the West are still very pro-Israel, but “now they have to respond to outraged public opinion,” Nader Hashemi, associate professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told Anadolu.

    That is forcing them “to make statements that attempt to acknowledge the Palestinian dimension of this crisis, the suffering in Gaza, the need for a Palestinian state,” he said.

    Western nations have historically looked at the issue through the prism of historic antisemitism in the West, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust and the need to support the creation of a Jewish state, said Hashemi, who is also the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

    When you have a “big catastrophe, like what we saw on Oct. 7” people initially “retrenched to those positions,” he explained.

    Western governments and intellectuals viewed what has happened as largely a story that focuses on Israel, while “the Palestinian side of the equation is, at best, just an appendage, a somewhat afterthought to this horror story,” he said.

    In other words, the grievances of the Palestinians and the need for the Palestinians to have equal rights to Israelis are “not given the same type of consideration by Western ruling elites, as they should,” Hashemi added.

    According to him, historical differences separate the West from the Global South and other states that are more sympathetic toward Palestinians, as those countries tend to view the conflict through the prism of the history of colonialism and imperialism.

    Limited to rhetoric

    Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned last month that Tel Aviv has only weeks to eliminate Hamas, as public opinion is rapidly swinging against its attacks on Gaza.

    Barak, the former prime minister and military chief who led the country between 1999 and 2001, said the rhetoric of US officials had shifted and sympathy toward Israel was diminishing, particularly because of the staggering civilian death toll in Gaza and fears of a regional spillover.

    “You can see the window is closing. It’s clear we are heading towards friction with the Americans about the offensive. America cannot dictate to Israel what to do. But we cannot ignore them,” he told the news outlet Politico.

    According to Anwar Mhajne, assistant professor of political science at Stonehill College, Israel “knew from the beginning that they have a limited time to respond” before the world starts raising questions.

    While the rhetoric has changed, it is yet unclear if the policy has shifted, with many suggesting that the shift in the Biden administration is simply due to domestic considerations for next year’s elections.

    Muslim voters are already threatening not to vote for President Joe Biden and Democrats are slowly changing their tune, said Mhajne.

    Young voters who usually lean toward Democrats are also not satisfied with his administration’s handling of the crisis, she said.

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    According to Mhajne, the US providing military aid, vetoing resolutions and allowing Tel Aviv to respond in whatever way it deems appropriate is the reason why people are turning against the government.

    “With the human cost so high, it’s becoming really hard to justify that Hamas is still intact, and people are questioning the strategy and also the goals of this,” she said.

    Hashemi emphasized that “it’s mostly rhetoric … not policy.”

    Washington has a lot of leverage that it could use to force Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and push for a serious peace process, he argued.

    However, “up until now, the US has been very reluctant to even contemplate that idea,” he said.

    In Hashemi’s opinion, the US should send a clear message to Israel that its support will be put in doubt unless it stops human rights violations against the Palestinians and enters a serious peace process.

    But, unfortunately, he does not see the US “doing what … is needed.”

    Hashemi said Washington’s unwillingness to withdraw its support is largely to do with its influence in the Middle East, but also domestic reasons related to the influence of Israeli lobby groups.

    Divided Europe

    While Israel has so far dismissed US pressure about minimizing civilian casualties, former Premier Barak said the country would not be able to ignore Washington and the EU for much longer.

    Israel is “losing public opinion” and will “start to lose governments in Europe,” while “friction with the Americans will emerge to the surface,” he told Politico.

    However, according to Hashemi, Europe remains divided on the issue.

    Major countries such as the UK, France and Germany are very pro-Israel, particularly in segments of the ruling elite, establishment voices and establishment media, but we see the most pro-Palestinian sentiment in Spain and Ireland, he said.

    In terms of public opinion and from what we have seen from large protests in Europe, “people are more critical of their governments” and their position on Israel, said Hashemi.

    The EU, which tries to act with one voice on the issue, is “still very much in Israel’s camp,” with some dissenting voices such as Spain and Ireland, and maybe Portugal to a certain extent, he added.

    US losing influence

    In the Global South, in the Islamic world, in parts of Africa and large parts of Asia, there is outrage at the US and Europe for demonstrating a “total abandonment of the principles that the West articulated were foundational to the world order” after Russia began its “special military operation” in Ukraine, according to Hashemi.

    These Western nations said “we had to abide by international law, that we had to oppose the occupation, we had to oppose annexation, we had to support the criminal prosecution of those people who are guilty of war crimes,” he said.

    These principles announced in the context of Ukraine “have completely been abandoned” when it comes to Palestine, Hashemi asserted, adding that the Global South has taken notice and “it’s very difficult to take the West seriously anymore on these questions.”

    Hashemi believes there is no going back to the world that existed before the current Gaza crisis, where the US and the West could claim some sort of moral leadership.

    The biggest beneficiaries are China and Russia, who will capitalize on the “hypocrisy” and “double standards” of the West to send a message to the Global South to ally and support them in their attempt to rewrite the rules of the international order, he said.

    ·               This article was first published in www.aa.com.tr

  • From the river to the sea!

    From the river to the sea!

    “There is no peace for the wicked”- Isaiah 48:22.

    There is no greater truism than that which Prophet Isaiah, one of the greatest and most reverred Prophets in the Holy Bible, has enunciated in the scripture above.

    What he is saying is that callous, merciless and bloodthirsty men and oppressors, subjugators, persecutors, slavers and the occupiers of the land of others, whether they be the biblical Egyptians, the Ancient Romans or anyone else, coupled with those that trample on the rights and liberties of others with impunity and that repay good with evil can NEVER escape the wrath of God and neither will they ever know or experience lasting peace.

    This is a lesson that evidently the Jews themselves and particularly the Zionists amongst them have failed to appreciate or learn.

    That you were oppressed, subjugated, murdered, robbed, humiliated, enslaved, subjected to genocide and mass murder, ethnically cleansed and treated with scorn and contempt yesterday does not give you the right to do the same to others today.

    That you were once occupied, enslaved, thrown into captivity, scattered all over the earth, butchered, gassed to death, subjected to the holocaust and deprived of your beloved homeland yesterday does not permit you to do the same to others today.

    That you have experienced God’s love, mercy, blessings, grace and restoration does not mean that you are the chosen race or master race, it simply means that God has shown you His tender kindness and opted to restore you despite the fact that you also killed and oppressed others in the past and that you crucified His only Begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and sought to destroy Christianity even at the advent of its coming.

    Those that have suffered so much in the past surely have a greater duty to ensure that that they desist from inflicting such suffering on others today lest they lose everything.

    It is in this context that I view the State of Israel and the Zionists.

    No matter what they have suffered in the last two thousand years in the hands of their numerous haters, oppressors and persecutors they have no right to inflict the wickedness that they are inflicting on the Palestinian people today and as long as they continue to do so they shall know no peace.

    They shall also continue to stir up hatred and opprobium for themselves and their cause from all right thinking people, including millions that once had sympathy for them, from all over the world.

    This is what we see unfolding today.

    Now to the title and essence of this piece.

    First coined by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinan Liberation Organisation and other Arab nationalist movements in the 1960’s, the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the popular refrain and battle cry for the Palestinians and those that support their cause and struggle for self-determination and emancipation from Israeli occupation and oppression.

    And given what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank today who can deny them the right to achieve this noble quest for freedom and the right and aspiration to exist as an independent sovereign state?

    I have always loved the State of Israel and believed in the two-state solution but I hate what her leaders are doing to the Palestinians today.

    I equate the actions of the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza today with the heinous and horrendous atrocities that Hamas inflicted on their civilian population on October 7th.

    I have always made the point that the Jewish State must be accorded the right to exist and reserves the right of self-defence.

    I concede that she is also entitled to a measure of vengeance against those that visited the deplorable violence on her civilian population that we witnessed on October 7th but the targetting of innocent civilians in their thousands, the infanticide, the ethnic cleansing, the mass murder, the genocide, the crimes against humanity, the war crimes, the unprecedented and massive amount of bloodshed, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the destruction and utter annihilation of Palestinian homes and infra-structures and all the other beastly and inexplicable horrors that are being unleashed and foisted on the women, children and elderly of Gaza today, including journalists, aid workers, hospital workers, doctors, nurses and other defenceless non-combatants and innocent civilians is unacceptable and indefensible.

    20,000 civilians (mainly women & children) slaughtered in Gaza & 85% of her 2.5 million people displaced in two months!

    Such butchery & slaughter beggars belief & as painful, traumatising & tear-jerking as it is, the world can witness it in real time thanks to Al Jazeera.

    And frankly what we are seeing is unspeakable.

    Israel may consider this to be her finest hour & a glorious manifestation of her military strength & prowess but in actual fact it is nothing but evidence of her irretrievable & inescapable descent into notoriety, savagery & barbarity & her relentless, degenerate, bestial & reprobate disposition.

    This is not her finest hour or her best moment but rather her greatest mistake.

    I say this because the Israel that millions of people from all over the world, including yours truly, once  loved, cherished, defended & empathised with no longer exists.

    What we have in its place is an unforgiving, unthinking, cruel, brash, barbaric, brutal, racist, evil, power- drunk and thoroughly repugnant fascist/apartheid state that is being led by a political class that comprises of deluded monsters, narcisstic savages, obsessive psychopaths and bloodlusting child-killers who have lost their minds, who are devoid of any pretence to even a semblance of humanity, who are hell bent on wiping out the Palestinian people and who do not believe that they are bound by the rules, regulations, canons & strictures of civilisation & international humanitarian law.

    Given this, Israel should no longer be welcomed into the comity of civilised nations & neither is she worthy of the western world’s consistent & unconditional support.

    She has not only lost her right to be regarded as a responsible & law- abiding member of the international community but, as long as she denies the Palestinians the right to exist in peace & freedom and refuses to lift the occupation, she stands the risk of forfeiting her own right to exist.

    What was once the inspiration, promise, pride & joy of millions from all over the world & the darling of civilised nations is now nothing but a vacuous, vicious, vengeful, lawless, petty, pitiful, tyrannical & bloodthirsty pariah state which celebrates & prides itself on its own barbarity, hatred, madness, war-mongering & rage, which openly espouses a racist & repugnant ‘Zionist’ philosophy, which considers itself racially & religiously superior to all others, which thrives on the suffering & pain of its Arab vassals & which is hell-bent on provoking the entire world into WWIII in an attempt to satisfy its senseless & dangerous delusions about re-establishing a biblical Zionist state & wiping out the Palestinian people.

    Zionism is the greatest evil that has been foisted on earth since the advent of the Nazis.

    It is an irony of fate & history that the Jews that are now calling themselves Zionists are the very same race whose forefathers suffered more persecution & cruelty at the hands of the Nazis than any other.

    I have no doubt that if Israeli PM Netanyahu had the power, wherewithal & horrendous gas chambers that Hitler once did he would, without any hesitation, gas to death every Arab on earth & kill every Muslim & Christian in the Middle East.

    That is how evil he & those that share his insane delusions are.

    They are the greatest threat to world peace & stability & the only way to free us from their insidious & sinister power & pervasive influence is by establishing a free & sovereign Palestinian state “from the river to the sea”.

    Just as Nazi Germany was brought to her knees by the civilised world after WW11 because of her heinous atrocities, Zionist Israel needs to be brought to her knees today.

    Does a murderous, racist rogue state that considers itself above the law & delights in slaughtering children have the right to exist?

    I doubt it.

    To those that say “but Israel is a democracy and indeed the ONLY democracy in the Middle East”, I say the following:

    Nazi Germany was a democracy too & Hitler was a democratically-elected leader yet look where they took the world!

    In the light of all this it is indeed a great shame that Israel’s greatest friend and ally, the United States of America, not only firstly vetoed a motion for a second ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations Security Council last friday but that secondly the American Congress passed a resolution that any criticism of or opposition to Zionism would be regarded as a manifestation of anti-semitism.

    The first is nothing but yet another inglorious and graphic display of American immorality, hypocrisy, double standards, insensitivity and depravity and the second of the wilfull blindness and glaring ignorance of the majority of members of the American Congress.

    To equate political Zionism, a concept which only came into existence as an organized nationalist movement after it was enunciated and founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897, with Judaism which has existed for thousands of years is not only antedelluvian idiocy and intellectual bankruptcy in its most raw, primitive, vulgar, crude and glaring form but also ignores the fact that millions of both right-wing, conservative religious Jews such as the Torah Jews and secular ones residing in Israel, America and Europe vehemently oppose the concept of Zionism themselves and deplore its malevolent and sinister delusions and political aspirations.

    I love the Jews and the State of Israel but I despise and deplore the Zionists and what they have turned the latter into.

    I despise them not because of their religious faith or semitic racial identity but because of the evil political philosophy of subjugation, occupation, enslavement and destruction of others that they choose to espouse.

    It is for this very reason that for millions all over the world and not just the Arabs  of the Middle East, the battle cry and war song of ‘from the river to the sea’ resonates so loudly.

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    Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following observation which is particularly relevant to those of us that are from Africa.

    At the end of WW11 In 1945 when the great debate began amongst the leaders of the victorious Allied powers, including America, France, Russia and the UK, about where to send the Jews after the holocaust, there was a very strong lobby to send them to Uganda where they would have established their long-awaited new Jewish homeland.

    Uganda, like Palestine, was a British colony and the colonial power believed that, unlike the Palestinians, the local African population would not present much of a threat or even raise an objection to the appropriation and occupation of their land by millions of western-backed European Jews who had suffered the most horrendous form of persecution in Europe for thousands of years.

    Yet this interesting proposal was initially made forty two years earlier in 1903.

    Known as the ‘Uganda Scheme’, it was a proposal by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of British East Africa.

    It was presented at the Sixth World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903 by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement.

    In a short piece titled ‘Expolring The Middle East Uganda Scheme For A Jewish Homeland’, the Middle East Monitor wrote the following.

    “Did you know about the intriguing chapter in history where Israel was almost established in Africa? This “almost” moment was known as the Uganda Scheme and was proposed by Theodor Herzl the father of political Zionism, in 1903. Herzl presented the plan to the World Zionist Congress envisioning a Jewish homeland in East Africa, then under British colonial rule. The proposal came at a time when Jews in Eastern Europe were facing severe persecution and massacres, making the idea of a safe haven, even in distant Africa, appealing. Despite initial approval by the Congress the plan faced opposition from the White settlers in East Africa who did not want to be displaced by other settlers. They formed an anti-Zionist commitee and their disapproval led to Britain withdrawing the offer, altering the course of history”.

    Isnt that amazing?

    Now to the point.

    Given the disposition of the Zionists I am of the view that had the Uganda Scheme been successfully resurrected, accepted and implemented by the Allied powers in 1945 and the State of lsrael established in Uganda as opposed to Palestine in 1948, the history of the Middle East and indeed the world over the last 82 years would not only have been very different but the local African indigenous population in Uganda may well have either been totally enslaved or, worse still, extinct or exterminated by today.

    I say this because Zionism is a deeply racist and supremacist philosophy that takes no prisoners, that seeks to disposses, subjugate, humiliate, emasculate and enslave others and that does not believe in sharing.

    If the local indegenous African population had sought to resist  Zionist hegemony and occupation in the same way that the Palestinians have been doing for the last 82 years they would have been subjected to something even worse than the genocide we are witnessing in Gaza and by now there may well have been no black Africans left alive in Uganda or indeed the whole of East Africa!

    Such is the danger that political Zionism presents to humanity wherever it is entrenched and wherever it goes.

    And if anyone considers the elimination or extermination of entire races to be a far-fetched proposition in this day and age they should find out what happened to the black population in Argentina, the Native Indians of North America and the local indigenous tribes like the Incas and Aztecs of South America in the hands of foreign and non indegenous settlers and occupiers.

    The world really is a very cruel place and the Ugandans  and East Africans should count themselves lucky that Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, did a deal with the immensely wealthy Jewish Rothchild family and  presented what was then known as British Palestine as a gift and offering on a silver platter to them in the form of a Jewish homeland in 1948 rather than Uganda.

    Meanwhile we shall continue to speak out against the evil in Gaza, agitate for a ceasefire and call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

    •Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the Sadaukin Shinkafi and the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, is a lawyer, a former Minister of Aviation and a former Minister of Culture and Tourism

  • Olatokun’s inaugural lecture of national development

    Olatokun’s inaugural lecture of national development

    •  By Sunday Saanu

    An inaugural lecture is a formal event  for newly appointed professors or those who have been promoted to full professorship. The lecture offers these professors the opportunity to share their knowledge, scientific discoveries and even personal journeys in their respective fields with the  academic community, public, family members and other interested parties.

    Recently at the Nigeria’s premier university-University of Ibadan (UI), it was however the turn of Professor  of Social Informatics, Knowledge Management and Information Communication Technology Policy, Prof. Wole Michael Olatokun of Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies to share his academic trajectories and achievements with the public. And, he displayed his scholarly competence and sagacity to the admiration of the audience, with a call on Nigerian leaders to wake up to the importance of data science.

    Entitled “Information and Data Science: The Siamese Twins Shaping the New World Order”, the inaugural lecture which was the first in the Department of Data and Information Science formerly known as African Regional Centre for Information Science,  examined the importance of data and information in Nigeria and proffered solutions to some of the national challenges.

    Amazingly, Prof. Olatokun who is one of the most intelligent scholars in the university, having emerged as the best graduating student in his set, effortlessly mesmerized his audience with his amazing presentation as his lecture’s thematic rendition was largely riveting.

    The depth of his scholarship as well as the significance of his research has to do with Nigeria’s development, hence, the need for the political elites to pay attention to the seriousness of the matter. As Prof. Olatokun was delivering this all-important lecture, the audience could feel the excitement of his creativity and imagination, thereby  punctuating the delivery with intermittent appreciative applause. His clear, crisp diction was enthralling, just as his ineluctable words pounded like distance drums with the audience enjoying every bit of the hot flushes of his wisdom clothed in pretty intellectual fineries.

    Hear this man of exceptional intellectual clairvoyance speaking about the importance of data in national planning, “How many are we in Nigeria in terms of population? What is the population of unemployed graduates in this country? The palliative currently being distributed nationwide, what data are we using to distribute them to make sure they reach those who need them? Your guesses are as good as mine!. The question at this juncture is: Do we really have the requisite data and infrastructure to further the course of development and transform our society in Nigeria? How accurate or reliable are our data? Our country Nigeria faces several challenges that constitute the “missing link” in our information and data science ecosystem”

    Prof. Olatokun, a perfect-picture of geniality and civility who is generally acknowledged and respected for his humility chronicled disadvantages of accurate data and argued that “it takes a viable seed and enabling soil to make a bountiful harvest, urging Nigerian leaders to stop carving on rotten woods, but to scale up capacities to harness advantages of information and data science. His words: Data Science is an interdisciplinary field that leverages data-driven techniques to uncover insights, solve complex problems, and drive decision-making across various domains. It involves a series of stages, from data collection to interpretation, and has a profound impact on industries and society at large”

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    Still arguing on the importance of accuracy of data for national development, this scholar of amazing self-restraint stated, “Poor data quality leading to poor decisions is a major challenge. It often has severe consequences, particularly in policymaking. For instance, the lack of accurate data on the number of unemployed youth in Nigeria, coupled with data inconsistencies, can lead to ineffective employment policies. Without reliable information, policymakers may misallocate resources, leading to wasted opportunities and suboptimal outcomes”

    While proffering solutions, Prof. Olatokun whose sterling strides in his scholarly adventure have recorded remarkable achievements stressed that “There is a need for deliberate efforts to solve the challenge of unavailability of accurate and reliable data to engender better planning, informed decision making and problem solving to catalyse the country becoming a major player in the fourth industrial revolution where quality data dictates the pace of development. Without quality data, national development will continue to be a mirage”

     Again, he pointed out that “There is a need to allocate more funding to universities and research institutions to promote and support research and innovation in Information and Data Science. This includes establishing research grants, centers of excellence, and innovation hubs that drive technological advancements and economic growth. Better salaries and working conditions are needed to stem the tide of the brain drain and japa syndrome”

    More importantly, he stressed, “The Cybercrimes Act 2015 which provides for the prohibition, prevention, detection, response, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes; and for other related matters, 2015 should be implemented through the Office of the National Security Adviser, as a means of solving the challenge of data insecurity. The Act should also be reviewed for a more comprehensive Data Protection Act.

    From this lecture, however, is clear that there is no lessons that is too little to learn particularly from the ivory towers. Prof. Olatokun has called attention to the need to invest in accurate data development and harvest advantages of data science, saying this is the only way to make sense out of the national senselessness regarding data science. The question is, will the leaders listen?

    Saanu (08034073427) is with Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, on sabbatical. Email: sundaysaanu@gmail.com

  • Ekiti: A taste of history

    Ekiti: A taste of history

    Saturday, November 21, 2015 was a day of honour in Ekiti State. For two days before that Saturday, Ado Ekiti, the capital of the state, had come alive with a memorable history. The people of the state trooped out in their thousands to take a glimpse of a rare guest on a rare occasion. The guest was no other personality than His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). He was there as the first Sultan ever to visit Ekiti State.

    The occasion was for the installation of an indigene of the state and a gentleman of honour as the President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of Yoruba Land.  The honouree is Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello who incidentally is also the Grand Imam of Ekiti State. It was a special day of joy on the part of Ekiti people as it was on the part of the Sultan.

    Two days earlier (Thursday, November 19, 2015, His Eminence had travelled down to Ado-Ekiti from Ibadan where he had been installed as the new Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. The day of Imam’s installation in Ado Ekiti was his sixth day in Southwest Nigeria. Shortly after his arrival in Ado Ekiti, in the previous Thursday, His Eminence paid a courtesy visit to His Royal Majesty, Oba (Dr.) Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi III, CON, JP, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti (at his palace) who hosted him and his entourage, including yours sincerely, with the grandeur of royalty.

    Observance of Jum’at Prayer

    On Friday, November 20, 2015, His Eminence commissioned the newly renovated city’s Central Mosque after paying a courtesy visit to the State Governor in his office. The Jum’at prayer observed in that Mosque was led by the Rector of the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Culture, (Markaz) Agege, Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdllah Al-Ilory OON. In his sermon, Sheikh Al-Ilory laid emphasis on the duties of an Imam and the importance of Mosques in Islam. He counseled the new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas on the challenges ahead of him and how he could surmount those challenges. While admonishing the Muslim Ummah against hearsay and tutored them on the need for cooperation with their leaders for the purpose of   unity, he called on Muslim leaders in the South West to give Imams and Muslim scholars their deserved respect and work hand in hand with them in promoting Islam in the region.

    Dignitaries

    Among the dignitaries that observed the Jum’at prayer were His Eminence, the Sultan and His Royal Majesty, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti (though a Christian who regarded joining His Eminence in the Mosque as part of royal hospitality). Others were His Royal Majesty, Oba Akadiri Momoh the Olukare of Ikare; His Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Sakariyau Olayiwola (S. O.) Babalola, OON, DSC, late President of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) who made the highest single monetary donation of one million naira the to the installation programme; the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL,  a retinue of Sokoto Chieftains who were in the royal entourage of the Sultan, the Head of Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies Department, University of Ibadan, then Dr. Kamil Koyejo Oloso and all the Chiefs and Senior Imams of the six States of the South West as well as those of Edo and Delta States.

    Some of those dignitaries including Chief S. O. Babalola; the Magajin Rafi and Galadima of Sokoto; Professor T. G.O Gbadamosi, now President of Lagos State Muslim Community; Dr. Abdullah Jibril Oyekan; former members of MUSWEN’s Secretariat Task Force as well as a retinue of other Muslim dignitaries from various States had been parts of the entourage of His Eminence since his arrival in the South West the previous Monday. The former Vice Chairman of the Task Force, Alhaji Murziq Bidemi Siyanbade’s role in this was particularly distinct as he virtually relocated to Oyo State Government House, Ibadan, where His Eminence was officially hosted as he was shuttling between that place and the University of Ibadan to ensure that the hosting protocol was properly maintained.

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    Grand Finale

    At the Ground Finale held at the grandiose Ado Ekiti pavilion, a galaxy of traditional rulers, Imams and Alfas as well as representatives of various Islamic Organizations were present in their joyful mood, an indication that the long awaited unity of the South West Ummah had come at last. The then Governor of the State, Ayodele Fayose was represented by his wife, Mrs. Feyisara Fayose; Delegates of Hausa communities from various States and representatives of some Emirs who came from the North were also there to grace the occasion. The Chairman of the occasion was Alhaji Khamis Tunde Badmus of Osun State who was ably represented by the late Senator Adebayo Salami and made a very handsome monetary donation.

    The President-General designate was presented to His Eminence, the Sultan and the public for turbanning by the Secretary-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe of Owo, Ondo State, who also gave the welcome address. The installation lecture was also delivered by Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, OON, the Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, who is well renowned for apt oration and electrifying delivery power. In the lecture, he spelt out duties and responsibilities of an Imam globally and locally. He emphasized the fact that the new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas would henceforth devote more time to his office than to his family and urged him to be well focused in carrying out his God-ordained duty.

    The then President of MUSWEN, His Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Babalola also gave a goodwill message in which he emphasized the unity of the Ummah and   further reiterated Sheikh Al-Ilory’s lecture.  

    Profile

    The then 63 year old new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West, Edo and Delta, Sheikh Muhammad Jamiu Kewulere Bello, was born on January 2, 1952. After his primary education at Ansar-ud-Deen, Ajilosun, Ekiti, he attended the famous Arabic/Islamic Institute (Zumratu Diyau Salihin) and later became a student at Arabic Training Centre, established by Sheikh Mahally Badrudeen of Ile Ami in Iwo, Osun State. He was also a student of Sheikh Agbarigidoma of Ilorin in Kwara State and a number of other renowned scholars were his teachers.     

    Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello briefly dabbled into transportation business before he was persuaded to become the Chief Imam of Ado Ekiti in 1985. He was turbaned by the then Chief Imam Yusuf Olatunji Ogunlayi of Ikole Ekiti. When Ekiti State was created from the old Ondo State in 1996, the Muslim leadership in Ekiti State unanimously appointed him as the Grand Imam of Ekiti State.

    Appointment as President-General

    On June 4, 2015, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello was unanimously appointed as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West at a meeting of the League thereby becoming the 6th Imam to occupy that post. After his installation by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, the new President-General thanked everybody that played a role in his emergence and in making the occasion a success. He then promised to strengthen the Unity of the South-West Muslim Ummah on the one hand and that of the latter and the Northern Muslim Ummah on the other.

    Acceptance Speech

    In his acceptance speech, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello said: “At this juncture, I wish to say with absolute humility and spirit of devotion to Allah (SWT) that I accept this responsibility placed on my shoulders through my appointment as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South States. As you are all aware, the responsibility of the office is enormous. However, with the special grace and assistance of Allah (SWT) coupled with the cooperation of all and sundry, I hope to contribute my quota to move forward the entire Muslim Ummah in all States of my jurisdiction in particular and the Nation in general……”

  • Ansaru-Ud-Deen seeks return of Moral studies

    Ansaru-Ud-Deen seeks return of Moral studies

    • By Halimah Balogun

    The Chairman of Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria (ADSN), Lagos Branch, Alhaji Kamorudeen Salami, has advocated the need for moral teachings to be included into the educational system.

    He stated that the removal of moral education has led to a moral void in schools.

    Salami also noted how the initial missionary-led education system, which absorbed both Muslim and Christian teachings, was pivotal in instilling moral values in students.

    Speaking at the Centenary Fitness Walk to commemorate 100 years of the society, Salami emphasized the need for moral education to be reinstated in schools.

    He lauded the efforts of the Nigerian government in granting the return of schools to faith-based organizations.

    Salami also noted the significant contributions of Ansar-ud-deen to education in Nigeria adding that since its inception in 1923, the society has been instrumental in setting up primary schools, teacher training colleges, secondary schools, colleges of education, and universities.

    He stressed that the society has played a pivotal role in shaping the lives of millions of Nigerian graduates, regardless of religious affiliations.

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    The Chairman of the Centenary Committee, Kazeem Alaka lamented the decline in the quality of education and emphasized the vital role of the government in addressing it.

    “It is very unfortunate that things have gone this bad. When we were growing up, the government was actively involved in education, and things were getting better,” he said.

    Alaka underscored the role of education in shaping the future of Nigerian youths, stressing that it is crucial to get it right in this aspect.

    He urged for collective efforts to prioritize education as a fundamental key to unlocking a brighter future for the nation.

    Chairperson of the ADSN Lagos Branch, Alhaja Kudirat Ogunkomaiya, reiterated the role of women in upholding and promoting good health practices within their families and communities.

    She stressed the importance of instilling moral values in children and guiding them on the path of righteousness.

    She urged youths to strive for excellence and to work tirelessly to make Nigeria proud.

  • Remembering Patriarch Idowu

    Remembering Patriarch Idowu

    • By Deji Okegbile

    Loving memories never die. Patriarch Professor Emmanuel Bolaji Idowu, born on September 28, 1913, changed mortality for immortality on November 27, 1993, and was buried on December 17, 1993, at Ikorodu. Idowu, the third and last president of Methodist Church Nigeria, was the first Nigerian Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the aUniversity of Ibadan.

    According to Professor Omosade Awolalu, Idowu ‘brought remarkable changes to the academic study of religions in the department.’ Idowu, who joined the university’s academic staff and was promoted to the rank of professor in 1963, was also the first African chairman of the Chapel of Resurrection, University of Ibadan.

    Idowu was elected president of Methodist Church Nigeria on October 4, 1972, at Methodist Church, Yaba, Lagos. In 1973, Idowu called for reviewing the church’s constitution as an autonomous church in Nigeria. The task also includes ordering the life of the church for effectiveness in the peoples’ native context, and this calls for an urgent process of the church’s indigenisation. A historic assembly for all Methodist Churches in Nigeria was held at Asaba from February 1-3, 1974, to set up the new pattern for Nigerian Methodism.

    Indeed, Patriarch Idowu remains synonymous with Nigerian Methodist episcopacy and the Department of Religious Studies, University of Ibadan. Celebrating Idowu’s 110 post-humous birthday and 30 years after his transition, it is essential to reflect on how Idowu, as the first patriarch of Methodist Church Nigeria (1976-1984), led the church in creating the New Constitution (1976) and inaugurating the patriarchy and adopting Methodist corporate Episcopacy.

    The 1976 Methodist Constitution was not without a natural consequence of the process of coming into being. The doubts, suspicions, acrimonies, and even bitterness engendered through the exercise of producing the constitution distracted the church and led to over 14 years of crisis. In 1984 at Otukpo Methodist Conference, Idowu’s chaplain, His Eminence Dr Sunday Mbang was elected as the new patriarch. Idowu retired at age 71 on September 28, 1984, after 12 years as the head of Methodist Church Nigeria.

    In his patriarch’s Address to the 17th Annual Conference, Methodist Church Nigeria held at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria, August 23 to September 1, 1978, Idowu emphasised the theme of the 1978 Conference, ‘On His Divine Majesty’s Service’ as a development since 1973. Idowu explained that the theme was designed to call the leadership to a sense of urgency to our commitment as a church, to give the church leadership a keen awareness that we cannot, or can no longer, afford to trifle with the commission laid upon the church by a Holy God if we are not to cease to be a church and be reduced to a mere form of incompetent contractors.

    Idowu used the 1978 Methodist Conference key-note prayer, “May our service to the future pay our debt to the past,” to remind the church sent to the end that we may be equipped with the spirit of discernment to appreciate the fact that others have laboured, and we have entered their labour. The 1978 Methodist Conference theme, according to Idowu, with his reference to the spiritual and moral signs of the country 45 years ago, called for an urgent need to pause and think, examine, and, under God, set things to right where they have gone wrong or where they are going wrong.

    Beyond celebrating leaders and personalities as human penchant, Idowu’s name and symbolic legacies remind us of the church, according to scripture and ecclesiastical tradition and recognition of persons who have responded to the divine calling and election, separated by ordination and consecration for service. Patriarch Idowu says such persons are uniquely the “Lord’s anointed” by their position. They are members of the Body of Christ and not just into ecclesiastical cosmetics when the civic leadership devolved into the hands of bishops grants them a new kind of power, a new degree of influence, over the governance and organization of their domains.

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    Episcopal ecclesiastical cosmetic brings to the fore the social leadership for example exercised by Gallic bishops, which resonates today with the pursuit of self-serving to seek control over others and essential places. Patriarch Idowu’s episcopal ideology described him as a lover of the poor, shaped by his devotion to God.

    Episcopacy dressed in ecclesiastical cosmetics reminds us how the episcopal throne promotes the acquisition of wealth and the quest for honour. History of the wealth and power of the Episcopacy in the sixth century reminds us how successful secular careers attracted the grandfather of Gregory of Tours. The bishop’s throne became the natural culmination of a successful aristocratic cursus honorum. In essence, the bishop of a large See became a great officer of State. The cathedral became very attractive, especially in the fifth century, just as the church became a political power base to counter the influence of Italy and the imperial centre, a clue to the emergence of the ‘episcopat monarchique.’ The secularisation of episcopacy remains a dangerous development but the misleading experience should not now prejudice a more wholesome appreciation of the possibilities of episcopacy as a means of spreading scriptural holiness across the land.

    Patriarch Idowu was not unaware of the development and challenges of the dynasticism of the Episcopacy from the second century until the fourth in the control of the religious and political life of their communities. Idowu’s ideology of episcopacy counters means of granting a veneer of spiritual validation to ecclesiastical cosmetics and colonisation. Patriarch Idowu reinforced the existing social and indigenous conditions, emphasising the transience of this world and life and the importance of life to come. Episcopacy shaped by ecclesiastic cosmetics and career is rooted in leadership without vision but only for the glory, fame, control, popularity, and power that leadership positions have to offer them, and do not have a sense of fulfilling the Great Commission. Episcopacy through the lens of ecclesiastical cosmetics looks beautiful on the outside; it is glamorous; it is expensive, but within is emptiness, lacks integrity and cannot be trusted. Idowu’s vision of Episcopacy provides a renewing and redeeming reference for the church and political leadership. The church and the nation need a pastoral, caring episcopate, which it has had and still possesses in many individuals like Patriarch Idowu. He lives on.

    • The Rt Rev Dr Okegbile is Bishop, Nigeria Methodist Mission, UK, and Ireland.