A Nigerian of global recognition, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Lemu, an erstwhile Grand Qadi of Niger State and Chairman of Presidential Panel on Nigeria’s Post-Election riots in 2011, is one of the five winners of this year’s (2014) King Faisal International Awards. He won the Prize not only for Service to Islam but also in recognition of his efforts towards educational development particularly his defence of Muslim women’s rights as well as his initiative in combating religious extremism in Nigeria.
Other winners of the award in various categories this year include: Prof. Gerd Faltings of Germany (for Science); Prof. Yuk Ming Dennis Lo of China/UK (for Medicine); Dr. Abdullah Ibrahim Allawi AlBussabah of Iraq (Prize for Arabic Language and Literature), and H.E. Professor Abdul Wahab Bin Ibrahim Abou Sulaiman of Saudi Arabia (for Islamic Studies). The monetary value of the prize in each of the five categories consists of the following:
1. A hand written Diwani calligraphy certificate, summarising the Laureate’s work.
2. A commemorative 24 carat 200 gram gold medal uniquely cast for each prize.
3. A cash endowment of SR 750,000 (US$200,000).
Co-winners in any category share the monetary grant. The Prizes are awarded during a ceremony in Riyadh Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia.
Profile
Sheikh Lemu who is Chairman, Council of Trustees, Islamic Relief Commission Office, will join other four other winners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the conferment of the award on Sunday, March 30, 2014. A devout Muslim, composed intellectual, and an advocate of moderation and open-mindedness, Sheikh Lemu is a member of several international Islamic organisations worldwide. He is the second Nigerian to win the prestigious award the first being the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi who won the award in the same category in 1987.
Sheikh Lemu’s legendary efforts towards enhancement of education, development and call to Islam are evident in his series of lectures, seminars and class tutorials. He has authored many Islamic books, pamphlets and school references thereby fulfilling a significant part of the needs of Nigerian community. He also serves as an important resource person for many Nigerian Muslim generations, helping them to understand Islam and to expand their knowledge of the religion.
Sheikh Lemu is a frontline scholar playing a significant role in defending Muslim women’s rights an effort that culminated in the establishment of the Union of Muslim Women’s Societies in Nigeria and promotion of peaceful co-existence among the various religious and tribal groups against sectarian violence. It is also due to his effort that the Islamic Da‘awah (Propagation) Institute aimed at combating extremism was established. He has won several national and international accolades and prizes for his services to Islam.
Lemu has a solid educational background in both Islamic and western systems. He started his career as a teacher under the Bida Native Authority and was at different times, principals of the School for Arabic Studies (SAS), Kano, and the Arabic Teachers’ College, Sokoto. He was appointed Grand Qadi of Niger State after the creation of the state in 1976.
Born 85 years ago in Lemu, Niger State, Sheikh Lemu is a national and world acclaimed Muslim scholar and jurist. The President of the Minna, Niger State-based, Islamic Education Trust (IET), he is married to a British woman, (Aisha Lemu) who embraced Islam at his instance and also became an author of several Islamic books. The delegation to the occasion which will take place on Sunday, March 30, 2014 will be led by Nigeria’s Vice-President, Architect Muhammad Namadi Sambo.
King Faisal Foundation
The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1976 by the sons of King Faisal who was just murdered. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Foundation is Prince Muhammed while its Managing Director is Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. The foundation is one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world.
The Arabian Peninsula now called Saudi Arabia consisted of two major components (Hijaz and Najd) which existed independently of each other until 1932 when the two were fused together by a Prince called Abdul Aziz Bn Abdur-Rahman Al-Saud who named it Saudi Arabia and became its first King.
People had inhabited Hijaz and Najd since 15000 to 20000 years before the coming into existence of the modern state. But in the early 18th century, a Muslim scholar and reformer named Sheikh Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab began to advocate a return to the original form of Islam. For this, Abdul Wahhab was initially persecuted by local religious scholars and leaders who viewed his teachings as a threat to their power bases. He therefore sought protection in the town of Diriyah, which was then ruled by Muhammad Bin Saud.
Both Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab and Muhammad Bin Saud jointly resolved to dedicate themselves to the restoration of pure Islamic teaching in the community. With that resolution, Bin Saud established the First Saudi State, which prospered under the spiritual guidance of Bin Abdul Wahhab, simply called Sheikh.
By 1788, the Saudi State was already ruling over the entire Central Peninsula called Najd and by the early 19th century, its rule had extended to most parts of Hijaz, including Makkah and Madinah.
However, the popularity and success of the Al-Saud rulers aroused the suspicion of the Ottoman Empire, the then dominant power in the Middle East and North Africa. And in 1818, the Ottomans dispatched a large expeditionary force armed with modern artillery to the western region of Arabia and besieged Diriyah, which by then had grown into one of the largest cities in the peninsula. Ottoman forces leveled the city with artillery and made it permanently uninhabitable by destroying all its social and economic means of living including wells and date palms.
The Second Saudi State
In 1824, the Al-Saud family regained political control of central Arabia and the then ruler, Turki bin Abdullah Al-Saud, transferred his capital to Riyadh, some 20 miles south of Diriyah, and established the Second Saudi State. During his 11-year rule, Turki succeeded in retaking most of the lands lost to the Ottomans and endeared his rule to his people by ensuring that they enjoyed fundamental human rights while enhancing their well-being.
However, the established calm was shattered in 1865 by a renewed Ottoman campaign which sought to further extend its Middle Eastern empire into the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, faced by a much larger and better equipped army, Abdulrahman bin Faisal Al-Saud was forced to abandon his struggle in 1891. He sought refuge with the Bedouin tribes in the vast sand desert of eastern Arabia known as the Rub’ Al-Khali, or ‘Empty Quarter from where his family left for Kuwait to settle down until 1902. With him on that trip was his young son Abdulaziz, who was already making his mark as a future leader.
The Modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The young Abdulaziz was determined to regain his royal patrimony from Al-Rashid family which had taken over Riyadh and established a government there backed by an Ottoman garrison. Accompanied by only 40 men with implacable determination, AbdulAziz staged a daring night march on Riyadh to displace the city garrison known as the Masmak Fortress. This historic event marked the beginning of the formation of the modern Saudi state. And on September 23, 1932, the country was named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an Islamic state with Arabic as its national language and the Holy Qur’an as its constitution.
The Prize award wing of King Faisal Foundation is dedicated to the support of intellectual development and knowledge. While announcing the names of 2014 winners of the award recently, the Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees said “Every day, in every corner of the (Saudi Arabian) Kingdom, we are working to build educational establishments to improve the lives of our people. This prize is an expression of that”.
The yearly King Faisal International Prize is the Arab world’s most respected award, often referred to as the “Arab Nobel Prize” as many of its recipients have also received the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.
The Foundation rewards individuals and institutions whose accomplishments are not only exceptional in their own right, but also make significant contributions to human knowledge and development.
Memory Lane
A mild drama occurred in 1987 when the late Sheikh Gumi won the Prize. Gumi’s award was announced barely six months after Professor Wole Soyinka won Nobel Laurel in September 1986. General Ibrahim Babangida was then in the saddle as President. The latter’s government and Wole Soyinka did not see eye to eye, before then, for many reasons. But when the award was announced, the government saw an opportunity in it to silence a chronic critic by appeasing him with a governmental largess.
On the order of President Babangida, the then federal government quickly zoomed into action by arranging a large entourage to accompany the first black African Laureate to Stockholm where the award was to be conferred. The group was conveyed in a national air jet. All the expenses were borne by the government. And on arrival at the Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos, Wole Soyinka was met with the national honour of Commander of Federal Republic (CFR).
Six months later, the King Faisal Foundation announced Sheikh Gumi as a winner of the Foundation’s prize thereby making him the first black African to win that prestigious award. At that point, the same federal government that rallied round Wole Soyinka decided to switch off and pretended not to hear of Gumi’s award winning.
MKO’s role
It took the singular effort of the late business mogul, Bashorun MKO Abiola to arrange for the reception of the award in Riyadh as he chartered a jet for that purpose. Abiola quickly invited some prominent Nigerian professionals, technocrats, clerics and academics (200 of them in all), to form a befitting entourage for Sheikh Gumi and he bore the cost. Abiola’s action was to prevent any feeling of rejection in Gumi as a Nigerian. Observing this obvious injustice, yours sincerely, then a journalist and a columnist in Concord as well as a Personal Assistant to MKO, decided put pen to paper and exposed the government’s hypocrisy querying its decision to favour a citizen and disfavour another on a similar issue in the same country where both were freeborn citizens.
The article reverberated across the length and breadth of the country and sent jitters to the government even as the matter became the talk of the town. Sensing the implications of such a discriminating attitude, General Babangida’s government suddenly changed gear. An official message was sent belatedly to Abiola asking him to hands off the arrangement, saying the government was ready to take it over and bear its cost. But Abiola, a democrat to the core, would not take a unilateral decision on such a sensitive matter. He summoned his think-tank cabinet, including yours sincerely, to a meeting for deliberation on the matter and a consensus was reached that the government should appoint a delegation to meet with a private delegation from the plan already on ground to reach a compromise.
The two teams met at the office a Colonel (name not remembered) who then served as secretary to the then military Chief of Staff at the old Senate building, Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Alhaji Liad Tella, (an editor in Concord and a member of MKO’s kitchen cabinet) and I were the chief negotiators. At the end of the meeting, it was resolved that the entourage be divided into two equally (i.e. 100 for the federal government and 100 for the private arrangement. The understanding was that the federal government would bear the cost of its nominated members while MKO would bear the cost of the private team). Yours sincerely was part of the entourage to Riyadh.
Philanthropic Magnanimity
Meanwhile, since 200 people had been invited for the Abiola team while the government came up with extra 100 nominees what would then become of those earlier invited with their passports already submitted for ticket and visa? This was a big question which also took MKO some time to answer. Abiola said since he had fully budgeted for the trip, it would be unfair to return people’s passport without travelling. He then announced that those who could not make the Riyadh list should proceed to Makkah for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) a decision that satisfied everybody.
And on reaching Saudi Arabia, MKO just went ahead to cater for everybody not minding the list or the team they belonged. At least, nobody received less than $2000 from MKO’s personal pocket. Some people were even paid $5000, some received $4000 and some were paid $3000 depending on their respective status. We pray the Almighty Allah to bless the soul of both MKO Abiola and that of Sheikh Abubakar Gumi.
Today, with a second Nigerian (Sheikh Lemu) winning the prestigious award, history seems to have rekindled its brilliant glow in favour of Nigeria and we are lucky to witness the fit. ‘The Message’ hereby joins all well-wishing Nigerians in congratulating Nigeria’s latest Laureate for achieving this exemplary glory and wishes him longer life with sound health and the best of AL—AKHIRAH. Amin!
