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Tag: desperation

  • Not by desperation

    Not by desperation

    “Are they (the umbelievers) claiming the possession of the right to distribute the bounties of your Lord? It is ‘We’ (Allah) that distribute among people their sources of livelihood in this world and ‘We’ exalt some in rank above others so that some may employ the services of others. Your Lord’s mercy is better by far than all their hoarded treasures”. Q. 43: 32

    Preamble

    History is resplendent with lessons for people whose steps in life are in tandem or not with Allah’s guidance. There is no life’s odyssey without a divine warning. Heeding or shunning such a warning is however a matter of choice. And the consequences or otherwise of such a choice will eventually become the heritage of the concerned person.

    We live in a world, today, that is quite different from that of the centuries past when the Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). But surprisingly, nothing in the contemporary world has run counter to the predictions of that sacred Book or those of the last Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    For instance, business transactions in the time of the Prophet might not involve high technology or the sophistication of transport as of today but the norms which guided business in those days are still as vital today as they were then. Not even the introduction of mundane ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism has altered those norms. So far, the source of the wealth of the world has not changed from what it was in the past millennia. That source is the earth from which every atom of wealth emanates. Even the materials used to manufacture satellites or space shuttle aircraft are from the earth.

    Thus, from agriculture to nuclear device, no new norm has been introduced to warrant any new world order that can affect the faith of the Muslims. As a matter of fact, the world has witnessed the collapse of communism and that of socialism within a period of 74 years despite their overbearing influence when they held sway. It is just a matter of time for the current pervading capitalism to go the way of socialism and communism.

    Economic ideology

    An unlettered personality like Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not need to formulate any mundane economic ideology to run a great Islamic government. He was not just a political leader but also an economic expert, a great law giver and an army general of impeccable status.

    Without necessarily going into details on how he managed the economy of the Islamic state which he established and ruled from the scratch, it is obvious that even his ascension to the seven planets which paved way for modern man’s exploration of the space is of immense economic value to the contemporary world which no sensible critic can logically dispute. Although the Quran which was revealed to an unlettered Muhammad (SAW) is seen by some ignorant people as a mere religious Book, the economic value of that Book has remained unquantifiable and will remain so forever. The fast-spreading Islamic banking in the West today is a clear evidence of that fact.

    Being the most read book in the world, the Quran has been translated into hundreds of languages making it possible for millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to be employed at the various segments of the world’s economy. For instance, the writing of the Qur’an, its recitation, its proof-reading, its printing, its marketing, its teaching, its translation, its interpretation and even its criticism by unbelievers are all sources of economic survival for millions of people in the world irrespective of their religions. The global engagement in research on that glorious Book by various scholars and intellectuals either for acknowledgement of facts or for criticism are an attestation to the above assertion. There was no book like the Qur’an before its revelation and there will never be a book like it till the world will come to an end. The mounting hostility to it in certain quaters is largely due to ignorance about it. But that cannot continue forever.

    Islam as employer of labour

    If only one quarter of a billion people is gainfully employed in the workings of the Quran alone, today’s world economy would have been remarkably upheld by the religion of Islam. Yet, apart from the Qur’an, millions of people are engaged in various businesses relating to Hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tarikh (Islamic History), Tawhid (Faith in the oneness of Allah) and Thaqafah (Islamic Culture) among others. All such specialized books which emanated from the Qur’an itself were advanced to compliment the sacred Book of Allah.

    Even, for hundreds of years that the Orientalists were busy citicising Islam through their satanic publications, it was undeniable that those destroyers were benefiting from the economic legacy of that divine religion through the sale of their evil publications.

    Today, even as the same Orientalists are busy reversing themselves on what they had maliciously published about Islam in the past they are still benefiting economically from that great religion.

    However, despite the vast economic advantages provided by Islam, some unscrupulous Muslims including Nigerians still engage in illegal businesses that contravene the tenets of that divine religion. Some of such Muslims are among the thousands of Nigerians who are now languishing in various prisons around the world. Some others are even sentenced to death, by various means, as punishment for their crimes. Incidentally, some of such people often commit their atrocities under the cover of Islam. This happened even during the time Hajj rites.

    This reminds yours sincerely of a fortuitous encounter with one of them as far back as 1981 which keeps my heart quivered even today. I had once relayed that ugly encounter in this column through an article entitled ‘Business made in Prison’. But I decided to repeat it here today because it was an experience from which young Nigerian Muslim men and women of today can draw a lesson from.

    Illicit act

    A Nigerian youth of about 30 years of age called Akram (not real name) did not have anything like poultry in his dream when he was going into Saudi Arabian prison as a convict in 1981. His only prayer was for Allah to influence the minds of the Saudi Authorities to have mercy for him and grant him amnesty after two or three years in prison. His service term was 15 years. He had earned the sentence through drug trafficking engendered by blind ambition to be quickly rich by all means.

    Akram is a quiet, easy-going young man from one of the Southwest Nigerian cities. He graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. I first met him in 1978 when I went for a first degree in that country. His University was in Madinah while mine was in Jeddah. He left Saudi Arabia after graduating in 1980 and settled down in Nigeria following a one year compulsory national service to the nation. In his plan, Akram did not want to work for anybody. His ambition was to be a big merchant of automobile and electronics. However, since there was no ready-made capital with which to start off such a business, he decided to take a short cut, typical of Nigerian style and he found Saudi Arabia, the country that funded his University education, as most suitable for such a dirty business. Thus, he embarked on his first illicit ‘business trip’ to the country of his Alma Mata in 1981.

    It was on my way back to school from a summer holiday of the same year that I met him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. After embracing and exchanging pleasantries, we decided to sit together in the aircraft (of the then Nigerian Airways) in order to have a chat on the good old days and our expected future. Thus, from Lagos to Jeddah (a journey of five and a half hours), we really chatted to our fill.  Then It was as if we had not spent one hour when we arrived at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah after five and a half hours.

    Youthful dream

    As bachelors, we discussed various issues ranging from marriage, bearing of children to monogamy and polygamy as well as family structure. We gossiped on the political trend in our country as championed by the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We compared Nigeria’s pace of development with that of Saudi Arabia and concluded that our government had neither focus nor plan a situation which made Nigerian youths abroad feel like orphans.

    We also talked about world peace, the then cold war between the Western Capitalist World championed by the United States and the Eastern Socialist Block championed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and the future of Islam in Africa and the Middle East. We analysed the Middle East crises and the role of the two opposing world powers in those crises. We also veered into Nigeria’s micro economy by discussing the role of small and middle scale businesses in our country compared to those of other countries with similar status like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Egypt.

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    Without gazing through any crystal ball, we concluded that with no middle class in place, our country might have no hope except through an accidental miracle. We also reviewed the use to which Nigerian oil was put vis-a-vis that of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Algeria. On this, we concluded that oil in Nigeria was a blessing from Allah which the country’s ruling class turned into a curse. But we were not experienced enough to suggest tangible solution.

    Thus, in that long conversation which touched virtually all issues affecting the corporate life of Nigeria and her citizens, we agreed on some and disagreed on some. However, we were satisfied to have delivered our minds of their pregnancies if only to broaden our horizon.

    Point of departure

    On arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, my friend quickly dashed into the toilet and requested me to help push his baggage to the security desk for checking. He promised to join me shortly. It was almost my turn for security check before an instinct gingered me into consciousness. For more than 30 minutes after he entrusted his baggage to me and went into the toilet, my friend did not resurface. Something just told me to abandon his baggage as I was approaching the checking desk and I did. My own baggage was checked and I went out of the arrival hall to wait for him at the taxi garage. After about one hour of waiting and Akram did not surface, I decided to proceed to my hostel where he was to pass the night in my room as we had earlier agreed.

    Breaking News

    While I was still expecting him in my hostel, the electronic waves throbbed with breaking news. The Saudi Television reported the arrest of a Nigerian who smuggled drugs into the holy land. His name was ‘Akram’. That was at 9pm Saudi local time. We had arrived in Jeddah at about 9.00am that day. About one hour after the breaking news, my friend was brought to the gleer of the nation through the tube and paraded on the Saudi national television as the suspected culprit in the illicit drug trafficking. That was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Akram wanted to be rich and I was to pay the cost of his richness.

    Rumination

    What would have happened if I had not heeded the warning of my instinct? Who could have imagined that a seeming gentleman like ‘Akram’ would ever think of trafficking in drug for whatever reason? If I had been caught with Akram’s baggage, what explanation could have exonerated me? Those were some of the questions that immediately ran through me like milk runs through water and changed my mind about sentimental friendship with people, no matter how innocent they might look. There and then, I decided never to assist anybody again in carrying his or her baggage while on a journey.

    After about three months of trial, Akram was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was lucky that drug trafficking at that time in Saudi Arabia had not attracted death as punishment. If it were now, the punishment would have been death sentence by beheading. I was also lucky that at that time the Saudi immigration authorities had not adopted the use of secret camera to monitor passengers.

    Prison for reformation

    For 15 years thereafter (from 1981 to 1996), Akram remained behind bars languishing in Saudi Arabian prison as an inmate among criminals as he anxiously expected to be let off the hook one day. But one good thing about Saudi Arabia as a country or any other Islamic country for that matter is the concept of reformation which imprisonment entails. Inmates are not just imprisoned as punishment for crimes they are also prepared for a better post-prison life and re-orientated for better world outlook.

    Besides, prisoners are paid a specific amount of money daily for their labour in prison. And that gives them hope of reintegration into the society after leaving the prison. Such money is kept in a special bank account opened for them. The total amount is paid to each inmate after his or her prison term.

    Thus, when Akram left the prison in 1996, the post-prison money paid to him by Saudi government became his main lot in life. He was deported to Nigeria but not without that prison labour reward that became his capital for a poultry business. Thus, within a couple of years thereafter, he had become a big poultry farmer but whether or not he learnt any lesson from that incident is another matter.

    Qur’anic admonition

    Most of the young men and women of today do not seem to believe in crawling before walking. To them, what matters most in their lives is how to quickly get money to spend and not how such money is made. That is the main cause of the high rate of crimes witnessed around the world today and the entailed short life span for those youths. In Qur’an, Chapter 43, Verse 32 quoted above, Allah had warned Muslims against desperate accumulation of wealth over 1,400 years ago even when desperate quest for wealth was unfashionable. However, the refusal by today’s youths to heed that warning and the aggressive greed of the privileged elders in power constitute the main cause of restiveness and insurrection around the world today.

    In Islam, desperation for accumulation of wealth is prohibited because it encourages a focus on the end result rather than the means and its entailed immorality. In the past decades, Nigeria had sunk so deep into the valley of corruption that no one cared to ask about the source of any wealth even as corruption became the taproot of Nigeria’s tree of existence. Now, with parents, teachers and even legislators getting so desperate to become rich even right before their pupils and children what future is expected for those wards?

    Parochial wealth estimation

    Desperation is not what fetched Nigeria the enormous oil wealth of today. If desperation ever had any role to play in accumulating wealth, perhaps Nigeria would have long become a country in penury. This is because people who were more desperate in this same country and had lived and died some centuries back would have discovered this oil wealth and they would have exhausted it long before our own generation. But in consonance with the above quoted Qur’anic verse, Allah deliberately preserved it (oil) for our own generation for a reason best known to Him. Yes, oil may be the source of wealth at this time it is surely not the last source of wealth in this country.

    There are other sources of wealth preserved for the future generations which no desperate ‘awks’ in this generation can discover. Those who see oil as the climax of wealth and want to own its control or die for it should engage in a rethink. You can only have the privilege of presiding over the wealth of a nation for a while and not for all time. The experience of some past regimes in Nigeria should serve as a sufficient lesson. And those in government today should also note this very well. The privilege of the past did not extend to the present and that of the present will not extend to the future. Every era is a transit. And every transit has a term.

  • ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    Desperation by some Nigerians to leave this country for ‘greener pastures’ is getting more intense by the day. It is now such that a citizen reportedly walked in to the Police and begged to be declared wanted in support of an asylum bid.

    Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, recently shared the story of how a fella made the shocking request of him. In a post on his X handle, he narrated: “’Please, declare me wanted!’ I was stupefied. I blinked and looked at him again. ‘What did you say,’ I asked.

    “’Please, I want you to declare me wanted,’ he repeated.

    “’Why do you want to be declared wanted,’ I inquired, amused.

    ‘Actually, I am applying for asylum at XYZ embassy. During the interview, I told them that I am being persecuted to the point of being declared wanted by the police.

    ‘They now asked for evidence of the ‘wanted’ declaration. I can easily do the artwork but I know they will come and verify. That is why I want it from the source.’”

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    The Police, obviously, could not have obliged such request. But the sheer audacity of making it to the security agency is confounding. A man was telling a boldfaced lie before the world against his country, and he was asking the security establishment in charge of civil law-keeping to abet him. Just how further could desperation get! Besides, this fellow didn’t seem to have thought through his bid. If the Police declared you wanted, it would be for a criminal offence; and it is unlikely the intended country of asylum would simply throw their doors open to a criminal fugitive without ascertaining that his purported crime is either wrongly alleged or it is domesticated – that is, it is not a crime elsewhere even if so in Nigeria.

    The emigration syndrome, known as ‘Japa,’ has seen many Nigerians throwing caution to the wind in their frantic bid to leave the country. And they are leaving in droves. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in December, last year, said no fewer than 260,000 Nigerians approached it for assistance to emigrate from the country in 2023. But the agency also raised the alarm that many emigrants were getting stranded in destination countries, and advised that those wishing to leave the shores of Nigeria should do so by legitimate means and on sound advice.

    That is the crux: emigrate by lawful means and after fully weighing the cost to avoid getting stranded, as the grass is not always greener on the other side. But we must also hope Nigeria soon becomes conducive for living to dissuade ‘Japaing’.

  • Why is desperation replacing geniality in Atiku?

    It is perfectly legitimate and morally defensible to have a political ambition. It is also in order, even if you are a neophyte in the game, to aspire to the highest office in the land.

    Money is a major determinant in the consideration of anyone with such ambition. Mountains of them matter. But as has just been proven, they are not the sole determinant. It goes beyond that.

    The moral lesson there is that if you have money and lack other essentials, you are done for. If it is all about money, Buhari will by now be preparing to move to his retired headmaster’s home in Daura where Grundig TV is the local plasma.

    If anyone chooses to ignore that lesson, a fool at 40 or 70 plus will remain a fool forever.

    I doubt if any Nigerian, living or dead, prepared for governance more than Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory who, when some of his peers or competitors were, in his own words, busy carousing with women of easy virtues, he was busy at his table thinking out solutions to the problems of Nigeria. He ran a better and issues-based campaign more than Shehu Shagari’s or Nnamdi Azikiwe’s, but he was adjudged loser. Many genuinely felt for him because they felt he was best equipped to help the country advance in development as he did when he was premier of the defunct Western Region and chalked up a lot of ‘firsts’ such as the first TV station in Africa, the first housing and commercial estate in the country, as well as the first world-class stadium named Liberty Stadium in Ibadan.

    Although he headed for the courts to contest his loss, he did not deliberately pilot the country to the precipice. He proved a true democrat and returned to his legal business when the courts affirmed Shagari’s victory, preparing for another time. Perhaps he contented himself with the holy injunction that the race is not usually for the swift.

    Has anyone given it a thought that this mind-set of winning at all cost, may be the major reason why human lives have come to a discount in our country, where politicians lives are just snuffed out by hired killers at the flimsiest of excuses that are not in any way justifiable?

    Why can’t Atiku Abubakar pursue his electoral ambition without promoting ethnic disharmony and emulating the nationalistic posture of Awolowo? Why this desperation, suggesting that if it doesn’t go my way, the country can go to blazes? What has come on the Turaki Adamawa who pursued his case against his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo in those heady days of their Presidency in an impressive manner beholding of a nationalist and a democrat?

    I have a quality advice for the serial presidential contender: If he’s not going to confirm some back talk that he’s desperate about becoming President of Nigeria to cover up some alleged illegalities arising from the privatisation exercise in Obasanjo’s time which was put under his charge, and if he will not lend credence to the subtly crystalising charge that he wants a Nigeria to be enjoyed by a few to the detriment of the overwhelming majority, he should prove a good Muslim by accepting this “fait accompli” that Muhammad Buhari’s victory at the polls is Allah’s will.

    The Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife and other top monarchs from the South East and South South of Nigeria had spoken with one voice that Atiku should let Nigeria be and accept the outcome of the presidential election. To do otherwise is to show disregard, if not disdain, for these eminent symbols of our tradition and culture – and that will not be in sync with his revered status as the Turaki of Adamawa and other places in the country where these monarchs honoured him with prestigious chieftaincy titles.

    I am also giving this advice, remembering way back in the 70s when he was visiting the S.B. Falegan’s flat at Victoria Island to look out for his wife, Titi, opposite my cousin’s (Senator Biyi Durojaye) flat in the Central Bank quarters then. Where I am heading is that such a genial and likeable man from way back then should be dissuaded from the path of self-destruction he is treading at the moment. Only those who are benefitting from his current hard-headedness will goad him on. And when the bubble eventually bursts, he will discover, to his chagrin, that he is left alone to lick his wounds. The scavengers would have flown away!

    ‘I’m not in the party to win, but make money at election time’

    The above headline was a statement I heard from one or two pals who are somewhat close to me but who had always chosen to pitch their political tents in different zones from mine.

    That got me curious to know why people could throw their hat – and money – into an electoral ring and don’t care a hoot if their money goes up in smoke. I felt perhaps they weren’t coordinated to know what they were saying, thinking loudly inside me if they didn’t need psychiatric attention at some point.

    Until I got to the root of it from another person. That such people make more money from their parties than they put in the electoral process; so they couldn’t bother if they contested on the platforms of those parties and still flop and fail in such elections.

    Such people, to be sure, don’t mean well for society, and decent people who don’t worship filthy lucre, must avoid such people like plague. In the fullness of time, such people will make themselves outcasts in politics and the society can then move on to evolve better politics and politicking.

  • Desperation: Mirror on social realism

    Title: Desperation
    Author: Patricia Ahaneku-Uzoma
    Reviewer: Chinaka Okoro
    Year of Publication: 2016
    Publishers: Fortress Publishers Company, Owerri

    Desperation, a work of fiction by Patricia Ahaneku-Uzoma is so realistic, so correlatively true to life, so much so that in analysing it, one is tempted to forget that, essentially, it is a work of fiction. However, an objective appraisal of contemporary happenings in society heightens one’s apprehension of the social realism inherent in the work, because it so much mirrors our society.

    The author, as a creative writer, is preoccupied with using fiction to make life pleasurable for the readers, as “enjoyment… is the first aim and justification of reading any fictional work”.

    However, as Laurence Perrine states in his book Literature, Structure, Sound, and Sense “unless fiction gives something more than pleasure…unless it expands or refines our minds or quickens our sense of life, its value is not appreciably greater than that of miniature golf, bridge or pin-pong… it must yield not only enjoyment but understanding…”

    Enjoyment and understanding are two essential words that describe a work of art as either escape literature or interpretive literature.

    A work of art becomes interpretative story if it illuminates some aspects of human life or behaviours. It also presents us with an insight into the nature or conditions of our existence and gives us keener awareness of what it is to be humankind in a society that is sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, even as it broadens our knowledge and understanding of our neighbours and ourselves.

    Desperation is a quality fiction as it was written with a more serious artistic intent-to enable the reader draw some didactic lessons. These days, many youths have not found their rhythm as they want to do things their own way without recourse to parental advice or counsel from significant others. Some have fixated mind on getting rich and enjoying life bereft of hard work, focus and training that are prerequisites to success and wealth.

    Many families have ben destabilised; with many fathers becoming distraught because their children are living reckless lives and scavenging in the dustbins. Corruption has become endemic and has adversely affected almost all facets of our national life; the education sector being the worst hit.

    Rectifying these vices and more is the concern of Desperation, a book of 85 pages, excluding the seven pages of the prelims compartmentalised into 10 chapters. The author uses Nnuego (Ego in short) as the beginning and end of her narrative in Desperation which, to the reviewer, presented an assignment too taxing to establish whether it is wrong for Ego to be “desperate” to succeed in life early or wrong to be determined to attain success early in life not minding the prevailing circumstances.

    But when examined from the author’s perceived “condemnation” of Ego’s willingness to, as the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines, the reader has no option than to pronounce Ego as guilty as charged. Unlike her age mates in contemporary time who would not bother to sit for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for two or three times in order to attain the required cut-off mark for university admission, Ego didn’t want to waste more time; hence she opted to study History instead of sitting for another JAMB examination for a Law course.

    In the circumstances, she could not out rightly be said to be desperate but is determined, or better still, desperately determined to succeed or make it early in life.

    If Ego has some good dispositions which she combined with her beauty and intelligence, one wonders why she could not succeed despite how early she began to ensure that life becomes more rewarding for her and her family. Is there a finger of God in not making it early in life despite that she didn’t give room for failure? May be she didn’t realise that God doesn’t require us to succeed; He only requires that we try and leave the rest for Him to accomplish for us.

    When one juxtaposes Ego’s efforts towards her efforts towards early breakthrough and the monumental failure she may be said to be, one could identify the finger of God in the delays she experienced before she attained success.

    Through the two main characters in the novel-Ego and Ifeoma- the author made a genuine appraisal of the country’s economic situation and lack of fellow feeling for the poor in Nigeria on the part of the leaders.

    Even as young girls, Ego and her friend Ifeoma were able to discern that “… things are difficult these days. There is no money in the country… Most of our leaders are selfish. Our wealth is being drained into foreign accounts by those wicked leaders in the helm of affairs…We urgently need divine intervention in this country” (page 10).

    There is an authorial voice on page 13 where issues of corruption and nepotism were mentioned. “She knew that with that score (200), she wouldn’t read (sic) Law. She did not have rich parents or people in the corridors of power to help her secure admission, even though she didn’t merit it (emphasis mine).

    This is the author’s deliberate attempt at lampooning societal vices such as reinforcement of mediocrity to the detriment of merit. This situation manifests in students from rich homes not studying hard enough to gain their marks in internal or external examinations because they know that their corrupt parents would BUY admissions for them; a sad situation that displaces the children of the poor or their chances of gaining admission on merit.

    Continuing the commentary on the rot in the education sector, the author condemned a situation where parents pay exorbitant amount of money to secure what she called “special centres”, even as she regretted that “even if that child doesn’t know anything, he would score As”.

    In contrast to this situation, the author, through the device of stream of consciousness, emphasised the benefits of hard work.  Thinking aloud, Ifeoma said: “I don’t envy such students. I like getting something in a hard way. I want to struggle now and when I succeed, I will be proud of my achievements.”

    Ego thought she could make it early in life by doing things humanly possible to attain achievements without having recourse to God’s will. Those human qualities or attributes failed her.

    It was when she realised that God controls human affairs and allowed God to direct her ways and steps that her life changed to the better. Those things that had eluded her were provided God.

    In Desperation, there are minimal errors which the reviewer found to be insignificant minus to the book. Such errors include loosing for losing (page 4), two friend for two friends (page 5), they searching for instead of they were searching for (page 6), wing (wig) (page 8), people have always send (said) (page 12), in as much as for inasmuch (page 18).

    The word read is used several times in the book to mean study. Read and study mean different things and cannot be used to stand for the other.

    For instance, to read means to look at and understand the meaning of written or printed symbols. It is not used in the progressive tenses. For instance, some children can READ and WRITE before they go to school or she is still learning to READ”. Ego reads her History books in order to understand the events of the past. Apart from the errors, Desperation is a book that should be read by all-old and young. It is recommended that every family should have. It can also serve as a gift item. Therefore, buy two and give one to a friend.

  • APC chieftain warns aspirants against ‘desperation’

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State,  Akinlayo Kolawole, has warned the governorship aspirants against “desperation.”

    Kolawole said in a statement  in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, that the aspirants are not going to war.

    He urged them not to see the shadow poll as a “do-or-die affair.” He also advised the delegates against allowing their conscience to be bought by moneybags.

    The House of Representatives aspirant for Ekiti North Constituency 11 said the partycan only be united after the primary, if the exercie is free, fair and transparent.

    He also warned aspirants against desperation and violence in the election, saying that, as leaders of the party, they should  avoid unruly behaviour that could lead to anarchy.

    Kolawole said: “Our leaders and members must have it at the back of their minds that all eyes on Ekiti. The whole world is watching and whatever transpires during the primary may determine the chances of the party in general election.

    “So, as loyal party member, I appeal to all concerned persons in the contest to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and avoid any action that could promote crisis that can bring the party into disrepute.

    He added: “Let me also advise the delegates against voting with parochial sentiment and financial gains. The destiny of APC lies in their hands at this particular period and it is expected of them to do what is right for the future of the party.” Kolawole promised to mobilise the people of his constituency to back whoever emerges as the APC candidate during the election.

  • Desperation for position without desire to work

    The maxim; “There is no vacuum in leadership” underscores the essence of continuity in society, social institutions and the human elements that make up such.  As much as leadership is a requisite in the continuity of societal existence, so are numerous positions of leadership for tasks. Hence, politics becomes a given in the social roles of leaders in society.

    The super structure of every society is underpinned by its predominant culture, economic social relations and external variables. However, the overwhelming social altitude, moral and ethical conduct rear its head in the people’s orientation. This is where the point of departure manifests between different human societies and its leadership.

    In our country, Nigeria, leadership over the years since independence has evolved towards a very negative trend of degeneracy. People who find themselves in positions of leadership at the traditional, religious and political institutions are often found wanting.

    This indictment is proportionally high at the political institution due to the state power control at its disposal. The impunity and arrant rascality of people who occupy positions here influence the other two institutions negatively. Checks and balances, that ought to be the crucible of democratic tenets, is manipulated and trampled upon without regards for principle. This negative influence permeates the entire realms of society to undermine democracy and all the social institutions therein. Many who are elected, appointed or inherited positions of leadership often forget that there are much more to the position, and that is the call to work for the people of their society. They are tied to the position and its prestige, then forget to work for the people.

     They go a little bit further in their expectations that the people should worship or celebrate them as heroes or demi-gods. As they turn logic on its head, they forget that leadership is not a call to position, but a call to work. Now, we are living witness to a paradigm shift by the APC government. Through its social attitudinal change campaign of “Change Begins with Me”, irrespective of one’s position, we shall begin to have good leadership.

    Its message is clear and pertinent to the bane of leadership in Nigeria. If you cannot submit to leadership, you cannot be a good leader. Hence, all those who occupy position of leadership at any of the social institutions must learn to submit to the wave of change blowing from the centre towards the periphery to usher in a better, stronger and vibrant whole system.

    People who are used to prolonged years of military rule and many years of negative deviance of democracy may find the change strange. This is so and ensconced with skepticism as crumbs from the masters table are no longer falling. In the days of profligacy, the people were seduced with the largesse falling from the pockets of treasury looters as they celebrated them with ethnic and religious colorations.

    Today, the table is dry and the crumbs have ceased to fall; the people are caught between hard choices to make. Either they stick to the angel they do not know, or bring back the devil they know.

    From Ogbu A. Ameh

    onwaters2011@gmail.com

     

  • Not yet executive desperation

    Not yet executive desperation

    Some people are saying that President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for emergency powers to fix the nation’s ailing economy smacks of executive desperation.

    What do they know about the subject?

    I should take them to Indonesia in the 1960s, at the time of its charismatic and fun-loving president, Dr Ahmed Sukarno.

    The economy lay prostrate.  Inflation ran into three digits.  Even if they had struck oil then, it would have made only a marginal difference to the 70 million inhabitants of the more than 1000 islands in the archipelago, for it had not become the black gold.  Nor had OPEC begun to exact a realistic price from the Western nations that had built an industrial civilisation on obscenely cheap oil.

    Sukarno tried all the prescriptions, the classic remedies in the pharmacopoeia of the economists, from Adam Smith to John Milton Keynes.  None worked.

    Then, he hit upon a bright idea.  He would offer a ministerial appointment to, and vest with sweeping powers, any Indonesian who thought he or she could fix the economy.  But there was a catch.  If the economy had not improved significantly at the end of one year, the minister would be executed by a firing squad.

    That was executive desperation at its starkest.

    There were no applications.

    Since then, I rarely stopped wondering what would have happened if that same offer were to be made by the federal authorities in Nigeria.  My relief came some three decades later, from a source I could never have conjured up, when the economist and one-time Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Tijani M. Yesufu, volunteered a variation on Sukarno’s proposition that was even more stringent.

    That was the time of SAP, when the Nigerian economy was going through the same kind of discontinuities that had driven Sukarno to executive desperation. The black gold that had always seen the country through adversity had turned into black dust.   Approaches that had worked splendidly elsewhere seemed doomed to failure in Nigeria’s peculiar circumstances.

    The difference was that, unlike Sukarno, Babangida did not panic; he did not lose his equanimity.   On the contrary, he said he was astonished that the Nigerian economy had not collapsed, given all that it was going through.

    This was the context in which Professor Yesufu re-wrote Sukarno’s Proposition, offering to put the economy back on a solid path to recovery within one year if he was appointed Minister of Finance, failing which he would voluntarily submit to execution by a firing squad.

    The Babangida regime spurned the offer, just as it had spurned every offer to present an alternative to SAP.  The speculation then was that acceptance of Yesufu’s offer might create the pernicious impression that the economy was about to collapse when, in fact, the surprise in official circles was that it had refused to collapse.

    But there was a far more important reason for spurning Yesufu’s offer.  Given the regime’s oft-repeated declaration of commitment to upholding and respecting the fundamental rights of Nigerians, it could not in good conscience acknowledge, much less accept, Tijani’s offer.

    Back to my earlier question:  What would have happened if Sukarno’s proposition had been made to Nigerians on Nigerian soil?

    I believe that a good many of our compatriots would have jumped at it, and the authorities would have had a hard time winnowing their ranks and settling for the most plausible candidate.

    Some will accept the job and its terrible conditionality as a way of demonstrating that they are prepared to make any sacrifice for the nation.  Others will see it as an opportunity to obtain, at long last, their share of the national cake.  For such persons, the penalty for failure would be but a small price for a chance to telescope into one rollicking year all the fun they never had, and by  the same stroke, make up for all the material deprivations they had suffered.

    One thing is certain:  There will be no dearth of applicants.  It is just as certain that the successful applicant will contrive to escape execution even if the economy actually deteriorated during his tenure.  If he – pardon my sexism, but I doubt whether a woman would apply for the position – if he is truly a Nigerian, he will have taken fool-proof measures to guarantee safety for himself and his family.

    Half-way into his term, he will arrange an overseas trip for a loan or grant that only he can negotiate on behalf of the government. But as soon as he reaches destination, he will apply for political asylum.

    If the minister is barred from foreign travel during his tenure, he could sneak across the border in any number of guises or disguises.  He could use his new-found wealth to engineer a coup or an uprising –anything that can destabilise the government or keep the authorities so busy trying to maintain their hold on power, calculating that the ensuing turmoil will give him a chance to wriggle out of his Faustian bargain

    The more creative minister will resort to litigation as the surest way of staying alive.  In the tenth month of his tenure, he will seek a court order voiding, for any number of reasons, the agreement under which he was appointed minister.  If he fails at the court of first instance, he will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, and thereafter to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

    The process could drag on for several years, by which time the political and economic climate will have changed to the point of rendering the matter moot.

    Nor do these steps exhaust the possibilities.

    The minister will seek to employ what has become the most important weapon for evading restitution in Nigeria:   a perpetual injunction restraining the authorities from putting him on trial or executing him or inquiring in any manner whatsoever into any matter relating to his appointment to the cabinet.

    If that fails, he will file for a perpetual stay of execution (no pun intended).

    The whole thing will be messy and interminable, and a circus to boot, like the corruption trials now mired in contrived procedural issues.

    President Buhari knows this all too well and has wisely chosen, despite the great challenges of the times, not to riff on Sukarno’s Proposition.  The desperadoes out there expecting him to do so will be sorely disappointed.

    There is no sympathy for them in this corner.

    August 27, 1985: Why they struck

    After decades of studied silence, President Buhari recently spoke up about the motivations of his colleagues who toppled his military regime.

    One of them, General Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau), was to be cashiered for improperly obtaining an import licence and trading it for valuable consideration.  To save his friend, the aforementioned Aliyu, General Ibrahim Babangida led a group of officers to stage the August 27, 1985, coup, Buhari said.

    But that claim is incompatible with Babangida’s coup broadcast, which resonated as a study in high-mindedness, selflessness, and high patriotism.

    Was the coup just an elaborate pretext, then, and the coup broadcast a fudge?

    Babangida may well have struck to save a friend.  What is not generally known, according to an unassailable source, is that he struck to save himself as well.

  • Ekweremadu’s desperation

    Ekweremadu’s desperation

    •Let those accused of forgery face their charge instead of trying to politicise their trial

    What exactly does deputy senate president Ike Ekweremadu want to achieve with his letter to the United Nations, United States’ Congress, United Kingdom, European Union Parliament and foreign missions, seeking their intervention in a matter that is already before a competent court in Nigeria? Perhaps only the deputy senate president and those behind the idea can shed light on the matter.

    Ekweremadu wrote the international community concerning his arraignment alongside the senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, and the former Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa as well as his deputy, Mr. Benedict Efeturi, for alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, 2015. According to the deputy senate president, their arraignment was an attempt to rubbish the National Assembly by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    In the letter titled: “Re: Trumped Up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy in grave danger,” Ekweremadu said that the trial was an attempt by the government to truncate democracy in the country as well as silence him as the leader and highest-ranking member of the opposition party.

    Ekweremadu’s letter, as usual with the typical Nigerian elite’s manner of defence, was not about whether he and the three others actually committed the alleged crime of forgery or not. It pandered to the usual appeal to pity and sentiment more than any attempt to exonerate them of the alleged crime. We find this ridiculous, even if not unexpected.

    In the first place, we cannot understand how the trial could be interpreted as an attempt to truncate democracy in the country. Ekweremadu is not being tried before a military or a quasi tribunal but by a competent court of law. Even if we accept that he and the senate president were not given fair hearing by the police during their investigations as he claimed, they both have a golden opportunity to tell the court what the police did not avail them the opportunity of telling. They have the opportunity of marshalling their defence legally to exonerate themselves of the charge.

    The beauty of it is that even if the court of first instance delivers its judgment, either party that is dissatisfied with the judgment has a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal. If still that delivers a judgment that any of the parties considers unfair to it, there is yet the opportunity of taking the matter up to the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the land.

    To this extent, therefore, the trial can only deepen democracy and strengthen the rule of law in the country, contrary to Ekweremadu’s claim that it would truncate it.

    Again, in Nigeria, an accused stands innocent until proven guilty by a competent court. As a democrat, and one who should hold the rule of law sacrosanct, Ekweremadu ought to have allowed the country’s judicial system do justice to the matter instead of externalising a strictly criminal matter. The deputy senate president’s desperation to seek the intervention of the international community is a vote of no confidence in the country’s judicial system, which is a pity.

    If truly the senate’s standing rules that threw up Dr Saraki as senate president were forged, that is a grievous allegation. The senate is Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber and its leading lights must, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion. We know that those the deputy senate president has written on the matter would most probably not dignify him with a reply; this is partly why we are worried about the extent that desperation can take our politicians. Unfortunately, they not only ridicule themselves by some of their actions, they also drag the country’s name into the mud, which is sad indeed.

    We deplore the penchant of our ruling elite to see any attempt to call them to account for their actions as ethnic, religious or political persecution. In this instance, it is only the senate president and his deputy as well as two others that are on trial; they should face the charge instead of making it look as if the offence allegedly committed was collective responsibility by the senate. Any senator who feels sufficiently strong that it is the senate that is on trial has a right to ask to be joined in the suit.

    But for now, it is only Dr Saraki,  Ekweremadu and the two others that are in the dock for the alleged crime. So, let them bear their cross alone instead of dragging the name of the Nigerian senate into disrepute; not only at home, but worse still, abroad.

  • Not by desperation

    Who are those arrogating the right of distributing of your Lord’s blessings to themselves? It is We who do distribute among peole their livelihoods in this world and We exalt some in rank above others so that some may employ the services of the others. Your Lord’s mercy is better by far than all their hoarded treasures”. Q. 43: 32

     

    Peamble

    History is resplendent with leasons for people whose steps in life are in tandem or not with Allah’s guidance. There is no life’s odyssey without a divine warning. Heeding or shunning such a warning is however a matter of choice. And the consequences or otherwise of such a choice will eventually become the heritage of the concerned person.

    We live in a world, today, that is quite different from that of the centuries past when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). But surprisingly, nothing in the contemporary world has run counter to the predictions of that sacred Book or those of the last Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    For instance, business transactions in the time of the Prophet might not involve high technology but the norms which guided business in those days are still as vital today as they were then. Not even the introduction of mundane ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism has altered those norms. So far, the source of the wealth of the world has not changed from what it was in the past millennia. That source is the earth from which everything is explored. Even the materials used to manufacture satellites or space shuttle aircraft are from the earth.

    Thus, from agriculture to nuclear device, no new norm has been introduced to warrant any new world order that can affect the faith of the Muslims. As a matter of fact, the world has witnessed the collapse of communism and that of socialism within a period of 74 years despite its overbearing influence when it held sway. It is just a matter of time for the current pervading capitalism to go the way of socialism and communism.

     

    Economic ideology

    An unlettered personality like Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not need to formulate any mundane economic ideology to run a great Islamic government. He was not just a political leader but also an economic expert, a great law giver and an army general of impeccable disposition.

    Without necessarily going into details on how he managed the economy of the Islamic state which he established and ruled from the scratch, it is obvious that even his ascension to the seven planets which paved way for modern man’s exploration of the space is of immense economic value to the contemporary world which no sensible critic can logically dispute. Although the Quran which was revealed to an unlettered Muhammad (SAW) is seen by some ignorant people as a mere religious book, the economic value of that Book has remained unquantifiable and will remain so forever. The fast spreading Islamic banking in the West today is a clear evidence of that fact.

    Being the most read book in the world, the Quran has been translated into hundreds of languages making it possible for millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to be employed at the various segments of the world’s economy. For instance, the writing of the Qur’an, its recitation, its proofreading, its printing, its marketing, its teaching, its translation, its interpretation and even criticism by unbelievers are all sources of economic survival for millions of people in the world irrespective of their religions. The global engagement in research on that glorious Book by various scholars and intellectuals either for acknowledgement of facts or for criticism are an attestation to the above assertion. There was no book like the Qur’an before its revelation and there will never be a book like it till the world will come to an end. The mounting hostility to it in certain quaters is largely due to ignorance about it. And that cannot continue forever.

     

    The Prophet as employer of labour

    If only one quarter of a billion people is gainfully employed in the workings of the Quran alone, today’s world economy would have been remarkably upheld by the religion of Islam. And, apat from the Qur’an, millions of people are engaged in various businesses relating to Hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tarikh (Islamic History), Tawhid (Faith in the oneness of Allah) and Thaqafah (Islamic Culture) among others.

    Even, for hundreds of years that the Orientalists were busy trying Islam through their satanic publications, it was undeniable that those destroyers were benefiting from the economic legacy of Islam through the sale of those publications.

    Today, as the same Orientalists are busy reversing themselves on what they had maliciously published about Islam in the past they are still benefiting economically from that great religion.

    Despite the vast economic advantages provided by Islam, however, some unscrupulous Nigerian Muslims still engage in illegal businesses that contravene the tenets of that divine religion. Some of such Muslims are among the thousands of Nigerians who are now languishing in various prisons around the world. Some others are even sentenced to death by hanging as punishment for their crimes. Incidentally, some of such people do commit their atrocities under the cover of Isalm. This happened even during the current Hajj rites.

    This reminds yours ssincerely of a fortuitous encounter with one of them as far back a 1981 which keeps quivering my heart even today. I had once relayed that ugly encounter in this column but decided to repeat it here today because it was an experience from which young Muslim men and women of today can draw a lesson a lesson from.

     

    Illicit act

    A Nigerian youth of about 30 years of age called Akram (not real name) did not have anything like poultry in his dream when he was going into Saudi Arabian prison as a convict in 1981. His only prayer was for Allah to influence the minds of the Saudi Authorities to have mercy for him and grant him amnesty after two or three years in prison. His service term was fifteen years. He had earned the sentence through drug trafficking engendered by blind ambition to be quickly rich by all means.

    Akram, a quiet, easy going young man from the Southwest graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. I first met him in 1978 when I went for a first degree in that country. His University was in Madinah while mine was in Jeddah. He left Saudi Arabia after graduating in 1980 and settled down in Nigeria following a one year compulsory national service to the nation. In his plan, Akram did not want to work for anybody. His ambition was to be a big merchant of automobile and electronics. However, since there was no ready-made capital with which to start off such a business, he decided to take a short cut typical of Nigerian style. And he found Saudi Arabia, the country that funded his University education, as most suitable for such a dirty business. Thus, he embarked on his first illicit ‘business trip’ to the country of his Alma Mata in 1981. It was on my way back to school from a summer holiday of the same year that I met him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). After embracing and exchanging pleasantries, we decided to sit together in the aircraft in order to have a chat on the good old days and the expected future. And from Lagos to Jeddah (a journey of five and a half hours), we really chatted to our fill. When we arrived at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah after five and half hours, it was as if we had not spent one hour.

     

    Youthful dream

    As bachelors, we discussed various issues ranging from marriage, bearing of children to monogamy and polygamy as well as family structure. We gossiped on the political trend in our country as championed by the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We compared Nigeria’s pace of development with that of Saudi Arabia and concluded that our government neither had focus nor plan, a situation which made Nigerian youths abroad feel like orphans.

    We also talked about world peace, the then cold war between the Western World championed by the United States and the Eastern Socialist Block championed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Reublic (USSR) and the future of Islam in Africa and the Middle East. We analysed the Middle East crises and the role of the two opposing world powers in those crises. We also veered into Nigeria’s micro economy by discussing the role of small and middle scale businesses in our country compared to those of other countries with similar status like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Egypt. And without gazing through any crystal ball, we concluded that with no middle class in place, our country might have no hope except through an accidental miracle. We also reviewed the use to which Nigerian oil was put vis-a-vis that of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Algeria. On this, we concluded that oil in Nigeria was a blessing from Allah which the country’s ruling class turned into a curse. But we were experienced enough to suggest solution.

    Thus, in that long conversation touching virtually all issues affecting the corporate life of Nigeria and her citizens we agreed on some and disagreed on some. However, we were satisfied to have delivered our minds of their pregnancies if only for widening our horizon.

     

    Point of departure

    On arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, my friend quickly dashed into the toilet and requested me to help push his baggage to the security desk for checking and promised to join me shortly. It was almost my turn for checking before an instinct gingered me into consciousness. For more than 30 minutes after he entrusted his baggage to me and went into the toilet, my friend did not resurface. Something just told me to abandon his baggage as I was approaching the checking desk and I did. My own baggage was checked and I went out of the arrival hall to wait for him at the taxi garage. After about one hour of waiting and Akram did not surface, I decided to proceed to my hostel where he was to pass the night in my room as already agreed.

    While still expecting him in my hostel, the electronic waves throbbed with breaking news. The Saudi Television reported the arrest of a Nigerian who smuggled drugs into the holy land. His name was ‘Akram’. That was at 9pm Saudi local time. We had arrived in Jeddah at about 11am that day. And about one hour after the breaking news, my friend was brought to the glee of the nation through the tube and paraded on the Saudi national television as the suspected culprit in the illicit drug trafficking. That was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Akram wanted to be rich and I was to pay the cost of his richness.

    What would have happened if I had not heeded the warning of my instinct? Who could have imagined that a seeming gentleman like Akram would ever think of trafficking in drug for whatever reason? If I had been caught with Akram’s baggage, what explanation could have exonerated me? Those were the questions that immediately ran through me like milk through water and changed my mind about sentimental friendship with people no matter how innocent they might look. There and then, I decided never to assist anybody again in carrying his or her baggage while on a journey.

    After about three months of trial, Akram was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was lucky that drug trafficking at that time in Saudi Arabia had not attracted death as penalty. If it were now, the punishment would have been death sentence by beheading. I was also lucky that at that time the Saudi immigration authorities had not adopted the use of secret camera to monitor passengers.

     

    Prison for reformation

    For 15 years thereafter (from 1981 to 1996), Akram remained behind bars languishing in Saudi Arabian Prison as an inmate among criminals and expecting to be let off the hook one day. But one good thing about Saudi Arabia as a country or any other Islamic country for that matter is the concept of reformation which imprisonment entails. Inmates are not just imprisoned as punishment for crimes they are also prepared for a better post-prison life and re-orientated for better world outlook. Besides, prisoners are paid a specific amount of money daily for their labour in prison. And that gives them hope of reintegration into the society after leaving the prison. Such money is kept in a special bank account opened for them. The total amount is paid to each inmate after his or her prison term.

    Thus, when Akram left the prison in 1996, the post-prison money paid to him became his main lot in life. He was deported to Nigeria but not without that prison labour reward that became his capital for a poultry business. And within a couple of years thereafter, he had become a big poultry farmer but whether or not he learnt any lesson from that incident is another matter.

     

    Qur’anic admonition

    Most of the young men and women of today do not seem to believe in crawling before walking. To them, what matters most in their lives is how to quickly get money to spend and not how such money is made. And that is the main cause of the high rate of crimes witnessed around the world today and the entailed short life span for those youths. In Qur’an, Chapter 43, Verse 32 quoted above, Allah had warned Muslims against desperate accumulation of wealth over 1,400 years ago even when desperate quest for wealth was unfashionable. However, the refusal by today’s youths to heed that warning and the aggressive greed of the privileged elders in power constitute the main cause of restiveness and insurrection around the world today.

    In I slam, desperation for accumulation of wealth is prohibited because it encourages a focus on the end result rather than the means and its entailed morality. In the past decades, Nigeria had sunk so deep into the valley of corruption that no one care to ask about the source of any wealth again even as corruption became the taproot of Nigeria’s tree of existence. Now, with parents, teachers and even legislators getting so desperate to become rich even right before their children what future is expected for those children?

     

    Parochial wealth estimation

    Desperation is not what fetched Nigeria the enormous oil wealth of today. If desperation ever had any role to play in accumulating wealth, perhaps Nigeria would have long become a country in penury. This is because people who were more desperate in this same country and had lived and died some centuries back would have discovered this oil wealth and they would have exhausted it long before our own generation. But in consonance with the quoted Qur’anic verse above, Allah deliberately preserved it for our own generation for a reason best known to Him. Yes, oil may be the source of wealth at this time, it is surely not the last wealth in this country. There are other sources of wealth preserved for the future generations which no desperate ‘awks’ in this generation can discover. Those who see oil as the climax of wealth and want to own its control or die for it should engage in a rethink. You can only have the privilege of presiding over the wealth of a nation for a while and not at all times. The experience of the immediate past regime in Nigeria should serve as a sufficient lesson. And those in government today should also note this very well. The privilege of the past did not extend to the present and that of the present will not extend to the future. Every era is a transit. And every transit has a term.

  • Not by desperation

    Who are those arrogating the right of distributing of your Lord’s blessings to themselves? It is We who do distribute among people their livelihoods in this world and We exalt some in rank above others so that some may employ the services of the others. Your Lord’s mercy is better by far than all their hoarded treasures”. Q. 43: 32

     

    Preamble

    History is resplendent with leasons for people whose steps in life are in tandem or not with Allah’s guidance. There is no life’s odyssey without a divine warning. Heeding or shunning such a warning is however a matter of choice. And the consequences or otherwise of such a choice will eventually become the heritage of the concerned person.

    We live in a world, today, that is quite different from that of the centuries past when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). But surprisingly, nothing in the contemporary world has run counter to the predictions of that sacred Book or those of the last Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    For instance, business transactions in the time of the Prophet might not involve high technology but the norms which guided business in those days are still as vital today as they were then. Not even the introduction of mundane ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism has altered those norms. So far, the source of the wealth of the world has not changed from what it was in the past millennia. That source is the earth from which everything is explored. Even the materials used to manufacture satellites or space shuttle aircraft are from the earth.

    Thus, from agriculture to nuclear device, no new norm has been introduced to warrant any new world order that can affect the faith of the Muslims. As a matter of fact, the world has witnessed the collapse of communism and that of socialism within a period of 74 years despite its overbearing influence when it held sway. It is just a matter of time for the current pervading capitalism to go the way of socialism and communism.

     

    Economic ideology

    An unlettered personality like Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not need to formulate any mundane economic ideology to run a great Islamic government. He was not just a political leader but also an economic expert, a great law giver and an army general of impeccable disposition.

    Without necessarily going into details on how he managed the economy of the Islamic state which he established and ruled from the scratch, it is obvious that even his ascension to the seven planets which paved way for modern man’s exploration of the space is of immense economic value to the contemporary world which no sensible critic can logically dispute. Although the Quran which was revealed to an unlettered Muhammad (SAW) is seen by some ignorant people as a mere religious book, the economic value of that Book has remained unquantifiable and will remain so forever. The fast spreading Islamic banking in the West today is a clear evidence of that fact.

    Being the most read book in the world, the Quran has been translated into hundreds of languages making it possible for millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to be employed at the various segments of the world’s economy. For instance, the writing of the Qur’an, its recitation, its proofreading, its printing, its marketing, its teaching, its translation, its interpretation and even criticism by unbelievers are all sources of economic survival for millions of people in the world irrespective of their religions. The global engagement in research on that glorious Book by various scholars and intellectuals either for acknowledgement of facts or for criticism are an attestation to the above assertion. There was no book like the Qur’an before its revelation and there will never be a book like it till the world will come to an end. The mounting hostility to it in certain quaters is largely due to ignorance about it. And that cannot continue forever.

     

    The Prophet as employer of labour

    If only one quarter of a billion people is gainfully employed in the workings of the Quran alone, today’s world economy would have been remarkably upheld by the religion of Islam. And, apat from the Qur’an, millions of people are engaged in various businesses relating to Hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tarikh (Islamic History), Tawhid (Faith in the oneness of Allah) and Thaqafah (Islamic Culture) among others.

    Even, for hundreds of years that the Orientalists were busy trying Islam through their satanic publications, it was undeniable that those destroyers were benefiting from the economic legacy of Islam through the sale of those publications.

    Today, as the same Orientalists are busy reversing themselves on what they had maliciously published about Islam in the past they are still benefiting economically from that great religion.

    Despite the vast economic advantages provided by Islam, however, some unscrupulous Nigerian Muslims still engage in illegal businesses that contravene the tenets of that divine religion. Some of such Muslims are among the thousands of Nigerians who are now languishing in various prisons around the world. Some others are even sentenced to death by hanging as punishment for their crimes. Incidentally, some of such people do commit their atrocities under the cover of Isalm. This happened even during the current Hajj rites.

    This reminds yours ssincerely of a fortuitous encounter with one of them as far back a 1981 which keeps quivering my heart even today. I had once relayed that ugly encounter in this column but decided to repeat it here today because it was an experience from which young Muslim men and women of today can draw a lesson a lesson from.

     

    Illicit act

    A Nigerian youth of about 30 years of age called Akram (not real name) did not have anything like poultry in his dream when he was going into Saudi Arabian prison as a convict in 1981. His only prayer was for Allah to influence the minds of the Saudi Authorities to have mercy for him and grant him amnesty after two or three years in prison. His service term was fifteen years. He had earned the sentence through drug trafficking engendered by blind ambition to be quickly rich by all means.

    Akram, a quiet, easy going young man from the Southwest graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. I first met him in 1978 when I went for a first degree in that country. His University was in Madinah while mine was in Jeddah. He left Saudi Arabia after graduating in 1980 and settled down in Nigeria following a one year compulsory national service to the nation. In his plan, Akram did not want to work for anybody. His ambition was to be a big merchant of automobile and electronics. However, since there was no ready-made capital with which to start off such a business, he decided to take a short cut typical of Nigerian style. And he found Saudi Arabia, the country that funded his University education, as most suitable for such a dirty business. Thus, he embarked on his first illicit ‘business trip’ to the country of his Alma Mata in 1981. It was on my way back to school from a summer holiday of the same year that I met him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). After embracing and exchanging pleasantries, we decided to sit together in the aircraft in order to have a chat on the good old days and the expected future. And from Lagos to Jeddah (a journey of five and a half hours), we really chatted to our fill. When we arrived at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah after five and half hours, it was as if we had not spent one hour.

     

    Youthful dream

    As bachelors, we discussed various issues ranging from marriage, bearing of children to monogamy and polygamy as well as family structure. We gossiped on the political trend in our country as championed by the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We compared Nigeria’s pace of development with that of Saudi Arabia and concluded that our government neither had focus nor plan, a situation which made Nigerian youths abroad feel like orphans.

    We also talked about world peace, the then cold war between the Western World championed by the United States and the Eastern Socialist Block championed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Reublic (USSR) and the future of Islam in Africa and the Middle East. We analysed the Middle East crises and the role of the two opposing world powers in those crises. We also veered into Nigeria’s micro economy by discussing the role of small and middle scale businesses in our country compared to those of other countries with similar status like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Egypt. And without gazing through any crystal ball, we concluded that with no middle class in place, our country might have no hope except through an accidental miracle. We also reviewed the use to which Nigerian oil was put vis-a-vis that of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Algeria. On this, we concluded that oil in Nigeria was a blessing from Allah which the country’s ruling class turned into a curse. But we were experienced enough to suggest solution.

    Thus, in that long conversation touching virtually all issues affecting the corporate life of Nigeria and her citizens we agreed on some and disagreed on some. However, we were satisfied to have delivered our minds of their pregnancies if only for widening our horizon.

     

    Point of departure

    On arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, my friend quickly dashed into the toilet and requested me to help push his baggage to the security desk for checking and promised to join me shortly. It was almost my turn for checking before an instinct gingered me into consciousness. For more than 30 minutes after he entrusted his baggage to me and went into the toilet, my friend did not resurface. Something just told me to abandon his baggage as I was approaching the checking desk and I did. My own baggage was checked and I went out of the arrival hall to wait for him at the taxi garage. After about one hour of waiting and Akram did not surface, I decided to proceed to my hostel where he was to pass the night in my room as already agreed.

    While still expecting him in my hostel, the electronic waves throbbed with breaking news. The Saudi Television reported the arrest of a Nigerian who smuggled drugs into the holy land. His name was ‘Akram’. That was at 9pm Saudi local time. We had arrived in Jeddah at about 11am that day. And about one hour after the breaking news, my friend was brought to the glee of the nation through the tube and paraded on the Saudi national television as the suspected culprit in the illicit drug trafficking. That was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Akram wanted to be rich and I was to pay the cost of his richness.

    What would have happened if I had not heeded the warning of my instinct? Who could have imagined that a seeming gentleman like Akram would ever think of trafficking in drug for whatever reason? If I had been caught with Akram’s baggage, what explanation could have exonerated me? Those were the questions that immediately ran through me like milk through water and changed my mind about sentimental friendship with people no matter how innocent they might look. There and then, I decided never to assist anybody again in carrying his or her baggage while on a journey.

    After about three months of trial, Akram was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was lucky that drug trafficking at that time in Saudi Arabia had not attracted death as penalty. If it were now, the punishment would have been death sentence by beheading. I was also lucky that at that time the Saudi immigration authorities had not adopted the use of secret camera to monitor passengers.

     

    Prison for reformation

    For 15 years thereafter (from 1981 to 1996), Akram remained behind bars languishing in Saudi Arabian Prison as an inmate among criminals and expecting to be let off the hook one day. But one good thing about Saudi Arabia as a country or any other Islamic country for that matter is the concept of reformation which imprisonment entails. Inmates are not just imprisoned as punishment for crimes they are also prepared for a better post-prison life and re-orientated for better world outlook. Besides, prisoners are paid a specific amount of money daily for their labour in prison. And that gives them hope of reintegration into the society after leaving the prison. Such money is kept in a special bank account opened for them. The total amount is paid to each inmate after his or her prison term.

    Thus, when Akram left the prison in 1996, the post-prison money paid to him became his main lot in life. He was deported to Nigeria but not without that prison labour reward that became his capital for a poultry business. And within a couple of years thereafter, he had become a big poultry farmer but whether or not he learnt any lesson from that incident is another matter.

     

    Qur’anic admonition

    Most of the young men and women of today do not seem to believe in crawling before walking. To them, what matters most in their lives is how to quickly get money to spend and not how such money is made. And that is the main cause of the high rate of crimes witnessed around the world today and the entailed short life span for those youths. In Qur’an, Chapter 43, Verse 32 quoted above, Allah had warned Muslims against desperate accumulation of wealth over 1,400 years ago even when desperate quest for wealth was unfashionable. However, the refusal by today’s youths to heed that warning and the aggressive greed of the privileged elders in power constitute the main cause of restiveness and insurrection around the world today.

    In I slam, desperation for accumulation of wealth is prohibited because it encourages a focus on the end result rather than the means and its entailed morality. In the past decades, Nigeria had sunk so deep into the valley of corruption that no one care to ask about the source of any wealth again even as corruption became the taproot of Nigeria’s tree of existence. Now, with parents, teachers and even legislators getting so desperate to become rich even right before their children what future is expected for those children?

     

    Parochial wealth estimation

    Desperation is not what fetched Nigeria the enormous oil wealth of today. If desperation ever had any role to play in accumulating wealth, perhaps Nigeria would have long become a country in penury. This is because people who were more desperate in this same country and had lived and died some centuries back would have discovered this oil wealth and they would have exhausted it long before our own generation. But in consonance with the quoted Qur’anic verse above, Allah deliberately preserved it for our own generation for a reason best known to Him. Yes, oil may be the source of wealth at this time, it is surely not the last wealth in this country. There are other sources of wealth preserved for the future generations which no desperate ‘awks’ in this generation can discover. Those who see oil as the climax of wealth and want to own its control or die for it should engage in a rethink. You can only have the privilege of presiding over the wealth of a nation for a while and not at all times. The experience of the immediate past regime in Nigeria should serve as a sufficient lesson. And those in government today should also note this very well. The privilege of the past did not extend to the present and that of the present will not extend to the future. Every era is a transit. And every transit has a term.