The Nation Newspaper

Tag: faith

  • How we chose our faith

    Religion could be seen as a medium through which man can talk to his creature. For people that believes in God, it is a path to the absolute truth; a medium through which man is connected to his creator. Today’s world is largely characterised by a plethora of diverse religions but Christianity and Islam remain the most professed religions of the world; so also in our country, Nigeria.

    Most of us, today, are either followers of Christ (Christians) or disciples of Mohammed (Muslims). Every Friday, millions of Muslims all over the country converge in designated centres of worship (mosques) to observe regular rituals. The case is also the same on Sundays, with a large number of Christians converging in various churches to worship. Fathers, mothers, youths and children all form a part of these worshipers.

    As a path to the truth, every religion carries its own unique doctrines and beliefs, which conflict with beliefs of another. This disparity in the doctrines and beliefs held by divergent religions gives rise to an inbred feeling of hatred among different religious faithful, which in turn leads to segregation among the people.

    This is quite evident in the Muslim-Christian relationship in many countries, as it is most times difficult and sometimes, even impossible for a Christian to get into serious relationship with a Muslim. For instance, inter-religious marriage is a no-go area in so many homes, likewise inter-religious business partnerships.

    The growing segregation and hate that characterises today’s inter-religious affairs are caused by the fact that, each religion feels that its own beliefs and doctrines are superior while those of the others are inferior. How then does one ascertain the right religion?

    Should it be determined by revelation or perhaps by intuition? Well, I would not want to delve into such spiritual excursion as it is overly evident that the answer to such a question cannot be provided by any mortal.

    Notwithstanding the inter-religious conflict, most, if not all religions preach freewill in making the decision on which religion someone wishes to practise. Although reality often speaks differently. Logically speaking, it can be deduced from the foregoing that religious stance is by choice. But wait a minute, how true is this proposition?

    Supposing I was the son of the Sultan of Sokoto or a Chief Imam in Kano, what would have been my chances of becoming a Christian I am today? What if we suppose the Sultan’s son was rather the son of a prominent Church founder. Then, what is his chance of becoming a Muslim? There would be no chance. I believe readers now get a clearer picture as to how they found themselves in the religion they profess today.

    In the course of my interaction with people, I hear them make statements such as: “I can never be a Christian” and “God forbid, I can never be a Muslim”. Statements like these make me wonder if such persons freely and single-handedly chose the religion they now profess. The fact is that, more often than not, we were one way or the other, influenced by some decisive factors that structured our current religious beliefs.

    Basically, every one was born into this world in a state of absolute oblivion. We knew nothing about this world and its culture. Therefore, whatever culture or belief we now assert was introduced to us by our families (parents) and the factors in the environment we live in.

    That I am a Christian today is necessarily not because I chose to be one, but because my parents and my environment somehow coaxed me to practise the religion. I certainly would not have been much persuaded about Christianity as I am today if I was not ‘cooked’ in the waters of the church by my parents or I was not born in a Christian-dominated environment.

    The fact that I was born in the southern part of Nigeria, into a churchy family, to a very large extent, is the major determinant factor for my status as a Christian today. It would have been easy for me to adopt Islam if I were born in the Northern part of the country. In fact, it is almost certain that I would have become a Muslim.

    In essence, we all are more or less where we are now (religiously speaking), by chance rather than choice. So, next time you want to castigate that bigot of opposite religion, just pause for a moment and ask yourself: “Would I have been the person I am now if I were in his shoes?” I believe after asking that question, you would begin to see people of other religions in different light.

     

    Chidubem, 300-Level Business Administration, UNIBEN

  • The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (2)

    The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (2)

    At the end of last week’s column I promised that I would start this conclusion to the series with an account of how and why even though historically religion had never been an “enemy” of science in our country, in the last few decades, a particular form of contemporary Christianity that has captured the minds of large segments of our national intelligentsia (including and especially our men and women of science) has become the “enemy” of science in our country, with very dire, very disturbing intellectual consequences for Nigeria’s present and future. In what follows, I give three “case histories” in support of that promise. Thus, let us go to the first case.

    The Nigerian Academy of Sciences (NAS) is the highest non-governmental self-organization of scientists in our country. To become a Fellow of the organization with the honorific title of Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences (FNAS), you have to achieve great respect or even fame as a scientist among fellow scientists in the country and perhaps also in the world since NAS is an affiliate member of the International Council for Science (ICS), the highest international organization of science and scientists in the world. For these reasons, to be the President of NAS is to be a man or woman of science who has great renown as a scientist. Well then, imagine this following true and factual account that took place about ten years ago.

    The President of NAS who roughly at the same time also happened to be the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos brought the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM), Dr. Olukoya, to the campus of Unilag to perform an exorcism of the spirits and demons deemed to be behind the “cultism” and other acts and practices of evil mayhem and criminality among the students of the institution. This NAS President (who incidentally is a distant relative of mine) was quoted in newspapers as asserting that the exorcizing visit of the MFM to the Unilag campus was the best day of his life in the University including his days as an undergraduate; his years as a lecturer, senior lecturer and professor; and the long road to becoming Vice Chancellor from HOD to Dean of Faculty to Chief Executive of the University. We might note in passing here that Dr. Olukoya, the General Overseer of the MFM is himself a scientist with a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. During his ritual of exorcism, he gave the names of the seven or eight demons that he expelled from the Unilag campus. This all seemed to have come from Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist, written and performed in London in the early 17th century. As far as I know, no Fellow of the NAS, and no scientist at the University of Lagos ever expressed any opposition, any disbelief that in Nigeria of the 21st century, an eminent man of science could not openly and triumphantly practice exorcism in one of the leading universities in our country but actually go on to extol the event as the very pinnacle of his experience in the University of Lagos. This is case No 1.

    Case No 2 also involved exorcism, but of a very different kind. This took place at the University of Ife. After the tenure of Professor Wande Abimbola as the Vice Chancellor of the University, the VC who succeeded him was afraid to move into the official VC’s Lodge until the place was “spiritually cleansed” by a long round of vigils and prayers by a select group of campus “born again Christians” many of whom were very senior professors in the arts and sciences. As an agricultural and environmental economist, the VC in question was a scientist somewhere in the middle of the “soft” and “hard” sciences. It is important to explain why this VC was afraid of moving into the Lodge formerly occupied by Professor Abimbola and his family. As many people reading this who are familiar with Professor Abimbola’s scholarly work and career know, he is regarded as the world’s foremost specialist on the Ifa corpus and one of the most revered High Priests of the Orisa religion. This was why his successor was in great dread about moving into the VC’s Lodge; he and his co-religionists feared that Abimbola had left behind all the spirits and avatars of his own religion. And so thorough, so total was the “spiritual cleansing” that they performed that priceless traditional works of art that graced the VC Lodge were thrown away, including the magnificent carved doors of the Lodge. And once the “cleansing” had been done, the new VC and his family declared victory IJN and began to hold regular vigils and prayer sessions in the VC’s Lodge. That is case No 2.

    Case No 3 has a personal and rather sad resonance for me. It concerns a Professor Emeritus of Physics who, during the years of his active life as an academic, was one of the brightest scientists of his generation and was easily one of the most highly respected physicists in our country and in Africa. As a matter of fact, he was a one-time President of the Nigerian Association of Physicists. After retirement, he became a pastor and founded his own ministry. There is nothing wrong, nothing inherently against science in that; famously, Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, was a pastor in the Unitarian Church. And as I observed in last week’s column, there are dozens of Nobel Prize Laureates in the sciences who are devout Christians or Judaists.

    What is saddening in this particular case is that upon becoming a “born again” pastor, our former renowned physicist abandoned physics and the scientific ethos. This came out in a series of very bitter public exchanges between him and Wole Soyinka over the former physicist’s allegation that the Pyrates Confraternity (PC) had been a cult, the work of Satan and his hosts when he and WS and a few other undergraduates founded the organization in the early 1950s. Much later, when I was an undergraduate at Ibadan, I was myself a “pyrate”, a member of the PC. This is why this case has a personal and very sad connotation for me. To believe that the PC in the time of its original founders was a “satanic cult” is bad enough; but to believe that the Pyrates Confraternity, even when it had joined other violently criminal and extortionate gangs on our university campuses was the work of Satan in a world caught in an eternal struggle between God and Satan is not modern Christianity but a throwback to the Christianity of the European Middle Ages. This is the form of Christianity that now has a commanding grip on the minds and the brains of hundreds and thousands of our national intelligentsia and is conducting an undeclared war on science in our country and our continent.

    In this series, I have repeatedly stated that religion and science are not incompatible, not mutually antithetical. I now wish to make the clarification here that by this I mean religious expressions that are not opposed to the rational processes of the human mind and brain, that in fact see the hand of God in these processes. All the Nobel Laureates in the sciences that also believe in God are, without exception, of this kind of religionists. The first and second generations of scientists in our country were also of this category of men and women of rationalistic and rigorous scientific endeavor who were also religionists. To back this up, I wish to state here very clearly that all the three “case histories” that I have profiled in this piece would have been unthinkable in my years as a high school student and a university undergraduate. A VC who dared to bring an exorcist to a university campus would have been considered a figure of derision. In my days as an undergraduate, we would have written and performed satirical plays about a VC who was terrified to move into the VC’s Lodge because he thought it was occupied by “spirits” left there by the last occupant. In those days, things like that happened in the dark, in secrecy; their perpetrators were too afraid of the scorn they would have attracted if they acted on their fears and anxieties in the open. These days, they not only operate in the open, they do so from the hallowed podiums of Vice Chancellorships and Presidencies of the Nigerian Academy of Science. When the most eminent men and women of science in a country are self-declared and militant religious medievalists of this kind, science in the given society undergoes a retrogression that may perhaps take generations to recover from. We are in deep, deep trouble in this matter, compatriots.

    In conclusion, let me say that I have some errors and confusions to correct from last week’s column. Thanks to some readers who sent me emails, I can report now that it was Dr. S.O. Onabamiro who wrote the monograph, Why Our Children Die, not Dr. S.O. Awokoya as I stated in last week’s essay. I probably got confused by the fact that Awokoya and Onabamiro were both, at different times, Minister of Education in the old Western Region and they both fell out of favour with their Party Leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Also, the error was mine, not Chinua Achebe’s. Moreover, the book in which Achebe cited Onabamiro is not The Trouble with Nigeria but the book of essays titled Hopes and Impediments. To my very good friend Professor Olabode Lucas who wrote to say that I did not give any credit to many Nigerian scientists who, even though they did not win Nobel prizes, achieved considerable acclaim as scientists worldwide, I completely concur. My aim in this series has not been to disrespect science and scientists in our country and if one or two generalizations that I have made have given that impression, I wish to state that I take them back. Finally, one comrade wrote to tell me that the great problem that science and scientists face in our country today is underfunding and lack of the basic infrastructures that make the scientific enterprise possible in the first place. I accept this thesis but I think we must correlate it to the pervasiveness of religious medievalism among our scientists. In a completely separate piece, I shall take up this issue in next week’s column.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (1)

    The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (1)

    I was rather pleasantly surprised by most of the emails that I received from the piece that I wrote for this column last week, this being my reflections on Dr. Adah Igonoh’s story about her survival in the battle against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Many people wrote to tell me that they had also found Dr. Igonoh’s story very moving, very inspiring. I was pleased to read this, but quite frankly this was not what I found pleasantly surprising in the bulk of the emails that I received on last week’s column. What surprised and pleased me in the emails was this: virtually everyone who wrote informed me that, like me and academics of my type, they also think that there is no necessary and inevitable opposition or incompatibility between religion and science. Although it did occur to me that most of those who wrote the emails to me were probably people who generally share my views on many aspects of our country’s current crises and challenges, nonetheless it was pleasing to find that many readers of last week’s column also think that religion and science, faith and reason should not go their separate ways in any modern-day nation in our world. So far, so good, as the saying goes.

    But then I noticed a pattern in these emails that rather disturbed me. This was because in nearly every case, those who wrote those emails to me felt that the need for religion and science to, as it were, “walk together” in any modern state was so obvious that anyone should be able to see and affirm that need. Why I found this disturbing is the subject of this week’s essay, thus making it something of an epilogue to last week’s column. My central argument in this piece is that though the need for religion and science to work together harmoniously in the modern world seems fairly obvious, that obviousness is not to be taken for granted, not to be assumed to be without any tension, any stress. The struggle of science against religion, more specifically against the fanatical dogma of organized, institutionalized religion, is one of the central themes of modern intellectual history. At the height of that struggle, brilliant and gifted scientists were burnt at the stakes. Those who were not burnt were made to recant on their scientific theories and were banned for life from the pursuit of their scientific vocation. We cannot go into the full details of this history, but in the end science prevailed and religion had to make its peace with the decisive, transformative role of science in modern life, in the specifically modern organization of society and its productive relations and activities.

    Since our country and our continent are constituent parts of the modern world, we are heirs to that monumental struggle between religion and science. Nonetheless, that struggle never took place, never shook society to its foundations in our own part of the world. This is both good and bad. In this essay, I wish to reflect upon the good and bad parts of this historic fact that in our society, our own part of modernity, science and scientists never had to struggle against the powerful institutional, doctrinal and ideological authority of organized religion. Let’s deal first with the good part of this crucial fact that science and scientists in Africa never really had to wage fierce battles against the forces of organized religion and its historic opposition to rationality as a cardinal basis of life.

    As reported by Chinua Achebe in his famous collection of essays, The Trouble with Nigeria, in the 1950s, the Minister of Education in the old Western Region, Dr. S.A. Awokoya, wrote a book titled Why Our Children Die. According to Achebe, Awokoya wrote that book as a medical scientist who took up arms against traditional African cultural beliefs and practices that wittingly or unwittingly caused or promoted high levels of infant mortality in our society. As I have not been able to lay my hands on that book by Dr. Awokoya, I am going by what Achebe says about it in his book. And what Achebe says is that Dr. Awokoya in his book took up arms in defence or promotion of science and rationality against beliefs and practices in our traditional cultures that militated against rational explanations and remedies for diseases, together with the practice of private and public hygiene, especially with regard to the great vulnerability of children to diseases and lack of hygiene.

    The allusion to Achebe and Awokoya in this discussion helps us to see, I hope, that the “enemy” of science in Africa was not organized religion. More crucially, Achebe and Awokoya were careful to emphasize the fact that it was not the entirety of the African cultural heritage that was against science and rationality; rather, it was some specific and identifiable beliefs and practices that constituted the composite enemy. As a matter of fact, both Achebe and Awokoya were products of the schools of a rationalized, “modernized” form of Christianity that promoted science and the scientific spirit in our part of the world, even as theological and doctrinal branches of these same forms of Christianity waged holy wars against the entire heritage of culture on our continent. Achebe and Awokoya, as archetypal figures in the story of science, rationality and religion in our continent, showed us that this was and is a complex story in which organized religion, traditional cultures and the scientific spirit could not be divided into a simple pattern of opposites and negatives, illumination and mystification. Some parts of traditional cultures were not in opposition to the scientific enterprise, just as some doctrinal aspects of Christianity opposed all aspects of traditional cultures, not because they were against science but because they were thought to be the antithesis of the one true God of the Christians or Moslems. In other words, faith and rationality in modern Africa never got caught and fixated in the radical and uncompromising opposition that medieval, pre-modern Christianity in Europe mounted between religion and science. This is the good part of the overall narrative. We now move to the bad part.

    For this, it helps to put matters in concrete and perhaps even dramatic terms. No scientists were ever burnt at the stakes on our continent. But this also means that no scientist ever achieved a heroic stature as the defender of the scientific spirit and enterprise against the forces of religious medievalism. For it was precisely because of these factors that science in Europe was able to win commerce, industry and the popular imagination to its side in the struggle against organized religion. There is another way to put this observation in terms that are perhaps even more graphic and it is this: we do not have a single man or woman of science to match the iconic stature of an Achebe or a Soyinka, none at all. Achebe, Soyinka, Clark, Okigbo and the other icons of modern Nigeria literature achieved their stature because they challenged and overcame the racist, colonialist canard that we did not have what it takes to produce works of literature that are equal to the best literary works from other regions of the world. In our celebration of the achievements of these icons of modern Nigerian writing, we often place too much emphasis on their talent, their genius and in the process underestimate the struggles that they had to wage. Thus, though talent and genius are very important, the central factor in this piece is struggle and effort, unceasing and unflagging struggle and effort.

    It is perhaps useful at this point to bring these observations and reflections back to Dr. Adah Igonoh’s story. In doing this, I wish to place as much emphasis as I possibly can on the fact that in last week’s column, I made every effort to highlight and praise the determination and will with which Dr. Igonoh went in search of knowledge and information that could help her prevail over the EVD peril. Repeatedly, I stated that while she spent much time and invested great emotional and spiritual energy in prayers and divine favour, she was also relentless in her search for remedies available from medical science. Please remember that this all took place at a moment in her life when she faced great debilitation from a relentlessly destructive disease. At the risk of offending the sensibilities of many readers who are devout religionists, I wish to point out that at that moment in Dr. Igonoh’s battle with EVD, religion and faith were the easy, assured part of the struggle; far more onerous and demanding was the pursuit and absorption of scientific knowledge and information.

    Knowledge and truth seeking, in all areas of life and experience, is not for the faint-hearted; this is even more so with regard to science. To be a successful and dedicated  woman or man of science takes a lot of hard, grindingly demanding work. With the phenomenal rise and accession to dominance of Pentecostalism in our country and our continent in the last two or three decades, this crucial perspective on what science demands from scientists has been submerged by the belief that you must leave everything, everything, to God. The reason for this is not difficult to find: in many respects, Pentecostalism is medieval in its worldview. It does not exactly have the institutional power and authority that organized religion in medieval Europe had and so it cannot wage a direct assault on science and rationalism as Christianity did in the Middle Ages in Europe. Its assault is more indirect, more subtle in that it comprises the combination of intellectual laziness and fanatical religiosity in which the religiosity provides a cover, a refuge for the intellectual laziness. In next week’s concluding essay in this series, we shall explore how and why it has managed to capture many segments of our national intelligentsia that include men and women of science.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Encounter with destiny through God’s word!

    Encounter with destiny through God’s word!

    From scriptures, we understand that every child of God is a child of destiny. Not just any kind of destiny, but a glorious destiny (Romans 8:29-30).

    Furthermore, we discover in scriptures that every encounter with God, is an encounter with destiny. For example, men like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, Peter, Paul and many others validate this fact (Hebrews11:6-10; Genesis 22:1-18; Judges 6,7).

    First, we must recognize that the destiny of every believer is locked up in the Bible and it takes a diligent search in the word to unlock it. When we discover and believe the truth regarding our inheritance, God is committed to make good His promise. Just as God said to Abraham, as far as your eyes can see, God is committed to make happen (Gen. 13:14-15; Rev.3:18).

    We must understand that when we discover and believe the truth regarding our inheritance, God is committed to making good His promise. Just as God said to Abraham, as far as your eyes can see, God is committed to make happen (Gen 13:14-15; Revelation 3:18).

    But what is our Destiny Worth in Redemption?

       From scriptures, we understand that:

    We have a victorious destiny in Christ: We may be challenged, but we are not permitted to be defeated. Christ causes us to triumph in all our ways, including our places of work, homes and every of our journeys (2 Corinthians 2:14).

    We have a glorious destiny: We must understand that God has called us unto eternal glory, which means unending glory. That also connotes a shame-free destiny (1 Peter 5:10; Rom. 8:29-30).

    We have an enviable destiny: As it is written, concerning Isaac, he went forward, became strong, waxed great and the Philistines envied him. This implies that, we are to be envied and not to be pitied. Therefore, anything pitiable around us must be swallowed up in victory (Genesis 26:14; Galatians 4:28).

    We have a prosperous destiny in Christ: We are not redeemed to suffer, but we are redeemed to enjoy abundance of all things (2 Cor. 8:9; 2 Cor. 9:8-11).

    We have a destiny of fruitfulness in the covenant: As it is written; Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle (Deuteronomy 7:14; Ps 89:34; Matthew 5:17).

    We have a destiny of health and vitality in the covenant: Serving God qualifies us for health and vitality (Exodus 23:25). None of our covenant fathers were ever recorded sick; instead, they enjoyed health and vitality all through their lives.

    Longevity is our portion in the covenant: Long life is part of our covenant rights in redemption (Psalm 91:16). All our covenant fathers enjoyed long life. These include Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Joshua, etc (Isaiah 51:1-3; Genesis 25:7; Genesis 35:27-28; Genesis 47:28; Deuteronomy 37:7; Joshua 24:29).

    How, then, do we encounter Destiny? The Following, among others, are some of the ways we can encounter destiny:

    First, through the Bible – The Living Word of God: God’s Word is the mirror of life where we discover who we are, what we have and what we can do. Every believer has a free access to the Word, from where we have encounter with destiny.

    Through anointed books: Anointed books are not only designed to enlighten us, but they are also channels through which we encounter destiny (Hosea 12:10).

    What are the Benefits of Encounters with the Word?

    •Encounter with the Word connects us with destiny, our inheritance. For example, Jacob had a glorious destiny through an encounter with God (Isaiah 9:8).

    •Encounter with the Word preserves our destiny, as in the case of Joseph.                    (Psalm 105:17-22).

    •It dignifies destiny, as it was with Samuel, who had series of encounters with the Word and emerged an honourable man of God(1 Sam. 3:21, 1 Samuel 9:6).

    •It advances destiny. Diverse encounters with the Word enlarged the destinies of Abraham and Moses (Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 22:17-18; 1Samuel 12:6)

    Friend, the power to benefit from the above, is the preserve of those saved. You get saved by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. To be saved, please say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, Jesus for saving me!  Now I know I am born again!”  This week, you are going to see amazing manifestations of angelic intervention! I will be with you next week, if Jesus tarries. Stay Blessed in Jesus’ name!

    Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, you can get my books: The Force Of Freedom, Walking In Dominion and Maximize Destiny.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. respectively.

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

  • Hold fast to your faith, Muslims told

    Director of Zaitun-Dawah Institute, Seatle in United States, Sheikh Mohammed Awwal has urged Muslims to hold tight to their faith in Allah, saying that is the only place their true salvation lies.

    Sheikh Awwal said Islamic religion is not miraculous in nature unlike Christianity, the religion requires total submission to the will of Allah and adherents are expected to have faith in Allah always.

    He spoke at this month lecture of the Islamic Platform Society held at the Skye Pavillon, Ikeja, Lagos.

    He enjoined Muslims to hold on to the Quran which will guide their way of life to excel in all endeavors.

    Founder, Purpose of Life Foundation, US, Shaykh Khalid Yasin, urged Muslim youths to have a life plan.

    He described a life plan as the combination of education, career and Islamic life to achieve desired objectives.

    “If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail. Muslim youths are found wanting when asked of what their life plan is. You have to be optimistic and consistent in your life plan.

    “Allah cherishes education and this is vividly shown in Quran chapter 96. Therefore, Muslim youths are meant to develop themselves, imbibe in excellence and be disciplined so that they will win the race of life through a proper life plan,” he said.

  • Hijab: Marriage of faith and fashion

    Hijab: Marriage of faith and fashion

    In Islam, the word ‘Hijab’ literally means a screen or curtain. However, by semantic extension, Hijab suggests a veil for covering the head and chest, particularly by Muslim females who have attained puberty. It is also a symbol of modesty, privacy and morality. Historically, women in the Islamic culture wore veils to cover themselves.

    Interestingly, in modern times, learning about the different kinds of Hijab can help a Muslim woman enjoy a fulfilling shopping experience. It affords the user the opportunity to adhere to her cultural standards, while expressing her individuality through her choice of colour, style and fabric.

    Just as there are different types of Hijab, there are many options for purchasing these garments. For instance, there are retail Islamic stores that specifically deal in these items. An example is Arabel, an upscale Islamic store, where items, ranging from the simple to the avant-garde, are sold. It also offers online trading to show buyers an opportunity to learn how to differentiate between the styles of Hijab as well as where to purchase specific garments that are worn comfortably and securely.

    However, while some prefer to visit some of these ‘elitist’ Islamic stores, others prefer to patronise individuals in some markets across the country with the belief that they can enjoy the luxury of haggling over the prices.

    Hijab usually comes in different shapes and sizes. They can sometimes be small or large, but it solely depends on the taste of the buyer. It may also be square, triangular and rectangular, depending on how it is used.

    Hijab comes in silk, chiffon, cotton, polyester and rayon or a combination of fabrics and sells for between N500 and N15, 000 per one. At times, it comes in patterned or flowery designs. Buyers may also consider wearing under- scarves, which are accessories worn to keep a woman’s hair from slipping out of the Hijab.

    Over the years, Hijab has changed in appearance and is now available in different varieties. People have come to like Jacquard veils, which come in various designs and colour because they suit different occasions and fit their personalities.

  • Keeping faith with tradition

    Keeping faith with tradition

    Occupants of Awolowo Hall at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, have celebrated the traditional Ewa Day and Aro Night. KEMI BUSARI (Political Science) reports.

    The event began at 2pm with shouts of Ewa ti jina ooo (the beans is ready) by a student. No sooner did he finished than students came out with assorted of containers, such as bathroom buckets, bowls, pails, pots, cups, milk tins and nylons.

    They lined up to be served.

    Those unaware of what was going on joined the queue without any container. Asked what they wanted to use to take the meal, one answered in Pidgin English: “Brother, na for my hand I go take am o.”

    As they were served, they moved to a corner to savour the meal. It was a sight to behold as students sang various Aro (hilarious) songs.

    That was the scene at the Ewa Day and Aro (hilarity) Night held at the Awolowo Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

    Preparation for the day was slow because of the absence of the Hall Executive Council (HEC), which usually coordinated the event.

    Occupants of the hall came out and picked the beans. A bag of beans was used for the celebration. A set of students brought firewood, local stoves and aluminum pots to cook the food. They poured the beans in a pot of water and placed it on fire. Some students stayed around, entertaining the cooks with songs.

    Female students were not left out. Some of them were spotted, sitting at a corner preparing the drink to be taken during the Aro Night. One of them, Aderonke Adeyemi, a student of Computer Science, said they came to assist the boys and catch fun.

    The Aro Night started at 10 o’clock after Awolowo Hall occupants visited the female halls, singing and dancing.

    The venue of the programme – Awo Café – was filled up by students, dressed in funny attires.

    The event started with a formal introduction by the masters of ceremony, who gave an insight into what to expect.

    “We are here tonight to uphold the tradition of Aro Night as we use to do every year. We enjoin every weere (mad men) and were’birin (mad women) present here tonight to relax and be courteous throughout the programme,” one of the comperes, who was dressed in tattered Agbada, said in Yoruba.

    Being called a mad man is enough to cause friction, but the reverse was the case at Awo Café; every student that attended the Night event was a mad man.

    The Night featured hilarious displays from the Awo ‘choir’ and ‘mad legends’, such as Ogidiolu and Woli Agba.

    In the comic display, Adewale Adesina, the Director of Socials-elect, said: “I wonder why the management decided to site the zoological garden far from the Halls of Residence. If I am elected as the Director of Socials and Culture, I will ensure all the animals in the zoo are relocated to the hostels. I will also ensure that no student pays fees next session.”

    The speech was greeted with laughter and applause from the ‘mad men’.

    The Night also featured music and dance performances.

    Adedayo Adeleye, one of the organisers, said putting the programme together was tedious because students did not contribute money.

    “We spent up to N30,000 in getting things together. We requested each room to pay N200 but when we moved around for the money, some gave us N10 and N5. But we kept on with the motivation that the tradition must not die,” he said.

    Daniel Arohunfara, a 400-Level Educational Administration and Planning student, described the Ewa Day as a culture, which no one could tell when it began.

    He said: “The consumption of the beans is not the most important thing but the enjoyment we derive in doing this together.”

  • Confidence, belief, faith won for Eagles —Maigari

    Confidence, belief, faith won for Eagles —Maigari

    • Pres Jonathan expects trophy
    • Green hails team spirit
    • Keshi promises more

    Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Aminu Maigari, was at his oratorical best on Sunday afternoon when he addressed the Super Eagles at the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa after their hard-won victory over the Atlas Lions of Morocco Saturday.

    Maigari, who spoke to the players at their Garden Court De Waal abode after lunch, described the team as the proverbial heart of the Nigerian nation and told them that he had the words of President Goodluck Jonathan, on due reward for the players even as he said order had been restored in Nigerian football.

    “The top news in Nigeria after your miraculous victory over Morocco, was the message of President Goodluck Jonathan urging you to go ahead and win the trophy, with a promise that he will do same if not much more for the team like he did for the AFCON 2013 Champions. The ball is now in your court to make the dreams of Mr President come true”, he said.

    Maigari further declared: “Confidence, belief and faith helped you to overcome the Moroccan opposition and that is the makeup of the average Nigerian; we expect more of such displays in your subsequent encounters because you have raised not only my hope and that of the NFF board but that of the over 160million Nigerians.”

    NFF Technical Committee boss, Chris Green, said he was delighted at the performance of the Nigerian team, even describing Coach Keshi as the best coach in the world at the moment. He alluded the victories of the team of recent to the peaceful atmosphere that has existed between the leadership of the NFF and the Eagles coaching crew.

    Green said: “Some people are gifted, others acquire talent but the head coach here is both gifted and blessed with acquisition. But I must tell him that we must not fail Mr. President in bringing home the trophy at the end of the championship.”

    Keshi in his remarks at the impromptu event said he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of praises for him, but quickly added that his assistant coaches, Dan Amokachi, Houadonou Valere and Ike Shorunmu, as well as other staff of the team including medics, the psychologist, security, media, coordinator and Team Administrator have been the real forces of success for the team. “We are like children from the same mother,” Keshi said.

    He promised that the team will not let the nation down in the remaining two matches of the championship. “We will do our best to justify the confidence reposed in this team by Mr. President, the NFF and all Nigerians”, he declared.

  • Blackburn coach keeps faith in Etuhu

    Blackburn coach keeps faith in Etuhu

    Blackburn Rovers coach Gary Bowyer has stated that he is keeping faith in out of favour Super Eagles midfielder Dickson Etuhu who is likely to return to top action this weekend with his Championship side against Middlesbrough.

    Etuhu, who has not featured for Rovers for almost a year because of a knee injury, has received criticism from fans for much of last season after struggling to find his best form but Bowyer believes that the combative Nigerian midfielder still has plenty to offer the club.

    “I don’t think it is fair for me to comment on how things went when I wasn’t the manager. I am looking at the here and now and he is looking strong. He is a fantastic player that has played in the Premier League. He can give us that strength and drive in the middle of the midfield and it will be a big boost to have him back,” Bowyer told Lancashire Telegraph.

    Etuhu played 60 minutes of Rovers’ 3-2 win over Rochdale in the Lancashire Senior Cup on Tuesday afternoon.

    Bowyer added: “It is a pleasing thing for everybody that he returned. He looked good and he looked strong. It is a case of how he responds. He is certainly in the frame for Saturday.

    The weekend clash with struggling Middlesbrough starts a run of three home games in four during November and Bowyer is keen to take advantage of playing in front of a home crowd.

  • Fund your faith

    Fund your faith

    •Report that the FG may stop sponsoring pilgrims is cheering

    OFFICIAL funding of pilgrimages has become a distracting influence on the polity and sadly, an avoidable drain on public till. We are however elated by the report that the Federal Government may stop annual funding of pilgrimages. Though not yet conclusive, the initiative is quite belated.

    Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, at a recent stakeholders’ summit organised by the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission unveiled: “…we have a challenge facing us, as there are indications that the Federal Government may stop funding pilgrimage activities… This is understandable given the need to separate religion from the state. Pilgrimage is a personal and spiritual matter.’’

    To us, religion, like pilgrimage, is a personal issue between God and man and such affairs, especially in a secular state like Nigeria, should not be allowed to overburden her governance. But at the current rate, the reality is that a sizeable chunk of public funds at federal, state and local government levels is devoted to servicing annual pilgrimage – at the expense of other salient challenges.

    The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo started the idea of sponsoring pilgrimages in the old Western Region, with a small fraction of the populace as beneficiaries, unlike now that the number of recipients is alarmingly high. Later, the northern regional government emulated the initiative for basically Muslim pilgrimages. It was subsequently extended to include Christian pilgrimages across the country. But there is need for a rethink of the matter since governance is suffering on many fronts.

    It is shameful that Nigeria, of all the countries that observe the yearly spiritual ritual, reportedly has the highest number of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and Israel, a large percentage of them on government sponsorship. Yet, crime rate and corruption daily loom large in the country: Worse is the fact that most pilgrims are not imbibing the right values. Thus, trips to these holy lands seem not to be achieving the desired spiritual cleansing necessary to bring to bear the fear of the Almighty in governance and other public facets.

    We are not in any way averse to people embarking on holy pilgrimage. What we loathe is for such adventures to be predominantly at the expense of the state. Such conspicuous public consumption, under the guise of religious patronage, cannot be justified in this nation where majority of the people live on less than a dollar per day.

    The continuing sponsorship of pilgrimages is inconsistent with the intent of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in section10, to wit: ‘The Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.’  Apart from the two prime religions of Islam and Christianity, there are other fringe religions in the country. We ask: why are governments at all levels giving patronage to pilgrimages from the two religions, against the constitutional provision that Nigeria is a secular state? This act, apart from being an infraction of the law, can equally create a rancorous situation, especially at this point that religion has proved to be a great source of tension in the country.

    Sponsorship of pilgrims is unnecessary because only Islamic religion encourages adherents to go on Hajj, with a proviso – once in a lifetime by those that can afford the trip. The Christian religion is silent on this, which means such journey is not compelling.

    Rather than religious sponsorship, the government should create an enabling administrative atmosphere that could guarantee hitch-free pilgrimage by those that can afford it. What is of importance to Nigerians is for governments to serve them better by providing for their needs or putting in place the environment to facilitate such.