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Tag: Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2026

We had a merry Christmas or shall I say we had a merry Christmas until we were woken up on Boxing Day with the news that the American government of garrulous President Donald J Trump had bombed somewhere in Sokoto as part of their war against terrorism wherever it rears its ugly head! We settled down when our own government made it clear that the raid was coordinated with our armed forces and that our government was in the knowledge of it and had our approval.

What first came to my mind is that it is the responsibility of government everywhere to protect the interest of its citizens and that for 15 years our government had been struggling to do this without success and that if they had to do it now with the cooperation of a friendly government, it is proper for it to do it as long as Nigeria’s interest is protected. There is no reason why the Nigerian government would not want to protect our interests right now especially when the country that it cooperates with it, has no ostensible or clandestine interest in destabilising Nigeria.

Our country is the only country in our region that has the strength and muscle to operate regionally in our area independently of foreign power. Our recent move to establish stability in our region when there was an attempted coup d’état in Benin points to the credibility of Nigeria. We need to make it known either publicly of by other means that Nigeria would not stand by idle when friendly regimes in our region are overthrown. Our recent move in Benin points to the solid direction of the regime in our country.

There is also no doubt that the Nigerian government was in touch with the American government over the situation in Nigeria that has caused some anxiety in the USA over alleged religious persecution and killing of certain religious groups in Nigeria particularly in the northern parts of our country in the 15-year old terrorist insurgency in Nigeria. The fears of the religious dimension of the problem may have been allayed. But whatever the outcome of the Nigerian discussion with the American government, the decision of the American government to intervene in the terrorist campaign did not surprise the Nigerian government and was coordinated with our government whose armed forces apparently had problems with targeted military especially aerial campaigns.

So, when the Tomahawk missiles were unleashed on the gathering storm of terrorists in a local government area in Sokoto, it was received with welcome relief. This appears to be the reaction of most Nigerians who felt they have had enough with terrorism in the last 15 years and enough was enough. If the American intervention in the campaign of terrorism will extirpate the problem, then we must all welcome it. But we must be careful with involvement of any country in our internal affairs.

Read Also: 2026: Be hopeful and confident, Nigeria’s future assured — ICRC DG urges Nigerians

But the point is that terrorism cannot be called internal affairs of our country when we are told that Libya and the same countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar that have been fingered in the destabilization of our sister country of the Sudan are also involved in the situation in Nigeria; and that they have a hand in the destabilization of Nigeria. We cannot just fold our arms and allow the only credible Black Country with the possibility of becoming a great power be destroyed by other countries without reasons to wish us ill. We must therefore wake up and look for friendly countries that can help us to sustain our sovereign independence and if we can find such a secular country with the muscle to do this, we would be foolish not to accept their hands of friendship. This is what politics among nations is all about. We can do this to secure a peaceful end to our internal conflict but this does not have to tie us to the apron strings of that country and we should have the freedom and intelligence to negotiate our way in the complex territory of international relations.

Any observer of international politics would know that sovereignty is not absolute these days. Countries like South Korea, Japan, Germany and good old Britain have since 1945 had large numbers of American troops domiciled in their countries to secure the sovereign independence of those countries in a coordinated defence of global democracy. There are American military bases in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kuwait. While I am not advocating this kind of relationship, I would like to add that the above mentioned countries are not the worse for it and they are not complaining because apart from guaranteeing their security, the presence of large American forces have become economic assets there. Whatever comes out of the military cooperation we are forced to have to secure our internal political stability and peace for all our citizens irrespective of their religion, we must ensure correct and respectful management of the situation so that while riding on the tiger we don’t end in it.

I take this opportunity to wish my readers a happy new year in 2026 and hope the hazardous conflictual situations in the world and particularly in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Venezuela will be resolved peacefully so that mankind can witness development in peace.

January 1, 2026
Happy New Year

Preamble

The appearance of today’s title in this column once in a year often looks strange to most readers since this is not January. In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, the idea of ‘New Year’ is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to January which is the first month of Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of colonialism in our continent. From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a thick Christian coloration that still paints African culture in the rainbow of colonial tradition.

Islam has its own calendar. And, like other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Hijrah year. Unlike other calendars which are manmade however, Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows: “Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”

The twelve Islamic months are as follows: Muharram; Safar; Rabiul Awwal; Rabiu-th-Thani; Jumadal Ula; Jumada-th-Thaniyah; Rajab; Shaban; Ramadan; Shawwal; Dhul Qadah; and Dhul Hijjah.

The four months specifically designated as sacred months are the last four months of Hijrah calendar. They are Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa’dah and Dhul Hijjah. Some of these months have 30 days. Others have 29. No more, no less.

Yesterday (June 26, 2025) was the first day of Hijrah year 1447. It follows the last day of Dhul Hijjah which ends last Wednesday. Dhul Hijjah is the last month of Hijrah calendar. It takes a well educated person to understand this and relate to it as such. This is what distinguishes then Osun State Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola from all other governors, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria. The declaration while in office then by him of public holiday for the event is a clear evidence of justice which had hitherto been denied to the Muslims in the state.

To demonstrate similar justice, it was hoped that other governors in the region will follow suit as a mark of civility.

Genesis

Hijrah calendar took its name from Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 C.E. The use of Hijrah calendar began when Umar Bn Khattab, the second Caliph, suggested that Islam should have its own distinctive calendar saying Hijrah, the Prophet’s emigration, was so much a significant landmark in Islam that it could not be overlooked. As a matter of fact, Hijrah is one of the three main factors responsible for the survival of the religion of Islam. The other two were the victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr which was waged by Makkah pagans against them in Madinah shortly after the Prophet’s emigration. And the third is Allah’s great promise that became an everlasting fulfilment. That promise is contained in Chapter 15 verse 9 of the Qur’an thus:

“It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and We will preserve it…’ and who can doubt the Almighty Allah the Creator of the entire universe and its preserver”. But for these three fundamental factors, perhaps Islam or the Qur’an would have joined the legion of defunct religions. With Allah, all things are possible.

Significance

In Islam, the first day of the first Hijrah month (Muharram) is more significant than Mawlidun- Nabiyyi (the birth day of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The Prophet had existed for 40 years before ‘The Message of Islam’ came to him and nobody celebrated his birthday. Thus without

‘The great Message of Islam’ he would have had no cause to emigrate.

And if he had lived for 40 years without being known in history before he became a Prophet, why should his birthday now take precedence over ‘The Great Message’ which made him the greatest man that ever lived?

Basically Hijrah institutionalised three important aspects of life: social, economic and political. In the social aspect when the first revelation was made to the Prophet (SAW) a period of twelve (12) years was devoted by him towards inculcating the religion in the minds of individuals while no pattern of a collective life based on true religious concepts could be presented to the world. The status of the Muslim individuals in Makkah gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or rather, believing in the mission of the prophet was one’s personal affair. This was believed to pertain only to the hereafter which had nothing to do with people’s collective life.

Social Effect

It was only after the Prophet’s emigration (Hijrah) that people began to see Islam clearly as a way of life which paid attention to and reformed every facet of human existence. It then became evident that Islam was the religion that gave directions regarding almost every moment of a believer’s conscious life. Hijrah also enabled the Arabs in particular to see what a Muslim’s matrimonial home should be in a Muslim society. Hence, it was only after this event that the world could see the aspect of human social decency and decorum prescribed by Islam.

The second reason for the importance of Hijrah is its economic significance which manifested in the lifestyle of the pioneer Muslims’ emigration to Madinah led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself. The unsurpassable hospitality of the people of Madinah towards the Muslim emigrants did not only provide a new peaceful home for the newcomers.

It also showed the hosts’ passionate self-sacrifice. And with Hijrah, the Makkan emigrants who became immigrants in Madinah vividly came in contact with advanced agricultural acumen and ingenuous artisanship never experienced before. These resulted in an unprecedented economic revolution for the city. Since the hosts shared virtually everything they had with the immigrants when the latter first arrived, a lesson was learnt by the immigrants not to continue to be a burden on their brotherly hosts. Thus, every one of them adopted legitimate ways of earning righteous income.

Moral Effect

Initially, the Muslim Immigrants in Madinah worked as labourers in the fields, gardens and construction works. But later, they, being traditional traders, started small trading activities which brought them into an economic competition with the Jews of Madinah. One aspect of the economic revolution was that the Muslim immigrants paid the right price for every product they consumed since the Prophet had forbidden the practice of acquiring products on reduced prices in return for loans given to the artisans or to the land cultivators. The practice was prohibited because it was considered to be a form of usury.

Thus, it was only after Hijrah that agriculture, industry and trade freely helped the Muslims to bring about an integrated, balanced and unfettered economy for the Ummah.

Judicial Effect

The third reason which made Hijrah a very important event is the political freedom for the Muslims. Before Hijrah, the Muslims in Makkah had no say in any matter, internal or external. They were a minority against whom the hearts of the majority were full of enmity simply because they were an insignificant part of the dominating unbelievers’ society in Makkah.

It was Hijrah, therefore, that made the Muslims Masters of their internal affairs, external relations and matters relating to war and peace. If there was any disagreement between the Muslims and the non-Muslims, the final decision was to be made by the Prophet. This indicated a kind of autonomy to be enjoyed by the Muslims for the first time. And it was the nucleus of a city-state which, within a period of ten (10) years in the lifetime of the Prophet expanded to the entire Arabian Peninsula. It is thus evident that the event of Hijrah turned a few hundred Muslims resident in Madinah into a highly successful society.

An erroneous act

If the Nigerian Muslim leaders were adequately informed at the time they were negotiating religious holidays for Nigerian Muslim Ummah they would have asked for Hijrah rather than Mawlidun-Nabiyyi. Apart from coming into the world through birth like any other human being, there is nothing the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) contributed to the unprecedented revolution called Islam. And, the Prophet himself did not believe in the aristocracy of birth which celebration of birthday is all about. That was why he (the Prophet) never celebrated his own birthday the way some Muslims do on his behalf today. What is more, the Prophet’s birthday is never celebrated in Saudi Arabia where he was born. What is rather celebrated in that country is Hijrah Day.

Whereas Mawlidun-Nabiyyi is about the personal life of Prophet Muhammad alone, Hijrah Day is about Islam and the entire Muslim Ummah.

While celebrating Mawlidun-Nabiyyi, you can only praise the Prophet and nothing more. But when celebrating the Hijrah day, you are celebrating not only the Prophet’s migration but also the triumph of Islam as the everlasting password of the Universe. That is why we exchange pleasantries by congratulating one another and by chanting the slogan HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Compared to Hijrah calendar, the Gregorian calendar is not only artificial but alien to Christianity. It was only adopted some centuries ago as a way of distinguishing the religion of Christ from whatever preceded or succeeded it. While writing about how Gregorian calendar came into existence, a British writer and newspaper columnist, Ben Snowden said in a descriptive article entitled ‘The Curious History of Gregorian Calendar’ thus: “September 2, 1752, was a great day in the history of sleep”.

That Wednesday evening, millions of British subjects in England and the colonies went peacefully to sleep and did not wake up until twelve days later. Behind this feat of narcoleptic prowess was not just some revolutionary hypnotic technique or miraculous pharmaceutical discovered in the West Indies. It was, rather, the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the second day of that month to be Thursday the fourteenth day of the same month.

Other calendars

Prior to that cataleptic September evening, the official British calendar differed from that of continental Europe by eleven days—that is, September 2 in London was September 13 in Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin. The discrepancy had sprung from Britain’s continued use of the Julian calendar, which had been the official calendar of Europe since its invention by Julius Caesar (after whom it was named) in 45 B.C.

Caesar’s calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a 28-day February (extended to 29 days every fourth year), was actually quite accurate: it erred from the real solar calendar by only 11½ minutes a year. By the sixteenth century, it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar one by 10 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds—accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day’s difference every 3,323 years.

Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory’s correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918 and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.

Read Also: Nigeria adopts tax dispute resolution to boost revenue

The use of calendars

Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals. Ancient people tied their calendars to whatever recurring natural phenomena they could most easily observe. In areas with pronounced seasons, annual weather changes usually fixed the calendar; in warmer climates such as Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the moon was used to mark time.

Unfortunately, the cycles of the sun and moon do not synchronise well.

A lunar year (consisting of 12 lunar cycles, or lunation, each 29½ days long) is only 354 days, 8 hours long; that is unlike a solar year which lasts about 365¼ days. After three years, a strict lunar calendar would have diverged from the solar calendar by 33 days, or more than one lunation.

The Muslim calendar is the only purely lunar calendar with widespread use today. Its months have no permanent connection to any particular season. Muslim religious celebrations, such as Ramadan, may therefore occur at any date of the Gregorian calendar.

To compensate for the difference in the solar and lunar year, calendar makers introduced the practice of intercalation (the addition of extra days or months to the calendar) to make it more accurate.

Gregorian calendar

Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week.

Since the time of Pope Gregory XIII, many other proposals for calendar reform have been made. For instance, in the 1840s, philosopher Auguste Comte suggested that the 365th day of each year be a holiday not assigned to a day of the week.

The French Revolution also made an attempt to introduce a new calendar. On October 5, 1793, the revolutionary convention decreed that the year (starting on September 22, 1792—the autumnal equinox, and the day after the proclamation of the new republic) would be divided into 12 months of 30 days, named after corresponding seasonal phenomena (e.g. seed, blossom, harvest).

The remaining five days of the year, called sans-culottides were considered feast days. In leap years, the extra day (Revolution Day) was to be added to the end of the year. The Revolutionary calendar had no week; each month was divided into three decades, with every tenth day to be a day of rest. This clumsy calendar, however, perished with the French Republic because of its clumsiness.

Conclusion

Of all the existing calendars, only Hijrah has been generally acknowledged as unique in effect and in workability. In commemoration of the great occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE, both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) have sent messages of felicitations to Nigerian Muslim Ummah just as ‘The Message’ column also says HAPPY NEW YEAR!

June 27, 2025
Achieving a really Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year 2024. A Happy New Year does not just happen by greeting or prayer alone. It is product of ‘Greeting, Prayer and Good Decisions’. Good honest decision especially in our lives, work and environment around us. Many did not cross over due to the evil machinations of Fellow Nigerians and some foreigners, who decided to do evil over good.

The loss of, and injury to over 200 Fellow Nigerians in Plateau State to the evil attacks of land grabbing terrorists or bandits is indeed a horrendous attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty. Any murder or attack is an inexplicable act of callousness. Imagine the impunity, arrogance and hatred involved in the initiating, planning and execution of such an evil plot resulting involving over 200 Fellow Nigerians. Imagine the meetings, coordination, reconnaissance, weaponisation and ‘We-are-going-to-kill-innocent-families’ travel to and from such massacres.

We all mourn the losses. But mourning will not help the dead or bring a Happy New Year, HNY, to the surviving Fellow Nigerian family members deprived of love, economy and support. What has HNY got to do with the families of those mistakenly killed by bombings three weeks ago? What has HNY got to do with the thousands of Okada victims? What has HNY got to do with the thousands of dead, deprived and socially diminished as a result of the historic multi-year plague of corruption including the currency collapse?

What has HNY got to do with the miserably lives of the terror traumatised  5million+ Internally Displaced Persons in and out of IDP camps and scattered across Nigeria? What has HNY got to do with the 80% of citizens in poverty – poverty to be laid squarely at the feet of a long selfish political and civil servant and contractor classes?

What has HNY got to do with victims and the families of the many other Fellow Nigerians caught in road attacks and house robberies, at checkpoints etc. across Nigeria? What has HNY got to do with victims of high maternal mortality? Have you ever witnessed the trauma around a kidnapping with difficult-to-find huge sums from schools, tertiary institutions and the communities across Nigeria?

We are told that a Happy New Year 2024 awaits us. And we believe! But we cannot expect a different outcome if we do what we did before 2024 or are subjected to the same perpetually historic pre-2024 Corruption, Incompetence, Neglect and Selfishness, CINS.

We will not ever have a HNY unless the ‘Combined Thieves of Nigeria’ unclasp their stranglehold around the neck of Nigeria for one year, 2024, at least. We seem to think that our own Personal Corruption Corner or Collective Corruption Corner, involving friends or co-workers has no negative impact, while the corruption of others is the cause of the near collapse of Nigeria. Unfortunately, the corruption is pervasive and systemic.

But corruption is not a building or institution; it is in the individuals in the building.  In fact, a non-corrupt action is seen as so rare as to require celebration as amazing, like the return of money left in a car or doing an assignment for no reward. However millions of honest Fellow Nigerians do these. Congratulations to them and HNY. The requirement is to make individuals change their ‘greed to need’ and ‘attitude to gratitude’ and jointly ‘kill corruption’. A simple human decision ‘I WILL BE HONEST IN 2024. WILL YOU BE HONEST’ for each of us to ensure Nigeria creates a HNY2024 and survives to 2025.

Read Also: Osun APC blasts Aregbesola, says ex-gov dishonoured agreement by Tinubu, Akande

It should frighten us that even as we say HNY2024, others are planning and praying for more nefarious activities using intimidation, bullying, bribery, budget padding, contract tampering, outright stealing and robbery – political, authoritarian, judicial, monetary, medical, land, identity, possessions, professional corruption et cetera.

A sad example of how we misunderstand ‘need over greed’ is the 2022-2023 Nigerian Railway Corporation NRC Report that 150,000 rail line clips were stolen endangering millions. It is not nuclear physics for the police and NRC to locate the criminal masterminds who must be ironmongers and iron smelters. Who removes rail line pins? What criminally minded person finances and organises the hard noisy physical work of removing rail line pins?  We must find him or them -perhaps an ex-rail line pin pinner employee and a person seeking smelted pins in the background?  What use can un-smelted or smelted pins be used for? Who is buying the end products? NRC cannot put CCTV on its tracks and if the track is removed overnight, a crash would kill passengers the next day. Sabotage!

Perhaps several N1million rewards for whistle blowers will catch the thieves and masterminds. Urgent effort should be made internally by NRC engineers, university engineering departments and the Society of Engineers to secure the rail line pins better. If not, our railways will kill, we will remain a railway-less country, and never move most container and tanker traffic by rail, saving roads from damage from overweight vehicles and high transport costs. Could the saboteurs be in the haulage business? Remember the saboteurs of the refineries.

To have a Happy New Year2024-the good in each Fellow Nigerian must overcome the evil. Can good overcome evil in the Presidency, the Judiciary, National Assembly, at your work, home and in your community? Even the tax man must be honest and not create ‘fictional tax figures’ or problems to demand ‘reduction gratification’.

PLEASE WORK FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024.

January 3, 2024
Our Girls; Happy New Year

Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Unfortunately our Dapchi girl, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released and still remains under the threat of death. many IDPS and herder victims will have a lousy Christmas.

The poem below was delivered by me at the Christmas Music Concert Trenchard Hall, Ibadan on December 18, 2018.

Congratulations

The labour of our heroes past

Shall never be in vain.

Who is your first hero past?

Audience reply please

Because of who’s labour

Are you here today?

MY MOTHER

The birth of CHRIST

Through MARY’S Labour pain

Is our gain

But a forgotten labour pain

Take Christmas home

let it REMIND us of the suffering of OUR mother

Birthday is the most dangerous day

In the life of mother and baby even more-so on Christ’s birthday

So be grateful and happy

And say ‘Thank you’ again to Mother

For giving you, a sister or a brother

This year there is a growing fear

And even a tear

That this CHRISTMAS

Will have a CRITICAL mass

Of very hungry citizens

EATING 00010001

WITH NO CHRISTMAS

Shelter, food, clothes or money

this is not funny

No comfort for 4million IDPs

some near your house and home

The unemployed and even employed

Their stomachs grumble

As they fight the pangs of hunger

Extracting sorrow

For today, Christmas Day and tomorrow

More than ever before

We need to share

Show we care

we all have something to spare

even if it is just a Happy Christmas smile

Become a Christmas wise person

From the East and everywhere

offering gifts

Follow the suffering star

Open every door

Bring out unneeded clothes

extra utensils, good old toys

for motherless girls and boys

Food, money,

a smile bathed in honey,

say hello, please and thank you

Do some good..

You know you should

You know you can

Help a child, woman and man

Do you know that your driver, domestic help

All need some help

share some TLCare

IF YOU DARE

The needy stranger is nearer than you think

-do you know the pain in your friend’s blink

Do you know any one’s bank account

Exactly what amount/ Is in your friend’s pocket

Poverty may not show on the face

buy a box of sweets and biscuits

put them in the car

send some as Christmas gifts every day

to the junction and where the needy children are

we do not have time to think we hardly blink

listen to the world

COPY Christ’s GOOD

LIKE WE KNOW WE SHOULD

The world plans ahead

or we’ll all be dead

drowned in plastic oceans

burnt or frozen in climate change

turn from plastic to reusable glass bottles

Save the trees Give up wrapping presents this CHRISTMAS

Cut down, save and recycle your Christmas cards and envelopes

into school artwork and jotters

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse,

Stop Single Use Plastic

Bottle, straws, party cutlery, shopping bags

Refuse to make more refuse

Chewing gum is plastic

Why line your stomach with chewable elastic? Who will be the next victim

of Boko Haram, herders, fraud, theft?

YOU SAY ’GOD FORBID’

GOD DID FORBID

BUT WE DO THE FORBIDDEN ANYWAY

Where do we turn FOR PEACE -right or left

And there is the bully in your home and school

The playground can be designated a battlefield,

with real casualties..

sticks, belts, pebbles, stones,

catapult and elastic band

Do not care where they land

aiming lollypop and broom sticks, pellets and stones

at BULL’S EYE -our child’s eye

Blinding her for life, GOD FORBID

GOD DID FORBID

BUT WE DO THE FORBIDDEN ANYWAY

The dirty slap blinds the eye, deafens the ear

concusses the brain,

STOP your children heading footballs

or the repeated small brain damage/ will head them to the doctor

or the bottom of the class , last

Do you know someone planning a baby?

Remember this secret

A TABLET A DAY OF FOLIC ACID a day

Keeps brain abnormalities away

Correction

it works ONLY IF STARTED BEFORE CONCEPTION

Christ was born TO SAVE OUR SOULS

BUT WE MUST SAVE EACH OTHER’S BODIES

BETWEEN NOW AND NEXT CHRISTMAS

PS if you get a text message Mechahnyia, what does it mean? It is Merry Christmas And Happy New Year -2019.

Urgently Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

January 2, 2019
Happy New Year

Last year died yesterday. A New Year is here. It is 2016. This year promises to be interesting for the people of the Southsouth. The states to watch out for are Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom. Cross River, Edo and Delta will be interesting too but for now, they seem to occupy the backseats. At least from what we can see now.

On January 9, the people of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area will resolve the jigsaw that the Bayelsa State governorship election has become.

The last time the people went to the poll, there were gun shots in the air. Poor men suffered. Big men felt pain. Men threw caution to the wind. Brawn replaced brain. Personal interest won a contest against general interest. It will not be out of place to say hell came down.

Before the contest, the two main contenders, Governor Seriake Dickson and ex-Governor Timpre Sylva threw serious jibes at each other. Sylva called Dickson a ‘guy man governor’. Dickson described his rival as a ‘bush man’.

At the end of the first day of voting, the people of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, which is said to be home to 33 per cent of the voters in the state, with over 120, 000 registered voters, could not vote. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the security situation in the area was not conducive for its men to conduct the poll. It rescheduled the election for the next day.

Dickson criticised INEC for deciding to hold the election on Sunday. He said there was need for adequate security to be put in place before the poll could hold. This was an opinion Sylva did not share. As far as he was concerned, the election could go on.

The election held as planned but when it was time to announce the result, all hell broke loose. By that time, INEC had announced the result in seven of the eight local government areas in the state. Of the seven, Dickson had won in six. Sylva won in one. For Sylva, Southern Ijaw, where his running mate hails from, was another place he was sure of winning. His camp was confident that with votes from Southern ijaw, his chances of being governor again were alive. They were not worried by Dickson’s win in six local governments, whose combined registered voters were just a little over Southern Ijaw’s.

Dickson was not unaware of the danger Southern Ijaw votes could do to his political career. That explained why he kept shouting against the process in Southern Ijaw right from the beginning. He even ordered his supporters to take to the streets to protest against the release of the result from Southern Ijaw, which he said had been doctored by the APC.

Eventually, INEC cancelled the election in Southern Ijaw. Dickson was happy. Sylva was not. The electoral body said because of irregularities it could not announce the result. Violence, ballot snatching and intimidation of electoral officers were the irregularities complained about. Dickson had 105,748 votes; Sylva had 71,794 from seven of the eight local governments in the state. And with more than 120,827 voters registered in Southern Ijaw, INEC could not declare a winner since Sylva could still garner enough to upstage Dickson.

Will the stalemate end on January 9? It needs to. We do not need inconclusive polls this year.

Dear Rivers and Akwa Ibom will also be on our minds this month. The Court of Appeal last year declared Governors Nyesom Wike and Udom Emmanuel not validly elected. Both are on appeal to the Supreme Court, which is expected to give its verdicts on the two men later this month. Chances that the people of these states will return to the polls cannot be ruled out.

In Wike’s case, both the tribunal and Court of Appeal agreed he was not validly elected. Emmanuel’s election was partially cancelled by the tribunal but the Court of Appeal disagreed and directed that fresh poll should be conducted throughout the state.

Aside Wike, almost all members of the National Assembly from the state have to face fresh polls. Sixteen members of the House of Assembly also have to face fresh polls. More may follow depending on the outcome of the petitions at the Court of Appeal. What this means is that almost all elected officials in the state have been found not duly elected. If the Supreme Court agrees with the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Wike will join the men declared illegally declared winners in Rivers.

For me, an earlier Supreme Court ruling on electoral dispute in Rivers may play a big role in deciding Wike’s fate. Last year, the governor had challenged the relocation of the Election Petition Tribunal to Abuja. In resolving the matter, the apex court had this to say: “In the instant case, it was the President of the Court of Appeal that relocated the tribunal to Abuja because of insecurity. It was this situation that demanded for a doctrine of necessity which made the President of the Court of Appeal to relocate the tribunal to Abuja to protect the lives of the members of the panel… It is necessary to protect members of the panel by relocating them from the theatre of war to where their lives will be secured.”

Before the apex court’s decision, Wike had failed at the lower level on this matter. He also suffered setback at the Appeal Court.

What struck me in the judgment was the apex court’s description of Rivers as a theatre of war. The justices agree with the Appeal Court President that there was insecurity in Rivers and the lives of the tribunal members could be in danger. With this kind of position already taken by the apex court, will it now say there was no violence in Rivers and the poll was free and fair? We will soon know.

Those who died in Rivers before and during the polls are clear evidence that the state was a theatre of war. Of all the killings, those of the Adubes caught the public’s attention more. Their killers showed no mercy. In one fell swoop, nine persons, including a father, his two sons and daughter were killed. The Adube family members are still in tears and are seeking justice.

Those killed are: former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local government, the late Hon. Christopher Adube, his two sons Lucky and John, his daughter Joy, a family friend Iyk Ogarabe and the family driver, Mr. Samuel Chukwunonye. Two of his children are alive but practically crippled.

My final take: The people should have the final say. This year, men who rely on violence and fraud to lord themselves over the people will not have their way. They will be frustrated by forces they have absolutely no control over. Their efforts will not be crowned with success. Failure, failure and failure will be their lot.

And lest I forget, Happy New Year folks. Let’s do this again next week.

January 1, 2016
Happy New Year

Ohaneze crisis: Elders (Elders’) council (Council) sets up caretaker committee”

“Grass to grace (Grass-to-grace) story of….”

“Condition of the barracks depressing, embarrasing (embarrassing)”

“The terror attack in (on) Kano mosque” (The Guardian Editorial Headline, December 12)

“Maybe more light needs to be thrown into (on) this explanation.” (THISDAY Back Page Right of Reply on Seven Years of Fashola, December 12)

“FIFA demands for Electoral Appeals’ Committee report” (THE GUARDIAN, December 9) Delete ‘for’.

“Truely (why?) a leader” (Full-page advertorial, The PUNCH, December 11)

“We deserve a bouyant economy and jobs for our youths” (Full-page advertorial by Atiku 2015, THE GUARDIAN, December 8) For a change & Nigeria for all: buoyant

“I’m in best position to succede (sic) Akpabio’s shoes” (THE GUARDIAN, December 12) This way: wear Akpabio’s shoes

“Lets (Let’s) do it together” (Full-page advertorial by Presidential Declaration Committee, Media & Publicity, THISDAY, November 11)

“One of such trouble shooting efforts by the leadership of the party and the president” National News: trouble-shooting efforts

THISDAY of November 13 comes next: “So I said it is (was) not just about complaining or pointing fingers (pointing the finger) at anybody….”

FEEDBACK RETURNS NEXT WEEK…HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

Remembering Oseni

It is difficult to believe that this year marks a decade that my mentor left these shores. If he had been alive I am cocksure that our relationship would have blossomed to unimaginable heights. Of all friends of mine that have gone ahead of us, this man meant most to me because he contributed inestimably to my professional ascent hence this especial remembrance tribute.

I still find it an inconsolable reality that my master, chummy and ardent fan of my column, Wordsworth, has taken a glorious flight out of this gloomy space. I am pained the more on grounds of our inexplicable circumstances that made it impossible for us to meet in almost two years, long before his death! This consummate journalist and media manager meant so much to me that words cannot capture. The only way for me to commemorate his painful exit is to cite five memorable encounters out of the legion we had together on several platforms of brotherly mutuality.

On an occasion when some cliquish elements in the old Daily Times, where he was the managing director, ganged up against me, it took the swift intervention of this detribalized man of profuse humility all the way from our 3, 5, 7 Kakawa Street, Lagos, corporate head office to extricate me from their clannish and bellicose stranglehold in Times Publications Division, Agidingbi, Ikeja. Shortly after that unwarranted belligerence, he unprecedentedly presented me to the company’s shareholders at the 70th AGM for my exemplary contributions to institutional objectives and contemporaneously gave me a cash-backed award for professional excellence through my quintessential language column. He really appreciated my unparalleled productivity and profundity of skills.

When he became former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Senior Special Assistant (Media & Publicity) in 2001, he never failed to invite me to executive events in Abuja-in my capacity as the editor of The Post Express-alongside select reputable editors. At one of the presidential media chats in which I participated, he stood at the last gate at Ota Farms where the special session held waiting anxiously for me because I arrived extremely behind schedule due to bad roads and concomitant traffic bottlenecks.

After the media chat, he visited me in my office in Apapa months later to solicit my support for government’s initiatives and also establish the imperative need for me to be less critical of the Obasanjo administration. The last meeting I had with Egbon Oseni was when I rode with him in his official car from Aso Rock, after an exclusive presidential session over dinner with about 10 title editors of frontline national newspapers in September 2002 or thereabouts, to NICON NOGA Hotel where we were lodged. All through the journey from the seat of government to the hotel he kept expressing bitterness over my hypercriticisms of Obasanjo. I promised to soft-pedal, which, alas, I never did for obvious reasons! (To further prove our amity, while we used his vehicle colleagues of mine were taken in other vehicles back to the hotel). How would I have known that it was the last goodnight as the man of urbanity bade me farewell at the NICON-NOGA Hotel lobby? I can vividly recollect it all as if it were yesterday!

My unassuming boss may your gentle soul rest in peace. You were nice to me in and out of Daily Times. I have not forgotten the aristocratic reception you accorded me the day I visited you at your Ikoyi, Lagos, home. How can I also forget your fondness of my rugged Volvo 244 of yore? Your love for me was exceedingly great. Till we meet again to part no more, continue to rest in peace, for you were a good man. I will never forget you, fine brother. We exchanged goodnight years back in Abuja without any inkling that it was going to be the last! What difference it would have made…I commit you to God’s bosom. Again, adieu! Some day we shall meet to part no more! God shall continue to grant your family the fortitude to bear your great demise and comfort the rest of us your colleagues and friends.

December 28, 2014
Happy New Year

Preamble

The appearance of today’s title in this column once in a year often looks strange to most readers since this is not January. In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, the idea of ‘New Year’ is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to January which is the first month of Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of colonialism in our continent. From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a thick Christian coloration that still paints African culture in the rainbow of colonial tradition.

Islam has its own calendar. And, like other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Hijrah year. Unlike other calendars which are manmade however, Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows: “Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”

The twelve Islamic months are as follows: Muharram; Safar; Rabiul Awwal; Rabiu-th-Thani; Jumadal Ula; Jumada-th-Thaniyah; Rajab; Shaban; Ramadan; Shawwal; Dhul Qadah; and Dhul Hijjah.

The four months specifically designated as sacred months are the last four months of Hijrah calendar. They are Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa’dah and Dhul Hijjah. Some of these months have 30 days. Others have 29. No more, no less.

Tomorrow (October 25, 2014) is the first day of Hijrah year 1436. It follows the last day of Dhul Hijjah which ends today. Dhul Hijjah is the last month of Hijrah calendar. It takes a well educated person to understand this and relate to it as such. This is what distinguishes Osun State Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola from all other governors, especially in the Southwest of Nigeria. The declaration by him of public holiday for the event is a clear evidence of justice which had hitherto been denied to the Muslims in the state.

To demonstrate similar justice, it is hoped that other governors in the region will follow suit as a mark of civility.

Genesis

Hijrah calendar took its name from Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 C.E. The use of Hijrah calendar began when Umar Bn Khattab, the second Caliph, suggested that Islam should have its own distinctive calendar saying Hijrah, the Prophet’s emigration, was so much a significant landmark in Islam that it could not be overlooked. As a matter of fact, Hijrah is one of the three main factors responsible for the survival of the religion of Islam. The other two were the victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr which was waged by Makkah pagans against them in Madinah shortly after the Prophet’s emigration. And the third is Allah’s great promise that became an everlasting fulfilment. That promise is contained in Chapter 15 verse 9 of the Qur’an thus:

“It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and We will preserve it…’ and who can doubt the Almighty Allah the Creator of the entire universe and its preserver”. But for these three fundamental factors, perhaps Islam or the Qur’an would have joined the legion of defunct religions. With Allah, all things are possible.

Significance

In Islam, the first day of the first Hijrah month (Muharram) is more significant than Mawlidun- Nabiyyi (the birth day of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)). The Prophet had existed for 40 years before ‘The Message of Islam’ came to him and nobody celebrated his birthday. Thus without

‘The great Message of Islam’ he would have had no cause to emigrate.

And if he had lived for 40 years without being known in history before he became a Prophet, why should his birthday now take precedence over ‘The Great Message’ which made him the greatest man that ever lived?

Basically Hijrah institutionalised three important aspects of life: social, economic and political. In the social aspect when the first revelation was made to the Prophet (SAW) a period of twelve (12) years was devoted by him towards inculcating the religion in the minds of individuals while no pattern of a collective life based on true religious concepts could be presented to the world. The status of the Muslim individuals in Makkah gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or rather, believing in the mission of the prophet was one’s personal affair. This was believed to pertain only to the hereafter which had nothing to do with people’s collective life.

Social Effect

It was only after the Prophet’s emigration (Hijrah) that people began to see Islam clearly as a way of life which paid attention to and reformed every facet of human existence. It then became evident that Islam was the religion that gave directions regarding almost every moment of a believer’s conscious life. Hijrah also enabled the Arabs in particular to see what a Muslim’s matrimonial home should be in a Muslim society. Hence, it was only after this event that the world could see the aspect of human social decency and decorum prescribed by Islam.

The second reason for the importance of Hijrah is its economic significance which manifested in the lifestyle of the pioneer Muslims’ emigration to Madinah led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself. The unsurpassable hospitality of the people of Madinah towards the Muslim emigrants did not only provide a new peaceful home for the newcomers.

It also showed the hosts’ passionate self-sacrifice. And with Hijrah, the Makkan emigrants who became immigrants in Madinah vividly came in contact with advanced agricultural acumen and ingenuous artisanship never experienced before. These resulted in an unprecedented economic revolution for the city. Since the hosts shared virtually everything they had with the immigrants when the latter first arrived, a lesson was learnt by the immigrants not to continue to be a burden on their brotherly hosts. Thus, every one of them adopted legitimate ways of earning righteous income.

Moral Effect

Initially, the Muslim Immigrants in Madinah worked as labourers in the fields, gardens and construction works. But later, they, being traditional traders, started small trading activities which brought them into an economic competition with the Jews of Madinah. One aspect of the economic revolution was that the Muslim immigrants paid the right price for every product they consumed since the Prophet had forbidden the practice of acquiring products on reduced prices in return for loans given to the artisans or to the land cultivators. The practice was prohibited because it was considered to be a form of usury.

Thus, it was only after Hijrah that agriculture, industry and trade freely helped the Muslims to bring about an integrated, balanced and unfettered economy for the Ummah.

Judicial Effect

The third reason which made Hijrah a very important event is the political freedom for the Muslims. Before Hijrah, the Muslims in Makkah had no say in any matter, internal or external. They were a minority against whom the hearts of the majority were full of enmity simply because they were an insignificant part of the dominating unbelievers’ society in Makkah.

It was Hijrah, therefore, that made the Muslims Masters of their internal affairs, external relations and matters relating to war and peace. If there was any disagreement between the Muslims and the non-Muslims, the final decision was to be made by the Prophet. This indicated a kind of autonomy to be enjoyed by the Muslims for the first time. And it was the nucleus of a city-state which, within a period of ten (10) years in the life time of the Prophet expanded to the entire Arabian Peninsula. It is thus evident that the event of Hijrah turned a few hundred Muslims resident in Madinah into a highly successful society.

An erroneous act

If the Nigerian Muslim leaders were adequately informed at the time they were negotiating religious holidays for Nigerian Muslim Ummah they would have asked for Hijrah rather than Mawlidun-Nabiyyi. Apart from coming into the world through birth like any other human being, there is nothing the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) contributed to the unprecedented revolution called Islam. And, the Prophet himself did not believe in the aristocracy of birth which celebration of birthday is all about. That was why he (the Prophet) never celebrated his own birthday the way some Muslims do on his behalf today. What is more, the Prophet’s birthday is never celebrated in Saudi Arabia where he was born. What is rather celebrated in that country is Hijrah Day.

Whereas Mawlidun-Nabiyyi is about the personal life of Prophet Muhammad alone, Hijrah Day is about Islam and the entire Muslim Ummah.

While celebrating Mawlidun-Nabiyyi, you can only praise the Prophet and nothing more. But when celebrating the Hijrah day, you are celebrating not only the Prophet’s migration but also the triumph of Islam as the everlasting password of the Universe. That is why we exchange pleasantries by congratulating one another and by chanting the slogan HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Compared to Hijrah calendar the Gregorian calendar is not only artificial but alien to Christianity. It was only adopted some centuries ago as a way of distinguishing the religion of Christ fromwhatever preceded or succeeded it. While writing about how Gregorian calendar came into existence, a British writer and newspaper columnist, Ben Snowden said in a descriptive article entitled ‘The Curious History of Gregorian Calendar thus: “September 2, 1752, was a great day in the history of sleep.

That Wednesday evening, millions of British subjects in England and the colonies went peacefully to sleep and did not wake up until twelve days later. Behind this feat of narcoleptic prowess was not just some revolutionary hypnotic technique or miraculous pharmaceutical discovered in the West Indies. It was, rather, the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the second day of that month to be Thursday the fourteenth day of the same month.

Other calendars

Prior to that cataleptic September evening, the official British calendar differed from that of continental Europe by eleven days—that is, September 2 in London was September 13 in Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin. The discrepancy had sprung from Britain’s continued use of the Julian calendar, which had been the official calendar of Europe since its invention by Julius Caesar (after whom it was named) in 45 B.C.

Caesar’s calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a 28-day February (extended to 29 days every fourth year), was actually quite accurate: it erred from the real solar calendar by only 11½ minutes a year. By the sixteenth century, it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar one by 10 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds—accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day’s difference every 3,323 years.

Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory’s correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918 and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.

The use of calendars

Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals. Ancient peoples tied their calendars to whatever recurring natural phenomena they could most easily observe. In areas with pronounced seasons, annual weather changes usually fixed the calendar; in warmer climates such as Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the moon was used to mark time.

Unfortunately, the cycles of the sun and moon do not synchronise well.

A lunar year (consisting of 12 lunar cycles, or lunation, each 29½ days long) is only 354 days, 8 hours long; that is unlike a solar year which lasts about 365¼ days. After three years, a strict lunar calendar would have diverged from the solar calendar by 33 days, or more than one lunation.

The Muslim calendar is the only purely lunar calendar with widespread use today. Its months have no permanent connection to any particular season. Muslim religious celebrations, such as Ramadan, may therefore occur at any date of the Gregorian calendar.

To compensate for the difference in the solar and lunar year, calendar makers introduced the practice of intercalation (the addition of extra days or months to the calendar) to make it more accurate.

Gregorian calendar

Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week.

Since the time of Pope Gregory XIII, many other proposals for calendar reform have been made. For instance, in the 1840s, philosopher Auguste Comte suggested that the 365th day of each year be a holiday not assigned to a day of the week.

The French Revolution also made an attempt to introduce a new calendar. On October 5, 1793, the revolutionary convention decreed that the year (starting on September 22, 1792—the autumnal equinox, and the day after the proclamation of the new republic) would be divided into 12 months of 30 days, named after corresponding seasonal phenomena (e.g. seed, blossom, harvest).

The remaining five days of the year, called sans-culottides were considered feast days. In leap years, the extra day (Revolution Day) was to be added to the end of the year. The Revolutionary calendar had no week; each month was divided into three decades, with every tenth day to be a day of rest. This clumsy calendar, however, perished with the French Republic because of its clumsiness.

Conclusion

Of all the existing calendars, only Hijrah has been generally acknowledged as unique in effect and in workability. In commemoration of the great occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE, both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) have sent messages of felicitations to Nigerian Muslim Ummah

just as ‘The Message’ column also says HAPPY NEW YEAR!

October 24, 2014
Happy New Year

The title of this article may sound strange to most readers since this is not January. In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, the idea of New Year is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to January which is the first month of Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of European colonialism in our continent. From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a Christian coloration that still paints African culture in the rainbow of colonial tradition.

Islam has its own calendar. And, like other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Hijrah year. Unlike other calendars which are manmade however, Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows:

“Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”

The twelve months are: Muharram; Safar; Rabiul Awwal; Rabiu-th-Thani; Jumadal Ula; Jumada-th-Thaniyah; Rajab; Shaban; Ramadan; Shawwal; Dhul Qadah; and Dhul Hijjah.

The four months specifically designated as sacred are Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa’dah and Dhul Hijjah. Some of these months have 30 days. Others have 29. No more, no less.

Last Tuesday (November 5, 2013) was the first day of the Hijrah year 1435. It followed the last day of Dhul Hijjah which is the last month of Hijrah calendar.

Hijrah calendar took its name from Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 C.E. The use of Hijrah calendar began when Umar Bn Khattab, the second Caliph, suggested that Islam should have its own distinctive calendar saying Hijrah, the Prophet’s emigration, was so much a significant landmark in Islam that it could not be overlooked. As a matter of fact, it is one of the three main factors responsible for the survival of the religion of Islam. The other two were the victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr which was waged by Makkah pagans against the Muslims in Madinah shortly after the Prophet’s emigration. And the third is Allah’s great promise that became an everlasting fulfilment. That promise is contained in Chapter 15 verse 9 of the Qur’an thus:

“It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and We will preserve it…’ and who can doubt the Almighty Allah who created the entire universe and preserves it”. With Allah, all things are possible. But for these three fundamental factors, perhaps Islam or the Qur’an would have joined the legion of defunct religions.

In Islam, the first day of (Muharram) the first month of Hijrah calendar is more significant than Mawlidun- Nabiyyi (the birth day of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)). The Prophet had existed for 40 years before ‘The Message’ came to him and nobody celebrated his birthday. Thus without ‘The great Message of Islam’ he would have had no cause to emigrate. If he had lived for 40 years without being known in history before he became a Prophet, why should his birth now take precedence over ‘The Great Message’ that made him the greatest man that ever lived?

Basically Hijrah institutionalised three important aspects of life: social, economic and political.

In the social aspect when the first revelation was made to the Prophet (SAW) a period of twelve (12) years was devoted by him to inculcate religion in the minds of individuals while no pattern of a collective life based on true religious concepts could be presented to the world. The status of the Muslim individuals in Makkah gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or believing in the prophet was one’s personal affair; it pertained only to the hereafter and had nothing to do with collective life.

It was only after Hijrah that people began to see clearly that Islam was a way of life which pays attention to and reforms every facet of human existence, giving directions regarding almost every moment of one’s conscious time. Hijrah also enable the Arabs in particular to see what a Muslim house-hold should be in a Muslim society. Hence, it was only after this event that the world could see the aspect of social decency and decorum under Islam.

A second reason for the importance of Hijrah is its economic aspect. The economic effects were due to the permanent earliest Muslim emigration to Madinah led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The matchless hospitality of the people of Madinah towards the Muslims immigrants did not only provide a new peaceful home for the newcomers, but also showed the hosts’ passionate self-sacrifice. And with Hijrah, the immigrants vividly came in contact with advanced agricultural acumen and ingenuous artisanship never experienced before. These resulted in an unprecedented economic revolution for the place. Since the hosts shared virtually everything with the immigrants on the latter’s arrival, a lesson was learnt by the immigrants not to continue to be a burden on their brotherly hosts. Thus, every one of them adopted legitimate ways of earning righteously.

Initially, the immigrants worked as labourers in the fields, gardens and construction works. Later they, being traders, started small trading activities which brought them into an economic competition with the Jews of Madinah. One aspect of the economic revolution was that the trader immigrants paid the right price to the growers for their produce since the Prophet had forbidden the practice of acquiring products on reduced prices in return for loans given to the artisans or to the cultivators.

Thus, it was only after Hijrah that agriculture, industry and trade freely helped the Muslims to bring about an integrated, balanced and unfettered economy for the Ummah.

The third reason which made Hijrah a very important event is the political freedom for the Muslims. Before Hijrah the Muslims had no say in any matter, internal or external. They were a minority against whom the hearts of the majority were full of enmity – the Muslims were an insignificant part of a set of dominating unbelievers in Makkah.

Hijrah made the Muslims masters of their internal affairs, external relations and matters relating to war and peace. There was great understanding among the Muslims, for instance, in case a difference occurred between the Muslims and non-Muslims, the final decision was to be made by the Prophet. This showed an autonomous set up of a Muslim Ummah coming into existence. And this was a beginning of a city-state which, within the life-time of the Prophet or within a period of ten (10) years, expanded which encompassed the entire Arabian peninsula. It is thus evident that the event of Hijrah turned a few hundred persons into a highly successful society.

If the Nigerian Muslim leaders were adequately informed, Islamically, at the time they were negotiating religious holidays for Nigerian Muslim Ummah, they would have asked for Hijrah rather than Mawlidun-Nabiyyi. Apart from coming into the world through birth like any other human being, there is nothing the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) contributed to Islam. And, the Prophet himself did not believe in the aristocracy of birth. That was why he never celebrated his own birthday the way some Muslims do on his behalf today. What is more, the Prophet’s birthday is never celebrated in Saudi Arabia where he was born. What is rather celebrated in that country is Hijrah day. Whereas Mawlidun-Nabiyyi is about the life of Prophet Muhammad alone, Hijrah day is about Islam, its survival and the entire Muslim Ummah.

While celebrating Mawlidun-Nabiyyi, you can only praise the Prophet and nothing more. But when celebrating the Hijrah day, you are celebrating not only the Prophet’s migration but the success of Islam as the everlasting password of the Universe. That is why we exchange pleasantries by congratulating one another and by chanting the slogan HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Compared to Hijrah calendar the Gregorian calendar is not only artificial but alien to Christianity. It was only adopted some centuries ago as a way of distinguishing the religion of Christ from whatever preceded or succeeded it. While writing about how Gregorian calendar came into existence, a British writer and newspaper columnist, Ben Snowden said in a descriptive article entitled ‘The Curious History of Gregorian Calendar thus:

“September 2, 1752, was a great day in the history of sleep.

That Wednesday evening, millions of British subjects in England and the colonies went peacefully to sleep and did not wake up until twelve days later. Behind this feat of narcoleptic prowess was not just some revolutionary hypnotic technique or miraculous pharmaceutical discovered in the West Indies. It was, rather, the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the second day of that month to be Thursday the fourteenth day of the same month.

Prior to that cataleptic September evening, the official British calendar differed from that of continental Europe by eleven days—that is, September 2 in London was September 13 in Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin. The discrepancy had sprung from Britain’s continued use of the Julian calendar, which had been the official calendar of Europe since its invention by Julius Caesar (after whom it was named) in 45 B.C.

Caesar’s calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a 28-day February (extended to 29 days every fourth year), was actually quite accurate: it erred from the real solar calendar by only 11½ minutes a year. By the sixteenth century, it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar one by 10 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds—accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day’s difference every 3,323 years.

Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory’s correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918 and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.

Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals. Ancient peoples tied their calendars to whatever recurring natural phenomena they could most easily observe. In areas with pronounced seasons, annual weather changes usually fixed the calendar; in warmer climates such as Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the moon was used to mark time.

Unfortunately, the cycles of the sun and moon do not synchronise well. A lunar year (consisting of 12 lunar cycles, or lunation, each 29½ days long) is only 354 days, 8 hours long; a solar year lasts about 365¼ days. After three years, a strict lunar calendar would have diverged from the solar calendar by 33 days, or more than one lunation.

The Muslim calendar is hence the only purely lunar calendar in widespread use today. Its months have no permanent connection to the seasons— Muslim religious celebrations, such as Ramadan, may thus occur at any date of the Gregorian calendar.

The phases of the moon have nonetheless remained a popular way to divide the solar year, if only because a 365¼-day year doesn’t exactly lend itself to equal subdivision (the 71¼-day month has yet to find favor among monologists). To compensate for the difference in the solar and lunar year, calendar makers introduced the practice of intercalation—the addition of extra days or months to the calendar to make it more accurate. The semi lunar Hebrew calendar, consisting of twelve 29- and 30-day months, adds an intercalary month seven times every 19 years (which explains the sometimes confusing drift of Passover—and consequently Easter— through April and March).

Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week. Holidays pegged to specific dates may also fall on any day of the week, and vanishingly few Americans can predict when Thanksgiving will occur next year.

Since the time of Pope Gregory XIII, many other proposals for calendar reform have been made. In the 1840s, philosopher Auguste Comte suggested that the 365th day of each year be a holiday not assigned to a day of the week. The generic “Year Day” would allow January 1 to fall on a Sunday every year. Needless to say, this clever solution was not widely embraced.

The French Revolution also made an attempt to introduce a new calendar. On October 5, 1793, the revolutionary convention decreed that the year (starting on September 22, 1792—the autumnal equinox, and the day after the proclamation of the new republic) would be divided into 12 months of 30 days, named after corresponding seasonal phenomena (e.g. seed, blossom, harvest).

The remaining five days of the year, called sans-culottides, were feast days. In leap years, the extra day, Revolution Day, was to be added to the end of the year. The Revolutionary calendar had no week; each month was divided into three decades, with every tenth day to be a day of rest. This straightforward calendar, however, perished with the Republic”.

Of all the existing calendars, only Hijrah has been generally acknowledged as unique in effect and in workability. In commemoration of the great occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE, both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) have sent messages of felicitations to Nigerian Muslim Ummah just as ‘The Message’ column also says HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 8, 2013