The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ignorance

  • Ignorance: social media and intellectualism

    Sir: The social media has come to stay. Its use, misuse and abuse are what writers will continue to address. Countless are the benefits of social media. The different platforms have become the oil with which the yam of friendship, relationship and companionship is eaten. They have become succour out of boredom and they are to the 21st century what the television was to the 19th and 20th centuries.

    As relevant as the social media is, it has its many disadvantages in different realms of life. One of such challenges is that social media has shrunk real life bonds among people as complaints such as “S/he spends all day chatting” is now on the lips of many people across the globe.

    Fredrick Douglass once said “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free”. But he said this when reading was an intellectually engaging exercise. And I mean before the advent of social media. The reverse is pathetically the case as reading seems in this age to shrink people’s ability to think. People share nonsensical information and fabrications and when they tell you they have read it somewhere, you are immediately forced to ask: Even if you’ve read this, don’t you think about the things you read and then take your stance?

    In the past, that which is written used to be taken as authentic and reliable. Sadly, gone is that age. The poor intellectual state of many readers and the lack of depth in many posts make one ask: what do people read on social media? This question reveals the preponderance of fake news and other logically unfounded posts.

    Writing used to be the business of the noble and the informed. Now, the social media has become a space for thoughtless and illogical writings available for lazy and myopic readers.

    In an informal survey of three National Diploma classes in one of Nigerian polytechnics, I discovered recently that 70% of the students who use Android phones did not know how to get on Google on their gadgets. Aside their call logs, contact list and gallery, they can only navigate through their many social media. In an age when lecturers have stopped reckoning with Wikipedia, there are still many students who can’t even handle Google search. Many do not know that gone are the days you necessarily have to buy a newspaper, all of them have their online versions now. But unfortunately, an average Nigerian relies on the information on social media and would rather become an unpaid distributor of such news than to get the news verified.

    This is an appeal and a reminder to people that reading is an intellectual engagement which demands questioning whatever you read and subjecting same to logical validation. A generation of literates who have no depth are not different from illiterates who cannot pronounce words. People are advised to also get on other media such as educational media(academia, LinkedIn) and to utilise Google search to broaden their knowledge. Google is such a big gift to the world. It has something to say on everything. It presents you with different perspectives to any issue which can help you arrive at a logical conclusion on any topic. As the social media presents us with more and more platforms to lavish our days (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat), it is our responsibility to put these platforms to positive use and to also visit other media that can help us deepen our reasoning.

     

    • GaniuAbisoyeBamgbose (GAB) University of Ibadan.

  • Obasanjo’s attack on TraderMoni reflects ignorance, mischief, says VP

    VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has described as unfortunate the attack on the Federal Government’s TraderMoni  microcredit scheme by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Prof Osinbajo, who reacted through a statement by his Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said the former president was misinformed to have described a programme designed to lift Nigerians as “idiotic”.

    The alleged comments by the former president “smirk of outright mischief as it regurgitates blatant falsehood”.

    In the response to media inquiries regarding the former president’s comments over the weekend, Akande said: “It is either that the former leader is ignorant of the true workings of Trader Moni and the role of the Vice President in its implementation or perhaps he is on a mischievous mission.”

    According to him, the former President has demonstrated “a surprising but complete misunderstanding of the workings of TraderMoni, that is if we assume there is no mischief intended.

    “Firstly, the Vice President does not personally distribute money during his visits to the markets. He goes there to assess the progress of the implementation and to create awareness for a programme designed to meet the financing need of two million petty traders across the country in the first instance.

    “Secondly, while one will not bother to further address the issue of timing of the implementation since such issues are now known to be political posturing, it is important to note that TraderMoni is being actively implemented across all states of the federation and the FCT. It is not only in Lagos and Abuja as was insinuated.

    “These petty traders at the bottom of the economic ladder, with an inventory often less than N5,000, are beneficiaries of the TraderMoni scheme which provides N10,000 collateral/interest-free loans to them, empowerment that improves their small businesses, their families, while also contributing significantly to the economy.

    “Thirdly, in what is certainly a curious comment, the former President has also been quoted as describing the TraderMoni scheme as idiotic. To label such people-friendly scheme as idiotic is not only an absurdity, it is also an affront to the sensibilities of these hard working Nigerians, the beneficiaries of the micro-credit scheme.

    “For emphasis, the Bank of Industry implements the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, (GEEP), one part of our Social Investment Programme. Enumeration Agents have been engaged to visit the markets and other points where petty traders are found to confirm that they are traders and also take their biometric information for recording purposes. After the enumeration, the N10, 000 collateral free loans are then disbursed electronically through the petty traders’ phones.

    “TraderMoni is designed to meet the needs of the larger population of petty traders at the bottom of the pyramid who do not meet the more stringent criteria of BVN, bank accounts, market associations, cooperatives, required for bigger Market Moni loans.

    ”Under GEEP – which has MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni, at least 1.5 million Nigerians are already beneficiaries of the three-pronged approach of GEEP, while N-Power has created jobs for 500,000 young Nigerians graduates, besides non-graduates. Also, almost 300,000 Nigerians have benefitted from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), which is given to the poorest and most vulnerable among us, and over 9.2 million school pupils are being fed a free meal daily in 26 states under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

    “It bears repetition that higher economic growth potentials are associated with lower income inequality. This makes a most overwhelming case for welfare payments like the social investment schemes like the TraderMoni/MarketMoni schemes. Such a micro-credit scheme provides a higher rate of inclusion into the financial bracket and is crucial in lifting hardworking people out of poverty as has been the case in other countries like India and Brazil.

    “Fourthly, the former president also rehashed discredited claims suggesting that TraderMonibeneficiaries were required to tender their PVCs, and questioned the timing of the implementation.

    “Let me, therefore, state again that beneficiaries of TraderMoni are not required to show their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) or any document indicating their political affiliations to qualify for the loans.

    “This is why the enumeration is done in the open markets and wherever the traders ply their trade. This issue has been addressed several times by the Presidency in the public space. Therefore, the former president’s alleged comments smirk of outright mischief as it regurgitates blatant falsehood.

    “Equally, if the former president had conducted a simple act of diligence, he would have found that the National Assembly had approved this programmes and budgeted for them duly.

    ”When President Muhammadu Buhari came into office, one of the major hinges of this administration was to uplift the common man out of poverty and ensure the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.  TraderMoni is  one of such schemes conceived in 2016 under the Social Investment Programme of this administration.

    “Being a former president, Chief Obasanjo ordinarily should appreciate the impact of such far-reaching social investment schemes, which has provided what is now the largest social safety net for millions of Nigerians and is unprecedented in the nation’s history.

    Read also: Attack on TraderMoni: PDP, Fayose rehashing falsehood, says Presidency

    “Again, the former president’s attack on TraderMoni and the person of the Vice President is an indicator that he may be wittingly or unwittingly playing to the sinister script of the opposition party to spread falsehood and attack the social investment programmes of the Buhari administration, which champions such impactful schemes, and which is now attracting the praise and commendation of Nigerians everywhere.

    “It is pertinent to state that the false allegations against  TraderMoni  raised again by the former president, is sadly a rehash of baseless claims previously made by leading chieftains of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose record of profligacy, corruption and mismanagement clearly show it has no agenda to uplift the common man or improve the lives of Nigerians.

    ”Finally, attacks such as this on a scheme that benefits the masses of our people is a direct attack on the people and this kind of conduct does not reflect very well on a former president but is only self-denigrating and of no public value.

    “As is already now obvious, the generality of the Nigerian people will not only reject that attack but will also condemn its source. We, therefore, urge the former president to be far more circumspect and more public-spirited in his utterances going forward.”

  • Democracy of dunces

    The reactions boiled over. As the informed columnist, I am accustomed to such vitriol, especially when they come from the isthmus of ignorance. My column last week simply inspired what was to come. When they did not know how to foil the magnitude of my logic, they resorted to vituperations. They admitted they had lost the argument. From Facebook, to Twitter, to phone calls to text messages. It was an outpouring of tendentious imbecility.

    It invokes the words of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels. “When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.” I have always known that, sometimes, Nigeria can be a democracy of dunces. Last week, it reflected by the riot of insults on this column. Those who did not call me a disgrace to column writing described me as doing the bidding of paymasters. I wonder what they are thinking now that I saw tomorrow. They could not do to me what the prophet Amos wrote about those who gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded their prophets “saying, Prophesy not.” They could not shut me up.

    Last week, I was the prophet, noting that it made no sense to bring the State of Osun to the gyration of a thespian Adeleke. He would have turned dancing into the official body language of government. It would have been a government of dunces and dancers. He has been dancing, in season and out of season through the campaign. His feet became tired. He was like the masquerade in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart who danced himself lame before the main dance. By the same token, some of my traducers had been celebrating before the final tally. They ought to have learned from the American baseball player Yogi Berra who quipped: “It is not over until it is over.”

    The oligarchy of the mere mortals gave the verdict to Oyetola, and I thought it only made sense in a contest between a financial engineer and a semi-literate. I had prized knowledge over vanity, and had correctly described Demola Adeleke, who fell at the polls last week, as the wrong sort of guy to mount a governor’s chair. I noted that the dramatic hollowness of the man, the impresario of the feet, should be defeated. He belonged elsewhere.

    With F9 at WAEC, with his rhetorical stumbles, his supporters had made a huge mistake to pitch a tent with a hollow fellow who could not, in a manner of speaking, spell infrastructure. There was an American president who was bad at spelling. He was Andrew Jackson, the man who tortured Indians, glorified white superiority, and instituted the imperial presidency.

    He once asserted that he did not trust anyone who thought there was only one way to spell a word. At least, he had an intellectual justification for ignorance. Adeleke lay no claim to scholarship, except his insistence on attending school. He once promised to spray money to the people as though that amounted to sagacity and campaign manifesto. Even if, by accident, he could spell the word, his tenure would have spelled dysfunction.

    If we download what transpired for Oyetola’s victory, we shall unveil the nature of realpolitik. Omisore became, as it were, the custodian of the votes in most of the supplementary vote areas. It did not make him a monarch of the votes, but the influencer. It is an essential part of the democratic process. Not here alone, but everywhere in the history of democracy, including in ancient Athens, the birthplace of popular appeal. But what we call democracy is actually a republic. A democracy is close to a mob rule, where the majority imposes its will on the minority.

    But the concept of the republic calls for deal making, the institution of the rule of law over the majority instinct. It suspects the mob in a democracy, and trusts an enlightened elite to moderate and temporise. Modern scholars sometimes call it a democratic republic. So, Bukola ‘Eleyinmi’ Saraki bungled his mission just like his stage ancestor. The APC fellows gave the man a better deal. He called on his people to vote APC and the rest is history.

    In the United States, big-name endorsements drive presidential candidates to victory. Barack Obama wheeled from momentum into a movement after big names like Ted Kennedy and Colin Powell gave their voices to the man who popularised the phrase “Yes, we can.”

    The president called Omisore. The embassy of Ekiti State Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi to the ‘court’ of Omisore kicked off the momentum for a nocturnal meeting that had men like Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun. Of course, sprightly party chairman Adams Oshiomhole gave the defining handshake as the pictures show.

    Some of my critics made a big deal about Rauf Aregbesola, and complained over the salary arrears. They forget that most of the civil servants were never owed a penny. Workers up to levels seven or eight had their full pay. A few steps after that had 75 per cent, and the senior cadre had 50 per cent. This is one of the issues downplayed by many who did not understand what happened in the state. Most of the traducers were either ignorant or wilfully mischievous. I noted that Aregbesola made some mistakes but the preponderance of votes reflected that his brilliance outweighed his mistakes. Clearly, Omisore’s intervention would have amounted to nothing if the salary issue was so definitive. Influencers are powerful, but they have their limits. They also know it and would not push the people beyond their patience.

    It must be stated though that if Adeoti had not been let go, and Lasun wooed properly, the supplementary elections would have been unnecessary, for both earned many thousands of votes that they could have lapped up for Oyetola. No one would have spoken of salary deficit as a big factor. The injury-time desperation over Omisore would have been unnecessary if the APC top brass were not complacent over the mighty defectors.

    The critics underplay the strides in the past eight years, especially in the areas of education, infrastructure and human welfare. With the quickest uptick of school enrolment in a generation and enhanced facilities, WAEC performance leaped from about 15 per cent to over 50 per cent, unequalled anywhere in its improvement.

    Aregbesola came in as the activist idealist, but he miscalculated. Some may say he was naïve, but if the oil price retained its perch in the stratosphere for a few more years, he might be walking out the Osun stage in a messianic halo. But he is lucky that he has a man of a contrasting temperament and a financial engineer to take over. He can now build on the plantings of his predecessor. Just as Akintola on Awo’s and Fashola on Tinubu’s, Oyetola will now translate all that work into a fruition. Oyetola in a couple of years will enjoy a new financial berth as the bonds and loans will expire and free money for development. He becomes a translator as writers translate other writers. Alexander Pope wrote of Chaucer and Dryden, who translated the former: “such as Chaucer is, so shall Dryden be.” A great work needs a great translator, as Soyinka brought Fagunwa to the world.

    Oyetola also has a calm temperament appropriate for a man who takes over a feisty era.

     

  • Religion: The price of ignorance

    Preamble

    This article is not new. It was first published in 2012. But it is being repeated here today because of passionate demand for it by many readers who feel it is very relevant to the current Nigerian situation in which religion has become the biggest commercial venture and some so called religious leaders are provocatively dishing out hate speeches in torrents from their pulpits as a form of advertisement to their ignorant congregations.

    Definition of History

    History is an invisible object with two invisible wings flying across generations in time and space. One wing is positive, the other is negative. With history, the present becomes the heritage of the past even as the future awaits the baton of continuity or otherwise from the present. No living nation or tribe or even individual can dream of a realizable future without a veritable present based on the experience of the past. The web of life is like a magnet which no iron element can bypass on its way to ornamental glory.

    Against what ought to be a valuable heritage, Nigeria is, today, passing through a fabric of uncertainty as she rolls back the fibres of the future into those of the present and weaves both into the vestiges of the past. Such is a sign of a dead nation waiting to be interned. What war is not ravaging Nigeria today in spite of Allah’s abundant bounties? The forces of the present seem to have connived with those of the past to wrestle down the future with a determination to deprive the generations yet unborn of any hope of decent existence. From all indications, Nigerians live in a country that is evidently enslaved to her so-called leaders who are politicians.

    For decades, Nigeria had been forced by those so-called leaders to fight wars ranging from political to economic, to social and to ethnic conflicts without winning any. Now, a religious dimension is being added.

    Like a billow vigorously storming around at the instance of an invisible tempest, a melee of religious hullabaloo engendered by a vicious political Pandora has virtually turned Nigeria into a land of curses.

    Youths for peace  

    To avoid the scourge of such a melee or prevent its spread and intensity in Nigeria, some foresighted Nigerian youths (Muslims and Christians) of Yoruba descent bravely took the bull by the horn in 2012. Those youths, led by a versatile Journalist, Adewale Adeoye (a Christian) and a brilliant Lawyer, Shenge Abdur-Rahman (a Muslim) formed an organization named ‘Yoruba Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group’ and organized an interfaith in Lagos on February 23, 2012. The core objective of the group was to foster a stronger peaceful co-existence between the Muslims and the Christians in Nigeria with a view to precluding the growth and spread of Boko Haram carnage in Nigeria.

    The summit which attracted a number of Muslim and Christian organizations as well as some prominent individuals made the gathering to look expressly meaningful. Yours sincerely was one of the guest speakers invited to that occasion. Below is an excerpt from the speech I delivered:

    Purpose of religion

    “….By its design and intent, religion is supposed to be not only a panacea for all human psychological ailments but also a soothing balm for any spiritual ache. Ironically, however, it has been turned into a poison in our society which seemingly has no provision for any antidote. And through our attitudes, we seem to be bent on swallowing the pill of that poison without minding its consequences.

    The factors that culminated in what we now variously call religious militancy, extremism, fanaticism and terrorism emanated only from the yoke of ignorance which bad governance has come to incubate. And could anything have influenced bad governance as much as ignorance? Yet ignorance would not have had a role to play in our religious or political lives if we had demonstrated the will to genuinely follow the tenets of our religions and learn from the lessons of history without banking on mere assumption and rumour.

    History as a teacher

    History as a teacher always has a lesson to teach those who are ready to learn. But unfortunately, most human beings especially Nigerians refuse to learn any lesson from history and the price is what we are paying today.

    In 1962, Nigeria’s Governor General, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (who later became Nigeria’s first President), paid a three day official courtesy visit to the Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna. Dr Azikiwe was accompanied by his wife, Flora. The host Premier mobilized all the paraphernalia of office in honour of his guests whom he gave an unprecedentedly flamboyant hospitality. The visit enabled their wives to become so familiar with each other that Flora also invited the Bellos to the East on a similar visit. By the end of the visit, Dr. Azikiwe had become so much impressed that at the point of departure he held Ahmadu Bello’s hands and gently told him to “Let us forget our differences”.

    In response to that emotional but infatuating gesture, Sir Ahmadu Bello said in an equally gentle but emotional baritone voice: “No sir! Rather than forgetting our differences, let us understand them. I am a Muslim and a Northerner. You are a Christian and a Southerner. It is only by identifying and understanding those differences that our friendliness can truly endure”. There and then, Dr. Azikiwe nodded in agreement with his host’s logic accepting the fact that one could not forget what has not been identified. The lesson to learn from this experience is that of mutual understanding without pretentiously sweeping anything under the carpet. That is the principle upon which the marriage of political strange fellows who find themselves in the same political party is often based in Nigeria. It is also the principle upon which the partnership of many Nigerian businessmen and women is based despite their cultural incompatibility.But that principle is not applied to Religion in Nigeria because of the dubious access to cheap Wealth by the so called religious leaders.

    Ignorance from primordial times

    For thousands of years, peoples of all races and tribes across the world thrived vaingloriously on cultural ignorance attributing their calamities to mysterious forces and blaming such mysteries on what they called witchcraft. In the past, here in Africa, millions of children were forced to die in infancy by their own parents out of sheer ignorance while the same parents turned round to blame what they called ‘ABIKU’ or ‘OGBANJE’ for the mass infanticide. With time, however, education and knowledge of science brought about the invention of various vaccines with which children are now immunized against all diseases thereby giving them the opportunity to survive. And this has enabled us to know today that the mystery once called ‘ABIKU’ or ‘OGBANJE’ is a euphemism for ignorance in African mythology of those days.

    Now that the days of cultural ignorance seem to be over, Nigerians have devised another means of restiveness by shifting to religious ignorance which enables them to replace the infanticide of the yore with modern day genocide and this in the name of religion. It is hoped that one day,   knowledge will also help us to overcome the spectre of religious ignorance by the grace of Allah.

    If it had pleased the Almighty Allah to make all human beings one single race with one colour, one tongue and one religion, He would have done so without receiving any query from anybody. But as the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, His decision to diversify His creatures cannot be faulted as it is from that diversity that all creatures have consistently derived benefits. In the world today, there are different races and tribes of human beings with different colours, languages and cultures each functioning as predestined and yet they all interact positively with one another to the benefit of all and sundry.  This is in accordance with the words of Allah in Chapter 49 verse 13 of the Qur’an thus: “Oh mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and classified you into races and tribes that you may interact with one another (and thereby draw from the advantages therein). Verily, the most honourable of you before Allah is the most pious among you. Allah is All-knower and most acquainted with all things”.

    Nature of creatures

    What is true of human beings here is equally true of other creatures. For instance we can all see that on a single arable plot of land, a variety of plants may grow to form an orchard but each with different foliages and fruits. Some of those fruits may be sweet, some may be bitter and some may be sour. Some may be fruitful, some may be fruitless. Some may be trees of gargantuan posture while others may be ordinary legumes. Yet they are all fed by the same soil, watered by the same rain and photosynthesized by the same sun. Their different foliages, sizes, heights and tastes notwithstanding, they all function effectively and advantageously according to the purpose for which they are created. In the ecosystem, no tree in an orchard will ever accuse another of bearing fruits different from its own and no animal will blame another for carrying a different feature or wearing a different colour. Neither will a whale denigrate even a fingerling in the ocean for sharing the same water with it. Ditto the world of birds, reptiles, and that of insects.  Even as plants, animals, aquatics, birds and insects, they know that for everything Allah does He has a purpose which may not be known to them as creatures. It is only among human beings that discrimination and segregation exist based on ignorance.

    Parable of religion

    We can also compare the above analogy to a situation inside a football stadium where there is a variety of sections such as State Box for the upper class, State Box Extension for the Middle Class and popular side for the lower class. At the entrance of the stadium, each person obtains a ticket according to his or her financial ability. And that qualifies him for a seat in any of those sections according to the status of the ticket obtained. Without prejudice to the categories of the tickets they obtain, all the spectators in the stadium are authorised to watch the match for which they have paid. If at the end of the match however, a spectator who was privileged to sit in the State Box turns round to say that another who sat at the popular side of the stadium did not watch the match others around them will sarcastically conclude that something might have gone wrong with the psyche of the accuser. The positions from which those spectators watched the match might be different but the fact remains that they all watched the same match. That is the parable of religion in the lives of individual human beings.

    A famous German dramatist and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) once made a related axiomatic statement in a stanza thus:

    “There are good men in every land; The tree of life has many branches and roots; Let not the topmost twig presume to think that it alone has sprung from the mother earth; We did not choose our races by ourselves; Jews, Muslims, Christians-all alike are men. Let me hope I have found in you a man”.

     The mission of religion

    In Islam, revealed religions are like an embassy established by a nation in another nation to strengthen her relationship with the host country. The Ambassadors appointed to manage such embassy, can be changed from time to time just like the foreign policy which guides those ambassadors but the embassy remains intact barring any unforeseen circumstances. So is the case with the Prophets of Allah. They might have come at different times and from different lands and tribes. They might have brought different books and spoken different languages but their mission was one and the same. Muslims believe that all the Prophets and Messengers who have come into the world to guide mankind were from one and the same God who created the universe. Thus, Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael) Ishaq (Isaac), Musa (Moses), Daud (David), Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad (SAW) as well as others who preceded them or came in-between them brought the same message of monotheism through which mankind was counselled to worship one God and be upright in conduct.

    In Qur’an Chapter 2 verse 285, Allah admonishes Muslims against discriminating among His Apostles thus: “The Apostle of Allah, Muhammad, (SAW) believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the (Muslim) faithful. They all believe in Allah and His Angels, His Books as well as His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say ‘We hear and obey. Grant us your forgiveness oh Lord! To you we shall all return”.

    Religious rivalry

    As a Muslim, you cannot believe one of those Apostles and disbelieve others. Neither can you believe in one of the revealed Books while disbelieving in others. That is why no true adherent of Islam will ever express foul language against the person of Jesus or blame the misdemeanour of a Christian on Christianity as some Nigerian Christians do against the person of Prophet Muhammed(SAW) and Islam as a religion. Were Nigerian Muslims also to bring such a disgruntled rivalry into religion, the country called Nigeria would have long been forgotten especially in their preachings.

    Unity of God

    Though the modalities for worship may differ from faith to faith and from sanctuary to sanctuary this does not change the course of their faith in only one God. Thus, the rivalry between Muslims and Christians especially in Nigeria over who is spiritually right or wrong is a product of ignorance.

    As taught by Christianity and Islam through their respective revealed Books, the areas of life that need our cooperation are by far more comprehensive than those in which we differ. For instance, both the Bible and the Qur’an counsel humanity to worship one God. They preach good deeds to neighbours and other fellow human beings publicly and privately irrespective of religious lineage. They advocate good care of our parents, our children, the aged ones amongst us and the handicapped. They urge kindness to our wives and leniency with our adversaries. They admonish us against cheating and any form of corruption. They forbid theft, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism and above all the killing of fellow human beings extra-judicially for whatever reason. They also warn us against provocation, aggression, exploitation and transgression even as they emphasize the ephemerality of this world and the eventuality of the hereafter. In all these, we have a common affinity to jointly guard.

    The few areas in which we differ are abstract and quite personal. They are not areas in which human beings are given the power to pass judgement. Only the Almighty God can judge on them. Such are the areas which we believe will pave our ways into Paradise. But since paradise is for individuals and not for religious blocks why are we fighting each other? After all, the journey to Paradise or Hell is a matter of choice for every individual. And no one can tell with precision who will go to Paradise or go to Hell. Such is the prerogative of God which He has not assigned to any human being and which no human being can and should arrogate to himself or herself except one who wants to play God.

    As an adherent of a religion, you can only perceive your God according to your faith and that should not cause any rancour between you and adherents of any other religion. As Nigerians, we dwell in the same country, eat the same foods, drink the same water, wear similar dresses, trade in the same markets and spend the same money. Our children attend the same schools, write the same examinations and obtain the same certificates. We intermarry across tribes and ethnicities as well as religions. All these form a stronger bond that ought to unite us much more than the abstract ones which often threaten to divide us. In a situation where the factors of life that unite us grossly surpass those that divide us will it not be stupid to sacrifice unity and cooperation?

    Conclusion

    With the formation of this interfaith group (Yoruba Muslim-Christian Youth Dialogue Group), I am beginning to see a future of harmony in Nigeria not only in the sphere of religion but also in the social and political spheres as well. This is the time for change. We cannot wait any longer. Let the Christians amongst you engage in Crusade and the Muslims in Jihad against all vices in the society which the two revealed Books (Bible and Qur’an) abhor. Let all of you jointly cooperate in upholding the values of life as contained in the Bible and the Qur’an. And with this, in the very near future, we shall find ourselves in a new world of peace and harmony.

    God bless you all”.

  • ‘Education is best tool to kill ignorance’

    ‘Education is best tool to kill ignorance’

    The Lagos State Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo, has urged political stalwarts and office holders, religious leaders and professional bodies to invest more in children education.

    He said this would have positive impact on their future.

    Enilolobo spoke through the Chairman of Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Sanyaolu Olowopejo, at the launching of Meric-Victory Helping Hands Education Initiative in Idimu, Lagos State.

    Over 1,200 pupils were given free school uniforms and educational materials at the event.

    The APC chieftain said the initiative was in line with vision of the party’s National Leader and former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu on the need to assist less-privileged pupils get a good education.

    He said private and public schools in the state were not lagging behind, though they need to maintain their high standard.

    Enilolobo hailed those supporting the initiative, saying well-meaning Nigerians should support privileged children to acquire effective education.

  • Kaduna‘s legion of ignorance

    SIR; When John Dewey, the great American psychologist and educational reformer said that, “Education is not preparation for life, but life itself,” he espoused in such few, but eternally valid words, the critical place education occupies in individual lives, and as a corollary, in the life of any society serious about its affairs and future. Nigerian educationists have long been alarmed at the wide cracks that have appeared and expanded insidiously over our educational system as a country. Today, the number of those fallen through those cracks (almost 22,000 teachers known in Kaduna) boggles even the most arithmetically inclined mind. One can only shudder at the scandalous statistics that could be scrubbed out should a similar scalpel be used in other states.

    The Gordian knot here is that the future is in jeopardy: the future of the poorest Kaduna children who can only attend public schools. This future which is stalked by grueling incompetence and staked on the pikes of shockingly convenient dereliction and negligence must be salvaged at all reasonable, if extreme costs.

    The days were, especially in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s, when the system on which our education ran bubbled with life and bustled with promise. Then, we were getting it right. Education was one of those measly, yet invaluable pearls. In those days, having seen the many rungs we could scale on the ladder of development   and advancement with hands and feet fortified by education, we seemingly gave it our best. We tried to build our own schools and forge our own system even if like weaver birds we had to pick twigs from far and near to construct something extravagantly elegant, belying our age as a country. We were pretty successful and prudently proud of the foundations we laid.

    Then, even when we travelled to other shores to grace their schools, it was for the fortifications of the foundations stoically and painstakingly laid here.

    If the harbinger of what was to come was scrawled all over the flight to foreign shores for the fleece of education golden even then, things soon scampered out of the window figuratively and literally. When we began to de-emphasize the irreducible and irreplaceable power of education, choosing instead the un-golden glitter of petro-dollars and its utopian promises, education began to take a backseat. Also, we began to have the sore spectre of decaying school buildings with broken and glassless windows. Our inferiority complex soon sauntered in through those “windows” we left untended, proliferating a blind thirst for everything western and promoting a deleterious convenience culture. We believed our education was not good enough, and as soon as we began to believe it, we began to see it. As soon as we began to see it, we stopped the painstaking but invaluable work education demands and supports. “Educational supplements” from abroad became imperative. It began the exodus. Too lazy, and supposedly too poor to   attract, import, imprint and repeat those “supplements” here, we began to go   there for them.

    We are rightly alarmed for our   children and the future of Nigeria; just as the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is rightly alarmed for its members who might soon leave the congress for the unforgiving labour market where they will surely prove unemployable.

    We must   also continue to lament the harm done to our ivory towers:  their windows and doors have been torn away, their treasures pillaged and those manning them   disarmed.

    All those who at one time or the other held the reins of our educational system at whatever level and in whatever capacity have accounts to render. All public officers who plundered funds assigned to education and used same to fund their scions‘ entrances to foreign schools have questions to answer.

    While we wait for the events in Kaduna to fully unfold, let other states inquire into the state of their education before the “termites” completely bring down the “houses of rotten wood”.

    • Kene Obiezu,

    keneobieu@gmail.com

  • NDDC: A senator’s ignorance

    NDDC: A senator’s ignorance

    A senator should not commit an irony of ignorance before the law. That was the unholy example of Senator Emmanuel Paulker. Wrapped up with the politics of succession, he did not understand the meaning of cessation. Hence, he called for the Federal Government to dissolve the NDDC board on the grounds that it was a continuation of the Henshaw era.

    The law, as the attorney general explained it, shows that continuation can continue only on the grounds of bankruptcy, suspension, conviction, unsound mind, misconduct and resignation. None of these infect the new board with Ndoma Egba and Nsima Ekere.

    In his controversial novel, Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie started with the lines: “To be born again, first you have to die.” So true. Senator Paulker thought the Ndoma Egba and Nsima Ekere board was born again, and a continuation of a former life. Hence, he has failed to distinguish between succession and cessation. When a board is constituted, according to the NDDC Act, it has fresh blood, fresh persons and fresh tenure, as it is now. Attorney General Malami got it right when he noted that, “there has to be fresh composition of the board for a fresh term of four years.” That is what it is with the new board, and Senator Paulker can only be urged to exercise patience until the next tenure. It is what we call a fait accompli.

    The good Lord said, “except a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone. When it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” The present board is a corn that abides alone because it is not time for it to fall. When its four years run their course, the corn can fall and yield another tenure that Senator Paulker is pining for. Patience, brother Paulker. And knowledge to understand that to succeed and to cease have to be well-defined. Senator Paulker, can we now have a cessation of hostilities?

  • Tola Adeniyi’s exhibition of ignorance

    Preamble

    Prophet Muhammad’s divinely guided expressions called Hadith will never cease to be axiomatic. In one of such expressions, he said: “There are three signs by which a hypocrite can be identified: when he talks he lies, when he promises he reneges and when he is trusted he betrays”. Thus, through the conduct of a hypocrite the definition of hypocrisy becomes clear. Ever since Prophet Muhammad (SAW) succinctly gave that impeccable definition of hypocrisy about one and a half millennia ago, no one else has given a better definition or anything similar. And what is true of this Hadith is equally true of all other genuine Hadith from this greatest man that ever lived. That is what makes Hadith an incomparable axiom which confirms the genuineness and impeccability of Prophet Muhammad’s Message to mankind.

     

    Tola Adeniyi’s article

    When many Nigerian Muslim brothers and sisters called by telephone or sent text messages with lamentations from different parts of the country to draw the attention of this columnist to a particular article published in The Tribune newspaper of Tuesday, October 17, 2017, I thought it was a serious matter of concern. But after reading the article entitled ‘Islam and Religious Imperialism’ which appeared on page 15 of that newspaper and was written by a septuagenarian  columnist called Tola Adeniyi, I knew that most of those who called or sent text messages to me did not know the author of that article.  If they knew, they would not have been that worried. Ordinarily, as a journalist and a columnist, I do not read Tola Adeniyi’s writings any more. Though he is a professional colleague  his column is not what I can allow to consume the least of my leisure time. There are columnists that I do not miss on a weekly basis and there are columnists that I do not waste my valuable time to read. He belongs to the latter group.

    For decades, this man had been a newspaper columnist under a pen name (Aba Saheed) in ‘The Tribune’ newspaper.

     

    His column

    Like any other columnist, he has his own readers no doubt but I do not belong to that pedestre of readership. As a matter of fact, if he had not ignorantly attacked the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) with a sinister motive, I would not have wasted my time on reacting to such a pedestrian article.  But as the chief spokesman for that Apex Muslim body in Nigeria, I consider it my duty to put the records straight and save some innocent newspaper readers from being misinformed about Islam in Nigeria by someone who is claiming to be a Muslim.

    At least, any good  Muslim who thoroughly understands Islam will know that claiming to be a Muslim because of birth or name may cast doubt on the  genuiness of one’s Islam. Such a public announcement is a way of way of seeking relevance where there is a possible benefit. That is what some parasites in the profession called Journalism use their pens to achieve.

     

    Strange posture

    If anything is strange in Tola Adeniyi’s article under review, it is the Age at which he wrote it. Those who have read the article may take time to go through it once again and they will discover that it contains no substance worthy of any serious attention. That was the practice in the 1970s, 80s and even 90s which the likes of Tola Adeniyi are yet to realize that has become anachronistic in the Noble profession.

     

    Observation

    By writing that such an article at this time around, what Tola Adeniyi did is not just to exhibit his blatant ignorance about Islam and the NSCIA but also to play a Dragon on a valueless brook under which his drummers are facelessly active. And when a Septuagenarian combines ignorance with confusion he automatically sinks into an abyss of hypocrisy where hiding behind one finger becomes a trick of escape. Thus, Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith quoted above is as fitting to such a man as a thorning scepter in the hand of a despotic Monarch.

     

     Memory lane

    It will be recalled that sometime early this year, a press statement  was made by a so called Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in some Southwest print media to counsel the Southern Muslims on why and how they should disengage completely from any association with the Northern Muslims especially the NSCIA. The similarity in Tola Adeniyi’s article to  that of the so called OMC is a glaring evidence of the common enclave of  the devilish drummers who are bent on using proxies among the Southwest Muslims to destroy the strong chord of Muslim unity in Nigeria.

     

    Reaction

    In a reaction to the so called OMC press statement, yours sincerely, being the official spokesman for The Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), promptly issued the following press release to silence the hypocrites:

    ‘The attention of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), has been drawn to the emergence of a fraudulent group calling itself ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in the Southwest of Nigeria.

    Using the Southwest media to herald the arrival of its nefarious plot under the cover of Islamic religion, this amorphous group issued an unwarranted hateful press statement recently in which it attacked and blackmailed the entire Southwest Muslims calling them names and labeling them  ‘Agents of Hausa Fulani of the North’.

    To the best of its knowledge, as the umbrella body for all State Muslim Councils/Communities as well as Organizations in the six States of the Southwest region, MUSWEN is not aware of the existence of any group called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ (OMC).

     

    Clarification

    For clarification, MUSWEN as the Southern counterpart of Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) in the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has the record of all legitimate Muslim Organizations in the Southwest region, and the so-called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ is not on that record.

     

    Warning

    We therefore warn all genuine Muslim Councils, Communities and Organizations in the region to beware of certain evil elements who are now parading themselves as a Muslim group with the intent of constituting a spiritual virus in the region with the evil objective of presidential election in 1993 which was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime that initiated the aborted  third republic in Nigeria. But when Bashorun Abiola was arrested and detained by Sani Abacha regime, the man switched over to the Junta’s camp and became a beneficiary therein. It is only those who do not know Tola Adeniyi closely that will attach any seriousness to his writings in any newspaper. Invariably, public writings depict the mannerism of the writers.

     

    Tola Adeniyi’s antics

    Now, at 72 years of age, it could not have come as a surprise to those who know  very well why Tola Adeniyi’s subject of writing at this time is Islam and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. That subject may look real to  people in Nigeria who are also ignorant about Islam and may also be claiming to be Muslims. By their acts, hypocrites are invariably known and they invariably end up in a dungeon of oblivion.

    It is hoped that the upcoming writers will learn a lesson from this.

     

    Muslim columnist

    Sensible people who read columns written by Muslims will notice that such columnists do not deliberately attack any religion outside Islam as some of their non-Muslim counterparts often unwarrantedly echo Islamization in a way of crying Wolf where none exists. If Tola Adeniyi were truly a Muslim and acquired the knowledge of Qur’an and Hadith as he claimed in his notorious article. Why has he not reflected such knowledge in any of his writings in the past three decades?. Who does not know that agents of clandestine agenda often lay claim to false qualifications as a way of justifying their hypocrisy. It is not strange that a Septuagenarian is using birth in Islam and Name as evidence of his being a muslim. Afterall, we know of an octogenarian in the same Ijebu area of Ogun State who was a top Islamic Chieftain in Ijebu-ode Central Mosque but dropped Islam for another Religion at the point of his Death. What is shameful In Tola Adeniyi’s case is his claim to still be a muslim at 72 using his birth and name as evidence. If anybody would advice the Southwest Muslims about their faith and their social lives it is surely not the like of a confused and ignorant person. Those who perceive themselves as living in Glass houses should be sensible enough not to throw stones at others. A word is enough for the wise.

  • Succession politics and limit of ignorance

    Osun West Senatorial bye-election has come and gone, not unexpectedly, with its twists and turns; sounds and bites. Victors have since July 8, been counting their blessings while losers have also been unrelenting in licking their wounds with threatening affection! On the whole, June 21, 2014 has again happened to the progressive camp in Osun State and one can only pray that appropriate lessons from whatever remains of its wacky outcome would not be wasted on the altar of ego and sycophancy. It is also believed that ingrates and renegades who have turned the misfortune brought upon the state by Isiaka Adeleke’s sudden death into a ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ personality clash will ‘sheathe’ their swords for the good of the party and country.

    Except we want to be economical with the truth, what played out on July 8 was the opposition’s way of telling Nigerians that, given the opportunity, it can still use the weapons of rice, money and other instruments of ‘stomach infrastructure’ to spring surprises on soft targets. Unfortunately, the ruling party’s inability to keep its house in order nationally, plus economic reforms that have, for want of a better expression, been struggling to put food on the table of the common man are rubbing off on the states and may affect the party’s fortunes in future elections if concrete steps are not taken to address the situation. All Progressives Congress (APC) needs to wake up from its slumber, cut off the pretence and carry out clearance operations before it is too late.

    Nigeria is in tough times and all eyes can see it. The political turf is heating up as we gradually approach another election year and it is as if those who never wished Muhammadu Buhari and his government well have now had their prayers answered. The economy is bleeding and it seems as if the national government is satisfied with snoring on a mattress overstuffed with excuses as a way out of the socio-economic logjam. In politics, little things count. Taking refuge in short-term measures, even when they are energy-sapping or funds-demanding, go a long way in addressing the nasty tragedies, extant confusions and conceptual impressions that have been threatening the fragility of the egg called Nigeria. Behaving as if 2018 is 1000 years away, or as if 2019 will never come, will not help a ruling party that is already being derided as ‘can do better as an opposition party.’

    At a time like this, Osun comes to mind. APC must do all it takes, lawfully, to remain in power so as to prevent a reversal of the gains of the last seven years. Osun cannot withstand a repeat of the disaster of the years eaten by the locust, when our common patrimony was used to cater to the needs of some selfish few. It is common knowledge that all the gratuitous attacks, barefaced lies and hare-brained fabrications against the Rauf Aregbesola-led government are mere samples of what to expect in next year’s governorship election. To be honest with ourselves, APC’s defeat in the last bye-election was facilitated from within by the Judas Iscariot who embraced coded languages to give performance a new meaning. The challenge of change, salary quagmire, even pensioners’ palaver played secondary roles.

    With regard to 2018, all I see for the progressive in Osun is victory; and Aregbesola’s outstanding performance in office is an indication that the battle has already been won! But this is not to say that there won’t be challenges on the road to this assured victory. In any case, that’s the beauty of democracy! Anything short of that is a recipe for chaos! For instance, while no government has ever done a quarter of what this administration has done for Osun since its creation, it is rather unfortunate that Aregbesola is seen out there more as a ‘salary unpaying’ government than one that has turned the state into ‘construction site’. Sadly, too, while issues surrounding the salary challenge point in the direction of a national crisis, that some ‘food-for-the-stomach’, false democrats are insisting that Osun’s should be treated as a case in isolation is a mystery for students of political history to unravel.

    So much has been said about democracy described by Abraham Lincoln as ”the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” But if this system of government thrives in a society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges, why do Nigerians continue to suffer, irresistibly, from what Pius Adesanmi once referred to as “acute malaria”? When, for instance, Kunle Ologundudu accused Kayode Fayemi of using state funds to build mansions as well as run a private university, why did the electorate gullibly subscribe to the untruth without raising a finger? Similarly, why has Osun suddenly become the rumour capital of Nigeria and what’s being done to present issues as they are? When has it become a crime to democratically avoid the resurrection of a deadly Wike/Amaechi crisis or the replication of a ‘Tarka-me-I-Daboh-you’ Kwankwanso/Ganduje face-off in Osun? Apart from other laudable programmes undertaken by this administration, have we forgotten its noble contributions to the triumph of no fewer than 50 of our medical students in Ukraine?

    More importantly, why have some quarters not appreciated Osun’s innovative means of alleviating the plight of its workers through its salary apportionment approach? With this regime in place, only a section of workers on grade level 12 and above (that is, about 20% of the state’s total workforce) have been receiving 50% of their gross salaries based on an agreement between the government and the labour union. ”Outside that, officers on levels 8-10 receive 75 percent of their salaries while officers on levels 7 and below who constitute about 65% of the workforce receive their full pay.” Good to note also that ”all workers in the state have received their salaries up to July in line with the agreement the government has with workers.” The fulfilment of its promise to pay the outstanding as soon as the financial fortunes of the state improve can be seen in the judicious disbursement of the second tranche of the Paris Club refunds.

    Let’s come to the issue of ”the same uniform”, a policy which, in more than a manner of speaking, elicits interesting ideas that should naturally tempt one into scrutinizing some important assumptions. Ignorantly or mischievously, Aregbesola’s traducers have not only forgotten the advantages that attended its implementation, they have also gone a step further to describe it as an ‘it can only happen in Osun’ affair. For the avoidance of doubt, ”the same uniform” policy has long been in existence in countries like Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

    If the aforementioned countries are examples too far to cite, what of  Ghana and Benin Republic, our next-door neighbours?

     

    • Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State,

  • ‘Ignorance cause of increase in Rhesus factor’

    No fewer than 34 million women are Rhesus Negative, a Rhesus solution campaigner, Mrs Funmilayo Banire, has said.

    This, she said, accounted for the high rate of still births and loss of babies due to Rhesus incompatibility. Rhesus negative is the absence of the factor of the surface of the red blood cells of some people. About 16% of the human population is said to be Rhesus negative.

    Rhesus incompatibility, Mrs Banire, founder of Rhesus Solution Initiative (RSI), said had no link with witchcraft or abiku

    Speaking at a seminar to mark RSI’s10th anniversary in Lagos.

    Mrs Banire said Rhesus incompatibility, which might lead to haemolytic disease of the foetus/newborn, was one of the most-silent but preventable contributors to the high rate of infant  and maternal mortality in the country.

    At the seminar with the theme: Every Life Counts, Mrs Banire said  that RSI’s estimates showed that there are about 216,000 Rhesus Negative women in Lagos.

    She said: “Research conducted by RSI puts prevalence of Rhesus negative women who may be at risk of complications from rhesus incomparability at about 6.01 percent of the sample population. Previous research has also put the prevalence to be between five and 9.5 percent, this may seem small but not negligible compared to the size of the population. We believe that every life counts and in this regard we have been able to donate over 1500 Anti D Immunoglobulin (Rhogam) across General and private hospitals. We have been able to reach over 3000 rhesus negative women.”

    She decried the high cost of the AntiDImmunoglobulin, Rhogam, which can save babies, from N19,000 to N25,000, saying that it is getting out of the reach of women who need it. She said RSI was informed by the level of ignorance about Rhesus incompatibility among young women who had miscarriages and stillbirths.

    Mrs. Banire said part of the NGO’s objectives was to promote awareness about Rhesus, and the organisation had, therefore, organised and participated in more than 100 awareness campaigns in conjunction with various religious groups, government agencies, corporate organisations and other NGOs. “In partnership with the Lagos State Ministry of Education,we organised school awareness outreach for students of secondary schools across Lagos. I call on corporate bodies, representatives of government, individuals to assist the course by supporting the humanitarian efforts,” she said.

    She shared her experience: “I have been lucky to have been spared the emotional roller coaster that comes with child loss, partially due to early knowledge but there are millions of people, especially women who are still suffering due to ignorance, who cannot afford regular meals not to speak of affording treatment injection of N25, 000 sometimes during pregnancy and definitely within 72hours after childbirth. This, therefore, becomes our conscious duty to play our part in assisting humanity.We need to recognise that the government has numerous pressing needs to meet in our society and it is up to us to take up responsibility for the things that we can do within our limited resources.”

    Consultant Haemotology/Executive Secretary, Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service, Dr. Modupe Adebimpe Olaiya. said Rhesus factor is a protein found on the surface of the red blood cells and can be inherited from parents.  “Rhesus incompatibility comes in when the mother is Rhesus Negative and the baby is Rhesus Positive. First child of a Rhesus Positive mother is likely to escape but what happens with the second and subsequent children?

    “If a rhesus negative woman carries a rhesus positive foetus, the incompatibility (dissimilarity) in their rhesus status can make the mother to form antibodies against the foetal RBCs and that in turn can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or Haemolytic disease of the newborn. Rhesus isoimmunisation can be prevented if sensitisation is avoided.”

    Wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode, who was represented by Engr (Mrs) Mosumola Olulade, urged every pregnant woman to visit any recognised hospital or the Lagos State blood transfusion services available at all public hospitals and ensure that their children are tested for Rhesus factor, genotype.

    “Everyone needs to get involved because the government cannot do it alone. Therefore, I urge corporate organisations and public spirited individuals to donate generously to this course and also join the campaign to enlighten and educate the public that Rhesus factor and compatibility to our women.”