When a matter of trust is kept in the custody of an untrustworthy person, expect the end of time”.
Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
Preamble
If anything is called Satan, and that diabolical entity truly lives in the midst of humans, Nigeria must be his abode. As a mysterious entity, Satan may not be physically perceived but his shadow is evidently vivid in the evil machination generally called politics. And the elements in the society often called politicians are his undeniable agents.
Politics is like infectious leprosy. Any contact it makes with human fingers will surely render those fingers ineffective with contagious implication. The evil of politics in any given society is like the slough of a snake which has no life of its own but scares the people around with its empty appearance.
Since her independence in 1960, Nigeria has hardly experienced any calamity that did not emanated from politics. Thus, like the Island of Ithaca of yore in Greek mythology, Nigeria harbours a sphinx today that poses unanswerable question to her citizens. And any individual or group that fails to answer the question correctly may be instantly devoured by the mythological sphinx.
Paradoxical Odyssey
Today, Nigeria has become a paradoxical odyssey on which the only ferrying vessel is politics. And the driving engine of that vessel is money which seems to be the main determinant of individuals’ Hell or Heaven on earth. We are now in an era when the source of money no longer matters as much as money itself. What really matters today is not how decent you are as a person but how rich no matter the source.
In a nutshell, a rich rogue is by far more relevant and more important in Nigerian society than a poor gentleman. As a matter of fact, there is no gentlemanliness without money. The size of your purse determines the status by which you are recognised in the society. And that is the new definition of pedigree.
It is not surprising therefore that men and women of letters as well as high caliber professionals are now struggling to become servants to mere nonentities who by hook or crook have stuck the opportunity to occupy public positions in a clueless government and thereby control a treasury. The world has changed so much that the same money which used to serve man in the past is now the master that man serves with relish. In the face of money, conscience has become a lost paradise that no one seeks again. And with its disappearance, human dignity has also become an old wife’s tale. Whither Nigeria’s tomorrow in this?
In the wilderness of avarice and aggrandisement imposed by money, Nigerians of today have lost the culture of dignity highly cherished by Nigerians of yesterday and there is no sense of nostalgia for it.
In solo and chorus, the song of this era is ‘STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE’.
When a hopeful country finds itself in this kind of situation she quickly resorts to the last bastion for solution. The last bastion in the case of Nigeria is religion which is supposed to be the first estate of the realm. But can there be religion without clerics? Where are the clerics in Nigeria? That is the indication that Nigeria, as of now, is a hopeless country.
Sailors without compass
The so-called clerics in both Islam and Christianity in Nigeria today are like sailors on a strenuous voyage who have lost the compass that guides them through the waves of water while their congregational passengers continue to pray fervently for safety on a turbulent ocean.
To them (the clerics) religion is no longer the path to salvation but a means to material wealth even as they have relegated morality to the background.
Here is a country where clerics do not only preach material prosperity but also live in stupendous affluence in the midst of their wretched congregations. Here is a country in which clerics are either known for trafficking in drugs or gun running or patronage contract for supply of ammunition to the government as in the notorious episode of a recent South Africa mission that ended up in a fiasco or even for taking bribe from the government as in the case of alleged N7 billion that caused wild brouhaha in Nigeria recently. Here is a country where neither conscience nor morality has a role to play in religion any more as the so-called clerics have banished both and thus become not just accomplices of political rogues but also their dogs.
Meetings without agenda
As a result of self-denigration by these clerics, the government has turned them into a willing tool in the game of political machinations to the benefit of the political gladiators. And in their desperate search for votes in recent times, the politicians have consistently chased the clerics around with money knowing very well that nothing remains of religion these days in Nigeria beyond money for which the so-called clerics will fall anybody.
Just this week, a stone was deliberately thrown into the serene brook of Nigeria’s Southwest Muslims by politicians with the intention of causing implacable ripples in that brook. A clandestine meeting of the League of Imams and Alfas was initiated by the presidency and scheduled to take place in Akure, Ondo State last Monday. The agenda of the meeting was not disclosed but its timeliness and manner of mobilisation clearly suggested its undisclosed purpose.
A similar clandestine meeting had earlier been arranged for Lagos penultimate week by the same Presidency which was botched by the region’s Muslim leadership for fear of being politically blackmailed.
Yet another clandestine meeting was initiated also by the Presidency this time with the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) which was scheduled for the Presidential Villa in Abuja. This is yet to take place as the arrow head and chief mobiliser for the meeting is finding a brick wall on the assignment. The Nigerian media has widely reported these clandestine moves by the government with the headline that read thus: ‘Meeting: Yoruba Muslims Snub Presidency Again’.
Media report
Here is how the media reported the incident: “Yoruba Muslim clerical leaders under the aegis of the League of Imams and Alfas have snubbed the Presidency over an invitation to them for a meeting that was apparently meant to lure them into endorsing the joint ticket of a particular party (Jonathan/Sambo ticket) in the forthcoming presidential election.
The meeting in which Vice-President Muhammad Namadi Sambo was to represent his boss was earlier scheduled for last Monday in Akure, Ondo State but had to be shifted to last Wednesday in the same state for lack of adequate mobilisation.
Learning from the experience of their Christian counterparts who were recently enmeshed in a controversial N7 billion scandal that has caused a crack among Nigerian Christians, the leadership of the League of Imams and Alfas in the six Southwest states plus Edo and Delta decided not to be involved in an embarrassing meeting that could cause a crack in the rank of the Muslim Ummah.
A similar meeting earlier arranged with Yoruba Muslim leaders and fixed for Lagos by the Presidency recently was equally aborted for the same reason cited by the League of Imams and Alfas just a day before it was to come up.
Our reporter’s investigation revealed that the leaders of the League contacted one another and resolved not to be part of any meeting with any political group or individuals at this time to maintain their neutrality as worthy clerics.
The Akure meeting said to be coordinated by the Chief Imam of Owo, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe, who incidentally, is the current Secretary-General of the league. He (Aladesawe) was said to be passionately involved in mobilising his colleagues in the league might for the meeting which ended up in a fiasco.
Besides Imam Aladesawe, some other Imams who flouted the decision of the League and attended the meeting for a seeming personal gain were the Chief Imam of Osogbo, Alhaji Rabiu Animasaun and the Chief Imam of Ekiti, Alhaji Bello Keulere. The few others who claimed to have attended the meeting as Imams were quite peripheral and not prominent at all in the league.
From Ibadan, Lagos, Markaz, Agege, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Osogbo, Ilaro, Ado Ekiti, and Auchi as well as other major cities of the region, the common question on the lips of the Imams was “why now?
Following the failure of the Lagos meeting, the Presidency, in a bid to break the ranks of the Yoruba Muslim Ummah, embarked on an alternative meeting with the League of Imams and Alfas and another with the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN).
The President of MSSN, Alhaji Sirajudeen Abdul Azeez, who volunteered to mobilise the leaders of the group for the meeting with the Presidency, despite a resolution at a recent leadership meeting in Akure, Ondo State, not to attend any such controversial meeting could be said to be acting on his own.
Reflecting on the repercussion of such controversial action, the leadership of MSSN resolved to disown any such meeting at this politically volatile period and warned that nobody should use the name of the group for any selfish political gain.
No particular date has been fixed for the Presidency’s purported meeting with the leadership of MSSN but inside information suggested that is supposed meeting would come up at the Presidential Villa in Abuja before the Presidential election on March 28, 2015″.
MUSWEN’s Communiqué
Meanwhile, the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) has called on the Muslims in the region to once again pray congregationally for peace in Nigeria as the 2015 general elections approach.
The apex body of all Muslim organisations in the region made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of a three- day retreat that was held between 13th and 15th of March, 2015 at the Wale Babalakin Estate in Gbongan, Osun State. The communiqué was signed by its executive secretary, Prof. Dawud Noibi.
MUSWEN specifically slated Sunday, March 22, 2015 for the prescribed prayers that are expected to hold at the Eid praying grounds or local Mosques in every town within the region.
Quoting the Prophetic Hadith that classifies prayers is the weapon of the Muslims the Organisation implored the Muslims not to relent in offering prayers especially at this precarious time of the nation’s history.
MUSWEN however decried the lukewarm attitude of the Southwest Muslims to the institution of Zakah, saying the consequences of such attitude are very detrimental to the propagation and progress of Islam in the region.
Leaders of prominent Muslim Organisations from Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun states, who participated in the retreat said the necessity for prayers by Muslims was most apt this given the prevailing cloudy political atmosphere in the horizon.
The Apex Islamic body in the Southwest also stressed the need for unity of Muslims in line with the mission and vision of the Organisation stressing that without unity there could be no progress.
In another vein, the Organisation frowned at the lopsidedness in the federal appointments to political offices from the Zone, saying such appointments clearly put the Southwest Muslims at a great disadvantage and paved the way for unnecessary suspicion.
It therefore called for equity, fairness and justice by the Federal government in its treatment for the people of the zone irrespective of their religious inclinations.
Prominent among the Muslim personalities who attended the retreat were Alhaji Najeem Awodele, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Justice Abdul Fatah Adeyinka, a retired Chief Judge of Lagos State, Alhaja Latifah Okunnu, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, the Iya Adini of Yorubaland and Dr. Jubril Oyekan.
Delegates at the retreat also paid a courtesy call on Justice Bola Babalakin (Rtd), the former acting President of MUSWEN in his Gbongan country home.
Members also prayed for the repose of some of its late founders such as Prof. Aliu Fafunwa, (Pioneer President), Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Arisekola- Alao, Dr AbduLateef Adegbite and Sheikh Sadrudeen Biobaku.
The theme of the retreat was ‘MUSWEN: SUSTAINING THE MOMENTUM’.
