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”. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Preamble
Once awhile, ‘The Message’ column does go panoramic, especially when confusion is about to set in through the deluge of issues and choice becomes a problem.
This is one of such occasions. Only few people understand that Islam is the entire life of a Muslim and there is no separation between ‘what belongs to God and ‘what belongs to Caesar’.
In Islam, both Caesar and whatever belongs to him are for God, the supreme Provider of all things.
Decency and insanity
In a decent environment sanity has no definition. It is insanity that rather requires definition because it comes in various hues and degrees.
A lunatic who strips naked and dances in a market place to the applause of onlookers often sees himself as a hero.
The extent of his lunacy only becomes known to him when he is publicly offered a decent dress to cover his nakedness or to replace the rags he wears.
When such a lunatic is imbued with (legitimate or illegitimate) power he becomes a megalomaniac.
That is the parable of a Southwest ‘Premier’ who is generally known for barking incessantly towards all directions like a rabid dog.
His ceaseless menstruation through the mouth has publicly labeled him as a sarcastic entertainer in his lunatic theater. If as a father or rather, a grandfather, who, as an ‘Emperor’, is supposed to be a model for his children and grand children, can behave like a rabid dog what should be expected of his children and grandchildren?
Because of obvious insanity, this megalomaniac treated like a ‘Premier’ cannot think of the consequences or implications of his delirious actions. And unfortunately, no one among his associates seems to be courageous enough to call him to order.
Pity for the sane
The pity in this case is not as such for the megalomaniac but for the sane ones around him who accept his leadership and are clapping for him in his deteriorating delirium. Evidently, it is not everyone who wears dresses in public that is sane.
By their utterances, actions and body languages, lunatics are known. For the past one year or thereabout, this delirious ‘Premier’ has continuously engaged in a lunatic drama somersaulting from furrow to furrow while enjoying the sarcastic ovation he gets from those who are unfortunately entertained by his delirious performance in house.
Judging by this ‘Premier’s drama and the clapping of his sadistic lieutenants, one begins to wonder if the sane majority in his state have lost their traditional courage and will.
As that state is rapidly being turned into a psychiatric asylum the need for the services of psychiatrists seems to have become a matter of sine qua non. Leaving a rabid dog to itself while it keeps harassing neighbours may not be a reasonable option after all. And if not checked in time, the rabid dog may turn against its owner as an untamable nuisance.
Allegation of ‘Islamisation’
We were told last week that President Muhammadu Buhari was planning to Islamise Nigeria. Evidence: he went to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.
The allegation came, as usual, from a shameless source that is attributable only to public self-ridicule. For ignorant people the only means of seeking relevance is to randomly roar to the public with blackmail or self-adulation typical of megalomaniacs.
Let those who understand the language of this delirious ‘Premier’ tell him that Islam is a divine religion with five fundamental pillars. The last of those pillars is called Hajj which is obligatory on any Muslim that can afford it once in a lifetime.
A close affiliate of that pillar is called Umrah otherwise known as lesser Hajj. For Muslims, both are pilgrimages performed in divinely ordained sanctuaries at a place once known as Hijaz (but now called Saudi Arabia). While Hajj has a specifically ordained month in the year, Umrah can be performed as many times as allowed by law in a year. The official visa issued for both is that of pilgrimage and not tourism.
It is therefore a religious right of any Muslim to perform Hajj or Umrah as the case may be without any fear of being barked at by any rabid dog. Thus, by performing Umrah recently, President Muhammad Buhari only exercised his legitimate/religious right without infringing on the right of any other person or that of his nation.
Jonathan’s ‘Pilgrimage’
President Buhari’s predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, travelled twice to Israel for the same purpose while he held sway as President.
At that time no Nigerian Muslim was so reckless and so fanatical to allege Jonathan’s intended Christianisation of Nigeria. Therefore, alleging that President Buhari wanted to Islamise Nigeria, just because he performed Umrah, is a way of publicly exhibiting a symptom of delirium.
Such a symptom urgently requires a psychiatric attention before the situation of the patient in question goes beyond cure. Politics is one thing. Religion is another. Each has a peculiar elasticity with its own limit. Anybody who aims at using the one as a means of achieving the other in Nigeria is surely a lunatic who should be domiciled in an asylum.
Besides, the use of such words as ‘Islamisation’ and ‘maginalisation’ (which words are Nigerian coinage that cannot be found in English dictionary) either as a blackmail or a sectarian attack, has become as obsolete and anachronistic in Nigeria as the users.
It is rather unfortunate that a state once venerated as a haven of knowledge can now wallow so helplessly under the leadership of a blatantly ignorant nonentity just because of the so-called ‘stomach infrastructure’ in the name of politics.
The Role of ‘The Message’
Ordinarily, ‘The Message’, as a religious column, does not concern itself with the murky water of Nigerian politics. But when some inconsequential ruffians want to swim in that murky water under the guise of religion to the detriment of peace and harmony in the society, it becomes the role of this column to rein in the bull, if only by raising alarm, before it enters the china shop.
Islam is like a surging train which the barking of three trillion dogs cannot halt. In other words, this divine religion is the sun which randomly evaporates the excess water lodged in the earth to cause rain at the necessary time for the survival of all living organisms.
Whenever the sun bulges out of its orbit, no star dares to come out in a show of presence. Thus, any denial of the existence of the sun by any blind person can only be at the personal peril of that person. It is characteristic of megalomaniacs to oversight the transiency of their power tenure and to assume that power is far too elastic to have a limit.
As Muslims who understand Islam theoretically and practically, we neither hate any counterpart religion nor haul any hateful utterances to adherents of other faiths. We believe that anybody who lives in a glass house must not throw stones out of discipline preached by our religion.
Some supposed leaders in the society who open their mouths anyhow to spark religious provocation are the clandestine originators of constant religious strife in the country. We hope the interpreters of the delirious governor will be able to convey this message meaningfully to their ailing boss. One fact is clear according to an Arab proverb however: “a serf will remain servitude even if he is crowned as a king”.
Meanwhile, we thank God that President Buhari’s own reason for seizing the opportunity of his official visit to some Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah was to offer special prayer for his country and not for winning election for self. Whoever prays for Nigeria prays for the people of Nigeria. And whenever the people of Nigeria pray for such a person it will be automatically accepted by Allah.
The sacked female lawyer
Nigeria is typical cinema house where all types of films are watched. But the more you look, the less you see. The more you listen the less you hear. Those are the norms.
Some years back, the typical lamentation was that about 70 per cent of reported news in Nigeria was sad. Today, there are no more lamentations because virtually all the reported news in Nigeria about Nigerians are invariably sad. And Nigerians seem to have grown very thick skins with which to cope with them.
A few days ago, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nasarawa State chapter, threatened to shut down the government . Why? A female worker in the Ministry of Justice, Miss Raqayyat Tijjani Usman (a lawyer), was allegedly sacked by the governor.
She was said to have made a disparaging remark on Facebook on the governing style of Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura.
When the governor was informed about the incident, he requested for a print out copy of the posting and got it. Thereafter, he reportedly sent for the young woman in her mid 20s whom he promised a sack letter in the presence of some of his commissioners and other top government officials.
Ruqayyat, a daughter of a former commissioner in the state, had posted the following remark on Facebook: “I can see some political thugs protesting and not professionals; are we going down this way? I weep for my state.”
Ruqayyat’s reaction
That was her reaction to a seeming botched civil servants’ demonstration over the death of a staff who died of Lassa fever, which she (Ruqayyat) thought was not well handled by the government.
The posting allegedly angered the governor so much that he summoned Ruqayyat to his office and ordered her sack with effect from February 25, 2016.
The governor’s decisive action was sequel to the woman’s apology and that of her father. But the governor refused to look back.
Well, it takes two to tango. As a civil servant, the young woman ought to have known that externalising any criticism against her employer could entail some unpalatable consequences.
You cannot publicly criticise the policies in the formulation in which you play a role. She ought to have passed such a criticism to her immediate boss in a subtle, civil service language through an internal memo for onward submission to the governor if necessary.
Nigeria is not yet such a mature nation where an employee can confront his or her boss in the civil service with such a blunt criticism, human rights or no human rights.
Playing the ‘New School’ toga to the gallery may be taken for an audacious affront, especially when men of the old school are still in charge.
The governor’s power wielding
As for Governor Almakura, using a sledge hammer to kill an ant in this kind of case may be too much of power wielding amounting to highhandedness.
The youth of today are quite different from those of the past decades. That is how they were brought up in the name of civilisation. At least, His Excellency knows how his children address him at home despite being the governor.
That the young woman was sacked by such fiat without query, without warning, is like sitting in judgment on one’s own case, a euphemism for injustice.
Employment at any level of the government is not a favour. It is a right for those who are qualified. His Excellency can imagine if Ruqayyat were to be his daughter and another governor gives her such a raw deal.
The governor should note here that a state is not an empire and no governor should behave like an emperor in a democratic setting as we have now in Nigeria. Nothing can be taken for granted.
Today’s sacked civil servant may become tomorrow’s governor at a time when today’s governor may have become powerless. The episode of how Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau became the governor of Kano is not yet lost on us.
Governance must go along not only with human face but also with human heart. Our actions of today are stories of tomorrow. We need to tread softly.
The Nasarawa’s NLC
In a scenario like this, the role of the NLC in a state where there is a trade dispute affecting a worker or two, the first point of call for the NLC should not have been that of bellicosity.
Sometimes, mediation strategy works faster and better than belligerence. Thus, the NLC will do well to restore the job of the young female lawyer by resolving the matter amicably rather than further provoking the governor by threatening ‘to shut down the state’.
We should all work towards lifting the state and not collapsing it as no one can benefit from a collapsed state. God bless us all.
