Before discussing the crux of the subject matter it would be appropriate to explain the background of the two major concept of discussion which is SAP and NEEDS.
STURUTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME (SAP)
Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was introduced following the collapse of oil market in the early 80’s which saw Nigeria’s per capital income plummet from about $1,000 to $300 and the drastic fall in the level of foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. Nigeria introduces SAP and embarks in it implementing in 1986.
The emphasis of the SAP was on deregulation, market liberalization, demand management through appropriate prizing, floating of the exchange rate and the promotion of agriculture and other rural based export oriented economic activities. It was also expected to promote the growth of resource based industrialization in place of the prevailing import substitution strategy which had become unsustainable due to foreign exchange scarcity and the consequent inability to import needed raw materials, spare part, skilled labour e.t.c to support industrial production.
Inability to stay the course of reforms, low levels of investment large fiscal imbalances, among other reasons, prolonged the life of the programme which was originally designed to last for two years to eight years until there was a regime change. Despite the regime change, the features of that programme have remained with significant elements of it reflected in vision 2010.
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)
The objective NEEDS is to enable Nigeria achieve a turn around and grow a broad based market oriented economy that is private sector led in which people can be empowered so that they can, as a minimum, afford the basic needs of life. It is a pro-poor development strategy with sources of economic empowerment being gainful employment and provision of social safety net for vulnerable groups.
Most of the targets in the NEEDS documents are set in quantitative terms. Their achievement must also be tracked in quantitative terms. The essential pro-poor growth indices are largely what are classified as socio economic data; they include access to employment, income and consumption per capital, access to basic education, health care. (Mortality rate, HIV/AIDS prevalence, general health status, life expectancy etc) water and accommodation and indeed the structure of the distribution of income between one period and another in other to capture the changes arising from the implementation of reforms.
According to some analyst structural Adjustment programme (SAP) has been rechristened to national economic employment development strategy (NEEDS). To them if the implementation of SAP was include a “sin” then it must be a nurturing one because the economic reformation is still being undertaking by the current PDP-led democratic government, they are also of the opinion that Nigerians should pray and hope that the same unrepentant agents that sabotaged “SAP” do not do the same to NEEDS.
Structural adjustment program (SAP) was introduce to place Nigeria on the path of industrial development in the 80’s so many economic ill, where visible and problems in deference forms i.e. retested growth manifesting in persistent balance of payments deficits, raging inflationary trends, conspicuous taste for foreign service goods, foreign debts and seemingly over-valued naira. SAP goals were to be balanced growth, stable prices, favorable balance of payment and full employment, but unfortunately for Nigeria from the time of SAP it because a nation of consumer of second – hand goods and products. The average Nigeria could no longer afford any new thing except those Nigerians who have profited from government contracts and favors.
With the failure of SAP to make any positive impact in Nigeria ’s industrial development, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, backed by arrays of World Bank experts ingeniously bull-dozed another economic package on the nation elegantly presented as “the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). The package which would take care of short term and long term needs, according to the carefully selected and brilliantly tutored protagonist, would represent many good tidings of “life more abundant” for all Nigerian.
The emphasis of NEEDS is on the provision of good roads, better schools, responsive health care system, water for drinking and agricultural purpose, safer streets and of course, food on table. There is no doubt that the concepts of NEEDS are lovely by any standard, even if they were not new or original. However, unfortunately, the dream of NEEDS evaporated with the departure of the architect and his eminent World Bank experts.
Between SAP and NEEDS they have not change the lives of Nigerians. Indices released by various local and international organization shows that Nigeria is not achieving the desired industrial development. Nigeria cannot generate enough mega watts of power for its industrial development and has led to closure of many industries in the country. Corruption in both public and private sector has been a major set back for Nigeria to achieve any gain in industrial development.
Agricultural sector is not growing at any appropriate rate with less than 50% of the country’s cultivable land uncultivated.
90% of the land under cultivation in being tended by small farmers using largely antiquated production techniques. Nigeria contrary to goals of SAP and NEEDS spends $2.8 billion dollars to import food for local consumption. 90 million of the country’s, 140 million people face food insecurity and cannot afford three square meals a day, with over 70% of les citizens living below poverty line.
SAP and NEEDS are implemented for the purpose of chasing the lives of Nigerians. On the other hand SAP and NEEDS tend to increase poverty and hardship on Nigerians.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Nigeria on development scale
Development indicators and statistical revelations to determine whether Nigeria is developing or not is not straight forward as from goverment reports they keep on giving statistical revelations that shows Nigeria is developing. While on the otherhand local and international organisations development indicators shows that Nigeria is not developing with huge resources the country has especially from the proceeds from the oil sector.
Nigeria has all it takes to achieve full food security and be a major net provider of food to global community, but unfortunately agricultural sector is not growing at any appreciate rate with less than 50% of the country’s cultivable land undercultivated. 90% of the land now under cultivation is being tendered by small farmers using largely antiqueted production techniques . And Nigeria spends $2.8 billion to import for local comsuption and 90 million of the country;s 140 million people face food insecurity and cannot afford three square meals a day . Also 70% of our population are living below poverty line.
Also the latest figure from National Primary Health Development Agency(NPHCDA) showed high maternal , newborn/neonatal and child mortality rates in the country. Maternal Mortality Rate(MMR) is 800 per 100,000 live births while Neonatal Mortality Rate(NMR) is 48 per 1,000 live births with wide variation between regions.
According to the State of the World Children 2009 report recently released by the United Nations Children Fund(UNICEF) Nigeria is the 8th worst performing country in a list of 148 nations in 2007 on under five mortality as 189 new babies died in every 1,000 live births in the country. Yearly, an estimated 52,000 Women die from pregnancy related complications, while an estimated 250 new born die every year in Nigeria.
Decent livinghood is not also within the reach of many Nigerians as according to National Bureau of Statistics in 2004 poverty is about 57 percent and studies showed that an estimated 2.8 million graduates enter labour market annually with little over 10 percent securing a job. Estimated 80 to 90 million Nigerians lived in poverty. Only India and China have more poor people than Nigeria. India and China has a population of over one billion to Nigeria’s 140 million.
Presently an average Nigerian Child lacks basic education , adequate primary health care and a balance diet, and a good home. To make matter worse about 90% of Nigerians have no good roads, more than 70% lacks access to good health care and over 80% has no access to good water.
Per Capita Income has drastically reduced from over US$ 1,000 per day in 1980 to US$ 240 in 1997 and today less than US$ 1 per day. Inflation rate increased from 5.5% in 1985 to 5.6% in 1988, 57.2% in 1993, over 60% in 1994 and 72.8% in 1995. Today , the standard living of Nigerians have deterioted as there has been increase in socio-economic problems as a result of joblessness, homelessness and poverty that continues to be visited on Nigerians due to bad goverment policies , poor management and primitive corruption.
Though on the part of Nigeria’s goverment according to it’s officials have been trying it’s best to change the lives of Nigerians and claimed that reports by International organisations on Nigeria is misleading. According to Nigeria’s goverment statistics poverty ratio in the country is dropping . In 1980, 28%, in 1985 the poverty ration grew to 46% and dropped to 42% in 1992. In 1996 the population of poor increased to 65.6%, in 1999 it stood at 70% and in 2004 it feel to 54.4% and presently at 50%.
The present administration of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua has vow to implement the Millineum Development Goals(MDGs) agenda of reducing extreme hunger and poverty. The goverment will put it;s effort to achieve a national growth rate of 6% per annum through agriculture as it remains one of the key components of the Nigerian economy and a focal point of our development. Yar’adua’s administration according to it’s officials have made appriciable progress with budgetery increasement from 7% in 2008 to about 10% in 2009 as well as providing intervention funds for the advancement of the sector.
As far as statistical evidence available is concern to determine whether Nigeria is developing or not, the answer is capital NO. Nigeria is not developing even when compare with the huge resources the country is earning which unfortunately ends to develop some few individuals and their families than the the 140 million Nigerians. There is no any no development plan the country is religiously trying to implement , but rather rhetorics of some un-cordinated 7 – point Agenda which
Nigeria has all it takes to achieve full food security and be a major net provider of food to global community, but unfortunately agricultural sector is not growing at any appreciate rate with less than 50% of the country’s cultivable land undercultivated. 90% of the land now under cultivation is being tendered by small farmers using largely antiqueted production techniques . And Nigeria spends $2.8 billion to import for local comsuption and 90 million of the country;s 140 million people face food insecurity and cannot afford three square meals a day . Also 70% of our population are living below poverty line.
Also the latest figure from National Primary Health Development Agency(NPHCDA) showed high maternal , newborn/neonatal and child mortality rates in the country. Maternal Mortality Rate(MMR) is 800 per 100,000 live births while Neonatal Mortality Rate(NMR) is 48 per 1,000 live births with wide variation between regions.
According to the State of the World Children 2009 report recently released by the United Nations Children Fund(UNICEF) Nigeria is the 8th worst performing country in a list of 148 nations in 2007 on under five mortality as 189 new babies died in every 1,000 live births in the country. Yearly, an estimated 52,000 Women die from pregnancy related complications, while an estimated 250 new born die every year in Nigeria.
Decent livinghood is not also within the reach of many Nigerians as according to National Bureau of Statistics in 2004 poverty is about 57 percent and studies showed that an estimated 2.8 million graduates enter labour market annually with little over 10 percent securing a job. Estimated 80 to 90 million Nigerians lived in poverty. Only India and China have more poor people than Nigeria. India and China has a population of over one billion to Nigeria’s 140 million.
Presently an average Nigerian Child lacks basic education , adequate primary health care and a balance diet, and a good home. To make matter worse about 90% of Nigerians have no good roads, more than 70% lacks access to good health care and over 80% has no access to good water.
Per Capita Income has drastically reduced from over US$ 1,000 per day in 1980 to US$ 240 in 1997 and today less than US$ 1 per day. Inflation rate increased from 5.5% in 1985 to 5.6% in 1988, 57.2% in 1993, over 60% in 1994 and 72.8% in 1995. Today , the standard living of Nigerians have deterioted as there has been increase in socio-economic problems as a result of joblessness, homelessness and poverty that continues to be visited on Nigerians due to bad goverment policies , poor management and primitive corruption.
Though on the part of Nigeria’s goverment according to it’s officials have been trying it’s best to change the lives of Nigerians and claimed that reports by International organisations on Nigeria is misleading. According to Nigeria’s goverment statistics poverty ratio in the country is dropping . In 1980, 28%, in 1985 the poverty ration grew to 46% and dropped to 42% in 1992. In 1996 the population of poor increased to 65.6%, in 1999 it stood at 70% and in 2004 it feel to 54.4% and presently at 50%.
The present administration of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua has vow to implement the Millineum Development Goals(MDGs) agenda of reducing extreme hunger and poverty. The goverment will put it;s effort to achieve a national growth rate of 6% per annum through agriculture as it remains one of the key components of the Nigerian economy and a focal point of our development. Yar’adua’s administration according to it’s officials have made appriciable progress with budgetery increasement from 7% in 2008 to about 10% in 2009 as well as providing intervention funds for the advancement of the sector.
As far as statistical evidence available is concern to determine whether Nigeria is developing or not, the answer is capital NO. Nigeria is not developing even when compare with the huge resources the country is earning which unfortunately ends to develop some few individuals and their families than the the 140 million Nigerians. There is no any no development plan the country is religiously trying to implement , but rather rhetorics of some un-cordinated 7 – point Agenda which
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Nigeria: Leadership not by example
Leadership in all societies allover the world plays the most important aspect of shaping, directing and guiding them to the path of achieving development. Most Nigerians hold the view that what Nigeria lack is good leadership. They also have the opinion that whenever the country is lucky to be lead by dedicated and resourceful leaders, the lives of Nigerians will not only improve for better, but also the country will play its supposed role in international communities.
Leadership failure in Nigeria is spread in all facets of life been it political, social, economy, religiously and traditionally. Our leaders in all aspects mostly do not lead by example. Majority of them are selfish, greedy and uncaring on anything that does not affect them directly.
Most unfortunate for Nigerians is that large numbers of its leaders do not view leadership as sacrifice and service to humanity. To most of them leadership is all about self-enrichment, pomposity and satisfying personal ego. When seeking for any position of leadership , many Nigerians are carried away by the huge resources they will be in charge to distribute which they will use their position to harness the highest share of it into their personal coffer.
While others when in position of authority are pre-occupied with the concern that everybody must worship them notwithstanding their inability to provide what enshrined as their main functions and duties in regard to the office they occupied. Due to such attitudes of most of our leaders, bootlicking, yes-men and sycophants normally have their field day after they have cut-off such leaders from the actual realities on ground.
The most irresponsible leaders in the eyes of many Nigerians are politicians occupying elected or appointed public offices. Due to the way and manner most of them conduct themselves, they are viewed as opportunist, selfish , ungodly, corrupt and undedicated to those they govern or represents. Abuse of public funds, corruption, nepotism, crude use of force and primitive looting have now become one of the features of political and public office holders in Nigeria. Been godly, truthful and sincere is hard to them to imbibe which have made the conduction of elections by them to be massively rigged and citizen not believing whatever they inform them.
Our traditional and religious leaders, who normally play guidance and advisory roles for the betterment of the country, are now mostly been selective in rendering their services. Most of them channel their guidance and advice to the citizens without rendering same to the leaders. They always preached to us to be law abiding without preaching to the leaders to rule with justice, equity and selfless service. If they have done their roles without fear and favour our leaders could not have been what they are perceived as of today.
In all societies that have excelled in the comity of nations, they are lucky to be lead by leaders who are exemplary and selfless for their nations to be great. Such great leaders sacrifice their worldly comforts for the benefit of humanity. Nelson Mandela, Chairman Mao, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mahatma Gandhi , Fidel Castro, to mention some few are among such leaders that every nation will hope to have.
The problem with Nigeria is that we are not lucky to have leaders that led by example and are merciful, God-fearing, dedicated e.t.c. We have leaders that are shameless and wicked. Leaders that find delight in lying and deceiving their subjects. Leadership that is selfish and greedy. If not, why should a leader be comfortable, his wards attending exclusive schools within and outside the country while those of his subjects are sitting at home or studying in overcrowded classes or under trees sitting on the floor.
We have leaders that will not only collect their own huge salaries and allowances at the right time excluding the goodies attached to such offices. But while those they lead collect peanuts as salaries and the unlucky ones among them spend months without salaries. Though large numbers of other Nigerians do not have any means of living hood.
Leaders that jets out frequently to just have their health checked and their subjects left to die just because they cannot afford to pay what they are charged at both government owned and private hospitals.
Is Nigeria for all Nigerians or some few selected individuals with their families and cronies? Do we have any other country of our own more than Nigeria? Will we all escape the consequences of irresponsible, selfish and unpatriotic leadership? And when will we stop grumbling and complaining to sincerely desire for the change we want in getting the right leaders?
Our leaders must change from been deceitful, greedy and corrupt. And this can only happen if all Nigerians have the zeal of patriotism and will be fearless to speak against injustice, tyranny and oppression of our leaders. We must compel our leaders to conduct a free and fair election. We must compel our leaders to rule with justice and equity. We must compel our leaders to fulfill the promises they made to us. We must compel our leaders to rule according to the constitution of our country which they promise to rule according to its dictates and protect what it enshrined for the benefit of all Nigerians.
If we continue to be careless on how we are govern by our leaders the consequences will continue to increase. It is the failure of leadership that has made Nigerians to continue to live in fear, penury and untimely death. By remaining quiet our leaders will assume whatever they are doing is right and legitimate. We have to make sacrifices for our younger ones, the old and unborn generation of Nigerians.
No Nigerian is safe because no matter your status, you can be killed by assassins, robbed, kidnap , loose your job without notice, loose your life on our roads due to their conditions or even be seen as a strange creature when in foreign countries. We must all help our leaders not to be corrupt by demanding them to do the right things.
And on the part of our leaders they must work extra hard to win back the confidence of Nigerians. Also, they should imbibe the teachings of the religion they profess as they all know one day they will be no more and they must account for all their deeds. So also, here on earth history will do justice forever on how they lead their people.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
Leadership failure in Nigeria is spread in all facets of life been it political, social, economy, religiously and traditionally. Our leaders in all aspects mostly do not lead by example. Majority of them are selfish, greedy and uncaring on anything that does not affect them directly.
Most unfortunate for Nigerians is that large numbers of its leaders do not view leadership as sacrifice and service to humanity. To most of them leadership is all about self-enrichment, pomposity and satisfying personal ego. When seeking for any position of leadership , many Nigerians are carried away by the huge resources they will be in charge to distribute which they will use their position to harness the highest share of it into their personal coffer.
While others when in position of authority are pre-occupied with the concern that everybody must worship them notwithstanding their inability to provide what enshrined as their main functions and duties in regard to the office they occupied. Due to such attitudes of most of our leaders, bootlicking, yes-men and sycophants normally have their field day after they have cut-off such leaders from the actual realities on ground.
The most irresponsible leaders in the eyes of many Nigerians are politicians occupying elected or appointed public offices. Due to the way and manner most of them conduct themselves, they are viewed as opportunist, selfish , ungodly, corrupt and undedicated to those they govern or represents. Abuse of public funds, corruption, nepotism, crude use of force and primitive looting have now become one of the features of political and public office holders in Nigeria. Been godly, truthful and sincere is hard to them to imbibe which have made the conduction of elections by them to be massively rigged and citizen not believing whatever they inform them.
Our traditional and religious leaders, who normally play guidance and advisory roles for the betterment of the country, are now mostly been selective in rendering their services. Most of them channel their guidance and advice to the citizens without rendering same to the leaders. They always preached to us to be law abiding without preaching to the leaders to rule with justice, equity and selfless service. If they have done their roles without fear and favour our leaders could not have been what they are perceived as of today.
In all societies that have excelled in the comity of nations, they are lucky to be lead by leaders who are exemplary and selfless for their nations to be great. Such great leaders sacrifice their worldly comforts for the benefit of humanity. Nelson Mandela, Chairman Mao, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mahatma Gandhi , Fidel Castro, to mention some few are among such leaders that every nation will hope to have.
The problem with Nigeria is that we are not lucky to have leaders that led by example and are merciful, God-fearing, dedicated e.t.c. We have leaders that are shameless and wicked. Leaders that find delight in lying and deceiving their subjects. Leadership that is selfish and greedy. If not, why should a leader be comfortable, his wards attending exclusive schools within and outside the country while those of his subjects are sitting at home or studying in overcrowded classes or under trees sitting on the floor.
We have leaders that will not only collect their own huge salaries and allowances at the right time excluding the goodies attached to such offices. But while those they lead collect peanuts as salaries and the unlucky ones among them spend months without salaries. Though large numbers of other Nigerians do not have any means of living hood.
Leaders that jets out frequently to just have their health checked and their subjects left to die just because they cannot afford to pay what they are charged at both government owned and private hospitals.
Is Nigeria for all Nigerians or some few selected individuals with their families and cronies? Do we have any other country of our own more than Nigeria? Will we all escape the consequences of irresponsible, selfish and unpatriotic leadership? And when will we stop grumbling and complaining to sincerely desire for the change we want in getting the right leaders?
Our leaders must change from been deceitful, greedy and corrupt. And this can only happen if all Nigerians have the zeal of patriotism and will be fearless to speak against injustice, tyranny and oppression of our leaders. We must compel our leaders to conduct a free and fair election. We must compel our leaders to rule with justice and equity. We must compel our leaders to fulfill the promises they made to us. We must compel our leaders to rule according to the constitution of our country which they promise to rule according to its dictates and protect what it enshrined for the benefit of all Nigerians.
If we continue to be careless on how we are govern by our leaders the consequences will continue to increase. It is the failure of leadership that has made Nigerians to continue to live in fear, penury and untimely death. By remaining quiet our leaders will assume whatever they are doing is right and legitimate. We have to make sacrifices for our younger ones, the old and unborn generation of Nigerians.
No Nigerian is safe because no matter your status, you can be killed by assassins, robbed, kidnap , loose your job without notice, loose your life on our roads due to their conditions or even be seen as a strange creature when in foreign countries. We must all help our leaders not to be corrupt by demanding them to do the right things.
And on the part of our leaders they must work extra hard to win back the confidence of Nigerians. Also, they should imbibe the teachings of the religion they profess as they all know one day they will be no more and they must account for all their deeds. So also, here on earth history will do justice forever on how they lead their people.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
Friday, 25 September 2009
Oga Umoru Coolu Temper
Naija country people sef na their mouth dey put dem for trouble. Dem say our Oga Pata Pata for Naija, Oga Umoru dey drag leg for how he dey rule us and dem don tire for the waiting to see 7- point Agenda for ground. As Oga Umoru dey try to beg those Niger Delta boys make dem bring their guns make dem collect gbem, some Naija people come dey tink say he no get liver.
As Gambari people last two years dey happy say na their turn to share the cake, e be like say many of dem don confuse about how some Naija people no get the same value again. Gambari wey dey for Tin City first taste the bitter medicine wen dey say dem no gree for election magu magu . Why dem dey complain? As dem dey talk am charity dey start for home. When Boco haram wan fight gofment, dem deal with dem squarely, forget rule of law as e dey temporary out of service.
The next Gambari people to taste freedom for democracy be for Power state as police move go their help Oga Chief Servant sack the people of Darul –Islam, no ask me wetin constitution talk, rule of law na him dey work. Presently ebi like say na the turn of Shiites as even one of their Oga dey beg say make dem no bomb im house with his aged Mama and small pickins. Dem no even no say to support Palestine people dey dangerous and Police no get budget for batons, teargas and rubber bullets. Rule of law? Not available at the moment.
Even those little little boys wey dey always make noise like the former Oga Honourable from Birnin –South are picked, sorry invited to city of milk and honey to drink tea. Lecturers unions, dem tink say because Oga Umoru carry chalk before dey go fit force am to do wetin dem want education to be. If dem never decide na their wahala as if dem no run back to class, no salary.
If Naija people get plenty sense dem go know say Oga Umoru don dey change from wetin dem dey call slow motion to active Commander-In –Chief which even the late dark goggled General envy go catch am. Mending boys and their likes wey dey carry guns should now run for cover before amnesty finish. Federal character must be implemented abi? And dey cannot disgrace Oga Pata-Pata by stopping him to fulfill three of his 7-Point Agenda, Niger Delta, Electricity and Wealth creation.
Recently, One Oga Ambassador wey be all round Minister talk am for BBC Gambari service , promise to take BBC Gambari Oga Madam to every lungu and corner of Naija before year finish to show her how Naija people dey enjoy NEPA light , just say amen!
To those accusing Oga Umoru about not working hard to realize 7 –Point Agenda. Make dem wait small, may be as Oga Ambassador promise electricity on behalf of Oga Pata Pata by end of dis year , Oga Umoru don work very hard on other remainings of 7 –Point Agenda , Health and Education. May be by next year sef Oga Umoru go fit enter any Naija hospital make dem do am medical check up, no more waka to Saudi Arabia. Our schools for don better and Oga Umoru go comot im pickins from money schools to gofment awuf schools. The schools go don better and dem dey work well well dat Oga Ambassador go fit add the tins weh he go show BBC Gambari madam make she se with her koro-koro eyes.
Some Naija people dey complain say gofment dey carry people even if dey no beg from one state to another free of charge. For Plateau state dem carry Fulani people and their malu for big moto take dem back to their real motherlad. Almajiri people own even better as dem give dem free ride from places like Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna go keep for their origin . We no go join Darul –Islam people join with dis one. You know say our lawyers know book well well , Adieu Gani !
Gofment no get money for the demands weh lectures, teachers, doctors, civil –servants dey look for. Gofment no get money, na the small money weh gofment dey get to take kia of politicians and public office holders, na him dem want Oga Umoru gofment share with dem? Some dey even complain say where fia-fia Oga Bank pata pata get 400 billon he put for banks weh he call am debt? If gofment push neck agree to Labour people demand of 52,000 naira as smallest salary come join money wey university people, teachers, doctors dey demand , wetin go remain for gofment pocket? If you get black stomach for wetin politician dey get, resign go stand for election make tins better for you.
Oga Umoru gofment no want waste, dat’s why I put my ears for ground for my state weh get highest numbers of people weh dey share Naija cake. Dem hand open well well and people no even complain say from the big ones to the small small ones give dem pure water to break their fast. Even as people for the other side no fit share cloth, rice , kayan shayi and small change, Oga Umoru people dey try with the small salary weh dem dey collect. No mind dat rag-tag plumber turn politician weh seize the umbrella from Oga Pata Pata people.
2011? So wetin go happen ? Oga Umoru no dey fear any type of election. The magic weh Oga Umoru dey take use for Katsina dey and he come join dem now with the better better work weh he dey do . And another extra one even dey as market men of religion go even fit give decree say any Naija person weh no vote for Oga Umoru go remain forever for hell- fire. What if he no gree to contest for 2011? No worry more tan two million Naija people go march go Abuja beg am make he help us fr Naija continue with the work weh he don start.
Me, the tin weh dey fear me with Oga Umoru gofment na dey bloodshed, many people don quench from Pateau, Nige Delta, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Borno, Kaduna, Sokoto states. All the killings can be stopped through good gofment policy. Gofment from top to bottom should be merciful to their country people, excessive use of force led leaders like Pot, Najibullah, Saddam, Mobutu, Bokassa, Shah, Mussolini, Hitler, Abacha, Bush e.t.c to be listed in the hall of bad guys in history. Our Ogas should rule with wisdom and mercy so dat history should be merciful to dem.
Oga Umoru e never late for you to perform wonders in less than two years to come. Comot money improve masses lives through creating work, better hospitals with medicine, paying real wages to our workers, better condition to learn and read book and so many better tins weh Naija people dey request for.
E go better also if Oga Umoru take wayo say sorry to Naija people for all the wahala of the past two years and promise dem say e no go happen again. Oga Umoru Coolu temper, as Naija people want good tins of life as you don promise dem, we dey wait make we see better for ground.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
As Gambari people last two years dey happy say na their turn to share the cake, e be like say many of dem don confuse about how some Naija people no get the same value again. Gambari wey dey for Tin City first taste the bitter medicine wen dey say dem no gree for election magu magu . Why dem dey complain? As dem dey talk am charity dey start for home. When Boco haram wan fight gofment, dem deal with dem squarely, forget rule of law as e dey temporary out of service.
The next Gambari people to taste freedom for democracy be for Power state as police move go their help Oga Chief Servant sack the people of Darul –Islam, no ask me wetin constitution talk, rule of law na him dey work. Presently ebi like say na the turn of Shiites as even one of their Oga dey beg say make dem no bomb im house with his aged Mama and small pickins. Dem no even no say to support Palestine people dey dangerous and Police no get budget for batons, teargas and rubber bullets. Rule of law? Not available at the moment.
Even those little little boys wey dey always make noise like the former Oga Honourable from Birnin –South are picked, sorry invited to city of milk and honey to drink tea. Lecturers unions, dem tink say because Oga Umoru carry chalk before dey go fit force am to do wetin dem want education to be. If dem never decide na their wahala as if dem no run back to class, no salary.
If Naija people get plenty sense dem go know say Oga Umoru don dey change from wetin dem dey call slow motion to active Commander-In –Chief which even the late dark goggled General envy go catch am. Mending boys and their likes wey dey carry guns should now run for cover before amnesty finish. Federal character must be implemented abi? And dey cannot disgrace Oga Pata-Pata by stopping him to fulfill three of his 7-Point Agenda, Niger Delta, Electricity and Wealth creation.
Recently, One Oga Ambassador wey be all round Minister talk am for BBC Gambari service , promise to take BBC Gambari Oga Madam to every lungu and corner of Naija before year finish to show her how Naija people dey enjoy NEPA light , just say amen!
To those accusing Oga Umoru about not working hard to realize 7 –Point Agenda. Make dem wait small, may be as Oga Ambassador promise electricity on behalf of Oga Pata Pata by end of dis year , Oga Umoru don work very hard on other remainings of 7 –Point Agenda , Health and Education. May be by next year sef Oga Umoru go fit enter any Naija hospital make dem do am medical check up, no more waka to Saudi Arabia. Our schools for don better and Oga Umoru go comot im pickins from money schools to gofment awuf schools. The schools go don better and dem dey work well well dat Oga Ambassador go fit add the tins weh he go show BBC Gambari madam make she se with her koro-koro eyes.
Some Naija people dey complain say gofment dey carry people even if dey no beg from one state to another free of charge. For Plateau state dem carry Fulani people and their malu for big moto take dem back to their real motherlad. Almajiri people own even better as dem give dem free ride from places like Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna go keep for their origin . We no go join Darul –Islam people join with dis one. You know say our lawyers know book well well , Adieu Gani !
Gofment no get money for the demands weh lectures, teachers, doctors, civil –servants dey look for. Gofment no get money, na the small money weh gofment dey get to take kia of politicians and public office holders, na him dem want Oga Umoru gofment share with dem? Some dey even complain say where fia-fia Oga Bank pata pata get 400 billon he put for banks weh he call am debt? If gofment push neck agree to Labour people demand of 52,000 naira as smallest salary come join money wey university people, teachers, doctors dey demand , wetin go remain for gofment pocket? If you get black stomach for wetin politician dey get, resign go stand for election make tins better for you.
Oga Umoru gofment no want waste, dat’s why I put my ears for ground for my state weh get highest numbers of people weh dey share Naija cake. Dem hand open well well and people no even complain say from the big ones to the small small ones give dem pure water to break their fast. Even as people for the other side no fit share cloth, rice , kayan shayi and small change, Oga Umoru people dey try with the small salary weh dem dey collect. No mind dat rag-tag plumber turn politician weh seize the umbrella from Oga Pata Pata people.
2011? So wetin go happen ? Oga Umoru no dey fear any type of election. The magic weh Oga Umoru dey take use for Katsina dey and he come join dem now with the better better work weh he dey do . And another extra one even dey as market men of religion go even fit give decree say any Naija person weh no vote for Oga Umoru go remain forever for hell- fire. What if he no gree to contest for 2011? No worry more tan two million Naija people go march go Abuja beg am make he help us fr Naija continue with the work weh he don start.
Me, the tin weh dey fear me with Oga Umoru gofment na dey bloodshed, many people don quench from Pateau, Nige Delta, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Borno, Kaduna, Sokoto states. All the killings can be stopped through good gofment policy. Gofment from top to bottom should be merciful to their country people, excessive use of force led leaders like Pot, Najibullah, Saddam, Mobutu, Bokassa, Shah, Mussolini, Hitler, Abacha, Bush e.t.c to be listed in the hall of bad guys in history. Our Ogas should rule with wisdom and mercy so dat history should be merciful to dem.
Oga Umoru e never late for you to perform wonders in less than two years to come. Comot money improve masses lives through creating work, better hospitals with medicine, paying real wages to our workers, better condition to learn and read book and so many better tins weh Naija people dey request for.
E go better also if Oga Umoru take wayo say sorry to Naija people for all the wahala of the past two years and promise dem say e no go happen again. Oga Umoru Coolu temper, as Naija people want good tins of life as you don promise dem, we dey wait make we see better for ground.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
Friday, 18 September 2009
North And Western Civilization
Written by Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Writing your mind weekly on the pages of newspapers could be very risky even with the most sincere of purposes. On the one hand, by being critical of society, you are certain to be in the bad books of the government, if you do not become a victim of its injustice. You have then refused to listen to Imam Shafi'i who likened you to someone who struggles with dogs over a corpse. He is only safe if he leaves the corpse alone. Turn to knowledge instead, he advised in a poem: "The (world) is nothing but a preposterous corpse surrounded by dogs that wish to steal it. If you avoid it, you become safe from its owners; and if you attempt to drag it, its dogs will fight you. Blessed is the soul that lights the centre of its house, with closed doors and drawn curtains." Mamu and any publisher wishing to tell the truth should know this. They should not be surprised if our governments do not patronize them with adverts and oil concessions of hundreds of millions of naira.
On the other hand, you also run the risk of incurring the wrath of the citizens you are alerting of danger or awakening from a slumber. Perhaps, they prefer to continue in their state of heedlessness. So do not be surprised if they retaliate with ferocity. I remember the advice of Niccolo Machiavelli where in Discourses he said, "It is dangerous to attempt to free people who wish to remain slaves, just as it is dangerous to attempt to enslave people who wish to remain free."
We are therefore running calculated risks, especially when what we say does not sound appeasing to government or is contrary to mainstream thinking. The essence of writing, to me, is to say something different that would likely bring about a change in perception of readers, even if controversial. If what you said is the truth, it is just a question of time that it prevails, no matter the immediate criticisms. A writer therefore, must never attempt to be a sweetheart of his readers. He must load them with sufficient dose of bitter pills if and when necessary.
And it pays. When I first brought forward the issue of moon sighting into the domain of public debate in my column in 2000, the controversy that ensued had to finally succumb to reality, regardless of the prevailing theological understandings that run contrary to scientific knowledge and common sense. At last, after ten years and numerous seminars, debates and meetings among the Ulama, we are reaching a rational consensus with the Sultan for the first time, announcing that the crescent was not sighted that Thursday evening. Though it was actually sighted in some places like Funtua, the mistake is pardonable; the will to be rational, to me, is more important and deserves our commendation. We will get it right many times later. Other countries make such mistakes too and they are not at all shy to announce a correction later.
The reaction on articles on Boko Haram came as a surprise. Immediately it hit the inboxes of my mailing list, gamji website and the newspaper stands, the reaction was immediate, plenty and overwhelmingly positive, without, I can say, any substantial objection. This was surprising because, though I did not set out to generate controversy or to appease anyone other than 'chaji', I just wanted to write a simple comment. But as I started, the cultural dimension of Boko Haram dominated my mind and I decided to carry it throughout the article. I preferred the distributive assignment of blame, rather than the restrictive one that heaps everything on the sect members. After all, it was for their love of Islam that they decided to forsake the world and follow Yusuf, living on dates and water. We provided the fertile soil for the cultivation of their ideas by denying anything western. To us, the West deserves only condemnation. Even where such condemnation is misplaced, no one stands up to correct it. So what if some of us take it to the extreme and condemn just everything. We must share the blame.
In writing that essay, I presumed that we have passed two stages on both sides of the spectrum in our relation with the West. No credible intellectual, I presumed, need to bother himself with arguing for the halal of boko, just as he should not argue for the wholesale adoption of western culture in pursuit of civilization. Both ideas are too pedestrian to contemplate now, giving our fatal experience with both. We who despised western education and culture remain backward on many development indices even within the context of Nigeria , as I indicated. Those who enforced wholesale adoption of western culture on the other hand, like Turkey , are yet to realize parity with the West as their founder Attaturk once contemplated, after almost a century of experimentation. They have to moderate their stand by allowing the reincorporation of Islamic ethics and practices in many areas from which they were earlier excluded.
However, despite that, they have benefited a lot even by imitating many western habits and values. Turkey , for example, is far ahead of us in almost every aspect of development. Even the Arab countries that I called the best specimens of despotism last week are better than us, Northern Nigeria , in many respects. Our cynicism must give way to a rationality that will allow us reclaim our lost camel wherever we find it, to borrow from the parable of the Holy Prophet (SAW).
Two other issues attracted my response. The first was the sentence on hijab. Someone said I treated it with disdain; another, a friend from Bayero University, defended using hijab by children is a means of getting them accustomed to it, thinking I was opposed to that. It was neither of the two. I mentioned "enforcing hijab on babies" at the end of my discussion on dress deliberately as an objection to our obsession with appearance, instead of emphasizing the quality of our behaviour. And by babies, I really meant babies, as it happens in my village. What has a baby got to do with hijab for God's sake? Allow her to breathe the fresh air of this world before she starts to become suffocated by our bruises later in life. The Muslim women who are impressively fighting the hijab war in Europe never wore one as babies. There is time for everything in Islam. Moreover and more importantly, hijab is a religious obligation that must not be allowed to lose its significance by being relegated to nominal value of a cultural dress.
The other is the issue of our relationship with our Christian brothers in the North especially. In that article I tried to alert us to our fading political relevance even within our brothers in the Middle Belt because we have amalgamated the West with Christianity; so if the West is an enemy as many of us are quick to believe, so are Christians, including those we share the same country, region or land. We are led to this trap by the lack of proper comprehension of European history. Our underlying boko haram attitude has impeded us from reading wide enough to recognize that Europe has relegated Christianity to the background since the 17th Century. Yes, the Pope and the Queen are there, but how many Europeans go to Church or even believe in God? Europe is indeed in need of Islam but the Muslims are not forthcoming in the discharge of their divine duty of da'awah. The stereotyping of Christians here at home also prevents us from reaching out to them, from understanding the true nature of our spiritual and temporal relationship, and from living in peace with them. We need to be broadminded such that we can understand the issues at stake between us, discuss them openly, and open their hearts to a better understanding of Islam. To me, this is a divine task which we have exchanged for acrimony, discord and hate. There is little wonder if we are not living in peace with them or if we have lost their sympathy. That being what it is, we must kindle the torch of mutual understanding based on knowledge, civilized values and recognition of our mutual rights.
My call for us to embrace civilization was seen as unwarranted or implying that we are not civilized. But I was vindicated just a week after when our Ulama - people who are supposed to be the most learned among us - started to expose their weak understanding of the most fundamental aspects of today's humanity: human rights and the rule of law in particular. My attack on them in the last article was no doubt deliberate. From their utterances, it was clear that many of us do not value life as much as required by Islam, the constitution or the conventions to which our country is a signatory. The end, when it suits us, justifies the means. This is Machiavellian, not Islamic. I completely agree with Yusuf Qardawi who said the means in Islam - rule of law in this case - is as essential in Islam as the end.
This was not the first time that many of us are celebrating the impunity of government. In Sokoto, we have seen a sustained attempt by government and the Sultanate to obliterate Shi'ites and their sympathizers. To be labelled a shi'ite in Sokoto is tantamount to a death sentence. A mob was following a thief one day, shouting barawo,barawo. The guy was running for his safety. Then one of his chasers cried Shi'a, Shia. The thief stopped instantly. He said, wallahi ni ba shi'a ba ne, ni barawo ne, that is, "I am not shi'ite; I am only a thief." This may sound funny to us, but it was not funny to the thief. He knows that being shi'ite will instigate the people to hack him to death in a matter of seconds.
The state of our mental health - as the sociologists will put it - has deteriorated to this level. I must commend the leaders of Shi'a and Darul Islam, unlike the leaders of Boko Haram, for not taking the law into their hands. Had they contemplated otherwise, their liquidation would have been graciously welcome by many establishments of Ulama.
I am not a shi'a, Darul Islam or Boko Haram member; not for a day, if I must confess. I also condemn any action that they have committed, like the alleged killing of Danmaishiya by some shi'ite members in Sokoto or the confrontational disposition of Boko Haram in Maiduguri . But I think as citizens, we should all be civilized enough to recognize the rights of other citizens if we want our country and this poverty-ridden region to live in peace. Our starting and ending must be the law. It must be followed; otherwise, if it comes to the turn of our sect, we should not expect any kind treatment from the government. We are not even consistent in our stand. Were we not the people who condemned America for handing over Saddam to be executed by the Iraqi authorities on Eid day? Why did we have sympathy for Saddam who caused the death of over 1.5million Muslims and at the same time praised the extra-judicial killing of Foi and Yusuf simply because it was done by the agents of Yar’Adua?
That returns us to the question of the romance between our Ulama and government. I criticized leaders of JIBWIS last week because they supported the extrajudicial killings based on their assessment of Muhammed Yusuf as khariji. I have replied those who asked me questions regarding this through the internet and SMS. JIBWIS ulama have no locus to use that name against Yusuf. They are just giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Yusuf was their member in Maiduguri. Until recently, he even used to sit in for late Sheikh Jafar whenever the latter could not turn up in the town for tafsir before forming his own mosque as it has become fashionable among our Ulama. What they do not share with JIBWIS Ulama is his hard stand on boko and, perhaps, his accumulation of weapons or confrontation with authorities. But these are not enough grounds to call him khariji, going by the classical definition of the term, if we will be sincere. Yar’Adua is undoubtedly Muslim, but he is not a khalifa running an Islamic government. To the contrary, he is a head of a secular government. So I cannot see how a revolt against Yar’Adua can justifiably qualify anyone to be called Khariji. These extrapolations are dangerous, since they are done at the expense of life.
I am so concerned with our Ulama because they are getting too close to government at the expense of our safety as a nation. Their subscription to government ordinances - good or bad - is tarnishing their image as custodians of moral rectitude. They are the correcting side of our leadership; if they become subservient to rulers, I am afraid, they will inevitably become part of the evil the latter commit. There are so many incidents pointing towards this direction, but I am running short of space. That is why I call on all of us to listen to them with a critical mind. Thank God, we have every liberty in Islam to do so since the word of everyone is subject to acceptance or rejection, except that of the Prophet, as Imam Malik aptly put it. Islam has given us all the freedom of thought we need. We must not abdicate it in exchange for the whim of other fellows.
So apart from these few criticisms, as I said, the reactions have been very positive, plenty and encouraging. They show that the door of dialogue on many pressing issues is open. No wound is healed unless it is opened, cleansed and treated appropriately. We must celebrate our constitutional right to freedom of expression. It is still a dream to Muslims of many countries so much so that they have to migrate to the West, ironically, to enjoy it. In Nigeria, it is free. Let us therefore celebrate it by utilizing it. It is our only protection from a fascism that will force us to migrate to the West as it has done to our brothers elsewhere.
http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/columns/views/issues/5759-north-and-western-civilization
Writing your mind weekly on the pages of newspapers could be very risky even with the most sincere of purposes. On the one hand, by being critical of society, you are certain to be in the bad books of the government, if you do not become a victim of its injustice. You have then refused to listen to Imam Shafi'i who likened you to someone who struggles with dogs over a corpse. He is only safe if he leaves the corpse alone. Turn to knowledge instead, he advised in a poem: "The (world) is nothing but a preposterous corpse surrounded by dogs that wish to steal it. If you avoid it, you become safe from its owners; and if you attempt to drag it, its dogs will fight you. Blessed is the soul that lights the centre of its house, with closed doors and drawn curtains." Mamu and any publisher wishing to tell the truth should know this. They should not be surprised if our governments do not patronize them with adverts and oil concessions of hundreds of millions of naira.
On the other hand, you also run the risk of incurring the wrath of the citizens you are alerting of danger or awakening from a slumber. Perhaps, they prefer to continue in their state of heedlessness. So do not be surprised if they retaliate with ferocity. I remember the advice of Niccolo Machiavelli where in Discourses he said, "It is dangerous to attempt to free people who wish to remain slaves, just as it is dangerous to attempt to enslave people who wish to remain free."
We are therefore running calculated risks, especially when what we say does not sound appeasing to government or is contrary to mainstream thinking. The essence of writing, to me, is to say something different that would likely bring about a change in perception of readers, even if controversial. If what you said is the truth, it is just a question of time that it prevails, no matter the immediate criticisms. A writer therefore, must never attempt to be a sweetheart of his readers. He must load them with sufficient dose of bitter pills if and when necessary.
And it pays. When I first brought forward the issue of moon sighting into the domain of public debate in my column in 2000, the controversy that ensued had to finally succumb to reality, regardless of the prevailing theological understandings that run contrary to scientific knowledge and common sense. At last, after ten years and numerous seminars, debates and meetings among the Ulama, we are reaching a rational consensus with the Sultan for the first time, announcing that the crescent was not sighted that Thursday evening. Though it was actually sighted in some places like Funtua, the mistake is pardonable; the will to be rational, to me, is more important and deserves our commendation. We will get it right many times later. Other countries make such mistakes too and they are not at all shy to announce a correction later.
The reaction on articles on Boko Haram came as a surprise. Immediately it hit the inboxes of my mailing list, gamji website and the newspaper stands, the reaction was immediate, plenty and overwhelmingly positive, without, I can say, any substantial objection. This was surprising because, though I did not set out to generate controversy or to appease anyone other than 'chaji', I just wanted to write a simple comment. But as I started, the cultural dimension of Boko Haram dominated my mind and I decided to carry it throughout the article. I preferred the distributive assignment of blame, rather than the restrictive one that heaps everything on the sect members. After all, it was for their love of Islam that they decided to forsake the world and follow Yusuf, living on dates and water. We provided the fertile soil for the cultivation of their ideas by denying anything western. To us, the West deserves only condemnation. Even where such condemnation is misplaced, no one stands up to correct it. So what if some of us take it to the extreme and condemn just everything. We must share the blame.
In writing that essay, I presumed that we have passed two stages on both sides of the spectrum in our relation with the West. No credible intellectual, I presumed, need to bother himself with arguing for the halal of boko, just as he should not argue for the wholesale adoption of western culture in pursuit of civilization. Both ideas are too pedestrian to contemplate now, giving our fatal experience with both. We who despised western education and culture remain backward on many development indices even within the context of Nigeria , as I indicated. Those who enforced wholesale adoption of western culture on the other hand, like Turkey , are yet to realize parity with the West as their founder Attaturk once contemplated, after almost a century of experimentation. They have to moderate their stand by allowing the reincorporation of Islamic ethics and practices in many areas from which they were earlier excluded.
However, despite that, they have benefited a lot even by imitating many western habits and values. Turkey , for example, is far ahead of us in almost every aspect of development. Even the Arab countries that I called the best specimens of despotism last week are better than us, Northern Nigeria , in many respects. Our cynicism must give way to a rationality that will allow us reclaim our lost camel wherever we find it, to borrow from the parable of the Holy Prophet (SAW).
Two other issues attracted my response. The first was the sentence on hijab. Someone said I treated it with disdain; another, a friend from Bayero University, defended using hijab by children is a means of getting them accustomed to it, thinking I was opposed to that. It was neither of the two. I mentioned "enforcing hijab on babies" at the end of my discussion on dress deliberately as an objection to our obsession with appearance, instead of emphasizing the quality of our behaviour. And by babies, I really meant babies, as it happens in my village. What has a baby got to do with hijab for God's sake? Allow her to breathe the fresh air of this world before she starts to become suffocated by our bruises later in life. The Muslim women who are impressively fighting the hijab war in Europe never wore one as babies. There is time for everything in Islam. Moreover and more importantly, hijab is a religious obligation that must not be allowed to lose its significance by being relegated to nominal value of a cultural dress.
The other is the issue of our relationship with our Christian brothers in the North especially. In that article I tried to alert us to our fading political relevance even within our brothers in the Middle Belt because we have amalgamated the West with Christianity; so if the West is an enemy as many of us are quick to believe, so are Christians, including those we share the same country, region or land. We are led to this trap by the lack of proper comprehension of European history. Our underlying boko haram attitude has impeded us from reading wide enough to recognize that Europe has relegated Christianity to the background since the 17th Century. Yes, the Pope and the Queen are there, but how many Europeans go to Church or even believe in God? Europe is indeed in need of Islam but the Muslims are not forthcoming in the discharge of their divine duty of da'awah. The stereotyping of Christians here at home also prevents us from reaching out to them, from understanding the true nature of our spiritual and temporal relationship, and from living in peace with them. We need to be broadminded such that we can understand the issues at stake between us, discuss them openly, and open their hearts to a better understanding of Islam. To me, this is a divine task which we have exchanged for acrimony, discord and hate. There is little wonder if we are not living in peace with them or if we have lost their sympathy. That being what it is, we must kindle the torch of mutual understanding based on knowledge, civilized values and recognition of our mutual rights.
My call for us to embrace civilization was seen as unwarranted or implying that we are not civilized. But I was vindicated just a week after when our Ulama - people who are supposed to be the most learned among us - started to expose their weak understanding of the most fundamental aspects of today's humanity: human rights and the rule of law in particular. My attack on them in the last article was no doubt deliberate. From their utterances, it was clear that many of us do not value life as much as required by Islam, the constitution or the conventions to which our country is a signatory. The end, when it suits us, justifies the means. This is Machiavellian, not Islamic. I completely agree with Yusuf Qardawi who said the means in Islam - rule of law in this case - is as essential in Islam as the end.
This was not the first time that many of us are celebrating the impunity of government. In Sokoto, we have seen a sustained attempt by government and the Sultanate to obliterate Shi'ites and their sympathizers. To be labelled a shi'ite in Sokoto is tantamount to a death sentence. A mob was following a thief one day, shouting barawo,barawo. The guy was running for his safety. Then one of his chasers cried Shi'a, Shia. The thief stopped instantly. He said, wallahi ni ba shi'a ba ne, ni barawo ne, that is, "I am not shi'ite; I am only a thief." This may sound funny to us, but it was not funny to the thief. He knows that being shi'ite will instigate the people to hack him to death in a matter of seconds.
The state of our mental health - as the sociologists will put it - has deteriorated to this level. I must commend the leaders of Shi'a and Darul Islam, unlike the leaders of Boko Haram, for not taking the law into their hands. Had they contemplated otherwise, their liquidation would have been graciously welcome by many establishments of Ulama.
I am not a shi'a, Darul Islam or Boko Haram member; not for a day, if I must confess. I also condemn any action that they have committed, like the alleged killing of Danmaishiya by some shi'ite members in Sokoto or the confrontational disposition of Boko Haram in Maiduguri . But I think as citizens, we should all be civilized enough to recognize the rights of other citizens if we want our country and this poverty-ridden region to live in peace. Our starting and ending must be the law. It must be followed; otherwise, if it comes to the turn of our sect, we should not expect any kind treatment from the government. We are not even consistent in our stand. Were we not the people who condemned America for handing over Saddam to be executed by the Iraqi authorities on Eid day? Why did we have sympathy for Saddam who caused the death of over 1.5million Muslims and at the same time praised the extra-judicial killing of Foi and Yusuf simply because it was done by the agents of Yar’Adua?
That returns us to the question of the romance between our Ulama and government. I criticized leaders of JIBWIS last week because they supported the extrajudicial killings based on their assessment of Muhammed Yusuf as khariji. I have replied those who asked me questions regarding this through the internet and SMS. JIBWIS ulama have no locus to use that name against Yusuf. They are just giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Yusuf was their member in Maiduguri. Until recently, he even used to sit in for late Sheikh Jafar whenever the latter could not turn up in the town for tafsir before forming his own mosque as it has become fashionable among our Ulama. What they do not share with JIBWIS Ulama is his hard stand on boko and, perhaps, his accumulation of weapons or confrontation with authorities. But these are not enough grounds to call him khariji, going by the classical definition of the term, if we will be sincere. Yar’Adua is undoubtedly Muslim, but he is not a khalifa running an Islamic government. To the contrary, he is a head of a secular government. So I cannot see how a revolt against Yar’Adua can justifiably qualify anyone to be called Khariji. These extrapolations are dangerous, since they are done at the expense of life.
I am so concerned with our Ulama because they are getting too close to government at the expense of our safety as a nation. Their subscription to government ordinances - good or bad - is tarnishing their image as custodians of moral rectitude. They are the correcting side of our leadership; if they become subservient to rulers, I am afraid, they will inevitably become part of the evil the latter commit. There are so many incidents pointing towards this direction, but I am running short of space. That is why I call on all of us to listen to them with a critical mind. Thank God, we have every liberty in Islam to do so since the word of everyone is subject to acceptance or rejection, except that of the Prophet, as Imam Malik aptly put it. Islam has given us all the freedom of thought we need. We must not abdicate it in exchange for the whim of other fellows.
So apart from these few criticisms, as I said, the reactions have been very positive, plenty and encouraging. They show that the door of dialogue on many pressing issues is open. No wound is healed unless it is opened, cleansed and treated appropriately. We must celebrate our constitutional right to freedom of expression. It is still a dream to Muslims of many countries so much so that they have to migrate to the West, ironically, to enjoy it. In Nigeria, it is free. Let us therefore celebrate it by utilizing it. It is our only protection from a fascism that will force us to migrate to the West as it has done to our brothers elsewhere.
http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/columns/views/issues/5759-north-and-western-civilization
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Adamu Adamu answered well
I never thought that my write-up titled “Questions Adamu Adamu needs to answer” published in Daily Trust of 9/07/09 will generate some sort of controversies by chains of reactions and counter reactions from Mallam Adamu himself and others.
Mallam Adamu Adamu took time to reply my questions in series of articles titled “Talking silly on Bauchi (i) and (ii) published on 24/7/09 and 31/07/09 respectively. Even though Adamu said “ Some of the issues raised in the write-up don’t make much sense at all” referring to me, but all readers of his replies will refer to his articles as “ Talking sense on Bauchi”.
In the former article Adamu mistook my write-up as an attempt by me to ridicule, smear and attack his personality, thereby he responded to my questions harshly and if he had responded to my questions in the second article firstly, it would have not generated controversy. That will involve the responses of John Danfulani, Yusuf Gamawa and Hamisu Gumel in the first place.
Though I am not a journalist, but am not also a quack in issues relating to good governance and democracy as a Political Scientist. And I feel that I have been vindicated by Adamu himself, when he said “And in any case, it is not clear why my views on Bauchi state should assume the importance they seem to have for him”. But in his last article he himself admitted that Governor Isa Yuguda sought for his views when he was about to decamp and so also, Alhaji Garba Gadi asked for his opinion whether he should resign or not. Only a very influential citizen of a state that both a governor and his deputy will seek for his opinion on what to do.
When my write-up was published and Adamu’s subsequent response, I received a lot of mails and text messages with various reactions. Many people took time to send me mails showing their appreciation for my posing questions to Adamu Adamu as they, like me, have been looking forward to know what are his views on Bauchi state politics with Governor Isa Yuguda on saddle.
While some people that branded themselves as disciples of Adamu Adamu accused me of running a campaign to smear the image and credibility of their idol just because he refused to grant me some favours I sought from him when I was serving in Abuja so many years ago. Some among them even held me responsible for Danfulani’s article as if he is running an errand for me.
It is not in my habit to write for the purpose of smearing the reputation of anyone or group, but rather to propagate for good governance, justice, unity, equity e.t.c for the betterment of our democracy and great nation.
Though this write-up is not meant as a rejoinder to Adamu, but I will like to draw his attention to what he said to me “In any case, nothing prevents the critic from doing what he accused me of not doing”. A day after my write-up was published, seeking for his answers, my write-up titled “Who’s intimidating Bauchi ANPP? Was published on Weekly Trust of 11/7/09 . So it is not that am accusing Adamu Adamu of what even myself did not do.
Even as my questions to Adamu Adamu do not make “Sense” they have led many to know his own side of the story on so many issues in regard to Bauchi state and an opportunity on his side to tell the world.
In answering Shehu Chaji’s questions we came to know that Mallam Adamu Adamu refused the offer to serve as Secretary to Bauchi state government, which I doubt very few people will not jump at such juicy appointment. Mallam Adamu Adamu also informed Governor Isa Yuguda to his face that if he decamps “he would lose whatever political mutumci he had and the state would be out of his control”. He also informed his readers that General Muhammadu Buhari did for Mallam Isa Yuguda something he had not done for any other ANPP gubernatorial candidate, after endorsing him took time off his own campaign and went round all but one of Bauchi’s 20 local governments for him.
We also came to know that Malam Adamu Adamu is bitter with the way and manner Governor Isa Yuguda talked about General Buhari even though he knew how close Adamu and Buhari are. And we also know that Alhaji Garba Gadi sought for his opinion to resign or not, and Adamu Adamu advised the Deputy Governor not to resign under any circumstances.
These and more are what Mallam Adamu Adamu informed his readers. If I had not posed those questions to him he may never have said a lot about all those one on one issues with key players of Bauchi state politics. I deserve a pat on the back by Adamu for giving him this wonderful opportunity to say his mind.
My write-up on Adamu Adamu was made in good faith without any iota of giving anybody or group the slightest opportunity to smear his name or reputation. And if tomorrow there is the need again for me to pose such questions to Adamu Adamu I will definitely do it, and without any fear, sentiment or favour.
And as for me, Shehu Mustapha Chaji , am convinced satisfactorily with his answers in Talking sense on Bauchi (ii),even if others may not be fully convinced ,. And Mallam Adamu Adamu still remains to me among the best more enlightened, educated and resourceful columnist not only among the Daily Trust Columnists, but among the best in the whole of Nigeria . Mallam Adamu Adamu keeps the flag flying by saying the truth to our leaders within Nigeria and other countries of the world.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
Mallam Adamu Adamu took time to reply my questions in series of articles titled “Talking silly on Bauchi (i) and (ii) published on 24/7/09 and 31/07/09 respectively. Even though Adamu said “ Some of the issues raised in the write-up don’t make much sense at all” referring to me, but all readers of his replies will refer to his articles as “ Talking sense on Bauchi”.
In the former article Adamu mistook my write-up as an attempt by me to ridicule, smear and attack his personality, thereby he responded to my questions harshly and if he had responded to my questions in the second article firstly, it would have not generated controversy. That will involve the responses of John Danfulani, Yusuf Gamawa and Hamisu Gumel in the first place.
Though I am not a journalist, but am not also a quack in issues relating to good governance and democracy as a Political Scientist. And I feel that I have been vindicated by Adamu himself, when he said “And in any case, it is not clear why my views on Bauchi state should assume the importance they seem to have for him”. But in his last article he himself admitted that Governor Isa Yuguda sought for his views when he was about to decamp and so also, Alhaji Garba Gadi asked for his opinion whether he should resign or not. Only a very influential citizen of a state that both a governor and his deputy will seek for his opinion on what to do.
When my write-up was published and Adamu’s subsequent response, I received a lot of mails and text messages with various reactions. Many people took time to send me mails showing their appreciation for my posing questions to Adamu Adamu as they, like me, have been looking forward to know what are his views on Bauchi state politics with Governor Isa Yuguda on saddle.
While some people that branded themselves as disciples of Adamu Adamu accused me of running a campaign to smear the image and credibility of their idol just because he refused to grant me some favours I sought from him when I was serving in Abuja so many years ago. Some among them even held me responsible for Danfulani’s article as if he is running an errand for me.
It is not in my habit to write for the purpose of smearing the reputation of anyone or group, but rather to propagate for good governance, justice, unity, equity e.t.c for the betterment of our democracy and great nation.
Though this write-up is not meant as a rejoinder to Adamu, but I will like to draw his attention to what he said to me “In any case, nothing prevents the critic from doing what he accused me of not doing”. A day after my write-up was published, seeking for his answers, my write-up titled “Who’s intimidating Bauchi ANPP? Was published on Weekly Trust of 11/7/09 . So it is not that am accusing Adamu Adamu of what even myself did not do.
Even as my questions to Adamu Adamu do not make “Sense” they have led many to know his own side of the story on so many issues in regard to Bauchi state and an opportunity on his side to tell the world.
In answering Shehu Chaji’s questions we came to know that Mallam Adamu Adamu refused the offer to serve as Secretary to Bauchi state government, which I doubt very few people will not jump at such juicy appointment. Mallam Adamu Adamu also informed Governor Isa Yuguda to his face that if he decamps “he would lose whatever political mutumci he had and the state would be out of his control”. He also informed his readers that General Muhammadu Buhari did for Mallam Isa Yuguda something he had not done for any other ANPP gubernatorial candidate, after endorsing him took time off his own campaign and went round all but one of Bauchi’s 20 local governments for him.
We also came to know that Malam Adamu Adamu is bitter with the way and manner Governor Isa Yuguda talked about General Buhari even though he knew how close Adamu and Buhari are. And we also know that Alhaji Garba Gadi sought for his opinion to resign or not, and Adamu Adamu advised the Deputy Governor not to resign under any circumstances.
These and more are what Mallam Adamu Adamu informed his readers. If I had not posed those questions to him he may never have said a lot about all those one on one issues with key players of Bauchi state politics. I deserve a pat on the back by Adamu for giving him this wonderful opportunity to say his mind.
My write-up on Adamu Adamu was made in good faith without any iota of giving anybody or group the slightest opportunity to smear his name or reputation. And if tomorrow there is the need again for me to pose such questions to Adamu Adamu I will definitely do it, and without any fear, sentiment or favour.
And as for me, Shehu Mustapha Chaji , am convinced satisfactorily with his answers in Talking sense on Bauchi (ii),even if others may not be fully convinced ,. And Mallam Adamu Adamu still remains to me among the best more enlightened, educated and resourceful columnist not only among the Daily Trust Columnists, but among the best in the whole of Nigeria . Mallam Adamu Adamu keeps the flag flying by saying the truth to our leaders within Nigeria and other countries of the world.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji
shehuchaji@yahoo.com
Monday, 24 August 2009
We are Boko Haram
DISCOURSE (261) with Dr. Aliyu Tilde
An in house survey into the cultural origins of Boko Haram movement in Nigeria
So many readers have sent text messages asking me to write on the radical sect Boko Haram. I was afraid that a Chaji would pick his pen and compel me to divulge my view on the crisis which started from Bauchi and which is the more reason why Chaji would grill me. Chaji and his likes have constituted a terror to regular writers. They deny us the privacy of opinion; everything we know or think of is a public property which we must render regularly. We have no right to silence. Chaji? May good fortunes save me from the wrath of his pen! Well, to escape that, today, I have decided to say something about the phenomenon. The reader must be ready to wear an armour because this piece is written with a very sharp knife.
It is futile to speak on the halal or haram of boko. I rather intend to discuss the cultrual roots of the movement. But first let us settle the issue of nomenclature which some writers got wrong. On the authority of Professor Mahdi Adamu Ngaski, a celebrated historian, author of The Hausa Factor in the History of West Africa, and former Vice Chancellor, Usmanu Danfodio University , in Hausa, 'boko' simply means 'fake'. Before it was largely consigned to western education, boko was often used to connote the “fake bride', amaryar boko, who rode the horse in place of the real bride as the convoy of celebrants escorted her to her new home. The real bride would secretly be carried earlier by two or three women to her home. So when western education came to Hausaland, the learned rejected it and gave it a derogatory connotation, ilimin boko, 'fake education.' Sadly, this name has remained the standard translation of 'western education' among all Hausa speaking people of West Africa and I have never heard of any effort to change it, except the ilimin zamani that is sparsely applied. To date, there is no alternative nomenclature for makarantar boko, 'fake school' that connotes modern schools for western education.
My discussion with the Professor on boko took place in December 1984 in Sokoto.
One would wonder how much has changed in our perception of western education during the last century. (By 'our', or the third person plural, throughout this article means Muslims living in Northern Nigeria .) Though we have schools and universities, governments and companies, all founded on the western models, there are still problems in varying degrees among different groups with the assimilation of western education as an acceptable cultural medium or its recognition as a body of knowledge which is indisputably necessary for our survival today.
To many, the perception is like that of our ancestors: boko is haram – forbidden – so it must be rejected or, if acquired, abandoned, as we have seen in the case of the present Boko Haram group. An extreme variety of this thought was represented by the Maitatsine movement, which in the early 1980s rejected even the use of western technological products like watches, bicycles, radio and television, unlike the new Boko Haram who allow the use of even cameras, handsets and computers, as explained by its leader in his final moments.
Akin to this belief is the notion among some learned traditional Islamic scholars that 'government' is haram and public property and finances belong to nobody, so they can be looted whenever possible. I came across this idea in Sokoto in the aftermath of the 1983 coup. The mighty who lived fat on public funds were arrested. It was then I heard someone justifying stealing public funds in a private discussion: to, malammai sun ce halal ne cin dukiyar gwamnati tunda bat a kowa ba ce. My effort to present the contrary was futile.
Mainstream Muslims in this country view western education as useful, but they still hold the West with a lot of suspicion due to the existing hostile relations between the Muslim World and the West. Though this group recognizes western education as a body of knowledge to which Islamic culture had significantly contributed for centuries in the past, the lingering suspicion has continuously hampered the domestication of the knowledge and its internalization in the region. So we go to school only to obtain a certificate that will earn us a job without imbibing the principles and fundamentals that enabled the West to excel in such knowledge and technology; those principles and fundamentals are seen as alien, never to be imbibed.
We deride whoever embodies western practices like keeping to time, pubic accountability, banking, gender equality, family planning, etc. Early scholars, like the late Egyptian, Muhammad Abduh, who visited Europe and returned to say “they have seen Islam where there are no Muslims” are castigated as 'westernized,' while those who called for wholesale adoption of western values and culture, like the late Taha Husein, are condemned as westerners; some even would not hesitate to call them infidels.
Here in Hausaland, a bature is not only a European, but anyone who adopts western practice like keeping to time, monogamy, family planning, games, leisure, tourism, reading, western dress, etc, though a only few of such practices contravene Islamic injunctions. Though Islam is still revered as the reference point of culture and the ultimate arbiter of cultural conflicts, we readily mock anyone who attempts to practice it as the Arabs do. For example, we reject the honest public servant by suggesting that he relocates to Saudi Arabia where Islam is practiced: “Wai shi gaskiya. To in gaskiya yake so, ya koma Madina da zama”. Even the Qur'an is not spared. When one recites the Qur'an as it should be recited, following the rules of tajweed, we deride him as a balarabe – Arab: Mhm. kakale, wai shi balarabe. It took centuries and a national competition on Qur'anic recitation that started in the mid 1980s before northerners finally accepted the practice.
More dangerous, perhaps, is our reluctance to use our faculties to simplify our lives and improve our productivity. We have not invented anything in agriculture beyond the basic tools which our ancestors used for millions of years: the same hoe (fartanya), and plough (garma). Governments had a Herculean task selling the idea of fertilizers to farmers. Now that they have accepted it, corruption, which some malams justify, has prevented them from accessing it. Also, the dress has been the same since we borrowed the babbar riga from Mali and kaftans from the Arabs. The bante (which the Kanuri call afuno) was very much prevalent in the region as late as the early 20th Century. We wear both the riga and the kaftan during the harmattan cold and during the hot summer. Any attempt to borrow other wears to suit the weather as shown by the Qur'an is repulsed, unlike in the Arab world where they have different dresses for different situations. In fact, if you do not wear these 'uniforms', many of us do not consider you as fully Muslim.. Simple. The hijab, on the other hand, is now imposed even on babies!
Research and extension personnel in agriculture are daily frustrated with the strong repulsion to any new idea, variety or practice. Foreign breeds of cows were imported forty years ago by the Sardauna but we still look at Murtala Nyako with admiration because he alone was the first to defy the odds and maintain a modern dairy farm for many years. For over four decades, we condemned the high milk yielding Frisian or the high meat yielding varieties of cows as foreign, shanun turawa. This inertia also contributed to the 'death' of the tractor and other instruments of mechanization such that governments' focus on boosting agricultural production is now limited to supply of inorganic fertilizer for the additional reasons of fat contracts and lucrative middlemanship. So glaring is our boko haram attitude that many state governments recently preferred to import farmers from Southern Africa and support them with free land, huge capital and heavy subsidies. They argue that if we are given agricultural loan, which hardly reach us anyway, we prefer to invest it in human, instead of crop, propagation. How true they are!
Our general contempt for knowledge is outstanding, making us to prefer ignorance as a companion. The more knowledgeable you are or try to use that knowledge, the lesser are your chances of survival. Our entire political ethos is built on ignorance such that hardly would anyone succeed except if he is ready to put aside the correct thing he knows and behave as, or obey, the ordinary or ignorant who has never been to the four walls of high school. In interviews, a good performing candidate is rejected for a mediocre that will play the game of his sponsors.
The overwhelming majority of our political representatives and appointees are not the best from their constituencies, some cannot even write their names properly; that is why they hardly contribute to debates in the National Assembly. In our conferment of traditional titles, there has never been an occasion where the educational contribution or the honesty of anyone was celebrated with a traditional title; it is simply sycophancy and money, no matter how dirty.
An illustration of our contempt for knowledge lies in the way we tackle problems when they arise. How else can we explain the cold blooded massacre of Boko Haram members in Bauchi and Maiduguri , much of which is now correctly loaded on President Yar'adua, the foremost proponent of the rule of law? Where is the rule of law when the President ordered the Police and the army to crush them or deal with them 'siquayale'? In fact, so ruthless was this Malam B that just before embarking on his Brazil trip, he told the world that the group will be crushed by that evening. He succeeded in crushing them but at the expense of justice, earning the country another medal of shame as an uncivilized nation, and attracting sympathy for the sect.
Well, we are hardly visited by justice anyway. In-group hostility has always been our identity. That is why the same President who ordered the immediate massacre of Boko Haram members readily offered amnesty and money to Niger Delta rebels who are a thousand times more armed, who have killed, maimed, kidnapped so many, destroyed property and crippled the economy.
From the foregoing, it appears that we are culturally repulsive to any thing modern, from whatever direction it comes. Simply put, we are Boko Haram. Otherwise, what could explain our backwardness in every national endeavour – economic, social and political? Why do we have, for example, the lowest per capita income in the country, the lowest life expectancy, the lowest academic achievements as exemplified in our having the least number of academic institutions, fewer numbers of graduates and higher education applicants despite our high population? Why do we have, on the other hand, the highest poverty and highest maternal and infant mortality rates? Why do we fail to see the disjoint between our collective repulsive attitude to common sense and modernity, our boko haram attitude precisely, on the one hand, and modernity on the other? Why do we choose to be blind? Why can't we come out of the self-imposed Boko Haram prison that our ancestors built over a century before?
Unfortunately, we are today paying a very high price for this negative attitude. It has led to the shrinkage of our social sphere. We are increasingly isolating ourselves by our escalating intolerance for the attitude and cultures of other Nigerians. Honestly, that is why we lost the ground in the so, called Middle Belt. Politically, our preference for mediocrity has heavily reduced our significance from where it was, say, during the Second Republic . Also as a result, those of us from the far northern north have even considerably lost the sympathy of Muslims from the Middle Belt because we have built notoriety for ethnic self-preference and unfounded superiority complex which is based on nothing but ignorance.
The future is even bleaker if we consider the attitude of our youths. On campuses today, for example, we allow our students to grow with this isolationist attitude: in almost every faculty or department they now form societies of Muslim students, something unheard of in the 1970s and early 1980s when we were undergraduates. Of course, Muslim Student's Society, like Fellowship of Christian Students, was there as an umbrella for all Muslims on the school and campus, but never was such a religious grouping formed at the departmental level where we freely socialized and exchanged ideas with Christians and even pagans. It is in our interest to actively discourage this new segregationist trend.
Also, as we graduate, we sort of come across a barrier that socially separates us from other Nigerians. We have thousands of avenues to socialize in addition to our places of work. But we hardly do so. Christians will socially associate with Christians only, and Muslims with Muslims. How can we have peace then? Let me quickly affirm that the Qur'an has permitted such associations between us and the People of the Book (Christians and Jews) even to the extent of marriage and nutrition. Oh. I have forgotten that the Qur'an is a body of knowledge, and knowledge is the last thing we will subscribe to.
The Boko Haram group of late Malam Muhammed Yusuf was therefore a natural offshoot of our culture. We must admit this much because we have actively done very little to prove otherwise. And to be candid, Muhammed Yusuf was never the first to propagate such ideas and be accepted by our elites. The anti-western books of Abdulkadir as-Sufi, an English convert to Islam, were popular among many Muslims on our campuses in the early 1980s. That too led to many dropping from universities and abandoning public appointments, though not on a large scale or in a confrontational way like Boko Haram. What is more interesting here is the concord against modernity between two opposing sects of Islam: Sufism, as represented by as-Sufi, and Salafiyya, as represented by Mohammed Yusuf. This is no coincidence, though, but a fact that shows there is something inherently and universally wrong in how many of us conceive the role of Islam in this modern age.
Boko haram ideas will remain with us for quite some time unless we consciously change our attitudes and actively campaign against them. What is sad is the danger of how the group will leave behind the technology of making bombs among a population that is characterized by conflict, poverty and ignorance. This will certainly affect the future of peace in the region. The people who those bombs will hit will not be the masses but the leaders who have financed and exploited such groups to achieve their political ends.
I wish we Muslims in this part of the country will adopt the attitudes of the first generation of Muslims, the sahabah and those that followed them in righteousness (may God be pleased with them all) who, in pursuit of the teachning of the Holy Prophet (SAW) opened their hearts to various forms of knowledge and technology and from all sources: Chinese, Indian, Persian, Roman, European, African, etc. They revived the writings of Aristotle and bequeathed them to medieval Europe . They partook in technological development just as any other society, leaving behind a legacy of discoveries that were ironically the foundations of the very boko we ignorantly reject. They freely associated with everyone and were so liberal that their domains served as sanctuaries even to Jews when they were twice expelled from Europe . Many of them partnered with them in trade and war and married Christian wives. I wish we will liberate our minds and give scholarship its due regard because with ignorance as our anchor we will have little to achieve and everything to lose.
In conclusion, I must say that Yar'adua would need more guns to silence the anti-modern boko haram attitude in us. If he cannot, the burden then rests with us. We must shoulder the task of giving our society a new inspiration that will integrate it into the world of knowledge, society and culture. We must come out of our Boko Haram enclave to embrace civilization in all its ramifications and make meaningful contributions to the future of this country and the world at large. This is my opinion on Boko Haram hoping that mighty Chaji will spare me an interrogation and that my reader has not sustained a deep cut from my bold assertions.
http://www.desertherald.com/back_cover.htm
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An in house survey into the cultural origins of Boko Haram movement in Nigeria
So many readers have sent text messages asking me to write on the radical sect Boko Haram. I was afraid that a Chaji would pick his pen and compel me to divulge my view on the crisis which started from Bauchi and which is the more reason why Chaji would grill me. Chaji and his likes have constituted a terror to regular writers. They deny us the privacy of opinion; everything we know or think of is a public property which we must render regularly. We have no right to silence. Chaji? May good fortunes save me from the wrath of his pen! Well, to escape that, today, I have decided to say something about the phenomenon. The reader must be ready to wear an armour because this piece is written with a very sharp knife.
It is futile to speak on the halal or haram of boko. I rather intend to discuss the cultrual roots of the movement. But first let us settle the issue of nomenclature which some writers got wrong. On the authority of Professor Mahdi Adamu Ngaski, a celebrated historian, author of The Hausa Factor in the History of West Africa, and former Vice Chancellor, Usmanu Danfodio University , in Hausa, 'boko' simply means 'fake'. Before it was largely consigned to western education, boko was often used to connote the “fake bride', amaryar boko, who rode the horse in place of the real bride as the convoy of celebrants escorted her to her new home. The real bride would secretly be carried earlier by two or three women to her home. So when western education came to Hausaland, the learned rejected it and gave it a derogatory connotation, ilimin boko, 'fake education.' Sadly, this name has remained the standard translation of 'western education' among all Hausa speaking people of West Africa and I have never heard of any effort to change it, except the ilimin zamani that is sparsely applied. To date, there is no alternative nomenclature for makarantar boko, 'fake school' that connotes modern schools for western education.
My discussion with the Professor on boko took place in December 1984 in Sokoto.
One would wonder how much has changed in our perception of western education during the last century. (By 'our', or the third person plural, throughout this article means Muslims living in Northern Nigeria .) Though we have schools and universities, governments and companies, all founded on the western models, there are still problems in varying degrees among different groups with the assimilation of western education as an acceptable cultural medium or its recognition as a body of knowledge which is indisputably necessary for our survival today.
To many, the perception is like that of our ancestors: boko is haram – forbidden – so it must be rejected or, if acquired, abandoned, as we have seen in the case of the present Boko Haram group. An extreme variety of this thought was represented by the Maitatsine movement, which in the early 1980s rejected even the use of western technological products like watches, bicycles, radio and television, unlike the new Boko Haram who allow the use of even cameras, handsets and computers, as explained by its leader in his final moments.
Akin to this belief is the notion among some learned traditional Islamic scholars that 'government' is haram and public property and finances belong to nobody, so they can be looted whenever possible. I came across this idea in Sokoto in the aftermath of the 1983 coup. The mighty who lived fat on public funds were arrested. It was then I heard someone justifying stealing public funds in a private discussion: to, malammai sun ce halal ne cin dukiyar gwamnati tunda bat a kowa ba ce. My effort to present the contrary was futile.
Mainstream Muslims in this country view western education as useful, but they still hold the West with a lot of suspicion due to the existing hostile relations between the Muslim World and the West. Though this group recognizes western education as a body of knowledge to which Islamic culture had significantly contributed for centuries in the past, the lingering suspicion has continuously hampered the domestication of the knowledge and its internalization in the region. So we go to school only to obtain a certificate that will earn us a job without imbibing the principles and fundamentals that enabled the West to excel in such knowledge and technology; those principles and fundamentals are seen as alien, never to be imbibed.
We deride whoever embodies western practices like keeping to time, pubic accountability, banking, gender equality, family planning, etc. Early scholars, like the late Egyptian, Muhammad Abduh, who visited Europe and returned to say “they have seen Islam where there are no Muslims” are castigated as 'westernized,' while those who called for wholesale adoption of western values and culture, like the late Taha Husein, are condemned as westerners; some even would not hesitate to call them infidels.
Here in Hausaland, a bature is not only a European, but anyone who adopts western practice like keeping to time, monogamy, family planning, games, leisure, tourism, reading, western dress, etc, though a only few of such practices contravene Islamic injunctions. Though Islam is still revered as the reference point of culture and the ultimate arbiter of cultural conflicts, we readily mock anyone who attempts to practice it as the Arabs do. For example, we reject the honest public servant by suggesting that he relocates to Saudi Arabia where Islam is practiced: “Wai shi gaskiya. To in gaskiya yake so, ya koma Madina da zama”. Even the Qur'an is not spared. When one recites the Qur'an as it should be recited, following the rules of tajweed, we deride him as a balarabe – Arab: Mhm. kakale, wai shi balarabe. It took centuries and a national competition on Qur'anic recitation that started in the mid 1980s before northerners finally accepted the practice.
More dangerous, perhaps, is our reluctance to use our faculties to simplify our lives and improve our productivity. We have not invented anything in agriculture beyond the basic tools which our ancestors used for millions of years: the same hoe (fartanya), and plough (garma). Governments had a Herculean task selling the idea of fertilizers to farmers. Now that they have accepted it, corruption, which some malams justify, has prevented them from accessing it. Also, the dress has been the same since we borrowed the babbar riga from Mali and kaftans from the Arabs. The bante (which the Kanuri call afuno) was very much prevalent in the region as late as the early 20th Century. We wear both the riga and the kaftan during the harmattan cold and during the hot summer. Any attempt to borrow other wears to suit the weather as shown by the Qur'an is repulsed, unlike in the Arab world where they have different dresses for different situations. In fact, if you do not wear these 'uniforms', many of us do not consider you as fully Muslim.. Simple. The hijab, on the other hand, is now imposed even on babies!
Research and extension personnel in agriculture are daily frustrated with the strong repulsion to any new idea, variety or practice. Foreign breeds of cows were imported forty years ago by the Sardauna but we still look at Murtala Nyako with admiration because he alone was the first to defy the odds and maintain a modern dairy farm for many years. For over four decades, we condemned the high milk yielding Frisian or the high meat yielding varieties of cows as foreign, shanun turawa. This inertia also contributed to the 'death' of the tractor and other instruments of mechanization such that governments' focus on boosting agricultural production is now limited to supply of inorganic fertilizer for the additional reasons of fat contracts and lucrative middlemanship. So glaring is our boko haram attitude that many state governments recently preferred to import farmers from Southern Africa and support them with free land, huge capital and heavy subsidies. They argue that if we are given agricultural loan, which hardly reach us anyway, we prefer to invest it in human, instead of crop, propagation. How true they are!
Our general contempt for knowledge is outstanding, making us to prefer ignorance as a companion. The more knowledgeable you are or try to use that knowledge, the lesser are your chances of survival. Our entire political ethos is built on ignorance such that hardly would anyone succeed except if he is ready to put aside the correct thing he knows and behave as, or obey, the ordinary or ignorant who has never been to the four walls of high school. In interviews, a good performing candidate is rejected for a mediocre that will play the game of his sponsors.
The overwhelming majority of our political representatives and appointees are not the best from their constituencies, some cannot even write their names properly; that is why they hardly contribute to debates in the National Assembly. In our conferment of traditional titles, there has never been an occasion where the educational contribution or the honesty of anyone was celebrated with a traditional title; it is simply sycophancy and money, no matter how dirty.
An illustration of our contempt for knowledge lies in the way we tackle problems when they arise. How else can we explain the cold blooded massacre of Boko Haram members in Bauchi and Maiduguri , much of which is now correctly loaded on President Yar'adua, the foremost proponent of the rule of law? Where is the rule of law when the President ordered the Police and the army to crush them or deal with them 'siquayale'? In fact, so ruthless was this Malam B that just before embarking on his Brazil trip, he told the world that the group will be crushed by that evening. He succeeded in crushing them but at the expense of justice, earning the country another medal of shame as an uncivilized nation, and attracting sympathy for the sect.
Well, we are hardly visited by justice anyway. In-group hostility has always been our identity. That is why the same President who ordered the immediate massacre of Boko Haram members readily offered amnesty and money to Niger Delta rebels who are a thousand times more armed, who have killed, maimed, kidnapped so many, destroyed property and crippled the economy.
From the foregoing, it appears that we are culturally repulsive to any thing modern, from whatever direction it comes. Simply put, we are Boko Haram. Otherwise, what could explain our backwardness in every national endeavour – economic, social and political? Why do we have, for example, the lowest per capita income in the country, the lowest life expectancy, the lowest academic achievements as exemplified in our having the least number of academic institutions, fewer numbers of graduates and higher education applicants despite our high population? Why do we have, on the other hand, the highest poverty and highest maternal and infant mortality rates? Why do we fail to see the disjoint between our collective repulsive attitude to common sense and modernity, our boko haram attitude precisely, on the one hand, and modernity on the other? Why do we choose to be blind? Why can't we come out of the self-imposed Boko Haram prison that our ancestors built over a century before?
Unfortunately, we are today paying a very high price for this negative attitude. It has led to the shrinkage of our social sphere. We are increasingly isolating ourselves by our escalating intolerance for the attitude and cultures of other Nigerians. Honestly, that is why we lost the ground in the so, called Middle Belt. Politically, our preference for mediocrity has heavily reduced our significance from where it was, say, during the Second Republic . Also as a result, those of us from the far northern north have even considerably lost the sympathy of Muslims from the Middle Belt because we have built notoriety for ethnic self-preference and unfounded superiority complex which is based on nothing but ignorance.
The future is even bleaker if we consider the attitude of our youths. On campuses today, for example, we allow our students to grow with this isolationist attitude: in almost every faculty or department they now form societies of Muslim students, something unheard of in the 1970s and early 1980s when we were undergraduates. Of course, Muslim Student's Society, like Fellowship of Christian Students, was there as an umbrella for all Muslims on the school and campus, but never was such a religious grouping formed at the departmental level where we freely socialized and exchanged ideas with Christians and even pagans. It is in our interest to actively discourage this new segregationist trend.
Also, as we graduate, we sort of come across a barrier that socially separates us from other Nigerians. We have thousands of avenues to socialize in addition to our places of work. But we hardly do so. Christians will socially associate with Christians only, and Muslims with Muslims. How can we have peace then? Let me quickly affirm that the Qur'an has permitted such associations between us and the People of the Book (Christians and Jews) even to the extent of marriage and nutrition. Oh. I have forgotten that the Qur'an is a body of knowledge, and knowledge is the last thing we will subscribe to.
The Boko Haram group of late Malam Muhammed Yusuf was therefore a natural offshoot of our culture. We must admit this much because we have actively done very little to prove otherwise. And to be candid, Muhammed Yusuf was never the first to propagate such ideas and be accepted by our elites. The anti-western books of Abdulkadir as-Sufi, an English convert to Islam, were popular among many Muslims on our campuses in the early 1980s. That too led to many dropping from universities and abandoning public appointments, though not on a large scale or in a confrontational way like Boko Haram. What is more interesting here is the concord against modernity between two opposing sects of Islam: Sufism, as represented by as-Sufi, and Salafiyya, as represented by Mohammed Yusuf. This is no coincidence, though, but a fact that shows there is something inherently and universally wrong in how many of us conceive the role of Islam in this modern age.
Boko haram ideas will remain with us for quite some time unless we consciously change our attitudes and actively campaign against them. What is sad is the danger of how the group will leave behind the technology of making bombs among a population that is characterized by conflict, poverty and ignorance. This will certainly affect the future of peace in the region. The people who those bombs will hit will not be the masses but the leaders who have financed and exploited such groups to achieve their political ends.
I wish we Muslims in this part of the country will adopt the attitudes of the first generation of Muslims, the sahabah and those that followed them in righteousness (may God be pleased with them all) who, in pursuit of the teachning of the Holy Prophet (SAW) opened their hearts to various forms of knowledge and technology and from all sources: Chinese, Indian, Persian, Roman, European, African, etc. They revived the writings of Aristotle and bequeathed them to medieval Europe . They partook in technological development just as any other society, leaving behind a legacy of discoveries that were ironically the foundations of the very boko we ignorantly reject. They freely associated with everyone and were so liberal that their domains served as sanctuaries even to Jews when they were twice expelled from Europe . Many of them partnered with them in trade and war and married Christian wives. I wish we will liberate our minds and give scholarship its due regard because with ignorance as our anchor we will have little to achieve and everything to lose.
In conclusion, I must say that Yar'adua would need more guns to silence the anti-modern boko haram attitude in us. If he cannot, the burden then rests with us. We must shoulder the task of giving our society a new inspiration that will integrate it into the world of knowledge, society and culture. We must come out of our Boko Haram enclave to embrace civilization in all its ramifications and make meaningful contributions to the future of this country and the world at large. This is my opinion on Boko Haram hoping that mighty Chaji will spare me an interrogation and that my reader has not sustained a deep cut from my bold assertions.
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