AN EXTREMIST VIEW @ UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the universe. May His peace and blessings be upon the noble Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), his faithful companions and dutiful followers till the end of time, Amin.

The Muslim Congress (TMC) condemns in very strong words the disruption of a Jumat service at University of Ibadan by a sponsored Christian extremist in the person of Ms Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye, a 400-level law student of University of Ibadan. On the first Friday in the Blessed month of Ramadan (corresponding to 13th August,2010), she mustered the gut and arrogantly went into the University of Ibadan Muslim community mosque, while Muslim worshipers were engrossed in prayers screaming irresponsibly in the precincts of the mosque, "Jesus is the way, accept him. Jesus will soon come; Allah is not the way! Except you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you are not safe. All of you here, no matter the number of the congregation, accept Jesus Christ. Allah is not God; Jesus is Lord".

The above act of aggressive trespass and monumental intolerance in an enlightened community could have degenerated into deadly beaten and assault on her person, had the angry Muslim congregation been allowed to handle the matter on their own. The commendable and fatherly intervention of the Chief Imam, Professor Abdurrahman Oloyede, as expected of a Muslim leader, saved the day. Worse still, the community could have been engulfed in Christian-Muslim crisis!

We wish to state clearly that the action of Ms Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the mosque and an orchestrated insult on the collective intelligence of Muslims and Islam, not only in University of Ibadan but in Nigeria at large. Muslims by our glittering antecedents are peace-loving, but our gentility, simplicity and civility should not be taken for stupidity and timidity by peddlers of bigotry, intolerance, hate and Islamaphobia. There is no instance in any campus throughout the federation, where Muslim students or staff violated the sanctity of church by forcing their way into places of worship reserved for Christians, because our religion preaches peace, tolerance, mutual love and respect for the views of other religions. Universally, mosque is a respected place of worship and the young over-zealous Christian lady violated its sanctity, by coming in to win souls for Jesus Christ, yet few newspapers mildly reported this incident and even those that carried it failed to comment on the danger it portends for peaceful coexistence in the campuses and the country.

The Muslim Congress (TMC) wishes to state that the above incident is reminiscent of what is happening in the Northern part of the country, where those who call themselves Evangelists and hate theologians aggressively attempt to force hybrid Christianity on the Muslims and their children in a manner that is far from, and inimical to the provision of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and conscience to all Nigerians. Attempts by Muslims to rebuff these aggressive methods of evangelisation often lead to crisis, and the reactions of helpless Muslims quickly attract the attention of some mischievous and biased media organisations, that are on the payroll of the missionaries or that have soft spot for their cause and agenda.
We therefore humbly call upon the Minister for Education, Professor Rukayyat Rufai, University's Governing Council Chairman, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Vice Chancellor, Professor Olufemi Bamiro, Inspector-General of Police, Ogobonnaya Onovo and Sultan of Sokoto/President National Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Saád Abubakar III to beam their search-lights on the various campuses to avert a recurrence of this type of nauseating incident of extremism. Indeed, it is an agenda, which would soon be repeated and replicated in other campuses in Nigeria, if this one is allowed to go without appropriate reprimand and sanction from the University authorities. Planners of this drama are bent on wining souls for Christ by crook and intimidation of students under the aegis of Muslim Student's Society (MSSN). Whereas, the quality of a soup is better experienced in the taste and aroma, not in useless advertisement and dead propaganda by the cook. Islam thrives on truth, goodwill, respect and morals. We do not force our religion down people's throats, nor insult other people's gods and desecrate the sanctity of their temples. The Ivory Towers should not be used as safe havens by fanatical lecturers, bigots and faith supremacists to groom soldiers ready to unleash havoc on the Muslim Communities and MSSN in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

In conclusion, we humbly counsel the Nigeria media outfits to be responsive, objective, unbiased, balanced and patriotic in their reporting of events as it affects Muslims and Islam in Nigeria. After all what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. We advocate a crisis-free society and passionately demand justice!

Long live Nigeria Media and Federal Republic of Nigeria.

SIGNED
Luqman AbdurRaheem, AMNIM, AMIMC, AMIOE
Amir, The Muslim Congress

AFRICAN LEADERS AND ABSOLUTE POWER

There is no gainsaying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupt absolutely”. Despite the reign of democratic governance in African, some African leaders still clutch to political power for over two decades using state instruments to prolong their regimes against constitutional provisions.
The aim of this write up is to check, why many African leaders love to stay in power and yet refuse to use the state resources to develop the state of their country.
Though we all proclaim Africa (the continent) as our father land and Nigeria (depending on each individual) as our country, but let us all ask ourselves, do we all treat and take this sayings to our heart? As in do we all treat these two components (continent and country) like our father’s properties or like the way we would love our children to treat our properties? Of course not!
African leaders are too passionate about power, influence, affluence, dominance, hegemony and all sort of selfish authority. African leaders hardly quit public office honorably. It is either their effort to prolong their term in office failed or they die in office. E.g. Omar Bongo of Gabon, Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, Gen. Sanni Abacha of Nigeria (All Late) all died in power while the likes of Idi Amin of Uganda, Mamadou Tandja of Niger and our own Ibrahim Babangida refused to relinquish power until they were deposed (Olusegun Obasanjo’s effort to extend his administration not excluded).
Now let us ask ourselves, what exactly are our leader’s problems or what is the reason behind the do or die attitude of African leaders with power. Why are our leaders so crazy and power mad?
I keep on asking, If African leaders have passion for absolute power, why not for absolute rule of law?
All these are questions that need to be answered or how can one explain the overstaying in office of the likes of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia who have stayed in power for more than 20yrs? Burkinafaso’s Blaise Campaore is in his 21st year while our neighbouring Paul Biya of Cameroun, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who has spent 26yrs and 29yrs respectively still wish to surpass the record of Muammar Gaddafi who is the current longest serving leader in Africa and among the top 5 in the world. African situation is pathetic and needs international intervention. This is where the international organizations like U.N., commonwealth and A.U. come to question.

REASONS WHY AFRICAN LEADERS DON’T GIVE-UP POWER
The following are reasons why African leaders don’t give up power.
- Complex reason
- Historical
- Religious/cultural
- National
- Global factors

1. Complex Reason: Africans naturally have exaggerated feelings about things. The superiority complex of our leaders makes them feel that if they leave power to a predecessor then what become of their own influence.

2. Historical: The colonial masters of Africa did not release power voluntarily; countries like Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique wagged brutal wars to unseat colonial government refusing to give up power through democratic means thereby laying the precedent in Africa that absolute power corrupt absolutely.


3. Religious/Cultural: Africa’s first generation leaders grew up under colonialism which is majorly from Roman Catholic Church, they learnt that the pope is infallible and dies in office while the British monarchy is hereditary. This concentration of power and privilege did not exist in most pre-colonial Africa, it is from them African leaders learnt to cling to power.

4. Nationals: The hand-over of power in Africa between successive African governments has in many situations been through blood shed or brutal guerilla campaigns. Countries where citizens are not politically inclined and well informed will not have the effrontery to challenge its leaders hegemony.


5. Global Factors: Many a time’s dominant African leaders selfishly get the support of Europe and American country due to one selfish reason or the other. United State of America’s support for IBB was as a result of access to Nigeria crude oil, the support being rendered to Lesotho in recent years is for U.S to have direct control over their raw materials which will be eventually sold to them at high rate when turned to finished goods.


SOLUTIONS TO DICTATORSHIP

Africans should move ahead from wherever we are as there are no more bases to go back to (i.e. no more drawing board). The world is now a global village and the development of information technology wait for no one. What we should do is get ourselves informed about happening in our immediate environment. It is so unfortunate that an average African doesn’t know his/her fundamental human rights. If the zeal in every African is high in terms of seeking for knowledge and getting aware of the political activities then this so called leaders can be check appropriately.
African journalists have a lot of role to play in this aspect too. As the fourth estate of the realm it is their duty to adequately inform the society of the happenings. Africa media personnel should be able to form a formidable force and have one umbrella body (One voice) to constructively criticize any Leader who intends to stay in power for more than his/her country’s constitutional provision.
African elites like Mohammed El Baradei of Egypt, Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Kofi Annan of Ghana, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and our own Professor Wole Soyinka should all rise up to also condemn, discouraged and intellectually attack such attitude.
Finally organizations like African Union, European Union, United Nations, ECOWAS, Commonwealth, even the likes of FIFA should all disassociate countries whose leader is found wanting in terms of political hegemony and power dynasty.



References:
Kasumu, I. 2009, African leaders and Political Authority, (Unpublished)
Farai, M. 2010, Why African leaders don’t give up power, Wikimedia Commons.