Okikiola Qasim
Currently, the Muslim world enjoys large population and there are many formats for authority, some have taken a western style democracy approach, others have an autocratic monarchy and some have a meritocracy. It is a saddening situation that our population are with less authority in all ramifications.
Even though, some Muslim monarchs are the one’s pushing the idea that there are no authority structures in Islam. This was contained in the official website of the Saudi Embassy to the United States and without any considerations to how such this statement flies in the face of history. This innovated idea of “no authority” has led to the state of disobedience to the constituted authority.
• Lack of records and template
By the way, some of the factors that is constituting disunity in contemporary Nigeria is lack of records template. This has crippled many historical efforts and sacrifices made in the past by our leaders, therefore, reducing their worth in the present day jihad and making them irrelevant in the minds and eyes of young Muslims.
I can’t imagine a situation where various Islamic groups in Nigeria who have been in existence for more than 4-5 decades are requested to present the template of their societies activities for the past 3 decades, I can imagine the disappointment and surprises that would be on our faces. The highest some organizations could present, may not be more that various committee reports, this is not what I am talking about.
Template, I mean here are evidence of existence of some vital decisions for the Ummah. Such as documentaries that explain the decision of the Ummah to have a National Mosque in Abuja, documentaries on the formation of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), National Hajj Commission, the birth of major Islamic organizations in Nigeria, the formation of MUSWEN, JNI and how did we accepted Islam in Nigeria. I am not sure we have any. If there are none, the young generations to come may never respect any constituted authority.
The perfect example could be what is trending now on social media about the rancour between Dr. Abideen Olaiya and Ibn Abdullah Gbolahan. Dr Abideen has been in the forefront of the faceoff with those who benefited from MSSN and are now throwing stone of destruction back to the society. This has led him to dig out the historical facts on some issues that led to the staunch members of the society moving out to form another organization, but they did not stop at that but their actions says they do not intend well for the organization.
Meanwhile, Gbolahan was against the revelations of the past claiming there were no fair hearing on the names mentioned by Dr. Olaiya, but failed to suggest a way out for the society that is battling with issues of supremacy in some of the area unit of the society such as Lagos state area unit and the faceoff with “Lajama” group in various institutions. He also faulted Dr. Olaiya to have put the blame on the god fathers outside the society. And he rained a lot of abuse on Olaiya. All these faceoff was due to the lack of agreeable template of what has really happened, so individual efforts now become effort in futility.
• Duplication of efforts.
Another factor responsible for our large population with less effectiveness is the duplication of ideas and responsibilities. I have written severally on the rush hour makeup programs for annual festivities, resulting to fixing the same programs, almost the same topics at the same day. This must stop and we as Muslims must embrace unity of purpose for whatever needs to be done.
I have always being an advocate for organizational specialisms meaning, joining hands with other organization at the best, while other organization focus on other areas. I want to believe if we do this, there would be a land mark achievement and a clear focus directive would be achieved.
Everybody is an authority
I realised long time ago with my experiences on Islamic Media Dawah project that one of the major factor that leads to intra-organizational rivalry could be that everybody wants to be seen and known as an authority. And everything to defend his own territory is paramount and the fall of others could be a source of joy to him. With this, we can’t go anywhere.
This is a problem. And if measures are not taken, it would lead to many leakages of disobedience to authority no matter our population, it would be meaningless.
In a situation where a young inexperienced with larger portion of Quran in his memory and it interpretations, coupled with Arabic languages with fluency sees it all, neglecting the experiences and exposure which includes years of experiences of the elders and sees himself as an authority without allowing anyone to checkmate him, is what I called a society of doom.
In my last week column I concluded with this issue and I quote:
his is the appropriate period for Islamic leaders in Nigeria to regulate public lectures in order to reduce the influence of blinded and unexposed acclaimed Islamic scholars, who do not understand the influence and the impacts of Quran on technology and civilizations. Otherwise, we shall witness more of this self-acclaimed scholars who will continue to pass fatwa on how the use of tooth pick to eat “PONMO” is now haram and anyone that uses it has been allotted a space in hell fire. This is nothing but abuse of public preaching.
• Central Unit Authority
This is what I coined out to create awareness on that fact that we need to have a central directive to give the Nigerian Muslims a sense of belonging and to give them a substantive authority which is a great vacuum now in the society.
We must collectively see to making the NSCIA more active than they are now. The complaints in the past is that of no leader, but the case is no longer the same. Now, the current challenges is that of obedience to authority in person of the president General Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs H. E Alh Saad Abubakar.
My understanding is that for the sake of Islam we may not have any other choice than to do otherwise, we have to work it out to reach out to the best expected of us as Muslims.
Our representations at the EXTERNAL GENERAL PURPOSE COMMITTEE (EGPC) is not by accident but by merits. Other Organizations that are yet to be there should endeavour to enlist their organizational focus to the Secretariat of NSCIA in Abuja. We should play our roles properly, then pray to Allah, success would be our watchwords.
When I write encouraging Muslims on unity, most especially on the issues that has to do with NSCIA, I am usually accused by my close associates for being influenced, but that wouldn’t stop me from moving forward and doing what I think is best for me.
This is what I could do, have you done yours before complaining, that is my usual reply to them and I am very happy when I see changes in our organizational performance, even if I am not invited and I get to know about it, I would be happy. Islam should not be about you and me alone. Islam should be about what legacy are we putting in place for coming generations.
We must all fight those who want to destroy our efforts and the effort put in place by our founding fathers. I was privileged to have served in some national position of NSCIA (committee) and at one of such inaugurations the Secretary General said this and I want to quote him as my conclusion:
“We all have to do what we need to do when it’s most important without waiting for those who have refused to come join us. If the decision to build the Abuja National Mosque was to have waited for all to decide, we wouldn’t have gotten a monument such as this mosque we all celebrate now as our own. May Allah reward those who participated in giving us the best we deserved”
I rest my case.
