Okikiola Qasim
One of the un-Islamic ideas which Muslims have been familiarized with today is the problem of disobedience to constituted authority. Illustrating their confirmations from the Qur’an and Sunnah, Islamic scholars said it is obligatory on Muslims to continuously obey those in authority even if they are fujjar (unjust leaders). Obedience to constituted authority, they said, is compulsory because without it there will be anarchy, chaos and civil friction in the society.
In recent time, issues bordering on endorsing national stability was not receiving any concentration in our societal discussions from Islamic perspective and the reason was obvious, except for some peace loving people advocating for peace during the last regime. Of course it should be, because of the situation we found ourselves in terms of insurgency, kidnapping and innocent killings here and there. Every organizations and NGOs including religious bodies were involving in chanting peace and every corporate organizations and foreign donors want to add their voice in the peaceful process that our country was yelling for at that period.
Alhamdulillah, the situation is seriously calming down and peace has become order of the day, kudos to the current regime led by President Muhammad Buhari. But stability and social responsibility should be the next line of staunchness, due to the fact that we have gone through stages of instability and internal adversity, concentration on national stability should be the duty of all Nigeria now in order to correct the wrong impressions and preach of hate that has generated deeply in the mind of many Nigerians, most especially the youth. It is expected that we must start to promote National stability through constructive social relations with constituted authority in Nigeria.
It is known facts that due to insurgency and kidnapping, many families lost their loved once. It was so excruciating. But the irony there was that, in some places where Muslims are not in the majority, they blamed all the problems on the Muslims. Somehow, we may not blame them for their actions, but it was based on what they witnessed. For instance, it’s accepted that wherever any Muslim dies he/she may be buried there, but this may not be accepted in other religions. My point here is that, many of the victims of insurgence and kidnapping were returned back to their various villages for burial as demanded by their traditions. And the numbers kept counting, this led to their supposition that it was only the non-Muslims that were being killed during the insurgence, as a result of that, hatred build up and Muslims were tagged killers of the non-Muslims. To correct such a parodies, adequate encouragement is required. This may be general dimple about Islam in Nigeria. The question is, whose responsibility is to carry out this task in Nigeria.
Moreover, Islam has not left any aspect of life without its required guidelines. For each aspect, it sets a basic rule, which is in harmony with the basic rules of the other aspects, to indicate in the end, that there is only one Creator and one perfect Legislator. The relationship between the leaders and the led in Nigeria is something else, whereas we condemned the leaders without a constructive social relations to assist them to accomplish better in their political services. In spite of series of development strategies, put in place by successive governments, and sometimes with good intentions and sometimes with other motives, all attempts to generate meaningful development proved futile. This is because the level of communications with our leaders is at a poor state in Nigeria.
When this thoughts was going on in the mind of many Muslims and others on the way out, the Zaymar Islamic Research and Development Education Centre held a two-day conference on national stability through constructive social relations with constituted authority, at the Abuja National Mosque from February 29 to 30. The conference on the first day witnessed the wonderful presentations from Dr. Ahmad Bello Dogarawa for ABU Zaria, Ustaz Abubakar Siddiq, and the CEO Comrel Travels Abuja delivered an eccentric submission on ‘UTILISING CONTEXT SPECIFIC RELIGIOUS TOOLS TO PROMOTE CONSTRUCTIVE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY’.
In his submissions at the conference, he went down history lane on some of the fundamental factors the brought about the level of misunderstanding within the religious circle and why we must embrace cordial relationship with the people in the authority and the authority to respect all well-constructed opinion of the Nigerian people. He also make some key points which I will like to quote him verbatim:
“What will happen if Muslims boycott participation in democratic processes because they are not purely Islamic? How will Muslims fare if they refuse to work in usurious financial institutions or keep their monies there? We need Muslims everywhere: in the banks, the presidency, the National Assembly, the courts, ministries and agencies, as well as in the private sector.
Decades ago, we did not have options for Islamic banking. Now we boast of full-fledged Islamic financial services, thanks to His Royal Highness, the former CBN Governor and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, his predecessor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo and Dr Kingsley Moghalu, who started the inclusion of the Islamic non-Interest banking in the windows recognised by the CBN. Incidentally, the last two persons I mentioned are Christians. Therefore, those in authority deserve our allegiance in as much as the Messenger of Allah (SAW) has admonished us to give absolute obedience even if a slave becomes our leader. The purpose of Islamic Shari’ah is to bring benefit and avert evil in all circumstances.
Muslims are part of Nigeria and will remain to be so until Allah accomplishes His purpose. We shall form political alliances with other Nigerians be they Muslims or non-Muslims by coming together in the democratic process, to reach those in authority with a view to making this country better. Taking up arms against the state or forming parallel government is both foolhardy and exposing the Ummah to ridicule.
Other presentations at the conference was the submissions of Prof.
Misbahudeen Ahmed Rufai. From Malcom X college Chicago, USA. Others at the occasion includes the Minister of FCT, represented by Muhammad Bashir, Director FCT Muslim Pilgrim, Kastina State Gov. represented by Hon. Hamzah Muhammad Brodo, Commissioner for information culture and Home Affairs and Gov of Niger State represented by Alh Tanko Baba Ahmad, Special Adviser on religious Affairs, Niger, state the chief of Army staff, ably represented by Col. Shehu Garba, director Islamic Affairs, Nigerian Army, the chief of Naval staff ably represented by Real Admiral Abdullateef Akintola, Admiral Superintendent Naval Doc Yard, Lagos, Minister of Information Alh. Lai Muhammad represented by Abdulrazaq Yakub Bichi, Deputy Director Anti-corruption and transparency, Ministry of Information, Etsu Nupe, rep. by Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani, Shetima Raba Nupe, and rep Nigerian Civil Defence, EX Abuja National Mosque, Alh. Ibrahim Jega, Deputy Vice Chancellor Nasarawa state University and many Islamic organizations, sisters group, Christian brothers, Muslim Student Society of Nigeria AMAC to mention but few.
The occasion was one of the best of its kind, the authority responded to the call of the masses by attended the conference and it was a full time for that matter.
This was the first time in my experience that the Government officials, top ranking Security officers in Nigeria attended a two day conference and stayed till the end of the program with full concentrations, well-expressed speeches and advises. I was short of words with the level of collaborations coming from the military personnel. This would definitely restore the lost confidence in the Nigerian security personnel long before now and additional love for their profession for the nation.
The pride of any government is the attainment of higher value level of development in such a way that its citizens would derive natural attachment to governance. How-ever, for a nation to be in a phase of development there must be some pre-requisites, which include socio-political and economic stability. Permit me to share with you the bullet points of the COMMUNIQUE signed by the National coordinator of
Zaymar, Hajia SHIFA GARBA1.
That the organizers should take the presentations outside Abuja in view of the timely and enriching contents.
2. That de-radicalization of youth is an essential tool to minimize acts of violence and terrorism
3. That people of faith should assume special roles in nation building, security, stability and protecting territorial integrity
4. That Nigerians should be cautious in adopting ideologies that do not uphold our national stability and respect for constituted authority
5. That genuine and total submission to the creator moulds the human mind to respect fellow citizens and develop love for one’s nation
6. That de-mystifying myth of distrust, fanaticism, ethno-religious enmity enhances peace and stability
7. That national stability is the main key to socio-economic development
8. That the essence of unity goes beyond religious collaboration and should be extended in full spirit of loyalty nationwide in every other aspect of engagement to promote peace, progress and stability
9. That food security is an inevitable tool for assuring national stability, moderation, tolerance and peaceful co-existence
10. That disrespect for women promotes stigmatization, minimum involvement in nation building as well as lack of interest in proper training of children and wards to become responsible citizens
11. That rumour-mongering, incitement and lack of authenticated information are threats to national security and stability
12. That mutual respect, mutual co-existence and mutual understanding encourage unity and stability.
13. That extremism is a leeway to terrorism, disrespect for constituted authority and state of unrest
14. That traditional rulers should re-assume role of check-mating preachers to avoid calumny, hate speeches and negative influence on followers especially the youths
15. That further programmes should evolve nationwide around the contents of the conference and this communiqué.
