Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, discussing with the Attah of Ayede Kingdom, Ekiti State, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Mumini Adebayo Orisagbemi, while the Emir of Ilorin Alhaji Sulu Gambari watches with keen interest, during a stop over in the Government House Osogbo, on the Sultan’s from the Reception in honour of S. O. Babalola, back to Sokoto, on Sunday.
By Kemi Kasumu
The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Sunday, joined the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, retired Judge of the World Court, Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN), former Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Musliu Smith, Attah and Paramount Ruler of Ayede Kingdom, Ekiti State, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Mumini Orisagbemi and others to pray for peace in Nigeria as well as for good health and strengthening of President Muhammadu Buhari to successfully steer the ship of the country to a safe landing.
The Sultan was in the State of Osun at the instance of his Deputy President-General (South) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Sakariyau Olayiwola Babalola, who was being honoured to a reception themed, “A National Prayer for Our Nation for Peace, Security, Stability and Development,” organised by the Osun State Muslim Community.
The Leader of Muslim Ummah in Nigeria Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, who was Special Guest of Honour at the event, where the National Missioner of Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Ahmad was guest speaker and NSCIA Secretary-General Is-haq Oloyede led the prayer session for the nation and the President, also enjoined various religious groups across the country to make prayers a daily routine as, according to him, the country needs spiritual solutions to its peculiar challenges.
Giving his remarks after the prayer session, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, who started with a comic relief saying ‘last speaker’ no has nothing to say, urged Muslims to remain peaceful and cooperative with governments at all levels and with others in the society.
He said, “First and foremost, I will like to give a very short story of a very big man in Nigeria who went to America for a conference. At the conference he was asked to speak first but being a big man in Nigeria he said ‘no, no, no, I will speak last.’ That is what we are used to. And so the organisers said okay and they continued the programme. By the time it got to him to speak, the hall was empty because, as people listened to more speakers they were leaving the all, they had gotten a number of what they wanted to hear. But when they got to that VIP, he was only talking to himself.
“That is what happened to me now when I am asked to speak because all the things that need to be said about Alhaji S. O. Babalola and the prayers for Nigeria and President Muhammadu Buhari have been said and so, I find myself having nothing to say. So, I want to adopt all the good words said by everybody in this hall. The bad ones are their own choices and their own words not my own,” and the hall burst into a loud ovation.
Responding to a call by the Osun State Muslim Community asking for government of the state to sanction a Sharia Court for Muslims, the Sultan said it was unnecessary with explanation.
He said, “But there is just one or two points that I will just want to add. I heard in a speech here somebody requesting the Government of the State of Osun to help the Muslim Community to recognise the Sharia Panel they have set up, which has been adjudicating on issues between Muslims. I don’t think that is necessary so long, if Muslims agree to have a panel that is supposed to adjudicate on issues between them, there is no need for anybody to come in-between.
“As Muslims we agree that the Qur’an will be the judge over our affairs and if we sit down to say yes, this one is right and this one is wrong and each agrees with that judgment, then, what else do you want the state government to do?
“That is why we need alternative dispute resolutions. When you are having problem in your houses between you and your families, you don’t bring government into it. And so when you have problem between Muslims and Muslims, don’t bring government into it because you will have more complications.
“I don’t think that is what you need. What you need is the will power to submit to the Holy Book, the Qur’an and the Hadith and whatever has been judged wrong according to the Qur’anic injunction should be accepted by all Muslims. That is just my personal view,” said the Sultan.
When it was his time to talk, Governor Rauf Aregbesola started his own speech by particularly recognising Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN) saying, “There is a person here who I did not know that he was here until I heard his name was mentioned, Baba Bola Ajibola. When he was in public life, hardly did people recognise he was a Muslim. However, I got to know of his devotion to Islam through an unlikely quarter and source. The greatest influence on the current Acting President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is no other than Baba Bola Ajibola,” Aregbesola said recognising Bola Ajibola’s presence at the reception in honour of S. O. Babalola in Osogbo on Sunday, praying for the former Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague and former Attorney-General of the Federation, saying, “May God protect you, grant you more years of existence and reward you with Jannah.”
Also recognising the presence of many Lagos people he called his friends who also graced the occasion, Governor Aregbesola made a serious image point saying, “Thank you for coming. And I hope you see better now, that you see the little things we have done here contrary to what you read in the papers.”
And the governor opened his speech properly saying with deepest compassion that, “I have just two things to say. All that must be said have been said by various speakers. But I will be failing in my duty as head of government if I fail to say those things because people will want to ask us that what was it that we discussed here today? Transience of power has been spoken about by Imam Abdul-Rahman Ahmad. The kindness of Almighty in our lives has been spoken into by Professor Is-haq Oloyede.
“But what we have yet to look at is that, where do we hold ourselves? Because it is indeed a shame that in Nigeria where clearly half of the population are Muslims, where you have the elites of Islam glamorously seated here, where in fact we can see the wealthiest Nigerian today is a Muslim, how can we likewise have the fact that Muslims can be asked to kill themselves for N200? Yes, if you disbelieve me that is what I read on the front page of the Telegraph last week that Muslims were offered N200 to kill themselves.
“So, we Muslims truly must ask ourselves, ‘What is the problem with us that poverty can be that extreme to the point of some of us not minding losing their lives for N200?’
“Let there be a resolution that the next jihad is to eliminate poverty. There is extreme poverty in our land. It should be a challenge to Muslims because indeed if there is poorest in Nigeria, we must speak to ourselves, the poorest Nigerian must be a Muslim.
“If the poorest among us is a Muslim, as Muslims we must develop capacity and strategy to end extreme poverty unless we are not concerned about the reputation issue that the miscreants, misguided deviants bring to our religion. I am serious about this. Let there be organisations, the Muslim Community and individuals in Nigeria to focus on simply eliminating poverty and the consequences of it.
“There is no basis for what we are experiencing, the absolute bestiality Boko Haram represents, outside poverty. It is economic. There is no religion in it. But, rather than belabouring ourselves denouncing its irreligiosity, let us all work hard at eliminating extreme poverty and the consequences of such thing. It is a pledge,” Aregbesola said.
Giving his lecture, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Ahmad recalled an instance in the life of the honouree, Alhaji Sakariyau Olayiwola Babalola, saying, “Permit me to recall an instance when there was trouble and we met him because we were troubled too and he said, ‘Ah, no, no, no problem. That is how Allah willed it. Let us continue. What is important is for Islam to continue to grow.’ That was his reply. If you had occupied that position, may be you would not have been here today. If you had stopped because you felt disappointed, may be you would not have been here today,” Ahmad said in what seemed to recall the game plan of Lagos State Muslim Community against S. O. Babalola when they deprived him of becoming the Baba Adinni of Nigeria following the death of Alhaji Abdul-Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo.
He then faced other Muslims at the gathering and said, “This is a lesson for all of us. Those who want to be Sariki Adinni because they spend money for the mosque and if they do not turban them they would stop spending money, this is a lesson. Just continue to do whatever you want to do for the sake of Allah and Allah is taking notes of everything you do,” the Ansar-Ud-Deen National Minister, Abdul-Rahman Ahmad, said.
Quoting from the Glorious Qur’an to back up his statement he said Allah says, “Just continue to work, work and work, soon Allah (though is never heedless, he hears everything) will bring to public knowledge all the strivings that you do without the knowledge of the public. The Prophet will also be a witness and the people will also be a witness.”
Turning back to S. O. Babalola, Sheikh Ahmad said, “Allah charged you with the responsibility of the headship of MUSWEN and you did very well. You never expected to become Deputy President-General (South) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. Allah has given this to you but all of these are nothing, may Allah give you Al-Jannah.
“In time it was when every young person in this country heard from a Juju musician (Ebenezer Obey singing) ‘S.O.B – Babalola’. It is the grace of Allah and it is by the grace of Allah that Allah picked you away from that and brought you to this path. May you never leave this path. As salam alaykum,” Ahmad concluded his three minutes lecture.
Officiating the prayer session, Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said, “One of the reasons Muslims don’t celebrate prayers is that they pray always. Every Muslim who does not pray always, who is not conscious of Allah every moment of his life, is not a Muslim to be trusted. That is why Muslims distinguish between worship and prayer.
“Muslims worship Allah and when Allah says, La’abudu mota’buduun, wala antum a’biduuna mo a’budu…Lakum deenukum waliyadeen, meaning, I will not worship that which you worship and you will not worship that which I worship, your religion for you and mine own religion for me. Allah in that case let you worship according to your religion while I worship according to my religion. That does not stop you from praying together.
“If you are all in need, if you are all in a situation like we are in Nigeria, Atiamoun minju’in wa’amonoun minkhaof, that verse of the Qur’an is not restricted to the Muslim, is not restricted to a religious community because hunger knows no religious boundary, threat does not have religious demarcations and that is why in Suratu Quraysh we are talking about ‘Allazi atiamoun minju’in wa’amonoun minkhaof’ meaning, He Who feeds them when they are hungry, He Who provides security when they are under threats and I believe, all of us who are in this great country of ours know that when you do this prayer, you have prayed for everybody in this great country of ours that Almighty Allah would save us from hunger, that Almighty Allah would provide security for us against all threats and it is in this light that I call on all of us here present, Muslims and non-Muslims alike to surrender ourselves to Allah in prayer.
“And we start this by praying specially for the President of this great country of ours, President Muhammadu Buhari. May Almighty Allah grant him the happiness of this world including good health; may Almighty Allah Who knows very well that all right thinking people are anxious for his safe return to Nigeria grant him a safe return.
“Of course anybody who is corrupt would not want him to come back. Shaytan is already talking to some people and they mistake Shaytan for God telling them that God has told them that he would not return but we know definitely that Shaytan, at times, talk to people and disguise as being God,” he said.
Alhaji Babalola, responding to a challenge by Professor Oloyede about his need to redirect his resources to Lagos Central Mosque and lecture of Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Ahmad, made a promise that,“As from next Friday, I will return to Lagos Central Mosque.”
In his response, the celebrated, Alhaji Sakariyau Olayiwola Babalola, said, “To me, today is a day of thanksgiving. It is not speech making but to thank Almighty Allah for making this possible through Osun State Muslim Community. I am proud of you (the Muslim Community). Some people said why are we going to stage this even here and I told them that we are going to do it here as a sort of encouragement because this is the first place we can call a complex for any Muslim Community in Nigeria. I am very proud of you and I thank you very much.
“Now, my thanks have no bound for our amiable governor. Life is just like an aircraft; the take off, the balancing and the landing. You (Aregbesola) started very well to the administration of all Nigerians that you made Osun State a showpiece at the beginning of your tenure. But at the balance there was turbulence, which was not caused by you. After the turbulence, nonetheless, you are going to land successfully by the grace of Almighty Allah. Because you have good intention for Osun and it will come to pass.
“Now to my principal, His Eminence the Sultan, I cannot thank you enough. There is no word that can qualify or talk about you that you don’t surpass. But what I know and I don’t know if anybody has found that here, is that this is a man sitting down quietly with us here as 22nd most influential Muslim in the whole world. For having that kind of man in our midst, we are happy to have Your Eminence. May Almighty Allah continue to sustain you.
“You set yourself agenda, first of all to foster peace among Muslims and members of other religion and you are succeeding. And again, you are very passionate about girl’s education, which is why you are giving us at Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) scholarship for girl child education every year.”
