Northern Nigeria

By Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba

It is indeed sickening and quite unfortunate to have been part of the Nigerians alive to witness the gruesome killing of Harira and her children and two others in Anambra State. We haven’t even been relieved of tensions that arose from the derogatory remarks on our beloved Rasul SAW. And amid these tensions, another heartless fellow has murdered his niece in Kano – a similar event as Hanifa’s.

Undoubtedly, these seven years since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari kicked off have been the most unprecedented for many Nigerians. Stressful periods have made killings assume a state of normalcy, especially in the Northern part of the country, and many horrendous activities now don’t even get into the spotlight.

While we continue to deal with post traumas after witnessing more than enough horrifying stories of senseless murders and killings of innocent lives, we continue to fiercely battle financial uncertainties from different angles, coming in distinct shapes and sizes. There has never been a time when we have found ourselves at risk of losing our earnings. From a series of unfounded mobile messages to mysterious calls and emails from strangers, we have been bombarded with multiple ‘Yahoo! or 419’ daily. We think one step to securing our earnings while these ‘intellectuals’ are already a hundred miles ahead. Such is the cruel world we live in a while our leaders wander in a desultory fashion.

To begin with, are the ‘Yahoo intellectuals’. In this context, they have proven beyond any iota of doubt that they are efficient to prosper and have almost always never missed their targets by successfully outsmarting technologies our private financial institutions, alias banks, breaching secured accounts of innocent people in order thieve their hard-earned money – only God knows the kind of cumbersome efforts put in to get them. They are perfectly immune to any countermeasure provided by these banks. Only a few of them are being traced.

The height of this situation will not puzzle you until you hear a bank staff declaring that it is not the bank’s fault but ‘yours’ – the customers’ fault – who exposed your bank details to a ‘Yahoo Pro’ unknowingly. Ideally, banks are supposed to be substitutes for traditional means of saving assets, but the current situation shows that they’re becoming dangerous institutions. Filing a complaint is intensely laborious as your insignificant earnings do not matter so much to the banks. You’d spend hours in a queue to face your worst fear – they can do nothing to help you.

In a recent report published by FJI Nigeria, a student’s $2000 was stuck and only released after their report. Similarly, just on May 8, 2022, the same FJI Nigeria published how a nurse based in Ogun State lost her N95,000 after her ATM card got stuck in the ATM and after her communication with one of the GT bank’s staff. Millions of peoples’ earnings have continued to slip away through untraceable means as banks claim or through multiple deductions from the banks. In some southern states, you could be robbed with a gun when withdrawing cash from an ATM and others adopt POS machines for these fraudulent activities.

There is also another set of dubious humans that use religious covers to decorate their Yahoo strategies. For example, you’d receive calls from unknown fellows claiming to be in good spirits, giving references from the Holy Qur’an and directing you to a strange place where they want you to keep the money for them, and they help you in return. Sounds hilarious, though, but it still happens. Another way they opt for is by sending random text messages about a critical condition of their family member, and they’d threaten you to send a stipulated amount to them or fear the unthinkable happening to you.

Let me highlight that the current wave of rancorous political exchanges in the primary elections is also enshrouded by financial insecurity. We have all vividly seen the disparity in the offers presented to ‘delegates’; it all boils down to ‘money’. Of course, it unveils how deep-seated corruption is in our country, but it also paves the way for us to see that not only the ruled are financially unstable. As the delegates go for the highest bidder, so do the aspirants try to bid the highest amount or withdraw from the race and embrace the likely winner for basically financial and political advantages. For the aspirants, some are very calculative to either invest where they’ll win or save what they’ve pocketed.

I wouldn’t do justice to this discourse without reiterating the kidnap for ransom mishap that continues to flourish without any sign of slowing down. The ‘business’ has now reached a stage of maturity such that Nigerians are challenged to save for unwary expectations indirectly. You may not be directly involved, but your support would be needed when an outrageous amount of money is demanded from a person you know.

The dangerous convergence of economic hardship, lack of political will, and financial insecurity has placed Nigerians grievously. The damage done to widows, orphans, families, workers and students is unimaginable. Assets aren’t safe at home and are neither safe at the banks. And with the continuous devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the means of our sustenance has become an uneasy endeavour.

For now, the government is overwhelmed with so much politicking – divergences, convergences and calculations are taking a toll on virtually everything. So, since the major financial institutions that deal with the exchange of money are private, and the government has proven its incompetency to bring solace to our impediments being at the receiving end, we can offer solid suggestions on how best we can be treated with dignity by these banks.

Securing our dignity and finance at this point means banks must make a move to create codes that we can use to halt the operation of our accounts when necessary. It’s distressing how they have created codes for transfers and recharge card purchases without prioritising securing our accounts. This can be a gigantic step to counter our susceptibility to fraudsters as they are fully aware that their malicious intentions can only be crushed when the damage is done.

Then, it would be worthwhile for the government to equip its legal system to challenge these private financial institutions to ensure sanity in their operations. I firmly believe they aren’t above the law, and nobody is.

Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba is a master’s student from the Department of Mass Communication, BUK. She is a freelance writer and researcher. She can be reached via nusaibaibrahim66@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabi’u

Gunmen have carried out another horrific attack in four Zamfara State towns, killing dozens of residents. According to an eyewitness, the number of villagers slain could not be determined yet, but the bandits took several of them, leaving four individuals with varying degree of injuries.

According to reports, the villages are Gidan Dan-Inna, Gwaji, Karoka in Kwai-Kwai District, and Faru, in Bungudu and Maradun local government districts.

Some eyewitnesses reveal that, majority of those killed were members of a local vigilante group who were protecting the communities, and some of the community members were attacked on their farms.

Terrorists with powerful weapons were claimed to have assaulted the villages, killing and rustling animals. The communities were reportedly attacked on Sunday evening and early Monday morning, destroying properties worth millions of naira.

When contacted, the State Police Command Spokesman, SP Mohammed Shehu, confirmed the tragedy, adding that twenty people were slained in three villages in Bungudu Local Government and five more in Maradun Local Government Areas of the State.

Armed operatives have been dispatched to the affected and surrounding areas to protect people and their properties in the axis, he said.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

An investigation by the United Kingdom media regulatory agency, Ofcom, has shown that women are more prone to online attacks than men. 

According to the study, women are wearier of their online presence and prone to discriminatory, hateful and trolling content. They also feel less able to have a voice and share opinions online than their male counterpart. 

Ofcom then calls for technology firms that build sites and apps used by millions of people in the UK to act and make online space safer for women and girls.

Also, according to the study, women from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to be affected by their painful online experiences. 

“The message from women who go online is loud and clear. They are less confident about their personal online safety, and feel the negative effects of harmful content like trolling more deeply.

“We urge tech companies to take women’s online safety concerns seriously and place people’s safety at the heart of their services. That includes listening to feedback from users when they design their services and the algorithms that serve up content,” says Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s Chief Executive.

By Muhammad Sabiu

A Nigeria Customs Service post in Mil Takwas hamlet, a few kilometres from Katsina town, was ambushed by a group of gunmen known locally as bandits.

The attack took place around 1 a.m. on Monday, according to multiple sources and the Nigerian Customs Service in Katsina.

The criminals approached the checkpoint on motorcycles, according to Shamsu Magama, a resident of Magama Jibia.

They arrived from the Bugaje village forest and halted a commercial vehicle on its way to Jibia. On the spot, the driver was murdered. He claimed that after that, they rode their motorcycles towards Mil Takwas.

Another community member claimed that the customs officers were attacked because the bandits figured that if they went to the hamlet without chasing the Customs officials away, they would be able to repel the onslaught.

He claimed that four customs vehicles had been set ablaze.

Katsina is one of the northwestern states brutally hit by the criminal activities of the bandits operating in the region.

By Murtala Uba Mohammed, PhD

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” Harvey S. Firestone

One interesting thing with the practice of Western democracy which we copied is the periodic nature of  elections taking place after every couple of years (four years in our case in Nigeria). The year  2023 is a milestone because for the first time Nigeria is practicing an uninterrupted democratic rule for 24 years after long years of military rule. The year is important not only because it is an election year; other issues such as campaigning, bargaining and renewal of (traditional) promises are fundamental. This is what happened in ideal democracies. However, to the contrary, ours is characterised by party swapping and decamping, often termed in Nigeria’s Glo-English as cross carpeting. It is the time whereby any politician wanting to be elected, re-elected, who had not gotten what he wanted or felt threatened in his political party, decamps to another party. Nigeria’s democracy is not ideology-base and therefore political parties have neither manifesto nor specific mission, therefore, politicians find it easier to jump from one party to another, and whoever moved to a new party has the audacity to paint and cast his old party in dark. It is fascinating to note that none of the key politicians in the country (particularly in Kano State) could not be found wanting if party swinging case is to be opened up. Therefore in my opinion, it is a waste of time to discuss whether one political party is better or worst than others in Nigeria. They are birds of the same feather, as Hausa people say “ba wani nagari a kashi, duk ɗoyi ne”.

In spite all these challenges and disappointment, the electorate still have something to hold unto, light is always found at the end of the tunnel; and no matter how dark the night is, the dawn is inevitable (komai nisan dare gari zai waye). The beauty of democracy is that people have the “right” to change their leaders through popular votes. The election time is the best decision period people ought to utilize to gain best leaders/representation for their community. However, it is only when a community has estimates of its problems that they can think of its commensurate solutions.

Here, it is important to highlight some of these problems in order to prepare the people’s mind on issues to bargain in order to vote for any candidate in the next election.

Although, Kano which is the most populated state in Nigeria, a commercial nerve centre of northern region and equally a port of entry into the West African Saharan Hinterland is not with its perculiar problems. The first and the most problematic of all the issues is that of poverty.

Kano gave birth to the most richest person in Africa and the most richest black person on earth today, but a large segment of its population are perpetually and incredibly poor.

The recent multidimensional poverty index (MDPI) for the state according to multidimensional poverty network report was 43.4%, putting the state as the 9th poorest states in the country. Based on poverty headcounts 2019, the state had 55.1% of the population living below poverty line. Agriculture which as the mainstay of the economy has been largely relegated and therefore majority of the farming is mainly subsistence. The state is one of the most richest in terms of surface water wealth – with almost 23 dams, but only a small percentage of state’s irrigation potential is being explored. In effect, the rural economy remained largely untapped. This necessitated the rural folks to send their children to cities, disguising as Qur’anic disciples and using the Almajiri system as a camouflage, while in reality they are lured by the urban Eldorado treasure, which unknown to them is a mirage.

Majority of these children engage in begging under the scorching sun on the Metropolis’ street, harassing and disturbing the peace of the city’s visitors. It is this influx of beggars (from the state’s rural areas and neighbours) into the city that qualifies it to be unilaterally declared as the Beggars Medina, and also, this uncontrollable influx continues to aggravate the level of crime in the metropolis. No thanks to extensive presence of illegal/informal areas in the metropolis that host and serve as a breeding ground for criminals. Urban Kano is therefore a security risk city, considering the recent cases of phone snatching and use of weapons to force people to surrender their properties in many parts of the metropolis.

In spite all its commercial history, long tradition of industrialism and market potentials due to large population; commercial activities in the city is not appreciating in recent time as expected.

Polices of the federal and the state government and a sheer negligence, since the return to fourth republic, are reducing the city’s trading status from that of a leading wholesaler to a mere retailing economy.

The modern industries (built during colonial and early post colonial period) had already started collapsing due to the dwindling power supply coupled with stiff open competition with imported goods and poor management by those that inherited the industries. The traditional cottage industries that Kano is known for such as tannery, dyeing, blacksmith and weaving are fast disappearing and approaching  extinction. Although, recently the city is witnessing proliferation of plazas and departmental stores, it is also experiencing fragmentation of stores and evolution of small containers and cage-like stalls. These small containers and stores are just pointer to the low economic status of the traders and indication that retailing economy has taken over with higher preference by the city dwellers.

Another developmental challenge which the state faces is the notorious on-street trading. People turn road shoulders and pavements into trading shops in and around all metropolitan markets, the worst case is that along Murtala Mohammed Hospital in the Old City. The implication of this, among other issues, is its effect on worsening the traffic congestion, causes road accidents, distorts the aesthetic nature of the road and disturbs the refuse management.

Population explosion is another challenge facing the state. Base on the population resources nexus, increase in population always comes with a corresponding demand for resources including physical (such as land for agriculture, housing and trade) and financial (for infrastructure, health and education). Kano State is both most populated state and one with highest population growth in the country. Currently the city had over 15 million residing population and an annul growth of rate 3.2%. 

With the highlighted issues above, it is clear that all is not well with our dear state. In order to govern the state properly, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT) are worth considering. The state’s strengths include population, size, history and resource endowment; the weaknesses are in certain traditional and cultural beliefs, literacy and the people’s addiction to everything informal. The opportunities include markets, being a metropolitan to its negbourhood, availability of labour; and its threats include competition with other state’s, Kaduna State under El-Rufa’i in particular who is trying to utilize any slight opportunity, capitalizing on low farsightedness of recent leadership, low power supply as well as climate and environmental changes.

Therefore, to set a new development agenda for the state this time, the voters have to make good use of their rights to bargain for the best leadership. The leadership should no longer be a status-core ante, where people are chosen for their party or their allegiance and alignment with certain candidates or groups. Candidates should only be chosen for their articulated ideology and good blue print for the state. The candidates also, should be chosen mainly if they can make an excellent use of the Kano Opportunities and Strength to built the state and its people, cancelled the weaknesses and avert the threats which shield our progress and are currently ascending the state off the developmental larder. To do that, a patriotic, conscious group and individuals have to rise and set a new agenda with respect to agriculture, by making it better through developing the farmers’ capacity, making it more attractive through increase in yield and marketability, and by making it more permanent through irrigation. Agricultural value chain should be well understood and every level should be made robust to improve people’s economy. Education for development should be made a priority and skills and its utilization (not necessarily through lengthy education) must be on the top agenda. Rural development and rural infrastructure provision must be our focus.

Epoch had gone when our villages should be proud with who will make our village better and not who is our son. Kano City and Mega settlement (including all the emirates headquarters)  planning need to be revisited, redefined and total compliance should be ensured. A new administration to come should be one that will ensure power supply to the state in order to revive the industries and revolutionize the society for better.

The media has a role to play here. The over twenty conventional media that Kano State have need to help in this case by changing their focus, borrowing leaf from best global practices. The focus should be behavioral change, public education and enlightenment (rather than propaganda) and specialized programs (distinct from imitation). Patriotism and state’s/nation’s pride as well as good attitude should be inculcated especially among younger generations who should be seen as the future for the state.

Murtala Mohammed can be reached via: murtalamuhammadu@gmail.com. Mutala teaches Geography at Bayero University, Kano

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Bleak Economic Future on Losing bread Winner

Think of it; the moment you die, the socioeconomic status of your children and wives changes. Your children (those young among them especially) become orphans, and your wives are called widows. While alive, you worked hard and earned for their feeding, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare and general wellbeing. The moment you die, they lose a breadwinner. If in your lifetime you have searched from the Islamic Sharī’ah, you would have learned the art and science of planning beyond your lifetime for these prospective widows and orphans. After relying on Allah, you would have built for them a prospect such that they would live a life of meaning, success, prosperity and contribution, insha Allah. And here comes the relevance of family waqf; waqf, in general, being the Islamic instrument for institutionalising philanthropy and ensuring perpetuity in giving!

Family Waqf as a superb socioeconomic institution enables one posthumously to maintain his parenthood and breadwinner status for his family, generates him reward permanently and preserves the dignity of his progeny everlastingly. In family waqf, you find one of the essential instruments for planning the future prosperity of your progeny.

Family Waqf as Solution

Family waqf, also called posterity waqf, is a kind of endowment created as a futuristic investment for the sustainable prosperity of the endower’s relatives or friends. It is often called a restricted waqf, distinct from a public waqf whose benefits go to an open class of beneficiaries. It can be for the immediate family; wives and children. It may also include parents. It can be made for the extended family, depending upon the financial capacity of the endower. One can make a family waqf for a child with a special need, say one with sickle-cell disease. The beneficiaries of a family waqf, in short, are those defined by the endower.    

Significantly, although the primary beneficiaries of this form of waqf are those pinpointed from the endower’s family, time may expand the scope of the recipients of its fruits. When, for example, the revenues generated from the waqf grow so large beyond the family’s need, or when the family gradually goes extinct after some long time, the waqf could be converted to a public waqf, expanding the coverage of those who enjoy its benefits. Therefore, what distinguishes a family waqf from a general public waqf is its scope of defined beneficiaries. Virtually all other rules of its governance are the same with public waqf. It can be made a direct waqf, one that creates direct benefits, on an investment waqf whose revenues are distributed to the designated recipients.   

Family waqf can be made for the provision of all forms of welfare and empowerment services for the family. It can be made for education, healthcare, feeding, clothing and other needs. It can also be made, specifically for the sponsorship of Hajj to family members. In this regard, instead of spending five million naira for two or three members of the family to perform Hajj this year, the same amount can be invested as a waqf, such that after its maturity, the proceeds from the investment waqf can be used to sponsor Hajj for a certain number of family members every year. With proper management and Allah’s barakah, instead of three family members, dozens of them can enjoy Hajj from the same seed money even long after the demise of the original donor. Waqf multiplies benefits and rewards manifold.

More often than not, you hear people complain over the demands of their family members overwhelming them even as they want to contribute. But little do they know they have a satisfactory answer in family waqf. For example, suppose you know you spend two million naira for the education of your children and extended family annually. Why not make an investment waqf so that the proceeds of the waqf relieve you of any spending in that direction in some years to come?

Form and Functioning of the Family Waqf

A person can build a rentable shopping complex, subscribe to Islamic bonds (Sukuk), buy shares of a halal company, and dedicate the same and profits thereof as a waqf for the education of his children and grandchildren. Likewise, one can build an orchard full of date trees, mango trees and other fruit-bearing trees, dedicating them as a waqf for the future specific or general financing of the needs of their children.

When the endower specifies in the waqf deed that it is only for the education of his children, then, as a rule, no part of the rentals shall be spent on other needs, just as the resources cannot be used to fund the education of children other than his, except when the yields grow far beyond the education of the designated siblings. If the endower dedicates it to education and healthcare, its proceeds cannot be diverted to feeding the family or other things except under absolute necessity. All this is to safeguard the sanctity of the waqf, ensure its sustainability, and guarantee the continuous flow of its yields in line with the overall goals and objectives for which it is created.

 The good thing is that, like all other waqfs, making it a family waqf makes the investment/asset inalienable. It prevents it from being counted among the inheritable wealth of the endower, as it will remain a separate entity that creates benefits perpetually to the entire qualified beneficiaries. The asset can neither be sold nor given as collateral. It remains a waqf asset. This way, even when the children need other things, they source them outside the waqf, allowing the waqf to maintain its defined purpose perpetually.  

The idea behind family waqf stems from Islam’s emphasis on ensuring the wellbeing of a person’s family and biological relations and the need to spend continuously on all aspects of their needs; spiritual, intellectual, biological, physiological, socio-cultural, and so on. Talking about spending, the Qur’an draws attention to prioritising spending on the family. When, for instance, the companions continued to ask the Prophet (SAW) how best to organise their spending, Allah intervened with a divine spending formula: that whatever you plan to spend for good or charity, direct it to your “parents, relatives, orphans, the needy and the traveller” (Qur’an 2: 215).

Your family, in short, occupies the first three spaces on your scale of spending preference. They are the primary beneficiaries of your giving, be it obligatory or voluntary. Now, if, as the Prophet declares, the most pleasing act in the sight of Allah is one that is perpetual and sustainable; then it becomes apparent that the most rewarding spending on the family is the “gift that keeps on giving”, that is a waqf that keeps bearing fruits to the family.

Start Early, Start Now!

It is important you begin the waqf plan early. Many people start their marital lives with moderate incomes, which, with little adjustments, a futuristic mindset and financial discipline, are sufficient to be divided into consumption, saving and little investments. However, financial shortsightedness often prevents them from allocating some portion of that “meagre income” to what would ease their financial burdens and create a sustainable flow of income – and reward- for themselves and their family in the future. Little do they realise that as their family grows, so do their financial burdens. If these are added to inflation and other economic unpredictables, the complexity of the situation worsens.

Many people do not also realise that the best immunisation from the negative socioeconomic consequences of shrinking disposable income is to begin early implementation of an effective financial plan. Many begin to regret when the regret cannot change anything; they would want to start to cry when the head is already cut off!  

So, plan for the future of your beloved wives, children and relatives. That is a Sunnah, a well-established one, for that matter. A viable and well-managed revenue-generating waqf can do that for you. You get double rewards; you safeguard your family’s future Islamically and earn rewards perpetually. Make an effective plan for their feeding, sheltering, education, medicine, and socioeconomic prosperity. Make a waqf for their Hajj, ‘umrah and general spiritual wellbeing. That is sunnatic. Do not miss the opportunity to practice this multidimensional Sunnah, the Sunnah of family waqf. Our dear mother and wife of the Noblest Prophet, Aisha, reports to us that the Prophet (peace be upon him) dedicated his seven gardens as waqf to benefit the clans of Banū Abd Muttalib and Banū Hāshim as recorded by Bayhaqi.

We also see emphasising family waqf in the guidance of the Prophet to his companions. After the revelation of the verse “By no means shall you attain righteousness/piety unless you spend of that which you love; and whatever good you spend, Allah knows it well” (3:92), Abu Talha met the Prophet and said, “This is what Allah has revealed, and the most treasured of all my wealth is this garden, Bayruhā’. I have set it aside as a ṣadaqah to attract reward from Allah. Therefore, you should administer it the way you wish”. The Prophet was amazed by this gesture. And so he said, “Certainly your wealth is blessed. Having heard what you have said, I recommend that you dedicate it as a perpetual charity to your relatives”. Based on this Prophetic advice Abu Talhah made it a waqf for his close relatives and cousins (Bukhari and Muslim).

It is interesting also that most companions of the Prophet are reported to have implemented this Sunnah. For example, Caliph Abubakar dedicated a house as a waqf for his son, and Umar dedicated a waqf near Marwa to his son. Also, Zubayr endowed a house in Makkah, another in Egypt, and yet another in Medina as waqfs for his children. Amr b. ‘Āss endowed a house and another huge property in Mecca for his children, just as Hakīm b. Hizām also dedicated a house as a waqf in Mecca and another in Medina for his son. After reporting all of these, Ibn Qudamah says in al-Mughniy, “All this are intact till date”.

Family waqf is a Sunnah of the Prophet, his companions and generations of Muslims in the last fourteen centuries. It is a well-developed institution that grew as a robust instrument for family empowerment and societal development until it faced the orchestrated wrath of the colonial monsters. The colonialists saw it as an institution that gave families and societies independence against their mercilessness and hence officially abolished it in Muslim nations like Egypt, Morocco, and so on.

Sadly, there is hardly any evidence of its practice as enshrined in Islamic law and civilisation here in Nigeria. With the growing waqf awakening in Nigeria, one hopes that a new page would be opened for entrenching this all-important Islamic civilisational institution. The good news is that with each family doing it, we gradually build a new waqf generation. Through that, we give a big blow to poverty at family levels before we finally eject it out of our communities. The early we sow, the earlier we reap. The more we sow, the more we reap. May we begin this journey NOW.

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido, Chairman, Zakah and Waqf Foundation, Gombe . He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Introduction

In today’s Nigeria, we experience a rapidly growing population at an average rate of 3% per annum. We currently have about 220 million citizens and still counting. Our population is projected to reach nearly 400 million in the next 28 years. It is factual also that the population growth is much higher in the Muslim communities of Northern Nigeria than in other communities in both the North and the South.

Due to many reasons, foremost among which is the widespread practice of Islamically permissible polygyny, our population grows exponentially. At the same time, little is done to plan the expansion of infrastructure and provide alternative ways of coping with the needs of the expanding population. An average Northern Nigerian man likes and practices polygyny (i.e. marries more than one wife). In addition, family planning and birth control are generally considered taboos. Families are, therefore, mostly large.

While the population is supposed to be a blessing, it can also be a curse if not well managed. It is clear also that most of the Muslim masses and a large chunk of the Muslim leaders, intellectuals and even religious scholars are oblivious of the long term consequences of an ever-growing population that is not matched with a corresponding sharī’ah-compliant solid plan for taking care of the education, health, food and other socioeconomic and religio-spiritual needs of the expanding population.

While few are partly aware of some of the projections related to population growth vis-à-vis the socioeconomic and other realities, we are largely oblivious of the need to develop Islamic oriented ways of building the society and coping with the socioeconomic challenges associated with our growing population and exponentially changing societal dynamics. Therefore, the issue can quickly become controversial during any discussion.

But a society that accepts, based on an interpretation of religious teachings and cultural beliefs, that polygamy – rather polygyny – should be widely practised and even encouraged should also be a society that always goes back to the scripture for proper guidance on how to manage polygamous families. Since, as a religious Ummah, we have accepted what Islam has provided for us of the permissibility of having many children, is it not also Islamically incumbent upon us to go back to the Qur’an and Sunnah to learn how to organise the social, educational, economic and other needs of our families? Within this context, I intend to introduce family waqf, an almost entirely unknown Islamic institution for organising and planning the prosperity of families in Nigeria.  

Unpleasant Consequences of Life without Planning

How often have you heard stories that end with statements like: “Allahu Akbar! Late Alhaji Adamu was a wealthy person, a kind, gentle, and successful businessman. But look at how his children are suffering…”; or “Can you remember Alhaji Mai-Turare: the owner of XYZ Business at Tudun Muntsira quarters? Do you know that this hopeless drug addict is his son! He dropped out of school and joined a team of hooligans…Allah ya sa mu gama da duniya lafiya (May we have a good end in this world)”. And similar stories?!

Those are recurrent stories in Northern Nigeria. You have several successful entrepreneurs or accomplished aristocrats and professionals who reached the zenith of fortune in their chosen businesses and professions and lived lives of accomplishment and contribution. However, shortly after their demise, their estates would be shared among their 30 heirs; four wives, over 20 children, etc. After a few years, those inheritors of enormous wealth would fall from the world of prosperity to that of harsh poverty.

Many people would be rich, with an ever-expanding flow of income in the booming years of their careers. Still, they would never think of making a sustainable investment for the future prosperity of their children, not even for their life after retirement. After the family has grown large, inflation has multiplied manifold, and life has become unbearably expensive against their sources of income which have rather contracted due to age and other factors; they turn from affluence to poverty, battling to settle even the most basic of their bills. They neither invested for their retirement nor made an ever-flowing investment for their second life, the eternal life after death.

They have no passive investments that generate income for them at old age, nor a waqf (endowment) that would continue to fetch them rewards even while in their graves. They have no plan for what would sustainably finance their family’s education, health, and other essential needs. And so the worst happens. And the whistle is blown for their final, inevitable transition to the next world, leaving their family in economic and financial confusion, which often spirals into other messes in the spiritual, social and mental spheres. Soon after dearth, history forgets them as they have left nothing that continues to fetch them rewards and people’s prayers, not even for their immediate family.

The Importance of Making a Financial Plan

But why is it essential to make a financial plan for your children’s and family’s future prosperity? Does that have any place in Islam? Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas was an uncle to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He was among the ten topmost companions that received glad tiding of a direct entry ticket to Paradise in one sitting. He was rich. Actually, very rich.

One day, during the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet visited Sa’d on his sickbed. After exchanging greetings, Sa’d told the Prophet that I am seriously ill, as you can see. He apparently was doubtful of surviving that illness. He said, “And I am a very rich person, but there is no one to inherit my wealth except a single daughter.” He then asked if he could give two-thirds of his wealth to charity, leaving one-thirds for the daughter. The Prophet instantly replied with a quick “No”. “What of half?” The Prophet again said, “NO”! What of one-thirds?” Now, here is where the Prophet reluctantly approved by saying, “One-third! Even one-third is huge and too much”. Anyway, the Prophet followed this with a statement that deserves the attention of parents at all times; “It is better to die leaving your heirs in affluence than to leave them in poverty, so they continue begging people for alms”. 

Many lessons abound in the above conversation of great personalities. One, piety and affluence are never mutually exclusive; you can be profoundly pious and superlatively prosperous. Two, connected to this, enjoying worldly opulence does not preclude enjoying everlasting other earthly felicity. In fact, worldly riches are effective instruments for attaining success in the next world. This is clear in the stories of great companions like Abubakar Siddiq, Uthman Bin Affan, Abdurrahman and, of course, Sa’ad.

Significantly also, you can plan all of these for your loved ones beginning with your children and wives. Not only you can; you have to! This is Prophetic advice, if not an order. The Prophet (may peace be upon him) made it impermissible for a person, especially while bidding farewell to the world, having no chance on sight to go to the market and earn more resources from gifting out his fortunes lest he throws them into poverty after him.

In simple terms, what the Prophet wanted from us is to plan for making our children self-reliant, self-sufficient and socio-economically empowered. With this, instead of being dependent, they will be independent. We should try making them givers, not receivers, assets rather than liabilities. Ask yourself, if not for empowering the deceased person’s posterity, why would the Sharī’ah even prescribe the inheritance laws in the first place? And in the Hadith of Sa’d above, the Prophet wants us to understand that the philosophy behind inheritance itself is to plan for the sustainable prosperity and economic independence of the deceased’s heirs; leaving them with sufficient inheritable resources to make them rich (agniya’) as against poor (alah).  

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido, Chairman, Zakah and Waqf Foundation, Gombe . He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Faruk Abdulkadir Waziri 

All trouble starts from the most trivial things. Hence the pertinence for instant reaction to even the tiniest disruption to an existing order. When a problem is tagged small and therefore left at the charge of its own amend, without making a move to tug or curtail it solely because it has insignificant effect and consequence, it rides the back of that indulgence and backfires. The minor issue of yesterday, when left unattended or given the least of consideration, becomes the biggest trouble of today and the looming disaster of tomorrow.

A case study in Nigeria’s incessant security ordeal. From the preventable event that led to the birth of Boko Haram in the North East to incompetence that saw the renaissance of kidnapping in the North West and the impassive nonchalance that underpins the thrive of murderous IPOB/ESN in the South East. All these menaces besetting this country today started as problems that could be averted. But the authority charged with this onus chose to go with the approach of levity and lackadaisical confrontation in eradicating them.

Despite the warnings of the impending doom and peril signalled by the early threats of these instabilities, the government was acting with careless flippancy. And this allowed the yield and spread of these acts of terrorism and abetted their growth in a fashion that the thrive of one led to the birth of the other. The lasting of Boko Haram against the effort to wipe them off added fillip to the resurgence of kidnappings, with the added incentive of unaccustomed plight— Banditry. The outlawed IPOB found the stimulus that motivated their cause to unleash terror in the South East from the inability of the government to find a lasting solution to the insurgency of Boko Haram. 

Harira, her unborn child, and four children were unfortunate victims of the country’s crass governance with no regard for human life. The perpetrators of their deaths were barbaric and bloodthirsty IPOB, but the government that allowed the monstrous operations of these savage beasts to prevail is of the bigger fault. Just days ago, a state legislature was decapitated within the same region Harira, and her kids were murdered. Before that, the ruthless mutilation of the military couple was perpetrated within the same area by the same group of demons.

Now,  imagine if swift action was taken after those two extrajudicial killings and the savages IPOB had met their waterloo. Poor Harira and her kids would have been alive today. This is just one to show you how the callous insouciance of the government has been the bedrock of the long-lasting terror in this country.

While we mourn the cruel murder of Harira and her family, bandits on the other end shot and killed 12 farmers in Katsina yesterday. An example that proves not only the northerners in the South are in the face of apparent danger and risk losing their lives, but also the many northerners in the comfort of their respective abode (North). There is no way to limit the killings and other strikes of the instability to tribal tensions alone. Of course, some were informed by groundless hatred and bigotry towards particular ethnicity. But look at the cause that sustains the frequent happening of these calamities. It is the disregard and unreadiness of the government to lay down proactive measures that will prevent the recurrence of these ordeals.

Crimes capitalize on the bloom of lawlessness, lawlessness prevails where there is rife injustice, and it remains the hallmark of bad governance.

May the killers of Harira and her kids never now peace in this life and the one hereafter, ameen.

Faruk Abdulkadir Waziri wrote via farukakwaziri019@gmail.com.

By Khairat Suleiman Jaruma

For most Nigerians, there is no hope left for this complicated country of ours. As many often say, “Naija is finished”. I disagree that Nigeria is finished. We might think we are having our worst days as a country, but the worst is yet to come, and it will only come when we give up on fixing this dear country of ours.

The younger generation keeps me motivated and convinces me that there is still hope for Nigeria. I see how the Western world shoves the whole LGBTQ ideology down young children’s necks from a very tender age, and these children grow with this ideology strongly built in them. Let us borrow this method of theirs and use it to instil civic education into our next generation so it will be strongly built in them, or use the priming effect method, which effectively works in selling an idea or instilling a belief in people.

The importance of civic education in fixing Nigeria’s mess cannot be overemphasized. The idea behind civic education is to promote the demand for good governance by informing and engaging the public and as a necessary complement to efforts to improve the practice of good governance.

Civic education is perhaps the only tool we can use to address political and governance issues and critical social issues. However, we need to do more than just giving children notes on civic education to copy in schools, and we need to be more intentional about it. I believe that one of the most important things we need to do to change the narrative and set our country on a path of progress is to create a civically well-educated generation. Nigeria needs a patriotic generation prepared for the future and ready to challenge the existing execrable system.

Also, civic education, like we often assume, is not just a subject to be taught in schools only. We need to do more than that. We need to put in more efforts to educate and create more awareness of the role and importance of civic education to a prosperous Nigeria. We all need to be involved as individuals, governmental organizations, civil society organizations, or non-governmental organizations. 

The effort is not limited to young children or the next generation alone. It is essential that everyone learns more about civic education and practice it as, more often than not, young children do more of what they see than what they are told.

The change we seek might take time, and most of us might not live long enough to see the results of our efforts. Still, we need to set a good and solid foundation of positive change for the generation after us, or what we are facing right now might just be the tip of the iceberg compared to what they will face.

According to Bruce Lee, “Real living is living for others”. So let’s live simultaneously for the next generation and a better Nigeria. 

Khairat Sulaiman Jaruma wrote from Kaduna. She can be reached via khairatsuleh@gmail.com.

By Hussaini Hussaini

There were gruesome murders of one pregnant Muslim woman, Harira and her four innocent kids, and six other innocent Northerners killed in Anambra State. There was also arson on goods and livestock worth millions of naira belonging to Northerners in the southeast. As per Daily Trust Newspaper reports of May 24, 2022, and other sources, all the crimes were carried out by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). However, there was a habitual dead silence of other media houses. One of the victims, a Northern Christian, was said to have been killed and disfigured by the terrorist for his “offence” of being a northerner and securing a job in the southeast.

We are in a country where God in His infinite Mercies sandwiched diverse tribes and religions to live with each other. This, some may call a colonial act of 1914 in which the regions of the geographical location that was to become Nigerian were amalgamated. I see it ordinarily as a divine opportunity for success.

This amalgamation would have served a positive purpose for Nigeria post-independence if the citizens had united themselves for genuine national (not regional or personal) interest, just as the Europeans united themselves in sharing Africa as a spoil of war on the table in the Berlin Conference.

Unfortunately, Nigeria has been so divided by strives with ethnic, religious, and political colouration since its independence. We witnessed the happenings that led us to January 15 and the counter-coup of the 1960s down to the civil war. Those sad events should have served as lessons for us to think about how to live with one another in peace since divisions and strives had severally proven to be futile in solving our respective problems.

However, turns of events have shown that the gap between us has kept widening. Even the people at the helm of affairs and presumed outstanding intellectuals such as the leadership of the legal profession are taking sides and showing extreme bias in addressing issues that can touch the roots of our unity as a country. A typical example is a press release of  May 17, 2022, by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president, Mr Olumide Akpata. He took time to condemn the happenings in Sokoto over the killing of Debora Samuel. She blasphemed and uttered abusive, vulgar words against the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

In the same statement, Mr Akpata passively mentioned some killings of innocent Nigerians, including a military couple killed in the south by the terrorist organization, IPOB. Mr President held the brief of IPOB terrorists by referring to them as “Unknown Gun Men” as the southern media hypocritically cloned them. However, the NBA President made it clear through his press release that the statement and the cancellation of the scheduled NBA-Spidel in Sokoto were in honour of Debora, not the late military couple who was in a sane environment supposed to be national heroes.

To Muslims, who form the majority inhabitants of northern Nigeria, their lives and that of their families and everything they own should go astray if that loss will prevent any slur on the honour of Prophets Muhammad and Jesus, Mary, or any other prophet of God almighty (may peace be upon them all). In order words, Debora would not have been attacked by any mob if she’s only accused of killing a Muslim in their private affairs in Sokoto, just as some Igbo kidnappers who killed a Muslim Colonel a few years ago in Kaduna; and the Christians who killed Gen. Alkali in Du village in Jos.

Blasphemy committed by Debora is one of the highest abuses and attacks on the Muslims, which was capable of putting the entire region in flames. Still, our Bar President found it very worthy to state that his statement and postponement of NBA-Spidel was in her honour without showing any concern about the root of the evil. Idolizing Deborah without equally condemning blasphemy in all its ramifications is abuse and over trivialization of the sensibilities of the Muslim community, most significantly, the members of our noble profession.

All the Muslim leaders who spoke on the Debora issue, such as the Sultan, Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir, and Prof. Mansur Sokoto, have condemned mob action as they equally condemned the intolerant and provocative act of blasphemy. This would have been a fairer pattern of address to be employed by our President as a leader. Four years ago, I wrote two published articles to condemn blasphemy and mob action.

Ebikebuna Augustine Aluzu Esq responded to Mr Akpata’s statement thus: “in honour” is she an NBA Member?”. He concluded: “…People get gruesomely murdered in Nigeria daily. If NBA wants to stand against jungle justice, it should not be selective”. The NBA President would have done better if he stayed within his mandate fairly. However, since Mr President has chosen to throw his hat in the ring, what goes around comes around, they say. Hence, we will patiently await the personal reaction of the NBA President on the recent killings of northerners in the southeast.

Hussaini Hussaini wrote from Abuja via hussaini4good@gmail.com.