Northern Nigeria

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

We can categorically define a divorcee as someone unlucky in a specific marriage. I know that I will be in the minority if I say divorcees are given less chance to develop themselves personally before getting pressured into remarrying in the Northern part of Nigeria.

I understand and appreciate the concern with threading carefully regarding resuscitated emotions and intimate urges. However, a ‘decent’ society like Northern Nigeria expects that you abide by the rules of decency in ensuring that you either preserve yourself for your next spouse or remarry to avoid falling into the traps of indecency.

In this aspect, indecency refers to the lack of adhering to the control of urges for every culturally and religiously conscious person. These traits are seen as the signs of responsibility, including sustaining oneself; ready to take up self-evaluation, focusing on goodness, and maintaining dignity.

The pressure that comes from the family, society and whatnot is justifiable. However, the pressure that comes with engaging these divorcees in personal development is a progressive vacuum seat.

A divorcee can either be a man or a woman. But statistics show that a woman is more affected by divorce financially while a man is affected mentally. But, of course, this assertion is opinionated, as there can exist other varying opinions.

Let’s take Kano State as a case study. In 2020, Dr Sabo Dambazau, in an interview with Kano Focus, said 45% of divorces in Kano are caused by co-wife rivalry. Other causes he highlighted include forced marriage, fake identity by the men before marriage, lack of catering for family financial affairs succinctly, and suspicion from either the man or the woman.

For Dambazau, a lack of trust causes suspicion. And this distrust is seen in wives taking their husbands’ phones. Often, both check each other’s phones.

According to Dambazau, couples need counselling, personality development, and consciousness of Islamic teachings through the actual practice of the teachings to reduce divorce. This can be supported by enrolling in Islamic schools. He ended with advice on staying genuine and honest during the courtship before marriage.

My scope will be Personal Development for the Divorcee. It is essential to know that learning and seeking knowledge are the two fundamental processes that every human should consciously and intentionally be involved in.

As a divorcee, the first focus should be personal development. And this cannot be achieved without being intentional about self-development. So, how do you achieve personal development?

As someone who might have gone through emotional downturns or physical battles in their marriage,  self-development evaluation is a facet to help you check yourself and correct the mistakes you might have made. Every human is fallible. Hence the premise of every divorce is that both parties have a role to play in the faults. However, one side usually weighed in as more wrong than the other. Still, there is never a party devoid of guilt(s). So, you use the experience of a failed marriage to build your knowledge about marriage if you wish to be in it again.

In trying times, maintaining spirituality is crucial. In the North, an epitomic feature is the presence of religious rooms to learn from – while you rule in self-development. You cannot rule out upgrading your belief. For instance, there are many Islamic schools for Muslim divorcees in various Northern states. And seeking the appropriate knowledge through such schools enhance and contribute to the upliftment of morale.

This sums up an inference of a child’s upbringing in a typical Northern Muslim home. Thus, before reaching the age of five, recitation of verses from the Quran begins, opening the ability to read and recite rhymes and books in western schools. So, who says learning has a boundary or specific scope?

Another aspect of personal development is acquiring soft skills. For some female divorcees, one of the reasons their families or society has pressured them is usually due to self-sustenance. A woman in a non-secular community like the North has to either sustain herself financially, be under her parents or a man. You do not have to rush into another marriage to develop yourself personally. Instead, go out and learn soft skills such as MS Office, graphic design, Corel Draw, Digital marketing, social media management, online journalism, etc. You can acquire most of these skills online or offline for free or pay a token, especially if you desire to get the certificate.

Personal development stretches out to unlearning, learning and relearning, and in this, we cannot rule out upgrading education level to the next stage. If you are a primary school certificate holder, secure a secondary admission. If you are a secondary school certificate holder, try and acquire a UTME form, sit for the exams, and pursue admission, even if it’s a polytechnic or college of education. And for a bachelor’s degree holder, it is easier though costlier, which makes it essential to personally develop the self so as far as there is determination and hard work.

In all of these, I suggest that families and society give premium corporations to divorcees to see that they are helped towards self-development and not pressured to remarry. Of course, marriage can come later but having productive and oriented divorcees instead of a new payroll of reproductions will push the nation’s economy forward.

“Read. Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from a blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not know” (Quran, 96: 1-5).

Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed wrote from Kano. She can be reached via sufyanhussainaahmed@gmail.com.

By Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

I write to commend and appreciate the unmeasurable feats of the Nigerian military personnel and other sub-security agencies for their bid to ensure that two of the well-known wanted bandits, Alhaji Auta and Kachalla Ruga, have met their waterloo. They spent many years operating their egregious activities of the gruesome killing of innocent people without regard to the principle of natural justice.

However, they were killed by a Nigerian Air Force aircraft, under operation Hadarin Daji, at Gusami forest and Tsamre village in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Nevertheless, at this point, as they (bandits) reach their cul-de-sac, our adventurous security personnel should not relent unless they spare them all.

Undoubtedly, the death of these two kidnap kingpins is a severe blow to their bandits’ like-minded abhorrent individuals. As such, more triumphant efforts to fish them out of their territories should now be re-engineered by both military personnel and vigilante units who work inexhaustibly day-in-day-out to safeguard the lives and personal possessions of Nigerians.

Yet, there is a need for the government of the federation, specifically the security sector, to organize orientation sessions with security agencies to be fully informed about the assigned task that they have sworn to do of protecting and upholding the country’s constitution. Because we live in a country where some of its countrymen portray sabotage as a virtuous way to satisfy their narrow-minded desires. As a result, they will devote all of their useless energy to changing the great sense of our security personnel to compromise the country’s state of peacefulness.

Moreover, security personnel should be fully equipped with sophisticated weapons techniques to finish off these ruthless humans (bandits) and frequent motivational incentives that would boost their morale to serve uncompromisingly. They should also be retrained in modern battle strategy. A famous West African proverb says, “When the music changes, so does the dance.” It is high time the government changed all its tactics against these despicable fellows.

Mallam Musbahu Magayaki Writes from Sabon Fegi, Azare.Bauchi State. He can be reached via musbahumuhammad258@gmail.com.

By Engr. Mustapha Habu

The Director-General, NITDA, Malam Kashifu Inuwa, paid an assessment visit to Engausa Global Tech. Hub to assess the level of development achieved by the Hub and the impacts of its initiatives after it emerged as a beneficiary of a grant from NITDA last year.

ENGAUSA had been able to train 313 young people within two years (2019-2020). However, after winning the grant, the number surges dramatically. Today ENGAUSA has successfully trained 800 young people in 2021. The NITDA, in conjunction with ENGAUSA, will therefore conduct an end-of-training event in January 2022.

Before the end-of-the-year break commenced, Malam Kashifu assessed the expertise of 50 primary and secondary school kids, who were trained under a theme titled ENGAUSA CARCH THEM YOUNG.

ENGAUSA presented to the DG what was being invented by young people and Almajiris at ENGAUSA HUB. He was also happy and surprised how they make inventions without having gone to higher schools—as some of them are dropouts with expertise in drawing and innovation of the modern time.

Others on SIWES from various universities and those that have not got the opportunity to further their education are already into robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Hub introduced other graduates out of the 60 who established their firms after getting trained at ENGAUSA Hub. The firms include THE D E-SERVICES, DASHERE ELECTRIC SERVICES, SD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, and so on.

An outstanding mentee who invented a mathematics learning app called HausaMaths was also introduced to the DG. Another one also built a science and technology teaching app in the Hausa language called Bemitela.Africa.

The DG also met some young people employed by companies in Kano and Abuja, namely JETSON ENGINEERING (that deploys them to COSGROVE estate sites in Abuja), CHOSEN ONE GLOBAL TECH LTD, which has sites in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, and other states in the northern part of the country.

ENGAUSA HUB presented some 10 Almajiris enrolled for the ENGAUSA CATCH THEM YOUNG and have followed the footsteps of the rest in areas of graphic design and innovation. One of the Almajiris has even been employed by ENGAUSA HUB for his outstanding performance. Alhaji Yahaya Yusuf Kwande (who is not from Kano) is the one who sponsored the registration of the Kano Almajiris.

The able DG of NITDA assured ENGAUSA HUB that his agency would collaborate with the Hub in promoting such developmental projects across the states in Nigeria.

As of the time of writing this, ENGAUSA is part of the Technology Incubation Center (of NBTI) established to work under the custody of the Federal Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation. We also have a branch on Rijiyar Zaki Gwarzo Road and other cities that we plan to collaborate with within Jigawa, Kaduna, and Abuja to enhance modern skills and ease learning initiatives.

Our door is open for anyone willing to collaborate with us in making this a reality.

By Yaseera Muhammad Bello 

Given the indisputable fact that Nigeria is currently trekking on the part of degeneration due to the menace of insecurity that grows daily, some questions have been scalding my tongue, seeking honest answers. What perpetuates insecurity in Nigeria? What machinery drives the brutal car of insecurity that has been killing innocent people in my fatherland? Who is to blame?

An undeniable, albeit unfortunate, fact about Nigeria today is that we read news of devastation on our national dailies for over seven years. The reports we hear on our radio stations and televisions revolve around the menace of terrorism. And it’s an inevitable fact that until we unearth the indices that hamper insecurity in Nigeria, we cannot live a life full of happiness and serenity. That being said, what are the factors that ignited the flame of insecurity in Nigeria?

Despite our portions of blame, our leaders are to be counted as the bedrock of igniting insecurity in the country. This is because we have long been electing incompetent leaders who cannot render their services effectively for the nation’s good. And this is because of the affinity we share with them when they are put into the offices. And at the end, when things fall apart, we’ll be barking like dogs seeking a peaceful society.

On the other hand, unemployment is another worrisome factor that vigorously plays a role in watering Nigeria’s black tree of insecurity. Most of our youths today in Nigeria have nothing to do but join groups that commit despicable acts. And this is mainly due to their state of unemployment perpetuated by the virulent animosity among our tribes. This is strictly said, having seen how tribalism has been hindering youths from getting job opportunities in the count. And at the end of the day, the youths have no choice but to join the horrific menace of insecurity that bedevilled our nation.

Furthermore, corruption in Nigeria, like all the other potent factors dittoed responsible for Nigeria’s insecurity, has its portions of blame. It’s now becoming rampant and our daily meal in the country. Corruption ignites numerous perplexities impeding us, including the threatening menace of insecurity. When leaders become corrupt, they fail to give security personnel adequate arms and support to fight terrorist groups and other factors that might threaten the safety of the citizens. 

Undoubtedly, until we put competent leaders into the offices irrespective of one’s tribe, religion or any affiliation, alleviate unemployment and stamp out corruption in the country, we will still wallow in the muddy water of insecurity. 

Yaseera Muhammad Bello writes from Gombe state is a student of Science Laboratory Technology (SLT), Gombe State University (GSU). She can be reached via misseerahbello@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sulaiman

At this delicate time and cruel Nigeria that takes advantage of your laziness, incapabilities, lack of purchasing power and goal to actualize one’s dream, it will be hard for the less privileged and children born with a wooden spoon to attain a better by acquiring education. 

Umar Muhammad is a native of Jigawa state and lives in Dutse. A practical example of a downtrodden who may have given up and rejected every instinct that he might someday attain every possible accomplishment that life has to offer through education.

Umar has been consistent in his practical life to make ends meet since a tender age. He has built a definite guide that multiplies his efficiency to actualize his potentials and build his independence. 

Passionate about education, Umar started out and established his Cap-laundering business that has now metamorphosed into one of the most efficient and reliable persons in the town. He has funded his education up to the university level.

At an upheaval time of youthful exuberance, Umar’s story should inspire many people who unfortunately find themselves in similar life circumstances that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. With self-determination, visualization and internalization of self-worth, being less privileged cannot restrict one from actualizing his full potential. 

By Aeesha Abdullahi Alhaji

I winced while taking the journals I studied back into their bookshelf. Next, I rubbed my back slightly due to sitting in one place for so many hours. Then, I remembered I had a funeral to attend later in the day. So, I called Annabelle, my housekeeper, to prepare a light lunch for me to eat while I freshen up for the day’s businesses.

My junior colleague at the office lost his wife while giving birth. As I arrived at the venue, there was a commotion because Mr Andre, the bereaved, refused to allow his deceased wife’s body to be lowered into the grave. He was crying profusely. Looking at his unshaven face and unkempt beard, I knew he must have gone through a lot these past few days.

My eyes burned with unshed eyes, making me remember a fleeting memory of the worse day I pray never happens to any mortal on the face of the earth. I quickly shrugged off the bitter moment and walked over to the crowd gathered around Mr Andre. He was being consoled, but all was futile. He was devasted at the loss of his dear wife. After the burial, Mr Andre refused to leave his wife final resting place.

After an hour of waiting for him at his house to pay my final condolence, his older brother walked in, worries written over him. He attempted to explain to sympathizers how Andre refused to leave the cemetery. I smiled bitterly and told his family members I would get him.

I went back to the funeral ground, met him staring at her final abode, tears running down his cheek. I sat quietly behind him, asking him why he couldn’t accept destiny and let go of what had been ordained by the Creator. After all, death is a plane all of us will board.

He turned to look at me with a grief-stricken face saying, “Prof. Akin, you won’t understand. My wife and I have been through a lot. She had been through thin and thick of life trials and tribulations with me, but when my hard work is paying off today, she is no longer here with me. So what’s the essence of all I have endured getting if my loving wife is not here to enjoy it with me?”

I chuckled, swallowing a bitter taste that erupted in my mouth. I looked into his eyes. “Andrew, whatever has happened to you today, worse of it has happened to others, and I am one of them.”

My statement startled him. Yes, I nodded, adding: “Do you remember how often you asked me about my family, and I often shunned the topic? Let me tell you something today; I am the last of my kin.” Andre looked more surprised in disbelief.

Thinking about it, I started recollecting the sad memory.

“Darling, please, I have a senate meeting at the university. So I won’t be able to come with you to pick up our kids and their families at the airport but please, help me explain to them. But I will try to go home early enough for the family reunion dinner. Bye, my love,” I told my wife.

I hung up the phone with a big relief. I was not happy I could not pick up our kids coming home after a year abroad. But what could I do as official duty at times comes first?

An hour later, I received a call from an unknown number to come to a fatal crash scene involving a motorcade of cars. I ran out of the meeting; only God knew how I got to the accident scene with my sanity intact.

I could not believe my eyes until I saw the dead bodies of my wife, my three kids, daughters-in-law, seven grandchildren all lying dead. My world turned upside down. Though many people lost their lives in that accident, my loss was colossal. I lost my entire family that fateful day.

I later heard the cause of the accident was that they were in the traffic when, unfortunately, an oil tank lost brake and collided with many cars, going up in flames and affecting the other vehicles.

So you see, Mr Andre, your loss is nothing compared to mine. That tragic incident left me shattered. I go home every day from work with no family to welcome me. I have no family left, No kin to continue my lineage. I can no longer have kids talkless of remarrying because I am old now. My bones are crumbling, but what keeps me going is the sheer pleasure and smiles on my students’ faces. I take solace in them, seeing them as my kids.

So, be grateful at least you still have kids your late wife left behind. You better man up and start being a mother and a father to them. Please, don’t mourn for a lifetime because you have kids waiting for you to fill the vacuum of a mother and a father to them. Death is a whirlwind of fate that comes unannounced into our lives, but anyway, we are leaving the seasonal shade of life someday.

Mr Andre looked at me, dumbfounded. My life story numbed him. I patted his back and told him to go home. He stood up, smiling faintly grateful for my kind words and left. I stood watching the sunset in, a favourite pastime of my late wife.

Aeesha Abdullahi Alhaji is a student at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria. She is also a member of the prestigious Hilltop Creative Art Foundation, Minna Literary Society, etc.

By Alkasim Harisu Alkasim

The challenges of marriage are common knowledge within and outside Nigeria. To sensible people, marriage is a keystone of luxury life. Yet, although marriage sometimes falls short of happiness and peace, personal uprightness and esteem still accompany and embellish those in the industry.

The marriage industry is chaotic. It is now commonplace to see overaged women competing for the love of a single male person alongside younger ladies. This explains how choked the industry is. Marriage, as an institution, demands a lot from us. To excel in this business, one has to school himself in patience, courage and determination. Otherwise, one will do a lousy job, and things will go south. 

In today’s materialistic world, what we call true love is lacking. Money buys love. A person can date a highborn woman even if he is lowborn. What allows him to do so is bucks. In cultures such as Indian, there is what they call a “caste system” that stratifies the society whereby one marries from within one’s caste. Interclass marriage is an abomination and, thus, a bad omen. Excessive expenses usher marriage.

In northern Nigeria today, to marry means a lot. One has to break the bank to afford marriage and multitask to afford to run a family. The trousseau he will gather robs him of too much money. If not loaded, one will feel like breathing his last while readying himself for this Sisyphean task.

Many a great family pressure prospective male spouses a lot to the extent they feel compelled to compensate their colossal expenditure by undertreating the girls they wed. The sight of the girls bores them; as a result, they start to mistreat them. This also purges them of the hate they hold for these exploitative families.

Poverty is raging, and the employment industry is becoming more competitive. Degree holders swarm places looking for well-paying jobs. As a result, some graduates are now resorting to low jobs that discredit scholarship and the status they are beginning to build. Some, willy nilly, accept works that break the back and pay low, thanks to the devastating nature of Nigeria’s economy.

Telling a greedy girlfriend that your wages or salary is not handsome implies losing her.  It once happened to my friend whose name I won’t mention here, for I feel that should be private. This happened when his family went to the girlfriend’s place. His father honestly told them about the level of income of his son. This bitter truth opened for my friend Pandora’s box. The relationship had since then staggered. In short, the two lovebirds have parted ways.

What hardens the issue of marriage in the North is our belittling the effort of even the hardworking people. We neither accept what our sons-in-law present nor study the situation on the ground. We need to wise up on this. But, unfortunately, some circumstances press people to do only those things that top their priorities.

It is worrisome that many families capitalise on their children’s beauty to milk boys of all their money. Such homes allow their daughters to tryst (zance) with more than a person at a time. In some houses, queues are made every day for a single girl. Boys take turns. Sometimes, some inpatient boyfriends cut in on the conversations of their co-suitors. What a world! The girl is seen as a moneymaking machine. Likely, after cashing in on her suitors, the girl will go out of fashion. Her beauty and charisma will decrease. As she puts on age, her boyfriends vanish, and the likelihood to marry a dream husband reduces. Now it is her younger sisters’ time. When it salaams at their home, the sendee will mention the name of her younger sisters instead. It will take time before she gets dated by somebody. Indeed life is a roller coaster. 

The social commerce between a girl and a boy worsens when the girl’s family pressure the boy for money. As he feels absolutely tired of lifting the girl’s responsibilities, he looks for a way to benefit from the dealing. The social intercourse between a girl and a boy does not stop at the former’s house as the duo rendezvous at their chosen spots. Now, the love glue between them starts to grow stronger. He will undeniably feel the urge to do the unlawful with her to the level he begins bedding her.

The groom has to pay dowry that a time costs him much. There is an amount which, if he pays below, he will have his money returned or hotly debated right at the place where the thing of the knot is occurring. In some instances, such disagreement plants in the groom’s family some disregard for the bride’s home. A bride needs to be lodged and fed. And if the groom doesn’t have his own house, he will have to find a place to sleep with his wife. Today’s brides come with vast furniture; the groom has to look for a house that sleeps like five people to contain his wife’s belongings. 

Believe it or not, the complexion of our societies has changed; we are not aiming at uprightness. We are after money and money-related things. If you are monied, you are everything. You can marry who you want. One can be immoral and still have a choice wife. That is why the deep-pocketed hire people to fake it as their parents/relatives. A bastard, in the world of today, betters a son borne in wedlock. Therefore, to be virtuous is to be well-endowed.

Allah Ka gyara ma na. Amin.

Alkasim Harisu Alkasim wrote from Kano. He can be reached via alkasabba10@gmail.com.

By Ahmadu Shehu, PhD.

The comments by the Governor of Katsina State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari encouraging local populations to rise and defend themselves have mixed reactions. Governor Masari’s comments betray the frustration of state governments in curbing the incessant killings, kidnappings and wanton terrorism that has overtaken most parts of northern Nigeria, especially the northwest. This also portrays the disgustingly shameful inability of the current administration to secure the lives and properties of its citizens.  

In my opinion, Masari’s call to self-defence is the only option left for defenceless citizens who their governments leave at the mercy of terrorists. After many years of terror and horror, it is now apparent that Nigerians can no longer rely on the government for security and protection. As a result, Nigerians are in constant fear and uncertainty at home, on the road, in hotels, awake or asleep.

For one, the Nigerian police are grossly understaffed, ill-equipped and unmotivated to deal with the least of crimes in our society. Secondly, our last line of defence, the Nigerian armed forces, are overwhelmed. Despite its historical doggedness and glory, the Nigerian army has fallen victim to the Nigerian endemic corruption, nepotism and malfunction.

This, coupled with the fact that the country has been continuously militarized for decades, has oversaturated and weakened the numerical, financial and material strength of the armed forces. From Baga to Yenagoa, Seme to Mubi, Port Harcourt to Sokoto, the Nigerian military struggles with one threat or another within our borders.

Facing serious national threats such as IPOB and Oduduwa separatists, terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, etc., rampant and rampaging bandits and kidnappers, have disorganized, disoriented and crippled the efficiency and efficacy of the Nigerian armed forces. There is certainly a limit to strength and power.

The Nigerian judiciary, which should have been a deterrent to criminals and the last resort for the masses and the poor, has been an easy, cheap tool for the wealthy. The weak, vulnerable citizens have mostly been on their own. They have resigned to fate and forsaken the course of justice, hoping only to get justice in the hereafter.

While the above is an absolute truth, Gov. Masari’s call is misplaced, ill-timed and counterproductive. My disagreement is not in the principle of what he said but in the approach and implementation. Masari is simply calling for absolute anarchy.

Now that the nation cannot deal with a few unorganized armed zealots, how do we imagine a situation where citizens are armed to the teeth? America, the world superpower, is consumed by this law of necessity. How much more of a country which cannot prosecute the smallest of its criminals?   

How would Gov. Masari deal with thousands of unemployed, illiterate, impoverished youth with arms and ammunition at their disposal? If all communities are armed as the Governor envisages, who will be the law in the state? Does Masari think that people with uncontrolled access to firepower equate to an organized police force? Does he understand that the only difference between the current bandits and yet-to-be-bandit youth is access to weapons and freedom from the law? 

I do not know who is responsible for educating our political leaders about the relationship between poverty, illiteracy and poor governance with the current situation in the north. But, still, whoever it is, they must be doing an awful job.

The simple truth is that most of our youth populations are idle, uneducated and miserably poor. Another fact is that the alternatives to gainful employment, hope and prosperity is despair, criminality and social crises.

There is still Katsina government house where the Governor lives in peace because the majority have no access to lethal weaponry. That scarcity is because of the restraint ensured by the law and order that is still in place.

While I disagree with Masari’s approach to this solution, I still believe that this is our only option to ending this madness in the short term. But, to succeed in this, there must be a workable framework.

First, the federal government must decentralize our police force. Secondly, each community must be led by the officials of our security forces to establish a community-based security outfit responsible for securing the immediate and broader community. Finally, all weapons must be registered and deployed through the security personnel in each community.

All participating community members must be registered with biometrics accessible to all Nigerian security agencies. In addition, all participating individuals must be given a short training on the use of firearms. The local and state authorities must provide ammunition, and all participating individuals must be assessed and be accessible to security and local authorities.

When this collaborative network of locals and state security forms a cohesive, functional security outfit, these devils will doubtlessly be defeated in no time.

However, the essential requirement for this to happen is a national leadership capable of mobilizing the citizens to confront local and national threats. Until this is achieved, all solutions are hanging on the balance. The Fulani say “hoore nastii hooraare, Allah yidoo gite”.

Dr Ahmadu Shehu is a herdsman, a social commentator, and passionate about the Nigerian project. He can be reached via ahmadsheehu@gmail.com.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

A person who sponsors and takes good care of a single orphan is assured of a mansion in the choicest quarters of Firdaus at the centre of the Prophet’s Estate, enjoying their eternal life as a neighbour to the Infallible Master (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam). In the Hadith of Bukhari, the Prophet says, “The caretaker of the orphan and I will enter paradise like this, raising (by way of illustration) his forefinger and middle finger jointly, leaving no space in-between.”

A community flooded with orphans and vulnerable children with no access to food, clothing, shelter, education, and medicare; orphans whose neglect aggravate their vulnerability to all sorts of socio-economic dangers; should prioritise taking care of them. If competing in building mosques even where there is less need is to get paradise, why not also invest in this sure way to Heaven?

And, why not consider endowments for fighting hunger also? When a person asked the Prophet, what is the best act in Islam, the Prophet mentioned two actions: “To feed (others) and to greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know” (Bukhari). And the Prophet also counted “feeding others” among the surest ways to paradise, alongside spreading salam, strengthening kinship ties and night prayers. Why not, then also emphasise in our society, making endowments for feeding the needy and the millions of the malnourished and unnourished children as a guaranteed path to paradise? 

My honest opinion is that rather than rebuilding or redecorating some mosques, we need to invest more in empowering our imams and their followers. We can all see how the “imamdom” is gradually being saturated with incapable scholars leading ignorant followers in prayers within well-decorated mosques. As if we have forgotten that giving quality education and “beneficial knowledge” to people is itself a sustainable afterlife investment, one that may even often have more multiplier effects and trickle-down effects in terms of fetching rewards perpetually and building the Muslim community progressively.

If one sponsors a young man to become an Islamic scholar and imam, anytime this trained scholar preaches and teaches, the sponsor has a reward commission. And when the students of the imam teach or use the knowledge, the sponsor is assured of a commission. It continues in that way till “the end of history”! So, if the search for reward is what makes us race in building worship places, then so should building qualitative worshipers. We should, in fact, see the creation of generations of qualitative Muslims as a “blue ocean”; a virgin and highly underexplored otherworldly investment opportunity.  

Some may remind us that the Prophet’s first thing after hijra was to build a mosque. True. But that was first because there was none. And secondly, this mosque, as a primary symbol of Islam, was built for companions who were well educated in Makkah before migration, plus the Medinan community that was also educated by no other scholar than the great Mus’ab bin ‘Umayr.

In any case, the Prophet built the mosque because it was a priority by all standards; there was a need. And so immediately after that, he also paid attention to other developmental matters, including socio-economic priorities like establishing the Medinan Market (Suq al-Madinah). He also immediately began calling companions to “purchase” homes in Jannah through addressing human needs. That was how Uthman got an edifice in Jannah by purchasing the well of Ruma and dedicating it as waqf. That was how Abu Talha got Paradise by committing a waqf of his garden to benefit the needy and his poor relatives.

In fact, as recorded, most rich companions got their direct entry admission to Jannah through spending on human needs; Uthman bought and did waqf of the Ruma well, Umar dedicated the Thamqh garden for the poor, wayfarers and the rest, and the list goes. Little did we remember that in addition to doing a waqf of his mosque, virtually all the other waqfs of the Prophet were for welfare and socio-economic empowerment. 

We need to discuss whether building the Muslims and making them self-sufficient should continue to receive our philanthropic priorities or building mansions in the name of mosques – even where there is less need – which would mostly be populated by undedicated, hungry, dirty and largely ill worshippers. Building worship places is undoubtedly required, guaranteed key to paradise, ceteris paribus. It is, however, one of many means to getting admission to paradise. Why, then, should we not start to amplify other keys to paradise, especially those in some contexts such as ours that may appear weightier on the scale of Muslim priorities?

It is not in the interest of Islam to have dirty looking Muslims attending multimillion naira mosques. Islam wants educated, neat, tranquil, self-sufficient, qualitative Muslims whose worship is knowledge-based. So, when some philanthropists focus on building worship places, others need to invest in other equally rewarding endeavours. Wherever we have no worship place, it is a collective duty upon the community members to initiate one. However, where we already have one, we must prioritise other joint obligations; taking care of the orphans, the poor and widows being one of them. We can do it through building revenue-generating waqfs that can perpetually help the poor and everlasting generate rewards to the donor.

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

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Alhaji Halilu is a popular, wealthy businessman. Famous for his continuous investment in constructing mosques, people in his town, surrounding villages and neighbouring states came to know him as Alhaji Mai-Masallatai (roughly, the Mosques Builder). His main motivation is the authentic hadith that promises a house in paradise for anyone who builds a mosque for Allah.

Thus, whenever Mai-Masallatai is approached with a request for mosque construction, he gives an automatic positive response. Alhaji dedicated all his philanthropic budget to building mosques, with virtually zero allocation to any other act of charity. He never says no to a mosque request. Within some time, he had constructed mosques for almost all the communities within his town and neighbouring villages. His ultimate goal is to own wonderful castles in heaven, and, Alhamdulillah, he has got a guarantee for that in constructing mosques from an infallible mouth. 

Now, three things happened. One, as there are not many communities lacking mosques, people started requesting him to repair the mosques he built for them last five, ten or seven years; to rebuild their mosque, repair it, or buy them new sound system, new carpet for the mosque, electricity generator, or “solar” and so on. Mai-Masallatai gradually transformed into Mai gyaran Masallatai, from building mosques to redecorating and making existing mosques “befitting” and ultramodern.

The second trend then followed. Since Mai-Masallatai is not the only aspirant for paradise, other wealthy persons joined the mosque construction endeavour. As a result, the number of mosques increases – two or more mosques in an unnecessarily close distance. A  community that needs one mosque would request a second one for flimsy reasons; we have Sheikh XYZ, who should be an imam and has no mosque; why not get one for him so the society would benefit from his imamship! And any rich man who builds a new house would ensure that a mosque is embedded from the inception of the architectural design. So, each neighbourhood or street, and almost each “big” house, has a mosque attachment built by a person who wants paradise. Soon the third issue began to arise; imams scarcity.

It is noteworthy that Mai-Masallatai and all his emulators live and do business within a Muslim community that has thousands of orphans who live in hunger, disease, illness and squalor. They coexist with hundreds of widows who survive in shabbiness, battling the spiritual ills, psychological traumas and socio-economic vulnerabilities associated with poverty, ignorance and starvation. They reside in neighbourhoods bedevilled with noise, air and dirt population, with zero consciousness of environmental challenges; where people often urinate and defecate in the open, at public passages and places as crucial as mosques and marketplaces and stadia. They live in communities that use firewood as an energy source but with near-zero interest in planting trees.

Mai-Masallatai builds mosques for communities where well above 80% of the people cannot correctly recite the Fatiha and are mostly ignorant of the basics of purification, ablution and prayer. The worship places are beautiful, “befitting”, and “ultra-modern”. But the worshippers are ultra-ignorant, extra-hungry and super-poor. While the mosques are decorated, the mosque attendants are neglected.

The community severely lacks qualified imams and doesn’t have a plan to train religious scholars or imams. Nearly all are accidental scholars and imams. Most imams are less qualified, semi-qualified, or simply unqualified. Those with minimum requirements have no access to any “on the job training” and retraining. They have no grounding in jurisprudence nor appreciation of the complexities of their time and place. They might know a little of actually elementary Islamic texts, but not of their context. They continue to recycle their khutbas, reading for their congregation – often with a lot of mistakes – imported sermons presented for the 20^th-century audience in Egypt or Morocco or Saudi Arabia or Algeria (depending upon the inclination of the imams), which are compiled in a collection of sermons or al-khutab al-minbariyya. The sermons are in Arabic, reread for an audience dominated by over 90% of people who do not understand Arabic except, perhaps, “Allahu Akbar”!  

Dear reader, to what extent is your community better than Mai-Masallatai’s? Should building worship places take priority over building the worshippers? Should we continue to construct “befitting”, “ultramodern”, and “world-class” mosques for largely poor, ignorant and confused Muslim communities? Should we, while, of course, building mosques where they are truly needed, not also prioritize producing a Muslim population that is religiously educated, morally upright, intellectually sound, socio-economic dignified and religiously conscious. What better serves the essence of the mosque as an Islamic institution: a beautiful building or an educated congregation? Should building mosques be the only priority in a village where there is not even a single person learned in the Qur’an and the jurisprudence of purification, ablution, prayer, fasting, and other rituals?

More questions are begging for answers. For example, what will be more critical between saving people’s faith through addressing their basic needs of life, thereby shielding them from the onslaughts of evangelism and other anti-Islamic missions on the one hand, and mere building a mosque where there are no qualified imams and scholars to teach them creed and worship on the other? Should we continue to have “comfortable places” for ignorant and hungry worshippers rather than building conscious and educated worshippers? 

Given the current religious and socio-economic realities of Muslims in Nigeria, what should be the focus and priority areas of intervention in terms of philanthropy? Please don’t mistake my position. No Muslims will disagree regarding the centrality of mosques as Islamic symbol numero uno. Where there is no mosque, it is a collective responsibility upon the Muslims to build one to the best of their ability. What, however, may need reflection is the question of when, where and why building a mosque should take primacy vis-à-vis other Muslim priorities and when not. Is it not imperative, for instance, for us to begin to remind ourselves that much as we can get a shortcut to paradise through building mosques, there are other philanthropic acts that not only guarantee paradise but even assure of a choice area and unmatchable edifice in Jannah?

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