ATTEMPTING A POLITICAL VISION FOR THE NIGERIAN
MUSLIM COMMUNITY - 1

A Paper Presented at a workshop on Muslims and Transition Politics,
held at Arewa House, Kaduaa, from 2nd to 3rd January, 1999

[Abstract & Preamble]    [ Our Responsibility ]   [Our Record ]    [Attempting A Vision ]   [ The Process & Conclusion ]  Abstract What are the chances for a shabbily led, poorly motivated, largely ignorant, oppressed and depressed community to survive and thrive in the increasingly competitive world of the 21st century? The chance is clearly that of a snowball in a furnace. Take the grim statistics on literacy and university intake, for example, extrapolate it into twenty five years, nothing will be left of the community, it will be total extinction. Given our knack for complacency, one needs not be an alarmist or pessimist to see that this tragedy is not far fetched. It is easy to play the ostrich and pretend that the disaster that is waiting to happen is a figment of imagination. Or as others have done all these years, attempt to change the weather by changing the forecast. We can delude ourselves as we have done for years that things can get better even as we fold our hands, watching and praying. Or that once we solve our own personal problems we can go to sleep, the rest will some how take care of itself. As Muslims, the proper thing to do, of course, is to take the indicators seriously and work conscientiously and consistently towards improvements. Better still, we ought to develop a vision of what, given our mission as Muslims and our human and material resources, our community ought to be in the near future. We can then put our mind and money in realising this vision. Such a vision requires many minds working for many hours to develop. What is being suggested here is a mere sketch of what it can be and perhaps what it takes to implement it. It is meant to provoke thoughts and stimulate discussions that will eventually lead to the vision. Preamble Ask an average Muslim in Nigeria what is his dream for the Muslim community, he will most probably tell you that he wants to see Muslims united, educated about their religion and led by good Muslim leaders. If he wants to be precise and down to earth, lie may say that he wants to see street begging eradicated, Zakat properly paid and disbursed, Hajj properly organised and Islamic schools, both traditional Qur’anic and modern ones properly organised and funded. This, incidentally, is not particularly a tall order, not only because there is no legislation which stand on the way but also because the Muslim community ought to be quite capable of doing this. If he has been familiar with the discourse in the Islamic movements he would probably not be content with this rather emasculate position but go further to demand the establishment of the Sharia or even an Islamic state so that an Islamic economic system with Islamic banks and Institution can flourish. If you should care to ask how will the Sharia be implemented in multi-religious and multi-ethnic society where democracy and human rights are gaining ground or what exactly does Islamic state mean, the chances are that the Brother or Sister will start fumbling. One cannot blame them, for even the Ulama’ and the Activists have not gone beyond rhetoric. From 1978/79 when the Sharia issue took to the fore to date, a period of two decades, not one book worth the name has been written on Sharia or Islamic state, not even the collation and analysis of the articles on the Sharia debates. It took a Malaysian scholar and a Ghanaian Muslim lady, both doing their post-graduate research, to see the need to bring these articles together for scholars and posterity. Such is the seriousness or lack of it as it were, with which Muslims in Nigeria handle their affairs. Occasionally Muslims go on rampage, some times burning churches, painting slogans on peoples' walls or harassing passers by, with a sense of "Islamic" achievements. That today the vision of the average Muslim does not go very far, hardly beyond his nose, and is at best vague, is neither news nor surprising. What is surprising is that for decades on end, we have not seen the need to change. Year in year out we have persisted in our complacent attitude, literally abandoned our responsibility for promoting the Muslim corporate interest, apparently too busy taking care of our goodselves, unmoved and unperturbed by the fact that others have long developed a vision, identified their interest and pursued it with every penchant and passion. In the last five years or so the Nigerian Muslim community has been through some of the most trying periods, perhaps since the creation of the Nigerian federation. Its corporate image had suffered an unpprecedented bashing, its unity tested by the June 12 crisis, its leadership exposed for what it is and its future in the Nigerian polity questioned, generating enormous anxiety and necessitating a self-search and redefinition of itself and resetting of goals and direction. It is in this context this attempt at developing a vision for the Muslim community is being undertaken here. One can approach the question of vision in at least two ways: extrapolate the grim realities today and try to capture a glimpse of the disaster waiting to happen or think of what we can be, given the human and material resources we are blessed with and see how to actualize this projection. Both approaches have their merits and when they are combined they can complement each other in the 'carrot and stick’ fashion. Time, however, may not allow for an exhaustive and balanced combination, but perhaps there is no harm in attempting. What little can be done can always be extrapolated, indeed it may have to be, because like the proverbial iceberg, most of what can be seen of our problems is only the tip. Let us start by first looking at our responsibilities as Muslims, this is hopefully to help provide a background against which we ought to view this exercise.