Survivalist Dhimmitude: Prof. Akintola as Metaphor

BY FRANCIS DAMINA
My attention was last week attracted to a somewhat nauseating babble by an association that parades itself as Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), over a patriotic resolve by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan KUKAH, to, as MURIC alleged, ” train 10 million almajiri children in Northern Nigeria”, which the association kicked against in a statement it issued same week claiming that Kukah’s idea raises more questions than answers. The statement went further to say that the idea is a ploy for proslytization, modern colonialism and a potential time bomb. Signed by one Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director and Founder of MURIC, the statement also said: “We all agree that something must be done about the almajiri children. We can welcome ideas from everyone but the implementation must be in the hands of Muslims in the region. Any other thing will make the intention questionable. We cannot pretend to be naive as to entrust our Muslim children to the hands of Christian gospellers. As far as we are concerned, Kukah’s Almajiri dream is a Trojan horse.”
“Whatever the situation may be”, the statement continued, “we wish to caution northern Muslims, particularly the elders, never to allow it to happen. Instead of allowing Christian missionaries to seize this kind initiative, Northern Muslims should empower available Muslim NGOs or cater for almajiri children. We know that from experience that whatever happens will be point of reference in the near future. Who will bear the shame at that time? We therefore advise state governments in the region to rearrange their priorities and concentrate on the education and welfare of our children. “
While the position of MURIC reminds me of the divisive questions of religion and citizenship as the perennial cog in the wheel of northern Nigeria’s progress, it is doubtful if Professor Akintola, supposedly a Yoruba fellow, has the locus standi to speak on behalf of the North. He seems to have misled MURIC on what the issues are. Way back in 2017, in a goodwill message on the occasion of my book presentation in Arewa House Kaduna, Bishop Matthew Kukah, represented by Rev. Fr. Anthony Shawuya, clued us into the initiative. The Bishop said: ” Unfortunately, I cannot be with you today because as this event is going on, I am also involved in a very important life changing activity that will change the face of northern Nigeria, by the special grace of God. As this is being read, the Governor of Borno state and some of his colleagues from the 19 northern states Will be signing a Memorandum Of Understanding with a Spanish company, PROFUTURO, to undertake the provision of digital learning tools that will change the face of education among our children in Northern Nigeria. Together with His Eminence, John Cardinal Onayeikan, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, President of the Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Jos, and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi ll, WE have midwifed a project whose impact by the grace of God will change the face of education with special focus on the children of the poor across the north. “
The take home here, contrary to Akintola’s submission, are that: one, the donor is a Spanish company and not a Christian Organization. Two, It is an initiative midwifed by the Bishop himself, Northern Governors, Emir Of Kano, etc. And the last but not the least, the target group is not the Almajiris but vulnerable children all over the north not withstanding their tribe or religion.
It is unfortunate and a shame that apocryphal scholars like the so-called Professor Ishaq Akintola, who ought to be busy with researches in finding solution to the catalog of problems that are currently threatening the very foundation of our existence such as the daily murder of innocent citizens and the tsunami of hardship that has come to stay with us, as it is typical of scholars in other climes, have rather resorted into using religion in dredging the already shrinking sea of our primordial differences.
And even if the Bishop were to concentrate solely on our most cherished sons – the almajiris, he should not have deserved the kind of dhimmitude meted on him by the insular professor turned knight of primordial sentiments. At least, in spite of our outward lack of care for these children, we are deep down worried about them. Only last week, when Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed came in contact with one of them, he said: “Honestly, nobody should again ask me to keep mute over the plight of these children.” And this could only spring from a heart that has a conscience; and conscience, from where compassion emanates, is not a scarce commodity in people like Bishop Kukah who are trained to preach and show love to all sons and daughters of Adam. It was the catholicity of this conscience that prompted some aliens called missionaries from overseas to the then Malaria infested Africa to make sure that many Akintolas didn’t go without education. Or, is the Professor equally ashame of this?
There is no doubt that almajiranci, if what we see today qualifies to be called so, apart from its negative societal consequences such as being the sustaining fuel of the unquenchable fire of insecurity in the north, has made us northerners the laughing stock of the world. Today, the rest of the country look upon us as doomed by some unknown gods not to excel in academics. Little wonder we are called all kinds of derogatory names whenever we cross the Niger with no distinction whatsoever.
This may have provoked a few patriotic northern leaders who are now insisting that there must be a change of status quo. While the progressive Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi ll had admonished us to convert our many mosques into schools, in Kaduna state, Governor Elrufai is already running an intifada against illiteracy. In a foreword to a book titled “The Politics of Free Education” authored by Richard Dambo, his education commissioner, Alhaji Jafaru Sani, said: ” Today, while northern Nigerians are seen by the rest of the country as freeloaders, northern elite and leaders have continued to play politics with education. According to the 2015 Global Monitoring Report (GMR), Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.”
“And out of these 10.5 out-of-school children, the highest in the world so far, 60 percent are in northern Nigeria. This is unacceptable. And this is why in spite of the difficulties, Kaduna state, the gateway to northern Nigeria, has continued to insist that there is no alternative to reforms in the education sector.”
Again, three years back, an illustrious son of the north often referred to as ”The Protector In Chief of Northern region”, particularly of ‘Northern Islam’, Mohammed Haruna, had put the blame of this deplorable state on the generation of the region’s leaders who succeeded the late Sardauna. “The problem, I think,” he said “was that the next generation of the region’s politicians chose to pay lip service to investment in education without which invariably we could only send garbage into our tertiary schools. And as they say of computers: garbage in, garbage out.”
Consequently, as I said somewhere, apart from lack of trust and the strong religious tensions that are today eaten the North, the rest of the country look upon us as parasites. And there is equally no evidence to show that we are not the most educationally and economically impoverished. While others have continued to build their future on investment in education, the North is comfortable in remaining the only Bakery with the license of producing loaves of illiterates to feed the rest of the country with violence at any slightest provocation. We must reverse this ugly trend.
It is therefore the responsibility of the now enlightened generation to resist the survivalist dhimmitude of individuals and associations who are out to divide the region for their selfish reasons. And whether these individuals and associations come as MURIC, CAN, Akintola, Oritsenjafor, etc, we must resist them as long as their intention is to create schism among us.
“If, as a result of the agitation for the fragmentation of this great region”, Sir Ahmadu Bello said while addressing the Willinck Minorities Commission in 1958, ” fostered and encouraged as it is so much by persons seeking their own political interest, the unity of the North is impaired or damaged, then I fear greatly that we shall step, not through the gates of the future into the broad prosperity which can lie before us, but back into the past, into tribalism, into religious intolerance and violence. ” May God prevent this.
Finally, I cannot but join Dr. Nuruddeen Mohammed in calling for the North never to miss the nuances of Bishop’s ‘attack’. “We should instead”, as he said, “use the opportunity this sober reflection offers to take one hard look at ourselves. And then in the name of Allah (The most beneficent and merciful), and our enlightened self-interest, dedicate a certain measure of our collective sociopolitical actions and behaviors to end the sufferings of these children.”

Damina wrote this piece from Kaduna, and can be reached: francisdamina@gmail.com