Muslims And Leadership Failure In The Third World (2)
09 April 2013
By Abdulwarees Solanke
In their public, private, social, economic and
political lives however, many of the so called Muslim
dominated nations including Nigeria behave like people
without guidance and whose concern is this world alone
when their sources of knowledge and guidance tell them
that cursed are the slaves of Dinnars and Dirhams.
Many of the adherents of the religion in the Muslim
dominated countries are also engaged in the rat race
for transient power and fake glory when they should
let the world appreciate what their Quran explained
that power and leadership are a burdensome trial, a
heavy and sacred trust that must be borne with fear
and caution, conscious that they will be held
accountable on how they delivered on their pledge of
service to God and humanity; they ought to let the
world know how their Quran describe Allah the creator
as the Lord of power and sovereignty, who invests with
power whoever He wills and he debases whoever He wills
and He will raise them to account for how they deliver
on their acceptance of their trust as possessors of
the instruments of power derived from their wealth and
resources and their book of guidance.
The failure of leadership in many countries of the
Third World in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and
Asia, without excluding Nigeria as the most populous
country in Africa with a dominant Muslim presence is
the leadership failure of the Muslims in leadership
who did not live by the very fine traditions of their
faith and the guidance of their book. They abdicate
their responsibility. That their nations are on this
hopeless trajectory of insecurity, poverty, disease
and illiteracy is because the Muslim leadership,
temporal and spiritual, have not sufficiently and
consistently offered their nations the hope and the
rope of Allah, the rope that pulls humanity from
darkness of ignorance, disease and corruption to light
of learning, health and virtues; the rope of Allah
that binds the devil and its hosts and chains the
agents of darkness, but binds the minds of the people,
no matter the diversity and the size of their nations,
in love, brotherhood, co-operation and development.
According to their Quran, the rope of Allah binds
humanity into one single brotherhood of love, and not
of hate and oppression and injustice and exploitation
and slavery.
The absence of justice is the cause of poverty and
debauchery and underdevelopment in the Third World.
Debauchery prevails because their leaderships have
been aligning with their enemies who rape their
resources and desecrate their honour and terrorize
their economies. Every Friday, the central or the
cornerstone of the Muslim Khutba on the Mimbar is
goodness, justice and equity with strong warnings
against infidelity, indecencies and debauchery,
oppression, treachery and rebellion. How high or low
have Muslim leaderships in the respective countries
including Nigeria in advancing those virtues or
fighting those foibles as enunciated in their book of
guidance and compass of direction is left to
conjectures? Do they even understand the reforming
contents of their Quran as much as they recite the
ones with which they seek God's face for their
subsistence or protection from their imaginary
enemies?
In the Muslim world, every neighbourhood has a Masjid.
Every city has stately central mosques where they
congregate for daily or weekly Salaat. Yet, messages
from the Mimbars are lost on their followers, that is
even if their imams have the reforming messages to
give and not praise-singing or turning blind eyes on
their corrupt elites and political leaders while
threatening the miserable members of the congregation
for not donating handsomely to the Bait-ul-maal or
paying their Zakaats.
Are there no hypocrites in the body of the Ummah who
after doing Tasleem and conclude Salaatul Jumaah, head
for certain places of prohibition in Islam, places
that diminish their position as vicegerents of Allah
on earth, Khalifatul-fil ard, and reduce their human
worth and essence, places of HARAAM? Don't they parade
Mushriquuns who believe they can't get to power
without compromising their faith, Islam and their
integrity? I hold the view that Muslims in the third
World do not appreciate nor understand the liberating
and civilizing messages of their faith, islam. So they
are not living as reformed and liberated Muslims who
are supposed fight corruption in their lands, enthrone
equity, justice and integrity and deliver services in
accordance with the compact of satisfying the public
or the citizenry, which is what their Shariah stands
on.
So, in Nigeria for instance, nobody should blame those
who confront Muslims with questions and exclamations
like ‘are you really a true Muslim?', ‘but you call
yourself an Alhaji !' ‘and you say you pray five times
daily', or ‘are you not an Alfaa' when they find them
not meeting the high moral standards and exemplary
leadership expected of them as witnesses unto mankind,
or when they see them in compromising situations or
behaving outside their frames of reference, their
Shariah and the Quran. This is because to whom much is
given, much is expected.
Where are the reformed Muslims who can lead the reform
projects in their countries? Where are the True
Muslims when the Quran says they are expected to be
witnesses unto mankind? The truth is most of the
Muslim leaderships in have failed their nations.
Today's Muslim leadership in most third world
countries have abdicated their leadership roles
reforming their nations when the Quran stated that
Allah wanted to them to be the best community ever
evolved for mankind, enjoining goodness and virtues
and forbidding all dimensions of corruption and
oppression or Fitnah and Fasad as the Quran describes.
That is why Muslims suffer most in the development
challenges that confront the world. Look at the global
development indices and see where corruption is more
prevalent, where ignorance and disease are endemic and
where the world powers are sponsoring violence and
terrorism beneath an agenda of exploitation of the
wealth and resources of the Ummah.
Interestingly, their book of guidance has stated that
Allah will not change the grace He has bestowed on a
people until they change that which is in themselves.
This Ramadan, Muslims must really change to rectify
the unfortunate situations in the countries they call
their own, including Nigeria.
This is why in Nigeria for instance, we are in a
situation where those who call to virtues, motivating
on goodness and spreading joy, as Alhaji Abdurrazaq
Aremu Gawat, the ex-NTA staff noted for his pre-dawn
programmes, could go missing and the Muslims in
Nigeria are still complacent on how to find him ALIVE.
So, who has information of the missing Brother Gawat,
the man who enlivens homes in Ramadan with his e ji
saari programme on the Nigerian Television Authority?
It's the Muslim leadership failure everywhere that
leads to such misfortune and insecurity of lives. We
pray for Gawat's safety and early return as we wish
that the Muslim leadership especially in Nigeria will
wake from its slumber to lead the cause of restoring
peace, order, justice and equity in the country so
that all Nigerians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike will
sleep with their two eyes closed, and drive from Yola
to Yenagoa or Illela to Ilisan without the fear of
highway marauders. That is the dream of every Nigeria,
living in security and prosperity.
ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE B.Sc. Mass Comm (Lagos); Master
of Public Policy (Brunei Darussalaam) Head, Voice of
Nigeria Training Centre, c/o VON Transmitting Station,
Ikorodu, Lagos. Formerly the special assistant to the
Director General, VON, he is the 2007/2008
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar in
Public Policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam,
korewarith@yahoo.com 08090585723
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