Muslims And Leadership Failure In The Third World (1)
15 April 2013
By Abdulwarees Solanke
Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains. These
are the words of a philosopher. But the religious
scriptures, whether of the Christians or the Muslims,
the Bible and the Qur'aan have more brilliant
expositions on the position of man, or the purpose of
man's creation. From the Quranic perspective, man is
born to master the entire creation as the vicegerent
of God on earth, the Khalifah. The Christian bible
also declares man as being created to have dominion
over the rest of creation. It also challenges
Christians to be the salt of the earth, warning that
if they lose their saltness, the world loses its
taste. It wants them to be light unto the world that
must not be hidden under the bushel.
The man that must master creation, be God's
representative, be a light unto the world or salt of
the earth must have guidance and be responsible. The
guidance he has is what shapes his vision. However,
most of the humanity has abdicated this onerous
responsibility of mastering creation, because they
abandon guidance of the owner of the world, the
guidance of God. This is the tragedy of humanity
today. Even when some claim to be followers of God,
doing the wish of the heavenly father, they betray the
guidance of God they claim to profess faith in, pursue
self desires, captured by their egos, imprisoned by
their lusts and deceived by their minds.
As a student of religions, I have come to appreciate
that many ideologies and faiths are not as
prescriptive as Islam, so I don't have problems with
their teachings, because often those pristine
teachings are not held sacrosanct as the followers are
left to use their judgements to determine how they can
be the salt of the earth or light unto the world. They
are very flexible. Not that they don't have standards,
but their enforcement is not always as strongly
prescribed as in the Muslim standards. So, with the
Quranic standard illustrated by various schools of
jurisprudence in Islam and the finest examples from
the prophetic era and the epoch of the Khulafai
raashiduun, the rightly guided caliphs, their first
and second successor generations, the Muslims of today
are supposed to be worthy beneficiaries and finest
legacies in public leadership and management, setting
direction wherever they exist even as minorities. They
are supposed to be advanced in learning,
uncompromising on ethics of justice, equity, integrity
and fidelity, all cornerstones of peace and
development.
However, one is appalled by the Muslims disconcerting
attitude to issues of reform and development
especially in the Third world countries, not excepting
Nigeria, to the crises manifesting in illiteracy,
poverty, instability, insecurity, and corruption
whereas the scripture of Islam is most revolutionary
and unequivocal when it comes to addressing societal
challenges, or reforming the society. It offers
practical solutions. You cannot escape them. Once you
deviate from those standards, things fall apart,
because Islam is highly prescriptive on how to achieve
balance, order and stability in the face of rapid
changes.
So, why are countries claiming to be Muslim-dominated
enmeshed in crisis of development? Nigeria is one. I
take the blame of crisis of nationhood and development
in these third world countries to the door steps of
the Muslim leadership in those countries. They cannot
be excused from the leadership failure in these
countries, because as critical stakeholders in their
polities, they wield a lot of influence on the
governance of their countries, if not being the
dominant players. Muslim leaders, temporal and
spiritual, must be told the truth about their failure
in not playing the noble roles expected of them in
bringing development and stability to their countries.
as they engage in fasting of Ramadan, because the
message of Ramadan is REFORMATION AND RENEWAL,
REBIRTH, ADVANCEMENT, MOBILITY TO HIGHER STATION,
MATURITY, ATTITUDINAL CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT, DISCIPLINE,
DEVOTION, ANSWER, AWAKENING & AWARENESS, and NEWNESS
If the Muslim Ummah in those countries, Nigeria
inclusive, had faithfully lived to their description
in the Quran as Ummatan wasatan, the justly balanced
nation, other Ummahs with whom they share nationhood
would have emulated them; if they had lived to being
the best community ever evolved for mankind,
khaerun-ummatan, with the mandate of enjoining what is
good, forbidding evil and believing in Allah, crime,
corruption and insecurity on the surface of the earth,
fasaad fil ard, and fitnah or trials of tumult and
oppression which are worse than death, would not be
prevalent in the world. The world, especially the
third world countries mostly populated by Muslims
would be filled with joy and happiness, as rich and
peaceful as the Scandinavian countries, as progressive
as the United States, as accommodating as Canada or as
promising as the new industrialized countries, the
Asian Tigers like Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Therefore, other constituent Ummahs that make up many
countries in the Third World like Nigeria, will come
to align with the Muslims in the war against
corruption. They will be Muslim allies in defending
the unity and integrity of their countries, working
for their peace and progress, security and wealth,
promoting their national interest, safeguarding their
pride and integrity, giving their nations good names
all over the world as the place to live, the land of
peace and plenty, a Canaan.
What is apparent to me is that Muslim leaders are
paying lip service to their shariah and observance of
the very noble dictate of the book of guidance they
hold or that they hold the book without understanding
the contents nor applying them in the running their
lives, which is most unfortunate. They abdicate on the
guidance they ought to offer others. If they had not
been blind to their authentic values, other Ummahs or
powers would not oppose, hate, malign, stereotype or
oppress the Muslims. They would respect them and not
tarnish or desecrate their practices, places and
objects of value and worship. When they see them as
light bearers, as the salt of the nation and the
representative of God, they would want to ask, why are
they so blessed (yes, they are blessed because most of
the world oil, agricultural and minerals resources are
deposited in their territories in Africa, Middle East
and Asia, the main reasons for scramble and partition
of their territories, imperialism and devastation and
despoliation of those countries through phantom wars
and installation of puppet regimes). They will ask why
they are so special that in both opulence and
scarcity, they are still contented and comfortable.
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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