Muslims And Leadership Challenges 2

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.