MSSN @ 70: How Our Lives Were Shaped As Students

•By Abdulwarees Solanke, Voice of Nigeria

What, Where, How Would We Have Been Now without our training and orientation as members of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria in our secondary school days and tertiary education years?

This is a question every discerning Muslim student active in the society whiile in school would readily ask as he grows in life.

This 70 year old society was pioneered by like likes of late Dr. Abdulateef Adegbite , an influential son of Egbaland, trained as a lawyer and earned the title of Seriki (Sarkin) of Egbaland and headed the secretariat of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in his life time.

It all started in 1954 while they were in secondary schools in Lagos; just a handful of them concerned about the preservation of their deen and identity as Muslims, for they were mostly in colonial and christian mission established schools without tolerance or provision for Islamic practices

Unarguably today, this society is the feeder of Muslim talents and professionals in Nigeria, raising of Young Muslims from it’s flank to develop manpower for Nigeria through its ideological and Islamic value orientation programmes and activities.

Our Beginning in MSS

This year, I will clock 58. But as a Muslim privileged to go through all levels of education, mostly in Nigeria, MSSN had been part of my life in the past 46 years.

Converted statistically, it means I have been associated with the organization, now it’s 70th year of existence, for about 80 percent of my years on earth. Alhamdulillah.

And, this is not about me alone.

It is the story of my generation who have been involved with the society from our first days in the secondary school where we first got involved in Islamic activism.

I was admitted to Egba Comprehensive High School, Abeokuta in 1978, as a boarding house student, where it was compulsory for all students to attend religious forum either as a Muslim or a Christian on Sundays.

In our days, most muslim students who were in secondary schools had less grounding in Islam. If at all, it was always very shallow.

So, MSS was mostly the platform of our introduction to Islam, as it paved the way or provided for us Compass to Islam. Indeed, MSS laid the foundation of our Islam.

In MSS many began to learn about salaah, perform ablution, recite the Quran as it introduced us to many literatures that enabled us to get good grasp of the Islamic faith and value system.

MSS: Our Family; Our Network

For many of us, we started our home and family in the soils of MSS as it was from there we found and picked our spouses to start our homes. It’s being without regret.

But beyond family, our circles and network of friends were built within and around MSS. while most of us found purpose and direction in life. It is in MSS that our future careers were defined and shaped.

In MSS, we found mentors and motivators, we also found parents, helpers and life guides and facilitators through whom we clarified our purposed and shaped our vision. Today many of us are fulfilled. And we still relate with ourselves in the spirit of our years of innocence when we were 10 years plus.

MSS: Our School of Management & Leadership

From MSS, many brothers and sisters arrived on the big stage of manning human affairs because the society was the platform on which they were tested in public affairs management and from which they were tapped into governance or government.

In MSS many who could be described as natural mutes became vibrant public speakers.

In MSS, through assignments and responsibilities at committee, Branch, area councils, area units and zonal levels, we learnt focus, time management, responsibilities assumption, even politics and public engagement.

Invariably, MSS is the bedrock of our leadership training and the foundation of our professionalism and entrepreneurship.

For me, my zest as a Muslim writer or a muslimedia practitioner evolved from my roles and responsibilities either in Public Relations or Secretariat portfolios at Egba High School, Abeokuta, Baptist High School Iwo and the University of Lagos.

They also reflected in my responsibilities at other Muslim groups and community levels, for instance in The Muslim Congress, the University of Lagos Alumni and the Muslim Public Affairs Centre, MPAC .

My student life as a member of MSS unarguably underlines my pursuits and engagements up till today and continues to shape my vision.

It was as a member of MSS that I crafted the following words as my personal motto: The beauty of a man lies in the purity of his heart, the nobility of his intellect and the excellence of his character.

MSS and Our Spirituality

Many students who did not come from homes with any islamic root returned home to smash the pillars of idolatry in their backyards to erect pillars of Islam at their front doors.

Among students of my generation, adhaan was scarcely heard from any quarters in their compounds. Today, they are producing haafiz and great scholars among their sons and daughters.

Homes that were once denoted or identified with shrines now have iconic masjids at their front yards or inside their compounds

The revolution of MSS in the past 70 years has been so remarkable that many schools and universities scarcely with any Muslim presence at their establishment are now flowing with Hijabis to conclude that they are Muslim institutions.

MSS: Beyond Our Student Years

For most of my generation, who lived the best of their youthful years as active MSS members, it is inconceivable that our lives would change from the one we lived as students: iA Life of Brotherhood, of community or communalism, of Openness, of care and concern for one another.

Not a few of us married into our a fellow brother’s house before we began to find our levels. Most of us on transfers and postings or upon new appointment in a distant land or even sojourn abroad first found accommodation and comfort in the home of a fellow MSS member regardless of whether we are of same origin, background, ethnicity, class or level. It’s enough to have a recommendation from your unit leader or a just a call that Brother Abdul…. will be coming, please take care of him and the visitor or guest will be hosted without condition.

That was how Alhaji Ahmad Dele Olaoye, an educationist with Nigerian Educational Research & Development Council in the 80s and now a chief Imam in his Iresi hometown, Oyo State hosted me at his Lawanson Surulere home in 1985 when I was admitted to study mass communication at the University of Lagos iupon recommendation from my fatherly Brother-in-law, Late Imam SalahuDeen Ariyayo Abdulazeez.

Without MSS, most of my generation would not be what and where we are today. We would not have had a solid intellectual, ideological or ethical foundation rooted in our Deen

No longer students, or now outside the formal school system, and even many now older than MSS in age, our lives still remain MSS lives. We are still brothers and sisters when identifying ourselves, just as for most of my generation, the new relationships we built, partnerships we forged, groups we established, societies we found, enterprises we started, clubs we joined always have their motivation or origin in the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria.

Alhamdulillah. We congratulate ourselves for the strides of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria in the last 70 years, praying that Allah abundantly rewards the visionaries and pioneers of the organization and all striving in the cause of Allah in their sacrifices and commitment to keep it standing, solid and strong.

To me, the future of Islam in Nigeria and the unity of our nation will be built on on the foundation of the Society

Victory to the Believers

If you Help the Cause of Allah, He will Aid You, And Establish You Feet Firmly.
There’s no Help Except from Allah.
Till Eternity, we are resolved to Serve Allah.

Abdulwarees, an associate of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Diplomacy and Management who studied Mass Communication at the University of Lagos is a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar in public policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussaalam. He currently heads the Strategic Planning and Corporate Development Department of Voice of Nigeria.