THE MESSAGE: Nigeria’s Triangular Axis of Evil

By Femi Abbas

Monologue

History is not just a teacher of all times for all living human
beings. It is also a permanent school that constantly reminds mankind
of the lessons to learn from the various events and experiences of the
past as a means of guidance towards the future.
About 900 years ago, an Arab poet of the second Umayyad Dynasty, in
Spain, came up with a bewildering stanza that is now more relevant to
Nigeria than his own nation and his own time. An excerpt from the
poem went thus:
“Here is the period in human life about which we had been seriously
warned in the words of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and those of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud;
Here is the period in which truth is meant to be totally rejected; And
falsehood as well as evil machinations are to be warmly accepted and
upheld as societal norms; Should this period continue to swing
dangerously (like a pendulum over our nation) without any positive
change, the world will surely forage into a stage in life when grief
over deaths will become an aberration even as rejoice over the birth
of new babies will become an anathema”.

Observation

Today, judging Nigeria’s situation, by what we can see and feel
against what we are yet to witness or experience, can any prediction
be more accurate and more appropriate for our country than the above
quoted poem?
With the seeming ongoing resistance to positive change and persistent
entrenchment of evil machinations as we are witnessing today, how can
there be any hope for a better future? Yet, the charlatans who use
religion as an instrument of threat and intimidation through
propaganda and blackmail refuse to see the possible danger ahead.

Axis of Evil

Today, Nigeria is dangerously entangled in a triangular axis of evil,
the consequences of which cannot be foretold with precision. That axis
is like a crushing pendulum swinging restlessly over Africa’s most
populous country with a threat of ruins. That triangular axis consists
of three dominant, vocal blocks of evil. Each of them is an
implacable enclave serving as an abode for its designers. One of those
enclaves is the abode of politicians, another is for the palace of the
clergy and the third is for the igloo of the media.
While the Politicians stand out as the engine room of virtually all
the evils afflicting our country, the clergy represents the dangerous
chimney through which the polluting smoke of that evil oozes out to
suffocate the populace spiritually in the name of God. On its own, the
media serves as the megaphone for both the politicians and the
so-called clergy through the instrumentality of satanic propaganda.

Disappointing Leg

Of the defined evil axis above, the most disappointing leg is the
clergy. From time immemorial, religion had stood out as the societal
salt used as a preservative for all other ingredients with which to
prepare a delicious soup of life for the consumption of all and sundry
at any stage. But with the sudden adoption of ‘ashes’ to replace salt
as the main ingredient of preservation in the 20th century, courtesy
of the capitalist West, how can the soup of life be tasteful anymore
to its consumers?
Ordinarily, Salt should be salt in its natural form. To pour ashes on
it in the name of spiritual preservative is to deprive it of its
natural value and render it totally useless to its consumers. Thus,
with the importation of a hitherto unknown brand of a religion from
the West, which is bitterly coated in capitalism, Nigeria has
dangerously become a polluted country with a suffocating smoke. Those
who are responsible for this situation are the fraudsters parading
themselves as prophets and are issuing satanic statements with which
they deceptively rationalize their claim of prophet-hood.

The Role of Money

Incidentally, the bottom line for all these evil machinations is
nothing other than the vanity called money. Let money be removed from
Nigeria’s mode of worship today and sanity will return fully to our
society with required serenity.
Today, with importation of ashes as a replacement for salt,religion,
like politics, has become a big business in which greedy merchants and
charlatans are desperately engaged for unbridled avarice and unlimited
aggrandizement at all costs without consideration for decency and even
conscience. In that case, of what use is the claim of religion without
conscience?

Commercialization of Religion

Commercialization of religion which enables private individuals to
invest in building of castles, as business ventures, has seriously
diminished the value of religion in taste and in substance.
In Nigeria, today, our only respite, as Muslims, is that Nigerian
Imams are not engaged in hateful sermons and public incitement to
boost their religious businesses that fetch them private, executive
jets illegally at the expense of their congregations.
Were Nigerian Imams also to commercialize Islam and preach hatefully
like some self-hipped charlatans in the name of religion, Nigeria
would have ceased to be a country by now.

Warning

Those who take religion as a ‘do or die’ business that must fetch them
luxurious lifestyle should know that they do not have monopoly of
provocation and threat as the patience of Nigerian Muslims is getting
exhausted.
Elasticity has its limit.

Yellow Journalism

When journalism was a real profession in Nigeria, its practitioners
knew that they were like Eskimos living in Igloo. If anything happened
to Igloo, the Eskimos’ lives became exposed to danger. Today, however,
it has become evident that journalism is just a matter of
nomenclature.
What matters to the journalists of today, especially in the Southwest
of Nigeria, is the conspicuous immoral padding that reportorial
entails. That profession is now virtually a matter of cash and carry
in favour of the highest bidder. That is why news reports these days
are mere expression of wishes and fabricated stories with which to
justify the brown envelopes that serve as padding for most of those
parading themselves as journalists.
As for the politicians, nothing is strange. It is a common knowledge
that the enclave in which they dwell is the real home of the Lucifer.
But to think that their ruinous actions can continue unabatedly is
nothing other than self-deception. Where are the politicians of
yesteryears? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Long live Nigeria!

In Remembrance of a Political Icon
When the demise of Nigeria’s first elected
Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was announced a couple of years ago the
Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a press
statement with which it condoled with all Nigerians including the
family of the deceased. The full contents of the statement were as
follows:

When the media waves came up with breaking news announcing the demise
of a Nigerian political icon, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari with a reverberation effect across the world, many Nigerians
with rich experience in various aspects of life began to dust their
diaries for a recount of the episodes that propelled the deceased to
have made history as much as he, himsel, was made by history.

Like an Elephant

The late President Shehu Shagari’s life was like a huge elephant
surrounded by blind men and women of letters and substance.
To describe the features of that proverbial elephant, each of the
persons that surrounded it would only be able to give an account of
the area he/she is able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and
not the whole of it.
Besides, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was such a household name, that no
serious political operator or aspirant can afford to discountenance in
Nigerian history without incurring an expensive cost.

Religious Concern

The aspect that concerns the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) most in Alhaji Shagari’s life’s odyssey was
religion.
It can be recalled that it was he (Alhaji Shagari) as Nigeria’s first
elected Executive President, that approved the sum of N10 million each
for the commencement of building a National Mosque and a National
Ecumenical Church in Abuja at a time when naira was really strong and
the foundation of Abuja as Nigeria’s new capital city was just being laid.
That Presidential gesture, which no religious group rejected, was a
confirmation that Nigeria is indeed a multi-religious and not a
secular country as being mischievously peddled, in certain quarters, for
selfish reasons.
Today, the two houses of worship are conspicuous in Central I area of Abuja with their
grandiose postures, to the finite attraction of foreign tourists who
see them as symbols of national unity.

Maitatsine Crisis

It is historically unforgettable how the late Executive President
tackled, diplomatically and militarily, a
frightening national crisis engendered by a dangerous charlatan
called Muhammad Marwa Maitatsine from Cameroon, who wrecked devastating havocs in most parts of Northern Nigeria, in
the guise of religion, during the country’s second republic. It was his
presidential determination to keep the unity of Nigeria intact that
checkmated that unforgetable menace.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari was, though, a quiet and easy going personality,
nonetheless, he never wavered in taking necessary decisions in the
interest of national unity in the country.

His Lifestyle

As a Muslim, Alhaji Shagari never hesitated in upholding the
principles of justice, fairness and equity which his religion (Islam)
emphasizes.
As a teacher in the early part of his life, he was exemplary in
touching the lives of his students positively and in grooming those
students for future leadership.
As a politician, he displayed such a special trait that distinguished
him as a template designer and a dark horse in Nigeria’s political
racecourse.

His Political Sagacity

The late President Shagari’s political sagacity was like a major Faculty in the
University of Life, into which many forward-looking leadership
aspirants in Nigeria were eager to seek enrolment for specialization
in African political education.
Alahji Shehu Shagari was the eminent Dean of that faculty even as the
vibrancy of his tenure which remains unequalled, till date, is a
testimony to the template he set for Nigeria’s democratic
dispensation.

Lesson to Learn

For Nigerian generations of the colonial era as well as those of the
first and second republics, a major falcon of reference vacated the stage
forever leaving some of his surviving political peers to mere dreams in non-effective
communicationToday, the country is still yearning for a replica of his exemplary personality in leadership. We pray the Almighty Allah to give us a leader worthy of emulation in our era. Amin.