Dr Lateef Adegbite is the Secretary General, Supreme Council for Is-lamic Affairs. He spoke to Weekly Trust in his Abeokuta office.
WT: Recently, there was a demonstration in support of bin Laden in Ibadan and last week or so, the state governor called a reconciliatory meeting between Christians and Muslims in the state to avert a religious crisis.
There is this feeling that religious tension is building up in Yorubaland.
What really is the situation?
Adegbite: I was out of the country when the incident that occasioned the reconciliatory meeting in Ondo State took place. So the information I had was gained from newspapers when I returned. I understand that there were some demonstrations following the display of a banner which read "make no mistake," or things like "Jesus was a Muslim." I understand that there was a protest from the Christians that really led to an open riot and that there was a quick intervention and a peace meeting was arranged. And what would have been a big religious disturbance was averted. I am very unhappy about something like that happening. That was not sufficient evidence to trigger an uproar, but it is true that Jesus was a Muslim. Every human being was born a Muslim. It's just because of our poor education or rather the wrong way we have been educating ourselves on this fundamental truth. Islam has made it very clear that all prophets of God were Muslims and that Islam is the religion of God. So there is nothing sinister or insulting about it.
That was a statement of truth. The Qur'an makes it clear that we should not discriminate against any prophet. I think that is a basic teaching that should go across particularly in a place like Nigeria. So I see myself as a Muslim as well as a Christian but not a Trinitarian Christian. As a follower of the original Christianity which regarded Jesus Christ purely as an apostle of God, as a messenger of God, who duly recognised only one true God, and never identified himself as a partner to Allah. Those are distinctions we need to make. I was very happy that a breakdown of law and order did not occur in Ondo State.
Talking generally about religion in Yorubaland, there is no doubt that Islam has always been very strong here. It predated Christianity. For instance, when we the Egbas moved from the ancient Egba forest which was very close to the heartland of Oyo to Abeokuta in 1829/1830 and settled around Olumo rock here, there were already Muslims among us. So within the first three or four years that the settlement took place in Abeokuta, they approached the leader of the Egba settlement by name Sodeke, who was the Sarki of this town to give them land to build a mosque. And the Muslims were given a lot of land to build a mosque at a place called Kobiti in Iporo Ake area very close to this place. That's the first mosque was built before before the first Christians came to Abeokuta. I think you know that the first church too in Nigeria was built here in Abeokuta around 1842, 12 or more years after the Muslims built their mosque. By that, the Egbas were Muslims in the homestead from where they migrated during the Yoruba civil wars to settle here in Abeokuta. So Islam has always been very strong. But unfortunately, Islam in Egbaland did not embrace Western education. The Muslims were scared that if their children went to the Christian mission schools, they would be converted into Christianity. So many Muslims did not receive Western education here in Abeokuta and some other parts of Yorubaland. We have very bad examples from some other places like Ibadan and Lagos where some of the prominent names you now hear come from Muslim families. They were Muslims.
People like Richard Akinjide, Pa Alayande and so on became Christians because of Western education. So the Muslims' fears were very well founded.
But now Alhamdulillah, many of the Muslim young people are in school or had been in school and have been well educated. And they are now in the frontline carrying the flag of Islam, particularly the younger ones. They are receiving first-class Western education but they have also maintained a serious practice of their religion and their ranks are increasing. They have become very, very active. So the revival of Islam, the upgrading of the practice of Islam is much more evident in Yorubaland, and it is spread by very dynamic young educated Muslims. Many of them are very active in the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), in the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisation (NACOMYO). So what we experienced when we were much younger when the few Muslims who went to school were not bold enough to identify openly with Islam, many of them shunned their Islamic names, no longer obtains. When we founded the MMS in 1954, many more came out to identify openly with Islam. So we have now passed the identity crisis. Many Muslims are now very active and they profess their religion openly, seriously and fearlessly. So the demonstration was not an isolated act at all, it was just a clear expression of their adherence to Islam. They don't see themselves as just local Muslims, Yoruba Muslims or Nigerian Muslims.
They see themselves as universal Muslims, and react to anything that happens to fellow Muslims anywhere in the world or in the Islamic world. So that's how I will explain what happened in Ibadan and other places.
WT: Sir, there is a complaint of discrimination against Muslims in Yorubaland. Two cases stand out in this regard. For example, when we went to Akure, some people complained to us that in the whole cabinet, there is only one Muslim commissioner despite the substantial number of Muslims in Ondo State. And then in the socio-political associations in Yorubaland, the Afenifere and the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), you hardly find Muslims in the top echelon. How do you respond to this?
Adegbite: Well, that's a valid observation. The Muslims have always been given a kind of token treatment. It has always happened. Even when Chief Awolowo was the premier, only one or two Muslims were in his cabinet. At the time General Adeyinka Adebayo was the military governor, the same thing was repeated. And when Brigadier Rotimi was governor of the West, I was the only Muslim member of the cabinet. That was even before the West was broken into six states now. So that has always been the practice. I couldn't understand that kind of uncaring attitude on the part of the chief executives. It is very disappointing. But you see, it might not be a deliberate discrimination. In cabinet formation, two things always happen. In a political party system, it is those who are active that will be made ministers or commissioners. Under military rule, it was those who were closer to the governor or head of state that got noticed. And it has always happened in most cases in the West that most of the governors that had been appointed or elected had always been non-Muslims. I don't know why. So it is very interesting. And I did complain confidentially to successive heads of state that that wasn't right. So people like Brigadier Raji Rasaki and Mohammed Lawal were later appointed. When Lawal was appointed here, he was very outstanding in his response to that big question. He appointed a significant number of Muslims as commissioners and permanent secretaries.
Surprisingly, the Christians protested at that time that why should he have promoted a number of Muslims as permanent secretaries. So they vilified him and thought that his administration was going to be worse by that act. Of course, it was a bold step by Lawal and the Muslims who were appointed gave a good account of themselves.
Major General Oladapo Popoola was very good too. As soon as he was appointed, I paid him a visit. As soon as he appeared, he said "Egbon, I know why you are here." I said "why am I here?" He knew why I was there and he made sure that three or four Muslims were appointed as commissioners in Ogun State. So there has always been that kind of thing. I think Muslims have not been very active in politics. Secondly, even when there was no politics, not many people were probably close enough to the appointed governors to receive attention and be appointed commissioners. As for the Afenifere and YCE, again it's because Muslims have not been very active. And our Imam and Alfas have not helped the situation here. They tend to look down on politics and public life. In fact, some of them would almost classify it as haram. That politics is a dirty game that is not right for Muslims to be active in. So we must also share the fault. We've not been very active. Again, if we go to the antecedent of Afenifere and YCE, the names of the dominant ones have come from the Action Group and Egbe Omo Oduduwa. If you go back again to that time, very many of the Muslim leaders did not warm up so much to Chief Awolowo. At one time, they threatened to create a Yoruba political party which they called the Muslim League or so because they felt that they could not trust the Action Group under the leadership of Chief Awolowo to protect the interest of Muslims even though it was Chief Awolowo who first established the Muslim Pilgrims Welfare. But many of the Muslim leaders were not sufficiently trusting to embrace Awolowo's party. So much so that at one time, Muslim organisations sprang up supporting the various political parties. The United Muslim Council was more or less the Islamic wing of Action Group and the Muslim Progressive supported more the NCNC or the Akintola faction of the Action Group when the party broke into two. So quite honestly, the Muslims have not always been active and forthcoming in politics as they should. And I sincerely hope that the lethargy will be abandoned and Muslims will try to come to the fore in politics.
WT: But there are people like Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu who have been active in politics since Action Group but seen not to be close to the leadership of Afenifere despite his age and participation? Secondly, there are even some Muslims who are holding some positions like Governor Bola Tinubu for example, who some Muslims feel is not protecting the interest of Muslims, especially by returning state schools to the missionaries which is likely to compound the educational backwardness of Muslims in Lagos. How do you react to this?
Adegbite: Well, my reaction is simple and sharp. When you are discussing this issue, you cannot avoid discussing what I will call the level of Islam of the personalities concerned. I think they are more political than Islamic. If they were more Islamic, their impact in politics would have been much stronger. They are not as sufficiently involved in Islam for that religion to also sufficiently influence them in their political activities or in their governance.
WT: Last week or so, some Pakistani missionaries were arrested at Ife and Sagamu and subsequently deported on the allegation that they were likely to foment trouble in the country. What do you have to say on this?
Adegbite: I am very happy that you raised this issue. I am very happy too that it is your newspaper that will have an opportunity to take across my reaction on this issue. I blame the media on this matter. I also blame the local authorities who raised the alarm. These Pakistanis were being called fundamentalists and potential trouble-makers. That was a very wicked lie. It's an unjust depiction of Islam as a religion interested in fomenting trouble and unrest. I have investigated this, and I am sorry to say that the allegations were totally false. The Pakistanis belong to the Tabligh Movement, a brand of Muslims who go to all parts of the world to pray, preach and sleep in the mosques. They have always been coming to Nigeria regularly. In fact, they normally come during this period. They are invited by local people. They carry simple papers and go from mosque to mosque. They don't work in any place. At the end of their preaching, they go back to their country or go to another country. I blame them for not carrying the correct immigration papers. These people were found sleeping in mosques and some people raised an alarm that they were bin Laden's people and so they constituted a threat. It was very, very unkind. Very unfair. I have spoken with the commissioner of police. I have spoken with the director of immigrations in Ogun State. Unfortunately, the director of immigrations had sent the people to Lagos because when they examined them, they found that they were not bin Laden's men but they didn't have their correct papers. I have been trying to see the director of immigrations in Lagos to know where they are. But I read in the papers today (last Friday) that they have been deported. Well, I don't want to interfere in the work of the immigrations department but these people were not trouble-makers. They come about this time and around the Christmas day, all of them throughout the country will assemble in Ilorin and have a prayer session with a mammoth gathering. Very prominent people go there. They have invited me several times but I have not been able to go. So these are people who are exercising their religious rights. They were not a danger to the country. They were not political activists. Unfortunately, as soon as the traditional leadership in Sagamu area raised the issue that they found some of these people wandering and all that, the police came in. And when the police briefed the press, instead of getting sufficient information, they just came out with screaming headlines saying that religious unrest was averted, that there were some infiltrators.
They were not infiltrators. You can call them Muslim gypsies. Some of them have always come to us here and we have allowed them to use our local mosques in the past. I don't think it's fair for people to cry wolf where there is none.