Download - Muslim Students` Society of Nigeria

BEING A WELCOME ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE 34TH NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE
MUSLIM STUDENTS’ SOCIETY OF NIGERIA, MALLAM ABDULAZEEZ SIRAJUDEEN FOLAYEMI,
AT THE OCCASION OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE OF MSSN FOR THE SOUTH-SOUTH
ZONE THEMED: “MSSN: IMPACTS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS” HELD AT LEMACO HALL
AND GARDEN, GOERGE ROAD, PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE, ON THE 23RD OF RABIUTHANNI 1435 AH (23RD MARCH 2014).
INTRODUCTION
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praise and gratitude is due to Allah, the Lord of the
worlds. May His choicest blessing be upon the gentle soul of the noblest of mankind, Muhammad Mustapha,
his companions and those who continue to follow his foot step till a day when wealth and kin will not be of any
benefit except he that comes with a submissive soul to the will of Allah.
DIAMIOND JUBILEE ANNIVERSARY LECTURES
Permit me to welcome everybody here seated to this blessed gathering. This is the second in the series of
lectures/symposia lined up to mark the diamond jubilee of our great and giant society. Others remaining
include, South East Zone Enugu, Enugu state 4th -5th April, North Central Zone, Minna Niger state, 18th -19th
April, North West centre, Sokoto, Sokoto state 2nd -3rd May, North East centre, Bauchi, Bauchi state 18th 17th May. The grand finale will be holding at the National Women Development Centre, Abuja on the 24th of
May 2014. We wish to use this medium to invite everybody to these lined up activities to mark the 60th
anniversary of this noble and blessed society. The lined up activities is not only aimed at sensitising and
mobilizing for the grand finale in Abuja but also to have a first-hand information about the impact and strength
of MSSN at the various geo-political zones of the country. The theme, MSSN: Impacts, Problems and Prospects
with the lecturers and chairmen of occasion were carefully selected to reflect the past and present generations
of MSSN gladiators. This is because the present leadership of MSSN believes that these two generations needs
to come together to chart a robust course for this society at its diamond age.
THE BIRTH OF A NEW IDEA
The greatest idea which has saved millions of the Muslim children from the oppression of the colonial masters
as orchestrated by the Christian evangelists was conceived on 18th April, 1954. Muslim Students seeking
western education in a hostile colonial and aggressive evangelical environment then prevalent in the west
coast of Africa had to find a platform to discuss and find solution to their common problems and challenges.
The idea which changed the history of Islam in Nigeria and influenced the Muslim thought in Africa and North
America was eventually given birth to on the 30th of May, 1954 and was named Muslim Students’ Society.
Permit me to say that MSS has not only transformed into MSSN today, it has metamorphosed from being a
society into an ideology which has influenced the course of events in the most populous black nation. It has
grown in leaps and bounds to be the largest organisation (religious or otherwise) not only in Nigeria but in
Africa with millions as active members while some other millions are sympathisers.
According to the first national president of this great society, Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, CON “the
establishment of the Muslim Students society of Nigeria is one of the greatest events In the Islamic histories of
Nigeria. It was a turning point for the Muslim Ummah. The advent of the society arrested an ugly and
dangerous situation, halting the stratagem of the then Christian missionaries who are bent at using their
institutions as centres of Christian evangelisation”. Before the advent of MSSN, Muslim parents were reluctant
to send their children to school. Even fatwas were passed forbidding the Muslims from partaking in the
western education because of the real fear that the missionary teachers would forcefully convert Muslim
children from Islam to Christianity. Many who were heedless were indeed converted; a good number of
prominent Nigerians especially from the south west who are now Christians were born Muslims. Christians had
predicted confidently that once western Education took root in Nigeria, it will be a matter of time that Islam
would be wiped out of the country! But Alhamdulillah, the formation of MSSN shattered this devilish
prediction. Today, you have millions of Muslim students in all institution of learning, millions who have
graduated through these institutions remain strong practising Muslims and are contributing their quota
towards the development of Nigeria and the world at large. MSSN has not only built responsible human being
but also it can be described as the mother of major Islamic organisations in Africa, Europe and North America.
With all sense of humility, virtually every Islamic organisation in Nigeria is indebted to MSSN for its quality
ideas and manpower.
MSSN @ 60
Today we are commencing with the celebration of the founding fathers of MSS. We are celebrating our
success in dawah. We are gathering to thank Allah for MSSN. We have come together to showcase our Islam.
We are happy because Allah saved our Islam and our identity. Baba Aromasodun, baba Lateef Adegbite, Baba
Sumola Laguda. We wish you could have been with us alive today to see the fruit of your good and sincere
effort to save the future of the Muslim children. We were told you were twelve in number when you
conceived this idea which today has influenced millions. You could have lived to see Muslim students going to
school with all sense of dignity and pride. Even the use of niqab is not a barrier to pursuing the best of the
profession in the university today. Our solace is in the fact that, on all the millions that have been influenced
by your celestial initiative you will continue to get reward from their good deeds till eternity.
To the present generation of MSSN, old and young, undergraduates and post-graduates, artisans and
professionals, we are celebrating your Islamic sagacity, we salute your courage and doggedness for keeping
the flag flying. We applaud your sacrifice and selflessness in sustaining our common heritage. To my sisters
who are been brutalized and victimized for hijab, you are indeed heroes of hijab and the hope of the Ummah
of Muhammad the society celebrates you today as diamond among your mates. At 60, Let us come out and
celebrate this society that has done us nothing but good. Let us spread the good news that MSSN worth
celebrating. MSSN is the hope of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria. In the last 60 years of its existence, its greatest
achievement is in anyone who after passing through the wall of formal education settings still take pride in
Islam. Aside from this, MSSN has produced Muslim elites, professionals, politicians, academics and business
giants who today are vanguards of Islam. It has also produced great Islamic scholars and da’wah workers
whose indelible mark in da’wah efforts in this country cannot be erased by time.
OUR CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The contributions of MSSN to National development are enormous and these include, serving as a potent tool
of national unity and cohesion. Apart from all its members that cut across geographical and ethnic barriers,
MSSN is promoting national integration and building bridges through its programmes and activities that
emphasise the values and brotherhood of Islam in particular and unity of mankind in general. The programmes
of this great society is geared towards giving a proper orientation to the future leaders as we believe that
morality, right attitude and dignity of labour is a sine qua non to national development. The society has
continued to produce generation of outstanding leaders including vice presidents, presidential aspirants,
governors, great politicians and academic giants. They have contributed immensely to our national life. The
society has remained a pressure group working for not only bringing the Muslim in closer union and inculcating
in them true Islamic spirit and faith in Allah, but also promoting the general welfare of the Muslims and
defending their fundamental human right in any community.
OUR CHALLENGES AND PROSPECT
To our leaders and fathers, the situation of the society today calls for a sober reflection. At sixty, the society is
still battling with government and educational policies that are discriminatory to religious profession and
practice. Today, our members are denied the use of hijab in Law schools, military and paramilitary training
schools, and other professional institutions all over the federation. Our educational curriculum is at variance
with Islamic principle especially in the south with most states not having Arabic OR Islamic studies as a subject
of learning in the government approved schools. Our younger ones are being brutalized on daily basis in the
secondary schools especially in the southern part of the country for Islamic profession. We all must stand
against this and give MSSN our moral and financial support. At 60, the Muslim students as a vanguard of
change and the hope of the Muslim Ummah will embark on aggressive campaign to dislodge any government
or political party that is anti-Islam. We will work tirelessly to destroy any political structure that wants to
scuttle and ruin the future of the Muslim child. We will be ready to collaborate with political parties whose
agenda is promising to the survival of the young Muslim. MSSN has done a lot of good to this Nation as a
whole and to the Muslim Ummah in particular. We all must support it and work towards making it a pride to
an average Muslim parent in this country and beyond.
OURS STAND ON THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria MSSN wishes to use this medium to express our strong reservation and
displeasure with the composition of the delegates to the National Conference. The millions of Muslim students
in Nigeria and the diaspora reject in the strongest term the deliberate and calculated reduction of the Muslim
in this country minority.
WE may wish to recall that similar observations were made in respect of the composition of the Advisory
Committee which was considered as faulty and bias as it excludes Muslims from the South especially SouthWest which is predominantly Muslims with more than sixty percent (60%)of the population. It was further
observed that without any fear of contradiction that there are more than enough competent Muslim
intellectuals, community leaders, politicians, professionals and seasoned administrators who could have
functioned appropriately as members of the committee from the South. We warned that the national
conference had taken off on a bad note and it is bond to crash-land if our observation is not immediately
addressed.
The final list of delegates is not only a confirmation of our observation, but it is disappointing and a slap on
the integrity of the Muslims in this Country that only thirty–eighty percent (38 %) of the entire delegates to
the proposed National Conference happens to be Muslim. To paint the picture clearer the list concludes that
there are no Muslims in the South-West and south east and minority Muslims in the North-Central and the
author have the ordersity to identify Muslim in the north east and north west. With the present situation, the
Muslim students cannot but believe that there is deliberate and calculated plot to not only reduce the
Muslim in this country to minority in principle but also negatively redefine their real status to justify the
ulterior motive of the authors of the list of delegates to the national Conference.
We are made bold to say, the composition of the delegates to the Conference is, unconstitutional,
undemocratic and does not reflect the Nigerian population in reality. The conference aimed at given the
minority dominance over the majority and the society will mobilized aggressively so that the outcome of the
Jamboree will be rejected by Nigerian both home and abroad as we believe the conference as constituted
can and will never address the Nigerian issue.
TERROR IN THE NORTH
The recent dimension the insurgency in the nation especially the north has taken is not only worrisome but
unfortunate. The insurgence has declared war on the sovereignty of the nation by their continuous beating of
the military intelligence and arsenals. We in MSSN are becoming so disturbed not only because our members
are direct victims of the recent killings but also the insurgence have continued to claim the lives of innocent
Nigerians without any solution at hand.
We are calling on all stakeholders to as a matter of urgency do everything possible to stop this senseless
killings and destruction of properties because a nation will only survive when the leaders and stakeholders
take the life of the citizen sacred and are proactive about their protection.
OUR HIJAB STRUGGLE
THE struggle started with our father, it is all about garnishing the school curriculum in the south with Islamic
principle. It is about giving and guaranteeing the future of the Muslim children. The major activities in the
schools in the south are all in the Christian way, assembly are conducted in the church style, the school
uniform and even the educational setting have only given room to Christian culture with no respect for Islamic
principle. Even though the struggle has started yielding results with the official approval of the use of the
Islamic dress code in Muslim and community schools in Ekiti and Oyo state. We say this is still far from our
target of full implementation of Islamic dress code in all government owned public schools irrespective of
religious affiliations. We will continue with the struggle until our right is granted and school dressing cum
curriculum in the southern part of Nigeria give room for Islamic principle. This is because the schools are
government’s properties to which we are all stakeholders as far as governance is concerned
APPRECIATION
MSSN wish to sincerely appreciate those who have made today a reality, we say it’s only Allah who can reward
you for making our dream come true. This programme is a little token from us your sons and daughters in
MSSN towards rejuvenating and rededicating MSSN and the current membership to the service of Al-Islam. We
believe that at the end of these marathon events, MSSN would have been recharged to serve Islam and the
Muslims better. We pray that we will all live to celebrate MSSN at its centenary. We say jazakumullahu khairan
for not only honouring our invitation but also for physically attending it.
CONCLUSION
Subhanaka Allahuma wabihamdika ashadu an laillaha illa anta astagfiruka wa atuubu ilaik. Wasalamu alaikum
warahmatullah wabarakaatuh.
ABDULAZEEZ SIRAJUDEEN FOLAYEMI
MSSN NATIONAL PRESIDENT
RABIU THANNI 1435 (MARCH 9TH 2014)