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Friday Sermon: The Vanity of The Dead

Published

8 years ago

March 23, 2018

Eric

By Babatunde Jose

And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is over all things competent. Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], “Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire..”(Quran 3: 189-191)

In 1972, while working as a reporter at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, in Ikoyi, I developed the morbid pastime of walking through the Ikoyi cemetery, marveling at the vanity of men and the type of tombstones many have fashioned for their departed. However, there were some that amazed me, such as those that were erected by those still living, with the sure intention of being interned therein. Hmmmm! Man proposes and God disposes. We have read in the good books that ‘nobody knows the hour, not even the Angels, nor the prophets of God’, the secret of ‘the hour’ is with God. My grand uncle, late Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony built a mausoleum at Ikoyi cemetery complete with marble finishing and a headstone with the inscription: Here lies the remains of Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, 1907—-‘. What vanity! My Uncle did not die for another 20 years after the erection of the monument; and he was not buried there either. He was buried at Ayinke House, Ikeja General Hospital.

My client, the publisher and owner of Islamic Publications Bureau, was an Indian entrepreneur and had lived for long in Nigeria. His publications were text books for many schools in Nigeria. One December, he went on a tour of the North to visit his branches and consult with the various state governments that patronized his books. Unfortunately his car had an accident on the road to Sokoto and he died, only his driver survived to tell the story. The villagers on realization that he was a Moslem, did ‘janaza’ for him and he was buried there, with a small mound to mark his shallow grave. His wife later visited the site and asked that his soul should not be disturbed. That was where Allah said he would sleep. Allahu Akbar!

Many have built such grandiose mausoleums to burnish their vanities but in the end such monuments lie waste with the passage of time.

We were at the Vaults and Garden private cemetery last Monday to intern the body of a dear mother Alhaja Dabiri, mother of our new chairman: Crescent Bearers. She was aged 87 and buried according to Islamic rites, without fanfare or earthly embellishments. But not so with the wonders of man’s vaingloriousness we saw at the cemetery which kept many of our mouths agape. Here were graves like no other; with billboards advertising the occupants, many with life-size, wide format portraits of the departed souls. There were some with garden benches for prospective visitors to the graves. Vanity upon vanity; there were empty tombs with built up enclosures, some with marbles, others granites and palladium. Most had enclosures with glass and decorated wrought iron designs, complete with sliding glass doors. Some of those in attendant at the burial were hissing openly and loudly at the obscenity of the spectacles. It was a most odious sight to behold.

If men were remembered for their loudness and vain acts, perhaps it would have been worth their while. Unfortunately, these posers and spiritually ignorant beings are soon forgotten; they did not leave wells for people to drink from, neither did they leave mosques or madrasas nor did they leave worthy children who would continue to pray for them and carry their flags after their demise.

Why are men so vain? The vain creature is an irreligious being, as he is devoid of compassion and empathy for his fellow man. All he knows, is about himself and his image. He goes to any length to look good and accepted. In all he does, he plays to the gallery. He donates the fattest offering in the church or mosque, but insist it must be announced for all to know; he is always at the front row in the Friday prayer in the mosque and he has a reserved seat in the front pew in the cathedral. It is however a very sad commentary on our belief and faith that we have carried this odious behavior to the cemetery. The idiocy of human vanity makes one reflect deeply on the whole purpose of life. Why are we here? What is the whole essence of man? Where are we going from here?

Allah says, “I have not created men except that they should serve Me” (Quran, 51:56). This life is a preparation for the Hereafter the ‘Eternal Home’ that will not be going to an end to which all human beings ultimately go. So, Muslims are required to observe righteousness in their daily life, based on Quranic teachings.

In another verse of Quran Allah Almighty says that:

“Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion and adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children – like the example of a rain whose [resulting] plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes [scattered] debris. And in the Hereafter is severe punishment and forgiveness from Allah and approval. And what is the worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion.” (Quran 57:20)

No doubt, all those billboards and fancy epitomes of vanity will wither away with the passage of time and their owners and offspring’s will have a lot to answer for on the Day of Reckoning. Vanity is an emptiness or uselessness of things and Solomon wrote more about vanity than any other author in the Bible and more so in Ecclesiastes where vanity is mentioned 32 of the 35 times in the Bible. We also read in 2^nd Timothy 3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. A great admonition indeed!

Those who have ears should listen now!

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend

+2348033110822

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Supreme Court Reserves Judgment in Appeal over Nullified PDP Convention

Published

59 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

Eric

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by the Taminu Turaki-led group of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the conduct of the party’s national convention, held last year in Ibadan, Oyo State.

A five-member panel of the apex court announced on Wednesday that its judgment would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all parties in the appeal.

Justice Garba Mohammed, who led the five-member panel, made the announcement shortly after lawyers representing parties in the appeal adopted their processes as briefs of their arguments for and against the appeal.

The appeal was filed by the Turaki-led group’s national executives of the party who emerged from the convention.

They had approached the apex court to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had nullified the convention for being held in disobedience of a valid order of the court.

While adopting their brief of argument filed on April 2, the appellants, through their team of lawyers led by Paul Erokoro (SAN), urged the Supreme Court not only to allow their appeal but also to dismiss a cross-appeal lodged against them by a leadership group in the party aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

Meanwhile, Lamido, who was represented by J. C. Njikonye (SAN), as well as the Wike-backed group represented by Joseph Daudu (SAN), filed preliminary objections seeking dismissal of the appeal.

The respondents insisted that, contrary to the contention by the Turaki-led group, the appeal did not fall within the sphere of the PDP’s internal affairs.

It was the respondents’ position that both the high court and the appellate court had rightly exercised jurisdiction over the matter.

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment last year, restrained the then-Ambassador Iliya Damagum-led National Executive Committee of the PDP from proceeding with the convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Justice Lifu had ordered that the convention should not hold until an aspirant to the office of national chairman, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, is allowed to purchase interest and nomination forms to enable him to participate in the convention for the election of national officers.

The party, however, went ahead to conduct the convention in disregard of the orders of the court.

The PDP had predicated its action to conduct the convention on the grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to stop the convention, as the issue brought before it was an internal matter of the PDP, which no court has jurisdiction to delve into.

However, the appellate court in its judgment last month disagreed that the issue at the trial court was an internal affair of a political party, which courts cannot entertain.

The three-member panel of the appellate court subsequently nullified the outcome of the convention for being held in disobedience to the orders of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Dissatisfied, the PDP approached the apex court, praying it to accept the appeal against the lower court judgment, set the judgment aside, and hold that the issue was an internal matter of the PDP, which both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain.

However, the respondents in the appeal urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and hold otherwise.

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LP: Nenadi Usman Floors Julius Abure at Appeal Court

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2026

Eric

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed by Julius Abure challenging the legitimacy of the Nenadi Usman-led leadership of the Labour Party (LP).

A three-member panel of the appellate court, in a Tuesday judgment, unanimously affirmed the January 21 judgment by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which upheld the legitimacy of the 29-member caretaker committee of the LP, led by Senator Usman.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi, which Justices Abba Mohammed and Eberechi Nyesom-Wike agreed with, the appellate court held that the earlier Supreme Court judgment conclusively settled the leadership dispute within the LP by nullifying the convention that purportedly returned Abure as National Chairman.

Justice Lifu had, in the January 21 judgment, relied on an April 4, 2025, decision of the Supreme Court, which held that Abure’s tenure as the party’s National Chairman had expired. The judgment directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Senator Usman and other members of her committee as the legitimate leaders of the party, to the exclusion of all others.

The court further held that the lower court had the power under Section 251 of the Constitution to compel a statutory Federal government agency to perform its functions when it ordered INEC to recognize Senator Nenadi Usman as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.

It was equally agreed with the trial court that constituting the LP’s caretaker committee, headed by Usman, was a doctrine of necessity required to provide leadership in the party when a vacuum appeared to exist.

The court faulted Abure’s claim that the trial court denied him a fair hearing and accused him of abusing the court process.

The court also accused Abure of forum shopping by appearing before the Nasarawa State High Court in a case already decided by the Supreme Court, and of persisting in the claim the party’s leadership despite the apex court’s clear and unambiguous pronouncement.

It held that the appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/255/2026, was devoid of merit and constituted an abuse of court process.

“On the whole, I agree with the decision and conclusion of the trial court as the same, being in accordance with the Constitution,” Justice Oyewumi held, adding that the lower court reached a reasonable conclusion that the Court of Appeal cannot fault.

While dismissing the appeal, the court awarded him costs of N10 million for wasting the court’s time on an issue that had already been conclusively determined.

Earlier, the court held that Nenadi Usman, as a juristic person, had the right to file the case before the trial court, and that the trial court had jurisdiction to hear and determine the case.

The court also rejected Abure’s allegation that the lower court denied him a fair hearing, noting that the claim lacked any basis.

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Tinubu Sacks Edun, Appoints Oyedele As Finance Minister

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2026

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has approved a minor cabinet reshuffle in the membership of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

According to a memo signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, two cabinet members, Mr. Wale Edun and Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa are to leave the cabinet while their replacements have been named.

A statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yomi Odunuga, on Tuesday evening, said Edun, until the latest development, was the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

“He has been directed to hand over to Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, who is now to take over as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. Oyedele was formerly a Minister of State in the ministry.

“Also Mr. Muttaqha Rabe Darma (PhD.) has been named as the ministerial nominee and minister-designate for the Housing and Urban Development Ministry,” Odunuga stated.

The memo also directed Dangiwa to hand over to the Minister of State in the ministry pending Darma’s confirmation.

The memo stated that “all handing over and taking over processes should be completed on or before close of business on Thursday 23rd April, 2026.”

Explaining the President’s decision, Odunuga quoted Akume as saying: “These changes are aimed at strengthening cohesion, synergy in governance as well as achieving more impactful delivery on the economy to Nigerians, through the Renewed Hope Agenda.”

He said the President, in approving the cabinet reshuffle, has fully exercised his powers as conferred on him by Sections 147 and 148 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended).

The President thanked the outgoing ministers for their services to the nation while wishing them the best in all their future endeavours.

The President, Akume noted, equally assured all cabinet members that “the process of reinvigoration shall be continuous.”