By Babatunde Jose

“O children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer; eat and drink; but waste not by excess, for God loves not the wasters.” (Quran 7:31) 

Nigeria will not cease to amaze discerning observers; few countries have as much epigraphs of waste and abandoned projects as we have. The landscape of this country is littered with over 20,000 abandoned projects or ‘epitomes of waste’. Everywhere you look the eyesores convey a country festooned with a political class for whom discontinuity and shortsightedness have been elevated into an art of form. Some of these projects have assumed a life of their own; some of them, spanning over forty years. The cost of these abandoned projects   in terms of financial, economic and socio-economic losses is simply beyond measure. Apart from readily serving as conveyor belts through which money is laundered, they are also ignoble epitaphs of corruption.

Kenechukwu Obiezu commenting on this sorry state said:” this invidious legacy is merely a symptom and not a cause, nursed and condoned successively much to our own harm. It is indeed a symptom of the diseased governance we have gleefully entrenched; estates padded up with white elephant projects and utopian promises, shocking short sightedness, lack of experience in leadership, conspicuous poverty of promising antecedents and poorly concealed predilection for avarice and idolatry, we choose other relatively insignificant considerations. Poorly informed and even more impoverished in vision and vigilance, we condone and let ourselves be whipped into nauseating queues of ethnic, religious and fiscal jingoists.”

In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan empaneled the Abandoned Projects Audit Commission. Its report told the story of a country on the verge of abandoning even its own soul. The Commission estimated that about 11,886 Federal Government projects were abandoned in the country in the last 40 years. On May 26, 2016, the former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Emeka Eze, revealed that the number of government projects abandoned across the country stood at 19,000. The trend has obviously been on the rise.

During a burial ceremony at the old Ikoyi cemetery, Alhaji Femi Okunnu on looking at the abandoned Federal Secretariat Complex could not hide his lamentation. That was a complex that could be described as the crowning jewel of his tenure as our longest serving Federal Commissioner of Works during the Yakubu Gowon Military Administration. The abandoned Federal Secretariat has been laying waste for over 30 years.

In Lagos alone, we can cite other monuments of waste such as the Trade Fair Complex; purpose-built exhibition halls and offices, complete with a lake motel, restaurants and an amphitheater: It was abandoned for inexplicable reasons and farmed out to motor spare part sellers while today, trade fairs are held at the TBS a complex that was built to serve as a parade ground. Haba!

The most shameful of all the monuments of waste are the 40-year-old, multi-billion-dollar Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the Mambilla Hydroelectric Project.

The Ajaokuta saga started in 1976, when the Federal Government of Nigeria under General Olusegun Obasanjo, signed a global contract with TyajzPromExport (TPE) of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the establishment of the Ajaokuta Steel project. The proposed date of completion was 1986 but it was never completed till date, due to policy inconsistencies and massive project corruption for which no one was ever punished. According to Professor Kole Omotosho, the project was abandoned “after it had become one of the bottomless drainpipes of the national coffers.”

In 1986, former President Babangida signed a new contract with the same Soviet firm, the TPE, with a new completion date of 1989. The project was also later abandoned when it was nearly completed, and no reason was given for its abandonment till date.

In all, Nigeria spent $5bn on the Ajaokuta Steel Complex project which was supposed to cost $650m. In anticipation of its going on stream, Nigeria was listed as the 40th steel producing nation in the world but, by 2010 the country was no longer listed at all. Shameless nation!

It is instructive to note that during its period in the wilderness, the country spent over N2.1 trillion on steel importation: A nation of wastrels! It is sad to note that “During the same period, the TPE successfully completed on schedule, steel complex projects for various countries around the world including China, South Korea and Brazil.

Another dimension to the Ajaokuta debacle is the story of the Itakpe/Ajaokuta/Warri standard gauge railway line. Construction began in 1987 on an industrial railway to supply the Ajaokuta Steel Mill with iron ore and coal. After a protracted construction period of more than 30 years, the railway was finally inaugurated in 2020 as a mixed freight and passenger line. Construction is underway on an extension to Abuja, where it will connect to the Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway. But ironically, the steel mill is yet to start production.

BEWILDERINGLY, Nigeria has become a cauldron of white elephants, one of the most symbolic of the lot should be the Mambilla hydropower plant located in Taraba State, which was initiated during the Shehu Shagari administration in 1982. Forty-two years later, the 3,050-megawatt project is yet to generate one watt of electricity. One phrase sums up this fiasco: shame of a nation.

The project is billed to be a game-changer in a nation reeling under the crushing weight of poor power generation capacity that only intermittently attains a temporary peak of 4,600MW. In terms of scope, the project is the biggest hydroelectric dam in Africa. The Mambilla project has been stalled in spite of the seeming efforts of successive governments to get it off the ground. It is rather unfortunate that the project which is in the running for over 40 years is still mired in corruption scandal of unimaginable proportion, spanning several administrations.

With the grim picture we have painted, Nigeria’s hope of becoming a technologically developed country would remain a mirage if corruption and waste are not immediately addressed. Added to this is a litany of woes: Botched privatization imposed on the nation by SAP in the 80s. Privatized companies in the steel sector that used to employ up to 20,000 workers now have less than 4,000 after the exercise.

Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN) in February 2022, after about five decades of operating the Peugeot assembly plant, relinquished the brand and opted for two Chinese brands, Chery and Higer.

The Nigerian Sugar Company (NISUCO), Bacita, used to employ about 40,000 workers before it became moribund. The company had over 30,000 hectares of sugarcane farm with a production capacity of 300 metric tonnes of sugarcane per day.

In 2006, the Josepdam Group paid $49m to acquire NISUCO, and its name was changed to Josepdam Sugar Company.

Unfortunately, the story changed. The situation on the ground now is nothing but a sorry sight as the company has since gone under, after the demise of its owner who died in a plane crash. Production in the sugar estate has stopped since 2011.

The few workers left at the place have not tasted sugar from the factory for many years. Even their wages have remained unpaid for years.

Because sugarcane was no longer grown on the vast expanse of land, which was left idle for so long, residents of Bacita took over the land and turned it to rice plantations.

In 2016, AMCON took over control of Josepdam Sugar Company, as the owners could not repay its outstanding debts.

There are many ‘Bacita Sugar’ companies in the country begging for resuscitation, but with the lackadaisical attitude of our governments to abandoned and moribund projects, such projects will continue to languish in waste and the country will continue to suffer.

The Zuma Steel rolling mill in Jos and the Osogbo Steel Rolling Mill and the Nigeria Machine Tools Company have become moribund.

Stakeholders in the state of Osun have bemoaned the abandonment of the Steel Rolling Mill and Nigeria Machine Tools, calling for the review of the privatisation of the industries. Both of them were privatized in November 2005. Their continual closure has cost the nation billions of naira.  Other steel companies sold include: The Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe in Kogi State; Delta Steel Company, Ovwian Aladja and The Katsina Rolling Mill. Of all these, it is only the Katsina Rolling Mill that is functioning, while the Delta Steel Company is operating at around 10 per cent capacity.

No doubt, if indeed such a monumental number of wastes could be chalked up by the Federal Government, a fortiori, the state Governments must be faring a lot worse.

The Oodua Group, an investment and business conglomerate owned by the Southwest states is a classic case of the topic under review. It’s Cocoa Industry that used to produce Vitalo, which rivaled Ovaltine, Milo and Bournvita in those days has become moribund.

Daily Sketch in Ibadan also went the same way including Cashew Industry and Askar Paint in Ibadan are all languishing in the dustbin of history.

Nigeria Romania Wood Industry, in Ondo State is also dead, despite its great promise and potential with its own dedicated forest. Founded in 1974, less than fifteen years after the company began operations, it went down the drain, a situation which some experts in tree planting and environment, linked with the rise in the felling and burning of economic trees and deforestation. NIROWI, situated in a large area of land of over 40 hectares abandoned over the years has become the den of kidnappers, joints of ritualists and the centre of illegal activities.

The same fate befell, Oluwa Glass Industry at Igbokoda, which at one time was producing windshields for cars. TINAPA: A N60bn investment in Cross River State has gone moribund.

How did we get to this sorry state? This is a matter for serious conjecture and sober reflection. It is however borne of a culture of neglect and abandonment: A lackadaisical and unwholesome attitude which has turned erstwhile leaders into traitorous scoundrels and scallywags.

Evil has spread over the land and the sea because of corruption and hence, Allah will cause some people to suffer so that perhaps they will return to Him. (Quran 30:41)

Our leaders should remember: The Gates of Hell are not closed.

Barka Juma’at and happy weekend. 

+2348033110822

By Babatunde Jose

“When the citizens of a nation deem their most accomplished thieves as the most electable, then they lose the right to complain when theft becomes their national creed.”- Modibo Keita (1915-1977)

The plight of millions of abandoned Nigerians who today are languishing in poverty and squalor signposts a collateral ‘damage’ of the huge wastage of our ‘God-given’ resources.

In ‘The Last Show of a Wasted Generation’, Adeola Aderounmu berated the supposed millions of passive citizens for contributing to our current woes –

“The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerian has made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity. By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerian have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children. Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria.”

Passive citizenry is one of the causes of our retrogression as a nation. We resigned our fate to and acquiesce to the thievery and brigandage being perpetrated by our leaders and often at times take part in the looting and savoring the forbidden fruit.

We are, therefore, equally guilty of the fate that befell us. By acts of omission and mass commission, we allowed marauders to get away with impunity. Those who defrauded our common patrimony are today walking freely and amassing national and traditional accolades; the choice hilltop addresses are reserved for them.

We watch with mouth agape as they dole out billions to purchase private jets, SUVs, mansions, and estates: Playing ‘kalokalo’ with monies of a lifetime. Yet, the mass of the populace are impoverished and pauperized, wallowing in hunger, want and poverty.

The debauchers who gorge the nation’s wealth and fritter its assets in the realization of their gluttonous hedonism are today feeding fat on their loot to the detriment of the impoverished masses.

Our parliaments are filled to the bursting brim with men of doubtful pedigree, knaves, dubious characters, drug barons, and political marabouts.  They are bereft of mission or vision and are propelled only by the allure of monies to be shared and proceeds of looting of the exchequer.  They are not nation builders like their ancestors, and neither are they role models for their descendants.

The younger generation has been socialized into the ignoble mores, values and ethos of their fathers and has evolved deviant and devilish idiosyncrasies to uphold those criminal and delinquent values. Their hopes and aspirations are all focused on becoming like their fathers. We are in trouble! Another generation has been wasted!

Our youths seem content to file behind old politicians like area boys, hailing ‘twale’ with their hand raised. Rather than get organized and form a strong mass organization with fresh ideas to wrestle leadership from the antiquated regime, and chart a course for their generation, Nigerian youths are being used as enforcers of the old order: They are content to serve as social and political pimps and gigolos.

Alcoholism, drugs and the easy life has become the order of the day; and they are not immune to the corrupt and criminal tendencies of the older generation. Rather than raise a voice against crime, corruption and impunity, they are content to feed off the crumbs from the same politicians who have been plundering the country since independence. Omo ‘ole jo baba, k’ama binu omo. We cannot grudge a child for resembling the father; can we? Yet, there are some who have seized the mantle of positive and purposeful leadership from their fathers; they are few. But, we need more of them.

In 1983, late Chinua Achebe in his seminal work: The Trouble with Nigeria, declared that, “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a problem of leadership” and of the inability or unwillingness of leaders to rise to “the challenge of personal example.” Very true, as is exemplified by the misrule of post military Republic; 16 years of the locust and 8 years of the ‘undertaker’, both Evil agents of ruination! Will the current administration renew our hope?

About the same time, a disappointed Wole Soyinka had observed that, “after a quarter of a century of witnessing and occasionally participating in varied aspects of social struggle in all their shifting tempi, dimensions, pragmatic and sometimes even ideologically oriented goals, I feel at this moment that I can only describe my generation as the wasted generation, frustrated by forces which are readily recognizable, which can be understood and analyzed but which nevertheless have succeeded in defying whatever weapons such ‘understanding’ has been able to muster towards their defeat.” WS 

But little did this conscience of society know that successive leaders would make the situation worse. Nigeria is a country that has never risen beyond its potential. We remain the ‘sleeping giant’, while our potentials were never harnessed for greatness: Even in mundane areas such as sports; a country of 200 million cannot assemble 22 players to form a formidable soccer team or develop its youths to excel in athletics.

In a Netflix 6-part sports documentary series titled SPRINT, elite sprinters navigate training, media scrutiny and fierce competition following their race to become the world’s best. It is sad to note that no Nigerian athlete was featured in the documentary.

Today those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria, and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage: Criminal politicians and soldiers of fortune, who have been recycled and patently overused.

We had opportunities to become a great nation, but we blew them; our oil boom became an ‘oil doom’ as our wealth was frittered away by ‘leaders’ who behaved like drunken sailors.

Our educational system has also contributed to the failure to raise patriotic future leaders. Public education has suffered a gradual but steady decline. Why won’t it decline when ASUU has gone on strike cumulatively for almost 5 years since 1999.

The country has witnessed a massive brain drain that led to the depletion of human resources at the nation’s tertiary institutions. Those who would have remained in the country to help salvage the rot, checked out like Andrew; in what Pat Utomi described as ‘the generation that left town’.

There is no doubt; we have had good leaders in the past. Though they may have been challenged by bigotries and sectarian attitudes: They may have been irredentists, geo-political gladiators or tribal champions, but by God, they had some ideas. They articulated their dreams for their country as they saw it. But their best was not good enough.

Today, the leadership crisis refers to a glaring lack of alternatives to a bankrupt political class. There are still politicians who describe themselves as disciples of the patriarchs; but these self-styled disciples have distinguished themselves only by their ready abandonment of their mentors’ principles.

The sons and daughters of our past leaders would have changed the course of this country if they had exhibited greater fidelity to their fathers’ principles. As soon as our democracy was truncated by Abacha, the so-called Awoists were jostling to serve the ‘goggled’ General. It marked the greatest low in the camp of the so-called progressives. What manner of ‘discipleship’? The cases of some were particularly disturbing and heart rending. It was a season of political backsliding and apostasy.

According to Olaniyan Olumuyiwa, commenting on our declaration of Abiola as a hero of democracy, in our hunger for heroes: “We forgot in a hurry that Abiola was manufactured by the CIA (read ITT) and the Nigerian militocracy. It was even said that he sponsored the coup that ousted Buhari; and which held democracy hostage for eight years. What goes round comes round. It was the same military friends that eventually annulled his electoral victory. See Max Siollun: Soldiers of Fortune; A History of Nigeria (1963-1993).

The truth is that most public officers who administered this country should be vilified and not praised. They brought us to the point where we are. “We live in a “republic of mediocrity” – a realm in which the best is possible but never achieved; where common criminals attain power and are serenaded for their villainy by a dysfunctional society and a bankrupt state; where politics is about the distribution of the spoils of office and defined by the absence of ideas or principles.” Olaniyan Olumuyiwa

Unfortunately, many of today’s leaders were youths 30 years ago. Where do we draw the line? It is pathetic that we continue to recycle those who contributed to our predicament: It implies an unwillingness of the present generation to ‘jettison survivalism and gerontocratic’ tendencies. Ideally, these veterans ought to retire and become living fossils in our ‘political museum’. There is therefore a dangerous vacuum of leadership and ideas in our society.

Despite their high level of education, intellectual capacity and proven acts of patriotism, Nigerian youths have been grossly corrupted. They have succumbed to the allurement of position, power and money, seeing these as their only means of survival: The present generation, like its predecessor, is fast wasting away. It would be a monumental tragedy if the rot is allowed to continue. Whither my country?

“What is a Nation’s foundation if not its People?” Asks Abimbola Daniyan. “To build a strong Nation, you primarily focus on building the People’s capacities and capabilities and positively deploy them in order to build the Nation and Country. By the People, we mean the majority of the population, essentially young people in Nigeria’s case. They are the vast reservoir of its strength, potential and possibilities. Overpaying big men and women enjoying the privileges of wealth mostly stolen from denying the majority the fair share of resources won’t help build this country. Any Government by whatever name which does the contrary is destructive and does not deserve to be there even for one day.

“Somebody must call a stop to the nonsense that passes for governance and Government in Nigeria before it finally sends this country into an intractable state of unrest like we are seeing in country after country now.”

There are 200 million solutions to our problems, seeing that we are all part of the problems. Our attitude would therefore determine our altitude!

Prayer!!!

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray. (Quran 1:1-7)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend

By Babatunde Jose

In exasperation a reader once commented: “The passivity of Nigerians, young and old, is largely due to our faith in divine intervention as indoctrinated by our various religions.  His conclusion is germane to the discussion under review.

Our people are lost in the ‘Lord’s Vineyard’. Like Quest in the maze, we are searching for salvation, wealth, and prosperity in the ‘prayer-house’ instead of through gainful economic pursuit. No nation is as prayerful as Nigeria. We pray to God to intervene in every aspect of our life, even in those things we ought to have labored on our own. We see God as a magician who will contradict the laws of nature on our behalf; by resorting to miracles in our lives.

We pray for deliverance from known and unknown sources, we pray for money to descend unto us like manna from heaven; we pray for cars and sometimes houses when our salaries cannot buy us a bicycle or rent us a room at Makoko.

We ask God for children we cannot cater for because we believe that Allah will provide; in the process we exacerbate our economic woes. We spend quality and productive time in prayer and worship at the expense of the search for daily bread.

While honest men are going about their quest for daily bread, the multitude, in search of spiritual shortcut to prosperity, congregate in mosques and churches; especially those churches of syncretistic nature such as the Pentecostals, white garment and their ilk. Some even journey afar to the outskirts of the towns to prayer cities. Engaging in money rituals is a topic for another day.

Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, or the gospel of success) is a religious belief which holds that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth.

Prosperity theology views the Bible as a contract between God and man: if humans have faith in God, he will deliver security and prosperity. The teaching made popular by influential leaders in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement in the United States has spread throughout the world.

Prominent leaders in the development of prosperity theology include E. W. Kenyon, Oral Roberts, A. A. Allen, Robert Tilton, T. L. Osborn, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Reverend Ike, and Kenneth Hagin: The theology is often based on non-traditional interpretations of Bible verses, with the Book of Malachi often being given special attention. An observer said “they engage in charismatic error, which goes far beyond nonsense gibberish, spirit slaying, “holy laughter,” and “spiritual drunkenness. They claim a special anointing of God’s Spirit. They claim double blessings and triple anointings and super Spirit baptisms. They claim to operate in the Spirit and flow in the Spirit and talk in the Spirit and prophecy in the Spirit and laugh in the Spirit and soak in the Spirit and even get drunk in the Spirit. They claim to have the “full gospel” and the “four square gospel” and to operate in the “five-fold ministry.” Many are con-men and fraudulent but incidentally they continue to bamboozle their followers.”

On a good day you will see a hoard of able-bodied souls putting on human signposts of different hues, proclaiming one religious activity or the other. Crusades, revivals, conventions, deliverances, and holy ghosts have taken our time rather than hard work.

Yet, the good book tells us that faith without work is dead: James 2:17 “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” No matter the amount of Grace you receive, without work, UPS will not deliver a parcel of money to you.

Meanwhile, the con-artists who now go by the name ‘men of God’ are busy ripping off the congregants and living it big, in superlative splendor; posing with Rolls Royce’s and private jets; with palaces in choice areas to match.  These are not the ingredients of a serious people or a nation that is aspiring to evolve and escape the vicious cycle of poverty.

Prosperity theology has been criticized by leaders from various Christian denominations, including within the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, who maintain that it is irresponsible, promotes idolatry, and is contrary to scripture. According to Philip Jenkins of Pennsylvania State University, “poor citizens of impoverished countries often find the doctrine appealing because of their economic powerlessness and the doctrine’s emphasis on miracles. One region seeing explosive growth is Western Africa, particularly Nigeria.”

While the Europeans and North Americans are making giant strides in science and technology, we are busy congregating at ‘waasi’ and Asalatu. We are not ashamed of being labelled stupid and gullible specimens of Homo sapiens.

We would never copy the right attitude from those who have managed to escape the poverty trap. Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates are Islamic nations but boast superb economic achievements. China is neither a Christian or Islamic nation, they have crossed the Rubicon of poverty; the same could be said of India, which has a majority Hindu population:  And on festivities, the crowd would put to shame the population of pilgrims of the largest Hajj: Once in every 12 years, tens of millions of Hindus gather in Allahabad for what is thought to be the largest religious meeting in the world — the Maha Kumbh Mela. In 2013, the gathering drew between 30 million to 80 million people, who camped on banks of the Ganges. Despite this, Indians have dominated the IT world, and they now export knowledge to the United States and other nations that require the services of software gurus, including Nigeria. Most of our banks depend on software developed in Bangalore, India.

We are noted only for the export of spiritualism in the form of ‘Redeemed’ churches in Europe and America, including Brotherhood of the Cross and Star in Elephant and Castle in London.

From America the prosperity message has permeated the whole world, most notably Nigeria where two of the biggest promoters are David Oyedepo, whose Canaan land church seats 55,000, and Enoch Adeboye, who’s Redeemed Christian Church of God claims branches in over one hundred countries, 14,000 branches in Nigeria, and 5 million members in Nigeria alone. In 2008 Newsweek magazine listed him as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world: Our own version of Einstein. Useless people: while other nations pride themselves as making strides in technology, we are busy debating collection of tithes: Five of our pastors are constant fixtures on the Forbes list of the ‘World Richest Pastors’.

In 2005, Matthew Ashimolowo, the founder of the largely African Kingsway International Christian Centre in southern England, which preaches a “health and wealth” gospel and collects regular tithes, was ordered by the Charity Commission to repay money he had appropriated for his personal use. In 2017, the organization was again under criminal investigation after a leading member was found by a court in 2015 to have operated a Ponzi scheme between 2007 and 2011, losing or spending £8 million of investors’ money.

The Charity Commission reported that senior pastor Matthew Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity, in contravention of charity law. He had been responsible for approving payments and benefits to himself and his wife, Yemisi, totaling more than £384,000. Benefits received included free accommodation for himself and family, an £80,000 car, purchase of a timeshare in Florida for £13,000 using a charity credit card, and over half a million pounds paid out to Ashimolowo’s private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity. £120,000 was spent celebrating Ashimolowo’s birthday. He repaid £200,000 to the charity. Here in Nigeria, Ashimolowo would have been untouchable.

The sad part of this is that of our Moslem brothers and sisters, now ape the churches by their convocation of what they now call Asalatu on Sundays.  Islam recommends five daily prayers which at any time does not last more than 5 to 7 minutes with the Friday prayer lasting 30 minutes. You are also encouraged to wake up at night to talk to your God and make supplications. Islam does not tax its adherents. We have only two annual festivals or Eids (Eid al Fitr and Eid Adha). We now waste valuable time competing with our Christian brethren in the time-wasting pursuit and search of a God who is not lost. The Holy Quran, Chapter 62; Sura Jumuah specifically tells us:

“O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday (the Day of Assembly), hasten earnestly to the remembrance of Allah, and leave off business (and traffic): That is best for you if ye but knew! And when the Prayer is finished, then may ye disperse through the land, and seek of the Bounty of Allah: And celebrate the Praises of Allah often (and without stint): That ye may prosper.” (Quran 62:9-10)

The idea behind the Muslim weekly “Day of Assembly” is different from that behind the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) or the Christian Sunday. The Jewish Sabbath is primarily a commemoration of Allah’s ending His work and resting on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2; Exod. 20:11): we are taught that Allah needs no rest, nor does He feel fatigue (Sura 2:255). The Jewish command forbids work on that day but says nothing about worship or prayer (Exod. 20:10); our ordinance lays chief stress on the remembrance of Allah.

Jewish formalism went so far as to kill the spirit of the Sabbath and called forth the protest of Jesus: “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark. 2:27). 

Our teaching says: `When the time for Jumu’ah Prayer comes, close your business and answer the summons loyally and earnestly, meet earnestly, pray, consult and learn by social contact; when the meeting is over, scatter and go about your business’. In short, Allah is asking us to go to work. There is no food for a lazy man! Unfortunately for us, faith does not grant man prosperity; only hard work does.

The purpose of faith and belief in an ‘unseen God’ is to shape and nurture our moral values and spiritual upliftment. Let us not be deceived, even if your faith is as big as Mount Kilimanjaro, it cannot move a mustard seed

; only knowledge and technology can. We should stop wasting our faith in the pursuit of a God who is not lost: It is we who are lost and God has sent his prophets and the ‘books’ to guide us and lead us to the right path: If only we knew.

“Ih dinas-siratal mustaqeem” Show us the straight way (Quran 1:6)

Barka Juma’at and happy weekend