The main auditorium of the Women’s Development Centre, Abuja was the
venue, on Sunday 22nd March 2015 of a _National Muslim Women Town Hall
Meeting_ organised by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Islamic Affairs & State House Mosque, _Barrister Tahir
Umar Tahir_. The auditorium was full with mainly women from various
Muslim organisations; there were some men also, not more than 1% of the
participants anyway, which included some imams, _Islamiyyah_ school
teachers, paper presenters and representatives of the Muslim _Students
Society (MSS)_.
I was invited to the event as a discussant in a
letter dated 12th March 2015 and signed by the SSA, Barrister Tahir Umar
Tahir himself, which read in part:
“In continuation of the
series of sensitization programmes in order to promote the need for the
conduct of peaceful and violent (sic) free elections, I wish to
respectfully notify you that my office is scheduled to hold
sensitization/town hall meeting for 1500 Preachers, Imams, &
Islamiyya school teachers of the FCT, Abuja.
“3. You are kindly
requested to be A DISCUSSANT at the event. Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.)
Patience Goodluck Jonathan (MAMA PEACE), First Lady, Federal Republic of
Nigeria is expected to be the Special Guest of Honour at the event….”
From two other papers attached with the above letter, I understood that
the ‘Lead Presenter’ of the paper I will discuss, with four other
discussants, was _Ustaz Bashir Mundi_, who, during his presentation
modified the topic to “Peaceful Elections” instead of “Violence-Free
Elections”, because, according to him, ‘the former reflects more
proactively the broader Islamic objective of spreading peace, love and
mercy universally’.
What I am trying to establish is the fact that
none of the documents sent to me, from the letter of invitation to the
conference papers, indicated that the National Muslim Women Town Hall
Meeting was a political event or campaign event for any presidential
candidate. Given the information communicated to me by the SSA to the
President on Islamic Affairs & State House, Barrister Tahir, I came
to the Town Hall Meeting with the intention of discussing Violence-Free
Elections from an Islamic perspective. I shall revert to this aspect
when I discuss the arrival of Her Excellency, Mama Peace, in the Second
Session of the event.
Before the First Session of the meeting,
Barrister Tahir Umar Tahir made invited speakers at the event to
understand the need to ensure formal decorum, quietude and orderliness
on the part of the audience in the presence of the Special Guest of
Honour, the First Lady. He was very explicit on the exception that some
of her handlers took over her coming to the event to avert a repeat of
the hurling of pebbles at her husband during some of his campaign tours
in the Northern part of the country. Barrister Tahir was able to
convince Mama Peace, however, ‘that all would be well.’ And on the
strength of these assurances by the Barrister, Her Excellency overruled
her security details and gave her word on attending the meeting
regardless of the consequences.
Therefore, we all resolved to
address Barrister Tahir’s concern in our presentations, from the Lead
Presenter, Ustaz Bashir Mundi, to the four discussants - 1) Sheikh Musa
Olaofe, PhD, Imam, Ansar-Ud-Deen, Abuja, (who was not present during the
greater part of the First Session), 2) Sheikh Nura Khalid, Imam, Apo
Legislative Quarters, 3) Yours Sincerely from the Abuja National Mosque.
(I may have cause, in the future, to write on why some people are
uncomfortable with my being associated with the Abuja National Mosque,
especially in public functions. This is a discussion for another day),
and 4) Hajiya Raliat Akinbobola, Federation of Muslim Women Associations
of Nigeria (FOMWAN).
The speeches we gave were in English,
Yoruba, and Hausa languages, according to the proficiency of each
speaker in a local language, but all spoke in English before translating
into either Hausa or Yoruba. We devised this method of communication so
as not to misinform or leave anybody out as to the seriousness of
maintaining order when Her Excellency was around.
Each one of us
tried to show the position of Islam in the deference and honour a
Muslim should accord leaders. We emphasised that there was not to be
shouting, booing or interjection of abusive words when ‘Mama Peace’ was
delivering her speech. Those irrational behaviours we should leave for
hooligans and political touts, but this is a congregation of Muslim
representatives from various Islamic bodies; therefore, we must exhibit
discipline and adherence to the etiquette of public engagement between
the leader and the ruled in the presence of Madam Jonathan.
Security at the _Women’s Development Centre (WDC_) on that day could
only be compared with what we saw during Mr Bill Clinton’s visit in
August 2000. Soldiers, Police, Civil Defence Corps and members of the
DSS were everywhere outside, within the entire premises of the WDC, and
in the auditorium hours before the arrival of Mrs Jonathan. I do not
blame her security details for doing their job, given the current
insurgency challenges in the country, but the whole thing reminded me of
how tight the security was during Clinton’s visit to the same venue
about 15 years ago.
For this First Session of the Town Hall
Meeting under discussion, everybody was seated before 11 am after
passing through rigorous screening of their cars at the main gate of the
WDC, and other forms of search through metal /bomb detectors at various
entrances into the auditorium. Once you came into the premises of the
WDC, you could not go out for anything until after the end of the Second
Session later in the evening after the departure of Her Excellency, the
First Lady. If you went out, you forfeited your chance of participating
in the event, because you would not be allowed in a second time. The
SSA’s office provided takeaway lunch and water for all participants, and
there was no reason, hence, for anybody to leave the WDC in search of
food.
When some participants wanted to go and observe _Zuhr_
prayers within the WDC at the end of the First Session, they were
advised to carry their handbags with them because the security personnel
in charge of the auditorium would clear-away any unattended bags. This
instruction also reminded me of the airports where unattended baggage
will be collected and destroyed by security men.
The Second
Session saw the arrival of the long-awaited ‘Mama Peace’ who was
well-received by the audience. Some of the participants even exceeded
what our admonitions requested of them; they gave Her Excellency
standing ovation as she came on stage waving at the crowd of attendees
of the Town Hall Meeting. She got a raucous welcome from this
full-to-the-brim auditorium. Among the entourage of ‘Mama Peace’ were
Her Excellency, Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo, wife of the Vice President,
Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed, wife of the FCT Minister, and my sister and
‘mother’ Hajiya Zainab Maina, the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs,
among others.
During his Welcome Address to the gathering the SSA
to the President, Barrister Tahir Umar Tahir updated Mama Peace on the
composition of the audience, representing various Islamic organisations
and Muslim women associations. He went further to establish from
Qur’anic references what honour Allah has bestowed on womenfolk by, in
addition to countless favours, revealing a whole Surah An-Nisaa (Women)
in their name. The SSA said President Jonathan has achieved many
successes in the areas of appointing women to many positions, robust
handling of our security challenges, efficient tackling of the Ebola
Virus Disease (EVD) on the verge of Hajj 2014, and the Almajiri Schools.
Barrister Tahir ended his address by reminding the audience of working
for peace and respect for their leaders quoting Qur’an, Al-Furqaan,
25:63 to buttress his point.
I was disturbed and felt betrayed
when I noticed, with the prompting of some brothers and sisters at the
event, that truckloads of branded campaign ‘_gift_’ items were stationed
and offloaded outside the venue ready for distribution to participants.
I wondered sadly how a function meant to discuss peaceful elections
would be turned into a campaign avenue for Mama Peace. So, I resolved to
address the impropriety of stupefying unsuspecting Muslim
representatives by deceptively turning violence-free elections meeting
into a presidential campaign event for Mama Peace’s husband.
‘Your Excellency, Mama Peace,’ I began, when it was time for me to speak
as a discussant, ‘I have two requests to make to you humbly. Before you
came, we had to intimate the audience on the difference between a
political gathering and a religious one, and how to conduct ourselves as
Muslim representatives from various organisations in your presence.
And, Your Excellency can attest to that from the way you were warmly
received when you came in today. Therefore, my first request is to avoid
campaigning for anybody so that we can concentrate on the issue of the
day, namely, our role in peaceful elections. The conveners should have
invited the wives of other presidential candidates to make even
participation of stakeholders.
‘Your Excellency, Mama Peace, we
have not gathered today to support any political party or a presidential
candidate. This meeting is not the place for the distribution of any
branded gift items or money. We are here to discuss peace, period.
‘My second request, Your Excellency, is for you to seize this moment
and apologise for those bitter words you directed at us during some of
your electioneering assertions which I will not repeat here. That word
of apology will remove any rancour that may be lurking in our hearts
against you. The Bible says in *Matthew 5: 23-24* that if you come to
the altar with an offering to the Lord and you suddenly remember that
your brother has something against you, you should leave your gift at
the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother, then return and make
your offering.
‘Your Excellency, I respectfully request that you
do just that, and I am certain that many people in this hall and those
watching this event will relent towards you and even vote for your
husband, Mr President on Saturday. Thank you very much.’
Unfortunately, when Mama Peace stood up to speak, she failed to seize
the moment or grant any of the requests. She said it was not fitting for
anybody to ask her not to campaign for her husband’s reelection in an
event organised by people who are in their positions ‘by the grace of Mr
President and the PDP. If Jonathan is not there, they will not be
there. Those who gathered us here are appointees of Mr President.’
According to her, since it is campaign time, she has to seek votes for
Mr President.
She then began a vigorous campaign for her
husband’s re-election thereby frittering away the chance to be amenable
and reasonable. She seemed to think that the world revolves around her.
Her utterances betrayed an aggressive nature lurking behind the rustic
look of harmless innocence. I wrote earlier about her not so peaceful
declarations, the bulk of which I was requesting her to apologise for.
Alas, I did not estimate that anyone occupying that position could be so
blind to reason. Again, I wondered how ironic her nickname is.
*March 2015*
Date Published: Friday, February 7th, 2019
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