Blog
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Activate Religion to rescue Nigeria from Collapse
- On 15/09/2020
- In Special Report
Three things are fundamentally true in life-positive, negative, and neutral. In the electrical wiring system, the three have a significant role they play in helping us to generate light or to make machines work.The positive and negative work together for electrical circulation or to produce energy or to make mechanical work in the engine without the intervention of the neutral, the whole system may get burnt or disrupted, whenever there is an upsurge of thunder strike, if not for the third.However, this does not work in interpersonal relationships which mainly depends on the algebraic rule of addition that makes them be commutative. This is why Nigeria is having fundamental problems in the polity.Nigeria continues to face challenges and threats of insurgence, terrorism, poverty, and a lack of achieving sustainable development to date. The interest of the people with the mandate to rule, therefore, becomes personal with a lot of blood in their hands to protect their wealth.This is contrary to the concept of philanthropy, good governance, and passion for the needy which are necessary to run an all-inclusive government, while the able-bodied cry of been denied access to the good things of life, the marginalized ones such as the girl child, women and people with disabilities have no hope under this oppressive condition, rather than resort to faith.The religious sector must, therefore, get overhauled and sanitized, to be able to rescue humanity, ab initio Go created the heaven and the earth, Gen. 1: 1-2, ''At first the earth was completely empty or void'. Making the earth to be completely void was a deliberate action by God as a challenge for every human to toil through the principle of dignity of labor, process to cultivate an environment for habitation from a hut to a house, and with an emerging community.The essence of teamwork spirit and cooperative attitude, placing ideas together for the purpose of development and unity is hereby established by God for humankind to embrace as a culture.The Holy Quran corroborates this and warns people and nations that, for sustainable development, we must go through the due process of the fear of God by forming a formidable united front based on love.Quran 3: 102-104,'' Oh ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared and die not except in a state of Islam(piety, goodness, love, and legitimacy) And hold fast all together by the Rope which Allah stretches out of you, and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favor on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love so that by His grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the Pit of Fire and He saved you from it, doth Allah make His signs clear to you: Tha ye may be guided.If we are all scripture compliant with all consciousness on the need to apply by intuition what we have learned in our Churches, Mosques, and other faith-based organizations, our value system would have been in tandem with the scriptural dictates of Quran 3 :104:'' Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.''If we are able to follow this, our houses of God would promote and produce good and well-informed citizenry as well as credible leaders with a common focus on nutrition, health, and wellness of the people to be capable of enthroning the much needed sustainable development devoid of fraud, indiscipline, impunity, and corruption. Let's save Nigeria from collapse.Prof. Sabitu Olagoke
Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria
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Activate Religion to rescue Nigeria from Collapse
- On 15/09/2020
- In Special Report
Three things are fundamentally true in life-positive, negative, and neutral. In the electrical wiring system, the three have a significant role they play in helping us to generate light or to make machines work.The positive and negative work together for electrical circulation or to produce energy or to make mechanical work in the engine without the intervention of the neutral, the whole system may get burnt or disrupted, whenever there is an upsurge of thunder strike, if not for the third.However, this does not work in interpersonal relationships which mainly depends on the algebraic rule of addition that makes them be commutative. This is why Nigeria is having fundamental problems in the polity.Nigeria continues to face challenges and threats of insurgence, terrorism, poverty, and a lack of achieving sustainable development to date. The interest of the people with the mandate to rule, therefore, becomes personal with a lot of blood in their hands to protect their wealth.This is contrary to the concept of philanthropy, good governance, and passion for the needy which are necessary to run an all-inclusive government, while the able-bodied cry of been denied access to the good things of life, the marginalized ones such as the girl child, women and people with disabilities have no hope under this oppressive condition, rather than resort to faith.The religious sector must, therefore, get overhauled and sanitized, to be able to rescue humanity, ab initio Go created the heaven and the earth, Gen. 1: 1-2, ''At first the earth was completely empty or void'. Making the earth to be completely void was a deliberate action by God as a challenge for every human to toil through the principle of dignity of labor, process to cultivate an environment for habitation from a hut to a house, and with an emerging community.The essence of teamwork spirit and cooperative attitude, placing ideas together for the purpose of development and unity is hereby established by God for humankind to embrace as a culture.The Holy Quran corroborates this and warns people and nations that, for sustainable development, we must go through the due process of the fear of God by forming a formidable united front based on love.Quran 3: 102-104,'' Oh ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared and die not except in a state of Islam(piety, goodness, love, and legitimacy) And hold fast all together by the Rope which Allah stretches out of you, and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favor on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love so that by His grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the Pit of Fire and He saved you from it, doth Allah make His signs clear to you: Tha ye may be guided.If we are all scripture compliant with all consciousness on the need to apply by intuition what we have learned in our Churches, Mosques, and other faith-based organizations, our value system would have been in tandem with the scriptural dictates of Quran 3 :104:'' Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.''If we are able to follow this, our houses of God would promote and produce good and well-informed citizenry as well as credible leaders with a common focus on nutrition, health, and wellness of the people to be capable of enthroning the much needed sustainable development devoid of fraud, indiscipline, impunity, and corruption. Let's save Nigeria from collapse.Prof. Sabitu Olagoke
Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria
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Allow Religion to take its Divine Course
- On 07/09/2020
- In Special Report
The relevance of all religious houses is to complement the role of the home as an agent of socialization for humankind to be reformed from a state of ignorance to that of a complete agent of change and development by providing the supplement.The animal called man attending a faith-based house of worship is expected to be processed into a normal human being that would always exhibit characteristics that are based on a positive mindset.Adherents of all houses of God are, therefore, expected to have a positive self-image by been sure of himself or herself always as a relevant entity in any situation such an individual finds himself or herself. For an achievable feat to be recorded by an individual, a faith-based organization must be able to instill in the individual the culture of rational confidence.Furthermore, the house of God must be able to help society to promote the culture of integrity through the individual accepting self-esteem as a way of life.On the issue of interpersonal relationships that will help us all to live by the concept of keeping good neighborliness as obtained in Mk. 12: 31. Individual adherents must be cloned and cultured into having a positive mental attitude for him or her to be able to make the right decisions that are accurate, fair, and precise on critical issues from the simple to the state for ease fo relocation.This is the basis upon which the Holy Prophets including Abraham(ASW), Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ's parents-biological and social, Mary and Joseph, and the Holy Prophet Muhammad.In the case of the Holy Prophet Ibrahim, his relocation from Ur of Chaldeans to Caanan was regarded to be divine but happened to the best decision that brought light into the world up till today.Jesus Christ as a baby escaped the wrath of King Herod, who became jealously genocidal upon hearing fo the birth of Jesus Christ.His decision to take him to Egypt from Israel was divine and considered a wise decision because a mortal that runs away from trouble spots will ever have the opportunity of coming back at the appropriate time to deliver his message. One can imagine the greatest fortune brought to the whole world by challenging and dwarfing the principalities of darkness from the light to be a sustainable and preferred alternative for mankind.On the Holy Prophet Muhammad, his relocation from Mecca to Medina at the time of his greatest height of travail gave him the opportunity to continue to the cleaning exercise in Medina, later to conquer Mecca for God as a holy city that eventually became the home of light and salvation for mankind to realize his spiritual essence.Adherents, therefore, in every house of God are expected to be processed into good citizenship with the beneficial gain of the tranquility of the mind s well as the promotion of the culture of safety and security protocols for the society.However, all these behavioral objectives that would have endeared us into a perfect God/man relationship are absent amidst us mainly because the administration of the religious system in the country has fallen into the wrong hands of emergency economic driven religious leaders who drive the wheel of spiritual movement through God and mammon of the society to lack the substance of the much needed divine intervention in all human affairs. The recipe for this is for all individual adherents-males and females-to focus on the 10 religious nutrients to have the right spiritual strength as contained in Quran 33: 35-1)Total submission to the will of God. 2)Sincere belief is based on truth. 3) Scripture compliance. 4) Vanguard of truth. 5) Patience, perseverance, and endurance. 6) The fear of God as exemplified in due process. 7) Charity of the concept of charity. 8) Respect for fasting based on the concept of abstinence-soul purification from all evil thoughts and body preservation from sins and crimes. 9) Fidelity: no fornication, no incest, no pedophilia, no prostitution, and no adultery. 10) Constant remembrance of Allah or God exemplified in prayers, business, and routine transactions.Keeping to all these can be likened to a state of wellness based on the right nutrient combination in nutrition and a good state of health condition.Forgiveness of sins, divine protection through enhanced divine immunity are assured for true fulfillment of religious operational activities through just worship in an environment fo love as presented in Corinth. 1: 13 Be guided wisely.Prof. Sabitu Olagoke
Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria
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God's Promise
- On 03/09/2020
- In Special Report
12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
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Democracy can only Thrive When Govt Respects Human Rights-Prof. Olagoke
- On 03/09/2020
- In Special Report
Fundamental human rights are among major components in constitutions of countries across the globe. Sadly, in a sizable number of countries in Africa, the curtailment and derogation of the rights of citizens have become prominent in recent times.Arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, physical torture, and several other forms of inhuman treatment perpetrated by law enforcement and security agents have continued with impunity, with influential personalities in Nigeria featuring as sponsors. In the last five years or there about, an unspecified number of Nigerians have had their rights trampled upon with impunity. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabiut Olagoke opines that the Federal Government must cultivate the habit of respecting the rights of Nigerians for democracy to thrive. Excerpts :How can Government institutions established to ensure and protect the fundamental human rights of Nigerians be empowered in this democratic dispensation?The issue of respect for fundamental human rights became a serious concern for humanity after World war 2.Unfortunately, most African countries lead by deceit when it comes to the implementation stage of domesticated laws. Hence, the usual state of chaos and records of human rights violations as always recurring : arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, physical torture, and several other forms of inhuman treatment perpetrated by law enforcement and security agents. The violation of the rights of the people has different phases-behavioral, economic, environmental, etc. All these usually lead to the creation of a hostile environment for government activities in the areas of the provision of basic amenities leading to the introduction of poverty, hunger, and diseases while the areas of functional infrastructure as the backbone to the reality of industrialization equally suffer a lot to detriment of true development and the welfare of the people!Democratic governance can only thrive in an environment of respect for the people's rights which happen to be the focus of every faith-based organization in their expected activities of cloning the adherents into disciplined citizens. If this had been followed, the elements of patriotism for the nation to thrive and respect for our leaders to motivate them into good performances would have produced good synergy between government and the houses of worship in an environment of divinity in which peaceful co-existence is best realized.The respect for the human rights of Nigerians is sacrosanct to achieving a bequeath able legacy of sustainable development for the nation. -
An Executive and Legislative Agenda
- On 01/09/2020
- In Special Report
The government seems to have adopted strange methods in approaching issues of national interest and general concerns while at the same time promoting sectional and personal interests, even though its appointees have continuously contended with several nasty issues affecting governance and development.Attempting to bring back the water resources bill that was rejected in 2018 will never be in the interest of Nigerians.
The bill seeks to tamper with the land use act and empower those with self-centered agenda to further their hidden interests.
Obviously there are a number of those in government, who are desperate to control resources across the six geo-political zones, an agenda of the present administration that was never disclosed to Nigerians. This indeed has brought to the fore the anti-people plans of the Executive and the Legislature which would not augur well for a nation that is still struggling with its myriad of challenges.
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Nigerians should rescue Religion from its Captors-Prof. Olagoke
- On 27/08/2020
- In Special Report
Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right provided for in the 1999 amended constitution.The constitution also prohibits the adoption of an official religion by the government at all levels, just as the separation of government and religion is a constitutional imperative.
Indeed, religious leaders have crucial roles to play in making sure that the freedom of religion is assured for all Nigerians. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olgoke advise Nigerians to make concerted efforts to rescue Religion from those holding it captive. Excerpts :
How in your views do you think that present administration in Nigeria can ensure the separation of Government and Religion in a way that would not negatively affect the freedom of religion?
The clamor for restructuring needs to beam its searchlight into the areas of culture, religion, education, and government with respect to their freedom and interconnectivity ab initio by the design of nature or almighty God, there is no way you can separate one from the others because each of them focuses in terms of service and benefits on mankind and humanity.
The cultural segment is deceptively neglected but always sourced by the other three segments of existence. In the political arena, the Obaship, Emirship, and Obiship is more recognized by the segment than the religious sector because the apex bodies of these segments are regarded as the custodians of our culture and traditions which are the primary functions to be jealously guided by the regarded fathers of the land through whom government or political parties believed to be important factors in reaching out to the people while traditional rulers enjoy the patronage and remuneration of government.
They are, however, puns in the hands of the government, who by the design of the constitution, which is a social contract can be removed at will, when they don't dance to the tune of the government in power, while the culture continues to suffer under the resistance of collusion of religion and idiosyncrasies of merging civilization.
The culture itself becomes unguided to lose a grip of ethics and the much-needed discipline of an environment that is needed for the people to live in harmony without any traces of insanity.
The constitution on the issue of religion looks very much contradictory because of a lack of understanding of the divine concept of it.
Generally, the government and the people view religion as Karl Marx's perception of it, as being the opium of mankind.
The constitution on one hand states that Nigeria is secular instead of been a multiferous religious system, by this, the implication is that religion is trivialized into a speck in an environment where the services of God are not needed, hence religion loses the grip of sourcing for us, the necessary divine intervention, most especially in the times of travails.
This, on assessment, has put all worshippers into a state of no scripture compliance and mere religious commercial merchants to the generality of the adherents. Religion becomes so weak to sanitize the environment as well as reforming them into morally conscious, disciplined people. By this failure, every successive government in Nigeria that claim to wage war on institutional indiscipline and corruption always end up as failures because the situation has always weakened the fabric of the network of all agents of socialization to be able to get strong enough into the expected responsibilities of reasonable and rational change agents. Under this fatal condition, the project of education-non-formal, formal and informal- get affected to the detriment of helping school attendants to attain the altitude of their life's desire to be true community leaders, nation builders, and ethically based professionals, individuals, and organizations. The environment equally eats into the fabric of the management of the home front to eventually lack good parenting for the society to suffer so much for it.
If religion is so vital to human life why do we need to trivialize it into having no freedom?
It is unfortunate that 90 percent of Nigerian religious leaders are fraudulent and unpatriotic to the nation by capturing religion into captivity, making it to be hostile to culture, instead of allowing it to work together for the possible reformation of our religious beliefs like Mary Slessor did in Calabar when she put an end to the killing of twins. The apex body of every religion should not be trivialized into political tools, giving religion the necessary independence would be a direct challenge for the leadership of all religions face the need to eradicate poverty among the majority of their adherents and to be able to use the scripture to correct anomalies of profanity in the houses of God-Tim.16-17, Quran 2: 185.
The constitution needs to be amended to allow religion which by definition is a school of faith-building where the primary concern must be a focus on perfecting man-God relation for the system to be able to enjoy corporate governance in government, due process in procurement to avoid fraudulent practices, justice management in the Judiciary by incorruptible Judges, equity in material management and distribution, peaceful co-existence and sustainable development among others.
No religion teaches evil, let us all rescue religion from its captors, for our leaders to become Solomonic in knowledge, wisdom, and power of discerning mind which will never come if we continue to trivialize the issue of religion, bastardize the content of the scriptures by not walking the talk.
Only the independence of religion in terms of management can address the present areas of weaknesses and threats, so that we are able to have the light at the end of the tunnel, after darkness. The study guide on this includes-Isaiah 29: 11-16, Quran 87: 6-9, and 2: 269.
Religious people, if thoroughly bred through their houses of worship would be best in management and administration in the process of governance and leadership because hey would be fraud-free. Religious leaders in their various capacities are supposed to be unbiased advisers and opinion molders for government services to be result oriented.
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True Federation-Guide against Possible Wrath of...-Prof. Olagoke
- On 20/08/2020
- In News
A cross-section of Nigerians have continued to agitate for the devolution of powers to the 36 states and Abuja which is the Federal Capital Territory, while the Federal Government enjoys a minimum of important powers transcending state jurisdictions. Several tribal and socio-political groups have insisted that the devolution of power would give the regions more independence to develop, even though the agenda of these gropus could have self centered and hidden interests as the major push. In this interview, the Founder, Spritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide warns that unfolding events should been handled with all seriouseness to avoid an omnious situation. Excerpts : Do you think Nigeria can be restructured in to a true federation with the component units having financila autonomy ?The problem of Nigeria led us to this worrisome unacceptable structure regarded as an effect of colonialism and neo-colonialism, whereby sovereignty and independence were lost. Since then, we have been cohabiting as couples in marriages of inconvenience due to the unconsidered factors of memorandum of understanding which was never sought nor respected despite our differences in tongues, tribes, ethnicity and religion including culture. This was why Nigerians, dead or alive had been waiting for the year 2014, when the term of the amalgamation would have elapsed for the need to renew or break up.What we did in 2014 without seriousness about true restructuring could be regarded as a game of fire by the people sitting on kegs of gun powder.Apart from the fact that the 1960 and 1963 constitution seemed to be manageable on issues of peaceful co-existence, the 1999 amended constitution gave us a negative mindset of not workable.One needs to ask a question regarding credible leadership and good governance and their correlation coefficient with the two created regimes of kleptocracy in looting spree and destitution with increasing profile. Under the present reality of 12.8 per cent inflation rate, two digits interest rates on bank loans and soaring prices of food and household items in the markets, Nigerians are worse off for it.Nigeria is a country comprising of emergency billionaires as a result of having political power and business advantage but through the menace of the inaction of various security and standard control units, everything is politically polarized to the level of business as usual in governance with the lost ethos of visionary leadership for credibility in positions of power and lose of selfless service in power management. Further questions are 1)Where are the progressives and activists of yesteryear's, why they are not performing but keeping mute upon getting into positions of power.This is the situation that bothers on the deteriorating conditions of the welfare of the people in the face of poor governance styles that depends mainly on the importation of goods, low morale on provision of basic amenities and in the area of infrastructure, professional cannot comfortably set up cottage industries to promote industrialization, most especially in the areas that depend on supply of electricity. People are still kept in the dark on why a whole nation can't have active and sustainable turn around maintenance of our refineries, not to talk of developing more at least to satisfy local consumption. Despite the fact that at the individual level, some of these big shots in politics and business have refineries established abroad as well as universities, here in Nigeria and abroad.In the face of all these, where the just only harvest their dividend of democracy as impoverishment and legacy of poverty; where their children cannot enjoy after struggling tooh and nail to sponsor their deucation. The only option opne to the citizenry is agitation against economichadrship and insecurity. It is equally unfortunate that even with the unacceptrable arrangement of the Federal, State and Local Government allocation sharing formula, the Local Governments have become mere annexes of the states whose Governors put their surrogates to be in charge with the lamighty formula of 100 per cent win by the ruling party. Calling for true Federalism wherein there would be financial autonomy for the states is therefore not an overstatement, if we are to follow the example of the United States of America, where corporate governance promotes a strong nation rather than strong individuals, who daily oppress their people in Nigeria and most often claim to be above the law. Nigeria has three options vis-a-vis 1) Working for true Federalism, whereby states would enjoy financial autonomy. 2) Confederation which is a call back to the root our former regional control of the economy. This was what operated during the First republic with a lot of visible records of development and with their sources of strength been agricultural resources. The third must be prevented through good governance and correct welfare package for Nigerians. This would be possible if we can address the issue of institutional indiscipline and the endemic culture of corruption which presently are rubbishing the values of education, religion and governance.We must guide against possible wrath of military incursion which is daily been signaled by some soldiers resigning coupled with the difficulties in eradicating terrorism.Indeed, without correct attitudinal change, aberrations negating the philosophy of due process may continue to be in place.Correcting the ills in the land as a prerequsite to any restructuring neeed is sacrosanct otherwise we may by ourselves undermine the need foe secession in the face of our failure to achieve true Federalism. The Federal Government and all the security agencies are primary stakeholders in this respect of effecting the much needed change that Nigeria needs to be comfortable among the committee of nations.
