60 years of MSSN

The event took place on Saturday, at the Trade Fair Complex, in Kaduna. The society, known as MSSN, emerged as a result of the enormous challenge faced by the Muslim students during the colonial era. Muslims, then, had to disguise their faith in the predominantly Christian Missionary schools in order to evade persecution and oppression […]

The event took place on Saturday, at the Trade Fair Complex, in Kaduna.
The society, known as MSSN, emerged as a result of the enormous challenge faced by the Muslim students during the colonial era. Muslims, then, had to disguise their faith in the predominantly Christian Missionary schools in order to evade persecution and oppression by the authorities.
The struggle for the formation of the MSS could be traced back to a group of vibrant Muslim students from Methodist Boys High School, Kings College and Queens College, all in Lagos State. It was that group’s humble effort that led to the birth of the MSS on 18th April, 1984. It was officially launched on 30th May, 1954 at Ansarudeen Primary School’s Hall, Alakoro, Lagos Island, amid prayer, euphoria and exhortation from Islamic leaders who were invited to grace the formal inauguration.
Since its establishment, MSS had fought for the liberation of the Nigerian Muslim students in particular and the Ummah at large. Within a year of the society’s formation, it branches spread to cover schools in Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ilesha, Ijebu-Ode and Ikorodu. Two years later, the society’s membership reached virtually all government schools in the Northern part of the country.
At the First Conference of the society held in 1955 at Lagos, Brother Abdullateef Adegbite and Brother Abdulrasheed Sahid were elected as the first National President and National Secretary-General, respectively.
MSSN is the meeting point for all Muslim students in the country’s secondary schools,higher institutions, and Post-Graduates schools. Its major objective is to be a forum for making every Muslim youth that is privileged to attend any school in the country, secondary or tertiary, to be conscious about Islam and to be one its good ambassadors.
The contributions of MSSN to national development are enormous and these include serving as a potent tool of national unity and cohesion. Apart from its membership that cuts across all the geographical and ethnic barriers, the group is promoting national integration and building bridges through its programmes and activities that emphasise the brotherhood of Islam, in particular, and mankind in general.
Furthermore, the society has continued to produce generation of outstanding leaders in all spheres of life while defining and encouraging adherence to certain minimum standards of national ethos. The society has remained a pressure good working for the advancement of the interests of Muslims and Islam. Indeed, past members of MSSN occupy leadership post in virtually all leading Islamic organisations in the country.
MSSN achievements transcend the boundaries of Nigeria. It played leading roles in the formation of international students organisations such as International Islamic Federation of Students Organisations (IIFSO) based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) with headquarters in the United States and serves as a source of inspiration to the formation of others in different parts of the world, including Muslim Students’ Association of Canada and America (MSA).
The society is affiliated to many local and international organisations whose aims and objectives are in consonance with its own.
Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria and its constitution are registered with appropriate organs of the government of the federation of Nigeria.
Despite these achievements, MSSN is not without its challenges. At one time it has endured series of embargoes against holding meetings and public lectures. Not to mention scores of its ranks that were victimised and expelled from some institutions of higher learning.
Still part of its challenges, is the negative profiling given to its officials and members with appellatives like fundamentalists, trouble makers’ extremists and fanatics etc.