Dr. Adegbite: His great legacies, in his own words
Alhaji (Dr) Abdullateef Oladimeji Adegbite died Friday last week, and from the multiple and diverse tributes to his life as a ‘bridge-builder’, ‘voice of moderation’, ‘a peace advocate’, and ‘a father and mentor to all who met him’, we know that a great Nigerian had passed on. This consummate activist and legal luminary was also […]
Alhaji (Dr) Abdullateef Oladimeji Adegbite died Friday last week, and from the multiple and diverse tributes to his life as a ‘bridge-builder’, ‘voice of moderation’, ‘a peace advocate’, and ‘a father and mentor to all who met him’, we know that a great Nigerian had passed on. This consummate activist and legal luminary was also the Seriki Musulmi and Baba Addini of Egbaland. He died at age 79 after a life dedicated to religious and community service, during which he pioneered some everlasting and worthy legacies.
I was opportune to meet Dr. Adegbite in February 2011, at the National Mosque Auditorium when he came to chair the annual Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN) Eid-il Maulid lecture. As one of the speakers at the symposium whose theme was ‘Islam and terrorism’, I felt honoured to sit on the high table along with our revered spiritual father. I found him very humble and accommodating, but also very eloquent and current on the issues of the day. In that 2010 interview with Weekly Trust, Dr. Adegbite narrated how he and some concerned Muslim students of the South-West got together and formed the MSS in the early 1950s. Hear him.
‘In the early 1950s, less than three primary schools belonged to Islamic organisations and in the Christian schools they did not allow much Muslim activities, so we faced a serious handicap in the South-west. Then quite a number of young Muslims did not have a platform to meet and discuss their religious matters. We also discovered that a good number of Muslims were falling victim to Evangelist activities because many of them were converting to Christianity. So we decided that we should look for the best way to halt this trend. By coincidence some of us in our school then were meeting once a week to discuss Islamic matters just as it was happening in other schools in the South-west.
We invited some students from a few secondary schools in Lagos and 14 of us formed the nucleus. We met and took a decision to write a constitution for the new body which we were going to call the Muslim Students Society, and that was it. It turned out well as if most students were looking for that kind of platform on which they could discuss their religion.
Thereafter we called a general meeting and conducted an election where I was made the chairman of the MSS in 1954. We held our first conference in 1955. We invited quite a number of leaders who gave us good support. We felt quite encouraged and decided that we will move out of Lagos and we held the second conference in 1956 in Ijebu-Ode. By this time people from other states had begun to join us. The news had spread about our activities and our senior brothers in University of Lagos and Ibadan joined us at the Ijebu-Ode conference. In fact people like Malam Adamu Ciroma, late Makaman Nupe Alhaji Shehu Musa and a host of other notables from the North, then studying at the University of Ibadan came to the Ijebu-Ode conference. From then on there was no looking back. That I was part of an organisation that is a national institution today, I thank God.’
His role on the formation of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs
‘When I returned to Nigeria, (from studies abroad) I taught law at the University of Lagos for ten years, during which I took four years off to be commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs in the old Western State. I was later named Attorney-general and commissioner for Justice. After I was removed I returned to my teaching job. After a year there I retired from public service to establish private legal practice. It was in those years that the idea to form the supreme council for Islamic affairs came to mind and I contacted like-minds and they approved of the idea. The groundwork for the formation of the NSCIA was in 1973, when we called a meeting of Muslim organisations to deliberate on the issue. I was mandated to write the constitution which we defended in Kaduna in 1974. That was the year the NSCIA formally took off. The first president-general was His Eminence late Sultan Abubakar III. And the secretary-general was His Eminence Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki. I was the National Legal Adviser. When Alhaji Dasuki became sultan in 1989, I was made the secretary-general. In the same year I was made to succeed my father as the Baba Addini of Egbaland.’ (Weekly Trust, July 17th 2010).
In our own humble publication, the Muslim Worldview, our reporter Abdurrahman Musa once interviewed Dr. Adegbite on issues of National and Islamic importance at his National Mosque office. It was published in our edition of February 2006. The following are two of the questions he answered.
Muslim Worldview: What are the areas you want government to work on?
Dr Adegbite: Poverty (alleviation), the government should do more by creating jobs. It is by making money that people will survive. This requires serious attention. The President (Obasanjo) has made a statement that our woes will be overcome if we go back to agriculture, government must support this with capital and work out a scheme by which people can be assisted to go into agriculture in a big way. Government should create special institutions that farmers can borrow money from, like agricultural and rural development banks at a very concessional rate, unlike what obtains in commercial banks.
Muslim Worldview: What advice do you have for the Muslim Ummah?
Let them take their religion seriously. We have a beautiful religion and should engage more in Da’awa (propagation). We are not doing enough and we should aspire to be the best because Allah SWT has said that He has created Muslims as the best community. Why we are made the best community is that we always shun evil and proclaim good. This should be our concern. We have a beautiful religion. And we should be more involved in the affairs of our country, politically, socially and economically because Islam is all-embracing. We do not have a religion that says give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, everything belongs to Allah and we are the great representatives of Allah on earth. Almighty Allah has devoted a whole chapter in the Quran Suratul Shura to mutual consultation among people. Democracy is part of Islam as such these are areas we should participate in. Let every Muslim stand up for Islam in all situations at all times. (Muslim Worldview, Muharram/Safar 1427 AH, February 2006).
Early this year, the Sunday Trust also interviewed Dr. Abdullateef Adegbite on the current security situation in the country. And he advised that ‘First we appeal to the Boko Haram people to give up their armed rebellion and violence and use peaceful means to pursue their goals. The laws and constitution in the system give them lots of opportunity to pursue their goals. They must be patient it’s not magical that it can happen overnight…. To the government we appeal that they should take dialogue seriously, they should not lose patience by saying these people are not responding well. They should identify the moderate ones among them and invite them to round table to dialogue….. They should ignore those saying that they should not dialogue with these people, of course they are Nigerians. All disputes end in a round-table anywhere in the world. Big war, small war you still have to sit down to dialogue to achieve peace. I don’t see why they cannot do this if this crisis must end. People should remember the serious situation in the Niger Delta before late President Yar’adua dialogued with them and proclaimed amnesty and the amnesty is still working. Government should apply the same diplomacy and style with the Boko Haram situation.’ (Sunday Trust, April 29th 2012).
May Almighty Allah grant Aljannah Firdaus to our father and spiritual mentor Dr. Abdullateef Adegbite, ameen.