Mourning Sister Bilkisu and Prof. el-Miskin!

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un! (From Allah we come and to Him we shall return!). We are again forced by circumstances to recite istirja’, the invocation of the afflicted. We are indeed afflicted; we are bereaved; we are in mourning. We have just lost our Big Sister in our profession of journalism Hajiya Bilkisu, […]

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un! (From Allah we come and to Him we shall return!).
We are again forced by circumstances to recite istirja’, the invocation of the afflicted. We are indeed afflicted; we are bereaved; we are in mourning. We have just lost our Big Sister in our profession of journalism Hajiya Bilkisu, and our Big Brother, nay, Father, in our other profession of academics, Professor Tijjani el-Miskin. Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un! (From Allah we come and to Him we shall return!).
Sister Bilkisu and Prof el-Miskin were part of the fatalities of the Mina Stampede on Thursday, Sallah Day, in Mina, Saudi Arabia. According to the Friday edition of our sister newspaper Daily Trust:
“Deputy Secretary General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs Professor Tijjani Abubakar El-Miskin as well as veteran journalist and prominent civil society activist Hajiya Bilkisu were confirmed to be among the dead yesterday during the deadly stampede that occurred at the Jamarat Bridge outside Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
“In addition to his NSCIA duties, El-Miskin was the Executive Chairman of the Borno State Pilgrims Welfare Agency, a position he was appointed to in 2013 when Governor Kashim Shettima reconstituted the agency’s board. He was also a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Maiduguri and a former Director General of the Nigeria Arabic Village at Gamboru, Borno State. One of the country’s most versatile Muslim clerics, teachers and activists, Professor El-Miskin once taught at the Nigeria Defence Academy in Kaduna.
“He was very prominent at academic and Islamic lecture circuits and has hundreds of seminar papers to his name. His father, the prominent Tijjaniyya cleric Sheikh Abubakar El-Miskin, died in Maiduguri last November at the age of 100 [and the Professor was selected to take over the Shaikh-dom]. [Professor el-Miskin] was also a member of the committee of traditional rulers, retired military officers, academics, businessmen and former public officers set up by the Northern States Governors Forum two years ago to work for reconciliation, healing and security in the troubled North East region.”
On Hajiya Bilkisu, the Daily Trust of Friday had this to say:
“Hajiya Bilkisu was the most prominent female journalist from Northern Nigeria for several decades. She was editor of Sunday Triumph in the early 1980s and became editor of the New Nigerian in 1987. She then became editor of Citizen Magazine in 1990. Apart from journalism, Hajiya Bilkisu was also very well known for civil society activism and in particular for her role in the nurturing of Muslim Women’s NGOs.
She was Deputy National Amirah of the Federated Organisation of Muslim Women’s Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN) [and later the National Amirah as well]. She wrote hundreds of seminar papers and attended civil society conferences all over the world. Most recently, she was deeply involved in helping persons internally displaced by the crises in the North East region.
“She presented a paper on the issue at the Daily Trust awareness and fund-raising event for internally displaced persons in late August. Hajiya Bilkisu also maintained the weekly column Civil Society Watch in Daily Trust. She has maintained the column for more than a decade and sent her most recent article, which appeared in yesterday’s edition, from Mecca on Wednesday evening.”
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un! (From Allah we come and to Him we shall return!).
I first met el-Miskin in a quarter of a century ago in Lagos at an occasion we were both invited to speak – he as Guest Speaker and I as one of the discussants. He was by then already an established academician and orator. Needless to say, I was then just a rookie academic. While he spoke, my mouth would definitely have been agape in awe and shock – he was that good. For those who may not know, el-Miskin spoke more languages than most, if not all, linguist or polyglot Nigeria had ever produced. Plus or minus, count his native Kanuri, Hausa, Fulfulde, Shuwa-Arab, Arabic, then English, French, and I think Spanish and some German. He was that good ma sha Allah.
Sister Bilkisu, whom I have known almost all my student and professional life, was a person most of us Northern journalists and activists always looked up to for guidance. She was scholarly yet humble; she was learned yet simple; she was high up there, yet so much down here with us. She was reserved and at the same time sociable. Her colleagues and contemporaries Mohammed Haruna, Adamu Adamu and Kabiru Yusuf could be the only professionals who may know the essential Bilkisu better than us her juniors.
Professor el-Miskin was an exceedingly good man. He was, above all, extremely humble. When back in 2006 I had cause to invite him to be Guest Speaker at the Second Anniversary of the organisation I once headed in Kano State, A Daidaita Sahu, he immediately accepted over the phone. I was shocked, knowing how busy such people could be. I offered that perhaps he would check his diary and get back to us? “No,” he had said. “For an occasion like yours, all other Diary entries are now secondary.” Allahu Akbar!
At that occasion, on September 11, 2006 at the Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium, Kano, I had escorted the Professor to greet the late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero who was by then seated awaiting then Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who was just about to enter the arena. After their greetings, the Emir called el-Miskin closer. I couldn’t hear what they were discussing, but I noticed el-Miskin was breaking into a broad smile while the Emir, despite his taciturnity, was also broadly smiling. There seemed to be lots of familiarity.
The professor was later to tell me they had the usual Fulani versus Kanuri banter with the Emir, and the latter later asked after the aged father of the former, Shaikh Abubakar el-Miskin, a foremost Tijjaniyya Leader in Borno. As to what made the King laugh, el-Miskin didn’t tell me. Later, when he was seated next to Mallam Shekarau, their familiarity took centre-stage, and I was eclipsed completely, despite the programme being “mine”, so to say. The Professor was at ease with all.
Sister Bilkisu was a great personality and was highly respected by all. I remember that around 2003, when she was Chairperson of the FOMWAN, she had invited now Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai to speak to her members at their Annual Convention in Lokoja. At that time, I was engaged on consultancy with Mallam Nasir at the Bureau of Public Enterprises, where he then was Director General. He had asked me to accompany him and we went. Throughout the trip and back, Mallam Nasir and I were sharing what we knew of the goodness and humility and professionalism of Sister Bilkisu.
Allahu Akbar! Both are gone today! Though this may not be the time for apportioning blames, there are lots of blames to apportion. There are many questions that need answers. A certain Saudi prince has been reported to have blamed “Africans” for the tragedy. It may be true; but another report says some princes claimed “royal right of way” and had the poor pilgrims’ road blocked. Wallahu A’alam – only Allah knows, but we must also be made to know!
Allah says in the Holy Qur’an: “When the Angels take the lives of the righteous, the Angels say to them: ‘Peace be upon you. Enter paradise because of the good deeds that you used to do (during your life).”
May Allah accept the Hajj of Sister Bilkisu, Professor el-Miskin and all the other hundreds who lost their lives. May Allah forgive them (and us) and admit them (and us) to Paradise, amin.
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un! (From Allah we come and to Him we shall return!).