National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies: The journey so far (I)
Africans value education. In Nigeria, successive governments see improving educational access and quality as essential to national economic and political development. Thus, over the years, significant achievements were made in promoting literacy rate among the populace. However, the most pervasive form of education, which the government especially in Nigeria usually seeks to promote, is […]
Africans value education. In Nigeria, successive governments see improving educational access and quality as essential to national economic and political development. Thus, over the years, significant achievements were made in promoting literacy rate among the populace.
However, the most pervasive form of education, which the government especially in Nigeria usually seeks to promote, is the Western form of education to the disadvantage of the Arabic education, which has been in existence before the Western form of education.
Literacy in Arabic predates literacy in any European languages including English, in West Africa and in Nigeria in particular. For over 800 years, the people of West Africa and in particular the people of Nigeria kept records of their intellectual exploits in Arabic covering all aspects of human endeavours. Volumes of books were authored by the indigenes down the ages; scholars from the Middle East and North Africa like al-Maghili visited West Africa and especially Nigeria. Those itinerant scholars, imparting knowledge and producing books, frequented Kano and Katsina.
About a century before the coming of the British to take over Nigeria, there was the jihad of Usmanu Dan Fodio, which had a face of scholarship. This face of scholarship was even greater than any other faces of the regime because it left behind rich legacies of manuscripts touching all aspects of learning. The three key players were from the family of Usmanu Dan Fodio. Sheikh Usmanu Dan Fodio himself who authored over a hundred of books in Arabic and Fulfude using Arabic script was the first. Next was his brother Abdullahi, who was a scholar par excellence and who was very rich in literature, in language and in other branches of learning. The third of the trio was Muhammed Bello, son of Usmanu.
It is clear that to know the history of Nigeria and indeed West Africa there is need to know Arabic. It was in Arabic that history of this area over the ages was written before anyone in Africa knew how to write in English, French, German or Portuguese. This culture of learning did not stop in spite of the occupation of Nigeria by the British. The British themselves recognized this. They encouraged the learning of Arabic especially in the north. It was realized here that it would be turning the current of water back to stop the search for knowledge in Arabic. They watched the culture of Arabic and Islamic learning to grow just as the twin disciplines occupied the curricula in their respectable universities in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, the Americas and the near and far East.
Checking the mood of the northern rulers, the British cooperated with the emir of Kano and other emirs to establish the Kano School for Arabic and Islamic Studies in 1932. Because Arabic was and still is learnt in Britain, the colonial rulers attracted some scholars from the University of London to work in that school. One of such was Professor Marvin Hisket among others. In the Southwest, the University of Ibadan was established in 1948 and within the seven years of its inception, the scholars of history realized the significance of Arabic to history. Thus, the Principal Dr Mellanby encouraged a German librarian William Kensdale to open up a division of Arabic manuscripts in the University College main library. Next to this was the Institute of African Studies of the University College Ibadan where Arabic was and still is a major nucleus.
To cap this up, the University of Ibadan employed in 1963 a British first class graduate of Arabic from the University of London Jonh Hunwick to open a Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies in that University. The Senate of the University designed a curriculum to facilitate the pooling of students from those Arabic schools that abound in the immediate University environment. Most graduates of this programme from this Department assumed academic leadership and mentorship for the rest of Nigeria from the past five decades to the present time.
When the Sardunana of Sokoto Sir Ahmadu Bello became the Premier of Northern Nigeria, the whole of the north continued to pursue Arabic either exclusively or along with English. On 2nd June 1952, the council of Ministers in Northern Nigeria presided over by Sir Ahmadu Bello set up a powerful committee. This included Emirs of Zaria and Misau, Ministers of Social Services, that of Community Development, that of Works, and the Minister of Natural Resources. Others were the Wazirin Sokoto and Ciroman Kano among others to recommend ways and means to improve on Higher Muslim learning.
This committee recommended in its report published in 1953 by the Government Printer, Kaduna, the mainstreaming of the Arabic schools, provision of facilities for teaching students with little or no western education, expansion of the curricula of the Arabic teacher training schools, to provide manpower for the schools and breaking the schools into two streams. One stream concentrated on training teachers while the other stream focused on training of law students. Among the products of such schools were the rulers and administrators, the bureaucrats and the judges of the Sharia courts nationwide while many of them went to the UK and the Sudan to further their education and they came back to Nigeria as doctors, university teachers, administrators, technocrats and judges of the civil courts and Shariah courts.
The law of northern Nigeria on education established the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS). The same government established the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. With the creation of states, there ceased to be a central government for the north. Thus, it was difficult to find a central place to accommodate the Board. As such, the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies was up till 2013, housed in the Institute of Education, ABU, Zaria, in lieu of its final take-off in 2014 when it was housed by the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, as an examining body like similar ones in the country.
The Roles of NBAIS in the Growth of Nigeria Nationhood
NBAIS has contributed its quota to the modern Nigeria for the past six decades judging from the quantity, quality and diversity of the roles of its products in all areas of human endeavour. They are the forerunners in the integration of the almajiri system of education. NBAIS system of education as a nation builder is in the forefront of the educational and moral advancement of the country. As though a pyramidal structure, the largest numbers of its products are teaching in the primary schools, secondary schools, Colleges of Education, the Polytechnics with the Universities as the apex of the pyramid.
Many of the products of NBAIS are past and serving professors, past and serving Vice-chancellors. Many of them were past and serving judges of the High Courts, Appeal Court and Supreme Court. All the past and present Khadis and Grand Khadis nationwide are products of the NBAIS system of education. Many products were posted to Nigerian Missions abroad not necessarily in the Middle East where their cognate knowledge is centrally relevant but also in the rest of the world.
Other examining bodies and agencies for quality assurance employ products of NBAIS system of education. Such bodies include the West African Examinations Council, National Examination Council, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council and National Universities Commission where they hold key positions. The Nigerian Army employs them in their education corps, the Imamate section and the Nigerian Defense Academy. The Nigeria Police Force also followed the suit.
Many of the products went into business utilizing the training of hard work, perseverance, discipline, honesty and fear of Allah in their transactions. Many of them have made headway with this and are now paying back to their alma mater through establishment of NBAIS recognized schools nationwide. Many of the products are imams in mosques across the country while many of them are social workers inviting people to what is right and discouraging people from doing what is wrong, rebranding Nigeria so to speak.
Products of NBAIS are technocrats in the various Federal and State government ministries serving in different capacities. Those who have flair for politics have risen through the ladder to occupy almost all available positions in the Nigerian polity. It is no surprise that the first civilian President of Nigeria Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari has established an NBAIS recognized school at his homestead. This attempt should be understood as an acknowledgment of the system that produced him.
The quest for national recognition for NBAIS coincided with the steps recently taken by the Federal Government to streamline various activities of the almajiri schools with the formal system of education. This will checkmate begging of pupils of almajiri schools for survival. It will also put into classrooms some nine to ten million pupils of school age both at the Basic and Secondary levels of education in Nigeria. This presupposes more work for NBAIS in the agenda for national development.
Before the present Ag. Registrar of NBAIS, Prof. Shafi Abdullahi who was formerly Director of the Institute of Education, ABU, Zaria, took over as National Coordinator some couple of years before, there were just few schools established by different state governments such as Kano, Jigawa , Nasarrawa Sokoto, Kebbi, Kwara, Borno, Adamawa among other states in the north.
The accreditation of private similar schools by the NBAIS received a boost when the then Coordinator came on board. Indeed, these State governments increased the number of schools they inherited from their predecessors. Before this regime, accreditation by the NBAIS was limited to the North, but this was extended to cover the South where schools pass the accreditation exercise. Thus, NBAIS became truly national in outlook and its activities.
It was the opinion of the present writer expressed elsewhere that:
The Federal Government recognition of the activities of NBAIS will open windows of opportunities to give formal education to those who are being educated in an informal way and in a haphazard manner, which will then checkmate the situation of students not being enrolled in formal schools. That is why the recognition of this special school is going to assist on the attainment of National Policy on Education. It will take care of many Nigerians yearning for education.
NBAIS Quest for National Recognition: The Journey so far
The journey for the quest for NBAIS recognition is a wheel that has come full circle. The three hurdles were crossed as follows. In May 2010, the 62nd Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) Reference Committee recommended the memorandum for full recognition of the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies to the JCCE Plenary.
At the 72nd JCCE Plenary Meeting held in Jos in September 2010, the recommendation of the JCCE Reference Committee was endorsed unanimously by the body, for the consideration of the National Council on Education (NCE). It was a good omen that Sokoto State hosted the NCE in January 2011 where the coast became clear for the final recognition of the NBAIS activities and certificates.
This, to the glory of Allah the Almighty, was achieved. We must appreciate, after Allah, the courage and sterling leadership qualities demonstrated by the then Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Rukayatu Ahmed Rufai at the Sokoto encounter.
The unflinching support of the ABU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abdullahi Mustapha is also significant. Previous and subsequent Hon. Ministers of Education and Ministers for State for Education since the application was filed with the Ministry of Education also deserve commendation. This began with the present Senator Sam Egwu and his Minister of State, now Hon. Aishatu Dukku both of whom set the ball rolling for the process of mainstreaming of the NBAIS.
Even the present Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State acted his bit during the period he was acting as Minister of State and Hon. Minister for Education. The former Governor of Kano State Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau followed at the point where Professor Rukayatu Rufai and Barr. Wike stopped by sending the memo from the Ministry to the Federal Executive Council as an initial step towards the enactment of a law to establish NBAIS as a parastatal with the Federal Ministry of Education. Twice, during the twilight of the immediate past President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, were the memos on NBAIS were listed for consideration and it was not rejected because the then President knew full well that his pet programme of Tsangai/Almajiri system of education aimed at keeping of millions of school age in school would be a mere sham if the NBAIS where the future of such pupils lay is not fully supported with the backing of law.
The present Hon. Minister of Education and the Federal Executive Council merely handled the matter pending before them with the approval given to the establishment of NBAIS as a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education at its meeting of November 30, 2016. This of course awaits the concurrence of the National Assembly where I am sure Senator Sam Egwu will be as enthusiastic as many other distinguished senators and Hon. Aishatu Dukku along with other Hon. members will be glad to finish a good work initiated to cater for the future of millions of Nigerians who see Arabic just as others see English and French.
Why opposing NBAIS?
The opposition to NBAIS was witnessed at the different legitimate stages mentioned above. At the 62nd Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) Reference Committee held in Uyo in May 2010 where all Directors of Education nationwide, Federal and States and all other stakeholders of education were present, the mis-apprehension was imminent. But this was doused by a proper understanding generated from within the body which appreciates that far from NBAIS being a northern agenda; rather it is a national project covering nearly all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
The North under the late Sir Ahmadu Bello gave support to the project from 1952 but Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory that foremost scholar of the West African twentieth century established his famous Arabic Training Centre, Abeokuta also in 1952 and moved to Agege in 1954. Just as the foresight of Sir Ahmadu Bello produced from the NBAIS products medical doctors, university professors, vice-chancellors, judges and brilliant lawyers, so also, Al-Ilory’s products along with scores of its type in southwestern Nigeria, in Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire also produced university professors, vice-chancellors, registrar of JAMB and brilliant lawyers.
It is a misguided credulity and outright fallacy for anyone to construe NBAIS as a northern provincial agenda. The truth of the matter is that while the colonial masters were working in concert with the missionary agents in the southern part of Nigeria to supplant Islam and African traditional religion with Christianity using the taxpayers’ money and converting children of these tax payers to Christianity through education and through healthcare delivery, the resilient Muslims in the south continued to keep the flag of Arabic and Islamic Studies flying throughout the colonial rule. These efforts were rewarded with the attainment of independence in 1960 when Arabs and Islamic nations established diplomatic relation with Nigeria and opened embassies in Lagos.
Through a law of natural consequence, the good work of the Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, Sheikh Kamalud-din of Ilorin, Sheikh Murtada Abdussalam of Ibadan, Sheikh Khidru Apaokagi of Owo, and Sheikh Adedemeji Mahalli of Iwo, paid off as the Arab embassies granted scholarships to their products to further their studies in the Arab heartlands. Thus, it turned the tide in favour of the southwest in the scholarly endeavours in Arabic and Islamic Studies just as the north did not renege in its participation in Arabic intellectualism for over ten centuries.
It is obvious that NBAIS and what it portends is like Gold which has no place for hiding, concealing or devaluation. If Arabic and Islamic studies are studied in universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London in the United Kingdom, Harvard, Yale, Princeton in the United States of America, Berlin, Ruhr, and Bayreuth in Germany, McGill in Canada, University of Tokyo in Japan, for centuries, then no amount of religious bigotry can diminish from the academic value of the twin disciplines.
If the first work containing printed Arabic script was produced in Fano, Italy, in 1514, and the first known edition of the Qur’an in printed form was also of Italian origin, published in Venice in 1518 and if the French contribution saw the daylight in the cutting of the punches by Robert Granjon for the Arabic type which was printed as part of a book in 1585 and in 1635 Oxford University was encouraged by Archbishop Laud to establish a Chair of Arabic which culminated in the cutting of Arabic type for printing purposes by William Castol in 1720, it will be clear that the rantings of those filled with prejudices against the subject are baseless and completely out of tune with the facts of history.
The whole world recognises that Al-Azhar University in Egypt which celebrated its 1000 years of existence in the 20th century, the University of Fez in Morocco and the University of Timbuktu in West Africa all contributed to the civilizations carried over to Europe through Spain and southern Portugal in the annals of history.
Following the terrorist attack on America of September 11, 2001, the general reaction of the American public towards Arabic and Islam became more positive surprisingly. Americans requested for more materials on Islam and Arabic programme increased substantially as reported by the United States Department of State, International Information Programs of 18th October 2001. By the report of the same source of September 19, 2001 it was admitted that key skills to the American nation were offered by the Arab Americans whose population was put at 620, 000 plus other Muslim Americans the population of which was five million by the Muslims State Population Table of 1990.
For instance, Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he wanted to start free primary education in 1955 realised that he could not possibly enlist the support of Muslim parents in the Southwestern region without teaching Arabic and Islamic Religious Knowledge. He appreciated the dearth of competent teachers to handle the subjects. Thus, he introduced a central examination for teachers of Arabic and Islamic religious knowledge, the passing of which qualified the Arabic teachers to teach in the Muslim primary schools across the length and breadth of the Western region from January 1955 when Universal free education began in the region.
The University College, Ibadan, when it supported the teaching and learning of Arabic and Islamic Studies, also encouraged the learning of Christian Studies, Hebrew, Greek and African Religion. It promoted researches into Yoruba language and Literature. For Christian Studies, we have the likes of Prof. Jeffrey Parrinder. For African Religion, there was Prof. Bolaji Idowu, for Yoruba Literature; there was Prof. S.A. Babalola for Ijala hunter’s chant; William Bascom and Wande Abimbola for Ifa divination. Prof. Ruth Finnegan was encouraged to study Yoruba oral literature while for Islam, Prof. F.H. El-Masre, a Sudanese was raised to make a study of Islam in the city of Ibadan.
Again, when the Jews and Christians identified Saturday and Sunday as their Sabbath days respectively, and there is no Sabbath in Islam, the Muslims inspite of their control of the central government on or before independence never insisted on a Friday to be a Sabbath day for them because there is no notion of Sabbath in Islam. The Qur’an enjoined them to carry on with their businesses after the observance of Jumat prayers on Friday. They are also enjoined to terminate businesses when it was time for Jumat prayers.
Also of late, the National Assembly passed for the second reading the establishment of a Christian Court in Nigeria to pantomime the Sharia’h Court of Appeal as if the Common Law borrowed from England is not essentially a Christian law with its doctrine of one man, one wife in the law of personal status. Yet, Muslims are not opposed to the Cardinal Court of Appeal being contemplated and which has passed the second reading at the National Assembly because the Qur’an is apposite that Christians should be judged by their religious laws.
When a Nigerian military Head of State decreed one day that French should become second Nigerian official language, Muslims did not raise alarm that another Euro-Christian language had been foisted on them. The same spirit of give and take should prevail, because a good brother should rejoice with his brother’s success and not meet it with envy. Nigerians live in harmony; let no group of persons set brothers against themselves through sheer jealousy, prejudice and myopic view of life.
Professor Abubakre is of the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He presented this paper at the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies Stakeholders Conference in Kaduna, December 20-21