National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies: The journey so far (II)
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 […]
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. These 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 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.
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, Nasarawa 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.
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 Minister of State and Hon. Minister for Education. The former Governor of Kano State Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau followed at the point where Professor Rukayyatu Rufai and Barr. Wike stopped by sending the memo 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 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