Open letter to Dr. Lateef Adegbite
By
"Only the man (or group) who is below average in ability desires equality, those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom; and in the end superior ability has its way" - Will and Ariel Durant.
Dear Sir,
I am writing this letter on March 20 which is your 68th birthday and simple courtesy dictates that it should start with birthday greetings on this auspicious occasion and may the Almighty Allah prolong your life to enable you to continue to serve our fatherland, Nigeria, with diligence and patriotism. Amen. You are one of the people I hold in the highest regard in this country and I pray to continue to do so.
Coincidentally, on your 68th birthday in The Comet of Wednesday, I read about your comments on the proposed return of schools to missions at a gathering of Nasril-lahi-il-Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) and to say the least I find them shocking. I just hope you were misquoted; otherwise the only other conclusion one can reach is that old age is catching up faster than expected. To be quite candid, most people at your age would have retired into silent obscurity, spending their time with their grandchildren and perhaps great-grandchildren. I am constantly amazed at your output of energy even though you are only two years removed from 70.
But let's go back to your reported position on the return of schools to missions. You asserted that the return of schools to missions will put the majority of Lagos people who are Muslims at a disadvantage. You reportedly went on to say that "Lagos has a Muslim majority and even though the Muslims have protested against the return of schools passed by the legislature and to which Tinubu is about to assent, portrayed the administration as "insensitive" to the wishes of the majority". I dispute the majority bit; but it’s not vital.
To begin with, Sir, what you call schools in Lagos State and most other parts of Nigeria might be better called zoos breeding not leaders of tomorrow but mostly wild beasts unfit for civilised society as the rising crime rates amongst youths prove conclusively. To want government to continue to operate these hatcheries of criminals for kids irrespective of religion is not only a disservice to the kids themselves, it is a disservice to the nation which has honoured you with some of its highest awards. The fear that the return of schools meaning mostly Christian schools to missions and your opposition to them presupposes that you believe in the level down approach instead of the levelling up approach; you would prefer mass mediocrity to possibilities of excellence in education which you must agree had deteriorated under governments.
At this juncture, I must also join issues with our sister Alhaja Lateefat Okunnu, who is also opposed to the return of schools to missions for some of the same reasons you have adduced while adding another reason of her own. She very recently claimed that she was "humiliated" at Methodist Girls High School by being forced to study the Bible instead of the Holy Koran. Alhaja Okunnu and your good self, in your current public postures against mission schools remind me of that line by Henry Fielding (1707-1754); "One of the maxims which the devil, in a late visit upon earth, left to his disciples, is, when once you are got up, to kick the stool from under you. In plain English, when you have made your fortune by the good offices of a friend, you are advised to discard him as soon as you can".
Both of you were in effect "befriended" by Christian Missionary schools, Alhaja Okunnu was moulded by Methodist Girls High School, Lagos. You were yourself a product of three Christian institutions namely Methodist School, Abeokuta, St. Paul’s School, Abeokuta and Kings College, Lagos. Those schools prepared you adequately for what you were later to become in life as they did thousands of Muslim students because they provided excellent education allied with moral instructions which are now totally absent in government schools.
Each of you and several thousands voluntarily enrolled in those schools because they were the best. Even a primary six nitwit knew in the 1940s and 1950s that if you a Muslim student applies to Methodist Girls High School and is accepted, then Religious Knowledge meant Bible Knowledge and not Islamic Studies. Similarly, the few Christian students who enrolled in Ahmaddiya or Ansar Ud Deen College accepted the fact the Religious Knowledge meant reading the Quran. There were Muslim schools for Alhaja Okunnu and yourself to attend but you both disregarded them because they were educationally inferior. The Muslim missions did not believe in mobilising funds for science, mathematics and languages other than Arabic and they lagged behind in those elements driving technology and economic advancement. Whose fault? In short, Alhaja Okunnu, and people like yourself have benefitted from some of the greatest Christian schools who are now being repaid with the ingratitude of unjust complaints.
Furthermore, it appears, Sir, that you are not bothered by the ethical implications of your position. It has never occurred to you to ask how those schools were acquired by government in the first instance and if the acquisition was just. The Koran which serves as your guiding light and the Bible which serves as mine, place justice at the top of all human virtues. You know very well that the schools were seized by armed robbers calling themselves military regimes and their civilian collaborators which were even worse than the common criminals who rob only a few people. But armed military robbers steal a whole country and arrogate to themselves the right to dispose of the loot as they choose. You obviously support them with respect to schools because such brazen theft serves the interest of the Muslim majority. So, "just because a tyrant has the might by force of arms to murder men .. and burn down house and home and leave all flat, you call the man (General), just for that. But since an outlaw cannot bring half such grief on a land, or be the cause of so much harm and grief, he only earns the title of a thief" (Geoffery Chancer 1342-1400). In reality, the Aninis and Shina Rambos of this world are far more merciful than the former military heads of state who robbed all of us of our country for the benefit of a few.
Now, Dr. Adegbite, you are a distinguished lawyer, and it is trite law and one supported by the Quran and Bible, that the recipient of stolen property, knowing that to be so, is an accessory to the robbery. You know the mission schools were stolen, why then would you and the so-called majority of the Muslims, for whom you claim to speak, want government to hang on to stolen property? Since when, and in what chapter of the Quran has it been said that four men being in majority can rob one man for their benefit.
Your insistence that the return of schools to missions will put Muslims at a disadvantage presupposes that the only way to erase the disparity is to take what belongs to Christians. In what way is that different from an armed robber who comes to your house to rob it because you are richer. If educational equality can be procured (and it isn’t) by armed robbers calling themselves government, why can’t income inequality be justified for poor armed robbers attacking millionaires? What, Sir, are the values you hold? Is robbery alright if it benefits you and the "majority" Muslims? Is that the only way Muslims can level up, if they ever do?
The saddest thing about the position you hold, Sir, lies in the evidence before our very eyes. About 30 years after the forced take over of mission schools, the decline in education has been so steep, a Nigerian certificate from any institution is now almost totally worthless everywhere in the world. From primary to tertiary institutions, education has been bastardized; schools now produce criminals and cult members; and few leaders of tomorrow. Who is that patriot who wants a continuation of this tried-and-failed experiment? Even Muslims suffer because without excellence for comparison, mediocrity does not recognise itself for what it is. What is more, collectivisation or nationalisation of education has narrowed the gap between Christian and Muslim students by very little. Even now the top of the class in most schools belongs to Christians while Muslims usually bring up the rear. And more Muslim boys and girls (especially girls) drop out of school sooner; the boys to join criminal gangs and the girls fall out to premature pregnancy and prostitution. Of what benefit is that to society? In the past schools like Igbobi College, Kings College, Government Colleges (Umuahia, Ibadan, Ughelli), Christ School Ado-Ekiti, CMS Grammar School, Stella Marris, to name a few, recorded 90 per cent to 100 per cent success in School Certificate exams. Today, the same schools barely achieve 50 per cent success: Everything that government touched has turned to dust; especially education. Should that continue, Sir?
At any rate, we are still talking about stolen properties, that is, the schools that are now about to be returned to their previous owners. Redressing past wrongs is what justice is about and it has nothing to do with majority or minority.
When an individual’s or an organisation’s properties are forcefully taken, it does not matter if the hand holding the AK-47 or Uzzi assault rifle is Shina Rambo or Brigadier Sani Abacha; robbery is robbery and the robbed usually want their properties back and a just society must ensure that happens.
Now, Sir, Dr. Lateef Adegbite, is that too much to ask for? And, pray, tell us, Sir, what rights do Muslims have to stolen Christian properties.
I wish you many happy returns of March 20.