Happenings

Truth avails the nation the opportunity to grow and develop while falsehood drives the people into madness and wretchedness to force the nation to heads towards the precipice.
Religion stands in teaching and enforcing truth to the people in order that they eschew all forms of falsehood to be able to uphold the culture of the sincerity of purpose. The failure of people to live exemplary lifestyles may be negatively infectious to other people who are yet to be taught from the houses of God, on the essentials of upholding the truth to offer just worship in their different religions.
A good reference is in Matthew 5: 43-48,''43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.''
In the same vein, the almighty Allah confirms the statement to the last letter. The creation of heaven and earth was based on truth.
The Holy Quran 29: 44 asserts, ''Allah  created the heavens and the earth in truth: verily in that is a sign for those who believe.''
The almighty God expects all interpersonal relationships and transactions among mankind to be based on the sincerity of purpose amidst the culture of truth.
Only in truth, we can realize good governance, a virile and prosperous nation, zero tolerance to indiscipline and corruption for sustainable wellness of the people, and a hitch-free development in an environment that is safe and secured with peaceful co-existence.
The Holy Quran therefore, expects all Muslims to be the vanguard of  truth for them to be good exemplars to people from other faiths such as the Jews, the Christians, and the Serbians, and any who believe in Allah or God and the last day and work righteousness with the non-discriminatory promise of a reward from their creator that they will live with all authority from their Lord of a life without fear or grief as expressly narrated in the Holy Quran 2: 62. From this set of people, we expect people from other faiths to learn and imbibe the culture of truth and non-injurious lifestyles to others, that is, keeping of good neighborliness.
In the holy Quran 2: 42, it is clearly stated and admonished for all like the people of Nigeria for example, and other nations that are struggling to live by the truth for professional ethics to be the basis of the fabric upon which the mainframe of all institutions, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and the government are to be built, in order to be progressive rather than retrogressive.
''And cover not Truth with falsehood, nor conceal the Truth when ye know what it is.''
The admonition, therefore, continues in the Holy Quran  2: 43-44 which if we can heed will solve our problems of insecurity and underdevelopment. ''And be steadfast in prayer: Give Zakat and bow down your heads with those who bow down in worship(live in humanity). The admonition now continues that we must all query our behavior and question our psyche on the level of heeding the admonition and why things go wrong with our nation. ''Do ye enjoy right conduct of the people and forget to practice it yourselves, and yet ye study the Scriptures?
Will ye not understand.''
All religious leaders need to examine their roles on the issue of been Scripture compliant and being answerable to God on making functional the religious system they uphold to be beneficial to community service and nation-building.
The Holy Quran 2: 119 is for our critical guide, ''Verily we have sent thee  in truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner: But of thee, no question be asked of the companions of the blazing fire.''
Let us all take heed to be the vanguard of truth.

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria

The Ministry of Health in Kenya has earmarked 7.5 million masks for distribution to schools and those in the informal settlements.

The distribution shall be done through the Ministry of Education.
According to the Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha who made this disclosure, priority would be given to schools with a higher enrollment rate, those in informal settlements, special schools, and schools located in pockets of poverty.
Magoha also disclosed that pupils in  Grade 4 to Grade 8 and secondary students will receive 2.25 million masks.
“The distribution will be cascaded to the regional and county levels. We have tasked the field officers to utilize the outlined criteria to select schools to benefit from the masks, which will be distributed as we receive them from the Ministry of Health,” the cabinet secretary stated.

In this clime, a court ruling no matter how illegal it is remains a court order.
However, for a court order to be obeyed, the court issuing such an order must have the competence to issue the same.
Judgments emanating from courts in Nigeria have over time precipitated rather than solving problems.
A commonplace is moving from one jurisdiction to shopping for a convenient jurisdiction where to obtain an order for sinister purposes.
Most of the time the powers that be consent to such illegalities, while the police play out the scripts of the Executive.
Officials of the Judiciary are helpless since their survival, these days, depends on the designs of the Executive, even as the Legislature vigorously pursue self-driven interests.
The obedience of court order in this dispensation is selective and largely depends on the mindset of the power that is at different points in time.
This has no doubt tainted the image of the leadership at all levels to the extent that credit is no longer synonymous with good governance.
The courts are now a scourge to Nigerians as hopes give way to despair. 

Lara Tayor-Pearce is the Auditor General of Sierra Leone.
To ensure accountability, Taylor-Pearce decided
 to allow the public access to the annual audit reports and in the process handed Sierra Leone’s citizens the power of public scrutiny. 
They have used it to save lives, reverse injustices and prevent misplaced trust.
 We should continue to ask for answers to the queries raised in the audit reports, but this shouldn’t be the extent of our aims.
The governance culture we really need is one that welcomes effective scrutiny and accountability, as a way for communities and decision-makers to work together on improving public service delivery.
Lara Taylor-Pearce’s vision of a public audit office that is allowed to do its work with the committed support of Parliament is a vitally important step towards achieving that goal.
As Auditor General, she shows us the possibilities of good governance in Sierra Leone. To achieve them, we have to start playing by the rules. All of us, without fear or favor.

Self-centeredness ensures that political office holders are observed in their own affairs to the extent of losing communication with the people.
The failure to communicate with the people brings forth challenges in governance, while the desperate bid to protect self-driven interests could pave the way for different forms of insecurity.
In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafauden-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the self-centered nature of elected leaders is the major problem of underdeveloped nations, such as Nigeria.
Self-driven interests are now the major considerations in governance. Why is this so?
Self-centeredness falls into the lowest region of ego-building whereby a child up to the peak of its impressionable age will ever believe that every good thing must belong to him or her including his father's vehicle.
This is an Id region of human growth in which things are desired by mankind without considering the implications and consequences. They may even fight to possess what does not necessarily belong to them when found in the care of other people including their colleagues and parents.
Education is, therefore, expected for any individual to outgrow this region. When they are supposed to be regarded as been matured even though they are just entering the adolescent to puberty stage of their lives.
The exhibition of Id characteristics at this stage will attract a reaction from the society towards suspecting a psychological imbalance in such a person.
The adduced reason may be as a result of been overdependent on parents or guardians for their livelihood and upkeep.
In an unfortunate situation, it may be as a result of inherited traits from parents, such traits include stinginess.
Self-centeredness built into the ego region of any person will not only affect his or her expected contribution to society but equally affects negatively his or her relationship with others including his or her family members who are expected to be taken care of by him or her.
People with ego-based issues will find it difficult to uphold the concept of philanthropy in society for anybody including their kinsmen.
His or her expected age and opportunity of acquired wealth will cause such an individual a set-back and result in not reaching the super-ego region of life.
Such people, when given the opportunity to serve in sensitive positions of power, will easily develop the veins of Timocracy, whereby the individual would not see the essence of been in such positions of power for service, but more as an opportunity for business as usual and treasury looting. This is why the Yorubas believe that any individual acquiring wealth, illegally, to build an empire at the expense of his or her wellness, would eventually forfeit such wealth to other people after passing on to glory.
My belief is that the Scriptures also uphold this Yoruba philosophy.
The Yorubas equally teach us in their Proverbs that an elderly person who refuses to give out, most especially to the ladies and the younger ones, will not be noticed when such an individual is with tangible things on his head from the market place.
The life of charity is recommended for humankind to take care of the need of the world because the grasses are made for the purpose of the survival of the grasscutters.
The major problems of nations classified as underdeveloped or developing like Nigeria are not a result of a lack of natural resources -human and material-but because of the self-centered nature of their chosen leaders at all levels of governance.
It is rather unfortunate for any nation to have such a crop of people at the helm of affairs because under them kleptocracy would be the voice of their democracy, while the voters and the masses would reap the dividends of poverty because of the selfish nature of their leaders. A critical look into the reasons why several African nations suffer in the midst of plenty could be appreciated through the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs vis-a-vis, psychological needs, ensure safety and security needs, social needs of the people, self-esteem into the culture of integrity and actualization realm.
Expectedly, to be able to meet up, the Government must be able to effectively and maximally achieve in the areas of the provision of basic amenities for the purpose of people's wellness as well as the solid establishment of functional infrastructure for people to be dynamically productive through innovations and creativity to be able to go into job creation by people, coupled with government intervention on the issue of employment.
If this is truly achieved there would not be any form of agitations and security threat and the goal of democratic norms based on justice and equity would have produced for people the expected peace and sustainable development.

This is the basis of comparison between the acclaimed developed world and the underdeveloped nations, Nigeria inclusive.
Furthermore, the animal called man grows from Id to the level of the super-ego, is expected to be rational in making policies and decisions that would be beneficial to others.
This is expected to reflect in the way we rear our children from their baby class to that of responsible adults.
Unfortunately, the degree of success rate is crystal clear at the peak of Maslow's hierarchy of need, that is actualization realm which dwells mostly on personal achievements which the ignorant society celebrate overwhelmingly without considering the impact of such achievements on others.
The in-built self-centeredness into the actualization realm manifests most when such people have the opportunity to be in positions of power.
Ego-centeredness characteristics then dominate his management and administrative dispensation.
Such people may end up being richer than the state or nation or the business empire they are saddled to manage in trust for the purpose of building the people they are meant to serve.
Sensitization, therefore, needs to be mounted against self-centeredness through Olagoke Attitudinal Hierarchy of Needs, whereby people should be made to realize at the entry point of having the opportunity of admission into the academics and recruitment into establishments, on the need to shun selfishness, indiscipline, and corruption, but focus on the goal of productivity, goodwill, and profit for the establishment and that their main concern should be service to the people without living above their means otherwise the promotion exercises would be meaningless.
The Olagoke Hierarchy of Attitudinal Needs professes that the actualization realm of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs must be the bae value for mentorship essence followed by ethical practices, role modeling role through exemplary lifestyles, altruistic philosophy to enhance the concept of charity and philanthropy among the people who are lucky to be rich to complement the efforts of the government in satisfying the yearnings of the people.
Above all, for true statesmanship to be achieved, experienced senior citizens must struggle to get into the class of total personality when the characteristic value of integrity, forgiveness, love, selfless service, and conflict resolution facilitated by wisdom would create the natural class of distinction for such an elderly person.
Under this condition, selfishness will pave way for the keeping of good neighborliness as well as the culture of philanthropy will emerge to sustain the people and their nation.

The First Lady of Zimbabwe, Mrs. Auxilia Mnangagwa has called on all Zimbabwe women to observe three-day fasting and prayer for God to ward of the coronavirus pandemic presently ravaging Zimbabwe and the world.
Mrs. Mnangagwa made this cal in a statement.

“May I as the Mother of the Nation call upon all women in Zimbabwe, and all those abroad who may so wish, to join me in fasting and praying to the Lord the Almighty from tomorrow 21 to Saturday 23 January 2021 for our nation to be spared from further calamity and suffering,”

 “Our country has witnessed a lot of Covid-19 deaths in the past two weeks. Death is within our communities, at our doorstep. There is no family that has not suffered the loss of their beloved ones because of the pandemic.
“Every day we hear of names that are succumbing.
“I thus humbly appeal to all women to commit to a three-day period from tomorrow in which we fast and pray to call for divine intervention to save the nation and our people.
“As women, we play a very important role in our society.”
“As mothers, let us enforce compliance at the family level with measures that reduce the spread of Covid-19 amongst us. We need a plan at the household level for regularly using any means at our disposal to clean and sanitize our homes; to ensure that everyone in the home knows the importance of having a mask and masking up properly; more importantly to organize sharp safe errands for our requirements to get going whilst enforcing the family to stay at home,” she said.
“Let us include the measures against Covid-19 as we play our motherly role of ensuring that every member of the family is responsible for their personal hygiene.

“As we avoid and fight stigmatization, let’s ensure that all members of the family have knowledge of how to help those that have been infected and are willing to assist those that get sick to cope whilst remaining safe from infection.
“As we pray for relief in our nation, we should observe the measures for safe praying. The best is to fast and pray as individuals in our homes, the First lady concluded.

About 20,000 people have been apprehended by the South African Police for not wearing face masks.
This disclosure was made on Wednesday in a statement by the country's Police Minister Bheki Cele who stressed that since December 29, offenders were either arrested or fined for breaching the new rules laid done by the Government. 
Cele  further said that 7,455 others  were detained for not wearing face masks adding, ''law enforcement agencies do not enjoy making these arrests. However, officers… are left with no choice in the interest of saving lives.”

A lecture titled NIGERIA DEMOCRACY ON FUNCTIONALITY is one of the programs lined up to mark the 38th annual Ishrat of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, WakajaIye, Ibadan, Nigeria.

According to its Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke who made this disclosure on Thursday at a news briefing, the lecture and Grand Finale of the annual Ishrat which is slated for 10.00 am on Saturday, 23 January 2021 shall also feature a book launch, the investiture of the nation builders, project commissioning and the 23rd Walimot Quran by the Chief Imam of Ibadanland, Alhaji Ganiyy Abubakri Agbotomokekere The event holds at the Shafuadeen International headquarters, Wakajaiye, Ibadan.

Prof. Olagoke also disclosed that the opening ceremony of the Ishrat comes up on Saturday, 16 January with the Kiddies Sport, Inter-Schools Competition, and Novelty race at the Christ Church school field, Wakajaiye. The event which begins at 10.00 am, shall also feature a lecture titled ''YOUTH EMPOWERMENT MUST BE ALL-ENCOMPASSING FOR A GREATER TOMORROW.

Other events slated for the Ishrat include the 23rd Walimatul- Quran Validation test which comes up by 10.00 am on Sunday, 17 January, while an Interfaith Symposium is slated for Tuesday, 19 January at the CRCT Hall, Shafuadeen International headquarters, Wakajaiye, Ibadan at 10.00 am.

The Rasool Cup Under 18 Football tournament Final comes up Wednesday, 20 January, at the Loyola College field at 2.00 pm in the afternoon, while the annual Ishrat Tajud shall take place the next day, 21 January at the Shafuadeen International headquarters, Wakajaiye, Ibadan from 9.00 pm in the evening to 5.00 am the next morning.

A youth empowerment seminar with the theme Nigeria Youth Agenda for Government Benefits in Actualizing the Feasible Ones is slated for Friday, 22 January at the Shafuadeen International headquarters, Wakajaiye, Ibadan. Other events are also slated for the same day. Farwell and thanksgiving come up at 10.00 are on Sunday, 24 January.

Prof. Olagoke assured that all COVID 19 protocols shall be strictly observed all through the Ishrat.