Tribute: Ajimobi Phenomenon And His Contributions to Islam!! By Alhaji Kunle Sanni

Tribute: Ajimobi Phenomenon And His Contributions to Islam!! By Alhaji Kunle Sanni .

” CHRONICLING THE WAY SENATOR ISHAQ ABIOLA AJIMOBI BAILED THE MUSLIMS OF OYO STATE OUT OF DECADES OF OPPRESSION AND MARGINALISATION OF CHRISTIAN RULERS AND LILLY LIVERED MUSLIM GOVERNORS

It was Thomas Carlyle one of the most celebrated philosophers of all time who said ‘Great men never live in vain for the history of the world is but the biography of great men’ .

The death of Senator Ajimobi shook the entire Nigerian state to its very foundation because he was a man who bestrode the oyo state landscape like a colossus. He was unarguably the most colourful, flamboyant and humorous Governor we ever had.

This write up would have been unnecessary but for brothers especially in the North who were completely flabbergasted by tributes, encomiums and praises showered on him by Muslims in oyo state after his demise. Most of them were oblivious of his wonderful achievements for Islam but knew the controversies that enveloped his eight years in the corridors of power. He named himself without qualms THE CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY. They were familiar with the hullabaloo that came in the wake of his appointing more traditional rulers in Ibadan land which created a cacophonic insurrection between him and the Olubadan.

When we chronicled Ajimobi’s feat for Islam some mischievous elements want to twist it as his achievements in terms of governance in an wholistic manner
Yes his political adventurism could be described as fantastic by his unrepentant followers while his unmasqueraded antagonists could brand it a colossal failure but no Muslim worth the appellation would be blind to Ajimobi rescuing the Muslims of oyo state from the inglorious position of second class citizens and Christians as unabashed overlords. So we are not talking about the immeasurable infrastructural development he made with unprecedented perfection. That is the work of dye in the wool political followers of the late Governor .

What I am trying to do here is to unequivocally put into historical perspectives why Ajimobi became a hero of some sorts to the Muslims in oyo state that is unparalleled in the whole of Yorubaland. Let me also say that in terms of Islamic spirituality and performance Ajimobi’s religiousity cannot be the best among equals in Yorubaland.
That goes to the ascetic former Governor of Osun state Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola who by any standard is not an Islamic scholar but after some years in the philosophical youthful exuberant world of communism went out of his way to study Islam and took that knowledge to the highest pinnacle of Governance. He is to me the best practising Governor ever in Yorubaland. We are all aware of his courage in the ochestrated blackmail of his personality fuelled by the Christian controlled press in Nigeria. But Allah never leaves his dedicated servants. To the dismay of his Christian traducers his profile is always on the rise.

Enough of the distraction from the Ajimobi remarkable sojourn in Oyo State. The first hurdle Ajimobi assisted us to cross was the untainted animosity against women in purdah teaching in schools in absolute compatibility with their religious dictates ( which is optional)
Ironically it was Chief Christopher Alao Akala one of the few Christian Governors who could not be perceived as a bigot in the religious sense who was interested in seeing the beautiful faces of Muslim women veiled only for their husbands who sacked three teachers in kishi. They were the first set of women who had the uncommon effontery to use Niqab to class. A court of competent jurisdiction declared their sack unconstitutional, therefore null and void. In spite of this they remained jobless for three years before Ajimobi became Governor. We reluctantly approached him to right this wrong since we perceived him as a nominal Muslim. He disappointed us positively by recalling these innocent and virtuous women. Kudos to the then Commissioner of Justice Bayo Ojo who had to fight some Christians in SUBEB oyo state who were blinded by their religious fantasticism to frustrate the Governor’s order in recalling these women back to work

This order paved the way for hundreds of women in purdah in oyo state schools and civil service.
I am proud to say that my wife became the first principal in Yorubaland to put on Niqab to school. I don’t know of any other State in the South-West where women in Niqab are permitted to teach in government schools.

These achievements emboldened us to request for the use of Hijab by our students which was first demanded from the most Islamically religious Governor in oyo state Alhaj Lam Adesina. As religiously conscious as he was the apprehension of his political overlords like Chief Bola Ige and Abraham Adesanya would not make him assent to our request which led to a demonstration by Muslim Youth on the 19th of February 2004.
Within minutes of our meeting with Governor Ajimobi in 2014 Hijab was approved for Muslim girls in oyo state backed with a government circular. It was a watershed in the history of Muslims in Oyo state as Governor Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja who is a Muslim also rejected our demand for Hijab to be institutionalized to end the culture of nakedness for Muslim girls in Oyo State.

It was unbelievable that unlike a group of cantankerous Christians in Osun who blackmailed Ogbeni Aregbesola for wanting to Islamise the state of Osun no Christian group till today found the granting of Hijab for Muslim girls an Islamisation agenda the normal coinage of a section of christendom in our clime to bamboozle the Muslims to surrender their bid for equity and justice.

Then we went a step further with requests from oyo state school of Nursing and midwifery and school of hygiene. Ajimobi with the support of our internationally recognized Medical guru and egg head , then commissioner for Health Dr Azeez Adeduntan. No state in the south West have achieved this feat. Ajimobi was simply like a bulldozer given Muslim girls the rights not enjoyed by their parents which they fought for almost at the expense of their lives.

To crown our success in the victory for Hijab we were emboldened by the Ajimobi phenomenon to confront our National institutions like the University College Hospital where thanks to the Federal government Hijab was approved for Nurses but very few states in the south got it actualised like in oyo state where some husbands stampeded their wives to dare the Christian management with adorning their Hijab. As expected there was resistance but our efforts to get the CMD to respect the circular from the Nursing and Midwifery Council achieved the expected result and Hijab is no longer a strange phenomenon at UCH. Unfortunately our undisguised anti Islamic forces made sure the approval left out Student Nurses and Midwives.

Another battle with FOMWAN oyo state along with some courageous student Nurses made it a reality. Today, it is only in Oyo State in the South West that student Nurses and Midwives dorn their Hijab without any harassment.

Back to the man of history Ajimobi who out of political vindictiveness removed Professor Moshood Nassar vice chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, considered a PDP apologist or good friend of Chief Akala erstwhile PDP Governor of Oyo state but replaced with another Muslim Prof Suleiman Gbadegesin.

Now come the Emmanuel Alayande college of Education where an interview was conducted for all the Principal officers and a Muslim came first as Provost. A Muslim came First as Registrar. A Muslim came first as Bursar and Muslim sister came first as Librarian. The Christians cried foul querying why all the principal officers would be Muslims. Ajimobi himself with the Islamic sense of justice was persuaded to think the Christians should be dashed the Registrar but the day we gave him empirical evidence that since 1985 when the college was established without any modicum of meritocracy Christians were virtually allotted positions of the principal officers of the institution he approved that the Muslim brothers and sister should resume.
Before they even finished their first term he approved a second term for Dr Razaq Adefabi led Administration at Emmanuel Alayande college of Education. This would be the first time anywhere in the south West when Muslims would occupy the principal officer positions in a tertiary institution.

The first Ramadan of Ajimobi in the government house produced another uncommon magnanimity to the Muslims. It was Abdulkareem Adisa who introduced one day Iftar during Ramadan and subsequent Governors including Christians like Olurin and Alao Akala followed suit. Not Ajimobi he changed it to a daily programme through out the 30 days Ramadan fast.
He was inviting one Islamic organisation a day. If it was Ansarudeen today it may be FOMWAN tomorrow. Next day it would be NACOMYO
Something similar to this was happening in Osun state under Ogbeni Aregbesola but not as elaborate as what Ajimobi did in oyo state.

The unique and unparalleled one introduced by Ajimobi was giving 3000 take aways to the masses irrespective of their political or religious persuasion.

Yes, Maulud Nabiyy is controversial in Islam. Some criticise it with passion that it was an innovation never practiced by the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
others believed it was a good innovation.
Whatever school of thought you belong to is not the business of Ajimobi who believes government money and paraphernalia should be equally beneficial to adherents of all faiths.
He said if government was celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, similar gesture should be extended to the birth of The Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
It was not only celebrated, it was always live on the media. Those who attend are fed and Mallams from across the state smile to their banks after the Maolud ceremony. During the Eidul Adha celebration apart from the annual ritual of government sending rams to individual VIPS Ajimobi extended the tentacles to virtually all the big Islamic organisations in Oyo State. He went further to organising an Ileya get together for all Muslim leaders a few days after the Eid day. No other state in the South has replicated this good gesture.

Then one day, we were navigating the road between Molete and Oke Ado in Ibadan and we saw a gigantic structure on the main road that looks every inch like a Mosque. We branched and asked the workers who is constructing the Mosque and they said in no unmistakable terms that it was Ajimobi. We were so shocked and elated that we went straight to see him and he confirmed it. Today that is the most beautiful Mosque in Ibadan, fully Air- Conditioned . I don’t know of any Governor in Yorubaland who built a Mosque while in office.

When Ajimobi decided to recruit teachers and the whole process was concluded we had paucity of teachers of Islamic studies. We went to him and he approved an additional 100 Muslim Teachers.
Lastly I recollect our interface with him on the need for a land to build the headquarters of the Muslim community. He told us to search for any government land, he would approve it for us. He not only approved the land at a strategic place in Samonda he reduced the price by 90% and paid for it. During his last days in office he equally approved another strategic land near the government secretariat for MUSLIM UMMAH OF SOUTH WEST NIGERIA ( MUSWEN) at a very heavy discount
It is an herculean task to catalogue all the unprecedented good things Ajimobi did for Muslims in oyo state
May Allah because of these unparalleled feats grant him Aljannah and make his family live a good Islamic life. I want to congratulate the wife in spite of her Christian credentials for accepting to do Iddah for four months ten days. She loves her husband. May Allah be with her and enable her to continue the marriage with Ishaq Abiola Ajimobi in paradise, Aamin.

Ishaq Kunle Sanni
Chairman, Muslim Community of Oyo State “.