“Do you not see how Allah sets forth a parable? Pleasant word is like a splendid tree which roots are firmly entrenched in the earth while its branches sprout protectively into the sky yielding fruits every season by the grace of Allah. Allah talks to men in parables that they may be mindfully alert”. Q.14:24
Almond tree, for those who know it, is splendid to behold. It is magnificent in appearance. It is grandiose environmentally. But much more than all these, it is highly curative in substance and in essence. No soil whether in the forest or in the savanna or even in the desert is objectionable to this great tree for a dwelling. Wherever it is found, Almond tree creates a serene environment and serves as a protective umbrella for other living organisms around. It is one unique tree that wears the crown of a king and bears the scepter of a generalissimo. What other tree can compare favourably with this wonder tree?
Believed to be an original native of Morocco in North Africa, Almond is not just about roots, stem and leaves. It is also a medicinal tree with invaluable medicinal properties. Its medicinal virtues are evident in its pharmaco-dynamic action of copper, iron, phosphorus and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B4 and B6 which exert synergic action in man and boost the formation of new blood cells and haemoglobin even as they maintain smooth physiological function of the brain, the nerves, the bones, the heart and the liver.
The summarized analytical description here is not much about Almond tree per se as it is about the parable which its existence seeks to interpret. The similitude of the MUSLIM STUDENT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (MSSN) is like that of the Almond tree. It was planted like a Mustard seed. It germinated into an enlivening plant with no irrelevant part.
Most Nigerian Muslims of the current generation, including this columnist, do not know or cannot remember how MSS came into existence. They can now afford to take it for granted either because they were not part of the struggle that brought their spiritual harmony to bear or because the struggle has taken a different form which they are yet to be conscious of.
MSS is a revolution which quietly crept into the Nigerian society at the very right time that a revolution was required. If Islam enjoys a hitherto denied official recognition in Nigeria today, it is mostly due to that miraculous revolution.
How and when did this gargantuan SOCIETY come into existence? Who were the irrigators that watered its seed into a tree? What suckers have since sprung from this tree and where are the farmers planting and nursing those suckers? Should MSS be called an Institution? Who actually are its alumni today and where are they? What further height is this tree aspiring to attain? These and many other questions had spurred ‘THE MESSAGE’ to fetch water from its very source for the sake of originality and genuineness.
In a one on one interview with a man who joined hands with others to plant its seed, who was its chief irrigator from the very beginning, who grew and towered with the tree and who is more authoritative than others in telling its story, these questions were answered. Dr. Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, the first and longest serving National President of MSS (and former Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs by the grace of God) went the memory lane and relayed it all for posterity sake. It must be recalled that Dr. Adegbite as pioneer President served five terms of one year each from 1954 to 1959. That length of service turned out to be a saving grace for the infant SOCIETY.
‘THE MESSAGE’ decided to put the interview in a prose form for lucidity and proper perspective rather than a question and answer rhetoric. Here we go:
“It all started like a dream in April 1954. A student of Methodist Boys High School (BBHS) Lagos, Tajudeen Aromasodu, clairvoyantly muted a unique idea. He proposed an association of all Muslim students in Nigeria starting with Lagos secondary schools. The intention was to create a forum of unity and identification with Islam. Such a forum was also to enable them pursue and defend their common interest.
Aromasodu’s idea had emanated from the constitution of the Muslim Students Society of Burma which he accidentally came across. He read the constitution and became fascinated by it. That was at a time when Muslim children could hardly pass through secondary schools in Southern Nigeria without getting converted. Muslim children seeking Western education in those days were seen as trespassers or intruders except they were ready to cross to the other side of the bridge against their faith and the wish of their parents.
Aromasodu’s focus at that time was probably not beyond Lagos which was the federal capital of Nigeria and the seat of the colonial rulers. He quickly contacted a few other Muslim students of like minds and, together, they decided to invite two delegates from each of seven most prominent schools in Lagos at that time. Thus, fourteen of such students (boys and girls) formed the pioneer nucleus of what was destined to become a formidable SOCIETY. The schools were Kings College, Lagos; Queens College; Yaba, Methodist Boys High School, Lagos; CMS Grammar School, Bariga; Ahmadiyya College (now Anwarul Islam Model College), Agege; Methodist Girls High School, Yaba and Baptist Academy, Obanikoro.
The nucleus body held its inaugural meeting at Ansar-ud-Deen Primary School, Alakoro, Lagos, on May 30, 1954. It was at that meeting that a proposal which had earlier been sent out to the mentioned schools was formally adopted. And, a resolution was taken to draft the constitution of the SOCIETY which was ratified thereafter.
With the constitution in place, some members of the first executive body were elected into office. Dr. Adegbite was unanimously elected President while Shuaib Oloritu of Kings College and Saidat Anibaba (now Professor (Mrs.) Mabadaje) of Queens College became first and second Vice Presidents respectively. Dr. Adegbite’s election was quite timely and coincidental because he was not just the Chairman of the Library and Debating Society of Lagos secondary schools, at that time, which made him a first among, he too was planning a common forum for Muslim students.
Other officers were elected and given responsibilities. Duties were delegated with trust and virtually everybody lived up to the trust.
What would have been a major hindrance to the realization of that dream was money with which to run the new SOCIETY. But nothing fails at the dream level which has the hands of Allah in it. With strong determination and commitment, the young boys and girls levied themselves one shilling each monthly. Besides, each of them bore the cost of transportation when assigned to a duty outside the immediate environment.
If the first national conference of the SOCIETY, held in Lagos in 1954, drew the attention of many people to it and attracted many new members, that of 1956 held in Ijebu-Ode was a watershed. It was at that conference that the SOCIETY can be said to have become a real national body. Some members especially of northern origin who later became prominent in that body joined in 1956. These included Shehu Musa, Adamu Ciroma, Yerima Abdullah and a host of others. It was about the same year that some other Lagos students like Lateefat Oyekan (now Alhaja Lateefat Okunnu) joined the SOCITY and boosted its growth with indefatigable activities. At this time, Islam was not yet known to have significantly reached what is now called South East or South South of Nigeria.
The third conference was held in Ilesha in 1957. It was hosted by M.A Smith. The fourth and fifth conferences were held in Ibadan and Abeokuta in 1958 and 1959 respectively.
The conference had to be held consistently in the South-West because most of the initial members were students in that region. There were only two Higher Institutions in the country at that time. The two (Yaba College of Technology and University College, Ibadan) were situated in Lagos and Ibadan respectively. And all northern students seeking higher education in Nigeria had to attend these two Institutions.
The MSS annual conference had by now become a meeting point for almost all Muslim students in Nigeria because of the awareness it created in those students and the spiritual succour it engendered in their parents.
Despite their young age and little experience, the founders of the SOCIETY were foresighted enough to know that they would need the guidance and support of some elderly prominent men and women in the society to survive. They therefore appointed some of such people as patrons and matrons.
Among them were Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; the then Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello (the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria); Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu, (a Federal Minister); Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro (a Minister in the Western Region); Professor Saburi Biobaku; Alhaji Ekemode; Mr. H.A.P Adebola (a labour leader); Alhaji M.A Smith; Alhaja Humani Alaga (from Ibadan) and Alhaja A. Shodeinde (from Lagos).
The contribution of these Patrons and Matrons to the phenomenal growth of MSSN was invaluable. And its spread across the country within a very short time was due to providence. Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, the President of the SOCIETY had completed his secondary education at Kings College in 1957. He had wanted to vacate the office of the President for someone else but others would not hear of that. They persuaded him to continue having appreciated his cool-headedness and the leadership ability in him.
Providence set in to play a role in the life of Abdul-Lateef and that of MSSN simultaneously. He got a job as a researcher at the Historical Research Scheme in Ibadan in which he was engaged while awaiting admission to read English at UI. At this time, Abdul-Lateef experienced a repeat of providence working for him against his wish. He did not succeed in getting admission into the Premier University but that was a blessing for MSSN. If he had been admitted as he wished, he would have had less time for the SOCIETY in its infancy and he would not have become a lawyer that he happily became later. He also would have studied English at UI without any scholarship. His patience and faith paid off as he later got admission into the University of Southampton where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Law before proceeding to the University of London for his Masters’ and Ph.D. on scholarship.
Earlier in his life, he had experienced a similar fate. While seeking admission into secondary school, his desire was to be a student of Government College, Ibadan which his brother Saburi Biobaku had attended. But as providence would have it, his Primary school Headmaster mistakenly filled Kings College, Lagos, in his form. And that was how he became a student of Kings College.
If he had attended Government College, Ibadan, he would have probably not been part of the formation of MSSN and his leadership quality that nursed that SOCIETY from inception would not have been of such great benefit. And if he had got admission into UI at the time he desired, perhaps the history of MSSN would have been different today.
As a researcher always on the road, Adegbite used his time, his energy and the car attached to his office to spread the good tidings of MSSN to many other Muslim students, especially in the Western Region, who later became members.
By the time he eventually travelled to United Kingdom for his University education in 1959, a solid foundation had been on ground for the SOCIETY. He therefore had no fear on what would become of it in his absence especially when he had confidence in those who succeeded his tenure.
One major fear that had been averted before he travelled was that of the interaction of male and female students. That was the fear of the parents who didn’t want immorality to debase the good intention with which the SOCIETY was established. This sensitive aspect was carefully handled through the enforcement of discipline. Marriage among members was not forbidden but modalities were laid down for such based on the guidelines of the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Realizing the implications of talking any of the sisters into marriage, the President himself avoided any act that could set a bad precedent for others. When it was time for him to choose a marital partner, he made sure that his wife to be (Miss Taibat Yetunde Carew, of blessed memory) was not a member of the SOIETY. Although he met her at an MSS forum, the latter just escorted her friend to that forum.
When he returned into the country in 1965 with Ph. D degree, he was surprised at the growth rate of MSS across the country. All the secondary schools have fully become members and most of the foundation members had either graduated from Higher Institutions or about to graduate.
He therefore thought of a higher pedestal for the SOCIETY’s alumni to operate Islamically. Fortunately, he was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the Western State.
Today, most of those members are great men and women in various public and private sectors. The current Sultan, some Emirs, Ministers, Governors, Vice Chancellors, Professors and, even President Umar Musa Yar’Adua were members of that great SOCIETY.
It is however disturbing that despite the greatness of this SOCIETY and its alumni, there was no permanent office that could be called its national headquarters even by the time its 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2004. An attempt was once made to site such office in Ilorin being the midway between the north and the south. But that attempt was unsuccessful. It was only when the elders decided to pay attention to the issue of headquarters, recently, that work began on a befitting office in Abuja which may soon be completed.
Dr. Abdul-Lateef Adegbite’s appointment as Commissioner also helped tremendously in bridging the religious gap between the north and the south especially in respect of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in which he was to play a major role to bring to life.
His actions that led to the formation of ‘WEST JOMO’; how he contributed to the formation of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs; How he became the Secretary General of that Islamic apex body and other Islamic activities he has engaged in will become a subject in this column in a foreseeable future. In sha’a Llah.
