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Jigawa’s Qu’ranic Recitation Competition With A Difference
-By Umar Kyari
Newsdiaryonline Sun Feb 13,2011
Organized around the theme “National Unity Among Nigerian
Muslims and Enhancement
of Global Brotherhood Through Quaranic Recitation Competition”,
the 25th National Quaranic Recitation Competition was
bound to turn into a forum for high level intellectualism. More
so in an identity conscious global village and with the galaxy
of personalities in attendance. This ranged from the Chairman of
the occasion, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina; the Shehu of
Borno and the representative of the Sultan of Sokoto at the
opening ceremony, Umar Garbai ibn El-Kanemi; the Emir of Gwandu,
Alhaji Muhammed Iliyasu Bashar, the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar
Faruk; the Emir of Ningi, Alhaji Yunusa Danyaya; the Mai Bedde
from Yobe State, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Suleiman and all the emirs
of Jigawa State viz that of Hadejia, Kazaure, Gumel, Ringim and
Dutse; the Vice-Chancellor of Usmanu Dan Fodio University,
(UDU), Sokoto, Professor Riskuwa Shehu and the Head of
Department of Arabic Studies of the university, Professor Sambo
Junaidu. Others included Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi and the
quintessential public intellectual and Dan Masanin Kano, Dr.
Yusuf Maitama Sule whose intervention certainly activated the
audience the more. Governor Sule Lamido closed this list as the
Chief Host.
 Right
from 11. 11 am when the two governors arrived the Aminu Kano
Triangle in Dutse, venue of the competition for the opening
ceremony, everything was a discourse, including the mien of the
twosome. For example, Ibrahim Shema turned out a personification
of amity. It is not clear if that is how he always is. And when
he climbed the podium, there was no falsity about him. He called
his Jigawa counterpart, “my brother, Sule Lamido” and proceeded
to recognize everyone instead of the escapism into the Nigerian
lexicon, “all protocols observed”. He expressed the hope that
learning of the Qu’ran by heart would have a contagion effect
and result in the expansion of the frontiers of Islam in Northern Nigeria. He then gave a good account of himself
in terms of what his government has tried to do by way of
foreign educational opportunities in the area of Arabic
knowledge, stretching from Arabic Calligraphy to Computer to
Medicine, Pharmacy and so on.
This appears to be a
major trend in the essentially Islamic part of
Northern Nigeria if the high points of Lamido’s
foray in Arabic and Islamic knowledge are anything to go by. The
audience learnt about from the Jigawa Education Commissioner,
Professor Haruna Wakili about the elaborate rehabilitation and
restoration of the mega School of Arabic and Islamic Studies,
Hadejia; the College of Islamic and Legal Studies; overseas
scholarship for 30 students who excelled in the National
Qu’ranic Competition , i.e. ten from each of the exercise in
2007, 2009 and 2010) who have been sent to the International
University of Africa in Sudan, the University of Cairo in Egypt,
the University of Malaysia and the University of Saudi Arabia in
Mecca. Ten students from the current competition will be added
to this list.
Expatiating on the
competition in his speech, the Vice-Chancellor of UDU, Prof
Shehu made the point about this being the first time the
competition would be held in Jigawa
State
since 1986 when it was inaugurated with the aim of encouraging
scholarship in the Qu’ranic Sciences as well as unity among
Muslims. Nigeria, he
said, had distinguished itself in international Qu’ranic
recitation competitions.
 The
event, said he, has been sustained by the various kinds of
support extended to the Centre for Islamic Studies of UDU. The
names of the sources of support would remain confidential but
not all of them. Some, he said, have to be mentioned so as for
other Muslims to emulate them. It was here he disclosed that the
Jigawa governor, Sule Lamido, had “displayed good leadership
style in all our dealings with him and has fulfilled all pledges
and gave us all that was possible”. Prof Shehu added “Governor
Sule’s choice of Professor Haruna Wakili, the Honourable
Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology to chair the
Local Organizing Committee of learned scholars, experienced
technocrats and respectable traditional title holders is more
than justified.
From this moment,
recognition for Sule Lamido began to pour in. elder statesman
and the Dan Masanin Kano, Dr. Yusuf Maitama Sule said, “I
thought I was only proud of you because of the new face of Dutse
until I heard the VC of UDU”.
Support for Islam, said Dan Masanin, is a cardinal
contribution because, according to him, a good Muslim is
everything good. Islam, he said, did not come to condemn or
contradict any other religion but to corroborate and Muslims
make no distinction between the Messengers or the Prophets of
God. A Muslim who follows the Qu’ran is, in his words,
civilized, sophisticated, honest, reliable, dependable, truthful
and conscious. Hence his thesis that a good Muslim is everything
good and that if all Muslims followed the Qu’ran, the World
would know peace “because the good Muslim is a good nieghbour,
is a just ruler, he has sense of fairness and justice and does
not discriminate on grounds of color, creed, tribe or religion”.
 It
was Professor Sambo Junaid who actually launched into the theme
of the identity of the Muslim within the context of unity and
global brotherhood, not only of Muslims but of Muslims and its
otherness. He started by expressing happiness that, in spite of
the threat of materialism to the Glorious Qu’ran, Muslim
governors had joined hands with the Centre for Islamic Studies
of the UDU and hosted the Qu’ranic Recitation Competition in
their states. According to him, this has helped the centre in
choosing the best reciters for participation in international
competitions in Muslim countries. He would be happier if, in the
spirit of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council co-chaired by the
Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Christian Association of
Nigeria, (CAN), the National Quranic Competition goes round the
states. And, in his view, if CAN were to decide to organise a
Holy Bible Recitation Competition, Muslim governors should be
able to join hands with their counterparts to host such a long
awaited competition.
He also made the point
about participants garnering honours for
Nigeria
from recent international recitation competitions held, among
others, in Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Kuwait,
Palestine,
Libya and Malaysia, citing how 64 countries participated in
the case of the competition in
Saudi Arabia
in 2010, among them countries and Islamic organisations from the
Middle East, Africa, Europe and
America. He would want live
coverage for such occasions in future “so that the teeming
Muslim World population will watch the competition live”.
So satisfied that the
Chief Host, Alhaji Sule Lamido refused to speak when he took the
floor. He said in his usual frank manner that the issues had
been so succinctly captured by the previous speakers that he
would not want to dilute those speakers. He thereby reduced his
task to simply declaring the competition open. Thirty states are
participating in the 25th version of the week long
competition which the Sultan of Sokoto will declare closed on
February 16th, 2011 in Dutse.
Mallam Kyari is
Special Assistant to on Media Affairs to Gov Lamido
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