By Abdussalam Tolani
“Among the believers are men true to their pledge to Allah. Among them is he who has fulfilled his vow (martyrdom) and he who awaits (his chance). And they didn’t change (the terms of their commitment to Allah) by any alteration”* Q.33: 23
Feeling the icy hands of Death is beyond human indices like wealth, piety, intelligence, social status or family edge. Divorced from passion or compassion, Death turns gains to pains, reduces grace to grass and tears our hearts into tears.
If Death weren’t heartless, AbdulLateef Oladimeji Adegbite (“Adaba”; b. 1933 and d. 2012) should be untasteful to Its sacred fangs. But, from Allah we came; unto Him we MUST return! We, just like Death, are helpless and hapless for the excruciatingly painful eclipse of the most luminous of our guiding stars.
Take or leave it, Adegbite’s phenomenon was historic and historical in Nigeria. Though dwarfed in Arabic, he’s more than indemnified by Islamic activism, philanthropy and bridge building.
Take or leave it, Seriki, with a few, exceptional, secondary school teenagers in 1954, planted and watered, with their sweats, the ideological seed that gave birth to many other Islamic bodies and scholars, including the “offshoots”, of today and for…posterity.
What could Baba Adini and his distinguished like minds such as Baba Baki (Iwo); Prof. Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa; Prof. Dawud Noibi, KBE; Prof. Hussein AbdulKareem; have done if there are schools without an organized Muslim student’s body or…MSSN? The Nigerian Ummah, today, is beautified by the bright and dim consternation of stars: National Council of Muslim Youth Organizations (NACOMYO); Islamic Study Group (ISGON), Lagos; The Islamic Movement (TIM), Ilorin; The Muslim Congress (TMC) southwest, Dawah Front of Nig. (DFN), southwest; Al – Usra Society, Porthacourt; El – Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement, north; and several Prayer Groups like NASFAT, QUAREEB, etc.
As a marginalized Ummah in the southwest, who are oppressed, repressed and suppressed by an alien political ideology, christianized educational system, interest – based financial aberrations and/or perverted family institution, our corporate honour is, alhamduliLlah, sustained by the ideological offsprings of these Muslim leaders of perfect past. These special breeds, inter alia, include: Prof. Kamaldeen Balogun; Alh. Kunle Sanni; Dr Abdulhakeem Abayomi (may Allah bless his noble soul); Dr Muh’d Ali Olukade (may Allah bless his noble soul); Sheikh Jaafar Adam Isa (may Allah bless his noble soul); Prof. Taofeeq AbdulAzeez; Imam AbdulRahman Ahmad; Barr Adebayo Shittu; Alh. Amao Alaga; Prof. Isiaq Oloyede, etc.
A father caters for all children. As his “son” lawyer, I was privy to many arbitrations championed by Adaba in his Seriki Adegbite Court, Ago-Oba, Abeokuta, among Muslim organizations, leaders and, sometimes, among Christians or in interfaith crisis. As Seriki (Head of the Muslims) and Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (he, equally, midwifed this apex body of the Muslims in Nig.), Adegbite showed us sagacity of bridging the hitherto widening gaps between the Muslim North and South.
Until he stepped into the scene, Muslims in southwest often used to fetch their Ramadan crescent from inside the water wells. Today, the honour of declaring the new moon is a prerogative of our Amirul Mu’meen, the Sultan of Sokoto.
In 2007, the Seriki Adegbite Court, Ago-Oba, Abeokuta, incubated the Ogun State branch of the Muslim Lawyers Association of Nig. (MULAN) which started the first ever Muslim Legal Year Cerebration that gave identity to the Muslim legal practitioners and the quite few Muslim judges, at the Egba Central Mosque, before the Ogun StateJudiciary took over the annual event. In the prior decades, everybody, including Muslim lawyers and judges, must sing the canonical rhythms at the St. Peters Church, Ake, Abeokuta.
Dr Adegbite wasn’t only jovial, he was a practical joker. I once represented the Fed. Univ. of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) in a land case at the Court of Appeal, Ibadan. I, still green at the Bar, used to be professionally harassed by the intimidating credentials of the opposing counsel, a very senior lawyer. When I ventilated my fear to my fatherly principal, Lateef Adegbite, he asked me to get him a robe of Senior Advocate (SAN), which I did.
In the only appearance I ever saw him, he followed me to Ibadan, duly robed as a Senior Advocate. Both the Bar and the Bench were palpably intimidated! I can still recall Justice Amina Augie (JSC, as she then was), then presiding at Ibadan, smiling and acknowledging Dr Adegbite’s audacity when he introduced himself as a former *Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the old Western Region* (when, I think, Gen. Olurotimi was the military governor).
My first encounter with Seriki was in the National Mosque, Abuja, sometimes in 2001. The next physical meeting, 2006, was facilitated by my friend, *Bar Ibrahim Atanda* when, on the very first day I ever stepped into Abeokuta, he made me the Head of an international Chamber (with offices in Lagos, Abuja and United Kingdom) that nursed, in yesteryears, Senior Advocates (SANs), judges and global citizens.
My ruffled heart sheds tears when I see the fading glory of our office, popularly known as Seriki Adegbite Court, silently crying for the crowd of the less-privileged, Muslims and Christians, who used to troop to Ago-Oba every Friday in order to feed from Adegbite’s selfless hands. What a perfect past!
The only posthumous solace is the annual UN Int’l Day of the Down Syndrome that holds at the Seriki Adegbite Court, Ago Oba, Abeokuta every 21 March, in his honour and under the mandate of Halima Olawoyin Down Syndrome Foundation, MULAN and al – Ansor Trust Fund (ATF).
If Baba Adinni was an image of an activist’s erudition, insight, peace and altruistic character, can same be said of today’s Muslim leaders who fuel the fire of organizational aggrandizement; call to hero – worship and hedonism? What a tensed present!
May Allah forgive the dead and the living, and unite us with the Rosuul (saw) as our intercessor for the endless Bliss of Jannatul Fridaws, amin.
*Mall. Abdussalam Tolani, LL.M., was the Head of Chamber, Lateef Adegbite & Co., Abeokuta, and the Exec. Sec. of JuvenileJustice Centre (JJC)
Do you want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity for a product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +2348183319097 Email: platformtimes@gmail.com
We are committed to impactful investigative journalism for human interest and social justice. Your donation will help us tell more stories. Kindly donate any amount HERE
