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Founder, Imam ABDULLAH ‘GBADE AKINBODE
Imam ‘Abdullah’ Gbade Akinbode is a top Islamic cleric and scholar. He has been around for the past 46 years contributing a lot to the propagation of Islam using different platforms to showcase the beauty of the religion. At one time he was a teacher of Islamic Studies before he pioneered the employment of music for Da’wah amongst youths of Muslim Students Society of Nigeria in Lagos State in the 80’s.
Imam Akingbode was born in Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria. He attended Ahmadiyyah Grammar School Ibadan where he had his secondary school education. The well-read cleric bagged his Bachelor in Islamic Education and Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
When the need arose for Nigerian Muslims to respond to the threat of conversion of Muslims to Pentecostal Christianity, Imam ‘Abdullah Akinbode teamed up with other progressively minded persons to establish Nasru-l-lahi-l-Fatih Society (NASFAT), a prayer group in March 1995. For almost two decades, he was the Spiritual Head and Chief Missionary of this fastest growing Muslim Organisation in South West Nigeria. In May, 2017 he inaugurated a new platform for his Da’wah effort which he named Jama’atu Ahli Llahi (Society of People of Allah, In the Cause of Allah) with the acronym Jamahliy “My Beauty”. Since establishment of the fordable society 7 year, JAMAHLIY has enjoyed tremendous goodwill and reception from Nigerian Muslims both home and abroad.
The society holds weekly programmes within the premises of MITV in the highbrow Alausa axis of Ikeja, Lagos State. Every Sunday, the society usually witnesses a large crowd of believers, many of who came from far and near flock the centre to participate in their prayer sessions. It is a place where prayers are answered.
Few days ago, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE and his reporter, JAMIU ABUBAKAR (08085185886) held an exclusive but incisive interview with Imam Akinbode. We got him to talk about his newly formed society, how he has been running it since inception and what makes it a stand out organisation. Read and enjoy!
We observed you gave out scholarships to some young people at the beginning of today’s programme. Is that what you do from time to time?
From the beginning of my life, I have always been supporting anything that is done in search of learning, education. Even when I was in NASFAT, I did fund scholarships to higher Institutions unknown to the people. I give private scholarships to people even up to Ph. D level. I don’t want to mention names. I think that is the best thing I should do. If I’m educated, I should give other people life and that’s by educating them. And that’s what we are doing here. The indigent who could not afford to go to extra tutorial classes to write JAMB, we organize free JAMB classes, and tutorials for those in SS1, SS2 and SS3. We employ qualified teachers and we pay them well. Even the majority of the teachers are Christians and they have been very supportive. We even have Christians joining the JAMB class. There’s a guy who is a Catholic that attended our JAMB class and he made it. Every one of our students scored well above 200. It gives me joy when I see young ones having the opportunity to grow . My members are always supporting me.
The last Ramadan coincides with the lent fast of the Christians, what is the significance of both faith fasting in the same period?
Thanks belongs to God. You know Muslims fasting has to go along the moon sighting. If it coincides with that of the Christians, so we celebrate together. The more, the merrier. So when the Christians are doing their own, the Muslims are doing our own and the Jews are equally doing their own. I see that as unification of servitude to God taking place at the same time in this universe and global village.
What makes society unique from other societies around? What are the things you do differently?
Constant remembrance of God and education. We cherish educating one another and as you can see; after the congregational prayer, you can see members sitting in small groups. They are learning. There’s no age barrier. If it’s a 1000 kilometers journey, you start it by taking a step. In this society, I make learning a must for every member. You learn your scripture. You must be able to read, to understand, to execute and to interpret. It’s not just a society where you come, pray alone and leave. You work and your work is learning and supporting people. We have an empowerment team. Women empower themselves; they train people. They have a committee who are working for the betterment of humanity. The youths are also doing their own. As you can see, they are having their meetings over there. After the meeting, they will start their class. They seek a better future for themselves.
We have known you for a while as a simple and very humble man. What explains this?
It is the hand work of God. The prophet is simple and all his companions were simple but strict to the unruly. They were simple to the meek. I have the other quality in me; I’m very strict to the unruly and to the lazy ones. If you are not ready to learn, you are not part of me. That’s when you see the other side of me. But ordinarily in the real platform of life, we should see ourselves as belonging to one family.
How do you feel when members of your society give testimonies after following your guidelines?
They do come back and appreciate it and they give me courage to keep doing the job. They listen and do exactly what I tell them to do. With the way I direct them, they are always cooperative and they are always ready to adhere to my instructions. And whatever I forbid them from doing, they try as much as possible to abandon it. That is the sign of good hope. I enjoy it and they are enjoying it too.
With the present situation in Nigeria, do you see light at the end of the tunnel?
Yes. It’s a scientific law; to every action, there is consequence. If you put up good actions, good consequences will come. All the problems we have are as a result of good policies and misinterpretation of the policies. If you have a misunderstanding of policies or misappropriation of policies, definitely, we would fall into wrongfulness. But when you have policies that are very good structurally and economically and you pursue it to the latter without any interference from any quarter, definitely, you will succeed. There cannot be gain without pain. Labour is painful. There can’t be childbirth without going through labour. Labour is painful but after the pain, you have relief. Such is the similitude of governing a nation. Yes, we could be in hardship but the hardship will not be forever. We could be in a stage where everybody feels that we are in perpetual darkness but when small rays of light have the chance to penetrate, it will expand and suddenly the darkness will fade out. I see Nigeria as a great nation, it is just a matter of time and our preparedness for a good thing. If we are not prepared, we will continue to be in a state of mess but if we are prepared things will change for the better. Nigeria will become great. It’s not impossible to have problems along the line but yet if you have problems, understudy your problems and you make attempts to sort it out. When you sort it out, it leads to action and the end result will be success.
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