ON the February 3, 2012, a debate was held at the Angus Memorial Hall, on
the campus of Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, to commemorate the 80th anniversary
of the founding of Igbobi College. The occasion afforded Old Igbobians not only
a pleasant reunion, but was also evocative of a simpler and more innocent time.
The topic – “Is Religion Occupying Too Much Space In Our National Thought
Process” – was ably argued by two of the College’s legendary former debaters,
Mr. Chris Borha [who thinks it is] and Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN [who argued
for the contrary view]. The judges included two distinguished Old Igbobians,
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi (a former foreign minister) and the Honourable Duro
Adebiyi (a distinguished former judge of the High Court of Lagos State,
1968-76).
Unfortunately, Mr. Borha’s pyrotechnical oratory [which seemed to
concentrate on the superstition he claimed religion fosters in Nigeria] failed
to deploy the full weight of history, which was undoubtedly largely on his
side, and was thus, rightly in my view, overcome in the estimation of the
judges by the closely reasoned and impeccably delivered argument of Professor
Osinbajo, a gifted and seasoned advocate, who contended that religion, among
its other benefits, is the indispensable source of the moral strength of any
civilised society.
My personal opinion is that religion is, indeed, occupying far too much
space in our national life. This is graphically illustrated in my own neighbourhood
of Surulere, in Lagos : While there are at least six churches within a 300
metres radius of my house, I am yet to locate one single library in the whole
of Surulere! Yet, even the Lagos State and the Surulere Local Governments are
in awe of these churches and are reluctant to intervene to abate the nuisance
caused by the resultant appalling congestion and environmental degradation.
This imbalance becomes more disturbing when an empirical analysis of history is
taken into view.
The Islamic Golden Age (786 C.E.-1258 C.E.), which laid the foundation for
the later European Renaissance and Enlightenment, brought great progress in
mathematics, physics, biology, medicine, education, architecture, the arts,
philosophy, literature, scientific methods, etc., at a time when Europe was
still in the grip of the Dark Ages, precisely because free thinking,
rationalism, and the spirit of scientific enquiry were allowed as much space as
spiritualism at the time. The decline of this grand and illustrious civilization,
to which a lot of what we now recognize in modern life owes its existence,
largely began when the stifling of ijtihad (independent reasoning) in the 12th
century began and was replaced by institutionalised taqleed (imitation)
thinking.
Conversely, in Europe, the Church, through subtle means and not so subtle
devices, such as the Inquisition, controlled all thought until free thinking,
rationalism and scientific enquiry began to assert themselves and became the
well-springs of that great flowering of knowledge known as the Renaissance of
the 15th and 16th centuries and the Enlightenment of the 18th century, which
ensured, to this day, the great ascendancy and domination of the Western
Judeo-Christian tradition.
Even in the 21st century, religion continues to take questionable positions
on subjects like birth-control, control of HIV-AIDS, the granting of the equal
benefit and protection of the law to biologically-challenged homosexuals and
lesbians, the ordination of female clergy and gender equality generally, stem
cell research, etc, which many feel to be deleterious to progressive thinking.
Nations (such as the Western democracies, Turkey, Japan, China, Taiwan,
South Korea, Singapore, etc.) that have freed themselves from the debilitating
constraints of imperious religion – an inherently conservative phenomenon – and
opted for secular societies, thereby subtly circumscribing the influence and
control of religion over their peoples, have often been the most successful,
while those who have not (such as conservative Muslim countries like Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Yemen, etc.; the conservative Catholic countries of Latin America
and the Philippines; conservative, predominantly Hindu India) have been unable
to realise their full potential.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), the great Indian nationalist leader and first
prime minister of India put it rather well, in his 1933 letter from prison to
his then 15-year-old daughter, Indira [Gandhi] : “…And yet, the study of
science makes a tremendous difference to a person…in life. The help has been
chiefly in the training it has given and the outlook on the mind… Almost all
modern life is based on science…Science really means experiment, the finding
out of truth by experiment, and not merely accepting facts just because someone
has said so.”
Religion too seeks the truth, but in contradistinction, its quest is based,
not on experiments, but on faith, hope, and fear. It is increasingly idle to
deny, in the light of the mounting scientifically verifiable evidence that has
been accumulating for centuries, that nature rests on a rational, and not a
mystical, foundation which gives nature and life both their largely predictable
and not infrequent pitiless and cruel character. A few examples may illustrate
this contention: if human beings insist on building their cities in earthquake
prone regions, they will probably be destroyed without the possibility of any
divine intervention, even if hundreds of thousands of innocent people are
killed in the process; similarly, a person who fails to heed medical advice,
and smokes like a chimney and eats and drinks like a hog, risks grave injury to
his health for which no divine intervention may be available; a group of evil,
but well-organised and resourceful, men may successfully implement a genocide, without
any divine intervention, if good men stand aside; a promising nation may be
entirely run aground, without the slightest hint of any divine intervention, if
otherwise responsible citizens hug their private lives and decide to look the
other way.
What is certainly plausible today, therefore, is that the universe may just
as well revolve around science and a set of logical/rational natural laws as it
may around a Supreme Being. In this scheme of things, religion, if not taken
too far, has much social utility; but taken to extremes, it can be a dangerous
concept, ultimately subversive of the very same progress that science and the
natural laws have the potential of bringing within our reach. It was the need
for a balance between religion, on the one hand, and secular humanism in the
form of free thinking, rationalism, and science, on the other hand, that
informed Einstein’s famous quip that “science without religion is lame, and
religion without science is blind” (Albert Einstein, “Science and Religion,”
Out of My Later Years,1950).
• Ajose-Adeogun, a lawyer, teaches at the University of Guyana
Severally, development experts have
attested to the abundance and quality of Nigeria’s human capital.
Unfortunately, the inclement political, economic climates and sundry mundane
factors have joined forces to ensure that the ingenuity of great minds resident
within the Nigerian shores is not brought to bear, a development partly
responsible for the country’s development remaining on the slow lane. That
notwithstanding, those bright heads of Nigerian extraction that are domiciled
in saner climes are manifesting the true Nigerian spirit and blossoming at
great speed. Saheela Ibraheem, Esther Okade and the Imafidons are some of the
prodigies that the world is waiting with baited breath to see what they become
in the days ahead, writes ENO-ABASI SUNDAY.
THE roll call of the current world’s
50 smartest kids is comprised of kids that would continue to stun the world in
the coming years, having already shown a bit of what they have up their
sleeves.
For instance, Marko Calasan,
a 14-year-old Macedonian became a computer systems prodigy, and was
acknowledged as the youngest MCSA-certified computer systems administrator at
age eight. He became the youngest MCSE-certified computers systems engineer at
age nine and currently holds 12 Microsoft certificates and one Cisco
certificate, receiving his first certificate at the age of six.
After he passed the
examinations, Microsoft presented Calasan with DVDs and games. While he
considered it a thoughtful gesture, he said he wasn’t “really interested in
those things.”
Calasan, who is deeply in
love with mathematics and physics, began reading and writing at age two; and at
four he could speak in English. In describing his first memories of using a
computer, he said: “I was approximately three years old and I was making simple
actions like personalising Windows, then installing Windows, making remote
desktop connections with workstations and servers on remote locations, and so
on.”
Calasan said to teach
computer basics to children aged eight to 11 in his elementary school is
reportedly fluent in three languages and is learning a fourth. The prime
minister of Macedonia provided him an information technology (IT)
laboratory to further his technical learning.
In 2010, he wrote a book for
the pre-installation, installation, and post-installation process of Windows 7.
The book consists of 305 pages. The Macedonian government bought the rights to
the book, published it, and distributes it free to all schools.
At 16, Colin Carlson from
California, United States has earned two bachelor’s degrees, a B.A. in
Environmental Studies and B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, both from
the University of Connecticut), a master’s degree (an M.S. in Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology, also from Connecticut), and is working on a Ph.D.
(Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of
California, Berkeley). He is also interning in the Office of Policy for the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Carlson reportedly taught
himself how to read by age two, and at nine, he began taking college credit
courses at the University of Connecticut. Upon graduating from Stanford
University Online High School aged 11, he enrolled full-time in the university
as a sophomore by the time he turned 12. He is an honour student with a
near-perfect 3.9 Grade Point Average (GPA).
The teen prodigy’s brilliance
is reflected in the fact that he won the Truman Scholar, a $30, 000 scholarship
toward graduate studies. He also received $7, 500 from the Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarships programme.
The teenager, who has
travelled extensively, wants to focus his career on environmental policy issues
worldwide.
Thirteen-year-old Ainan
Celeste Cawley, from Singapore walked after six months. By eight months, he was
running. Cawley, a science prodigy, gave his science lecture, “Acids and
Alkalis in Everyday Life,” at a Singaporean school when he was only
six-year-old.
At seven years and one month
of age, Cawley passed O-level chemistry examination normally taken during the
latter high school years. In 2008, he became the youngest student to study
chemistry at Singapore Polytechnic, taking courses and doing laboratory work
there.
In 2010, the Cawley’s moved
to Malaysia for a less-rigid higher education for the young whiz kid, who is
now enrolled in Taylor’s University’s American Degree Transfer Programme, which
allows for flexible, broad-based learning. He is majoring in the sciences, but
studying everything from computer programming and animation to mathematics and
theatre.
Heartwarmingly, Nigeria’s
Saheela Ibrahim, is a prominent feature in the honours roll where the world’s
50 smartest kids are showcased.
On Thursday, February 26, the
19-year-old Harvard University finalist made history when the US President,
Barack Obama and the First Lady, Michelle honoured her with an official
reception in the White House.
Miss Ibraheem was admitted
into the Ivy League Harvard at 15, where she is currently studying
neurobiology- a branch of science that studies the brain. At the time the
Harvard admission came, she was also accepted for admission by 13 other top
universities in the United States, including the famous Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), Princeton University, Columbia University, University of
Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Brown University, University of Chicago,
Williams College, Stanford University, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, and Washington University in St. Louis among others. In choosing
Harvard, she became one of the youngest students to ever attend the university.
She is expected to graduate in May.
Aside from being brilliant,
Ibraheem who is also reputed to be a very humble girl, while giving a peep into
her modus operandi, and by extension her world said, “I try my best in
everything I do. Anyone who’s motivated can work wonders.”
According to The Best School
website, Saheela believes the key to success is knowing what you love to learn
as early as possible, a knowledge she says she came to at age five. “If you are
passionate about what you do, and I am passionate about many things, especially
mathematics and science, it will work out well.”
The teenage Nigerian, who is
also interested in Arabic, Spanish and Latin did not just pop up from nowhere
to display the unusually high intelligence. She has always been a star student.
For instance, while in 6th grade at her Conackamack Middle School in
Piscataway, New Jersey, she asked if she could be in a higher-level class,
having come to the conclusion that she needed more challenge.
They school granted her
request and placed her a full grade up. Expectedly, she acquitted herself
eminently, backed of course by her parents, who have been a guiding light for
her and often teaching her subjects the schools neglected to teach.
At Wardlaw-Hartridge, a
reputable private school she left her imprimatur, by immediately skipping the
awkward freshman year and heading straight into 10th grade.
Ibraheem has a SAT score of 2,
340 SAT (a perfect 800 on the mathematics section, a 790 in writing and a 750
in reading).
The teenage Nigerian is not
only a bookworm with brawn, she is also sport inclined. She plays outfield for
her school’s softball team, defender on the soccer team and she swims relays
and 50-meter races on the swim team.
Speaking on Ibraheem’s feat
(of being named one of the world’s 50 smartest kids) after an introductory
speech by the teenager at the White House event, which was part of activities
celebrating Black History Month, Obama stated that, “There are a lot of
teenagers in the world. Saheela is like one of the 50 smartest ones. That’s
pretty smart. And she’s a wonderful young lady. She’s like the State Department
and the National Institute of Health all rolled into one. And we are so proud
of your accomplishments and all that lies ahead of you. And you reflect our history.
Young people like you inspire our future.”
Present at the evening event
were members of the US Congress, including Leader, Nancy Pelosi, and members of
the Congressional Black Caucus.
Commenting on her daughter,
Mrs. Shakirat Ibraheem, said she has been way ahead of the academic game since
kindergarten, never cutting corners and always trying to do everything on her
own. “She’s like always independent,” she said. “I never get to help with her
homework because she’d say ‘it’s my work mommy, not yours.’
Three days before Ibraheem was
feted by Obama alongside other eggheads, Esther Okade, was also chalking up an
impressive record that would make Nigerians from all walks of lives walk tall
and hold their heads high. At 10, Okade is studying mathematics in Open
University, a United Kingdom-based distance learning university and already top
of her class having recently scored 100 per cent in a recent examination.
The array of British newspapers
that devoted prominent portions of their papers to celebrate the prodigy, lends
credence to the magnitude of the feat.
“Ten-year-old prodigy begins
college courses for mathematics degree,” was how online medium,
blackamericanweb.com announced Okade’s feat. The London Telegraph relayed the
message this way, “Mathematics prodigy, 10, enrolls on degree course,” while
the Mail Online preferred to render its headline like a question. It went thus:
“Is this Britain’s cleverest girl? Ten-year-old is accepted on university
course to study mathematics degree despite not going to school.”
In these reports by the
British papers and others, the writers spare no words in educating their
readers that Esther Okade looks and acts her age. In other words, she seems
like a normal 10-year-old, who among other things, loves dressing up as Elsa
from “Frozen,” playing with Barbie dolls and going to the park or
shopping.
However, what makes the
youngster stand out is the fact that she is also a university undergraduate,
and one of UK’s youngest college freshmen.
“It’s so interesting. It has
the type of mathematics I love. It’s real mathematics- theories, complex
numbers, and all that type of stuff... It was super easy. My mum taught me in a
nice way,” America-based CNN quoted Okade as saying about her programme.
“I want to (finish the
course) in two years. Then I’m going to do my PhD in financial mathematics when
I’m 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I’m 15 because I like numbers
and I like people and banking is a great way to help people.”
For those living under the
illusion that the teenager’s parents have pushed her into starting university
early, she emphatically disagrees.
“I actually wanted to start
when I was seven. But my mum was like, “you’re too young, calm down.”
After three years of begging,
mother Efe, an engineering graduate, who schools her daughter at home finally
agreed to explore the idea.
Okade, the satellite
television station revealed, has always jumped ahead of her peers. For instance,
she sat her first Mathematics GSCE examination, a British high school
qualification, at Ounsdale School in Wolverhampton at just six, where she
received a C-grade. A year later, she outdid herself and got the A-grade she
wanted. Then last year she scored a B-grade when she sat the Math A-level
examination.
Mrs. Okade noticed her
daughter’s flair for figures shortly after she began homeschooling her at the
age of three. Initially, Esther’s parents had enrolled her in a private school
but after a few short weeks, the pair began noticing changes in the usually
vibrant youngster.
“One day we were coming back
home and she burst out in tears and she said ‘I don’t ever want to go back to
that school - they don’t even let me talk’
“In the UK, you don’t have to
start school until you are five. Education is not compulsory until that age so
I thought OK, we’ll be doing little things at home until then. Maybe by the
time she’s five she will change her mind,” Mrs Okade submitted.
The “roller-coater” trip that
Miss Okade is enjoying started by her learning basic number skills from her
mother. By four, her natural aptitude for mathematics had seen the eager
student move on to algebra and quadratic equations.
Interestingly, she isn’t the
only mathematics prodigy in the family. Her younger brother Isaiah, 6, is on
the verge of writing his first A-level examination in June.
However, Not content with
breaking barriers to attend college at just 10 years old, little Okade is also
writing a series of mathematics workbooks for children called “Yummy Yummy
Algebra.”
“It starts at a beginner
level - that’s volume one. But then there will be volume two, and volume three,
and then volume four. But I’ve only written the first one. As long as you can
add or subtract, you’ll be able to do it. I want to show other children they
are special,” she informed.
Meanwhile, the older Okade’s
are also trying to trail blaze their own educational journey in Nigeria. In
this direction, they have set up a foundation and are in the process of
building a nursery and primary school in the Niger Delta region where they are
from. Named “Shakespeare’s Academy,” they hope to open the school’s doors in
September.
The proposed curriculum will
have all the usual subjects such as English, languages, mathematics and the
sciences, as well as more unconventional additions including morality and
ethics, public speaking, entrepreneurship and etiquette. The couple say they
want to emulate the teaching methods that worked for their children rather than
focus on one way of learning.
“Some children learn very
well with kinetics where they learn with their hands- when they draw they
remember things. Some children have extremely creative imaginations. Instead of
trying to make children learn one way, you teach them based on their learning
style,” Mrs. Okade submitted.
The educational facility will
have a capacity of 2, 000 to 2, 500 students with up to 30 per cent of students
being local children offered scholarships to attend.
“On one hand, billions of
dollars worth of crude oil is pumped out from that region on a monthly basis
and yet the poverty rate of the indigenous community is astronomical,” the
engineering graduate lamented.
Her husband, Paul Okade
added, “The region has poor quality of nursery and primary education. So by the
time the children get secondary education they haven’t got a clue. They haven’t
developed their core skills. The school is designed to give children an aim so
they can study for something, not just for the sake of acquiring
certifications. There is an end goal.”
A few years ago in 2010, it
was the Imafidon set of twins- Peter and Paula- that hugged international
headlines after their older sisters, Anne-Marie and Samantha, also had their
time in the sun, wowing millions across the globe with their intelligence.
Nicknamed “the Wonder Twins,”
Peter and Paula, in 2013 were named Great Britain’s highest achievers. At only
nine, they made history as the youngest children in British history to attend
high school. In 2013, they were in their third year.
It is on record that the twin
are the youngest to ever pass the University of Cambridge’s advanced
mathematics examination after participating in the Excellence in Education
programme. They set world records when they passed the A/AS-level mathematics
papers.
According to Black America
Web, Peter Imafidon, who is also a 100m and 400m relay champion in London, says
he would like to serve as Prime Minister one day and his sister Paula, a county
champion in rugby, would like to teach mathematics. Both students are
musicians.
The twins joined the ranks of
their gifted siblings, Anne-Marie Imafidon, who was the pioneering child among
the young geniuses. Now about 25-year-old, Anne-Marie spoke six languages and
graduated from high school at age 10. In 2003, when she was only 13, she was
granted a British scholarship to study Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, she obtained her Masters Degree from
Oxford University. She was the youngest person to pass the A-level computing
exam.
Because of her numerous
feats, the September 2011 edition of “Higher Education Digest” called her a
“serial world record breaker.”
Anne-Marie who believes in
mentoring children to help them succeed, is also involved in the Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme to help fulfill the
need for mathematics and science female leaders.
At 11, Christina Imafidon, now
above 20, was the youngest student in history to attend a British university –
the United Kingdom University. At 15, Samantha, another of the Imafidon’s
jewel’s passed two high school-level mathematics and statistics examinations at
age 6. She became the youngest girl in the UK to attend secondary school at the
age of 9. Samantha was the sibling who mentored the twins to pass their own
mathematics secondary school test when they were also six-year-old.
- See more at:
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Written by ENO-ABASI SUNDAY
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Written by ENO-ABASI SUNDAY
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Thursday, 05 March 2015 00:00 (The Guardian Newspaper)
Written by Disu Kamor
NUMEROUS media reports have surfaced
indicating that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) got N7 billion to
enlist pastors to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan and campaign against the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (rtd), in the coming presidential election. The reports came in bits,
and on the heels of an earlier allegation by the Rivers State governor, Rotimi
Amaechi, who announced that President Jonathan had paid some pastors N6
billion to aid his bid to retain the office he is currently occupying.
With the presidential
election on the horizon, it is quite easy to conclude that politicians are
ready to rekindle their primordial instincts and if one adds these allegations
to the already established climate that favours, condones, glamorises and
promotes corruption, the harmful consequences of the allegations become very
clear. In this shameful time, political games in Aso Rock seem to be attracting
more attention than political substance.
Stung by the numerous media
reports of the bribe, the CAN feebly denied receiving any billion of naira from
the government to manage its campaign from the pulpit. However, past alleged
involvement of the CAN president in botched arms deals and the apparent
Faustian pact between the top echelon of CAN and the presidency are permanent
highlights of Pastor Oritsejafor’s tenure at CAN. Leaving aside CAN’s feeble
denial, the aggressive and blistering rhetoric of some pastors who are using
all dubious ploys to confound their members are recognizable strategy of thinly
veiled desperation of politicians that are quickly approaching their “use-by”
date.
There is something
fundamentally perverse about these so-called “men of God” romping with
politicians who best epitomize the unchecked gangersterism. They not only
disfigure the public face of religion, their very utterances and acts betray
the values and principles that divine religions call to.
And the alternative to this
way is clear and well trodden by other men of God who have historically made
important sacrifices to sublime causes. In the first of the “Conscience of
America” series, a man was cited in 1957 by the Gallop Poll as one of the most admired
religious leaders in the world. This same man was selected in 1957 by Time
Magazine as one of the 10 outstanding personalities of the year. His citations,
more than 75 in number, include the fact that he was ranked as one of the 16
world leaders who contributed most to the advancement of freedom in the year
1959. This was a poll conducted by Link Magazine of New
Delhi, India.
This great man was Rev Martin
Luther King Jr. In addition to his regular duties as co-pastor of Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. King was an activist, humanitarian, and
leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He chose a different
path, one that is less travelled by those who call themselves men of God today,
but who are nothing more than demagogues that have built their reputation on
political games. While religious leaders like Dr. King used the pulpit to
advance the cause of honesty, freedom, impartiality and openness, while leaders
like him engaged in difficult struggles to bring peace through justice to
fellow human beings who may not be known to them personally, others use the
same pulpit to abuse these same values and devalue Dr. King
legacies.
However, the desperate
politicians’ nemesis seems to be the Nigerian voters, especially young adults,
who take their democratic responsibilities seriously. This increasing
politically active and informed constituency expects candidates to earn their
trust through knowledge, sincerity and intellect, not due to some association
to any religious leader or religion. Some have asked the question: why the fuss
about a N6 billion (or N7 billion) when there have been countless reports of
missing billions in living memory. The one word that comes to mind is
corruption. Corruption of epic proportions! But these corruption and
allegations will not cease until enough Nigerians take control of the
democratic process, expose any flaw in the election security, and demand real
election reform that will include demilitarization of the electoral process and
freedom from external interference.
As the 2015 elections
approach, Nigerians need the discipline of self-introspection to get it right
this time. We need to engage in the serious analysis of our thoughts, ideas,
feelings and actions. We must awake to the fact that no politician is corrupt
for our sake or because of any religion, but in spite of it. As such, we must
commit to work hard to elect only exemplary social leaders who, through their
love for people and social competence, would be able to bring a sea change to
turn our current challenges into opportunities.
Our search for leaders that
have excelled in knowledge, skills and character must be done together,
irrespective of our faith, or lack of it. It is time that we amplified the
voice of reason and showed preference for candidates that set out clear
understanding of important issues, define the road-map to bring about
measurable improvements and enrich our personal and national lives. At this
moment in our national life, we are getting a renewed opportunity to
participate in a process that may usher in a new deal for all; one that will
enable us to overcome the many predicaments that have been piling on us. It is
crucial that we do not bungle the opportunity again this time.
Kamor is Executive Chairman, Muslim
Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), Nigeria -
- See more at: http://ngrguardiannews.com/editorial-opinion/columnist/200562-kamor-disfiguring-the-public-face-of-religions
