PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE FOR NATIONAL GROWTH
Fadeelat Sheikh Saadulahi Ballo Olorunlalaaro; The Chief Imam Oluwole Central Mosque in Ogba area of Lagos; Nigeria in a recent sermon at a public lecture on family day, award presentation & walimotul qu’ran ceremony at Oluwoloe Ogba center Mosque, Ogba, The Editor-in-Chief of Fabulous International Magazine: Jane Osmaor was there: excerpts
Insha allah the incumbent Vice Chairman of the Ojodu L.C.D.A; Honourable Olubunmi Oluwale. Ladies and Gentlemen let me go further in our introduction of our special but invited guests. In our legislative assembly we have 37 members but we have 22 of those here with us; we have 6 Elected councilors within the Ojodu area and they are the councillors in charge of Ward A; ward B; ward C; Ward D; Ward E; Ward F respectively. Music of Fatai Rolling Dollar being titled: won kere si number was being rendered by those in attendance at the event as day wore on with drums beat accompanying it as it was being sang to the delight of the gathering.
We thank God at how far the Almighty God has dealt with us fairly and how he has carefully selected for us those to preach to us; we thank God for the lives of our eminent fathers in Islam who are here to preach great messages to us and amongst them are the likes of our father: sheikh Haman; Sheikh Kamaldeen and all our respected Islamic scholars that God has used to reach us at the point of our needs as a people.
I greet one of our revered leaders just by my right hand side over here ;I have heard it being said that somebody has promised that he will deliver at least 2 million votes to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu but until that is achieved nothing is fixed. If you go to a lot of places where highly placed people in our society lives they hardly ever vote ;it is those who are loyal to them like security guards, house helps, they drivers, street urchins amongst others that actually cast the votes in ballot box.
However; when this voting exercise is concluded it is those that we stated that do not vote will be the direct beneficiary of the dividends of the entire voters scheme. When an election is to be done it is the real voters that will go to their respective villages and home town to vote the candidates of their choice, they say that when the world is coming to an end we will continue to see people with high impulse.
In 1991 I got the job of a teacher and at that time my salary was just a sum of N200 but all the same despite the meagre amounts I was contented .The principal I met at the school called me to tell me that he will encourage me to move on shortly because if I stayed long in the school I probably will not wish to fulfill the goals I had initially set for myself.
This days people earn so much in the profession even in millions and yet cannot do much and what this is tells us is that we are gradually seeing spiritually is the message we have always known about God and that is the fact we are actually seeing the last days. We continue to see the heightening of diverse temptations; great knowledge with best reasons but not up to scratch anyway; all sorts of affairs amongst men but go through them
If you wish to make enquiries you will want to know the number of friends on Facebook ;the number of friends following the individual on social media as they add colours to the social media but they do not have real time followers in the real life.
We continue to see more strange developments, in the time past people will say they will rather die in the place of their siblings out of love but this days we never hear of such type of affairs any more from people.
In the time past when a particular child is successful the entire family will rally around him but today when somebody has a breather he or she will restrict themselves to his immediate family and will shut the doors on other people in the family.
If you have a very strong believe and covenant with the Almighty God then you will need to demonstrate that love to God for all to see.
Such a person will stand by God in truth and in service; for example if a woman is not the patient type she will eventually be forced to live her husband‘s house to become a spinster . Even those who attend Quranic schools amongst our children must have the great patience to learn new things in the presence of God otherwise if they do not this can have effects on them in life and if they are in anyway affected then it can ruin their lives.
Then a child came to meet up with me and prayed for me while highlighting the fact that I was one of the people who taught him and mentored him in islam then I suddenly came to my senses that perhaps he was just trying to hype me for some ends as I could not really understand what he was up to. There was a day somebody came to meet me by my car and wanted to know when I got the car but I at the same time asked when he thought that I actually graduated from school in the first place as we have being around as far as this profession is concerned.
We have followed a lot of leaders in Islam and fellow scholars in the discharge of their duties on a daily basis as we learn from them as well; so it did not just happened for us we paid our dues and so those who do not have the power of patience will eventually destroy the mission for which he or she has being called for. A child is sent to a Quranic school to learn and he or she says that he or she could not get the expected teachings to aid in their development but please what concerns a man with having several quranic teachers in the first place just get the job done.
ONLY THE INCULCATION OF GODLY MORALS CAN SAVE THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIETY
Editor-in-chief: Jane Osamor of Fabulous Magazine speaks to the Islamic cleric: Fadeelat Olorunlalaro on how the improvements in societal values can help grow our future
KINDLY INTRODUCE YOURSEIF SIR?
My names are Imam Fadeelat Sheikh Ballo Olorunlalaaro and am the Chief Imam of the Oluwole Ogba Central Mosque in Ogba here in the city of Lagos; Nigeria
SIR CAN YOU ADMONISH US ON HOW TO NAVIGATE OUR LIVES USING SPIRITUAL GUIDES TO FINDING GREAT SOLUTIONS?
You have said it all; we all go through all types of social challenges as we have a lot of hurdles as a nation in Nigeria. We have economic challenges and a lot of other things; then again we are looking at our young ones and in the way we go about a lot of things and this days we see the youths abuse the use of drugs and so the best thing is to get back to our creator in deep humility and supplications on way forward for our lives. The Al Quran says when the end time comes everyone will be in deep trouble unless those who fall to their own via good morals and those who stand upon the truth as much as those who have patience to see things through.
IT IS SO OVERWHELMING; WHAT CAN YOU SAY TO THE ORGANISERS OF TODAY’S EVENTS?
This is not the first time I have being with them for like two to three years now and I do appreciate efforts made so far
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF OUR SOCIETY AS AT TODAY?
What we see today in our society is the reflection of how bad our society has being; Most of our people pay a lot of money in school but the morality is not there as parents are actually supposed to be a mentor and provide a platform for sacrifice for their children but where is it I simply can see it. My advice to parents is that we must seat down seriously with our children and help them to grow; teach them with morals. The way of God is the way of man; anyone who does not respect God will definitely not respect their parents and that is the basic truth. Any child that does not have the fear of God will not know the rights of any parent; I mean the first thing that you will want to achieve in life is that you must teach them on how to honor God.
WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO OUR ELECTORATES AND TO OUR CANDIDATES AS WE ENTER A DYNAMIC STAGE IN NIGERIA’S NATIONAL LIFE IN FEBRUARY; 2023?
Most of the time when we say that we are looking at how far at our national life we are enlightened in the process; however when we look at things critically we see that most of us are not really enlightened as expected. In Lagos state go and check the official data base; where the rich actually lives they do not vote as expected; for example Ikoyi; Victoria Island etc.
One of the responsibilities of any citizen is to make sure that we vote; for us to vote for a good leader and when we refuse to do that we have this urge to continue to lament hence the best option for us now is to continue to pray for better days this time around and beyond that is my candid opinion. The elections that is around the corner is that of our youth’s progress and societal future especially with the welfare of our parents taken very seriously. We should lay up a foundation that will involve us to protecting our parents very well and we should not start celebrating until we have achieved our great objective and may the Good God help us; Amen.
