We were elated with the announcement of Dr. (Mrs.) Akinola as the new acting DSA at the inception of the Prof. Elujoba-led administration. She comes across as a caring and wonderful mother figure, especially for female students, and her husband, the radical Prof. Akinola, is a great mind.
We would like to situate her reaction in the context of a caring African mother who was misinformed by some people, for whatever reason, that her daughter is a closet call girl. What do you think a typical African mother would do?
Nonetheless, and after the attendant hullaballoo, it becomes important to explain the reality of things so she and others do not fall into the vacuous ruse of these spin doctors and agents of misinformation.
Ma, the hall mosques are not brothels and your students, the reason why you occupy that exalted office today, are not prostitutes.
The hall mosques, Awolowo and Fajuyi, each comprises of two big halls separated by a wall. This is not uncommon, rather it is almost the default in mosque architecture. You may visit any mosque in your vicinity to confirm this; it’s either the females are on a separate floor, as seen in the new OAU Central Mosque, or the floor is demarcated by a barrier, as seen in the hall mosques and the old OAU Central Mosque.
The hall mosques have three doors that open to the exterior with another door joining both sides of the mosque. Two of these entrances lead to the male side of the mosque while the third is the female entrance to the female section. The DSA entered the mosque through the male entrance, then proceeded to the female side hoping to use the door within the mosque. Apparently, she was acting on information however flawed. What she didn’t know is that the door is rarely used since the females exit through their door to their hostels and males use the doors which connect to their halls, Awo and Faj as the case may be.
At this point, it is pertinent to note that the mosque is not a ‘male hostel’ mosque and it has never been. Even when many of the professors were still students, males and females used to worship together in the different places used as makeshift mosques before the present location. This is not limited to the Muslims; the same thing holds for the many clubs and fellowships with offices in both halls.
So it took some time for the sisters to open the door. This is absolutely normal in a sane environment devoid of prejudice. She did not knock the door, seemingly because she was not used to it, but charged on it. Will you ever rush to open a door if a stranger barged on your peace and tranquillity? The female students were not locked up in a room as erroneously claimed in some quarters; they were simply at their side of the mosque.
After the door was opened, she queried the girls on why they were there… Apparently, she missed the many girls who would be doing the same thing when she passed by Awo hall Café and the photocopy centre. Other than act as a place of worship, these mosques serve as tutorial centres with a small library and reading space. MSSNOAU tutorials have always been open to everyone irrespective of gender, religious affiliation or social status. That is why we are really disappointed in some of our non-Muslim colleagues, many who have visited the mosques for tutorials and even share in our food during Ramadan. They know what it looks like. Yes, religious prejudice reigns supreme in our society, but are we not old and educated enough to eschew some parochial views? That you hold views we don’t share means you should engage in blatant slur? Our religion says: “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin…” Q 4:135.
Yes, OAU alumni and students know that females visit the various societal secretariats within Awolowo and Fajuyi halls at any time of the day. They hold fellowships, choir sessions, tutorials and so on in these rooms which share same floor with male rooms and toilets. The only exception is the MSSN OAU library and that’s why females have their own library in the mosque which is situated outside the dorms. It will be a great injustice to claim that these many girls who visit these fellowship offices are prostitutes because they spend long hours within the male sleeping area. That will be petty and exceptionally disingenuous.
Their desperation to paint the main body of MSSN OAU as the splinter group is the joke of the century. Pray, how on earth will a group of thousands be a splinter group to some less than a dozen individuals. Apparently, something is amiss but the spin doctors chose to misinform the school authority and the general public.
We challenge these people to swear by Allah, the Lord of the Magnificent Throne, considering the multitude of His creatures, the magnitude of His Power and the severity of His Punishment, that the word ‘brothel’ can be used for these mosques or that ‘prostitutes’ reside in them. We admonish these individuals to ruminate on the chronicle of the slander of our mother, A’aishah:
“Verily, those who like that (the crime of) illegal sexual intercourse should be propagated among those who believe, they will have a painful torment in this world and in the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you know not.” Q 24: 19. That is how your Lord ended the narrative. And remember the day you will stand before your Lord to give account of every speech and deed.
One more thing: if anyone would love to assist some of the female students who are deep into ‘runs’, every student on campus knows where the call girls rock, definitely not the mosques.
Just a line on the Boko Haram tag: when these horrid hecklers were busy praising Osama bin Laden and his ilk, naming their children after terrorists, MSSN OAU has been criticizing and warning against such tendencies for more than a decade as a matter of belief.
Lastly, we support the aspiration of the Prof. Elujoba-led administration for peace and progress on campus. This, we stated during our courtesy call to him and we cherish the role of university officers and other well meaning Nigerians in resolving this impasse.
Allah alone grants success.
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