OBITUARY: Lemu, revered judge and scholar who taught IBB and Abdulsalami

Lawyer. Judge. Teacher. Author. Mentor. The list goes on for Ahmed Lemu, renowned cleric who took his last breath on Thursday. His was a life of purpose and value and this can be seen in the manner of tributes that have been pouring in for the revered scholar. From President Muhammadu Buhari to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to governors, many have been showering encomium on the deceased, recalling some unique moments.

But in his lifetime, Lemu said he did not care what people remember about him. “I wake up every day to thank Allah and improve upon my relationship with Him. Whatever people care to remember about me after death is their business. I never do anything to be remembered for it,” he had said in a 2013 interview with Daily Trust.

But after 91 long years on earth, many decades of those years spent in legal and pedagogical service, Lemu could not help but write his name and ideals in the scrolls of history.

‘MADE BY HIS FATHER’

Lemu’s father played a major role in shaping his life, especially in his pursuit of knowledge. Most of what he did, he did to fulfil his father’s wishes for him.

“My father urged me to seek more and more knowledge not only about Islam and Arabic but also about secular education. By that time, I started feeling I want to become a real Muslim scholar so naturally, I started feeling happy that I am achieving the objective of my father. He will wake us up before fajr to study Qur’an and that practice at that tender age consciously or unconsciously puts you on a certain pattern of life,” he said.

Asked how he came about a successful blend of Islamic and western education, Lemu said, “It was Allah’s acceptance of my father’s supplication. My father in particular was my Qur’anic teacher. My father kept reminding me that all he needed from me was knowledge. I refused to forget what my father told me about searching for knowledge even after his demise on April 13, 1954.”

EMBARRASSED BY NAME CHANGE

Lemu’s father named him Shehu Ahmadu. He changed his name to Sheik, a decision he said later embarrassed him.

“When I entered the Shari’ah Law School (now School for Arabic Studies) Kano in 1949 and became a student of intensive Arabic course, I discovered that Sheikh is the Arabic equivalence of Shehu. Due to youthful exuberance, I felt that if Sheikh is the correct Arabic pronunciation of Shehu; why shouldn’t I change from using Shehu? And since then, I started using Sheikh in place of Shehu,” he said.

“But I later realized the embarrassment I caused myself for using Sheikh. When I started having contact with Arab scholars in 1969 after the formation of the Islamic Education Trust (IET), I was not comfortable introducing myself as Sheikh each time I met with such scholars at meetings and conferences; because Sheikh to the Arabs is a title used for the learned or aged and I was neither.

“Lemu became my surname when I went to elementary school in 1939. In those colonial years of elementary education, pupils who bore the same name in the same school or class had the name of their respective towns or villages added to their proper names.”

TEACHER, LAWYER, AUTHOR

Lemu became a teacher under the Bida Native Authority in January 1953. The school’s name was later changed to Provincial Secondary School, Bida. Among the students who passed through him in the school were Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) and Abdulsalami Abubakar, former heads of state.

In a 2013 interview, he described the duo as good students who obeyed school rules and regulations.

Lemu later left teaching for the judiciary where he rose to the position of a Sharia judge at the court of appeals in Sokoto and Niger between 1976 and 1977 and later chief Sharia judge at the court of appeals in Niger between 1976 and 1991.

CHAIRED A POST ELECTION VIOLENCE COMMITTEE UNDER JONATHAN

In 2011, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him chairman of a committee constituted to review the violence that occurred after the elections. At least 800 persons were killed in the violence, according to the Human Rights Watch.

In an interview with Vanguard, Lemu said he felt pained that none of the recommendations of the committee was implemented.

“I was one of the prominent religious leaders that were put together to look into the case of Nigeria’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Countries and to advise the government under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. After signing the consensus, Christians again went back to Babangida, led by a delegation saying they didn’t want the conclusion to be published and it was never published up till today,” he had said.

“Next was the vision 2010. I was a member. Our hopes were raised. The regime that came after Gen. Abacha only scuttled the whole thing, so to say. Nothing was put into effect. The question therefore is that, why did we hold the vision 2010?

“The most painful of all was the one instituted on the post Election Crisis after the election of former President Goodluck Jonathan. He appointed me as chairman of the committee to investigate the causes of the post election violence. We wrote our report and this is between us and God especially when among us were some prominent lawyers and a prominent retired Supreme Court Justice, Uwais. We did our work faithfully and as a Nigerian and journalist, can you mention just only two items that you consider in that report that was implemented. I want to be frank with you, we all felt disappointed.”

DIDN’T WANT TO BE A JUDGE

Lemu said he was sad when he learnt that he had been appointed a Sharia court judge in 1976 because he “never liked the job at all”.

“When 19 states including Niger were created in 1976, my name was forwarded for appointment into the Niger State Judiciary without my knowledge or consultation. When I didn’t see my name on the list of those going to Niger or staying back in Sokoto, I was told of the recommendation in respect of my appointment as a Shari’ah Court judge. I felt seriously disappointed because I never liked the job at all. I didn’t like it. I referred the matter to Allah. I was so sad that I decided to travel out of Nigeria for a while,” he had said.

Asked why he did not like the job, he answered: “When I told my father in 1948 that I was admitted into the Shairah Law School, he gave me a nod but added, “I don’t want you to be a judge”. His fears emanated from what he knew at that time of the limited powers of judges whose decision could be over-ruled by emirs or district heads. He couldn’t see how I could escape such interferences if I became a judge.”

“DAWAHPRENEUR”

Lemu wanted to and did spend his post-retirement life in Da’wah (calling or inviting people to Islam).

“I like to be a simple person. I said to myself in December 1969 that I would retire in order to face da’wah and problems going on in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians. I was able to see and learn, understand and feel the real problem facing not only Nigeria but also the universal Muslim world,” Lemu said in a short video clip in 2014.

Teslim Adeyemo, a trainer and a senior research staff at Islamic Education Trust (IET) described Lemu as a “dawahpreneur” when speaking about the IET in an interview.

Lemu is one of the two Nigerians who have won the King Faisal International Award presented to him in 2014 for his service to Islam. He has also been conferred the national honours Order of the Niger (OON) and Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).

He was born on December 1, 1929, in Lemu, Niger state. He was married to Aisha Bridget Lemu and together, they founded the Islamic Education Trust (IET) aimed at proper child upbringing and protection of women’s rights. Both of their children, Maryam and Nurrudden are also Islamic scholars. Lemu also established the Islamic Da’awa Institute to combat extremism.

EDUCATION

He received his early education at the Quranic School in 1932, followed by the elementary school (1939), then the intermediate school (currently the Government College) in Lemu, from which he obtained his intermediate school certificate in 1948. Thereafter, he joined the School of Shari’a Law (currently the School of Arabic Studies) in Lemu from which he obtained Middle (1950) and High (1952) Teachers’ Certificate (Level Two) in Arabic Language, Islamic Studies, Shari’a Jurisdiction and General Education. In 1954, he went to the United Kingdom to study at London University’s School of African and Oriental Studies. He obtained the certificate of General Education (Advanced Level) in History, Arabic, Hausa and Persian Languages in 1961, and Bachelor’s Degree (Honors) in African and Oriental Studies in 1964.