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| Dr Wulemat Adeyinka |
Dr Wulemat Adeyinka Bello-Olarinmoye, a senior lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), has dropped her Muslim name as a protest against the recent gruesome murder of Deborah Samuel, a student of Shehu Sagari College of Education, Sokoto, after she was accused of blasphemy by her schoolmates.
She said that she had wanted to drop the name before, Deborah’s killing only hastened the action.
In an interview with Saturday TRIBUNE, the University Don said Deborah's gruesome killing by the Muslim extremists had given Islam a bad image.
She said, "Long before now, I had been wondering why I had to bear a foreign name before I could serve God. I cannot link the two together either as a Muslim or a Christian. I think a name given generally is a cultural expression and for the purpose of identification. But then, I dropped the name now as my immediate reaction to Deborah’s killing. I felt there was no need to continue to answer the name.
On why she decided to drop her name she said: "It is part of the decolonisation process for me. It is time to write a new narrative about Africa and its people. After centuries of colonisation and recolonisation, we ought to let go of things that attach us to colonisation.
"I started having the feeling that for us to have any meaningful headway as a country, we need to redefine our values in education, science, technology, commerce and every other part of life, including religion. We need to look inwards for our development by using our indigenous knowledge.
"I have been thinking about this for a long time and sincerely, if asked of the real meaning of my Muslim name, Wulemat, I may not be able to give the correct explanation except that I know that it is from Arabic origin. And the truth is that since I was a little girl, I had wanted to know the meaning of the name but nobody, including my parents, could tell me. As I continued to search for answer, I came to the nearest meaning in Arabic, which is ‘Wolimat’.
"And ‘Wolimat’ is Yorubalised to sound as ‘Wulemat’. Most Yoruba Muslim names are actually Yorubalised. They are Arabic words. That is why many younger ones nowadays are coining their names to sound like Arabic names. For example, name like ‘Adijatu’ has been changed to ‘Khadijat’ and so on. I think with this, we are getting too deep into other people’s culture.
She continued; "Now, the nearest meaning to ‘Wulemat’ is ‘celebration’ in English language and that means my name in Yoruba language is ‘ariya’. So, if I chose to be called ‘Ariya’, I would still be serving Almighty Allah and follow His principles.
"I don’t think names have any import regarding your relationship with God, particularly when it is not in His instruction. I think, essentially, we should move away from outward declaration of love for God. Loving God is a thing of the heart. We should understand that no culture is superior or inferior to another. God is universal. So, as a Muslim, I think I can relate with God without bearing an Arabic name.
When asked if she is considering legalising ‘Ariya’ as her new name she said, "Well, making it legal may not be necessary. Names are symbolic. It is just for the purpose of identification. So, I am not thinking of legalising the new name. I have already made a statement; I have put it on record that I don’t like that Deborah was killed under the pretext of religion. I believe the statement has also got some people better informed that no human life should be taken anyhow.
"Human lives are sacred and cannot be taken just anyhow, not under the circumstances Deborah’s life was taken. It was barbaric. Even Islam admonishes that if you want to kill an animal for food, you have to do so with sobriety and mercy. I have studied the Qur’an and Hadith and I have never seen any portion where blasphemy allegation attracts lynching. The killing of Deborah really portrays Islam and Muslims in a very bad light and I will never be part of that.
"So, the statement I made, I believe, is a pointer that not all Muslims support killing. We must be civil in our actions and love others as God loves us all. If you cannot love somebody you see, it becomes a pretence to say you love God and fight for Him or His Prophet you can not see. Even at that, Prophet Muhammad (S.A W.) was not a tribal person. He was not a Nigerian. He was neither Yoruba nor Hausa nor Fulani. He was an Arabian, just like Jesus Christ was a Jew and so, killing people on the basis of religion is totally uncalled-for.
Wulemat reechoed calls for Nigeria’s disintegration, describing the country as "a wrong contraption", insisting that we are different people living together forcefully. She stated this when asked to react on Northern people and the Southern people's comments in regards to the killing of Deborah over alleged blasphemy.
She said, "It is a serious issue. Although I had restrained myself from saying this, I say that Nigeria is a wrong contraption. Nigeria shouldn’t have been. We are different peoples. I used to think that our issue was about class; that we were one Nigeria; that it was the elite, the political class, that was dividing us for their selfish gains. I used to think that they were using religion and ethnicity to divide us.
"But with the unfolding occurrences in the last two to three decades in the country, I have begun to feel that it would be a very good thing if each region could go its separate way. We can still relate but not the way the country is structured today. We don’t have the same orientation. We don’t have the same values, particularly when it comes to the sanctity of life. Here in the South, especially South-West, where I am from and very familiar with, we like enjoyment. We embrace all manner of ideologies.
"We love and embrace people, irrespective of where they come from and the religion they practise. We relate harmoniously with others. So, if other tribes are like us, the case of Deborah wouldn’t have happened at all. To take a human life just like that? No, it wouldn’t have happened.
"Even if we can’t go our separate ways, as I said earlier, we should have a leader or leaders that will love all Nigerians equally and not people from a particular tribe lording it over the others as we have currently.
"If there is no fairness in our polity and we are constitutionally bound together, there will be problems all the time. We must have one law applicable to all, irrespective of tribe or religion. But this is not so in Nigeria.