The Dynamics in Kleptomania

Also published in DAILY TRUST

The rampancy of the systematic looting of public resources by the increasingly remorseless Nigerian rulers in collaboration with their political and business associates, who together constitute the country’s thieving elite, underscores their suffering from theft addiction.  However, their peculiar case is perhaps beyond any conventional explanation and treatment particularly when viewed against the background of their purported claim to religiosity, being presumably (though largely self-acclaimed) practicing Muslims and Christians.

Controversy over Proposed FG, Boko Haram Dialogue

Also published in DAILY TRUST

 

Apparently motivated by the massive amounts of money plundered by some officials through the defunct Niger Delta amnesty and rehabilitation program, it seems that some faceless and devious elements are trying to capitalize on the urgent need to create an avenue for dialogue between government and Boko Haram in order to achieve their personal interests at the expense of peace.

Slide into Demostocracy

Also published in Daily Trust print edition of Friday, 8 June 2012

 

My above coined term is designed to refer to the current constitutional amendment bill that literally seeks to blend democracy and some elements of aristocracy together in Nigeria; hence I give it the name “demostocracy” to reflect both concepts in a single word.

North: The Beginning of the Mess

Also published in DAILY TRUST

 

About two hundred years ago, Sheikh Abdullahi bin Fodio; the renowned genius brother of the legendary 19th century reformer Sheikh Othman bin Fodio wrote a poem lamenting how the then elite of what now largely falls within northern Nigeria began to abandon the ideals of the Sheikh Othman-led revolution, which had entrenched social justice and indeed established a civilized and efficiently functional empire in the region and beyond.

On the “Qur’an birth” Controversy

Also published in DAILY TRUST

 

A story recently published in some newspapers in Nigeria, and went viral on the Internet, that a baby was born clutching a copy of the noble Qur’an in his right hand, stirred up a controversy over its authenticity, scientific and religious explanations. Some doctors interviewed about the story rejected it outright on scientific grounds, while many non-Muslims rejected it or at least expressed doubt about it, apparently due to its allusion to the divine validity of the Islamic religion, which by implication necessarily means the invalidity of their religion(s).