Taming the kleptomaniacs

Also published in Daily Trust

Though just two months into its promising tenure, the Muhammadu Buhari-led government has discovered some relatively few but extremely shocking instances of systematic plunder of public funds involving massive amounts of money that are staggering enough to be described as malala gashin tinkiya, as we, when we were kids, used to innocently describe any amount of money beyond our limited comprehension.

After all, obviously there are several millions of Nigerian adults who equally can’t fully comprehend the concepts of billions and trillions often attached to the outrageous amounts of public funds being stolen from the public treasury, hence they equally find the stolen amounts simply incalculable and, of course, confusing, even if they don’t say it.

Beyond the diplomatic honeymoon

Also published in Daily Trust

In addition to the nationwide euphoria that trailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s historic election victory, the immediate and remarkable improvement of Nigeria’s global approval rating marked the beginning of his diplomatic honeymoon even before he actually assumed the presidency.

This particularly explains the diplomatic warmth between Nigeria and the major world powers ever since his inauguration almost two months ago.

Obviously, this is largely due to the relatively transparent hence the most credible presidential election ever conducted in the country, which he meritoriously won, and, of course, his personal reputation as a man of exceptional integrity, which has earned him special recognition within the country and beyond.

Tackling terrorism intelligently

Also published in Daily Trust

A fortnight ago, I wrote in this column, about the dramatic resurgence of the Boko Haram insurgents, in a piece titled “Taming the terror”, and how the resurgence was obviously intended to challenge President Buhari who had vowed to eradicate them for good.

Yet, now that the terror attacks have not only persisted but have actually escalated over the past two weeks, I felt prompted to take another look at the situation from a tactical perspective, this time around, to assess the viability of the ongoing preparations to raise multinational troops from among the Nigerian military and its immediate neighbours, in what appears to be a massive military buildup to engage the insurgents in a conventional war that involves the deployment of regular combat soldiers and heavy military hardware.

Consumerism in Ramadan

Also published in Daily Trust

Muslims often look forward to the month of Ramadan not only for spiritual rejuvenation but to also break away from the usual routine of life in their individual lifestyles. In addition to the phenomenal increase of the acts of charity and generosity in Muslim societies during Ramadan, the dramatic rise in food consumerism among them is also one of the easily noticeable trends during the month.

Though during Ramadan people understandably develop high appetite for a wide variety of foods for obvious reasons, the way both rich and poor develop unnecessary insatiability for lavishness particularly in the provision of Iftar meals is simply disproportionate. This situation is particularly phenomenal in the rich Arab countries where, during Ramadan in particular, people go on shopping sprees for not only food provisions but for many other things also e.g. expensive household items, vehicles etc.