The martyrs of Makkah

Also published in Daily Trust

Notwithstanding the title of this piece, and as a matter of principle, I am actually not in a position to categorically term the deceased victims of last Friday’s tragic crane accident in Makkah, martyrs, after all. This, however, doesn’t downplay the spiritual significance of the circumstances of their death that in fact constitute strong clues about their probable attainment of martyrdom, which I, and indeed all Muslims, wish them anyway.

It’s important to note that, though there are several different circumstances of death, as mentioned by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), that qualify a deceased Muslim to attain martyrdom, e.g. drowning and death under the rubble of a collapsed building etc, yet, no specific individual can be categorically termed a martyr without a clear confirmation in either the holy Qur’an or the authentic Prophetic Sunnah, or, at least, an unambiguous allusion to him in either of these two sources.

A look into Ganduje’s appointments

Also published in Daily Trust

(Note: the last two paragraphs were edited out from the version published in the newspaper. Below is the full version.)

     

While President Muhammadu Buhari continues to adopt cost-cutting measures in his reform policies including the pattern of his appointments, it increasingly appears that not many states of the federation are actually committed to follow suit after all. This is even though they are particularly affected by the persistent financial crisis resulting from the falling crude oil prices in international markets, being almost entirely dependent on their monthly statutory allocations from the federation account.

In Kano state for instance, the several religion related appointments and reappointments recently made by the state governor; Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje cast doubt on his administration’s commitment to cut cost. These appointments reveal how tasks that are basically of the same nature hence are supposed to be handled by a single government body were however split up into different units each unit being handled by a probably already overstaffed substantive commission or board headed and/or overseen by two or more top government officials, which ironically isn’t the case even in the state’s ministries that oversee several major government agencies and departments.

Appointments: Why President’s trust matters most

Also published in Daily Trust

As the controversy over the alleged lopsidedness or otherwise of President Buhari’s recent appointments persist, it is imperative to get the whole picture and put things in the right context in order to draw an informed conclusion accordingly.

While President Buhari’s critics criticize and accuse him of nepotism and deliberate flouting of the relevant federal character provisions in favour of the northern part of the country, many of his supporters seek to justify his action as many others apologetically seek to assure his ranting opponents that he would soon balance up the lopsidedness.

Unsurprisingly, his political opponents dismiss and capitalize on it in their efforts to discredit him politically. Also, though his fellow major party stakeholders in the other parts of the country especially who bankrolled his political campaigns and other political activities, and used their socio-political influence to lobby and even bully in his favour to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate, have so far remained largely silent and some of them have even expressed their support for him in this regard, their silence or verbal support doesn’t necessarily mean that they are in agreement with him in reality, after all.