Kano flyovers between needs and wants

….also published in Daily Trust

Following his return to the Kano state Government House in 2011 after an 8-year interruption, former Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso embarked on massive construction of flyovers in Kano metropolis ushering in an era in the state’s pursuit of infrastructural development befitting its tumbin giwa slogan.

As the construction took shape adding features of a standard modern metropolis to the city, Kanawa got more excited. On a lighter note, the flyovers triggered the Zazzagawa-Kanawa rivalry jokes with the former jokingly mocking the latter for finally having a flyover, which Zaria, albeit a local government, already had.

A look into Nigerians’ assessments of Buhari administration

…also published in Daily Trust

With the approach of the 2019 presidential election, the Buhari administration faces Nigerians’ verdict on its performance that determines its fate. Meanwhile, the atmosphere is already charged up with divergent assessments of its performance.

As it isn’t possible to assess every assessment, I screen out politically-motivated and ethno-religiously-motivated assessments, whether positive or negative. As I also screen out other assessments that sound particularly self-centered, whether positive or negative. Because such assessments are obviously too subjective to deserve any consideration.

Terror financing: The Ƙwarori connections

The Lebanese community in Nigeria, otherwise known in the northern part of the country as Ƙwarori, settled in pre-independence Nigeria and has lived there since then. Most of them hold Nigerian citizenship in addition to their Lebanese citizenship.

As business-minded people, Ƙwarori hugely prospered as linkmen between various European manufacturers and Nigerian marketers, and between local suppliers of agro products/raw materials and European buyers. Since then they have equally thrived in wholesale, retail, hospitality and nightlife entertainment industries. 

     

They have also enjoyed advantageous elite connections among the top echelons of business, military, political and masarautar gargajiya elite circles in the society, which they have always leveraged to get their way and indeed get away with their excesses. Many people have always felt intimidated by them knowing that they are practically untouchable.

Impediment to decisive victory over Boko Haram

…also published in Daily Trust

After nearly a decade since the eruption of the protracted war between the Nigerian state and Boko Haram insurgents, and in view of the failure of the Nigerian military to achieve a decisive victory over the terrorists, it’s high time the federal government identified and addressed the underlying impediment(s) to achieving it.

This is absolutely imperative as it appears that the already barely prepared and largely demoralized Nigerian military has practically exhausted its tactical capabilities, which explains the preventable yet recurrent massacre of its personnel at the hands of the terrorists who are growing more audacious and exhibiting more sophisticated attack and tactical maneuver, thanks to their apparently growing links with some transnational terror groups, e.g. the so-called ISIS from and/or through which they receive more terror training, more funding, more weapons and equipment. 

Gandujegate: Lest impunity prevail

…also published in Daily Trust

Though even before the issuance of the controversial court order barring the Kano State House of Assembly from carrying on with its purported investigation into the bribery-taking scandal involving Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, I never took the investigation seriously. After all, going by the way the House was handling the matter, it was already obvious that the Governor would almost certainly be “cleared” of any wrongdoing eventually.  

Meanwhile, the beneficiaries and aspiring beneficiaries of corruption, paid and even unsolicited governor’s apologists who albeit deep down never doubt the authenticity of the leaked bribery video clips carry on propagating empty and ridiculous arguments in their desperate attempts to absolve the governor.

Global politics in northern Nigerian sphere

…also published in Daily Trust

With the flood of constantly updated and in many cases conflicting news on current affairs at the fingertips of the average person nowadays, his apparent confusion on many topical issues is indeed a matter of course.

This is primarily due to the different underlying agendas that influence the narratives of media organizations; each according to the agenda of the government or interest group funding it, which explains why while even when their narratives on an incident appear basically similar, a critical comparison among the narratives would always reveal how each organization seeks to influence the emotions, conclusions and judgments of its audience according to its underlying agenda. For instance, as a British-funded media organization, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) may accurately report a confrontation incident between, say, a group of Palestinian freedom fighters and Israeli settlers on the occupied Palestinian territories, however, the organization’s underlying agenda and prejudice on the conflict would always subtly influence the narrative to keep the perception of its audience about the conflict too simplistic to see it in its wider and right context, and instead see it and indeed any incident of that nature as a mere confrontation between some belligerent Palestinian militants and peace-loving Israelis.

Ganduje bribery allegation: A comparative approach

…also published in Daily Trust  

As the scandal triggered by the leaked bribery video clips involving Kano state governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje continues to rock the state’s political atmosphere and generate controversy across the country, a comparative look at the situation explains why while a similar or even less serious scandal elsewhere has always had profound political consequences, the Ganduje bribery scandal, albeit extremely serious, would most probably fizzle out amid pervasive culture of impunity in the land, as it has always been the fate of similar and even more serious scandals in the country.

Elections in the dilemma of options

…also published in Daily Trust

As the political atmosphere in Nigeria gets increasingly charged with politicians already slugging it out for nomination by their respective parties to run for various elective offices in the forthcoming elections, the question whether or not the calibre of politicians jostling for these offices is the best the country can boast of remains relevant as ever.

Like any typical developing democracy where a tiny elite minority prospers at the expense of the overwhelming majority, almost all Nigerian politicians are actually self-acclaimed populists whose largely empty political rhetoric appeals to the electorate in their respective constituencies. However, their individual abilities to feign populism differ according to their respective cunning capabilities and the amounts of their lust for power. While some of them feign it quite perfectly, some others hardly disguise their elitist tendency.

UNGA Summit’s empty prestige

…also published in Daily Trust

The 73^rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) summit is already underway at the organization’s headquarters in New York.

As the most important UN event in terms of the calibre of attendees i.e. the presidents, prime-ministers, kings, heads of government of member states and their respective entourages of ministers, advisers and other top government officials, the UNGA summit is obviously supposed to be the most influential UN event as well.

As an organization that supposedly believes in and, among other things, promotes democracy among nations, the UN is of course supposed to represent a perfect example of commitment to democratic principles in all its institutions and councils where all member states should enjoy equal rights of participation in its policy and resolution-formulation processes, regardless of their respective levels of economic development and military strength. 

At the mercy of bastardized democracy

..also published in Daily Trust

The classical theorists of the concept of democracy hardly, if at all, observed that, as a political system, democracy per se doesn’t necessarily bring about peace, economic prosperity, socio-political stability and respect for human rights, after all.

Unsurprisingly, the proponents of democracy hardly observe this fact either, having imbibed its theories hook, line, and sinker without questioning its purported unconditional and universal applicability. Of course, the beneficiaries of the system, e.g. elective office holders and political appointees would never bother to give any thought to this observation, for obvious reasons.

Corridors of power: The graveyard of conscience

…also published in Daily Trust 

Though conscience is inherent in man, ability to behave accordingly obviously differs from one man to another.  Also, though everyone can pretend to be a person of conscience, only time and circumstances will tell a real man of conscience from a charlatan. Besides, the fact that no one today can rightly claim the ability to maintain a perfect commitment to his conscience all the time, explains individuals’ points of strength and weakness in this regard.

With its complicated socio-economic and political challenges, Nigeria’s public sphere has always featured many supposedly principled public affairs analysts and critics analyzing the causes of its various challenges, proffering solutions and advocating good governance and accountability.

Nigeria’s compromised sovereignty

…also published in Daily Trust

Though one isn’t so naive as to assume that Nigeria’s sovereignty is uncompromisable, yet the obvious tendency of a typical Nigerian holding a position of authority to unnecessarily concede it is particularly disappointing.

As one of the basic elements of civilized statehood, sovereignty symbolizes the dignity of a country and represents its source of inspiration in its quest for political stability and socio-economic development befitting its potential. It also symbolizes the motivation that inspires particularly ambitious countries in their struggle for regional, continental and global politico-economic influence. After all, it’s a country’s level of success accordingly that determines the amount of respect it and its citizens attract on the global stage. This of course explains the obsession of many countries with the issue of sovereignty, and indeed the sheer seriousness that characterizes their reactions whenever they rightly or wrongly feel that their sovereignty is challenged or compromised.

Tackling insecurity: Alternative approach

..also published in Daily Trust

As a follow-up to my article titled “Killing spree amid intelligence gap” (Daily Trust, April 6, 2018), I once again address the costly impact of the huge intelligence gap in the way the Nigerian military and police tackle Boko Haram terrorists, ethnic militias, armed bandits, kidnappers and armed robbers that capitalize on the gap to perpetrate their crimes.

Though the military and police personnel engaged in these confrontations are constrained by many challenges that explain their failure to achieve a decisive victory, the ineptitude of the country’s three major security intelligence agencies i.e. the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the State Security Service (SSS) and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) remains the most critical of all the challenges.

Leveraging diplomacy to tackle unemployment

…also published in Daily Trust

“I am Hajia Ramatu Damba, wife of the Ambassador of Ghana to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This message is in response to your article concerning the maintenance of mosques in Saudi Arabia. I read the article and feel I should contact you for more details because it happened that I travelled from Riyadh to Makkah and I saw so much filth in some of the mosques that I prayed in. So I ask you to direct me to the appropriate authorities to see if I could arrange for them to get some workers from Ghana for the cleaning of the bathrooms and the mosques. Both male and female.”

This largely self-explanatory note was a response to an article written by one Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi; a Saudi columnist with a leading Jeddah-based Saudi Gazette newspaper who had written an article lamenting the poor sanitary condition of public toilets attached to mosques along highways across his country, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He quoted the ambassador’s wife in a follow-up article titled “A suggestion from Ghana” (Saudi Gazette, Wednesday, July 18, 2018).

Where to stand in season of party switching

…also published in Daily Trust

As Nigerian politicians strategize to slug it out for nominations by their respective political parties in next year’s general election, the seasonal trend of party switching that usually characterizes the period towards the end of every four-year tenure is steadily gathering momentum.

While the political parties continue to receive their respective shares of gain and loss in terms of the number and calibre of politicians joining or leaving them, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would of course end up particularly affected given the looming exodus likely to hit it in favour of other parties especially its arch-rival, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Mass killing: Memo to the vulnerable

…also published in Daily Trust

In the face of the persistent Boko Haram terror attacks against defenceless civilians in the northeast, raids on helpless communities by armed bandits in Zamfara and Kaduna states, recurrent rounds of ethno-religiously motivated mass killing in Taraba, Benue and Plateau states all in northern Nigeria, it’s high time all communities vulnerable to such attacks due to their geographical locations resorted to whatever measures necessary to save their lives no matter the amount of sacrifice involved.

Need for Arewa narrative abroad

...also published in Daily Trust

When President Donald Trump of the United States, and while hosting his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari last April in Washington decried the “murder of Christians” in Nigeria, and in fact went ahead in his typical arrogant demeanor to effectively warn his guest that “We are going to work on that problem very, very hard because we cannot allow that to happen.”, I straightaway blamed his obvious ignorance of the dynamics of security crisis in Arewa on the sheer misrepresentation that some interest groups in Nigeria and their foreign accomplices always present to various US institutions, think tanks, public figures and NGOs, which in turn influence relevant US policy accordingly.

Poverty in the north: Between mentality and laziness

…also published in Daily Trust

As a topic, poverty in northern Nigeria has been sufficiently addressed in exhaustive intellectual works by economists and other intellectuals who have proffered short, medium and long-term solution proposals. Yet, grinding poverty remains particularly endemic in the region despite being massively blessed with economic potential enormous enough to accommodate individuals’ entrepreneurial ambitions and corporate wealth creating enterprises. 

This is also despite the fact that the average northerner is inherently energetic in pursuit of his livelihood, contrary to the unfounded assumption that he is lazy. After all, no one can rightly ascribe laziness to a social stratum that dominates the informal sector of petty but physical energy-intensive yet less rewarding occupations in the country. This is even though being energetic doesn’t necessarily mean being hardworking, because while the former doesn’t necessarily involve intelligence, the latter does necessarily do. And this is exactly where the underlying challenge lies when it comes to addressing the vicious circle of persistent poverty and culture of ineptitude in the region.

Policing failure

…also published in Daily Trust

Though the Nigerian Police has always been grossly undermanned, its ridiculously lopsided police personnel allocation formula where, according to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Zone 5, Rasheed Akintunde, over 80% of them provide personal security to what he called prominent people (who are apparently not more than thirty thousand) at the expense of approximately one hundred and eighty million vulnerable Nigerians, remains particularly responsible for the huge policing gap in the country, which even the six thousand policemen to be recruited soon as recently approved by President Buhari can’t bridge. 

Memo to anti-Almajirci activists

…also published in Daily Trust

Having written articles on different occasions on Almajirci phenomenon in northern Nigeria, and following my article titled “Hypocrisy over Almajirci” (Daily Trust, Friday, March 31, 2017.), I resolved not to write on the issue again having been convinced that elite hypocrisy and tacit resistance by many influential Almajirci apologists in the region are actually what undermine the efforts to end it. 

However, seeing a growing interest among many individuals and groups in anti-Almajirci activism, I felt prompted to address this memo to them hopefully to help steer their activism towards success.

Memo to Abuja, Kaduna Mauludiers

…also published in Daily Trust

It’s common knowledge that, in addition to the so-called Maulud celebration of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the two major Sufi mystical orders in Nigeria (i.e. Tijjaniyya and Qadiriyya) have also introduced different Mauluds to celebrate the birthdays of their respective mystical saints. However, what’s particularly interesting and indeed ironic is that, the Maulud of Shehu Ibrahim Inyass introduced by the Tijjaniyya mystical order has always outclassed even the so-called Maulud of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in terms of grandeur, glamour and follower turnout.

Though this year’s Maulud of Shehu Inyass, which comes up tomorrow wasn’t initially scheduled to take place in two cities, a disagreement between feuding parties within the mystical order over which city (between Abuja and Kaduna) would host the occasion has necessitated holding it in both cities simultaneously as a result of the insistence of each party to hold it in its chosen city. At the time of writing this piece, the situation remains the same.

Killing spree amid intelligence gap

….also published in Daily Trust

A critical look into the underlying challenges hampering the ongoing war on Boko Haram terrorists and other armed groups behind the growing killing spree across northern Nigeria reveals an inexcusable intelligence gap as one of such challenges.

Of course, the country’s three security intelligence agencies concerned i.e. the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the State Security Service (SSS) are jointly responsible for this gap.

Subversion of Iman

…..also published in Daily Trust

In Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, there are four major ideological trends; mysticism, “liberalism”, extremism and Salafism. Obviously, Sufi mystical orders spearhead the first trend; the so-called liberal Muslims advocate for the second, extremist groups pursue the third and the Salafi revivalists propagate the fourth. 

    

However, at the moment, I am not dissecting the respective ideologies of the parties representing these trends; I am, instead, highlighting the impact of the trends on the Iman (i.e. Faith) of unsuspecting Muslims.

Before switching to indigenous language

…also published Daily Trust

Obviously, in addition to the obvious lack of political will by successive federal and state governments to check the persistent deterioration in the quality of education in Nigeria, there are other challenges peculiar to various geopolitical zones and states.

In the northwest and northeast geopolitical zones, for instance, the English language as the main language of academic instruction is regarded by many as one of the challenges hampering the development of education. It’s increasingly, albeit largely tacitly, portrayed as one of the impediments to education penetration in the regions.

Conspiracy theory, between two extremes

…also published in Daily Trust

As a belief that some self-centered and extremely cunning vested interests manipulate situations, incidents or phenomena in some ways too clandestine for the average observer to observe, conspiracy theory remains one of the most controversial issues.

Though there is hardly any aspect of human endeavour that’s spared of conspiracy theory-based explanations, the politics of internal, regional, continental and global power struggle attracts most of such controversial explanations.

Class dichotomy, between myth and reality

…also published in Daily Trust

Many, in fact, most Nigerians apparently believe in some sort of tacit conspiracy among successive generations of Nigerian top politicians, high-ranking government officials and their associates in the private sector to perpetuate monopoly and manipulation of power and other sources of influence. This, in turn, has given rise to the widespread belief in the existence of a systematic class dichotomy in the country.

This belief is so deep-rooted that it’s repeatedly insinuated and even expressly asserted in academic lecture halls, newspaper columns, social media posts and, of course, mai-shayi and other roadside joints. In fact, even those who claim to never believe in conspiracy theory do unconsciously make subtle yet clear assertions confirming their belief in the existence of this dichotomy.

Hypocrisy in tackling political thuggery

…also published in Daily Trust

The growing security concern associated with the recent escalation of Kwankwaso-Ganduje political feud in Kano has re-highlighted the negative phenomenon of political thuggery particularly in northern Nigeria. I focus on northern Nigeria in this regard, because political thuggery is particularly persistent in the region.Unlike what obtains in the south where political thugs are largely part-timers hired by unscrupulous politicians to perpetrate thuggery in the run-up, during and shortly after elections then simply resume their respective hustles afterwards, it’s practically a full-time job for many in the north, which explains why it persists and isn’t likely stop in the foreseeable future.

As usual at every recurrence of political thuggery or worries over a looming recurrence, there has been intense condemnation of the phenomenon recently in Kano and across the region.  Religious scholars have preached against it on their Friday sermon pulpits. Public figures, opinion leaders and commentators on the electronic, print and social media have all condemned it and given warnings of its security implications on the already fragile social stability in the state and beyond. Interestingly, even politicians and their cronies who actually mastermind and sponsor it have publicly, albeit hypocritically, equally condemned it.

Observations during vacation

…also published in Daily Trust

This piece was supposed to have been written three weeks ago following my return from vacation in Nigeria. However, I instead wrote on two closely related issues on the two subsequent Fridays respectively following my return.

During my stay in Nigeria, I drew same observations as every Nigerian based elsewhere automatically does whenever he visits the country. Incidentally, the curiosity of a typical foreign-based Nigerian about the happenings back home outweighs that of his home-based compatriot. Many a time, the former who monitors developments on the media turns out more up to date on important developments in the country than the latter. Besides, the former’s curiosity is partly inspired by the fact that he misses the country despite the enormous challenges bedevilling it, and is partly inspired by passionate desire to see real growth back home similar to what he sees in his country of residence.

Putting ideological struggle to rest

…also published in Daily Trust

The growing proliferation of divisive and irreconcilable ideological tendencies in the Muslim- majority northern Nigeria has given rise to an ideological struggle amongst various ideological tendencies in the region. The atmosphere gets increasingly saturated with conflicting ideological polemics representing the tendencies involved. The struggle is particularly intense amongst the Sufits following the two major Sufi ideological sects i.e. Qadiriyya and Tijjaniyya, Sunni-Salafists, Shiites and the recently emerged neo-philosophers who seek to “reform” the entire Islamic religion by adopting and promoting alternative understanding of the religion in light of some archaic philosophies developed over the centuries but intellectually debunked by reputable Muslim scholars then.

The era of Ruwaibidhah

…also published in Daily Trust

Being an Arabic word transliterated into English, non-Arabic-speaking readers certainly wonder what Ruwaibidhah means. After all, probably even core native Arabs, let alone the Arabic-speaking non-Arabs familiar with its meaning only learned it in the Prophetic Hadith in which the Messenger of Allah (SAW) first used it when he prophesied that “There will come to the people years of endemic deception, when the liar will be regarded as honest, and the honest man will be regarded as a liar; the deceiver will be regarded as truthful, and the truthful man will be regarded as a deceiver; and the Ruwaibidhah will talk freely” Who are the Ruwaibidah?’ His companions enquired. He replied ‘vile persons (i.e. persons of little worth) talking on public affairs.” (See Albany’s Silsilatul-Al-Ahadeeth As-Saheeha, Hadith # 1887) 

Looking at the trend of public discussions on various aspects of public affairs, I doubt if anyone doubts that the world is already living through these years. The negative influence of the Ruwaibidah in modern-day societies has resulted from the persistently falling standards of measuring the worth of individuals. Obviously, the standards have been hugely compromised at the expense of moral values enabling the Ruwaibidhah to not only attain relevance, but also influence public attitude and, in fact, call the shots on sensitive public matters for that matter.