Re: The Qur’an on the resurrection of Jesus

Also published in Daily Trust

I am privileged today to host our erudite brother, Malam Ibraheem A. Waziri of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to explain and clarify the misconceptions raised by Rev Father (Prof) Omonokhua Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. Enjoy,

“Rev Father (Prof) Omonokhua has a very interesting article about Qur’an and the resurrection of Christ as published in Sunday Trust, of 14 April, 2013. Full of quotations from Qur’an and interpretations from different Muslim scholars through history, he tried to justify the Christian belief that Jesus actually died and got resurrected for the atonement of the sin of humankind.

Who grants amnesty to whom?

Also published in Daily Trust

In a country like Nigeria where so much blood has been and indeed being shed, and where the culture of systematically organized violence and counter violence prevails under the helpless watch of the security agents, many of whom are ironically involved in committing the same crimes, one wonders who is clean enough and indeed has moral right to grant amnesty to another. Under circumstances where ethno-religious groups are engaged in the vicious cycle of mutually destructive struggle against one another, perpetual quest for revenge against one another, inter-communal tension, mutual resentment, mistrust and general lack of confidence in the supposed constituted authorities, and where a victim in a given time and location is the perpetrator in another and vice-versa, it is obviously tricky to determine who grants amnesty to whom.

Is Nigeria a hopeless case?

Also published in Daily Trust

President Goodluck Jonathan 

Many local and international observers had cautioned successive Nigerian governments of the repercussions of their indifference towards the gradually but consistently deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the country and warned of serious unrests in the land and even existential threats. Unfortunately however, such warnings fell on deaf ears and went unheeded while the situation kept getting worse steadily but continuously.

Now that much of what had been warned against has come to pass and indeed takes more alarming dimensions in the form of escalating violence, growing public resentment and frustration, government’s helplessness and indeed brewing political turmoil, no right-thinking person doubts that unless this trend is reversed before it is too let, the situation will definitely burst. After all, such warnings were not issued on the bases of any painstaking research, because the leadership responsibilities neglected and the social obligations ignored over the decades were too fundamental to produce repercussions less than what the country is currently experiencing.

Trendy tolerance

Also published in Daily Trust

Though so much has been said and written on the supposedly Islamic religious insurgency in northern Nigeria, the crisis as a subject of research has not got its appropriate share of exhaustive and objective intellectual treatment, which is quite necessary in order to come up with a comprehensive explanation of the phenomenon and offer practical proposals to restore and sustain peace in the region. Most of the circulating analyses about the dynamics of the insurgency and the solution proposals lack intellectual depth and logical objectivity required to thoroughly understand the phenomenon, put it in the right context and offer appropriate solution proposals accordingly.

The endless e-passport stress

Also published in Daily Trust 

Though this piece may hardly if at all interest my home based compatriots especially who have never had to stay outside Nigeria for an extended period of time, because for obvious reasons they may not appreciate the significance and indeed the value of having a valid passport the way their foreign based compatriots do. After all, an expatriate’s valid passport remains the most indispensible official document he needs all the time regardless of the endeavour he pursues aboard especially in efficiently functioning countries.

I therefore intend to highlight the seemingly endless dilemma to which many foreign based Nigerians are unnecessarily subjected, by The Nigeria Immigration Service due to its inability to provide the electronic passport issuing facilities in most of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions around the world.