A questionable relapse

Also published in Daily Trust 

After what seemed to be a short-lived jubilation following the reported military success against Boko Haram militants in north eastern Nigeria, there has been a gradual but persistent relapse into the pre-state of emergency time in the region over the past few weeks, which indicates the failure of the military to maintain the momentum and follow through with the operation.

It is quite unfortunate that, over the past weeks the security situation has been mysteriously relapsing at an alarming rate. Though bomb attacks have virtually disappeared, there has been a dramatic escalation of attacks on civilians, which result in huge losses of life. After suffering setbacks, Boko Haram militants are now back where they storm mosques, schools, markets, villages to kill people and unleash terror and sorrow. As they also intercept vehicles on highways and other roads to brutally torture and slaughter people.

Politics and the killings in Benesheik

Also published in today's Daily Trust

Notwithstanding whether the continued virtual total blockade of communication network in Borno state has actually undermined the abilities of Boko Haram militants or not, it has, almost completely, cut off many good social commentators from that particular part of the country, especially who were active on the social media.

I therefore host one of such good commentators, Abdulhamid Al-Gazali, a brilliant young man from Maiduguri to share his thoughts about the recent massacre in Benesheik. Enjoy,

Dishonourable honour

Also published in Daily Trust

The use of vulgar language and fists to settle political differences by the politicians at all levels of government in Nigeria does not only warn of serious repercussions on the already fragile peace in the country, but it also erodes the already meagre amount of public respect the politicians enjoy.  

Though it, albeit rarely, happens in some other developing democracies, it is particularly becoming phenomenal in Nigeria, where no meeting, conference or gathering no matter who are in attendance, is considered too important to be turned into a wrestling ring where the wrestlers are ironically “honourable” lawmakers and “distinguished” legislators, who trade unprintable abuses and go berserk exchanging blows, breaking the furniture, smashing the equipment to eventually and shamelessly emerge with swollen faces, tattered and blood-stained clothes.

Gullible partisanship

Also published in Daily Trust

The level of political sophistication of a country is primarily determined by the level of political awareness of its people, which is reflected by their voting attitude and the extent of their commitment to partisanship. In advanced and other established democracies, the average voters are basically inspired by the proven moral integrity and leadership qualities of the candidates, as well as their precisely prepared and realistically implementable manifestos.

In such countries the issue of party affiliation of a candidate is secondary and hardly, if at all, plays any significant role in determining his suitability or otherwise in the eyes of the voters. This objective voting attitude inspires voters to vote for the best candidates notwithstanding their political party affiliations.

Deadly dilemma in Syria

Also published in Daily Trust

It is obvious that, the major regional and international political actors in the lingering civil war in Syria face a self-inflicted hence unjustifiable dilemma for their reluctance to live up to their moral, legal and political obligations in order to stop the bloodshed.

While the United States and its western allies, for instance, oppose Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, their dilemmatic concern revolves around the issue of which group replaces it, for it is clear that, they will never allow those bearded and Allahu Akbar-chanting fighters, who constitute the vast majority of the Syrian rebels to replace the regime. Whereas, the largely nonreligious rebels in Libya, for instance, had got a tremendous military assistance from the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO before they overthrew the regime and killed Mu’amar Gadhafi in 2011.