Nigeria’s toothless diplomacy

…also published in Daily Trust

It’s a pity that the name “Nigeria” trends mostly in negative contexts thanks to its particularly bizarre instances of leadership failure, and the wrongdoings of some of its citizens engaged in various acts of crime in different countries around the world.

This explains the country’s particularly damaging notoriety among nations and indeed explains why foreign governments and international diplomatic bodies hardly take it seriously. It equally explains why the few international corporations that take the risk of doing business in the country practically operate on their own terms capitalizing on the country’s lack of or limited alternatives; as they also largely operate as accomplices to corrupt government officials in the systematic thievery of the country’s resources.

Why they hate Umayyad the most

...also published in Daily Trust

Sometime in 2017 Dr Mohammad Sani Umar Rijiyar Lemo, an erudite expert in the Science of Hadith, suggested I translate an Arabic note written by an equally reputable Libyan scholar, Dr Ali Muhammad As-Sallaby, to the English language. The suggestion was conveyed to me by Barrister Salisu Muhammad Gumel.

Dr Muhammad Sani had rightly found the note absolutely worthy of wider dissemination in the face of the growing number of attention-craving charlatans masquerading as Islamic scholars and intellectuals obsessed with unearthing and dissemination of the age-old but thoroughly debunked unfounded historical narrations, distorted historical accounts and accounts quoted out of context designed to smear the Umayyad dynasty.

Mismanagement of Zakzaky’s detention ll

…also published in Daily Trust

Though my piece titled “Mismanagement of Zakzaky’s detention” a fortnight ago was originally a single-part piece, some subsequently conceived afterthoughts warrant writing more on the issue and under the same title. I have therefore added (1) to the title of the previous piece making this part two accordingly. 

I must also admit that the drama of Zakzaky’s aborted medical trip to India disproved my early assumption that by granting him the leave to leave the country in the first place, the federal government was actually succumbing to pressure to release him; and that it was actually allowing him to escape in a carefully stage-managed face-saving arrangement.

Mismanagement of Zakzaky’s detention 1

….also published in Daily Trust

Since the detention of the Shiite leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky during the 2015 Army-Shiite clash in Zaria, there has been inexcusable foot-dragging on the part of both the federal and Kaduna state governments in handling his case, which his followers and apologists have capitalized on to not only peddle his supposed innocence but also attract sympathy for him among unsuspecting Nigerians.

Both governments have by so doing inadvertently lent some credence to the claim that he is innocent; and that he and his followers are only being persecuted for being Shiites. Besides, his notoriety of more than three decades of subversive activities, disregard for constituted authorities, harassment and intimidation of the general public, which he had perpetrated with impunity, is being gradually overshadowed through sustained peddling of his plight in detention.

Motives of Zakzaky apologists

…also published in Daily Trust  

Since the 2015 Army-Shiite bloody confrontation in Zaria, and the detention of the Shiites’ leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky; he has attracted many unsolicited apologists who portray him as a victim of systematic persecution at the hands of successive federal and various state governments in Nigeria over the past forty years.

This, however, isn’t particularly interesting; after all, a controversial person would always attract unsolicited apologists among the attention-seeking and other equally controversial individuals and groups.