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.