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.