Muslim Brotherhood: Between ideals and practices

…also published in Daily Trust

Former Egyptian President, Morsi and Turkish President, Erdoğan

As in many parts of the world, the circumstances of the death of the ousted Egyptian President, Mohammad Morsi evoked feelings of sympathy for him among Nigerian Muslims as much as it triggered their anger against the Egyptian President, Abdul-Fattah El-Sisi who they believe is responsible for Morsi’s death.

Mohammad Morsi was a key figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational political organization supposedly pushing for Islamic political reforms in Muslim countries. It was created in Egypt by Hassan Al-Bannah in 1928, and it has ever since then spread across the Middle East and beyond where it has operated as political opposition under various party names.

Implications of Ganduje/Sarki face-off between exaggeration and reality

...also published in Daily Trust

When the dots are connected between last Tuesdays’ closed-door meeting between President Buhari and Governor Ganduje of Kano state, and the latter’s subsequent reassurance that there were talks to end the face-off between him and the Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Sunusi ll, and also the court order, issued on the same day, for the suspension of the corruption probe against the Sarki, it’s reasonable to conclude that President Buhari has finally saved the Sarki from imminent suspension and possible deposition by the Governor, at least for now. Aliko Dangote and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State had tried unsuccessfully in this regard.

However, though, Governor Ganduje was, by all indications determined to depose the Sarki, he had apparently realized that he would face overwhelming lobbying and tremendous pressure to abandon the plan; that’s why he decided to inflict an irreparable vengeance on the Sarki by orchestrating accelerated formulation of laws creating four equally first-class emirates from the Kano State Emirate, thereby reducing the domain size under the Sarki to less than one-quarter of what it used to be.

Looming war in Arabian Gulf

…also published in Daily Trust

There has been an alarming escalation of tensions in the Arabian Gulf region over an increasingly possible showdown between Iran and the United States. Though both countries claim not to be interested in war, fears persist as the US, which already maintains a cluster of military bases across the region continues to deploy more warplanes and warships and other military hardware, while Iran deploys boat-mounted missile launchers, units of anti-aircraft artillery and other heavy-duty military equipment and weapons.

The situation began to steadily deteriorate following the US unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers i.e. US, Russia, UK, China, France and Germany. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to scale down its nuclear program in return for lifting the UN-imposed economic sanctions on it.

Hamas resistance between recklessness and bravery

…also published in Daily Trust

For more than a decade since the bloody confrontation between two major Palestinian freedom organizations, Fatah and Hamas, which resulted in the political split of the already geographically detached two autonomous Palestinian entities, West Bank and Gaza Strip with Hamas taking control of Gaza while Fatah keeping its control on the West Bank, there have rounds of confrontation between Hamas resistance fighters and the occupying forces of the Zionist state of Israel.

A typical round of confrontation between them is always triggered by provocation with each party accusing the other of it. Hamas would then begin its retaliatory measures by firing some locally assembled rockets into Israeli cities to kill or injure a few Israeli settlers or at least damage a few buildings.

Drug trafficking and the Saudi sword

…also published in Daily Trust   

Following the execution of one Kudirat Afolabi, a Nigerian woman, by the Saudi Arabian authorities earlier this month for drug trafficking, reports emerged that eight Nigerians have already been executed in the Kingdom (probably in this year alone), while twenty-three others are currently on death row.

The federal government has come under renewed criticism for allegedly not doing enough to save Nigerians facing execution in Saudi Arabia, for drug trafficking and other crimes that attract capital punishment in the Kingdom.