Month: December 2021

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir (Talban Bauchi)

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) recently celebrated its ten years of service, having gone through many changes in its functions, duties, coverage and composition. It had existed under different names before now. Still, the amendments to the act establishing it have turned it into a Tetfund, with more coverage of tertiary education in the country.

At the Tetfund at Ten event, its Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, was introduced as the apostle of research and development. A very apt description, narrating how he has turned the tide of the impact of Tetfund from infrastructure to research. The previous administration first appointed Bogoro, and barely two years after, the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) relieved him of his duties. Not long into the PMB administration, Bogoro was again re-appointed. This is a glaring testimony of the quality of stewardship he brings to the running of Tetfund. Tetfund staff rolled out the red carpets for him and welcomed him back to their fold amidst celebrations.

At Tetfund at 10, it was disclosed that 152838 infrastructural projects had been executed across the country. Thirty thousand lecturers have also been sponsored for Masters and PhD programmes. In addition, 68000 academic and non-academic staff of tertiary institutions have also been sponsored to attend local and international conferences. Tetfund has also supported 71263 lecturers under the Teacher’s Supervision Programme. Moreover, over two million books and 152000 E-resources have been procured by Tetfund.

The apostle of research and development came to improve funds for The National Research Fund, which had started with seed money of just 3 billion naira in 2011. Bogoro saw this fund’s growth by over 50 per cent, to an unprecedented 8.5 billion naira in 2021. So far, 9 billion has been accessed by lecturers to fund their research activities. Tetfund played a significant role in Covid-19 research. Tetfund approved four mega research clusters for Covid-19 vaccines and drug research and security and dairy research. The clusters had within the range of 250 million to 450 million to fund their research activities.

As the most pushful advocate for research in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, Prof. Bogoro has achieved near-global fame among education sectors’ stakeholders. In recognition of his efforts, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, named its research centre after him. This particular university is not even a beneficiary of Tetfund’s interventions and so cannot be accused of repaying him for any interventions in their school. Speakers at this event said Bogoro had earned for himself the appellation of Senior Advocate of Research, SAR. Bogoro emphasises advancing learning through research.

True to Bogoro’s advocacy for improved research and development, the Federal Government just received a draft executive bill for establishing the National Research and Development Foundation led by Tetfund. Bogoro, who received the bill on behalf of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, thanked the Justice Ministry for drafting its staff to the exercise. This is a direct drive in turning Nigeria into a knowledge-driven economy. At the event, Bogoro stressed that Nigeria’s economy could not be competitive if it did not institutionalise Research and Development. He said that the most competitive nations placed innovation and creativity as the lead elements that drive society.

The Chairman of the drafting committee, Prof. Yadudu, commended Prof. Bogoro for putting the committee in place and his vision for the Research and Development Foundation. He also said that the country stands to reap bountifully when the bill is passed. “This is a bill which seeks to establish a National Research and Development Foundation to institutionalise, mainstream, and commercialise research and development; promote innovation and support enterprise development for job and wealth creation, for a knowledge-driven economy. This is the key thing,” Prof. Yadudu said.

Tahir is Talban Bauchi.

By Aisar Fagge

Surge Africa – a non-profit organization that advocates for policy implementation on climate change and resilience building laments how media in Northern Nigeria underreport climate change despite its apparent effect on agriculture which the North relies on as the major source for living for its people.

This was revealed on Thursday, December 23, 2021, at a workshop held at Chilla Luxury Suites, Kano. The workshop titled: “Media Workshop on Reporting Climate Change” brought Northern Nigerian journalists across print, broadcast, and online media to educate and sensitize them about the importance and necessity of climate change reporting in their respective media organizations.

In her presentation, Nasreen Al-Amin, the founder and Executive Director of Surge Africa, introduced participants to climate science and communication. She tasked them to spread knowledge on climate change, what causes it and its effect on the socio-economic activities of Northern Nigerians.

Another expert, Salihu Hamisu, who is researching how climate change is affecting the agricultural ecosystem in Nigeria, lamented, “Africa is not responsible for the climate change but suffers the most.” He recalled how in 1963, when Lake Chad was at its peak, over 30 million people from Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Nigeria depended on it. But now, as a result of climate change, the Lake has less than 10% of what it has, with over 70 million people earning a living from it. Hamisu added that with the current pace of drought and floods, Northern Nigeria faces an imminent food crisis.

Also, Adejumo Kabir, multiple award-winning journalists, presented papers on “Climate Reporting: Shaping Inclusive Narratives” and “Media for Climate Justice: Developing Stories for Social Change.”

Some participants spoke to The Daily Reality about what they learned at the Workshop. Mustapha Hodi, said:

“As a participant, I have learnt a lot about climate change, particularly the fact that Africa is the one bearing the brunt of emissions from developed countries. As a journalist, the workshop has helped me identify key areas to concentrate on reporting climate change.”

“By and large, the training has become a wake-up call to me to be reporting climate change frequently in a bid to create awareness to the general public about its dangers and even the opportunities it creates.”

Hannatu Sulaiman Abba was another participant from Arewa Media who said, “This workshop has shaped my mind on climate change. It develops my passion to advocate for climate change in our community, engage the government in policymaking and sensitize the public on the effect of climate change. This is indeed a big milestone in my journalism career.”

At the end of the workshop, participants were grouped into three to brainstorm and write a report on improving climate change reporting. Misbahu El-Hamza expressed his satisfaction saying: “My expectations were sufficiently achieved. What’s, even more, was how we worked as a group to brainstorm ideas that could be effective in steering social and policy change. Through this workshop, I now am equipped with the know-how to see the dangers as well as opportunities presented by climate change in my region of northern Nigeria and how to engage the public to mitigate and get the best out of it.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Alkasim Harisu

In my neighbourhoods, a marriage contract that had stayed long in the making was recently cancelled. I received this news that made my worst news of the month about a week ago. My mother broke this tragic story about two families connected by blood and kinship marriage. They also were and are united by whereabouts. Above all, they once lived in the same house.

The two lovers dated for more than seven years. When the love commerce began, the girl was much younger. The guy, undoubtedly the older love partner, had kept courting the girl despite the difficulties that often arose. He had endured the immaturity girls the age of his date show. Whenever a misunderstanding happened between the duo, the girl would quickly fault him. But the guy would patiently swallow his anger, contrary opinion and eat humble pie even if he was correct. He is the epitome of patience. Because, as people close to him will say, the man epitomises patience in both his social and business intercourse with people. He never picks quarrels with people. He demonstrated more patience when the girl’s family postponed his wedding several times for no good reason because he should have tied the knot two years previously.

To cap it all, this guy was denied the girl on some loose basis. Guess why? He is not wealthy. It is sad to know that riches have capital importance to many of us. They mean everything, so to say. But, like it or not, in many circumstances, the continuation and/or breakdown of a relationship hugely rest upon riches.

I am not blowing my own trumpet, but I can indeed marry off my daughter to a responsible person provided he has got a job, and I don’t mind if he scavenges for a living. However, it is disappointing that today some people hate to give their daughters’ hands in marriage to people that carpenter, teach or plumb for a livelihood, no matter how morally and religiously good these people are. They consider such jobs disgusting and can’t bring themselves close to people in such occupations, let alone associating or identifying themselves with them. But you never can tell; such people can one day become stinking rich. Such is life.

Today, thanks to the difficulty of gaining employment, many people have had to combine jobs. As a result, many folks engage in various occupations, which fetches them a lot of money. I know one of such people who is currently building his own house due to his hard work and commitment.

To our dismay, the family of the girl I was earlier on talking about lost their humanity and sent back the engagement money of this guy. The marriage arrangement lacked architecture with them. This is evident in their frequent delaying of the wedding. They once said they were postponing the wedding to allow the man to complete his house because they did not want their daughter to languish in a rented house. As this occurred, only Allah knows how many sleepless nights the guy had experienced. Anyway, they have sufficiently assassinated their character themselves.

This girl has memorised some portion of the Holy Qur’an. Quite unfortunately, she shows it off. Even though she is not that beautiful, I can say she is averagely beautiful. And that does not matter. These and other reasons made her proudly say she could not wed someone with no gainful job. “Mai na sama ya ci, balle ya bawa na kasa“, the girl would often say. She was saying this because the guy is a jeweller. He is not rich enough to live up to her expectations. But he is responsible and can cater for her.

Towards the end of this love drama, the girl started making new dates. Just imagine the kind of family that permits this with a girl already betrothed. There was a time she got the number of my former colleague. Then, he was newly married. Not long ago, he got his firstborn. Seeing him in our neighbourhood with another co-working friend, she did the unimaginable to get his number. This Prince Charming stole her heart at first sight. No doubt, he came by car; that was why she lost herself to him. She ignorantly thought the car was his.

We share a neighbourhood with the elder sister of the ex-boyfriend. To be precise, she is our next-door neighbour. They rent their house. Shamelessly, the girl did not care to stand with her new boyfriends before her sister-in-law’s house and cousin. “Biri ya yi kama da mutum!” Indeed, she no longer had the guy at heart. Nevertheless, she summoned up all her willpower to do this to provoke her already-broken-hearted boyfriend.

When I passed by the girl’s house, I would often see her a bit far from the guy. I kept wondering how this was happening between lovers. From the perspective of space, the gap between them did not explain a love relationship. Those who study the science of space (proxemics) will tell us more. There is no telling that such a distance speaks about a lack of love. As I saw this, I always became the saddest.

Marriage is known to weld and cement relationships. But this cancelled marriage proposal will only devastate the relationship between the two families. I can’t think of the mess the two families will be in because the girl’s grandmother is the younger sister of the ex-boyfriend’s grandmother.

A lot of people think that peer pressure works on girls. I agree with them. Yes, most girls are misadvised by their close friends. This is even one of the disadvantages of collecting many friends. But this situation makes an exception. The problem originated from the girl’s family because the girl’s birth mother is worldly-wise; she only wants a wealthy person for her daughter. She is money-wise.

Indeed, you are a nobody to many people if you don’t have money. In sha Allah, they are only hoping against hope. The choice or dream husband will not come their way since they abandoned a poor person who sells jewellery for a living.

As the girl is becoming wiser with the passing of days, we pray she doesn’t end up in sexual commerce with people stealing her attention. Money talks, of course. But Allah is Ever-Awake. He will judge the situation.

Alkasim Hariru wrote from Kano. He can be reached via alkasabba10@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Kano State Hisbah Commission has debunked media reports making the rounds that it had invited the 44th Miss Nigeria, Shatu Garko, for questioning alongside her parents.

Hisbah Director, Dr. Aliyu Musa Aliyu Kibiya, confirmed the development to Freedom Radio, Kano.

He added that the commission, through its Commandant-General, Sheikh Harun Ibn Sinah, has never made such an invitation; it only tried to show the implications of such an event and contest in Islam to both Garko and her parents.

The 18-year-old Shatu Garko became the first Kano-born lady to be crowned Miss Nigeria at an event in Lagos on Friday, December 17, 2022.

However, Garko’s victory has sparked controversies, especially on social media. Many people, mainly among northern Muslims, describe the event as indecent, adding that it’s against the teaching of Islam and Hausa culture.

By: Murtala Uba Mohammed (PhD)

Recently, Nigerian government took an audacious step by throwing a baby and its bath water not only into a river, but to a deep and distant ocean. It was in 2013 that the country in its attempt to reform its educational system particularly at secondary school level, relegated some important subjects to the background; bringing up some newer ones. Subject such as geography and history suffered from this restructuring of making these corner stone subjects- in terms of what they offered in the understanding of man and his physical environment as well as the historical explanation of the past to build the future. Making these subjects optional at the crucial level of building an imprint of human-environment relationships in the minds of our younger is synonymous to drawing the country in terms of a better well-informed society. While one may not completely agree with the argument advanced by the authorities that the reform was made to introduce subjects that aimed at fostering self-reliance and entrepreneurship with a view to curving the rate of unemployment in the country. It is important to note that the reasons given were quite inadequate to justify the need for the replacement. It is imperative to note that a lot were written to convince the government on the need to revert back the curriculum to the status quo, especial considering the importance of the subjects in creating national consciousness and self-awareness in the case of history and on learning about the country and of being foundation to most environmental related discipline in the case of geography. This writing decides to differ a bit, approaching the issue from the perspective of national security challenges.

Nigeria is currently witnessing the most difficult challenge it ever faced in its history and territory; no part of the country is presently spared from one or more security threats. From its relatively wetter southernmost part to its most-drier north, the country is at war with itself, facing threats such as banditry, armed robbery, ethno-religious bigotry, tribal clashes and political thuggery. The threats of Boko-haram, IPOB and to a lesser extend Afenifere are sufficient enough to sink the already overloaded and about to crash ship called Nigeria. Most worrisome, is the daily reportage of killing of its citizenry by both known and ‘unknown devils’ that terrorize almost all part of the country. This is most especially in Northwestern Geopolitical Zone where daily killing and abduction for ransom has become a norm, more especially in Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto States. In the mid of crisis at the periphery, one hopes the center to be secured; but in the case of Nigeria the ailment has afflicted all her body. Niger state is now so powerless that ‘bandits’ are now having their field days in many parts of it. Just like Niger, Kaduna to Abuja Road is so unsecured that travelers to and from Abuja were compelled to go for rail. Even in the nation’s state, the suburb is unsecured as most part of the country. While most people end up in nostalgic mood, recollecting mainly the past peaceful experiences the country witnessed and some such as general TY Danjuma had long time condemned the country as ‘failed state’, this article hopes the issue will be addressed by deploying the knowledge of this important subject. It is (without any doubt) through geography that colonialism was achieved in the past and it is through it that societies were both dissemble and assemble, creating new states and modifying many ones. The subject can equally be used as discussed below, to arrest the security situation of Nigerian State.

While the values of the geography are so much, this piece highlights some of security related areas in which geography would be of critical support:

1. Regional Planning

As a discipline geography focuses on space which includes location and its attributes. In order to achieve the aim of place description, geography pays attention to details of location and tries to distinguish one location from another. Doing this helps in identifying uniqueness of an area which forms the basis for regional planning. Because each region is unique, its planning is based on its distinct characteristics which are used to harness its economic potentials. A vast country like Nigeria that traverses many climatic, geological, edaphic and demographic regions, is blessed in some way and have a particular advantage that can be tapped. The inhabitant of the region might have idea about this opportunity(ies), but it is government initiatives that can foster the best use and utilization of them. Regional planning especially at moderate to large scale is a domain of geography, and candidates with sound knowledge of geography particularly its regional sub-field will help a lot in regional planning which is conspicuously missing in the country. The way we are today is that the various entities that make up of the country are lacking in unique contribution each can offer to the country’s development. While governments are doing a lot, they hardly consider regional specialization in their programmes. They are rather imitating one another, and in many instances compete in urban based project. Recently, states in Northwestern Nigeria were suspected on competing in building bridges and underpasses in urban areas rather rural and agricultural development projects. This urban based development may only worsen the situations of the already poverty striking states by encouraging rural-urban migration which put more pressure on urban infrastructure and deprived hinterland its able builders. A combination of edaphic, eco-climatic and relief factor alone can be used in zoning the country for agricultural production which will not only cushion the current poverty level in the country, but foster regional complementarity and economic diversification. The country is also rich considering the various mineral resources gift of its diverse geology which can also the basis for planning. Also its cultural landscape and physiography can form the base for regional planning.

2. Identifying and Modelling the Crime Hotspot

One of the recent and most used geographic tools is the geographic information system (GIS). As an information system GIS is unique in that it gives emphasis to location in all its analyses; it is the capability of GIS to analyze display and model location-based events and situations that makes it appealing to all other fields and disciplines. Crime and conflicts have both temporal and locational attributes and can therefore be addressed through GIS. With GIS pattern(s) of conflicts and criminal activities can be established in more robust way, and can be arrest in a better way. GIS can tell the areas of high crime probability often known as hotspots with high level of precision. Modelling and prediction can be done for various crime types. This is essential for security and safety of the territory. With good data recording, digital based maps can be produced to inform users on security situation as they travel via road or train. GIS integrates various layer of information which can be used to explain and describe why crime happened in a location or time trajectory. When GIS is employed with it multi-layer combination capability, it has higher tendency to explain three key security questions of when, where and why. With answers to this question management of crime become becomes better. Doing all these require manpower with good background in geography.

Dr. Murtala teaches geography at Bayero University, Kano and can be reached via email: murtalamuhammadu@gmail.com

By Uzair Adam Imam

In celebration of Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year, The Federal Government of Nigeria has declared Monday 27th, Tuesday 28th December 2021 and Monday, 3rd January 2022 as public holidays.

The declaration made by Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, was contained in a release signed Wednesday, 22nd December 2021, by Dr Shuaib Belgore, Permanent Secretary of the ministry.

Aregbesola also stated that peace and security were two critical conditions for economic development and prosperity.

He urged Christians and Nigerians to “make the best use of this festive period” and pray for the total eradication of the lingering issue of insecurity that is bedevilling the country

Speaking about Corona virus pandemic, the minister urged Christians to “moderately celebrate the festival without large groupings and observe all the protocols stipulated by medical authorities.

“Take it as a point of personal responsibility to prevent the spread of the virus,” he added.