Month: January 2022

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

The Ahmadu Bello Memorial Leadership and Governance 2022 event hosted in Kano state government house earlier today was themed “Reviving the Northern Traditional Institutions: Imperative for Peace and Security in Northern Nigeria”. 

The Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation organized the event in collaboration with the Kano state government on January 18, 2022. 

During the occasion, Vice president Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) commended Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna, adding that “[He] was a man of peace and courage, as well as a nurturer of traditional institutions, who demonstrated fairness and justice.”

Concerning insecurity bedevilling the North, the Vice President said that the federal government would employ technology in surveillance to fight the increased terrorism and insurgency in the country effectively.

He said: “We will also continue to ensure collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Justice, state counterparts and law enforcement agencies – to ensure that those apprehended for terrorism and violent crimes are effectively and speedily prosecuted.”

“This is a fight for this nation, and we are determined to win by the grace of God. All these evil forces will be eliminated.”

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

President Muhammadu Buhari sets to attend the second-term inauguration of his Gambian counterpart, Adama Barrow, on Wednesday.

In a statement by the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, Buhari will be hosted by the Gambian President alongside other African leaders as a Special Guest of Honour at the Independence Stadium, Bakau.

Garba Shehu noted that Buhari played a major role in the return of Gambia to democracy in 2017.

Part of the statement reads, “President Buhari along with other ECOWAS leaders, played a leading role in the restoration of democratic rule in The Gambia in 2017 after former President, Yahya Jammeh, refused to surrender power after losing the election.”

He added that the president is expected to be back to Nigeria at the end of the inauguration ceremonies.

By Safiyanu Ladan

Banditry and kidnapping for ransom have created a sense of fear in many farming communities in North-Western and Central parts of the country. Alas, thousands of farmers are left with no other options than to leave and abandon their farmland uncultivated for some years now for safer and more secure environments, mainly as refugees, in urban areas.

The displacement of farming communities by bandits as a result of incessant attacks which prevented them from tilling their farmland, the abrupt cessation of rainfall, the increase in the price of farm inputs, among others, are listed as the major factors that affect food production in Northern Nigeria.

This has significantly been attributed to the hiking in the price of agricultural produce and will ultimately lead to food insecurity.

In July this year, an official of the United Nations Dr Rhoda Dia, was reported to have warned that an estimated 13 million people in northern Nigeria face the risk of acute food insecurity in the next few months.

The Project Manager, United Nations Development Program – Global Environment Facility (UNDP – GEF), in charge of the Resilient Food Security Project, said the warning had become imperative because the country is facing growing levels of acute food insecurity due to decades of insecurity across the country, saying that the insecurity had resulted in increasing poverty and economic crises.

She, however, stated that the situation had been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, the series of clashes between farmers and herders.

According to an agriculturist, the insecurity we’re facing now, especially in the North-Western part of Nigeria, has dramatically affected crop production and will go a long way in enabling food insecurity.

The fact that most of the agricultural activities in northern Nigeria are done by peasant farmers who live in rural areas and have been subjected to unprecedented attacks almost daily by bandits is alarming.

In many aspects, insecurity has affected food production. Naturally, this can be associated with the increase in food price, even though there are other factors like the Covid-19 pandemic, as we can see in other countries. But, still, our peculiar problem that aggravated the situation is the issue of banditry.

While lamenting the security situation, some farmers in one of the most troubled states said bandits had captured more than 30% of their farmlands.

Given the foregoing, the food insecurity is imminent, and it’s so glaring that there’s nothing the government can do about it as it has failed the country.

Safiyanu Ladan writes from Zaria via uncledoctor24@gmail.com.

By Mai-Nasara Muawiya Uzairu

It’s crystal clear that everything that exists on the Earth has a reason(s) for its existence. This is the reason behind our being here. We are now in an age where everything is computerised. Without social media, people would have to continue to live like in the Stone Age without knowing how the world rolls and how things change interchangeably. In my opinion, social media has a vast number of both the positive impacts it creates and the negativity it causes. Although it depends on how one holds and utilises it, the choice solely depends on the social media person.

Many people have recorded successes and achieved their dreams via social media, while others’ remain unfulfilled and stagnant. Social media affects and changes people’s minds about destructive behaviours or otherwise. On the other hand, it sends countless lives to their graves unprepared. Congratulations to those folks for whom social media becomes the reason for their smiles and achievements. May they continue to benefit from the dividends of social media. Best wishes in advance to the future ones who may stir social media with goodness. May they, too, achieve more than today’s beneficiaries achieved, amin. Hard luck to those for whom the reverse is the case.

You are not too late to change the dice rolling with solid hope and unflinching determinations. Many people believe in social media and take it as a means of chatting only with family and friends (FAF) and a means of becoming a nuisance to other people. It is fascinating that whichever group one chooses to belong to will definitely meet people of his ilk or even those who are pretty better than them in that regard. It consists of and explores everything depending on which one decides to choose. I advise you not to be among those who take social media for granted.

Learn, relearn from those great minds, and share your knowledge, experience, and skills with your friends. I call your attention not to share fake news on social platforms. It would be best to share only genuine and beneficial info with your friends, as fake news spreads faster than today’s dreaded virus of todayCOVID-19. Ride your tongue with care; it has a potent venom far better than that of a snake. Mind yourself what you write, share, like, react and comment. Steer clear of unnecessary arguments. Above all, never be addicted to social media impulsively. Manage your time judiciously.

Social media plays a significant role in sharing the development and advancement of today’s generation. Through it, many people make investments and become business tycoons and academic experts, particularly smartly witty ones. Moreover, it helps many connect with their customers and clients from far and distant environments. Without social media, many amongst our business tycoons would not have become what they are today, let alone be known around the world. These include Bill Gates, Otedola Warren Buffet, and Aliko Dangote. All and sundry know these great minds in business circles through cyberspace and their products exclusively. In this regard, we can unanimously say that social media plays a vital role in marketing and economic buoyancy for many of our successful business moguls.

Social media eases and simplifies most things that seem complex. Many people from far distant places have become as familiar and intimate as those with blood consanguinities. We, the generation of social media users, need to use it wisely to avoid hatching rotten eggs among the future generation. We need guidance and parameters to set our activities straight by our great minds who scaled through in life. Our manners need to be replicated for better growth and attainment of better opportunities in this twenty-first, digital century loaded with brouhaha and challenges. Had social media been fully sanitised and sensitised, I am sure the future would have been productive. But, alas! All around us, one can see how the havoc wreaked by people is floating and sinking in a massive wave.

To say a naked and plain truth, children who are yet to reach puberty should be banned from using social media. It is usually the causative factor of their rudeness and moral decadence in society. It is better not to have a child at all than to give a community a notorious child that could threaten the good habits observed by people. Many under-aged children learn to watch pornographic pictures and videos via these platforms.

Fornication, homosexuality and lesbianism could only be eradicated or diminished among our youths by enforcing laws and orders on how social media shall be used. Most parents are lackadaisical in peeping the ins and outs of their children on social media; some are only good at giving birth but very poor in giving moral standards to their children. Children’s phones need to be checked up frequently and unceremoniously. Parents should check to know the children’s friends because bad companies produce harmful products. Friends are the central processors in changing the behaviours of today’s generation, particularly females whose lives are at a zenith than that of males. By so doing, most social vices could reduce to the barest minimum or even be completely wiped away. 

Mai-Nasara Muawiya Uzairu wrote via newmainasara016@gmail.com.

By Suleman Ahmad Tudu

One of the immediate decisions of Gov Bello Matawalle’s administration was disbanding the vigilante group popularly known as Yan Sa Kai as one of the conditions for dialogue with bandits in his efforts to bring a solution to the decade of bloodshed in Zamfara state. The dialogue has recorded some early successes in almost a year of its initiation.

Unfortunately, despite being given this ample opportunity for the bandits to completely lay down their arms and embrace a lasting peace, some of them refused to subscribe to the dialogue. They continue launching and intensifying their deadly attacks on communities—killing, kidnapping and rapping women unabated, taking advantage of the vacuum created by disbanding their sworn enemies, the Yan Sa Kai.

Some negative implications of disbanding the Yan Sa Kai are that many communities that gallantly resisted bandits before the disbandment have now submitted to them. Palaces that were no-go-areas to bandits before have now become accessible to them. As a result, the morale of many vigilante members has been killed. The bandits have also taken advantage of the dialogue to deceive the government and get many resources. They kidnap many people, including school children, for ransom to procure more arms.

But we can honestly understand the justifications behind the disbandment of Yan Sa Kai in the first place as a sine qua non for dialogue to thrive. The activities of this group have fuelled the crisis for their jungle justices—extrajudicial killings and ethnic profiling of criminals. All Fulanis are bandits to the Yan Sa Kai, which is wrong!

Now that Gov Matawalle has reversed his decision to reactivate the Yan Sa Kai in the fight against terrorism (banditry), which is very good, there is a need for a caution in the recruitment, administration, and operations of the about to be born-again group. We need Yan Sa Kai guided by rules of engagements, monitored by security forces and coordinated by established authority. We need Yan Sa Kai with some basic military training and improved weaponry, not the locally fabricated, non-cartridge guns, bow and arrows that cannot match the arsenal of the terrorists.

Achieving this requires efficiency right from the recruitment process. Government should not simply dust off the list of the previous members without scrutiny to fish out those whose morale has been killed or no longer believe in the course of the group. Liaising with traditional institutions will be an effective way only if those who have cases to answer are side-lined in the process. Government should also not mistake recruiting members of the born-again vigilante group from the communities that were adjudged to have wholly submitted to bandits before or during the dialogue initiative. These measures could help avoid enlisting bad eggs who would compromise or sabotage the group’s activities.

Training of the carefully selected and thoroughly profiled members of the group will go a long way in shaping their mindsets and inculcating in them the rules of engagements, discipline, command, control and coordination. It will also mend their relationship with the security forces with which they should work together as a team. This can be possible within at least a month of rigorous training.

Granted that Yan Sa Kai knows the bandits, their collaborators and hideouts better than the security forces, yet storming weekly markets in the name of hunting bandits or their collaborators is a flawed strategy that has to be changed. They used to carry extrajudicial killings during such operations that sometimes affect innocent people. This time around, the group’s approach should be offensive by jointly reaching out to the bandits’ enclaves together with security forces now and then. And if the group has to defend and hunt, the defence should be restricted to every member’s immediate community while the hunt should be on the checkpoints to be placed in strategic places. 

While NO suspect deserves to be (extrajudicially) killed but arrested and prosecuted accordingly, I can command that any civilian seen wielding an AK-47 rifle should be “shot at sight” as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari!

May Allah grant us everlasting peace in Zamfara and Nigeria at large. Amin.

Suleman Ahmad Tudu wrote from Nasarawa Mailayi of Birnin Magaji local government, Zamfara state. He could be reached via suleatudu@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabiu

At least 16 individuals were reported dead in a suspected bandits’ attack in Kebbi State’s Danko Wasagu Local Government Area on Friday.

Two soldiers, a police officer, and 13 people were murdered in the attack at Dankade village, according to the state’s police spokesperson, Nafi’u Abubakar.

The police spokeswoman further refuted reports on various news outlets that the incident resulted in 50 deaths.

Mr Abubakar, who confirmed the amount to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the incident happened on Friday at 3.00 p.m.

He claimed that suspected bandits from Zamfara infiltrated the community and terrorized civilians and security officers.

When the police patrol squads learned of the incursion, they mobilized to the village and engaged them in a gunfight, killing one of our officers and two army officers.

According to Mr Abubakar, the bandits also set fire to some homes.

By Aliyu Yakubu Yusuf

The annual FIFA Best Awards 2021 ceremony took place yesterday, January 17, 2022, in Zurich, Switzerland, amidst glitz and glamour. Many awards were contested and won by deserving players. Bayern Munich Polish marksman, Robert Lewandowski, was the biggest winner, as he scooped the prize of the FIFA the Best Men’s Player for the second year running. However, a few controversies left fans watching the event on TV and social media scratching their heads in disbelief. I will highlight just five of them.

• Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, and Mohamed Salah were selected as the three best players in this order. However, in the annual FIFPro World XI, there was no place for Mohamed Salah. In other words, the Egyptian who was deemed good enough to be the third-best player for the year was considered not good enough to be in the team of the same year. If this is not utterly dumbfounding, I don’t know what is. And somehow, FIFA managed to include Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Braut Haaland, who were ranked lower than Salah, in that team. Ridiculous!

• A similar scenario played itself out again in the goalkeeping category. Chelsea Senegalese custodian, Edouard Mendy, was chosen as the Best Men’s goalkeeper. But somehow, he was overlooked for the same FIFPro World XI. Instead, the PSG Italian shot stopper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, was selected. Fans all over the world were left fuming with this absurdity. How can you choose a player as the best in his position and then fail to select him in your best team of the year? Inexplicable!

• Barcelona Spanish player Alexia Putellas won FIFA the Best Women’s Player in the women’s category but was omitted from the FIFPro Women’s World XI. In other words, the best player of the year was deemed not good enough to have a place in the best team of the year. In case you don’t know, Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or just two months ago. But still, FIFA decided that there were better players to be in the World XI than the double award-winning Spaniard. Baffling!

• Barcelona Women’s team won a treble last year. They won the women’s equivalent of La Liga, Copa Del Rey and the Champions League. Yet, none of their players was chosen in the FIFPro World XI, not even the aforesaid Best Women’s player, Alexia Putellas. Controversial!

• Barcelona Women’s treble-winning coach Lluis Cortes was somehow not chosen as the women’s coach of the year. Instead, the award went to Chelsea Women’s coach, Emma Hayes. By the way, Lluis Cortes and his Barcelona destroyed Emma Hayes and his Chelsea team 4-0 in the Women’s Champions League final late last year. Absurd!

Surprisingly, despite these apparent inconsistencies, there were no cries of robbery, no rubbishing of the awards, no nothing. SMH!

Aliyu is a lecturer at the Department of English and Literary Studies, Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via aliyuyy@gmail.com.

By Aisha Abdullahi Bello

As the principal of a renowned private school here in Kano, I am saddled with many responsibilities, from managing the school’s activities to attending to visitors, sometimes from the ministry, other times parents of our students. This goes on and on and on throughout the term till the end.

On one of such tiring occasions, after the day’s work, I was trekking home as usual (I don’t have a car) when I saw some middle-aged men, most probably in their late 30’s conversing. At first, what they were discussing was incoherent. But as I walked closer to where they were seated, I began to get a grasp of what they were arguing about.

The conversation goes thus: you ‘Ausa’ (Hausa) men don’t know ‘au’ to pronounce English words, says one of the two men who looks just like a Yoruba man. This word ear (here) is ‘ferry’ and not ‘berry’, he adds with all seriousness.

The other guy, who is undoubtedly a Hausa man, then replies by saying,’ you are the ones who do not know how to fronounce (pronounce) English words correctly. Look, says the Hausa man, the word is pronounced ‘berry’ and not ‘ferry’.

As curious as I am, maybe due to my position as a teacher, I went close to them demanding to see the word which is the bone of contention that resulted in the heated debate. Lo! And Behold! The actual word they were all referring to is ‘Very’

Aisha Abdullahi Bello teaches English at Kuntau Science Academy, Kano. She could be reached via: aishaabdullahibello@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigns a female lawyer for money laundering.

The lawyer, identified as Anumati Stella Ojojevwe, was arraigned before Hon. Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Warri on Monday.
The EFCC disclosed this on their verified Facebook account.

According to the EFCC, ” Ojevwe was arraigned on a 14-count charge of money laundering. The defendant is alleged to have received the sum of 105, 000, 000 ( One Hundred and Five Million) from SA-FX Global Investment.”

By Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

As the 2023 general elections knock on the fence, the Bauchi State political atmosphere is in high conditions where many political aspirants have begun revealing their interests in contesting for different elective posts.

For the governorship, several aspirants have emerged, some of whom have been in the political hubbub of Bauchi State for some time. In contrast, others have not attempted to aspire for any post before. However, most contestants have been in the state’s political arena and have brought developmental projects before demonstrating their interest in the seat.

Contrarily, one aspirant is a novice in politics, a newcomer who does not have any history of touching the lives of the masses throughout his career in civil service, despite reaching an elevated position that offers many opportunities! However, now that he is in desperate need of power, he comes with various empowerment programs fashioned to win the hearts of the gullible electorate.

Given the preceding testimony, one might ask, “Do the electorates have no relevance except on the eve of the election?” This, without a doubt, describes the selfishness of politicians who cannot mingle and improve the living standards of the masses until they have something personal to acquire.

Furthermore, the party to which this politician aspires may not win the election. The masses have already discovered the cunning movements of such politicians and are also plotting to deal with them at the polls. Therefore, the APC should be mindful of where to throw the dice come 2023.

Mallam Musbahu Magayaki writes from Sabon Fegi, Azare, Bauchi State. He can be reached via musbahumuhammad258@gmail.com.