Opinion

By Alkasim Harisu

Thanks to the rapid growth of technology, the world witnesses an absolute change. Technology has afforded the world a one-in-a-million chance to communicate with people all around the globe. Distance, inarguably, can no longer hinder communication. The world, as Marshall McLuhan posits, has been reduced to a global village. Thus, the emergence of cellular phones has, doubtless, permitted people access to all parts of the world. 

Lump it or not, the phone, the above notwithstanding, is a curse in disguise. That is why it is described as a blessworthy and curseworthy thing, occupying the minds of the youth. The sudden spread of the phone has necessitated the proliferation of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. What a breakthrough!

Those virtual platforms have become a commonplace occurrence. Everyone has their favourite social media handle and may be addicted to it or them. Some people own more than one handle. Honestly, chilling and relaxing constitute one of the biggest whys people can’t be less addicted to SM. This answers the question of the use or purpose of motivating the youth to join SM.

Day in, day out, people feel duty-bound to Facebook one another. On running out of data, many of us feel like nothing on earth. Some look like death warmed over. We toil to buy data to watch trivialities. Still, SM is, undoubtedly, a tool for knowledge. The Internet is today the most significant school, the most extensive library and the most learned and experienced teacher. There is virtual, nothing one can’t access, learn, or do on the Internet.

The SM platforms make athenaeums where everyone sells their ideas to the world. The political moguls, being attention-cravers, exploit the medium to attain a considerable following. The baddies, like the wind, sell and buy sex on the platforms. Evil-minded people, so also all forms of vulgarities, avail themselves of the opportunity to win popularity.  As smartphones overshadow all other forms of phones, phonephilia among the youth rapidly thickens.

The level our youth are addicted to phones defies any stress, no matter how obvious. Many youths can’t help surf the net or go online when ailing. I hope this addiction will not accompany them to old age. Instagramming to see ladies’ pictures is a notable reason some of us buy phones. As a result, when our phones do not tweet, Facebook or WhatsApp well, we, without a second thought, look for money to buy better phones. We can do all sorts of jobs to get enough to buy the phones.

Addiction to phones is continuously gaining momentum. I once got my phone faulty. At the moment, the coronavirus pandemic was hitting India hard. I felt an excruciating pain piercing my heart. I could not sleep the night without a phone. As a result, I borrowed a friend’s laptop to keep me company. It was a great difficulty for one to get out of the four walls of our university following the devastating, quick spread of the virus. Fortunately, there is a bank neighbouring it. Thus I used it to excuse my request to go out. Heading to the gatekeepers, I pretended to be going to the bank to correct a problem troubling my account. Instead, I hasted to a market at a nearby place called Gangrar. Having my phone fixed, I  intended a return to school. My return, unluckily, exposed me. Personnel keeping the gate saw me coming toward the school. My pleading a lot softened his heart. Thus, he forgave me. Had he not pardoned me, I would have received a two-week quarantine. 

It is a prodigious task for us to part ways with phones. It is a great difficulty, if not a sheer impossibility, to afford to remove ourselves from phones for two days, or even one, at the very least. I am at a loss for words to think of how to divorce our lives from these gadgets. Our addiction to phones has significantly deprived us of our immature reading culture. Students, nowadays, prefer watching videos on SM to reading. Our books gather dust because they don’t receive reading or talk of good care. Many of us hate to read even short write-ups on SM.

We, moreover, habitually don’t recite going-to-bed and waking-up prayers. It astounds me to see people, upon completing prayers, bring out their phones. They don’t care to say the rosary, not to talk of praying to Allah for guidance. About this, I have firsthand knowledge. Phones enjoy the youth market. The market, or proportion of the phone-buying youth, is overwhelming. Our societies now swarm with mollycoddles whose parents buy them sophisticated phones—consequently, the number of young people who abuse the phone trebles. 

The setbacks social media bring to us are too many to mention and discuss. We, nevertheless, can monitor it. In this connection, I recommend the following:

1. Parents should exercise their duty more carefully. They should not buy their children phones at tender ages. They should also know that proper parenthood does not mean buying their children their wants. Because coddling children is tantamount to spoiling them rotten.  

2. The government should also exercise all the options at its disposal to rid children of phone addiction. For instance, it can recruit good teachers in schools, legislate the age of phone possession and ban less important and vulgar SM handles.

3. Schools should frequently organise debates and quizzes to allow students to exercise their brains. They should also ban the usage of phones in a class by teachers. 

4. society should go to great lengths to watch how youngsters use phones and combat phone abuse by either seizing or reporting the concerned kids to their parents/guardians. More so, society should preach ethics and patience to the youth.

In conclusion, the youth are the leaders of tomorrow. Hence, we must do our best to police their phone usage. We must be extra vigilant about the friends they make at school and at home. Today, one can almost access all sorts of knowledge on social media. Instead of spending our data and time on trivial things, why shouldn’t we watch educative videos on YouTube or subscribe to other well-meaning pages on SM? Because, as a matter of fact, the Internet, believe it or not, is the largest school this epoch has seen.

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

By Muhammad Malumfashi 

As eloquent people often say, “All leaders after they leave the office are judged on their performance and failures.” So Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State cannot escape this assessment either.

Since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999, Katsina has never been so unlucky to have a wicked leader like Masari. People often talk about his incompetence when he was Speaker of the National Assembly. I thought that was the Nigerian’s usual outcry (body language), especially when someone they see as less qualified to govern them succeeds their kinsman. They don’t know that they foresaw the monster unleashed on the national progress and what might happen to our dear Katsina since the man started eyeing our governor’s seat.

The kind of policies exemplified by the Masari administration in Katsina have, perhaps by no small means, helped to cripple both the state’s education and economy. The Masari government has failed to show outstanding commitment to boosting the state’s economy and reviving the lost glory of education.

For example, in the economic sphere, take as a case examples a multi-billion naira project, the “Katsina Dubai International Market Project”, launched by the previous government of Barrister Ibrahim Shehu Shema. Unfortunately, the current Masari government abandoned it due to some political troubles. Likewise, the “Katsina Multi-billion Solar Project”, started by the late former President Yar’adua of blessed memory and a variety of significant projects Masari government inherited, doesn’t bother to complete.

Much less the siphoning off and wasting of local government funds because this government took six years to conduct local government elections, and it is evident to all that they used non-LG polls campaigning tactics against the previous government. Still, they overlooked them once they came to power and exercised their vested interest in government. Also, most of the infrastructures they built are counterfeits. Tell me six out of ten weren’t renovations, and they would claim to be spending more than it could have cost had it been a new project.

Nonetheless, education in Katsina state faces a significant setback without empathy as the relevant authorities cruelly assess the plight. Learning environments are decrepit, making them unfavourable for teachers and students. Go to any local government and see the poor state of learning environments with your naked eyes, despite the huge amount of money that has always been claimed to be spent tackling it. Promotion, recruitment, arrears, gratuity, salary payment in time and other entitlements to improve teachers’/staff welfare are neglected.

I have always wondered what an ungrateful person Masari is, someone who has told the world that he was raised as an orphan and mowed grass to feed himself or funded his education. I thought someone like him who went through these would have known the reality of life and taken public education seriously as his priority. Still, the kind of negligence he shows towards public education, even those born with silver spoons, could not have done that.

Based on the controversy surrounding his school qualifications, I am not surprised by the carefree attitude that a half-literate like him has towards education. After all, even the highly educated people in Nigeria today have not given education the highest priority. Just look at his questionable educational qualifications published by some of his supporters. They said he attended Kafur/Malumfashi Primary School, Government Secondary School, Funtua AWS Training School, Middlesex Polytechnic, London and Administrative Staff College, Badagary. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Water Quality Control and Management. He has taken various courses in and out of the country and earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Water Quality Control and Management from Middlesex Polytechnic, the UK, in 1982, etc.

Although someone might say that education is not a gauge of one’s dominance, to be honest, it is. Meanwhile, reading his interview with Eric Osagie (The Sun Reporter), he refuted some of the qualifications attributed to him: “Why should I advocate having anything I don’t possess?” It doesn’t sound that fascinating to me. He knows the kind of politics played in Nigeria.

Not to mention the fate of the state’s public higher education, which is now in decay. While other state governors are striving hard to find lasting solutions for their citizens to avoid excessive stagnation at home due to the ASUU strike, Masari still wanders in his sleep. He daydreams about what to do to fix problems with Katsina’s academic Staff union of the university so that the school can reopen. Students can resume classes and finish their hanging courses on time.

This administration also scores a capital distinction in breach of trust because it is no longer strange news for Katsina’s citizens to see a headline about missing money in the state’s accounts. Only in Katsina would you wake up and hear the shocking news of your life about missing funds. Instead, our government would simply go to the media and inform the public that this and that animal or theft swelled hundreds of millions by the unknown individual. 

Regarding security, Masari can’t even score zero because Katsina faces serious security challenges, so nowhere is safe! As clearly stated in the Nigerian constitution’s provision, any government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens’ life and property. Any government that has not done so has nothing to do in office. Yet, four or more villages in Katsina state are attacked daily, indicating a lack of leadership in the state’s security framework.

It is unfortunate that any government requires its people to defend themselves against bandit attacks. However, this clearly defines what kind of leader Masari is. How on earth would a sane leader urge his followers to take up arms and defend themselves against the enemies, and yet he remains in power, refusing to step down to allow anyone with the ability to be in command to take over?

Muhammad Malumfashi is a cynic essayist and can be reached via muhammadisyakumalumfashi@gmail.com.

By Salisu Yusuf

Like other teachers in the so-called Third World countries, Nigerian teachers of English have their dilemma and challenges ranging from sociocultural issues to pedagogical, personality, and condition of service. A teacher has a lot to contend with.

Teaching (at the higher level) in the 21st century has evolved from the traditional teacher-centred to a more pragmatic students-centred approach. Teachers are no longer the dominating forces in the classroom. Instead, they serve as coordinators while students run the show. Ultimately, communicative situations are created in the classroom. Consequently, teachers of English need to be acquainted with the role and place of theatre and drama in education, a method that makes teaching a communicative endeavour.

Unfortunately, students in 21st century Nigeria are no longer interested in communicative situations as education at primary and secondary schools has gone below the standard bar. A teacher, therefore, ought to devise a way to motivate a class of passive learners.

Besides students’ lack of communicative approach, teachers of English in Nigeria are confronted with a dual phonetic issue; a teacher is expected to teach the British phonetic patterning of speech in a strictly diverse Nigerian environment with students under the influence of Nigerian phonetics. The confusion in most Nigerian phonetic realisations emanates from a mix-up of British and American dialects in our daily usage.

Most English words are pronounced in American phonetic realisations. Moreover, Yoruba language phonemics has hugely influenced how we pronounce English words. Therefore, an English teacher must fully explain the phonetic versions to his students. For example, the word “minor” has double pronunciations; the British /ˈmʌɪnə/ and Nigerian /ˈmʌɪnɔː/. Students should know this difference and why the former is the aptest while the latter is strictly Nigerian.

Our students’ lack of reading culture has immensely affected English and literary studies. For instance, some students in literature class don’t want to frequent libraries and read selected texts. Instead, they prefer to visit internet sites, download summaries and read haphazardly. Teachers ought to be mentors in this regard.

A contemporary English teacher must keep abreast with modern English usage. For instance, some years back, a professor of English told our class that the plural of compound nouns such as female teacher and male servant are ‘females teachers’ and ‘males servants’, respectively. While some compound nouns are turned to plural from their first or last elements, the above two and many more are pluralised from their first and last elements. His assertion is, however, today obsolete; contemporary grammar has massively changed such patterns; female teachers and male servants have replaced the former.

 A teacher of English must not lose his head to the identity crisis. Some learners in philosophy and literature subsume into ideological attributes of these fields, thereby becoming victims of pull and inferiority complex. They can only feel superior when they identify with the other culture.

A teacher of English should see himself as a second language user who teaches a foreign language. He should not see himself as an English teacher but as a teacher of English. I have seen a colleague with cultural schizophrenia due mainly to an obsession with English culture. A second language user who sees himself as a  first language user usually suffers from identity crisis, culminating in cultural schizophrenia and, ultimately, psychological turmoil. Many I know have lost their faith and turned to atheism.

A teacher should see himself as someone who mediates between cultures in order to reach cultural equivalence. He should not pretend to be an English man, nor should he speak sleek English through a pointed nose. Rather, he should speak as an African who teaches a foreign language.

This doesn’t free him from strictly adhering to rules governing language use. He should be a traditional grammarian in his pedagogical engagements; he employs some aspects of contemporary grammar in both his classroom and outside classroom engagements.

Girl child abuse, pornography and sexual objectification have immensely affected the teaching profession in the 21st century. Victorianism, that 19th-century literary movement with all its attendant moral lashings, could not stop these deviations in academia. Some teachers see their female students as objects of beautification to be exploited. Female students stereotype and generalise their male teachers as admirers of their sleek bodies. Male students use their female counterparts as shields before their teachers, especially when looking for favours. These and many more are some of the causes of sexual scandals.

A teacher should see his female students as his congenial sisters whom he feeds with knowledge, no more, no less than this.

Many see teachers of English as grammar police, therefore, prescriptivists. I was numerously called a representative of her majesty, the late Queen. A teacher should do away with such social constructs and stereotypes and tackle his work head down. He’s a second language user called by fate to teach a foreign language, foreign culture. Therefore, he cannot escape such naming.

Last but not least, Nigeria’s teachers suffer from poor service conditions. Politicians have turned almost all other professions into… besides their own. Today, a month’s take-home pay of a politician can only be earned by a public servant for his entire working career. An instructor at a college in the neighbouring Niger Republic earns twice my wage.

 A teacher should consider his profession service to humanity, not a means to an end.

Salisu Yusuf wrote from Katsina via salisuyusuf111@gmail.com.

By Nura Jibo

There is no point wasting time on Nigerian leaders and their style of leadership.

Since its independence, Nigeria has been embroiled in a series of leadership experimentation. And the reality of its situation is that it cannot develop! I argued this position nineteen (19) years ago in a full-page opinion column in Daily Trust stable of 19 November 2003, page 6. I highlighted the dual mandate of Lord Lugard extensively.

Nigeria falls squarely under a plural society with several groups of population sharply divided along religious, ethnic and cultural formations. The sharp divide between the North and South qualifies the country as a plural community with lots of ethnic, tribal, religious and cultural conflicts.

Unlike the pluralistic United States, which was or/and is able to embrace a cultural semblance, Nigerian people are yet to even start appreciating the essence of togetherness. Its people’s behaviour (s) is not significantly different from dual societies such as Belgium and Rwanda, for example. Under these dual societies, each group accounts for about eighty-five per cent ( 85%) of cultural independence.

Now contrast my assertion with other countries of the world that have this duality in operation. Belgium, for example, is a classical example with its significant population from France and another group of Flemish identities. But today, the GDP value of Belgium accounts for more than 0.45% of the world economy.

Sweden, on the other hand, constitutes more of a singular society with ethnic swedes population of up to 80.3%. The rest are Syrians 1.9%, Iraqis 1.4%, Finnish 1.4% and others 15%.

Now contrast this with Senegal, which has a near-perfect singular society with a predominantly Muslim population that accounts for 94% that two Christian Presidents ruled for two decades. And yet the Senegales lived peacefully under those Christian Presidents.

Nonetheless, Sweden, because of its large singular population with the same cultural, tribal and ethnic semblance, has been enjoying peace for over 500 years!

Why Senegal did not enjoy this kind of Swedish peace is a subject for another day.

Now coming back to Nigeria as a plural society, it cannot develop like the United States because of its multifaceted traditional beliefs and cultural barriers brought about by the colonial demarcations and global mapping.

One wonders why the colonialists drew their countries’ maps so perfectly that it favours them from all angles.

Indeed, Gérardus Mercator did not favour Africa and all African nations like Nigeria when he came up with his conformal cylindrical map projection that he and his groups originally created to display accurate compass bearings for sea travel. In the end, they added additional features to this projection in form of local shapes by defining them as “accurate” and “correct”. The irony is they demarcated Europe so perfectly at a finite scale by drawing Nigeria and all African countries at an infinitesimal scale in 1569.

That is why Nigerians, even though are pluralistic under Mercator’s cylindrical mapping, the diverse population do not share common identities and cultural semblance like the Swedes.

People like me that consider Geography as the mother of history will continue to question the division or/and the dichotomous drawing of the African continent, which did not in any way and spot favours its people to grow and develop.

Therefore, it is not out of place or context to say or/and conclude that Nigeria and the African continent cannot develop as it is because the African States can’t take advantage of their multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious Mercator “gifts”.

Instead, they will continue revolving leadership that is corrupt and very dangerous for national and international development.

And, of course, there is the need for me to explore the ambivalent nature and relationship(s) between what is wrong with Nigerian and African leaders, their leadership styles and the African condition by tracing these to the fundamentals.

In the end, we may conclude that it is better for Nigerians and Africans to move out of Nigeria and Africa and settle somewhere in Europe and the Americas because the conditions there are more favourable and Mercatoristic than living in the African continent that is deliberately mapped out not to grow and excel by the colonial masters. I will, in the end, take a tour to Rwanda and Senegal to sit with the former African Union president, His Excellency Paul Kagame and its current Chairperson, His Excellency President Macky Sall of Senegal.

But before I do that, I hope to write formal open letters to President Kagame and President Sall on the way, I think the African continent and its people must follow to call or agitate for a united African Security Council. This will be distinct from the United Nations Security Council. It is when we have this, in my view, that we can call for an emergency meeting with European Union and redraw the map of Africa in an African style. Only then can we start championing the cause of Africanity, and its revolutionary proposal, and the triumph of facts for its underdevelopment will begin to emerge through the ages.

But as it is, the message to all Africans, including Nigerians, is: Never care to suffer about elections or having a better Nigeria or Africa. Because the duo are not meant to grow.

Indeed, listening to former and current Nigerian leaders and their African counterparts’ leadership “gospels” will never change anything. Rather it will inflict more pain and quandary on Nigerians and Africans, multivalent French, American, British and European marketers, negotiators and their marketability of African continents’ wars and resources.

Nura is a Research Analyst for the Director of Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, United States.

By Sule Muhammad Zubairu, (PhD)

“I appeal to the federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in the Education sector for the country to be able to change the fortunes of the system. Indeed, even among Sub-Saharan African countries, we are trailing far behind smaller and less endowed nations in terms of our investment in education. There is a need for a major investment in education in the national interest” – Adamu Adamu, 2017.

Let me express my sincere sympathy to the patriotic Nigerians in the education profession for their sheer sacrifices and selfless services for the betterment of public education. It is a heartfelt piece of article that aimed at mourning the last relic of the educational sector in a country where its policy makers think that university education is a mere burden that needs to be dropped aside. I am always in disbelief whenever I woke up to see how pitiful is the condition of the public universities in this country. Most often, I ask myself what went wrong with our leaders? Is this borne out of capitalists’ instincts, ignorance, self aggrandisements, corruption or a combination of all?

Nigerians and Elitist’s Sheer Hypocrisy:
In fact, if one wishes to see the real ‘educational apartheid’ then, one should have a look into the Nigeria’s educational system. Paradoxically, the primary stakeholders, managing the affairs of Nigeria’s public education are largely not enrolling their children in the public universities. For how long the masses will be deceived? How on earth this could even be possible? We have seen lots of graduation photos and selfies from foreign universities with their children, year in year out. Indeed, recently, we have seen them sending their pictures from Harvard University, while the public universities back home are still shutdown for months.

The poor attention given to our university education in this is simply about creating and maintaining different classes between so-called elite and others, the masses. But, they don’t want you to see it that way. Those in power may argue that they have been doing a great service to our educational sector, particularly the universities. Logically, if that is true why are they not patronizing them?

The sheer hypocrisy of the ruling elites in this country is a real source of concern and disturbing. But, I don’t think these guys understand it very well. I’m still wondering why up to this time there is no comprehensive statistics of children of high ranking office holders that school abroad. Imagine they use tax payers money to educate their children and leave those of poor in darkness. What a shame!

I pity my fellow poor Nigerians for generations to come, if they are destined to be ruled by these types of leaders. The writing is clear on the wall: the university education, as we know it, would be only for the rich!

ASUU members and their families’ woes:
I also pity ASUU members across the country for their steadfastness dodgedness to defend the remnants of our universities’ past glories. However, when dealing with shameless people one needs to be extra careful and have a rethink. In other words, how can you deal with a situation when some of the officials are thinking that education is not a critical issue, falsifying the outcomes of their own committees, and the Head of state seems not to be fully aware or even grasp the core issues at stake? In serious societies, education always tops the table and takes a reasonable share of their annual budget.

Shockingly, they are punishing the only set of people who stand against the total collapse of our public university system, by inflicting hunger, starvation and threats on them and their innocent family members. What a country! I sometimes use to thinking that the hate from our current ruling elites towards ASUU members and their families in this country is by far bigger than that of Boko Haram members, Niger Delta militants and treasury looters. Because these guys have been enjoying series of amnesties and even presidential pardon. I argue that even the Palestinians, black Americans (during the civil right movement) and black South Africans (during the Apartheid) have experienced fair or even better treatments from their oppressors than what ASUU members and their families are experiencing currently in their sovereign country.

My fellow ASUU members, whenever any second thought pops in your mind, you should remember what Adamu Adamu once said: “This nation owes a debt of gratitude to ASUU and the strike should not be called off until the government accepts to do and does what is required. So, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off its strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy” – Adamu Adamu, 2013.

To this end, as a concerned citizen, I pray to God, to guide us and our leaders to the right path and save public education from total collapse, amen.

Zubairu teaches Geography at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached via; sulemuhd@gmail.com

By Bilyamin Abdulmumin

In the first part of this article, Ponzi alias pyramid schemes were discussed in detail, including their cunning modus operandi. If you come to these schemes with suspicion and scepticism, the chance is that you would notice some funny or dubious traits associated with them. The second part wishes to discuss these traits.

An obsession to prove originality

When someone is not truthful, he knows. So, he will assume the suspect mode consciously or unconsciously. He will always show the urge to convince others that he is a saint. This phenomenon is a funny trademark of Ponzi schemes.

These vague platforms float all kinds of certificates at any given opportunity to prove they are real. The more one becomes obsessed, the easier it becomes to detect his flaws. For instance, how could a firm claiming to be a global investment but floating a CAC with business name registration (which even a market woman can get) as evidence of originality? Many Ponzi agents woo potential subscribers with certificates as evidence of legitimacy, “mai kaza a aljihu ba ya jimirin” as” loosely means “he who has a skeleton in the cupboard live in fear.”

Unprofessional communication

 In this 21st century, communication has become a fundamental part and parcel of any firm, especially the one claiming to be a global player. Any renowned firms there will seek to prove to be professionals in their platforms and customer service delivery. For instance, if you visit any Nigerian telecommunications or bank platforms or engage their customer service agency, you will find them very professional. Likewise, their command of the English language is standard. But that is not the case with many Ponzi schemes. One will find their platform full of average written English, their responses sometimes as good as any street English user.  I have observed one costly mistake from these platforms; they kept replying “transaction successced (sic)” instead of “transaction succeeded” This is an embarrassing mistake no firm would afford. 

Definite and stable gains

Market forces dictate that there is always a level of uncertainty for the return of any investment, but not in the world of seemingly Ponzi schemes. Most legitimate investments are based on “gain and loss”. Sometimes the investment return will be much, small, or even deficit depending on the market forces. Still, as mysterious as it is, this basis of ‘gain and loss’ does not exist in the realm of Ponzi schemes. The song is always the same in these fraudulent platforms: gain and gain, invest x naira and recoup 2x naira.

 Some market forces not long ago that caught the global economy unaware were Covid-19 and Ukraine inversion by Russia. The only market immune from the shocks was the Ponzi scheme. So, dear investors looking for easy money, wake up and smell the coffee.

Camouflage 

Of course, anyone who wants to play a shady game will woo others into believing him by camouflaging a well-known establishment. The Ponzi schemers are masters of camouflage. They float a famous brand as their own. But a simple way to discern this trait is by noting the difference in name between the platform and its website address; let me emphasize this point by riding on the back of the white paper issued on Sunpower.

Sunpower is an acclaimed online investment but was found untrustworthy by “nogofallmaga”, an NGO dealing with scam practices.  The pseudo-Ponzi scheme is known everywhere as Sunpower, but their website name is www.sunsolar.one. This appears to be camouflage because there is a genuine global brand with the name Sunpower and has www.sunpower.com as its website address. So, dear Sunpower, why is the vagueness (brand name different from the website address)?

The dubious and funny traits of fraudulent platforms are many. Control your desire for windfalls, and it becomes difficult to sell you a dummy.

Bilyamin Abdulmumin wrote via bilal4riid13@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Nuhu

Rishi Sunak should have been British prime minister, arguably seen as most qualified candidate to Liz Truss. Born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s,he would have been British version of Barack Obama. But then Obama himself once said” my story is only possible in the United States of America”.

Subtle British racism played a role to deny Sunak the office of prime minister. No matter your struggles the system has a cap to your dream. There is nothing like the British dream.

But then the British even tried. At least the system allowed him to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, member of the Conservative Party, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks). The only important position he missed is the prime minister.

In Arab world the system will not even allow a non citizen into the mainstream politics in those that practise democracy. The monarchies deny non citizens university education even if they are born and raised there. Nigerians in Saudi Arabia decried being denied university enrollment except if they are going to read Islamic studies.

Malam Aliyu is a renowned social analyst. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.

By Fatihu Ibrahim Salis

It is with a great sense of depression I am writing this on behalf of thousands of “inconclusive graduates” yes, I am referring to the class of 2020 of Kano University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil. We are inconclusive because we are yet to collect our statement of result. We sat for our final exam in October 2021. To date, we have not collected our certificates, thanks to the industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU). However, we have seen our final year examination results.

The strike started in February 2022, four months after our final paper, which is more than enough time to compute our result and mobilise us for the mandatory one-year service to our motherland, which is the dream of any patriotic and faithful son of the soil.

Today marks almost a year of completing our studies without knowing our fate. We have tried our best to fight together and show solidarity to ASUU, but it seems it is not worth it since they cannot feel the trauma we are facing.

As a state-owned university, KUST is not related to IPPIS or UTAS battles because the staff’s salary comes directly from the state government treasury (I stand to be corrected). Hundreds of opportunities have slipped from our hands because of this action. Many of us have been confronted with life-changing shots, but unfortunately, we have no certificates to offer, although we have the required knowledge.

We have faced many tribulations during the long journey from our first year to our final year the annual strikes, the unrest saga, the one-year Covid-19-imposed lockdown, and the current strike, among others. What an irony; a five-year course has turned seven years with no hope in sight.

If I may understand them right, ASUU’s fight is for the protection of the educational sector from collapsing and emancipation of the University students from studying in challenging environments, and at the same time fighting for the well-being of their members. But now, with the continuation of the strikes, they are doing the government’s dirty work for them.  ASUU, your fights to liberate our lives as university students (pardon me if I sound rude) have changed direction to deter us from attending classes. It seems you are helping the government pro bono by continuing the industrial action.

Education is not a privilege but a fundamental right. Yet, as Nigerians, that basic right has been snatched from us. As a result, our futures are deterred, and our progress is choked. We are not holding only the federal government responsible but ASUU as well. 

With all due respect, ASUU’s timing for the strike is wrong. On the brink of the 2023 general election, the government’s focus is on the election, not education. ASUU should realise the bitter truth and suspend the strike. Withdrawing from a battle is another battle strategy to fight for another day. The association and the federal government should compromise for the sake of the Nigerian students who are hurt the most as the saying goes, “when two elephants are fighting, it’s the grass that suffers the most”.

The guiding philosophy of KUST is the provision of community-based education that will facilitate the production of graduates who shall fulfil the stipulated requirements in learning and character to graduate in their various fields of specialisation. The graduates shall also be groomed in such a manner that they will be able to function effectively in the community.  The students have been groomed so well that we spend seven years in a five-year course, but we have been denied our certificates. We have been told that we only receive them after the ASUU strike, which has no hope of resumption. 

As a state university student, I am very much aware of the contribution of the TETFund to our schools, which is ASUU’s brainchild. But this blind loyalty and solidarity to an association that not only consider you as second-class citizens but “quacks” should be halted. We are talking of our future, so remember the psychological and emotional effect the strike has on our lives.

Most of the graduates for the next batch of NYSC will be private university graduates. So indirectly, the masses have been kicked out of the struggle while the elites enjoyed a great monopoly, typical aristocracy restored. ASUU’s battle has denied many of us the opportunity to serve our nations. Most of us have reached the exemption age of 30, and a considerable amount is on the rim of the exemption age.

Finally, I want to call on the attention of all stakeholders to intercede on our behalf and call upon the school management to show us empathy. We are their children. They are our parents. We appreciate their fatherly support in our careers. Please, consider our future.

God Bless Nigeria 

Fatihu Ibrahim Salis wrote via fisabbankudi123@gmail.com.

By Mubarak Shu’aib

It has been far from a smooth ride for Nigerian university students and their academic staff for months now due to the marathon strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The strike has been a ridiculous one ever happening to our universities (6 months old). And this week has put forward the semblance of this current administration to the famous Don Jazzy’s song, SHAKITI BOBO, as it failed to come to terms with the union.

Whisper it quietly, but the union was right all along. At least when it came to one of their striking reason; revitalization of the universities. An inorganic chemistry professor dragged a colleague of mine for more than 10 minutes during our SIWES presentation. Reason? He said that a spectrophotometer detects the colour of the water. “There is no such spectrophotometer”, argued the professor. This is because he has probably never seen one in the university lab. The argument was later settled. By who? Lab technician (!) who came across one in a particular company during an IT supervision. Talking about the NMR machine, we have only one in the country (in ABU Zaria). This, and a wealth of other reasons, has exposed the uselessness of our universities and the need to recalibrate them.

Meanwhile, the tongue-lashing of some state universities and the jarring reply to FG on the backlogs by the chairman of ASUU have outlined the fault lines in the union’s struggle and the glaring need for pertinent media and resourceful PR.

The union is showing no signs of cracking under the FG tactic of ‘no work, no pay’, and that’s commendable. But that’s enough to signal that this current crop of leaders and retrogression are five and six. They exploit every avenue to render our institutions valueless.

The stalemates in the meetings have exposed mainly the lack of political from the education and labour ministers, who were somewhat culpable in the concession of the marathon strike.

If ASUU were to call off the strike today without coming to terms with the FG, it would be like holding up their hands to the FG and the emotion-driven students saying, ‘you were right’.

At some point, the blame game between the two parties stops being admirable and starts to look reckless. May God comes our way.

Mubarak Shu’aib writes from Hardawa Misau LGA, Bauchi State. He can be reached via naisabur83@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Nuhu

Already party stalwarts are beating their chest to celebrate the achievements of the party. They called it Africa’s biggest party (not greatest).

One of the major achievements they continued to hammer was the introduction of GSM communication technology.

The big for nothing party is only talking of GSM as if Nigerians are getting the service for free! The truth is we had GSM because the technology caught up with us. When digital satellite TV came to us, the government of the day didn’t see it as an achievement. PDP and its leaders don’t have an iota of shame.

For the 16 unbroken years they succeeded in turning Nigeria into a one party state. Infact they underdeveloped Nigeria.

Security has never been worse in their time and today’s insecurity was planted by PDP.

Power generation even at peak of rainfalls was a dismal 4400mw after billions of dollars investments.

During their terrible reing there was endemic poverty, unemployment and diseases.

Meanwhile even as the party held on to power for 16 unbroken years there were 6000 abandoned projects that will need N1.5trn to complete. Billions were spent on such projects without result.

Just take a calculator and sum up our capital budgets for 16 years and compare with what PDP left on ground to give you an idea of the crimes of PDP.

Each government jettisoned the projects of the previous government to re-award or start another, forgetting that development must be anchored on continuity and consistency.

The worst of PDP has not yet been seen yet with industrial scale looting that took place in the last government still under investigation. Nigeria was never so brazenly raped like those inglorious years of Jonathan. The man simply opened the treasury vaults and allowed hyenas to feast on it. At times they didn’t even wait for oil proceeds to make it to the treasury. They stole the oil from source and hocked it to international black market.

Between the past presidents and their families, the leadership of National Assembly and their members, Ministers and governors, PDP was able to steal well over 60 Billion dollars from Nigeria and still counting.

PDP made us the most corrupt nation on earth, forget the Transparency International ranking us better figures these years we are the number one most corrupt country in the world no thanks to PDP. Nigeria is the indisputable champion of corruption and graft in the world.

And PDP slogan has been “things shall always get better”.

Better for them as from all counts they are the sworn undertakers of Nigeria and it’s poor citizens.

When they told us to tighten our belts they loosened theirs.

We have seen it before, somebody in the size of Boni Haruna went to government house to emerge with the tommy of James Ibori.

And they said we should be patient, that results of their ingenious hard work will materialise in the year 2020. We are in 2021 now and APC that is made up of PDP members is even becoming our heartless undertaker, nailing our coffin finally.

When we thought APC has come to set things right we realize we are just dealing with the same brand of oppressors. Today APC chairman Abdullahi Adamu was a former PDP chairman, an endorsement that both parties are just different sides of the same coin.