International

By Muhammadu Sabiu 
 
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has drawn criticism for congratulating Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the winner of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, on his victory last Saturday.
 
Zelensky expressed his country’s readiness to collaborate with Nigeria to address global concerns, particularly risks to food security, in a tweet on Saturday.
 
Zelensky’s tweet reads, “Congratulations @officialABAT on the victory in the election of the President of Nigeria. I look forward to close cooperation. I am convinced that the two-way interaction 🇺🇦 and 🇳🇬 will strengthen. Ukraine is determined to work together to overcome global challenges, including threats to food security!”
 
Criticising the Ukrainian president, some Nigerian Twitter users expressed their dissatisfaction over the tweet, as can be seen as follows:
 
@IjeleMela, “Corrupt people always know how to align with one another. This guy is probably very corrupt.”
 
@WeriseB, “May Putin never leave Ukraine!! Amen!”
 
@TheOliviaMead, “You will not get any money from Nigeria! Get out!”
 
“Our democracy was invaded and you are congratulating the man … on behalf of Ukrainians,” @aai_austin claimed in reply.”

A few other users have also raised Mr Zelensky for the congratulatory message to the President-elect.
 
 

By Umar Yahaya Dan’inu

Mass migration is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that affects individuals, communities, and entire countries. It is driven by factors such as economic opportunity, political instability and natural disasters as people seek to improve their lives.

In Nigerians, many people are driven to migrate for better lives, education and healthcare, and job prospects. Political instability, such as conflict, insurgency and human rights abuses, also contributes to a mass migration of Nigerians.

The term “Japa” refers to the migration of Nigerians to foreign countries, especially Western ones, in search of a better life. A lack of quality leadership in the country at all levels often causes this phenomenon. Several reports and writing has shown that despite their love for their home country, many Nigerians have lost trust in their leaders and feel compelled to leave in search of a better future. Moreover, the decay in leadership has caused division within the polity; every tribe or region is suspicious of one another, and there is fear of domination and marginalisation.

In the 60’s and late ’70s, Nigeria was a country that commanded respect in the global arena. Our passport is a thing of pride at any entries and departure level. The Nigerian currency and economy were in good shape. However, the challenges facing Nigeria, such as insecurity, kidnapping, banditry, corruption and political violence, have led to the decline of the country’s economy and international standing. This decline has driven many young people, skilled and unskilled, to leave in search of a better life.

In Northern Nigeria, where Islam dominates the culture, people prefer to migrate to Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia and recently Dubai and Qatar, where they share the same religion and beliefs. In contrast, Southern Nigeria is the centre of migrants, as people seek to escape bad governance and poor leadership. Despite the differences between the North and South in terms of access to education, quality of life, job prospects and economic opportunities, many young people still feel compelled to leave.  

However, the skilled and unskilled knows what they can do to navigate their way to leaving Nigeria. In Benin, the state of Edo, people are trafficked in the name of migration to get a better life, and they mostly end up enslaved and sold to work without regard for the dignity and respect they left in their country.  

Furthermore, some skilled migrants bring positive changes to Nigeria; they are doing wonders in their new countries, such as setting up companies that employ Nigerians, impacting the economy positively. In addition, statistics have shown that Nigerians are highly skilled people in the UK and the US, contributing to the economies of the host countries.

The migrations of these groups affected Nigeria negatively because Nigeria is among the world countries with the highest numbers of out-of-school children and increased maternal mortality rates. Nigerian-trained Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Musicians and filmmakers are all over the world doing great work. Nigerian government needed their services and contribution to help in reducing the numbers of maternal mortality and to help in actualising effective education take place at all levels.     

To address the Japa syndrome, a multi-faceted approach is needed that addresses the root causes of migration and its challenges. These involved improving economic opportunities, promoting stability and security, and increasing access to education, healthcare, and employment opportunities can help reduce migration. In addition, strengthening the democratic process, improving wages and salaries, and enhancing the country’s security architecture are also important steps that need to be taken.

Nigeria is ours, and our responsibility is to ensure a bright future for our nation and youth. We must take action to address the Japa syndrome and create a future that is worth staying for.

Umar Yahaya Dan’inu wrote from Hausari Ward, Nguru, Yobe State. He can be contacted via umarnguru2015@gmail.com.

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

I first met Philip Jaggar in March 2008 at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) when I was engaged as the cinematographer for a visit, mediated by the British Government, of Sheikh Dr Qaribullah Nasir Kabara of Kano, to various places in the UK, including the University of London.

While I knew of Jaggar (although never having met him before), the rest of the team was pleasantly surprised by his total command of the Hausa language (and inner city Kano Hausa at that) – and his absolute refusal to respond to any question except in Hausa. The SOAS meeting brought together an impressive list of scholars to receive Sheikh Qaribullah. These included Graham Furniss, Dmitry Bondarev (specialist on Hausa handwritten Warsh Qur’anic manuscripts of Hausaland) and Philip Jaggar himself. It was a very pleasant encounter, full of banter.

My next encounter with him was later in November 2008, when I was commissioned to deliver a lecture at the Universität Hamburg. Jaggar had taught at the university, and I was honoured he attended my public lecture. Only two meetings, but he treated me like a long-lost friend, despite the eleven-year age gap between us. I was also elated when he told me of his interest in my works which at that time were beginning to gain traction in media and cultural studies. It was our last meeting, but very memorable for me due to his simplicity, love for Kano and absolute devotion to Hausa studies. He taught at Bayero University Kano from 1973-1976 and had pleasant memories of his experiences.

Jaggar’s most famous and highly acclaimed book is simply titled Hausa (John Benjamins, 2001). It was considered a classic comprehensive reference grammar of the Hausa language spread over sixteen chapters which together provide a detailed and up-to-date description of the core structural properties of the language in theory-neutral terms, thus guaranteeing its ongoing accessibility to researchers in linguistic typology and universals.

While Jaggar, or Malam Bala as he preferred to be addressed when he was in Kano, was known for his immense contributions to Hausa grammar, I interfaced with his work on the ‘maƙera’/blacksmith industry of Kano. Jaggar was the first to provide a comprehensive study of the blacksmith industry in Kano. His landmark book, The Blacksmiths of Kano City: A Study in Tradition, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century (Rüdiger Köppe, Cologne 1994), brought out the honour, dignity, creativity, aesthetics and the technology of the metalworking industry in the heart of Africa. The blurb of the book summarizes this amazing work:

“The present book examines the factors involved in the expansion, during the colonial and post-colonial periods, of a traditional pre-European craft. It discusses the art of blacksmithing in Kano City, northern Nigeria, and its eventual conversion into a modern metalworking industry. In doing so, it challenges the widely-held and simplistic assumption that such traditional professions declined before the economic and technological onslaught of colonialism.”

For me, the book provides a fascinating and ethnographic picture of the industrialization of the inner core city where I spent the early years of my life. It vividly brought to life the alleyways, the people and the entrepreneurial focus of the various wards in the city. This alone is enough to endear a reader to the book, even without the fascinating focus on the blacksmithing industry. I was able to snatch a copy in a bookstore at the University of Maiduguri in 2003 at ₦800 – barely 2€ now, but the publisher is currently selling it for 24€, about ₦12,000.

If, and only if, someone in the policy circles of the Kano State government of the day had taken note of the book, our maƙera would have received a boost and been incorporated into the development agenda of a national creating a synergy between its creative proto-industrialists and modernity.

When he celebrated his 75th birthday in 2020, many of his colleagues paid a lot of glowing tribute to him. Now that he has sadly passed away, those tributes remain etched in stone. He will be surely missed by hundreds of his colleagues and thousands of Hausa students who benefitted, directly or indirectly, from his extensive scholarship on the Hausa language.

Tribute to Philip Jaggar (2020)
https://study.soas.ac.uk/tributes-to-philip-j-jaggar/

About Philip Jaggar
https://study.soas.ac.uk/jaggar-hausa-champion-soas/

Various scenes with Phil Jaggar and the OP, as well as with Sheikh Dr Qaribullah Nasir Kabara’s team

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Turkish officials reportedly issued arrest warrants or detained about 113 people who were allegedly involved in some illegal construction methods six days after earthquakes caused buildings to collapse and lost of many lives.

According to CNN, at least 12 people, including building contractors, have already been detained by Turkish authorities. Reports have it that rescue operations have been hampered in some areas due to protests in southern Turkey. More than 33,000 fatalities in Turkey and Syria have now been officially confirmed.

The arrests of building contractors, according to CNN on Monday, were perceived by many as a move by the Turkish government to shift full responsibility for the catastrophe.

According to findings before the natural disaster occurred, it was expected that the destroyed structures were built to withstand earthquakes. Since many new buildings in Turkey are unsafe because of widespread corruption and government practices, experts have been warning about this for years.

In order to promote a construction boom, including in earthquake-prone areas, those rules permitted so-called amnesties for contractors who flouted building regulations.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 
 
Olaniyi Nasiru Ojikutu, a 39-year-old Nigerian, was convicted of participating in a multi-year romance scam and was given a sentence of nearly seven and a half years in a U.S. prison.
 
Ojikutu, a permanent resident of the US, allegedly opened roughly 25 bank accounts under his own name, a fictitious name, and the name of a shell company, through which nearly $3.4 million in fraud proceeds were moved.
 
It was revealed that Ojikutu and nine other people were charged in Operation Gold Phish, a Chicago-based sting operation that uncovered cybercrimes that preyed on senior citizens.
 
Ojikutu was charged with wire fraud in the scheme in 2019 and received an 88-month prison term on Wednesday, according to Fox32Chicago.
 
Ojikutu fled to Canada by bus after being charged, but was apprehended seven months later and turned up to American authorities in January 2020.
 
Last July, he entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
 
Social networking sites, including Facebook and Instagram, as well as the mobile dating app Match.com were used to contact scam victims.
 
Prosecutors asserted on Thursday that Ojikutu used the money obtained fraudulently for his own personal gain, including buying cars in the US and exporting them to Nigeria for resale.
 
Federal prosecutors reported that some victims suffered financial losses of several hundred thousand dollars as a result of Ojikutu’s acts.
 
 

By Muhammad Muzdaleefa

Founding leaders of nations matter. A country’s founding moment is often a make-or-mar moment in the life of the country. The trajectory on which the founding leadership sets the country, as well the power of their founding example, often defines and determines the future course of events way past the founding generation. Founding precedents tend to have an exceptional degree of endurance, because founding leaders command a kind and degree of legitimacy and license that is exceptional and which gives them and their example and precedents a special status and the propelling force of path dependency in their country’s history.

George Washington’s founding example, of not offering himself up for election again after serving two terms as (first) president of the new republic, even though nothing in the US constitution at the time imposed term limits on an incumbent president, initiated a tradition of American presidents not going beyond two terms; a tradition that remained in place until Franklin Delano Roosevelt breached it in the 1930s/40s, causing it to be restored by constitutional amendment. Additionally, the contemporary trajectory of American federalism, including the enduring fault lines in its politics, can be traced back to the Federalist/anti-Federalist split in the founding generation; between the Hamiltonian (strong federal/center) and the Jeffersonian/Madisonian (strong states) visions.

The death of Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore and its prime minister from 1959 to 1990 (then senior minister after that), has brought the usual apologists of autocratic rule in Africa out of their holes, doing what they do best: making all manner of inapt comparisons and prophecies of “what would have been” had one or the other favorite African autocrat been allowed to rule for as long as Lee Kuan Yew did. There is the implicit suggestion that similar longevity in office would have turned Lee’s African contemporaries into a Lee Kuan Yew or transformed their African states from Third World to First. It is a fanciful thought, one not borne out by the record.

First of all, Africa’s first generation of autocrats did, in fact, stay in power for very long periods. Nyerere, Kaunda, Banda, Houphouet Biogny, Mobutu, Bongo, Senghor, all were in power continuously for nearly three decades. And many current ones, including Mugabe, Museveni, and Biya have equaled or broken the record. None has managed any transformation of the Lee Kuan Yew kind, except in the opposite direction. So, the difference between Lee Kuan Yew and his African contemporaries was not just a matter of longevity in power, it was far more than that. Time itself is a value-neutral resource. It is what you do with the time you have that determines the future course of events. Africa’s autocrats did very different things with their time in power than Lee Kuan Yew did with his. They were bound to reap different results.

Second, while Lee Kuan Yew was an authoritarian leader, he was not an autocrat. It is an important distinction. Lee built and worked through institutions. He did not destroy the rule of law. Lee’s government passed and enforced draconian laws, but arbitrary and personal rule did not displace government through institutions, rules, and procedures. Lee also assembled and worked with a solid team (the first group of which is featured in the book “Lee’s Lieutenants”). His was not a one-man project; he was captain of a team. Lee’s Lieutenants brought to the table a complement of talents and abilities that Lee, as leader, effectively harnessed and synthesised into a shared vision. There was no “Lee Kuan Yewism” to which all were obliged to swear allegiance or else. And while Lee Kuan Yew did not like or think much of his opposition, he never declared a one-party state. His party contested elections and won those elections repeatedly. The franchise was not aborted. Nor were opposition parties. Absence of electoral turnover is inconsistent with competitive parliamentary politics. The Liberal Party’s overwhelming hold on power in postwar Japan is a case in point.

Lee Kuan Yew ruled for as long as he did, in part because he did not replace Singapore’s Westminster parliamentary system with a presidential system. The title “President” apparently had no particular allure for the supremely self-confident Lee. He was happy to be a “mere” prime minister, which meant that, as long as his party continued to win a majority in parliamentary elections and he retained his own seat and leadership of the party, he was free to remain prime minister. Term limits have been traditionally associated with presidential systems, not parliamentary systems. Today, his party remains in power, even if its electoral strength has diminished over time.

Lee’s contemporaries in Africa, on the other hand, moved quickly to replace their parliamentary systems with presidential rule. It was one step on the road to autocracy. It freed them from accountability to their party, to cabinet, and to parliament. From that foundation, other blocks in the autocratic project fell into place.

There are many other ways in which Lee Kuan Yew and his African contemporaries were fundamentally different. They, like Lee, did not care much for human rights, free speech, free press, and the like. Lee Kuan Yew believed in “Asian values”, not “Western democracy”. And his African contemporaries too defended their own idiosyncratic versions of African exceptionalism. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

Instructively, Lee Kuan Yew recalls telling himself, after a 1964 visit to Africa that took him to 17 countries, “I was not optimistic about Africa”. Lee said. And while in Lagos in January 1966 for the Commonwealth Heads of State conference, Lee again recalls, after observing the Nigerian government at work: “I went to bed that night convinced that they were a different people playing to a different set of rules.”

Nothing is gained, except more of the same escapism and revisionism that keeps us stuck in the counter-developmental past, by trying to cast one or the other African autocrat in the mold of a Lee Kuan Yew. We have had no Lee Kuan Yews. Not that we need or must have one. But, well, just saying!

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

A woman from New York City who was accused of trying to steal the identity of another woman by feeding poisoned cheesecake to her doppelganger was found guilty of attempted murder.

In a news release, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz stated that a jury had found 47-year-old Viktoria Nasyrova guilty of trying to kill 35-year-old Olga Tsvyk with cheesecake laced with a potent sedative in August 2016 and stealing her passport and other belongings afterwards.

The district attorney stated that Nasyrova intended to pass herself off as Tsvyk after killing her since the two women had similar looks, including dark hair and skin tones.

The attorney was quoted as saying, “The jury saw through the deception and schemes of the defendant. She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity. Fortunately, her victim survived, and the poison led right back to the culprit.”

According to the prosecution team, after eating the cheesecake, Tsvyk felt nauseous and passed out. Later, she was discovered practically unconscious in bed by a friend and was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

The team noted that after Tsvyk was released from the hospital and went home, she discovered that her passport, work authorization card, gold ring, and other valuables were all gone.

Nasyrova was detained after it was discovered through testing of residue from the cheesecake container that it contained phenazepam, a strong sedative.

By Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u, PhD

At 2:45 am every day, the first email at HKS comes to your inbox. HKS Daily is a catalogue of information about activities at Harvard Kennedy School. If you miss it for a day, you could miss countless opportunities about conferences, breakfast with guests, working groups, and lectures by presidents, governors, mayors and other leading policymakers from different parts of the world.

When I checked this morning, I saw an event posted by the Building State Capability Project. It was a book talk entitled “They eat our sweat: Transport labour, corruption and survival in urban Nigeria.” The theme was from the title of a book by Daniel Agbiboa, an Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University Center for African Studies. I registered immediately.

I love original research. Daniel’s work is an excellent example of that. The book, which I look forward to reading, was based on his research work at the University of Oxford, where he worked with the late pan-African scholar, Professor Abdulra’uf Mustapha. It was a research project that used participant observation to study the informal transport sector in #Lagos. As a student of public policy, this attracted my attention even more. Many policies are designed without an in-depth understanding of the social, cultural and even political implications of such policies.

A governor or minister might see the informal transport sector as a nuisance to a modern city. He might bring consultants to hurriedly analyse the problem and come up with a solution. Every person would like to see his city looking like San Francisco, Paris or Dubai. What we tend to forget is that there are thousands of lives that could suffer in our attempt to look modern. Where do we put those people who work as drivers and ‘conductors’ if we don’t have an alternative industry that will absorb them?

To understand this, Professor Daniel went to the field. He became a bus ‘conductor’ for two months, working with a driver, starting early in the morning and absorbing the difficulty that comes with such endeavour. He used his research to understand the difficulty of survival within the informal transportation sector.

He provided a critique to those who use CPI to evaluate countries as corrupt when ordinary people in those countries have completely different realities. “Informal transport not only provides a sector for examining corruption, but also a prism through which to interrogate the binary framing of formality/informality and understandings of the borders (or lack thereof) between the two.” Says Daniela Schofield in a review of the book published on the blog of The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Takeaway: Developing public policy needs in-depth thinking and proper planning. Building infrastructure is only one part of the story. Managing the effect of policies on people is a much harder task.

Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u, PhD, is a candidate for a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration at Harvard University, John F Kennedy School of Government. He can be reached via mjyushau@yahoo.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

Over 1,200 people were killed, and nearly 3,000 were injured when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked Turkey and Syria.

Local media stated that the earthquake occurred close to the border between the two countries.

Millions of people in the two affected countries, including Israel and Lebanon, were startled from their beds, according to a Monday report by the New York Times.

The Aleppo, Hama, Tartus, and Latakia districts have so far reported 237 casualties, according to the Syrian Health Ministry.

Lebanon and Cyprus were also affected by the strong earthquake that struck at 4:17 a.m. near the Turkish city of Gaziantep at a depth of 17.9 km.

The 10 cities of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Kilis were reportedly damaged, according to a statement to the media by Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

The Minister said at least 23 fatalities were recorded in the Malatya province, which is northeast of Gaziantep, while 17 fatalities were reported in Sanliurfa, which is in the east, and the remaining fatalities were reported in Diyarbakir and Osmaniye.

According to Xinhua news agency Ahmad Damiriyeh, Syria’s Deputy Minister of Health, general emergency preparations have been implemented for the affected districts, and private institutions have been instructed to accept all injured patients.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Darul Erkam Foundation has fully sponsored three indigenous students of Kano state for undergraduate studies in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Aliyu Yusuf, the Director Public Enlightenment, Ministry of Education Kano State, disclosed this in a statement Friday.

Yusuf said the youths were sponsored following their outstanding performance in the just concluded Reading Competition of the Biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

He added in the statement, “The 3 sponsored students are Muhammad Nasiru Dantiye from Asal College, Fadima Musa Haruna from Kuntau Academy and Al-Amin Sani from Governor’s college.

“In addition to their sponsorship, Muhammad Nasiru Dantiye, who emerged as the overall winner of the reading competition, got a Prize of N700,000 and a Trophy, Fatima Musa Haruna received N650,000 and a Trophy for emerging in the 2nd position, while Al-Amin Sani who emerged the 3rd position received N600,000 and a Trophy.

“Speaking during the presentation of the awards at the coronation Hall of the state government House, Kano, the Commissioner of Education, Rt Hon. Ya’u Abdullahi Yan’shana expressed gratitude to Darul-Erkam Foundation for the kind gesture.

“The Commissioner noted with great pleasure the various humanitarian activities been rendered not only in Kano but in other states by the Darul-Erkam Foundation, saying only Allah the most gracious can reward them.

“Rt. Hon Yan’shana said he was much happier than any one of you here because this achievement has been recorded during my stewardship as the Commissioner of Education” 

“While congratulating the sponsored students for the height they have attained, he urged them to be good ambassadors of the state and their parents when they found themselves in Istanbul.

“To other participants of the reading competition who also revised different consolation prizes and medals, the Commissioner said they should not be reluctant as more opportunities are coming to their way, stressing that all of them should put into practice what they have read in the Biography of our Noble Prophet.

“In their separate remarks, the Chairmen of Murat Huda Vendigar Vafki Foundation and that of Darul-Erkam Foundation disclosed that the reading competition was part of the Humanitarian activities of the foundations aimed at boosting the reading culture of the participants as well as inculcating the practices of the life of the Prophet Muhammad SAW in their day to day activities.

“During the award presentations, all the participants were given a medal and cash prizes ranging from N5,000 to N200,000 depending on their performance,” the statement concluded.