Opinion

By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

Unless proactive measures are put in place and fully implemented, otherwise the commitment made by Nigeria at the just concluded 26th annual edition of the Conference of Parties (COP26) Summit on climate change in Glasgow, United Kingdom, to end deforestation by 2030 and equally attain zero-net emission in another 30 years later, will continue to remain a mirage! This is evident if one looks at the country’s unprecedented hikes in cooking gas prices, not to even talk of diesel and kerosene.

Many people will resort to cutting down trees for fuel, leading to increased emission, deforestation and fewer flora communities to absorb methane gases being released to the atmosphere occasioned by human activities. What a setback?

Due to the volumes of greenhouse gases being continuously added to the atmosphere triggered by humans, it was observed that the earth is now 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the pre-industrial level. The impacts of climate change are now evident worldwide, ranging from wildfires in Greece and Algeria to flooding in Germany and Turkey to drought in Australia and Northern Nigeria.

There is also the crisis of extinction of land and ocean species, rising sea levels, and increased drought. Like Nigeria, these issues lead to increased food shortage, animal migration, health risks, poverty, and displacements for developing countries. In 2020, the 10-highest climate change-induced disasters occurred in some of the poorest parts of the world. It cost over $130 billion, killing thousands and displacing millions. These costs are escalating every year.

According to the latest version of National Security Strategy 2019, a document released by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), climate change has contributed to excessive flooding across the country, causing enormous human and economic losses. Additionally, it has led to seasons of drought, which affected agricultural activities and caused shelter losses. In 2019, the National Emergency Management Agency revealed that floods had displaced approximately 1.9 million Nigerians.

Research by scientists from Europe, US and China predict that by 2070, a third of the global surface would be unsuitable for human life as the global temperature rises. The prediction included West and Central Africa, which will force the majority of the people to migrate to a suitable region. It is estimated that about 81% of Nigeria’s population would suffer from these extreme temperatures. Despite our preference not to relocate, the extreme temperature may drive many people to do so.

Nigeria has outlined measures and plans toward combating the effect of climate change over the years. These include establishing a national youth climate innovation hub to harness climate innovation ideas from young Nigerians and include them in decision-making processes. The country has also approved the national action plan on gender and climate change to ensure that women, men, youth, and other vulnerable groups optimally benefit from climate change initiatives, programmes, policies, and funds. Nigeria has also developed a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) — which aims to build a framework for climate change adaptation, planning and governance, and an adaptation communication that would highlight adaptation activities and efforts in the country.

It is heartwarming to learn that President Muhammad Buhari signed into law on Thursday, November 18, 2021, the climate change bill passed by the national assembly. In signing the law, the president has made Nigeria join an elite group of countries that have enacted emissions-target legislation aiming to eliminate carbon emissions. This is a big deal for an oil-dependent nation also ranked as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change.

The main objective of the climate law is to provide an overarching legal framework for achieving Nigeria’s long-term climate goals, including a net-zero carbon emission target, national climate resilience, an adequate volume of climate finance, and the mainstreaming of climate change actions into national development priorities. In addition, the bill places climate change action in the broader context of efforts to achieve inclusive green and sustainable economic development for the most populous black country in the world.

Nigeria has long maintained that it wishes to use its climate policies as part of wider measures to achieve low-carbon, resilient, and equitable economic growth. Therefore, the act seeks to facilitate the intensive and complex cross-ministerial coordination of climate change action and the involvement of businesses and the civil society needed to achieve long-term climate objectives while also promoting climate-resilient social-economic development in the country.

The act also sets out to establish a systematic approach for the country to identify the significant climate risks and vulnerabilities facing the country and how to strengthen existing capacities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

With this current development of enacting the climate change act, it is apt to say that Nigeria is on the right course towards averting the dangers of climate change.

Nonetheless, individuals should also, on their own, help in projecting this campaign by abstaining from activities that cause environmental exploitation, especially illegal cutting down of trees, which ultimately trigger climate change.

With the pledges made by the affluent nations and private institutions during the Glasgow COP26 to collectively provide a minimum of $100 billion annually by 2023 in order to achieve the mandates of reducing climate change, getting financial guarantees for Nigeria will not be difficult. However, it must adopt climate action as fast as possible because scientists keep telling us that the planet is burning. Therefore, our lives literally depend on this global joint effort that COP 26 in Glasgow has represented.

Mukhtar Madobi wrote from Kano. He can be reached via ymukhtar944@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim

Nigeria is burning. We have to stop it. We can’t afford to lose our dear nation. But who can be of help? The media has a critical role in extinguishing the fire before it goes out of hand.

Information is power, thereby making the media a powerful tool for sending persuasive messages. The more the messages flow in our societies, the higher their ability to shape public discourse. Media is a powerful tool used in shaping public opinion and thereby changing the way people behave, think, and even live sometimes. Unfortunately, the power elites often use it to achieve their aims. In present-day Nigeria, where things are still falling apart, are the media organisations playing a positive or negative role? 

The media has the role of information dissemination, which is accurate, factual and unbiased to a large and scattered audience. Terrorism and insecurity information is not an exception. Therefore, the media should accurately inform the people about future threats, chaos and fear of terror attacks and how to avert them, should they occur.

Also, the media plays a critical role in every society by holding leaders accountable, especially in times of crisis. However, it should be noted that it is not lawful in any way for the media to undermine national security in the process of discharging such responsibilities. 

 Furthermore, it is no gainsaying that the media have to build a nation and not destroy its existing pillars. The media, in other words, can be said to be fire extinguishers and not fire fuel. Through this process, the media can only promote national security and harmony. 

The media can give several contributions to national growth and development if properly managed. However, when the reverse is the case, they will contribute to national underdevelopment or worse.

It is evident in Nigeria today that some media houses have been diverted from their role to being used to spread hate speech and fake news, which may result in violence or more troubles than the one Nigeria currently battles now. Supporting violence, sensationalism, and hatred will do nothing but add to the already burning fire in this country. However, these are not the responsibilities of the media, and hence, they should take heed.

A veteran journalist, Kadarai Ahmed, said, “Despite numerous examples that exist which have proved, including not too long ago in Rwanda, that the conduct of the media can help in, starting, promoting and perpetuating violence and ethnic strife, we have turned a deaf ear to pleas to not become a tool that enables hate. But we have failed to heed these warnings.”

“We have given platforms to the worst among us, the extremists and the bloodthirsty. We have turned militia leaders and criminals into champions. Instead of us to lead a calm and rational discussion on the existential challenges we face with a view to promoting actionable solutions, we have succumbed to hysteria and the next exciting clickbait headline.”

Therefore, the media can positively contribute to the prevention of terrorism, insecurity, and other threats by specifically portraying how other nations responded to such scenarios and how it yielded positive outcomes without bias. In other words, it is known as development journalism.

Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim is a multiple–award–winning journalist, fellow AIJC 2020, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa. He can be reached via awwalbinibrahim@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Nuhu

The federal government of Nigeria announced free rail tickets for Nigerians during the holidays, for ten good days. But the following day, all tickets went into an ambush of corruption, and people had to buy them at very exorbitant prices. As a matter of fact, people would have fared better if FG had not made the free offer. What went wrong?

As usual, with the shambolic government approach to issues, the process was left for corruption to dictate who gets and who doesn’t get the tickets. In addition, railway workers racketeered the process, leaving harpless Nigerians at their mercy. Government has its own problem, but we are our own worst enemies. We are wicked even to ourselves.

Even though not free, the airlines’ tickets are all being bought in advance by racketeers. You can’t book online. All flights have been booked, and you have to go to the airport and buy on the spot from touts and corrupt airline officials. A plane ticket from Abuja to Kano goes for 95,000 instead of 30,000. The worst is that the tickets are not bearing people’s names. So in the event of an accident, the families of victims will have serious problems with airlines and insurance companies. It also compromises internal security.

The federal government wanted to give rice millers N10m loans each as a loan. But right from the onset, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) itself sabotaged the process through corruption. NIRSAL was the disbursing agency. CBN appointed a vendor to receive the money and give the millers equipment worth ten million naira. But the vendor supplies goods that are only worth six million in the market. He makes cool four million doing nothing while the millers are saddled with ten million debt. This is Nigeria. Corruption finds official approval, and the rest of Nigerians keyed in.

This country is beyond redemption. No one can save Nigeria. We are too wicked, too lawless, too selfish and just too corrupt to allow our country to work. We corrupt everything!

Aliyu writes from Abuja, Nigeria.

By Aldelghaffar Abdelmalik Amoka

When I was admitted into the Ahmadu Bello University School of General and Remedial Studies (SGRS) in the 1992/1993 academic session, I registered with the intention to study medicine after the one-year remedial program. During the program, I started having a second thought on medicine and was considering Engineering. But by the end of it, I was offered Physics. I was like “what will I do with physics?”. This is a subject you can hardly find a qualified teacher to teach in secondary schools. So why physics? I wanted to change, but transfer rules changed that same academic year, and changing courses, especially to the so-called professional courses, became difficult.

I had two choices at the end of my first year when it was obvious I can’t change from physics. It was either I carry on with my studies or leave. So, l chose to stay but without any love for the subject. That continued till my final year when we were taught Solid State Physics by this Professor, an Indian, that changed my mind about physics. He made us see the beauty of physics. He made us see how basic physics is changing the world. He told us how physics concepts like the total internal reflection in optics have revolutionalised medicine and telecommunications. He was an inspiration. What he taught us in 1999 came to my mind when I had a shoulder operation in the UK in 2011 that was done without a visible scar on my shoulder.

That interaction in our final year made me desire I do my final year project under his supervision. I eventually returned to do MSc Physics under his guidance to tap more from his wealth of knowledge and personality. He introduced me to the field of dielectric physics, the field that opened the opportunity to my travel to some countries and has made me meet great minds. At the end of the MSc program, his recommendation got us a job in the department in 2005. I was walking towards the ABU North Gate when Prof’s call came in: “Amoka, where are you? Congratulations, the VC has approved your appointment. Please inform Tajudeen”. The best news for an unemployed graduate.

I was employed as an Assistant Lecturer under his guidance, registered for PhD in ABU in December 2005, and the work on dielectric physics continued. In August 2007, I informed him of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) scholarship opportunity that my brother told me about. Like he knew he had not more than a year to live from then, he encouraged me to apply. He followed it up till I submitted the scholarship application with the full PhD proposal that I was working on under his guide. A few weeks later, I was returning from Italy on a 2 weeks workshop trip in October 2007 and I called to inform him that I had arrived in Lagos when he informed me that he was sick and on his way to the airport. He got to India and was diagnosed with Cancer of the Colon. I became scared.

In January 2008, I received a handwritten note from him with a prayer request to make it through the cancer treatment. From the handwriting, I could figure out he was weak. I prayed hard that he get well and return soon. It was a shock when I made that call to India that early morning on Thursday, 17th April 2008, and I was informed that Prof was no more. The Giant was gone. He gave up that morning after about 6 months of battle with Cancer. I was broken. I have never seen anyone as humble as him. He has regard for everyone and he finds it so easy to relate with everyone including the cleaner. As the Head of Department, he made me realize that with proper management and financial discipline, which we lack these days, you can achieve a lot with little.

While I was still wondering how to proceed with the PhD without the only person that could supervise research work in material physics in the department, I got an email from IsDB of an award of scholarship for PhD under their Merit Scholarship Award for High Technology. The scholarship application was successful. It was unbelievable. Then the University of Leicester offered me admission for PhD in engineering research. That was how I met the famous Prof. John C. Fothergill, another Giant that I am standing on his shoulder.

Prof. Fothergill was such an amazing supervisor and shared similar characteristics with Prof. Hariharan. The 3 years 3 months with him was an amazing one with lots of memories. He doesn’t just bother himself with your personal development and the progress of your research but also your welfare. As he commends your efforts so do he point out the weakness to work on. With his tight schedule and the head of the department, I was always on his priority list.

Even after the PhD, John was concerned about my career development in my home institution. He sends to me any materials he finds useful to help my career growth and development. His notification and recommendation for a postdoc job in Norway got me the 2 years job. The postdoc job introduced me to partial discharges in power equipment components. He inspired me to start a lab. I did not just learn how to do dielectrics and electrical insulation research from Prof. John C. Fothergill, the British Professor of Engineering also taught me the benefits of writing in simple sentences. The Giant is still there for me to this day.

In my struggle to survive as an academic with all the peculiarities in our Universities in Nigeria, my path crossed with another Giant on whose shoulder I am standing. Academics are trained critics. They are also expected to have leadership skills. While I enjoyed being a critic right from my university days, I run away from leadership responsibility till I got a phone call in May 2020 during the ASUU strike about a letter for me and I told the caller I will pick it up when I get to the university later in the afternoon.

I opened the envelope and it was an appointment letter. I didn’t see that coming and could not run. The Giant found me worthy to lead (head) a Unit of the University. I was confused and scared as I have always had this feeling that critics hardly make good leaders. I later took it as a chance to see the other side of just being a critic. It has been tough but an amazing experience and have made me learn a lot. A colleague jokingly told me that I am an expert in reviving dead areas. I hope I will be able to live up to that expectations.

I think I am really lucky to have got many Giants on whose shoulders I am standing to see farther. If I have ever inspired or impressed you with my little efforts as an academic in the university, it was because God made it possible for me to meet these Giants in my life. They among other people paved the way for me to get here.

As the 2021 calendar year comes to an end in a few days, I wish to appreciate Prof N.I. Hariharan, Prof. John C. Fothergill, Prof. Kabir Bala, and all the giants on whose shoulders I am standing.

©Amoka

By Abba Muhammad Tawfik

The prime priority of every government is always to ensure the safety of its people by providing adequate food and security and other necessities of life to make a pleasant bustling of it (life). However, the inability to reach that satisfactorily had made Nigerians call it an anathema on President Goodluck Jonathan’s stewardship and pinned him with the harsh tags of incompetence and murderer in northern Nigeria. For that, we prayed consistently and did everything practically possible within the sphere of our human influence until we had him ejected from power.

General Muhammadu Buhari is very well acquainted with his antique military stature of rational thoughts. And, of course, zero tolerance to nonsense and his political confederates in APC wooed us by the “change” cliche. They strategized their political expedition by accentuating majorly on Jonathan’s incompetence to ensure the security of life and property in the Northeastern states of the nation.

As hapless and helpless as we were with our lives at the grabs and pangs of insurgents, we put our complete trust in Buhari and APC, with the expectation and hope of fulfilling their promises of strengthening security setbacks and restoring peace in the nation. As a result, APC attained the peak of our love and succeeded with the power of our lives and thumbs.

Early in their (APC) administration, as they vowed before God and the good people of Nigeria of addressing the security challenges, we can honestly say that the waterloo of Nigerian enemies was celebrated. Normalcy was restored in most Northeastern states like Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno, which were then wrecked by detonations and eruptions of improvised explosive devices.

Expectations often fail, and most often, most of their promises fail. The accomplishment of the war being waged furiously against insurgents turned out to be a mirage. It was short-lived, and insurgence spread its tentacles ubiquitously across the nation.

Up to now, a two hour thirty minutes drive from Damaturu to the once known “Home of peace” is like penetrating through the boundaries of the “Bermuda triangle” despite having an airforce base that is well equipped with military fighter jets in Maiduguri. The road will be barricaded for hours, and people would be wantonly slaughtered like animals in abattoir by insensate humanlike beasts without any intervention.

Sadly, the enormity of the matter is that even those who have taken the solemn oath and are saddled with the heavy responsibility of protecting the lives of innocent Nigerians are not spared.

Moreover, the country’s Northwest and the Northcentral segments have also responded to the topsy-turvydom of insecurity and have become a furnace hell on earth. The Kaduna–Abuja road remains a highway of death where people are daily being mercilessly forced to breathe in death and exhale life and stripped of their chattels by kidnappers. 

One of the worst tribulations that betide one in today’s Nigeria is being a resident of Zamfara, Sokoto, or Katsina. The daily news reaching us from the region is that of kidnappings. Bandit terrorists bathe in the bloodstream of innocent souls, turning wives into widows and children into orphans.

Despite the economic hardship in the country,  one has to struggle to fulfil Darwin’s law of survival. But, unfortunately, only our vital forces dearly pay the cost of so doing. May Allah, in His infinite mercy, restore peace to our dear nation. Amen. 

Abba Muhammad Tawfiq is a 500L Medical Rehabilitation student at the University of Maiduguri. He can be reached via abbamuhammadtawfiq@gmail.com.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

A person who sponsors and takes good care of a single orphan is assured of a mansion in the choicest quarters of Firdaus at the centre of the Prophet’s Estate, enjoying their eternal life as a neighbour to the Infallible Master (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam). In the Hadith of Bukhari, the Prophet says, “The caretaker of the orphan and I will enter paradise like this, raising (by way of illustration) his forefinger and middle finger jointly, leaving no space in-between.”

A community flooded with orphans and vulnerable children with no access to food, clothing, shelter, education, and medicare; orphans whose neglect aggravate their vulnerability to all sorts of socio-economic dangers; should prioritise taking care of them. If competing in building mosques even where there is less need is to get paradise, why not also invest in this sure way to Heaven?

And, why not consider endowments for fighting hunger also? When a person asked the Prophet, what is the best act in Islam, the Prophet mentioned two actions: “To feed (others) and to greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know” (Bukhari). And the Prophet also counted “feeding others” among the surest ways to paradise, alongside spreading salam, strengthening kinship ties and night prayers. Why not, then also emphasise in our society, making endowments for feeding the needy and the millions of the malnourished and unnourished children as a guaranteed path to paradise? 

My honest opinion is that rather than rebuilding or redecorating some mosques, we need to invest more in empowering our imams and their followers. We can all see how the “imamdom” is gradually being saturated with incapable scholars leading ignorant followers in prayers within well-decorated mosques. As if we have forgotten that giving quality education and “beneficial knowledge” to people is itself a sustainable afterlife investment, one that may even often have more multiplier effects and trickle-down effects in terms of fetching rewards perpetually and building the Muslim community progressively.

If one sponsors a young man to become an Islamic scholar and imam, anytime this trained scholar preaches and teaches, the sponsor has a reward commission. And when the students of the imam teach or use the knowledge, the sponsor is assured of a commission. It continues in that way till “the end of history”! So, if the search for reward is what makes us race in building worship places, then so should building qualitative worshipers. We should, in fact, see the creation of generations of qualitative Muslims as a “blue ocean”; a virgin and highly underexplored otherworldly investment opportunity.  

Some may remind us that the Prophet’s first thing after hijra was to build a mosque. True. But that was first because there was none. And secondly, this mosque, as a primary symbol of Islam, was built for companions who were well educated in Makkah before migration, plus the Medinan community that was also educated by no other scholar than the great Mus’ab bin ‘Umayr.

In any case, the Prophet built the mosque because it was a priority by all standards; there was a need. And so immediately after that, he also paid attention to other developmental matters, including socio-economic priorities like establishing the Medinan Market (Suq al-Madinah). He also immediately began calling companions to “purchase” homes in Jannah through addressing human needs. That was how Uthman got an edifice in Jannah by purchasing the well of Ruma and dedicating it as waqf. That was how Abu Talha got Paradise by committing a waqf of his garden to benefit the needy and his poor relatives.

In fact, as recorded, most rich companions got their direct entry admission to Jannah through spending on human needs; Uthman bought and did waqf of the Ruma well, Umar dedicated the Thamqh garden for the poor, wayfarers and the rest, and the list goes. Little did we remember that in addition to doing a waqf of his mosque, virtually all the other waqfs of the Prophet were for welfare and socio-economic empowerment. 

We need to discuss whether building the Muslims and making them self-sufficient should continue to receive our philanthropic priorities or building mansions in the name of mosques – even where there is less need – which would mostly be populated by undedicated, hungry, dirty and largely ill worshippers. Building worship places is undoubtedly required, guaranteed key to paradise, ceteris paribus. It is, however, one of many means to getting admission to paradise. Why, then, should we not start to amplify other keys to paradise, especially those in some contexts such as ours that may appear weightier on the scale of Muslim priorities?

It is not in the interest of Islam to have dirty looking Muslims attending multimillion naira mosques. Islam wants educated, neat, tranquil, self-sufficient, qualitative Muslims whose worship is knowledge-based. So, when some philanthropists focus on building worship places, others need to invest in other equally rewarding endeavours. Wherever we have no worship place, it is a collective duty upon the community members to initiate one. However, where we already have one, we must prioritise other joint obligations; taking care of the orphans, the poor and widows being one of them. We can do it through building revenue-generating waqfs that can perpetually help the poor and everlasting generate rewards to the donor.

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido is the Chairman Zakah and Waqf Foundation Gombe, Nigeria. He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Abdul Ahmad Burra

Recently, a committee was inaugurated by the Bauchi State Governor, Dr. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammad to implement the Government’s White Paper on the report of administrative committee on land use abuse, illegal allocation and farmers and herders clashes in local government areas of the state.

This news, to some extent, soothed our hearts that have been burning helplessly for several months because of the impunity and lawlessness being perpetrated by government officials and politicians in our local governments which endangered everybody’s life in the State.

The scandalous sale and allocation of the historic Lame-Burra Game Reserve and Burra-Tamba Grazing Reserve by a group secretly formed by local government officials and local politicians is the heaviest blow we have ever suffered as community and environmental activists.

About two decades ago when we started our activism to protect our forests and reserves against deforestation and other harmful activities so as to avoid environmental disasters and other negative effects, we thought by now, the problem of deforestation in our area would have been reduced or eliminated completely.

Unknown to us that the menace would not only grow beyond our capacity but would reach the level that even the forests and its components would be put to sale by people who have the mandate of protecting them.

The Lame/Burra Game Reserve, which covers about 2,351.92 km2, is situated in Toro and Ningi Local Governments Area and the second largest after Yankari Game Reserve. The area was designated for nature reserve and maintenance of a natural habitats.

One will never expect that this Game Reserve being one of the greatest treasures and tourism attraction sites of the State will be carelessly managed and left to the hands of local politicians who subsequently decided to sell it to the highest bidders.

The intensive atrocity against our environment started after the local government election last year. The new local government officials and some local politicians set up the so called anti deforestation committees that masqueraded as tax collection outfit to collect monies from loggers.

Motivated by greed and the huge amount money they generated without hitches, the local government officials, local politicians and a certain bureaucracy of our traditional institution decided that more money would come if they allocate some of the forest reserves in the local government to themselves, cronies and any interested buyer. They immediately commenced their grand plan with unbundling and allocation of farmlands in the famous Burra-Tamba Grazing Reserve which is under the control of Ningi Local Government Council. The Reserve is located along Burra-Ningi road and used to be the beautiful forest with beautiful landscape and topography that welcome and attract travellers to Burra. Trees and other plantations were cleared, loggers and charcoal producers dominated the Reserve.

Their next grand plan was to sell out the Ningi Local Government’s portion of Lame-Burra Game Reserve to people but unlike the grazing reserve, it is under the control of the State Government, thus they don’t have its absolute control, but they hatched a plan. They formed a herders and farmers peace forum and made some religious and PDP leaders, Fulani leaders, farmers and politicians as members. The Forum voted some millions of naira and visited a certain Director in the ministry supervising the Game Reserve. They presented a request for allocation of the Reserve to farmers because it became hideout of criminals. They also claimed that the Toro Local Government’s portion of the Reserve has already been allocated to farmers and the Ningi portion is being encroached by the people of Toro.

The Director reportedly gave them approval to sell out the Reserve. Allocation commenced in which they started with collection of two hundred thousand naira and one hundred and fifty naira from farmers for allocation of farmlands. They also allocated hundreds of hectres of farmlands to themselves, politicians, traditional institutions and some notable individuals. When the news of the allocation spread, people from far and near trooped to the Forum for allocation. The price skyrocketed to one and two millions for allocation because Fulani herders from Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and many states saw opportunity in acquiring the Reserve. In a short period of time the Forum generated millions of Naira. Loggers from all parts of the country trooped to the former former Game Reserve and up to today, the Reserve is the new mecca for charcoal, timber and firewood.

What is more dangerous in the activities of this Forum is that they don’t care about the profile of these herders coming from far and near to buy land in the Reserve. All they care was the money. It is alleged that many fleeing bandits and kidnappers from Zamfara and Katsina used proxies and relatives to buy farmlands in the Reserve.

Environmental activists and community leaders alarmed the government on the scandal and dangerous trend in the local government which is capable of plunging the State into serious security and environmental disaster. These local politicians would politicize any move to stop these activities and this slowed down any reasonable action from the Government.

Whenever an attempt is made to stop the atrocities, they would take bags of money and see the people at the top. It reached a level that these people have bribed almost every individual or institution we think we could get help. Also all attempts by some officials from the State to visit Burra and see the situation would be blocked in Ningi by the local government officials and certain bureaucracy of the traditional institution.

The District Head of Burra Alhaji Ya’u Shehu Abubakar has been the greatest force in the fight against deforestation but he is lone in the fight thus he watched them helplessly. Knowing that he was the major threat in their deforestation and farmlands allocation business, the local government officials connived and got him suspended from office. They used politics and other administrative tactics to hang him. The suspension of Sarkin Burra aided the smooth running of their atrocities up to today because the fear of Sarkin Burra has been one of the major factors that protected our forests from being destroyed for many years.

Later the State Government cancelled all the allocations in the reserves and set up a committee to investigate. But this didn’t stop the atrocities. They paused on the allocation and concentrate on logging and massive production of charcoal from the Reserve. Logging is now business of the day in all forests of Burra. This continue to fetch them money in which they use to carryout out some personal and political activities.

It’s obvious that local politicians see our forests as political bounties. Whenever an election is held, the target of the members of the winning party is to take control of forests and reserves in their communities. This twist of politics started more than a decade ago but worsened from 2020 to date.

The 2020 local government election in Bauchi State has produced set of leaders and officials who have strong desire to accumulate wealth by hook or by crook, to live a flamboyant life and to prepare for 2023 election in which many of them are nursing ambition. Because there is little money to steal from the local government treasury, the officials and local politicians with connivance of traditional institutions resorted to logging, illegal allocation of lands and forest reserves and other sharp practices. The legacies that stood the test of time are being destroyed by these local politicians.

Nobody will think that after many actions taken by Governor Bala Mohammad against the then caretaker chairmen of Ningi, Darazo and Misau as well as some traditional rulers on their involvement in deforestation and farmers and herders clashes, there will be any local government official or traditional ruler that will support or take part in these nefarious activities. But the crop of leaders and politicians we have at the local governments are doing more atrocities to the reserves and the environment and fueling more ill feeling and chaos among farmers and herders.

Most government officials and local politicians don’t share the vision of the present administration in protecting the environment and preventing farmers and herders clashes and it is clear that the warnings and policy pronouncements by Governor Bala Mohammad are falling into their deaf ears.

When I heard the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission saying another local government election will take place in Bauchi State next year, my heart sank. With the massive urge for corruption and desire to destroy legacies bequeathed to local governments including forest reserves, lands and properties with impunity and audacity by local government officials, local politicians and bureaucracies of traditional institutions in Ningi and other local governments, I have the opinion that we don’t need any local government election in Bauchi State. Local politics in many local governments is about allocation of land and deforestation. This trend if left unchecked, will worsen security, social and environmental problems in the State.

The DIG Sani Muhammad led White Paper implementation Committee has a lot of work to do in investigating the institutionalized destruction of forest reserves in the State. Many big names in local governments are involved. The magnitude of the negative effects of these activities should be great thing of concern for any patriotic son of the State. Thus they should spare no one in their task.

I am also of the view that after punishing all people found wanting in these atrocities against the State, Government should come up with workable policy about all forest reserves in the State with a view to protecting and strengthening them for the optimal benefits of the State.

Burra is a farmer and teaches Mass Communication at Bauchi State Polytechnic

Abdul Ahmad Burra teaches Mass Communication at Bauchi State Polytechnic.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Alhaji Halilu is a popular, wealthy businessman. Famous for his continuous investment in constructing mosques, people in his town, surrounding villages and neighbouring states came to know him as Alhaji Mai-Masallatai (roughly, the Mosques Builder). His main motivation is the authentic hadith that promises a house in paradise for anyone who builds a mosque for Allah.

Thus, whenever Mai-Masallatai is approached with a request for mosque construction, he gives an automatic positive response. Alhaji dedicated all his philanthropic budget to building mosques, with virtually zero allocation to any other act of charity. He never says no to a mosque request. Within some time, he had constructed mosques for almost all the communities within his town and neighbouring villages. His ultimate goal is to own wonderful castles in heaven, and, Alhamdulillah, he has got a guarantee for that in constructing mosques from an infallible mouth. 

Now, three things happened. One, as there are not many communities lacking mosques, people started requesting him to repair the mosques he built for them last five, ten or seven years; to rebuild their mosque, repair it, or buy them new sound system, new carpet for the mosque, electricity generator, or “solar” and so on. Mai-Masallatai gradually transformed into Mai gyaran Masallatai, from building mosques to redecorating and making existing mosques “befitting” and ultramodern.

The second trend then followed. Since Mai-Masallatai is not the only aspirant for paradise, other wealthy persons joined the mosque construction endeavour. As a result, the number of mosques increases – two or more mosques in an unnecessarily close distance. A  community that needs one mosque would request a second one for flimsy reasons; we have Sheikh XYZ, who should be an imam and has no mosque; why not get one for him so the society would benefit from his imamship! And any rich man who builds a new house would ensure that a mosque is embedded from the inception of the architectural design. So, each neighbourhood or street, and almost each “big” house, has a mosque attachment built by a person who wants paradise. Soon the third issue began to arise; imams scarcity.

It is noteworthy that Mai-Masallatai and all his emulators live and do business within a Muslim community that has thousands of orphans who live in hunger, disease, illness and squalor. They coexist with hundreds of widows who survive in shabbiness, battling the spiritual ills, psychological traumas and socio-economic vulnerabilities associated with poverty, ignorance and starvation. They reside in neighbourhoods bedevilled with noise, air and dirt population, with zero consciousness of environmental challenges; where people often urinate and defecate in the open, at public passages and places as crucial as mosques and marketplaces and stadia. They live in communities that use firewood as an energy source but with near-zero interest in planting trees.

Mai-Masallatai builds mosques for communities where well above 80% of the people cannot correctly recite the Fatiha and are mostly ignorant of the basics of purification, ablution and prayer. The worship places are beautiful, “befitting”, and “ultra-modern”. But the worshippers are ultra-ignorant, extra-hungry and super-poor. While the mosques are decorated, the mosque attendants are neglected.

The community severely lacks qualified imams and doesn’t have a plan to train religious scholars or imams. Nearly all are accidental scholars and imams. Most imams are less qualified, semi-qualified, or simply unqualified. Those with minimum requirements have no access to any “on the job training” and retraining. They have no grounding in jurisprudence nor appreciation of the complexities of their time and place. They might know a little of actually elementary Islamic texts, but not of their context. They continue to recycle their khutbas, reading for their congregation – often with a lot of mistakes – imported sermons presented for the 20^th-century audience in Egypt or Morocco or Saudi Arabia or Algeria (depending upon the inclination of the imams), which are compiled in a collection of sermons or al-khutab al-minbariyya. The sermons are in Arabic, reread for an audience dominated by over 90% of people who do not understand Arabic except, perhaps, “Allahu Akbar”!  

Dear reader, to what extent is your community better than Mai-Masallatai’s? Should building worship places take priority over building the worshippers? Should we continue to construct “befitting”, “ultramodern”, and “world-class” mosques for largely poor, ignorant and confused Muslim communities? Should we, while, of course, building mosques where they are truly needed, not also prioritize producing a Muslim population that is religiously educated, morally upright, intellectually sound, socio-economic dignified and religiously conscious. What better serves the essence of the mosque as an Islamic institution: a beautiful building or an educated congregation? Should building mosques be the only priority in a village where there is not even a single person learned in the Qur’an and the jurisprudence of purification, ablution, prayer, fasting, and other rituals?

More questions are begging for answers. For example, what will be more critical between saving people’s faith through addressing their basic needs of life, thereby shielding them from the onslaughts of evangelism and other anti-Islamic missions on the one hand, and mere building a mosque where there are no qualified imams and scholars to teach them creed and worship on the other? Should we continue to have “comfortable places” for ignorant and hungry worshippers rather than building conscious and educated worshippers? 

Given the current religious and socio-economic realities of Muslims in Nigeria, what should be the focus and priority areas of intervention in terms of philanthropy? Please don’t mistake my position. No Muslims will disagree regarding the centrality of mosques as Islamic symbol numero uno. Where there is no mosque, it is a collective responsibility upon the Muslims to build one to the best of their ability. What, however, may need reflection is the question of when, where and why building a mosque should take primacy vis-à-vis other Muslim priorities and when not. Is it not imperative, for instance, for us to begin to remind ourselves that much as we can get a shortcut to paradise through building mosques, there are other philanthropic acts that not only guarantee paradise but even assure of a choice area and unmatchable edifice in Jannah?

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido is the Chairman Zakah and Waqf Foundation Gombe, Nigeria. He can be reached lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

The proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs), occasioned by illegal and porous national borders and a booming business of gun-running, are the main factors fuelling Nigeria’s security challenges, giving rise to criminal activities across the country.

The proliferation of SALWs is a global phenomenon arising from global conflicts. According to a study conducted by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey (SBM), it is estimated that more than 857 million SALWs are currently in circulation aside from twelve billion rounds of ammunition produced annually. An estimated ten million SALWs are in Africa, with one million in Nigeria.

This is connected with previous and ongoing conflicts in West and North African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Niger, Mali and Libya. The proliferation of SALWs aid non-state actors, including Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, bandits, militants etc., while undermining the state monopoly of instruments of coercion. The threats posed by the proliferation of SALWs are of such magnitude that a security strategy that contemplates monitoring their flow and use is required.

Another report by SBM Intelligence noted that about 6145000 SALWs are illegally circulating among civilian non-state actors and criminals in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the country’s security institutions have a paltry 586600 firearms in their possession.  Indeed, the proliferation of arms across borders along with human trafficking and drug trafficking, especially in the Sahel region, ranks high on the chart of criminal activities constituting threats to national and regional stability in Africa.

Experts had identified a lack of effective legislation and enforcement mechanisms as a major reason SALW proliferation has a significant impact on crises both within and across many national borders.

To stem the rising tide of illegal weapons circulation, the federal government has established the National Centre for the Control of the Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW). The centre is under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Major General Babagana Monguno, with retired Major General AM Dikko as the Pioneer Coordinator. The National Security Adviser said the centre would operate similarly to the counter-terrorism and cybersecurity centres, both under his office.

The NCCSALW was established to replace the defunct Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons and is expected to serve as the institutional mechanism for policy guidance, research, and monitoring of all aspects of SALWs in Nigeria. Apparently, the federal government believes that the transition from PRESCOM to NCCSALW would provide more effective coordination and monitoring of progress regarding the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. When fully operational, the NCCSALW would have six regional offices that will work closely with security and intelligence agencies to prevent and control proliferated arms and track weapons in the hands of non-state actors.

Among several functions, the National Centre will be responsible for controlling the proliferation of SALWs in Nigeria, implementing strategies, plans, and policies for eradicating SALWs, and supervising the implementation of same by relevant government bodies. It will also create and maintain small arms and light weapons register and a national database, receive reports on firearms registration from the Nigeria Police, and update the database with such information.

In addition, it will also register, store and destroy firearms and ammunition possessed illegally by security agencies, criminals and other non-state actors, maintain a database of registered firearms dealers in Nigeria, among others. Furthermore, the centre will be responsible for updating and transmitting the national database to the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

In its relations with these inter-governmental bodies, the National Centre will identify legitimate national defence and security needs and obtain the required exemptions from specific international protocols to meet these needs. The National Centre is also empowered to carry out public education and awareness at national, state and local levels, to involve Nigerians in the efforts to control the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

No doubt, the establishment of the NCCSALW is a move in the right direction. Still, to achieve maximum impact, it is expected to open up new regional and international cooperation and strengthen existing efforts.

In 2001, UN countries adopted the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

In the instrument, member states agreed to, among others, improve national small arms regulations, strengthen stockpile management, ensure that weapons are properly and reliably marked, improve cooperation in weapons tracing and engage in regional and international cooperation and assistance.

According to the UN, one of the most critical components in the fight against SALWs proliferation is weapons tracing. Hopefully, when the centre discharges its mandate fully, it will undoubtedly lead to a drastic reduction in national, sub-regional and regional illegal possession of SALWs, which will be crucial in mitigating the rising level of armed violence.

The NSA has recently declared that the government is preparing to constitute a security outfit responsible for safeguarding the nation’s porous borders. The move is very apt because it will curb transnational organized crimes, thereby reducing the level of security challenges currently facing the country.

Mukhtar wrote from Kano via ymukhtar944@gmail.com.

By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir (Talban Bauchi)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tahir is Talban Bauchi.