By Muhammad Abdurrahman

By Uzair Adam Imam

Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has described Nigerian leaders as greedy who lack the intellectual capacity and vision in terms of how to usher in developmental projects.

Jega stated this on Monday, 15th November 2021, at the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series, organised by the Students Wing of Coalition of Northern Groups (SW-CNG), in Katsina.

He also added that the insecurity and economic challenges that have been bedeviling the country for a long time are as a result of the country’s bad leadership.

Jega said: “The major indices of these crises manifested themselves from the Northern part of this country, whether it is poverty, youth unemployment, security challenges, maternal mortality, out-of-school children, lack of girl-child education and early marriage as well as the challenge of reproduction of our females.

“Anything you can think of, the terrible statistics come from the Northern part of this country. And why is it so? That is the key question. Today, we remember the Maitama Sule, the Amadu Bellos, Isa Katais and many others.

“These were people who led and protected the North and ensured that the North developed in accordance with its ability and their own abilities as leaders. While we cherish the memories of what had happened in the past, what kind of leadership have we got from the Northern part of this country?

“We have so-called leaders who are selfish, who are not selfless, greedy, who have a narrow vision in terms of how this country can develop not to talk about the region where they come from. They really lack intellectual capacity to be classified as leaders,” he said.

Perhaps, it was the Mathew Effect that made Professor Kpareogi’s recent article on the plight of the Yoruba Muslims in their own lands so famous that it generated so much response as if, until the piece was made public, nobody was aware that Yoruba Muslims, who were in the majority in the Southwest, have been under powerful religious subjugation by the Yoruba Christians.

But even a casual observer will not fail to notice the recurring crisis across the Yoruba land over the use of Hijab by Muslim female children in the schools. Some of these sartorial choice crises trended long enough to attract the attention of everyone while some have to be settled at the courts. The infamous ruling by an Ikeja high court that because Christians would feel less righteous in the presence of Hijab wearing children, Muslim children should not wear Hijab to their schools, is still fresh in our memories. Delivering the judgement on 17th October 2014, Justice Modupe Onyearbor declared that “The non-Hijab wearing students will feel inferior to those who are putting on Hijab.” The judge, therefore, banned the use of Hijab for Muslim girls till an Appeal Court put aside that judgement.

The sartorial choice struggle is, perhaps, the most glaring among the many struggles being fought by the embattled Muslim majority in the region, this is mainly due to publicity it is generating and the will to resist the subjugation by the new generation of Muslims who firmly believed in self-determination. The case of Barrister Firdaus Amata who refused to jettison her constitutional right on December 12, 2017, an action for which she was denied entry into the International Conference Centre by the Body of Benchers, highlighted one of such struggles.

Apart from the Hijab struggle, the most glaring inequality the Muslims are struggling with is the fact that despite being the majority in the region, not a single Islamic court exists in the whole region. They are forced to either take their cases to the imposed Christian common law courts or Customary courts. This is more worrisome given that Islamic courts existed in Yorubaland long before the arrival of the colonial armies who abolished them and imposed their own courts. Islamic courts existed since 1842 in that region, according to MURIC.

Even the Yoruba Muslim’s peaceful move to introduce sharia courts in Yorubaland through constitutional means was fiercely tamed by the Christians in that region. On May 27 this year, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) was eloquent in its submission that the introduction of Shariah Law in the South West should be ignored by the Senate.

Nothing highlighted how the Muslims in Yorubaland are struggling to free themselves from Christian subjugation than the declaration by some Muslim groups that they are not in support of the Oduduwa Republic as they will face persecution if actualized. This belied the widely believed notion that the Yorubas are homogenous and that religion plays a second or third role in their lives. It proves that for a long time, the Muslim majority were silenced into submission out of fear of “social ostracism”. Their passiveness was fully exploited by Christians and misunderstood by northerners.

Now that the passiveness is giving way to the rising tide of Islamic awareness in the region, things are getting clearer that the hyped religious tolerance in that region was indeed the domination of Christians over Muslims.
Ironically, this is coming just as some voices are maintaining a hyperbolic but erroneous assumption that the North is the den of religious intolerance even as facts are contradicting them.

Sheikh Nuru Khalid is among those who seemed to have fallen for this fallacy recently. In his clamour for Interfaith Dialogue, he recently claimed, among other things, that Interfaith Dialogue was necessary now given the bad light in which the terrorist organizations, like Boko Haram, are painting Islam and the high level of religious intolerance in the North.

If the Sheikh is right on Interfaith Dialogue’s effect on religious intolerance, he is very wrong on the Boko Haram claim. He is also very wrong in his charge that Muslims are to be blamed for religious intolerance in the region. Because of all the religious crises in this part of the nation, over ninety per cent were NOT caused by Muslims; they were just defending themselves.

Therefore, to insinuate that Muslims are to blame for religious intolerance in the country is insidious even if said in good faith, because it is a BIG lie.

It is flabbergasting to assume that had there been an Interfaith Dialogue, Boko Haram wouldn’t have happened, because among the reasons the terrorists have for fighting is what they called the systematic downplaying of religious teachings in order to please non-Muslims.

It is evident that both the terrorists and the Sheikh have agreed on the same erroneous definition of Interfaith Dialogue. Both seemed to give Interfaith Dialogue the definition of Syncretism. Many people speak about syncretism while they think they are discussing Interfaith Dialogue.

To differentiate between the two terms, just take the stands of late Nnamdi Azikiwe who said “We must forget our differences”, and that of late Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardaunan Sokoto) who replied, “No, let’s understand our differences…” What Azikiwe said is syncretism while the stand of Sardauna connotes Interfaith Dialogue.

I don’t think anyone who knows that Muslims are the majority of the victims of Boko Haram or understood their mission will honestly insist that an Interfaith Dialogue would have been an antidote to their aggression.

Finally, while I am not saying (the Muslim) North is totally devoid of religious intolerance (this depends on your definition of the term), it is not true that we are the purveyors of intolerance, rather, we are at the receiving end of religious intolerance. This could be discussed in another piece.

Muhammad Mahmood writes from Kano.

By Khadija Muhammad

The national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed concern over how the Federal Government of Nigeria is handling the demands of the universities unseriously. Together with other union leaders, he expressed their dismay at a press conference in Abuja on November 15, 2021.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) issued a three-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to address all issues as agreed in the December 2020 Agreement.

ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this on Monday while addressing reporters in Abuja.

The president warned that the union might be compelled to embark on another nationwide strike should the government fail to implement the Memorandum of Action signed with ASUU before suspending the last industrial action.

According to the ASUU President, all the issues, including unpaid academic earned allowances and the universities revitalisation fund, have not been addressed almost one year after an agreement was reached.

The ultimatum is part of the resolutions reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU held in the nation’s capital.

It can be recalled that ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike in March 2020 following its disagreement with the government over the funding of the universities and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), among other issues. Accordingly, it had proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace IPPIS. But in a bid to get the lecturers back to class, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, convened a series of meetings with leaders of the union and relevant government officials.

Amid the strike that lasted several months and negotiations that ended in a deadlock, the government and ASUU later signed a Memorandum of Action in December 2020. This led to the suspension of the protracted industrial action that lasted nine months. However, not after the government offered a cumulative N65 billion to the lecturers to address earned academic allowances and revitalisation of universities.

On the IPPIS tussle, both parties agreed on the UTAS, while the government would pay the university lecturers’ salary arrears on a different platform.

ASUU had on several occasions warned that it would indeed go on strike if the federal government continued to break the promises and throw away all the agreements reached.

By Salisu Uba Kofar-Wambai

By Uzair Adam Imam

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state has commiserated with the President Dangote Group of Companies, Aliko Dangote over the death of his brother Sani Dangote, who was the Vice President Dangote Group of Companies.

A statement signed Monday 15th November, 2021, by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kano State, Malam Abba Anwar disclosed.

Mr Dangote died at a US hospital on Sunday evening after a protracted illness, and until his death he sat on the board of several companies and was the deputy chairman of African Gum Arabic Producers Association.

The governor said that we received the information about the passing away of this gentleman, Alhaji Sani Dangote, with shock. Kano state, our dear country Nigeria and the business community lost and illustrious son” he mourned.

However, he also lamented that the death was not only shocking to the immediate families of the deceased “…but to all of us particularly those from Kano state. We lost a rare gem in the business community.”

“It is therefore on behalf of the government and good people of Kano state, that I, the governor of Kano state, am sending our heartfelt condolence to the immediate families of Alhaji Sani Dangote, to his brother, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, over his death,” he stated.

He prayed for Forgiveness from the Almighty Allah for the reposed soul of the deceased. Adding that, “May Allah forgive all his shortcomings and reward his good deeds with Jannatul Fiddaus, ameen,” the statement added.

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad

Dropcap the popularization of the “ideal measure” has led to advice such as “Increase font size for large screens and reduce font size for small screens.” While a good measure does improve the reading experience, it’s only one rule for good typography. Another rule is to maintain a comfortable font size.

Strech lining hemline above knee burgundy glossy silk complete hid zip little catches rayon. Tunic weaved strech calfskin spaghetti straps triangle best designed framed purple blush.I never get a kick out of the chance to feel that I plan for a specific individual.

Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

On her way she met a copy. The copy warned the Little Blind Text, that where it came from it would have been rewritten a thousand times and everything that was left from its origin would be the word “and” and the Little Blind Text should turn around and return to its own, safe country.

A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine. I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents.

But nothing the copy said could convince her and so it didn’t take long until a few insidious Copy Writers ambushed her, made her drunk with Longe and Parole and dragged her into their agency, where they abused her for their projects again and again. And if she hasn’t been rewritten, then they are still using her.

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.

A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer.

Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn’t get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections.

A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame.

It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer. Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad.