By Khairat Suleiman Jaruma

For most Nigerians, there is no hope left for this complicated country of ours. As many often say, “Naija is finished”. I disagree that Nigeria is finished. We might think we are having our worst days as a country, but the worst is yet to come, and it will only come when we give up on fixing this dear country of ours.

The younger generation keeps me motivated and convinces me that there is still hope for Nigeria. I see how the Western world shoves the whole LGBTQ ideology down young children’s necks from a very tender age, and these children grow with this ideology strongly built in them. Let us borrow this method of theirs and use it to instil civic education into our next generation so it will be strongly built in them, or use the priming effect method, which effectively works in selling an idea or instilling a belief in people.

The importance of civic education in fixing Nigeria’s mess cannot be overemphasized. The idea behind civic education is to promote the demand for good governance by informing and engaging the public and as a necessary complement to efforts to improve the practice of good governance.

Civic education is perhaps the only tool we can use to address political and governance issues and critical social issues. However, we need to do more than just giving children notes on civic education to copy in schools, and we need to be more intentional about it. I believe that one of the most important things we need to do to change the narrative and set our country on a path of progress is to create a civically well-educated generation. Nigeria needs a patriotic generation prepared for the future and ready to challenge the existing execrable system.

Also, civic education, like we often assume, is not just a subject to be taught in schools only. We need to do more than that. We need to put in more efforts to educate and create more awareness of the role and importance of civic education to a prosperous Nigeria. We all need to be involved as individuals, governmental organizations, civil society organizations, or non-governmental organizations. 

The effort is not limited to young children or the next generation alone. It is essential that everyone learns more about civic education and practice it as, more often than not, young children do more of what they see than what they are told.

The change we seek might take time, and most of us might not live long enough to see the results of our efforts. Still, we need to set a good and solid foundation of positive change for the generation after us, or what we are facing right now might just be the tip of the iceberg compared to what they will face.

According to Bruce Lee, “Real living is living for others”. So let’s live simultaneously for the next generation and a better Nigeria. 

Khairat Sulaiman Jaruma wrote from Kaduna. She can be reached via khairatsuleh@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari.

Human rights activist and former senator, Shehu Sani, has failed to secure the Kaduna governorship ticket of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.

Sani only got two votes from delegates in the primary election conducted by the PDP on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

Sani accepted the election’s outcome as fate and has taken to his verified Twitter handle to congratulate the winner, Isah Ashiru.

“The Kaduna PDP Governorship primaries has [sic] been concluded. I lost, and Honourable Isah Ashiru won.

I wish to congratulate him. Two Delegates voted for me without giving them a dime; unfortunately, I don’t know who they are, so that I can appreciate these clean votes. We look forward,” he tweeted. 

Many believed Sani’s refusal to pay delegates amounts to his failure in the primary election. He has repeatedly vowed not to pay delegates to vote for him, a decision that many consider laudable but has caused him a significant setback in his political career.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the barbaric killing of Harira Jibril and her four kids, threatening that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) should expect a tough response. 

The president criticized the killing of innocent people in the South East and other parts of the country. 

Recall that the Daily Reality reported how the outlawed terrorist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has mercilessly murdered a pregnant woman and her four innocent kids in Anambra.

The woman identified as Harira Jibril was killed alongside her four kids and six other persons of northern extraction on Sunday, May 23, 2022. 

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the president, Malam Garba Shehu,  disclosed this in a statement signed Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

However, the president described the incident as “wild, barbarous and wanton killings of innocent people.”

Buhari further urged citizens to avoid hasty steps or conclusions that could exacerbate the situation.

He cautioned that the general public should allow the law to take its proper course.

He added that “the public is against the indiscriminate sharing of posts on social media so as to deny vested interests who seek to divide us and create disturbance the chance to do so.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

A soldier accidentally shot his comrade during a confrontation with suspected cultists in the Ibafo region of Ogun State, causing chaos.

Yahoo lads, a bunch of internet scammers, were said to have launched an attack on each other following a dispute.

One party hired cultists to attack the other, and the other hired soldiers to combat the other in a free-for-all battle.

When the cultists saw the military soldiers approaching in a private car,  they started pelting them with stones, bottles, and other things, according to one eyewitness.

This enraged the military personnel, one of whom attempted to cock his rifle, but accidentally fired his companions.

Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the event when contacted.

The police spokesperson was quoted as saying: “Some internet fraudsters were having issues with one another over an issue. One group invited cultists, while the other some soldiers.

“The soldiers went to the scene of the incident in a private car. They were attacked by some hoodlums said to be cultists. We learnt that one of the soldiers mistakenly fired his colleague, who had been rushed to the hospital.

“Our officers are on top of the matter and normalcy has been restored to the place.”

It was a tragic moment, when an unidentified terrorist stormed a primary school in Texas and killed many people, mostly innocent children. The US officials have confirmed that all the victims of the recent Texas shooting were killed in a single classroom.

According to the Upday News, the “US President Joe Biden has called for new restrictions on firearms in America after a gunman massacred at least 19 children at a Texas elementary school. All of those killed in the shooting were in one classroom, a state public safety official said.

In an emotional address to his nation from the White House, Mr Biden pleaded for action to curb gun violence after years of failure – and blamed firearms manufacturers and their supporters for blocking legislation in Washington.

He said: “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?”

The US leader spoke just hours after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, 85 miles west of San Antonio, killing at least 19 children and two adults.

It is America’s deadliest school shooting since 20 children and six adults died at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in late 2012.

The gunman – identified by officials as Salvador Ramos, who lived in the community – was killed by law enforcement responding to the massacre. Texas governor Greg Abbott said one of the two adults killed by the gunman was a teacher.

With US first lady Jill Biden standing by his side in the Roosevelt Room, the US president, who has suffered the loss of two of his own children, spoke in visceral terms about the grief being suffered by the victims’ loved ones and the pain that will endure for the students who survived.

“To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” Mr Biden said.

“There’s a hollowness in your chest. You feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out.”

He called on the nation to pray for the victims and families – but also to work harder to prevent the next tragedy. “It’s time we turned this pain into action,” he said.

Just one week earlier, Mr Biden had travelled to Buffalo in New York state to meet with victims’ families after a racist gunman killed 10 black people at a grocery store.

The back-to-back tragedies serve as sobering reminders of the frequency and brutality of an American epidemic of mass gun violence.

Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children.

Outside the town civic centre, where families were told to await news about their loved ones, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing.

Many of the wounded were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of the complex.

It is not immediately clear how many people were wounded, but Uvalde Police chief Pete Arredondo said there were “several injuries”.

Earlier, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.

“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world – why?” Mr Biden asked in the White House.

The president reflected that while other nations have people filled with hate or with mental health issues, no other industrialised nation experiences gun violence at the level of the US.

“The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong,” Mr Biden said, adding: “I’d hoped when I became president I would not have to do this, again.”

Echoing Mr Biden’s call, former president Barack Obama, who has called the day of the Sandy Hook shooting the darkest of his administration, said: “It’s long past time for action, any kind of action.”

US congress has been unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation ever since the bipartisan effort to strengthen background checks on firearms purchases collapsed in the aftermath of the 2012 shooting.

Despite months of work, a bill that was backed by a majority of senators fell to a filibuster – unable to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to advance.

In impassioned remarks on the US senate floor on Tuesday, senator Chris Murphy, who represented Newton, Connecticut, in the house of representatives at the time of the Sandy Hook massacre, asked his colleagues why they even bother running for office if they are going to stand by and do nothing.

He said: “I’m here on this floor to beg – to literally get down on my hands and knees – to beg my colleagues.”

Mr Murphy said he was planning to reach out to Texas Republican senator John Cornyn after the two had teamed up on an earlier background check bill that never became law. He said he would also reach out to Texas’ other Republican senator, Ted Cruz.

“I just don’t understand why people here think we’re powerless,” Mr Murphy said. “We aren’t.”

The teenage gunman had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state senator Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police.

He noted that Ramos “suggested the kids should watch out”, and that he had bought two “assault weapons” after turning 18.

Before heading to the school, Ramos shot his grandmother, Mr Gutierrez said. Other officials said later that the grandmother survived and was being treated, though her condition was not known.

Investigators believe Ramos posted photos on Instagram of two guns he used in the shooting, and they were examining whether he made statements online alluding to the attack in the hours before the assault, a law enforcement official said.

Officers were serving multiple search warrants on Tuesday night and gathering telephone and other records. Investigators were also attempting to contact Ramos’ relatives and were tracing the firearms.

The attack began at about 11.30am local time (5.30pm BST), when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building, according to public safety officials.

A resident who heard the crash called 911, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter.

Both officers were shot, though it was not immediately clear where on the campus that confrontation occurred, or how much time elapsed before more authorities arrived on the scene.

Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a Swat-like tactical and counter-terrorism unit, officials said.

One Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade.

The agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the law enforcement source said.

By Umar Yahaya

Yobe North has been blessed with the representation of an experienced lawmaker, Distinguished Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, a fourth times senator and President of the Senate, who is now seeking support and collaboration to replace Buhari as the President in the forthcoming election. I wish him the best this journey has to offer; he possesses all the requirements to be President.

However, in the epoch-making election (2023), the Yobe North requires an experienced person to represent it in the tenth (10) Senate. So we are in the stage of opening a new chapter. Of all the contenders, only Abba Sarki possessed the qualifications, wisdom, brilliance, prudence and knowledge to represent it. I’m not embroidering anything here; it’s based on records, facts and figures. In a democratic setting, when someone presents himself for an elective office, the expectations are simple; what are your public or private sectors records and experiences? What have you done to people and your community before? What makes you a credible and right candidate for the position? These can allow us to put you on a scale and measure your weight and whether you deserve our vote and support.

Going by these, I would say Abba deserved to fly the APC flag. He has knowledge and expertise, rising to Director of Human Resources, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development and recently retired. A graduate of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He knows and understands what it entails to be an administrator and manage resources. As the saying goes, “Good laws do not make themselves”. It requires inputs of time, lots of information, selection of what is based for the people, and articulating them into laws for the country’s benefit and its progress and development. I am confident he can perform well and do a great thing as he did before he retired from civil service. 

His public service understanding and knowledge give him more advantage over other contenders. He would sustain what was started by the current senator and consolidate the gains achieved. He inspired hope for a better tomorrow and representation. He would do a great job when given the mandate. In an ideal environment, a merit leadership position is your capacity and foresight, the vision and goals you have for the people. He has these attributes. 

In records, Abba Sarki facilitated projects as a Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture to our communities; it is visible. No one would dispute or deny this, from the construction of roads in Nguru, Machina and Karasuwa Local Governments, rehabilitation of infrastructure, specifically, Nguru Abattoir to an ultra-modern facility, drilling boreholes and provision of solar energy to both rural and urban communities. Facilitated training of youth and women in various skills such as fisheries and animal rearing.

In his desire to bring change and development to our communities, he helps in employment our people in different government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. These are what make him stand out as the best for the job. Anyone who can’t show what he has done before seeking an elective office doesn’t deserve to present himself for any office or our vote. Politics is all about getting what is best for your people.

What is needed for the APC, His Excellency, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan and Zonal APC stakeholders to allow for free, fair, and credible primary elections. Our people deserved the best. A zone that produced the President of the Senate requires a man with better qualifications, experiences and connections. His representation would give an equal opportunity, do a great job and wanders for his people, state and country.    

My prayers and hopes are that Abba Sarki is given a chance to represent us. He would command respect from his peers. He is charismatic, calm, kind, a beacon of hope, bold, hardworking, and committed to seeing our societies’ progress and development.

Let’s do it together.

Let’s change the narratives.

We deserve better.

We inspired hope.

New Vision.

Umar Yahaya wrote from Hausari Ward, Nguru, Yobe via umarnguru2015@gmail.com.

By Umar Sani Yakubu

It has been over a week since the arrest and eventual detention of a students’ leader and critic, Comrade Aminu Harsanu Guyaba, after being presented before the court of law. He was charged at the court for criticising the Executive Governor of Bauchi State, His Excellency Sen. Bala Muhammad Abdulkadir.

However, since then, several appeals and, in some instances, protests were conducted virtually (on media platforms) and physically calling on the state government and authorities for his release. This was done by students and his comrades claiming that there were many government critics all over the media doing more than what Guyaba did, and no one cared to stop or question their activities.

To some, the arrest of Guyana is nothing but a show of lack of resistance to criticism on the part of His Excellency as against his being an experienced and standstill politician that has been going around the country presenting himself to be. Thus, whatever people may have or want to conclude in the future, yesterday, 24 May 2022, Aminu Harsanu Guyaba celebrated one of his best days in detention. This is a day that brought his family the joy of their lives. We would have celebrated his birthday in front of a designated cake round with flowers and balloons among his family members, friends and other compatriots of a feather.

Unfortunately, only God knows what a situation he is passing through wherever he is. Who knows if he can even remember what this day is to him as against the usual remainder by Media platforms, banks and loved ones? What a pity?

Emphatically, as we did days ago, we want to remind His Excellency that Aminu Harsanu Guyaba is his child who was there through thick and thin to see that his government was brought to power. Furthermore, he has played a vital role in campaigning and securing votes for him. Therefore, we believe that Guyaba deserves better treatment from His Excellency no matter the grievance. Hence, Aminu is not more than a child that Kauran Bauchi could order to kneel and discipline.

We believe our outcry will not be like that of a fowl because many people from afar have started laughing at our government and us.

Sani writes from Bauchi and can be reached at saniumaryakubu@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahya Bello, has given an automatic ticket to an aspirant living with a disability to contest on the ruling party’s platform.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, CPS, Onogwu Muhammad, disclosed this in a press statement on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

The aspirant, Adukwu Emmanuel, is to contest unopposed on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the position of Member in the Kogi State House of Assembly, sequel to the governor’s decision.

“Kogi State Governor, Yahya Bello has granted an automatic nod for House of Assembly aspirant, Mr Adukwu Emmanuel to contest unopposed on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, after putting to vote his decision,” the statement partly reads.

The CPS stressed that the governor has always openly shown support for persons living with disabilities.

“Governor Bello has always openly shown support for the persons with disabilities in his government, which has often reflected in his policies, plans, programmes, bills and appointments of such individual into his cabinet,” part of the statement reads.

According to the CPS, the aspirant is overwhelmed and lauded the governor for being a truly compassionate leader befitting to lead Nigeria.

By Hussaini Hussaini

There were gruesome murders of one pregnant Muslim woman, Harira and her four innocent kids, and six other innocent Northerners killed in Anambra State. There was also arson on goods and livestock worth millions of naira belonging to Northerners in the southeast. As per Daily Trust Newspaper reports of May 24, 2022, and other sources, all the crimes were carried out by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). However, there was a habitual dead silence of other media houses. One of the victims, a Northern Christian, was said to have been killed and disfigured by the terrorist for his “offence” of being a northerner and securing a job in the southeast.

We are in a country where God in His infinite Mercies sandwiched diverse tribes and religions to live with each other. This, some may call a colonial act of 1914 in which the regions of the geographical location that was to become Nigerian were amalgamated. I see it ordinarily as a divine opportunity for success.

This amalgamation would have served a positive purpose for Nigeria post-independence if the citizens had united themselves for genuine national (not regional or personal) interest, just as the Europeans united themselves in sharing Africa as a spoil of war on the table in the Berlin Conference.

Unfortunately, Nigeria has been so divided by strives with ethnic, religious, and political colouration since its independence. We witnessed the happenings that led us to January 15 and the counter-coup of the 1960s down to the civil war. Those sad events should have served as lessons for us to think about how to live with one another in peace since divisions and strives had severally proven to be futile in solving our respective problems.

However, turns of events have shown that the gap between us has kept widening. Even the people at the helm of affairs and presumed outstanding intellectuals such as the leadership of the legal profession are taking sides and showing extreme bias in addressing issues that can touch the roots of our unity as a country. A typical example is a press release of  May 17, 2022, by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president, Mr Olumide Akpata. He took time to condemn the happenings in Sokoto over the killing of Debora Samuel. She blasphemed and uttered abusive, vulgar words against the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

In the same statement, Mr Akpata passively mentioned some killings of innocent Nigerians, including a military couple killed in the south by the terrorist organization, IPOB. Mr President held the brief of IPOB terrorists by referring to them as “Unknown Gun Men” as the southern media hypocritically cloned them. However, the NBA President made it clear through his press release that the statement and the cancellation of the scheduled NBA-Spidel in Sokoto were in honour of Debora, not the late military couple who was in a sane environment supposed to be national heroes.

To Muslims, who form the majority inhabitants of northern Nigeria, their lives and that of their families and everything they own should go astray if that loss will prevent any slur on the honour of Prophets Muhammad and Jesus, Mary, or any other prophet of God almighty (may peace be upon them all). In order words, Debora would not have been attacked by any mob if she’s only accused of killing a Muslim in their private affairs in Sokoto, just as some Igbo kidnappers who killed a Muslim Colonel a few years ago in Kaduna; and the Christians who killed Gen. Alkali in Du village in Jos.

Blasphemy committed by Debora is one of the highest abuses and attacks on the Muslims, which was capable of putting the entire region in flames. Still, our Bar President found it very worthy to state that his statement and postponement of NBA-Spidel was in her honour without showing any concern about the root of the evil. Idolizing Deborah without equally condemning blasphemy in all its ramifications is abuse and over trivialization of the sensibilities of the Muslim community, most significantly, the members of our noble profession.

All the Muslim leaders who spoke on the Debora issue, such as the Sultan, Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir, and Prof. Mansur Sokoto, have condemned mob action as they equally condemned the intolerant and provocative act of blasphemy. This would have been a fairer pattern of address to be employed by our President as a leader. Four years ago, I wrote two published articles to condemn blasphemy and mob action.

Ebikebuna Augustine Aluzu Esq responded to Mr Akpata’s statement thus: “in honour” is she an NBA Member?”. He concluded: “…People get gruesomely murdered in Nigeria daily. If NBA wants to stand against jungle justice, it should not be selective”. The NBA President would have done better if he stayed within his mandate fairly. However, since Mr President has chosen to throw his hat in the ring, what goes around comes around, they say. Hence, we will patiently await the personal reaction of the NBA President on the recent killings of northerners in the southeast.

Hussaini Hussaini wrote from Abuja via hussaini4good@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

No fewer than 15 farmers were reportedly killed when bandits roamed Gakurdi village in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State Tuesday, March 24, 2022.

The incident took place amidst mourning after over 40 farmers were slaughtered by Boko Haram fighters in Borno State.

The Daily Reality reported how the farmers were being killed and some of the bodies were dismembered while some were tied up and their throats slit by the terrorists in Kala Balge local government area of the state.

Our reporters gathered that the victims of the Katsina attack were massacred as they were preparing their farms ahead of the rainy season.

According to the resident the bandits “came around 8:30 am today (Tuesday), using four motorcycles and started killing the people. Three were killed on the same farm and eventually it was discovered that up to 15 were killed on different farms.”