The danger of ‘otherization’
By Mukhtar Garba Maigamo
The trending video that surfaced after President Buhari attended the UNGA in New York, showing an unprovoked assault on some people that are considered “Hausa-Fulani” or “Northern Muslims” by their provocateurs on account of their facial countenance and, or the apparels in them, is a perfect example of the deep-rooted hatred, obsessions and insecurities bedevilling many people in some parts of this country which translated into this dismissive ‘othering’.
It is even very possible that these two or three people in the video who are being verbally assaulted with a barrage of racist abuses and the most opprobrious language, share no cultural or ethnolinguistic affinities with Fulani, but because of the fact the racialization of the Buhari/APC government has taken a firm root, the entire people of the North are lumped together as either Fulani or Hausa-Fulani (whatever that means) and demonized by many people in the South, including even the most educated ones. What a profoundly ignorant mischaracterization!
This sort of ignorance has historically also manifested in the ‘Aboki’ and ‘Gambari’ ethnic slurs these people used with profound contempt.
But the striking irony is that there are many people here in the North or even residents of Daura (hometown of Mr President) who might have felt disillusioned with the Buhari’s administration, who could also share cultural, ethnic and religious affiliations with him. Still, they are worst-off today, and there are those also who do not share these features with the president. Still, by their circumstances or by way of geography, they are lumped together and mischaracterized as Fulani or Hausa Fulani.
But the danger of this otherization and the racialization of APC is that it could provoke ethnic and religious sentiments during elections and make people rally around a maligned candidate- whether he is the right choice or not, in terms of capacity and ability to deliver.
When, because of your pathological hatred of a single person, his party or associations, you pigeonhole an entire stock of his ethnic nationality and derogate as dregs of the country, you are invoking his people’s consciousness to rise against you whether or not they love him.
This same thing happened during GEJ when some clannish zealots otherized the entire country, but south-south. Under GEJ watchful eyes, Edwin Clerk and his passengers went about with rhetorics and threatened fire and brimstone against anyone who raised eyebrows against their posturing.
His wife also went about demonizing the North as the habitat of almajiri (the almajiri that are menacing the North too, and whom many people in the North were campaigning against).
Her infamous diatribe, “our people no dey born shildren wey dem no dey count. Our men no dey born shildren throway for street. We no dey like the people from that side” was the final straw that galvanized the anger of people to rise and rally around ethnic solidarities to defeat GEJ.
The victory of APC in 2015 and 2019 was, therefore, a combination of many factors, including the idealization and evocation of sentiments for candidates put forward by the party.
And this will continue to play out if the antipathy like the one we’ve seen in this video continues.
Mukhtar Maigamo writes from Kaduna. He can be reached via mgmaigamo@gmail.com.
People feared dead after Shiites, security operatives clashes in Abuja
By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad
The Nigerian Police Force has reportedly arrested dozens of Shia Muslims followers at a religious procession of Arbaeen in Abuja on September 28, 2021.
The spokesperson of the group claimed that eight members were shot dead during the gathering.
However, Abuja police denied the claim of any casualty.
The police official said they intervened to stop members of the banned Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) from causing hardship to motorists along the Abuja-Kubwa expressway. He added that “57 people were arrested after IMN members attacked the police with petrol bombs and stones.”
“They were promptly intercepted by the security operatives and dispersed to prevent further disruption of public order,” the police statement said.
IMN spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said security forces shot and wounded protesters.
“We were almost rounding up the procession when the police and army came and started shooting,” he said.
The IMN, a pro-Iranian group, had a profession in 2019 that saw their leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky’s arrest when it clashed with Nigerian security forces.
The army killed 350 IMN Shia Muslims during a religious procession in northern Nigeria in December 2015. According to rights groups, many were gunned down and burned alive.
IMN leader el-Zakzaky and his wife, who has been in custody since 2015, were freed last month after a court acquitted them of murder charges involving the death of a soldier.
But the religious leader still faces terrorism and treasonable offences charges, according to prosecutors.
Muslims make up about half of Nigeria’s population of 200 million. However, the Shia Muslim minority have long complained of discrimination and repression.
Niger State: Government approves further reduction in university tuition fees
By Abubakar Ibrahim
A Statement issued by Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Ahmed Ibrahim Matane said the downward review of the tuition fees of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, only affects returning students and the state’s indigene from fifty thousand to forty-six thousand. For the new indigene students, it is ninety-five to eighty-six thousand.
Ahmed Matane revealed that the tuition fee for the new and returning non-indigene international students remain unchanged.
The SSG explained that Governor Sani Bello reduced the tuition fees after listening to representations from the State House of Assembly members, stakeholders, including the Students Union.
Police arrest health worker helping bandits
By Muhammad Sabiu
Men of the Nigeria Police Force have successfully apprehended a health worker who was alleged to have been providing medical assistance to bandits in the Danmusa Local Area of Katsina State.
The 34-year-old health worker, identified as Murtala Umar, owns a patent medicine shop in the LGA.
A report by the Daily Post newspaper has indicated that Murtala had been working for the bandits operating in that area, and they always came to him whenever they needed any medical attention.
SP Isah Gambo, the Katsina State Police Command spokesman, who paraded Murtala at their headquarters on Monday, said the suspect had confessed to offering assistance to bandits.
Confessing the allegations made against him, Murtala was quoted as saying, “I studied at the College of Health and Technology in Kankia, and I manage a chemist at Tashar Yar Alewa. The bandits, from time to time, come to my shop carrying guns to seek my help concerning the health of their members, and they pay me in return.
“I used to oblige them for fear of being attacked, but I am regretting my actions now.”
NBC releases approved radio, TV companies [Full list]
By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has released the list of 159 companies, communities and institutions of higher learning granted approval by the President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to operate radio and television stations in Nigeria.
See the list below:
Zungeru hydropower project is genuine, unlike Mambila — President Buhari’s aide
By Muhammad Abdulrahman
President Muhammad Buhari’s media aide, Bashir Ahmad, shared photos from the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Station on his Facebook page.
Ahmad added that “Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Station is a 700 megawatts (940,000 hp) hydroelectric power plant under construction. When completed, it will be the second-largest hydroelectric power station in the country, behind the 760 megawatts (1,020,000 hp) Kainji Hydroelectric Power Station.”
Several people, some of whom commented under the post, considered the gesture a mere “damage control”.
You may recall that a BBC Hausa report recently exposed that no work had been done at the site of a similar project at Mambila, Taraba State. This happened despite promises made by successive Nigerian governments in the last 40 years.
The Buhari-led government had especially made promises and talked much about the Mambila project. Bashir Ahmad, among other officials, shared similar pictures of the non-existent project.
However, in today’s post, Ahmad vowed to take people “to a virtual tour of the [Zungeru] project in the coming days”.
Governors’ forums do more harm than good in Nigeria
By Abubakar Ibrahim
Those looking for devolution of powers to make the states more powerful than the centre had forgotten about history.
The Soviet Union (USSSR) collapsed when it gave more powers to its states.
Nigeria government has given Governors’ clubs (governors forum; southern governors forum, northern Governors forum, etc.) leverage to the extent that they are now flaunting executive orders.
No governor obeyed the executive order to give monthly allocation directly to local government councils, legislature and judiciary in their respective states.
The antics of southern governors, especially of Rivers, Lagos and Ogun, will send Nigeria to its waterloo.
Governors forums have made them act as devils instead of angels. They have frustrated the inflow of funds to LGAs, state legislatures and judiciary. They have refused to pay the correct minimum wage.
Governors forums have done more harm than good. They are only good at wasting state resources in crisis, crossing the skies in charted flights attending their meetings at various locations. The worst scenario is they will leave their states at the mercy of nobody. Hence, this stagnates work until they are back.
It is time for these unproductive governors forums to be abolished. We like to see state governors behaving like former governors with integrity, people like late Governor Jakande, who had never travelled outside Nigeria and never run away from his state responsibilities throughout his tenure.
Governors like Audu Bako, through under a military regime, would only travel out to bring back goodies for the ordinary person, such as “irrigation schemes” that Kano people are still benefiting from after all these long years. It is a legacy he left behind.
Nigerians should come back from supporting politicians who are only good at building themselves and championing the course of disintegration.
Abubakar Ibrahim can be contacted via ai869802@gmail.com.
ABU Distance Learning Center scored best in Nigeria
By Ibrahiym A. El-Caleel
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has scored Ahmadu Bello University Distance Learning Center as the best in Nigeria.
NUC conducted a Quality Assurance Assessment Visit to Nigerian university distance learning centres. Eight among the centres were rated “Very Viable” with a percentage score of at least 80%, as follows:
Ahmadu Bello University Distance Learning Center- 94.9%
University of Lagos Distance Learning Institute- 93.1%
University of Ibadan Distance Learning Center- 93.0%
Joseph Ayo Babalola University Center for Distance Learning- 92.7%
Lagos State University Open and Distance Learning and Research Institute- 89%
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Open and Distance Learning Center- 88.7%
University of Nigeria Nsukka Center for Distance and e-Learning- 85%
Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola Center for Distance Learning- 83.5%
University of Maiduguri and Obafemi Awolowo University were both rated “Viable”, scoring 78.1% and 75.3%, respectively.
University of Abuja Center for Distance Learning and Continuing Education was rated “Not Viable”, with a score of 50.3%.
There are only 12 approved distance learning centres across the country, as obtained by The Daily Reality from the NUC website. The 12th accredited program is the Federal University of Technology Minna Center for Open Distance and e-Learning.
Nigerian universities established distance learning centres to obtain degrees from NUC-approved universities without a physical presence on campus. Due to flexibility, the programmes are gaining more acceptability over the years by students who might be inconvenient to be in physical contact with the schools.
CBN/Aboki FX Saga: Currency Play and Lessons from Billions TV Show
By Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim
While explaining the reason behind the Central Bank of Nigeria’s clampdown on the parallel market exchange rate aggregation and publication website, AbokiFx, the CBN Governor submitted that the CBN’s preliminary findings suggested that AbokiFX was used for foreign exchange “manipulation and speculation”.
“They get Naira notes, use it to purchase dollars, take a position, change the rate over a given period, sell the dollars they purchase and make a profit. This is completely illegal and unacceptable and we will pursue them”, he said.
This remark sparked rage in the minds of many Nigerians, most of whom are oblivious of the technicalities of foreign exchange market operations. They outrightly dismissed the move by the CBN on AbokiFX as a mere attempt to shift the blame on the consistent crash of the Naira against the Dollar to AbokiFX. They considered it somewhat impossible that AbokiFX’s operations could have any impact on the exchange rates.
But currency play or currency manipulation is real, and even while it might indeed be an attempt by CBN to shift blame, the possibility of currency manipulation cannot be discounted. And to understand how it works, one needs to be conversant with some basic FOREX trading operations; the “long” and “short” positions.
A “long” position in FOREX trading signifies buying a particular currency at a certain rate by selling another currency while expecting the bought currency to appreciate against the sold currency. Let’s take NGN and USD for example, going long on this currency pair means buying Naira at a lower rate(by selling US Dollars) and selling it at a higher rate as it appreciates to buy back the Dollar sold initially. For example, one goes long if he buys NGN at the rate of let’s say N100(by selling $1) and sells the Naira as it appreciates perhaps to N50(for $1) to buy back $2 now instead of $1 thereby making a $1 profit. Meaning he bought N100 by selling $1 and now 1$ is N50, so N100 will now be worth $2 since N50 represents $1 now.
A “short” or “short-sell” position signifies borrowing a particular currency at a certain rate to sell and acquire another currency while expecting the borrowed currency to depreciate against the acquired currency so that you can buy it back at a lower rate. Let’s use the same example of NGN and USD, a short-sell would mean borrowing let’s say N50 and selling it to acquire $1, then wait until the Naira depreciates to N100 per $1, then sell your $1 dollar to buy back N100 now instead of the N50 it was before thereby realizing a profit of N50. Meaning one borrowed N50, sold it for $1, then waited until $1 equals N100, then sells his $1 which now represents N100.
Now, recall the CBN Governor’s statement of suspicion about how AbokiFX is being used for currency manipulation and compare it with the explanation of the “short-sell” above, you’d definitely find a correlation. But how does the manipulation happen?
I was able to find an answer to this question while watching “Billions” which is a TV show about the financial markets and their many intrigues. An episode titled “Currency”, which is the 5th episode in season 2 of the TV show was majorly about how Nigeria’s currency could be manipulated.
In the episode, a certain financial markets trader claimed that Nigeria’s CBN Governor told him that the Naira was going to be devalued due to the increasing weakness of the country’s oil industry and overvaluation of the country’s currency. However, the timing was ambiguous as nobody knew when the devaluation would happen.
However, he suggested that there was a way the timing could be determined and controlled, and that is if somebody takes a massive “Short” position against the Naira so as to pressurize the CBN to devalue immediately. The “short” he said would have to be massive. He was unveiling this to a hedge fund manager.
The hedge fund manager saw it as an opportunity to prop up his profits but knows clearly that a “short” position from only him would not do the work. So he sought the advice of a renowned banker and economist and he was counselled to assemble some other hedge fund managers(his competitors), pitch the idea to them so that they could work together to achieve a massive “short” against the Naira. And this he did.
He assembled them and offered them the glad tidings. Some of them raised concerns regarding the risks attached to this form of “currency play” because one has to enter the position at the right time for one can go too late and find nothing or enter too early and get wiped out due to increased interest rates. He convinced them that they could control the timing by taking monster “short” positions against the Naira. They all bought the idea and collectively agreed to “short” the Naira with a $5 Billion worth “short” position. And so they did.
Unfortunately, one of them had personal grievances with the hedge fund manager that brought the idea and he saw this as an opportunity to get back at him. So he leaked the information and CBN was alerted and they started raising interest rates which could bleed the hedge fund managers who took this massive “short” out of their trade positions.
Only one option remained for them to prevent losing their positions, and that was to get a renowned economist and banker to talk in a renowned international business television station about the Nigerian situation and conclude that the only option left for the country was devaluing their currency. So he reverted back to the economist that initially advised him about the situation and they finished the work together by granting an interview to a renowned international business television station concluding that Nigeria’s only remaining option was devaluing their currency. And so it happened and they profited massively from their “short” positions.
Even though this American TV Show is a work of fiction, it describes clearly and perfectly how a country’s currency can be manipulated by speculators hoping to benefit from the manipulation. And this is exactly what AbokiFX might have been doing with their platform as the value of a currency to a large extent is determined by people’s perception of and confidence in the currency. Hence, the CBN Governor’s alarm and subsequent measure. This is only but a possibility though, as the CBN has not yet offered substantial evidence to back this, the measure is still a product of “preliminary findings”.
Another possibility, however, is as described by the first-generation model of currency crisis as presented by Paul Krugman (and adapted from Stephen Salant and Dale Henderson’s model of speculative attacks in the gold market). Krugman explains that fixed exchange rate regimes are usually prone to attack by speculators especially when stakeholders perceive that the fixed regime is coming to an end due to certain fiscal and monetary signals.
And to tackle this, I must end by concurring with Tope Fasua’s suggestion as presented in his article titled “As Nigerians joyfully gather to kill the naira”. He said, “The CBN must be very nuanced and professional in its pronouncements around the naira. Ignore the black market. Face your market. Know that there are speculators reading your lips and gauging your resolve. Most financial market players are shorting the naira already, constantly on the lookout for dollars. Shock them without saying a word. Be unpredictable. Ensure your information does not leak to the market until you take action. Subtly put out the word through proxies sometimes, but act independently. Check your ranks. It is filled with non-believers in the Naira or even in the Nigerian project. What is going on presently is a speculative attack on the naira, through the black market.”
Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim is a political and public affairs analyst, he writes from Zaria and can be reached through haleemabdul1999@gmail.com.
30 killed in fresh attack on Kaduna village
By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq
At least 30 persons have been killed by unidentified gunmen in Madamai attack in Kaura Local Government Area, Kaduna State. The incident was confirmed by the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan.
According to Aruwan, “some houses were set ablaze by the attackers at one end of the village. The troops put out the fire at three of the burning houses, and rescued six locals from the infernos”
He further states that “Governor El-Rufai has stated that the Kaduna State Government will bear the full cost of injured victims’ treatment”