Nigeria

By Lawi Auwal Yusuf

Drug addiction suffers a death blow occasioned by the outstanding performance put up by the Youth Against Drug Abuse Foundation (YADAF). It is sure that this name now rings a bell in the Nigerian anti-drug crusade by breaking new ground and marking a turning point without historical precedent. Moreover, it has distinguished itself as the leading figure among its peer NGOs.

This voluntary organization was first set up in Lagos in 2017 and in Kano in 2019. It is propelled by its leading force Hajiya Fatima Bature Jikan-Danuwa, its founder and CEO. This great heroine dedicated her life, wealth and everything in her arsenal to realize her dearest wish of extirpating drug abuse. This real gem has an old hand in this national service and carried off multiple awards coupled with eulogies from different quarters.

YADAF is always motivated by its firm conviction that our youth means everything to us. They are the firmament upon which the development of society rest and its future custodians. This makes the team have a penchant for empowering the young to become enterprising, industrious and productive. They derive pleasure from this community service and are always in high spirits to improve the youngsters’ lives. They are so ecstatic to see them living a good everyday life.

It depresses us to see our lads doing drugs, which consequently deals a blow to our society. We are dead scared to see them engaged in this outrageous behaviour which is so detrimental to their health, badly denting their future and lest becoming a nonentity. In 2021, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) reported that 40% of Nigerian youths between 18-35 were heavy drug users. This is an awful statistic.

Thus, YADAF felt duty-bound to swing into action and band together with the relevant stakeholders to face the problem squarely. It fights tooth and nail to contain this social upheaval. The problem’s exacerbation never dampens its enthusiasm, nor does the challenges dash its hopes. On the contrary, it remains impulsively committed to its cause. Indeed, its devotion to this job is commendable.

The management presents mass awareness campaigns through TV and radio programmes, public lectures, dissemination of helpful information across different social media platforms, leaflets etc., aimed to dissuade adolescents from engaging in this criminogenic behaviour or ditching it entirely. Furthermore, they expose the evils of this act and extol the virtues of abstaining from it altogether.

Lack of sound education and professional training is a leading cause of this devilish act. Although skills are increasingly becoming more valuable in the labour market, their absence necessitates the young to either remain redundant or wander the street to make ends meet.

This explains why YADAF introduced its Back To School Programme to sponsor drug-addicted juveniles, dropouts and the rehabilitated back to school. Under the scheme, hundreds of such teenagers, including those considered vulnerable to drug abuse, have been registered in both primary and secondary schools. For instance, 347 children benefited from this programme last week, while preparations are underway for the next set.

Furthermore, providing full employment with prospects helps the young develop a worthy stake in the social order. Also, it makes them preoccupied with a legitimate way of earning a decent living, hopeful of a secured future. This motivates them to work harder, become righteous and avoid anything distracting the realization of their dreams.

This speaks to the establishment of the YADAF Skills Acquisition Center to make youths dexterous artisans become self-reliant. It is a costly mistake to leave the young to their own devices or keep them at a distance. Therefore, this centre is furnished with state–of–the–art facilities to help them learn useful skills to realize their potential.

Moreover, we encourage the young to participate in sports activities which enhance community cohesion and a sense of belonging. We promote a sports culture that keeps them away from doing drugs and leads to fitness. The effectiveness of sports is so absolute in promoting peace, unity and curbing crime.

Our strategic approach is to improve the sporting career, enticing more demand for sports industry athletes. This will facilitate the development of our local players to become competitive champions globally.

As the evils of drug abuse are obvious, all hope is not lost for our most resilient youths. On the contrary, the coming of YADAF makes us feel so good that we are on the right track to securing their long-lost potential.

Lawi Auwal Yusuf Maikanawa is a fellow of YADAF, Kano State Chapter.

By Lawal Dahiru Mamman 

Noma, otherwise known as necrotising ulcerative stomatitis, gangrenous stomatitis, or cancrum oris, is a bacterial infectious but non-contagious infection; resulting from poor oral hygiene, lack of sanitation and malnutrition, affecting both soft and hard tissues of the mouth and face, rapidly progressive and more often than not fatal.

The most common sign and symptom is the development of an ulcer in the mucous membrane of the mouth before spreading to other parts of the face. If detected early, the condition can be arrested with antibiotics, proper nutrition and oral hygiene, while late diagnosis does not restore disfigured or damaged tissues even if treated.

Affecting children between 2 to 6 years of age, the disease is prevalent in impoverished communities in Asia and Africa. However, infection was also found decades ago in Europe and South America. This infection has since vanished with improved livelihood and healthcare.

Preventable but deadly, all over the world, Noma has been given the cold shoulder (neglected) over the years. The absence of current epidemiological data has made the data of the World Health Organisation (WHO) from 1998 the most frequently cited estimation of the disease, with a global estimate of 140,000 new cases recorded annually, with a majority in Sub-Saharan Africa and a mortality rate of 90% if not treated within two weeks.

The infection has not spared the children in Nigeria, falling under the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, killing numbers and leaving survivors disfigured, coupled with the reality of leaving the rest of their lives under stigmatisation.

This informed the decision of the Federal Ministry of Health to call on the WHO at the 75th World Health Assembly to include Noma on the list of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) where it belongs.

The call was aimed at rallying global support to eliminate and start preventive and curative measures against the preventable but deadly disease.

Established in the year 1999, the Noma Children’s Hospital, Sokoto, up until May 2022, when Noma Aid Nigeria Initiative (NANI) began construction of a new 100-bed National Noma Treatment Centre within the National Hospital, Abuja, has been the only specialist hospital shouldering the burden of the debilitating disease in the country.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital in Sokoto said, “what is lamentable is that the disease is curable and even preventable, but lack of awareness has made a good number of patients die at home without visiting the hospital, exacerbating knowledge gap.”

To create awareness on predisposing factors like malnutrition, vitamin (A and B) deficiency, contaminated drinking water, immunodeficiency and living in proximity to livestock, November 20th have been set aside as Annual Noma Day.

Before resting my case, let me advocate that the awareness campaign held annually on NOMA DAY be taken to people in rural areas. These people are most vulnerable and unaware. Therefore, it will be better than having the symposia in town or city halls where the inhabitants are most likely informed. Moreover, more specialists should be trained on the infection to establish more specialist hospitals in at least each geopolitical zones of the country to unburden that in Sokoto and the upcoming one in the Federal Capital Territory.

Furthermore, people should be encouraged to embrace oral hygiene and proper nutrition like a religious ritual. In suspected cases, patients should be taken to the hospital for appropriate treatment to prevent disfigurement. Routine vaccination for children ought to be taken as a priority of every parent, and individuals with any information on Noma are encouraged to carry out a personal campaign in their locality amongst family and friends because the little things we do can make a difference.

Lastly, I urge all to avoid stigmatisation of survivors because they were but victims of circumstance.

Lawal Dahiru Mamman, a corp member, writes from Abuja and can be reached via dahirulawal90@gmail.com.

The Nigeria court of appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resume classes and call off the strike immediately.

The court issues the order today Friday, and the appellate court said ASUU should obey the order of an industrial court which directed the suspension of the strike before seeking to appeal the judgment.

Details later.

By Musa Abdullahi Kaga

As an employee, salary is one of the most, if not the most, important factors in applying for or staying in a job. It is, however, a known phenomenon that salaries, no matter how handsome, hardly cater to one’s wants and needs. Hence, the regular quest for the insatiable: salary review.

Salary review is often misunderstood or confused with annual assessment or appraisal. Salary review is mostly deeper than annual or biannual appraisals. It is a comprehensive analysis/evaluation of whether a specific pay package is a fair reflection of what an employee should earn in line with factors such as external market forces, experience, career progression, company culture, job performance, etc.

Reviews are an essential HR and management strategy/tool for attracting and retaining good hands in a company.

Several factors may necessitate reviews, ranging from competitors’ pay trends, employee opportunities, or employers’ fear of losing employees for whom they invested so much.

It is only fair that as your employee’s career progresses, so do their emoluments. This should, of course, depend on milestones, achievements, performances, etc. Should there be a positive progression, the salary should grow accordingly. Unfortunately, this is not obtainable in our clime, especially in the public sector.

According to data from ALLSTARTSIT – a tech company specializing in software development services and talent acquisition in CEE regions – there has been a massive median salary increase of 106% for software developers in the CEE regions over the last decade. For example, a system architect that earned $3000 a month in 2012 makes about $6200 in 2022. That is massive, even for an IT specialist.

Graph showing ten years salary trend of software developers

In Nigeria, however, the last time the federal government conducted an upward review of workers’ salaries was in 2009 – 13 years ago – with an increase of about 53%. The dwindling economic situation in the country has rendered the purchasing power of workers feeble. Different civil, trade and labour unions have tabled several demands to the government over the years on the review of salaries and other welfare packages; unfortunately, this is yet to achieve any positive outcome.

Recently, the Nigerian Labor Congress, through its President, Comrade Ayuba Waba, lamented the sorry state of Nigerian civil servants and reiterated their demands to the government.

According to Waba, economic challenges had eroded the purchasing power of ordinary workers so much that the minimum wage could no longer take a worker home and could barely serve as transport fare.

Speaking to NAN earlier this year, he said; “We want to make a formal demand on behalf of the Joint Service Negotiation Council for the review of wages in the entire public sector because it is due,’’

Looking inwards, it recently dawned on me the economic hardships endured by civil servants and other citizens; this is due to the rising cost of essential items and, of course, the occasion of the Eid celebrations. A friend who is an employee of a non-governmental organization has a compensation significantly higher than what his colleagues in the public sector receive, yet, he had to dig deep into his savings to afford a ram. It is nearly a miracle that he has the luxury of savings; public sector employees could only admire his status, even though he is still among the ‘masses.’

It is, therefore, a no-brainer for civil servants to work towards achieving an alternative source of income, especially in this digital era.

Unsurprisingly, it is not uncommon to see civil servants perpetually discussing issues like salary reviews and ‘welfarism’ in Nigeria. Even though successive governments in the past have not done enough to ensure a proper salary structure and compensation system among civil servants in various tiers of government, this is primarily because of the insatiable nature of salary.

The craving for more is intrinsically part of human nature, although some experts argue that insatiable desire is unhealthy (greed). Nonetheless, the motivation to work harder and earn a decent salary is our typical trait.

Musa Abdullahi Kaga sent this article via musaakaga@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A yet-to-be-identified lady has beaten a child believed to be her maid’s to death in Anambra State.

In a video that went viral on social media on Thursday, the lady confessed to the murder of the deceased, whose identity has not yet been disclosed. 

Information at our disposal reveals that the deceased was brutally assaulted and died before she could get medical attention. 

 “I beat her, and she started convulsing, so I took her to Kings (hospital). Getting there, she died, so I threw her body here.” The suspect said in Igbo

After her arrest by the Anambra Command of the National Agency for Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, she led security personnel to the bush, where she dumped the body of the deceased.

The body was reported to be decomposing at the time of writing this report.

By Muhammad Abubakar

The news of the severe flooding in Jigawa State is depressing and alarming. I initially thought the report had reached every nook and cranny of the country. But the reverse is, unfortunately, the case. I was amazed to realize that the news has not gone very far in the country. Worse still, it is said that the state governor himself is currently out of the state.

I recently checked a couple of our local media sites to know more about the ongoing flooding, only to find out that; most of the news updates there have nothing to do with this deplorable disaster currently ravaging the state. It’s heartbreaking how many on-and off-line news outlets pay only lukewarm attention to this issue, although it should be discussed more than any other.

Jigawa State has never experienced such an alluvial disaster in its history. Many houses and villages collapsed; properties submerged; roads, bridges and farmlands were washed away, and crops ruined. Some have become orphans all due to this flooding!

The situation has reached the extent that the people of the affected areas can no longer move into their towns or travel out of the villages because their roads are not motorable. Also, thousands of people in the affected communities have been displaced. Canoes capsized. Lives were lost. Almost anywhere in the state has been negatively affected.

The most affected areas include Gumel, Mallam Madori, Auyo, Kaugama and Kafin Hausa local government areas. The flood has not only stopped here, but it also touched almost every part of the state. But yet, no tangible action has been taken on that by the government.

The federal government should therefore join hands with the state government to do the needful; deliver food, clothes, drugs and other useful items to the victims. May God, the omnipotent and omnipresent, end all the hardships we are going through in this country and the world.

Muhammad Abubakar wrote from Jos, Plateau State, via muhammadabubakar01002@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Nuhu

While congratulating the families of train victims for the safe return of their relatives, something very sad came to mind about the whole tragedy.

1- The ultimate winners are the terrorists. They achieved all their objectives without retribution. They have all their inmates released, collected hefty amounts of money in billions of Naira and foreign currencies and went away without losing a soul. Meanwhile they inflicted damages on Nigeria. They killed passengers, destroyed a train and stopped it from operation for seven months and instilled fear in the minds of Nigerians.

2- The biggest tragedy is that all the captives were released through payment of ransoms which impoverished family economies, some might never recover. The last victims were released by military committee which means more money were paid and the military might have also cornered part of the ransom money. In the whole saga there was no shooting, no arrest, not even declaring some people wanted. What kind of country do we have for God’s sake? Time will tell the kind of arrangement reached for the release of the victims.

3- We just have a paper military. What is there in a military that cannot use force on terrorists. There is nothing impressive about military that abandoned its trade and go to terrorists and pay ransoms. It is really a shame on NIGERIAN government.

4- As long as people benefit from train attacks and kidnapping there will be no end to this kind of tragedy. The terrorists have made a good, safe and profitable venture and have probably gone to plan another attack. Security agencies that benefit from it will be too willing to be part of the next attack. The Mamus that made billions from ransom negotiation will be waiting to make ransom harvest. A kidnapping Industry has been created by government’s inability to deal ruthlessly with criminals.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, consoles with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying their genuine requests had met with deaf ears in Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar stated this in a statement he issued and signed on Wednesday in celebration of the United Nations’ World Teacher’s Day.

Abubakar’s impassioned statement decried about the incessant strike which has been eight months now since lecturers shut down public universities to press their demands home.

He stated, “I wish to observe this all-important day by identifying with Nigerian teachers. I wish to identify with them in their moment of grief occasioned by poor working conditions over the years.

“Specifically, I use this medium to console Nigerian university lecturers whose genuine requests have met with deaf ears, and who have now stayed for over seven months without salary.

“Teachers are the backbone of a nation. They are the bedrock on which national development rests. Indeed, many educators have opined that, no nation can rise higher than the quality of its education system, and no education system can rise higher than the quality of its teachers.

“This means that no nation can make any meaningful progress in any sector without having well-trained, experienced, happy and well-remunerated teachers. A situation where some states are owing teachers’ salaries of up to five months, or even more, is unacceptable,” he stated.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.

The major newspapers published the speech delivered by the president at the “Fourth National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector” on the 4th of October 2022. In the speech, the president said, “corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector, and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.” The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is the union on strike, so the newspapers reported it with headlines that “Buhari accuses ASUU of corruption”.

The president definitely does not have a thorough understanding of the issues that led to the strike else he won’t call the struggle for the proper funding of the universities, better conditions of service for lecturers, the release of the white paper on the visitation panel reports, among other important demands as “flimsy reasons”. It is sad and most unpardonable that the president has got no proper information on the structure and workings of the university. Otherwise, he would have queried that ridiculous and false statement when the speechwriter presented the speech to him for presentation. So unbelievable that our president is not aware that ASUU is not the same as the university management.

To correct this unfortunate misinformation from the president, in the university, there are heads of departments who are academics who receive N50,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. We have the Deans and Directors who are also academics which is the next level of leadership in the university. The Directorates receive N60,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. Is the misappropriation of these N20,000 per month, which comes irregularly that is corruption by ASUU members?

Then, we have the principal officers, which include the Vice-Chancellor (an academic), the Registrar (a non-academic), and the Bursar (a non-academic). There is also the Council chaired by an appointee of the government. You can’t appoint politicians looking for jobs as University Council chairs and blame ASUU for corruption. ASUU is just a union and does not manage the affairs of the university. Then, there is the Presidential visitation panel that is meant to visit the university every 5 years to check the management of the resources of the university.

It’s true that the management of the university could be corrupt. There is no doubt about it. But since the administration of President Buhari took over in 2015, the “corruption fighting” president seems to have found accommodation with corruption in the university that it failed to send a visitation panel to any federal university. ASUU was worried about that, and part of the demands of the 2020 ASUU strike was the constitution of the visitation panel to all federal universities. Paradoxically, it took the strike by the union of supposed “corrupt lecturers” for the anti-corruption FG to send visitation panels to the federal universities in 2021 to check “corruption”.

However, a year after the panels submitted their reports, the same FG that is accusing ASUU of corruption has refused to release the White Paper on the panels’ reports for implementation. Part of the demands of this strike is for FG to release the White Papers. The “corrupt ASUU” is pushing the anti-corrupt government to fight corruption in the university. Isn’t that amazing? It goes without saying by its inaction, indifference, and condemnable refusal to set up visitation panels and release the White Papers after ASUU forced it to set up visitation panels to all federal universities, the FG under President Buhari is aiding corruption in our universities.

Meanwhile, you can’t be complaining of corruption but rewarding alleged corrupt people. The former VC of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, that was accused of academic fraud, financial embezzlement, and administrative impunity by the ASUU branch of the university, made the list of the people to be awarded a national honour by the president. Same with the former Council Chairman of the Lagos State University, who, with the VC, deployed the pension of Staff for the purchase of luxurious cars.

Does it make sense to accuse the university managers of corruption and then nominate university managers that were accused of corruption for national honours without taking steps to investigate these allegations? That’s a joke. By the way, what is the correlation between the poverty wages of Nigerian academics with corruption in the universities? Does that explain why Nigerian lecturers are one of the poorest paid in the world?

The president further said that he task our academics to attract endowments, research, and other grants to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education similar to what obtains in other countries. It has been rightly said that “if wishes are horses, beggars too will ride”. It does not take rocket science to know how those universities referenced achieved that. An endowment is not attracted by academics but by the university council and management. President Buhari should stop his trademark and uninspiring blame game and should be talking to the people he appointed as Council chairmen for our public universities.

The truth is, research grants are not attractive using an empty room as a lab. No international donor will fund empty space. Only the existence of avalanches and modern facilities are used to attract grants. When I got a PhD grant in 2008, I took the grant to a university in the UK because they have the required facilities for the research. For the 3 years, the UK university got thousands of pounds through me. That’s a return on investment. What have we put in place to attract such? That’s what we should be worried about. That’s why ASUU is asking for the required funds to be injected into the system to make our universities attractive for grants, as it’s obtained in other countries.

Despite the horrible condition of service of academics in the country, Nigerian academics are winning research grants. An Associate professor at Bayero University Kano recently received a research grant of £969,680 from Wellcome. A senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria recently won a research grant of about 48,000 USD from Geophysics Without Borders. Other researchers from the Federal University Dutse won a grant of $59,930 from The World Academy of Science (TWAS) and €220,801 from the African Academy of Science on renewable energy. These are just a few of the grants won by academics within the strike period.

The president’s speech was focused on ASUU, and the speechwriter chose his words with the utmost malice and mischief. There are sex scandals in every sector of the country. The rehash and blackmail of sex stories in the universities have become much like an expired drug with no potency. The stories of sex for jobs and contracts and sorting jobs and contracts in Abuja are in public space. Every sector has got the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, academia can’t be immune to the ills in our society.

But then, universities are still much better. They have rules and regulations that guide their operations, and they are enforced. Several lecturers have lost their jobs due to sex scandals or other similar offences. But we have a minister in this government that was accused of sexual harassment in 2020. If a student is a victim of such an act on campus and he or she refuses to report for appropriate actions to be taken, then you can’t blame ASUU for it.

Our Union frowns on sexual harassment in all its ramifications in our universities and is up in arms combating this evil. Hence, this speech which is similar to the words of their filthy-mouthed attack dog and other government agents at the presidency at this time, is an indication that it is either the people around the president are not telling him the truth about the strike or the depth of the poverty of sincerity is underestimated.

It is equally indicative that the administration has run out of ideas and initiatives to resolve a simple issue like the ongoing strike action. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, in an effort to bring an end to the 7-month-old crisis, has met with the president. Let’s hope that those agents of destruction around the president will allow him to think.

What baffled me is the fact that the Visitor to the university is publicly lamenting when he has not taken any action for 7 years to address all his allegations against the University. You are the president, sir. Please use your executive powers to solve problems, not passing bucks. Dear sir, you lament everything from the economy to insecurity to education, but lamentations won’t solve our problems. You need to be proactive, sir. You are the president; time is almost running out. Better late than never.

Finally, despite the way that academics in Nigerian public universities are handled, our research outputs are visible in the global research database. If political office holders should make one-tenth of the efforts and sacrifices made by academics in our public universities, they will be celebrated as heroes in office.

Professor Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

By Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani 

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has set 28th September 2022 as the date of the kick-off of the campaign for Presidential and National Assembly elections, while that of Governorship and State Assembly is on 12th October 2022.  

You may be confused about one thing or two, especially when I said the political campaign’s dos and don’ts. Some people may not have understood it. This is highly likely. But, of course, there are limits, and there is a red line that shouldn’t be crossed. There are things that politicians shouldn’t do in the name of electioneering. 

Now that you know, there are things politicians should not do to sell their candidature to the electorate. You will like to know what those things are. Relax. In the course of this piece, I will attempt to treat it. As Nigerians, we are fully aware of what an average political campaign season looks like. It goes with so many things that some of us might have thought are normal everywhere. But it isn’t. Once again, what are they? Political thuggery, mudslinging, killings, hate speech, etc.

While electioneering isn’t a tea party, it doesn’t have to be as nasty as it is in this part of the world. It takes all of us to reduce the toxic messages: from our places of worship, markets, schools, offices, parks, halls, farms, etc. This is everyone’s business. We must be involved. We have to work collectively to help our dear states and the nation.  We can only build this country under this dispensation by encouraging democratic conventions and not unacceptable practices to win or rig the election. 

Rig the election? I think this horrible phenomenon continues to rear its ugly head because many of our institutions are so weak, especially the critical ones that can put a stop to it. Unfortunately, in so many instances, they abet it, leading to many terrible results over the years. 

You will be increasingly sought-after during the electoral campaign to hatch out different plans. This is the time when there will be a multitude of recruitment. No, not in the civil service. But the thriving political industries need the strength and pep of youth to propel them. It is saddening to note that many youths will be required not on the dignified and visionary side but at the disdainable and thuggish position, where their youthful energy will be wrongly channelled to the despicable social oddity of thuggery. This trend has led to the horrible end of countless youth over the years. 

It is discernible that politics is much maligned and detested owing to the celebration of thuggery, cultism, and immorality in many quarters. All these have discouraged many  Nigerians from joining politics or exercising their franchise without necessarily being card-carrying party members. This has, over the years, aided in robbing Nigeria of some of its best brains in politics, a large swathe of its patriotic citizens, and a considerable number of Nigerians who believe in this country. My compatriots, we must change the narrative. We have to stand up and fight against any negative energy that permeates the polity: for the sake of our country. 

Am I advocating against joining politics? Definitely, no. But join politics as a decent, respectable, and patriotic participator, no matter how ‘insignificant’ your position is. In this way, your wit and vigour will be put into effect. Draw a line once your only place is a thug or any role that diminishes you or any other person. 

Value yourself and do only what is legal and aids your personal growth and collective development of society. Do not allow yourself to be used as a tool to destroy your future for a meal ticket. Be wise. You are as good as anyone else when you work hard sufficiently. 

The campaign season has been known to be a tense moment worldwide. This is not peculiar to Taraba or even Nigeria. However, political campaigns are usually anxious for the right reasons in saner climes, with each candidate coming up with competing ideas and plans forming the fulcrum of their manifesto. Therefore, it is anticipated that heated discussion will be a standard feature. But in most instances, the issues take centre stage. Therefore, there will be no need to recruit an array of youth to be engaged in thuggery to win elections. 

Over the years, we have seen how the tone of the candidates’ political campaigns has played a significant role in the level of violence witnessed before or after elections. Therefore, we must be deliberate in deciding our fate by categorically saying no to election violence, whether as candidates or electorate.  

We need to suffocate the polity from getting the stimulus of violence from the youth that has kept it going. We are sure of sanitizing the system. As more people are interested in politics, much more good and patriotic Nigerians will line up. It is a win-win situation for Nigeria. This will give us a better opportunity to choose good leaders to build the Nigeria of our dreams. 

Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani wrote from Turaki B, Jalingo, Taraba State. He can be reached via abdulrazaksansani93@gmail.com.