Nigeria

By Salim Sani Haladu

The medical industry held the most lucrative career prospects in the past, and parents encouraged their children to study medical-related courses. During those days, parents were willing to invest any amount to see their children as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Some even compelled their children to study these courses. Consequently, these children achieved remarkable success in these fields.

However, the landscape of lucrative careers has shifted in contemporary times. Technology-related careers have emerged as the new leaders in terms of profitability and job opportunities. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “the projected employment growth for computer and information technology occupations from 2021 to 2031 is 15 per cent, significantly above the average for all occupations”. This shift is becoming evident even to a layperson.

This change has led many parents to guide their children toward technology careers. Nevertheless, there exists an uneven distribution of this awareness within Nigeria. While parents in southern regions have readily embraced this change, their counterparts in the northern areas lag in grasping its significance. As a result, the northern part finds itself taking a backseat in technology careers.

In 2000, the former governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki, established one of the first ICT institutes in Northern Nigeria—the Jigawa State Institute of Information and Technology, located in Kazaure. Strikingly, several students who enrolled in the institute did so solely to acquire a free laptop. They then sold the computer to fund their journey to Lagos, where they eventually engaged in dead-end handwork.

Furthermore, a project manager’s experience at the NITDA Blockchain meeting in Kano State last year highlighted the technological apathy, stating, “It is evident how far behind Northerners are in the world of technology.” Even in technology projects directly related to the Hausa Language, the predominant ethnic group in the northern region, participation was surprisingly minimal. I was astonished that only two of us from the North joined a Hausa transcription project I recently participated in.

Moreover, looking at the UTME cut-off marks for most northern universities reveals that tech-related courses like Information Technology and Cybersecurity have low cut-off marks, reflecting the limited number of applicants. Numerous examples abound, illustrating how Northerners are trailing behind in technology careers. The prevailing aspiration revolves around courses that promise a meagre N150,000 salary job.

A primary reason behind this negligence is that Northerners view technology careers as unconventional, failing to perceive them as real jobs. Mainly, if someone is working from home, it is often seen as a sign of aimlessness or lack of purpose. Unfortunately, some Northerners still hold the negative stereotype that individuals working in the technology industry are merely scammers.

Another reason is many people’s preference for security. Consequently, many opt to stay within their comfort zones rather than take risks to pursue greater opportunities. Most technology careers offer wages instead of salaries, which aligns with the Northern preference for security. It’s disheartening to learn that some people are even selling their farms to secure low-paying jobs, a profoundly unfortunate decision.

I recommended an IT course to a young man inquiring about a lucrative career. He expressed concerns about finding a job immediately after graduation. I suggested he consider creating jobs instead of continuously seeking employment.

With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), there’s a legitimate concern that the careers Northerners heavily invest in might eventually become automated. For instance, professions involving routine tasks and predictable outcomes, such as data entry, assembly line work, and customer service, are particularly susceptible to automation. As AI technologies advance, they can handle these repetitive tasks more efficiently and accurately, potentially displacing human workers. It would be disheartening for someone to invest significantly in a career only to discover that their desired job has already been automated.

Prominent figures like the late Sheik Muhammad Auwal Adam Albani and Dr. Isa Aliyu Pantami are examples from the North who have embraced technology and achieved remarkable success. They’ve made indelible marks on the country’s technological landscape through innovative technology use.

Enhancing the curriculum of high schools is essential to address this challenge. While Data Processing and Computer Studies are part of the curriculum, introducing practical skills like coding and web development is crucial. Equipping students with these skills will better prepare them for the digital age and empower them to thrive in today’s tech-driven world.

In conclusion, the negligence of technology careers in Northern Nigeria presents a concerning trend that warrants immediate attention. The shift in lucrative career prospects from traditional fields to technology careers is undeniable, with evidence supporting the exponential growth and opportunities in technology-related jobs. While the southern regions have recognised and embraced this change, the northern regions lag due to a lack of awareness about technology careers, negative stereotypes, and a preference for security over risk-taking. Educational institutions and policymakers must take proactive measures to address this issue. By integrating practical technology skills into the curriculum and promoting a positive perception of technology careers, Northern Nigeria can bridge the gap and empower its youth to thrive in the dynamic world of technology.

Salim Sani Haladu is a Pharmacy student at Bayero University, kano. He can be reached via pharmsaleemskhaleed@gmail.com.

By Musa Kalim Gambo

To start with, it must be easily concluded that Usman Bugaje is an excellent speaker for any gathering that seeks to place Nigeria on a microscopic slide to analyse its minutest of details. Therefore, Gombe State University made the best choice when it invited Bugaje to serve as the keynote speaker for the 10^th,11^th, 12^th, and 13^th pre-convocation lectures of the university last week.

Given Bugaje’s multi-disciplinary background, there could have been no doubt about his competence to speak on the theme of the pre-convocation lecture “Education and Development: The Challenge of Content, Competence, and Character in Nigerian Universities”. While a topic of this nature may sound like a cliché-ic abstraction of the troubles in the Nigerian university system, Bugaje’s treatment and perspective of the topic are both fresh and passionate.

Bugaje was out on a journey to establish the nexus between education and development. With the oft-repeated argument that there can be no meaningful progress without education, it is clearly established that Africa has had a flourishing system of knowledge transmission until the coming of the colonials. When they came, they suffocated the existing system in favour of their own.

Among the gathering, mostly the graduating students who listened to Bugaje’s lecture, not many may be aware of Africa’s glorious past and pioneering role in the development of universities around the world. Indeed, not many may be aware that what the West regards as an Arab contribution to education is largely a veil over the combined Persian and African efforts. It is a clear attempt to obscure the true position of Africa as a pacesetter in the world of knowledge and the evolution of civilisation. As poignantly described in his citation, Usman Bugaje is a pan-Africanist. This simple description as a pan-Africanist will not allow him to deliver such an important lecture without exposing the true fallacies that represent Western intervention in African education.

In many respects, Bugaje’s generation of the past benefited from a functional, effective, and not defective education system. It was such a system that prepared them to be competent for a diverse set of roles within the country and around the world. As a matter of doubt, were they so well equipped or was it simply the scarcity of manpower at that time? I have listened to many elderly people, mostly those who studied in Nigerian universities in the ‘70s and ‘80s, who, in their critique of the education and governments of today, make mention of the number of jobs they had at their disposal when they graduated. What was the Nigerian population size at that time? What was the manpower needed? And what was the economic power of the country then? These are questions that must be answered before a comparison is made between the glorious past and the gloomy today of our nation.

With the bulk of information, and indeed knowledge at the disposal of the student today, competence should not be a problem. Unfortunately, it is in many areas of modern endeavour. Within the educational system, quality of content and competence of output are intertwined, like the Staff of Asklepios or the Caduceus Wand, a symbology of the healthcare background of Bugaje.

An educational system where teachers have problems of competence across all levels will definitely have to deal with the complex question of the quality of content imparted to the students. The issues at stake here are – the relevance of the content being taught and the capacity of the teacher to deliver.

A friend of mine from one of the first-generation universities in Nigeria narrated the difficulty of his lecturer. This lecturer has taught the same content in phytochemistry for almost twenty years. He was on the verge of becoming a professor in that field of chemistry. However, he has this handwritten note that has spanned his career in this field.

In spite of being an expert in this phytochemistry, any day his handwritten note was not with him, his class would not hold. There was a day my friend and his colleagues sat for a very tough test by this soon-to-be professor of phytochemistry. They were asked to draw the chemical structure of a certain phytochemical, which was passively mentioned as an example during one of their sessions. Most of the members of the class couldn’t get the correct structure. They, therefore, requested the lecturer to help answer the question. It was quite interesting that this soon-to-be professor of phytochemistry could not answer the same question he set for his students. This suggested that in spite of his years of experience teaching the course, he would have failed if he sat for the same test.

This interestingly sad anecdote paints the picture of the Nigerian university in response to the question of competence.

Kalim writes from Zaria via gmkalim@hotmail.com.

By Muhammad Abdurrahman

An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has warned those calling for the arrest of Dr Zakir Naik to mind their business. The organisation insists that the Islamic preacher is exercising his Allah-given fundamental human right of freedom of movement under international law. MURIC further warned that anybody found embarrassing to the Sultan’s guest would face the wrath of Nigerian Muslims. 

The warning was handed down on Sunday, 5th November 2023, by the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola. 

The full statement reads:

“A campaign of calumny and religious hatred has been unleashed on an international Islamic figure, Dr Zakir Naik, who is currently in Nigeria. Dr Zakir Naik is in the country on the invitation of the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar.

“The campaign is being sponsored by Christians who are jittery. They are aware of the visitor’s oratory, intellectual prowess and amazing ability to convince his audience with indubitable facts. We remind these overzealous interlopers that Dr Zakir Naik is exercising his Allah-given fundamental human right of freedom of movement. 

“Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations guarantees the right to freedom of movement around the globe without interference. It says, ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

“Those behind this shameful exercise are meddlesome interlopers and Muslim haters disguising themselves as public commentators. They are motivated by hate, ignorance and gymnastic religiosity. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, we warn that anybody found embarrassing an official guest of His Eminence the Sultan and head of more than 150 million Nigerian Muslims will face the wrath of Muslims in this country.

“Why are our Christian neighbours so intolerant? How many times have Muslims raised objections when Christians invite foreign preachers? Several Christian preachers have toured this country without any Muslim protesting. 

“We recall the way Louis Farrakhan, the black American Muslim leader, was disallowed from giving a lecture in Nigeria in 1986. That ugly and disgraceful incident was engineered by the same set of people. It must not happen again.

“To those who are pursuing this ignoble goal, we say, ‘Take notice that Dr Zakir Naik is not Louis Farrakhan and Nigeria of 1986 is different from Nigeria in 2023. Nigerian Muslims of today, under a dynamic and visionary leadership, can give measure for measure.’ 

“The whole world knows the Indian government for what it is when it comes to religious tolerance. The crimes of the Indian state against its Muslim population of 204 million Muslims are legendary. Muslim haters in Nigeria should allow the Indian government to convince Interpol to do its dirty work for it. 

“India has failed to involve Interpol because its allegations against Dr Zakir Naik are religiously motivated. How did the Islamic scholar travel across several countries without Interpol arresting him if, indeed, he is a wanted person? Let the Indian government convince Interpol first.

“As far as we are concerned, Dr Zakir Naik has not broken any known law of Nigeria. He is, therefore, innocent and free to move around and deliver lectures. We remind the law enforcement agencies of their duty to ensure the safety and security of this Islamic scholar. Nothing must happen to him. It is needless to assert that any guest of the Sultan is a guest of all Nigerian Muslims.”

#LeaveDrZaikNaikAlone

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari 

Award-winning Nigerian singer Ayodeji Balogun, popularly known by the stage name Wizkid, has announced plans to take time off music. 

The singer made the announcement in an Instagram post on Sunday. 

Wizkid disclosed that he will be away for four to five years to focus on golf and spend his fortune. 

Wizkid had taken a similar break from music in 2019, and the post was not surprising to many of his fans. 

Writing in pidgin English, he wrote: “Back in 4 years, make una papa chop him money small or maybe five or I fit still go dey play ball now. 

“Or make I start dey play golf. fifa or wrestling b*tch!” 

“All of una dey craze! Everybody dey mad.”

By Mukhtar Garba Kobi

The barbaric act of abducting people by some bad elements in the Northern part of Nigeria is one of the major threats to the endearing peace and economic growth; bandits operate on roads, communities and recently in institutions of higher learning. News of an unspecified number of farmers in Borno and students of Federal University Dutsen-Ma has gone viral lately; bereaved families of the victims are still in shock while many resolved to withdraw their wards from schools; this is bad looking at the importance of education to mankind and development of all. People in those areas are doubting the promises made by leaders on protecting lives and properties.

Nobody on this mother earth is above the law. In some developed countries, even incumbent leaders are forced to face the jury and account for their mischievous deeds in office. Still, unfortunately, in Africa, the existence of immunity attached to leaders gives them the audacity to do as they wish.

One of the bandits’ kingpins in the Northern part of Nigeria, Dogo Gide, released an audio message which a well-known media man, Bello Mu’azu, shared. Still, the message contained has added fuel to the blazing fire of insecurity. The dreaded Dogo Gide stated that he preferred to die as a bandit and had no interest in reconciling with the government, no matter the money given to him.

Since most of the bandits’ hideouts are known by our gallant security forces, they (bandits) could be cleared in a few days, but such only end in discussions. Public figures have made excellent attempts to mediate between bandits and governments. Unfortunately, their efforts were fruitless due to the negligence of the government. There is no way fire could be put out with the same fire, but combining the two (attacks and dialogue) would greatly help. Moreover, engaging in dialogue would pave the way for peace in most kidnapping-ravaged States. Culturing crops and businesses would regain their lost glories while students would learn without fear.

Furthermore, research conducted by SBM, which is an investigative firm, revealed that between June of 2022 and July of 2023, three thousand six hundred and twenty (3,620) people were taken hostage in five hundred and eighty-two (582) kidnap-related incidents in Nigeria. It was further uncovered that “North-West and North-Central regions exhibit higher in-kind ransom demands. This aligns with Nigeria’s poverty and its correlation with areas where food is commonly demanded. Additionally, these regions have seen a surge in motorcycle demands due to economic opportunities and possibly because of their potential use in terror activities”.

Some of the factors that fuel kidnappings include high levels of poverty and hunger; waking up empty-pocketed and nothing for family members to consume have forced many into the act, especially unemployed Fulani herders. The second factor is greed and uncontrolled love to be rich, which also persuaded many into kidnappings; shallow-minded persons often view abduction as the easiest way to get enough money to meet their daily needs. Kidnappers play vital roles in influencing their friends; they give uninterested friends convincing points while those low faculty of thinking accept the offer without a second thought on the implications of such ventures. 

The mass abduction of people can be stopped if the following measures are adopted: schemes for employing youths or training them on skills have left behind several villagers, and most of the arrested kidnappers were dwellers; there is a need for the villagers to be included in whatever government came-up with. Since kidnappers have leaders, there is a need to have a virtual or physical meeting with them to know why they are kidnapping. Governments should ensure that their demands are met. Granting amnesty to repentant kidnappers would be a welcome idea, but they should not be reintegrated back into societies. They should be taken to rehabilitation homes and trained on different skills to be useful community members. 

Mukhtar writes from Bauchi and can be reached via garbakobim@gmail.com.

By Bilyamin Abdulmumin

Last week, during the FEC meeting, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, made a groundbreaking announcement by revealing the budget forecast for 2024. It sent shockwaves through the nation, and understandably so, as the projected budget of 26 trillion naira was unprecedented; it was a staggering  4 trillion compared to the previous year.

Nigerians have consistently expressed concerns about the ever-increasing budget forecasts year after year. Regrettably, this budget inflation trend has persisted. For instance, the budget started at 299 billion during the Obasanjo government in 1999 but ballooned to 2.3 trillion when he left office. Yar’adua handed over a 4.4 trillion budget to Jonathan, who returned the exact figure in 2015 (despite presenting a 4.9 trillion budget in three previous years). The budget increase went wild during President Muhammad Buhari’s tenure, reaching a staggering 21 trillion in 2023 when he left office.

Although I am not an expert on budget matters, it’s apparent that every budget must consider factors such as market dynamics, inflation, and the growth of the national population and its demographics.

Rather than fixating solely on the budget figures, we, as citizens, should focus on the prudent and effective utilisation of these budgets. If the Nigerian budget had been prepared and executed more efficiently, we might have already achieved the promised Eldorado.

For example, 43 years have passed since the Shagari and Gowon green revolution, 33 years since Vision 2000, and a decade since Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda. However, the majority of Nigerians still lack access to quality housing and healthcare, and we continue to struggle to feed ourselves. Similar ambitious visions have come and gone, including IBB’s structural adjustments, Abacha’s Vision 2010, Obasanjo’s Vision 2020, Yar’adua’s seven-point agenda, and PMB’s Vision 2050.

One crucial issue highlighted by BudgIT, a civic organisation monitoring the Nigerian budget, is the disconnect between our budget and national planning, hindering the realisation of the promised utopia. Our budget is not aligned with our national planning, and it seems that from the beginning, Nigeria has not been drawing the budget structure from national planning.

In the words of Oluseun Onigbinde, Global Director of BudgIT, “The Nigerian budget has delivered sub-optimal results because it has not been linked with national strategic plans written for the medium or short term. The current President has a public manifesto, and the Federal Government recently, at a significant cost, also delivered strategic plans that terminate in 2025 and 2050. It does not make sense if the national budget is not linked to these documents. The budget needs to stop just being a contract vending machine stuffed with varied interests but a thorough planning document.”

If the masses can redirect their attention to this issue rather than merely reacting to budget forecasts, expecting more effective and desirable results is plausible.

Interestingly, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, has pledged to address this issue and reached out to the public for understanding and engagement. This outreach occurred during an official visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Alternative Education. The minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the APC comprehensive plans, particularly Agenda 2050 and the 5-year development plan.

Dear Nigerians, it’s time to refocus our priorities and stop chasing after the shadows.

By Aliyu Nuhu

No easy way for a country with bizarre economic behaviour. The economic laws are there for easy implementation in a normal society. But Nigeria is not normal. Everyone, from the leases to the ordinary citizens, is looking for ways to damage the country for personal gain. NIGERIA operates its economy with laws made from hell.

We all know our huge appetite for the dollar is driven by our need for foreign goods which we are unable to produce. If we don’t need foreign goods, there will be no demand for dollars since we only need the currency for imports. But who is not guilty among us here?

Naira supply affects inflation since too much money is chasing a few goods but is not the direct cause of the fall of the Naira in the forex market. Laws of demand and supply drive the forex market. More Dollars available will lower its value and vice versa with Naira. But these laws don’t work in Nigeria because of distortion in all economic policies created by the government, mostly by greedy Nigerians and the officials themselves.

The forex window allows funding of critical sectors with dollars by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). But the distortion here is that those given dollars to import goods will take the money to the money market for round-tripping. The CBN officials will also take the dollar and exchange it for quick gain. Each governor that gets FACC allocation in Naira will take it to market chasing the dollar.

With such behaviour, the Naira can never get a breather. It is this distortion that makes it difficult to explain the reasons why Naira is not only weak but unstable. Currency instability is the worst thing that can happen to a country. At any point in time, investors can never know their profits and losses. It is the reason why companies like Emirates, ShopRite and Game are closing shop.

After looking at some of our promising macro trends, Nigeria is still unable to keep Naira strong because of the depletion of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The major function of foreign reserves is to keep the Naira strong. But regime after regime keeps spending the reserve account to a point that no one can precisely say the balance of NIGERIA’s foreign reserve.

World Bank said irrespective of all other macroeconomic shortcomings, the Naira can still be exchanged for a dollar one-on-one if we can have $900bn in our foreign reserve. But what do we have today? Less than $30bn!

Kuwait is a consumer country like Nigeria, but because it has a foreign reserve of $137bn and a gold reserve of 78.97 tonnes, it has the strongest currency in the world. But Nigeria has 21.37 tonnes of gold in its reserve and a $34bn reserve for an economy with a GDP of $489bn. Kuwait is able to save with a GDP of $106bn! There is evidence that shows that GDP growth and employment growth increase in response to positive shocks to foreign currency reserves (forex reserves) accumulation, whereas unemployment declines.

Read the reports on the new government report on CBN, and you will understand that the Naira is only competitive by sheer luck, if not a miracle. Everyone, including people in charge of Naira’s health, is out to destroy the Naira.

By Saifullahi Attahir

Our grandparents used to remember with nostalgia how, in the past  50 years, they usually had a high-yield harvest yearly-round in the farms and surprisingly with total abstinence from using fertilisers and other modern additives. The bushes are full of trees of all sorts, vegetative forests with various colourful and nutritious leaves, guavas, mangoes, paw-paw, and dates, to name a  few. A farmer was almost always sure to have a sufficient harvest for the family with little manure from his domestic animal dungeons. They always harvest enough to feed themselves and their families, even more for the neighbourhoods.

Surprisingly, today, with all the powerful tools for mechanical farming, with all the ‘Almighty’ fertiliser, with all the agricultural institutions, with all the army of PhDs in academia, we harvest less and less. For the past two decades, our weather has constantly fluctuated with no certainty of what to crop this year or next. For instance, a  farmer would cut rice this year on clay land and experience drought, so precisely the following year, when he decided to switch to grains ( millet or sorghum), which would perfectly suit the dry land, unexpectedly, there would be a massive flood.

I live in Jigawa State and had first-hand experience with this scenario. Our farmers constantly switch between sesame (‘ridi’), groundnut, millet, and even rice. Places once dry land for sorghum and groundnut are now perfectly turned into rice farming lands. If you are doubting, come to areas around Sara town in Gwaram Local Govt, Jigawa state.

Jigawa state was initially named ‘Jigawa’  because of the large number of dry land primarily available for farming crops requiring less water. How are these vast areas becoming a mix-up, and even some submerged below water? How did we arrive arrived at this juncture? Why do we experience more floods and erosion disasters yearly?

Some of those answers are written on the wall as an effect of climate change caused by man-made activities that we failed to take any heed or measures. Some of those effects result from our ignorance to look into our environments and how we take care of our stomachs. These effects result from continuously perpetuating natural resources to satisfy our insatiable human greed.

Over the past decade, scientists and the media have been constantly alerting the populace on the danger that global temperature changes pose to the living conditions we are currently enjoying. Some of those warnings were already in effect in many parts of the globe. Research has shown how the continuous depletion of the ozone layer by emission from fossil fuel by our engines and industries poses a  great danger to the protection we once enjoyed from the Sun. The direct ultraviolet radiation from the heating Sun is no longer protected by the ozone layer, making it descend directly into our atmosphere. This led to the increased rise of the earth’s temperature to a fraction of a degree. The earth’s temperature has reached almost 2°c ( degree centigrade), with future expectations to reach 3°c.

The rise in earth’s temperature led to the constant melting of polar ice in the global North around Greenland. If you don’t know, these ices served as a pillar to the seas, habitation of billions of aquatic life, and a source of living for humans. If that ice melts, it will continue to kill those animals, shifting the ecological balance to the negative. Not only that, but mass migration of those living around the Poles would lead to overcrowding in other parts of the world, probably Europe or Africa.

Most of the current danger of global warming was caused by the developed Nations in the global North, especially Europe, which for over 200 years possessed engines that constantly polluted the air with carbon. Those countries include the US, UK, Germany, Russia, and China. Ironically, the underdeveloped countries in the global South are at the receiving end of the punishment, where floods, famine, earthquakes, storms, desertification, erosions, and drought constantly threaten them. The global South countries at constant risk of global warming are Pakistan, India, Indonesia, South America, and West and Sub-Saharan Africa.

One of the effects of global warming that people hardly pay attention to are as follows ;

1) Whenever any part of the world experiences a flood, famine, or earthquake, that part automatically becomes uninhabitable, and most of its inhabitants tend to migrate to safer places and greener pastures, especially cities. This would lead to overcrowding of urban areas, the creation of more slums, an increased crime rate, fewer job opportunities, and a reduction in the available land for farming and farmers themselves. These are the natural causes of food insecurity we see daily, the natural causes of the xenophobic attacks we hear daily, and the natural causes of the immigration problem we experience daily.

2) Overgrazing of the land without proper ways of replenishing and the constant encroachment of those specific forests and environments reserved for nomadic livestock in Northern Nigeria have forced the Nomadic Fulani to travel far to Southern Nigeria in search of pasture. This would automatically cause some altercation regarding rights, privacy, and intrusion, which causes the constant farmer-herders conflict escalating and metamorphosing into something else.

3) Many of those Fulani were now barren of their millennia-old source of livelihood (livestock) or were forced to abandon the practice because of the scarcity of grazing fields through encroachment by expanding Government or Private projects ( roads, railways, colleges, companies, hydroelectric dams). Worse, they could not attend schools or learn modern skills and mostly lived deep in the forest, so Government social amenities were scarce or absent. What do you expect from this scenario: aged old frustration accumulating over the years of negligence, ignorance, poverty, despair and envy? So those kinds of young idle minds can become a devil’s workshop if care is not taken. It’s easy to convince them through propaganda to carry weapons, which we now see as a form of banditry, armed robbery, kidnappings, and terrorism.

4) We have been witnessing the constant conversion of places once ecological habitats reserved for forestation and farming various food crops that our lives depend upon. These places are now becoming Universities, companies, barracks, airports, hotels, and rail tracks. These activities lead to less land for farming despite the exponential growth in the world population, hence the less harvest. This is the cause of hunger. Hunger leads to conflict, wars, illness, and debasement of human capital development.

The effect was not only caused by the developed Nations. We, too, have our share of the problem. I’m sure everyone raised in a rural area is aware of the constant deforestation by our people to gather burning sticks, and the worrying part is we cut the trees without planting others in their place. According to research, we need to plant ten trees instead of each one we cut down. But the sad story is that we are not even practising 1 for 1 (i.e. cut down one tree and plant one tree).

Sub-Saharan Africa is constantly threatened by desert encroachment, which would only be averted by planting more trees, especially along our roads and desert belt. People living around Jigawa State are aware of the continuous desertification yearly by metres in previously non-desert environments. This has a human and economic cost.

 Over the past five decades, the world has continually witnessed the gradual extinction and disappearance of many species of plants and animals from the earth’s surface whose research shows they enormously contribute to the stability and maintenance of ecological equilibrium. For instance,  vultures were once abundant over the skies, contributing to the degradation of carcasses that pollute the air, but today, rarely can you spot the vultures.

Hyenas, tigers, elephants, kangaroos, giraffes, swans, and thousands of other sauna and floras in aquatic and terrestrial forms were nowhere to be found. Some of those missing animal species have migrated to other parts of the globe with favourable weather. At the same time, many were wiped out through perpetual game hunting industrial and chemical poisoning. Did we know the catastrophic effect of the disappearance of these species from our planets?

It’s unsurprising that one day, humans too may start migrating to more favourable weather conditions if adverse climatic effects ravage them.

Some of the popularly known places affected daily by climate change include Jakarta, one of the world’s most densely populated cities in Indonesia, with floods destroying homes and lives every year. Hurricane Katrina in the US was a storm and mighty wind that destroyed houses, bridges, and humans. Makoko Slum in Lagos, Nigeria, is a densely populated area above water, inhabited mainly by immigrants searching for job opportunities from the deserted rural part of the country. Auyo in Hadejia Jigawa State, an area stretching many local Governments yearly affected by floods and erosion, causing devastating destruction and loss of human lives. Greenland is part of the globe at the far north pole around Antarctica. Those places are mostly covered with ice, but today, this ice melting rapidly, causing migration of the people around those parts.

The climate change effect is putting the world into a dilemma, with rising sea levels on the one hand and extreme drought and desertification on the other.

Some archaeological exploration has shown that today’s mostly desert Middle Eastern world flourished with vegetation and abundant water, lives, and different aquatic and terrestrial species. It’s only time that would tell whether we are retracing back to that same period conditions.

SOLUTION

Finally, the developed nations should continue diversifying their energy source through electric vehicles, solar stations, biodegradable energy, and hydroelectric power sources to abandon the toxic fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere with excess greenhouse emission gases ( methane and carbon monoxide).

Also, the global South, including Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries, should embrace conserving our God-given resources by planting more trees, regulating deforestation, and creating robust public awareness of the importance of Ecological Conservation.

Saifullahi Attahir wrote via saifullahiattahir93@gmail.com.

By Zayyad I. Muhammad

Before and during his 2023 presidential campaign in the North, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a household name among the ordinary citizens in the North. Now, President Tinubu’s public relations (PR) image in the north is fast dwindling; the Christian community is still bitter with the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential elections, and the Muslim majority is feeling sidelined in the Tinubu government despite their massive vote for the APC during the 2023 presidential elections.

The Tinubu government has some of the best minds in public relations (PR) and the media space in its media team, but the truth of the matter is that Tinubu’s PR image in the north is dwindling and suffering, so to speak. What went wrong?

First, to be fair to Tinubu, he has allocated some good positions to the North according to its ‘rights’, but it was poorly communicated, and the appointees are in a kind of incommunicado with the North.

Secondly, many people, even outside the north, felt that the southwest had taken most of the ‘lucrative posts’—well, it is normal for any president to bring on board his own economic teams, including the people that he knows too well and has confidence in them to deliver his agenda and his party’s manifestos. Tinubu has the right to appoint anyone he wishes to, but unlucky for him, his predecessor’s actions and inactions will be used to gauge his government’s actions and inactions. President Tinubu couldn’t have jettisoned a little bit of this privilege—the idea of appointing only the people he knows too well in his economic team and close aides—since he succeeded a Buhari government that was highly accused of nepotism.

Thirdly, Tinubu’s government interaction with the north appears limited to the high echelon of society; thus, the people at the bottom of the ladder who were told that the Muslim-Muslim ticket would be ‘their government’ now feel they’re sidelined and were misled.

Fourthly, the Tinubu media and public relations teams are good, but they’re disconnected from the real north; they are not sufficiently aware of the approach and ‘language’ to talk to the north, especially APC’s strongholds. A good example is the recent CBN’s lifting of FOREX restrictions on 43 items. The general belief in the north is that the government has opened the borders for rice, maize, and other farm produce; thus, it is a direct attack on northern farmers and rice mills in the north. Up until now, there is no explicit explanation in a language, and from the ‘faces’ the northern farmers and rice millers will understand and believe.

Lastly, the Tinubu government is missing one point: it basically campaigned in its strongholds in the north on the fulcrum of the Muslim-Muslim ticket; now, its body language is that it has tilted away from the north’s political and economic interests; thus, even the ulama ( the clergies) who  ‘campaigned’ for it, is now not talking on its behalf; in fact, many of them are hammering the government. The Muslim-Muslim ticket is like an albatross to the APC, which the party must carry till and after the 2027 presidential elections; it has to continue to ‘nurture’ it like a nursing baby and also, at the same time, prove to its opponents that there is no harm in it.

What Tinubu should do: his subsequent appointments and policy pronouncements should try to pacify the north, especially the APC’s strongholds. Politics is about reward systems, and Tinubu is a master of reward systems in politics.

Secondly, appointees from the north should be visible and reachable to their communities. Many people in the APC’s strongholds in the north don’t even know some people from their folds are now appointees in the Tinubu government.

Thirdly, as earlier said, the Tinubu PR and Media team is good, but it must still be jack-up with more people from the north who know the ‘language’ and have faces that the north will understand.

Lastly, and most importantly, the Tinubu government should constantly inform the north of its efforts and activities in the areas of security, agriculture, and youth programmes in a way and in a language the north will understand and appreciate.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja. He can be reached via zaymohd@yahoo.com.

By Lawal Dahiru Mamman 

Malnutrition, generally, is when humans or any other living organisms get little or insufficient food nutrients, resulting in health problems. Nigeria is one of the 12 world countries recently declared as the epicentre of the global nutrition crisis. 

The other 11, mostly African countries, include Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

COVID-19, war in Ukraine and conflicts in some of these countries are factors that have exacerbated the situation. Barely seven years ago, the number of under-nourished people in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 181 million in 2010 to almost 222 million in 2016. This figure increased to 264.2 million according to a study titled, “Malnutrition: An underlying health condition faced in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and recommendations,” published in a medical journal, Annals of Medicine and Surgery, in October 2022.

Recently, Anne Patterson, the Director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission, at the Trade Fair for Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods and Other Life-Saving Nutrition Commodities in Abuja, disclosed that Nigeria is ranked as the country with the second-highest malnutrition rate in the world.

This is according to the recent Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey, she said.

In reality, Africa, with its abundant water body, aquatic life and favourable climate (which supports the growth of various food crops, including fruits and vegetables), has all that is necessary to produce the macro and micronutrients required to nourish the body for optimal growth and health.

For Nigeria, in particular, which has agriculture written all over its national symbol (as the green on our National Flag signifies agriculture, and the black shield on the coat of arms symbolises fertile soil), the country should not be mal- or undernourished, even ranking second globally.

There are also about 200 species of fish, thanks to the large water body nature has blessed our country with. This, along with other aquatic lives, can be harnessed for healthy foods. There are livestock of various types, giving quality nutrients, too.

A lot is invested by the government in building more resilient health systems medical technologies, training of medical practitioners, and treating illnesses. It is time the same energy and resources are invested in nutrition.

For example, during this year’s World Malaria Day, Nigeria still routinely spent an estimated sum of N2.04 trillion on malaria annually.

Breaking this figure further, the Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) said, “The estimated cost for an individual to treat uncomplicated malaria in Nigeria ranges from approximately N700 to N3000, depending on the type of treatment, and the healthcare facility visited.

“While treating complicated malaria could be significantly higher, ranging from N20,000 to N60,000, or more”. 

On the cost to the Nigerian government, the consultant pharmacist said: “This cost includes expenditures on healthcare facilities, medication, and personnel.”

Tackling the menace of investing heavily in treating illnesses and sicknesses affecting citizens would be to invest in its prevention. And that entails boosting the masses’ nutritional health by ensuring the availability of good and nutritious meals. 

This will help in fortifying the immune system of Nigerians and combating all forms of malnutrition troubling citizens, especially Nigerian children from less privileged backgrounds. 

Being a nation that also engages in massive agricultural cultivation of food and tearing of assorted livestock, the last thing citizens should have as a companion is hunger. Therefore, the federal government and other concerned authorities should worry about the global survey that ranked us as one of the world nations battling with the malnutrition crisis. It is a sad commentary.

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