Nigeria

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC), has requested that legal practitioners in Nigeria, who desire the attainment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), should submit applications online.

This was disclosed by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court and Secretary of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, Hajo Sarki Bello in a memoir on Monday, January 2, 2022.

Bello said this year application is online and lawyers who desire the award of the rank of SAN should submit relevant documents to the LPPC’s portal.

He added that all applicants must pay a non-refundable processing fee of one million naira and upload evidence of the payment online.

Part of the memoir reads: “By the combined provisions of Section 5(2) of the Legal Practitioners’ Act Cap 11 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria of Nigeria 2004 and the Regulation 10 (1) – (4) of the Guidelines for the Conferment of the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria 2022. (“The Guidelines”) the Legal Practitioners’Privileges Committee ( “the LPPC or the Committee “) hereby makes a formal call for applications preparatory to the rank of the year 2023. Commencing with the year’s exercise applications shall only be made online and prospective applicants are directed to visit www. lppconline.com to make their application.”

The rank of Senior Advocates of Nigeria is the highest rank in the Nigerian Bar. It is the equivalent of the rank of the Queen’s Counsel in the United Kingdom. The rank of SAN is yearly awarded to legal practitioners that have distinguished themselves in character and advocacy.

By Lawan Bukar Maigana

I keep telling people that it is too early for us in Nigeria as a whole to adopt a cashless policy. It is just obviously too early. Yesterday, I read a post by Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Kaduna State, about his experience with a Point of Sale, PoS, agent.

He had gone to refill his gas cylinders at the cost of 19k+ and he used a PoS machine to pay for it. Though he was debited, the money wasn’t credited to the PoS agent’s account. Rather than waste his time there, he transferred another money to someone’s account to pay for refilling. He would have become helpless if he was moneyless.

Some weeks back, I experienced a similar thing in Abuja. I went to withdraw 5k using a PoS from a woman at the NYSC parade ground. I was debited but she didn’t receive the money. She then told me that she won’t give me the money until she receives an alert. Luckily, I had a paltry sum left in my account. I then withdrew the money using a different PoS. It took my bank nearly ten days to refund me.

Before then, and about three years ago, I had the same experience with UBA. I used my father’s card to withdraw N100,000. I tried six times, but all of the transactions didn’t dispense cash, and he was debited five times. My dad only knew it after a week. He complained to the bank but they denied it, without carefully checking whether the transactions were successful or not.

They had to call me to come from school. I quickly got to the bank because it involved my father. I had to help them understand that the transactions failed. Only then they rechecked and discovered that I was right. That was indeed an issue bordering on unprofessionalism.

If not because of my father I would have sued the bank, because they threatened me with a police arrest, saying it was a criminal case. My father asked me to accept their apology else I would have sought compensation for making me look like a criminal, while they were at fault.

Before going ahead with its cashless policy, another factual and excusable factor the Apex Bank should consider is the fact that most of our businesses are done in cash, especially those trading in rural communities and towns and other remote areas where there are no banks, no network, no internet, no electricity, no education, and these people form a large portion of the Nigerian populace.

The questions I keep asking myself regarding this policy are: Did the Central Bank of Nigeria build banks in those areas? Would the people be traveling from their various villages to cities to transfer, withdraw or deposit money? What did the government do in place of these challenges? Does CBN have enough manpower to do this job even if they have built banks? Did CBN mistake Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and a few cities for Nigeria?

These, among other reasons, are the factors I want the CBN Governor to consider. Before they present this policy, they need to put all these things in place and educate people about it so that people will evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and decide to either oppose or support it. The CBN didn’t do that. It just woke up from its slumber and served it to the Nigerians a la carte. Time will however tell if Nigerians will embrace it, warts and all.

Lawan Bukar Maigana is a social analyst. He writes from Abuja and can be reached via email: lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com

By Ibrahim Abubakar

In the late 1890s, my great-grandfather narrowly escaped the evil claws of the Mahdi’s hostile and belligerent lieutenant, Rabeh Bn Fadlallah, who had invaded Borno to spread the Mahdist ideology. They sacked the empire’s capital of Kukawa, captured and executed Sheikh of Borno, and enslaved many people. This martial excess sent trembles across the land, and many thought it wise to migrate westward into the Sokoto Caliphate for safety. Among those who migrated to the Caliphate was my great-grandfather, Mamadou. Of its two dozen emirates, Mamadou chose Kano as his refuge.

Kano was the jewel of the Sahel, a centre of trade and commerce with walls 50 feet high and immensely thick, surrounded by a deep artificial gully making it an impenetrable fortress; a marvel to behold! It is this sense of security and opportunity, I believe, that made Kano a desirable place for my ancestors.

During colonial times, Kano increased in its majesty. The British administration modernised trade and industry, built hospitals, schools, and railways and improved the justice system by integrating and superbly implementing strategies that supported the rule of law and ameliorated the superficial old system. Kano’s commercial strategies were carefully designed to produce a positive net economic effect. For example, hide, skin, groundnut, animal feeds, meat and textile were exported to Britain. These export plans were supported by long-term government programmes that continued into post-independence Kano.

According to a World Bank report, Kano State’s mainstay is agriculture. It employs about 60% to 70% of the population producing rice, maize, millet, groundnut, beans, etc. Livestock production is another source of income for the farmers. The industrial output is from oil mills, textiles, tanneries, flour mills, and several others.

As the centre of commerce, Kano handles about 75% of finished goods from Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo industries. These are distributed to all the northern states and the neighbouring states of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, etc. From Kano, the following are exported: semi-finished leather, cotton lint, gum, hibiscus, sesame seeds and other minor items. All of the above have immensely contributed to enhancing Kano’s GDP as one of the highest in the country.

Unfortunately, the contemporary situation is rather bleak. Most of the factories have closed or have reduced their production capacity. Kano had about 30 tanneries producing over 45 million goats and sheep skins for export. In addition, over 7 million cattle hides were processed as finished leather for making shoes and other leather goods. However, there are only a dozen tanneries in production today. As for cattle hides, 90% of it is consumed in southwestern Nigeria as Ponmo or Ganda. In addition, cattle hides are imported from neighbouring countries and Mali, CAR, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. The last textile to close was Angel Spinning and Dyeing Limited.

It is not a hidden fact that education has crumbled in recent years. Many children in Kano are poorly educated (the lucky ones?) and without a solution in sight. Although I am aware that education has exacerbated globally, for example, my father, 48 years older than me, is better educated in most branches of general learning. Kano is in the top five states in the country with substantial numbers of out-of-school children.

Healthcare facilities across the state are in a deplorable state. For example, the last time I visited the A&E department of a general hospital in Kano, I was sickened by the gruesome sight of accident victims on the floor, literally bleeding to death. In addition, there is an enormous disparity in the doctor-to-patient ratio, albeit not the worse in the country. It is, however, in the top ten states lacking doctors, with a ratio of 1 doctor for every 14,123 persons. To put it into perspective, the UN standard doctor-to-patient ratio is 1:600.

Kano used to be safe. Growing up, very few isolated incidences of theft were heard of in the city. Today, people get robbed in broad daylight. Thieves with sharp knives of all shapes and sizes attack people on the streets to rob them of their phones and other belongings; those who refuse to comply are fatally stabbed without remorse. Rape cases are rising exponentially. This year alone, over 1,300 cases of rape were reported. It is sad to see Kano vitiated.

The Kano of my dreams is the Kano my great-grandfather fell in love with. A Kano where there is opportunity and hope for everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion. A Kano where I feel safe walking any street at any hour of the day or night. A Kano where women can feel comfortable around men without fearing harassment or misogyny. A Kano with subsidised agricultural products such as fertilisers and an established avenue for creating liaisons with agencies that will be responsible for borrowing funds from the banks of industry and agriculture for the benefit of farmers, and this will increase productivity as well as employment.

Similarly, the Kano of my dreams will create an investment agency to secure funds from the Bank of Industry for the closed tanneries/factories and companies at low capacity. This will enhance business activity and employment. Furthermore, the Kano of my dreams will utilise Tiga Dam power generation to supply electricity to the industrial areas of the state and set a good precedence for the future supply of power to the entire state, either through hydroelectricity, solar energy, or thermal power.

The Kano of my dreams is a Kano where children are given quality education regardless of the social and economic status of the family they come from. A Kano where children do not go around begging for food on the streets. The Kano of my dreams is a Kano where hospitals are abundant, and doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have all the needed equipment to make their jobs easier. A Kano where the large, proposed sports complex at Kofar Na’isa is turned into a colossal state-of-the-art medical centre to cater for the entire country. A Kano where neighbours assist one another.

I dream of a Kano where the rich invest more in local small-scale industries to boost production and employment rather than holidaying abroad and boosting the economy of the colonial order neglecting their brothers and sisters at home languishing in abject poverty. Lastly, the Kano of my dreams will have excellent and selfless leaders that genuinely care about the advancement of the state and will put in their utmost to see to it becoming the gem that it was, if not better than it was in days of yore. In sha Allah!

Ibrahim Abubakar won the 2^nd position in the 2022 “The Kano of my dream” writing competition jointly organised by Muhsin Ibrahim, PhD, and The Daily Reality online newspaper. He can be reached via ibrahimabubakhr@gmail.com.

By MA Iliasu

The dilemma with Kano has always been about standards. So, naturally, Kano’s advantages and disadvantages in socioeconomic assets have outgrown everyone’s. The history of Hausa land and much of the Sahel will confirm that assertion.

Kano’s population was approximated in 2022 as the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos and sixth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ranking behind Lagos, Rivers, Delta, Oyo, and Imo. Kano is blessed with more than ten major markets across its rural and urban settlements, with Kantin Kwari and Dawanau serving as the largest textiles and food markets in West Africa, respectively. The state is enriched with the twentieth highest landmass in Nigeria, the biggest part of which is a prosperous arable land, with a favourable temperament that enables consistent rainfall and harmattan during rainy and harmattan seasons, on top of the twenty dams distributed across the rural economies of the state. Kano is one of the largest industrial hubs in West Africa, and the aggregation of these natural and human resources earns the state the title of “Centre of Commerce” in Nigeria.

By the same standard, however, the same factors make Kano an unfavourable environment. The massive population is more neglected than cared for, thus becoming a liability rather than an asset. There is a large number of out-of-school children roaming streets as beggars and hawkers, with many engaging in child labour. Many youths have been reduced to thuggery, thievery, and drug abuse. The economy is overwatched, yet doesn’t reflect in the state’s treasury by how the state rank lower in revenue generation, signifying, among others, the corruption and mismanagement holding its potential backward. The landmass is underutilised, with poor urban planning in the metropolitan areas and primitive agriculture in rural areas.

Consequently, signals of environmental hazards like crime, congestion, and flooding have become significant threats to the Kano metropolis. The dams have been neglected in the rural settlements. The widening gap between the rich and the poor makes the Human Development of the state ranks 28^th, according to Human Development Index (HDI) 2019, among the very worst in Nigeria. The income per capita of Kano is among the lowest, with its healthcare being one of the worst in Africa. As of 2021, the state could only hire one medical doctor to tend to the emergency unit of Murtala Muhammad General Hospital during the weekends.

The common factor in both the contrasting pictures is that Kano never does anything in small doses – it’s so-called standard. The Kano of my dream, therefore, is the one in which this standard is retained but only positively to enable the growth and development of the state to measure up to it.

In the Kano of my dream, agriculture and industry are the central focus. A coherent plan which utilises the twenty dams for irrigation farming in forty local governments has been implemented. And courtesy of that, the agricultural output from Kano has outranked every state in Nigeria and equals the capacity of many African countries combined. The landmark is achieved thanks to overwhelming human labour and fertile land, and after the state government widens its thinking beyond small partnerships with regional development banks by reaching out to international agricultural cartels.

A deal has been stroke with India, China, Nepal, and Thailand that sees to it all Kano dams have been utilised in exchange for an uninterrupted supply of agricultural output to the Asian markets. And the reliance on agriculture has paved the way for the flourishing of other farming and manufacturing industries, the rural economy, and infrastructure, which consequently ends rural-urban migration and reduces the pressure on metropolitan areas. Resurgence occurs in food and technology markets, with advanced research in agricultural institutes and massive employment generation for the teeming population. Agriculture is Kano’s largest labour employer for the first time this century. And the problems of unemployment, revenue generation, urban migration and planning, rural negligence, and food security have become negligible.

The multiplier effect of achieving such economic landmarks will, among others, boost the GDP, HDI, Per Capita Income (PI), and general economic buoyancy across all social classes, which in the Kano of my dream, enable investment in education and healthcare. The fantasies of free education and healthcare are now history. The government has seen the truth and intensified its efforts towards achieving a hundred per cent literacy rate and eighty years average life expectancy through massive investment in education and health infrastructure, with more than sixty per cent of its talent pool channelled to study science and technology.

The revolution in the education sector takes place in two dimensions. The first is by reconstructing the state institutions and equipping them with modern learning tools, recruiting more teachers and retraining them, and taking their remunerations to a world-class standard. The second dimension is by reshuffling the curriculum by removing the outdated, less relevant subjects and introducing modern, relevant ones, and rearranging the method of achieving Senior Secondary School Certificates (SSCE) by turning terminal examinations into grade point averages, the cumulative of which will determine whether a student qualifies to take the SSCE or not. Students who excel by having high cumulative grade points from their terminal examinations across six years of Secondary School education will be able to sit for SSCE and secure government scholarships. While those who have yet to excel will have to engage in compulsory remedial studies before they become eligible to write SSCE. That way, the higher institutions will admit students not by chance but by competence, making them more productive intellectual environments. Breakthroughs have since been recorded in research and innovation.

Investment in healthcare starts by providing each local government with a general hospital and enough health workers. Infant and women mortality shall be met with formidable maternal health departments. And health education shall be prevalent, especially among women.

The political culture in Kano of my dream is perceptive and intentional. The fusion of power between state and local governments is abolished, enabling a reformed, energetic, merit-based, transparent, and accountable leadership style of leadership that is appropriately informed by and with the major activities of the clerical, academic and social establishment in the state.

Sports and recreation are engaged with remarkable intensity by establishing sports academies to meet the demands of modern football, basketball, tennis, and boxing. Kids are trained at a young age, adults are funded to do their coaching badges, and sports entrepreneurs are granted smooth platforms to facilitate the transfer of Kano talents to major European and American leagues, revolutionising domestic football to a world-class standard. For the first time in football history, Kano Pillars, an African team from the Nigerian league, has won the Club World Cup, thanks to the formidability of local talents.

In the end, the Kano of my dream isn’t only distinguished with glowing physical features such as roads, schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities but also with a glowing soul, mind, and heart. The spiritual infrastructure is also revolutionised through changing mindsets, attitudes, and beliefs. As a religious society, we have admitted to the supremacy of destiny, one who greatly appreciates the purity of our hard work and ethics. And through the pursuit of this, we turn into reality the endless upward possibilities of our beloved ancient society.

MA Iliasu won the 1^st position in the 2022 “The Kano of my dream” writing competition jointly organised by Muhsin Ibrahim, PhD, and The Daily Reality online newspaper. He can be reached via muhada102@gmail.com.

By Dansaleh Aliyu Yahya

Nigeria, as a country of more than two hundred million people, must get some or many ways to eradicate poverty from both angles. There is no poverty, so almost everybody in the country is employed. As a result, we will be free from hunger, with good health and well-being. For that, I’m going to point out some points that might end poverty in our blessed country of Nigeria.

They are as follows:

1. Voting for good leaders: This is the essential part of all the ways I thought of because we all have in our minds that leaders can make every impossible possible in their respective regions. Without their help, no one could do anything. The work of advisors and analysts is to tell them “this” and “that” should be done in such ways and places. Leaders are responsible for making it happen attractively. If they don’t want to do it, it will never happen. You know!

Good leaders might be the only leaders that will help give their citizens a happy atmosphere that will be good for them to live in by creating awareness, employment, and bringing out important activities close to their people. Else, the people will be maltreated. For that reason and more, we need them to take in eradicating poverty from our country.

2. Creating awareness on the importance of skills and small businesses: It is a good response for the government, educators, and entrepreneurs to help their country in bringing an end to poverty by fixing a time and date to lecture the citizens, especially the youths.

This awareness method will give people enough knowledge to understand that they need to learn some skills and start something new, to earn and live in a good conditions. From there, they will improve their lives, fight hunger, and have good health. In addition, the government should invest in giving the attendees working tools or capital so that they start immediately after they leave. To prevent losing the ideas they learned in the place, due to a long time.

3. Providing centres that will teach technical skills to people: this method will help fight poverty in our country. People will learn hand skills that will help them in building their businesses. If they have this, they will not stand redundantly without anything. I am sure that they will use the skills learned from the centres and even be able to employ others in the community.

In addition, the government can build good relationships with companies so that the companies will help them by employing some part of the community in such a way that they will put hand in hand in fighting poverty together.

These ways and many more could alleviate poverty, resulting in the sustainable development of zero hunger, good health, and well-being.

May we have peace and tranquillity in our minds, stomachs, and pockets,  amin.

Dansaleh Aliyu Yahya wrote via dansalealiyu@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

A Fulani leader, Alh. Aliyu Abdullahi, in Maganda village near Kagarko town in Kaduna state, was abducted by unknown gunmen on Monday.

It was reported that the leader, also known as Ardon Maganda, was going back home on his motorcycle after attending a meeting with other village chiefs on security issues bedevilling their communities.

The Daily Reality reported how handits raided three communities and abducted 37 villagers in Kaduna communities just recently.

A source from Janjala community, simply identified as Ishaq, said, “This morning (Tuesday), someone from Maganda who was coming to Janjala saw Ardo’s motorcycle abandoned by the roadside and suspected that he has been kidnapped.”

He added that the victim earlier visited the families of some of his konsmen to sympathise with them over the recent attacks by bandits which led to the abduction of some of his family members.

As of the time of filing this report, there was no official report from the police in the area.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

The government of the United States has unveiled a scheme that will help Nigeria’s fight against illegal drugs.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) capacity for forensic and chemical analysis, intelligence gathering, and prosecution will be strengthened by the support.

The intervention is being coordinated by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the U.S. Department of State.

The announcement was made in a statement released on Monday by Femi Babafemi, Director of Media for NDLEA.

The chairman of the anti-drugs agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (ret. ), made the requests after meeting with American representatives in Abuja and Washington, D.C.

The project will be carried out in Nigeria by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The assistance will strengthen NDLEA’s intelligence-driven inquiries using various tools, including legal texts, an e-library for prosecution, and others.

Babafemi stated that by adopting enhanced collection, handling, and custody practices, the agency would be able to prosecute cases with solid evidence.

The initiative “will be a vital step in furthering our shared objective of a united, peaceful, and stable Nigeria,” the U.S. government stated in its message.

By Abubakar A Gummi.

Accidents happen in daily activities – in house halls, schools, offices, markets, or on the roads. A woman cuts her hand while cutting an onion. A boy falls from the wall or on a bicycle and faints or breaks his leg. Motorcycles and cars crash every day. Many people die in a fire outbreak. Lives may be lost not because of these accidents but lack of knowledge of what to do at the moment of occurrence or before taking the victim to the hospital.

Many situations may require emergency treatment to save lives. A hospital may be located far. Fire service may not be available. Road safety may be far from the place of the event. As a result, victims suffer a lot. If it is an accident, he may lose much blood, resulting in death before taking him to the hospital. Hence, individuals need to be trained to rescue minor or serious ills or injuries.

An attempt has been made to reduce the number of mortality, hence introducing a new topic in basic science and essential technology in our primary and secondary schools; first aid. First aid is emergency assistance given to an ill or injured person before taking him to the hospital.

This was a good move because educating a child is like educating the whole society. As it was said, “teaching a child is like writing on a rock; it will never wash away”. Unfortunately, the topic mainly focused on what first aid is, the type of first aid, and why the need to know about first aid, not how to perform the first aid.

In recent years, new inventions have been made, more types of machinery increased, vehicles and more factories have been constructed, and people have turned to using gas stoves, Electric stoves and heaters. More and more electrical appliances are used .hence the chance of increased accidences and incidences.

Therefore, there is a need to explain more on the topic and expand it to subjects in particular in our various schools. There is a need to teach them the following:

-What is first aid.

-Importance of first aid 

-Types of first aid

-First-aid Kit

-Travelling requirements

-What to keep at home for the need of first aid

-What to keep in our offices

-What to keep in our schools

-Precaution to stay away from Hazard 

-How to prevent hazard

-First aid for CPR

-First aid for a person choking

-First aid for a medication or drug overdose.

-Reducing the risk of infected wounds during first aid 

-Using a bandage during first aid

-Making an arm slip

-First aid during flooding

-How to return home safely after flooding

-Abdominal pain in adult 

-Abdominal pain in children

– How to respond to Hazard

-How to treat yourself when hot water burns you. 

-how to call for rescue.

And many more.

All these mentioned above can only be treated as a topic in detail with practicality. There is a need to focus more on it because more lives are lost every day, not because of the hazard but not knowing what to do.

Before government turn to this, there is a need for people in our society to learn more about first aid and enlighten others.

In today’s digital era, there are many ways to learn. There are free online courses, and there is 

Google and there are YouTube channels.

You can teach thousands of people through social media by sharing your ideas. It is not necessary that you must have an organisation. You can decide on your own to go to any school in your community and request permission to use one period to enlighten students. You can share in mosque one or two tips every day.

Our youths need to understand that no matter how little it is, their contribution is significant to society.

NGOs are doing their best to enlighten and give a day workshop to students or organise a few days of training to equip people on first aid. But people are also needed to contribute more.

Abubakar A Gummi wrote from Zamfara state via abubakargummi06@gmail.com.

By Babayo Sule, PhD

The 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup is no doubt a beginning of a fresh era in intercultural relationships globally because of the indelible marks of perception, dynamism, fresh vigours, advancement of a new model and, most importantly, the introduction of a new style of reception, fanfare and farewell from the host to the world. Hosting a gargantuan event like FIFA World Cup is certainly a herculean task that financial muscles and political influence alone cannot earn. It takes beyond the lobby, indefatigable consultations, display of economic prowess, commitment, smart strategies that will outsmart competitors and, above that, a clandestine promise of delivery and reliability. Of course, Qatar surmounted all these obstacles and won the hosting. Beyond that, the World Cup was successfully organised, hosted, done and dusted most sublimely and fashionably way to some groups, perhaps.

Not long ago, some Western scholars, including Fukuyama (1996), Huntington (1996) and Lewis (1992), struggled hard to convince the world that the Western ideology, civilisation and system are forever the best and can never be competed with or matched in any circumstances. But for the critical counterattacks of the likes of Sa’id (2005), Harun Yahaya, Nefeily (2002) and some others, the Fukuyama-led cultural clash nearly succeeded in defeating the world to surrender to the almighty West and despair from any form of competition. Fortunately, the Sa’id-led counterattacks made us believe that cultural clash or advancing it is an act of ignorance that can be suppressed with dialogue and better understanding built on tolerance and respect. The approach of Qatar to the 2022 FIFA World Cup practically convinced us to discard the former school and hold firm on the latter.

When I learnt that the small country of Qatar, with just a population of 3 million, spent a breath-taking $200 billion, I cautioned myself to wait patiently and see what the country is after because my inner ego told me that the country is definitely up to something otherwise it will be crazy enough to believe this embezzlement amidst the myriads of squalor, deprivation, abject penury, natural disasters and other sufferings emanating from armed conflicts in the Muslim-dominated states. Qatar should have diverted this huge amount of money for humanitarian intervention in the most affected states, but my curiosity continues to deter me from concluding without seeing the actual intention. At last, it is revealed glowingly most passionately and soothingly to the global Ummah that Qatar invested in a modern and strategic Jihad.

Football is arguably the most unifying festival or even phenomenon globally, more than anything. Even religion today is not hypnotising like football, especially among youth. Take Nigeria, for example. Divisions are sharp and threatening to national unity in virtually all matters, even that of critical national importance like security, except for football. In an employment to strategic parastatals or apportion of a political position, no section of the country will tolerate the composition and the outlook of the national team, the darling Super Eagles. But in football, Ahmed Musa can score against Argentina in the World Cup, celebrate by prostrating before Allah (SWT), one of the major pillars of five congregational daily prayers and a major point of bringing one closer to his Creator, the Hausa/Fulani, Igbos, Yorubas, all the more than 400 ethnic groups, the Muslims, Christians, ritualists, animists and the North and South will unanimously celebrate the goal without minding exactly the mode and pattern of the celebration of the player. The same thing is applicable if a Christian player scores and celebrates using his religious signals and symbols. But for football, what can be tolerated that way in our mother country? Should a Minister prostrate in front of a national broadcast to celebrate the country and the achievement of his Ministry, trending impending insults among divided Nigerians will take weeks actively?

For Qatar, the small country lured the globe to its culture and way of using football as a tool. The country satisfactorily met all the requirements and fulfilled all the datelines, resources, infrastructures, provisions and all that is needed to host a successful World Cup. On several visits, the FIFA team always expressed its satisfaction with the level of preparations and provisions made by Qatar. However, some days before the commencement, Qatar boldly rose its head before the world and declared that it is a country of faith, culture, values and a system that must be respected without any compromise. Alcoholism in the stadiums, gay and other amoral attitudes are banned throughout the event, and any violation will surely attract a sanction according to the laws of Qatar governed by the Shari’ah system. Instantly, the belief that the West has in cultural clashes and the arrogant display of the ethnocentric chauvinism of superiority surfaced.

The Western media pounced on Qatar, and some even threatened to either boycott the event or Qatar must be forced to rescind its decision and guidelines for attending the event. Qatar stood firm and pledged never to compromise its stand on the ground that Qatar respects all cultures, and anywhere the citizens of the country visit, they respect and adhere to the guidelines, principles and laws of the land; then, why should her own be different? In what ways is any culture superior or advanced or super enough to bulldoze and overshadow the host culture? Fortunately, the FIFA President, being honest, frank and fair, supported Qatar fully and chided the West for, according to him, ‘its hypocrisy, intolerance, arrogance and immorality. Instead of the West apologising to the world for its more than 300 years of plunder and arrogance, it is parading tits trademark again’. The Western media, unrelenting, resorted to blackmail that the FIFA officials were bribed to grant Qatar the hosting, and the FIFA is bribed to approve the preparations and accept the conditions of Qatar without any protest.

The West, which mesmerised and dazzled the world with its modern scientific and technological advancement, effervescent skyscrapers, efficient system, and continuous innovation, failed the simple test of tolerance, respect and morality. The moral bankruptcy appears disappointing. Sayyid Qutb earlier berated the West for its handicap in a moral view. He expressed his wonders in seeing the miraculous feat achieved by the West in technology and development but rebuked them for moral emptiness, cultural intolerance, intellectual fallacies of distorting Islamic culture and values to him and bestiality exhibited by humankind in their societies. The FIFA President himself chastised the West for its sheepish behaviour and the display of immorality to the level of bestial nuptiality. The West arrogantly believed that it had the monopoly of setting the agenda for even cultural perception. The long-term monopoly in the political and economic control of the world intoxicated the West to believe that it must always determine the standard for anything, and it must have its way. But Qatar, a small but mighty country, challenged this view and put a sudden stop to it in style.

Qatar designed a Jihad model and unveiled it where all the attentions are. They say, ‘hit them where it hurts’, and Qatar hit where it hurts, but it soothes many. The opening ceremony sent waves of meticulous fantasy and a display of a fabulous enigma of people that aspired to differ in all ramifications from the acclaimed normal norm. Instead of the noisy fanfare, thunderous jamboree and a competition to display nudity and craziness of masquerades, the environment of the opening ceremony was ensconced in a serene clime with the melodious recitations of the Glorious Quran and a lullaby of the romantic Arab scents and marvellous dressing. The spectators silently listened and were hypnotised by the beauty and eloquence of the Qur’anic recitation.  

Instantly, the campaign of calumny, blackmail and propaganda swung into action in the West. The BBC declined to air the opening ceremony. The major Western media embarked on futile and baseless negative reporting. For instance, the Independent of November 21^st 2022, wrote a piece mocking Qatar, the host, titled ‘Qatar World Cup defeat proves there are some things in sport you can’t pay for’. Another article in the Independent in the date titled ‘Qatar’s opening World Cup impression slips into disaster on and off the pitch’.

In another propaganda, CNN reports in an article on 20^th November 2022, ‘Qatar makes World Cup in a debut controversial tournament of firsts’. The 24^th November 2022 article by the Independent titled ‘What on earth is Morgan Freeman doing in Qatar? Queried why Morgan Freeman should be in Qatar. In the assumption of the Western media, Qatar spent lavishly to win. When and where World Cup opening match is won by the host? Morgan Freeman is seen either as too civilised to be in Qatar to attend a Qur’anic opening ceremony or irrelevant. The motive of Qatar is entirely a different ball game. Qatar has won the World Cup in the eyes of the fair-minded, culturally-tolerant but specifically, the Muslim world. The Jihad exhibited a moderate contemporary approach, and the resistance against the imposition of alien cultures to then host succeeded in opening the eyes of the imperialised and the international relations and international system will, of course, never be the same again.

Other resistance to neo-colonialism and new imperialism are unfolding courtesy of what Qatar did. Peacefully but assertively, Qatar altered the shape of the global political economy for keen observers. Even Huntington must revisit his clash of civilisations and rethink the remaking of world order beyond his only perceived clash.

The damages that the West self-inflicted in the effort to spoil the World Cup show in Qatar can take many decades or centuries to restore. For example, they are enlightening the world to resist any culture that it is not comfortable with, starting with their forceful imposition. They may continue to lure and influence the world using economic leverage and threats, but countries that are self-conscious, like Qatar, which internally recycled its economic buoyancy, will resist and counter. African states may take a lesson or continue to be humiliated by the world at will. The West, in its intolerance, informed the world that the crusade for human rights, democratisation and other dangerous exports (Blum, 2013) might be resisted, and it is a setback to its agenda of ruling the world using institutions and agreements.

Another lesson the world learnt from the weird attitude exhibited by the West in Qatar is to draw back and resist any attempt to denigrate or demean any culture, value, faith or nation. It is a scientific gateway for many global policymakers and key players to justify when pushing an agenda or tackling it. The worse of the scenarios is the moral emptiness and sheepish attitude of some countries and their football teams. The sport, as if it were a living organism, showed them an early exit to save the world from their embarrassment and allowed the serious-minded ones to battle it out.

One fascinating scenario in Qatar that will outlive the tournament and qualify the event to be extraordinary is that the vulgarity of Qatar is not leaving any stone unturned in its newly discovered Jihadism. The likes of Dr Zakir Naik were offered the opportunity to display their prowess in Da’awah, and the accommodation was designed to introduce the Islamic process of cleansing from impurity, a discovery that leaves many visitors dazzled and interested in Islamic teaching. The calls to prayer, display of Qur’anic verses from all angles of the city and Prophetic golden words all revealed exactly what Qatar spent its money for and not what the Independent article misperceived or tried to push deliberately. The final or closing ceremony after Argentina won the Cup was exotic. African musicians, including the Nigerian Davido, were invited but were confined to the World Cup tune prepared by a Qatari singer. The best player, Lionel Messi, was decorated in the regalia of the most valuable Arabian dress instead of the obscured juju and the usual spray of liquor and other madness that have no place in most civilisations but are being pushed down the throats of the communities by the imperial powers.

The World Cup has come and gone, but its memory will forever relish our minds and in what Qatar did, ‘Verily, in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe’ (Q26:8). Qatar has opened a gateway for other world countries to liberate themselves from the encumbrances of new imperialism and neo-colonialism that is used to push the imperialism (Nkrumah, 1965). The small country has presented a fashionable and peaceful model of Da’awah that will strategically counter propaganda and a model of Jihad devoid of terrorism. It is a kind of Jihad that is difficult to provide a vacuum for conspiracy or damaging insults. Qatar may face stereotyping and a campaign of blackmail, and other Arabs and Islamic states may not smell the opportunity of hosting the World Cup for the next century or more, provided the West continues to control the world, but world countries can now develop the effrontery to counter abuse and disrespect of their faiths and cultures and may advance to ward off imperialism. African continent may restore its umbilical cord with Latin America and the Caribbean to re-establish a strong, surviving and successful Pan-Africanism. Qatar, in our eyes, is a blessed land of the righteous that present a model of liberation. God bless the country and the tournament!

Babayo Sule (PhD) wrote from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities Management and Social Sciences, Federal University Kashere Gombe, Nigeria. He can be reached via babayosule@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it does not know the quantities of the new naira notes it printed and released for circulation in the country.

The CBN Deputy Governor, Aisha Ahmad, made this disclosure when she appeared before the House of Representative on Thursday.

Ahmad, who represented the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was before the lawmakers to brief them on the apex bank’s cashless policy and cash withdrawal limits.

The Daily Reality gathered that the lawmakers had on Wednesday requested that Ahmad should appear before the House since Emefiele was outside the country for health issues.

Ahmad was asked by a lawmaker, Sada Soli, about the quantities of the new notes printed due reason to non-availability of the notes days after they were released to the public.

But Ahmad, while responding to his question, said she does not know the quantities of notes printed by the apex bank.