Nigeria

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Embassy of Nigeria in Qatar has advised Nigerians traveling for the World Cup to obey the rules and regulations of the host country.

The advice was contained in a statement signed by the embassy in Doha on Thursday.

“The Embassy wishes to strongly advise that Nigerians traveling for the soccer fiesta should endeavour to obey and respect the laws of the host country while in Qatar and ensure that they comply with all relevant guidelines/requirements for visiting fans before embarking on any trip” The statement read.

The statement further disabused the minds of Nigerians from any attempt to change the special world cup visa and entry permit to work visa. The embassy argued that it is not possible and Nigerians should not fall victims to unscrupulous elements.

“Moreso, the Embassy wishes to state unequivocally that the special world cup visa called Haya card and Entry permit cannot and will not be changed or transferred to work visa or permit. Nigerian should therefore not fall victim to unscrupulous elements spreading fake news in that regard to rip off innocent Nigerians” The statement further stated.

Nigeria did not qualify for the 2022 World Cup and will not be participating in the tournament.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

According to reports, Brigadier-General Mohammed Fadah, the director general of the National Youth Service Corps, has been fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Eddy Megwa, the NYSC spokesman, merely stated that a formal statement would be released on Friday when reached.

The Daily Reality understands that the president decided on Thursday, nevertheless.

Only six months had passed since Fadah was appointed director of the NYSC in May 2022 before he was fired.

By Dr. Yakubu Wudil and Umar F. Ahmad

As we head into the second week of the 27^th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which started on November 6, delegates and observers have been involved in discussions on various subjects regarding how to achieve climate action and build sustainable economies around the world. Therefore, taking a step back and reviewing some of the successes and drawbacks recorded based on the first week of the climate negotiation conference is essential.

COP27 is taking place, knowing fully that there is an inadequate will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The past year has witnessed unprecedented heatwaves around the world and ravaging floods like the ones experienced in Pakistan and some parts of Nigeria. These saw millions of people confronting the impacts of concurrent crises in food, water, energy, and cost of living, worsened by fierce geopolitical tensions and conflicts. However, with all these adverse effects, some countries have reversed climate policies and returned to business as usual. This, in turn, poses a threat to the host continent, which remains vulnerable to the effects of climate change and has contributed the least to global warming.

The African Union (AU) marked the second day of the conference as ‘Africa Day.’ Africa Day offered the African Development Bank (AFDB) and countries, including development partners, the opportunity to pinpoint measures that can guide them in tapping the continent’s unique economic potential. However, a caution was raised by the AFDB president Akinwumi Adesina, “even with Africa’s unique and vast arable land, we cannot unlock our agricultural potential unless we adapt to climate change.”

A youth leader, Lucky Abeng, made it clear to the AU to ensure that the conference implements decisions reached at the meetings without further delay. The Global Center for Adaptation and the African Union Commission signed a memorandum of understanding that involves the mobilization of at least $25 billion for the African Adaptation Acceleration Program over five years. This will quickly prepare the continent for the consequences of climate change.

The national statement delivered by the President of Senegal made it clear that Africa is reaffirming its commitments under the Paris Agreement and its obligations to the continent’s specific needs being taken into account. “What we need is a just transition,” he further stressed. While these statements were ongoing, there happens to be a big climate financing for the African continent. Starting with the commitment made by a group of about 85 African insurers to come up with a facility that will climate-proof the most vulnerable in the continent known as the African Climate Risk Facility (ACRF). This commitment will provide $1.4 billion in climate risk insurance to protect 1.4 billion people against droughts, floods, and cyclones through African sovereigns, NGOs, and aid agencies. These measures will contribute to bridging the wide climate risk gap on the continent exerted by wealthy nations for compensation due to ‘loss and damage’ caused by global warming.

On decarbonization day, Africa’s renewable energy share is 40%, the highest in the world, says Amani, the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union. She added that the “African common position on energy access and just transition stipulates that Africa will continue to use its resources, including oil and gas, the cleanest form of fossil fuels.”

However, even with fossil fuels, the recent Russia-Ukraine war has exposed the world’s lack of preparedness to meet its energy challenges. These challenges have sparked present-day political debate due to scientific and public concerns about the environment. Consequently, the recent effort by Germany to restart its previously shut downed three nuclear power plants has made the world reconsider its position regarding nuclear power.

The African continent should be looking towards deploying all low-carbon energy sources, including nuclear, in the energy mix. Complementing renewables such as solar and wind, which are intermittent sources of energy, nuclear energy requires less land to generate the same amount of electricity 24 hours a day.

The President of the United States (U.S), Joe Biden, echoed that “the climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security, and the very life of the planet.” He further announced bolder protections against methane pollution from the oil and gas industry and that the U.S. will meet its emissions target by 2030.

The European Union announced its goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and is set to host a high-level event in the second week of the conference to launch an initiative called ‘Team Europe Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Africa.’ Consequently, a recent article by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, reported that “many of my peers are frustrated with Western hypocrisy and its inability to take responsibility.” He argued that governments have repeatedly failed to honour their commitments to the $100 billion fund for climate adaptation and mitigation in the developing world. Some also cite this as his decision to shun this year’s event.

Interestingly, the African continent sends many delegates to these summits. Still, there has been noticeable silence from leading African activists on turning ambition into action. This may be attributed to the no active role participation assigned to these delegates but rather appointed as observers viewing these proceedings on a TV screen.

Meanwhile, other African delegates seem to not care about the continent they are representing, however, and sadly, become ‘attack dogs’ for African governments in lobbying for ‘Climate Financing’ reparations and are being sponsored by their governments to attend these summits. The UN Environment states that Africa needs 3 trillion US Dollars to implement the continent’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs), but the question remains whether the national budget of African governments is considered a climate action instrument or whether they are utilizing their available resources to build climate-smart communities. In the remaining days of the conference, the delegates and observers from African nations need to look within the continent and work together as there are saviours out there.

Mr Umar Ahmad is a nuclear physicist working with the Centre for Renewable Energy Research at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria (oumarulfarouq@gmail.com). Dr Yakubu Wudil is with the Renewable Energy Research Center, KFUPM, Saudi Arabia. (yswudil@yahoo.com)

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Nigeria after his routine medical check-up in London, United Kingdom.

Special Assistant on Digital Communication to the President, Bashir Ahmad, announced the President’s return in a Facebook post on Sunday.

He said, 

“President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Abuja from London, the United Kingdom.” 

Amidst criticism of medical tourism, Buhari departed the country for the UK on October 31, 2022, for what the presidency described as a routine medical check-up.

The trip will be one of several medical trips the President has embarked on since assuming office in 2015, spending at least seven months abroad.

By Aliyu Nuhu

Police authorities were angry for having the Nigeria police force ranked among the worst police in the world. But the police is its own worst enemy because it lacks effective Internal control and cleansing mechanism.

In 2019 NDLEA arrested a policeman in Borno who has been supplying drugs to Boko Haram. Two days ago a very bad video of a policeman went viral. He not only collected bribe, he short-changed his colleagues. The Police posted to guard former president Jonathan’s house stole everything including his clothes.

In 2017 when the people of Rijana said kidnappings along Kaduna-Abuja highway were carried out in collaboration with the police, the police authorities only transferred its men from the area and replaced them with another set. The bad ones were taken to another place to go and continue their trade. In the same year, the policemen sent to guard former president Jonathan’s house looted it bare and sold all the furniture and electronics. They broke doors and windows too. In short they vandalized the house!

Three years back, villagers on the Abuja highway blocked the highway to protest killing of vigilante informant by the kidnappers after he was given away by the police. In an interview, the kidnappers claimed to purchase their weapons from the police.

Nigerian Police is not only the most corrupt force in the world, it is also the most shameless and dangerous.

Imagine a former IG himself telling the world that he was free to sleep with any police woman of his choice. And he kept his words by impregnating and marrying one and promoting her in the service in return. Now retired, the former IG is said to be under demonic spell with the woman imprisoning him in the house. Where on earth but Nigeria can this happen without retribution?

The police had admitted being involved in kidnappings, the best thing is for the force to parade those men and dismiss them and at the same time prosecute them in courts.

There are good men and women in the police force no doubt, but one rotten egg in the bowl can spoil an omelette of thousands eggs. And there are more rotten eggs in the Nigeria police today.

The federal government should draft the military to restore sanity on the expressway. Military are involved in internal policing jobs because the police has failed to do its job.

It is that bad!

Aliyu Nuhu is a renowned social commentator. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.

By Abubakar Aminu Ibrahim

Qatar is a peninsular Arab country whose terrain comprises an arid desert, and a long Persian (Arab) submerse shoreline of tantalising sceneries. It is also an industrial country with ultramodern architecture, dawning from its ancient Islamic infrastructure.

Doha, Qatar’s capital city, is well known for its elfin skyscrapers and alluring shores. It is a world-class capital city, home to the limestone Museum of Islamic Art. Thanks to the World Cup tournament, the oil-producing country is ready to spread its dominance by hosting the global spectacle this year.

However, this write-up is not purposely to eulogise Qatar or its capital city, nor attempt to lay statistical predictions of the World Cup tournament. No! But if you are an intending immigrant, if you have started giving a deposit to an agent that will take you to Qatar as a worker, if your dream is to get to Qatar and share all the pictures on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, then fasten your seat belt. The ride is yours.

First of all, let me clarify one thing for you, my friend. Having a dream is not wrong at all; it is, in fact, something inherent in all of us. On the contrary, having the vision of migrating to any country is not wrong. So, chase your dream and work for it. However, you must be careful enough not to be fooled, enslaved and handcuffed by projections and assumptions. If you go anywhere, ensure you hold yourself tied to your honour and integrity. Make sure that your personality as a human is assured.

I write this piece to enlighten some of my people who intend to migrate, especially to Qatar. Qatar is a veiled bride if you are a third-class groom! This write-up shall unveil the bride.

This is an output of research that dip into the plight of migrants in Qatar. Perhaps, emigrants suffer in different places worldwide for specific reasons, but Qatar is uniquely infamous for its treatment of migrants.

 I watched a series of documentaries that taped agonising stories of how blacks and Asians are maltreated in Qatar. Usually, our people cooperate with agents and pay a lot of money to process their migration to countries like Qatar. Contracts are signed with promises, such as shelter, food and a monthly salary. Such deals are always mouth-watering to suffering Nigerians and others across developing countries. But they always come with unbearable prices.

 If you refer to how this write-up described Qatar in the opening lines, the least you should expect from such a country is having almost zero judicial systems that will handle civil charges in courts. But not until 2018 did the city of Doha get a labour court parlour with only six judges to address complaints of its migrant workers. It is even more baffling to hear that the labour court in Doha admitted that out of over two thousand complaints, only sixty-nine were processed (wow!).

These complaints are, in most cases, against host companies of these migrant workers whose salaries are withheld for months. Ibrahim (a Kenyan migrant in Qatar) laments in a France 24 documentary that he and his co-workers received no pay for over three months, and this practice is regular. He added that they were promised good living conditions, food and timely salaries in the contract they signed, but none of these was ever honoured. Worse still, their passports were seized, meaning they could not return home at will.

In another interview with some Philippinos working under a Qatari lady, they said that day was their first day off in their three years of work. Another one cried that he would not want his people to see his condition, and he sometimes goes out at night to snap some happy pictures, even though the police sometimes chase him!

It is disheartening that even in airports, Qatari security agents embarrass travellers and deny them basic provisions, especially if their visitor holds passports from an African country, especially a Nigerian one.

An undersecretary for the Minister of Labour admitted that despite having a tribunal now, some business leaders are opposed to them. Therefore some of the policies are purely and only theoretical. Some migrants taped in court waiting rooms appear visibly hopeless and helpless.

All these are only some of the realities in Qatar, only the victims of this ancient way of thinking can tell you how it feels to be denied your fundamental rights as a human just because of your skin colour or social status. The Doha News proclaimed how migrants build almost all the infrastructures in the country. Yet, when workers die at construction sites, the only tribute they get is having their pictures pasted on a wall. Thanks to the mobile stadium constructed for the World Cup, hundreds of people sacrificed their lives to win bread for their families.

In the final analysis, I aim to make you pause and pose a question for yourself: in what capacity are you migrating? Who are you going to work for? What type of job are you looking for? How are you planning to return home if things do not work out? But, on the other hand, what is your reward at the end if things are working?

Think twice. It is said in Hausa, “tsalle daya a ke a fada rijiya, amma sai an yi dubu ba a fito ba“, which means it takes a single jump into a well, but one will jump a thousand times without getting out.

Abubakar Aminu Ibrahim wrote from Katsina via matazu247@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu and Auwal Umar

Nigeria has received 31 tonnes of humanitarian help from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), including food and other necessities of life.

According to the UAE’s news agency, the assistance has been delivered to help Nigerians, primarily women and children, who were harmed by the recent floods that ravaged 34 of the country’s 36 states.

Dr Fahad Obaid Al Taffaq, UAE’s ambassador to Nigeria, said, “This is part of the UAE’s solidarity with Nigeria and its people in facing the impact of the floods and the casualties and material damages they caused.

“It reflects the close relations between the two countries and the leading role of the UAE in extending a helping hand to countries affected by natural disasters and the effects of climate change worldwide, including throughout Africa.”

This year, Nigeria saw the worst floods in ten years, which have been attributed to excessive rain and the discharge of the Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon.

Over 600 people were killed, and 1,546 were injured by floods that occurred last month.

By Abba Abdulwahab Danmaraya

Congratulations to all my colleagues and friends who have recently finished their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. I wish you success in your career, and may Allah bless the certificates you have acquired. Your number is too enormous for me to follow each of you and extend my wish but when you come across this piece, bear in mind that it’s for you.

As you achieve another record/milestone in your life journey, I want to advise you to embrace skills and apprenticeship and engage in any small business that comes your way. When you do that faithfully with God’s blessings, the big and lucrative ones you so desire may come to you.

You don’t need to be told about the hardship people experience in Nigeria. The saturated labour market and the job racketeering that’s going on in the country are under the watch of those who can make things right, but since it favours most of them and their loved ones, they allow it to continue the bad way.

You shouldn’t be carried away by the mentality of some graduates and refuse to work hard. Instead, get as much connection as possible, learn new things and improve the quality of your thought by thinking outside the box.

Today life has proven to us it is not only about how hard you work but also how brilliant you think/work. The certificates you possess don’t matter in getting you a job in most places in Nigeria if you have connections but also you can also be welcome to so many places if you can offer many things, create and work smarter.

Even on this social media, when used correctly and with caution, you will meet with many things, people, and items that will help shape and mould you to be a better version of yourselves. With your smartphones, you will learn a lot, and you can also generate more money and maximise your income when you manage your time and thought.

Abba Abdulwahab Danmaraya wrote via saniabdulwahabdanmaraya@gmail.com.

By Aishat M. Abisola

As everyone knows, maintaining a proper grasp of your mental health can be difficult, especially in stressful environments. Stressful situations make it hard for people to have good mental health, making the mind vulnerable to mental illnesses like depression or anxiety disorder.

As someone who has dealt with anxiety, I can say with complete honesty that it is a terrible thing to deal with and the feeling of it lingers for a while until you feel better.

The best way to describe the anxiety, or how it made me feel, is that it made me feel cold and numb. It was hard for me to breathe as if I was drowning and many hands were pulling me down.

I didn’t know anyone around me who felt the same way I did, so it was a struggle for me. Luckily, I found a way around it, which was through exercise.

I’ll be honest and say that I don’t exercise as much as I used to, but when I did, I felt as if I had no worries. So I understand if you might be confused about why and how I started feeling better with exercise.

What you should know about exercise is that it keeps people in peak physical form and improves their overall well-being by creating changes in the brain.

Let me clarify that any form of exercise is better than none: yoga, walking, swimming, martial arts, stretching, and housework (despite what some may think, things like sweeping and mopping can put your muscles to work).

People who often exercise generally sleep better, feel more energetic during the day, have better memories, and feel more positive about themselves.

This is not conjecture, but facts, as studies have shown that exercise can treat mild or moderate depression the same way antidepressant medication can – minus the side effects. For example, walking 15 minutes a day or walking for an hour reduces the risk of depression by 26%.

Inactivity damages your mental health in the same way that exercise can bring many benefits to your mental health. As a natural anti-anxiety treatment, exercise relieves stress and improves physical and psychological energy. In addition, exercise releases what I refer to as the body’s “Happy” chemicals (Serotonin, Endorphins).

These chemicals are known for improving one’s mood, and exercise releases a particular amount depending on the type of exercise.

Exercise also improves physical in more ways than one:

• Improves cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure, improving cholesterol levels, and reducing the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart disease.

• Helps with diabetes by improving blood glucose control, reducing cardiovascular risk factors, helping with weight loss, and delaying/preventing the development of type 2 diabetes.

• Reduces the risk of cancers: stomach cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, uterine (endometrial) cancer, etc.

• Improves bone health by strengthening the muscles and bones because ageing causes bone density loss and prevents osteoporosis.

• Increase the chances of living longer.

• Helps you to maintain an appropriate weight level.

• Improves brain functions and reduces the risk of dementia.

When it comes down to exercise, at most, you should perform 2.5 – 5 hours of exercise a week.

It isn’t recommended that you do your exercise all at once. Instead, reducing it into time intervals would be best to make it easier. If you don’t have much spare time, here are ways that you can exercise without it taking up too much time:

• You can try walking or cycling if you have a bicycle.

• Incorporate exercise into your daily lifestyle by maybe taking the stairs when you would probably take the elevator or parking your car (if you have one) far from your destination.

• You can practice yoga by searching on YouTube and following the videos through the motions.

• You can exercise in the morning before you prepare for work.

• Dancing is a fun method of exercising without putting much effort. Just play music and move your body.

If you have a chronic condition like arthritis, a disability, weight issues, or an injury that prevents you from moving too much, talk to your doctor about ways for you to exercise safely. You can worsen your condition by exercising without consulting a doctor on the proper steps.

Another thing to note is that if you are feeling pain while exercising, stop and rest. Drink some water and lie down. If the pain continues, don’t ignore it. Go and see a doctor for help.

If you’ve heard the saying “Health is Wealth” before, then you know that you should prioritize your body. Harming yourself to improve your mental health will only make it worse.

Exercise may be helpful to the body and mind, but make sure to listen when your body clearly says, “NO!”.

Aishat M. Abisola is a member of the Society for Health Communication, Wuye District, Abuja. She sent this article via aishatmohd02@gmail.com.

By Hassan Idris 

As students of sociology and criminal justice, we can’t debunk the fact that social control is a compelling discussion subject in the criminal justice system.  There has not been any society that exists without a social control mechanism to oversee the behaviours of its members. The Nigerian police, my discussion subject, is regarded as the ‘gatekeeper’ of the criminal justice system because it’s the nearest social control mechanism to the people. However, social control is unarguably the most preponderant static aspect of every human society. It’s the prerequisite for maintaining decorum, orderliness, and stability, which becomes a vital thing for every human society to develop a social control mechanism, be it formal or informal, to oversee the behaviour of the members of the society and bring about development and stability.

Marshall, in 1996 defined Social control as “the process of keeping individuals in check, moderating their behaviours, and maintaining social order”. Social controls tend to encompass the strategies and mechanisms put in place to oversee the behaviours of the members of human society. Social control is the birth of human social relationships which may be informal (comprising written norms, values, or customs) or formal (typically practised by the personnel of constitutionally acknowledged agencies. But we cannot discredit that formal and informal social control mechanisms are derived from the habituation and rationalization that arises from repeated interaction. 

Okoye, in 2011 posited that the word” Police” comes from the Latin word politic, which means” civil administration”.  However, the first Professor of Criminology in Nigeria from the Prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria, Professor Odekunle, in 2010,  defined the police as “the government officials most proximate to crime, temporally and procedurally, and the leading figures in crime prevention, control and law enforcement processes”. The fundamental objectives of policing in society are to provide security, or at least a social and psychological feeling of security, for a majority of citizens, in a majority of places, and for most of the time. The police, the “gatekeeper” of the criminal justice system in all contemporary societies, is the most apparent agent of formal social control. This is why Bittner, in 1990, asserted that “social control and reactions to deviance are intimately bound up with the functions of the police because they all address the central problem posed by events or behaviour which ought not to be happening”. 

However, the fact remains that the police assist other social control agencies through many of their actions. The paramount role the police play in ensuring societal laws, norms and values are kept and regulated made it one of the cogent institutions of the criminal justice system. Most Nigerians would not refute that the police institution is the nearest institution with regular contact with the people, making it distinctive amongst other criminal justice institutions. The uniqueness of the police clenches the evidence that its decision and action on the street or in society is vital to the existence of the criminal justice system. The police are the “gatekeeper” of the criminal justice system, and it decides who moves into the system and who comes out. Therefore, every action or activity carried out by the police have myriad and huge implications for the criminal justice system and other institutions.

Furthermore, to understand the contemporary Nigerian police and the anti-people administration they portend, it’s paramount to trace back to the history of policing and the colonial policies that influenced the current bureaucratic policing we have today. The history of policing predates the modification of the police as a permanent occupational group within bureaucratic institutions providing the primary state response to crime and disorder.  In the past, before the emergence of the contemporary police we have today, it was traditionally the duty of all adults in the community, especially male adults, to prevent, control, and guide people from internal and external inversion and aversion. However, the emergence of the state with its wide bureaucracies brought about centralization, hierarchical authority, power structure and professionalism and the traditional strategies of policing were transformed from everyone’s business to the state business.

The historical emergence of the conventional police over the globe occurred independently; nevertheless, the historical emergence of policing in Nigeria is categorized into three. The first category is the pre-colonial category which policing then includes the use of cults, messengers, secret societies and palace guards. Crime surveillance and curtailing then in Nigeria were executed by indigenous institutions which are regionally based.  The Northern and Southern Districts of the country’s system of policing were established on centralization and formalization. In the Northern parts of Nigeria, monopolized by the Hausa-speaking ethnic group, the Dogarai was employed as the bodyguards of the Sark( Emir or King). They refine full-time policing in the community. Under the leadership of the Dogarai, the Sarkin Dogarai was charged with capturing and disciplining offenders and protecting the town from internal and external invasions. Similarly, in the Yoruba-speaking ethnic group of Western Nigeria, the Ilari, Emese, or even the Aguven was responsible for apprehending or arresting criminals.

In the secondary category, which is the colonial period, the system and principles of policing changed and became anti-people. The vitality of establishing the formal police by the colonial masters was essentially to serve and protect their commercial interests and not the people. It’s a reason we have brutal and anti-people policing in Nigeria today. I’ll justify that in the next paragraph when I’m discussing the post-colonial category of policing. The third category, which is the post-colonial category, the leftover system in the pre-colonial category, which is anti-people policing, was still carried to this period, even when the colonial masters left, and this is evidence of why the style of law enforcement used by the Nigerian police today is not for the masses. 

The Nigerian police, without a doubt, have lost confidence in the hearts of the people, and there have been accused of unnecessary arrest and even breach of law. But we can’t deny that the Nigerian police from inception was built upon the wrong foundation because the British established a predatory police administration for Nigeria for the fundamental purpose and strategy of sustaining, promoting, and ensuring the socio-economic and political orientations and occupations of the colonial masters. 

In conclusion, the current pervasive feelings of insecurity and the near-total breakdown of law and order as a result of the upsurge in different criminal activities, like terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, political assassinations, and ritual killings, in Nigeria is an indictment of the failure of the Nigeria police force as the most visible agent of formal social control and the gatekeeper of the criminal justice system in the country. However, despite these shortcomings, the Nigerian police force remains a vital pillar through which conformity and maintenance of order are installed.

Hassan Idris is a sociologist and poet and sent this article via idrishassan035@gmail.com.