By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu
“Hi Di Hi nga atstohuwar transhomar Nehwa dai ta kai. In tai tirihin sai a mayassuwa, in tassake kuma a zaka mayassuwa har ta gaji tai bindings baaammmmm!” (Roughly translated from a mischievous presentation of Sokoto Hausa dialect: “THIS PDP IS LIKE AN OLD NEPA TRANSFORMER. IT WILL TRIP AND SOMEONE WILL GO FIX IT UP, IF IT TRIPS AGAIN SOMEONE WILL GO BACK AND FIX IT UP UNTIL IT GETS TIRED AND IMPLODES BAAAMMMMM!” Taken from a friend’s contribution to an online forum.
THIS is the time that Nigerian politics could have done with the flowery language of the late Dr. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, one of the most colourful characters to walk the minefield of Nigerian politics.
If we attempt a post-humous reading of his fertile imagination, the earth-shaking event of last weekend, with the walk out of seven governors, and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, from the PDP convention in Abuja, would certainly have elicited an absolutely quotable line for posterity!
Okay, the venerable old man died a long time ago, but one of his pithy statements might have anticipated things, and would just have conveyed the colour of last Saturday’s event: “when the come comes to become”! Well, the “come came to become” and it unfurled before the Nigerian people, thanks to live television which, ironically, had been set up to give a contrary impression.
NTA’s live coverage was to underline the legitimacy of the process while presenting the “family-like unity-of purpose”, so central to PDP’s narrative since 1999. Like soap bubble, the charade exploded in their faces, much to the utter embarrassment of the denizens of the party.
Not even Jerry Gana’s “House Nigger” smiles and ubiquitous groveling display of servitude could prettify the gaping crater, deep enough to consume the entire vote-rigging contraption. The PDP is in utter disarray!
I spoke with a very close confidant of top-most leaders of the party on Tuesday evening and he was brutally frank about the situation. “These people studied us very carefully and they struck when it hurts most”, my interlocutor told me. Unfortunately, he added, we do not have people in leadership, with knowledge and wisdom.
Even the fixer-in-chief, Tony Anenih, appeared shell-shocked on television on Monday morning when he read a meaningless two or three line statement to the media, that a meeting held and it would continue. Those who made a career of mischief, intrigue and are past masters of cloak-and-dagger, were beaten to their game. Stories emerging in the media, say that “New PDP” wrong-footed the old PDP assembled at Eagle Square, because security reports hadn’t foretold what happened.
The riposte of a parallel presentation of an alternative leadership was so well choreographed, that those assembled around President Jonathan, who were already strutting triumphantly, deluded they had clipped wings of the dissenting governors fatally, found to their chagrin, that PDP’s implosion truly resembles the proverbial old NEPA transformer indeed!
Let us be clear about a few basic points here. The PDP operates from a premise that elections can be securely and successfully rigged, when its governors control the levers of power in states. The governors that pulled out, in the majority, are from states with large number of voters: Kano, Sokoto, Rivers and Jigawa, for example.
The emergence of “New PDP” narrows very dangerously, President Jonathan’s base of support in 2015 and this is a self-inflicted humiliation, arising from the desperate effort to seize initiative in the lead to that landmark election.
There is the earlier emergence of the APC, which continues to consolidate its place in the consciousness of the Nigerian people as a potentially viable alternative to the PDP behemoth. The sweep of the APC already takes in the Southwest; a part of the South-South and some states in the North. As things stand today, President Jonathan’s PDP has narrowed dangerously to a South-South party, with presence in Benue and Plateau states in North Central Nigeria.
Even in the National Assembly, the Jonathan PDP is becoming a minority. While insults and insensitive statements by people like Chief EK Clarke, alienate more sections of the Nigerian society.
In politics, as we all know, perception is everything. Unfortunately for President Jonathan, his presidency is perceived to be very divisive and polarising; there is too much effort to manipulate the fault lines of ethnicity and religion, and the administration has narrowed in base, pandering ever more to elite preferences of the Niger Delta, including rehabilitated criminal elements who became modern-day Nigerian (or more appropriately, Niger Delta billionaires!).
It is not good strategy to open so many battlefronts then expect to be victorious; the battle within the PDP was so badly handled because of the arrogant assumption that the Tony Anenihs, Jerry Ganas, EK Clarkes and Tukurs, will deploy time-tested cunning and ruthlessness to subdue dissenters within the party. But they miscalculated! There are too many endangered interests that the surprise would have been refusal to respond, as “New PDP” did!
The leading individuals in the “New PDP” have a serious dilemma which obliges towards the denouement we are witnessing today in Nigeria. It is very easy to pick on individuals, but together, they are formidable foes for Jonathan/Bamanga Tukur/Tony Anenih. In the long run, Jonathan might have to accept a most humiliating climb down, to ensure return of the “New PDP”.
The contours of rapproachment are beginning to form. The most important issues for individuals like Bukola Saraki, who is very central to the new arrangement, are the termination of the EFCC’s investigation into his alleged corrupt practices in power and at Societe Generale bank as well as stay of action from efforts to seize party machinery from his grip in Kwara State. Such grievances can be extrapolated into other recesses of the “New PDP”.
So for the sake of PDP’s bearhug on power and access to lucre, they are likely to rally around face-saving compromises in the long run. In truth, neither Jonathan’s PDP nor “New PDP” is concerned about genuine interests of the Nigerian people.
We are witnesses to a manifestation of what the much-lamented Chief Sunday Awoniyi saw with clarity, a couple of years ago: the PDP is a basket of scorpions, stinging themselves to death. But access to power and lucre made it imperative to ensure that lethal doses of poison do not take root so as not to end that much coveted access permanently.
The Sokoto analogy perfectly fits PDP’s politics that resembles a cheap, badly produced old American Western film. The self-acclaimed ‘largest party in Africa’ is actually not better than an old NEPA transformer; it cannot serve the needs of modern Nigeria!
Governor Kashim @ 47
LAST Monday, September 2nd, 2013, Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima clocked 47 years. I read that he had vigorously declined an offer by some friends to organize a birthday party for him in Abuja. I was not surprised that Kashim declined, because it just isn’t in his character!
I have known Kashim Shettima long enough to say, that he is one of the outstanding individuals in Nigerian political leadership today. Many of his peers who met him in the course of the politics which culminated in the formation of the APC, such as Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti state governor, have very good things impressions about Kashim’s intellectual capability and genuine devotion to the cause of Borno state and Nigeria’s progress. Kashim is a very passionate individual whose modesty and sincerity mask his deep intellect and a genuine love for scholarship.
He reads avidly and follows intellectual trends passionately and over the years, he amazes me, with his down-to-earth, humane qualities.
Kashim was manager of the Maiduguri branch of Zenith Bank, when my wife was transferred there in 2002; she resumed with our very young second child.
Kashim made her stay comfortable, arranging food delivery everyday from his own house at the bank’s guests’ house where my family had lodged. The fact that she was the wife of a journalist he had read avidly over the years, was a coincidence he appreciated so much. We became family friends ever since.
When I saw the trajectory of responsibilities that he was assigned in the Ali Modu Sherriff’s administration: Finance and Economic Development; Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Education; Agriculture and Health, it seemed he was highly trusted and was actually being prepared, almost inadvertently, for the position he now occupies as governor of Borno State.
It is his fate to provide leadership in one of the most tragic phases in Borno’s history. And the fact that he has remained committed to development, peace-building and reconciliation, tell of his strength of character. I once told him that he has a historical precursor to inspire him: one of the greatest rulers of old Kanem-Borno, Mai Idris Alooma. Alooma was a superb administrator and organiser of a brilliant empire in one of the great periods of African history.
Kashim Shettima is still a very young man, but he has demonstrated intellect, wisdom and statecraft enough, for us to comfortably predict that he will make definitive marks on the future of Nigeria. Happy Birthday Governor Kashim Shettima.
Jerry Gana, Suntai and the Taraba charade
JERRY GANA is unlikely to be absent in political, ethno-religious/regional controversies. When he became the chief orchestra conductor besides Danbaba Suntai at the Abuja airport the other day, it was clear that mischief was in its elements.
The Geography professor from Niger State and arguably Nigeria’s number one AGIP (Any Government In Power), declared with professorial surety that Suntai was capable of returning to power.
The days since have been anything but edifying in Taraba state. Jerry Gana moved on, organizing the convention which led to PDP’s implosion!
That is the man and his nature. How Jerry Gana sleeps well at night with his conscience, or what he tells his grandchildren of his place in the Nigerian loops of power and religion, must be interesting indeed!
Showing posts with label Is'haq Modibbo Kawu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Is'haq Modibbo Kawu. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
The PDP finds its undertakers
By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu
“People are saying that the PDP is dead or about to die a concerned person like me will remain in the party till it dies and give it a befitting burial. If PDP will die, let it die in our hands so we will give it a befitting burial and mourn her.” – Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako.
THE late Chief Mobolaji Bank-Anthony must be turning in his grave! It was on Igbosere Road in Lagos, if I recall properly, that he established his undertaking business in old Lagos. It was appropriately named “THE SYMPATHETIC UNDERTAKERS”.
I don’t know if the business is still thriving, because far more aggressive undertakers entered the morbid business, reflective of the arrival of vulgar money and its vulgar display in Nigeria, including the preparation of the dead for the final rites!
We can lament the passing of Sir Bank-Anthony’s more dignified business approach, but recent rumblings in Nigerian politics come with noise, blood and tears. Cloak-and-dagger is at the heart of politics, except that the PDP took vulgarity and cut throat to a height that should shame that most shameless of contraptions, Africa’s largest vote-rigging monstrosity, the PDP!
We have arrived at a critical juncture on the route to 2015; the gloves have fallen and the pugilists are revealing very ugly bare knuckles.
The struggle is for the soulless soul of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan’s corner, is the red corner of mischief, that brought together the most eye popping and strangest bedfellows: old men Tukur, Anenih and EK Clarke; the eternal AGIP Jerry Gana and sundry political flotsam and jetsam.
They are confident, as someone once mischievously noted, that their PDP faction can seamlessly “merge” with INEC and the security agencies to show muscle. This is where Murtala Nyako comes to fore. He represents the “Undertaker” faction within the huge basket of scorpions that the PDP has always been, as Chief Sunday Awoniyi once observed.
After years of injecting political poison into Nigerian political society and ingesting collateral poisoning themselves, including DELIBERATELY herding the people of Northern Nigeria to Northern Cameroun, with their opportunistic support of Jonathan in 2011, Nyako and his colleagues in the “Undertakers” faction of the PDP are now on an offensive.
They will stop Jonathan by all means, including hastening the death of the behemoth holding Nigeria in bearhug, the PDP. They are importing political caskets, but unlike Sir Bank-Anthony, they are UNSYMPATHETIC undertakers for the PDP. The solution finally discovered the problem on the turf of Nigerian politics!
Let us be clear about it; all the tendencies within the PDP are embattled. Nigerians will give everything to chase away the party that has systematically institued underdevelopment and the pillaging of our national patrimony since 1999. The duel-to-the-death will weaken the party further; yet, I get a sneak feeling that, when all is said and done, they will somehow paper over the crack and pull from the precipice.
The fear of loss of power will nudge them back to political realism, akin to a wedding between a feuding couple: each is fed up but none can or dares walk out! But before that realisation, we are guaranteed a lot of absurdities. For example, PDP just set up a “reconciliation” committee composed of Jonathan sidekicks and headed by his number one Man Friday, Seriake Dickson. He previously added much Niger Delta petrol to the raging political fire, by serially abusing Jonathan “enemies” in the recent past. How then does he function as reconciler-in-chief?
Meanwhile, Nigeria bleeds 400,000 barrels of crude oil everyday, while Jonathan continues to pay billions of naira monthly to Niger Delta thugs “protecting” pipelines to facilitate continued oil theft, almost like a vital component of Jonathan’s “Transformation Agenda”.
Jonathan needs an extra term in 2015, to ensure that his Niger Delta constituency achieves “Resource Control” by subterfuge, through the continuing oil-theft regime. This backdrop plus a threatening political death emboldens the “Undertakers” of Murtala Nyako’s corner of the political boxing ring. Seconds Out! Bring on the political caskets!!
Ilorin: The eternal colour and taste of Ramadan
I RETURNED to Abuja from Ilorin via Kaduna, on Monday. I had been away for nine days. It is one of my annual rituals to spend at least a week back home during Ramadan. This is a most special period in Ilorin and I return attempting to catch a whiff of the colour and taste of the community which moulded my life and which has retained a remarkable sense of its piety and traditions, rooted in Islam.
As I have written repeatedly on this page, my forefathers were Jihadist Islamic scholars with roots in the old empires of West Africa (called Bilad as-Sudan, in medieval times). In Ilorin, Ramadan has always brought out the best of the people’s fidelity to their religious traditions. But even within the context of the month, a lot has evolved with many old ways having died out. As the saying goes, if you wait long enough, everything changes!
As a growing child of the 1960s, I recall the special atmosphere about us in the lead to the month and I think it was Ramadan, which first triggered my consciousness about the incredible energy of women in our communities. They fast just like the men, but they cooked all day, as the men either rested or attended Tafsir in the mosques. The cooking continued during Sahur, early in the morning, while in between, they attended sermons in the night, which usually lasted beyond midnight. Women just never seemed to find respite, and Ramadan magnified their roles especially.
Probing weaknesses of the adversary
For the children, we engaged in a game that has all but become extinct today, called EPA OKUTA (a kind of bean used to make what must be an Ilorin-only delicacy called KANGU! I loved it from childhood and up till my mother’s death in 2009, she would purchase and send to me in Abuja). The game had a sophistication about it, that I still recall today, because it taught practically every element of warfare: defence; attack; preparing fortresses, building alliances and probing the weaknesses of the adversary. Children will gather from near and far, around my family’s mosque.
Often, they had accompanied their grandfathers to attend Tafsir at the mosque; while the elderly carried on their religious business, children engaged themselves in that game. There was also the tradition of children constructing their own mosques during Ramadan. As a matter of fact, the preparation commences several days before, and it was one of the reminders that the holy month was approaching. There was a competition to construct the most colourful and most intricate mosque, which often stayed months after Ramadan; children then simulated the prayers that took place inside the real mosques.
There was not much in terms of material wealth then, but people readily shared the little they had and even the poorest families seemed to get a lot, in the spirit of Ramadan. What was lost in Ilorin, that I have continued to lament, was the way bands of young musicians (they were called AJIWERE) would roam the entire community each night, singing really beautiful songs to wake people up for Sahur. There was a finale, which brought the best AJIWERE to a night of competition to select the best musician for the year, at the Emir’s palace.
Some of the great musicians of the past included YE-BOBO; ADISA; SAKA DANFO and AREMU (SECOND DIVISION!). A couple of years ago, with the fundamentalist religious revival that caught the Muslim world, Ilorin was also brought into the sweep. Religious scholars convinced the emirate hierarchy to stop the musical extravaganza; they substituted with recitations of the Qur’an and that musical tradition gradually withered away!
I have returned for a nine-day stay to catch a whiff of this truly remarkable month in the Ilorin because it offers a poignant moment of connection with forces which helped to provide some of the building blocks of my consciousness.
The passing of Alhaji Abubakar Lah, Shettiman Ilorin
LAST Sunday, Alhaji Abubakar Lah, Shettiman Ilorin died. He was in his late 90s and was in fact, the oldest surviving alumnus of the famous Barewa College, Zaria. I think it was in 2002 that I conducted and published a lengthy interview with Alhaji Lah, as Editor of DAILY TRUST; it alerted the hierarchy of BOBA, the Barewa old boys association, that he was still alive and was their oldest member. I was in Ilorin up till early Monday morning but somehow missed the story of his passing.
I only discovered on Monday night, back in Abuja, as I checked a local Ilorin website for stories of happenings in the community. I had a very close relationship with the incredibly modest old man, who had played a central role in the education of many generations of people all over Northern Nigeria. He spoke many languages: Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Fulfulde and English, amongst several others.
The late Lamidon Adamawa was one of the oldest monarchs in the North, but had in fact been a student of the late Alhaji Abubakar Lah. A few years ago, the Emir of Ilorin told me an interesting story. There had been a meeting of Northern Emirs in Kaduna and the late Lamido inquired about the late Alhaji Lah.
He was alive, hale and hearty, the Emir of Ilorin told the Lamido. A few months down the line, Alhaji Lah was made head of a delegation to Adamawa, where he met his old student, the Lamido and other former students, after over sixty years. Alhaji Abubakar Lah was a repository of the history of his times and as the famous Malian historian, Professor Hampate Ba once said, an old man or woman in Africa, was the repository of the history of our peoples, and everytime they die, it was the equivalence of the burning of a library.
With Alhaji Abubakar Lah’s death, Ilorin, the North and Nigeria, lost a remarkable son who contributed, especially in those early years that we have continued to valorize as our golden age. May Allah forgive his sins and grant him Aljanna. Allah ya jikan Shettiman Ilorin, Alhaji Abubakar Lah.
“People are saying that the PDP is dead or about to die a concerned person like me will remain in the party till it dies and give it a befitting burial. If PDP will die, let it die in our hands so we will give it a befitting burial and mourn her.” – Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako.
THE late Chief Mobolaji Bank-Anthony must be turning in his grave! It was on Igbosere Road in Lagos, if I recall properly, that he established his undertaking business in old Lagos. It was appropriately named “THE SYMPATHETIC UNDERTAKERS”.
I don’t know if the business is still thriving, because far more aggressive undertakers entered the morbid business, reflective of the arrival of vulgar money and its vulgar display in Nigeria, including the preparation of the dead for the final rites!
We can lament the passing of Sir Bank-Anthony’s more dignified business approach, but recent rumblings in Nigerian politics come with noise, blood and tears. Cloak-and-dagger is at the heart of politics, except that the PDP took vulgarity and cut throat to a height that should shame that most shameless of contraptions, Africa’s largest vote-rigging monstrosity, the PDP!
We have arrived at a critical juncture on the route to 2015; the gloves have fallen and the pugilists are revealing very ugly bare knuckles.
The struggle is for the soulless soul of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan’s corner, is the red corner of mischief, that brought together the most eye popping and strangest bedfellows: old men Tukur, Anenih and EK Clarke; the eternal AGIP Jerry Gana and sundry political flotsam and jetsam.
They are confident, as someone once mischievously noted, that their PDP faction can seamlessly “merge” with INEC and the security agencies to show muscle. This is where Murtala Nyako comes to fore. He represents the “Undertaker” faction within the huge basket of scorpions that the PDP has always been, as Chief Sunday Awoniyi once observed.
After years of injecting political poison into Nigerian political society and ingesting collateral poisoning themselves, including DELIBERATELY herding the people of Northern Nigeria to Northern Cameroun, with their opportunistic support of Jonathan in 2011, Nyako and his colleagues in the “Undertakers” faction of the PDP are now on an offensive.
They will stop Jonathan by all means, including hastening the death of the behemoth holding Nigeria in bearhug, the PDP. They are importing political caskets, but unlike Sir Bank-Anthony, they are UNSYMPATHETIC undertakers for the PDP. The solution finally discovered the problem on the turf of Nigerian politics!
Let us be clear about it; all the tendencies within the PDP are embattled. Nigerians will give everything to chase away the party that has systematically institued underdevelopment and the pillaging of our national patrimony since 1999. The duel-to-the-death will weaken the party further; yet, I get a sneak feeling that, when all is said and done, they will somehow paper over the crack and pull from the precipice.
The fear of loss of power will nudge them back to political realism, akin to a wedding between a feuding couple: each is fed up but none can or dares walk out! But before that realisation, we are guaranteed a lot of absurdities. For example, PDP just set up a “reconciliation” committee composed of Jonathan sidekicks and headed by his number one Man Friday, Seriake Dickson. He previously added much Niger Delta petrol to the raging political fire, by serially abusing Jonathan “enemies” in the recent past. How then does he function as reconciler-in-chief?
Meanwhile, Nigeria bleeds 400,000 barrels of crude oil everyday, while Jonathan continues to pay billions of naira monthly to Niger Delta thugs “protecting” pipelines to facilitate continued oil theft, almost like a vital component of Jonathan’s “Transformation Agenda”.
Jonathan needs an extra term in 2015, to ensure that his Niger Delta constituency achieves “Resource Control” by subterfuge, through the continuing oil-theft regime. This backdrop plus a threatening political death emboldens the “Undertakers” of Murtala Nyako’s corner of the political boxing ring. Seconds Out! Bring on the political caskets!!
Ilorin: The eternal colour and taste of Ramadan
I RETURNED to Abuja from Ilorin via Kaduna, on Monday. I had been away for nine days. It is one of my annual rituals to spend at least a week back home during Ramadan. This is a most special period in Ilorin and I return attempting to catch a whiff of the colour and taste of the community which moulded my life and which has retained a remarkable sense of its piety and traditions, rooted in Islam.
As I have written repeatedly on this page, my forefathers were Jihadist Islamic scholars with roots in the old empires of West Africa (called Bilad as-Sudan, in medieval times). In Ilorin, Ramadan has always brought out the best of the people’s fidelity to their religious traditions. But even within the context of the month, a lot has evolved with many old ways having died out. As the saying goes, if you wait long enough, everything changes!
As a growing child of the 1960s, I recall the special atmosphere about us in the lead to the month and I think it was Ramadan, which first triggered my consciousness about the incredible energy of women in our communities. They fast just like the men, but they cooked all day, as the men either rested or attended Tafsir in the mosques. The cooking continued during Sahur, early in the morning, while in between, they attended sermons in the night, which usually lasted beyond midnight. Women just never seemed to find respite, and Ramadan magnified their roles especially.
Probing weaknesses of the adversary
For the children, we engaged in a game that has all but become extinct today, called EPA OKUTA (a kind of bean used to make what must be an Ilorin-only delicacy called KANGU! I loved it from childhood and up till my mother’s death in 2009, she would purchase and send to me in Abuja). The game had a sophistication about it, that I still recall today, because it taught practically every element of warfare: defence; attack; preparing fortresses, building alliances and probing the weaknesses of the adversary. Children will gather from near and far, around my family’s mosque.
Often, they had accompanied their grandfathers to attend Tafsir at the mosque; while the elderly carried on their religious business, children engaged themselves in that game. There was also the tradition of children constructing their own mosques during Ramadan. As a matter of fact, the preparation commences several days before, and it was one of the reminders that the holy month was approaching. There was a competition to construct the most colourful and most intricate mosque, which often stayed months after Ramadan; children then simulated the prayers that took place inside the real mosques.
There was not much in terms of material wealth then, but people readily shared the little they had and even the poorest families seemed to get a lot, in the spirit of Ramadan. What was lost in Ilorin, that I have continued to lament, was the way bands of young musicians (they were called AJIWERE) would roam the entire community each night, singing really beautiful songs to wake people up for Sahur. There was a finale, which brought the best AJIWERE to a night of competition to select the best musician for the year, at the Emir’s palace.
Some of the great musicians of the past included YE-BOBO; ADISA; SAKA DANFO and AREMU (SECOND DIVISION!). A couple of years ago, with the fundamentalist religious revival that caught the Muslim world, Ilorin was also brought into the sweep. Religious scholars convinced the emirate hierarchy to stop the musical extravaganza; they substituted with recitations of the Qur’an and that musical tradition gradually withered away!
I have returned for a nine-day stay to catch a whiff of this truly remarkable month in the Ilorin because it offers a poignant moment of connection with forces which helped to provide some of the building blocks of my consciousness.
The passing of Alhaji Abubakar Lah, Shettiman Ilorin
LAST Sunday, Alhaji Abubakar Lah, Shettiman Ilorin died. He was in his late 90s and was in fact, the oldest surviving alumnus of the famous Barewa College, Zaria. I think it was in 2002 that I conducted and published a lengthy interview with Alhaji Lah, as Editor of DAILY TRUST; it alerted the hierarchy of BOBA, the Barewa old boys association, that he was still alive and was their oldest member. I was in Ilorin up till early Monday morning but somehow missed the story of his passing.
I only discovered on Monday night, back in Abuja, as I checked a local Ilorin website for stories of happenings in the community. I had a very close relationship with the incredibly modest old man, who had played a central role in the education of many generations of people all over Northern Nigeria. He spoke many languages: Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Fulfulde and English, amongst several others.
The late Lamidon Adamawa was one of the oldest monarchs in the North, but had in fact been a student of the late Alhaji Abubakar Lah. A few years ago, the Emir of Ilorin told me an interesting story. There had been a meeting of Northern Emirs in Kaduna and the late Lamido inquired about the late Alhaji Lah.
He was alive, hale and hearty, the Emir of Ilorin told the Lamido. A few months down the line, Alhaji Lah was made head of a delegation to Adamawa, where he met his old student, the Lamido and other former students, after over sixty years. Alhaji Abubakar Lah was a repository of the history of his times and as the famous Malian historian, Professor Hampate Ba once said, an old man or woman in Africa, was the repository of the history of our peoples, and everytime they die, it was the equivalence of the burning of a library.
With Alhaji Abubakar Lah’s death, Ilorin, the North and Nigeria, lost a remarkable son who contributed, especially in those early years that we have continued to valorize as our golden age. May Allah forgive his sins and grant him Aljanna. Allah ya jikan Shettiman Ilorin, Alhaji Abubakar Lah.
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Nigeria: From an imperfect democracy to a perfect mess
By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu
“The PDP appears to have added public brawling to its list of accomplishments. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa has turned into a fight club that employs the police as ushers for its matches...When the interest of the nation is subjugated so that the narrow, parochial interest of a clique in power is served events like we see unfold in Rivers will soon become common place.
As a new breed of imperial rulers run amok and with impunity violate Nigeria’s constitution, the days ahead seem gloomy and uncertain”- Bola Tinubu writing on the events in Rivers State.
FRANKLY, it is not often that I agree with Bola Tinubu, ACN opposition figure and former governor of Lagos state. But he has been spot on this week, in his well-publicised analysis of events unfolding at a dizzying pace in Rivers state.
[caption id="attachment_403670" align="alignnone" width="412"]
Mbu-Amaechi[/caption]
As a matter of fact, the title of today’s piece has been borrowed from his analysis. Bola Tinubu has put into perspective the issues at stake in Rivers state and the analysis underscores why patriots must be worried about the events, with portents for democracy in Nigeria. It is good that an opposition figure can relate with these events with so much perspective.
Last week, the video of the infatile, coup-like attempt by a handful of legislators to depose their Speaker as part of the grand agenda to impeach the state governor, went viral on the internet. It was incroyable (as the French say) to witness the level of degeneracy amongst legislators ostensibly sworn to making laws for the good governance of our society.
Granted that hardly any of these chaps won a free and fair election, but to confront the fact that Rivers state has been paying for the creature comfort of thugs, pitiable coup plotters and hired guns, makes a mockery of Nigeria’s political space.
But politics is the game and in the bare-knuckled setting of Nigeria, this is warfare by every means. In truth, the gladiators are far too gone to be bothered by what a shocked nation of onlookers feel about their misconduct. Democracy and its consolidation mean very little in the situation unfolding in Rivers state. A tendency must win and ensure the adversary is completely bloodied!
Let us be clear about the situation; in the beginning it was about the president and his ambition for 2015. And this is despite the strenuous denials to the contrary. The Nigerian Presidency must be one of the most powerful in the world, yet, there is the intrinsic weakness of its present occupant: a real political lightweight without much political antecedent.
This duality jars because it disposes towards extremities in conflicts. Rivers state magnifies this nastiness for so many reasons. It's Madam Patience Jonathan’s home state and within a ‘region’ that President Goodluck Jonathan must claim rightfully his own, in a political bragging game against other groups of the nation’s ruling elite.
Rotimi Amaechi’s sins are therefore almost unforgivable. A weak presidency cannot afford an assertive governor within the presidential neck of the wood: fight with Bayelsa over oil fields; winning NGF election despite presidential objection; and never sufficiently massaging the First Lady’s inordinately domineering ego. This afterall is Patience Jonathan the “Jesus Christ” for some Legislators in Rivers House of Assembly; an unpardonable act of omission by a governor that used to be a Speaker!
As night follows day, things might end up messier, not just in Rivers, as we inch closer to 2015. Uniquely, Nigerian politics ensures that the most strident opposition shares the PDP with President Jonathan. That rankles far more than the tilting at the windmills, by the wilderness-based opposition. The troops must forcefully rally, otherwise the big stick will be wielded to force the recalcitrant into line; there is willingness to sacrifice a few individuals for the overall agenda.
Chess aficionados will recognize a gambit; sacrifice some pawns to achieve an ultimate checkmate. President Goodluck Jonathan’s expired and feuding old men, Bamanga Tukur and Tony Anennih, are expected to wield stick and carrot, while another old man, EK Clark leads the gung-ho division of the Sunny Kukus and Asari Dokubos.
We are in for a long and bitter feud; no prisoners will be taken and none will emerge without being bloodied as we approach 2015. Bola Tinubu is right; I reluctantly admit it: our imperfect democracy is threatening to become a perfect mess!
Victor Olaiya and Tuface: Across musical generations
THE recent collaborative venture between veteran Highlife musician, Victor Olaiya and contemporary artists, Tuface Idibia, has led to an emotional outpouring of analysis. Early this week, the internet group, NIGERIA COLLECTIVE also enthusiastically weighed in, about the bridge between musical generations. Invariably, we went into other aspects of artistic history; I am sharing with readers, one of my contributions to the more restricted forum in today’s column:
“It’s quite interesting that Siddique in Zaria remembers the fierce musical rivalry between Haruna Isola and Kasumu Adio. It was the stuff of legend because Isola had long been the eminence grise of Apala until Adio, which was actually a two-person act of Kasumu AND Adio burst onto the scene! Kasumu was leader; a very good drummer who was said to stammer, and the other was Adio, the vocalist.
So Haruna did a biting song: Akilolo to fe pe Sokoto (the stammerer attempting to pronounce Sokoto); he added: Soko- Soko- so-ko-to, koma ni ripe (he will labour in vain trying!). Rivalry seemed central to the worldview of Yoruba musicians.
There was one between Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade; while “Emperor” Pick Peters was such a perfect ‘copier’ of Sunny Ade, that the more distinguished singer, did a song: ‘Ekilo fo omode’, literally warning the upstart, Peters, the hunter’s son, because Pick Peters was said to be from a hunter background. The rivalry extended to Dele Abiodun.
These rivalries helped push sales as supporters lapped up new songs from the feuding artists. They also pushed the frontiers of musical innovation; brought ever more sophisticated instrumentation to our popular music; adapted arrangements from Congolese, Cuban and other influences; they re-arranged folk tunes; reworked classic songs and explored newer themes.
In a broad historical, political and cultural sense, the emergence of a form like Highlife was a phenomenon of the post Second World War period, with its dramatic impact on West African social life. There had emerged the urban space and the urban type, from different ethnic and social origins, who converged in these new towns and cities in search of opportunities.
They were clerks, teachers, urban proletarians, the Michael Imoudu-led railway workers, lumpens, prostitutes, shopkeepers, the indomitable lorry driver and his apprentice, etc. It was a hodge-podge. There was also the journalist and lawyer, providing intellectual leadership for an emergent nationalist movement.
This ensemble needed diversion, entertainment and sin! Away from intimate hometown settings/sureties, the urban space was sufficiently anonymous for each one to take a bit of these colonial, often railway towns, like Zaria, Jos, Enugu, Ibadan and most cosmopolitan of them all, Lagos.
Works of Cyprian Ekwensi
The works of Cyprian Ekwensi, particularly his PEOPLE OF THE CITY, were a very good reflection of the 1950s/60s. Remember that archetypal city girl, JAGUA NANA? It was also the title of a popular highlife tune of those times, by Adeolu Akinsanya ‘Baba Eto’.
The evolution of urban culture couldn’t be divorced from our coming into being as an African and Nigerian people; they defined our lives and helped forge consciousness within those exciting developments. Anti- colonial sentiment emerged; the railways, built to extract raw materials and take colonial manufacture into the hinterland, also facilitated the growth of towns, where Nigerians met and exchanged anti-colonial ideas. These urban settings facilitated various musical influences confluencing to create Highlife.
In the North, we had the Sahara Dance Band in Jos and Bala Miller’s Great Pyramids of Africa. They did songs in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and even in minority languages like Ogori! Lagos was home to Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya and Sam Akpabot all of whom Balla Miller told me, performed at the Independence Day Ball in October, 1960.
By the 1970s, new musical trends emerged, reflecting the assuredness of the oil boom years. Badejo Okusanya (Yomi’s father) was the first Nigerian to own a recording studio; the feat was acknowleged by Haruna Isola, in a song.
Tabansi Records and Rogers All-Stars were competing against colonial outfits such as Decca and Philips, to record Nigerian artists like Prince Nico Mbarga, Super Five, Warrior and Ikenga Super Stars; The Funkees and Wings International (with the late Spud Nathans) became some of the new bands emerging from the East soon after the war.
One of the great acts of the seventies was Ofege, a group of students from St. Greg’s Obalende, Lagos. They literally turned the world upside down with songs like Try and Love; Ofege; Whizzy Labo and Mandy. After two albums they disappeared but left an unforgettable impact. Nigerian producers like Odion Iruoje and Laolu Akins also came into their own!
Osibisa was big and had Ghanaians Teddy Osei,
Kofi Ayivor, Mac Tontoh; Wendell Richardson from Guyana and Nigerians like Mike Odumosu and Laughty Lasisi Amao, who was tragically killed in America. Can we recall Kenny St. George? He did a song “listen to the Buddha” that was a big hit after FESTAC 77! He visits my offices regularly in Abuja today, espousing a mix of Islam, Buddhism and environmental awareness.
The Nigerian saxophonist, Peter King went to live in New Zealand. Fela was in some contest with Segun Bucknor for a while, after his (Fela’s) initial tiffs with Rex Lawson. Rex was the master of the nightlife before the Civil War.
He went back East and was returning to Lagos after the hostilities, when he died in an accident. Sunny Ade did a tribute to him; his songs, Love Adure, Oh Koh, and his incredible dexterity with the trumpet can still be enjoyed even today.
IK Dairo was the master who did several songs in Hausa, especially his TUWO DA MIYA which told the story of his musical tour in Northern Nigerian in the 1960s. We are heirs to a rich social and cultural history. And our various cultures have added a nugget here, a punch there, to weave the complex tapestry that we (can all be proud of).
It might interest that Haruna Isola took SABADA from Hausa musical culture to incorporate into Apala; while Kalangu is Hausa just as Gangan is Yoruba. We can go on and on!
“The PDP appears to have added public brawling to its list of accomplishments. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa has turned into a fight club that employs the police as ushers for its matches...When the interest of the nation is subjugated so that the narrow, parochial interest of a clique in power is served events like we see unfold in Rivers will soon become common place.
As a new breed of imperial rulers run amok and with impunity violate Nigeria’s constitution, the days ahead seem gloomy and uncertain”- Bola Tinubu writing on the events in Rivers State.
FRANKLY, it is not often that I agree with Bola Tinubu, ACN opposition figure and former governor of Lagos state. But he has been spot on this week, in his well-publicised analysis of events unfolding at a dizzying pace in Rivers state.
[caption id="attachment_403670" align="alignnone" width="412"]
Mbu-Amaechi[/caption]As a matter of fact, the title of today’s piece has been borrowed from his analysis. Bola Tinubu has put into perspective the issues at stake in Rivers state and the analysis underscores why patriots must be worried about the events, with portents for democracy in Nigeria. It is good that an opposition figure can relate with these events with so much perspective.
Last week, the video of the infatile, coup-like attempt by a handful of legislators to depose their Speaker as part of the grand agenda to impeach the state governor, went viral on the internet. It was incroyable (as the French say) to witness the level of degeneracy amongst legislators ostensibly sworn to making laws for the good governance of our society.
Granted that hardly any of these chaps won a free and fair election, but to confront the fact that Rivers state has been paying for the creature comfort of thugs, pitiable coup plotters and hired guns, makes a mockery of Nigeria’s political space.
But politics is the game and in the bare-knuckled setting of Nigeria, this is warfare by every means. In truth, the gladiators are far too gone to be bothered by what a shocked nation of onlookers feel about their misconduct. Democracy and its consolidation mean very little in the situation unfolding in Rivers state. A tendency must win and ensure the adversary is completely bloodied!
Let us be clear about the situation; in the beginning it was about the president and his ambition for 2015. And this is despite the strenuous denials to the contrary. The Nigerian Presidency must be one of the most powerful in the world, yet, there is the intrinsic weakness of its present occupant: a real political lightweight without much political antecedent.
This duality jars because it disposes towards extremities in conflicts. Rivers state magnifies this nastiness for so many reasons. It's Madam Patience Jonathan’s home state and within a ‘region’ that President Goodluck Jonathan must claim rightfully his own, in a political bragging game against other groups of the nation’s ruling elite.
Rotimi Amaechi’s sins are therefore almost unforgivable. A weak presidency cannot afford an assertive governor within the presidential neck of the wood: fight with Bayelsa over oil fields; winning NGF election despite presidential objection; and never sufficiently massaging the First Lady’s inordinately domineering ego. This afterall is Patience Jonathan the “Jesus Christ” for some Legislators in Rivers House of Assembly; an unpardonable act of omission by a governor that used to be a Speaker!
As night follows day, things might end up messier, not just in Rivers, as we inch closer to 2015. Uniquely, Nigerian politics ensures that the most strident opposition shares the PDP with President Jonathan. That rankles far more than the tilting at the windmills, by the wilderness-based opposition. The troops must forcefully rally, otherwise the big stick will be wielded to force the recalcitrant into line; there is willingness to sacrifice a few individuals for the overall agenda.
Chess aficionados will recognize a gambit; sacrifice some pawns to achieve an ultimate checkmate. President Goodluck Jonathan’s expired and feuding old men, Bamanga Tukur and Tony Anennih, are expected to wield stick and carrot, while another old man, EK Clark leads the gung-ho division of the Sunny Kukus and Asari Dokubos.
We are in for a long and bitter feud; no prisoners will be taken and none will emerge without being bloodied as we approach 2015. Bola Tinubu is right; I reluctantly admit it: our imperfect democracy is threatening to become a perfect mess!
Victor Olaiya and Tuface: Across musical generations
THE recent collaborative venture between veteran Highlife musician, Victor Olaiya and contemporary artists, Tuface Idibia, has led to an emotional outpouring of analysis. Early this week, the internet group, NIGERIA COLLECTIVE also enthusiastically weighed in, about the bridge between musical generations. Invariably, we went into other aspects of artistic history; I am sharing with readers, one of my contributions to the more restricted forum in today’s column:
“It’s quite interesting that Siddique in Zaria remembers the fierce musical rivalry between Haruna Isola and Kasumu Adio. It was the stuff of legend because Isola had long been the eminence grise of Apala until Adio, which was actually a two-person act of Kasumu AND Adio burst onto the scene! Kasumu was leader; a very good drummer who was said to stammer, and the other was Adio, the vocalist.
So Haruna did a biting song: Akilolo to fe pe Sokoto (the stammerer attempting to pronounce Sokoto); he added: Soko- Soko- so-ko-to, koma ni ripe (he will labour in vain trying!). Rivalry seemed central to the worldview of Yoruba musicians.
There was one between Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade; while “Emperor” Pick Peters was such a perfect ‘copier’ of Sunny Ade, that the more distinguished singer, did a song: ‘Ekilo fo omode’, literally warning the upstart, Peters, the hunter’s son, because Pick Peters was said to be from a hunter background. The rivalry extended to Dele Abiodun.
These rivalries helped push sales as supporters lapped up new songs from the feuding artists. They also pushed the frontiers of musical innovation; brought ever more sophisticated instrumentation to our popular music; adapted arrangements from Congolese, Cuban and other influences; they re-arranged folk tunes; reworked classic songs and explored newer themes.
In a broad historical, political and cultural sense, the emergence of a form like Highlife was a phenomenon of the post Second World War period, with its dramatic impact on West African social life. There had emerged the urban space and the urban type, from different ethnic and social origins, who converged in these new towns and cities in search of opportunities.
They were clerks, teachers, urban proletarians, the Michael Imoudu-led railway workers, lumpens, prostitutes, shopkeepers, the indomitable lorry driver and his apprentice, etc. It was a hodge-podge. There was also the journalist and lawyer, providing intellectual leadership for an emergent nationalist movement.
This ensemble needed diversion, entertainment and sin! Away from intimate hometown settings/sureties, the urban space was sufficiently anonymous for each one to take a bit of these colonial, often railway towns, like Zaria, Jos, Enugu, Ibadan and most cosmopolitan of them all, Lagos.
Works of Cyprian Ekwensi
The works of Cyprian Ekwensi, particularly his PEOPLE OF THE CITY, were a very good reflection of the 1950s/60s. Remember that archetypal city girl, JAGUA NANA? It was also the title of a popular highlife tune of those times, by Adeolu Akinsanya ‘Baba Eto’.
The evolution of urban culture couldn’t be divorced from our coming into being as an African and Nigerian people; they defined our lives and helped forge consciousness within those exciting developments. Anti- colonial sentiment emerged; the railways, built to extract raw materials and take colonial manufacture into the hinterland, also facilitated the growth of towns, where Nigerians met and exchanged anti-colonial ideas. These urban settings facilitated various musical influences confluencing to create Highlife.
In the North, we had the Sahara Dance Band in Jos and Bala Miller’s Great Pyramids of Africa. They did songs in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and even in minority languages like Ogori! Lagos was home to Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya and Sam Akpabot all of whom Balla Miller told me, performed at the Independence Day Ball in October, 1960.
By the 1970s, new musical trends emerged, reflecting the assuredness of the oil boom years. Badejo Okusanya (Yomi’s father) was the first Nigerian to own a recording studio; the feat was acknowleged by Haruna Isola, in a song.
Tabansi Records and Rogers All-Stars were competing against colonial outfits such as Decca and Philips, to record Nigerian artists like Prince Nico Mbarga, Super Five, Warrior and Ikenga Super Stars; The Funkees and Wings International (with the late Spud Nathans) became some of the new bands emerging from the East soon after the war.
One of the great acts of the seventies was Ofege, a group of students from St. Greg’s Obalende, Lagos. They literally turned the world upside down with songs like Try and Love; Ofege; Whizzy Labo and Mandy. After two albums they disappeared but left an unforgettable impact. Nigerian producers like Odion Iruoje and Laolu Akins also came into their own!
Osibisa was big and had Ghanaians Teddy Osei,
Kofi Ayivor, Mac Tontoh; Wendell Richardson from Guyana and Nigerians like Mike Odumosu and Laughty Lasisi Amao, who was tragically killed in America. Can we recall Kenny St. George? He did a song “listen to the Buddha” that was a big hit after FESTAC 77! He visits my offices regularly in Abuja today, espousing a mix of Islam, Buddhism and environmental awareness.
The Nigerian saxophonist, Peter King went to live in New Zealand. Fela was in some contest with Segun Bucknor for a while, after his (Fela’s) initial tiffs with Rex Lawson. Rex was the master of the nightlife before the Civil War.
He went back East and was returning to Lagos after the hostilities, when he died in an accident. Sunny Ade did a tribute to him; his songs, Love Adure, Oh Koh, and his incredible dexterity with the trumpet can still be enjoyed even today.
IK Dairo was the master who did several songs in Hausa, especially his TUWO DA MIYA which told the story of his musical tour in Northern Nigerian in the 1960s. We are heirs to a rich social and cultural history. And our various cultures have added a nugget here, a punch there, to weave the complex tapestry that we (can all be proud of).
It might interest that Haruna Isola took SABADA from Hausa musical culture to incorporate into Apala; while Kalangu is Hausa just as Gangan is Yoruba. We can go on and on!
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
The peculiar absurdities of Kwara politics
By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu
THIS week the Kwara State House of Assembly held a public sitting on a proposal to re-name the four-year old Kwara State University, after late Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, the politician that bestrode the state's political terrain like a colossus for over three decades.
[caption id="attachment_330873" align="alignnone" width="412"]
*Chief Sola Saraki condolence register.[/caption]
By the end, Saraki (father) literally willed the state, almost like a feudal fief, to son Bukola, former governor and now senator representing Kwara Central. The decision to re-name the university was proposed by the governing Council, headed by Muhammed Sha'aba Lafiagi, former governor and Senator, and long-term Saraki acolyte.
But in that matter, Bukola had cast a long shadow, because he has perfected the use of sidekicks to introduce laws meant to satisfy his personal preferences. He did that when he rammed through the supine Kwara House of Assembly, a pension package just for his own creature comfort, at the end of his eight-year tenure as governor.
The controversy generated by the re-naming proposal had been muted (because of the prevailing atmosphere of oppressive silence and fear in Kwara!), but it came to the fore at the public sitting in Ilorin.
Leading lights of the political opposition in Kwara, like Iyiola Oyedepo (himself a former legislator and lawyer) and state chairman of the CPC, Alhaji Suleiman Buhari, argued against the university re-naming.
Oyedepo for instance reminded that: "truly, the late Waziri was elected a senator and a senate leader from 1979-83, what landmark development did his leadership at the Senate bring to the state for that period?" From a neutral perspective, let me remind that the late Saraki gave significantly to educational causes around the state over the years of his hegemonic control; but can that be enough reason to name the state university after him?
Besides and unfortunately, those defending the name change did not even posit an edified line to defend their decision. The Tertiary Education Commissioner, Muhammed Lade, canvassed an argument that affronts the human dignityof Kwarans: "if it is possible to rename Kwara state as Olusola Saraki State, I think Baba Saraki deserves it.
All of us sitting here today and those of us not here, Baba has contributed one way or the other to what we are today (SIC)". These are thoughts befitting of a modern slave not a decent, self-respecting citizen!
In truth, there is a frightening Saraki personality cult, but an even more virulent variant has been deliberately constructed around Bukola Saraki, since his father's death.
Those who claim him as "leader" have become a mob running riot against whoever disagrees with their "sovereign". None could dare to think that in eight years of power, Bukola made good in Kwara.
It would have been an expression of gratitude to plough some of his stupendous wealth back to our community by building a private university, named after his father, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. However, in Bukola's political nether world, the state must continue to give him and the university name change decision is merely another piece in the jigsaw of political conquest of Kwara by this overly ambitious young man.
The likely scenario is that the "Sarakite" mob will achieve the university re-naming, because Bukola must get whatever he desires from Kwara. That is the written and unwritten rule! But the future is also not too far away, because a re-naming can also be reversed, when freedom finally spreads its wings like a bird over Kwara state!
There has also opened a new front of conflict within the politics of Kwara state as presented in the undeclared war between Bukola Saraki and Prof. Oba Abdulrahim, Chairman of the Federal Character Commission. When Abdulrahim's tenure came up for renewal, Bukola opposed it, as always, never wanting a citizen of the state, but especially an Ilorin indigene, to be in a prominent position for long. However, a new calculus entered the political equation.
The presidency has become completely exasperated with Bukola's undisguised opposition. His preferred candidate, former Senator Ahmed Muhammed was rejected and Prof. Oba was re-apointed, to Bukola's chagrin. He then mobilised the PDP machinery in the state to protest Oba's re-appointment and he is poised to ambush Prof.Abdulrahim's clearance in Senate.
But the presidency is also taking the battle to Bukola, with rumoured plans to seize the Kwara PDP machinery from him, while they also want to knock him off the perch of his controversial senate seat. There is disquiet in Bukola Saraki's camp, even as his sidekicks continue releasing abusive texts and tendentious articles against Professor Oba.
But the most difficult problem that Bukola faces today is the deep anger of the Ilorin elite, organised in the Ilorin Emirate Descendants' Progressive Union (IEDPU). Bukola had enacted very unpopular land laws, which alienated the rights of Ilorin people from their ancestral land. Not brought up in Ilorin, and never identifying with the community's history and aspirations, Bukola imposed a blatantly capitalist regime on land, which the people resent and the anger has threatened to boil over, in the past two years.
Things were not helped when he allegedly challenged IEDPU to square up with him on the field if it was contemplating entering politics, during an Umrah pilgrimage. IEDPU's anger mirrors the increasing frustration of people in Kwara with the arrogance of this young man who deludes himself as "leader".
The build up of forces, local and national, is increasingly threatening to demystify Bukola Saraki. No longer able to strut the national space as he did under Umaru Yar'adua, when he and his partner, James Ibori, literally ruled the roost, the space of his suzerainty has narrowed to his hegemonic bear-hug on Kwara state. But people are becoming more conscious and the politics of manipulation of poverty to retain control, long his dynasty's preferred style, is dissembling.
Our pretentious emperor is being found out to be naked! Bukola Saraki has a loyal mob around him that continues to shout to the roof top that he is "leader" and they are willing to forcefully coral others to join their hysteria, but deep down, the young man knows that he faces the political battle of his life in the coming months and years.
So when all is said and done, Bukola Saraki should take of his stupendous riches, show gratitude to a state he has taken so much from (and continues to take, with the juicy pension package), to build a private university, then express a son's love for his father, by naming the university after the late Dr. Olusola Saraki; they should leave the state-owned university alone.
Northern teachers and the incubation of illiteracy
LAST week, the DG of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna, Dr. AminuLadan Sharehu noted that less than 20 percent of teachers in the North are qualified to teach. He attributed this to a lack of motivation. "You need to train and re-train teachers because NCE is just a starting point".
Similarly, Kaduna governor, Muktar Ramalan Yero, also pointed out that "only 50 percent of teachers on the government's payroll are qualified to teach". Dr. Sharehu argued that: "there is need for an increase in teachers' salary, continuous increase in their remuneration to make them better".
Beyond remuneration, which is absolutely vital, the basic qualification to impart knowledge is woefully inadequate. If 80 percent of our teachers are unqualified, then a lot is wrong!
The depressing statistics emerged when over 10 million children are out of school; the largest population of out-of-school kids on earth. And to underline the poignancy of the situation, the Boko Haram insurgency has increasingly targeted school infrastructure; killed students and teachers thus further threatening enrolment in societies where there is an extant problem with schooling. There is no alternative to opening up opportunities to enroll millions of children in schools all over Northern Nigeria.
This is simply because an illiterate people cannot be part of modernity; and as things stand today, we are generations removed from advancements made in the south of Nigeria. Our ruling elite must make a revolutionary leap for education and decisively defeat the pull of misplaced tradition.
Islam must no longer be excuse for refusal to go to school, because the religion valorises learning and knowledge; there is a well-known Hadith where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), said the ink of scholars is superior to the blood of martyrs!
That emphasises the superiority of knowledge and it is remarkable that in the Seventh Century, our Prophet encouraged Muslims to search for knowledge, even if it was in China!
There is an example closer to home. Growing up in the Nineteen Sixties, there was as much suspicion of Western education but perhaps because of proximity to Western Nigeria, there was a spike in enrolment in schools in the Ilorin Emirate. We went to Western schools but at the same time, didn't abandon Islamic learning. It was a combination that makes it almost impossible to find a person of my generation in Ilorin who has completed Western education and has also not mastered the Qur'an.
It worked well both ways for us and we have made the best of both worlds. We were also lucky that the Northern Regional government of the Sardauna, put in place a fabulous educational infrastructure as well as an incentive package: we had a school meal each day; were supplied milk and wheat meal to supplement the inadequate diets in poor families; were taught using the educational resources of Radio Nigeria through rediffusion boxes and had well-trained and motivated teachers who kept up a high standard and tickled our search for knowledge.
This is the tradition that has gradually eroded. School infrastructure has deteriorated and for example, only four schools were rehabilitated in Kwara between 2003 and 2011.
All over the North we continue to grapple with an education crisis; that young people who manage to go through the hardship associated with learning today, end up without decent jobs, has further dampened the enthusiasm for education. Yet, it is the basic prerequisite for advancement in the knowledge-driven world of the 21st Century. We need qualified teachers so as not to continue incubating illiteracy; ignorance; anger and the associated violence.
THIS week the Kwara State House of Assembly held a public sitting on a proposal to re-name the four-year old Kwara State University, after late Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, the politician that bestrode the state's political terrain like a colossus for over three decades.
[caption id="attachment_330873" align="alignnone" width="412"]
*Chief Sola Saraki condolence register.[/caption]By the end, Saraki (father) literally willed the state, almost like a feudal fief, to son Bukola, former governor and now senator representing Kwara Central. The decision to re-name the university was proposed by the governing Council, headed by Muhammed Sha'aba Lafiagi, former governor and Senator, and long-term Saraki acolyte.
But in that matter, Bukola had cast a long shadow, because he has perfected the use of sidekicks to introduce laws meant to satisfy his personal preferences. He did that when he rammed through the supine Kwara House of Assembly, a pension package just for his own creature comfort, at the end of his eight-year tenure as governor.
The controversy generated by the re-naming proposal had been muted (because of the prevailing atmosphere of oppressive silence and fear in Kwara!), but it came to the fore at the public sitting in Ilorin.
Leading lights of the political opposition in Kwara, like Iyiola Oyedepo (himself a former legislator and lawyer) and state chairman of the CPC, Alhaji Suleiman Buhari, argued against the university re-naming.
Oyedepo for instance reminded that: "truly, the late Waziri was elected a senator and a senate leader from 1979-83, what landmark development did his leadership at the Senate bring to the state for that period?" From a neutral perspective, let me remind that the late Saraki gave significantly to educational causes around the state over the years of his hegemonic control; but can that be enough reason to name the state university after him?
Besides and unfortunately, those defending the name change did not even posit an edified line to defend their decision. The Tertiary Education Commissioner, Muhammed Lade, canvassed an argument that affronts the human dignityof Kwarans: "if it is possible to rename Kwara state as Olusola Saraki State, I think Baba Saraki deserves it.
All of us sitting here today and those of us not here, Baba has contributed one way or the other to what we are today (SIC)". These are thoughts befitting of a modern slave not a decent, self-respecting citizen!
In truth, there is a frightening Saraki personality cult, but an even more virulent variant has been deliberately constructed around Bukola Saraki, since his father's death.
Those who claim him as "leader" have become a mob running riot against whoever disagrees with their "sovereign". None could dare to think that in eight years of power, Bukola made good in Kwara.
It would have been an expression of gratitude to plough some of his stupendous wealth back to our community by building a private university, named after his father, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. However, in Bukola's political nether world, the state must continue to give him and the university name change decision is merely another piece in the jigsaw of political conquest of Kwara by this overly ambitious young man.
The likely scenario is that the "Sarakite" mob will achieve the university re-naming, because Bukola must get whatever he desires from Kwara. That is the written and unwritten rule! But the future is also not too far away, because a re-naming can also be reversed, when freedom finally spreads its wings like a bird over Kwara state!
There has also opened a new front of conflict within the politics of Kwara state as presented in the undeclared war between Bukola Saraki and Prof. Oba Abdulrahim, Chairman of the Federal Character Commission. When Abdulrahim's tenure came up for renewal, Bukola opposed it, as always, never wanting a citizen of the state, but especially an Ilorin indigene, to be in a prominent position for long. However, a new calculus entered the political equation.
The presidency has become completely exasperated with Bukola's undisguised opposition. His preferred candidate, former Senator Ahmed Muhammed was rejected and Prof. Oba was re-apointed, to Bukola's chagrin. He then mobilised the PDP machinery in the state to protest Oba's re-appointment and he is poised to ambush Prof.Abdulrahim's clearance in Senate.
But the presidency is also taking the battle to Bukola, with rumoured plans to seize the Kwara PDP machinery from him, while they also want to knock him off the perch of his controversial senate seat. There is disquiet in Bukola Saraki's camp, even as his sidekicks continue releasing abusive texts and tendentious articles against Professor Oba.
But the most difficult problem that Bukola faces today is the deep anger of the Ilorin elite, organised in the Ilorin Emirate Descendants' Progressive Union (IEDPU). Bukola had enacted very unpopular land laws, which alienated the rights of Ilorin people from their ancestral land. Not brought up in Ilorin, and never identifying with the community's history and aspirations, Bukola imposed a blatantly capitalist regime on land, which the people resent and the anger has threatened to boil over, in the past two years.
Things were not helped when he allegedly challenged IEDPU to square up with him on the field if it was contemplating entering politics, during an Umrah pilgrimage. IEDPU's anger mirrors the increasing frustration of people in Kwara with the arrogance of this young man who deludes himself as "leader".
The build up of forces, local and national, is increasingly threatening to demystify Bukola Saraki. No longer able to strut the national space as he did under Umaru Yar'adua, when he and his partner, James Ibori, literally ruled the roost, the space of his suzerainty has narrowed to his hegemonic bear-hug on Kwara state. But people are becoming more conscious and the politics of manipulation of poverty to retain control, long his dynasty's preferred style, is dissembling.
Our pretentious emperor is being found out to be naked! Bukola Saraki has a loyal mob around him that continues to shout to the roof top that he is "leader" and they are willing to forcefully coral others to join their hysteria, but deep down, the young man knows that he faces the political battle of his life in the coming months and years.
So when all is said and done, Bukola Saraki should take of his stupendous riches, show gratitude to a state he has taken so much from (and continues to take, with the juicy pension package), to build a private university, then express a son's love for his father, by naming the university after the late Dr. Olusola Saraki; they should leave the state-owned university alone.
Northern teachers and the incubation of illiteracy
LAST week, the DG of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna, Dr. AminuLadan Sharehu noted that less than 20 percent of teachers in the North are qualified to teach. He attributed this to a lack of motivation. "You need to train and re-train teachers because NCE is just a starting point".
Similarly, Kaduna governor, Muktar Ramalan Yero, also pointed out that "only 50 percent of teachers on the government's payroll are qualified to teach". Dr. Sharehu argued that: "there is need for an increase in teachers' salary, continuous increase in their remuneration to make them better".
Beyond remuneration, which is absolutely vital, the basic qualification to impart knowledge is woefully inadequate. If 80 percent of our teachers are unqualified, then a lot is wrong!
The depressing statistics emerged when over 10 million children are out of school; the largest population of out-of-school kids on earth. And to underline the poignancy of the situation, the Boko Haram insurgency has increasingly targeted school infrastructure; killed students and teachers thus further threatening enrolment in societies where there is an extant problem with schooling. There is no alternative to opening up opportunities to enroll millions of children in schools all over Northern Nigeria.
This is simply because an illiterate people cannot be part of modernity; and as things stand today, we are generations removed from advancements made in the south of Nigeria. Our ruling elite must make a revolutionary leap for education and decisively defeat the pull of misplaced tradition.
Islam must no longer be excuse for refusal to go to school, because the religion valorises learning and knowledge; there is a well-known Hadith where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), said the ink of scholars is superior to the blood of martyrs!
That emphasises the superiority of knowledge and it is remarkable that in the Seventh Century, our Prophet encouraged Muslims to search for knowledge, even if it was in China!
There is an example closer to home. Growing up in the Nineteen Sixties, there was as much suspicion of Western education but perhaps because of proximity to Western Nigeria, there was a spike in enrolment in schools in the Ilorin Emirate. We went to Western schools but at the same time, didn't abandon Islamic learning. It was a combination that makes it almost impossible to find a person of my generation in Ilorin who has completed Western education and has also not mastered the Qur'an.
It worked well both ways for us and we have made the best of both worlds. We were also lucky that the Northern Regional government of the Sardauna, put in place a fabulous educational infrastructure as well as an incentive package: we had a school meal each day; were supplied milk and wheat meal to supplement the inadequate diets in poor families; were taught using the educational resources of Radio Nigeria through rediffusion boxes and had well-trained and motivated teachers who kept up a high standard and tickled our search for knowledge.
This is the tradition that has gradually eroded. School infrastructure has deteriorated and for example, only four schools were rehabilitated in Kwara between 2003 and 2011.
All over the North we continue to grapple with an education crisis; that young people who manage to go through the hardship associated with learning today, end up without decent jobs, has further dampened the enthusiasm for education. Yet, it is the basic prerequisite for advancement in the knowledge-driven world of the 21st Century. We need qualified teachers so as not to continue incubating illiteracy; ignorance; anger and the associated violence.
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Troubling issues from the security crises in northern Nigeria
By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu
A FEW weeks ago, I sent a text to General SarkinYaki Bello, the Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism in the office of the National Security Adviser. I received a response that he was away on an official assignment. I have been unable to speak with him.
I made the effort to get clarifications on some of the issues arising from the insurgency/counter-insurgency in the North and the general patterns of insecurity nationwide. I acknowledge that security forces operate in a very difficult setting, trying to contain the insurgency in the North. Significantly, there was generalized support when President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency.
The media took a very patriotic attitude in support of the heavy deployment of troops despite the inconveniences facing people in the theatres operations. A cursory content analysis of reportage of military activities from Borno and Yobe, saw an underlining jingoism by the Nigerian media. Newspapers report almost word-for-word, from the JTF’s standpoint; this is “embedded journalism”, without critical pause being given to fighting at theSambisa forest reserve.
Propaganda was uncritically lapped up by the media and we completely forgot that a few weeks before the state of emergency, there was worldwide revulsion at the sacking of the fishing town of Baga on the Lake Chad! In the euphoric atmosphere of reportage and analysis, we set aside our constitutional obligations as set forth in Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution.
Again, let me state that I understand government could never allow insurgents to overthrow symbols of national sovereignty, including the lowering of the national flag; the killing of local officials of state and substitution of same with alien symbols as reported to have happened in a huge swathe of Borno. It was also clear that truth became the first casualty of the Nigerian war against terror; the truth is being accompanied by a bodyguard of lies, as Churchill famously advocated during the Second World War.
This came to fore, when a cache of arms was discovered in Kano on May 30. The military commander, Brig-Gen Ilyasu Abba, and the Kano State Director of State Service, DSS, Bassey Etteng, promptly told the media, that the arms“were brought in by a Hezbollah cell for use to target Western and Israeli interests”. Within just 24 hours, their “investigation had confirmed the existence of the group’s cell in Nigeria.”
This might very well be true; and it was actually the main issue I wanted to clarify with General SarkinYaki Bello. It, however, appeared suspiciously like an uncritical acceptance of the US/Israeli standpoint about Hezbollah. They describe Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization; while for the Lebanese, it is a legitimate resistance movement which fought Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon; furthermore, it is a political party in the Lebanese parliament and is part of the government of Lebanon.
As Africans, it is important to remember that the USA had labeled the ANC a terrorist organization while Nelson Mandela’s name was only removed from Washington’s terrorist list just a few years ago. The USA and Israel opposed Africa’s struggle against apartheid; the US supported the racist regime, while Israel was developing nuclear weapons with the apartheid regime! These historical facts should have made security tarry from hasty proclamations.
An equally disturbing phenomenon is the emergence of the “Civilian JTF” in Borno. Groups of young men in various neighbourhoods of Maiduguri use local knowledge to point out and arrest alleged members of Boko Haram.
Their action seemed to have pleased a couple of people from Borno and Yobe that I spoke with on the issue; they laud the Civilian JTF’s contributions to the anti-terror war. And they have the endorsement of the JTF, who allow them man checkpoints tohelp smoke out alleged Boko Haram members.
But Weekly Trust also carried a recent report on acts of harassment and extortion that these ‘gallant’ bands perpetrate. Any one familiar with the history of insurgency/counterinsurgency, especially in Latin America, will recall that death squads often had these “heroic” origins at the behest of military authorities and before long, they develop a life of their own, leading to atrocities that society regrets into the future.
In Nigeria, we have seen how the arming of “militants”; “Bakassi boys”, etc. led to uncontrollable acts of violence and brigandage in Southern Nigeria where they took root. Borno faces the danger of an officially sanctioned regime of violence and reprisals with an unregulated “civilian JTF” into the future, if we do not think through the issues. Counter-insurgency comes with a traumatic aftermath that we must begin to deal with from now.
Nigeria will still come to terms with the social origins of the insurgency. The nationwide outpouring of jingoism might befit the occasion and task at hand, but when the guns fall silent, we must address the issues of social injustice which led to the religious/ideologically-induced insurgency in the first place.
I write these lines against the background of three very poignant developments. Firstly, early this week, nearly every newspaper led with the story that JTF killed 40/50 Boko Haram members in Borno. The Nation newspaper of Monday, July 1, 2013, quoted an anonymous source that said: “we received intelligence report that Boko Haram terrorists regrouped and were residing/hiding in Zabarmari ward. We mobilized to the area. On getting there, the suspected terrorists noticed our presence and started shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (…)as they fired sporadic gunshots at the JTF troops.
We had no options than to repel the attacks as we succeeded in killing about 10 suspects. We did not take their bodies away, leaving them in the area. The following day when we mobilized our men to the area, we found that hundreds (emphasis mine!) of the terrorists were at the graveyard burying their dead and as we approached, they started shooting at our troops which led to the exchange of gunfire, where we succeeded in killing over 40 of them”!
The same alleged terrorists that security propaganda said had fled or had been killed, especially in the embedded reportage of a few weeks ago, were suddenly converging in hundreds inside a ward of Maiduguri! This is beginning to resemble a tragic, blood-soaked, fairy tale!
Secondly, this week, a statutory body, the National Human Rights Commission, released an interim report on the Baga killing. It had received “several credibly attested allegations of gross violations by officials of the JTF, including allegations of summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention amounting to internment and outrages against the dignity of civilians as well as rape” in their fight against the insurgency. Five wards of Maiduguri: Bulabulin; Bayan Tasha; PanpanGajagaja; Adam Kolo and Bagadaza have been “completely razed down”.
And as if to show some progress, Tuesday newspapers reported that 18 soldiers were court-martialed for offences arising from the counter-insurgency operations. Social phenomena are often more complicated than they appear. We must, therefore, be worried about the security situation, yes; but we must not abandon the basic responsibilities of Nigerian journalism as stated in the Constitution’s Section 22: hold government accountable to the Nigerian people; at peace or at war!
Professor Umaru Pate: The intellectual as kingmaker
LAST Saturday, in Yola the Adamawa State capital, Northern Nigeria’s first professor of mass communications, Umaru Pate, was turbaned as Kaigama of Adamawa. It automatically makes our friend and brother, one of the kingmakers of the Adamawa emirate. The title is akin to chief of defence staff of the emirate and has been a major title from the foundation of the Adamawa emirate by one of the flagbearers of the Jihad of ShehuUsmanu Dan Fodiyo, Modibbo Adama, in 1809. Significantly, the title has been in the Pate family from the 19th Century. Professor Umaru Pate’s father took the title in 1978 after serving as judge following the passing of his own elder brother, Kaigama Bashiru.
Professor Umaru Pate has been my friend for over a decade. He joined the Editorial Board of Daily Trust, when I was the paper’s editor as well as chairman of the Board. He came across as a modest and unassuming intellectual, with a very assured sense of duty. He gets assignments done on time and in the years that I have known Pate, I cannot recall ever seeing him frown his face; on the contrary, he always wears a charming smile. His academic record is as impressive as they come.
When he wrote his WASC examination in 1981, he emerged with the best result that year and would graduate in mass communication in 1987 and was retained by the UNIMAID mass communication department as a youth corps member and was eventually employed a lecturer by the department. He went on to study for a doctorate, subsequently becoming the first professor of mass communication in Northern Nigeria.
We have worked very closely over the years with this outstanding intellectual and gentleman on a couple of assignments. These include the initiative for community broadcasting in Nigeria and he went on to work on the Federal Government Committee that formulated Nigeria’s community broadcasting policy. Presently, we are also working together in the Technical Committee helping to establish a state television for Jigawa State. He has continued to bring to bear on these assignments an admirable dedication and intellect; he is always willing to bear the cross of the most difficult aspects of any job.
His appointment as Kaigama is hereditary, but it is also in appreciation of his level-headedness and ability to serve the community away from the halowed walls of the university. I have no doubts in my mind that Professor Umaru Pate will give his all in his traditional responsibilities as he has always done in academia and other assignments he has been invited to give his considerable intellectual resources. Allah yajazamaninKaigama Adamawa, Professor Umaru Pate.
A FEW weeks ago, I sent a text to General SarkinYaki Bello, the Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism in the office of the National Security Adviser. I received a response that he was away on an official assignment. I have been unable to speak with him.
I made the effort to get clarifications on some of the issues arising from the insurgency/counter-insurgency in the North and the general patterns of insecurity nationwide. I acknowledge that security forces operate in a very difficult setting, trying to contain the insurgency in the North. Significantly, there was generalized support when President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency.
The media took a very patriotic attitude in support of the heavy deployment of troops despite the inconveniences facing people in the theatres operations. A cursory content analysis of reportage of military activities from Borno and Yobe, saw an underlining jingoism by the Nigerian media. Newspapers report almost word-for-word, from the JTF’s standpoint; this is “embedded journalism”, without critical pause being given to fighting at theSambisa forest reserve.
Propaganda was uncritically lapped up by the media and we completely forgot that a few weeks before the state of emergency, there was worldwide revulsion at the sacking of the fishing town of Baga on the Lake Chad! In the euphoric atmosphere of reportage and analysis, we set aside our constitutional obligations as set forth in Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution.
Again, let me state that I understand government could never allow insurgents to overthrow symbols of national sovereignty, including the lowering of the national flag; the killing of local officials of state and substitution of same with alien symbols as reported to have happened in a huge swathe of Borno. It was also clear that truth became the first casualty of the Nigerian war against terror; the truth is being accompanied by a bodyguard of lies, as Churchill famously advocated during the Second World War.
This came to fore, when a cache of arms was discovered in Kano on May 30. The military commander, Brig-Gen Ilyasu Abba, and the Kano State Director of State Service, DSS, Bassey Etteng, promptly told the media, that the arms“were brought in by a Hezbollah cell for use to target Western and Israeli interests”. Within just 24 hours, their “investigation had confirmed the existence of the group’s cell in Nigeria.”
This might very well be true; and it was actually the main issue I wanted to clarify with General SarkinYaki Bello. It, however, appeared suspiciously like an uncritical acceptance of the US/Israeli standpoint about Hezbollah. They describe Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization; while for the Lebanese, it is a legitimate resistance movement which fought Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon; furthermore, it is a political party in the Lebanese parliament and is part of the government of Lebanon.
As Africans, it is important to remember that the USA had labeled the ANC a terrorist organization while Nelson Mandela’s name was only removed from Washington’s terrorist list just a few years ago. The USA and Israel opposed Africa’s struggle against apartheid; the US supported the racist regime, while Israel was developing nuclear weapons with the apartheid regime! These historical facts should have made security tarry from hasty proclamations.
An equally disturbing phenomenon is the emergence of the “Civilian JTF” in Borno. Groups of young men in various neighbourhoods of Maiduguri use local knowledge to point out and arrest alleged members of Boko Haram.
Their action seemed to have pleased a couple of people from Borno and Yobe that I spoke with on the issue; they laud the Civilian JTF’s contributions to the anti-terror war. And they have the endorsement of the JTF, who allow them man checkpoints tohelp smoke out alleged Boko Haram members.
But Weekly Trust also carried a recent report on acts of harassment and extortion that these ‘gallant’ bands perpetrate. Any one familiar with the history of insurgency/counterinsurgency, especially in Latin America, will recall that death squads often had these “heroic” origins at the behest of military authorities and before long, they develop a life of their own, leading to atrocities that society regrets into the future.
In Nigeria, we have seen how the arming of “militants”; “Bakassi boys”, etc. led to uncontrollable acts of violence and brigandage in Southern Nigeria where they took root. Borno faces the danger of an officially sanctioned regime of violence and reprisals with an unregulated “civilian JTF” into the future, if we do not think through the issues. Counter-insurgency comes with a traumatic aftermath that we must begin to deal with from now.
Nigeria will still come to terms with the social origins of the insurgency. The nationwide outpouring of jingoism might befit the occasion and task at hand, but when the guns fall silent, we must address the issues of social injustice which led to the religious/ideologically-induced insurgency in the first place.
I write these lines against the background of three very poignant developments. Firstly, early this week, nearly every newspaper led with the story that JTF killed 40/50 Boko Haram members in Borno. The Nation newspaper of Monday, July 1, 2013, quoted an anonymous source that said: “we received intelligence report that Boko Haram terrorists regrouped and were residing/hiding in Zabarmari ward. We mobilized to the area. On getting there, the suspected terrorists noticed our presence and started shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (…)as they fired sporadic gunshots at the JTF troops.
We had no options than to repel the attacks as we succeeded in killing about 10 suspects. We did not take their bodies away, leaving them in the area. The following day when we mobilized our men to the area, we found that hundreds (emphasis mine!) of the terrorists were at the graveyard burying their dead and as we approached, they started shooting at our troops which led to the exchange of gunfire, where we succeeded in killing over 40 of them”!
The same alleged terrorists that security propaganda said had fled or had been killed, especially in the embedded reportage of a few weeks ago, were suddenly converging in hundreds inside a ward of Maiduguri! This is beginning to resemble a tragic, blood-soaked, fairy tale!
Secondly, this week, a statutory body, the National Human Rights Commission, released an interim report on the Baga killing. It had received “several credibly attested allegations of gross violations by officials of the JTF, including allegations of summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention amounting to internment and outrages against the dignity of civilians as well as rape” in their fight against the insurgency. Five wards of Maiduguri: Bulabulin; Bayan Tasha; PanpanGajagaja; Adam Kolo and Bagadaza have been “completely razed down”.
And as if to show some progress, Tuesday newspapers reported that 18 soldiers were court-martialed for offences arising from the counter-insurgency operations. Social phenomena are often more complicated than they appear. We must, therefore, be worried about the security situation, yes; but we must not abandon the basic responsibilities of Nigerian journalism as stated in the Constitution’s Section 22: hold government accountable to the Nigerian people; at peace or at war!
Professor Umaru Pate: The intellectual as kingmaker
LAST Saturday, in Yola the Adamawa State capital, Northern Nigeria’s first professor of mass communications, Umaru Pate, was turbaned as Kaigama of Adamawa. It automatically makes our friend and brother, one of the kingmakers of the Adamawa emirate. The title is akin to chief of defence staff of the emirate and has been a major title from the foundation of the Adamawa emirate by one of the flagbearers of the Jihad of ShehuUsmanu Dan Fodiyo, Modibbo Adama, in 1809. Significantly, the title has been in the Pate family from the 19th Century. Professor Umaru Pate’s father took the title in 1978 after serving as judge following the passing of his own elder brother, Kaigama Bashiru.
Professor Umaru Pate has been my friend for over a decade. He joined the Editorial Board of Daily Trust, when I was the paper’s editor as well as chairman of the Board. He came across as a modest and unassuming intellectual, with a very assured sense of duty. He gets assignments done on time and in the years that I have known Pate, I cannot recall ever seeing him frown his face; on the contrary, he always wears a charming smile. His academic record is as impressive as they come.
When he wrote his WASC examination in 1981, he emerged with the best result that year and would graduate in mass communication in 1987 and was retained by the UNIMAID mass communication department as a youth corps member and was eventually employed a lecturer by the department. He went on to study for a doctorate, subsequently becoming the first professor of mass communication in Northern Nigeria.
We have worked very closely over the years with this outstanding intellectual and gentleman on a couple of assignments. These include the initiative for community broadcasting in Nigeria and he went on to work on the Federal Government Committee that formulated Nigeria’s community broadcasting policy. Presently, we are also working together in the Technical Committee helping to establish a state television for Jigawa State. He has continued to bring to bear on these assignments an admirable dedication and intellect; he is always willing to bear the cross of the most difficult aspects of any job.
His appointment as Kaigama is hereditary, but it is also in appreciation of his level-headedness and ability to serve the community away from the halowed walls of the university. I have no doubts in my mind that Professor Umaru Pate will give his all in his traditional responsibilities as he has always done in academia and other assignments he has been invited to give his considerable intellectual resources. Allah yajazamaninKaigama Adamawa, Professor Umaru Pate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)