The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • UDUS student attacked

    A 100-Level Law student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Aliyu Saleh, has been attacked by hoodlums.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that Saleh was on his way to Bakassi Hostel last Wednesday, when the assailants attacked him with machetes around 11pm.

    The victim was walking along the snaky and often lonely Faculty of Veterinary Medicine road that leads to Bakassi Hostel where he resides.

    Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, Saleh narrated how his attackers cashed in on the porous security at the aforementioned route to unleash mayhem on unsuspecting students.

    He recalled how he decided to stroll out of the Bakassi Hostel at nightfall to make some calls, owing to poor network within the hostel, before the hoodlums intercepted him and made away with his mobile phone as he made to return to his hostel.

    Said Saleh: “At around 10:30pm, I left my room at Bakassi Block B, to go and make some calls as well as read because of bad network. So, I took that straight road connecting Bakassi with the main road where the new Faculty of Veterinary Science was built close to the signboard at the edge of Bakassi Street.

    “After the calls, I made to return to the hostel. Then, I realised a motorcyclist with two other passengers pulled up behind me. One of the passengers disembarked while the two others stopped close to the sign board.

    “Another guy who I initially thought was a fellow student came behind and enquired what the time was and I answered him. In a flash, the guy pounced on me trying to drag my phone. I fought back and before I could say ‘Jack’, a machete landed on my left shoulder.

    “I raised alarm as I took to my heels.  I then alerted some securities officials who also gave them a hot chase. Unfortunately, my attackers escaped using their motorcycle.”

    He thanked the security officials who thereafter rushed him to the school clinic for first aid, before he was later transferred to university’s teaching hospital for proper treatment.

    Aliyu further advised students to be very vigilant while walking at night around the school premises.

    He said: “To fellow students I would say, if they are going for any affairs whatsoever at night, should walk in group. Once you don’t trust a person at night, keep your distance, because it seems these criminals are not only after mobile phone, but lives.”

    One of Aliyu’s intimate friends, Sheu Shamsudeen, also a 100-Level law undergraduate drew students but particularly management’s attention to the growing insecurity on campus.

    “And for students, avoid walking alone during the dark hours of the night, walk in groups,” he recommended.

  • Right school age

    What is the right age for a child to start school in Nigeria? Parents are not sure. There seems to be no clear cut legislation about this in our education system.  Before private schools became popular and when mothers did not have to work, children stayed at home until they clocked six to be enrolled in Primary One. To test if they were of age, their left hand had to reach their right ear and vice versa.

    This was the practice in public schools. Then little attention was paid to early childhood development education – even up to 2007. Children started learning their letters and alphabets in Primary One.

    Private schools embraced pre-school and nursery Education in Nigeria long before the public schools. Today, public schools run two ECCDE classes before Primary Education kicks off.

    But the scenario is different in private schools. There is no uniformity. Schools adopt different models in running their pre-school/nursery. They also have different nomenclature for the names of pre-school classes. Some start with playgroup, reception, nursery 1-2, then kindergarten in that order, while others place the KG classes first before nursery classes. The variation is to the point of confusion.

    When I started shopping for a school for my first child, he was 18 months old. None of the schools I visited said he was too young to start. I was encouraged to enroll him.  Some schools even informed me that they accepted three-month olds. Today, very few parents wait for their wards to clock three before sending them to school. It is so bad that a two year-old is deemed too old not to be in school.

    In contrast, in countries like the United Kingdom U.S. and Canada, children start school at four.  Princess Charlotte of British royal family recently started formal schooling aged four.  Before four, children are home-schooled, go to daycare or attend part-time nurseries on some days of the week. They are not expected to write 1-100 like some children in Nigeria or do homework.

    Another area of inconsistency in our school system is the duration of Primary Education.  Though the National Policy on Education states that we run six years of primary education, three years of junior secondary education, three years of senior secondary education, and four years of tertiary education (6-3-3-4), many private schools practice five years of primary education.  These schools also use text books one year ahead of the class the children are in to make primary six irrelevant.  For instance, they introduce Primary One textbooks to pupils when they are in Nursery 2, and continue like that as the pupils progress.  By the time they are in Primary Five, they use textbooks for primary six then take entrance examinations of public and private schools and off they go to secondary school.

    This ‘unofficial’ five years of primary education has been in practice for over three decades now.  It was in practice when I was in primary school in the 80s.  So it is not a new phenomenon.  By now government should have researched, assessed and put an end to the practice.  But nothing of such has happened.

    I do not think that this practice of rushing children through school has helped our education system in anyway.  There is no evidence we are better than countries that have a stipulated start age later than what we practice.  Nigeria is not on any list of high-ranking performers in maths, sciences or other areas because we rush our children, neither are we achieving 80-100 per cent pass in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.  Ghana, where children spend longer in primary and secondary schools, has been outperforming Nigeria in the WASSCE for over one decade even though we have the largest candidature for the examination among the five West African member countries.

    Government needs to wake up and enforce our National Policy on Education to arrest the decay in our education system.  This sickening mediocrity should end.

  • Sundry Misusages XXVII: Oblivious . . . plus more

    Still so many hurdles to scale on misusages! The reason is, anywhere you turn, you encounter egregious mangling of standard usage. Yet, when you mangle usage, you mangle meaning. That should make correct usage the spirit and soul of any language. Usage embeds the character, personality, essence, excitement, depth, unique feel and beauty of language. So, when you master usage, you are filled with the spirit and soul of the language concerned (You know what it means to be spirit-filled in Christendom!) It’s so that we may fill you with the spirit of correct usage that we converse on more pitfalls to avoid in this edition. 

    Oblivious

    Communicators advise us to use adjectives sparingly because they require deft and accurate handling to share precise meaning. But for the prestige of it most likely, a lot writers indulge in using adjectives cavalierly, even when they could find other ways to express their thoughts more intelligibly. It is bad enough to be careless in your use of adjectives but it is worse not to understand their correct usage. Such are the pitfalls in the following statement:

    While this extreme condition persists for the citizenry, both the outgoing government and the incoming one seem either oblivious of this fact or are incapacitated to act.

    Here is what our writers’ companion, “Pop” Errors, says about the statement: “There is nothing egregious here, but just a little nuance of usage. The adjective oblivious is usually used in two ways: oblivious of; and oblivious to. When used in the former form, it connotes a state of unawareness of something, and in the second form, a state of not taking cognisance of or not considering or almost ignoring something. The writer is commenting on the excruciating socio-economic miseries of people during the transition from one administration to another government-in-waiting. Against this background, it may be illogical and untrue to say both are not aware of the parlous situation. It seems, therefore, that the ace columnist (specimen’s source is a newspaper column) has the second sense of oblivious in mind, suggesting that they are aware but are simply not addressing it for now. In other words, the expression oblivious to seems more appropriate from the drift of the columnist’s thought. We leave the debate to aficionados of English grammar. What is important for us here is to master the two forms of the usage of the adjective oblivious.” To avoid any doubt, we restate the statement with the correct usage inserted, thus:

    While this extreme condition persists for the citizenry, both the outgoing government and the incoming one seem either oblivious to this fact or are incapacitated to act. 

    Offspring

    Quite often, many write their own rules, leveraging entrenched lexical mindsets. The erroneous attitude seems to be: just add s whenever and wherever you need the plural sense of anything. Yet there are exemptions and there are exemptions. The correct application of the noun offspring is such an exemption, which has not been observed in the following:

    All those that are shielding Maina and his cohort from facing the full wrath of the law should know that their offsprings, relatives and friends will need a pension at old age.

    “Correct usage is offspring, not offsprings. In singular or plural form, offspring is offspring, meaning “a person’s child or children,” “an animal’s young”, or “the product or result of something.” What is more, offsprings does not exist in the English language” (“Pop” Errors).  To avoid any doubt, let us insert the correct usage, thus:

    All those that are shielding Maina and his cohorts from facing the full wrath of the law should know that their offspring, relatives and friends will need a pension at old age.

    Onset/Outset

    Here is one usage with which many a writer does not say what they mean. A scrutiny of the following statements will bear this out most vividly.

    (a). . .Let me say from the onset of this piece.

    (b)…In the face of the seeming silence of the Federal Government on the plight of the girls at the outset of the abduction, it took the patriotic act of some Nigerians . . . to draw global attention to the issue. . . .

    Specimen (a) is the way a writer started an edition of his newspaper column. ‘Onset cannot be an appropriate usage for the beginning of a newspaper article, unless it is declaring war. Correct usage is outset. Outset is used to refer to “the beginning or start of something” good; onset is also used to refer to “the beginning of something,” but “especially something unpleasant” (Oxford Dictionary of English/AmazonKindle). There is nothing unpleasant in a newspaper column, even if seen as an event’ (“Pop” Errors). So, correct usage regarding (a) above is:

    Let me say from the outset of this piece . . .

    Specimen (b) is the flipside of (a). In other words, (b) exhibits the reverse error of (a), misusing outset and comically confusing the noun with onset. The explanation of (a) shows obviously that onset is the correct usage in (b), not outset, “because abduction is clearly an unpleasant development.” Thus, correct usage in regard to (b) is:

    In the face of the seeming silence of the Federal Government on the plight of the girls at the onset of the abduction, it took the patriotic act of some Nigerians . . . to draw global attention to the issue. . . .

  • YABATECH, group partner on ethics training

    To achieve improved productivity and effectiveness for its workers, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) in conjunction with Global Women Investors and Innovators Network (GWIIN), recently engaged 80 selected academics and non-academic members of staff in Work Ethics, Etiquette and Leadership training.

    The objective of the training was to assist YABATECH to gain competitive edge with workers being exposed to a range of tools and approaches that support good governance, ethics, professionalism and effective leadership qualities.

    The workshop was designed to expose participants to modules relating to innovation, business development and enterprise.

    During the two-day programme at G International Institute Training Centre (GIITC) in Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos, facilitated by Staff Development and Training Department of the College, the founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GWIIN, Dr. Bola Olabisi, buttressed the main purpose of the training which was to re-train, re-skill, re-tool and take advantage of current and emerging opportunities.

    The participants were divided into seven groups that brainstormed on case studies/scenarios and proffered solution.

    Day one of the workshop focused on work ethics and authentic leadership qualities, making sound decision and values and integrity.

    On the second day, the participants l earnt about the code of conduct for personal development, social etiquette, and the art of fine dining with regards to the do’s and don’ts; dignity and a sense of what is appropriate in a cosmopolitan society; as well as composure and sophistication.

    Certificates of participation were awarded to attendees after the workshop.

  • Xenophobia and Onyema’s patriotism

    Sir: Long before the news of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa became public knowledge, the much people knew about Allen Onyema is the fact that he is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of one of Nigeria’s leading private airline companies, Air Peace.

    Typical of most private business operators, we thought all that mattered to people him was simply how to maximise profit, expand his business frontiers and put in place necessary measures that would keep his business safe and healthy in a peculiarly challenging business environment like ours. But we were wrong.

    But by choosing to be exemplary even without being prompted or coerced, Onyeama has indeed altered the erroneous perception that business people suddenly become contemplative when discussing philanthropy, and that they only put their money into ventures that would advance their business interests. Onyema’s action has to a large extent put a lie to that assertion.

    Same way most Nigerians were outrightly enraged and distraught by what many have described as premeditated, sustained, unprovoked and malicious attacks on innocent Nigerians living in South Africa by some local criminals who serially launched attacks on black foreigners for some senseless reasons, so was Onyema.

    But unlike others, he didn’t just lament, wail and condemn the inhuman and degrading treatment that his fellow countrymen were being subjected to. He thought of how to possibly assist in providing succour to these Nigerians who have suffered both human and material losses in the madness that occurred in the rainbow nation. Truly, it takes a man who has abundant love in his bosom to express real love to others.

    Instead of turning a blind eye or feel unperturbed by the unfortunate experiences of our brothers and sisters in South Africa, and possibly become critical of government and accuse it of being insensitive to the plight of its citizens in foreign lands, he volunteered to deploy a B777 air craft belonging to his company, Air Peace, to air lift all stranded Nigerians in South Africa who are willing to return home free of charge!

    This is indeed a rare act of patriotism and humanity that should be acknowledged and celebrated by all. He knew it wasn’t his responsibility as a citizen to coordinate efforts to evacuate stranded Nigerians in South Africa, but the humanity in him took a better part of his mind the moment he ruminated over the issue. He didn’t put the tribe, religion, political or ideological leanings of these stranded Nigerians into consideration before he offered to help them out of the precarious situation they were in. He chose to look beyond those divisive and narrow considerations that often guide our conducts in this part of the world.

    Onyema’s patriotic gesture quite resonates with Nigerians who are genuinely committed to building a country where love, unity, peace and social justice will reign supreme. We must be deliberate in our resolve to strengthen the bond of unity that holds us together. For us to realize our national aspirations and other strategic goals, it is important that we dwell more on those things than join us and focus less on those that divide us. This is simply the clear message in Allen Onyema’s rare act of human kindness.

    Ultimately, like Onyema has demonstrated, we need not find ourselves in public offices or be extremely wealthy before we can contribute our quota towards national development. The little acts of patriotism and kindness we do unnoticed are the bricks we need to build a rock-solid, united, indivisible and great nation that we always talk about.

    • Abdullahi Yunusa, Lugbe, Abuja.

  • Three years after, CAMPUSLIFE reporter collects witheld certificate

    Abdulsalam Mahmud, a CAMPUSLIFE reporter, graduated in 2016 with a distinction from Fati Lami Abubakar Institute of Legal and Administrative Studies (FLAILAS), Niger State. However, it was only last month, August 28, that he collected his Diploma certificate. The institute held on to his certificate for three years, following a story he published in CAMPUSLIFE section of The Nation n1ewspapers. OLUWAFEMI MUBARAK, MASS COMMUNICATION graduate of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, reports

    On October 6, 2016, Mr Abdulsalam Mahmud, then a CAMPUSLIFE reporter and Mass Communication undergraduate of Fati Lami Abubakar Institute of Legal and Administrative Studies (FLAILAS), Minna, Niger State, wrote a story on the CAMPUSLIFE cover of The Nation with the title: ‘Varsity applicants battle institute for results’.

    Pronto!

    Mahmud’s report jolted the management to do the needful immediately. However, FLAILAS  management debunked Mahmud’s claims, and considered the story ‘offensive’, ‘false’ and ‘injurious’ to the image of the school. And before anybody could say ‘Jack’, Mahmud was slammed hard with a punishment: his certificate was witheld for more than three years.

    It was, therefore, a victory for Mahmud, when the management  issued him his certificate on the school premises.

    Mahmud, CAMPUSLIFE gathered, dwarfed others, bagging a Distinction with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (cgpa) of 4.57. Interestingly, Mahmud was the only Mass Communication student who got Distinction among his classmates, an accomplishment which earned him the department’s best of his set.

    Mahmud, who started writing for CAMPUSLIFE in July 2015, has published over 93 reports and articles in the weekly pull-out of The Nation. In 2015, he received the ‘Most talented intern’ award from Newsline Newspaper after completing his media internship at the organisation’s office in Minna.

    A source, who was abreast of the incident, recalled the victim’s journey to his predicament.

    “The reason why Mahmud’s result was not issued to him immediately after he graduated was crystal clear,” began the source who pleaded not to be mentioned.

    He continued: “It was about the article he wrote on the plight of his classmates, especially the final year students. Mahmud published a story which the school management considered to be malicious, baseless and defamatory. But, actually, the report was not a falsehood, neither was it aimed at defaming the reputation of the institute.

    “The reporter (Mahmud) indeed carried out a thorough investigation and interviewed parties involved in the matter. He thereafter published a factual story on the plights of some students who missed their Direct Entry screening tests as a result of the delay by the institute to release their final results. That ugly development resulted in some of the 2016 graduating students missing their DE screenings, with some being denied admission that year.

    “The interesting thing was that barely 24 hours after Mahmud’s report was published, management quickly released the results of the graduating students, which enabled some of them to participate in DE screenings and post-UTME tests of their preferred tertiary institutions. There were a couple of the graduating students I know, who eventually got admission into universities that same year.”

    However, a day after Mahmud’s story was published, his name, matriculation number and details of his results ‘miraculously disappeared’  from the result sheets pasted on the notice board of the Department of Mass Communication.

    Shocked by the development, Mahmud had promptly drawn the attention of his Head of Department (HoD), Mallam Musa Gbage, who told him the error might have occurred during computation of the final results. Gbage assured Mahmud that the issue would be resolved

    “However, both the HoD and the school management didn’t actually address Mahmud’s complaint for weeks, until management sent a rejoinder that was also published in the same medium on 16 of November, 2016,” added one of Mahmud’s bosom friends, Umar Abdulkadir.

    Further, Abdulkadir explained that Mahmud was pressed into seeking justice in the court following several interventions by some eminent personalities with the Provost and other top principal officers of the institution, to no avail.

    A lecturer, who does not want his name mentioned, dismissed the assumption that Mahmud was victimised over the publication, saying some students and workers did not seem to understand Mahmud’s  true character and ‘uncultured attitude’.

    The source stated that on several occasions, Mahmud was warned by management against publishing stories that were not only injurious to the image of the school, but could also instigate riot on campus.

    The lecturer stated that the victim was in the habit of writing negative reports about the school, without cross-checking his facts.

    “As a young reporter learning the ropes through the window of campus journalism, it is expected that he adheres strictly to the ethics and tenets of news reportage. He should not be passionate about reporting issues without first gathering facts and doing thorough investigation. That was not the case with Mahmud. He authored several stories that dented the image of the institute even when he was yet to graduate from the school. A good student should also be a good ambassador of his or her alma mater. It should not be that you are destroying the image of your school,” the lecturer said.

    The lecturer, who attested to the fact that Mahmud has a very bright future in journalism, advised him to draw lessons from the ordeal by henceforth reporting issues objectively, and in such a manner that would not incite violence.

    Another source told CAMPUSLIFE authoritatively that the issue was eventually resolved in June this year when the victim’s lawyer and counsel to the institute both resolved that the matter be settled out of court.

    “Two lawyers made a gentleman agreement. Mahmud was prevailed upon to tender an unreserved apology in writing to the school over the said story, while the school management should also accept his apology and issue him his certificate.

    Miss Amina Ibrahim, a former classmate of Mahmud, described her friend’s victory as ‘a long walk to freedom’.

    Going down memory lane,  Miss Ibrahim recalled how the 2016 graduating students of FLAILAS, especially the DE applicants who knew Mahmud published a report about their plights, were deeply saddened on hearing about Mahmud’s dilemma.

    “I know Mahmud to be a very brilliant student. He was the best student in our department. Mahmud is a creative writer and a fearless campus journalist. While in school, Mahmud regularly filed in stories and other interesting events by students on campus for publication,” noted Miss Ibrahim.

    “He was the first Mass Communication student in the history of the institute that wrote stories and got them published on national dailies. He regularly contributed reports for The Nation, and some other national dailies. His numerous stories, especially inside CAMPUSLIFE pull-out projected the image of the school positively,” she added.

    Ibrahim admitted that even though there were some of Mahmud’s reports which did not sit well with the management; yet there were many which similarly projected the institution in good light.

    Garba Ismail, a 2016 law graduate of the institute, debunked claims by management that the victim was acting someone’s script by publishing some ‘harsh’ stories which sought to smear the reputation of FLAILAS.

    Ismail, stated that Mahmud, who was then the president of the school’s Creative Writers’ Club (CWC) of their set, should be proud that his writings motivated and spurred key authorities into action in addressing major problems facing the institution.

    He said: “Mahmud was the one that pioneered campus journalism at FLAILAS. He wrote stories of great impact. In the wake of the of the looting of the equipment of  Mass Communication radio studio of FLAILAS in November 2015, Mahmud wrote a report in The Nation which prompted  the Niger State government and Ministry of Education  to re-equip the facility.”

    Also in his reaction, the victim’s lawyer, Mohammed El-Surur, expressed delight that their legal intervention finally yielded fruit with the successful release of Mahmud’s credential.

    El-Surur, advised his ‘client’ to be wary of writing stories that may appear offensive to ‘powerful’ authorities, and which can truncate his academic pursuits or even terminate his life. The lawyer urged him to remain focused and continue to pursue his passion of becoming a seasoned journalist in the nearest future.

    In a chat with CAMPUSLIFE, Mahmud expressed gratitude to Almighty Allah for giving him the emotional strength to continue writing stories for CAMPUSLIFE and also practise journalism, even when his school certificate was withheld.

    The CAMPUSLIFE reporter, who said his travail was just like a flash in the pan when compared with what many famous journalists had experienced, described the entire experience as a ‘baptism of fire’ on his path to becoming a celebrated reporter.

    “Let me register my profound appreciation to my lawyer, my parents, lecturers at FLAILAS, my friends and several others well-wishers who stood by me and still believe in me, when I was denied my certificate.,” Mahmud began while thanking everyone.

    He added: “I also wish to thank the management of FLAILAS for pardoning, and issuing my result. I will forever remain indebted to them. Many thanks also to my lecturers who groomed me. The ordeal I passed through has only strengthened my courage as a pen pusher,” Mahmud added.

    Early this year, Mahmud won the ‘Upcoming writer of the year’ award at the annual Campus Journalism Award (CJA), hosted by Youths Digest at the Sheraton Luxury Hotel in Abuja.

    Prior to his ordeal, Mahmud had repeatedly told his friends and course mates how, upon graduation from FLIALAS, he had hoped to use that certificate for DE to a university of his choice. With his credential now ‘discharged’ Mahmud can now further his academic dream.

  • Xenophobia: The ultimate culprits

    Just as you reserve the right to walk a stranger out of your house, you reserve the right to demand the exit of foreigners from your country. It is the prerogative of the South Africans to dictate who can or cannot be allowed residence in their country. That the Nigerian government helped them in their struggle against Apartheid does not, in any way, invalidate that right. So, in demanding that Nigerians leave their country, the South Africans have done nothing wrong.

    The inundation of different countries of the world by Nigerians, as economic refugees, is a direct consequence of the irresponsible and anti-human policies of a series of kleptomanias, masquerading as leaders that ruled Nigeria over the years. Their total destruction of the Nigerian economy triggered the mass-exodus of Nigerians to different countries of the world, where they are resented, and sometimes, hated, and periodically attacked, like in South Africa.  So, as we fret about the attacks on our compatriots and the looting and torching of their businesses in South Africa, we have to realize that, by extension, the real culprits for these are the irresponsible, grasping and corrupt rulers that ran aground the Nigerian economy.

    Usually, the resentment, anger and disgruntlement of the general public are readily directed at the immigrant community. The immigrants are easy targets for scape-goat; they are blamed for the host country’s woes: unemployment, economic downturn, crime, etc. Not surprisingly, the South Africans are blaming Nigerians for taking their jobs, and being drug dealers, thieves, fraudsters, etc., – although many South Africans are involved in the same illicit businesses. The killing of Nigerians and the looting and burning down of their businesses and properties by South African mobs have reached horrifying extremes. It is estimated that about 150 Nigerians have been killed and Nigerian businesses and property worth millions of dollars destroyed in these periodic xenophobic attacks on Nigerians. Over all, the South African government has not demonstrated any commitment to the protection of Nigerian lives and property, or to bring the attackers to book.

    South Africa has a history that gloried in violence. Consequently, it is a very violent country. The taking over of the breathtakingly beautiful country and the subjugation of the Black owners of the land by Dutch settlers demanded justification and glorification of gratuitous murderousness and unspeakable brutality. Later, as Blacks South Africans rose in revolt against White supremacist tyranny, they also celebrated bloodcurdling violence, including “neck lacing” – the hanging of a petrol-socked tire over the neck and shoulder of alleged Black agent, spy or informant of the White Apartheid government and setting him ablaze. As a testament to the country’s culture of violence, some notable Black South African leaders openly endorsed “neck lacing” as legitimate punishment for suspected Black spies of the Apartheid regime. With no institutional racism to fight and no quisling to neck lace, they turned their violence and brutality on Nigerians, and other African immigrants.

    They have reasons to resent and hate Nigerians in their country. For centuries, they became accustomed to Whites being successful and in control. It is new-fangled, and thus, unacceptable to them to see successful and wealthy Nigerians in their midst. It is a sentiment summed up in the notice issued by the South African owners/taxi association against African immigrants, “These people drive expensive cars, and they have churches, businesses in every street of South Africa. They have everything that we as citizens don’t have.” In addition, they are irked by the boastfulness, general lawlessness and conspicuous consumption of Nigerians. Nigerians are also big spenders, and, understandably, women snatchers. One of their stated gripes against Nigerians is that they (Nigerians) “take our women”.

    As expected, most of the 800, 000 Nigerians resident in South Africa are unwilling to return to Nigeria, at least, in the short-run. Even, with the call on them to return home by the Nigerian government and the provision of free air fare by Air Peace, only a little more than 600 of them have, thus far, indicated interest to return. With the prevailing anti-Nigerian sentiment not abating in that very violent country, it is very likely that periodic attacks on Nigerians will continue. The blaming of national problems that are glaring indicators of failure of governance on the immigrants must be salutary to the government of Cyril Ramaphosa. Not surprisingly, the government of Ramaphosa has not only failed to protect Nigerians, but has, on some occasions, stoked the anti-Nigerian sentiment.

    The Nigerian government has very limited options in dealing with this international dilemma.  Reprisal actions on South Africans and their business interests in Nigeria are not viable options. Very few South Africans live in Nigeria. Secondly, attacks on South African businesses in Nigeria will be most disadvantageous for Nigerians. They are major employers of labour; attacks on them will worsen our already terrifying unemployment problems. It will also undermine Nigeria’s credibility as a secure foreign investment destination; it will dissuade prospective foreign investors from investing in Nigeria.

    It is bad leadership that destroyed the economy of our country, and sent Nigerians swarming into different countries of the world as economic refugees. In these countries they sojourn to escape the economic miseries in their home country, they are resented, and, as in South Africa, sometimes, hated and murdered. So, by extension, the blame for the attacks on Nigerians in South Africa rests squarely on the series of amoral and rapacious rulers that reduced Nigeria to economic boondocks.

    • Ezukanma writes from Lagos.

  • Mugabe: What legacy?

    After addictive medical trips to Singapore apparently in search of some immortality,   Robert Gabriel Mugabe (RGM) on September 6, heaved the last breath.  If he was mortal after all, what then remains of the legacy of the first sit-tight prime minister of liberated Zimbabwe, who in 1987 transformed into an executive president? This was also a frequently asked question while alive. He was born in 1924 in Kutama in the then British colonial possession: Southern Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe). He was imprisoned together with some of his comrades in Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), later ZANU PF, between 1964 and 1974 for leading an armed resistance against British colonial rule.

    In prison, he lost the only son from his first Ghanaian wife, late Sally Hayfon (who died in 1992). He died at 95, some two years after he was pressured out of power in November 2017 replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man he had fired as his deputy. One clear legacy of RGM is longevity in life (by destiny) and power (almost by subterfuge and dictatorship). Robert Mugabe shared in common, long life with freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela who despite 27 years’ incarceration by accursed apartheid regime died in South Africa peacefully some few months after 95th birthday, precisely on December 5, 2013.  Kenneth David Kaunda, (Zambian President from 1964 to 1991) also known as KK, born same year with Mugabe on April 28, 1924, remains the only standing nationalist of his era! Liberation fighters like Samora Machel of Mozambique were not as lucky in longevity. He died in a plane crash, at the behest of South African racist regime on October 19, 1986, at 53 years.  Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana 1909-1972, was the first liberator to audaciously lower Union Jack in 1957. He died at 63 of what Amilcar Cabral at Nkrumah’s state burial called “cancer of betrayal” in an historic speech in Conakry on May 14, 1972. A year later, Cabral (precisely on January 20, 1973) was also brutally killed by agents of the Portuguese imperialism at the prime age of 48 years. The second legacy of Mugabe is leadership-by- controversy, disputation and notoriety (almost-in that-order). My reflections over the years on Zimbabwe under Mugabe (what I dubbed Mugabedom!) can make a chapter in the next revised edition of my Reflections  on Africa and Global Affairs  (2015) and  Friends, Comrades and Heroes (2015). They include Mugabe @ 80 (March 2004), Mugabe As History (APRIL, 2008), Zimbabwe For Beginners, (June 2008), Mugabedom, Not Yet Zimbabwe – (August, 2013), Robert Gabriel Mugabe (RGM) for Beginners– (August, 2013) and No Lessons from Zimbabwe (2017).

    While alive (just as it’s is now after his death), Mugabe once polarized the African continent and indeed the world. Either you’re   for him (in support of the so-called land reform through land grabbing from the historic white land robbers) or against Zimbabwe under him for denying free and fair elections. The combined imperial forces of UK’s Tony Blair/ America’s George Bush who concealed their racist uncritical support for few white land owners opposing land reform while remaining  hard on politics of free and fair elections gave Mugabe the ready excuses to repress his people and under-develop Zimbabwe. After death, there is a disputation as to whether Mugabe who died in faraway Singapore with better medical care was truly a liberator or another duplicitous African big man, with one set of rule for himself, family members, party members and miserable standard for his people. Following the crisis that trailed rigged elections in 2008 (Mugabe actually lost to opposition MDC), he declared that Zimbabwean crisis was “an African crisis” arguing that the success of Zimbabwe is the success of Africa. Yet he effortlessly dammed the same Africa Union (AU) following the latter’s suggestion for election postponement when opposition MDC alleged insecurity. Mugabe pointedly said the continental body has “no right to dictate to us what we should do with our constitution, and how we should govern the country”.  Former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, aptly described the ugly repressive events in Harare under Mugabe as manifestation of tragic leadership failure. The worst legacy of Mugabe is sit-tightism in office with drab speeches which often lacked substance like most boring speeches of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.

    Mugabe came to power in 1980 in a popular election contested by notable nationalists like Joshua Nkomo. My findings show that in Nigeria, from President Shehu Shagari in 1980s to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, as many as 10 Heads of States had witnessed Mugabe’s serial self-inaugurations, sorry self-successions. If Mugabe were to be a British Prime Minister through sit-tight game, the British would not have known such prime ministers as Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister David Donald Cameron and Theresa May. Mugabe came to power almost same time Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher came to office. Of course if Mugabe were to be a Chinese, Li Xiannia,    Yang Shangkun, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin Hu Jintao and incumbent Xi Jinping could not have been presidents of the fastest growing economy in the world compared to impoverished Zimbabwe. Mugabe came to power when Ronald Reagan was in power.  The two “Bushes” namely George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton met and left him in office. Indeed President Barack Obama was in the college in the 80s when Mugabe was already a president. By Mugabe’s design, Obama completed two terms in office before he completed his 7th tenure! If Mugabe were to be a South African, there would not have been a Nelson Mandela to succeed him! We would have been crudely denied a global moral authority on freedom, democracy, reconciliation and peace that Mandela represented. Since Mugabe came to office, as many as seven presidents have emerged in South Africa. Certainly Mugabe was not Nelson Mandela. He was a man with selective sense of justice. He   once accepted to be happily knighted in the 90s by the Queen under Lancaster House constitution. Paradoxically after almost 40 years in power, Mugabe’s selling point until end was still colonialism, not open unemployment as high as 80 per cent, multiple digit inflation and imaginable currency devaluation, dollarization and unprecedented human drain/ human flight in modern Africa!

    Whatever his legacy is, blessed are the dead, because Robert Mugabe would no longer be suspected of some African failings. The burden is on the living who must deepen democracy, generate wealth, overcome inequality, create mass decent jobs and banish poverty.

    • Aremu, is member National Institute, Kuru Jos.

  • Dealing with the world bully

    Precisely because we are governed by law of nature – survival of the fittest, whether at the domestic or at the international level, the laws of the rich and the powerful including their whims and caprices are the laws for the rest of us. Those who control the resources of the world first told us slavery was best for the growth of the world economy; then capitalism and currently globalization, the world’s reigning god. Although the difference between the three is only in paradigm, we have been forced to swallow the fraud. The scam has been sustained though intellectual subterfuge and religion, the opium of the poor and paradoxically the foundation of western civilisation.

    If truth as defined by the powerful is being questioned today, it is not that the subjective relationship between the poor and the powerful is about to change. It has more to do with the emergence of less intellectually endowed world leaders such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and other western leaders who are today increasingly finding it difficult to convince the rest of the world that their motives in the ongoing civil war on Yemen exacerbated by rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is different from their ignoble role in Libya, Syria, Congo and currently in Venezuela.

    First, a civil war is going on in Yemen. It was partly the result of the ousting of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the first President of Yemen, (1990-2012) through Arab Spring masterminded and designed by self-serving western society to recolonize the Arab world or indirectly take over the control of their economy. A Saudi-led coalition in command of about 190 war planes, supported by America, American weapons and Britain took sides with Saudi Arabia to unseat the Houthis that got an upper hand in the civil war after taking control of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in 2014

    Human Rights Watch has ‘documented about 90 apparently  unlawful  coalition airstrikes’ against  homes, markets, hospitals, schools, and mosques and a wedding ceremony where 22 people, including eight children died in 2018 and that of a bus filled with children resulting in the killing of at least 26 children. Human Rights Watch has identified remnants of US-origin munitions at the site of more than two dozen attacks on civilians in Yemen. As at November 2018, 6,872 civilians had been killed and 10,768 wounded; the majority by Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes.

    Just about a week before the drone attack, over a hundred innocent people were killed through America-aided Saudi Arabia air strike. While many are being killed with American weapons openly shipped to Saudi Arabia, America and its allies are accusing Iran of smuggling weaponry including ballistic missiles fired at Saudi territory by the rebel Houthi movement. America that unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal jointly negotiated by the UN and world powers, imposed sanctions on Iran, embargoed the sales of her fuel and threatened nations and companies that do business with her has also decreed Iran will be held liable for any attack on foreign vessels in the Persian Gulf.

    It must also be said that the Human Rights Watch also documented atrocities committed by the Houthi forces such as repeated indiscriminate “firing of artillery into Yemeni cities, populated neighbourhoods with devastating impact on Taizz, Yemen’s third largest city, use of banned weapons such as landmines, arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances”.

    But as it was in Iraq and Libya where the preoccupation of America and her western allies after the fall of Saddam Hussain and Muammar Gaddafi was the protection of oil facilities as against artifacts dating back to 3,000 years, America seems to be saying crime against humanity can be committed by both sides as long as flow of oil is not interrupted or threatened.

    America’s reaction to last Saturday’s coordinated Houthi Drone strike which shut down about half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output seems to have confirmed that mind-set.  Celebrating the attack, a Houthi spokesman said “We promise the Saudi regime that our future operations will expand and be more painful as long as its aggression and siege continue”. But America despite that claim and despite Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif’s denial has continued to point accusing finger at Iran for the attack.  With a posture of ‘do as I say and not do as I do’, they are gathering evidence to inflict maximum punishment on Iran for daring to support the Houthis, her own ally.

    Nigeria and the United States have long been close allies. Besides being our biggest trading partner until recently, America supports our fight against corruption and efforts to build institutions of democracy such as political parties, the press and civil society organisations. Since President Trump who operates on impulse has to be managed by the American bureaucracy and tolerated by American traditional allies, we may not be in a position to influence his perception of the truth. But we can maintain our peace as most members of the non-aligned nations have so far done.

    This is why last Monday’s statement about “Nigeria standing in solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following drone attacks on the country’s oil facilities at Khurais and Abqaiq” by Malam Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s  Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, was totally uncalled for. We suddenly remember “the attacks represent not only economic warfare aimed at damaging a government, but also innocent citizens’ livelihoods: those with no place, nor cause, to be harmed” after maintaining our silence since the outbreak of hostility in 2015 and with close to 13,600 people killed in Yemen, including more than 5,200 civilians, as well as estimates of more than 50,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine due to the war.

    The problem with our foreign relations is that we invest heavily and take sides without tying such investments and interventions to what our nation stands to gain.  For instance, while we seem to give unconditional support to Saudi Arabia that  not too long ago disappointed President Buhari  during his desperate  search for funds while the IMF held the nation hostage over his refusal to devalue the naira, Russia,  an undisputed  power behind Iran in her battle against Saudi Arabia coalition and the western powers,  rather than taking a public position, tongue-in-cheek offered Saudi Arabia Russian S-400 ‘Triumph’ air defence systems  weapons to ward off possible future attacks on her oil facilities.

    We must not also allow ourselves to be caught between the struggle for regional hegemonic power by Iran and Saudi Arabia using schism of Shia and Sunni. In any case the age-long  Shia(Iran)  and Sunni (Saudi Arabia ) rivalry has little to do with faith but more with  war of succession following the death of Prophet Muhammed through meat poisoning without  an anointed successor. The Shia support for Muhammad’s son-in-law and Cousin Ali, who was later murdered by the Sunnis along with his sons as rightful successor was the source of age-long feud between Shia and the Sunnis.

  • Ganduje: Saving the north from shame

    Sir: Why must the children of the Hausa-Fulani be left to become a burden and to some extent security threats to the society? While other Nigerian children are found in classrooms with better chances of a better future, northern children are only found roaming the streets begging in the name of being almajiris in their numbers. Such negligence was responsible for the snobbish and demeaning perception against the Hausa-Fulani’s by our southern brothers.

    Truth is, here in the north, we have the elite that have received the best of care and free qualitative education from the collective resources of the Talakawas, which propelled them to their present exalted positions. Unfortunately, they rendered such rights and privileges comatose to the detriment of the great majority.

    No state has any justification to allow children of school age to be roaming on the streets, not to talk of becoming almajiris. It is therefore a good omen that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has summoned the political will to enforce free and compulsory basic and secondary education in his state, which has a significant concentration of out of school children.

    Ganduje was conscious of the fact that public schools, especially at primary and secondary level has been neglected and rendered ineffective for too long which was the major factor that gave birth to the proliferation of all sorts of privately owned primary and secondary schools in the country.

    To defeat these challenges and ensure the smooth take-off of the free education scheme, the governor has constituted a committee to take inventory of all existing public primary and secondary schools in the state.

    So far, 1,180 public schools have been indentified and designated for the take off of the scheme, while N 200million is to be set aside for the monthly up-keep of these schools. Governor Ganduje had declared that the sum of N 2.4 billion is expected to be expended annually for the maintenance of these schools.

    Already, N 381 million has been paid for the sewing of 800,000 school uniforms and accordingly distributed to the 779,000 primary and secondary school new intakes. The state government has also, released the sum of N350 million to complement the federal government home grown school feeding policy in the state. To discourage the apathy towards the girl-child school enrollment, the state government has disbursed the sum of N 40,000 each to the indigent parents of 31,000 girl-children towards preparing them to commence school this season.

    With all these interventions, no parent has any reason not to send his child to school. To demonstrate the seriousness of the state towards implementing the free educational scheme, about 100 school age children that were found roaming around in the guise of almajiris were recently arrested. Surely, Governor Ganduje is determined to save the north from shame and perdition.

    • Mohammed Isa Bilal, Jos, Plateau State.