This was published on 14th November last year when the issues of salary increase and naira redesign were mooted. But it was first written on the 7th of May 2018 and republished on October 1st same year. The first time it was captioned “Salary Increase: Before the harm is done” and the second time, with a little tinkering, it was captioned “Salary Increase: The Implication and Labour’s Role.”
Browsing: Hassan Gimba
The above proverbial expression, which alludes to an occasion between Damocles and King Dionysius, may define the situation between Nigerians and their president. Without a doubt, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the oath of office amidst significant concerns expressed by many Nigerians. Apart from that, the courts are still hearing challenges to his emergence as president. He is also, so far, the only president with a minority of votes in an election in Nigeria. Every president since 1999 has got total votes that surpassed those of all opposition parties put together that contested against them.
Today marks the end of the two-term tenure of a man who came with tremendous goodwill, the kind never before witnessed in Nigeria’s chequered political history. One can still remember some young Nigerians trekking from one end of Nigeria to another in high hopes of the new president. However, unlike Caesar, it is doubtful if he can thump his chest and declare “Veni, vidi, vici”—I came; I saw; I conquered.
In the system of governance we practise, there are three arms – the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. The Legislature is said to be the first among the three. The arms are characterised by the principle of separation of powers as each is supposed to be independent of the other.
This writing was first published on 6 July 2020. With changes of leadership soon at the federal and state levels, I see it as relevant. The first part in particular. However, do we forget the lessons in the second part?
My column of last week with the title “Like Mamu, like Abdulsalami and the billion naira firefighter” drew the attention of Colonel Dangiwa Umar (retd). The respected senior citizen was more particular about the first part because I mentioned him.
In a move normally seen in Hollywood spy thrillers, Tukur Mamu, publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald and an aide to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric, was arrested in September last year at the Cairo International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj, and detained for 24 hours before he was repatriated back to Nigeria.
After the annulment of the presidential election of June 1992, judged the freest and fairest in our electoral history, and said to have been won by the Social Democratic Party’s Chief MKO Abiola, many thought Armageddon was starting from Nigeria.
Ramadan is a month synonymous with fasting in the Muslim world. In Islam, fasting is the practice of abstaining from food, drink, smoking, and sexual activity between dawn and nightfall. At present, the world over, adult Muslims of sound mental and physical health are observing it, being the fourth of the five pillars of Islam. Muslims observe it in the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar. The name of the month has supplanted sawm, or azumi, meaning fasting in Arabic or Hausa, respectively.
Maiduguri, the capital and the largest city of Borno State, was founded in 1907 as a military outpost by the British colonial authority. It consists of two cities – Yerwa to the west and Old Maiduguri to the east. While Yerwa was founded in 1907 by Sheikh Abubakar Garbai as the capital of the Bornu Kingdom, old Maiduguri was selected by the British as their military headquarters, replacing Mafoni. The same year it became the location for the British Resident Commissioner over British Bornu. In 1957 Yerwa became the designated name for the urban centre while Maiduguri was officially applied as the name of the surrounding rural area, even though the name Yerwa seems to be out of trend now.