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?
Browsing: Hassan Gimba
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.
This is not what I had intended to discuss this week, but circumstances have given it priority. Yobe is a state that is blessed. Here, I am not talking about how blessed it is with peaceful and peace-loving people. No. Nor am I talking about the natural resources the Maker buried there. No, not at all. I am not even going to talk about the abundance of human resources in Yobe State.
One of the factors that determined the just concluded elections in Nigeria is religion. Oh, agreed, in our politics, religion has always been a factor in determining winners and losers. But never before was it flagrantly flaunted and made to be the driving force than in 2023.
In the Nigerian social media space, battles are fought 24/7. Politically, those who stand with President Muhammadu Buhari are at daggers drawn with those who think the apostle of “change” should be changed. Those who want Buhari to give way are also rooting for their various heroes. Muslims and Christians do not see eyeball to eyeball while at the same time contending with intra-religious quarrels.
I am not speaking of, nor would I dwell on, how he brought back the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the brink of disintegration two years ago. No, everyone knows that. Everybody is aware of how he stabilised the party and made it grow in numbers. He attracted the grassroots, who trooped into the party in numbers as well as the high and mighty who could make things happen.