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.
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Yesterday, the Cuban Embassy held a briefing session on their recently held elections which took place in March. Cuba, with a population of just over 11 million has a National Assembly of 470, with each member representing just about 30,000 people. This means constituents actually know their representatives. Their National Assembly is not full time, members remain on their work posts and run their normal life and simply go to parliament when it is in session. While the National Assembly is directly elected by the people, the President is elected indirectly, that is, by the National Assembly. The high level of participation in the elections, 75%, in a context deep economic crisis provoked by the American blockade was widely seen by both pro- and anti-government groups as a litmus test to gauge support for the Cuban leadership at this time. Once again, the message seems to be the legendary resilience of both the people and government of Cuba remains strong. No wonder the Cuban President, Miguel Diaz-Canel hailed the vote as a “victory” for the Cuban people.
Peter Gregory Obi, a 1984 graduate of Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is a dogged political fighter and appears to be a committed nationalist struggling to take Nigeria out of economic doldrums and developmental stagnation. His political sojourn is full of ups and downs, with each down making him a stronger and more ferocious fighter for the next round of fighting. As written in this Column, a few months ago. His tenure as the governor of Anambra state was marred by upheavals. Obi’s victory in the 2003 governorship election of Anambra was awarded to Ngige, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi assumed office on March 17, 2006, but was impeached On Nov. 2, 2006, by the State House of Assembly after seven months in office and was replaced by his deputy Virginia Etiaba. He was re-instated on Feb. 9, 2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. In April 2007, Obi was removed from office after a new governorship election was held by INEC, but the judiciary intervened again and ruled that he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term. In 2010, he won re-election for a second and final term in office as the governor. Despite these happenings, Obi was able to perform “wonders” in Anambra. His testimony is full of fantastic stories.
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.
The cost of the 2023 general elections on Nigeria’s social fabric has been very high. Many Nigerians felt threatened by strong ethnic mobilisation aimed at harassing them with the intention of stopping them from exercising their franchise. Voter suppression emerged as a core electoral tactic precisely because in many parts of the country, the assumed inclination of Nigerians to vote along ethno-religious lines were significantly undermined. In other words, political warlords were concerned that votes they had considered theirs for the taking were going elsewhere and breaking up their hegemonic control. In response, they intensified negative ethno-religious profiling to revive latent bigotry imbibed by Nigerians over the generations. Their political objective then became to intensify national disunity for the sake of preserving their political domains. The consequence of voter suppression is to question the right of belonging and participation in the political community causing deep pain and hurt.
The second part of this article was published on 8th March 2023 and then two key political issues crossed my mind, which made me discontinue this article. My esteemed readers, please, pardon my break and now, I am back to continue on the subject. Recall, the last line of part II of this article ended with two pertinent questions. Can Africa afford GMT? What is the viable strategy for Africa to benefit from cutting–edge technology?
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.
The 2023 general election has taken its pride of place in the long line of elections that have traumatized Nigerians due to the extremely high levels of ethno-regional and religious bigotry that marked them. The 1964 elections might have been the most acrimonious following the census controversy that following the rejection of the 1962 census and divergent attitudes to the 1963 census, the creation of the Midwest and operation wetie in Western Nigeria. In short, all the key ingredients about the survival of the Nigerian State were on the table in that election. The result was complete breakdown of public trust and the civil war. The learning from the 1964 elections was that the abuse of powers of incumbency to impose the will of a section of the political class was a threat to the survival of the state itself. The outcome was that the First Republic fell.
Katsina State is the home state to two illustrious sons democratically elected presidents, the former President, the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory, and President Muhammadu Buhari whose two 4-year consecutive tenures winds up on May 29th. Katsina state dubbed as the home of hospitality covers a total land area of 23,938 sq. km and is ranked 7th in total land mass and 6th in population size-. Of the total land resource, 1.6 million hectares of land is under intensive cultivation, while the forest reserve is now mostly bandits’ den. The famous Rugu forest was the envy of all due to its rich array of fauna and flora now a dread that only men of the underworld occupy from where they unleash their mayhem on the peace-loving, hapless, and agrarian communities. The other forest, Kogo in Faskari LGA, which was recently converted into National Park has been a virgin land with the utmost potential for economic activities. Moreover, a large expanse of undeveloped, and underdeveloped land is sparsely available across the state for utilization. The land can be ostensibly utilized for rainfed and irrigated agricultural production. The state is blessed with plenty of surfaces and underground waters that can be harnessed for irrigation. Major rivers which originate in or traverse the state include Koza, Sabke, Tagwai, Gada, Turami, Karaduwa, Bunsuru, Gagare, Sokoto, Tubo, Chalawa, and Karma. Most of these rivers, which flow only during the rainy seasons, are dammed to provide water for irrigation. The state has a tropical continental and semi-arid climate with annual rainfall ranging from 600mm in the northern part to 1000 mm in the southern part.
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.