₦airaland Forum

Ghanaian President, John Mahama, Nigeria’s ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, and many other African statesmen are expected to attend the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation 2025 Democracy Dialogue scheduled to hold in Accra, Ghana, on September 17.

The Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Ikechukwu Eze, in a statement on Tuesday, said the dialogue would also attract global development experts.

According to Eze, distinguished leaders also expected at the event are former president Jonathan, and the former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso and former President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States, Kadré Ouédraogo.

Others are the current President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Alieu Touray, as well as the Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese.

Eze said that this year’s dialogue with the theme, ‘Why Democracies Die’, would be co-hosted by the Foundation in collaboration with the Government of Ghana.

He said that the dialogue would give participants the opportunity to beam their searchlights on the progress, challenges and prospects of decades of democratic rule in the sub-region.


The event, according to Eze, will be chaired by Obasanjo while Kukah will serve as the keynote speaker.

The 2025 dialogue is the fourth in the series since 2021, when the foundation launched the annual discourse as a way of constantly interrogating democratic governance in the sub-region as a means of gauging its sustainability and impact on the lives of the people.

He recalled that the 2024 dialogue, which focused on purposeful education, featured Prof. Olubayi Olubayi, a seasoned educationist and Chief Academic Officer at Maarifa Education in Kenya and former Vice Chancellor of the International University of East Africa in Uganda.

Eze also recalled that Olubayi, in his keynote speech, made a strong case for African countries to establish highly selective merit-based institutions and elite research-intensive universities to serve as the anchors of functional education and drivers of technological growth.

“It is expected that the keynote speaker, Bishop Kukah, panellists and other resource persons at the 2025 dialogue would throw more light on what needs to be done to arrest the pattern of decline and gradual erosion of rules and norms which democracies have continued to experience in the Africa,” Eze said.

NAN

A group of terrorists have abducted at least three Muslim worshippers during early morning prayers at a mosque in Dansadau District of the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

Security sources disclosed that the attack occurred around 6am on Sunday, September 7, when gunmen invaded Yarlaluka community and disrupted prayers.

The victims, identified as Dan Asabe Alhaji Garba Akarya and two others, were whisked away at gunpoint.

Sources said that the attackers operated freely without resistance, further underscoring the worsening insecurity in Zamfara despite repeated claims by authorities that banditry is being curtailed.

Security operatives later stormed the area and reportedly arrested six suspects linked to the abduction.

According to official sources, the suspects are currently undergoing interrogation.

“At least three persons have been abducted by armed bandits while observing morning prayers in Maru Local Government Area.

“Zagazola learnt that the incident occurred on September 7 at about 5:55 a.m., when gunmen stormed a mosque at Yarlaluka area of Dansadau District and whisked away one Dan Asabe Alhaji Garba Akarya and two others.

“Security operatives visited the scene and arrested six suspects in connection with the attack.

“The suspects are currently undergoing investigation,” it said.

Two weeks ago, SaharaReporters exposed how terrorists carried out coordinated assaults on several communities in Zamfara State, abducting scores of residents, looting valuables, and forcing hundreds of terrified villagers to flee their homes in mass displacement.

SaharaReporters learnt that the incidents occurred in Yan Uku community under Garbadu Ward, Talata Mafara Local Government Area, and spread to neighbouring villages, including Farin Dutse.

A resident who spoke under condition of anonymity said his elder brother, identified as Muhammadu Lakada, was abducted at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday after returning from the market.

“This is the second time in one year they are taking him away. He was abducted last year around this same period,” he said.

“Yesterday, they came again, took him, his son, and another neighbour, Lauwali. They later released his son but told him to report back home with a phone number.”

According to him, the attackers had robbed Lakada days earlier, stripping him of his shoes, cap, and new clothes before returning to carry out the abduction.

The fresh wave of attacks has triggered mass displacement as villagers flee to neighbouring towns and even out of the state entirely.

SaharaReporters gathered that the terrorists returned on Wednesday evening in broad daylight, raiding Farin Dutse and other surrounding settlements at about 5pm, abducting more people and moving them into the bush without resistance.

“Majority of the villagers have already migrated. I got a call from someone saying bandits were sighted in nearby villages, so people are abandoning their homes to save their lives. Many will not sleep in their houses tonight,” another resident said.