₦airaland Forum

I have devoted all my columns in the month of March—which coincides with the month of Ramadan—to Ramadan. This is the fifth column in that series (and with it) I shall conclude my discussion on Ramadan. In the month of Ramadan, Muslims all over the world strive harder to come closer to Allah than in any other month. This makes the fasting period a season in the Islamic Calender year where Muslims seek spiritual upliftment. Muslims ply different paths to spiritual upliftment.

One's socio-economic status goes a long way to determine which path of spiritual upliftment one chooses to tread. Some focus on reciting the Qur'an and other religious rituals. Many are committed to spending their hard earned wealth to support Islamic programs. There are well-to-do Muslims who impose upon themselves the feeding of the poor throughout the fasting period. Yet, some few rich individuals make it a habit to perform 'Umrah (lesser Hajj) in the month of Ramadan.
While I was contemplating on what to write to end my Ramadan series, I chanced upon a news item on Intel Region that reads: "Nigerians, others may face punishment as Saudi Arabia warns pilgrims against content creation during Hajj/Umrah." That is a nice thing to do. Place of worship like the Ka'aba that requires presence of mind with earnest dedication to worship should not be turned to amusement park.

Did the Saudi Arabia Authority actually issue such warning? I honestly don't know as I was impatient to find out. But from the news headline , I got an inspiration to write on the above title. It is true that unnecessary religious content creation that appears too ridiculous is gradually supplanting earnest focus on acts of worship that should be solely done for Allah's sake. What is even more disturbing is that the month of Ramadan has been marked, by some, for content creation rather than dedicated focus on worship. Below are some top content creations in Nigeria's 2025 Ramadan.

A Lagos based cleric used his Ramadan tafsir (lecture) as avenue to accuse a fellow cleric of using diabolical means to mastermind his recent sickness. We were taught, in Islamic theology, that whatever befalls us of calamities is a trial from Allah. This is not to downplay the role of human agency in causing harm. But the basic thing that every Muslim should know is that sickness has a natural cause and could be a divine trial from which no mortal is free.

However, it is surprising that the self-acclaimed cleric lacks this basic belief or could not put it into practice. I thought the cleric accused of voodoo practice would resort to legal action against his accuser and insist that he should provide evidence of how the accused spiritually harmed him. The reaction of the accused only shows how Ramadan tafsir has become avenue for creating entertainment content. Attending the religious learning circles of this class of clerics amounts to a waste of time. Their Ramadan lectures are dry, empty, and bereft of spiritual refreshment. They are content creators at best.

Another top content creator is the son of our dear President Tinubu, Seyi, who also seized the opportunity Ramadan presents to create content. In his widely reported tour to northern Nigeria to feed 'hungry' Muslims with cooked rice and 'danwake' during Ramadan, we saw politics rather than a genuine desire to assist the vulnerable. In other words, it is politicization of Ramadan purposes other than spiritual.

In his address to an audience in Adamawa, Seyi described his father (President Tinubu) as the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria and Nigerians. He ended up entertaining Nigerians and the fasting Muslims by creating engaging content. While I think he needs some tutorials in public speaking, as I mentioned last week, many Nigerians compare his energetic speech-giving style to that of secondary school debaters struggling to convince their audience. Interestingly, Martins Vincent Otse, a Nigerian social media influencer also known as verydarkman, did a mimicry of Seyi's energetic content creation in a new viral video.

The topmost of all these content creators are are the organizers of a 'religious' festival in Zaria, Kaduna State. I find the festival the most ridiculous content creation in this month of Ramadan . The festival was named "Bikin Ranar Takalmin Annabi Yafi Kowa." This means: "The Festival of Prophet's Sandal is More than Everyone." This festival was celebrated last Sunday which fell within the last ten days of Ramadan that Muslims are required to intensify acts of worship by retreating to some designated mosques for the purpose of worship.

What is even more ridiculous is how it creates a schism between clerics . Some hold that, truly, the Prophet's sandal is more important than any creature (living or dead). Others argue that while the Prophet is undoubtedly the most important figure in history, such importance cannot be attributed to his sandal.
O my God! When I first heard of this baseless debate initiated by some idle hands and empty minds, the first question I asked is: where is the Prophet's sandal which is now a topic of debate? At least I have to see the sandal before I can conclude whether it is better than me or I am better than it. That festival is utterly ridiculous. Those who organized it are content creators; they are not worshippers. It is an evidence of how religious bigotry can make supposedly sane people lose their sanity without being apparently mad.

How can any reasonable person be celebrating a sandal that does not even exist? Isn't it comical? Must one be stupid to be religious? Is religiousness tantamount to stupidity? I searched for the answer to this question in the Qur'an. The answer I found is NO. Islam is not for stupid people who cannot use their brain. To be a Muslim, the Qur'an explicitly states, one needs to be intelligent, wise, and reasonable. The Qur'an addresses itself to men of understanding (Q 13 v 19), it invites men to reason (Q 4 v 82) and extols reasonableness and wisdom (Q 2 v 269; Q 15 v 75) . One cannot be fool and effectively be Muslim. Celebrating sandal cannot be religiousness; it is religiosity. Use your brain. Don't be stupid.

As Ramadan gradually comes to an end, we beseech Allah to forgive all our sins and accept our righteous supplications. Happy Sallah in advance.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

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The month of Ramadan is a special month to the Muslims. It is that season of the year that every Muslim feels the need to communicate with their Creator (Allah). Even nominal Muslims who hardly perform the five daily prayers suddenly appear saintly by virtue of the noble month. It is also glad to note that some non-Muslims are beginning to identify with the Muslims in the month of Ramadan by providing iftar (a meal taken by Muslims for breaking fast after sunset). It is actually a season of giving, spending, and sharing. May Allah reward every sincere giver with abundance.

While feeding people in Ramadan is a worldwide practice especially in countries that are predominantly Muslims, it has been politicized in Nigeria. Its politicization is made possible because of the widespread poverty in the land. It should be noted that feeding in Ramadan in some countries is not about the poor. It is not because the people are poor or could not feed themselves. Rather, it is an expression of love, a social function, and an entrenchment of "there is love in sharing" philosophy. In Nigeria, in most cases, it is because the poor—who are now in the majority—could actually not feed themselves.

Where the poor exist in large number, like in Nigeria, it is religious obligation upon the rich to feed them. But the feeding must be for the sake of Allah. It should not be used as constituency project; neither should it be unnecessarily televised or used as bait for votes. However, it is unfortunately observed that some lawmakers use this occasion of Ramadan to distribute food to the poor in their constituencies to score some political points. These are the same people they have abandoned throughout the year. And because poverty and hunger have done a lot of damage to our thinking process, these self-serving politicians are praised to high heaven whenever they dole out their usual Ramadan crumbs. In some quarters, Ramadan feeding has become a yardstick for good governance. Best performing governor is also determined by the extent of the huge amount of money a governor is able to earmark for Ramadan feeding.

In normal climes where elected leaders discharge their responsibilities, Ramadan feeding using state resources would never be seen as a commendable act. A praiseworthy act would have been to empower people to feed themselves. It is hypocritical and even ungodly to feed people in Ramadan and deliberately allow them go hungry after Ramadan. This is an ill-intentioned seasonal 'generosity.' While generosity should be intensified in Ramadan, it should not be limited to Ramadan. The Prophet SAW— from whom we learn—Islam was said to be generous not only in Ramadan but more generous in it. That is to say, the Prophet's generosity is an all-year-round gesture.

This year Ramadan feeding was even more politicized as we witnessed one Seyi Tinubu who is said to be President Tinubu's son at the center of Ramadan feeding program. He, on the third day of Ramadan fasting, joined some Kano residents and political leaders to break fast. He reportedly used that occasion of 'special' Iftar to launch a feeding program for the less privileged. The program was said to be part of Seyi Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Youth Engagement (RHYE) initiative, aimed at supporting vulnerable groups, including persons living with disabilities. In addition, The RHYE was conceived to provide community service and social welfare package, particularly during Ramadan to the hungry Muslims.

After the formal launching in Kano, Tinubu had toured many other states in the North. The President-like reception he was given in some of the states he had visited—with his Ramadan feeding program—is superlatively ridiculous. He was graciously received as if he were a top government official on official visit. And what was the purpose of the visit? It was to empower the youth by distributing 'danwake' among other things. 'Danwake' is a common street food made from a mixture of flour, potash, and some other additives. Well, I think that is what the northerners deserve anyway.
No one should tell me it is politics o! I no go gree. Seyi Tinubu's Ramadan feeding is for the sake of Allah. It is due to the genuine concern he has for Nigerian masses whom his father's policies have thrown into the seething cauldron of poverty. His feeding empowerment program even has the blessings of some clerics. Thus, the food was packaged in plastic bags adorned with pictures of President Tinubu and Seyi so that Allah will know that it is from Seyi Tinubu, not from any other Seyi.

Although many northerners criticized the feeding program which they condemned as a ploy to fool them again in 2027. But this was only after some had collected the packaged food which looked like packaged crumbs that cannot satiate their hunger-induced rumbling stomachs. To add insult to injury, he recently claims his father is the greatest president ever in Nigeria. No one should disagree with him. Truly, his father is the greatest president in the history of Nigeria. Is there anyone among Nigerian presidents that had a son that ruled the country together with his father like a kingdom? If this doesn't make President Tinubu the greatest president ever, I don't know what would. The unelected Seyi with no constitutional role now outshines even the Vice President in ruling Nigeria. I think it is high time we had First Son Office.

Addressing some youth in Adamawa State few days ago (perhaps after he had fed them to 'empower' them) he went beserk, claiming that all former Nigerian presidents tried to enrich themselves, except his father. In his words, he claims his father is: "The only president that created an economy that has benefitted everybody, the only president that is not trying to enrich his own pocket.” I think he needs some tutorials in public speaking.
His assertion that his father is the greatest Nigerian president ever is obviously a jab at the former president Olusegun Obasanjo who recently labeled the Tinubu administration as corrupt. Although Nigerians do not need an Obasanjo to tell them how corrupt Seyi's father's administration is, yet it needs to be said that this regime reeks of corruption of monumental proportion. If you want to find out, just go through its budgets. No one, no matter how patriotic, reads the annual budgets of this administration since inception and remains hopeful.

All said, it is clear to the northern youth that Seyi Tinubu's Ramadan feeding is all about politics—2027 election. Though there is hunger in the North and in Nigeria at large, northern youth should learn how to be principled (even while hungry) to say no to cooked rice and 'danwake.' What the youth need is job not 'danwake.' Seyi should tell his father with whom he seems to co-rule Nigeria that the northern youth would not take anything but a demonstration and evidence of good governance. It is not too late, there are two years to the next round of elections.
Finally, our politicians—elected and unelected—should leave us alone with Ramadan.

Enough of the politicization of Ramadan feeding. What the youth need is job creation that is befitting to human dignity with a sustainable wage, not an occasional Ramadan feeding given to some selected hungry Muslims that are driven back to the seething cauldron of poverty and humiliating hunger after the month of Ramadan.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

https://www.opinionnigeria.com/seyi-tinubu-and-the-politics-of-ramadan-feeding-program-by-abdulkadir-salaudeen/

We are still in the month of Ramadan. Although an important month, it has been the most abused month by clerics who seek to mislead unsuspecting worshippers and enslave them by means of religious gaslighting. Two weeks ago, in my column titled "Ramadan: Between the Muslims and the Pseudo Clerics," I drew our attention to some categories of clerics that Muslims should run away from. In this column, I draw readers' attention, again, to one of the antics employed by pseudo clerics to entrance their audience such that they lose their thinking faculty while they feed them with lies. I will return to this shortly after the brief admonition below.

The month of Ramadan is full of blessings. The rich experience what the poor have got used to. I mean pang of hunger. For those who are fortunate among the rich, that pang of hunger leads to pang of conscience. While the former is experienced by anyone that starves themselves for spiritual or medical reason, the latter (pang of conscience) might be experienced only by a few.

Pang of conscience is a feeling of embarrassment, resulting from one's bad behavior or habit which one regrets. The bad habit which is common among the rich is to ignore the plights of the poor. It is to look the other way as hunger continues to strike the poor until they become emaciated. The fortunate and blessed ones among the rich would feel not only the pang of hunger in this noble month but also the pang of conscience. After fasting for a whole month, they would turn over a new leaf. They will not only sympathize with the poor but empathize with them.

If this happens to the rich, it means they have actually passed through Ramadan and Ramadan has passed through them. It means Ramadan has taught them to be dutiful to Allah by helping the poor. It also means Ramadan has trained them how to sacrifice their hard-earned wealth to seek Allah's blessings.

The poor on the other hand who might have little or nothing to spend should exert much efforts to increase their acts of worship, especially the recitation of the Qur'an which is believed to have been revealed in the month of Ramadan. They should read the Qur'an as many times as possible. Thereby, seeking Allah's blessings. The rich can also gain additional rewards by reciting the Qur'an despite having spent a lot to assist the poor.

We have read a lot, and a lot has been narrated to us, about great Muslim ulama and awliyaullah (worshippers) who devoted their time to reading the Qur'an in the month of Ramadan. Some, we were told, would complete the recitation of the whole of the Qur'an everyday. Some would read more, some would read less. May Allah reward us and them.

How many times have you completed the Qur'an in this month and how many times do you intend to complete it? If you have not started at all, this is the right time to start. If you think it is late already since we are almost halfway through Ramadan, I think it is not too late to seek Allah's blessings. Our malams (clerics) told us that recitation of the Qur'an is one of the best acts of worship (especially for the poor who might not have other means to seek Allah's pleasure in this blessed month.) Our clerics are right.

But don't forget to use your sense when listening to some of these clerics. They mix falsehoods with facts. At times, they present one fact as a smokescreen to inundate their followers with a thousand and one falsehoods. If you are not knowledgeable enough to separate fact from falsehoods or to identify the crooks and the trusted ones among the clerics, always pray to Allah for guidance and use your sense. I mean common sense.

At times, or even often, some of these clerics tell lies just to enslave you. They make you look helpless and feel defeated in your spiritual journey by telling you some stories and spiritual feats—that seem verisimilitude to tales by the moonlight—about some certain Sheikhs (men of God).

If you accept those tales, the next thing is to make you revere those Sheikhs and their offsprings more than the reverence you have for your Creator, Allah. They might even tell you that worshipping these sheikhs is like worshipping Allah because they are close to Allah in terms of worship so much so that there isn't difference between them and Allah.
I will cite one instance to understand one of their antics and, hopefully, we shall realize why we should use our common sense not to fall victims of religious manipulation by the tales of some so-called men of God.

But before then, here is a question. Is there a limit to the number of times a Muslim shoud/could complete the Qur'an especially in Ramadan? Many will say there is no limit. One should just keep reciting. This answer is wrong! There is a limit because there are 24 hours in a day. This implies that one can only recite the number of Qur'an that is practically recitable in a day. Yes! A Muslim might wish to recite the Qur'an, say, a hundred times a day. But time constraint (24 hours in a day) will set a limit for him against his wish. This is a very simple logic.

It is an established fact that a skilled and experienced reciter of the Qur'an could complete it within eight hours if he recites it at a faster pace. It is reasonable to believe this. But can one complete the Qur'an twice a day? Well, such reciters would have to overburden themselves to achieve that. That would mean immersing oneself in the recitation of the Qur'an—16 out of 24 hours a day. We can assume that this is possible. The remaining eight hours might be used for mundane things like sleeping, resting, eating, attending to other personal needs, etc.).

I watched a viral video in which a cleric was lying to his audience while the dull and credulous audience who lack the thinking ability to discern truth from falsehood were overawed by the concocted lie. A late Nigerian Sheikh (waliyyi) in a state in the North who is worshipped like God was said to have recited the Qur'an seven million times in his lifetime.

No wonder some months ago, some senior worshippers of this Sheikh went to his well decorated tomb to update him (the Sheikh) about their worldly affairs and complained to him about their predicaments and sufferings!

Among other things, they foolishly told the man of God (perhaps he is even so-called), whose bones should have been pulverized in his grave that: "Things are tough. Prices of food and essential commodities have skyrocketed due to the removal of subsidy. We have come to you to ask for your intervention in this matter." Hmm! Expecting an entombed helpless deceased to attend to one's needs is the height of religious stupidity. Though these people apparently acknowledge God as God, one can conclude that they grudgingly do so.

Their real object of worship is their Sheikh who, by virtue of having recited the Qur'an seven million times, has become 'god' in his own right.

But common sense would tell you that even if one could recite the Qur'an the whole day without sleeping and avoiding all worldly distractions like a monk, the highest one could complete in a day is probably three. Let's assume he does so unceasingly for seventy years, he would end up with the recitation of the Qur'an 76,650 times (which is impossible anyway). So, how is it possible to recite the Qur'an seven million times in one's life time?

Unfortunately, however, when these pseudo clerics unleash these lies as virtues, one is amazed to see their audience shouting Allahu Akbar (GOD is Great). May we not lose our senses—our ability to think clearly and make good judgements.

It should be noted, it is not even how much of the Qur'an one recites that matters. What matters is to what extent has the light of the Qur'an illuminated our heart. A heart that is well illuminated with the Qur'an will not cheat, will not lie, and will not steal private or public funds. Such heart will not be unjust to his fellow beings nor would he tolerate injustice. Don't take everything from clerics. Don't be enslaved in the name of religion. Use your sense. Ramadan Kareem.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19CSoZVNW6/

The objection of the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) to Ramadan school closure in four northern states has unfortunately snowballed to an unhealthy debate. And of course, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is at the forefront. I look forward to seeing the day when CAN and MURIC would come together, as religious groups, to jointly fight against some of the menaces that plague Nigeria. Sadly, they work at cross purposes.

For instance, after the notorious blood-sucking Ilorin young Muslim cleric did what he did, a satanic pastor by the name "Prophet" Whepetoji Babaniyah was also arrested in Lagos for the gruesome murder of one Ogunbode Kodri Adedamola Olasunkami. Yet, again, for ritual. It will do the country some good if CAN and MURIC could work together to help fish out these criminal clerics. Or to use MURIC's words, to "acrobatically" and "gymnastically" combat these evil people in their respective religions before they come for our heads.

MURIC and many Muslims do not see the fine point in CAN's objection to Ramadan school closure. What they see is the politics. This is not strange as CAN and MURIC are overly politicized religious groups; and their politics isn't about the development of the polity. It is about the numerical strength of their brethren in government—whether elected or appointed. This explains why they overlook flagrant abuse of power by one of their own.

One hardly finds MURIC and CAN criticizing one of their own in government. And when they are circumstantially constrained to do so, they do it meekly, reluctantly and unenthusiastically—very economical in calling a spade a spade.

Any religious association that turns a blind eye and look the other way when one of their brethren does wrong but makes a deafening noise when the wrong doer is from outside their religious circle should not deserve our respect.

Having said that, I honestly don't see anything wrong with CAN's objection to school closure in Ramadan by the four northern states: Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, and Kebbi. But because we politicize everything, the polity has been unnecessarily heated. It is disturbing to think that every objection to Muslim government's decision by CAN is, by default, criticism against Islam and the Muslims. The case at hand is one instance. Despite the conspicuous merit in CAN's argument against school closure, MURIC, and those who think like it, thinks it has to be countered because CAN is the one complaining. If this is how we think, it means we still have a long way to go.

It is like an enemy drawing one's attention to one's house being gutted by fire, a wise man will not, in order to spite his enemy, allow his house to burn to aches. While he might not be happy that his enemy is the one drawing his attention to put a stop to the raging fire, it is for his own good to pay attention and do the needful.

Thus, it is for our own good (we Muslims) to allow our students attend regular classes during Ramadan. I have listened to the arguments of many northern clerics against CAN. I have also read MURIC's objection to CAN. All the arguments, put together, I am sorry to say, are not convincing. Below are some of the arguments:

One, "CAN should stop poking its nose into Muslims' affairs." I can't see how CAN interfere in Muslims' affairs here. If Ramadan school closure is only meant for the Muslim students while Christians are allowed to go to school to continue normal school activities, I don't think CAN would raise any objection (except if CAN would be generous to give unsolicited advice out of sympathy for Muslim pupils).

Two, "some students would need to trek long distance to school while fasting." I find it difficult to make any sense of this argument. Can't our Excellencies in these states, in the spirit of Ramadan, provide buses to shuttle these students to their various schools? What about students who live just few meters away from their schools? Can we also ask why schools are not shut down for students in tertiary institutions in these states?

How do we think if we really think? Pupils in our basic schools, generally speaking, are not of the age that fasting becomes compulsory. We keep them at home. But schools remain open to those in the higher institutions who have come of age and must fast. Is this not ironical?

Three, "Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State gave two weeks Christmas break and no single Muslim raised an eyebrow." This is resorting to whataboutism—false equivalence. Primary and secondary school students were already on break when the holiday was declared. The two weeks break did not in anyway affect their studies. Though that shows how reckless the Governor of Benue State is about governance, it was perhaps advantageous (too) to the Muslim civil servants in Benue State. If the Muslims in Benue State were not happy about it (then), why did they keep mum or where was MURIC (then)?

Four, "Christians have three months holiday in a year." Another whataboutism to justify something that is not justifiable. This is an allusion to Saturdays and Sundays that are free workdays. When you add them up, you get 104 free working days in a year. When I read this argument (attributed to Reno Omokri and now weoponized by some Muslim clerics), I laughed. For, I can't understand how that prevents students from going to school. Well, Muslim governors in northern states can make Friday a free workday. Former governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State had set the precedent before he left office. I think it is a good one. Yet, it does not justify why schools should be shut down for five weeks in the middle of the term because of Ramadan fasting.

Five, "schools were shut down so that Muslim students can focus on worship in Ramadan." This is struggling to make a point by all means. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Islaamiyyah (Qur'anic and informal Islamic schools) across Nigeria that hold classes during Ramadan. I don't shut down my Islaamiyyah too because of Ramadan. And some parents of my Islaamiyyah pupils who would be reading this column would testify to that. So, that argument is just too watery.

Six, "where was CAN when ASUU shut down universities?" This is red herring. It is bogus. CAN and other religious bodies have lamented on university closure, times without number. CAN had also participated in meetings to interface with the government on closure of universities.

Seven, "we can not allow our children faint or die while going to school due to fasting." Haha! How many students in the North died due to fasting even when fasting was observed in May, June, July—the peak of heat in the North? What does Islam say when fasting becomes "unfastable" (I mean, unbearable?). Isn't it just to take a break and fast at a later time?

Now, are those northern Muslim governors who did not (and would perhaps not) give Ramadan holiday not Muslims enough or heartless Muslims? I wonder, why are other civil servants in the four states not given Ramadan holiday too so that they can focus on worship? Why are markets not closed? Or are traders not supposed to worship in this holy month?

I hope our Muslim students writing WAEC and other national examinations would be locked up in the mosques to focus on worship whenever Ramadan falls within the period of exam. I don't even think our wives and mothers should be cooking in Ramadan, especially in the evening, so that they will not faint. For, they must have been exhausted by then. I know Ramadan fasting is essentially prescribed to make us pious and conscious of our Creator. Our clerics should explain to us if Ramadan is (or was) prescribed to make us lazy.

If any state in Nigeria would shut down its schools because of Ramadan, I don't think it should be from the North. Except if we could convincingly deceive ourselves that those ugly statistics about our backwardness in education are false. I am happy that of all the clerics I have listened to, including MURIC and The Supreme Council for Shari’a in Nigeria (SCSN), none claims it is Islamic injunction to shut down schools during Ramadan. All they would say is that Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) would stop teaching and would discharge all his students to focus on worship during Ramadan. This is a respected salaf (a predecessor) whose practice many of our clerics ignore because they are busy teaching tafsir in Ramadan and holding public lectures while students are prevented from going to school to "focus" on "worship." Many contradictions!

This should not be seen as defending CAN, it is just that CAN, in my humble opinion, on this issue, has a point. And when I wrote against CAN on its jaundiced antagonism towards female Muslim students donning hijab and its criticism of El-Rufai's four workdays in Kaduna State, it is not that I hate CAN or love MURIC. It is just that CAN (then) had no point but MURIC (then) had point.

Should I be the only Muslim holding this view, I don't care. I understand that in an environment like ours where opinions are influenced by bigoted and acrobatic religiosity, my points might be pointless. I just have to make them. If they change nothing, at least it should be on record that the points are made.
In case all other Muslim majority states shut down schools for five weeks in next year Ramadan just to spite CAN, all I can do is to shake my head in sympathy for Muslim pupils. May we get it right. Ramadan Kareem.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Published in the News Chronicles
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Time seems to run faster than usual nowadays. By tomorrow (Saturday) or a day after (Sunday), Muslims all over the world would start Ramadan fasting which begining is signaled and heralded by the appearance of the crescent. The date for the commencement of Ramadan cannot be fixed. But intelligent and informed guess could be made about its commencement by Islamic scholars who busy themselves with studying and taking records of the moon as it waxes and wanes.

I am aware that some clerics who claim to be authority in Islam do fix date for the commencement of Ramadan. This is sheer ignorance. Following these kinds of clerics only gives wings to pseudo clericalism. One should be wary of these categories of clerics. They have abandoned the scripture and the age-long Islamic tradition, as clear as they are, to embrace some so-called scientific calculations which they barely understand. They end up confusing the uninformed Muslims on when to start and end Ramadan fasting (one of the pillars of Islam).

Ramadan is the month of spirituality. Many Muslims seek spiritual elevation in this noble month. To be elevated spiritually in the month of Ramadan, one needs only to be dutiful to Allah. To attain some degree of spiritual height, one needs, among other things, to increase acts of worship and acts of generosity. One needs to be kind to a fault. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was generally generous, he was said to be more generous in the month of Ramadan.

To maximize rewards in this month, one should increase righteous deeds and shun wickedness and miserliness. It is wickedness to hike prices of essential commodities, fruits, and staple because of Ramadan. It is miserliness to feed to one's fill but be less concerned about one's poor neighbors. This is the month to spend; not to save. This is the month to distribute and give freely what had been amassed; it is not the month to amass what can hardly go round. Misers are great losers in this month as every act of generosity is geometrically rewarded.

As I mentioned above, we must be wary of pseudo clerics. They are vampires who fully operational in this month. This is the month they sap people dryly and parasite on the innocent and their wealth. For clarity, pseudo clerics hardly give out in this month but expect to be given. The instruction is to give to the poor and the needy. Don't be deceived, there isn't any religious obligation upon you to give to the clerics except if they are poor or are in need. You can only be generous to clerics who render essential services like teaching the Qur'an and other religious books, leading prayers as responsible and God-fearing imams, and giving religious talks (sermons) especially in the month of Ramadan.

Please! please!! and please!!! Don't have anything to do with pseudo clerics as we approach Ramadan. Avoid them, even after Ramadan. I mean avoid them entirely and indefinitely. Know them and avoid them. They are injurious to one's spiritual growth. If you don't know them, please endeavor to know them. As I mentioned above, they are gluttonous—always ready to take but never willing to give—and very ostentatious. They are jobless people, not because the country is plagued with joblessness but because they are not employable and are not willing to be trained to be employable. They should be on the government watchlist as I wrote in my previous column; "They are very dangerous people in our midst notwithstanding their innocent outlook as they garb themselves in clerical attire."

These "clerics", when you see them, run! One of them, Abdulrahman Bello, made the news headline about two weeks ago. He hypnotized his victims and raped her. Not done, he dismembered her and threw her family and concerned Nigerians into a melancholic mood. Bello and his accomplices are not alone. There are many of them. They flaunt wealth with no visible source of income. They speak in the name of God but are actually poisonous tools of Satan. They are very fetishistic even in their interpretation of the scripture. They are devil incarnates and are found everywhere. They gained more followers in the month of Ramadan. So, be careful!

They present "religious" talks on different media and in several fora. Their preachings are majorly centered on prosperity. They will tell you, you cannot make it in life when you are too Godly. You need to dine with Satan with a long spoon to attain success. Thereafter, they will urge, you may seek God's forgiveness. They will tell you the witches and wizards in your village are behind your predicaments because they follow you to wherever you go. They will frighten you that though God exists, but there are powerful people—owners of the world—who should be feared than God.

In fact, they are post-truth clerics. "Post-truth" is a concept that describes modern political communication as full of untruths. Therefore, post-truth clerics are those that spread misinformation and manipulate religious facts and scripture to negatively influence people's belief for self enrichment. These pseudo clerics are post-truth religious leaders who present farce as fact. They skew facts to bewitch their gullible audience. They dish out narratives that are not found in books except perhaps in their so-called esoteric books that are readable only by them.

To identify them, just ask them for reference for whatever claim they make. In their usual response to being challenged to provide reference, this may be said to you as reference: "You need to dine with elders, not all clothes are spread out in the sun." This is a possible reference if they try to be polite. If they are arrogant, their response to being asked reference for their strange claims and fictions would be to shout you down. "You are stupid", "you are mannerless", you are uncouth", "how dare you challenge an authority like me", "do you know how fathers in this land" are some of the usual responses to being asked references. This is unscholarly. It is charlatanry.

Open your eyes. Don't be a prey to charlatans who claim to be men of God. Don't subject yourself to mental slavery in the name of religion by listening to this devilish clerics. When you hear them or see them, run! There is nothing esoteric in Islam. Islam is very easy to learn. Even at scholarly level, all you need to do is to devout your time to study hard. This may be time consuming but it is, at the same time, interesting. Anyone, Muslims or non-Muslims, can study Islam and understand it. The concept of esoteric knowledge given to some special people does not exist in Islam. Any cleric who claims to have a special knowledge that cannot be known by anyone but only him is a devil. Run away from him before you are bewitched.

These so-called clerics prioritize ideology over truth. They detest factual accuracy. Rhetorical and emotional appeals are the most potent tools they use to gaslight their audience. Run away from them. When you begin to admire them more than you admire God, when you begin to obey them more than you obey God, and when you begin to fear them more than you fear God, know that you are in trouble. When you start experiencing the above, you are already a pawn in their game. Do not also be deceived by the crowds they attract in their Ramadan public lectures. Be intelligent and vigilant; for, they are everywhere.

As I welcome you and myself to the month of Ramadan, use your time wisely. Recite the Qur'an often. Endeavor to complete the Qur'an as many times as possible. Attend tafsir (Qur'an interpretation sessions) where questions are entertained by interpreters/scholars who are not only self-effacing and pious but well grounded in knowledge. Let's seek Allah's forgiveness as we try to forgive others.

Finally, I warn you again as I have warned myself. Avoid the assembly of pseudo clerics. We are in the post-truth era. Shine your eyes. May Allah grant us success, accept our acts of worship, and bless Nigeria. I congratulate Muslims all over the world as we embrace Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem!

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Published in the News Chronicles
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A sad news broke out few days ago in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State. The news is about a lady, Hafsoh Lawal, a final year student of the college of education Ilorin who was used for ritual by her Facebook boyfriend who claimed to be a cleric. While the news of ritual killings isn't new, this recent one shocked every Nigerian who isn't blood-sucking ritualist to the marrow.

To an average Nigerian, diabolical rituals for money or acquisition of power and prestige is not new. It is common knowledge that people who are steeped in fetishism could become stupendously rich overnight. What is not known to many is how these rituals are made and when it is justifiable to make them.

Though Abdulrahman Bello—the satanic cleric and a disgrace to his family—was only caught unfortunately (or should I say fortunately caught?), there are many so-called clerics like him who might have perpetrated even more heinous blood-demanding ritual crimes in which humans were sacrificed to appease Satan, displease God, and throw victims' family and friend members into lasting melancholy.

Or could there be anything that can erase the thought and the grief from the mind of Hafsoh's parents? As long as they live, the thought and the grief of losing their beloved daughter in that circumstance shall continue to reverberate. They can only be strong in faith or pretend to be strong by trying to focus on other things that could minimize the recurring image of their daughter's dismembered body parts and thus manage the grief. May we never witness this again. This is something very difficult to bear. May the Almighty grant them the strength to bear it and compensate them for the loss.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), the Satanic cleric allegedly committed the crime with his accomplices. Now remanded, the charge sheet reads: “During the course of the investigation at the State CID, Ilorin you, Abdulrahman Bello ‘male’ indicted and confessed to have done the act with the consent and knowledge of the following persons; Ahmed Abdulwasiu, Suleiman Muhyideen, Jamiu Uthman and Abdulrahmon Jamiu all ‘male’, who were all into same occultic group and that led to their arrest."

According to the investigation conducted at the State CID, Ilorin, it was further revealed that Abdulrahman Bello, his arrested accomplices, and others at large are a syndicate that has been killing unsuspecting citizens for ritual purposes. How do they use human parts for ritual purposes? I cannot answer this question. I am an ignorant. My ignorance of this Satanic ritual process is a deliberate ignorance. For it is easy to know it if I had wanted to know it. It has become so easy—no thanks to ICT—to learn these rituals than to learn ABC. All one needs to do is to be friends to these evil people on Facebook and follow their instructions. I mean instructions on how to transform human flesh and blood to money. If this is what our youths do and learn from the elders among us, it means we are backward people who lack the least ability to progress. We really still have a long way to go even if we attempt to move forward with this kind of orientation of acquiring material wealth.

Just two years ago, a 35-year-old suspect, Akeem (an indigene of Osun State) was arrested by detectives in Ogun State Police Command for allegedly murdering an 18-year-old student of Obafemi Awolowo University to harvest body parts for sale. He revealed that he learnt about how to use human heads from Facebook groups. Note: Facebook GROUPS. Not one group, the groups are many on Facebook.

In 2022, we read about one Soliu Majekodunmi—a teenager who slaughtered his girlfriend for ritual money. He also confessed to have learnt the ritual practice (or is it an art?) from Facebook. According to him, he typed "how to make money ritual" on Facebook and got the details. The link instructed him to behead a female and burnt the skull in a local pot. How would a burnt female skull transform to money? In their stupidity, they believed the skull would turn to money when some ingredients which cost about N2,500 are added to the burnt skull. When asked why he and his accomplices who are all teenagers needed money, he explained they needed to make money in order to ride exotic cars and live in luxury apartments. Perhaps they wanted to be like our politicians who are no doubt models for luxury lifestyle.

Just last year, we also read about a man from Enugu State—simply identified as ‘Anaegbuachara’—who confessed to killing his mother, grandmother, sister and her child by poisoning for the purpose of money ritual. The cases are too numerous to list. While a society might not completely be free of ritualized criminal acts, the growing number of their incidence is alarming. All stakeholders: government, clerics, teachers, parents, security agents, must come together to brainstorm on implementable way out. Not wingless way out that ends up on paper like toothless bulldog.

There is an urgent need to sanitize our virtual space which has become a source of dehumanizing many Nigerians who end up as heartless beings. Isn't dismembering a fellow being a crude display of heartlessness? I wanted to say parents should monitor what their children do online. But how can parents monitor an adult like a 24-year-old Hafsoh who was a final year student in higher institution? While there is little parents and guardians can do to monitor their wards' activities online, there is a lot they can do (and should do) to teach them morals.

We should all be wary of these devilish clerics around us. It is easy to identify them when one has basic understanding of religion. I mean true religion; not religion that preaches only material prosperity as if it is a crime to be poor or as if poverty is a curse. Our ladies who are in most cases victims of lovemaking should be very careful. They should not be carried away by the handsomeness of some of these guys and their display of wealth. They should look up to having responsible, even if poor, partners.

Our teachers and clerics who should teach morals should be encouraged to be models of morality. Though some might disagree with me on this point, it is the reality. What is it? An underpaid hungry and hopeless teacher/cleric might not be able to teach morals. Teachers should be well paid. Clerics that are not teachers and not employed and not employable should always be on government watchlist. They are very dangerous people in our midst notwithstanding their innocent outlook as they garb themselves in clerical attire.

Our justice system? Hmm! If anyone asks me what happened to the previous criminal ritualists I cited above and many others, I will just heave a deep sigh and say hmm. Something is fundamentally wrong with our justice system. Criminals like these should just be eliminated the way they eliminated their victims; except when there are justifiable reasons for delay. Justice delayed is justice denied; and it gives room for claiming criminals have mental issues for committing crimes. Don't be surprised if Abdulrahman is said to be battling with some mental disturbances.

There is a question I have not answered. When is it justifiable to use human parts for ritual purposes? It is justifiable when one has concluded that Hell is their final destination. In that case, government should help to hasten the admission of such people into Hell before they cause more havoc on the innocent.

My final thought. Yes, many will commit these heinous crimes and go scot-free. There are many Abdulrahman Bellos who were not caught and will not be caught. If there isn't life after death, it means there is no justice. Without that belief in life after death, the concept of justice—within this narrow worldly understanding—is meaningless. Are you an atheist who strongly believes God does not exist? Have a rethink. God exists; and with Him lies the ultimate justice.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

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One should wail over a country that has its education bastardized. One should pity a country that compromises its standard of education. One should also mourn a country that separates manners and character from knowledge. A country that even turns its teachers to punchbags has declared a war against development. Such a country will not be able to dream of development let alone develop.

If Nigeria were a country, we may begin to investigate the general backwardness that now characterizes it from the perspective of manners and character of those that were/are elected to govern it. Most of them are obviously educated and wield different kinds of certificates. Some of them even speak well polished grammar but with catastrophic outcomes in state management.

If teaching is a profession and teachers are professionals, it is both logical and factual to conclude that those ruling us today were taught by teachers. But to repay these teachers' generosity for making them what they are today, Nigerian rulers package poverty in the name of salary as reward for teachers. They mockingly tell these teachers that their reward is in heaven.

While previous generation of students, who are now rulers today, punish teachers from their vantage position of power (as policy and law makers), the present generation of students, not yet in power, are in a hurry to turn their teachers to punchbags even as students. They could not hide their disdain for teachers who are more or less humiliated beings (at least in Nigeria). This gives a hint of what the future of teachers would likely look like in the future. The present is already frightening.

Can anyone imagine that a student could have the gut to slap a lecturer? This question belongs to the past. It is an appropriate question to ask students in the 1970s, 1980s, and maybe 1990s, and the answer would be: "is he or she mad?" Because it is unthinkable, I mean unimaginable, that a student would slap a lecturer. But to Gen Z students, slapping a lecturer is not just imaginable, lecturer can be slapped for fun. And the best the lecturer can do is to try all his best to prove to the world that he or she is not at fault.

This is my interpretation of Dr Chukwudu Okoye's reaction to that spoilt and mannerless "kid" from Nnamdi Azikwe University who turned him to a punchbag. She fought hard as shown in the viral video and tore the lecturer's cloth for interrupting her while recording a video in the university hallway. How was she interrupted? Because the lecturer gently tapped her as he managed to walk through the narrow hallway and said "excuse me."

Many commentators expressed annoyance; not at the student but at the lecturer. According to them, "the lecturer should have beaten her to stupor. He should have taught her the lesson of her life." But Dr Okoye, in my opinion, should not be blamed for his attitude and composure for three reasons.

One, since lecturers are disdained by government, he might not have the backing of the school authority except he could prove beyond reasonable doubt that he is the victim not the victimizer. Two, he might be too feeble to fight the student due to hunger—courtesy of unpaid salaries. Many lecturers started receiving their January salaries on the 41st of January and one could not be sure if Dr Okoye had received his salary or not when the student turned him to a punchbag. Lastly, wouldn't it be disgraceful for Dr Okoye—an elderly man with visible grey hair—to fight a mannerless "kid"—A female for that matter?

Though the UNIZIK management promised to investigate the matter with the seriousness it requires, I advise the management to suspend the student in question (if she had not been suspended) pending the outcome of the investigation. No one should conclude that this can only happen in the South or Southeast. Victimization of lecturers by students is not peculiar to any region, ethnic or even religion. It is a general thing across the country.

While the student in question is apparently from the South and maybe of Igbo extraction, she is mannerless not because she is an Igbo but because she lives in a country where teachers are not valued. I wrote about a Yoruba student from the University of Ilorin who brutalized her female lecturer on this page sometime in 2021. He was immediately expelled by the school management.

Just last month in Kano State Polytechnic, a Hausa female student sent a thug—her boyfriends—to torture a lecturer whom she alleged was an obstacle to her academic aspirations. The lover thug brought a cutlass along with him with which he macheted the lecturer who sustained serious injuries.

I have written quite a number of articles to argue that tertiary education is not for all and sundry. Knowledge acquisition in tertiary institutions is too serious an endeavor to be allowed to be ridiculed by quacks and the mannerless who, due to lack of home training, will always misbehave like kids even after attaining the legal age of majority (adulthood). Knowledge acquisition in higher institutions is not meant for spoilt kids who are mistaken for adults. For, they lack the character to be students and it might be too late to inculcate in them the necessary character that naturally comes with knowledge acquisition.

Governments, at all levels, should make teachers look respectable and honourable by making teaching profession appealing. Teachers and lecturers cannot look wretched and famished with sunken eyes and cheeks; they cannot be seen in tattered cloths and worn out shoes and expected to be respected by Gen Z students (especially when they look far better than their teachers). As it is, Nigerian teachers are too wretched to be admired due to poor remuneration. It is one of the reasons they are disdained and brutalized by students.

I join other well-meaning Nigerians to condemn the brutal treatment of innocent teachers and disdain for responsible lecturers who are the brains behind the success and development of the modern world. If Nigeria were a reasonable country, not a shithole, it will recognize its intellectuals as the powerhouses of development. It will, as a state, prioritize their welfare and protect them from abuse.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

There are serious crises in Nigerian universities. I don't know how long the crises would last. But I know they will not be resolved overnight. How do I know? I know because there seems to be no much difference between the administration of Nigerian universities by many vice chancellors/governing councils and the administration of Nigerian government by politicians. Nowadays, one needs to fight dirty to become vice-chancellor in many Nigerian universities. To become vice-chancellor, the first victim is integrity. If you still have a scintilla of integrity in you, the position of vice chancellor is not for you in some Nigerian universities.

The fraud, the illegality, and the unprincipled politicking that now characterize the process of electing vice-chancellors leave one in deep bewilderment. Unless something is urgently done to reverse the ugly trend, we may begin to shut down our universities and send students to stay off campus because new VCs are about to be elected.

What is even more surprising is that these universities are said to be starved of funds. Yet every baby professor and the old ones want to become VC. Not only that, there are those who could not wait to become professors to be elected as VCs. In that case, they give it all what it takes to become professors.

About three months ago, it was a breaking news of one fraudulent professor who became the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Anambra State. The "fraudfessor," Mr Bernard Odoh, claimed to have been promoted to professorial rank since 2015 in the Federal University Gusau (FUGUS). Many were shocked when FUGUS countered the claim that Mr Odoh's professorship and the supportive documents he referenced were all “products of administrative fraud”.

The FUGUS management informed the public that Mr Odoh was never a staff member of the university and his claims are “tissues of lies and misinformation.” This is the highest academic fraud which is too cringy even for our politicians to tolerate. That is to say, Nigerian rulers, as corrupt as the corrupt ones among them are, are yet to master a large scale act of criminality of Odoh's proportion.
Yes! There have been allegations of forgery of WAEC and university degree results against some of our rulers; not professorship. President Tinubu did not waste time. He sacked Mr Odoh and dissolved the governing council that approved his elevation to the position of vice-chancellor. He also sacked the university registrar.

While the leadership crisis in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, which started around June last year is not about professorial academic fraud, it can be described as a hot political contest that leaves much to be desired. The university, since June last year, did not have a substantive vice-chancellor. It has been one VC, in acting capacity, after the other.

We read, yesterday (Thursday), that Professor Polycarp Emeka Chigbu the acting VC of UNN and Aisha Maikudi the VC of University of Abuja, were sacked. While Maikudi was said to be illegally appointed as VC, that was not the case with Chigbu. Professor Chigbu was removed because his six-month acting tenure ends by February 14, not because he was illegally appointed as VC like Maikudi. The sad news in UNN is that another acting VC, not substantive VC, was appointed for another six months. The UNN crisis started when Professor Charles Igwe, the then outgoing VC, allegedly tried to foist his stooge on the University like what played out in University of Abuja.

If the eggheads in our ivory towers could not get something as basic as VC selection process right, can we excuse our politicians for rigging their ways into the various elective offices in the country? It is either an outgoing VC wants to plant a stooge while he leaves or someone wants to rig their way to become VC. At times, the crisis is about a clamour for the son of the land to become VC like the recent case of University of Ibadan; though we celebrate Nigerians who became university vice-chancellors in far away UK and other countries across the globe. Are we not too awkward and backward? I mean, is our thinking straight?
I have read quite a number of opinion articles by supposedly educated people who should understand the inner workings of university, defending that glaring illegality that characterized the appointment of Maikudi as UniAbuja VC. They may need to write articles (in protest) now that she has been sacked. No wonder the government has no regards for intellectuals in the country's higher institutions of learning.

What is even more amusing is the allegation by some that are pained by Maikudi's dismissal, claiming that Tinubu is dealing with the North. If Tinubu is actually dealing with the North, is this reference not too thoughtless. Professor Lar Patricia Manko who was appointed in Maikudi's place—in acting capacity—is from the North. I struggle to make sense of the allegation of "Tinubu dealing with the North" if a woman from Katsina State was sacked and was replaced with another woman from Plateau State. She is from the same state as Yaqubu Gowon after which the University has now been named (Yaqubu Gowon University). Shouldn't we applaud Tinubu for making a great match?

Maikudi, like Odoh, has the right to kick back. Together, they may jointly fight back through the Court to have their position back. I personally won't be shocked if they won their case. This is Nigeria where things that are unbelievable in dream happen in real life. And when they happen, one must believe they actually happen.

May I use this medium to draw the attention of President Bola Tinubu to the plight of Nigerian lecturers. Now that some VCs are sacked (followed by some reshuffling in the leadership of governing councils of some universities), would the President give order to those in charge that they should pay Nigerian lecturers their peanuts (salaries) so that they can manage to put something into their empty and shrinking bellies and also feed their families? Today is 8th of February. Some calenders are reading 39th of January. Our rulers in Nigeria should forgive lecturers their sin—the sin of choosing teaching as career. They wouldn't have embarked on that career path if they had known that it is a sin.

Dear President Tinubu, please forgive us. Our children are crying of hunger. I pray they will not die of hunger. May you not witness the pang of hunger as you globetrot and junket. Extend my regards to the French people and your colleague over there, Emmanuel Macron, as you enjoy your private visit. I pray when you plan to come back, you will not meet us in pieces. Ameen.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Few days ago, Pa Bisi Akande was interviewed by Edmund Obilo. The interview was very interesting and revealing. As a former governor of Osun State (1999-2003), Bisi Akande was (and is) widely acknowledged to have done well. He is, to some extent, an exemplar of good governance and respectable elder statesman.

This same elder statesman happened to be a former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is the party that took over the destruction of Nigeria from the People's Democratic Party (PDP) with the promise to repair the destruction only to crush Nigeria into debris. That Tinubu's APC will transform the debris (which Nigeria now is) to a developed Nigeria in the next two or six years can only be by miracle. That is to say, the possibility is near impossible.

This elder statesman gave the behind-the-scenes account on the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria's president. Pa Akande, in that interview, recounts that Tinubu fought everyone that tried to persuade him to contest for president. Although to become Nigerian president is what Tinubu had craved for, for his entire political life, but he had to be convinced and begged to contest. Pa Akande did convince Tinubu and Tinubu became convinced that "Emi Lo Kan" to be president.

Hmm! Don't get confused and don't laugh. This is called orisirisi in Yoruba Language. Because I am not confident of my mastery of Yoruba (for I know my Yoruba is at the level of kindergarten) I will not translate orisirisi; I will rather render it into English. The rendition, in this context, would be that the narration by Pa Akande that he intervened to prevail on Tinubu to contest is surprisingly ironical.

Who should we believe between Pa Akande who gave the narration about how he pleaded with Tinubu and Tinubu who was the man pleaded to in the narration knowing full well that he needed not be convinced to contest for president which he claimed was his lifetime ambition? If this question is directed at me, I will say I don't know. Though I know Pa Akande's 600-page book "My Participation: An Autobiography" which he published in 2021 is said to be full of lies.

Pa Bode George said so. Pa Ayo Adebanjo seconded. Pa Olu Falae agreed that Pa Akande wrote nonsense which he published as book. I am not saying Pa Akande is a liar or has lied against Tinubu. After all, those mentioned above who think his book is encylopedia of lies are all politicians. I am only saying that the story he narrated should be probed.

To Pa Akande, one can say, from that interview, that Tinubu cannot do any wrong as president. In other words, he is solidly behind Tinubu for the fact that he "convinced" him to contest. But surprisingly, Pa Akande poignantly said Tinubu was very Ignorant about the politics of Nigeria. He acknowledged that Tinubu knows Lagos politics but not Nigerian. If this is coming from President Tinubu's critics, his bigoted worshippers would conclude that it is all politics. They will say such critics need Tinubu's appointment.

They may be right. We learnt this from Daniel Bwala. After he energetically and enthusiastically tarred Tinubu with a dirty brush by calling him all sorts of names, he ate every ugly words he had previously uttered as soon as he got Tinubu's PR job. Tinubu suddenly becomes a good man. "I was only doing my job under Atiku, I didn't mean my words" is the summarized paraphrase of the rationale for Bwala's historic U-turn. To understand what "integrity" and "the lack of it" is, that explanation from Bwala—and the rationale behind his sudden U-turn to the direction of Aso Villa—is basic.

But this declaration that Tinubu was very Ignorant of Nigerian politics before he became president is coming from Pa Bisi Akande, an elder statesman who claimed to have "convinced" and "influenced" Tinubu (against the latter's will) to contest for president. On Tinubu's ignorance of Nigerian politics, many think Pa Akande is right. But should deliberate ignorance be a blameworthy ignorance? If Tinubu is truly ignorant of the politics of Nigeria, it could be because he did not believe in one Nigeria. (Perhaps now, being the President, he believes in one Nigeria). If one doesn't not believe in one Nigeria, I don't think they should bother themselves about—or burden themselves with—the knowledge of Nigerian politics.

We learnt from Pa Akande that under Tinubu, everything is okay and nothing is wrong. Peace is everywhere. Pa Akande asserted: "only lazy people are hungry in Nigeria." The old man cannot see and will probably not see hunger anywhere in Nigeria because a Yoruba man whom he fully supports is currently the President. No one should blame him, especially from the North. For, when former president Buhari too was gradually but steadily separating Nigeria from every connection the country had with prosperity, some Northern elder statesmen were clapping for him and praising him as the only good thing that had ever happened to Nigeria. So, on this, anyone who had no problem with Buhari's praise singers should not have problem with Pa Akande. Yes, anyone can call Akande a blind and bigoted supporter of Yoruba presidency which Tinubu represents. I don't care and he should not care.

However, my problem with Pa Akande is the insult he hurled at us (Nigerian masses). When Edmund Obilo asked him again to confirm if he really meant calling hungry Nigerians lazy people, I thought the elder statesman will be guided by wisdom to realize that his blanket denigration of Nigerian masses who have been toiling fruitlessly as lazy people is unstatesmanlike. But alas, like Buhari, Pa Akande insisted that hunger cannot kill anyone in Nigeria except lazy people. To cap it all, he said: "He who does not work does not eat." This is my retort, in case Pa Akande does not know: "many Nigerians work under Tinubu regime but could not feed themselves."

He claims Nigeria has fertile land. He also claims that he plants what he eats and has vegetables in his wide compound. He thinks every Nigerian has a specious house like his with vast cultivable land that is wide enough to farm what they should eat. If elder statesmen—supposedly fathers of the nation—think and reason like this, one can only shake one's head regretfully that Nigeria still has a long way to go.

Reacting to this unfortunate characterization of hardworking but suffering Nigerians as lazy people, a Yoruba commentator lamented that all the Yoruba gods will judge Pa Akande for what he said. Touched and pained, I was about to shout amen to that prayer, then I realized I don't believe in the gods of Yoruba even though I speak Yoruba. Yet, and definitely, the Supreme God will judge Pa Bisi Akande, Pa Tinubu, Pa Buhari, and the rest of us, especially on that point that we are hungry because we are lazy.

That said, Pa Bisi Akande is a very intelligent man. Even at that age (over 85), his responses to the questions he was asked speak volume of his intelligence and mental alertness. It is only that Pa Akande used his intelligence to install Yoruba president then went to his hometown to rest. One would be tempted to conclude from that interview that Pa Akande's primary interest is not about Nigeria but about Yoruba presidency and about Tinubu who is very ignorant, according to him, of the politics of Nigeria.

I pray to witness the day in Nigeria when elected leaders will be supported based on the evidence of track record and good governance and criticized due to their woeful performance in office; not because of where they come from. I will not do justice in this column if I did not commend Edmund Obilo for that interview. It is too early to declare the Ibadan based journalist from Imo State the best interviewer of the year. This is January. Some describe him as an interrogator, not an interviewer. Obilo conducted the interview excellently by asking relevant and follow-up questions.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

The country is not in war but its citizens are scattered all over the world as refugees seeking asylum. Truly, Nigerians are economic asylum seekers across the globe. They are found both in the global south like Niger Republic, Mali, Sudan, etc. and the global north like Canada, the US, the UK, etc. To many deeply disappointed Nigerians, anywhere else is Paradise but Nigeria. Even if this is not the case, it is difficult to convince desperate Nigerians that there are hells in the "oases" of some of these countries they run to.

This is not to discourage japa. Who am I to encourage people to live a prisonlike life in Nigeria with no date of release from "imprisonment"? Rather, it is to caution anyone who intends to japa to shine their eyes and know the destination they are japa(ing) to. Also, they should be able to establish the trustworthiness of their hosts in whichever county they are escaping from Nigeria to.

I read a tale about a lady in "Tales from the streets" published by Vanguard newspaper on Monday, 19 January, 2025. It is titled "I ran from sleeping with men in Nigeria to sleeping with animals in Libya." It is a horrible story of how a Nigerian graduate who could not secure job risked the desert to Libya with the hope of crossing over to Spain. She refused to sleep with lascivious men in Nigeria while searching for job only to find herself sleeping with assorted wild men in Libya. According to her, she sleeps with 20 to 25 men everyday. In other words, 20 to 25 men sleep with her everyday. Every couple—married or unmarried—understand the hell she went through.

She described those men as animals. I think she actually wanted to call them beasts. To quote her, "I became like raw meat. The worst part is all the money went to madam." For those who are familiar with horrible stories from Libya, the "madam" in reference here is the godmother of sex workers who feeds fat while unfortunate ladies (prostitutes) under her "care" (or is custody the right word?) mortgage all the sensitive parts of their bodies to some beasts in a cloak of men for nothing.

Even though horrible tales of this nature are not new, one gets traumatized each time a new tale is narrated as if one can actually empathize with the victims in those tales. Even if we can not affectively empathize with such victims, we should be able to express a cognitive empathy. Relating this to the news of about five thousand Nigerian women stranded in Iraq only adds to one's trauma. Anyone who thinks Nigeria is not sick must be living in a comfort zone detached from the everyday harrowing lived realities of Nigerians in Nigeria.

The Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa recently disclosed that over five thousand Nigerians are presently stranded in Iraq. Iraq itself is a war-torn country that is struggling to be its former self. This is a country that was invaded by the US-led coalition in year 2003 and terribly destroyed so much so that by 2011 when the coalition withdrew from the country, it already had at least 9.2 millions of its citizens reportedly displaced.So, what are Nigerian women in that staggering number doing in Iraq?

Dabiri-Erewa answered the question. According to her, the women were sent to Iraq as caregivers only to be stranded as they get there to meet harsh realities. She disclosed this in Lagos at the seminar on “Sensitisation and Advocacy Program for Promoting Diaspora Investment Potentials in South-West Nigeria” organised by NIDCOM in conjunction with G-Consulting International Services Limited. She said: “As I speak with you today there are about 5000 women stranded in Iraq. I just dealt with a case last week. A husband sent his wife to Iraq to go and be a caregiver. She’s dead."

This is an unfortunate case of running away from horrible death in Nigeria only to die in Iraq, still horribly. Many disappointed Nigerians would still argue that it is better for a Nigerian to die in any foreign country while struggling to "make" it than to die of hunger in Nigeria. I cannot blame them. Many Nigerians, due to poverty and hopelessness, are wired to hate Nigeria.

Ordinarily, one would summarily dismiss a husband that sent his wife to work as caregiver in far away Iraq as irresponsible. Or can such a man be a responsible man? But thinking of how battered the Nigerian economy is where many people with narrowly survive, one may restrain oneself from calling anyone irresponsible for taking an obviously irresponsible decision in order to survive. May God forgive us.

It should be noted that this unsavory news is coming from Dabiri-Erewa—a government appointee. It is not coming from "enemies" of Nigeria who are "purveyors" of fake and bad news about Nigeria and its government. The said number of Nigerian women stranded in Iraq could be a conservative estimate. It could be way more than that. These women are not in Iraq to work as trained professionals. They are there to work as caregivers whose job roles include tidying up homes and taking care of babies. This could also include bathing and dressing the sick and the aged after cleaning their excreta.

How would any happy citizen leave their country to do this kind of job in a far away foreign land where they are coldly received? This is exactly what many Nigerians do in foreign countries. What is worrisome is that these stranded women in Iraq probably left little kids behind to the mercy of the society with all its amoral influences.

What is even more worrisome is that these Nigerian women are stranded in Iraq not for dreaming of any good job but for dreaming to get some caregiving jobs which are humiliating in the first place. I opened my dictionary to check if I still understand what the word "stranded" means. My dictionary confirms what I know. To be stranded is to be abandoned or marooned. That is to say, these staggering number of Nigerian women—in their thousands—are not even worthy of the caregiving jobs explained above. In other words, we are treated as worthless people.

Yet, this doesn't budge our elected rulers an inch. They don't give a damn. Would it be shocking if these women are subjected to the Libyan treatment narrated above in this piece? These are all consequences of bad governance, official corruption, and disdain for patriotism by those we elected to govern but who choose to rule over us.

My appeal to Dabiri-Erewa who broke this bad news is to appeal to the Nigerian government who gave her the diasporan job to rescue these vulnerable women from their state of hopelessness back to Nigeria. I understand many fled Nigeria because they felt hopeless. Yet, I think it is better to be hopeless in the midst of one's family and friend members than to be hopeless as a stranded foreigner in a foreign country. I may be wrong.

Our rulers can do better to help improve the economy. Nigerians are very resilient people who can survive and remain in their country if they can feed. But when ability to feed, as basic as it is, becomes the privilege of a very few in Nigeria, taking exit from the county would not be an alternative but an obligation. If our rulers sincerely need God's help to set things right and move this country forward, may God help them.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

It is no news that the United States of America (US) is the giant enabler of genocide in Palestine. This has shaped the thought of Muslims around the globe about the US. To the Muslim world, the US is a Leviathan that must be unreservedly despised for its bloody role in Palestine; for its hawkishness and bellicosity. It is the superpower that literally supervises the killings, or rather slaughterings, of thousands of innocent Palestinian children—to say nothing of other Palestinians—just because they are not wanted on their ancestral land which they had occupied for millennia before Islam and for about a millennium and a half after Islam.

Given the above background, many Muslims, worldwide, readily accept the Los Angeles (LA) wildfires as Divine Punishment. Thus the wildfires are not only seen as comeuppance but as a calamity to be 'retaliatorily' celebrated just as the US 'celebrates' the genocide of Muslims in Palestine. The Palestinians are undebatably and unjustly genocided for decades for the struggle to regain their occupied territory. They deserve the support, at least moral support, of every sane person (anywhere around the globe).

Having said that, I am struggling to see the nexus between the genocide in Palestine and the LA wildfires. How is it a Divine Calamity in the first place so much so that Muslims would need to celebrate? I totally disagree that the LA wildfires are Divine Punishment. For how does one conclude that wildfires in California or any of its counties are God's Punishment for the US support for genocide in Palestine? Are we really familiar with history and geography? The occurrence and re-occurrences of wildfires in that part of the US far predated the creation of Israel.

This is where I find Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil's intervention instructive even if many find him and his opinion on LA wildfires controversial—including some of his online followers. Sheikh Khalil is a Kano based cleric. He is among the most senior clerics in Nigeria, not only in depth of scholarship but also in age of scholarship. What marks him odd among other clerics, if I may say, is that in addition to being a senior cleric, he is a politician. Plus, he is cosmopolitan in some of his views perhaps due to his global exposure and his mastery of classical Islamic texts.

When asked about LA wildfire which many Muslims believe to be God's Punishment, Sheikh Khalil quipped: "this is sheer ignorance." Wildfire, tsunami, and other forms of such eruptions are natural occurrences that can be explained from the perspective of science (geography). He asked if there are no Muslims, clerics, and mosques in LA. He mentioned three major markets in Kano State that had severally being gutted and destroyed, then asked if those infernoes were also God's Punishment.

One of the most vocal critics of the West and the Arab world for their complicity and silence on the genocide in Palestine respectively is Khaled Abou El-Fadl of the Usuli Institute, a professor of Law. The Institute which brags of 100, 000 Islamic texts until recently was based in LA. This gives a hint that there is quite a number of Muslims in LA.
If God is angry with the US for its role in orchestrating genocide in Palestine, why would His Wrath descend on LA but not on the White House in Washington DC or the US-backed Israeli soldiers in Gaza and their weapons of mass annihilation? According to Al Jazeera's January 16 report, "At least 21 Palestinian children and 25 women are among 87 people killed in Gaza since the announcement of a ceasefire deal expected to start on Sunday as Israel’s relentless air attacks intensify." Yet, God's Punishment turns away from these killers to descend on Angelenos. What exactly is the sin of the Angelenos? Apparently, there are things we get wrong and there are events we interpret wrongly.

Many do not understand the difference between the government and the citizens of the US. While the government is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinians, that cannot be said of the generality of American citizens. We also ignore the difference between Jews as religious-cultural people and Zionists—the politically ideologised Jews who are intent on creating a Jewish state by blood of innocent Palestinians.

In 2024 alone, there are three pro-Palestinian protests I am aware of in LA by Angelenos (there could be more than three). In May, 2024, a news headline reads: 'California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA.' According to Reuters, hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles where protests over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

A month after, in June, CNN reports a pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles. Chants of “Free, free Palestine—from the river to the sea,” and “long live intifada,” could be heard from among the pro-Palestinian protesters. Participants blocked traffic during the protest.
Two months later, in August, we read in Los Angeles Times how pro-Palestinian protesters, If Not NoW, shut down 405 Freeway in West L.A. It should be noted that "If Not Now" is a national organization of American Jews who advocate for “the end of the US support of Israel’s apartheid system,” according to its mission statement. The group said its protest was directed at Vice President Kamala Harris as it calls for the Democratic Party to reject the the pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

If Angelenos have been protesting against the genocide in Palestine, my question to these clerics of Divine Punishment thesis and their followers is: why did God send His Wrath against Angelenos who had been pro-Palestinians for some time? Put differently, why did God send His Wrath to uproot the roots of Islam that had been rooted in Los Angeles since the mid-1800 through wildfires?
LA is said to have one of the largest Muslim populations of any city in the Americas, with recent estimates placing the number at close to half a million people. Why does God's Punishment choose to allow the Israeli soldiers to continue the genocide against the Palestinians but target Angelenos, including half a million of Muslims, for the sin of American government? Why are our religious people often driven by emotion rather than a careful study and understanding of realities? If one listens to some of these clerics (mis)quoting verses of the Qur'an to support their thesis of Divine Punishment of America through the wildfire in Los Angeles, one would think Los Angeles and California are mentioned in the Qur'an and singled out for Divine Calamity. One would also think they are spokesmen of God. To give some credibility to the shallow thesis of Divine Punishment, we find in circulation a viral video of a mosque allegedly saved from the wildfire. This is a blatant lie—a big fat lie.

These Muslim rejoicers over LA wildfire are similar to some Christian rejoicers over the killings in Palestine. In their disturbingly unfortunate ignorance, these Christians think all Palestinians are Muslims who should be killed not knowing that they are equally rejoicing over the killings of their brethren—the Palestinian Christians—by the blood-sucking Zionists who do not see any difference between Christians and Muslims in their rabid adventure for Palestine's territorial acquisition. We should give Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) credit on this. He is the most enlightened public figure I know—with informed opinion among Nigerian Christians—about the genocide in Palestine. So, he finds some Christians' jubilation over the killings of Palestinians nauseating.

For the record, California—in which Los Angeles is a county—is a wildfire-prone state in the US and the most common source of wildfire in the US is said to be lightening. Lightning is a significant natural cause of wildfires, particularly in dry and wildfire-prone regions. This is how it happens: when lightning strikes a tree or plants, it can ignite them especially if they are dry, and wreck havoc. Here again, considering some of these natural phenomena, one wonders how anyone would conclude God does not exist. Just imagine that a spark of lightning is capable of wiping out a whole generation. Think about it!

It should be noted that wildfires are regular natural occurrences in California. The ongoing one in Los Angeles is not the worst at the moment and hopefully it will not be. The August Complex Fire that occured in August 2020 is said to be the worst that burned about 1,032,648 acres across six counties. It reportedly took firefighters 87 days to contain the fire. Again, one wonders how firefighters would dare to fight God's Punishment. What is wrong with our religious thought? Like Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil, a Syrian jihadi cleric Abu Yahya Al-Shami wrote: "The Los Angeles wildfires are a normal act of nature, do not pay much attention to it."

All said, humanity is lost in us when we celebrate the killings of innocent people like the Palestinians or natural disasters like the one in Los Angeles. May the Almighty grant the Palestinians victory against their tormentors. May He contain the wildfires in Los Angeles and comfort all the victims of the wildfires over their losses.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

It is no news that the United States of America (US) is the giant enabler of genocide in Palestine. This has shaped the thought of Muslims around the globe about the US. To the Muslim world, the US is a Leviathan that must be unreservedly despised for its bloody role in Palestine; for its hawkishness and bellicosity. It is the superpower that literally supervises the killings, or rather slaughterings, of thousands of innocent Palestinian children—to say nothing of other Palestinians—just because they are not wanted on their ancestral land which they had occupied for millennia before Islam and for about a millennium and a half after Islam.

Given the above background, many Muslims, worldwide, readily accept the Los Angeles (LA) wildfires as Divine Punishment. Thus the wildfires are not only seen as comeuppance but as a calamity to be 'retaliatorily' celebrated just as the US 'celebrates' the genocide of Muslims in Palestine. The Palestinians are undebatably and unjustly genocided for decades for the struggle to regain their occupied territory. They deserve the support, at least moral support, of every sane person (anywhere around the globe).

Having said that, I am struggling to see the nexus between the genocide in Palestine and the LA wildfires. How is it a Divine Calamity in the first place so much so that Muslims would need to celebrate? I totally disagree that the LA wildfires are Divine Punishment. For how does one conclude that wildfires in California or any of its counties are God's Punishment for the US support for genocide in Palestine? Are we really familiar with history and geography? The occurrence and re-occurrences of wildfires in that part of the US far predated the creation of Israel.

This is where I find Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil's intervention instructive even if many find him and his opinion on LA wildfires controversial—including some of his online followers. Sheikh Khalil is a Kano based cleric. He is among the most senior clerics in Nigeria, not only in depth of scholarship but also in age of scholarship. What marks him odd among other clerics, if I may say, is that in addition to being a senior cleric, he is a politician. Plus, he is cosmopolitan in some of his views perhaps due to his global exposure and his mastery of classical Islamic texts.

When asked about LA wildfire which many Muslims believe to be God's Punishment, Sheikh Khalil quipped: "this is sheer ignorance." Wildfire, tsunami, and other forms of such eruptions are natural occurrences that can be explained from the perspective of science (geography). He asked if there are no Muslims, clerics, and mosques in LA. He mentioned three major markets in Kano State that had severally being gutted and destroyed, then asked if those infernoes were also God's Punishment.

One of the most vocal critics of the West and the Arab world for their complicity and silence on the genocide in Palestine respectively is Khaled Abou El-Fadl of the Usuli Institute, a professor of Law. The Institute which brags of 100, 000 Islamic texts until recently was based in LA. This gives a hint that there is quite a number of Muslims in LA.

If God is angry with the US for its role in orchestrating genocide in Palestine, why would His Wrath descend on LA but not on the White House in Washington DC or the US-backed Israeli soldiers in Gaza and their weapons of mass annihilation? According to Al Jazeera's January 16 report, "At least 21 Palestinian children and 25 women are among 87 people killed in Gaza since the announcement of a ceasefire deal expected to start on Sunday as Israel’s relentless air attacks intensify." Yet, God's Punishment turns away from these killers to descend on Angelenos. What exactly is the sin of the Angelenos? Apparently, there are things we get wrong and there are events we interpret wrongly.

Many do not understand the difference between the government and the citizens of the US. While the government is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinians, that cannot be said of the generality of American citizens. We also ignore the difference between Jews as religious-cultural people and Zionists—the politically ideologised Jews who are intent on creating a Jewish state by blood of innocent Palestinians.

In 2024 alone, there are three pro-Palestinian protests I am aware of in LA by Angelenos (there could be more than three). In May, 2024, a news headline reads: 'California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA.' According to Reuters, hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles where protests over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

A month after, in June, CNN reports a pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles. Chants of “Free, free Palestine—from the river to the sea,” and “long live intifada,” could be heard from among the pro-Palestinian protesters. Participants blocked traffic during the protest.
Two months later, in August, we read in Los Angeles Times how pro-Palestinian protesters, If Not NoW, shut down 405 Freeway in West L.A. It should be noted that "If Not Now" is a national organization of American Jews who advocate for “the end of the US support of Israel’s apartheid system,” according to its mission statement. The group said its protest was directed at Vice President Kamala Harris as it calls for the Democratic Party to reject the the pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

If Angelenos have been protesting against the genocide in Palestine, my question to these clerics of Divine Punishment thesis and their followers is: why did God send His Wrath against Angelenos who had been pro-Palestinians for some time? Put differently, why did God send His Wrath to uproot the roots of Islam that had been rooted in Los Angeles since the mid-1800 through wildfires?
LA is said to have one of the largest Muslim populations of any city in the Americas, with recent estimates placing the number at close to half a million people. Why does God's Punishment choose to allow the Israeli soldiers to continue the genocide against the Palestinians but target Angelenos, including half a million of Muslims, for the sin of American government? Why are our religious people often driven by emotion rather than a careful study and understanding of realities? If one listens to some of these clerics (mis)quoting verses of the Qur'an to support their thesis of Divine Punishment of America through the wildfire in Los Angeles, one would think Los Angeles and California are mentioned in the Qur'an and singled out for Divine Calamity. One would also think they are spokesmen of God. To give some credibility to the shallow thesis of Divine Punishment, we find in circulation a viral video of a mosque allegedly saved from the wildfire. This is a blatant lie—a big fat lie.

These Muslim rejoicers over LA wildfire are similar to some Christian rejoicers over the killings in Palestine. In their disturbingly unfortunate ignorance, these Christians think all Palestinians are Muslims who should be killed not knowing that they are equally rejoicing over the killings of their brethren—the Palestinian Christians—by the blood-sucking Zionists who do not see any difference between Christians and Muslims in their rabid adventure for Palestine's territorial acquisition. We should give Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) credit on this. He is the most enlightened public figure I know—with informed opinion among Nigerian Christians—about the genocide in Palestine. So, he finds some Christians' jubilation over the killings of Palestinians nauseating.

For the record, California—in which Los Angeles is a county—is a wildfire-prone state in the US and the most common source of wildfire in the US is said to be lightening. Lightning is a significant natural cause of wildfires, particularly in dry and wildfire-prone regions. This is how it happens: when lightning strikes a tree or plants, it can ignite them especially if they are dry, and wreck havoc. Here again, considering some of these natural phenomena, one wonders how anyone would conclude God does not exist. Just imagine that a spark of lightning is capable of wiping out a whole generation. Think about it!

It should be noted that wildfires are regular natural occurrences in California. The ongoing one in Los Angeles is not the worst at the moment and hopefully it will not be. The August Complex Fire that occured in August 2020 is said to be the worst that burned about 1,032,648 acres across six counties. It reportedly took firefighters 87 days to contain the fire. Again, one wonders how firefighters would dare to fight God's Punishment. What is wrong with our religious thought? Like Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil, a Syrian jihadi cleric Abu Yahya Al-Shami wrote: "The Los Angeles wildfires are a normal act of nature, do not pay much attention to it."

All said, humanity is lost in us when we celebrate the killings of innocent people like the Palestinians or natural disasters like the one in Los Angeles. May the Almighty grant the Palestinians victory against their tormentors. May He contain the wildfires in Los Angeles and comfort all the victims of the wildfires over their losses.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

It is sad again that we have in our midst a quack teacher who thinks a toddler must write figure "6" by fire or by force. Haba! Wetin na? A three year old pupil? Wetin im go fit write? I can agree that there are exceptional toddlers. But how many tens of such toddlers can we count in a billion?
What I am saying is this: what, in the first place, is a three year old pupil looking for in school? Who is that mother or father that enrolled the kid? Is the owner of the school a trained educationist? What about the teachers? I cannot pretend that I don't know that parents nowadays enroll their wards in schools even at age two.
Even if many parents and so-called teachers think formal school enrollment of toddlers is not intrinsically wrong at age three, it is absolutely nonsensical to think such kids ought to be taught how to read and write at that age. Three years old falls within the age bracket where kids are supposed to play to their maximum satisfaction. They are supposed to sing and to dance. To eat and to poo poo and to wee-wee. Enough of this premature school enrollment of kids.
At the end of the day, many of these kids would still grow up and their parents would have to struggle to look for miracle centers where success in WAEC and JAMB is guaranteed. What have we not seen! Let's stop deceiving ourselves. Our kids are not ripe for formal school enrollment until they are ripe.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Could this still be attributed to joblessness, poverty, hunger, and hopelessness which we regularly write about? It is true that the above are the true realities in Nigeria. People are jobless; are impoverished; are hungry; and are hopeless. But despite the above grotesque realities, there is no justification for the heartlessness of the heartless to make victims of accident simultaneously victims of robbery. This is victimhood raised to the power of two. Put differently, it is double tragedies.

Most accident victims fall victim to our bad roads, to our faulty and rickety vehicles and also to the reckless driving of our reckless drivers. While they deserve emergency help and attention in gory accident scenes, some heartless individuals seize the opportunity to rob these victims. Animals of the same specie are not this wicked to themselves.

Unfortunately, some men are so wild and beastly that one is tempted to think it is better to be animal than to be man. This must stop.
In the road accident that occured last Monday night in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, one is made to understand that as an accident victim, you are not only On Your Own (OYO) but a victim of additional tragedy. It was gathered that some travellers in a bus coming from Oore in Ondo State had an accident at Oolo axis enroute to Ogbomoso. While the accident victims wallowed in pain and yearned for help, what they saw were robbers who "honored" their call but to make a fortune.

In a nutshell, rather than help these victims, they were further victimized by some "fellow" Nigerians who robbed them of their valuables—money and mobile phones—on the accident scene. Luckily, other fellow patriotic Nigerians later appeared on the scene for rescue mission. These victims were later rushed to hospital. Access to the mobile phones of these victims by the good Samaritans who came to rescue them would have made contact with victims' relatives seamless, but robbers have stolen them. This is bad. Thanks to the media houses that reported the incident. I wish the accident victims quick recovery.

This is becoming a common harrowing situation experienced by accident victims. A similar case was reported just two months ago at Alausa in Lagos State. A driver of a Toyota Camry 2010 reportedly lost control and rammed into a road divider. Rather than assist the victims in the car, some suspects who were close to the accident scene chose to ransack the victims’ pockets and the vehicle for valuables. Fortunately for the victims, the thieves were caught with iPhone 15, valued at N1,300,000 and an iPhone 12 valued at N620,000 which they stole from the accident victims.

It is traumatic that accident victims could hardly count on fellow beings for help in such a dire situation. I recalled an accident I had sometime in 2023. It was in the night on highway. That day, I thought my ride and phone were gone. I was not thinking of getting help because I understand how heartless people have become. I tried to manage to get up to help myself since I was not incapably injured. In the course of doing that, someone driving behind me who witnessed the scene packed his ride and rushed to rescue me.

Even then, I did not trust him until I could trust him when he picked up my phone on the highway and handed it over to me. I was fortunate. He was also a fortune rescuer. It was dark and late in the night. Plus, it was an area devoid of people where he could easily pick up my valuables and walk away without any fear of being trailed. I was very fortunate as my accident experience was an isolated case; not the common nasty thing experienced by many accident victims who are rather robbed. May God handsomely reward the young man who rescued me. Many accident victims are not fortunate and that is why I an writing this piece.

It should be noted that robbing accident victims of their belongings is not peculiar to Nigeria. It happens in other countries. But that is not a justification to just let it go. Something must be done about it. All known causes of accident must be addressed. I have identified bad roads as a prime cause. Our roads should be fixed. Many roads in Nigeria are in good shape only on paper especially as allocation for repair and construction of new ones is always provided for in our annual budget which is now better described as annual ritual.

Yet, our roads continue to crack, continue to be potholed and continue to bleed despite huge funds annually earmarked for them. Many of the vehicles plying Nigerian roads are far from being roadworthy. But do you blame the vehicles or their owners? Nigerian roads, as I write, are not meant for vehicles that are roadworthy. Many of our roads are meant for rickety vehicles that are best driven by agbero drivers whose eyes have been reddened enough by enough intake of local hard liquor like ogogoro or shepe or paraga or Kaikai in preparation for the suicide mission which driving on Nigerian roads is.

Thus, the first priority—in the right order of things—is to fix the roads, then the vehicles, then the drivers. Everything and everyone have to be fixed to minimize accident on our roads. Government should also prioritize job creation— commensurable with living wages—and let's see whether robbing of accident victims will reduce or not.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

I stated in my last column for 2024 that I have stopped watching presidential media chats. I have also stopped listening to presidential speeches and addresses to Nigerians. Except if a president would be addressing me in person (one on one), in which, out of respect for ruler, I would have to listen and pay attention. But if the address is to Nigerians, I know there are many Nigerians out there who would be listening.

So when I learnt President Tinubu has re-introduced History back into our primary and secondary schools, I said to myself: “this is the disadvantage of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.” I should have listened to the President’s New Year Speech. But when I later learned that the promise was made by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, on the last day of 2024 on a Channel TV program titled "Focus on Education," I heaved a sigh and said to myself again: “nothing to regret for not listening, watching, or reading the President’s New Year Speech.” In a word, I mean to say, the return of History is commendable.

Alausa said on the program: “Let me go to basic education—the curriculum is good. One important thing that had been missing in the past was Nigerian History. We have now people who are 30 years old who are totally disconnected from our history. It doesn’t happen in any part of the world. President Bola Tinubu has mandated that we put that back in our curriculum, and that is back. From 2025, our students in primary school, JSS, and secondary schools will have that as part of their course of study in schools.”

He further said that a lot of our universities are churning out unemployable graduates deliberately. Courses that are not relevant to our country are being taught. Which courses are not relevant? I am time-constrained to address that. I will address the issue of universities deliberately churning out unemployable graduates. That is true. The Minister is on point. But it is surprising that this is coming from the Minister of Education. Isn’t the government aiding and abetting universities in deliberating churning out useless graduates? I am sorry if “useless” sounds offensive, I just do not have the time to check my dictionary for a better synonym for “unemployable” after undergraduates are being deliberately trained for at least four years to be unemployable.

Is it not the government that grants universities the liberty to admit students who have not shown any readiness for study than writing UTME (JAMB)? JAMB candidates in Nigeria do not need to pass. Rather, they may even need to fail and admission will still be granted. Any student may choose to fail by scoring 120 or 140 out of 400 UTME maximum score; admission is still guaranteed. So the blame of deliberately churning out unemployable graduates should not only be apportioned to university administrators. The government should have its fair share of the blame. We can only reap what we sow.

This is not to talk about funding of university and welfare of university teachers which the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is becoming too lethargic to complain about due government deliberate insensitivity. Though I just read that ASUU has declared 2025 a year of long battle with the Federal Government. I hope the Union still has the strength for this battle-ready-government for which hunger is the most lethal weapon.

That being said, the question to ask is: how many times would History be returning to our schools? In 2016, we were told that the National Council on Education had approved the re-introduction of history as a stand alone subject. In what looked like a follow up, the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council, NERDC, announced that History would be re-introduced in 2017. Nothing happened. We were told, again in 2019, that History has officially made a u-turn in the direction of our schools. Yet, it was not officially taught. In 2022, as if the government was serious about it, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) was said to have been tasked to conduct refresher training for 3,700 teachers—100 drawn from each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory in preparation—ahead of the re-introduction of History into our schools.
What happened to History and the 3, 700 teachers? This can be best answered by the former Education Minister, Adamu Adamu.

Was History kicked out by our schools or it was coldly received by school administrators and left in annoyance? Or to be more precise, how many histories do we have and which history is returning to our schools this time around? Dr Alausa could respond to this. Each time one thinks Nigerian government is inching forward and thinks of the need for some sort of celebration, one realizes, disappointedly, that the government is only moving in circle.

History was removed in 2009 with the lame explanation that students avoided the subject; that graduates of History did not have job prospects; and that History teachers were scarce. One wonders how subsequent governments in Nigeria make students do Mathematics despite the fact that many hate and would have avoided the subject. That there is no job and career prospects for history graduates is far away from the truth.

History graduates could be teachers like graduates of other courses. They can work as lecturers in higher institutions and as researchers in research institutes. They can work as archivists and liberians in museums and libraries. They can be employed as chroniclers in our traditional institutions and provide consultancy services especially in land and chieftaincy related matters. They can be employed by some media outlets to write historical piece (feature writing) on regular basis in newspapers. Historians are good administrators and can fitly serve as ambassadors of Nigeria to other countries.

Historians can be employed as government advisers on historical issues to include history of political appointees to ensure that there is fair representations in government. The danger of history not being taught is that mistakes of the past will be repeated with their horrible consequences. We learnt from George Santayana in his The Life of Reason that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (see page 92). This quote is often paraphrased as "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."

In our own case, even those who do study history are doomed to stand by, helplessly, while everyone else repeats it. Historians have learnt from Nigerian history how nepotistic was former President Buhari regime and how nepotism doomed the country under his watch. But because we are people who fail to learn from history, our historians can only stand by, helplessly, and watch the disturbing Lagosianization of Nigeria. Lagosianization is the name of the current nepotism since the Yoruba in the Southwest persistently counter that the ongoing nepotism is not about them and does not favor them.

Would the latest announcement of the return of History be another tarmac politics just to generate media attention and for the gullible to think the government is working? Time will tell. In case the government makes good its promise, many graduates of History might end up getting teaching job but may not be gainfully employed. They should look at teachers who are civil servants around them and see how wretched many of them are. They should learn from the experience of professors of History in our universities whom History has taught why not to be teachers (historians) in Nigeria. Being employed as teacher in Nigeria by Nigerian government is like signing a pact with poverty and wedded to penury.

The message to our rulers is this: teachers at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels are suffering. I am not saying this because I am a teacher but because that is the fact and the factuality of the fact is too factual to dispute.
However, since half bread is said to be better than none, I wish our would-be History teachers best of luck if they are eventually employed.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

In the next few days, Nigeria, like many other countries shall be crossing over to a new year (2025). May it be a year of abundance, happiness, and prosperity. Do not be among those who think there cannot be prosperity and abundance in Nigeria—considering the calibre of the current rulers ruling over us. While there could be no glimmer of hope from the look of things, it is not out of place to wish oneself and one’s country prosperity in year 2025 and beyond.

For most Nigerians (except perhaps our rulers who hold the sharp knife for cutting the national cake), year 2024 is unarguably a year of hunger, misery, and unrelenting hardship. For one like me who still has the strength to write and for many Nigerians who narrowly escaped being gnashed under the callous jaw of government-induced-hunger that has driven many to the graveyard, we must give special thank to God.

I thank the Almighty, on behalf of myself and all those who believe in the existence of God, for sparing our souls to stay alive when many have been, and are being, stampeded to their graves. Indeed, Nigeria has become a country full of misery and miserable people. We are as miserable as a wet hen. Or how does one categorize a country where people risk their lives for a plate of rice, for a few naira notes, and even for scooping a bucket of highly inflammable liquid (petrol) that is accidentally discharged? All these are witnessed on regular basis in Nigeria in the year under review.

What about the collapse of national grid? If we are fortunate not to experience more grid collapse for the days left in 2024 as I write, it means national grid collapse in Nigeria in 2024 occurred on the average of once in a month. We experienced the 12th collapse of the national grid in the second week of December. If national grid could collapse so frequently, it is difficult to say, with accuracy, what has not collapsed in Nigeria. Businesses, incomes, salaries, investments, and even ability to think of reasonable source of income have collapsed. To survive, as poor people, under this regime is miraculous. We are religious people who believe in miracles. The survival of many of us under this cold regime further strengthens my belief in miracles. Our God is, no doubt, the miracle-working God.

At the end of 2023, I wrote my last piece for that year; it was titled “Year 2023: A Review of its Absurdities and Some Top Confessions.” The year was truly full of absurdities. But by the end of this year 2024, what I find most appropriate for my end of the year column is to write about our resilience—having miraculously survive unrelenting hardship under the Emilokan regime. This does not in anyway imply that Year 2024 is not full of government absurdities. It is only that hunger trumps all other discussions.

Having thanked God for survival, let’s award ourselves. We need to give ourselves a survival trophy. We deserve it. I read disappointments on the lips of virtually every Nigerian I know that watched the Presidential Media Chat on Monday. Many maintained that the President displayed rare and fantastic intransigence to continue inflicting pains on Nigerians since he does not regret any of his actions especially the removal of oil subsidy which we learnt is still being paid. Whether that is right or wrong, the ability of Nigerians to watch their tormentor is an evidence of Nigerians’ resilience.

I asked: could there be Nigerians who still have the mental equilibrium to watch that media chat in this general state of homeostatic disequilibrium? That is great. I did not watch it, though I had the time. I deliberately avoided watching it just to maintain my sanity. I know it is going to be narcissistic—full of self-praise. Many Nigerians who watched the chat confirmed what I think I know about the likely takeaway from the chat. We don enter one chance.

That said, I seize this opportunity to console all those who lost their loved ones to bandits, to kidnappers, to terrorists, to Nigerian hospitals that are now synonymous with graveyards, to Nigerian roads that are equivalent to death traps, to bad governance, to bombs targeted at terrorists but that are always "mistakingly" dropped over our innocent northern men, women and children, and to food stampedes in various parts of the country. May the Almighty have mercy on the lost ones and console their families who are nursing the pains of tragic loss of their beloved.

My special thanks to President Tinubu administration for being fair and just in democratization of hunger. Even though the President has been criticized for Lagosianization of appointments, all I know is that he is fair in making Lagosians feel the pangs of hunger just like any other Nigerian in Jigawa, Yobe, Bayelsa, and Anambra. He deserves this credit. He is not a sectional president as some want us to believe. His hardship induced policies seem to follow democratic principle. The sharing formula of hardship in the regime democratically factors in the Calabar, the Fulani, the Hausa, the Igbo, the Kanuri, the Yoruba, the...etc. The federal character principle is religiously adhered to in hardship distribution such that Christians, Muslims, Idol worshippers, atheists, and agnostics all have their fair share of misery.

May I specially congratulate Nigerian corps members (coppers)—especially those who celebrated Christmas with chicken—for their new understanding. They just realized what it means to have chicken change as allowee when 30k out of the 33k of their individual monthly allowee can only buy a chicken to celebrate Christmas. The remaining chicken change (3k) cannot even buy vegetable oil and charcoal to fry the chicken. This is how miserable we have become as people.

A friend and colleague of mine will always say: "Mallam, there is a curse on this country," each time we discuss Nigeria. While I never believed there is a curse on my motherland, isn't it time I shifted position? But would my critical mind allow me to believe curse is the explanation for the misery and the hunger in the land? No! No!! No!!!

Rather than curse, we have either elected wicked people or wicked people have imposed themselves on us. May we be free from their iron fists.

I wish Nigerians a prosperous new year in advance.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Religious palaver again. Is it not better we focus on how to survive this T-pain? One needs to feed well to worship God. But since the thick dust of religious intolerance has overwhelmed us again, let's spare some time to discuss it.

Religion seems to have done more harm than good to Nigerians. This is not because religion is intrinsically evil but because evil people continue to disabuse religion and repurpose it for their selfish economic and political interests. Lies from pulpits, deception, fake prophecies and manipulation of religion by the clerical class have created doubt in many who now question the existence of God. This is the reason many Nigerians today have the temerity to say God does not exist. It is sad to note that statement like "I don't believe in God" is freely uttered.

A good friend of mine reconnected with me, having lost contact for more than two decades. As one discussion led to the other, he later disclosed that he is an avowed atheist. I knew him to be a Christian. An atheist! I exclaimed. "Yes," he said. He even bragged about it and told me he is enjoying his life as a free man—having nothing to do with religion and God. This is serious! But he is not alone.

There are many like him. In this category is one so-called British-based Nigerian lady who just assumed the leadership of the British Conservative Party. I find her name too worthless to mention because she cannot be lumped together with a Nigerian like me who is from the North.

I think I should sympathize with the respected Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah—a northerner—who recently showered enconmium on this cantankerous lady in a column titled "... :Some thoughts and a prayer," published in Premium Times last week (10th of December). I inputted the ellipsis (...) in the title of Rev. Kukah's article for the name I consider too foul to write with my keyboard. Rev. Kukah congratulated her for what many considered an extraordinary feat and even prayed for her.
This is expected of a reverend father who should indiscriminately celebrate Nigerian record breakers—whether from the North or from the South.

But the shameless and ungrateful lady would later cast Rev. Kukah in the same mould as Boko Haram due to her worrisomely unfortunate ignorance of the North's composition and her pathological hatred for northerners. She is also too ignorant to know that atheists like her are in the North.

Anyway, I don't blame her. I blame the Vice President Kashim Shettima who chose to fight pig (get down and dirty), rather than challenge his principal, President Bola Tinubu, to good governance. For before this foul-mouthed lady became wild and untamed, I don't see anything wrong in what she said and for the grudges she holds against Nigerian government.

Since our rulers in Abuja cannot bury their heads in shame, they should have lampooned her with evidence of good governance. But where is the good governance? Instead, Mr Shettima gets down and dirty. This intoxicated the loquacious lady to categorize all northerners as Boko Haram. Nonsense.

The point is: the argument of whether Jesus is God or not should not make the news headline. But since it has been headlined and the discussion is gathering momentum, here are some observations and recommendations.
Though I know that the banner with "Jesus Christ is not God" written boldly on it would be irritating to those who believe Jesus is God; I never new it will elicit such reactions. I thought it will be tolerated by those who would not be comfortable with it. I grew up in AJ City in Lagos (I mean Ajegunle). "Jesus is God" is a common inscription everywhere. Some replace "God" with "Lord" to read "Jesus is Lord." You find "Jesus is God" on banners, signboards, posters, etc. You find it inscribed on buses, t-shirts, bags, etc.

To the atheists who do not believe God exists, saying "Jesus is God" is the height of absurdity. It is also irritating to the Muslims who do not believe that a mortal who eats, drinks, farts, defecates, and even captured by enemies and allegedly nailed to the cross can be God. But because everyone enjoys freedom of religion, people turn a blind eye to some of these irritating inscriptions. That is religious tolerance.

Well, I don't know why, in an unusual manner, the Lekki Mosque decided to negate the affirmation in "Jesus is God" to "Jesus Christ is not God" through inscription on banner. This could be a new method of religious propagation. The mosque has the inalienable right to change its merhod(s) for propagation. It should be noted that there is nothing new in the doctrine that Jesus is not God. Every Muslim knows this by default as article of faith. In addition, significant number of Christians in Nigeria and across the globe also believe Jesus is not God. In a report last year (2023) by The Bible Study based in the United Kingdom, 52% of Americans do not regard Jesus as God but as a great teacher. So, what is the hullabaloo all about?

Yet, I am of the opinion that Lekki Mosque should be sued for saying Jesus is not God by those who find it problematic. The case should be settled in a special court. High-powered panel of judges should be constituted to look into the matter. The judges should include learned Christians and Muslims in theology. It should also include learned atheists in atheology and experts of Nigerian legal system. To determine Lekki Mosque's "trespassing," the judges would have a lot of legal issues to deal with.

One, they should help to establish whether it is a fact or a fallacy that Jesus is God from the Bible (whichever version(s) they choose to work with). Two, they should help to verify whether the Lekki Mosque's assertion that "Jesus is not God" is a Qur'anic doctrine or not. Three, another term of reference is to help identify the religions that have the constitutional right to express their doctrines on banner and those that do not. Four, they should also work around the clock to determine the religions that must tolerate others and those (religions) that should not tolerate others.

If Jesus is proven to be God by this high-powered panel of judges, they should not forget to explain when he (Jesus) actually became God. Nigerians would like to know if there was God before Jesus was born (to become God) since humans had existed on earth for thousands of years before the virgin and miraculous birth. If there was no God before Jesus, who created the world and directed world affairs before Jesus? If there was God before Jesus became God, what happened to that God? Did He expire or die or just disappear? When Jesus who is believed to be God by some Christians was crucified and died on the cross, which God took over the control of the world from him?

I believe Jesus is one of the greatest man (prophet) that ever lived. But because I am easily persuaded by sound evidence and logic, it is possible that the doctrine that says "Jesus is God" will make sense to me (and possibly to many Nigerians) if the above philosophical questions are satisfactorily answered to prove Jesus as the Godhead.

If Lekki Mosque cannot establish its claim from the Qur'an, and it is established that the Nigerian Constitution only grants one religion (not the one practiced in Lekki Mosque) the right to inscribe its doctrine on banner, the mosque should be made to face the wrath of the law. If otherwise, the court should encourage other mosques across the country to emulate Lekki Mosque by inscribing "Jesus is not God" on large banners so that those who find it problematic will get used to it the way atheists and Muslims got used to "Jesus is God" even though it is against their beliefs without raising an eyebrow.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Husband-beating? This is strange! What people are familiar with is wife-beating. Though it is an abomination, wife-beating is known to be common in Kano State. Don't get me wrong. There are thugs (I mean wife beaters) who glorify themselves as husbands in every state and in every culture. My focus here is Kano State because one of its emirs recently talked about husband-beating. I don't want to say he encourages it, though one might not be wrong to say he does.

Domestic violence remains an abomination, no matter how immoral a society becomes. In a sane society, especially one that is deeply religious, wife-beating can only be a once-in-a-century occurrence. This is given the fact that no society can be absolutely free of ills. Yet, one begins to question how religious is Kano State if wife-beating has become a common practice among its people.

Few days ago, at the National Dialogue Conference on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) themed: "Islamic teachings and community collaboration for ending Gender-Based Violence" organised by the Centre for Islamic Civilisation and Interfaith Dialogue (CICID), Bayero University Kano (BUK), the Emir of Kano State, his Eminence, Muhammad Sanusi II, stirred the hornet's nest by throwing his weight behind women who suffer domestic violence. Since Kano remains a patriarchal city, many of its men are angry over what the Emir said.

What did the Emir say that keeps tongues wagging? He said: "Beating your wife or beating your daughter or beating a woman is prohibited. It is a crime." So why the noise? Isn't it a crime to beat one's wife like an outcast? If we (men) experience a surge in power and strength can't we release them on bandits and kidnappers? Why would men unleash their superfluous strengths on their wives? This is criminal. The Emir is right. Those criticizing him should shut up.

Then the Emir further said: “Now I said it before, and I know I’ve been attacked for it, and I’ll continue saying it. When my daughters are getting married, I say to them, if your husband slaps you, and you come home and tell me my husband slapped me, without slapping him back first, I will slap you myself because I did not send my daughter to marry somebody so he can slap her. If you do not like her, send her back to me. But don’t beat her."

Pshaw! Husband-beating! In a state where divorce is seen as an achievement!? Men will not take it. Not in the midst of this economic hardship which has already broken many homes. To ask wives to slap their husbands in retaliation sounds somehow. I mean it will be catastrophic. But before anyone jumps at the Emir, he spoke not just in his capacity as an emir but as an authority on Islamic Family Law.

He recently defended a "perfect" thesis in Law in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. It is titled "Codification of Islamic Family Law as an Instrument of Social Reform: A Case Study of the Emirate of Kano and a Comparison with the Kingdom of Morocco." Referring to his thesis, the Emir said at the conference: "They just slap these women and punch them and kick them and beat them. I just wrote a doctorate thesis on family law, and I did research on nine courts, nine Shari’a courts in Kano. 41% of the cases over a five-year period had to do with maintenance. 26 per cent had to do with harm. And out of those, 45 per cent were cases of wife beating, domestic violence."
He continued: "We had women whose limbs were broken. We had women whose teeth were knocked out. We had women who were victims of constant beating with sticks. We had women where the husband and his other wives beat one of the wives. We’ve had cases of Cardis having to send her sons to trial for criminal assault because of the nature of the beating against their wives. This is the common beating that happens."

And one expects an emir with on the spot PhD field experience on wife-beating not to advise his daughters to retaliate husbands' slaps? Discussion on wife-beating can be found scattered over the Emir's thesis. For the ugly statistics on wife-beating, it suffices to read from page 72 to 85.

As at 2009, it was estimated that there were over one million zawarawa (i.e. menless women) in Kano State. A research conducted in 2012 reports that; "32% of marriages in Kano State survives only a period of three to six months; that many young women divorced of age 20-25years are said to have gone through three marriages at least; that there are more divorce than weddings in Kano every week; that it is not uncommon to come across young women who are less than 30years of age who have not been serially divorced etc”.
My source for the above quote is an article published in the International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5 (10) 2015, by Rohana Yusof and Amina Lawal Mashi. It is titled "An Assessment of “Zawarawa” Mass Marriage Programme, in Kano State, Nigeria." Major factors identified as causes of frequent divorce from their research population sample are lack of Islamic knowledge governing rules of Marriage (35.3%) and abandonment of marriage responsibilities (43%).

If that was the case about a decade ago, the situation should be even more complicated now that erstwhile responsible husbands are being unconsciously irresponsible due to the current regime which harsh economic policies do not encourage men to be responsible breadwinners.

However, when wives begin to beat husbands, these are some general consequences: 1) exponential increase in manless women—women searching, in futility, for husbands; 2) men will develop justifiable gynophobia—phobia of women—for fear of the unknown, 3) large scale prostitution, 4) manless ladies and divorced women who do not resort to prostitution might resort to self-help. That is also despicable. Self-help is euphemism for what I am too shy to mention. If you know, fine. If you do not know, your ignorance might be golden.

I can see Kano State Hisbah working around the clock to salvage the state from being the worst place for men to marry. The state is already notorious for being the Divorce Capital of Nigeria. But now that married women in the state are encouraged (or is advice the right word?) to slap their husbands in retaliation, Hisbah would have more work to do.

Let me acknowledge that royal blood does not flow in me. I am not a moneybag. I don't have good relationship with power brokers for not being a bootlicker. That means it is a wishful thinking for one like me to be an emir (not even a title holder in my village). But if I were to be an emir, my advice to my daughter who is about to marry would be: "Know the daughter of whom you are. If your husband beats you, run for your life. My palace can accommodate you pending the time that we get the matter resolved or God provides you with a sane and caring husband."

Yet, I don't think the Emir is wrong for encouraging women to exchange slap for slap. People should stop criticizing him. He is talking from royal perspective. Though I would have appreciated if he had limited giving that advice only to his daughters. Emirs' daughters are "unique" in the sense that when they are divorced after beating their husbands, people still join a long queue to seek their hands in marriage. If a woman doesn't have this kind of royal blood, I will advise her not to beat her husband.

Responsible ladies whose good home training does not permit them to beat their husbands are finding it hard to get "sweet honeys" nowadays, much less someone who is divorced as husband-beater. Again, of all the 10 recommendations in the Emir's "perfect" thesis, I checked, husband-beating was missing as a way to resolve marital dispute.

After all is said and done, if any married woman thinks the Emir's advice is the best for her (especially in Kano State where divorce is discomfortingly ubiquitous), I wish her all the best.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

How does one keep their job as a servant under Nigerian rulers? This is not a difficult question to answer. Every true Nigerian knows the answer. In a simple sentence: one only needs to be a chronic sychophant. To retain one's political job in Nigeria does not require efficiency at the job. One needs not to be diligent, intelligent, or functional. What a political appointee needs most is their ability to tell lies when truth is too obvious to deny and the ability to excel in sycophancy.

If an almighty minister like Wike is afraid of losing his job, who should not be afraid among Tinubu's appointees? But why should Wike be afraid of losing his job? Could it be that he is unlearning sychophancy and wants to be honest? I don't think this is the case. It is almost impossible to keep one's job as an honest political appointee in present day Nigeria. If you are in doubt, listen to the recently appointed Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala.

In an interview with Arise News, Bwala illustrated what is required to keep one's job as political appointee or to get a political job. To keep one's job, honesty and integrity must be put to shame. You could be a top critic of any of Nigerian rulers today and utter many abominable things against them. If you know your way, I assure you, you can still wine and dine with them. Just assure them that, despite your noisemaking, you lack integrity and that you can do anything for food. You are good to go!

Those who know the former Bwala and the current Bwala would understand better. In that interview, Bwala said: “I no longer believe Tinubu corruptly won the election...At that time, I was simply playing politics and didn’t care.” With this, Bwala has silenced his detractors who think he does not deserve spokesperson's job.

This is the general behavioral display expected of political appointees. But I don't see Wike doing this. The FCT Minister is different. He is focused on his job. He wants to show results. Yes, anyone can hate him for his megalomaniac display in Rivers State. You can question him on why he is inadvertently destroying his state (or is it advertently?) But let's commend him for his businesslike manner and his egalitarian remarks in his recent visit to a school in FCT, Abuja. Or is there something I am getting wrong?

One would think it is not the same Wike who feels bigger than his state (Rivers) and wants to be worshipped. In Abuja, Wike is a different man—a humble man. What about the occasional madness? I think that is only resorted to to get his work done. It isn't a permanent thing about him as some people want us to believe. Wike, as if an exemplary leader, warned school principals against releasing students who should be learning during school hours to welcome him while on visit. Wike was obviously displeased at the practice of bringing students out of their classrooms to line up on roads to welcome officials.

Instead of emphasizing ceremonial protocols that ordinarily massage the egos of Nigerian rulers, Wike, surprisingly, urged school principals across the FCT to prioritize the welfare and education of students. He said: “It is not in our culture, and this will be the last time to see this happen. Nobody should bring students out of their school to line up on the road. We will not accept that any longer. Our children deserve the best”.

This is strange! It is not our culture to line up on the road to welcome our rulers? Perhaps Wike wanted to say we should put an end to that ugly culture of lining up to welcome rulers who do not deserve hospitality. Well, I hope Wike meant what he said. I hope he is not pretending to be humble. I hope he will not chastise people for not rising up to greet him tomorrow.

The Minister also ordered immediate rehabilitation of the dilapidated school infrastructure. There, he made a remark which has kept me wondering. He said “The government of Bola Tinubu will not accept this, I will not accept this. I will not accept this as a school for our people to have quality education...I am sure if Mr President comes here and sees that this is a school, our children are learning. I will lose my job. I don’t want to lose my job.”

If President Tinubu would not accept dilapidated class rooms, why does he accept regular national grid collapse which is a more serious issue than dilapidated class rooms? Why does he accept delay in payment of civil servant salaries without any reasonable explanation? Why does he accept to pay workers 70k minimum wage when he knows it is not a living wage? Why does he accept to see Nigerian roads in shambles without a declaration of emergency on road infrastructure? Is he not also aware that Nigerians under him are living as "dilapidated" entities? Perhaps we should read sycophancy into Wike's remarks. Can we say Wike sycophantically painted President Tinubu as a no-nonsense man who must be shown results for a job perfectly done in order not to be fired as appointee? Many Nigerians will agree it is sycophancy by other means.

I have a contrary interpretation. While I don't think Wike sees the President as a no-nosense man, he is indirectly telling President Tinubu to wake up to his responsibilities. Tinubu should sack all appointees who have no result to show. He should appoint people—like him—on merit for the country to progress.

But let's be certain about this: when sycophancy gets you a job, only sycophancy can make you not to lose the job. When are rulers are finally ready to get things done the way they ought to be done, they will keep sycophants at bay and bring sincere, competent, and candid people closer. When comedians take the position of experts on CNG, you can tell the kind of people the President is surrounded with and why the President should feel bad that our children are learning in dilapidated classes.

May we get it right.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Whenever common sense triumphs over common notion and common practice, the expression of joy by me is spontaneous. We live in a country where an outsider (a foreigner) might think common sense is a crime. So, it is natural to be in joyful mood each time common sense guides the action of our rulers and their officials. The National Youth Service Corps recently, after the case of Aisha Saneeya v. NYSC, grants a married woman in Nigeria the choice to bear her father's name or maiden surname name.

Aisha Saneeya sued NYSC. She approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to seek a declaration of court that the act of the NYSC of changing/substituting her surname with that of her husband’s name without any justification is unconstitutional, unlawful and infringement to her right to freedom of religion and freedom from discrimination. She won the case.

In a circular dated 25th November, 2024, the NYSC concedes that it is no longer a requirement for serving married women to change their maiden names to those of their spouses for concessional relocation to where their spouses reside.

One may wonder and ask: when was the law enacted that married women can not bear their fathers' names as 'coppers'—serving corps members? This should be a right question to ask. But that is if a law ever existed in Nigeria, in the first place, that says a married woman must bear her husband's name as a 'copper'. There isn't such law! Because there isn't such law, no new law was enacted.

So, what happened? Why were married women, until now, forced to change their maiden names because they want to serve their fatherland? I think it is due to official lawlessness that prevails in Nigeria. Someone in authority might just wake up and think something is wrong or right, and before you say 'Jack Robinson', it has become a law (nevertheless of its unwrittenness).

Like a dexterious story teller, Puella Ibraheem beautifully captured the reality of this dictatorial NYSC ritual of rechristening women's name in her story titled "In Service and Humility – Part One: The Married Woman’s Name." She wrote the story in 2015. Before she wrote her story, she fought the fight and many felt she was defeated. But was she defeated? No! It was a continuous struggle which just culminated in victory. In the end of her story, she wrote: "For all the Nigerian women who have gone or are going through this, we shouldn’t keep quiet about it. The married woman’s name is her name. And her name is her choice." Aisha Saneey, like Puella Ibraheem advised, refused to keep quite. Now, the battle has been won.

Though Aisha Saneey, Puella Ibraheem, and others like them, stood their ground and argued their points from religious angle, the victory is for all Nigerian women. I do not intend to delve into the Islamic aspect of renaming a woman after her husband's. What I intend to do is to find out if women are now human or if they are still in the process of transition to homosapiens. A nominal Muslim or non-Muslim who does not know why it is prohibitively wrong in Islam for a woman to change her father's name to her husband's name should read my article published about four years ago. It was titled "Should women be owned? And should they bear husbands’ names?"

I know there were debates, in the past, on the humanness of women. Catherine MacKinnon revisits these debates in her book titled "Are Women Human? And other International Dialogue" What I don't know is if Nigerian women, with this triumph of common sense, are now human. It is perhaps forgivable that, more than a century ago (1911), in "The man-made world: Or, our androcentric culture", Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an American humanist, wrote about how woman was regarded as the property of a man in the man-made world. It is rather disturbing and unforgivable that women—even with this fierce wind of modernity that is determined not to spare any nook and cranny across the globe—are still treated as chattels to be owned. Those who do not see anything wrong in a woman bearing her husband's name, are of course, entitled to their opinion. But it is shameful to think it is shameful for a woman to be ashamed of bearing her husband's name, as they argue.

Some people are adept at turning logic on its head and still try to convince the unsuspecting that the logic in their argument is standing on its feet. When a woman is confronted and lampooned by her fellow women that she is ashamed of bearing her husband's name, she should be well-equipped. She should also lampoon her unserious jesters in like manner. She should ask them why they are ashamed of bearing their father's name. Isn't that the implication? Since I don't want to discuss religion, common sense should guide women (and also men) to realize that is unnatural thing to do for many reasons. I will cite just one. Your husband can disown you (divorce you) anytime, but your father cannot disown you.

What if someone says but fathers do disown disobedient daughters at times. We would say that is true. But disowning one's daughter does not change the reality of father-daughter-blood relation. It can only affect social relation. But when a man divorces his wife, it could affect all relations. It doesn't just make sense to me that having sired a daughter and nursed her to become a grown up woman, suddenly one day, she will shamelessly and ungratefully abandon my name for a "honey."

I commend Aisha Saneeya for her doggedness and all those who stood by her. I also commend the NYSC by eating humble pie without kicking back. In an atmosphere of lawlessness, the NYSC could choose to kick back. I hope the NYSC will undo the justices it had done to thousands of married women who were forced to change their names to those of their husbands'. It is like a deep sore in many of them—especially those who got divorced while their NYSC certificates continue to bear their former husbands' names (which are now ugly names to them). This is traumatic, especially for those who feel cheated in broken relationship.

It is high time we started treating women as humans with rights. Lest someone think I am a feminist, NYSC should please allow male 'coppers' too to serve the nation where their wives reside. "What is good for the goose," as the saying goes, "is good for the gander."

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Critics should shut up. I agree that we must all join hands to criticize any government policy and government action or inaction that we think is harmful—or at least, cannot bring any good. It is our democratic right. It is even wrong, if not dangerous, not to express that constitutional right. But why do we relish putting every government action on the spot? A chairman of a local government in Enugu State recently appointed SSAs on Yam and Pepper for which he was roundly criticized. He is still being criticized. The criticism has not stopped. I write to defend him.

Many of us are hardly on the side of Nigerian rulers on issues that border on governance. Not because we hate them, but because they rule in a manner that makes many of us see them as enemies. Enemies of the people will always find a way to crush the people. The Nigerian poor, who are now in absolute majority, are literally being crushed.

How Nigerians (I mean those who are yet to die among us) survive the heavy jackboots of our rulers is extraordinary. To be clearer, it is miraculous. Real men should not be thinking of food only. Real people cannot make food their only priority. It is insane. It is animalistic. It is unhumanistic. By the time a section of humanity becomes preoccupied with the thought of food (and food only), they will struggle to convince the rest of humanity that they, too, are humans; not animals. This is the pathetic condition of millions of Nigerians today who could not think of anything but food. Yet, we are sane!

On this basis, I beg to differ with critics who think it is wrong for any elected ruler in Nigeria to appoint, not a junior, but a senior special assistant on yam and pepper. Are there food items that are as expensive as yam and pepper in Nigeria today? I don't know if the situation is less terrible in the South. In the part of the North from which I write, I am afraid that yam and pepper will soon be competing with man and woman in worth (in monetary value). If you think I am exaggerating, perhaps it is because you are privileged to have eaten yam and made normal peppered soup this year. I am writing from the perspective of those who have completely lost hope of eating yam due to its prohibitive—don't-come-near-me—price that unfortunately puts the poor to shame. Is it not shameful that, in Nigeria, yam is becoming a food to be dreaming of eating only in Heaven? It has reached this level for many!

If all the appointed senior special assistants, senior special advisers, special assistants and unique advisers (on economic affairs/matters and agriculture)—to either the President or our governors—could not effectively advise our rulers on how to make the economy friendly, is it not high time we started having SSAs on each food items? That is what Dr Eric Odo, the Chairman of Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, did. He appointed SSAs on Garden Egg, Yam and Pepper to strategically boost production. According to him: "Their appointments are to ensure that local farmers receive adequate attention, needed resources, support and expertise to enhance production, improve market access and increase income for farmers."

His explanation is not only "reasonable," it is very "sweet" like the one made by President Tinubu about Àgbàdo (corn) during his presidential campaign. If Nigeria is yet to dominate the global market with the variety of Àgbàdo promised by Tinubu, it is logical to say it is because President Tinubu did not appoint SSAs on Àgbàdo. Having learnt from Tinubu's mistake, Dr Odo hurriedly did the right thing. He made the appropriate appointments at the appropriate time. Those who criticized that strategic appointments are disgruntled individuals. On this, I thank God that I am not one of the critics, I would have been one of the disgruntled individuals.

This is how Dr. Odo reportedly puts it: “In essence, the appointment, which is wrongly misunderstood by disgruntled individuals, bad losers and opposition, reinforces my determination to creating a thriving local economy based on the strength and potentials of Igbo-Etiti’s agricultural landscape.” In appreciation of Dr. Odo's unique way of reasoning and his excellent method of job creation, I urge all elected governors and chairpersons across the 36 states of Nigeria and all the 774 local government areas to identify the strength and potentials of their respective agricultural landscape. They should immediately appoint SSAs on Cassava, Patato, Plantain, Sugarcane, Millet, Rice, Beans, Onions, Banana, Watermelon, Orange, Mango, Vegetables, etc. If Dr. Odo's job creation template is adopted, millions of SSA jobs will be created and unemployment will drastically reduce.

In the list of food items I gave above that deserves SSAs, Àgbàdo is not mentioned. It is deliberate. President Tinubu will take care of that. Dr. Odo did not only avoid President Tinubu's mistake of not appointing SSAs on Àgbàdo, he is most likely sending a subtle message to President Tinubu to correct that grievous mistake. After all, it is not too late to make Àgbàdo abundant for hungry Nigerians.
As I shut disgruntled critics up in this piece, I wish Dr. Odo good luck as he sets to revolutionize agriculture in his Igbo Etiti Local Government Area. Soon, I expect to see Igbo-Etiti’s Yam, Pepper and Garden Egg all over Nigeria.

I ended my column last week with a prayer. It is worth repeating. "This country is sick. May God heal Nigeria." Ameen.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

I cannot believe it. So we still have people who believe the present government in Nigeria is anything but disaster! I listened to Sheikh Nuhu Ribadu—the man who should have led a national prayer against national calamities—counting Tinubu's gains in less than two years in office. Has he forgotten that the prayer he was to lead (which the Presidency now denied) is to spiritually confront the intractable calamities that infest the land? So, which Tinubu's gains was he counting?

Could it be that Nuhu Ribadu whom many suddenly thought to be a sheikh has, again, suddenly become a PR man after the government shelved organizing the national prayers? I know he is part and parcel of this government, but I never knew him to be a sheikh (a prayer warrior, if you like) or a PR man. I still have to check, as I write this piece, to see if Ribadu had been assigned new role. To my surprise, he is still the National Security Adviser (NSA) to President T-Gain—the President with one thousand and one names.

Ribadu must be a polymath—a renaissance man—to be able to function in many roles as a sheikh, as an NSA, and as a PRO (all at the same time). I envy him. He is an all-rounder. Though I don't find it strange that Ribadu chose to take Tinubu's job, after all, every Nigerian—due to the all-pervading hunger in the land—is hungry for such job. (I learnt Bwala Daniel has now being appointed as Special Adviser on Public Communications and Media at the State House). What I find strange and cannot believe is that Ribadu will be so enthusiastic about Tinubu's job to subject himself to ridicule.

Recently, at the opening of the Comptroller General of Customs’ Conference 2024 with the theme, “Nigeria Customs Service: Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose", Ribadu spoke about Tinubu's Gain (T-Gain). Among other claims, Ribadu asserts:

Ribadu: "This is Nigeria of 2024."
Me: "That is correct."

Ribadu: "And this is a Nigeria where the critics will be quiet."

Me: "I hope so."

Ribadu: "And one after the other, things will change."

Me: "Change for what? For better or for worse? What do you mean?"

Ribadu: "And things are already changing."

Me: "From worse to worst, right?"

Ribadu: "Many parts are safe, especially in the Nigeria Delta."

Me: "Even Abuja is not safe."

Ribadu: "Nigeria has got to 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil. This hasn’t been seen in a long time."

Me: "Though petrol was sold N195 before T-Gain and now it is sold N1, 200 per litre during T-Gain."

Ribadu: “Tinubu gains, you move everywhere in our own country today free of fear."

Me: "This is a BIG FAT lie."

Ribadu: “Nobody dares Tinubu and wins, never, nobody.”

Me: "Is he a god or Satan? If he is already a god, my prayer is that sychophants should not be successful in transforming him to become god with capital 'G'"

Ribadu: “We will chase the so-called Lukarawa out of our country."

Me: "Na for mouth dem dey defeat terrorists."

Ribadu: "We’ll put critics to shame and shut their mouths in no time."

Me: "I am a critic. If by putting us to shame, you mean Nigeria will be a great nation and its citizens will live in abundance under Tinubu, I will be the happiest to be shamed."

Ribadu: "Boko Haram, which has been ravaging our country, is now on the run."

Me: "Just last month, the on-the-run Boko Haram members slaughtered farmers and killed soldiers in Gwoza and Marte local government areas respectively. You may also wish to ask Governor Umar Bago about how terrorists are terrorizing Niger State."

In my column titled "Let's Collapse the Greed, not the Grid, to be Great" last week, I wrote: "I am yet to see any sane Nigerian (rich or poor, in power or out of power) who holds contrary opinion to the frightening reality of this existential hardship. Even President Tinubu's fanatical Awa lọkàn could not agree less. They strongly believe T-Pain exists." Now that Ribadu had been given a podium and a microphone, I have finally found a sane Nigerian who does not see the frightening reality of existential hardship Nigerians are living with. What Ribadu sees is T-Gain.

It should be noted that some would disagree with me—many have already disagreed—that Ribadu is sane. For instance, in reaction to Ribadu's enumeration of G-Pains, we read a post on Dr. Mahdi Shehu' Facebook page, Rescue Nigeria Urgently. Shehu wrote: "I called Ribadu's submission delusional, and my daughter called it comical. My grand son called living in denial, and my neighbor called it neurotic. My distant cousin considered it psychotic. My son, who is a medical student with a keen interest in mental health challenges, said it is a border line of madness. WHAT will Katsina, sokoto, zamfara, kebbi, Niger call it."

Ordinarily, one should respect Shehu's judgement—being a medical doctor—and that of his son—a medical student. But I am also entitled to my opinion: Ribadu is sane. I can agree that he is joking. He might also be "podium-excited" and thus veered off.

I further wrote in that column: "We are, for the first time with government paid cheerleaders, on the same page. They concede that the existence of "Pain" is not in controversy—it is incontrovertible. What they have controverted is the "T" in the T-Pain. While the "T"—to the overwhelming majority of Nigerians—means what they truly believe it means, it means "Temporary Pain" to government sycophants who feed on people's pain."

Here again, we have Ribadu. I don't know how to describe him. He disagrees with all Nigerians. By all Nigerians, I mean every Nigerian. He disagrees with Tinubu's critics. He disagrees with Tinubu's bootlickers. He disagrees with Tinubu himself. While the disagreement in T-Pain is not about the "Pain" as pointed above. It is about the "T" if it means "Tinubu" or "Temporary." Ribadu is the only sane Nigerian I know under Tinubu's payroll who affirms, like most Nigerians outside the ruling class, that the "T" in T-Pain is Tinubu. However, unlike all Nigerians, the "Pain" in T-Pain is "Gain." What we have now, according to Ribadu, is T-Gain; not T-Pain.

Ribadu was initially appointed as special adviser on security before he was later promoted to replace Babagana Mongunu as the National Security Adviser. If I were President Tinubu, I will elevate Ribadu for his ingenuity and further promote him for a work well done. He (Ribadu) must be a genius. He changed the narrative completely.

Now I understand! All the enough evidence Ribadu previously claimed he had, when he was the EFCC Chairman, to nail Tinubu whose corruption then was that of an “international dimension" must have been washed away by the Maiduguri flood. Or who was the governor that Ribadu allegedly claimed to have taken about 75 percent of the state resources?
This country is sick. May God heal Nigeria.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen.
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

It is now a cliché to say Nigerians are going through the most difficult time of their lives. I am yet to see any sane Nigerian (rich or poor, in power or out of power) who holds contrary opinion to the frightening reality of this existential hardship. Even President Tinubu's fanatical Awa lọkàn could not agree less. They strongly believe T-Pain exists. T-Pain does not only exist, it is dehumanizing—reducing Nigerians, in some extreme cases, below the level of domestic animals.

We are, for the first time with government paid cheerleaders, on the same page. They concede that the existence of "Pain" is not in controversy—it is incontrovertible. What they have controverted is the "T" in the T-Pain. While the "T"—to the overwhelming majority of Nigerians—means what they truly believe it means, it means "Temporary Pain" to government sycophants who feed on people's pain. They want Nigerians to believe that they are not GOING through hard time but rather PASSING through it. The latter suggests Nigerians are only transitioning through a difficult time to the promised land. If that is the case, they should endure. In order words, we shall soon overcome the pain under Tinubu but only need to exercise patience. Whether the "T" means "temporary" or something else, the reality of the "Pain" it prefixes is not deniable.

Everything is virtually collapsing—many things have already collapsed—under the watchful eyes of Nigerian rulers. It is not only the national grid that is collapsing or has collapsed (I don't know the correct tense to use anymore), the humanity in man seems to have also collapsed in some of those we chose to lead us. This is not to say the led are saint. But when the head is rotten, the whole body stinks. In that situation, to try to deodorize the stinking body—without addressing the head that has rotten—is a waste of time.

The North has already slipped into the dark age. Read about the dark age. Or to safe you the stress, read about Hobbesian state of nature. If Hobbes' depiction of the state of nature sounds fictional, Northern Nigeria today is the real show and the real account of the state of nature where man is obviously against man and where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. In many parts of the North, as I write, survival is only certain for the fittest. The fittest, in this context, is the most horrible. Like the grid collapse, authority has also collapsed in the North.

If care is not taken, the South, with Tinubu's presidency, might be catching up with the North. Although President Tinubu has been accused of nepotism, his nepotism is not in anyway favorable to the South—not even to the Yoruba. His nepotism, though real, is difficult to define (at least, for me). For, it does not in anyway make the Yoruba smile while other ethnic groups wail in pain. Before he became Nigerian President, I can still recall, Tinubu called himself the father of democrats. Then, I disagreed. But now, I agree. No one has perfectly democratized hardship and pain in Nigeria like President Tinubu. Southerners are wailing like northerners. The Muslims are bitting their fingers in regret; the Christians are moaning in the regime induced T-Pain.

If former President Buhari could spare some time to watch his plasma TV in Daura for the update on calamities, pains, and general insecurity in the land, he would definitely give kudos to Tinubu and doff his hat. The colorblind democratization of hunger, hardship, pain, and wail which Buhari could not achieve in eight years, despite desperate attempts, the Jagaba of Borgu achieved it in less than two years.

The South, like the North, has also been thrown into darkness with what we now call "regular national grid collapse". But unlike the North, the South has not fully transited into the dark age. I pray it will never be hit with the calamities that will qualify it for full admission into the dark age. The earlier Nuhu Ribadu/Remi Tinubu lead the scheduled national prayer session, the better, I think, for Nigeria.

I read that "the Muslim prayer session will last for seven days at the National Mosque, with 313 individuals reciting the Qur’an. The recitations are expected to total 2,191 by the end of the week, symbolising the collective effort to pray for national stability." I don't know what informed Nuhu Ribadu's (or whoever he gave the assignment) choice of reciting the Qur'an 2, 191 times. If unsolicited suggestion will not be frowned at, I will suggest 419 times. The prayer should target corruption and its enablers. Reciting the Qur'an 419 times would be a perfect match.
To democratize the prayer session, Christians from various denominations are to gather at the National Ecumenical Centre for an intense prayer that will also last a week. While I don't know when Nuhu Ribadu became a sheikh, I know, for sure, that Remi Tinubu is a pastor. It won't be surprising if she physically leads the “prayer warriors.” After all, it is her husband's government.

I have no information on the prayer meeting point of the Eepa Ripa group—the traditional worshippers. It will be democratic if Nigerian witches and wizards are given a portion of the millions or billions of naira that will be earmarked for the national prayer. At least, they can help to make sacrifice to the devils—or Satan himself—to stop aiding and abetting Nigerian rulers in their inhumane treatment [of] and wickedness against common Nigerians.

A reminder to our noble Sheikh Nuhu Ribadu that will be leading the Muslim wing. Please, take note, when you and other reciters read the Qur'an, read it carefully. You will come across a verse that partly reads: "Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts." This verse is found in Chapter 13 verse 11. You will be reading the verse 2,191 times or 419 times if my suggestion makes sense.

What does this mean? It means the prayer will be an exercise in futility unless we collapse that greed in our hearts. I agree that those not in power are also greedy. But the greediness of those we elected to govern us but insist on ruling over us dictatorially is what collapsed our national grid and the economy. That greediness has collapsed our schools, our hospitals, our roads, our businesses, our morals, our essence, and our farms. Our farmers now sleep with their crops in the bush, not with their wives, despite harmattan. They have to protect their crops during this period of harvest (defying harmattan) against thieves and thus abandoned their wives and little kids to the protection of God. What kind of existence is this? Animal kingdom or Tinubu regime?

What is still standing sturdily in Nigeria is greed. Dear Sheikh Nuhu Ribadu and Pastor Remi Tinubu, your prayers should focus on the rotten heads; the stinking body can be self-refreshing. Concentrate your prayers on collapsing the greed; the national grid will automatically come back to life. You are prayer warriors (no doubt) to have been tasked with this divine national assignment.

O our national and respected prayer warriors! You must win this battle as you set out to invoke the Divine Wrath on the enemies of our fatherland (Nigeria). May God have mercy on the innocent and destroy the wicked.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

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It is nonsensical for someone who is not known beyond few yards from his residence in Abuja to think he should be known by everyone or by every bolt driver in the FCT. This is self-importance—exaggeration of one's merit when the reality is lack of merit. This is sickening. We saw a viral video of one Alex Ikwechegh, a megalomaniac lawmaker representing Aba South/Aba North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives insulting and assaulting a bolt driver. Ikwechegh, due to his egotism, even thought he was a senator.

Briefly, the bolt driver, Abuwatseye, was asked to deliver snails to Ikwechegh at his residence in Abuja. On getting to Ikwechegh's residence, the bolt driver explained he greeted him twice but the lawmaker did not respond. Not knowing the lawmaker in person, he shouldn't be wrong if he thought he was greeting a deaf and dumb, not the lawmaker (as he was not told the lawmaker is deaf or dumb). This prompted the bolt driver to dial Ikwechegh's mobile number directly. To his surprise, the man whom he greeted but did not respond is the one whose phone rang.

The lawmaker became infuriated and yelled out at the bolt driver: "Are you stupid? Are you mad? Are you a fool? Bring my stuff for me!" For those who do not know the offence committed by Abuwatseye, listen to the lawmaker again: "You common Bolt driver. You are a poor man. You have pride in your poverty. Do you know who I am?" Abuwatseye committed many offences. First offence, he is a common bolt driver but had the gut to dial the number of a whole lawmaker. Offence number two, Abuwatseye is a poor man. Offence number three, Abuwatseye appeared to have maintained his dignity as bolt driver and did not behave like some slaves in Nigeria who prostrate before Nigerian politicians (in reverence) for crumbs in a manner they would not, to God. Offence number four, Abuwatseye did not know that the man he greeted who turned momentarily "deaf" is the "senator." I will come to this last point soon.

The do-you-knoe-who-I-am dishonorable lawmaker who insulted the honorable bolt driver reveals once again the disdain those we elected to represent us have for us. Lord Acton, an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer asserted that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." While Acton is right, what is even worse is the case in Nigeria whereby the thought of having power, not actually having power, also corrupts absolutely.

I have been brainstorming since I watched the viral video of Alex Ikwechegh's assault on the bolt driver to see if I could understand why an ordinary member of the House of Representative should think so important about himself so much so that he considers himself a god that should be worshipped. Alex Ikwechegh, the so-called lawmaker, has broken the law he was elected to make. If Nigerian law is wrathful or has an iota of wrathfulness, it should not hesitate to descend its wrath on the lawmaker who displays traits of irresponsibility with reckless audacity.

Those who are against youth leadership argue that Alex Ikwechegh's action validates their position that the youth should not be entrusted with power; they will abuse it. I plead to disagree. It is not about youthfulness; it is about whether one enjoys mental well-being or one is ailed with personality disorder. It seems we get it wrong; I mean, the definition of youth. In my search, Alex Ikwechegh was born 1980. If he did not lie about his official age, he was born 44 years ago. If he lied, it means he is older since lying about age in Nigeria is often to reduce it not to inflate it. By what stretch of reasoning can we assume or conclude that a 44-year-old is a youth?

The term "youth" typically refers to adolescents who are typically teenagers (13-19 years old); young adults (20-24 years old) and those transiting youth age to full adulthood (25-29 years old). The United Nations defines youth as: "Those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years." It is true that some organizations and countries do extend the definition of youth to 30 or 35 years old. For instance, the National Youth Service Corps defines youth as those that are 18-30 years old. Therefore, 44 is way beyond the youth age range. Alex Ikwechegh is not a youth and does not represent the youth.

By his age, he has transited to full adulthood. Maybe one agrees Ikwechegh is a youth, a full adult, or an old man, his behavior is not youthful. It is childish. He displays the mannerism often displayed by mannerless and untrained pupils—from well-to-do homes—towards their poor fellow class mates in primary school. It is shameful that an adult—an elected lawmaker, for that matter—would descend this low.

Back to Abuwatseye's offence number four. "Do you know who I am?" The bolt driver apparently did not know who Ikwechegh is. I did not know too. Also, most Nigerians did not know him. Some of his co-lawmakers would definitely know him and those he has enslaved and allowed themselves to be enslaved. But Ikwechegh should thank Abuwatseye for catapulting him to the limelight. Now, many Nigerians know him. I now also know him but for a very wrong reason. We know him as a kill-and-go lawmaker who could delete (from the surface of the earth) any adult monkey and poor rat who claims to be Nigerian but fails to kneel down to greet him like Abuwatseye.

According to Abuwatseye, the lawmaker claimed he would pay 50 million naira to people, and they would kill him, and nobody would say anything. This is what too much money does to someone who does not work to earn it. If it is power that tends to corrupt according to Acton, I say, "money tends to corrupt and too much money corrupts too muchly." Narcissistic Ikwechegh thinks with his money, he can do and undo. He thinks he can spare and take the life of the poor. He is wrong.

I learnt the lawmaker has apologized. I don't know if he apologized to Abuwatseye, but he did apologize to his co-lawmakers. He said, remorsefully, "It happened in the heat of the moment. As a public officer, my behaviour fell short of the standard expected of me. I am very sorry." If Ikwechegh is truly remorseful, he should apologize to the bolt driver and all Nigerians.

We read that this lawmaker in the eye of the storm started politics as a youth. He reportedly became the first youngest elected local government chairman in Nigeria at age 28. In a 2020 report, four years ago, he was said to be a philanthropist who had been helping the needy especially through his foundation, Alex Ikwechegh Foundation. He has many records to his credit. How he suddenly became a bulldozer that cannot tolerate the poor is disturbing. Despite what I have written—censoring the lawmaker—in defence of Abuwatseye, I think Ikwechegh can be, and should be, forgiven. That is, if he is truly remorseful for what he did to the bolt driver. But netizens doubt his remorsefulness. His words of apology are said to be 100% AI-generated. I am speechless!

Anyway, since members of the House of Representatives insist they would be probe him, I suggest a psychiatric test. Ikwechegh might not be his true self.
To Abuwatseye, I salute your ability to see dignity in what you do for living. I wish you Divine Guidance and success.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

Because he once called himself a madman, many will think his madness has resurfaced again. I mean Nyesom Wike, the mad FCT Minister. He has declared war against beggars in his newly found kingdom, Abuja. I disagree with those who think Wike's declared war against Abuja's beggars is due to his madness. I disagree with them; they are unpatriotic people who do not like Wike and his face.

I may agree that the war Wike declares against the poor Abuja's beggars is a resurgence of his madness only if we can boldly call all former FCT ministers (since Nigeria's transition to democracy in 1999) mad people . I cannot recall any FCT minister, perhaps with the exception of Ibrahim Bum (1999-2001), who did not make declaration of war against beggars in Abuja. Although some of them did not call it war, as they were not uncouth, but what they did or tried to do was declaration of war in other words and by other means.

The enthusiasm displayed, the efforts exerted, and the energies dissipated by Nigerian rulers to make Abuja beautiful and liveable, is, in my opinion, proportional to what they display to make Nigeria ugly and unlivable. Nigeria is not their project, Abuja is. According to Mohammed Abba Gana, FCT Minister (2001-2003), "Nigeria’s capital city is God’s own capital city." One wonders if other states in Nigeria are devil's own. Although I am very sure that that was not what Gana had in mind as he further called for six more of the type of Abuja across the country. That is to say, incrementally, other states of the federation should be made to look like Abuja.

So Wike's war declaration against beggars, be it real or a threat, is not new. Nasir El-Rufai (2003-2007), Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar (2007-2008), Muhammad Adamu Aliero (2008-2010), Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed (2010-2015), Muhammad Bello (2023), all ejected beggars from Abuja or threatened to do so.

However, the eccentric Wike took many by surprise. As the FCT workaholic Minister, he did not declare war against bandits, kidnappers, and those miscreants that are making Abuja unsafe. His avowed enemies, whose sight he cannot tolerate, are the beggars. Wike's fear is, under his watch, Abuja is transforming—at an alarming rate—to beggars' city. Listen to him: “Let me state clearly that we have declared war; Abuja is turning into a beggar city."

No one should underestimate Wike's power. It is common knowledge that mad people are possessed by some powerful spirits which makes them difficult to tame. Just as powerful Wike midwives the yet to be abated crisis (or is it war?) in his state of origin (Rivers State), waging war against beggars in Abuja who are most likely not his people from Rivers should not be seen as an empty threat. In a clear term, Wike comnands: “If you know you have a sister or brother who is a beggar, please, from next week, we’ll carry them. We’ll take them out. It is embarrassing that people will come in and the first thing they’ll see are just beggars on the road."

I advise northerners whose regions had just been thrown into darkness as a result of embarrassing grid collapse—before Wike's war declaration—to quickly call back their people who are beggars in Abuja. They should hurry up before Wike carries them, packs them, and throws them away like filth.

But Wike has got a long war to fight in Abuja. As we say in street language, im go fight tire. I can inform Wike that the more he "packs," "carries," and "loads" beggars from the streets of Abuja into lorries or trailers, the more the Federal Capital will experience deluge of beggars. Some few businesses that stubbornly refuse to die in Nigeria, and in the North to be specific, are now racing to collapse with the recent grid collapse which throws the northern region into darkness. Literally, darkness has eclipsed the North.

By implication, businesses in the North are eclipsed. Because Abuja, though Nigeria's capital, is located in the North, it is logical to conclude that Abuja will be receiving more beggars as guests. Yes, they may be unwanted guests by Wike, they are Nigerian citizens who should be defended to express their constitutional right to reside anywhere in Nigeria.

Wike might not know the implication of his statement. He said: "I’m giving you a public holiday from now until Sunday. From Monday, we will pack them out." Packing beggars out of Abuja, to use his words, is indeed giving them a holiday. Unless government addresses the root cause of begging, beggars will always resume work after holiday. It is a matter of time.

Is Wike not aware of T-Pain? Let someone tell Wike that Nigerians have been compelled to take an overdose of T-Pain. One of its consequences is the sight of beggars, not only in Abuja streets but in every Nigerian street. Even the government is a beggar who seems not to be tired of begging. Not ashamed of its mounting debts that have literally enslaved it to some world powers, Nigeria continues to beg for more loans.

If it is not criminal for Nigeria to beg for loan, it should not be criminalizing for Nigerians to beg for food. This is not to say begging should be condoned for beggars. It is to emphasize the need for the government to create economic environment that is so viable and promising as to discourage begging.

But something still keeps me worried. Why do Nigerian rulers like window dressing? Why do they place premium on optics but downplay substance. What is embarrassing to Wike is not the growing number of beggars in Nigeria. Let beggars continue to increase geometrically, Wike and his fellow Nigerian rulers would probably not be perturbed. That is okay; provided they (beggars) are not visible in Abuja such that they are seen firstly by people (foreigners) who visit Abuja.

Dear Honourable Nyesom Wike, recall that I defended your appointment as FCT Minister when some people behaved as if the position is the birthright of northerners. You may want to have a good record as the first minister of FCT from the South.

Here is my advice: rather than forklifting these innocent and choiceless beggars out of Abuja, treat them like economic refugees that should be supported. It is T-Pain that takes a toll on their economic life and existence. Since the government you serve is incapable of creating jobs for these hardworking-turned-begging Nigerians, economic refugee camps should be created for them while government takes care of their basic needs until they can afford to politely earn a living.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com



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It was flood calamity some weeks ago in Maiduguri. The overwhelming nature of Maiduguri flood makes it seem as if other states did not have their own share of flood. For the record, Jigawa State is one of the states in the federation that regularly experiences flood during raining season with its destructive effects. While this hardly makes the news headline, the recent inferno did make the headline. Wednesday was a terrible day in Jigawa State—a day of great mourning. May the State not experience such a day again in its nearest and furthest future.

Majiya is not only serene and greeny but a very peaceful town (some call it village) which I accassionally passed through during my several travels to eastern part of the North. The town is not a wailful town. It even became site of attraction to beholders when a university—with massive structures—was mounted fittingly by the roadside by one of its sons. We were told by some locals that the university was built by one of the prominent sons of the town and named "Khadija University Majia" to honor his mother and the town. I hope the admirable name of the university will be retained now that ownership has been transferred to the Jigawa State government.

However, unfortunately, Majiya suddenly wailed and it is still wailing when calamity stroke it on Wednesday. People of the town are counting their loss—in humans—following the explosion of a petrol-laden tanker which, at one stroke, reportedly led to the death of at least 153 people. Others victims who sustained life-threatening injuries were rushed to Ringim General Hospital and Federal Medical Centre in Birnin Kudu where doctors, nurses, and other health workers are currently struggling to save their lives. This calamity is too enormous to bear!

I am just imagining the ripple effects of this loss. Many breadwinners were gone living many dependants without bread. Many have lost their beloved ones to the implacable rage of fire. Families of the injured ones whose resources are already drained are now on rescue mission. They would have to start looking for money to rescue the rescuable among the injured. It is safe to say there are debtors among those who lost their lives in this unfortunate inferno due to Nigerian battered economy which has virtually made everyone a debtor. Their creditors would have to mourn and mourn. They would have to mourn the death of their debtors and the debts that are most likely written off as bad debts.

President Tinubu, his Vice-President Shettima, governors and many other politicians have expressed grief over the onslaught by our common enemy (fire). While their expression of grief is comforting to the victims and thus commendable, they should please go beyond that. They should console these victims not only with words of mouth but with monetary and other material supports. Though their several kind interventions towards assisting flood victims in Maiduguri is very recent for which they were commended, Majiya victims also deserve such gesture and even more. This is also the right time for the well-to-do among Nigerians to display their generosity in a show of sympathy towards these inferno victims.

That said, should I say Nigerians still need serious enlightenment on how inflammable petroleum products are, especially fuel? Or could it be just that we believe making money is worth taking the risk even if it were to be taken from the lion's mouth? Several reports that we read revealed that the tanker driver which caused the inferno was said to have lost control, fell, and spilled its content which entered through the drainage to the outskirts of the village. Shockingly, rather than run for safety, villagers attempted to scoop petrol (which is now precious like gold) from the drainage (despite police warning). This resulted in a raging flame that unfortunately engulfed the area. This does not speak well of enlightened and/or reasonable citizens who should value life.

The federal government swiftly announced immediate intervention. It also called for a comprehensive review of fuel transportation safety protocols across Nigeria. This is long overdue. The fact that tankers are still being used to transport highly inflammable materials like fuel across states of the federation, despite the bad conditions of our roads and numerous fatal accidents, underscores the Nigerian government alarming disregard for lives and property of its citizens.

Well, it is better late than never. The federal government should make its promise to review fuel transportation safety protocols a solemn one to avoid future tragedies.
I join other well-meaning Nigerians in condoling families and friends of victims, particularly the Jigawa State Governor who, as I write, stands as a father figure to all of those he was elected to serve in the state. I pray that he leaves office as responsible and caring father.

May the Almighty grant the injured ones quick recovery and forgive the deceased.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com

FELLOW NIGERIANS, HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH T-PAIN?

It is painful that the T-Pain Nigerians are going through seems to be endless. If it will eventually come to an end one day, the end isn't in a sightable sight. The end to T-Pain or, if you like, of T-Pain, is not known to "T" himself. Nigerians just have to endure, perhaps till 2027, when the time will be ripe to do away with T-Pain, to re-examine our political sense, and to re-chart our political course.

But endurance has limit, and one needs to live to endure. My fear is that I don't know how many Nigerians will be alive to make that political re-examination. And even for those who will be alive, I still do not know if they will have the strength to re-chart a new political course. The political choice made by the few Nigerians among us (37% or thereabouts) who elected this APC President that now subjects us to T-Pain is the most terrible political miscarriage, as far as I know, in Nigerian history.

I don't know how Nigerians came up with this T-Pain appellation which is, in other words, Tinubu's pain-inflicting-presidency. It must have been through Nigerians' unique ability to joke over hardship as if hardship is a norm. But I do know T-Pain is a name of an American singer and songwriter, Faheem Rashad Najm. Najm is professionally known as T-Pain. He was born and raised in Tallahassee—the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. His stage name is said to be short for "Tallahassee Pain" which he chose because of the hardships he experienced while living there.

Like Najm, Nigerians in Nigeria chose T-Pain to describe how painful it is to experience hell on earth under Tinubu and to tell the whole world what they are going through in Nigeria. We read a report from Peoples Gazette that “The president has been very sad and not hiding his frustration over how quickly the so-called Tpain label was allowed to spread on social media.” That is to say, the president is not only making a terrible history, he is reading the harsh judgement of history while in office. Let him be sad; he should also be frustrated. Nigerians are also sad and frustrated—courtesy of T-Pain.

But how can someone be sad for deliberately inflicting pains—which he can stop to inflict—on those he should make happy? Perhaps, the president deliberately choose to be sad. If the president is truly sad, all he needs to do is to reverse those dangerous policies that continue to fuel Nigerians' woes and pains. He should reverse the hike in fuel price that consequentially fuels T-Pain. The president can re-write his history if what he is reading about himself is truly unpalatable.
Peoples Gazette further reports that the president was said to be "mostly angry with unpatriotic people who sit on social media to call him names without offering any unique solutions of their own but only to malign the government.” We are actually learning a lot from this regime through T-Pain. If given opportunity to teach Civil Education in our basic schools, T-Pain (personified) would teach pupils that one becomes unpatriotic for wailing while being flogged.

The president reportedly complains like complain king about those sitting on social media to call him names without proffering any unique solutions. Does the president need any advice anymore after being advised for a thousand and one times? Could it be that the president has an axe to grind with those sitting on social media? If that is the case, I am not one of those. Here again is my advise to the president for the umpteenth time: "reverse those dangerous policies with devil face; for, they lack human face."

If the president could not tolerate those sitting on social media and could not take advice from them due to their mannerisms, he should humble himself and take advice from those in the ivory towers who, by expertise, are in a vantage position to advise government and show it direction. Or are Nigerian academics also unpatriotic. Are the rulers in Abuja paranoiac of the country's intellectuals whom they employ and pay? But because T-Pain has completely impoverished and pulverized Nigerian intellectuals, our rulers find it demeaning to take advice from them. If ASUU makes real its threat to embark on strike in few days to come, the union, for sure, will be tagged unpatriotic in the Totalitarian Dictionary of T-Pain regime.

If the presidency is in search of unique advice, it should read some of the recommendations in the papers presented at the recently concluded State of the Nation Conference organized by ASUU in Abuja. Or does the government think its intellectuals are intellectually impoverished so much so that they are bereft of ideas? The president who is pained by being label T-Pain should read the conference communique. The president and his co-travellers—in T-Paining Nigerians—should read the paper titled "Patriotism and Sacrifice: Twin Catalysts for National Development" by Adam Muhammad and my humble self. In that paper, we advise Nigerian rulers that for the country to develop, they (rulers) need to be patriotically intoxicated and prioritize national interests above personal and foreign interests.

The president should patriotically sack himself from Ministry of Petroleum as Minister. The patriotism which he claims those sitting on social media lack should be extended to the NNPC (or is it NNPCL?) which is over due for overhaul. The overhauling should be extended to its managers whose actions and/or inactions have continued to push the price of fuel northwards. I learnt the NNPC is providing free medical eye care outreach in some communities in Lagos. Kudos to NNPC! But it should extend its free eye care outreach to all other communities across the country so that every Nigerian could see the pump price clearly each time it is reviewed upward to increase our doses of T-Pain.

Dear President Tinubu, whether you like it or not, T-Pain will continue to gain widespread popularity. Not only that, numerous derivatives and inflections will be derived from it as long as Nigerians continue to be T-Pained by your T-Painful regime. You still have all the time to change the narrative. T-Pain can become T-Relieve, I hope so. It all depends on your policies and how they are prioritized and their philosophical underpinnings.

Dear fellow Nigerians, how are you coping with T-Pain? Feel free to share your experience.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen