₦airaland Forum

Hum

Conflict is a business, peace is a hobby
By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

War is a business, a multi billion business. Peace is a hobby, a none
lucrative hobby.
By nature, a profitable business venture attracts large patronage;
while the none lucrative one only gets few adherents. This is what is
playing out between conflict and peace

Major players in war and conflicts get direct or indirect benefits
from it. The benefits they derive could be monetary, rank, position,
fame, praise or other worldly things craved by man.

Peace builders on the other hand hardly make any direct or indirect
benefits from their peace pursuit. Very few peace personalities are
known and respected in the world.

War mongers are the heroes, whose stories are told over and over again
with so much glitz and fanfare. They are the conquerors and the
legends of this world. Stories of great Empire’s and Kingdom’s are the
stories of war and war mongers. These are people, who disdain peace so
much that whenever they hear about any peaceful kingdom in any parts
of the world, no matter how far away the Kingdom is located, nothing
gives them joy than the wish to invade such kingdom to disrupt its
peace and stability. They invade it without reason, causing so much
bloodshed, pain and sorrow.

It was as if they were born to covet bloodshed and destruction. But
these are the people we celebrate.

In our history books, it is those individuals, who inflict more
damages on humanity that are being celebrated. We call them all sorts
of beautiful names. While we all claim to abhor a world where might is
said to be right as practiced in those ancient periods, we still
relish the thought of being like those war heroes we had depicted as
gods in our history books.

We want to conquer and dominate like them. We want to reign over men
and wealth like them. We believe in ourselves, our ideals and we want
to force it on our fellow country people or even those across the
globe like them. And because of our quest to dominate and reign over
men and wealth, we find the accomplishment of these ancient war
mongers very interesting, motivating and a source of inspiration.

The peaceful leaders in ancient time are relegated and accorded no
space in our history; they are not talked about, nor remembered. They
are not worthy models for our kind of pursuit.

A world that is celebrating Achilles, the so called hero of Trojan War
and the central character of Homers Lliad, whose most notable feat
during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector cannot
claim to desire peace.

Where is the stories of those who are oppose to wars in that period?
To me, they are the real heroes.

A world that is celebrating Hercules, the son of Zeus who was branded
hero simply by killing a lot of people, including his own children,
cannot claim to love peace.

A world that has idolized Julius Caesar, a war general and cunning
politician, who became hero simply by being the first Roman general to
cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across
the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain.

Again, a world that has idolized Alexander, who spent most of his
ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign, while invading
cities after cities, leaving sorrow, tears and blood behind cannot
claim to be committed towards peace.

We cannot continue to celebrate war and war mongers and claim to be
yearning for peace.

By celebrating war mongers in our history books being taught to the
younger once, we are corrupting their minds and teaching them to covet
destruction in pursuit of their personal ambition. If we are
celebrating those who caused so much pain and agony in our history
books, those reading them want to be celebrated like them, hence the
seed of lack of peace.

To promote the culture of peace, we must, as a matter of necessity
take off history books that are celebrating war mongers from our
various shelf's. We must feed the younger once with positive images of
peace and project positive accomplishment through peacefulness.

We must transform peace from being a mere hobby, to a business that is
lucrative. Just like war, we must make peace attractive and lucrative
to dissuade people from trooping to the path of war and conflict.

Until we transform peace to a business, not a hobby, until we make it
attractive and profitable, until it is celebrated and compensated,
until we accord it the right time and attention, our chase for peace
may still remain further away.

Militants are being called to negotiating table, insurgents are being
called for dialogue, what are we doing to appease the peace loving
people who will never take to violence, yet with more valid reason to
be dissatisfied?

As we give the violent agitators attention and listening hears, what
is being done to the peaceful majority who continue to be law abiding?

1. Nobody should commend NASS for opening its budget

2. NASS would have been shutdown again, if Its budget wasn't opened in 2017 budget as promised.

3. Can i praise the National Assembly for Opening Nass budget as we have been campaigning for? No..They deserve nothing,but consistent scrutiny. N6.4Billion has been budgeted for cars again, after all the wasted billions in 2016.

4. Remember the #OccupyNass we slept at the National Assembly for 3 days.

5. Remember the #JumboPayForLawmakers We led the campaign

6. Remember the several advocacy and battles by various civil Society organizations....

7. Those who deserve praise and commendations are those active citizens, who refused to accept that they are helpless to change their country.

8. Active citizens are the real people that deserve the praise. But praise is nothing, we must continue to hold them accountable.

9. One of the promises during the several campaigns was the assurance that Nass Budget would be opened. We don't expect anything less. Should the budget be passed without an open Nass budget, the Assemble would have been shutdown once again.
10. Now that Open Nass is achieved, we must ensure TSA is adopted.
Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

The students, Messier Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat, a Masters Students in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution and Elais Ozikpu, a 400Level Student in Mass Communication who were then President and Public Relation Officers of the Congress of NOUN Students (CONS) respectively were expelled for daring to question the numerous irregularities in
the University and demanded an official recognition of a student union body in the institution.

The student leaders who also missed their graduation in January 2016 accused the University management of perpetrating what they described as endemic corruption.

The then Vice Chancellor, Prof Vincent Tenebe who sort to intimidate the student leaders wrote a petition against them to the Nigeria Police making several false allegations, but upon careful scrutiny by the Lagos State police, the allegations were found to be spurious, baseless and unfounded. The police then declared that the students
were merely fighting for students’ rights in a peaceful and matured way, which is legal.

Having failed to get the police to do a hook job and arrest the students, the University felt they should be silenced through other means. In November 2015, NOUN expelled both students in an effort to silence them and coerce other students into forceful submission.

The students preceded with their advocacy, submitting petitions to various agencies, including the office of the President, National Universities Commission (NUC), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Minister of Education among others until the former Vice Chancellor was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari in a dramatic way
3 months later.

Following their rustication, both students, along with their colleagues at the Congress of NOUN students (CONS) filed a Fundamental Human Rights suit In December 2015 with reference number: FHC/L/CS/1883/2015 at the Federal High Court Lagos to enforce their rights and that of other students.

From the beginning, it appeared NOUN has no defense for their action, neither did they file any. Instead, they employed all sorts of tactics to frustrate and delay the case.

For example, despite having enough time to respond to the service in line with rules of court, NOUN counsel, Nas Ogunshakin on the first day of hearing told the court that they were briefed about the case on the day, hence they couldn’t file any response. He requested for adjournment.

After several adjournments, all at the instance of NOUN counsels and deliberate absence from court without filing any response, the presiding Judge, Hon. Olatoregun Ishola on 17th February 2016 adjourned the case to April 13th, 2016 for judgment.

On the judgment day, the politics began. While NOUN students from across the federation had travelled down to Lagos to witness the judgment, Justice Olatoregun Ishola refused to give judgment, despite having all parties in court without any pending application.

She simply announced another 2 months adjournment without giving any reason. Even when the students counsel, Gabriel Orban try to inquire the reason for the adjournment since all parties are in court and are ready for the judgment, the judge threatened to send him to jail. The student went home disappointed.

Before the next adjournment date, NOUN counsel had devised other means of delaying the judgment. They brought an application to arrest the judgment, arguing that they were not given fair hearing.

This unknown application successfully dragged the matter for another 7 months until January 26th 2017, when the judge finally ruled in favor of the application to arrest judgement, granting a fine of N50, 000 against NOUN for delay.

The presiding judge, Justice Olatoregun Ishola while awarding the fine blamed NOUN counsels for the saga, which was brought about by their serial absence in court and refusal to file response in line with rules. She further adjourns the case to 9th March 2017.

The ruling to arrest judgment over claims of fair hearing is indeed another controversial one in the Nigerian legal system, which obviously attracted some wide condemning in the public. Observers in public discourse berated the judge for giving such ruling, accusing her of bias and compromise.

Meanwhile, in an effort to undo what they perceived as unfair ruling, the students counsel, Barrister Gabriel Orban filed an appeal to challenge the ruling of the court.

He sorts a leave of appeal from the court, but rather than grant the leave, Justice Olatoregun accused the students and their counsel of sponsoring public condemnation of her ruling, though she presented no evidence. Without allowing the students counsel to respond to the accusation, the judge announced her withdrawal from the case.

While the withdrawal itself was a welcome development, unknown to the students, Justice Olatoregun had set another stumbling block on their way.

It was expected that the case be reassigned to a new judge, but this didn’t happen. After waiting in vain for weeks, the registrar of the court was approached for inquiry.

It was at this point that the registrar informed them that the case cannot be reassigned by the registrar or even the Chief Judge because Justice Olatoregun had specifically indicated that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen should reassign the case and as such, nobody else can reassign it.

That was a strange development. Without wasting anytime, they wrote a letter to the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, through the Chief Judge of Lagos, but till date, the letter is yet to get any response, neither has the case been reassigned. It is therefore obvious that this case is more political and legal.

A Fundamental Human Rights case is usually expected to be concluded within 3 months or thereabout, but it’s almost one and half years and this case seem to be heading nowhere.

More importantly, Human Right cases involving high profile personalities which started after this case had long been concluded.

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki had gone from Federal High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court in an effort to stop his CCT trial within the same period. Colonel Sambo Dasuki had also secure judgment over Fundamental Human Rights, including another judgment at the Ecowas Court within the same period.

Additionally, Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaki had also secure judgment in his Fundamental Human Rights case against the Federal Government.

These are all high profile cases with more complications and complexity. However, these students matter which simple and straight had failed to make head way almost 1 and half years later.

Politics That Hold Expelled NOUN Student Leaders From Getting Justice One And Half Years Later
https://skytrendnews.com/2017/05/01/politics-hold-expelled-noun-student-leaders-getting-justice-one-half-years-later/

The nation was taken by storm in November 2015 when National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) under its former Vice Chancellor, Prof Vincent Ado Tenebe stir what Guardian Newspaper described as the Hornets nest by expelling two of its most vibrant student leaders.

Not quite a few observers thought that despite heading to court to challenge what many described as grave injustice, one and half years later, the matter will remain unresolved.

It was a surprise for me to hear last week that the students are yet to get justice.

The students, Messier Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat, a Masters Students in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution and Elais Ozikpu, a 400Level Student in Mass Communication who were then President and Public Relation Officers of the Congress of NOUN Students (CONS) respectively were expelled for daring to question the numerous irregularities in
the University and demanded an official recognition of a student union body in the institution.

The student leaders who also missed their graduation in January 2016 accused the University management of perpetrating what they described as endemic corruption.

The then Vice Chancellor, Prof Vincent Tenebe who sort to intimidate the student leaders wrote a petition against them to the Nigeria Police making several false allegations, but upon careful scrutiny by the Lagos State police, the allegations were found to be spurious, baseless and unfounded. The police then declared that the students
were merely fighting for students’ rights in a peaceful and matured way, which is legal.

Having failed to get the police to do a hook job and arrest the students, the University felt they should be silenced through other means. In November 2015, NOUN expelled both students in an effort to silence them and coerce other students into forceful submission.

The students preceded with their advocacy, submitting petitions to various agencies, including the office of the President, National Universities Commission (NUC), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Minister of Education among others until the former Vice Chancellor was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari in a dramatic way
3 months later.

Following their rustication, both students, along with their colleagues at the Congress of NOUN students (CONS) filed a Fundamental Human Rights suit In December 2015 with reference number: FHC/L/CS/1883/2015 at the Federal High Court Lagos to enforce their rights and that of other students.

From the beginning, it appeared NOUN has no defense for their action, neither did they file any. Instead, they employed all sorts of tactics to frustrate and delay the case.

For example, despite having enough time to respond to the service in line with rules of court, NOUN counsel, Nas Ogunshakin on the first day of hearing told the court that they were briefed about the case on the day, hence they couldn’t file any response. He requested for adjournment.

After several adjournments, all at the instance of NOUN counsels and deliberate absence from court without filing any response, the presiding Judge, Hon. Olatoregun Ishola on 17th February 2016 adjourned the case to April 13th, 2016 for judgment.

On the judgment day, the politics began. While NOUN students from across the federation had travelled down to Lagos to witness the judgment, Justice Olatoregun Ishola refused to give judgment, despite having all parties in court without any pending application.

She simply announced another 2 months adjournment without giving any reason. Even when the students counsel, Gabriel Orban try to inquire the reason for the adjournment since all parties are in court and are ready for the judgment, the judge threatened to send him to jail. The student went home disappointed.

Before the next adjournment date, NOUN counsel had devised other means of delaying the judgment. They brought an application to arrest the judgment, arguing that they were not given fair hearing.

This unknown application successfully dragged the matter for another 7 months until January 26th 2017, when the judge finally ruled in favor of the application to arrest judgement, granting a fine of N50, 000 against NOUN for delay.

The presiding judge, Justice Olatoregun Ishola while awarding the fine blamed NOUN counsels for the saga, which was brought about by their serial absence in court and refusal to file response in line with rules. She further adjourns the case to 9th March 2017.

The ruling to arrest judgment over claims of fair hearing is indeed another controversial one in the Nigerian legal system, which obviously attracted some wide condemning in the public. Observers in public discourse berated the judge for giving such ruling, accusing her of bias and compromise.

Meanwhile, in an effort to undo what they perceived as unfair ruling, the students counsel, Barrister Gabriel Orban filed an appeal to challenge the ruling of the court.

He sorts a leave of appeal from the court, but rather than grant the leave, Justice Olatoregun accused the students and their counsel of sponsoring public condemnation of her ruling, though she presented no evidence. Without allowing the students counsel to respond to the accusation, the judge announced her withdrawal from the case.

While the withdrawal itself was a welcome development, unknown to the students, Justice Olatoregun had set another stumbling block on their way.

It was expected that the case be reassigned to a new judge, but this didn’t happen. After waiting in vain for weeks, the registrar of the court was approached for inquiry.

It was at this point that the registrar informed them that the case cannot be reassigned by the registrar or even the Chief Judge because Justice Olatoregun had specifically indicated that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen should reassign the case and as such, nobody else can reassign it.

That was a strange development. Without wasting anytime, they wrote a letter to the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, through the Chief Judge of Lagos, but till date, the letter is yet to get any response, neither has the case been reassigned. It is therefore obvious that this case is more political and legal.

A Fundamental Human Rights case is usually expected to be concluded within 3 months or thereabout, but it’s almost one and half years and this case seem to be heading nowhere.

More importantly, Human Right cases involving high profile personalities which started after this case had long been concluded.

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki had gone from Federal High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court in an effort to stop his CCT trial within the same period. Colonel Sambo Dasuki had also secure judgment over Fundamental Human Rights, including another judgment at the Ecowas Court within the same period.

Additionally, Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaki had also secure judgment in his Fundamental Human Rights case against the Federal Government.

These are all high profile cases with more complications and complexity. However, these students matter which simple and straight had failed to make head way almost 1 and half years later.

Politics That Hold Expelled NOUN Student Leaders From Getting Justice One And Half Years Later
https://skytrendnews.com/2017/05/01/politics-hold-expelled-noun-student-leaders-getting-justice-one-half-years-later/

The nation was taken by storm in November 2015 when National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) under its former Vice Chancellor, Prof Vincent Ado Tenebe stir what Guardian Newspaper described as the Hornets nest by expelling two of its most vibrant student leaders.

Not quite a few observers thought that despite heading to court to challenge what many described as grave injustice, one and half years later, the matter will remain unresolved.

It was a surprise for me to hear last week that the students are yet to get justice.

More action photos

Lol

Lol

She recently won the best Referee in Nigeria for 2017

Flying the flag of Nigeria. Meet the minister of sport and youth and participated in a movie

She represented Nigeria and won award at an international Taekwando event

More pictures

Thursdaline Peter, is the CEO of body dynamics, and a taekwondo instructor with the Pan Africa Martial Arts international (PANAMAI). She recently won the best Takwando Referee in Nigeria.

Peter said in Lagos that if the rules guiding the sport were diligently applied, no harm would befall the athletes, irrespective of their gender.

She added that the provision of protective guards during training and competitions had drastically reduced the incidence of injuries in the sport.

The instructor stressed that the shin, chest, groin, head, breast, foot guards and hand gloves, were fundamental equipment to make the sport safe for the athletes.

``The impression that taekwondo is too dangerous for women is not right, because it has regulations guiding its practise. We also make sure that athletes are thoroughly acquainted with the rules during their training sessions.

``All sports have their own areas of risk, however, we try to reduce the danger by ensuring that athletes adhere strictly to the rules during any form of encounter,’’ she said.

According to her, an athlete is not expected to hit or kick an opponent who is already on the mat, stressing that the fight would be put on hold by the referee.

``Such situation is inevitable during competitions, so what the referee does immediately is to stop the fight for a while, so that the incapacitated athlete could recuperate,’’ she added.

Peter urged budding female taekwondoists to make a career in the sport and disregard such unfounded and negative assumptions about the sport.

She stressed that taekwondo was good for self defence, in addition to the attendant benefits that could be derived from the sport. (NAN)

Thursdaline Peter, is the CEO of body dynamics, and a taekwondo instructor with the Pan Africa Martial Arts international (PANAMAI). She recently won the best Takwando Referee in Nigeria.

Peter said in Lagos that if the rules guiding the sport were diligently applied, no harm would befall the athletes, irrespective of their gender.

She added that the provision of protective guards during training and competitions had drastically reduced the incidence of injuries in the sport.

The instructor stressed that the shin, chest, groin, head, breast, foot guards and hand gloves, were fundamental equipment to make the sport safe for the athletes.

``The impression that taekwondo is too dangerous for women is not right, because it has regulations guiding its practise. We also make sure that athletes are thoroughly acquainted with the rules during their training sessions.

``All sports have their own areas of risk, however, we try to reduce the danger by ensuring that athletes adhere strictly to the rules during any form of encounter,’’ she said.

According to her, an athlete is not expected to hit or kick an opponent who is already on the mat, stressing that the fight would be put on hold by the referee.

``Such situation is inevitable during competitions, so what the referee does immediately is to stop the fight for a while, so that the incapacitated athlete could recuperate,’’ she added.

Peter urged budding female taekwondoists to make a career in the sport and disregard such unfounded and negative assumptions about the sport.

She stressed that taekwondo was good for self defence, in addition to the attendant benefits that could be derived from the sport. (NAN)

I mean when it's being played by foreigners

Have you ever heard a Nigerian music being played abroad? Share the experience and your reaction. #MadeinNaija

Have you ever heard a Nigerian music being played abroad? Share the experience and your reaction. #MadeinNaija

hum

Between native Doctor, Medical doctor and an Academic doctor, who is the real doctor? Tell us why.

Foundation For Peace Professionals visited southern Kaduna for fact finding mission to unravel the cause of the #SadStory from that part of the country. Alot of revelations were made, part of which is the Untold story of Southern Kaduna Fulani settlers. The only story of the southern Kaduna crisis being told in the media were mostly against the fulani's, but many fail to understand that there is different between the fulani settlers and the so called fulani herdsmen killing people. Fulani settlers and fulani herdsmen are two unrelated groups we must separate in our public discuss to avoid the error of generalization. The chief of Kagoro town, head of the none fulani community in Kafanchan, Southern Kaduna made it clear that the fulani herdsmen are not the same with their fulani neighbors, whom they have been living together for years. According to him, those killing their people are different fulani's that they don't know. He added further that, they do not have any disagreement with their immediate fulani neighbors to justify the claims that they were the ones who invited the unknown fulani herdsmen to attack and kill people and even till this present moment, nobody can clearly say this is what led to the attack. Additionally, unknown to many, the fulani settlers too are victim of herdsmen crisis, though not close to the magnitude of the none fulani 's. In our fact finding trip to Southern Kaduna, we were informed of alot happenings not discussed in the media. For example, do you know that these fulani herdsmen do kidnap fulani settlers for ransom? Do you also know that many fulani settlers have died trying to save some of their none fulani friends and neighbors? Something is really happening beyond the ordinary. There are certain conspiracies about these herdsmen issue, but no one is trying to unravel it. We are all focusing on half truth instead of working together to get to the root of the matter. I believe that engaging the fulani community fairly and sincerely will go a long way in helping us to the truth about the matter. On our part, Foundation For Peace Professionals shall try it's best to unravel the truth behind the issue. The fact finding mission continues

Media trial! What media trial? For some time now, people whose acts of corruption are exposed by the anti graft agencies hide under the new claims of media trial to explain their corruption. Their friends and blind followers who also have no concrete explanation to defend their culpability find solace in hiding behind claims of media trial. This has put me in thinking mode for some time and I begin to ask myself, what is media trial? Which trial can be aptly described as media trial? In build up to 2015 election, something which explains media trial actually happened. The then ruling PDP engage in what can perfectly be described as media trial. The PDP govt assembled some imaginary allegations against Bola Tinubu. They approached the media for trial and it was launched by AIT. Despite being the ruling govt, none of the imaginary allegations against Tinubu was taken up by any anti graft agencies. The govt was not interested in justice, they didn't arraign Tinubu in any court, as there was nothing to prosecute Tinubu for. All they wanted was to try Tinubu with media for electoral purpose. This is a perfect example of what is called media trial. A trial, in which no case was filed in court to prosecute the allegation. However, when allegations are raised by the appropriate agencies, and the allegations went beyond allegations to become a case filed in court for the purpose of prosecution, this is a perfect case of corruption trial, that has no resemblance whatsoever with media trial. The fact that media went to court to get details of the matter and reported such doesn't make the matter a media trial. All cases already in court, all ongoing prosecution by relevant agencies are far away from media trial and all those claiming it is should reevaluate themselves. If we want to talk about media trial, we should be talking about the disgraceful conduct of the past administration which approach media rather than court for the trial of Tinubu and others. What this govt is doing is fight against corruption. They may have lost some court cases, but they have won many others. Be guided and let reason speak.

Hum

What the constitution says about Saraki and others

Section 66 of the 1999 Constitution says:

''A person shall be unworthy to make laws for the country, if he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud’’.

The constitution didn't say until a person has been convicted, it says, ''A person shall be unworthy to make laws for the country, if he has been indicted;;

Based on this constitutional provisions, it is instructive to say that the Senate President and the more than 15 other Ex Governors at the senate that had been indicted for fraud and corruption have no business at the National Assembly.

We must then ask, why are these indicted senators still making laws and presiding over our legislative Assembly against the constitutional dictate?

Why is the President and other appropriate agencies not doing their jobs of enforcing the constitution they swore to uphold?