₦airaland Forum

Re: Buhari, Gerontocracy, and Early Missteps – A Rejoinder To Jaafar Jaafar

By Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Dear brother Jaafar, I read your article with the above title on Premium Times. In it you did a yeoman's job of giving a glowing account of how meritoriously Ahmed Joda has served this country from pre-colonial days till date, yet you summed up by suggesting that he is not fit to chair the transition committee of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, merely on account of his age. You, wittingly or unwittingly, arrogated superiority to the young over the old without giving any sound reason.

You are a young man, as you proudly adduced to, but your write-up seems to have passed a vote-of-no-confidence on your old age which is yet to come. I say this, not to spite you, but to instill in your consciousness the gravity of writing-off people merely because they are above your age bracket. While we condemn South Africa for xenophobia, you deserve to be roundly condemned for “geronphobia”. Your article suggests to me that you have something else against Ahmed Joda other than his age. But on the contrary, if the only problem you have with him is his age, then the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka and Emeka Anyaoku, who have also crossed the 80 mark and are still very relevant and useful to our nation, must be written-off, judging by your standard – except you are a man of double standards.

The cerebral faculties of the intellectuals work better with age. The likes of Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur were useful to themselves, their immediate societies, and the entire world up till the last minutes of their lives. So I see no crime in tapping from the wealth of knowledge and experience of our aged compatriots until they seize to exist. Moreover, there is no reputable company in the world today that does not make working experience a requirement for recruitment or at least an added advantage. The more the knowledge and experience, the better the chances of a candidate in any job recruitment process. Retirement is not the same thing as tiredness. One can be retired from active service and still render invaluable services to his people. We must not deny anyone the opportunity to contribute to our national growth and development, no matter how old or young. Mind you, if you go through the list of persons who almost ground Nigeria to a halt under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, you would not find a single old person among them.

Besides, as you would readily agree in your write-up, a mere transition committee does not constitute a government. The job of the transition committee, which is expected to last only a few weeks, will definitely not be as tasking and exerting as a full-fledged government that is expected to last a minimum of four years, working round the clock to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians who have borne hardship and underdevelopment for too long.

As for the membership of the Buhari Transition Committee, in all honesty, it is a fair blend of the old, the youthful, the technocrats, and the politicians. There is absolutely no cause for alarm over it.

On the list, apart from the Chairman, Ahmed Joda, a one-time Federal Permanent Secretary, Ex-Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), and Ex-Vice Chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC., there is Dr. Doyin Salami who serves as the committee's Vice-Chairman. Dr. Doyin Salami is a full-time member of the Lagos Business School (LBS), Associate Professor at Pan-Atlantic University, and Principal Consultant in Edward Kingston Associates. His consulting activities have included assignments for the Department for International Development (DFID), World Bank, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Secretary of the committee is Malam Adamu Adamu, a veteran and prolific pen warrior of over two decades standing, renowned public analyst and columnist with Daily Trust Newspaper, and a public commentator with a distinct style, fearless, educated and bold enough to express his views and opinions both locally and internationally.

Another brilliant star in the committee is Mrs. Bola Adesola, MD/CEO of Nigeria’s Standard Chartered Bank Plc, a former Executive Director, Corporate Banking, at First Bank of Nigeria Plc., and a seasoned financial services expert. Mrs. Adesola had been Managing Director/Chief Executive of Kakawa Discount House Limited, a company she successfully repositioned from an essentially mono-product profile into a multi-product enterprise. She spent nine years in Citibank Nigeria, and was also part of the start-up team for Citibank, Tanzania, Dar-es Salaam, where she served as pioneer Treasurer.

Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985, Bola holds a law degree from the University of Buckingham, UK and has attended numerous industry-related and personal development courses in Nigeria and overseas. She is also an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Nigeria.

This is just a cursory attempt to give a miniature profile of some of the members of the Buhari Transition Committee, in order to dispel the unwarranted pessimism raised by your write-up. We asked for change. Let's be optimistic about it.

God bless Nigeria!

 

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com

Please follow me on twitter @Sahaabah01

IN RESPONSE TO ASARI DOKUBO'S CALL TO ARMS

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
 
I do not like responding to Asari Dokubo's frequent unguarded rants and vituperations for the mere fact that silence is the best answer given to a fool. However, his recent call to arms in a meeting of some so-called ex-militants in Bayelsa is one that should be given a response, since the appropriate authorities (DSS, NPF, etc) have failed to respond. By the way, in Nigeria, under President Jonathan, an ex-militant is more honoured, revered, and dreaded than an ex-soldier.

In the beginning, President Jonathan's supporters tried to play the religious card by branding General Muhammadu Buhari a bigot but it didn't sell. They tried to write him off in the eyes of Nigerians on account of his age... that failed too. Next was his educational qualification. They embarked on a fruitless effort to discredit the APC presidential candidate by alleging that the retired General of the Nigerian army who once headed the Supreme Military Council does not possess a Leaving School Certificate. They made so much hue and cry over Buhari's certificate issue that one would think they had forgotten the road to the court. That effort also failed.

Alas, after exhausting all tactics and antics available to them to sway public opinion against Buhari, the supporters of Goodluck Jonathan, are now openly threatening violence should their man loose out in the February 14 presidential election, whether or not the entire electoral process is free, fair and credible. In other words, their own shallow understanding of democracy is that everyone "must" vote for Goodluck Jonathan, despite the fact that his failure in all ramifications of governance is unparalleled in the history of Nigeria.

There are a few issues I like to underscore from this evil declaration.

Firstly, where is Marilyn Ogar, the spokeswoman of the PDP... sorry, DSS? Only a few days after the Abuja peace accord, and some disgruntled individuals headed by an orangutan called Asari Dokubo are already threatening war should their candidate loose out in the election, and the security agencies in the country are not paying any attention to it. If the Abuja peace accord, which had the buy-in of the National Security Adviser and the Commander-In-Chief himself, was anything to go by, one would have expected that Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Boyloaf, and the other empty vessels who are part of that infamous Yenagoa declaration should by now be in the custody of security agencies writing statements, at the least. Indeed, one would have expected the operatives of the DSS to swing into action with the same level of swiftness with which they invaded the APC data office in Lagos.

Secondly, this early and unwarranted threat of war is a clear indication that Goodluck Jonathan and his supporters have conceded defeat even before the day of the election. Otherwise, if they were confident of victory, there would have been absolutely no need gathering in that coven where they issued that call to arms. My advice for them is that they should not forget they have consented to an amnesty deal. Therefore any resort to arms ever again would mean that they would be exterminated like flies by government security forces and heaven will not fall. It is a deal they willingly agreed to, and they just cannot eat their cake and have it.

Thirdly and finally, I like to urge my fellow Nigerians who earnestly yearn for change not to be intimidated by these opportunistic ethnic jingoists, but to take them for who they truly are: empty vessels known for making the loudest noise.

Goodluck Jonathan has been given a fair opportunity to serve at the highest level in this country, and he bungled it. He made a barrage of promises during his 2011 campaigns. And now in 2015, four years after, instead of giving us an account of his stewardship by telling us how much of his promises he has been able to fulfill so that we can on that basis assess his performance and decide whether to retain him for another four years or kick him out, he is busy going round the country making a fresh set of promises, most of which are clearly unrealistic (like creating two million jobs per annum for the next four years if re-elected, when he couldn't create that amount of jobs for the entire six years he has been at the head of government).

God-willing, elections will hold as scheduled by INEC, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will be beaten black and blue in a fair contest, and the only redeeming path that will be left for him to take will be to congratulate the winner, General Muhammadu Buhari.

If Asari and his co-miscreants try anything stupid, they will be effectively shackled and caged, even to the delight and relief of their own kinsmen whom they have been brutally lording over.

Asari has been thrown into prison before by President Obasanjo. But for the magnanimity of President Yar’Adua of blessed memory, he probably would have expired there. I am as much a South-Southernern and a Niger-Deltan like him and his fellows. I hail from Edo State, and I was born and raised in Warri, Delta State. I make bold to say that change in Nigeria is not only possible, but inevitable! No amount of threat can stop us from achieving it, not even from Asari Dokubo multiplied by a thousand and all the Niger-Delta criminals benefitting from illicit contracts from the inept Jonathan-led government put together.

I reiterate, come FeBUHARI 14th, Goodluck Jonathan will be defeated by the ballots, and not even the bullets will be able to save him.

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com

saharareporters.com/2015/01/24/response-asari-dokubo’s-call-arms-abu-bilaal-abdulrazaq-bn-bello-bn-oare

THE SENSELESS EVASION OF THE NIGERIA EQUATION

By Abu Bialaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

The woes and throes of collapse that befall our nation are no longer news. Nigerians, and, indeed, those who follow up the Nigerian story, are used to hearing news of monies looted from the public treasury in billions (and most recently trillions, like in the case of the fuel subsidy thieves); scores of people dying in avoidable road accidents on a daily basis; high profile criminals who should be rightly escorted to the gallows to face the hangman getting ridiculous sentences with options of fine (while a petty thief gets a death sentence in Delta State for stealing car stereo); trigger-happy policemen taking the lives of bona fide citizens for refusing to part with N20 bribe; and whatnot. All of these, and many more which will make even the devil shudder, have left Nigerians yearning for change. I quite agree with May Akabogu-Collins, a visiting Professor of Economics at the American Business School in Paris, when she says that a Nigerian spring is long overdue.

In truth, many people have become disenchanted with the Nigeria project, as no good seems to come out of it. However, the quest for change in results without a commensurate change in the way of doing things is at best a beggar’s wish. That is to say, doing the same things over and over will only produce the same results over and over. This is because, as Dr. Yusuf Qardhawi, the great scholar and theologian puts it, corrupt realities cannot be changed by immature strategies based only upon good wishes and intentions.

In finding the solution to a problem, I used to think that the starting point is to actually know the problem itself. But that seems not to be the case with Nigeria. In our peculiar case, the problem is well known, even to the ordinary man in the street. And at more scholarly levels, you find people, both in formal and informal gatherings, discussing the problem like it is the course they studied in the university. But the unfortunate irony is that, in our case, the more we know the problem the more elusive the solution seems. More so, those who know the problem too well are usually a part of it or are mostly the ones involved in perpetuating it. If you ask an average Nigerian what the country’s problem is, he most probably will tell you: corruption! – referring to economic and financial crimes. However, that person who is quick to point at corruption as the bane of our country is also, in most cases, involved in one form of corruption or another.
For example, it is easy to find a university lecturer accusing those at the helms of affairs of the country of financial recklessness, whereas he is full-time into trade by batter with his female students, exchanging sex for grades. Perhaps, a clearer example is that of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti who was foremost in criticizing the government of the day, especially with regards to financial probity and corrupt use of power for selfish ends, but who was himself involved in corrupting the youths (males and females) of our country in his kalakuta Republic where he promoted moral depravity, turning them into sexual perverts and drug addicts. It becomes a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

Well, like I have aptly pointed out, our problem is not ignorance of the challenges confronting us as a nation and as a people, but the lack of will and passion to do things differently in order to effect positive, developmental and progressive change at the various spheres of our society. We believe in sitting back and waiting for a Messiah to descend from the skies to turn things around for us. But manna and quails no longer fall from heaven. We must all emancipate ourselves from our conservative ways of doing things and adopt progressive alternatives, reorient our mentalities, and imbibe some appreciable level of moral uprightness, self-discipline and honesty, before we can start seeing things turn around for the better. Building a strong and ideal society means everyone must play a role.

It is a truism that when a fish is getting rotten it starts from the head. That means if we must get it right with regards to building the kind of country and society we much desire, then, in addition to refining our ways, we must get the best of us to superintend over us at all levels of leadership. But how do we expect to undermine the unimpressive antecedents of our choices of leaders, turn a blind eye to the fraudulent process that bring them to power, and yet expect them to transform into award winning leaders overnight?

For instance, we had a Goodluck Jonathan who was a deputy governor and later governor of a small but rich state like Bayelsa, with no more than eight Local Government Areas, and with an estimated GDP of $4.34 billion and a per capita income of $2,484 as at the time he was there, whereas a state like Jigawa, at that same time, had twenty-seven Local Government Areas with an estimated GDP of $2.99 billion and a per capita income of $673. Yet, at the end of his stint at the Bayelsa Government House, his performance could best be described as dismal and lacklustre. This same man vied for the highest office in the country and whipped up sympathy from Nigerians with the story of his shoeless childhood and the unfortunate “it is our turn” propaganda. At the end of the day, he was imposed on the country as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces by the ruling political cult, and Nigerians yet expected him to perform signs and wonders, not by his competence, capability, or antecedence, but by merely been christened “Goodluck”! Come to think of it: how can a man who could not perform in a state with only eight Local Government Areas, and with as much resources as was at his disposal, suddenly transmogrify into a Messiah of sorts in a country of seven hundred and seventy-four Local Government Areas? It just does not add up.

Therefore, fellow countrymen, as the next round of general elections for change of leadership in 2015 fast approaches, and as experience has shown us that those who ascend the mantle of leadership by mere happenstance and primordial sentiments usually “don’t give a damn”, but rather turn out to be opportunists who see power only as a means for gratifying their rapacious appetite for wealth to make-up for their years of shoelessness and misfortune, we must learn and commit to elect leaders based on their credibility, strength of character and proven track record. We cannot continue to evade the realities on ground and expect our “luck” to shine and just wake up one morning to see our country metamorphose into an abode of utopia and euphoria. In the words of Plato, the renowned philosopher and mathematician, “the city is what it is because our citizens are what they are”.


Abu Bialaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
sahaabah@aol.com

2015: Anatomy of Nigeria’s Top Three Presidential Candidates

Adapted from Episode 142 of keeping It Real With Adeola Fayehun

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

The 2015 Nigerian presidential election is almost at hand. Although, there are quite a number of candidates vying for the exalted office of the president, three of them for obvious reasons stand out as the topmost contenders – Atiku Abubakar, General Muhammadu Buhari, and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. This essay is aimed at x-raying their résumés in order to guide the Nigerian electorate to make informed choices before casting their votes come February 2015, God-willing.

This is not about endorsing any of the candidates. It’s about making sure that we don’t vote for just anybody this time around merely on ethno-religious sentiments, but based on the candidate’s impressive credentials. So let’s get down to business.

Atiku Abubakar (Age: 67)

Meet Atiku Abubakar, former Vice-President for 8 years, and one of the key founders of PDP which is now the biggest political party in Africa.  Atiku was instrumental to the rise of Olusegun Obasanjo from prison to presidency.

As a Vice President, Atiku introduced a number of initiatives such as the National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP), and was a part of the formation of the Universal Basic Education program (UBE). He is also credited for organizing an Industrial Roundtable during his time as VP.

Atiku advocated for the revival of education in Northern Nigeria, he founded the America University of Nigeria, and very recently he gave scholarship to 15 of the Chibok girls that escaped from captivity to study at the university.

Both Atiku Abubakar and General Muhammadu Buhari are of the All Progressives Congress (APC), therefore only one of them will emerge as the party’s candidate for the general elections.

Now let’s talk about the other side of Atiku. There are more than a dozen cases of corruption against him, even though he has consistently denied all, claiming they were all politically motivated by OBJ – his former boss – through the EFCC. Some of the charges, however, include embezzlement of public funds as well as money laundry. He and one of his wives, Jennifer Douglas Atiku, were accused of laundering more than 40 million dollars to the US. He was also accused of diverting about 125 million dollars of public fund into his private project, and another 6 million dollars from the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund that was directly under his supervision into a company in Louisa, Kentucky. As a matter of fact, the US congress man that was involved in that case was sentenced to 33 years in prison and is still there serving out his jail term.

Furthermore, there are allegations that Atiku received more than 4.6 million dollars in bribe from the German company, Siemens. The FBI raided his house in Maryland, and his wife fled to Nigeria. Atiku has a 1 million dollar house in Potomac, Maryland which he abandoned since the issue of his corruption came up in the US.

General Muhammadu Buhari (Age: 71)

Buhari took over power from Shagari in a military intervention on December 31st of 1983 and he was in office for less than two years. Before then, Shagari's administration was known for extreme corruption, waste of resources, mismanagement and lack of sanitation. Under President Shehu Shagari, Nigeria was bedeviled with religious and political violence.

Here are some of the good things Buhari did in the past. He and his Chief of Staff, Tunde Idiagbon, arrested and imprisoned many corrupt politicians, including ministers, numbering into hundreds. Everybody that had questionable wealth at that time became afraid to show it off because Buhari’s administration had zero tolerance for corruption.

Buhari launched the famous War Against Indiscipline (WAI) which forcefully instilled discipline in Nigerians. It became a crime at that time to rush into buses. People were forced to queue up in banks and market places, and Nigerians became orderly. Everybody was treated on first come, first serve basis, and not a matter of who you know. Everyone obeyed traffic laws, students were forbidden from cheating, sellers were prevented from arbitrarily raising the prices of commodities in order to exploit the masses and make quick gains, showing up late in the office was no longer accepted, and neglecting ones children was a punishable offence. He also introduced the famous Environmental Sanitation throughout the country.

General Buhari paid up all our debts during his regime, and inflation rate came down from 23% to 5%. The naira became so strong at that time, and drug trafficking became minimal, as it was an offence punishable by execution.

Before becoming the Head of State, Buhari was the Petroleum Minister under President Obasanjo from 1976 to 1978. He was also the head of the NNPC when it was first created. At that time, he built three oil refineries – one each in Port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna – and Nigeria was refining her own oil. Nigeria was also exporting refined product at that time.

In addition, Buhari masterminded the construction of 20 oil depots and laid over 2300km of pipeline throughout Nigeria.

Under General Sani Abacha, Buhari was appointed as Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), controlling billions of dollars. To his credit, the PTF was managed with transparency. It published its annual report on time and addressed regular press conferences. The PTF rehabilitated our mass transit system and constructed roads all across Nigeria. In fact, in the four years that Buhari was in charge, the PTF constructed more roads than the Nigerian government had constructed in the last 15 years. The PTF under Buhari also supplied text books and other learning materials to students nationwide, and they provided drugs for hospitals. Buhari was actually the one who discovered the late Professor Dora Akunyili and nominated her for her position in NAFDAC.

General Buhari was the first Head of State or President to put women in cabinet. He has one house in Kaduna and one in his home town (Daura, Kastina State), and does not have any house or land in Abuja, Lagos or anywhere else. When he was sponsored abroad for military training by the Nigerian government, he remitted the remnants of his stipends on his return to Nigeria. He is the only Nigerian former Head of State/President with no foreign bank account or assets abroad. In spite of the exalted public offices he has held, Buhari has no filling station, let alone an oil rig, and he currently lives on pension. As a matter of fact, he wasn't getting paid when he worked as the head of the PTF because he was already getting his pension at that time – so he refused to collect any pay. Despite the fact that various tribunals were set up by OBJ and IBB to investigate him, General Buhari has never been found guilty of embezzling a kobo of public fund.

Lastly, when Buhari was the Head of State, he stood up against Western interference. The IMF and the World Bank pressured him to devalue the naira because it had risen really strong (about N1 to $2), but he refused and focused on paying off the existing debt. In fact, Nigerians could spend naira when they went outside the shores of the country. Consequently, the IMF and the World Bank cut off Nigeria from the World Trade Organization (WTO), and General Buhari resorted to trade by barter – exchanging oil for goods from Brazil, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, and any country that would trade with Nigeria. The Western interests were actually the ones that sponsored IBB to overthrow Buhari and cause him to do their bidding of devaluing the naira. Babangida readily cooperated because Buhari was about to send him parking at that time for allegedly been involved in some drug-related issues.

Now let's take a look at some not so good things about Buhari. When he was jailing corrupt officers, some innocent people were affected, even though they were later released. Many people were thrown in prison before they were proven guilty or otherwise. Also, Buhari’s government sentenced some drug dealers to death and a lot of people found that as extreme. He hired an Israeli to kidnap Umaru Diko, one of the most corrupt officials during Shehu Shagari's regime, who escaped to the UK when Buhari took over power, and attempted to smuggle him back to Nigeria. Also, under what was known as Decree 4, Buhari announced that any journalist that wrote articles that he could not back up with evidence would be jailed, and he actually jailed some journalists for about four months.

Buhari stopped the Lagos railway construction, insisting that Nigeria was borrowing money to do the construction and he needed to stop all the borrowings and think about how to pay-off the existing debts first. He is accused of concentrating most of the road constructions during his time in the PTF in the north. And he is perceived by many as too strict and rigid.

There are speculations by many Christians that Buhari is a Muslim fanatic and his sole aim is to Islamize Nigeria. This is an obvious misconception because Babangida was actually the one who enrolled Nigeria as a member of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference). When Buhari was the Head of State, religion was never an issue. Not a single religious violence was recorded in Nigeria during his regime, even though he and his deputy at that time were both Muslims. No chance would have been more ample than that if he actually wanted to Islamize Nigeria. Buhari had a Pastor in 2011 (Tunde Bakare) as his running mate, and his cook and personal driver of 10 years are both Christians.

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (Age: 56)

Jonathan has been a Deputy Governor, a Governor, a Vice President, an Acting President, and a President. He’s been in power for almost 6 years now, having served out the remaining two years of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and now about to complete his fourth year in office after his swearing in as President on 29th May, 2011.

Some of the good things Jonathan did in the last six years include repainting of several airports, provision of air-conditioned trains in Lagos as well as light rail in Abuja, construction of railways to link cities and states, and fixing of Benin-Ore express road.

Also, Jonathan privatized electricity generation and distribution, and he sent some Nigerian students abroad to study on government scholarship. He claims to have created a million jobs and reduced poverty by 50%. Unfortunately, both claims remain spurious and unverified. No one has really seen where those jobs are, and there is no substantial evidence that he actually reduced poverty by anything above 5%.

With Jonathan’s agricultural transformation, Nigeria’s food import bill has reduced from about $7bn to $4.3bn annually, he set aside 50 billion naira for agriculture mechanization, and Nigeria now has Africa’s largest rice mill.

Lastly, Jonathan’s Government announced that they have reached a ceasefire with Boko Haram, and promised that the abducted Chibok girls were on their way back to reunite with their families. Unfortunately, though, the unilateral announcement soon turned out to be an April fool’s joke.

Now let’s peruse some not so good things about GEJ’s résumé. He has shown quite an unbeatable tolerance for corruption, which has been the second biggest challenge of his administration, after Boko Haram. Not a single public office holder has been successfully prosecuted since Jonathan became president. On the contrary, a lot of evidently corrupt people are actually been celebrated under his watch. For example, former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, allegedly spent 2.5 million dollars on bullet-proof cars. She was eased out of office four months after but was never prosecuted. Instead, she was honoured with a chieftaincy title in her home town, and she is currently vying for a seat in the Senate under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party. Likewise, “Honourable” Faruk Lawan and Femi Otedola got away with $600,000 bribe scandal despite audio and video evidences. And those who embezzled the police pension fund amounting to billions of naira are still enjoying their loot. Only one of them, John Yusuf, was given a two-year jail sentence with an option of fine in the sum of N750,000, in what seemed more like a pat on the back after conniving with others to defraud the pension office of N27.2bn. The main suspect in the scandal, Abdulrasheed Maina, is still at large and no one seems to be on his trail.

President GEJ pardoned DSP Alamieseigha, the former governor of Bayelsa State who was convicted for stealing millions of dollars of tax payer’s money, and he sacked the former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for blowing the whistle over the missing $20bn from the federation account, which the government explained away as "only" $10bn used for kerosene subsidy.

Jonathan is the first Nigerian president to own up to ten presidential jets. He has so far refused to make a public declaration of his assets in the spirit of transparency and accountability as exemplified by his predecessor, Umar Yar'adua. In fact, he publicly proclaimed on national television that he doesn't give a damn about asset declaration.

Under the watchful eyes of President Jonathan as Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces, Boko Haram has killed more than 13,000 Nigerians and displaced over 3 million. And more than 200 girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, North-East Nigeria, and have remained in captivity for about 6 months and still counting.

Nigeria has borrowed about 10 billion dollars since Jonathan became president – from China and others – and he is the first Nigerian president to budget a billion naira for food alone in the presidential villa, whereas 75% of our graduates are unemployed. Jonathan removed oil subsidy, hiking the price of PMS overnight by more than 200%, which caused a national protest in January, 2012. His petroleum minister, Alison Madueke, has been fingered in several probes and accused of diverting oil wealth for her personal use and for renting private jets. President Jonathan is yet to do anything about her.

Before becoming the president, GEJ diverted 1 million dollars from Bayelsa’s poverty alleviation fund into entertainment, using it to pay the famous American singer, Beyonce, when she performed in his home state.

President Jonathan publicly endorsed “stomach infrastructure”, a new parlance in Nigeria which is used to refer to sharing rice and kerosene to the impoverished masses in order to buy their votes during elections.

Finally, under President Jonathan, a number of journalists have been summoned, harassed, and even arrested by the SSS.

This is the summary of the three main candidates applying for the number one job in Nigeria. By their records, we shall sort them out and decide who gets the job.

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com

2015: ON BUHARI/FASHOLA WE STAND

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

The formal declaration of General Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 presidential contest on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) no doubt electrified the Nigerian polity in general and sent shock waves down the spine of the presidency in particular.

The size and calibre of people that thronged the Eagles Square venue of the declaration was a clear pointer that GMB is most likely to clinch the party's ticket ahead of the other aspirants, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

With that permutation, expectedly, attentions shifted swiftly to who may likely emerge the General's running mate for the main elections come 2015. Most public commentators, intellectuals, and writers/columnists (including Chido Onumah and Godwin Onyeacholem) have been clamouring for a presidential ticket that will feature General Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State for the opposition APC. And to counter this clamour, there has been a sponsored hue and cry to kill that dream before it is hatched, on the basis of both candidates been of the same religious persuasion. The chief sponsors of this outrage are from the ruling political class, and politicians are hardly known for pursuing the interest of the masses. Their doctrine is: No permanent friend, no permanent enemy, only permanent selfish interests! That is to say, their outrage is not in the interest of the people as they try to feign, but in the interest of their personal political survival and relevance.

This is their calculation:

General Muhammadu Buhari enjoys a large followership which no other Nigerian politician living can boast of. On his name, under a newly formed political party that couldn't even garner enough resources to pay party agents round the country, and without any form of financial inducement (as showcased by the sharers of rice and kerosene in Osun and Ekiti), he polled a whopping 12.2 million votes in the 2011 presidential election. Even in states where PDP held sway (like Katsina, Bauchi, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Adamawa) Buhari overwhelmingly trounced Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate, who was the sitting president and had every instrumentality of the State and the national treasury at his disposal.

Therefore should Buhari be paired with a running mate of the calibre of Babatunde Raji Fashola, who symbolizes hardwork, intellect, and development, and whose name has become the S.I. Unit for measuring good governance and performance among political office holders in Nigeria, the presidency would definitely be more elusive to the PDP than it has ever been. Fashola enjoys a generally acknowledged goodwill across the entire Western Region, the South/South, and beyond, due to his unbeatable record of performance and his proven mettle. And he superintends over Lagos, the state that has the highest number of registered voters in the country, which stands at 6.1 million at the last count, closely followed by Kano, which stands at 5 million. In essence, Lagos and Kano states alone account for over 11 million registered voters, whereas only a total of about 38 million people voted in the 2011 presidential election.

With the overwhelming votes from Lagos State coming to the APC courtesy of Fashola on the ticket, and with Kano already totally lost to the firm grip of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the frosty relationship between President Jonathan and Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the absence of Ibrahim Shekarau in the presidential race to divide the votes, the PDP is as good as dead and buried – bearing in mind that they have also lost Rivers State, their strongest base in the South/South (in terms of number of registered voters) to the doggedness and resilience of Governor Chibuike Amechi. This explains why any card, including the religious card, must be played in order to stop a possible Buhari/Fashola pair.

However, one is tempted to ask where these noise makers who are needlessly fanning the embers of religious dichotomy were when Governor Jonah Jang ran for the governorship seat of Plateau State with a Christian running mate (Ignatius Longjan) and won, regardless of the vicious polarization of the state between the Muslims and the Christians?

By the way, isn't President Jonathan evidently a “Christian President”? Isn't he using his office to divide the country along religious lines? When a President wants to discuss important government policies and make important security statements about the Boko Haram insurgency, and finds no better place to do that other than the Church, what is he propagating?

I have more questions for the Nigerian electorates. Do Nigerians truly vote for a presidential candidate because of the religion of his running mate? If that is the case, then Moshood Abiola would certainly not have won the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and General Muhammadu Buhari would have coasted to victory with a lot of Christian votes to complement his Northern majority votes in 2011, having fielded not just a Christian as his running mate, but a renowned pastor at that. But on the contrary, Pastor Tunde Bakare, with due respect to his person, did not contribute up to a hundred thousand out of the 12.2 million votes garnered by the CPC in 2011. Or is President Goodluck Jonathan more christian than Pastor Tunde Bakare?

Fellow Nigerians, it's time to jettison useless primordial sentiments that will further sink our country into the abyss of dysfunction, underdevelopment, insecurity and abject poverty, and opt for competence, accountability, incorruptibility, and hardwork. That General Buhari is a Muslim did not stop him from being amongst the most upright and incorruptible leaders Nigeria ever had.
And that Babatunde Fashola is a Muslim did not stop him from transforming Lagos State from the slum and gutter it had become, into a standard for measuring development in Nigeria. Besides, politics remain a game of number – like it or leave it. And to that extent, even if Governor Babatunde Fashola is more Muslim than Prophet Muhammad, I do not see any Christian who is alive today from the Entire South-West, who can galvanize more votes for the APC than him. Mention his name if you know one. Why then should Nigerians be denied the blessing of having this beautiful mix of honesty and hardwork-cum-dexterity only on the basis of the God they pray to and how they worship?

The ruling People's Democratic Party has set Nigeria on the reverse gear and on full throttle. They have expended over 20 billion dollars on electricity and our country still generates a paltry 4000 megawatts to power our industries and cater for a population of over a hundred and seventy million people. They have increased the pump price of petroleum products beyond the reach of the average civil servant who is on a minimum wage of N18,000 monthly. In two years, they increased the electricity tariffs three times. They have looted our public treasury with such impunity as humanity has never witnessed before. They have exposed us to a calamitous level of insecurity never before witnessed in our recordable history. Their list of failures is endless. In summary, they have been tested and they have failed. It's time to try an alternative. It’s time to do things differently. It’s time to abandon the status quo and move on. It’s time for change. We do not have the luxury of time to gamble. Our country is at the precipice, and we urgently need tested and trusted hands to turn things around for the better.

Forget about the crap they spread about Buhari been too old to be the president of Nigeria at 71. We've had a Goodluck Jonathan who is relatively young for about four years now, but the only area in which he has excelled is in how to multiply ones wealth in a geometrical progression from N295,304,420 (two hundred and ninety-five million, three hundred and four thousand, four hundred and twenty naira) declared as total assets and cash in banks as a Vice-President under Umar Musa Yar’adua to a hundred million dollars (about 16.5 billion naira) in four years to become the 6th richest president in Africa. 

With this in mind and many more examples of pretty young politicians like James Ibori of Delta State and Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State who have used public offices for self rather than for service, don't you think the older the better?

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com

The Epidemic Spread of Porn0graphy Addiction and its Adverse Effects

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

This write-up is quite graphic! The intent is to fully expose the harmful effects of porn0graphy on our society without mincing words, and to serve as a wake-up call to all and sundry to join the vanguard for the anti-pornification of society.

The society is under a heavy bombardment from the media with so much sexual content. In some mainstream newspapers, a picture of a nude or scarcely clad girl is always on Page 3, usually referred to as the iconic page. The fact that many men buy these newspapers for that purpose exposes the level of moral decadence in our society. Even the so-called home movies (Nollywood and Ghallywood) are not left out. They churn out tons of so-called “soft p0rn” movies year in year out and a lot of people (including children) are exposed to these contents. It has become so widespread that people now see it as normal. Parents sit around their children to watch these filths together, oblivious of the great harm it poses to them and their families.

Some married couples argue that they watch porn0graphic videos in order to enhance their sexual performance with their spouses. But this argument lacks credibility. A healthy sexual relationship between husband and wife is not developed or enhanced in any way by watching p0rn. On the contrary, it reduces the sexual enjoyment between partners as it deadens their natural sexual impulses, desensitizes their natural stimulants, and makes them used to the damaging images they see on the screens which are usually more cosmetic than real. Therefore, when people no longer find their spouses as arousing as the people they see in p0rn movies, they tend to derive less sexual enjoyment from them.

There are also those who argue that in watching erotic pictures and videos, they do not harm anyone else but themselves. This is not a good argument because harm done to one’s self is harm done to one’s family and the society, as it takes away from one’s potentials which the family and the society ought to benefit from. Moreover, indulging in p0rn means misdirecting one’s energy and deriving sexual satisfaction from other than one’s spouse, and in that sense it is tantamount to cheating.

The addiction to porn0graphy is far more serious than the addiction to crack cocaine. The logic is simple: the body can easily be cleansed and detoxicated from crack cocaine, but getting rid of the lasting mental imprints of porn0graphic images from the mind is almost impossible.

Most people prefer to live in denial and just avoid discussing these ills with their children and wards, fearing that it will rather unnecessarily expose them to things they previously never knew. But the fact is that, brushing things under the carpet and opting to live in denial only amounts to self-deceit. If we allow evil to spread unchecked and simply shy away from tackling it head-on, then it is likely going to affect everyone and we would not be exempted.

The pornification/over-sexualization of society is a global epidemic. It is addictive, easily accessible, corrosive, corrupting, destructive, and above all, anti-human. Particularly, it has a destructive impact on the younger generation.

In today’s society, the street is the main educator of children, followed by the internet. The school comes a distant third. There is currently an unprecedented onslaught of porn0graphy targeted at the youngsters. With only a few clicks, children are exposed to hardcore porn0graphic content. According to a study by the London School of Economics, six out of every ten children in the UK are exposed to porn0graphy – that is, the majority of children. Approximately 90% of children aged 8 to 16 have seen porn0graphy on the Internet. There are many game sites on the internet which allow harmless games to be played, but advertise sexually explicit websites. According to the Top Ten Reviews report, at least twenty-six names of cartoon characters were linked to porn sites, thus exposing children to adult content on the Web. How bad it is for matures to view such damaging, misogynistic, and anti-human images, let alone children of 14 years old or less. If you think your children are innocent, then I truly wish they are. But the incontrovertible nature of our contemporary society is that porn is everywhere and is now accessible by everyone. It is no longer something which is hidden at the top of shelves or concealed in the innermost compartments of bags. No one seems to be shy or embarrassed about it anymore. Young girls now aspire to be p0rn stars, lap dancers, glamour models, etc. Children now post nude images of themselves on social media. Some uncritical parents buy their children G-strings and teach them to dress sexy. Political office holders now visit strip clubs to watch lap dances, belly dances, and whatnot, and they are not shy of it. At one time, it was reported that a former Minister of Justice/Federal Attorney General of Nigeria who was addicted to p0rn travelled to Brazil to watch teenage Samba girls dance nude in a carnival.

Reports have it that many of the child rapists who were imprisoned in America had been previously exposed to child-porn0graphy. They had unfettered access to the over one hundred thousand Child Porn0graphy websites available on the internet, and the thousands of others which are called Barely Legal, a genre of porn involving girls who look underage but are over eighteen. These men, after seeing girls being sexually abused repeatedly, became desensitized and started seeing it as normal. And shortly afterwards, they committed the act themselves. According to them, when they first saw child p0rn they were disgusted. But in barely six months of seeing it repeatedly after the first experience, they raped a child.

As humans, we are expected to see and treat each other as ourselves. That is justice to humanity. But to allow somebody to be used, abused, and discarded like mere pieces of meat, rather than as dignified human beings with souls – which is what happens to girls in the porn industry – is a crime against humanity.

P0rn is not fun. It is a perversion. Those who allowed it to spread unhindered in the name of “freedom” are now running helter-skelter looking for solutions to the now confirmed societal menace, having realized the colossal harm they have caused themselves and their societies. But it’s a bit too late. They have fully deregulated/liberalized society to accept porn0graphy, just like they did with other vices like gambling and alcoholism. No amount of internet filters can work again. The result of total deregulation is the birth of a Godless society.

Today, 72 million people visit p0rn sites regularly every month, there are 24 million porn sites around the world, 24% of internet searches are directly related to p0rn, and 13,000 porn movies are produced every year. The p0rn industry, worth 13.3 billion dollars, is now the most prolific film industry in the world – bigger than Amazon, Ebay, and even Microsoft. Statistics show that 89% of all the p0rn in the world comes from the US alone, and some of the highest consumers of p0rn in the world are from the Middle-East and South-Asia.  This multi-billion dollar industry is a capitalist machine that is driven by exploitation of the vulnerable.

This epidemic p0rn addiction has made people to become sexually dysfunctional and unable to maintain normal relations. It has also lead to the increase in sexual violence towards women. Research has it that people who regularly watch p0rn have decreased empathy for violence against women. This is largely due to the fact that they have seen repeatedly in p0rn movies, a culture in which women are being humiliated, tortured, gagged, choked, slapped, urinated on, degraded, and abused. They become misogynistic and totally numb to what they watch everyday, and that accounts for their decreased empathy for violence against women. They say that women who dress provocatively deserve to be raped.  They get angry when women refuse their sexual advances because they are used to seeing women fall sheepishly even for passers-by. They feel a sense of entitlement to any girl they desire. They become increasingly coercive on their wives, wanting them to act like porn stars and do absurd sexual acts in a bid to enact in their marital lives the things they see in p0rn videos. And worse-off is that it decreases their sexual interest in their wives. Instead, they become married to the internet, watching hit after hit of p0rn, in total abandonment of their legally married wives at home. They become overly preoccupied with p0rn, thinking of it, watching it for hours, and masturbating along with it. Some have lost their jobs because of p0rn addiction, just like some students have failed their exams for same reason.

P0rn destroys masculinity by making men think that being a real man is all about abusing women sexually. It destroys femininity by making women think of themselves as sex objects (every woman – even those who are above 50 – wants to appear sexy). And porn destroys intimacy and normal sex life between legally married couples by replacing their natural instincts with distorted mental programming.

The porn0graphy industry is driven by novelty. Their continued sustenance is guaranteed majorly by producing things that people have not seen before. Therefore, in order to capture the audience and sustain their patronage, they bombard them with a barrage of bizarre and novel porn0graphy genres; like Celebrity P0rn, Oral P0rn, Anal P0rn, Arab Girl P0rn, Pakistani Girl P0rn, Gang Rape P0rn, Incest P0rn, Homosexual P0rn, Lesbian P0rn, Rape P0rn, Revenge P0rn, etc. There is also the Multiple Penetration P0rn – comprising of double-penetration, triple penetration, and quadruple penetration – in which multiple men penetrate a woman in every orifice. In fact, describing the p0rn industry as animalistic is an insult to the animal kingdom, as animals don’t become that perverse.

The reason for the sustained escalation in the categories of p0rn is that after watching one level or type of p0rn, the brain develops a tolerance for it and finds it no longer fascinating. Therefore, in order to derive the same level of pleasure/satisfaction or more, the mind craves for more and more porn novelties and harder hits, which are usually more degrading and violent. And that way, a person sinks deeper into porn0graphy addiction until it becomes an obsession, such that even when he doesn’t derive any more pleasure from it, he just can’t stop watching it. It is the same thing with drug addiction. Every drug pusher gives you the first spliff or parcel free of charge. But that small quantity is enough to lure you into doing drugs until you get incurably immersed in and addicted to it, and then they start using you to run deadly errands and to make nasty money.

Getting over p0rn addiction, like any other addiction, is usually not very easy, yet it is doable. One has to first realize the harm of it, and make a firm resolve to give it up. The process involves understanding what porn does to the brain through subliminal desensitization, classical conditioning, and sequential persuasion. When an individual realizes this, then it becomes easier for him to pull out of this absolutely reprehensible depravity.

One should feel shy and embarrassed watching other men and women shamelessly committing fornication and adultery in front of cameras.

Evil is evil, no matter how widespread and widely accepted it may be. Conversely, good is good, no matter how unpopular it may be. Let’s all work to check the spread of porn0graphy and its attendant evils, and to insulate ourselves and our families from it.


Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Kaduna, Nigeria

sahaabah@aol.com

The Epidemic Spread of Pornography Addiction and its Adverse Effects

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare


This write-up is quite graphic! The intent is to fully expose the harmful effects of pornography on our society without mincing words, and to serve as a wake-up call to all and sundry to join the vanguard for the anti-pornification of society.

The society is under a heavy bombardment from the media with so much sexual content. In some mainstream newspapers, a picture of a nude or scarcely clad girl is always on Page 3, usually referred to as the iconic page. The fact that many men buy these newspapers for that purpose exposes the level of moral decadence in our society. Even the so-called home movies (Nollywood and Ghallywood) are not left out. They churn out tons of so-called “soft porn” movies year in year out and a lot of people (including children) are exposed to these contents. It has become so widespread that people now see it as normal. Parents sit around their children to watch these filths together, oblivious of the great harm it poses to them and their families.

Some married couples argue that they watch pornographic videos in order to enhance their sexual performance with their spouses. But this argument lacks credibility. A healthy sexual relationship between husband and wife is not developed or enhanced in any way by watching porn. On the contrary, it reduces the sexual enjoyment between partners as it deadens their natural sexual impulses, desensitizes their natural stimulants, and makes them used to the damaging images they see on the screens which are usually more cosmetic than real. Therefore, when people no longer find their spouses as arousing as the people they see in porn movies, they tend to derive less sexual enjoyment from them.

There are also those who argue that in watching erotic pictures and videos, they do not harm anyone else but themselves. This is not a good argument because harm done to one’s self is harm done to one’s family and the society, as it takes away from one’s potentials which the family and the society ought to benefit from. Moreover, indulging in porn means misdirecting one’s energy and deriving sexual satisfaction from other than one’s spouse, and in that sense it is tantamount to cheating.

The addiction to pornography is far more serious than the addiction to crack cocaine. The logic is simple: the body can easily be cleansed and detoxicated from crack cocaine, but getting rid of the lasting mental imprints of pornographic images from the mind is almost impossible.

Most people prefer to live in denial and just avoid discussing these ills with their children and wards, fearing that it will rather unnecessarily expose them to things they previously never knew. But the fact is that, brushing things under the carpet and opting to live in denial only amounts to self-deceit. If we allow evil to spread unchecked and simply shy away from tackling it head-on, then it is likely going to affect everyone and we would not be exempted.

The pornification/over-sexualization of society is a global epidemic. It is addictive, easily accessible, corrosive, corrupting, destructive, and above all, anti-human. Particularly, it has a destructive impact on the younger generation.

In today’s society, the street is the main educator of children, followed by the internet. The school comes a distant third. There is currently an unprecedented onslaught of pornography targeted at the youngsters. With only a few clicks, children are exposed to hardcore pornographic content. According to a study by the London School of Economics, six out of every ten children in the UK are exposed to pornography – that is, the majority of children. Approximately 90% of children aged 8 to 16 have seen pornography on the Internet. There are many game sites on the internet which allow harmless games to be played, but advertise sexually explicit websites. According to the Top Ten Reviews report, at least twenty-six names of cartoon characters were linked to porn sites, thus exposing children to adult content on the Web. How bad it is for matures to view such damaging, misogynistic, and anti-human images, let alone children of 14 years old or less. If you think your children are innocent, then I truly wish they are. But the incontrovertible nature of our contemporary society is that porn is everywhere and is now accessible by everyone. It is no longer something which is hidden at the top of shelves or concealed in the innermost compartments of bags. No one seems to be shy or embarrassed about it anymore. Young girls now aspire to be porn stars, lap dancers, glamour models, etc. Children now post nude images of themselves on social media. Some uncritical parents buy their children G-strings and teach them to dress sexy. Political office holders now visit strip clubs to watch lap dances, belly dances, and whatnot, and they are not shy of it. At one time, it was reported that a former Minister of Justice/Federal Attorney General of Nigeria who was addicted to porn travelled to Brazil to watch teenage Samba girls dance nude in a carnival.

Reports have it that many of the child rapists who were imprisoned in America had been previously exposed to child-pornography. They had unfettered access to the over one hundred thousand Child Pornography websites available on the internet, and the thousands of others which are called Barely Legal, a genre of porn involving girls who look underage but are over eighteen. These men, after seeing girls being sexually abused repeatedly, became desensitized and started seeing it as normal. And shortly afterwards, they committed the act themselves. According to them, when they first saw child porn they were disgusted. But in barely six months of seeing it repeatedly after the first experience, they raped a child.

As humans, we are expected to see and treat each other as ourselves. That is justice to humanity. But to allow somebody to be used, abused, and discarded like mere pieces of meat, rather than as dignified human beings with souls – which is what happens to girls in the porn industry – is a crime against humanity.

Porn is not fun. It is a perversion. Those who allowed it to spread unhindered in the name of “freedom” are now running helter-skelter looking for solutions to the now confirmed societal menace, having realized the colossal harm they have caused themselves and their societies. But it’s a bit too late. They have fully deregulated/liberalized society to accept pornography, just like they did with other vices like gambling and alcoholism. No amount of internet filters can work again. The result of total deregulation is the birth of a Godless society.

Today, 72 million people visit porn sites regularly every month, there are 24 million porn sites around the world, 24% of internet searches are directly related to porn, and 13,000 porn movies are produced every year. The porn industry, worth 13.3 billion dollars, is now the most prolific film industry in the world – bigger than Amazon, Ebay, and even Microsoft. Statistics show that 89% of all the porn in the world comes from the US alone, and some of the highest consumers of porn in the world are from the Middle-East and South-Asia. This multi-billion dollar industry is a capitalist machine that is driven by exploitation of the vulnerable.

This epidemic porn addiction has made people to become sexually dysfunctional and unable to maintain normal relations. It has also lead to the increase in sexual violence towards women. Research has it that people who regularly watch porn have decreased empathy for violence against women. This is largely due to the fact that they have seen repeatedly in porn movies, a culture in which women are being humiliated, tortured, gagged, choked, slapped, urinated on, degraded, and abused. They become misogynistic and totally numb to what they watch everyday, and that accounts for their decreased empathy for violence against women. They say that women who dress provocatively deserve to be raped. They get angry when women refuse their sexual advances because they are used to seeing women fall sheepishly even for passers-by. They feel a sense of entitlement to any girl they desire. They become increasingly coercive on their wives, wanting them to act like porn stars and do absurd sexual acts in a bid to enact in their marital lives the things they see in porn videos. And worse-off is that it decreases their sexual interest in their wives. Instead, they become married to the internet, watching hit after hit of porn, in total abandonment of their legally married wives at home. They become overly preoccupied with porn, thinking of it, watching it for hours, and masturbating along with it. Some have lost their jobs because of porn addiction, just like some students have failed their exams for same reason.

Porn destroys masculinity by making men think that being a real man is all about abusing women sexually. It destroys femininity by making women think of themselves as sex objects (every woman – even those who are above 50 – wants to appear sexy). And porn destroys intimacy and normal sex life between legally married couples by replacing their natural instincts with distorted mental programming.

The pornography industry is driven by novelty. Their continued sustenance is guaranteed majorly by producing things that people have not seen before. Therefore, in order to capture the audience and sustain their patronage, they bombard them with a barrage of bizarre and novel pornography genres; like Celebrity Porn, Oral Porn, Anal Porn, Arab Girl Porn, Pakistani Girl Porn, Gang Rape Porn, Incest Porn, Homosexual Porn, Lesbian Porn, Rape Porn, Revenge Porn, etc. There is also the Multiple Penetration Porn – comprising of double-penetration, triple penetration, and quadruple penetration – in which multiple men penetrate a woman in every orifice. In fact, describing the porn industry as animalistic is an insult to the animal kingdom, as animals don’t become that perverse.

The reason for the sustained escalation in the categories of porn is that after watching one level or type of porn, the brain develops a tolerance for it and finds it no longer fascinating. Therefore, in order to derive the same level of pleasure/satisfaction or more, the mind craves for more and more porn novelties and harder hits, which are usually more degrading and violent. And that way, a person sinks deeper into pornography addiction until it becomes an obsession, such that even when he doesn’t derive any more pleasure from it, he just can’t stop watching it. It is the same thing with drug addiction. Every drug pusher gives you the first spliff or parcel free of charge. But that small quantity is enough to lure you into doing drugs until you get incurably immersed in and addicted to it, and then they start using you to run deadly errands and to make nasty money.

Getting over porn addiction, like any other addiction, is usually not very easy, yet it is doable. One has to first realize the harm of it, and make a firm resolve to give it up. The process involves understanding what porn does to the brain through subliminal desensitization, classical conditioning, and sequential persuasion. When an individual realizes this, then it becomes easier for him to pull out of this absolutely reprehensible depravity.

One should feel shy and embarrassed watching other men and women shamelessly committing fornication and adultery in front of cameras.

Evil is evil, no matter how widespread and widely accepted it may be. Conversely, good is good, no matter how unpopular it may be. Let’s all work to check the spread of pornography and its attendant evils, and to insulate ourselves and our families from it.

Abu Bilaal, Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com

EBOLA SCARE: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
 
By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
8th August, 2014
 
Nobody wants to die, even though everyone complains about life. Everyone strives to evade/avert death in any way possible. Whenever there is news of a fatal road accident, we immediately think of avoiding the route on which the accident occurred, or avoiding the type of vehicle that was involved in the accident, or even avoiding road travel completely and opting for air travel instead – especially for those who can afford it. And when there is news of a plane crash that claims the lives of over a hundred persons, including passengers and crew, we make a U-turn and say, O’ the roads are better-off after all.
 
Similarly, when we here of a person that dies after consuming a particular food or drink, what immediately comes to our minds is how to forbid that food or drink for ourselves and our loved ones for the rest of our lives. We are always evasive about death, even though everything in life seems to point to the inevitability of its occurrence.
 
Therefore, it is important to remind ourselves that no matter how much we run away from death, it remains the most certain thing in life. As Allâh, The Exalted and Most High, aptly puts it in the Qur’ân: “Say (to them): "Verily, the death from which you flee, will surely overtake you, then you will be sent back to (Allâh), the All-Knower of the unseen and the seen, and He will tell you what you used to do." [Sûrah al-Jumu'ah (62):8]
 
When the time of death hasn’t come, it cannot be quickened or drawn closer in any way. And when it has come, it cannot be delayed even for a blink of an eye. “And never does Allâh grant respite to a human being when his appointed time (death) has come. And Allâh is All-Aware of what you do”. [Sûrah al-Munaafiqoon (63):11]
 
Allâh, Exalted be His Majesty, also says in the Glorious Qur’ân: “No calamity befalls, but by the Leave [i.e. Decision and Divine Preordainments] of Allâh, and whosoever believes in Allâh, He guides his heart. And Allâh is All-Knower of everything”. [Sûrah at-Taghaabun (64): 11]
 
It is the instinctual fear of death that has informed the general reaction to the current outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which was first reported in the Republic of Guinea in March 2014, and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and other parts of the world, including Nigeria. Various individuals, governments, and NGOs have been issuing dire warnings of a global pandemic underway if the disease is not effectively contained.
 
The latest update from World Health Organization (WHO) shows a cumulative number of 1,711 cases, with 932 deaths from EVD, two of which were recorded in Nigeria. This new development has caused a serious scare round the country in particular, and the world in general, and the media – especially the cyber space – has been awash with all sorts of information on various unverified cures and preventive measures for EVD. Interestingly, the current Ebola scare has created some form of brisk business for many people, as bitter-kola has suddenly become the most sought-after commodity in the market. Those who trade on table salt are not left out of the market boom, as the latest of the information, as of the time of penning this write-up (many more may have come out), is that a drink and a bath of warm salt solution prevents/cures EVD. Without wasting time at all, many Nigerians have gone ahead to take this “native-doctor’s” prescription. After all, prevention, they say, is better than cure, and to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed.
 
Islam, as a religion, encourages proper safety and health hygienes and does not go against seeking medical attention whenever necessary. The religion teaches us to wash our hands before and after eating, to wash our mouth and clean our teeth regularly, especially before the five daily prayers, to clean-up our lower orifices with our left hands and to eat with our right hands, and to eat only of that which is pure and wholesome. These are important for leading a healthy life.
 
However, despite every precautionary measures we take, calamities still happen, and they happen for different reasons. They remind all of the boundless powers of the Creator. He has power over all things, He does whatever He wills, and He is just in whatever He does. They serve as punishment to the sinful and as clear reminder to the heedful. They are also the results of man’s pernicious handiwork. In the infallible Words of the Almighty, “Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of the (meed) that the hands of men have earned, that (Allâh) may give them a taste of (the consequences) of some of their deeds, in order that they may turn back (from evil).” [Sûrah Ar-Rûm (30):41]
 
Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allâh be upon him) gave precise instructions on how to respond to epidemics, pandemics, pestilences, or plagues. In a proclamation that would evoke the envy of governments and NGOs across our contemporary world, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Prophet said: "If you hear of an epidemic outbreak in a land, do not enter it; but if it breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place". (Sahīh Al-Bukhāri)
 
It is clear that the Prophet’s command is meant to effectively quarantine the epidemic and eventually contain it and prevent its spread to other places. Muslims are expected to set the example for others by remaining in the stricken area. They are also expected to care for those affected by the epidemic (rather than scorn and ostracize them), knowing that by taking care of the stricken they might attain the lofty height of martyrdom. The Prophet declared, as only a true Prophet could declare, that “death from an epidemic is martyrdom for every Muslim” (Sahīh Al-Bukhāri). He also said that epidemics are “punishment sent by Allâh on whom He wishes, and Allâh makes it a source of mercy for the believers, for if one in the time of an epidemic stays in his place patiently hoping for Allâh's Reward and believing that nothing will befall him except what Allâh has written for him, (and he dies) he will get the reward of a martyr" (Sahīh Bukhāri).
 
We may wish to reflect over the fact that the HIV/AIDS epidemic appears to be precisely such divine punishment inflicted on those who have taken to the path of perversion and promiscuity. On the other hand, those who die of HIV/AIDS while holding fast to faith in their hearts and are innocent of transgressions of the flesh would receive the reward reserved for martyrs. This is not fatalism, neither is it blind faith. It is a just reward for the innocent believers who get caught-up in calamities that befall the whole as a result of the sins of a few.
 
The Prophet also talked about the occurrence of epidemics and pandemics that will ravage the world as portends of the End Time. That explains the frequent appearances of epidemic diseases here and there, now and again. At some time it was SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and at other times it was Avian Influenza (a.k.a. Bird Flu) and HIV/AIDS. He, blessings and peace of Allâh be upon him, said: "Count six signs that indicate the approach of the Hour: my death, the conquest of Jerusalem, an epidemic that will afflict you (and cause you to die in great numbers) as the plague that afflicts sheep, the increase of wealth to such an extent that even if one is given one hundred Dinārs, he will not be satisfied; then an affliction which no Arab house will escape, and then a truce between you and Bani-Al-Asfar (i.e. the Byzantines)…” (Sahīh Bukhāri).
 
Beloved, let us take important lessons from the happenings around us, in order that we might retrace our steps back to the path of righteousness. Let us hold fast to the Qur’ān. It is a Cure. It has the capacity to heal and to serve as a protection from any kind of calamity/illness. Allâh says: “And We send down in the Qur'ân that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe. [Sûrah al-Israa].
 
Especially, the recitation of the first ten verses of Sūrah al-Kahf offers protection from the Dajjal and his evils, including the spread of epidemics. The Dajjāl  is the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, a supremely evil being with a PhD in deception who seeks to impersonate the true Messiah [Isa (Jesus) the son of Mary].
 
May Allâh fill our hearts with faith, and establish our feet firmly on His Path. And may He not punish us on account of our sins.
 
 
Abu Bialaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
 
Kaduna, Nigeria
 
sahabah@aol.com

In the Name of God, Stop the Killings – A Grim Appeal to the Nigerian Political Class

 

By Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Imagine you're travelling by road and you come across a ghastly accident scene that leaves one person lying dead on the road, with his body mangled beyond recognition. The sight of it is so terrifying that you had to look the other way with great nausea and irritation. Now imagine if the dead bodies that litter the road as a result of the accident are up to seven or ten, each one drowned in his own pool of blood. Finally, imagine if the bodies are up to two hundred or more. No doubt you would want to discontinue the journey, as this entire world with all its glitters and embellishments would immediately cease to make sense to you.

In contrast, however, these are the figures we hear every day from the incessant killings that take place in different parts of our country, without provoking any real sense of dread in us. The labels may differ, but their main characteristics are the same - senseless, wicked, inhuman, and ungodly. Be it the appalling Boko Haram carnage in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Abuja etc., or the so called Fulani Herdsmen chilling butchery in Benue, Nassarawa, Plateau, and the southern part of Kaduna, they bear the same hallmarks and share the same characteristics. The one that is killed does not know why he is killed, and the one that kills does not know why he kills. It’s just a senseless killing spree. It is a reflection of how callous and evil the heart of man has become.

We must know that the first and appropriate response to an evil should be to take adequate actions to correct it. Where that is impossible due to some incapacitation or incapability, then the next resort should be to speak (or write, as the case may be) against it. And if this is yet impossible, then the last resort should be to abhor it in the heart. That is the least level any discerning human being can fall to. Below that, it simply means the heart is completely deadened. That is to say, it takes a heartless person not to feel anything in the face of evil.

The wanton annihilation of innocent lives by so called insurgents has become so rampant that the average Nigerian has become seriously desensitized about it. In fact, rather than abhor these killings in our hearts, which is the least we could offer if we were unable to stop them or speak against them, we subtly celebrate them. This is especially so when the victims do not speak our dialect, or when they do not pray to the same deity as ours. So, for instance, when it involves a Muslim, the average Christian feels like "O, it serves him right", and when the victim is a Christian, the average Muslim feels the same way. Except we choose to ignore the facts, the value of a Nigerian life has been ignominiously reduced to mere ethnic, regional, religious, and political nomenclatures. The side of the divide you belong to determines your value in the eyes of your fellow countrymen. And this divide is constantly been widened by the political class, which is largely peopled by selfish, self-aggrandizing kleptomaniacs who are profiteering from these wholesale killings. In order to ensure the continuity of this unholy profiteering, they have blindfolded the ordinary Nigerians to see these mishaps as a “them versus us” thing.

What we fail to realize is that what binds us together as ordinary citizens of this crisis-ridden space called Nigeria, is far stronger than the ethno-religious lines that separate us, and that is POVERTY. It knows neither religion nor tribe. Poverty in Bama in Borno state is as vicious and ruthless as poverty in Otueke in Bayelsa State. Just as the masses in the remote areas of the Southern part of Nigeria are dying with doctor's prescriptions in their pockets with no money to buy the prescribed drugs, so also the talakawas in the remote areas of the Northern part of the country are dying of various ailments, with no money to see a doctor, let alone to get a prescription.

From the desert areas of the far North to the oil rich Niger Delta, the vast majority of Nigerians suffer the same level of lack and want. Yet we, the poor, allow the rich to recruit from amongst us to carry out dastardly acts that further impoverish us and exterminate our fellows, in a bid to satisfy their political and occultist lusts. Yes, I mean every word of it. Just take a look at this analysis. For every bullet that is fired by a poor man recruited by Boko Haram to sniff out the life of an innocent student resting in his dormitory in Buni Yadi, a rich man pays. And for every bomb that is detonated at places where poor people gather – like match viewing centres and motor parks – a rich man's account is debited to offset the bills. These "rich men" feed from the flesh and blood of innocent people. They're not ordinary citizens. They're not civil servants who have to wait for their monthly salaries to make ends meet. They're politicians who have access to public funds, and immodestly siphon every kobo of it for personal use, fearing no accountability or penalty.

Now and again, we’re told that Fulani Herdsmen invade various communities with Automatic Kalashnikov rifles and kill tens and hundreds of inhabitants. But the big question is: how profitable is the business of cattle herding, that herdsmen, after taking care of their basic needs, still have enough leftover to purchase expensive weapons and ammunitions running into millions of naira to carry out mass killings? The same nomads we see roaming the bushes and forests, who live in tents, and basically feed on local dairy products? The same herdsmen who live and die without experiencing the luxury of owning a car in their entire lifetime? The same herdsmen who hardly have good clothes to wear? It simply does not add up. Everyone knows they cannot afford more than the daggers and sticks they use to comb the bushes and forests to pasture their flock. Rather, it is those people who have unfettered access to our collective purse and have been addicted to financial malfeasance that are certainly behind this widespread carnage that have turned our country into a Baghdad of some sort. They are the main lifeline of this cannibalistic assault on innocent Nigerians, apart from a few other obvious sources of funding like armed robbery, etc.

Therefore, as many have written to call on Boko Haram to stop the decimation of innocent lives, I am writing to call on the Political Class to stop wasting the lives of Nigerians in order to score some political goals or undo some political opponents. The killings taking place in our country are not natural disasters. They are man-made, and the looters and plunderers of our collective wealth are behind them. I have decided to direct my call to them because fighting a fire from the flames would never extinguish it. You have to aim at the base before you can even hope of achieving any success. The blood-thirsty Abubakar Shekau and his co-evil doers are only the flames of the fire. The bases are their sponsors. If Shekau gets killed today, he’ll be replaced pronto by someone else – just like Muhammad Yusuf, the former leader of Boko Haram, was promptly replaced after he was extra-judicially executed by the Nigerian Police Force. It will in no way stop the mindless bloodbath. Who knows, a more heartless demon may even succeed him. God forbid!

The fire of Boko Haram cannot be extinguished without targeting their sponsors. In fact, more efforts should be tailored towards cutting off their sources of funding by smoking out their sponsors, than in confronting Abubakar Shekau and his foot soldiers in the Sambisa Forest. We don’t need a billion dollar loan to achieve that.

May Allah save our country from the jaws of destruction!

 

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

Kaduna, Nigeria

sahaabah@aol.com

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
السلام عليكم

STILL, MY SULTAAN

I broke my fast a sad person today! I know it's unusual for a Muslim to be sad at breakfast(iftaar), but I am sad; circumstance-induced sadness. My sadness stems from my dilemma over the sultaan's disposition over our fast this first day.

Last night was such a difficult one, no thanks to our foot-dragging sultaan. I understand he delegated someone to announce the sighting of the crescent on his behalf. For the first time in my adult life, someone is deputising for the sultaan in the discharge of this usually exclusive preserve of the sultaan.

I am sad this is happening, but definitely not surprised. In the pre-ramadaan meeting he had with Ulamaa last weekend, an academic, PhD precisely, appealed to his eminence to relax his 'curfew' on crescent sighting reporters which the sultaan pinned to 9pm. The sultaan's response actually prepared my mind for this unfortunate drama triggered by his rigidity which is unfolding, albeit behind transparent curtains. I am sad because the authenticity or otherwise of my fast rests on his jittery shoulder.

Last night, I was told a friend told the Ameer(Emir) of Gwandu that the crescent had been sighted. The Ameer, apparently satisfied with the sighting, attempted to reach the sultaan but met a brick wall! The sultaan's numbers were not reachable; switched off as service providers often put it. How the announcement finally reverberated from his snobbish office still beats me. I heard though, that Prof Oloyede, the SCIA Sec Gen, initially dissociated the sultaan's office from an initial announcement of the sighting of the crescent.

If the announcement which made us fast today was unauthorised by the sultaan, it may have been just a voluntary fast at most but definitely not ramadaan fast! It's that serious.

I understand the sultaan's unwillingness to accept report of crescent sighting over two hours after sunset. Astronomers, the sultaan's think tank on this matter rule out its authenticity. Islaam is actually stricter than astronomy on this issue. No one who claims to have sighted the crescent after maghrib will be likely to be taken seriously by Ulamaa. The disparity stems from the possibility that one who sighted the crescent before sunset may not have accessed the sultaan before three hours. The experience of the Gwandu monarch suffices. It's therefore a mistake to cordon any report on crescent sighting within same night or even the next day, as long as we can confirm the crescent was appropriately sighted.

In fiqh(Islaamic jurisprudential) books, there are provisions for announcements of crescent sighting in the afternoon of the the first day of ramadaan. Muslims, at such a time, will stop eating and fast the remaining hours. Some jurists opine that after ramadaan, that day's fast will be paid back while some say it will suffice. The latter refer to the aashooraa fast which was made mandatory in the afternoon at which time the sahaabah observed it without paying back.

I hope the sultaan realises that fasting is a religious duty which should be referred to Ulamaa for proper interpretation. The khaki tradition must be shed here.

Sheikh Umar Abdullah Dada Paiko
28th June, 2014

The Senseless Evasion of the Nigeria Equation

By Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare

The woes and throes of collapse that befall our nation are no longer news. Nigerians, and, indeed, those who follow up the Nigerian story, are used to hearing news of monies looted from the public treasury in billions (and most recently trillions, like in the case of the fuel subsidy thieves), scores of people dying in avoidable road accidents on a daily basis, high profile criminals who should be rightly escorted to the gallows to face the hangman getting ridiculous sentences with options of fine (while a petty thief gets a death sentence in Delta State for stealing car stereo), trigger-happy policemen taking the lives of bona fide citizens for refusing to part with N20 bribe, and whatnot. All of these, and many more which will make even the devil shudder, have left Nigerians yearning for change. I quite agree with May Akabogu-Collins, a visiting professor of economics at the American Business School in Paris, when she says that a Nigerian spring is long overdue.In truth, many people have become disenchanted with the Nigeria project, as no good seems to come out of it. However, the quest for change in results without a commensurate change in the way of doing things is at best a beggar’s wish. That is to say, doing the same things over and over will only produce the same results over and over. This is because, as Dr. Yusuf Qardhawi, the great scholar and theologian puts it, corrupt realities cannot be changed by immature strategies based only upon good wishes and intentions.

In finding the solution to a problem, I used to think that the starting point is to actually know the problem itself. But that seems not to be the case with Nigeria.  In our peculiar case, the problem is well known, even to the ordinary man in the street. And at more scholarly levels, you find people, both in formal and informal gatherings, discussing the problem like it is the course they studied in the university. But the unfortunate irony is that, in our case, the more we know the problem the more elusive the solution seems. More so, those who know the problem too well are usually a part of it or are mostly the ones involved in perpetuating it. If you ask an average Nigerian what the country's problem is, he most probably will tell you: corruption! – referring to economic and financial crimes. However, that person who is quick to point at corruption as the bane of our country is also, in most cases, involved in one form of corruption or another.

For example, it is easy to find a university lecturer accusing those at the helms of affairs of the country of financial recklessness, whereas he is full-time into trade by batter with his female students, exchanging sex for grades. Perhaps, a clearer example is that of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti who was foremost in criticizing the government of the day, especially with regards to financial probity and corrupt use of power for selfish ends, but who was himself indulged in corrupting the youths (males and females) of our country in his kalakuta Republic where he promoted moral depravity, turning them into sexual perverts and drug addicts. It becomes a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

Well, like I have aptly pointed out, our problem is not ignorance of the challenges confronting us as a nation and as a people, but the lack of will and passion to do things differently in order to effect positive, developmental and progressive change at the various spheres of our society. We believe in sitting back and waiting for a Messiah to descend from the skies to turn things around for us. But manna and quails no longer fall from heaven. We must all emancipate our selves from our conservative ways of doing things and adopt progressive alternatives, reorient our mentalities, and imbibe some appreciable level of moral uprightness, self-discipline and honesty, before we can start seeing things turn around for the better. Building a strong and ideal society means everyone must play a role.

It is a truism that when a fish is getting rotten it starts from the head. That means if we must get it right with regards to building the kind of country and society we much desire, then, in addition to refining our ways, we must get the best of us to superintend over us at all levels of leadership. But how do we expect to undermine the unimpressive antecedents of our choices of leaders, turn a blind eye to the fraudulent process that brings them to power, and yet expect them to transform into award winning leaders overnight?

For instance, we had a Goodluck Jonathan who was a deputy governor and later governor of a small but rich state like Bayelsa, with no more than eight Local Government Areas, and with an estimated GDP of $4.34 billion and a per capita income of $2,484 as at the time he was there, whereas a state like Jigawa, at that same time, had twenty-seven Local Government Areas with an estimated GDP of $2.99 billion and a per capita income of $673. Yet, at the end of his stint at the Bayelsa Government House, his performance could best be described as dismal and lacklustre. This same man vied for the highest office in the country and whipped up sympathy from Nigerians with the story of his shoeless childhood and the unfortunate "it is our turn" propaganda. At the end of the day, he was imposed on the country as the President and commander in chief of the armed forces by the ruling political cult, and Nigerians yet expected him to perform signs and wonders, not by his competence, capabilities, or antecedence, but by merely been christened "Goodluck"! Come to think of it: how can a man who could not perform in a state with only eight Local Government Areas, and with as much resources as was at his disposal, suddenly transmogrify into a Messiah in a country of seven hundred and seventy-four Local Government Areas? It just does not add up.

Therefore, my brothers, sisters, and fellow countrymen, as the next round of general elections for change of leadership in 2015 fast approaches, and as experience has shown us that those with poor and wretched upbringing usually “don't give a damn” when they ascend the mantle of leadership, but rather turn out to be opportunists who see power only as a means for self aggrandizement to makeup for their years of shoelessness and misfortune, we must learn and commit to elect leaders based on their credibility and proven worth, rather than on mere sympathy and regionalism. We cannot continue to evade the realities on ground and expect our "luck" to shine and just wake up one morning to see our country metamorphose into an abode of utopia and euphoria. In the words of Plato, the philosopher and mathematician, "the city is what it is because our citizens are what they are".

God save Nigeria!

Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
17 Conakry Avenue, Malali, Kaduna
sahaabah@aol.com