“A corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street. While the man with the dagger can be restrained physically, a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the foundation of society.” – Justice Samson Uwaifo, a retired justice of the Supreme Court. About two weeks ago, Mr Olumide Akpata, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), at the International Bar Association (IBA) conference in Paris, France, lamented that only by sheer luck will the Nigerian judiciary produce a good judge and that the country is under “judiciary capture.”…
Author: Hassan Gimba
Tommy Okon, the esteemed national president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has brought to light a concerning issue affecting more than 5,000 federal civil servants, potentially jeopardizing their receipt of the December salary. Okon, during a press briefing in Abuja, disclosed that this group of workers is grappling with discrepancies in their dates of first appointment and dates of birth. “Undoubtedly, this revelation raises questions about the seamless functioning of administrative processes within the federal civil service.” Okon reassured the public that the ASCSN is actively collaborating with the head of civil service of the…
There is no Nigerian that will tell you he is not aware of the NLC even if he does not know that it is an acronym for the Nigeria Labour Congress. What the average Nigerian knows about them is that they always go on strike at the drop of a hat, strikes that have lost their meaning because they always achieve almost nothing. Well, there’s nothing in it for the average Nigerian; only for the vanguards of the congress. At least, that is what an average citizen will tell you. This suspicion, or rather an assumption, is fueled by the…
The University of Maiduguri, in Borno State, recently bestowed upon Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree. Retired Justice Sidi Bage Muhammad, the distinguished Chancellor of the University and Emir of Lafia in Nasarawa State, played a pivotal role in the ceremonial proceedings by presiding over the conferment of honors. In a moment steeped in tradition and academic significance, the Chancellor underscored the conferment of the honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree upon Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima. The decision to bestow this prestigious accolade was rooted in the profound acknowledgment of Vice President Shettima’s…
This Was a speech delivered by Dr Hassan Gimba, publisher of Neptune Prime online newspaper and a syndicated columnist, at the Ebony Herald Hall of Fame and Dignity, held at the Stonehedge Hotel and Suites, Abuja, on 09/11/2023. Ladies and gentlemen, I say good evening to you all. This is not a topic of my choosing, but one given to me by the organisers. Nonetheless, I will try to do justice to it. When we say “renew”, we are talking about restoration, revival, regeneration, rebuilding, repeating, resuming, etc., while “hope” is to anticipate expectations of fulfilment. On the other hand,…
It’s worth noting that this article was originally published on December 3, 2017, yet its relevance persists to this day. The Peoples Democratic Party The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not seriously planning to return to power. It is more focused on the inordinate ambitions of its stakeholders and how much money they can make from each. If Nigeria is on the minds of some of its members, it is regarding what can be made out of it with the party as the vessel. Even at that, they are not ready or desirous of reinventing, re-positioning, and strengthening the vessel.…
So, Malam Adamu Fika, the Wazirin Fika, is dead. Called home by our Creator who loves man more than man loves himself. When He created the world and everything that is inside it, He made man for a purpose and sent him down to earth to complete the purpose. The purpose of the creation of man is to worship the creator as a way of life. Therefore, our lives and how we conduct our affairs all count on the scales of worship. Imam Ja’afar Assadiq (AS) said: “If you want to know the religion of a man, do not look…
This article was first published in December 2017, repeated in August 2018 and September 2020. With change being the only constant in human life, a lot of water has passed under the bridge in our country since then that have made yesterday’s hailers today’s wailers and vice versa. I find this write-up very relevant and perhaps may make us view Nigeria first over many of the things that pull us apart. Hailer and wailer are new terms in our political lexicon. Just as ‘men and women of timber and calibre’ and ‘extraordinary and plenipotentiary’, etc. were introduced in the Second…
For five years now, I have been advocating for our currency to be strong rather than for salaries to be increased. Not because those collecting salaries from the government are a minuscule few or because of the tendency that makes the prices of everything skyrocket. No. and not because the implication will push a lot of small and medium-scale businesses to death because they cannot afford it or because even big businesses and the government itself must retrench a lot of staff to accommodate salaries in a growing budget. No. My primary fear is that the more salaries are increased,…
This text was published three years ago when Nigeria marked its 60th year of independence. Nothing has changed except for the age, now at 63, as the conditions remain the same. The text is therefore being reprinted today with only one change: @60 has been replaced by @63. Nigeria ought to be a great country. We have all that is needed to transform our country into the envy of even the most advanced countries of the world. Nigeria is blessed with a plethora of intelligent, innovative, daring, competitive, and egalitarian people. Then the land is favoured by the creator of…
This was first published by Daily Trust on Saturday, 17 November 2012. It encapsulates my mission and how I want to be remembered. I picked the title for this piece from the book written by Arthur Nwankwo when he felt former President Olusegun Obasanjo threatened him over a series of exchanges they had when the former president called for a one-party state in 1989. The book, published in 1989, which I found very refreshing, intellectually, started with Nwankwo claiming “Before I die, I will remain a critical visionary of the imperatives of Nigerian politics and a purveyor of the desiderata…
“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously.” ― Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot Till the rivers run dry and the world ceases to exist, problems shall never end. Problems became part of man the moment he took a bite of that apple and was banished to earth to come and find the solution that would take him back. And so, seeking solutions to problems must be our eternal habit. However, just as Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when…
In the past three years, at least eight African countries have witnessed military coup d’états. This is coming when it was thought that Africa’s democracy had come of age when we were beginning to think that coups had gone for good, consigned to an era in the past when African governments were led by the military. Coincidentally, all but one of the eight countries were colonised by France. Some of the countries are Mali, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and now Gabon. The first coup in Mali was in August 2020, when President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was overthrown by a…
At about 1 am, on the cold night of Friday, August 2, 2019, exactly two months after celebrating his 34th birthday, Malam Abubakar Idris, commonly known as Abu Hanifa Dadiyata, or just Dadiyata, was abducted in front of his house at Barnawa, a quiescent area of Kaduna. Armed men kidnapped the PhD student and History of English Language lecturer at the Federal University, Dutsinma, from his house after they breached his house’s security from where they took him away in his BMW car. For all these four years, no ransom was asked and nobody has contacted his family in any…
We have looked at various forms of government in the first part of this treatise. We ended with the posers, “Can we continue this way? Is it the fault of the system or the operators of the system? Should we scout for a better system or better operators? Should we look inwards? Will a system in tandem with our inner being be the answer to our multifaceted and ever-growing problems as a nation?” We signed off with this thought: “Perhaps we have been imposing on ourselves systems that are alien to us, to our culture, to our souls.” Some think…
First published on September 23, 2019, and repeated on August 22, 2022. Since man became aware of himself and realised that whether by mutual arrangement or contrived by nature, there are always leaders and followers, communities fashioned out ways and means in which to live together under organised systems to regulate and conduct their affairs. From primitive father figure leadership to the animalistic instinct of the strongest leading the flock, man has experimented with many ways in which to live in harmony with one another and with the larger community. Since then, nations have tinkered with various forms, some of…
Nigeria is mobilising countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fight the coup plotters of the Niger Republic to restore democracy. The regional body, led by Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has expressed its resolve to use all necessary measures to restore constitutional order in the country, including the use of force, if they do not meet its demands in a week. Backed to the hilt by America and France, ECOWAS leaders’ demand to Niger’s junta leaders is simple: release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum within a week. That deadline expired yesterday. But if the leaders…
“Any man whom Allah has given the authority of ruling some people and he does not look after them in an honest manner, will never feel even the smell of Paradise.” – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Before going to my topic, please allow me a little digression. I want to start by appealing to the federal government to please stop the charade and for the people to not take their eyes off the goalpost. Or where do you place the ongoing drama about the former Central Bank Governor’s arrest, arraignment, and re-arrest? In the first place, no one told the nation why he…
Last week, the federal government, through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), banned two loan app banks, permanently removing them from Google Play Store and initiating the process of deleting their respective apps. The culprits, Sycamore Integrated Solutions Limited and Orange Loan and Purple Credit Limited, along with their apps, Getloan and Camelloan, were permanently delisted due to their illicit practices and for their harassment of Nigerians. They were also accused of duplicity and illegal activities when they were discovered to be using APKs to attract borrowers, which is both illegal and unregulated. The truth is that loan…
Who has not had an old car before? The type of car that makes you become a friend to the mechanic? This is because when one issue is resolved, another rears its head, necessitating you to visit again. Sometimes the problem may be those of “rings”. Repair them and the gearbox seeks your notice. Pacify it, the brake pad packs up. Change it, the shock absorber begins to get shocked. All these and more make you a regular, visiting the mechanics again. And again. And again. Sometimes you have to leave the car with the mechanics for a day or…
While we knew and respected each other from a distance, I first met Ja’afar Ja’afar in 2015 when I was serving my second stint as the editor of Friday Leadership. Journalists have a way of knowing themselves through various networks even if they had never met. Journalism is a profession like any other that builds one’s reputation in the eyes of the world. Knowing the hassles one goes through to put a paper to bed or produce an article, colleagues rate themselves even from afar. Ja’afar, with his equally double-barrelled named journalist twin brother, AbdulAzeez AbdulAzeez, is one of those…
Decree 33 of 1977 saw to the birth of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on April 1 of that year through the merger of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel. The main purpose was for it to add value to the nation’s hydrocarbon resources “for the benefit of the nation’s economy…” NNPC’s Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt Refineries, among others, were built solely for the “benefit” of the Nigerian economy. Completed and commissioned in 1980, the Kaduna Refinery was meant to be a modern conversion refinery having two parts: 50,000 barrels of…
This week, Muslims the world over will celebrate the eid-ul-adha or the “big eid” or “big Sallah”. We are, however, more interested in its meaning, implications and bearing on us as a nation. We need to look at spiritual milestones, hoping to find the seemingly elusive panacea for our ills. Eid means feast, festival or celebration, while adha loosely means “sacrifice” (animal sacrifice), “offering” or “oblation”. It so got its name because it commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s (AS) devotion to Allah (SWT) and his readiness to sacrifice Ismail, his son, for His love. The Qur’anic story has it that Ibrahim (AS)…
“If we are true to ourselves, we cannot be false to anyone.” – William Shakespeare. Recently, there have been people saying they regret not voting for President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To them, he has performed beyond expectations. In just three weeks? This is quite unprecedented because what we used to have were people either jumping off from a rudderless boat or dropping down from a driverless bus. Many people who despaired yesterday are hopeful today. The nation’s confidence in the presidency is replacing the gloom that was there three weeks ago. There is a feeling of assurance that tomorrow…
“So many people are hanging on by the thinnest of threads. Treat people with kindness, you could be that thread.” – John Pavlovitz The above proverbial expression, which alludes to an occasion between Damocles and King Dionysius, may define the situation between Nigerians and their president. Without a doubt, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the oath of office amidst significant concerns expressed by many Nigerians. Apart from that, the courts are still hearing challenges to his emergence as president. He is also, so far, the only president with a minority of votes in an election in Nigeria. Every president since 1999 has…
“The measurement of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato Today marks the end of the two-term tenure of a man who came with tremendous goodwill, the kind never before witnessed in Nigeria’s chequered political history. One can still remember some young Nigerians trekking from one end of Nigeria to another in high hopes of the new president. However, unlike Caesar, it is doubtful if he can thump his chest and declare “Veni, vidi, vici”—I came; I saw; I conquered. General Muhammadu Buhari was the first to beat an incumbent president in a free and fair election…
In the system of governance we practise, there are three arms – the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. The Legislature is said to be the first among the three. The arms are characterised by the principle of separation of powers as each is supposed to be independent of the other. The doctrine of separation of powers was first formulated by one of the most important 18th Century political scientists, the French political philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu, in his work De l’esprit des lois, or ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ (1748), which states that “There can be no liberty where the legislative…
This writing was first published on 6 July 2020. With changes of leadership soon at the federal and state levels, I see it as relevant. The first part in particular. However, do we forget the lessons in the second part? The world is changed by your example not by your opinion – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Lyricist and author of The Alchemist. Allah (SWT) said in the Qur’an that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in their hearts. It is a verse widely quoted out of context by people wanting to give their…
My column of last week with the title “Like Mamu, like Abdulsalami and the billion naira firefighter” drew the attention of Colonel Dangiwa Umar (retd). The respected senior citizen was more particular about the first part because I mentioned him. In the piece, I pointed out that Tukur Mamu, publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald and an aide to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric, was arrested in September last year and taken to court on a 10-count charge bordering on terrorism financing. He was accused of receiving ransom payments from families of hostages on behalf of the Boko Haram…
In a move normally seen in Hollywood spy thrillers, Tukur Mamu, publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald and an aide to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric, was arrested in September last year at the Cairo International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj, and detained for 24 hours before he was repatriated back to Nigeria. Perhaps Mamu’s arrest was not because of negotiations for the release of the passengers abducted during the attack on a Kaduna-bound train in March 2022. Perhaps. The Department of State Services (DSS) which describes the outcome of its investigation on him…
