Nigerian Elite Connexion I

This is an old article that I never get tired of reading over and over again. It was originally published in Leadership Confidential, the subscription only publication by Mr Sam Nda-Isaiah, the publisher of Leadership Newspapers. Even though a lot has happened since the publication, it still makes a good read and throws light on how intricate the connections between the Nigerian elite are.

 To the casual observer, the events that shape and continue to configure what happens on Nigeria’s socio-political and economic firmament are either coincidental, mere happenstance or outright accidental.

Far from it, as Leadership Confidential can authoritatively confirm that many developments were/are carefully conceptualised, planned and implemented by the country’s elites, who are intricately entwined by either fraternity, business interests, blood relationships or marriage linkages.

Such marriages cut across ethno—religious boundaries and had pre—dated 1914, when the British colonialists through Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates into the present day Nigeria.

For example, do you know that Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State, Yobe State Governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Ibrahim Bunu and former Nigerian ambassador to the US, Senator Jibril Aminu are all married to the sisters of Ammuna Lawal, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Nigeria’s Country Governor at OPEC? Ammuna is the wife of former managing director of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Ibrahim Ali, who is the brother of former Governor Mala Kachalla of Borno State.

Similarly, Abba, son of the late General Murtala Mohammed, Nigeria’s former head of state is married to Ammuna’s daughter. You may also not be aware, but it is true that Umaru Mutallab, an accomplished banker is married to the elder sister of Mouftah Baba-Ahmed, former chairman of NAL Bank and director of NEPA, who in turn is married to the daughter of Mutallab from his other wife.

Leadership Confidential can also authoritatively inform you that former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, his former Director of Military Intelligence (DMI), Brigadier-General Halilu Akilu, and Dr. Abdulsalam Mustapha, proprietor of Mustapha Clinics in Minna, Niger State are married to siblings.

From across the Niger, the first wife of Michael Ibru, (patriarch of the Ibru dynasty), Muriel, had a son, Nnaemeka, for Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. She was then the secretary of African Continental Bank (ACB), which Zik founded in the 1955. Nnaemeka, through the Ibru connection (maternal) set up Emene Motors Ltd, which is an offshoot of Rutam Motors, owned by the Ibrus.

Are you aware that Mohammed Ibrahim, former director—general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Dr. Mahmud Tukur, a one-time vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano and Minister of Commerce during General Muhammadu Buhari’s administration; and Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar (Mairago), Executive Secretary of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) are married to the sisters of Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, former military governor of Kaduna State? Equally, the other wife of Dr. Mahmud Tukur is the elder sister of Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mairago's other wife is the daughter of the late Hamza Zayyad, chairman of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC). Dr. Mahmud Tukur’s daughter is married to her cousin, the son of Bamanga Tukur, Awwal.

The daughter of Senator Isaiah Balat is married to the son of AVM Ishaya Shekari, former military administrator of old Kano State. Likewise, do you know that the wives of General Domkat Bali, Nigeria’s former defence minister and Solomon Daushep Lar, former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are sisters? Senator Aliyu Zego Aziz (Wazirin Jaba) and Air Commodore David Jonah Jang, former military governor of defunct Gongola State are also married to sisters.

Unknown to many also, is the fact that the wives of Mamman Daura, chairman of Kaduna Furniture and Carpets Company (KFCC), Abubakar Alhaji, former minister of finance and current Sardaunan Sokoto, General Aliyu Mohammed, National Security Adviser (NSA) and Munnir Ja’afaru, former director—general of Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) are the daughters of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki.

Examples of marriages that cross the ethnic barrier include that of Ebitu Ukiwe, former number two to General Ibrahim Babangida, who married Amina, the daughter of Ahmed Talib, foremost Northern Nigerian leader and General Mamman Remawa’s daughter, Fati, is married to the son of Ambassador Tunji Olagunju, Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa.

Leadership Confidential can also affirm that, the son of consummate politician, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Murtala, is married to the daughter of Dr. Sadiq Wali, physician to five past Nigerian leaders. It is also true that General John Temlong and General Jerry Useni, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are in—laws.

It is also authoritative that one-time General Officer Commanding (GOC), General Joshua Dogonyaro married the daughter of elder statesman Ali Monguno, Fatima, and they have five children. Also, the late General Joe Garba, former Nigeria’s External Affairs Minister was married to the sister of one—time Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, with whom they sired a daughter, Fatima, who got married to Omar Ado Ibrahim’s son. Ibrahim is the Attah of Ibirra.

Former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Murtala Nyako is married to Justice Binta, who is General Remawa’s very close niece. Engineer Nura Khalil, ANPP Katsina State gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 elections, Waziri Mohammed, chairman Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) and Ladan Lema Jibrilu are married to the daughters of wealthy Dantata family of Kano.

Edo State born Christopher Abebe, former chairman/CEO of United African Company (UAC) is the father of Stella, wife of President Olusegun Obasanjo, while the Lamido of Adamawa, Dr. Aliyu Mustapha, sired one of the four wives of Vice President Atiku Abubakar. General Buba Marwa’s first wife, Zainab, with whom he has all his grown up children (all lawyers), is the elder sister of Phil Agbassi, currently Vice President Atiku’s special assistant, who was married to Sonia. Chiikwuemeka Chikelu’s elder sister. Chikelu is the current Nigerian minister of information.

Chikelu himself is married to the daughter of Adamawa State born General Anthony Hananiya, Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
Former Minister for Special Duties, Yomi Edu, is married to the daughter of Alfa Wali of Kano State, one-time Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

Governor Ibrahim Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State is married to the daughters of Dr. Awwal Ibrahim, Emir of Suleja and the late Mukhtari Bello, former managing director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC). Likewise, businessman, Lawal Idris is married to the daughter of Justice Mamman Nasir.

Unknown to many also is the fact that Umaru Shinkafi, Marafan Sokoto, former head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO); Shehu Malami, one-time Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa and Mamman Bashar, Emir of Daura are in—laws to the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello.

Mohammed Haruna, and the late Kere Ahmed, director of the NTA are in-laws, while the son of the late Mahmoud Attah, Bello, is married to the daughter of General T.Y. Danjuma, Gloria The daughter of one-time executive governor of Kano State, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar Rimi is married to the son of businessman, Isyaku Rabiu.


To be continued...

Lessons Learned In Abuja

So it seems like Abuja is fast replacing Kaduna as my second home. In the last 12 months I've spent more time in Abuja while out of town than in any other city in Nigeria. However, unlike the case with Kaduna, I am finding it a little more difficult to fit into the everyday social lifestyle of the city. Even though, my personality is more inclined towards being an introvert, it still shocks me how individualistic people's lives are in Abuja. And from my little observation, it seems to be hurting most of them even if they are yet to realize that.

Good Children, Bad Adults
The kids seem to be doing better than the adults. For example, I may be standing outside the house within the estate where I stay, a little boy or girl may be passing by and will turn in my direction, smile and say "Good evening sir" and I always gladly reply them "Good evening, how are you?". In contrast, you'll see an adult who by all indications grew up in a village and should understand the social norms of any African community approaching, and even more absurd is the fact that he/she is walking a dog. He will pass so close to you at an uncomfortable proximity automatically assuming you are Ok with his dog being this close to you. So in trying to cut the awkwardness, you say "Hello." He then turns, look you straight in the eyes and then turn again, looking straight down the road and passing away without saying anything.
I was initially confused because I thought it was some form of arrogance. My confusion however is why would working class people living in a middle class neighborhood be this arrogant? I later found the answer, not in the neighborhood but on the streets.

 Traffic Jam Lesson
Traffic jams are now becoming a regular feature on most roads in Abuja especially in the evenings after workers have closed for the day. I came to observe, that most of the traffic jams I find myself are caused by someones inpatient and arrogant actions. The interesting thing however is nobody among the drivers will try to do something meaningful to unjam the traffic flow. The best people do is throw insults around. So one day in such a situation, I saw an elderly man got out of his car and started to direct the traffic, so I also got out of my car and helped him. In less than two minutes, traffic started flowing smoothly again. It was then that it occurred to me, that all that arrogance I have been experiencing from people in the city was actually not arrogance. It was an attempt to hide a feeling of helplessness and insecurity. Once somebody volunteered to step forward and take leadership in a difficult situation, the people willingly follow him.


Road Accident Lesson
In order, to compensate for my less than healthy eating habit while away from Maiduguri, I started some cardio exercise by taking long walks every evening. In one of such walks, an accident between a car and a Keke Napep occurred right in front of me. No life was lost but people were very injured and were lying helplessly on the road. This happened in front of a popular shopping mall but to my surprise nobody was doing anything to help them. You only see people holding their heads and saying things like "La ila!" or "Jesus!". This was really a shocker to me, if the same were to occur in Maiduguri, you would have seen people volunteering to help the victims by at least moving them away from the road. So I decided to take an action like the elderly man in the traffic jam. I stopped a man who is trying to maneuver his way around the victims helplessly lying on the road. I knocked on his window to wind down, but he only angrily looked at me without doing anything. I moved to the passengers side where his wife is, gestured to her to wind down the glass which she did. Before I could say anything he yelled "What!?" visibly pissed off by my action, I replied "When you reach the next junction, you'll see some police officers there, tell them about the accident here". To my surprise, he replied "Ok, I'll do that" and drove on. Then it occurred to me again, that it's really not arrogance that the man was exhibiting but a feeling of insecurity covered in a thin veil of arrogance. He was afraid of taking any action, but the fact that I took the risk of stepping forward and telling him what to do, he was Ok with doing something about the accident.

The Case Of The Missing Manhole Covers
I also observed during my many long walks the missing manholes covers in Abuja. This I have heard many people complain about. However, what came to my mind is not just the criminal act of stealing the covers. It may indicate that there is an informal metal foundry business in or around Abuja and the manhole covers may just be the raw materials for that industry. I wish I could investigate further to see how right or wrong my assumption is. However, a simple solution to the manhole cover problem is for the government to replace the metal cast covers with concrete cast ones. That will not only be cheaper and easier to produce, but it will be of little or no value to the thieves.

I guess, Abuja being a microcosm of Nigeria will be a wonderful place for researching and finding solutions to some of the problems common to every section of the country. Some of these solutions can be as simple as casting manhole covers from concrete instead of iron.

Balkanization Of Nigeria, What We Say And What We Do

Often you hear Nigerians saying that Nigeria as a country is nothing but a contraption created by the British and so it cannot work. Such statements come from people from every section of Nigeria who think that the "other guy" or the other ethnic group or region is responsible for their woes. Personally I think that is nothing but playing the ostrich. Before we blame that region or that ethnic group for our problems we need to first check to see if our local leaders from our own regions are doing a good job. But that is not the meat of this post. What I want to put forward here is a theory I learned regarding software development and marketing. The theory tells the software entrepreneur that what customers say they want isn't necessarily what they really want. The job of the entrepreneur is to find out what his target customers really want and surprise them with it.

So when some Nigerians say "Break up this country !", is that what they really want? I think not. There are many reasons for this conclusion but let's consider a few of them

First, the same Nigerians regularly insulting the country and calling it an artificial creation (is there a country that is a natural creation?) are the first Nigerians that flare up when a foreigner makes a rude statement about the country. Sometimes even if it is an honest and constructive criticism. Remember the outrage when late Muammar Ghaddafi called for the balkanization of Nigeria? Or the reaction to the current position of some international organizations that the Nigerian military are not fit to lead operations in Northern Mali? There is also a recent statement by Zimbabwe telling it's citizens not to come to Nigeria.

And then there is Football. Yes football. I noticed that when the Nigerian national team scores, all Nigerian celebrate whether it is Nwanko Kanu from Arochuckwu or Celestine Babayaro from Kaduna that scores. In fact we refer to the team as "we".

Quite a number of Igbos are still agitating for the breaking off of the South-Eastern part of the country to form the Republic of Biafra. I will not argue for or against that idea here but I will consider the actions of our Igbo brothers and not their words. I think judging by their actions, the Igbos believe in Nigeria more than any other ethnic group. Well, the Igbos are the quickest to buy land and properties in any area they settle. I recently learned that about 70% of all the land in Abuja is owned by Igbos. They are also found in every nook and cranny of this country doing business. That doesn't look like the action of people trying to secede.

And despite the efforts by some sections of both the local and the international media to paint the Boko Haram crisis in the North as a case of Northerners versus Southerners or Muslims versus Christians, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Igbo leader in Maiduguri urging for the amendment of the constitution to address the issue of indigenes and settlers. He argued that, many of his people have spent more than 30 years in Maiduguri and consider Maiduguri home and thus they shouldn't be regarded as settlers. I quite agree with him.

There are also Northerners that you hear saying that we should get rid of the South and bring back the groundnut pyramids. I still don't understand the logic behind that statement. Is any Southerner stopping Northerners from going back to the farm? Anyway I think the actions of those people speak louder and contrary to their words. Just like the Igbos, the Hausas who are the largest ethnic group in the North are found in every corner of the country usually engaged in petty trade. Do these pro-Balkanization Northerners think their ethnic brothers in South want to come back to the North? I believe anywhere in Nigeria should be home to any Nigerian. What these ignorant Northerners don't know is history. Before the consolidation of the Sokoto caliphate, the Hausa city states in that area often engage in wars between themselves. Hausas versus Hausas. Though they see it as something like Kano versus Zaria or Katsina versus Kano and so on. This alone tears the argument of finding Nirvana when we get rid of the other ethnic groups. As for the North-East, I believe that region whether it's the parts of the ancient Kanem-Bornu empire or the ancient Fombina has more ethnic groups than any other section of Nigeria. There is a local government in Borno state that has more than 40 different ethnic groups alone. Do we break that local government down to 40 countries?

When one considers points like the ones above you then wonder, why are some people still calling for the break up of Nigeria? Easy. Intellectual laziness. Instead of us spending time to discover and analyse our real problems, we take the lazy man's way out. We take to blaming the person that looks different from us or speaks a different language from ours for all the problems of the country.

I think by their actions, majority of Nigerians love Nigeria.

No Apologies For Being Nigerian

I always say that most of the problems of Nigeria is manifested in our so-called educated people. They are the ones that worry so much about how the world think of us and less about how we really improve at home.The so-called illiterate rural dwellers who make the bulk of our population worry about real problems like getting fertilizer for their farms or getting a clinic close to their village. I've had this feeling for some time but didn't have the right words to articulate it in writing. So I am now reading Tope Fasua's book titled CRUSHED and just came across a chapter where he expressed just that feeling better than I can ever imagine to. He complained about the lack of deep analysis of the corruption problem in Nigeria by our intelligentsia and how we are unable to trace the root causes of the problem. We often prefer to ignore the powerful countries' roles in promoting corruption in Nigeria and Africa. We ignore things like Swiss coded accounts that facilitate the looting of Africa's money to Europe by corrupt leaders. He hit the nail on the head when he sited how a common foreign news anchor was bombarding Nigeria's then vice president Dr Goodluck Jonathan for all the corruption going on in Nigeria. And worse of all, the position of most people was like "Oh we are sorry we are corrupt". My point? I am tired of that attitude and have stopped accepting that holier than thou stance from any foreigner just because I am Nigerian.
So some days ago I tried to buy a hosting service from a U.S.A based company, all the process went smoothly until I tried to make the final payment. Their system suddenly blocked me out because my address is in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Instead of walking away from the transaction, I submitted a support ticket to them specifically telling them that I am Nigerian and that I understand that I cannot pay for their services because of that. Instead of apologizing for my being Nigerian, I requested that they delete my account since they will not do business with me. That I will go and find a hosting company that is ready to do business with me. Less than ten minutes I received a reply from them with an apology and an explanation that they have manually generated an invoice for me to make the payment.
My friend and co-owner of our startup software company is an ardent follower of a certain blog that revolves around a version control system. When the blog author gave out free copies of his book, people need to fill out a form on the blog site to show their interest. The form however has no provision for Nigerian addresses and doesn't allow alternate means of supplying such addresses. So my friend emailed the author and told him that he shouldn't ignore Nigeria because he has readers there. I do not know how the conversation continued but the author went out of his way to send him a copy of the book all the way to Maiduguri.
So I imagined if every Nigerian will try that method instead of getting a fake U.S address, may be with a few transactions we can change that attitude towards us. I think the world is like a playground. People will bully you when they think you are weak and have no options. I am not saying that we should be proud of Yahoo boys but I think I should not be held responsible for what Yahoo boys do. Afterall, no country ever decided not to buy Nigerian crude oil because of corruption. The psychological bullying will only stop when the victim stand up to the bully by proving his worth.

I Want To Touch My Money

I couldn't help but keep thinking on the way the Central Bank Of Nigeria is pushing hard for the adoption of electronic money in Nigeria. I mean, why the relentless push? First of all, I am not trying to resist change, being a software developer, I should be in support of innovative use of technology but my view is that it shouldn't be pushed down people's throats.

When ATMs were introduced, the CBN never forced people to start using it. ATM got traction because it's value is obvious. It saves you a lot of time you would have spent on a queue in a banking halls. It also lets you withdraw cash anytime of the day.

So I was thinking, is the CBN pushing us to the right direction with it's cashless policy? To answer that we have to consider the qualities needed for something to qualify as good money. Apart from the well known qualities of money like acceptability, portability, durability and homogeneity, modern money should be easily transfered from the physical form to electronic form and back to the physical form. This is not magic or science fiction, we have been doing it for some time now. When we put physical cash in a bank account we are in essence transforming it to electronic form. We can electronically transfer that money to somebody else's bank account and the receiver can cash it, or in order words transform it back to physical money.

The ATMs were successful because they allow us to get money in it's physical form that we can see and touch. People don't want their money to be kept simply as records on some server.

This is me, a person with a fair understanding of electronics and computers being uncomfortable with the cashless policy, how about the local cattle dealer in Maiduguri that transacts in millions and takes his money to the bank in grain bags?

I think what the CBN should do is to make the cashless thing so attractive that people will opt in on their own. And I don't think they can do that by eliminating cash.

The bottom line is, my money should be available whether their is a functioning Internet access or not, whether there is electricity or not. As far as I know now, that can only be in physical cash.

Please tell me if I'm wrong.

I Smell A Revolution

Not that I have ever been in a revolution before, but the recent protests regarding the removal of petrol subsidy by the Nigerian government smells different from any other protest I have seen in Nigeria before. I thought then, that most be the smell of revolution. I did once posted on this blog that our on-line revolutionaries were just talking and can't do much in the real world. I guess I may be wrong, people are indeed pushing into the real world. It all started when some people in Abuja communicated via some social network technologies to meet at the Eagle Square to sign a petition against the petrol subsidy removal. In less than two hours, more than a thousand people have gathered. And that's despite the fact that most Abuja residents were out of town not back from the new year break. The police made some arrests but the released the people the next day.

Other cities followed suit with massive protests. These include Lagos, Kano, Gusau, Benin, Kaduna, Yola to mention just a few. Today is the fifth day of protests and it seems to be growing even bigger.

The Kano Convenant
The most interesting of all the protesting cities in Nigeria so far is Kano. In Kano apart from the fact that protesters sleep over at the venue of the protest, there was also a convenant that Christians and Muslims will protect each other during their respective prayers. The evil Nigerian political elite have always used religious difference to divide the masses. I think the unprecedented Kano convenant has taken them unawares.

Nigerian Hackers
So far some group of Nigerian hackers have been expressing their anger by attacking some websites and placing messages on the front page expressing their anger with the government. These may not be too legal but the mistake has already been made. The Federal Government has unleashed the devils in many Nigerians. The website to attacked is that of the Federal Ministry of Transport.

Government Playing Tough
The Federal Government has so far declared that the fuel subsidy removal is final and it will not revert. I think the government is being dumb instead of being tough as they think. Closing all options for the masses means the masses will eventually resolve to any means possible to get back at the decision makers. It's not going to be pretty. People are no longer afraid of dying. I heard many protesters urging their comrades to proceed even if they are killed in the process.

The ruling elite seems to be ignorant of history, it seems history is about to made but they choose to be on the wrong side of it.

The best thing the government should do is not to let the protests turn violent by avoiding brute force and listening to the people. Apparently they think that is cowardice.

"Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable"

- J. F. Kennedy

Time will tell.

New Players In Space

China seems to be completing the takeover from U.S.A as the world leading country. There are many factors that made me think so, but the most interesting to me is space technology.
China successfully put man in space for the first time in 2003.  After that they had several manned space expeditions and also had their first spacewalk. Today China successfully launched it's first space laboratory Tiangong-1 into orbit. They plan to launch Senzhou-8 soon and will couple with Tiangong-1 to mark the first steps into building their space station which they hope to complete by 2015.

In contrast the U.S.A is retiring it's space shuttle program for good. In the future, U.S.A will have to rely on Russia to convey it's astronauts to space. They are however hoping that American private companies will rise up and fill that gap left in conveying astronauts to space. This will cost the American government about $50 million dollars per astronaut.

Other countries that may be playing greater roles space technology in the near future may include Turkey and Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria. Nigeria has recently lauched it's second and third earth observation satellites namely NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X. NigeriaSat-X signifies major progress for Nigerian space ambitions because it is built entirely by Nigerian engineers.

Many Nigerians argue that Nigeria should suspend it's space program
because it has no impact on the ordinary man's life. I think that is not true, the average Nigerian simply doesn't know the impact of our satellite on his life.  NigeriaSat-1 has immensely helped in getting early warning signs of floods but I must admit the relevant government agencies failed to act on the information.

Others argue that we shouldn't worry about space technology when we have things like good health care delivery and stable electricity to worry about. But just because the ministries of health and power are not meeting the expectations of Nigerians doesn't mean that the science and technology ministry should stay back and wait for them. It's like telling a person not to buy a TV or electric iron until we have stable power supply. Developing the various sectors of our national life should be carried out in parallel. Moreover Nigeria spent less on it's space program than it has spent in hosting football tournaments.

I am of the view that Nigeria can leapfrog into the space technology field like China did. All that is needed is a lot of discipline and optimism. A Chinese scientist recently said that three decades ago, the thought of China going into space will sound like science fiction. I hope a few years from now, a Nigerian scientist can look back and say the same.

Muslims And Irrational Thinking

I received an interesting mail from a friend about the irrational spendings of Nigerian Muslims in the name of religion. This is something that has been bothering me for long because I see people in my immediate environment doing so. The problem is you get accused of being too westernized for stating the obvious. Finally Muslim clerics are also beginning to call against our outrageous annual spending on Umrah (voluntary pilgrimage). I reproduce the content of the mail below.

Dr. Ahmad Gumi on Umrah

 

Dr. Ahmad Gummi made the following brief comment in an internet forum regarding our misplaced obsession with Umrah and I feel compelled to bring it to the notice of my readers:

 

In as much as there is a general excitement among the rich Muslims to go on Umra during the fasting period, we need to note that the extra virtue of Umrah in Ramadan is contestable among the scholars because the hadith in question was narrated to apply to specific people at a specific time (Ibn Kathir). Also, the practical sunnah of the Prophet and the salaf did not promote it.

However, the ibadat whose extra virtues are not contestable are:

1. Feeding the poor (remember that Somalians are dying of hunger).

2. Treating the sick (remember that treatable communicable diseases are the number one killer diseases in Africa

3. Promoting education (remember that the number one malady of the Ummah is ignorance)
Calling to Islam (remember that the image of true Islam needs to be corrected)

4. Solving these issues requires money and spending generously on them is BETTER and more VIRTUOUS than to spend on umra in Ramadan or the voluntary hajj.
 

DR. ALIYU TILDE'S COMMENT:

Despite the incessant calls for spending on the above issues in place of Umrah, Nigerian Muslim elites continue to undertake the Umrah annually. Just some few hours ago, the BBC announced that British citizens have raised $68million (N11 billion) for victims of famine in Somalia, coming second only to the US which raised a slightly higher amount. How much has the Muslim World raised, apart from the anticipated donation from Saudi Arabia? How can we Muslims claim a better moral pedestal than the West?

Where are the Muslim charity groups, including the Red Crescent? We only hear about Oxfam and other charities from the very West that al-Shabab is preventing from reaching the affected areas.

If it were only for our dismal effort, the affected populations in Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and now Uganda would be wiped out. There is an ever ready alibi for our inaction: "It is God who caused the draught and the deaths. If he did not wish it, it would not have happened." Of what benefit would it be to God if He sees infants dying? There is something missing in us. The earlier we start looking for it the better. Can we ever wake up and believe in our capacity to improve on our condition without resorting to blaming God?

I have long ago reached the conclusion that the problem is in our brains. Consider this arithmetic:

If the umrah going Muslims among Nigerians would agree to spend the cost of their umrah on education, many schools would have been built across the country. Not less than N2billion is spent annually, which is enough to build 10 hospitals or 200 primary schools annually. That is 200 hospitals or 2,000 schools – modern or Qur’anic – across the nation in just ten years! In our weird thinking, we feel spending these colossal amounts in quest for a reward on an act of worship whose virtue is even contestable among the scholars is better than using them to solve our social problems. Mhm.

Unless the Muslim World subscribes to rational thinking, it must abandon any hope of solving its problems of poverty, ignorance, disease and backwardness. However, it is not that we are incapable of rational thinking, we are afraid of it.

May God reward Dr. Ahmad Gummi for his nasiha.

 

  I think Muslims all over the world have a responsibility of being fair to themselves before crying of unfair treatment from others.

Ubuntu Nigeria

When I started using Linux around the year 2002, I felt like I belong to an elite group of computer users. Back then I believe there were less than 10 of us in Maiduguri. But apart from feeling important, I also felt a little bit odd, because it's always difficult to tell an average Windows user why I run Linux. Not everybody understands the excitement of exploring something new, different and flexible as Linux. I think it was RedHat 8.0. But 8 years later, now the situation is different, it's not uncommon to see, everyday computer users including elderly people now running Linux. And this is all thanks to Ubuntu. As it's slogan goes "Linux For Human Beings", Ubuntu has brought Linux to the non-techies without taking the flexibility away. Though without concrete data, I believe Ubuntu has seen a great increase in users not only in Maiduguri but across Nigeria. A testimony to that is the Ubuntu Nigeria blog

A Little Mathematics For Independence Day

This year (2010) 17 African countries will mark their 50 years of independence from colonial rule. Many people especially in Nigeria think there is nothing much to celebrate. Some go on to call Nigeria names like "fool at fifty". I am not going to argue for or against that point of view but I will try to make a comparison of Nigeria with the United States and see whether we have made any progress in the last fifty years. I picked the U.S.A because people often cite examples with the United States when trying to make a point about how backward we are.

The United States became independent in 1776, that is 234 years ago. If we are to assume both Nigeria and the U.S are human beings and the U.S to be an adult of 40 years old then how old will Nigeria be in comparison.
Using simple mathematics we can apply the following formula

50/234 = x/40

where x is Nigeria's age if it were human.

x =8.54 years

So Nigeria is only an 8 year old child compared to the 40 year old America. For a child of that age, I think we've not done too bad.

Dealing With Piracy

I was reading an article about Selling Software In China and came across the following statement under the topic "Dealing With Piracy";

"Actually “Dealing with piracy” is a misleading title, because in reality there is no way to deal with piracy. People will crack, copy and use your software as they wish, and they will not even feel guilty about it. Again, let’s not judge, but accept the fact that piracy is simply part of the culture (for some it is piracy, for others it is just sharing) Instead of talking about code scramblers and licensing keys, let me offer here a contrarian (perhaps even controversial) point of view, in the wisdom of “if you can’t fight them, join them”. You should consider yourself lucky if your software gets pirated, because that means that it got traction. For every pirated software there is always a happy user behind it (after all, they chose to pirate your software, and not your competitor’s), and if this user convinces their employer to use your software, then there is a good chance that these companies will be your future clients."

This statement makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of looking at piracy from the constant negative point of view why don't we try to be innovative and tactically deal with, and profit from it. For example, companies like Oracle and Microsoft have made some money in Nigeria because of piracy. The easy availability of pirated copies of their software gets a lot of users for them and these users end up paying for the certifications offered by these companies. Imagine a piracy free Nigeria where users only have access to legitimate copies of these software, definitely there will be very little or no users and almost zero dollars generated from the certifications.

I am not saying piracy is good, but if you can't get through it why not get around it.

Nigerian Internet Revolutionaries

By Internet revolutionaries I am not referring to those people that brought about the Internet revolution but to those people that think they can bring a revolution using the Internet. Many times you come across them in forums or see their comments on blogs and news sites. They talk about how bad things are in Nigeria and how frustrated they are and how very soon those on top will pay for everything they owe.

The ones I am very familiar with are typically found on the political section of Nairaland or commenting to articles on 234next.

First of all, I disagree with their idea of a violent revolution being the solution to our problems in Nigeria. The solution should be built from the ground up and not the other way round.
The solution starts from you, what have you done lately to make things better. Have you stopped shunting in queues? Have you managed to fill that pot hole on the road in your neighborhood? Have you stopped that guy dumping refuse by the roadside. No I don't think so, because all those things happen in the real world and not in cyberspace. To get to the real world, you have to leave the coziness of your room or office and get out to make a change.

But I forgot, just getting outside is not enough because the greater number of the revolutionaries have left the country and plan to come back only when things get better.

Definitely the revolution will come, it will not involve shedding blood but individual efforts coming together to build a better system. But the Internet revolutionaries are going to miss it. They will miss it because it will not be fun as they imagined. They will miss it because they can't risk leaving facebook , twitter or Nairaland for so long as five minutes.

But they will read about the revolution, in fact, they have been reading about it because the real revolutionaries also use technology, but they don't call for bloodshed. They use technology to create positive change. And after adventures in the real world, some come to cyberspace and tell their stories in blogs and forums. They just know that you don't tweet a revolution.

So. What have you done for Nigeria lately?

FOSS Nigeria 2010

The second Nigerian free and open source software conference took place from 23rd to 25th of April 2010. The conference was tagged FOSS Nigeria 2010 and it took place and the Center For Democratic Research And Training, Mambayya House in Kano, Nigeria. The main sponsors of the conference are Hutsoft Nigeria limited and the Center For Information Technology (CIT) of the Bayero University Kano. I attended the first conference FOSS Nigeria 2009 last year and have noticed quite some improvement in the organization of the event which shows that the organizers are keen on making it a really great event.















Mustapha Abubakar of Hutsoft


Adrian de Groot K.D.E ev's vice president who was here last year attended this year's event from Netherlands while Frederik Gladhorn a K.D.E developer came from Germany.














Frederik Gladhorn

I am happy to note that this year's event has some participants from the Southern part of Nigeria. I had a brief chat with a team that told me that they are from Ibadan. LPI-Nigeria also sent a representative from Ibadan who conducted the LPI examinations for participants at a good discount. I never got Mr Ola's last name but he is a great guy.















Ola, Frederik, Adriaan and Mustapha at a restaurant.

The range of topics on which talks were given are broad. This range from introduction to K.D.E and Gnome desktops to localizations and open source 3D modelling.















Muhammad Ahmad Abubakar and Abubakar Dala of 3D Formular giving a live demo of blender

Talks were given by the following people

Adriaan De Groot (K.D.E ev)
Auwal Alhassan Tata (CIT, Bayero University Kano)
Frederik Gladhorn (FSFE)
Mustapha Abubakar (Hutsoft Nigeria Limited)
Murtala Kazaure
Ibrahim Abubakar Dasuma (Hutsoft Nigeria Limited)
Abubakar Dala and Muhammad Ahmad Abubakar (3D Formula)

I also gave a talk on making money with free software. I was quite surprised by the way it was received. I noticed some participants taking notes during the talk which tells me that they are keen on implementing some of the ideas I talked about.

This year's event saw the distribution of linux distro CDs (Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Opensuse) to participants. The last day was closed by the presentation of traditional Fulani dresses to Adriaan and Frederik.

U.S.A and the Giant Of Africa

Recently I'm beginning to get more and more worried about how our government is blowing it's own trumpet too loud. Agreed that we are ahead of many African countries in some sectors of development, but I think it's a bad idea to keep telling ourselves that we are the giant of Africa. The United States also have that mentality, but there phrase is "No. 1" instead of "Giant".
The Americans are ahead of us in that craze because not only the government promotes that concept but even the citizens do. I do not want us to follow the footsteps of U.S.A in self delusion given some disturbing statistics I came across about the United States. Just take time to go through the following


America No. 1? America by the numbers by Michael Ventura 02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:


* The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

* The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

* "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

* Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

* "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

* "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

* Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

* Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

* The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

* "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

* Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

* "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

* Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

* The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

* "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.

* "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

* "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).

* The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

* U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).

* Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).

* Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.

* Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.

* One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

* "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).

* "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).

* Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

* "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

* "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close. The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.





Despite the fact that I think the article's comparison of U.S.A and Europe is unfair given the fact that Europe is not a single country, I still don't want us to end up becoming another U.S.A.