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DREAMS
DREAMS


The lord is good
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Since last night my young son has been unwell. When I got back from work this evening I decided to take him to hospital despite my exhaustion. There were many waiting; perhaps we will be delayed by more than an hour. I took my number and sat down in the waiting room. There were many faces, young and old, but all silent. Some brothers made use of the many booklets available in the waiting room. Some of those waiting had their eyes closed, while others were looking around. Most were bored. Once in a while the long silence was broken by a nurse calling out a number. Happiness appears on the one whose turn it is, and he gets up quickly; then silence returns.

A young man grabbed my attention. He was reading a pocket-sized Quran continuously; not raising his head even once. At first I did not think much about him. However, after one hour of waiting my casual glances turned into a deep reflection about his lifestyle and how he utilizes his time. One hour of life wasted! Instead of making benefit of that hour, it was just a boring wait. Then the call for prayer was made. We went to prayer in the hospital's Masjid. I tried to pray close to the man who was reading the Quran earlier in the waiting room. After the prayer I walked with him. I informed him of how impressed I was of him and how he tries to benefit from his time.

He told me that most of our time is wasted without any benefit. These are days that go from our lives without being conscious of them or regretting their waste. He said that he started carrying the pocket-sized Quran around when a friend encouraged him to make full use of his time. He told me that in the time other people waste he gets to read much more of the Quran than he gets to read either at home or in the Masjid. Moreover, besides the reward of reading the Quran, this habit saves him from boredom and stress.

He added that he has now been waiting for one and a half hours. Then he asked, when will you find one and a half hours to read the Quran? I reflected; how much time do we waste? How many moments of our lives pass by, and yet we do not account for how they passed by? Indeed, how many months pass by and we do not read the Quran? I came to respect my companion, and I discovered that I am to stand for account and that time is not in my hand; so what am I waiting for?

My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse calling out my number; I went to the doctor. But I want to achieve something now. After I left the hospital I quickly went to the bookshop and bought a pocket-sized Quran. I decided to be mindful of how I spend the time.

If this information is beneficial to you, then please do forward it to your friends and relatives. Our Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said; "Whoever guides or directs to good, then he gets the same amount of blessing (reward) as the one who does it" The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wasallam) also said "Pass on knowledge from me even if it is only one verse"



March 30, 2008 | 3:58 PM Comments  0 comments
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Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Niasse
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The following biography is based on “Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse: Revivalist of the Sunnah,” a paper presented by Shaykh Hassan Cisse to a Northwestern University conference on Muslim Scholars in Africa (1984).


Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (1900-1975) was West Africa’s most renowned Islamic scholar in the twentieth century. His followers numbered in the millions and comprised the largest single Muslim movement in West Africa (Hiskett, 1984). He was also well-known among the ulama and leaders of the broader Muslim world and a member of such organizations as the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-‘Alam al-Islami based in Saudi Arabia, of which he served as Vice President), the World Muslim Congress (Mutamar al-‘Alam al-Islami; Karachi, Pakistan), the Islamic Research Assembly (Majma’ al-Buhuth al-Islamiyya; Egypt) and the High Council of Islamic Affairs (Majlis al-‘Ala li al-Shu’un al-Islamiyya; Egypt). Following a trip to Cairo, Egypt, in 1961, he became widely known as “Shaykh al-Islam” after having led the Friday prayers in the prestigious Azhar mosque.

Shaykh Ibrahim also maintained close relations with several prominent leaders in the independence movements during the 1960s, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmad Sekou Touré (Guinea) and Gamal Abd al-Nasser (Egypt). He campaigned tirelessly for governments to respect the rights of Muslims and the oppressed world-wide. He spoke out on several international causes, such as Israeli aggression toward the Palestinians, but he was also interested in interfaith issues and maintained good relations with Vatican representatives. He also became involved in social concerns, stressing racial equality and the rights of women. In regards to the latter, the Shaykh encouraged women to “compete with men in knowledge.”

Shaykh Ibrahim Abdullah Niasse was born in rural Senegal, the son al-Hajj Abdullah Muhammad Niasse. Al-Hajj Abdullah (d. 1922) represented the culmination of a long line of Islamic scholars in the Senegambia region, and was himself a well-traveled and consummate shaykh, attracting students from all around the region as far away as Mauritania. Shaykh Ibrahim was educated primarily at the hands of his father, with full access to his father’s extensive library. Shaykh Ibrahim mastered at an early age from his father the full range of Islamic sciences: the Qur’an and its interpretation, the Hadith and their explanation, jurisprudence and Sufism.

In reference to his educational background and achievements, Shaykh Ibrahim said, “I learned Qur’an and Hadith first from my shaykh, my father, and he, from his father. I received an ‘ijaza (diploma from the majalis al-’ilm) first from my father in both Qur’an and Hadith, then from Abdur-Rahman b. al­Hajj-1-’Alawi (Mauritania) and another ‘ijaza from Shaykh Ahmad Sukayrij (Morocco) who himself had earned some six hundred ‘ijazas from six hundred dif­ferent shaykhs whose names are mentioned in his book, where he writes, ‘The first one to whom I gave authorization in all these chains of transmission was the Khalifa al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse.’” Shaykh Ibrahim once said concerning his scholarly credentials: “What I have in the way of ‘ijaza and muqaddam authorizations would indeed fill a book.”

As for the content of his teaching, it was nothing more or less than the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and its revitalization. Throughout his life, the example of the Prophet was his means and end. Shaykh Ibrahim used to say, “If the best of mankind, the Prophet is moving, even I shall follow him step by step; and the day he stops from there I shall never move.” Elsewhere in a poem, Shaykh Ibrahim wrote, “If I am asked, what is your madhhab (school of jurisprudence) and who is your beloved, I can answer that it the Prophet, and none other.”

Shaykh Ibrahim was the best example of a Sufi according to the description “The Sufi is the son of his hour (ibn waqtihi).” He will respond to the needs of the time. At every moment he is dealing with the requirements of that moment. The Muslim who is greatest in understanding is he who submits to the rule of his hour. That is, he gives everything the position it requires in action and speech. He is a person moving with time in a circle. He does not attempt to stop time, not to become stagnant in it, nor to regress in it. His effort is aimed at continually moving forward. In the season of Ramadan he reads Qur’an and Hadith and presents their explanations. In the season of Hajj, he expounds the virtues of the Muslim pilgrimage. At the time of Mawlid, he recites the Prophet’s Sira or Biography.

All of this behavior characterized the Sufism of Shaykh Ibrahim. It was based on action and practice, traveling all over the Muslim world, giving speeches, writing pamphlets. In every endeavor, his goal was to direct Muslims to the right path (siratul mustaqim). Sickness did not bother him unless it halted his activity in behalf of spreading Islam. Indeed, his tasawwuf was not characterized by heedlessness and neglect (ghafla). It was based on real Islam, mastering the self (nafs) and rul­ing over it with Qur’an and Sunnah. His Sufism was producing and working in various fields of life on the farms, and so forth.

In a speech in the 1960s, Shaykh Ibrahim addressed a group of Muslim youth and said, “For the youth, I thank you all for your papers. And I am here to tell you to go ahead and be in the vanguard of things. Surely the future of every nation is based on its youth. But it is not based upon all of them, not upon every individual, but only on the in­tellectual ones, the educated ones with good character, good manners, and zeal. As for the youth lacking education and good character, he is like a seed unfertilized. So make every effort to seek and do your best to acquire more knowledge, not only Islamic knowledge, not only mathematics and its branches, but also be part of and cooperate with those whose zeal is to discover the unknown and unseen things of this world.”

Throughout his life, Shaykh Ibrahim’s character was based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, a fact verified by prominent Muslim leaders who knew him. For example, we note in the letter of Shaykh Muhammad al‑Hafiz al‑Tijani - the Egyptian who was known as the foremost man of Hadith in his age - the words:

“Praise belongs to Allah, after Allah has blessed us by binding us in love: this humble servant Muhammad al-Hafiz al­-Tijani and the Hujja, the cornerstone of the religion, the sea of con­fidence, the believer in Allah, my brother and the brother of my spirit, my master Abi Ishaq, Shaykh Ibrahim ….”

In his greeting, it is important to note that Shaykh al-Hafiz uses the word Hujja, or “the proof”, as a form of address. The scholars of hadith have ranked the scholars who work in this field. Each rank has a specific name. For example, the muhaddith is the narrator of hadith who reads traditions based upon narration and report. The hafiz has memorized hadith to the number of one hundred thousand along with their explanation. But the Hujja has memorized three hundred thousand hadith with their explanations and chains of transmission from the Prophet. Likewise, a 1961 letter from the Secretary General of the Muslim World League in Mecca, the late Shaykh Muhammad Surui Al‑Sabban, addresses Shaykh Ibrahim as follows:

“The Owner of Virtue, The Member of the Islamic Con­ference, Brother Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse well‑respected, Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah, and His Bless­ing be upon you. The pioneers have left the Hijaz, along with the propagators of the religion. They also left with the jurisprudence/understanding (fiqh) of the Hijaz, and now it remains with you, Shaykh Ibrahim. The old style of reading the Qur’an has also left the Hijaz, but you have remained reading the word of Allah with this same style of Hijaz, the style of Nafi Mawla Abi Nu’aym. Indeed, you are of the real people of Medina in both Fiqh and Qur’an. These are the proofs of your steadfastness, and it is not the pride from within me, but the pride is for you and by Him. You have believed and steadfastly you have protected and spread the religion and become victorious.”

March 19, 2008 | 11:09 AM Comments  0 comments
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Oh.....Me
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

This is neither a story of a female victim of Sharia which has always caught the fancy of the media in reporting the North, nor of force marriage promoted by some cultures. This is a review of a play by a young Northern writer who just graduated and portrays the vices going on our campus.

The theme of the play is on negative vices and ill in the society that has crept into higher institutions of learning. The institutions designed as centres of excellence in socioeconomic and political activism and to mold future leaders in corporate world, are bedeviled by worrisome developments militating against their progression.

‘Oh Me’ as the title of the play, reemphasizes the fear of the society on the kinds of activities that turn some campuses as sort of concentration camps where some students, mostly youths engage in drug addition, prostitution and cultism.

The major characters of the book cut across different class, cultures and religions. For instance Adamma, an orphan, who due to poverty engages in prostitution, with prides tells her roommate, Laurat that “prostitution is better way to earn quick and easy money... it can also fall under the category of buying and selling.” Not surprising, Adamma’s financier and investor into the kind of her business is a moneybag popularly called Alhaji who has legitimate wives at home but spends lavishly on the campus girls to satisfy his lust. His excessive generosity is depicted when, without prompting, he buys a whole house to his girlfriend who just desires a house rent.

Another character in the play is Musa who, in his desire to get notice and respect, joins cultism and engages in petty stealing for pastime and means of livelihood. Surprisingly even when he has these weaknesses and indulgence in drug addiction is amongst the brightest students on the campus. While ignoring the sermon of his roommate, Habu, he claims that “if your parents are still alive to pay your school fees, mine are dead. If I don’t tap, where will I get the money? Or will you give me?” His friend has to retort that “this country, poverty! Poverty has turned people mad. God have mercy on our souls, and free us from poverty!”
Adamma and Musa, the major characters of the play, blame poverty for their inexcusable justification of their wayward lives.
The storyline doesn’t end without a mention of the rampaging phenomenon on the campus which is cultism. The gangsters mostly go by their nicknames in the play: Aminu Killers, Scarface, Prince and Jay Jay not only depend on hard drugs but engage in pimping. Sometimes one wonders how they are funded. In one of their rendezvous in a hideout within the campus, Prince tells his accomplices that “if guys like Aminu Killer were not on this campus, we’d be doomed. I even wonder where he gets all the money to organize the party.” Since Aminu Killer comes from a rich family, the belief that children from wealthy home spoil others on campus is not misplaced in Nafisah’s book.

It is baffling and may interest the readers to note that as Adamma engages in sinful act of prostitution, which is condemned by the Holy Scriptures Bible and Quran, after romping with the rich, she still offers prayers to God.

The play also gives a picture of regular boyfriending-and-girlfriending life of students with a romance between Laurat and Ali that almost cost the life of one of them due to rivalry from members of the cult group. Gossip which is widely attributed to women and typical of female students in their hostel, the play also narrates how they enjoy the melody of hearsay. For instance when Aisha, a gossipmonger was queried by Joy on the sources of her rumours, she responded that as a mass-communicator she ought to look for news! One would have expected one of the girls to have retorted that the field of mass-communication does not encourage gossip. Journalism and public relations which are branches of Mass-Communications are largely about disseminating timely and accurate information for entertainment and education.

At the end of the play, all the negative characters in the play receive well-deserved retributions for their immoral acts and atrocities in forms of infection, expulsion and death respectively.

The book satisfies the author’s objective which is stated in the Playwright’s Note: to serve as a warning to youths on and out of campuses as to safeguard themselves from cultism, prostitution, drug abuse and other social vices. It enjoins the government to intervene in reducing the level of poverty in the society.

I am particularly impressed that this young writer from Kano who also obtained a degree in Mass-communication from Bayero University Kano could venture into English writing when most popular female literary writers from that environment use the local vernacular.

Not that there are no good English writers in the North only very few get published on this genre compared to their southern counterparts who have global icon in literature. The few widely acclaimed contemporary writers from Northern Nigeria are Abubakar Gimba and Professor Zainab Alkali. There are also late entrant like Bello Musa Dankano whose books are receiving reviews abroad and Helon Habila foreign-based international award winning author.

While I commend Nafisah for taking the pain of writing and the risk of exposing the ill on our campuses in simple prose, stimulating description and theatrical narration, she needs encouragement for daring to be different from her local peer group. I wish more publishers would encourage more Nigerian budding writers knowing that most Nigerian publishers prefer to support the works of established authors to the detriment of highly educated aspiring young ones. The humiliation of rejection and abandonment of publishers force such writers to end up into self-publishing which may not be good enough because of the process of publishing which include proofreading, editing, printing, marketing, promotion amongst others.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author and PR professional
www.yashuaib.com

March 13, 2008 | 11:18 AM Comments  0 comments
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The child lies like a rag doll - a symbol of the latest Lebanon war
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The child lies like a rag doll - a symbol of the latest Lebanon war

By Robert Fisk in Beirut

07/20/06 "The Independent" -- -- How soon must we use the words "war crime"? How many children must be scattered in the rubble of Israeli air attacks before we reject the obscene phrase "collateral damage" and start talking about prosecution for crimes against humanity?

The child whose dead body lies like a rag doll beside the cars which were supposedly taking her and her family to safety is a symbol of the latest Lebanon war; she was hurled from the vehicle in which she and her family were traveling in southern Lebanon as they fled their village - on Israel's own instructions. Because her parents were apparently killed in the same Israeli air attack, her name is still unknown. Not an unknown warrior, but an unknown child.

The story of her death, however, is well documented. On Saturday, the inhabitants of the tiny border village of Marwaheen were ordered by Israeli troops - apparently using a bullhorn - to leave their homes by 6pm. Marwaheen lies closest to the spot where Hizbollah guerrillas broke through the frontier wire a week ago to capture two Israeli soldiers and kill three others, the attack which provoked this latest cruel war in Lebanon. The villagers obeyed the Israeli orders and initially appealed to local UN troops of the Ghanaian battalion for protection.

But the Ghanaian soldiers, obeying guidelines set down by the UN's headquarters in New York in 1996, refused to permit the Lebanese civilians to enter their base. By terrible irony, the UN's rules had been drawn up after their soldiers gave protection to civilians during an Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon in 1996 in which 106 Lebanese, more than half of them children, were slaughtered when the Israelis shelled the UN compound at Qana, in which they had been given sanctuary.

So the people of Marwaheen set off for the north in a convoy of cars which only minutes later, close to the village of Tel Harfa, were attacked by an Israeli F-16 fighter-bomber. It bombed all the cars and killed at least 20 of the civilians travelling in them, many of them women and children. Twelve people were burnt alive in their vehicles but others, including the child who lies like a rag doll near the charred civilian convoy, whose photograph was taken - at great risk - by an Associated Press photographer, Nasser Nasser, were blown clear of the cars by the blast of the bombs and fell into fields and a valley near the scene of the attack. There has been no apology or expression of regret from Israel for these deaths.

The innocent continued to die yesterday in Israeli air attacks across Lebanon. Five civilians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house near the town of Nabatea. Three members of the Hamed family were killed along with their Sri Lankan maid. In the village of Srifa, in the south, Israeli air strikes flattened 15 houses which were homes to at least 23 people but - with no lifting vehicles able to reach that part of the country - there was no way of rescuing anyone alive trapped in the buildings.

The Lebanese civil authorities, however, were able to give names to the dead after an Israeli air raid on the Bekaa Valley village of Nabi Chit; they included Ali Suleiman; Daoud Hazima; Khadija Moussawi and her children Bilal, Talal and Yasmine; Maouffaq Diab; Ahmed and Khairallah Mouawad; Mustafa Jroud and Bushra Shuqr. At least three of the names were female. Another four civilians were killed in an air raid on the village of Loussi in eastern Lebanon.

The Israelis constantly boast of their "pin-point" or "surgical" precision in air attacks. If this is true, then there are far too many civilians being killed in the Lebanese bloodbath to make every one of them an accident. And since Israel's target list now includes obviously civilian targets - deliberately bombed to punish the civilian population - the evidence is mounting that these air raids are intended to kill the innocent as well as the Hizbollah guerrillas whom Israel claims to be fighting.

True, the Hizbollah are killing civilians in Israel, but their missiles are inaccurate and the West, which has done no more than mildly disapprove of Israel's retaliatory onslaught, must surely expect higher standards of the Israeli armed forces than of the men whom both Israel and President George Bush describe as "terrorists".

Why, for example, did the Israelis attack and destroy the headquarters of the Liban-Lait company in the Bekaa Valley, the largest milk factory in Lebanon? Why did they bomb out the factory of the main importer for Proctor and Gamble products in Lebanon, based in Bchmoun? Why did they destroy a paper box factory outside Beirut? And why did Israeli planes attack a convoy of new ambulances being brought into Lebanon from Syria yesterday, vehicles which were the gift of the medical authorities of the United Arab Emirates? The ambulances were clearly marked as a relief aid convoy, according to an Emirates official. Were all these "terrorist" targets? Was the little girl in the field at Tel Harfa a "terrorist" target?

An example of Israel's lack of care in targeting Lebanon came yesterday morning when an Israeli plane fired four missiles into a disused parking lot in the Christian district of Ashrafieh in Beirut. Their targets turned out to be two derelict water drilling lorries which were standing tyre-deep in weeds. Were the tubes on the back of the lorries supposed to be missile launchers? And if so, who imagined that Hizbollah would ever try to conceal such weapons in a Christian area of Beirut where Hizbollah believe many of Israel's own collaborators live.

In Beirut and Nabatea, Lebanese security men claim to have arrested "collaborators" who were "painting" houses and cars with phosphorus to guide in Israeli jets to destroy them. At the same time, the Lebanese Minister of Finance, Jihad Azour, stated that 45 bridges had been destroyed across Lebanon and 60,000 families - 500,000 civilians - have been displaced.

Thousands of foreigners - many of them Lebanese holding dual citizenship - continued to leave the country by bus and ship yesterday, including hundreds of Britons who started the evacuation on Monday in HMS Gloucester. Americans were leaving by sea, although a French security company in Amman - SPO Middle East - was reported to have been hired by the US to evacuate its citizens by bus at a cost of $3,000 (£1,700) a head.

They, of course, are the lucky ones, who will finish their journeys in Damascus or Cyprus rather than beside a burnt convoy at Tel Harfa.

February 2, 2008 | 2:46 PM Comments  0 comments
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(Ghafir: 51 - 53) (غافر: 51 - 53)

{ إِنَّا لَنَنصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ يَقُومُ الْأَشْهَادُ (51) يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ الظَّالِمِينَ مَعْذِرَتُهُمْ وَلَهُمُ اللَّعْنَةُ وَلَهُمْ سُوءُ الدَّارِ (52) وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْهُدَى وَأَوْرَثْنَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْكِتَابَ (53)}


{(51) We will, without doubt, help our apostles and those who believe, (both) in this world's life and on the Day when the Witnesses will stand forth,- (52) The Day when no profit will it be to Wrong-doers to present their excuses, but they will (only) have the Curse and the Home of Misery. (53) We did aforetime give Moses the (Book of) Guidance, and We gave the book in inheritance to the Children of Israel,-}

August 29, 2007 | 4:55 AM Comments  1 comments
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IN MEMORY OF FORD
Related to country: United States

He took on responsibilities he did not seek, accepting an office whose image was tarnished. He put the needs of the country before personal interests, sacrificing his political future. In return, he was attacked, ridiculed and largely unappreciated.

The death of President Ford is a reminder that America is losing strong leaders from the past and is adrift without a moral compass, headed for an uncertain future.
Only now, upon his death, has Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States, received the high praise and appreciation that was missing during his brief term in office.

An unusual leader is gone.
Few at that time could grasp or accept that the President made a courageous decision that put his nation before his own personal interests. His desire to heal the nation trumped his political aspirations. And no wonder, for Mr. Ford came from a different generation, one that had survived the Great Depression and the horrors of the Second World War, and the subsequent rise of anti-Western communist regimes and socialist governments. His was a generation that had learned the meaning of sacrifice and making tough, even very unpopular, decisions. Mr. Ford represented an era when people took personal responsibility, an age when leaders stood up for principle, regardless of how the outcome would affect them personally.

How many such leaders exist today?
Mr. Ford was derisively called “the accidental President,” partly because of the manner in which he assumed the highest office in the nation—and partly due to a few occasions when he accidentally fell or stumbled, televised for all to see. The public did not understand that a nagging knee injury from his football years may have contributed to his imbalance. He became the butt of mean-spirited “jokes,” a caricature to be lampooned. His presidency was largely unappreciated and underrated.

January 26, 2007 | 1:35 PM Comments  0 comments
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come to minna 4 IBB

Following his withdrawal from the presidential nomination process of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has come under intense pressure by his supporters and associates to contest the 2007 presidency on the platform of another party.

Campaign groups that want the former head of state to join the race for the presidency next year are holding a rally in Minna on Thursday, this week. Tagged “IBB Must Run For 2007 Presidency Rally”, the rally, according to the organisers Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonnayinma and Chief Regan Ufomba, is to meant to bring all the supporters of General Babangida to Minna for a grand rally.

They said: “We want to validate the claim that we want him back in power. What we want to really achieve by the rally is to force him to join the race on the platform of another political party different from the PDP. It is a fact that he withdrew from the PDP nomination process, but he did not say that he was withdrawing from the 2007 presidential race.

December 18, 2006 | 10:18 AM Comments  0 comments
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PDP.......

The first Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Solomon Lar has said General Ibrahim Babangida is yet to tell Nigerians his main reason for dropping out of the presidential race of the Peoples Democratic Party, explaining that the former president left because he is disappointed with the manner the party is being managed by its leaders.

Speaking to journalists in his residence in Jos, Chief Lar said: “I am sure there is more to his reason for leaving the PDP than what meets the eye. He is disappointed with the whole system; with how the ‘garrison PDP’ is being run’.

He went on to say that former President Babangida had in the past formed two political parties; the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) and knows how a political party ought to be organised. “This is not a true political party; the respectable gentle man would not like to have anything to do with it.”

December 17, 2006 | 8:13 AM Comments  1 comments
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NIGERIA ........MY DEAR NATION
Related to country: Nigeria

This is an extract from the committee report on airline plane crash.......

"If you love travelling by air at nights or weekends, this story may make you have a rethink.

Reason: The Air Marshal Paul Dike Presidential Task Force on the Aviation Industry says that radars at the nation’s airports are left unmanned at those times.

This, according to its final report, contributes to the series of fatal air crashes in the country".

December 11, 2006 | 10:30 AM Comments  0 comments
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MY CITY
About this event: Youth e-Entrepreneurship Workshop, Minna-2006
Related to country: Nigeria

Minna is a city (population 150,000 in 2000) in west central Nigeria. It's the capital of Niger State, one of Nigeria's 36 federal states.
Cotton, guinea corn, and ginger are the main agricultural products of the city. The economy also supports cattle trading, brewing, shea nut processing and gold mining. Traditional industries and crafts in Minna include leather work, metalworking, and cloth weaving. Minna is also the seat of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), that is located in Bosso.
Minna is connected to neighboring cities by road. Abuja, the capital, is only 150 kms away. Minna is also connected by railroad to both Kano in the north and Ibadan and Lagos in the south. The city also has a small airport.
Archaeological evidence suggests settlement in the area dates back to about 47,000-37,000 years ago. Muslim culture filtered into Minna by way of the ancient Saharan trade routes and the city contains many mosques and Muslim organizations.

December 10, 2006 | 12:00 PM Comments  0 comments
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DEMOCRACY--------------EL-RUFAI

A SYSTEM THAT ALLOW THE POPULAR WILL OF THE PEOPLE TO REIGN,MUST BE PROTECTED BY ALL AND SUNDRY IN NIGERIA.
THE PEOPLE CHOICE IS SUPERIOR.
THE POSTULATION OF EL-RUFAI IN LONDON, IS HIS OWN OPINION AND NOT THE VIEWS OF THE MASSES.
WE NEED LEADERS THAT ARE ALL LISTENING AND SERVING THE INTEREST OF OUR DEAR POPULANCE.

December 9, 2006 | 8:10 AM Comments  1 comments
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BIRDS

"We are birds of the same nest. Wearing different skins, speaking different languages, believing in different religions, and belonging to different cultures - yet we share the same home, our Earth.
Born on the same planet, covered by the same skies, gazing at the same stars, breathing the same air, we must learn to happily progress together or miserably perish together. For humans can live individually but can survive only collectively."
"Rekindling the fire that pervades all beings, let us meet together, let us talk together, and let our spirits grow towards union together. Seers ancient and modern have always learned to accept themselves, each other, and the gifts of their lives. In just this way, seers have always grown towards union together.
Common be our prayer, common be our purpose, and common be our desires. We offer each other our gifts. Common be our intentions, common be our wishes, and common be our thoughts. May there be unity among us. Come let us grow together."

December 1, 2006 | 9:24 AM Comments  0 comments
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IBB..........

Okoruwa is a company executive in Lagos....and wrote thus:
AGAIN, Ibrahim Babangida, a.k.a, IBB, former self-styled president of Nigeria is at the centre of the storm. In finally declaring an interest in the presidency, a job we have known all along he has a deep-seated, unquenchable interest in, the chestnut is out of the fire. The formal declaration has drawn the ire of many Nigerians. One particularly remarkable comment admonishes ThisDay's editor whose newspaper had headlined the declaration, "IBB bites the bullet" to be equally candid enough to use the caption, "IBB bites the dust" when the former strongman eventually fails.
But there is a profound positive to the IBB phenomenon, a fact which appears lost out on many, IBB palace academic, praise singer and traducer alike. It should not take a political science professor to realise that Nigeria's democracy is today, on a pernicious route. Politicians seem to have keenly learnt from the example of the Justice Bassey Ikpeme incident during the IBB years at which a court sitting was held under candle light at unholy hours to deliver a judgment long pre-determined.
This writer is told that only a few days ago, three members of a state House of Assembly had after a few drinks in a local beer parlour, declared the state governor impeached. The governor's saving grace, it would appear, was that he is so far in the good books of the president. A platoon of military officers had not been deployed to the state capital to maintain security prior to the crucial declaration in the beer parlour. Lorry loads of "armed-to-the-teeth", "stern-faced" policemen were not at the ready to provide security for the soon-to-be sworn in deputy governor. So the impeachment was taken only at face value, namely the drunken inanities of people whom singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti once described as Vagabonds in Power.
But elsewhere, such perfidy has often stood. Some months ago, it was Oyo State and lawmakers met in a hotel. Anambra State followed, this time lawmakers reportedly meeting in a hotel at 5.00 a.m. In yet another famous instance, six lawmakers met in a hotel in Plateau State and summarily sacked the governor.
Of course, the orgy of impeachments is a mere symptom of all that has gone awry in a democracy whose defining characteristic is the "come and eat" phenomenon. This is why seven years after, there is still only so little to show besides telecommunications, as dividends of Nigeria's democracy. Is it roads, or electricity or public hospitals or public schools? Is it security of lives and property? Is it inflation? Is it in the standards of living of our people?
Were Sani Abacha's famous coup speech of December 31, 1983 to be re-read today, wouldn't the aspects that border on the decay of public institutions sound so apt? Has much changed all these years? What is the lot of the people besides toil and poverty even while politicians wallow in corruption and insensitivity?
Today, instructively, thanks to the IBB legacy, no one is calling for a coup. There are no newspaper editorials suggesting that the bungling of the democratic ethos is an invitation to soldiers to take over power. There are no columnists suggesting that the sheer deliberate ineptitude of INEC as a precursor to electoral rigging is an encouragement to soldiers to usurp power. There are no snide reminders to Nigerians of the fate that often befalls politicians when coupists strike. There are no calls to the military to intervene in shaping Nigeria.
IBB deserves the credit for this, which unfortunately, even his loudest apologists seem bent on denying him. Thanks to our experience under the general, Nigerians have come to realise that civilian rule, despite its sundry imperfections, remains better than military rule. Eight years of IBB misrule characterised by graft, selfish manipulations and deceit have helped to demystify the pseudo-revolutionary nature of the Nigerian military. If any scales still remained in anyone's eyes after he stepped aside, regarding the aberrant role of the military in politics, Sani Abacha, IBB's creation of sorts and successor, cleared them all.
So rather than look to the military as in years past to correct the anomalies in the system, Nigerians are looking up to the judiciary. Rather than wait for compromised parliamentarians to speak up on their behalf, Nigerians have learnt to look up to the human rights community which incidentally, burgeoned in the IBB era. Rather than yearn for some fancy coup speech, Nigerians have come to realise that there is no quick fix for good governance. It will best come under a democratic form of government. And it will entail patience, sacrifice and eternal vigilance. It is such vigilance that was at play when the third term agenda raged. The result was that despite the financial war chest of the Federal Government and its sprinkling of private sector supporters (who would support any government in power anyway), democratic forces including latter day fancy converts like IBB helped to give the agenda a routing.
Nigeria's current democratic experiment is flawed in a multitude of ways. But it does have a self-correcting mechanism of sorts inherent in people power. That mechanism will only come to play, if patiently nurtured and allowed to mature. Ultimately, it is to the people that power belongs and given time to mature, political systems often tend to straighten out and make politicians more and more accountable to the people. This is the lesson that history teaches.
IBB's biggest contribution to Nigeria's political development is that his years in power in serving as tangible evidence of the unsuitability of the military in power, have also imbued in Nigeria some measure of patience with our democratic system. It is flawed, we know, but if we work hard at it, we can develop it and grow it.
I do not disagree with the columnist who believes that the famed evil genius will bite the dust at the end of the day. Despite his versatility at intrigue and high-stake power play, it is clear that the man who self-confessedly participated in all of Nigeria's successful coups d'etat to date, severely under-estimates the depth of hatred and animosity his person still evokes among millions of Nigerians.
While we lament his poor judgement, and the lot of Nigerians that such a man still aspires to political office, it is important that we acknowledge, nonetheless, the service he has rendered the sustainability of our democracy.

November 29, 2006 | 5:55 AM Comments  0 comments
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VISIONARY LEADERSHIP
Related to country: Nigeria

Visionary leadership shall be on display when the man of the people and a man of all TIMES become the nest president of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Whatever are the ills that besiege our fatherland, whatever are the obstacles that cripple you, IBB is on his way. IBB will console you. IBB will wipe away your tears. IBB will lift you up and place you on a high pedestal where there will be no more sorrow.
A MAN FOR ALL REASONS
It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat...THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1910

November 15, 2006 | 12:41 PM Comments  1 comments
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SEASON OF PLANE CRASH......oh...NIGERIA
Related to country: Nigeria

Barely a fortnight after an ADC plane crashed in Abuja, a six-seater helicopter belonging to Odengene Air Shuttle (OAS) Helicopters Limited crashed on Friday in Ovwian, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State on Friday morning, killing two persons and fatally injuring three others.

November 11, 2006 | 7:44 AM Comments  0 comments
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GENOCIDE
Related to country: Rwanda

Horror.............................................Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide and thousands of people were killed after seeking sanctuary ......................This is strong disaster against humanity.....
The genocide was triggered by the shooting-down of ethnic Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane as it was coming in to land in Kigali.

The killing continued for 100 days before a Tutsi-dominated rebel army seized control.

How could a million lives of the Rwandan people be regarded as so insignificant by anyone in terms of strategic or national interest?

"Do the powerful nations have a hidden agenda? I would hate to believe that this agenda is dictated by racist considerations or the colour of the skin, I hope it is not true," said Mr Kagame, whose Tutsi-dominated rebel RPF took power in July 1994, ending the genocide.

November 10, 2006 | 9:03 AM Comments  0 comments
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I......B.......B......2007
Related to country: Nigeria

After the speculation and the anxious wait,the grand master of Nigeria politics is formally declaring today.The dogs of war have been let loose,the big masquerade is out.
The proverbial cat is out and the mice should beware.This cat is hungry and the rules of the game is about to change.

November 8, 2006 | 7:13 AM Comments  1 comments
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INTERCONTINENTAL BANK TEST SOME WEEKS BACK IN IKEJA
Related to country: Nigeria

No, it's not a political rally, neither is it a Refugee Camp nor did it happen in Rwanda .
It is very much a "Nigerian Thing".

It's a picture of applicants scrambling to write an Employment Test @ Fototek Plaza, Opebi Ikeja, Lagos . Nigeria .
Police had to disperse the mammoth crowd with teargas!
This is Nigeria.........

November 5, 2006 | 1:46 PM Comments  1 comments
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Afforestation/Reforestation Working Group (A/R WG)

Please be informed that the CDM Executive Board agreed to launch a call
for experts for its Afforestation/Reforestation Working Group (A/R WG).
Detailed information on these calls is available through the main page
of the UNFCCC CDM website <http://cdm.unfccc.int/>.

Taking into account the increasing workload of the A/R WG, the CDM
Executive Board announced that a call for experts will be made from 02
October 2006 to 20 October 2006 (17.00 GMT) in order to increase the number
of A/R WG members from six (6) to eight (8), with a view to consider a
shortlist of experts at its twenty-seventh meeting. In order to apply
online please use the following URL:
http://cdm.unfccc.int/Panels/ar/call_armembers2006.html

October 9, 2006 | 3:50 PM Comments  0 comments
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Rest in peace
Related to country: Nigeria

"The death of another man diminishes me,” wrote John Donne, the 18th Century British poet, in his For Whom The Bell Tolls. This diminishing effect was overpowering as one beheld the carcass of the NAF 033 aircraft sprawled atop Mount Ngokugh in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State. Tears rolled down the newsman’s cheeks as he surveyed the area. The realisation that Nigeria had lost that number of Generals in the plane crash was overpowering. Somehow, the gory sight brought to the mind images of rot, nonchalance, greed and ineptitude of a dead system.

Getting to the crash site from Calabar was one strenuous trip. From the long and pot hole-infested Calabar-Ogoja road, one is confronted with a dire neglect of public infrastructure. Even as one is made to pay through the nose at several points along the 500-km road, commuters have to disembark to pull the vehicle out of caved-in culverts, bridges and gullies. The result is that six hours got spent on a journey that should normally take four.

At Vandeikya, the initially touted crash site, the journey was by no means over, as one was told in clear language that the site was at Mbakunu Shameye, in Kwande Local Government Area, some forty kilometres away. And the only way to access the place was by the ubiquitous okada. Half of those forty kilometers are a beaten path which takes the visitor through streams, creeks, ponds, hills and farmlands.

Finally, after several falls on the bike, one came to the closest house to the mountain, in the village of Mbakunu Shameya, where Demiter, the 18-year-old lad who first sighted the ill-fated plane, lives. There, shoes, trousers and shirts were discarded and in their place, boxers, slippers and singlet were worn as one made to climb the mountain. At the foot of the mountain, one was confronted by an imposing giant standing silent, rising steeply to a dizzying height. Stretching from Shameya, the mountain extends to Akwayafe, down to Sankula, in Obudu, the intended destination of the Generals . Its cynical stare seems to dare anyone to come on if he has the capacity and ability to get to its peak, striking awe in the heart of the prospective climber.

It was at this point that Governor George Akume of Benue State and his entourage turned back in the afternoon of Monday last week. Daniel Akasi, pastor of the local NKST Church, claims that the place is home to a rich variety of animals and plants. Their forefathers, he said, before the coming of Christianity went up to worship the mountain. Evidence of this abounds as one climbs the mountain, a veritable test in human fitness and endurance. One several occasions one was tempted to give up, but the call to duty, combined with curiosity and a sense of adventure, fired him on. The frequent question was: “How far are we from the apex?” And the response from the guide was: “Oga, try more, we are getting close.”

The falling stream that spews forth from the top of the mountain served as a veritable refreshment as one occasionally took a bath and a guzzle. Along the way, discarded footwears and entrails of the air plane, obviously vandalised by those who had been there, served as souvenirs and proof to people at the base of the mountain that they “ have been there.” The task of carrying some of the items while dragging oneself sometimes became too much, thus they were thrown away. Also, the stench of faeces on the shrubs along the way testified to the fraility of the human body.

Some hundred yards to the peak, one was confronted with a big gape which contrasted with the light brimming down the mountain, making it appear as if one was coming out of a tunnel. As one reached the top, the mangled body of the ill-fated Dornier transport plane lay quiet at the stem of a mahogany tree. The contortion of an assortment of cables and metal told the story of what used to be its engine. The propeller, seats and entrails lay shattered and scattered. In the vicinity were personal effects, shirts, paper covers of Leadership Bible, trainer trousers, and Rotatrim brand of A4 size paper sheets.
.............................................................courtesy THE NEWS

September 24, 2006 | 9:13 AM Comments  2 comments
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