OPINION  WHY ATIKU ABUBAKAR SHOULD STEP FORWARD AND SALVAGE NIGERIA           (ATIKU FOR ONE NIGERIA) At each stage of its development Nigeria had faced a peculiar challenge. At this stage the key problem is division, along ethnic, religion and regional lines, that is threatening the corporate existence of the country. The present leadership clearly, is either favouring one ethnic group against the others or favouring one religion against the others or favouring one region against the other regions. This has never happened in the history of Nigeria. When Notherners were in-charge, to a large extent there was inclusivity. All ethnicity, religion and regions were duly represented and involved in the administration of Nigeria, unlike today. The question now is, who will savage the situation or will salvage Nigeria at this critical moment of nationhood? Nigeria is in dire need of a Situational Leader. The man standing and remaining, who fought for democrac...

     • cover image     The Balfour Pivot: How 1917 Reconfigured Jewish Relations with Christendom and Islam - Umar Ardo, PhD Further to the discussion of my previous article, let me start this essay by stating that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on the resettlement of Jews in Palestine as their primary Homeland did not create the Judeo-Christian interfaith dynamics out of nothing; rather, it accelerated and reconfigured trajectories that started earlier in ways that made new alliances and antagonisms politically useful. Specifically, in the 17th century, more concrete shift appeared in England under Oliver Cromwell. Aiming to rubbish the policies of the monarchy that he overthrew, Cromwell officially allowed Jews to return to England after centuries of expulsion. Likewise, the Jacobins who overthrew the monarchy in the French Revolution made an unprecedented move by granting Jews full citizenship of France. Also, after coming to p...

Image 1 caption: is the renewed hope really delivering positive impact? ___   APC NEEDS SUPERIOR STRATEGY TO RETURN TO POWER IN 2027 By  Umar Ardo, Ph.D That the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may face a serious threat of electoral defeat in 2027 is no longer a distant speculation; it is an emerging political reality! The fundamental error of the APC’s current strategy is that, instead of it to look at how low its popularity is and work towards beefing it up, it is concentrating on the weakness of the opposition and working fervently to weaken it even further. This is a poor political calculus! In other words, if President Tinubu concentrates in raising his popularity, then automatically he will be weakening the popularity base of the opposition. Conversely, if he focuses on weakening the opposition, as he seems to be doing now, then automatically he will only be weakening his popularity and raising their own. And once the incumbent is unpopular any focu...

I have on different occasions, pointed clearly to my brother Bichia Maisango, the Hausa-Zalla self appointed prophet and harbinger of doom, Islam has no room for ethnic bigotry. What he, and his ilk, failed to understand is the simple distinction, succinctly discussed and explained in Ibrahim A. Waziri's article of the "What" and "Who" of identity.  Maisango and his advocates would like to quickly submit "the time of religious manipulation is over, it is time to rise to Hausa consciousness" laughable I should say and the naked exposition of their ignorance of both what identity ought to be and what religions in general and Islam in particular came to abolish. Islam from the get-go, promotes the Kalima (shahada) as the first step of the negation of devilry which promotes division and bloodshed, while uphelding divine unity that cement and guide us towards brotherliness and equality of all human beings. At the local level, Salah serves the...

TARIHIN SARKIN MUSULMI NA FARKO – SULTAN MUHAMMADU BELLO (1781–1837) Muhammadu Bello, wanda aka fi sani da Sultan Bello, shi ne Sarkin Musulmi na farko a Daular Sokoto kuma ɗa ga Usman dan Fodio. Ya taka muhimmiyar rawa a lokacin Jihadin mahaifinsa, inda ya jagoranci yaƙe-yaƙe da dama, ciki har da nasarar da aka samu a kan Gobir a shekarar 1808. A shekarar 1809, bayan nasarorin Jihad, an raba yankunan da aka ci: Bello ya jagoranci yankin gabas, yayin da ɗan’uwansa Abdullahi dan Fodio ya jagoranci yankin yamma. Duk da haka, ikon ƙarshe yana hannun mahaifinsu a matsayin jagoran muminai. Bayan rasuwar Usman dan Fodio a shekarar 1817, an miƙa wa Bello jagorancin daular gaba ɗaya tare da lakabin Sarkin Musulmi. Daga nan ne ya fara amfani da lakabin Sultan, wanda ya zama sananne da shi har zuwa yau. Bello ya kafa cibiyar mulkinsa a Sokoto, sannan ya gina wani sansani a Wurno domin kare daular daga barazanar arewa. Saboda yawan zamansa a can, aka lakaba masa suna Mai Wurno. ...

Adamawa State is in the eye of a storm. It's a place where everybody wants to be governor or where everybody has his person that should be the governor. It's a rat race that only one person will be sworn into office in about 400 days. Most people say it's the most difficult job - no rest, no peace of mind, no thanks, no true friends. If so, then why is everybody so interested in carrying this heavy burden?  Beyond rhetorics, if given the opportunity I would like to be the governor of Adamawa State for the sake of the people. But that's not my turf. There's a process to reach that point. It's a journey where you have many rivers to cross. Many are pushed into the river and get drowned, even before reaching the first bridge. The question is 'Who can be governor of Adamawa State?' You can be if, according to the Nigerian Constitution, you are a Nigerian citizen by birth,  at least 35 years old, a member of a registered political party sponsor...

Kongo Campus  ---------------------------------------- Let me begin from the beginning. What is the origin of the name "Kongo Campus"? One initial theory was, it came from the Congo Republic, where Nigerian soldiers helped stabilise that nation's independence from 1960 to 1964 under the UN supervision, just like Dodan Barracks is named after the territory in the Arakan Peninsula of Burma (now Myanmar), Bukavu Barracks (named after a town in the Congo), Mogadishu Barracks (named after the capital of Somalia), etc. Historians however stated that Kongo (distinct from the nation Congo) was a tribe indigenous to the area covered by Tudun Wada, Zaria that had lived there for centuries, where the campus is located. This version has been officially accepted for the records. On 3rd May 1946, the Resident of Zaria represented the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Region to declare open the Clerical Training Centre, Zaria. It was built by the colonial authorities to he...