•PhD. Umar Ardo  There are moments in the life of a republic when the issue before it appears narrow, technical, even procedural - yet beneath the surface lies a constitutional question capable of shaping the future character of the state itself. Nigeria may now be confronting one of those moments.  2. The controversy surrounding the registration of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) by order of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, is not fundamentally about one political association. It is about whether constitutional requirements still matter in Nigeria, or whether institutions may selectively suspend legality whenever convenience, pressure or political calculations demand accommodation. 3. At the center of this controversy lies a simple but unavoidable question: can an association that did not comply with the constitutional and statutory requirements for political party registration nevertheless become a political party by judicial pronouncement alone? The answer...

WHY THE O.K. TICKET IS NOT OKAY Ali Abubakar Sadiq  The recent permutations in the polity are not by accident but by design. Let's look back a little. In 2019, under the PDP, Atiku Abubakar picked Peter Obi as his running mate. They challenged the then popular Muhammad Buhari and failed, after a good fight. Fast forward 2023, Buhari at the end of his second term must give room for someone from the South (the unwritten political constitution of zoning). Tinubu, despite Buhari and his collaborators in the APC, bamboozled everyone to clinched the ticket.  The most surprising thing was Obi declaring to run on his own ticket in 2023, and Atiku was naive enough to let him go. That was the single stroke that crumbled the opposition. But whose idea is it in the first place? One can n easily trace it to the pathological hatred of Obasanjo towards an Atiku presidency. With nostalgia, some of us could remember how such pathological hatred among elites led to the civil war in ...

OPINION: If Plateau’s Illegal Arms Factories Belonged to Fulani Militias, the World Would Be Burning By: Zagazola Makama  The discovery of another illegal arms factory in Plateau State should have shaken the conscience of the nation. But it did not. Not because the development was insignificant, but because it did not fit the preferred narrative carefully marketed for years by crisis merchants, foreign lobbyists, and politically interested actors feeding off the Plateau conflict. Imagine for a moment if troops had uncovered three illegal arms factories operated by Fulani militias in their harmlet in Plateau within three weeks. Imagine if security forces had recovered fabricated AK-47 rifles, welding machines, recoiling springs, ammunition shells and weapon components from settlements associated with Fulani groups. By now, international media would be flooded with headlines screaming “genocide.” Foreign NGOs would issue emergency alerts. U.S. lawmakers would hold hearing...

•Ph.D. Umar Ardo is the Convener of the League of Northern Democrats (LND) , a prominent political pressure group in Nigeria focused on national leadership renewal, regional empowerment, and structuring opposition coalitions. BE PROBABLY INFORMED ON THE NDC MATTER Let me educate ignorant Nigerians who have been castigating me on the NDC matter. Please read this with an opened mind.  No political association can be registered as a political party without filling INEC’s Form EC15A, which is INEC’s Party Registration Form. This form is online and an association pays a mandatory N2m Administrative Fee to be issued with INEC’s Access Code with which the association will open the portal and make its application. In the application it will upload the party name, acronym, logo, constitution, manifesto, names, addresses, ID cards, passport photographs, Indigene letters, etc. of its national executive members, address of national office headquarters, INEC’s payment recei...

As forwarded   Alhaji Babakano Jada stands as a leader par excellence and an elder statesman whose life is a testament to humility, generosity, and unwavering commitment to community. He is a father, a grandfather, a philanthropist, a community leader, and an industrialist roles he carries not for personal gain, but for the upliftment of those around him. Beyond his titles, Alhaji Babakano Jada is a bridge-builder who mends divides and a peacemaker whose counsel has calmed tensions and restored unity. His philosophy of leadership is rooted in service: always there to serve and not to be served, to give and not to take.  What sets him apart most is his enduring investment in people. For decades, Alhaji Babakano Jada has quietly sponsored numerous sons and daughters of Adamawa and beyond through their education and professional journeys. Today, many of his beneficiaries have risen to prominence as lawyers, administrators, politicians, doctors, engineers, educators, and leaders i...

°Phd. Umar Ardo delivering a speech during a function. Jagorancin Mace a Tarihin Addinin Musulunci                        Ta Umar Ardo, Ph.D Ni ba malamin fikihu ko malam na ilimin addinin Musulunci ba ne, amma ni malamin tarihin duniya ne. Saboda haka, ba zan yi magana da cikakken ilimin addini kan matsayin addinin Musulunci game da jagorancin mata ba - wannan sai a bar wa malamai! Amma a matsayina na Musulmi, na san kadan daga abin da Musulunci ya ce game da mace da mulki a kan al’umma. Banda abin da *Al-Qur’ani Mai Girma* da *Hadisan Annabi (SAW)* suka fada, akwai kuma abubuwan da suka faru a tarihin Musulunci da suka kara fayyace matsayin Musulunci kan jagorancin mata. Saboda haka, a matsayin mai binciken tarihi - musamman tarihin Musulunci - zan yi bayani bisa abin da tarihi ya nuna game da wannan batu. 1. Ba da shawara da wakilanci daban, jagoranci kuma daban. A tarihin Musulunci, mace tana iya bada shawara ko...

THE NORTH HOLDS NIGERIA’S FATE IN ITS HANDS — AND THE QURAN TELLS YOU EXACTLY WHAT TO DO WITH  A Plea to the Conscience of Muslim Northern Nigeria By Kio Amachree, President, Worldview International I. THE WEIGHT OF THE NORTH There is a Hausa proverb that every elder in Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Maiduguri knows by heart: “Rua ba su yami banza.” Water does not go bitter without a cause. Nigeria’s bitterness today did not happen by accident. It has a cause. It has a name. And in 2027, it falls to the North — the seat of the Caliphate, the home of Sharia, the fortress of Islam in West Africa — to name that cause openly and act upon it. Without the North, Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot be re-elected. He knows it. His handlers know it. And now, the North must decide: will it trade its conscience for a second term of a man the Holy Quran itself condemns? I am a Christian. I am a man of Ijaw and Kalabari royal lineage. I am not a northerner. But I am a Nigerian who loves this countr...

Phd. Umar Ardo  The Axiom Restated Jesus of Nazareth, in the Sermon on the Mount, delivers one of history's most devastating political theorems: "Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Therefore by their fruits thou shall know them." (Matthew 7:17–20, NKJV)  2. This is not mere moralistic poetry. It is a claim about ontological continuity - the insistence that essence precedes and determines expression, that being conditions doing, that the architecture of a thing's origin constitutes the DNA of its destiny. The tree does not choose its fruit arbitrarily; the fruit is the visible syntax of the tree's invisible grammar. To examine the fruit is to perform an autopsy on the root.   3. What, then, are we to make of politicians of national stature, such as Gov. Peter Obi, Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso, Gov. Kabiru Gaya, Sen. A'ishatu Ahmed Binani and a host of othe...

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...