Author: Hassan Gimba

IN the past year or so, I have become a sad man. I feel sorry for myself, as I cannot do much to stem the tide. I also feel sad for our youth, who are daily ensnared by the ravaging trend. But I am more distressed for Nigeria, my country, for breeding such youth. We are mortgaging our country’s future by sacrificing our youth’s intellectual growth to Artificial Intelligence, AI. I recall our growing days with nostalgia. I started reading my senior sisters’ novels, the Mills and Boon series, and those by Agatha Christie at age nine. At the same…

“If your plan is for one year, plant rice; if your plan is for ten years, plant trees; if your plan is for one hundred years, educate children” – Guan Yiwu. THIS quote from Guan Yiwu, an earlier statesman and thinker who lived from about 720 BC to 645 BC, is often wrongly attributed to Confucius. The original quote roughly translates to: “The best ten-year plan is to plant trees; the best plan for the rest of your life is to plant people.” When taken further, the allusion to planting rice represents the short term; tree planting symbolises long-term investments…

YES, indeed, the late Muhammadu Buhari was perhaps the best politician of the Fourth Republic. He knew what he was doing when he spoke of Sharia in Sokoto, which caused him problems with the South and Northern Christians. But that solidified his Northern Muslim base and assured him of a solid 12 million votes. His kare jini, biri jini mantra further caused more schisms that made him the ultimate “champion” at home to be projected and defended at all costs. But perhaps the single most incredible view of himself that he deliberately courted and promoted, which made him “vulnerable” and…

THE late General Buhari was a man who, on two occasions, was welcomed into office by Nigerians who dared to hope for a better country. The first was in December 1983, and the second was 32 years later, in 2015. I do not want to include 2019, because it was a defining moment when those Nigerians who were believed to be honest proved themselves wrong. Unlike President Goodluck Jonathan, who had four years earlier told the nation that his ambition was not worth the blood of a single Nigerian and conceded defeat, these self-styled men of integrity held on to…

“The days of life pass away like clouds, so do good while you are alive.” – Imam Ali (AS) MANY people may expect me to write about the late President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired Nigerian Army Major General who was many things to many people and different things to different people. Alive, to a multitude of people, he was a man who could do no wrong. Dead, his wrongs must be interred with him. He was often excused; it was always the fault of others for every misstep of the government, though he was its numero uno. It was either…

There is a Pain behind that Smile. Just do your bit (https://neptuneprime.com.ng/there-is-pain-behind-that-smile-just-do-your-bit-by-hassan-gimba/) We shall continue doing our best, in sha Allah. May their souls rest in peace, ameen. Governor Buni *** Dear Dr Hasan Gimba Your write-up touched me and shook the inner core of my conscience. All the characters mentioned as examples (human – your late wife and your late colleague, and animals – flies and mosquitoes) demonstrate the fleeting motion of life, and the ephemerality of mortal existence. Moral of the matter: Let’s not take life for granted and let’s be the best we can be while we…

ONE learns every day. Anyway, a man is supposed to learn from cradle to grave, as said by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (SAW). And so, I have learnt a great deal about people throughout my life. I have come to understand that life is fleeting, and our perceived years on earth are but a fleeting moment, passing at the speed of light. It is also true that behind every smile, we may see multiple pains that surface the moment the smile is wiped away, just as screensavers disappear at the touch of a finger. Therefore, always do your bit…

OF course, one must ask that question because everyone, especially those accusing Iran of inching towards acquiring the nuclear bomb, knew it was not so. After all, the country spent a whole year implementing the JCPOA agreement, even after Trump unilaterally tore up the deal reached after exhaustive negotiations lasting eighteen months. Iran waited, giving the USA a chance to return, before continuing with the enrichment of uranium, only to be accused of violating an agreement that the US had already abandoned. How Janus-faced! For the past 41 years, Israel – often with Netanyahu as Prime Minister – has been…

IT is a new” word, huh? Hypocrity. Well, it is not a word in usage. But come, you must have seen its closeness to hypocrisy. OK, hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have virtues, beliefs, or feelings that one does not possess, especially when those pretended beliefs contradict one’s actions. Now, interchange it with hypocrity. You get it. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), established in 1957, is an autonomous international organisation within the United Nations system. It carries out programmes to maximise the contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. Related to this is…

Victory is with patience. Success is with endurance. And war is a matter of turns. – Imam Ali, Nahj al Balagha, saying 189. Gaza. A four-letter word sounding like the tasty gizzard. But Gaza is nowhere as palatable as the gizzard. Gaza is now the symbol of all that is bad with apartheid and racism. It brings to the world the sights, sounds and fury of the Holocaust. Gaza is not a place that can be tasty at all. Well, except for hunger. Diseases. Deprivation. And death. Gaza City, a hot semi-arid climate with Mediterranean characteristics, was the most populous…

THIS article was published on July 26, 2021, after the Eid-ul-Adha or Eid-ul-Kabir of that year. It remains relevant and vital, with a few adjustments, to be re-published. Muslims the world over have celebrated the Eid-ul-Adha or the “big Eid” or “big Sallah”. We are, however, more interested in its meaning, implications and bearing on us as a nation. We need to look at spiritual milestones, hoping to find the seemingly elusive panacea for our ills. Eid means feast, festival or celebration, while adha loosely means “sacrifice” (animal sacrifice), “offering” or “oblation”. It got its name because it commemorates Prophet…

INNA lilLahi wa inna ilaihir raji’un! May Allah have mercy upon their souls and grant them Aljanna Firdausi. My condolences to you and through you, to the entire Neptune Prime family as well as Borno journalists. – Governor Mai Mala Buni Inna lil Lah, wa inna ilahirraji’un! May Allah forgive their shortcomings and grant them aljannah firdausi, amen. My sincere condolences, and may Allah give you the courage and fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. – SK Usman Please accept our sincere condolences. – Engr Suleiman Bah Gimba, Magajin Garin Fika May Allah forgive them. Ameen. – Ibrahim Sheme May…

LAST week was a dark one for journalism in Nigeria. The light of two of its bright stars, Hajiya Amina Alhassan Ahman and Haruna Dauda Biu dimmed and blew out. Amina was cast in the print section of the profession, while Haruna was a star in broadcast journalism. I first noticed Amina in 2014 at a Leadership Newspaper editorial meeting for editors and senior editorial management staff. The meeting, held every Monday, had each editor defending their paper comparatively against its counterparts from other media houses. Friday Leadership, for instance, would be compared against every paper around the country published…

ABOUT three weeks ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in Katsina, where he charged the Nigerian Army to end the terrorism menace and reclaim every inch of the nation’s territory. He also strongly warned: “Let the enemies of Nigeria know — their time is up.” After other state engagements, he honoured an invitation to attend the wedding of Governor Dikko Radda’s daughter — an event where guests were treated to lavish entertainment. Recall that the Governor, about two months earlier, had lost his beloved mother. Were Hajiya Sarafa’u Umaru, who died at the age of 93, to be asked, she…

FROM time to time, we give our readers a chance to make their voices heard through their input. Well, it has been quite a while since we did that. We will start a serialisation of such inputs beginning with this. Why should Nigeria not break up? (March 31, 2024) You expressed the minds of all genuine comrades and patriotic elites. Dr Matawalli Geidam No reason, sir…. It is a Destiny created by God that, whether we like it or not, we MUST live together as brothers and sisters of different religions, languages, attire, dress, behaviour, attitude, conduct, and ethnic groups…

IN A tête-à-tête with journalists last week, the Governor of Jigawa State, Umar Namadi, openly disagreed with retired General Theophilus Danjuma, former Chief of Army Staff and former Minister of Defence, over his advice to us Nigerians, to defend ourselves against those who have been killing citizens like Christmas turkeys and abducting and negotiating ransom payments like buying and selling sacks of potatoes in Shendam market. Namadi said, “He (Danjuma) is a very senior security person and should be respected. But if he says citizens should be allowed to defend themselves, I think you are causing anarchy.” TY Danjuma, of…

SOMETIMES in life, one comes across people whom one is at a loss for words on how to present to the public. This is not because there are no words or that you lack them. No—it is mainly because you know them closely enough that you do not want it to look like you are buttering your words. After all, you know them. Take the case of Bala Ciroma, who recently retired as a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG). When he was a newly minted police officer in the early 1990s, his house in Suleja was my transit “camp”…

ON Friday last week, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former House of Representatives Speaker and Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i, former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, former Governor of Imo State, Achike Udenwa, and former Governor of Kaduna State Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, alongside other political heavyweights, paid a visit to former President Muhammadu Buhari at his residence in Kaduna. It was ostensibly a social visit, and they were seen exchanging banter, having a tete-a-tete, and enjoying lunch—all for the photo ops—before going into a closed-door meeting – where the main issue would be tabled,…

This is a repeat. It was published on 24/12/2023. Readers may find it still relevant. RIVERS, a state so rich because God blessed it with abundant crude oil and gas, is named after the many rivers that border its territory. Forty percent of Nigeria’s crude oil output is produced in the state. It also has deposits of silica sand, glass sand and clay. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), ₦1.93 trillion was raked in in 2022 as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) across the 36 states in Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. Out of this, Rivers State generated…

“Today, nearly everything is made in China – except courage; it’s made in Palestine.” – Anthony Bourdain. ANYONE conversant with world affairs knows what’s happening in the Middle East. One does not have to belong to a particular faith to take an interest in events there because, where humanity is concerned, all divine religions agree on the sanctity of human life. Even though Nigeria has unending problems, that does not mean one should shut out other humans and their suffering. It’s like saying we don’t have enough food, so we would not give someone in dire need, even a bite.…