Author: Hassan Gimba

“The trade of governing has always been monopolised by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.” — Thomas Paine (1737-1809) LAST week, we examined how certain leaders tend to overlook their inadequacies while scrutinising the failings of others. We likened them to individuals whose cerebral configurations had been exchanged with those of donkeys upon their ascension to leadership. Consequently, one may never succeed in restoring their cognitive faculties, no matter how fervently one endeavours to reboot their senses. One such leader endeavoured to persuade his audience that Nyesom Wike’s appointment as a minister in an opposition party…

THERE is a phrase that has gained widespread currency across the world: “Physician, heal thyself.” Not many know it is a biblical proverb and a direct quote from Jesus (AS). He said, “You will surely say to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself’: do here in your country what we have heard was done in Capernaum.” This phrase is similar to another quote from Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, ‘Let me take the…

FROM time to time, we try to give way to our readers to make their voices heard through their input. Well, it has been quite a while since we did that. We will start serialising such inputs. Nigeria and Presidential Democracy: Any Better Alternative? I enjoyed reading this. I wish it didn’t end. Sannu da kokari, Sir. I hope and pray that everyone who reads this, including our lawmakers and other segments that make up the government, brood over this. We are a people whose identity is being lost every day, while the new one we have borrowed is yet…

“This was a lynching. Make no mistake, this was state-sanctioned murder of an innocent Black man. Governor Parson had the responsibility to save a life, and he didn’t. When DNA evidence exonerates a man, capital punishment is not justice—it is murder. Trump, McConnell, and the conservative Supreme Court justices now have blood on their hands.” – NAACP President Derrick Johnson, reacting to the execution of Marcellus Williams. LAST week, an election for the Governor of Edo State took place. Winners and losers have since emerged. All political parties, especially the two giants—All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)—sang…

IN a crowd, Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC) Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada stands out—a towering figure whose presence commands attention. Tall and huge, he embodies a blend of formidable stature and gentle demeanour, demonstrating that one can be intimidating yet approachable. What captivates me most is how this gentle giant has seamlessly taken the reins of the service’s public relations from a lineage of exceptional officers. His challenge was substantial: following in the footsteps of remarkable PR managers like Alhaji Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the current Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) is not a tea party. Adeniyi has significantly…

YES, we are at war! This much we said last week. But the curious and sad thing is that Nigerians don’t seem to know or don’t want to know, and our leaders don’t seem to care. Our security agencies, whose activities are akin to the movement of wavelengths, continue with the aura of “everything is all right” when the trajectory is low, only to chase after those fighting Nigeria when the trajectory shoots up. When they are at their lowest, it is the law-abiding citizen who gets the short end of their “might.” The real bad guys hold sway in…

I WAS supposed to continue my discourse on Yobe State, its creation, its leaders, and their styles. However, the sad news of last week has made me drop it for another time. We were hit with the sad news of the massacre of scores of people by Boko Haram in Mafa, a village in Tarmuwa local government area of Yobe State. Mafa is close to Shekau, the town that was unfortunate to be the birthplace of Abubakar Shekau, the notorious murderer in the name of religion. Surrounded in the mosque by the bandits just after the Asr (four o’clock) prayer,…

THIS week, Yobe State will become 33. On August 27, 1991, President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida sliced Yobe State out of the old Borno State, which was itself carved out of the North Eastern State that was hewed from the Northern Region. The IBB regime thought it better to situate its capital in Damaturu. The British chiselled this sleepy, hazy, whistle-stop settlement out of the Alagarno district as a colony in 1902 when they conquered the Bornu Empire. It was no more than a little big village. Yobe, then a largely agrarian state, has been lucky to have governors who, at…

This article was first published in December 2017 and repeated with minor changes a few times. I am repeating it because I find it very relevant and perhaps it may make us view Nigeria first over many of the things that pull us apart. Why should a citizen hail a leader today but wail tomorrow when a different leader does what he hailed yesterday? Or why should he wail today when just yesterday he was hailing a different person doing the same thing? HAILER and wailer are new terms in our political lexicon. Just as ‘men and women of timber…

This was first written on March 17, 2024, with a different headline. Perhaps we may still find it relevant in these trying times. LAST week, we read how the signs are not looking good for a nation like ours that wants to be reckoned with internationally. We concluded by asking the federal government to look at ways to reduce the cost of governance and the unimaginable take-home pay of political leaders and redirect the excess towards production. And we emphasised that we must become a productive nation that eats, drives and wears what it produces. We also urged anyone genuinely…

This was published on 10/05/2024, precisely five months ago. Was I clairvoyant? No, the signs were there for all to see. Did anybody give a hoot? Hmmmmn! Well, here is a repeat. I DO not want to believe that in a country of nearly 250 million people, I am the only one who thinks there is a gathering of ominous dark clouds over our dear country beginning in the North. I cannot afford that foolish and lazy thought even if I wanted to dream so, because it is that type of thinking that brought us to this sorry pass. Yes.…

“Unlike the stomach, the brain doesn’t alert you when it’s empty.” – Arabic proverb. THERE are many tales about how the tortoise got its cracked back. One with various versions stands out. It is the one in which the tortoise had two geese as friends. In the Buddhist scriptures, the tortoise fell from the sky and split in two as the geese were taking it to their home in the Himalayas. According to the story, the geese held a stick in their beaks while the tortoise grasped it in its mouth. But while passing over a village, it opened its…

NIGERIA, our beloved country, is full of promises and the potential to be a great country. Why we still have not got it right is not only surprising and frustrating to us Nigerians, it is a big letdown to the international community. Because of all the hiccups associated with our bumbling growth, every day comes up with issues that not only bewilder but befuddle concerned citizens. It is like every day comes with a closed box, and from it, every hour, a matter of profound national effect rears its head. Some of them are heart-warming, like hearing about some Nigerians…

This is the continuation of the article of last week, republished as a result of our current “search” for a more viable political system. It should be noted that they were first published over three years ago. IN Nigeria and Presidential Democracy: Any Better Alternative? (1), we touched on how cries of marginalisation permeate the air. Partisan interests are placed above national interests while divisions along ethnic and religious lines have become the norm just as the struggle for power and its retention have taken a “do or die” dimension, affecting almost everything, including the neutrality of the judiciary, the…

This was first published on September 23, 2019. Considering the recent moves to return Nigeria to regionalism, I see the need to repeat it. SINCE man became aware of himself and realised that whether by mutual arrangement or contrived by nature, there are always leaders and followers, communities fashioned out ways and means in which to live together under organised systems to regulate and conduct their affairs. From primitive father figure leadership to the animalistic instinct of the strongest leading the flock, man has experimented with many ways in which to live in harmony with one another and with the…

NGO is the acronym for Non-Governmental Organisation and as the name suggests, they are non-profit bodies formed to carry out non-governmental functions and thereby fill gaps that governments and even the private sectors could not affect or where their impacts are minimal while the needs are necessary. They are meant to be agents of development, more especially at the grassroots level, while engaging the citizenry with a deliberate agenda to awaken their awareness and desire for positive social changes that would enhance their quality of life while driving them to make their world a better place. Non-governmental organisations are supposed…

IN the past few months, there has been some incessant din over the plight of education across the country, how deplorable it has become and concerns over how to bring it out of the shambles it has been shovelled into as a result of long-term negligence by those who should nurse it after benefitting from it. Many of us who were in this part of the world before 1980 knew what schools were and how governments went the whole hog to make them qualitative while making the academic environment so conducive. The managers of education did not compromise quality and…

FOR the past four years, I have been insisting that our problem and even need now is not about salary increment but about being a productive nation that produces what it needs and uses what it produces. This would galvanise our economy and strengthen the naira. With a strong currency, ₦30,000 is more than enough as a basic salary. Just imagine the naira to be equal to the dollar and there was a time when ₦60 was equal to $100. Here I have reproduced an old writeup on this topic. There is no Nigerian that will tell you he is…

This write-up is not new. It was first published on January 18, 2021. Considering his recent court case, I find it relevant to republish it today. THOSE familiar with novels, especially before the advent of the internet, can remember a famous novel recalled in my headline. The book, The Way The Cookie Crumbles, first published in 1965, is one of the ninety or so thrillers written by Rene Lodge Brabazon Raymond, better known as James Hadley Chase. Ordinarily, a cookie represents many things, ranging from the inanimate to the animate, but The Way The Cookie Crumbles in Chase’s novel means…

WHAT is happening in Kano should be of concern to not only the Kanawa or Northerners but to all Nigerians. Kano, as we all know, is the heartbeat of the North. If Kano is economically buoyant, it cascades down to the rest of the North and reflects on the nation’s GDP. Conversely, any chaos or breach in security will affect other parts of the North, thereby stretching the capacity of our security agencies with all the attendant consequences. This is why the ongoing ”Game of Thrones” in the ancient city of Kano should concern every Nigerian. There were some misgivings…