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NBA Conference: Kashim Shettima’s Output or Outfit? 

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NBA Conference: Kashim Shettima's Output or Outfit? 

NBA Conference: Kashim Shettima’s Output or Outfit? 

By: James Bwala

Swapping on social media is the suit worn by former Borno state governor and APC Vice Presidential Candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima at the occasion of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). An Annual General Conference held at Eko Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos. So, what is poetic about Shettima’s suit? The gathering of learned people is not about their dresses. It should be about the individual output rather than outfits.

Sadly, certain individuals want to make a mountain out of an ant hill. They quickly run to their pages making all sorts of comments about the All Progressive Congress vice Presidential candidate’s dressing. 

Such mean and rather seeking for a political cheap score should be a thing of shame to any individual who misrepresented the former Borno state governor and Senator of the Federal Republic. Kashim Shettima is not new to suit the Banker that he was. He understands the code and dresses well. The gathering at the NBA conference was not about outfit but output from Individuals with something to say or informed such gathering of egg heads.

That Kashim Shettima’s suit was described in their memos as oversized shows their intellectual shortsightedness. It did not remove anything from Kashim Shettima who is known as an erudite scholar in the best of outings and output for the growth of organizations and associations such as the NBA. I would have been concerned if Kashim Shettima’s outing had limited his output at the NBA conference but he remains focus and constant as the Northern star in his speech and issues of concern to all meaning Nigerian.

Funnily, in Nigeria certain groups of individuals walk naked in the street in the name of fashion and call themselves celebrities. We celebrate them and regard them as heroes. Kashim Shettima, the APC vice Presidential Candidate is an embodiment of knowledge in which his output should be a point of discussion and reference for a gathering like this rather than the out pour about his outfit. More sadden is that those posting and sharing are people who could not attend to his position.

Since almost every politician present at the occasion took time to speak of their own share of knowledge, what they think of Nigeria and what to offer in their language, Kashim Shettima gave solid advice for Nigerians to vote for the candidate that has the capacity to turn Nigeria around for good. He spoke of his combination with the APC National Leader, and added that if elected next year, they will replicate the “wonders” they performed when they were respective governors of Borno and Lagos states. This is from a point of reference.

For those present at the occasion, Kashim Shettima spoke on a panel session immediately after the People’s Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar; and shortly before the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi; amongst other panelists.

Also Read: Nigeria’s VP 2023: Kashim Shettima has come to stay

According to Shettima, “Nigerians have the capability to see through the worn-out rhetoric and sophistry of pretentious politicians. Nigerians should follow the man that knows the road rather than hope on those who do not know the road to lead them. From day one, we will hit the ground running. We’ll promptly address the issue of the economy, ecology, and security.

“We have the antecedents. I built some of the best schools in Nigeria. Go to Borno and see wonders; you will never believe that it is a state in a state of war. So, we are going to replicate our achievements in Lagos, in Borno and some of the frontline states so that our nation will be a better place. The fundamental issue is pure leadership.” he said.

I believe Kashim Shettima’s express examples of achievements rattle his opponents in the discussion of facts. He did not brace up on fictions and mundane expressions as such the only way to return the favour is to sponsor few unmarketable street hawkers to compare his dressing in the hall of learned personalities.

NBA Conference: Kashim Shettima’s Output or Outfit? 

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University Courses: Marketable and Non-Marketable Courses—How True?

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University Courses: Marketable and Non-Marketable Courses—How True?

By: Balami Lazarus

Let me make it clear hereinafter that I am not against any academic course or the role of guidance and counseling for good career choice, provided that our young men and women will be guided properly. Not long ago, I visited a friend who teaches at one of the universities. It was interesting to be with him, having spent years without seeing each other.

My friend and I took time out and had a long discussion on national issues concerning our country in an attempt to proffer verbal solutions that will only end and stop as mere talks, which most Nigerians are good at doing, including this writer.

In furtherance to our discussion, I was very particular about education and how to improve the sector in terms of standards, academic excellence, and skills. I also raised the issue of corruption in the system. In the process I immediately recalled what some parents and guardians are peddling around saying: “There are marketable and non-marketable courses in our universities.

“For me, I know that for hundreds of years, universities are known to be great centers of teaching, learning,learning and research, contributing to arts, science, and technology for the purpose of national development. My friend was quick to add that “the academic corruption is perpetrated by some lecturers and students, monetarily and sexually.”

Having discussed the corruption bug. I asked the university Don if there are any courses as marketable and non-marketable courses in our universities. This one question gave the Don a good laugh. He looked at me and said, “I have spent years as a teacher in the university academic department. I have never heard of any course(s) known as marketable and non-marketable academic disciplines or any faculty/department that run such courses.

As young secondary school students aspiring to go to the university to study courses of our choices where our interest lies and looking forward to becoming either political scientists, engineers, lawyers, historians, or doctors, and so on. In this regard, we had never heard or been told by our teachers or parents that there are marketable and non-marketable academic courses. Therefore, we should study the marketable courses.

The question I always asked myself was, where are these courses? What we have in our universities are courses leading to different human endeavors. Whatever one decided to call these courses, what is obtainable today is the need to have to add skills to your academic training; employers of labor are today skills-oriented for those who are hoping to be employed.

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist, 08036779290

University Courses: Marketable and Non-Marketable Courses—How True?

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With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

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With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

By: Balami Lazarus 

Who wants to be a millionaire? a television quiz program anchored by one Frank Idoho, which I hardly missed. I recalled a question once asked: Where is Lake Alau? In the options, there was Borno state among other states. The young man on the hot seat gave a wrong answer. I believe because Lake Alau was then not popular, unlike its cousin, Lake Chad. 

Not much is known about the Lake, Alau, and the dam known and called Lake Alau Dam put together. Let me first start with the lake as a natural geographical feature, a large body of water surrounded by land. However, and to the best of my findings, there is no available written document on the history of this lake in question. But it held that the Lake was there many years traceable to the period of the Kanem- Borno Empire. While the present Alau was a small settlement that emerged during the formative years of Shehu’s dynasty from 1846 to the present day. It later grew into a village with people of Kanuri extraction. 

Alau is today part of the Konduga Local Government Area of Borno state, some few kilometers away from Maiduguri city center. For the purpose of providing portable drinking water and to improve agriculture through irrigation farming and fishing, a dam was constructed by the past administration of the state from 1984 to 1986. The project was tagged as Water for Borno. Thereby, Lake Alau Dam has become part of the people’s lives, for its importance cannot be quantified. 

The recent Alau Dam flood that nearly swept away the city of Maiduguri came with a raging fury of a tempest in September 2024 I will liken to one of the works of William Shakespeare—”The Tempest.”TheTempest”. That of the play was simply and deliberately raised to humble palace traitor Antonio and his co-conspirators, who ousted Duke Prospero, whom they marooned on a deserted island, leaving him to his fate. But ours came with devastating destruction and killing with ravaging effect from head to tail, which has caused unestimated damage. 

The flood was not because of the heavy rainfall experienced last season but from the overflow of the dam and subsequent breakoff of its decks. My last visit to Lake Alau Dam with some friends was years back. What was observed and saw were obsolete facilities that were outdated, old, and weakly decked. There was nothing to show that the dam is being cared for. But while growing up in Zaria as kids, we were so used to seeing Kubani and the University (ABU) dams being opened up to let out large quantities of water to avoid overflow and flooding. Has Alau Dam ever experienced that? Has it been dredged? 

Therefore, the 13-man committee led by Mr. Liman Gana Mustapha, a professional town planner, may wish to consider these questions as an inroad to finding a lasting solution to the flood matter. 

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist. 08036779290

With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

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The Rise and Fall of Garkida, a Social Decline

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The Rise and Fall of Garkida, a Social Decline 

By: Balami Lazarus 

In my recent visit to see my aged mother in Shaffa, a small rural town. In a chat with some of my peers, Garkida came up, and one of us immediately informed the group that the town is socially dredged. I made some findings, and you may wish to agree. I believed students of history my generation were once taught about the rise and fall of great empires, kingdoms, rulers, warriors, and other historical events during our secondary school days. In the cause of those lessons, our imaginations were always taken far to other lands. 

We never thought that someday there would be a fall or decline of our own, which could be a town, village, or settlement, but never like the fall of the known historical empires/kingdoms of Oyo, Jukun, Fante/Ashante, Kanem-Borno, Songhai, etc. To rise is a difficult task in life or in the course of growth, be it individual, town, or city. But to fall is easy. Garkida has rose and fallen, or, to say, declined socially. Once a bubbling rural town in Buraland, being in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State has nose-dived from the social ladder. 

As a historian, I will not subscribe to the use of the term fall; it will defile my histo-journalistic sense of reasoning because Garkida is a proper noun and is there real. So it will rather go well with me and perhaps some readers of this essay to accept Declined as a better use of historical language for the purpose of this work. I am not a native of Garkida and have never lived there, but it was the home of my cousins and nieces long before now. 

As a young man, I had it well with friends when the town was in her social chemistry and apogee. In spite of her decline, the arrears in our kitty, notwithstanding the flow of time, are the mutual friendship, an indelible mark in our social life. I remember clearly as a holiday-maker with my grandmother at Shaffa, Garkida was the in-thing in our youthful days because of the mass social activities that used to take place there. 

There were social interactions with friends and relatives from different places, parties of all kinds—a social front burner. And to most of my peers, it was the center of today’s mobile social handle—Facebook, where you meet and make new friends. That was Garkida for us. As a rural town, it flourished with glamour, elegance, and pride, triggered by the social engineering of Who is Who? The creme de la creme of her sons and daughters who made nane in their vocations or professions that promoted and spread the name of Garkida as social lighthouse. 

It was the abode of top military brass in the ranks of generals. Her businessmen once made the town tick as a cluster of has.  It was the nerve of vogue and socialites in Buraland. There was declined in this capacity. Historically, Garkida came to the limelight and appeared on the colonial map of Nigeria in 1923, when the white Christian missionaries of CBN/EYN first settled there and made it their home on the 17th March of the aforementioned year. The beginning of her social mobility started in the 1970s, through the 1980s, to the dawn of the 1990s, her zenith. 

I doff my hat for the united daughters of Garkida; credit goes to them; their exposures, taste, beauty, love, elegance, sophistication, unity of purpose, and social agrandisement made them wives of husbands of men from far and near who are of different walks of life. The women of Garkida were a central force, once the venus de milo of the town before its social decline. I cannot conclude this article without appreciating the fact that Garkida was the center of learning and vocational training and once the hold of good and efficient healthcare services in Buraland and its neighbors. Today, Garkida is no longer in the vantage position. 

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist, 08036779290.

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