Zulum Appoints Professor Balami as Chair, Secondary Education Board

By: Kayode Bodunrin

Governor Babagana Zulum has appointed Professor Yusuf Gana Balami as the Executive Chairman of Borno State Secondary Education Board.

Balami, a Professor of Education Psychology, hails from Hawul, in the Southern senatorial zone of the state.

He had a short stint with the Borno State Ministry of Education between 1984 and 1988, before later proceeding to the University of Maiduguri as graduate assistant where he started his career as an academic which later culminated into him becoming a Professor in 2014.

Prof Balami is a member of several Professional bodies and has authored several publications as lead author or co-author.

While congratulating Professor Balami Zulum urged him to deploy his years of experience in the education sector, both as an administrator and an academic, in reshaping the quality of secondary education in Borno.

His appointment has since been communicated to the Borno State House of Assembly for confirmation.

Zulum Appoints Professor Balami as Chair, Secondary Education Board

Amnesty International must stop defending dangerous falsehoods in the name of free speech

By: Zagazola Makama

Once again, Amnesty International has taken a predictable but deeply troubling stance, this time, condemning the lawful detention of a social media influencer, Ghali Isma’il, who is facing charges over a false and provocative video announcing the death of Nigeria’s sitting President. In its hasty and one-sided statement, Amnesty labeled the Department of State Services’ (DSS) action as “a clear demonstration of abuse of power.” This knee-jerk condemnation reeks not only of bias but of a dangerous disregard for the responsibility that comes with free speech.

It’s important to remember that the Nigerian authorities are acting within the bounds of the law. Ghali Isma’il appeared before a competent magistrate and is being tried for spreading false information an issue of concern to public safety and stability. The viral video claiming the President’s death by poisoning, however unfounded and provocative, point to the need for responsible speech, especially in a period when misinformation can quickly escalate tensions or cause panic.

Let’s be clear: no one is above the law. Isma’il was not whisked away to a secret cell. He was arraigned before a competent magistrate court in Abuja and is being tried according to the laws of the land. The charges spreading false information with intent to cause public alarm and inciting disaffection against the government are not political fabrications.

They are legitimate concerns, especially when tied to a video falsely claiming that President Bola Tinubu had died after being poisoned, and presented with an air of certainty that could spark panic in a country already battling complex security and economic challenges.

If this is what Amnesty International classifies as “freedom of expression,” then the organization must clarify where it draws the line between speech and sabotage. Are we now to accept that individuals can publish death hoaxes about national leaders and peddle wild, fabricated conspiracy theories under the guise of digital activism? Would Amnesty extend this same compassion if the target were a leader in Europe or America?

Is it truly free speech when falsehoods threaten public order or incite unrest? Would Amnesty International hold the same stance if similar misinformation targeted leaders in other parts of the world? These are complex issues with no easy answers, but it is crucial that we weigh the right to expression against the potential harm caused by reckless or deliberately false content.

Let us also not forget that this is not Ghali Isma’il’s first brush with dangerous disinformation. He has repeatedly posted bizarre claims including that former U.S. President Donald Trump was compelling Nigeria to repatriate terrorists into the country and quoting the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tugger, who never mentioned such in his interview. Yusuf said they are ex- convict from Venezuela but Ismail, said they are “Terrorists” . When does free speech become reckless speech? When does falsehood become a threat to national peace and cohesion? This calls for a measured discussion on when speech crosses into dangerous territory especially when it influences public perception and stability.

Moreover, one must ask: where was Amnesty International when ISWAP terrorists released gruesome videos of mass executions? Where was Amnesty when bandits kidnapped and murdered citizens or when IPOB loyalists torched police stations and killed security personnel? The silence or muted response from Amnesty International in those cases raises questions about consistency and priorities. Their silence in the face of these atrocities is deafening. Yet, whenever the Nigerian state acts to preserve order and prevent chaos, Amnesty rushes in with a press release always siding with the provocateur.

Ultimately, the right to free speech must be exercised responsibly. Supporting lawful limits when speech could threaten national peace isn’t a contradiction to human rights but a recognition of their importance in a complex society.

Amnesty International faces an important question: will it stand as a defender of genuine human rights and democratic stability, or does it risk becoming a platform that inadvertently enables disinformation that jeopardizes it?

This double standard is becoming increasingly apparent to Nigerians. The right to free speech must be protected, yes but it must also be exercised with responsibility. Defending lies that threaten national unity under the cloak of human rights advocacy is not activism; it is sabotage.

Amnesty International must decide: is it here to protect Nigeria’s democracy or to shield those who exploit social media to endanger it?

Zagazola Makama is a Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad Region

Amnesty International must stop defending dangerous falsehoods in the name of free speech

Malnutrition crisis in northern Nigeria: mobilization is urgently needed to avoid further deaths

By: Abdulkareem Yakubu

Northern Nigeria is currently facing an alarming malnutrition crisis. In Katsina State for instance, where Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been present since 2021, the teams are seeing an ever-increasing number of malnourished children in its therapeutic feeding centers, with increasingly severe conditions and higher mortality rates. In collaboration with the local authorities, emergency prevention distribution of nutritional supplements has started for 66,000 children in the local government area of Mashi. In the context of drastic cuts in international funding, the need for prevention and treatment of malnutrition is enormous in northern Nigeria, and urgent mobilization is required.

By the end of June 2025, nearly 70,000 malnourished children had already received medical care from our teams in Katsina State, including nearly 10,000 who were hospitalized in serious condition. Without taking into account the new healthcare facilities opened by MSF during the year in the state, this represents an increase of approximately one-third compared to last year. In addition, between January and June 2025, the number of malnourished children with nutritional oedema, the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition, rose by 208 percent compared with the same period in 2024. Unfortunately, 652 children have already died in our facilities since the nobeginning of 2025 due to a lack of timely access to care. A worrying sign of the growing severity of this major public health emergency, is that adults—particularly women, including pregnant and breastfeeding women—are also affected. A screening carried out in July in all five MSF malnutrition centers in Katsina State on 750 mothers of patients revealed that more than half of adult caregivers were acutely malnourished, including 13 percent with severe acute malnutrition.

To cope with the massive influx of children expected by the end of the lean season in October, MSF has increased its support to local authorities in several states in north Nigeria where we provide care to the population. In Katsina state for instance, we opened a new ambulatory therapeutic feeding center (AFTC) in Mashi and an additional inpatient therapeutic feeding center (ITFC) in Turai, to provide a total of 900 beds in two MSF-supported hospitals.

“The year 2024 marked a turning point in northern Nigeria’s nutritional crisis, with an increase of 25 percent from the previous year,” explains Ahmed Aldikhari, country representative of MSF in Nigeria. “But the true scale of the crisis exceeds all predictions. We are currently witnessing massive budget cuts, particularly from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, which are having a real impact on the treatment of malnourished children.”

Earlier this week, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it will be forced to suspend all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in Northeast Nigeria by the end of July due to ‘critical funding shortfalls’.

“At the same time, we observe ever-increasing needs, such as in Katsina State, where an increasing number of people cannot afford to buy food anymore, even though it is available in markets,” added Aldikhari.

A food security survey carried out by humanitarian organizations in the local government area of Kaita, in Katsina state, before the lean season began at the start of 2025 revealed that over 90 percent of households had reduced the number of meals they ate each day.

Across the north, other factors worsening the malnutrition crisis include disease outbreaks worsened by low vaccine coverage, availability and accessibility of basic health services, and other socioeconomic indices complicated by insecurity and violence.

“The most urgent way to reduce the risk of immediate death from malnutrition is to ensure families have access to food,” says Emmanuel Berbain, nutrition referent at MSF. “This can be done through large-scale distribution of food or nutritional supplements, as we are currently doing in the Mashi area, or through cash distributions when and where it is possible.”

The capacity to care for and treat malnourished children must also be expanded, both by increasing the number of beds in health facilities and by providing funding and access to ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). These actions must be undertaken as a priority in areas where the needs – i.e. the number of malnourished children – are greatest.

People over the age of five, who are also increasingly affected by malnutrition but are currently not covered by any assistance, should also be included in prevention programs.

On July 8, His Excellency Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima publicly sounded the alarm on the scale of malnutrition in Nigeria, warning that it deprives almost 40 percent of children under the age of five of their full physical and cognitive potential. He described the situation as a national emergency requiring urgent and collective action.

MSF treated over 300,000 malnourished children in seven northern states in 2024, a 25 percent increase from 2023. In the Northwest alone, where MSF tackles malnutrition in the states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, and Zamfara, we have already treated almost 100,000 children suffering from severe and moderate acute malnutrition in outpatient treatment centres in the first six months of 2025 and hospitalized around 25,000 malnourished children

Malnutrition crisis in northern Nigeria: mobilization is urgently needed to avoid further deaths