Columns
Re: El-Rufa’i vs ABU: How not to give back to Alma Mater, by Prof. MK Othman
Re: El-Rufa’i vs ABU: How not to give back to Alma Mater, by Prof. MK Othman
Since the year 2020 when this column debuted, none of my previous articles elicited a large number of reactions from readers than the piece of El-Rufa’i Vs ABU Zaria published two weeks. At the time, I am writing this rejoinder over the weekend, there were 151 shares of the online version of the article on the Facebook of Blueprint alone.
This is in addition to 100s if not 1000s others shared on different social media platforms. I am not surprised considering the gravity of the issue and the Institution involved; ABU Zaria, the largest and the most diverse university in Nigeria with over one million Alumni across the 774 LGAs in Nigeria and outside.
More than 95% of the reactions were against the decision of the Kaduna state government and thus, called on the man at the centre of the issue, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufa’i, the governor of Kaduna state, himself, an alumnus of ABU to deeply rethink his action and reverse it. It is really difficult to share all the views expressed in this column. However, few are selected for the reason of space limitation. Happy reading.
Only in Nigeria, the building of roads, stadia, and roundabouts are seen as something praiseworthy of a politician. We commit a lot of resources while neglecting the most important aspect of societal development, which is human capital development. A society with a decline in the quality of human capital should have done all it could to regain control of the nosedive. But in Nigeria, it is different. Schools are closing down because of banditry, kidnapping, etc, SMEs are being decimated because of violence, people cannot travel freely within and outside their states to attain education but we are busy with the building of structures, which indiscipline people would destroy in no time because we cannot manage them. I wonder what the use of all our certificates is, Africa. We ought to be able to reason from common sense unto more complex things.
Anonymous.
Honestly, El-Rufa’i is trying to burn the hand that fed him. He is therefore advised to desist from that act. To us Alumni of this great citadel of learning, ABU Zaria, we should therefore wake up to rescue ABU Zaria by emulating these Kano men (Dangote and Abdulsamad). Thank you, Prof. for the wake-up call
Sani Lawal, Kano
This is the problem of the governor; he doesn’t listen once he set out to carry out his development and underdevelopment activities. Since the coming of KADGIS with or without the governor’s knowledge and approval, KADGIS has selectively demolished markets, settlements, revoked C of Os, without taking into consideration the consequences of such actions on the people. As you rightly said the majority of small traders, weak owners of land and structures have suffered at the hands of someone they voted to improve their means of livelihood. Demolished market stalls are no longer within the reach of most traders as the money charged through the Bank and the developer is too exorbitant to afford.
There are so many examples of the high-handedness of the KADGIS personnel when executing the demolition and subsequent reallocation of the lands to the associates.
Those pushed out of the markets are also being chased from shops they found along the roads and within communities as illegal by KASUPDA with a big X and next visit punching as a warning painted on such buildings.
Now that most of the demolished lands have been grabbed, the remaining ones are in the security high-risk areas; the attention is now on lands belonging to institutions in the name of development. This has happened at NITR, this should not be allowed to happen at ABU Mando.
This is the same person who demolished the houses of people that encroached on the land of Alhudahuda college and tried to demolish those by the Zaria library. This same person is now encroaching on land belonging to another school. Haba Mallam Nasiru. The Bourgeois is being created at the expense of the proletariats and the future may be doomed!
Dr I. Sani, Zaria.
Honestly, El Rufa’i is not being fair to the Institution that trained him to be what he is today. Instead of him contributing to the development of A. B. U. Zaria, he is trying to take away what belongs to it. I think he should have a rethink and do the right thing with minimum delay. Thanks, Prof for making the public aware of this sensitive issue.
Dr Aminu Y. Umar, Katsina
Salam Prof. Thanks for sharing your article on El-Rufa’i vs ABU Zaria. You have correctly described the characters of El-Rufa’i. I hope he will listen to reasons and leave what does not rightly belong to his government alone. Similarly, I hope someone close to him will forward this article to him and by God’s grace, he may withdraw his decision of taking over what belongs to ABU Zaria.
Prof A. Y. Umar, Kano
El-Rufai’s self-adoration had made him aloof to issues of common sense. Else, how soon he forgot that ABU made him!!!
Alh Sani Ahmed, Kano
……” he is about to burn the hands that fed him” I love this quotation. This should have been the caption for the article, Prof. Excellently, well-articulated piece. I wish more oil to your head and more ink to your pen, Sir. You have said it all and hope that the man at the centre listens to your voice of reasons.
Prince U. Angara. Zaria
This is a well-thought-out write-up. Even though this outcry by ASUU, your write might not change much, but may remind the Governor of his pledge in 2015 upon assumption of office, he promised to reclaim all lands of public institutions excised and given out to the people. The demolitions at Alhudahuda College are still fresh in our memory. Continue to enlighten the people and a watchdog too. May Allah reward you most abundantly, amen.
Anonymous.
Columns
With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood
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
Columns
The Rise and Fall of Garkida, a Social Decline
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.
Columns
Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri
Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri
By Dr. James Bwala
These past few days, I have been thinking back on the flood in Maiduguri. I have spoken with at least thirty people who have been impacted by the flood, and their responses and comments regarding the flood and Vice President Kashim Shettima’s leadership struck me as something people had never observed at the worst of this natural calamity. In addition to highlighting the environmental issues the area is facing, the recent flooding in Maiduguri has also highlighted the leadership style of Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima. Due to excessive rainfall, a section of the Alau dam broke, and insufficient drainage systems, the region’s already preexisting socioeconomic vulnerabilities have been made worse by the floods. In light of this, Shettima’s reaction and crisis management techniques are worthy of close scrutiny.
Shettima’s proactive attitude to governance, especially during times of crisis, has frequently been described as a hallmark of his leadership style. During his term as Borno State’s governor, he made large infrastructural improvements meant to increase the state’s resilience to severe catastrophes. Notwithstanding these endeavors, Maiduguri’s persistent shortcomings in urban planning and emergency preparedness are brought to light by the latest floods. It is admirable how Shettima can organize resources and interact with the community in times of need.
The former Borno State governor and current vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, has taken the lead in resolving these crises. His proactive approach to leadership is marked by a desire to both build community resilience and lessen the effects of natural disasters. Shettima has advocated for long-term infrastructure improvements in addition to organizing resources for emergency relief operations in response to the flooding issue. Through collaboration with several entities, such as non-governmental organizations and foreign agencies, his objective is to furnish those impacted by the floods with basic amenities like potable water, food, and medical support.
Nigeria’s VP Kashim Shettima
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Severe flooding has caused serious problems for Maiduguri and made the humanitarian crises already plaguing the area worse. Kashim Shettima’s prompt action has been essential in meeting the impacted communities’ urgent needs. He took preemptive steps to deliver relief supplies such as food, medical supplies, and shelter for displaced people by organizing local resources and liaising with national agencies. This prompt action not only demonstrates good leadership, but it also emphasizes how crucial leadership is in emergency situations.
The Vice President’s strategy included a thorough evaluation of the flooding damage, which made it possible to identify the most vulnerable groups for focused actions. Through his interactions with local officials and citizens, he made sure that relief efforts were appropriate for the setting and sensitive to cultural differences. By encouraging a sense of ownership among local stakeholders, this participatory technique improved confidence in government activities.
Different stakeholders in the state have responded differently to the visit of Nigeria’s vice president, Kashim Shettima, to address flood victims. Numerous localities have experienced devastation as a result of the extraordinary floods, which has resulted in property and human casualties. Many of the victims Shettima spoke with expressed hope that his presence would spur government action to provide desperately needed relief and to begin rehabilitation efforts. The significance of direct involvement from high-ranking officials was underscored by community leaders, who saw it as an indication that their predicament is being recognized on a national scale.
Kashim Shettima spoke about the suffering of flood victims who have been badly impacted by unusual flooding while on a recent visit to Maiduguri. His words were meant to be comforting, but they also served as a guide for healing and restoration. Shettima underlined the necessity of unity and group efforts to address this environmental catastrophe. He emphasized that in order to ensure that relief efforts are efficient and timely, the government would mobilize resources to aid individuals who have been displaced by the floods.
Shettima’s speech also emphasized how crucial community resilience is to surviving tragedies like this. He asked residents and local authorities to work together with government organizations to identify high-risk locations and put precautionary measures in place to avoid similar flooding incidents in the future. Shettima sought to empower communities while easing their immediate pains through coordinated relief activities by encouraging a sense of shared responsibility.
Dr. James Bwala, PhD, writes from Abuja.
Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri
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