About a month ago, I traveled to the Al-Haram (the Holy Ka’aba Mosque in Makkah) for the Friday prayers together with a longtime friend in the UK, who had just relocated to Saudi Arabia. It was a great opportunity to meet again.
Shortly after we arrived in the mosque, a call to prayer was made, after which the Imam mounted the pulpit. A powerful voice echoed through the microphone with Islamic greeting thus: ‘Assalamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,’ the greeting which Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught the Muslim faithful.
The Imam’s voice was that of Shaykh Abdurrahman Sudais, the Chief Imam of the mosque. It is a household name in the Islamic world regarding the recitation of the Holy Qur’an.
I have listened to several sermons of Shaykh Abdurrahman Sudais, but in my humble estimation, that was one of the best sermons the Imam had delivered. It was about parents. As many readers might be aware, the Shaykh lost his father few weeks ago, which might have contributed in the selection of this important topic.
The lesson of the sermon is universal; it issa useful for all times, valuing and respecting the most important people in our lives, our parents.
After listening to the Khutbah (sermon), my thought went back home. I thought of the youths in our society who consider their parents as a treasury to be milked. The teenager who lies to his parents in order to make money out of them. The boys and girls who think it’s the duty of the mother alone to cook, clean the house, look after the guests, respond to the needs of every member of the household when everyone else is busy watching television or playing games.
Indeed, my thought crossed over to the modern day youth, whose life has consumed everything his parents have saved to see him get educated; yet on landing the best job, his or her parents become secondary. It is time to enjoy life, buy the best car in town, purchase the most expensive clothes so that he or she looks smart. Yet the very parents, who sacrificed their comfort to see you grow, to get you the best education, and even work hard to ensure that you get the right job are now placed in a secondary position among your top priorities.
There is no better way to explain the position of parents than the Qur’anic which says: “And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], “uff,” and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.”[Quran 17: 23].
Of course, it is halal (permissible) for you to enjoy your life from the little you earn, but as Islam teaches us, life is not about you alone. It is about others as well, and toping the chart are your noble parents.
Therefore, God in his infinite mercy, ordained that after worshipping Him, the next noble deed is called Ihsan to the parents. What does that mean? It basically means kindness, compassion, respect, love and everything that extends care and support to your parents. It means being selfless, sacrificing your comfort for them, working to alleviate their suffering, extending respect to those they care for. You should be so mindful of their feelings that you must avoid anything that creates discomfort in them, even if it’s a one letter word.
Unfortunately, some youths in this age thought because their parents are rich, or in position of authority, they do not need this respect. Rather, their resources should be milked, and do not even care to work hard and make a living for themselves. It doesn’t matter, whether your parents are rich, or they are poor, looking after them is a responsibility you must fulfil.
This is what we have been taught by the noble Qur’an “And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination.” [Quran 31:14].
Few years back, a friend told me a story about the reaction of his parents when he became a Muslim. They thought they have lost him. Yet after reading these verses, and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace), about the position of parents, he increased his phone calls to them, his visits increased, his support for their needs multiplied. Not only did they accept his decision, indeed, they turned out to be proud of his new way of life.

The media, as scholars have argued over time, represent the nearest approximation of public opinion because they, as interactive members of the society, affect the communities in which they are found, in the same way they are affected by them.
This lesson was brought clearly home following the big mistake made by the government, of using the commemorative events of the country’s 100 years of existence as a huge self-justification exercise. They looked as if they were more interested in defending themselves against criticism than in defending the lives of citizens we continue to lose. This mayhem was accentuated by the slaying of 40 innocent pupils as they slept in their dormitory at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State.
I don’t think there was any conspiracy by the media to largely ignore the government’s centenary events and concentrate their coverage on what, in their view, matters most to the readership. It was clear to all that throughout that period, the media seemed only interested in talking about the insurgency and the sack of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Governor of the Central Bank.
The issue of the killing of the 40 children had attracted enough befitting flak in the country and abroad so the government did not do themselves a favour by giving it a short shrift. It was instructive from their coverage of the incidents, therefore, that the media were determined to give the country leadership on the matter.
In doing this, the media appear to be speaking to the new political mantra of Nigeria as we head towards an important election in 2015, that craves for a corruption-free government and a better, more competent campaign against the raging insurgency.
It is difficult to say, from my disadvantaged standpoint, if and whether the President had weighed the political cost of their knee-jerk reaction to criticism of the festivities. If they did, they may somehow have minimized the political damage they inflicted upon themselves by their demonstrable aloofness and ignorance of ground realities.
In search of a hollow political gain, a Senior Adviser to the President on the new media, even saw a political opportunity in the slaying of the innocent pupils and sought to use the incident to black-paint the suspended Governor of the Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi. As it turned out, the new technological platforms we have found cheaply accessible and useful have a way exposing our hidden secrets. The official was unmasked as the hidden internet hand fabricating falsehood against the perceived enemies of government.
It was equally distressing for a grieving nation that the motivated minister of the government, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was staged to pat her government in the back at the banquet meant for the centenary award. She made a big deal of highway construction and the soon-to-be assembled made-in-Nigeria car. The reformist minister was fairly impressive on the platform even where eulogies and accolades as per development indicators of the world seemed way out of what the public was thinking. She looked much like someone trying to breathe life into a rotten corpse. This was the same evening when the U.S. government issued that damning report classifying Nigeria as a corrupt country.
What Dr. Okonjo-Iweala missed throughout was that the thing that weighed the most on the minds of Nigerians was why and how killings have continued unabated in the North-East. They are getting confused about who gets what value from the slaughtering of children. Why is Africa’s best army at a crossroads over the menace by a rag-tag, barefooted army? Are these Boko Haram? Or are they Obasanjo’s death squads? There is also a feeling that all those poverty alleviation programs she talked about have not added a reasonable succor to the lives of the targeted people. There is very little skill enhancement acquired by the people, many of whom are just getting cash which in the long run is detrimental to them and to the economy.
As media coverages continue to show, the thing on the public’s mind, the saliences of the news wasn’t about how successful the organizers were in bringing this huge presence of foreign leaders. In normal times, putting that together would have passed for a definitive masterstroke. For the citizens and their critical mass media however, this auto-eroticism was a non-event. The nation wanted to talk about the increasing massacres in the North and the steps they want to see taken by their government to bring them to a close. A government that ignores all these only shows its thick skin. Foreign leaders who assembled too have a moral question to answer. Their presence was no less than an implicit endorsement of the lackadaisical government’s attitude to the insurgency. Even though they have restrictions imposed upon them by principles of non-interference in domestic affairs, they should have assumed responsibilities, even tangentially, to prop up our government to do more than it seems ready to do. Life shouldn’t be that expendable as we have come to accept in this country.
This country’s parliament under Senator David Mark too has some waking up to do. They seem to be toying with and shielding the government as many have come to see, and wondering if Ken Nnamani’s Senate would have sat akimbo as this country is going to the gutters.
The press, as a reflective mirror, has the duty of showing the thing that is on the public’s mind. In this case, it is Boko Haram and corruption. That is what they expect their government to deal with. Changing the subject as they have tried and failed to do, with the centenary celebration, won’t just work.

President Goodluck Jonathan can no longer hide the dilemma he has found himself in, on the issue of whether or not he would contest the 2015 Presidential election to do another four years.
Push to the wall by searching questions coming from both those he see as friends and those he regard as political enemies, the President seems to be afraid to fall for the devil nor into the deep blue sea.
When the question was put to him during the Presidential media chat, which was shown live on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and heard on Radio stations across the country yesterday (Monday) evening whether he would contest the 2015 election for his second term, he said matter-of-factly: “If I say I am not contesting, there will be issue, and if I say I will contest there will be issue.”
And the question that instantly arose was which are the issues?
Of course, many leaders in the past that found themselves in similar circumstance faced the same dilemma, and most of them actually ended up listening to and acting on what those who used the Presidency as a hiding place for their inadequacies and those who are hangers-on said, against the popular voices which, by the nature of their existence, are always inaudible and faint.
It is not hard to guess that President Jonathan is afraid to say he would not contest because of the fear of the people from his ethnic nationality, who have been threatening fire and brimstone that he dares not disappoint them.
There has even been a veiled threat on him, by members of his ethnic group that they would not want to see him near the Niger Delta region (where he comes from) if he fails to seek for second term, which they see as their absolute right and chance.
There are also, the groups who are enjoying all the trappings of power in and around the Presidency, who would not only lose their jobs and all that go with such jobs, but will be divorced from the sweet melody of the Presidency if he fails to contest the 2015 election.
Those in this category are scattered across the country, from North to South and West to East, but have one central point running across them: free access to power at the centre with all the goodies that go with it.
The second “If” of President Jonathan, should he decide to contest, is usually the one that leaders like him do play around with or even regard as “the ranting of political enemies.”
This was the voice former President Olusegun Obasanjo ignored which nearly made him to lose the second term, if it were not his second-in-command, Atiku Abubakar with his forgiving spirit. It is on record that Obasanjo refused to declare whether he would go for second term or not for a long time and when finally he decided to do so, he told Nigerians that it was God who commanded him to go for it.
One of the issues that are likely to come up if and whenever Jonathan declares that he would contest the 2015 election is that he would contend with his alleged promise that he would do only a tenure and leave. Though he had denied making such promise, even when his political benefactor, Obasanjo confirmed that he made such promise, fact is that, such matter will come up over and over again for proper understanding, politically. Another issue may be whether the constitution would allow him to do 10 years as President of Nigeria if he wins the 2015 election. He had done two of the late President Umaru Yar’adua’s last four years, now doing four full years of his first tenure and, another four years from 2015 (of his second tenure) will all add up to 10 years.
And if he decides that he would not contest the 2015 election, one of the issues he would face is anger of his kins men and those who are directly and even indirectly benefiting from him or those who are close to him in and around his offices.
In any case, so long he remains the President of Nigeria, every other action he takes, every other thing he says and every other action he doesn’t take will always elicit issues.
Therefore, it is not just his declaration to contest or not to contest the election that will rouse issues, but all other actions he takes or doesn’t take. This is saying that the President was just saying the obvious at that media chat.

As Nigeria gears up to host the World Economic Summit for Africa May 7-9 2014, civil servants and business conglomerates will be busy evolving ideas about how to cash on it to grow or advance government and individual agenda. Why is government keeping quiet about this very important event? Why is there no publicity, no mobilization of the countrymen and women for it?
The 24th Forum, holding in Nigeria for the first time, has as its theme, “Forging inclusive growth, creating jobs.” The government has a proposal to spend N11 billion  under this year’s budget to host this event. The World Economic Forum, of which the Africa event is an off-shoot, says regional and global leaders would converge on the Nigerian capital to discuss “innovative structural reforms and investments that can sustain the continent’s growth while creating jobs and prosperity for all citizens.”
Forbes magazine which published a profile of the Nigeria event, projects Africa’s population at 2 billion by 2050 and says the continent would, sooner than later, have the largest workforce as projected by Harvard Business Review. The Report puts African economy at two trillion US Dollars, indicating that a third of the countries on the continent enjoy growth rates exceeding six percent. Of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies, six are in Africa.
I am concerned, as are many citizens that there is no awareness creation or mobilization at all going on to sensitize the citizens about this important up-coming event. With barely two months to go, government appears to be uninterested in engaging the stakeholder communities in relevant areas such as industry, agriculture, environment and the women and youth groups in the country who suffer the most from joblessness.
What is extraordinary about the planning (or for the lack of it), for the WEF on Africa is that while there are clear guidelines posted online for TV and other forms of coverage of the Summit, there is no practical advocacy anywhere using pre-conference events, talk shows on Radio, TV, newspapers or billboard advertising mobilizing Nigerians for participation or support for the program. How many Nigerians know that this big, continental event is coming to their country? Don’t get me wrong. There are Nigerians, people like Aliko Dangote, the continent’s richest man; Michael Otedola, Otunba Mike Adenuga and the likes of them, who, even if this event is holding in the moon, they will know about it and can fly themselves to be in attendance. The question is, if this one is about “inclusive growth,” as it is, how much mobilization is going for the entire population with a view to sensitizing the local populace to appreciate and participate in that “inclusive growth,” equal opportunity and meritorious society to benefit future generations?
From the secrecy surrounding the build-up to the Abuja event, assumptions are already being made that government, which has lately been creating more scams than jobs, merely accepted to host the forum as a distraction from problems at home, such as corruption, which is the root problem of Nigeria. The culture of corruption alone dissuades large-scale investments. Even where administrative hurdles are overcome, prospective investors have to sometimes contend with political hurdles.
Kano State recently won a battle against a vindictive Aviation Minister who would rather have foreign airlines use the airport in her home region instead of the Aminu Kano International Airport, their preferred destination. Coupled with this is the concentration of wealth in a few hands and regions, to the exclusion of others, to the point, as you have in the North-East, that poverty and joblessness provide a fertile ground for recruitment into religious violence and insurgency against the state. Without jobs, Nigeria’s growth dividend means nothing. Unemployment is rising as more and more people get educated and would continue to do so as long as government continues to ignore the manufacturing sector and agriculture, carrying on as if they are only interested in dishing out scandalous duty waivers and concession to questionable importers. The situation in agriculture and industry will continue to dwindle. Our women and youths, the hardest hit by joblessness will continue to be left behind. As a consequence, even the rural poor may continue to leave agriculture by migrating to low-productivity employment.
At a time when the energy sector, the mainstay of our economy is showing signs of unreliability and clear threats facing it from the shale gas revolution in the United States as well as the recent discoveries by Australia, estimated to rival the quantum of black gold in Saudi Arabia, our government should closely watch how Ghana, Angola, Kenya, Rwanda among others are taking advantage of rising wages in China to become alternative centres for global manufacturing.
With or without the World Economic Forum here, it is of paramount importance to bring a semblance of order to government finances. You don’t sack an activist Central Bank Governor for pointing out revenue leakages. With the WEF in view, a properly mobilized citizenry can be sensitized to appreciate the need for discipline in the government. Projects don’t get finished in Nigeria. The Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway has been work-in-progress for more than a decade. So are the Abuja-Kubwa-Zuba and the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua expressways leading into and out of the Federal Capital City. When the late President issued the contracts, a timeline of 20 months was given for the completion of each of the projects. Seven years since the commencement of the ongoing work, contractors on the projects have practically stopped working, leaving road users to suffer inconvenience created by roadblocks, diversion and needless accidents. The tragic situation reminds many of the workers of the now dissolved Soviet Union who once joked among themselves that “as long as they pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work.”
Without knowledge, public enlightenment and mobilization, it is hard to imagine what “Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs” would mean to a population sidelined completely in the planning, strategizing and hosting of this important continental summit, the World Economic Forum for Africa.

If you walk on the streets of Nigeria today, the question you would hear ordinary Nigerians asking is why all of a sudden, President Goodluck Jonathan turned his red eye, sacking, demoting, suspending, forcing to resign, as well as receiving resignation and or retirement letters from his close aides and other public officers?
Such ordinary Nigerians may not be patience enough to know the offences and or the reasons that make such officers to be laid off or to go away.
Well, the official position of the President may have been predicated on constitution of Nigeria, but what is worrying is the timing of what is gradually turning to be an exodus, by design or by default, of such officers.
Not quite long ago, a whooping nine ministers were laid off in one fell swoop, while, in recent time, four more ministers resigned, even as the President’s Chief of Staff also threw in the towel. That was just as almost all the nation’s service chiefs, including the chief of defence staff were sacked.
While on that, came the President’s damocle that fell on the head of the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Of course, the suspension of Sanusi as CBN Governor, whom the President was in a haste to replace with another person, had been long expected, in view of the exposure, by the governor, of the missing $20 Billion (about N3 Trillion) in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In deed, that is what the ordinary man on the street know and to which he can ascribe the suspension.
And talking about suspension, except if my knowledge of basic English has failed me, you don’t suspend somebody and go ahead to appoint a substantive officer to replace him. In other words, suspension, as I understand it, means the subject staying away for a period of time for, mostly, an investigation to be carried out on him, and, he may be recalled or eventually sacked, depending on the outcome of the investigation.
But, when you use the word “suspension” and go ahead to appoint another person to occupy the seat of the one suspended, I beg, what are we talking about?
In a case such as this, only a few would argue that the President has the constitutional or legal right to suspend, or as in this case so far, sack Sanusi, but, viewing the whole drama against the background of Sanusi’s exposure of underhand deals in the petroleum sector, from the ordinary man’s point of view also, it may be inferred that the President is trying a cover up. In other words, it looks as if the President decided to punish Sanusi for blowing the whistle (of corruption in high places) against certain powerful, untouchable individuals or groups that have been milking the funds meant for the generality of the citizenry of this country.
At any rate, there appear to be some rights, as in the argument that the President has the right to hire and fire CBN Governor, that are better not exercised by foresighted leader, else, they rouse suspicion and raise eyebrows in many quarters as to what are the actions meant to achieve.
Hasn’t President Jonathan had enough of burden of leadership already to contend with instead of trying, as he is clearly doing, to build up another tribe of enemies, made up of erstwhile top aides that are thrown into the cold, with a sort of ignominy?
And, with the suspension or sacking of Sanusi who obviously has fallen out of favour with the President for reasons you and I may never know, would it be right for one to assume that the nation has seen the last of the President’s angst directed at his close aides and officers? Or are we to expect more display of President’s suspension, sacking, force-to-resign of top government officers, mainly because they fail to fall in line he draws?

In making a distinction between a journalist and a diplomat, an author described the diplomat an official sent abroad to lie on behalf of his/her nation.
This being the case, why would Nigeria diplomats try to cover up or lie outrightly to the home crowd?
As I write, I have it on concrete authority that Nigeria’s Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Mr. Ahmed Umar is a bright and promising diplomat serving his country at many sensitive locations across the world. When he spoke to Daily Trust on Friday on the issue of the alleged ill-treatment of Nigerians in the recent Saudi crackdown on illegal migrants, he sounded more like a Saudi embassy official sent to mislead Nigerians.
This clampdown was itself ordered by the Kingdom following the expiry of a seven months amnesty aimed at allowing illegal migrant workers the chance to correct their visa status without a penalty or without being asked to leave the country. The real reason however is that, foreign workers make up about a-third of that country’s 27 million population. What the clampdown aimed to achieve was to reduce the black market in cheap labour so as to create more jobs for the Saudis.
Nigerians, along with Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians and Ethiopians form the bulk of the targets of the policy.
Many of the victimized Nigerians routinely interviewed by the BBC said those of them who presented themselves for visa renewal were seized and clamped into detention along with the illegals. Nearly all those given the chance to come before the microphone complained of one form of harsh treatment or the other by the Saudi officials. The detention centres, they told the BBC, were extremely cold without any warm coverings given and the food ration was too low for survival. The more than 120,000 Ethiopian citizens flown home by their country, after they were removed from the same centres, were given medical assistance by the International Organization of Migrants. They got psychological first aid, meals, water and high energy biscuits upon arrival, underscoring the general abuse to which migrants were subjected to.
Mr. Umar, in his Trust interview, said impliedly that Nigerian victims of similar abuse lied, as no Nigerians were maltreated in that country.
“Nigerians who are either permanently residing in Saudi Arabia or on Hajj are not maltreated in Saudi Arabia… Nigerians are doing very well.” This must have clearly put many Nigerians and their government in a quandary. Are Nigerians lying against their hosts? Or is the diplomat living up to the norm in diplomatic service, the difference being that this is against his country, not for it?
In countries all over the world, foreign relations are based on the policy of reprocity. “You do me, I do you,” as we say in the Nigerian parlance. That is why a country like India can overnight, turn smiles into snarls against the world’s only super-power, the United States of America–a country with the reputation of a bully in the global scene– following the humiliating treatment meted out to a female diplomat who was stripped and searched.
When the Saudis introduced a discriminatory visa policy against a set of countries, including Nigeria, Pakistan and Egypt, by which policy advance payment for local transport and accommodation are paid to a Saudi agent as a condition for the issuance of “free” visa, the other countries vehemently protested and in the case of Egypt, I know that this outrageous requirement has been dropped since. An Egyptian pilgrim on Umrah trip is required to provide 0evidence of no more than a return ticket and that he/she is going in a group. The implication of the policy is that a Nigerian going on Umrah to the Kingdom must give money (about $1,000) to an agent for these services even as it happens, they are not likely to use them. For instance, there are many of those Umrah pilgrims who charter their own vehicles to take them around because they can afford it. Similarly, evidence that one has hotel booking with Hilton, Intercontinental or Hyatt does not exempt the pilgrim from the payment to the Saudi agent, even if it is obvious that the crowded rooms on offer are not the type of accommodation he/she would use. Refunds are not allowed either, which is painful because such discriminatory fees are not required of South Africans, Europeans and Americans.
In his interview with the Trust, Mr. Umar was emphatically saying that “Nigerians are given equal treatment in the best manner.” Really?
I think the reason why Nigerians ask whether their country has a foreign policy is when they see and experience these discriminatory practices and our diplomats and their foreign counterparts are slapping each other on their back, exchanging mutual congratulations on their blossoming romance.
As foreign minister under this same government, the political party technician called Ojo Maduekwe once proclaimed “citizen diplomacy” as the new thrust of Nigeria’s international relations. Explaining what this meant, the man masquerading as the “philosopher” of the PDP said, it meant that the citizen was at the centre of country’s international dealings. When are they going to start implementing it?
Those who know the Middle-Eastern countries in their policies say the nonchalance of our officials to Nigerian citizens receiving unfair treatment abroad should surprise no one. Those Middle-East countries among others, are known for providing freebees to key government officials and their families. Their national carriers give free flight tickets and authorities over there give them free boarding and lodging. It is very difficult for officials to eat and talk at the same time.
Who then would speak up for the ordinary citizen when his rights are trampled upon in foreign territories?