Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Open Letter to Hon. Barr. Adamu Usman (Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly)

I write to commend your efforts for the giant strides you have made in the Niger state house of assembly since you assumed office as the Honorable Speaker and also to encourage you to do more. It is astonishing how the media decided to ignore the efforts the State Assembly has made under your leadership, especially in fighting corruption and checkmating the mismanagement of public funds by some selfish, unpatriotic individuals. Ordinarily, I am always very critical of political office holders, especially when they are not living up to expectations. I also find it difficult to commend their efforts no matter how hard they try in their various capacities. This is because they are elected to serve, and therefore need not to be commended for doing their jobs. But before I continue, let me make it clear that I don’t know this honorable gentleman, I have never met him before, and I need not to. I am saying this so that this letter will not be seen as just another sponsored political lepatata mambu (vuvuzela).

Recent happenings in the state compelled me to pick up my pen and write this letter, hoping to draw your attention and also the attention of the general public. It is a popular view that state assemblies, especially in the north are toothless bulldogs. The ordinary person sees them and the executives as partners in crime, as they always connive to milk their state treasuries dry. Executive governors and local government chairmen hardly take them serious too because they believe that they only need to settle them to get things done through misappropriation. State legislators are aware of this negative public perception about them and they are doing virtually nothing to redeem their image. As such, most state assemblies lack the moral standing to checkmate corruption and give fair representation to their constituents. But under your leadership we are beginning to see some rays of light which we hope will brighten the tunnel.

At this point, I also have a confession to make. For some time now I never take the Niger state house of assembly seriously, especially after the political brouhaha that saw the house producing three speakers within a space of seven days. This happened somewhere in May 2012, and it is a national record that will certainly remain unbroken for a very long time. Since then, I used to tell my friends that members of Niger state house of assembly are a bunch of jokers. For that, I stand to be corrected.  

But just recently I overheard a friend saying that “two local government chairmen have been indicted by a committee of investigation in the Niger state house of assembly and subsequently suspended.” That really caught my attention, and I decided to find out more about the story. I made some enquiries through different sources, and my findings revealed that if not for the position which the present house leadership took, these two chairmen will have probably got away with their crimes. The details of the committee’s report that indicted the Borgu and Rafi local government chairmen may not be stated here, all due to lack of space, but their crimes have to do with serious corruption and mismanagement of public funds running into millions of naira. By this singular act, the Honorable Speaker has made a statement by his action; that business as usual is no longer a business! I commend the committee and the leadership of the house for being steadfast; but I also urge them to do more by ensuring that these two individuals are handed over to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for further investigations and prosecution in a competent court of law. Not just that, I also urge the house to investigate the activities of the remaining Local Government Chairmen with the same vigor, zeal and on the same yardstick, just to make sure they are all clean.

Having said that, now that the bulldog has suddenly grown biting teeth, it is high time it stopped chasing rats in a pit-hole and start chasing the rampaging elephants in the wild. So, let’s take it this way.

Firstly, how about education and the rot in state owned public schools? Yes, people like me will like to see words matched with action. The public are still very much interested in hearing the outcome of the report of the committee set up by the state house of assembly some months back to investigate the rot in the state owned public schools, which is to cover the three senatorial zones. Rumor has it that the report has been quashed on partisan reasons. It is high time we rise above any type of sentiment and work for the interest of the common man.

Secondly, what about the imposition of Okada ban in Minna and environs without appropriate legislative backing, and at the expense of the poor masses? I urge the state assembly to quickly come to the rescue of teeming individuals who have lost their source of income as a result of this reckless copycat policy. Instead of banning Okada riders, I suggest the state government should strengthen their security operations outlets and save the common man from this artificially inflicted hardship.

Lastly, I call on all the members of the Niger state house of assembly to work harmoniously irrespective of their political affiliations to push the state to greater heights.

God bless Niger State.
God bless Nigeria.   

Shafi’i Muhammad Abdulhamid wrote-in from the Federal University of Technology Minna.
Twitter: @shafzon
FaceBook:  Shafi'i Abdulhamid


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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Dry Boreholes Drilled at Tayi Village, Minna (An Open Letter to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar)


We write as concerned and loyal residents of Tayi village, Minna. We decided to make this complaint open to the public domain because what we are about to nitpick is already fast becoming a public knowledge. We hope the gentleman honorable will take this as an advise from the law abiding citizens of his constituency that are trying to protect his good image by not allowing some greedy self-centered contractors to drag his name into the dirty muds of deceit.

It is a common knowledge that Minna and its environs do not have good pipe-born water and the Niger State government is virtually doing nothing to improve the situation. Therefore, when Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar (member, Chanchaga Federal constituency) decided to use part of his constituency allowance/projects to drill hand-pomp boreholes at Tayi village, it instantly became a welcomed development. Even though, manual boreholes are no longer in fashion and are fast being replaced with electric-pomp boreholes with large capacity overhead tanks to go with. The loyal residents of this locality still welcomed the idea so far it will be done properly and eventually put some water in our dried throats. It was in record that the people of Tayi village voted massively for the gentleman honorable to bring him into power. Since then, we have waited patiently for our own share of the dividends of democracy.

Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar, it is dishearten to inform you that the hand-pomp boreholes you drilled at Tayi village Minna do not produce even a bucket of water! This is never an exaggeration but the bitter truth, as we personally supervised the drilling process of the one close to the Tayi Jumaat Mosque and also the one close to the Mai-Anguwas’ house. After some minutes of dusty sand drilling without reaching the water table, the workers suddenly stopped the work. When we demanded for an explanation as to; why the work will stop when they are yet to reach the water table? They just carelessly answered by saying, they are only paid to drill 40meters depth and they have done their job. Whether they reach the water table or not, is none of their business. For many of us that watched the drilling process and also listen to the workers unsympathetic answers, it was completely heartbreaking. This is what the Hausa people called “mun ga samu, mun ga rashi”. To say the list, it was an exercise in futility.

Let me quickly correct this erroneous impression that many people have. They said boreholes in Tayi village do not generally produce water. This is a malicious impression created to deny the good people of Tayi their right to water. First of all, some wealthy individuals in the village have electric-pomp boreholes in their houses and they produces water throughout the year, how much more of a governmental organ. Secondly, the boreholes constructed by governmental organs do not go down to the appropriate depth that will produce water, because they are always looking for ways to cut-corners. The government and their contractors should be sincere with themselves in handling peoples’ oriented projects.

This left many questions unanswered. Normally before drilling takes place, there supposed to be a geological survey to determine the appropriate position where the water level is high. Is it that the people responsible for this job did not carry out such a survey or what? Is it that the contractor had been paid to drill a workable borehole, but ended by drilling only 40meters to cut-corners and maximize gains? Is it that the honorable is intentionally designing these decoys for a later day television documentary to push his campaigns? No, we don’t want to believe that. Just as we also don’t want to believe that the honorable gentleman will risk showing his face in that area in the name of commissioning these dried boreholes. As concerned residents of this area and also supporters of his representation, we strongly advice Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar to do the needful and upgrade these boreholes to a perfectly working condition before showing his handsome face to commission them.

We cannot deny the fact that the honorable had made some efforts to contribute to his constituency, but the people of Tayi are yet to see the benefit. We have severally complained about the air pollution generated by the present of abattoir in the mixed of our houses. We also complained about the epileptic electricity supply due to lack of a standard transformer and even when the honorable donated one to a section of the village almost four months ago now is yet to be installed. It was estimated that over a million naira is needed as contributions from the poor villagers before the transformer will be installed. We seriously wonder why this honorable gentleman is fun of investing in incomplete projects. But we strongly believe in your goodwill and advice to check careful on the type of contractors and friends you are working with. By investing in such smokescreen projects, they are only making more enemies for you than friends.

As we anxiously wait for the 2015 general election to come. The concerned and loyal residents of Tayi village and environs have collectively made their decision. We are going to the polls to vote in block for any candidate that will solve our perennial water problem irrespective of his/her party affiliation. Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar, the bouncing ball is now in your court, as you write history for yourself.

God Bless Tayi Village,
God Bless Niger State.

Shafi'i M. Abdulhamid and Abdulrasheed Tajuddeen
For The Concerned Residents of Tayi Village, Minna.



PUBLISHED IN:

 1. Daily Post, "Dried boreholes drilled at Tayi village, Minna – An open letter to Honourable Bago Mohammed Umar", December 16, 2013.

 2. The Will, "DRIED BOREHOLES DRILLED AT TAYI VILLAGE, MINNA", December 16, 2013.

 3. News Diary, "Dry Boreholes Drilled At Tayi Village, Minna-Open Letter to Hon. Umar",  December 14, 2013.

 4. Abusidiqu, "Dried Boreholes Drilled At Tayi Village, Minna (Open Letter of Complaint to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar)",  December 16, 2013.

 5. Omojuwa, "DRIED BOREHOLES DRILLED AT TAYI VILLAGE, MINNA (Open Letter of Complaint to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar)", December 16, 2013.

 6. The Abuja Voice, "Dried Boreholes Drilled at Tayi village, Minna.", December, 2013

 7. Nigerian Telegraph, "Open Letter of Complaint to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar", December 15, 2013.

 8. Universal Reporters, " Dried Boreholes Drilled At Tayi Village, Minna (Open Letter of Complaint to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar)", December 14, 2013.

 9. The Nigerian Voice, "DRIED BOREHOLES DRILLED AT TAYI VILLAGE, MINNA", 
December 16, 2013.

10. African Outlook, "Nigeria: Dry Boreholes Drilled At Tayi Village, Minna (Open Letter of Complaint to Hon. Bago Mohammed Umar)", December 15, 2013.
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Saturday, 9 November 2013

The Machiavellian Gates

Picture Credit: Time Magazine

“Behind every great fortune, there is a great crime” - Honoré de Balzac

The name Bill Gates represents different personality to different people. To the Dangotes, he is the yardstick for measuring success and building business empires. To many academicians, he is that genus that intentionally dropped-out of the prestigious Harvard University because he felt the system was slowing him down and needed to move at his own pace. In Harvard, he was notorious for attending courses that are not meant for his level and refusing to attend those lectures that he needs to graduate. To many of us in the information and communication technology (ICT) profession, we see him as that computer wizard that led the world to revolutionalsed the operating system and moved away from the complex command driven black screen DOS to the flexible colourful and user-friendly windows operating system. But beyond all these I also see him as a con-man.

Oh yes, that’s exactly what I mean, a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victims. Hmm, but before you begin to pass a judgment on me as a perfect case of an ignorant villager that is questioning the science that takes a rocket to the  moon, I will like you to patiently read this piece to the final full-stop because I have a new message for you. I hope to make my point clear base on common knowledge, history and not base on computer tricks (computricks). At the end of this, I also don’t want to be known as the guy that exposed the Machiavellian Gates!

In the late1990s, the world was submerged in the euphoria, exhilaration, uncertainties and expectations of what the coming new millennium will look like. While many fake prophesies were made on how the world would come to an end when the second hit the year 2000. At the same time, many scientists were so occupied with projections of the type of technologies that are likely to dominate the new millennium and also the scientific problems that remain unsolved. But one problem was timely, it was said to shutdown and damage computers when the clock hit the new millennium and so it was called the “millennium bug”. For those of you that have a volatile memory, let me remind you that the so-called millennium bug was a myth about a programming error that was said to begin January 1, 2000 caused by programming that coded years with only 2 digits; ambiguity arises in the year 2000, whether 00 represents the year 1900 or 2000, and calculations based on it may fail or produce incorrect results.

Mr. Gates and his allies were quick to recognize this myth as a potential goldmine. They know that only a tiny percentage of the world population at the time critically understood computer programming. They know that a very large percentage of the world population at the time is not computer literate and more than half of the world population at the time have computer phobia (the fear of the computer). But more importantly, they also know that people need to be told lies to part with their cool cash. So they repackaged the pack of lies. They told the world that as the clock tick on the year 2000, all computers that contain this bug will automatically shutdown themselves and then damage all stored information. Thereby resetting themselves to a factory settings of 1900 kind of. This sends fear into most people’s minds. Both individuals, cooperate organisations, schools and governments that uses computers panicked with fear. Banks and other financial institutions begin to scream for help because they are at risk of losing all customers’ records and that will be a major catastrophe. Suddenly, the anxiety of the arrival of the new millennium jumped to a new all-time high.

In the mix of this chaos, Mr. Con-man and other western media tries to convince people that scientific programming started the very moment the clock started ticking at Microsoft. So, within a very short period he came out to announce a solution through his Microsoft Company. The solution was that we all have to change to what they called “Y2K compliant PCs” which their company produced. In no time all roads leads to Microsoft and the swindler shot straight up the ranks to become the richest man in the world. The whole millennium bug hypothesis was nothing but a hoax! The entire Y2K compliant PC solution was a fraud because the magnitude of the problem itself had been highly over exaggerated. We only need a simple solution like installing corrective software which may cost close to nothing to fix this error. Mr. Gates and his cronies knows this simple solution better than all of us, but they decided to use fear and took advantage of our collective ignorance to dupe us.

Now let’s look at my darling country in light of the events. But before I proceed, can we just accept it that we like to copy things “follow-follow” without reasons? Yes, we do. I was still in the University during my undergraduate days when all these things happened. I can still remember how my department had to squeeze from their small budget to purchase some of these so-called Y2K compliant PCs. I can still remember how the University Computer Centre was divided into two partitions; the alleged bugged systems in one partition, while the other partition housed the Microsoft branded Y2K compliant PCs. It was there that yours sincerely performed his armature experiment.  Immediately after the January 2000 New Year break, I was among the first students to book for time at the University Computer Centre. I tried my curious hands on the alleged millennium bug infected systems and to the best of my little knowledge; I was unable to discover any damage on the systems. Oh, wait a minute! Did anyone heard of a report of any millennium bug damaged computer system as the clock ticked pass the new millennium in Nigeria? If no, why did we decide to keep mute?

I know by now you may also be asking the question, why is the author trying to wake more than a decade old ghost from its grave? The answer to this question is simple, we learn from our mistakes. So, when Mr. Gates went back to Harvard University few weeks ago for a fundraising event he announced another costly computing error. He said the overly-complicated three-key combination of “control-alt-delete” use to log-on to a PC or to start a task manager was a mistake!
"It was a mistake. We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't wanna give us our single button."
On hearing this, he quickly woke the curious guy in me. Is Mr. Gates also trying to wake another ghost from its grave just to make some cool cash or just another computrick error? As for me; I was wise enough to escape the Microsoft Vista hype. Can someone please help me tell my Con-man that - once bitten, twice shy.

Shafi’i Muhammad Abdulhamid wrote-in from the Federal University of Technology Minna.
Twitter:@shafiihamidu
FaceBook:  Shafi'i Abdulhamid



PUBLISHED IN:
1. Omojuwa.com, "The Machiavellian Gates", 09/11/2013
2. SkytrendNews, "The Machiavellian Gates", 09/11/2013, 01:54pm
3. The Will, "The Machiavellian Gates", 10/11/2013
4. Universal Reporters, "The Machiavellian Gates", 08/11/2013, 11:19pm 
5. Abuja Voice, "The Machiavellian Gates", 10/11/2013
6. Africa Outlook, "The Machiavellian Gates", 09/11/2013
7. Abusidiqu, "The Machiavellian Gates", 09/11/2013, 08:15am
8. The Herald, "The Machiavellian Gates", 10/11/2013
9.  FrontiersNews, "The Machiavellian Gates", 12/11/2013, 19:55
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Saturday, 31 August 2013

Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention



“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind” ― Mahatma Gandhi

I know when you hear the name Tahrir you will quickly remember the liberation square in Egypt and then possibly start thinking about the revolution. Now, let me make it very clear that I am not here to discuss about “revolution”, in short to me the word sounds like that machine-gun called “revolver” and they all smells blood! So, I distaste it with a passion. I am an advocate of democracy and I strongly believe in the power of votes. I am only here to express my mind about another square in my darling country called the Nigerian Eagle Square, which Saturday hosted our political heavy weights within the ruling party for a special convention and the political fracas that follows. 

I quite agreed with Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon that says “2015 is like political thalidomide”. For those that don’t understand his mumbo jumbo, it simply means like an infected baby yet unborn. The event at the square is like a barometer to what we should expect during the general elections in 2015.
Since the abracadabra that took place at the Nigerian Governor's Forum (NGF) election some months ago, many political observers had cautioned the ruling party and as well the presidency for supporting the imposter Chairman, the governor of Plateau state Mr. Jonah David Jang. They called on them to recognize what is democratically legitimate and avoid using divide-and-conquer in shaving the wings of the NGF. But the ruling party and the presidency turned a deaf ear to this advice and continued Janging around the Janga.

We also watched the second part of this epic movie in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers state, in what many people described as a film that can easily pass for a Hollywood silver screen; with Hon. Chidi Lloyd, Michael Chinda, Mr. Nyesom Wike and state commissioner of police, Mbu Joseph as the major characters. The role of our First Lady in this script cannot be overemphased. Since then, knowing fully well that the ruling party and the presidency have more at stake than these individual governors, I kept saying to myself - he who lives in the glass house should not be throwing stones.
It actually did not come as a surprise to me when the news broke from the Tahrir Nigeriana that some governors including the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar walked out of the ruling party’s special convention on Saturday. Amongst them was the legitimate NGF Chairman Governor of Rivers state Rotimi Amaechi and the so-called G-5 northern governors that have been parading themselves around the country claiming that they want to salvage the party from self-destruction. All these people are wounded lions, some of them are actually the founding members of the ruling party and they are as well politicians that really understood the Nigerian game. I sincerely think PDP have to be very careful with them, because most of them had been gored by the party at one point or the other.   
It did not actually take long when another breaking-news came in. The Atiku’s faction has organized a parallel convention at a separate venue and went ahead to announce the party’s takeover from the Bamanga Tukur lead executive committee. That was when I quickly remembered that Muhammad Ali wrote in his book, The Greatest: My Own Story - “if you kill my dog, you better hide your cat”. Revenge is best served when it is cold! It actually looks like a revenge mission, but looking critically tells me that this is by far beyond the NGF payback. It is beyond Atiku being ignored by the party. It is beyond Oyinlola having problem with his state executive committee or the Adamawa crises. It is also far beyond the abnormalities and candidates' disqualifications that took place at convention venue. I think it is about desperation to take over the country come 2015.

 The Umbulela (apology) can no longer stop the hurricane. After a long oppression by the ruling party, the Talakawas now have a reason to smile. Something to talk about and momentarily forget our sufferings, while we wait for the political dramatis personae to outwit each other. Is PDP truly a cat with nine lives? This is definitely a litmus taste to confirm that.

I dip my hand into my popcorn and watch on.

May God bless Nigeria, amin.

Shafi’i Muhammad Abdulhamid wrote-in from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Twitter: @shafzon
FaceBook:  Shafi'i Abdulhamid

PUBLISHED IN:

1. Daily Trust, "Tahrir Nigeriana: PDP special convention", Monday, 02 September 2013 05:00.
2. Gamji, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!" , 02, Sep 2013.
3. News Rescue,  "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention! ", 31st August, 2013.
4. Skytrend News,  "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention ", 01 Sep 2013 05:51.
5. Universal Reporters, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!", 
6. Talk Africa, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!", 01 Sep 2013.
7. News Diary, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!" , 01 Sep 2013.
8. NigeriaNationalNewMediaOrganization, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!", 01Sep, 2013.
9 . Zimbio, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!", August 31, 2013.
10. African Outlook, "Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention!", 02 Sep 2013.



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