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.

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

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!",  9/01/2013 02:30:00 am.

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.

A Tribute to Sheikh Alhaji Ahmadu Shafi’i Agege

"A truly rich man is the one whom people rush into his arms even when his hands are empty"  - Anonymous.

Some people are sent to this world by the Almighty Allah (SWA) to phenomenally impact on the lives of so many ordinary individuals. They come to touch and change the lives of the deprived, the disadvantaged and the impoverished. They shall be the hand that will stand for the truth and guide the unguided. They shall leave their footprints artistically designed on the igneous rock of time. When it is finally time for them to depart the mother earth, the touched and the changed shall testify that indeed they lived a righteous life.

Girrrrrrrrrrrrrr…girrrrrrrrrr…girrrrrrr my phone rang and rang again! I was still sleeping, so at first I thought it was a dream. It was 5am in the morning, who could this be? What is the matter with this person to be calling at this ungodly hour? But something said to me, who so ever is this, there must be a strong reason for him to be calling you now. So, I quickly rushed to reach out for my phone, but before I picked the call, it hang up. I checked through the menus of my phone only to find out that I already have five missed calls, all from my immediate family members. Immediately, I panicked! The last call was from my senior brother who works in Lagos. I tried to call him back, but his line suddenly became busy. Things are happening so fast that I informed my wife "I think something is wrong”. But before I finished talking to her, another call came through from Zaria. It was my mom, immediately I picked the call she cried out “Innalillahi-wa-illaihi-rajuun, Allah ya yiwa  Baban Agege rasuwa!". My dear, brothers and sisters, that was how we started the morning of 12^th of March, 2012, exactly one year ago. Since then every single day that passes by we always remember and pray for the Almighty Allah (SWA) to grant him Aljanna Firdaus, amin.

Alhaji Ahmadu Shafi'i Agege

Alhaji Ahmadu Shafi'i Agege is also known as Baban Agege among the cycle of family and friends. His profile may not look like that of our political heroes like the Sardauna of Sokoto, Tafawa Balewa of Bauchi (The Golden voice of Africa), Awolowo the leader of the Western region or Azikiwe the leader of the Eastern region (The Zik of Africa). But he has made his own unique contributions and impacted on the spiritual wellbeing of so many individuals and groups across the length and breadth of this country. Many people may describe him as a respectful father, a disciplinarian, a philanthropist or a pious elder. His father was a business man and a philanthropist too, Alhaji Muhammadu Shafi'i dan Saidun Gwandu (whom I was named after), a native of Bida local government in Niger state. Because of the nature of his fathers’ business, he also was widely travelled. History has it that, his father was among the early settlers of Tudun Wadan, Zaria, Kaduna State. That was where Baban Agege was born almost a century ago including all his brothers and sisters.  

Baban Agege will later join in running the business in the Lagos axis with one of his senior brothers late Alhaji Abdullahi Shafi’i (Alhaji Babba, may Allah grant him paradise), together they joined some of the early northern settlers in Agege, Lagos state. They lived peacefully with their Yoruba host community for decades without having any problem. No surprise when some people said "he is a complete Nigerian". One of his legacies was that, he is always eager to help anyone that comes to him irrespective of your religion, tribe or political affiliation, a virtue that is very rear amoung today's men. 

As a kid, I always look forward to the Eid il-Fitri Sallah celebration because I'm very certain that I will have the best of Sallah attires from Baban Agege. He always sows the most fashionable clothes for us. I still remembered one called Shagari style. It was the latest fashion then, and so wearing it make me feel like a celebrity. The legacy here was that, even though we have a very large extended family at different locations in the country, each and every one of us gets that same type of attire before the Sallah day. You can imagine getting the rewards of more than a hundred people. But he did not stop there, if anyone of us is getting married, he gives you a white Babban riga da dan ciki da wando with a unique blue design to be worn on your wedding day. I will like to mention here that I have the singular honour and privilege to be the last family member to have benefited from this unique attire. This was because he passed away just about three months after my wedding (may Allah reward him with paradise, amin). In the same vein, nobody can be able to tell you precisely how many people he had sponsored to Hajj for pilgrimage and the lesser Hajj (Umrah) throughout his life because the number is quite much.

Within hours of his death, a very large number of people gathered in Agege, Lagos. Someone reliably told me that when he entered the local wings of the Abuja International airport that morning, it was as if everyone he saw there are all going for the burial. Alhamdulillah, even though Sheikh Khalifa Isyaka Rabiu of Kano was not able to attend the burial because of his state of health, but he was able delegate and sent Late Sheikh Mudi Salga to come from Kano and lead the burial prayers. The people of Agege said they have never seen such a gathering of northern masses. But how can we forget in a hurry the miraculous signs and wonders that appeared to people on that day of his burial?

For those that are opportune to attend the burial prayers, they all testified that a cold breeze came from nowhere and engulfed all of them in the burial ground. How can we also forget the large crowd of people who trooped to his compound from far and near to witness the illuminated image of Sheikh Inyas that miraculously appeared from nowhere on the walls for the lucky ones to see?

Sincerely speaking, I don’t think I am in the best position to write a tribute to such a great man, even though he is my uncle. But at the same time I see it as an opportunity for me to resend my condolence to his children, brothers, sisters, family, friends and well-wishers, especially that I am now very far away from home. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace, amin summa amin.

Shafi’i Hamidu is a PhD Scholar, wrote-in from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Twitter: @shafzon
FaceBook:  Shafi'i Abdulhamid

PUBLISHED IN;
1.    Kaduna Voice "A Tribute to Sheikh Alhaji Ahmadu Shafi’i Agege", March 11 2013 19:58

2.  9jabook.com  "A Tribute to Sheikh Alhaji Ahmadu Shafi’i Agege",  March 26, 2013 at 11:17am