THE VOICELESS NORTH

Everyday comes with so many unreported or underreported tragic stories in Zamfara state. 

Deaths from bullets, abduction and rapes is becoming a routine mourned momentarily only by the victims and the bereaved and not leaders. 

Our Northern elites are the cause of our own woes! We don't have a voice of our own. No media power to tell our own sorry story. In vain do we boast of being more politically oriented since pre-colonial period than our Southern counterpart when the media mouthpieces belong to them. 

We are as weightless as feather even with "our" richest man who is capable of establishing a media as big and famous as CNN and Aljazeera. It is pathetic that most Northern satellite television channels are devoted to local movies many of which deform rather than inform. Some of them are morally detrimental to our children and they swerve our attention from our real problems.

#Polithinking #Bazaume 

- Ibrahim Bello Zauma 

       15/03/2019

WHERE IS OUR PARIS CLUB REFUND MONEY?

In the futile attempt to justify its misgovernance and insensitivity to issues, the Zamfara State government, through the Secretary to the State Government faulted the Zamfara Circle's conclusion that government has not been doing what it should do. With confessions and denials mingled, the SSG's effort to wrap up the mess with the blanket of rhetorics and manipulated scriptural gymnastics woefully failed to conceal the smearing excrement on the government. The excuse that we don't know the workings of the government is a self-defeating argument. Do we not have the right to know what is going on? Why is the government enshrouding its financial disbursements in cult-like secrecy? How are the trenches of bailout funds and the Paris Club refunds used? We read with keen interest how Borno State government released huge sum for the settlement of arrears and leave grants while other governors are making consultations with relevant stakeholders on how to spend the money.

Here in Zamfara, the deepening silence as usual is an ominous indication that the details are not forthcoming and the money are metamorphosing into high flying invisible birds. 

YOUTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A WAKE-UP CALL.

Few months before the creation of Zamfara State in 1996,  I got two job offers and turned down one. That was when the government wasn't saturated and there were many job slots to fill and few qualified prospective employees. 

Today the situation is different. There is overwhelming number of graduates jostling to occupy few vacancies and our political and business elites are unwilling to establish private investment to absorb the teeming unemployed youth.

Our youth, on the other hand, refuse to accept the change in the labour market. They are somehow fixated in the past when every graduate anticipate for a lucrative government job. This terrible economic dependency on government makes our youth indolent, less-creative and zero-business oriented.  They fail to understand that even those employed in the civil service are now regretting putting all their eggs in one basket. Few lucky ones amongst them developed economic tentacles to carry their burden and keep their heads above water.

To tackle the menace of unemployment, I proffer the following approaches which require the participation of government in different dimension, the business class, parents and the youth themselves:

1. The government should influence political and business class and all relevant key stakeholders to devise means of creating jobs for youth by establishing local private investments. It should also revive the Skill Acquisition Programme to make our youth economically independent. 

2. Parents should enroll their children in private apprenticeship centres like automobile repairs centres, carpentary workshops, tailoring shops etc.

3. Every community should endeavor to establish its skill acquisition centre and support it through donations in the same way they do when building a Masjid because eating comes before worship. 

4. Every youth should start a business however menial. Agriculculture is there for you and me. Do not think of loss as deterrent to success. The whole life itself is full of risk (Ko a cin tuwo ma kana shakewa /kwarewa). Life is all about risk taking.

THANK YOU FOR READING AND HEEDING!

- IBRAHIM BELLO ZAUMA

          11/03/2019

BRIEF XRAY OF SHEIKH MAQARI'S GOOF

Sheikh Ahmad Maqari is the one of the Imams of National Mosque Abuja, the position which placed him on the pedestal of national representation of all Muslims irrespective of their sectarian affiliation. It is thus unbecoming of a person of his calibre and status to make statement that denigrate a particular sect.

He recently attributed the dissemination of terrorist ideology to Saudi Arabia which in his view is teaching violent behaviours. This allegation is offensive not only to Saudi Arabia as a country but also to the Wahabo-Salafi adherents in the country.

The negative implications of such inciteful utterances can be summed up as follows:

(a) Political implication
(b) Religious implication

POLITICAL IMPLICATION

As an Imam occupying that national portfolio, his statement on international issues may be taken to reflect the position of the Nigerian government. Therefore, making such statement is capable of impairing the Saudi-Nigeria diplomatic relationship.

RELIGIOUS IMPLICATION

Saudi Arabia is the spiritual nerve centre of Sunni-Islam and its intellectual development, to which the majority of Muslims in Nigeria are linked ideologically. Thus, denigrating it by attributing terrorism to it is offensive. It triggers futile sectarian arguments and further aggravates the already volatile situation thereby fueling the fire of disunity in the Ummah.

#MyOpinion

Ibrahim Bello Zauma
20/10 /2017

INSECURITY IN ZAMFARA: TRUTH AND CONSPIRACY THEORY

I am not a fan of conspiracy theories because I believe they are mostly born out of paranoia and the desperate attempt to explain things that are yet to be known. The evidence often used to back a conspiracy theory hangs on the pegs of conjectures and unproven hypothesis. When Boko Haram was thriving, the Goodluck Jonathan's government was fingered to have "directly sponsored it" to destroy the North but it defies rationality to believe in such fiery tales. However, I believe GEJ loosely allowed it to thrive but didn't have direct link to its sponsorship as his political opponents wanted us to believe.

This is equally my stand with regard to the dwindling security in Zamfara State. There is a conspiracy theory making rounds directly implicating the Governor Yari's administration in the deteriorating security situation in the state. There is a political undertone in the spread of such hearsay. It isn't just possible to accommodate the assumption that that the state government is the brain behind the rustling and kidnappings gaining grounds in the state.

However, there are points of connection between the government and the current upsurge in crimes in the state. The Yari-led administration have created breeding ground for such criminal activities by deliberately inviting poverty to take over the state. To cite typical examples; the state government's dissolution of skill acquisition programme, neglect of agriculture and creating unemployment are the some of the reasons why crimes are skyrocketing in Zamfara state. The reason why the Yari's administration is getting all accusing fingers pointed at it is his utter indifference to the plight of Zamfara people. 

IBRAHIM BELLO ZAUMA
02/10/2017

#SaveZamfara

WAEC 2017 RELEASED: ZAMFARA'S STUDENTS WAITING...

As the 2017 WAEC results started to hit screens, Zamfara State's students awaiting result are getting strong pulmonary thumping with the fear that theirs may not be forth-coming anytime soon like the previous results.

This is indeed worrying because the delay in the settlement of SSCE fees in the last six years of Shehi's administration has cost Zamfara a terrible educational loss. Many a secondary school leavers could not further their education for years.

While the children of the common men are being educationally stagnated albeit deliberately and their little learning exploited to serve the people who persecuted them by making them their ''social media campaigners'', their own children are enrolled in the best of schools, exposed to the best of instructions using best instructional materials in the most conducive environment.

There is no reason this time around to misplace priority again or delay the payment of the fees on flimsy grounds. It is in our living memory how from 2014 to 2016 the SSCE results were made to hang in the world of unknown for a long time overlapping academic sessions in the tertiary institutions within which they could enroll and continue with their education. Alas! Time elapsed in futility! Some of these youths, victims of insensitivity end up roaming the streets, some getting into drug abuse and become social nuisance.

The state government should not allow the painful history to repeat itself. We have had enough of this tragedy and we expect no more reverse gear in this journey of life. Our state have already made a stinking history of having 1000000 (One Million) out of the the total of 7000000 (Seven Million) out of school children in Nigeria! (UNICEF 2013). More recently, the HILWA 2016 statistics shows that the percentage of out-of-school children hits about 76% while the pupil teacher ration is 50:1.

Our plea is that His Execellency #GovernorYari should look into this issue promptly with the view to saving the future of our sons daughters and brothers, so that they can further their education and stay off streets. 

By Ibrahim Bello Zauma

OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR ABDUL'AZIZ ABUBAKAR YARI: A REMINDER TO SERIES OF UNFULFILLED PROMISES FOR THE PEOPLE OF BIRNIN ZAUMA

                                                 
                                                   Your Excellency sir,

ANCIENT WALL OF ZAUMA
(GANUWA)

Let me start by humbly drawing your attention to the brief historical background of Birnin Zauma. The populated settlement in Bukkuyum Local Government Area of Zamfara state which you have visited more than once during your campaign tours. As you may be aware, the settlement is a reputable place with historical background amplified by the famous Shaykh Usmanu bin Fodiyo's visit to Zauma in 1791 CE, 13 years before the Battle of Kwato in 1804 as mentioned in Tazyin Al-Waraqaat. Shehu met a populated settlement of devoted Muslims in Zauma and built a large mosque there. This points to the fact that Shehu could not have built such a large mosque if the settlement was new and had only few houses. Thus, Birnin Zauma was a populated and well established settlement at the time of Shaykh Usman Danfodiyo that it could had been founded some 200 years before the historical revivalist tour. This puts Birnin Zauma at a point of over 400 years old today.

However, this place of historical treasure has been in prolong developmental stagnation. The word deplorable isn't enough to describe the condition of the road from Bukkuyum to Birnin Zauma. Amazing as it may sound, it was smoothly motorable during the military era because the regime then took upon itself the task of its routine rehabilitation via the popular Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) in 1986 during Ibrahim Badamasi's military regime. I could vividly remember how as a young boy I used to come out together with other children to watch how bulldozers, caterpillars, tippers and rollers worked indefatigably before the first drizzle of every rainy season. It is a sheer paradox that the advent of democracy and it's widely proclaimed dividend is not felt by the people of the populated settlement where a piece of my navel was buried.

The politicians from the time of the first democratic governor (Ahmad Sani Yariman Bakura), Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi to the incumbent governor of Zamfara State Abdul'Aziz Abubakar Yari, have been playing politics with the lives of my people. So many sweet promises to put the 3.7 miles (5 KM) road in shape in shape were made on the campaign pulpits but dumped after successful ascendancy to the gubernatorial throne. Bukkuyum to Birnin Zauma road has never been asphalted, so it is muddy and sticky in the rainy season posing a great threat to the lives of people who have to travel through eroded, muddy potholed road to Bukkuyum for medical care, because the one block clinic in this populated settlement is without medical personnels and facilities to cater for our health needs. What then does Shehi want us to do?

I remember how Birnin Zauma electorates revolted en-masse against the former Governor, Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi on account of his failure to reconstruct the road and then you came and promised in the first pre-tenure campaign that it would be rehabilitated but you did not. Yet, our people still expressed optimism that you would do it because you have constructed roads in other places, and they supported you with their votes for the second tenure. Alas! You still fail to look at the people of Zauma with eyes of sympathy.

The very Primary School where I was weaned is now devoid of any furniture for the pupils to sit on and you boast of 6.9 billion Naira 2016 budget allocation for education. This was not the situation even in the military rule. The breeze of dividends of democracy have never been felt us as your tenure is fast running out and the opportunity to fulfill your accountable responsibilities and promises is fading with each passing day. I call it accountable responsibility because it is not a favour for a leader to serve his people, it is a responsibility you would be questioned for before Allah (SWT) in the Day of Recompense.