By Is’haq Modibbo Kawu The press, radio, television and other agencies of mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people– Section 22 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution. TWO weeks ago, I wrote on this […]

JUST as Samuel Johnson in April 1775, said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, so has security, in the heated pre-election setting of Nigeria, become the ultimate red herring wielded to postpone a much-anticipated February 14, 2015 Presidential election, in particular. It was at the Chatham House in London, that Colonel Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser (NSA), first let out of the bag, the idea of a postponement of elections, based on the incomplete distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

Last Sunday, these forces were in control of Gamboru Ngala as well as Abadam; and were fighting a major battle to take Damasak. Cameroonian forces also joined the fight and were reported to have taken the border town of Banki and pushing towards Kala-Balge. By Tuesday this week, reports emerged that the French Airforce, which has bases in Chad, was overflying Nigerian territory and providing intelligence to their Chadian and Cameroonian allies.

SPEAKING last week at the Chatham House in London, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki, suggested the postponement of the February 2015 elections by three months, in order to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) distribute outstanding Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). The figures being bandied around say that about 30 million of such cards were yet to be given out to prospective voters. The NSA who spoke during a Q-and-A session, told his audience that he had suggested to the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, that a postponement by three months was allowed by law and that it would be a good idea to delay, to give INEC more time to distribute millions of biometric voters’ cards to voters.

EARLY this week, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state, swore in Honourable Justice Patricia Mahmoud as the Acting Chief Judge of Kano State. It was as historic as it was a most deserved appointment. Patricia is the wife of our old comrade, A.B. Mahmoud (SAN), and in her own right one of the genuinely decent and progressive daughters of our country.

Is’haq Modibbo Kawu LAST Tuesday, December 30, 2014, will go down as one of the darkest days in the practice of Nigerian foreign policy. That day, the  administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, BETRAYED the proud history of Nigeria’s support for the rights of oppressed peoples, long regarded as the central core of our country’s foreign […]

POLITICAL life interests me a great deal. That is one of the reasons I studied Political Science. As we begin the New Year 2015, it is clear that we will soon hurtle into what must be one of the most defining elections ever held in our country, especially since the 1999 transition. There is a tremendous amount of expectations in the air. It is something akin to a pregnancy; we can all see a protruding belly, but no one can determine whether we will have a safe delivery or a stillborn baby. More than ever before, I think Nigerians are united in one direction, that of expecting that the elections should be free and fair, with an outcome which reflects the true feelings of the Nigerian people. But are we going to get a process that all will accept as reflective of this collective longing?

IN the end, the return journey by road from Maiduguri to Abuja, took fifteen hours! It was certainly one of the scariest trips I have done in recent times. By Sunday night, I learnt that I would have to return by road not by air as we had arrived on Saturday. I feel happy in the long run, that I travelled by road, because I got a clearer picture of what Borno people in particular and the Northeast in general, have undergone in the past couple of years: towns and villages raided many times; economic activities and social life suffered severe restrictions and there is a mix of stoicism and fatalism underlining existence for majority of people in these communities. One of my friends, who I had not seen since 2007, told me that people still living in Borno are there because they have nowhere else to relocate to!

By Is’haq Modibbo Kawu LET me honestly admit that the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, permanently leaves me breathless in my effort to understand the statistics he regularly churns out about the successes Nigeria’s agricultural sector has recorded under his watch, in the past three years. My friend, MD Abubakar, is one of […]

THERE are very few spectacles on earth that compare to Nigeria’s season of politicking. And what is politics without the intrigues; the suspense; drama and colour and the inevitable dollop of treachery? I returned home last week to run into a headstream of politicking as the posturing for the 2015 elections began to take a much more concrete shape. The most consistent stream of contemporary politics is the relative lack of substance in the political party system.