In Nigeria… And the War against Terror!

By Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

It is a fact that whenever the mention of the name Shi’a is made he whom knows the bearers would have an image of ‘outlaws’ run his mind before any other ruminates. Nevertheless, the apprehended outlaws are also always glad to have such an image registered to them.

The clash of the Shi’ites and the Nigeria military last week in Zaria was not a mere coincidence. The Shi’ites had it since history that immoral proficiency to instigate violence, break laws and prove noncompliant in every turn of event you find them dwell in. When the Kano State Government banned the riding of motor cycles by twosome, it was evidenced that the Shi’ites proved disobedient to the law and rode sometimes in threes holding up their banners/flags, even breaking traffic laws. How notorious?

The military raid on the Shi’a on December 12^th which resulted from the Shi’ites blocking the road on which the Chief of Army Staff and his troops were said to take to attend the passing-out-parade of the recruit of Deport Nigerian army, and also to extend a polite gesture to the Emir of Zazzau, indeed resulted to a Social media uproar. Disagreements between what one may categorize as ‘pro-military acts’ and ‘anti-military acts’ (towards the Shi’a) heated the Nigerian cyber-atmosphere –especially the Northern-space. But whatsoever the interests, the people failed to register the larger picture. A result of which the stories of the incident emanated alternately fragmented and mostly distorted; as it has become a modernists’ habit to relay the story in the way it best sooths their interest.

The blockade by the Shi’a was as a result of a Shi’ite activity which was said to be in process. The Chief’s convoy was said to be halted by the members of the sect and it appeared no diplomacy was in anyway applicable to get them to let the road through. Some claimed that they (Shi’ites) have been denying access of the road for other people, then why would they make any exceptions for the Chief? Quiet typical of the Shi’a indeed!

Thereafter, the army claimed to receive missiles of stones and other harmful objects. The army said they stood only the chances of forging ahead to ensure the safety of the Chief, and that quite frankly employed the necessity to engage in forceful approach –the use of lethal ammunitions thus became a ‘no choice’. The scene was deserted thereafter leaving casualties –dead and alive.

The following morning, the army was said to send a tactical unit to arrest the leader of the sect Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. And until this point, there has not been any genuine evidence as to what actually caused the brutal end which left many dead. It all remains to be “as they said” and distant video records which mostly captured the incident at its finale. Here the pro-military acts say the Shi’ites were the ones whom started firing shots at the army. Whilst anti-military acts say why hadn’t the army lunch a safer approach?

Although both parties have rational points to support their arguments, both might also want to look into the reasons behind the other party’s agitation. The pro-military acts might conclude that the Shi’ites have proven to be a prominent menace in the country so lethal action had to be the only favoring contact at the time. Of course this party sees the reasons that had Lieutenant General Buratai come to any harm by the Shi’ites the war against Boko Haram would have been crippled. The Chief of Army Staff is one man whom has boosted the morale, courage, and bravery of the Country’s young army in the struggle to curb the insurgency. He has won even my sympathy.

Whilst on the contrary, the anti-military acts would say it was a “barbaric act” by the military; but, should the military have sent just a company of unarmed men to arrest/summon the leader of the Shi’a sect for questioning, would it have caused any terror? Quite frankly myself doubts that the plausible chances of the Shi’ites giving up their leader for any such questioning could come any easy –but, it was worth a trial –considering the circumstances.

Now worries are that the Boko Haram insurgency started as such and people are thinking perhaps if the Shi’a leader is indeed injured as they say he is, then the Shi’ites might decide to call for a retaliation. Rumors are that a wife and a son of Ibrahim el-Zakzaky were amongst the victims found dead after the shootings, yet the army denies any such speculations –What would come of that after?

We recall that in July last year, three of El-Zakzaky’s sons were shot dead (amongst others) by the army. Although the leader collected a Presidential apology, he was not shown much sympathy by the army. Here one sees reasons with those whom fear for the ends of what went December the 12^th in Zaria.

The Governing administration had branded itself with a slogan, ‘Change’, which entails a Government that has come to end the corruption, misrule, looting and sufferings of the common man. The Buhari administration also promised that the war against Boko Haram will be victorious by this year’s ends; although one must admit that significant and considerable advances have been made, the realistic would submit that a definite coup de grace is yet to be established.

Since assumption of power, this administration has toiled from this issue to that problem. It is worth recording that within six months of just-rule the Buhari administration has come to about a point of proving who Boko Harams’ sponsors may be –though, not precisely, yet, but it has dug to surface those who withheld the funds that were suppose to equip the Nigeria military forces with adequate and appropriate arms.

Here one must ask the obliging rational civil questions. With the looters of the security funds at hand, the sponsors of Boko Haram on the brinks to becoming exposed; Dasuki and his accomplices scrutinizing every due course out of their mess; the Boko Haram fighting fiercely to their last stands for knowing that there is (and will be) no mercy in the war against them; and now the Shi’ites… What could be the chances that these nuisances would not find the grounds to merge and make strong allies of one another for a better chance of disrupting this Government? What if the looters collide with the sponsors (that is if ‘they’ are not already), and/or the Shi’ites team up with the Boko Haram to making a stronger hold against the government? I vie that won’t be a fair tussle for the Government.

Thomas Paine averred that “even parties directly opposite in principle will sometimes concur in pushing forward the same movement with very different views, and with the hopes of its producing very different consequences”. The Buhari administration must hereby be warned; the plunder, rot and terror they inherited from the past Government is enough work to keep them busy for the rest of their stay in power. They must learn to employ the use of diplomacy in whatever it is they do –henceforth.

“I know the state of our economy is a source of concern for many. This has been further worsened by the unbridled corruption and security challenges we have faced in the last few years… to the people in North East whose families and businesses were destroyed by insurgents, this has been a difficult period in our nation’s history; lessons that we must not forget or ignore, as we plan for the future.” –President Muhammadu Buhari (2016 Budget address)

iThink Education…

By Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

Prologue;

It is indeed baffling how when mention of the word ‘Education’ is made (these days), the first thing that runs the minds-is “School”. Modern minds, right? Sure, the conventional-orthodox process of Education nowadays is a periodic-momentary institutional procession. One needs undergo a-some prescribed, supervised sequential assessments (by some say; qualified individuals –acting as authorities) for some time, and yet, scale through, before becoming branded an “Educated” fellow. Those whom dwelt in the medieval would agree that their grandfathers would see this procedure as somewhat a ‘strange’ means; for it was rather less sophisticated, (yet –more qualitative) during their (grandfathers’) exuberance.

History entails that most Great minds were products of either a continues practice of their passionate curiosities or by mastering the observation of their immediate natural settings; –arts/craftsmen, thinkers/philosophers, alike. Lessons from those (medieval) days convey that schools were developed only to give the people scopes for learning their enthused passions –but ‘never’ to assign them to limits/boundaries.

Education has become, by all the diverse rationale intellects and callings, a misconceived means of earning knowledge; for the purpose of satisfying the leisure wants/desires, instead of rendering in advancement a more integrated and evaluated erudition –for the progression of humanity. In these (modern) days (of technological innovations, digitalization, and graphical expressions) true education is (per say) not practiced. Quiet distorting I dare say. Often, fellows I stumble into inline of educational processions, usually in the crux of discuss would whole heartedly confess that “I am only on this path to secure a lofty job… in life” –just so after securing that ‘lofty job’ they would dwell the rest of their lives wasting their hard acquired knowledge which helped secured them that living they enjoy; thereby abolishing ‘Education’ (in its true meaning).

Need one tell? That the Earth as we know it is expanding whilst shrinking; developing, yet, contracting; transforming-reforming and still remaining unformed. The planet although rotating on its axis and revolving in its crusts, is still standing –transfixed, for the world is like the mind; when happiness and sadness together envelope’s it, it pauses. Same happens to the world. Today we see scientific and technological discoveries that are supposed to improve our great potentials and explore further the growth of our still-nascent Earth turn into the very elements/tools of its own destruction. Perhaps, it is as Herbert George Wells says it is, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” Here one could assert that the world is in its “age of trance”!

Changing the Tides;

Since first grade, we have been learning all sorts of definitions; we have been taught multitudes of processes of doing all sorts of things, but, not the very immediate imperative things. They tell us to “go to school, study hard and pass your exams” which we have been doing –but towards what ends? I would suppose to making the certificates.

Here the famous Oxford’s advanced learner dictionary tells us that education is “a process of teaching, training, and learning especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills.” Like I said earlier, the modern mind would project this (exact) picture at the hearing of the word ‘education’. But human beings are the doctrines of curiosity, yet still, a preponderance of us almost never gets to ask the very necessary immediate questions; why do we need schools to learn? Must we possess university/college certificates of qualifications before we’ll be pronounced ‘educated’?

I see every day, people going to school, to achieve all kinds of educational qualifications; BTech/BSc, PGD/MSc, PhD, to which at the ends, it only remains to be a title to them –instead of an identity. To me it is research worthy for people to find out “how?” the world has elevated to this extent; having mostly used the very knowledge transmitted to us from the past, a past since whence schools were still inexistent.

“The human brain is a miraculous organ”, said the famous neurologist, Ben Carson. But must we have waited till we are told that our brains are “miraculous organs” before we did nothing? Evidently man keeps growing more lazy, dependent, and reluctant by the day. The coming of Google, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia, Encarta and all the website information archives has demeaned mankind to the shames of plagiarism. Hardly now would one find a graduating university student endeavoring to complete a project without immensely depending on the works of others’; thus, one sees the reason behind Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book “The Googlization of everything”. Unfortunately, research shows that 98 percent of humans go to their dying beds without ever realizing what their God-given talents are. What a waste of the human resource!

But, “God given talent”! Doesn’t that pull the hair? We oft watch the TV and listen to radios just to see or hear someone do something so unique and amazing; yet, we never dwell to asking ourselves “what is my true talent?” Quiet unfortunate indeed!

The big question is ‘how do we change the tides’? Quite frankly I cannot provide a substantially precise answer to this question. But, I have serendipitously stumbled into some like thinking(s) of which I wish to share with you. One day I was watching the TED videos on my computer where I stumbled into the clip that Sugata Mitra (an Indian computer scientist) tells the story of how he experimented on illiterate kids in the remote communities he dwells around. Mr. Mitra goes to a village and installs a computer device in a wall and mechanized it with solar electric power so it remains continuously on. Some months later he went to see what progress his innovation has made, and there he saw kids on a queue waiting for their turns to use the computer devise; some were playing games whilst others performing basic operations. When he told his colleague about the development made, the colleague denied the possibility of such an amazing development and said to him “it is very possible a passerby saw them and stopped to show them how it works”. Well, as this was not a so typically remote locality, Mr. Mitra headed to a more remote location to repeat the same experiment. Now here he journeyed far beyond the reach of passersby, where not even two-wheeled vehicles could reach. The same procedure and programming was repeated. Few months after, Mr. Mitra went back to register the progress made, astonished he was to see again little kids operating the devise as if they were taught by a professional. Now isn’t that amazing?

Perhaps you’ve come across the Sal Khan’s achievement –the “Khan Academy”. In my opinion, Khan is one of the greatest achievers of contemporary era. He began by teaching his little cousin to solve basic geometric problems; it was quite difficult for her understanding –of course. He then had an idea to video the process for her to watch and watch again until she gets it. The goal was later achieved and so the idea was also developed to becoming a global help. Today, anyone whom faces difficulties in solving arithmetic, geometry, calculus, even, physics, chemistry and economics problems can learn only by searching on Youtube easy solutions to his challenges from ‘Khan’s Academy’.

How often does it occur to us that people who went to school are more inclined to being haughty and arrogant than those who didn’t? where those whom didn’t go to school are likely to be found more humble and talented and even making a living out of it? As for those whom are claimed ‘educated’, you find them possessing superiority complexities when they speak; they care-less of what you know and presume they know it all –dashing isn’t it? Well these are victims of “single-story” perspectives as put by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda. The world today carries a single-story perspective of education (in a general sense of meaning), “go to school, and be superior to those whom did not”. Yet we see the most regarded great achievers are still of the foregone days; yet, they never even wore the uniform. Today, Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Michelangelo are still gods in the world of arts; without Galileo, Newton, Einstein, et al, whither Science?; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are till this moment regarded as ‘fathers of philosophy’. Yet still, these people remain uneducated (of course; going by the modern definition of education) –but remain still to be the very reasons behind our finding academic lines to follow; just so we could secure our “lofty jobs” –yet never rendering our tiniest of favors to humanity (as they were so generous and kind to do).

Epilogue;

In my opinion? I would say, Education in simple terms means; exploring the true humanness in oneself; it is the ultimate strife to being the best parent, child, companion, colleague, leader/follower one is meant to be. Education is exercising the willpower and oomph of developing, elevating and substantiating the status of humanity. Education would be extending towards one’s human-kind, other living organisms, nature and environ all the moral virtues there is to extend –and all, regardless of any academic achievements one may qualify to earning.

Now here I am, a sailor, slashing through the surface of a massive endless liquid body, inspired and immersed by all this space and time that lies beyond, way beyond the wilderness in the horizon, and thinking, “what if there’s more to every man (a sailor perhaps) in life than just living; how do I relay my knowledge, experience and compassion for voyage unto the world?”

“All people are dead, save for those who know; and those who know are dead, save those who practice; and those who practice are all astray, save those who act with right intentions.” –Dhu ’I-Nuun