Stop Political Thuggery On Social Media- Youth Cries Out

MY CANDID ADVICE TO THE ASTUTE YOUTHS OF ZAMFARA STATE AND BEYOND ON THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF OUR ROUGH HANDLING OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES ON POLITICAL BASIS

By: Abduljabbar A. Maradun

In the name of Allah, the most beneficient the most merciful. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon his noble messenger Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

I'm aware of the undeniable fact that many of the readers of this write-up would be astounded upon seeing the heading without going through the innards as to what could be the basis on which this article is penned down. Hence, I hereby request for their precious time to give this piece a cursory read in spite of their tight schedules.

One could easily notice how a large number of our youths are frequently becoming absorbed in political activities on social media platforms particulary Facebook and WhatsApp and how it is regularly turning into a competitive train among the youths from all the strong political parties known within the axis of Zamfara which has undoubtedly made them adverseries of one another as a result of their diverse opinions which everyone of them is entitled to and believes is the right path to be followed despite myriads of lapses that each of the political camps might have.

The extent to which show of derogatory attitude by these teeming youths is on the rise is extremely disheartening considering the harmful effects it could cause to them in the future which may eventually amount to 'twist of fate' for them.
Meanwhile, the long awaited 'brighter future' they have been dreaming of since childhood stage could be at the risk of being ruined as a result of wasting their time, exuberance and every other valuable thing in their possession that may be labelled as a tool of actualizing their dream in the future by disrespecting elders who are also our parents and mobilizing the candidature of someone whose concern is not channelled towards aiding them in the actualization of their dream after all the series of hardships and threats you may encounter along the line.

At this point, I want to make myself clear to you for the utmost fear of being misinterpreted or misjudged on the basis of writing this article. I'm not trying to label the idea of partaking in political activities on social media whatsoever by my fellow youths as a negative idea. No! It is just that I want to advise us to take precautionary measures on the poor handling of the aforesaid activities. "Prevention is better than cure" a popular adage says.

To be frank, political activities on social media are being mishandled to a greater extent which if precautionary measures are not taken, may throw its defaulters into a very dangerous pool of regret in the near future.
We are all aware of the path we place ourselves on, if we know we have veered up towards a wrong direction then we must quickly make a U-turn and advance towards the right direction in order to arrive at a violent-free and brighter destination.

I have been keenly noticing the negative basis on which we planned our blueprint of activities and if we fail to realize the danger it entails, we are in deep mess and I pity us.
It may interest you to know the much talked negative basis that is why I decided to list them below for your perusal.

1. The display of derogatory attitude by some of the youths in this 'business' (as they call it) is on the rise intermittently. Whereas, you will see a teen of less than 20 years posing himself in the awful act of dragging one's name through the mud.
It would undoubtedly break your heart beholding a teen turned mudslinger on social media insulting a highly respected politician who is older than even his father, saying all sorts of negative things against him in a bid to blacken his reputation and instead of those seen as matured people sharing same opinion with him politically to caution him they will end up giving him 'Thumbs up' and lauding his negative effort. You are deceiving him and one day he will turn out to be in your opposition side, he would'nt hesitate to give you similar treatment which you lauded him of.
It irritates me whenever I see our youths insulting statesmen who might be age mates to their parents or older than them.

2. We are all aware that Maradun LGA and Zamfara as a whole are left behind interms of Socio-economic development, educational standard and many other areas but because of the little means we earn from top officials of the goverment we refrain from voicing our needs from the government let alone to constructively criticize the government to return back to its right track.
For instance, this year's SSCE results were released nationwide few months ago but to my dismay the results of my state are withold over non payment of funds by the state government but we have remain tongue-tied as if we are not aware. Our siblings are stranded at home, the have utmost interest to further their studies but results are nowhere.

If only we could pressurize the state government and make the governor realize the danger of not releasing the said results through all the nooks and crannies of social media, notwithstanding our political differences. I'm very sure the state government must succumb to our collective demands even for the fear of the governor's image to be tarnished.
Moreover, those plying Danbaza-Maradun road are well aware of the dangerous and dilapidated condition of the road but the state government is acting like it's not aware of it. But despite all these we cannot tell the governor the truth about what we have in mind because of the fear of losing our gains or perhaps the utmost fear of incaceration.

3. It is obvious that in the mind of every youth there must be a dream for a brighter future but unfortunately we ourselves created an obstacle that could prevent us from actualizing the much-talked dream. It is nothing other than being absorbed in political activities on social media campaigning for those whose dreams are already actualized but they could not help you in one way or the other to achieve your own dreams.
Some of us are ND holders, NCE holders while some are still in the system aforementioned or even degree programmes but we are here wasting our precious time over someone who even his SSCE certificate is doubted upon. The time you may waste could be used to either look for job with your qualification or admission to further your studies.
Haba 'yan uwana, wake up to wakefulness mana.
This is not what our parents did in their juvenile age.

Let's be wise and be the masters of our fate as well as captains of our souls.
What most of them have in mind is that we are together with them to get money, and to some certain extent true, we sold our mandate and integrity, even if they wins they have every right to sideline us because we worked for them and get paid, nothing else we could do to convince them whatsoever.

4. The most worst part of it is that most of our youths in this act do not wait to know a person personally, his ethos, his contribution to the society, what captivated his attention to be in the race as well as his mission and vision; their minds get easily captured by the fancy and expensive dress he wears as well as his influence (wealth status). They will blindly go ahead to mobilize his candidature making lies to bag support for him.
In this case, they do not consider hailing from different towns or even states, all they see is what they will gain.

To this end, I'm please appealing to all my fellow youths to shun these negative and disdainful ethos to avoid the regretion that may follow afterwards.
Let's wake up to realities and support only those with clear vision to bring unprecedented development and not clowns.
Let's avoid insulting or taking one another as adverseries and as well eliminate the awful act of insulting our parents and elderly persons.
Let's do things in limits, do not let this dirty game to ruin your future.
Your future is your life, once ruined it could never be fixed nor return to normalcy.

I wish you good health and prosperity.
I leave you in peace!

PRESIDENT BUHARI CONCERNED OVER PLIGHT OF WORKERS IN STATES

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja expressed concern on the growing complaints and agitations by workers in states over unpaid salaries and allowances, in spite of interventions by the Federal Government

Receiving a group of governors led by the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Abdul’Aziz Abubakar Yari, at the State House, President Buhari said the plight of workers in the states need urgent attention as many could barely survive.

  “How can anyone go to bed and sleep soundly when workers have not been paid their salaries for months.

“I actually wonder how the workers feed their families, pay their rents and even pay school fees for their children,’’ he said.

The President told the governors that two out of the three-pronged focus of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to secure the country and fight corruption had received some commendable reviews by the people, noting that the challenge in payment of salaries in states had taken a toll on the people.

“God has been merciful in hearing the prayers of his servants so the rainy season has been good, you can ask the Kebbi State governor on this, and our enormous food importation bill has gone down.’’

President Buhari said the Federal Government and state executives would need to work closer together to ameliorate the situation of workers across the country.

The President said he had instructed all government agencies to comply with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in order to ensure more transparency and prudence in accounting for the revenues of the government and the sharing of entitlements with states.

In his remark, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum said the various interventions by the Federal Government, which include the bailouts, were judiciously utilized by the states, stressing that the governors inherited backlog of unpaid salaries and huge debts portfolios on assumption of office.

“We are concerned with the situation in our states, and we are trying our best to manage the resources,’’ he said.

Yari noted that the bailout funds, and part of the fallout from the London-Paris Club that had been received by the states, were properly expended to alleviate the plight of workers, but more had to be done.

The NGF chairman commended the efforts of the President in improving the economy, assuring that the states would continue working with the Federal Government to improve the livelihood of workers and all Nigerians.

Governors of Ondo, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kwara, Akwa Ibom and the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State were part of the visit to the President.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
October 17th, 2017

SECURITY LAXITY IN ZAMFARA STATE: WHO TO BLAME?

By: Ibrahim Bello Zauma

On October 2, 2017, I have written an article captioned "Security in Zamfara: Truth and Conspiracy Theories" in which I absolved Zamfara state government from directly having a hand in the sponsorship of brigandage, rustling and kidnappings in the state. I understand there is political undertone in the dissemination of such absurd conspiracy theories just like how Jonathan was wrongly accused of "sponsoring" Boko Haram insurgency "to destroy the North". In the article, I have categorically mentioned that it isn't just possible to accommodate the assumption that the state government is the brain behind the rustling and kidnappings gaining grounds in the state but that it is being handled with kids glove.

However, there are things that evoke some probing questions. One only need to take into cognizance the state government's romance with Buharin Daji which gave him the gut to even reside in Gusau before the fallout of the momentary truce with the bandits, or the ominous silence of the government in failing to dispute the bandits' allegation as aired by one of the rustlers' general called Liman that they were given motorcycles through a certain reconciliatory committee. More appalling is the conflicting assertion between the Governor and Wakkala on the material appeasement given to them to secure the release of 41 people kidnapped along Gobirawa-Bindin-Magami road. Governor Yari on BBC disclosed that they were given some appeasements while Wakkala disputed that they were given nothing to secure the release. There is no relativity or subjectivism in their nomenclatures

Some people stoop to a lowly logic as to equate the Federal government's negotiation that saw the release of some Chibok girls with the reconciliatory measures taken by the Zamfara state government with bandits. This is a very wrong correlation because banditry is not same as insurgency. There is nothing like relative perception here. The nomenclatures given to brigands and bandits and that of militant insurgency are the reflection of what they are and what they do. We can't just mix things up in order to justify equal treatment for both criminals. Insurgency is active revolt for power control against a state while banditry and brigandage is a gang-related crimes involving armed robbery, rustling etc. As different as the two crimes are, they are treated differently in a saner clime. There is no truce with brigands anywhere in the world. Only militancy and insurgency are treated as rebellious activities,  because they have some justification however flimsy as the cause of their mutiny. There is difference between brigandage and militant insurgency. I don't have to be a futurist to know that security will continue to evade us as long as the government whether of Zamfara, Katsina or Kaduna continue to make these criminals feel important by sitting with them on the table of treaty.

How on earth does any right-thinking leader allow a truce with bunch of criminals and even offer them material appeasement!

LET COME TO THE AID OF THE COMMON PEOPLE- Ahmad Muhammad

By: AHMAD MUHAMMAD
Modern way of transportation is one of the most basic needs.With out it, we would  find life very harsh and boring. This  is why Zamfara state government among almost all the states of federation(Nigeria) embarked on it, by introducing Zamfara State Transport Authority(ZSTA), immediately after getting state during the rulling of the then militry ruler Col. Jibril Bala Yakubu. This innitiation countinues to get support by the governors that ruled Zamfara state  starting with Alhaji Ahmad Sani to Alhaji Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi down to the sitting governor Alhaji Abdul-Aziz Yari.

The activities of ZSTA are uncountable considering its services to the people of Zamfara state.

This write up aimed at pleading with the government, stake holders and other responsible personalities in the state to inform the government to come the help of theses people.

As early highlighted. Investing in tranportation industy  is crucial to sustained economic growth. Mobility studies show that transportation industry is absolutely necessary to economic productivity and it is also competative in the global  economy.” An international study found that every 10 percent increase in travel speed; labour market expands 15 percent and productivity by 3 percent.”   (Mustapha Mukhtar. 2011).
In Nigeria, the most patronised way of transportation is the land road transportation.
My guesstimate has shown me that Zamfara state can get more than  hundred million from this sector annualy if properly utilised and supervised by the government.
But unfortunately the drivers of ( Tashar motar gwamnati) as porpularly known by public who stake their health and lives  are not enjoying their services. It was confirmed to me that, the problem is not from the government.
Since the inception of this directorate, the directors that having been appointed to take care of this sector have been maneuvering to stop these drivers from obtaining  (offers) from the government for their on personal gains, that means these people are working their as casuals.
For instance, there was a time Col. Jibril Bala Yakubu was coming back from Nasarawa,  and met a serious accident involving one of the vehicles belonging to this motor station, after he arrived Gusau  he went directly to the temporary station of this directorate at GIDAN MAN A A LADAN, after long discussing with director he asked him to provide him with list of workers under him to include them in the state payroll, but he declined claiming that he can pay them. There was also a time when some drivers under the leadership of their then senior driver Alhaji Umar Ashafa  attempted to have movement that will make  their dream reality, but even that went usuccessful when the story met their then director, who even went further to suspend this old baba who has been working since from Sokoto state, but alhamdulilah, that was averted by the effort of his children which also resulted him to be transferred to the Establishment, but other members are still under this critical condition.
I know many will never  understand the implication of this. Here are some of the implications of this:
They are wasting their energy for nothing, after retirement they will not benefit from pemsion, gratuity and other benefit that retired civil servant are enjoying.
When ever they fall sick they will not be paid (i.e NO WORK NO PAY)
 When  vehicles got spoiled victims will not be paid.
I will also commend the speaker who promissed them that the government will consider them  and allocate seats for Hajj to them after the complained they issued to him that they never get a single seat despite their contribution to the pilgrims of conveying them to and pro. But sir I will requist you under your power to set that aside and consider a placement for them under state civil service which is more important to them than the hajj seats.
I will also like to plead with the governor and the state government under the leadership of his excellency Alhaji Abdul- Aziz Yari Abubakar to consider this issue and provide its help to these people.
Stake holders are also required to plead with  the government to come to the help odf these common people.
To the rest of the community we have to do all the best we can do to help them, even by fowarding, liking comment and sharing till this write uptill it get to the concern authority.
May Allah bless Zamfara state and it leadership.

Address SSCE Mass Failure- Youth urges Zamfara State Government

MY ADVICE TO THE COMMITTEE CONSTITUTED TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF MASS FAILURE OF SSCE IN ZAMFARA STATE


By: Ahmad Muhammad

It is a welcoming improvement, that  Zamfara state government  has constituted seven man committee to address the issue of mass failure on  senior secondry schools certifate examinations (SSCE). It atleast shows the government readiness to bring back life of education that has died for long.

I believe I am too young to advice this committee on this issue, most expecially knowing that the committee has great personalities that can exercise this great duty and also bring  this issue to history. With all this,  I deemed it imperative to put my contribution as somebody who wrote these papers in not more than seven years ago.

I will strict myself on what appeared in the government house press release signed by Mr. Aminu Ibrahim Gusau, Director  Press Affairs, Government House Gusau., that reads “ Also the committee would be meeting with all relevant stakeholders and provide modalities for employment of professional teachers to curve the excess of examination failure by Zamfara students.

Zamfara state Alhmdulilah! has considerable number of professional teachers  that have passion for teaching who can take care of that . But the problems are;

How to retain them. if I can recall  at my school we lost many highly qualified teachers that  left for guicy works to be well able to sustain their families. They were taking us very sensitive subjects which include: English, Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and others. I believe uptill to now, that school has not gotten their rightful substitute.

Laboratories are not well equipped. There are some schools in Gusau which is the capital where their students cannot defferenciate between laboratories from libraries, and they are science students with ambition to read Engineering, Medicines, Enviromental Design courses. etc.


These and many others are part of what I think are necessary for the committee to consider.
MAY Allah bring this to an end, bless Zamfara state students, it citizens and the government. Also this write up is wishing this committee success in their duty.

THANKS!