Square Pegs and Round Holes

Location: Slicks, VGC.
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I read this piece on what the author termed – The origin of Boko Haram – a few days ago, on a friend’s Facebook page, and found it quite compelling and to the heart of the matter regarding Islamic Fundamentalism and terrorism in Northern Nigeria. Now, this must be taken for what it is. It is not an open and closed insight into today’s current upsurge of terrorist activity in the North. I have quite a different take on that. However, that in itself would not have been possible without the background that Damola Awoyokun speaks of here.
Enjoy the read.
SAN

Boko Haram that has killed up to 10,000 people is an eventual outcome of a progressive malaise in Northern Nigeria. Only that the world wasn’t paying attention then. In February 2000, Governor Mohammed Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna, the most multicultural state in the North imposed sharia. Not only was the imposition contrary to the provisions of the country’s secular constitution, it was an act of religious extremism. The apex Islamic bodies, Jama’ tul Nasril Islam (JNI) and Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) did not condemn that extremism. The second bloodiest religious riot in Nigeria’s history then ensued in the state and the body count ran well over 2000.

But it was Zamfara State governor Ahmed Yerima Sani who a month earlier launched the sharia spree that has now engulfed 12 northern states. To confirm his seriousness, in March 2000, he ratified the cold-blooded cut of Buba Bello Jangebe’s hand for an allegedly stealing a cow. He too allegedly stole billions from the public purse- one of the worst according to the federal anti-corruption czar, yet his own limbs are still with him. His deputy then, Mamudu Aliyu Shinkafi was the one in November 2002 who pronounced the fatwa that scurried ThisDay newspaper’s fashion correspondent, Ms Isioma Daniel into exile in Norway during the Miss World pageantry officially hosted by Nigeria. Despite the fact that the pageantry’s organizers conceded that the girls would not wear bikinis on stage, the fanatics street and their political leaders still went to work. They seized on the 18 words of Isioma Daniel that speculated on what Prophet Mohammed would think of the beauties. Sponsored riots that led to the death of 217 broke out in Abuja and Kaduna. The extremists didn’t want the pageantry because it would violate the holy month but they didn’t think their killing spree would.

Instead of Islamic leaders condemning the mass murder, they blamed the organisers. Dr Lateef Adegbite, secretary general of Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) argued that with the murderous riots the government and the organizers will learn to take them seriously. If they don’t want a program, they don’t want it. To which Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate called him “a fool” i.e. how can you stake your need for respect on the lives of others. Then Zamfara state deputy governor pronounced: “It is binding on all Muslims wherever they are, to consider the killing of the writer [Isioma Daniel] as a religious duty. …. Just like the blasphemous Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed.” Two years later, he rose to become the governor of the state while his boss the governor became a federal senator that married a 13 year old girl. The Zamfara Information Commissioner, Tukur Umar Dangaladima added a week later: “Anyone who kills her [Ms Danie]is a martyr who will go to Heaven…it is a reality based on the teachings of the Quran.”
All these were not said or done by an outcast terrorist organization but highly placed people in power. June 2009, in the town of Sara in Jigawa State, a mob descended on a police station and burnt it down for failure of the Police to hand over a fleeing man that sought refuge there. They claimed he had blasphemed against the holy prophet. October 2007, Shehu Sani’s book The Phantom Crescent satirizing sharia leaders, lawyers, judges, and Hisbah (their police officers) was banned in Kaduna by the Upper Sharia Court. In February 2006, the extremists took to the streets of Maiduguri over the Danish cartoons; 16 people were killed including Rev Fr Mathew Gajere who was helping his altar boys escape when the siege began. They didn’t know why they were rioting; they were just told to go into the streets by their sponsors. And so they choose their usual targets: non-indigenes, non-Muslims but no Danish nor European.

This is from The Nigerian Punch newspaper of March 22, 2007: “Muslim pupils at a secondary school in Gandu, Gombe state, beat a teacher to death after accusing her of desecrating the Koran… The teacher, Oluwatoyin Olusesan, a Christian, was invigilating an Islamic Religious Knowledge exam at the Government Day Secondary School, Gandu when the incident occurred….the teacher suspected that a foul play was about to take place when one of the students wanted to come in with his books to the exam hall. The teacher collected the books and threw them outside, unknown to her, there was a copy of the Holy Koran among the books. The principal said before they knew what was happening, the students had started chanting Allahu Akbar (God is Great). All efforts to control the rampaging students proved abortive even when the school principal, Mohammed Sadiq, tried to protect the teacher in his office. The principal was also terribly beaten and injured while they set the teacher’s car, three classes, the school’s clinic, administrative block and library on fire.” Note: these happened during their Islamic Religious Knowledge examination. Maybe they did not know at their young age, that like the Islamic leaders reaffirmed, Islam is a religion of peace. There were no arrest and conviction as usual.
In the state that eventually became the headquarters of Boko Haram, during the January 2001 lunar eclipse in Borno, Muslims youth began a rampage destroying hotels, bars and brothels blaming them for the cause of the eclipse. In September 2001, Governor Yerima Sani forbade women to come out and cheer President Obasanjo on his official visit to his state because according to sharia, women and men should not mix freely in public. The women refused. In October 2001 in Sokoto, Safiya Hussaini was sentenced to stoning to death for adultery by Judge Mohammed Bello Sanyinlawal while acquitting the 60-year-old Yahaya Abubakar who impregnated her. After sustained international pressure, Safiya was acquitted a year later and made honorary citizen of Rome. Sokoto Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and Zamfara’s Ahmad Sani condemned the honor with the latter adding, it was act of proselytization. It was the turn of Amina Lawal in March 2002. She was sentenced to public stoning for getting pregnant outside wedlock in Katsina. In 1998, Muslims youth like the Taliban that can’t get use to the compromises of tolerance and diversity, invaded the Olofa’s palace and razed down the shrine of Moremi, a traditional goddess in Offa. December 1994 in Kano city, Gideon Akaluka, a trader, was beheaded and paraded danse macabre because his wife desecrated the Koran.
In February 1989, death to Wole Soyinka posters were carried around during Zaria riots because he defended Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, urged artists to launch their own creative jihad against the Iranian Ayatollahs, and called on civilized nations to expel Iranian diplomats from their territories. And then the Maitatsine massacre in December 1980 in Kano -the bloodiest single massacre in the nation’s history. 4,177 lives were lost, 8,712 received various degrees of injuries. As usual, there were no convictions. Religious violence is always considered a sensitive issue to warrant prosecution.
Then came Boko Haram. To continue with the tradition of no conviction, less than 2 weeks after the bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja, the governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso ordered 20 members of Boko Haram released as part of celebrations of the end of the holy month of fasting. Even if Boko Haram was crushed today, if the North does not line up completely with modernity, another terrorist organization will roar its ugly head.
-Damola Awoyokun

What GEJ should have done after getting the report of abducted girls:

1. From the day the news broke, immediately request the result of a full investigation from the police IG and the SSS director, Waec and education minister. Give them 48hrs to submit their first report
2. While assuaging the families, Ensure each parent is visited by the appropriate investigative agencies and information gathered on association to child, family tree, etc.
3. Communicate clearly, to parents and school authorities alike, that this is a criminal and national security case and that it is not optional to cooperate with the security agencies
4. Ensure the appropriate authorities give daily briefings to Nigerians
5. Immediately secure other schools in the area
6. Work with international agencies and governments (from day 1) in resolving the issue. Ask for any help needed
7. Seal off all north eastern borders and deploy appropriate security to likely escape routes
8. Prevent his wife from causing any public stir that creates a distraction
9. If found that this was indeed a hoax, visibly punish all those involved
10. Redeploy security agents who are likely to be saboteurs
11. Use my powers as CIC to actively checkmate any elected official at any level who may be in the way of my job as chief security officer
12. Keep information channels alive and show transparency in order to gain the support and trust of Nigerians
13. Fire Labaran Maku and Okupe

#BringBackOurGirls

SAN

1.   Present her as a queen to your family…mark her as untouchable!
2. Educate and empower her to know her rights
3.  Use the format “Mr. and Mrs. Ochuko and Abimbola Okoye” in all your title documents
4.  Make her a joint signatory to your personal bank accounts
5. Ensure she has income of her own from work or business
6. Make her your next of kin in all sensitive dealings
7. Ensure she has your phone PIN
8. Let her know your movement and dealings always
9.  Buy life insurance
10. Write a will

The BMW M3 generations from left to right – E30, E36, E46 and E92

Here’s a video link of the M3 generations for your enjoyment.

SAN

Someone sent me the article with the caption on the blog post title, a few years ago. At that point I had worked a little over 10 years at the same company in different positions. I had also done private business and abandoned it, since it was becoming a distraction. This is now a few more years down the road and I am still working at the same company. The industry is unstable and my company released about 10 percent of her employees last year. An industry competitor,  known for mass employee purges, has plans to drop about five times what we did at my own end later this year. I now have a small business that deals in intangibles and the returns are few and far between and it is not fun yet. My dream is to start an FMCG line. I digress. This is really about realizing early enough and starting from somewhere…NOW! Please read the article below and the addendum in part two and share as broadly as possible. Someone somewhere needs the wake up call!
SAN
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One day you will lose your job! Either by choice or by force! One day you will have to go away from that place you have been going and coming from for however long it has taken you. In life, everything has a start and an end; there is a day to be born and a day to die, a day to begin and a day to end. Those who live the highest quality of life are those who live today with an eye on their end. The greatest liberation any human can ever experience is when his/her fears don’t hold him/her back. The same way that dying makes living exciting, the same way the thought of the day we’ll lose our jobs, should make you spend the time you currently have wisely! 

I have heard of GMs, SMs, Ds who lived in big houses, drove the flashiest cars end up as high-class beggars and mere social and political commentators. Why? Because while they were on their jobs, they thought erroneously that it would last forever. They did not know that the end was nearer than far. While they carried buckets, they considered the act of stooping to build pipes too low for them. Some of them left their jobs with huge bank balances, but the entrepreneurial way, which has no respect for years of experience, dealt them a knock out in the early rounds of their ventures. Some of them were thieves, what they got was stolen and it went the way of stolen funds. The words I write to you today will stand firm as judgment for your future, if you ever live less than what you were created to do! When your life can be summarized by a routine that does not have a date of escape, you are like the children of Israel who kept on cycling round a mountain instead of making progress. Stop hiding incompetence or inability to add value behind a company logo. Start exposing yourself and getting yourself set for when you will lose your job. Mark my words, the first showers of the great storms is all that we have seen, many who are comfortable today will beg tomorrow. Many who are not developing skills today will be slaves tomorrow, and many who have ill gotten money today will be needy tomorrow. The storm is coming, let who is wise join the company of Noah in the Ark of deliverance that is being built and let the fools scorn and laugh. He, who laughs last, laughs best. A few days ago, I dug into a few past articles I had written on this blog. The popular ones and the not so popular ones. 

1. Do not Steal! 
Whatever money you make by fraudulence, by taking what does not belong to you, by playing on your employer’s intelligence will not last, no matter what you use it to do. Some people refute this perspective and say they can use the stolen funds to buy assets, build houses, invest in shares or other companies, if you care to know the truth; every activity you participate in is seed for your tomorrow and a harvest of your past. Ill gotten wealth is like a caterpillar; it looks like all it can do is crawl until it develops into a butterfly and flies. Be honourable, better a broke employee living within his/her means than a successful, wealthy employee with questionable resources. Life has its way of bringing the harvest – with loss, death, calamities etc If you have stolen before or are currently stealing, don’t just repent, go and make it right. 

2. Get a life! 
If most of your friends are in your office, you are being sucked into the maze. Don’t get yourself stuck with the same people you work with for the best hours of your life. Go prospecting for friends that are different from you, go for some clearly better than you, don’t have friends by accident, don’t be chosen, choose. Experts say you should watch the people you hang out with most, your life will end plus or minus 10% of their life! Financially and otherwise, your life gravitates to a region slightly below or above the lives of your friends. It’s not how much you have in your account that always counts, it’s who you have access to that matters more. 

3. Have Options! 
Many people are slaves to their employment and their bosses, not because it’s so enjoyable but because they do not have options. They have a few other things they are doing but they are not sure of any of them. Their existence as corporate biggies makes majority only look for deals that are already big. Unknown to many, if you start big, when the storms of life hit you hard and take you down, you will need to beg to start big, but if you start small, you can always start all over again! Get options, be willing to start with nothing, be willing to start small. Don’t disqualify anything small today true, but if it all will stop when you lose your job, you are gambling with your future. Stop, think, and ask questions. Venture, dare, take risks. You will lose some and you will win some. If you are willing to lose long enough, you will win long enough. There are people not as bright as you, not as opportune as you doing more with their lives, look outside the window of your office, once in a while. 

4. Learn! 
Invest in knowledge. Empty your pocket to fill your head, and your head will fill your pocket. Learn like knowledge is running out of fashion. Read books, watch interesting history, attend seminars organized by people who have seen things different from you, learn from experience, others and yours, get a mentor. Do whatever you need to do within ethical boundaries, but by all means learn! Empty bags can’t stand tall, empty heads can’t be confident. Wisdom, which is the application of accumulated knowledge, makes a man’s face to shine. Your confidence level is an indication of the stuff that you have. If whatever you are doing doesn’t give you an opportunity to learn, run! Take your life off the flames! 

5. Give Exceptionally. 
I have found out in life, that those who have the propensity to give the most, get wealth the most. The universe is set up by God based on principles, and the principles cannot be broken. If you give, you will reap it somewhere in your future. If you don’t faint in doing good, you will be rewarded! Don’t wait until you are stinking rich before you begin to give scholarships, sponsor students, take care of orphans or contribute to worthy courses. Start now, before you lose your job! What you will regret in this life is not how much you should have gotten, but how much value you could have added, how much a difference you could have made, and what else you could have done! Don’t work like a moron – going and coming and going and coming without leaving a lasting impact on your world. Give yourself and give of yourself! 
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Pt 2.
Now, when you do lose your job, here are a few steps to coming back and making the best of it. The following is culled from Don F. Perkins article from the weblink below.

http://12most.com/2011/10/17/12-vital-points-remember-lose-job/

1. Take a Breath

2. Don’t Look for a Job

3. Make the Spiders Go Away

4. Move Away from the Desktop

5. Giving is the Way to Peace

6. Be a Part of the Community

7. Get Off the Wheel

8. Know Something, but Not Everything

9. Explore Starting Your Own Business

10. Be Active and Proactive

11. Get Good at Improvisation

12. Roll with It

SAN

I found this somewhere on Nairaland and had to share. Let’s just say its the wedding entrance with the most drama and creativity I have seen anywhere. I’ll leave you to decide. It definitely took some practice… and the groom has some moooves!