Glowing Conscience

Dear Dad, By Ibrahim Musa It is exactly 11 years today in the Gregorian calendar since you departed from this world. I do not know the utility of communicating to you through this medium, but I have the urge to say something to you and about you. You were a wonderful father who taught us in principle that one does not have to beat his kids to bring them up well cultured. You so much loved all of your kids that never, for once, I could recall seeing you beating anyone of us. You preached to us to be courageous and honest even if it is the only thing we should have on this earth. You imbibed in us the sense of responsibility and encouraged us to live by it even if everybody around us is irresponsible. You once told me that social justice is a right not a privilege and I had seen you going from villages to towns fighting for the rights of the weak and oppressed. You were never a darling of the rural aristocrats and greedy judges/khadis, and the reason was because you went extra mile i...

Courage In The Face Of Terror By Ibrahim Musa It is rather unfortunate that the otherwise impotent militia group alias Boko Haram has become more audacious and bold with every new attack it launches on the innocent citizens. The latest onslaught on Kano which has yet again proven the vulnerability of our security system, and left many of us in doubt about whether we are really doing what is ought to be done even symbolically. Many of us chose to conveniently avoid coming forward to clearly show courage when it was needed the most. I have listened to many messages from our leaders which were mostly garnished with similar cliche of sympathizing with the traditional and constitutional leaderships of Kano and condolence to the victims’ families. They carried shrieked calls for dialogue; which I consider defeatist. Even the constituted leadership, both at local and national levels, seemed obviously overwhelmed. They failed to act like the field commanders when faced with a mena...

Encounter with KUST Vice Chancellor By Ibrahim Musa Sometimes what should ordinarily be a blessing may turn into misfortune. Though scientifically, such cases hardly obey the Gausian Curve of normal distribution. Kano University of Science and Technology could simply be described as a cat with nine lives. The idea of its creation was conceived since the golden days of Governor Audu Bako and later Kabiru Gaya toyed with the same concept but it could not see the light of the day until when Kwankwaso was elected Governor. If there is any romance between this university and the state government, it must have ended with the departure of its founder mentioned above. When an acclaimed educationist entered the field and took over the mantle of leadership in Kano, everybody thought KUST would be a priority. Alas! I am sorry to disappoint you, the reverse is the case. I never believed so until last week when I attended the maiden convocation of the university; a little more than a d...

A Nation On Its Knees By Ibrahim Musa One can hate Malam Nasiru El-Rufai but cannot doubt his wealth of knowledge and enviable gut to display brilliance even in the most controversial manner. It was he who recently provoked a debate on the state of the nation healthcare, in his weekly witty column on the back page of Thisday newspaper, when he wrote under the title ‘No Health No Wealth’. The plethora of responses that greeted the said explorative piece in many online blogs goes a long way to tell a discerning mind that our health system is just a time bomb awaiting detonation. Although he had summarized most of the problems in a most graphic manner with abundant statistics and case scenarios, nothing has underscored the tragedy of this nation health system more than the events that ensued immediately post the latest condemnable terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in area 1, Garki Abuja. It was sad to have discovered that with any minor challenge the failure of this natio...

KAMSA Journal Review By Ibrahim Musa Yesterday around 7 pm I was in the resident rom in our department, together with a friend who came all the way from Sokoto State, the seat of the caliphate to pay me a visit, when my phone rang and the number that appeared on the screen was not known to me. When I answered a voice addressed me as ‘Sir’ and went ahead to introduced himself as Abdurrahman, a 500 level medical student in BUK. I must confess the term sir which he addressed me as, is an unusual one to me and that has made me a bit uneasy. I quickly asked whether there was any trouble, for which he responded that there was none. I was relieved for a while only to develop multiple ectopic beats when he finally broke the ice and requested that I should review the journal that we all gather here today to launch at this very auspicious moment. He might not be aware of my tense situation but at a point when the discussion ensued I felt I could do with some help of cardiac pacemaker ...

New Universities or Glorified Secondary Schools By Ibrahim Musa The recent announcement of creation of nine new universities by the federal government of Nigeria was largely appreciated in some quotas considering the dearth of space for higher education in the country and the prospect of alleviating this anomaly. Initially, I also thought it was a bright idea coming from someone Nigerians considered too incompetent as a captain. However, this morning on my way to workplace, I listened to a radio program with an activist and the question he raised really disturbed me. I thought it wise to share some of those reservations for further engagement with the intellectuals in this forum. The sum of thirteen billion naira was earmarked as the takeoff grant for these nine new universities. On average each would receive a paltry amount of 1.5billion naira. This amount would be used to build the structures to accommodate a brand new, first rate university and buy sophisticated equipme...

Appraisal of the NN24 Presidential Debate By Ibrahim Musa Let me just start by making it clear that right from my childhood I have been fascinated by debates. The people that made the most impression in my life, up to this moment, are excellent speakers. However, I value substance in every aspect of engagement and as a rule you win my confidence the moment your action tallies with your tongue-modified laryngeal noise. It is imperative for me to share my view on yesterday’s presidential debate. First, I must congratulate all the participants for respecting our wishes by subjecting themselves to questioning in a nationally televised debate. Many had argued that Shekarau won the debate with his eloquence and composure. I must confess that, that sentiment is relatively true. However who has really won the debate in terms of substance? NN24 Channel- They have tried but failed to meet the international standard. The program was delayed for almost an hour be...

Weep Not For My Country Many are of the opinion that democracy is the best system of governance, a view which I share to a large extent. Whether the system fits us as an entity or not, I can’t really say with certainty. For the umpteenth Nigeria as a country was faced with the challenge of producing a leadership that would ordinarily fix its numerous problems, through the power of the ballot box. From my observation, the latest election for once again, only confirmed the tragedy of this product of amalgamation of the Northern and Southern colonial protectorates.  The cracks in this nation were laid bare for everyone to see. It is crystal clear that religious and ethnic sentiments have eaten away the fabrics of this country. Except for the very few people that were lucky to have won some tickets based on popular mandate, most of the elected officials literally bought their seats, if the money they spent to secure it is factored in the arithmetic.  By and large, we only had...

First of all, let me start by apologizing to the forum for responding to Engr. Auwal Sani Auwal’s invitation to contribute some few words on “Synopsis Feedback Series”. I was actually at a loss on what I should write until something akin to what happened to Archimedes suddenly also happened to me. Eureka! I stumbled on this article which I wrote last year as part of my contribution to celebrate or rather more aptly to agonize ‘World Cancer Day’ which habitually comes up on every 4 th February. Now that we are set to witness another 4 th February, I just felt that I should update both the content and the title to open another window for discussion. It Is A Cancer: You Are Dying! The word cancer is a dreaded name that sends jitters down the spine of the bravest you could imagine. In actual sense it is not one disease but a group of heterogeneous disorders that share common characteristic of uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells. It can affect any part or organ of the bo...