TalkingB

Category: News

  • Nigeria Election 2019: Igbo, Hausa Tensions?

    Nigeria Election 2019: Igbo, Hausa Tensions?

    There had been agitation across the nation during the preparation for the Nigeria presidential election slated for February 16, 2019, which got postponed to February 23, 2019, by the electoral commission. The incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari got re-elected and set to be sworn in on June 12, 2019. Even though there were several propositions of rigging by members of the two major parties across several polling units, it cannot be denied that traces of hooliganism and violence were considerably seen in some states which led to the loss of lives and damage of properties.

    It was a notable occurrence that the returning president could not win in any South Eastern State despite his gigantic winning in the North. Regardless, this puzzle is not out of context in any election settings as it has reflected in several election processes in the past. Meanwhile, his party remains the runner up across the Eastern region which means several thousand voted for him even in the East.

    In 1914, Sir Frederick Lugard suggested that the two British protectorates: Southern and Northern will be under one single governor general. A few years later in 1939, the southern protectorate will later be divided into two provinces Western and Eastern. For the country was divided in such a way that the North had slightly more population than the other two regions combined which eventually marked the beginning of three geographical regions that formed along tribal lines, the Hausa and Fulani to the North, Yoruba in the South-West and Igbo to the  South-East to create the present day Nigeria.

    Should it be considered as a  fallacy of hastening generalization to draw out a conclusion that, there is a rigid marginalization coupled with an embittered rivalry between the Northern and Eastern people of the nation following the results of the elections? Understanding that after the colonial period, Nigeria suffered a continuous regional tension, caused by ethnic competitiveness, educational inequality, religious extremists, violent insurgencies and economic imbalance, with the South complaining of northern domination, and the North feared that the southern elite was bent on capturing power. ¹

    This lead to the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafra War from July 1967 to January 1970 which was caused by the attempted secession of the South Eastern province of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup which resulted in General Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, assuming power as President, followed by a northerner-led counter-coup, the control of the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta and the killings of over 80,000 Igbo people in the North of which half of them children. Could it be said that this coupled with the violent conflicts/killings in Southern Kaduna and Benue involving Christians mostly farmers attacked by Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen may have fueled bitterness towards the present government of Muhammadu Buhari?

    Our aim is not to dwell on the past but to reiterate that, “No sacrifice is too much to avert chaos, prevent any further incidence of criminality, protect human lives and spare the lives of the country,”  as stated during the forum of former governors in vanguard news on July 20, 2017.  The sacrifices start with the use of information at our disposal. Planting and building on seeds of contempt and hatred will not in any way help the country. The president has a burden of responsibility on the nation, not on the area that voted him in or his tribe.

     

    References:

    1. Britannica. com
    2. The roots of Nigeria’s religious and ethnic conflict by  Moses Ochonu
  • Child Maltreatment and Sexual Abuse

    Child Maltreatment and Sexual Abuse

    John is a smart, brown-eyed boy, slightly tall and dark thick hair like the mist of Indian embroidered in beauty somewhat as the Greek god Adonis whom Aphrodite couldn’t get over. As a child, he was that type of baby everyone wanted to kiss and hold in their hands. He is now 11 years and still radiates the beauty and glow of a baby except for the way he paraded on foot. There is an unusual limping related to his style, at first you will believe it is a voguish manner associated to prepubescent children of his era but a deeper look, you will be forced to question his faltering walk.

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  • The Faults in Africa Education System

    The Faults in Africa Education System

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    The education system in Africa, contrary to the belief of many, existed a long time possibly taking its origin from Ancient Egypt. The Schools of Holy Scriptures built in Egypt (former Ethiopia and Al-Azhar) were the first form of higher education. These schools became cultural and academic centers attracting people from all over the globe for knowledge and instruction. Meanwhile, the world’s first university was located in Timbuktu, opened in 2600 BC.

    The indigenous knowledge system was based on traditions in which communities effectively taught and learned from themselves through daily life rather than strict education. They used modeling approaches to pass the necessary skills to younger members of the community.

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  • The world in the face of Imperialism

    The world in the face of Imperialism

    A crisis is an unexpected event leading to dangerous and unstable results. Crisis in the past has affected countries all over the world, amounting to civil or world wars, dissolution of companies and also economic meltdown. When they affect a country’s constitutional system, they cause changes in all forms and arms of the government.

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  • Colonization- A bowl of confusion

    Colonization- A bowl of confusion

    History is described as the chronological record of significant events that have occurred in the past and often including an explanation of how they have happened. When events happen before the written record, it is considered prehistory. According to Historians, West African region harbored some of the first settlers of people and have been in existence since 4000BCE. They grew large and created civilizations and settlements across the South of Sahara with Kingdoms often referred to as the Sahelian Kingdoms.

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  • Rape- A cancer that feeds on the soul

    Rape- A cancer that feeds on the soul

    Humans have thus far accumulated an ocean of knowledge that transforms humanity to a modern version in all ramifications. Nevertheless, derogatory behavior such as rape still has a firm grip on a large ratio of the human race irrespective of geographical location, status, religion, color or tribe.

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  • Europe and the Immigration flaws

    The Prime minister of Italy Luigi Di Maio has recently made an outright call out to France and her political system. He accused the country of impoverishing most of the states in Africa. In a rally, Di Maio said “If today, people are leaving Africa, it is because some European countries, with France taking the lead, have never stopped colonizing tens of African states” He talked about colonization which means they have never stopped seeing these African countries as « the Whiteman’s burden »

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  • Black History Month

    A journey of a thousand years can only start with a single step regardless of how brisk, sluggish, disheartening, unrealistic or promising it might be. While the future is still cloudy, the sagacity of one’s belief and faith continually inspires to keep pushing.

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  • Nigeria at a juncture

    The right to information is the core of any good society, government, and economy; this is necessary for the prevention of malpractices, misconduct, abuse of power, violation of rules and illegal activities. In the Western world, the government is held accountable for all deeds in the past, present, and future because they know, that this shows respect and empower their citizens. By informing citizens adequately, they know when and how they should cast their votes, and most importantly gives them a chance to speak out against all sorts of injustices.

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  • Focus on Entrepreneurship

     

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    Entrepreneurs and innovators are scattered across the globe with their existence preceding formal education in the history of mankind. We can as well say, they are the very beginning of civilization in the earliest days, when trade by barter was used for business transaction and intuition coupled with trial by error were used for discoveries, which were continually built-on till the age of industrial revolution when several human labor was replaced by machines facilitating accuracy, speed, and ease. Being a business of risk and chances, for an innovation to be significantly recognized, there must be a preconceived problem it is solving and must be marketable. Entrepreneurship and innovation can never be overrated as it cut across every field ever known i.e. medicine, education, agriculture, science, mining, marine, engineering, to mention but a few. Like farmers yearn for fertile soil to till, scientists, crave for a laboratory to experiment, and sailors need the sea to function, entrepreneurs and innovators need an enabling environment.

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