Is’haq Modibbo Kawu
kawumodibbo@yahoo.com

On Monday, June 16th, 2025, I drove the 58 kilometers from Abuja to Gwagwalada. My mission was to secure a new Nigerian passport. Those who follow African liberation struggles would have remembered June 16th, as the 49th anniversary of the Soweto Massacre of 1976.

An event that reverberated all over the world, when security forces of the then South African apartheid government gunned down hundreds of demonstrating school children in Soweto and other parts of the country. That massacre of Hector Peterson and his colleagues was going to become a major spark that lit a worldwide movement of solidarity, as well as the intesification of the struggle by the South African liberation movement. But, I have digressed. My mission in the Passport Office was to join the queue along with several other citizens to renew my passport, which expired in 2022!

But the story of the expiration of the passport, along with visas to several destinations around the world, was not because I forgot the expiry dates. No. The passport was seized from me six years ago, at the commencement of the trial that I was put through by the ICPC.

The last time that I travelled out of Nigeria was in October, 2018. I had gone to Rabat in Morocco. I had a couple of other trips lined up for official assignments and personal reasons, to Argentina, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Switzerland. These were scheduled between the end of 2018 and the middle of 2019.

By this period, the depth of animosity between my supervising minister and I was beginning to reach a head. I did not secure approval for the trips. By that time, we were already a year into the argy-bargy with the ICPC, and by April, 2019, we were arraigned in court. This was after an orchestrated media campaign had been launched earlier, set out to tarnish my image and to create the impression that I had stolen the sum of N2.5Billion from the coffers of the NBC.

Our arraignment in court was equally a rehearsed part of the elaborate charade. Television cameras from the press as well as the prosecuting agency were strategically positioned to record our every movement within and around the court house, just as much as the salacious reportage was central to the orchestrated process of demonization.

But the most important punishment even before the proper commencement of the court process was that by fiat, our passports were seized, along with the submission of other documents, as part of the bail process. Never mind the legal position that declared us innocent until proven guilty! There was no way that I was ever going to imagine that the passport would be under lock and key for the next six years.

One of the greatest pleasures of my life, as well as a source of very deep education about our very intriguing world, has been travel. I used to tell my friends that I carry the genes of movement and of travel as a Fullo. I have also made professional success from writing travelogues from different locations around the world.

I was travelling with the POLISSARIO FRONT in the liberated areas of Western Sahara; I travelled on the two sides of the Civil War in the Ivory Coast, going between Abidjan, Yamousoukro and Bouake in the North; I went to interview President Isaias Afewerki in Asmara, Eritrea; I attended the funeral of John Garang in Juba, in South Sudan.

I similarly travelled extensively in Iraq before the illegal American invasion in 2003, visiting Baghdad, Karbala, Najaf, Samara, and Babylon, before doing a road trip to the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth, Damascus, in Syria, passing through Aleppo.

There were all those remarkable journeys within the African continent, in the Americas, in Europe, and in Asia. Travel enriches our humanity and allows us to understand that there’s no one way of being human. With travel, we also learn to appreciate the fact that there is no superior or inferior human culture. We are different, yes, but equal in our human worth, without doubts!

When my passport was official seized, and we went through the tortuous trial that lasted six years, a very important part of what makes me a very happy, and equally cultured human being, was taken away from me. It was torture that was deeply felt because my citizenship was abridged, and a vital element of being able to connect with humanity was similarly locked away in the vaults of the Nigetian courts. Afterall, we were officially accused individuals undergoing a criminal trial. For six years, I was a witness to the world’s exciting developments only from my home without the possibility of travel.

I made an almost superhuman effort to block off thoughts of my inability to travel. In any case, I didn’t even have a livelihood for six years, having been suspended as DG of the NBC in 2020, and I therefore, didn’t earn the income to purchase a ticket or the foreign currency to do a trip. But a point came when I was requested to do a trip to Cuba, a country that I have always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, my passport, which had expired by the time of the invitation, was still in the possession of the court.

Finally, on February 13th, 2025, the court discharged and acquitted me and my colleagues. The three-point charge against me was dismissed by the Federal High Court. That verdict opened a new and potentially exciting vista. I can begin to repossess my life and earn back all my rights as a citizen of Nigeria and a man of the truly incredible world of the 21st century.

For six years, I was on trial accused of criminal conspiracy, and as a consequence, they seized my passport, thereby abridging my citizenship. When I entered the passport office in Gwagwalada, they snapped my picture, and I did the biometrics. It struck me that I was back on the road to full citizenship. It has been a very tough journey to arrive at this new point. But I feel that excitement of knowing that I can begin a new engagement with the world and humanity. I have collected a new passport, and the world should be ready for me. I will travel, I will enjoy the scenes of various destinations and I will write about them. So much for a six-year trial, a seized passport, and an abridged citizenship!

Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, PhD, FNGE, is a Broadcaster, Journalist, and a Political Scientist.

Abuja, June 17th, 2025.

By Comr. Mahmud Garba Shawai

It’s obvious that the emerging war between northern progressives and their counterparts is gaining momentum in all directions.

Everyone can easily comprehend this with the recent chaos that presented itself at the just-concluded Northeast APC stakeholders’ meeting in Gombe State.

Sources from a significant number of APC proponents revealed that, before the event, there had been several indications that exposed the hidden agenda of some APC non-progressives working under the command of their Principal.

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Let me take you back a little. Did you forget the first interview that Mal. Nasir El-Rufa’i granted Arise TV since after he vacated from office? Can you relate his assertions to the current saga? If that’s the case, then Tinubu’s administration isn’t ready for the North!

Succinctly, I want every upright individual to know that these so-called APC leaders have a hidden agenda, which I’ve termed the Northern Retardation Agenda. That’s why they’re using all the resources within their custody to oppose any reasonable individual from the North.

Kashim Shettima, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, Nasir El-Rufa’i, and many other northern progressives are among the victims and focal points of these conspirators.

However, these are the people who have positively impacted their people. On the flip side, the opposing forces are people of very low reputation—uncovered looters, selfish, and unpopular cowards in the political space.

By: Amir Abdulazeez

If we can recall, on 7th October, 2015 a 19-year-old student, Hassan Mohammed Damagum sacrificed himself to save others from a suicide bomber who attempted to attack a mosque during the Subh (Dawn) prayer at Buhari Housing Estate in Yobe State.

Hassan had sensed that the individual standing next to him was a suicide bomber trying to kill people. The boy was said to have confronted the bomber which blew both of them off. Again, on 25th January 2017, Yakubu Fannami, another student from Borno State who was just in SS1 died a hero while preventing a suicide bomber from entering at the Darrusalam Science and Islamic Academy in Maiduguri. Fannami tackled the female suicide bomber, preventing her from reaching the mosque and detonating her explosives, thus saving the lives of many worshippers.

To the best of my research which may be inadequate, none of the two boys were publicly given a significant national recognition. The story of Nigeria is replete with the neglect of brave and heroic citizens who had sacrificed a lot and even laid down their lives to save others. Since 1999, Nigeria has always chosen to reward and honour many lazy elites who had contributed virtually nothing, but rather became huge beneficiaries of government patronage and corruption. Every President has made it a duty to dash out national honours to his choice elites in a manner one would do with his personal property.

In line with the routine tradition of his predecessors, President Bola Tinubu used the June 12, 2025 Democracy Day to confer over 100 national honourssome of them posthumously. As expected, many awardees are members of his administration and personalities very close to him. A section of the awardees list portrays a belated compensation package to a gang of Abacha victims, who actually need justice more than honour. While people like Prof. Humphrey Nwosu (CON), Prof. Wole Soyinka (GCON), Alhaji Balarabe Musa (CFR), Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah (CON) and Femi Falana, SAN (CON) truly deserve their awards, it would have been wiser and more balanced to include people like Late Bashir Tofa (Abiolas NRC opponent), Late Abubakar Rimi and Magaji Abdullahi (two important SDP figures who miraculously delivered Kano, Tofas State to Abiola) and of course M.D. Yusufu, the presidential candidate of MDJ who was Abachas sole challenger in his bid to undemocratically transform to a civilian president, among others. Perhaps, they would be remembered by this or another President in the next set of awards, for at this rate, every political household name, dead or alive, may soon have a national honour in Nigeria by 2030.

What exactly is this national honour and who are those who deserve it? The honouring system was originally envisioned as a prestigious recognition of exceptional service to the nation and was formally established by the National Honours Act No. 5 of 1964 to inspire patriotism, reward merit and foster national unity. The structure of national honours, divided into two orders (Order of the Federal Republic and Order of the Niger) and eight ranks (GCFR, GCON, CFR, CON, OFR, OON, MFR, MON), was designed to reflect degrees of national impact. However, the systems proliferation and indiscriminate distribution have undermined these distinctions, often placing true heroes, statesmen and national icons equal or below some presidential sycophants, political loyalists and officeholders, regardless of their performance or public standing.

The early years of Nigeria’s national honours system reflected its original purpose. Recipients such as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti were honoured for verifiable and transformative contributions.

However, over time, the politicization and personalization of the awards diminished its integrity, giving way to an annual ritual often characterised by hundreds of questionable awardees whose contributions to the nation are neither tangible nor verifiable. In the past 15 years, things have gotten worse as the selection system itself have been incompetently reduced to a mechanism marred by political patronage, duplication and credibility crises.

Today, the integrity of this noble initiative is in serious jeopardy, with widespread skepticism about its selection process and relevance. Ideally, recipients should be individuals whose lives exemplify ethical integrity, measurable public impact and selfless service. However, the current trend favours tenure over achievement and proximity to power over merit. Politicians under corruption investigation, individuals with no tangible contributions and business moguls with opaque wealth have all made their way into the honours roll.

Prominent Nigerians have rejected national honours in protest. Chinua Achebe, Gani Fawehinmi and Wole Soyinka famously turned down honours in the past, citing corruption, misgovernance and the lack of transparency in the process. Their principled refusals sent powerful messages about the need to restore the credibility of the system. As Achebe aptly put it, ‘a government that fails its people cannot in good conscience bestow honours’.

Numerous scandals have exposed the flaws of the system. In 2022, the conferment of awards to serving ministers during a prolonged ASUU strike and the inclusion of people accused of corruption represented a new low. Even more embarrassing were administrative blunders such as conferring posthumous awards to please certain intersts and duplication of awards to the same person under different titles. Meanwhile, countless unsung heroes remain ignored.

Rural teachers shaping future generations, healthcare workers battling epidemics without protection and community leaders mediating conflicts receive no recognition.

Some few non-elitist Nigerians have been reluctantly recognized by the establishment in the past. The belated honour to Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh (posthumous OON, 2022), whose sacrifice averted an Ebola catastrophe in August, 2014, only came after sustained public pressure for about eight years. In August, 2018, then President Muhammadu Buhari and the United States Embassy honoured the Bauchi State-born 83-year old Malam Abubakar Abdullahi, a Muslim Imam in a village in Plateau State. He sheltered and fed 300 Christians for five days to prevent them from being killed in an uprising. The old man ran from one corner to the other stopping youths who wanted to break into the mosque to get hold of his guests.

Eventually, they gave up after realizing that the only way to execute their evil plan was to kill the old man. That was how he saved their lives. I am not sure whether the man was given any national honour beyond that presidential acknowledgement.

If we are to continue like this, I will suggest the renaming of the awards to Special Presidential Honours. The National Honours Act, last revised in 2004, offers the President near-total discretion, with little room for public input or institutional checks. With time, it has been turned to a presidential farewell affair as outgoing Presidents routinely populate honours lists upon leaving office to payback loyalists. Recent attempts at reform, such as the proposed National Honours and Merit Award Commission, represent a step forward but are insufficient on their own. Far-reaching legislative and administrative reforms are needed to restore the honours integrity. This includes public nominations, independent vetting panels, open selection criteria and mandatory justification of award decisions.

A critical reform must also introduce public objections and transparency mechanisms, such as publishing nominee shortlists and designing revocation protocols. Honours should be rescinded from individuals found guilty of crimes or misconduct post-conferment. The system should no longer shield disgraced figures or treat national honours as irrevocable symbols of status regardless of later behaviour. Furthermore, awards should be capped annually to preserve their exclusivity. Honouring fewer, more deserving Nigerians will increase the prestige of the titles and prevent undeserving awards Most importantly, the honours system must reconnect with the grassroots. By recognising farmers, nurses, teachers, inventors and humanitarian workers, Nigeria can turn the system into a true tool of national inspiration.

All these are by the way as ordinary Nigerians no longer care about leaders honouring themselves and their cronies. No impoverished Nigerian has the luxury of waiting to be honoured by someone whose honour is questionable himself. All Nigerians are asking for is guaranteed security to farm, stable power supply to produce, quality and affordable education to learn, reliable healthcare to survive and stable economy to thrive. When they can provide this, they can go on naming and renaming national monuments after their wives and continue with the vicious cycle of self-glorification in the name of national honours.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez