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The Bigot In Kperogi’s Mirror

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Aliyu Salisu Barau,PhD

 

Aliyu Salisu Barau

@farooqkperogi is among the too few Nigerians who elegantly sandwiched scholarship, media, and English language expertise. On the contrary, I am neither a linguistic expert nor a political analyst. Here, I am just trying to figure out the naughtiness of @farooqkperogi’s thinking machinery. How @farooqkperogi thinks substantially determines his writings and opinions. No doubt, Kperogi’s articles are a cynosure of eyes of many Nigerians across political, cultural and social divides. Some of his Nigerian readers pluck his linguistically well-crafted and yet asymmetric views and dye them in the colours of their sentiments or ignorance. It is normal to manipulate any text on this planet. Interestingly, it is not unusual for bohemians and intellectuals to dress and feast on controversies. I see @farooqkperogi as a sort of a roller coaster dripping joyful and sorrowful moments on public sentiments and obsessions. Indeed, considering Nigeria’s contested socio-political landscapes, @farooqkperogi personifies Hankaka (a pied crow in Hausa) which they say, who sees its black must see its white too.

I am indifferent with @farooqkperogi’s criticisms of the powers that be. I don’t care about his tirades and vituperations directed at the political class who sold their moral rights at the market of failures and misgovernance. So, what’s my headache with @farooqkperogi? Well, I am deeply touched by his overriding superficiality, unidirectional views, bigotry, extremism and spider mannerisms. To be fair to Kperogi, no elites of the social and political divides of this country are immune from his pen. Nevertheless, his seamless and borderless forays are in many instances unconscionable and peddling post-truth constructs. My labelling of @farooqkperogi is based on my readings and analysis of his recent blog stuffs:
• Presidents Who’ll Make Me Renounce Nigeria (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/03/presidents-wholl-make-me-renounce.html)
• Osinbajo’s RCCGification Part of Plot for Theocratic State Capture (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/04/osinbajos-rccgification-part-of-plot.html)
• 10 Reasons Osinbajo Will Ignite a Religious Civil War (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/03/10-reasons-osinbajo-will-ignite.html)

As a transdisciplinary environmental researcher, I always prefer wider views, co-produced, and inclusive opinions. I am diametrically opposed to ‘single story’ constructions – as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would say. My readings of the above articles has convinced me of Kperogi’s single story driven narrowed conclusions on crucial and critical national issues. Before I explain my points, I have tried further analysis on Kperogi’s knowledge production mannerisms to see how that fits my labelling of him. For instance, I conducted a rapid assessment of his authorship of academic works on leading research archives namely Researchgate and Google Scholar. Both repositories reveal in him a professor with a very limited network and co-authorship. By implication, any scholar with limited networking and co-authorship will have little room for alternative view, tolerance, and thorough analysis. This evidence convinces me as to why @farooqkperogi writes less holistically and cares less to get into deep layers of issues. Kperogi is a good reflection of Dubarudu- a character in one of the Hausa riddles. Dubarudu owns a mirror in a town where no one owns any. He alone uses it and no one can use it including his wife. Nigeria is a mirror that we need to share to see our faces and appreciate our different outlooks.

ASUU Strike And Posterity-Ameer Abdul Aziz

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My reading of the three blog articles by @farooqkperogi leads me to carry further analysis on how this versatile writer thinks. Scholars make use of Low-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher-Order Thinking Skills to determine thinking capacity of scholars and students. I always assume that Nobel Prize winners and other high ranking scholars utilise HOTS. Without prejudice, blog articles produced by @farooqkperogi appear to belong to low-order thinking skills. Then, how is @farooqkperogi a low thinker at least in the three articles under consideration? The answer is discernible to all his readers that care. He uses interrogatives such as ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘which’, ‘how many’ and ‘who’ inn driving his opinions in the tree articles. We could see mentions of places, names of persons, number of persons, places, when and where in his labelling of religious bigotry by VP Osinbajo. Healthy and informed minds would care only about the HOTS interrogatives such as ‘why’, ‘how’; ‘what evidence is there?’, ‘cause and consequences’ etc. Unfortunately, less informed and sentimental Nigerian readers can easily be misled by the lots of LOTS amplified by @farooqkperogi.

At this point I am bringing out my real problems with this language scholar. I really find it very nauseating and irritating when @farooqkperogi declared in his blog of March 28, 2022 that he would renounce his citizenship of Nigeria if any of the four individuals he listed in the blog would become Nigeria’s next president. The four Nigerians he condemned are Osinbajo, Tinubu, Bello and Wike. How on earth? What depth of hatred is this? What if God has decided one of them to be? To me this is an exotic bigotry, branded intolerance and egregious extremism. Where is his knowledge of the language of contestations, resistance and resilience that characterize works of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, and Karl Marx? Maybe, I should remind him of the struggles of the Irish activists captured in Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s Language, Resistance and Revival. Such a Kperogian declaration amounts to cowardice, hopelessness, and disillusionment. How can I give up my citizenship on account of a tenured president that could be at the mercy of the judiciary, parliament, media and civil society? I never expected @farooqkperogi to easily forget how spirited men and women stood against the caudillos (strongmen of Latin America) seen in Pinochet of Chile, Stroessner of Paraguay, Somoza in Nicaragua, and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. I wish good luck to the listed four and to Kperogi when you forsake Nigeria for America where black lives matter. The people brutalized by the Nigerian junta yesterday are princes of the Aso Rock Villa of today. That is how time works.

No little thanks to @farooqkperogi for giving us a neologism -RCCGification through his April 14th 2022 blog opinion. I was distraught reading that as I saw in it that article tight shortness of sight and breath considering it is coming from a scholar. Saying that one church denomination will overrun Nigeria is a devilish statement. Even Satan might call that the last post-truth reality. Nevertheless, I find solace in Mehdi Hassan’s response to Anne-Marie Waters during Oxford Union Debate On Islam held at the Oxford University in the UK sometime in 2015. Putting your article in the context of that debate and Mehdi’s response means @farooqkperogi is a big fanatic and bigot. Why? Because RCCGification is the same thing as Islamisation. Every time a Muslim rules Nigeria some Christian bigots use the thread of Islamisation to weave clothes of suspicion and division. So what’s the difference between the advocates of Islamisation and RCCGification? Is it not flipping sides of the same coin? I would be happier to have as leader a just Christian than unjust Muslim. RCCGification of Islam, Catholicism, Protestants, and traditional religions is a mirage. RCCGification of Nigeria is a charade since this church has not even seen intergenerational transition of itself let alone overrun others. Let us be frank to ourselves, it has been a standing tradition of Nigerian political, religious and business leaders to bring close to them the people that they know. Hence, I am unruffled by any list of political appointees associated with RCCGification agenda. I am always amused by fears of Islamisation and I always see Christians as its drivers and authors. When you insist on going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem as Muslims do in Mecca, you are just Islamising Nigeria Christianity. When you say let us block the Muslims or deny them their rights what is your name? Islamaphobe, unjust, conspirator or still a Christian? What I like most about religion is sweet taste of spirituality. Those forwarding RCCGification agenda are either mischief makers or ignorant of Nigeria’s social, historical and political institutions. When I saw the casket of Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu draped in Nigeria’s flag and carried by the Nigerian military officers, that is the day I realised that Nigeria is bigger than all its citizens. Nigeria overwhelms anybody with any hidden agenda. A critic must learn how not be like a spider. Its knowledge of design is superb and its nest is outstandingly beautiful. However, the skinny guy builds its nest on the common pathways not minding trapping everybody.
Aliyu Barau, PhD
Kano, Sunday, 11.44 AM
Twitter: @aliyubarau

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Kano State Hosts 8th Annual Audit Forum to Enhance Transparency and Accountability

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The 8th Annual Audit Forum, organized by the Office of the Auditor General of Kano State, was held recently, focusing on strengthening transparency and accountability in public financial management. .

Isma’ila Musa, the Auditor General of Kano State, welcomed the participants and highlighted the constitutional and legal mandates that guide the auditing process. “Sections 125(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and 36(i) of the Kano State Audit Law, 2021 (as amended) mandate the Office of the Auditor General to audit the accounts and financial statements of the State Government and all Offices and Courts,” he stated.

Musa expressed immense gratitude to His Excellency, Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf, the Governor of Kano State, for his support in making the event possible. “It is very important to note that a strengthened fiscal transparency will help build trust in governance,” he emphasized. He added that the Audit Forum is a reform intended to reduce opportunities for corruption and abuse of public resources, thereby increasing the efficiency of public expenditures.

The Auditor General also acknowledged the contributions of various officials, including the Hon. Commissioner Ministry of Planning and Budget, the Accountant General, the Executive Chairman of Kano Internal Revenue Services, and former Auditors General, among others. “My sincere appreciation to all the invitees here present for honoring our invitation. I wish us a successful 8th Kano State Annual Audit Forum,” Musa concluded.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Honorable Tukur Fagge, praised the exercise for its potential to enhance resource management and ensure the success of the tasks at hand. “This exercise will enhance resources management and will realize the success of the task,” Fagge stated.

Sarkin Shanon Kano, Shehu Muhammad Dankadai, who served as the royal father of the day, also graced the event, adding to the significance of the occasion.

The forum underscored the commitment of the Kano State Government to upholding transparency and accountability, reflecting the administration’s dedication to effective and efficient service delivery.

 

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Breaking: Former Secretary of Federal Electoral Commission, FEDECO, Ahmadu Kurfi Passes On at 93

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Late Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi

 

A former secretary of the Federal Electoral Commission, Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi, has passed away.

A family source, Jafar Yakubu, informed NIGERIAN TRACKER about the death of the pioneer secretary of the Federal Electoral Commission, who supervised the 1979 general election.

 

Jafar Yakubu said Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi died at the age of 93 and his Janaza funeral prayers will take place by 2:30 PM at Kurfi in KATSINA state .

 

Dr. Amadu Kurfi, OFR, was born in 1931. He was a former chairman of the then Marketing Board, former Federal Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Defence, and the first person to acquire a BSc degree in the whole of Katsina State, at University College London in 1957.

 

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President Tinubu Sacks UNIZIK Vice-Chancellor, Registrar

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The governing council of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University has been dissolved by President Bola Tinubu.

The president dissolved the council and approved the removal of the institution’s vice-chancellor Bernard Odoh and the university registrar, Rosemary Nwokike.

A statement by Bayo Onanuga, the special adviser to the president on information and strategy said the action by Tinubu follows allegations of procedural violations in the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor.

He also said that the council led by Greg Ozumba Mbadiwe and including five other members—Hafiz Oladejo, Augustine Onyedebelu, Engr. Amioleran Osahon, and Rtd. Gen. Funsho Oyeneyin was accused of bypassing due process to appoint an unqualified candidate, prompting federal intervention.

Onanuga said, “The sacking of the governing council and officials followed reports that the council illegally appointed an unqualified vice-chancellor without following due process.

He added that following the controversial appointment, the Federal Government stepped in to address the rivalry between the university’s Senate and the governing council of the institution.

“The government expressed concern over the council’s apparent disregard for the university’s governing laws in its selection process”, Onanuga added.

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