Column

Media And Islamaphobia-Adamu Ladan

Published

1 year ago

June 26, 2022

Adamu Ladan

By
Adamu S. Ladan (fcai)

A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has found that social media companies are endangering Muslim communities by normalising abusive behavior online. According to Reuters the report said many of the abusive contents were easily identifiable, and yet there was still inaction.

“This report exposed that social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, failed to act on 89 percent of posts containing anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic content reported to them,” the Center said.

In a joint statement in 2019, according to the report, Meta, Twitter, and Google attempted to defend themselves arguing that they were committed to upholding their “commitment to ensure they are doing all they can to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to terrorist violence.”

My Plan Is To Make Kano Africa’s Commercial Hub-Yakasai

However, the CCDH report countered the media companies’ spurious defence saying, “Once again, their press releases prove to be nothing more than empty promises,” pointing out that many of the abusive contents were easily identifiable, and yet there was still inaction.

The report added that, they are using hate as a good business: “Worse still, the platforms profit from this hate, gleefully monetising content, interactions, and the resulting attention and eyeballs.” The report explained.

To buttress their claim the CCDH researchers identified 530 posts which contain disturbing, bigoted, and dehumanising contents that target Muslims through racist caricatures, conspiracies, and false claims.

According to the report, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter allow users to use hashtags such as #deathtoislam, #islamiscancer and #raghead, the report further said content spread using the hashtags received at least 1.3 million impressions. Such contents further endangers these communities by driving “social divisions, normalising abusive behaviour, and encouraging offline attacks and abuse,” it added.
Perhaps that could have been responsible for the increasing rise of islamaphobia in many parts of the world. Of recent, authorities in India were “selectively and viciously cracking down on Muslims who dare to speak up…against discrimination faced by them,” Amnesty’s Aakar Patel said in a statement on Tuesday, 21/06/2023.

Regrettably, the term “Islamist” in the west and among some non-Muslims in other climes has become shorthand for “Muslims we don’t like.” It is currently used in an almost exclusively pejorative context and is often coupled with the term “extremist,” giving it an even more negative slant.

The frequent linkage of the term “Islamist” to violence and denial of religious and human rights is also strongly promoted by Islamophobic groups and individuals who seek to launch rhetorical attacks on Islam and Muslims, without the public censure that would normally accompany such bigoted attacks on any other faith.

In the west, it is common to find leaders using the term ‘Islamist’ without giving a hoot to its consequences on the about 2 billion adherents of the creed. There was a time, during a rare public speech, Britain’s domestic intelligence chief warned that the country was facing ‘’an alarming pace of terrorist threat worse than at any time in his 34-year career.’’

The alarm raised by the MI5 Director General, Andrew Parker while speaking to journalists in London was more emphatic on what he described as ‘’an intense U.K. terrorist threat from Islamist extremists.”
This is even as politicians long before now have claimed to have known the truth. Speaking on ‘securing a better future,’ former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, in September, 2014 for instance delivered a powerful speech exonerating Islam from atrocities committed by people claiming to be Muslims. ‘’This hateful ideology’’ she stated, ‘’has nothing to do with Islam and it is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Britain and around the world.’’ She added that ‘’let this message go out that we know Islam is the religion of peace and has nothing to do with the ideology of our enemies.’’
To absolve Islam further, May said, ‘’The Qur’an says, ‘Oh mankind! We created you from a single pair of the male and female, and made into nations and tribes that you may know each other’. ‘‘It says; ‘there is no compulsion in religion.’ She concluded.

Despite such enlightened position, the Western media under whatever influence of hate has coined the word ‘Islamism’ to portray Islamic faith negatively as well as associate its faithful, with violent acts, human rights violations, and political extremism.

However, this term, ‘Islamist,’ used by many media outlets has come under scrutiny even in the Western world. In the US for instance, Ibrahim Hooper, who serves as the National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), published an op-ed calling for members of the press to stop using the word. Sadly, as Graham Fuller, the author of the book ‘ A World Without Islam’ noted, ‘’we have all become so accustomed, in the last decade or so, to a world of violence, terrorism, and suicide bombing that we have come to feel that this is the routine method of Muslim warfare’’. ‘’But, quite to the contrary,’’ said Fuller, who was the Vice Chairman, Intelligence Committee of the CIA, ‘’they represent new factors and the strategy sense”.

It is now hard to recall that about three decades ago such event were highly unusual. Fuller observed that, ‘’suicide bombing was almost unheard of in the Muslim world in the 1950s to the 1970s even at the higher of the revolutionary fervor of Arab nationalism and the disastrous defeat of the Arabs in the 1967 war with Israel. Palestinians committed terrorist act against Israel, but they were not suicide mission. It was the Shi’a of Lebanon who first began to successfully employ suicide bombings in Lebanon, with devastating effect against American targets—the US embassy and the US marine barrack in the early 1980. But it was the Hindu Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka who were the first to operationalise regular use of the suicide vest in the 1980s, with one of the highest rates of suicide operations in that era. Since that time, the frequency of suicide bombing in the Middle East has grown dramatically, peaking since the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.’’

Fuller’s position was further supported by a new report from The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) – a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California, USA, which said most of the designated terrorist groups in the US are right-wing extremists, not Muslim. A joint project by the center, which has conducted investigative journalism since 1977 took a look at 201 designated terrorism incidents within the US from 2008 to 2016.

The results indicate that, “right-wing extremists were behind nearly twice as many incidents” as terror acts associated with those identified as “Islamist domestic terrorism.’’ The report identified 63 incidents involving those “motivated by a theocratic political ideology espoused by such groups as the Islamic State”. This includes the San Bernardino shootings and Boston Marathon bombings, among others.

Right-wing extremists, often white supremacists, according to the report, were responsible for 115 incidents within the same period. Events like Robert Dear’s killing of three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood women’s health clinic in December 2015 for offering abortion services fall into this category.

Regarding violent extremism on the left of the political spectrum, between 2008 and 2016 there were 19 incidents and seven deaths. The shooting of Republican Congressman playing baseball in Alexandria, Virginia also falls under this category.

The evidence from this report therefore appears to belie former USA president, Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and his “fixation” on Islam.

The report further corroborated an FBI report which shows that only a small percentage of terrorist attacks carried out on U.S. soil between 1980 and 2005 were perpetrated by Muslims. According to the report Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America. FBI’s data compiled by Princeton University’s Loon Watch revealed that, ‘’there were more Jewish acts of terrorism within the United States than Islamic (7% against 6%). ‘’These were not terrorists who happened to be Jews; rather, they were extremist Jews who committed acts of terrorism based on their religious passions, just like Al-Qaeda and company.’’ Loon Watch also notes that less than 1% of terror attacks in Europe were carried out by Muslims.

Since 9/11, according to Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writing for the Triangle Center on Terrorism and National Security and his team counts; 33 Americans have died as a result of terrorism launched by their Muslim neighbours. During that period, 180,000 Americans were murdered for reasons unrelated to terrorism.

Even on the acts committed by the so-called Muslims, Law enforcement, including “informants and undercover agents,” according to Triangle team report, were involved in “almost all of the Muslim-American terrorism plots uncovered in 2012.”

The team finds that’s in keeping with the FBI’s recent practice of using undercover or double agents to encourage would-be terrorists to act on their violent desires and arresting them when they do — a practice critics say comes perilously close to entrapment.

However why despite these huge evidence that the west and the media in particular continue to malign Muslims and their creed? The answer according to many pundits could not be far-fetched from the age-long agenda of checkmating the rising profile of the religion in the world. Thus, giving a dog bad name, to hang it.

Apprehensive of prospective dominance of Islam as predicted by several researches, the west is deploying its entire media arsenal to combat the fortune of its destiny. According to a new analysis of data from the Pew Research Center; Muslims are on track to become the world’s fastest-growing major religious group in the years ahead.

Based on the analysis released by Pew, according to The World Post publication of 04/07/2017, posited that Christians make up the largest religious group in the world, at 2.3 billion people. Muslims make up the next biggest group, at just fewer than 2 billion. But the global Muslim population, the report added is relatively young, with a high fertility rate and a low death rate.

Few estimates that; in the five-year period between 2030 and 2035, the Muslim birth rate will overtake the birth rate among Christians, with 225 million babies born to Muslim families in those years, compared to 224 million among Christians.

From that point, the birth gap is only expected to increase. Between 2055 and 2060, Pew estimates, there will be 232 million births among Muslims compared to 226 million births among Christians.
In recent years, Christians have accounted for roughly 37 percent of the world’s deaths ― largely due to the advanced age of Christian populations in some parts of the world.

“This is especially true in Europe, where the number of deaths is already estimated to exceed the number of births among Christians,” Pew notes. “In Germany alone, for example, there were an estimated 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births between 2010 and 2015, a pattern that is expected to continue across much of Europe in the decades ahead.”
By the final decades of the 21st century, Pew predicts, ‘’there will be more Muslims than Christians in the world.’’ And this is the reality the West and its allies are trying hard to fight. But would the West win this battle?

So far, the West’s approach to this stark reality is the deployment of propaganda with a view to arresting the spread of this religion. Little wonder therefore, the media is jam-packed with skewed reportage or jaundiced opinion about Islam. Hence, the coinage of names such as ‘Islamist’, ‘militants’, ‘extremist’, etc. to derogate it in the eyes of unsuspecting publics. But would this change the destiny of this religion which professes peace, concord, dialogue and social order?

Adamu S.Ladan is the Executive Director, Media Centre for Research, Education and Development (Mcred)

Column

The ECOWAS-NIGER WAR, “STILL BOOTING”? By Haruna Adamu Hadejia

Published

4 weeks ago

September 2, 2023

Nigerian Tracker

Haruna Adamu Hadejia

The republic of Niger has become a point of reference in these days, probably as a new world “laboratory” for sovereignty test. It has shown the world that African countries are beginning to resist the western powers’ long and assumed perpetual dictatorship. Many people around the world have defined the republic of Niger and Africa in general as paupers until recently.
Lately, France shuns the ultimatum given by Military Junta in Niger for france’s envoy to exit. One wonders, why did they want to stick? While on one hand, the ECOWAS seems to be booting (undecided) on the possibility of; strike or not to strike. The hypothesis (Ho) and (H1) on the war remain unclear while sanction is quietly working in Niger with some adverse effect on both Niger and specifically north western part of Nigeria largely on economy.

Many people postulates that the ECOWAS formation in (1975) was facilitated by the western world just to protect their interest; get advice and decisions from them and simply implement what they want. Many were of the opinion that even the ultimatum given by ECOWAS to Niger was engineered by the western world.

The worrying issue before the western world and ECOWAS in particular in my opinion is that, they have not yet found genuine coefficient of staging war as they intended to do. Why? Because the citizens of Niger not necessarily the MILITARY simply say “NO, allow us to solve our own problems” coupled with the brethren support from neighboring African nations around Niger such as Mali. This coalition really angers the west and the 11 countries out of 15 in ECOWAS. Niger also gained additional sympathy from other parts of the world and has this has opened up a platform for all nations to rediscover or re-trace their independence.
It was reported that, the Presidents of Egypt and Algeria advised the ECOWAS not to venture into war. They have the bitter experience of what it takes to be at war front, they still have some left over of such happenings in their countries.

Our President is of course, at the center of ECOWAS BEING ITS CURRENT Chair and also the President of Nigeria which is well respected in the world. However, with the present on-going rancor in Niger we are beginning to respectfully shrink in the eyes of some nations especially our close friend, Niger who respects us more than any nation in the world. But today, the algorithm has changed. Citizens of Niger knew only Nigeria not ECOWAS. Should anything happen to the citizens, their fingers will only point at Nigerians being their brothers and not the whole of ECOWAS. How do we recover such respect and prevent further spill of the trust they have in us??

As postulated in my last publication of August 5 by Kano online Times, the giant nations have other ways to deal with ECOWAS in the event that the war didn’t take place. One of them has started coming up; the world bank is threatening to freeze the accounts of ECOWAS if they couldn’t execute this war. Possible compressing of foreign Aids to ECOWAS, introduction of some strong financial and economic policies on ECOWAS, or what?

Again, what would it look like now that, Prigozhin the leader of private security Wagner organization of Kremlin is dead? This is someone that was smelled to be in Africa to contract the war before his death. Will the US, France and their allies have a dinner for having at least one their blockages being removed? Similarly, what is Putin going to do differently now that Prigozhin is dead; perhaps become a stronger independent contractor to solely fight for and on behalf of the Niger Junta in the name of “liberation” and love for them while tapping their uranium which they will be willing to sell at lesser proceeds? Yeah, this could aptly be forecast as another opportunity for Putin to cheaply annex Nigeria once kremlin steps into Niger.

My argument is that, all these self-anointed saviors of Africa are truly not to be trusted and must not be trusted. We will only breathe independent air thoroughly if all outsiders can stay clear of Africa and allow us to drive our processes and the possibility of achieving this is only when our leaders fairly lead us.
Recounting from the military takeover of power in Niger up to the time of border closure between Nigeria and Niger, we understand that many states all in the Northern Nigeria are concerned in many ways. Already, the war is subconsciously taking place politically, economically, socially. Recent visit to Maigatari market an export processing zone (border with Niger in Jigawa state) shows how deserted the market is. There is skew negatively of livestock, grains and other products, the mass exodus being witnessed on weekly basis by people from across the federation is evidently a sign of setback. The Machina market (in Yobe state) is equally going down by the day. The same story in Jibiya of Katsina state, the many market stalls are largely scanty because the occupants are no longer using them coupled with the insecurity there and no one to maintain the thatch sheds due to poor turnout of people for commercial activities. Summarily, the IGR of the local governments bordering Niger must have recorded significant losses in this respect.

Socially, it will take time to heal the wound created as a result of such border closure. The brothers and sisters that married from both countries can no longer see or trade with each other, just like South and North Korea, until such a time when the border is opened. What a distress!

At federal level, Nigerians are interested to know how much the country has economically lost from the electricity cut to Niger, custom and excise duty and from other sources such as money markets. Nigeria but North is being tested economically and socially???
The proverbial expression of Pandora must not be allowed to have a pIace in our midst, meaning a source of endless complications or trouble arising from simple miscalculation should not in a haste be used to jeopardize not only historical but sustainable relationship with our neighbor. Let our leaders not subject us to a test tube baby.

Simply, we all understand that ECOWAS is technologically “booting” to come up with alternative measures to handle the situation. After this scenario, what type of punishment will the west introduce to deal with us (citizens) again? I once said that the west, have multiple approaches to handle us perpetually and this must be resisted. This is the scenario Nigeria (Africans) have been subjected. The west is not willing to allow us to rest.

We must see this present circumstance as an attempt to change Africa heritage by the west while the time for resistance by Africans has finally arrived. I wish late Gawo Filinge of Niger, Aminu Kano, Sa’adu Zungur and similar social movers are alive just to analyze the on-going silent sanction on Niger and go back to sleep. Am sure, they will encourage Nigeria-Niger to be strong and endure the struggle. Because the more courage they have, the tendency for becoming greater in future as a result of being resilient.

Unknown to many, this tussle has opened doors of hope for Niger republic such as the need for them to think of generating their own power plant, identify other economic countries for ties to transact business and take advantage of currency swap, rediscover and export their unique mineral (uranium) for foreign exchange, introduce their own currency for trade and also integrate their culture as part of income generating avenue. They can harvest more from their national patriotism as exhibited by the recent solidarity demonstrations enjoyed by the new government from the citizens. On the other hand, Nigeria must intensify efforts to look inward and solidify its strategic path to protect our sovereignty. Though, these processes are quite starving and require sacrifice. Indeed, citizens must sacrifice to get things fixed.

A twitter friend called “Steve” responded to my early post 72 hours ago that, “Nigeria needs to invade asap, do not let Niger become base for Russia to invade Nigeria, Russia and China are coming for control and the gold”. This statement of his made me crazy and had to drop my pen and rest for a while before continued with my memo. If this notion of him is to be interpreted right, then my earlier opinion that we shouldn’t trust any of the “power holders” has been validated.

One nagging issue that keeps bugging some of the progressives around is must we be submissive to them? They just wanted to traced back what they mistakenly left behind during colonization and introduce a new scientific approach of modern colonization.

While “ba’a sauke girki ba”, another country in Africa has just thrown out civilian government in the republic of Gabon, Ali Bongo who has been in power since 2009 after winning third term election on last Saturday’s poll, August 26, 2023.

As am writing this piece, another episode happened in Rwanda a country which just hosted the “capacity building session” for our Nigeria’s Governors last week supported by the UN, with President Paul Kagame in office since year 2000 (23 years) for God’s sake, retires multiple senior army officers including influential General called James Kabarebe shortly after he learnt about military take-over in Gabon. Why is it happening now? Is Paul not sending a signal that he has all been driving wrong? Who influenced him to do this? In the interest of Rwanda which suffered irrecoverable genocide years ago or western interest? All these confusions must be justified by the power that be.

By whatever definition, Africa must not relegate itself in the eyes of the so-called super powers, taking advantage of telling us that we are corrupt while they created, initiated, seed and nurtured the basis for corruption from kindergarten to tertiary level of our political class.

Afterall, all nations can be super. They should be reminded that, if they earlier used a generic template to define all Africans, time has come to review the template after centuries and re-allocate “specific” ledger to each nation.

I come in peace!

Haruna Adamu Hadejia, a journalist and public affairs analyst, wrote this piece from Dutse, Jigawa State.

Column

Ministerial Nominee’s: Between Fair Proportions and Political Relevance.

Published

2 months ago

August 17, 2023

Nigerian Tracker

By Abubakar Sadiq Dauda

I will start with the following highlights:

Deputy Senate President,
Speaker House of Representatives,
National Chairmanship,
5 Senior Ministers,
5 Junior Ministers, were all allocated to the Northwest Geo-political zone, which happens to be the powerhouse of Northern politics.

Kano got the National Chairmanship position which doesn’t add any capital developmental stride to the state or region. That gave birth to the appointment of two of its indigenes as Junior Ministers because the leader of the party in the state is in no position to shout injustice since he graciously accepted a role meant for the North-central bloc.

Kaduna on the other hand, has a Speaker, thus one Ministerial nominee was picked. A fair share if u ask me. However, one of our very best, picked from this very North side (El-Rufai) was frustrated, thus he lost interest. Not his own individual loss, but our own collective loss.

Though at a time, he once said, the only way for the party and the President to pay him for his effort, is to give one of his own (Iyan Zazzau), the office of the speaker, which ought to have gone to the North-central. El-rufai request was graciously honoured. We may cry and wail but agreement is agreement.

Our very own greed and miscalculation will keep consuming us in terms of our relevance politically, and the development of the North as a whole. Once the Northwest lost relevance and control, the entire North will be on its knees.

Certainly, we were not shortchanged, we got outsmarted, that has always been the case whenever power shifts to the South.

Morally, the North got its own fair share. Politically, it got nailed, yet again!

Sadiq is a political observer, writes from Kano, Nigeria. Can be reached via sadiqdauda55@gmail.com

Column

Emefiele : The Embarassing End Of Ego.

Published

4 months ago

June 10, 2023

Nigerian Tracker

Godwin Emefeile , Suspended CBN Governor

By Bala Ibrahim.

It was Sir Hubert Henderson, the British economist and Liberal Party politician that said, there is a merit in being unimportant, which he paraphrased in a book under the caption, “The Importance of Being Unimportant.” Sir Henderson expressed the idea that, under the right conditions, it is desirable to be a very small part of something big. One needs not be an expert in English language to understand that Sir Henderson was talking about the goodness or distinction of modesty, particularly with respect to the righteousness of rectitude and the enviable quality of being moderate in behaviour. And precisely that is the quality that I think is missing in the displayed attitude of the now suspended Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Chief, Godwin Emefiele.

Since yesterday Friday, the media has been agog with the story that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, from office immediately. The news was conveyed in a statement by Willie Bassey, Director of Information at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The statement said Emefiele’s suspension is sequel to the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the economy’s financial sector.

Dr.Y.Z Ya’u Elected as Convener of Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room

Wow! No sooner than I read the breaking news, than my mind went to some video clips, which went viral on the social media, wherein the now deposed and detained Emefiele was basking and boasting, in a manner that depicted him as a man thinking that he is too important to even obey the law. Yes, just few days back, perhaps because of the deceitful potentiality of the paraphernalia of power, Emefiele refused to reckon with the meaning of vanity, by exuding excessive pride in the discharge of duty, and the way and manner he carried himself. I am sure effective from last night, circumstances must have humbled him, and compulsorily compelled him to understand the meaning of the embarrassing end of ego.

Before he was reportedly seized
(rightly or wrongly) by operatives of the Department of State Security, DSS, Mr. Emefiele was directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor (Operations), who will act as the Central Bank Governor, pending the conclusion of the investigation and the reforms. Although a friend and old classmate of mine, who happened to have worked with Emefiele, told me indeed Emefiele read Agric. Economics at the University, his actions seem at variance with the core principles of the mission of producing graduates of that discipline.

Emefiele was particularly forgetful of the temporariness of power, as he portrayed himself as an arrogantly bad student of history, by refusing to borrow a leaf from the situation of his predecessor, and the circumstances that brought him to power.

Godwin Emefiele assumed office in the year 2014, pursuant to the suspension and subsequent termination of the appointment of Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, by the then President of Nigeria, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Although the social media is parading various allegations as the charges that are being put forward against him by the DSS, one can not come to any conclusion until he is formally charged to court. However, as a follower of events, I can attest to the torture visited on the people, through his economic cruelty, inhumanity and blatant brutality, in the brazen cash confiscation policy.

Under an economically senseless, and obviously wickedly intended plan, many Nigerians were pushed to depression, as they queued up in front of empty ATM machines for weeks, in the desperate move of scouring for their legitimately earned cash, which were seized by Emefiele and his cohorts. The media was awash with saddening stories of the pain and anguish of people, who were forced to lose their loved relations and friends, or compelled to go through hell in the search for healthcare, as a result of the cash crunch.

Agonizing stories made the rounds, of how some medical facilities refused to offer emergency treatment to patients unless cash payment was made, even when they were aware of the dire circumstances of the patient and the cash crunch situation of the country. Indeed Emefiele forced a frightening fragility on the financial subconscious of many Nigerians, yours truly inclusive.

In the light of the submissions of Hon.Gudaji Kazaure, who alleged that, by virtue of his position as the Governor of the Central Bank, Emefiele was easily the most powerful person in the country, who could turn an indigent person into a billionaire in hours, and he had evidences to support the accusation that he had arbitrarily abused that privilege, I think, many Nigerians would rejoice with the embarrassing end to his revulsive ego.

Had Mr.Emefiele learnt a lesson from Sir Hubert Henderson, on the importance of being unimportant, perhaps, perhaps, he would have behaved with a better degree of humility. But now, the phrase on the lips of many is, good riddance to bad rubbish.

May God give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu more strength and spirit to succeed, ameen.