Opposition Politics and Lessons of Senegal

Opposition Politics and Lessons of Senegal

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UncleNaira: Nigeria is generally "HOT" this period!

UncleNaira: Nigeria is generally "HOT" this period!

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WHO SPONSORED WHO?

Diary wrote on PDP:TRULY NOT DEMOCRACT!  With a constructive criticism about there  leadership and management of  entire affairs of the country for the past 13 years in power. failures overwhelm the success and development in the governing processes. these piece is a continuation of the above piece.

Though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) announced that the new members of the National Working Committee (NWC), were elected by consensus and that other contestants stepped down for the ‘winners’, insiders in the party told Sunday Trust that the new executive was the product of political horse-trading among top elders and few governors in the party.

For instance, the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was single-handedly picked by President Goodluck Jonathan for the position, while the National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was conceded to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an action that angered close to a dozen other contenders for the job. Furthermore, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha who emerged as the National Organising Secretary of the party was picked by Vice President Namadi Sambo, in the hope that Mustapha would begin to oil Sambo’s 2015 presidential project.

Others who rode to the juicy NWC on the crest of powerful party leaders include former Aviation Minister, Mrs Kema Chikwe, who was brought in by Obasanjo; the National Legal Adviser, Barrister Victor Pam, who was nominated by the party’s first National Chairman, Chief Solomon Lar, and the 60-year-old National Youth Leader, Malam Umar Garba Chiza, was brought into that position by the governor of Niger State, Dr Babangida Aliyu.  Dr Aliyu happens to be the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum. His counterpart, the Chairman of the Governors Forum, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Sunday Trust learnt, was behind the candidature of the newly elected Deputy National Chairman, Dr Sam Sam Jaja.

The impositions by the elders of the party took the wind off the sail at the national convention, as many contestants couldn’t hide their discontent with the arrangement. However, Sunday Trust learnt that many of the frontline contestants have been promised ministerial appointments in a planned cabinet reshuffle by the Jonathan administration. Others have been promised appointments into juicy boards of Federal Government’s parastatals

These depict that majority of it’s members are in political circle to enrich themselves and there family, not for selfless service to humanity. I believe in consensus but voluntarily not as Mr president force other candidates to step down for his right man, then where is the DEMOCRACY?   

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PDP: TRUELY NOT DEMOCRACT

People Democratic party popularly know as PDP,has became a messiah in the liberal political dispensations because majority of political animals and quarks politician associate with the party.Since from the return of civilian rule in 1999 which gave OBASANJO mandate to be in power and spent 8 solid years in power after enjoying the fruit and air condition of villa, he try to monomers the  constitution by given  billions of naira to the legislators and representatives  just because of his whims and caprices to remain in power for the third time, jut as other African leaders do spend 30-40 years in power,stateman like Poul Biya of Cemenroon,Usain Mubarak of Eygpt,Taja manmade of Niger to name but few, but fortunately for Nigerians nemesis caught him.

In 2007 under leadership of mouris iwhu INEC conducted elections into various offices in the three ties of government, but majority of the seat was worn by PDP in both state and national level. Lot of  petitions and criticism was held by other political parties against the conduct of the general  elections but INEC and the judiciary when ahead and sworn-in YAR’ADUA and JONATHAN as the new elected government. As the car speedometer is moving very fast, late Umaru musa yar’adua kick the bucket, therefore Mr jonathan continue driving the car.

In 2011,Mr president appoint Prof JEGA my father, my role model because he is my former VC and a great icon of my department. The whole nation are very happy for the appointment of Prof JEGA as the new INEC BOSS because of his reputation and integrity with optimistic that issue would change by free and fair election. The irony is that Nigerians are not satisfy with the result which lead to post-election violence in some northern part of the country, claimed thousand lives’ of youth and properties. It is a slap on prof.JEGA integrity.PDP has spend almost 16 years in power and there is a research that informed that PDP would rule for 50 good years before a change in government.

In the past years of PDP dictatorship, there was no any meaningful development but multiple of project and policy without implementations. The beauty of Democracy in Nigeria is fading every day, because of corruption and lack of dividend of Democracy  in so many sector of the economy (health,Education,Agriculture,natural and human resources, to name but few) the story is same, there was noting to be proud off and write about. Here is an report of interview with Dr.kano about PDP and it national convention.

 Ahead of tomorrow’s national congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  President of Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Dr. Sule Kano yesterday said the political system being practiced in the country is not democratic and that the ruling PDP is not a democratic party.

Reflecting on political happenings in the country in exclusive interview with Daily Trust in Sokoto, Dr. Kano said the system being practiced in Nigeria is civil governance and not a democratic system of government.

Sule Kano who is the Head of Political Science Department of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, said scientifically Nigeria’s political system cannot be described as democratic.

“The political system we are practicing is not democratic government; it is government of the rich; by the rich and for the rich. This is contrary to the tenets of democracy of which the people are the target. The destiny of the masses is not decided by somebody who calls himself a leader.”

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2GO: A SILENT MARKET

2go is a mobile messenger that allows you to communicate for free with your friends,but other services networks removed some kobo. It is a network of millions of people where you can setup your profile, meet new people, talk to friends, share files and pictures,. 2go does require a network connection which your mobile operator charges you a small amount for, but this costs much less than it would cost to send an SMS.!just of recently 2go management announced that it has reached 14 million users all over the globe.

Many users are addicted with 2go more then any other social networks, indeed 2go is a silent market, in the sense that individual friends and companions’ do chat with each other not in camera but there soul and spirit is together, perhaps many users have new friends either in there own locality or abroad and became intermit  friends, others just because of 2go interaction attained there social, esteem and self actualizations needs,which lead to marriage or advancement in there daily business, moreover some politician use 2go to campaign before election, especially student in campus politics.

I precisely enjoy 2go interaction and indeed is a silent market because, am some one that like to stay alone, having knew that loneliness kills and it is a stigma that destabilized once brain. But i like to stay alone with my world at my hand ,charting, sharing ideas and fun.When it come’s to news. HMM friends are even trying more then quarks news reporters, any latex news friends update it in there status, friends like clement, cesse c’sse, Abdurahman,shamma  to name but few

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As have informed you some of it merit, it also have some negative implications. Users are addicted  with 2go to the extent that, it prevent them from praying ,reading Qur’an,reading texts,it  also transmitted some negative  some unscrupulous character because there is a room in 2go called life style, strictly made for the opposite sex.(gay and lesbians).Therefore guys do register with female profile data and picture, deceiving both self. It also suck time and deprived individual from visitation. Where ever you are fear  ALLAH! propagate and disseminate useful informations. 



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Nigeria, Boko Haram and Pervasive Distrust

By zainab usman.

At around 01.30 am in the wee hours of Tuesday 13th March, while checking local Nigerian and global news as I usually do before heading to bed, I came across an article on the British daily’s website The Independent, titled “On the Trail of Boko Haram” by Andrew Stroehlein, the Communications Director of the International Crisis Group. Thinking it was one of those typically reductionist articles written by one of those foreign “experts” or “keen observers” of Nigeria, I initially dismissed it. However, my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to skim through thinking that if I found it to repeat the same trite assertion of an impending apocalyptic implosion of a “Muslim-North and Christian-South”; I would silently curse the author and go to bed. As I read the article though, I had the exact opposite reaction, I felt it was brilliant and captured the situation in Nigeria accurately, objectively and succinctly. I had wanted to share it immediately on Facebook, Twitter and on several Nigerian online discussion boards, but my eyes were heavy, so I put it off for when I woke up in the morning. Not surprisingly, by the time I woke up, the article had gone viral, at least in Nigeria. Amidst glowing commendations, one interesting description of the article was thus: “one of the most accurate summary of the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, sadly by a foreigner”. What then is so spectacular about this piece when so much has already been written and said about Boko Haram and insecurity in Nigeria?

The insecurity in Nigeria especially with the orgy of violence unleashed by the group Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad popularly known as Boko Haram, or what I prefer to call the Boko Haram plague has been escalating as the group’s tactics have similarly evolved. Local and international media agencies have been falling over themselves to report (accurately and inaccurately) the group’s deadliest and bloodiest attacks. Journalists, columnists, pundits, analysts, experts, and bloggers all claiming some knowledge and expertise over the group’s activities, it can be argued, have covered all possible angles of the Boko Haram insurgency. However, what Andrew Stroehlein seems to have done differently is to go straight to the heart of the issue without looking at any angle per se. He focuses on the cold hard facts and that is why his sounds like the gospel truth to many. The four salient points which I believe the author strongly makes are:

First of all, he desists from treading the simplistic path taken by many foreign “analysts” and “experts” of depicting Nigeria as hopelessly polarized along a “predominantly Muslim North and Christian South” fault line, subtly implying the two parts are irreconcilable and probably better off apart than together. Consequently, Stroehlein does not succumb to the tendency to portray Boko Haram as a manifestation of a disgruntled and increasingly alienated “Muslim-North” unhappy with and trying to undermine the Federal government largely under the control of the “Christian-South”. He says: “Like other political and armed movements that have sprung up in this country, including the recent fuel subsidy protests that brought the country to a standstill, Boko Haram is just a symptom of the crumbling Nigerian state.” He does admit that: “…the vast majority of Nigerians do not turn to armed militancy, of the Islamist variety or any other…” By so doing, Stroehlein depicts Boko Haram rightly, as a bye product of state failure, bad governance and especially rampant corruption which he argues needs to be addressed by pouring “the oil wealth into government services rather than officials’ overseas bank accounts”. This is one point many analysts have alluded to, but perhaps because of the high level of tension and paranoia in the Nigerian public sphere, those who have made this argument have been rashly labelled as Boko Haram supporters or “sympathisers”. This fierce rejection of alternative narratives reminds me of journalist Richard Hall’s op-ed on the UK riots last year, where he makes a clear distinction between attempting to understand something and condoning it. In particular, Hall says:

“The impression appears to be that the crimes committed were so great and so senseless that to try and understand them is to condone them… Any discussion about the potential causes of the riots become indistinguishable from excusing those who carried them out, and those who attempt to analyse become apologists.”

In Nigeria, sadly this seems to be the case.

Secondly, the author points out that Boko Haram should be dealt with as criminals and also harps on an urgent need for reform of the Police, the intelligence agencies and strengthening the Judiciary’s independence to deal with such criminal challenges. Even though, Stroehlein links Boko Haram to the wider problems of poverty, corruption, bad governance and predatory management of state funds, he avoids the pitfall many foreign analysts fall into of advocating for an “appeasement” of the “marginalized” Northern-Muslim establishment (purportedly the sponsors of Boko Haram) who lost out in the current political dispensation as a way of mitigating and addressing the Boko Haram plague.

Alleged Christian Bombers in Bauchi. Photo Courtesy Daily Times Nigeria

Thirdly, the author corroborates what many have said before, especially those with first-hand knowledge of the North, that there are splinter groups of Boko Haram and that “Boko Haram” is now a cover for criminal activity across a wide spectrum. Stroehlein notes: “anything that turns violent can be blamed on the Islamist movement, whether it has a link to it or not. It is a perfect alibi, one that prevents further questioning. Bank robbery? Boko Haram. Attack on political opponents? Boko Haram.”  This became more evident in the recent high-profile abduction and murder of the British and Italian hostages, the group’s denial of its culpability given that it wastes no time in bragging about its violent attacks and the emergence of a new player, Al Qaeda in the land beyond the Sahel (AQIM) claiming responsibility for the abduction and murder. The argument about the existence of Boko Haram copycats is also given more credence especially when one considers that many of those caught-in-the-act whilst trying to burn churches in Bauchi in August 2011 and again in February 2012 and Bayelsa for instance are aggrieved church members or those who do not fit the typical Boko Haram profile.

Fourthly, Stroehlein makes a damning indictment of the media — both local and international — as concerned with being very sensationalist by misinformation and spreading fear and paranoia in covering the insurgency in Nigeria, typically spreading the now trite narrative that Boko Haram is a manifestation of the promise made by prominent “disgruntled Northern politicians who have vowed to make the country ungovernable for Goodluck Jonathan”. Stroehlein says: “the hype in much of the Nigerian media also contributes to the problem, as many media outlets chasing sales seem all too willing to fall for unsubstantiated rumour and outright lies proffered by political trouble-makers — or by nobody at all”. Of international media, he asserts their reports have: “also been more scare-mongering than substance, presenting this as a new terrorist threat to the West, when it is fundamentally a Nigerian issue.”

From these thrusts of Andrew Stroehlein’s piece and the reactions the article has elicited, it can be inferred that there is a deep-seated lack of trust in Nigeria between ordinary Nigerians of each other and of the government, fanned, aggravated and enabled by the local media feeding fat on public paranoia. The mutual distrust is symptomatic of the deep cleavages in Nigeria which have extended to the public sphere such that any attempt by traditional or religious leaders especially from the North where Boko Haram is most active to explain the context of group’s activity is misconstrued by a militant and sectional press, members of the public and even some politicians as trying to rationalise, sympathise or justify Boko Haram’s activities. Those who been persistently calling for dialogue with the group have been labelled Boko Haram “apologists“, even though the Federal Government has recently began talks with the group ostensibly out of realization that the purely militarized approach has done little if anything to contain the insurgency. Conversely, the general perception in the North, is that Boko Haram’s activities are a deliberate and calculated attempt at sabotage and destruction of the economy and social cohesion of the region from elsewhere.

The danger here is that this distrust is increasingly preventing sincere, meaningful, fruitful national discourse in the Nigerian public sphere on Boko Haram and insecurity in Nigeria. Consequently, analysts like Stroehlein who sum the facts we are all aware of and state the obvious are seen to have said something spectacular (and it is in many respects) precisely because in our national subconscious Stroehlein falls outside the categories and labels we are increasingly allowing ourselves to be boxed into — “Christian”, “Muslim”, “Northerner”, “Southerner” “Core North”, “Middle Belt”, “Minority” etc — he is regarded as a neutral party more capable of stating the unbiased facts apparent to everyone better than Nigerians themselves.

Effectively tackling Boko Haram requires a strategic, concerted, collective and coordinated action by all and sundry: not just the government and security agencies, but traditional and religious leaders, the media and members of the public. This would entail an adept combination of the military approach, dialogue and any other effective tactic as is required and is deemed fit. Unless Nigerians come to the realization that everyone is a stakeholder when it comes to Boko Haram and appreciate the need to engage in meaningful discourse on what Boko Haram stands for, the threats it poses to national security and social cohesion and ways of halting the orgy of violence, Boko Haram will continue “winning” against Nigerians.

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THE NEMESIS CALLED 'SURE'

In January hundred of thousand of Nigerians took part in the biggest protest in history of African’s most populous nation, sparked by a hike in state-subsidized petroleum price, which was headed by Nigerian labor congress (NLC).The aftermath of removal of fuel subsidy gave birth to Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment program(SURE-P).Imitated by Mr president. In the SURE program is based on the calculations that average crude oil price would be $90 USD per barrel. And that the total re-investible fund for the year will be about 1.134 billion. Out of this, the federal government will get 478.49 billion, the states will get about 416 billion, the local governments about 203 billion, the FCT 9.8 billion, and then 31.137 will be left for derivation, ecology stabilization fund.
So the SURE document deal essentially with the federal government’s share of the re-investible funds. Now it was also based on the principle that there would be full deregulation. But with the pump price of petrol being reduced from N141 per litre to N97 per litre it means that the re-investible funds that will be available to the government will be completely reduced. The document contain meaningful items that would bring development to the country, such as job opporturenites, poverty eradication, and provision of social animates to Nigerians. But the road block is that, Nigerian government are very good in making policies and project but in term of implementation they are very poor, from the return of civilian rule in 1999 several project have be iniated  but only few has been executed.
The SURE program was designed by the giant international financial institution such as world bank and IMF, in every advice that these giant institution gave have are certain hiding agenda for economic and political exploitations. In the oil and gas industry, no one can told you the exact amount of crude that is exacted from our soil and how much Nigeria is getting per-day on the sale of oil and it related product, hence the federal government has already make an estimated, indeed a simple mathematics that everyone can do it, which I perceive it as an illusory!
As Nigerian and from opposition, but still have an iota of hope that these program would attain it goals because of the following reason,kolade’s committee that will managed the federal government share of funds saved from partial subsidy removal on fuel was inaugurated by Mr president on 13.feb.2012.And just around the same time, urban mass Transit was flagged off and it got a financial boost of several billion of naira as was reported by an official. Lastly the public works/women and youth empowerment program which not less than 300 000 jobs will generate was presented to the public in Abuja by Mr. President.
Diary would continue to follow and observe in the remaining three years of Mr President in office.

      

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ALMIGHTY JAMB

Joint Admission Matriculation examinations popularly know as (jamb), it has rename to university tertiary matriculation examinations (UTME).Has become a sort of salvation to the entire Nigerian students, it is clearly obvious for any student to be admitted into any higher institution, he has to   sit for UTME, indeed it is an ALMIGHTY exams, because student would over red during the day and night, also pray hard just for them to hit point and be admitted into institution of there choice.

I wrote jamb three times and I knew some one who seated for jamb seven times before he is admitted into university, inflation rate normally effected the price of  jamb scratch card. The constitution of Nigeria documented that Education should be free and compulsory to all citizens, federal Government and other pressure groups are trying there best to promote and improved Education system in Nigeria’s. For instance few days ago. I accompany (shamsu pretentious) to kazaure to register almost 700 student for UTME, which the Jigawa state government through commissioner of Education, purchase the scratch card free to there indigenous student.

At least, it was a welcome development and the excise covered the entire Jigawa state, but the question to ask is that, why some other state did not follow suit? Can university accommodate the entire student? How about post ume exams?. Other state did not follow suit in registering JAMB, NECO,WAEC to there indigenous student freely because  of corruption and egocentric character  of  there leaders, university can not accommodate ,the entire student that seated for jamb and pass the exams because of  lack of welfare and conducive environment for learning. For instance last year BUK admitted some student in dept. of MASS COM. but the HOD rejected the student because of infrastructural  decay in there studio, with regard to the issue of post UME  exams is to select the competent and brilliant once among the student that was be able to secure certain cut of points. University management noted that 40% of student passed UTME is by malpractices; therefore in doing post UTME would aid them to select the best student. Urge all jamb applicants to read and pray hard. ALLAH would make it easy for you……………..best of luck!        

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DIVORCEE:A CRY FOR HELP!

Marriages before the end of the 20th century were bonded with traditional rites and taboos. Marriages, whether solemnized in court, church or mosque are usually binded with legal vows to love, honour and cherish till death do them part, divorce rate was therefore, seemingly negligible.
Unfortunately, most of such rites and vows are apparently becoming unrealistic in this present dispensation of new morality, which places high premium on absolute freedom of a person to do anything he or she desires. This is evidenced in the overwhelming increase in the rate of single parents which is necessitated a deliberate divorce arrangement of couples. The devastating effect of this on the offsprings appears to be grave. Hence Eze-Echesi (2009, P.91) reminded and emphatically warned Nigerians that “the family is a sacred unit and should be respected. It should also be protected and supported, because without the family there will be no life and there would be no world”

The population of women has outnumber that of the men because, the ratio of female given birth a day is 100:50.The number of females that are within maturity age period is one-fourth of Nigerian populations, 30% are in school while 70% are waiting for “MR RIGTH”.The rate of widows and divorcees in Nigeria is above imagery for instance, in Kano a couple of mouth ago, almost four thousand  of them parade on street to government house with plea cards ‘we need husband’ and other related words. The government of Kano state was be able to wedded one thousand among them and provided all necessary material for the wedding.      

TOYE OLORI forwarded his interview with MUFULIATIAT FIJABI,A senior programme officer, BAOBAB

LAGOS, Aug 20 2009 (IPS) - The high rate of divorce in Kano state, northern Nigeria has become a worrisome phenomenon. Six months ago, an organization of widows and divorcees tried to stage a massive march through the city of Kano to draw attention to their situation.

Fijabi: 'Divorce is not favourable to women. Education can help women to assert their rights, but the law has to make provision for it first before they can seek for such rights.' Credit:

Voices of Women, Divorcees and Orphans of Nigeria cancelled the march, under heavy pressure from religious authorities and others in the state. But the difficult conditions faced by divorced women and their children remains an urgent issue in Kano and elsewhere in the Nigeria.

Mufuliat Fijabi, a senior programme officer with BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, an NGO based in Lagos, told IPS that “divorce is just a tool to relegate women to the background”. Baobab has outreach teams working throughout northern Nigeria to educate women about their rights and how to defend them.

Excerpts of Fijabi’s interview follow.

IPS: Kano State is said to have the highest divorce rate in Nigeria: do you have an exact figure? Mufuliat Fijabi: It is high but we do not have any figures presently.

IPS: What is the status of women who get divorced in Kano? Who takes care of their welfare and those of their children? MF: You know the status of a woman who has to go back to her parent’s one-room apartment. Even while living with their husbands, the standard of living is poor for some of them, so when they move into their parent’s house, the situation becomes critical.
IPS: What are the typical reasons for divorce in Kano State? MF: When you talk about divorce, under Muslim law, Kano is known to be one of the states where this is on the increase. It is widespread in the state.

The reasons for divorce are usually not among the reasons permitted… Under Muslim law, we have specified grounds for divorce.

But most of the time what you find is that (divorce) is being used as something to relegate women to the background and at times as a form of punishment against a woman, which is an issue that concerns Baobab as a woman’s right group.

Baobab has an outreach team in Kano and we have been working closely on the issue of divorce with the team and with other women in the state. We know very well that divorce is used sometimes as a punishment for women.

(Sanctioned) reasons for divorce for example could be as a result of the absence of a husband for a long period of time which is translated as abandonment. It could also be as a result of barrenness, it could also be because of lack of maintenance.

It could also be on the grounds that the two parties concerned are no longer interested in the relationship and both agreed to divorce to go their separate ways.

Divorce according to Muslim laws may take place on the grounds that the husband batters the wife which is something that could lead to death if not curtailed on time.

But divorce in Kano, is usually not because of any of these reasons. More commonly heard is, I want to marry another wife and I already have four, so let me drop one and bring in another one.

Flimsy reasons: some husbands say women do not cook well. Some say they want boys and the woman is not giving them boys. But women do not manufacture children; they are gifts from God.

Sometimes it’s that the woman wants to seek for more education and the husband feels that if she goes to school now, she may become something else, and so he divorces her.

Divorce is something that is used as a tool to relegate women to the background, to make women feel less human.

IPS: Can a woman also seek a divorce under Islamic law? MF: Under Muslim law, a woman can also seek for divorce. The woman can ask for ‘redemption’ from her marriage, get her freedom if she feels that the marriage is no longer working for various reasons. It could be on the ground of battery, domestic violence. It could also be on the ground of the sexual state of the husband.

But what we find in Nigeria is that any time a woman attempts to seek for divorce using this method – especially in Kano because the judges that are there are also patriarchal in their thinking – they make the process difficult for a woman to achieve.

IPS: Divorce by means of proclaiming, I divorce you three times. Is this not the normal standard in Islam? MF: To divorce a woman through pronouncing it three times at a go is not found anywhere in Muslim law or contained in the Islamic jurisprudence. It is just that over the years, it has become the tradition. It is out of place.

The Islamic provision is that if you are divorcing a woman, it has to be spread over a three-months period. And the pronouncement must be made during her menstrual period so that she is sure she is not pregnant during the process of the divorce and also to ensure that as they stay together during the process, there might be some kind of reconciliation.

But if a husband pronounces it three times at a go, there will not be any room for reconciliation.

I must also mention that under Islamic understanding, it is stated clearly that divorce is one of the things Allah hates most and does not encourage his adherents to go through that process, but that if it is needed to go through it. They should in order to maintain their sanity.

That is why the pronouncement has to take place over a period of three months. Some couples who adhere to the standard sometimes reconcile after the first or second month.

What is happening especially in Kano is just out of place. It is giving a lot of women who face this challenge a lot of psychological pains and emotional torture.

There is a campaign from women’s rights groups now to really talk about this issue, to raise awareness, even trying to get the men to understand that divorce is something that should be stopped.

IPS: Can better education change the status of women such that they can also ask for their rights in a divorce, for example asking the husband to pay alimony because of the things they have worked to acquire together? MF: I think that when women get information and they are educated, it will enhance their economic status, such that if the men decide to divorce them three times at a go, they can assert their rights and they can establish themselves.

But in terms of educating the men to make them become more responsible, this needs sensitization and awareness campaign on the part of social workers, NGOs and Islamic scholars.

Divorce is not favorable to women. I find it absurd and I think the government should do something about it. Education can help women to assert their rights, but the law has to make provision for it first before they can seek for such rights.

At the moment there is no provision for compensation for a woman that is divorced. There is nothing in the provision of the Islamic law that a divorced woman should be paid certain amount for being in a relationship for a number of years.

But in wider Islamic jurisprudence, some scholars have identified the need for a due for women who left a relationship as a result of divorce. These include good accommodation and some amount paid to them for their labors in the relationship over the years.

In Nigeria at the moment, there is no such provision. With advocacy, we hope we will get to a point whereby there will be a law in place for their protection.

IPS: Is Baobab doing anything to help divorced women? MF: Baobab has an outreach team in Kano. We also have outreach teams in other states. We have 14 outreach teams most of them in the north. What we do is raise awareness of women and their rights.

They are now aware that nobody can tell them not to go to school. They know that it is important to be economically empowered. These are some of the things that we talk about in the awareness campaigns.

What are you doing to help your society?

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UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE LABOUR MARKET

Am back from Exams short break, although am not done with my Exams, remain only one paper that the prolong it to 20^th of these mouth. Use these medium to thanks all friends that sent well wish message via some among the social networks (2go, twitter and face book).Is of necessity to write on the above tittle, unemployment is just any resource that is not fully utilized but in these piece am referring to human resource precisely ‘THE YOUTH’. Man most work in other to survive and he has noting but his labour power, which here by submits his power to the market, in search of his daily bread.

Nigeria has almost 163 million population according to population census(2004).70% of the population are below the age of 40 years, therefore apart from oil and other natural resources Nigeria has youthful and productive population. The disturbing trend in youth transformation in Nigeria is unemployment. According to the Federal Ministry of youth Development in an Administrative record shown that Nigeria generate about 4.5 million new entrant into the labour market annually and the labour market is often able to absorb only 10% and therefore living about 4 million people who are either unemployed or underemployed. This lead to many social vices and crisis across the federation which include armed robbery, political thuggery, and other act of terrorisms.

It is obvious that youth unemployment crisis has substantially contributed to the nation high poverty incidence currently estimated that about 54.4% large number of the population living in abject poverty, because of growing divergence between economic growth(GDP),poor quality  of education,traning and skill development.Meanwhile,Mr president  as part his transformation Agenda, vow to provide employment to the youth. Also during the campaign of fuel subsidy removal, the ministers of finance miss Ngozi Iweala emphasis that, if subsidy is removed, thousands of job oppoturenities would be created for Nigerians.

For instance, it is unfair for student to spent four-seven years in any institution of learning to graduate and yet no JOB!.Since,they have removed the subsidy, let us drawn back and watch the movie of subsidy re-investment and empowerments  Programme(SURE-P) produce and directed by international monitory funds(IMF)         

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