The Learner

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 The elections were over. The winners (and losers, too) are known, and Nigerians await their inaugurations on May 29 th . However, the repercussions of the elections are far from over. Igbos, whose undaunted, though paranoid, doubt of Hausa-Fulani leadership forbade them to vote for Gen. Buhari, are still being brazenly abused, esp. on cyberspace. And they respond most crudely by calling their attackers with unprintable names. This is but one case out of many that are raping Nigeria along ethnic lines. It’s sadder that the indigene-settler dichotomy still exists even within our constitution; mobility freedom of citizens is seldom crippled by arrests of northerners in the south; and the so-called quarter system truncates chances of getting a job. I don’t forget the far more horrible, countless ethno-religious crises in many cities and villages like Jos, Zankuwa, etc, that claimed the lives of thousands. It tears me up inside. I am often left...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 I read and heard that no fewer than 100 souls were lost and dozens of others injured in celebrations over General Buhari’s victory in the 28 th March Nigerian presidential election. How sad and unfortunate! While telling my wife that people were euphoric to that extent, she inadvertently said to me that when we returned to Nigeria in the middle of the year, there would be no more electricity outages, no more Boko Haram terror attacks, and no more unpleasantness. That unrealistic wish left me transfixed, for I have heard and read many others expressing the same or similar expectations, as, to them, the ‘Messiah’ has attained power. So much has been written about the election and the manner in which President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat. I have, however, yet to see any piece on that hankering of the 15 million plus electorates, most of whom are masses, who voted for Buhari. People yearn for Change—the slogan of his party, APC—in the...