The Learner

  By Muhsin Ibrahim The uproar over Sultan Abdurrazak’s Film House in Dorayi is astonishing, though, on reflection, perhaps not entirely surprising. There are several film houses in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Gombe, and elsewhere. The films we watch and discuss, and sometimes quietly enjoy, are shot in those very houses. Why is this one different? Why is this one being rejected? This is not, after all, the first time such a proposal has met with hostility. When the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari proposed building a dedicated Film Village to serve as a production hub for the Nigerian film industry, the reaction in many Northern circles was swift and dismissive. Critics saw it as a government-sponsored gateway to moral corruption, a physical infrastructure for an industry they would rather see disappear. The Film Village never materialised, at least not in the form envisioned, and the opposition it generated revealed something important: many people’s problem is not w...

By Muhsin Ibrahim Inna lillaahi wa innaa ilaihi raaji’un! There is a particular cruelty in the timing of some deaths, a cruelty that refuses to be explained away. Muslim Abdurrazak Ibrahim, 31, died on a Friday. Every Friday without fail, he would send a Jumu’at Mubarak message, a small ritual of love and faith that connected him to family and friends across the distance between a soldier’s post and the world back home. On this Friday, he sent nothing. He could not. He had already gone. Muslim was the firstborn son of Abdurrazak, who named him after his uncle — a tribute to my older brother, Muslim. Abdurrazak, a retired soldier, had fought in battles inside and outside Nigeria and had returned home carrying the weight of friends lost in the trenches of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and beyond. His children, Muslim and his brother Bilal, would both join the Nigerian Army. The week of his death was, without either of us knowing it, a week of farewells. On Wednesday, my busiest day, Muslim aske...

The Scholar Who Shaped My Journey: A Tribute to Abdalla Uba Adamu By Muhsin Ibrahim Growing up surrounded by books at home, I aspired to be a writer. In 1999, as an adjunct teacher at a local Islamic school, I received my first-ever salary, which I spent on books. Many experienced writers advise that you must be a reader to become a writer. So, I read as much as I could, especially back then, to realise my dream. At some point in 2005, Freedom Radio, Kano, invited Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu for an interview. As a versatile academic, he spoke at length on various topics, including their Yahoo! group and the KanoOnline forum. I became very interested in both. That was the year I finished secondary school, and I was eager to improve my English to pursue my writing dreams while also preparing for higher education. I wanted to contact Prof. Abdalla via email, which I noted when he mentioned it on the radio programme, but I was unsure whether he would reply. When I finally gathered the courage...

Dear Donald Trump, we are not apes By Muhsin Ibrahim We could not sleep one night in 2008. Instead, we sat in front of the TV, watching and praying for ‘our’ favourite candidate to coast to power and be declared the winner of the election. We wanted to witness history, not of any relative winning any election in Nigeria, but of Barack Obama winning the United States presidential election. Of course, we witnessed the history of the first non-white man becoming the president of the most powerful country in the world. We were delighted. We thought that, henceforth, black people would be more respected globally. Henceforth, our race would not be associated with backwardness. Henceforth, we would have more opportunities not only in the US but far beyond. We also thought President Obama would do more for Africa (where his father came from) and for Muslims (his father’s ‘relatives’), especially in the Middle East. Again, his association with towering academics, such as Edward Said and Rashid ...

Voters go to the polls in Uganda today. Their sitting president, Yoweri Museveni, 81, has been in power since 1986 and is now contesting a seventh term. According to one report, “Nobody doubts that he will be declared the winner, no matter how Ugandans vote.” The situation is hardly unique in Africa. Paul Biya, 93, his Cameroonian counterpart, has held power since 1982 and won re-election last year. Even Biya is surpassed by a single person as the longest-serving leader on the continent and in the world: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 84, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979. Yoweri Museveni Despite Nigeria’s many shortcomings as a democracy, I respect our elected executives for one crucial reason: they have largely honoured constitutional term limits. Only Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to extend his tenure beyond the constitutionally permitted two terms. He failed. The rest did not even try. They all vacated their offices when their terms ended.

A Quick Take on “Christian Persecution” in Nigeria By Muhsin Ibrahim The claim of Christian persecution in Nigeria reduces the insecurity issues we experience to a very simplistic narrative. I am glad and pleased that prominent Christian individuals, institutions, and associations have outright rejected the claim. Folks like Omoyele Sowore put aside their opposition to the Tinubu government and spoke the truth. Boko Haram’s bullets do not differentiate between Muslims and Christians. In fact, they, like their terrorist counterparts elsewhere, have killed more Muslims than non-Muslims. Their attack on the Kano Central Mosque remains one of the deadliest. The victims of banditry in Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, etc., are almost entirely Muslims! These beasts have attacked countless communities and mosques, often while people are praying. To my knowledge, no one has ever framed this as a religious persecution. The incessant clashes between farmers and herders in parts of the so-called Middle B...