The Learner

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 A lot happened last week. Least of all, my one-terabyte external hard disk fell down and was crushed; Ugh! From Nigeria, two major interviews by President Jonathan and his number one contender, Gen. Buhari, and the fierce fight between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military in Gombe state got the media’s attention. That’s how the media works: to report what’s happening and should do that irrespective of who is the victor or the vanquished. This is just an example; Nigerian media is far below the standards of professionalism, objectivity, or any desired standard. All too often, Muslims are associated with terrorism. This is not news, not any longer since the 9/11 attacks. Before the attacks, many Muslim countries were in relative peace: Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya. Now the story is markedly a contrasting, a la scaring one. Daily, hundreds of Muslims are killed in those countries and others like Nigeria, Somalia, Myanmar, etc. And the ...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 The much-awaited Valentine Day election, fondly called FeBuhari 14th by supporters of APC presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), was finally postponed yesterday, although many observers had long predicted it. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) has been feared by many to be, directly or indirectly, behind the dreaded Boko Haram (BH) insurgency. This undoubtedly sounds implausible, but no one can refute the allegation hands down. Can you? What’s your verified fact? There’s none. The (In)dependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was apparently forced to postpone the elections to March 28 and April 11. Two main reasons could be deduced, and both are for pure, however mischievous, political gains by the ruining, nay, ruling party, PDP. First, taking the above hunch that President Jonathan has a hand in the spread of the insurgency, this postponement is a clear vindication that he wants to elongate his tenure for onl...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Stories of Africa being taken for a country, or Nigeria for a city in an unknown country, perhaps ‘Africa’, are no longer newsworthy. More than many ‘intellectuals’, politicians, organisations, individuals, etc., from around the world have, on several occasions, made such faux pas or similar remarks that point towards that. Notables and well-known, at least within the circle of my readers, of such include Sarah Palin’s interview , Chimamanda’s chilling speech, The Danger of a Single Story and Farooq Kperogi’s piece, ‘Is Nigeria the name of a City?’ , among others. It has, nonetheless, gone far beyond that as I have recently discovered. I attended the 17 th International Theatre Festival of India, called Bharat Rang Mahotsav,  for a few days. The festival is still ongoing at the renowned [Indian] National School of Drama, Delhi . The school is undoubtedly the best in the whole of Asia . The festival will be rounded off on the 18 th ...