The Learner

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 Some troubled parents in Kano, a few weeks ago, complained that their sons were sexually defiled by some unknown perverts at their boarding school, the famous Hassan Ibrahim Gwarzo College, Kano. The case soon became a sensation, for, among other reasons, that was least expected from a school known for its regimentation and Islamic teaching to its separated male and female students. The state government promptly ordered the closure of the (male) section and set up a committee to look into what exactly happened. Following an unsettling delay, the report was, last week, finally released. The delay was allegedly caused by some big shots in the state who did not want it released. No doubt what happened in the College is appalling and deserves the government's drastic action to unearth and punish whosoever is found wanting and guilty. The government was generally hailed for the way and manner it handled the case, though bef...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 “Rome is not built in a day” has become the cliché President Muhammadu Buhari’s (Buharists, as they are called) staunch supporters would tell you the moment you open mouth to criticise his ‘saintly’ presidency. Who said it was? With due respect, many of us, having grown up in uncritical, dogmatic societies and cultures, fail to differentiate criticism from condemnation and nitpicking. No, they are not the same. Dogmatism has place only in religion, and there too is only to an extent. Islam, for instance, cites several signs (such as the weather, topography, miracles, etc.) as proofs for its genuineness and as a revealed religion by God, among other things. That is to de-emphasise over-reliance on dogma, hearsay and fairytale-like stories embedded in many other religions. Thus, religion is spared from all sorts of criticism. For governance and politics, nothing and nobody is immune from any sort of criticism, constructive or otherwise. There are, in...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 Introduction It’s usually in the evening when CTV or NTA, Kano would show a TV series and serials of Hadarin Qasa, Zaman Duniya , Hana Wani Hana Kai and others in the early and the middle 1990s. Watching those dramas was usually a family affair—parents, their kids and often the children from the neighbourhoods would sit together and enthusiastically watch them. No one feels embarrassed for anything that would be shown, said, symbolized or implied in those dramas. It was, literally speaking, just fine for people of all ages and all classes. But that is no longer the case. We today have dramas whose actors are often only Hausa in language but not in character and dress. They are starkly unlike what we used to see those days. This is more so in the Hausa feature films, hence the context for this article. For the dramas, not everyone has the cable satellites and dish antennas that broadcast them on channels like Arewa24, Farin Wat...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 First, I use the word "ideology" in its broader sense to include 'non-ideological' thoughts like agnosticism and atheism. These two are equally eerily on the rise amidst our people. It's chilling, to say the least, reading a typical Hausa man denying the existence of, and cursing, Allah and His beloved Prophet. The case of one Mubarak Bala  has recently made headlines. There are several others who have just yet to ‘come out of the closet’, or have not got the guts he gets to declare their new found ‘religion’ to the public. This is largely, as I think, the failing of our Islamic scholars for not widening the scope of their preaching to the contemporary, and very troubling issues such as atheism. They concentrate their efforts to Sunnah vs. Shi’an; or Sunnah vs. Dariqah (Sufism), or the like. Agnosticism and atheism pose a rather an existentialist threat to all religions, not just Islam. The wars in Syria and Iraq, and ...

By Abubakar Atiku Alkali pullozagga@yahoo.com It’s in the news that the IMF is pressurising Nigeria to further devalue its currency. It’s equally in the news that former CBN governor and HRH the Emir of Kano has advised the FGN to withdraw petroleum subsidy, devalue the Naira and raise VAT! With due reverence to the Emir, I personally find these pills unbearably bitter to swallow. I defer to the fact that he’s unquestionably sagacious in matters of finance and economics – I know nothing about either – thus, my arguments may be impressionistic, but I’m sure I know more than the Emir does, how agonisingly painful it would be for the ordinary Nigerian when such policies are implemented. Therefore, even if no one will ever read this, my conscience would have been satisfied that as a Nigerian – one of the potential bearers of the burden of these unfriendly policies, I have cried out. Concerning fuel subsidy removal, I still recall what the Emir said at a debate on this very topic ...

By Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 A fact known to some of my readers is that: praise-singing of individuals, especially politicians of whatever party, is not what I do. Yes, it is still the same. Today’s article is no different; for, I actually see nothing that extraordinarily admirable with the person of Rotimi Amaechi. He’s much like, below or a little above, his mates such as Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Malam Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano; to PDP) Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto), Kashim Shettima (Borno; from ANPP) and other PDP renegades. To me, and I don’t stand to be corrected, they all deserted their former party after a meticulous foresight that, among other things, they would not get what they wanted in the party, and that could cost them very dearly to the extent of losing relevance in the nation’s polity. Thus, to avoid anything of the sort, they renounced their loyalties and found a niche in APC. Today, many people (supporters) think high of Amaechi as well as others. The re...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Lives were lost; people were wounded; minds were, and are, troubled; all as a result of the just concluded Hajj pilgrimage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Nobody could undo what's already done. Nothing could be done. Those victims need prayers and their loved ones require our compassion. No more, no less. Nonetheless, a fierce argument has been raging on since then. It began like a drama, instigated mainly by the Shi'ite-Iran, blaming the Sunni-Saudis for EVERYTHING. The argument has come to our doors now. Adamu Adamu is doubtlessly an intellectual, a writer par excellence. Dr. Sani is incontrovertibly equally an intellectual and a scholar worth every salt. They differ on this issue. The former, an unapologetic Shi'ite; the latter, a renowned Sunni scholar.