Muhammad Hassan Sale: The Demise of an Academic—One Death Too Many By Prof. M. K. Othman On Tuesday, 10th February, 2026, as I stepped out of my official car at the university clinic, the crowd’s solemn eyes were fixed on me, rife with unspoken questions. Why did the cold hand of death snatch away Muhammad…
Nigeria, Greatness and the Missing Link II By Prof. M. K. Othman The picture of Nigeria and its potential to be a great nation was presented in this column last week. It is heartwarming and inspiring to recognize Nigeria’s enormous natural and human resources, but also disheartening to know that these resources are lying idle,…
Nigeria, Greatness and the Missing Link By Prof. M. K. Othman In February 2026, Nigeria is 66 years and five months old as an independent nation, free from colonialism, and 113 years old as a nation called Nigeria. The 1914 amalgamation of the British colonies and the northern and southern protectorate into a single country,…
Re: Kano Family Killing – Nigerian Youths and Collective Responsibilities By Prof. MK Othman From youthful exuberance to delinquency and then to full-blown violent crimes, the youths are restive, and we are losing control of the situation, creating a bleak future for the nation. From Bama to Badagary, the story of youth involvement in illicit…
Kano Family Killing: Nigerian Youths and Collective Responsibilities By Prof. MK Othman Over the past six years, I have written extensively about Nigerian youth and their future, including articles highlighting the risks of neglecting our youth. Despite repeated warnings, the situation continues to decline. At the heart of this crisis is the undeniable fact: the…
Yayale’s Tribute: The Long and Thorny Road to University Stability By Prof MK Othman In my November 2024 article, I posed the question of whether Alhaji Yayale’s name would be written in gold for accepting two of the most unenviable assignments in Nigeria’s public policy space—leading the government delegation to resolve the over-decade-long FGN-ASUU crisis…
Re: Whither the Nigerian University System? III By Prof MK Othman Given the dispute resolution brokered by the indefatigable Yayale Ahmed committee, with the strong support and determination of the President Tinubu administration to end perennial university workers’ industrial action, 2026 is the year of dream-realization for university workers in Nigeria. Earlier, the National Education…
SAA-IsDB-KSADP Agricultural Model: Scalable Pathway to Food Security? By Prof MK Othman A most heartwarming experience is commencing a well-planned project and concluding it most imaginatively, with a scoreboard showing that the target was exceeded in multiple ways. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I witnessed the launch of the Sasakawa Africa Association- Islamic Development…
hither the Nigerian University System? III By Prof MK Othman As I was concluding this article last week, news broke of a significant milestone in the ASUU-FGN impasse: FGN and ASUU had signed a comprehensive agreement signaling the end of the 8-year ASUU industrial action. It was an impasse that cost billions of Naira in…
Whither the Nigerian University System? II By Prof MK Othman As mentioned in the first part of this piece, government officials and others questioning the university’s autonomy are either ignorant of the law or being mischievous. The university must be an autonomous system to fulfill its fundamental role in nation-building and to preserve the integrity…
