Trace

It is time to pause and allow readers to air their views on the many issues featured in this Column. This week and next, I will share some of my readers’ views to give broader perspectives on the issues discussed in this Column. One of the critical issues was that of Borno State Governor Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum. He is …

Precarious Food Security in Nigeria: Can President Tinubu Change the Narrative? II My last week’s piece closed with a poser: Are the two Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Senators Kyari and Abdullahi, capable of breaking the jinx of poverty and hunger associated with Nigerians? Answering this question requires an in-depth analysis of Tinubu’s policy and direction toward achieving food …

  As I am writing this piece today, Tuesday, December 12th, 2023, the Nigerian population is 226,179,203. This population estimate is based on Worldometer’s latest United Nations data elaboration. In the last fifty years, the Nigerian population has escalated at a geometric proportion. The population growth rate in Nigeria is “one birth in every four seconds and one death in …

Agriculturally, Kano has been a lucky state. Four decades ago, a non-nonsense and visionary Governor, Police commissioner Audu Bako of blessed memory, built a multi-million Naira Tiga dam with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters of water through direct labor. Then, it was the biggest dam in Nigeria. The dam was built to irrigate 64,000 hectares of land and …

Something amusing played out as entertainment, but under harsh economic conditions in Nigeria, it was a comic relief while the event lasted. Two diametrically opposed political camps led by two prominent Nigerians from the same state sat side by side, seeing eye to eye to share their thoughts and experiences but representing different generations and perspectives. I expected a Tsunami …

Even Zulum’s staunchest enemies cannot but agree with the facts that Borno state and, indeed, other states in Nigeria have never experienced remarkable, comprehensive, and significant progress in all aspects of human life and infrastructure similar to the feats recorded in five years of governor Babagana Umara Zulum in Borno State. The recording continues for the next three years. As …

Zulum: Engineering Professor, Dexterous and the Courage of Conviction. At the 2013 Annual Conference of Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, an amiable personality with a giant physique and business-like character approached me at the registration center to register some agricultural engineering graduates into the NIAE membership fold. It turned out that, a mentor …

Re: Israel-Palestine Conflict: Two-State Solution or Unending War. By Prof MK Othman As a peace-loving man, I hate to see blood spilling, no matter whose blood. In the last two weeks, I have had to close my sensitive organs against the news of Israel’s war on Gaza to avoid developing high blood pressure. The World is watching a calamitous pogrom against the …

  The economy is the second sector receiving priority attention, which interrelates and intertwines with security. Economic activities are primarily agricultural in rural communities, which revolve around the crops-livestock interface as a significant source of livelihood for the people. The rural economy provides food, feed, fodder, and industrial raw materials that give an income stream to the citizens. Consequently, the …

Aspiring to a leadership position is one thing, being at the top is another; they are simply two different scenarios. In the aspiration stage, dreams and fantasies permeate the thought process and produce both workable and seemingly unworkable ideas, making decisions and reasons for action quite difficult. Once one reaches the leadership position, reality brings stresses, challenges, painful choices, and …