EMERGENCY MINUS AMNESTY EQUALS CHAOS!
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- Category: saturday column
- Written by Bala Muhammad
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Four years ago this month, in May 2009 to be precise, the Government of Sri Lanka declared what in effect was a state of emergency by ordering its military to launch a ‘final onslaught’ on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north eastern Jaffna Peninsula. The onslaught was worth its name as, according to one of its executing commanders Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara: “It was close combat — fighting from house to house, street to street in an area full of underground bunkers that had been built up over the course of 20 or so years…We are just clearing the area and our main concern is how to rescue the civilians inside the safety zone.”
Category: saturday column Written by Bala Muhammad
Four years ago this month, in May 2009 to be precise, the Government of Sri Lanka declared what in effect was a state of emergency by ordering its military to launch a ‘final onslaught’ on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north eastern Jaffna Peninsula. The onslaught was worth its name as, according to one of its executing commanders Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara: “It was close combat — fighting from house to house, street to street in an area full of underground bunkers that had been built up over the course of 20 or so years…We are just clearing the area and our main concern is how to rescue the civilians inside the safety zone.”
This week, your correspondent is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Public Relations Association (APRA) Annual Summit. Themed “Rising Africa: The Imperative of Communication,” the Conference has attracted delegates from about 20 African countries. The African Public Relations Association was founded in 1975 to promote the practice of public relations across Africa and to sell a positive image of Africa to the world through the profession.
Category: saturday column Written by Bala Muhammad
This week, your correspondent is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Public Relations Association (APRA) Annual Summit. Themed “Rising Africa: The Imperative of Communication,” the Conference has attracted delegates from about 20 African countries. The African Public Relations Association was founded in 1975 to promote the practice of public relations across Africa and to sell a positive image of Africa to the world through the profession.
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Concurrent with the Muslim World League Peace Conference in Sokoto the other week, another important Islamic event was taking place a couple of hours to the east – the 27th National Qur’anic Recitation Competition in Gusau, Zamfara State. This annual event is organised by the Centre for Islamic Studies of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. A journalist colleague, Sokoto-based Yusuf Dingyadi, was in Gusau for the many of us who could not physically be there. He contributed this piece:
Category: saturday column Written by Bala Muhammad
Concurrent with the Muslim World League Peace Conference in Sokoto the other week, another important Islamic event was taking place a couple of hours to the east – the 27th National Qur’anic Recitation Competition in Gusau, Zamfara State. This annual event is organised by the Centre for Islamic Studies of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. A journalist colleague, Sokoto-based Yusuf Dingyadi, was in Gusau for the many of us who could not physically be there. He contributed this piece:
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When late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua declared amnesty for the Niger Delta militants a few years ago, a section of the leadership of the weapons-bearing insurgents out-rightly rejected the offer. When, at last, a majority of them accepted to trust Mallam Umaru, they were reported to have demanded a private audience with the then gentleman president. Their request was granted. But when the militant leaders arrived State House for the meeting, some top government officials (including the president’s closest aides), insisted they wanted to be in on the audience. The militants were said to have said NO; they wanted to see Mallam Umaru alone. The president, it was said, ordered everyone out. Everyone.
Category: saturday column Written by Bala Muhammad
When late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua declared amnesty for the Niger Delta militants a few years ago, a section of the leadership of the weapons-bearing insurgents out-rightly rejected the offer. When, at last, a majority of them accepted to trust Mallam Umaru, they were reported to have demanded a private audience with the then gentleman president. Their request was granted. But when the militant leaders arrived State House for the meeting, some top government officials (including the president’s closest aides), insisted they wanted to be in on the audience. The militants were said to have said NO; they wanted to see Mallam Umaru alone. The president, it was said, ordered everyone out. Everyone.
PEACE! – THE MESSAGE FROM SOKOTO
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- Category: saturday column
- Written by Bala Muhammad
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Last weekend in Sokoto, Seat of the Caliphate, the Muslim World League, MWL (Rabita al Alam al Islamiy) based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, held its first African conference in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government. Themed ”International Conference on Islam and the Fundamentals of Peaceful Co-Existence in Nigeria”, the meeting attracted the cream of Northern Nigerian Muslim and Christian political leaders, academics, clerics and social commentators.
Category: saturday column Written by Bala Muhammad
Last weekend in Sokoto, Seat of the Caliphate, the Muslim World League, MWL (Rabita al Alam al Islamiy) based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, held its first African conference in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government. Themed ”International Conference on Islam and the Fundamentals of Peaceful Co-Existence in Nigeria”, the meeting attracted the cream of Northern Nigerian Muslim and Christian political leaders, academics, clerics and social commentators.