Opinion

And Trump’s cookie will continue to crumble, by Hassan Gimba

Published

4 months ago

June 7, 2024

And Trump’s cookie will continue to crumble, by Hassan Gimba

This write-up is not new. It was first published on January 18, 2021. Considering his recent court case, I find it relevant to republish it today.

Those familiar with novels, especially before the advent of the internet, can remember a famous novel recalled in my headline. The book, The Way The Cookie Crumbles, first published in 1965, is one of the ninety or so thrillers written by Rene Lodge Brabazon Raymond, better known as James Hadley Chase.

Ordinarily, a cookie represents many things, ranging from the inanimate to the animate, but The Way The Cookie Crumbles in Chase’s novel means “how things worked or panned out.” It is a plot in the author’s imaginary millionaire’s playground called Paradise City. A sinister criminal called Ticky Edris was planning the “perfect heist.” It had taken him years to plan a bank robbery in broad daylight with only two accomplices: a smooth conman and a streetsmart, beautiful blonde.

As Ticky’s plan gets put into action, luck is on his side, but as people start dying and disappearing, Detective Tom Lepski picks up the trail. Suddenly, Ticky’s plan is in danger, and if there is one thing he didn’t count on, it is the personalities of the very people who are most vital to his plan. At the end of it, his planning came to nought, and the cookie crumbled.

The moral of the story is that good triumphs over evil in the end. No matter how far the hurricane of falsehood carries the people, the rain of truth will ultimately halt the hurricane’s borrowed time.

But then this is the nature of the world from the beginning of creation. The God who never sleeps makes it so. In the Holy Qur’an 5:100, believers were told, “Not equal are evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you.” No matter how impressive or intimidating the toga of wrong looks, ultimately, like the cookie, it will crumble.

In this, there is a lesson for humanity—both leaders and the led—to ponder. The led must think good, live nobly, and see each other as brothers and sisters from different parents. He must wish no one bad, and he should be his brother’s keeper. The leader must lead based on justice, equity, and fairness. A leader of a people is like a father in a household. Just as a father should not be unjust to his children, a leader must shun unfairness toward those he leads.

It is bad leadership for a leader to treat particular people better than another or love another more than the other and show it clearly. It is wrong leadership for a leader to exult over the pains of the led or treat those in his class as humans and take others for granted. It is the leader’s responsibility to give his people a sense of belonging. How he leads can encourage followers to live his dreams: if noble, a nation is built, and if evil, a country is destroyed.

The founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, spoke of this. In his book, Bayan Wujubul-Hijrah alal Mukallafi, he wrote: “A kingdom (nation) can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.” Frederick Douglass, an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, also spoke in a similar vein. He said: “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Any leader who governs tangentially to the above truism has no escape route but to come a cropper. The Holy Bible in Revelation 12.9 says, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Donald Trump’s fall from grace is a lesson for not only leaders but humanity in general. Unwarranted hate based on religion or skin colour will not be left unpunished by the Creator of the man of colour.

However, some people may not know that Trump’s ascendancy is traceable to the 1850s split of the Whig Party (precursor of the Republican Party). It had a progressive side that elected Abraham Lincoln four years after that split, trouncing a regressive pro-slavery side. The beaten side seemed to have resurfaced with his Phoenix-like rise with his band of ‘rednecks’ to the presidency.

Therefore, it is not surprising he appeals to the slave masters’ sentiments—those who think they are the best of creation and have to take their country back from non-whites who, to them, are no more than slaves. Supremacists are shallow in thinking. That is why Trump and his mob forget that America is the land of the Red Indians, which their fugitive grandparents plundered from them by the bullet. No wonder some of the Capitol invaders dressed like Vikings that pillaged the coasts of Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries. No wonder the police department described the attack as ‘medieval.’

Blacks are scum, and Africa is a s**t hole in his supremacist ego. South Americans are criminals, and a wall is needed to stop them from entering America. Highly resourceful Asians are predators to be pauperised, and he must make fiercely independent Iranians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and North Koreans bend. Because of his hatred for the black race, he got consumed with destroying his more successful predecessor, Barack Obama. Were it in his hands, he would have obliterated Obama, the black man, from the face of the earth, and his legacies and memory wiped from the minds of mortals.

It was this unbridled hatred that made him issue the battle cry to like-minded Americans to “fight like hell,” warning them that if they did not, “you are not gonna have a country anymore.” The problem with any form of tribalism is that when the proponents are allowed to be themselves, they turn on themselves.

But tribalism is frowned upon by the Creator of tribes. Unlike even religion, which takes one to Elysium or the netherworld, no one can choose or change his tribe. You are what God wants you to be, so why fight over what was not even your choice but done by the Most Wise for a purpose? In chapter 49, verse 13 of the Holy Qur’an, God, in His Majesty, said, “O mankind! Lo! We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the best in conduct; surely Allah is knowing, aware.”

When a person decides to be opinionated and go against the grain, that person starts fighting the Creator of man and tribes. While it is left for people to remain intransigent and continue telling God they know better or turn a new leaf based on love for all humanity, Trump’s ending is a lesson for all to learn that God does not tolerate rivalry. Our God is “a jealous God”. He rubbishes His rivals so much that they wish He had not created them to start with.

Today, Trump, in an attempt to play god—he is always the best and most perfect in everything—has become a pariah in a world that was his oyster yesterday. Nations, world leaders, cities—at least New York City—banks, social media platforms, corporate bodies, and responsible people have all turned their backs on him. He has set records, albeit ignoble ones, and broken some others so that mothers in the future would caution their sons not to behave like him to avoid ending up like him.

Apart from becoming the first American President to be impeached twice—a new all-time low record—he is among 12 American presidents who could not get more than a term. He is also among six others who contested for a second term but couldn’t win it. He is again one of five in the history of America’s 58 presidential elections to have lost the popular vote but became president through the backdoor offered by the Electoral College. He is also among the only three who lost popular and electoral votes twice. You see, if democracy were a game of numbers, our man was just a pretender because he never won an election.

Yet this kind of man has an immense following. But so were Hitler and Mussolini. He has taken hold of his party by the jugular, and sadly, it has lost in places it has been winning for years. While the veil is lifting from his supporters’ eyes in America, with some crying for pardon or committing suicide, his Nigerian supporters are further digging in. As if afflicted with a slave mentality, they will choose Trump over their fellow African, Obama. They will hail the racist, who didn’t want a Nigerian to head the WTO, over Joe Biden, who has so far appointed three—and counting—of their countrymen into his administration.

They mimic Trump even in speech and writing. Coming from a background that always sees village people, witches, and wizards as those hindering their prosperity, they claim Trump is a saint fighting the Illuminati! They shuffle around Ajegunle or Surulere, Aba or Kano, everywhere they are, in bathroom slippers, wearing three-quarter-length trousers, hustling to survive to the next day. Yet you hear them calling Joe Biden “sleepy Joe” in mimicry of their Illuminati fighting deity. They can insult their parents over the gadfly. Those trying to stop him from bumbling are hated by them. If they could have their way, Nancy Pelosi would not be breathing today.

Between November last year and the first week of January this year, they were all over the social media space. They were the ones shouting, “We have won Pennsylvania; the Supreme Court will declare us; wait and see.” Or that they had burned the midnight incense for victory, behaving as if they could command God. Their self-delusion makes me recall Musa, a Manchester United supporter in Damaturu. He will look at me in the face and say, “We will buy Ronaldo” or “We will win the League Cup.” We!

Trumpism will remain in America because of the supremacists who see “others” taking over “our America.” But the Republican Party will regenerate and, in doing so, do away with its Retrumplicans if it hopes to survive. As for the Nigerian Trumpideens, they will soon find another renegade to latch on to.

By and large, Trump’s stormy life is a book written by God for people, especially leaders, to take heed and learn lessons. No matter how long it takes, no matter the applause, just as life on earth is temporary, so are the trappings of office.

God, the Ever Wise and Ever Strong, can bless any man He feels like with all blessings and place him among the stars, high above all others, to show that only He can. After all, Trump did not win the election in the strict sense of the word the first time, but God gave it to him, and his opponents accepted His will, saying, “May thy will be done, oh God!” God does everything for a purpose. If the man acknowledges the Lord’s favours and does good, he does good for himself. If he does bad, he does it to himself too.”

But the Creator of man always yanks the rug of blessings from under the feet of the narcissist leader who loves people or hates them based on tongue and, as a result, causes division among them. His curse will visit them either in power or out of it. And like the cookie, they will crumble in humiliation. And the people will witness it until another comes on stage. It is cyclical—the history of the world.

Hassan Gimba is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.

Opinion

The Log in Your Eye, by Hassan Gimba

Published

5 days ago

October 13, 2024

august24admin

The Log in Your Eye, by Hassan Gimba

There is a phrase that has gained widespread currency across the world: “Physician, heal thyself.”

Not many know it is a biblical proverb and a direct quote from Jesus (AS). He said, “You will surely say to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself’: do here in your country what we have heard was done in Capernaum.”

This phrase is similar to another quote from Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.”

Unfortunately, instead of adhering to these timeless exhortations by Jesus (AS), those who are supposedly his acclaimed adherents feel they are too important to heed such urgings and the laws of their lands because they are The Chosen, God’s Favourites!

They consider themselves “different”—people with specially created souls—while viewing the rest of us as “goyim”; people without souls, fabricated to serve them. While they make the law and its custodians bow and tremble before them, we are held spellbound in front of those custodians who trade justice to the powerful and the highest bidder while trampling over us, hewers of wood and drawers of water, the wretched of the earth.

This is why some individuals, who can at best be described as “accidental” leaders, forget that they are where they are courtesy of God, who grants such positions to whom He wishes—not because they are any better than the next person.

With their heads in the clouds, their brains supplanted with those of donkeys, and therefore insensate to citizens’ sufferings, some of these leaders keep braying their right to ride roughshod over the laws but cry foul when they find themselves on the receiving end.

About two weeks ago, I had cause to call out a governor – who, but for Atiku Abubakar, would have been defeated by a political Amazonian – for accusing some people in the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) of “bastardising” democracy. In contrast, he is shamelessly in cahoots with those blinded by the love of filthy lucre and inordinate ambition to destroy the party that made them what they are.

As if that drama was not enough, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) last week regaled us with tales that the Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara was not obeying court orders and, therefore, peace would continue to elude the state.

He declared: “I was a governor; I have always obeyed the rule of law. You heard the governor say that our state is turning into a state of anarchy where people do not obey the rule of law.

“You must obey the judgement of the court. You must not take the law into your hands. The moment you don’t obey court judgement, you are inviting anarchy; you are inviting violence,” Wike said on national television. But has Wike always obeyed the lawful orders of the court—especially in a country where living above the law is the true mark of a big man?

For the record, Wike was one of the best governors at obeying court orders in the breach, and now, as minister, he is behaving true to type.

In 2018, Governor Wike disobeyed the court’s judgement to pay teachers their salaries immediately. In February 2016, he stopped the salaries of almost 300 primary and secondary school teachers working in the demonstration schools of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, and Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, leading to litigation and protests.

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, on June 26, 2018, granted the reliefs sought by the teachers, holding that the teachers’ employment was valid. It ruled that the stoppage of the payment of their salaries by the state government was unlawful and awarded the cost of ₦2 million to the claimants, to be paid within 30 days.

The government of Wike appealed the industrial court judgement at the Court of Appeal, which struck it out in October 2020. One year later (making it five years), the Rivers State government had not obeyed the court judgement.

Or is it about choosing which court to obey? In August 2016, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, issued an interlocutory order postponing the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) convention until September 7. However, Wike did not like it and obtained another judgment from a Port Harcourt High Court, allowing the convention to proceed.

In May 2024, a claimant in an Abuja High Court case asked that the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the director of the Federal Capital Development Authority, Mukhtar Galadima, be imprisoned for disobeying court orders.

Still, in another legal notice, the defendants were put on alert that they must provide reasons why an order of attachment should not be issued for “an order for committal to prison of the 3rd and 4th defendants/contemnors, represented by Nyesom Wike and Mukhtar Galadima, for having disobeyed the order of this court made on the 18th day of October 2023 enjoining and restraining them from tampering with the rest of this matter pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

The matter was an offshoot of demolition activities in Abuja.

Yet, in October 2023, despite a court ruling, Wike ordered the demolition of a multi-billion-naira property next to Gbajabiamila’s residence. The property, owned by Shrodder Nigeria Limited, is located in the Cadastral Zone of Maitama District.

Just a month later, the National Industrial Court in Abuja began contempt proceedings against Minister Wike and others over the alleged disregard of a series of court orders. The court had affirmed Faruk Abubakar as managing director and chief executive officer of Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML), while the minister refused to accept him.

In Form 48 marked NICN/ABJ/62/2023 and filed on November 3, entitled: “Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Order of Court,” the application read: “Take notice that unless you (the defendants) obey the orders and directions contained in the judgement of a court on July 20 and the order of this Honourable Court made on July 26, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”

To be continued.

Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.

Opinion

The Arbiter: Re-readers’ comments (1)

Published

1 week ago

October 8, 2024

august24admin

From time to time, we try to give way to our readers to make their voices heard through their input. Well, it has been quite a while since we did that. We will start serialising such inputs.

Nigeria and Presidential Democracy: Any Better Alternative?

I enjoyed reading this. I wish it didn’t end. Sannu da kokari, Sir. I hope and pray that everyone who reads this, including our lawmakers and other segments that make up the government, brood over this.

We are a people whose identity is being lost every day, while the new one we have borrowed is yet to be understood not to imagine working for us. As a result, as you rightly pointed out, we are neither here nor there. Sad.

Much as I believe in a united Nigeria, I fear aligning with others who see the marriage between the Northern and Southern parts of this country as one of inconvenience. Marriage, like any other relationship, works out well only where the parties involved sincerely understand, accommodate, honour and respect one another, and agree not to undermine the other. This is not the case with us.

I fear adding that, except for the Southwest, other regions have continued to be further divided by varying interests, most of which are ethnic and religious in nature. We must find a way out, and that way out should preferably be homegrown. More ink to your golden pen, sir.

Yahaya Abdulrahman

Wow! My brother Dr. Gimba, sir, we appreciate you very much for the superb and quality journalism. You are making impacts continuously. Thank you for your everlasting support for the citizens and for advocating for a great Nigeria.
Dr Umar Baba Blisco

Very interesting and well-written. We’re following with keen interest. More ink to your pen, sir.

Yusuf Lawan

Not simple research, wonderful and so interesting.

Keen Fahad

May Allah bless you with all the happiness this world has to offer. Keep tears away from your eyes and grant you the highest level of Jannatul Firdaus.

Highly educative piece. It means Nigeria has experimented with many forms of democracy in different fashions, including the “hybrid regime”. Perhaps trying the Switzerland type of direct democracy where citizens are at the pinnacle of power could offer the best of options for Nigeria. Alternatively, a system that could accommodate our peculiarities should be developed, not necessarily copying from the Western world that has no consideration for diversities. Just my opinion, sir. Allah ya kara maka basira.

Abubakar Habib Ndagi

This is deep, sir. All the questions you raised and probably more need to be answered. On my part, I believe that continuing this way will only aggravate our problems. So, we have to look deeply inward. While awaiting the continuation of this rich piece, and soonest, I pray Allah continues to bless your pen, so it continues to pen down informative, educative and problem-solving articles such as the one I just read.

Yahaya Abdulrahman

Your doggedness on contemporary issues in our land is unmatched. The articles are current no matter the duration. Bless you, Editor!

Raymond Gukas

Scamming NGOs and the need for government intervention
Good observation about this NGO, but corruption in this country will not allow us to checkmate them properly. I pray the two NGOs you mentioned will be honest and brave to stand their ground in checking their activities properly and, secondly; I believe if Nigeria as a whole can address this corruption, all other things will fall in shape.
Sqd Ldr (retd) Hajara Kolo

Good evening, Mr. Gimba. I just read your article posted above. It is brutally honest. Thank you. However I will advise a different approach considering that the government is also given to bad behaviour. Donors should give conditions that grants should be distributed to sub-grantees using the same currency in which they receive the grant so that they don’t underpay the beneficiaries.
However, I salute your courage.
Mr Ajibola

Elite Brigandage and Tinubu’s Class Suicide
This is an interesting submission on the state of the nation. The issues discussed therein are the true situation of things in our dear country and if not for writers like (Dr.) Gimba, one hardly hears a discussion on vital aspects of our societal lives like these, especially those that require reflection and pondering. Time will tell if President Bola Tinubu will differ from his predecessors if the trial of some notable Nigerians is political or otherwise. May Allah reward you for the enlightenment. Thank you, sir.
Yusuf Nasidi

El-Rufai and the trek to posterity
This is a beautiful piece, worthy of a cable view. God bless you, sir, for this.
Begun Onibiyo

Honestly, El-Rufai is harvesting what he sowed, because of ego, he condemned the northern elders, and killed innocent Shiite members on several occasions, all in an attempt to twist Tinubu, after clinching power, thank God! Tinubu has taught him a lesson of betrayal and Gov Uba Sani, is doing the right thing by informing the masses of the state of the destroyed economy he inherited. You’ve said all in this commendable article, more grease to your elbow. Your assessment of El-Rufai and his son’s thoughts pointed out his true colour and the consequences of selfishness in choosing successors.
Malam Umar

One standard hospital per state
Very interesting. Sir, I don’t think our so-called leaders who are supposed to be addressed and called looters can do such in the country and the worst of it is the third ingredient (manpower) would not allow such investment to be for the public.
Bilyaminu Z Mamu

May Allah grant you complete healing, sir. I took my mum to Makkah Saudi German in December 2023. All you wrote about the hospital is exactly as it is. Just the way you are received alone will psychologically boost your healing mechanism and I feel they are affordable, too. We pray our government and wealthy Nigerians we have will invest in health care.

Hajiya Husseina Babaninna

This is a very common-sense suggestion that our leaders have ignored so far. Both Federal and state governments. I don’t know what they discuss at the Governors’ Forum meetings. Or at the Association of Local Government Chairmen’s meetings.
Ezekiel Oloriegbe

Yes, sir. We do. So unfortunate that the Governors have no time to care for the health of their citizens. They have nothing to lose. Their health issues have been taken care of. They can be taken to the best hospitals ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. They always forget their relatives who are also ordinary citizens. So sad. The self-certainedness (I hope there is a word like this) of these so-called leaders.
Hajiya Rakiya Idi

Our Parlous Health System and the Yobe Example
Lagos is moving out of this rot gradually. Not there yet, but Lagos now attracts the best medical personnel and also enjoys good patronage because of world-class health facilities in areas of the state. Not cheap though!
Ade Adebola

It gladdens my heart to know that Yobe State has gone this far in terms of good healthcare delivery, especially at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital. I pray this is sustained and expanded to other hospitals in the state. Governor Mai Mala Buni has indeed set the pace; other states have a less task in improving theirs as an example is already on the ground. Dr Hassan Gimba is an illustrious son of Yobe, who always derives pleasure from seeing the state moving forward. At every discussion one has with him, you will understand that he has the state at heart. This week’s column has further demonstrated that. In fairness to him, he is the only one I’ve read who cares to tell the world these facts about Yobe. May Allah continue to bless Yobe with people like you.
Yusuf Nasidi

Opinion

The Global Patriot Newspapers’ Dialogue on the theme: “The Media of the Future: Bridging the Gap Between the West and People of African Descent” was held on Friday, September 20, 2024, as a side event of the Black Futures Summit convened on the sidelines of the United Nations Summit of the Future.

Published

3 weeks ago

September 30, 2024

august24admin

AJAGBE ADEYEMI TESLIM

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