Biography of Yusuf Maitama Bello

Yusuf Maitama Bello was born on April 22, 1945. He is a Nigerian politician and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Life

Yusuf was born in Gwaram, Jigawa State. He attended Gwaram Primary School and then the Birnin Kudu Middle School. He was also educated at Northgate University, Washington and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A member of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), he was made Minister for Internal Affairs in 1979 and Minister for Commerce in 1982.[1] Prior, to joining politics, he was a lawyer and businessman and had served as a chief registrar at the Chief Magistrate's Court in Kano. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly.

As minister for Commerce, he was in charge of curtailing imported goods to Nigeria which was massively draining the nation's foreign reserves. Later, as a member of the opposition in the Nigerian senate, he played prominent roles in attacking the third term agenda and indicting President Obasanjo for mismanaging a petroleum development fund, he was also a prominent member of the senate committee on youth and sports.

From Nigerian Wiki,

Edited by: Kabeer M. Adamu for NYNA BLOG

Biography of Joseph Tarka

Senator Joseph Sarwuan Tarka (1932–1980) was a Nigerian politician from Benue State and a former minister for Transport and then Communications under General Yakubu. He was one of the founding members of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), a political organization that dedicated to protecting and advocating for the country's Middle Belt.

Background

Tarka was born on 10 July 1932 in Igbor, Gboko, Benue State. His father was a village teacher and administrator, of Tiv origin. After completing his education he became a teacher for a while at Katsina-Ala Middle School, before going on to further studies at Bauchi Rural Science School. He became a member of the Tiv Native Authority Staff Union and of the Northern Teachers Association.

First Republic

Tarka was elected to a seat in the Federal House of Representative in 1954 on a non-party basis, at age 22. In 1957, he emerged as president of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), which formed an alliance with the Action Group, the dominant South West party. These two predominantly Christian parties contested the pre-independence election of 1959 and the subsequent election of 1963 against the mainly Moslem Northern People's Congress (NPC). Both elections led to violence in the Middle Belt, which contributed to the military take-over by General Yakubu Gowon in August 1966. Tarka was reelected in 1959. He was arrested in 1962 on charges of treasonable felony with some other Action Group leaders, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. 

Later career

After General Gowon took charge in August 1966, Tarka was appointed Federal Commissioner of Transport and then of Communications, resigning in 1974 after allegations of corruption from a fellow-Tiv named Godwin Daboh were published. Daboh's action was allegedly instigated by Paul Unongo and Benue-Plateau State Governor Joseph Gomwalk.

In the lead-up to restoration of democracy with the Nigerian Second Republic, Tarka aligned with northern politicians to form the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), on which platform he unsuccessfully competed in the Presidential elections. He was elected Senator for Benue East in 1979, and was appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, a position he held when he died on 30 March 1980, aged 48. His son Simeon Tarka was elected to the House of Representatives in 1979.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

Edited by: Kabeer M. Adamu

FEATURES - WE HAVE LOST IT!

Years back when the North had leaders that were

selfless, not greedy, humane in approach to the affairs of the people of the

North, we were at peace, we were making progress, we were the envy of the

nation.

Today, we have lost everything, our leaders are no more credible, they are

greedy, selfish, cruel and hypocritical in every aspect of Northern progress,

development and upliftment. We are everyone's rotten garbage, only desirous of

disposal. We are a cancer and the rest of the nation will rather have us

amputated.

I write this not to slight anyone, but to express the deep rooted pains I have

inside of me.

THE NORTH

The North today is a region that you find least developed in almost every

aspect when compared to the rest of the nation.

The North today is where you can experience a chilling breeze of hate amongst

its people.

The North today is where you can experience a hot breeze of hate been blown

from outside it by others.

If a Northerner does wrong the world will hear about it, if he dies no one

cares, if he lives, he is a parasite, if he achieves greatness he first gets

ridiculed and hardly any recognition worthy of his performance.

The North today is a place known to be prone to reckless killings.

It is a place where its people have been divided by its own leadership.

It is region where trust and honesty no longer reigns.

Healthcare is for the society's rich, famous and glamorous.

The child of the common man can no longer be properly educated as the best of education

is for the rich, famous and glamorous.

When justice is required, the people are disillusioned and it has become by

grace of the Almighty that it will ever be dispensed. When dispensed, it is

hardly appropriate.

People are hopeless, clueless, and their lives valueless.

Respect amongst each other is nowhere to be found, so human respect for mutual

existence has been lost and respect for the dead is not even comprehensible.

Worship for mundane things such as money has taken over the basic senses of

everyman, woman and child. When it is only money that dictates how we live

rather than morals, mutual respect, cultural ties, good traditions, ethics, and

goodness, then we have lost it.

The North has lost it all, we have indeed lost it all. But are we lost?

THE PICTURE

How I see us is not how we all see ourselves, but it is how we are.

We enjoy displaying ill gotten wealth, in the abundance of poverty and

starvation for the rest of the majority. A symbol of contempt, very glaring to

identify a thief from within us has become the icon of recognition. Status

symbols and Class struggles that are meaningless spread at the expense of the

majority. There is even a bone referred to as ''bone of poverty''. If I am in

position to be a pen robber and I refused to partake in the activity it means

my bone is of poverty. Such is the stigma of he who refuses to steal from the

peoples wealth. We have lost all morals, we have lost it.

Life is hard for the common man and it is gradually becoming hard for the rich

and famous. The rich, glamorous and famous are gradually losing their freedom

to move around. A rebelling protest society is gradually forming. They are no

respecters of tradition, the law or even life itself. But it makes sense for

the common man to support the group. Why? We have lost it all and I weep. I

weep profusely!

In the past, our Emirs command respect, their voices and those of their

lieutenants are sacred, no one crosses the law they put in place. They longer

command these respects as they have lost it.

Should a crisis ensue like the one we have of late, they will make a statement,

in it they will be caution, and the people will take caution. Today they cannot

even dare. They hide, they are chased like rats and humiliated in public. They

are no longer respected, they are lost. No one follows a lost leader.

The Government has embarked in killings for long, only a foreign press uttered

a word about the deaths while those in Government denied obvious extra judicial

killings. Life is worthless and meaningless especially of the common man and he

has no money and no one to defend him. He is tagged anything by those powers

that be and then executed helplessly in broad day light and nothing happens.

Here they think they have won, but nay, they have lost it. Lost everything in

fact!

They have a chance to redeem their name and past glories, they can come out in

truth and defend the common man slaughtered under the guise of this unrest. But

will they? They have eaten the forbidden tree of the 'Amana' of the common man.

They have no face, no confidence and have lost it.

In the past, no Emir, leader of the people or ruler will ever see such deaths

and killings in his domain and keep mum. The munificence they are known to

posses has escaped and it is out of their grasp. Can they dare say a word

against the Governments bloody actions? No! They have assisted those at helm of

affairs today to be where they are after eating from the tree of injustice.

They have lent helping hands to deny the people their rights; they see no evil

in what is happening, they support the death of innocent children, the rape of

wives of innocent people and their daughters. They have no essence. They have

lost it.

CRY and PRAYER

Is any of our leader prepared to die for a single soul of his people? Can they

die for us all? Will they want to die so the majority can survive? Are they

leaders worthy of our respect, support and the positions they occupy? It hurts

so much and yet the worst thing is, it destroys us all. A people once known to

be loving, truthful, respectful, respected, not materialistic and accommodating

are now the complete opposite of every good attribute they have exhibited. Why?

Have we all lost it?

I cry, I pray, I stand and I demand that justice be done to us all. We all have

a right to life, we all have a right to proper healthcare, our young ones have

the right to proper education. We all have a right to Freedom, Equality,

Justice, Liberty and Genuine Leadership. Can we be accorded that right? Or have

we lost it all?

Written by: Babagana Gashi Mustapha

for NYNA Blog

Portraits of Gamji Na Kwarai

AREWA PAST HEROES - Biography of General Yakubu Gowon

General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon (born 19 October 1934) was the Head of State (Head of the Federal Military Government) of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He took power after one military coup d'etat and was overthrown in another. During his rule, the Nigerian government successfully prevented Biafran secession during the 1966–1970 Nigerian Civil War.

Early life

Gowon is an Ngas (Angas) from Lur, a small village in the present Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang, left for Wusasa, Zaria as Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in the early days of Gowon's life. His father took pride in the fact that he married the same day as the future Queen Mother Elizabeth married the future King George VI. Gowon was the fifth of eleven children. He grew up in Zaria and had his early life and education there. At school Gowon proved to be a very good athlete he was the school football goalkeeper, pole vaulter, and long distance runner. He broke the school mile record in his first year. He was also the boxing captain.

Early career and political ascent

Yakubu Gowon joined the Nigerian Army in 1954, receiving a commission as a Second Lieutenant on 19 October 1955, his 21st birthday. He also attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK (1955–56), Staff College, Camberley, UK (1962) as well as the Joint Staff College, Latimer, 1965. He saw action in the Congo (Zaire) as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, both in 1960-61 and in 1963. He advanced to battalion commander rank by 1966, at which time he was still a Lieutenant Colonel.

Up until that year Gowon remained strictly a career soldier with no involvement whatsoever in politics, until the tumultuous events of the year suddenly thrust him into a leadership role, when his unusual background as a Northerner who was neither of Hausa or Fulani ancestry nor of the Islamic faith made him a particularly safe choice to lead a nation whose population were seething with ethnic tension.

In January 1966, he became Nigeria's youngest military chief of staff at the age of 32, because a military coup d'état by a group of mostly Igbo junior officers under Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu led to the overthrow of Nigeria's civilian government. In the course of this coup, mostly northern and western leaders were killed, including Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria's Prime Minister; Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region; and Samuel Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, as well as several high ranking Northern army officers. The then Lieutenant Colonel Gowon returned from his course at the Joint Staff College, Latimer UK two days before the coup - a late arrival that possibly exempted him from the coupist hit list. Success in twentieth century world affairs since 1919 (Murray 1974 and 1983) and the subsequent failure by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was the head of state following the January 1966 coup-with Gowon his Chief of Staff) to meet Northern demands for the prosecution of the coup plotters further inflamed Northern anger. It should be noted that there was significant support for the coup plotters from both the Eastern Region as well as the mostly left-wing "Lagos-Ibadan" Press.

Then came Ironsi's Decree Number 34, which proposed the abolition of the federal system of government in favor of a unitary state, a position which had long been championed by the Southern parties - the NCNC and the AG. This was perhaps wrongly interpreted by Northerners as a Southern (Eastern, Midwestern and Western Regions) attempt at a takeover of all levers of power in the country. The North lagged badly behind the Western and Eastern regions in terms of education, while the mostly-Igbo Easterners were already present in the federal civil service.

On 29 July 1966, while Ironsi was staying at Government House in Ibadan, Northern troops led by Major Theophilus Danjuma and Captain Martin Adamu stormed the building, seized Ironsi and his host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, and subsequently had the two men stripped naked, flogged and beaten, and finally shot. Other Northern troops, led by Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Mohammed, the real leader of the counter-coup and who later succeeded Yakubu Gowon as head of state, then seized the Ikeja airport in Lagos. Several Igbo and Eastern minority officers were killed during the counter-coup.

The original intention of Murtala Mohammed and his fellow coup-plotters seems to have been to engineer the secession of the Northern region from Nigeria as a whole, but they were subsequently dissuaded of their plans by several advisors, amongst which included a number of high ranking civil servants and judges, and importantly emissaries of the British and American governments who had interests in the Nigerian polity. The young officers then decided to name Lieutenant Colonel Gowon, who apparently had not been actively involved in events until that point, as Nigerian Head of State. On ascent to power Gowon reversed Ironsi's abrogation of the federal principle.

The buildup to the Biafran War

In the meantime, the July counter-coup had unleashed pogroms against the Igbo throughout the Northern Region. Hundreds of Igbo officers were murdered during the revolt, and in the North, as commanding officers either lost their control of their troops or actively egged them on to violence against Igbo civilians, it did not take long for Northerners from all walks of life to participate. Tens of thousands of Igbos were killed throughout the North. The persecution precipitated the flight of more than a million Igbo towards their ancestral homelands in Eastern Nigeria. Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military governor of the Eastern region who did not allow attempts by Northern soldiers stationed in his region to replicate the massacres of Igbo officers, argued that if Igbo lives could not be preserved by the Nigerian state, then the Igbo reserved the right to establish a state of their own in which their rights would indeed be respected.

There arose tension between the Eastern region and the Northern controlled federal government led by Gowon. On 4–5 January 1967, in line with Ojukwu's demand to meet for talks only on neutral soil, a summit attended by Gowon, Ojukwu and other members of the Supreme Military Council was held at Aburi in Ghana, the stated purpose of which was to resolve all outstanding conflicts and establish Nigeria as a confederation of regions. The outcome of this summit was the Aburi Accord. The Aburi Accord did not see the light of the day, as the Gowon led government had huge consideration for the possible revenues, especially oil revenues which were expected to increase given that reserves having been discovered in the area in the mid-1960s. It has been said without confirmation that both Gowon and Ojukwu had knowledge of the huge oil reserves in the Niger Delta area, which today has grown to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

In a move to check the influence of Ojukwu's government in the East, Gowon announced on 5 May 1967 the division of the 3 Nigerian regions into 12 states - North-Western State, North-Eastern state, Kano State, North-Central State, Benue-Plateau State, Kwara State, Western State, Lagos State, Mid-Western State, and, from Ojukwu's Eastern Region, a Rivers State, a South-Eastern State, and an East-Central State. The non-Igbo South-Eastern and Rivers states which had the oil reserves and access to the sea, were carved out to isolate the Igbo areas as East-Central state.

One controversial aspect of this move was Gowon's annexing of Port Harcourt, a large city in the Niger Delta, in the South of Nigeria comprising of the Ikwerres, sitting on some of Nigeria's largest reserves, into the new Rivers State, emasculating the migrant Igbo population of traders there. The flight of many of them back to their villages in the 'Igbo heartland' in Eastern Nigeria where they felt safer was alleged to be a contradiction for Gowon's "no victor, no vanquished" policy, when at the end of the war, the properties they left behind were reclaimed by the rivers state indigenes.

Minority ethnicities of the Eastern Region were rather not sanguine about the prospect of secession, as it would mean living in what they felt would be an Igbo-dominated nation. Some non-Igbos living in the Eastern Region either refrained from offering active support to the Biafran struggle, or actively aided the federal side by enlisting in the Nigerian army and feeding it intelligence about Biafran military activities. However, some did play active roles in the Biafran government, with N.U. Akpan serving as Secretary to the Government, Lt. Col (later Major-General) Philip Effiong, serving as Biafra's Chief of Defence Staff and others like Chiefs Bassey and Graham-Douglas serving in other significant roles.

Gowon as war leader

On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's announcement by declaring the formal secession of the Eastern Region, which was now to be known as the Republic of Biafra. This was to trigger a war that would last some 30 months, and see the deaths of more than 100,000 soldiers and over a million civilians, most of the latter of which would perish of starvation under a Nigeria-imposed blockade. The war saw a massive expansion of the Nigerian army in size and a steep increase in its doctrinal and technical sophistication, while the Nigerian Air Force was essentially born in the course of the conflict. However, significant controversy has surrounded the air operations of the Nigerian Forces, as several residents of Biafra, including Red Cross workers, foreign missionaries and journalists, accused the Nigerian Air Force of specifically targeting civilian populations, relief centers and marketplaces. Gowon has steadfastly denied those claims, along with claims that his army committed atrocities such as rape, wholesale executions of civilian populations and extensive looting in occupied areas; however, one of his wartime commanders, Benjamin Adekunle seems to give some credence to these claims in his book, while excusing them as unfortunate by-products of war.

The end of the war came about on 13 January 1970, with Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo's acceptance of the surrender of Biafran forces. The next day Obasanjo announced the situation on the former rebel radio station Radio Biafra Enugu. Gowon subsequently declared his famous "no victor, no vanquished" speech, and followed it up with an amnesty for the majority of those who had participated in the Biafran uprising, as well as a program of "Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation", to repair the extensive damage done to the economy and infrastructure of the Eastern Region during the years of war. Unfortunately, some of these efforts never left the drawing board. In addition to this, Gen. Gowon's administration's policy of giving 20 pounds to everyone who had a bank account in Nigeria before the war, regardless of how much money had been in their account, was criticised by foreign and local aid workers, as this led to an unprecedented scale of begging, looting and robbery in the former Biafran areas after the war.

Gowon's career after the Biafran War

The postwar years saw Nigeria enjoying a meteoric, oil-fueled, economic upturn in the course of which the scope of activity of the Nigerian federal government grew to an unprecedented degree, with increased earnings from oil revenues. Unfortunately, however, this period also saw a rapid increase in corruption, mostly bribery, of and by federal government officials; and although the head of State himself, Gen. Gowon, was never found complicit in the corrupt practices, he was often accused of turning a blind eye to the activities of his staff and cronies.

Indigenization Decree

Another decision made by Gowon at the height of the oil boom was to have what some considered negative repercussions for the Nigerian economy in later years, although its immediate effects were scarcely noticeable - his indigenization decree of 1972, which declared many sectors of the Nigerian economy off-limits to all foreign investment, while ruling out more than minority participation by foreigners in several other areas. This decree provided windfall gains to several well-connected Nigerians, but proved highly detrimental to non-oil investment in the Nigerian economy.

Hallmarks of General Gowon's reign

Apart from winning the civil war and keeping the country together, general Gowon's time also saw

• Development of the Country's capital- Lagos, into an international city.
• Creation of Twelve states
• Introduction of odd and even days to manage Lagos traffic.
• Expansion of Government bureaucracy

Overthrow

On 1 October 1974, in flagrant contradiction to his earlier promises, Gowon declared that Nigeria would not be ready for civilian rule by 1976, and he announced that the handover date would be postponed indefinitely. Furthermore, because of the growth in bureaucracy, there were allegations of rise in corruption. Increased wealth in the country resulted in fake import licenses being issued. There were stories of tons of stones and sand being imported into the country, and of General Gowon himself saying to a foreign reporter that "the only problem Nigeria has is how to spend the money she has." These provoked serious discontent within the army, and on 25 July 1975, while Gowon was attending an OAU summit in Kampala, a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba announced his overthrow. The coup plotters appointed Brigadier Murtala Muhammad as head of the new government, and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy.

Later life

Gowon subsequently went into exile in the United Kingdom, where he acquired a Ph.D. in political science as a student at the University of Warwick. He lived in north London / Hertfordshire border, and very much became part the English community in his area, where he served a term as Churchwarden in the local church.

In February 1976, Gowon was implicated in the Coup d'état led by Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka, which resulted in the death of the now Gen Murtala Mohammed. According to Dimka's "confession", he met with Gowon in London, and obtained support from him for the coup. In addition, Dimka mentioned before his execution that the purpose of the Coup d'état was to re-install Gowon as Head of State. As a result of the coup tribunal findings, Gowon was declared wanted by the Nigerian government, stripped of his rank in absentia and had his pension cut off. Gen Gowon was finally pardoned (along with the ex-Biafran President, Emeka Ojukwu) during the Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari.

He returned to Nigeria in the 1980s, and in the 1990s he formed a non-denominational religious group, Nigeria Prays. Still based in the UK, General Gowon today serves an 'elder statesman' role in African politics, operating (for example) as an official observer at the Ghanaian presidential elections 2008.

Furthermore, Gen. Gowon is also involved in the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme as well as the HIV Programme with Global Fund of Geneva. Gowon founded his own organization in 1992 called the Yakubu Gowon Centre. The organization is said to work on issues in Nigeria such as good governance as well as infectious disease control including HIV/AIDS, guinea worm, and malaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

Edited by: Kabeer M. Adamu

NAIJA JOKES - Naija Wisdom

An American, an English man, and a Nigerian were on a ship, suddenly the Devil appeared and said, "Drop anything in the sea; if I find it I will eat u, If I can't, I will be ur slave!" The American dropped a pin; the Devil found it and ate him. The English man dropped a coin, the Devil found it and ate him too. The Nigerian opened a bottle of water, poured it in the sea and said: "Na today? Find am make I see now.”

NAIJA JOKES - I Know My Rights!

 

A certain young man who had spent the last 10 years in the USA was arrested by the Nigerian Police because he refused to bribe them for a minor traffic offense. He was amazed to be taken to the police station.

The young man was very upset and angry. He was ranting and raging at the policemen;

"you people don't know who I am, by the time I make one phone call you'll all wish you weren't born. I'm entitled to one phone call and you must let me make that call, I know my rights and I won't be trampled upon".

He went on and on raking at the station.

After a while the DPO couldn't take it any longer, and instructed a constable to throw the guy into the cell.

When the guy was pushed into the cell he continued ranting and raging as to how he was entitled to one phone call as part of his fundamental rights.

After a while the "president" in the cell got up and said

"ADC I don tire for all dis englis e dey blow. I beg give this man him phone call ojare".

At this time the ADC got up and gave the young man a resounding slap, 'gboaaaa'.

He then calmly asked him: "e dey ring abi make I re-dial?"

The young man meekly replied "NO..ooooooo no need to re-dial.....edey ring......Sir....e connect well well......

HEALTH MATTERS - High Blood Pressure is a Killer!

Do you have high blood pressure?

OR

Do you know someone who has high blood pressure?

And you want a solution that works, naturally without any medication?

Persistent high blood pressure also referred to as hypertension is one of the risk factors for stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm and so many other diseases.

Hypertension is one of the leading causes of death today. It is called the silent killer and it derived this name because you could have the disease and not know it and it kills you silently without you knowing until it's too late. Please do not let that happen to you.

A lot of Nigerians are afflicted with this disease and the worst part is that it not only affects the elderly as many may think, it affects a lot of young people also.

High blood pressure is not a disease one should joke with. It is sad that lots of Nigerians do not take their health seriously, please do not be one of them. High blood pressure accounts for a large percentage of death in Nigeria today.

High blood pressure is a serious condition!

It kills!!! Do something before it wastes your life.

What is this high blood pressure and how does it occur? HBP occurs when the pressure or force with which blood circulating against the walls of the arteries is high. When it is high, it causes the heart to do more work which eventually damages the heart, when the pressure is high it also stiffens and damages the arteries which transports needed blood all over the body and gradually ruins the body organs they serve, exposing you to high risk of end organ damage. These end organs fed by the circulatory system are the brain, heart, kidney, eyes, and reproductive organs.

A normal blood pressure should be 120/80 mmHg, anything above this is abnormal and needs attention!

High Blood Pressure is not child's play and should be taken seriously!!!!

If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure then you could become a victim of the following disease:

• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Heart failure
• Arterial aneurysm
• Damage to your eyes
• Brain damage
• Kidney disease and failure
• Death!!

Some people take medications on a regular basis to manage their high blood pressure and these people practically rely on this medication all their lives. This is burdensome and doesn't seem nice right?

These medications indeed have their own side effects which also complicate your health; you certainly don't need any more complications, do you? Apart from that, having to buy these medications takes a toll on your purse. It may interest you to know that high blood pressure medications have the following side effects:

• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Depression
• Impotence
• Liver damage
• Insomnia
• Heart palpitations
• Aches and pains on the joints
• and so on

These are all harmful effects, people taking these medications must be sick and tired of the expensive drugs and the complications the medications cause their health and well being.

Courtesy healthylivingguy.com

Edited for NYNA Blog by Kabeer M. Adamu