BenAbdulhamid

An afternoon with Mahmud Jega AbdulYassar AbdulHamid A moment after picking an interest in journalism partly for its productivity and partly for its being a hub of information, which is power in disguise, I started to poke my nose into journalism-related things. The questions of how journalists (especially editors) cope with working in isolation sometimes, meeting publication deadline (deadline pressure) which may mean all-nighter, paying attention to details, which I have seen in the eyes and words of Musa Tijjani of the Triumph Newspaper and the mobility that requires high sense of adaptability and versatility started troubling my mind. How editors and their trainees manage all these? I do not know. All I know is whenever I visit the Triumph Newspaper’s office; I will see the editor-in-chief, Sabo Lawal Ibrahim, and other editors busy with their eyes fixed straight on their laptops. Or like a pendulum, they will be oscillating from one place to another in search of what will enric...

To Heal the World, Fix the Child  It is arguably indisputable that our greatest enemy today are not the heartless, corrupt government officials whose undying ambition is to fleece our country of its resources; neighbours nor the abject poverty that results from acute mismanagement of the country's human and material resources; rather our greatest enemy are the monsters we make out of our children. These monsters, as they come of age and are ready to strike strangle not only the homes from where they emanate but the society as a whole. Many commentators and public affairs analysts have been calling, day in, day out, for good governance and healthy democracy; but what many of them miss is that even the good governance, ideal society or healthy democracy we are dead craving for can only arrive and establish itself when we, collectively, decide to rehabilitate or reform those monsters of our own making. Unless we take up responsibilities and sanitize our homes, our societies will ...

The Price of Being a Writer AbdulYassar AbdulHamid When I first in January 2018  as a fresh, hot-headed graduate then - decided to put my ambition to be a writer into practice, I suspected that the decision would come with the same  easiness as when I resolved to hang up my boots. Howbeit I was not up to the class of professional footballers, I journeyed to different places, I contributed enormously to the team I played for; and did play out of passion and at will. Quite different from what I experienced from that most popular game in the world, writing as an art comes with considerable challenges and responsibilities. It needs a nifty bit sleight of hand to be accomplished. Now, apart from being 'writing, at its best’, a 'lonely life' as Ernest Hemingway said in his 1954 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, it is a never-ending tedious work that, may likely, sets a writer against his relations, family and friends. A writer trawls, like chipmunks or squirrels, all th...

Lets Dust off our Patriotism By AbdulYassar AbdulHamid When I first came across John F. Kennedys historic words, Ask not what your country can do for you  ask what you can do for your country, I was dumbfounded being familiar with how things are going here; and after I deeply meditated about the present day Nigeria many questions trailed my contemplation: how many daring Nigerians spare even a thought for their communities let alone the country? Is this practicable in Nigeria? The questions are endless. I oftentimes deliberately raise some arguments while discussing some critical issues with my friends purposely to gauge how patriotic we are to our dear country, Nigeria; but unfortunately, nine out of ten of such occasions, the result is the same. I cannot help but conclude that, though it may sound abrupt, if we have love for this country it is a very faint or shallow one. It will never -so sad - shoot us to something great. Unlike what many people mistake it to be, Patrioti...

MAN, YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW By Abdulyassar Abdulhamid The political vendetta between the immediate past governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his successor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has reached a dramatic climax. Both political analysts and common-men-of-the-street are working round the clock, for some time now, to give this intense political atmosphere an appropriate picture, with some, headlong, even accusing the incumbent governor of being Balaam’s donkey, a donkey that refuses its rider – just a complete ingrate. To them Ganduje has not only tried to outshine his master; but he is also, hell-bent, on a mission to bring him upon his knees. A very small percentage of those analysts has taken a contrary stand. They think the governor is just trying to give Kwankwaso Roland for his Oliver: measure for measure, an urgent move to save the face of his political career. Whatever, sometimes we need to take even a hasty look at the happenings before now for us to pass judgment or ...

DEPARTURE OF AN INNOCENT SOUL Abdulyassar Abdulhamid It was one fine Friday morning around eleven o’clock, I was sitting west deep in a wooden arm chair embroidered with cushionary, azure polythene. My feet were leaning comfortably against a plastered, mud wall – in my hands was a hardcover copy of William Golden’s Lord of the Flies. Reposing on my laps were a potty copy of Advance Learner’s Dictionary, a coral bar BH pencil; its tiny, red cleaner clung to the bottom edge, a bunch of keys, and one blue-headed Luky pen lay in wait for its part. In front of me was a brown puppy in a begging posture, its small tail was waggling from one side to another as would a stalk amidst an earth-shaking gale. At the very door of the room I was sitting in was my sickly skinny she goat peeping egregiously in a lame attempt to win my attention – unknown to it I was badly engaged in, mysteriously lost, in my reading activity then. Lost in an island Ralp is whistling persistently; perhaps he has a...