Misbahu El-Hamza

Unity FM 93.3 Jos have a five working days morning program it call 'The Unity Train' whose driver happened to be the sagacious Bello Lukman. A program you'll not afford missing whenever on the Plateau. It is somehow agreed that every listener to be term a passenger. On Friday, December 11 2015, there was a twin bomb blast at the Jos Terminus market. It was later gathered that a woman in Hijab was seen prior to the blast and alleged to be the bomber. There were reactions all over the country. Especially on the future of Hijab. While we mourn our deceased on the Unity Train, a passenger by the name M. Y. from University of Jos with me onboard reacting to the twin blasts called in to pose a question with anger to Mr. Lukman which read: " BELLO GIVE ME FIVE (5) GOOD REASONS WHY HIJAB SHOULD NOT BE BAN IN PUBLIC! " To my expectation, all Mr. Lukman could utter was "Uhmmm, I heard you M. Y." Of course, I expected him not to respond, on air, because at the mom...

My eyes were wide open, I was breathing heavily and still holding tied to my pillow, passionately. I was still for minutes then suddenly, my wake-up alarm rang and I had to start preparing for office. Without hesitation, I smiled, observed my after bed supplications and got on my feet, light-headed. I picked my mobile phone to call Christine before proceeding to take my shower. My company, 'The Emirates' is famous in producing all sort of big ticket textiles and Jewelry in the world in Istanbul. I was the CEO. I met Christine, an American Millionaire business woman at a Summit in Dubai some two years back. We were both pleased to have met each another. Christine wasn't just an experience and dedicative business woman, she was intelligent, a caring and loving mother of two who respect people for who they are. "Reading is my hubby in life," she once told me. And yes, she read quite alot. Hardly the sun will greet the land and lay to rest twice without Christine call...

In July 2013, a woman by the name Maryam Yahaya, 17, slit her husband's throat on their matrimonial bed to death in Jos, where I was raised.  This is coming a month after their wedding. This girl happened to be my student. I taught her Geography and Mathematics for years before she was married to Lawal, 26, the deceased. Earlier when she was arrested, it all went viral that the girl was forced to marry Lawal. A blatant lie even the Devil can't buy. We, her teachers, their parents and all the people in the mini market where she sells food and met her husband knew of their lovely relationship for long. So no one could even listen to such excuse back home. Maybe that was why, a month after "a body" intervened, took her with "them," she was captured in the media given another bizarre excuse for her act, that "she did what she did because of an excessive sexual demand from Lawal." A beautifully made allegation which one could hardly debunk. Today, Marya...

Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-van Furth  It is a gospel truth (as it often been said) that "everything we do, even the slightest thing we do, can have a ripple effect and repercussions that emanate. If you throw a pebble into the water on one side of the ocean, it can create a tidal wave on the other side." Just as the (retired) Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I am sad but not surprise when the news got to me that his daughter, Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-van Furth had married another woman as her wife! I am sad for two reasons; first being that God has catched Tutu by his neck while he still breath and secondly, because I know other Christians, the Anglicans especially are already sad with this news. For those who do not know, Mr. Tutu who won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, have been so staunch and substantial in defending and advocating Gay marriage for years. This was probably among with other reasons what made his Church in South Africa...

Unknowingly to me, I have being sharing a working space with someone who have being following me for over three years on facebook. I didn't know him in person. Amazingly, he told me, just yesterday that he recognized me the very first time he saw me. But he kept it to himself for months now. He is a Muslim. Yesterday after spending couple of minutes in front of a mall in Kano, discussing, a school friend of mine approached with his family. The very first thing he said to me was "Assalamu'alaikum (peace be upon you), 'Misbau'." I answered "wa'alaikussalaam wa rahmatullah" (Peace and Mercy of Allah be upon you too). We embraced each order happily. I extended my greetings to his wife and a beautiful little daughter she was holding, and they went in to the mall. The man is a very learned Christian I respect dearly. My colleague who was just about to drive off, standing by his vehicle's door was not happy with the way I welcomed my Christian frien...

From time immemorial, humans live in a world of relentless change; large migration to (new) mega cities, vast slums, revenue, appetite for food and fuel, an unpredictable climate change, and extreme poverty among others. All these and many more are happening in a world whose population is already growing so fast. At present, the world's population is about 7.4 billion with an estimated increase to about 11 billion by the end of the century. Almost half of this estimated figure is expected to come from Africa, powered by Nigeria which is already home to about 185 million people – an astronomical increase from 55 million of the 1950s. According to United Nation's demographic projection, by the year 2050, Nigeria's population will not just surpass that of United States as it will exceed  440 million (which is an enormous increase in a very short span of time) but will also leap and take over it position in the world ranking (from 7th - 3rd). While some preferred not to think o...

The world has a history of painting events, objects and mostly people or community white or black depending on what suit their taste. To their enemies, the Tatars and/or the Mongols were the " the devil's horsemen " - the ugliest, filthiest barbarians that ever lived. But they (the Mongols) sees themselves as noble people whose warlike nomadic way of life was superior to the soft ways of city people like India, China and Persia. On the quest for true freedom and political rights, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was labeled as a 'terrorist' by the British and later sentenced him to life imprisonment but till his death, he remained a freedom fighter and a heroe not only to the South Africans but the whole world. And so was Archbishop Desmond Tutu (b. 1931) who later in 1984 got a Nobel Peace Price. Menachem Begin (1913-1992) who head Haganah and Irgun, a so-called revolutionary militant groups whose target are the Britians and Arabs in Palestine was then labeled the wo...