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Dogara: Is this  ‘political prostitute’s’ huggermugger over?

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BY GATMASH
Once upon a time, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives during the 8th assembly, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara held sway in the corridors of power.  As member representing Bogoro, Tafawa Balewa and Dass at the green chambers for over a decade plus, he certainly was once a force to reckon with within the circle of the political gladiators in the country including his immediate constituency back home. And as luck will have it for Dogara, after party-political cunnings in the House of Representatives  back then, he eventually materialized as the Speaker of our nation’s significant parliament which epitomizes the integral aspect of the legislative disposition of the nation. Lest many have forgotten, the former Speaker’s rise to power was necessitated by the doggedness of his people back home who came out under the rains and sun to ensure that he consistently won elections to represent them at the lower federal chambers in Abuja.
Dogara who emerged as Speaker on the  9th June 2015 is a minority from Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State favored by the god of politics to excel thus far in his political career. Today, Dogara is no longer the Speaker and would certainly come May 29th 2023 be amongst several other federal legislators in the country whose tenure would expire and he will not return to the green chambers for any legislative duty again. Evidently, Dogara will come back home where he all started his political adventure  to meet his people at Gwarrangah village and more of his constituents at Bogoro, his local government area. As is the tradition with most politicians, he may decide to hold a Thanksgiving Service and or preferably quietly stay back in Abuja to think of what he would venture into next in life. He would certainly be left deep in thoughts considering the present traumatic and unpleasant unfolding developments trying to envelop him back home. For many concern individuals like us, the federal lawmaker may with a sober reflection come to terms with the unpleasant realities on ground concerning him and perhaps turn a new leaf.
This is because; once out of power, reality eventually hits many of such once political gladiators and pushes them to  repentance. This perhaps is the only noble  path Dogara may humbly chose to follow if the little “demons” in him do not rebel again.
Prior to the 2023 general elections, Rt. Hon. Dogara and Babachir Lawal abandoned the ruling All Progressive Congress,(APC) in protest over the Muslim-Muslim ticket which the party decided to adopt. After several visitations  to churches and other significant political gatherings aligning with others who shared his similar thoughts, Dogara ended up in the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), an opposition political party which decided to adopt a Muslim-Christian ticket but infringing the gentleman’s rotational agreement consensus earlier adopted   by the northern and southern political juggernauts in the country. This gentleman’s agreement came into effect before the emergence of this incumbent political dispensation to help consolidate the  balance power sharing arrangements for uninterrupted effective and efficient leadership succession intended to enhance fairness, justice and socio-economic and political integration of the citizens of the  country.
With the passage of time however, Dogara back home in Bauchi State  surprisingly  decided to support APC’s Gubernatorial candidate in the state, Air Vice Marshall Saqid Abubakar against the incumbent Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed who has since won re-election for a second term of office. Rt. Hon. Dogara’s campaign for the immediate past Chief of Air Staff was an open secret to the extent that people got confused on which side of the divide the former Speaker was. This attitude was another flagrant disregard to party loyalty and another anti-party activity if one may say so.
Though Dogara was a team member of PDP’s Presidential Campaign Council for Atiku/Okowa, he was also deeply involved campaigning for the APC gubernatorial candidate of Bauchi State perplexing intellectuals and political pundits. Even as he meander from one political party to another taking crucial decisions which needs further consultations with stakeholders back home, Dogara for once never found it expident to do so. This is certainly Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara for you. Retorting to this infrequent malfeasance, the APC Presidential Campaign Council Spokesman, Festus Keyamo described Dogara as a political prostitute. Keyamo, the incumbent Minister of State Labour further tagged the former Speaker  as a wanderer and back-stabber. True to his word, since Dogara’s departure from APC, no one can pragmaticaly ascertain  where or which political party he can confidently call his comfortable home. Plently water has passed under the brigde right now and not even Dogara himself can resonate the positive implication of his nasty political misadventure and or it’s glaring advantage to both the members of his immediate constituenty and Bauchi State at large. Typical  of some Nigerian politicians who employ administrative ingenuity to tackle crucial issues, Dogara is perhaps still hypnotized by spontaneous wealth and affluence and believes that he is still in a class of his own forgetting the reality of life in the sense that in politics and or life journey, there are seasons for everything under the sun. His leadership arrogance eventually came to bear after he started fighting anyone who shared a more pragmatic and logical ideology than his. Dogara is such a man driven by fallacious quest for power, unimaginable control of people and overwhelming notice me kind of a lifestyle.  This narcissistic ideology, unnecessary desperation for undue and undeserved power control by Dogara has led to his political misadventures in most recent times. As it is today however, Dogara is no longer on the same page with APC, PDP and or the Governor of Bauchi State. Beyond this, he has consistently continued to pick up fruitless quarrels with the former Executive Secretary of TETfund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, one man who has selflessly served this country with due diligence and integrity including other noticeable stakeholders in his community. For some of us, there is no way Dogara can compare his level of impact both back home and in disapora with that of Prof. Bogoro. Truth be told, Prof. Bogoro’s legacy and tremendous service to humanity is uncountable and Dogara can never claim to have done anything near it despite the office he occupied when he held sway in the corridors of power. Unfortunately, Dogara is yet to comprehend the simple fact that the people of Bogoro are wiser than his thoughts now.
 Therefore, if some unfolding unspeakable happenings in Bogoro Local Government Area fingered at Dogara must be taken into consideration critically, some of us with all sense of responsibility would  opine that the Dogara we know in 2015 is not the one some of us are seeing  these past months and years. His  unpleasant engagements with stakeholders of the area has portray him as one who is selfcentered, uncultured and intolerant of eclectic peculiarity of a contemporary but complex soceity as ours.  In the midst of many intellects Bogoro Local Government Area  is blessed with, Dogara has continued to arrogate a fallacious cloud-nine lifestlye only ascribed to medivial tyrannic emperors  degrading the need for accepting systematic principles of good brotherliness for the benefit of the people of the entire area. The way and manner Dogara arrogates power to himself including his eratic reaction to societal issues  today makes some of us wonder whether he is not out of touch with reality this time.
But again, for the fact that while the APC has won the presidential polls, PDP has overwhelmingly won both the Bauchi State gubernatorial election solidifying the return of Senator Bala Mohammed as Governor and the seat of the member  representing Bogoro constituency  at the Bauchi State House of Assembly with the retention of Hon. Musa Wakili Nakwada of the PDP, he will end up becoming politically homeless without any base to operate after 29th May 2023. This equally means that the people of his constituency have completely deserted him for their own good.
 As each day passes-by, Dogara will continuously be reminded of his obvious political miscalculations which has brought him from the pinnacle of power down to rock bottom. He will also be reminded of the obvious fact that prosperity eventually judge all mankind when the chips are down.Dogara: Is this  ‘political prostitute’s’ huggermugger over?
Once upon a time, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives during the 8th assembly, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara held sway in the corridors of power.  As member representing Bogoro, Tafawa Balewa and Dass at the green chambers for over a decade plus, he certainly was once a force to reckon with within the circle of the political gladiators in the country including his immediate constituency back home. And as luck will have it for Dogara, after party-political cunnings in the House of Representatives  back then, he eventually materialized as the Speaker of our nation’s significant parliament which epitomizes the integral aspect of the legislative disposition of the nation. Lest many have forgotten, the former Speaker’s rise to power was necessitated by the doggedness of his people back home who came out under the rains and sun to ensure that he consistently won elections to represent them at the lower federal chambers in Abuja.
Dogara who emerged as Speaker on the  9th June 2015 is a minority from Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State favored by the god of politics to excel thus far in his political career. Today, Dogara is no longer the Speaker and would certainly come May 29th 2023 be amongst several other federal legislators in the country whose tenure would expire and he will not return to the green chambers for any legislative duty again. Evidently, Dogara will come back home where he all started his political adventure  to meet his people at Gwarrangah village and more of his constituents at Bogoro, his local government area. As is the tradition with most politicians, he may decide to hold a Thanksgiving Service and or preferably quietly stay back in Abuja to think of what he would venture into next in life. He would certainly be left deep in thoughts considering the present traumatic and unpleasant unfolding developments trying to envelop him back home. For many concern individuals like us, the federal lawmaker may with a sober reflection come to terms with the unpleasant realities on ground concerning him and perhaps turn a new leaf.
This is because; once out of power, reality eventually hits many of such once political gladiators and pushes them to  repentance. This perhaps is the only noble  path Dogara may humbly chose to follow if the little “demons” in him do not rebel again.
Prior to the 2023 general elections, Rt. Hon. Dogara and Babachir Lawal abandoned the ruling All Progressive Congress,(APC) in protest over the Muslim-Muslim ticket which the party decided to adopt. After several visitations  to churches and other significant political gatherings aligning with others who shared his similar thoughts, Dogara ended up in the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), an opposition political party which decided to adopt a Muslim-Christian ticket but infringing the gentleman’s rotational agreement consensus earlier adopted   by the northern and southern political juggernauts in the country. This gentleman’s agreement came into effect before the emergence of this incumbent political dispensation to help consolidate the  balance power sharing arrangements for uninterrupted effective and efficient leadership succession intended to enhance fairness, justice and socio-economic and political integration of the citizens of the  country.
With the passage of time however, Dogara back home in Bauchi State  surprisingly  decided to support APC’s Gubernatorial candidate in the state, Air Vice Marshall Saqid Abubakar against the incumbent Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed who has since won re-election for a second term of office. Rt. Hon. Dogara’s campaign for the immediate past Chief of Air Staff was an open secret to the extent that people got confused on which side of the divide the former Speaker was. This attitude was another flagrant disregard to party loyalty and another anti-party activity if one may say so.
Though Dogara was a team member of PDP’s Presidential Campaign Council for Atiku/Okowa, he was also deeply involved campaigning for the APC gubernatorial candidate of Bauchi State perplexing intellectuals and political pundits. Even as he meander from one political party to another taking crucial decisions which needs further consultations with stakeholders back home, Dogara for once never found it expident to do so. This is certainly Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara for you. Retorting to this infrequent malfeasance, the APC Presidential Campaign Council Spokesman, Festus Keyamo described Dogara as a political prostitute. Keyamo, the incumbent Minister of State Labour further tagged the former Speaker  as a wanderer and back-stabber. True to his word, since Dogara’s departure from APC, no one can pragmaticaly ascertain  where or which political party he can confidently call his comfortable home. Plently water has passed under the brigde right now and not even Dogara himself can resonate the positive implication of his nasty political misadventure and or it’s glaring advantage to both the members of his immediate constituenty and Bauchi State at large. Typical  of some Nigerian politicians who employ administrative ingenuity to tackle crucial issues, Dogara is perhaps still hypnotized by spontaneous wealth and affluence and believes that he is still in a class of his own forgetting the reality of life in the sense that in politics and or life journey, there are seasons for everything under the sun. His leadership arrogance eventually came to bear after he started fighting anyone who shared a more pragmatic and logical ideology than his. Dogara is such a man driven by fallacious quest for power, unimaginable control of people and overwhelming notice me kind of a lifestyle.  This narcissistic ideology, unnecessary desperation for undue and undeserved power control by Dogara has led to his political misadventures in most recent times. As it is today however, Dogara is no longer on the same page with APC, PDP and or the Governor of Bauchi State. Beyond this, he has consistently continued to pick up fruitless quarrels with the former Executive Secretary of TETfund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, one man who has selflessly served this country with due diligence and integrity including other noticeable stakeholders in his community. For some of us, there is no way Dogara can compare his level of impact both back home and in disapora with that of Prof. Bogoro. Truth be told, Prof. Bogoro’s legacy and tremendous service to humanity is uncountable and Dogara can never claim to have done anything near it despite the office he occupied when he held sway in the corridors of power. Unfortunately, Dogara is yet to comprehend the simple fact that the people of Bogoro are wiser than his thoughts now.
 Therefore, if some unfolding unspeakable happenings in Bogoro Local Government Area fingered at Dogara must be taken into consideration critically, some of us with all sense of responsibility would  opine that the Dogara we know in 2015 is not the one some of us are seeing  these past months and years. His  unpleasant engagements with stakeholders of the area has portray him as one who is selfcentered, uncultured and intolerant of eclectic peculiarity of a contemporary but complex soceity as ours.  In the midst of many intellects Bogoro Local Government Area  is blessed with, Dogara has continued to arrogate a fallacious cloud-nine lifestlye only ascribed to medivial tyrannic emperors  degrading the need for accepting systematic principles of good brotherliness for the benefit of the people of the entire area. The way and manner Dogara arrogates power to himself including his eratic reaction to societal issues  today makes some of us wonder whether he is not out of touch with reality this time.
But again, for the fact that while the APC has won the presidential polls, PDP has overwhelmingly won both the Bauchi State gubernatorial election solidifying the return of Senator Bala Mohammed as Governor and the seat of the member  representing Bogoro constituency  at the Bauchi State House of Assembly with the retention of Hon. Musa Wakili Nakwada of the PDP, he will end up becoming politically homeless without any base to operate after 29th May 2023. This equally means that the people of his constituency have completely deserted him for their own good.
 As each day passes-by, Dogara will continuously be reminded of his obvious political miscalculations which has brought him from the pinnacle of power down to rock bottom. He will also be reminded of the obvious fact that prosperity eventually judge all mankind when the chips are down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wonders of african black olives

Edible and Therapeutic oil Atili oil is considered a healthy vegetable oil rich in crude fats and protein. It’s regarded in the northern parts of Nigeria as the local olive oil. It’s believed to be more nutritious and flavourful than ordinary cooking oils. It is highly medicinal, believed to cure ailments like ulcer, I recommend it for some of my clients, and they’ve come back with positive feedback.  Good for whooping cough, treating rashes and used as an ointment for healing wounds. It’s excellent as carrier oil. When integrated with certain other carrier oils and essential oils, this oil has the potential to do amazing things.

Atili oil is said to be used in parts of Africa as bridal endowment during a wedding ceremony. The resin contains 8-20 % of an essential oil, the main constituent of which is limonene; essential oils are important in the production of fragrant candle and it has a long shelf life.

In honesty, the benefit derivable from eating black African olive, (Atili) equates to using olive oil. It contains naturally occurring antioxidants and enzymes. It is natural moisturizing oil with a nutty and pleasant smell. It’s loaded with anti-oxidants and vitamins that nourish the skin and stimulate hair growth. It works wonders when integrated in skin and hair care products. Atili oil has a unique feel that other oils do not have because of the speed with which it penetrates the skin, leaving it smooth and supple.

Medicinal/Herbal importance

Resin from Atili was used as a substitute for gum-mastic in making wound dressings in World War II. It is believed that the resins collected from the atili tree can be used for preparing herbal medicines that treat intestinal worm infections and other intestinal parasites. It is an emollient, stimulant, diuretic and has action on skin infections such as eczema. The resin burns readily and is used as a bush candle. The resin is also used to repair broken pottery, for caulking boats and as a gum for fastening arrowheads to shafts. The resin is used as a fumigant against mosquitoes too.

A decoction is used as a treatment against hypertension, dysentery, gonorrhea, coughs, chest pains, pulmonary affections, stomach complaints, food poisoning etc.

The giant Atili tree offers protection to the soil against erosion, often left standing on cleared land to provide shade and also acts as a wind break. It has been planted for reforestation in Uganda. It can also serve as firewood that can easily burn to generate heat.

The wood is a good fuel, igniting readily and burning with a lot of heat. The flame is very smoky and soot is collected as carbon-black from the outside of pots held over it for use in tattooing and to make ink in Liberia.

The wood is light in weight; very soft; not very durable, being susceptible to fungi, dry wood borers and termites. It seasons slowly but fairly well, though there is a risk of distortion and checking; once dry it is poorly stable in service. Works easily, stains and polishes well. Used as a substitute for true mahogany. The timber is used as core veneer, for decorative paneling, parquetry, furniture, and flooring and for general utility purposes. Locally, the wood is used for mortars, planks, boats and canoes.

The heartwood is pinkish when fleshly cut but darkens to light brown mahogany colour; it is not sleekly demarcated from the 5 – 15cm wide band of sapwood that is white with pinkish reflections. The texture is slightly coarse; the grain interlocked, thus causing a fine striped figure on quarter-sawn boards.

Its thick barks become increasingly scaly and fissured with age. The pounded bark is used against leprosy and ulcers. The bark exudes a heavy, sticky oleoresin that smells like turpentine and solidifies to a whitish resin. It is obtained by slashing the bark and allowing the colourless expiation to trickle to the ground where it solidifies into a sulphur-yellow opaque resin. The resin is used as primitive illuminant and as incense and releases a lavender-like smell.

Its leaves are pinnate, clustered at the end. The leaves are boiled with other herbs and the decoction used to treat coughs.

Its Root is used against adenites whereas root scrapings are made into a poultice.

No side effects have yet been confirmed following consumption of atili fruit.

Propagation

Seed–Pre-soak the seed by immersing it in hot water and then allowing it to cool in the water for 24 hours prior to sowing. The seed can be sown in nursery beds or in situ.

The ripe fruits should be collected when they fall to the ground and allowed to decompose; the stones should then be separated from the outer fruit coats. Seeds can be stored for a long time.

 

 

Embracing the challenges of fatherhood

By DENNIS RAINEY

LIKE soldiers, we are called to do our duty even when the storms of life tempt us to abandon our posts.

That’s what a soldier does. He acknowledges the storm, but he doesn’t give in to it. He stands firm. As a friend told me, “If these men can stand guard over the dead, how much more important is it that I stand guard over the living—my wife and children?”

Like these soldiers, we are called to stand and do our duty while staring down the very storms that seek to rob us of courage, taunting and tempting us to neglect our duty and abandon our posts. These storms are packing some power.

Storm number one: damnable training by fathers

I once met a man who grew up in a remote section of our country. He admitted that the only advice he received as a boy from his father about women was, “Get ’em young. Treat ’em rough. Tell ’em nothing.”

I wonder how that advice worked for him in his marriage.

You could say this is a legacy of the “strong, silent, tough man” image often passed down from father to son. This is the type of misguided training in manhood that has corrupted so many men as the leaders in their homes—selfish men who control their wives and children so that their own needs are met.

And that’s just one part of the problem. Many boys grow up with fathers who are distant and passive. Fathers who rarely engage their families, and when they do, their half-hearted attempts to train their sons may promote irresponsible, or even immoral, behavior. Like the father whose idea of sex education for his 12-year-old son was to take him to a strip joint. There they sat for three hours as the women did their thing onstage. No words were spoken. When they arrived home later that night, the dad told his wife, “There, I did it! Now I’m going to bed.”

Too many men today were raised by fathers who didn’t step up to their responsibilities. Is it any wonder we have a generation of men who feel lost and aimless, not knowing how to face their fears or think rightly about themselves, women, and their own passions?

Storm number two: fatherless families

The relentless, howling winds of a culture of divorce have uprooted the family tree, and with it at least two generations of men. With our high divorce rates and the increasing number of births to single women, the number of children.

Children are the innocent victims of this raging storm. Dad is AWOL in far too many homes today.

The social implications of fatherless families are endless. For example, the greatest predictor of a child dropping out of high school, committing a crime, and going to prison is his or her experience of growing up in a home without a dad. Many young people grow up today in areas where the only adult male role models they know are live-in boyfriends or gang leaders. The fallout has only just begun: a crop of weak young men, and frustrated women who are looking for real men.

One of the greatest challenges any boy could endure is trying to become a man without a father to show him how. How can a boy know what it looks like to behave as a man, love like a man, and be a man in the battle if the main man in his life has abandoned him?

My friend Crawford Loritts works with young men to build their skills as leaders.

Many of [these young men] grapple with fear. … I think that the dismantling of our families over the past 50 years or so has almost institutionalized fear and uncertainty. Divorce, the rise of single-parent households, and the tragic assortment of abuse and dysfunction in our families have produced a generation with many young people who are afraid of risk, and afraid to make mistakes.

So many of our young men grew up in homes in which they had limited or no contact with their fathers, or they had dads who were detached and didn’t provide any meaningful leadership. We are left with a legacy of men who in varying degrees have been feminized. They are uncertain about who and what a man is, and how a man acts and behaves. They are fearful of assuming responsibility and taking the initiative in charting direction.

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