Review with Muhammad

Sometimes we may not have a proper grasp of events happening around us, not because we lack the accurate information but because of the manner in which the information is presented to us. When one experiences chaos, unrest or even war, it's usually difficult to make others understand the agony it entails. Yet, storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that could be used to provide close-to similar experiences of those horrible occasions. The Chibok Girls is a short piece written by Helon Habila, a Nigerian novelist and poet whose writings have won multiple awards. He scrupulously narrated the abduction of 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, a town in southern Borno state of Northeastern Nigeria by Boko Haram in April 2014. He was so courageous to have fared through Borno state while navigating his way to Chibok town multiple times in 2016, just two years after the abduction to have interviews with firsthand victims of the crisis. He meticulously narrated ...

It has become part of the daily feeds we encounter these days that Sudan is thrown into full pledged conflict ignited by power greed of two Generals. Though, some have a working theory that the conflict is more of a proxy war between United States of America, its allies and Russian Federation, this I intend to address at the end. The conflict is between the Chief of Sudan Army, General AbdulFatah Al-Burhan and the Head of Sudan paramilitary group known as Rapid Support Force (RSF); General Dogalo (Hamedti). The duo were hitherto friends who worked together in overthrowing President Omar Al-Bashir's regime in 2019 when full scale protest against his three decades dictatorship was waged for days in Sudan by pro-democracy activists. A transition government was then formed headed by civilian, Hamdan and General Al-Burhan as the Chief of Army staff with his counterpart, General Dogalo AKA Hamedti overseeing the Rapid Support Force (RSF). Why would a country have two independent military...

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s mother was kidnapped in their village of Owashi-Uku in Delta State of Nigeria in December 2012 and the ransom demanded by the kidnappers was nothing short of her daughter’s resignation from her position as Finance Minister. Wasn’t that odd? What was she doing in that office that some forces desperately wanted her out? This book was able to highlight some. When President Goodluck Jonathan first offered her the position of Finance Minister, she was bullied not to accept the offer, painting so many bad images of her, manipulating facts and making her previous assignments in Nigeria as worthless and even harmful. She further narrated in details, the scam behind fuel subsidy in which oil marketers increasingly defrauded Nigerian treasury of billions of Naira in the name of subsidizing fuel, some of which were not even imported to Nigeria.  Fuel subsidy was completely phased out in 2004 when she was the Finance Minister for President Olusegun Obasanjo, but in 200...

The book contained twelve chapters in which the author took us down the Nigerian political history to enable us to understand the political dynamics he was about to discuss. The political stalemate which has to do with amalgamation of Northern, Southern protectorates and the Lagos colony that encompasses multiplicity of ethnic groups and cultures merging as one nation. President Goodluck Jonathan lamented on this juncture by saying; “If there was ever a single recipe for discord, none could rival the ingenuity of the Nigeria’s chef”. Decision points in two chapters discussed when and how he made tough decisions for the betterment of the state even when it had to do with him sacrificing his throne. He further narrated how the entire world responded with accolades towards such peaceful gesture. He further talked about the fight against corruption and the blame game associated with it. The women behind the president, his mother and of course his wife, Mama Peace and how she got the title ...

How could one jot down sounds void of words? The sudden tickles within the head, the uninvited flashes of thought, the glimpses of inspiration were all captured and scribbled as Wordless Sounds by Professor Yusuf Muhammad Adamu as narrated in these lines: “It all started in a dream The muse keeps coming The fingers keep its promise The pen keeps bleeding.” It was a twelve-month project, as each poem came with a date tag signifying the period of its conception (from May 19, 2020 to May 20, 2021). Prof. Yusuf Adamu is an author to reckon with, a scholar in its fullest meaning, a critic, and a blogger. This collection contains 73 poems and most striking part of it is the similar pattern of four lines that was maintained throughout the book which brought to light the author’s poetic brilliance and mastery of condensing complex messages. He opened the collection with an Escape: “At the edge There is cliff I wish I have wings.” You may not have wings, but flight is all you shall have in this...

The piece is accurately as described by BM Dzukogi; “Delicate, beautiful. Expressively ruthless lines.” It’s a poetry collection published in 2019 containing 116 poems that cut across many themes; uprightness, spirituality, romance, grief and some of the pressing national concerns, especially insecurity that caused turmoil in our education. One will carte away not just the sweetness of poetry, but wisdom, artistical constructions of expressions, close-to impossible imageries, breath-taking figurative expressions and tons of astounding vocabularies.  The author’s skill of playing with words is superb as one will inevitably get drawn in the amazing stream of legendary construction techniques therein. Since from inception, Malam Umar Dada Paiko expressed himself as a product of divine art in his dedication segment thus: “To Mother who Allah used to write me.” He further went ahead to unleash the conception of poetry in his How to Cook a Poem by saying:  “minds give thoughts finge...

This book was first published in July 2021 by Dar as-Sunnah Publishers and it was an English transcription of an Arabic manuscript that was written about eight centuries ago by Imam Al-Hafiz Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah titled Tuhfatul mawdood bi ahkaamil mawlood which translates as “a gift to the loved one regarding requirements of the newborn” Ibn Qayyim was an exegete, and legal jurist born 691AH in the village of Zar, near Damascus, Syria. He was described to have an intense love for knowledge, for books, for publications and writings since in his early age. He acquired deep understanding of books of the Salaf. He attained great proficiency especially in tafsir, hadith and usul. He was a student of many scholars notable among them is Ibn Taymiyyah for he studied under him for 16 years. He also had many students, prominent among them are Ibn Kathir, Adh Dhazabi, Ibn Rajab and two of his sons namely Ibrahim and Sharafud din. He authored over 60 works in the fields of Hadith, Seerah, Fiqh,...