Talakka does not choose the king
According to the statement signed on behalf of the protesting groups by Dr John Danfulani and Pendo K. Yates, they reject Bajoga because they say he is too old. Bajoga is 63 years old, which means he is a year younger than the man he is in effect replacing, the late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, […]
According to the statement signed on behalf of the protesting groups by Dr John Danfulani and Pendo K. Yates, they reject Bajoga because they say he is too old. Bajoga is 63 years old, which means he is a year younger than the man he is in effect replacing, the late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, who was 64.
The two groups said they oppose the selection of anybody who is above 45 years of age to occupy the Kaduna State deputy governor’s chair. Have they thought through this matter well enough? The Constitution of Nigeria does not allow anyone below 35 years of age to hold the post of deputy governor. So, if the two groups do not want anyone above 45 to occupy the office, it means they have extra-constitutionally limited the qualification for the office to only those between 35-45 years of age. Maybe that is the age bracket of the protesters!
They said, “Governor Yero as a youth is not supposed to take a deputy who is old enough to be his father.” Why not? I thought that is the meaning of complementarity. Once there was an old governor and a young deputy; since there is now a young governor, there should be an older deputy. It makes more sense to me than having two young men in the driver’s seat that will be driving Kaduna State with a big “L” sign on their number plate.
The two groups also said that by accepting the deputy governor’s job at 63, Bajoga betrayed the memory of the late Governor Yakowa. How, if I may ask? Yakowa himself was nearly 62 when he agreed to step into the shoes vacated by Mohammed Namadi Sambo in 2010. He did not say he would allow a young under-45 SOKAPU partisan to occupy the governor’s chair in order to fulfil his kinsmen’s aspirations.
Finally, their charge that Bajoga was selected “in privacy without consultation” is also laughable. They should tell me who was consulted when Dr Goodluck Jonathan was picked [by one man] and placed on the sure path to the presidency in 2007, or who was consulted before Namadi Sambo was chosen in 2010. Remember the old saying by our grandpas that a talakka [ordinary person] does not choose the king?
Between skimpy dressing and rapists
Hear! hear!, o young women of Nigeria, especially those of you who are fond of dressing up for lectures as if you are going to the beach. The police in Swaziland have warned that any woman who wears skimpy dresses that expose part of the stomach risks arrest. It is all part of efforts to curtail one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Africa, which is in turn aggravated by rape cases which, the police seem to say, are in turn assisted by skimpy dresses.
Swazis have a law made in 1889, Crimes Act, which prescribes a fine of $10 or a six months’ jail term for a woman that dresses skimpily on the streets. Swazi police spokeswoman Ms Wendy Hleta said, “We do not encourage that women should be harmed, but the act of the rapist is made easier because it would be easy to remove the half cloth worn by the women.” Hear! Hear!, all you great women of fashion.