A husband of two and father of five MALLAM kaura climb a tree at kantoma in kurgwi, Quan pan LGA of Plateau State since yesterday Friday 22nd may 2015.and said he will not come down till the new government is sworn in.
Three young Nigerians, a male and two females, who embarked on a walking expedition to Otuoke, Bayelsa State, the home town of President Goodluck Jonathan, have finally arrived the Bayelsa community, after nineteen days on the road.
Kogi born-John Oladele Nihi, had embarked on the journey from Abuja on the 4th of May, with the aim of honouring President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, whom he described as the hero of democracy, apparently because of the way and manner the outgoing president conceded defeat to President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
Rated as the first Twitter Reality Show, Nihi made great use of the social media platform, providing constant updates on his progress in the journey and posting pictorial evidences to show the world that he was actually walking to Otuoke.
Along the way, Nihi got a companion, as a twitter user, @gloria_speaks, joined him at Abaji, a border town of the FCT. As the journey gathered momentum and the duo made progress, Nihi and his walk-mate became practically house hold names, with outpouring of affection, commendation and support coming their way. They however got another companion in @ifeyChukuneku, who joined them in Delta State.
Announcing their arrival in Otuoke this afternoon, Nihi wrote, “Live in Otuoke, Bayelsa State with a heart blowing welcome reception. Trekking to the King Palace #TrekForGEJ”
Nihi and his co-trekkers say they want to be on hand in Otuoke to welcome President Jonathan home.
Credit: dailypost
If you are oblivious of the latest reality show going on in Nigeria, then you must have been hibernating under a rock or something. What started as the “ambition” of a young man to according to him “fulfill a promise” he made two years ago to trek from Lagos to Abuja to celebrate in solidarity with General Muhammadu Buhari should he emerge winner of the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria has quickly escalated into a competition of sorts resulting in not less than eight other young Nigerians trekking from one part of the country to the other in order to show support for their political candidate. Like almost every other venture in Nigeria, the bandwagon effect has taken its full course on this trekking madness.
The list keeps growing everyday. Since the Katsina state born Suleiman Hashimu pioneered the trend, the roll call of trekkers has seen different breeds of Nigerians join the craze. Men, women, the physically challenged and even a nursing mother (whom I personally think should be arrested for endangering the life of a baby) have all jumped on the “trekking train!” And just when we thought we had seen it all, in the latest wave of absurdities, five men have chosen to take things several notches higher by vowing to trek from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia in solidarity with Buhari. At first the trekkers appeared to only be trekking for the president-elect, but unsurprisingly, just like in mainstream politics, the “Jonathanians” not to be outdone have 2 to 3 people of their own taking up the “challenge” in honour of the soon to be former president too. They claim to be celebrating their hero who displayed rare statesmanship by conceding defeat thereby averting what could have resulted in a war.
As amusing as this theatrical show may be, it brings to the fore the deeper problem of unemployment among the youths. The truth is that there are too many young people with too much time on their hands. A look at the age bracket of the people who have embarked on this adventure reveals their average age to be 35 years old. Now, these are men and women who are in their prime; the heydays of their lives, and so when we have young people who should be putting their strength and agility to productive use trekking the length and breadth of the country to celebrate politicians then we need no one to tell us that we are in trouble. Pray, if these trekkers had regular jobs or private businesses they were growing would they have the time or energy to waste on a senseless venture? And if at all they had to trek for a cause, there are several worthy causes they could have channeled their clearly abundant energy into.
There are only scanty parts of Nigeria that can boast of 6 hours of uninterrupted power in a day (as a matter of fact, in my area, we barely enjoy 6 hours of power supply in 2 weeks), yet nobody has thought to trek to the PHCN head office or the Federal Ministry of Power to protest this shameful cross that we have been condemned to carrying as a country through the years. Our politicians have been robbing us blind, looting the treasury at will but all we do as young people is to complain and insult each other on social media. Nobody has opted to trek to the EFCC or ICPC head offices and the Ministry of Justice to demand that more should be done to bring corrupt government officials and politicians to book.
The scourge of Cancer, HIV, Kidney diseases and other terminal illnesses all require volunteers to create more awareness to the plight of those who are suffering from these ailments, yet these youths never thought of walking to raise funds for these causes but find it very convenient to trek for a politician who doesn’t know them and may never even dignify their self inflicted “long suffering” with a handshake. Yet we wonder why young people are not taken too seriously in the scheme of things, especially when it comes to running for political offices. It is the same reason why we keep recycling the same old politicians who have been ruling even before I was born.
General Yakubu Gowon became Nigeria’s head of State at age 32. The late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu became the military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria at the age of 33. Chuka Umunna, the British labour politician has been a Member of Parliament for Streatham since 2010 when he was only 31 years old. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the crtically acclaimed Nigerian author and novelist won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book as well as a host of other awards before she was 30. Indeed, there are several other young people who are not in the limelight but are excelling in their various fields of endeavour, yet some young able bodied Nigerians believe that the best way to gain recognition is by trekking for politicians whose children live in luxury and school abroad.
It is a pathetic situation, an error of ignorance…a fallacy of reasoning.
VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE SOLELY AUTHOR’S…
Three cyclists, Monday arrived Sokoto from Bauchi state after riding their bicycles for 870 kilometres to congratulate the Governor-elect and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, on his victory in the April 11 governorship elections in the state.
The cyclists – Mohammed Samaila, Nuhu Ibrahim and Nasiru Ya’u arrived Sokoto around 11.00 am on Monday.
Speaking shortly after they arrived at the residence of Tambuwal at Gawon Nama area of Sokoto metropolis, the leader of the team, Mohammed Samaila, told journalists that they spent nine days on the road.
“We decided to ride our bicycles to Sokoto to honour Tambuwal because of his steadfastness and commitment towards bringing an end to the visionless and incompetent Peoples Democratic Party-led administration in the country.
“In fact, we faced many challenges while on the road and were forced on two occasions, to repair our bicycles when they developed problem,” he said.
According to Samaila, the cyclist brought messages for Tambuwal from the people they met in some villages. The villagers asked Tambuwal to join hands with President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to tackle unemployment, poverty and corruption in the country.
Responding on behalf of Tambuwal, his Personal Assistant Malam Musa Girkau, assured the cyclists that Tambuwal was determined to partner with Buhari to bring the desired change in the state and country.
“I want to assure you that this change is real and that Tambuwal is committed to improving the the welfare of the common man,” Girkau said.
Alhaji Mohammed Shehu, an aide to president-elect Muhammadu Buhari has advised youths to pray instead of trekking for the incoming leader’s administration.
Shehu gave this advice during interview with NAN in Abuja on Monday. According to him, the incoming administration acknowledges the excitement of youths over Buhari’s election but would prefer that they channel their energies towards praying than embarking on, sometimes dangerous, journeys.
“It’s kind of overwhelming. Last week, I told youths to stay where they are, stop trekking, and pray for the incoming administration instead.
“We have a lot of challenges; light, unemployment, insecurity, and so on.
“So it is more profitable for them to stay where they are and pray instead of taking the dangerous risk of walking all the way to Abuja,” Shehu said.
On the allegation that the trekkers were ignored, Shehu said: “that is not true. Even outsiders have been bringing gifts and food for them out of goodwill.
“It is untrue that they have been ignored or starved and this is not the first batch but you know the problem with this kind of situation is that when others hear, they keep coming.”
NAN spoke to some of the trekkers and they said they had taken off at different times on the solidarity walk to the capital.
The only female among the group of 22, Lauratu Musa, said she took off from Kaduna eight days ago with her 15 year-old son, Adamu Abdullahi.
“I collected 28 goodwill letters from the various villages I lodged in on my way. This is my son, he was bitten on the way by plenty mosquitoes but we thank God we are here,” she said.
Alhaji Bulama Mustapha, the Deputy Chaiman of APC in Damaturu, told NAN on the telephone that the Youth Leader, Musbau Mohammed, “rode his bicycle from Damaturu.
“He had said from beginning that if Buhari won the election, he would ride to wherever he was to greet him and I kept in touch with him on phone all the way.”
Nwaopa Sunday said: “I’m here to strengthen relationship between the North and the East. I reside in Anambra and I trekked for 15 days.
“I visited NTA, Lokoja, Yangoji Palace and the Eze Ndi Igbo of the 19 Northern States, Uche Egenti, who gave me a solidarity letter on my way here.”
NAN reports that the trekkers, 22 in all, cut across various ages ranging from 20 to 63, and came from different parts of the country including Katsina, Kano, Adamawa, Yobe, Anambra and Kaduna States.
Silly youths trekking their futures way. You don’t trek to bring awareness to your suffering plights but trek to celebrate politicians?Smh!
— Omotola. j .Ekeinde (@Realomosexy) May 12, 2015
Here are some reactions to her tweet:
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What do you think of Omotola’s view about the trekkers?
Gloria made headlines yesterday when she joined staunch President Jonathan’s supporter, Oladele John Nihi, and vowed to trek to Otuoke from Abuja. Sadly, she has called off her trek because her parents are so worried. Tweets and more photos of her at her last stop in Lokoja with John and his mum continue below…
A 45 year old Adamu Abdullahi who volunteered to trek from Maiduguri to Abuja the nation’s capital to plead with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, towards ending the insurgency affecting the country has arrived Damaturu the Yobe State capital.
The explorer, who claimed that he had been an admirer of Gen Muhammadu Buhari for twelve years hails from Borno State but resides in Kaduna, North West Nigeria.
According to him, his mission is to meet the President-elect and plead with him to end the insurgency bedevilling Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states which has claimed several lives and displaced thousands of people within and beyond the three states.
“Hashimu, who embarked on the Lagos-Abuja trip earlier, made his out of love for Buhari but mine is to plead with the President-elect to end the insurgency which has worsened development in the north east zone of the country,” the trekker said.
Adamu Abdullahi, who is a handset repairer in Kaduna, took a journey to Maiduguri to start his trip which commenced on Thursday (April 30) around 6:00 in the morning.
It took him 30 hours to cover the 134 KM Maiduguri-Damaturu road and the trekker says he hopes to reach Abuja in the next three weeks.
He said that in the course of the trekking, he had come across policemen, soldiers, Immigration and Customs men as well as civilians who have given him letters and various complains to present to the President-elect on how best to deliver the country from its numerous problems.
Adamu Abdullahi could not hide his appreciation for the people he has come across in the course of his journey.
“Much has been done to me in terms of company, provision of water and food as I navigate through the scorching sun of the arid region.
“I met lots of people with various problems ranging from joblessness, lack of water, orphans and widows problems as a result of this insurgency among several others which will be made known to the President-elect when I reach Abuja” Adamu added.
He called on Nigerians to pray for him to accomplish his mission of tabling some problems affecting the masses to General Muhammadu Buhari.
The road walk routes of Adamu Abdullahi will cut across six states of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna and Nasarawa. It will cover 868 kilometers from the Sahel region of the country through the Sudan savannah and will terminate in the Guinea savannah region where the nation’s capital is located.
