May 7, 2021 may have come and gone, but it’s going to be a red letter day in the lives of thousands. Major General (Senator) Muhammad Magoro (Rtd) turned 80 on this day. He is a soldier turned administrator, business tycoon, politician and an elder statesman who has impacted and continues impacting greatly on the lives of thousands of people. To him, and particularly those who have benefited from his large heart including this author, 80 is not ‘just a number’, but a PIN to the service of his fatherland. His 80th birthday is therefore a profound anniversary to reflect his humble beginning and how he propelled into prominence by a sequence of unpredictable events, or providence.
2023: Zoning, old guards and mercantile politicians
File Photo: Abia Bye Election
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By: Ibrahim Muye Yahaya
The great American political writer, Theodore Sorensen, who crafted many of President John F. Kennedy’s greatest addresses; once remarked that politics was critically diminutive of leaders and that democracies needed leadership more than any other quality. It was true then. It is even more the case now. This is a troubling veracity. Now, truth is always said to imitate art. However, the truth is much more mesmerizing: reality actually subsumes art.
Good governance is in diminutive supply. It is no accident that we are simultaneously witnessing political kaput: corruption, incompetency, sycophancy, maladministration and nepotism which is producing a widening fissure linking what electorates are asking of their government and what the government can deliver. The mismatch between budding demand for good governance and its shrinking supply is one of the utmost challenges