Deep Thought

 Readers’ Comments By Prof MK Othman After some months of not publishing the readers' comments because of a series of events happening in Nigeria in a quick session, I must share some of the comments today. Still, due to space limitations, only very few can appear. However, all comments are essential, and readers can access such comments on my FB (mkothman@yahoo.co.uk), Twitter (@mkothman1), Blog (www.deepthoughtwithmkothman.blogspot.com), and Instagram (profmkothman) Handles. Happy reading    School System in Nigeria: Education without Character? Prof, this is a well-written piece. Unfortunately, Education is now in a sorry state. A state where no well-to-do individual hoping to send his/her child to public schools. This makes the market for private schools on the rise. My concern in this regard is that most of those who benefitted from the early sound education are now against it. They are the ones controlling the affairs of government at all levels. They have the way a...

 Food Security in Nigeria: Giant Strides of SAA, OBJ and 18 million Farmers By Prof MK Othman Pundits have long ago classified Nigeria as the global headquarters of poverty. Their reason is on the premise that tens of millions of Nigerians earn less than two US Dollars a day and a significant percentage of the population goes to bed with an empty stomach. First-time visitors to Nigeria, equipped with socio-economic literature on livelihood may be expecting to meet emaciated, dejected, and hostile people due to their high level of poverty and sordidness. Instead, as some of the visitors confessed, they met agrarian, energetic, lively, and hospitable people. There is a distinct contradiction between the reality on the ground and the information in the media about poverty, insecurity, and hunger in Nigeria. While the elasticity of Nigeria’s resilience seems to be limitless, we must acknowledge the efforts of some Nigerians and friends who work tirelessly not only to keep Nigeria one b...

 Nigeria-2023: Money Politics and Theft of Democracy By Prof. MK Othman A hopeless future is the greatest tragedy of life. Hope develops aspiration and makes life going with a dream of a brighter future. In all the previous presidential elections of the 4th republic from 1999 to 2019, Nigerians went to the polls with hope for a prosperous future. In the 1999 election, Nigerians were too tired of the socio-economic and diplomatic upheavals brought by the misgovernance of the military era. The internal and external forces made the military junta haphazardly and hurriedly organize the 1999 election and handed power on 29th May 1999 instead of the historic day of 1st October 1999. The pressure was so assertive that the military leadership under General Abdusalam Abubakar might not have survived it beyond May 1999. In a frantic move to find a nationally acceptable leader, the nation fished out General Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) who was in Yola prison, and handed the presidency to him. Even...

 #EndASUUStrike: Economic, Man-hours Losses and Guarantee Bleak Future By Prof. MK Othman As a multifaceted stakeholder: a parent, teacher, researcher, employee, employer, senator (being a member of a university governing council and senate), member of many professional bodies, and concerned Nigerian, I am one of the worst affected stakeholders of ASUU-FGN imbroglio. I am in great pain as I am writing this piece because of several reasons. First, the issue is a straightforward one, which government, with its wherewithal and capability can address in no time if education is considered a top priority. Second, education serves as a solid foundation for building society and provides the necessary ingredients for lubricating other sectors to function effectively. Third, university education is the most critical part of education that produces the society’s leaders, technocrats, administrators, and all cadres of personnel who can lift the society to a greater height without a ceiling. De...

 SAA Presidential Visit: Intensifying War against Hunger and Poverty in Nigeria By Prof. M. K. Othman Hunger is ransacking every nook and cranny of millions of households in Nigeria. The report of the National Bureau of Statistics released in April 2022 indicated an astronomical increase in food prices by an average of 42% in the last year (BBC News). This figure is a conservative estimate as food prices skyrocketed to over 100% in many markets. The food crisis is caused by the poor food harvest of 2021, ravaging and deadly insecurity lurking in several farming areas, population explosion, low agricultural investment, and economic meltdown.   As I am writing this piece, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projected that 18 million people in Nigeria will be food insecure by June and August 2022. Among this number, 630,000 and 13,550 people will face an emergency and catastrophic situations, respectively. Reasons adduced by FAO are similar to those of NBS, which are compound...

 SDG Zero Hunger Target: Ocean Farming for Global Food Security II By Prof. MK Othman As presented in the first part of this article, the earth’s surface area is 71% covered by oceanic water. The water is mainly being used for navigation, transport, and other economic and sporting activities. Today, the humanity has started using the 71 percent of the earth surface occupied by ocean for farming activities. This becomes necessary because of the environmental implication of bringing more land into cultivation as the greenhouse emission is likely to increase. So, the ocean farming is the newest innovation and one of the identifiable solutions to the challenges of greenhouse emission and attainment of global food security. Imagine crops growing in the ocean without fertilizer application, no air, no soil, no fresh water, only seawater and sunlight What is “Ocean Farming”?    Ocean farming involves growing of food in the ocean for consumption and meeting the dietary needs of h...

 SDG Zero Hunger Target: Ocean Farming for Global Food Security By Prof. MK Othman Zero Hunger is goal number two of the 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nation. The goal aims at ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition in the world by the year 2030. This means that all people – especially children and the vulnerable – have physical and socioeconomic access to sufficient and nutritious food at all year round to meet their food needs in all corners of the world. This seems to be an overambitious goal considering the current shocks threatening the food security situation in both developing and developed countries. The shocks are related to climate change, conflict, pests; such as locusts and Fall Army Worm and infectious diseases; such as African swine fever and the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in several countries including Nigeria. These shocks slowdown, in some cases, stop food production, disrupt supply chains and stress peo...