Unongu Shares Mind

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly and former running mate of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the last presidential election, speaks with KUNLE ADEYEMI and ADEOLA BALOGUN on some burning national issues One year after the fuel subsidy protests, when you look back, would you say the protests achieved their goals ? When there are clear goals and objectives for any movement or protest, then you have the opportunity of judging whether those goals are attained or accomplished. We didn’t just rush out; if you recall, the increase in petrol pump price took place on January 1, 2012. Like a sadist, the President gave us a cause to be sorrowful on the first day of the year; even those who didn’t even have vehicles of their own and had to pay through their noses to move from one place to the other. The Save Nigeria Group sat down to analyse the situation and joined the protest in Ojota with its allies. There were pockets of protests here and there; there...

The ban instituted on the green-white-green commercial buses popular called ARABA, has been suspended by the FCT Minister, wednesday, after meeting with union officials over discussions on the hardship the transport policy has caused to commuters most of whom are public servants. Present at the meeting were representatives of the FCT Chapter of NLC and TUC, the FCT Commissioner of Police, and the Abuja Director of State Security Service. After a closed door session which lasted for hours, a transport policy implementation committee was set up to look into all the issues raised with a view to re-implementing the transport policy in three weeks from now. The committee is to be chaired by the Permanent Secretary of FCT Administration. In a related development, constitutional lawyers in the FCT have faulted the implementation of the transport policy, saying it has no constitutional backing. They argue that for any policy of such magnitude to be implemented by the FCT Administration, such...

In 628 C.E. Prophet Muhammad (s) granted a Charter of Privileges to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. It consisted of several clauses covering all aspects of human rights including such topics as the protection of Christians, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from military service, and the right to protection in war. An English translation of that document is presented below. This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it ...