11-11-2024.

Two unforgettable events decided me to write on the topic of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Many of them operate in Nigeria either to serve the locality and the locals, or to serve the interests of their foreign sponsors, which are not always edifying.

One is the uncelebrated and unsung, but helpful assistance rendered to a popular big Mosque in Katsina city by an NGO. The organisation silently built a bore hole to mosque free of charge, without making noise about it. The bore hole remains the source of water for the mosque users and some of the neighbours who need its services.

The other event is the insidious writing of a Western embassy in Abuja, which someone passed as his opinion but was caught out by someone who had earlier seen the write up as a statement from the embassy in question. I had not seen that statement to be judgmental about it, but I read the ‘opinion’ and thought it was more like a hate statement. A copy-and-paste job, in other words.

Which reminds me of the time someone called to tell me that he appreciated an article I had penned and posted on the social media. As that ‘someone’ was talking to me, I heard a voice from the background saying it was ‘copy-and-past job, not an original piece written by me. An argument followed with the ‘someone’ telling the other party that it was an original article from yours sincerely.

My traducer may be right, in that in the four years I served as a Senior Special Assistant (SSA), and the following four years as a Director General, Media, to a former Governor in Katsina state, I was very unproductive, because I was fearful of exposing myself as someone who was not competent enough to write anything meaningful. That I am now able to somehow write a passable article, is not due to my ability, not due to my wisdom, not due to my know how and not due to any special virtue of mine, but a gift from the Maker of us all. In that regards, the article was actually written by me, and have continued to do so since then.

The ‘opinion’ in discussion, tried to pitch Nigeria against a next door neighbour it never had any cause to quarrel with, at the same time praising its hostile neighbours as her ‘friends’. They were some friends indeed. One of them dragged Nigeria to the International Court over a disputed territory, and the judgement went against Nigeria. 

Despite the fact that the matter is not a close secret, a Western power wants to tell Nigeria that country was its friend. For the information of the Western country, Nigeria does not need it to tell her who are her friends and who are her enemies. Both can be judged by their actions towards her.

There are NGOs and there are NGOs. Some NGOs serve useful purposes, while others the country would be better off without, because of their insidious utility. While the former category goes about their activities silently, without ‘announcement’, the latter category do ‘announce’ everything that they do, which always happens to be against the government. This they do in the open and with fanfare, so as to attract the attention of their paymasters with a view to justifying what they were given for that particular assignment.

Although they are in the majority, they are hardly heard, and when they are heard, it is to make a case (support) for the offender, and fight the government no matter the circumstances of its action. They are NEVER on the side of the truth, but on the side that they would score chief publicity points for the attention of their Western Hemisphere financiers.

May God protect Nigeria from their evil designs, and always place the country into uncatchable position in front of those who do not want her progress.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.