Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Nigeria elects a president

Incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan won the presidential election on Monday, April 18 the election commission said.
According to Chairman Attahiru Jega, Jonathan satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes and hereby was declared the winner.
The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won 22,495, 187 of the 39, 469, 484 votes cast on April 16. The number outweighed the votes of Muhammad Buhari, of the Congress for Progressive Change, the main opposition party, which had 12, 214,853.
“The election was free and fair but there were pockets of protest from the northern part of the country where Buhari hails from,” said Lawrence Azibuike.
Rioting in the Muslim populated area of Nigeria soon erupted once Jonathan was declared the winner.  Concerned about ongoing violence Nigerian election officials Thursday delayed the gubernatorial elections in Kaduna and Bauchi states until April 28.
Jega said that the delay will help to further the cooling of tempers and for the security in those states to improve.
Goodluck Jonathan hails from the oil-rich southern region of Nigeria, which is mostly Christian.
Parts of the Muslim north charge that the elections were rigged. Armed protestors roamed the streets chanting the name of Buhari, the opposition leader.
According to the Nigerian Red Cross, more than 40,000 people have been displaced in the north due to acts of violence in the region. Jonathan has urged the people that “enough is enough.”
The elections four years ago were widely condemned for rampant vote rigging, violence intimidation, and theft of ballot boxes.
Action Congress of Nigeria, another opposition party, said Thursday that the elections were the most systematically rigged election in Nigeria’s history.
Jonathan assumed the presidency prior to the elections after Umaru Yar’Adua succumbed to failing health last year.
World leaders have urged the nation to investigate on allegations of ballot stuffing and unusual high turnout in some areas.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producer and most populous nation with over 150 million people.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Members of the Student Government Association traveled to Washington, D.C. for a week-long conference at Howard University. The leadership summit was hosted by students of the 50th administration of the Howard University Student Association (HUSA).
The conference entitled, Footprints: Retracing Our Legacy, One Step at a Time, was designed to reflect on past leaders from Black institutions as we establish our own legacy and solidify our place in the community as global leaders.
In addition, student leaders engaged in consistent dialogue to help set an agenda and foster solutions for African Americans and people of African descent worldwide.
The conference had detailed workshops and sessions that provided our student leaders the tools to analyze our legacy to enact the right change and solutions for today’s issues.
The sessions touched on the areas on effective communication, advocacy for the black community and team building exercises. In addition, the attendees also partook in a luncheon and panel discussion hosted by the National Urban League.
Students from Tuskegee, Bowie State and University also accompanied Texas Southern at the conference.
“This was truly an educational and mind unraveling experience,” said sophomore Donte Newman.
The conference also included a Spring Fest fashion show hosted by Howard University students and a speaker series with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan who spoke on the state of Black America and briefly on how President Obama has become the “black mascot” for Wall Street. Minister Louis Farrakhan is the leader of the Nation of Islam.
“Attending the HBCU Leadership Conference was such a rewarding and enriching experience,” said junior Iysha Batts. “The people I met and the lessons I learned will stick with me for a lifetime.”
The conference ended with a church service at the school auditorium where Dr. Cornel West gave the sermon followed with a luncheon.

Editorial: College students should be wary of world affairs

The recent world events that have occurred since the beginning of 2010 has changed our perspective on they have affected us as Americans. College students should pay close attention to the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa as they have directly affected the transportation issue with the steadily climb of gasoline prices.

The average price of gasoline was $3.11 on January 24, one day before the Egypt revolution. Since then the price has jumped almost one full dollar as a result of the ongoing issue in Libya.
Students should not turn a blind eye to the world events because all things affect the American people. I do feel as though college students don’t pay too much attention to the world events because they feel as if it won’t pose a direct impact to them unless it affects their money, or lack thereof. College students should form focus groups to discuss these issues and find out as to why these world events are occurring.

For example, no one knew about the recent violence in the Ivory Coast as a result from the presidential elections between the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his challenger Alassane Ouattara.
It seems as though the college student is only concerned with local and national issues but does not to be in tune with their brothers and sisters abroad. Well, at least people tuned in to the Haiti and Japan earthquakes and made an attempt to help but that is not enough.

The college student must become globally aware because the real world is not only confined to Third Ward or to Oakland and so on and so forth.
We must stay alert to world affairs by reading newspapers, watching CNN or other international news outlets so that we can have a sense of what is happening on a particular day in other parts of the world.

 Furthermore, the ongoing issues in Libya is influencing decisions here in the States on the proper course of action which has taken the focus of off what is most importing here in America: education and jobs.

 If college students could discuss what is happening in Libya instead of what happened on a favorite reality show then we could more socially aware and be globally educated.