Welcome back, ki-gala.com
We are awfully sorry to announce that our Igala studies website, https://www.ki-gala.com, is back on the Internet. We had some technical issues but are glad to say we have put that behind us. You, our esteemed visitors, are welcome back to the website.
While on break, certain happenings have taken place around the world and our nation. On the international scene, the Ukrainian war still lingers and has precipitated hikes in food prices globally. So also the Sudan imbroglio, which is threatening world peace and Africa’s fragile continental economic order.
At the national level, the major developments includes the promulgation – in December, 2022 – of a policy that recommends the adoption of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in Nigerian primary schools. This development has kept language experts and teachers on their toes, compelling all to work together in synergy. The challenge facing stakeholders is the production of relevant instructional materials required for the teaching of primary school subjects. To this end, we implore educationists, teachers, authors, language experts as well as the Federal and State Governments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to play their respective roles towards implementing the policy to the letter.
Then, in February and March, 2023, a chain of national elections were conducted but some of them were considered controversial; and participants who felt short-changed are currently defending their positions in Electoral Petitions Tribunals spread across the country. Nigerians wait with bated breath for the judiciary to exercise the fear of God in their respective verdicts.
Sequel to the election, subsidy on fuel was removed within the first 24 hours of the new government’s life. However, due to lack of adequate palliatives to cushion the effect of the removal. That has brought untold hardship on hapless Nigerians, particularly, the poor and vulnerable masses.
In Kogi State, a governorship election comes up in November and Kogi East – the Igala-speaking area of the state – has been witnessing spates of killings, arson and other forms of hostilities. We call on the Federal Government to, urgently, mobilize appropriate security agencies to that area to stem the tide of criminality in the area. For instance, a big hotel was burnt down at Ejule in Ofu Local Government area, recently and, later, its owner was murdered in cold blood. Since then, unseen hands have been stoking the embers of disunity and mutual antagonism, threatening the fragile peace that exists in the state.
Kogi is our state; we do not possess any other. All hands must, therefore, be on deck to ensure peace and harmony – the hallmark of our diversity as distinct ethnic groups in the state. We cultivated the friendship and goodwill that bond us together today from our days together in Kabba Province and Kwara State respectively. We all attended the same teachers colleges and secondary schools while we were growing up; and that foundational relationships survive among us various individuals from the different backgrounds till date.
In the light of the foregoing, we call on the Federal Government to revisit the current security apparatus currently in place in Kogi State. This is to ensure that functionaries, as impartial stakeholders, are not compromised. The main election is still months away; yet, peace and harmony remain elusive and threats upon threats bedevil the body polity.
Ki-gala.com, while welcoming you back to the website once again, appeals to all church denominations, mosques and traditional worship centres to conscientiously pray to God Almighty who we variously address as Ọjọ Odobagwu, Olorun Ọba and Ohomorihi, to send His enduring peace upon our state. May He restrain those dark hands that keep stoking hate and dark energies among His people.
