•Engineer • Fighting for a better 🌎 • ❤️Nigeria🇳🇬 • ❤️ArsenalFC • اجمي# #EqualAccessEducation • https://xitter.cf/t.co/02kxZPkZcI
Milton Keynes, UK.
Joined October 2010
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Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
Every human being has equal value. Every single one.
At the United Nations General Assembly, I challenged a world that still decides whose lives deserve protection and whose suffering can be ignored.
No race is superior. No people are disposable. Until we honour that truth, "everywhere is war" remains a warning we have failed to heed.
What the world needs now is love, with the courage to confront injustice and defend our shared humanity.
Love and a little kindness. For everyone.
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
From Barbing Salon To GT Bank, a short story of 2 friends
Did you know? Forty years ago, Tayo Aderinokun and Fola Adeola opened the 'Finishing Touches Barbing Salon' in Ikoyi, Lagos as their first joint business, before GT Bank in 1990.
The two friends had earlier both worked at the Continental Merchant Bank.
They decided to opened the barbing salon as a side hustle.
WHAT LED TO THE BARBING SALON?
While they both lived in Ikoyi, Lagos, they always visited the Mainland just to have haircuts.
Fola Adeola recalls one day when he was going again to have a haircut. Then, an accïdent occurred at the Eko Bridge. He said after witnessing the accïdent, “The only thing that came to my mind was whether the vïctims of that accïdent was also on his way to the barbers! I decided then that we would put barbers in Ikoyi."
So they pooled funds and opened Finishing Touches Barbing Salon which became the first 'modernised' barbing salon in Ikoyi. Running it together, they discovered they had a similar appetite for business rïsks.
They, thereafter, applied for a banking licence in January 1989 resulting in what later became Guarantee Trust Bank.
Fola Adeola would later write in a Tribute to Tayo: "In 1990, after we had obtained a banking licence, Tayo suggested to me that we sold the company (Finishing Touches Barbing Salon). As far as he was concerned, we should no longer be barbers having become bankers. As an aside, one of the terms of the sale was that Tayo, myself, and all our male children, would cut our hair for free, forever! As if he knew! Tayo was an entrepreneur at heart..."
They later sold the salon to concentrate on their infant bank project.
Fola was 34 and Tayo was 33 when they got the license for their bank on August 2, 1990. Guarantee Trust Bank is now what is known as GTCO (GT Bank).
ℹ️Ethnic African Stories
Nigeria has lost a great thespian.
One of the very best ever to come from our shores.
RIP Olu Jacobs (1942 - 2026)
This brilliant piece shows what will happen if we all went back to where we came from…..
👏🏽👌🏽Kudos to the guys who made the video.
This is the story of the making of a very important television series.
‘The Africans: A Triple Heritage’
By Prof Ali Mazrui
If you are an African and haven’t watched it, find it and do so. Add it to your bucket list.
facebook.com/share/p/19Ak2nN…
#SMH on this spat between the singer and the cleric.
These are serious allegations from a singer against a professed man of God (politician or not).
If the cleric believes he has been defamed, he should take the matter to court. Many of us would stand behind him as he clears his name and, if vindicated, claims substantial damages.
Until then, silence risks being interpreted as acquiescence.
Kaicho! Allah ya kawo mu lokacin….!
#SMH… again.
Hon. Ali Isa Pantami has ventured into politics and is now competing for political positions and privileges alongside other politicians. Therefore, expecting him to be treated differently simply because of his status as an Islamic scholar is an emotional approach to politics.
Any criticism, opposition, or political challenges he encounters in the course of pursuing his political ambitions should be seen strictly as political matters. We should avoid bringing his religious status into political debates, because in this context, he is being evaluated and treated as a politician and not as an Islamic cleric.
Just like every other politician, Pantami is not doing anyone a favor by venturing into politics but himself, nobody will spend billions Naira that he has never spent before for his campaign simply because he loves you, that's a FAT LIE!
Politics is a game of public scrutiny, therefore, emotions and religious sentiments should be set aside when assessing and treating political actors and their aspirations.
Hon. Pantami is now a politician and shouldn’t expect any special treatment from the public.
KOWA YA SAYI RARIYA YASAN ZATA ZUBAR DA RUWA!
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
The insecurity in Northern Nigeria is so underreported that some people even think it no longer exists!
We Northerners should be very ashamed of ourselves. Our numbers mean nothing if we can’t use them to speak out and tell the world our stories and grievances.
If we don’t tell our own stories, others will change them.
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
They have a word for every form of resistance.
If you fight with weapons, you are a terrorist.
If you fight with boycotts, you are antisemitic.
If you fight with words, you are spreading hate.
If you fight with international law, you are politicizing the courts.
If you document the casualties, you are spreading propaganda.
If you mourn publicly, you are inciting violence.
If you survive and refuse to be silent about surviving, you are a threat to stability.
There is no form of resistance they will permit.
Because the point was never to find a form of resistance they could accept.
The point was to make resistance itself the crime, so that the original violence, the violence that created the conditions requiring resistance, could be discussed, if at all, as an unfortunate but necessary background detail.
The trick is not complicated.
It just requires everyone to look at the resistance and never at what produced it.
They have spent centuries perfecting the art of controlling where you look.
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
With a trembling voice, he pleaded almost in tears:
“Please, my son is on admission. I’ve just been asked to buy medications costing ₦9,500. I only have ₦4,500. I still need ₦5,000. Please, if anyone can help me; If you want to verify before helping, you can follow me and see my son. Please, I need your help he begged.”
The entire waiting area fell silent.
Then something beautiful happened.
A woman wearing a hijab quietly reached into her bag and handed him some money. Almost immediately, others began to contribute. Support came from every direction, regardless of tribe, religion, or background.
There is a special kind of unity and harmony that exists in hospitals, one that is difficult to describe. In those moments, people stop seeing differences. They simply see another human being in need.
Watching that scene reaffirmed my belief that many Nigerians are, at heart and act, good people. I also offered my support before he left. He graciously thanked everyone repeatedly, his gratitude written all over his face.
As he walked away, overwhelmed with emotion, I watched him make the sign of the cross, lift his hands toward heaven, and whisper prayers I couldn’t hear. He covered his face as he disappeared from sight, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had finally broken down in tears. I’m sure he did.
That moment broke my heart.
Yet, at the same time, it lifted my spirit. It reminded me that before our tribe, ethnicity, religion, or differences, we are first and foremost human beings.
I sincerely pray that God grants his son a quick recovery.
Alexander Pius
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
Fees Before Mines: How Nigeria’s Mining Ministry Became Its Own Worst Enemy
Nigeria’s solid minerals sector generated N68 billion in revenue in 2025, a figure that Minister Dele Alake’s team has trumpeted as proof of a transformed industry. The headline may be accurate but the story behind it is not the one being told.
@UKinNigeria @USinNigeria @NGRPresident @AusHCAbuja @atiku @PeterObi @officialABAT
middlebelttimes.com/2026/07/…
Sheikh Usman Bin Fodio: The Nigerian Muslim Legend:
youtu.be/EDNbm6aYFO0?si=kfTx…
Powerful words of wisdom from Engr (Prof) I M Bugaje on the value of skills over certificates:
———//——-
A strange thing is happening in Nigeria.
A young man spends 20 years climbing the educational ladder.
6 years in primary school.
6 years in secondary school.
4 to 6 years in university.
1 year of NYSC.
By the time he is done, he has invested roughly 6,500 to 7,000 days preparing for life.
Then life arrives and asks a simple question:
“What problem can you solve?”
Silence.
Not because he is unintelligent.
Not because he is lazy.
But because somewhere along the journey, we confused education with certification.
We taught people how to pass exams, not how to create value.
Think about it.
An electrician who never attended university can walk into a building worth N500 million and confidently power every room from the foundation to the penthouse.
A graduate with multiple certificates may stand beside him unable to identify which wire powers the building.
One has credentials.
The other has capability.
The market pays for capability.
That is why reality often delivers a rude mathematical lesson.
If a graduate earns N100,000 monthly, that is N1.2 million annually.
A skilled technician charging N40,000 per job and handling just two jobs weekly earns over N4 million yearly.
Same country.
Different skills.
Different outcomes.
The tragedy is not that one earns more than the other.
The tragedy is that we keep preparing millions of young people for a race that no longer exists.
We celebrate admission lists like victory trophies.
We celebrate graduation photos like guaranteed employment letters.
Then we act surprised when hundreds of applicants compete for one vacancy.
Imagine 1,000 people chasing 10 jobs.
Basic mathematics says 990 people will be disappointed.
No motivational speaker can negotiate with arithmetic.
Yet we continue producing graduates faster than we produce opportunities.
That is like manufacturing keys without building doors.
The painful irony?
The people we once looked down on are increasingly becoming the people we depend on.
When your transformer fails at midnight, you do not call a philosophy graduate.
When your water stops running, you do not search for a political scientist.
When your air conditioner breaks in April heat, theory suddenly becomes less important than technical competence.
The economy has a brutal honesty.
It rewards usefulness more than status.
Nations that understood this long ago built prosperity differently.
They stopped asking only, “How many graduates do we have?”
They started asking, “How many builders, technicians, machinists, coders, welders, mechanics and innovators can we produce?”
There is dignity in intellectual work.
There is dignity in skilled labour.
The mistake is ranking one above the other.
A society that worships certificates while neglecting competence eventually discovers that framed documents cannot build roads, repair machines, wire factories, manufacture products or create wealth.
The future belongs to people who can solve problems.
Whether they learned it in a lecture hall, a workshop, an apprenticeship centre or under a mango tree is secondary.
Because at the end of the day, the market does not award marks.
It awards value.
And value has never asked to see anybody’s certificate before writing the cheque.
May Nigeria win 🇳🇬🇳🇬
Engr Prof IM Bugaje
Executive Secretary,
National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
Hausa architecture demonstrates the philosophy of the Hausa man, and nothing portrays this better than the Courtyard (tsakar gida).
The tsakar gida reflects the value the Hausa place on family. Traditionally, a Hausa home was not built for a single nuclear family. It was built for generations. Brothers grew up together, got married, raised children, and continued living within the same compound. The courtyard became the social fabric that held everyone together.
It wasn't unusual for children to grow up surrounded by multiple fathers and mothers. Your father's brother was not simply an uncle—he was Baba. Your mother's sister was not simply an aunt—she was Mama. Those weren't just titles; they reflected how family responsibilities were shared. Children belonged to the household as much as they belonged to their biological parents.
But that philosophy did not stop at the walls of the house. The values cultivated inside the courtyard flowed into the wider society. The same spirit that made everyone inside the compound feel like one family also shaped the Hausa community beyond it. A child could travel hundreds of kilometres to another Hausa town for Islamic learning or trade and be welcomed into another household, not as a guest, but as a son. Kinship extended beyond blood. The house became the community, and the community became an extension of the house.
The architecture reinforced that way of life. Every room opened into the same courtyard. Children played together there. Elders gathered there. Families ate, celebrated, settled disputes, and lived their daily lives there. The design encouraged constant interaction while preserving the privacy of the home from the outside world.
It was also brilliant from an engineering perspective. The open courtyard improved airflow, brought natural light into every room, reduced heat, and created a comfortable living environment long before electricity or air conditioning.
Nothing in traditional Hausa architecture was accidental. Every wall, every room, every open space reflected the values of the people who built it. The embodied a philosophy of family, community, trust, privacy, and coexistence.
This is the inheritance many of us overlook. When we abandon our indigenous designs without first understanding the ideas embedded within them, we lose more than an architectural style. We gradually weaken the social fabric those designs helped nurture and replace it with ideas that were created for societies with different histories, different climates, and different ways of living.
There is nothing wrong with modernizing. But modernization should not require abandoning ourselves. We should improve what we inherited, not discard it. Because once a people lose the ideas woven into their own civilization, they eventually begin to lose the civilization itself.
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
I am not a fan of Ibrahim Traoré.
Not because I support France. Not because I oppose African sovereignty. And certainly not because I think Africa should accept foreign domination.
There was once a young military officer in Burkina Faso. He was intelligent, disciplined, deeply patriotic, and genuinely wanted a better future for his people. He took power, rejected the old order, promoted self-reliance, fought corruption, invested in health and education, vaccinated millions of children, empowered women, planted millions of trees, and inspired an entire generation of Africans. His name was Thomas Sankara.
Then he was assassinated.
Blaise Compaoré took power and ruled for twenty-seven years. Much of Sankara's vision faded. Burkina Faso did not become permanently transformed because too much depended on one extraordinary man instead of institutions that could outlive him.
That is exactly why I reject the "strongman will save us" narrative.
History has taught me to be suspicious of leaders who present themselves as the answer to a nation's problems.
Every revolutionary begins by saying he is different. Every military ruler claims he is acting for the people. Every strongman promises to restore dignity, sovereignty, and justice. Some even deliver real progress for a time.
But power has a way of changing people, and systems built around one man are fragile. When that man dies, is overthrown, or simply refuses to leave, the country pays the price.
Robert Mugabe was once celebrated as a liberator. Yoweri Museveni entered Kampala promising a new political culture. Muammar Gaddafi spent decades presenting himself as the revolutionary guardian of Libya. Their stories did not end where they began.
Today, I hear reports of journalists being detained or sent to the front lines in Burkina Faso, increasing pressure on dissenting voices, and a growing culture where criticism of the leader is treated as betrayal. Whether every report proves true or not, the direction concerns me because this is how personality cults begin.
Africa does not need another man in military fatigues telling us he alone can rescue the continent.
We need leaders who build institutions stronger than themselves. Leaders who leave behind independent courts, professional civil services, accountable governments, strong schools, productive economies, and armies loyal to the constitution instead of an individual.
A great leader is not measured by what happens while he is alive.
A great leader is measured by what still works twenty years after he is gone.
That is why I admire institution builders more than strongmen.
Ibrahim Traore can continue doing what he is doing in Burkina Faso but I don't want that system anywhere near Nigeria.
Bello Saleh, PhD بيللؤ ساليح۔ retweeted
Northern leaders love bad ideas.
Northern Nigeria is poor because our leaders love bad ideas.
The principle is simple: there are only two ways to become rich. Either you spend less than you earn, or you increase what you earn. That's it.
Now look at Northern Nigeria. Look at the way our leaders spend public money, and you'll understand why poverty remains so widespread across the region.
Take flyovers, for example.
I can understand why cities like Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt or even Kaduna would need a flyover, but what business do Adamawa, Bauchi and Jos have with flyovers?
Adamawa State spent ₦40.6 billion on a super highway, ₦9.264 billion on the Mubi Roundabout Flyover and another ₦13.8 billion on the Fire Service Roundabout Underpass. In fact, the current Adamawa State government has commissioned six flyovers across the state.
Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying flyovers are evil and we should never build them. My argument is about priorities.
A flyover may reduce traffic, but in ten years, it will need maintenance. It will generate little or no direct revenue, and create no ongoing productive industry. The debt we borrowed to build it has to be repaid from revenues generated elsewhere.
Now imagine if that same money went into production instead.
Let's say the state borrowed ₦120 billion to build an agro-industrial processing hub instead of six flyovers. A 10-year loan at around 18% would require annual repayments of about ₦27 billion.
The hub could include rice mills, warehouses, irrigation, reliable power and a logistics centre. It could create 1,000–5,000 direct jobs and another 10,000–30,000 indirect jobs for farmers, transporters, suppliers and small businesses.
Once fully operational, it could realistically generate ₦15–30 billion in annual revenue. That means the project can help pay for its own debt while creating jobs, raising farmers' incomes and increasing the state's tax revenue.
After ten years, the loan is gone.
The factory is still there.
The jobs are still there.
The tax revenue is still there.
The businesses built around it are still there.
That is the difference.
And that is my problem with the way many Northern governors think. We keep borrowing for projects that look impressive instead of projects that can make us richer.
Instead of building a rice mill, we build beautiful flyovers.
Instead of building a tomato processing plant, we sponsor mass weddings.
Instead of building a fertilizer blending plant, we subsidize pilgrimages to Hajj every year.
The North does not have a flyover problem. It has a production problem.
We praise governors for building monuments while our farms, factories, schools and rural roads are left behind. Then we wonder why poverty refuses to leave.
Until we start rewarding leaders for growing the economy instead of decorating it, Northern Nigeria will remain poor.
