Nation Builders Magazine

By Faruk Ahmed If you ever want to test your patience, your sanity, and your faith in humanity, try registering an NGO in Nigeria. Not a business name – that’s a different nightmare. No, I mean an Incorporated Trustees – the kind that lets you do charity, advocacy, and community work. We did it. Took six months and six rejections. But we finally got our name approved. Here is what we learned – the hard way – so you don’t have to..   Lesson 1: Lawyers are expensive, but AI is deceptive If you have the budget, hire a lawyer. If you are like us – a group with a shoestring budget – you do it yourself. We turned to AI. It wrote a beautiful constitution. Aims and objectives that would make any philanthropist weep. But CAC rejected it. Twice. Why? Because AI does not know that “advocacy” and “campaigns” are red flags for the Corporate Affairs Commission. It does not know that “civic mobilisation” sounds like a protest group. It does not know that hashtags belong on Twitter, not in legal d...

By Faruk Ahmed On March 16, 2026, a suicide bomber detonated in Maiduguri’s Post Office area. The blast killed dozens. Among the dead were four young boys – Almajirai – who had gone out to beg for their daily meal. Their teacher, Ibrahim Goni, wept on Trust TV:  “I have seven of them. They all went out that day. Three returned home. Four didn't. We found their bodies in the teaching hospital. I wasn't myself for days.” He had mentored those children for years. They lived in his household. He fed them, taught them the Qur’an, and sent them to the streets with plastic bowls. That day, they walked into hell. This is not just a story of poverty. It is a story of  radicalisation waiting to happen .   The bloody roots The connection between the Almajiri system and violent extremism is not accidental. It is historical. Muhammad Marwa , known as  Maitatsine , was a preacher who raged against radios, watches, bicycles, and the Nigerian state. He attracted a fo...