Ahmed Salim Jn

  Community health practitioners occupy a vital yet often understated position in the journey toward national development. In a country like Nigeria, where healthcare challenges are as diverse as its people, their presence at the grassroots becomes not just important, but indispensable. They stand as the bridge between the healthcare system and the everyday realities of the people. Long before policies translate into measurable outcomes, it is these practitioners who carry health services into homes, villages, and underserved communities. Working often in difficult and resource-constrained environments, they confront a wide spectrum of issues, from infectious diseases to maternal and child health concerns. Their work may not always be visible, but its impact quietly shapes the health profile of the nation. At the heart of their responsibilities lies health promotion and disease prevention. Rather than waiting for illness to occur, community health practitioners focus on awareness, ...

  Electricity has remained one of the most persistent challenges in our society, long before many of us in this generation were born. Sadly, instead of witnessing lasting improvement, many students have simply grown used to irregular power supply as though it were a normal condition of life. Yet, it is not normal. It is a serious problem that affects businesses, workplaces, families, and, very significantly, students living and learning in university communities. For a university student, electricity is not merely a convenience; it is part of the foundation for effective learning. Academic life today depends heavily on technology. Reading materials are often stored on phones, tablets, and laptops. Assignments are typed and submitted online. Research frequently requires internet access, digital libraries, and laboratory equipment. When electricity is unstable, all of these are disrupted. A student may be in the middle of studying for an examination or completing an assignment, only ...

On the 21st of February, 2026, several online news outlets, including Kemi Filani, Telegraph Nigeria, and Punch Newspaper reported a case involving a social media user, asakyGRN. In a video, a man claimed that his sister was asked to remove her hijab before being photographed at a JAMB centre. According to him: "I followed my sister to the JAMB centre to collect her form. She was told to remove her hijab before she could be captured. After the capturing, they asked her to sign an undertaking for wearing a hijab. And she signed it to follow the global standards of passport photography since her ears were not captured." In response, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), through its verified account, stated: "Thank you for your concern. However, it is important to state clearly that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, whether in the past or present, has never issued any directive prohibiting candidates from wearing the hijab." Ironically, in th...

  The first word that came to my mind when I saw the incident at the Ibadan JAMB centre was dehumanization. I looked it up to gain a clearer understanding and found that the United Nations defines dehumanization as "the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities, leading others to view them as less than fully human." Furthermore, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights describes dehumanization in practice as actions or language that "deny the humanity of individuals or groups, often portraying them as animals, vermin, or objects." In this case, she is a suspect even before she arrived at the venue.  We are human beings, and we have been taught that we possess rights, "fundamental human rights." In fact, my Citizenship Education teacher emphasized that these rights cannot be taken away unless one oversteps their lawful limits. Among these rights is the right to freedom of religion. And he taught us these r...

As younglings, especially those of us from large families, there was a quiet formula to food in the home. It was so consistent that it became tradition without anyone needing to announce it. We would meet our mummies making rice for lunch, swallow for dinner, and leftovers (ébécha) for breakfast. That was the rhythm of life. It was a formula so keenly maintained that only once in a blue moon would we have rice for dinner or breakfast. Maybe when yam was harvested and there was enough palm oil, we would have boiled yam and oil for breakfast or lunch. That meal was truly sumptuous, especially with ité  ( palm oil sludge), usually extracted from the bottom after the needed oil had been collected during processing. Sometimes we roasted the yams. Fries were usually accompanied by Akamu (pap), with or without sugar. Good old days indeed. We could also have égwa agugu (iron beans), “iron beans” because of how much heat and time it took before it softened enough to become edible. Yet when ...

  One of the most troubling questions in medicine is not always how to cure disease, but who gets the chance to be treated at all. In many parts of the world, especially in our various communities here in Nigeria, healthcare is often less available to the poor not because their illnesses are less serious, but because their pockets are less deep. And I believe this is largely part of the reason(s) the services of unlicensed practitioners are being sought after at high rates, especially in our local communities. This raises a difficult but necessary moral question, should poverty determine who receives healthcare? Think it through. On humanitarian grounds, the answer is supposed to be "NO". Illness is already a burden; poverty should not become its punishment. Yet this issue is more complex than it first appears. Many patients cannot afford treatment because of unemployment, low income, inflation, poor insurance coverage(a large percentage of Nigerian citizens have no idea how ...