President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), who defeated
incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan during the March 28 General
Election, has been named in the Time Magazine annual 100 influential people in the world list for 2015. He leads three other Nigerians in the list.
The TIME 100 is an annual list of 100 most influential people in the
world whose works are changing the world, regardless of the
consequences of their actions
In a release yesterday by the magazine, Buhari was named under the
leaders category and described as a new choice for Nigeria, written by Time’s Africa bureau chief, Aryn Baker.
Leader of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, Obiageli Ezekwesili and
award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were also included in
the list.
The inclusion of the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Abubakar
Shekau in the list has generated mixed reactions among Nigerians.
Buhari, Ezekwesili and Shekau made the leaders category while Adichie was named under the artist category.
Buhari: For ousting a sitting president
“Muhammadu Buhari made history in March by becoming the first
candidate to oust a sitting Nigerian President through the ballot box.
Now he has to live up to voters’ expectations,” noted Baker.
He set agenda for Buhari thus: “From battling the Boko Haram
insurgency to tackling endemic corruption, Buhari has many challenges
ahead. The greatest may be overcoming his past as a military ruler who
seized power in 1983. Already the born-again democrat is demonstrating
the inclusivity necessary to lead a nation riven by ethnic and religious
tensions. “We must begin to heal the wounds and work toward a better
future,” he said in his April 1 victory speech.
“We do this first by extending a hand of friendship and conciliation
across the political divide.” It’s a promising start for a
President-to-be who wants to leave a legacy to match the historic
conditions of his election” Baker submitted.
‘Chimamanda, a rare novelist’
Chimamanda Adichie was described as Conjurer of character, in an essay by Deputy Managing editor of Time,
Radhika Jones. The author of Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus
was described as a rare novelist who in the space of a year finds her
words sampled by Beyoncé, optioned by Lupita Nyong’o and honoured with
the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
“A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Adichie writes of the complex
aftermath of Nigeria’s colonial history and her nation’s rise to
prominence in an era when immigration to the West no longer means a
one-way ticket.
With her viral TEDxEuston talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” she
found her voice as cultural critic. (You can hear it rising midway
through Beyoncé’s woman-power anthem “Flawless.”) She sets her love
stories amid civil war (Half of a Yellow Sun) and against a backdrop of
racism and migration (Americanah). But her greatest power is as a
creator of characters who struggle profoundly to understand their place
in the world” Jones wrote.
Oby gets it for championing BringBackOurGirls campaign
“Like northern Uganda, where I live, northern Nigeria is very
isolated. For many years, the women who were abducted from our region
remained invisible. So although I have not met Obiageli Ezekwesili, I
know the #BringBackOurGirls campaign that she championed is very
important. It would have taken a long time to raise awareness about the
girls taken by Boko Haram without her using her platform as a former
Minister of Education,” were the words of Uganda activist, Sister
Rosemary Nyirumbe on Ezekwesili.
Shekau, the scourge of Africa
Shekau was described as the “scourge of Africa” by Carter Ham, a
former United States Army general, who served as the second Commander,
U.S. Africa Command.
He added that Shekau who took over the Boko Haram group in 2009
after the group had been weakened by the Nigerian military, is the most
violent killer Nigeria has ever seen.
“Shekau, who is believed to be in his 30s, began to stage
increasingly daring kidnapping and killing raids on schools, churches
and mosques thought by Boko Haram to be violating their interpretation
of Islam. The taking of over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 brought Boko
Haram into the international spotlight”.
“By most accounts, Boko Haram has killed more than 10,000 people and
is spreading into neighboring countries. Shekau’s latest action may
finally summon a U.S. response: he has publicly aligned his group with
ISIS, the terrorist group that holds territory in Syria and Iraq and has
expanded its reach into Yemen and Libya,” he submitted.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Barrack and Michele Obama of the
United States of America; King of Saudi Arabia,King Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud; North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un; Prime Minister of
Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu; German chancellor, Angela Merkel as well as
entertainment stars like Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift made
the list.
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