Showing posts with label Mad Cow Disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Cow Disease. Show all posts

Monday, May 30, 2016

Far From The Madding Cows

By Lekan Alabi   
On Thursday, May 19, 2016, it was 20 years when my article (satire) of the above title was published in major Nigerian newspapers – for ease of reference, the Sunday Times issue of May 19, 1996. I wrote the satire in the heady days of Nigeria’s military dictator, the late General Sani Abacha, whose regime tortured Nigerians most, and the motivation for the article was the ravaging Mad Cow Disease Bovine Spongriform Encephalopathy (BSE) of that time. In the article, I wrote, inter alia, “Oftentimes, during the long treks in search of food, our cows act as ‘mediators’ between their dagger-wielding owners and landowners / farmers when they get mad at each other over grazing rights. Roles reversal you will say”.
Could anyone ever imagine cows ‘mediating’ between their owners and landowners/farmers over grazing rights in Nigeria? But that was my statement even though on allegory, 20 years ago. Today, Nigeria is in the precipice of cows mediating between their owners and landowners/farmers, if great care and diplomacy, are not urgently taken.
The raging national controversy over the speculated Federal Government’s proposed N940 million grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen especially in Southern Nigeria, and attendant protests against the plan, coupled with the reported atrocities of herdsmen across the land, spurred my reach for my said article. One of the aims of the recall is to draw public / government attention again to what I said in 1996. It is not a joking matter, as they say.
I wish to lend my voice to the ongoing reasoned calls/advice that negotiations, rather than government fiat/sentiments, are the better options in the pros and cons for ranches, grazing rights, path ways, etc to avoid an unnecessary chaos, bloodletting and what have you. As a saying goes, sense and sensibilities are quite often embedded in jokes/banters.
Following is my 1996 article (excerpts). Please ponder on it.
“What lessons can human beings learn from animals?” I asked. How naïve I was! Scientists have since proved that animal share basic instincts with man. They also feel, communicate and react. Nigerian herdsmen have authenticated this scientific theory on animal communication, as they (herdsmen) talk to, and receive responses from their cows and goats.
“Recently, I overhead some Nigerian cows discussing the raving malady afflicting their British counterparts, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise called the mad cow disease. The submission of our local breed was that British cows, having been part of the revolution on the “Animal Farm”, had become over-pampered along with their fellow co-plotters such as dogs, cats, horses, pigs, birds, etc.
“Our cows are of the opinion that since animals in foreign lands are treated like gods, live in palaces, fly first class, ride in limousines, attend balls, inherit fortunes and get state burials, madness cannot but creep in.