Nigeria: Lying As Cornerstone Of Govt Policy And Programme

By Alade Rotimi-John

In local Nigerian parlance, stratagem or the plan for deceiving otherwise trustful people is rendered euphoniously and even metaphorically as “lie, lie” or “connie, connie” (both of them amusing and melodious phraseology for graphically depicting the foible of cunningness, craftiness or guile). The Nigerian political or governmental practice has been largely characterised, particularly these four or so years, by an observable trend in posturing or cunningness by officials of state. These ones have perfected the art of refusing to take personal responsibility for their bumbling, blundering trajectory even as they lament or heap their failures on some extraneous or exogenous circumstance, situation or personage. 

As is normal with the nature and manner of a facile or convenient resort to lie-telling, every excuse or reason for the happening of one event or another, embarrassingly conflicts with an earlier expressed position taken on the same subject matter. Two or three clear indications are visibly discernible. The actors are not unanimous in their explanation of the occurrence of the event for which they speak for the same principal; they operate at cross purposes; and they betray their lack of co-ordination in a situation where coherence is key. For them, to begin to take personal responsibility is also to begin to recognise or admit that Nigeria is on the verge of a self-annihilating precipice even as they are in charge. Courage is up-turned as integrity no longer counts and little store is set for accuracy. 

Terror Nomads

By Louis Odion, FNGE
With the Boko Haram cauldron still smoldering in a corner, it does appear Nigeria is already choking on a much quicker poison: the cocktail of beef and bullet. Or, how else can one describe the apparition of a trigger-happy herdsman now at the national door.
The weapon his forebears carried never used to be more than a stick, to whip the herd into line. And maybe a dagger tucked in a scabbard, to scare potential marauder in the jungle. But the new cattle-rearer has added gleaming AK-47 to his cache. 

The fact that he is migrant makes his own franchise of terror more diffuse, more intimate in savagery. As he wanders day and night from his native dry land up north to greener pasture down south, he has scant regard for the territorial integrity of farm camps he finds on his way.

From the north-central down to communities across the entire south, the siege is complete. The rampaging Ak-47-wielding herdsman leaves a trail of plunder, rape, kidnap and bloodbath. The kind you find in a Grade-A horror movie. Consider a slew of reports in just the past few days. On Wednesday, the Taraba State Government confirmed no fewer than 40 persons were slaughtered allegedly by Fulani herdsmen (20 in Angai village, nine in Maisuma, eight in Dorei and seven in Fali). This time, the fight was not even over farmland. Trouble reportedly started after armed herdsmen were prevented from raping a lady somewhere which angered them and they responded with violence. 

Tuesday came a rather grotesque report from Delta State. A local vigilante comprising a member representing Ethiope East constituency in the state assembly (Evan Ivwurie), security agents and some volunteers simply resorted to self-help by turning the heat on the herdsmen who had formed the habit of attacking farmers in the locality. Dubbed "Operation Arrest, Meet and Engage Their Sponsor", the mission reportedly led to the sacking of herdsmen's camp and their flight deep into the Oria-Abraka forest, in so much panic and haste that they forgot their precious herd behind. 

Ivwurie shared his experience: "I had embarked on a preventive approach to this matter which is identifying the source and taking the battle to the enemy in their domain." (However, the lawmaker was silent on what becomes of the cows: booties or prisoners of war?)
On Monday, in Oyo State, Fulani herdsmen under the auspices of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria spent the better part of the day defending themselves against allegations of vandalizing crops of farmers in Ogbomoso and some parts of Oke Ogun. Rather, they claimed two of their members (Abdu Chika and Buba Kajere) were gruesomely murdered by the farmers. 

*Louis Odion 

A day earlier in Akure, a security guard at a farm settlement owned by a Yoruba leader, Olu Falae, was brutally murdered by suspected herdsmen as usual. This came when some other herdsmen are still standing trial for allegedly kidnapping and torturing the same Falae for several days in September last year.

Abia and Imo entered the radar last weekend following a statement by the Department of State Security that five Fulani herdsmen were killed in a forest along the border of the two states. They were allegedly buried in a shallow grave. Condemning the action at a joint press conference Monday, governors of the two states blamed it on "miscreants".

Few weeks earlier in Enugu, ethnic tension had mounted following the arrest and detention of 76 Agwu villagers who decided to carry arms against Fulani herdsmen who allegedly destroyed not only their farmland but also abducted two of their women. No sooner had the irate villagers formed a barricade than a team of soldiers (said to be of northern extraction) stormed the community and whisked some 76 men in army trucks to neighbouring Abia State.

Embarrassed by the reports, the Army high command later described the perpetrators as "fake soldiers". The puzzle then: how did they acquire military uniforms, officially issued FN 7.62mm military rifles and green-colour military trucks deployed in the "invasion"? So bold, the "fake soldiers" also had the temerity to head straight to the police command to hand over their 76 captives for proper custody!
It eventually took a court pronouncement in Abia before the Agwu 76 were set free after wallowing in detention for days.

However, the Abia/Imo killings are a child's play compared to the genocide perpetrated in the last two months by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Benue communities like Agatu, Buruku, Guma, Gwer-west, Logo, Kwande, Gwer- East and Katsina- Ala. At the last count, more than 1,500 had been butchered so far this year. On a single day in February alone, about 300 were murdered in Okokolo, Akwu, Ugboka and Aila villages (all in Agatu LGA). Entire villages were razed. On March 19, another 500 were butchered in 10 communities of the same LGA. 

Clearly, the nation is now under a siege of sorts. This writer has a personal experience to share. Two or three year ago in Benin, we woke up at my private home to find that the flower garden outside which had taken a fortune to plant and pains and years to cultivate had been completely destroyed by some cows that stomped past overnight. But should everyone resort to the Ethiope formula, there certainly would be no nation again.

Moving forward, I believe a more sustainable panacea to this festering crisis is to first recognize and appreciate the cultural issues involved. Beside immediate economic benefits, farming communities have emotional attachment to their land considered ancestral legacy. Just the same way the Fulani herdsman views his herd as his only store of value and the national landscape as his legitimate pasture. Lasting resolution lies in both parties understanding each other and the boundaries clearly demarcated.

Therefore, what is required at this hour is a leadership that is not only creative but also courageous. President Buhari's dilemma is understandable. Before the last election, the charter of demand by the Fulani included a request for the grazing reserves to hold and nourish their cattle and other animals. But the challenge of statesmanship is to pursue a course of action that also accommodates the interests of others.

To start with, the specter of the herdsman brandishing at all an unlicensed rifle - much less a weapon of mass destruction like AK-47 - constitutes clear and grave assault on public decency. Rushing to deploy such lethal weaponry without inhibition in otherwise civil dispute over right of way on farmland is, to say the least, taking the culture of impunity to a treasonable bend. 

Now is the time for President Buhari, himself a cattle farmer, to go beyond the normal call of duty to stave the dangerously growing perception that seeming official lethargy - if not indifference - to the continued killings is dictated by the spirit of kinship he shares with the rampaging herdsman or that the nomad's renewed audacity, this genocidal reflex, feeds on the opium of expected solidarity from the top. 

Stories have told that the rampaging Fulani herdsmen are not Nigerian. Given their ferocity and that similar incidents were reported even in core northern states, they are suspected to be migrants from Niger, Mali and so on. That being the case, why is the Nigerian nation still shy of responding more strongly? Such attacks ought to be viewed properly then as direct assault on our sovereignty as a nation.

A sure way to start is urgently enunciating a disarmament programme. The wandering herdsman first needs to be engaged to turn in his AK-47 as the minimum pre-condition. Relevant security agencies should be directed to enforce this. The mass killings cannot continue. 

It is commendable that President Buhari, by some policy steps already taken, has the clarity of mind to, at least, appreciate the real existential point at issue: the most sustainable source of pasture for the cattle. This had led Abuja to consult with states with a view to finding lasting solution. Borrowing from modern practices elsewhere, most stakeholders were said to have agreed that the option of ranch is the most feasible and sustainable. But the optimism that a workable solution was finally in sight seems vitiated with a statement credited few days ago to the Agriculture Minister, Audu Ogbeh (himself a successful farmer), that the Federal Government would rather set up grazing reserve. 

In fact, Ogbeh disclosed that based on Buhari's directive, arrangement had been concluded to import improved grass seeds to cultivate the proposed 50,000 hectares of grazing reserves within six months. Bold as the step may appear, the devil is in the details. While Ogbeh's enthusiasm is welcome, it remains to be seen how he hopes to secure the land to start with. The idea of grazing reserves runs counter to ranch which the states are understandably comfortable with. For the extant Land Use Act vests allocation and control of the land resource in state authorities. Besides that, the concurrence of affected communities and landowners also matters. Ogbeh's grazing reserve will, therefore, require a constitutional amendment to begin with. 

Really, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. Ranching provides more decency not only for the cattle-rearer themselves but also their herd. It enables the application of modern techniques in the animal husbandry. It provides clean water, hospital, schools and other facilities for the convenience of the dwellers. Studies have shown that the Nigerian cow suffers stunted growth partly because of the exceedingly harsh condition it is bred. For instance, it is estimated that the average Nigerian cow travels some 25 kilometers per day under scorching sun and is left to quaff polluted water.
If properly harnessed, livestock has potential to raise our national GDP, especially now that there is a renewed clamour to diversify the economy from oil as mono product. According to a 2008 survey, Nigeria's population of cattle was put at 14.7m, out of which 10 percent were classified as milking cows.

Today, no thanks to the herdsman's primitive rearing technique, less than one percent of the cattle population is managed commercially. It explains why the country still spends an average of N50b importing milk and other dairy products annually simply because the full potentials of cattle farming are left untapped. But a relatively smaller country like Uruguay today owes the bulk of its national wealth to livestock. In 2014, it exported $1.4b worth of beef, $800m of dairy products and $400m of leather goods. At 3.3 million population, its per capital income is a whopping $22,000.
Changing the Nigerian narratives for the better means rethinking the way we work and live.

*Odion is a former Commissioner for Information, Edo State

Nigeria: They Who Must Rule

By Dan Amor

Nigeria has been reduced to a killing field no thanks to Fulani ag­gressors who think that the entire geographical entity called Nigeria is an extension of the Caliphate built by their great warrior, Uthman Dan Fodio dur­ing the Jihad war ostensibly to Is­lamise Nigeria. It is this madness borne out of sheer ignorance and vainglorious arrogance that Nige­ria is their land that makes them invade farmlands belonging to other Nigerians to kill and maim people with impunity just for their cattle to graze on other peo­ple’s crops. 

The horrendous kill­ing of innocent Nigerians across the country by recalcitrant Fulani herdsmen who now bear lethal arms such as AK 47, Pump Action and other dangerous weapons, is outrageous and condemnable, to say the least. Indeed, the manner in which the herdsmen are kill­ing people and raping women and girls on their farms these days is benumbing and wholly unwhole­some. What started like a straw of fire in Ohoror in Afeitere Com­munity in Ugheli North Council of Delta State in 2006 has spread all over the country with the Fed­eral Government keeping mum as though nothing is happening. In 2014, the convoy of the then sit­ting governor of Benue State, Hon. Gabriel Suswam was waylaid by rampaging Fulani herdsmen with the diabolic intention of killing the governor.

The wanton and reckless killing of Tiv farmers by Fulani herdsmen is ongoing. In Jos North local government area of Plateau State, the Fulani whose plot is to exterminate the entire Berom tribe who are the true owners of the land are no longer preten­tious over their wicked intention. Ripples of the Agatu massacre in which a peaceful community in Benue State was recently invaded by Fulani irredentists with untold magnitude of deaths involving both adults and children are yet to settle down. In the midst of all this, the same Fulani herdsmen are still battling with Awgu farmers in Enugu State over which 76 farmers are detained in Umuahia. What re­ally do the Fulani want in Nigeria? Do they want another civil war?

And Nigerians are yet to hear this government of change con­demn with vehemence this degree of anomie which has entombed the Nigerian landscape like a vol­canic eruption. The Fulani mas­sacre is not just another disturbing specter of violence orchestrated to dent the contours of the nation, but part of the general air of inse­curity and vendetta ravaging this misbegotten country. Since for­mer President Goodluck Jonathan was declared winner of the April 2011 Presidential election, those who think they possess the divine right to rule Nigeria in perpetu­ity started a campaign of violence and vowed to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan. This is the genesis of the nebulous and senseless Boko Haram insurgency in the country. As we write, there are pockets of killings going on in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Kwara anchored by these same Fulani elements. As though Nige­ria is prosecuting a conventional war, Boko Haram whose cardinal mission is to halt the advancement of Western education in Nigeria and Islamise the entire country has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced over two million Nigerians in the North east.