Journalism’s Future At Risk

 By Ray Ekpu

Last week my colleagues in the media industry bestowed on me the treasured trophy of honour twice, first on Thursday in Lagos and next on Friday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The Lagos event was organised by the National body of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by its president, Mr. Chris Isiguzo.

About 20 of us were given what was elaborately called media icon awards. And the awardees included such a renowned journalist as Senator Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi, a former minister and a former Senator, Mr. Henry Odukomaiya who in addition to being a well-known practitioner was also a creative manager of the newspaper business and Professor Ralph Akinfeleye, an eminent teacher of journalists, among others.

Stop Terrorists Influx Into Nigeria!

 By Tola Adeniyi 

Buoyed by the spectacular achievement of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari in his rabid drive of the undisguised Fulanization Agenda, 16 countries where the pastoral Fulani could be found were emboldened to gather in Abuja recently to perfect their grand design of taking over the Nigerian space by hook or crook. The theme of their meeting, hosted by the Unitary Government headquartered in Abuja, was the Future of the Fulani in Nigeria or better put, Stairs to the complete Conquest and Subjugation of the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria. 

Nobody has been left in doubt that President Buhari who is the Grand Patron of the ubiquitous and muscle-flexing Miyetti Allah [which has unabashedly owned up to serial bloodletting in Plateau, Benue and Taraba states] and also the preferred Chief Negotiator for the one of the world’s leading Terrorist Groups, Boko Haram [‘Attack on Boko Haram is attack on the North’—Buhari 2014] is bent on completing the ferocious Jihad of 1848 on behalf of the Caliphate. 

The die is cast! Tens of large trucks, with Dangote boldly written on some of them, carrying heavily armed terror recruits, are seen on daily basis flooding borderless Nigeria with the avowed intent to unleash unmitigated mayhem and mass massacre on defenceless indigenous peoples of Nigeria on a scale never before seen anywhere in Africa. In fact, by the time they finish the execution of their heartless and horrendous crime against humanity, the Rwanda’s better-forgotten genocide would be a child’s play in comparison.

Nigeria: Nomination Forms And Looters' Ticket To National Treasury

By Tola Adeniyi 

I really no longer consider it worthwhile for me to waste my time writing, talking or thinking about Nigeria.  It is not helpful to my sanity to dwell in or on a building about to collapse, even though I am worried stiff about the calamity knocking at the door.   

Nigeria is irredeemably in ruins; it is only those who are benefitting from the cracks and crumbs that are still living in self-denial.   

Regrettably there are millions entrapped in the Contraption who simply don't know what to do or where to go or who to turn to. And my heart is in there with them.  

Nigeria: Cattle Breeders, Human Butchers And Terrorists

 By Tola Adeniyi

When will this mindless bloodletting stop? When will the mindless expansionist dreamers end their foolish dreams? When will the curse of the Berlin Conference of 1884/85 leave Africans to live their lives? When will the negligible minority who has cornered power and position realize the emptiness of this transient life and allow fellow human beings to spend their brief days on planet Earth in peace? When will mankind submit itself to reasoning and reasonableness?

The recurrent disturbing news broke again that the innocent farmers struggling to get mere subsistent living were hacked down, as usual, in Benue State. And the perennial culprits, the notorious human butchers were alleged to be those who had sworn that human lives are inferior to cows’ lives and people must choose between surrendering their ancestral lands to either to cows or brutish death. 

When will this end? When? When will the programmed pogrom going on now in Southern Kaduna stop? When will the mindless ethnic cleansing stop? The unprovoked genocide et al???

We must begin to make the distinction between Cattle Breeders, Human Butchers and Terrorists if we are ever going to be able to get to the bottom of these recurring horrendous killings in our land. And we must once and for all debunk the ruse that all the killings, arsons, butchering and kidnapping-for-ransom have anything to do with religion.

Restructure Nigeria Or Fracture Her

By Tola Adeniyi  

 I start this column today with a heavy heart and great pity for both Nigeria and those armed to the teeth to bring her down. In the past couple of weeks I wrote about the thirteen threats to Ni­geria’s survival and the need for the Federal Government to bend a little to stop Nigeria from break­ing up.

But the threat last Monday by the latest Militants in the Ni­ger Delta to collapse Nigeria with their missiles [apparently purchased with the humongous amount dashed to them under the Amnesty Project] has warranted a second look at the whole develop­ing scenario.

I am compelled to issue a warn­ing here. Even if the Militants believe they have the strongest army in the world, they should do a rethink. One can only boast about the outbreak of a war; no one can categorically predict its end. The Militants should sheath their swords and call for dialogue instead of threatening to destroy Nigeria without giving a thought to the credible possibility of also getting themselves and the region they claim to be fighting for burnt in the inferno.

Nowhere in the world has any militant group waging a war of self determination or seces­sion succeeded in destroying the whole country. PKK in Turkey and Tamil Tigers in Sri-Lanka are ready examples. Tamil Tigers campaign lasted for over 40 years and in the end they had to settle for dialogue. PKK is still at it and Turkey is still waxing stronger by the day.

Nigeria survived without oil in the 50s and 60s and prosecuted a gruesome, albeit needless war without oil and without bor­rowing a Kobo from the outside world. Nigeria can call the bluff of the oil producing region and operate on Zero oil revenue. She will fall on her knees but sooner or later will gather her senses and bounce back!

Having said this, I think it is high time the Federal Government began the process of quick and in­evitable restructuring of the polity. Whoever or whatever group that is standing against restructur­ing does not wish this bleeding country well. It is gratifying that the likes of Atiku Abubakar have joined the chorus of what people have been clamouring for in the last 60 years. The ferocious cam­paigns of JS Tarka, JS Olawoyin and Adaka Boro were all inspired by the burning desire to have Ni­geria restructured.

13 Threats To Nigeria

By Tola Adeniyi  

With this title several readers will jump to the conclusion that the dreaded but now degraded Boko Haram terrorist group should occupy the Number one slot while the Fulani herdsmen terrorists and the new Ijaw Avengers would rank second and third respectively. They are wrong!

While the menace of the three mentioned terrorist groups constitutes grave threat and danger to Nigeria’s corporate existence and her economic resurrection, the combined menace of the three will pale into insignificance when placed side by side with the menace of the criminal silence of Nigerians in the face of the serious onslaught perennially and perpetually unleashed on the country by a handful of vultures who have bled Nigeria to near death with their insane looting of the country.

The Number 1 threat to corporate Nigeria is the unexplainable timidity of all Nigerians, the criminal silence of the masses in the face of the huge theft of their patrimony by a handful. Sometimes I wonder if Nigeria is the same country that produced legendary Aminu Kano, Madam Sawaba, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Joseph Sarwan Tarka, Adaka Boro, Tai Solarin, Arthur Nwankwo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Beko Ransome-Kuti and fiery Gani Fawehinmi among a few others.

Inability to speak out against evil, against injustice, against oppression, depression and deprivation is the beginning of calamitous tragedy. Nigerians have kept too quiet for too long that we now have a deadly monster that has almost swallowed us up as a people. Can we pretend not to know when our school drop-out neighbour who became chairman of local government suddenly started putting up a mansion and assembling porch cars in his yard? Did we not see Ghana-Must-Go bags being loaded and off loaded in the National Assembly? Did we not see our governors, presidents and other public officials suddenly becoming billionaires? We kept quiet.

Grazing Bill An insult To Nigerians

By Tola Adeniyi

The National Assembly is about to pass a Bill that is set to kill whatever is left of our so-called over-centralised federal System. The bill if passed will be the greatest rape on our democracy and the biggest insult on our collective sensitivity as a people and as a country.

“The Fulani National Grazing Reserve” is presently before the National Assembly. The bill has successfully scaled through second reading in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. For it to become law it is to pass through the third reading.

The bill seeks to provide for the establishment of national grazing reserves and stock routes. It is sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure.

The Bill proposes to establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC) for the country. The NGRC will be charged with the responsibility of using funds received from the Federal Government to forcefully acquire farmlands from Nigerians in all the 36 States of the country, develop same at government expense through the provision of bore holes, water reservoirs, etc; for the exclusive use of nomadic cattle rearers.

The issue here is very clear. Fulani herdsmen are cattle farmers. They could as well keep their cattle in ranches. They could devise whatever means like their counterparts in Argentina, Australia and the rest of the civilised world to do their animal husbandry. The men and boys roaming the streets, roads and bushes driving cattle are not the owners of these animals. They are just employees, labourers, attendants or whatever name they are called.

The owners of these cows like Generals Obasanjo, Nyako, Abdulsalami Abubakar and our president Buhari are big time farmers. They are businessmen. It is immoral to ask tax payers to finance the operations of these businesses. Cattle owners must provide capital through bank loans or whatever means to create their grazing lands in their localities. The cows are not owned by the Federal Government.

Just as the Federal Government is not creating farm lands for cocoa and kolanut farmers in Sokoto or Katsina, or creating farm lands for Agatu yam farmers in Enugu or Maiduguri, or creating special areas for fish farming in Zungeru, it cannot for any reason ever consider creating special lands for herdsmen for grazing. Let the herdsmen run their business without encroaching on the lands of other people. Let the cattle owners buy into the Fodder technology and other modern methods of providing feeds for their animals without roaming the streets and plundering other people’s farms.

To ever dream of this perverted bill is to step on the toes of other Nigerians and step on sore foot, and by so doing create a dangerous precedent.

Nobody should play ethnic game here. This is not an issue directed against any ethnic nationality in Nigeria. The simple matter is to let those who trade in cattle fund their business like all other businesses, including farming, in Nigeria.

The bill must not see the light of the day. The sponsors want to create serious problem in the polity and their design must be nipped in the bud.

The Nigeria Bar Association, the Coalition of Civil Societies, and all those who care about the continued existence of this troubled country must rise up to strongly oppose and kill this obnoxious and self serving bill. It beats my imagination that members of the National Assembly did not see the serious danger posed by this corrosive Bill.

In a reaction to the threats posed by this obnoxious Bill, the National Co-ordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, says: “Without any doubt, this is a very dangerous proposal for Nigeria. We all have seen how the Fulani herdsmen kill and maim members of the community where they graze their cattle without the backing of any law. I am sure that we can only imagine what their attitudes would be if the supposed grazing reserves are forcefully taken over by government and handed over to the herdsmen.”

Nigeria has enough problems on her hand right now; we should not provoke new and potentially more dangerous ones.

•Chief Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, is Executive Chairman, The Knowledge Plaza and Founder Global Intelligentsia for Buhari. (adetolaadeniyi@hotmail.com)