The Fallacy Of Herders-Farmers Crisis

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Former Lagos State Governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, made a profound statement when he paid a condolence visit to the family of elder statesman and Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure on July 14, 2019. Fasoranti’s daughter, Funke Olakunrin, was gunned down two days earlier at Ore junction on the Sagamu-Benin highway, and her driver, Tayo Ogundare, said hooded men emerged from the bush to attack them.

*Buhari and El-Rufai 

Announcing the tragedy the same day, the then Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, blamed herdsmen for it. His claim was echoed by the deceased’s brother, Kehinde Fasoranti, who told journalists that policemen at Ore police station confirmed that his sister was killed by herdsmen.

Tinubu was not impressed and cautioned against stigmatising herdsmen. “I am extremely concerned about security but I don’t want stigma. I can go through history of kidnapping and we know how it started, where it all started. There are lots of copycats. How many years ago have we faced insecurity in this country and cases of kidnapping?

Buhari Is Encouraging Secession – Ayo Adebanjo

 

*Adebanjo 

The National leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s unyielding opposition to the widespread yearning of Nigerians for the restructuring of the country is swelling the ranks self-determination agitators and fueling the demands for secession.

Speaking at the Service of Songs in honour of the late Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, at the Police College Ikeja on Thursday, April 22, Adebanjo stated that if Buhari claims to be a democrat, he would not have refused to gratify the yearning of the people to have the country restructured:

“It’s Buhari that encourages secession. Those of us calling for restructuring are the people who want Nigeria to stay. They mention Igboho, they mention Nnamdi Kanu. These people represent the youths here, because the suffering is much; the suffering is bad. And if they don’t restructure Nigeria, we’ll have more Igbohos, we’ll have more Nnamdi Kanus. I don’t support secession and don’t oppose it,” he said. 

Scorpions And Frogs Of Nigeria

 

By Yinka Odumakin

 I was talking of how comprehensive incompetence of some of our compatriots who lack ability to lead is doing much damage to this country and may sentence it to death if we don’t reset quickly. 

The wonder in the piece was the likely dangers we face with those who went to hold a sectional meeting in Kaduna and still had the shameless gut to be mouthing “indivisibility” and other words they don’t know the meaning. The apartheid gathering had in attendance all Arewa big men holding federal appointments. I mentioned that those who attended that meeting and sanctioned it would do other million things wrong and would not see anything wrong with them because they can’t just see it because they are narrow and have no regard for others. 

We had yet to put that behind us when news filtered in that the Federal Government which had shut the Western borders with other Western countries had opened them for northern businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. The action sparked rage in the country. I particularly noticed the forthrightness of Mr Atedo Peterside in condemning the largely inconsiderate action that shows disregard for other businesses that have been dealt a deadly blow for several months. Ghanaians who have been taking it up against Nigerians in that country can now see what the government is doing to Nigerians. 

Zamfara And Nigeria At Crossroads

 By Yinka Odumakin

The great political philosopher and polemicist, Leon Trotsky, once talked of professor of Spring who was teaching the subject in a classroom for years. He came out one day and was face-to face with Spring but he denied it saying it must be some disorder in nature. 

           *President Buhari and Zamfara State Gov Bello Muhammad Matawalle

So it is with Nigeria that got its independence on a federal constitution with a very lean exclusive list. But the aberration of military rule with command and control bloated the exclusive list to give virtually everything to the centre stripping the federating units. The centre became too fat to be productive and the units too lean to have a healthy existence. 

Nasir El Rufai And Wages Of Sin

by Yinka Odumakin  

The Nigerian Bar Association, in an audacious move and a very classic naming and shaming act, has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to speak at its conference following protests from some lawyers. 

The tweet on Thursday announcing the decision read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor.” 

*Gov El Rufai and President Buhari 

A petition to stop the governor started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on Change. Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.            

In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’ addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi(SAN), some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference. 

Third Term Agenda And The Buhari We Don’t Know

By Banji Ojewale

Some compatriots say we wouldn’t know the real man we have as our president until the chickens come home to roost in 2023. In that year, would President Muhammadu Buhari have removed the veil to succumb to the current sacrilegious clamour to go for a fatal tenure extension? Would he have given in to calls to trash the Constitution so he can walk on the slippery ground euphemistically termed third term? Would he be the Buhari of the wailers? Or of the hailers?

*Buhari 

In 2023, is Buhari going to remain the man we’ve always known as our beloved president? Or a stranger foisted on us? Would he be the bride we didn’t pay our dowry for? Would the husband discover he’d been shortchanged at the point where only God would be the Unseen and Silent Onlooker? Would there be a supplanter at work?

Nigerian Unity Is Negotiable

‘Only Restructuring Will Ensure The Unity, Peace And Development Of Nigeria’ – Southern Leaders Forum (SLF)

“President Buhari expressed dissatisfaction about comments on Nigeria (while he was away) that ‘questioned our collective existence as a nation’ and which he said has crossed the ‘red lines’. Against the background of the threat to treat hate speech as terrorism, we see a veiled threat to bare fangs and commence the criminilisation of dissenting opinions in our national discourse. Experience worldwide has shown that any attempt to deal with dissents by force usually drives it underground, which makes it much more dangerous and difficult to deal with.

“The president deployed the imagery of the late Ikemba Ojukwu to play down the demand for the renegotiation of the structure of Nigeria by saying they both agreed in Daura, in 2013, that we must remain one and united. While we agree with them, the meeting between the two of them could not have been a Sovereign National Conference whose decisions cannot be reviewed. The claim that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable is untenable. If we are a settled nation, we would not be dealing with the crisis of nation building that are affecting us today.

El-Rufai: Accessory After The Fact Of Murder

By Yinka Odumakin

An accessory before the fact is one whose will contributes  to the felony committed  and he must be too  far away to render assistance, or he becomes a principal in the second degree. An accessory is criminally responsible for all the probable consequences of the act committed. An accessory after the fact is one who, knowing a felony has been committed, aids the felon in his effort to escape punishment. 

 

*El-Rufai

It is essential that the accessory after the fact should have notice that the person whom he assists has committed a felony, and the felony must have been fully completed. Also that the assistance  given is  to prevent the apprehension, trial or punishment  of the felon. This introductory definition is necessary in appreciating the confessions by the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that he knows the murderers who have been killing the minority Christians in Southern Kaduna and has been making monetary compensations to them instead of bringing them to justice.

The  Vanguard edition of December 3,2016 quoted the governor as telling newsmen the unimaginable: 

“For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post-election violence. Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt  and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries. 

“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.

“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle. 

“So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge. 

“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that. 

“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing. 

“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger Republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.” 

Adekunle Fajuyi: They Want Us To Forget

By Yinka Odumakin

The ancient city of Ibadan comes alive on Friday July 29, 2016 as dignitaries from all walks of life converge to remember that gallant, brave and outstanding soldier, Col Adekunle Fajuyi, who was murdered 50 years ago by Northern military officers who massed on the capital of the Western Region to take out then Head of State, Major General Johnson Aguiyi- Ironsi.

*Col Adekunle Fajuyi

The International Conference at the University of Ibadan is the place to be as prolific writer and teacher, Prof Niyi Osundare, speaks on “Fajuyi and the Politics of Remembrance”. Fiery preacher, Pastor Tunde Bakare and Prof Wale Adebanwi will spice his thoughts.

I spoke with a 27-year-old a few weeks back and I was shocked he had no idea who Fajuyi was. And it quickly dawned on me that those who stopped the teaching of History in our schools have succeeded in wiping off the   memory   card of our pertinent stories. They want us to be blank but we must keep telling our stories. Adekunle Fajuyi did not commit any crime than the fact that he was playing host to Ironsi on July 29,1966 when Northern officers who staged a revenge coup following the Kaduna Nzeogwu-led coup of January 15,1966 struck.

Disgruntled Northern officers led by Murtala Mohammed, TY Danjuma, Martin Adamu and others spearheaded a rebellion within the army after the event of January. On one occasion, Murtala called Ironsi a “fool” in the presence of other officers and threatened to avenge the death of his Northern officer colleagues. His position as the Inspector of Signals became quite veritable for the planning of the revenge coup nicknamed “Operation Araba” (Araba is Hausa word for let’s divide it). Murtala and his Northern colleagues had totally lost confidence in the Nigerian federation and their plan was to break Northern region from Nigeria.

Their politicians had earlier pulled out of the Federal Parliament in 1953 after the crisis that followed their rejection of Enahoro’s motion that Nigeria should become independent in 1956.They produced an eight-point demand which effectively wanted a confederal Nigeria as a precondition to return. As their coup began on July 29, 1966, it was Murtala who coordinated the take-over of  the International Airport in Lagos, an edifice to be named after him 10 years later. When he and his troops arrived the airport, they hijacked planes to ferry their families back to the North as a prelude to the exit of the region from Nigeria.

 An Igbo officer (Captain Okoye) was captured by them and tied to an iron cross and beaten to death. In Military units across Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan, Northern troops went gaga and murdered their Igbo colleagues in gruesome manner, eliminating hundreds of them. The arrowhead of the whole operation was Murtala who had close links with NPC as his Uncle Inuwa Wada was the Defence Minister. When Danjuma and co arrived Ibadan they made for the Government House where there was a detachment of 106 Artillery commanded by William Walbe from Plateau State on guard. It later came to light that Walbe was part of the conspiracy. He later became ADC to Gowon. By some act of naivety Fajuyi’s ADC was one Lt Adamu, while Ironsi had Lt Sani Bello.