The Value and Use of Residency

Nigerian public officials are used to employ self – righteous indignation or issues of general interest which in most cases, is not in accord with reality or even in the best interest of majority of the people. By so doing, they open up themselves to accusation of serving certain interest other than for altruistic ends. Not just that, as leaders of the people they mislead their followers and create confusion, the effects of which they are ill – prepared and ill – equipped to contain. Residency in another country is a permission to live in a place for some length of time, the state of living in a particular place on a long term basis. In other words, a resident is a person who by choice or necessity elects to live in a place other than his/her place of origin or birth. The operating words in this description of a resident are: choice or necessity. Now every choice has a price which includes, but not limited to fore-going certain privileges so as to have your way. Since no one can eat the cake and still have it, there must be a forfeiture of one thing in order to acquire something else. If taking up residence in another territory different from your own is by necessity or compulsion, it connotes that you cannot foist your values or foibles on the people of your host territory. You will need to pay the price of conformity if you are to live in peace with your hosts. In a traditional society of a multicultural nature, the unwillingness or non-conformity on the part of a resident is a violation of the norms of the host community for which prescribed sanctions are applied. Refusal to comply with the sanctions is the harbinger of disagreement or trouble between the resident and their hosts. Residency rights cannot be compared to the rights of aborigines of a place. A territory inhabited by a people serves as their place of origin; and every human originates from a territory as none has been known or confirmed to have dropped from the sky. And so, if you are a resident of your territory of origin, your place of origin confers on you the rights of an indigene. On the other hand, if you are a resident of a territory in which you are an immigrant, you are a resident with the status of a settler. Thus, the relationship between a place of origin and residency or that of a settler and indigene is guided by different rights and privileges, both moral and legal rights which no republican norms can wish away. A resident or settler is a temporary sojourner who has a permanent home territory elsewhere and whose loyalty to his own home people is most often, taken for granted. Meaning, that his loyalty to the people of his host territory can never be guaranteed, regardless of his protestation to the contrary. A settler may not have visited his home – territory in 50 years, but he is always supportive of and loyal or faithful to the aspirations of his home people. A successful settler may create jobs for the people of his residence but still repatriate his profits back home. That he pays his taxes where he resides is one of the requirements for residency everywhere, and so not a special or extraordinary service enough to translate him into becoming an indigene. A resident or settler who craves for the rights and privileges of an indigene but who periodically travels to what he calls ‘my home town’ does not qualify to be accepted as an indigene. A settler is so because he has another more permanent home in addition to his place of residence. An indigene is so defined because he lives in his ancestral land and has no other land he could call as his home town. He has the onerous duty to defend, preserve and uphold the integrity of his home territory as absolutely inviolate. Do we need to be told or is it not self-evident that no one can be a settler as well as an indigene in the same territory at the same time? We are all indigenes of some places and may be settlers in some other places. The only alternative to this is to carry along your ancestral territory to your chosen place of residence. But you know it to be impossible! No one must be made to live in delusion that he can be at home and abroad at the same time. However, this was the notion the statement credited to Senator David Mark promotes. He was quoted to have said that it was time the country do away with state or place of origin in favour of residency. Privileged people like David Mark who have been in government as Governor, Minister, Senator and Senate President in the last 25 years have lost touch with reality, in addition to his wealth which enables him to be able to live anywhere of his choice. His stupendous wealth speaks for him and serves as a defense. Even at that, Mark will undoubtedly baulk at the idea of a Tiv man becoming the Och’ Idoma on the premises that he is a long-time resident of Oturkpo! Bonaventure Mark may venture to grant a large portion of land to a Yoruba industrialist in Benue State for a factory, but he certainly will frown the day the industrialist bids to represent his constituency in the senate!! A tussle between Mark and the industrialist will certainly be decided on the scale of place of origin and residency rights and not on the volume of tax or number of employment created by either of them!!! Are you reminding me of citizenship? Citizenship rights is said to be a social contract between the state and the individual citizen in their aggregates. However, the Nigerian state does not appear to acknowledge, not to talk of enforcing the contract. If a murderous mob could be stirred up to kill Nigerian citizens at their place of residence for no sane reason, and the state stares in askance as it were, it proves that the social contract is void of substance and useless in practice. What is citizenship right which are so discriminatively applied or not applied at all? The Nigerian nation state lacks the capacity to enforce citizenship rights partly because Nigerians do not and have not been granted the opportunity to decide and agree on the contents of their assumed common citizenship. No one has told any Nigerian what he stands to gain if he agrees to surrender his ethnic identity, ancestral territorial inheritance and God given language to a Nigerian citizenship that remains ill-defined and non – existent. It takes the freely given consent of the people of Nigeria to confer on the nation - state the capacity to remedy the deficit between state of origin and residency and between settlers and indigenes. Until then, state of origin and indigenousness prevails.

Project Nigeria: the Plight of Minorities

In the collective wisdom of the United Nations Organization, the 9th of August every year is set aside as International Day for Indigeneous Peoples and our country as a member of the world body is expected to mark the day with a befitting policy statement. I have no reason to expect much from the government of Nigeria on this serious matter for reasons which are quite obvious; and the day passed without a whimper from the government I choose to honour the indigenous peoples of the world through this letter by highlighting the plight of their Nigerian counterparts. My dear indigenous peoples worldwide, I address you today with a little of the litanies of woes that betide your brother-indigenous peoples of Nigeria, black Africa’s most populous country. Most indigenous people in this part of the world are often minority ethnic nationalities. Although there are political and religious minorities, the pains and travails of being a minority is felt more by ethnic minorities. In Nigeria, it is more or less a crime to be an indigenous tribe, and a more heinous offence to attempt to assert your right to life and autonomy. Unless God intervenes, certain forces are doing their best to coerce the National Assembly to expunge from Nigerian’s Constitution, the word “indigene”. This is because that word stands on their way in their age-old efforts to confisticate the lands of indigenous ethnic groups. In other words, the mere recognition, not to talk of according minorities their rights is so offensive to them as to make them want to eliminate minorities, not just from the Constitution, but also from the face of the earth! As I write this letter, my dear friends, many indigenous ethnic nationalities are being systematically decimated by some transnational ethnic groups, supervised by a supposedly federal or national army who are pretending to keep peace. The security forces here in Nigeria are a colonial creation, with a medieval training and orientation and functions best being programmed like a motorized robot. They were taught to regard citizens as brutes who must be disabled even before they commit any semblance of an offence - since it was assumed that they are an offence in themselves. The annihilation is being carried out turn-by-turn beginning with the Gbagyi who are made strangers in their own fatherlands of Minna, Kaduna and Abuja. Each time the equally colonial-oriented government wanted a land, they look around and if you look or sound like a Gbagyi, you must take to your heels before the chase, for you are sure to be pursued into the wilderness. Even at that, your farm land is not safe, for the transnational tribes are licensed to consume your cultivated bush land, with their transnational herds of cattle. You are expected to consider it an honour that the handiwork of your sweat is deemed fit enough for consumption by some royal cows from Senegal, Cameroon, Niger or Chad. When it was the turn of Atyap, Ham and Bajju to be eliminated, they resisted and demanded to know why they must surrender their land and self-rule only for the reasons of being a minority. They were harried and harassed until forced to defend themselves, even if only by sand-throwing! Now, it is the turn of the Birom of Plateau State who have been under pressure for about a decade now to vacate their towns and lands for some princely tribes whose cows are deemed more important than the human indigenes of the places. For failing to heed the warning to vamoose, they have now being invaded by hordes of an imperial militia force, delicately guided by an official army whose instruction is to watch the peace, not the aggressor or the attacker, but the burial of victims who must not even rest in peace! The Tiv of Benue has been served with warning missiles, and some dozens of villages and grain reserve were burnt to hasten their flight from their ancestral land. If you are asking whether the Tiv has the nerve to resist the invaders, I have no answer, not when the Benue governor who is Tiv is doing his best to negotiate a surrender. The Ebira in Kogi State is the latest victim of invaders who apparently has local collaborators. They have started bombing churches, shooting worshippers and killing innocent people and many has fled their homes, hoping that they won’t return to find their houses taken over by Nigeriens masquerading as Nigerians. The best the security agencies could do is to invade the deserted towns, harass the old women and children, and if any male adult was foolish enough to remain behind, his bullet – ridden corpse will serve as a memento of his innocence. Until next year, when the Indigenous Peoples will be remembered again, kindly pray that a remnant of your brother will be left alive in Nigeria, if only to remind the world, that once upon a time, God created some people who are indigenes of their lands and thereby committed an unforgivable offence. When shall we all become transnational and migratory citizens – if that will give everyone a respite?

Poverty: Alleviation, Reduction and Eradication = Multiplication?

It is a much hated word both by the rich and the poor, yet it stubbornly sticks to many and the more resolute we are in alleviating it, the more tenacious it clings to us. For as long as anyone remembers, poverty alleviation has been in the realm of campaign slogan of various governments as it is in their budget. Even when inserted in the budget of its own, it has a way of developing wings with which it flies away beyond the reach of the rich and the pangs of the poor. Trying to acquire legitimacy and solicit support (these are military equivalent of political campaign), the General Olusegun Obasanjo-led government in 1977 launched Operation Feed the Nation (did it not metamorphosed to Obasanjo Farms Nigeria Ltd?), the aim of which was to produce abundant food more than enough to put three square meals on the table of every Nigerian, and to export the excess in order to earn huge foreign exchange in hard currency. Don’t remind me that the acronym OFN is as good for Nigeria as it is for Obasanjo; after all, is OFN not OFN? Welcome sir, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari. His background as a man from the arid region of the country may have informed his choice of ‘Green Revolution’ as his mantra to reduce poverty and turn the entire country into a green-belt where foodstuffs oozes out of its own accord, begging to be picked. However, food refused to be fooled as it is either that Shagari knew nothing about cultivation or that he forgot the crating prowess of his man-Friday, the honourable Dr. Alhaji Umaru Dikko. A man well schooled in political dichotomy, Dikko wasted no time in dissecting the grey areas of the green-belt and crated everything away for the rainy day. Even when reminded that Nigerians has become hungrier during the green revolution than before it, Dikko was quick at making unscheduled visit to the dust-bins after which he proudly announced that he found no Nigerian picking the waste-bins for dinner! Meaning? Of course, that there was food, too much food for everyone except those who refused to eat from the gutter! It took the fire-eating crate-master, the no-nonsense General Buhari who kicked-out Likita Dikko and his Oga, got the didactic Dikko crated for a possible bump-off, when the British Customs rudely intervened to get the decrepit human cargo discharged. What a grey revolution! Remember Babangida’s (some argued that it was his wife Maryam) Better Life for Rural Women? Apart from its ugly acronym BLRW, it was worsened by the only seeming qualification needed to become a beneficiary. You had to be not only a wife to a public servant, you must also submit yourself to a comprehensive skin bleaching regime and this must be confirmed by the armada of screechy cosmetics screaming out of your make-up bag (some vowed arsenal is more like it). No wonder, rural women wisely avoided BLRW like the plague it turned out to be! You see, after a fiasco such as BLRW, the fight against poverty needed a new zeal and zest and so, Maryam Abacha took our women to China from where they won a gold medal weighing 30% eradication of male chauvinism and an increase of 70% of female euphemism, the end result of which was a gender war fought ferociously in kitchen fisticuffs and by verbal assaults on the dining tables, with attendant denials and refusals at bedtime. If anyone won this war, tell me who? If poverty eradication was its target, poverty multiplication became its destination. Where is the berekete, or the yanfu-yanfu food? If poverty remains an object of hate, truth is even more hated in our shores. If we must hear the truth, it is that all governments from 1976 to 2012 has failed to alleviate, reduce or eradicate poverty, in spite of the trillions in Naira voted for or expended on it in one guise or the other. The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) returned unintended but debilitating multiplication of poverty, quite unfortunately. Why has the governments failed at the fight against poverty, you ask? Well, I too have asked that question and no one appears to have a reasonable answer. I was on the verge of losing all hope when I came across this: CAEI. If NITEL and M-Tel turned out as failures and MTN and GLO became very successful, CAEI looks more likely to become a success story where NAPEP failed dismally. What is CAEI? Civil Awareness and Economic Empowerment Initiative = CAEI. Digging deep, I sought to know their objectives and found that they are a non-governmental organization dedicated to partnering with all tiers of government, corporate bodies, international agencies and philanthropic individuals in eradicating mental, material and financial poverty. Their methods sound so creative and appear so realistic that no donor or investor or sponsor needs to do it a second time. The CAEI has a prudent way of turning your one-time investment into a revolving scheme, which will not only return your full investment, but also that which will not require an annual budget for a repeat investment in the war against poverty. As if Providence has come to the rescue of the poor, the CAEI may not be alone in this ingenious way of eradicating poverty, as I am informed of another group known as Unity in Diversity Initiative (UiDI) whose programmes are said to be similarly designed. Is it time to say bye-bye to the menace of poverty?

Leadership by Subterfuge

It is not clear if leadership is a status or role desired by a few or by all. Given the way we all criticize or adore our leaders, it shows that there is something about leadership which goes beyond the surface of the skin. And this brings up the question of the various manner or style of leadership. How do our political, business, traditional, professional and religious leaders conduct themselves? Why are we always led astray by these leaders? What is in leadership that gives it its mystique and majesty? When shall the leaders carry along their followers or the followers emulate their leaders? Given our experiences in this part of the world, it will not be out of place to describe the style of leadership as one by subterfuge. Leadership by subterfuge? Oh yes! If not, why would leaders say one thing and ended by doing something completely opposite? When a leader – any type of leader-leads by deception, it means that he has a lot to conceal, would like to evade responsibility and so, aims at escaping blame. It follows therefore, that subterfuge is a deceptive stratagem meant to hoodwink followers to give their support and cooperation for a cause they believe in but one which the leaders do not mean to achieve. This is no doubt a secret and dishonest way of behaving or doing something. Leadership is therefore used to trick the followers in order for the leaders to achieve their personal individual goals. Let us examine the results of leadership by deception or artifice. The intention here is to verify the reason why leaders speaks from both ends of their mouth – at the same time. Here we go! Politicians employ various types of campaign strategy to canvass for support, endorsement or votes and in the process, make many promises for which the voters are supposed to hold them. How come that when we give them our votes, they end up never giving us what they promised? Is it that they are always hampered by intervening events which were not envisaged at the time promises were made? However, if all the possible scenarios were configured into the plan and there is no interruption whatsoever, then it can be concluded that the promises were never meant to be kept, but that a clever trick was used to deceive their followers into voting them into office. In this case, they can be accused of moral dishonesty and not keeping faith with the followers and so; their victory was by subterfuge. Religious leaders, who in their overflowing robe, preached one thing and practice another in a manner as if to tell their followers “do as I say and not as I do.” It takes a grand deception to preach peace and at the same time instigate your followers into war, after which we find you again championing peace efforts-meaning, that you are neither here nor there. Such religious leaders cannot be ordained by God for God is not a god of confusion or anarchy but of order and tranquility! In which case, their god must be a devil in whose footsteps they have taken. Where there are no honest leaders, there can be no honest followers and the whole society suffers the consequence. Is this what Nigeria is suffering from today? Traditional rulers are leaders who are expected to promote indigenous languages, cultures and traditions’ and to promote peaceful co-existence in their domains of all Nigerians living therein. However, if a ruler’s domain becomes a killing field where people are killed with careless abandon, such rulers could only be ruling by subterfuge. If in words, you appear to be a peace-maker, in looks and mien you exude majesty, in dress-style you are regal and distinguished but in actions or deeds done secretly you are a villain, you have ceased to be a ruler but a dishonest brigand. Rulers who forgets that their exalted stools represents justice, equity and fair play but who indulges in dirty deception so they could be perceived as royal fathers of all, gained their reputation by subterfuge or artifice. Many of our failed public or private enterprises were certified financially sound by audit reports only for those businesses to collapse few months after. Accounts were prepared which shows that a company is solvent with a projected growth rate which appears mouth-watering and, many investors got lured into buying its shares only for it to go into liquidation in a few months. This is a variant type of dishonest leadership by professionals whose expertise is expected to help others make a reasonable decision as to where to invest their hard-earned money. Any wonder that our economy has refused to grow or remain in coma for so long? No wonder many leaders in Nigeria are surrounded by perfidious followers! What a country!!

Issues in Neo-colonialism: the HAFUKA - 2

When we refer to the political entity called the North, it is easily misunderstood to mean the peoples of the defunct Northern Region or the entire territorial region itself. This is the most common perception of the North. But this is not only erroneous but also most misleading interpretation of the North both geographically and ethnically. Now let us define the North as it really is. The North consists of the land or area of Nigeria bordering the Niger Republic from the North West and the Chad Republic to the North East; in geographical terms. The North is made up of ethnic Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri nationalities, the Shuwa Arab being subsumed or assimilated by the Kanuri. The North consists of people whose life and worldview is regulated by Islamic law of SHARIA and who subscribe to the supremacy of the Sultan of Sokoto Caliphate and or whose ultimate aspiration is to have an Islamic theocracy as the system of governance in Nigeria. Therefore anyone who is not a Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri, (HAFUKA) and who is not a Muslim or who is not from the geographical area here about defined , cannot be a real Northerner . He or she is at best, or would only be an associate or affiliate Northerner. Agreed, when the British amalgamated some territories and grouped them as “Northern Provinces”, there was no one knowledgeable enough to oppose them and so, whatever territorial terminology they impose or any area, stuck. However, with the advent of independence and subsequent creation of states and consciousness of self-determination, the people who could lay legitimate claims of being Northerners are the HAFUKA. All claims by non – Hafuka as northerners are mere wishful thinking and they are easily branded as servile, or vilified as aspiring to become what may be called “acting assistant Northerners”. So in effect and reality, the defunct Northern Region consists of two different groups, broadly defined: the HAFUKA of the North and the Kwararafa Confederacy of Central Nigeria. The latter shall be defined in a subsequent piece in view of its complex character. However, we have known and seen some “Northern Affiliates” who are more Catholic than the Pope and whose pretensions, more often than not, cast the ‘North’ rather as a vicious or ruthless master, until one meets a pure real Northerner with his urbane and civic manners. The problem is that ‘affiliate Northerners’ are more visible or most outspoken and so, represents their overlords in all facets of life, which makes a distinction between the affiliate Northerner and Hafuka a mere academic exercise. Besides, it is the fortunes of affiliate Northerners to bear the brunt of the blames deserved by the Hafuka - for a reward. The Hafuka plays a high premium on loyalty and pays a handsome dividends for it, and for this reason, many affiliates jostle for opportunities to showcase their commitment and dedication to the North. Thus, for a longtime in post-independence Nigeria, those who represented the North and who exhibited the most outlandish political behaviour were mostly ‘affiliate Northerners’. The fact that their activities were largely for and in the interest of Hafuka, accounted for their longevity in service and, or recycling in political or public office. As the legatee of British rule in Nigeria, the Hafuka had to manage the transition from direct colonialism to neo-colonialism, in conjunction with the British, thus the appointment in 1957 of Sir Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister of Nigeria by the Queen of England in her position as the Head of State of Nigeria. In terms of literacy and Western education, the Hafuka were at a disadvantage at independence largely on the basis and fact of their agreement with the British Colonialists NOT to allow Christian Missionaries and their educational institutions anywhere in the Caliphate, but had free access in Central Nigeria christened ‘pagan areas’ by the British but named as Middle Belt Region by the people. And so, most of the qualified civil servants or public officers were recruited from among the so-called pagan areas and together with the few literate Hafuka, they constituted the Civil Service or Political Officers who ruled Nigeria from then henceforth. Remember, the Hafuka was the most politically informed among Nigerians. When they are described as mostly illiterate at Independence, they were only so in English. They were speakers, writers and readers in Arabic and Hausa Languages and so, were versatile in political as well as administrative nuances, which was why they rejected the notion or perception of their illiteracy. How could anyone describe as illiterate, one whose language is spoken in most parts of Nigeria and broadcasted by world famous radio channels such as the BBC, Voice of America, Radio France, China Radio and Radio Germany etc? Well, if Nigeria must be managed by Hafuka, it was mandatory that they do so through the colonial lingua-franca, the English Language. (To be continued).

If I were a Governor

I do not know what caused it but a sudden surge of néesear came over me shortly after I watched a group of former Inspectors General of Police visit to the President. All they went to say was that Nigeria was not good for State Police or that State Police was not good for Nigeria. Their reason? That the governors will use it against political opponents. To say that I was non-plussed is to make an under-statement. Here are a group of privileged citizens from whom the ordinary and less –privileged expects some modicum of noblesse oblige, or some feelings of empathy, given our current travails of insecurity and the attendant enormous loss of life and property- a testimony to the inefficiency and unusefulness of the unitary police system which we have. In the first place, the services which each and every one of them rendered for which they received full salary and allowances, with the compliment of pension and gratuity did not leave us with nostalgia; instead, their protruded belly is an instant reminder of the hay they made while in office. Each of them still retain some security details and so, enjoy personal security than the rest of us. Not a few citizens are angry that the IGs succeeded only in obfuscating the issue of security and state police by their ill-motivated visit to the President. To have mystified the subject of security as if it is an exclusive knowledge is, to live in the past for, the whole gamut of security and policing could be downloaded from the internet by anyone with computer savvy. While in office and aside from their budgetary allocations, state governments and other agencies assisted the police with huge sums of money and materials, not a nickel-and-dime amount. What effect did it have on the operations of the Police? Almost every former Inspector General was sacked for one failings or the other; the last one of whose headquarters was bombed by a trailing undetected suicide bomber. So, to have formed an Orchestra whose purpose is to orchestrate why there is no use for state police is, altogether nugatory. The performance of the Nigeria Police Force, their famed inefficiency and deep-seated corruption is, to say the least – a crying shame. Those who have presided over such a decadent agency at one time or the other has lost all moral grounds to preach to us on security or policing; not with living evidence of soiled hands. The truth which is the kernel of this debate on State Police is what the former IGs are seeking to obscure. Yet, what makes the Nigeria Police corrupt and inefficient is not so much in the persons of the policemen alone but in the system, and that is the very item the former IGs are seeking to preserve. What is that truth? Every unitary police force in a multi-ethnic society is bound to be inefficient and corrupt, and it is more vulnerable to be used against political opposition, regional or religious minorities than State or Regional outfits! The Nigeria Police was used to rig the 1959, 1964, 1983, 2003 and 2007 general elections, not state police! What we have not been told by the former IGs is their individual and group interest and benefits if the status quo is retained. We could discern what they stand to lose if state police is created in terms of miscellaneous patronage and sundry tips or gifts. If the unitary Nigeria Police have gained notoriety for election rigging and political violence for over five decades, their managers are certainly bereft of any useful ideas on state police, not when they volunteered themselves to be so used! Moreover, policing is an open-and-shut case, a matter that is easy to decide or solve if stripped of the mystique with which it is wrapped. Physical policing has to do with the knowledge of the people, the environment and then the language, culture and ways of the people and area to be policed. This is not a job for strangers or benevolent do-gooders, no! It is the job of the citizens of a given territory to police and secure themselves and so, it is a local matter located in a locale. What the team of former IGs did or said on state police represents a betrayal of the truth, for on May 26, 2010 in a public speech, former IG Mike Okiro said: “The exclusive federal control of the Police leaves the political heads of the other two tier of government helpless in the fight against crimes and maintenance of law and order. The inability of these elected officials to direct police officers to perform their duties had made a mockery of designation of the officials as the chief security officers of their units of government.” Why did he unashamedly eat his words? If I were a governor under the unitary system of government with the fakery of federalism, and given the security challenges confronting my state and the helplessness and defeat of the unitary Nigeria Police, I will take the bull by the horn. The Constitution named me as the chief security officer of my state, an entity which is recognized as a tier of government with a measure of autonomy. To prove the autonomy, I have the State House of Assembly which makes or approve laws for the good governance of the state, and the Judiciary that arbitrate or adjudicate between government and citizens In addition, if I remember that I took an oath to protect the citizens of my state as their Chief Security Officer and that I remain on oath for the duration my tenure, I will establish a state police to do just that. If I am partisan, I can use the state police against political opponents for four or eight years only. Unlike the unitary Nigeria Police that can be used against opponents for ever. I will disregard self – appointed police Prefects whose legacy in office is to surrender themselves to be used by presidents or governors against helpless political opposition. Try me as a governor and see!

Grazing Land for Transnational Citizens?

How should one react to the news that the cattle Fulani is demanding grazing land across the 36 states of Nigeria in line with their right to fend for themselves and their families? How does the grant of land to the Fulani in all states amount to food security? Who subsists on beef and milk alone? These and more questions agitated my mind after reading the new last week and it has been a struggle to react in a most civilized or acceptable manner, inspite of the obvious provocation. The right to fend for oneself in a universal right, not an exclusive preserve of the Fulani. The age long nomadic lifestyle is a choice of the Fulani, as no one imposes it upon them. It is a way of life that can be modified and the change can favour the herds and the herders. The technology of ranches is a relatively simple one and has been found to be a better alternative to eternal nomadism. If the Fulani refused to explore the ranching alternative, how does that amount to marginalization by Nigerian farmers who refuse to submit their farmlands to despoliation? It is a universal truism that people live by the choice they make. If ranches hold no attraction for the Fulani, could they not try some other methods? Could the Fulani try to carry along their ancestral lands since they are hooked to nomadism? By this, there would be no quarrel with other Nigerian farmers. The problem of grazing land would have been solved once and for all time. If there is one single biggest threat to food security in Nigeria, the Fulani cattle herders is it and so, to claim that the Fulani is at the receiving end of insecurity is, a gratuitous insult to other Nigerians who have been victims of Fulani cattle herders’ violent aggression . Again, if after over 20 years of the practice of Nomadic Education funded by the federal government, there are still up to 12 million cattle – rearers whose children are not in school, is it not time to scrap it as it is wasteful and unfruitful? By the way, how did they arrive at that number of Fulani cattle herders? Ethnic nationality and religion were outlawed in the 2006 census. And if the Fulani is as illiterate as their leaders claimed, how come they counted themselves in millions up to that figure? Moreover, if there are 12 million cattle –herders, with an average of 300 herds of cattle per person, Nigeria should be having 3.6billion heads of cattle and every one of the 160 million people of this country should be a proud owner of 22.5 cows, including day-old babes! Incredible, you say? An American politician is often quoted as having said that “your freedom to stretch your hand ends where my nose begins.” The rights of the Fulani to roam the land with his cattle ends where the rights of other ethnic nationalities begins. The federal government is an artificial creation of ethnic nationalities and as such, has no land of its own, so also are state governments regardless of the so-called Land Use Act. For any government, whether state or federal to designate any portion of land as grazing land for the Fulani alone amounts to enslaving the owners to the suzerainty of the Fulani. How many ethnic groups have enjoyed compensation for their houses burnt down by the various bands of the Fulani militia? Why does the Fulani thinks they deserve compensation for the loss of cattle even by flood? Other Nigerians have suffered worse fate than the Fulani as a result of ethno – religious crisis and natural disasters such as bush fire and flooding and no government has paid them any compensation so, the Fulani experience is no different. Universal rights are the rights of individuals and ethnic nations, without exception. The current demand of the Fulani to be granted grazing lands in all the 36 state is akin to the 21st century version of the take – over of Hausa kingdoms in the 19th century. The Fulani came from Senegal with the declared aim of teaching the Hausa pure Islamic and Arabic language but ended on the thrones of the Hausas by jihad, whom they dethroned by force! As a transnational tribe, any lands so granted will be occupied by Fulani from Cameroon or Gambia or Senegal, who by virtue of dual citizenship and double nationality, will distort our demography and deprive native Nigerians of their natural heritage rights in favour of foreigners. Or how many Nigerians are granted unfettered access to land in those countries where the Fulanis are natives? In a country where no agreed term of mutual existence or reciprocity obtains, land is the natural resource of their owners and cannot be toyed with at the altars of a phony citizenship or at the behest of a transnational tribe who owes you no obligation. Many states have suffered untold loss of active farmers and farm crops due to the nefarious activities of cattle Fulani whose origin are quite dubious. The organization speaking for the Fulani today will disown and dismiss them at the time their crimes are made manifest. And victims will be left to guess which of the Fulani committed the mayhem – the Senegalese, the Gambian, the Cameroonian or the Nigerian Fulanis? However, experts in animal husbandry and cultural anthropology could be assembled to assist the Nigerian Fulani on alternative method of cattle-herding, especially the option or adoption of the kraal system. If necessity is the mother of invention, the Fulani should better invent other methods of raising cattle as no tribe is prepared to surrender their land to foreigners or aliens of dual nationality.

Government and Governance by Demolition

Until and unless it is proved otherwise, residents of the Federal Capital Territory are bona-fide citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and are entitled to whatever protection existing government has the capacity or capability to provide. Again, whatever the laws of the Federal Capital Territory and the requirements of its master-plan may stipulate, these laws and ordinances are made for the people and not otherwise. However, in the application of these laws, Nigerian citizens are often treated as aliens or better still, as slaves. Our leaders in the Executive and Legislative, and Judicial arms of government are more than adequately provided for in terms of access to land and housing, and they are beneficiaries of various housing schemes put in place by government. The only snag is that low income staffs of the same government and self employed Nigerians who are in majority has no place in government’s plans on housing. While the senior management staff and high political appointees enjoy access to loans or use the privileges attached to their positions and offices to secure loans, their low – cadre counterparts are neglected or at worse, ignored. It is a well – known fact that the same elected or appointed officials to high offices alone possess the collaterals needed for bank or housing loans. Even where there is no loan facilities, senior officials often grant themselves large ‘loans’ through misappropriation or embezzlement of public funds in their charge, part of which they invest in the buying, building or purchase of choice lands and houses in Abuja; not only residential houses but commercial houses such as hotels and plazas. Although, this category of public officials has the EFCC and the ICPC to contend with, pray how many of them have been apprehended and convicted? How much of the stolen funds have been recovered and paid into the treasury? This among other reasons multiplied my pains when the other day, the Abuja Municipal Area Council announced a list of 19 villages in Abuja, the residents of which they gave two month’s notice to quit or vacate their houses or face demolition. In the first place, Abuja is not made for any identified or specific Nigerian only; it is made for all who desire to be domiciled in it. Abuja is not meant for the upper and the middle class alone; it is also made for the lower cadre and the self employed. Again, none of the three classes are islands; all three need each other in order to exist and function well, and so they are inter-dependent. If these assertions are true or correct, whoever is responsible for not providing for the lower cadre in the Abuja Master-plan are the people whose houses should be demolished and not their victims. Moreover, the informal governments of the people represented by the traditional rulers or system retain or should retain residual powers to allocate lands to people who wish to reside in their domain and contribute to the development of the villages through the building of houses and to engage in petty commercial activities. To deny the poor of this choice is to abolish the traditional institutions as they exist in the Federal Capital Territory. Come to think of it, where is the wisdom in creating Area Councils, appointing, grading and up-grading traditional rulers for the various villages in the FCT, but denying them of people and domains? If the law on FCT or its Master-plan is clear as apologists are wont to claim, they need be reminded that the laws against corruption and stealing of public funds are clearer and yet, these laws are obeyed more in the breach by the fraudulent in high public offices. If residential houses of villagers of FCT must be demolished for non – conformity with the Abuja Master-Plan, embezzlers must be publicly executed for thievery and pen robbery! In fact, if in the FCT Master-plan, no provision was made for housing for the low income people, demolition as of necessity must begin with the houses of public officers before getting to the villages of the poor. To whom will the land of the demolished villages be allocated? Is it not to the same pen robbers of public funds? A government worthy to be so-called, ought to approach law enforcement on the basis of the needs of the people or majority of the people and not the convenience of the few elites. In doing so, another land should have been made ready for allocation to those whose houses in the villages are to be demolished. An enumeration of the residents and the size of the plots they currently occupy should have been undertaken to determine what size of land is to be allocated to them. After due allocation of land, a two to three year period of deadline should be given to the people to develop and move into their new place, failing which the talk of demolition could be justified. Any government who failed to do this should not continue to regard itself as a legitimate government but a gang of brigands’ intent on destruction of the products of the peoples’ sweat. No one was voted for so he/she could live in Aso Rock, Maitama, Garki, Wuse or Apo in Abuja. The mandate given by voters is not for the monopoly of comfort and luxury by the few in exchange for the applause and acclamation of the many. If the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution is to be respected, no Nigerian should be living in a slum bad enough to deserve demolition by some Caterpillar squad. If many of the villages had been demolished before and people kept returning to them, it is because government failed to provide alternative place, land or houses for them and there exist no choice but to return to where land could be purchased with their hard – earned money. If indeed there is any government in place with ears to hear, I urge them to adopt the civilized approach to relocating the people in the 19 villages before they embark on demolition. If not, do they intend to, first of all, dig enough holes for some to live in, provide plenty of trees for others to perch on, or build more bridges and fly- over under which the Nigerian wretched of the earth could live in Abuja? If so, I advise that no one should claim he is running anything called government. Government by demolition? T-u-f-e-n-e-v-e!!

Big and good for nothing!

Whatever is big is either in size, scope or height or in depth. If animate, the flesh is a factor in judging its size and if in animate, it has to be large to be known as big. Countries are described as either big or small on the basis of their population and then, land mass. In which case, China and India are the two largest countries in the world, each having over a billion in numerical strength. Both are also nuclear powers with diversities in ethnicity and geography and equivalent to some continents. In spite of devastating typhoons, earthquakes, tsunami and countless natural disasters, both China and India continue to make steady growth and are developing in all areas as scientific and technological powers. Brazil and Indonesia are some other countries whose numerical size is not in anyway a hindrance to their progress. In fact, Nigeria is supposed to be in the same league with Brazil and Indonesia in terms of size and most other indices. India is as multi-ethnic as Nigeria even as it is just as multi-religious. Several Indian Prime Ministers have had to die or were killed by gunmen, motivated either by religious or political differences, yet the country enjoyed smooth succession and painless transition. India has many languages as there are ethnic groups, but it has managed to make one a lingua franca spoken by most Indians. China is a leading industrial power today as most of the electronics we use comes from that country. It also has one of the strongest economy and are speedily over - taking many European countries in the area of investment in Africa. We are trying to prove that size is not necessarily a disability and to committed people, size is a valuable asset. However, I know some individuals who are huge, tall and stoutly built. In most cases, they look handsome and respectable, and you are most likely to differ to them by reason of their sheer stature. In movement, only a few of the giants are smart. Many are drab, dull and drag themselves along in an uninspiring movement. They are not great athletics or are they enthusiasts of athletics. Forget about fashion freaks who have choose slimly built Suzie as models as against their plump counterparts. In dress sense, giants have little choices and so, the question of fitting or fitness is out of place. In all these, I have no quarrel with the individual giant because they probably have no choice or play no role in their growth or swell. While growing up, I made some assumptions that often disappointed more than they elated me. I was stupid - in many instances - to assume that six footers has extra brain than others and so, while dealing with them, I took too many things for granted believing that they possess more sense than normal - given their huge stature. So, whenever I was disappointed, I felt like asking God why couldn’t the giant, no, some giants exhibited more sense than the ordinary. Why are many of them sounding dull headed, looking demobilized, except in the area of consumption? Why? Well, God has not directly answered my question although He has graciously granted me a glitter into the country called Nigeria. Nigeria, not its French neighbor Niger, is my country. She is known as the giant of Africa both in numerical strength and geographical size. In human and mineral resources, Nigeria has no match in the continent as her numerous natural endowments suggests. Nigeria is so big, as good and possesses unimaginable potentials that inexplicably amount to nothings! Her image abroad is so ugly and odious that may need rhinoceros as a beastly comparison. You bet that I do not enjoy this image or comparison, yet if I must be honest with you, a more compact and movable entity would have been my first choice if I had a say in the matter. How can a country be so big, so good, so rich and yet, so poor? Why are our numerous human, natural and mineral resources become a curse to us? Or is the root of our problems in the psyche of the human hand that amalgamated us? Is that god-forsaken Lord of a Luggard hearing me in or from his accursed grave right now? I am more than amazed by the maze simple choices and opportunities available to Nigeria but which we threw into the sack, and so, forced into looking for a needle from a huge haystack? Where are the visiting foreign flatterers who often come here to praise us to high heavens only to disparage and condemn us back home? Well, since some swindlers with the mask of leaders have decided to reject every progressive measures to move Nigeria forward, we all must be prepared to endure and accommodate all improvised explosive devices which enraged ethnic, relgious or regional groups care to throw at us B-a-s-t-e-r- - - - -!