THE TWO POLICE FORCES; NIGERIA & GERMANY

*Law and Development: Citizens protest, German Police and new example for law enforcement in Nigeria-* 

From the Nigerian thinking, the first act of the law following the 'Ekweremadu incident' in Nuremberg, Germany ought to be the raiding of homes by the police, mass arrests, and immediate deportation of the culprits and all their identified sympathisers. Even, false news of swift deportations of 48 Nigerians already made its way to the various media outlets here in some deluded wishful expectations.

Not so at all, and therein lies the lesson, good example and proper precedent for Nigeria police and government. For example, there was no presence of a battle ready column of Police Mopols escorts at that New yam festival in Germany; nor, following the incident, did a unit of a nearby Army Brigade arrive in a chain of Toyota Hilux vehicles to 'shoot at sight' under Operation Flying  Scorpion in aid of the Police, to contain the protesters and teach them a lesson.

The German Police instead came in, evaluated the situation, saw nothing criminal in the incident except to see it as a legitimate political expression of disgust at politicians and government. With the situation brought down, Ekweremadu's exit of the arena, the New yam festival proceeding with all cultural content, the police left the scene just as they came.

Now, there has been visible shock and lamentation in several quarters in Nigeria over the incident and how the German Police let off the opportunity to 'kill and go'. The report on Channels News saw an eager reporter wishing to hear of arrests and on-going investigations, but the German Police spokesman dismissed all.  

For others more reflective, with an eye for paradigm shift, the German Police has left for Nigerians at home and in diapora the first practical example for proper policing. 

The immediate lessons are: 

a. the Police is your friend as a citizen and not for the protection or projection of prestige of political persons and leaders; 

b. the law is not an instrument for the show of force and power by top government officials; 

c. expressions of disgust by citizens are part of the settled democratic behaviours which society, for progress, must hold as integral to citizens oversight rights over aberrant political behaviours of leaders.

d. law in action does not mean a single or joint operation by the Police, Army, DSS, etc of arrests, detention, investigation, prosecution, re-arrest or whatever, it is even better as peace building and enforcement as no Oga-at- the Top who must be obeyed scenario is allowed or exist in Germany.

The truth is that the former DSP found himself treated as the scapegoat for Nigeria's increasing failure of governance. The sense of frustration and alienation made him the easy target. He must see the incident not as a personal attack, but as a representative one and to that extent his grief and trauma over it must be minimal. Once citizens express disgust at political errors, the Germans have taught us that the Police can only come, calm the situation and go away.

 *Tony Odiadi*

 Nigeria Becoming A Strategic Failure and Irrelevant to the World ~ Princeton Lyman

Posted By: Ikokwu Ikembaon: August 03, 2019In: Breaking News, Politics, WorldNo Comments

l

A thought provoking piece!

Princeton N. Lyman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa,
delivered a very poignant speech on the panel titled “The Nigerian State and
U.S. Strategic Interests” at the Achebe Colloquium at Brown University, USA.

TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE VIDEO SPEECH)

Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.

I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I
have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.

And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria’s strategic importance.

I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most
populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.. But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria’s importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria’s opinion of its own invulnerability.

Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they
have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of
infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.

And I am not sure that that is helpful.

Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria’s importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.

We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.

What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?

And the answer is “Not really.”

And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.

And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.

So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.

And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.

Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia?

The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.

What about its economic influence?

Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of
society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not
make it a significant economic entity.

Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?

Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and
all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and
finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: “You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our oppostion but that we will find you irrelevant.”

The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized
more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.

And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said “what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he
obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?”

No he would not, so he did not go.

And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.

So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.

Because what it means is that Nigeria’s most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.

And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.

And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don’t need saints, you don’t need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.

I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person’s amazement then the eleventh
largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 – 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.

It has not happened in Nigeria today.

You don’t need saints. It needs
leaders who say “You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it.”

Thank you!
POSTSCRIPT: The conclusion of Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman’s speech has always been my opinion and position. Nations are never governed by saints but by performers who may be crooked but are straightened out by strong institutions. Nigerians, unfortunately, continue to delude ourselves that there are Angels who will help turn everyone into good guys while ignoring and neglecting the priorities of good governance like solid infrastructure, education, healthcare, rule of law, employment and so on. Monumental tragedy is beckoning, sadly.

SOURCE

AWGU YOUTHS COUNCIL WRITES TO GOV UGWUANYI

CONCERNING THE ORDER BY THE ENUGU STATE GOVERNOR TO DEMOLISH ALL CAVES IN AWGU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN ORDER TO OPTIMIZE SECURITY.

We the youth of Awgu LGA under the umbrella of the National Youth Council of Nigeria Awgu LG Chapter first of all wishes to appreciate the state governor H.E Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for his efforts so far in maintaining the peace in Enugu State and for how he has always worked closely with Awgu LGA Chairman Hon Stanley Okeke, Rt Hon Toby Okechukwu and Awgu representatives in the State House of Assembly in responding to overwhelmingly desperate emergency situations facing Awgu LGA from his first term as governor till date. This we so much appreciate.

We also know that desperate situation needs desperate action and that the demolition order must have been in good faith considering the painful insecurity occurrences of the recent weeks which has left all of us in sorrow.

However; our opinion is that:
*"Our heritage--both natural and cultural, ancient and modern--should be protected and preserved"* especially now that we have new universities springing up in Awgu LGA(one by the state government and the other private) with more in view. So we plead with H.E the governor to reconsider this order and the security experts to devise another approach.

While growing up we heard interesting stories about these caves which we can't mention here and it will not be good for the coming generation to hear that these beautiful gifts by nature were demolished because some enemies of the land choose them as hiding places.

According to UNWTO, tourism has grown at an accelerated pace over the last few decades, with more than a billion tourists now travelling to an international destination each year. One of the main motivations of tourism is mankind’s inherent curiosity and desire to explore cultural identities across the world. Natural and cultural heritage sites, including scenic landscapes and revitalized historic towns, are prized tourism assets that distinguish one destination from another.

We urge the state government to consider maximizing the inherent potentials of these cave sites as a revenue generating tourist attraction  at this time the state is faced with dwindling federal revenue. Studies of tour operators and international tourists show that special-interest travel is booming and that the most popular special-interest tours are nature-oriented outdoor activities.

Instead of demolishing these caves, a well equipped Forest Guard/Security Outposts with well trained personnel should be erected close to these sites to forestall any nefarious activities around there.  Access roads should be carved to these sites for easy movement. The government can adopt the tourism model of st kitts & Nevis, Cape Verde e.t.c.

We know we have an educated, clearheaded and listening governor(a fine quality), so we are very optimistic that he will consider the appeal of his people as we continue to support the efforts of H.E. in bringing a final end to insecurity in Awgu LGA.

Thank You.
Comr Chukwuemeka Uche
CORDINATOR

Comr Nweke Solomon Onyee
SECRETARY
NYCN AWGU LG CHAPTER
(copied from Fb)

Italian priest concelebrates his 100th birthday Mass with his 4 sons, also priests

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Matthew Green | Jun 17, 2019

A spiritual son of Padre Pio, Fr. Vaccarini hasn't wasted a minute of his century-long life.

Father, priest, father of priests, centenarian, author, disciple of Padre Pio, Veteran of World War II … Perhaps we could think of Fr. Probo Vaccarini as a sort of spiritual Forrest Gump: someone who has received all 7 sacraments—some from his own children—and conferred most of them as well, and who has seen some of the most significant events and personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries first-hand.

He turned 100 years old on June 4, and he celebrated the occasion by concelebrating a Mass presided over by Bishop Francesco Labiasi, of Rimini, Italy (the diocese where Fr. Vaccarini ministers), and with his four sons who are also priests. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, sent a message relaying a message of congratulations and a papal blessing from Pope Francis, read aloud during the Eucharistic celebration.

His story has, unsurprisingly, gone viral, with coverage in Vatican News, Vatican Insider, and other news outlets around the world. The information they provide would make for a great movie script.

Vaccarini was born in Italy in 1919. Like many young men of his generation, he was sent to fight in World War II, serving in a campaign in Russia; unlike many, he lived to return to his home and start a career.  One day, he ran into a friend and fellow war veteran, who was “handsome and had everything” but was “always sad … always distressed,” he recounts in an interview on Italian Catholic television station TV2000it.” This time, he was “happy, changed!” Vaccarini asked him what had happened, and his friend told him he had gone to confession with Padre Pio.

He took his friend’s advice and went to meet Padre Pio himself, who became his confessor. During one of Vaccarini’s visits, Padre Pio told him to get married and have a “big and holy family.” He answered, “Big is easy, but holy …?” Vaccarini’s tone in the interview is as if to say, “Easier said than done!” He went back to see Padre Pio again a while later, still single, and the saint told him, “Get a move on!”

Anna Maria Vannucci caught Vaccarini’s attention when he saw her regularly at Mass and around town. They married, and set about fulfilling Padre Pio’s advice about their family being big. They had 7 children—4 boys and 3 girls—and Vaccarini says, “It wasn’t by chance; I wanted all of them!” Sadly, his wife died in 1970, after only 18 years of marriage.

Nonetheless, Vaccarini continued to fulfill the second part of Padre Pio’s advice: making sure his family was holy. All four of his sons entered the priesthood: the first was ordained in 1979, and the last and youngest more than 20 years later (after his father). One of his daughters also entered the lay consecrated life.

In the meantime, Vaccarini himself became a permanent deacon. Assigned to a parish (San Martino in Venti), he was happy to carry out his duties, but “the problem was always finding some priest to come celebrate Mass,” he told his local diocesan newspaper, Il Ponte. It was then that that during a Mass at San Giovanni Rotondo he heard Padre Pio’s voice in his heart telling him, “You’ll become a priest.” Sure enough, in 1988, at the age of 69, he was ordained to the priesthood. He’s celebrated Mass every day since.

This has created a unique relationship between Fr. Vaccarini and his family. In the TV2000it interview, one of his sons explains how Fr. Vaccarini has been, in a way, his father, his son, and his brother: his biological father, by birth; his spiritual son, when (not yet a priest) he went to his own son for confession; and then his brother in the priesthood, when he was also ordained a priest. “In the faith, there are no limits,” his son says.

Fr. Giuseppe, one of his sons, told Il Ponte that even today as a priest, his father always refers back to his wife, saying, “My wife used to tell me …” which, his son says, may have made people who don’t know him yet “give him strange looks.”

Despite his age and many accomplishments—besides what we’ve already mentioned, he’s published more than 15 books, including an autobiography in Italian titled Husband, Widower, Priest—Fr. Vaccarini hasn’t retired. He’s the oldest active priest in the diocese, and possibly in all of Italy, but he says he still feels “like a newly ordained priest.”

“Day by day, I’m waiting for the Lord to take me,” he said during the 2013 TV200it interview. “I’ve had a wife, I’ve had children, and spiritual children too … Now, I’m waiting for the Lord to call me.”

Articles in other editions of Aleteia, and in Acidigital and Alfa y Omegawere also consulted for the preparation of this article.

source

THE TRINITY (ALA NENWE)

A time was when The TRINITY in AMOJI Nenwe and the whole of Nenwe was particular and peculiar.
The SONS,The Spirits/MUO (who were in direct contact with and represented the ancestors) mingled together rigorously in a disciplined order during festivities,celebrations and prayers to the SUPREME FATHER CHUKWU OKIKE who was always present but not physically visible.
The harmony and discipline is illustrated in this unique picture I took at Obulorum Amoji Nenwe in 1982

NIGERIANS: How to keep your nerves 1

HOW TO CONDUCT A NIGERIAN MEETING 

A Nigerian is not just a person who has a green passport or one whose parents are Nigerian citizens. A Nigerian properly-so-called, is one who knows how to live in Nigeria without bursting an artery, committing suicide, or running away to seek asylum somewhere else. If you have run away, kindly refrain from calling yourself a Nigerian. The acceptable term for you is ‘of Nigerian origin’. There is a difference. 
Being a proper Nigerian, I feel like I should explain this concept thoroughly starting with how to conduct meetings. A Nigerian meeting is not just an event. It is that sacred, multipurpose, indispensable tool for living the Nigerian life. This is how to conduct a Nigerian meeting.
As a business owner, always call for meetings even for things you can do by email. Sometimes, meet early in the morning for morning devotion to commit your business and hustle to the hands of God. Meet to set the agenda for other meetings that will be held over the week. 
Jobs are boring. You need a distraction. Meetings, especially ones with tea break, prevent you from losing your mind and picking up a gun to shoot all your annoying colleagues like white people do. White people need to have more meetings. 
When going for a meeting, never arrive early. This will give the impression that you are jobless, desperate or too eager. Nobody likes Nigerians who are jobless or too eager. A true Nigerian, not one who is pretending to be white, will understand if you show up late for a meeting. They may feign annoyance, but usually they will wait. In fact the best of Nigerians will make excuses for you, especially if you live in a place like Lagos. You will walk in late to a meeting, panting, with that faux look of contrition and the person you are having a meeting with – if she is a good Nigerian – will say: Eiyah! Traffic abi? You will only have to nod or say something like: No be small tin o. Everyone will be grateful that you showed up and the meeting will begin. 
When you are having a big meeting with an ‘oga’ (or oga-madam) it is safer to cancel all other appointments for the day. Because the oga will saunter in three hours late and you will have to smile and say “No, not at all!” when he asks: “Did I keep you waiting?” 
If you are an oga, you should never, ever show up for a meeting on time. This is Nigeria. People disrespect ogas who don’t keep them waiting forever. They will think you are equals and before you know it one ordinary person will call your name without adding Chief or Prof or Honorable or Your Excellency. God forbid that after hustling to get those titles, some idiot forgets to mention them. All because you came early to a meeting. 
As a proper Nigerian whose father is God, you must commit all meetings to His hands. You may work hard but it is God that is in charge of blessing our hustle. Never forget to say at least two prayers in every meeting. One Christian, one Muslim. You never know which of the Gods will answer favorably. It does not matter if you will be discussing how to steal from other people. God sees the heart and he knows that deep down, all you want to do is succeed. 
When it is your turn to speak at a meeting it is rude to go straight to the point. Proper Nigerians are not rude. Because I care, please find below a summary of how to speak at a Nigerian meeting:
1.     Don’t be ungrateful. Thank the moderator for giving you the opportunity to speak. 
2.   Don’t be disrespectful. Observe all protocol. People did not become highly placed by mistake. 
3.    Show appreciation. Say how much it is a privilege for you to be at the meeting. Use the phrases ‘singular honor’ and ‘rare privilege’.
4.  Show understanding. Explain how important the meeting is to you and to everyone present. Thank the conveners for having the wisdom to organize the meeting.
5.    Show regard for the last speaker. Use words like ‘just like the last speaker has said’ or ‘I want to concur with the last speaker’ or ‘I totally agree with the last speaker’ or ‘I want to align myself with the last speaker’. Then proceed to say the same thing using your own words. It is important for everyone to have a chance to speak at a meeting. 
6.     Be considerate. Promise not to speak too long with a phrase like: ‘I will not take much of your time’, after which you can speak freely.
7.    Always provide a summary of all you have just said. Use phrases like: ‘So, what have I just said?’ or ‘What am I trying to say?’ to introduce you summary. 
8.    Be observant.  If you still have more things to say and you sense that people are tired of hearing you speak, use the words ‘In conclusion’ to give them hope that you will soon end, after which you can continue to speak freely. 
All meetings must end in a closing prayer. To avoid a fight however, take care to remember whether it was a Christian prayer or Muslim prayer you began with. When you are not sure, do both prayers. You do not want to annoy any children of the Nigerian God. 
One last thing: Don’t forget that the only acceptable way of answering a phone call during a Nigerian meeting is to shout: “Hello, please I am in a meeting, let me call you back.” People will smile, seeing how important this meeting is to you.  

I hope that this helps and that God will continue to bless your hustle as you conduct meetings.
(Copied)

ON RUGA AND HERDSMEN

*On Ruga, Cattle Herders, Fulanization and Dangers of Hysterical Reactions by TMZ (Michael Oluwagbemi)*

Let me first put my biases out there for my intelligent reader. I’m an herdsmen. I own a few heads of cow, on a beautiful ranch I built literally from the grounds up with a few believing young people: no one older than forty years of age: in the last three years. It spans almost forty hectares, our cattle is our work. They’re fat. They’re beautiful to behold. We recently fanned out from our base in the Middle Belt, and now have three smaller livestock farm lots in three Southwestern states. I’m proud of our work at Owonikoko Ranch & Farms. Follow us on Twitter @owonikoko.

I’m Fulani in my past life, I think ; but I speak no Fulfude nor Hausa, and my people are aboriginals from Ekiti state. I’m probably ethnologically not Yoruba. My existence predates the Yoruba, and that is a matter of historical fact: for those that know the pre-historic origins of the region we now call Nigeria. So pardon me, if I speak often like a disinterested party in the struggle for tribal supremacy that has characterized Nigeria’s post-colonial history since independence. I don’t see tribes, I see black people fighting over crumbs. How about we grow the pie?

Ultimately, I hope at the end of this article you will become more like me. Decipher a business opportunity instead of a challenge. See a gap, instead of a hole. Get involved, instead of lamenting. Why? Because nothing, is new on the surface of the earth. Not even the challenge that behooves on us as a country. But first me we must define the challenge.

To an untrained eye, the problem of the Cattle value chain is fundamentally the issue of uncivilized pastoralists roaming rural lands and invading farms with their animals leading to clashes. Thousands of lives has been lost to these fights and clashes for years. Between 2006 and 2014, data shows over 600 people were killed in these clashes across Nigeria. From independence, we’ve lost well over 5000 people to these clashes.

Indeed, by 2016 more people died from these clashes than in the hands of Boko Haram according to SBM Intelligence — research outfit in Nigeria. The natural narrative of emboldened Fulani Herdsmen because the new President is Fulani thus took hold, forgetting that. the President’s PR may well have been taking a hit because of his own success in tackling Boko Haram that was at the doorstep of the North. Without Boko Haram to worry about, the irascible Southwest media promptly turned their attention to Fulani Herdsmen. Heck, no brown envelope. Why should they do their work of investigative journalism? Let us help them.

Further exacerbating the tension is the lack of distinction between violence caused by attacks on farmers by Herdsmen, and the attacks on Herdsmen by farmers — the later more commonly called rustling or banditry. Certainly, to many southerners — what is the difference between the Fulani Herdsmen and the Hausa farmer? Not much! They grew up on the propaganda of Hausa-Fulani as some kind of fused ethnic group when the North of Nigeria is a lot more complex than that.

Further to this, is a protein problem for Nigeria. Animals that arrive on our plates are often processed unhygienically and lack optimal nutrients and tough- having been walked long distances (some time up to 100km) before they arrive on our plate. Nigeria also pay far more per kilogram, while consuming far less per capita than she should considering her economic standing on the continent relative to others. Basically, we have a protein problem!

Nigeria is currently consuming 360,000 tons of beef a year
Interestingly, it is the food security angle with respect to nutrition, health, protein, jobs and employment that the true definition of the herdsmen challenge of Nigeria lies. Forget the narrative of some Fulani invading your land, the problem is the process of the meat arriving at your table. And to understand this process, you must understand the structure of the current livestock market. Hope you follow the next few paragraphs.
There are over 26 million heads of cattle in Nigeria today, valued at well over $16 billion USD according to FAO — a United Nations Agency. 90% of Nigeria’s cattle stock are imported — I mean literally walked into the country from neighboring nations of Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Most of the meat you eat are gotten from animals that were born in Central Africa Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali. Animals are born in Nigeria by chance. Imagine the Forex loss due to this, shouldn’t we look closely as we do rice and poultry?

On the consumption side, it is estimated that annual domestic and imported slaughtering is around 7.5 million cattle with a livestock value of $5bn. Nigeria is currently consuming 360,000 tons of beef a year, a volume that is predicted to rise to 1.3 million tons by 2050. In Lagos alone, data shows between 6,000 to 9,000 heads of cattle are slaughtered every day. Over 60% of beef consumption in Nigeria takes place in the six south-western states and Edo. Nigerians love their meat, we are carnivores!
Nigeria has no breeding industry

To link consumption to production, Livestock move through various markets and incur a number of trading transactions as they move from pastoralist through to the terminal market & mostly get to market emaciated. They often walk thousands of kilometers, are lost to peril and bear in mind engage well over 15 million pastoralists who will be left with no assets and no jobs if we suddenly stop this flow of goods!

Try imagine additional 15 million more people unemployed in Nigeria, and begin to process the impact of an irrational policy in the sector!
If Nigeria stops buying, there will be more need of aid for many landlocked West African countries

Beyond these, the implication of the two facets of production and consumption pattern I have summarized above for you are thus:
Nigeria has no breeding industry. Mostly what happens in Nigeria is incidental breeding. This creates a value chain capture problem. We are losing millions of jobs in the Cattle value chain to our neighbors, who essentially depend on us for their market and most valuable exports. Nigeria is the outlet market for West Africa. We are providing immense economic aid for others without realizing or arrogating it. Hence, it is no surprise that international organizations that should point these out, generally don’t. If Nigeria stops buying, there will be more need of aid for many landlocked West African countries. Fact.

Flowing from the above, the lack of breeding stock ensures we import live animals from our Northern neighbors (up to 90%) while banning bovine meat offal (processed) imports — inconsistent with international standards. Remember, you can’t bring live animals or meat dripping with blood into most countries in the world to prevent disease transmission and protect local stock. Nigeria is the reverse. This has also ensured that a lot of diseases unfounded in the agricultural industry of others happen to persist in Nigeria. This has prevented Nigeria from exporting some animals and crops to premium markets like Middle East and Europe.
The pastoral industry that grows and transports the animal from border posts to market today employs 15 million pastoralists. Any solution as such must consider the change impact of this, which is beyond jobs but also has to do with a way of life of indigenous people which is protected by international convention.

The impact of climate change and rapid urbanization, including the development of a federal capital (Abuja) right on the path of the pre-colonial grazing routes (lets remember all borders of West Africa are artificial) has ensured more pastoral to farmer contact. With this contact comes conflict. The pastoralist lives for his animal as you will if you’re civilized for your pet, and has his assets tied up in it — while the farmer lives off his subsistence farming. The land his his livelihood — and cherishes his land and crops. In competition for resources, strife happen.

When the Pastoralists arrive in the market, it arrives relatively more expensive than other places in the world. A cattle we sell for equivalent of $1000 in Nigeria, goes for a third of that price in the United States if it sells at all! They arrive also emaciated. and tough — really tough!

To make them into meat you can cook, eat and digest — Nigerian factor of disorganization reigns supreme. Animals are slaughtered in nasty and dirty Abattoirs across the land, and are chief transmitters of typhoid that kill thousands yearly while making millions sick.

Lastly, the impact of years of lack of investment in agriculture had worse impact on livestock farming than crop farmers in Nigeria. Crop farmers are easy to locate, hence even years of political intervention in agriculture no matter how half hearted always easily impacted the crop aspects of Nigeria’s agriculture. Research no matter how minimal took place and methods have improved on the crop side no matter how small. The pastoralists were harder to get to, and still do things the old fashioned way ensuring very low productivity : of meat and milk. Even as the population ballooned and demand pressure rose in our urban areas.
Nigeria’s problem in the Cattle value chain is real, and is by the way self evident but also not unexpected for our current stage of development.

As is Herdsman-Farmer clash in Nigeria in 2019, so is the western cowboy and farmer clash of 1819 United States. The problem spans West Africa too, a further proof that it is not a unique ethnological struggle but only a phase in our development as a modern country. It is this optimism we must bring to tackling the challenge.

First, what we need to solve this problem is to have cooler heads prevail, drop the demagoguery and the seemingly open season of demonization. The politicization of meat also does not help. Name calling and tagging whole ethnic groups terrorists just because you hate the President is exactly not smart if you want solutions instead of knee jerk engagement. If we won’t all turn to vegetarians, then we may as well start reasoning together. There will always be the sliver of the population spoiling for fight and edging on the rest to be relevant as interlocutors who are only relevant when things scatter: but we must not give elements any room. They abound among politicians, so called activists and ethnic liberation movement jingoists. Just remember, these elements have no solutions. They’re noisemakers!

*The real solution will come from real people, reaching alignment and understanding that we need one another.* We need 15 million Fulani people who are Nigerians as well as great farmers to produce grains and fodder to feed their animal. Both groups have rights to earn a living and to continue to earn a living in the context of peace and security of their neighbors. And if you believe in self determination rights of ethnic groups in the UN Charter, then you’re also bound to believe in the preservation of the lifestyle of indigenous peoples especially pastoralists like the Fulani: those rights in the same document!

To my patient reader, you will agree with me that some form of transition arrangement to convert pastoralists to the breeders we lack in Nigeria is required. The obvious hybrid approach to this is self revealing. Why not create a breeding industry with pastoralists who already do it incidentally while filling the over 512,000 tons per year. gap between supply and demand for milk?

It appears to me that this is the effort that the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) — whom some people always mistaken for the Miyetti Kattle Houre the militant agitation group in Benue’s Junkun region- got up its sleeves of late. Some people have claimed the effort amount to hush payment to herdsmen militants, but I enjoin MACBAN not to relent. This conversion is a necessary step if the same people that now want Buhari to ban movement of cattle or seize them, won’t later be the. wailers decrying new upsurge of unemployment among ex-Fulani Herdsmen who will have to turn to crime to stay busy. You just can’t win!

Before the protest against settling Fulani Herdsmen into livestock farming communities that rent land to grow fodder and feed cows instead of grazing in pastoral manner, which to an outsider may seem logical but within the context of Nigeria’s complex tapestry of ethnic supremacists is harakiri, the idea of cattle colonies have been rejected. This is true even as the same people that rejected this idea of colonies also rejected the idea of restoring grazing routes or establishing grazing reserves. President Buhari has a tough job: in an emotional argument there is no logical solutions that makes sense.

That said, *those advocating for private ranches as an alternative must understand that ranches are very expensive infrastructure and have limited outcomes short to medium term.* The development of ranches is often a consequence of economic development and evolution: including of land tenure, commodity exchange, infrastructure and good tastes including appetite for inorganic farming.

*To break even within a pure ranch model, the price of meat must easily double.* If this is the way to go, I suggest we must be prepared; to either pay more for meat or take it off our diet with dire nutritional consequences. However, there is room for private enterprise in areas such as breeding, fattening and dairy. The demand for milk in Nigeria is insatiable- an investment for milk makes sense for my readers who live North of Jos for obvious reasons!

It is highly recommended that we implement a transition arrangement that quickly builds capacity for cattle fattening, dairy and breeding capacity that can see Nigeria own the process in 3–5 years! During this period, pastoralist communities can gain parity to purchase land where they need to — like any other Nigerian for their business, after securing necessary government support (like crop farmers do all the time) to develop an upscale business model! I bet farming communities that become more prosperous will be welcoming to host pastoralists once the economic symbiosis in-between the two communities become self evident under a pilot. The autonomy of sensible state Governors in this regard will be very critical as much as the creative provision of grants by the federal government to do it.

Beyond the transition arrangement, we must as such look for also permanent solutions. There is an urgent need to modernize the livestock value chain. First, the prohibition of import of live animals with the transition arrangement in place will be a good step. Slaughterhouses can be placed at key border posts alongside National Livestock Markets that will be equipped with cold rooms and cold chain vehicles. Animals being brought into Nigeria will thus be mandatorily tested, slaughtered and frozen for transport to end market.

Those that want fresh day animals will have to patronize "bred-in-Nigeria" cattle and create jobs for transitioning pastoralists. similar to the way chicken farmers benefitted under one Aremu who implemented similar policy after he cornered the poultry market as he always does. That story is for another day!

In the South, especially the South West (where most of the meat is consumed) our lazy thinking Governors should wake up and wake up quick. Instead of the knee jerk rejection of solutions, the modernization of the livestock value chain can employ millions of their jobless youths. The meat on your plate does not say it was groomed by a Fulani or a Yoruba man. What prevents Southwest Governors from investing and employing our roaming youths some of whom are increasingly hooked to codeine?

Indeed, when you do this you grow fodder and you employ grain and pasture farmers. The thousands of hectares of fallow lands now dominating the Southwest terrain can. be converted to useful purpose instead of becoming hideouts of kidnappers. Simple as ABC. But our Governors rather use state money to charter jets, build unnecessary airports. and buy ammunition for elections. Awo is rolling in his grave!

To conclude however, I reserve for our academia the worst contempt for allowing a basic issue like this become a crisis without any intervention. ASUU is quick to go to strike, where are academics on this matter, debating papers, enriching the public discourse and presenting well researched solution? I depended more on academic papers written by foreign aid organizations, who have no interest in cutting Nigeria off from providing markets to their West African aid baby countries, while writing this than on local research. It is a shame. Our professors should be ashamed!

God Bless Nigeria.

TMZ also known as B dousanga, is a public commentator since 1999 online and offline. He writes from Abuja

https://medium.com/@busanga/on-ruga-cattle-herders-fulanization-and-dangers-of-hysterical-reactions-by-tmz-47884fcec046

The conversation we don’t want to have about Biafra

The conversation we don’t want to have about Biafra

By David Hundeyin

Published on May 31, 2019

Ten years ago, when I was a 19 year-old fresher at the University of Hull, I met Ify. She was at that time, probably the most beautiful girl I had ever set my eyes on. I immediately tripped, hit my head and went into an infatuation coma. Ify was the quintessential social butterfly – witty, friendly, distinctly intelligent and culturally Nigerian, with a few notable modifications like her South London accent and a slight tomboy streak.

I think my eyeballs actually turned into heart emojis everytime I saw her, and within a week of starting university, my mission in life was to get Ify to be my girlfriend. The problem was, it didn’t matter how much time and attention I dedicated to her – Ify was not interested in me. We were very good friends, but as time went on, it became clear to my great dismay that she and I as an item, was just never going to happen. Eventually, I gave up on Ify and retired to lick my metaphorical wounds, completely assured in my 19 year-old wisdom that I would never love again.

Same Country, Different Worlds

Then one day, I happened to stumble into a conversation with our larger group of Nigerian friends, about what brought their families to the UK. Unlike the others, I was not an immigrant, so as a full fee-paying international student, I was effectively not part of the conversation. Our friends with names like Timilehin and Tunde all had similar stories – born in Nigeria, parents wanted more out of life, family moved to the UK. It didn’t occur to me or anyone that Ify – normally the life of the party – was not talking.

Then Ify spoke.

She was also born in Nigeria – Kaduna to be precise, and she lived there until 2000. That year, a religious crisis broke out in the city, and the Hausa natives embarked on a frenzied pogrom of their Igbo neighbours. According to her, a Mercedes-Benz lorry filled with the dead bodies of slaughtered Igbo people was dispatched from Kaduna to Onitsha. Ify and her family had to hide from their neighbours whom they grew up with, until her dad was able to sneak them out of Kaduna and on a flight to London, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. That was her “immigrant” story.

When she finished her story, a kind of dead silence followed as our small group of 17 – 20 year-olds tried to process probably the heaviest thing our ears had ever listened to. Suddenly I understood why Ify would never be interested in me, despite seemingly sharing every interest and identity in common – we came from two different worlds. I came from a Nigeria that I spoke of with pride, based on a privileged background and a Lagos-centric worldview. She also came from Nigeria, but her Nigeria was a place of fear, darkness and dread where the kids you grew up playing hopscotch with could at a moment’s notice become your executioners for an offence none of you understood.

I remember hearing of the corpse-filled truck incident in Onitsha as an 11 year-old, but it seemed as distant to me as a bombing in Lebanon. “Kaduna” and other exotic places like that were just names I heard in the news. Listening to Ify’s story was the first time any of it felt real. It was the first time the word “Igbo” – pejoratively thrown around in Lagos as a sort of light-hearted insult took on a new meaning to me. It was the start of my struggle to engage with the word “Biafra.”

Biafra is a very dirty word

Prior to meeting Ify and a number of friends whose experience in Nigeria substantially broadened my worldview, my only knowledge of the Biafran war was a book called ‘Sozaboy’ by Ken Saro-Wiwa, which I found in the family library. The book was written from the point of view of a barely pubescent protagonist thrust into a war he did not understand, and forced to witness acts of incredible violence. He returns home at the end of the war, only to discover that his hitherto innocent sweetheart now has a child conceived through rape. Amidst all the death and carnage, this for him, is the biggest tragedy of the war. I grew up thinking of the Biafran war as this huge, avoidable playground fight between two sets of silly boys who have now learnt their lesson.

My parents – like many other Nigerian parents – hardly ever spoke about the war. Occasionally, when someone like Ralph Uwazuruike, the MASSOB leader, appeared on the news, one of them would drop a dismissive comment about “omo Ibo” and that would be that. It never occurred to me that Uwazuruike and his group were not just some asshats on the TV talking about something that happened in 19-gboboro, or that the “omo-Ibo” thing, was a term that carried a certain weight with it.

When you grow up and go to school in Lagos, you and your mates all wear the same clothes, speak only English – because your parents won’t speak their language to you at home – listen to the same music, watch the same movies and read the same books – “Igbo,” “Yoruba” and “Hausa” are just annoying subjects at school taught by frustrated teachers with anger issues. You also learn nothing about Nigerian history beyond a few vague soundbites about Herbert Macaulay, Ahmadu Bello and Obafemi Awolowo. The word “Biafra” is completely absent from your syllabus from Primary 1 through to SS3.

Even the maps on the wall of my dad’s study which had a water body called “Bight of Biafra” were later replaced with maps labeling the same body of water as “Bight of Benin.” Absolutely nobody wants to talk about Biafra, what came before, what happened next, and how it connects to our modern Nigerian reality. This goes to the heart of Nigeria’s cultural problem – a belief in using silence and hope as a strategy instead of engaging in the messy process of working out a solution. As a country and as a civilization, we believe that if we not-look at a problem hard enough, it will get tired and go away.

As we know all too well, that is never going to happen.

Civil War or Genocide? Why It Matters

Why is our awkward silence on the subject of Biafra extremely problematic? There are several reasons, but to begin with, I think it feeds into our lack of historicity, which manifests itself in our national decision making. If it was general knowledge for example, that a certain Muhammadu Buhari was involved in the so-called counter coup of 1966 – essentially a horrendous massacre of Igbo army officers that directly led to the general pogroms that started the war – even the best efforts of marketing communications agencies in Lagos back in 2015 might not have sufficed to convince Nigerian voters that he was a suitable presidential candidate for the 21st century.

But I digress.

The Nigerian civil war took place between 1966 and 1970. The Kaduna pogrom mentioned at the outset happened in 2000. What connects the two events and why is it important to break the suffocating silence and delineate what happened as a war or as a genocide as many now say? Well for one thing, it’s the same people who died in both cases – innocent civilians whose crime was being born within an ethnicity called “Igbo,” which didn’t exist 200 years ago. Assuming these “Igbos” as a group genuinely did something to warrant furious retribution – that included having their children poisoned with rations laced with rat-killer – were they again doing that something – whatever it was – in Kaduna in 2000?

Since the evidence would suggest not, that points to another motivation for the constant and continued need to massacre a specific group of unarmed civilians. Whatever that motivation is can only be identified by those who hold it – a harmless, eyeglass-wearing Lagos yuppie like myself cannot possibly answer that question. The point however, is that to begin with, “Igbos” did nothing as a group to warrant their wholesale slaughter – both before 1966 and after 1970.

If a group of five army majors including a man named Adewale Ademoyega carried out a coup, and the response was to slaughter Mama Nneka the rice seller in Sabon Gari market, along with her entire family and thousands of others, then the question is not “What did Mama Nneka do?” (And for the love of God, don’t say that Mama Nneka allegedly sang a song about somebody shooting somebody because if that is a capital offence, then we might as well just throw the whole country away.) The proper question is “Who felt a need to kill Mama Nneka and why?” It is a similar situation to that of a rape victim in Nigeria who is asked what she did to provoke the aggressive penis, rather than directing a question to the penis-owning rapist. Victim blaming is a product of our toxic cultural silence – which has been fed by our 49-year silence about Nigeria’s most momentous national event.

When we ask the right questions and determine that Nigeria’s historically dreadful treatment of one of its three biggest ethnic groups is neither deserved nor justified, but is actually genocidal and irrational, then we can start making progress in our national discourse. If we admit that something is not fair, then that makes us commit to changing it. If we forever continue rationalizing stuff like this, we are merely ensuring that Nigeria will never change the record and dance to something new.

The usual saying makes it seem as if when two elephants fight, they get to walk away unscathed while the grass groans in distress. In reality, grass regrows rapidly, but the elephants sustain severe injuries when they use their tusks on each other. In Nigeria’s case, one such severe injury is the moribund, obsolete and miserable Ajaokuta steel mill. At the planning phase, consultants recommended siting the steel mill just outside Onitsha for reasons of proximity to iron ores, cutting down the need for imports.

The Nigerian elephant delivered what it thought was a huge blow to the Biafran elephant by moving the mill to Kogi state for purely political reasons. That was over 30 years ago. Today in 2019, Ajaokuta steel mill remains as unused as the day it was commissioned, but with thousands of salary earners and pensioners on its books who have sat there for decades without a single productive day’s work. Nigeria still imports every kind of steel product it needs, and the technology used at Ajaokuta is at least 20 years out of date, making Chinese steel imports cheaper than whatever it could theoretically produce today.

Oh, and guess which group of people control that import industry? Yes.

Clearly, it wasn’t only the grass that suffered.

Now let’s do a quick mental experiment. Inside your mind, picture the map of Nigeria. Shade the parts of the map where Igbo pogroms have been commonplace over the past 70 years. Now select a different mental colour and shade the parts of the map that are currently suffering from near-total breakdown of security due to violence from non-state actors. Notice how you end up shading the second colour almost exactly over the first. Precisely.

This is not because of some dead-mans-curse/karma hocus pocus. There are of course numerous political and economic factors contributing to the toxicity of such spaces which cannot be explored in this article. However, a key reason is that after decades of the Nigerian state allowing human beings to be slaughtered at the drop of a hat in those places – because said human beings are named “Chukwuka” instead of “Aliu” – the people there have internalized and normalized such violence. Long after Chukwuka and Odinanka have fled or died, the sense of total impunity and the feeling of power associated with unpunished violence remain firmly rooted in those places. Inevitably, such people turn their weapons on each other and continue acting out what they first practised on “Igbos.”

Southwestern Nigeria, which has managed by and large to restrain itself from such orgies of violence is unsurprisingly Nigeria’s safest, wealthiest and most stable region. This is not rocket science. As Chinua Achebe eloquently put it: “We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.”

An Igbo proverb expresses this thought more starkly as “Onye ji onye n’ani ji onwe ya,” which means “He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.”

Pain Gives Birth to Strength and Resilience

Back when I worked in Marketing, I had a boss, Ayeni Adekunle who was fond of the Yoruba proverb “Ninu ikoko dudu l’eko funfun ti’n jade,” which means “White eko comes out of a black pot.” After 49 years of painful, injurious silence about Africa’s biggest-ever genocide, the cleansing effect of finally speaking up will be a great thing. These conversations will be painful. My good friend Charles Isidi is a good person to talk to if you want to get an insight into how raw, pervasive and real the pain still is, after all these years.

I remember being gobsmacked when he informed me that he knows people whose birth certificates read “Republic of Biafra,” because they were born during the war in a country called Biafra. “Nigeria” to them, was simply this big bully next door trying to kill them for no reason – which by the way, is pretty accurate. So what do we do when confronted by stories that we don’t really want to hear, and that we don’t know what to do with?

The first thing is probably to listen. Just, listen. Really listen. Don’t interrupt with “Ehn. but you know they couldn’t have known that…” It’s not your story, and it’s not about you. Listen and let people tell their story. Nigeria is not going to fall down and die if we listen to one-third of our population telling us “You know, dropping bombs on my daddy’s head because some guys we never met did something that had nothing to do with us in a place we never saw wasn’t really called for.” It’s a difficult conversation, but not a world-ending one.

Ultimately, the Igbo ethnic group is now probably Nigeria’s most widely-recognised and diffused ethnicity, with the vast majority still holding on to their Nigerian identity. My friend Ify whom I mentioned at the outset still identifies with Nigeria and visits from time to time. Despite all that has happened, what binds us all together is still more powerful than what sets us apart. We may have a troubled relationship across ethnic lines in Nigeria, but it can still be salvaged.

Like all troubled relationships however, the first and most important step is to have the conversation.

SOURCE AND LINKS  

From begging to banditry: Revolt of the almajiris

 APRIL 28, 2019 By Dele Sobowale 
“No revolution is the fault of the people but the fault of the government.”—Johann Goethe, 1749-1832, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ. 

A revolution is underway in the northern states of Nigeria. The downtrodden constituting 99.9 per cent of the population, hitherto docile beggars, saying rankaindede to the privileged 0.1 per cent, are sick and tired of begging. They are now demanding for their own share of “the national cake” to be delivered to them – at gun or cutlass points. 

Nigeria will never be the same again. The North is now gradually sliding into the dictatorship of the beggars or almajiris. 

As usual, Nigerian pseudo-socialists, like the original European promoters of the idea, had not expected the least developed region in this country to trigger the revolution, just as the uprising which occurred first in Russia and died there as well was wrongly predicted. Our local copy cats had been writing and talking about revolution in Nigeria on the assumption that highly educated Nigerians would lead it. 

History might eventually record that the Nigerian revolution (and make no mistake about it there is one on) was spear-headed by those with nothing to lose – no job, no house, no family to speak of, and no hope. 

For too long there has been ample evidence to prove that the most difficult enemy to fight is one who has nothing to lose. 

The privileged class in Nigeria had been busy since 1914, and particularly since 1960, nurturing millions of fellow citizens who can only be described as people without hope living in another Nigeria from the one inhabited by their overfed leaders. 

“There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots.” Miguel Cervantes, 1547-1616. 

It has always been a puzzle to me why leaders – Presidents, Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, party leaders – who we presumed were/are intelligent and wise could have individually and collectively failed to understand that we cannot continue to increase the number of jobless adults and children out of school without eventually reaching the breaking point. Nigeria has one of the widest income disparities in the world – less than one per cent own over seventy per cent of the wealth. 

The North as a whole is the worst – with the North East and North West being the absolute worst. For as long as anybody can remember religion has been misused to get the vast majority of “have-nots” to accept their penury as an “act of Allah”. 

The extremely wealthy, even if the wealth was accumulated by looting the public purse got away with robbing the masses because of the pervasive docility. Every delinquent individual readily was submissive to the privileged whose only obligation was to give pittance to the people they have robbed by way of alms giving. 

A governor caught on video receiving bribe shows no remorse and even receives presidential endorsement because president and governor belong to the oppressive class. Class solidarity was always more important than justice. For over four decades since first setting foot in the North, I had wondered when the injustice would result in absolute rebellion. I was certain that the system of institutionalised serfdom could not continue for ever.  

The chickens have come home to roost in the North and the revolt might spread all over the country. The former beggars have dropped their bowls and have acquired bullets and guns. They are now forcing the Haves, who have suppressed them to pay. Henceforth, it will be “Your money or your life.” 

The report by DAILY TRUST a few weeks ago is revealing. The four most dangerous places to be in Nigeria today from the standpoint of kidnapping and murder are: Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Federal Capital Territory. President Buhari resides in two of them. 

 “If there is government in place, then it should listen to people and address the security challenges. We have mass burials from time to time and there is no sign that government cares about what is happening.”—Catholic Bishop of Yola, Rev. Stephen Mamza. To that query President Buhari gave an answer which is most pathetic and which tells us all we need to know about why we are in this mess and may never get out of it. Read what our leader said. Speaking through one of his echoes, we were told that “but for Buhari’s efforts, Yola and other towns in Adamawa and the rest of the Northeast would still be under the control of Boko Haram”. 

Two reasons among several render that rejoinder most unpatriotic. One, there was never a time all of the North East or Yola were under the control of Boko Haram. Parts of them yes, but not the entire region. A president does need to stretch a small truth to the breaking point in order to exonerate himself. Two, on the same day that the President’s spokesman was uttering that falsehood, Nigerians were informed thus: 

“Gun men kill 14 in Katsina and Benue.” Nine of the fourteen were slaughtered in Katsina State. Under Jonathan nobody was killed in Katsina State and Kaduna had not become the murder capital of Nigeria. While the Bishop was making a general observation about insecurity, Buhari and his small-minded spokesmen turned the entire problem to a political debate – APC versus PDP. With such little intellect at the top levels of government, it is easy to understand why Buhari might be the last to grasp the significance of what appears like random violence ravaging Nigeria now. Allow me to present a true account of what happened four days to Easter last week. 

“The Devil finds work for idle hands.” I was in Suleija after venturing into a part of Nigeria which was once very safe but which has now become like the “lion’s den” for travellers – especially for those driving good cars and well-dressed. Not to test my luck, I had chartered an old jalopy from the Motor Park instead of the usual Camry. We stopped at a filling station to refuel and my eyes could not believe what they saw.  A leading member of the National Assembly, NASS, was sitting in the back seat of a car which no panel-beater would touch. I recognised him and moved to introduce myself and to ask what was the matter with his cars? 

Almost in tears, he told me he was heading for Kaduna state but he had to disguise out of fear of being kidnapped or murdered. He would enter his community at night and depart before light of dawn for safety. His family once paid ransom to kidnappers and he was not ready to go through the trauma again. He finished with words that will live long in my memory.

 “The kidnappers we dealt with were all graduates. They spoke good English. They said they were all unemployed and they too must live somehow. Dr Dele, God save the North. We are in deep trouble.” He was not alone.

 I know people who would spend every possible week end in their country homes in Kaduna State until a year ago. That was three years after Jonathan left office and Buhari took over. They don’t go anymore – unless it is absolutely necessary. The Governors of Zamfara and Katsina recently cried out loud that their states were under the control of bandits and kidnappers. The Presidency does not dispute those claims. The Governors of Zamfara and Katsina under Jonathan never cried all the way to Abuja that their states had been taken over by criminals. The fact that the President’s own state is under siege by gun men should have been embarrassing to the people (if that is the right word?) at Aso Rock if commonsense is still present there. 

If the President’s men and women have taken any trouble to collate the crime reports daily presented by all our newspapers, they would have discovered an alarming correlation between unemployment and serious crimes in rural and urban communities. Even the murders seemingly committed for rituals have as their goal acquisition of wealth by people whose means of legitimate livelihood is not secure. The North has more of them and it is breeding them faster than any other part of the country. 

“The child is the father of the man.

” William Wordsworth, 1770-1850. When in 2006, Dr Oby Ezekwesili was the Federal Minister of Education and the number of millions of children out of school was reported, any demographer could have told President Obasanjo that the bandits and kidnappers of 2019 were already with us waiting to grow up and terrorise us. The five years old boys of 2006 are now lanky eighteen years old lads; the ten years old have turned to men 23 years old. While the very young might be afraid to kidnap, rob and murder, the eighteen-plus, without parental guidance all the time, are not so squeamish. There are millions of them now. That is bad enough. Now we have a new set of future delinquents – ten to thirteen millions – out of school. Most of them will live to reach eighteen and above. Millions of their older brothers identified in 2006 will still be alive when the fresh crop of idle hands gets set to be engaged by Satan. The numbers will swell and the security forces will never be able to cope with the deluge of criminals unless we do something urgently. The problem is national. 

But, the North is now experiencing a revolt of the beggars. They no longer wait patiently at the gates of the few wealthy people in their communities. They now have set about redistributing wealth by violence. 

No better definition of revolution can be found anywhere. Hitherto, they were afraid of the rich and powerful. Henceforth, the privileged will be afraid of them. It is no coincidence that Kaduna-Abuja expressway has become the frontline of battle. 

A good percentage of the over-pampered Northern elite travels through that route on their way to their well-appointed palaces. Next to that is Katsina. It is the home of the newly-rich. More public officials from that state had been alleged to embezzle public funds since Buhari became President than ever before. 

The bandits can observe new mansions springing up and they want their share of the loot. Kidnapping will not end any time soon. Like vultures, bandits and kidnappers can literally “smell money”. 

They are not even afraid of the security forces. They fight back; and they can afford to select their targets. They know the army is over-stretched and cannot be everywhere. Most important of all, they have nothing to lose. The soldier who dies in conflict with them probably has a wife and children. He really does not want to die.  The bandits have nobody waiting for them at home.  

That is the nature of the army which Nigerian leaders have assembled and which is now launching a full scale assault on the country – especially the North. They have thrown away the begging bowl; they now confront the rest of us with bullets and guns. We might be engaged in this war for fifty years or more. 

THEY JUST CAN’T STOP LYING. 

“Wherever God erects a house of prayer/ The Devil always builds a Chapel there/ And, it will be found upon examination/ The latter has a larger congregation. Daniel Defoe, 1661-1731. Buhari meant well when he tried to achieve religious balance in the appointments of his closest officials. I cannot speak about Muslims. 

But, the President must have inadvertently strayed into the Devil’s chapel to select his Christian advisers. The Pastors in Aso Rock are probably the worst worshippers of Satan ever to enter the Rock.  One claimed that the FG bought millions of cows to feed the kids. 

Farmers wonder where he got the cattle from since none of theirs was bought. The second went to the South West saying only blind men can fail to see Buhari’s monumental achievements. 

Are Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, a Professor needing no glasses, as well as everybody in attendance laughed derisively at the Aso Rock Pastor. Has shame or honour gone out of fashion in churches? Is the king of darkness the only one working full time? 

 FROM VANGUARD