The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

  • El-Rufai’s religious preaching bill

    Much as Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State tries to explain the rationale behind the bill to check the activities of preachers, it would appear the controversy generated by it will continue to linger for a longtime to come. For, there are grey areas in that executive bill that raise suspicion on the capacity of its implementers when passed into law, to be fair to all the religions.

    Titled “A bill for a law to substitute the Kaduna state Religious Preaching law 1984”, it seeks among others, the establishment of two committees, one from the Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI) for Moslems and the other from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for Christians. It also proposes the setting up of an inter-faith ministerial committee to exercise supervisory control over the JNI and CAN committee.

    Both the JNI and CAN committees are to issue licences to preachers as approved by the inter-faith ministerial committee and renewable after one year. Other key aspects of the bill relate to restricting the playing of cassettes, CDs, flash drive or any other communication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited preachers to one’s house, inside the church, Mosque, or any other designated place of worship.

    It also makes it an offence for any person to preach without licence, play a religious cassette or use a louder speaker for religious purposes after 8pm in public places. An offender shall on conviction be liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine of N200, 000 or both.

    The Catholic Bishop of Kaduna, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Man-OSO Ndagoso, is of the opinion that the bill is unnecessary as our laws can handle issues it seeks to tackle.

    For the chairman of the JNI in the state, Alhaji Ja’faru Makafi, the bill is nothing new as preaching activities have had a long history of regulation in the state. He said it was for this reason that the regime of Ahmed Makafi had to drop similar idea when he was reminded that there were existing laws regulating preaching.

    Thus, the bill appears an avoidable duplication of existing laws guiding the practice of religion and therefore patently unnecessary. Apart from this, there are aspects of it that are largely vague and suspicions are that in their implementation, the Kaduna State government may likely come out in its true colours.

    The first has to do with the setting up of the two committees for JNI and CAN that are to be supervised by an inter-faith ministerial committee. The bill should have gone further to specify the composition of the inter-faith committee. This is especially so because given the very sensitive nature of religion on these shores, there is every reason to expect some friction when it comes to the composition and chairmanship of the committee. The direction it tilts will be a mirror to what may follow thereafter.

    There will be friction over the propriety of the inter-faith committee to determine which preachers to issue licences and which of them should not be accredited to propagate their faith. Such issues are very hard to regulate. Moreover, the criteria for the issuance of such licences have not been spelt out. Is it going to be based on large followership, popularity, record or rigorous religious training?  Or is it going to be biased in favour of well established faith organizations? What future is there for the budding ones?

    And where is it written that these criteria are all there is for purposeful and effective evangelical work?  It would seem the inter-faith committee is ab initio handicapped in the assignment the bill seeks to carve out for it. It will also amount to serious intrusion into the activities of the two religions by the government. There must be a point beyond which the government cannot intrude in religious affairs. Setting up an inter-faith committee to regulate what Christians and Moslems do would amount to an action taken too far.

    There are also serious issues with the proposed trial of preachers without licences in the sharia and customary courts. The controversy that will arise from this may make nonsense of anything to be achieved by that piece of legislation.

    If at all, preaching should be regulated in the manner being proposed in the bill, it ought to be left for the two religious bodies.  But it is not all religious sects that belong to CAN and JNI. And that further constrains the attempt to regulate. You can neither regulate nor issue licences to faith based organizations that fall outside the ambit of these two religious bodies.

    But then, there is the more fundamental flaw in the reasoning that the cause of religion is better served when preachers are armed with a licence from the government. Its corollary is that issuing licences to preachers constitutes both the necessary and sufficient conditions for peaceful co-existence among members of the two dominant religious groups. There are no facts to support this thinking.

    Moreover, some of the preachers who command large following today and have performed well in their missionary work are neither known to have undergone formal training in their missionary work nor certified by such bodies as JNI or CAN before they commenced preaching. So the contention by El -Rufai that the bill “seeks to ensure that those that preach religion are qualified, trained and certified by their peers to do so” cannot be stretched too far.

    In fact, if such regulation had been in force, many of the religious denominations that abound today would not have been allowed to spring up. That is the simple fact and that is why the feeling is strong that the bill is meant to limit religious freedom.

    There are also issues with limiting the playing of cassettes, CDs and flash drive to one’s homes and inside the churches and mosques. The inevitable impression is that much of the religious disharmonies we have had in that state derive in the main, from unrestrained spreading of religious messages through these medium. This cannot be supported by the genesis of the various religion-induced riots that had in the past, led to the destruction of lives and property of inestimable value not only in that state but other states in the north. It cannot also be achieved by making it an offence for any person to preach without licence or limiting the use of loud speakers for religious purposes in public places after 8pm.

    Such regulation will no doubt, come into conflict with the mode of evangelization of most Christian dominations. The issue is not as much with the playing of religious cassettes or spreading religious messages after a certain period of time. It has not got much to do with what preachers do during their public outings.

    We need to look beyond these if we really seek the right handle to the cycle of religious violence that has been the sad lot of some states in the north. The Maitatsine riots of the 80’s; the series of religious violence of the past and the Boko Haram insurgency have little to do with some of the issues the bill seeks to regulate. Neither is the bill designed to check the future emergence of weird fundamentalist ideology nor the selfish manipulation of the down-trodden by the elite that give rise to such riots. Such indoctrination is implanted within the four walls of these religious bodies rather than outside of it.

    El-Rufai should drop that superfluous piece of legislation and channel his energy to improving the material conditions of the people of that state. With improved education and material conditions of living, the ease with which politicians manipulate the masses for self-serving ends in the guise of religion, will wane very considerably. And that is the real issue.

  • Ikpeazu, Okorocha and DSS

    When the Department of Security Services DSS recently announced its investigations claiming that members affiliated with Indigenous Peoples of Biafra IPOB, abducted, murdered and buried five Fulani men in a shallow grave in Abia State, many discerning Nigerians must for good reasons, have been frightened. The shock is not only borne out of the dastardly nature of the alleged criminality but the frightening prospects of the incident ruffling the fragile peace that currently pervades the nation’s landscape.

    DSS spokesman, Tony Opuiyo, said the five men who resided in the Isuikwuato LGA of Abia State were discovered in the Umuanyi forest where they were suspected to have been killed and buried, amidst 50 other shallow graves of unidentified persons. He further alleged that the IPOB was gradually showing its real colours.

    But the IPOB vehemently denied the allegation by the DSS describing it as “fabricated lies”. The group said it was unfortunate to link a non-violent body with the alleged abduction murder and burying of five Fulani men. IPOB further alleged that the accusation was meant to instigate northerners whom they do not have any problem with against them so that there will be reprisal killing of their people in the north for no justifiable reason.

    Since then, the matter has remained at the realm of claims and counter claims as no further evidence has been adduced by the DSS to show how it arrived at the conclusion that IPOB was responsible for that murderous act.

    But a new dimension came into the controversy last week when the governors of Abia and Imo states- Okezie Ikpeazu and Rochas Okorocha addressed the press. In that media briefing after a joint security council meeting of the two states, the governors while condemning the killing of the five Fulani men in a border forest of the two states, said it was an act of kidnapping by criminals which has been rife in the states.

    More specifically, Okorocha said the killing was an act of kidnapping and had nothing to do with ethnicity. The governor said “information reaching us reveal that it is not just five Fulani men as there were two corpses believed to be Igbo from the area, so it is not just a direct attack on any ethnic group”. The governors also disclosed the arrest of the culprits who have been giving useful information with a promise that they will be made to face the full weight of the law.

    With the intervention of the two governors, it is now obvious who between the DSS and the IPOB, is telling the truth in respect of the motive behind the killing of the Fulani men. It would also seem that speculations on who is responsible for the killings have been laid to rest especially given the arrest of the suspected masterminds of the devious act.

    The intervention of the two governors, as commendable and timely as it was, has brought to the fore the conduct of the DSS in the matter. Here is a responsible security organ of the government that went to town to announce that members affiliated with IPOB abducted , murdered and buried five Fulani men in a shallow grave. And given the high regard the public has for that security arm of the government, many must have believed that the DSS must have had their facts right since they claimed the disclosure was a product of their investigations.

    But we have now been made to know after a joint security council meeting of the two states that the five men as reprehensible as their killings were, fell victim to the rampant kidnapping in the two states. What is more, two other bodies believed to be Igbo from the area were among the victims of the murderous activities of the kidnappers.

    How the DSS came to the conclusion that the five Fulani men were killed by the IPOB remains largely curious. Why it also chose to ignore the fact that there were two other bodies suspected to be Igbo victims of the murder at that site littered with 50 other shallow graves puts serious doubt on the purpose the information dished out by DSS was meant to serve.

    And given the sensitivity of such information and its frightening prospects to further compound the fragile security situation in the country, it remains a puzzle why the DSS rushed to town with information now faulted by the joint security council meeting of the two states. It is noteworthy that such joint meetings have among others in attendance, the state directors of the DSS.

    My reading of this development is that having participated in the joint security council meeting of the two states where it was agreed that the five Fulani men were victims of kidnapping, the DSS apparently admitted that the information it fed its national headquarters on who killed the Fulani men was incorrect. That was why the two governors had to announce to the public that the killings had nothing to do with ethnicity, which link the IPOB angle inevitably conveyed.

    By that also, the governors have diffused the tension and prospects of reprisal killings that may have followed that disclosure. It is nothing new that reprisal killings have before now been rampant from the part of the country where the five men come from. In the past, we have seen how even a cartoon that appeared outside this country resulted in reprisal killings in north from people who considered that cartoon offensive to their religion.

    Why the DSS could not factor such incendiary prospects while taking a decision to go public with an allegation that has now been proven wrong is a sad commentary on the proficiency and competence of those who handled that piece of information. Even at that, if the DSS had in verity stumbled at information linking the IPOB with that killing, what ought to have been its appropriate response to it? To go public with it or spread its dragnet to apprehend the culprits and make them face the full weight of the law?

    For this writer, the rational option for that security agency would have been to liaise with other security organs of the government to apprehend the masterminds of that devious act. Since it was able to finger the body allegedly connected with the incident, we presume the agency had a fair idea of those who took part in the killing. The right approach would have been to arrest and prosecute them rather than going public with unconfirmed information that could further create serious security challenges.

    We have now been told by the governors that the masterminds have been arrested and are giving useful information to the security agencies. That is the right path the DSS should have taken rather than dishing out tendentious information that would later be faulted.

    As much as one resists the lure of imputing motives into that hasty announcement by the DSS, it is utterly disappointing that that agency could not anticipate the mortal harm the development is to the lives of those on whose behalf the IPOB claims to be crusading.  Even if that piece of information was to be correct, the public had no need for it because it could result in reprisals killings. When that happens, would that agency not have failed in its statutory duties?

    We demand a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the filing of aspects of that report that has now turned out false. Those found culpable for acts of omission of commission should be punished. That is the right way to correct the festering impression by the IPOB that linking it to the killings was primed to precipitate reprisal killings of their people in the north.

    Above all, Ikpeazu and Okorocha deserve commendation for their bold and timely intervention that has saved the nation another cycle of violence arising from the poor handling of the matter by the DSS.

  • A season of blames

    It is not unusual given the dire economic straits in the country on account of debilitating fuel scarcity, for some introspection on how we got to this pass. For a major oil-producing country, the sight of long queues for fuel across the country, the price at which hapless citizens access that commodity and the general toll it is having on economic activities are issues that are bound to generate public apprehension.

    Not unexpectedly, reactions have come from various quarters on who or what to hold accountable for this. Opinions vary depending on the divide on which one stands. The trend however, is to heap the blame for the excruciating economic conditions at the door steps of the immediate past regime of Goodluck Jonathan.

    Revelations relating to the huge funds allegedly looted by sundry officials associated with that regime are easily propped up to support this line of contention. The argument is that if the monies said to have been diverted into private purses had been deployed for public good, perhaps, much of the economic problems the nation currently face would have been staved off.

    President Buhari had cause last week to identify with this school of thought when he blamed the past democratic regimes for the current economic woes of the country. The president said Nigeria has little to show for the huge resources it made from the sale of oil in the last 16 years despite the fact that the commodity sold around $100 per barrel for most part of that period.

    He blamed those who managed the affairs of this country within that time frame for failing to plan for the future with a promise to break that vicious cycle by ensuring that Nigeria works at her potentials rather than remaining at the level of potentials.

    President Buhari drew example with Ethiopia which solely relies on its airline industry for survival arguing that if that country could afford to sustain its people, Nigeria with greater potentials should be able to do better. The contention that Nigeria has no reason remaining at its current level of development had our leaders meaningfully deployed the huge resources that accrued from the sale of oil for public good, cannot be faulted.

    It is also a truism that the problems of this nation for which its citizens have largely remained hewers of wood and fetchers of water despite the enormous gifts Mother nature has endowed us, are traceable to our inability to plan for the future. In its place, we have over time, been treated to a looting spree by sundry buccaneers who bestrode our political landscape like an army of occupation.

    In the last 16 years and indeed since the advent of the oil boom in the 70s, Nigeria made enormous earnings from oil sales. But the reality on the ground is that this has not translated to a corresponding level of development such that even some other African countries with meagre revenue have done much better within the development matrix. So when Buhari said there is very little on the ground to show for the huge revenue that accrued to this nation within that timeframe, he is not out of order.

    But he erred when he sought to limit that malfeasance to the last 16 years of the return of democracy. The past 16 years correspond with the periods when Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan presided over the affairs of the country under the PDP-led government. Before then and for most part of our post independence era, the military bestrode the entire landscape like a colossus. Within that period especially in the early 70s, oil also commanded reasonable price in the international market.

    How much of the receipts from oil sales translated to meaningful development during the reign of the military, remains to be seen. So there must be something in the quality of leadership and its pattern of recruitment that has made it nigh impossible for us to make real progress. There must be some defective orientation in the psyche of our leaders that predisposes them to what foremost political scientist, Richard Joseph described as prebendalism. That is the issue to contend with and unless we realistically address this tendency, the leaders of today may not come out better than those of yesterday.

    In comparative terms however, there is more on the ground development wise within this period than the years the military ruled this country. It is vital to make this point because in the past, such excuses have been capitalized upon by overzealous military officers to prematurely terminate democratically elected governments. And as has been evident from our case, the military did not post any positive record of better management of our resources.

    So the blame game can go on and on. But there must be a point at which those in authority must take responsibility. The impression one gets each time we are reminded of how the last regimes mismanaged the nation’s economy is that the current regime is not willing to take responsibility for its actions. That the PDP did not live up to the expectations of Nigerians in the last 16 years is now history. And history is only relevant to the extent it directs actions of today for the better. What is vital now is not constant recourse to the past but how to convert the experiences of that past to positively impact on the actions and policies we take today.

    With nearly one year in office, what Nigerians expect are corrective actions by the government to improve on the fortunes of the country. They expect the dividends of their votes to translate to improvement in their lives and services provided by the government. They want to see new ways of doing old things; they want people oriented policies with positive impact on the lives of the toiling masses.

    They are eager to see a government that will convert the mistakes of the past to advantage and reverse the cycle of despondency and abject poverty that ravage the country in spite of the huge revenue accruals from the sale of oil. They want quick fixes given the high enthusiasm that greeted the change of baton last May. Unfortunately however, each time challenges arise in the management of the economy, we are quickly reminded of the sins of the last government as if there are no solutions to such acts of omission or commission.

    Buhari has promised to move beyond bandying our potentials to convert such potentials to advantage. That is the way to go. He has also drawn parallels with poorer country that have been able to manage their economies implying that there is no reason Nigeria should not do better.

    We must proceed beyond the past and chart the right course to stabilize the future. Not much is gained by attempts from supporters of the regime to blame the last regime for the biting fuel scarcity. Nigerians know the last government left office about one year ago and fuel situation was not that bad then. They are also privy to the fact that much of the stabilization we had in the supply chain in the last couple of years was achieved during that regime.

    Attempts at holding it culpable for the biting fuel scarcity and the scandalous prices the commodity sells across the country, cannot fly. Much of the problems we face with shortages in domestic fuel supply have to do with the way the government reacted to the twin issues of fuel importation by oil marketers and subsidy payment.

    The government misfired in coming to the conclusion that it has the capacity to almost solely take up the importation of the fuel needs of the country. Having found out the futility of that policy, it was not surprising that it last week handed back about 54 per cent of such importation to private marketers. And now, they talk of price adjustments or price modulation such that has given rise to speculations on the re-introduction of the fuel subsidy regime. Are we still in doubt of where the blame lies?

  • Impunity of the herdsmen

    For many farming communities across the country, the fear of Fulani herdsmen may as well, constitute the beginning of wisdom. From Benue to Plateau, Ondo to Enugu, the menace of Fulani herdsmen has taken such a dangerous dimension that may reduce the insurgency in the north-east to a child’s play.

    The impunity with which they attack, maim and raze down communities virtually unchallenged has given cause for motives to be imputed into their activities. They take local farming communities by surprise, attacking in commando style with very sophisticated weaponry to advantage.

    In the last couple of weeks, the Agatu local government area of Benue State has borne the brunt of these menacing attacks, ostensibly spurred by the lure of grazing lands for their cattle. So many lives have been lost with property of inestimable value destroyed. In their wake, more than 100,000 locals have been displaced from their ancestral homes while the invaders quickly brought in more than 500,000 cattle to graze on the farms of this predominantly agrarian community.

    The people of Agwu local government area of Enugu State are now living in a very fragile peace due to the arrest and detention of 76 indigenes when they mobilized to rescue two of their women abducted by Fulani herdsmen while on their farms. Reports had it that Fulani herdsmen had abducted the two women on their way to the farms and when all pleas to have them released fell on deaf ears, some youth in the community mobilized to have them freed.

    As they made to search for them, words were sent to soldiers who stormed the bush arrested and detained the villagers before handing them over to the police. They are still detained without being charged to court for whatever infractions they may be accused of. Ironically, the same soldiers showed scant regard to freeing the abducted women as their whereabouts remain mysterious.

    And in Osun State, the House of Assembly has directed that a task force be set up to monitor the coming in and out of Fulani herdsmen. The measure became expedient to check the indiscriminate grazing on farmland and the destruction of crops by the herdsmen. By this measure, the two entry points of the herdsmen through the Iwo and Ila axis are to be properly manned to control the movement of cattle into the state.

    These are just few cases in the orgy of violence associated with the activities of the herdsmen. They have also been fingered in the recurring cases of armed robbery, raping and kidnapping across the country. No less a person than the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase recently blamed much of this criminality associated with the Fulani herdsmen on those of them of foreign nationality.

    He said with our porous borders and the ECOWAS protocols that allow free movement of citizens of member countries, most of the criminal elements in the Fulani herdsmen stock are foreigners. How that claim will be useful in taming the menace of the herdsmen is yet to be seen. And if Arase has found this statistic to be correct, it will be interesting to know how he intends to deploy that information to tame the monster.

    The time bomb which the unrestrained violent proclivities of the herdsmen represent is further brought home by the lamentations of Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom. He had told reporters after his recent meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that “the security situation in Benue, especially Agatu is getting out of hand. Right now, several settlements have been razed down, an undisclosed number of people killed and my people are now refugees all over the place”.

    Other people in Benue State have also decried the continued killings by the herdsmen even with the deployment of more military and police personnel to the flash points. Not unexpectedly, this has given rise to accusations of bias against security agencies in handling matters concerning the herdsmen. No less a person than the former governor of Abia state, Theodore Orji last week, lent his weight to this suspicion of bias in the way security agencies treat matters relating to the provocation of the local population by invading herdsmen. He said the way security personnel react when issues arise between the herdsmen and the local population tends to convey the impression that they are biased in favour of the former.

    There is no doubt that the activities of the herdsmen have become the greatest threat to the security and unity of this country. Though the issue is not entirely new, it would appear it is everyday assuming such a dangerous dimension that something more serious has to be done to tame this monster.

    There are serious grounds especially given the inability of our law enforcement agencies to pre-empt and quickly control such attacks that expansion and domination may be the latent motive behind the flashes of violence associated with the herdsmen across the country.

    A number of suggestions have been floated as a way out of the situation. We have heard of grazing routes and grazing areas for the herdsmen throughout the country. There have also been suggestions for the establishment of ranches in keeping with global practices in animal husbandry.

    Even then, the Senate is said to be working on a legislation to provide grazing lands for the herdsmen. Though the modalities for this arrangement are yet to come public, there exists some measure of discomfort with ceding ancestral lands of the local population to Fulani herdsmen just to appease them. Those in support of mapping out grazing lands for the herdsmen do so as a temporary measure given that herdsmen scattered all over the country must have to find some grazing land for their cattle. And given the itinerant nature of this business, there is bound to be regular conflict between the herdsmen and the local farmers as long as their cattle go in search of pasture.

    The idea may sound plausible but it is not as neat as it is being proposed. Soon the issue of ownership will set in. Soon also demands for self-determination and all manner of agitations will crop up. And in a setting where Fulani herdsmen or their sympathizing armed militia wield sophisticated weapons with which to attack and dislodge the local population from their ancestral homes, ceding such vast land areas to them will further come with serious security challenges.

    There is little doubt about that. If they can operate with the level of impunity that has now become their hallmark, one shudders what the situation will be when vast areas of land are now allocated to them just for grazing in all parts of the country. Will that not embolden them to further challenge the original owners of the lands? Will that also not amount to instituting Fulani hegemony all over the country?

    It is therefore important that in putting together that piece of legislation, our lawmakers must clearly state that the ownership of those lands devolves on the original owners. One way to ensure this is to make those herdsmen pay regular rent to the original owners of the land.  Rearing cattle is a very big business. Farming is also peoples’ means of livelihood. We cannot afford to sacrifice one for the other. With geometric increase in population given our census figures, our food needs have also grown by that same margin.

    Our local farmers should not be denied access to their farming lands just to appease the herdsmen who by all accounts have proved to be unfriendly visitors. The ultimate solution is in embracing the establishment of ranches. Then and only then would we have found permanent solutions the constant frictions between the herdsmen and their host communities.

    Before then, the federal government must do something urgent about the sources of the sophisticated arms and ammunitions at the disposal of the herdsmen. The inability of the security agencies to disarm them, fuels the festering impression that there is an official dimension to the impunity of Fulani herdsmen.

  • And poor Joan died!

     

    If the furor generated by the conduct of the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME has abated, the family of Emmanuel Egemba, a retired assistant superintendent of the Nigerian Customs will for long, nurse the bruises inflicted by that singular exercise on them.

    The predicament of the Egemba’s has nothing to do with the regular complaints that marred the examination in many centers: malfunctioning computers, multiple results as evident in the disparities between results received through text messages and computer printouts, inability to take the exams and inappropriate loading of questions among others.

    Theirs, was the cruel fate that befell their 20 year old daughter, Joan scheduled to write the exams at a center far from her family residence but abducted and murdered by suspected rapists as she made for her center on the eve of the test billed to commence by 6.30am.  Accounts have it that the poor girl who lived at the Odo Eran, Sango Otta area of Ogun state, in a bid to meet up with the 6.30 am exam time, left her home for the center at the National Open University center at Awa Ijebu on the eve of her exam date.

    Apparently because of her family’s anticipated difficulties in meeting up with the 6.30 exam time given the distance, she was encouraged by her parents to go a day before and possibly pass the night at the exam center. That decision turned out the greatest mistake the family will ever live to regret.

    According to reports, when Joan eventually arrived at the center that evening, the security man at the gate initially refused to open the gate for her and some other candidates who had also arrived there because of anticipated difficulties in meeting up with time were they to set out on the morning of the test.  Joan was later to speak with her father around 7pm that the security man had eventually allowed them entry into the center to pass the night there.

    From then, things went awry. Subsequent attempts by her father to speak with her on phone failed as it was switched off. A search conducted a few days after she was supposed to have written the exams, resulted in the discovery of the strangulated body of the poor girl. The manner she was killed suggested she might have been strangled by suspected rapists as she resisted the assault on her. Her body was discovered at Ijebu Igbo following information received at a building beside her exam center that a girl was kidnapped around the area on that fateful night. Ironically, the security man who allegedly opened the gate of the center for the candidates denied knowledge of the fate of the poor girl.

    To make matters worse for the Egemba’s, reports lodged at the police station in the area were not attended to as the divisional police officer at Awa Ijebu was said not to have acted on the matter four days after the report was lodged in his office. And that has turned out the uncanny fate of the young lady whose thirst for higher education led her to opt to sleep in an unfriendly environment in order to meet up with her exam time schedule.

    For now, the Egemba family is in dire distress. They are devastated and full of regrets on the circumstances that led to the premature killing of their daughter. So many ideas would have by now been running through their minds. They will have to come to terms with the propriety of their decision to allow their daughter proceed to the center without any arrangement as to how she would be accommodated that night.

    Had they anticipated the outcome of that decision, they would have preferred the life of their daughter to UTME exam that has brought in its trail sadness, sorrow and awe. But they did not have that premonition. Neither did they anticipate such impending calamity. They may have underestimated the level of criminality in the Nigerian society today such that gave them the comfort of mind that their daughter was not being exposed to a huge danger.

    They may also have been constrained by other circumstances to arrive at that painful decision. But the worst has happened that will leave sour memories in the hearts of the entire family. It is a very unfortunate and heart-rending story.  My heart goes to the family at this trying moment. The Egemba’s are not alone in this predicament arising from the curious scheduling of the UTME exams by 6.30 for some of the candidates. Given the constraints posed by limited exam centers, many candidates found themselves posted to centers far away from their places of abode. Those of them who had schedules very early in the morning, had to make sundry arrangements to ensure they do not miss out given the difficulty in hitting the centers on time were they to take off from their homes.

    Joan was a typical case of one of those candidates. Had her exam not been scheduled that early, the cruel fate that has befallen her would have been avoided. There are other candidates that suffered serious risks and inconveniences on account of the early morning examination schedule. But Joan’s case has perhaps, turned the worst of such sad encounters.

    This writer was in one of the exam centers in the first two days of the exercise with his son who was billed to write the exam by 9.30 am in nearby Ogun state. Though we arrived at the center around 7am since we could not predict Lagos traffic, the exam did not start until two hours after the scheduled time. As I was waiting for my son to finish the exam which eventually ended around 4 pm, I had sufficient time to interact with the army of parents who accompanied their children to the exams.

    I can recall very vividly that as we waited and got tired hanging around, some of the parents lamented that during their time they went for similar exams unaccompanied. One of them even suggested that children of today are over pampered by their parents. But another objected to that suggestion.

    She said things have since changed and those who accompany their children to the centers do so for fear that harm may come their way. She said she had two children writing the exams that morning and that they had to drop and pick them one after another for their safety.

    Many of the discussants concurred that things have changed and it is better to be sure of the safety of your children. To them, any sacrifice made for the safety of the children is worth the trouble especially with the spate of armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and sundry criminalities. With similar discussions, we were able to ward off the boredom of having to wait for our children for more than nine hours. But if some of us had the privilege of ferrying our children to the exam centers, it is not so for so many families as Joan’s case has shown.

    One could therefore imagine how those parents who were part of the above discussion will feel on learning of the fate of the Egemba’s. All the fears they expressed were after all, not unfounded. We have seen how the criminally minded cashed in on the predicament of the poor lady to snuff life out her. What a sad way to die. We commiserate with Joan’s family on this sad incident and urge the law enforcement agents to do all within their powers to track down the culprits.

    In this task, the security man at the center will have useful information on all that transpired that night. It is also sad that the police did not act quickly when information on the missing girl was reported to them. The Ogun police command must swing into quick action to unravel the circumstances behind the dastardly act.

    Beyond this however, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB has vicarious responsibility in the matter for scheduling exams as early as 6.30 am. In the face of a poor transportation system in the country, acute fuel shortages and mounting insecurity, asking candidates to arrive at the exam centers by that hour is to say the least, very inconsiderate. In subsequent arrangements, the board must do away with the idea of scheduling exams that early. That way, the sad fate that befell Joan will not repeat itself.

     

     

  • JAMB protests

    It is now clear all was not well with the conduct of the Unified Tertiary  Matriculation Examination (UTME) which was rounded off last week. If anything, pockets of protests across the country underscore vividly, the dissatisfaction of many of the candidates with the conduct and outcome of that examination.

    In Ilorin, Kwara state, scores of UTME candidates protested over alleged shoddy conduct of the examination which failed them for no fault of theirs. They complained of receiving different scores from text messages and printouts which in most cases reduced their scores by at least 40 marks. There were also issues bordering on computer malfunction, poor loading of questions and instructions that put some candidates at gross disadvantage.

    Some others especially those who took the examination in the first two days of its commencement complained of 40 marks awarded to some candidates as reflected in the disparities between the scores in text messages initially sent to them and the final printouts.

    In Lagos, the matter took a wider dimension as hundreds of candidates together with their parents and tutorial center operators went violent at the premises of the state house of assembly while protesting the outcome of the examination. They hauled pebbles at the gate of the assembly when no official was at hand to speak to them. Some were reportedly arrested. Their complaints were similar; some candidates had 40 marks added to their results while for others, there was a reduction by the same margin.

    JAMB has blamed the protests on education consultants whose Computer Based Test centers (CBT) were disqualified for the UTME due to their inability to meet stipulated standards. The board’s public relations officer, Dr. Fabian Benjamin has asked aggrieved candidates to be calm and avail themselves of the opportunities provided by its public complaints unit rather than allow themselves to be used by any selfish interests.

    He placed the blame of the protests squarely at the door steps of proprietors of centers which were previously approved for the test but later disallowed because they were found to be lacking in indices for the conduct of the CBT examinations. “It is surprising that these proprietors will turn around to organize candidates to protest over our activities, Benjamin said”

    JAMB’s accusation of proprietors whose centers were disqualified for instigating the protests may not be entirely out of place. This is more so given that candidates who applied for the UTME did so purely in their private capacities. Thus, it is not easily conceivable how such private candidates could organize themselves for the protests we have seen without external prompting. So if JAMB blames some external body for influencing the protests, there is reason to give that body the benefit of doubt.

    Moreover, in the case of the protests in Lagos, reports had it that tutorial center proprietors and some parents were part of the demonstration that turned violent leading to some arrests. This alone gives ample credence to the allegation by JAMB that the protests were instigated by those whose selfish business interests were dashed by the cancellation of their centers for observed inadequacies.

    But this will neither account for the presence of some parents in the protests in Lagos nor reduce the weight of the issues raised by the candidates in the various centers. The common thread running through all the complaints of the candidates was that 40 marks were added or subtracted from their results as reflected in the disparities between the results sent to them through text messages and the final computer printouts; computer malfunctioning, poor loading of questions and instructions and power outages. There were candidates who claimed to have received four different versions of the results.

    So irrespective of whatever interest proprietors of the disqualified centers had in the matter, such selfish interests had very little to do with the substantive issues raised by the candidates. Definitely a candidate who received two different versions of his scores from the examination body is bound to be apprehensive of the overall credibility of that exercise. This is more so when such results show disparities of a whopping 40 marks margin. The matter is even compounded by the revelation that some other candidates got as much as four different versions of the results. Definitely JAMB is to blame for this. One is quite certain that the key factor to the protests is the issue of multiple results. It is bound to raise suspicion and the candidates are right to impute any motive to it. The blame lies squarely at the table of the examination body. So even if the proprietors were propelled by selfish business interest to goad the candidates to the protests, the candidates saw sufficient reasons to be part of them.

    And they have no blame for that. Ironically, JAMB has remained mute on why it posted different versions of results to the candidates. It must speak up on this singular issue else those who have continued to fault its continued retention as an examination body may begin to attract some sympathy. It is not enough for Benjamin to ask aggrieved candidates to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by its public complaints unit in redressing observed shortcomings.

    The board’s attention has been sufficiently drawn to the inadequacies in its conduct of the last UTME examinations. The credibility of the results it awarded candidates has been put to serious question on account of the unreliability of the different versions of results it posted. It must come public and explain what brought about the mix up. Such explanation must indicate the sources of the error since the results, which are expected to be marked by the computer, are supposed to have a very high degree of accuracy.

    With such explanation, the general public will begin to come to terms with the reliability of the CBT examinations which JAMB has been experimenting in the last two years. So it is not enough for the board to be trumpeting the advantages which the new examination system has over the paper and pencil test.

    It is also not enough for the examination body to justify these lapses by concluding that “the worst CBT is better than the best Paper and Pencil Test” If the truth must be told, this statement cannot be supported by the outcome of the last outing of that examination body. The fact remains that by posting different versions of the results, the body has created serious doubts in the minds of the candidates on the credibility of the CBT option. Many candidates have by the same errors of omission or commission had their ambition to enter higher institutions this year prematurely aborted.

    It may well be that the CBT will turn out a great improvement on the previous mode of test that was prone to sundry malpractices. If after the first year of its operation, the CBT came out with serious flaws this year, it only indicates that the body has not done its home work very well and it should take the blame. The CBT may well prove better in the future. But the confusion it has generated this year will remain a sad commentary on the efficacy of that system of examination.

    In the environment we operate, it may not be entirely out of place for there to be some lapses during such tests. But the magnitude and dimension of the current one should sufficiently task JAMB to ensure that the future of candidates is neither compromised nor abridged by inefficiencies within its house. In all, it must undertake a serious review of the results that have been posted to the candidates to ensure they tally with their actual performance.

    Above all, the solution to the current fiasco does not lie in scraping the CBT option or having it run simultaneously with the paper and pencil variant as the House of Representatives has recommended. JAMB should be given some time to improve. But they must catch up immediately. The CBT option remains the right path to the future.

     

     

  • Federal character issues

    Recent report that the Senate intends to enforce the federal character principle in all appointments and distribution of economic and social amenities in the country is heart-warming. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character, Senator Tijani Kaura who gave the indication, warned the Federal Character Commission (FCC) against skewed appointment into the federal civil service.

    He also promised to ensure the promotion and enforcement of equitable and proportional distribution of infrastructural facilities and socio-economic amenities among the federating units with a view to discouraging executive and administrative arbitrariness.

    Section 14 of the 1999 constitution as amended states that “the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also command national loyalty” It further stated “there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies”

    The federal character principle or the Affirmative Action Program as it is called in the United States of America is a cardinal principle of all federations to give accommodation to all the units in the union so as to promote national unity and national cohesion. Since most federations came into being through the fusing together of disparate groups, it was thought wise that such countries should as a matter of deliberate policy, have constitutional safeguards against the domination of any of the interests that make up the union.

    The aim is to forge a common sense of belonging and identity among the diverse groups in the federation. In our case, it seeks to build Nigerians out of the disparate groups and interests in the federation. It is therefore a visionary legislation to stave off sources of friction and fission within the polity.

    Despite the vision in this principle, instances of its breach have been recurring. It is in this regard that the assurances by Kaura that the senate intends to ensure strict compliance with the principle offers new hope. His committee must match words with immediate action and commence a comprehensive audit of all government ministries and agencies so as to determine the extent of compliance with this principle. We say so because, a lot of people believe rightly or wrongly that certain sections of the country have disproportionate share of appointments in government ministries and agencies. Where brazen cases of abuse are detected, immediate efforts should commence to have them redressed.

    And as can be seen from the Nigerian instance, the key objectives of the principle are to promote national unity and national cohesion-two key issues that have remained largely illusory. There is little doubt that some of the intractable challenges confronting this country have been the inability to secure the loyalty of the various nationalities. That the state has been in constant competition with the ethnic groups for the loyalty of the citizens, illustrates very vividly the little progress made in this regard.

    Not only are civic structures seen as realms that should be impoverished for the benefit of the primordial units, both realms have different moral attachments. This in part, accounts for the scandalous stealing that goes on in public places. There are indications that most of the federating units do not seem to have sufficient confidence in the capacity of the central government to dispense our resources equitably.

    The bitter rivalry among the major ethnic groups to take a shot at the highest political office in the land can be located in this distrust. There is a festering feeling that it is only when one of your own ascends that office that more amenities will come to your zone. Somehow, this feeling is constantly given credence by the skewed appointments we have seen in the last couple of years and the justification given for them.

    It is not surprising that the separatist tendencies this nation has been contending with bear positive correlation with raging feelings of marginalization and alienation. That separatism has been on high ascendancy is a clear evidence of our failure to realistically translate this principle into concrete action. The Boko Haram insurgency, militancy in the Niger Delta and renewed agitations for the state of Biafra, all have their roots in perceived inadequacies on the part of the federal government to provide for the collective good of these units. They are all clear indicators that we have not been able to make Nigerians out of the various nationalities that make up this unity in diversity. Recurring centrifugal tendencies are symptomatic of systemic failure in the area of nation building.

    There is no doubt that the federal character principle is a visionary idea to promote fairness, justice and equity in the distribution of all the appurtenances of the government so as to command the support and loyalty of the citizens. Such a balancing act is also supposed to act as a safeguard against arbitrariness and impunity by those at the helm of our national affairs.

    Under our law, none compliance with the principle is an offence. Yet, in the face of recurring complaints of breach of the principle, no officer has in recent memory been brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.

    It is therefore good a thing that the senate has been sufficiently agitated that it now wants the principle to be implemented to the letters. That is the way to go. In this assignment, it must also take note of the disparities in the structure of states in the various zones. This is because given that the creation of states was done by military fiat, we may not achieve proper balancing if we hugely rely on that criterion in giving effect to the principle.

    Good enough, the same constitution frowns at domination by few ethnic or sectional groups. In effect, in as much as the subsisting state structure will be relevant in this balancing act, ethnicity and the six geo-political zones should also be a veritable guide.

    It is high time the authorities took very seriously the challenging task of building a nation citizens will be proud to identify with. The truth today is that a lot of people who inhabit these shores do not believe in the capacity of regimes at the center to do justice to all the component units. There can be pretensions on our commitment to the Nigerian nation. But when our Nigerian citizenship comes into conflict with the interest of the ethnic group, you may find it difficult to get true Nigerians. It is easy to lay claims to patriotism as long as ones interests are served by the government in power. But as soon as that changes, it becomes a different ball game altogether.

    Ironically, much of the problems we encounter in this area stem in the main from the overbearing influence of the central authority in all matters. The center is so strong and influential that life literally begins and ends with it. Given this omnipresence and omnipotent powers of the center, its capacity to dispense the perquisites of office evenly has remained largely contentious.

    The solution lies in devolution of powers through restructuring such that the zones, states and local governments are given more powers in keeping with the spirits of a true federation. With that, we would have whittled down areas of friction between the central government and other levels of governance. Then also, the challenges of implementing the federal character principle would have been reduced to the barest minimum.

     

     

  • Modu Sheriff’s PDP

    The furore over the appointment of former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP seems to have fizzled out unilaterally. Though a forum of ex-ministers of the PDP had stridently opposed his emergence on the ground he is not the kind of person the party needed to re-invent itself at this challenging moment, all indications are that Sheriff’s appointment has come to stay.

    He has been charged with the duty of preparing a timetable for the national convention of the party by May during which its substantive national chairman is expected to emerge. Apparently conscious of the criticisms that trailed his appointment, Sheriff has said he will not stay beyond the stipulations of his party’s constitution. If that constitution is strictly adhered to, he is expected to exit that office this month when the tenure of the last substantive chairman, Adamu Mu’azu will expire.

    But the mandate given him by the national leadership of the party seems to have foreclosed any idea of his vacating that office before May. Sheriff appears conscious of this fact. And has used every opportunity to reassure party members especially those opposed to him that he is capable of leading the party to glory. He even boasted that the controversy and panic over his appointment was because the leadership of the ruling party is aware of his capacity to unite the PDP and also bring back those who defected to the APC.

    But he failed to disclose why his emergence allegedly sent the ruling party panicking. Perhaps, there are things he knows that are not readily available to the public. If there was full disclosure, we would have been in a position to know the extent to which his credentials would positively impact on the fortunes of PDP which at the moment, is reeling under credibility crisis due to the high number of its leaders arraigned for allegedly milking the nation dry.

    No doubt, the PDP is currently facing the greatest challenge of its life- a crisis of relevance. Not only did it lose the last election after staying in power for 16 years, it has been accused of running down the economy. The current regime has used every opportunity at its disposal to highlight the mismanagement of the nation’s economy during the years they held sway and this is bound to create credibility problems for that party.

    How far Sheriff and leaders of his party can go to reverse this waning image perception and pull a big surprise come 2019, is left to be seen. He may have to initiate a number of far-reaching actions in several fronts with a large measure of success to be able to make a head way. For now, that possibility is still within the realm of conjecture.

    But Sheriff appears to have hit at the crux of the recurring crisis in his party when he said last week that PDP will not be run by impunity with a promise to return the party to its real owners such that everybody will be happy. Hear him: “By the time we finish congress, everybody will be happy. PDP will not be run by impunity. The party will be returned to its owners”.

    By this, he seems to have recognized that one of the biggest challenges of the party – a challenge that brought it to its current pass – has been its utter disregard for internal democracy within its fold. Not only were the people- the real owners of the party serially shunted out in the election of their leaders at all levels, the congresses of the party were manipulated to achieve predetermined outcome oftentimes resulting to the imposition of unpopular candidates.

    There was also the ruinous feeling the party could field any manner of candidate and still win in elections that are expected to be manipulated given its control of the coercive apparatus of the state. Recurring complaints by members of lack of internal democracy and impunity in the party were treated with scant disregard. Ironically, these were some of the grievance of those governors who decamped from the party to the APC shortly before the elections – a move that largely led to its loss in that election.

    If the PDP is now singing the new song of internal democracy, it is compelled to do so by the inevitability of the situation in which it has now found itself. It seems to have no other choice than allow the people take control of electing those to preside over the affairs of the party at all levels. It either allows internal democracy to reign supreme or go under. That is the foreboding reality. The things that make internal democracy inevitable within the party are already here.

    So Sheriff is neither saying anything new nor does he have an alternative than to allow the rules of democracy to play out. Even then, as a party whose slogan is ‘power to the people’, it is a huge contradiction that it has been serially found wanting on this basic principle. Since old habits die slowly, it may not surprise anyone that there may be some within the party who because of their privileged positions would still want the decadent order.

    That would be at a great expense of the party. Those who want the PDP to survive as a virile opposition may not be doing so out of their love for that party but for the foreboding prospects of the nation sliding to a one party state. For whatever misgivings we may have for that party especially given its handling of the nation’s affairs in the last few years, it is still vital that it is in such strength of health that it can provide credible opposition to the ruling party.

    This will strengthen democracy given the plurality of choices it will provide to the electorate especially in a clime with the tendency for people to gravitate towards the ruling party. Before now, it has been argued in some quarters that Africans do not tolerate opposition. That was why we had some people canvassing for benevolent dictatorship and all manner of contraptions as a way out of the cycle of political instability that characterized the continent a couple of years ago.

    Though some progress has been recorded within the continent in the rungs of the democracy ladder, still palpable evidence of this tendency to be with the ruling party is there. The plethora of decamping from the PDP to the APC says it all. It is amazing how key party leaders who hugely benefited while the PDP was in power have since after the elections been decamping as if principles and party ideology meant very little to them.

    Yes, it is still part of democracy for anyone to decide which political party to identify with. But the way our politicians have exercised that right seems to amplify the view that Africans have little place for opposition. What this suggests is that there is a natural tendency in this clime for gravitation towards a one party state.

    Unless conscious efforts are mounted by all institutions to check this slide, we are bound to have problems with the kind of democracy we run. This fear was real during the days the PDP held sway. It is also no less relevant now. The INEC and all the arms of the government have a crucial role to play to ensure that this tendency does not become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Free, fair and credible elections represent the irreducible decimal out of this danger.

    That danger was at an all time high before the Supreme Court delivered its judgments in the governorship election petitions in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta states- states considered key to the strength of the PDP given the resources available them. Though those judgments attracted a barrage of criticisms bordering on their alleged inability to give justice to the petitioners through its reliance on legal technicalities, they seem to have opened a new window for the PDP to survive.

    Perhaps, had they gone the other way, the PDP would have been in a very feeble position to mount credible opposition. That could have been the undoing of democracy on these shores. So the issue of justice copiously canvassed to fault the Supreme Court judgments in those governorship petitions, could find counterbalance in the unintended prospects of the rulings to stabilize multi-party democracy in this country. If they are termed political judgments, the end may have justified the means as democracy will be better for it.

  • Arewa/Ohanaeze parley

    An event of immense significance for the overall progress of this country took place last week in Enugu, Enugu State. It was a landmark parley between two of the nation’s key socio-cultural groups- the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Ohaneze Ndigbo.

    Though that outing lacked the usual media blitz that should ordinarily accompany it, its absence did not in any way, whittle down its larger heuristics especially at this point  when ethnic, primordial and religious cleavages seem to be on high ascendancy. Given the foreboding scenario, it remains largely curious why such an important event attracted very little or no media attention.

    It is either the organizers opted to keep the media off that symbolic outing or the media did not quite appreciate the larger implications of socio-political groups interfacing on how to move the country forward especially in view of our current experiences.

    Be that as it may, the meeting came out successful as its outcome, made available through a communiqué signed by the national chairman of ACF, Alhaji Ibrahim Coommasie and national president of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey respectively, vividly indicates. The two groups while reaffirming their belief in the corporate existence of Nigeria with justice, fairness and equity to all, pledged their total support for the war against terrorism and corruption even as they urged all citizens to cooperate with the federal government in these areas. They also resolved to meet regularly to discuss the state of the nation and forward their decisions to the federal government to aid good and equitable governance.

    The meeting is symbolic in more ways than one. Perhaps, it is the first time in recent times the ACF and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be putting heads together to share each others’ views and feelings on the multifarious problems buffeting the country. For another, most of the objectives they set out to achieve are at the root of the cycle of instability which this nation has had to contend with since independence. Coming from the ethnic nationalities themselves, the initiative gives a rare of hope that there may be light at the end of the tunnel. This should be something to cheer.

    Yet for another, the visionary outing came at a time centrifugal forces have been on top gear such that led two former heads of state to lament that even those who have before now, been ascribed the role of patriots were beginning to question the continued basis for the unity and indivisibility of the country.

    That was about two years back when the resort to parochial and primordial attachments became the order of the day. That was at the time when a study group in the United States of America (US) predicated that Nigeria would break up come the 2015 elections. Events prior to that election did not help matters as threats and counter threat from groups on the dire consequences that awaited the country should any of the contending forces fail to win that election held sway. By divine providence however, that doomsday prediction failed to materialize due to the acceptance of defeat by the government in power- a feat that attracted acclaim from world leaders.

    But not much has changed in terms of the dispositions and loyalty of the various nationalities to the Nigerian state. Not only is the war against the Boko Haram insurgency that is bent on levying an Islamic state on the country still on, separatist tendencies still hold sway as evident from the rise in tempo of agitations for the sovereign state of Biafra and the renewed blowing up of oil installations in the Niger Delta region. There is also, a pervading air of mutual suspicion, hate and distrust among the nationalities.

    All these are palpable signs of the impatience and dissatisfaction of the federating units with the capacity of the system to do justice to the subsisting units. Matters are not remedied by the ambivalence of the Buhari regime on the implementation of the report of the National Constitutional Conference convened during the last administration- a conference seen by many as holding the ace for much of the nation’s problems.

    In the absence of any concrete commitment to the implementation of that report and increased impatience of the inclusive units with extant structure of the federation leading to separatist agitations or threats, the bottom up initiative of the ACF and Ohanaeze to solving the fission within the polity, offers another veritable window.

    They hit the kernel of the sources of this schism when they spoke of their commitment to the corporate existence of Nigeria where justice, fairness and equity will reign supreme. The purport of this resolution is that the country can only count on the loyalty of its citizens and make real progress when it is seen to be just, fair and guarantees equity to all citizens. These are the irreducible decimals the component units demand from those who preside over our national affairs.

    It is also an admission that much of the destabilizing tendencies we have witnessed in recent times derive in the main, from the glaring inability of the central government to guarantee these minimum conditions for co-habitation. It is heart-warming that the groups resolved to meet regularly to brainstorm on the state of the nation and pass their recommendation to the government to aid good and equitable governance.

    In this wise, they intend to expand the meeting to involve the Afenifere, the Itsekiri, Urhobo, South-South Peoples’ Assembly and all ethnic nationalities to find common ground on all issues stoking division amongst them. It is their calculation that consensus reached at such meetings when implemented by the government, would go at length to eliminate sources of friction and mistrust among our diverse peoples.

    If conducted with a high sense of patriotism and responsibility, the enlarged meeting of ethnic nationalities may be the elixir out of the fissiparous tendencies that have made national integration very elusive on these shores. Not surprisingly, in the absence of that sense of common belonging and identity, the primordial units have had to compete with the government for the loyalty of the citizens. Today, despite all posturing and pretensions, the influence of these parochial loyalty centres on the citizens is still very pervasive.

    They subsist due to lack of confidence in the ability and capacity of the central authority to guarantee justice, fairness and equity to the component units. A situation where certain sections feel the country belongs to them or where certain positions are reserved for some people is a negation of a just, fair and equitable order.

    Such a system cannot make for stability and progress. And in it can be located most of the nation’s multifarious problems- the pervading corruption, centrifugal tendencies and the inability to imbue a sense of nationalism in all. That also accounts for the loose moral bearing associated with affairs that impinge on the civic public.

    Incidentally, the elite have a penchant for parroting and grandstanding on these pristine principles. They are not lacking in identifying what needed to be done for us to make quick progress. But when it comes to the necessary sacrifice or compromises that will bring these ideals to fruition, parochial considerations and the tendency take undue advantage over others, overshadow all senses of rationality. That has been the problem.

    If the ethnic nationalities eschew this self-serving predilection; if they are genuinely committed to these irreducible decimals for order and good governance, and the government listens to them, then we are on the right track out of our woes. We now have a new window to tap the feelings of the people at the bottom to effect those necessary changes that are direly needed to build a nation where citizens will first see themselves as Nigerians rather than members of their ethnic groups. That challenge must be taken up by the government now.

  • Foreign Fulani herdsmen

    During his interaction with farmers in Akure, Ondo State on the recurring attacks by Fulani herdsmen, the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase dropped a lead that should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. For, in that disclosure could be located the complex dimension clashes between local farmers and Fulani herdsmen have assumed in recent times.

    Perhaps also, that hint may proffer partial explanation for the increasing resort of Fulani herdsmen to such violent activities as armed robbery, kidnapping and the sacking of whole villages with sophisticated weaponry. Arase had in answer to a question from a farmer said, most troublesome herdsmen were not Nigerians but foreigners who entered the country with their cattle due to the porous borders.

    In his words, “Most of these herdsmen are not Nigerians. They are people from Mali, Chad who came into our system. So that is why we have to be careful. Our borders are porous. Predominantly, our own herdsmen are law abiding people”. He further said that when people come from outside with their cattle, we should not deny them entry because of ECOWAS protocol but at the same time, we should not allow them to embark on criminal activities

    The issues raised by the IG are as weighty as they are controversial. Though he may be hard put when tasked on statistical evidence of the correlation in the violence index between foreign and local herdsmen, nevertheless, there is no denying the fact that many of these herdsmen are foreigners from neighbouring countries. It will therefore amount to an undue dissipation of valuable energy to venture into the veracity or otherwise of which of the two classes of herdsmen are responsible for the rising criminality as corroborative data may not be readily available. For now, it is safer to presume that both share responsibility for the criminal activities that are now associated with Fulani herdsmen.

    However, there is no denying the fact that unhindered migration of foreign herdsmen and others into the country is not new. There are also issues of sanguinity, religious and cultural affinity which impose serious constraints in differentiating between Nigerian herdsmen and their foreign counterparts from Niger, Mali or Chad.  All these have had the combined effect of levying serious security challenges on this country. It is for the same reasons that we were encountering so much difficulty confronting the Boko Haram insurgency resulting in the formation of a multi-national military taskforce.

    It is hoped after the conclusion of the current war against insurgency in the north-east which shares borders with some of these countries; our government should undertake serious identification, demarcation and policing of the nation’s borders. A nation that does not know what happens at its various borders cannot in all seriousness, lay claim to sovereignty and inviolability of its territory.

    The IG attributed the relative ease with which foreigners including the herdsmen enter our country to porous borders and the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of peoples of member countries. But he went off tangent when he sought to convey the impression that the protocol allows foreign herdsmen or any other citizen of member countries to cross into our country with cattle or other items of trade without passing through some formalities. It is not exactly so.

    If they have been doing so, they operated illegally. For, no article of that protocol allows such unrestricted movement. Article 3(1) stipulates that “any citizen of the country who wishes to enter the territory of another member state shall be required to possess a valid travel document and international health certificate”. And this is further amplified in Article 3(2) which makes it mandatory for such citizens to enter the territory of that state through the official entry point free of visa requirement.

    What this implies is that those herdsmen from Niger and Chad have been entering the country illegally and therefore not covered by the ECOWAS protocol as the IG would want us to believe. It is one thing to admit that they entered the country illegally on account of our porous borders and entirely another thing to contend that we cannot deny them entry because of ECOWAS or that its protocol covers such illegal entry. It does not. If they must enter this country, they must satisfy the conditions laid down by the protocol for that purpose. In this context, we expect them to pass, together with their items of trade (cattle) armed with the stipulated documents through the official entry points into this country.

    For one, it enables member countries to keep a tab on all those who enter their territory. In these days of the transfer of all manner of communicable diseases (human and animal) from one country to another as was the case of the Ebola virus, no country can afford the fatal consequences of such unrestrained influx of aliens within its territories. Moreover, it comes with serious security repercussions as we are witnessing with the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Again, the ECOWAS protocol has yet to abolish tariff among member countries. So a lot of revenue that should accrue to this country in the form of duties on the herds of cattle ferried into it by the herdsmen is lost to the government. After all cattle rearing is a big time business. Those who bring their cattle into the country, apart from satisfying the veterinary standards required of their animals, must also be made to pay the necessary duty on them. All these will be in their breach if foreign Fulani herdsmen continue in their uncontrolled influx into this country on account of unmanned borders.

    Beyond these however, there are wider security dimensions to the revelation that most violence and criminality associated with the Fulani herdsmen are in fact perpetrated by their foreign Fulani kinsmen. In this wise, the unprovoked kidnapping of elder statesman, Chief Olu Falae right in his village and the kidnapping and subsequent killing of the Obi of Ubulu-Ukwu in Delta state may have been masterminded by foreign herdsmen. These incidents speak volumes on the mortal risks we now face.

    By the same inference, constant clashes in Benue State and many other parts of the country in which dangerous weapons were freely deployed and many killed with their villages sacked are largely the handiwork of these foreigners.  It is really interesting to hear this. It will imply we are really at the mercy of these herdsmen. If they could freely operate in the manner they have done in this country, then nobody is really safe. Not with the sophisticated weapons they now wield. Not with their presence in bushes at the nooks and crannies of the remotest villages of this country.

    The revelation will also bring to serious question some of the suggestions that have been put forward to resolve the main cause of friction between local farmers and the herdsmen- right over grazing land and destruction of crops of local farmers. Conceived this way, one will have issues with the suggestion that grazing routes or land should be mapped out for the herdsman from other peoples’ ancestral lands.

    Are we now going to make our ancestral lands available to Chadians or Malians to appease them not to attack and kill our people? What business do we have with their commercial business of cattle rearing which rakes in huge sums of money for them? Is it not a commercial venture for which the herdsmen should acquire land for that purpose?  If the government and the police are working out an arrangement to build ranches as the IG hinted, such ranches should be run as purely commercial businesses.

    Before then, our law enforcement agencies must apprehend herdsmen who enter the country illegally since they have been fingered as purveyors of the criminality that has smeared the image Fulani cattlemen.