Category: Femi Orebe

By Femi Orebe

Hate or like him, the Emir is an enigma given the principles he has always espoused despite his elitist background.

You cannot be happy with about 87% of poverty in Nigeria being in the north. You can’t be happy with millions of northern children out of school. You can’t be happy with nine states in the north contributing almost 50 of the entire malnutrition burden in the country. “You can’t be happy with the drug problem, you can’t be happy with the Boko Haram problem. Or with banditry. If the North does not change, it will destroy itself” – Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, CON.

Sincere appreciation to the duo of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, who have both spoken out loudly concerning  what has become of Northern Nigeria even as northern politicians sans, the president, have literally lost their voice.

Of the two, I have had cause to twice feature the Emir on this column and to one of those articles I shall soon return.

Hate or like him, the Emir is an enigma given the principles he has always espoused despite his elitist background.

With his recent salvos against the Northern elite, particularly now that the North has, in many ways, become the burden of Nigeria, birthing sundry nation-destroying monstrosities, my mind couldn’t but wander back all the way  to 6th September, 2009, when the article you are about to read was published on this column.

Captioned: “PSYCHO-ANALYSING SANUSI LAMIDO  SANUSI, which will be slightly edited for space, I wrote in a manner which I believe still captures the essential Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, even though one later learnt that not everything he would later do as CBN governor was altruistic.

Happy reading.

I shall rely in this article, almost exclusively, on a paper captioned: ISSUES IN RESTRUCTURING CORPORATE NIGERIA, delivered by Sanusi, in September, 1999, at a conference on the 1999 Constitution, organised by the Network For Justice and the Vision Trust Foundation, and published by the Urhobo Historical Society.

Sanusi has shown conclusively,  for instance, that Soludo was nothing more than a swashbuckling Public Relations Manager, forever claiming that Nigerian banks were immune to the world economic recession, even when he knew well  enough that some of them were already in the Central Bank’s ‘comfort zone’.

Even the most asinine historian knows that he cannot draw valid conclusions from only one source. I therefore decided to Google-search Sanusi.

The result?

I found him consistent, in spite of the jabs of the likes of  Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u. But first, a confession: In view of  President Yar Adua’s unpretentious insularity, and his rather unwavering predilection to give the top jobs to northerners, I had my initial doubts about  Sanusi who, I believed must have been head-hunted by  those who believed that the north was short-changed during the banking consolidation exercise. I had therefore, pigeon-holed him, a priori, as the north’s ‘deus ex machina’, to resolve the plot in favour of the north. But, as he says in the paper under reference, here obviously, is a new northerner.

In the paper, drizzling with rampant vitriol, even iconoclasm, and blatant home truths, he clinically took apart various segments of the Nigerian political elite at whose feet he laid the cause of the nation’s decay.

Sparing neither the North, the East, nor the West for the wreck Nigeria has become, he demonstrated a clear-headedness which I am sure President Yar Adua could not have been aware  he had; thereby signposting, in advance, the tsunami he has just visited on the high and mighty in our banking halls.

In order to perfectly situate him, there is an obligation on my part to quote him verbatim on some of the issues he took on. For instance on Nigeria’s founding fathers, he had the following to say: ‘The truth is that irrespective of the motives which drove Chief Awolowo and Dr. Azikiwe to hold strong nationalist views, their position was, indeed, progressive. Similarly, irrespective of the motives that drove Ahmadu Bello and the NPC to emphasise the differences between our peoples and resist the progress towards integration, those views in as far as nation-building is concerned, were reactionary”. “Ethnic and Religious chauvinism in all epochs, he went on, are both reactionary”.

On the structure of Nigeria, he posited as follows “A second objective factor in the structure of the First Republic which is now a draw-back, was the lack of equity in the delineation of its constituent parts. The north was too large compared to the other regions and it was, in reality, as well as perception, overbearing’.

He gave instances of northern bias, consequent upon the above fact, one being the carving out of the Mid-Western Region from the West, whereas the Middle Belt agitation in the north was brutally put down”.

His views on the federating units were even more audacious though quite hard-headed. He wrote: ‘we note that one of the major strengths of the structure of Nigeria in 1966 was that it was made up of economically viable and self-sufficient federating units. … However, this process which, in my opinion, should have stopped with the creation of 12 states by General Gowon, continued in a ridiculous fashion until we find ourselves today with 36 glorified latifundia, called states, and a Federal Capital Territory. Each state has a bloated civil service, a governor and his deputy, commissioners, state assembly, judiciary, etc, such that its total revenue is insufficient for prompt payment of salaries and the states have to run to the federal government or to banks  for assistance or loans”.”As my own bank’s Credit Risk Manager, the moment a borrowing company is not doing the business it was set up to do, and needs an overdraft to pay salaries, I know that  company is bankrupt and it is time to appoint a receiver for its liquidation”.

On Sharia he wrote: ‘While the insistence of Muslim North on Sharia is understandable it, however, seems that all too often, the northern bourgeoisie ignores a number of key points. It is primarily about providing the people with the best material and spiritual conditions the resources of state can provide. It is about honestly managing their resources; about giving them services in education, health, agriculture, etc. It is all well to ban the sale of alcohol, but this does not take the place of, or have priority over, meeting the material needs of the people. Our elite use the Sharia debate to divert attention from their own corruption, nepotism, abuse of office and un-Islamic conduct.”

“The second point, which the Muslim elite ignores, is the dividing line between commitment to Sharia and encroachment on the religious rights and dignity of others.”

These views are absolutely revolutionary, especially coming from a privileged Fulani, and he was duly excoriated for these and other ‘blasphemies’, which were regarded as both anti-North and, anti-Islam.

The paper, issues in restructuring corporate nigeria, which is my mirror into the mind and mental cognition of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is a deep and far-ranging offering whose indepth analysis space constraint will not permit in this short article.

Sanusi, however, showed that he takes no prisoners, for instance, in his leviathan dismissal of South-West politicians whose politics he described in the paper as ‘The Yoruba Factor and “Area-boy” Politics. A snippet: “My views on the Yoruba political leadership have been thoroughly articulated in some of my writings, prime among which was “Afenifere: Syllabus of Errors”, published by This Day on Sept 27, 1998. There was also an earlier publication in the weekly Trust entitled “The Igbo, the Yoruba and History” (Aug. 21, 1998). In sum, the Yoruba political leadership, as mentioned by Balarabe Musa, has shown itself over the years to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating other groups with respect. Practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has its roots in this attitude’.

As I mentioned earlier, space constraints do not permit a detailed critique of this seminal paper.

However, suffice it to say that he missed the point in his characterisation of South-West politics. This is because in the same way the Islamic faith has never accepted the dichotomy between religion and politics, mainstream Yoruba political thought is congenitally opposed to politics of paternalism, as practised in the North, or of pedestrian consumerism, as practiced, elsewhere in the country.

Rather, it is driven, mostly and in principle, by what we call the OMOLUABI mindset.  This is precisely why the South-West political landscape is strewn with the skeletons of opportunistic politicians who deviate from this time-honoured cultural prescription and from which group the North, unerringly, recruits its allies in the region. That was, of course, before 2015 when it allied with the region’s predominant political perspective, to an amazing electorate victory.

In Yoruba land, some things are simply anathema.

In concluding, I would like to declare that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a genuine product, who deserves

our utmost support in the urgent task of cleansing the Augean stable within our banks.

There’s nary a change in this latter day Emir.

Femi Orebe

FIRST and foremost, I wish to apologise for an error in last week’s article. Somehow, I still don’t know how, this opening sentence to the article was inexplicably cropped out: “Today, I yield the column to Babaijo Olusegun O. O. Ogunkua, in a seminal take on the Amotekun phenomenon. His piece is slightly edited for space”.
What that did, was cast me as the writer of the beautiful piece, which from the above, you now know, was not true.

Lasisi Olagunju recently wrote as follows in: Ghosts of America, Adamawa and Kaduna – “The innocent among these young men who are escaping the death of their northern homes are very unwanted everywhere else. So, where will they go? Something is coming very soon; what it is, I don’t know. But we cannot have the huge dispersal of the youths as we have in the North and expect to sleep with two eyes closed. No. We all know that there is a war going on everywhere in Nigeria. And this is not just the never-ending war between good and evil. There is the other war between the night of hopelessness and Nigeria’s forest of the heartless”.

That was in connection with the Okada boys who returned from Lagos State to Adamawa and immediately became disoriented, even though back home, as Adamawa had since outlawed okada as a commercial enterprise.

Much earlier on 29 December, 2019 the following were the honest words of Mohammed Bello Mustapha, in a Paper he presented on the state of street children and its general implications on the future of the society, at Garba Gadi Foundation lecture: “Time is running out for us to find a solution to the ravaging menace of the conditions that are leading many of our youth to turn to drug abuse in search for a meaning to their lives. Time is running out for us to tame the spate of insurgency and banditry that is moving like the harmattan wind and sweeping over our land. Time is running out for us to come out of the cubicle of being the poverty capital of the world, and embrace the shining light of bountiful prosperity that our God given potentials entail. Time is running out for our people in the north to occupy a respective position as citizens of this country with something meaningful to contribute than just being the factories of insecurity and poverty. The despicable situation of seeing millions of street children in the north signifies a gathering critical mass of impending explosion that will give birth to unmanageable poverty and unending insecurity in our society. We are surrounded by an ocean of unquantifiable potentiality of destruction which if the waters are not channelled to useful purpose, they will one day explode with destructive consequences”.

That I must add, was before the ‘virility’ speech on the floor of the House of Representatives and we can take the words of the inimitable Professor Olatunji Dare that Majority Leader,  Alhassan Doguwa, may just not be the most prodigious father in that respected chamber as the gospel truth.

For far too long, successive state governors in the north have indulged in ferrying, Southwards, thousands of young, uneducated and unemployable youths, complete with the same number of okadas in what they amused themselves in describing as dividends of democracy.

Now the birds have come back home to roost and what problems they thought they had exported elsewhere are back, metastasised. Or haven’t they seen something of civilisation in Lagos with their tastes already impacted beyond fura de nunu?

Now add to that the sprawling insecurity in every part of the country and you need no telling that Nigeria is close to the abyss.

The decade-old Boko Haram war has, while we all looked, believing that its degradation some four years ago was permanent, grown exponentially with ISWA, restrategised and returned better armed and almost as destructive, of humanity and property, as it ever was. Only this past week it incinerated more than 20 persons at Auno, a sleepy community near Maiduguri, once again igniting the war of words between the state governor, Babagana Zulum and the military.

As Bello Mustapha, the “Katagum Boy” aptly captured it, the North, as “factories of insecurity and poverty”, has since birthed another ferocious army of bandits which, from its home base of Zamfara and Katsina, is now so seriously engaged in the Gurmana and adjoining communities in the Shiroro local government area of a once relatively peaceful Niger state, that the president has had to approve aerial bombardment of their area of operation by the air force.

By May, 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of government, large swathes of territory in the northeastern corner of the country were under the Boko Haram ‘caliphate”, collecting taxes and effectively administering those areas.

But Nigerians were not unduly worried.  After all, the new helmsman, an army general who had seen action,  has taken time off his busy campaign and told, not just Nigerians but the world at large, in a February, 2015 speech at Chattam  House, London that : ”I as a retired General and a former head of state have always known about our soldiers. They are capable and they are well trained, patriotic, brave and always ready to do their duty. If am elected president, the world will have no reason to worry about Nigeria. Nigeria will return to its stabilising role in West Africa. We will pay sufficient attention to the welfare of our soldiers in and out of service. We will develop adequate and modern arms and ammunition. We will improve intelligence gathering and border patrols to choke Boko Haram’s financial and equipment channels. We will be tough on terrorism and tough on its root causes by initiating a comprehensive economic development and promoting infrastructural development…we will always act on time and not allow problems to irresponsibly fester. And I, Muhammadu Buhari, will always lead from the front.”

True to his words, he soon ordered the military high command to the theatre of war and before you know it, what had long been considered impossible was accomplished: Boko Haram was run out of town and journalists were even taken on a conducted tour of Sambisa forest, its hitherto impregnable fortress.

So we ask:  what has happened that today Boko Haram can strike anywhere it wants?

Agreed, Boko Haram is no longer the ferocious onslaught it was, but how come it is beheading and burning humans as catches its whim and caprice? Ghosa-Damaturu, a young man said on Channels television this past week, is a no go area;  Chibok inhabitants are still being seized in droves, but worst, he said, is that it is  not true that Boko Haram no longer controls territory in Nigeria today. Otherwise, where are their captured victims being kept? Told of President Buhari’s promises in Ethiopia to have all captives freed, he merely asked how many times the President has made such promises to no avail?

Our military have, no doubt, put in a yeoman’s effort with both the army and the air force severally engaged in what has been a terrible assymetrical war. Many have, indeed, paid the supreme price. We pray they rest in peace.

But must the president be all wise in handling this duel unto death? For the entire life of the politics- driven 8th Assembly, not much did we hear of that body getting into security matters probably because it was least concerned with cooperation with the executive branch.

But the friendly 9th Assembly has since weighed  in with its own advice as you could not be doing the same thing, over and over, I and expect to have a different result.

But what has been the president’s reaction besides his usual taciturnity?

After all, this is a life and death matter as everywhere you go in this country, today, maximum insecurity stares you in the face – the reason even the North has had to establish an Operation Shege – Ka- Fasa, even if a dubious enterprise.

After all, this is no restructuring and it is inconceivable that the 9th Assembly would ever think of misleading the government of President Buhari.

The president should not in any way prove Bishop Matthew Kukah right that: ”to hold a key and strategic position in Nigeria today, it is more important to be a northern Muslim than a Nigerian”.

The service chiefs who have given their very best to the nation, but whose best efforts are now proving seemingly ineffective, should be allowed to gloriously exit, still shining like a thousand roses. To do otherwise is for the president to be the only wise man in his own eyes. Our security apparatti can make do with fresh hands that will recognise the Nigerian diversity. He must act now for the sake of Nigeria.

By Femi Orebe

The challenge that Amotekun, the newly established Western Nigeria Security Network, faces is the dilemma of the Yoruba race. It has been suggested that part of the information which led to its establishment is in a commissioned report which concluded that there are 1123 Fulani settlements existing in Yoruba land. Each cell, the report  says, has upwards of 20 or more Fulanis, the size of a platoon in a regular army and each well structured, and well armed, under a defined leadership training daily in weapons handling and martial arts.

This means there are at least 180 Fulani cells in each Yoruba state, if equally distributed. Each is believed to be in communication with sponsors from the Northern part of the country.

The cells are, in the meantime, engaged in brigandage, highway robbery, kidnapping, extortion, murder and other criminal activities and adventures, but I believe they are foot soldiers for some future adventure.

Fast forward then to 30 or 50 years, when the population would have increased tremendously, the internal administration become more efficient, weapons handling skills improved, assumed domiciliary privileges, aka right of occupancy, and inter-cell communication more perfected, the Yoruba race will be a sitting duck for destabilization. That is against the back ground that our rate of procreation in Yoruba land is decreasing, while the Fulani does not limit the number of his children.

The lesson that history has taught us is that the capacity and readiness of outlaws to do evil only increase with growth in their converts and more maturity in their internal acculturation.

If decisive action is not taken now, and as a collective, the implication is that the Yoruba race is enjoying a dreamy sleep while her roof is on fire. In that situation, how do you regain the control of your land if you have to fight elusive and mobile guerilla terrorists on 1123 or more battle fronts? Even if only 50 cells are active in each Yoruba State, there will be 300 armed active brigand cells.

That will be one too many!

In future, if the Fulani terrorist platoons decide to launch a coordinated or simultaneous attack on their hosts, the Yorubas will be in disarray. History has lessons to teach.. The Mamluk was a caste of slaves and second rate immigrants to Egypt who, overtime, gained confidence and ascendancy. They overthrew and took over the government of ancient Egypt, claimed the Sultanate and ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517 until they were overthrown by the Ottoman Empire. David Ayalon, the Israeli historian, dubbed their success as the “Mamluk Phenomenon”. I hope that the Yoruba race will not donate to history the “Fulani herdsmen phenomenon” because at the beginning of the Mamluks sojourn as slaves in Egypt, nobody saw them as a threat.

Beyond the fanfare that greeted the launch of Amotekun and the excitement across Yorubaland, there is need for sober reflection on the simple question: what should the Yoruba do?

The Yorubas must design a plan of concrete actions as response and identify actions, platforms, groups and persons, who have roles to play in that response and assign them accordingly.

The challenge which Amotekun faces and the dilemma of the Yoruba race is how to neutralise armed, reasonably weapon trained, compact, efficient and mobile terrorist cells littering the Yoruba landscape. The options are limited. The first is to get these cells and future additions to continue to live in Yorubaland in peace, and, the second, for the cells to leave Yoruba land in peace

The option of continuing occupation of Yoruba land, living in peace and in harmony with indigenous people assumes that the terrorist cells will disarm, either voluntarily or under supervision; the creation of a continuing motoring mechanism to ensure they do not re-arm; engage themselves in lawful occupations, accept the suzerainty of the various Yoruba Obas, Baales and communities in which they live and also live within the laws of the country. While these steps are all necessary, I do not see them being effected without resistance from the cells and possible bloodshed. Certainly, the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian security agencies and the Armed Forces cannot be trusted as faithful interventionists in that effort.

The other option is for the Fulani cells to vacate Yorubaland and relocate in peace. That is hardly imaginable. What will be the incentive for a people who have benefitted immensely from manifold criminalities which include murder, kidnapping for ransom, highway robbery, farmland devastation and other high crimes, without confrontation and bloodshed?

In the highly emotive, sensitive ethnic relations and highly provocative atmosphere in the country today, I guess that conflict will be inevitable.

The Yoruba race must manage its options carefully, avoid conflict, if possible, but embrace it, if inevitable. I am not conversant with the core weaponry and strengths of the Amotekun. That is, what the fighting arsenal of an Amotekun in practical terms looks like. I know that they will vary from person to person. My expectation is that it will be a combination of conventional and the unconventional arsenal. In my lifetime, I have witnessed feats considered impossible performed by Yoruba blacksmiths and hunters and of course, I am a descendant of that patriotic group of individuals. However, the proof of the efficacy of our native and cultural weapon defence systems against other weapons has to wait until engagement with the Fulani terrorist cells. When 36 cows perished in a lightning strike in Ijare, Ifelodun local government, Ondo State, for treading on forbidden ground, I rejoiced and said, “Aha a we still have it”. My hope and expectation is the cultural defence skills and weapons which I know are still in the armoury of our hunters and Amotekun.

The late Yoruba sage, Herbert Ogunde, in his sobering song “Yoruba Ronu” said that bad luck does not last for 20 years. If the Yorubas do not do the needful and the necessary, God forbid; bad luck can last forever.

The Yorubas must start from the premise that they cannot expect faithful support from the agencies of the federal government – police, armed forces and the like,  which by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are to guarantee safety of life and property and peace. The experience of the Yorubas and other non-Hausa – Fulani groups in Nigeria does not offer consolation

With Amotekun, we have taken our destiny in our hands; we must follow through and abide by what that destiny requires of us. Before the Fulani terrorists consolidate and completely become “imperia in imperio” in each of the six Yoruba states, indeed, Yoruba land, let us secure our lands and defend our patrimony. Our children and grand- children must inherit unencumbered farm lands, safe travels routes, safe cities and peaceful environment. That’s our debt to history and the Yoruba heritage.

We must pay it in full.

Femi Orebe

SINCE the federal government loves to exert a stranglehold on virtually everything in the country, it must be told that, with regards to security, Nigerians are in dire straits and everything must be done to restore sanity.

Not only are people no longer able to travel freely, farmers have been run out of their farms indicating that hunger may not be far off.  Government must realise, and own up, to the fact that we are fighting, not only  against Fulani  herdsmen, some of who hug AK47, perpetrating  heinous crimes which include violent rapes, killing  or kidnapping  of poor, defenseless Nigerians,  but  also against  an obviously re- energised Boko Haram/ ISWA elements,  many  of  who are aliens and,  therefore, have no qualms  about slitting throats or disemboweling pregnant women. We must do everything to exterminate these lunatics from our midst.

Government is already far behind in ensuring the security of life and property but it may not be all lost yet, as a stitch in time could still save nine” –  Femi Orebe in THE IMPERATIVES OF A LOCALISED, EMBEDDED SECURITY ARCHITECTURE, The Nation, 04.08. 19

I had decided to, once again, touch on the issue of insecurity long before the National Assembly roused itself from its somnambulism on security matters this past week – yes, true it held a summit on security late last year but since then thousands of Nigerians have been needlessly killed – without us hearing a whimper from them any longer. Incidentally, those of them sponsoring anti people bills appear to come from areas with very serious security issues which should, rightly, have been of far greater urgency and importance to them.

I was going to suggest to the president that a moratorium should now be placed on all other concerns of government, even if for as little as six months so that maximum concentration, and effort, can be devoted to this life and death matter. Our present state of insecurity does not deserve less. Education or railways development, as important as they are, mean nothing to a dead man. Therefore, given our present circumstances, finding solutions to insecurity must trump everything else, at least for now.

We have the men and women of our armed forces to thank for the great job they have done securing our country this far, albeit at great personal and corporate cost.  Our condolences go to the families of the many who have paid the ultimate sacrifice as we pray that the souls of the departed will rest in peace.

It will be most ungodly if we allow these supreme sacrifices go to nothing or be in vain.

For this not to happen, President Muhammadu Buhari must do much more than he has done since he assumed responsibility for the security of life and property in this country.

Yes, a period was, in the early days of his government that Nigerians believed he was fulfilling his campaign promise to them in this regard. But to make that claim now, close on five years down the line, will be to provoke huge guffaws. And this is largely because you cannot be doing the same thing all over and expect to have a different result. Without a doubt, the president should have thanked his chiefs of staff for their service to the country and promptly ease them out at the end of his first term. These patriotic citizens, who faced that initial fire, gave their all, and significantly degraded Boko Haram, ought not to have been left to the National Assembly to harangue, and harass, as was the case this past week.

In the article ‘Lest Nigeria Strays into a War’ – Sunday, 28 July 2019, I wrote as follows:”Conjunctively, President Buhari should rejig the country’s security apparatti and do everything within his power to rein in the murderous activities of kidnappers, bandits and criminals of whatever hue. In particular, he must show that ethnic considerations do not influence his actions on Fulani herdsmen who, truth be told, and going by the testimonies of almost all kidnapped persons who were lucky to tell their own story, are responsible for most of the kidnapping in the country. The president should have by now been briefed that literally all Nigerian ethnic groups are now discussing how to be free of this Fulani herdsmen’s menace”.

This past week in Edo State, for instance, some of them were reported to have killed a police man who did nothing more than trying to help recover the corpses of people these evil men have killed earlier on their farms.

I cannot pretend to be teaching the president anything about security but for emphasis, I think Nigerians must keep reminding him of where we are, and how life in Nigeria has become short and brutish.

I wrote at length on this  terrible security situation as captured by Mike Kebonkwu in my article “Still On Amotekun of 26 January, 2020, but all that pales into nothing compared with Jide Oluwajuyitan in: State/Community Policing As Answer To Insecurity, January 30, 2020 ,  and  you  will come to  realise what  humongous task confronts  President  Buhari  if Nigeria is to ever know peace,, ever again.

He wrote inter alia:

“Let us start  with the president’s own Katsina State where  eight  local government areas  including Kankara; Faskari; Dan-Musa; Safana; Sabuwa; Dandume; Jibia and Batsari have according to a report in Thisday, lost about 2,000 people, with 500 communities destroyed and over 33,000 people displaced as a result of  incessant attacks. President Buhari’s establishment of Air Force bases at Daura and Katsina, and a Brigade Command of the Nigerian Army has, according to Dr.  Bashir Ruwangodiya, Masari’s special adviser on higher education, failed to “put an end to banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and murder, as well as other crimes in Katsina State.” In Plateau State, separate attacks by some unidentified gunmen, reportedly led to the death of 32 people in Riyom Local Government Area, 19 in Rajat, and 11 in Atakar with about 60 houses burnt. In Kaduna State, the paper also claimed that gunmen suspected to be Fulani, killed no fewer than 30 people and razed hundreds of houses in the three communities. Similar killings were reported in other areas of the state notably Sankwai, Tekum and Unguwan Gata villages were invaded by those the villagers said looked like cross-border Fulani gunmen. Last Monday, January 27, police in Plateau admitted that the death toll in last Sunday night attack on Kwatas village had risen to 15. Twelve persons were reportedly killed in Kulben village in Kombun District of Mangu Local Government Area”.

President Buhari’s response to last week attack on Dogon Gona forest in Niger State communities by bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers was predictable. Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, has since informed Nigerians that the president had authorised the deployment of air power to support troops and policemen deployed to the “difficult terrain,” to counter the menace of the attackers operating in the forest area bordering Kaduna, Niger and Zafar states”. Of course, always after the mayhem.

Now what manner of beasts in human clothing is doing all these with a government in place?

These killings call for a paradigm shift in the way Nigeria is structured but the Federal Government curiously remains unwilling to let go of anything, even when it is obvious that the status quo has failed dismally. Or where do we go from here Mr President if some people remain eternally afraid of restructuring; and rather than reconfigure the country so that a thousand flowers can bloom; each according to its ability, we remain rooted to the same old, unproductive ways?

One needs not be told that a new leadership corps, that will reflect the country’s diversity, is sorely and urgently needed in our security architecture to turn things around. Without a doubt, the near mono cultural thought process that dominates that critical section in our country has obviously reached its sell by date as it constricts the variegated viewpoints that would have enriched decision making in crucial circumstances.

The president must now let matters appertaining to our rather inscrutable security problems completely concentrate his attention. He must give his efforts in this regard a new lease of life by rejigging the security high command, as suggested above, provide required munitions, make our men and women in uniform happy and ensure that relevant authorities promptly pay the allowances of those redoubtable men and women who daily confront these vermin’s who, it is alleged, are armed with arms far superior to ours.

One thing is obvious though, if we must restore peace: the federal government must let go its stranglehold, and allow communities, local governments areas and state governments take ownership of their own security. They know their terrain, the people know one another and are better placed to gather intelligence and spot threat issues which will tremendously assist the police in effectively performing their own responsibilities.

This monstrous Abuja stranglehold over everything has not helped and will never help in restoring all- round peace to our beleaguered country.

Femi Orebe

NUISANCE begets nuisance. When you stay with potash loaders you too will share in their dusty hair. It is in this country that the same standards are not held against all. Some can get away with anything but others cannot get away with something. I shudder at those who blame the agitators for agitating. Everyone knows what is good for them. If you don’t know what is good for you then shut up and don’t obstruct those who know what is good for them.

If I have my way I will cease to be a Nigerian because there is no sense of nationhood. Those who have leverage over others use it to oppress them. Otherwise how can you explain the audacious impunity of a certain section of this country. Now how do I love a country where a murderous terrorist group like the herdsmen, acclaimed even internationally as deadly, is being openly defended by a government that wants my loyalty? Do you know that as I make this comment, a first class Chief of Bokkos LGA in Plateau state was murdered by a certain group of Fulanis almost a year now and no one has been arrested not to talk of prosecution; there are many villagers in my parish who cannot go to farm again except to farm their backyard because their farms have been forcefully annexed by their Fulani murderers; that in Bokkos a wife and a daughter can be taken away right before her husband or father and be repeatedly raped then released at the convenience of the barbaric Fulani tribesmen and no one dares talk since police will advise you to go and settle the matter through dialogue? I want independence from a country where terrorists are embraced and agitators are terrorized. At the slightest excitement  a Hausa or Fulani man can kill you and get away with it; it has happened and continues to happen but when you gear up to defend yourself because security will not, then you are caught by the same security who will lecture you on how to be peaceful and law abiding. This country will end unless there is justice for all”.  – Bishop Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto.

And for all these inequities visited on non northerners, what has been the advantage to the common man in the north who is dying needlessly, and in numbers, for reasons of poverty and insecurity?

Was Attorney-General Malami ever privileged to read that dirge from Bishop Matthew Kukah who is no less a northerner than him? Must non northerners always be reminded they are, in any way, less Nigerian than their northern counterparts and is the Attorney-General saying that Hisbah, in the Northwest, and the civilian JTF in the Northeast are Greek to him? Must they daily  remind us of the indescribable  inequalities some Nigerians are subjected to in present day Nigeria at a time when we had thought  that all these would have become history with President Muhammadu Buhari in charge of our country’s affairs?

Again, as I have asked severally these past few weeks, what exactly is happening?  Are we being ruled by Miyetti Allah that their interest must prevail over that of a whole geo-political zone? Haven’t they been boasting about who they will, or not, allow to be president you begin to wonder where all this arrogance is coming from.

Apart from having the Inspector-General’s declared support for Amotekun, I have Govern Kayode Fayemi’s unimpeachable words to the effect that “security agencies were duly carried along in the formative stage of the security outfit”, which he further described “as a logical end product of President Buhari’s compelling vision on community policing and as a bottom-top approach to security sector governance across the length and breadth of our country”.  According to him: “Apart from strengthening the operational and administrative capacity of security institutions in our country and the training and retraining of security agents, the other vital components of this paradigm shift in national security architecture is the direct logical coherence and sequential involvement of the local population and grassroots governance in national security and crime prevention. It is in recognition of the above that the Amotekun model emerged and its proponents have already made it clear to the police authority that it is a model open to public scrutiny, a model open to reform and fine-tuning and even re-conceptualisation on the basis of any new information or superior knowledge that might assist them in improving the quality of its operations”.

That being so, and I would take Fayemi’s words a thousand times before taking Malami’s, at what point did the Attorney-General come about labelling Amotekun illegal? I have two possibilities as the answer: the first being that those unelected individuals, about whom we have heard so much from the First Lady, have  again insinuated themselves into a paradigm designed as a confidence-building, and boosting, tool to free Yorubas from the marauding Fulani herdsmen who have made our lives a  living hell in these parts. The second proposition could be the Northwest’s needless, but eternal, fear of restructuring, the beginning of which they wrongly take Amotekun to be. And why do I say so?  Let us press former Katsina State Governor, Dr Ibrahim Shema, into the mix. Speaking at the same event as Governor Fayemi, he said the following: “On the issue of security, we all know this forms part of the process of restructuring Nigeria. I will want to propose and suggest to all concerned that there is need for coming together by states, local and federal government to work on security issues that concern and bother all Nigerians. “It is not about the South West, South East, South South and North Central, it is a national issue. Therefore, this is an issue that should bring us together the federal, states and local governments to look at it and leaders in this country, traditional institutions, religious leaders should form a team that would support the states, local and federal governments to create a system that would work and help solve the problems in Nigeria which includes the menace of Boko Haram, kidnappings, banditry, armed robbery”.

Good talk, indeed, but very misdirected.

The governors of the Southwest who came to the hardheaded decision to establish Amotekun are reacting to a very serious, life and death matter. In each of their states, some total aliens have made life absolutely unlivable for their citizens, killing, maiming and raping wives and daughters, in addition to destroying farm products worth millions of naira. Governors in the Northwest, just like Governor El Rufai did to foreign Fulanis, have chosen to throw money at bandits but because Southwest governors do not have enough even for their developmental programmes, they cannot afford the Northwest example.

It is therefore not correct to see Amotekun as having anything to do with restructuring and of a certainty; far too much time has been wasted at talk shops involving all those Dr Shema suggested, to make his suggestion a worthwhile solution to what the southwest governors are battling with. When finally the north agrees to restructure Nigeria, all those he indicated would be worthy confab members.

Back then to Amotekun…

Is it conceivable Attorney-General Malami pronounced his diktat without consulting President Buhari, and if he did consult him, is it possible President Buhari believes that it is enough to merely routinely send condolences to bereaved families rather than have elected leaders  wake up and, design models that can help in resolving these life and death matters  instead of throwing money at anti-social elements who are sure to return to ask for more money or else keep killing just as 28 were killed in Babban Rafi village in Zamfara this past week?

As members of the opposition have severally alleged, could these be the reasons the north completely dominates the headship of Nigeria’s security services?

Pray what is the end in view for all these? Could it be an ethnic domination of Nigeria where we are now routinely being told that foreign Fulanis have as much, if not superior, rights than non Fulanis?

How exactly would Amotekun negatively impact the north or was it declared illegal because it will protect our people against murderous Fulani herdsmen, local and foreign, who just wants to roam and roam, uninhibited? Or  is the Attorney-General telling Yorubas to  lie low to be killed, our hearts slit,  while our wives and daughters are being  raped or  killed,  just so cows can roam  unmolested?

Mr President we love you more than for us to feign ignorance of the angst in town; in the entire south and in the north where needless death, in numbers, have become a daily occurrence. You should be seen, Mr President, encouraging Amotekun look-a-likes, everywhere, rather than allow some unreflecting state officials to kill them off. Insecurity in Nigeria has become so menacing that the federal government should actually subside Amotekun’s in each of the geo-political zones, not discourage them. We probably won’t have more deaths today in Nigeria, even if we were fighting a full war. We cannot be doing the same thing and expect to have a different result.

The Attorney-General should immediately be directed to reverse himself on Amotekun. Nigeria belongs to all of us.

By Femi Orebe

“Plural and sharply divided societies all over the world attempt to manage their diversities and divisive tendencies through one, or a combination of, policy alternatives in the organisation and management of their public services for performance  and Nigeria is not an exception. Often times, these policy choices turn out to be delicate arrangements, but when carefully conceived, crafted and practiced, it provides opportunity for centre-seeking and centre-fleeing forces to interact peacefully and co-habit on agreed terms. One of such policy alternatives adopted for the management of public service in Nigeria for even representation is the federal character principle which was borne out of the need to ensure an even spread of government appointments in all the regions, states and local government councils in the country.” – Engr Nnaji Onovo, in Rotational Presidency as Equaliser and Balancing Factor”.

I have expected to see the usual scurrilous comments that follow the type of advertised press statement made by the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) this past week and published in The Nation of Monday, January 6, 2020. The abusive responses are often based on the illogic that because you are a known supporter of  President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, you cannot criticise either, lest you are deemed to have instantly become a wailer.

I believe I put such Lilliputian thoughts to sleep recently on Face book when I replied as follows to a post of that genre:

“I see a lot of ignorance passing muster as wisdom here all because? (Name deliberately omitted) has a permanent “YESSIR” choir which, always unreflectingly, queue behind him, whatever it is he writes.

Now tell me what is wrong in calling attention to the shortcomings you observe in even the person you love the most?

Let us put things in their proper perspective.

Where would Nigeria be today if the Dezianis were still stealing, looting the treasury for self, and their leaders and other thieving comrades; if monies paid for crude liftings were not being paid into the national treasury so bad a CBN governor had to cry out?

What were we supposed to have done when outright predators were in charge, who completely looted billions of dollars meant for equipping an army that was fighting a war? Re elect that type of president so that Ali Babas could continue their predatory reign unchecked?

Do I really blame you guys who would rather Nigeria had been stolen off the face of the earth?

Those of us you now see as hell bent, wishing to belong to your wailing class, are the fartherest from any such thing.

Buhari remains miles ahead of his predecessor in personal integrity.

Unfortunately, he has permitted himself to be surrounded by an unelected mafia of self seekers who do not see his primary duty as ruling for Nigeria but rather ruling for the benefit of his northern compatriots, which is both a big shame and a disappointment.

Some of us saw this and reacted publicly, drawing attention to these errors and what names did you not call us?  Didn’t some of you even say I was running an errand for somebody who is younger than I but who I respect hugely all the same?

Only idiots or people suffering from outright ossification would say that because he/she is supporting somebody, he is estopped from drawing attention, or out rightly, even publicly, criticising his egregious mistakes.

That for me, as an Ekiti, is a NO NO.

I advise you apply logic, reason together and discover that it is more effective when a supporter does this than when a known enemy regurgitates their routine bad belle.

I expect your usual vitriol’s”.

I did not know I hit a bull’s eye until I realised that since 28th December, 2019, there hadn’t been a whimper from the about 16 other commentators.

I digress.

This past week, what I had expected for so long, but in vain, from APC leaders in the South, but especially in the Southwest, happened. The Afenifere Renewal Group undertook a robust, critical, and no-holds-barred evaluation, no scrutiny, of the Buhari administration.

For far too long, in my view, APC leaders in the Southwest have not helped the president in his politics as far as nation building is concerned. While I  do not expect them to insert themselves  into the president’s domestic affairs, I believe that had they as much as remonstrated, even privately, against  his lopsided appointments, it would have been near impossible for those oiling  it to so summarily shoot down the first lady when she spoke vigorously against it. Indeed, as at the time she spoke, her angst was that she wasn’t seeing many of those people, from other parts of Nigeria, who campaigned for the president. Today, she would be surprised that of the few she saw then, many have now been sacked and,   almost all, routinely being replaced by northerners. Certainly no true federation should be run in this manner.

I  was, therefore,  not surprised that this issue is one of those matters the ARG described as “significant issues in Nigeria’s policy environment” especially on   the question of equity, not only in appointments, but in those  areas which  they  say if  not re – calibrated,  stand a distinct possibility of negatively impacting President Buhari’s legacy.

For reasons of space constraint I shall deal with only two of the four key issues the Afenifere Renewal Group touched on.

The advertised press statement kicked off by recalling Vision2020, which predated the administration, and its own medium term Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which was intended to have reduced petroleum products’ importation by 60% this year, describing both as monumental failures. Since both now seem  peripheral, I have chosen to look at the following two issues, namely, the VISA ON Arrival Policy and what it described as RULE OF LAW AND NATIONAL INTEREST.

Concerning the Visa policy, ARG did not hide its disdain, describing its promulgation as imperial. In its view, this is an important issue that should have been discussed back home before its announcement in Egypt. It raised other posers. For instance, it asked the question as to which people the president referred to as “we”, when in announcing the policy he said: “We in Nigeria have already taken the strategic decision to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of our people within the continent by introducing the issuance of Visa at the port of entry into Nigeria to all persons holding passports of African countries with effect from January 2020”? It asked whether this was discussed, officially, at any level of government in Nigeria or was it a campaign promise by the APC? What about reciprocity; has the government secured any?

In view of all these, ARG concluded that the policy is not only not in conformity with the

Nigerian constitution, it is in bad faith and against the indigenous peoples of Nigeria whose consent was not sought on a matter that will dilute the country’s population and alter its demographic composition.

RULE OF LAW AND NATIONAL INTEREST

ARG was no less unsparing, stating that, and I quote:”there have been a number of assaults on the Rule of Law under this administration, a phenomenon that is now spreading to the sub-national level with state governments now exhibiting similar rascality by treating critics’ views as treason”.

The administration, it further said, is weaponising a nebulous national interest to terrorise citizens and incarcerate people, using the cynical strategy of endless filing of new charges against those they desire to hold against valid court orders”.

Although, it has been argued in some quarters that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice must bear the responsibility for these inhuman acts, I make bold to say that in a few years time,  Nigerians  may not see or hear of  Mr. Malami anywhere near the Nigerian public service, but not so President Buhari. Where is Andoakaa today near the seat of power in Nigeria? The president should always have an eye on his place in history.

Concluding, ARG did not shy away from making some suggestions which include the following:

.”We call for the immediate suspension of the Visa on Arrival policy to allow for appropriate consultation and preparation.

• We recommend that Nigerians take Y2020 as the year to defend civil rights as provided for in Nigeria’s Constitution, even if it means doing so against the government that we helped into power.
• We call on President Buhari to urgently give his assent to the Financial Audit Service and Federal Audit Service Commission Bills,which will empower the Auditor- General to compel all agencies of government to be accountable.
• We call on President Buhari to institute a just and equitable appraisal system that subjects all heads of MDAs to periodic performance evaluation”.