The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • Miracle reunion

    Miracle reunion

    As we celebrate the return of 21 Chibok girls, we must keep working for the release of the others

    Even if God reenacts the miracle at the Red Sea where the Israelites looked back and saw Pharaoh and his army and their chariots, for the last time, those who would not believe in miracles will not believe. Or if God reenacts waking up Lazarus from the dead; those who will not believe will still not believe. Rather than agree that these are miracles, they will find some scientific or other explanations for the events. The same way it is going to be difficult to convince the people who do not believe that the return, on October 13, of 21 of the Chibok girls abducted from Chibok Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in the night of April 14, 2014 was a miracle. But those who believe that miracles still happen, in spite of our sins and all, know that this was something that is beyond human comprehension. Even as I insisted that my own little contribution to the campaign for the return of the girls (Chibok girls: still on my mind) which features at the bottom right corner of this column since the girls were abducted be retained whenever space seemed to be a constraint, I almost gave up hope that those girls would ever return to reunite with their parents.

    But the parents of the Chibok girls who have returned know better. One can only imagine how expectant both the girls and their parents would have been when told they were going to reunite again. It must have seemed like a dream. But the dream turned to reality on October 13. They experienced it and if you ask them, even those who never believed in miracles among them will tell you they now do. The tears of joy; a mother backing her grown-up daughter like a baby; fathers hugging their daughters, etc. tell the story of the miraculous reunion. These are reactions that are uncommon and which depict the mood of the moment.

    Lest we forget, about 276 girls were initially seized by the terrorists that fateful night, but scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping. Another 19 year-old was found with her four-month-old baby early this year. The girls’ abduction drew global attention to the terror war in Nigeria, with US’ First Lady Michelle Obama joining the #BringBackOurGirls online movement.

    The Boko Haram insurgency has claimed more than 20,000 lives and displaced 2.6 million people from their homes since 2009 when Boko Haram took up arms against the Nigerian government. So, for the girls to have survived the ordeals in the hands of their captors means that they are destined for something in life. It is like someone who has gone to the lion’s den and returned. They are lucky indeed.

    And to think that this was what some people toyed with; this was what people who should have stopped the terrorists a long time before much havoc was done shared the money meant for purchase of arms and an army general even had the temerity to tell us that all they owed the soldiers was a rifle each and that they could have summarily tried and executed those of them who deserted the war front ostensibly for lack or arms all within five minutes! God will certainly have a lot of cases to attend to on the Day of Judgment.  To borrow the phrase of our former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, “there is God o!

    We cannot but congratulate the Buhari government for this breakthrough. But this is just the beginning; the government should not relent in its efforts to bring back home the remaining 198 girls still in captivity.  As we celebrate, we cannot but remember the role of the #BringBackOurGirls  (BBOG) campaigners led by Oby Ezekwesili, for keeping  hope alive and serving as a constant reminder of the fact that these girls must be brought back home, sometimes to the point of being labelled as a bundle of irritants who see nothing good in the government. Kudos must also go to the external mediators, particularly the Swiss government for their inestimable role in facilitating contacts between representatives of the Nigerian government and intermediaries of Boko Haram on the release of the girls. Of course we cannot forget the role of the International Red Cross too in the event.

    But the government must realise that another phase of its duty to the girls is just about to begin. In a region known to be educationally disadvantaged, abducting girls from school must have done a lot of damage to the psyche of the students and their parents, and this could lead to fears about sending their female children to school again. This is bad for the region and the entire country because a situation where some sections are doing well educationally and others lag behind can only mean retrogression for the country.  Already, we see that manifest in several ways, whether in admission to tertiary institutions where entry points are deliberately lowered for some sections to enable them meet up with others from other regions, or in Federal Government’s ministries and parastatals where relatively young graduates from certain areas rise faster in service not because they are better than their colleagues but because of where they come from. Indeed, this is why I sometimes wonder when the government talks about uniting Nigerians through a national programme like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). How do you explain it to two graduates who served and joined the civil service the same day when one begins to experience a meteoric rise because of his state or region of origin whereas the other who probably knows the job better crawls on the ladder of promotion? This, however, is not the issue for today.

    Back to the Chibok girls.

    It is gratifying that the Federal Government has decided to ‘adopt’ the girls, as it were and take responsibility for their education and welfare to whatever level they want to go. President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday when he hosted them and their parents to lunch at Aso Rock: “These 21 girls will be given adequate and compre­hensive medical, nutritional and psychological care and support. The Federal Government will re­habilitate them, and ensure that their reintegration back into the society is done as quickly as pos­sible”, the president said.

    He added: “Aside from rescuing them, we are assuming the responsibility for their personal, educational and professional goals and ambitions in life. Obviously, it is not late for the girls to go back to school and continue the pursuit of their studies”. This is good talk; indeed, it could not have been better put. What is expected is for the government to walk the talk because, as the president rightly noted, “these dear daughters of ours have seen the worst that the world has to offer. It is now time for them to experience the best that the world can do for them. The government and all Nige­rians must encourage them to achieve their desired ambitions.”

    So help us God.

  • Judges’ arrest; so what?

    Judges’ arrest; so what?

    That is inevitable when reform fails to come from within. If gold rusts, what would iron do?

    Barely one year after the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was inaugurated, a friend asked me in the course of a discussion on the anti-corruption war: “how many persons has Buhari jailed?” This was supposed to be a rhetorical question in that it is not the business of Buhari to jail. It is the duty of the police and other prosecutorial agencies to press corruption charges against people suspected to be corrupt while the courts decide their fate. I did not fail to remind him that Buhari had probably learnt his lesson from the criticism of his dictatorial regime when he was head of state in the 1980s; hence his unusual patience on the matter now.

    My friend’s question was a cynical dismissal of the anti-corruption war. Yet, it is obvious that Buhari is not necessarily the problem with the anti-corruption war. Our courts are. So, the question should have been directed at the judiciary, instead of Buhari. We all know, sincerely speaking, that we cannot make any headway with the way many of our courts have been handling corruption cases. Of major concern are cases involving politically exposed persons with very deep pockets.

    We have been inundated with stories of judges hawking injunctions and judgments; depending on how fat the pay is. One former governor has been on perpetual injunction from arrest for years! Justice Kayode Esho (of blessed memory) had warned, before his death in 2012, that we had ‘billionaire judges’ in the country, especially among those who delivered judgments and rulings in election matters. Only God knows how many people have suffered from the resulting miscarriage of justice. Yet, no country can develop where there is so much unpredictability in the justice system.

    It is against this backdrop that we must see the October 7 midnight arrest of seven judges in the country suspected of corrupt practices.  Those arrested included two justices of the Supreme Court, Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro, as well as five other judges, including the suspended Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya; Justice Kabiru Auta of Kano State High Court, Justice Muazu Pindinga, I.A. Umezulike and Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja. The eighth judge who could have been arrested was the Rivers State Federal High Court judge, Justice Mohammed Liman, who allegedly secured the help of the state governor, Nyesom Wike, to prevent his arrest. Barely 24 hours after threatening to arrest more judges, the DSS picked up Justices Bashir Sukola and Ladan Manir of the Kaduna State High Court on Wednesday.

    Naturally, some concerns have been raised, especially about the way and manner the security operatives carried out the arrests. Some have said the DSS has no right to invade the judges’ residence at midnight; some say they do not have the right to break into their homes; some ask: why the weekend arrests? Some even gave the impression that judges cannot be arrested simply because they are judges. In all of these, what is important is whether the arresting authority has a search warrant. The answer in this case would appear to be in the affirmative. The question of whether or not the security operatives have a right to break into the home of a judge is neither here nor there. If there is resistance by the person to be arrested, do the security agents merely fold their arms? At any rate, what happens if they leave the suspect only for him/her to have ample time to destroy or move evidence from his apartment?

    It is astonishing that despite the ‘shock finds’ allegedly found in the homes of three of the judges (about N93.5million, $530,087 as well as 25,970 pound sterling and 5,680 Euros) by the DSS, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) could not even wait to think through the issue before condemning the arrests. Why would a judge have so much money, and at home? It is heartwarming though that many Nigerians have condemned the association. An NBA that has remained comatose all these years when the irregularities have been going on in the judiciary suddenly rose from the ‘dead’ to condemn the arrests even as it also claims it believes in the anti-corruption war. For God’s sake, where was the association when Governor Ayodele Fayose tore a judge’s dress in court? There are a thousand and one things that could have made the NBA to declare emergency. The DSS’ arrest of judges is certainly not one of them. In many other countries, judges had been arrested and tried over all sorts of crimes. Nigerian judges cannot be different. They certainly cannot be above the law.

    And the National Judicial Council (NJC) saddled with the responsibility of self-cleansing in the judiciary?  The council has become more of a cult, dispensing justice sometimes in a manner that reminds one of the famous “Kootu Asipa”, (a popular Yoruba drama series) some decades back! The point is; there is no country where there are no thieves. The beauty in many other places is that when caught, the thieves, no matter how highly placed, know they will get their comeuppance in court. But not here. Our big thieves know they can get away with the most heinous crimes once the price is right. To worsen matters, some of the colluding judges rub it on our faces when they pronounce such thieves innocent or discharge them on technical grounds; or when they give them a slap on the wrist and ask them to go but sin no more.

    Some of them and their senior lawyer ‘clients’ have taken us for fools for far too long by behaving as if the law itself is written in Greek or Latin, that people who are not lawyers cannot understand. Law is predictable; many of our judges have made it not to be by the contradictory rulings and injunctions that they give, even on similar matters. Many of the lawyers, including very senior ones, no longer bother about the law. Why do you need to bother about the law if you can arrange money for judges handling your case? I hear that is what some of them specialise in now.

    The lawyers involved in these shady deals know themselves and one should not be surprised if they are the ones in the vanguard of the criticism of the DSS’ action. The arrest of the judges is the beginning of the anti-corruption war. And the reason is simple: judges are the people who dispense justice; they hold the power to convict and to discharge and acquit. So, they must be upright to give teeth to the anti-corruption war.

    One has taken judicial notice of the NJC’s reaction to the unfortunate incident. But we do not have to be experts in law to know that all is not well with our judiciary. What has happened to the Halliburton scandal trial? To date, our big people involved are still walking the streets free whereas their foreign counterparts have since been convicted outside of the country. We are also familiar with the case of former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who is about completing his jail term in the United Kingdom for corruption whereas our own court wasted so much time on his case determining whether James Ibori and James Onanefe Ibori are one and the same person. One can continue to cite many other examples.

    The unfortunate thing is that such technicalities are deployed to the advantage of the rich. In this same country, former Governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, was sentenced to six months in jail with the option of a N3.5 million fine by a Federal High Court in Enugu for plundering the state treasury. He was also directed to return N500 million and three of the houses he acquired with stolen public funds to the Federal Government. Why is it that it is only our rich who have the benefit of such refund? Why can’t our courts also allow people forced to steal because of the activities of our big thieves, to refund goats or cows that they stole in order to eat?

    The sad aspect of it all is that where the rich are involved, you find so many senior lawyers scrambling to be part of the defence team. With due respect to Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed, our judiciary stinks. There is no doubt about that. Nigerians’ reactions to the judges’ arrest are enough to let those deceiving them with Rule of Law know that they (Nigerians) are wiser. They are tired of people who pool wool over their faces in the name of Rule of Law (which applies only to the rich), and who would backslap themselves in the comfort of their cocktail circuits after using undue technicalities and subterfuge to ‘win’ cases and thereafter clink glasses to our collective foolishness and peril.

    All we are saying is: reform the judiciary. If there are no more lawyers to find the law for the poor, as the Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi used to do, at least they should not shortchange them for the rich. The way the judiciary is today can only lead to anarchy. It is no longer the last hope of the common man. Indeed, it is the haven for the corrupt rich. It is not enough for the NJC to say it is responsible for disciplining judicial officers, it should be seen to be doing that without fear or favour. The DSS’ arrest of judges cannot in any way cow a sane judiciary.

    Judges, like Caesar’s wife, must be above board.

  • Special status for Lagos

    Special status for Lagos

    But for dirty politicking, this is obvious

    But for our kind of politics, there is no reason why people making a case for special status for Lagos should sweat before their prayer is answered. Unfortunately, our society has not yet developed to the point where superior arguments would trounce mundane and partisan considerations. Senator Oluremi Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Lagos Central Senatorial District brought the matter to the front burner of national discourse again on Wednesday at the senate through a bill, titled “A bill for an act to make provisions for Federal Grants to Lagos State in recognition of its strategic socio-economic significance and other connected purposes”. The bill was read for the second time when other senators, particularly those from the north, south-south and south east overwhelmingly voted against it”.

    The bill sought one per cent of federally generated revenue as special grant for Lagos State because of the state’s former capital’s socio-economic significance. According to Senator Tinubu, “Lagos is of a strategic, social, economic significance as the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria. Today, Lagos serves as the commercial capital of Nigeria and its major nerve-centre. The strategic importance of Lagos is inherent in several sectors of the economy. Available statistics indicate that six out of 10 international passengers arrive in Lagos, while eight out of 10 depart from Lagos. This shows that Lagos is the window through which visitors travel in and out of Nigeria.”

    The case could not have been better or more passionately argued. According to her, the state is beset by a number of socio-economic challenges due to its being the country’s former federal capital.  The percentage quoted by Senator Tinubu is for international passengers alone; the statistics of other Nigerians travelling into Lagos, with many of them not returning to wherever they came from, is equally astounding.

    Incidentally, Senator Tinubu’s bill would be the second such attempt at seeking special attention for Lagos, at least in this dispensation. Regrettably, both attempts failed. The bill was first presented to the upper chamber in the 7th Senate, but the lawmakers rejected it at the committee stage. The then Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu-led Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review on June 5, 2013, ruled out special status for Lagos. It said in its report: “On special status for Lagos, while the committee appreciates the peculiar needs and challenges of Lagos, it is our considered opinion that according such special status should be a matter of political decision, which should be kept out of the Constitution.”

    One wonders what this is supposed to mean. If you agree that Lagos has “peculiar needs and challenges”, why leave the matter to the whims and caprices of political leaders in the country, most of whom lack the maturity for the high offices they occupy? They reduce everything to politics and see issues from narrow parochial perspective. We can see evidence of this from the statement of Senator Gershom Bassey, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Cross River South, who said he would only support the bill if such attention is granted Calabar, the first capital of Nigeria.

    I have nothing against lawmakers making passionate case for their constituencies. But when we begin to consider apple with oranges, we run into problems.  I won’t be categorical or committal on whether the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) be given the same status as Lagos as Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda, PDP, FCT, wants before supporting Senator Tinubu’s bill. “I will support it (bill) on one condition, that what will be given to Lagos State should be given to other states like the FCT. Some special allocations should be given to FCT. The FCT is over-stretched and government needs to intervene. In the FCT, we have riverine areas.” We need to look at the record, what was the situation like when Lagos was federal capital?

    But it would appear that Senator Bassey feels those making a case for special status for Lagos are doing so simply because it is the former federal capital. I am sure he knows better; that that is not the plank of their argument. The main plank of their argument is the pressure that Lagos is bearing as a result of its being the former federal capital.

    The point is; the population of Lagos keeps increasing daily, with many of those coming into the place not returning. Even if only for those transiting, the figure is huge. The population of Calabar is put at about 371,022 (2006 census). The population of the whole Cross River State is 3.738million (also 2006 census). On the other hand, the population of Lagos, even at the contentious 2006 estimate, is about eight million; the state government argues that it is more than 16 million, which is more like it, given the number of people the government provides for by way of infrastructure, which is overstretched. Some people may dispute this for whatever reason, but it cannot be denied that the state caters for the teeming number of people leaving various parts of the country for the ‘city’. This imposes a lot of strain on infrastructural facilities in Lagos.  Even many of our representatives and senators find Lagos irresistible as they abandon their dull life in Abuja for the alluring Lagos city life at weekends and during major public holidays.

    This is why one finds the reason adduced by Senator Aliyu Wamakko, APC, Sokoto North, who also kicked against the bill, curious. He said the timing was wrong and that we cannot be asking that Lagos be given more cash at a time other states are struggling to pay salaries, especially as Lagos is the richest state in the country. By his logic (or illogic), that would make other states poorer and Lagos richer. Need the senator be reminded that the huge population of Lagos is a function of many factors? One of these is that it is the failure of most other states to govern responsibly that has necessitated the rush to Lagos en masse from most other parts of the country in search of greener pasture. Lagos does not have to be this congested if most other states had done the rightful.

    The point is; Lagos deserves more than its current federal allocation. Look at the Value Added Tax (VAT), for instance. The bulk of the tax comes from Lagos. Yet, Lagos does not have the benefit of equivalent returns. Senator Olusola Adeyeye, APC, Osun Central made a good point that Lagos deserves commensurate returns from the VAT proceeds. If 13 per cent is good for oil-producing communities, why not same for VAT? “By the same token, whatever you get from VAT, a certain percentage should belong to that community. We have among us a governor, who made a law that banned the consumption of alcohol. That’s what the people want. I supported it. He has the right to make the law. However, if my own people consume alcohol and pay VAT on it, he should not take a penny of what my people have for VAT on alcohol. “In Lagos, all of us are paying tax. And all of these VAT is taken to Abuja. What we need to do is to say whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander. If it is 13 percent for Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers for oil, let it also be 13 percent to Lagos for the VAT paid there’’, Senator Adeyeye said. This makes eminent sense. Indeed, if we go by the elementary principle of taxation, 13 per cent may even be small in this instance, given that a cardinal principle of taxation is that a reasonable part of the tax must be enjoyed by people in the area from where it came.

     All said, Senator Tinubu might have lost the case for now, but we should not be deterred. Mercifully, the loss was not due to superior argument but to the usual primordial sentiments. Whoever thought Senator Adeyeye’s reference to the FCT as “a pampered and spoilt child” was the reason why the bill failed does not know the undercurrents in this matter; the high-wire politics involved. That could have angered some senators; but it is not enough to make the senate reject an otherwise good bill. Our senate should not be throwing the baby away with the bath water over flimsy excuses. They did so the other time when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo was seeking ‘third term’: they threw away constitution amendment because of their aversion to ‘third term’. They have done it again with Senator Tinubu’s bill. A mature senate would always know how to separate Genesis from Exodus, (apologies to one of my former lecturers).

  • Buhari and our assets

    Buhari and our assets

    Let us not eat up our children’s future

    President Muhammadu Buhari has no one to blame but himself if he is now finding it tough to get some of the things that he feels his government needs to overcome the country’s economic challenges. This is one point that would keep recurring whenever the Buhari administration is in focus and it will remain so until the government gets that magic wand to turn its fortune around in the eyes of the average Nigerian. After losing the momentum of an early start, the government now needs to do something or something fortuitously happens to return the government to the high popularity rating it enjoyed about this time last year. Don’t ask me that thing because I don’t know; but that thing must just happen for things to turn around for the government again.

    Certainly the president would not have been in this kind of quagmire if, for instance, he had taken a decision on his presidential jets some months back. We had known long before he was sworn in that this country cannot afford the luxury of 10 presidential jets, whether now or at the time those jets were acquired and, given the low profile nature of the president, we also had thought those were some of the things he would do away with on assumption of office. That it has taken him this long to be mooting an idea that he should have implemented a long time ago, is part of the reasons he would need all the angels in heaven standing surety for him that we would not regret concurring to his idea of selling some of the country’s assets.

    The president made his intention to secure emergency powers from the National Assembly known a few weeks back. Whether he would get that or not is still in the womb of time. Now, he has his eyes on some of our national assets that his government intends to sell to get some foreign currency to shore up the country’s finances. From the angry reactions across the country, that would appear dead on arrival. Not a few see the move as being in the best interest of a few rich Nigerians, especially as Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has added his voice to those calling for the sale of the assets. It would be double whammy for the country if some of those still keeping some of our stolen patrimony are able to buy these assets.

    The fact is, President Buhari has a major weakness, and it is not clear whether any of his aides has the temerity to tell him this. Many Nigerians think he is parochial and that his major decisions are products of this parochialism. Former President Goodluck Jonathan had the same problem and this could be understood because he had all his education in his region. It would appear that the former president had the opportunity of leaving that axis only when he went to Iresi (formerly in Oyo State but now Osun State) for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme. As a matter of fact, it is being whispered in pepper soup joints and even informed circles that some of these people close to President Buhari would be his undoing if he did not separate from them before it is too late.

    I was on the same page with him on the need to set aside some extant laws, like the Procurement Act, which makes government transactions or contracts to take at least six months to scale through. We do not need such laws now. Some things had to be fixed as early as yesterday; the extant Procurement Act cannot achieve such purpose. But on sale of national assets, especially the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company, I beg to disagree, at least for two reasons. One, the government has not given Nigerians the benefit of the doubt that it is on top of the economic issues and that selling the assets is the only way out. Second, what happens should something go wrong and we are unable to get the anticipated benefits after the assets have been sold?

    Some of the people who support selling the assets, apart from those who might be eyeing them, in one-on-one discussions cannot tell you that this and this are what they have seen of the Buhari government in the last 16 months to give us the guarantee that the idea will succeed. Whilst they acknowledge that failure after the assets had been sold would be catastrophic, they only keep supporting their position with theories or the argument that some countries did it in the past. We would be treading a suicidal path if that is all we need to give the government the go-ahead to sell these cash cows.

    One other question I have always asked since the idea was mooted is: what could have happened had a rapacious government like that of Dr Jonathan’s thought in this direction and had sold the assets and the proceeds shared among the gluttons in his government and their cronies? Would President Buhari simply surrender helplessly instead of looking elsewhere for solution to the problems? The point is that national assets, especially the ones still yielding good dividends for the country, like the NLNG should not be thrown up for sale just because of momentary challenges. “Tough times”, as they say, “don’t last”; only tough people do. President Buhari might mean well; but, government and governance is not about a good man. Even with a very good man, things might not go as planned. This is the main reason I will continue to oppose the sale of the core assets.

    Some will oversimplify the matter by comparing it with that of a father who could not pay his child’s school fees but has some assets. They say it is not a bad idea for the man to sell such assets in order to pay the school fees. There could be some sense in this; but it is also going to be based on the assumption that the child would face his or her studies squarely and pass at the end of the day. Moreover, even for the brightest students, some examinations might not be a true test of their ability. At any rate, even if the child fails in the long run, the result would be that he and his immediate family members would bear the consequence. With regard to selling of national assets, we are talking about the fate of no fewer than 170 million Nigerians, excluding those unborn, that are inextricably tied to these assets. That is too huge to gamble with.

    The Buhari government must reflect deeply on this issue. Forget this talk of making provision for buyback; the person who bought a good asset is not likely to want to surrender it just like that. Perhaps it would have been a different thing if we are in a country where leaders are punished for corruption or failed policies. President Jonathan is still moving about freely despite the whole lot of atrocities perpetrated during his administration. If tomorrow, there is a meeting of the National Council of State, he would join his colleagues, some of whom also played ignoble roles that led us to where we are.

    It is sad, so sad that we are contemplating selling some of our national assets just to raise $15-20 billion. All those responsible for this mess should bury their heads in shame. This amount is too small for a big country like Nigeria that has raked in billions of dollars over the past three decades from crude oil to lose sleep over or dissipate energy on. But what did we do with the proceeds? Honestly I think we should be getting to the point where we call people to account for their stewardship. It is not just to answer to corruption charges because the people who left us this bare should not go scot free. We can only imagine the extent of damage they have done if we are able to calculate the social cost of their ineptitude or corruption. Nigeria is not the only crude producer affected by the slump in oil prices; but it appears we are the most irresponsible and the worst hit of the lot because we never saved for the rainy day during the era of boom. We had visionless and cruel rulers who cared only about themselves and behaved as if they never knew we could come to grief should there be crude price slump again, despite the fact that we have had some shocks in the past occasioned by the same reason.

    As this paper said in its editorial on the issue, President Buhari should make haste slowly. He should not crash into a trailer while running away from an ordinary bicycle because that is what we would get if things do not turn out as expected after the government would have sold the assets. We have taken the future of unborn Nigerians for granted too far and for too long. Those who want to rest in peace in their graves should not toy with it any further.

  • Broda, me joo yi; Sunny mo fe joi

    Broda, me joo yi; Sunny mo fe joi

    Tribute to King Sunny Ade at 70

    In our kind of country where only bad news hit the headlines, it is sometimes difficult for columnists, particularly those who maintain weekly columns, to find something to write on because you would just seem to be repeating yourself. Ordinarily, one would have been forced to write on the allegation of the stunning foreign currency that Patience Jonathan, wife of the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, PhD! claimed is hers. And, pronto, her husband’s Ijaw youths have come to her defence, saying the money represented gifts to the former first lady.

    If I did not find this interesting enough, the other option is to say something on the proposed sale of some national assets by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. As a Yoruba man, I find this difficult to comment on, even if it is the government’s last resort, given the dire economic situation the country is in, no thanks to corruption, particularly in the Jonathan years. We have a name for such a thing in the south western part of the country which I would not want to mention so that people would not say it is the government I am referring to. Those who know me well know that if I wanted to call the present government that name, I would have said so without fear or favour. But I can understand its predicament.

    I was just flipping through this paper on Friday in search of what to write on that would be somewhat different from what I have been writing in the last few months when I saw the advert by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, congratulating King Sunny Ade on the occasion of his 70th birthday. There are musicians and there are musicians: Sunny Ade is unarguably one of the greatest music legends of our time.

    Sunny Adé was born Sunday Adeniyi to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Ondo State, on September 22, 1946, to a father who was a church organist; his mother was a trader. He left grammar school in Ondo under the pretext of going to the University of Lagos but instead began a musical career with Moses Olaiya’s Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He formed The Green Spots in 1967; changed its name several times, first to African Beats and then to Golden Mercury.

    When the matter was music, particularly the Juju genre in the 1970s and 1980s and even the 1990s in Nigeria, you either mentioned Sunny Ade or Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. There were a few fringe Juju musicians then, no doubt; but none of them was able to maintain the long grip that the duo had on Juju music fans at home and beyond. Obey had albums like Ketekete, Ki iseru akata, ‘Operation feed the nation’; to name a few to his credit. Then Sunny Ade: Oro to nlo; Sunny ti de; Synchro System; Ja fun mi; Nibi Lekeleke Gbe Nfosho;  Mo beru agba; Ma jaiye oni; 365 is my number; Kira kita kira kita; Mo ti mo; Sunny lo ni ariya; Ma a jo; Won lomode o mela; Orisun Iye, Merciful God; Eri Okan. Others are ‘My Mother’; Alase la’iye; Suku Suku Bam Bam; ‘Appreciation’, among Sunny Ade’s numerous albums.

    Even Sunny Ade’s rivals would readily agree that these were albums to reckon with. They could not have been nothing but the product of hard work. It was this hard work and the innovations that he brought into Juju music that extended his fame beyond our shores, to America and Europe, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. His Synchro System was so fascinating and irresistible that it earned him his first Grammy Award nomination in the folk/ethnic music category. Sunny Ade is the first African to be nominated twice for the prestigious Grammy Award, the second in 1988, when he released Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs.

    It is not for nothing that Wikipedia describes the Juju maestro as “…a pioneer of modern world music adding that “he has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time” The New York Times describes him as “one of the world’s great band leaders”. To Record, Sunny Ade is “a breath of fresh air, a positive vibration we will feel for some time to come” while Trouser Press sees him as “one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world”.

    Sunny Ade is all these and more.

    I was at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo, for my Higher School Certificate programme for two years, and that afforded me the opportunity of interacting at close range with Ondo people, Sunny Ade’s kith and kin. There is no doubt that he is well loved by his people. To him therefore, Jesus Christ’ allusion of “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home,” does not apply. During my two-year stay in the town, I had cause to attend a few social parties. The youths, particularly the ladies then could not hide their admiration for their own as they politely told you at the parties when you asked them to dance with you:  “broda, me joo yi, Sunny mo fe joi” (brother, I am not interested in this music; I prefer Sunny Ade). I am sorry if I adulterated the Ondo dialect; it’s been quite some time, but I guess the message is clear, which is the most important thing.

    The dance floor would be half empty when people were dancing to the ‘gbam-gbam dim-dim’ (disco) music. But the wise disc jockeys (DJ) knew what the problem was and immediately they switched over to King Sunny Ade’s music, the dance floor would be full again, with the ladies this time being the ones to tell you: ‘Excuse me dance’.  And they could be on the dance floor for hours, retiring to their seats only when Sunny Ade’s music was replaced with something else that they could not comprehend. But, as I said earlier, even the uninitiated DJ knew that should only be an interlude; it should not last long if he wanted the party to be the talk of the town for some time.

    You cannot blame them. The man, Sunny Ade, is simply great; fantastic. I have been following him since the mid-seventies and he remains my best musician of all times. As a matter of fact, for me, Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey remain the Juju musicians to beat. While Sunny Ade was noted more for his mastery of the guitar (little wonder some call him the master guitarist; he calls himself anjonu oni jita (the guitar wizard) and rightly so. Sunny Ade’s dexterity on the guitar is unmatchable. The white man may have invented the guitar; it was as if he invented it for Sunny Ade who did and is still doing wonders that even the white man cannot do with it. Obey’s strength is more in the philosophical message of his music. My friends, John Adeolu Akanbi and Gabriel Dare Ekundina and I were so fanatical about these great men of all times back then that we followed their albums as they were released. We did not joke with them as we bought their collections and could tell you serially which album followed which.

    But life was fun then. Even as secondary school students, I know the pleasant moments we had. As a matter of fact, when I see the kind of hardship many students, including those in the universities and other higher institutions are going through today, I feel sorry for them. Yes, things were hard then; but compared with what today’s youths are going through, we were in paradise. That paradise is now lost, apologies to John Milton, and no thanks to purposeless rulers who have continually pauperised Nigerians that God has blessed with a country flowing with milk and honey.

    But it is important to stress that whatever pleasure we had then did not distract us from our studies. We were guided by the maxim that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. I mean as hardworking students, we were also entitled to a little social life, a guided one that is. Perhaps that was also a function of some of the messages we picked from the reigning Juju musicians then, I mean Sunny Ade and Obey. You can’t compare these with the ‘junk’ that many of today’s youths gobble as music. Apart from the fact that most of today’s musicians carry no discernible message; whenever they attempt to, they pollute the air That is why they come and disappear like some passing dreams.

    Sunny had collaborated with major artistes such as Manu Dibango (Wakafrika), Stevie Wonder  (played harmonica in Aura), as well as younger Nigerian artists like Wasiu Alabi Pasuma and Bola Abimbola and even the songstress, Onyeka Onwenu. Needless to say that Sunny Adé is also a household name in the country, running multiple companies in several industries. He established a non-profit organisation called the King Sunny Adé Foundation, and is also working with the Musical Copyright  Society of Nigeria.

    Sunny Adé, now known as ‘The Chairman’ in his home country, was appointed a visiting professor of music at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife ; he was also inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame, at the Brooklyn African Festival in the United States. He dedicated the award to the late Michael Jackson.

    Please join me in wishing this great man who has been an inspiration to many other upcoming musicians in the country a happy birthday on behalf of millions of his other fans. His coming to the world on September 22, 1946 was not a mistake.

    Egin, igba odun kan, odun kan  i.

  • Pope offers comfort to friends and relatives of Nice attack victims

    Pope Francis on Saturday sought to comfort relatives and close friends of the more than 80 victims of the attack in Nice in July, who were run down by a man driving a truck as they celebrated France’s national day.

    The pope began his solemn address by apologizing for not speaking French because he said his was not “bon”.

    Then, shifting to Italian, he urged those who were “attacked by the demon” to respond with “forgiveness, love and respect for your neighbor” rather than giving in to the temptation to react with hate and violence.

    Among the some 1,000 people who attended the ceremony were members of Nice’s Jewish community and a local Muslim imam.

    “It makes me happy to see that inter-religious relations are very vibrant among you, and this cannot but soothe the wounds left by this dramatic event,” Francis said.

    Islamic State (IS) militants claimed responsibility for the July 14 Nice attack. Less than two weeks later, IS militants killed an elderly French priest, Father Jacques Hamel, in his church, prompting the pope to declare the “the world is at war”.

    But the pope also insisted the war was not a religious one, and that it was wrong to “identify Islam with violence”, suggesting instead that the lack of economic opportunities for young people in Europe was one of the causes of terrorism.

    After speaking briefly, the pope descended from the pulpit and spent more than 45 minutes meeting those who attended the ceremony, many of whom were in tears.

  • Four al Qaeda members killed in suspected U.S. drone strike

    Four members of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, including a local commander, were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike on a vehicle traveling east of the capital Sanaa, two local officials said on Saturday.

    They said the attack in Marib province, controlled by forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, occurred late on Friday. A local commander of the militant Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), known as Abu Khaled al-Sanaani, was killed along with three associates, they said.

    It was the second drone strike in two days to target a local commander of the Islamist militant group regarded by U.S. officials as one of the most dangerous branches of al Qaeda.

    A drone strike on a vehicle in al-Bayda province in central Yemen killed a senior AQAP leader known as Abdallah al-Sanaani, identified as a regional commander of the group, on Thursday.

    The United States has been using drones to target the Islamist militant group which has exploited Yemen’s civil war to carve out a foothold in the impoverished country. Several leaders of the group have been killed by drone strikes in recent years.

    U.S. officials have said AQAP is one of the most potent security threats in the Middle East. The group, whose attacks have mainly targeted the Yemeni government and the Iran-allied Houthi group, claimed responsibility for an attack last year on the Paris office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

     

  • Coal for light

    Coal for light

    Diversification of the sources of fuel for power is a welcome development

    For decades we kept talking about diversifying the country’s revenue base but, beyond the rhetoric, little was done in this direction. For a country that has been taught something and has learnt something, we should not have been caught off guard in the quagmire of another oil price slump. We had it in the 1980s in the Shehu Shagari years; we had it even shortly before the Obasanjo presidency in 1999 when oil sold at a rock-bottom $9. All successive governments did was to keep hoping for the best; which somewhat came and we soon relapsed into our business as usual. Diversification became once again a slogan rather than a programme of action.

    But when we talk of diversification, it goes beyond the source/s of revenue generation. Part of the problem with this country is that in terms of ideas; we have a surfeit of them; our problem is in converting them. What I am saying is that many of us, including our leaders, past and present, have always been conversant with the aphorism that it is dangerous or unwise for one to put all his eggs in one basket. Why? Simply because once that basket has problem, the eggs will break. Again, as with crude oil, we have for long relied on thermal plants essentially for electricity generation.

    It is however gratifying that the economic recession is now compelling us to look more in the direction of diversification properly so-called. But the diversification I am talking about is not the one we are familiar with; rather, it is as it pertains to electricity generation. Minister of Solid Minerals and Mining, Dr Kayode Fayemi, told the executive director of a non-governmental organisation, CSR-in-Action, Bekeme Masade, who led somer members of the group on a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja, that Nigeria will soon be using coal as an alternative source of energy. Indeed, coal will supply about 30 per cent of the country’s power needs, according to the policy on energy needs set by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing under Babatunde Raji Fashola, its minister.

    “We have dedicated that coal licences will only be awarded to those who want to generate electricity and we are collaborating with the FMPWH (Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing) on this.

    “There are certain processes you need to fulfill. You need to have a licence for power generation before you acquire a licence for mining. Since the inception of this administration, no licence for coal has been awarded which is not for the purposes of power generation.

    “So if you acquire a licence for mining coal, you have to also have that for power. Once the application is filed and it is not encumbered by any legal or existing holder of a licence, the licence is awarded, but it must be for power generation only. Quite a number of companies have applied directly either to us or to the FMPWH,” the minister told his guests.

    This is a welcome development. Nigeria has large coal reserves, estimated at about two billion metric tons. What many of us have been saying is that the government should think out of the box to take the country out of its present economic doldrums. If the proposed idea  represents part of that process, we should support it. The fact is that our present concentration on thermal stations cannot take us to the Promised Land, with persistent gas shortages occasioned by avoidable and unavoidable factors. Ours is a country richly blessed with good weather. We have sunshine in abundance; which offers a good opportunity to tap greatly into solar energy. We have coal, which also plays a great role in the power sector in other places. We have areas that can support wind farms, etc.      

    It is important to note that coal-fired power plants currently fuel 41 per cent of global electricity. Indeed, an estimate says electricity generation accounts for 43 per cent of all coal consumed in South Africa. As a matter of fact, many of that country’s coal-fired power stations are located close to a coal mine from where they are directly supplied with fuel. Thus, we have the Grootegeluko open cast mine on the Waterberg Coalfield in Limpopo (one of the largest in the country) which feeds the Matimba Power Station with about 14.6 million tons of coal a year through a conveyor system. The same mine is also contracted to supply the new Medupi Power Station. What South Africa has done is to apply the simple economic principle of locating the power plants near the source of fuel. The country generates about 34,000 megawatts.

    Even China which accounts for 46 per cent of global coal production and 49 per cent of global consumption due to its large electric power requirements, fuels its economic growth with coal.

    There is no doubt that coal is one of the most polluting ways to generate electricity, which explains why some regions like Europe have been trying hard in recent years to phase it out. But this is a case of different folks; different strokes. Those who have a case against coal to power our electricity plants here as a result of the challenge of pollution should ponder the amount of pollution from all kinds of generators that our people use to generate electricity privately whenever there is power outage.

    For me, what is important is that we diversify our sources of fuel for power supply. It has become clear that we cannot continue to rely on gas due to the challenges we have been having, especially with militants in the Niger Delta. Even if as a short term measure before the government gets a firm grip of the situation, we need to look beyond gas for this purpose. This is much more so that we do not have full control over the weather to fully engage the hydro stations all year round. We are only able to maximise them during the rainy season.

    The good news here is that even in spite of government, some people on their own; as well as government and private organisations are now popularising the solar option for electricity generation. Schools as well as hospitals in Lagos, for instance, are now experimenting with solar energy. Indeed, one cable television station that is also into estate business in partnership with a private concern has come up with the idea of powering its estates with solar energy. We also have many homes using inverters to power their electrical devices. The result will surely be amazing if more Nigerians key into some of these alternative sources of power generation and more people are able to bypass the problematic national grid.

    Perhaps what the government can do is to support people that are providing these alternatives to the public power supply system however it deems fit. The truth is; we have lived with darkness for too long such that we should be hungry for light now, except we are saying that our nation is haven for darkness.

    We should be firing from all cylinders if truly we are desirous of banishing darkness from the country. We should encourage wind farms where there is wind in abundance; solar power in places where/when there is a surfeit of sunshine; hydro power where it makes sense and thermal power stations where such best fit. This idea of one-cap-fits-all has not helped us with regard to electricity supply. Indeed, the idea of a national grid which can throw the entire nation into darkness simultaneously due to system collapse is no more in our national interest; that is if ever it was at any time in the past. Where we need to amend laws to achieve this, let that be done without further delay.

    Our developmental efforts have been hampered for too long by lack of steady power supply. Even the projected 10,000MW by end of 2019 is a far cry from where we should be if we want to industrialise fast. We must encourage the government to lighten our darkness from wherever it can – be it from the moon, Mars or Jupiter. All we want is power; steady power supply.

     

  • If only cows could talk

    If only cows could talk

    Our cattle are now moved by rail; someday, they’ll fly!

    Nigeria’s early generation cows must be green with envy wherever they are now, seeing that things are looking up for the latter-day cattle in the country. Unlike today’s cows, they were transported the long distances from the northern parts of the country to the south on foot or at best in trucks; in rain, in sunshine, enduring the sometimes harsh weather and the sometimes unfriendly terrains with all the attendant risks. It was such a harrowing long and tortuous journey, and making it to the market down south alive was something desirous of celebration by both the cows and the herdsmen.

    The Fulani herdsmen (sorry, they said we should not call them Fulani herdsmen again; henceforth, therefore, they will be referred to simply as herdsmen) too must be happy that they have been relieved of the burden of constantly whipping the cattle into line. For them, no longer the fear of cattle rustlers which they claim is the reason they carry sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles. Although some of the cows remain fat in spite of the long journeys; hardly is there any fat herdsman probably so-called, something which could have resulted from their itinerant nature. Even for the cows, studies say they usually lose significant nutrients to the long distances. This should be expected.

    But for both the cattle and the herdsmen in the country, it is now a win-win situation. Beef-lovers down south too have something to gain by way of improved nutrients that come with rail transportation of cattle. The sad tales of yesterday and today would soon become history when rail movement of cattle from the north to the south is fully embraced. As the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

    This first step in the new direction began on Thursday, September 1, when about 500 cows were moved by the Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC) from Gusau, Zamfara State, to Oko-Oba Market in Lagos, thus signalling the take-off of the National Farm to Market Rail Scheme. The scheme is the brainchild of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture (NIRSAL), as part of government’s efforts to provide low cost transport link between agricultural producers and consumers across the country, with an initial focus on livestock movement from North to South by rail.

    According to Daily Trust, “under the scheme, NIRSAL, in line with its mandate to de-risk and incentivise investment into verified impactful projects across the agricultural value chain, will provide bank guarantees for the financing of critical requirements involved in the movement of the cattle, including logistics and  equipment. Connect Rail Services Ltd, a bulk freight and logistics service provider is the first technical partner on this aspect of the Farm to Market Scheme”.

    Bello Abdullahi Abba, NIRSAL Coordinator, Research and Strategy, quoted Aliyu Abdulhameed, its managing director, as saying: “We are indeed happy to hear that the wagons have arrived ahead of schedule. We are very delighted that the historic train has arrived earlier than projected. It is a good omen and a further source of encouragement as we strive towards improving and deepening our Farm to Market Scheme.”

    Nigerians generally must be excited by this scheme, especially coming at a time when many of them have come to distrust and indeed hate the herdsmen over the impunity with which many of them ply their trade. As far as many Nigerians are concerned, the herdsmen are largely a band of murderers who leave deaths and sorrow in their trail, in their relationship with their host communities. From Benue to Ekiti, Oyo to Anambra, herdsmen had left in their trail deaths and destruction such that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had to ban their activities from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in his state, and restricting them largely to lands specifically created for their operations in the 16 local governments.

    Hatred of the atrocities by the Fulani herdsmen (who appear not to know that where the right to graze stops, other rights begin), is what appears to have made the Federal Government to suspend action on its proposed grazing reserve which Nigerians generally see as a recipe for chaos. They want, instead, the more modern and pragmatic approach of making the herdsmen get ranches all over the country; after all they are businessmen. In other words, necessity has proved to be the mother of invention in this instance.

    Why this idea took so long to come despite its inherent advantages should therefore be surprising. Now, rather than move cattle from the north to the south in weeks, it can be done within 24 hours. It is even cost-effective. Movement of cattle from Zamfara to Lagos with the use of trucks costs over N200,000 but with rail transportation, the traders paid only N120,000. This is aside other advantages already mentioned.

    Whatever it is; even if it took necessity, that mother of invention, to arrive at this destination, it is still better late than never. Imagine the uses to which rail services can be put yet, our railway was killed by some unpatriotic Nigerians!

    The way we have transported cattle in this country for decades is symptomatic of the way we treat animals generally. Indeed, animals that are unfortunate to be bred in Nigeria must be full of envy whenever they see animals in the developed countries: the care and attention the latter get, with pet owners often kissing their pets; playing with them on their sofa and some of the animals eating some of the best food that even human beings cannot dream of in our country. Who says all animals are equal? Some animals are definitely more equal than others!

    Our own experience is such that you see cows being forced into ramshackle trucks which are themselves junk candidates in civilised countries. The cows that prove stubborn or refuse to enter the trucks peacefully (perhaps in protest against their rickety nature), are whipped into line. One wonders where the bodies that we were taught (I think in Civics class in those days) existed for the prevention of cruelty to animals are today. Even cows seem to know what is befitting as one could see in the pictures of the cattle that were transported from Zamfara to Lagos on September 1. The animals walked, in fact strolled majestically into their wagons, where they are treated with dignity as they had enough space to stretch themselves for the long journey to Lagos.

    I suspect if there was any resistance by any of the cows to enter the wagon, it must have arisen from fear of the unknown on the part of the cows that could be wondering whether what they were witnessing was for real, or it was another ploy by some heartless humans to get rid of them by some other means. This reminds me of the story involving one of our first generation politicians. Some elders from his town came to Lagos and they went to an office on Lagos Island. The politician then asked them to be going in batches as the lift could not take all of them to the floor they were going at once. When it got to the turn of one of the men, he refused to enter the lift. His fear?  He asked the politician whether he took him for a fool. The old man said none of those that the lift took upstairs ever returned and that even if the politician wanted to kill them, he should have done so more intelligently and more creatively! But that is just in the lighter mood.

    But the fate of our animals is a reflection of the state of human beings in the country. A country where governments care for no one could not care whether cattle are made to travel on their heads from Sokoto to Calabar.

    All said, cattle-rearing is a multi-billion naira business. According to NIRSAL, the worth of the North East-Lagos cattle trade market alone is N324 billion per annum. When we add the North – South East cattle trade, or the trade in small ruminants (sheep and goats), the estimates could be in the region of N850-N950 billion per annum between the north and southern parts of the country.

    So, there is no reason why herdsmen cannot afford ranches in line with modern realities. Where necessary, the government should assist them to get loans to run their business. This is the way to go, rather than compound our ethnic fears and suspicions by forcing other people to part with their land to people they see as violent and murderous.

    On behalf of our long-suffering cows, I say a big thank you to all those involved in this project. I only wish the cows could tell the other cows that are yet to feel the new experience about the new deal! They surely must hold a ‘family meeting’ where they must resolve to  reciprocate this good gesture by giving us tastier pepper-soup and other soups that we prepare with the ‘orisirisi’ (assorted) meat that the cows are endowed with! After all, “one good turn”, they say, “deserves another.”

  • Fayose right for once

    Fayose right for once

    His law to tame herdsmen’s excesses is largely welcome

    Those who know me at least fairly well know that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State is not my dream governor. So, there is no way I can celebrate him as a role model. But there is one issue on which the two of us are agreed, and that is how to curtail the excesses of herdsmen. Some wonder how Fayose can be opposed to impunity because he swims in it himself; how then can he be against herdsmen who live by and kill with impunity? The same people asking the question say the answer can be found in the governor’s anti-Muhammadu Buhari stance. In other words, the action is part of the governor’s way of showing his disapproval of the Buhari government, or is it Buhari as a person?

    For Fayose Monday, August 29 was a memorable day. Anyone who saw him when signing the “Prohibition of Cattle and other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti Bill, 2016 into law would have seen the posture of triumphalism in the governor. He was in his elements, and this should send the right signals to those who care that he was not ready to tolerate the arbitrariness and impunity of the herdsmen in his state. The law prevents free grazing of cattle in the state and carrying of firearms by herdsmen. It also restricts grazing period to between 7am and 6pm, with six months jail term without an option of fine to any herdsman, who circumvents the law.

    Given that Ekiti State has not suffered any serious casualty from herdsmen, one is tempted to agree with those who believe that the bill is Fayose’s way of continuing the battle between him and President Buhari by other means. They may be right; they may be wrong. But the question is: should a governor wait until a festering problem in other places get to his doorstep before taking action to stem it? I don’t think so. So, the governor, for me, has only been proactive, irrespective of the propelling force behind the law. He should not wait until Ekiti people become mincemeat in the hands of those who do not know that there is any other right apart from their own right to graze cattle.

    Naturally, such a law will not be without antagonists. It is therefore not surprising that the direct stakeholders in the state, the herdsmen, are among the first set of people to pick holes in the law. Counsel to the Ekiti State Chapter of the Jamu Nate Fulbe Association of Nigeria, an umbrella body for herdsmen in the state, Mr. Umar Imam, said it was wrong for Governor Fayose to charge erring members of the association with terrorism for carrying light weapons. According to him, those carrying weapons like cutlasses, catapults, arrows and knives within the time stipulated by the law cannot be labelled terrorists.

    Speaking in similar vein, the Seriki of the association in Ekiti, Alhaji Ahmadu Mahmoud, appealed to the governor to amend the law, to enable his members carry lesser arms to ward off attacks from robbers.

    Imam said: “The law of the federation on terrorism is very clear and no one can be charged for terrorism for carrying lesser arms like cutlasses, catapults and knives during the grazing period as contained in Ekiti new law”. He added: “I also told them that movement at night while relocating from one place to another was to ensure that they don’t wreak havoc on the people during the day while relocating to other towns. I expected the state government to have taken care of these in the new law rather than total banning. What the state government ought to have done is to allow whoever wants to relocate at night to take permit from a certain government’s authority or inform their Seriki, but banning them from moving at night may not help the situation, it will make their jobs difficult”, Imam said.

    It is easy for critical stakeholders in the cattle business to defend night movement by herdsmen but those who had lost their lives and limbs, including their livelihood to herdsmen’s brutality would have a different story to tell. Ask victims of herdsmen’s attacks across the land, from Benue to Oyo, Ogun, Enugu Adamawa, etc. and they would readily tell you that they stand behind Fayose as far as the law is concerned. The point is, nothing short of the present freedom of the herdsmen will do for those involved in the cattle business.

    The lesson from all these is that even as laudable as Fayose’s audacity in making the law is, it is still not the solution to the herdsmen’s problem. What many Nigerians are pushing for is the establishment of cattle ranches all over the country. Cattle-rearing is big business; so, those into it must be ready to make the necessary investment in tandem not only with the dictates of their host communities but also in consonance with the demands of civilisation. The truth of the matter is that cattle-rearing at any time of the day the way our ancestors did it several decades ago has become anachronistic and unacceptable all over the civilised world.

    A situation where herdsmen carry sophisticated weapons like AK47 rifles in the name of protecting themselves against attacks from armed robbers and other marauders will not even be necessary when they have ranches. The good news here is the new deal by Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bankers Committee (BC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA &RD) which said it was set to begin rail haulage for cattle and agricultural produce; this would hopefully make cattle rearing on our roads and farms a thing of the past . We present ourselves as primitive and impervious to change when cattle are allowed to roam about our streets as in the days of old.

    The Federal Government is committing a lot of money to rail transportation, and this is a good development. As many businesses as possible must be ready to hook onto the railways to transport their products. As a matter of fact, the signal to those into road haulage is that such mode of transportation is no longer sustainable. Apart from the damage to our roads, such heavy duty vehicles also constitute a menace to other road users. If people in this business are accepting this as a reality, there is no reason why herdsmen should think they can continue business in a crude and primitive manner in a rapidly changing world.