By Gabriel Amalu

The claim by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, that the federal government is planning to build a narrow gauge, instead of a modern standard gauge, in the eastern rail corridor, that runs from Port Harcourt through several cities to Maiduguri, should be investigated by the Senate and the House of Representatives. If the allegation is true then the government of President Muhammadu Buhari would legitimately be accused of discriminatory practices against the concerned parts of the country, and I urge the president to quickly order a reversal of such a plan.

On his part, the minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi, should be embarrassed and taunted as a political lickspittle, despite his achievements in other parts of the country, if the claim is true. As far as this column is concerned, the minister should be worried that while he justifies the building of a standard gauge rail line from Kastina to Niger Republic, and a Railway University in Kastina State, to court the president who appointed him, he is unable to secure a standard gauge rail line for his home state.

Indeed, if the allegation is true, it would be a classic case of use and dump. And the child-like tantrums between the minister and Governor Wike over who has served longer in higher positions would merely beg the issue. In a newspaper report of the interview he granted Arise television, Amaechi did not confirm or deny the governor’s allegation that the federal government is planning a narrow gauge in the eastern corridor.

Instead, Amaechi talked about using railway development to create jobs, as if the standard gauge on the western corridor has not created jobs. So, the minister who has shown a single mindedness in his assignment to revitalise the railway in Nigeria should speak up on the allegation. Indeed, if he fails to clear the air on the allegation, then the governors of the states through which the rail line would pass, should band together and resist the discriminatory practice, which is clearly forbidden by the 1999 constitution (as amended).

No doubt, it is the clear intention of the makers of our constitution, which the president swore to uphold, as provided in section 16(b) of the constitution that such discriminatory economic practice should be avoided. It provides: “The state shall within the context of the ideals and objectives for which the provisions are made in this constitution: control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity.”

Without gainsaying, there would be no worse discriminatory practice should the president use our national resources to build a modern railway line in the part of the country he comes from, but chooses to foist an archaic and outmoded railway line on another part of the country. This argument is more succinct, if the contribution of his home state to the national gross domestic product is considered side by side with a state like Rivers, whose governor is crying foul.

Read Also: Wike was my staff, I can’t bring myself low, says Amaechi

There is no doubt that resources from the Niger Delta form a sizeable chunk of the nation’s GDP and even higher percentage of the nation’s income from which the budget for railway lines will be offset. Beyond the oil producing region which stretches up to Abia State, that railway corridor runs from the Niger Delta through the southeast, to the north-central and finally terminates at the northeast. What explanation will the federal government offer for building a narrow gauge on that part, while a standard gauge is built in the other parts of the country?

As I have argued in a piece I titled ‘Half of Nigeria’ on this page some time ago, the eastern half of the country, under which the proposed railway corridor falls is poorer compared to the other half, in which the southwest, western part of north-central and northwest falls into. The poverty in the eastern half is more evident in the northern part of the region, and I urged the federal government to ameliorate the situation.

I have no doubt that a long term solution to the activities of the Boko Haram and similar insurgency in the northeast lies in improved economic activities in the region. With the Lake Chad drying slowly, the country must begin to look at other forms of economic activities to resuscitate the region’s economy. With the possibility that the lake could be re-watered, a modern standard gauge railway corridor would be key to agro-allied industries that could spring up from such a huge capital investment.

Further down the eastern corridor, the Benue-Plateau axis and the south-eastern part are potential economic power houses, which a modernised railway line would boost. While the middle-belt part have strong agricultural potentials, the some cities in the southeast part of the corridor if gifted a modernized railway line, could become similar to renowned major trade centres of the world. So those in charge should allow economic sense to prevail in in rebuilding the eastern railway corridor, instead of jejune political considerations, of misguided power juntas.

If the eastern railway corridor is adequately rebuilt as is happening on the western corridor, the debilitating exertion on the Lagos ports, and by extension other infrastructure in the state of excellence will minimise. The ports in the Port Harcourt would feed the businesses on that corridor, and the nation will be better for it, as new economic centres are created in other parts of the country. Even the expansion and growth of Lagos would become more orderly, instead of being overburdened by the dearth of economic activities in other parts of the country.

Again, since rail engines and coaches cannot be interchanged between a standard gauge and a narrow gauge, where is the economic sense in such a misadventure? Clearly, such decision would be a disservice to the Nigerian Railway Corporation. While there is no justification to start building a railway line from Kastina to Niger Republic, when railway lines within the country have not been rebuilt, this column thinks is better not to start the eastern corridor, instead of building the archaic narrow gauge as governor Wike alleged.

If those who are championing the discriminatory practice don’t stop, I urge the states affected to use all legitimate measures to resist the decision. It is better everyone knows that the region’s railway line has not been built, that to gift them a useless railway line and claim that they have what others have. I earnestly hope Wike is lying against Amaechi. But, should it be true that Amaechi is playing politics as Wike claimed, history would be unkind to him, and his masters.

By Gabriel Amalu

The splotches of the Nigerian story, is akin to some of the tales, in Olukorede S. Yishau’s collection of 10 short stories, titled: Vaults of Secrets. The similarity is such that while Olukorede’s work can be dubbed a fiction, one does not need to look far to see resemblances in the characters around us.  On its part, Nigeria, which ordinarily should be a reality show, sometimes trends more like a fictional entity.

Perhaps, Nigeria’s present ‘fictional reality’ started with the 1999 constitution. There are many, who will swear that the document is a work of fiction, by unknown intellectual mercenaries. For such people, the constitution started with a lie in its preamble that: “We the people of the federal republic of Nigeria … do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves.”

So, one can understand any diatribe, over which genre the Nigerian constitution belongs. Fiction, faction or Reality? With the preamble a fiction, the constitution furthers the narrative by proclaiming that the Nigerian state shall be a federation, which for many is a combination of fiction and facts, when they compare the provisions of the 1999 constitution with the fundamentals of a federal constitution elsewhere.

Indeed, if the country is truly a federation, the 1999 constitution would have restricted its provisions to the prerogatives of a federal government, while each state would be entitled to enact her own constitution. Agreed the states can make some laws, but the jurisdictions allowed the states are so restrictive that the reference to Nigeria as a federation for many is fictional.

A further peep into the constitution stretches the confusion on the appropriate classification of the constitution. In chapter II of the 1999 constitution, for instance, one is accosted with a very rich provision which can make the federal republic an Eldorado. It is eloquently titled: ‘Fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy.’ A foreigner seeking the citizenship of a modern country, would be enthralled by those provisions, and may be attracted to apply for citizenship.

Such a person after reading chapter II, would think that he/she has found the country with the ideal constitution, and with great expectation may apply for citizenship under chapter III. Such an applicant may assume that if the government can meet the fabulous provisions of Chapter II of the constitution, even by a half, the country would be one of the best countries to live in.

Having been sworn to abide by the constitution of his new country, he/she would be excited until he/she tries to enforce any of the provisions of Chapter II. Before a court of law, he would be confronted with a provision in Chapter IV which renders nugatory the detailed provisions of chapter II of the 1999 constitution, as a justiciable right. Tucked away in the belly of section 6(6)(c) of chapter IV, is a denouement of the great expectation of chapter II.

Read Also:Reviewing Yishau’s Vaults of Secrets

There are similar sudden deaths of great expectations in Olukorede’s 10 short stories, which bring the exciting stories to a sudden denouement. One such sudden death is that of the chairman, in the second short story titled: ‘This Special Gift’.  Like Olukorede did to the chairman, the authors of the 1999 constitution, perhaps winking in mischief, struck down the great expectation of chapter II of the constitution, with a stroke of pen.

Such is the power of fictional writing that Olukorede, could after gifting readers what looked like a biography of a living chairman, killed the character, to return the story to a work of fiction. So, just as the reader of Vaults of Secret, would complain that the chairman he/she thought the book is referring to is still alive, the new citizen would complain that he/she thought the provisions of chapter II is justiciable, only to be told that the soul was taken in a subsequent chapter.

Another arcane resemblance between Nigeria and the Vaults of Secret is seen in ‘Till We Meet To Part No More.’ The story revolves around prisons and prisoners, their crimes and their time in jail. For many, Nigeria has become one huge prison, and everybody including the leaders are like ‘condemned men’ doing time in jail. And like the men in jail, in ‘Till We Meet To Part No More’ many in Nigeria are not ready to divulge what they did, to get Nigerians into the huge jail that the country has turned into.

The third story, ‘My Mother’s Father Is My Father’ perhaps captures the shame associated with earning preferment in the Nigerian power conundrum. In the short story, a father rapes his daughter, who bore him a child. In a sense, there is some similarity with what Niger Deltans are doing with the NDDC, set up to liberate the zone from the abandonment of the federal authorities. There are also many, who would never divulge the oaths, and other unthinkable things they did, to beget power.

In ‘Letters From The Basement’ Olukorede’s story can be related to the tribal sympathizers in government. With everyone, including the president, and many governors, accused of reclining into ethnic enclaves, the story warns of the consequences of using government apparatus to further such ethnic interests. The consequences could be a jail term, as happened to Nelson, the protagonist in the short story. Of interest, the governor of Zamfara State has raised alarm that the country would quake, if he opens up on those sponsoring the mayhem in his state. Are such persons, politicians of high standing, like Nelson?

Another interesting resemblance with Nigeria is the story of Michael Ekiwetan Esq, in: ‘Better than the devil.’ The legal luminary with a big chambers, made his money as a hired assassin. His story reels of similar traits of many Nigerian who pretend to be doing what others are doing, but under the cover of darkness, are engaged in criminal activities. Perhaps, the story is a warning that all that glitters is not gold.

In Lydia’s World, set in London, Olukorede, tells the story of swapped Nigerian children. The story somehow pokes fun on the indigene and the settler issue that is unsettling Nigeria. In the story, a Yoruba son was swapped for an Ibo son, and they lived as such until the truth puckered the peace of Lydia. The story reminds me of a rhetorical question I asked a classmate boasting about his brave ancestry, some months back.

When I told my classmate that it is possible that at birth he was swapped unintentionally with a child from another tribe, different from the one he is boasting of, the argument ended. Of note, recently in Nigeria, the DNA test, as in Lydia’s World, has become a sharp knife searing the hearts of many families.

By Gabriel Amalu

Those who own the cows roaming other people’s homesteads, whether in the northern or southern part of our beleaguered country, may actually have blood on their hands, without realising it. In their naivety (criminal?), they may be postulating that they are not the gun-men killing in the name of cows, neither have they procured the killers. But those who hand over their cows to itinerant herdsmen to roam the homesteads by that act may actually be accessory to the killings.

As argued by some of the apologists of the armed killer herdsmen, the crisis bedevilling the northern part of the country, which has now mutated into mass kidnapping as an economic activity, is the result of ethnic warfare over cattle rustling. So, if you handed over your cows to herdsmen to roam the wild and the result is mayhem and killings, you are as guilty as the herders and their armed wing that kill to protect cows from farm-owners.

A leading figure amongst the apologists, and governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, in justifying the carrying of arms by Fulani herdsmen contended that the armed herdsmen are protecting themselves from cattle rustling. That argument may be one of the original reasons for bearing arms. But a prognosis of the crisis will show that cattle rustling may have become an economic activity, because of the destructive activities of the cows, which has made normal farming activity useless.

So, if farmers whose farms have been destroyed by herders have turned to cattle rustling as an economic activity, the blame should fairly go to the owners of cows which roamed about and destroyed the farms. Unfortunately because the herders come from a privileged class, what originally may have been precipitated by their actions are now pushed forward as a reason why they should be allowed to illegally bear arms.

Of course, the herders and their armed wing that are paid to defend the archaic culture are mere couriers of death. Those who procure death as an economic activity are the owners of the destructive cows. So, the next time you meet any person (Fulani or non-Fulani) who boast of owning cows, the question to ask is, where are your cows? While it is legitimate to practice the culture of one’s ancestors, like rearing cows, it is only fair to ask those concerned whether their cows are roaming the hinterland and causing death and mayhem to their fellow citizens.

So, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, this writer asks you: where are your cows? It is important that the governor understands that if he owns any of the cows roaming parts of Nigeria, then he may have blood on his hands. The same question applies to all elite Fulani who understandably take pride in engaging in the cultural proclivities of their illustrious ancestors. There is no doubt that the Fulani has a rich history of being herders, and agreeably they deserve to be proud of that.

But just as it was macho and a sign of virility for Fulani men to tend cows in the bush and fend of wild beats in the past, or get beaten with canes to earn the right to a bride in the past; in the modern times, it is cowardly to steer the cows into the private homes and farms of fellow citizens, and brutally assault them when they confront you for destroying their homesteads.

For this writer it is criminally unconscionable for those who are living in big mansions to pretend to be cultural activists, by allowing their less fortunate brothers to still roam the wild in the name of practising an archaic culture. If these privileged few, especially those of them in positions of authority, believe the practice of roaming the wild with cows is worth retaining, they should allow some of their own children to engage in it.

When Governor Bala Mohammed and his supporters push the argument that because the practice of roaming the wild is dangerous and governments have failed to provide security, therefore the Fulani herdsmen should be allowed to carry guns, they are turning logic on its head. As elected representatives of the people (both Fulani and non-Fulani), it is their responsibility to promote a fair and equitable economic environment for every citizen. That responsibility includes steering the herders away from any practice inimical to their own well-being.

To allow the herders to engage in an economic activity that exposes them and their fellow citizens to danger is a failure of governance. To encourage them to engage in unlawful activity like carrying guns illegally to further their dangerous economic activity amounts to criminal collusion. So, those in positions of authority who openly argue that herders are entitled to carry guns, should be tried for criminal conspiracy to engage in the unlawful conduct of bearing firearms illegally.

For if we accept the logic of the apologists, then it is what started off as destructive activity of herders who engaged in indiscriminate open grazing on farm lands that morphed into cattle rustling. And it is those who suffer the dispossession from cattle rustlers that now bear arms to protect themselves. With the cattle herders overpowering them and freely destroying their farms, the farmers have in turn acquired their own guns, to further the cattle rustling and other criminal activities.

From cattle rustling, the bandits have grown in stature and have taken to kidnapping as a more lucrative criminal activity. The above scenario may not be far away from the tragedy that has befallen Nigeria, particularly northern Nigeria. Those who have no economic activity to sustain them like the grown up Almajiri children, criminally abandoned by the state (again in the name of cultural proclivities) may also have joined to swell the ranks of the bandits that have rendered boarding in secondary schools a dangerous social behaviour.

With the north already lagging behind educationally, and with the Boko Haram’s war on education, this latest practice of kidnapping of secondary school boarders, as a pastime, may be the death knell on education. So, unless the tide is reversed, the northern part of Nigeria may soon become one of the most dangerous places to live in the world. For many with separatist disposition, the northern part of Nigeria is a drag on the southern part, so they don’t mind an end to the relationship.

While disintegration should be a far-fetched contemplation, efforts must be made to stop the haemorrhaging in the north. The answer does not lie in bearing illegal firearms; neither does it lie in enforcing the archaic culture of open grazing. Without doubt, those elite whose cattle roam the countryside may have innocent blood of their fellow citizens on their hands.

By Gabriel Amalu

Those who claim that a federal law banning open grazing, if enacted, as proposed by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, will be unlawful, miss the target. In their confusion they conflate a law banning open grazing with the right of herdsmen like every other Nigerian, to trek from Bayelsa to Sokoto, as long as they don’t trespass on private property or commit any crime on their way.

Furthermore, they want to confound our reasoning that the right to live in any part of Nigeria is the same thing with a right to practice your trade at the detriment of the rights of other persons in any part of the country. They give the unreasonable impression that because a Nigerian has a right to live in any part of the country, such a person can go into the precincts of the Bauchi State government house, for instance, to set up a spare parts shop.

In their malice-laden endeavour to deceive, they give the impression that whereas there is a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to move freely from one part of the country to another, there are no constitutional guaranteed right to privately own properties, protected by laws of the state from intrusion and interference by other fellow citizens.

To show how deceitful the proponents of these fallacies are, one of them, Governor Bala Mohammed, of Bauchi State, lied that his Fulani kinsmen who are herders are entitled to carry AK-47 to defend themselves, because governments have failed to provide them security, and consequently that the farms owned by the kinsmen of Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, can be trampled upon and destroyed by the herders without consequences.

In an address in Abuja, last week, Bala denigrated the constitution he swore to uphold with his barefaced lies, even as some persons clapped for him. Of course, there are many misguided public officials all over the place, who will neither study the laws of the country nor consult those who have studied it, even when they answer lawmakers.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, Osun Central, displayed such ignorance when he said: “If a law was made as proposed by the governor (of Kano), it would not only be unconstitutional, but also go contrary to the part of the constitution which stipulates that Nigerians, irrespective of state of birth or nativity, had right to freedom of movement.”

They pretend they are not aware that there are legitimate laws and regulations undergirding the practice of trade and business, in every part of the country. Because they are desperate to please the powers-that-be, they pretend that the rearing of cattle cannot be regulated, just like every other private business, even when that trade is being practised in a manner constituting danger to public health.

Such a mind-set as displayed by Ajibola is what is plaguing the officialdom in Nigeria at the highest level. It is the reason the presidency are quiet when a governor lies on a national television that citizens whose business interest are endangered are entitled to carry guns, but it will be unlawful for a state to arm its security men to protect the citizens of the state.

For the purpose of emphasis, the freedom of movement does not include the right to defiantly walk across a private lawns, talk less of eating the grasses on the lawn. Last week, the private residence of revered Noble Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, was trespassed upon by headless herdsmen. To show that the herdsmen even know that their right of movement does not include a right to trespass, they ran away when they were confronted for their unlawful conduct.

The 1999 constitution (as amended) in the much misinterpreted section 41(1) provides: “Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry hereof or exit there from.”

There is clearly nothing in the above provision that arrogates the right to turn such movement into a tumultuous hurricane leaving in its wake destruction of other people’s property. If the constitutional guarantee of freedom of movement extends to the right to traverse private properties and to conduct business in any place, then a Church organisation can go into the compound owned by a Muslim society and set up a church, or vice versa.

The same constitution in section 43 provides that: “Subject to the provision of this constitution, every citizen of Nigeria shall have the right to acquire and own immovable property.” It provides further down in section 44(1) “No moveable property or any interest in an immovable property shall be taken possession of compulsorily and no right over or interest in any such property shall be acquired compulsorily in any part of Nigeria except in the manner and for the purpose prescribed by a law”.

All the listed derogations in sub-sections (a) to (m) of section 44 do not include a forceful acquisition of such immovable property by private citizens for the purpose of fostering private business of feeding cows or through the exaction of armed banditry with AK 47 rifles. Yet, Governor Bala and his ilk, who probably own those destructive cows, and prefer the archaic culture which foster their hegemony over their less fortunate kinsmen, would push such lies in the name of Fulani interest.

But they forget that if the right to traverse the country with cattle and guns are constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, then there would be no need for rights to private properties, state and national boundary. Indeed, if Governor Bala is sincere, then that large expanse of land he acquired in Abuja, while he was minister of federal capital should be forfeited to herdsmen.

I am sure that if someone should set up a car wash in any part of that land which he acquired for himself and his erstwhile principal President Goodluck Jonathan, he would readily sue for trespass, yet he argues herdsmen to enter into other people’s family compound, farms and forest reserves recklessly, and have their cattle feast on crops and grasses as it suits them.

Of note, trespass was defined in the English case of Entick v Carrington (1765) 95 ER 807 at 817 as “every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute is a trespass though there be no damage.” If not that our country is degenerating to swaths of lawless fiefdom; and if the judicial system is up and active, successful actions in trespass, with award of humongous exemplary damages, would have curtailed the madness promoted by the likes of Governor Bala Mohammed.

By Gabriel Amalu

The Buhari presidency may not receive the accolades it deserves for its performances in infrastructure development, because of the faulty passes, which casts his team in negative light. For reasons, which historians may eventually unravel, his presidency sometimes behaves as if it doesn’t give a hoot about its place in history. The latest of such own goal, is the retention of a statutorily retired police officer as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), when he has no need to disobey the law.

Of course, some of his predecessors behaved dictatorially, but at least the reasons for their actions can be dressed in expediency. Take the gale of unlawful impeachments under President Olusegun Obasanjo. In trying to unravel Obasanjo’s motive, there are many who will argue that he was fighting corruption, even when the impeachment could be a weapon to fight political battles. The same split decision may apply to Obasanjo’s military invasion of Odi, after some security men were allegedly killed.

In the matter of extorting corporate Nigeria to build his presidential library, his supporters would defend his action, for the uniqueness and worthiness of the project. During the Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency, he did not engage in much braggadocio, as the president was hobbled by ailment. President Jonathan who took over from him was calmer, except when he bullied Governor Murtala Nyako for calling out his failure in the war against Boko Haram. Also, when he ambushed the former Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi following his false accusation in that particular instance about some debilitating corrupt practices.

But the significant thing about the examples of constitutional infractions by the predecessors of President Buhari is that the consequences of their action are somewhat localised and not far reaching. So while their actions are condemnable, the consequences are limited. But under Buhari’s presidency which has carried out some far reaching infrastructure development, for which it ought to be celebrated, some of his actions have significantly alienated many citizens of the country.

Take the decision to retain the service chiefs well past their usefulness. While by convention and tradition, military postings to the theatre of war do not last for more than two years to eschew fatigue and loss of concentration, yet for no just cause, indeed regardless of glaring diminishing performance, the Buhari presidency stubbornly kept the service chiefs well beyond their prime. Even when the people of the northeast who bear the brunt of the war and are his ardent supporters asked for change, the president ignored them.

So, when the history of the war is written, historians may ignore his achievements in the war front, and focus on his poor decision to retain the service chiefs as the reason for the failures of his effort. Yet, perhaps a fairer analysis may show that the war efforts of his regime is not as useless as many now believe, principally because of his stubborn refusal to change the service chiefs. No doubt, that avoidable debacle over the service chiefs did a lot of damage to the integrity of the war effort.

But the most far reaching act that has marred the reputation of his regime is the seeming condoning of the criminal activities of the armed herdsmen. It is difficult to understand the perverse indifference of the Buhari’s presidency to the cries of nearly all parts of Nigeria, over the atrocities being perpetrated by the armed Fulani herdsmen. From the north-west to the north-central to the southeast to the south-south and the southwest, the nation has been tottering on the edge of civil disobedience because of the criminal activities of the armed herdsmen.

Yet in the face of these grave attacks on the security and welfare of the citizens the president swore to protect, the impression created is that because President Buhari is of the Fulani stock, his body language depicts an ‘I don’t care attitude’. Well, while clearly the president feels more comfortable having those who speak the same language with him and who practice the same religion with him as the members of the inner circle of his government, I do not believe that he doesn’t care, when people are killed by herdsmen.

What is strange is why he has failed to publicly and stringently condemn the atrocious activities of these criminals who masquerade as herdsmen, and give the Fulani a bad name. Because of his so called body language, the security agencies treat the criminals as untouchables. Recently, it was reported that those who chased the herdsmen away from their community in Ogun State were flogged by the army, perhaps to please the body language of the president.

The tragedy is that while this lethargy festers, the fabrics that hold our nation together is turning to tatters. Indeed, many Nigerians who started off as die-hard supporters of the president have now openly accused him of being a sectional leader. Some have even gone ahead to rue their initial support, as if the entire presidency has not brought any value to the country. Yet as some have correctly argued, it is not only Fulani herdsmen that are engaged in kidnapping for ransom.

But the problem is that unlike how other groups troubling the peace of the nation are treated, the long arm of the law have treated the armed Fulani herdsmen with kid gloves. Even when the president has confirmed that armed criminal marauders from the Maghreb area are troubling our country, he is hesitant to declare itinerant foreign Fulani herdsmen, enemy of our country. A pragmatic president would have declared their specie a terrorist organisation, and banned them from crisscrossing our nation and causing harm and destruction on their trail.

So when in the face of these faulty passes, the president against the express provision of a law he signed into existence, chooses to once more act in flagrant disobedience of the constitution, one wonders his motive.  The Nigerian Police Act 2020 unequivocally and mandatorily states in section 18(8) that a policeman shall retire after 35 years in service or on the attainment of 65 years. Since IGP Mohammed Adamu has served for 35 years, it is preposterous for the president to be asking for three months to organise a handover.

If truly the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammadu Dingayi, stood idly by, while the tenure of the IGP expired without alerting the president and helping him to plan a handover, it is enough reason to sack him. After all, he is supposed to be the eye and ear of the president in that department. Again, if the president is not his own problem, he must begin to hold his appointees who cause him the numerous embarrassments befuddling his presidency accountable.

By Gabriel Amalu

When the Nigerian military failed abysmally to protect the people of the northeast from the rampaging Boko Haram murderers, there arose an aberration called the Civilian JTF. By that adulteration of the military JTF, civilians untrained in weaponry acquired arms to defend themselves. Soon enough, the bumbling military accommodated it and the federal government acquiesced. Many have gone ahead to call for their integration into the national army.

So, while in the beginning, the Civilian JTF was a rebellion by the people and their state government over the failure of the federal government and its military to protect them, it has morphed into a recognised arm of the national security architecture against the insurgents. I guess it was a classical instance of a fait accompli.  A government which has failed in its primary duty to protect lives and property will be talking balderdash, if it engages in the polemics of the legality of civilians bearing arms.

A people left at the mercy of marauders, who have shown themselves superior to the national security agencies, cannot be expected to fold their arms and be slaughtered like chicken for a bohemian festival. A similar scenario as in the northeast with regards to the emergence of the Civilian JTF is unfolding in the southwest and eventually will spread to other parts of the country unless the federal government rises up to its primary responsibility of protecting lives and property.

To avoid that, the federal and state governments must wake up to the clarion call of section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution (as amended), which provides: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Where and when the government fails in that primary assignment, it is an invitation to the people to take up the cause of protecting themselves and their property. For reasons not far-fetched, the federal government has treated the scourge of armed herdsmen with levity, and predictably the crisis is coming to a head.

In Ondo State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, who may be considered as sympathetic to President Muhammadu Buhari’s faction of the APC, had no alternative than to seek alternative police in the face of the failure of the Nigerian Police and allied security agencies to protect the people of the state. Of course, he saw that if he continues to wring his hands in frustration and explain away the murderous acts of the armed herdsmen, the people by themselves will raise their own police.

To the consternation of the presidency, Akeredolu started his intransigence over the failure of the Nigeria Police with championing the establishment of Western Nigeria Security Network, otherwise called Amotekun. He has raised the ante by outlawing herding in the reserved forests of the state and asking herders to register with the state among other measures. How far these measures can go to ensure the security of lives and property in the state remains to be seen; but at least his people will not accuse him of doing nothing in the face of the kidnappings and killings.

A similar void in effective policing in Oyo State has resulted in the emergence of one Sunday        Igboho, as a hero of the Ibarapa people of the state. While many have painted Igboho’s past in sundry infamy, he has risen to fill the gap, as the state authorities are bumbling in the face grave insecurity. An order by the Inspector General of Police to arrest the people’s hero has been treated with scorn by the people. The police on their part are afraid of further raising the tension by arresting Igboho.

The Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, who has been talking tough over the activities of the killer herdsmen in his state, has mellowed down, and is doing everything possible to distance himself from the activities of Igboho. Perhaps because he belongs to a minority party (PDP) in the region, and an opposition party at the centre, he is afraid that he could become a victim of politics, if Sunday Igboho is cast in the shadow of his apparel.

So, Governor Makinde who was a strong champion of Amotekun is playing soft, when the main reason for the outfit knocks on the door. But while Governor Makinde can save his political skin by playing coy with the clamour by the people for an alternative to the bumbling Nigeria Police, he should realise that if the authorities fail, the people will create an alternative for themselves. Those who think that there will be peace if they take out Sunday Igboho, may find many more discontented persons ready to dare a moving train, regardless of the ominous consequences.

With the Ondo forest becoming too hot for the herdsmen, it was reported that they are massively moving into the Ogun State forest. While the state government is denying the development and the police authorities in the state are down playing the import of such migration, the Ogun State House of Assembly wants a speedy passage of the state law banning open grazing. Of course, the thousands of herdsmen in Ondo, as confirmed by the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, would not just disappear.

If the southwest forests become unbearable for the practice of their trade, the herdsmen would migrate towards the south-south and southeast, as long as the archaic practice of open grazing is allowed to fester in our country. Those who hold the view that the Fulani has an agenda to create new fiefdoms across the country, would continue to propound that theory as long as the federal government allows the abuse of animals and Fulani herders by their wealthy compatriots and their associates.

Of course, the argument against open grazing will never cut ice with the real owners of the herds, most of whom are the movers and shakers of the society and government, because it is very economical to rear animals with free pasture and cheap labour. Imagine the gains accruable, where the owner of 100 herds gives even as much as 10% of the cows to herdsmen, to take care of them until there are sold. By that arrangement, the cost of feeding, caring, transporting and marketing are all absorbed by the herders, who bears the inevitable losses associated with that dangerous practice.

Compare that obnoxious business practice, with the apprenticeship model of the Igbos, where the trainee after a number of years, is given the seed money and helped to become a trainer. Those in government who are Fulani should stop telling lies that the Bororo Fulani prefers to live in the bush, and cannot be transformed. The truth is that they use them as cheap labour to fester their economic interest.

Gabriel  Amalu

The Christmas break usually offer this writer opportunity to feel the heartbeat of the Coal City. Considering the primary interest of the column – law and public power, I use it to gauge the exercise of public power in the state. Informally, I listen to complaints and praises and assess whether the custodians of public power are exercising same in tandem with the laws of the land or abusing it for personal aggrandizement.

As we have seen in faraway United States of America, under President Donald Trump, public power can easily be abused, and yet passed off as public good, by a demagogue in office. Because of the kind of president Donald Trump is, the world is apprehensive of the transfer of power to the elected President Joe Biden tomorrow. What has been observed with pomp and pageantry within our living memory, has become a fearful ceremony because we have a demagogue in power.

Many of the converts to Trump’s demagoguery are still hoping that by some strange means, Trump would still remain president, after he was defeated at the polls and the Electoral College. Many educated Nigerians in this league, have no respect for the sanctity of the electoral process. In their world of make-belief, where Trump is king, facts are ephemeral. In that world, you are free to choose what to belief, and you are entitled to vigorously defend it, facts be dammed.

Those who said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutes are right, and it might as well be punned that power intoxicates and absolute power intoxicates absolutely. I have no doubt that in years to come, the word ‘Trump’ will come to designate promoting falsehood as truth or passing off lies as truth or something akin to that. With demagoguery not achieving the desired purpose, Trump’s supporters have since resorted to armed insurrection, in their misguided effort to retain power at all cost.

As I write this piece, over 20,000 national security guards and affiliate security agencies have massed in Washington DC to forestall a repeat of the December 6, attack on the Capitol Hill. That day will go down in history as the day homemade thugs tried to torpedo American democracy. For his ignominious role as the chief promoter of the insurrection, President Trump has made history, as the first president to be impeached twice, while in office.

It is projected that he will undergo trial when the Senate resumes under President Joe Biden. The speaker of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi who was a target of the insurrectionists delivered on her promise to work for the impeachment of Trump despite the fear-mongering by Trump’s supporters. After the expiration of his tenure tomorrow, Trump will appreciate what it means to be down and out. Instead of being treated with respect for the office he held, he will be harangued and abused for a long time to come.

Such is the disgrace that Trump’s presidency has brought on the most developed democracy in the world. Those who fool themselves that they have turned tin gods because of the position they occupy fail to heed the wise counsel that power is transient. If Trump is convicted and bared from ever holding federal public office, he will lose all the privileges of a former president, and as his arch rivals wish, he may end up in jail for his abuse of power.

In our country, many public officials abuse their powers and privileges. The commonest of such abuses range in doing whatever they can to make life difficult for members of the opposition party. In many states, governors take pride in destroying the properties of their political opponents under the guise of maintaining physical planning. Behaving as if they will be in that privileged position for eternity, such governors delight in throwing their weight around.

Some visit their opponents with physical violence using their minnows. In extreme cases, those who hold divergent political opinion are murdered, all in pursuit of transient power. In some states, prominent opposition members are afraid to visit their home states, and when they wish to do so, it is like going to the lion’s den. Of course, when the chief security officer of a state becomes the chief promoter of political violence, such state remain perpetually on edge.

Interestingly, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, popularly known as Gburugburu, has towed a peaceful trajectory, in the Coal City, and I commend him for that. How he has been able to maintain peace across political divides in the state deserve a closer study. Of note, well regarded All Progressive Congress (APC) leaders in the state, like former senate president, Ken Nnamani, and a host of others, publicly acknowledge this record of peaceful disposition of Ugwuanyi.

Of course, within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there are political disagreements, especially engineered by those planning to take over the state in the 2023 general elections. While political ambitions are legitimate, the governor has ensured that politics is not allowed to overshadow governance. It is encouraging that while the foot soldiers of the major gladiators are freely working for their masters, the political differences have not manifested in violence or palpable tension, and the governor deserves credit for that.

Again, there are those who complain about land use in the state and many have approached this writer with complaints about it. Of particular interest was the land acquired for the Akanu Ibiam International Airport’s expanded runaway, with complaints that the land acquired was far bigger than what is needed. This column had encouraged the federal and state governments to collaborate to see the project through, so I had to take a trip to Emene to see for myself, and clearly the land acquired barely contained the runway.

No doubt, that international airport is a legacy for President Buhari and Governor Ugwuanyi’s regimes, and a boost to the economy of the state. Enquiries also showed that many local and foreign investors now invest in the state, and the cost of virgin lands in the state has skyrocketed. So, in fairness to the state minders, the state is attracting foreign investments, as even part of my village’s farmland has transmogrified to concrete walls for a Free Trade Zone. Of course, for sustainable development, the state authority should ensure that the original owners of the land, get a piece of the cake.

The other issue brought to the attention of this writer is the outstanding pension, particularly for members of the state library board. Agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic has rendered the national economy and by extension state governments’ coffers weak, this writer appeals for compassion. As we match into 2021, disagreements in Enugu State has not boiled over.

Gabriel Amalu

With the 2020 Christmas a few days away, Nigerians while putting money away for celebration, may consider saving for the kidnapper. Those who have benefited from the laudable federal Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), whether through trader moni, farmer moni or market moni, would remain apprehensive, whether they will be forced sooner or later, to part with ransom moni or protection moni, in other to see the New Year.

This new challenge is particularly more evident in the rural areas and the highways, where armed bandits freely roam the country side, and maliciously turn humans to merchandise. The recently released over 300 Kankara boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kastina state, bears testimony that a new business may have birthed particularly in the rural northern region. Unfortunate travellers on the highways, even in the southern part of the country bear testimony to this new malaise.

So while thanking God for the lives of the Kankara boys, who have been released from captivity, the federal and state governments must seriously worry at the possibility that Boko Haram now operate in the north-west as they do in the north-east. People living in that region must be praying that the video released by Shekerau claiming responsibility for the Kankara boys kidnap and showing boys who claimed to be the kidnapped, remain a hoax.

Of course, other parts of our beleaguered country is not safe from the spate of kidnapping. So, every Nigerian, moving from one state to another, must worry at the potential of paying ransom moni. No doubt, many of those who benefited from the farmer moni, trader moni and market moni, may be worse than they were before the federal government largess came their way in 2019. Most of them will not be in a position to repay the loans, as their investments have been swept away by all manner of vicissitudes.

Even those who benefited from the Central Bank of Nigeria supported agricultural programmes of the federal government, may not feel safe to near their farm lands, for fear of kidnappers. Part of the alleged sin of the victims of the recent Zabamari massacre, was that they decided to confront, instead of cuddling the Boko Haram bandits with their protection moni. So it is either you pay to be allowed to roam your farm or you pay to regain your right of movement when docked.

As President Buhari was celebrating the release of the kankara boys, a top Emir was attacked, even as more kidnappings were taking place in Kaduna and other parts of the north. Those who called the Kankara kidnap a slap on the face of the president, considering that it happened just as he landed in his home state for a week long rest, must worry that the entire country is now at the mercy of armed bandits. The situation is not one of do-nothing, as has been the situation in recent times.

The President needs the help of security experts to design measures to contain the insurgency. Otherwise the gains of his presidency will be washed away. The fact that we are celebrating the release of the boys, and not the apprehension of the bandits who carried out the dastardly act, shows that the danger is still out there. For the army to deserve the plaudits showered on them by the president, they have to apprehend the bandits otherwise many would believe it was ransom moni that did the magic.

And the security challenge is spicing the economic challenges facing citizens. While many other countries are in recession, ours is made worse by the underlining security malaise. With the second wave of the pandemic birthing, the economic recession may be prolonged, and that will further aggravate a situation that is already very dicey. There are already fears of another national shut-down, for an economy that is suffering the double whammy of insecurity and recession.

This column recalls that last year, the trader moni, was a source of hope for many Nigerians, even with the controversy over whether it was politically motivated. In an interview the chief operating officer of GEEP, Uzoma Nwagba had said: “GEEP is a microcredit programme that provides much-needed capital to traders, artisans, farmers, petty traders.” He went on: “it is one of the social intervention programmes of the federal government, and comprises of three products: market moni, farmer moni and trader moni.”

Nwagba said it was initiated to capture over 30 million Nigerians who operate at the base of the financial pyramid, and had no access to finance. Laudably, the programme was geared to give this huge number access to capital. One wonders whether that number has not doubled with the sacking of many business by the twin bazookas of insecurity and recession. The Buhari presidency must figure out a way to starve these two monsters, if our country is not to go under.

So this Christmas for the majority of Nigerians is a bleak one and the fear of the challenges of the New Year is the beginning of wisdom. With the recession eating deeply into family economies, how on earth will parents face year 2021, with the economic meltdown of 2020? Where will the resources come from to pay school fees, house rents and feeding money? Of course, many have since abandoned the regular hospitals since their costs have gone beyond their reach.

Of course, those holding high public offices may not be able to relate to the above challenges, considering the quantum of the resources they have cornered for themselves and their cronies. Just as they cannot relate to the challenges of keeping undergraduates at home, because their children are studying abroad and in private universities, they cannot relate to the economic quagmire of the greater number of Nigerians. Unfortunately, President Buhari who was promoted as a friend of the poor seems to have been transformed by the ambience of Aso Rock.

Clearly overwhelmed by the challenges of statecraft, and forces beyond his control, like COVID19, the Buhari era may go down in history as one of the most excruciating period to live in Nigeria. Burgeoned by insecurity and economic recession, and abandoned by government, the poor in Nigeria are now on their own. Many of them who received the trader moni, may become finance sector pariahs, as they will be unable to repay the loan, in other to remain creditor worthy.

With the way things are, the trader moni they received may become an entrapment, instead of a lift to economic prosperity. One day, government may wake up to demand the repayment of the trader moni, and their recovery agents would pretend that the reigning economic recession and insecurity never happened.

By Gabriel Amalu

Governor Babagana Zulum, of Borno State, surely has this column’s sympathy over the heightened insecurity in the state he is ignominiously referred to, as the chief security officer. Brave and daring, Zulum has been a zealot in the war against the Boko Haram insurgents. On many occasions, he has put his life forward for martyrdom, visiting very dangerous parts of the state, to identify with the pains of his people.

He has boldly confronted the military on some occasions, accusing them of complicity, or incompetence, in the war against terror. At some other times, he has praised the military for their gallantry, wooing them to get even more lethal in dealing with the bandits.  He has also mobilized his citizens, to rise against the evil that has befallen them. Indeed, the so-called civilian JTF, has on a few occasions appeared more daring than the military, because of the encouragement of the governor, who is their own commander-in-chief.

Clearly, if Governor Zulum should enter into a contest on effectiveness in the war against Boko Haram, with the commander-in-chief of the military JTF, there is the possibility that he could win a landslide. Perhaps, but for the fact that the two commander-in-chiefs are in the same political party, the governor would have been railing against the other commander-in-chief for incompetence, just like his predecessor, Kashim Shettima, denounced former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Amongst other suggestions, Governor Zulum has called for the use of mercenaries to tackle the Boko Haram. Perhaps that is Zulum’s diplomatic way of saying that the Nigerian Army is incapable of defeating the insurgents or a nice way of saying the military’s commander-in-chief and his field commanders have failed in their commanding duty, in the war front. The visibly frustrated governor also suggested the engagement of the army of neighbouring countries, to rout the insurgents. Interestingly, his fellow frustrated brother governors have agreed to the proposals.

With the recent senseless slaying of 67 rice farmers by the insurgents, in Zabarmari community of Jere local government area of Borno State, Zulum, is frustratingly flabbergasted. But Zulum, clearly, a proud warrior of the ancient Borno Empire, is more frustrated the law restricts what he can do to help his people confront the bandits. Beyond aggressively expressing his frustration and combatively dealing with the development challenges of his beleaguered state, within limited resources, he is helpless as the state chief security officer.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, captured the helplessness of the so-called chief security officers of the states, succinctly, in a recent Channels Television programme. In El-Rufai’s words: “we are all frustrated. We are almost helpless. The #EndSARS protests clearly showed the limits to the control of governors over the police and the army.” I guess what shows more the helplessness of the governors for Governor Zulum, is the insurgency in the north-east, particularly in his beloved Borno State.

To make matters worse, while Governor Zulum, may have ideas as to what he can do to tame the savagery of Boko Haram in Borno State, he is incapacitated by law, to do any meaningful thing. He cannot even raise a police to maintain law and order in the civilian environment, so that the army can concentrate on the war front. His, is like the true life story of one Idris Valentine, a condemned prisoner, who titled his new book: Gifted but Caged.

Unfortunately, the entire country has become a killing field. While Boko Haram is killing in the north-east, armed bandits and cattle rustlers are having a field day in the north-west. Down the north-central, it is a dangerous brand of herdsmen that have the licence to kill. Until the #EndSARS protest exposed a perfidious brand of SARS, in the southern part, it was some SARS officials that were competing with herders and kidnappers to decapitate fellow Nigerians.

Regrettably, after the din over this latest killing, which some sources put at more than 80 persons, government officials will recline to their languid state of stupor. As is their style, even the senate which wields enormous constitutional power to affect a change, are acting timid, as if they can only wring their hands in frustration. Like children, the best they have offered as our country gradually collapses into anarchy, from ravaging insecurity, is to repeat their mantra that service chiefs be sacked.

While answering distinguished, they have not distinguished themselves by ensuring the executive act diligently over this tragedy. Either they are playing dumb, or they are pretending not to realise our country could collapse, if no fundamental changes are made to the nation’s security architecture. They pretend that it is sustainable to keep borrowing money, to fight a war that has become a corruption ensemble for the prosecutors. They pretend that the strange security arrangement where a governor cannot muster a police unit, to ensure internal security of the state, even though he answers the chief security officer, is normal.

The senate and their brothers in the House of Representatives pretend that they can annually take a large chunk of the national resources, while the university students are languishing at home, because the federal government refused to pay the comparative pittance demanded by university teachers, over the years. In their dumb comfort, the National Assembly believe that if the three arms zone is safe, then the rest of the country does not matter.

To add salt to Zulum’s gangrene, Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesman succinctly told the governor and his people that they cannot earn a living, without a farming licence, from the national army. Perhaps out of exhaustion, Garba let out the real feeling of the high command, instead of the platitudes that usually follow the mindless killing of hapless citizens of our country. While agreeably Garba may not wish the farmers death in the hands of Boko Haram, as insinuated, what he offered may still result in death from starvation, should farmers stay at home.

With a frustrated Governor Zulum, asking the lethargic federal government to recruit mercenaries to fight the insurgents, perhaps, Nigeria may also consider employing mercenaries to guard farmers, and escort them to the market. Speaking of safety, in the markets, the Sultan of Sokoto recently cried out that armed bandits freely roam the cities of northern Nigeria, demanding fees without any challenge. On his part, the Emir of Kastina, following another round of killings in his domain, where the military’s commander-in-chief hails from, wailed that life in his domain has become short and brutish.

What baffles this column, is why the northern political elite, reputed to be more politically savvy than their southern counterpart, would watch idly by, as insecurity is torpedoing the ‘one Nigeria’, they desperately desire.