Last week Monday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, swore in 45 ministers, to constitute the Federal Executive Council, as required by the 1999 constitution (as amended). Nigerians anxiously look forward to the capacity of the Tinubu cabinet, made up of talented technocrats and politicians to unlock the economic potentials of a country in dire need of economic rejuvenation. Among the notable ministers, is the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who is the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
A man of theatre and accomplishment, Wike immediately sparked a row when he thundered that he would pull down illegal structures to restore the Abuja master plan, regardless of whose ox would be gored. He stirred the hornets’ nest of land speculators when he promised to revoke the land allocations of those who have failed to develop them as provided by law. He dared the itinerant cattle herders, who see the flowered and paved streets of Abuja as their customary estate. But some commentators are daring Wike to walk his talk, and face the consequences.
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A commentator said that once a new FCT minister boasts that his priority is to restore the Abuja master plan, he dismisses the person as unserious, because it is impossible to restore the master plan. He also claimed that it is anachronistic for someone to be boasting that he would restore a plan designed more than 40 years ago, instead of thinking how to review the archaic plan in the light of overriding developments.
For this column, one boast which will task Wike’s implementation stratagem is the eradication of open grazing in Abuja, considering the sense of entitlement of the practitioners of that manifestly unfair business practice. For those who have been deceived to believe that open grazing is an unchangeable cultural practice, which requires understanding from other non-practitioners, this column has severally argued otherwise, in the past. Clearly, open grazing is an economic practice which allows owners of cattle to enjoy economic benefit of rearing cows at minimal cost.
That culture endures because the owners of the cows are economic shylocks, who do not see the necessity of liberating their kit and kin. If the owners are fair minded, they would rather support any program that would liberate the herders from roaming the wild, and encourage them to live in communities where they could go to school and enjoy other socio-economic benefits of a modern life. There are also allegations that the herders are missionaries and agents of counter-civilization and conquest.
As a friend of former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, Wike should be privy to the problems that befell his friend, following the crisis of confidence between the governor and the federal government over the handling of the herders-farmers clashes in that state. On many occasions, Ortom openly accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime of engineering insecurity and mayhem in his state, for untoward expansionist agenda of the Fulani. At other times, Ortom claimed that the former president used the nation’s security agencies to provide covert support for that agenda.
Wike will recall that as a counter to the open grazing law passed by the Benue State House of Assembly, criminals alleged to be Fulani militia intermittently attacked communities in the state, killing hundreds, burning entire communities and engaging in genocidal acts, to foster open grazing. Some herders defied the state government and breached the open grazing law, daring the governor to do his worst. When the governor seemed defiant to the acrid warnings of the herders, he was attacked when he visited his farmland at the outskirts of the state capital, Makurdi.
Many other states came under siege over their efforts to enforce an end to open grazing. Some states were afraid to pass the law banning open grazing, because of the massive lobby by the Buhari government. Simon Lalong of Plateau State, now a minister, who resorted to political détente as a political strategy suffered severe political backlash at the 2023 polls. And tragically, his rapprochement could not save communities in his state from attacks, killings, and malicious destruction of property by the rampaging militia.
So, how will Wike end open grazing in Abuja, without backlash from the economic exploiters masquerading as cultural practitioners of a destabilizing economic activity? As he would soon realize, those who do not wish the nation’s capital the dignity of streets devoid of cow dungs and its putrid smell, would place obstacles on his partway to keeping Abuja clean. They would throw laws, politics, religion, and culture at him, to maintain the status quo. They may even resort to the rough tactics of destabilizing the federal capital as witnessed in many states.
This column hopes the federal executive and legislative councils would throw their weight behind the new minister to sanitize Abuja. It is a shame that the laudable efforts of Nasir El Rufai, while he was the minister of the federal capital territory under President Olusegun Obasanjo, incrementally degenerated, until the mess left behind by the immediate past minister, Mohammed Bello, under President Muhammadu Buhari. Obviously, for a minister to succeed, he must have the implicit thrust of his principal, the president.
The task ahead of Wike and his fellow ministers are enormous. As they ought to know, the biggest challenge facing them is the stabilization of the economy of the country. The nation’s currency has to be stabilized and inflation tamed. Again, what is paid to workers currently as the minimum wage is provocative and should be addressed as soon as practicable. The education sector, particularly tertiary education, with emphasis on university education, needs immediate attention. The federal and state government should quickly reach a sustainable compromise with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and that of Colleges of Education.
Insecurity across the country may have tinned down, but those in charge must realize that some of the causative factors of insecurity are seasonal. Even in rural settings, when the community are in their harvesting season, peace and tranquillity reigns, unlike during and after planting season when hunger reigns across the land. So, security agencies must plan precautionary measures to forestall the worsening of insecurity, as the high season of insecurity approaches.
Even the challenge of open grazing gets worse during the dry season, when the northern part of the country becomes unhospitable for the cattle herders, and they are forced by survival instincts to head south, which inevitably results in the clashes with farmers whose crops turn to food for cattle. So, the time to plan is now. Cows must not become a dictator in our lives. But how will Minister Wike manage those who will defy his plans? May be he will seek for laws to set up tribunals to try cows and their herders.
