Dear President Buhari, in the light of the on-going Fulani herdsmen’s killings and destructio ince its inception last year June, Osun State House of Assembly has not only made itself a credible legislative arm of government, but has indeed blazed the trail in the area of passage of quality bills in line with its pledge to make life better for the teeming populace of the state. Last year, it passed six bills.
Upon its inauguration on the June 2, 2015, the lawmakers in consonance with its leadership, hit the ground running in the business of lawmaking. This is despite the numerous challenges facing the state, particularly cash crunch. Setting aside personal comfort, the members adopted the vow of personal sacrifice as they commenced sitting without the necessary entitlements attached to their offices.
Some of the bills passed include; Osun Public Procurement Agency Bill; Osun Land Use Charge Bill, Osun Primary Healthcare Development Board (Establishment) Bill, Osun Street Trading and Illegal Market (Prohibition) Bill, Omoluabi Conservation Fund (repeal) Bill,Osun Micro-credit Agency (Establishment) Bill and Osun 2016 Appropriation Bill.
The Osun Public Procurement Agency Bill passed on Monday, October 19, 2015, was targeted at enhancing due process in the bidding and public procurement. The law seeks to check undue influence and interference in the procurement process; and to adequately involve the public in the procurement process. Also, it was aimed at attracting intervention and assistance of development partners and foreign investors. In short, the law seeks to enhance public confidence and trust in government and help to regulate, guide and protect the interest of the masses.
Similarly, Osun Land Use Charge Bill, passed into law on Monday, February 8, is aimed at ensuring the consolidation of all property land based rates law, the neighborhood improvement charge law and tenement rate law into one, called Land Use Charge Law. The law, among other things, seeks to improve the Internally Generated Revenue of the state through enhanced payment of rate and levies on property to the coffers of the government. In considering this bill, the assembly involved experts to ensure that it arrived at a reasonable rate for payment in line with their suggestions to ensure that unnecessary burdens are not placed on them.
An executive bill passed into law is the Osun Primary Healthcare Development Board (Establishment) Bill, passed on Tuesday, February 16. The law which was one of the six integral action plan of the state government seeks restoration of healthy living, hence, the law will help in taking care of the health needs of the less-privileged. It seeks to enhance efficient monitoring of healthcare system at the state and local government levels as well as, make assistance of international donors on healthcare delivery accessible to the government.
Next is the Osun Street Trading and Illegal Market (Prohibition) Bill, passed on Tuesday, April 5 currently awaiting the governor’s assent. When assented to, the law seeks to enhance free-flow of traffic and pedestrians; ensure clean and tidy environment; and prohibit unauthorised pasting of banners and erection of containers.
Meanwhile, the House of Assembly also passed the Omoluabi Conservation Fund (repeal) bill, on Monday, April 11, aimed at allowing the government have access to the fund to carry out infrastructural development. Presently, part of the fund is being used to construct the Odi-Olowo-Isale-Osun/Ita-Olokan road newly named Workers’ Drive by the state government.
In line with state administration’s quest to reduce poverty among the population, the lawmakers passed the Osun Micro-credit Agency (Establishment) bill on April 26. The bill when eventually signed into law would serve as effective tool to liberate people from the bondage of poverty; help people to become self-employed.
Osun 2016 Appropriation Bill, passed on Wednesday , May 11, focuses on the completion of on-going projects across the state and will be revenue-driven in the sense that the largest percentage of it will be financed by IGR, hence, there would not be heavy reliance on the federal allocations, which is dwindling by the day.
The assembly also has been serving as a stabilizing factor in the state polity, intervening in issues that would have raised tension on many occasions such as the case of sacking of workers of the state-owned higher institutions by their governing boards.
In the area of oversight functions, the sixth assembly has strengthened its machinery to ensure the blockage of loopholes in the revenue of the state and increase its Internally Generated Revenue without putting unnecessary burden on the people. It is also on course to ensuring that the ongoing projects across the state are completed and complies with contractual agreement.
Among such oversight functions were the audit carried out on the management of IGR by the state-owned tertiary institution, OSPOLY Iree; OSCOTECH Esa-Oke; the colleges of education in Ila-Orangun and Ilesa. Investigation into the matter revealed that after all the expenditure of the institutions might have been removed from their total revenue, there were surplus running into billions of naira which were not accounted for since 2011.
Consequently, the assembly passed a resolution, compelling the institutions to automate the payment of its fees to block leakages and make the institution self-dependent.
Also, the assembly addressed cases of tax defaulters by some mobile network providers. They were summoned, drastic decisions were taken on them, including order to seal off the offices of some of them. The measure changed the trend and the state is now getting improved revenue from the sector.
The assembly has also taken steps on the indiscriminate siting of filling stations across the state by summoning all the agencies and officials whose jobs are related to siting of filling stations and such other structures. The house took a drastic step by ordering the stoppage of work on all on-going construction of filling stations that have not complied with the law guiding such construction.
In all of its deliberations, the assembly was guided by the need to be thorough and painstaking drawing upon the professional backgrounds and experiences of members. All of these feats made possible by the maturity of members and the impressive leadership style of the speaker, Rt. Hon. Najeem Salaam.
- Hon. Oyintiloye is Chairman House Committee on information and Strategy, Osun State House Assembly, Abeere, Osogbo.ns in many places in our country, many of us Nigerians are living in fear. In most of our rural countryside, our farmers and their families are afraid to do their accustomed work on the farms. Across our country, farms, the handwork and means of livelihood of our farmers and their families, are being destroyed by roving cattle. When farmers’ families go to sleep in the night these days, they are no longer sure whether their farms will be there in the morning, or whether the cattle herds would have wiped out everything during the night. They are no longer sure whether their villages will be allowed to sleep peacefully through the night, or whether the killer herdsmen will come in the dark, kill villagers, destroy and burn the houses, and rape the women and girls. Nobody is sure where and when the sudden attacks will come, or what the magnitude of the killings and devastations will be. State governments, local governments, and traditional rulers, all are unsure what to do to protect their people. One governor burst into tears when he saw the scene of rampage in a village in his state.
The situation is desperate, Mr. President. As you very well know, we seriously need to improve agricultural productivity in this country. To that end, most authorities and leaders of our country have been trying to encourage our people to return to the land. Since you became president, you have repeatedly contributed your very influential voice to the call for agricultural growth. And you have made it a priority in your policies, plans and programmes. In many parts of our country, especially in most of our southern states, the return to farming is still very slow and very hesitant. But now, the Fulani herdsmen are scaring farmers away from the farms. A very major disaster is being enacted.
In response to the disaster, a whirlwind of agitated comments and cries is sweeping through most of our country. To allow these fears and this whirlwind to continue is inimical to the well-being of this country. It could even wreck this country – and lead to its collapse. Mr. President, you must take steps without delay to bring this dangerous situation to a satisfactory end. We need to have a definitive and lasting solution. Merely ordering the Nigerian military and police to stop these herdsmen from attacking farmers and villagers, as you have done, is not enough. As long as these killer herdsmen remain, and as long as important questions about them remain unexplained, the wild and inflammatory speculations will continue to shake Nigeria.
We Nigerians need, want, and demand, to have answers to many questions concerning this situation. Who really are these so-called Fulani herdsmen? From official and non-official sources, we are getting loads of information about their identity, about why they are behaving as they are now behaving, and about the sources of their strength.
We are told that these people are ordinary nomadic cattle herdsmen. We are also told that the recent civil commotions in the Maghreb (especially in Libya) makes it easy to get sophisticated weapons in the Sahel parts of West Africa, as a result of which these herdsmen have been able to acquire even such highly sophisticated guns as AK47. But, how do ordinary nomadic herdsmen afford to buy expensive things like AK47 rifles? How are they able to train to use such sophisticated weapons?
The suspicion is being voiced in the media that some rich and influential Nigerian citizens have been supplying the herdsmen with these weapons, and training the herdsmen to use them. If yes, who are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens? What are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens trying to achieve?
You, Mr. President, were recently reported to have revealed in an interview with CNN in London that some of these herdsmen are really Libyan militiamen, trained under Ghadafi, well-armed and well-trained fighters who fled southwards to West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. If so, how did these militiamen become cattle herdsmen in Nigeria? Who gave them thousands of cattle to herd?
You said in the interview, Sir, that these militiamen have become an Africa-wide problem. Why has the government of Nigeria never informed Nigeria about this problem? What steps has the Nigerian government taken to prevent the problem from coming into Nigeria or to expel it from Nigeria? If no step, why?
Why have some prominent Fulani leaders been representing these militiamen to us as merely Fulani herdsmen and claiming Nigerian citizens’ rights for them – even though they must know that they are, in fact, extremely dangerous Libyan killers? Why have some Fulani spokesmen been threatening that they would break up Nigeria if these Libyan militiamen are thrown out of Nigeria?
Do we now have the president’s word that Nigeria is under invasion by Libyan militiamen? And, what does the Nigerian government intend to do about that?
A highly placed citizen from the Middle Belt, Governor Balarabe Musa, warned in 2014 that a new insurgency was in the offing – a new insurgency different from Boko Haram, better organized, better armed and much more dangerous than Boko Haram, and planned by some highly influential Nigerians for the purpose of achieving some major political objective in Nigeria. Are we now seeing part of that insurgency?
Some Arewa North citizens have threatened again and again in recent years that the North would go to war rather than accept certain kinds of change in Nigeria. And they have also repeatedly assured us that the North is more ready for war than the South. In the background of these threats, there have been repeated reports in the media since 2012 that large quantities of arms are being illegally imported into Nigeria.
Are today’s depredations by the Fulani herdsmen part of what these various members of the Northern elite have been threatening? Are the Libyan militiamen part of a mercenary army that some influential Nigerians have hired to wage war against some parts and peoples of Nigeria?
Some Northerners are frenetically demanding “grazing reserves” for the herdsmen. Some are threatening that we Southerners will find ourselves in greater danger if we refuse to grant land for such grazing reserves. Some say that they will break up Nigeria if the herdsmen are refused entry into Southern Nigeria. We Southerners suspect a hidden agenda for these grazing reserves. What are the true purposes of the grazing reserves? Are they designed by some people to house illegal armies of occupation in the states of the Middle Belt and the South, for the purpose of intimidating the peoples of those places? Are they meant to be jihadist instruments for forcible Islamization? Are they designed as weapons of one ethnic group’s conquest of Nigeria?
Mr. President, you owe Nigeria clear, truthful, and statesmanlike answers and explanations on this situation. More importantly, you owe Nigeria policies and actions that will remove this horrible threat from our country – in the interest of the peace and existence of our country. We Nigerians pledge our strongest support to such policies and actions when you design and implement them. But delay is dangerous.
