The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ending

  • Ending ethno- religious crises 

    One of the greatest challenges facing the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is the ethnic, religious and other divisive crises in the country.

    The crises came to a head in recent times with the killings of innocent Nigerians under what was referred to as herdsmen/farmers clashes.

    Although it was claimed in some quarters that foreigners were camouflaging as herdsmen to kill the innocent Nigerians.

    Others have also linked it to underground plots to discredit the current administration ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    The aim, according to them, was to make the administration score low on one of the three major objectives of the administration, which is to secure the nation.

    While the government is said to have been taking steps to eliminate the herdsmen/farmers clashes, it has also taken several measures to ensure unity, peace and harmony among Nigerians.

    It has rolled out many jingles on radios, television stations and advertisements in the country promoting oneness and unity among Nigerians.

    But as much as it has been trying its best in that direction, it appeared as if not much success has been achieved.

    One major reason for this was that those bent on causing division and disunity among Nigerians, for political or other reasons, are increasing their paces and getting better with their games.

    So today, despite all the talk shops and jingles, the different cultures and religions in the country appeared to be dividing Nigerians more.

    Many Nigerians last week however welcomed another dimension to promoting unity among Nigerians.

    Rather than the past talk shops and jingles, the new initiatives, under the platform of ANISZA, plans to use pictures to promote Nigeria’s unity.

    The initiative started with unity photo exhibition in Abuja, which will then extend to the 36 states of the federation.

    The coordinator of the new initiative, who is also Personal Photographer to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Special Assistant to the President on Visual Communication, Novo Isioro, spoke on the project last Tuesday in Abuja.

    She said “These differences that we have should be celebrated and not become a problem. Why do I have to favour a Yoruba man over Igbo man?  Why do I have to favour Hausa man over Yoruba man? Because we have a country before independence when it didn’t matter where you come from.

    “Then, even a northerner can contest and win elections in the west without any bias. Then, we all saw ourselves as one Nigeria, where we came together to achieve more.

    “But nowadays, its so sad that when you want to rent just an apartment, the landlord will ask you if you are from Benue State or Kogi State or other parts of the country.

    “This is a personal experience and I have constantly been wondering why do I have to be from a particular region to get a house. It is that bad.

    “So, I just thought that this disunity has eaten us so deep and we should just do something about it. I personally thought that as a visual artist and photographer, I understand how image tells a lot more than just talking to a group of Nigerians.

    “So, I thought we should use pictures to tell the stories. I went into the archives before Nigeria’s independence.” she said

    She added “It is to show to Nigerians that there is really no difference among us, humans are humans, whether black or white or from the north, south, west or east.

    “So, we should stop the drama, the agitations and the hate speeches and let’s work together.

    “It is actually focused on young people because people of my generation, that is 40 years downward, do not really understand the depth of our history. History was taken away from our curriculum, I think it is now optional, in a nation where our youths know nothing about our heritage.

    “So, those were the things that were bothering me and we want to do something on, otherwise the young generation and the unborn ones will gradually come to a country where history is zero or dead.

    “It is a mobile gallery. The idea of unity exhibition has never been done in this country before. So the plan is to take the containerised structure to other states after FCT. We will focus on schools. We are inviting at least one secondary school from each state in Nigeria. We plan to host them for three days. The first day for exhibition, second day for workshop and third day a small excursion as they travel back to their states.

    “Then we will now take it to other states, where we will be in a state for up to one month because we want all the young persons in the state to partake in the event.

    “We are presently collaborating with the Ministry of Information,  Ministry of Youths and Sports, and we hope to collaborate with more ministries and state governments.

    “Apart from this project majorly focusing on teaching our youths about our fast lost history, in terms of peace and unity that we used to have in the country, it is also drawing attention to how we should handle our national archives and other related issues.

    “We are also drawing attention to the fact that just like English and Mathematics, we cannot take History subject away from our curriculum even up to tertiary institutions. This is the major reason why ANISZA came to life.” she said

    Supporting the project, a Museum and Heritage Consultant, Mayo Adediran said “There are so many similarities in our differences dating back culturally to the landmarks of Nigeria before 500 AD.

    “So where is that love of our first existence? We should begin to ask how do we get back there. We should trace our steps back to where we missed it.” he added

    Apart from other groups supporting the project, Daily Times of Nigeria is also partnering with it to supply the needed past records from its archives, which has existed in the past 92 years.

    It is hoped that this new initiative will go a long way to unite Nigerians.

    And also rekindle the lost love and end the killings and differences among Nigerians.

  • Ending the youth exodus

    In my estimation, out of every 10 young Nigerians, eight of them are thinking of how to exit the country. I don’t know if there is a record of the number of young people leaving the country on a daily basis. But the desperation is real. The desperation to “escape” to a land where they think their dreams will be fulfilled is what has emboldened many to embark on risky adventures. Not too long ago, the whole world was shocked at what was going on in Libya slave camps where young people were auctioned like commodities.

    It is perplexing that Africa, a continent with the world’s youngest population is not doing enough to harness its tremendous asset. Its brightest brains hardly find the atmosphere or the necessary support system to unleash their potential.

    Just recently, a friend of mine sent me a piece of news about a Nigerian doctor, Professor Olutoye Oluyinka, who along with his partner, successfully carried out an operation on a foetus – a feat that has been celebrated across local and international media.  As I savoured the piece with delight, a question crossed my mind. “If this man had stayed back in Nigeria after studying medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1988, would he have achieved this feat?” You know the answer based on the reality on ground. There are so many geniuses that never had the opportunity to travel out and expectedly have not been able to do anything spectacular. This is not just about Nigeria, but about Africa as a whole.

    As a youth enthusiast, I have interacted with so many young people and the feeling is almost mutual. They feel their potential cannot be maximized in Nigeria. This is almost the situation across Africa – young, talented people with stupendous potential striving to travel out of their countries. If this ugly situation persists, our future would be dry and bereft of innovators, talents and geniuses.  Now, the pertinent question: What fuels the exodus of youths?

    On reasons why young people desperately seek to leave their countries, a professor of New York University and expert in Latin American politics and culture, Alejandro Velasco gives some critical insights: “One of the major reasons is the lack of prospects and the lack of jobs and the lack of confidence that things are going to change; a lack of hope about the future domestically,”.

    For me, this captures the genesis behind this exodus.

    In the coming decades, the exodus of youths will explode if our leaders refuse to take concrete steps. The onus is on the government to give strong reasons to our youths to stay in the country and convince those who have prospered overseas to come back home to add value. How can we have our own people coming up with inventions, performing feats and touching lives positively in other countries while our own country is in dire need of their expertise?

    Bad governance is a reason why young people leave. Who does not want to live in a system that works effectively? Basic social amenities such as water supply, electricity, roads, housing, recreational facilities, social welfare and the likes are still somewhat luxuries. That is why the news media is awash with encomiums whenever a governor is spending taxes paid by citizens to build roads and bridges. We are not yet used to good governance, we are overly impressed when we see a governor or commissioner who is development-driven and determined to make a difference. It is high time Nigerian leaders at every level provided good governance. Good governance reflects in the standard of living of the citizens and in the speed of development.

    Lack of confidence that things are going to change is a critical factor. Most of the young people I have interacted with have this sense of helplessness and hopelessness when they talk about the possibility of Nigeria changing for better. The current administration rode to power with the change mantra. Nigerians want a positive change, they have great expectations.

    The body language of the Nigerian government hardly shows that it appreciates the value of human potential. We are regarded as the most populous black nation on earth. The question is this, how have we harnessed the potential of our people? How much is invested in education? What is the quality of our graduates compared to graduates in the developed countries? Do we have equipped laboratories?

    Based on a report prepared by Mercy Corps, Nigeria has the largest number of children who are out of school in the world — 10.5 million. Good governance helps unleash, not undermine, the potential of her people. The education sector needs urgent attention from primary to tertiary. Funding is one big issue. Our curricula need to be reviewed across board. Particularly, the ugly trend of strikes must be stopped. There is hardly a year when teachers/lecturers don’t go on strike and what is ridiculous is that the burning issues that triggered the strike action hardly get resolved. A four-year course of study in a typical Nigerian university, for example, can take six years to be completed. This situation has made many parents send their children to study overseas or ensure they get admitted in a private university.

    Unemployment is a global phenomenon but every country has to figure out how to resolve it at their end. In Nigeria, there are so many mineral resources that could have been cultivated and developed into industries. From time, we have had farsighted leaders. Just imagine the thousands of jobs that would have been created by these industries. When are we going to have visionary leaders with the tenacity and political will to maximize the resources nature has endowed us with? The economy will be revved up when steel, limestone, uranium, columbite, tin, coal, bitumen, kaolin and the likes are cultivated and harnessed into exportable products. More foreign exchange would come in and the naira will experience a significant rise in stature. Unemployment rate can be drastically reduced if those in the corridors of power do the needful.

    At the moment, there is no exciting Nigerian dream that any young person can believe in and weave his or her aspirations around. Level of patriotism is awfully low and it is difficult to find any youth that would refuse the opportunity to relocate to a developed nation with a high standard of living and better opportunities. Elections are around the corner. Young people of voting age should use their demographic advantage to vote in honest and visionary leaders that can move the country forward and help youths unleash their potential.

  • Love story with happy ending

    Love story with happy ending

    Olakunle, son of Bjeg Ventures Nigeria Limited founder Mr Bankole Jegede, married his beau, Tumininu, daughter of a Lagos State civil servant, Mr Oluwadayo Olaitan, last Saturday at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Centre Parish in Agege, Lagos. OLATUNDE ODEBIYI reports.

    It was a day of joy for Olakunle, son of Bjeg Ventures Nigeria Limited founder, Mr Bankole Jegede, and his beau, Tumininu, last Saturday when they were joined in holy matrimony at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Victory Centre Parish in Agege, Lagos State.

    They were the cynosure of all eyes. The bride was a beauty to behold in her white flowing wedding dress. The groom was handsome in a blue suit and sparkling white shirt.

    Their parents wore light blue native attires.

    Some of the guests wore the gold lace and blue head gear and cap  chosen for the occasion.

    Deaconess Catherine Ojekunle said the opening prayer; Pastor Wole Oluwasanmi took the Bible reading from John 2: 1-11.

    The church choir sang the hymn “God give us Christian home”. Pastor Oluseyi Olaore joined the couple after they exchanged marital vows and rings.

    In a sermon, Pastor John Ekundayo said marriage is a life time affair, urging the couple to embrace effective communication. “You must learn to work on yourselves and say sorry at all times. Be friends and settle all quarrels between you, ” he advised.

    A bevy of pretty women in black dresses, welcomed guests to the reception at LaOcassion Events Centre in New Oko Oba, Agege

    The hall was decorated in white.

    Heads turned when the couple entered, smiling and dancing.

    They were accompanied by friends and family members amid hip pop songs by the Disc Jockey Daniel Stephen.

    The chairman on the occasion, Nigeria Guild of Editors President and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Mr. Femi Adesina congratulated the couple and their parents on the outing, noting that it is a blessing to witness such a day. He told the couple that if they hold on to the scripture all the days of their life, they would enjoy their marriage.

    “Bring out the best of yourselves, so that your marriage will work. Do not provoke each other to anger; rather ensure love and good works just as the Bible says,” he added.

    He urged them to desire to live together for over 60 years and to carry each other like an egg. He said: “Let your partner be your friend because there are certain issues you may not be able to resolve as husband and wife but you can resolve them as friends”.

    The couple cut the cake and fed each other.

    Samuel Akinyode, a close friend of the couple, proposed the toast. He said the groom married his first love, insisting that it is possible to do so.

    Seyi Michael and his Glorious Band entertained guests. Family members and friends joined the couple on the dance floor.

    Prince Adeyemi Balogun told the couple to make God the corner stone of their relationship.

    “They should have the spirit of forgiveness and their love must be evergreen at any point in time,” he told The Nation.

    Bride’s mother, Mrs Toyin Olaitan, who works with Oyo State Board of Internal Revenue, prayed God to bless the couple with children.

    She urged them to manage their relationship with love.

    Her father, Mr Oluwadayo Olaitan, said the secret of his marriage is patience, urging the couple to emulate him.

    “For your marriage to be successful, you need patience and you need Jesus.  If you have the spirit of God in you, seek God and never rely on your own power, God will guide you,” he said.

    Groom’s mother Mrs Bosede Jegede prayed that the marriage would be  fruitful.

    She advised the bride to submit to her husband, adding that the couple should encourage each other always. She said they should hold on to God and be prayerful.

    Jegede told his son to follow his footsteps in his marital life.

    The groom said he felt elated, happy and fulfilled.

    He thanked God that their 12-year friendship blossomed into marriage.

    He described his wife as the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. “She is a virtuous woman with good character and a woman every good guy will want to spend the rest of his life with. I am so happy that she said yes to me, I love her so much and I will love her for the rest of my life,” he said.

    The bride said she is filled with joy, excitement, happiness, adding that it was the best day of her life, which she has been waiting for.

    She described her husband as cool, caring, hardworking and the best.

  • Ending the Tiv/Fulani crisis

    “Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation”-Ernest Renan

    I will begin this intervention on the raging tragedy involving the Tiv And the Fulani in my home State of Benue with Renan’s theory of anthropological “forgetfulness”. Not forgetfulness in the nihilist sense of altering moral values, religion, tradition and ethnics differences, but the kind of forgetfulness that rises above conflict and the reasons there in.

    I am a Benue indigene, but a part of my formative years were happily spent in Keffi, the then Plateau State, and now Nassarawa State. I shared my eventful childhood with the Fulani and several other ethnic groups; a veritable melting-pot situation that we took for granted

    As Renan’s disquisition on the subject of forging differences into nations found, some of the greatest countries in the world today are peopled by citizens who do not share lineages.

    For the purpose of this opinion, I would like to say there are two kinds of forgetfulness: the one that makes nations and the other that destroys unions long forged by trade, politics and other means.

    The latter kind of forgetfulness is the reason for the senseless and unabated killings in Benue State at the moment. It is shocking that in less than three decades of a carnage wrought by the Maitatsine in parts of the North-east and Kano State, a second round of Maitatsine is with us and leadership appears to be lacking to quell it.

    The persistence of this unprecedented crisis feeds on the acute lack of leadership, competence and decisiveness. Like the Maitatsine in the 80s, and unlike earlier land disputes between the Fulani and Tiv, these latest killings appear to be done by mercenaries from the neighbouring countries of Cameroun, Chad and some studies suggest from Mali, sponsored by highly placed individuals in the country.

    This time, the situation threatens to consume not just my beloved state, but there is a frightening possibility that this would soon spread to the neighbouring South-south state of Cross River and even the South-east through Enugu, which is just a few miles from the southern part of Benue.

    Taraba State, another Benue neighbour, is already revving to take the cue.

    Already, pockets of skirmishes have been recorded between the Tiv, Fulani and Jukun in the area, with the possibility that Jukunoid ethnic groups like the Etulo and the Nyifon in Buruku and Katsina-Ala local governments would soon join the fray.

    The tragedy is taking no prisoners. Not even the Benue people of the Guma-Makurdi-Gwer axis who have had long association with the Fulani dating back to 1943, through Mallam Audu Afoda are spared.

    In only three months, more than a thousand deaths have been recorded, with properties and crops worth billions of naira destroyed by the rampaging herdsmen and foreign mercenaries hired to torment, kill, torture, destroy our civilization and reduce our economy which began to pick up last year to rubbles.

    These sponsored marauders in cahoots with Fulani herdsmen, have gone as far as even attempting to take the life of our Governor Rt. Hon. Gabriel Torwua Suswam while he was on his way to one of the affected communities.

    The mercenaries and their internal collaborators have also taken their merchandise of blood to the Agatu, the first part of Benue State to embrace Islam and the Hausa-Fulani, long before 1928, when some part of Idoma was excised from the South-east and joined to Benue.

    The vestiges of our long association with the Fulani are there: for example the Yelwata area in Makurdi is named by the Fulani, same for Wadata and several others. But the politics underlying the willful forgetfulness of our political leadership would not allow sleeping dogs lie.

    These bandits and terror merchants working with powerful people in the country and outside it are threatening to break the legendary willpower, courage and resilience of the Tiv in particular, and the Benue people in general. They are bent on demonizing Islam and rubbishing the basis for a long association of peoples of the Benue valley and their neighbours.

    The economy of Benue State continues to slide, as death toll rises even with the recent intervention of the federal government. My own village in Guma Local Government has been sacked, same for the village of our paramount Chief, Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula. Makurdi, the state capital has become a huge refugee camp.

    As a member of the House of Representatives representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency since 2007, I have worked with other lawmakers to end the crisis in the state, but in the course of this patriotic and very necessary duty, I and my dutiful team, have found that there are underlying reasons for this conflict beyond the reasons of grazing routes.

    Some of these reasons are disunity among the Tiv and Agatu communities affected, lack of planning and the sheer vulnerability for such attacks, because of lack of adequate security measures by the state and federal governments. This now reinforces the All Progressives’ Congress(APC) call for state policing, and of course community policing, in line with the true spirit of federalism.

    The government of Benue State has worked hard to contain this crisis, but it requires the continued assistance of other leaders of the state and the federal government in the interim. This tier collaboration must not be half-hearted and must be sustained.

    The National Assembly must also enact a law on cattle grazing and vest the powers of enforcement of the law on veterinary officers and district authorities in all parts of the country, in line with the Uganda model.

    The East African country is one of the earliest in the world to enact a far reaching legislation on cattle grazing.

    The Cattle Grazing Act of Uganda, was enacted on October 31, 1945. The law prescribes punitive measures against indiscriminate grazing of cattle on unauthorised lands.

    Section 2(1) of the Act states inter alia: “no person shall cause or permit any cattle belonging to him or her or under his or her control to graze on any land in respect of which there is in force an order made by a veterinary officer prohibiting grazing or in respect of which there is in force any order or rule made by a district administration prohibiting grazing”.

    Another subsection goes further to prescribe for the impoundment of offending cattle by a veterinary officer or district authority. In the case of Benue in particular, or Nigeria in general, it could be a second class traditional head.

    In the case of the United States, we have the Bureau of Land Management established in 1946 to work with the United States Forest Service to oversee Public lands grazing in 16 states of the United States and issue sanctions for offences of indiscriminate grazing.

    We can also take these examples and produce tough sanctions against unauthorised grazing by herdsmen and also amend our immigration laws to raise tougher sanctions against border offences amd improve on border surveillance.

    But I will also suggest that the Tiv leadership must, as a matter of urgency, convoke a Tiv Ethnic Conference to wager a resurgence of our positive values, create a new and more progressive value pool, discuss ways of avoiding future attacks and displacements and chart the way forward for the Tiv people, to avoid a possible (God forbid) extinction of the Tiv race before the middle of this century.

     

    • Rt. Hon. Jime represents Makurdi/Guma FederalConstituency of Benue State in the House of Representatives.

  • Suspending or ending the banknote controversy

    Suspending or ending the banknote controversy

    Spokesmen of the Presidency and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Reuben Abati and Ugo Okoroafor respectively, on Wednesday issued separate statements announcing the suspension of the currency restructuring exercise that would have seen, among other things, the issuance of N5000 banknote. The statements indicated that the suspension would enable the CBN to do a lot more in persuading the public on why the restructuring was needed. Given the apparent suddenness of the decision, it was thought that the massive opposition to the new policy was persuasive enough to make the President yield to pressure. The CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, not being a politician himself, and therefore inured to the danger a disaffected electorate could constitute to the President, had been unyielding. He and his team had given the impression the opposition to the new banknote was uninformed.

    It is unlikely the opposition to the currency restructuring exercise, which had taken many frenzied weeks to crystallise, would weaken anytime soon. At least two former Heads of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen Yakubu Gowon, had suggested the policy was misplaced and needed to be jettisoned. But Sanusi had uncharitably countered by arguing that while former President Obasanjo, whose opposition to the policy received wide and dramatic publicity, was a good farmer, he was nonetheless a bad economist. That Sanusi counter itself was to generate another round of intense debates and helped tickle the imagination of comedians. A rough estimate of the distribution of opposition to the banknote policy showed that more people were opposed to it than supported it. And while Sanusi stood, and still probably stands, unreasonably inflexible on the policy, it is unlikely anyone can revive it, no matter how ingenious the apex bank’s economic arguments and propaganda are.

    The most remarkable thing about the government’s volte face is how suddenly the Presidency changed its mind. It was evident to everyone that the National Assembly was dead set against the CBN policy. The President himself uncharacteristically read the mood of the legislature well. With the fire of the fuel subsidy brouhaha still burning, and an angry National Assembly still seething, it would be impolitic of the President to goad the eminent parliamentarians into more fury. By finally disapproving the N5000 banknote, the Presidency was both saving itself further confrontation with the legislature and helping Sanusi avoid a parliament that was still eager to cut him to size. The National Assembly, it will be recalled, had on resumption from recess made it a priority to draw a red line over the banknote controversy. The Presidency correctly read the legislature’s foul mood and sensed the hopelessness of fighting a battle it could not hope to win.

    The National Assembly’s motion against the N5000 banknote makes the public wistful. Had the legislature joined the people in fighting the fuel subsidy withdrawal policy when the government heedlessly announced it on January 1, that battle would also probably have been won. Unlike Sanusi and the CBN, the legislature read the minds of Nigerians quite brilliantly and sensibly stood by them. It should be an alliance that must be nurtured if democracy is to survive and flourish. If the unwritten alliance between the people and the legislature worked this time, as indeed it should always do, we must wait to see whether the parliament could be trusted in the face of threatening controversies not to undermine the republic when it occasionally but recklessly indulges in moments of policy narcissism.