There are some discernible parallels in the response of Nigerian Police and the Yoruba governors to the menace of Fulani herdsmen. The only difference is that while the former has been hypocritical, the later has been comical. For instance the Inspector General of Police, after almost seven years of mindless killing of armless men, women and children without anyone being brought to book, now says the police will “continue to monitor them, degrade them and continue to amputate them whenever they come up”. Perhaps now that the police have pledged to do the job for which they are paid, it will not be out of place to remind IG Arase that if the report of the judicial inquiry instituted under Jonah Jang of Plateau in which a former IG was indicted cannot be revisited by the police, he has the latest Agatu massacre as a lead. At least the Gan Allah Fulani, which is the umbrella body, for Fulani herdsmen, has taken responsibility for the Agatu killings.
For the South-west governors, their response has been as absurd as it has been comical. While the battle rages, Fayose who seems incapable of appreciating the challenge facing the Yoruba people is amusing himself sharing “ponmo” (cow skin) with his grassroot supporters in local markets. Mimiko has been holding clandestine meeting with aggrieved farmers and elders who are preaching secession. Aregbesola is said to be targeting production of 10,000 cows per annum while his counterpart in Ibadan has been dissipating energy on the biggest abattoir built in Ibadan by his political rival. The feelings one gets from the discordant notes is an absence of a coordinated effort at responding to the challenges of meeting the demand of those, who like the Epicureans, consume 10,000 heads of cows daily in case forces of demand and supply force the principals of the embattled Fulani herdsmen, driven only by profit motive, to seek a more profitable market.
But first an ode to our South-west politicians. Being a politician itself is a major nightmare. It is often a call for rejection of candour, honesty and acquisition of special skill for the exploitation of our common infirmities. It also calls for brinkmanship to balance the interest of those impoverished by their class members without endangering the health of group members or posing a threat to their ill-acquired fortunes if they are to avoid ‘the Saraki treatment’ after becoming the whistle-blower in the N1.6trillion fuel subsidy scam. To be a successful politician is to be faithful to Adedibu’s precepts which include engaging in public brawl or swearing falsely by the Holy Koran.
How many of us who pontificate on the pages of newspaper are like Bode George, prepared to go to jail for helping party members? How many can, with the help of thugs attack a judge in his court premises, chase out elected law makers of town, take over the House of Assembly to pass an unread budget ? How many critics have the guts to collect $34m of taxpayer’s money from a president who says ‘stealing is not corruption,’ for the purpose of rigging an election? How many of us can, with Awo cap delicately balanced on our heads, join ‘PDP governors without character’ to publicly declare 16 greater than 19? How many of us can, like Fayemi, Opeyemi and Oni, men whose dressing is incomplete without Awo’s cap delicately balanced on their heads, engage in a brutal war of attrition over the governorship seat and after losing it by default move to Abuja, seat of power as champions of Ekiti cause? How many can like ex-Governor Daniel of Ogun lock up the state House of Assembly and rule like a sole administrator?
Our new political leaders are no doubt versatile, daring, courageous, adventurous and very ambitious. It is just that their best is not good enough for the Yoruba. In this regard, they have the records of their predecessors who regarded public service as sacrifice to contend with. They are being challenged by the standards set by Awo, Bode Thomas, Rotimi Wlliams, Adekunle Ajasin, Osuntokun, Adesanya, Enahoro etc, all honourable men who cooperated to form a formidable class with faith in a common destiny and a single purpose of creating a more egalitarian society in the Yoruba country. They served selflessly. When Oba Adesoji, the then Ooni of Ife was rejected by the colonial masters as representative of Yoruba, no other Yoruba was ready to step into his shoes until the colonial government was forced to swallow its pride. When Akintola, who Awo said could debate the same topic from both sides and win, became a thorn in the flesh of the colonial masters and those he then regarded as northern feudal lords, was asked to be replaced, Awo said he had searched without finding any more competent man to represent the Yoruba. Akintola retained his seat. This is precisely why many believe the struggle for power and influence by many of our today Yoruba politicians are not motivated by service and altruism.
And one way of validating this thesis is the ongoing menace of Fulani herdsmen and the challenge of 10,000 cows a day. Rewind back to 60 years ago. Awo and his group encouraged their compatriots who wanted to eat cow to domesticate one. They imported cow adaptable to the Yoruba environment from Argentina. In the Second Republic, Ajasin a leading member of that set of visionary Yoruba leaders established the Otun Cattle ranch. Ex-Governor Segun Oni was the only person who had the presence of mind to have revisited the project. But half of the cows he imported from South Africa died while the project collapsed under Fayemi. Our new leaders seem to prefer the philosopher’s cap to his philosophy.
The current Fulani herdsmen incursion to the South-west is an economic war by the elite and the response can only be economics. We run a capitalist system which is about the survival of the fittest. A group of privileged northern elites and others from the rest of the country invested heavily on cattle farming with the aim of harvesting huge dividends. Instead of establishing ranches, they opted to maximize profit by hiring and arming underprivileged children who must graze the cattle until they get to their designated market in the South-west. Within the capitalist system we operate, the Fulani’s herdsmen share a common fate with underpaid factory workers or underpaid journalist.
When there is a demand that cannot be met locally, there must be supply usually in the form of imported labour of other people. The answer to the menace of Fulani herdsmen is therefore local production to meet demand and not secession. What the Yoruba want is a more organized federation without the tyranny of a centre trying to decree the education of our children, the water they drink and the air they breathe. Yoruba is receptive to other Nigerians who live by the rules and equally thrive among strangers in far away Sokoto, Kano, Jos and Minna.
Our governors are not doing enough. We must be able to feed ourselves. As suggested on these pages not too long ago, Tinubu must return to Lagos to coordinate the activities of governors who unfortunately have been made Leviathans by the Nigerian constitution. His first responsibility is to the Yoruba. Awo who was a mere regional premier and Ahmadu Bello who rejected the option of becoming the Prime Minister in order to serve his people today live in the hearts of their people.
hen you throw a stone into a pool of water, in a matter of seconds, the stone disappears but that is not the end of your action, as ripples will appear and will take some time before the surface of the water is calm.
This is exactly the matter with the Ekiti State gubernatorial election held since June 2014 where Ayodele Fayose was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and was consequently sworn in as governor on October 16, 2014. The controversy surrounding the victory of Governor Fayose has refused to go away 21 months after the election.
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) not satisfied with the result of the election, especially as its candidate did not win in any of the 16 local governments contrary to the expectations of many bookmakers and APC supporters, took the matter to court. The party exhausted all legal options but the victory of Fayose was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Despite the affirmation of Fayose’s victory by the apex court, the APC leaders and supporters are yet to overcome the shock of that unusual defeat. It was not the APC alone that was shocked; the PDP was equally shocked by the magnitude of that defeat. This was attested to by Dipo Anisulowo, current Chief of Staff to Fayose when he said: “We are surprised by this victory. Though we were expecting victory but not of this magnitude.”
Such was the nature of Fayose’s victory that has endlessly set tongues wagging. Many analysts adduced reasons for Fayemi’s loss and Fayose’s victory but none was convincing that an incumbent with unassailable record of performance while in office could lose with such a wide margin to someone with unenviable antecedents such that his first tenure as governor was abruptly aborted.
In February 2015, eight months after the election was conducted, the mystery behind the outcome of the election began to unfold. Army Captain Sagir Koli released an audio tape he secretly recorded at a meeting he attended with his boss before the election. The recording, which is now famously referred to as the Ekitigate audio tape, is all about the graphic details of how to rig the June 21 election perfected by Fayose and other PDP chieftains, including then Defence Minister, Musiliu Obanikoro; Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan; Senator Iyiola Omisore, Commander of 132 Artillery Brigade, Akure, Brigadier-General Momoh; with Capt. Sagir Koli and one Hon. Abdukareem.
One important revelation from the audio tape by Fayose himself is the one that concerns INEC as an umpire and it has been a cause of worry to many ever since. Fayose’s excerpts in the tape: “…today we agreed on how to work, myself and Omisore and all the heads. We agreed on a strategy to use, and the men that would join us and all you expect me to do, I have done….”Today, they went to Efon, they carried all the…where we are supposed to be collating. I think it was this man, the thing INEC gave to us, soft copies we now printed and everything, because they see INEC thing on top of it….
”He now told me, why is my contact man not with them?” I convinced this man (General Momoh) to leave these men. It took me more than two hours to get this man to release these people. We have been subjected to serious embarrassment.”
That was Fayose harassing Brigadier Momoh for arresting a vehicle with printed materials collected from INEC on its way to Efon where Fayose said collation took place and this was two days to the election proper.
Fayose, a gubernatorial candidate at that time, admitting to electoral fraud by copying voting materials provided by the INEC calls for serious concern and should have elicited probe by INEC if the organisation is not to be adjudged guilty of the conspiracy of silence. This costly revelation by Fayose who didn’t know he was being recorded is too grave to be ignored. It is surprising that since Fayose made this revelation in that audio tape, INEC has been unusually silent. If INEC feigns ignorance that it didn’t listen to the tape nor read it in the newspapers, it cannot claim ignorance of the latest revelations by one of the principal actors who was the PDP state secretary at that time, Dr. Tope Aluko, who bared it all on Channels TV.
Aluko corroborated most revelations in the audio tape and confirmed that the tape was real and added a new one not in the audio that INEC officials in Ekiti and Osun states collected N1 billion from the Presidency without the knowledge of the then INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega. Such an amount of money could only be a bribe and that was enough to compromise the election.
Fayose’s aide, Lere Olayinka, had earlier denied that it was his boss’ voice that was in the audio but Fayose himself admitted it was his voice. Among the documents presented on live television by Aluko was a request for extra result sheets and this confirmed that the soft copies of materials collected from INEC according to Fayose are sensitive materials such as ballot papers, result sheets and analysis of results sheets.
One of the grounds of the APC’s petition at the tribunal was that the ballot papers used for the election were photo-chromic papers such that it didn’t reflect true votes as the paper is water marked and hence capable of manipulating votes. This was dismissed by the tribunal for lack of proof.
Even at that, the audio revelation, which was recently corroborated by Aluko, has put INEC on the spot as its officials cannot be excused from the electoral heist. My main worry is that the main benefactor has confessed and INEC has not denied it didn’t give the candidate sensitive materials.
One would have expected that since the damning Ekitigate revelations, the REC and his officials should have been placed under investigation, but this is not the case. It is a case of the more you look, the less you see.
In this serious revelation, all INEC senior officials who were in Ekiti during the election such as National Commissioners, the visiting Resident Electoral Commissioners and the local INEC staff are all culpable. Even though Aluko tried to exonerate Prof. Jega in the whole saga, once INEC as an institution is guilty, the whole INEC is guilty, including Jega.
It behoves on civil society organisations, election monitors, international observers and the discerning public to ask INEC the following questions:
Why did INEC give one of the candidates soft copies of the sensitive materials? Did INEC also give the materials to other candidates?
Why has INEC not instituted any probe into the role of its officials during that election after the revelations by Fayose in the audio tape and corroborated by Aluko recently?
Is it true that some INEC officials in Ekiti and Osun states received N1 billion without Jega’s knowledge? Was the money official? If not, what was it meant for?
Why has INEC not told us if it actually released soft copies of materials as claimed by one of the candidates at that time, Ayo Fayose who was later declared winner? Is it true as claimed by Fayose that collation of an election which was conducted on June 21 actually took place in Efon on June 19, two days to the conduct of the actual election? Did INEC officials take part in that collation? Were the representatives of other candidates present at the Efon collation? What was actually collated?
Answers to the above questions will go a long way in restoring confidence in INEC as an impartial umpire as against the present perception of INEC as a partisan organisation always backing one party against the other during elections.
Edo and Ondo elections are coming and we don’t know if these mafia are still in INEC to release soft copies of sensitive materials to a favoured candidate.
- Bamitale, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Benin-City.
