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Tag: President Muhammadu Buhari

Buhari to attend African Union summit in Addis Ababa

President Muhammadu Buhari will today depart for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to participate in the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).

A statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the highlight of the President’s engagements during the visit would be his statement under the historic theme for the AU Summit, namely: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation.”

“This is the first time in the 54-year history of the AU that anti-corruption will be made a theme of the gathering of the regional leaders.

“It would be recalled that on July 4, 2017 during the 29th Session of the AU, African leaders unanimously endorsed President Buhari to champion the fight against corruption on the continent. The endorsement was in recognition of his personal commitment and widely acclaimed anti-graft drive at the domestic level.”

January 26, 2018
Coalition berates Obasanjo over letter to Buhari

A Civil Society Group, The True Coalition for Nigeria has condemned the recent comments made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo against the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo, in a 13-page statement, described the President Buhari as clannish, nepotic and insincere in fulfilling the promises made to Nigerians.

He accused the present government of failure in several aspect.

But speaking with newsmen in Abuja today, the National President, of the True Coalition for Nigeria, Patriot Sabo Odeh, said, “the coalition has learnt with amusement the call by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for a coalition of the concerned and the willing” which he has rushed to christen “Coalition for Nigeria” without making efforts at due diligence to realize that such coalition already exists.

Odeh said the group would have ordinarily disregarded Obasanjo’s latest outburst but for a series of other happenstances that suggest that his letter is part of a larger plot to discredit the government of President Buhari.

He accused the former leader of being behind the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group that had sullied the streets with its Red Card campaign.

“We, the Coalition for Nigeria, agree that there is need to move from our current state of affairs in Nigeria but those that will lead us do not belong to Obasanjo’s circle and certainly not Obasanjo himself.

“We see President Buhari as having fulfilled his place and mission in history, which is to disrupt and overturn the status quo such that his successors, when the time comes, will build on his works to give us the Nigeria of our vision.

“If the Obasanjo government was half as sincere as the present administration, the troubles of today would have not cropped up in the first place. It is most insulting that the same man is today bragging about assembling teams of experts when his terms in office were spent in partitioning the country and allocating huge chunks to his cronies including initiating privatization programmes that simply gifted the country to a mafia”, he said.

He said on the clashes between farmers and herdsmen, our position is that the federal government immediately investigate the roles of all stakeholders in the crisis including governors that have been accused of arming ethnic militias and associations that have held press briefings to justify reprisal attacks.

January 26, 2018
Can Buhari get his groove back?
Prior to his 2015 electoral victory, President Muhammadu Buhari had contested for the presidency thrice (2003, 2007 and 2011) and lost on all three occasions. But by 2015 when he made the fourth attempt that eventually enthroned him as the nation’s latest horse rider (apology to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo aka ‘Ebora Owu’), his popularity had soared to an all-time high. The chant across the country was simply: ‘Sai Baba’. Except, perhaps, for the Late Chief MKO Abiola in the annulled 1993 presidential election, no presidential candidate in the country’s political history had garnered so much extensive approval.

A couple of factors were responsible for the change in Buhari’s political fortune. First, his predecessor, the Lucky One, had squandered all the goodwill that offered him the presidency. Second, Nigerians saw in Buhari a man of spotless integrity who could be entrusted with the nation’s treasury. Third, Nigerians believed he could decisively tackle the nation’s mounting security problem. Fourth, the coalition of political parties that formed the APC gave Buhari a better platform than he previously had. Fifth, Nigerians were simply fed up with then ruling political party and were willing to give Buhari a chance.

So, Buhari rode on the back of all these aforementioned dynamics to become, perhaps, the most widely elected president in the nation’s political annals. But then, in a funny twist of events, the once famous Buhari, who can never do any wrong, has suddenly become a villain. Suddenly, the man Nigerians love to hail with the chant of ‘Sai Baba’ is literarily being slain on a daily basis, curiously by his erstwhile fanatical promoters.

Just recently, fiery Lagos Pastor and a top notch Buhari’s advocate, Tunde Bakare, held a State of the Nation parley at the headquarters of his church in Lagos. The verdict? Buhari has failed the country. In quick sequence came Buhari battering from across the country. Various organisations and individuals that were once avowed Buhari’s backers have suddenly become his strong critics. Indeed, a famous priest who once predicted Buhari ascendancy to the presidency recently warned him not to take Nigerians for granted.

At the home front, the president isn’t equally finding things easy as the First Lady was once alleged to have said that she wouldn’t campaign for the President’s re-election except he puts his political house in order. The latest in the catalogue of anti Buhari sentiment, currently pervading the country, came from no other source than the self-acclaimed ‘Conscience of the Nation’, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Now, the question is: How did the president fritter away the goodwill he so much enjoyed at such a critical moment as this? Why is Nigerians’ patience suddenly running out with the president? Well, like every such intricate socio-political issue, the answer to the questions is multifaceted. For one, the president is perceived by many to be too slow in his handling of salient national matters. It took him about six months to put in place a cabinet while appointing members into the various boards of national parastatals took him much more. This is just to mention a few instances.

Also, the president has been broadly accused of engaging in unconcealed nepotism. It has been alleged that the sacred cows in his government are his kinsmen who are largely untouchable. The president has also been accused of favouring those from his part of the country in terms of appointments. In this case, appointments into top national security posts have particularly been alleged to be lopsided.

Additionally, the president’s handling of the tricky killer herdsmen’s question hasn’t been too convincing. While speaking on this particular subject, Pastor Tunde Bakare accused the president of gross bias. He cited the example of how the military were swiftly deployed to fish out Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB gang. He wondered why same speed was not employed in the case of the Benue genocide where hapless people were gruesomely murdered. All over the country, herdsmen are becoming a nuisance and great security threats, but there seems not to be an all-out onslaught against them. The insinuation in many quarters, therefore, is that the president is not willing to tackle the knotty issue because ‘his’ people are involved.

Now, in-spite of recent decline in the president’s approval rating, if he wishes he could still warm himself back into the hearts of his disgruntled compatriots, especially the masses who so much believed in him. For one, the president needs to become swifter in his handling of urgent national matters. His recent assertion that he needs to take his time in taking certain decisions doesn’t really suffice. A man whose house is on fire does not have the luxury of time. Swift decisions and actions must be taken on critical national matters to move the country forward. What we need at this critical time in the country is strong leadership. Shrinking from taking the right decisions and actions at the appropriate won’t do the country much good.

Also, the president must be wary of sycophants whose stock in trade is lies and deception. They are hypocrites with self-seeking agenda. They did same with Abacha. For the right price, they can wine and dine with the devil himself. Therefore, he needs to be discerning with the kind of stuffs such people feed him with. He needs to pay more attention to what his critics are saying. In most cases, critics are better than sycophants.

Equally, the president needs to be more visible. Nigerians want to see and hear their president. It has often been said that president is a man of little words. No! This shouldn’t be the case. He is the leader of a nation of over 170 million people and they are eager to see and hear him. He needs to allay their fears. He needs to say things that would encourage and inspire them. He needs to sometimes move out of the Aso Rock to relate with the ordinary Nigerians. The vice-president did this quite well while the president was away on medical treatment. He needs to engage the people on several burning national issues. There are several platforms through which this can be done.

Finally, the president must allay the fears of Nigerians on the allegation of bigotry being levelled against him. He must see the entire country as his constituency. After all, his mandate is a pan Nigerian one. Thus, he must not be seen to favour one section of the country at the expense of the other. In the words of former Senate President, late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo: ‘If you are emotionally attached to your tribe, religion, or political leaning to the point that the truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education is useless. Your exposure is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability to mankind’.

For the president, the clock is ticking and time is running out. History would not be kind to him if he squanders the unique goodwill upon which he rode to the presidency. We have had enough tales of failure. He cannot afford to fail!
- Ogunbiyi wrote in from Ikeja, Lagos.
January 26, 2018
Day Amaechi wept for slain Rivers people
Monday, January 1st, 2018 was not a splendid day for Rivers people, especially the people of Ogba /Egbema /Ndoni Local Government Area. While most people were celebrating God for ushering them into the New Year, residents of Omoku town were thrown into mourning for loosing about twenty three of their people in the hands of some dreaded cultists led by one Ejima Johnson Igwedibia aka Don Wanny.

That fateful day, about twenty three Christian worshippers who left their houses for the usual yearly cross over night church service, in the area were brutally murdered by Don Wanny and his cohorts. Ever since that horrific incident Omoku town had been thrown into confusion and the people deserting their country homes, and businesses shut down following the level of insecurity in the area.

Although, the culprits have been gunned down following a matching order given to security agencies by President Muhammadu Buhari to fish out the perpetrators. Omoku, headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area had been a flash point of insecurity due to cult related activities. The Oil companies in the area were also not spared as the notorious kingpin, Don Wanny and his men would unleash terror at them by abducting their expatriates and demand for heavy ransomed.

Don Wanny, according to reports is the richest kidnapper in Rivers State. Skulls of some of those who were not lucky to escape his wrath were displayed at the time security agencies invaded and took over his multi million naira mansion in Omoku, where he lived like a king over his people before it was demolished. Don Wanny’s rain in Omoku brought about perpetual fear to all who reside and do business in Omoku town. He was so powerful that his people, out of fear of their lives hurriedly on his demand crowned him a king as their refusal would send many to their early graves.

Surprisingly, since that brutal killing of 1st January, 2018 as the Chief Security Officer of the state one would have expected the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Nwike to pay condolence to the people in Omoku before any other public office holder but the Governor only visited the area days after Amaechi the minister of transportation had visited.

Amaechi, the former governor of the state and Nigeria Transportation Minister, who feels the pain of the people paid a condolence visit to them with the assurance that government will bring all those involved in the killings to book.

Amaechi’s visit to the bereaved families coincided with a grand reception organised for him by the Ikwerre Youth Movement (IYM). Amaechi was accompanied by top party officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. Before Amaechi proceeded to addressing the bereaved families, the minister had made a stopover at a hospital to see a little baby who was hit by a stray bullet that killed his father and mother.

It was at the Omoku civic centre, the hall was filled to its capacity, both old and young people cried uncontrollably. It took Amaechi’s plea to pacify those whose loved ones were killed and slaughtered with impunity to stop weeping. Amaechi, too, could not hold back his emotions when suddenly he broke down in tears as he addressed the people. But even in tears, Amaechi was able to manage to speak to the people.

Amaechi said: “The only thing I can assure you is that the perpetrators of this act will be brought to justice. They cannot run away from it. How can they kill our people for no just cause? I was at the hospital to see a little boy that was shot, and his father and mother killed. How do you want that little boy to live? How would he cope in life? They must pay for their actions.”

The minister, at a reception organised in his honour by the youths of the four Ikwerre speaking local government areas of Phalga,Obio/Akpor,Ikwerre and Emohua under the aegis of the Ikwerre Youth Movement (IYM), accused Governor Nyesom Wike of failing to protect the lives of Rivers people.

He said that as Rivers State Governor, he had provided employment and foreign scholarship to Rivers youths through the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency(RSSDA) but regretted that Governor Wike on assuming office, failed to continue with his job creation programme and foreign scholarship scheme.

The President General of IYM,Sir Azubuike Chikere Nwanjoku, said the reception was organised to honour the transportation minister, fondly called the Lion of the Niger Delta. He said that Rivers state should be saved from crime and cultism and appealed to Amaechi to take their plea to President Muhammadu Buhari that they want to live and work in peace in Rivers state.

The Senator representing Rivers East Senatorial District, Senator Andrew Uchendu, in his goodwill message said Amaechi is a man of character and likened him to Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

The representative of Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mrs Loretta Onochie, described Amaechi as the hero of democracy.

The reception was attended by chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC),IYM leaders from Obio/Akpor,Port-Harcourt City and Emohua Local Government Areas and leaders of the APC from Eleme, Tai,Khana and Gokana Local Government Areas of the state as well as women and youths.
- Okpara is an aide of the transportation minister
January 26, 2018
‘Restructuring is non-negotiable’

In this piece, rights activist and politician Afolabi Ige dissects the socio-economic and political challenges confronting the country and contends that the solution is restructuring to guarantee true federalism and peaceful co-existence.

On January 1, President Muhammadu Buhari spoke on the national question. He rejected the call for restructuring, which has been the main issue since 1966 when the military foisted the unification decree on the federal country.

The British colonialist tried to bring the Northern Protectorate, the Southern Protectorate and the Colony of Lagos together under one expedient administration since Nigeria was not their only colonial business. But, due attention was given to the cultural, religious and ethnic diversities and even as our colonial masters, normal democratic nuances was still observed through the several constitutional and political conferences leading to our independence in 1960. Our leaders negotiated and temporarily agreed to start on a tripod as a federation of three regions at independence in 1960. We became four regions in 1964 and might have become at least six by 1970s but definitely following the orderly democratic nuances that birthed the mid-western region in 1964.

Following the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Nigeria however, greed and avarice seized our elites and they used the military to disrupt the course of our natural growth and migrated to doing everything by artificiality. The force of decrees rather than negotiations become the order under the jack booth of the military dictatorships and we continue to decree unity, uniformity and equality of the most unequals. The military killed the spirit of our healthy rivalry and competition among the regions, which produced the first television station in Africa, produced one of the strongest cocoa economy in the world, produced one of the tallest groundnut pyramids in the world, produced the Enugu coal mine and the palm tree plantations of the southern states that became the envy of many nations from where we now import Palm oil as at today. Our hides and skin potentials which should have made Turkey and Italy grow green with envy of us were all laid to rest by the military adventurists who seemed to know nothing than sharing oil money, awarding oil blocks to cronies, thereby plundering our productive capacities in convalescence with their civilian collaborators.

Having plundered our productive capabilities and rendered us an import dependent economy with one of the fastest growing appetite in the world, it is just a matter of time for the seed of poverty and want to germinate and blossom in our national life which has now come of full age with its fruits staring us in the face. These fruits are the myriads of problems we are now contending with today: certificates without intelligence, qualifications without capabilities, religion without faith, baseless equality and uniformity of unequals, economic growth without increased productivity, increasing budget and correspondingly increasing unemployment, wealth without enterprise, continued widening of the gap between the rich and the poor and the resultant evils of kidnapping for ransome, youth restiveness and agitation in place of productive engagements and the hopelessness that resulted into the Bokoharam terror against the state. The most current of the evils is the Fulani herdsmen terrorism.

“Our problem is more about process than structure”. I knew immediately the president needed to be engaged but while still ruminating, the Fulani herdsmen struck for the umpteenth time on the same 1st January in the Benue state decimating villages and farm settlements to leave in their trail as usual bloods of hundred of farmers and their families in their own settlement in a country they call their own and which constitution guarantees their freedom to life. The Fulani herdsmen terrorism will therefore form the pillar of my structural failure argument against the president ‘s process hypothesis.

I agree that “process” is everything to war and military domination, a profession where Mr. President has built a successful career like his co-compatriots former heads-of-state who are still alive – Gowon, Obasanjo and Babangida. The human society is far larger than the military camps and hence has given prime attention to diagnosing and developing sustainable institutional structural theses for survival of nations. It’s therefore morbidly unfortunate that Nigeria has had the ill luck of been governed mostly by men who were taught and groomed to believe that only mere “process” suffice and is everything.

“Structure,” which is defined as the “ arrangement of and relations between parts or elements of something thing complex” (like Nigeria), in my opinion, is primary to systems and specifies the “processes” to follow. Structure is like the carcasses in building construction which carries and holds the brick works. Any edifice without a good structural engineering is therefore bound to collapse like pack of cards in matters of time. By the natural accident of our nation’s cultural, religious and ethnographic heterogeneity, Nigeria is never, has never and will never function as a unitary state nonetheless in a democracy but rather at best as a united states in one federation just as our colonial masters forged and bequeathed to us at independence. We were not without our complaints even then but our agitations were purposeful and limited: create a mid-west region from the western region, create a middle belt region out of the northern region and the agitation for the creation of the COR state out of the then eastern region. The “processes” for their actualization was already part of the structural design and it had delivered one out of the three expectancies without any loss of blood. That to my mind is the actual “restructuring” towards perfection. We were steadily on that road before the accident of oil and the attendant misfortune of military rule. Until then, all the four regions have their different constitutions aside from the federal constitution, all the regions have their own development plans and agenda and in fact were free to negotiate bilateral cooperation with foreign nations. What we had was healthy competition for development and a resultant productive economy with jobs for all and food for all.

The question today is: “what are we as a nation”?. A federal state or a unitary state or a quasi-federal or quasi-unitary? Definitely we are not in the corridor of the Professor George Weah’s federalism when a Fulani association, the Miyetti Allah Cattle breeders can openly challenge the collective resolve of the entire people of “Benue State” to outlaw open grazing in their state. A law must be obeyed once it is duly passed until nullified by a competent court of law. This sort of open affront against the “State of Benue” can only be borne out of our structural heist that makes an elected executive governor to be mere security adviser to the commissioner of police in his own state.

It is structural problem and not mere “process” problem that has made the entire Northeast and West which is bigger than other countries of Africa not to have devised a modern way of doing cattle business which is the cultural occupation of their people beyond the miserable, animalistic wandering the bushes for grazing in this 21st century.

The President has only one chance left to remain immortal in the annals of Nigeria history and that will put you on the Ivy League of leaders and this is to correct the mistake of the military by returning Nigeria to a true civil democratic structure where the military met us before we became a conquered territory run by processes since she 1966. In fact, the only “process “ that leads to honour for now is the process to return Nigeria back to its true federal structure in which the constituent states or regions will be free from the feeding bottle and noose of the feudal federal government.

Mr. President should lead this process with all his remaining will and wits. Nigeria has not worked in over fifty years, despite several “processes” simply because we were trying to put “so much” impressionistically on “nothing” and it will not work until we put something on ground to build on.

January 26, 2018
Buhari unstoppable, says Bello

Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello has said only God can stop President Muhammadu Buhari from being re-elected for a second term in office, come 2019

Speaking yesterday in Lokoja, Governor Bello said no amount of gang up would prevent Buhari from winning the next presidential election whenever it is held.

Speaking during a programme tagged “Infrastructural Expo”, as part of activities marking his second anniversary in office, he lampooned those he said were opposing the president despite his glaring achievements.

According to him, the president had since his assumption of office in 2015 been working tirelessly to stabilise the polity, despite the challenges facing the country.

Some of the challenges, he said were inherited, adding that the country has since then progressed under the Buhari administration.

He said that President Buhari was doing well in several areas, including the anti-corruption, war, insurgency and improvement in the economy, adding that the country’s foreign reserve has increased significantly.

“God who made Buhari pass through the valley of death preserved him for a purpose. President Buhari would secure another term at the next election.

“Mr President is boiling them with cold water, suffocating them because they cannot stomach him for eight years, that is why they are crying foul. When the time comes they will know that majority of the people of this country are solidly behind him. So those who are against the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari cannot stop him.

“If God endorses Buhari to serve his constitutional two terms he does not need the support of anyone to achieve it. Those who ran the country aground are desperately seeking relevance, trying to play God.

“No amount of intimidation, media manipulation and campaign of calumny can compel the president to abandon his commitment to putting the country on the path of greatness”.

January 24, 2018
Buhari: Killers of Benue farmers’ll be punished

Ortom insists no land for cattle colony in Benue

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed security agencies to fish out the herdsmen who killed no fewer than 73 farmers in New Year’s Day in Benue State.

Victims of the incident were buried last Thursday in Makurdi amid a nationwide outrage.

Governor Samuel Ortom told reporters that the President gave the order during a meeting with the state’s leaders of thought on the security situation.

At the meeting were Deputy Governor Benson Abounu, Tor Tiv Prof. James Ayatse, Ochi Idoma, former Senate President David Mark, Senator George Akume, Senator Barnabas Gemade, Gen. Lawrence Onoja (retd.), Speaker Terkimbir Kyambe and Senator Joseph Waku, amog others.

Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina quoted President Buhari as telling the delegation:

“Your Excellency, the governor, and all the leaders here, I am appealing to you to try to restrain your people. I assure you that the Police, the Department of State Security and other security agencies had been directed to ensure that all those behind the mayhem get punished.

“I ask you in the name of God to accommodate your country men. You can also be assured that I am just as worried, and concerned with the situation.’’

The President told the delegation that his administration had already begun a process of finding lasting solution to the perennial challenge of herdsmen conflict with farmers and communities around the country.

The Tor-Tiv, said his domain had been thrown into mourning due to the incessant attacks.

“We want you to put an end to the gruesome situation.’’

Ortom said Benue leaders demanded that the killer-herdsmen be arrested and prosecuted.

His words: “The situation as at today is relatively calm, although there are pockets of issues. For the past five days we have witnessed two killings compared to what was happening before. Other places are relatively calm. The security men and the IGP and the Benue State Government have been working day and night to ensure that we bring the situation under control and stop the killings.

“There are still security issues from one town to the other, like some few days ago we had an uproar in Makurdi Local Government, headquarters of Benue State where some hoodlums wanted to take advantage. That is one of the things we have discovered in trying to create confusion so that they can go in there and loot.

‘We have made it known that for us in Benue State is that there is no room for anyone taking laws into his hands. It is expected even when you are offended or someone violates the law, the best thing to do is to report, by that we will be able to meet our sanctions on such people. But when you take laws into your hand, you are inviting anarchy and we will not accept this.

“So we are here to appreciate Mr. President for providing security. Yesterday (Sunday), we also received relief materials based on his directives to NEMA and is being shared among the five IDP camps that we have in Benue State.

“But beyond that we made strong appeal to Mr. President to arrest those people that perpetrated this act, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, because they are not above the law. They made inciting statements against our people and they came and perpetrated this act. We are law abiding citizens; we are not going to let our people go out of control.”

The governor was full of praises for Buhari. He said: “We believe in the leadership of Mr. President because he is disciplined and is an upright man and we believe he will be able to sanction this people and he did assure us that there is no room for impunity, the law of the land must take its cause. So, those perpetrators…; the IG was at the meeting; he directed the IG to arrest those who perpetrated this act and prosecute them according to the law.

“And he assured us that he would do everything possible to ensure that Benue State lives peacefully and there are no further killings. So, basically, that is why we came to see Mr. President.”

Asked if the issue of arming militia groups came up, Ortom said that the allegation was false.

He said: “It is not true. I see that as distraction, completely from the main issue that we are talking about. These people were not even arrested in Benue State. If we are being killed in the magnitude that we saw and we had weapons of what I saw in the media, I know that five AK 47s can sack a whole community. So if we had such weapons and I as governor my local government had been attacked and people killed, property destroyed and so on, so will I go and sponsor militia in Taraba State? I organised an amnesty programme, which saw the disarmament of over 800 youths and more than 700 weapons were turned in which were destroyed in the presence of security men and the UN and the committee on small weapons and light arms from the Presidency.

“So it is not true; it is false. It is meant to turn facts away from the reality that is happening on ground.”

Ortom said the meeting with the President was at the instance of Benue State as he defended the anti-open grazing law made by his administration but which the Fuluni are opposed to.

“The law is a win win; it provides security for the herdsmen and the farmers. And as far as we are concerned the implementation of the law is going on smoothly.

“We have also arrested more than 18 herdsmen who violated the law and they were arraigned before the court of law.”

Ortom said that the state is open to suggestions from the Federal Government on finding a lasting solution.

“The Minister of Agriculture happens to be a son of the soil. There are many options that are put on the table.

“Like I told you the last time I came here, I did not understand what cattle colonies meant. Today, I was privileged to meet him and he did explain to me that a colony is many ranches in one place, restricted in one place. So, for us in Benue State, there is no 10,000 hectares; they are looking for 5,000 hectares, we have no 10,000 hectares to allow it for that kind of a thing to take plac.”

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the Federal Government had very clear plans to end herders/farmers clashes in the country.

The governor told reporters after laying a wreath to mark the Armed Forces Remembrance Day in Kaduna that the issue was being tackled head-on.

“We met with the Minister of Interior. There are very clear plans to curtail these issues. I want to assure everyone, the President and other security agencies are doing their best.’’

January 16, 2018
Armed Forces Remembrance Day in Photos

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday performed the wreath-laying ceremony to mark the end of the 2017 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebrations at the National Arcade, Eagle Square in Abuja.

January 15, 2018
Anti-grazing law can’t work, it’s unrealistic –Sale Bayari

FULANI leaders began warning President Muhammadu Buhari about impending crisis in Logo and Guma local government areas of Benue State in May 2015 and it is extremely unjust for any Nigerian to accuse them of backing bloody conflicts anywhere, says Alhaji Sale Bayeri, the Secretary-General of Gan-Allah Fulani Development Association and member of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association’s (MACBAN) Board of Trustees.

Speaking with The Nation on telephone from his Jos base, he emphasised the need for all stakeholders to make significant concessions that would make it possible to have sustainable peace, stressing that there is no way an anti-grazing law can work.

Emphasising that MACBAN and other Fulani herdsmen associations only want a peaceful environment where they can rear their animals without conflicts, Bayari said they had warned the presidency about potential flashpoints in 75 local government areas across 21 states without appropriate proactive action by the federal government.

Noting that the Boko Haram insurgency would be a child’s play if herdsmen and farmers’ conflicts are not resolved in a way that is acceptable to all sides, he stated that there would be very grave consequences if 18 million Fulanis continue to perceive deliberate injustice.

“The way this thing is being driven through ethnicity, sectionalism, religion and politics is not going to help, it is going to make this country ungovernable.

“We have given solutions to Buhari long time ago; even before he was sworn in, I gave him a breakdown of likely explosive areas that we have, in terms of herdsmen and farmers’ restiveness.

“Yes, in 21 states and about 75 local governments; I sent a letter before his inauguration and another one, one year after his inauguration; when I didn’t get response, I wrote to him again.

“The places include Oye Local Government and two other local governments in the northern part of Ekiti. I gave him breakdown of the problem there; in Oyo State, like Shaki area, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Bauchi, Gombe, Yola, I treated them and gave him the breakdown because they are the boiling spots.

“The report is about 70 pages, I gave a breakdown which is from 1999 till date, of places where a Fulani man or herdsmen pointed a finger at a farmer and vice versa and what followed; I gave the analysis state by state and local governments by local governments and Guma and Logo was part of my report,” he explained.

According to Bayari, he personally delivered the correspondence by hand without receiving even a mere response.

“I did (warn) since May 2015 before he (President Buhari) was sworn in; I took it to his office in Maitama when the present Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, was his Chief of Staff, and after one year when I didn’t get response, I wrote another cover letter and went to submit that one in Villa and it was acknowledged but nobody replied the letter up till date.

“Even as at that time, because of the series of crises, I suggested that government should start looking at the creation of ministry of livestock and associated services so that these problems would be addressed and if they heeded, this problem would have been addressed long ago,” he told The Nation.

Emphasising that a great majority of Fulanis are far from being interested in violent conflicts, he wondered why “anyone would contemplate an unrealistic law like the one seeking to ban open grazing in Nigeria.

“It is just a misconception that there should be no open grazing in Nigeria; in the entirety of Africa, there is nowhere open grazing is banned.

“There is no country where there are lots of cows, including South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, there is nowhere you can tell me that there is total ban on open grazing.

“What is normally available is that there should be open grazing for those people who think it is traditional and cultural to do it because that is their only form of exercise, leisure and pleasure because that is their culture; we also have grazing reserves for those who would want to start learning how to settle and then the ranches for those who are wealthy and into livestock only for commercial purposes,” he stated.

Speaking further on the non-realistic expectation of changing nomadic Fulanis’ ways of life and cultural orientation with government fiat, he alleged that some armed men from Benue were bent on attacking herdsmen who had left the state, adding that provocations should not be allowed to push Fulanis into nationwide reactions that may be more dangerous than the insurgency being witnessed in the North East.

According to him, “They were planning to attack some herdsmen that left Benue State, so the thing is serious and we have told people before that this thing has the potential of causing proper breakdown of law and order not only in the north but the entire country.

“The Boko Haram crisis in the enclave of Borno and Yobe took over the entire North-East and started coming down even to Abuja, how much more something involving Fulanis who are found in all parts of the country and across West Africa?

“You know their population, they are over 18 million in Nigeria, you can see that there is no state that we don’t have Fulani presence, so if these people start any insurgency now or any resistance, you can imagine what will happen and they are just people who know everywhere in the jungles and the bushes,” Bayari added.

According to the Fulani leader, who emphasized that the cow is far more important to a Fulani man than its monetary value, the only realistic solution towards achieving lasting peace is to modify the law against grazing, by accommodating the very rich who can afford to have ranches, as well as those who can only continue their nomadic ways.

“They can modify it in such a way that for those Fulanis, there are some of us like me, my parent for the past 50 years have been settled in one place and from the small place we inherited from our grandparents who came to settle in a virgin land and when it was not enough, we bought from other natives there.

“We built our houses there and we are settling there but still we move the cows on a seasonal basis when there is no grass and water; we move them for three to four months to go where there is green pasture and when the farmers want to start cultivating, they come back to where we keep them again till next year.

“Then, there are the Muritala Nyakos, the Buharis, the Abdullahi Adamus, who may have ranches worth billions. As a Fulani man, I am looking forward to owning my own ranch, somebody does not have to outlaw my only means of livelihood because I cannot afford a ranch and then you know that I have brothers in the village that are over 60 who have never gone to school; they don’t share from the national cake at whatever level and with this law, how do you expect them to survive?

“They sleep in the bush all because of the animals and once the animals are not there, they see a total extinction of their own generation, not even an individual.

“As Nigerians, we have right to life based on the constitution and international law and the right to life does not go without a means of sustenance of life and when you want to eliminate the sustenance of these people, they will fight as if you are telling them to lie down so that you can take knife and slaughter them,” Alhaji Sale Bayari stated.

January 14, 2018
Buhari to Gani Adams: use your position for national unity

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday congratulated Otunba Gani Adams, leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), on his investiture as the 15th Aare Ona Kakanfo today.

The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, charged Otunba Adams to use the new position to pursue worthy goals of security, peace and national unity.

The President also commended the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111, on the appointment of a new Aare Ona Kakanfo, who will assist him in the arduous task of leading the “illustrious Yoruba people.”

President Buhari urged the new Aare Ona Kakanfo to bring quintessential courage, wisdom and astuteness to bear on his new office, for a more secured life for the weak, vulnerable and voiceless in the country.

The President prayed that the almighty God will grant the Aare Ona Kakanfo a favourable reign.

January 13, 2018