The Nation Newspaper

Tag: solution

  • ‘Infertility has solution, don’t patronise baby factories’

    ‘Infertility has solution, don’t patronise baby factories’

    Why don’t people talk freely about Invitro Fertilisation (IVF) even when they have benefited from it? The paradigm is shifting as beneficiaries at the Nordica Fertility Centre have launched the Fertility Awareness Advocate Initiative (FAAI) to support fertility-challenged couples and demystify IVF intervention, writes OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA.

    The launch of any product comes with  excitement and hope. So it was with the launch of Fertility Awareness Advocate Initiative (FAAI) recently.

    The Civic Cente, Victoria Island, venue of the event, was filled to capacity with beautifully-dressed kids: boys and girls, in orange and blue T-shirt. They numbered over 300. They are some of the 1, 500+ kids conceived through IVF provided by the Nordica Fertility Centre. Their parents were also in attendance; they beamed with smiles.Their faces once displayed bitterness and frustration. Those feelings have been replaced with joy and fulfilment.

    With confidence, the parents declared that they came out to encourage fertility-challenged couples to seek Assisted Reproductive Therapy (ART), especially IVF, a tested and proven option for achieving their desire – children.

    FAAI President Omoz Evborokhai said as the name suggests, FAAI is a support group formed to help couples who were yet to have their own children to stay positive and hopeful through the waiting period, having understood that infertility could be tough on couples.

    Evborokhai said the decision to establish  FAAI was borne out of the desire to ensure continuous awareness, education and enlightenment on the myths and misconceptions surrounding assisted conception and infertility in the country.

    “FAAI also aims at promoting enforcement of regulatory standards in the treatment of infertility in Nigeria and collaboration with organisations with similar objectives,” he stated.

    Evborokhai pointed out that many child-less couples have been taken advantage of by quacks because of ignorance, saying: “We at FAAI believe that people should get to know that there is hope at the end of the tunnel and that they can have  babies through legitimate processes.

    “By offering counseling support, we let couples on the fertility journey know that others have gone through this same route and achieved successes. We also share our experiences which goes a long way to inspire them. This is a sure way of ending the plethora of baby factories in our society. I did IVF along with my wife some 14 years ago. I am through with procreation. And have no need for same again. I am spearheading this along with some other beneficiaries so many more couples out there can be supported and benefit to access IVF based on informed decisions”, said Evborokhai.

    He advised child-less couples not to patronise baby factories and get into trouble, “rather, seek options in assisted conception which abound in the country and are legitimate by all standards”.

    Medical Director, Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos and Asaba, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, said although no accurate data existed in the country on the exact number of couples battling infertility, experts were of the opinion that for every couple that could conceive within a year of marriage, four others are making frantic efforts to achieve pregnancy.

    Leading other fertility experts and beneficiaries of the invitro fertilisation (IVF) at the event, which attracted many couples who came to know more about the initiative and become partners, Ajayi said the prevalence of infertility was put at between 20 and 25 percent among married couples.

    He said no less than 45 percent of consultations in most gynaecology clinics across the country were infertility related, advising couples not to shy away from seeking immediate help once they are unable to achieve conception within a year of continuous sexual relationship.

    Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Prof Folashade Ogunsola, called for sustained research into ways of reducing the burden of infertility.

    Prof Ogunsola decried the rate at which the population snared at couples with infertility challenge who opt for IVF. She said: “We have come a long way in infertility treatment, and we need to continue to demystify infertility, while also encouraging couples that have benefited from the treatment procedures to come out and share their stories”.

    Going down memory lane, Ogunsola recalled how patients in the past visited the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for treatment options for infertility without success saying: “It was such a miserable time and I was really moved. We felt that even if we could do the O (Obstetrics), without the G (Gynaecology), it would not be enough. At the infertility clinic (LUTH), the same people were there year after year; there was no solution”.

    She urged beneficiaries of the IVF treatment to be free and open in sharing their success stories to encourage many more who are child-less, “and help restore hope that it is possible to carry their bundles of joy with assisted conception and delivery”, she added.

    She urged the FAAI group to collaborate with universities and research institutes in finding ways to reduce the burden and cost of treating infertility.

    Before the launch came to a conclusion, the children sang two songs, which theme was that: “they are healthy children just like any other child and not robot or artificial/man-made children.

     

  • Labour calls for solution to pension challenges

    The Kaduna State Chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have urged the government to address problems associated with contributory pension scheme.

    They advised that for a successful implementation of the government‘s reform plan, a strong committee, including stakeholders, should be constituted with a mandate and objectives.

    This was contained in a statement by the state’s NLC Chairman, Comrade Adamu Ango.

    The statement said the implementation of the reform by the Kaduna State Government should be done in phases to address issues that might arise during the execution of the reforms.

    The statement read: “The government should as a matter of priority, settle all outstanding arrears of salaries and entitlements of retirees before embarking on the reform.

    “Without prejudice to the existing norms, we wish to advise that ageing in the service should be by the provision as contained in the statute books, i.e. 35 years in service and /or 60 years of age and that should be maintained for uniformity with the civil service of the federation.

    “All problems associated with the contributory pension scheme should be addressed e.g. accrual valuation, reconciliation of remittance of employee/employer and the Group Life Insurance etc.’’

    The unions recommended that officers that had reached or soon to reach the retirement age/years of  service be allowed to voluntarily exit the service, while the government should make their entitlements ready for collection within the mandatory three months of notice to achieve a win-win situation.

     

  • Sheriff considers political solution to PDP crisis 

    Sheriff considers political solution to PDP crisis 

    After visiting ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and some former Heads of State,  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) factional chair  Ali Modu Sheriff and his loyalists are weighing options on political solution to the crisis.

    About six governors of the party were also said to have shifted to Sheriff’s camp and coordinating efforts to find a political solution.

    It was learnt that Sheriff, his factional National Working Committee (NWC), some ex-governors and other key supporters may meet today in Abuja to take stock of the situation.

    It was learnt that all those consulted by Sheriff advised him to consider a political solution to save the opposition from collapse.

    Although three former Heads of State agreed that Sheriff had cogent reasons for sticking to a legal option, they asked him to “sacrifice for the survival of the nation’s democracy.”

    It was learnt that Sheriff felt bad about the alleged plot by Governors Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose to humiliate out of office.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Despite the fact that we may have legal advantage, Sheriff’s camp is weighing options on political solution to the lingering PDP crisis.

    “All consultations and representations made to our camp so far have pointed to political solution because the PDP crisis is becoming a national security threat.

    “In fact, weekend’s session between ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and Sheriff focused more on the security implications of a viable opposition going under. Obasanjo was more concerned about the lawlessness the nation might be plunged into without a strong opposition.

    “Some of those who have pleaded with Sheriff believe that there is a political vacuum in the country which PDP is not filling.”

    The source added: “Sheriff will on Monday (today) meet with his loyalists and NWC members to take stock and decide on the way forward. The truth is that if it is about judicial option, Sheriff has an edge but he cannot ignore all those who have advised him.

    “There is likely to be a meeting point soon between the Sheriff Group and Sen. Ahmed Maikarfi Caretaker Committee in order to keep the party united.

    “At the end of the day, the two factions might go for an out-of-court settlement to move the party forward. With the way things are going, most of the cases at hand may remain in court till 2019 going by the slow pace of justice.”

    It was learnt that the six governors who have teamed up with Sheriff were said to have parted ways with Wike and Fayose, allegedly influenced the choice of Abuja for the next National Convention of the PDP.

    Another source added: “These six governors have realized that Wike and Fayose are much more fixated on the 2019 agenda than the survival of PDP. They have shifted base to Sheriff and they are coordinating efforts to resolve the challenges facing the party.

    Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday said PDP was already in coma and needed intensive care.

  • Unemployment: CIPM’s report sees MSMEss, others as solution

    Unemployment: CIPM’s report sees MSMEss, others as solution

    Worried by the rising unemployment, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) has urged the government to stem the tide in line with the report of its committee, reports Bukola Bolajoko.

    Nigeria has been battling with a huge population of unemployed, or under-employed youths. This has prompted successive governments’ demonstrating highe resolve in the promotion of entrepreneurial skills, bearing in mind that the much desired boom and diversification of the nation’s economy can only be achieved through a buoyant Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) sector which thrives on entrepreneurship.

    Efforts by past administrations have brought about the emergence  of agencies and institutions such as the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) in 1989, with an initial capital outlay of N300million, Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) in 1990 with paid-up capital of N1.367billion, the Peoples Bank in 1990 with N330million,

    Also in the basket of job creation initiatives

    were the Capital Market and the formulation of a policy in 1990 that promoted the establishment of Community Banks, which was later amended to give birth to Micro-Finance Banks (MfBs) in 2006. The Bank of Industry (BoI) was another financial institution created to promote the aforementioned in a bid to tackle unemployment.

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) which was created in response to the austerity measures, following the adoption and implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)  and the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategies (NEEDS), are two additional agencies created by past administrations to address the huge percentage of the unemployed, and as well reduce the dependency on government for job and wealth creation.

    Despite these past efforts and ongoing ones, the reality on ground  is that, the national unemployment statistics showed that 25.1per cent Nigerian youths are still unemployed (NBS, 2015), with some 35 per cent underemployed.

    This gloomy picture has prompted the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), being the professional body backed by law to regulate the practice of human resource management in the country, to conduct  research into the causes of the prevalent rise of unemployment level in Nigeria. The feedback from the research was further validated at focus group discussion held early in the year to identify and clarifya list of causal factors of unemployment.

    Not surprising, policy inconsistency ranked highest in the report. According to the research, this rated as the most significant factor responsible for unemployment in Nigeria. This prompted a call for a critical analysis of the applicability and sustainability of public policies, before and whilst being formulated, as well as calling for more realistic and pragmatic policies that can truly impact a sustainable drive aimed at significantly reducing unemployment levels.

    Poor political governance and setting of policy direction which elicits harsh operating business environment, was also reported as a major cause of unemployment as its effects leaves many organisations reducing their employees, and fueling joblessness.

    Emeritus Prof Pai Obanya echoed this,  stressing the need for government policies to address youth unemployment. He said this would help prevent the present youth bulge in the population from becoming a time-bomb.

    Other causal factors listed in the report include; a lack of stakeholders’ own-able employment policy, as well as misalignment of educational system output and skills set mostly demanded by employers, causing a predominantly sub-optimal quality of graduates.

    In addition, the report said inadequacy of data of unemployed and underemployed people, has been identified as a key factor. The obvious difficulties in accessing timely and accurate data on either employed, or under employed persons causes a widening gap on effecting technological advancement, social, cultural, religious and other metrics that can be devised in curbing the unemployment scourge.

    According to the CIPM research report, echoed by its President and Chairman of Governing Council, Anthony Arabome, there is need and indeed a strong call for reforming the educational sector to include enforcing high educational standards, full implementation of technical and vocational education, and determined vigour at promoting the Federal Government’s policy on entrepreneurship education.

    The call, he said, is also strong for accessible financial support to start-ups and existing businesses; provision of a social scheme to support nascent businesses; creation of a healthy competitive environment that gives rewards and consideration for innovation, as well as provision of incentives for selected industries with potential capacity to create more jobs.

    The report also canvassed availability of accessible grants for MSMEs, either for start-up or for expansion, and creation of employment opportunities in conducive environments, including rural areas, will be crucial for the country in achieving an optimal employment level.

    In progressing this great initiative, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, through findings made by its committee on the Management of National Unemployment Challenge (MNUC), is committed to the engagement ofkey stakeholders across the private and public divide, including the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, and the Presidency for an adoption of its recommendations.

    Its engagement would project the importance and value of these findings and the associated recommendations to all stakeholders at all levels for full acceptance and implementation, he Registrar/CEO, CIPM, Sunday Adeyemi, said.

  • Sheriff’s camp urges political solution to PDP crisis

    Sheriff’s camp urges political solution to PDP crisis

    The camp of the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, has called for a political solution to the party’s leadership crisis.

    The stand-off between Sheriff and the chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has polarised the ranks of stakeholders, as both camps have continued to lay claim to the leadership.

    Making the call at the weekend, the immediate past National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, urged the Board of Trustees (BoT) to immediately facilitate a meeting between the warring factions.

    According to him,  the crisis requires a political solution, and the cases instituted by both camps, if allowed to go on, would hamper the chances of the party in the forth coming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states.

    Ojougboh warned that if the BoT failed to save the situation, it could degenerate into an intractable situation capable of preventing the party from fielding candidates in future elections.

    The party chieftain dismissed claims by the Makarfi camp that Sheriff was hired by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to destroy the PDP, arguing that if the APC was sponsoring the embattled chairman, the police and the Department of State Service (DSS) would have taken sides with Sheriff.

    Said he, “The police invited both Makarfi and Sheriff  and tried to settle their differences. That is how the BoT should also behave. We are urging our leaders to be dispassionate in this matter.

    “The answer is not too difficult to proffer.  There is a court judgement by an Abuja High Court delivered by Justice Mohammed. In that judgement, it is stated clearly that the tenure of Sheriff ends in 2018, because Sheriff was elected by NEC to complete the tenure of Adamu Mu’azu.

    “A letter also written by INEC to PDP suspended the convention, saying that there should be no election into the offices of Chairman, National Secretary and Auditor. With all these put together, if you look at it legally and from the rule of law, you will see that Sheriff has a judgement and the law on his side.

    “Now, one begins to wonder. One of the emperors in the party, somebody like Mr. Nyesom Wike, is governor today by virtue of the courts and the rule of law.

    “Wilke lost at the court of first instance. He lost at another court in the second instance and won at the Supreme Court. But no one has come to tell Wike to allow for the political process to play, or to step down from being governor of Rivers”.

    Dr. Ojougboh noted that no one had appealed the judgement delivered in favour of Sheriff, adding that the embattled chairman has a good case.

  • Is Buhari the problem or solution?

    Is Buhari the problem or solution?

    THIS piece is inspired by a recent OP-ED article by the Wall Street Journal writer Pete Hoekstra titled “The Three Changes Nigeria Needs.” The writer concludes that President Muhammadu Buhari is actually Nigeria’s problem and not the solution. He then warns that rising ethnic tensions are a threat to the country’s future.
    It’s always refreshing to have such outside interventions in our national debate. An analyst looking in from the outside is liberated from accusations of partisan bias, but could also be guilty of ignorance and a rush to judgment.
    In some cases people spend three days in a country and they become instant experts on her travails and have all the magical solutions to her problems. How helpful it would have been if they were saying something new.
    Let’s begin by saying the never-ending projections of Nigeria’s imminent demise have been grossly exaggerated. Many tiptoed into 2015 conscious of the projection by some Western security agencies that the centrifugal forces troubling the country would come to a head with the once-promising giant breaking into tiny bits.
    Although the doomsday scenario didn’t play out, we came pretty close. What with Abubakar Shekau’s Boko Haram setting up a ramshackle caliphate on the desert fringes and a desperate Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) regime pressing every ethnic and religious button in its bid to retain power.
    In the end the nation has remained intact after a fashion. But twelve months after Muhammadu Buhari was installed as president, and with his political honeymoon will and truly expired, the divisions are back with a vengeance in the form of the Niger Delta Avengers in the South-South and Biafra agitators in the South-East.
    It is increasingly quiet up north with the Boko Haram threat in recession. But whatever positives have been gained on that front are swiftly neutralised by the emergence of Fulani herdsmen as cross-country agents of death and devastation.
    Add to the stew of woes an economy that is tanking, a national currency shedding value by the minute, states that are so insolvent they can’t pay their workers, and you know you smack in the middle of a crisis.
    At such times everyone has an opinion as to the way forward. Some even look back longingly to the cucumber, leek and onions of Egypt even half seriously requesting ‘bring back our corruption.’ The imputation being that life was rosy comparatively in the last dispensation.
    Former Senate President David Mark captured the sentiment best when on the May 29 Democracy Day anniversary he told Nigerians to judge whether things were better under APC rule than they were in the PDP days.
    I read a funny post online that said when the All Progressives Congress (APC) were in opposition they had all the answers, but now that they find themselves on the hot seat all they offer are excuses! Funny, but the neutrals know one wisecrack doesn’t tell the whole story.
    Nigerians understand that the ship landed in choppy waters because of the path chosen by those who were steering in times past. What we have now is the picture of a vessel in a raging storm taking in water faster than the captain’s ability to bail it out.
    The question now is not the commitment of the skipper to scooping out the water to prevent a shipwreck. What is at issue is both the vigour with which he’s applying himself and the technique he’s deploying to resolve the problem.
    By now it would have been obvious to everyone that the president is given to deliberation and would not be stampeded on any issue until he’s good and ready to go. For a nation of people permanently rushing somewhere, he’s a mismatch.
    By taking his time he opens himself up to accusations of being ‘Baba Go Slow’. But I guess the ‘slowness’ comes from getting him to move from his long-held positions to new options that he remains deeply suspicious of.
    This criticism is rehashed by Pete Hoekstra in his Wall Street Journal piece which cast Buhari as “Nigeria’s problem and not its solution.”
    The article attacked the president’s “stiffness, lack of vision and reactive approach to issues.” The writer also argues Buhari’s ideas ‘to rebalance the economy and regenerate growth, his damaging and outdated monetary policy has been crippling.’
    It is not a new thing to be said about Buhari. During the campaigns the PDP repeatedly derided him for his years and the age of his ideas. But fair is fair.
    The president may have a reputation for stubbornness, but it would be fraudulent to accuse him of being as inflexible as his erstwhile starched khaki uniforms.
    A man who was viscerally opposed to a hike in petrol price and removal of subsidy bowed to the advocates of deregulation. The man who romanticised the naira’s glory days when it exchanged in single digits to the dollar, surrendered to currency floatation or devaluation.
    The only thing that addresses the nitpicking are results. In order for ‘change’ not to become a moving target, the administration must desperately pray that the measures it has taken on several fronts begin to deliver the desired results. So far, the jury is out.
    Even within the administration there doesn’t appear to be clarity as to the way forward. Take the issue of nipping resurgent Niger Delta militancy in bud. During the week we witnessed the embarrassing spectacle of Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu openly disagreeing over negotiations with the militants and the controversial Maritime University at Okerenkoko, Delta State.
    To hear both men talk you would have thought one was in government while the other sat with the opposition. It was not the sort of display to give a sceptic confidence that the administration has a handle on one of its most disturbing challenges.
    The divisions in the cabinet mirror the differences of opinion on the outside. It is understandable that the government is still feeling its way forward, but what is needed now is for Buhari to come down clearly on one side of the argument for progress to be made.
    He did so with the deregulation of the downstream of the petroleum sector and the floatation of the naira. While the measures didn’t satisfy everyone naturally the president’s decisive move earned him plaudits. He needs to move with such despatch on many other fronts.
    What Buhari and his team must appreciate is that a juncture has been reached where the mere retailing of the history of our predicament is no longer enough for a people desperate for change. The people know what PDP has done and repeatedly saying it doesn’t ameliorate their suffering, it just becomes annoying after a while.

  • Firms proffer solution to tomato disease

    Two firms,  Russell IPM United Kingdom and Agronet Nigeria Limited,    have  launched an effective and sustainable solution to combat the tomato disease-Tuta Absoluta.

    In a statement, the  firms  said the three-component system, based on beneficial soil microbes and biopesticides, work in synergy to destroy both larvae and adults of Tuta, boost the plant’s defence and promote  growth in a safe and sustainable way.

    Together with Agronet Nigeria Ltd, Russell IPM conducted field demonstrations to show farmers how they can use the products and gain complete control over the pest.

    According to the statement, local farms using Russell IPM’s Recharge, Antario and Biotrine systems have noted a significant reduction in Tuta population and tomato damage. The product has been demonstrated at Tenti Farms, a   25 hectares of greenhouse farm based in Jos,Plateau  State where tomatoes and peppers are primarily grown.

    Head Agronomist at the farm, Odunayo Orowumi,  said: “In the past, our farm has been devastated by the Tuta absoluta pest and despite trying a number of conventional pesticides, the moth caused complete losses in our greenhouses.”

    After seeking the help of Agronet, a local agricultural and consultancyservice, they began applying the Russell IPM solution within their greenhouses.

  • Democracy best solution to our problems, says Saraki

    Democracy best solution to our problems, says Saraki

    Senate President Bukola Saraki has commended Nigerians for working to sustain democracy in the past 17 years despite the various challenges the country has encountered within the period.

    In a statement to mark this year’s Democracy Day, signed on his behalf by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki described democracy as not only the most globally accepted system of government but also the best solution to the problems confronting a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious society like Nigeria.

    He said in the last 17 years, the electorate had become more discerning and sophisticated as the nation has got to the point that people elected to the various offices are now conscious of the fact that they are under constant watch and when they fail to meet the expectation of the voters, they will be given the red card.

    He said: “It is the first time in our national history that we will have 17 unbroken years of democratically elected governments. Last year, our people demonstrated that our democracy is fast maturing as they voted out a party in power and elected another party. Since then, one can notice how people have become more and more interested in governance and the performance of those elected and appointed into public offices.

    “In my own view, these are signs that our democracy has matured. Our people deserve commendation for that. This positive development is also already reflecting in the quality of governance and the level of development being witnessed across board in the country”, he stated.

    The Senate President urged elected and appointed officials at all levels of government to continue to justify the confidence people reposed in them as he said he and his colleagues in the Senate are conscious of the fact that if they fail to live up to the expectation of the people, the next elections are just around the corner.

    He added that  the nation must improve on the conduct of elections in such a manner that the free will of the electorate will be reflected in the results, adding that for the country to become a matured democracy, elections must be peaceful,  free and fair.

    “The issue of free and fair elections is a joint responsibility for all of us. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must continue to improve on its process and machinery for conduct of elections while the people must learn to shun violence and all forms of unlawful conduct during electioneering. We cannot be celebrating many years of democracy if people still take elections as if it is war and refuse to accept the decision of the majority.”

  • UI dons proffer solution to Tomato disease

    Agricultural experts at the University of Ibadan yesterday proffered solutions to the outbreak of Tomato disease, Tuta Absoluta, saying importing tomato seeds was not the best option.

    One of them, Dr. Morufat Balogun, who is a geneticist, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that importing seeds to cushion the problem would further drain the nation’s foreign exchange.

    She said the Federal Government should direct plant breeders/entomologists to develop new tomato varieties that could adapt to the Nigerian environment.

    “Tomato is a short duration crop that breeds fast; when an insect smells something in the plant that puts it away, it can’t feed on it.

    “If the gene from such hormones is put in tomato, the pest will not feed on it. That will be a lasting solution.

    “A cushioning solution will be when farmers grow their tomato in an insect screen environment, the insects can’t attack it.

    “Tomato can be produced anytime of the year. So, government should build screen houses for farmers,” Balogun said.

    Another expert, Dr Biodun Claudius-Cole, a Plant Pathologist at the university, said management of the disease should be done using combination of biosecticide method, resistant crops, among others.

    “Farmers need to practice good agricultural methods; they must have good land preparation as that manages soil burn, which is one of the problems of tomato.

    “They should also be encouraged with inputs and facilities that will help them produce tomato all year round.”

    She said the government should ensure that crops like tomatoes coming to Nigeria were quarantined before allowed into the country.

    Claudius-Cole said the government should also put necessary measures to control the disease in affected states to stop it from spreading to other places.

    An entomologist from the same University, Dr. Olajumoke Alabi, said farmers should use insecticide in a systemic way, if they should use it at all.

    “We can use bio-control agents like nematode, augmentation to suppress the pest population, we can also use cultural control, whereby farmers uproot and destroy infected crops.”

  • Desperate situation, desperate solution!

    Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose took the bull by the horn when last week, he banned grazing and rearing of cattle in the state. In their stead, he wants all those interested in cattle farming to get their own private ranches. A bill will soon be sent to the State House of Assembly to make the movement of cattle from one location of the state to another a criminal offence.

    Apparently irked by incessant attacks in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen which peaked with killings and maiming in Oke Ako in the Ikole Local Government of the state, Fayose promised to confiscate any cattle seen anywhere in the state, except the ranches created for them by their owners.

    For those who have followed the murderous activities and criminality of the herdsmen in parts of the country and the seeming inability of the federal government to find a handle to them, Fayose’s therapy would seem a desperate solution to a degenerate problem.

    Before now, tempers have been high across the country due to the relative ease with which heavily armed Fulani herdsmen attack, kill and destroy villages ostensibly to settle disagreements with their host communities. From Benue to Kaduna, Enugu to Oyo states, their activities have left in their trail, sorrow and awe as host villagers are murdered and rendered refugees in their ancestral homes by an invading insurgent group that operates with near invincibility in the face of the inability of law enforcement agencies to apprehend them.

    Day after day, week after week, the scourge has refused to abate despite the outcries of the most vulnerable communities of the herdsmen onslaught. As things stand, it would seem the fear of Fulani herdsmen has taken the toga of the beginning of wisdom. Why not? Not with the dexterity and near invincibility with which they operate. Not with the inability of the local population to match the superior gun power of the invaders. And when you add these to the inability of law enforcement agencies to apprehend them in action or abort their plans, the situation becomes that ugly. Not unexpectedly, this has encouraged the herdsmen to take laws into their hands in the style of the atavism of the state of nature.

    Even in cases where villagers had prior information of impending attacks and promptly reported to the law enforcement agencies, nothing was done to forestall them. That was precisely the case with the killings in Enugu State where even after the governor was given copious assurances that security agencies were on top of the situation, the worst still happened.

    Events in the latest attack in Ekiti State curiously followed the same predictable pattern. There were reports that even when the villagers reported the attack as it was going on, no respite came their way as the police refused to go into the bush with them.

    Given the foregoing, the frustrations that led Fayose to these rather drastic measures can be understood. It is a desperate effort to protect his people from the frequent killings that are now consequent upon cattle rearing and movement of cattle from one place to another. It also underscores most poignantly the inherent contradiction in the seeming high premium cattle breeders now place on that animal over and above human life.

    If the measures succeed to checkmate the clashes between his constituents and the herdsmen thereby saving valuable lives, the end has justified the means. It is not a matter of whether one likes Fayose or not. We all do not have to like him anyway. That is hardly the issue now.

    We may also not like the messenger. But it is not a matter of taking the message and discarding the messenger. No! Both the message and the messenger are very relevant and useful in the instant case. After all, is it not said there is sense in nonsense?

    The measures stand as Fayose’s solutions as chief security officer of the state to the clashes between the herdsmen and the local farmers. They may seem radical; they may appear harsh and capable of creating difficulties for genuine cattle breeders on the short run. There is also the difficulty of immediate enforcement in view of the fact that the herdsmen are already in the bushes in the state. For now, that is his response to the wanton slaying of his people by an invading insurgent group that places higher premium on cows over and above human lives and it cannot be faulted. Those who criticize his approach to this debilitating problem should come forward with their own solutions. He could ill-afford to sit by while his people are slaughtered by an invading insurgent group that has scant regard for human lives.

    He wants to get at the source of this crisis and stem subsequent attacks. And in this, he sees controlling the movement of cattle from one place to another as the appropriate starting point.  He is interested in saving lives and any other consideration should count less when it comes to the first law of nature – self preservation. Those were the issues of prime concern to the governor especially given suspicions that there are other motivations for the resurging onslaughts of the Fulani herdsmen.

    It is difficult to fault the decisions irrespective of the difficulties they will create for cattle breeders in the interim. There could be the issue of where breeders will house their cattle between now and the time such ranches are established. All these immediate problems are to be admitted. But they have arisen because those whose duty it is to provide solutions to the drift to the precipice have failed to take action. They have become relevant in the face of the failure of the state to rise to its basic function of guaranteeing law and order.

    So it is not enough to fault the strategy adopted by Fayose. He saw a yawning vacuum and sought to fill it. Those who created that vacuum should take vicarious liability for whatever shortcomings there are in Fayose’s therapy to the looming conundrum these attacks have come to represent. It may turn out the most dramatic way of drawing attention of the authorities to the potent danger in the senseless killings by Fulani herdsmen across the country.

    And if the measures succeed in challenging the federal government to the reality of finding lasting solutions to this debilitating ill, then they have achieved their purpose in a teleological sense. Responses from the government have centered round the creation of grazing reserves. It has set aside N940 million in the current budget for the creation of such reserves across the country. There have also been denials over a purported bill before the National Assembly for the creation of grazing routes.

    But whereas grazing reserves can be created for states in the north that are traditional cattle rearers, it makes no sense to talk of such reserves in the south. For Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, his state has no land for gazing reserves. Not only is the proposal against the Land Use Act, Ajimobi contends that it is also against the “law of natural justice to grab someone’s land to cater for another one’s cattle”. He spoke for many.

    The other idea of grazing routes is also a contradiction of sorts as evidently dramatized in a recent interview by the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe. He underscored the contradiction in the proposal when he said you cannot create a grazing route to someone else’s farmland. So we are left with the ranches which Fayose prescribed for those interested in cattle breeding in Ekiti State.

    More seriously, this government must act quickly to diffuse the time bomb which these attacks have become. Resurging feelings by communities that they have no alternative than to resort to self-help in the face of the inability of the government to rein in the insurgents can only lead to anarchy. Fayose’s action should be a sufficient signal to the degenerate level the situation is inevitable sliding.