DEMONSTRATION BY IGBO YOUTHS IS IN ACCORD WITH UN COVENANT & ACHPR AND NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION

  Demonstrations by Igbo youths constitute very legitimate demand for the Right to Self Determination provided for and guaranteed by UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UN ICCPR) Part One Article 1(1).

 All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

Nigeria ratified and deposited this Covenant with UN on 29th July 1993 and according to Article 1(3) of the Covenant, is bound to protect and defend the Right to Self Determination of all ethnic nationalities of Nigeria.

Article 1(3) The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

The African Union (AU) version of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted  in a Summit of African Heads of State of the AU in Nairobi, Kenya on 28th June 1981 as the African Charter on Human and Political Rights (ACHPR), otherwise referred to as Banjul Charter. It was first ratified on 21st October 1981 in Mali and came into force on 21st October 1986. Articles 19 and 20 of the ACHPR clearly states the right to equality, elimination of domination, the right to existence and self-determination of the peoples of the country of Africa in very blatant terms.

ARTICLE 19
All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another.

ARTICLE 20
All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen.
Colonized or oppressed peoples shall have the right to free themselves from the bonds of domination by resorting to any means recognized by the international community.
All peoples shall have the right to the assistance of the State Parties to the present Charter in their liberation struggle against foreign domination, be it political, economic or cultural.

On 31st August 1982 Nigeria signed the ACHPR; ratified it on 22nd June 1983 and deposited its ratification with AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on 22nd July 1983.

Conscious of the full implications of Articles 19 and 20 of ACHPR  and Article 1(1) & (3) of UN ICCPR, on Right to Self Determination of the over 250 ethnic nationalities of Nigeria, the oligarchy manipulating power in Nigeria did what it knows best in doing - Jihad of Deception. It enacted a benign Act claiming to have domesticated ACHPR by merely enacting  the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Chapter A9, (Chapter 10 LFN 1990)(No 2 of 1983) Laws of the FederationNigeria 1990.
The ACHPR Act is a ruse, not intended to enforce any of the ACHPR provisions not entrenched in the Nigerian Constitution.
Out of morbid fear that the over 250 million ethnic nationalities whom the oligarchs oppress and insult daily would exercise their self determination rights, no effort whatsoever has been made by the goalers of Nigeria to entrench in Nigeria's Constitution the Right to Self Determination provision in
the UN ICCPR Part One Article 1(1).

In 1999 when the oligarchy's Army Generals decided to execute another chicanery, branded 'Transition to Civil Rule' they concocted a Prisoner-of-War Ordinance, otherwise known as the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in which Geneva Convention  for the entrapped prisoners, was deliberately omitted. It was faked as having emanated and ratified by Nigerians even though it was a decree signed by one the oligarchy's Generals.

Provisions were made in Chapter IV of that Constitution in accordance with UN ICCPR and ACHPR for fundamental rights to Life, Respect for Dignity of the Human Person, Personal Liberty, Fair Hearing, Privacy of Citizens and Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion,  Freedoms of Expression, of Assembly and Association with other Persons and of Movement and Residence. The
oligarchs knew they could easily violate these provisions as custodians of the rights of the people,
either by openly violating them or by benign negligence, like it does  with Cattle -Fulani herdsmen  who daily kill, maim, rape and violate property rights by forcefully occupying people's homes and farms and are never arrested or arraigned.

For the Right to Self Determination, which is the ultimate glue that bonds federations by bonding them through engendering equality and mutual respect between federating units, the oligarchy not only made sure it was not entrenched in the unitary Constitution of the Federation they concocted; but also foreclosed by that  Right to Self Determination of over 250 nations that make up Nigeria. They introduced an article unknown to federating concept by proscribing the Right to Self Determination by Article 2(1) of the 1999 Constitution. There was no such provision in the 1960/63 Constitution negotiated in six Conferences by the founding wise men of Nigeria, because  they intelligently and patriotically accepted Nigeria's diversity and hoped to build a union by accepting the
inherent principles of federating.

Article 2. (1) Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known by the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

No Union created by God or man is indeterminable. Life ends in death. There is provision for divorce in marriage under most,if not all laws. In business, incorporated companies have provisions for dissolution. The existence of this provision for dissolution compels parties to work hard on strengthening their union thereby engendering mutual respect.

The insertion of Article 2(1) in the Nigerian Constitution therefore offends the stipulations and spirit of UN ICCPR and AU's ACHPR.
Union of human beings is not by force; only Cattle and other mammals, not humans can be forcefully
united.

Article 2(1) is therefore a real instrument of enslavement of the rest of Nigeria by the OLIGARCHY IN ORDER TO GUARANTEE PERMANENT ACCESS TO THE SEA AND THE OIL RESOURCES. The existence of that nonsensical article on indissolubility and indivisibility of the Federation and exclusion of the Right to Self Determination in the Nigerian Constitution is the source of arrogance and disrespect by the oligarchy on the rest of over 250 ethnic nationalities, who are as it is, entrapped in the oligarchy's enslavement. An Act of Parliament on Self Determination is inferior to the constitutional provision which has entrenched indissolubility and  indivisibility.

It is imperative that for Nigerians to free themselves from this enslavement of the oligarchy, this
breach and/or abridgment  of international covenants and charters must be challenged in the
international arena and expunged from the Nigerian Constitution and its place have entrenched the
provisions of UN ICCPR Part One Article 1(1) and AU's ACHPR Article 20(1).

This is what MASSOB and IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) are agitating for and under
 Chapter IV Article 39(1) of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees Freedom of Expression - Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference;
and Article 40 which guarantees Freedom of Association -

  Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests. . .; neither the Federal Government of General Buhari nor South East
Governors and bandit Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has a right under Nigeria's laws to deny the demonstrators
their constitutional rights. It is instead binding duty of the governments to protect the demonstrators.
Nandi Kanu, has fulfilled the terms of his bail and it is a demonstration of irresponsible lawlessness for the Federal Government to continue to detain him indefinitely. It is time his minders took his case international courts.

All free thinkers in Nigeria who value fundamental freedoms in place of present enslavement by the oligarchy, must support the struggle within Nigeria and in the international arena for expunging Section 2(1) from the Nigerian Constitution and the entrenchment of the Right to Self Determination in the Nigerian Constitution.

Not to take any action, is endorsement of the present POW Cattle Republic of Nigeria in which the enslavers equate Nigerian citizens' fundamental rights to cattle rights based on a primordial, decadent
and retrogressive culture.

MASSOB DEMONSTRATION IS AGITATION FOR A GENUINE FEDERATION IN PLACE OF PRESENT CATTLE UNITARY REPUBLIC

MASSOB DEMONSTRATION IS AGITATION FOR A GENUINE FEDERATION IN PLACE OF PRESENT CATTLE UNITARY REPUBLIC

 Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." (James Madison, 4th President of USA, father of US Constitution because he authored the draft and Sponsored of the monumental US Bill of Rights).

I insist that in Nigeria ignorance rules. Agitation for Biafra is not so much for physical Biafra but against the denial of the inherent right of the 350 ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria, to Self Determination by the monstrous and unitary Cattle Republic of Nigeria. The right to self determination in all federations engenders and guarantees EQUALITY and MUTUAL RESPECT  between the federating units in all enduring federations. Nigeria ratified all articles and protocols of the United Nations and African Union on the right to Self Determination of all peoples but as is typical of the lie that is Nigeria, none of the articles and protocols of the AU Charter and UN Covenant and Conventions are being observed or complied with in Nigeria's Cattle Unitary Republic.

Timorous and Gullible Nigerians do not understand that the Country is  a P. O. W. Camp where none of the Geneva Conventions is observed. Otherwise, can someone explain to me why in the past four years over 5,000 Nigerians have been wantonly killed by Cattle Fulani herdsmen in Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt, side by side with raping of women and sacking of whole communities. Tens of thousands are Internally Displaced Persons in Refugee Camps from communities sacked by Cattle Fulani herdsmen. Yet No Cattle Fulani has been arrested. A Senator and leader of Plateau State Assembly was killed by herdsmen in 2013 and till date no arrest. The Governor of Benue was shot at by herdsmen in his own State and no arrests were made. His ancestral community and 29 others within 25 kilometers radius were sacked by the herdsmen. The Police Inspector General pleaded helpless and the State Governor was compelled to eat humble pie. A nebulous peace was contrived enabling the herdsmen to graze their cattle anywhere in Benue State.

Seventy-seven year-old Chief Olu Falaye is a recent example. His farm was raided by these herdsmen. He was kidnapped and brutalized by these herdsmen for four long days and nights. For how long will Nigeria live with the menace of cattle Fulani herdsmen?

The demonstration or agitation by MASSOB can therefore be rightly construed as a demand for a real federation in place of present Cattle Unitary Republic of Nigeria OR like Dr. Azikiwe called for during the hectic days of the 1964 general elections, "if we cannot have a federation, let us call a meeting and separate in peace" INSTEAD OF THE PRESENT CATTLE UNITARY REPUBLIC!

Emeka Onyesoh.

PATRIOTISM - LOVE OF COUNTRY
Patriotism, as it is generally known and accepted in informed circles, derives from love of country and is invariably reaction from citizens to how well the State discharges its primary rationale for existence – security and welfare of citizens in equitable and transparent manner.  Love is by nature mutual. A country which does not care for its average citizens, naturally should expect no love from them and citizens will never offer such love.  Chapter II Fundamental Objectives &Directive Principles of State Policy (Section 14(2)(b) "The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government."
Dictionary Definition of Patriotism
 Patriotism is defined in Dictionaries as“zealous love of one’s country.”
Love by definition is an intense feeling of deep affection.
Synonyms of Love are: deep affection, fondness, attachment, endearment, warmth.
Definition of Patriotism in Social Science:
Patriotism as a feeling of attachment and love to one’s own social group – an ethnic group, nation or state – is usually regarded as a noble sentiment. it breeds altruism and engenders attitudes and behaviors promoting well being of the group. In extreme cases, it can also involve self-sacrifice: choosing welfare and safety of one’s national group over one’s own survival.
Patriotism is, in other words, a social force that can keep separate individuals together by turning an array of self-concerned agents into a community and a collection of distant groups into a nation.”
 Love of Country is therefore the summary of all definitions of patriotism. It is common knowledge that love (affection) between two persons cannot be decreed. It is a mutual relationship in which the two are bound in a reciprocal manner, with each giving, the same time it is taking or expecting to take. Patriotism can only therefore be generated by what a State represents to its citizens. It is like the relationship between a father and child and that between man and wife/lover. Was the father/man there for the child/woman when he/she needed support? In the case of a country, the determining factor is the ability of the government to fulfill the primary purpose of government – provision of and concern for the security and welfare of the people, identifiable in a transparent and easily realizable manner, not by nebulous concepts. If the state is unable to provide its aspect of what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) best known today for his work on political philosophy, termed ‘Social (political) Contract’, patriotism is truncated.
Government as Ultimate Teacher of the Populace: Nigerians witnessed Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, assume citizens’ teacher on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the EVD out-break in Nigeria. Prof. Filled in full the role of government as the ultimate teacher in special circumstances. Without the enlightenment care of the Federal Government, Ebola might have overrun Nigeria. It is worthwhile to note that this was one of the very rare occasions, the Federal Government of Nigeria was able to fulfill its social contract obligations to the people of Nigeria.
The Social Contract Theory in Governance:
The social contract theory of government requires that citizens cede individual freedoms to state with the understanding that they do so for the greater good of many, including themselves. If this is not so, if there is no clear benefit to society as a whole as a return for the loss of the individual rights and freedoms, then the spirit of the tacit agreement the citizen entered into has been broken.
Naturally when the spirit of the tacit agreement the citizen entered into with the state is broken, disorientation against the state follows and no amount of legislation can bring back such citizen’s affection for the state.
Serial and compound breaches of this social contract by government, a God-like party, lead to alienation. Patriotism automatically is withdrawn and no law can compel it.

Misconception of Patriotism by the 2014 National Conference

The 2014 National Conference obviously misconceived what generates love  of Country and was led to make following recommendation on Patriotism:

“In order to place a duty on citizens to embrace national loyalty above sectional or ethnic loyalties” the conference recommended in Section 6.2.1.s/No. 11 that a new Section 42 (3) be inserted in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria after the existing Section 42 (1) & (2) so as to probably compel all Nigerians to be patriotic (Section 11, page 549): “Every Nigerian citizen shall adhere to the ideology of national patriotism above sectional or ethnic interest.” Here there is a simplistic assumption that patriotism, which naturally flows out of love of country, can be commanded into Nigerians by a law as an ideology. This military disposition to command affection for a country into citizens is consistent with the senseless “indivisible and indissoluble” provision in Section 2(1) of the Constitution intended to enforce unity in Nigeria regardless of malfunctioning governance. Unfortunately this nonsensical provision was repeated in the Conference Annexure titled “Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration.”
 Behind this presumption is an assumption by the oligarchs that ordinary Nigerians are cattle that can be commanded; and that all the oligarch’s subversive activities against love for the Nigerian State are not being observed and noted by the ordinary people.
To think that patriotism can be conjured by mere legislative action of adding Section 42(3) as proposed, is an exhibition of a misconception of human nature. Definitely this flows from military mentality. The soldier swears an oath to lay down his life for the fatherland in return for which the State is supposed to take full responsibility for his life. Unfortunately in non-military live situations, citizens cannot be commanded to love a country that does not care for them.
That close to 500 Nigerian elite could spend five billion Naira of the county's scarce resources to think out how to make Nigeria better, but did not understand the basic relationship between government discharge of its own aspect of the social contract and patriotism, shows how ruinous the Military has been to the mentality of Nigerian political elites. Nigeria citizens are definitely not soldiers that can be commanded to love their country as an ideology.
Nigeria is a disastrous failure in fulfilling any of the two crucial roles it owes to its citizens - welfare and security - as per the Social Contract.
The most provocative aspect of this failure is the flagrant display of impunity by Nigeria’s political class as they show off wealth acquired by abusing their offices and the people’s trust. They further display total rejection of any social contract with citizens. Nigerian citizens seem helpless since the political class at election time would manipulate themselves back to power. Regardless of political party, all Nigerian politicians share evenly in this same irresponsible attitude to their obligations to the privileges they enjoy by holding public offices. In the given circumstances of Nigeria, love-of-country and consequently patriotism, is withdrawn. No law can bring it back. What changes citizens’ attitude is not Law; it is a change to the right attitude of people in government on their obligations and responsibilities to citizens. If they do the right thing, alienation will cease and love-of-country/patriotism would resume.
The patriotism enjoyed by countries in the first world derive from generations of public office holders’ overt effort to meet the terms of the social contract with the citizens - gainful employment (with living wages), standard social security and infrastructure, security, guarantee of fundamental rights including decency in and out of the country and equality under the law as guaranteed by Common Law in an openly equitable judicial system.

PATRIOTISM - LOVE OF COUNTRY
Patriotism, as it is generally known and accepted in informed circles, derives from love of country and is invariably reaction from citizens to how well the State discharges its primary rationale for existence – security and welfare of citizens in equitable and transparent manner.  Love is by nature mutual. A country which does not care for its average citizens, naturally should expect no love from them and citizens will never offer such love.  Chapter II Fundamental Objectives &Directive Principles of State Policy (Section 14(2)(b) "The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government."
Dictionary Definition of Patriotism
 Patriotism is defined in Dictionaries as“zealous love of one’s country.”
Love by definition is an intense feeling of deep affection.
Synonyms of Love are: deep affection, fondness, attachment, endearment, warmth.
Definition of Patriotism in Social Science:
Patriotism as a feeling of attachment and love to one’s own social group – an ethnic group, nation or state – is usually regarded as a noble sentiment. it breeds altruism and engenders attitudes and behaviors promoting well being of the group. In extreme cases, it can also involve self-sacrifice: choosing welfare and safety of one’s national group over one’s own survival.
Patriotism is, in other words, a social force that can keep separate individuals together by turning an array of self-concerned agents into a community and a collection of distant groups into a nation.”
 Love of Country is therefore the summary of all definitions of patriotism. It is common knowledge that love (affection) between two persons cannot be decreed. It is a mutual relationship in which the two are bound in a reciprocal manner, with each giving, the same time it is taking or expecting to take. Patriotism can only therefore be generated by what a State represents to its citizens. It is like the relationship between a father and child and that between man and wife/lover. Was the father/man there for the child/woman when he/she needed support? In the case of a country, the determining factor is the ability of the government to fulfill the primary purpose of government – provision of and concern for the security and welfare of the people, identifiable in a transparent and easily realizable manner, not by nebulous concepts. If the state is unable to provide its aspect of what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) best known today for his work on political philosophy, termed ‘Social (political) Contract’, patriotism is truncated.
Government as Ultimate Teacher of the Populace: Nigerians witnessed Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, assume citizens’ teacher on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the EVD out-break in Nigeria. Prof. Filled in full the role of government as the ultimate teacher in special circumstances. Without the enlightenment care of the Federal Government, Ebola might have overrun Nigeria. It is worthwhile to note that this was one of the very rare occasions, the Federal Government of Nigeria was able to fulfill its social contract obligations to the people of Nigeria.
The Social Contract Theory in Governance:
The social contract theory of government requires that citizens cede individual freedoms to state with the understanding that they do so for the greater good of many, including themselves. If this is not so, if there is no clear benefit to society as a whole as a return for the loss of the individual rights and freedoms, then the spirit of the tacit agreement the citizen entered into has been broken.
Naturally when the spirit of the tacit agreement the citizen entered into with the state is broken, disorientation against the state follows and no amount of legislation can bring back such citizen’s affection for the state.
Serial and compound breaches of this social contract by government, a God-like party, lead to alienation. Patriotism automatically is withdrawn and no law can compel it.

Misconception of Patriotism by the 2014 National Conference

The 2014 National Conference obviously misconceived what generates love  of Country and was led to make following recommendation on Patriotism:

“In order to place a duty on citizens to embrace national loyalty above sectional or ethnic loyalties” the conference recommended in Section 6.2.1.s/No. 11 that a new Section 42 (3) be inserted in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria after the existing Section 42 (1) & (2) so as to probably compel all Nigerians to be patriotic (Section 11, page 549): “Every Nigerian citizen shall adhere to the ideology of national patriotism above sectional or ethnic interest.” Here there is a simplistic assumption that patriotism, which naturally flows out of love of country, can be commanded into Nigerians by a law as an ideology. This military disposition to command affection for a country into citizens is consistent with the senseless “indivisible and indissoluble” provision in Section 2(1) of the Constitution intended to enforce unity in Nigeria regardless of malfunctioning governance. Unfortunately this nonsensical provision was repeated in the Conference Annexure titled “Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration.”
 Behind this presumption is an assumption by the oligarchs that ordinary Nigerians are cattle that can be commanded; and that all the oligarch’s subversive activities against love for the Nigerian State are not being observed and noted by the ordinary people.
To think that patriotism can be conjured by mere legislative action of adding Section 42(3) as proposed, is an exhibition of a misconception of human nature. Definitely this flows from military mentality. The soldier swears an oath to lay down his life for the fatherland in return for which the State is supposed to take full responsibility for his life. Unfortunately in non-military live situations, citizens cannot be commanded to love a country that does not care for them.
That close to 500 Nigerian elite could spend five billion Naira of the county's scarce resources to think out how to make Nigeria better, but did not understand the basic relationship between government discharge of its own aspect of the social contract and patriotism, shows how ruinous the Military has been to the mentality of Nigerian political elites. Nigeria citizens are definitely not soldiers that can be commanded to love their country as an ideology.
Nigeria is a disastrous failure in fulfilling any of the two crucial roles it owes to its citizens - welfare and security - as per the Social Contract.
The most provocative aspect of this failure is the flagrant display of impunity by Nigeria’s political class as they show off wealth acquired by abusing their offices and the people’s trust. They further display total rejection of any social contract with citizens. Nigerian citizens seem helpless since the political class at election time would manipulate themselves back to power. Regardless of political party, all Nigerian politicians share evenly in this same irresponsible attitude to their obligations to the privileges they enjoy by holding public offices. In the given circumstances of Nigeria, love-of-country and consequently patriotism, is withdrawn. No law can bring it back. What changes citizens’ attitude is not Law; it is a change to the right attitude of people in government on their obligations and responsibilities to citizens. If they do the right thing, alienation will cease and love-of-country/patriotism would resume.
The patriotism enjoyed by countries in the first world derive from generations of public office holders’ overt effort to meet the terms of the social contract with the citizens - gainful employment (with living wages), standard social security and infrastructure, security, guarantee of fundamental rights including decency in and out of the country and equality under the law as guaranteed by Common Law in an openly equitable judicial system.

CATTLE-FULANI HERDSMEN MENACE – A MORE OMINOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY THAN BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY

CATTLE-FULANI HERDSMEN MENACE – A MORE OMINOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY THAN BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY
 Cattle-Fulani Herdsmen Menace,is a bequest of the apparent lock-up of Nigerians in POW camps in which not even the Geneva Convention on Treatment of POW of 21st Oct. 1950, is observed. Section 2(1) of the Constitution denies the federating peoples of Nigeria their inherent and inalienable Right to Self Determination and therefore completely stifles Mutual Respect between the people who have assigned to themselves the right of ownership of Nigeria and the rest of Nigerians who they regard as mere appendages. Everybody knows this but nobody talks about it in the open.

(1)Historical Background: The Cattle Fulani menace is a legacy of the Fulani conquest of Hausas in the Fulani wars of 1804-10 and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate of Sheik Othman Dan Fodio.  The Fulanis by nature are nomads as against the Hausas and other ethnic nationalities inhabiting the North, who are farmers. The Fulanis assumed the right to graze their cattle anywhere including Hausa farmlands. They overran farmlands, sacked people from their homes, and killed, maimed and raped women without qualm.  Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first premier of Northern Region in a patronizing effort to reduce tensions emanating from the frictions arising out of the free ranging Fulani herdsmen, created grazing routes and reserves. By 1964 Northern Regional government had gazetted up to 6.4 million hectares of the forest reserve, ninety-eight percent in the savanna. Sokoto Province had twenty-one percent of the land, followed by Kabba, Bauchi, Zaria, Ilorin, and Katsina, with 11-15 percent each (Awogbade 1982). The Wase, Zamfara, and Udubo reserves followed in succession. The implication was that large chunks of other peoples’ land had been awarded to Fulani herdsmen and their settlements grew within and without these reserves. As the reserves bordered with numerous northern minority communities, conflicts proliferated.

(ii)Threat to National Security: The dominion tendency of Cattle Fulani herdsmen seems to have heightened with the victory of the Federal forces in the 1967-70 “Civil War.” Armed with military assault weapons they have now extended their sovereignty over the whole of Nigeria, North Central, South-West, South-South and South-East zones,  killing, maiming and raping women with impunity and sacking and taking over communities and farm lands without any question whatsoever from the security agencies. Their activities are most ferocious in non-Moslem areas of Nigeria who they regard as infidels (unbelievers) who perhaps by their orientation have no right to life, property and dignity. Organized and registered as Miyetti Allah Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), their patron is reportedly from the ultimate power in their Caliphate. The owners of the cattle ranging all over Nigeria are the most prominent and influential Fulanis – traditional and religious leaders, top political and administrative office holders, foremost security officers including generals etc. The herdsmen are mere minders and therefore enjoy unlimited protection from their owners. The herdsmen seem to obey no laws of Nigeria and even refuse to attend peace conferences in communities where they commit these havocs for which the security agencies rarely arrest them.
(iii)Casualties of the Menace: Nigerian Newspapers daily are awash with casualty figures of Cattle-Fulani herdsmen’s menace. Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna suffer the highest daily casualties. A Plateau sitting Senator and the leader of Plateau State Assembly who were both killed by Fulani herdsmen after attending burials of victims of the same scourge, are two of the most high profile killings by the herdsmen. Nigeria loses annually over 5,000 lives to herdsmen menace. One of the most pathetic cases of displacement by these herdsmen was recently reported in Southern Kaduna - a family head driven into a refugee camp as an internally displaced person with his entire family, went to visit his home in his ancestral homestead but had to keep a safe distance and observed Fulani families occupying his home whilst he and his family had to survive as IDPs in a refugee camp in his own State and country.
(iv) Audacity of Cattle Fulani herdsmen: Governor Gabriel Suswan of Benue State’s episode illustrates the fact that Nigeria has two classes of citizens – one above the law and the other under the law.  On 24th February, 2014Miyetti Allah Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) was audacious enough to write President Goodluck Jonathan a highly provocative letter titled, “Mr.
President, Call Governor Suswan to Order Before It is Too Late” in which they not only threatened to
deal with Governor Suswan of Benue State in his home State for assisting the Tivs of the Middle Belt to limit the herdsmen’s murderous activities in the Middle Belt. They also reminded the President that their ranging across the country with their cattle is covered by Section 41, (1) of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of movement and settlement in all parts of Nigeria to all citizens of Nigeria. On10th March 2014, after an exchange of gun shots failed to get the Governor in a convoy, they attacked Mr. Suswan’s ancestral village, killed 25, and sacked the village plus 29 other communities within 25 kilometres radius. MACBAN had deliberately ignored n their letter to the President, the fact that the freedom of movement guaranteed by S.41 (1) refers only to Nigeria citizens and definitely not cattle, an item of trade whose movement is subject to regulation for society’s safety, comfort and convenience.  Besides, the right to freedom of movement under reference is not absolute since Section 45(1) of the same Constitution subordinates those rights to any reasonable law enacted in “the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or
public health; or for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons.” Imagine
Cattle rearers and their owners threatening a State Governor in his own State through the President of the Country and being able to execute that threat.                                                                                                                                                             (v) Failure of Governance by the Federal government: The Federal Government of Nigeria has failed and indeed abdicated its responsibility to Nigerian citizens whose security and welfare, according to section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, are the primary purpose of governance.  In the case of Benue state Governor, then Inspector-General, Alhaji M D Abubakar, an Upper Northerner, impliedly told the Governor that he was not offering any help and the Governor, humbled, was forced to enter a peace accord with MACBAN, allowing the herders to graze their cattle anywhere in Benue but pay for damages by free ranging cattle!                                        
Nigeria is not a major Cattle breeding nation of the world. According to 1990/92 Nigerian Livestock Resources (RIM) Survey estimates, Nigeria had less than 13.90 million cattle.  Major cattle breeding countries of the world, by 2009 figures have as high as 285 million cattle in India; 187,087,000 in Brazil; China 139,721,000; U.S.A. 96,669,000; EU 87,650,000,Argentina 51,062,000; Pakistan
38,300,000; Australia 29,202,000; Mexico  26,489,000. Pastorialism or free ranging of cattle is not practised in most, if not all, of the above major cattle breeding nations, in the interest of public safety and health. Pastorialism is primitive, out-moded, uncivilised, and uneconomic; and has been long discarded by the civilised and productive world.                                                
(vi) The Ineptitude of State Governments: Several communities in States in the South-East have been variously under ferocious attacks by cattle Fulani herdsmen. Perhaps, as a result of hangover of defeat in the last civil war, or the seemingly general acceptance of these attacks as rightful to Fulanis, reactions from Governors and State legislators have been timorously bashful. In 2013 in Imo State, the Deputy Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, after enumerating series of unprovoked attacks on some communities in Owerri West, Ohaji/Egbema and Ngor Okpala local council areas by the nomadic herdsmen, which resulted in the destruction of crops, farmlands, raping of women and girls, as well as killing and maiming of the villagers, merely called on the security agencies to come to their
aid after organizing hearings and street demonstrations. In Enugu State, the State Assembly seemed
to have followed up on the 2011 abandoned defeatist leadership of the National Assembly by initiating a Bill to create grazing routes and reserves in Enugu State for Fulani herdsmen and their cattle as a means of eliminating the violence. I joined NGOs who attended the public hearings and shot the bill down.
6.  The Way Forward: The Cattle Fulani herdsmen menace is a byproduct of the dominion quest of the Fulani over Nigeria and driven by fundamentalist Islamic doctrine which makes slaying “the unbeliever” in Allah (kafir) by “the believer,” and taking over of his possessions including women, passport to paradise.  Sample quotes from the Quran: Surah 2: 191-193: “And kill them (the unbeliever) wherever you find them and turn them out from where they have turned you out.”
Surah 2: 244: “Then fight in the cause of Allah, and know that Allah heareth and knoweth all things.”

 (a) Location of markets and movement of cattle within States fall under the residual functions of States. States should therefore enact laws limiting movement of cattle by road to motorized
transportation and/or rail and their sale only in designated markets. Twelve northern States from 1999-200 enacted Sharia laws criminalizing movement, sale and/or consumption of alcohol in their various States and these laws are being enforced with even Sharia Police (Hizbah) created by state law in states like Kano in flagrant violation of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended);                                                                      (b) The Northern states from where these cattle are transported to the South, should facilitate the establishment of ranches and/or grazing reserves in the home States of these cattle herdsmen who have untold proclivity for violence. Dams and bore holes to ensure all-year round availability of water and grass; and adoption of improved veterinary methods and technology should be promoted to improve yield.  Leopards and sheep are never bred in the same pen.
The Cattle Fulani herdsmen need orientation in the rights of every Nigerian citizen to life, property
and decency before they venture outside their home States;                                                                                                                                        (c) The Nigerian Police must enforce the existing laws on sophisticated weapons carried by these herdsmen and also enforce state laws on movement of cattle, whenever such laws are enacted;  
                                                                                                                                                                                     (d) States in the SE zone must reinvigorate animal husbandry as initiated by Dr. Michael Okpara’s Eastern Regional government of the 1960s to produce more live stock from within.                                                                                                                   (e) There shall be an Igbo Institute where dedicated thinkers should be permanently addressing Igbo issues like the
 (f) The Federal Government must assist states in the establishment of ranches and enhanced animal husbandry.                                                                                                                          
 (g) All political, religious and traditional leaders in the North who are sincere on indivisibility or indissolubility of the Nigerian Federation must openly condemn the nefarious activities of Hausa/Fulani herdsmen whose activities threaten Nigerian federation even more than Boko Haram.                                             (h) The Senate bill no. SB. 114 seeking to enact an Act to Provide for the Establishment of the National Grazing and Reserve (Establishment and Development) Commission for the Preservation and Control of National Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes and for Other Matters Therewith and its sister bill in the House of Representatives no.HB.11.10.30: An Act to Establish a National Grazing Route and Reserve Commission. Establish and Manage National Grazing Routes and Reserves in the [Entire] Nation and for Other Incidental Matters should be thrown out the window as an assault on the psyche and sensibilities of Nigerians in general and the victims of the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen’s rampage and the affected areas under siege, in particular. Besides, it assaults the fundamentals of federation. Instead, the National Assembly should enact a law prohibiting all movement of cattle on hoofs all over the Federation, in consonance with state laws on the
 (i) Effort should be made by all concerned in the North to reform Islamic fundamentalism, as it is practiced in most of the North-West and North-East, to liberal or moderate Islam as it is practiced in such progressive Moslem nations as Turkey and Malaysia and in the South-West zone of Nigeria. Islamic fundamentalism, NOT ISLAM per se, is antithetical to federalism in a religiously plural state. It is intolerant of secularity of any kind in a federal state and both are therefore mutually exclusive. Wherever they mix, there is constant friction resulting in violence. It is my profound view that Criminal Sharia Law, which is the bedrock of Islamic fundamentalism, is antithetical to Common Law and therefore inconsistent with secular democracy. Controversies in managing the two have resulted in Muslims being involved in over 90% of all the wars and terrorism in the world today.
Conclusion: Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Menace is a more serious national security threat than Boko Haram and is over-running the entire country. Unchecked, today’s misery of the people of Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, and Nassarawa states would be the lot of South-East and other Southern zones  in a matter of 20-30 years. Nigeria continues to be a failed State projected to disintegrate
between 2015 and 2030, not just 2015. The twelve principal indicators of State Failure areprominently in Nigeria and growing by the day – demographic pressures (inability to cope with disease, environment, malnutrition,  population growth, youth bulge and immorality; Refugees and internally displaced persons; group vengeance (militants); chronic and sustained human flight;  uneven development along group lines; poverty and sharp and/or severe economic decline; criminalization and or de-legitimization of the State - endemic corruption and impunity; progressive deterioration of public services (infrastructure decay); Human rights and Rule of Law violations; Security – states within a state (armed groups); Rise of factionalized elites; and Intervention of other States – foreign military assistance.
Surviving the 2015 election in which blackmail guns were pointed at the heads of sections of the country to force election of a particular candidate and during which election, there was massive movement of population from one  part of the country to the other, in anticipation of such post-election violence in the event of loss of a preferred candidate;  and prevention of  prominent
presidential candidate from campaigning in other zones under threat of violence, are serious indications of State failure and not success as some prominent Nigerians glibly gloat.
A house divided against itself cannot stand, the Bible says. “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free” was the mantra of Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), 16th President of United States (1861-65) as he started the campaign against Slavery in Springfield Illinois on 16th June 1858.
Unfortunately for Nigeria, there is no open acceptance that a division exists among the over 350 ethnic nations that make up Nigeria  and therefore no effort of any kind being made to promote any common unifying identity which sustains nations.  The oligarchy pretends Nigeria is one when it suits it but when it comes to sharing power, it excludes all others.








 
 

OPEN THE GATES.

OPEN THE GATES - RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT Nigerians, as if none can read and understand, are celebrating an election that was planned and executed to result in the "CHANGEE," believing that the peaceful transfer of power from President Jonathan to President Buhari brings to an end "America's 2005 prediction of Nigeria' disintegration" in 2015. First all, there never was a 2005 U. S. Government prediction of Nigeria's disintegration in 2015; rather a U.S. NGO of retired military scholars, confusingly named U.S. National Intelligence Council, predicted that given Nigeria's religious schisms, ethnic strife and religious divisions, the country might disintegrate in 2015, if no meaningful effort is made to heal these deeply entrenched repellent factors to unity. However in 2011, five serving U.S. Air-force officers of U.S. Centre for Strategy and Technology, Air War College, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, published their research f indings which predicted that if Nigeria does not deliberately work hard on clearly stated failure factors, Nigeria would start disintegrating in 2015 and finally dismember in 2030. In its 156-page report titled "Failed State 2030: Nigeria - A Case Study," the Study detailed ten factors, unlike the 2005 NGO's three factors, eating up Nigeria's unity, namely Nigeria's lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, pervasive corruption, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency and terminal weak governance. The parameters of Fund for Peace (FFP), the world acclaimed  NGO on peace, security and which tracks state failure world-wide, coincided with the framework of  the five Air Force Colonels. FFP has already set up an Abuja office to monitor Nigeria's fast increasing failure indicators and advise on measures that can abort the ugly trend. No hiding the fact,  Nigeria is precipitously failing in all of the above ten failure markers. Book Haram insurgents for example, are  not just terrorists but Islamic Jihadists like ISIS, AlQaeda, Al-Shaba, Ansaru etc, who are driven by a compelling ideology based on the Quran and which ideology causes individuals to devote their lives, quite often sacrificing their lives for this dream of how society can be ordered, with paradise as compensation. USA, Europe, South Asia including Saudi Arabia,  with their sophisticated defense systems have not been able to wipe out Jihadic militancy. Nigeria cannot totally wipe out Islamic militancy. It can, like USA, Europe and Middle East contain and minimize it. The suicide bombing and other gorilla aspects of the militancy are here with Nigeria for the long haul. Worse still, the back bone of Nigeria's malevolence are Islamic Fundamentalism and Feudalism both of which are incompatible with regular democracy and are invariably in cultural or civilizational  clash with the rest of humanity. Fundamentalism is intolerant of other religions whose practitioners are usually labelled infidels, not deserving of life, property and human dignity.  Sharia Law, which is the backbone of Islamic fundamentalism is in conflict with Common Law and fundamental human rights; and virtually reduces the rights of women and the underclass to that of mere chattels. Fundamentalism dominates life in the Upper North, therefore fighting Boko Haram without addressing Islamic fundamentalism is like  healing the symptoms of a terminal ailment without addressing the main disease. Liberal Islam, as is practiced in South-West Nigeria, Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and most former Soviet Republics, now independent, appears to be the answerThe question is how far is the North-West and East ready to reform to save its people from hunger, ignorance and disease which are proportionally consuming the region at an alarming rate, much much worse than other zones of Nigeria. Most importantly, Nigeria is fake federation of over 350 ethnic nationalities put together for the purposes of serving the economic & financial needs of the North. Lord Harcourt and Lugard did not make any pretense of why and how they arrived at the contraption branded "Nigeria" and stated so very clearly in their 1913 report on amalgamation to the British Crown. The North tightened its grip on the affairs of Nigeria after the civil war in which Nigeria unapologetically killed prisoners-of-war and slaughtered unarmed civilians. A prisoner-of-war ordinance was decreed as the Constitution of Nigeria. The regional federating units were abolished and in its place a Unitary State of Nigeria was set up with a non-sensical  "indivisibility and indissolubility" provision in Section 2(1) for the over 350 ethnic nationalities who share no common values particularly with the oligarchs; and with power deliberately skewed in favor of the oligarchs, who now talk down on the rest of the country. There is no mutual respect which is the glue that bonds the differing people's in federations. The federating units are 36 minions which can,  in the face of declining oil revenue, hardly sustain the fundamentals of governance structure. The conflicting signals coming out of Aso Rock today about lopsided appointments and indiscriminate violations of the Constitution and/or the Spirit of the Constitution, derive from the fact that indeed, Nigeria has no democratic Constitution but a Prisoner-of-war Ordinance which entitles the gate-keepers to violate basic fundamental freedoms/rights indiscriminately and with utmost impunity. Geneva Convention on P.O.Ws and unarmed civilians is indiscriminately violated in P.O.W. camp, NIGERIA. The truth accepted by all political thoughts is that no Union can sustain solely for the interest of a section and that for the long-term survival of the human species in the world, cooperation, not unhealthy competition, is the way forward. The oligarchs of Nigeria want no cooperation; instead  domination is their credo. In realization that equality and mutual respect are inherent principles of all successful federations, the United Nations adopted resolutions, conventions and declarations on the rights of all indigenous peoples anywhere in the world to determine their political status, and pursue their economic, social and cultural development as means of ensuring equality and mutual respect. African Union followed with the African Charter on Human And People's Rights (ACHPR). Nigeria adopted and ratified both the UN and AU charter and/or convention/ covenants but bluntly refused to entrench the right to Self Determination in its Constitution. Instead,  the Nigerian oligarchs planted an anti-self determination and the highly offensive "invisibility and indissolubility" clause in Section 2(1) of the Constitution as an Ordinance to quarantine its slaves for oral and physical assault and battery, whenever it pleases the oligarchs. Unfortunately non- oligarchy leaders are so busy struggling for crumbs from the Masters' table that they know not why the oligarchs talk and look down on everybody.The world has seen how the right to Self Determination of the Scots in UK and Quebecers of Canada uplifted mutual respect and a sense of equality/ dignity of the minorities, thus rendering those amalgams of different peoples, more people-friendly and livable. On the occasion of my 74th birthday on this 14th September, I am calling on all non-oligarchs and minorities of Nigeria to rise and demand that the gate to Nigeria's Prisoner-of-War camp without Geneva Convention, should be OPENED and all of them released to "Equality and Mutual Respect" by demanding that the offensive "indivisibility and indissolubility" jargon in Section 2(1) of the Constitution be jettisoned and replaced with the UN & AU inspired Right to Self Determination of all federating peoples. No nation can survive half slave and half free. Those enslaved get alienated and patriotism or love-of-country escapes through the window, and is instantly and rightly replaced by anger and disloyalty. The Social Contract between State and groups/individuals in which rights were surrendered to State by the former, for welfare and protection having been broken, it is unending crises as Nigeria has it. The Holy Bible sums up Nigeria's pathetic situation in Mark 3:25 : "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." My people, the Igbo, have been out in the cold since 1966. Any time any of the Generals who conducted the Jihad of 1966-70 is in power, the alienation of the Igbos of Nigeria, is more blatant, even though the whole South and Northern minorities, all the same, have to prostrate for crumbs from the master's table. The process of alienating Nigerians outside the oligarchy in Aso Rock is ongoing and will soon reach a crescendo. Anyone who is hoping for any balance is leaving Ina fool's paradise. As Rev.Martin Luther King learnt in the U.S. Civil rights agitation  and expressed in his biography: "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." P. O. Ws of Nigeria must accept that they are indeed P.O.Ws and demand that the camp gate must be opened for their release and the release of Nigeria's meaningful development. 

Emeka Onyesoh (Prince) 

President, Forum for National Ethos and Values (FNEV). Enugu. 14th September, 2015

OPEN THE GATES - RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT Nigerians, as if none can read and understand, are celebrating an election that was planned and executed to result in the "CHANGEE," believing that the peaceful transfer of power from President Jonathan to President Buhari brings to an end "America's 2005 prediction of Nigeria' disintegration" in 2015. First all, there never was a 2005 U. S. Government prediction of Nigeria's disintegration in 2015; rather a U.S. NGO of retired military scholars, confusingly named U.S. National Intelligence Council, predicted that given Nigeria's religious schisms, ethnic strife and religious divisions, the country might disintegrate in 2015, if no meaningful effort is made to heal these deeply entrenched repellent factors to unity. However in 2011, five serving U.S. Air-force officers of U.S. Centre for Strategy and Technology, Air War College, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, published their research f indings which predicted that if Nigeria does not deliberately work hard on clearly stated failure factors, Nigeria would start disintegrating in 2015 and finally dismember in 2030. In its 156-page report titled "Failed State 2030: Nigeria - A Case Study," the Study detailed ten factors, unlike the 2005 NGO's three factors, eating up Nigeria's unity, namely Nigeria's lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, pervasive corruption, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency and terminal weak governance. The parameters of Fund for Peace (FFP), the world acclaimed  NGO on peace, security and which tracks state failure world-wide, coincided with the framework of  the five Air Force Colonels. FFP has already set up an Abuja office to monitor Nigeria's fast increasing failure indicators and advise on measures that can abort the ugly trend. No hiding the fact,  Nigeria is precipitously failing in all of the above ten failure markers. Book Haram insurgents for example, are  not just terrorists but Islamic Jihadists like ISIS, AlQaeda, Al-Shaba, Ansaru etc, who are driven by a compelling ideology based on the Quran and which ideology causes individuals to devote their lives, quite often sacrificing their lives for this dream of how society can be ordered, with paradise as compensation. USA, Europe, South Asia including Saudi Arabia,  with their sophisticated defense systems have not been able to wipe out Jihadic militancy. Nigeria cannot totally wipe out Islamic militancy. It can, like USA, Europe and Middle East contain and minimize it. The suicide bombing and other gorilla aspects of the militancy are here with Nigeria for the long haul. Worse still, the back bone of Nigeria's malevolence are Islamic Fundamentalism and Feudalism both of which are incompatible with regular democracy and are invariably in cultural or civilizational  clash with the rest of humanity. Fundamentalism is intolerant of other religions whose practitioners are usually labelled infidels, not deserving of life, property and human dignity.  Sharia Law, which is the backbone of Islamic fundamentalism is in conflict with Common Law and fundamental human rights; and virtually reduces the rights of women and the underclass to that of mere chattels. Fundamentalism dominates life in the Upper North, therefore fighting Boko Haram without addressing Islamic fundamentalism is like  healing the symptoms of a terminal ailment without addressing the main disease. Liberal Islam, as is practiced in South-West Nigeria, Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and most former Soviet Republics, now independent, appears to be the answer