I PRINCE CHUKWUEMEKA I. ONYESOH - 75th BIRTHDAY MESSAGE
CURBING STATE IMPUNITY, SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE & RESTRUCTURING OF THE FEDERATION. (An abstraction from my book " To the Rescue . . . Nigeria" (in print)
Last year for my 74th birth day, my message was titled“OPEN THE GATES – RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT.” In that message I warned that celebrating the 2015 election which all indicators showed was heavily floored by the threat of violence of the kind which in the 2011 cost Nigeria more than 800 lives, was delusory. Pre-election threat of violence is black-mail and there is no democratic freedom of choice in the electorate voting under blackmail.
I reminded Nigerians that in 2011, five Colonels of the USA Institute of Strategic Studies, War College, Air Force University, Alabama did a marvelous study on Nigeria’s failure as a state in the Institute’s 156-page Occasional Paper No. 67 titled “Failed State 2030: Nigeria-A case Study” in which they theorized and warned that unless Nigeria worked hard on ten factors usually responsible for state failure, which were already highly visible and dominant in Nigerian affairs, Nigeria’s disintegration would commence in 2015 and end by 2030. They listed and extensively discussed these factors which portend imminent collapse and failure of any State:
“Nigeria’s lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, endemic corruption at all levels of government, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, and terminal weak governance.
Nigerian ruling elite, as usual, preferred to disregard this forecast by a US government arm and rather preferred to celebrate surviving the 2015 prediction dateline forecast by a US private Think Tank NGO of retired military scholars.
It is remarkable that whilst they celebrated Nigeria’s questionable 2015 survival fore cast, that by 2016 all the State failure indicators highlighted by the US War College had not only become prominent features of Nigerian life, but in many respects far exceeded the predicted levels. Instead of poor national planning, Nigeria now seems to be managed without any plan at all known to Nigerians. For the first six months of the new regime from May 29th, 2015, the country operated without an executive council. As if to heighten social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, Nigeria’s federal and state governments, except perhaps one state (Ekiti), have by acts of commission and omission, concessioned Nigeria to the world’s fourth ranked deadliest terrorist organization by deaths caused in 2014, the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, and abandoned Nigerian communities under attack, to peace terms' negotiation with the terrorists; and what is more, arrogated citizenship right of freedom of movement to cattle, and in the process also granted the right to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons, without license, to terrorists. Bigotry, nepotism and non-inclusiveness and divisive management of Nigerian affairs at the centre became routine. The de- marketing of Nigeria by the leadership has generated capital flight of untold proportions and the stifling of the economy by over-centralization such as Treasury Single Account (TSA) for an economy and polity already too large and unmanageable for the low level of political manpower, integrity and technology locally available, contributed immensely to the ultimate collapse of the economy. Continued condonement by the Federal Government of the rebellion of twelve northern states against the Federation of Nigeria which proclaimed and instituted Sharia Law and religious police in their states, in flagrant violation of Section 10 of the Constitution, thus inciting their citizens to extremist religious fanaticism and heightening Islamic militancy, worsened the security situation in the region, thus compelling spending scarce resources in crushing the insurrection. The overt political corruption which has encouraged cattle rearers to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons (AK47) and kill, maim, rape and sack from their ancestral homes and farms with such impunity, citizens in Central and Southern Nigeria, while the security agencies look the other way at best and/or in some cases, outrightly intervene on the side of the herdsmen, like in the case of the 76 Ugwueshi community farmers in Awgu Local government Area of Enugu State, who were abducted by security agencies, transported across state judicial boundaries and detained in Umuahia prison in Abia state for over two weeks until Enugu State Governor was forced to personally intervene before a magistrate graciously freed them on bail. Waiving the investigation and prosecution of senior members of the government or government political party who have been openly indicted by indisputable facts in the public domain has left the impression of a one-sided anti-corruption war against government political opponents. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s flagrant abuse of allocation of scarce foreign exchange to pilgrims at about half the rate the real sector (industries, agriculture and commerce) cannot even get for importation of essential raw materials, machineries and spares, for prayers in the Holy Lands of Mecca and Jerusalem, perhaps for God’s intervention in Nigeria’s man-made woes, in place of a cohesive and constructive economic and political programs driven, managed and coordinated by tested experts in economics, public finance, international finance, commerce and development studies, law and politics confirms religious bigotry and creates the impression that the government has no serious economic plans. A penchant for bullets over debates and dialogues in resolution of conflicts and resistance in the Niger-Delta to the unfair exploitation of crude oil in their region has worsened militancy in the region thus forcing over 50% drop in crude export revenue. Mass murder of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators and agitators for separatism and indiscriminate detention of citizens without trial even against bail granted by courts of competent jurisdiction has dented the regimes human rights image and incited heightened resistance to tyranny. Overt efforts of the Executive Branch to emasculate the legislative branch, the bulwark of democracy, with duplicitous court trials and/or indictments, by anti-corruption agencies, the latter being mere agents of the executive branch, tend to conscript all branches of governance into a one-man dictatorship. Inconclusive elections, which seem to subvert all democratic doctrines, became the norm rather than the exception, with the partly and partially constituted Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring inconclusive most, if not all, elections conducted by the Commission since May 29, 2015.
All of the above are manifestations of high level impunity of untold proportions which among other infractions include extra judicial murder of thousands of Nigerian citizens by government security agencies annually.
Nigerians have been unduly docile on the impunities of government leaders, thereby failing to hold them to account for the powers vested in their offices. Impunity is responsible for grand and political corruption, extra-judicial killings, genocide and other international crimes. One regime after the other has preyed on this scandalous complaisance of Nigerians with atrocities committed by government leaders using the security agencies.
On Monday December 10, 2012, for example, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoki, SAN, disclosed that the Nigerian Police had carried out extra-judicial killings of over 7,198 people in the four years preceding 2012, out of which 2,500 were detainees. The reaction of then President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Okay Nwali, the same day, a mere call on the Federal Government (FG) to investigate crimes which the Chief Law Officer of the Federation had admitted FG security agents committed. Till date there is no record that the Inspectors General with those four years of police murder of the 7,198 citizens have been taken to task.
There have been several cases of such extra-judicial killings and unconstitutional deportation of Nigerians from Nigeria, to which Nigerians’ have not meaningfully reacted.
However there have been a number of cases where Nigerians compelled the Nigerian government to account for impunity, but those were limited to financial compensations only.
For the 1,000 to 2,500 killed in Odi massacre of 20th November 1999, Odi community sued the Federal government for the lives lost and destruction of the community, claiming 100billion Naira compensation and the court awarded 37.6billion Naira compensation. A London Court compelled Nigeria to negotiate and settle for 15billion Naira prompt payout.
In the case of Zaki Biam massacre of October 2001, the Zaki Biam community sued the Federal Government for 100-200 lives lost and several thousand displaced and asked for compensation of 200billion Naira. The court awarded 41.8billion Naira but a settlement of 8billion Naira was negotiated and paid on the unwarranted intrusion of Benue State government.
Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government of Delta State was invaded by the Nigerian Army on May 5, 2009, killing and maiming residents and also destroying property worth billions of Naira. The community sued the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello - the leader of the invasion, at the Federal High Court, Asaba, asking the Court to declare the bombardment unconstitutional and a gross violation of their rights. The court ruled in their favour and awarded special, aggravated and punitive damage claims of a total of N99 billion, which FG had after over three years neither appealed nor settled. A London Court has just registered the judgement for the attachment of the assets of the Government of Nigeria in England and Wales for settlement of the Nigerian Court award.
These are huge sums of settlement and can rebuild physical structures damaged but cannot restore any lives taken. Most importantly, regardless of the size of the awards, they have not deterred subsequent Nigerian regimes from massacring more Nigerians at will.
Nigerian Security agencies under present President Buhari have not hesitated in repeating the same reckless massacre of 347 Shiites in Zaria on December 12, 2015, as admitted by Kaduna State Government before the Public Hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the serial slaughters of hundreds of unarmed Biafran agitators in Asaba, Onitsha, Awka, Aba and Port Harcourt from 2015 till date.
It is obvious that financial penalty alone cannot stop impunities by tyrannical regimes. Only criminal prosecution, conviction and sentencing (long term), of misbehaving former and/or current government leaders can deter impunity. It is doubtful that there is any such tenacity of altruistic purpose in Nigerians generally. Mercantilism and chauvinism seem to dominate the entire political space. Besides ethnic and religious politics would be waiting to invade any such drive; dividing the group pursuing justice for the people and strangulating any such moves. Impunity must be fought to a standstill.
One unpunished act of impunity breeds many. Political thinkers and philosophers from Plato (428-348BC), the Greek philosopher and one of the founding fathers of philosophy, to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the French political thinker and historian and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the world acclaimed theoretical physicist, famous for his development of the general theory of relativity, also known for the influence of his work on philosophy of science, all agree that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve and that the world is indeed in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.
The Council of Europe summarized the need and urgency to fight impunity wherever its ugly face surfaces in the preamble to their Guidelines on Eradicating Impunity for Serious Human Rights Violations:
"Considering that a lack of accountability encourages repetition of crimes, as perpetrators and others feel free to commit further offenses without fear of punishment; . . . impunity must be fought as a matter of justice for victims, as deterrent to prevent violations, and to uphold the rule of law and public trust in the justice system, including rampant circumstances in which there is a legacy of mass murder of unarmed civilians by security agencies."
International trials, convictions and sentencing of atrocious leaders of various countries of the world, are available to the serious minded who can document and produce evidence at trials. Only those who dare have a chance to succeed. The avenues for bringing about trials are various; have been tried, tested and found not wanting.
The United Nations Human Rights Council receives petitions, investigates and tries cases in member nations and of citizens, on crimes against humanity including murder, massacres, dehumanisation, extermination, extrajudicial punishments, death squads, forced disappearances, kidnappings, unjust imprisonment, slavery, torture, rape, and political or racial repression, identified as part of a widespread or systematic practice.
The pogrom of 1966 and torture to death by starvation of over 2 million Igbo non-combatants, which Nigeria controversially claimed as legitimate instrument of warfare, during the 1967-70 uncivil war under General Gowon, qualify for investigation and trial by the UN Human Rights Council.
Nigeria was admitted to UN on 7th October, 1960; and therefore Nigerian citizens are entitled as of right to the protection of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Charters, Conventions, Covenants and treaties, subject to the protocols of each instrument.
Nigerians therefore can file petitions before the Human Rights Council (successor to UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR) against General Olusegun Obasanjo and his security chiefs for Odi and Zaki Biam massacres, both of which took place under him as Head of State, in 1999 and 2001 respectively, before the Rome Statute brought the International Criminal Court into effect on 1st July 2002.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) brought into being by The Rome Statute adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17th July 1998 and entered into force on 1st July 2002. ICC exercises jurisdiction over four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression and they are “not . . . subject to statute of limitations.”. The United Nations Security Council may however authorize extra jurisdiction. Nigeria signed the Rome Statute in June 2000, ratified and deposited it on 27th September 2001, but the Rome Statute came into force in 2002.
Gbaramatu was invaded on 22nd June 2009. President Yardua died on 15th May 2010 and Dr. Jonathan was sworn-in as President. The Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and the Task Force Commander, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello (now retired) should be brought before the ICC to account for the criminal aspect of the judgement of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Asaba.
The same time, ICC should be petitioned to investigate and if found culpable charge President Buhari and his security chiefs for the various well-documented mass killings of, brutalities to and detention of unarmed pro-Biafra demonstrators, all in 2015/16 and the extra-judicial murder of 347 Shiites in Zaria between December 12and 14, 2015 and the indefinite detention without trial of Shiites and their leader; and the Director of Radio Biafra, London against court ordered bail.
Nigeria human rights NGOs, must find out who were the Inspectors General of the Nigerian Police in the four years preceding 2012 during which the over 7,198 people were extra-judicially killed, as already submitted by AGF Mr. Adoki. A National Assembly public hearing would compel complete disclosure.
Cynicism, ethnic/religious chauvinism/extremism and mercantilism dominate the politics of Nigeria and it is very doubtful if any political leader or associates who depend or associate with politicians for financial or business patronage would allow this process to play out without mobilising against it.
Nigerians should be ashamed that a much poorer and less literate country like Chad with much less population of 12.83 million (2013), with 1,284,000km2 land space, almost 50% of which is desert, against Nigeria’s 923,768km2 (with only encroachment of desert in a few uppermost northern states), was able to wage over 20 –year war against the impunity of their former ruler, Hissene Habre and was able to compel the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) constituted by the African Union on the injunction of a UN Court order to Senegal, to convict and sentence Mr. Habre to a life sentence after a trial in Dakar, on Monday 30th May 2016, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture including rapes he personally committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990 whilst he was President of Chad. Habré’s eight-year reign of terror and political repression had led to the deaths of an estimated 40,000 Chadians. Despite major political barriers, victims working with civil society groups, led an unyielding national, regional and global campaign which led to the establishment in August 2012 of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) which investigated, tried and sentenced Mr. Habre.
The case sets a new benchmark for efforts to end impunity in Africa, as it is the first universal jurisdiction case on the continent, and the first time a former African leader has been prosecuted for crimes under international law before a court in another African country.
Other international Trials, Convictions and Sentences -
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
Slobodan Milošević, as the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia, was the most senior political figure to stand trial at the ICTY. He died on 11 March 2006 during trial for charges of genocide and complicity in genocide, in territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radoan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted on March 24, 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations Tribunal and for leading a campaign of terror against civilians in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. Mr. Karadzic conviction is a forceful manifestation of the international community’s implacable commitment to accountability. The conviction offered a note of closure to the bloodiest European conflict since World War II, a civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia and left more than 100,000 people dead.
(ii) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Created by UN Security Council in 1994)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offenses committed in Rwanda during the genocide which occurred there during April 1994. Over 800,000 mainly of the minority Tutsis ethic group by majority Hutsis were massacred within 100 days.
Jean-Paul Akayesu – interim Prime Minister - life sentence in October 1998.
Jean Kambanda - Former Rwandan Prime Minister became the first head of a government ever to be convicted of genocide and sentenced to life by an international court. Sixty-one others out of 93 indicted, were convicted and sentenced, including politicians, businessmen, high-ranking military and government officials, heads of media and religious leaders.
(iii) The International Criminal Court (ICC):
(a) Darfur, Sudan
In April 2007, ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On 4 March 2009, the ICC also issued a warrant of arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan, having decided his position as Head of State does not grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC. He remains a wanted criminal in ICC records and could be arrested any time.
(b) Conviction of Charles Taylor by I.C.C.
The first African president to be prosecuted at the International Court, Charles Taylor, 54 years old, was in April 2002 convicted for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and enforced amputations and for supporting rebels who carried out atrocities in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds" and was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
(c)The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast is undergoing trial on four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election and has been in detention since his arrest in April 2011.
(d) President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and his Deputy, William Ruto, were arraigned before ICC, charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the 2007-8 post-election chaos in Kenya that left more than 1,200 people dead and many others wounded or raped; and about 600,000 were forced to flee, but the charges were dropped for want of evidence, understandably withheld by the government of Kenya under him as President of Kenya.
Until the enslaved and oppressed people of Nigeria break out of the present cocoon of docility and challenge the oligarchy with charges of international crimes they committed from 1966 to date, including (a) various riots in the North which have consumed hundreds of thousands of Nigerian citizens and destroyed hundreds of billions of naira worth of private property, and (b) the duplicitous role of the Federal Government in allowing Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to terrorise the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), or such other commissions or tribunals that are enabled by UN or AU to try and put international criminals away long term, or in foreign municipal courts where Nigeria has substantial assets to pay for damages caused by the terrorists, no Nigerian outside the oligarchy can enjoy any real sense of liberty, freedom or mutual respect as is common in the modern world.
The day Nigerians secure convictions on any past or present leader or Security chief of Nigeria for crime against humanity for any of the international crimes they committed whilst in office and for which Nigerian courts have found them liable; or arrest warrants from ICC on serving Head of State and/or his Security Chiefs for on-going mass murder of unarmed street demonstrators and/or condoning/conspiring with world acknowledged terrorists to kill and menace Nigerian citizenry; and even General Gowon for the atrocities committed against Eastern Nigerians (1966-1970), that day will mark the beginning of liberation of Nigeria from the vice grip of the oligarchy. And the earlier the better!
Crimes, local or international, are not time bound. Therefore the pogrom and genocide of 1966-70 are still on the table, along with various unchallenged outstanding atrocities.
SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The 2014 President Jonathan’s National Conference fell far below minimum requirements in its intentions and structure, essential to bring about any change in the present enslaved polity of Nigeria. The details are in my work, To theResque.
The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as an Enslavement Ordinance:
More extensive research is required to highlight how the oligarchy devised the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as an Enslavement Ordinance and it has indeed enslaved other Nigerians by (a) the falsehood told in its preamble “We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Having firmly and solemnly resolved:”; (b) the undemocratic process by which it was brought into being and (c) its various contentious and contradictory sections which deny the people of Nigeria of various fundamental rights guaranteed and ratified by Nigeria in the UN Charter, Treaties and Covenants and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. My works; The Uncivil War; To the Rescue - Nigeria and Open the Gates and Release the Inmates and Nigeria’s Development contain a lot of eye-opener and intermediate materials on Nigeria’s enslavement, which well expanded with more indebt studies should be presented to the UN Security Council for granting of extra jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to try the oligarchs of Nigeria for enslaving the peoples of Nigeria with an Enslavement Ordinance branded the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
Mass Mobilisation for Sovereign National Conference and Re-Structuring of the Federation : Having, by international litigation caged in the government of Nigeria within the limits allowed it by even its controversial Constitution, the people can freely mobilise unfettered for a Sovereign National Conference of all the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, as free peoples, to re-affirm their wish for the continued federation of Nigeria; and if they do, the New Constitution that would restructure the country into a federation of semi-autonomous zones like the regions of the First Republic, guaranteeing equality and mutual respect between the different nationalities with differing values; and with the right to self-determination and secession guaranteed every group in very clear and transparent terms.
Undoing the present Enslavement Ordinance cannot be achieved by magic wand. It requires patience and perseverance and might take upwards of years of well organised hard work, consistency and diligence.
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh ( Author, Writer, Civil & Democracy Rights Protagonist)
President,
Forum for the Promotion of National Ethos and Values ( FPNEV)
Civil and Democracy Rights NGO - CAC/IT/No./71471.
Enugu.
14th Sept. 2016.
Sent from my iPad
CURBING STATE IMPUNITY, SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE & RESTRUCTURING OF THE FEDERATION. (An abstraction from my book " To the Rescue . . . Nigeria" (in print)
Last year for my 74th birth day, my message was titled“OPEN THE GATES – RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT.” In that message I warned that celebrating the 2015 election which all indicators showed was heavily floored by the threat of violence of the kind which in the 2011 cost Nigeria more than 800 lives, was delusory. Pre-election threat of violence is black-mail and there is no democratic freedom of choice in the electorate voting under blackmail.
I reminded Nigerians that in 2011, five Colonels of the USA Institute of Strategic Studies, War College, Air Force University, Alabama did a marvelous study on Nigeria’s failure as a state in the Institute’s 156-page Occasional Paper No. 67 titled “Failed State 2030: Nigeria-A case Study” in which they theorized and warned that unless Nigeria worked hard on ten factors usually responsible for state failure, which were already highly visible and dominant in Nigerian affairs, Nigeria’s disintegration would commence in 2015 and end by 2030. They listed and extensively discussed these factors which portend imminent collapse and failure of any State:
“Nigeria’s lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, endemic corruption at all levels of government, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, and terminal weak governance.
Nigerian ruling elite, as usual, preferred to disregard this forecast by a US government arm and rather preferred to celebrate surviving the 2015 prediction dateline forecast by a US private Think Tank NGO of retired military scholars.
It is remarkable that whilst they celebrated Nigeria’s questionable 2015 survival fore cast, that by 2016 all the State failure indicators highlighted by the US War College had not only become prominent features of Nigerian life, but in many respects far exceeded the predicted levels. Instead of poor national planning, Nigeria now seems to be managed without any plan at all known to Nigerians. For the first six months of the new regime from May 29th, 2015, the country operated without an executive council. As if to heighten social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, Nigeria’s federal and state governments, except perhaps one state (Ekiti), have by acts of commission and omission, concessioned Nigeria to the world’s fourth ranked deadliest terrorist organization by deaths caused in 2014, the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, and abandoned Nigerian communities under attack, to peace terms' negotiation with the terrorists; and what is more, arrogated citizenship right of freedom of movement to cattle, and in the process also granted the right to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons, without license, to terrorists. Bigotry, nepotism and non-inclusiveness and divisive management of Nigerian affairs at the centre became routine. The de- marketing of Nigeria by the leadership has generated capital flight of untold proportions and the stifling of the economy by over-centralization such as Treasury Single Account (TSA) for an economy and polity already too large and unmanageable for the low level of political manpower, integrity and technology locally available, contributed immensely to the ultimate collapse of the economy. Continued condonement by the Federal Government of the rebellion of twelve northern states against the Federation of Nigeria which proclaimed and instituted Sharia Law and religious police in their states, in flagrant violation of Section 10 of the Constitution, thus inciting their citizens to extremist religious fanaticism and heightening Islamic militancy, worsened the security situation in the region, thus compelling spending scarce resources in crushing the insurrection. The overt political corruption which has encouraged cattle rearers to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons (AK47) and kill, maim, rape and sack from their ancestral homes and farms with such impunity, citizens in Central and Southern Nigeria, while the security agencies look the other way at best and/or in some cases, outrightly intervene on the side of the herdsmen, like in the case of the 76 Ugwueshi community farmers in Awgu Local government Area of Enugu State, who were abducted by security agencies, transported across state judicial boundaries and detained in Umuahia prison in Abia state for over two weeks until Enugu State Governor was forced to personally intervene before a magistrate graciously freed them on bail. Waiving the investigation and prosecution of senior members of the government or government political party who have been openly indicted by indisputable facts in the public domain has left the impression of a one-sided anti-corruption war against government political opponents. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s flagrant abuse of allocation of scarce foreign exchange to pilgrims at about half the rate the real sector (industries, agriculture and commerce) cannot even get for importation of essential raw materials, machineries and spares, for prayers in the Holy Lands of Mecca and Jerusalem, perhaps for God’s intervention in Nigeria’s man-made woes, in place of a cohesive and constructive economic and political programs driven, managed and coordinated by tested experts in economics, public finance, international finance, commerce and development studies, law and politics confirms religious bigotry and creates the impression that the government has no serious economic plans. A penchant for bullets over debates and dialogues in resolution of conflicts and resistance in the Niger-Delta to the unfair exploitation of crude oil in their region has worsened militancy in the region thus forcing over 50% drop in crude export revenue. Mass murder of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators and agitators for separatism and indiscriminate detention of citizens without trial even against bail granted by courts of competent jurisdiction has dented the regimes human rights image and incited heightened resistance to tyranny. Overt efforts of the Executive Branch to emasculate the legislative branch, the bulwark of democracy, with duplicitous court trials and/or indictments, by anti-corruption agencies, the latter being mere agents of the executive branch, tend to conscript all branches of governance into a one-man dictatorship. Inconclusive elections, which seem to subvert all democratic doctrines, became the norm rather than the exception, with the partly and partially constituted Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring inconclusive most, if not all, elections conducted by the Commission since May 29, 2015.
All of the above are manifestations of high level impunity of untold proportions which among other infractions include extra judicial murder of thousands of Nigerian citizens by government security agencies annually.
Nigerians have been unduly docile on the impunities of government leaders, thereby failing to hold them to account for the powers vested in their offices. Impunity is responsible for grand and political corruption, extra-judicial killings, genocide and other international crimes. One regime after the other has preyed on this scandalous complaisance of Nigerians with atrocities committed by government leaders using the security agencies.
On Monday December 10, 2012, for example, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoki, SAN, disclosed that the Nigerian Police had carried out extra-judicial killings of over 7,198 people in the four years preceding 2012, out of which 2,500 were detainees. The reaction of then President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Okay Nwali, the same day, a mere call on the Federal Government (FG) to investigate crimes which the Chief Law Officer of the Federation had admitted FG security agents committed. Till date there is no record that the Inspectors General with those four years of police murder of the 7,198 citizens have been taken to task.
There have been several cases of such extra-judicial killings and unconstitutional deportation of Nigerians from Nigeria, to which Nigerians’ have not meaningfully reacted.
However there have been a number of cases where Nigerians compelled the Nigerian government to account for impunity, but those were limited to financial compensations only.
For the 1,000 to 2,500 killed in Odi massacre of 20th November 1999, Odi community sued the Federal government for the lives lost and destruction of the community, claiming 100billion Naira compensation and the court awarded 37.6billion Naira compensation. A London Court compelled Nigeria to negotiate and settle for 15billion Naira prompt payout.
In the case of Zaki Biam massacre of October 2001, the Zaki Biam community sued the Federal Government for 100-200 lives lost and several thousand displaced and asked for compensation of 200billion Naira. The court awarded 41.8billion Naira but a settlement of 8billion Naira was negotiated and paid on the unwarranted intrusion of Benue State government.
Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government of Delta State was invaded by the Nigerian Army on May 5, 2009, killing and maiming residents and also destroying property worth billions of Naira. The community sued the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello - the leader of the invasion, at the Federal High Court, Asaba, asking the Court to declare the bombardment unconstitutional and a gross violation of their rights. The court ruled in their favour and awarded special, aggravated and punitive damage claims of a total of N99 billion, which FG had after over three years neither appealed nor settled. A London Court has just registered the judgement for the attachment of the assets of the Government of Nigeria in England and Wales for settlement of the Nigerian Court award.
These are huge sums of settlement and can rebuild physical structures damaged but cannot restore any lives taken. Most importantly, regardless of the size of the awards, they have not deterred subsequent Nigerian regimes from massacring more Nigerians at will.
Nigerian Security agencies under present President Buhari have not hesitated in repeating the same reckless massacre of 347 Shiites in Zaria on December 12, 2015, as admitted by Kaduna State Government before the Public Hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the serial slaughters of hundreds of unarmed Biafran agitators in Asaba, Onitsha, Awka, Aba and Port Harcourt from 2015 till date.
It is obvious that financial penalty alone cannot stop impunities by tyrannical regimes. Only criminal prosecution, conviction and sentencing (long term), of misbehaving former and/or current government leaders can deter impunity. It is doubtful that there is any such tenacity of altruistic purpose in Nigerians generally. Mercantilism and chauvinism seem to dominate the entire political space. Besides ethnic and religious politics would be waiting to invade any such drive; dividing the group pursuing justice for the people and strangulating any such moves. Impunity must be fought to a standstill.
One unpunished act of impunity breeds many. Political thinkers and philosophers from Plato (428-348BC), the Greek philosopher and one of the founding fathers of philosophy, to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the French political thinker and historian and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the world acclaimed theoretical physicist, famous for his development of the general theory of relativity, also known for the influence of his work on philosophy of science, all agree that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve and that the world is indeed in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.
The Council of Europe summarized the need and urgency to fight impunity wherever its ugly face surfaces in the preamble to their Guidelines on Eradicating Impunity for Serious Human Rights Violations:
"Considering that a lack of accountability encourages repetition of crimes, as perpetrators and others feel free to commit further offenses without fear of punishment; . . . impunity must be fought as a matter of justice for victims, as deterrent to prevent violations, and to uphold the rule of law and public trust in the justice system, including rampant circumstances in which there is a legacy of mass murder of unarmed civilians by security agencies."
International trials, convictions and sentencing of atrocious leaders of various countries of the world, are available to the serious minded who can document and produce evidence at trials. Only those who dare have a chance to succeed. The avenues for bringing about trials are various; have been tried, tested and found not wanting.
The United Nations Human Rights Council receives petitions, investigates and tries cases in member nations and of citizens, on crimes against humanity including murder, massacres, dehumanisation, extermination, extrajudicial punishments, death squads, forced disappearances, kidnappings, unjust imprisonment, slavery, torture, rape, and political or racial repression, identified as part of a widespread or systematic practice.
The pogrom of 1966 and torture to death by starvation of over 2 million Igbo non-combatants, which Nigeria controversially claimed as legitimate instrument of warfare, during the 1967-70 uncivil war under General Gowon, qualify for investigation and trial by the UN Human Rights Council.
Nigeria was admitted to UN on 7th October, 1960; and therefore Nigerian citizens are entitled as of right to the protection of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Charters, Conventions, Covenants and treaties, subject to the protocols of each instrument.
Nigerians therefore can file petitions before the Human Rights Council (successor to UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR) against General Olusegun Obasanjo and his security chiefs for Odi and Zaki Biam massacres, both of which took place under him as Head of State, in 1999 and 2001 respectively, before the Rome Statute brought the International Criminal Court into effect on 1st July 2002.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) brought into being by The Rome Statute adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17th July 1998 and entered into force on 1st July 2002. ICC exercises jurisdiction over four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression and they are “not . . . subject to statute of limitations.”. The United Nations Security Council may however authorize extra jurisdiction. Nigeria signed the Rome Statute in June 2000, ratified and deposited it on 27th September 2001, but the Rome Statute came into force in 2002.
Gbaramatu was invaded on 22nd June 2009. President Yardua died on 15th May 2010 and Dr. Jonathan was sworn-in as President. The Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and the Task Force Commander, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello (now retired) should be brought before the ICC to account for the criminal aspect of the judgement of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Asaba.
The same time, ICC should be petitioned to investigate and if found culpable charge President Buhari and his security chiefs for the various well-documented mass killings of, brutalities to and detention of unarmed pro-Biafra demonstrators, all in 2015/16 and the extra-judicial murder of 347 Shiites in Zaria between December 12and 14, 2015 and the indefinite detention without trial of Shiites and their leader; and the Director of Radio Biafra, London against court ordered bail.
Nigeria human rights NGOs, must find out who were the Inspectors General of the Nigerian Police in the four years preceding 2012 during which the over 7,198 people were extra-judicially killed, as already submitted by AGF Mr. Adoki. A National Assembly public hearing would compel complete disclosure.
Cynicism, ethnic/religious chauvinism/extremism and mercantilism dominate the politics of Nigeria and it is very doubtful if any political leader or associates who depend or associate with politicians for financial or business patronage would allow this process to play out without mobilising against it.
Nigerians should be ashamed that a much poorer and less literate country like Chad with much less population of 12.83 million (2013), with 1,284,000km2 land space, almost 50% of which is desert, against Nigeria’s 923,768km2 (with only encroachment of desert in a few uppermost northern states), was able to wage over 20 –year war against the impunity of their former ruler, Hissene Habre and was able to compel the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) constituted by the African Union on the injunction of a UN Court order to Senegal, to convict and sentence Mr. Habre to a life sentence after a trial in Dakar, on Monday 30th May 2016, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture including rapes he personally committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990 whilst he was President of Chad. Habré’s eight-year reign of terror and political repression had led to the deaths of an estimated 40,000 Chadians. Despite major political barriers, victims working with civil society groups, led an unyielding national, regional and global campaign which led to the establishment in August 2012 of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) which investigated, tried and sentenced Mr. Habre.
The case sets a new benchmark for efforts to end impunity in Africa, as it is the first universal jurisdiction case on the continent, and the first time a former African leader has been prosecuted for crimes under international law before a court in another African country.
Other international Trials, Convictions and Sentences -
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
Slobodan Milošević, as the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia, was the most senior political figure to stand trial at the ICTY. He died on 11 March 2006 during trial for charges of genocide and complicity in genocide, in territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radoan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted on March 24, 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations Tribunal and for leading a campaign of terror against civilians in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. Mr. Karadzic conviction is a forceful manifestation of the international community’s implacable commitment to accountability. The conviction offered a note of closure to the bloodiest European conflict since World War II, a civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia and left more than 100,000 people dead.
(ii) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Created by UN Security Council in 1994)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offenses committed in Rwanda during the genocide which occurred there during April 1994. Over 800,000 mainly of the minority Tutsis ethic group by majority Hutsis were massacred within 100 days.
Jean-Paul Akayesu – interim Prime Minister - life sentence in October 1998.
Jean Kambanda - Former Rwandan Prime Minister became the first head of a government ever to be convicted of genocide and sentenced to life by an international court. Sixty-one others out of 93 indicted, were convicted and sentenced, including politicians, businessmen, high-ranking military and government officials, heads of media and religious leaders.
(iii) The International Criminal Court (ICC):
(a) Darfur, Sudan
In April 2007, ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On 4 March 2009, the ICC also issued a warrant of arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan, having decided his position as Head of State does not grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC. He remains a wanted criminal in ICC records and could be arrested any time.
(b) Conviction of Charles Taylor by I.C.C.
The first African president to be prosecuted at the International Court, Charles Taylor, 54 years old, was in April 2002 convicted for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and enforced amputations and for supporting rebels who carried out atrocities in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds" and was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
(c)The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast is undergoing trial on four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election and has been in detention since his arrest in April 2011.
(d) President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and his Deputy, William Ruto, were arraigned before ICC, charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the 2007-8 post-election chaos in Kenya that left more than 1,200 people dead and many others wounded or raped; and about 600,000 were forced to flee, but the charges were dropped for want of evidence, understandably withheld by the government of Kenya under him as President of Kenya.
Until the enslaved and oppressed people of Nigeria break out of the present cocoon of docility and challenge the oligarchy with charges of international crimes they committed from 1966 to date, including (a) various riots in the North which have consumed hundreds of thousands of Nigerian citizens and destroyed hundreds of billions of naira worth of private property, and (b) the duplicitous role of the Federal Government in allowing Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to terrorise the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), or such other commissions or tribunals that are enabled by UN or AU to try and put international criminals away long term, or in foreign municipal courts where Nigeria has substantial assets to pay for damages caused by the terrorists, no Nigerian outside the oligarchy can enjoy any real sense of liberty, freedom or mutual respect as is common in the modern world.
The day Nigerians secure convictions on any past or present leader or Security chief of Nigeria for crime against humanity for any of the international crimes they committed whilst in office and for which Nigerian courts have found them liable; or arrest warrants from ICC on serving Head of State and/or his Security Chiefs for on-going mass murder of unarmed street demonstrators and/or condoning/conspiring with world acknowledged terrorists to kill and menace Nigerian citizenry; and even General Gowon for the atrocities committed against Eastern Nigerians (1966-1970), that day will mark the beginning of liberation of Nigeria from the vice grip of the oligarchy. And the earlier the better!
Crimes, local or international, are not time bound. Therefore the pogrom and genocide of 1966-70 are still on the table, along with various unchallenged outstanding atrocities.
SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The 2014 President Jonathan’s National Conference fell far below minimum requirements in its intentions and structure, essential to bring about any change in the present enslaved polity of Nigeria. The details are in my work, To theResque.
The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as an Enslavement Ordinance:
More extensive research is required to highlight how the oligarchy devised the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as an Enslavement Ordinance and it has indeed enslaved other Nigerians by (a) the falsehood told in its preamble “We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Having firmly and solemnly resolved:”; (b) the undemocratic process by which it was brought into being and (c) its various contentious and contradictory sections which deny the people of Nigeria of various fundamental rights guaranteed and ratified by Nigeria in the UN Charter, Treaties and Covenants and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. My works; The Uncivil War; To the Rescue - Nigeria and Open the Gates and Release the Inmates and Nigeria’s Development contain a lot of eye-opener and intermediate materials on Nigeria’s enslavement, which well expanded with more indebt studies should be presented to the UN Security Council for granting of extra jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to try the oligarchs of Nigeria for enslaving the peoples of Nigeria with an Enslavement Ordinance branded the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
Mass Mobilisation for Sovereign National Conference and Re-Structuring of the Federation : Having, by international litigation caged in the government of Nigeria within the limits allowed it by even its controversial Constitution, the people can freely mobilise unfettered for a Sovereign National Conference of all the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, as free peoples, to re-affirm their wish for the continued federation of Nigeria; and if they do, the New Constitution that would restructure the country into a federation of semi-autonomous zones like the regions of the First Republic, guaranteeing equality and mutual respect between the different nationalities with differing values; and with the right to self-determination and secession guaranteed every group in very clear and transparent terms.
Undoing the present Enslavement Ordinance cannot be achieved by magic wand. It requires patience and perseverance and might take upwards of years of well organised hard work, consistency and diligence.
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh ( Author, Writer, Civil & Democracy Rights Protagonist)
President,
Forum for the Promotion of National Ethos and Values ( FPNEV)
Civil and Democracy Rights NGO - CAC/IT/No./71471.
Enugu.
14th Sept. 2016.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
THE CLAIM BY NORTHERN POLITICIANS THAT THE NORTH FUNDED OIL EXPLORATION IN NIGERIA IS BLATANT FALSEHOOD
THE CLAIM BY NORTHERN POLITICIANS THAT THE NORTH FUNDED OIL EXPLORATION IN NIGERIA IS BLATANT FALSEHOOD
https://www.naij.com/858067-money-used-explore-oil-come-senator-challenges-niger-delta.html
Senator Abdullahi Adamu's claim, in the link above, that money used to explore oil came from the North is blatant falsehood.
I have in the past read in the newspapers, a number of Northern politicians bandying about this outright falsehood in their typical Jihad of Deception order; and fear that unanswered, gullible Nigerians would one day accept this monumental lie as truth.
The history of oil exploration in Nigeria is summarized by SearchAll.com in following unambiguous language.
"Industry History: Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta after half a century of exploration. The discovery was made by Shell-BP, at the time the sole concessionaire. Nigeria joined the ranks of oil producers in 1958 when its first oil field came on stream producing 5,100 bpd."
Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, two-time former Governor of Nassarawa State and Senator representing Nassarawa West, in the Nigeria's Senate, discharged but not acquitted of a 149-count EFCC charge of looting his State's treasury of N15billion with 18 others whilst he was governor, got it all wrong on the history of oil exploration in Nigeria when he claimed, and I quote:
". . . the history of the country as funds used for exploration of oil and gas
before 1958 were realised from agriculture and solid minerals found in the North."
1. Nigerian government did not invest a penny in oil exploration. Shell-BP was the sole concessionaire of oil exploration in Nigeria and took no financial contributions whatsoever from the governments of Nigeria. In the ordinary dictionary sense, the words "sole Concessionaire" means "sole holder of a concession or grant, especially for the use of land or commercial premises". Shell-BP made all the investments in its oil exploration activities in Nigeria.
2. Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta "after half a century of exploration." That means that the concession to Shell-BP was granted by the Colonial authorities of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria, about 1906 - before the amalgamation. The Northern Protectorate would not have been involved in any form in granting the concession since the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate with the South and colony of Lagos took place in 1914.
3. The main reason the North was amalgamated with the South by the British, was because the North
was too poor to sustain its government. Consequently the Colonial Administration had to borrow the
British taxpayers' money from the British treasury annually to sustain governance of the North.
4. Whereas the North was too poor to sustain governance, the South was rich enough to defray the cost of governance and in addition invest in development projects.
The poverty of the North in relation to the South was aptly captured in Colonial Report no. 878, Nigeria for 1914, presented to both Houses of Parliament by the Command of His Majesty King George V and it exposed how parasitic the North was intended to be on the South.
“It (the Northern Protectorate) depended at first on a substantial grant-in-aid from the Imperial Exchequer, averaging about £274,000 per annum, and though this was being rapidly replaced by the product of the direct tax, which yielded in 1913 the large sum of £546,000 – about half of which was paid into revenue, the remainder being assigned to the Native Administration – the essential needs of the country could not be met without a considerable additional revenue. . .
Southern Nigeria, on the other hand, presented a picture which was in almost, all points exact
converse of that of the North. Here the material prosperity had been extra-ordinary. The revenue had
almost doubled itself in a period of five years. The surplus balances exceeded a million and a half. . . And so while Northern Nigeria was devoting itself to building up a system of Native Administration, and laboriously raising revenue by direct taxation, Southern Nigeria had found itself engrossed in material development.”
The British Colonial Secretary, Lord Lewis Vernon Harcourt’s pre-amalgamation report on the proposal to the British government, openly affirmed the intendment of the amalgamation and the state of finances of the North and South, in his insulting designation of the South as a rich bride about to be given away in marriage, without her consent or consultation, in order to sustain a poor groom.
“We have released Northern Nigeria from the lending strings of the treasury. The promising and well conducted youth is now on allowance on his own and is about to affect an alliance with a southern lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Fredrick Lugard will perform the ceremony. . ."
5. The North which was found by the British to be unable to fund development projects, essentially because it was spending 50% of its revenue in funding feudalism, otherwise branded Native Authority. It could therefore not have funded oil exploration between 1906 when the concession was granted, and 1956 when oil was discovered in Oloibiri and 1958, when the first shipment of oil out of Nigeria, by the concessionnaire, took place.
6. The North accepted self-government only in 1959, as against 1957 by the South; and from 1914 to date, has maintained the ranking of the poorest region in Nigeria, largely due to the cost of maintaining feudalism; and a misconception that wealth is predestined, therefore man cannot fight and defeat poverty.
7. In issuing that false statement, Senator Adamu, like all Jihadists, had no other intention than to deceive the gullible.
The deception can be said to be intended to incite the North to fight to death (like in Dr. Saro Wiwa's case) for oil in the Niger-Delta over which they have a right on account of their spurious investment; and at the same time also provoke Niger-Deltans who are resisting North's monopolization of oil blocks and leaving them with the devastations of oil extraction in their territories.
8. Without conceding in any form whatsoever that the North funded oil exploration in the Niger Delta, it is worthwhile to note that even if it did, which it did not, Northerners have reaped enough bounty from their false assumption of investment in oil exploration and it is time to give the land owners the benefit of what is on their land.
To Senator Adamu and his likes and in the best interest of peace and progress in Nigeria, I offer James Madison's piece of advice.
"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, Jr.,1751 – 1836, political theorist and American statesman, served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–17) and is hailed as the "Father of the U.S. Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the draft Constitution; and he also authored and sponsored the U.S. Bill of Rights).
Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
https://www.naij.com/858067-money-used-explore-oil-come-senator-challenges-niger-delta.html
Senator Abdullahi Adamu's claim, in the link above, that money used to explore oil came from the North is blatant falsehood.
I have in the past read in the newspapers, a number of Northern politicians bandying about this outright falsehood in their typical Jihad of Deception order; and fear that unanswered, gullible Nigerians would one day accept this monumental lie as truth.
The history of oil exploration in Nigeria is summarized by SearchAll.com in following unambiguous language.
"Industry History: Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta after half a century of exploration. The discovery was made by Shell-BP, at the time the sole concessionaire. Nigeria joined the ranks of oil producers in 1958 when its first oil field came on stream producing 5,100 bpd."
Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, two-time former Governor of Nassarawa State and Senator representing Nassarawa West, in the Nigeria's Senate, discharged but not acquitted of a 149-count EFCC charge of looting his State's treasury of N15billion with 18 others whilst he was governor, got it all wrong on the history of oil exploration in Nigeria when he claimed, and I quote:
". . . the history of the country as funds used for exploration of oil and gas
before 1958 were realised from agriculture and solid minerals found in the North."
1. Nigerian government did not invest a penny in oil exploration. Shell-BP was the sole concessionaire of oil exploration in Nigeria and took no financial contributions whatsoever from the governments of Nigeria. In the ordinary dictionary sense, the words "sole Concessionaire" means "sole holder of a concession or grant, especially for the use of land or commercial premises". Shell-BP made all the investments in its oil exploration activities in Nigeria.
2. Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta "after half a century of exploration." That means that the concession to Shell-BP was granted by the Colonial authorities of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria, about 1906 - before the amalgamation. The Northern Protectorate would not have been involved in any form in granting the concession since the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate with the South and colony of Lagos took place in 1914.
3. The main reason the North was amalgamated with the South by the British, was because the North
was too poor to sustain its government. Consequently the Colonial Administration had to borrow the
British taxpayers' money from the British treasury annually to sustain governance of the North.
4. Whereas the North was too poor to sustain governance, the South was rich enough to defray the cost of governance and in addition invest in development projects.
The poverty of the North in relation to the South was aptly captured in Colonial Report no. 878, Nigeria for 1914, presented to both Houses of Parliament by the Command of His Majesty King George V and it exposed how parasitic the North was intended to be on the South.
“It (the Northern Protectorate) depended at first on a substantial grant-in-aid from the Imperial Exchequer, averaging about £274,000 per annum, and though this was being rapidly replaced by the product of the direct tax, which yielded in 1913 the large sum of £546,000 – about half of which was paid into revenue, the remainder being assigned to the Native Administration – the essential needs of the country could not be met without a considerable additional revenue. . .
Southern Nigeria, on the other hand, presented a picture which was in almost, all points exact
converse of that of the North. Here the material prosperity had been extra-ordinary. The revenue had
almost doubled itself in a period of five years. The surplus balances exceeded a million and a half. . . And so while Northern Nigeria was devoting itself to building up a system of Native Administration, and laboriously raising revenue by direct taxation, Southern Nigeria had found itself engrossed in material development.”
The British Colonial Secretary, Lord Lewis Vernon Harcourt’s pre-amalgamation report on the proposal to the British government, openly affirmed the intendment of the amalgamation and the state of finances of the North and South, in his insulting designation of the South as a rich bride about to be given away in marriage, without her consent or consultation, in order to sustain a poor groom.
“We have released Northern Nigeria from the lending strings of the treasury. The promising and well conducted youth is now on allowance on his own and is about to affect an alliance with a southern lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Fredrick Lugard will perform the ceremony. . ."
5. The North which was found by the British to be unable to fund development projects, essentially because it was spending 50% of its revenue in funding feudalism, otherwise branded Native Authority. It could therefore not have funded oil exploration between 1906 when the concession was granted, and 1956 when oil was discovered in Oloibiri and 1958, when the first shipment of oil out of Nigeria, by the concessionnaire, took place.
6. The North accepted self-government only in 1959, as against 1957 by the South; and from 1914 to date, has maintained the ranking of the poorest region in Nigeria, largely due to the cost of maintaining feudalism; and a misconception that wealth is predestined, therefore man cannot fight and defeat poverty.
7. In issuing that false statement, Senator Adamu, like all Jihadists, had no other intention than to deceive the gullible.
The deception can be said to be intended to incite the North to fight to death (like in Dr. Saro Wiwa's case) for oil in the Niger-Delta over which they have a right on account of their spurious investment; and at the same time also provoke Niger-Deltans who are resisting North's monopolization of oil blocks and leaving them with the devastations of oil extraction in their territories.
8. Without conceding in any form whatsoever that the North funded oil exploration in the Niger Delta, it is worthwhile to note that even if it did, which it did not, Northerners have reaped enough bounty from their false assumption of investment in oil exploration and it is time to give the land owners the benefit of what is on their land.
To Senator Adamu and his likes and in the best interest of peace and progress in Nigeria, I offer James Madison's piece of advice.
"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, Jr.,1751 – 1836, political theorist and American statesman, served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–17) and is hailed as the "Father of the U.S. Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the draft Constitution; and he also authored and sponsored the U.S. Bill of Rights).
Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
Saturday, June 4, 2016
TRIBUTE TO UKPABI-NIMBO 48
On Monday, 26th April 2016, 500 rampaging cattle Fulani herdsmen invaded the seven villages of Ukpabi Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, killing 48 and wounding several hundreds who have since been hospitalized and various discharged by now. Several residential homes and a church was burnt. Vehicles and motorcycles were destroyed and domestic animals killed. Thousands of the inhabitants of the seven villages of Ukpabi Nimbo, were forced to evacuate and flee their communities and are now IDPs in homes, hospitals, town halls, schools, offices stretching from Nsukka to Enugu. The 48 dead were innocent victims of a failed State - Nigeria.
Their forebears did not participate in the amalgamation negotiations of 1914; nor did they know anything about the enslaving concessions their pre-independence leaders made for one Nigeria, against separatist demands of the North and the West. They made no input in the convulsions of the 1960s, nor into the present politics of the defeated and enslaved. They took their neglect by the ruling elite with equanimity and without complaining against the Nigerian system, tilling the soil from year to year to eke out a living. The Fulani herdsmen descended from nowhere and disrupted their routine. The failure of the Nigerian system caught up with them as a volcanic eruption and they were gone.
If the living would realize how accepted enslavement accounted for their death, plan and defend themselves, a repeat could be avoided. But as it is usual in Nigeria, the right noises have been made, meetings held and until it happens again, everyone would be caught once again napping once again.
It is revealing that NIMBO people were attacked because a Fulani cattle trader, who suspected that the herdsmen were cheating on his stock under the charge of the herdsmen, came down from the North to reconcile figures, but ended up dead and his decomposing body found in a border village in Kogi State. He was obviously killed by his kinsmen who were cheating him but NIMBO people had to pay the price!
Why do Fulanis Kill, Maim, Rape And Drive Fellow Nigerians from their Ancestral Homes and Farmland?
The conquest of the Hausa in the Fulani wars of 1804-1810 byHausas; and the triumph of the Nigerian Army over Biafra in the 1967-70 un-civil war, established a supremacy syndrome over Nigeria, among the Fulanis of Nigeria.
As far back as October 12, 1960, Sir Ahmadu Bello, then Premier of the Northern Region and leader of the Northern People's Congress ( NPC), the north-based party that controlled the Federal Government at the time, articulated the mission of the Fulanis in one of his popular quotes.
“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate from our great grand- father, Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South as conquered territories and never allow them to have control of their future.”
The mission of the Cattle Fulani herdsmen in Southern Nigeria is to to subordinate the South as conquered territory and ensure that it is never allowed to control its future, now and for ever.
Threat to National Security: The dominion tendency of Cattle Fulani herdsmen 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 with impunity; sacking and taking over people's ancestral communities and farm lands, without any question whatsoever from Nigerian security agencies. Their activities are most ferocious in non-Moslem areas of Nigeria. Non-Moslems are regarded as infidels (unbelievers), and by their doctrinaire orientation, have no right to life, property and dignity of the human person.
Organized and registered as Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), their chief patron is reportedly the Sultan of Sokoto - the Sarki Musulumi (Commander of the Faithful) of Nigeria. It is reported that President Buhari was also their patron.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 chiefs etc. The herdsmen are mere minders and therefore enjoy unlimited protection from the owners of their stock. They therefore obey no laws of Nigeria; and even refuse to attend peace meetings in communities they indiscriminately attack the security agencies generally look the other way and never arrest them; but instead rush to their aid whenever they are in danger. The Awgu 76 villagers arrested by the military and transported across state lines and extra- judicially charged to court at Abia State, is a solid illustration.
The Mission of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants in Nigeria
After the 1974 World Islamic Organizations Mecca Conference resolutions on modalities for achieving their radical vision of a world under the political and religious authority of Allah and his prophet , in 1989, General Ibrahim Babangida's first Islam-in-Africa Conference in Abuja, ensued from the 1974 Mecca meeting.The Abuja Conference was precede by his unilateral enrollment of Nigeria as a member of the purely Islamic Organization - the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). OIC was established on September 25, 1969
by Moslems countries to assist Palestine in retrieving from Israel, Islam's third holiest site - Al-Aqsa Mosque, captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israel Six-Day June War.
Two of the key resolutions of the Abuja 1989 Islam-in-Africa Conference were:
(i)To support the establishment and application of the Shari'a to all Muslims; and (ii) To ensure the declaration of Nigeria (the 24th African and World member of the OIC) a Federal Islamic Sultanate at a convention on any day from 28th March 1990, with the Sultan of Sokoto enthroned the Sultan and Supreme Sovereign of Nigeria.
In furtherance of resolution (i) in year 2000, Sharia was proclaimed in twelve states of the North, thus setting the stage for the level of Islamic fundamentalism that engulfed the North-East and North-West and resulted in Nigeria giving the world, Islamic militant groups ranked first and fourth deadliest terrorist organizations (by number of deaths caused in terrorist attacks). By the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2015, Boko Haram is the world's deadliest terrorist organization with 6,644 killings in 2014; whereas Fulani Islamic Militants, the 4th, with 1,229 killings. The two terror organs rewarded Nigeria with ranking as the 3rd terrorism-ravaged country in the world.
Furthermore, Moslems are involved in 90% of all wars going on in the world today. And this is consistent with trends in the GTI 2015 - most of 78% of deaths resulting from terrorism, occurred in five countries of the world - Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, four of them with 95-100% Moslems, and Nigeria with a little less than 50% Moslems, which manipulatively dominates its politics.
Consequently the Cattle-Fulani Herdsmen militants are merely the foot soldiers for the establishment of that 1989 Abuja conference resolution on Sultanate of Nigeria. The terrorism the militants spread is Jihad of the Sword. In Jihads, Jihadists kill, maim, capture and rape women as booty and occupy the conquered's home, farm or whatever in accordance Jihadist doctrine.
Mindset of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen
The mindset of the Cattle Fulani herdsmen is dominated by doctrinaire injunctions in the Quran, Hadith/Sunna.
“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is one of them . . .” (Surah 5;54).
“And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevails justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere.” (Surah 8:39) "Those who die in holy war are guaranteed to go to Heaven. “The person who participates in Jihad (Holy Battles) in Allah’s cause and nothing compels him to do so except belief in Allah and His Apostle, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to paradise (if he is killed).” Hadith Vol. 1:35 Killing in Jihad operations and looting victims’ property is authorized: “Whoever has killed an enemy and has proof of that, will possess his spoils.” The Hadith Vol. 4 no.370.
Rape of captive women in Jihad is sanctioned, “those captive whom your right hand possess” Surah 4:24. The Hadith in Mishkat II, page 440 also teaches: “Captive virgin girls in war were made lawful for the soldiers for copulation.”
The Subterfuge of Foreign Invaders - Typical Jihad of Deception
There have been spurious claims by Northern political/religious/traditional leaders and lately, the Federal Government of Nigeria, controlled by Islamic fundamentalists, that the militants who are terrorizing Nigeria are not Fulanis but invaders from outside Nigeria. This is another form of Jihad - Jihad of Deception. A Moslem fundamentalist leader must be adept in Jihad of Words and of Deception for him to lead at all.
On this cattle Fulani militancy they seem to have gone over-board in their efforts to deceive Nigeria. The Jihadists of the Sword might not be directly involved in the herding but, invariably invited or contracted by the herders and/or their Organization - Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).
Northern States Governor' Forum: First, the Northern States Governors' Forum met on the 15th of April 2016 and outrightly denied that the murderous herdsmen are Fulani. They frowned against labelling perpetrators of crimes around the country as Fulani herdsmen, rather they should be referred to as criminals. The Governors displayed scant regards for the toll on lives, decency and property which the nefarious activities of their kinsmen are causing the nation. In their own words, it is an insult to label criminals as Fulani. They were not however able to explain how and why cattle Fulani herdsmen readily occupy 'conquered' territories with their families and cattle, immediately after each invasion.
Northern Senators Forum
On 29th April 2016 Northern Senators in their characteristic slave-masters' demeanor "warned governors, leaders and community heads in the country to desist from making inflammatory statements that could further overheat the polity". Perhaps killing, maiming and raping of citizens should be branded pampering; or otherwise victims and/or victims' families should keep mute in order to preserve their slave camp, Nigeria . Continuing, the Senators arrogantly promised they would soon come up with new laws as well as amend existing ones to help promote the interest of Northern Nigeria in particular and the country at large. They had nothing for victims who might lose their lives, property and honor/decency before the magic of the laws they are yet to make, begin to work.
Concluding, these Pharaohs warned that there would be no country called Nigeria, if other parts of the country asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities and states.
The warning of course means they will fight the rest of Nigeria in all nooks and crannies with Hausa-Fulanis now spread and now resident in almost all communities of Nigeria, perhaps clandestinely armed. It did not occur to these Nigerian Pharaohs that terrorists have no right whatsoever to share air and land space with normal humans in any civilized society, except perhaps in Stone Age.
The Federal Government of Nigeria declares Fulani Herdsmen Boko Haram Foreign Insurgents:
On 10th of May 2016, the Minister of State, Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri, whilst presenting the Federal Government position to the Public Hearing on perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers, organized by the Senate Joint Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development and National Security and Intelligence, declared that those terrorists involved in clashes with farmers, killings and destruction of property, were not Fulanis, but another gang of Boko Haram. According to the government, the persons who have so far been arrested cannot speak any Fulani or any Nigerian language. He added that those tagged suspected Fulani were foreign terrorists from other countries.
Concluding he emphasized: “Available statistics to us in government show that contrary to media report that these violent herdsmen are the conventional Nigerian Fulanis, they are not, as none of those apprehended was able to speak any of the Nigerian languages. This gives strong credence to the possibility of the violent herdsmen to be another form of terrorists in the mode of Boko Haram."
The Minister did not tell Nigerians how foreign terrorists can penetrate into the heart, nooks and crannies of Nigeria unhindered; who invites them in; directs them to locations threatened before hand by Fulani herdsmen ( like in the Nimbo case) and why the Government of Nigeria still exerts sovereignty over areas of Nigeria it cannot defend.
I am not surprised that Chief Audu Ogbeh, the substantive Minister of Agriculture, whose home areas in Benue State is ravaged by these herdsmen militants and who had rightly called for total disarming of all herdsmen, did not allow himself to be used in dishing out the above outright falsehood as Federal Government statement.
PRESIDENT BUHARI'S ADDRESS IN KATSINA: WILL FIGHT ANY EXPULSION OF RAMPAGING HERDSMEN AND IS CONCERNED ONLY BY DESERT ENCROACHMENT
Speaking at the Emir of Katsina’s palace during his four-day official visit to his home state (6th to 10th May 2016), President Buhari declared, “I always say that the civil war was fought for the unity of Nigeria because then we had not even discovered oil, let alone enjoyed it. But two million people were killed. . . The way the Sahara (Desert) is advancing, with Boko Haram growing, and the number of people displaced and uncertainty over rainfall in a land where we fought a civil war leading to the deaths of about two million, for someone to just say he will chase us is not acceptable.”
"Not acceptable" to a retired General, former Military Head of State, now President with virtual unlimited powers granted by the country's ultra defective Constitution, sounds very much like the Northern Senators' warning "there would be no country called Nigeria, if other parts of the country asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities and states".
Perhaps the President is not aware that Saudi Arabia ( the citadel of Islam) which sits completely on desert (not encroachment), with average annual rain of 2.3 inches, as against Sokoto's average of 24 inches per annum, yet Saudi has several of the most successful ranches in the world feeding the Gulf Region with most of its milk; and with daily yield of 40 liters of milk per cow as against Fulani cattle miserable average of 0.74 liters per cow.
The President did not indicate any knowledge or concern that these troubled herders are taking Nigerians in areas they attack or organize to be attacked, back to pre- historic living in which might is right - killing, maiming, raping, arson and forceful conversion of other people's property.
Cattle Fulani Herdsmen are not from Space:
The fallacious deception that Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants land from space with their cattle, attack farms and communities and disappear into thin air, perhaps with their cattle, is baloney and intended to deceive only the ignorant and people of unsound minds.
Facts on ground and incidents expose the chicanery in these degenerate assertions.
1. Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), an association of cattle rearers of Nigeria, (almost all members Fulani) is duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Their highly influential trustees are known and that is why the Security Agencies of Nigeria are at their beck and call; and indeed condone; even assist in various atrocities committed by the herdsmen.
2. MACBAN has always represented these Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants whenever there is trouble. It even issues and executes threats on behalf of the herdsmen militants. Former Governor Suswan's experience with the herdsmen says it all.
On 24th February, 2014, 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 allegedly 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. Cattle are no citizens of Nigeria and under no stretch of imagination can they be covered by a national Constitution. They are articles of trade which is within States' authority under the Constitution to regulate.
On10th March 2014, after an exchange of gun shots failed to get the Governor in a convoy which had only mobile Police, his military escorts, (perhaps with fore-knowledge) having unilaterally withdrawn, they attacked Mr. Suswan’s ancestral village, killed 25, and sacked the it, plus 29 other communities within 25 kilometres radius. With the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji M. D. Abubakar, an Hausa-Fulani, impliedly telling the Governor that he was not offering any assistance against the herdsmen invasion, the Governor ate the humble pie and negotiated peace with MACBAN which allowed the herders to graze their cattle anywhere in Benue but pay for any damages resulting from the free ranging of cattle!
So the Fulani leaders of MACBAN issued the threat letter to the President, provided the militants who wrecked havoc on the Governor and his state. What about the IGP who humbled the Governor? And finally what about the eventual triumphant ride of MACBAN leaders into Government House, Makurdi and signing of a one-sided peace accord? Apparently, peace of the graveyard reigned in Benue State until the AGATU massacre.
3. Early hours of Wednesday February 24, 2016, five villages of Aila, Ugboju, Akwu, Odugbeho and Enogaje of Agatu Local Government Area in Benue State, sharing common borders with Nasarawa State, were attacked by Cattle Fulani herdsmen. Three hundred lives were allegedly instantly lost and 7,000 persons displaced. Vanguard newspaper on 1st March 2016, confirmed that Benue State Police Commissioner, Paul Yakadi, said over 5,000 cows accompanied by armed Fulani herdsmen were occupying part of Agatu local government area of the state. On 3rd of March 2016, various media, including Premium Times and Daily Post, reported that a spokesman for the Fulani community in Benue State, Mr. Ado Aboderi, told the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase who was on a visit to Makurdi that the crisis started after 10,000 of cattle belonging to its members were killed by Agatu natives; and therefore that criminal elements on both sides escalated the crisis. The unanswered question is how were the 10,000 cows killed and their decomposing bodies disposed off, without causing an epidemic? Why was the killing of 10,000 cows not reported to Police? Who told Fulani herdsmen that in any sane society that the death of 10,000 cows (real or imagined) justifies the killing of one human being? Why did IGP Arase not promptly detain Mr. Aboderi for questioning, on what he knows about Agatu Massacre? Surprisingly, the IGP was unable to visit anywhere near Agatu during that his Benue trip.
4. Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal were in October 2015, charged at Akure Judicial Division, Ondo State, for kidnapping, on September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Ondo State, with others at large, Chief Olu Falaye, former Secretary to the Goverment of the Federation and an Afenifere chieftain. The accused were all identified as Fulani. Before Falaye's kidnap, he had a running battle with identified Fulani herdsmen in his farm. Chief Falaye has identified in court three of the accused as his Fulani kidnappers.
In April 2016 over ten Fulani herdsmen once again attacked Chief Olu Falaye's farm, this time killing his security aid.
Definitely, if the killers and kidnappers are not Fulanis, they were hired by, and worked for the Fulani herdsmen who had repeatedly invaded Falaye's farm.
5. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on 3rd October 2015, condemned the Pan-Yoruba group's ( Afenifere) call on the federal government to abolish nomadic cattle rearing to stop alleged criminal activities by herdsmen in Yoruba land, failing "which the South-west people will have to defend themselves.” This statement was issued by Afenifere in reaction to the kidnap of Chief Falaye. ACF branded the Afenifere statement as not only reckless but unbecoming of a highly respected group like the Afenifere to choose to criminalize a whole race or tribe or region, instead of the individual criminals and threatening to arrogate to itself the powers to deal with suspected criminals in the midst of various legal provisions on how to deal with such suspects. It did not bother AREWA that the herdsmen were constituting themselves into a State within a State, illegally armed with military assault weapons, attacking and killing/maiming whomsoever they cared.
6. Nimbo in Enugu State happened on 26th April 2016. Despite a whole day's advance warning, briefing and financial mobilization by Enugu State Governor, estimated 500 marauders descended on Nimbo and had a field day with no security personnel in sight.
7. Friday, 13th May 2016 Fulani herdsmen once again invaded Tarfi village, Binnev Ward in Buruku Local Government area of Benue State killing over 60 natives. They had earlier killed over 60 in Buruku and another 50 in Gums - the State (Benue) Governor's ancestral village. The State Governor, Samuel Ortom branded the killings genocide wondering why security operatives stationed in the areas, failed in their duties to "arrest the herdsmen who perpetrated the heinous crime if it was not planned genocide".
8. On 16th May 2016, a Delta State High Court sitting in Asaba, sentenced two Fulani herdsmen, Hassan Abidu and Yakubu Salem, suspected to be members of a group of armed nomads terrorizing indigenes of Ibusa and its environs, especially farmers. to 20 years (10 years each) in jail with hard labour and without the option of fine, having found them guilty of illegal possession of firearms, punishable under Section 3(1) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act Cap R.II, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2010.
9. Southern Kaduna, Nassarawa, Taraba and Plateau are conquered and enslaved by cattle Fulani herdsmen . Security report by international agencies tell stories of people living as sub-humans in their own ancestral homes, whereas the invaders live in the homes of displaced indigenes as overlords. Indigenes reportedly live in refugee camps as IDPs.
10. Benue is under siege. As soon as Benue falls, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi will follow; then Imo, Abia and South-South. Nimbo, probably was a mere exploratory attack.
1 to 10 above ought to teach even the cynic that Nigeria is back to 2011 to 2013 when northern leaders, after complaining that General Ihejirika (an Igbo and then Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army) and the Nigerian Army was "killing their people", by which they meant insurgent Boko Haram, and called on the Federal Government (FG) to negotiate with Boko Haram. Military operations were compromised and sabotaged; and Boko Haram surprise strategic attacks on critical locations were initiated and executed.
FG was being deliberately distracted until a festering sore ballooned into an ulcer with so much devastations of lives, property and the Nigerian economy - the Boko Haram (BH), the world's deadliest terrorist organization. Same northern leaders turned around to brand FG's approach to the same BH as clueless. By 2014 Boko Haram graduated into the world deadliest organization; and began to attack Northern leaders for initiating half- hearted Sharia, for politics of expediency.
The difference this time is that Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, classified by the world through the 2015 Global Terrorism Index 2015, as the World's 4th deadliest terrorist organization, are now in our homes; and if any zone fails to plan well, will suffer the faith of Bosnians in the hands of the Serbs during the dis-integration of Yugoslavia - over 100,000 Bosnians massacred and 2 million displaced, before the pretentious international community, through the UN, made peace to save the Bosnians with the emergence of the four million-member Republic of Bosnia- Herzegovina (1992-7).
The daily count of deaths due to Cattle Fulani herdsmen has exceeded 10, yet the Federal Government is still too busy planning to save the Fulani cattle with no meaningful plans of any kind to rescue besieged citizens. Instead Northern leaders spend their time defending the battered image of the Fulani and nomadism - an out-modded, primitive and uneconomic animal husbandry technique, long abandoned by the civilized world.
It baffles the world that Nigeria has a security problem with such monumental proportions, involving loss of hundreds of lives in hundreds of incidents in a year and the Head of State of Nigeria did not spare a sentence on the tragedy in his May 29, 2016 Democracy Day broadcast.
History is perhaps repeating itself. On October 1, 1966, whilst Igbo people were being hunted down in Nigeria and massacred in an organized genocide which took 27,939 Igbo lives with 1.129 million displaced back to their home region in the East, General Gowon, then Head of State, in his Independence Anniversary broadcast, made no mention of the atrocities; but instead found time to romanticize and celebrate that power was back in the hands of another Northerner, after he had murdered his benefactor, General Ironsi.
ACTION PLAN
Recognize Cattle Fulani Herdsmen militancy is not a problem that can be solved by playing Nigerian routine politics. The lives and freedoms of scores of millions of Nigerians are at stake. The Nigerian State is under siege and Cattle Fulani Herdsmen militants might be the catalysts for that end game.
Disarm all Herdsmen. If the Federal Government persists in its present apparent connivance with herdsmen, all States are advised to follow the Delta State example and dis-arm the herdsmen through the courts as detailed in number 8 above. I have called Elder Obaseki Okowa, my friend and kinsman, to congratulate him for giving Delta State a Governor with the right set of balls between his legs. Oppressors are morally bankrupt and listen to no pleas. The mission of the Fulanis in Nigeria is beyond the Fulanis herdsmen one sees in the various states. The oligarchy makes the decisions and fundamentalists never look back or roll back. A thousand meetings with Fulanis in any besieged state, will never change a mission now very close to complete accomplishment. If we accept that today, Nigeria is a Fulani slave camp, we will be able to work our way out of enslavement."The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states." - the immortal words of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 -1948), a realization that moved him to fight for Indian independence.
Communities Vigilante: The marauders, who are not supposed to belong to any civilized society are with us and their brothers who control the government of Nigeria insist they must remain with us and so far have not disarmed them, instead they plead alibis of foreign Boko Haram invaders, who they did not explain why they were allowed at all to invade Nigeria in the first instance. The first line of defense is therefore to arm the vigilante in every community. Former Governor Peter Obi's example in Anambra State should be a model : each community a patrol pick-up, a minimum number of personnel and Police licensed guns for small communities; and more for larger ones; ensured monthly salaries for all vigilantes; regular periodic provisions of fuel and bullets. Powerful security Committee to undertake fundraising in the State to augment subventions from the Governor's security vote.
Ban on all movement of Cattle on hoofs within each state like in all major cattle breeding nations of the world. With less than 15 million cattle, Nigeria is not by any stretch of imagination, a major cattle breeding nation. Major cattle breeding countries of the world, by 2009 figures have as high as 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. Cattle & breeders do not roam or molest citizens in any of the above nations. They are confined to ranches and Nigeria should confine all its cattle to ranches. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has provided the leadership by restricting cattle movement in Ekiti State to privately owned ranches like in the civilized world and introduction of State Law to confiscate all free-ranging cattle.
Induce Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to go back to the Savana and leave civilized society for human beings, who have respect for human lives and Property:
(a) Pepper on grass or whatever stuff that will drive the cattle from farms and neighborhoods should be encouraged to be used by all communities invaded by Fulani cattle.
(b) Daily sales from Lokpanta Fulani settlement in Abia state is estimated at 500 to 700 heads at N100,000; for a six-day week sales, are estimated in a month to yield N1.2billion to N1.68billion, and for a year N14.4billion to N20.16billion. The sales from the other major Fulani settlement in Ugwuoba/Amansea, Enugu/Anambra should sell more than Lokpanta. Estimating Ugwuoba sales at Lokpanta volume, both add up to N28.8billion to N40.32billion (average say N34.06). Ebonyi State is not factored into above estimates; therefore add say N7billion and you have a total N41.06billion from South-East only. Southeast only, therefore contributes N41.06billion to the account of MACBAN and eventually AREWA without any respect whatsoever for the people of the South-East. Instead MACBAN and AREWA dish out abuses, massacre, rape and arson. As Nelson Mandela rightly asserted, Freedom without respect/dignity is no freedom at all.
Short-Term: boycott "Nama" totally for one month in memory of Nimbo 48 - My gut feeling is that if the South-East boycotts "Nama" totally for one month causing AREWA loss of over N3 billion, AREWA would negotiate peace subject to Southeastern terms. Besides, one month without "Nama" beef is not even enough mourning for the humiliation at Nimbo and various Southeast communities. For me all "Nama" are "Nimbo". Eating any"Nama" for me is like eating the flesh of any of the Nimbo 48.
Long-Term: Breed Your Muturu Cattle in the South:
Dr. Michael Okpara did breed Muturu breed (Efi Igbo) as premier of Eastern Region.
Saudi Arabia, with its dying stock of indigenous breeds of cattle, is doing it, using completely California, Irish and German breeds. Saudi is situated right inside a desert (not the escapist excuse of encroaching desert) but with huge dams and boreholes, is able to grow all the grass it needs and provide all the water for cows in its modernized ranches . Saudi has an average annual rainfall of just 2.3 inches (59mm); whereas Enugu for example has annual average of 66.7 inches and Sokoto - 24 inches. Industry experts say one cow must consume three liters of water a day to produce one liter of milk. For high-performing cattle, that equals 150 liters of water a day and Saudi provides that in its desert-situated ranches.
I take two sample ranches from Saudi Arabia.
(a) Almarai Al Kharj Ranch - The Californian model of livestock farming simply means that you don't have to grow all your grass and raise your own feed crops; you can farm out feed and water and all your input; and house a thousand head of dairy cattle on just 40 acres of land.
In 1977, Almarai began modestly with just 300 heads of cattle as part of a Saudi push to achieve food security through self-sufficiency -- a government response to the oil shocks of the 1970s.
Today with a total herd of 135,000 dairy cattle, Almarai's installation at Al Kharj 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Riyad, houses one of its largest herds of 67,000. The entire herd produces 2.5 million liters of milk a day -- an average of 40 liters per cow per day, roughly double the European average. 22,500 cows are currently under milk.
The secret to making a dairy farm successful in one of the world's most arid environments is to apply technology -- and a lot of it. Not to range cattle into dry bones and tendon all over the country!
Almarai'sAl Kharj ranch produces an average of 40 liters per day per cow, as against Nigerian Fulani cattle 0.74 litre average per day which amounts to a miserable 270.1 litres per annum, whose quality cannot be guaranteed.
(b). Almarai Al Badiah dairy farm: A desert land in Saudi Arabia with temperatures frequently of over 45 degrees Celsius is where you will find one of the largest and most impressive dairy operations in the world.
Almarai’s stunning Al Badiah farm, is home to 47,000 heads of dairy cattle. The farm is 6km long by 3km wide, with one third of the 2,200 hectares under buildings. Milk production is at the same rate as in (a) above.
BEEF VALUE:The beef value from the Saudi ranches is also over 40 times whatever is realizable from the scraggy Fulani Cattle which, at the end of over 1,000 kilometer trek, is but a bundle of tendon and bones, yielding little or no milk.
HEALTH HAZARD - Toxic Beef: What Fulani cattle eat or drink whilst roaming is unregulated. They ingest lots of toxic material (plastics and chemically polluted water) which could be part responsible for increasing rate of cancers and kidney failures in Nigeria. That beef/suya Nigerians commonly consume, could be part responsible for Nigeria's very low average life expectancy (longevity). Average world's life expectancy is 70 years whereas Nigeria is struggling with 53 years.
Ranches in the South
The "Mturu" (efi Igbo) is tsetse fly resistant and survives. A hybrid of the American or Brazilian/Argentinian or European high milk/beef yielding stock, with medium technology can give the zone enough milk and meat and plenty of extra to export. Imported semen can be used to impregnate local Mturu cow to produce that tsetse fly resistant but high-milk/beef-yielding high breed. Import of whole Bulls might be unnecessary.
Whenever Southern Nigeria produces enough beef and milk and can export, Cattle Fulani herdsmen would have no cause to stay in the tropics than go back to the Savana and learn to breed cattle with modern technology or perish their pastoralist live-stock breeding like Saudi indigenous cattle is becoming extinct.
URGENT NEED TO REVERSE WORLD CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
A crisis way above Boko Haram in Nigeria is brewing and consuming Nigeria and the Nigerian government washes its hands of it like Herod. Failure of government to protect lives, like in NIMBO, is the worst type of governance failure, for what else is the purpose of governance, except the security and welfare of citizens. Instead the Nigerian government occupies itself in quixotic corruption fight whilst Nigerians are being massacred without question. The unanswered question is, preservation of citizens' lives and fighting corruption which one is more urgent? Can we have a society without citizens? Impossible, but there could be wild cattle. India has close to 300 million cattle in the wild, since Hindus do not eat beef.
Consequently, the greatest tribute South-East governments and peoples can do to NIMBO 48, is to elevate perception of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militant as Terrorists, which the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) has already done by classifying them as 4th deadliest terrorist organization in the world. What is left is to internationalize discussions on them. The quickest resort is to bring CNN and Al Jazira to do news, features, commentaries, etc on NIMBO 48. U.S. State Department must be made to categorize Cattle Fulani Militants as the terrorists they are.
At the end of the day, President Muhammad Buhari would need to answer questions on what he did whilst very deadly terrorists consumed Nigeria.
COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS' FAMILIES
The families of NIMBO 48 deserve compensation from negligent Federal Government. Oppressors do not award damages because they are heartless. All tyrannies have no conscience. Therefore the Federal Government must be compelled to pay. Odi and Zaki Biam compelled the Federal Government and Billions of Naira were paid through court orders to Odi and Zaki Biam. These precedents should be followed and appeals to indifferent Abuja must stop. International suits are possible and can be organized for same
The present generation of Southern Nigerians must be reminded that today's massacres by the North is based on what Southerners accepted to take from the North in the interest of Nigerian unity.
The first recorded massacre in Nigeria took place in Jos. On June 22, 1945 over 200 people were slaughtered in Jos, and their property looted. The colonial authorities failed to institute a probe, and no justice was obtained for the victims. The Kano riots of 1953 took a toll of 150 lives and like in the 1953 riot, mainly Igbo people. No reaction whatsoever from survivors of victims.
In spite of these massacres and North's insistence that it was not interested in one Nigeria but would only participate if assured of dominating it, South-Eastern politicians led oppositions in 1947 and 1954, to a loose federation of regions, preferring a unitary set up; and further ensured that the provision for a right to self-determination for the federating units were not entrenched in the independence Constitution, contrary to the wishes of the Northern and Western Regions. In 1959, South-Eastern leaders ensured that Northerners had power handed over to them and the rest is now history.
LIABILITY BY STATE GOVERNMENTS:
On the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen terrorism, Governor Ayo Fayose has shown that if the States have the political will and courage, they can contain and defeat this monster; and thus protect and secure their citizens. The question is how many Governors in Nigeria can dare? Failure to dare however means dereliction of duty and governance failure. Such States as might fail to act to protect its citizens become liable before the law for loss of lives and property in their respective states.
PRESENT SLAVE/MASTER STRUCTURE OF NIGERIA:
The question is, does the present slave/master structure serve the best interests of the federating peoples of Nigeria and Nigeria?
If yes, forget about the above treatise.
Otherwise resolve that you will no longer be a slave and your fetters shall fall!
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
President,
Forum for Promotion of National Ethos and Values (FPNEV),
Enugu,
June 4, 2016.
On Monday, 26th April 2016, 500 rampaging cattle Fulani herdsmen invaded the seven villages of Ukpabi Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, killing 48 and wounding several hundreds who have since been hospitalized and various discharged by now. Several residential homes and a church was burnt. Vehicles and motorcycles were destroyed and domestic animals killed. Thousands of the inhabitants of the seven villages of Ukpabi Nimbo, were forced to evacuate and flee their communities and are now IDPs in homes, hospitals, town halls, schools, offices stretching from Nsukka to Enugu. The 48 dead were innocent victims of a failed State - Nigeria.
Their forebears did not participate in the amalgamation negotiations of 1914; nor did they know anything about the enslaving concessions their pre-independence leaders made for one Nigeria, against separatist demands of the North and the West. They made no input in the convulsions of the 1960s, nor into the present politics of the defeated and enslaved. They took their neglect by the ruling elite with equanimity and without complaining against the Nigerian system, tilling the soil from year to year to eke out a living. The Fulani herdsmen descended from nowhere and disrupted their routine. The failure of the Nigerian system caught up with them as a volcanic eruption and they were gone.
If the living would realize how accepted enslavement accounted for their death, plan and defend themselves, a repeat could be avoided. But as it is usual in Nigeria, the right noises have been made, meetings held and until it happens again, everyone would be caught once again napping once again.
It is revealing that NIMBO people were attacked because a Fulani cattle trader, who suspected that the herdsmen were cheating on his stock under the charge of the herdsmen, came down from the North to reconcile figures, but ended up dead and his decomposing body found in a border village in Kogi State. He was obviously killed by his kinsmen who were cheating him but NIMBO people had to pay the price!
Why do Fulanis Kill, Maim, Rape And Drive Fellow Nigerians from their Ancestral Homes and Farmland?
The conquest of the Hausa in the Fulani wars of 1804-1810 byHausas; and the triumph of the Nigerian Army over Biafra in the 1967-70 un-civil war, established a supremacy syndrome over Nigeria, among the Fulanis of Nigeria.
As far back as October 12, 1960, Sir Ahmadu Bello, then Premier of the Northern Region and leader of the Northern People's Congress ( NPC), the north-based party that controlled the Federal Government at the time, articulated the mission of the Fulanis in one of his popular quotes.
“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate from our great grand- father, Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South as conquered territories and never allow them to have control of their future.”
The mission of the Cattle Fulani herdsmen in Southern Nigeria is to to subordinate the South as conquered territory and ensure that it is never allowed to control its future, now and for ever.
Threat to National Security: The dominion tendency of Cattle Fulani herdsmen 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 with impunity; sacking and taking over people's ancestral communities and farm lands, without any question whatsoever from Nigerian security agencies. Their activities are most ferocious in non-Moslem areas of Nigeria. Non-Moslems are regarded as infidels (unbelievers), and by their doctrinaire orientation, have no right to life, property and dignity of the human person.
Organized and registered as Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), their chief patron is reportedly the Sultan of Sokoto - the Sarki Musulumi (Commander of the Faithful) of Nigeria. It is reported that President Buhari was also their patron.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 chiefs etc. The herdsmen are mere minders and therefore enjoy unlimited protection from the owners of their stock. They therefore obey no laws of Nigeria; and even refuse to attend peace meetings in communities they indiscriminately attack the security agencies generally look the other way and never arrest them; but instead rush to their aid whenever they are in danger. The Awgu 76 villagers arrested by the military and transported across state lines and extra- judicially charged to court at Abia State, is a solid illustration.
The Mission of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants in Nigeria
After the 1974 World Islamic Organizations Mecca Conference resolutions on modalities for achieving their radical vision of a world under the political and religious authority of Allah and his prophet , in 1989, General Ibrahim Babangida's first Islam-in-Africa Conference in Abuja, ensued from the 1974 Mecca meeting.The Abuja Conference was precede by his unilateral enrollment of Nigeria as a member of the purely Islamic Organization - the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). OIC was established on September 25, 1969
by Moslems countries to assist Palestine in retrieving from Israel, Islam's third holiest site - Al-Aqsa Mosque, captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israel Six-Day June War.
Two of the key resolutions of the Abuja 1989 Islam-in-Africa Conference were:
(i)To support the establishment and application of the Shari'a to all Muslims; and (ii) To ensure the declaration of Nigeria (the 24th African and World member of the OIC) a Federal Islamic Sultanate at a convention on any day from 28th March 1990, with the Sultan of Sokoto enthroned the Sultan and Supreme Sovereign of Nigeria.
In furtherance of resolution (i) in year 2000, Sharia was proclaimed in twelve states of the North, thus setting the stage for the level of Islamic fundamentalism that engulfed the North-East and North-West and resulted in Nigeria giving the world, Islamic militant groups ranked first and fourth deadliest terrorist organizations (by number of deaths caused in terrorist attacks). By the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2015, Boko Haram is the world's deadliest terrorist organization with 6,644 killings in 2014; whereas Fulani Islamic Militants, the 4th, with 1,229 killings. The two terror organs rewarded Nigeria with ranking as the 3rd terrorism-ravaged country in the world.
Furthermore, Moslems are involved in 90% of all wars going on in the world today. And this is consistent with trends in the GTI 2015 - most of 78% of deaths resulting from terrorism, occurred in five countries of the world - Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, four of them with 95-100% Moslems, and Nigeria with a little less than 50% Moslems, which manipulatively dominates its politics.
Consequently the Cattle-Fulani Herdsmen militants are merely the foot soldiers for the establishment of that 1989 Abuja conference resolution on Sultanate of Nigeria. The terrorism the militants spread is Jihad of the Sword. In Jihads, Jihadists kill, maim, capture and rape women as booty and occupy the conquered's home, farm or whatever in accordance Jihadist doctrine.
Mindset of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen
The mindset of the Cattle Fulani herdsmen is dominated by doctrinaire injunctions in the Quran, Hadith/Sunna.
“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is one of them . . .” (Surah 5;54).
“And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevails justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere.” (Surah 8:39) "Those who die in holy war are guaranteed to go to Heaven. “The person who participates in Jihad (Holy Battles) in Allah’s cause and nothing compels him to do so except belief in Allah and His Apostle, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to paradise (if he is killed).” Hadith Vol. 1:35 Killing in Jihad operations and looting victims’ property is authorized: “Whoever has killed an enemy and has proof of that, will possess his spoils.” The Hadith Vol. 4 no.370.
Rape of captive women in Jihad is sanctioned, “those captive whom your right hand possess” Surah 4:24. The Hadith in Mishkat II, page 440 also teaches: “Captive virgin girls in war were made lawful for the soldiers for copulation.”
The Subterfuge of Foreign Invaders - Typical Jihad of Deception
There have been spurious claims by Northern political/religious/traditional leaders and lately, the Federal Government of Nigeria, controlled by Islamic fundamentalists, that the militants who are terrorizing Nigeria are not Fulanis but invaders from outside Nigeria. This is another form of Jihad - Jihad of Deception. A Moslem fundamentalist leader must be adept in Jihad of Words and of Deception for him to lead at all.
On this cattle Fulani militancy they seem to have gone over-board in their efforts to deceive Nigeria. The Jihadists of the Sword might not be directly involved in the herding but, invariably invited or contracted by the herders and/or their Organization - Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).
Northern States Governor' Forum: First, the Northern States Governors' Forum met on the 15th of April 2016 and outrightly denied that the murderous herdsmen are Fulani. They frowned against labelling perpetrators of crimes around the country as Fulani herdsmen, rather they should be referred to as criminals. The Governors displayed scant regards for the toll on lives, decency and property which the nefarious activities of their kinsmen are causing the nation. In their own words, it is an insult to label criminals as Fulani. They were not however able to explain how and why cattle Fulani herdsmen readily occupy 'conquered' territories with their families and cattle, immediately after each invasion.
Northern Senators Forum
On 29th April 2016 Northern Senators in their characteristic slave-masters' demeanor "warned governors, leaders and community heads in the country to desist from making inflammatory statements that could further overheat the polity". Perhaps killing, maiming and raping of citizens should be branded pampering; or otherwise victims and/or victims' families should keep mute in order to preserve their slave camp, Nigeria . Continuing, the Senators arrogantly promised they would soon come up with new laws as well as amend existing ones to help promote the interest of Northern Nigeria in particular and the country at large. They had nothing for victims who might lose their lives, property and honor/decency before the magic of the laws they are yet to make, begin to work.
Concluding, these Pharaohs warned that there would be no country called Nigeria, if other parts of the country asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities and states.
The warning of course means they will fight the rest of Nigeria in all nooks and crannies with Hausa-Fulanis now spread and now resident in almost all communities of Nigeria, perhaps clandestinely armed. It did not occur to these Nigerian Pharaohs that terrorists have no right whatsoever to share air and land space with normal humans in any civilized society, except perhaps in Stone Age.
The Federal Government of Nigeria declares Fulani Herdsmen Boko Haram Foreign Insurgents:
On 10th of May 2016, the Minister of State, Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri, whilst presenting the Federal Government position to the Public Hearing on perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers, organized by the Senate Joint Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development and National Security and Intelligence, declared that those terrorists involved in clashes with farmers, killings and destruction of property, were not Fulanis, but another gang of Boko Haram. According to the government, the persons who have so far been arrested cannot speak any Fulani or any Nigerian language. He added that those tagged suspected Fulani were foreign terrorists from other countries.
Concluding he emphasized: “Available statistics to us in government show that contrary to media report that these violent herdsmen are the conventional Nigerian Fulanis, they are not, as none of those apprehended was able to speak any of the Nigerian languages. This gives strong credence to the possibility of the violent herdsmen to be another form of terrorists in the mode of Boko Haram."
The Minister did not tell Nigerians how foreign terrorists can penetrate into the heart, nooks and crannies of Nigeria unhindered; who invites them in; directs them to locations threatened before hand by Fulani herdsmen ( like in the Nimbo case) and why the Government of Nigeria still exerts sovereignty over areas of Nigeria it cannot defend.
I am not surprised that Chief Audu Ogbeh, the substantive Minister of Agriculture, whose home areas in Benue State is ravaged by these herdsmen militants and who had rightly called for total disarming of all herdsmen, did not allow himself to be used in dishing out the above outright falsehood as Federal Government statement.
PRESIDENT BUHARI'S ADDRESS IN KATSINA: WILL FIGHT ANY EXPULSION OF RAMPAGING HERDSMEN AND IS CONCERNED ONLY BY DESERT ENCROACHMENT
Speaking at the Emir of Katsina’s palace during his four-day official visit to his home state (6th to 10th May 2016), President Buhari declared, “I always say that the civil war was fought for the unity of Nigeria because then we had not even discovered oil, let alone enjoyed it. But two million people were killed. . . The way the Sahara (Desert) is advancing, with Boko Haram growing, and the number of people displaced and uncertainty over rainfall in a land where we fought a civil war leading to the deaths of about two million, for someone to just say he will chase us is not acceptable.”
"Not acceptable" to a retired General, former Military Head of State, now President with virtual unlimited powers granted by the country's ultra defective Constitution, sounds very much like the Northern Senators' warning "there would be no country called Nigeria, if other parts of the country asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities and states".
Perhaps the President is not aware that Saudi Arabia ( the citadel of Islam) which sits completely on desert (not encroachment), with average annual rain of 2.3 inches, as against Sokoto's average of 24 inches per annum, yet Saudi has several of the most successful ranches in the world feeding the Gulf Region with most of its milk; and with daily yield of 40 liters of milk per cow as against Fulani cattle miserable average of 0.74 liters per cow.
The President did not indicate any knowledge or concern that these troubled herders are taking Nigerians in areas they attack or organize to be attacked, back to pre- historic living in which might is right - killing, maiming, raping, arson and forceful conversion of other people's property.
Cattle Fulani Herdsmen are not from Space:
The fallacious deception that Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants land from space with their cattle, attack farms and communities and disappear into thin air, perhaps with their cattle, is baloney and intended to deceive only the ignorant and people of unsound minds.
Facts on ground and incidents expose the chicanery in these degenerate assertions.
1. Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), an association of cattle rearers of Nigeria, (almost all members Fulani) is duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Their highly influential trustees are known and that is why the Security Agencies of Nigeria are at their beck and call; and indeed condone; even assist in various atrocities committed by the herdsmen.
2. MACBAN has always represented these Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants whenever there is trouble. It even issues and executes threats on behalf of the herdsmen militants. Former Governor Suswan's experience with the herdsmen says it all.
On 24th February, 2014, 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 allegedly 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. Cattle are no citizens of Nigeria and under no stretch of imagination can they be covered by a national Constitution. They are articles of trade which is within States' authority under the Constitution to regulate.
On10th March 2014, after an exchange of gun shots failed to get the Governor in a convoy which had only mobile Police, his military escorts, (perhaps with fore-knowledge) having unilaterally withdrawn, they attacked Mr. Suswan’s ancestral village, killed 25, and sacked the it, plus 29 other communities within 25 kilometres radius. With the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji M. D. Abubakar, an Hausa-Fulani, impliedly telling the Governor that he was not offering any assistance against the herdsmen invasion, the Governor ate the humble pie and negotiated peace with MACBAN which allowed the herders to graze their cattle anywhere in Benue but pay for any damages resulting from the free ranging of cattle!
So the Fulani leaders of MACBAN issued the threat letter to the President, provided the militants who wrecked havoc on the Governor and his state. What about the IGP who humbled the Governor? And finally what about the eventual triumphant ride of MACBAN leaders into Government House, Makurdi and signing of a one-sided peace accord? Apparently, peace of the graveyard reigned in Benue State until the AGATU massacre.
3. Early hours of Wednesday February 24, 2016, five villages of Aila, Ugboju, Akwu, Odugbeho and Enogaje of Agatu Local Government Area in Benue State, sharing common borders with Nasarawa State, were attacked by Cattle Fulani herdsmen. Three hundred lives were allegedly instantly lost and 7,000 persons displaced. Vanguard newspaper on 1st March 2016, confirmed that Benue State Police Commissioner, Paul Yakadi, said over 5,000 cows accompanied by armed Fulani herdsmen were occupying part of Agatu local government area of the state. On 3rd of March 2016, various media, including Premium Times and Daily Post, reported that a spokesman for the Fulani community in Benue State, Mr. Ado Aboderi, told the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase who was on a visit to Makurdi that the crisis started after 10,000 of cattle belonging to its members were killed by Agatu natives; and therefore that criminal elements on both sides escalated the crisis. The unanswered question is how were the 10,000 cows killed and their decomposing bodies disposed off, without causing an epidemic? Why was the killing of 10,000 cows not reported to Police? Who told Fulani herdsmen that in any sane society that the death of 10,000 cows (real or imagined) justifies the killing of one human being? Why did IGP Arase not promptly detain Mr. Aboderi for questioning, on what he knows about Agatu Massacre? Surprisingly, the IGP was unable to visit anywhere near Agatu during that his Benue trip.
4. Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal were in October 2015, charged at Akure Judicial Division, Ondo State, for kidnapping, on September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Ondo State, with others at large, Chief Olu Falaye, former Secretary to the Goverment of the Federation and an Afenifere chieftain. The accused were all identified as Fulani. Before Falaye's kidnap, he had a running battle with identified Fulani herdsmen in his farm. Chief Falaye has identified in court three of the accused as his Fulani kidnappers.
In April 2016 over ten Fulani herdsmen once again attacked Chief Olu Falaye's farm, this time killing his security aid.
Definitely, if the killers and kidnappers are not Fulanis, they were hired by, and worked for the Fulani herdsmen who had repeatedly invaded Falaye's farm.
5. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on 3rd October 2015, condemned the Pan-Yoruba group's ( Afenifere) call on the federal government to abolish nomadic cattle rearing to stop alleged criminal activities by herdsmen in Yoruba land, failing "which the South-west people will have to defend themselves.” This statement was issued by Afenifere in reaction to the kidnap of Chief Falaye. ACF branded the Afenifere statement as not only reckless but unbecoming of a highly respected group like the Afenifere to choose to criminalize a whole race or tribe or region, instead of the individual criminals and threatening to arrogate to itself the powers to deal with suspected criminals in the midst of various legal provisions on how to deal with such suspects. It did not bother AREWA that the herdsmen were constituting themselves into a State within a State, illegally armed with military assault weapons, attacking and killing/maiming whomsoever they cared.
6. Nimbo in Enugu State happened on 26th April 2016. Despite a whole day's advance warning, briefing and financial mobilization by Enugu State Governor, estimated 500 marauders descended on Nimbo and had a field day with no security personnel in sight.
7. Friday, 13th May 2016 Fulani herdsmen once again invaded Tarfi village, Binnev Ward in Buruku Local Government area of Benue State killing over 60 natives. They had earlier killed over 60 in Buruku and another 50 in Gums - the State (Benue) Governor's ancestral village. The State Governor, Samuel Ortom branded the killings genocide wondering why security operatives stationed in the areas, failed in their duties to "arrest the herdsmen who perpetrated the heinous crime if it was not planned genocide".
8. On 16th May 2016, a Delta State High Court sitting in Asaba, sentenced two Fulani herdsmen, Hassan Abidu and Yakubu Salem, suspected to be members of a group of armed nomads terrorizing indigenes of Ibusa and its environs, especially farmers. to 20 years (10 years each) in jail with hard labour and without the option of fine, having found them guilty of illegal possession of firearms, punishable under Section 3(1) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act Cap R.II, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2010.
9. Southern Kaduna, Nassarawa, Taraba and Plateau are conquered and enslaved by cattle Fulani herdsmen . Security report by international agencies tell stories of people living as sub-humans in their own ancestral homes, whereas the invaders live in the homes of displaced indigenes as overlords. Indigenes reportedly live in refugee camps as IDPs.
10. Benue is under siege. As soon as Benue falls, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi will follow; then Imo, Abia and South-South. Nimbo, probably was a mere exploratory attack.
1 to 10 above ought to teach even the cynic that Nigeria is back to 2011 to 2013 when northern leaders, after complaining that General Ihejirika (an Igbo and then Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army) and the Nigerian Army was "killing their people", by which they meant insurgent Boko Haram, and called on the Federal Government (FG) to negotiate with Boko Haram. Military operations were compromised and sabotaged; and Boko Haram surprise strategic attacks on critical locations were initiated and executed.
FG was being deliberately distracted until a festering sore ballooned into an ulcer with so much devastations of lives, property and the Nigerian economy - the Boko Haram (BH), the world's deadliest terrorist organization. Same northern leaders turned around to brand FG's approach to the same BH as clueless. By 2014 Boko Haram graduated into the world deadliest organization; and began to attack Northern leaders for initiating half- hearted Sharia, for politics of expediency.
The difference this time is that Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, classified by the world through the 2015 Global Terrorism Index 2015, as the World's 4th deadliest terrorist organization, are now in our homes; and if any zone fails to plan well, will suffer the faith of Bosnians in the hands of the Serbs during the dis-integration of Yugoslavia - over 100,000 Bosnians massacred and 2 million displaced, before the pretentious international community, through the UN, made peace to save the Bosnians with the emergence of the four million-member Republic of Bosnia- Herzegovina (1992-7).
The daily count of deaths due to Cattle Fulani herdsmen has exceeded 10, yet the Federal Government is still too busy planning to save the Fulani cattle with no meaningful plans of any kind to rescue besieged citizens. Instead Northern leaders spend their time defending the battered image of the Fulani and nomadism - an out-modded, primitive and uneconomic animal husbandry technique, long abandoned by the civilized world.
It baffles the world that Nigeria has a security problem with such monumental proportions, involving loss of hundreds of lives in hundreds of incidents in a year and the Head of State of Nigeria did not spare a sentence on the tragedy in his May 29, 2016 Democracy Day broadcast.
History is perhaps repeating itself. On October 1, 1966, whilst Igbo people were being hunted down in Nigeria and massacred in an organized genocide which took 27,939 Igbo lives with 1.129 million displaced back to their home region in the East, General Gowon, then Head of State, in his Independence Anniversary broadcast, made no mention of the atrocities; but instead found time to romanticize and celebrate that power was back in the hands of another Northerner, after he had murdered his benefactor, General Ironsi.
ACTION PLAN
Recognize Cattle Fulani Herdsmen militancy is not a problem that can be solved by playing Nigerian routine politics. The lives and freedoms of scores of millions of Nigerians are at stake. The Nigerian State is under siege and Cattle Fulani Herdsmen militants might be the catalysts for that end game.
Disarm all Herdsmen. If the Federal Government persists in its present apparent connivance with herdsmen, all States are advised to follow the Delta State example and dis-arm the herdsmen through the courts as detailed in number 8 above. I have called Elder Obaseki Okowa, my friend and kinsman, to congratulate him for giving Delta State a Governor with the right set of balls between his legs. Oppressors are morally bankrupt and listen to no pleas. The mission of the Fulanis in Nigeria is beyond the Fulanis herdsmen one sees in the various states. The oligarchy makes the decisions and fundamentalists never look back or roll back. A thousand meetings with Fulanis in any besieged state, will never change a mission now very close to complete accomplishment. If we accept that today, Nigeria is a Fulani slave camp, we will be able to work our way out of enslavement."The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states." - the immortal words of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 -1948), a realization that moved him to fight for Indian independence.
Communities Vigilante: The marauders, who are not supposed to belong to any civilized society are with us and their brothers who control the government of Nigeria insist they must remain with us and so far have not disarmed them, instead they plead alibis of foreign Boko Haram invaders, who they did not explain why they were allowed at all to invade Nigeria in the first instance. The first line of defense is therefore to arm the vigilante in every community. Former Governor Peter Obi's example in Anambra State should be a model : each community a patrol pick-up, a minimum number of personnel and Police licensed guns for small communities; and more for larger ones; ensured monthly salaries for all vigilantes; regular periodic provisions of fuel and bullets. Powerful security Committee to undertake fundraising in the State to augment subventions from the Governor's security vote.
Ban on all movement of Cattle on hoofs within each state like in all major cattle breeding nations of the world. With less than 15 million cattle, Nigeria is not by any stretch of imagination, a major cattle breeding nation. Major cattle breeding countries of the world, by 2009 figures have as high as 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. Cattle & breeders do not roam or molest citizens in any of the above nations. They are confined to ranches and Nigeria should confine all its cattle to ranches. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has provided the leadership by restricting cattle movement in Ekiti State to privately owned ranches like in the civilized world and introduction of State Law to confiscate all free-ranging cattle.
Induce Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to go back to the Savana and leave civilized society for human beings, who have respect for human lives and Property:
(a) Pepper on grass or whatever stuff that will drive the cattle from farms and neighborhoods should be encouraged to be used by all communities invaded by Fulani cattle.
(b) Daily sales from Lokpanta Fulani settlement in Abia state is estimated at 500 to 700 heads at N100,000; for a six-day week sales, are estimated in a month to yield N1.2billion to N1.68billion, and for a year N14.4billion to N20.16billion. The sales from the other major Fulani settlement in Ugwuoba/Amansea, Enugu/Anambra should sell more than Lokpanta. Estimating Ugwuoba sales at Lokpanta volume, both add up to N28.8billion to N40.32billion (average say N34.06). Ebonyi State is not factored into above estimates; therefore add say N7billion and you have a total N41.06billion from South-East only. Southeast only, therefore contributes N41.06billion to the account of MACBAN and eventually AREWA without any respect whatsoever for the people of the South-East. Instead MACBAN and AREWA dish out abuses, massacre, rape and arson. As Nelson Mandela rightly asserted, Freedom without respect/dignity is no freedom at all.
Short-Term: boycott "Nama" totally for one month in memory of Nimbo 48 - My gut feeling is that if the South-East boycotts "Nama" totally for one month causing AREWA loss of over N3 billion, AREWA would negotiate peace subject to Southeastern terms. Besides, one month without "Nama" beef is not even enough mourning for the humiliation at Nimbo and various Southeast communities. For me all "Nama" are "Nimbo". Eating any"Nama" for me is like eating the flesh of any of the Nimbo 48.
Long-Term: Breed Your Muturu Cattle in the South:
Dr. Michael Okpara did breed Muturu breed (Efi Igbo) as premier of Eastern Region.
Saudi Arabia, with its dying stock of indigenous breeds of cattle, is doing it, using completely California, Irish and German breeds. Saudi is situated right inside a desert (not the escapist excuse of encroaching desert) but with huge dams and boreholes, is able to grow all the grass it needs and provide all the water for cows in its modernized ranches . Saudi has an average annual rainfall of just 2.3 inches (59mm); whereas Enugu for example has annual average of 66.7 inches and Sokoto - 24 inches. Industry experts say one cow must consume three liters of water a day to produce one liter of milk. For high-performing cattle, that equals 150 liters of water a day and Saudi provides that in its desert-situated ranches.
I take two sample ranches from Saudi Arabia.
(a) Almarai Al Kharj Ranch - The Californian model of livestock farming simply means that you don't have to grow all your grass and raise your own feed crops; you can farm out feed and water and all your input; and house a thousand head of dairy cattle on just 40 acres of land.
In 1977, Almarai began modestly with just 300 heads of cattle as part of a Saudi push to achieve food security through self-sufficiency -- a government response to the oil shocks of the 1970s.
Today with a total herd of 135,000 dairy cattle, Almarai's installation at Al Kharj 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Riyad, houses one of its largest herds of 67,000. The entire herd produces 2.5 million liters of milk a day -- an average of 40 liters per cow per day, roughly double the European average. 22,500 cows are currently under milk.
The secret to making a dairy farm successful in one of the world's most arid environments is to apply technology -- and a lot of it. Not to range cattle into dry bones and tendon all over the country!
Almarai'sAl Kharj ranch produces an average of 40 liters per day per cow, as against Nigerian Fulani cattle 0.74 litre average per day which amounts to a miserable 270.1 litres per annum, whose quality cannot be guaranteed.
(b). Almarai Al Badiah dairy farm: A desert land in Saudi Arabia with temperatures frequently of over 45 degrees Celsius is where you will find one of the largest and most impressive dairy operations in the world.
Almarai’s stunning Al Badiah farm, is home to 47,000 heads of dairy cattle. The farm is 6km long by 3km wide, with one third of the 2,200 hectares under buildings. Milk production is at the same rate as in (a) above.
BEEF VALUE:The beef value from the Saudi ranches is also over 40 times whatever is realizable from the scraggy Fulani Cattle which, at the end of over 1,000 kilometer trek, is but a bundle of tendon and bones, yielding little or no milk.
HEALTH HAZARD - Toxic Beef: What Fulani cattle eat or drink whilst roaming is unregulated. They ingest lots of toxic material (plastics and chemically polluted water) which could be part responsible for increasing rate of cancers and kidney failures in Nigeria. That beef/suya Nigerians commonly consume, could be part responsible for Nigeria's very low average life expectancy (longevity). Average world's life expectancy is 70 years whereas Nigeria is struggling with 53 years.
Ranches in the South
The "Mturu" (efi Igbo) is tsetse fly resistant and survives. A hybrid of the American or Brazilian/Argentinian or European high milk/beef yielding stock, with medium technology can give the zone enough milk and meat and plenty of extra to export. Imported semen can be used to impregnate local Mturu cow to produce that tsetse fly resistant but high-milk/beef-yielding high breed. Import of whole Bulls might be unnecessary.
Whenever Southern Nigeria produces enough beef and milk and can export, Cattle Fulani herdsmen would have no cause to stay in the tropics than go back to the Savana and learn to breed cattle with modern technology or perish their pastoralist live-stock breeding like Saudi indigenous cattle is becoming extinct.
URGENT NEED TO REVERSE WORLD CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
A crisis way above Boko Haram in Nigeria is brewing and consuming Nigeria and the Nigerian government washes its hands of it like Herod. Failure of government to protect lives, like in NIMBO, is the worst type of governance failure, for what else is the purpose of governance, except the security and welfare of citizens. Instead the Nigerian government occupies itself in quixotic corruption fight whilst Nigerians are being massacred without question. The unanswered question is, preservation of citizens' lives and fighting corruption which one is more urgent? Can we have a society without citizens? Impossible, but there could be wild cattle. India has close to 300 million cattle in the wild, since Hindus do not eat beef.
Consequently, the greatest tribute South-East governments and peoples can do to NIMBO 48, is to elevate perception of Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militant as Terrorists, which the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) has already done by classifying them as 4th deadliest terrorist organization in the world. What is left is to internationalize discussions on them. The quickest resort is to bring CNN and Al Jazira to do news, features, commentaries, etc on NIMBO 48. U.S. State Department must be made to categorize Cattle Fulani Militants as the terrorists they are.
At the end of the day, President Muhammad Buhari would need to answer questions on what he did whilst very deadly terrorists consumed Nigeria.
COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS' FAMILIES
The families of NIMBO 48 deserve compensation from negligent Federal Government. Oppressors do not award damages because they are heartless. All tyrannies have no conscience. Therefore the Federal Government must be compelled to pay. Odi and Zaki Biam compelled the Federal Government and Billions of Naira were paid through court orders to Odi and Zaki Biam. These precedents should be followed and appeals to indifferent Abuja must stop. International suits are possible and can be organized for same
The present generation of Southern Nigerians must be reminded that today's massacres by the North is based on what Southerners accepted to take from the North in the interest of Nigerian unity.
The first recorded massacre in Nigeria took place in Jos. On June 22, 1945 over 200 people were slaughtered in Jos, and their property looted. The colonial authorities failed to institute a probe, and no justice was obtained for the victims. The Kano riots of 1953 took a toll of 150 lives and like in the 1953 riot, mainly Igbo people. No reaction whatsoever from survivors of victims.
In spite of these massacres and North's insistence that it was not interested in one Nigeria but would only participate if assured of dominating it, South-Eastern politicians led oppositions in 1947 and 1954, to a loose federation of regions, preferring a unitary set up; and further ensured that the provision for a right to self-determination for the federating units were not entrenched in the independence Constitution, contrary to the wishes of the Northern and Western Regions. In 1959, South-Eastern leaders ensured that Northerners had power handed over to them and the rest is now history.
LIABILITY BY STATE GOVERNMENTS:
On the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen terrorism, Governor Ayo Fayose has shown that if the States have the political will and courage, they can contain and defeat this monster; and thus protect and secure their citizens. The question is how many Governors in Nigeria can dare? Failure to dare however means dereliction of duty and governance failure. Such States as might fail to act to protect its citizens become liable before the law for loss of lives and property in their respective states.
PRESENT SLAVE/MASTER STRUCTURE OF NIGERIA:
The question is, does the present slave/master structure serve the best interests of the federating peoples of Nigeria and Nigeria?
If yes, forget about the above treatise.
Otherwise resolve that you will no longer be a slave and your fetters shall fall!
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
President,
Forum for Promotion of National Ethos and Values (FPNEV),
Enugu,
June 4, 2016.
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