APC - The dog and its vomit

Before I start I must first apologise for the length of this post. It was actually supposed to be a brief facebook post but..... it just kept coming. Also sorry that I haven't been updating lately. I had to assume a "sit-down-look" stance on many issues.

If not that we are living in a mad country. With insane men always manning the wheels of governmental vehicle.
How can you just go against your own words just a couple of years back like a pathetic shameless, underfed dog going back to its vomit, without deeming it fit to apologise to the people for your previous ignorance that led to you deceiving and misleading them?
The same set of hypocritical, selfish, self seeking and self serving power drunks that led the entire nation to march against a policy four years ago are now shamelessly marching the nation towards that same policy. It's like a situation where a driver who is supposed to take his passengers to their destination stubbornly ignored the road signs and road maps, took them through a wrong turn that resulted in them being lost thereby leading to waste of productive time. Afterwards he comes to his senses and as last resort, decided to follow the road map and does so without thinking of doing the needful by apologising to his passengers for misleading them and wasting their time.
Well, it's a typical case of the blind leading the blind. For the passengers being sheepish followers, not thinking of looking out the window to check whether or not they are heading in the right direction, they have themselves to blame.
I am not kicking against the current removal of petrol subsidy, if it is a good step, like the last administration foresaw, it should be taken. My grouse is this: that the men that are supposed to be representing our interest holds us in utmost contempt and total disregard. They think very little of us and our ability to think and use our head for rational thinking. They see us as gullible dummies that will never ask the right questions nor deserve any explanation nor apology for whatsoever action they choose to take.
If this present government is telling us now that removal of fuel subsidy is truly a sagacious and pragmatic policy that will augur well for the nation, then they by their actions and inactions as opposition in the past have held this country four solid years backward.  If they haven't been selfish to smear a sound economic policy with political shit for their selfish power quest, we would have probably gone pass the ugly phase of the resultant effect of subsidy removal and would have by now started enjoying that good future that they are telling us is coming in future. We would have been in the future.
There is also the case of the devaluation of the naira. The same issue of going back to a vomit. Following the plunge in global crude oil price, the past administration as a remedial strategy decided on the devaluation of the naira. But these same self serving government, then - opposition - kicked vehemently against the policy. They picked it up and hinged it on their campaign promises. With their then presidential nominee and now President making a ridiculous promise of equating the naira to the dollar. Now these same people are talking about devaluation of the naira.
I wonder if they were just playing the opposition part by opposing every government policies and move including the auspicious and brilliant ones or they were simply exhibiting traits of economics ignorance, just as the former President Olusegun Obasanjor recently asserted, and is being proved right by their forward and backward haphazard molecular economic motion.
Another issue I have is with the timing of this current petrol subsidy removal by the government of President Buhari. Even though the idea might be good one in the long run but the timing is definitely wrong. Nigerians are already going through a very excruciating period of economic hardship and harshness. The rate of inflation is phenomenal at a time when people are complaining of no money in the economy. There seem to be one constant phrase on the street; "bros, everywhere dry". Subsidy removal at this time is like adding salt to injury. If a man has multiple sicknesses, you don't go treating all at once. Otherwise the man might end up being killed by the drugs itself. That's what the government is doing. Killing the people with medication. We all know the reciprocate effect of petrol increment on the economy. It results to instant inflation. Coupled with the existing momentous inflation already on ground. Little wonder many have described the removal of petrol subsidy by the government at this time as "wicked".
The demand for petrol this period is sky high due to the epileptic, crippled, paralysed and leprose power supply from the national grid. The entire nation have resorted to complete reliance on their generator sets especially businesses and homes. In the face of this exceptionally high demand for petrol and it's perpetual unavailability dubbed scarcity, the best the government could do at this time is to remove subsidy on petrol? Setting the sail propels the boat but when there is a storm setting the sail could be calamitous. For me, this is a calamitous time to inact the policy. Absolutely wrong timing.

THE MURDER OF THE FULANI: YUGOSLAVIA UNFOLDING By Femi Fani-Kayode

The Department of State Security (DSS) have claimed that five Fulani herdsmen were abducted, killed and buried in a mass grave by members of IPOB in Abia state a few days ago. They have also claimed that there were up to fifty more bodies in that mass grave and that they are all Fulani.

The implications of this announcement is obvious. It will create more tension and fear in the land and it will lead to reprisal killings in the north. Violence is never the way out and I have always believed that it has no place in any civilized society. Yet what I find curious about this announcement is the fact that it is unique and historic.


I say this because thousands of Igbos, Yorubas, Niger-Deltans and Middle Belters have been killed by Fulani militants and herdsmen over the last ten months since President Buhari came to power yet the DSS has never announced it and told the country about the details and ethnic identities of the victims.


When one thousand Shiite Muslims were slaughtered in Zaria and buried in mass graves the DSS did not speak. When five hundred Idomas were massacered in Agatu by Fulani militants the DSS did not speak.
When hundreds of southern and Middle Belt farms were raided by AK-47-wielding Fulani herdsmen who murdered, raped, burnt down and took over the land of their victims the DSS never gave us details of the victims or made any announcements.


When our leaders in the south were kidnapped and when men witnessed their wives and children being raped and butchered by the Fulani militias before their very eyes the DSS made no announcements.


When the International Terror Index told the world that the Fulani militias in Nigeria are the "fourth most deadly terror organization in the world" the DSS said nothing and neither did they give us details about their activities or their victims.


Worse of all is the fact that our government and our President, who himself happens to be a Fulani, has never deemed it fit or necessary to condemn the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and militants and neither have they expressed any sympathy or displayed any empathy for their many victims.


Let me be clear: the murder of anyone, regardless of their ethnicity or faith, is unacceptable to me. I deplore murder and violence and in my view the killing of one innocent soul diminishes the humanity of every single one of us as a community and nation.

However it seems curious that the minute that Fulanis are killed in the east the DSS is quick to rise to the occasion and express concern about it whilst they do not express the same concern when Nigerians from other ethnic nationalities are killed by the Fulani in their own homes and land.

Therein lies the double standard and it is sad and unfortunate. Furthermore not only is it very dangerous but it also confirms the view that our government and security agencies are not only partial but that they are also attempting to implement an ethnic and religious agenda.


Three questions must be answered: firstly who is funding the Fulani herdsmen and where do they get their weapons from? Secondly why does our government not only turn a blind eye to the mass murder and genocide that they regularly indulge in but also go out of their way to protect them?


And thirdly why do the government and security agencies have so much hatred and contempt for those that the Fulani regularly target and their victims and why do they believe that those victims do not deserve to enjoy the full protection of the Nigerian Federal Government?


Could it be because they are regarded as slaves and second class citizens? Is Fulani blood and are Fulani lives more important than others? Indeed do non-Fulani lives matter in President Buhari's Nigeria?
Are we compelled to begin a ‘’non-Fulani lives matter’’ movement which is based and fashioned on the ‘’Black Lives Matter’’ movement in the United States of America before we can draw the attention of the world to what is going on in our country?


Is it not obvious and logical that when the security agencies refuse to protect the citizens from the murderous hordes and herdsmen from hell those citizens will eventually seek to protect themselves and go on the offensive? That is human nature and it is to be expected.


Is it not clear to those in power that when a people are convinced that their government is no longer impartial in any conflict and that the security agencies of that government have been directed to go out of their way to actively and openly support those that constantly and regularly slaughter their people it will eventually lead to open war?


Is it so difficult to accept the fact that no government and no force from hell or on earth can compel or intimidate a man into lying down passively and silently watch his family, loved ones and kinsmen being butchered and slaughtered morning, day and night without trying to protect them and without indulging in some form of retaliation?


With the sort of things that are going on in our country today it is time to tell ourselves some home-truths. No-one wishes to accept it let alone say it but sadly war will come to Nigeria again within the next few years. I do not want war and I consider it to be the ultimate evil but I am constrained to speak the truth and say things as I see them.


The fact that a war is coming is a testimony to the fact that we have all failed to manage the peace that God has given us since 1970 and the cessation of hostilities after our brutal civil war. We have failed so badly that the remote and immediate causes of that civil war are back with us today even though we hate to admit or acknowledge it.


Our country is like Yugoslavia unfolding before it exploded and violently broke into five separate countries. All the signs are there. Anyone that knows about the history of Yugoslavia or that is a student of world history will agree with me and appreciate what I am saying.


Consider the dangerous mix. A crumbling economy. An inept, weak, failing and paranoid government. A hungry, angry and increasingly desperate civilian population. An ignorant, obsessive, arrogant, insensitive, corrupt and self-absorbed political class who are out of touch with reality.

The ruthless implementation of an ethnic and religious agenda by a government that refuse to consider the implications of such a course and that have an early-‘60’s mind-set. The growing unrest, ethnic killings and sectarian murders.
An ethnic and religious division within the Armed Forces and security agencies. A relentless clamp-down on and persecution of the opposition and all dissenting voices by the government and the use of fear as a tool of governance and control.


The constant and open abuse of power. The impunity and insensitivity of the Buhari administration to the plight of the masses. The hunger, hardship, poverty and suffering in the land. The failure of the government to get rid of the fuel queues and supply electrical power.


The demonisation of peaceful and law-abiding self-determination groups and the unlawful incarceration of their leaders. The breach of the constitutional rights of the citizens and the ignoring of court orders and judicial processes by the government.


The attempt to intimidate and control the Judiciary and Legislature by the government and so much more. The list goes on and on and history proves that such a mixture of circumstances is dangerous and can only lead to open conflict if not halted.

The country is badly divided today and the people are suffering as never before. The division and hatred amongst some of our ethnic groups has reached pre-civil war levels.
We in the south must prepare for the worse and not be found wanting when the trouble starts. That is my greatest fear. We must not end up like the Bosnians did during the Yugoslavian civil war.


They were the only ethnic group in Yugoslavia that was not prepared for it when the war started. They had no arms, no plan, no allies and no fall back position.
When the fighting started they were caught unawares and for two years they suffered immeasurably for their stupidity and naivety whilst their people were killed like flies and their women and children were raped and enslaved. God forbid this should happen to our people.



The reason that they suffered for two years was because there was an international arms embargo placed on all the ethnic groups and warring militias and armies in Yugoslavia when the war started.
And sadly the Bosnians were the only ones that did not buy and stockpile arms in preparation for war months and years before it actually broke out.


Plagued by a cowardly and weak-minded ruling elite and a naive, self-serving, servile, ignorant and intellectually-challenged middle class the Bosnians just kept talking, writing newspaper articles, appeasing the aggressors and their tormentors, praying and hoping for peace whilst all the other ethnic and religious groups and warring parties were quietly preparing for war. Sounds familiar?


They suffered immensely for their lack of understanding, insight and foresight and their civilian population paid a heavy price. For two years after the civil war started the Bosnians could not even buy a gun or bullet to defend themselves. Their towns were besieged and blown up whilst their women and children were raped, enslaved and butchered.


Their men were rounded up into Second World-like Nazi concentration camps and starved and tortured to death and their dignity and self-respect was taken from them. They Bosnians were turned into an internally-displaced people and their land was transformed into a sea of desperate and suffering refugees.


It was a nightmare from hell and suffering on this scale had not been seen on European soil since the First and Second World Wars. It was after the international community silently watched them being slaughtered by their Serbian and Croatian compatriots for two long years that they were compelled, as a consequence of pressure from the people of the world and on moral and humanitarian grounds, to lift the arms embargo on them so that they could buy arms to defend themselves.


The war dragged on for more years after that but at least the Bosnians, though two years late, were now able to fight back and defend themselves. It took the intervention of NATO, the bombing of Belgrade by the international community led by the Americans and the eventual break-up of the entire country into five pieces to stop the carnage and barbarity of the Serbs and eventually bring the civil war to an end.


It was during that war that the term "ethnic cleansing" was first used by CNN to describe what was being done by the Serbs to the Bosnians, the Croats, the Kosovars and the Monte Negrans, all of whom represented the other four ethnic groups. Eventually the country broke up and each of them got their independence from the dominant Serbs and one another.


If such a thing could have happened in the heart of Europe in the early 1990's why on earth would any reasonably intelligent person dismiss the notion that it can happen here? The only difference would be that if such a thing were to ever unfold in our country it would be far worse than what happened in Yugoslavia due to the sheer size of our population.


The signs are already there and it left for us to recognise them and prepare ourselves for the worse or ignore them and, like the Bosnians, eventually pay a very heavy price. I pray that I am wrong but as far as I am concerned, for Nigeria, the bell is tolling.
END

This article corroborates the last post I made on this blog just yesterday night. I am delighted to know that we have a few men whose mind are free and eyes open to the reality facing us. If I do not command enough audience and influence to reach a wider audience , at least FFK does. And it is my ernest prayers that the men who God has given the privilege of respond to this clarion ans awakening call, get the message and act appropriately.
I do not wish to be caught on the Bosnia end of any Nigeria Yugoslavia play back.
See below for pictures of the gruesome activities of fulani herdsmen (a nickname for something bigger) around the country - Nigeria.

.... on the allegedly attack of fulani herdsmen - The script, the Plot and the cast.

This Samson Babalola man should really go have his head checked. It is obvious he is acting the script of some insidious forces with sinister motives that will only culminate in the destruction of an already incendiary nation. And the DSS too are doing a good job of setting flame on fuel. The aim of this script is clear
1. To emasculate international sympathy and in its place elicit indignation for the cause of the IPOB and other related groups. This is a pathetic attempt to give a dog a bad name just to have it killed.
2. To incite hate and resentment and kill any iota of sympathy the IPOB and related groups may have managed to garner domestically.
And consequently knowingly or unknowingly
3. Fuel an ethic crisis similar to the pogrom of 1966 that led to the agitation for Biafra and subsequently the civil war. One would wonder whether this is a plot to set the conditions rolling through which they can "finish the job".
This dramatisation by both the DSS and this script narrator Samson Babalola goes to foster my argument that in Nigeria, killing and destruction of a section of the country is the prerogative of another section of the country. It is the exclusive right of one section to kill at will and the civic duty of the other section to be killed. The sacrificial lamb theory.
Why do I say this? Let's assume the DSS was right that some Fulanis were indeed killed by allegedly IPOB members. For how long have we been hearing true stories with hard evidence of fulani herdsmen killings and destructive activities across the nation? Only recently this spat of massacre, killings and destruction of properties carried out by both allegedly and proven fulani herdsmen have received a kind of boost. There is hardly a week that goes by without news of one fulani herdsmen menace or the other in the length and breadth of the nation. A more critical case as witnessed in Benue State where up to 500 people have been reportedly killed in their own homeland by fulani herdsmen with sophisticated war grade weapons, thousands sacked from their homes and their crops used to feed cattle by these same fulani herdsmen.
In all these the government seem to be silent and adamant over the cry of the people in the wake of these increased hellish activities of fulani herdsmen across the nation. Instead of coming out strong in words and decisive actions against these fulani herdsmen and their barbaric acts of mindless massacre and destruction, we mostly find top government officials passing comments that either shields, support or exonerate the herdsmen. From terming the herdsmen "peaceful", to exonerating the Nigeria herdsmen and blaming "imported herdsmen" for the destruction of lives and properties.  And also postulating policies that one may consider a reward to the herdsmen for the barbaric carnage they wrath on the nation. Such polices like the creation of grazing routes and importation of Brazilian grass as reported. And to further add salt to injury, and pepper to the eye drop, I believe some treacherous elements have decide to employ diversionary measures by employing the likes of Samson Babalola to put up publications painting the Fulanis herdsmen as the actual victims of aggression and not the perpetrators.
But the news of some fulani herdsmen allegedly killed by IPOB members is a case of national security that the DSS is showing particular interest in. And this paid piper Samson Babalola is in the news threatening hale and brimstone. We are not fools Mr Samson. Telling us that other ethnic groups before now condemned the maltreatment of the IPOB and are even looking to stage a solidarity protest or match is a cheap, pathetic and ridiculously devious lie aimed at nothing but mischief. Your purpose and intent is as clear as the sun at noon day to any rational thinker. And your intent is to craftily add fire to the flame of resentment for the IPOB and the Biafra cause in the hearts of other ethnic groups in the country. But sir, your method is not just obviously miserable but scornful to yourself. Only a man devoid of the basic unit of reasoning would be so dumb enough not to see through your glaring obnoxious calumny and decipher your cheap blackmail and insidious motives.
But you put up quite a show though, and for that I say, well done. So many people will surely buy your trash.
And to other hidden and open treacherous elements working frantically to see to it that Nigeria finally goes back to what it was meant to be before the 1914 unfortunate wedding ceremony, I say well done.
And to my fellow southerners, as I have always said and I will always say, WAKE UP!! OPEN YOUR EYES. Shake of the spell. Realise their "divide and rule" antics and emancipate yourself from mental slavery.  The Boko-lani herdsmen are everywhere, we are literally surrounded. Just in case.
I rest my case - for now.

Frankly Speaking

When the hausa/fulani man say "One Nigeria", it is with the same interpretation with which Pharaoh told Moses "The Israelites must remain one with Egypt "(paraphrasing) .
It's a one-ness for servitude and slavery. For what is a master without a slave.
The most painful part of the Nigerian scenario is, the slaves are to clever and too bewitched that they don't know they are slaves. That's why a Southern man will stupidly sing the one Nigeria pledge.
A country united by the blood of a section of the country that is spilled with more ease than that of a mosquito. In the early days, the sacrificial lambs had always been taken exclusively from the stead of the Ibo race. So it didn't matter to the Yoruba man, or the Jos man or the Benue man that had been one of the blades by which the lambs was slain as witnessed in the 1966 pogrom. It didn't matter cos it was those obnoxious Ibos that are heavily resented and "deserves" whatever they get.
That why I have decided to end my outcry  in the face of the Fulani herdsmen attacks and other "persecution" of mostly the southern parts of the country currently going on. I see the chicken going round to roost. Now the Tiv man is being slaughtered , the Ibo man is being slaughtered , the Idoma man is being slaughtered, the Rivers man is being slaughtered , the Yoruba man is being slaughtered, the Benin man is being slaughtered. The gesture that has being exclusively served to a particular tribe is now being passed round.
Maybe just maybe we will wake up from our disillusionment, maybe just maybe the spell will be broken finally, maybe just maybe we will finally be united by this common problem and rise from our slumber and say "enough is enough ". Now that we seem to have a common problem, maybe, just maybe we will see the need of a common course.
We think we are at peace but the truth is that we are just shifting the doom days to our children. What cowardly parents we are. We are just saving the fight for our children. Cos I believe a generation shall surely come that will be illuminated and brave enough to say "enough is enough, we can't continue to be slaves and sacrificial lambs just for a master slave relationship to continue".
God created the heaven and the earth not Nigeria. This is for those using religious propaganda to deceive the people and make them believe that God made Nigeria to be one. They try to  justify this by saying, "If God never wished Nigeria so, we wouldn't have been brought together ". The senselessness of this justification for the unity of servitude and slavery is best illustrated by saying; "if God never wanted the Israelites to remain in Egypt as slaves, he wouldn't have led Joseph and his brothers into migrating to Egypt ". We are on earth and the bulk of what happens on earth is the doing of men not God. The colonial masters insidiously formed this country. Unless we are calling the British "God" otherwise God had no hands in this marriage of convenience.
If you ask me, I will tell you that the will of God on how the geographical area now called Nigeria showed be is clearly depicted on our map. One look at how the major Rivers partition the land space now called Nigeria is a clear presentation of nature's will for us.

Bem Japhet Audu take on Fulani herdsmen menace

The attack by alleged herdsmen on Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau states and other parts of Nigeria is nothing short of WAR. The earlier we accept this and address it the same way we are handling Boko Haram insurgency the better for all of us. It beats my imagination how we choose to refer to these attacks as ‘herder and farmer clash’ when a single attack on Agatu claimed over 300 lives, sacked, burnt and displaced thousands in over 10 villages. Why is the FG so reluctant in calling the herdsmen attacks what it truly is? Who are the “Dogs of War”? is ethnic cleansing a mere clash? By all standards, even by Clausewitz’s conceptualization, the herdsmen attack is simply an act of WAR, heinous crimes against humanity and must be addressed properly, deploying all necessary paraphernalia of the military to end it. The tactics and strategies adopted by the mercenaries who are conscripted by the herdsmen pass for nothing less than WAR. The sophistication of assault weapons used against defenceless indigenous farmers, women, children and the elderly cannot and should not be referred to as mere “farmer/herder clash”. Such euphemism is applicable only where our leaders refuse to be responsible and responsive to their duties.
Yes! It is an internal WAR, imploding within and with an international dimension. The attackers are foreigners, hired and paid in cash or/and cattle. Since 2011 these attacks have followed a particular pattern: they are random, spontaneous and predictable. The herdsmen conscript foreign mercenaries who attack villages, kill and displace villagers then the pastoralists come in and occupy the deserted lands with their herds of cattle to graze. WAR of occupation is what it is, and requires a military solution.

Written by Bem Japhet Audu (Excerpt from facebook)

I have always in my post referred to the crises as that of fulani INSURGENTS. And I use the word insurgents with full knowledge and consciousness of its meaning

PRESIDENT BUHARI: 7 THINGS YOU MUST DO NOW! by Dr Victor Oladokun

President Mohamedu Buhari

I found this on facebook and thought I should share.

PRESIDENT BUHARI: 7 THINGS YOU MUST DO NOW!

Sir, In civilized climes and especially in the event of a catastrophic loss of lives, sensitive and politically astute Presidents fly back from foreign trips or cancel international meetings altogether, no matter how important. Their goal is to take charge of the situation back home and calm the public's fears and concerns. Not you Mr. President. You are about to jet off again.
Two weeks ago, I provided detailed reports about the carnage in Benue State; reports that were later confirmed by the media. Last week, several towns and villages in Adamawa State were sacked by Fulani herdsmen. This weekend, the Rector of Ekiti University announced the destruction of millions of Naira worth of farmland and crops by Fulani herdsmen. Also, this weekend, none other than former Nigerian Senate President David Mark and his security detail were brazenly attacked by Fulani marauders while inspecting Agatu and surrounding areas in Benue State. Such is the defiance, fearlessness, and determination of the Fulani nomads. They really don't give a rat's behind about who is or is not in any convoy.
I have no clue who your advisors are. But this much I can tell you. They are doing a lousy job.
I have been informed by some that you pay no heed to even constructive criticism. I want to believe that in this matter, that will not be the case. I have also been warned that I will be labeled an 'enemy' for stating the obvious. If that be the case, and I hope it is not, then so be it.
However, in my humble opinion sir, wisdom and tact dictate that you do the following -
1. Address the nation directly on TV and radio.
2. Commiserate with affected communities and deliver a message of peace and hope.
3. Promise the rapid delivery of compensation and restitution to the survivors, the wounded, and the families of those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods.
4. Go on BBC and other relevant radio services that Fulanis have a tendency to listen to. Speak to them in their own language, and in no uncertain terms state that this nonsense must come to an end quickly.
5. Set up and empower a Rapid Task Force with a view to stopping future violence and preventing a national conflict that might be much more difficult to contain.
6. Personally visit the affected communities to see things for yourself.
7. As Grand Patron of Myeti Allah, the umbrella association of Fulani cattle herders, meet with the leadership pronto and explain in vivid detail what the consequences of future conflicts could be.
I recall your righteous indignation in 2000, when you stormed Ibadan to meet with Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State in order to protest the alleged killing of Fulani herdsmen, when the fact of the matter at the time was that the Fulani were the aggressors. Today, there is complete silence from you in particular.
Mr President, you owe it to Nigerians, to the many Fulani herdsmen of no determinate nationality who rampage and roam Nigeria, and to future generations, to be seen at this time to be alive to your responsibilities; to the plight of affected communities in word and deed; and to the security implications of these most barbaric and medieval acts.
So far, you have failed to squash Boko Haram as you had us believe during your electoral campaign. Many now believe the Fulani herders are actually Boko Haram in disguise.
If you have not been told already by the fawning advisors who tend to obsequiously kow tow to Presidents and only tell them what they want to hear, please know this. Today, in the seeming absence of security and the denial by government officials of the massacres by Fulanis, Nigerians in large numbers are talking about the necessity of arming themselves by all means possible. They are beginning to realize that dead men and women do not write history.
Sir, for your good, and the good of Nigerians, I respectfully ask you to act and speak now, before it is too late!
Sincerely,
Dr Victor Oladokun
A Concerned Nigerian

Of IGP Arase and Fulani insurgents menace - The idiocy of idiosyncrasy .

The plaque of the so called fulani herdsmen (the diversionary disguise name for the new dimension of civil insurgency aimed at the actualisation of some treacherous agenda) that has befallen a section hence the entirety of the nation needs no emphasis nor introduction. The nation is agog with protests, condemnation, and outcry against the tactical genocide and land grap that is going unchallenged in various parts of the country.
And while the masses and civil society continue to condemn and blow their whistles and trumpets against the continues spat of killings around the country, the men and institutions saddled with the responsibility, by oath, of rescuing the situation continue in their act of silence that can be taken as consent  to the fulani herdsmen scourge. They have also continue to proffer solutions riddled of common sense and elementary reasoning while making idiotic, mindless, careless and incendiary utterances laden with explosives capable of shocking the senses of any rational mind and shattering the already weakened tolerance of those directly affected by the situation at hand. I must enunciate here that what we rashly define as peace in Nigeria is actually the unending sacrificial tolerance at self peril of a section of the country to the recklessness, excesses and oppressiveness of the other. If we are to define peace as what it is, being a state of true justice, equity and mutual respect of human rights and freedom, then Nigeria is far from being at peace.
That stated, I return to the main objective of this article, to illuminate the nonsensity of some statements I have been reading in the news attributable to the IGP of police Mr Solomon Arase. For simplicity of understanding and following, I shall present the various statement ascribed to the IGP one after the other then run a diagnostic analysis on each one of them to elucidate the degree of their preposterousness
The IGP while addressing stake holders recently in Niger state was reported to have said that the extent of killings in Agatu by the supposed Fulani herdsmen was being exaggerated. To buttress his point the IGP reportedly made the following statements.
1. “I was around; I travelled to Makurdi, I did not see where 300 people were buried" IGP Arase.
While the fulani insurgents are having a field day and killing spree in Agatu and recently Logo local government areas of Benue state, our intelligent IGP went to makurdi, the state capital to appraise the situation and look for the graves of people killed and left to rot in Agatu and Logo in Makurdi. I guess he came with some hi-tech binoculars with which to see from such a distance against geographical and structural obstacles. The IGP should have as well gone to Cameroon so he can have a closer perspective of the situation on ground. People are being killed, sacked and their lands occupied by fulani herdsmen in Agatu and Logo and the IGP confidently without shame said he was in Makurdi to look for their graves. Is the IGP telling us that he lack proper intelligence and information about the security situation that he went to Jerusalem to confirm what was happening in Jerico? How do we justify this statement from the number one man as long as internal security of the nation is concerned? Where is the sense in it.  Common reasoning will tell you better than to come openly and make such statement to the audience of the whole world. It is humiliating to say the least.
2. “If you kill, you don’t just bury; you must take the corpse to the Police station before you bury. We don’t have that number of people.” IGP Arase.
And here comes the mother of all idiocy. Absurdity of reasoning can't get worse than this. By this statement, the IGP is telling the world that the supposed fulani axe men are supposed or mandated by some law of sort to take the corpse of those killed in their attacks to the police station for the police to confirm that such killing really took place. So, the murderers will gather the corpse of those they killed, take it to station and say; "officers, here are the bodies of those we killed, record it so that we can go bury them, we are coming back with more". Lord have mercy. I am yet to see a more embarrassing, humiliating, sense deprived and reason impoverished statement coming from a highly placed and respected figure in the person of the IGP.
So the IGP is telling us, the entire world, that he, in his intelligence as an experienced officer of the law, actually expects murderers, cold blooded killers, to bring the corpse of their victims to the police station before going to bury them? As what? Head count? Or to collect some bounty? It is like saying a thief should bring the items he stole to the police station before proceeding to sell or use them. What kind of absurd reasoning is this my people? I consider this statement by the IGP an embarrassment, both to himself, the Nigerian Police and the entire nation. It is appalling, it is unthinkable, it is utterly unbelievable that a man of such high standing would be associated with such lowly gutter reasoning.  Am still in shock. No, I don't want to believe this.
So until the fulani insurgents start bringing their victims to the police, then the police wouldn't believe or be aware that people are being killed in their homeland. Such deplorable intelligence.
3. The IGP was also reported to say that the killings in Agatu is being exaggerated.
Now I ask, is it that there is a requirement of the number of people to be killed and the number of properties to be destroyed before an action is taken by the police and other relevant law enforcement agencies? That the people of Agatu have to exaggerate the number of those already killed in an attempt to meet this required number? Is this why nothing is being done to stop the madness of the fulani herdsmen? Is this why the government seem to have taken a "sit down look" approach on this issue? What has happened to our humanity and sensitivity to the sanctity of human life? Is one death not enough to elicit immediate government reaction? How many have to die before something is done? Maybe they should just let us know so that we can save our breath until the number of those killed gets to the required figure.
Before I drop this point let me quickly reiterate that contrary to what is being sold by some media houses, as I read on thisdaylive, what is happening in Agatu land and other parts of the country is not a clash between Agatu people or farmers and Fulani herdsmen. It is an outright attack, an orchestrated military pattern offensive carried out by hired mercenaries, who raid people's lands, kill men, women and children mostly in the wee hours of the day, sack them from their ancestral land and occupy it with gusto, confidence and audacity that suggests a sort of backing from high places.
4. According to the punch news sometimes last month, the IGP, during a visit to Ondo state and neighbouring Ekiti was reported to have said that the notorious, trouble making herdsmen are not actually Nigerians but Malians and Chadians who gain entry into the country due to the porous nature of our boarders. The IGP went further to say that the Nigerian herdsmen are predominantly law abiding.
My question for Mr IGP is this, how are we to differentiate between the law abiding and non law abiding herdsmen? Since they all look practically like copies of each other.  Is there like an insignia or mark to show which herdsmen is from Nigeria and which is from Chad, or which is peaceful and which is a messenger of death?
5. The IGP went further to say;  "But when people come from outside with their cattle, we should not deny them entry because of ECOWAS protocols, good neighborliness but, at the same time, we should not allow them to embark on criminal activities.” IGP Arase
And here is another ridiculous, ill thought statement from the IGP. Which ECOWAS law or any other international law for that matter says you must allow a sect of people that have been identified as trouble makers and lawless into your territory in the name of good neighbourliness? The same people the IGP described as notorious trouble makers who have been identified as agents of destruction of lives and properties for decades, yet the IGP stands to tell the world that we have to keep letting them into the country with their cattle as good neighbours? Maybe we should as well let in ISIS and Al Queda when they come knocking, as good neighbours and hospitable host. After saying we should not stop known criminals from entering our territory, the IGP went further to say that we shouldn't allow them embark on criminal activities. It's like saying, let a thief into your home but don't let him steal. It's like saying, let a virus gain access into your system but don't let it multiply and crash the system. And by the way, who are the "we" the IGP talked about when he said we should not let them embark on criminal activities?
I just want to believe that the IGP made much of these statements in a rush and without passing them through proper scrutiny of reasoning. I consider them absolutely ludicrous, reprehensible and ridiculous of his personality.
Before rounding up this piece let me quickly react to another statement by the IGP: "I have taken suggestions about how we can develop big ranches so that they can stop grazing on farmlands,”.
As much as I have criticised the misguided utterances of the IGP, I must commend him on this one statement. For acknowledging the fact that the employment of ranches and banning of open grazing is the surest way of putting a halt to the menace of cattle and their herdsmen around the country. And not the 16th century establishment of grazing reserves as suggested and supported by many including our highly esteemed members of senate. But in as much as I applaud the IGP for his accepting the idea of cattle ranching, I hope it would not be another case of using tax payers monies and public funds in sponsoring private businesses. The cattle breeding business is a huge private sector industry. It is the personal businesses of the cattle breeders from which they amass enormous profits, hence they should take the sole responsibility for the cost of running their business. Cattle should be ranched and ranched at the cost of the owners of the business not from public funds. Otherwise it amounts to another form of financial misappropriation tantamount to corruption that the present administration has vowed to root out.

Humour rumour

President Buhari backs West Sahara AKA Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on self determination from Morocco. But vows to clamp down on Biafran self determination ambition. Question number 1: They always say God made Nigeria to be one. So is it Satan that made West Sahara to be one with Morocco that Buhari feel they should be separated? Question number 3: why do West Sahara have the right to self determination but Biafra doesn't? Question number 2 coming soon. Am not a Biafran enthusiast. But I know that what's good for the goose is good for the gizzard. Wetin goat survive no go kill dog.

9ja is blessed

I call it liquid talent. Talent so tangible it can be felt literally.
The Nigerian born artist Oresegun Olumide who is a 2006 graduate Yabatech  released some mind blowing and mesmerising paintings that so many people are still having a hard time believing they are actual painting, including yours sincerely. Cos they look so real as though they are actual pictures from a high power camera. I thought it would be injustice not to illuminate this source of national bride.
I took the liberty of getting some of his works to upload for your viewing pleasure and bafflement.  He has a thing with bare bodies and water though.
Damn, this guy should not be allowed to paint the social economic situation of the country oh. Lol

Grazing Lands For Herdsmen Beheading men

The Federal government recently, through the minister for Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbe, said they will create grazing lands in the south to feed the cattle from the north.

Do you know what that means?

It means if you do evil so well and you are very good at doing evil, and you do it so much as to attract national attention, you will be rewarded.

Creating grazing lands for Fulanis in the south is another way of rubbing shit on our faces. Another way of telling us that this country is the inheritance of some elect and select who can do what they want, kill who they want and take what they want.

So, a group of marauders, trained mercenary in the veil of Fulani herdsmen, who most probably are not even Nigerians, attack, slaughter and massacre a people, in their own homeland, including women and children, pregnant women in a carnage of barbaric gruesomeness and our government wants to do what? Give them grazing lands in other people ancestral home? Probably the land of a man that was cut down like weed with his entire family by the so called Fulani herdsmen, just to make room for cows to feed on his planted crop. These same people that should be facing the firing squads and gallows will instead be rewarded with grazing lands?  In another man's land? Is it like a certificate for graduating from the school of animalistic propensity. How preposterous.

Let's bring this issue home for some of us still finding it difficult to assimilate and understand the gravity and enormousity of the absurdity of this situation.

You are in your house, living in peace and going about your business. Suddenly you were attack, the attackers killed one or more of your children, took some of your belongings and left. After a while they came back, killed more of your brothers, took some properties from your house and left. Then they keep coming back, killing more of your children, until one day, they chased you out of your house and occupied your home like it's theirs .Now, here comes someone who has being given the authority, responsibility and mandate of safe guarding your life and property. This person now comes and say, "in order for peace to reign, you will have to give a portion of your house to the assailants". Can you fathom that reasoning? I mean, it's totally ridiculous. It's disturbing to the sensibility. It is embarrassing to say the least. Devoid of any form of rationality. My mind can't even grapple the rationality of such reasoning.

Such reasoning can only be conjured and accommodated  in the minds of tyrant and marauders and raiders. Maybe I would have found this easier to swallow many centuries ago. When the primitive lifestyle of men was centered on "raid and take". Invade others people land / territories and take what you want. And if they want peace, they negotiate. Either they keep paying you royalties, or they offer you an instant price of money or land or whatever you wish to demand or you can even annex the land. But the baffling thing is, even in those primordial days, a community or an organized group of people do not attack themselves. They do not. They only organize themselves to raid other territories while protecting theirs with their life.

One will begin to wonder, why then do we attack ourselves now (that we are supposed to be more civilized) without blinking? Why do Nigerians raid other Nigerians in Nigeria? Does this go way to buttress the suggestion that we are truly not one entity? Does it cement the allegations that many so called Nigerians, including those in places of governmental authority are actually truly not Nigerians if their origin is well traced? No need stressing the fact that the so called "fulani herdsmen" directly involved in these heinous acts are mostly foreigners from Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Mali and other bordering countries who has taken and continue to take advantage of our highly porous borders to increase our population each year. That of course is an open secret. But the people behind the mask of "herdsmen". The real owners of these cattle. The ones buying the automatic and assault rifles. The ones employing and paying for the services of these killing machinery. Many of them the so called high and mighty in the society. What about them? Why do they feel no remorse, no empathy nor sympathy, no qualms, no feeling whatsoever in taking the lives of other Nigerians? Why are they comfortable raiding their own territory if the territory is truly theirs. If they truly feel belonging to the territory? if they even truly belong to the territory?

These are questions we need to hold  in a corner of our minds as we fight against insidious and treacherous elements in high places sponsoring, supporting and encouraging these crimes against humanity as witnessed in Agatu land and several other places in Nigeria.

Creation of grazing land for murderers who should be hung in gallows is an insult to those who were brutally murdered by them. It's spitting on the decaying bodies of women and children hacked, macheted and shot down in their own homeland and left to slowly drown in the pool of their own blood.

Creation of graze land for fulani herdsmen and their bosses in another man's land is a spite on us all. It's handing cold blooded murderers a golden trophy for a job well done. It's encouraging such acts of brazen, reprehensible and nauseating callousness and wickedness. It is desecrating graves and rottening corpse of men, women and children whose lives has been violently snatched from them in this systematic genocide.

If ever there was a way of identifying these herdsmen what should be the most appropriate course of action? Handing them large expanse of land? Or making them see the brutal face of justice met with the same measure of mercy they showed to their victims as they hacked, slaughtered and gunned them down.

As much as I admit that identifying and fishing out the culprits and sponsors of this herdsmen menace is not a stroll in the park, I am also aware that is neither a rocket science. There is the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). They are cattle breeders, it is their industry and hence they are conversant with the nitty gritty and privy to certain information that can prove valuable in apprehending the culprits and their sponsors. What we are witnessing is an organized crime. And such crimes are usually a chain. Crime investigators will tell you that in such crimes, there is usually somebody that knows somebody that knows something . And as providence will have it, words are, that our distinguish president, His Excellency President Muhammedu Buhari is an influential figure and member of MACBAN. So it is my believe that, if there is truly a will to act, and if those responsible and bound by oath to the protection of lives and properties of the citizens will put their words to work, getting to the root of this matter will not require so much digging. It still come as a shock to me that up until yesterday that I checked, no troop nor police, nor any form of help has come the way of the locals of the affecting areas. As Fulani herdsmen are still seen confidently walking around with their cattle, brandishing sophisticated weapons and bringing mayhem on survivors of the previous attacks. Recently it was even rumored that they are moving to claim more grounds. All these continues as the government continue to” investigate”.  

My people be the judge of this matter. Open your eyes oh people of the southern lands. Awake from your sleep and slumber, shake off any spell that is cast upon you and stand for what is right and just. Stand for something or fall all the time. Instead of the government doing the right and sensible thing, in placing and enforcing a ban on open grazing in the country, in the face of this repeated and incessant attacks by suspected herdsmen, they want to defile common sense by awarding grazing lands to them. If the Fulanis and their ogas that owns the cattle wants to raise their cattle, they should do so in their own land and farms. Just as I raise my fishes in my own farm and not in another man's farm or space. They have made enough money from our rapacious appetite for beef. They should do like other cattle breeders in other sane countries does. They should ranch their cattle. They should raise their cattle in a ranch. Not grazing them on peoples crops in peoples land. The able minister for Agriculture said, the creation of grazing lands in the south to feed cattle from the north will be done as it is DONE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.  Then I ask, which other country? Tell me in which sane country will you find herdsmen roaming around with their cattle openly in towns and cities as we usually find them here even right in the heart of Abuja the capital city of Nigeria? When in such countries you can easily get sanctioned for letting your cat stray into another man's property let alone cattle. In sane countries cattle are raised in ranches.

Let us, with one united voice, unequivocally send this message to the government. Creating grazing land in the south for fulani herdsmen and their bosses is like as described in a song by the legendary 2Baba Idibia, “creating excuse to use excuse to buy chance”. But the excuse they create is in the blood of an innocent infant macheted as he cries for a help that will never come until he slowly and painfully pass away, it is in the scattered pieces of flesh of one heavily pregnant woman butchered like "namma". It is in burnt houses and destroyed farm barns.It is in the gruesome murder of you and I.

NO TO GRAZING LANDS, YES TO RANCHING.

#NoToGrazingLands

#RanchYourCattle

#DisarmFulani

#UnmaskTheRealHerdsmen

#ProtectAgatuAndOtherAffectedLandsNow