39 killed in Sokoto State by “bandits”; the march to Ekiti’s “grazing communities” today, emirates tomorrow on, as governor physically assaulted by “Nigerian” police … – Tola Adenle

Ekiti’s Governor Fayose after assault by Nigerian Policemen. There is a new story today, July 12, of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, DIG (Ekiti) claiming the physical assault was not ordered by him and it was a “mistake”. Policemen were removed from Ekiti State house  blah blah blah.   [https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/275963-ekiti-dig-denies-authorising-use-of-force-says-mistake-wont-reoccur.html

 

 

 

EXCERPTS

A couple of years ago, the Deji of Akure in Ondo State gave the Ibos and their Ndigbo who had started to install chiefs:  “XXXX of Akureland” … a warning that the Ndigbo of Akure is okay but he COULD NOT & MUST NOT install any chiefs! What can possibly lead to future problems at co-existence was nipped in the bud.

 

On a very serious matter Dr. Fayemi, it would be a tragic situation if an Ekiti man would give his people’s land away – to prevent their losing their lives as the presidency has threatened – because, remember, “a grazing community” today, an emirate tomorrow as happened in many places in Central Nigeria. [See Perspective below]

 

What is going on in Nigeria?

The insecurity in the country has reached a stage which should have the president very concerned and worried but instead of such, President Buhari is apparently focused on how to “capture” the entire Southwest in the 2019 elections for his 2019 re-election. Ekiti, as always, is proving difficult. Fayose, the only SW PDP  governor, has been the most vocal state-administrator not only in the SW but in the country as being against the attempt at land grab being introduced in legislations, et cetera. [The president is a member of cattle-owners association, the grand patron, reportedly]. Worse, Fayose has started to gain respectability in Yorubaland and has promised to run against Buhari for the presidency.

A tear-up-the-constitution-for-a-return-to-pre-civil-war-Nigeria  happened at Ado where policemen physically assaulted Fayose, a disgraceful occurrence, a slap on all Yorubas, took place this week. It is a big blow at the pseudo “federation” that Nigeria runs, and is the one of the reasons many of us have written in favor of state policing for a long time. Fayose was tear-gassed and beaten up by policemen, a story that seemed to have alarmed the DIG enough due to the spread on social media to claim on Thursday that the the assault was a “mistake”, he did not give the order and “it won’t reoccur again.”

That AIG, his Commissioner of Police should be re-assigned IMMEDIATELY the l before Saturday’s election and the president needs to speak on this. I won’t hold my breath.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/275963-ekiti-dig-denies-authorising-use-of-force-says-mistake-wont-reoccur.html

Over in Sokoto State, Governor Tambuwal – by the way, one of those top ruling-party “chieftains” who is reportedly bolting from the fold – reported the killing of 39 (thirty-nine) people. Five governors of the “Governors’ Forum” reportedly visited him to pay a condolence visit. A governor from an APC (Buhari’s ruling party)

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/275969-death-toll-in-sokoto-attacks-39-gov-tambuwal.html

And then there was Ado where the president and many top APCers rallied in support of Kayode Fayemi in  a show that seemed meant to intimidate Fayose and his PDP group. Fayemi was one of Buhari’s ministers until he resigned a couple of weeks ago, a step that saw him promising “grazing communities”; no, didn’t really say that but he did say that when he was governor prior to being minister, “grazing communities” lived in peace with Ekitis. Here are his exact words as I do not need to nor want to put words in his mouth:

On the issue of Fulani hersmen taking over Ekiti Land. During my first term security checks were put in place in the grazing communities. From 2010-2014, there were no clashes in Ekiti State. There was harmony in the communities”.

Dr. Fayemi, I’m writing this because it’s understood you will become  the next Ekiti governor; NOTE: I did not say ‘you will win the vote’ because personal research does not support it. Most Nigerians are wary of the PDP and so are we about the APC now because your party, too,  has failed Nigerians.

On a very serious matter Dr. Fayemi,  remember, it would be a very tragic situation if an Ekiti man would give his people’s land away – to prevent their losing their lives as the presidency has threatened – because “a grazing community” today, an emirate tomorrow as happened in many places in Central Nigeria. [See ‘Perspective’ below]

[By the way in Nigeria, politicians go in and out of positions even if, technically, it may look as stepping down to outsiders; after ‘presiden t’, the “juiciest” office is ‘governor’. Therefore, ‘governorship’ is “higher” than “senate” but there are senators at the present NA who were former governors. Go figure!]

Rather than face the reality of Fulani herdsmen who openly carry assault rifles and not Libyans, Nigeriens, et cetera  who are putting on terror shows in the country’s Middle Belt, Central and parts of Southern areas, the president is flexing his political muscles, about to turn the SW into a war front where old women who are already crying out at Ekiti, for a stop to the impending danger.

Using proxies in a [sort of] one-sided war in which his side has all the arms, the president recently sent his PRO who –  in, perhaps, a moment of temporary madness – told his Yoruba kinsmen and other groups who think the so-called “open grazing land” through a law the president is trying to get through the National Assembly, that they must choose between “death” and “ancestral land”.

I haven’t come across any statement from “the presidency” calling Adesina to order and/or denying he did not put such words meant to intimidate in his aide’s mouth. Like his deafening silence on the Fulani herdmen’s terrorism, “the presidency” has remained silent on words meant to scare and intimidate Yoruba from protesting the killings, maiming and burning that the country’s Christian Association has spoken loudly against.

Here is an example of “the presidency’s” words; those to whom they were intended know themselves:

Ancestral attachment? You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment, if you are dead, how does the attachment matter? – Femi Adesina, speaking for “The Presidency”

http://emotanafricana.com/2018/07/04/fulani-herdsmens-terrorism-akede-adesina-buharis-threat-wont-work-giving-land-for-ranching-not-better-than-death-not-gonna-happen-either-tola-adenle/

PERSPECTIVES

Remember Ilorin, Afonja (Yoruba)  & Alimi (Fulani).  Yeah, Afonja got the “help” he needed against his “enemies” but the preposterous story of how Ilorin, a Yoruba  settlement was given/stolen, is well-known to you, me, and millions of Yoruba.  WHAT WILL GIVING AWAY EKITI LAND FOR “GRAZING COMMUNITIES” EARN YOU?

A mention needs to be made here of communities in the North where accommodation soon led to attempt at total take-over and – the types of violence that persists in some Central states of Nigeria today.

Anybody familiar with the North could, if he/she looks or asks, know the origin of the clashes that abound in Central Nigeria communities like Southern Kaduna today. [As mentioned in an essay last week, we had an office at Zonkwa in Southern Kaduna in the 1980s; during the same period, we also had another office at Wukari in old Gongola State. Both areas are mostly Christian]. As we all know, these are some of the epicenters of herdsmen’s terror theatres in the country. The fight for land in these places – the real cause of whatever problems of killing Christians and church burnings – may seem modern but the root cause lies in the distant past when roaming herdsmen arrived these distant-from-their-NW homelands and got small pieces of land to sell their cows.

Before long, they started installing emirs in these settlements and their hosts thought the emirs would rule only the herdsmen.

A couple of years ago, the Deji of Akure in Ondo State gave the Ibos and their Ndigbo who had started to install chiefs:  “XXXX of Akureland” … a warning that the Ndigbo of Akure is okay but he COULD NOT & MUST NOT install any chiefs! What could have led to future problems at co-existence was nipped in the bud.

Back to the point I’m trying to make as I best understand. Just as Ilorin became an emirate, the blood-letting in Christian Southern Kaduna is a direct result of the Emir who was supposed to be for the herdsmen suddenly grown into much power through Nigeria’s military rule which saw the emir becoming a First Class Ruler over the whole of [Xtian] Southern Kaduna.

I’m no historian though a lover of history and I know enough of Yoruba History – oral & written (we own an old edition of Rev. Johnson’s History of the Yoruba) AND I’m old enough to appreciate the saying that it’s easier to give a privilege/right than to take same back.

It is hardly necessary to state that those who want to pursue animal husbandry as business must procure the land in their homeland. It’s mere common sense.

This is why late Justice Adewale Thompson ruled about 50 years ago that farmers could not be expected to erect fencing.       https://emotanafricana.com/2018/04/07/nigeria-a-blast-from-fulani-herdsmens-sordid-past-as-late-justice-adewale-thompson-dismissed-idea-of-farmers-erecting-fencing-suit-no-ab-26-66-at-abeokuta-high-court-1969/

Meanwhile, the president must retreat from the approach of intimidation he’s using to achieve his goal in other parts of the country which would put an end to the ethnic and religious clashes that have caused the country thousands of lives. If the problems are overwhelming, he must seek help as suggested by Wole Soyinka.

 

THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018. 9:00 P.M. [GMT]