Mambila Genocide: Giving Up On Mr. President

The second spate of the killings is still going on unabated for ten days now. The victims are dying, some are crying, but the world is silent.

While the military deployed there concentrates in protecting sedentary Mambila populations in towns and villages as directed by the civilian leaders of the place - the Speaker, local government chairman and other local leaders of Mambila extraction - the Mbororo Fulani are left at the mercy of the Mambila militia in the fields beyond  the reach of the military. The actual killers freely move from one ranch to another killing people and destroying cattle and homes. Those that are fortunate to escape the horror arrive at protected towns and villages empty-handed, leaving their cows behind for the Mambila tribesmen to cart away.

It seems the carnage will only end naturally in a month time from now when the Mambila tribal warlords have achieved the goal of killing and displacing all the Mbororo herders on the plateau. They have so far covered two of its three segments. Only a third remains.

It is unfortunate. The incapacity of the political leadership in the country to stand up to the situation is most appalling, to say the least. This is my last assessment of the President and Commander-in-Chief on this matter. I do not think we should bother him again. We must come to terms with his nature.

During his last visit to Taraba State, he said, “as the President”, he should not be expected to “come downstairs to abuse and insult” people before they should do the needful. That explains why no army commander, police or intelligence officer is sacked or even queried on Dapchi, Numan, Benue or Mambila. Yeah. Whatever is the gravity of their inaction or failure, they are too small to attract the “abuse or insult” from “upstairs”. Forget that under Buhari.

That is the true nature of Mr. President. That is his style of leadership and his way of handling such issues and conflicts. That is his capacity. This is my assessment of him since 2010. We should not demand more from him. The Mambilas and their government sponsors in Jalingo understood him in that speech very well. So they returned to their killings immediately he left Jalingo with renewed energy.

The only thing left is for people, especially the elite, to help expose the Mambila genocide to the world. The prevailing silence of Fulani and Muslim population to this carnage is shameful. It is more interested in exposing the “sins” committed by Ganduje’s daughter at her wedding than speak out on the ongoing killings of innocent civilians in Mambila. Others - including professors, top bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen, including those of Fulani extraction will prefer to lament in silence, afraid to be blacklisted as opponents of government. Tir. Fulatanci bai ce haka ba. Huloowo yimbe semti.

Videos

Few have risen to the occasion, though. This morning, I received a seven part documentary on the killings in Mambila, which I share in the following links. It shows videos on the genocide, how it was planned, who was involved and how it is executed. May God bless the author.

Those that have chosen to keep quiet can continue to remain silent forever. The President can continue to remain “upstairs” before he one day descends to our level. The Mambilas can continue with their killings. The victims can put their trust only in God. May he be with them.

https://youtu.be/lrz27b1FiB0
https://youtu.be/cZavQ6vyhaI
https://youtu.be/TPmWA1Tap4c
https://youtu.be/HEMfLfn-DfQ
https://youtu.be/_MTSj447daA
https://youtu.be/h3SNrVV2DZ0

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
11 March 2018

Mambilla Again: Will the President Act This Time?

The Mambilla genocide is becoming one too many. Having gone unpunished of the mass killing of 727 sedentary pastoralists last year, the Mambilla tribesmen are back at it again. From last Thursday, they have been going from one cattle ranch to another, killing families, destroying cattle and setting homes ablaze. The news that started coming in last Thursday was further confirmed this morning on BBC Hausa Service by the Senator representing Taraba Central, Yusuf Muhammad Yusuf.

The senator said the killings are still continuing unstopped. Given the dispersed nature of the families affected where they live in their ranches isolated of one another and the difficulty of the mountainous terrain where even motorcycles cannot reach some areas, the full scale of the killings and destruction cannot be ascertained yet. Like in the first case last year, it will take weeks before the full statistics of victims and damage is gathered.

The ranching practice which the Fulani on Mambilla Plateau adopted over 70 years ago has made them easy targets of attacks. Each pastoralist family lives in isolation surrounded by several hectares it owns in places that are not readily accessible. This makes it difficult to forge a common cohesive defence and leaves every family open to attack by gangs of Mambilla militia. This is evidence that private ranching - in contrast to open ranching - can only be tenable in societies where law and order prevail.

Meanwhile, not a word has come from the Taraba State government. It did everything possible under the sun to play down on the magnitude of the first killings from reducing the number of the dead from 727 to 8 to its Attorney-General getting the Commissioner of Police release the few detained suspects of the genocide. Two of its top officials – the Speaker of the House of Assembly and the Chairman of Sardauna Local Government – were reported to have masterminded the atrocities. The silence of the state government this time too is, therefore, understandable. It will soon start glossing over this one, as usual.

The army this time is quiet, unlike in the first attacks when its GOC, 3rd Division, personally defied the terrain to catch a firsthand glimpse of the mass killings and report his shock to the world. Instead of reporting on the second spate of Mambilla killings, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army could unashamedly present to the world pictures of some minors with cutlasses who were arrested in Benue for encroaching on a farm and counting their arrest as part of the “tremendous success as herdsmen are being arrested destroying farmland and large number of weapons recovered in different locations“. Will the Nigerian army and the police be bold enough to tell Nigerians how many of the killers in Mambilla they have been arrested so far?

In all these, one wonders the kind of President we have in office. Honestly, his inability to stop these killings – even to acknowledge their happenings when it involves the pastoralists – is both shocking and disappointing. It appears that he lacks the brain to perceive the killings, the heart to sympathize with the victims and even the sense of fairness to treat them with the expression of concern he accords other people. As usual, not a comment may come from him on the ongoing killings, much less the determination to pursue justice for the victims. Very soon, he will shake the hands of Taraba State Governor and plead with him to “please tolerate other Nigerians living his state”, as he did to the Governor of Benue State.

The degree of ineptitude exhibited by President Buhari is becoming unprecedented and intolerable. The Fulani on Mambilla will continue to suffer from his incapacity to do the needful that will stop further attacks by bringing the perpetrators to justice. He is too timid to even commiserate with them because he is afraid that supporters of the killings will accuse him of siding with “his people.” When on January 1 Fulani pastoralists successfully defended themselves against attacks from Livestock Guards state sponsored militia in Benue, the President was eager to join the bandwagon that condemned them as killer herdsmen and has since been doing everything in his capacity to ensure that Ortom continues to succeed in cleansing the state of innocent pastoralists.

This is the same President that is yet to utter a word on the mass killings of sedentary Fulani – not the hyped “marauding herdsmen” – in Mambilla, Numan, Kajuru, etc. He could not even condemn the killing of hundreds of Hausas in Ife. Never in his life has he condemned the killing of Muslims, to put it bluntly. I stand to be corrected. The truth must be told that Buhari is too weak to protect Nigerians, especially Muslims and the Fulani in particular. I have never seen a leader as Buhari that is so easily and cheaply given to blackmail and false narratives of the press and the governors that are architects of these crimes in their states. This level of timidity is dangerous and shameful of a leader. It is already costing the lives of hundreds of innocent Nigerians.  What is the big deal in forcing the Inspector-General of police to arrest perpetrators of the crimes and bring them to justice? Yes. Something big is there. The heart that is not strong enough to utter even a word of sympathy cannot command the arrest of criminals especially if they are backed by governors. 727 people were killed and nobody is condemned by the President or is standing trial for it? All the promises made have turned out to be false? Sad!

While as ordinary citizens, we can only express our frustrations on the unwillingness of the government to protect the lives and property of the innocent, we pray to God Almighty to give this country a leader who will unite us under the law, who is strong enough to stand up to injustice regardless of the criminals that perpetrate it, who will not be intimidated by blackmail and propaganda to let the lives of ordinary Nigerians in state of perpetual danger and peril, who will pay attention to his achievements in this regard more than he would pay to the display of his self-righteous character, for in these principal potentials of a leader, the incumbent, President Buhari, has proved himself to be utterly wanting.

May God bless whoever says amen!

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
4 March 2018

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Inset: Pictures of some victims of the ongoing killings in Kakara and Yarimaru, Sardauna LGA, Taraba State.

State Police: APC Has Sold Our Security for 2019

Listening to the Senate Majority Leader, Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, on BBC Hausa Service this morning where he hinted the readiness of the Senate to toe the line of APC Restructuring Committee, the Presidency and Governors’ Forum, I am left with the certainty that the ruling party has traded the security of lives and property of many Nigerians for 2019 elections. It is a great tragedy that the temptation that was resisted by the PDP for sixteen years could not be avoided by a party that came to power on a popular mandate.

Before we discuss the matter in detail, first, let us listen to Lawal, who can be heard on the audio attached to this post, saying:

“We Senators have no opinion in this meeting except what people came up with. The President, who was represented by the Vice President, has said that Nigeria has reached a stage where it is imperative for states to own their police.

“Again, the Chairman of Governors Forum - the Governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari - spoke at this meeting on behalf of Nigerian Governors. He said they are supporting the statement made by the Vice President that states should also form their own police.”

Asked whether it could be adduced from the inclination of the Federal Government and Governors on the matter that the Senate will also bring up the matter for legislation, the Majority Leader replied:

“Our view is to do what the people want. If the matter is brought before the Assembly, we will work hard to ensure that it is passed. But there are some who complain that governors will use state police to persecute their political opponents. Here, measures can be taken to ensure that the chance is not given to anyone.”

Mhmm. Do we need more than the supporting statements from the party, governors, presidency and now leadership of the National Assembly to understand where APC is heading to on this matter?

Some may argue that the President has expressed his disapproval to state police. I ask: how many times was he made to swallow his words on suggestions he feels strongly against? Remembering his acquiescence to Naira devaluation, fuel price increase and external loans leaves no room to doubt that he is just a lamb surrounded by wolves. More so, with the dismal performance he has registered so far and with his eye and that of his party now fixated on 2019, swallowing the restructuring bait becomes irresistible.

The restructuring bait, especially its state police portion, tempting as it is to politicians, is a poison that will shutdown the nervous system of the the Nigerian body. The three misgivings are real. We have been there before.

  

Discrimination

The first is fear of discrimination. To a person like me who lives and moves around the country for business and advocacy, the fear of ethnic persecution readily comes to mind. My Fulani/Muslim/Northerner identity makes me the most vulnerable in Nigeria today. I will face three levels of persecution. As a Fulani alone, some states will be no go areas for me, including Zamfara, Benue, Taraba and, one day, Plateau. 

State police will definitely be ready tools for executing ethnic cleansing plans of governors like Darius Ishaku, Jonah Jang and Samuel Ortom against citizens they harbour an inherent, insatiable hate. States like Plateau, Benue and Taraba will definitely be inhabitable to Muslims, where they are an oppressed minority in the first two and a suppressed majority in the third. The ethnic cleansing campaigns that we have seen in these states since 2001 attest to this fact. 

Just five days ago, Alhaji Saleh Bayari, former National Secretary of Mi Yetti Allah, reminded the nation at the All Fulani Groups Conference in Minna of how Governor Jang used elements in the Police to carryout an all out massacre of Muslims including babies and children in Kuru Karama in 2008. Before the Governor left office, not less than forty-two towns and villages in Plateau State were cleansed of their Muslim populations. Today, a pacifist Lalong is the Governor there and the killings have stopped. But the likelihood of other Jangs winning elections in the future is high. Also, allow Ortom of Benue State the power of state police and no Muslim will remain in Benue. Sure.

Beyond the three volatile northern states, Northerners in general may not find life easy in the south. From their utterances and practice, most southern intelligentsia and leaders exhibit unbridled hate for northerners. Remember Bola Ige (SAN), in spite of his education, was publicly inciting Nigerians against Fulani calling them Tutsis of Nigeria after the Rwandan genocide. And Ige was among the ‘finest’ that southern Nigeria could produce. Recently, Ben Nwabueze (SAN) has been equally hateful in speech. You will not be mistaken if you say hate speech is invented in southern Nigeria. It is there in the region’s mainstream media and social media as well, tonnes and tonnes of it is churned year in year out since 1957.

Nothing has driven northerners to Buhari as the possibility of relief from this persecution. This fear remains his support lever among us. Even under him, hundreds were killed in Ige recently not to mention the invented Farmer/Herdsmen crisis. Harassment of travelers, daily killings of northerners especially in Eastern Nigeria, extortion by gangs, vigilantes and state revenue officials and activities of organizations like OPC leave northerners with the fear that a stamp of approval for state police will further heighten their vulnerability in the south.

In the contrary, southerners do not have much to fear in the North because they have been shown a good degree of tolerance. They run their businesses without hindrance and I doubt if the situation will change. The North has been accommodating to everyone.

Political Persecution

The second is the fear of political persecution by incumbent governors as it happened during the First Republic. The persecution that NEPU and Tijjaniyya elements suffered in the hands of NPC in the defunct Northern Region is a sad commentary that no well meaning Nigerian would like to see repeated.

Contemporary governors in the country have not behaved better. They go to every length to buy the services of the Police in repressing their opponents. The recent shameful complicity of Kano State Commissioner of Police in preventing Senator Kwankwaso from visiting Kano testifies to this desire for tyranny among our governors. With a police gang under direct command of the governors, hell will be let loose on anyone that may oppose the governor or his policies.

Apart from opposition party politicians, even politicians of the ruling party, like the legislators who always like to cultivate parallel loyalties in states, will come under the direct fire of the governors. Absolute control is what governors crave for and acquiescing to the idea of state police feeds directly into their plan.

The same governors will have hell waiting for them after their tenures for it is the tradition of our governors to persecute their predecessors even where the latter were their benefactors. Space will not allow me cite so many examples here but Goje, Bafarawa, Muazu know what I am taking about. Suffice it to say that the present governors should know that what goes around will come around one day. For them, in fact, that day is near. They are digging their own graves.

Finally, with state police let us also forget about free and fair elections. These glorified gangs of criminals in the name state police will readily do everything to serve their masters and there cannot be a more patronizing duty for them than to arm-twist the election process and pollute its atmosphere with their coercive force.  INEC national elections will follow the format of our state electoral commission’s. 

Insecurity

Instead of reducing insecurity, state police will only increase crime in the states and aggravate corruption and poverty.

Experts have said that apart from Lagos State, no state can stand on its own financially. Add state policing to their destitution, governors who already can hardly pay salaries will superintendent a force that is underpaid and which as a result will resort to extortion of citizens and crime.

We already have a bad example in Benue State. The State owes its workers 11 months salary. The implementation plan of the anti-Fulani law there provides for the training of not less than 800 Livestock Guards in policing and handling of firearms. AK-47 rifles were supplied to not less than 700 of them with each guard promised a monthly salary of N15,000.

The salary promise, little as it looks for a person armed with AK-47 assault rifle, was not kept by Governor Ortom. So the Guards engaged in crimes like extortion of pastoralists, cattle rustling, kidnapping and ransacking villages in Benue and neighboring Taraba and Nasarawa States. When some of them were arrested last January at Arufi in Taraba State, they confessed to the military that the Benue State Governor owes them five months salary arrears. Only N15,000 per month, just $40 dollars! During the month, a kidnapped member of Taraba State House of Assembly was reported killed. The Guards are still on the loose, terrorizing citizens as they wish and out of control of the Governor.

The incumbent governors too can become hostage to the police gangs they will create. Governor Ortom is already one in the hands of the leader of the Guards, whom the Governor sacked after the January 1st incident but was forced by fear to reinstate recently. The Guards leader is a person who boasts of the capacity to determine Benue future elections! What can be more intimidating to Ortom than this? This is not to mention threats from his rival gang leader, Ghana, who is perpetrating mayhem in Benue villages for being sacked by the Governor as head of Internal Revenue Committee of three local governments in the state. He has vowed to continue his rampage unless he is reinstated. This is a classical personification of Mutanabbi’s thesis:

ومن يجعل اضرعام للصيد بأزه

   تصيده الضرغام فيما تصيدا

‏"Whoever makes the the lion his hunting bird will one day be a prey to the lion. 

‏So not only the Fulani pastoralists or

‏ Northerners but also ordinary Nigerian citizens have a rough ride ahead. A group of them especially should be worried: the civil servants, who would suffer the most. Why? Well, the governors will conveniently use security as an excuse for their theft and for not paying salaries. With monsters in the form of armed thugs that are glorified as State Police, nobody can counter their claim. After all it will be argued that security is the most fundamental responsibility of government. I have a painful example to cite here and it perfectly demonstrates what governors in Nigeria means by security.

By the time an audit was made of the ‘security’ expenditure of my state between 2007 and 2015, it was found that the Governor Yuguda has spent N102billion on that head. 😳 Bauchi State is not Borno, Yobe or Adamawa. Yet, the then governor found it expedient to ‘spend’ an average of N35million daily on security for eight years - daily, yes, daily, on the average. And he left office owing workers two months salary and a debt of over N80billion. In December 2014 he withdrew over N4billion OFR ‘security’ and N2billion in May 2015, according to documents signed by his  top official. 

This was a governor that reported his predecessor to EFCC for spending (what we may now term only) N5billion on security for eight years! The predecessor was only let off the hook on the matter when Yuguda’s scandalous expenditure during the first two years was shown to the then NSA in 2010 and Farida kept the file aside. Kai! That regime was fantastically corrupt. Yet, Yuguda is a free man in this era of change, not even subjected to the charge-and-bail charade of the administration.

If the above would happen to a state that received N935billion in eight years, what will happen if it is burdened with state policing under a tenure that earns a far lesser revenue?

Conclusion

I am sorry for this long essay and I have more regret for the condition Nigeria finds itself today where it is led by a government which against all hopes and promises has displayed unashamed degree of ineptitude. We all thought it would use the popular mandate that shove it to power for reforms that will especially secure the nation further. However, it has now shown that it will stop at nothing to perpetuate its tenure even if it means making the citizens less secure. This is bad. Very bad.

Members of the ruling party and their supporters, and those that may not feel our vulnerability, along with those that time without number have expressed their desire for the dissolution of the Nigerian nation or penchant for confederation, can all hail the APC for this move. While they continue to take the last steps toward achieving their goal, we will not relent in telling all citizens that state police will be a monster that will consume this democracy.

We believe that in a multiethnic developing nation like Nigeria it is better to work on the path of reforming the Nigeria Police by cleansing it of bad eggs and equipping it for 21st Century policing no matter what that will demand of will and resources. Anything short of this will be a recipe for disaster.

Therefore, the assurance of the Majority Leader that legislation on state police will be designed to avert these fears is as assuring as any other APC promise: Good for hoodwinking the masses at election but impossible for implementation: the Naira:dollar parity, N42/liter of petrol, N5,000 for each unemployed, functional refineries, stable electricity, single-tenure Presidency, internal democracy, smooth roads, better education, name it - all empty and in many cases worse than the PDP.

Well, 2019 will come and pass, with or without APC in power, but Nigerians will remain.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

14 February 2018

Benue Is Cutting Its Nose…

Today is the cattle market day in Makurdi, one of the biggest in Nigeria. The condition of the market is shown in the pictures attached. Empty. Only some few emancipated Cows can be seen gathered in two or three fence of the markets with no customers to buy.

Speaking to an anonymous cattle dealer in the market, he said the Tivs people in the state have started boycotting cow meat and resorting to pork and goat meat. If it were for health reasons, I would have said they are moving from bad to worse. What a fall! From cow to pig?

But the reason is economic: to stop their dependency on cattle and break the economic backbone of the Fulani after expelling them from the state. The decision may not achieve the desired result, however. It will affect the Tivs and cattle traders more than it will affect the pastoralists.

My source said vehicles transporting cattle on Federal Highways are also intercepted by Tivs to ensure the boycott is effective. Trucks destined to the East take alternative routes through other states.

The cattle business is among the highest revenue earners of local governments in the North. No other local business has the turnover of the cattle market in the region. Agricultural produce is a likely candidate but it is seasonal, making it only a distant second.

Local revenue is also collected on each cow sold in the market and every truckload is charged few thousand naira, officially and unofficially, by collectors. Many state afrigenes and other Nigerians in the state are also dependent on the cattle value chain directly or indirectly. Now all that is thrown away just for the sake of crippling a self-imposed enemy.

One would assume that this strategy may boost the production of goats and pigs in the state, making the Tivs wealthy. My experience tells me it is doubtful. Early in the Jos crisis, the Jos Central Market was destroyed by by an agenda to rid the state of Hausa “settlers”. Of course the traders who included other tribes from outside the state lost enormous wealth there overnight. But while they have since found their feet once more, the Governor failed woefully in his effort to encourage the “indigenes” to take up the challenge of replacing them in trade or farming. Mobilizing individuals on large to take up business is not easy. Clan Business is a culture that is established over generations.

Even a small measure can fail, if the cultural context is missing. When a governor was busy chasing Hausa and Fulani from communities of his state, he established for the state what could be considered a model dairy farm to provide alternative milk in collaboration with Israeli partners. Hundreds of hectares were cleared, Cows were imported from South Africa at the cost of N1 million each, modern agricultural equipment was imported and an entire ultra-modern dairy complex was built., etc. Five years after it took off and just three years after he left office, I was deeply saddened to see it fast becoming desolate. I was so moved that I could not snap a picture of its scene of blown off roofs, scanty and hungry looking cows and unkept environment. I could not because the scene called for sympathy. The milk from the farm has disappeared from the market since. I saw it coming but I was all the same touched to see it arrive.

The Tivs may not prove to be different. Eating cow meat has been their culture for ages. Politics cannot make them abandon it overnight. In fact, their penchant for cow meat has been the beginning of their troubles with pastoralist, not grazing land, before it is overtaken by ethnic cleansers. They consider cows wild animals and has been hunting them from herders for decades now. With deteriorating law enforcement, their attacks on cattle called for resistance from pastoralists who started to fight back in order to protect their wealth the way we fight armed robbers when they attack banks or homes for money. And hell was let loose. Why would pastoralist resist?

The Tivs can win the legal and propaganda battles because they have they have the Governor, House of Assembly, the State judiciary and the state treasury in an era of a complacent presidency. But they cannot win the economic goal of breaking the backbone of the Fulani. It is a culture of over 8,000 years in West Africa.

The Tivs abstention of cow beef will relapse back to its natural position. The difference would be as cows do not graze on Benue soil, they will be forced to buy beef imported from other states especially neighboring Nasarawa.

The crisis will end because the default setting of man is for peace. From Tafawa Balewa, to Plateau and Southern Kaduna, the experience is the same. Everybody becomes tired, including the government, and start to long and call for peace which eventually returns. They cannot continue burning their state, or sleep in the bush and IDP camps, or boycott meat, forever.

The day peace returns to Benue, the Tivs will welcome their long standing culture of meat consumption, and only then would they realize that in preventing them from eating or dealing in cows, Ortom misled them to cutting their nose in order to spite their face.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

1 February 2018

Stopping Ethnic Cleansing of Fulani in Benue

I drove across the entire length of Benue State in the past four days. I didn’t see, as far as my eyes could reach, a single cow grazing.

The entire land from Otukpo to Yelewata border in Nasarawa State has been burnt to ensure that no grazing takes place. It is black ash everywhere.

All Fulani pastoralists have been cleansed from the Benue State by the State Government except for some remnants in some four local government areas in Idoma dominated areas.

The State Government has for the purpose of cleansing the Fulani established a militia called Livestock Guards who perpetrate mayhem on innocent pastoralists with the main goal of chasing them out of the state. It bought the Guards assault rifles and dozens of 4WD vehicles, contrary to its denial.

Pastoral Resolve, PARE, has comprehensively documented the atrocities of the Livestock Guard in the last two months in a document it is publishing later this February. It carries the description of events, location, deaths of pastoralists and number of cattle killed or rustled by the Guards.

The Nigerian military and mobile police units sent to keep the peace have taken sides. They are imposing a blockade to ensure that no pastoralist returns. They do not arrest the armed, criminal Livestock Guards.

Not satisfied with its achievement of evicting the pastoralists, the state government has mounted a cross border campaign using the Livestock Guards to attack pastoralist herds in neighboring Nasarawa state and rustle their cattle. This morning, around 7am, herds were attacked near Kadarko by the people suspected to be members of Livestock Guards and local farmer populations. The pastoralists were killed and their cattle rustled.

There is an ongoing cross border campaign to arrest pastoralist leaders in Nasarawa State and ferry them to Makurdi where they are detained without being charged in court.

Thousands of cattle across the border in Nasarawa State are facing imminent starvation. In ten days time, they will run short of residue. Deaths will start. I have witnessed a sea of these desperate livestock at the bank of the Benue at Dooga, near Anyichi.

Recommendations:

Quickly,

1. If none else, Fulani leaders in Nigeria must rise to defend the poor, peasant pastoralists who have been driven out of their homes in Benue State and are currently persecuted by the Nigerian police and Livestock Guards.

2. The attention of the Federal Government and indeed the world must be drawn to these war crimes and a demand for stoppage and restitution made.

3. The Federal Government must immediately disarm the Livestock Guards and arrest its leaders for the heinous offenses they are committing.

4. The Federal Government through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation must seek an perpetual injunction against the open-grazing law passed in Benue and Taraba States for its violation of fundamentals human rights of citizens.

5. The President must stop ignoring his responsibility of protecting the affected pastoralists whom he owes a constitutional responsibility to defend. He has never given them audience, not even on the day he summoned both parties for a reconciliation meeting, where he chose to meet with only Tiv leaders. No leader can be just by listening to one side only. Wherever I met them, the pastoralists are understandably and reasonably very bitter with the President on this.

6. Anything short of these measures will require the Federal Government to be charged before the ECOWAS court and ICC as an accomplice in the crime of ethnic cleansing against the affected pastoralists.

7. The governor of Benue State must be held responsible for ethnic cleansing and all crimes perpetrated by the Livestock Guards.

8. Lastly, the federal government should hasten to provide feed supplements and roughages to the starving cattle in Nasarawa State and aid to the displaced pastoralists. The gory pictures of dying cattle will tarnish the image of the country and the government before the world.

9. Should in case these pleas fall on deaf ears of the executive, the National Assembly should urgently investigate the matter and get the federal Government live up to its responsibilities.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

28 January 2018

Hattara Dai APC da Yan’arewa!

Jiya na karanta labarin cewa Kwamitin Sake Tsarin Zaman Nijeriya na jam’iyyar APC (APC Restructing Committee) wanda Mai Girma Gwamna El-rufa’i ya shugabanta ya mika rahotonsa ga Shugaban jam’iyyar, Mr Oyegun.

Kwamitin ya ba da shawarar a rikito da al’amurra goma daga dankin ikon Gwamnatin Tarayya a mai da su ga hannun jihohi. Cikin wadannan abubuwa har da batun yan’sanda da gidajen yari, da lasisin harkar maadinai da mai, da sauransu.

Hankalina ya tashi a kan lamurra uku da na lasafta amma dai zancen bai wa gomnoni ikon su kafa nasu rundunonin yan’sanda ya fi damuna don in an yi wannan mutane biyu su kwana da sanin za su sha ukuba a Nijeriya.

Kashi na farko sune yan’arewa da ke zaune a kudu da musulmin da ke zaune a jihohin Plateau, Benue da Taraba. Tabbas wadannan su shirya tattara komatsansu idan wannan shawarar ta APC ta samu karbuwa. Da ma yaya halin kura bare an bata tsaron garke? Yanzu ma yaya, balle a ce gwamnonin wuraren nan suna da yan’sanda masu dauke da makamai? Da ma majalisu nasu ne, haka ma’aikatun shariah a wadannan jihohin. Kawai an basu damar aikata ta’addanci: su yi doka kuma su zartar da ita.

Misali a nan shi ne irin yadda ake takurawa Hausawa a kudu, da bakin da suke zuwa can ci-rani ko sayayya. Legas ta yi kamari bisa wannan. Kungiyar OPC kawai za a yi wa rijista a matsayin yan’sanda su ci karensu ba babbaka. A zamanin Goodluck, mun ga yadda siddan kawai ake tsare Hausawa a Kudu-maso-Gabas da sunan yan’ta’adda ne su yi wata da watanni garkame kuma a kasa yin komi. Yau ba za a yi haka ba don shugaban kasa Bahaushe ne. Amma ko a karkashinsa, idan jahohin na da yan’sanda, shi ke nan, sai su fake da yancin yin doka da yan’sandan da suke da su su hanawa yan’arewa rawan gaban hantsi.

Irin wannan ya faru a jahar Benue kwanan nan. Na je na gani. Gwamnan ya kafa sansanonin horar da yan’ta’adda da yau yake amfani da su wajen korar Fulani. Kuma gwamnatin Buhari ta ba shi sojoji da yan’sanda da za su tabbatar korar ta wanzu don “a zauna lafiya.”

Wayyo Bahaushe! Kullum da barazana ake cinsa. Ba bafilatani mai kiwo yau a kasar Tibi, sai dai kasar Idoma. Duk an kore su sun dawo Jahar Nasarawa. Kaddara da Gwamnan Benue na da karfin yan’sanda, da abin zai fi haka muni. Yanzun ma ya cimma burinsa amma da taimakon Buhari.

Irin wannan ne su Dariye da Jang suka gagara aiwatarwa a Filato. Da suna da yan’sanda nasu na kansu, ko da akwai shugaban kasa da zai ba su sojoji da za su kare muradunsu don a zauna lafiya, da yau ba bahaushe ko bafilatani ko musulmi a Filato. Da Obasanjo ne, abinda ya faru a Benue da korar Filani da bai faru ba don yana da karfin hali da taratsin da zai iya takawa Ortom birki. Amma a wajen Buhari, sai mu ce kash, albasa ba ta yi halin ruwa ba.

To jama’a a yi hattara. Ina ganin kafa a dalilin Buhari da jam’iyyar APC su yi mulki a sha’afa ko a mika wuya bori ya hau kamar awaki in an mika musu dusa. Buhari zai gama mulkinsa watarana, amma kar a bari ya tafi ya bar mu muna da-na-sani. Wannan batun yan’sanda a jihohi matsala ce wacce duk jami’an tsaro sun ce zai haddasa fitina da danniya. Ko Obasanjo da Jonathan sun ki yarda da shi. Amma ga yadda lamurra ke tafiya, musamman abinda nake gani da idanu na yanzu haka a Benue, ni kam jikina ya yi sanyi matuka.

Sai kashi na biyu: yan hamayya za su dandana kudarsu idan gwamnoni suna da rundunonin yan’sanda nasu. Mun ga wannan zamanin su marigayi Sardauna. A samu sauran yan NEPUn da ke raye a sha labari. Ko wane mai mulki, in ba ya yi zalunci ba hankalinsa bai kwanciya, sai wanda Allah ya wa rahama. Ka ga idan gwamna na da majalisa, da yan’sanda, da kotuna, da gidan yari, shi ke nan, tuwo na mai na. Shi ya sa ka ga hatta gwamnoni Hausawa ke goyon bayan haka don burinsu na danniya ya cika.

Toh. Awakin Arewa an mika musu dusa, an ba su kuri’a a kasar yarbawa, nasu ya zama shugaban kasa. Yanzu kuwa lokaci ya yi da za a biya wa kura aniyarta. Wanda ya ci ladan kuturu, an ce, sai ya masa aski. Amma kuma Bahaushe, a kirarinsa ga k’uda, ya ce: kuda, wajen kwadayi a kan mutu.

Zan rufe wannan sharhi da nasihar babanmu, marigayi, Saadu Zungur, lokacin da yake jan kunnen yan’arewa kan kar su yarda da mulkin jamhuriyya da zai soke ikon sarakuna, ya ce:

Hakkin jama’a mu fada muku

Ku nadama ko ku yi dariya.

Dariyarku ta zam kuka gaba

Da nadamar mai kin gaskiya.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

27 January 2018

Benue crisis: IGP blames Ortom

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, yesterday accused the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, of causing the lingering clashes between farmers and herdsmen in Benue and Nasarawa states. He spoke at a closed-door meeting with members of the joint Senate Committee on Police Affairs and National Security and Intelligence on the killings in Benue and environs when he appeared before the committee in response to the Senate’s summon.

The Senate had given the IGP a 14-day ultimatum to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of the killings in Benue. Following his inability to make the arrests and give updates on the issue, the Senate earlier this week summoned him to explain. At the beginning of yesterday’s meeting, the IGP tried to give brief details of his visit to the affected local governments in Benue. Journalists were then excused from the room as it held behind closed doors.

But sources at the meeting, said the IGP identified the implementation of the anti-open grazing law and the arming of Tiv militia as causes of the crisis. “Also worthy of mention is the public display of corpses, coupled with unguarded and inciting speeches by the Benue State governor before and during the mass burial of the victims of the crisis. These utterances renewed tension leading to youths of Tiv ethnic group unleashing violent attacks on residents of Makurdi.”

He however told the lawmakers that 145 suspects had been arrested, out of which 124 had been charged to court while 21 were still under investigation. Idris said the allegation by Governor Ortom that armed militia were being camped in Tunga, Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State to unleash mayhem on Benue people was untrue. “Because I visited Tunga during my assessment tour of the location,” he said.

Daily Trust gathered that the police boss, at the end of his presentation, recommended that Governor Ortom should re-visit the Anti-Open Grazing, and Establishment of Ranches Law of the state with the aim of providing ranches with gradual implementation. Idris also called for the re-establishment or re-identifying known cattle routes that hitherto existed.

He called for the immediate disbandment and disarming of the livestock guards, Shitile Tiv militias, and any other militia group in order to forestall prohibited firearms in the hands of unauthorized persons. Idris appealed to the state government, relevant stakeholders as well as the citizens to engage in dialogue for peaceful coexistence in the state.

At the opening session of the meeting, the chairman of the committee, Senator Abu Ibrahim(APC, Katsina) said it was sequel to the Senate resolution on the 14-day ultimatum given to the IGP to arrest the killers. Immediately after the opening session, Senator Ibrahim excused newsmen from the meeting, saying the report of their findings would be presented to the Senate on Tuesday.

The IGP at the opening session said he spent eight days in Benue, in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari. Senators who attended the meeting include Shehu Sani, Emmanuel Paulker, Isa Hamma Misau, Suleiman Adokwe, Abdullahi Gumel and Umaru Kurfi. When Daily Trust contacted CSP Jimoh Moshood, the Force PRO said he could not comment, because he is not privy to the details of what happened at the closed-door meeting.

Daily Trust

3 February 2018

——

My Comment:

The truth is surfacing after it was buried by a hubris of propaganda and deceit by the Benue State Government and a section of the Press that made the Government House in Makurdi their ATM Machine. And one day, so would peace return to Benue.

The directive of the President for the IGP to relocate to Benue has started yielding results. But it is nothing if he does not follow it with action. He needs to seek a court injunction to stop the illegality of state legislation that violates the constitution and the militia that are wrecking havoc on innocent pastoralists.

We need to move forward. Tomorrow, we will write on Roadmap To Peace In Benue, isA.

Taraba State Protects Genocide Suspects As National Assembly Look On

Taraba State Government Is Protecting Genocide Suspects While the Presidency and National Assembly Looks On

The Letter

Evidence has emerged of the Taraba State Government officially requested the State Commissioner of Police to release suspects of Mambila genocide. The letter containing the request - or directive - by the Attorney-General of the State was published by an online newspaper, Nigeriandaily today.

The Attorney-General did not deny nor confirm the letter when contacted by the newspaper even though he refused to give an email address through which it can be sent to him. The excuse he gave for demanding their release was that the state government has constituted a commission of inquiry on the crisis. So , in his judgement, the suspects are subjected to “double jeopardy” and their arrest is itself a “contempt” of the proceedings of the Commission. Shi ke nan. With that simple excuse, they are let off the hook.

Genocide Structure

People can now see how we have in operation a judicial structure that allows perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity to go Scot-free. This is exactly what happened in Plateau and Kaduna States in the past. State governments sponsoring killings of some ethnic groups use judicial offices under their control to ensure that the hired perpetrators are not punished. El-rufai is not popular among many southern Kaduna elite because he proved to be too intelligent to permit their usual impunity.

Over the years, governors with genocidal plans lobby for the deployment to their state of a commissioner of police of their choice, someone who has the same criminal inclination or can easily be compromised with money. Of course, the Attorney-General and Commisioner of Justice of the state must be genocide-compliant. Under him is the Director of Public Prosecution with the same mentally deficient calibration. No case will even reach the High Court, where judges of the same ethnic or religious background and supporters of the same genocide agenda are deliberately situated to lay ambush on justice. If for political pressure or any reason a case against their own would reach them, they are ever ready to frustrate it. That is the superstructure of genocide in our country. (By the way, if the nation will make the mistake to empower states with their state police, all minorities and political opponents of these killer-governors will perish in a matter of months.)

That is how it worked in Plateau throughout the years of merciless killings of “non-indigenes” in the state. For most part of Jang’s tenure, he influenced the posting of police to the state. By 2012, all heads of Federal security agencies in the state were Christian. Also, no CP from the Muslim North was posted to the state since Abubakar (2001) until the end of his tenure. The CP, for example, would come and meet a police force that is specifically deployed to the state for the purpose. Alhaji Saleh Bayari, the then National Secretary of Miyetti Allah, once published a whole list of police officers who were transferred out of the state but returned to the state immediately at the instance of the state governor, David Jonah Jang. There are allegations that the massacres that took place in places like Kuru and 40 other Hausa settlements in January 2010 were led by some of these officers.

The same thing happened in Kaduna during the 2011 general elections. Benue Commissioner of Police then, John Haruna, was transferred to Kaduna. Under his eyes the massacres in Southern Kaduna happened, especially the extensive one in Zonkwa. Though there were even videos of the killings recorded by security agents, to date, nobody was arrested or prosecuted. CP John Haruna got an accelerated promotion to Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations). Unfortunately, after a short while, he died in a helicopter crash in Jos. Yakowa, the State Governor, for whose victory the massacres were carried out, and Azazi, the National Security Adviser at the time of the massacres, like DIG Haruna, also perished in a plane crash while he he victims of the Southern Kaduna 2011 massacres were still in IDP camps in Mando. Oh God of justice!

For the successful execution of any genocide, these are the kind of elaborate (in)security structures that must be established. The result has always been the same in Nigeria: innocent victims, like the sedentary Fulani in Mambila, are killed and the perpetrators continue to live unhindered to encourage further massacres. The credit of the peace enjoyed now in Plateau goes solely to the State Governor who chose to discontinue the genocidal agenda of his predecessors. Without political patronage, the criminal structure collapsed like a pack of cards immediately after 2015 elections. Ethno-religious crisis thrives on government political support, funding and protection.

Yet, the Federal Government has continued to also pay lip service to such situations. Its agents in the states are easily compromised with money and sentiments of religion and ethnicity. The victims remain hopeless. This is what led to reprisal attacks, beginning with Dogo Nahauwa, in 2012, eleven years after the genocidal killings of Jos started. Painful as the attacks were, I regret to note that they started a peace process. The Federal Government initiated the first face-to-face meeting between Fulani and Berom. Though attacks and reprisal attacks continued, the egalitarian distribution of pain made it easier to unplug ears deafened by the state impunity.

Buhari

The Federal Government under Buhari, unfortunately and against all expectations, also appears unwilling to stand up for justice. It expresses concern only when there is a loud noise in the country against a reprisal attack. To date, Mambila, which saw the cold blood massacre of 727 Nigerians and over 80 others missing, has not shaken any nerve of the administration. The massacre does not enjoy the recognition that the President would give to the killing of a fly. This is what is emboldening Governor Darius to continue laying the foundation for a crisis of enormous proportion through his anti-grazing law. He has started training a militia that he tags anti-herdsmen marshals.

As if Mambila was a ground to test the will of the President, who, unfortunately for the poor citizens of Taraba, is found wanting. Office, for him, is thicker than blood. He will continue to be preoccupied with his 2019 re-election business, reconciling with his ex-supporter-politicians, while thousands will be killed in the next few months in the state without a whimper from his lips. By the time he regroups his 2019 foot soldiers, the President will be surprised to discover that the ground for winning the elections has been completely eroded by the crises he was indifferent to, as Boko Haram eroded the ground for Jonathan’s reflection in 2015. If Buhari cannot stand up to protect the lives of Nigerians, he will not be fit for re-election next year. Quote me. The country should try someone else and continue trying until it stumbles on someone who has the muscle to protect the weak and the balls to confront impunity.

United Nations

We will continue to press for justice for Mambila victims even if it will be before the United Nations. The world since 1917 knows that politicians, if left unchecked, can degenerate into animals which have no regard for the fundamental rights of citizens that do not belong to their party, religion or tribes. Hence, the formulation of Geneva conventions and the court in Haig to try people like Taylor, Milosovic, Karadic and Miladic.

Nigeria too has its bunch of Taylors, Milosovics and Miladics. We only need to expose them. They can collude to temporarily distance their agents of genocide from the law.  But when the time comes, their guilt will be pronounced in a land far away from a President whose silence they read as approval - that is if divine justice is not fast enough to catch up with them as it overtook some of their predecessors.

National Assembly

The National Assembly gave the IGP two weeks to produce suspects of the 72 that were allegedly killed in Benue State recently. They should have the balance of justice that should make them issue another directive to the IGP: let him produce the suspects arrested for killing over 800 Nigerians in Mambila last year. We have their list, town by town. Can I hear the voice of Shehu Sani and his like standing up in the Red Chamber this week and making this demand after the AG in Taraba demanded for their release?

Doubtful.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
22 January 2018

https://dailynigerian.com/headline/leaked-letter-taraba-govt-caught-directing-police-commissioner-to-release-members-of-militia-that-killed-800-fulani-leaked-letter-taraba-attorney-general-directs-police-commissioner-release-members-mi/

ABUJA: Country Yoghurt is Here

t is with a combination of pleasure, humility and hope that we submitted our product – Country Yoghurt – yesterday to, perhaps, the largest yoghurt market in West Africa – Abuja – for taste and subsequent patronage.

As it was well received and accepted in other towns that we have been delivering to (Bauchi, Gombe, Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Enugu, Yola and Jalingo), we are hopeful that Abuja market too will be a very bright one given that we have tried our best to present the city something unique.

The product, which comes in 50cl and 100cl, is sold in Abuja as in other places: N300 for ½ litre bottle, and N600 for 1 litre bottle, "only". (Enugu and Jalingo may be selling N100 above the normal rate due to transportation cost incurred by the distributor who picks it from Jos and Gombe respectively).

You can pick your choice at any of the following shops, NOW:

MAITAMA:

1. Maitama Stores
2. Blueberry Stores
3. Farmers’ Shops

GARKI:

1. Garki Store
2. Borno Restaurant
3. Durumi2
4. A.A. provision store
5. Man of peace store

WUSE:

1. Amigo Junction

APO (Zone E shopping complex):

1.Sci Pharmacy Store
2. Fahab Store

GWARIMPA:

1. Danjam supermarket
2. Nadrem Supermarket
3. Chicken and Side

GAMES VILLAGE (NEAR GATE):

1. Pharmacare
2. Sekmarkt Supermarket
3. H.Medix Stores

This is the beginning. If there is any outlet close to you that you may wish us to supply, please indicate it in your comment below or send a Facebook message to me or SMS 08137661860. We have not finalized with Yahuza Suya and Dankoli while Sahad (Garki) has told us that there is no space in their present complex. We will be very glad if someone will help us plead with the big three on our behalf.

KADUNA

We have resumed our supply to Kaduna and Zaria after the failure of our distributors. We will now be handling it directly along with the supply to Abuja and Kano. The yoghurt can be purchased at the following shops

1. ABC Supermarket, at Alkali Rd by Murtala Square
2. Wammako Supermarket, Badarawa
3. Yahuza Suya, Sultan Rd
4. Kantin Sauki, Kasuwar Barci
5. Kantin Sauki, Kwanar Chanchangi.
6. Masallacin Matafiya, Old toll-gate

ZARIA

1. Duberry Supermarket, Zaria city (today)
2. Nasiha Restaurant, Kwangila (later in the month)

This week is a start. The number of outlets will grow every week, God willing.

So pick a bottle and share your experience with us here. Regular supplies will commence next week, God willing. And do not forget to suggest more outlets for us.

Allah hokku sa’a.

Thank you all.

12 May 2013

Yanfashi a Kasar Hausa

Na jira cikin dare har na yi barci ban ji dirin babbar motar da ta kai
yoghurt Kano da sauran garuruwa ta dawo ba. Yakamata a ce ta iso wajen
karfe 12 na dare tunda mun yi waya da magariba suna shirin barin
Kano.

Da safe sai na kira na tambaya ko lafiya? Sai yara suka ce mun lafiya.
Barayi ne suka datse hanya kafin gadar Wudil na tsawon lokaci jiya
bayan lisha. Ganin haka, da kuma da ma barci shi ma yana neman
satarsu, sai suka juya Kano suka kwana.

Mu da muke sashin Arewa-maso-Gabas da Arewa-ta-Tsakiya, sau da yawa, a
da, mukan yi mamakin jin barayi na fashi a manyan hanyoyin Arewa-maso-Yamma saboda dalilai uku.

Na daya dai ba su da dazuka irin namu ta
yadda dan fashi zai bace cikinsu kafin ka ce kwabo. Tabarkallah, a Kasar
Hausa, duk inda ka duba filin gona ne a gefen hanya ya tafi har iyakar ganinka. Da rani kuwa filin Allah ta'ala ne kawai a shimfide. Sau nawa nake shiga motata in
mata kik, ta tashi, daga Zaria mu doshi Sakwwato cikin dare, ko Argungu
mu isa da Asuba, ba ma tsoron komai sai dai na bacin motar? Sau nawa zan
bar Sakkwato da Magariba in nufi Jos, ko bauchi, balle kuma Zaria ko Kaduna ba tare da tababa ba?

Mu kuwa a gurarenmu akwai dazukan da kai kanka in kana tuki a cikinsu,
ka san sai kiyayewar Ubangiji. In ka bar Kano, kana shiga dajin
Falgore ka san addu'a ta kama ka har ka iso Jos; haka in ka bar Bauchi
za ka je Yola; Ko Gombe za ka Maiduguri; Ko Yola zuwa Jalingo; Ko Jos
za ka Abuja, balle kuma a ce ka nufi Makurdi ko Ilorin. Ko wannan motar da ta
fita zuwa Abuja a zangonta na farko cikin zagayenta na sai da Yoghurt,
ai sun iske motoci sun tsaya cirko-cirko tsakanin Barde da Keffi suna
jiran yan fashi su bude hanya. Wannan bai bani mamaki ba, don kuwa na
san a rina. Amma Wudil? Haba jama'a!
Na biyu, Arewa-maso-Yamma bata da yawan kabilu kamar sauran Arewa. A
shekarun baya, na aza musulmi ba zai taba aikata mummunan laifi kamar
fashi ba. Hasali ma, fashi muna ganin kawai 'yankudu ne suke
yinsa, musamman Inyamurai da rikakkun Yarbawa irin shegun Legas din nan.
Amma a samu bahaushe, ko bafilatani, ko Kanuri yana fashi ai abu ne da
wallahi ba mu taba zata za mu ganshi a rayuwarmu ba. Kai in ma za a
samu a Arewa, kila sai dai cikin kananan kabilunmu wanda addinin
kirista bai ratsa jikinsu ba.

Amma ina? A kwana a tashi, sai ga nesa ta zo kusa. Ba kabilu ba kawai,
ba kuma cikin yan iskan mazauna birni ba, fashi da makami har ya zama
al'ada cikin mutanen daji, Filani da ko kadan ba a sansu da aikata
abun kunya ba balle muggan laifuka irin wannan. Inji wani mawaki,
"karyar wa'de-wa'de ta kare ga dan Filani na sai da giya." A lokacin
nan giya ce abun mamaki a ga bafillace na yi; a yau, har fashi ya shiga yi. Yan'uwansu
Hausawa su ma sun sa kai. Sau da yawa ka ji kauyawa sun datse
hantse hanya tsakanin Takai da Wudil, ko tsakanin Wudil da Kano, ko
tsakanin Gusau da Mafara. Abun ba a cewa komai.

Abu na karshe, shi ne Arewa maso Yamma sun fi koina yawan jama'a
cikin Arewa. Tunda garuruwansu na da girma kuma kauyukansu kusa suke
da juna, sun fi sauran gurare samun daman kawo dauki da saukin kama
masu laifi. Ashe ba a nan take ba. Abun ya zama ruwan dare gama
duniya. Kuma tunda maza sun zama mata kuma ba mai niyyar kai wa
danuwansa dauki, yan fashi hatta a Arewa-maso-Yamma sa ci karensu ba
babbaka.

Amma duk wannan damuwar ta zamanin yanzu ne kawai. In an duba tarihi
kafin zuwan turawa, ai nan ne ma yanfashi suke sheke ayarsu. A wani
fannin ma, gara yanfashin yanzu. A da, kusan kowane daji a kasar Hausa
cike ya ke da yanfashi. Za su tsare matafiya, su wawashe musu dukiya,
kuma a lokuta da yawa su mai da su bayi. Yanfashin wancan lokacin sun
rika, don har tawagar sarakuna suke hanawa sakat. Akwai shekarar da a
zamanin Sarkin Musulmi, Abdu Danyen Kasko, lokacin hukumar daular
Sakkwato ta yi rauni, tawagar kyautar shekara-shekara ta sarakunan
gabas ta kasa tafiya Sokoto saboda tsoron zaratan yanfashi da ke cikin
dajin Rugu da sauran dazukan da ke hanyar Sakkwato. A lokacin, dajin na da yawa sosai don Shehu Abdullahin
Gwandu da tawagar mutum biyar da suka bar Sakkwato da niyyar
komawa Madina sai da suka yi tafiyar sati biyu a ciki ba mahalukin da
suka gamu da shi banda giwaye da sauran namun daji.

A yau ma hukunci ya yi rauni shi ya sa fashi ya dawo kasar Hausa. Ba a
hukunta mai laifi. Yoto wa zai hukunta shi, bayan mahakuntan kansu
barayi ne, ko mu ce gaggan yanfashi ne su ma? A zamanin turawa kuwa
zuwa lokacin su Sardauna, hukuma na da karfi. Dandoka daya kawai ake
da shi a gari amma tsit ka ke ji. Mai lafi kuwa, ko ya shiga daji,
dandokan nan shi kadai, ko dogarin sarki, zai zakulo shi. Allah sarki.
Jiya ba yau ba. Kowa ya tuna bara bai ji dadin bana ba.

To ba yanda muka iya. Tafiya dai ba za mu daina ta ba. Ba mahalukin da
zai hana mu walawa da neman halal. Ga bankuna nan sun sauwake
al'amurra. Ta hanyar waya sai ka yi tiransifa na kudi zuwa abokin
huldarka a gari mai nisa, ba tare da ka dau miliyoyi a bayan mota ba.
Nan gaba kadan, na'urar POS za ta wadata. Duk wanda ya sayi hajarka ba
sai ya biya nakadan ba. Sai kawai ya sulluba katin ATM dinsa a jiki,
kudin su shiga ba tare da wuri na gugan wuri ba. Yanfashi sai dai su
kare da karbar wayoyin matafiya da dan canjin da ke aljihunsu. Wayoyin
su ma kwanannan za su zama hadari a hannun yanfashin don kuwa in
kowace waya aka sa mata 'bi sawu', watau tracker, to za ta tseguntawa
mai ita inda ta ke, wuf sai jami'an tsaro su diran ma danfashin. Daga
nan su yanfashin za su gane ba riba a harkar ta su. Kafin a jima sai
su bar harkar tunda dai don lada ake salla.
Allah ya dawo mana da aminci a Arewa da sauran Najeriya baki daya.

Abun da ya rage shi ne kowa sai ya dau matakan tsaro da kiyayewa.
Matafiya, a dawo lafiya.

21 Satumba, 2013

Passing by the Kotokoshi Mountain

My sojourn to some West African counties by road is closing. The voice of its farewell overwhelms me as I approach home through the familiar landscapes Hausaland. By the Kotorkoshi Mountain, the first igneous rock range I will come across since I entered Burkina Faso, I instantly recalled
Golobo's poem that described his visit to Ibadan:

"Mai da ni gida
Jalla Rabbana
Inda na ke
Nuna na isa
Har da kira-
Ri gareni can
Dutsen Kwatarkwashi
Mai wuyar iza
Ni cinnaka
Mai shiga jiki."

By any measure, Golobo's trip to Western Nigeria was a disaster. In the poem, he listed the difficulties he faced of unemployment, sleeping in motor parks, markets and under the flyover.

One day, defeated by hardship, nostalgia crept into his broken heart. Like the improvisation of Abu Zaid in the Assemblies, he composed this poem, lamenting his troubles and praying for a return home. In it he paid tribute to the unassailable Kotorkoshi mountain with which he likened his tough character back home.

"Na kwana tasha
Na kwana kassuwa
Na kwana gadaaaa
Wadda ba ruwaaaa
Ni ba aiki wanda za nayi

"Mai da ni gida
Jalla Rabbana
Inda na ke
Nuna na isa
Har da kira-
ri gareni can
Dutsen Kwatarkwashi
Mai wuyar iza
Ni cinnaka
Mai shiga jiki.

Ruwa da kada
Ku kyale mai shiga
Ya shigo gulbi
Ban tare shi ba"

With him I repeat

Mai da ni gida
Jalla Rabbana...

But my kirari is different. It used to please my late mother (may God have mercy on her) to spoil me whenever I did something that pleased her, saying:

Ali gadanga kusar yaki
Mo'di boodi maagani rewdu!

Leave her and her metaphor! I never swallowed a snake when I had stomach ache. Don't attempt it when you have any.

The Distinction of Hausaland

Yesterday as I took the Sheme - Dayi shortcut to Kano, the realisation of a landscape unique to Hausaland occurred to me. It is the only place I have seen so far where humans through manual labour maintain a continuum of farms that sustain them. Every arable hectare, except that under official conservation, is tilled.

Approach Hausaland from any direction -Ningi, Saminaka, Kaduna, Birnin Gwari, kontagora, Birnin Kebbi, Argungu, Illela, Sabon Birni, Shinkafi, Jibiya, Maiadua, Maigatari, Potiskum, Azare, Darazo and Sara, the story is the same: farmland, farmland, farmland - complete green during the rainy season and brown dry during the dry deason except for valleys under irrigation. Everywhere, the farms go as far as the eyes can see, without limit.

This has a lot of significance. It attests to the continuity of the culture of hardwork among the populations living in this area for hundreds of years. Leo Afticanus was perhaps the first to make that known to the world. Later, the testimonies of Clapperton, Barth, Morrel and many administrative staff of the British Empire came. And we are today registering same.

A population that feeds itself has solved more than half of its problems and has very little to fear for the future. It might not boast of the luxury items of the industrial world but majority of its population can be self-employed and with little investment, as we see often see in commercial irrigation and livestock, it can acquire those luxury items through sheer hardwork, not through theft, robbery or looting public treasury.

This explains why in rural Hausaland, until poll tax (haraji) and jangali (cattle tax) were stopped during the Secind Republic, unemployment was literally unknown. Now, there is an army of youth, taken off the farmland with the promise of modern education and urban life but who, after completion of school, are left illiterates as ever with no job at sight. If only they would return to this long tradition of sweating it out on the farm, especially with the growing demand for cash crops, their lives would have changed for the better and forever.

This point must be emphasised as we insist that every child gets basic education. The population of our country is increasing dramatically. In forty years there will be not less than 500 million Nigerians. Then, oil would be losing its value due to advances in alternative energy. It will also then be clear who the parasite would be.

Note that I am not saying that other areas are not farming. But the degree elsewhere can nowhere be compared to that of Hausaland.

Politically, the millions of farmland in the area corroborates the figures of INEC. The Northwest has the highest voter register. People must be cultivating these farms manually, not by spirits or even machines. Other zones are less populated becuase they either don't have sufficient landmass, like the Southwest, or the population is smaller even though there is sufficient landmass, like the Northeast, hence the huge breaks in land under cultivation there.

Gaishe ku manoma! You are the hosts. Others are the parasites.