By Polycarp Onwubiko
The present of Nigeria Bar
Association, NBA, Yakubu Maiyan, SAN, (Vanguard February 15, 2024), has
pointedly challenged president Tinubu to immediately direct the security agents
to drive away the families of the FOREIGN Fulani herdsmen who had the northern
borders flung open to them by president Buhari administration now occupying the
communities (allegedly changed the names of the communities and recognized by
the Almighty INEC) ,so that the survived ancestral owners of the lands
languishing in the makeshift refugee resettlements will go back to their
homelands to pick the remaining pieces of their jagged lives.
During the 2023 presidential
election campaign, it was ONLY the presidential candidate of the Labour party,
Peter Obi that threatened to drive away the foreign invaders back to where they
migrated (the Sahel region of West Africa) because since the country is not at
war with neighbour, there would be nothing like refugee camps in Nigeria. Other
presidential candidates namely: Tinubu and Atiku maintained sealed lips because
as Moslems, they would not do that so that the refugee resettlements will be
the permanent abodes of the survived people dying slowly with unspeakable
suffering and privations.
Hear him:
"The entire country is
under siege by terrorists, bandits and criminal gangs. It is no longer easily
determinable, if not impossible, which square kilometer of Nigeria territory is
under the authority of not control of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
"A situation where
criminality dots all over the space known as the Nigerian territory, in a
manner that diminishes the presence of law enforcement agencies, directly
challenges the soveregnity of Nigeria. This is particularly so when we hear that
the said bandits and terrorists are foreign nationals.
"If the activities of
foreign nationals have been responsible for this high level of insecurity in
our nation when the country is not at war, these criminal elements go on to
boldly record and send out videos on social media platforms boasting about
their strongholds within the territory of Nigerian state and suffer no
consequences for so doing, then there is more to it than meets the eye, and
Nigerians need to be better informed of the nature of the insecurity they are
dealing with".
Comment:
Fact remains that to expect
president Tinubu to command the armed forced and other security agencies to
drive away the foreign invaders terrorists who have consolidated their holds on
the ancestral homelands of Nigerians from the above stated areas for the
refugees to reclaim their ancestral homelands, might need eternity.
The "Pastor" who was
the media aide to the immediate past president, reportedly threatened the
owners of the lands dying in droves in the refugee resettlements to choose
between their lives and the ancestral homelands. He was just trying to create
impression that he was 100 percent loyal to his principal.
How can you expect president
Tinubu to embark on such patriotic action when he allegedly entered into covert
understanding with a section of the country that boasted that they helped in
his enthronement into the Aso Villa, Abuja? Unless, there is direct Divine
Mercy and intervention, the refugees may not go back to their ancestral customs
as long as a Moslem is in the Aso Villa Abuja.
Listen To Yoruba Traditional Rulers Asking For A Role In The Nigeria Constitution
"WE ARE ONLY ADVISERS TO
THE POLITICAL LEADERS THAT IS ALL WE CAN DO.BUT IF WE ARE EMPOWERED AND AS
STRONG AS THE GOVERNORS BY THE CONSTITUTION, BY THE AMOUNT OF FUNDS THEY GET
FROM THE FEDERAL AND STATE REVENUES, WE CAN ALSO DO THAT."
Comment:
Nigeria remains a funny enclave
because of the groping in the dark in governance. The above quotation from the
Yoruba traditional rules was in reaction to the mindless slaughtering of
indigenous people in their domain in the Yoruba land recently in particular and
the southern Kaduna and middle belt states in general by the terrorists
masquerading as herdsmen from the Sahel region of West Africa which the Buhari
administration threw the northern borders for their unchecked infiltration to
embark on ethnic cleansing and territorial expansion with a long term view of
swelling the population of Moslems in the apparently "expired Nigeria."
They want to be given public
funds to establish their own security architecture in their respective domain
since the federal government has refused to observe the principles of federal
system of government where security architecture is decentralized as obtained
in sane and sanitized Federations the world over.
The laughable quotation also
has its source and spring from the primitive suggestion of some unenlightened
people advocating for "a role for our traditional rulers in the
constitution". Please can somebody tell me which (civilized) country
practicing Constitutional Democracy that made gave role to their traditional
rulers (of course unelected in accordance with Constitutional laws) in their
constitution?
The fact remains that if
Nigeria is to aspire to join civilized countries of the world, traditional
rulers should be contented with the tradition and custom of their people.
Nigeria cannot be taken back to the hoary past when traditional ruler-ship was
doing all sorts of unimaginable havoc as instruments and agents of darkness. Some,
according to the so-called "rich cultural heritage" used to cut the
heads of human beings or even whole human beings for their burial because they
were regarded as equal with the gods or goddesses and deities not on the equal footing
with the mortal beings.
Let NOT the ultra-conservative
phalanx in the northern part of the country and their slaves in the National
Assembly try to introduce Bill for a role for the traditional rulers in the
Constitution because Nigeria is practicing Constitutional Democracy where the
representatives in second arm of government, Legislature, are elected in line
with the Electoral Act operated by the INEC. Enough for such grossly irrational
suggestion or appeal by the traditional rulers.
Polycarp Onwubiko, Media
Commentator Writes From Awka Anambra State
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