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Tag: Ehichioya Ezomon

  • Buhari, herdsmen and traumatized citizenry, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon

    The horror of man’s inhumanity to man was starkly on display in Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State, on Thursday, when an unboarded trailer drove into the IBB Square, bearing 12 coffins of the “remains” of victims of attacks by “herdsmen” on January 1 and 2.

    Several mini buses brought in additional 61 caskets of the 73 people killed for mass internment, witnessed by wailing family members, friends, government officials, traditional institutions, the Christian Association of Nigeria, a representative of the United Nations, and the general public that might include some of the culprits.

    It was a spectacle not even dreamt of in an obviously annahilative proxy war, with 47 episodic attacks, according to the Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse, visited on innocent and defenseless peasant farmers in the Middle Belt and other parts of Nigeria, by so-called herdsmen, who brandish AK47 riffles in place of sticks traditionally associated with cattle herders down the ages.

    At the solemn and sombre rites, the Mourner-in-Chief, Governor Samuel Ortom, had a message for the purveyors of the massacres: “If the herdsmen think that the killing of our people will make us to stop the enforcement of the law, they have failed. We will not be deterred because I am ready to pay the supreme price for the implementation of the anti-open grazing law. I will continue to insist on the arrest of the factional leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre.”

    Recall that the Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre of the umbrella body, Miyetti Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, “confessed” that the Benue attacks were reprisals for alleged stealing of 1,000 of their herds by “some people?” What disrespect: Human lives for “stolen” cattle!

    Ortom honed his defiance the previous day at a meeting with the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris. Reflecting the sentiments of the Benue people, the governor cautioned: “I must state that Nigeria is passing through serious security challenges. I pray we don’t get to the level that our people resort to self-defence, because, when people are not sanctioned for their lawlessness, anarchy and confusion would set in and nobody will be safe.”

    But admitting that anarchy has already bestrode the land, the Chairman of the Northern Elders’ Forum, Wantaregh Paul Unongo, gave the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to stop or arrest those behind the killings or “we shall raise an army of our own.”

    “I am telling Nigerians that my people cannot continue to be cannon fodder for this country,” Chief Unogo said. “If the government can’t protect us, we will mobilize and train our people into an army to defend us… I am the spiritual and ancestral leader of the Tiv nation; enough is enough.”

    Equally craving for government’s decisive action against the killings he described as “genocidal conspiracy,” and spoiling for self-mobilization to defend his people was former Military Governor of Plateau and Katsina States, retired Maj.-Gen. Lawrence Onoja.

    Walking down memory lane, Gen. Onoja said: “Some of us, in 1966 (1967), fought the Nigerian civil war. Benue has contributed to the unity of this country. If the Federal Governmrnt refuses to address the killings in Benue, and if we decide to raise our army, as advocated by our elders, to defend ourselves, l will not mind to command that army despite my age.”

    Exasperating, heartbreaking, heartrending! These are patriotic, elder statesmen, who should be living a blissful life, but here they are still carrying the mantle of defending their people against rampaging “herdsmen” that sow blood and sorrow everywhere, using their cattle as baits.

    Enough has been said, but not done about these mindless killings. Yet, while the murdering, raping and destruction of homes and farmlands almost always appear one-sided, from the perspective of Inspector General Idris, they result from “communal crisis.” He has since recanted and apologized for that insensitive categorization.

    The herdsmen’s activities have no links to “communal crisis” compelling police operations. They are programmed for certain ends, which could inadvertently threaten the security and corporate existence of the nation.

    For once, the government must come clean about this issue, which has become an albatross on the necks of President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress administration he heads. Why is it difficult to mandate the Military to take charge, and label the armed “herdsmen” as terrorists the way Boko Haram was named, and unarmed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was proscribed and pigeonholed?

    Why would the president, despite spirited denials, allow the festering of the notion, perception and direct allegation of using the herdsmen as foot solders for a so-called plan to Islamize Nigeria? Doesn’t this discernment bother him, as it worries even his most ardent supporters of other faiths?

    With a patriotic fervour, Buhari should juxtapose his stance on the herdsmen issue with his famous inaugural proclamation to keep his oath and serve as President to all Nigerians because, “I belong to no nobody and I belong to everybody.”

    The time to act is now, and with the bare knuckles, not kid gloves, that demands immediate deployment of military troops to the troubled spots, so that the “Pythons can dance” and the “Crocodiles can smile” to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes against Nigerians. That’s the only way to disprove the president’s perceived “body language” towards the herdsmen’s notoriety, and to pacify a harrowed, traumatized and beleaguered citizenry!

     

    Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

     

  • NASS missed opportunity on devolution of power- Ehichioya Ezomon

    NASS missed opportunity on devolution of power- Ehichioya Ezomon

    Ehichioya Ezomon

    The National Assembly was at the cusp of making history the upper week when members were gathered in plenary to vote on scores of bills listed for amendment (Fourth Alteration) to the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    The voting was coming at a very challenging moment in Nigeria’s existence as an “indivisible and indissoluble” entity brought about by the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914 by the British colonial masters.

    The country has had ups and downs, including a 30-month civil war (1967-1970), to bring back into the fold the breakaway Eastern Region that formed the “Republic of Biafra,” and a six-year-long political upheaval (1993-1999) that attended the Military annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    But never has the nation experienced numerous centrifugal forces simultaneously: In the Northeast are bloody attacks by an insurgent group, Boko Haram; and in the Southeast is agitation by self-determination outfits – the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Biafra Federation Movement (BFM).

    In the entire North is a Coalition of Arewa Youths, which has given Igbo indigenes an October 1 deadline to leave the region, and also urged the government to declare IPOB a “terrorist” organisation and its arrowhead, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, re-arrested for allegedly flouting his bail conditions.

    The South-South housed a plethora of militant bodies, the most vocal being a Coalition of Niger Delta Militants, which has given a counter-ultimatum to indigenes of the North to quit the zone; and the Adaka Boro Avengers (ABA) that has iterated its threat to declare a republic in the Niger Delta on October 1.

    And in the Southwest, besides the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and Oodua Self-determination Group that had flirted with statehood for the Yoruba-speaking peoples, a new group – Yoruba Liberation Command (YOLICOM) – is canvassing the Oduduwa Republic come October 1 as, in its words, “it is too late for the restructuring of Nigeria.”

    Interestingly, these other self-determination groups are lining behind and cast their lots with the Biafra agitators. For instance, while announcing its debut on the political stage, the YOLICOM declared: “Give Kanu Biafra, give us the Oduduwa Republic.”

    Similarly, opinion molders in the North Central have warned that in the event of a Republic of Biafra or any other one actually manifesting, they would not align with the Northwest and Northeast but establish their own Middle Belt Republic.

    This multiplicity of agitation and proclamation by ethnic groups partly reinvigorated the clamor for the restructuring of the country, which devolution of power is a major component.

    So, the National Assembly was expected to back the bill to the hilt, to serve two purposes: to reduce the powers, functions and revenue allocations to the central (federal) government in favour of the federating units (states), and to douse the uproar for self-determination across the country.

    The argument over the years is that the Federal Government is unwieldy, saddled with 68 items in the Exclusive Legislative List and also has power, via the National Assembly, to make laws in respect of any of the 11 items in the Concurrent Legislative List the states can legislate on.

    Thus, the devolution of power bill, which ranked No. 3 on the items for consideration, essentially sought to alter the Second Schedule, Part I & II of the 1999 Constitution, “to move certain items to the Concurrent Legislative List, to give more legislative powers to States.”

    But what happened to the bill? Of the 95 senators who cast ballots for it on Wednesday, July 26, 46 voted in favour, 48 against and one abstained; and on Thursday, July 27, in the House of Representatives, 210 favoured the bill while 71 voted against it. However, the lower chamber’s balloting fell short of the minimum 240 votes to clear the huddles.

    Yet, Senate President Bukola Saraki gave himself and his colleagues a pat on the back for being able to pull off 29 of the 33 bills slated for amendment.

    His words: “This is an exercise for which we gave a promise and we have kept to it. Definitely, we have made history this afternoon with the exercise that we have carried out… To be part of that history is a great honour for all of us and I want to thank you, my colleagues.”

    But the shock of the defeat of the bill, and the instant rebuke it elicited from proponents belied the self-praise of the senators. Ironically, the fear of restructuring caused the bill’s failure, Senator Saraki told newsmen in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital city, after receiving a delegation of the #NotTooYoungToRun# group in the state.

    He said some stakeholders had misunderstood the intent of the proposed amendments in the bill “as a clever way of introducing restructuring, and were not ready to back such a move without proper consultations with their constituents.”

    “I think what happened was that a lot of our colleagues misread or misunderstood or were suspicious of what the devolution of power to states was all about; whether it was the same thing as restructuring in another way or attempt to foist confederation on the country or to prepare the ground for other campaigns now going on in the country,” Saraki said.

    And his advice? “What we must do is dialogue; reassure each other and let people understand that this concept (devolution of power) is for the purpose of making a modern Nigeria; that it is not going to undermine any part of the country.”

    Then, he threw in a lifeline. “Nothing is foreclosed in this exercise; you don’t foreclose passage of a bill,” he said. “It has been defeated as at today but it does not mean that it would be defeated when it comes (up) tomorrow.”

    Well, to critics who said members of the National Assembly, particularly senators, had missed the chance “to make ‘real’ history with devolution of power and be part of history,” there’s still time for them to lift the trophy. What a historic day that would be!

     

    * Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Edo guber: There’s end to litigation by Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon

     

    A scene playing out in Edo State depicts the adage of “the mourner crying more than the bereaved.” It has to do with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its state chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, continuing to litigate matters against Governor Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The electorate in Edo, the Election Petitions Tribunal, and the Appeal and Supreme Courts had respectively given Obaseki a clean bill of health as the duly elected executive to superintend the state for four years.

    Commendably, the candidate of the PDP in the election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has accepted the choice of the Edo people, as affirmed by the courts.

    According to him: “Today (July 10), the Supreme Court has, by its judgment, brought to an end our struggle for the office of the governor of Edo State, which began on 28 September, 2016.

    “I accept, in good faith, this decision of the highest court of our country, which affirms Mr. Godwin Obaseki as the Governor of Edo State. I therefore congratulate Mr. Godwin Obaseki and assure him of my goodwill.”

    Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), chairman, Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism and the director-general of the Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation, also felicitated with Obaseki, and prayed that God grants him “the enablement to lead Edo State and its people to greater heights and success.”

    Similarly, Senator Clifford Akhimienmona Ordia (PDP, Edo Central), vice chairman, Senate Committee on Works, during the committee’s oversight function on federal government projects in Edo, saluted Obaseki and wished “he would take the state to an enviable height.”

    So, having run the gamut of balloting, with the Judiciary weighing in to authenticate the franchise, it would be unimaginable for the PDP to continue to look for loopholes to disqualify the chosen governor.

    But that’s exactly what the party and Chief Orbih are doing: Continue to litigate the matter in different courts in hope of getting victory. In other words, embarking on what lawyers call “forum shopping” – a practice adopted by litigants to get their cases heard in a particular court that is likely to provide a favourable judgment.

    One aspect of the Edo issue was the election itself, which the PDP, galvanised by Orbih, Pastor Ize-Iyamu and its teeming members – as an unfettered and a viable opposition – prosecuted with a scorch-earth approach.

    Having been in power in the state for about nine and half years: Chief Lucky Igbinedion’s government (1999-2007) and Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor’s administration (2007-2008), and in the opposition for eight years under the government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (2008-2016), the PDP was versed in the political nuances of the state.

    Thus, during the electioneering, its members toured the “nooks and crannies” of Edo, and tied Mr. Obaseki to Comrade Oshiomhole, whose administration’s policies and programmes, which they dubbed anti-people and a failure, were used to whip the APC candidate, even as they claimed that voting for Obaseki and the APC was voting for an Oshiomhole “third term.”

    However, the Edo people did not buy the PDP obvious antics, as attested to by the pattern of victory of the APC that culminated in the election of Governor Obaseki.

    Still, as the saying goes, it’s not yet Uhuru for Obaseki, as the PDP that reportedly congratulated the governor, and its state helmsman, Chief Orbih, would not let go the failure at the poll and the Supreme Court final verdict on it.

    Their case against candidate Obaseki (and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)), filed on September 1, 2016, just days before the governorship election, alleged false claims and information, on oath, about his educational qualifications submitted to the INEC.

    Therefore, the party prayed a Benin City High Court for “a declaration that Obaseki’s statement that he graduated from the University of Ibadan, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical Studies in 1976, made under oath in INEC form CF001 at Part B, paragraph C dated 11 July 2016, is false.”

    It also asked for a declaration, disqualifying Obaseki from contesting Edo State governorship election on the grounds that “he submitted false information on oath to the INEC in Form CF001.”

    Thereafter, Chief Orbih said the PDP was certain, beyond doubt, that the academic qualifications attested to by Obaseki in an affidavit he swore to in June 2016 “were false.”

    Besides, he said Obaseki’s failure to declare if he was a member of any secret society “disqualifies him from contesting for the office of governor of Edo State.”

    Following these claims, then campaign manager to Obaseki, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, said: “We will not dignify PDP with any reply. PDP is heading towards extinction in Edo and on this matter, we will meet them in court.”

    Granted that political parties own the votes in an election, and while not begrudging the PDP and Chief Orbih their “interest to contest the issues with a view to deepening our legal system and ensuring that they are brought to bear (on the election),” it’s respectfully submitted that, “there must be an end to litigation.” And as an Esan proverb says: “If it’s been long carrying a load, it should be put down.”

    Since 1999, there has never been any uncontested governorship election in the courts by the losing party and its candidate. The nearly decade-long chairmanship of Chief Orbih of Edo PDP also witnessed this scenario.

    Really, there’s nothing more to prove by this pre-election case other than to sustain confusion and acrimony in the political atmosphere of Edo State. And the PDP may further be alienated from the electorate if it loses, yet again, this particular matter to Governor Obaseki.

    In the words of Chief Orbih, the PDP is “anxious to take over the government of Edo State in 2019 (or 2020).” In that wise, let the next political battle be reserved for those elections rather than dissipate time, energy and scarce resources on a “back-door” channel to power.

    Most importantly, the PDP and Chief Orbih should respect Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s admission that the Supreme Court judgment had “brought to an end our struggle for the office of the governor of Edo State, which began on 28 September 2016.”

    Devoid of other interpretations, anything outside the Ize-Iyamu proclamation is self-serving!

     

    Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.