DISSECTING THE NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVE BILL

BACKGROUND: There is a Bill before the Nigerian National Assembly that has successfully scaled through second reading in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which deserves very close scrutiny by all Nigerians. The international community should also be interested in this Bill because of the magnitude of the internal crises that the Bill could create with attendant spill-over effects if passed. All that is left in the legislative process to make it a law is 3^rd Reading, that is, a clause by clause debate and then assent by the President. As explained below, the proposed piece of legislation is full of unconstitutionalities, ethnic discriminations, fundamental human rights violations, religious tenets violations, conspicuous criminal omissions and unforgiveable legislative indiscretions. The Bill should therefore be killed immediately and not presented for the last reading.

The full title of the Bill is, AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVE (ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT) COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION AND CONTROL OF NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVES AND STOCK ROUTES AND OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. Its sponsor is Senator Zainab Kure, wife of a two-time Governor of Niger State.

Hajiya Zainab Kure, who is the current Senate Committee Chairman on Marine Transport, was born on 24 November 1959 and she was elected Senator for the Niger South constituency of Niger State on the platform of the PDP. She is a second-term Senator who bagged a Political Science degree from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1984. She worked as a civil servant in Niger State, rising to the position of Permanent Secretary before veering into politics. She sponsored this same Bill in 2008 during the 6^th National Assembly but it received a hostile reception. She also sponsored the National Poverty Eradication Commission Bill in the same year. She is Nupe by tribe.

THE BILL: The Bill’s concluding Explanatory Memorandum says that the Bill seeks to provide for, among other things, the establishment of the National Grazing Reserve Commission of Nigeria, for the preservation and control of national grazing reserves and stock routes in the country. Its key provisions and high points include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.     To establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC), a body corporate.

2.     The NGRC may acquire, hold, lease or dispose of any property, moveable or immoveable for the purpose of carrying out its function.

3.     The NGRC shall have a governing Council headed by a Chairman appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate with members representing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Resources, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, the National Commission for Nomadic Education and shall also have a Director General.

4.     To raise monies by way of grants, loans, borrowing, subsidies and donations.

5.     The following lands may be subject to the provisions of the Act to be constituted as National Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes:

(a)   Lands at the disposal of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

(b)  Any lands in respect of which it appears to the Commission that grazing in such land should be practiced.

(c)   Any land acquired by the Commission through purchase, assignment, gift or otherwise howsoever.

6.     State Governments shall be given notice first before land acquisition and gazetting.

7.     The Commission shall pay compensation to persons affected by any land acquisition.

8.     There shall be no improvements, encroachment, bush burning, hunting, use of chemicals and felling of trees by anyone inside lands acquired and demarcated as National Grazing Reserves or Stock Routes.

9.     Contravention of any of the provisions in (8) above shall be punishable by a fine of N50,000 or 5 years imprisonment or both.

10.  No Court of law shall carry out execution of its judgment or attachment of court process issued against the Commission in any action or suit without obtaining the prior consent of the Attorney General of the Federation.

11.  For the time being, the Commission shall report to the Honorable Minster for Agriculture and Water Resources.

12.  Native communities referred to in the Bill shall be any group of persons occupying any lands in accordance with, and subject to native law and custom.

13.  Stock Routes shall mean tertiary or secondary or inter-state stock routes linking two or more States together or leading from grazing reserve to grazing reserve.

14.  When passed into law, the Act shall be cited as The National Grazing Reserve Commission (Establishment and Development) Bill 2008. 

SUPPORTERS’ ARGUMENT: The first surprise regarding this Bill is that the sponsor, Senator Kure, did not say the truth about the most important thing that her Bill is intended to achieve, that is, to curb the incessant fatal feuds between Fulani nomadic cattle rearers and farmers all over the country. When she presented it, she tried to prove its relevance with a lot of wishy-washy points. She said the National Grazing Reserves will be provided with incentives and facilities such as functional Earth Dams, Water Points, Dairy Processing Centres, Schools, functional Barns and Livestock service centres but didn’t say for who’s benefit and why. She added that the Bill, if passed into law, would lead to the establishment of National Grazing Commission that would be empowered to enforce Gracing Reserve Laws across the country and then simply stated that grazing reserves were very important.

Next to support the Bill was Senator Ningi from Bauchi State who rambled down memory lane about how Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa ensured the establishment of grazing reserves in the then Northern Nigeria without mentioning anything about the clashes between pastoralists and farmers all over the West African sub-region. Ningi also tried to score the point that the economic value of Grazing Reserves to the nation included the creation of employment opportunities, large scale production of food for domestic consumption and for export, generation of income for the people and for the government. Ningi conclude his support comments by saying that if the activities of the large number of pastoralists in Nigeria were well harnessed, it would diversify the economy and minimize unemployment, inflation and serve as a means of giving the Fulani nomads a sense of belonging.

Alhaji Sale Bayeri, a PDP stalwart and the self-styled spokesperson of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria, claims that there are 12 million cattle rearers in Nigeria and that they have been at the receiving end of all sorts of atrocities from other Nigerians and neglect by Government. The population figures are a figment of his imagination because his tribesmen rejected the idea of including ‘Tribe’ as a demographic date to be captured in the last population census. Authorities quote about 18 million for all the Fulanis across West Africa. Many of these are no more cattle rearers but educated and living in cities without any cattle. No one can authoritatively quote a number today for the population of Nigerian Faulanis.

OMISSIONS: I have noted the following as deliberate or careless omissions from the proposed legislation:

1.     What informed the need for such a Bill is not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Is the incessant Fulani/farmers clashes? What is the cause of all such clashes? Is it not because the Fulani cattle rearers grazed their cattle on the farmers’ yet-to-be-harvested crops? Who is therefore the antagonist? Should the cattle-rich aggressor Fulanis now be protected or the defenseless poor peasant farmers? 

2.     For whose use are the grazing reserves and stock routes to be acquired? The Bill does not say. It will simply create grazing reserves and stock routes for nomadic cattle rearers who we know are of one ethnic group – Fulani. The clause cattle rearers in the Bill can be replaced with the word Fulani, and it will be seen that it is purely meant to serve the interest of one ethnic group out of over 250 ethnic groups on Nigeria.

3.     The Bill does not define who a cattle rearer is. Will all Nigerians of all ethnic groups who own cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, etc; be allowed to use the grazing reserves and stock routes.

4.     Why does the Bill not require Cattle rearers to contribute towards the acquisition of the grazing reserves and stock routes when owning cattle is tantamount to being wealthy? Cattle rearers are richer in terms of assets than the poor farmers who will be dispossessed of their inherited ancestral lands. Shouldn’t the rich cattle rearers be made to sell some cattle and pay for the rights the Bill wishes to give them?

5.     The fundamental rights, ancestral rights, customary rights, rights to pursue a preferred means of livelihood of farmers whose lands will be forcefully acquired are not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Don’t other Nigerians, especially agriculturalists, have equal rights and entitlements from the Federal Government as cattle rearers?

6.     Arrangements for the resettlement of the farmers and other land owners who will become internally displaced is not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Does the Bill assume that the compensation they will receive will be adequate to buy comparative land elsewhere? Why should the Bill not provide that the Grazing Reserves Commission will also negotiate and pay for alternative land for persons who will be dispossessed of their farm holdings?

7.     The Bill has been designed to create a refugee crisis of internally displaced persons by legislation. This is the most absurd and vexatious to put it mildly. How could right-thinking, intelligent Nigerian legislators do this? Unless they are not what we all assume them to be.

8.     Without saying it in clear terms, the Bill, when and if passed into law, shall apply in retrospect from 2008. Otherwise, why should it be cited as a 2008 legislation in our statute books? I can’t see the rationale in this.

9.     The NGRC shall report ‘for the time being’ to the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources. Who will it eventually be reporting to? The head of the Fulani tribe? Why this ambiguity? Something is being hidden here by the sponsors of the Bill.

10.  There is no provision whatsoever in the Bill for the policing of grazing reserves and stock routes by any of our security agencies. They will be outside the purview of our law enforcement agencies and therefore constitute lawless enclaves where the nomads will be above the laws of Nigeria

IMPLICATIONS: Though the late Senator Gyang Dantong, whose constituency has experienced some of the most intense ethnic clashes with fatalities in thousands, supported the idea of the Bill, he quickly cautioned that government should be very careful in such land acquisitions in order not to infringe on the rights of other people. He suggested that pastoralists should be encouraged instead to acquire land through the use of their great wealth for the purposes enumerated in the proposed legislation.

I am shocked that Nigerian adults in the National Assembly would even tolerate such an obnoxious and vexatious proposal. The Bill is a clear attempt to hand over the entire country, its economy, its land, its citizens, its security and its future into the hands of one tribal group – the Fulani. The Bill should have been thrown out at first presentation.

The Bill proposes to establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC) for the country. The NGRC will be charged with the responsibility of using funds received from the Federal Government to forcefully acquire farmlands from Nigerians in all the 36 States of the country, develop same at Government expense through the provision of bore holes, water reservoirs, etc; for the exclusive use of nomadic cattle rearers (or pasturalists), whom everyone knows, are of only one ethnic stock – Fulanis – out of over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria. All other Nigerians who venture into these grazing reserves for whatever reason would be fined or imprisoned or both.

The Fulani people have roamed the entire West African landscape since the 12^th Century. They are known to be highly temperamental and unforgiving. They boast of having never lost a war in history. They have rejected civilization all this while and have chosen to continue practicing a medieval style cattle rearing which entails following the weather and vegetation. They therefore do not own land or landed property, but great wealth in terms of heads of cattle.

What if a State is inundated and overwhelmed by large numbers of cattle rearers who must graze in it and also pass through it to other States as Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa, Kaduna and Benue States are sure to be? Will their citizens and State Governors have the right to object or say how much grazing land may be taken or will compulsion be used?

In which markets will the Fulanis eventually sell their fat cattle? Will the displaced natives be very happy to do business with them after taking over their farm lands? Will new kinds of animosities and backlashes not develop? For example, the boycott of all Fulani-produced dairy products could be the first backlash. Will this legislation promote peaceful coexistence or greater hatred?

           

FULANI/FARMER CLASHES: What has informed the couching of this Bill by its sponsors is the incessant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in many parts of the country especially in the Christian Middle Belt, especially Plateau State, Benue State, Nassarawa State and the southern half of Kaduna State and Bauchi State.

The question that every serious-minded Nigerian should ask is, what is the cause of the bloody clashes between the nomads and their host communities? The answer is not far, yet Senator Kure and her co-travelers would want the world to believe that it is something else.

Each and every clash has been triggered by the Fulani’s inadvertent or deliberate grazing of their cattle on freshly germinating farm crops, fully mature crops or harvested crops still on the farm. When confronted, the nomads are never apologetic. Instead, they organize cold-blooded night attacks on entire villages using guns, machetes and military camouflage. Reprisal attacks by these communities only attract even more vicious attacks. The Nigerian press has reported enough of these for me to bother to reproduce them here.

Shortly after each attack or a reprisal attack, the war of wits commences in the local and international press by the Fulani elite. Spokesmen of the attackers have even given press conferences to state reasons for their attacks. Nigerian security agencies always rush to press to give their own accounts, while the victims are left to try and debunk all of them. Legislators and State Governors have accused the military authorities deployed to provide security in vulnerable areas of being complicit, culpable and compromising. Such accusations and counter-accusations continue even as we speak.

A report in the SUNNEWS of 6th August 2012 says, “It is also a source of problems in Idoma land in Benue State and some parts of Southern Nigeria, where cattle rearers, without any compunctions or remorse, run their cattle over critical farmland, destroying crops. It is this penchant of Fulani cattle herdsman for illegally appropriating farmland wherever they choose that this bill is seeking to legalize with the proposed Grazing Rights Commission.”

The Fulanis have lived side-by-side the Beroms of Plateau State in a symbiotic relationship for upwards of 200 years. Cattle manure, meat, cheese, milk and other dairy products are provided by the pasturalists while the Beroms allow them settle for a while on their farm lands. Cattle should be grazed only in permitted areas and never on farm crops still on the farm. The relationship became so cozy that the Beroms even loaned their male children to the Fulanis to graze for them for a period after which they were paid in kind with a calf or two. Several Vom, Kuru and Fan farmers are now cattle owners and cattle rearers in their own right. You could say, Fulanis and Beroms have actually become ‘cousins’. Other ethnic groups in Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Nassarawa, Niger and Kaduna States can easily relate to this type of relationship in their localities.

What went wrong? is the million-dollar question. Fulani populations grew, some of them became educated, deforestation, desert encroachment, urbanization, inefficient nomadic lifestyle, politics and lastly religion, have been introduced into the equation making it quadratic. Since the equation cannot balance, hell has been let loose. There is no easy solution to the problem, certainly not Kure’s Grazing Reserves Bill.    

Honorable Simon Mwadkwon, PDP, who represents the Barakin Ladi-Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representative, has continued to use every opportunity to sound the great dangers of the Grazing Reserves Commission Bill. He explains that its real spirit is hidden in ethnic and religious expansionism by the Hausa and Fulani tribes who have an inordinate ambition to Islamize the whole country and also to rule it in perpetuity.

In Mwadkwon’s words in an interview he granted Anayo Okolie of BESTNAIRA, “It is also unfortunate that in the 21st Century, the Fulani and Hausa people believe that they must rule the people at all cost and must not allow other people to have control over their destiny …….. They have tried by all means using the international media, the Hausa section of the BBC and the Voice of America, to paint the Plateau person in bad light to the world, even when it is clearly known that they are the aggressors…….. The problem is that President Goodluck Jonathan seems not to have the political will to tackle this problem. I don’t know what he is afraid of. He is the Chief Security Officer and Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces in Nigeria and has the power to give directives”.

In another interview reported in TRIBUNE of 11 June 2012, Mwadkwon said, “The cause of the incessant hostilities in his constituency can be attributed to the Fulani’s expansionist tendency, which started with the Usman Dan Fodio jihad of 1804. It has been their agenda since 1804 to capture the Middle Belt region and use it as a launch pad to capture the South. It is their belief that once the northern minorities are captured, they would be willing tools for the capture of the South. Another reason is the quest for grazing reserves and that was why the House of Representatives killed the bill on grazing reserves (in 2008) because it would have caused a lot of havoc in the country. The Fulani cannot lay claim to any village, as they do not have any, but are tenants who pay royalty to the people.”

Coincidentally, I have been reading the Islamic Perspective article titled, “Rights of Neighbors & Strong Society”, on page 29 of the January 18, 2013, edition of Leadership newspaper. The author, Fethullah Gulen, wrote in the fifth paragraph, “If the rights of neighbors are stressed so much in the Qu’ran and the Tradition of the Prophet, then it is an issue of great importance. In this respect, a Muslim should embrace – near or distant – all of their neighbors magnanimously.”  The Holy Bible says in Acts 17:26 that it is God who allocated the geographical demarcations of each tribe, while Proverbs 22:28 says that the ancient boundary stones set by our ancestors should not be moved. Therefore, support for this Bill will pitch the supporter in direct contravention of his or her religious teachings. As can be observed, the debate on the Bill has already pitched Muslim legislators and Christian legislators on opposite sides - for and against.

INHERENT DANGERS: I will enumerate the numerous serious dangers inherent in the creation of grazing reserves and stock routes throughout the country as provided for in the Bill. Supporters of the Bill should consider these and retrace their steps.

The Bill, if passed into law, will take care of the interest on only one ethnic group in a country of over 250 ethnic groups. It is, therefore, inconsiderate and insensitive towards other Nigerians. This is not the only ethnic group to have problems in the country. It admits that coexistence between Fulanis and other Nigerians is impossible and so fences must be built to keep us apart like wild beasts. 

The Bill, if passed, will forcefully take over ancestral lands from other Nigerians and displace them. A problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs) would have been created by Federal legislation, which is a big shame. These are farmers from time immemorial who cannot suddenly change their means of livelihood, just like the Fulanis who have refused to change theirs for centuries. All Nigerian have equal rights and must all be treated equally and fairly.

Stock routes linking up grazing reserves throughout the country with no provision for security, is an open invitation for foreign invaders to infiltrate and traverse the length and breadth of the country at will. Our security will be thoroughly compromised. Plateau State government claims to have documentary evidence such a threat, therefore, this fear is not far-fetched. Boko Haram insurgents are here while terrorist groups are close by in Somalia and Mali. We need to improve our surveillance apparatus instead of opening up un-policed corridors for the free and easy movement of mercenaries and weapons.

If the Fulanis decide to use these so-called stock routes as safe corridors for the transportation of contraband goods or weapons, we would have been the most foolish people on earth to create such a safe haven for them.

If passed, the Bill would create a lawless society since nobody else would be allowed to enter these grazing reserves and stock routes, not even the Military or the Police because it is not provided for in the Bill. If our past experience is anything to go by, we have not been able to police our few pipelines in the South-South and South-West of the country, can we dream of putting adequate surveillance in place for all grazing reserves and stock routes throughout the country? Even without a grazing reserve law in place, the nomads refused to allow the JTF personnel access into their enclaves in Baraking Ladi and Riyom Local Governments of Plateau State in 2012 following the deaths of Senator Gyang Dantong and Hon. Gyang Fulani. This was even after the JTF Commander unprofessionally gave them a 48-hour notice to move their families and cattle to safety so that the military could comb the hills for mercenaries because  evidence suggested that armed uniformed men might have been involved in the attacks on Berom villages all these years.

If passed, unspecified but huge Federal funding would be used to acquire land and develop same just to preserve a primitive life style of a few people who have refused to partake in the technological and social advancements that the country has recorded. There is no justification for this federal funding, which will be to the detriment of other very needy sectors of the economy.

The Bill envisages the uprooting of entire ‘native communities’ from their ancestral homes and yet its sponsors don’t think that such an action would be inhuman and barbaric.

The Bill relies heavily on the contentious Land Use Act 1978 which the NASS has already slated for removal from the Constitution so that it’s provisions can be debated and amended. To use it when we know that we do not like it and that we are about to amend it would be wrong. Let’s wait for its amendment and then see if acquisition of land for grazing reserves and stock routes would still be possible.

Our Constitution provides in Section 315 and sub-section 5 that nothing shall invalidate any of its provisions, which shall continue to apply as any other constitutional provisions and shall not be repealed except in accordance with the rigorous provisions for the alteration of the constitution itself. The National Grazing Reserves Commission Bill is an attempt to create the kind of legislation that S315(5) has blocked.

That any litigation on the acquisition of land by the National Grazing Reserve Commission must obtain the prior approval of the Attorney General of the Federation is a repressive provision which limits the rights of the citizens and governments of the country and therefore violates our Constitution and basic human rights. The proponents of the Bill obviously realized from the onset that the Bill, if passed into law, will be an unpopular legislation that will be rejected and challenged in the courts by a majority of Nigerians and so they included this repressive provision.

The Land Use Act provides that "all land comprised in the territory of each State in the Federation are hereby vested in the Governor of that State and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians”. The Grazing Reserve Commission Bill is in direct contraventions of this provision it does not serve the ‘common benefit’ of all Nigerians. So why proceed in folly?

SUGGESTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS: My suggestions for approaching the issue of communal clashes between our much-needed nomadic pastoralists and their farmer-neighbors are as follows:

1.     Avoid the use of legislation when trying to solve a social problem because it doesn’t solve the problem. It can only temporarily favor one party while the fires glow underneath, creating a time bomb which must explode sooner or later.

2.     What should be removed is the age-old nomadic way of life, and not all the neighbors of the nomads along their migratory routes in all 36 States of the country. What else can the peasant farmers do with their compensation money apart from farming, and where else can they go and farm if uprooted from their ancestral homes? Just as cattle are very valuable assets to the nomads, so is the land to the agriculturalists and none of us is superior to the other.

3.     The nomads among us should be assisted to settle down to a sedentary life style. The nomadic way of life can no longer be sustained by anybody. Adopting modern methods of integrated farming on ranches is now inevitable for the nomads.

4.     The cattle rearers should sell some of their cattle and buy land with the proceeds in any part of the country of their choice. Government should buy land for them when they can afford it for themselves.

5.     They should then take up indigeneship of those States, Local Governments and Districts which they have chosen. Remember that as at now they are just Nigerian citizens with no other identity. The States that the nomads decide to adopt as theirs should take up the burden of helping them settle down. Any Federal funding should go to those States as special nomadic Fulani resettlement grants.

6.     Where huge numbers of nomads choose a State and the State feels it would be overburdened, such a State should be able to peg the numbers it would accept or else the Middle Belt states may be overrun. Thousands and thousands may choose Plateau, Benue and Nassarawa States, while none may choose Kano or Osun or Ebonyi States.

7.     The NASS should adopt a resolution in line with the suggestions above and avoid creating yet another Federal agency. The Federal Government is currently looking for ways of reducing the over 450 agencies it has.

8.     States should enact legislation that prescribes stiff penalties for cattle rearers whose cattle graze on other people’s farm crops illegally. This has been the source of all the friction. No one in the country hates the nomads. To the contrary, everyone needs them for the dairy products and beef they supply.

9.     All nomads should be made to send their children to school before they benefit from any of the arrangements suggested here. Education will guarantee the future success of the kind of animal husbandry that they must adopt now.

CONCLUSION: Only one conclusion can be drawn at the end of this analysis. The Bill is so ill-conceived that it constitutes a time bomb which must be jettisoned without further ado. I strongly recommend to all our Federal legislators to save Nigeria the tragedy that will follow the passage of such a law. The perennial clashes between nomadic people and farmers should be studied carefully in order to ascertain their remote and immediate causes before solutions are proffered. Meanwhile, let all cattle rearers keep their cattle off their neighbors’ farms.

DISSECTING THE NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVE BILL

BACKGROUND: There is a Bill before the Nigerian National Assembly that has successfully scaled through second reading in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which deserves very close scrutiny by all Nigerians. The international community should also be interested in this Bill because of the magnitude of the internal crises that the Bill could create with attendant spill-over effects if passed. All that is left in the legislative process to make it a law is 3^rd Reading, that is, a clause by clause debate and then assent by the President. As explained below, the proposed piece of legislation is full of unconstitutionalities, ethnic discriminations, fundamental human rights violations, religious tenets violations, conspicuous criminal omissions and unforgiveable legislative indiscretions. The Bill should therefore be killed immediately and not presented for the last reading.

The full title of the Bill is, AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVE (ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT) COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION AND CONTROL OF NATIONAL GRAZING RESERVES AND STOCK ROUTES AND OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. Its sponsor is Senator Zainab Kure, wife of a two-time Governor of Niger State.

Hajiya Zainab Kure, who is the current Senate Committee Chairman on Marine Transport, was born on 24 November 1959 and she was elected Senator for the Niger South constituency of Niger State on the platform of the PDP. She is a second-term Senator who bagged a Political Science degree from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1984. She worked as a civil servant in Niger State, rising to the position of Permanent Secretary before veering into politics. She sponsored this same Bill in 2008 during the 6^th National Assembly but it received a hostile reception. She also sponsored the National Poverty Eradication Commission Bill in the same year. She is Nupe by tribe.

THE BILL: The Bill’s concluding Explanatory Memorandum says that the Bill seeks to provide for, among other things, the establishment of the National Grazing Reserve Commission of Nigeria, for the preservation and control of national grazing reserves and stock routes in the country. Its key provisions and high points include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.     To establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC), a body corporate.

2.     The NGRC may acquire, hold, lease or dispose of any property, moveable or immoveable for the purpose of carrying out its function.

3.     The NGRC shall have a governing Council headed by a Chairman appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate with members representing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Resources, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, the National Commission for Nomadic Education and shall also have a Director General.

4.     To raise monies by way of grants, loans, borrowing, subsidies and donations.

5.     The following lands may be subject to the provisions of the Act to be constituted as National Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes:

(a)   Lands at the disposal of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

(b)  Any lands in respect of which it appears to the Commission that grazing in such land should be practiced.

(c)   Any land acquired by the Commission through purchase, assignment, gift or otherwise howsoever.

6.     State Governments shall be given notice first before land acquisition and gazetting.

7.     The Commission shall pay compensation to persons affected by any land acquisition.

8.     There shall be no improvements, encroachment, bush burning, hunting, use of chemicals and felling of trees by anyone inside lands acquired and demarcated as National Grazing Reserves or Stock Routes.

9.     Contravention of any of the provisions in (8) above shall be punishable by a fine of N50,000 or 5 years imprisonment or both.

10.  No Court of law shall carry out execution of its judgment or attachment of court process issued against the Commission in any action or suit without obtaining the prior consent of the Attorney General of the Federation.

11.  For the time being, the Commission shall report to the Honorable Minster for Agriculture and Water Resources.

12.  Native communities referred to in the Bill shall be any group of persons occupying any lands in accordance with, and subject to native law and custom.

13.  Stock Routes shall mean tertiary or secondary or inter-state stock routes linking two or more States together or leading from grazing reserve to grazing reserve.

14.  When passed into law, the Act shall be cited as The National Grazing Reserve Commission (Establishment and Development) Bill 2008. 

SUPPORTERS’ ARGUMENT: The first surprise regarding this Bill is that the sponsor, Senator Kure, did not say the truth about the most important thing that her Bill is intended to achieve, that is, to curb the incessant fatal feuds between Fulani nomadic cattle rearers and farmers all over the country. When she presented it, she tried to prove its relevance with a lot of wishy-washy points. She said the National Grazing Reserves will be provided with incentives and facilities such as functional Earth Dams, Water Points, Dairy Processing Centres, Schools, functional Barns and Livestock service centres but didn’t say for who’s benefit and why. She added that the Bill, if passed into law, would lead to the establishment of National Grazing Commission that would be empowered to enforce Gracing Reserve Laws across the country and then simply stated that grazing reserves were very important.

Next to support the Bill was Senator Ningi from Bauchi State who rambled down memory lane about how Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa ensured the establishment of grazing reserves in the then Northern Nigeria without mentioning anything about the clashes between pastoralists and farmers all over the West African sub-region. Ningi also tried to score the point that the economic value of Grazing Reserves to the nation included the creation of employment opportunities, large scale production of food for domestic consumption and for export, generation of income for the people and for the government. Ningi conclude his support comments by saying that if the activities of the large number of pastoralists in Nigeria were well harnessed, it would diversify the economy and minimize unemployment, inflation and serve as a means of giving the Fulani nomads a sense of belonging.

Alhaji Sale Bayeri, a PDP stalwart and the self-styled spokesperson of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria, claims that there are 12 million cattle rearers in Nigeria and that they have been at the receiving end of all sorts of atrocities from other Nigerians and neglect by Government. The population figures are a figment of his imagination because his tribesmen rejected the idea of including ‘Tribe’ as a demographic date to be captured in the last population census. Authorities quote about 18 million for all the Fulanis across West Africa. Many of these are no more cattle rearers but educated and living in cities without any cattle. No one can authoritatively quote a number today for the population of Nigerian Faulanis.

OMISSIONS: I have noted the following as deliberate or careless omissions from the proposed legislation:

1.     What informed the need for such a Bill is not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Is the incessant Fulani/farmers clashes? What is the cause of all such clashes? Is it not because the Fulani cattle rearers grazed their cattle on the farmers’ yet-to-be-harvested crops? Who is therefore the antagonist? Should the cattle-rich aggressor Fulanis now be protected or the defenseless poor peasant farmers? 

2.     For whose use are the grazing reserves and stock routes to be acquired? The Bill does not say. It will simply create grazing reserves and stock routes for nomadic cattle rearers who we know are of one ethnic group – Fulani. The clause cattle rearers in the Bill can be replaced with the word Fulani, and it will be seen that it is purely meant to serve the interest of one ethnic group out of over 250 ethnic groups on Nigeria.

3.     The Bill does not define who a cattle rearer is. Will all Nigerians of all ethnic groups who own cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, etc; be allowed to use the grazing reserves and stock routes.

4.     Why does the Bill not require Cattle rearers to contribute towards the acquisition of the grazing reserves and stock routes when owning cattle is tantamount to being wealthy? Cattle rearers are richer in terms of assets than the poor farmers who will be dispossessed of their inherited ancestral lands. Shouldn’t the rich cattle rearers be made to sell some cattle and pay for the rights the Bill wishes to give them?

5.     The fundamental rights, ancestral rights, customary rights, rights to pursue a preferred means of livelihood of farmers whose lands will be forcefully acquired are not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Don’t other Nigerians, especially agriculturalists, have equal rights and entitlements from the Federal Government as cattle rearers?

6.     Arrangements for the resettlement of the farmers and other land owners who will become internally displaced is not mentioned anywhere in the Bill. Does the Bill assume that the compensation they will receive will be adequate to buy comparative land elsewhere? Why should the Bill not provide that the Grazing Reserves Commission will also negotiate and pay for alternative land for persons who will be dispossessed of their farm holdings?

7.     The Bill has been designed to create a refugee crisis of internally displaced persons by legislation. This is the most absurd and vexatious to put it mildly. How could right-thinking, intelligent Nigerian legislators do this? Unless they are not what we all assume them to be.

8.     Without saying it in clear terms, the Bill, when and if passed into law, shall apply in retrospect from 2008. Otherwise, why should it be cited as a 2008 legislation in our statute books? I can’t see the rationale in this.

9.     The NGRC shall report ‘for the time being’ to the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources. Who will it eventually be reporting to? The head of the Fulani tribe? Why this ambiguity? Something is being hidden here by the sponsors of the Bill.

10.  There is no provision whatsoever in the Bill for the policing of grazing reserves and stock routes by any of our security agencies. They will be outside the purview of our law enforcement agencies and therefore constitute lawless enclaves where the nomads will be above the laws of Nigeria

IMPLICATIONS: Though the late Senator Gyang Dantong, whose constituency has experienced some of the most intense ethnic clashes with fatalities in thousands, supported the idea of the Bill, he quickly cautioned that government should be very careful in such land acquisitions in order not to infringe on the rights of other people. He suggested that pastoralists should be encouraged instead to acquire land through the use of their great wealth for the purposes enumerated in the proposed legislation.

I am shocked that Nigerian adults in the National Assembly would even tolerate such an obnoxious and vexatious proposal. The Bill is a clear attempt to hand over the entire country, its economy, its land, its citizens, its security and its future into the hands of one tribal group – the Fulani. The Bill should have been thrown out at first presentation.

The Bill proposes to establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC) for the country. The NGRC will be charged with the responsibility of using funds received from the Federal Government to forcefully acquire farmlands from Nigerians in all the 36 States of the country, develop same at Government expense through the provision of bore holes, water reservoirs, etc; for the exclusive use of nomadic cattle rearers (or pasturalists), whom everyone knows, are of only one ethnic stock – Fulanis – out of over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria. All other Nigerians who venture into these grazing reserves for whatever reason would be fined or imprisoned or both.

The Fulani people have roamed the entire West African landscape since the 12^th Century. They are known to be highly temperamental and unforgiving. They boast of having never lost a war in history. They have rejected civilization all this while and have chosen to continue practicing a medieval style cattle rearing which entails following the weather and vegetation. They therefore do not own land or landed property, but great wealth in terms of heads of cattle.

What if a State is inundated and overwhelmed by large numbers of cattle rearers who must graze in it and also pass through it to other States as Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa, Kaduna and Benue States are sure to be? Will their citizens and State Governors have the right to object or say how much grazing land may be taken or will compulsion be used?

In which markets will the Fulanis eventually sell their fat cattle? Will the displaced natives be very happy to do business with them after taking over their farm lands? Will new kinds of animosities and backlashes not develop? For example, the boycott of all Fulani-produced dairy products could be the first backlash. Will this legislation promote peaceful coexistence or greater hatred?

           

FULANI/FARMER CLASHES: What has informed the couching of this Bill by its sponsors is the incessant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in many parts of the country especially in the Christian Middle Belt, especially Plateau State, Benue State, Nassarawa State and the southern half of Kaduna State and Bauchi State.

The question that every serious-minded Nigerian should ask is, what is the cause of the bloody clashes between the nomads and their host communities? The answer is not far, yet Senator Kure and her co-travelers would want the world to believe that it is something else.

Each and every clash has been triggered by the Fulani’s inadvertent or deliberate grazing of their cattle on freshly germinating farm crops, fully mature crops or harvested crops still on the farm. When confronted, the nomads are never apologetic. Instead, they organize cold-blooded night attacks on entire villages using guns, machetes and military camouflage. Reprisal attacks by these communities only attract even more vicious attacks. The Nigerian press has reported enough of these for me to bother to reproduce them here.

Shortly after each attack or a reprisal attack, the war of wits commences in the local and international press by the Fulani elite. Spokesmen of the attackers have even given press conferences to state reasons for their attacks. Nigerian security agencies always rush to press to give their own accounts, while the victims are left to try and debunk all of them. Legislators and State Governors have accused the military authorities deployed to provide security in vulnerable areas of being complicit, culpable and compromising. Such accusations and counter-accusations continue even as we speak.

A report in the SUNNEWS of 6th August 2012 says, “It is also a source of problems in Idoma land in Benue State and some parts of Southern Nigeria, where cattle rearers, without any compunctions or remorse, run their cattle over critical farmland, destroying crops. It is this penchant of Fulani cattle herdsman for illegally appropriating farmland wherever they choose that this bill is seeking to legalize with the proposed Grazing Rights Commission.”

The Fulanis have lived side-by-side the Beroms of Plateau State in a symbiotic relationship for upwards of 200 years. Cattle manure, meat, cheese, milk and other dairy products are provided by the pasturalists while the Beroms allow them settle for a while on their farm lands. Cattle should be grazed only in permitted areas and never on farm crops still on the farm. The relationship became so cozy that the Beroms even loaned their male children to the Fulanis to graze for them for a period after which they were paid in kind with a calf or two. Several Vom, Kuru and Fan farmers are now cattle owners and cattle rearers in their own right. You could say, Fulanis and Beroms have actually become ‘cousins’. Other ethnic groups in Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Nassarawa, Niger and Kaduna States can easily relate to this type of relationship in their localities.

What went wrong? is the million-dollar question. Fulani populations grew, some of them became educated, deforestation, desert encroachment, urbanization, inefficient nomadic lifestyle, politics and lastly religion, have been introduced into the equation making it quadratic. Since the equation cannot balance, hell has been let loose. There is no easy solution to the problem, certainly not Kure’s Grazing Reserves Bill.    

Honorable Simon Mwadkwon, PDP, who represents the Barakin Ladi-Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representative, has continued to use every opportunity to sound the great dangers of the Grazing Reserves Commission Bill. He explains that its real spirit is hidden in ethnic and religious expansionism by the Hausa and Fulani tribes who have an inordinate ambition to Islamize the whole country and also to rule it in perpetuity.

In Mwadkwon’s words in an interview he granted Anayo Okolie of BESTNAIRA, “It is also unfortunate that in the 21st Century, the Fulani and Hausa people believe that they must rule the people at all cost and must not allow other people to have control over their destiny …….. They have tried by all means using the international media, the Hausa section of the BBC and the Voice of America, to paint the Plateau person in bad light to the world, even when it is clearly known that they are the aggressors…….. The problem is that President Goodluck Jonathan seems not to have the political will to tackle this problem. I don’t know what he is afraid of. He is the Chief Security Officer and Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces in Nigeria and has the power to give directives”.

In another interview reported in TRIBUNE of 11 June 2012, Mwadkwon said, “The cause of the incessant hostilities in his constituency can be attributed to the Fulani’s expansionist tendency, which started with the Usman Dan Fodio jihad of 1804. It has been their agenda since 1804 to capture the Middle Belt region and use it as a launch pad to capture the South. It is their belief that once the northern minorities are captured, they would be willing tools for the capture of the South. Another reason is the quest for grazing reserves and that was why the House of Representatives killed the bill on grazing reserves (in 2008) because it would have caused a lot of havoc in the country. The Fulani cannot lay claim to any village, as they do not have any, but are tenants who pay royalty to the people.”

Coincidentally, I have been reading the Islamic Perspective article titled, “Rights of Neighbors & Strong Society”, on page 29 of the January 18, 2013, edition of Leadership newspaper. The author, Fethullah Gulen, wrote in the fifth paragraph, “If the rights of neighbors are stressed so much in the Qu’ran and the Tradition of the Prophet, then it is an issue of great importance. In this respect, a Muslim should embrace – near or distant – all of their neighbors magnanimously.”  The Holy Bible says in Acts 17:26 that it is God who allocated the geographical demarcations of each tribe, while Proverbs 22:28 says that the ancient boundary stones set by our ancestors should not be moved. Therefore, support for this Bill will pitch the supporter in direct contravention of his or her religious teachings. As can be observed, the debate on the Bill has already pitched Muslim legislators and Christian legislators on opposite sides - for and against.

INHERENT DANGERS: I will enumerate the numerous serious dangers inherent in the creation of grazing reserves and stock routes throughout the country as provided for in the Bill. Supporters of the Bill should consider these and retrace their steps.

The Bill, if passed into law, will take care of the interest on only one ethnic group in a country of over 250 ethnic groups. It is, therefore, inconsiderate and insensitive towards other Nigerians. This is not the only ethnic group to have problems in the country. It admits that coexistence between Fulanis and other Nigerians is impossible and so fences must be built to keep us apart like wild beasts. 

The Bill, if passed, will forcefully take over ancestral lands from other Nigerians and displace them. A problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs) would have been created by Federal legislation, which is a big shame. These are farmers from time immemorial who cannot suddenly change their means of livelihood, just like the Fulanis who have refused to change theirs for centuries. All Nigerian have equal rights and must all be treated equally and fairly.

Stock routes linking up grazing reserves throughout the country with no provision for security, is an open invitation for foreign invaders to infiltrate and traverse the length and breadth of the country at will. Our security will be thoroughly compromised. Plateau State government claims to have documentary evidence such a threat, therefore, this fear is not far-fetched. Boko Haram insurgents are here while terrorist groups are close by in Somalia and Mali. We need to improve our surveillance apparatus instead of opening up un-policed corridors for the free and easy movement of mercenaries and weapons.

If the Fulanis decide to use these so-called stock routes as safe corridors for the transportation of contraband goods or weapons, we would have been the most foolish people on earth to create such a safe haven for them.

If passed, the Bill would create a lawless society since nobody else would be allowed to enter these grazing reserves and stock routes, not even the Military or the Police because it is not provided for in the Bill. If our past experience is anything to go by, we have not been able to police our few pipelines in the South-South and South-West of the country, can we dream of putting adequate surveillance in place for all grazing reserves and stock routes throughout the country? Even without a grazing reserve law in place, the nomads refused to allow the JTF personnel access into their enclaves in Baraking Ladi and Riyom Local Governments of Plateau State in 2012 following the deaths of Senator Gyang Dantong and Hon. Gyang Fulani. This was even after the JTF Commander unprofessionally gave them a 48-hour notice to move their families and cattle to safety so that the military could comb the hills for mercenaries because  evidence suggested that armed uniformed men might have been involved in the attacks on Berom villages all these years.

If passed, unspecified but huge Federal funding would be used to acquire land and develop same just to preserve a primitive life style of a few people who have refused to partake in the technological and social advancements that the country has recorded. There is no justification for this federal funding, which will be to the detriment of other very needy sectors of the economy.

The Bill envisages the uprooting of entire ‘native communities’ from their ancestral homes and yet its sponsors don’t think that such an action would be inhuman and barbaric.

The Bill relies heavily on the contentious Land Use Act 1978 which the NASS has already slated for removal from the Constitution so that it’s provisions can be debated and amended. To use it when we know that we do not like it and that we are about to amend it would be wrong. Let’s wait for its amendment and then see if acquisition of land for grazing reserves and stock routes would still be possible.

Our Constitution provides in Section 315 and sub-section 5 that nothing shall invalidate any of its provisions, which shall continue to apply as any other constitutional provisions and shall not be repealed except in accordance with the rigorous provisions for the alteration of the constitution itself. The National Grazing Reserves Commission Bill is an attempt to create the kind of legislation that S315(5) has blocked.

That any litigation on the acquisition of land by the National Grazing Reserve Commission must obtain the prior approval of the Attorney General of the Federation is a repressive provision which limits the rights of the citizens and governments of the country and therefore violates our Constitution and basic human rights. The proponents of the Bill obviously realized from the onset that the Bill, if passed into law, will be an unpopular legislation that will be rejected and challenged in the courts by a majority of Nigerians and so they included this repressive provision.

The Land Use Act provides that "all land comprised in the territory of each State in the Federation are hereby vested in the Governor of that State and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians”. The Grazing Reserve Commission Bill is in direct contraventions of this provision it does not serve the ‘common benefit’ of all Nigerians. So why proceed in folly?

SUGGESTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS: My suggestions for approaching the issue of communal clashes between our much-needed nomadic pastoralists and their farmer-neighbors are as follows:

1.     Avoid the use of legislation when trying to solve a social problem because it doesn’t solve the problem. It can only temporarily favor one party while the fires glow underneath, creating a time bomb which must explode sooner or later.

2.     What should be removed is the age-old nomadic way of life, and not all the neighbors of the nomads along their migratory routes in all 36 States of the country. What else can the peasant farmers do with their compensation money apart from farming, and where else can they go and farm if uprooted from their ancestral homes? Just as cattle are very valuable assets to the nomads, so is the land to the agriculturalists and none of us is superior to the other.

3.     The nomads among us should be assisted to settle down to a sedentary life style. The nomadic way of life can no longer be sustained by anybody. Adopting modern methods of integrated farming on ranches is now inevitable for the nomads.

4.     The cattle rearers should sell some of their cattle and buy land with the proceeds in any part of the country of their choice. Government should buy land for them when they can afford it for themselves.

5.     They should then take up indigeneship of those States, Local Governments and Districts which they have chosen. Remember that as at now they are just Nigerian citizens with no other identity. The States that the nomads decide to adopt as theirs should take up the burden of helping them settle down. Any Federal funding should go to those States as special nomadic Fulani resettlement grants.

6.     Where huge numbers of nomads choose a State and the State feels it would be overburdened, such a State should be able to peg the numbers it would accept or else the Middle Belt states may be overrun. Thousands and thousands may choose Plateau, Benue and Nassarawa States, while none may choose Kano or Osun or Ebonyi States.

7.     The NASS should adopt a resolution in line with the suggestions above and avoid creating yet another Federal agency. The Federal Government is currently looking for ways of reducing the over 450 agencies it has.

8.     States should enact legislation that prescribes stiff penalties for cattle rearers whose cattle graze on other people’s farm crops illegally. This has been the source of all the friction. No one in the country hates the nomads. To the contrary, everyone needs them for the dairy products and beef they supply.

9.     All nomads should be made to send their children to school before they benefit from any of the arrangements suggested here. Education will guarantee the future success of the kind of animal husbandry that they must adopt now.

CONCLUSION: Only one conclusion can be drawn at the end of this analysis. The Bill is so ill-conceived that it constitutes a time bomb which must be jettisoned without further ado. I strongly recommend to all our Federal legislators to save Nigeria the tragedy that will follow the passage of such a law. The perennial clashes between nomadic people and farmers should be studied carefully in order to ascertain their remote and immediate causes before solutions are proffered. Meanwhile, let all cattle rearers keep their cattle off their neighbors’ farms.

STF DISMISSES 6 SOLDIERS IN PLATEAU STATE

04 February 2013 http://scannewsnigeria.com/news/stf-dismiss-six-soldiers-in-plateau-state/ Commander of the Special Task Force (STF) Operation Safe Haven, Major-General Henry Ayoola, has disclosed that no fewer than six soldiers have been dismissed since he assumed the command of the STF about a year ago. The revelation came at the weekend as a result of continuing murderous attacks on communities in Plateau State and the constant accusations of the STF that the force was masterminding some of the attacks. No few than six soldiers have been dismissed for violating the rules of engagement. General Ayoola, at the weekend rounding off the peace tour in Jos South council flash points in the state. But the command exonerates itself from complicity. General Ayoola dismissed insinuations that the STF has taken sides in the crises in the state, explaining that STF under his command has never been involved in creating mayhem in the state, but rather mitigating the crises. He said, “any member of the STF who fails to carry out his or her duties as stipulated must be punished in accordance with military laws which are very stringent.” He restated that since he assumed office as commander of the STF, six soldiers have been dismissed for laxity of duty.

THE PLATEAU SATE NULGE MIN WAGE STRIKE

Bitrus Kaze: Plateau State Local Government employees have been on strike now for close to seven months now. They are united under a fairly strong union called the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE. Their grouse is the non implementation of the new legal minimum wage in the country, which is currently N18,000 (about $110) a month. The 17 Local Government Secretariats have been under lock and key and it means that all State-owned Primary Schools have also been shut. Negotiations have been going on and several agreements reached. The impasse is now on the arrears of salaries that have accrued. While the State Governor, Jang, insists on invoking the 2004 'No work, no pay' statute, labour claims their strike is s legitimate one, properly undertaken after several warnings and it is a dispute about rights and not new demands. The State Govt has obtained a National Industrial Court restraining order to gag the LG employees into returning to work. As to be expected, they have defied the NIC order. A passionate plea came this morning for the LG workers to return to work from none other than the Hon. Bitrus Kaze, a serving national legislator who represents the Jos South/Jos East Fed Constituency in the House of Reps via his facebook page. As at the last count, he had received 80 responses, including one from this blogger. Kaze's facebook posting, my reply to him and responses to my reply are reproduced below for the reader to assess for himself what might be going on in Plateau State and proffer solutions: Ok grateful, I have a response but I hope friends will have the time to read it. First, it is on the basis of the following that I formulated and hold an opinion which I shared; 1. Trade Dispute Act 2004 Section "43. Special provision with respect to payment of wages during strikes and lock-outs (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other law- (a) where any worker takes part in a strike, he shall not be entitled to any wages or other remuneration for the period of the strike, and any such period shall not count for the purpose of reckoning the period of continuous employment and all rights dependent on continuity of employment shall be prejudicially affected accordingly." 2. Judgment by a Court of competent jurisdiction In a judgment delivered on 5th August, 2008 in Lagos in Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities Vs Federal Government of Nigeria, the National Industrial Court Presided by His Lordship Justice B.B. Kanyip held inter alial "A strike, whether legal or not, falls squarely within the ambit of the said section and for which the strikers are disentitled from wages and other benefits envisaged by the section [section 43(1)(a) of the TDA]." 3. The Bible In 2 Thessalonians 3:10 Apostle Paul said, "For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” (NIV). Secondly, I need to put our incarceration in the correct perspective. After Speaker Bankole sent us parking, we approached the Federal High Court in Abuja and on 2nd December 2010, the Court presided by His Lordship Justice Adamu Bello "ordered" that we be "readmitted and paid their salaries and allowances." We benefitted from a court judgment not from any gesture by Speaker Bankole or even the House of Reps. In addition to the forgoing, Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act 2004 (earlier quoted), more precisely sub-section 1(b) provides that, "where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remuneration for the period of lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of period of employment." We did not choose to stay away from our jobs, like Mukan Nentawe E. Ritji rightly noted we were "sent parking out of the house" and became Persona Non Grata in the premises of the National Assembly. Thirdly, wherever it is establish that any government funds have been embezzled, the appropriate action in my view is to approach the court, we went to EFCC against Bankole, he is still in court. Proverbs 29:2 (NIV) says, "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan." The question arises in my mind, who are the people, who is "thriving" or "ruling" over this strike? Is it the government or labour? The people again to my mind are all the people including the vast army of unemployed youths, women, the aged including retired civil servants who are actually in the overwhelming majority but who are not privileged to be employed and therefore cannot declare any strike like the politicians and government workers. Fourthly, I believe verily that I am best placed among other Members of the National Assembly from Plateau State to speak for all. On Tuesday 22nd February 2011, I rose in stout defense of the Operation Rainbow on the floor of the House which my Hon Colleague then and now Sen Abdul Ningi desperately sought to stop. I believe that Operation Rainbow has among other created employment opportunities on the Plateau. Again, I rose on the floor specifically on the Tuesday 15th March and Tuesday 3rd May 2012 and succeeded in getting the House to unanimously order government to “immediately release the monthly allocation to the 15 affected councils, pursuant to the provisions of section 162 (5) of the 1999 constitution.” I am unable to recall (I stand to be corrected) that the NLC spoke let alone declared any strike against the 5 months ordeal of these were 15 LGAs including 4 on the Plateau who were starved of funds. Finally, like I said in my earlier posting, the minimum wage act over which the strike was declared is a valid law of the National Assembly, 55% has been negotiated and accepted by both parties. Equally, the Trade Dispute Act 2004 which provides for no work no pay is another valid law of the National Assembly, I believe it can be negotiated likewise hence my earlier posting wherein I said, " If for example after offering to pay October arrears, the workers decided to return to work for say only one month, who knows may be before the month lapses government would have been convinced to pay some more?" Again and again I continue to beg and plead with workers on the Plateau, please, please and please, return to work and continue with the struggle while at your duty posts. James Pam 7 hours ago James Pam Hon. Kaze, Well done. You are doing wht you must do. However, realize the following: (1) The law is an ass. You should ride it and labour should ride it too. Govt cannot ride it while it rides labour. (2) The strike was duly proclaimed starting in April. Two months proper notice was given by labour, thus making it a valid strike. (3) Strike action is a valid and a legally recognized tool that may be used by labout in the event of a trade dispute. (4) A court injunction coming six months after labour embarked on industrial action makes that injunction spurious. (5) The Labour Act provides that nobody can take a matter to the National Industrial Court except the Minister of Labour and Productivity. The NIC was wrong to entertain the plateau State Govt. (7) The matter at hand is a dispute and the NIC is supposed to be the final arbiter whom every party must obey. Yet the NIC shamelessly issues an ex parte motion and an and an order of injuctiion retraining labour from exercising their legal rights. (8) The dispute is on rights and not fresh demands. Ex parte ordrrs and injunctions will not work. The NIC Chairman, Justice Adejumo, has failed in his duties to this country. He issued similar orders during the January 2012 anti-fuel subsidy removal NLC strike and his orders were not respected. NLC seems to understand the laws of the land better than the honourable Justice in my opinion. (9) N18,000 minimum wage is equally a law in this country. Why has the State Govt not complied? Are other projects embarked upon like the N4 Billion 6th Govt House more important than compliance with the Minimum Wage Act? (10) You will agree now that State Govts have overbearing influence on Local Govt. The State Govt/LGovt joint Account constitutional provision is recipe for anarchy in LGs. The 774 LGs in this country are under strangulation. LG independence must be re-established by constitutional amendment by the NASS which you part now of. Pls do us the favour. (11) Yes. Labour should bend over backwards a little, but Govt should do same. Not labout alone. (12) You will now agree that labour matters should not be on the Exclusive List but Concurrent List for legislation. The Fed Govt shouuld not legilate on Min Wage and lump their decision on States that have different economic strengths. Again, help us, as a serving legislator, to amend this obnoxious constitutional provision. Thank you sir. Like · · Share Rachel Uhannan Malan likes this. Lean Damak Wow! What a piece you have brought out. 6 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1 Dachen Mangs Nanfwang Moses · 3 mutual friends Mr. James, you have said it all 6 hours ago · Like · 1 Lean Damak Wow! What a piece, well presented here. With this enlighten piece I appeal to Govt./Labour to take queue from this and come into compromise so that our children can go to school and our people can get health care again. Please both sides shift your ground for the sake of peace and tranquility. 6 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1 Shola Olufemi Gdmonin sir.....u've said it all....govt priority shld b based on human development......i pray his advisers will read dis & advise him well.God bless u sir 5 hours ago · Like · 1 Rachel Uhannan Malan · 24 mutual friends Idan mai illimi yayi magana sai kaji dabam a lamirinka. Mr James Pam,thank God for people like you who still stand for the truth. Please serch Dara's name online and post this piece on his page,it will get to him. You can also send it through Yeipyeng Musa on fb. Thank you Sir and God bless. 3 hours ago via mobile · Like

MIDDLE BELT PEOPLE OF NIGERIA: ARISE

By Godson Offoaro, Monday March 12, 2012

“Let me tell you, in the event of the breakup of Nigeria, the north is the component that will remain one and united”. Junaid Mohammed
Good morning class. Today’s lesson is taken from the Book of Karl Marx. It is about rebellion. By the way, how many of you have heard of Karl Marx? His doctrine glamorized rebellion. He had asked workers of the world to unite against tyranny and or exploitation of any kind by the bourgeoisie, as they (workers or proletariats) in the final analysis, have nothing to lose other than their chains.

He sanctimoniously predicted the rise and eventual dictatorship of the worker over the owners of the factors of production. Okay? Workers indeed did rebel and the result was the now moribund Soviet Union and mighty industrial China. Who was the poet philosopher king that coined the adage, “to reign is worth an ambition; better reign in hell than serve in heaven? If you know the answer, keep it to yourself, as no questions shall be entertained throughout the two hours duration expected of a lesson such as this, this Monday morning. Who remembers that guy of yore, who soliloquized, “give me death in one hand and honor in the other and I will look at both indifferently as I love the allure of honor more than I fear death.” Julius Ceaser. Paraphrased.
Now, from what part of the country did we have a powerful soldiering clique that metamorphosed into a dreaded and influential mafia, named Langtang? Which part of Nigeria has the reputation of having produced the greatest numbers of Generals in Nigerian history? And finally, which part of the Nigerian federation has been involved in coup making more than the rest combined? I forgot. One more question class, and we are on our way. Which part of the Nigerian federation has the reputation of being the bread basket of the country priding itself as possessing or sitting atop the largest concentration of solid mineral deposits in Africa?

If you are of age like I am, come let’s reason. If you are of the younger generation Middle Belt Nigerian, get a sheet of paper handy. Because everything we say in this lesson today, will eventually form part of a quiz to assess your grasp of the knowledge of the wasted lives and resources of Middle Belt peoples of Nigeria. We shall also examine the reason why they lag behind the minorities of the South-south, who have since re-asserted their pre-eminence and single-handedly removed the oppressive shackles (of their majority neighboring tribes); we shall discuss the sickening role of Middle Belt minorities as perpetual cannon fodder for the Hausa-Fulani people in their unending struggle to dominate Nigeria. While we do not in any way claim to approximate to the wisdom of the aforementioned peoples nor do we claim a right to speak on their behalf, we must help since it appears no one hears from Dan Agbese anymore. I want to use this sacred podium to call on the people of the Middle Belt of Nigeria to rebel against the tyranny of the Hausa/Fulani or forever remain the most backward and endure accordingly.

People of the Middle Belt, arise; you have nothing to lose other than your chains.
To fully understand, we must take a trip into the not too distant past of Nigeria’s history. Yes we must! Now, you ask: what has become of the dreaded, respected, feared, war-like Middle Belt people of Nigeria? Who caged the giants of the Middle Belt, Nigeria? Where are the scions of Joseph Tarka and Gideon Orkar and Colonel Iyorshe? Should General Maman Vatsa have died in vain? Over some time, these questions and more have agitated the minds of well meaning Nigerians and lovers of democracy and liberation struggles. Essentially of the Nok culture, the Ebira, Jukun, Gwari, Nupe, Tiv, Idoma, Bissom and the clusters of other minority elements in the Middle Belt region dominate the geographical area we are talking about. They were and are still war-like, thoroughly educated, industrious, fiercely nationalistic and predominantly Christian. The crafty British did not lose sight of this. They recognized this so much that in the beginning, it was from this class that the foundation of the infantry (foot soldiers) of the West African Frontier Force and later the Nigeria Army, was formed. It was not any surprise that the Nigeria Civil War was theirs - just for the asking. Class, hope you’re still with me. Theophilus Danjuma, reputed to have killed Aguiyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi, comes from this group. Buka Suka Dimka who gunned down, Murtala Mohammed came from this stock. Gideon Orkar, the visionary, revolutionist-soldier who if he was Igbo or from any of the majority tribes in Nigeria would have been transformed into a folk-hero, came from thence. He would have been eulogized in folklores and poetry and dramatized to no end, had he come from the Yoruba nation of Nigeria.

Come to think of it, why can’t the guy, Gideon Orkar, be likened to Odumegwu Ojukwu, as a visionary who came before his time? Is it because he is not Igbo or Yoruba? Didn’t he once upon a time, properly, redraw the map of Nigeria to the secret applause of many? General Malu, who distinguished himself as ECOMOG Commander and later had the inglorious reputation of leveling Odi, came from this tribe. David Mark, who right from when he was a Major in the Nigerian Army, supervised the further abandoning of the abandoned property of the Igbo in Port Harcourt, had held responsible and reputable positions in the land. He too comes from this region. I mean David Mark; the current Senate President (was he at Ojukwu’s funeral?). What of Generals Shelleng, Domkat Bali, John Shagaya, Jerry Useni, Joe Garba, Audu Ogbe et al. At a point in time, these people formed the nucleus population of the dreaded Langtang Mafia.

The Langtang Mafia was essentially of the soldiering class which later metamorphosed into a lose confederate of the movers and shakers of policies in Nigeria. More than half of the population of the G34 Group belonged to the mafia. They grandfathered the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). All these men, if they had belonged to a distinct country, collectively would have possessed a cumulative knowledge, education, wealth and experience enough to put that country in the top bracket of the world’s most performing economies. This region was so important and predominant in the makeup of the Nigerian armed forces that when the mantle of leadership hovered during the uncertain days that preceded the murder of Aguiyi Ironsi, it fell on the hands of one of them - Yakubu Gowon. I hate to push General IBB into this column. Strictly speaking, that is where he should belong. But, he is Muslim.

Now, if the aforementioned people all come from Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, and have been at the corridors of power (following Hausa-Fulani up and down like mumu) for as long as God knows, why is it that their area has been some of the least developed in Nigeria second only to the Niger Delta? Why are there no good roads in the Middle Belt area of Nigeria? Why is the road from Keffi in Nasarawa through Makurdi in Benue, a living hell? Why has that road not at least been dualized? Why are there not (except Dangote Cement) any industries of repute in the region? Why are the people’s brands of agriculture not being revolutionized? Why is there runaway unemployment in the Middle Belt zone? Why didn’t the leaders, earlier produced from this region do enough to uplift the quality of lives of its people?

Why are the political wishes and destinies of the people of the Middle Belt (who arguably make at least a quarter of the Nigerian population) still tied to the apron strings of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchs? Why? Why is it that every important political appointment meant for the north always ended up in the kitty of the Hausa/Fulani? Why is it that any important federal investment meant for the north ends up in the belly of the Hausa-Fulani geographical area? And why is it so, that the area belonged to the north only in name? Why doesn’t the Middle Belt area of Nigeria have anything to show for the political support it had shown to the core north? When will the Middle Belt region be liberated? Why is it that the people from the area do not have a voice of their own? Why are there not visible coherent political pressure groups like the Ohaneze, Afenifere, South-South Elders Forum, and or the MASSOB, the OPC, and the BOKO HARAM in the Middle Belt region in spite of the areas’ strategic importance?

NIGERIA AT CROSSROADS: THE POSITION OF THE MIDDLE BELT PROFESSIONALS (MBP)

Introduction
Our country Nigeria is on a time bomb. Incessant crises in the Niger Delta, the Boko Haram crisis, inter group violence across the country, minority factor in Nigerian politics, citizenship challenges, religious intolerance, bad governance at all levels are all shaking our faith in the unity of the country and calling into question our collective future. The situation is exacerbated by the inability of the Federal Government to guarantee security of lives and property. The National Assembly also looks helpless. The Middle Belt Professionals (MBP), a group of technocrats of Middle Belt extraction recently met and reviewed the Nigerian project and unfolding developments.

Though the MBP as a group are committed to the unity of Nigeria and are prepared within reason to do whatever it takes to ensure that unity, we are however, extremely disturbed by the irresponsible and violent way in which different stakeholders in the Nigerian project are expressing their grievances against the State and putting ordinary law abiding Nigerians at risk.

The inability of the Federal Government to decisively contain the escalation of these crises is bringing to the fore, the many contradictions in the national fabric, leading many to doubt whether we can manage our diversity and mutual suspicions well enough to still build a nation state that will ensure our collective destiny. Already other stakeholders are giving subtle notice of their intentions to reconsider the Nigerian project.

The National Question
The MBP as a group is of the opinion that as the Federal Government grapples with the escalating crises and the different ways in which the National Question is being manifested in the country today, transparent attempts must be made to get Nigerians talking in order to decide whether they want to live together or not.

Should we want to live together, as is our prayer and hope, we must ALL commit to a secular state where there will be absolute freedom of worship without any one riding on religion and faith to hold others to ransom. We must also commit to a citizenship status in which the settler indigene divide will be obliterated to allow for every Nigerian to feel at home in every corner of the country he or she may choose to call home. Commitment must also be made to restructure the country to allow for appropriate empowerment of federating units.

Should we decide to abandon the Nigerian project, which will be extremely unfortunate, instead of spilling unnecessary blood, we must be responsible enough to use the Southern Sudan template allowing for stakeholders who want to leave to decide through a referendum.

Clarion Call to Middle Belters
The MBP calls upon all people of Middle Belt extraction and other Nigerian minorities to support the call for a Sovereign National Conference. The country is structurally skewed against the minorities and we must support a forum that will give us an opportunity to renegotiate our Cinderella status in the country, and should others decide that they are done with the Nigerian project, we must be ready to take our destiny in our hands.

Doing this requires acute awareness of the minority factor in Nigerian politics. The Minorities of Nigeria are an entity larger than any of the Southern or Northern regions of Nigeria. They account for about 51% of Nigerians and are indisputable power brokers in Nigeria. The minorities are responsible for Nigerian stability and many of the country’s core values.

Unfortunately, the way they have been scattered across Nigeria and, overrun in some states especially in the North has made it extremely difficult for them to cohere into a very potent political force in the country. The minorities of the south- south are still largely in the shadow of the major groups in the South while many of those in the North have remained in the shadow of the Hausa- Fulani. If the Nigerian project is to survive, the minorities must unite, demand and be given sufficient political space within which to contribute on mutual terms in the project. In states like Gombe, Bauchi, Niger, Adamawa, Kebbi, Kaduna and Zamfara where they have been overrun and virtually chocked by pockets of Hausa- Fulani elements, their liberation must be a condition for our continued existence.

Minorities must go back to history to challenge and interrogate myths and silences propagated and reinforced against them by majority ethnic peoples in the country. In the North for example, they must challenge Hausa-Fulani hegemony and expose the conspiracy between Lord Lugard and the Caliphate to subjugate minority groups through the agency of the Caliphate and Indirect Rule which conspiracy is the foundation of current instability especially in the North.

Northern Minorities must rigorously contest the post Jihad narrative of Northern identity that seeks to conscript them into a monolithic North in which they remain a footstool for the so called ‘true north’ because of their characteristic refusal to pander to the religious orthodoxy of the Caliphate. Northern Minorities must be aware of the potency of the ‘Maguzawa template’ which the Caliphate has used to silence and turn non Muslim Hausa into ignoble minorities in their land and the ongoing attempts to deploy the template effectively against northern minorities by isolating them and undermining their self confidence.

Northern Minorities must realize that ‘Hausa’ in the sense we know and use today is a political and quasi religious derivative from the writings of Othman Danfodio who conceived a political union of the different Hausa States and proceeded to foist a Fulani leadership on the union through arbitrary force and stealth after holding the states as an amalgam of bad Muslims.

Northern Minorities must valorize their history and politically construct their identity to include the marginalized others in the North into a greater Middle Belt comprising minority nationalities as far as Bornu to the North East and Kebbi to the North West.

The MBP reiterate that the basis for our commitment to a one Nigeria can only be assured if all Nigerian nationalities commit to a secular state where freedom of worship is unequivocally guaranteed. This will guide against attempts in parts of the North to foist Islam as a state religion, promote Islamic symbols in public spaces using public funds thereby undermining other ways of worship. Nigerians must accept our diversity and multi religious nature as inviolable.

We must cherish and respect it. We must also commit to a citizenship status obliterating the indigene/settler divide to allow Nigerians call anywhere they maybe living truly home. Incessant flash points across the country arising from binary tensions between so called settlers and indigenes must be resolved in favour of a citizenship that does not privilege primordial sentiments. The current situation in which one can walk into the country from neighbouring Chad or Niger to settle for two or three years in some northern town and becomes more ‘Nigerian’ than others who might have been around for decades is unacceptable . Our commitment to a one Nigeria will also be assured with the restructuring of the federation to allow the federating units to be sufficiently empowered through responsible devolution of powers from the centre. Nigeria cannot be sustained through the sharing of oil revenues without accountability nor attempts to develop other revenue sources including robust tax regimes.

The position of the MBP is that these conditions are the basic minimum for our continued existence. We think our fathers and brothers shed their blood to maintain the unity of this country without carefully thinking through the considerations that would accrue to them. Others who shed less blood have been corruptly feasting on the unity of the country and pauperizing our people. Worse, it is their actions as sponsors of crises, religious intolerance and self centeredness that are pushing us to the brink today. While they may be the first today, even in old age to indicate willingness to fight for a one Nigeria, we will not shed our blood again for this country and such people unless we are convinced that we will be better for it.

The MBP urges Minority states of the country, especially in the North to urgently legislate against indiscriminate grazing of life stock by itinerant Fulani herdsmen in the employment of their patrons in the cities. Their activities are destabilizing and a serious security threat to many parts of the Middle Belt. States should require those who have cows to keep them on farms or ranches. This is global good practice. Such legislation will safeguard the farms of our people, enhance food security, reduce friction and close a destabilization window which Caliphate agency has been using against our communities.

Conclusion
The MBP urge politicians, scholars, professionals and opinion leaders of Middle Belt extraction to close ranks quickly in order to articulate a common position in the Nigerian project and begin to explore strategic alliances with other Nigerian Minorities especially those in Cross River, Akwa Ibom and other parts of the South South.

On our part, we will intensify awareness creation on these and other issues within the greater Middle Belt. We will also continue to champion a Middle Belt identity and the need for a very responsible political recruitment process within and amongst the different nationalities of the Middle Belt. We are open to honest and committed dialogue on the Nigerian Question and urge all stakeholders to come to the table with open minds and clean hands. Anything short of this will not serve the Nigerian Project. We are building a website to help in awareness creation and efficient networking as well as the collation of inputs and ideas that will advance and give voice to our concerns in Nigeria.

Signed:
Kwagher Tartenger, PhD
Convener
15th March, 2012.