ANTI-OPEN-GRAZING LAW & THE LOOMING TRIBAL WAR

NOTE: First published on September 23, 2021. The publishing date that appears on the tab is actually the date that it was uploaded on this new site. The point is that, although issues herein may still be current (depending on…), please don’t mistake this piece as current news.

This is “No Bullshitting”, by Harry Agina.

Greetings, folks!

Twice upon some blogs, I posited that President Mohammadu Buhari has practically set Nigeria up for a tribal war between SOME members of the Fulani race, and other Nigerians, especially the southern Nigerians. Whether he knows this, or not, it is very apparent in his position in support of continued ancient open-grazing of cattle in Nigeria. The latest of those blogs (21/08/2021) was titled “Open-Grazing And The Adamant Buhari.” That was my response to Buhari’s position that the southern governors must not ban open grazing in southern Nigeria. If you missed it, and you care for it, this link leads you to it:  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4773303956042544&id=100000889607067.

A couple of days back (21/09/2021), my postulation that a tribal war was, and is still looming in Nigeria, received a boost when Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna state uttered a controversial statement that the anti-open grazing laws of the southern states “are not implementable.” He cited a couple of reasons, which seemed fairly palatable.

But, if you ask me, or even if you refuse to ask me, I will still tell you that El-Refai was only being “politically-correct” in his choice of words. Indeed, some southerners seem to have seen through El-Rufai’s political-correctness as a façade, as I do believe it to be myself. No wonder, they have described him as being “dubious.” And, yes indeed, it’s my own suspicion that El-Rufai’s true reason for his position is his belief that President Buhari will not allow the state laws to be implemented. I did anticipate it months ago when I lamented that our president has practically set the country up for a serious anarchy. Here is the gist of the situation, as I have always stated it:

Mr. President is in control of the entire security or law enforcement apparatus of the nation, and he WILL order the agents not to enforce the state laws; the state governors are, therefore, setting up their own law enforcement outfits, which our federalism constitution allows; we are aware that our president is a stubborn man, so, we expect that he will maintain his position that open-grazing must stay. Hence, we have two possibilities, one of which is about to play out:

(1) The southern governors may chicken out, and Buhari will have his way to forcibly retain the inequitable bastardized form of our constitutional federalism, as well as retain an ancient mode of cattle rearing, which has cost Nigeria hundreds of thousands of lives, and destruction of untold amount of farmlands and farm produces, with the consequent continued starvation in the land.

(2) On the other hand, the southern governors may decide to show that they have “balls”, and go ahead to pursue their constitutional rights by enforcing their laws. I don’t know about you, but the consequence is very clear to me. The nepotic and bigoted Buhari that I understand now would send the nation’s armed forces to fight the law enforcement outfits of the governors, and enforce his will. Unfortunately, the word ‘mutiny’ always surfaces on my mind whenever I get to this point of my postulation. And, two possibilities that come along with the word ‘mutiny’ is that our president may have to send only Fulani members of our armed forces, and maybe some willing Hausas, to fight the southern law enforcement agents; or, there may be a mutiny if southern law enforcement agents are forced to fight their own peoples.

If I was President Buhari, commonsense would tell me to stick with the option of picking only Fulani members of the armed forces to fight the war, in order to avoid mutiny. Now, are you beginning to catch my drift or feel my apprehension that a possible tribal war looms? I mean, what else do you wanno call it if members of one or more tribes team up on one side to fight members of one or more different tribes on the other side, meeeeeeeen?!!!

I only pray that my fear will never come to pass. I pray that Baba Godee will touch our president’s mind to do the right thing for all Nigerians, and not nepotically pitch us against his Fulani race with our own armed forces and war armament. I sincerely can’t bring myself to pray that the governors should back down on banning open grazing, no sir, no ma’am! Indeed, I do pray that all northern governors will also join the ban, for the fact that open-grazing is destroying our lives and unity in many ways. And, you know that I ain’t bullshitting ya, meeeeeeen!!!

NBB INFOTAINMENT: “WE DON’T NEED NO MORE TROUBLE”

This is the first time, or maybe the second time (not more), that I am repeating any song on this blog series, and for a good reason, too. We really don’t need any more trouble in Nigeria; we’ve had quite enough of it, too much indeed, since the inception of Buhari’s government. According to the legendary late Robert (Bob) Nesta Marley of Jamaica; all we need now is love, and I pray that God Almighty touches and softens our president’s hard soul to give us love and peace in the land, meeeeeeeen!!!

Here we go with “We Don’t Need No More Trouble”: