This editorial of Punch Newspapers is the most objective and robust verdict so far on the insecurity in Nigeria. Read it below.




PUNCH EDITORIAL
(Jan 22, 2021)

Ondo forests: FG’s support for lawlessness is outrageous

THE Presidency triggered a needless controversy recently with its brash intrusion into the legitimate efforts by the Ondo State Government to secure the lives and property of residents. In an unseemly and swift reaction to an order by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to cattle herders to vacate the state’s forest reserves that had become hideouts and bases for kidnappers and killers, a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, weighed in to equate the action to ethnic profiling and a violation of the herders’ constitutional right to free movement. The intervention is wrong on all fronts. It lays bare the rabid sectionalism of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), its disdain for federalism and how it is ill-suited to crush the rampaging insecurity assailing the fabric of the republic.

Unerringly, the regime never misses an opportunity to promote the interests of the Fulani ethnic group over and above those of other Nigerians. Ondo, like other South-West states, has been under siege from armed herders, mostly identified as Fulani both local and foreign, but also other groups. Security reports indicate that criminals have joined to pose as herders; they invade, destroy farms with their cattle, kidnap, kill, rape and burn homes and property. Invariably, they occupy the lush forests of the region where they have set up camps to coordinate their kidnapping of victims.

Contrary to the Presidency’s false messaging, Akeredolu did not give a blanket expulsion order. The eviction notice was restricted to the state’s forest reserves, protected areas which no one has a right to occupy. “All forest reserves in the state are to be vacated by herdsmen within the next seven days…,” Akeredolu said. Unambiguously, he explained that it was part of steps to address “the root cause of kidnapping, in particular, and other nefarious activities detailed and documented in security reports, the press and debriefings from victims of kidnap cases in Ondo State.”

“These unfortunate incidents are traceable to the activities of some bad elements masquerading as herdsmen. These felons have turned our forest reserves into hideouts for keeping victims of kidnapping, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other criminal activities.” This is clear enough. And his assertion that as the Chief Law and Security Officer of the state, it is his “constitutional obligation to do everything lawful to protect the lives and property of all residents of the state,” cannot be faulted.

Curiously, in its haste to play the role of champion of the Fulani, the Presidency falsely presented the action as seeking “…to unilaterally oust thousands of herders who have lived all their lives in the state…” There is nothing in the governor’s statement that suggests that. He only rightly ordered illegal occupants out of forest reserves.

Nature or forest reserves are protected areas for flora, fauna or geological interest designated by national or subnational governments for conservation of nature and resources. The International Union for Conservation of Nature says governments keep out human presence from reserves to prevent exploitation of natural resources through grazing, for firewood, fauna and others. Federal and state governments in the United States, Canada, Russia and Australia maintain many. Egypt has 30 covering 12 per cent of its entire territory; Russia has 100 and South Africa’s 20 national parks approximate to about 3.0 per cent of the country’s land area.

All over civilised societies, reserves are not for unauthorised grazing or settlements. Olu Falae, an elder statesman, who has twice been kidnapped and ransomed, as well as lawyers, say the Forest Reserve law and the 1999 Constitution that vests control and use of land on state governors are enough to curb the primitive, crude and intrusive practice of open grazing.

By virtue of their protective status, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations says forest reserves should remain free from destructive human intervention. There are about 1,129 forest reserves, 29 game reserves, four game sanctuaries and four national parks in Nigeria. The position of the law is that local governments are responsible for the administration of Communal Forest Areas, the state governments control and manage forest reserves, game reserves and game sanctuaries. The Federal Government, under the Exclusive Legislative list, is only responsible for the control, protection and management of national parks. States and the FCT each have an established forestry services division under the appropriate ministry. Each state forest service is responsible for setting and administering policies for its forests. It, therefore, becomes a dangerous national security issue when a government abjures law and order to profess tacit support for criminality. It would have sounded precariously odd if the Olusegun Obasanjo administration had gone out of its way to defend the O’odua Peoples Congress violence or the Goodluck Jonathan government justifying the Niger Delta militants’ bombings and killings. But on Buhari’s watch, this country has never been this awfully governed.

Truly, Nigeria is dysfunctional. Every issue is politicised and ethnicised, making it difficult to unite to defeat common security threats. The imprudent statement by the Northern Elders Forum to herders to disobey the quit order sets the stage for further polarisation. For them, fealty to ethnic identity overrides rational, empirical and scientific considerations, human lives and the country. Reactively, South-West groups are also rallying in support of the governor.

Yet, Buhari, state governors and senior officials and credible intelligence reports have repeatedly admitted that many of the killer herdsmen are not even Nigerians. Global bodies, including the International Crisis Group, say that the country is flushed with weapons from imploding Libya, Mali and other Sahelian countries. And that fleeing desertification in the Sahel region, militants have mixed with herdsmen, jihadists and bandits to flood Nigeria.

And is the resultant effect? The far North has become a vast killing field, the Middle Belt smouldering while the South-West is crumbling too. Apart from frequent attacks on farmers, destruction of farms, kidnapping and rapes, local vigilance groups report the presence of well-armed herdsmen and kidnappers’ camps in the region’s forests and reserves. Freedom of movement is not a licence to perpetrate crime. Everywhere else, there would be a national consensus to crush criminality.

*Buhari’s regime is however duplicitous, declaring on the one hand that bandits are mostly foreigners, but on the other, rushing to their defence whenever their victims react. No country can defeat insecurity this way. Meanwhile, the same regime allows its police to enforce discriminatory, unconstitutional religious Sharia penal law in 12 northern states, destroying alcoholic bottles and investments of non-Muslim business people in a country that claims to be democratic, multi-religious and multi-cultural. Where is the ideal of unity in diversity in all of this?*

*Cattle rearing is a business like any other; it is not superior to other enterprises. It is intolerable that the Federal Government reinforces the odious culture of entitlement of herdsmen to other people’s land and their willingness to “draw from a pool of violence” as Catholic cleric, Hassan Kukah, labelled it, to enforce that claim.*

*This is not Akeredolu’s or Ondo State’s fight alone; it is a struggle for every right-thinking citizen of this country. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Nigerians should push back against a Presidency fixated on an ethnic, sectional agenda that treats other Nigerians as second class citizens to be subordinated to the interests of local and foreign cattle herders converging on the country from all over West and Central Africa.*

Nigeria’s reality as a disparate amalgam of many nationalities, cultures and interests is daily amplified under Buhari’s divisive watch. Akeredolu and South-West states should not buckle to the harassment and threats. Regional and state security agencies like the South-West’s Amotekun should be strengthened. Open grazing should be banned completely and the rules enforced. Like every other business and social activity, cattle grazing should be regulated, restricted to enclosed and designated areas and carrying of arms prohibited. Institutional laxity that allowed illegal herders, loggers and criminals to flourish in protected reserves to the point of becoming existential security threats should be arrested and the heritage sites effectively managed. Akeredolu and indeed the governors that take the security and welfare of their people as sacrosanct, have the constitution and the law behind them. The task is to use the law to fight crime without fear or favour, religious prejudice or ethnic profiling.

It is our view that, the repeated quit notice or outright ejection, being given to citizens of Nigeria within Nigeria in response to conflict or crisis will amount to courage without clarity and mismanagement of crisis.
Such unfortunate proclamations or unlawful ejection, instead of addressing the insecurity situation, may aggravate it, not just in the South West, but across the length and breadth of the country.

The Attack on Seriki Fulani in Ibarapa, no matter the good intention, will do more harm than good to the people and government across the country should do everything they can to discourage such unhealthy practices.
Insecurity in the country affects everybody.

People being kidnapped and killed in Katsina State are Fulani.
People being kidnapped and killed in Zamfara are Fulani. People being kidnapped and killed in Kaduna are Hausa and also Fulani.

Who will victims in those northern states hold accountable other than the government?

Available facts shows that, contrary to popular narrative, even the Fulani herders are also victims of the insecurity and it would amount to double catastrophe to create an atmosphere of chaos under the guise of seeking an end to the security situation in South West.

Although, based on our investigation, the Ondo State government didn't give quit notice to Fulani herders in Ondo State as reported, the governor actually gave them order to quit a reserved forest, which has been taken over by them for years.

Ordinarily, occupying such reserved forest in itself is against the law and so, it would not be right to say they were given quit notice in Ondo, because they could live in any other part of the state outside the reserved forest they are currently occupying unlawfully.

In Oyo on the other hand, the situation has degenerated into house and car burning, which has reportedly claimed two lives and if not controlled, its effect will be counter productive to the peace we all seek.

Our advise to the federal government would be to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation.

The continuous failure of the federal government and all previous governments in handling the security situation can no longer be tolerated.

Government needs to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation, to ensure citizens don't need to resort to self help.

Government also need to make national security focus peacebuilding centric to ensure appropriate information about the situation is known by all stakeholders and jointly, we can device a lasting solution

post=98413830:

Such unfortunate proclamations or unlawful ejection, instead of addressing the insecurity situation, may aggravate it, not just in the South West, but across the length and breadth of the country.

Addressing the insecurity is the primary function of the government. It is in this regard that all arms of the current government has failed Nigerians woefully. My people said: if you push a goat to the wall, it will bite. This is just one way frustrated people show their frustrations when they cannot find solutions.
Till now, renown kidnapper Evans is yet to be convicted in the court. You remember the popular kidnapper in Taraba State Wadume, he is yet to be convicted. So many key and high profile cases like that. Numbers of victims is on the rise with the citizens having to hope from the Government of the day! How long can the people fold their arms? How long?
Sorry I only decided to respond to the bolded only, but it's because, it is the major cause for the way citizens have responded lately.

Enskynelson:

Addressing the insecurity is the primary function of the government. It is in this regard that all arms of the current government has failed Nigerians woefully. My people said: if you push a goat to the wall, it will bite. This is just one way frustrated people show their frustrations when they cannot find solutions.
Till now, renown kidnapper Evans is yet to be convicted in the court. You remember the popular kidnapper in Taraba State Wadume, he is yet to be convicted. So many key and high profile cases like that. Numbers of victims is on the rise with the citizens having to hope from the Government of the day! How long can the people fold their arms? How long?
Sorry I only decided to respond to the bolded only, but it's because, it is the major cause for the way citizens have responded lately.

everything is slow in a democracy....its crazy to blame buhari for that....
court stuffs can take years....thats democracy for you....

its either you let the courts do their jobs or push and laws will bite you....

NLPoliceWoman:

Seun, Mynd44, Dominique, Justwise.
Rule 8.

8. Don't post false information on Nairaland.

rule 1
Mynd44 lalasticlala seun oam4j

If the federal government cannot handle the insecurity in the north, why should we trust them to handle this herdsmen menace in the south?

Trusting the government is giving the terrorist herdsmen an opportunity to reposition themselves.

Flush them out once and for all.

The confusion is strong with as usual.

Cc lzaa

post=98413830:
It is our view that, the repeated quit notice or outright ejection, being given to citizens of Nigeria within Nigeria in response to conflict or crisis will amount to courage without clarity and mismanagement of crisis.
Such unfortunate proclamations or unlawful ejection, instead of addressing the insecurity situation, may aggravate it, not just in the South West, but across the length and breadth of the country.

The Attack on Seriki Fulani in Ibarapa, no matter the good intention, will do more harm than good to the people and government across the country should do everything they can to discourage such unhealthy practices.
Insecurity in the country affects everybody.

People being kidnapped and killed in Katsina State are Fulani.
People being kidnapped and killed in Zamfara are Fulani. People being kidnapped and killed in Kaduna are Hausa and also Fulani.

Who will victims in those northern states hold accountable other than the government?

Available facts shows that, contrary to popular narrative, even the Fulani herders are also victims of the insecurity and it would amount to double catastrophe to create an atmosphere of chaos under the guise of seeking an end to the security situation in South West.

Although, based on our investigation, the Ondo State government didn't give quit notice to Fulani herders in Ondo State as reported, the governor actually gave them order to quit a reserved forest, which has been taken over by them for years.

Ordinarily, occupying such reserved forest in itself is against the law and so, it would not be right to say they were given quit notice in Ondo, because they could live in any other part of the state outside the reserved forest they are currently occupying unlawfully.

In Oyo on the other hand, the situation has degenerated into house and car burning, which has reportedly claimed two lives and if not controlled, its effect will be counter productive to the peace we all seek.

Our advise to the federal government would be to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation.

The continuous failure of the federal government and all previous governments in handling the security situation can no longer be tolerated.

Government needs to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation, to ensure citizens don't need to resort to self help.

Government also need to make national security focus peacebuilding centric to ensure appropriate information about the situation is known by all stakeholders and jointly, we can device a lasting solution

Why always Fulani?

imhotep:
The confusion is strong with as usual

Continue kiddo, you will soon get to your last bus stop.....as usual.

That trouble you keep looking for despite we ignoring you on a daily basis, u go see am.
Kontinue your provocation.....okay?

@topic,
Peace is all we want in our nation.

"Curiously, in its haste to play the role of champion of the Fulani, the Presidency falsely presented the action as seeking “…to unilaterally oust thousands of herders who have lived all their lives in the state…” There is nothing in the governor’s statement that suggests that. He only rightly ordered illegal occupants out of forest reserves."

It is time to put an end to this madness of the herders. And it has become apparent that the Buhari regime cannot be trusted as an unbiased federal government.

Enskynelson:

Addressing the insecurity is the primary function of the government. It is in this regard that all arms of the current government has failed Nigerians woefully. My people said: if you push a goat to the wall, it will bite. This is just one way frustrated people show their frustrations when they cannot find solutions.
Till now, renown kidnapper Evans is yet to be convicted in the court. You remember the popular kidnapper in Taraba State Wadume, he is yet to be convicted. So many key and high profile cases like that. Numbers of victims is on the rise with the citizens having to hope from the Government of the day! How long can the people fold their arms? How long?
Sorry I only decided to respond to the bolded only, but it's because, it is the major cause for the way citizens have responded lately.

You made a very very good point here Mr Nelson.
We agreed with everything you said up there.
You are the kind of member we love having a decent conversation with pertaining to what is happening all over our nation.
Gone are the days when you have mature political discussions on Nairaland with mature minds, now kids and charlatans have taken over,
all they know how to do is insult, foolishness and madness, that is why we ignore them like lepers on a daily basis.

We only reply and have conversations with mature and sane minds, like you that can move our nation forward.

Dem choose cattle over human beings....tueh!


Everybody wey follow shout 4+4 , Sai Buhari etc, Na ogun go kill all of una.

See where people wey get sense dey reason how to make flying cars, build house inside ocean for other countries but these idiots them dey tell us say na cow to dey destroy people property be our own 21st century achievement.

The wise knows that the security situation is precarious...
Only a vulturebbqgrill guy thinks otherwise

post=98415044:

Continue kiddo, you will soon get to your last bus stop.....as usual.

That trouble you keep looking for despite we ignoring you on a daily basis, u go see am.
Kontinue your provocation.....okay?

@topic,
Peace is all we want in our nation.

How many plots of your village land have you donated to the herdsmen, in the spirit of Sai Baba?

Cc lzaa

These large groups of fearsome and well-armed Fulani men that gather quietly in various parts of our towns and cities are actually sleeping armies and terrorist cells.

When the signal is given over the airwaves Nigerians will be shocked by the speed with which they will act and swing into action and by the sophisticated weapons that they will suddenly spring out of nowhere.

The carnage that they will unleash on our civilian population will be far worse than the mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide that was perpetuated in Rwanda by the Hutus against the Tutsis or that was witnessed in the Nigerian civil war.

The only part of the country that is not prepared for them and ready for this fight is the South West. Others are ready and they are silently tooling up. Sadly we in the south west are still just talking. Worse of all is that we have no means of defending ourselves, no unity and no commonality of purpose. We are badly divided and we are not sensitive to the grave dangers that lie ahead.

The truth is that we must prepare ourselves now in order to be able to defend our people when the attacks come and the pogroms begin. We must be physically, spiritually, psychologically and emotionally ready for this fight otherwise we will all perish.

President Muhammadu Buhari and his Fulani Government are now disarming Nigerians and, by executive order, he has banned ALL licensed weapons. Why do you think he has done this? It is not rocket science to figure out what is really going on. Buhari's intentions are as obvious as they are malevolent.

He also set up a Fulani radio station which they will use to activate their sleeper cells and sleeping army in the south west and indeed all over the country when they are ready to effect their final onslaught and implement their "final solution".

https://www.google.com/amp/s/dailypost.ng/2019/05/27/femi-fani-kayode-enemy-within-final-warning-nigerians/%3famp

Summary pls

Wiseandtrue:
We had so many opportunities to do away with him but didn't utilize it! First, it was his bad record that preceded him, we ignored.Then came his lack of certificate, we overlooked

He had no blueprint to work with, we were quiet.His nepotism set him, we were patient and understanding
The killings started, he was making excuses instead of taking action against the murderers, we were quiet while they continue to repeat their oppressive slogan "born to rule"

We no go talk, we no go talk, the fight is finally at our door steps, will you still keep kwayet or lend yours voices to put an end to this rubbish.

My sister I tire too.
-1).“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.” ― Anthony Robbins

-2)."Study the past if you would define the future." – Confucius;

-3).“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana

Fulani don't read long articles, they don't believe in long stories, they are busy killing people, destroying farms, kidnapping etc. You they here they write plenty episode.

Abeg somebody should summarize.

Mmmm

]It is our view that, the repeated quit notice or outright ejection, being given to citizens of Nigeria within Nigeria in response to conflict or crisis will amount to courage without clarity and mismanagement of crisis.
Such unfortunate proclamations or unlawful ejection, instead of addressing the insecurity situation, may aggravate it, not just in the South West, but across the length and breadth of the country.

The Attack on Seriki Fulani in Ibarapa, no matter the good intention, will do more harm than good to the people and government across the country should do everything they can to discourage such unhealthy practices.
Insecurity in the country affects everybody.

People being kidnapped and killed in Katsina State are Fulani.
People being kidnapped and killed in Zamfara are Fulani. People being kidnapped and killed in Kaduna are Hausa and also Fulani.

Who will victims in those northern states hold accountable other than the government?

Available facts shows that, contrary to popular narrative, even the Fulani herders are also victims of the insecurity and it would amount to double catastrophe to create an atmosphere of chaos under the guise of seeking an end to the security situation in South West.

Although, based on our investigation, the Ondo State government didn't give quit notice to Fulani herders in Ondo State as reported, the governor actually gave them order to quit a reserved forest, which has been taken over by them for years.

Ordinarily, occupying such reserved forest in itself is against the law and so, it would not be right to say they were given quit notice in Ondo, because they could live in any other part of the state outside the reserved forest they are currently occupying unlawfully.

In Oyo on the other hand, the situation has degenerated into house and car burning, which has reportedly claimed two lives and if not controlled, its effect will be counter productive to the peace we all seek.

Our advise to the federal government would be to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation.

The continuous failure of the federal government and all previous governments in handling the security situation can no longer be tolerated.

Government needs to be up and doing in its responsibility of securing the nation, to ensure citizens don't need to resort to self help.

Government also need to make national security focus peacebuilding centric to ensure appropriate information about the situation is known by all stakeholders and jointly, we can device a lasting solution.

I WILL READ LATER

We shall deal with them and their godfathers at Aso Rock. No single blood sucking Fulani herdsman will be left in Yoruba land, Igbo land or Niger Delta. It’s going to be blood for blood. No group of idiots has monopoly of violence

They should stay where they are since their killings cannot be checked and curtailed.

The Niger Delta and South East is a no go area.