Of RUGA, Monkey Business
and Matters Arising
Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business
Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye08033026625; muoigbo@yahoo.com, muo.ik@oouagoiwoye.edu.ng
At times like these,
it has become imperative for one to be careful about what to say and what not
to say. But a man who feels ‘somehow’ about ‘something’ but fails to express
that ‘somehow-ness’ is gradually dying, even though he is still alive. This
RUGA matter is an open indication that the handshake has gone beyond the elbow! A lot of matters have
arisen from this RUGA agenda and all these matters show clearly, how our
country is managed. If we are to believe the government’s laughable story, the
programme was not officially articulated or
sanctioned. The government wants us to believe that an unknown Director
and his/her cohorts in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture just woke up one
morning moved down to Benue state, seized a large expanse of
land and started the RUGA project, as Fela would say, just like that! 
Our dear president at first expressed surprise about the RUGA project, just as he expressed surprise at Onoghen affair and just as he expressed surprise at the failure of the IGP to report to Benue as directed at the height of sustained invasion by these same foreign herdsmen. The government claims to have suspended RUGA but about N3bn is allocated for it in the 2019 budget, which the president signed reluctantly. Nothing happened to the officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture who seized and converted other peoples land of their choice, into an enclave for Foreign Fulani herdsmen(FFH), and who callously started it in Benue, where these foreign herdsmen have been committing mass murder and mayhem. This their indiscretion and insensitivity nearly caused a local WW3! Nothing happened to Shehu Garba who publicly contradicted and embarrassed the apparently helpless VP!
One Elekwachi is of the opinion that using collective funds to build exclusive and ultra-modern LGAs for FFH is nothing short of apartheid! But it did not start with RUGA. The FFH are nomadic by nature; there is nothing wrong with that. But we, the good people of Nigeria, acting through the government, believe that it is not good for them and we have been doing everything possible to convert them into our own pattern of life that is apparently strange to them. We want to modernise them by fire by force and in doing so, give them preferential treatments that arouse the surprise and anger of others. We started the nomadic education for them ( how far for that programme sef?); we have proposed an all-Fulani( Fulfulde) radio station for them(as different from introducing Fulfulde programmes on national radio) and now, we have to FORCEFULLY excise large chunks of land from all over the country to establish EXCLUSIVE settlements for them, and these are FFH! It does not add up.
After
the war, Ndi-Igbo, were abandoned to
their fate with the luckiest ones receiving 20 pounds, businesses destroyed and their houses
confiscated especially in the brotherly states like Rivers. In a desperate
quest for survival, (an extension of what we termed win-the-war efforts during
the Biafran war of independence), almost all of the youths went into commerce,
abandoned schooling and were abandoned by schools. No efforts were made to
establish after-hour schools for them but many of them appreciated the import
of education and educated themselves. And today, a good number of them have
managed to survive by dint of hard work. However, everywhere their shops and
businesses are, there are always justifiable reasons to demolish, relocate and
wrest these from them. As at today, the BBA Complex and the Computer Village
are under contention in the center of excellence, were Akinwummi ambode, the immediate
past ( and now the orphaned and persecuted)governor pledged to run an inclusive
government. And unlike the FFH and Atiku Abubakar, there has never been any
doubts that these are full-fledged Nigerians. And now , everything is about RUGA because they are involved! And when you
compare these our cattle, even presidential ones, with cattle from other lands,
you begin to wonder whether what we have is cattle or near-cattle!
The
20-80 rule( Pareto Principle) urges us to concentrate our efforts on the 20% activities and
elements that yield 80% returns. And I ask, on what basis are we focusing all
national attention and resources on the Fulani( local or foreign) and their
cattle? The business model of these herdsmen is unknown but it is certain
that they are not a part of the national
economy. With the attention given to nama affairs, I had gone in search of
their contribution to our distressed GDP and I could not see anything. I
admit I may not be good at searching for
data through the WWW and allied platforms. But even without a proclamation from the National Bureau of
Statistics, I make bold to say that these herdsmen and their nama, are not a
part of our economy. Nobody knows the number of cattle they have; nobody knows the owners of these cattle; they
do not have bank accounts, they do not rent houses and rarely do you see then
getting involved in the local economy. They don’t even socialise with the ‘locals’. So, what is the
socio-economic significance of these FFH that will warrant the extent of concentrated Federal attention given to them
over the years?
Other matters: haunt for yahoo-boys and
cobra affect: students as endangered species
Of late, and long before the FBI
infamous list, the Nigerian police just woke up one morning and prioritized the
haunt for yahoo boys, especially on the routes frequented by youths and students.
Initially, only students with laptops were harassed. Eventually, any student or
youth with android phones, ‘jagjaga’ hair and trousers became prime suspects.
Woe betide that student if he
drives a car, especially, fresh cars. Before long, the cobra effect became
operational. A cobra effect is the scenario in which a solution to a problem
complicates the problem. Last week, a parent speaking on a phone-in
programme, reported the case around
Otta, when students with phones were ordered to come down from a transport vehicle and the driver ordered to
move on. Nothing yet had been found on the students and nobody bothered whether
they had extra transport fare. On the IjebuOde-AgoIwoye route, it is a normal
sight to see students being harassed by policemen at the police toll-points but
the story from a parent drove the matter home. She had sent the son and the
driver to Ijebuode while she was still at work. They were stopped as usual and
unfortunately, the boy’s phone was dead. The policemen took the phone, charged
it for
about 10 minutes in the car and at the end of it all told him and other victims: whether you are a yahoo boy or not, bail yourself with N5000. One of them who offered 4000 was asked to make it up! The mother then started making calls here and there and eventually, the boy became innocent. The case of a female student of Federal University of technology, Akure, who was bloodied by policemen of the anti-crime division on 26/8/29, was not an exception.
about 10 minutes in the car and at the end of it all told him and other victims: whether you are a yahoo boy or not, bail yourself with N5000. One of them who offered 4000 was asked to make it up! The mother then started making calls here and there and eventually, the boy became innocent. The case of a female student of Federal University of technology, Akure, who was bloodied by policemen of the anti-crime division on 26/8/29, was not an exception.
What is an exception perhaps, is that the police authorities arrested the
assailants. It is not an offence to be a youth or student, to have an android
phone or a laptop or even to dress in these outrageous attires, at least, not
in Nigeria. And yet we want the youths( and others) to believe that ‘the police
is your friend’ rather than fiends. The police authorities have a lot of work
to do. Frank Mba, PPRO, OVER TO YOU!
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