THE TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW!

Say No to Rugan Fulani (Fulani Settlements)

Series: Wailing and Loud Lamentation in the Land as the Original Next Level!

HOW THE ‘MEDIANITES’ HAVE TAKEN OVER ALL THE GOSHENS IN NIGERIA (Judges 6 New International Version (NIV))

6 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.

6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,

8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.

10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

As the Fulbes, the Hausas, the Kanuris, the Arabs and their international jihadists collaborators revel in their self-indulgent solo war with the indigenous peoples of Nigeria who for the umpteenth time have remained calm, refused to be provoked by these aggressors who have been threatening their lives in the last fifteen years with their victims – the indigenous people refusing to fight back, but always turning the other cheek, methinks to avert the impeding wars that loom large on the nation’s landscape in every little corner, the time is now for the pastoralists, the elite Fulbe cattle owners, amongst whom are emirs, politicians, business people, Generals, retired and serving, top ranking civil servants, their cronies down South and such others, together with MIYETTI WAHALA (Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, the Fulbe Brotherhood of West Africa who have now invaded Nigeria or should I say FULBEGERIA, their rampaging herder mobs/brigands to immediately relocate with their animals to the far North so that peace may reign in our land.

Undoubtedly, a suggestion such as this is sure to make the ethnic irredentists/chauvinists and the so-called libertarians go wild and unnecessarily become emotional, quoting all known human rights laws and the laws on free movement – national, regional (ECOWAS) and international – the United Nations Human Rights Charter to support what they think is the herders’ rights to free movement within Nigeria, across regional and international boundaries, but all such heartless people and ethnicists must bear in mind that freedom of movement comes with responsibilities.

What is more, they must be made aware that both the national and international rights ‘Bibles’ do not encourage any person or group of persons to go about slaughtering fellow human beings with glee, for the pleasure of it and unchallenged by their victims or the state, in this case THE FEDEREAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, whose political officials, public servants, including the Presidency – now to be know and Called THE BIG RUGA or THE SUPER RUGA and its very crassly insensate Khalifa Muhammadu Buhari have given such bestiality a brazen open support in the name of people must accommodate their neighbours. But are those who steal, kill, maim and destroy fellow Nigerians our neighbours?

I have been investigating and writing about the worsening conditions of the Northern Nigerian ecology for nearly three decades now with threats to my life, and every Government, starting from the Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida’s till the very present refused to do anything, even when my writings, special reports and investigations are replete with solutions – immediate, short and long term lasting solutions, rather, I had been warned time and again about stepping on toes of people in high places, baring me and the Press from investigating and writing about these problems/crises.

When I was investigating the deleterious effects of the mega dams and massive irrigation projects, especially Tiga and Challawa Gorge dams on the ecology of the Northern States of Nigeria, the first greeting and intimidation inscripted on a marble slab/pillar at the North East Arid Zone Development Programmes Guest House (a.k.a NEAZOP GUEST HOUSE) where I had put up by the Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida was: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA HEREBY WARNS THE PRESS TO DESIST FROM WRITING ABOUT THIS PROJECT.

But I dared the IBB administration, went about with my investigations. And at the NEAZOP GUEST HOUSE, one of the places I had lodged, sensitive/classified documents were smuggled to my chalet bungalow by a concerned civil servant (name withheld) every night beginning from midnight after both of us had walked round the exotic compound to ensure everybody had slept.

The special report entitled: IMMINENCE OF ECOLOGICAL APOCALYPSE was published in The Guardian on Sunday on the 26th of July 1992 and it won me the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) as the Reporter of the Year, 1992.

The profile written on me by Kehinde Bamigbetan, former Lagos State Commissioner for Information was titled: THE REPORTERS’ REPORTER.

The article itself after it had been published provoked international outcry and it was in much demand internationally by environmentalists, activists/eco-warriors, and at Rutam House, embassies and High Commissions were sending their senior officials to buy copies of the newspaper in which that special investigation was published or make copies in the Guardian library, including environmentalists worldwide phoning or faxing, requesting for copies.

Our then Desk Editor, Mr Obasi Ogbonnaya used to say to me during the international furore and interest that article had generated: “John, you have now become internationally famous.”

Having been an eye witness to the deteriorating conditions of the Northern Nigerian ecology, investigated them across decades and written copiously about them, and watched for upward of three decades the unfolding tragedies that have resulted in the loss of lives of our people – the Nigerians, crops, animals, large acres of farmlands wilfully destroyed, I can say with all sense of responsibility, national duty and unalloyed patriotism to our Nigeria, that it was a simple matter, but now made complex, tragic and bloody!

In making the call for the immediate relocation of the herders and their animals to the Far North, I’m aware also that some greedy traditional rulers, politicians including Governors have sold lands to the herders, but this notwithstanding, we need peace – every Nigerian needs peace and the nation as a whole does need peace.

MUHAMMDU BUHARI, AHMED JODA, ALHAJI ALHAJI AND JIBRIL AMINU…WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL VISION OF THE PASTORAL RESOLVE?

There is no prominent Fulbe elite, INCLUDING THE OFFICIALS OF THE Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) that wasn’t aware of our original solutions and plans as contained in THE PASTORAL RESOLVE (PARE) to solve the problems of the Fulani Bororos – regarding grazing, education of their kids, settling down for sedentary life/living against the backdrop of the modern realities, such as exploding population on both sides of the Nigerian divides (North and South), agricultural activities that are no longer favourable to nomadic lifestyle and seasonal or normal grazing/migration, especially in the Middle Belt and the South of Nigeria; digging wells in the rugas for the pastoralists and their animals, planting grasses for animal feeds; abandoning subsistence pastoralism for an economic one; modernizing livestock farming to comply with international best practice - ensuring they belong to a local government of their choice as during all my investigations, I had dwelt on the fact that the Fulani nomadic herders were the only ones who did not belong to any of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.

In one of my previous articles, I had published the doctored version of the Pastoral Resolve booklet (PARE), I still have the original copy, but not with me in the United Kingdom. In the subsequent series on the subject matter, I will publish the Executive Summary as summarized by my former boss and mentor, Mr. Romeo V. Barberopoulos, the founder and financier of the Pastoral Resolve.

Nigerians, the world and posterity must be made aware that the Pastoral Resolve officially took off when President Olusegun Obasanjo was roaring the boat of Nigeria, and he was duly informed and carried along, just as all the Governors at the time, top ranking politicians, ministers, diplomatic missions, the business community in Nigeria, elective officials at States and Local Government levels, all the nation’s Federal Legislators and Senators, prominent Fulanis, emirs, top level civil servants, etc., etc.

In other word, the clashes between the herders and the farmers were very well known to the people that mattered in that country, and if any prominent Nigerian out there who claim they did not know about it from its insipient beginning, such a person is worse than Ananias and Saphira, and may the fate of this couple be their fate as they have been disrespectful to all those who have died avoidable death occasioned by these politically and religiously motivated crises over the years. Truth is, those who have been stoking these fires are the cow owners in high places – the BIG RUGA (the Presidency), palaces, the so-called National Assembly, business community, states houses, civil service, the military, the police, etc., etc.

But when will my colleague journalists go and interview Muhammadu Buhari, Ahmed Joda, Professor Jibril Aminu, Alhaji Alhaji, etc., first about the original vision of the PASTORAL RESOLVE (PARE), the now bloody clashes between the herders and the farmers and why it has been allowed to be hijacked by mischievous politicians, the religionists and now by international jihadists from far of East, North Africa and ECOWAS?

MACBAN has just this week to publish the names of all the cow owners as the hapless Almajiris turned herders are not the owners of the cows/animals (cattle).

BELOW ARE MY PERSONAL EFFORTS IN TRYING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF THE EVER-WORSENING CONDITIONS OF THE NORTHERN NIGERIAN ECOLOGY AS SHOWN IN MY SELECTED SPECIAL REPORTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE ECOLOGY OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, 1991- 1998

• Imminence of Ecological Apocalypse The Guardian on Sunday, 29/11/1992 (This Special Investigation of mine did not only generate international outcry, but won me the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, 1992);

• The Forgotten People of the Savanna (A personal eye-witness account on the plight of the Fulani Bororos. Date of Publication as above;

• Advancing Desertification’s Fires Raze Ecology of Northern Nigerian Communities The Guardian (Daily) 26/04/1998;

• Herdsmen Farewell Symphony For Nigeria, The Guardian, 26/04/1998;

• Mega Dams, Massive Irrigation Projects Threaten Traditional Agriculture in Northern Nigeria;

• Requiem For the Drying Rivers;

• Living on the Threshold of Disaster The Guardian on Sunday, 28/06/1992;

• Environmental Degradation Blamed on Population Pressure The Punch 10/04/1996;

• Fluty Songs of Nightingale The Guardian on Sunday, 24/03/1991;

• African Crowned Cranes Face Extinction The Guardian on Sunday, 12/04/1992;

• Rufus Owl in Hunter’s Belly The Punch 10/04/1996;

• Swallows Chosen as Target Species for Euring Project The Punch 03/07/1996;

• Chirping For Conservation The Independent Weekly 10/07/1993;

• Italian Wildlife Institute Commits N.318 Million to Swallow Survey in Nigeria The Punch 13/03/1996;

• Ringers Call for Swallow Conservation The Punch 10/07/1996;

• Last Chimps for the Highest Bidder The Punch November 8, 1995;

• Gashaka Chimps Live in Safe Haven The Punch May 22, 1996;

• NCF call for a Re-appraisal of Kafin Zakin Dam Project Independent Weekly 25 April-1 May 1993;

• Adam-Hollis Report Faults Water Resources Planning in Nigeria The Punch July 19, 1994;

• The Challenge of Keeping Nigeria’s Wetland Wet The Punch July 12, 1994;

• The Nigerian Environment: From Rio Onward The Punch June 5, 1996;

• Population Growth, Commercialization Dwindle Savanna Resources The Punch December 6, 1995;

• Save the Bororos, Save Nigeria’s livestock, an opinion article in both the Punch and The Daily Times, July 10, 2000.

• Coal Goes up   Guardian on Sunday, September 20, 1992;

• Dust Bowl: Desertification, A Special Report and Analysis on the ecology of the Northern States of Nigeria, published in the NCF’s Tortoise Magazine, in my capacity then as Editorial Consultant/Researcher with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, 1995;

INTERVIEWS WITH PROMINENT INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENT

• A.P. Leventis Speaks on Major Environmental Issues The Guardian on Sunday, October 18, 19992. “AP” as he is fondly called by all his admirers is a Trustee of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. Another worthy mentor of mine, his kind advice, support and insight were very useful to all my environmental investigations in and around Nigeria;

• NCF: The Twelve years of Conserving Nigeria’s Wildlife – An interview with Chief S.L. Edu, Founder/President of Nigeria’s premier environmental NGO, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) at his residence on Victoria Island, The Punch, February 12, 1994.

• Phil Hall: Helping Nigeria’s Wildlife The Independent Weekly 4-10 April, 1993.

To be continued

God bless our Nigeria.

Johnny Boy

ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM.

** *The Voice of One crying in the Diaspora…proudly leading the NATIONALISTS UNITY MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (NUMON).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; Core Committee, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF)/Ford Foundation, Kano Eastern Bypass Roadside Tree Planting Exercise, 1997; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.

He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.

General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.

That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.

In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.

Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).

He is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level on the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Strand.