Inside Nigeria
Ranching An Explosive Ethnic Bomb, Ohanaeze’ll Resist It In Igboland – Nwodo
President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, in this interview speaks on various issues affecting the nation; 2019 general elections, restructuring, killings by herdsmen, federal government’s proposed ranching project, alleged padding of 2018 budget and IPOB among others. While expressing fears about next year’s general elections, Nwodo alleged that the ranching project is an explosive ethnic bomb that would finish the country. He vowed that nobody can impose ranching on Igboland.
How do you feel about the state of security in the country?
The security apparatus of the country has failed; its management has also failed. The head of state extended the tenure of service chiefs; and the assumption was that they had done so well; they should continue to be there until their plans firm up and they can choose competent successors.
First of all, I am opposed to the extension, and as a lawyer; I see it as illegal and I hope that can be tested in our courts. The civil service is under a law; the law establishing the civil service in Nigeria has tenure for the civil servant; after which he goes on retirement. I don’t know anywhere in the law that provides room for the elongation of a tenure.
There is amendment in some states and federal establishments, making allowances for contract employment especially in the universities where professors may retire but they have no replacements in their areas of specialisation and they retain them on contract bases. But on those contract bases, they get less paid than when they were running their tenure and their contract is renewable after a short period; say about two years. I don’t know where a civil servant who has reached retirement can be told to stay in office contrary to the provisions of the law. So, what the head of state has done is illegal; and I am surprised that nobody either in the National Assembly or any of the civil so- ciety organisations has questioned it.
Secondly, he has breached the provisions of the National Constitution on the Federal Character in giving the impression that loyalty to the head of state is a function of where he comes from and therefore must determine who is a commander in any of the armed services. It’s a misnomer and runs counter to the necessity of building a united country, which the president must be an embodiment. This country has never been as divided as it is today. The president’s appointments remind people of where they are from; it has negated every advantage that we have acquired over the years in terms of building a united country.
Why is it that everywhere; Fulani herders have killed, murdered people in their numbers, the police arrived after; the whole essence of security is prevention, not management of crime after it has happened. An effective security must prevent a crime from occurring; in order words, it must have information, surveillance, it must have capacity to predict what the criminal is likely to do. We look at all these, social media are awash with pictures of Fulani herdsmen with riffles; their faces are there and nobody has arrested any one of them; those who are arrested, no one is prosecuted. You get the impression that it’s a religious war.
What on earth justifies herdsmen entering a catholic church while the service is going on and murdering two priests; parishioners and members of the choir? And turning round to wear the uniforms of members of the choir; making songs and caricature of them with all their faces showing, trending on the social media with the entire Nigerian security system seeing them and somebody tells you that this is Libyan inspired.
When did Mammar Ghadaffi die? Any country with an effective security system would say; Ghadaffi is dying with unprotected armoury, people are going to take the arms and percolate around Africa. How have we made our borders secure to ensure that these people do not come in; our borders are the most porous? Evidences are arising from Kano indigenes now that a number of people who are not Nigerians are coming into Nigeria to register for the next election. Where are their addresses? INEC has done an administrative inquiry; fine, but in law you can’t be a judge in your own case. INEC could not have made a mistake, and be the one to investigate its own mistake. It must allow a judicial inquiry and even if its report has not been made public and the social media are replete with permanent voters’ cards showing names and pictures of children; the evidence is already in public domain, and it has not reached government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry; how do you ensure that the coming election is transparent when all the processes leading to it are not transparent. The weight of the arguments and the fact that these matters are in public domain is enough for government to say justice must not only be done but seen to be done; let there be a judicial panel of inquiry on every infraction that has been complained about in the registration of voters. So, that we remove the iota of doubt in the mind of every Nigerian as to the election we are going into. Right now, Goggle has developed a technology by which you can count people without necessarily asking them to go to the PVC centre; to do an aerial counting meaning that the population of Nigeria can be done through aerial counting. Our National Population Commission has never been allowed to tell us the population of each ethnic origin; why? We’ve never been told how many Christians and Muslims exist in Nigeria because it’s not one of the things to be enumerated in a population headcount; why? But we knew that when the British were doing our headcount and the population headcount you have now, the figures are inconsistent with the figures of the British Government even on a projected bases using growth trends in world demographic statistics.
So, everyone laughs at us. Even children enrollments in schools do not reflect the demographic pattern given to certain areas of the country. Our population headcount is fake; it’s unverifiable and so will our voters’ registration be unless there is judicial inquiry into these processes that sanitise the system.
Do you think any other president of northern origin can restructure the country?
Restructuring has ceased to be the views of one section of the country. There are northerners in the middle belt who believe in restructuring; there are northerners not from the middle belt like Atiku Abubakar; President Ibrahim Babangida who believe in restructuring. Restructuring is not a sectional ideology; it’s the only way to give birth to a productive, united and more prosperous Nigeria; without it, Nigeria is stillborn. Do you realise now that what we pay as interest of nearly $20billion that we have as external loans is more than what we generate as taxation as a nation. We pay 40 per cent of our GDP in retirement of external loans and it is at a growing trend. Right now, America has upped its interest rate; there is a forum of mass withdrawal of investments in our business cycle in search of greater interest rate in America. What it’s going to do is that if nothing happens to shore up; thank God there is artificial rise in price of crude oil but that is likely to fall because America is fighting and OPEC has just agreed to lower their prices. So, this increase thing is a short term thing. When there is a foreign flight of capital, what will happen is that the price of the Naira will weaken in competition for the dollar because the amount of dollar flowing into our country is severely limited. So, it will be based on the dollar that we earn from our exports. One expects that the political rhetoric as we go into election should be telling us; how do we get out of it and that’s why we are saying that restructuring is the only way out of it. Restructuring takes our energies back to the productive units in smaller concentrations and independence to make decisions which are all in the province of the federal government. We have an amorphous federal government that does not work.
Anonymous
July 8, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Why should nnia Nwodo resist cow ranching? Is it too much a sacrifice? After Agreeing with your accomplices to the proscription of IPOB and inviting python dance 2 to silence Nnamdi Kanu whose whereabouts still remain unknown, you want to apologise through the back door. What you want to resist now is one of the problems Nnamdi Kanu wants solved but you resisted him. What you are to do is, to support Biafra restoration and ask government to produce Nnamdi Kanu
Anonymous
July 8, 2018 at 2:26 pm
Una good morning
Anonymous
July 8, 2018 at 7:57 am
No sleeping on bike
Anonymous
July 8, 2018 at 7:15 am
That’s good decision
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 11:05 pm
Izizi nwokea ikwu okwu Ka mmadu
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 10:38 pm
Ranching will never be allowed in south east…it is a ploy for future occupation.
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 10:19 pm
Yes, my president you’ve understood the game plan of buhari and his Fulani clans. It’s really ethnic time bomb indeed.
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 9:41 pm
This is why history must be taught in our schools. Those who neglect History are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. Please read below and learn. BEWARNED!!!!!!!
The Gross influx of Fulani herdsmen presently and now calls for the sharing of this history.
By John. (All JUKUNS SHOULD READ THIS.)
The story is told of how King Yunfa, the Hausa Sarki in Gobir (now called Sokoto) hosted a Fulani immigrant called Usman Dan Fodiyo and his group in February 1804, as a result of this and since 1808 the whole of the northern region lost its kingdoms and were replaced by Fulani emirates.
King Yunfa is said to have been killed in 1808 and the Fulani warrior (Usman Dan Fodiyo) established Sokoto caliphate, making himself Sultan.
Gradually, other Hausa kingdoms were pillaged and taken over by the Fulani emirs including all the kingdoms ruled by Queen Amina of Zazzau… Little wonder, the Emirate throne of Zaria today is ruled by Fulani Families which Usman Dan Fodio placed on throne as a reward to his Soldiers.
The ethnic groups in the core north were the first victims of Fulani imperialism, a venture that occurred because the people were given access to grazing land as a result of the hospitality of the hosts.
They however failed to overrun the Bornu and Jukun kingdoms , so the Shehu of Bornu and Aku Uka remains paramount till today!
The Afonja dynasty compromised by allowing a Fulani warrior known as Janta Alimi to settle in Ilorin, the Fulani guerrillas killed Afonja in 1824
And Ilorin, a Yoruba town under the Oyo empire, fell into Fulani hands, becoming an emirate under Sokoto caliphate till today! Even the attempts of the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) to revert to status quo ante and crown an Onilorin of Ilorin became an exercise in futility.
The Yoruba warriors got wise and defeated the Fulani jihadists in Osogbo in 1840, if this didn’t happen there would most likely have been Fulani “emirs” as rulers in Oyo Alaafin, Ibadan, Owo, Osogbo, Ede, Ado, and Igede Ekiti today!
If the Bini Kingdom did not fight and repel the jihadists, they would have penetrated the Edo/Delta region beyond the present day Edo North Senatorial District which gave in and allowed the jihadists to overrun & islamize them.
Along with some ignorant folk most of them are now angling for grazing areas and a corridor through the entire federation. These grazing areas will in future become Fulani settlements, later communities and finally local government areas with elected officials.
If you think I am being alarmist look towards the once beautiful and serene Middle Belt state of Plateau.
The exact same thing happened in Jos.
Therefore, it will not be farfetched to conclude that the Fulani herdsmen are pawns in an agenda to overrun all towns in Nigeria! So that we will have emirs in Owerri, Enugu, Benin, Agatu,Wukari, Abeokuta and other towns where FG creates “grazing reserves” for Fulani herdsmen!
If Yunfa didn’t accommodate Fodio and his warlike immigrants from Futatoro, Hausa sarkis would be ruling today in the north!
And if Afonja didn’t conspire with Alimi, a Yoruba kingdom would not have been ruled by Alimi’s offspring till today!
It is a subtle continuation of the 1804 Fulani jihad by the fully-armed and protected Fulani herdsmen with an age-old agenda to overrun and Islamize the whole of Nigeria very quickly.
I will end this with what someone rightly said- “The grazing bill is not an attempt to solve the problem, it’s a subterfuge to progress the agenda”
It’s an age-old political strategy really- ..create a problem, come up with a “solution” that advances the cause, and then give it a legal backing.
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 7:48 pm
With who are going to resist them. .?
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 5:09 pm
That’s if you like
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 4:30 pm
But you started late
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 4:29 pm
Good move
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 4:19 pm
Let’s start by boycotting bloody Fulani beef
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 4:16 pm
So u Are now with us? Nonsense!
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 4:15 pm
Now you’re talking
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 3:57 pm
OK…. They will.
My eyes are open
My ear is open to hear more.
(Biafra or nothing)
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 3:28 pm
All we say is biafra
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 3:12 pm
Ani Ndigbo is: “operation touch and die”. Go and tell them that.
Dr. O. Nwachuwkwu-Udaku
July 7, 2018 at 4:07 pm
Chief Nnia Nwado is a an enlightened patriot, who is knowledgeable about the the economic, social, and political life of Nigeria. His interview was as stimulating as it was informative. However, I get the impression he did not address all the points highlighted in the introduction. I will be delighted to read his prescription relative to killings by herdsmen, federal government’s proposed ranching project, alleged padding of 2018 budget and IPOB, etc .
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 2:55 pm
Tell Buhari dictatorship government and his Fulani terrorist group that no room for their terrorist in igbo land ok
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Nicely said, now u are yourself see how brilliant u sound sir. A totally concur with you.
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 1:30 pm
Igbo’s boycott all fulani cow meats n suya
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 1:53 pm
Grow Ehi Igbo !
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Helen N Nwafor Uzoma on point….I concur with you Helen
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 12:48 pm
A welcome development sir.
Anonymous
July 7, 2018 at 12:19 pm
Sir although U always speak from both sides of the mouth..the Koko be say we no even get land …Our grasses are mainly Compost popularly known as Awolowo and Touch and die Aka Obiara Kara. …pls we are not in the mood to entertain shit…because singlehandedly I will start the second civil war.