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By Godwin Etakibuebu
While on air, doing my thing a few months ago, at Lagos Talk 91.3 FM, someone called in, challenging me on the veracity of what l said. There was no decorum, decency nor respect from the caller but was instead filled with vicious ferocity in his attack. Of course, my presenter; Sadiq, cautioned him on the choice of his language, the fellow would not relent. I took up the challenge respectfully and replied the fellow with moderated politeness.
“Uncle”, l called out to him, “l must thank you for trying to correct me and to assure you that l am not, and never, antagonistic to correction because of my understanding that it is only by listening and accepting correction that I can become a better person, which l genuinely believe, you want me to become. And there are many reasons why l must accept correction, which must fact-based of course. One major reason being that as a human being, subject naturally to the frailty of humanity, l am fallible Sir, because l have never made any attempt of equaling the Catholic Pope; who is the only person alluded to of being infallible, but let your ‘correction’ be fact-based”, l persuaded him
At the end of that discussion, my attacker accepted attacking me without knowledgeable facts and he apologized. My approach reduced the tension, pointed him out as the one without the full knowledge of the matter under discussion and he must have gone away with one or two lessons about the virtue of taking “researched and verifiable facts with one as an instrument of attack or defense”.
The Holy Bible alluded to this prestigious character of searching for facts in all things when it instructed in Mathew chapter 7, verses 7-8, according to the New Life Translation [NLT] that:
7. “keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find.
Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you”.
8. “For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks,
the door will be opened”.
It is in aligning with this golden rule that l introduced the caption of this work in a question format [When Did Fulani Cattle Business Become That Of The Federal Government?] and in so doing, l am sincerely asking those that have the knowledge to rise up and help me with the actual answer, albeit constitutionally.
I am genuinely saying it loud and clear that l need “constitutional Knowledge” to fill up this arrear where l am void, inept and inadequate, as far as this RUGA; Nomadic Fulani herders’ Permanent base/abode, Settlement, Colony, Grazing Zone, Territorial habitation, Place of ownership, Passage route or whatever name it is called.
Let me quickly submit at this point, with sane clarity, the reason why l have chosen to seek further knowledge on this subject-matter because without this little but necessary detour [of making my interrogative intuitiveness of wanting to know public] l could be misinterpreted and misunderstood by some, or many.
I am genuinely concerned about the narrative and trend this attempt in accommodating the Nomadic Fulani herdsmen [women, boys and girls because the herdsmen go about with their wives and children or am l catching another weird imagination?} is going, we may end up injuring ourselves in a minor route of casualty or in the other hand, might disintegrate into pieces of nations, and Nigeria going into archives of oblivion, in a major route of perfidious casualty. None of the two would be good for us as a people or good for the memory of a Country [Nigeria] that was – God forbid bad thing totally.
Ipso facto, l want to know exactly the position of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, as amended, re-amended and yet to be amended, on this naughty issue of the role-function of the Federal Government in “totally taking responsibility in prosecuting private citizens’ business with State’s Fund”.
Or permit me to reroute the question thus: Is “animal husbandry”, as the Presidential Spokesman; Malam Garba Shehu, called it in his most recent attempt of elucidating the genuine intention of the federal government and the path it [federal government] has chosen in carrying the predicament of one of Nigeria’s many tribes [and we have more than Two Hundred and Fifty in the country]; albeit the Fulani ethnic nationality, really the responsibility of the Federal Government under the Nigerian Constitution?
Does the 1999 Constitution, as amended, gives the Federal Government power to redirect State’s Fund into the financing of private citizens’ businesses? Are cattle rearing or herding, which is synonymous with our Fulani brothers across the length and breadth of
West Africa, the Nigerian State Corporation, which must be funded with the Nigerian State’s Fund?
Can it be said constitutionally – that is if the answer to above question is yes, that Godwin Chukwudi Garba; some individuals from another ethnic nationality, Snails and Plantain Farms in Enugu, Kaduna and Taraba States, are to be finance from the Till of the Nigerian People through the Federal Government’s intervention? Or the “Aso Adire” booming ventures of the South-West people of Osogbo, must now enjoy compulsory and comprehensive constitutional financing of the federal government?
Finally for today, I need help of constitution interpretation of this issue, as it relates to the limit of the federal government powers in pushing for helping the Fulani tribe in Nigeria, with or without constitutional authority’s backing, distinctly and to the exclusion of all other tribes, has suddenly come under the exclusive list of the federal government under the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended?
Before l am accused of “over-exaggerating” what the federal government is doing for the Fulani tribe, let us not forgot in hurry the N100 billion given to the Miyetti Allah [the Umbrella Body of the Fulani] which the federal government denied before the leadership of Miyetti Allah publicly admitted it as another step of “full generosity” of the federal government to the Fulani tribe exclusively.
We equally need to add another “excessive generosity” of the federal government to the Fulani Tribe exclusively, by reminding ourselves the faithfulness of the government in establishing a radio station dedicated to the Fulani Tribe only, and operating exclusively in Fulfulde language – the exclusive language of the Fulani Tribe.
I need this education and training fervently as same will help me in preparing for my intervention on the subject matter since it has now become a commanding interest of national debate.
So, Nigerians should come to my rescue please.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].