Herdsmen’s horrendous atrocities generating groundswell of smoldering discontent By Polycarp Onwubiko

The intractable ethno-religious crises in Nigeria had its source and spring from the fact that the consents of the multi-ethnic groups were never sought by the colonial masters before the amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorate in 1904. The adoption of federal system of government by the nationalists mollified the ethnic groups who accepted to leave together as One Nigeria. The concept of “unity in diversity”led to the provision of legislative lists in the 1960 and 1963 republican constitutions. Few items were contained in the exclusive list while preponderant issues were in the residual list to give the regional governments sufficient latitudes to initiate policies and programmes conducive to the socio-cultural and economic values of the ethnic groups in tandem with the practice of federal system of government the world over.
 Due to the vaulting ambition of northern Moslems to impose their ethno-religious values on the rest of ethnic/religious groups, they instigated measures that violated the principles of federal system of government and the constitution which negatednation-building and national integration. The resultant effects were mutual suspicion and mistrust, segregation and discrimination. These monstrous aberrations ignited the flouting of electoral laws, abuse of electioneering campaigns and rigging of elections, political crises and eventual civil war in 1967.
 The military regimes majorly led by the northern Moslems deliberately refused to restore the principles of federal system of government. Governance was centralized and the legislative lists were tilted in favour of the central government. Prior to the violation of the principles of federal system, there is resource control which tasks the ingenuity and creativity of the regional governments.
In Nigeria today,the federal government runs many ministries and forces the state governments to abandon their policies on the items in the concurrent legislative list .This is the root of the decay in the country in all sectors, placing it on the brink of a failed state, making it a laughing stock; a phony “giant of Africa.”Dan Amor writing in The Authority, lamented on the sad situation thus: “The net effect of this has been the sorry spectacle we have cut for Nigeria and Nigerians in the international arena…APC- led federal government is fraught with contradictions and ironies…and one can see the fear of an unknown, the signs are not difficult to see. They are the signs of internal decay. Nigerians have mistaken baboon for a monkey”.
The APC-led federal government should stop divisive tendencies by initiating ethno-religious policies that brazenly violate the authority of state governments in the concurrent legislative list. It should not force state governments to abandon their policies which are peculiar to their people. TheAPC-led federal government should not implement the irrational provision in itsmanifestoto feed primary school children in the guise of improving education in the country. Since the country is operating a federal system, the federal government has no business in running primary and secondary education. Steps should be taken to handover the so-called unity schools to the state governments.
Education is in the concurrent legislative list but should be restricted to tertiary education. JAMB should be restricted to conducting entrance exams into federal tertiary institutions while state owned ones should make their respective arrangements. The erstwhile devious practice of compelling state governments to implement federal government policy pronouncements on the issues like education in the concurrent list must stop because the country is not practicing a unitary system. The gimmick is a hidden agenda to compel state governments to abandon the peculiar needs of their people to achieve weird and ulterior motives of ethno-religious bigots of the feudal caliphate.
 Cardinal Anthony Okogie revealed in The Guardian April 15 that a quixotic curriculum of basic education to suit ethno-religious agenda hasapparently been adopted by the federal ministry of education. He said: “the curriculum with the stated intention of merging religion and national values, merges subjects like Christian religious studies, Islamic studies, civic education, social studies, and security education into one compulsory subject will be taught to our children from primary1 to junior secondary school3; that our young and impressionable minds will be taught in this compulsory subject that Jesus neither died on the cross nor resurrected ; that all children to be taught this subject would be required to memorize and recite the Quran; that the children will be taught that they may disobey their parents if they do not allow them to become Muslim”.
One start to wonder what gives courage to the northern Moslems to serially violate the laws and constitution and naively embark on measures that run counter to the principles of federal system of government. For instance, federal character principle in employment inthe federal public service has been bastardized. Recruitments into the police, army, DSS and oversea training, advancementsand promotions have allegedly skewed to make the northern Moslems in the majority and in high ranking positions.
That is why the Fulani herdsmen [and foreign ones from Chad]who have been indulging in horrendous atrocities in the middle-belt and southern part of the country are not being arrested and prosecuted. The owners of the cattle give them AK-47 and other dangerous accoutrements to commit genocide; even as helicopters are used to drop food and weapons during their brazen impunity, as witnessed in Plateau and Agatu, Benue state while the security operatives refuse to save the lives of Christians who are the predetermined targets.
 At Awgu Enugu state, “fake” Army arrested villagers who were about to confront the murderous and lecherous blood-hounds to release their women they kidnapped.  The federal government has again violated the concurrent legislative list by sending the so-calledNational Grazing Reserve Bill to the National Assembly. Such matter being a private business should be within the purview of LGA’s in the northern part of the country. Naïve legislators from the middle-belt who are being used by the northern Moslems, while their communities have been colonized by Fulani herdsmenconnived to make the Bill pass through second reading. Of course, the obnoxious Bill must be dumpedsince rearing of cattle is not a parastatal in the ministry of agriculture.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state was bitterly lamenting to the Rights Monitoring Group [RMG] about the forceful occupation of the state lands by the ‘foreign’ invaders, saying that “the state is under a siege by herdsmen whose real agenda is still largely unknown”.
In the southern states, the horrendous atrocities are the same generating smoldering discontentwhich the outcome may be difficult to fathom. The apparent aloof of the federal government has compelled a human rights activist, Emmanuel Onwubiko to consider dragging the federal government to the International Criminal Court, ICC.
President Muhammadu Buhari should know that leadership goes with sacrifice. He should not lose sight of the fact that “the fundamental objective of any government is the welfare and wellbeing of its citizens”. He must shunethno-religious agenda and reinvents the visions of realistic federal system of government, Nigeria unity, peace and progress of the founding fathers of Nigerian Nationalism viz: Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Right Hon. Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. These political leaders never looked away when horrendous atrocities (as Fulani Herdsmen are doing now) were been committed.
 Dr. Arthur Nwankwo lamented the sad situation which the present leadership has foisted in hisarticle: “And the house crumbled”, The UNION, April 14.4.16. He was point-blank thus: “I weep for this country; a country so generously blessed of God with awesome potentials but wasted by ineptitude and leadership idiocy…Nigeria is in dire straits and would soon die if the proper medications are not administered appropriately and urgently…Unfortunately, this government has demonstrated acute mental lethargy and supine grasp of issues and the result is where we are today”.
Mr. Onwubiko is a public affairs analyst and wrote via [email protected]