Ruga advocate, Customs man and our sanity

DO you know Abdul-Azeez Suleiman?

No? I didn’t either – until last Wednesday when he appeared on national television to issue a 30-day ultimatum to the authorities to implement the controversial cattle settlement project, which is popularly known by a more disputative name, Ruga, or face the wrath of his Coalition of Northern Groups.

Said Suleiman: “While we warn all state governments that stand against the implementation of the Ruga initiative to desist and give peace a chance, we place President Buhari and the Federal Government on notice that they must completely stop this raging madness within 30 days beginning from today, Wednesday.”

It was not immediately clear what the group will do if its ultimatum was ignored, but what seemed clear was that Suleiman was neither arrested nor questioned, either by security agents or elders who may have seen his vituperations as obscene and inimical to national security and unity. It is to be noted, however, that some eminent citizens, including senior lawyers, have dismissed it all as mere bragging. No group, they say, has the power to threaten the government with an ultimatum. Besides, the Presidency has sneered at the ultimatum and its issuers.

Many believe that members of Suleiman’s group may have been exercising their right to free speech. But this has reignited the unending debate on free speech, hate speech and national security. Was Suleiman just exercising his right to speak without let or hindrance?  Was he merely joking? Who are the people beating the drum to which the man was dancing? Who are those behind the groups for which he claimed to have been speaking so authoritatively? Was the television right to have allowed him to whip up so much anger all for free speech?

There are others who claim that something must have been wrong somewhere. To this school of thought belongs the thinking that our desperate search for sanity in a disunited country such as ours should not be jeopardized by seemingly insane display of insensitivity. Enough of anarchists, they say.

Yet, others see it all as a sign of what they describe as the mental degradation suffered by many of our compatriots, who are obviously overwhelmed by the biting vicissitudes of these times. Many have truly lost their heads; some their necks and others their souls. Otherwise, we won’t have been having the oddities that confront us every day. Children killing parents for money ritual; fathers raping their own daughters and people faking their own kidnap. And more.

The government suspended the National Livestock Transformation Programme (NLTP) because some unnamed officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and others, also unnamed, hijacked it and twisted it to achieve a different aim, according to sources. The Ruga project, it was learnt, was not integrated with the NLTP agreed upon by the 36 governors at the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-chaired National Economic Council (NEC). Besides, contracts were heavily inflated, with solar panels estimated to cost tens of millions of naira. Boreholes suddenly became oil wells to be dug with big rigs. One was to cost at least N20million.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council reacted rather angrily to Suleiman’s threat, describing it as “drumbeats of war”. It is capable of causing unrest across the land, it said, adding that it is, in fact, targeted at the Igbo.

It will rather facilitate dialogue with the Northern coalition and other groups to bring about peace. Good.

The government says the project, which is its magic pill against incessant farmers-herders bloody clashes, will return as planned. No state will be forced to surrender land for it. Only those requesting for the programme will have it.

Now, some other organisations are following in the footsteps of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association. They are also seeking respect and recognition for their trade.

They are asking for the kind of freedom of movement cattle breeders crave. Enter the hitherto unknown National Association of Yoruba Pig Farmers (NAYPF). It has written an “open letter” to the Presidency, pleading for land to set up what it calls pig colonies all over Nigeria. Its request, said the strange association on many social media platforms, is informed by the need to encourage its expanding trade, diversify the economy and enhance protein consumption in Nigeria.

Besides, such colonies will end the often unwarranted embarrasment they face as some people scorn their trade as dirty, they said.

Said the group: “This request is very important as our project will engage many youths who will be employed as doctors, nurses, teachers, drivers, engineers, guards, drivers and machine operators in these colonies. They will also intermarry and strengthen our dream for national unity and a strong economy.

“Funds for the project have been sourced from members and well meaning Nigerians. Our foreign partners are ready for this life changing livestock experience.” We trust the Federal Government to grab this golden opportunity.

The association requests to meet with the President to shed more light on its project. A Presidency source has just told me that the association’s letter has not been received. But, another, also usually credible, confided in me that there are fears that a flood of such requests are on the way, coming from Grass cutters Breeders Association, Rabbit Breeders Association, Bee Keepers Association and others, not forgetting the Association of Snake Charmers whose members claim that, if encouraged, their trade could become a huge foreign exchange earner that will put oil, with all its stress and distress, in its place – for life.

If the youths’ threat was seen as a case of some mental indiscretion, how do we classify that of the Customs officer who decked himself in the rank of  a Deputy Comptroller (DC) and marched to the office of the Comptroller  General (CG), asking him to surrender his seat to him?

Officer Nura Dalhatu, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs (ASC), has landed in hospital where doctors are trying to find out what may have gone wrong with him. There are eight ranks between ASC and DCG. “From questions and answers that followed, it was obvious that he was not in the right frame of mind. So, a doctor was immediately invited,” Customs spokesman Gabriel Attah said.

Why did Dalhatu, well dressed and well fed, with no sign of mental instability – judging by his looks – do it? Oficer Dalhatu is a metaphor for the stifling situation in which many Nigerians have found themselves.  Pensioners, weak and frail, are being pushed around in some never ending verification. Some states are owing workers many months salaries. Farmers are afraid of going to their farms for fear of herders and their cattle. Bandits are on the rampage in some states. Kidnapping has become a huge enterprise, which has displaced armed robbery in its bestiality. Boko Haram won’t surrender.

How, then can we keep our sanity?