Tunde Odesola
Twin giants, futility and hope, kick in the womb of life. Inseparable, they perpetually lock in contest with Man and time. Contemplating the futility of life, the greatest English playwright of all time, William Shakespeare, says in King Lear, “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods, They kill us for their sport.” Reinforcing the primacy of hope in life, however, the Igbo say, “Anu laa taa, echi bu nta,” meaning: If ‘bushmeat’ escapes today, tomorrow is another hunting day.
Today, much more than poverty, hunger and diseases, insecurity poses the greatest agony to Nigerians from all walks of life. Nigeria’s insecurity is the harvest of government’s years of dehumanisation of the masses. Poverty, hunger, diseases, neglect, strife and ethnicity are the fodders feeding the cannon of insecurity in the country. Corruption in the corridors of power is the paintbrush that smears the blood of insecurity across the nation.
Before it unsheathed its bloody fangs to become one of the world’s deadliest terror machines, Boko Haram was just an irritable joke to the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government. To Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government, Boko Haram was only a rebellious headache that would soon succumb to pills. But the ache outgrew the head when Boko Haram became ingenious and carted over 120 Chibok schoolgirls away into captivity on April 14, 2014. Yet, the Jonathan administration lived in denial by affixing a question mark to the girls’ abduction. That singular act of irresponsibility bristled into nails that sealed the coffin of the lacklustre administration. In a similar fashion, ethnic killings by Fulani herdsmen have been the crown of thorns on the ugly baldhead of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. From the hut of the kidnapped Daura village head in Katsina to the mega slum called Lagos and the dirtiness of Aba in Abia State to the degradation of Bori in Rivers State, daily acts of kidnapping have been played down by the unfeeling, do-nothing Buhari administration.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo exemplifies the loud-on-noise-low-on-achievement image of the Buhari administration. I’ll leave President Buhari out of the picture because his inability to produce his secondary school certificate has made many Nigerians doubt his Intelligence Quotient. But no one is in doubt of the mental capacity of Osinbajo, who is a law professor, a Senior Advocate and the husband to the granddaughter of the inimitable Chief Obafemi Awolowo to boot!
Like Osinbajo, Awo, as he was endearingly called, was a lawyer and a SAN. Awo didn’t theorise in the four walls of the classroom, he demonstrated hands-on pragmatic lessons translated into democratic dividends unseen in any part of Nigeria at the time. Unlike Osinbajo, Awo’s political palm kernel wasn’t cracked for him by a benevolent spirit; rather, he rolled up his sleeves, pulled the kernel out of fire and cracked it open. A philosopher king, writer and orator, Awo never used personal religious belief as a net to catch gullible voters for the next ballot.
Awo saw tomorrow and took action. A man who rarely ate, according to the late Chief Bola Ige, until when extremely hungry, Awo yet saw the need for his people to have nourishing food. And what did he do? He built farm settlements across major towns of the western region such as Odeda, Onisere, Iwo, Osogbo, Abeokuta, Akure, Orile Owu, Ibadan, Ado Ekiti, Ikorodu, among many others. For Awo, it was unacceptable to call maalu (cow) buoda (brother) because of beef. For Awo, maalu was maalu, a bovine creature that never belonged in the realm of brotherhood. Awo was never ready to prostrate to a cow in order to drink choice wine from the chalice of power, feed heavily on beef plus porridge, belch, and then drool and doze off reading the Bible.
As a law professor, teacher, SAN and an in-law to Awo, I expect the vice-president to have gone through the inspiring achievements of the late sage and draw lessons from them to help the Buhari administration build a better country. I expect Osinbajo to have read any of Awo’s Path to Nigeria’s Greatness (1981), Strategy and Tactics of People’s Republic of Nigeria (1970), The Voice of Reason (1981), The Voice of Wisdom (1981), Voice of Courage (1981), among others. I also expect the VP to have seen a video done by a fellow egghead, a Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Adewumi Taiwo, who revealed that Awo, in his time, produced quality cow beef that fed the Western Region. The video produced by Tunde Kelani TV, recalls how the Awo regional administration went as far as Mali and some other ranching countries of the world, got grandparent and parent stocks of the trypanosomiasis-free N’Dama cattle and began mechanised ranching in 1960 up until 1966 when the military took over and made ‘peppersoup’ of all the cattle on tombola nights. The region also invested in large-scale mechanised farming, poultry and piggery. The farms took the youths off crime, put money in their pockets, food on their tables and promising futures on their horizons.
Speaking in Yoruba, the professor said, “The notion that it’s only the Fulani that are adept at cattle rearing is wrong. During the western region days, the Awo government reared cattle in large numbers. The N’Dama cattle reared in paddocks by the Awo administration were bigger and more nutritious because they were more well-fed. The Fulani cattle trek from neighbouring countries where they are purchased through the North to the South-West, (thereby weakening the beasts and making them susceptible to diseases and death). The cattle reared by the western region weighed 500kg while those reared by the Fulani weighed between 150kg and 250kg. Awo improved on the Fashola cattle ranch in Oyo, which was built by the colonial lords in 1946, and engaged in commercial cattle production through artificial insemination. They planted grass, corn and other plants for them. Cattle rearing and its value chain can create jobs for all our youths.”
If the vice-president ever read about his great in-law and wishes to leave his footprints in the sands of time, too, he should have informed his Oga that farming employed millions of people in China, the US, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand etc. Osinbajo should’ve told his maigida that farming is a check to the wave of terrorism, killings, kidnappings, prostitution, ritualism, fraud and violence across the country. Osinbajo knows so much, he should bring his experience to bear on the nation for good. Or, is his counsel falling on deaf ears? Abi is it easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for the VP to look at the mirror and admit to himself that the Buhari-Osinbajo presidency has lifted no five million Nigerians out of poverty?
Between 2012 and 2013, Osun brought in some white Zambian farmers to pilot a mechanised cattle ranch in Iwo. I visited the ranch. “The economic meltdown of 2014 aborted the dream,” says Bola Ilori, a former commissioner for regional integration in Osun. He adds, “Our ranch was for Yoruba youths, though we allowed the Fulani to also use the facilities. We operated Ruga in Osun before this current Ruga.” Media adviser to former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Sola Fasure, says, “Agric is the way to go. We long realised this in Osun and opened up the farmlands.” Last week, Akwa Ibom State bought from Brazil 2,000 cattle notably good in milk and meat production. Information commissioner, Charles Udoh, says the move was aimed at ensuring food sustainability.
To stop the frequent herders-farmers clashes, the conspiracy between Fulani herders and some southern elite must stop. Many kings and political leaders in the South-West especially, own a number of the cattle grazing on farmlands. This is why it’s difficult to bring murderous Fulani herders to book. Also, state governments must realistically invest in ranching.
Futility and hope: Which way Nigeria?
Up Awo!
[Punch]
