You should be disappointed at the disingenuous cacophony of confusion by various elements of Northern Nigeria to derail the laudable thrust of the Asaba Declaration of the Southern Governors’ Forum.
The attitude of the Northern political establishment is derived from the mass communication framing theory which suggests that an audience processes information according to the way it is presented.
Framing theory is more robust than its one-dimensional handmaiden, the Agenda Setting Theory, which suggests that the audience will likely regard as more important a news item that is reported more frequently.
There seems to be no consensus among communication theorists that agenda setting is limited to showing the audience what news item to think about, or telling them what to think about a news item.
The Southern governors converged on Asaba, the capital city of Delta State, to consider the challenges facing Nigeria under the absentee regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), and to proffer solutions to save the country from further chaos.
After considering all things, the Southern governors suggested that Buhari should address the nation and convoke a national dialogue that will, shall one say, renegotiate the Nigerian nation.
They also banned the practice of open grazing because of the violence it is causing throughout Southern and North-Central Nigeria. This measure became necessary because the Federal Government’s security forces do not appear willing to curb the killing spree by the herdsmen.
But surprisingly, many Nigerians of Northern extraction chose to rearrange the narrative to look like a call to rebellion, or for dissolution of Nigeria. Some even spoke as if the measures were targeted against the Fulani.
A former Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof Usman Yusuf, who practically suggested that the governors should have obtained clearance from Fulani leaders before banning open grazing, complained, “None of those governors have sat down with Fulani leaders… and tell them what (they) are planning to do… And what alternatives they have.”
Well, paragraph 14 of the communiqué issued after a meeting held between South-West governors and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria at the International Centre for Culture and Events in Akure, Ondo State, on January 25, 2021, reads, “Free range grazing must be stopped, to avoid conflicts between the farmers and the herders.”
A more realistic MACBAN is even asking Northern governors to engage their Southern counterparts. Senator Walid Jibrin, National Patron of MACBAN and Sarkin Fulani of Nasarawa State, acknowledges that the ban on open grazing will check clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
Though it is wise to explain the import of the ban of open grazing to those in the cattle trade, no one quite remembers that the Kano State Government arranged an enlightenment campaign before establishing Hisbah Corp, a religious police, that can confiscate and destroy alcoholic beverages.
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State vacated the issue by asking the governors to remove the beam of disregarding Presidential Order 10 on financial autonomy of state legislatures and judiciaries before removing the speck of federal neglect of national security.
How Bello, who wants governors to implement the requirements of Presidential Order 10, but does not also think that the President, who signed it, should be willing to abide by his own recommendations, is baffling.
Now the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, to which Southern governors belong, has decided to “address a variety of challenges, such as the ongoing conversation over the contentious Executive Order 10.”
Maybe, presidential cheerleaders — Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Bello and former Nasarawa State Governor, Abdulahi Adamu, now transmogrified into a senator — will encourage the President to heed the advisory of the Southern Governors’ Forum. Bello thinks his Southern counterparts are fighting the President, who he refers to as “our father,” he however, agrees that the governors’ demands for restructuring are “germane and (they) are entitled to their opinions.”
In shifting responsibility for good governance elsewhere, he adds, “We (got) to where we are today as a result of maladministration of successive administrations.” This is the classic case of the ostrich burying its head.
On his own part, Senate President Lawan, who had pledged blind loyalty to President Buhari, even if he was going wrong, practically charged the Southern governors of civil war or insurrection!
He accused the Governors of regionalism, joined Governor Bello to rail against them and insisted they should start restructuring from the state level and stop diminishing local government authorities.
Anyway, Senator Abdulfattah Buhari disowns the statement of the Senate President. His words: “He did not say he was talking on behalf of the Senate… He (made) comments on some vital issues and he did as an individual and not on behalf of the Senate.”
It is, however, unbelievable that the Senate that Lawan leads could set up a Committee on Review of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution to sit at the equivalent of Town Hall Meetings in each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
His also made a shocking statement: “This is a very important exercise for our country, and I’ll take this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians who have one issue or the other that they think the Constitution Review Committee of the Senate should know and take note and address,” to attend the zonal meetings.
By the way, two days, May 26 to 27, allocated for the Constitution Review Committee, headed by Senate Deputy President Ovie Omo-Agege, is insufficient to conduct such an important and fundamental assignment.
Former Governor Adamu joins the self-serving and misguided railings against the patriotic governors of Southern Nigeria. First, he gave an unnecessary reminder that the governors “swore to an oath… to the sovereignty of this country.”
He then twisted a section of the Oath of Office of the governor of a state, “I will exercise the authority vested in me as governor so as not to impede or prejudice the authority lawfully vested in the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…” out of context, to mean that the governors “pledged loyalty to the President of the country.”
That was an absolutely ridiculous framing or sophistry, which is a clever, but false, argument made with the intention of deceiving unwary others. He may get away with his dreadful lie, and twisted circumlocution, because many Nigerians may not check what the constitution he refers to actually says.
Nazi Germany Minister of Propaganda, and master of the “illusion of truth,” Josef Goebells, says, when you “repeat a lie often enough… it becomes the truth.” Magicians say, the more you look, the less you see.
The laughable part is the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who is equating sale of vehicle spare parts, generally done inside enclosed shops, and open grazing of cattle.
It’s even worse that the apologists of open grazing do not seem to understand, or deliberately fail to acknowledge, the security implications of herders maiming farmers and destroying farm crops.
Surely, Malami knows that the right to “move freely throughout Nigeria… (and) reside in any part thereof,” guaranteed by Section 41(1) of Nigeria’s Constitution, is no licence for cattleherders to visit violence and destruction on fellow Nigerians.
Defenders of the livelihood of cattleherders should also think of the lives of other Nigerians.
