By Lillian Okenwa
- Says the idea that freedom of movement granted to people in the constitution is a right granted to cows and cattle too is just despicable.
- For a public servant like the AGF to begin to dog-whistle on race is as low you’re likely to get in public office.
- Boko Haram is spreading its tentacles and territorial spread in the country but they are more interested in annihilating and liquidating Igbo youths.
The statement of Nigeria’s Attorney General, Shehu Malami SAN on national television comparing open cow grazing with Motor spare parts trading has continued to generate debates. Among the first to counter him was Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, a fellow Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The Governor in a statement told his brother Silk that:
“It is most unfortunate that the AGF is unable to distill issues as expected of a Senior Advocate. Nothing can be more disconcerting. This outburst should, ordinarily, not elicit response from reasonable people who know the distinction between a legitimate business that is not in any way injurious and a certain predilection for anarchy. Clinging to an anachronistic model of animal husbandry, which is evidently injurious to harmonious relationship between the herders and the farmers as well as the local populace, is wicked and arrogant…The decision to ban open grazing stays. It will be enforced with vigour.”
Weighing in on the issue, Chidi Odinkalu, a past Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) who spoke with Lillian Okenwa noted: “Governor Akeredolu has responded to him well, but I will just improve on what he said particularly on the point of arrogance betraying a mind-set.
“Malami is not stupid but he is being deliberate and wilful. What he said basically was a dog-whistle. He is trying to dog-whistle his people against Igbos, the decision to ban open grazing was taken by the 17 governors of the South, and not the Igbos. In fact, five out of 17 is a minority so when he talks the way he talks knowing fully well that the people who do auto spare parts are Igbos, he knows what he was doing and that was really vile. And for a public servant like the AGF to begin to dog-whistle on race is as low you’re likely to get in public office. So he is likely to create a mind-set and there is nothing more to describe than being vile. This is what this regime has brought to us. Also the idea that freedom of movement granted to people in the constitution is a right granted to cows and cattle too is just despicable.
Odinkalu linked the AGF’s inciting statement to that of Danladi Umar, Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), who in a bid to absolve himself from the accusation of assaulting a security guard launched into a strange defence. Umar claimed that a mob of ‘Biafran boys’ came to the guard’s rescue and attacked him. The ‘Biafran boys’ label is an obvious depiction of Igbo people of the southeast of Nigeria. But the former National Human Rights Commission Chair disagrees with the word ‘strange’ being attributed to the two men’s statements.
“It’s not strange, I don’t know why you people think all these actions are not considered and well thought out. These are people running the country. I mean you go to public offices in Abuja, all federal establishments and the lingua franca is Hausa. If you don’t speak it you’re tossed. This is a mind-set that is not only portraying the identity of one particular ethnic group but it is a cause directing vile hatred against a particular ethnic group. I mean you saw what the acting IGP did recently. He basically ordered the extermination of young people who are Igbos in the East meanwhile his village in Geidam, Yobe State have been taken over by Boko Haram, and nothing has been done. Much of borno state is now under the control of Boko Haram and a good chunk of Niger north is also under the control of Boko Haram. Boko Haram is spreading its tentacles and territorial spread in the country but they are more interested in annihilating and liquidating Igbo youths. What they are doing is not strange. It is very deliberate and intentional.”
It is interesting to note that in the course of countless uprisings in the north, vehicle spare parts shops, other businesses of Igbos and other southerners are targeted and destroyed. Yet they keep trudging on, and no compensation has ever been contemplated by the government whether at the state level or federal level. Nobody has ever been arrested or prosecuted on account of these evils. Conversely, during the recent food boycott to the south by the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria (AUFCDN), the Federal Government agreed to pay them N4.75 billion for losses after they called off the nationwide strike.
In response to this thought, Odinkalu retorted: “Is that not part of a pattern? We are still talking about the same thing, same behaviour by the regime. There is a pattern of misconduct by the regime which is designed to favour one part of the country and direct hate and vile towards another part. That in my view is very clear.”
Speaking on the industrial action in Kaduna which the state Governor Nasir El-Rufai described as economic sabotage, the Law Professor said: “The man has a monopoly of knowledge and intellect, I heard that he read law somewhere in the Netherlands. What they probably didn’t teach him is that economic sabotage in Nigeria is a federal crime under a federal act and the last I checked he does not have any fiat from the federal government to prosecute any economic sabotage.
“Secondly, governors cannot declare anyone wanted and thirdly, warrant for that purpose is issued by courts which at the moment are not in session, so it is only a kidnapper at the moment that can declare anyone wanted. All he is interested in is looking for who to kidnap next. He is using the methods of a kidnapper just that he is a governor with an elected mandate.”
After levelling accusations of economic sabotage against the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Aliyu Waba who he said plotted with union members to incapacitate the state, Governor El-Rufai unleashed thugs on the peaceful protesters, a rehash of what was witnessed during the end SARS protest.
On this subject Professor Odinkalu remarked: “He didn’t only unleash thugs but unleashed more than thugs and this is not the first time he has done this. I mean APC stakeholders were visited with thugs. When Suleiman Hunkuyi and Shehu Sani tried to address a press conference about three years ago or thereabout they were visited with thugs. I mean that’s his style. The man is using the methods of kidnappers. It is not by accident that Kaduna is becoming the headquarters of kidnapping the governor is himself a bandit.
“Who is it that resorted to hire thugs to go and disturb a peaceful protest or attack a group of political leaders? That clearly is banditry, or who is it that will go to Lagos and abduct a person because you don’t like the person and take them to Kaduna or go to Port Harcourt and abduct someone because you don’t like him? That is banditry. The man is a bandit.
“He is the one that declared the NLC president wanted and put a bounty on the man’s head. Yet the NLC president was in Kaduna when El Rufai declared him wanted. He stayed in Kaduna and conducted a rally. The governor actually drove by the NLC President and made a detour; so the man is a coward. You think that governance is done by making Molotov cocktail? It is irresponsible for the governor to go and be declaring what he cannot do. You don’t run government by releasing Molotav cocktail all the time. You’re not in charge if all you do is declaring things you cannot do. El-Rufai knows he could not arrest the NLC president in Kaduna. He could not.”
