Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: vincent modebelu vin_mo...@yahoo.com [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 1 October 2015 at 16:58
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] ||NaijaObserver|| Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba
To: naijaobserver <naijao...@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian World Forum <nigerianw...@yahoogroups.com>, TalkNaija <talkn...@yahoogroups.com>, Talkhard <talk...@yahogroups.com>

 

Oba Adebisi Oba­demi, the traditional ruler of Apaa-Bunu community in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

 

  
Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads ?

These people own Nigeria indeed.

vin.....///

....Born to tell the truth

....they are listening indeed
... thick walls will  fall

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GUNMEN yesterday ab­ducted Oba Adebisi Oba­demi, the traditional ruler of Apaa-Bunu community in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

An eyewitness told Dai­ly Sun that the traditional ruler was abducted at about 7.30 a.m. yesterday on his way to Odo – Ape, a sub­urb community close to his domain.

The account said the gunmen, numbering about five and suspected to be Fulani herdsmen might have whisked the tradition­al ruler on a motorbike to an unknown destination.

While condemning the dastardly act, a prominent political leader in the area and a Senior Special As­sistant to Governor Idris Wada, Duro Meseko, said the spate of kidnapping in the area was getting alarm­ing and called on law en­forcement agents to be pro active in their activities.

Meseko, who also called on the police authorities to establish a permanent po­lice station in the area also decried the activities of Fulani herdsmen, who he alleged were frequently fo­menting trouble in the area.

The governor’s aide also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly address the issue of kidnapping in the country, saying law abiding citizens were now living in fear.

A source close to the Commissioner of Police, Emmanuel Ojukwu, con­firmed the incident but blamed the people in the area for allowing kidnap­ping to thrive in the area.

The source said when the police made attempts in the previous kidnap incidents to launch an attack on the hide out of the kidnappers in the area, the same peo­ple allegedly pleaded that they would rather pay the ransom to the kidnappers than exposing the victims to any form of hurt, add­ing that it makes the police helpless.

The source, however, quoted the CP to have vowed to flush out crimi­nals in the area even as he urged residents to report any suspicious movement in the area, saying the po­lice would not tolerate any incident of break down of law and order.

Meanwhile, as the time of filing this report, no ran­som had been demanded by the abductors.

http://naijapropa.com/2015/10/01/breaking-again-yoruba-traditional-ruler-kidnapped-by-fulani-herdsmen/

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Philip Achusim pach...@yahoo.com [NaijaObserver] <NaijaO...@yahoogroups.com>	17:23 (16 hours ago)
to Okonkwonetworks, igboworldforum, anambra-worldf., nigerianworldf., talknigeria

 

Vin: That boy was carrying that gun to scare the cattle. If Ezeana wants all those cattle plus the boy, I can send a teenage girl to take that BB gun from him. Then all the cattle and the boy are mine. If they ever want to look for the boy or the cattle, they have to look at latrines all over the world, including Sambisa Forest. Here is another Igbo adage you can translate to the guys toting guns thinking that they have power. Awor kwere na agwo ga eloya, olo yay. Have you ever run into a snake choking on a prey it could not subdue? If anyone does not want Fulani herders with their cattle on their farms, and they insist, you pull the Chibok girls incident on them. People in southern Nigeria can also pull the Chibok girls phinom. The Fulani cattlemen and their cattle come up missing and no one saw a thing. Instead of looking for them in any Sambisa Forest, you look for them in latrines all over the world. That guy in Port Harcourt who had a nice steak dinner before boarding a plane to London will shit that steak on the plane or in London. If you are looking for the missing cattle, it could be part of the shit in London latrines. And I am Ezeana Achusim Odi-Isaa Nwa Dim Orioha AKA Onyeukwu. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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guka...@comcast.net [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>	18:24 (15 hours ago)
to NIgerianWorldF.

 

Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads ?

No.  But Northern Nigerians can do whatever they want in Nigeria

Northern Nigerians are Primus Inter Pares among all the peoples of Nigeria

Other Nigerians are fine with it and even promote and propagate the idea of Northern Supremacy because--

Wen the British left, they handed Nigeria to Northern Nigerians for Colonialism 2.0.

If any other Nigerian were to openly carry a Kalashnikov on the street or in the bush

That Nigerian will be cut down where they stands.

That's the reality in Nigeria.

                  *ezekwe*

Eyenisong Ibibio akwaib...@yahoo.com [talkhard] <talk...@yahoogroups.com>	07:05 (2 hours ago)
to C15201947, NIgerianWorldF., Ode-Besilu's, Nmenme

 

If the murderous activities of these retards called Fulani herdsmen are not checked forthwith, then we are again courting disaster that is sure waiting to happen. All State Houses of Assembly should pass a law banning both open grazing and primitive method of transporting cattle in each of the states.

These Fulani herdsmen should be restricted as much as possible. They are the next big thing after Boko Haram. We can't continue to close our eyes to their criminal activities as if they are overlords.

Eyenisong.

__,_._,___

[Ayo Obe]

"These people"?

Were you sleeping when OPC marched down Ikorodu Road in Lagos during the general election campaign brandishing their weapons in support of their demands relating to Permanent Voters Cards and Card Readers while the Nigeria Police Force looked on?

Ayo

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

This is another brain clogging post from Olanrewaju Adepoju. Accompanying his post is a photograph of a shepherd carrying a gun while watching his cows grazing the grass. There were no visible houses, roads or streets in the picture shown. Yet, Olanrewaju Adepoju could ask : Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads? His illustrative picture shows a shepherd carrying a gun in the midst of his cows not in a road or street but in a bush site. Premised on the picture of a shepherd carrying a gun in a bush site, Olanrewaju Adepoju then generalised that "These people own Nigeria indeed." One man in Adepoju's world of fables is THESE PEOPLE.
 
Concerning the main story said to have been culled from the Sun newspaper, the following is extracted, "The account said the gunmen, numbering about five and suspected to be Fulani herdsmen might have whisked the traditional ruler on a motorbike to an unknown destination. The Sun was quoting an eyewitness account of the kidnapping of the traditional ruler yet the eyewitness was not sure of how many gunmen were engaged in the kidnapping, through the expression 'the gunmen numbering about five.' The eyewitness was not sure either if the kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen, because he or she only suspected them to be Fulani herdsmen. Why should Fulani herdsmen be suspected? Did they leave their herds of cattle behind after kidnapping the traditional ruler? Do Fulani herdsmen drive their cattle around by riding on motorbike? This is one of the most unintelligent post I have ever come across on this forum and if I am wrong, please correct me.

 

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Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 15:02:49 +0100
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]
From: ayo.m...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The post was

FORWARDED

by Oluwatoyin Adepoju, as part of information on the subject

not written by him.

thanks

toyin

[Salimonu Kadiri]

My sincere apology to you for changing your first name from Oluwatoyin to Olanrewaju. However, you forwarded the post because it corroborates your opinion on Fulani's herdsmen. Be progressive and stop re-posting reactionary and brain clogging articles on this forum.
Fraternally yours,
S. Kadiri
 

---

Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2015 12:28:23 +0100

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

From: toyink...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I post articles that I agree with and those I dont agree with, whether the agreement or disagreement is total or partial.

My views on the Flulani herdsmen crisis is summed up in my earlier summations that Fulani insistence on nomadic grazing, sustaining this anachronistic lifestyle with force of arms, encroaching on others property, killing, raping  and maiming, is a great problem for Nigeria, along with reports of Fulani efforts at colonisation in various parts odf Nigeria, behaviour that is sustained for years likely bcs of the prominent position of Fulanis in Nigerian politics.

Various first hand accounts  and news summations on this group, news reports and research  reports from different parts of the world  justify my views on this.

The Fulani herdsmen menace and the Fulani colonisation agenda is described as killing more people in Nigeria than Boko Haram.

thanks

toyin

[Bode]

Why is no one defending the citizenship rights of Fulanis to live and herd their cattle anywhere in Nigeria? Where are the proponents and defenders of full unitary citizenship?

Bode

[Okechukwu Ukaga]

Absolutely! Nigerian Fulanis have full right as Nigerians to live and herd their cattle anywhere in Nigeria; but not to damage other people's property or otherwise infringe on other people's. So I am afraid your questions might be confusing citizen rights with licence to do as one pleases without regard to any boundary what so ever. As I assume you know, someone's right to swing his or her arms stops where another person's nose begins. So yes, let's by all means defend the right of every Nigeria citizen to live freely and do his or her legitimate business in any part of the country. But let's also make sure all stay within fair, appropriate, legal, and sustainable boundaries to make sure that any person's or groups business is done in ways that do not put others at risk. 

Regards,

OU

Okechukwu Ukaga, MBA, PhD
Executive Director, Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership

Extension Professor, University of Minnesota Extension 

Adjunct Professor, Geography Department, University of Minnesota - Duluth

114 Chester Park, 31 W. College Street, Duluth, MN 55812

Website: www.rsdp.umn.edu  Phone: 218-341-6029  

Book Review Editor, Environment, Development and Sustainability (www.springer.com/10668),

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Richard Buckminster Fuller

[kenneth harrow]

i have a hard time thinking of nomadic grazing as anachronistic. why can't both sedentary and nomadic peoples live together, accommodating each other. and why should the nomads, like the masai or tuareg, be forced to become "modern" herdsmen, raising their cattle or sheep, under "modern" conditions of production? is there anything more gruesome than meat raised in the form of animals that are bred to live stationary lives, in stalls, fed like automatons, injected with antibiotics, etc. in short, macdonald meat???
let them graze on the plains, let the herdsmen live and let live.
i write this knowing full well that the herdsmen in darfur committed atrocities, thanks in no small measure to bashir. but it need not be that way.
finally, if some fulani have committed some acts of malfeasance, that can be condemned without nomadic lifestyles being condemned, and subterreanously, without their beliefs being condemned. there are lots of atrocities by muslims and christians to go around, starting these days with CAR.
ken

-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

[ibdu...@gmail.com]

All pastoralists groups in contemporary Africa are armed with AK47s---from Fulanis to Karamajong to Masai. It is not a Fulani problem; it is about land and grazing rights as much as it is about rustling and citizenship.

--

Sent from my iPhone

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

The European Union is facing similar problems about the free movement of EU citizens/ labour migrations within the Union – to the extent that some countries have been erecting fences along some of their borders – this time to keep out  non EU-migrants. Can you imagine any of the Nigerian states erecting their own private fenced or walled borders within Nigeria, to keep out other Nigerians?

Given the social mobilisation and free movement guaranteed all citizens, including the Fulani within the federation of Nigeria – Igbos in Lagos etc.,  Fulani herdsmen and their grazing rights is an issue that shall have to be resolved, legally.

“suspected to be Fulani herdsmen” is now becoming a national hue and cry: Fulani herdsmen.

The broad sweep of the brush by which some of these shameless distortions and woeful exaggerations are made about Fulani herdsmen, as if the rest of Nigeria does not survive on their beef.  In another forty years, the population of Nigeria will have doubled – so many more mouths to feed and looking ahead, if adequate planning is not made it’s doubtful that Southern Nigeria can survive without Fulani cattle, some accommodation should be made for them – to grant the herdsmen access to grazing pasture/ space.

Plateau State has its own special set of problems and  Dr. Aliyu U.Tilde  himself a Fulani  cattle breeder has from time to time been dilating on such issues – for example  in a few places here  and this special piece: The Fulani will not leave

Perhaps Dr. Tilde will be appointed to serve on a commission that will look into the matter?

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

If you allow nomadic herders to go around armed with AK-47s, would you also allow farmers to do the same in the spirit of fairness and equality as citizens? They have farms and crops to protect. More importantly, if armed grazing becomes the norm and ignored by the state, how do you then distinguish between nomads who are legitimately trying to protect their cattle from rustlers and cattle-less Fulani bandits/land grabbers and mercenaries who mix in freely with their nomadic herder kin, or even, as is clear from recent revelations, armed Fulani cattle rustlers within the nomadic Fulani communities?

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Ken,

With all due respect, you're guilty of using an American/Western register to analyze this issue. You seem to posit a simple binary of nomadism versus hormone-fed mass "modern" cattle breeding. Well, let me give you an example from your own country that is outside the binary you've created. Do the Amish graze their cattle in a nomadic way? Do they use hormones to fatten their cattle--or chicken? Do they use other "modern" cattle rearing techniques? Are they not sedentary ranchers who herd organically grazed cattle in a rural, rustic, non-modern way? Have they not sustained that lifestyle and even thrived in the face of McDonald beef producing culture? Just this morning, my wife drove a few miles to buy Amish goat meat, and we, like many other people desirous of organic meat, regularly buy Amish chicken and beef. Amish meats are much sought after and more expensive than mass produced ones. At any rate, there is no scientific, mass beef production culture in Nigeria that threatens the Fulani's cattle culture, so your analogy does not work, I'm afraid. 

No one is recommending "scientific" hormone-based sedentary cattle farming for the Fulani. Ranching in a rural setting is a middle way. It preserves the Fulani's cattle lifestyle without bringing them into constant conflict with farmers. In the past, when population density was low and pressure on farmlands was low, the incidence of farmer-herder conflict was low because grazing land was abundant and cattle rarely encroached on farms. That, clearly, is no longer the case and now nomadic herding is a threat to farming/food production and to national peace.

 Finally, I hope you realize that most of the nomadic Fulani are not even practicing Muslims, so it is problematic to interpret their misdeeds and responses to them in a religious frame. A common refrain about the nomadic Fulani is that, unlike the sedentary Fulani, they are not religious. In my part of the Nigeria, market days are days for the nomads to come to town and get drunk--go figure.

[kenneth harrow]

thanks moses. i was addressing the basic binary that has seemed to animate the conflict: migratory herders vs sedentary farmers.
as i wrote  it i knew that there were other options, and perhaps ending the nomadism is best for nigeria, but there are more ways to consider this than simply having nomads end their way of life and become sheep ranchers or cattle ranchers. i know the kenyan and malian govts wanted to do this with their respective migratory populations, at least in part so as to better control their movements and communities. we can see this disastrous consequences in mali, and probably in niger as well.
unlike nigeria, those are countries with low population densities. but the states in question were hostile to those migrant populations, so the solution mixed political with economic arguments.
your solution is purely economic, and perhaps, given the conditions of land in nigeria it is the only realistic way. i have no opinion on that and trust your judgment. my posting was intended to counter notions that there is something inherently criminal in the nomadic communities, and in part it is due to the ascription of their religious affiliation (practicing or not) which has played into the arguments.
as far as getting drunk being a measure of religious affiliation, well.... no one is really left if that is the case. but, nominal or not, are the fulani not almost 100% islam in affiliation if not in practice? and more important, isn't that part of the way people construct the religious component into their calculations about north/south?
ken

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

The conversation as I understand it is not about the citizenship of the Fulani herdsmen or any other. It is about the violations of the property and other rights of one group or groups by another. The Fulani herdsmen are have a right to walkabout with their cattle so long as it is on their land. This right of theirs is not superior to any other groups and should not be enjoyed at the cost of other groups. They should not harvest return when others pay the cost.

Then again, what is the verifiable hard evidence that the Fulani herdsmen being nomads, are Nigerian if one may ask?

 

oa

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

The conversation as I understand it is not about the citizenship of the Fulani herdsmen or any other. It is about the violations of the property and other rights of one group or groups by another. The Fulani herdsmen have a right to walkabout with their cattle so long as it is on their land. This right of theirs is not superior to any other groups and should not be enjoyed at the cost of other groups. They should not harvest return when others pay the cost.

Then again, what is the verifiable hard evidence that the Fulani herdsmen being nomads, are Nigerian if one may ask?

 

oa

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Bode

Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2015 11:59 AM
To: 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series

[Ugo Nwokeji]

Bode,

What has citizenship rights have to do with this or are you deliberately confusing issues in order to mask xenophobic arguments you have made before against certain fellow Nigerians? Listen up, I will be the first person to defend the citizenship rights of Fulani herders because I don't slant my position on rights according to the group that is involved. Rights are rights, and everybody -- Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Ibibio, etc. -- has a right to enjoy it.

Before this, I have so far made two interventions in this thread. The first was to voice my support for Professor Mbaku's plea not tar every Fulani with the misdeeds of some of their kin. The second followed Obediah Malaifa's and Moses's detailed description of the lived experience of victims of certain Fulani herders, particularly in the middle belt. I made clear in this second contribution that one's citizenship rights (which everyone is entitled to in Nigeria, although you, Bode, would rather grant them to some groups and deny them others), do not include murdering people and taking their lands by force. Do you disagree with this?

I repost the said second of mine post below (and you will see that those defending citizenship rights are alive, well and contributing to this debate:

-------------------------

​

From: Ugo Nwokeji <ugo.n...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Edo_Global. AFIS-- FULANI HAS SOME POWER ONLY IN NIGERIA AND HAVE ZERO POWER EVERYWHERE SCATTERED POOREST AND DESTITUTES IN 15 COUNTRIES EVERYWHERE ==FULANI ARE BORN TO RULE, IGBO ARE BORN TO CRY.[ Questions on the role of the Fulani in Nigeria]
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Thanks,  Moses, for focusing this conversation to the menace of the Fulani herders in parts of Nigeria, particularly the Middle Belt, as opposed to the Fulani as an ethnic group - - an undifferentiated whole.

This menace is a major problem crying for urgent solution. A situation where people are susceptible to orchestrated attacks, massacre and displacement in any part of the country, much less in their natal homes, is unacceptable. Sadly, this phenomenon recalls the tragic era of slave-raiding and plunder.

The fact that this is happening and getting worse in Nigeria is a resounding indictment of the Nigerian state. I can't see this happening unchecked in any other African country and the government appearing helpless, except in countries like the old Sudan (particularly in the context of civil wars) and Mauritania, only because of tacit state support, and Somalia and Libya only because they basically no longer have a government.

We have to ask, What kind of arrangement do we have where the state do little or nothing while citizens are systematically and routinely massacred en masse?

Our penal code prescribes punishments for these kinds of offences, but they are mostly never enforced in these cases. Nobody has the right to encroach on another person's property or massacre people, forcefully displace them and take their property. Our governments have not instructed the security forces to deal with this menace with the seriousness it deserves. Period.

The question we should be asking is, why?

Ugo

G. Ugo Nwokeji

Director, Center for African Studies

Associate Professor of African American Studies
University of California, Berkeley
686 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel. (510) 542-8140
Fax (510) 642-0318

Twitter: @UgoNwokeji

Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

What's demanded: Law and order.

Agreed: People's private and personal properties should be protected

---“what is the verifiable hard evidence that the Fulani herdsmen being nomads are Nigerian if one may ask” Indeed a Lordly, pan-Africanist question, posed by a master of his own Garden of Eden.

“Lion hunts too far from home

Steps into the danger zone” (Taj Mahal: Scattered)

African citizen, true: some people lose their compass and whether on camel or horseback or on all ten toes or even by air, may inadvertently wander / trespass into somebody else’s God-given territory.

I anticipate where the question is heading: In the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo’s people wanted to disenfranchise Alassane Ouattara, accusing him of being a stranger from Burkina Faso  - and in Sierra Leone in those glorious days when West African Soccer was being dominated by Nigeria (Balogun Thunder, Baba Yara) Ghana, ( Gyamfi) and Guinea , in Freetown, every time Guinea Conakry  defeated Sierra Leone,  there would be mini-riots in which the Fullah (Fulani) petty traders’ kiosks would be overturned, sometimes looted and disappointed fans would order them to “Go back to Guinea where you came from”  You may wonder, to what extent has ECOWAS spoilt all that…

It’s the kind of question you could ask Taban Lo Liyong. Twist the question slightly and you find yourself asking where and when did these colonial borders begin, and where and when will they end. In 1981 in Port Harcourt, there were large numbers of beggars who had trekked all the way from Lake Chad.

...

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Lord Anunoby,

A re-write:

Indeed, “what is the verifiable hard evidence that the Fulani herdsmen being nomads are Nigerian if one may ask” It is a good pan-Africanist question. In Europe at least the Fulani herdsman could protest that he is an African citizen . Even guided by the stars at night, in search of greener pastures a poor nomad could sometimes lose his bearings and not knowing any better, stray into bona fide holy Igbo land.

True:  being nomads they could have come all the way from Timbuktu or further North.  Some people lose their compass and whether on camel or horseback or by air may inadvertently trespass into somebody else’s God-given or what was formerly Lord Lugard’s neighbouring territory.

In the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo’s people wanted to disenfranchise Alassane Ouattara, accusing him of being a stranger from Burkina Faso  - and in Sierra Leone in those glorious days when West African Soccer was being dominated by Nigeria (Balogun Thunder, Baba Yara) Ghana, ( the recently departed Gyamfi) and Guinea , in Freetown, every time Guinea Conakry defeated Sierra Leone,  there would be mini-riots in which the Fullah (Fulani) petty traders’ kiosks would be overturned, sometimes looted and disappointed fans would order them to “Go back to Guinea where you came from”  You may wonder, to what extent has ECOWAS spoilt all that…

It’s the kind of question I would like to  ask Taban Lo Liyong. Twist the question slightly and you find yourself asking where and when did these colonial borders begin, and where and when will they end. In 1981 in Port Harcourt, I saw large numbers of beggars who had trekked all the way from Chad.

As for me, I will soon be in Kaduna and hope to be sending you greetings from there…

Cornelius

We Sweden

On Monday, 5 October 2015 20:17:00 UTC+2, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

...

[Bode]

Ugo, 

Xenophobic? You forgot to also use the other lexicon in the politics of blackmail, genocidal!! 

Bode 

[Bode]

Ugo,

To your point, in a diverse society, it stands to reason that there would be a diversity of rights and constraints that any notion of citizenship cannot simply embody as a totality. No citizen, for example, can embody all the rights of a state, not even the head of state. If he were, that is the head of state, to embody all the rights of a state, he becomes a monarch. Thus, the concept of "full" citizenship is itself an absurdity as it implies an unbounded prerogative that makes every citizen a monarch. 

The current crisis is the crisis of a system that is in a state of confusion about what activities and claims, commercial or otherwise, could be entertained in any given place, and by whom. In a system where state and local rights are properly designated, contestations and negotiations of space are easily navigable. To propose in the first place that designations of rights undermine citizenship is where the error and confusion lie. This is the connection, which I am sure you noticed, and would admit, between this debate and the other one.

By the way, isn't it bizarre and anti-intellectual, whatever your point may be, to inject xenophobia into a discussion of mobility and state structure? Must every thing come down to this? It is better to avoid the perception of persecution in every thing as this is symptomatic of a percussion complex, which, I might add, is a psychiatric condition. When did federalism become a xenophobic position? 

Bode

[Ugo Nwokeji]

"No citizen, for example, can embody all the rights of a state, not even the head of state. If he were, that is the head of state, to embody all the rights of a state, he becomes a monarch. Thus, the concept of "full" citizenship is itself an absurdity as it implies an unbounded prerogative that makes every citizen a monarch. "-- Bode

What the hell are you talking about?! 

You are fast developing a tendency to set up a strawman or otherwise to keep convoluting issues when you have no answer to the issue at stake. Which citizenship rights are you talking about that would make "every citizen a monarch"?

Regarding xenophobia, my friend, you made xenophobic arguments. It is all archived.

Ugo 

G. Ugo Nwokeji

Director, Center for African Studies

Associate Professor of African American Studies
University of California, Berkeley
686 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel. (510) 542-8140
Fax (510) 642-0318

Twitter: @UgoNwokeji

Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869

[Bode]

Ugo,

If your student makes a grievous charge against you such as xenophobia and you asked him for some example and he says "it is all archived." I am sure you will either dismiss him lazy or you will ask him to get some help. Again, this would be a psychiatric case.  You need to get some help, my friend, if you really think federalism is xenophobia.

The rights of any Nigerian should be circumscribed by specific local contexts, that is the meaning of what you quoted from me above.

Bode

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Breaking ... Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba (Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria) was reposted to this forum by Oluwatoyin Adepoju. On reading through the article, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Oba was kidnapped by Fulanis. According to the article Fulani herdsmen were blamed for the kidnap of the 'Yoruba Oba' with the following expression: An eye witness account said that about five gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen might have whisked the traditional ruler on a motor bike. For this information to be credible, a reliable eye-witness should be able to tell readers the exact number of kidnappers and not an approximated number. A reliable eye-witness should be able to tell readers why he/she suspected that the kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen. If the eye-witness actually saw the traditional ruler whisked away on a motor bike, why would he/she need to use the guessing expression,*might have whisked?* No one has been able to confirm that a traditional ruler in Kogi State was kidnapped and the perpetrators were Fulani herdsmen.
 
The story of the Fulani herdsmen-kidnappers in Kogi State was preceded by another kidnapping in Ondo State in which the kidnapped, Chief Olu Falae, suspected that his kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen. According to Sahara Reporters, "The Afenifere Chieftain, Olu Falae, revealed that his recent altercation with some Fulani herdsmen, who invaded his farmland few months ago at Ilado in Akure North Local Government Area (LGA), might have led to his abduction." Mr. Falae narrated his experience saying, "these hoodlums came to my farm, they approached me with cutlass and said I was not co-operating with them. They dragged me bared foot into the bush for about two hours. They stopped somewhere to rest, then they instructed me to phone my wife that I had been kidnapped and taken out of Ondo State by a car. ... At some point they called for the services of commercial motorcyclist (Okada) in the night and the rider, which I suspected is one of the terrorists took me a long way down in the bush. These guys were permanently moving. They were changing locations at least two, three times a day but I suspected they did not want the police to succeed in tracing them. There were six of them with guns and every half and hour they would say, Baba, we are going to kill you. If you don't give us money, we are going to kill you." Although the police said that no ransom was paid to the abductors of Olu Falae, he himself claimed that the sum of N 2 million was paid to the kidnappers. Certainly, Chief Olu Falae will recognise a Fulani man if he meets one. In his narrative he did not assert that his abductors were Fulani herdsmen. He only revealed that he had recent altercation with some Fulani herdsmen with regards to the invasion of his farmland few months ago which according to him, might have led to his abduction. From the foregoing, Chief Olu Falae only suspected that Fulani herdsmen might have had hands in his abduction because of the altercation he had with them few months ago when they invaded his farmland. Chief Olu Falae has no prove that Fulani herdsmen had hands in his abduction. Referring to his captors Mr. Falae said, "these hoodlums came to my farm, they approached me with cutlass ..." Obviously, Falae abductors were not Fulani herdsmen but cutlass wielding hoodlums. Falae said that his abductors dragged him bare footed into the bush for about two hours. Was Mr. Falae bare footed in the farm before the abductors came or did the abductors remove his shoes and if yes, why? Mr. Falae claimed that his abductors stopped somewhere in the bush and instructed him to phone his wife that he had been kidnapped and taken out of Ondo State by a car. Did the telephone used in phoning the wife of Falae belong to Falae or his abductors? How was the negotiation leading to the payment of two million naira ransom carried out? Was it by telephone? Whether the telephone used in negotiating ransom belonged to the abductors or Mr. Falae, it would have been easy for the police to locate the exact place where Falae and his abductors were hiding by calling the telephone number(s) from which the abductors or Falae rang to his wife. When Falae was abducted in his farm, he claimed that they approached him with cutlass and well inside the bush he said that 'there were six of them with guns.' What happened to the cutlasses? I would rather believe that Chief Olu Falae, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, that adopted Goodluck Jonathan as their Presidential candidate in the last election feigned his own kidnapping and if ever it was true that he was kidnapped, his kidnappers were definitely not Fulani herdsmen.

 

It is intellectually dishonest to pretend as if Fulani herdsmen introduce kidnapping into Nigeria when, like 419 scamming, it was a Southern Nigeria invention. Our intellectuals have now forgotten how the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) kidnapped foreign oil workers in the South-South in exchange for ransoms during Obasanjo regime until Yar'Adua came with his amnesty solution. Blaming Fulani herdsmen for kidnappings in Yoruba land now is the same as when President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Northerners, that were opposed to his ambition to contest for the 2011 presidential election, for the two car bombs that exploded near the eagle square Abuja on October 1, 2010. When one Jomojombo claimed the bombs were detonated by MEND, President Goodluck Jonathan defended MEND that they could not have done that since he was the President and he was from the Delta. He insisted that Northerners who did not like him to be President were responsible for the bomb blasts. Later, Charles Okah was arrested in South Africa for his involvement in the 1st of October 2010 bomb blasts in Abuja and was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism. Interestingly, Charles Okah swore to an affidavit that the President through Mr. Orubebe had urged MEND to deny the detonation of car bombs in Abuja on 1st of October 2010 so that it could be blamed on Northerners that were opposed to Jonathan's Presidency. With the arrest and conviction of Charles Okah in South Africa, some members of MEND in Nigeria were also arrested in 2010. MEND members arrested for planting and exploding two car bombs in Nigeria, on October 1, 2010, were Henry Okah, Obi Nwabueze, Edmund Ebuware and Tiemkemfa Osuvwo. While Tiemkemfa Osuvwo died in Kuje Prison, the rest are still awaiting trial till date, perhaps, because of the complicity of Jonathan and men around him in the bomb explosions which were carried out with the intent of blaming innocent Northerners.

 

On November 30, 2011, Nigeria's State Security Service issued a statement in which it identified members of four criminal syndicates that sent threatening text messages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians and not Northern Muslims ran the syndicates, including the one that led the American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue warnings that emptied Abuja's high-end hotels. Towards the end of December 2011, the Security Service arrested a Christian Southerner wearing Northern Muslim garb as he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. A lot has been said and written about the Fulani herdsman on this forum because of two 'alleged kidnappings' and I am astonished that none has ever thought that there is no evidence, direct or indirect, that linked Fulani herdsmen to the kidnappings.

S. Kadiri   

 

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From: u...@berkeley.edu
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2015 21:20:59 -0700

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Kadiri,

I am sure you aware that a calibre of Olu Falae would not say something at his age that is not true. He had accused some Funlani cattle readers of his abduction. He also called them hoodlums. If it were not so, why is Afenifere angered of his abduction by the Funlani cattle rearers? 

There is another incident of this at Idofin-Isanlu in Yagba East Local Government, Kogi State. 

A young man called Bode Omobola accused some  Funlani cattle rearers for encroaching his farmland. Their cattle destroyed his farm. He was paid some compensation. 

Months later, I was told that the same cattle rearers came back to attack him on his way from his farm. He sustained multiple cuts and he was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. 

Realizing what they did, the cattle rearers fled and left the area. The incident happened this year. I am not sure if they have returned to the area again. 

The police in the area, I was told, had done nothing to pursue the case.

I think there is need to draw the line of demarcation beyond which the Funlani cattle rearers cannot operate in Yoruba land, if we want peace and harmony. It is not just in Yoruba nation that such a boundary should be made but throughout all placed of their operations in the country. 

Of course we all have the right of movement but we also have the right of self preservation. The two rights should not be in conflict. But the cases of Chief Falae and Mr. Omobola cited above have shown clearly a serious conflict that should be corrected to assuage the stray nerves. 

The Federal Government should take a decisive action to put an end to this dangerous trend. 

A stitch in time saves nine. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

[Bode]

Ugo,

I guess there is no accountability for what we say, then, as we can suddenly become too busy or respond with silence, in the hope that silence would confer a dignity that is already lost to reckless speech. Taking back misplaced comments can redeem a measure of decency, though.  But I will let this go.

Bode  

On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Bode <omi...@gmail.com> wrote:

UGO,

 

It will be a big shame, and really irresponsible, if you cannot come up with any statement from me, direct or indirect, that targets any group in any way. You do not win arguments by throwing up labels. This is becoming characteristic of you. I am still waiting, and if you cannot find one, you should apologize. 

The point I have made before and which I reiterate is that no citizen has transcendental rights. To the extent that there is a huge diversity of norms within the national space, you cannot move from Lagos and expect to exercise the same liberties that you exercised in Lagos in Katsina. Of course, there are things and places that are very similar and where you could exercise the same liberties but to make uniform/unitary claims on the basis of your citizenship everywhere within a diverse national space is to be disruptive and endanger the peace. Only a monarch can make such claim over a territory. This is not xenophobia. It is commonsense.  

I demand you please show me where I made xenophobic statements or apologize. 

Bode 

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Ogungbemi,
Olu Falae only assumed that Fulani herdsmen with whom he has had altercations when they encroached on his farmland with their cattle some months ago were behind his abduction. Clash between nomadic cattle breeders and farmers in Southern part of Nigeria is not a new phenomena and its continuation till now is just a symbol of a disorganised society. However, I think it is against common sense that a few herdsmen  would abandon their cattle to engage in kidnapping in an area in which they are ethnically an alien and absolutely in minority. While no one is denying the invasion of farmlands by Fulani herdsmen with their cattle, there is no evidence that Fulani herdsmen are involved in kidnapping business. Some criminals might have been impersonating Fulani herdsmen in the recent kidnappings of Olu Falae and the traditional ruler in Kogi State. When Professor Albert Ilemobade was missing with his night guard, Boko Haram was suspected to be behind their missing until an attempt to sell his car in Lagos revealed the real culprits. As it turned out, Professor Ilemobade was murdered by his night guard, Daniel Ita from Akwa Ibom State, and the professor's former driver, Olayemi Bamitale, a Yoruba man. Certainly, Fulani herdsmen should be trained not to graze their cows on farmlands but the government should arrest kidnappers impersonating as Fulani herdsmen. Let us be objective in our reasons.
S. Kadiri   
 

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

From: segun...@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2015 10:26:50 +0100
CC: Steveo...@yahoo.com; ezekie...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Mobolaji Aluko]

S. Kadiri:

Yours is also my thinking, that Fulani herdsmen impersonators were at work in this kidnapping case.

However, Chief Falae: would he not know, from intonation, who a NORTHERNER - as different from a Southerner - is?  

Inquiring minds want to know...there is certainly more to it than meets the eyes....

Bolaji Aluko

[Ugo Nwokeji]

Bode,

Don't worry, I will respond to you when I have the time.

Ugo

G. Ugo Nwokeji

Director, Center for African Studies

Associate Professor of African American Studies
University of California, Berkeley
686 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel. (510) 542-8140
Fax (510) 642-0318

Twitter: @UgoNwokeji

Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869

[Tade Aina]

Hello all,
It is possible that what Kadiri and my brother Bolaji suggested below is what happened. What we are finding in studies coming out of East Africa is that there is tremendous interface and collaboration between criminal groups, rustlers, terror groups and local militias. Terror , kidnapping and abduction are being franchised. The study by Mutahi Ngunyi' s group has some evidence for Kenya. So, it is not always clear who is doing and who they are doing it for or who contracted them. Even the real identity of the kidnapping group and their accents are not real pointers to motives or who they are working for. It could be deliberate or opportunistic. We do not know enough of this market of terror and criminality. It is a whole new economy. And a big challenge to research, intelligence gathering and the whole field of peace, security and citizen safety studies.
-Tade.

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 9, 2015, at 8:21 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> S. Kadiri:
>
> Yours is also my thinking, that Fulani herdsmen impersonators were at work
> in this kidnapping case
>

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

My people,

 

The police stated they confirmed the kidnapping was carried out by Fulani herdsmen.

 

Afenifere and other Yoruba representatives have not only clearly stated the deadly antics of Fulani herdsmen in Yorubaland but have insisted that this must stop.

 

The leaders of the Fulani herdsmen have requested help from Afenifere to bring such problems to an end.

 

Fulani herdsmen have been reported  as again attacking  the farm of Olu Falae.

 

Fulani herdsmen are also reported as engaging in such destructive antics even in the South East.

 

Are the people on this forum who are struggling to repaint a historical reality not dodging the question- what is to be done to make sure  Fulani herdsmen engage in husbandry that does not conflict with landowners as well as disarming  these herdsmen of the sophisticated weapons they are now known to carry?

 

Pretending these realities do not exist helps no one.

 

thanks

 

toyin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

"The summit held ...with the theme “National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen in Yorubaland.” 

 

The participants also decried the continued oppression of the Yoruba in their homeland by armed Fulani herdsmen.

The summit cited incessant cases of rape

 

destruction of economic plants that form the bedrock of the livelihood of locals

 

 the armed violence unleashed by the nomads

 

 

coupled with the consequent cultural disequilibrium the displacement of people from crisis-ridden Northern Nigeria have brought to communities in Yorubaland adding that subsequent governments in Nigeria have come into power waving slogans that end up leaving the country worse than they met it.

 

They demanded an immediate end to lawless nomadic activities in the South West warning that any community who cannot establish ranches for their flock should retreat from Yoruba territories..

 

 

 

'Yoruba may pull out of Nigerian union, Gen Adebayo, others speak at Ibadan summit'

 

By Tunde Akinsola, Ibadan

 

Some leaders today in Ibadan warned that the Yoruba will reconsider her membership of the Nigerian federation if the cultural and political marginalization continues unabated. The summit is not impressed by the slogan of renaissance renting the air, saying that the country has merely slid into the firm grip of another self-serving ethnic cabal intent on pinning the country down in her historic state of control my vested interests. Irohinoodua was at the event held in Ibadan today.

Presided over by former Governor of the Western Region, General Adeyinka Adebayo the summit warn that the Yoruba will no longer tolerate the sustenance of the country’s garrison structure which they claim undermine self actualization of the people of the South West.

 

Irohinodua correspondent reports that the summit said failure to restructure Nigeria using the 2014 confab report might force the Yoruba people to review her place in a political arrangement that cannot guarantee the protection of her citizens. Factional leaders of the Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC), Dr Fredrick Faseun and Otunba Gani Adams were unanimous in saying that the time to “leave Nigeria” and assert the sovereignty of the Yoruba people is now.

 

The summit strongly condemned what it described as the “invasion and killing of people in Yoruba territories” by the Fulani herdsmen. The summit held in the House of Chiefs Section of the Parliament Building of the Oyo State Secretariat with the theme “National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen in Yorubaland.” The participants also decried the continued oppression of the Yoruba in their homeland by armed Fulani herdsmen.

 

The summit cite incessant cases of rape, destruction of economic plants that form the bedrock of the livelihood of locals, the armed violence unleashed by the nomads coupled with the consequent cultural disequilibrium the displacement of people from crisis-ridden Northern Nigeria have brought to communities in Yorubaland adding that subsequent governments in Nigeria have come into power waving slogans that end up leaving the country worse than they met it.

They demanded an immediate end to lawless nomadic activities in the South West warning that any community who cannot establish ranches for their flock should retreat from Yoruba territories.

 

“The Yoruba people are no longer ready to tolerate mindless encroachment on their means of livelihood by any ungrateful tenants”, the gathering stated as part of its resolutions. '

[kenneth harrow]

knowing nothing about this, my question is an honest one here: are they fulani "herdsmen" or fulani bandits. when do they cease to be the former and simply be the latter.
if they are mostly bandits, then adding "fulani" is a smear. if they are mostly herdsmen trying to protect their interests through force, guns, kidnapping, then the issue becomes more than one of crime. (to get my point, if you were kidnapped on the highway between ibadan and lagos would you say "yoruba" bandits, or just bandits?

it might be interesting to see what vocabulary was used in darfur when the pastoralists attacked the villagers so viciously. i don't remember how the press identified them, but my impression was that words like militia were used.... but i am not at all sure of anything, except the exceedingly negative views that were generated about them and their brutality and the role of bashir.
ken

[kenneth harrow]

i really wonder how helpful this language about "yoruba" reactions is in the posting below. by "yoruba," i take it this is speaking really about the people of the southwest, who include everybody under the sun.
why am i writing this? because the emphasis on autochthony is political, and it leads to regressive national politics, regressive in the sense that turf-building and turf-protecting grows at the expense of inter-human interactions.
there was a time when the word "ethnic-cleansing" didn't exist. now it has become more and more commonplace.
ken

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

Well said Ken.

“…turf-building and turf-protecting grows at the expense of inter-human interactions” especially in

a country some people of goodwill committed to nation-building, are striving determinedly to persuade people of diverse ethnicities, to give up some of their past and current grudges and prejudices, to become mostly one- a communal and wholesome whole, as successful countries tend to be.

Turf builders and protectors tend to see only the presumed and in many cases unrealizable benefits to them of their trade. The seldom see the huge and avoidable costs to them and others of it.

 

oa

 

   

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 10:49 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

 

i really wonder how helpful this language about "yoruba" reactions is in the posting below. by "yoruba," i take it this is speaking really about the people of the southwest, who include everybody under the sun.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

The purported summit of the so called 'Yoruba Leaders of Thought On Fulani Herdsmen' Siege, with a comment from one Ken Asagara and a written report by Tunde Akinsola, was reposted to this forum on the 9th of October 2015 by you, Oluwatoyin Adepoju. Your aversion for the Fulani has now forced you to post the same message three times. The lengthy Communiqué which you posted on the pretence that it emanated from the summit of 'Yoruba Leaders of Thought' was not signed by any of the participants of the said summit. The origin of the Communiqué is a suspect. Part of the communiqué reads, "After an extensive and inclusive debate on the threats to our survival as a people especially by the unprovoked, unwarranted and mindless serial attacks on the economic rights of our people by nomadic Fulani cattle rearers which have snowballed into loss of precious lives, raping of our women and criminal abduction of our people for ransom, the following communiqué was adopted: Summit observed that despite the non-aggressive disposition of the Yoruba people, we have been victims of crude aggressions, violent violations from our hostile neighbours from pre-colonial days till modern time. From 18th century, Fulani Jihadists onslaught against Yoruba space, through the travails of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, through the June 12 saga to the latest war declared on our people by the Fulani herdsmen...."
 
Whether Jihadists or not, Fulanis were not responsible for Chief Obafemi Awolowo's travails. It was the Federal coalition government of NPC/NCNC that declared a state of Emergency in the Western region, May 29, 1962. The emergency resolutions were signed into law by the then Governor General of the Federation, Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, not known to be a Fulani Jihadist. The Emergency administrator appointed to rule Western Region for six months (June-December 1962), Dr. Moses Majekodunmi, was not a Fulani Jihadist but a Yoruba man. He restricted Awolowo to Lekki  and instituted the Coker commission of enquiry with the sole purpose of condemning Awolowo. Justice Coker was a Yoruba man too. Before the end of emergency rule in the West, Awolowo was arraigned before Justice Sowemimo for treasonable felony and the Yoruba judge subsequently sentenced Awolowo to ten years imprisonment. Chief Anthony Enahoro and S. G. Ikoku were not Yorubas but they shared the same fate with Awolowo as political comrades.
 
As for June 12 saga, we should not forget that late in the night, on the eve of election, on 11 June 1993, Justice Bassey Ikpeme of the Abuja High Court, restrained the National Electoral Commission (NEC), headed by Professor Humphrey Nwosu, from conducting the June 12, 1993 election. The restraint was based on a motion brought before the court by a group called Association of Better Nigeria (ABN) led by Senator Athur Nzeribe. Neither Arthur Nzeribe nor Justice Bassey Ikpeme was a Fulani Jihadist. However, NEC conducted the election and when results for 14 States were declared, M. K. O. Abiola (SPD) won 4, 364, 993 votes against Alhaji Bashir Tofa (Republican Party) 2,393,303. On Wednesday, 16 June 1993, Arthur Nzeribe was in court again to ask for a restraining order against NEC from announcing the rest of the presidential election result. The court issued the requested order. On Monday, 21 June 1993, Justice Dahiru Saleh of Abuja High Court voided the June 12, 1993 Presidential election on the ground that the election was illegal since it was held contrary to the court order issued by Justice Bassey Ikpeme on June 11, 1993. I am not sure if Justice Dahiru Salem is a Fulani but without Arthur Nzeribe who sought court injunction against holding presidential election and Justice Bassey Ikpeme granting the injunction (two non-Fulanis), Justice Dahiru Salem would not have had the chance to play the role he played. Ernest Shonekan whom Babangida later installed as Head of State without election was not a Fulani Jihadist but a Yoruba man from the same town as Abiola. Furthermore, Obasanjo was not a Fulani Jihadist when he said that Abiola was not the Messiah Nigerians were waiting for. In addition to the above, it is wrong for anyone to assume that the denial of Abiola of his presidential election victory was an affront to the Yorubas, since Yoruba votes alone could not have won him the election. Majority of Nigerians voted for Abiola and denying him victory should be an affront to majority of Nigerians that voted for him.
 
In Tunde Akinsola's report from Ibadan, it is amusing to read the following, "The summit appear to be a mixture of Yoruba nationalists who had remained steadfast for ages and a sizeable flavour of people who worked for the OUSTED FORMER PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN ... Some observers think the YORUBA SUPPORTERS OF THE OUSTED PRESIDENT JONATHAN ARE ANXIOUS TO SEEK RELEVANCE IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT THAT APPEARS TO HAVE PUSHED THEM INTO THE BACK BENCH OF ANOMIE." Otunba Gani Adams who led an army of OPC to invade Lagos during the presidential election campaign early this year for the PDP must be able to mobilise some troops to confront Fulani herdsmen encroaching on Olu Falae's farm. From experience, Fulani herdsmen are never more than four in numbers, with two leading the flock and two following behind. If there are Fulani Herdsmen's molests it should be an easy thing for OPC to curtail. It is unintelligent for grown-ups to gather somewhere and be threatening to behead mosquitoes on their thighs with cutlasses. In fact, there is no connection between Fulani herdsmen and constitutional restructure of Nigeria.
 
Oluwatoyin Adepoju asserted below, "The Police stated they confirmed the kidnapping was carried out by Fulani herdsmen." If I am not shy, I would have called you a blatant liar. What is the name and rank of the policeman that stated or confirmed that the kidnapping of Olu Falae was perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen? Confirming that the abductors of Olu Falae were Hausa Fulani would automatically imply that arrests have been made, but we are yet to hear such from the police authorities. Please share with us the source of your police statement on Falae's kidnap issue. 
S.Kadiri

 

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Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2015 15:19:15 +0100

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

From: toyink...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Kadiri,

No one doubts the possibility of impersonation in this matter but Chief Falae is not ignorant given his pedigree. Had he not interacted with them enough to know whether they were Fulani or not? 

You did not respond to the other example I gave which occurred in my home town. I re-present it for your response. 

"There is another incident of this at Idofin-Isanlu in Yagba East Local Government, Kogi State. 

A young man called Bode Omobola accused some  Funlani cattle rearers for encroaching on his farmland. Their cattle destroyed his farm. He was paid some compensation. 

Months later, I was told that the same cattle rearers came back to attack him on his way from his farm. He sustained multiple cuts and he was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. 

Realizing what they did, the cattle rearers fled and left the area. The incident happened this year. I am not sure if they have returned to the area again. 

The police in the area, I was told, had done nothing to pursue the case.

I think there is need to draw the line of demarcation beyond which the Funlani cattle rearers cannot operate in Yoruba land, if we want peace and harmony. It is not just in Yoruba nation that such a boundary should be made but throughout areas of their operations in the country."

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

ptout.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Ogungbemi wrote,"No one doubts the possibility of impersonation in this matter but Chief Falae is not ignorant given his pedigree. Had he not interacted with them enough to know whether they were Fulani or not?" During a solidarity visit to Chief Falae by General Alani Akinrinade, Chief Falae had told the media that his recent altercations with some Fulani herdsmen, who invaded his farmland few months ago at Ilado in Akure North Local Government Area (LGA), might have led to his abduction. If Chief Falae was sure that his abductors were Fulani herdsmen he would not be speculating that previous altercations with Fulani herdsmen might have led to his abduction, rather, he would have been categorical in saying,*the Fulani herdsmen that I had altercations with in my farm came back to abduct me.* For me, he only tried to implicate Fulani herdsmen in his abduction because he has had altercations in his farm with them.
 
With regards to Bode Omobola you wrote, "Months later, I was told that the same cattle rearers came back to attack him on his way from his farm. He sustained multiple cuts and he was taken to nearby hospital where he died.

Realizing what they did, the cattle rearers fled and left the area."
 

Unfortunately, neither you nor I was privileged to hear direct from Bode Omobola about who attacked and inflicted on him machete cuts. If the machete attacks on Omobola had happened at home, one could have speculated that the Fulani herdsmen came back to recover the money they had paid to Omobola as compensation for ravaging his farm with their herds. What did Fulani herdsmen stand to gain by attacking him on his way from his farm? Did they come with their herds of cows(goats)? What happened to their herds of cows (goats) if they fled the area? Could they have left the area so fast with their herds without being detected by the aggrieved relatives of Omobola? Logically, it is reasonable to assume that the attacker (s) of Omobola was (were) interested in the  compensation money paid by the Fulani herdsmen for destroying his farm. Simplified, the killer(s) of Omobola must be person(s) who stood the chance of inheriting the money he had received from the Fulani herdsmen. A close relative of Omobola, at least, must have been involved in his attack and subsequent death.
S. Kadiri 

 

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]
From: segun...@gmail.com

Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:23:38 +0100
CC: Steveo...@yahoo.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I am responding to Solomon on matters of fact alone.

As for his tortuous interpretations, the relevance of which I doubt to the issues in question,  I will decide whether or not to respond.

Solomon declares and asks-

O'luwatoyin Adepoju asserted below, "The Police stated they confirmed the kidnapping was carried out by Fulani herdsmen." If I am not shy, I would have called you a blatant liar. What is the name and rank of the policeman that stated or confirmed that the kidnapping of Olu Falae was perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen? Confirming that the abductors of Olu Falae were Hausa Fulani would automatically imply that arrests have been made, but we are yet to hear such from the police authorities. Please share with us the source of your police statement on Falae's kidnap issue.'

 Not hard.

Just Google-

'police confirm fulani herdsmen kidnap falae'

Hits from page 1 of 64,000 results-

1. 6 Fulani Herdsmen Arrested Over Kidnap Of Falae…Police Recover Part Of Ransom Money From Suspects

2. Falae Kidnapped By Herdsmen – Police

3. How Fulani herdsmen abducted Olu Falae - Vanguard

" The state police authorities ‎confirmed that the Fulani herdsmen invaded the farm, attacked, wounded and beat up the former Minister before whisking him away to an unknown destination."

4. Fulani Herdsmen Attacked, Kidnapped Olu Falae, N100M Ransom Demanded, 50 Police Sent To Rescue Him

"The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wole Ogodo, ... confirmed that some Fulani herdsmen invaded the farm and attacked Falae and his workers."

What is the lesson here?

If you want breadth of info on Nigerian politics, join as many Nigerian centred groups as possible on Yahoo, Google and Facebook, and have as many Nigerian friends as possible on Facebook who post regularly on Nigerian politics from different perspectives.

Info will flow to you effortlessly.

That way you wont make the kind of mistake Solomon made in the quote above in issuing what he thought was  a serious challenge.

thanks

toyin

[Mobolaji Aluko]

My People:

But what about this post:

QUOTE

SAHARA REPORTERS

October 12, 2015

 

DSS Parades Suspected Falae Abductors

Abdullahi Usman (AKA Kadiri) on Monday gave a racy narration of how he helped to pinpoint “a big man who goes to his farm in Toyota Hilux van” who could be kidnapped to provide Sallah and wedding funds to some of his friends.

Abdullahi Usman (AKA Kadiri) on Monday gave a racy narration of how he helped to pinpoint “a big man who goes to his farm in Toyota Hilux van” who could be kidnapped to provide Sallah and wedding funds to some of his friends.

From Left is Babawuro Kato, the Okada Rider and Abdullahi Usman (Kadiri), the cattle rearerDSS

Narrating the genesis and finale of how Chief Olu Falae was abducted in his farm last month while he and another suspect Babawuro Kato by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) at their headquarters in Abuja, Usman said he was approached by some of his friends in Kwara State shortly before the last Eid El-Kabir during a wedding ceremony.

Usman continued that one Datijo approached him complaining that he was so broke that he might not be able to satisfactorily celebrate the coming festival unless he (Usman) was able to give information on any big man that could be abducted for money.

“I then told him that I know one man who used to bring a Hilux vehicle to his farm and I used to see him as I move my cows about”, he told reporters.

That was how the gang members arranged to kidnap Chief Falae on his farm on Monday, September 21, 2015.

Usman said they then took Falae to Owo where he was kept at a place called 'Pipeline' around Benin junction where the man was kept.
Eventually, the ransom of N5 million was paid to Datijo who according to Usman made away with the money.

In their narrative, it was the second suspect Kato who ferried Datijo and Falae on his commercial motorcycle from the hideout to where he was eventually picked up by the Police.

Kato however, insisted that he was not part of the gang as he was only contracted to transport the two on that night.

According to Mr. Abdullahi Garba who addressed the press on behalf of the DSS, the suspects were picked up in Lokoja.

He stated that the abductors were mere criminals and that their action was not motivated by any political or ethnic sentiment save for criminality.

“The service wishes to state that the abductors were mere criminals. Investigations have further revealed that their action was not targeted at Falae as a statesman and prominent Yoruba leader”.

He enjoined Nigerians to continue to live peacefully with one another and shun attempts by mischief makers to give the unfortunate incident an ethnic coloration and use same to cause disaffection among the populace.

“To this effect, the Service wishes to appeal to all Nigerians to be law abiding and responsible in their commentary on sensitive issues affecting national security.

“The Service will not hesitate to deal decisively with anybody, no matter how highly placed, in accordance with the las as long as such a person (s) failed to be a respecter of law or peacefully coexist among the good citizens of this great country.”
He concluded that efforts were being made to arrest other members of the gang with a view to bringing them to justice.

UNQUOTE

Now what, "Fulani herdsmen" theorists?

Only one "cattle rearer".....

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

Bolaji Aluko

Shaking his head

[Abolaji Adekeye]

What if Chief Olu Falae had been adultnapped by:
1. Yoruba area boys
2. Igbo miscreant
3. Niger Delta crimitant?

Wouldn't some ill willed hack accuse Tinubu of an agenda against
Mimiko and the good people of Ondo state?

Wouldn't some mental speculator say its the Ohanaeze N'digbo and
Massob getting back at the Yorubas for Oba of Lagos' unfortunate
outburst?

Most likely, a nut job here or there would say its the Ijaw nation
taking their pound of flesh after getting their nose put out of joint
by The Alliance.

Kidnapping is a thriving business in Nigeria and Chief Falae is not
the first victim. He won't be the last. The business is an equal
opportunity venture; why shouldn't a Fulani, a Nupawa or an Igede
engage in it?

The truth as I see it is that some opportunistic members of afenifere,
the fanikayodes and allied goons that have been checkmated in the
political chess boxing are trying to whip up ethnic tensions in the
wild west using the primordial siege mentality. It is dangerous.

Kidnapping is one thing, cattle rustling is another. Trespass is
completely different. Apples-grapes-oranges. One thread only connects
them; they are all criminal acts that needs to be addressed and
combated with a radical rethinking of our policing.

On 10/13/15, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My People:
>
> But what about this post:
>
> QUOTE
>
>
> SAHARA REPORTERS
>
> October 12, 2015
>
>
> DSS Parades Suspected Falae Abductors
>
> Abdullahi Usman (AKA Kadiri) on Monday gave a racy narration of how he
> helped to pinpoint “a big man who goes to his farm in Toyota Hilux van” who
> could be kidnapped to provide Sallah and wedding funds to some of his
> friends.
>
> Abdullahi Usman (AKA Kadiri) on Monday gave a racy narration of how he
> helped to pinpoint “a big man who goes to his farm in Toyota Hilux van” who
> could be kidnapped to provide Sallah and wedding funds to some of his
> friends.
>

>> *O'luwatoyin Adepoju asserted below, "The Police stated they confirmed

>> the
>> kidnapping was carried out by Fulani herdsmen." If I am not shy, I would
>> have called you a blatant liar. What is the name and rank of the
>> policeman
>> that stated or confirmed that the kidnapping of Olu Falae was perpetrated
>> by Fulani herdsmen? Confirming that the abductors of Olu Falae were Hausa
>> Fulani would automatically imply that arrests have been made, but we are
>> yet to hear such from the police authorities. Please share with us the

>> source of your police statement on Falae's kidnap issue.'*

>>
>> Not hard.
>>
>> Just Google-
>>
>> 'police confirm fulani herdsmen kidnap falae'
>>
>> Hits from page 1 of 64,000 results-
>>
>> 1. 6 Fulani Herdsmen Arrested Over Kidnap Of Falae…Police Recover Part Of
>> Ransom Money From Suspects

>> <http://ireports-ng.com/2015/10/11/5-fulani-herdsmen-arrested-over-kidnap-of-falaepolice-recover-part-of-ransom-money-from-suspects/>

>>
>> 2. Falae Kidnapped By Herdsmen – Police

>> <http://dailyindependentnig.com/2015/09/fulani-herdsmen-abduct-falae-from-farm-police-deploy-50-men-on-rescue-mission/>

>>
>> 3. How Fulani herdsmen abducted Olu Falae - Vanguard

>> <http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAAahUKEwjc08bvvL3IAhWE7RQKHSmpCbA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vanguardngr.com%2F2015%2F09%2Fhow-fulani-herdsmen-abducted-olu-falae%2F&usg=AFQjCNF6SsAdWicRnnVbDiUWhBxBbwcvNQ&sig2=Gx7mABQtCs_UrMs53sTUmg>

>>
>> " The state police authorities ‎confirmed that the Fulani herdsmen
>> invaded
>> the farm, attacked, wounded and beat up the former Minister before
>> whisking
>> him away to an unknown destination."
>>
>> 4. Fulani Herdsmen Attacked, Kidnapped Olu Falae, N100M Ransom Demanded,
>> 50 Police Sent To Rescue Him

>> <http://www.naijaonpoint.com/news/fulani-herdsmen-attacked-kidnapped-olu-falae-n100m-ransom-demanded-50-police-sent-to-rescue-him.html>

>>
>> "The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wole Ogodo, ... confirmed that
>> some Fulani herdsmen invaded the farm and attacked Falae and his
>> workers."
>>
>> What is the lesson here?
>>
>> If you want breadth of info on Nigerian politics, join as many Nigerian
>> centred groups as possible on Yahoo, Google and Facebook, and have as
>> many
>> Nigerian friends as possible on Facebook who post regularly on Nigerian
>> politics from different perspectives.
>>
>> Info will flow to you effortlessly.
>>
>> That way you wont make the kind of mistake Solomon made in the quote
>> above
>> in issuing what he thought was a serious challenge.
>>
>> thanks
>>
>> toyin
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12 October 2015 at 14:52, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>

>>> *Ogungbemi wrote,"No one doubts the possibility of impersonation in this

>>> matter but Chief Falae is not ignorant given his pedigree. Had he not
>>> interacted with them enough to know whether they were Fulani or not?"
>>> During a solidarity visit to Chief Falae by General Alani Akinrinade,
>>> Chief
>>> Falae had told the media that his recent altercations with some Fulani
>>> herdsmen, who invaded his farmland few months ago at Ilado in Akure
>>> North
>>> Local Government Area (LGA), might have led to his abduction. If Chief
>>> Falae was sure that his abductors were Fulani herdsmen he would not be
>>> speculating that previous altercations with Fulani herdsmen might have
>>> led
>>> to his abduction, rather, he would have been categorical in saying,*the
>>> Fulani herdsmen that I had altercations with in my farm came back to
>>> abduct
>>> me.* For me, he only tried to implicate Fulani herdsmen in his abduction

>>> because he has had altercations in his farm with them.*
>>>
>>> *With regards to Bode Omobola you wrote, "Months later, I was told that

>>> the same cattle rearers came back to attack him on his way from his
>>> farm.
>>> He sustained multiple cuts and he was taken to nearby hospital where he

>>> died.*
>>> *Realizing what they did, the cattle rearers fled and left the area."*
>>>
>>> *Unfortunately, neither you nor I was privileged to hear direct from

>>> Bode
>>> Omobola about who attacked and inflicted on him machete cuts. If the
>>> machete attacks on Omobola had happened at home, one could have
>>> speculated
>>> that the Fulani herdsmen came back to recover the money they had paid to
>>> Omobola as compensation for ravaging his farm with their herds. What did
>>> Fulani herdsmen stand to gain by attacking him on his way from his farm?
>>> Did they come with their herds of cows(goats)? What happened to their
>>> herds
>>> of cows (goats) if they fled the area? Could they have left the area so
>>> fast with their herds without being detected by the aggrieved relatives
>>> of
>>> Omobola? Logically, it is reasonable to assume that the attacker (s) of
>>> Omobola was (were) interested in the compensation money paid by the
>>> Fulani
>>> herdsmen for destroying his farm. Simplified, the killer(s) of Omobola
>>> must
>>> be person(s) who stood the chance of inheriting the money he had
>>> received
>>> from the Fulani herdsmen. A close relative of Omobola, at least, must
>>> have

>>> been involved in his attack and subsequent death.*
>>> *S. Kadiri *
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------

>>> *Ogungbemi,*
>>> *Olu Falae only assumed that Fulani herdsmen with whom he has

>>> Let us be objective in our reasons.*
>>> *S. Kadiri *
>>>
>>> ------------------------------

>>> *Breaking ... Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba (Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria) was

>>> reposted to this forum by Oluwatoyin Adepoju. On reading through the
>>> article, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Oba was kidnapped by
>>> Fulanis. According to the article Fulani herdsmen were blamed for the
>>> kidnap of the 'Yoruba Oba' with the following expression: An eye witness
>>> account said that about five gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen
>>> might
>>> have whisked the traditional ruler on a motor bike. For this information
>>> to
>>> be credible, a reliable eye-witness should be able to tell readers the
>>> exact number of kidnappers and not an approximated number. A reliable
>>> eye-witness should be able to tell readers why he/she suspected that the
>>> kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen. If the eye-witness actually saw the
>>> traditional ruler whisked away on a motor bike, why would he/she need to
>>> use the guessing expression,*might have whisked?* No one has been able
>>> to
>>> confirm that a traditional ruler in Kogi State was kidnapped and the

>>> perpetrators were Fulani herdsmen.*
>>>
>>> *The story of the Fulani herdsmen-kidnappers in Kogi State was preceded

>>> his kidnappers were definitely not Fulani herdsmen.*
>>>
>>> *It is intellectually dishonest to pretend as if Fulani

>>> innocent Northerners.*
>>>
>>> *On November 30, 2011, Nigeria's State Security Service issued a

>>> statement in which it identified members of four criminal syndicates
>>> that
>>> sent threatening text messages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern
>>> Nigerians and not Northern Muslims ran the syndicates, including the one
>>> that led the American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue
>>> warnings
>>> that emptied Abuja's high-end hotels. Towards the end of December 2011,
>>> the
>>> Security Service arrested a Christian Southerner wearing Northern Muslim
>>> garb as he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. A lot has been said
>>> and
>>> written about the Fulani herdsman on this forum because of two 'alleged
>>> kidnappings' and I am astonished that none has ever thought that there
>>> is
>>> no evidence, direct or indirect, that linked Fulani herdsmen to the

>>> kidnappings.*
>>> *S. Kadiri *
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------

>>> From: u...@berkeley.edu
>>> Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2015 21:20:59 -0700
>>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba
>>> Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]
>>> To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
>>>
>>> "No citizen, for example, can embody all the rights of a state, not even
>>> the head of state. If he were, that is the head of state, to embody all
>>> the
>>> rights of a state, he becomes a monarch. Thus, the concept of "full"
>>> citizenship is itself an absurdity as it implies an unbounded
>>> prerogative
>>> that makes every citizen a monarch. "-- Bode
>>>
>>> What the hell are you talking about?!
>>>
>>> You are fast developing a tendency to set up a strawman or otherwise to
>>> keep convoluting issues when you have no answer to the issue at stake.
>>> Which citizenship rights are you talking about that would make "every
>>> citizen a monarch"?
>>>
>>> Regarding xenophobia, my friend, you made xenophobic arguments. It is
>>> all
>>> archived.
>>>
>>> Ugo
>>>
>>>

>>> *G. Ugo Nwokeji*
>>> *Director, Center for African Studies*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Associate Professor of African American StudiesUniversity of
>>> California,
>>> Berkeley686 Barrows Hall #2572Berkeley, CA 94720Tel. (510) 542-8140
>>> <%28510%29%20542-8140>Fax (510) 642-0318 <%28510%29%20642-0318>*
>>> *Twitter: @UgoNwokeji*
>>> Fax (510) 642-0318
>>> *Twitter: @UgoNwokeji*
>>> *Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji <http://facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji>*
>>> *LinkedIn: *linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869
>>> <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869>

>>> *G. Ugo Nwokeji*
>>> *Director, Center for African Studies*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Associate Professor of African American StudiesUniversity of
>>> California,
>>> Berkeley686 Barrows Hall #2572Berkeley, CA 94720Tel. (510) 542-8140Fax
>>> (510) 642-0318*
>>> *Twitter: @UgoNwokeji*
>>> *Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji <http://facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji>*
>>> *LinkedIn: *linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869
>>> <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=243610869>

>>> ------------------------------

>>> Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2015 12:28:23 +0100
>>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba
>>> Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]
>>> From: toyink...@gmail.com
>>> To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
>>>
>>>
>>> The post was
>>>
>>> FORWARDED
>>>
>>> by Oluwatoyin Adepoju, as part of information on the subject
>>>
>>> not written by him.
>>>
>>> thanks
>>>
>>> toyin
>>>
>>> On 2 October 2015 at 17:59, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>

>>> *This is another brain clogging post from Olanrewaju

>>> Adepoju. Accompanying his post is a photograph of a shepherd carrying a
>>> gun
>>> while watching his cows grazing the grass. There were no visible houses,
>>> roads or streets in the picture shown. Yet, Olanrewaju Adepoju could ask
>>> :
>>> Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads? His
>>> illustrative picture shows a shepherd carrying a gun in the midst of
>>> his cows not in a road or street but in a bush site. Premised on the
>>> picture of a shepherd carrying a gun in a bush site, Olanrewaju
>>> Adepoju then generalised that "These people own Nigeria indeed." One man
>>> in

>>> Adepoju's world of fables is THESE PEOPLE.*
>>>
>>> *Concerning the main story said to have been culled from the Sun

>>> newspaper, the following is extracted, "The account said the gunmen,
>>> numbering about five and suspected to be Fulani herdsmen might have
>>> whisked
>>> the traditional ruler on a motorbike to an unknown destination. The Sun
>>> was
>>> quoting an eyewitness account of the kidnapping of the traditional ruler
>>> yet the eyewitness was not sure of how many gunmen were engaged in the
>>> kidnapping, through the expression 'the gunmen numbering about five.'
>>> The
>>> eyewitness was not sure either if the kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen,
>>> because he or she only suspected them to be Fulani herdsmen. Why should
>>> Fulani herdsmen be suspected? Did they leave their herds of cattle
>>> behind
>>> after kidnapping the traditional ruler? Do Fulani herdsmen drive their
>>> cattle around by riding on motorbike? This is one of the most
>>> unintelligent
>>> post I have ever come across on this forum and if I am wrong, please

>>> correct me.*
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------

>>> Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 15:02:49 +0100
>>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba
>>> Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]
>>> From: ayo.m...@gmail.com
>>> To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
>>>
>>>
>>> "These people"?
>>>
>>> Were you sleeping when OPC marched down Ikorodu Road in Lagos during the
>>> general election campaign brandishing their weapons in support of their
>>> demands relating to Permanent Voters Cards and Card Readers while the
>>> Nigeria Police Force looked on?
>>>
>>> Ayo
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:40 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <
>>> toyink...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: *vincent modebelu vin_mo...@yahoo.com <vin_mo...@yahoo.com>
>>> [NIgerianWorldForum]* <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>
>>> Date: 1 October 2015 at 16:58
>>> Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] ||NaijaObserver|| Breaking..Fulani kidnap
>>> Yoruba Oba
>>> To: naijaobserver <naijao...@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian World Forum
>>> <
>>> nigerianw...@yahoogroups.com>, TalkNaija <
>>> talkn...@yahoogroups.com>, Talkhard <talk...@yahogroups.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

>>> *Oba Adebisi Oba­demi, the traditional ruler of Apaa-Bunu community in
>>> Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.*

>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads ?
>>>
>>> These people own Nigeria indeed.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> vin.....///
>>> ....Born to tell the truth
>>> ....they are listening indeed
>>> ... thick walls will fall
>>>
>>> SHARE
>>> Facebook
>>>

>>> <http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://naijapropa.com/2015/10/01/breaking-again-yoruba-traditional-ruler-kidnapped-by-fulani-herdsmen/>
>>>
>>> Twitter
>>>
>>> <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=BREAKING:+Again%2c+Yoruba+traditional+ruler+kidnapped+by+Fulani+Herdsmen&url=http://naijapropa.com/2015/10/01/breaking-again-yoruba-traditional-ruler-kidnapped-by-fulani-herdsmen/&via=Naija+Propa>
>>>
>>>
>>> <http://plus.google.com/share?url=http://naijapropa.com/2015/10/01/breaking-again-yoruba-traditional-ruler-kidnapped-by-fulani-herdsmen/>
>>>
>>>
>>> <http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://naijapropa.com/2015/10/01/breaking-again-yoruba-traditional-ruler-kidnapped-by-fulani-herdsmen/&media=http://naijapropa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fulani.jpg>
>>> <http://naijapropa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fulani.jpg>
>>> *GUNMEN *yesterday ab­ducted *Oba Adebisi Oba­demi, the traditional

>>> ruler of Apaa-Bunu community in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi

>>> State.*

>>> ------------------------------

>>> Posted by: vincent modebelu <vin_mo...@yahoo.com>

>>> ------------------------------
>>> Reply via web post
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>>> Philip Achusim pach...@yahoo.com [NaijaObserver] <
>>> NaijaO...@yahoogroups.com>
>>> 17:23 (16 hours ago)

>>> to *Okonkwonetworks*, *igboworldforum*, *anambra-worldf.*,
>>> nigerianworldf., talknigeria

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>>>
>>> guka...@comcast.net [NIgerianWorldForum] <
>>> NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>
>>> 18:24 (15 hours ago)

>>> to NIgerianWorldF.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Are Nigerians allowed to carry guns in the streets and roads ?*

>>>
>>>
>>> No. But Northern Nigerians can do whatever they want in Nigeria
>>>
>>>
>>> Northern Nigerians are Primus Inter Pares among all the peoples of
>>> Nigeria
>>>
>>>
>>> Other Nigerians are fine with it and even promote and propagate the idea
>>> of Northern Supremacy because--
>>>
>>>
>>> Wen the British left, they handed Nigeria to Northern Nigerians for
>>> Colonialism 2.0.
>>>
>>>
>>> If any other Nigerian were to openly carry a Kalashnikov on the street
>>> or
>>> in the bush
>>>
>>>
>>> That Nigerian will be cut down where they stands.
>>>
>>>
>>> That's the reality in Nigeria.
>>>
>>>
>>> *ezekwe*
>>>
>>>
>>> Eyenisong Ibibio akwaib...@yahoo.com [talkhard] <
>>> talk...@yahoogroups.com>
>>> 07:05 (2 hours ago)

>>> to *C15201947*, NIgerianWorldF., Ode-Besilu's, Nmenme

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Kadiri,

Please respond to this evidence. Your theories about who could have abducted Chief Falae have been debunked. 

This is equally applicable to the case of Bode Omobola at Idofin-Isanlu who was killed by the Fulani cattle rearers. 

I want you to take a moral and intellectual approach to this critical and serious matter. 
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

Kadiri,

No one doubts the possibility of impersonation in this matter but Chief Falae is not ignorant given his pedigree. Had he not interacted with them enough to knyle="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">No one doubts the possibility of impersonation in this matter but Chief Falae is not ignorant given his pedigree. Had he not interacted with them enough to know whether they were Fulani or not? 

You are fast developing a tendency to set up a strawman or otherwise to keep convoluting issues when you have no asans-serif;font-size:large">

To: toyink...@gmail.com

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Thank you Bolaji for this post. The problem with Oluwatoyin is not only that he is a google extremist but that he believes everything he googles to be the truth. Worse still, he forms his opinions from the headlines without reading the contents of the stories.

 
I am responding to 'Solomon?' on matters of fact alone, Oluwatoyin wrote. Thereafter, he buttressed his 'matters of fact' with three links. (i) 6 Fulani Herdsmen Arrested Over Kidnap of Falae - Police. This headline led to http://ireports.ng.com. where the followings were narrated. According to a member of the Falae's family, three suspected kidnappers of Falae were arrested in Niger State while three others were arrested in Ondo and Ekiti state respectively on Sunday, 11 October 2015. The police team that tracked and arrested the suspects was said to have recovered an undisclosed sum of money, which was part of the ransom collected from Falae from one of the suspects. However, Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Femi Joseph, could not confirm the development saying all issues relating to Falae's kidnap has been taken over by the force headquarters. Thus, the rumour of 6 arrested Fulani herdsmen over the kidnap of Falae was not from the police but a member of Falae's family. The headline is sensational and fraudulent because it credited the police with a statement they have never made. We now know through Sahara Reporters that Falae's abductors were from Kwara State and according to Mr. Abdullahi Garba who addressed the press on behalf of DSS, the two suspects were picked up in Lokoja, Kogi State, and not six suspected Fulani herdsmen were arrested in Niger, Ondo and Ekiti States according to Oluwatoyin's version.
(ii) Another headline which was 'Falae Kidnapped by Herdsmen - Police,' was traced to http://dailyindependentnig.com.  The online media wrote, "The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Wole Ogodo who confirmed the incident (the kidnap of Falae) to newsmen, said 50 mobile policemen have been deployed to the farm to search for the abducted politician and statesman." More specific, Daily Independent quoted Wole Ogodo to have said, "Baba Falae has been having a running battle with the herdsmen who always invade his farmland with herds of cows; and this morning, we learnt that he visited the farm and he was attacked by these herdsmen. But we have sent 50 of our men to the farm to begin the search for him." Here again the Daily Independent in its headline wrongly credited the police  for saying that Falae was kidnapped by herdsmen at a time when 50 policemen were drafted to search for the where about of the abducted Falae and his abductors. This is not matters of fact but a matter of fraudulent representation of facts to credit the police with a statement they have never made about who kidnapped Falae.

 

Oluwatoyin's third matters of fact was derived from the Vanguard's Headline, "HOW FULANI HERDSMEN ABDUCTED OLU FALAE." In spite of the headline, Vanguard wrote, Police source, however, said that the Fulani herdsmen may have been used by other interested party who have requested for a ransom." After pointing out that the police in a swift action had deployed 50 policemen to search for Falae, the police spokesman, Wole Ogodo, was quoted as saying that it was too hasty to conclude that the politician (Falae) was kidnapped. Of course, we are now certain that Falae was kidnapped, but not by Fulani herdsmen as it has been propagated by Oluwatoyin and companies. In fact, the police source referred to on 21st September 2015 by the Vanguard guessed right when it said that the Fulani herdsmen may have been used by other interested party who have requested for a ransom if we are to go by what is now published by Sahara Reporters. Abdullahi Usman, the cattle rearer, had acted as an informant to a criminal gang who desired to abduct a rich man for a ransom. His action was not peculiar to his trade as a herdsman or his Fulani ethnic origin, if he is one. Therefore, to attribute the abduction of Olu Falae to Fulani herdsmen, as a matter of fact, is completely stupid.

 
 

---

Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 02:43:24 +0100

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Breaking..Fulani kidnap Yoruba Oba [Unfolding Crisis in Nigeria]

From: alu...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Salimonu,

Are you not getting carried away with your defense of Fulani herdsmen, entering into emotional extremes?

The Fulani herdsmen are guilty of much worse than kidnapping.

They  have been engaged in conflict with Falae and his farm before now.

Believing they are capable of kidnapping Falae is therefore very logical.

Secondly, why do you insist on selective reading of the news reports provided you?

The tentative police statements you are quoting  were made before the one that stated that particular Fulani hersmen had been apprehended.

I suggest you dont celebrate  too much yet.

The story is still unfolding.

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I have read the report that Aluko and Salimonu are jubilating over.

One of the abductors is decsribed as a cattle rearer.

In other reports, he is decsribed as a Fulani herdsman.

Should a proverb not sum up this situation?

When the same kind of thief is known to regularly engage in theft, will further thefts by any of  such thieves not add to the allegations agst them?

The core issue is here is criminal activity by Fulani herdsmen.

The central identifier  is that of ethnic identity and occupation.

The situations may involve a group of Fulani herdsmen or one Fulani  herdsman or one such herdsman along with other people.

May we not declare that, in this case, we have the first recorded account of a Fulani herdsman extending the criminal activity for which Fulani herdsmen have become notorious beyond destruction of farmland, rape and murder to kidnapping?

When the pant bomnber Abdulmuttalab emerged  from Northern Nigeria, Nigerians swore that there was no terrorist culture in Nigeria.

After that, Boko Haram emerged from the same region.

The seeds had always been there for those who looked carefully enough.

True, kidnapping in Nigeria began with the Niger Delta militants, but they no longer engage in that, to the best of my knowledge.

It spread  to the South East, but the SE worked hard to crush it and they have made much progress, I understand.

Is the outcry by Afenifere and other Yoruba represenatives on this incident not the kind of alarm that needs to be set off before the situation  escalates?

The person who is supine over the activity of one thief might soon play host to a  family of thieves.

As it is, with this incident, the Fulani herdsmen and Yorubaland have entered into what is known in international relations as a state of detente- mutual detterent.

Destructive capacity has been measured on each side.

Those who destroy farmlands and rape women of their hosts have been warned that the cup is full.

I look forward to similar inititiaves from other parts of Niogeria and a collective debate and  referendum as to what do about Fulani husbandry.

Great thanks to this group for these stimulating and challenging discussions.

thanks

toyin

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Oluwatoyin, your contempt for Fulani herdsmen reminds me of the same attitude by Àkàrà-Õgùn towards a wailing ghommid in the forest of thousand daemons, as narrated by D.O.Fágúnwã, in the Yoruba fable, Ògbójú Ode Ni'nu Igbo Irúnmalè (Brave Hunter in the Forest of Daemons). I doubt if Fulani herdsmen have access to your contemptuous characterization of them as criminals which makes it impossible for them to respond to you just as the ghommid did to Àkàrà-Õgùn. Since you once declared on this forum that your Yoruba name is a mask to hide your ethnic identity in Nigeria, I am not sure you have read Ògbójú Ode Ni'nu Igbo Irúnmalé. I hereby recapitulate the encounter of Àkàrà-Õgùn with the ghommid. The enormous wailing of the ghommid scared away animals which Àkàrà-Õgùn had wanted to shoot and he got angry and addressed the ghommid thus, "What a rotten race you ghommids are, you who dripped incessantly from the nostrils! Just what precisely is the cause of your tragedy? What anyway does a thing like you want with a mat? If you don't shut your mouth this instant I'll shoot you where you stand." The ghommid replied Àkàrà-Õgùn thus, "Even so do you human-beings behave, you who have turned kindness sour to the charitable. We watch you, you whose eyes do not stay long in one place, you who chase emptiness all your life. Those who are over fed with food continue to seek glorified positions, seek to live like kings and they justify the exploitation of their fellow human-beings with fingers are not equal. You dishonest human-beings never see that the nostrils are equal while cheating one another. And it is also in your nature that your minds are never at peace; those who find happiness today ensure that their neighbours find no peace the day following; death today, tomorrow disease; war today, confusion tomorrow; tears today, tomorrow sorrow - such is the common pursuit of you, human-beings. And when we think of your plight, we pity you, we weep for you and drip at the nostrils, but instead of earning your affection, instead of you dancing to greet us and fussing over us, you find even our mats a cause to despise us, our running nostrils become your favourite target to ridicule us, you speak of our solitude as a punishment, our existence as beneath contempt - even to the extent that you have now coined the belittling expression, *Tears in the eye of a gnom*."

 

For many centuries the Fulani Herdsmen have been the main supplier of meat in Nigeria. Before the advent of railways and trailers in Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen used to trek with their cows from the North to the markets in the South. Even with the introduction of Railways and Trailers as means of transporting cows to the South, not many Fulani herdsmen could afford the cost of transportation of cows from the North to the South. The nomadic Fulani herdsmen from the North still constitute major supply of meat to the south most especially now that the railways and road systems have been dilapidated because the ruling elites have stolen money meant for maintenance, repairs and expansions. Chief Olu Falae was Secretary to the Government of the Federation under the military President, Ibrahim Babangida. It would not have caused so much to build ranches along the routes of Fulani herdsmen throughout Southern Nigeria so that there would be no encroachment on farmlands to feed the cows which eventually would end up in the pot of soup of Mrs. Falae and other meat loving Nigerians. If Fulani herdsmen should abandon animal breeding and cattle rearing in Nigeria today, the country will depend solely on importation of meat from abroad. Instead of thanking Fulani herdsmen for engaging in a very laborious work of providing meat for Nigerians, we ridicule and despise them for doing honest job. No, Oluwatoyin! I am not jubilating. I am rather sad that the fundamental human right of all Fulani herdsmen not to be criminalised because of perceived misdeed of an individual among them is being grossly violated by you and others.

 

One of the two abductors paraded, Abdullahi Usman, admitted to having informed a friend, named Datijo, about a big man he had observed, while leading his flock of cows around, and who used to drive to his farm in Toyota Hilux Van. Abdullahi Usman has not been confirmed to be a Fulani even though he admitted moving cows around. Moreover, the gang that approached Usman including Datijo are from Kwara and it is yet to be established whether all the culprits involved in the kidnap of Chief Falae are Kwara Fulani people.

 

With regards to the underwear bomber, Abdul Muttalab, that you mentioned, do not forget that the only connection the boy had with Nigeria was his Nigerian Passport and paternal origin. Right from childhood, his education was outsourced to English international school in Togo from where he proceeded to study Mechanical Engineering in London. While on his mission, he flew from Ghana and only transited at Ikeja airport on his way to Amsterdam and America. The Penta-erythritol Tetra-Nitrate which Abdul Muttalab wore under his pant was not produced in Nigeria but Yemen. It is even doubtful if Muttalab, a mechanical engineer, knew the effect of what he was wearing since, chemically, the device could only explode when heated up to between 205 and 215 degree Centigrade. The heat needed to cause explosion could not be obtained in the plane. As there are many questions to be unravelled concerning the behaviour and action of Muttalab, your example of him as a Nigerian terrorist is very poor. Answering to one Tood Woodard's question on Christmas bombing of 2009 during a town hall meeting on 26 January 2010, to mark her one year anniversary as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said among others, "In Nigeria which is, as you know, evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, about 75 million of each - Christans predominantly in the South, Muslims predominantly in the North - there has been an accommodation that has enabled Nigeria to survive politically. But the failure of Nigerian leadership over many years to respond to the legitimate needs of their own young people, to have a government that promoted meritocracy, that really understood that democracy can't just be given lip service, has meant there is a lot of alienation in that country and others. ... And the information we have on the Christmas Day Bomber so far seems to suggest that he was disturbed by his father's wealth and the kind of living conditions that he viewed as not being Islamic enough and just the kind of attitudes young people often portray toward their families as they go through their maturing. But in this case, and in so many others, such young people are targets for recruiters to extremism.

So I do not think that Nigeria faces a threat from increasing radicalization that needs to be addressed, and not just by military means. There has to be recognition that in the last ten years, a lot of indicators about quality of life in Nigeria have gone the wrong direction. The rate of illiteracy is growing not falling, in a country that used to have a very high rate of literacy in Africa. The health statistics are going in wrong direction. The corruption is unbelievable. And when I did a town hall in Abuja, people were just literally standing and shouting about what it was like to live in country where the elite was so dominant, where corruption was so rampant, where criminality was so pervasive." Oluwatoyin, we cannot continue to talk about effects and not causes of our problems, politically and economically, in Nigeria.

I rest my case.

S. Kadiri        
 

---

Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:10:52 +0100

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Salimonu,

Igbos trade all over Nigeria.

Nobody builds stores for them in gratitude for being the backbone of such goods as vehicle spare parts and electronics in Nigeria, and being central to the provision of  other goods, such as books.

They build the stores themselves, as is correct for businesspeople who are in business for profit, not charity.

Why do some people keep urging the Nigerian govt to build ranches  for Fulani herdsmen, who are also businesspeople?

Are they giving this meat to anyone for free, making others liable to take up their economic responsibilities?

It is this sense  entitlement that is central to the problem Nigeria has with Fulani herdsmen.

Did they offer to buy land to build ranches and they were turned down?

All Nigerians are bearing the brunt of inadequate resources.

No group should terrorise others bcs of claims of inadequate  infrastructure.

Wikipedia on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with cited sources, presents him as growing up in and significantly schooling in Northern  Nigeria from his formative  years :

'The family comes from Funtua in Katsina State. Abdulmutallab was raised initially in an affluent neighbourhood of Kaduna,^[11][12] in Nigeria's north,^[7] and at the family home in Nairobi, Kenya.^[13] He attended the Essence International School in Kaduna as a young child. He also took classes at the Rabiatu Mutallib Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, which had been named for his grandfather, at that time.^[14] He also attended the The British School of Lomé, Togo.^[15] Considered a gifted student, he also enjoyed playing PlayStation and basketball.^[11] Abdulmutallab studied at University College London in September 2005, where he studied Engineering and Business Finance,^[16] and earned a degree in mechanical engineering in June 2008.^[17]'

Is it the sins of the Nigerian ruling class that enables the recurrent pogroms, since the 1960s in Northern Nigeria agst non-Muslims and non-Northerners, from protests agst  the Danish anti-Muhammed cartoons, to protests agst Reinhard Boke's crusade, to protests agst the comments of a journalist on a beauty contest to protests agst Buhari's loss in 2011, among others?

A population that demonstrates  a culture of regularly  drenching the community with the blood of those they are supposed to be giving shelter to is a volatile place where people need to be prepared for anything, creating a breeding ground for murderous religious extremists.

Are we to return to that culture after Boko Haram has been subdued?

Have we witnessed any serious effort to address this pogrom culture by the Northern Nigerian Muslim elite?

I wonder where you got this from 'you once declared on this forum that your Yoruba name is a mask to hide your ethnic identity in Nigeria, I am not sure you have read Ògbójú Ode Ni'nu Igbo Irúnmalé' but Soyinka has translated  the book as The Forest of a Thousand Daemons, which I have read. 

 I have  written  both in Standard English and in Pidgin English on as well as made a film on Abiola Irele's magnificent essay referencing the book in relation to the naturalistic context of the forest literature that links Fagunwa, Tutuola and Soyinka and I have also compared this naturalistic context with that of the work of Ayi Kwei Armah.

Your quote from Fagunwa illustrates superbly a cosmological vision also evident in Adeoye Babalola's translations of Ijala, Yoruba hunter's poetry, and also demonstrated in Wande Abimbola's translations from ese ifa, the literature of the Yoruba Ifa system of knowledge and divination, and also resonant in various other African cosmologies and the literature influenced by them, an idea incidentally summed up by Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan as described in Robert Kanigel's The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan : "We know the height of this wall for us, but what is the height of the wall for an ant?", which is the effort to demonstrate  a complementary  sensitivity to the worlds inhabited by various forms of being within the intersection of these worlds, using imaginative perception of how the inhabitants  of these worlds see themselves in relation to others and see others in relation to themselves, or through inversions of perception  in which the non-human entity is empowered by the activities of humans, suggesting varieties of perceiving the same phenomena from different vantage points, although this might be too rigid a manner of describing  what is often more of an imaginative device than a cosmological statement, as in  the ironic lines in  "Salute to the Baboon",an Ijala poem translated by Babalola, in which the baboon is described as one from whom the hunter has not received a wife, but who receives self prostration homage from the hunter ( I leave readers to puzzle out that superb image), he who teaches a dog how to hunt,   one whom his mother gazed and gazed upon and burst out weeping, declaring her son's handsomeness  would be the death of him, gentleman on the treetop, whose fine figure intoxicates him like liquor, uncle to the red tapas monkey, chest like a ginning rod...'

Within this universe, as in the Ijapa the tortoise stories, for example, there is demonstrated an understanding  of the existence of good and of evil, of how they may be intertwined and of how ideal balance is achieved through all parties respecting the rights and integrity of other parties.

I expect the correlation between this ideal of balance by respecting the rights of others and the recurrent insistence of Fulani herdsmen on making  Nigerians pay in blood and disruption for  the herdsmen's responsibilities as animal herders is clear.

thanks

toyin

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Oluwatoyin,
I have been knocked down by fever, that is why I have not been able to respond to your voodoo logic that thrives on myth and superstition. It is voodoo logic that makes you to think that if a man hangs a bunch of voodoo prepared broom inside the front door to his house, any intruding thief, would be forced to pick the broom and start sweeping endlessly until the owner of the house apprehends him. Logically, one should reason about what happens if the intruding thieves are more than one, let's say 6 in numbers. For the voodoo broom to be effective, six voodoo brooms should be available. Since there is only one voodoo broom, what will the rest five intruding thieves be doing if one of them is sweeping? That is a logical question. But, just like a psychotic, there is no logical association in the reasoning of a voodoo person. Normal person talks in logical association; that is to say, one point leads to another point; there are no scattering of points to confuse listeners or readers.
 
In the Southern part of Nigeria (Southeast, South-south and South-West) more than 20, 000 cows are consumed daily. Most of these cows are brought to the Markets in the South from the North by trekking Fulani herdsmen. With the rate of consumption of meat in Nigeria, especially in the south where no soup can be prepared without cattle meat, any serious government would have developed cattle breeding industrially by establishing cattle ranches with fodder development technologies, abattoirs and meat processing factories. In your voodoo logic, you are equating tradesmen to industrialists and you are wrong. Fulani herdsmen can become tradesmen, if they are smart enough to get import wavers from the federal government to import cow meats into Nigeria from Argentina, Australia, New-Zealand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. And those Fulani herdsmen who are not influential and smart enough to obtain import waivers, will ingest or swallow condoms of illicit drugs to sell in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, so as to get money to import to Nigeria spare parts of electronics and vehicles. Some of these spare parts traders are caught in their host countries and sentenced to death and the Nigerian government through her foreign affairs ministry and its embassy would start begging for clemency for Nigerians who derived their capitals for trades from illicit drug trafficking, in foreign lands.
 
With regards to your reliance on Wikipedia for the biography of  Abdulmuttalab, I can only advise you not to believe everything you read their as the author may have reason to embellish the truth. In Wikipedia's world, Nigeria is the fastest growing economy in Africa that has surpassed South Africa, but you can only get to the truth by asking how Nigeria whose generation of electricity is under 5,000 Mega Watts/day for a population of 170 million can surpass South Africa who generates 48,000 Mega Watts/day for 50 million people?
 
 You wrote, "I wonder where you got this from *you once declared on this forum that your Yoruba name is a mask to hide your ethnic identity in Nigeria, I am not sure you have read Ògbójù Ode Ni'nu Igbo Irúnmalè* but Soyinka translated the book as the Forest of a Thousand Daemons, which I have read." A good reader of my post that you referenced would have known that the significant thing in my reference to the book was to identify your character with Fulani herdsmen with that of Àkàrà-Õgùn to the ghommids. In doing so, I had, for the benefit of non-readers of that book, cited what Àkàrà-Õgùn said to a ghommid and the response of the ghommid to Àkàrà-Õgùn. With your response, you have admitted (because you have not denied it) that you are contemptuous and disdainful towards Fulani herdsmen just like Àkàrà-Õgùn was to the ghommids. On the question of your Yoruba name as a mask for your real ethnic identity, may I refer you to your post of 18th August 2015 when you commented on Ben Nwabueze, Buhari must probe IBB, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo too, on this forum. This is what you wrote, "Also interesting to observe the ethnic configuration of contributors - Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani names - support Buhari and APC and the selective probe strategy. Igbo and other non-Yoruba names- against the selective probe strategy and possibly against Buhari and APC. I AM AGAINST BUHARI, APC AND THEIR SELECTIVE PROBE GIMMICK. I AM NOT YORUBA ALTHOUGH MY NAME IS YORUBA." Until you clarify your ethnic identity, your name Oluwatoyin Adepoju, will stand as a mask for your real ethnic identity.

 

---

Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 15:58:25 +0100

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Adepoju

Admit defeat

You must admit that you are getting an education,

A beating,

A teaching and

A lesson

From yours truly,

Ogbeni Kadiri

Don’t I know that you have read much of those twenty four hour days?

Lissen up: Cosmological naira Neopaganism mumbo Jumbo logic, that’s what it is.

...

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Wisdom couldn't be closer to the truth : EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

Another defintion with which the cynics amongst us entertain great expectations and in advance, most readliy agree when it comes to President Buhari's. But only time and not just good intentions will tell whether or not when it eventually takes shape it will be CABINET, n. The principal persons charged with the mismanagement of a government, the charge being commonly well founded.

On Thursday, 15 October 2015 19:00:20 UTC+2, Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

...