Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

[Windows Live 2018]

I disagree with the thesis of government COMPLICITY in this write up.  The duty of government is the dissemination of accurate information to counter fake news.  That some people acted on the accurate information to embark on further retaliatory murders is their sole culpabilitity.

Had the presidency not given a prompt fuller disclosure of information at its disposal then the herdsmen would have been misrepresented as an inexplicably bloodthirsty group;  this information in no way justifies retaliatory murders on the grounds that Fulani herdsmen were killed during the cattle rustling.

In addition to the information provided by the Presidency ALL the herdsmen operating in the area ought to have been arrested to help government unmask the retaliatory murderers.  It would also stop the domino effect of serial retaliations while holding recent culprits immediately accountable.

Government failed in the completion of its duties in this regard and although it may not be in a position to pre-empt the start of hostilities it could have arrested the extension and thereby save more lives.

As I maintained in an earlier post governments immediate goal should be to FULLY disarm the herdsmen and provide government armed protection to ALL herdsmen communities (partly funded by increases taxation on net worth of cattle) to obviate the need for herdsmen to resort to vigilante justice for rustlers.  

This should be the case until settlement of herdsmen is fully completed and integrated into the National Develooment Plan.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: farooq...@gmail.com

Date: 07/07/2018 07:55 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

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Saturday, July 7, 2018

Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

After Premium Times’ over-the-top but nonetheless admirably ethical and well-intentioned apology and firing of its reporter for reporting, without verification, a certain Danladi Ciroma’s coldhearted justification for the Plateau massacre, a motley crowd of incorrigibly peevish government apologists looking for a convenient diversion from the gross incompetence of the government seized on the apology like a drowning man clutches at every twig and worked themselves into a pitifully maniacal feeding frenzy on the Nigerian news media.  

Some even went so far as to self-righteously wail that Premium Times’ apology won’t bring back the people who died as a result of its inaccurate reporting! Seriously? You have to truly take leave of your senses—if you had any to begin with—to assume that it was the reporting of Ciroma’s alleged justification for the savage mass murders of Berom farmers that ignited the equally unjust, barbaric murders of innocent Muslim travelers along Bauchi-Jos road.

Retaliatory murders are an abiding feature of communal conflicts in Nigeria. I covered several of them when I was a reporter. The perpetrators of these murders don’t need any prodding from the media to give vent to their bloodthirsty urges. It’s unforgivably simplistic to think that the news media are all-powerful, irresistible social syringes that inject thoughts and attitudes into people with immediate and dramatic effect.

In any case, this is not the first time Miyetti Allah’s officials have been reported in the media to have justified, claimed responsibility for, or issued threats of, mass murders, which, to my knowledge, they have never denied. For instance, on January 4, 2018, chairman of Benue State’s Miyetti Allah, Garus Gololo, told the BBC that the mass murder in Benue was a retaliation for the theft of 1,000 cattle. As far as I know, Gololo hasn’t disowned this interview. How was that different from what Ciroma was alleged to have said?

The Nation, incidentally Bola Tinubu’s newspaper, which originally published the quotes attributed to Ciroma, hasn’t repudiated its story, much less apologize for it. In fact, Yusufu Aminu Idegu, the Nation’s reporter who spoke with Ciroma, insists that his reporting was faithful to what Ciroma actually told him during a phone interview, and his paper stands by him.

Interestingly, Ciroma admitted that he DID SPEAK with the reporter. He only said he was misquoted. “I told the reporter that leaders at the local and national levels should come together and resolve this crisis before it is too late,” he told Premium Times on June 29, 2018. So people who said the Nation’s reporter “fabricated” the interview, which other newspapers, including Premium Times, published are the real duplicitous fabricators. Not even Ciroma says the interview was fabricated.

From my experience as a journalist and as a journalism teacher, I can bet my bottom dollar that Ciroma only recanted the interview because of the massive backlash it instigated. Had Gololo’s own interview with the BBC inspired a similar pushback, he might have denied it as well. This is an all-too-familiar media stratagem.

And it isn’t just Nigerian public figures and public officials who traffic in this. For instance, sometime in 2012, the mayor of my city here in the US sued me and one of my final-year journalism students who wrote a story for our class website based on a speech I invited the mayor to deliver to my students. During the Q and A session, the mayor got carried away and talked about a certain "shady" land developer's unacceptable ethical infractions without mentioning his name. My student put the pieces together and was able to identify who the "shady" developer was. She interviewed the developer and wrote her story.

The mayor sued and said my student made up the story. (Politicians say this everywhere when they get into trouble for what they say). Thankfully, we had the full video recording of his talk, which we uploaded on our class website. The developer's lawyer found the video recording and brought it to the mayor's attention. That was the end of the story.

I should point out that what the Nation reporter did, that is, sharing his report with his colleagues from other media houses, is not unusual, either. It’s called pack journalism, and it happens even here in the United States. I hate it, but it is what it is.

People who know nothing about journalism are also saying that the Nation reporter’s admission that he did not record his interview with Ciroma somehow invalidated his claims to have accurately reported him. In journalism, it is perfectly ethical and even legal to write a news story from unrecorded interviews. In fact, it is legal to write a story and even reconstruct quotes from memory so long as the quotes are consistent with what the interviewer says. Google Janet Malcolm and read up on her case with a psychoanalyst who sued her for attributing quotes to him that he said he never uttered. She won. Of course, I always tell my students to record their interviews AND take notes because most politicians will dispute a story when it provokes an unanticipated backlash.

In all of this, what galls me is the utter hypocrisy of ignoring the presidency’s own prejudicial statement on the Plateau massacre and pretending that Ciroma was accused of saying something that was unheard of. The presidency basically said almost the same thing that Ciroma is now disclaiming. This was how the presidency traced the trigger for the bloodletting in Plateau in an official statement: "According to information available to the Presidency, about 100 cattle had been rustled by a community in Plateau State, and some herdsmen were killed in the process." That statement isn't substantively different from what Miyetti Allah's Ciroma was supposedly falsely quoted to have said: that the carnage was a retaliation for the theft of 300 cows. Will the presidency also have the decency to apologize, like Premium Times did, for disseminating “falsehood”?

If newspapers had cast headlines based on the press release from the presidency that went something like: "Plateau: death of 200 people retaliation for theft of 100 cattle--Presidency" it would have been accurate and would have stoked the same outrage that the quote attributed to Ciroma did. Remember that headlines are not designed to capture everything the body of a story contains because they can’t; they simply function to invite the reader to discover the content.

The presidency's statement was issued a day after the crisis when tempers were still high and before an official investigation was conducted. That's not how to de-escalate conflict. If the presidency is efficient enough to know the cause of the conflict only one day after it occurred, it should have used that almost prescient prowess to forestall it so that it won't be in the business of apportioning blames and pointing out who started what first before official investigations. Every government's ultimate goal should be to save lives.

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

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[Victor Okafor]

In Nigeria, cattle-herding is a private enterprise, or is it not? Do the owners of the affected cattle bear a responsibility for the killings that have occurred/been committed by the herders across the land? Don't we/you eat beef here in the USA? How many times have we/you seen cattle being herded on American streets? Collectively, does Nigeria consume more beef than the United States? What law of nature determined that herding cattle in the public square, across real estate owned by individual citizens, is the only way by which to herd/graze cattle? Does the herding of cattle across real estate not constitute, ipso facto, an illegal act of trespassing by Nigerian law?

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Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.

Professor and Head

Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Email: vok...@emich.edu

Tel: 734.487.9594

[farooq...@gmail.com]

I am not sure you are responding to my article. The government--and its apologists--claim that Miyetti Allah's Ciroma was misquoted (some, such as Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, even so far as to lie that Ciroma's interview was "fabricated") as saying that the killings in Plateau were a retaliation for the theft of 300 cows. Premium Times apologized for the report ONLY because they discovered that their reporter got his quotes from his colleague at the Nation newspaper who spoke directly with Ciroma, but he wrote his story as if Ciroma issued a press statement. Jibo and other Buhari apologists twisted the Premium Times apology to advance the fraudulent narrative that Premium Times admitted to fabricating a story that escalated the Plateau conflict.

Now, my point is that the Presidency OFFICIALLY released a statement that essentially repeated the exact sentiments that Ciroma has now denied expressing to the Nation reporter: that people were killed in retaliation for the theft of cows. Government apologists say it was the reporting of Ciroma's statement-- that the Plateau killings were a retaliation for the theft of cows-- that instigated retaliatory killings. That is a singularly stupid claim to make. But let us, for the sake of argument, agree that, that was the case. Since the presidency made the same claim as Ciroma was alleged to have made in an official press release, which the media reported, isn't the presidency also complicit in the retaliations? I am using the logic of the government and its apologists.

Farooq

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

[Windows Live 2018]

Now my point is that Buhari apologists are to be separated from the Presidency.  Yes, the Presidency issued a statement which to ALL intents and purposes said a similar thing to what Corona has denied saying. I quite appreciate the international angle you brought to bear on your argument regarding such denials.  At least the Presidency never denied issuing the statement. This is why I'm concerned about your headline on the complicity of the Presidency.

I checked the meaning of the word on phone app version of the Oxford dictionary to ensure my assu.ptiin of the meaning is accurate. It sure is.. It is defined as involvement WITH OTHERS to commit morally wrong or unlawful activity.  If Ciro.a denied making a claim that is similar to the release of the Presidency. That is a matter that can be taken up with him including asking the telephone company to submit a transcript of the conversation.  Until that is done Corona cannot be declared a liar. As a professor of journalism and practising journalist I'm very sure you are aware of the provisions of the law of libel, defamation and sedition.

Back to the Presidency, in which sense can the issued statement be said to be unlawful activity with others?  In which sense can the statement be said to have contributed to the commuting of retaliatory murders?  Can you point to which aspect of the statement did that other than your write up pandering to the allegations of others that the Miyetti Allah admission of retaliatory murders serves as instigation to further retaliatory murders. Had President Buhari himself on the earlier Benue episode not chided people to desist from retaliatory murders?

I would ordinarily have settled for your explanation that headlinescare merely invitations to read but your concluding paragraph actually reinforced governments culpability. In other words government is accused of criminal intent in its issued statement which was to ALL intents and purposes meant to clarify who started this round of violence first by killing fellow human beings first : I.e. were the first victims because contrary to the initial claims the heardsmen did not retaliate simply because they lost cattle but because their members were slain in the process of rustling.  How does this clarification make the Presidency complicit in anything in the definition of the word offered above?  I stated that the fact that herdsmen were killed does not give them any lawful right to recompense in retaliatory action. No where did the government statement say it gave them this lawful right.

I then went on put the blame on government  not because of any complicity but because if failed to FULLY exercise its lawful duties by not arresting the herdsmen who actually admitted committing murder for any reasons. Had they been arrested perhaps that would short circuit the electricity of serial retaliation because they would have been in protective custody helping government unravel the identity of who the hustlers were which would lead to their arrest and prosecution alongside the retaliatory herdsmen murderers.

In the end we both agree on government shortcomings. You interpreted the shortcomings as complicity; I explained it as negligence on the part of government.  CGiven the provisions of sedition cited above you leave your flanks open to be sued alongside your newspaper  by the Attorney General on the instructions of the Presidency for deliberate incitement of the populace against government for no lawful reasons.  It is my view that you should avoid exposing yourself  and your newspaper to such vulnerability in the future through more careful use of words.

OAA.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: farooq...@gmail.com

Date: 08/07/2018 07:34 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (farooq...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

I am not sure you are responding to my article. The government--and its apologists--claim that Miyetti Allah's Ciroma was misquoted (some, such as Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, even so far as to lie that Ciroma's interview was "fabricated") as saying that the killings in Plateau were a retaliation for the theft of 300 cows. Premium Times apologized for the report ONLY because they discovered that their reporter got his quotes from his colleague at the Nation newspaper who spoke directly with Ciroma, but he wrote his story as if Ciroma issued a press statement. Jibo and other Buhari apologists twisted the Premium Times apology to advance the fraudulent narrative that Premium Times admitted to fabricating a story that escalated the Plateau conflict.

Now, my point is that the Presidency OFFICIALLY released a statement that essentially repeated the exact sentiments that Ciroma has now denied expressing to the Nation reporter: that people were killed in retaliation for the theft of cows. Government apologists say it was the reporting of Ciroma's statement-- that the Plateau killings were a retaliation for the theft of cows-- that instigated retaliatory killings. That is a singularly stupid claim to make. But let us, for the sake of argument, agree that, that was the case. Since the presidency made the same claim as Ciroma was alleged to have made in an official press release, which the media reported, isn't the presidency also complicit in the retaliations? I am using the logic of the government and its apologists.

Farooq

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

On Sat, Jul 7, 2018 at 11:26 AM Windows Live 2018 <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Windows Live 2018]

EDITED (Ciroma misspeltby typo prompter)

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Windows Live 2018 <yagb...@hotmail.com>

Date: 08/07/2018 22:12 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

Now my point is that Buhari apologists are to be separated from the Presidency.  Yes, the Presidency issued a statement which to all intents and purposes said a similar thing to what Ciroma has denied saying. I quite appreciate the international angle you brought to bear on your argument regarding such denials.  At least the Presidency never denied issuing the statement. This is why I'm concerned about your headline on the complicity of the Presidency.

I checked the meaning of the word on phone app version of the Oxford dictionary to ensure my assumption of the meaning is accurate. It sure is.. It is defined as involvement WITH OTHERS to commit morally wrong or unlawful activity.  If Ciroma denied making a claim that is similar to the release of the Presidency. That is a matter that can be taken up with him including asking the telephone company to submit a transcript of the conversation.  Until that is done Ciroma cannot be declared a liar. As a professor of journalism and practising journalist I'm very sure you are aware of the provisions of the law of libel, defamation and sedition.

Back to the Presidency, in which sense can the issued statement be said to be unlawful activity with others?  In which sense can the statement be said to have contributed to the committing of retaliatory murders?  Can you point to which aspect of the statement did that other than your write up pandering to the allegations of others that the Miyetti Allah admission of retaliatory murders serves as instigation to further retaliatory murders? Had President Buhari himself on the earlier Benue episode not chided people to desist from retaliatory murders?

I would ordinarily have settled for your explanation that headlines are merely invitations to read but your concluding paragraph actually reinforced governments culpability. In other words government is accused of criminal intent in its issued statement which was to all  intents and purposes meant to clarify who started this round of violence first by killing fellow human beings first : I.e. were the first victims because contrary to the initial claims the heardsmen did not retaliate simply because they lost cattle but because their members were slain in the process of rustling.  How does this clarification make the Presidency complicit in anything in the definition of the word offered above?  I stated that the fact that herdsmen were killed does not give them any lawful right to recompense in retaliatory action. No where did the government statement say it gave them this lawful right.

I then went on put the blame on government  not because of any complicity but because if failed to FULLY carry out its lawful duties by not arresting the herdsmen who actually admitted committing murder for any reasons. Had they been arrested perhaps that would short circuit the electricity of serial retaliation because they would have been in protective custody helping government unravel the identity of who the hustlers were which would lead to their arrest and prosecution alongside the retaliatory herdsmen murderers.

In the end we both agree on government shortcomings. You interpreted the shortcomings as complicity; I explained it as negligence on the part of government.  Given the provisions of sedition cited above you leave your flanks open to be sued alongside your newspaper  by the Attorney General on the instructions of the Presidency for deliberate incitement of the populace against government for no lawful reasons.  It is my view that you should avoid exposing yourself  and your newspaper to such vulnerability in the future through more careful use of words.

[farooq...@gmail.com]

OAA,

If you have troubles with the English language--or with understanding what I wrote-- admit it and seek help. Both the presidency and its apologists said media reporting of the statement that the Plateau killings were a retaliation for the theft of cows was the trigger for the retaliatory killings of Muslim travelers. Since the presidency made the same statement, it means, by its own logic, it's also complicit in the retaliatory killings of Muslims. That's my claim, and it's such simple, straightforward logic.

From what you wrote, you obviously know nothing about libel and sedition. I won't waste my time debating that with you.

Farooq

Farooq Kperogi, PhD
Associate Professor
Journalism and Emerging Media

School of Communication & Media
Social Science Building Room 5092

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, GA 30144
Office phone: 470-578-7735
Fax: 470-578-9153
Cell: 404-573-9697
Website: www.farooqkperogi.com
Twitter:@farooqkperogi

Sent from my 4G LTE Android device. Please forgive typos.

   

[Windows Live 2018]

Your observations are in order.  But government has the onerous responsibility to protect ALL private business for the nation  to achieve its desired goal of economic progress.  Yes the law of trespass is germane to the resolution of the crisis but if the law of trespass is implemented in Nigeria as it is applied in the US  today many snall scale traders on the streets of major cities would be put out of business.  It needs to be upheld ultimately but in a planned way  that takes into cognisance the level of economic and cultural develooment of Nigeria and in a way  and manner that gives participants time to adjust.  The hue and cry about how Lagos approached the matter particularly with affected traders from the East is a good case in point.

Yes for decades beef from the herders has constituted a staple across Nigeria and adequate planning has to be made and adequate  time given for the desired transformation in the mode of production.  Governments have failed in the past to ensure the success of programmatic transformation in this regard.

Let me repeat: Nigeria is not America and not at the same level of economic development as America.  In the days of the Wild Wild West when America was at the same level of current Nigerian cattle herding culture cattle roamed free at the behest of lasso-ing cowboys.  It took time and careful planning and execution  for America to achieve the transformation we now take for granted.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Victor Okafor <vok...@emich.edu>

Date: 08/07/2018 07:34 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (vok...@emich.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

In Nigeria, cattle-herding is a private enterprise, or is it not? Do the owners of the affected cattle bear a responsibility for the killings that have occurred/been committed by the herders across the land? Don't we/you eat beef here in the USA? How many times have we/you seen cattle being herded on American streets? Collectively, does Nigeria consume more beef than the United States? What law of nature determined that herding cattle in the public square, across real estate owned by individual citizens, is the only way by which to herd/graze cattle? Does the herding of cattle across real estate not constitute, ipso facto, an illegal act of trespassing by Nigerian law?

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Sincerely,

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Professor and Head

Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Email: vok...@emich.edu

Tel: 734.487.9594

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Incompatible comparisons-

'Let me repeat: Nigeria is not America and not at the same level of economic development as America.  In the days of the Wild Wild West when America was at the same level of current Nigerian cattle herding culture cattle roamed free at the behest of lasso-ing cowboys.  It took time and careful planning and execution  for America to achieve the transformation we now take for granted.'

The US never had free movement of cows across all kinds of landscape, as the Fulani herdsmen are doing today. They also started ranching very early The US  cowboys also were not engaged in terrorism, murders, rapes and genocidal ethnic cleansing and colonization as the Fulani herdsmen are doing.

Incompatible comparisons-

'Yes the law of trespass is germane to the resolution of the crisis but if the law of trespass is implemented in Nigeria as it is applied in the US  today many snall scale traders on the streets of major cities would be put out of business. '

 The small scale traders, unlike the Fulani herdsmen, are not in the business of murder, rape, massacre and genocidal colonization backed by a miyeyti allah like pressure group in alliance with an ethnocentric govt

Reasonable but chooses to ignore the terrorist/political context- 

'Yes for decades beef from the herders has constituted a staple across Nigeria and adequate planning has to be made and adequate  time given for the desired transformation in the mode of production.  Governments have failed in the past to ensure the success of programmatic transformation in this regard.'

Why are the millionaire owners of the cows pretending they cannot help themselves achieve modernization, choosing instead to try to bend  Nigerians through terrorism and political manipulations to pay for the  private business of the cow owners  and even try to colonise Nigeria in the process ?

This culture of bloodthirsty impunity is the elephant in the room which the apologists for the Fulani herdsmen are refusing to address. We are dealing with savages in the make up of right wing Fulani, from those who commit individual murders and rapes to those who massacre defenseless men, women and children and those who are providing the military and political  support for this evil.

To what degree can one reason with savages? They live in a mental and social world of their own.

thanks

toyin

[Windows Live 2018]

Toy In.

Go to America and repeat your second paragraph to the 400 Nations of Amerindians.  I taught American History and I know your claims are not true.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Date: 10/07/2018 00:26 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin....@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

Incompatible comparisons-

'Let me repeat: Nigeria is not America and not at the same level of economic development as America.  In the days of the Wild Wild West when America was at the same level of current Nigerian cattle herding culture cattle roamed free at the behest of lasso-ing cowboys.  It took time and careful planning and execution  for America to achieve the transformation we now take for granted.'

The US never had free movement of cows across all kinds of landscape, as the Fulani herdsmen are doing today. They also started ranching very early The US  cowboys also were not engaged in terrorism, murders, rapes and genocidal ethnic cleansing and colonization as the Fulani herdsmen are doing.

Incompatible comparisons-

'Yes the law of trespass is germane to the resolution of the crisis but if the law of trespass is implemented in Nigeria as it is applied in the US  today many snall scale traders on the streets of major cities would be put out of business. '

 The small scale traders, unlike the Fulani herdsmen, are not in the business of murder, rape, massacre and genocidal colonization backed by a miyeyti allah like pressure group in alliance with an ethnocentric govt

Reasonable but chooses to ignore the terrorist/political context- 

'Yes for decades beef from the herders has constituted a staple across Nigeria and adequate planning has to be made and adequate  time given for the desired transformation in the mode of production.  Governments have failed in the past to ensure the success of programmatic transformation in this regard.'

Why are the millionaire owners of the cows pretending they cannot help themselves achieve modernization, choosing instead to try to bend  Nigerians through terrorism and political manipulations to pay for the  private business of the cow owners  and even try to colonise Nigeria in the process ?

This culture of bloodthirsty impunity is the elephant in the room which the apologists for the Fulani herdsmen are refusing to address. We are dealing with savages in the make up of right wing Fulani, from those who commit individual murders and rapes to those who massacre defenseless men, women and children and those who are providing the military and political  support for this evil.

To what degree can one reason with savages? They live in a mental and social world of their own.

thanks

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Oga Agbetuyi,

I am sufficiently informed on US history.

Not only did I study US history in my BA, I have once developed an undergraduate  course  for teaching US history in relation to its literature.

Having taught US history, are you able to provide credible evidence that can be readily verified to back up your claims?

I am always happy to learn.

The war of subjugation agst the Native Americans was not carried out by cowboys or cattle owners. It was a long drawn out struggle and policy initiated and sustained by the US govt at times in collaboration with European settlers who cannot be reduced to being identified as cowboys. The Wikipedia essay on this tragic story,"American Indian Wars", depicts the various parties involved. 

 Would you want to make the more accurate argument , then, that what we are witnessing, in the form of collusion between right wing Fulani herdsmen and politicians and the Fulani led govt is the equivalent of the brutal subjugation of the Native Americans , with Nigerians being the equivalent of the Native Americans in this instance? That seems to me the only light in which your parallels can stand. 

Secondly, there is a cosmos of difference between the US in the time of the Wild West and contemporary Nigeria. The US at that time was a relatively primitive society, very different from the modernity represented by contemporary Nigeria.

Even within that primitivity, however, cattle were not grazed in urban areas or settled communities or fed on people's farms. The cowboys were not known to constitute themselves into armies killing defenseless Native American men, women and children.

Not only did I study US history in my BA, and have once developed an undergraduate  course  for teaching US history in relation to its literature,  I have a broad idea of the history of that nation from Columbus' discovery, to the coming of the Plymouth Brethren, to the struggles agst and eventual subjugation of the Native Americans, to the Declaration of Independence and the war agst the British, to  the so called Wild Wild West, to slavery and its role in the American Civil War, to the Emancipation Proclamation and the persistence of racism in Jim Crow and other attitudes to the present,  to the founding of the US tradition of higher education in its inspiration by Germany, to the development of US technology as represented by the Wright Brothers, to WW2, to Prohibition and the rise of organised crime, to the post WW2 developments in rocketry enabled by former German rocketry expertise, to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, all the way down to the current struggle over gun control and an insular conception of what it means to be American as represented by Trump.

thanks

toyin

[Salimonu Kadiri]

You are inventing your own version of history of the US. The present day United States of America was a British colony that attracted other European settlers that exterminated the original landowners, the American Indians. Defecating publicly in the market of history, you wrote, "The US never had free movement of cows across all kinds of landscape, as the Fulani herdsmen are doing today. They also started ranching very early. The US cowboys  also were not engaged in terrorism, murders, rapes and genocidal ethnic cleansing and colonization as the Fulani herdsmen are doing." The truth is that the Fulani are one of the ethnic groups constituting the multi-ethnic country, called Nigeria. Therefore, if one is not beset with the marrows of fascism Fulani people in Nigeria should not be treated as foreigners. While a high skill in manipulating and twisting words may be useful in mythology, it actually portrays one as an incorrigible liar if one asserts without proof or evidence that Fulani herdsmen engaged in terrorism, murders, rapes, genocidal ethnic cleansing and colonization in Nigeria. Nigerian media (print and electronic) have consistently been careful to write 'suspected herdsmen' when-ever heinous crimes has been committed, since no herdsmen have been caught at the scene of crime. As proven by the case of Olu Falae's kidnapping, herdsmen were suspected to have kidnapped him, but when the kidnappers were subsequently arrested, they turned out to be ordinary criminals who were neither herdsmen nor Fulani. And if one may ask, where in Nigeria has Fulani herdsmen perpetrated genocidal ethnic cleansing and occupied landed properties of those exterminated as colony? Fulani herdsmen have been accused of committing rapes yet, there were no information about where the rapes took place and there were no observed emerging pregnant women along the path of Fulani herdsmen. Are we to believe that the Fulani herdsmen had raped infertile women or that the herdsmen sperms are too weak to cause pregnancy in women? Since, Fulani are Nigerians and not foreign settlers, they cannot be compared to the US cowboys. Let's glance at records of history.

Originally, America was not a European country and in fact, the original inhabitant were American Indians. Thus, there was no US of America. Just like Australia and New-Zealand, US was a settlers' country led by the English men. Leo Huberman informed us thus, "The settlers fought with the Indians, traded with them, and as more settlers came, tried to kill them off entirely. Captain John Mason wrote an account of an expedition of his soldiers against the Indians. He came to an Indian fort early one morning while the Indians were asleep. After putting half of his men under Captain Underhill at one exit, he surrounded the other exit with the rest of his men, then set the Wigwams on fire. Here is his (Captain John Mason) account: The Captain also said, 'we must burn them,' … (and immediately stepping into the Wigwam  where he had been before), brought out a Fire-Brand and putting it into the Matts with which they were covered, set the Wigwams on fire ….and when it was thoroughly kindled, the Indians ran as men most dreadfully Amazed. And indeed such a dreadful Terror did the Almighty let fall upon their Spirits, that they would fly from us and into the very Flames, where many of them perished. And when the Fort was thoroughly Fired, Command was given, that all should fall off and surround the Fort; which was readily attended by all …  The Fire was kindled on the North East Side to windward; which did swiftly overrun the Fort, to the extreme Amazement of the Enemy, and great Rejoicing of ourselves. Some of them climbing to the Top of the Palizado; others of them running into the very Flames; many of them gathering to windward, lay pelting at us with their Arrows; and we re-payed them with our small Shot; Others of the Stoutest issued forth as we did guess, to the Number of Forty, who perished by the Sword. …. And thus in little more than one Hour's space was their impregnable Fort with themselves utterly destroyed, to the Number of Six or Seven Hundred, as some of themselves confessed. There were only Seven taken Captive and about Seven escaped … Of the English, there two Slain outright, and about twenty wounded. (p.18, We, the People - THE DRAMA OF AMERICA By Leo Huberman). That was how Europeans, led by England annihilated America Indians, seized their land and cattle. Europeans never took cows with them from Europe to America because, climatically such animals never existed in Europe. European settlers simply extinguished the American Indians, occupied their land and seized their cattle. It is only out of historical aloofness that someone can assert that the US cowboys at inception were not engaged in murders, genocidal ethnic cleansing and colonization.

S. Kadiri    

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Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 10 juli 2018 00:49
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Plateau Massacre, Presidency’s Complicity, and Escapist Scapegoating of the News Media

 

[Windows Live 2018]

Ok. If you knew all of this and if you once referred to the different stages of  westernization among Nigerian regions by Awo then you should see the relevance of my argument.  Native Black Americans will NEVER argue the way you do. I taught alongside them for several years and so know what I am saying  The best thing southern Nigerianscshould have dine is instigate cattle ranching in the South to force the North to adapt through competitive advantage.  They instead relied on supply of beef from the North relying on outmoded methods

Watch any western cowboy film and it shows the cowboy culture from Lone Ranger to Wild Wild West series all part of the literature you claim. They show that the movement from the Texan ranges to the Texan ranches was not achieved overnight.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I'm beginning to have some serious doubts .It does not require a more developed capacity for imagination or more facts to understand that in the run-up to the next presidential elections, some very “disgruntled elements” want to whip up a frenzy of antagonism towards President Buhari's Fulani people and thereby exacerbate the divide between the North and the South hoping to overthrow him thereby.

I watched the Belgium – France match at home yesterday with one of the Edo Brethren who has only recently returned from Nigeria and he told me that seeing is believing – that he saw a Fulani herdsman armed with an AK47 on his farm there in Edo State. Have they got that far South ? I asked. He hissed with contempt ( “suck tit”we say in Krio) that they have been that far South for years only this time he saw one of them carrying an AK-47.

OK. Could you show me the photo of this lone Fulani Brother wielding his AK47?

He could not. It's possible that his paranoid imagination had got the better of him.

Another case of

“You ever seen a ghost? No
But you have heard of them”

(Spirit on the Water)

Meanwhile in Sierra Leone, 

things are getting hotter :

The fight against corruption 

has only just begun :

http://bintumani.forumchitchat.com/

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Why should a Fulani herdsman not carry AK47 to defend his flock against cow thieves who are euphemistically referred to as cow rustlers? In the good olden days, herdsmen carried sticks not guns just as most houses of that time in Nigeria had no doors, keys and locks because there were no armed robbers. Today, one cannot forget a mobile phone in the Church or Mosque and return to get it. The Pastor or Imam will tell one that Lord Jesus or Allah has taken care of it. Thus, what causes herdsmen to carry AK47 is even more understandable than what causes the opportunistic and educated Nigerian officials who barricade themselves in gated homes,  enveloped in wall-fences higher than the residential houses and in which they employ armed guards at the main entrances to repel or prevent armed robbers from gaining access to their mansions. While armed robbers in Nigeria are the products of opportunistic and educated Nigerian officials, herdsmen are honest hardworking Nigerians, producing real beef for Nigerians' daily consumption, without which Nigerians would have been forced to eat imported marinated plastics as beefs just as they were forced to consume plastic rice when rice farmers were humiliated out of production by the parasitic educated Nigerian officials. Even where a herdsman has been photographed with an Ak47 hanging around his neck in defensive posture, it has always been in the bush and not in a farmland or residential area. The law that permits parasitic Nigerian Educated officials, the real producers of Nigerian armed robbers, to build high wall-fences around their houses and employed armed guards to protect their illegally acquired standard of living, should also permit herdsmen to arm themselves against cow thieves.

S. Kadiri   

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Skickat: den 11 juli 2018 23:54
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Salimonu and Cornelius,

Salimonu,

Can you share with us your views on Miyetti Allah's owning up to and justifying  various massacres in the Middle Belt?

These justifications by Miyetti Allah  Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation have occurred a no of times  but you seem to prefer to ignore them.

The apex heads of Miyetti Allah are the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano and so they cant be dismissed as unrepresentative non-entities without a constituency  as you have done in the past.

Can you help us with your views on this?

Cornelius, could you please also share your views on this historical fact?

I would very much appreciate a direct response and a reasoned justification of the position presented, without efforts to deny the factuality of the news reports undenied by Miyetti Allah.

Thanks

toyin

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

Sorry. Who be me? I am not a Fulani Herdsman or a spokesperson of the Miyetti Allah 

For best results you had better initiate a dialogue with them ! Really. 

[Salimonu Kadiri]

I have never read or heard any of the many Miyetti Allah's organisations owning up to and justifying various massacres in the Middle Belt. If you have any link or source of information in that regard, let us have it.  The other time you submitted a link to the online vanguardngr., and implored us to watch a video of an AIT interview with Femi Adesina, Buhari's special adviser on Media, where he said that "land owners should relinquish their lands for ranching so as to avoid being killed. But there was no video klipp and my request to you to furnish us the video interview was discountenanced. Ethnic clashes in the Middle belt have been ongoing for decades between Nigerians who declared themselves as natives in the Middle Belt, while declaring other Nigerians, who in spite of having lived in the Middle Belt many generations backwards, as settlers, with no right to land ownership. That is the major cause of deadly violence, not only in the Middle Belt, but throughout Nigeria.

S. Kadiri

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Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Skickat: den 12 juli 2018 19:08

[Windows Live 2018]

What has Toyin Adepoju to say to the deliberate fabrications through fake news and juxtaposition of incongruous pictures to stories of killings uncovered by BBC?

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Toyin,

Hopefully this complements ( somewhat) what Baba Kadir has just said to you. 

First of all I should like to point out to you that the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano are learned Muslims !

“It is true that Paradise is promised to those who simply and sincerely follow Allah's commandments and the Prophet's instructions , but, “ Those who are believers among you , and the learned, Allah will increase their rank “((Surah Mujadila :11)), and, “ Are those who are learned equal to those who are ignorant?” (( Sura Zumar: 9))...

“In the final reckoning, those who have striven and have been blessed with knowledge of themselves and their Lord will have a higher rank. For this knowledge increases one's love for Allah and the Prophet( SAW) “ ( From the Foreword of

THE SECRET OF SECRETS - by Hadrat Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani interpreted by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al Jerrari al Halveti

You once reprimanded of Baba Kadiri : “ You have not been able to build any argument relating to the ancient relationship between cattle nomadism and cosmology in Fulani thought in relation to why it is proving so hard for them to adapt to a new lifestyle”

Since the subject matter is essentially about cattle , you could do yourself a favour by reading the second and by far the longest Surah in the Quran,

al Baqarah ( The Cow

So, please indulge my explorative approach for this little while: to address the implications at the heart of the usually quarrelsome questions I must begin with the most necessary clearing away of the Islamophobic fog which pollutes some attitudes, for which I don't blame you entirely, since you tend to paint Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen with the same brush - as herds of the same feather and for you, some things have already been erroneously defined as being at the core of Boko Haram ideology and meaning nothing less than “Western education is anathema” - which is of course both inaccurate and intentionally misleading.

We have been on the merry-go-round in this very forum, for some time now, when it comes to enunciating (nice word) exactly what is meant by “Western Education”. Perhaps you would like to define it for us, more definitively, and thereby put our various doubts and misapprehensions to rest? In doing, so please bear in mind that the first word of the Quranic revelation is a command : Iqra ! : Read! The Muslim is commanded to read .Very clearly, this means that Islam does not encourage analphabetism – on the contrary! Secondly, there is an abundance of very influential Hadiths about the importance of seeking knowledge and needless to say, Islamic contributions to science, mathematics, astronomy, medicine are well known not to mention the enormous contributions to poetry and philosophy

Yours Truly was in Nigeria during the the Presidency of Shehu Shagari when there was still a state known as Gongola State and although their founder-leader had already departed for the Hereafter, the Maitatsine cult , an early precursor to Boko Haram, was still sporadically showing signs of life and making their violent presence felt in their natural habitat, the North-East. Otherwise, I have been following Islamic affairs in Nigeria since the very impressive ( learned) national discussion which preceded and informed the legitimisation of Sharia Law in Zamfara State in 1990 , onwards.

This point cannot be sufficiently belaboured, since the Islamophobes believe that Islam is equatable with backwardness, bloodthirsty terrorism and everything primitive and detestable in the eyes of Western man and Western wo-man. So let's take a look here :

THE PATH OF ISLAM FOCUSES ON THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF ONESELF

To that end, this may interest you : In The Spirit - Ilahis - led by Shaykh Muzaffer Effendi

A little about Tosun Bayrak , the translator in the video above. ( He passed way in February this year)

Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al Jerrahi al Halveti

On Thursday, 12 July 2018 19:59:50 UTC+2, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote: