04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
IT is no longer news that our forests
have become home to all sorts of
criminals such as insurgents,
terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed
herdsmen, cattle rustlers, ritual
murderers, armed robbers and other
felons.
Human beings who should live in
human habits and leave the forests for
wild animals have now taken up
abode in the bushes to wage war on
the rest of law-abiding citizenry.
Years of wrong-headed leadership
which lacked the capacity to harness
the riches of the Nigerian
commonwealth for the benefit of the
citizens have forced a situation of
virtual anarchy on the people.
No one feels adequately protected
when travelling the highways
nationwide.
Perhaps waking up to the menace at
last, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.
General Yusuf Buratai, has announced
plans to “flush out” the criminals from
no less than 14 forests in continuation
Ridding our forests of criminals
of its series of Operation Harbin
Kunama. Buratai, outlining the
challenges of combating insecurity in
forests and protected areas, named
some of the forests. They include
Koyan Bana, Dan Sadau and Sububu
(Zamfara); Pandogari and Kagara
(Niger); Allagarno, Sambisa and
Chingurmi (Borno); Gujba (Yobe),
Rugu (Katsina), Lame Bura and Balmo
(Bauchi).
Buratai said apart from restoring
sanity to these forests, the military
operations are aimed at preserving the
ecosystems upset by the forceful
cohabitation of humans with wild
animals which presents in form of
deforestation, destruction of historical
sites and despoilation of valuable
tourism potentials.
He even promised that the famous
Sambisa Forest (which the Boko
Haram Islamic terrorists have long
made their abode) would be turned
into a “historical site for tourism”.
The most pressing task before us
now is to remove these criminals from
the forests. That is the primary job of
the Army and the rest of the lawenforcement
agencies. This initiative
should actually be led by the President,
rallying the support of the National
Assembly, the various state
governments and all our armed forces
and the citizenry. It is only a combined
effort ably led from the very top that
can produce results.
Such an ambitious plan must also
contain strategies for providing soft
landing for those who return to lawabiding
humanity. Otherwise, we will
spend valuable national resources
chasing criminals from one forest to
the other and getting nowhere.
More importantly, we must
persuade the nomads who live in the
forests to settle down and ranch their
animals for their own good and that
of their animals.
Leaving human beings to live in the
wild and unaffected by the benefits of
governance only helps breed violent
criminals among them. Sanitising the
forests cannot be a mere blind grab.
It must be carefully planned and
comprehensively implemented for it
to bear positive results.
Elections as soap opera
By Emeka Odikpo
“Let us uncover the Room, else the
Holy Ghost will never get at us.”
WITH these famous words
Cardinal John of Toledo served
the death knell of the longest running
election in the history of the world. The
papal election that happened from
November 1268 to September 1271
gained notoriety as the longest election
ever witnessed by mankind. Just two
months short of three years was what it
took 19 cardinals to finally elect Pope
Gregory X.
After two years of “inconclusive”
elections, Cardinal John suggested the
above mentioned action of removing the
roof over the head of the electors. On
their realising that cold weather alone
might not do the trick, they added
another measure; they reduced the diet
of the Cardinals to bread and water.
Finally the 16 remaining Cardinals
(two had died of natural causes during
the election and one had elected to flee)
decided to appoint a committee of six of
them to conclude the election. The
appointed six completed the election
within days of their appointment and all
lived happily ever after.
It must be a great relief to Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu to know that he is still
a long way from conducting the longest
running election in the history of the
world. Definitely, Mahmood’s INEC hold
the record in modern times. They have
been at this election(s) since February
16, 2019 and at a point there appears to
be no end in sight. Many states are yet
to have senators-elect that ordinarily
should have emerged in the evening of
February 16.
Even House of Representatives
elections remained inconclusive in
several states. Of course Rivers State
takes the Oscar in this drama. Rivers
State voters waited for one and a half
months after the elections were
supposed to have been concluded, to
know who their three senators-elect
were. I love soap operas; especially the
so called dreary Mexican ones. You can
skip editions for six months and still meet
the characters exactly where you left
them.
Sometimes, when they raise a knife to
stab, be rest assured that the knife will
remain in motion for the next six
episodes before missing target. The restab
will take another few months. It’s a
sure fire way of engaging house wives
in-between their chores. Our “lazy
youths” who do no chores unfortunately
join in watching for eternity these never
ending series.
Nollywood’s version of these soap
operas are their Part one to Part six “epic
films”. The flash back in Part four can
show half of the entire Part one. An
unusually dreary act that clearly indicate
OPINION
that their target audience are idle
people. But somehow, it entertains those
that make it their staple.
Mahmood Yakubu’s mimic of
Nollywood could have been
entertaining if it was not so tragic.
Valuable lives have been lost at the altar
of contrived incompetence. The
authorities, including the Army, Police
and even INEC itself pretend to be
ignorant of even the vilest of actions.
Until INEC senior staff
realise that they owe a
sacred duty to God and
their community to be
above aboard and be
impartial arbiters, our
elections will remain
theatres of the absurd
Starting from Lagos, on to Kano and
finally Rivers State, human blood was
splattered live on social media.
Those who are paid to protect human
lives, either participate openly in
abridging the lives of innocent Nigerians
or watch arms akimbo whilst thugs skin
innocent Nigerians. That’s macabre
entertainment. INEC somehow
contrived a total show of shame in Kano.
The social media is filled with vile tapes
of alleged INEC staff and party officials
discussing how many votes they will
allocate to other parties. Despite these
vile tapes, INEC of course did not deem
it necessary to even make a rudimentary
commentary on the allegations.
The painful part is that INEC and the
other agencies of government can so
easily prevent all the bloodshed that
happened. They can easily spare
Nigerians the untoward drama. All they
had to do was be impartial and let the
party with the highest vote win the
election.
All they had to do was be firm and
arrest and prosecute those that attacked
innocent Nigerians and even more
importantly arrest and prosecute their
sponsors. Until these agencies get
serious enough to know that protection
of lives of innocent Nigerians is their
primary duty and that collusion with
petty tin gods for filthy lucre is the worst
form of evil, innocent lives will continue
to be wasted in Nigerian elections.
Until INEC senior staff realise that they
owe a sacred duty to God and their
community to be above aboard and be
impartial arbiters, our elections will
remain theatres of the absurd. Affecting
contrived helplessness by INEC and the
agencies may well serve the powers that
be, but the effect of these actions are felt
by widows of the slain and orphans who
lost their parents needlessly in what
ought to be routine elections.
•Odikpo is a legal practitioner