08052021 - Benue youths resolve to fight back

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18—SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 8, 2021 These days, it is surprising the ease with which some people want to or walk out of marriage. It makes you wonder if they understood the marital institution before they got into it, or if there was ever a real marriage in the first place,or if it was just a sham. Examples of sham marriages are when some people get into marriage to enable them grab a chunk of their spouses’ wealth and walk out once they achieve their aim. Another example is when some people go into marriage to have children within matrimony and walk out after achieving their aim. Whatever the case is, couples in each of the categories above were never in each other’s lives. If they were, they could not have walked out of their marriages like people taking an evening stroll. Love, lust or deceit might bring people together, butthey need more than any of these to stay together. When God instituted matrimony, it was beautiful. But humankind has made it a minefield with trailer loads of reasons for marriages to fail if the couples do not commit to making it work. Every successful marriage is a product of deliberate actions: patience, understanding, love, tolerance, regular communication and wrestling cage mentality, among others. The other ingredients mentioned here are selfexplanatory, but I want to throw some light on wrestling cage mentality. Over seven years ago, I wrote an article, marriage is a cage, not an open ring. The conventional wrestling cage has an open top with ropes round it. During a wrestling match, if the beating gets too much, a wrestler can jump out of the ring to get some respite or abandon the fight entirely. Anyone with an open-cage mentality cannot have an enduring marriage; he/she will certainly jump out of marriage because tough situations aplenty. Unfortunately, that is the mentality of many people going into marriage today. They cannot bear any heat. I hear young married people say, “I don’t tolerate nonsense.” You cannot tolerate nonsense in your marriage, Are you in your spouse’s life? but you can tolerate nonsense driving on Nigerian roads and nonsense from colleagues at your work place. Tolerating nonsense is part of daily living. Even the best of spouses are full of “nonsense.” This is because they are humans and every human being is a combination of the good, bad and ugly. It is just that goodness predominates in some people, while “ugliness” Bad as being jilted is, young people must realise that being jilted is nothing new. It has been with man from time. Sometimes, it is just a mystery of the heart predominates in others. Sometimes, what one spouse sees as nonsense in the other is a product of d i f f e r i n g personalities. But the situation gets ameliorated with tolerance, patience, communication and understanding. Cage wrestling, on the other hand, takes place in an enclosure and the only entrance and exit is locked during fights. There is no escape until a winner emerges. You need a cage mentality to have a long lasting marriage. No retreat, no surrender. You confront every challenge head-on. You find solutions to all problems. Those problems you cannot solve, you learn to live with. There is no escape route until you are victorious. The only issues I will continue to preach against are marital abuse and threat to life. They are unacceptable and you should walk away once they rear their ugly heads in your marriage.Some of those who tarried have paid with their lives or suffered permanent deformities. But our topic is another ingredient necessary for marriages to endure: spouses being in each other’s lives. Often, we talk about parents being in their children’s lives and not enough about spouses being in each other’s lives. For Christians couples, being in each other’s lives has its foundation in the bible:”Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). One flesh means a life that is incomplete without your spouse, two hearts that beat as one, two lives that are inextricably intertwined. These are broad descriptions. Every couple must evolve what will make their lives inseparable. Living intertwined lives is very important considering the fragility of modern marriages. While I was writing this column, a breaking news showed on my laptop screen: Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce after 27 of Marriage. That came out of the blues. Every marital breakup breaks my heart and this one certainly did. I thought it was going all well in their marriage. First, it was Jeff Bezos, the current richest man in the world, and his former wife, MacKenzie. Now it is Bill Gates, the former richest man in the world and current world’s fourth richest man, and his wife. Every marital breakup diminishes the marital institution and high profile divorces like that of Bill and Belinda Gates do have worldwide ripple effects. The Gatesare involved in so many charity and humanitarian activities and everything looked so normal with their marriage. Uwevwirohwofabeno (it is hard to understand inner workings of another person’s house. They did not say much in their divorce statement, but from their eldest daughter’s statement, the union seems to have been strained for a while. I cannot help but wonder if they were in each other’s lives; if one felt incomplete without the other. It does not look like they were. And apparently, the activities of the Bill and Belinda Gate Foundation were not strong enough to keep them togetheras husband and wife because they said they intend to continue working together in the foundation after their divorce. The divorces of Gate and Bezos clearly point to the fact that money is important in marriage, but it is grossly insufficient to make a marriage happy and enduring. Sometimes, the presence of money is the major source of problems in some marriages. Young people going into marriage must understand the place of money in marriage. Every man should work hard to earn enough to provide for his family. Food, clothing, shelter, school fees, rent, etc., costs a lot, especially with the hyperinflation we are currently going through. It is also wonderful if you can afford holidays and other luxuries. But money is not everything. Couples must learn the balancing act between economic pursuits and other aspects of their lives: creating time for God, their families, themselves, recreation, etc. Poor distribution of time on various aspects of their lives by many couples is a leading cause of divorce. You cannot spend all the time on economic pursuits; you cannot spend the whole day with your wife while your mates are out there working; you cannot spend all your time on recreation and you cannot spend all the time church. Good balancing is important. Like everything in life, being in each other’s life has downsides. One of the downsides of the lives of spouses being intertwined is that if one spouse dies, life can become tasteless, incomplete, complicated and no longer worth living for the surviving spouse. You would have seen or read about spouses who died shortly after they lost their spouses… some hours, days or weeks. Still it is good to be in your spouse’s life. Somalian dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, found home in Nigeria following his ouster in 1991 and rejection by Kenyan opposition when he arrived Nairobi for refuge. The maximum ruler died in Lagos five years later and it appears his blood soaked evil spirit is hovering all over the nation. I received the good news that President Muhammadu Buhari has asked for help from the United States to tackle the unprecedented flood of insecurity that may consume the country and perhaps create a mass of refugees all over the the West African Sub Region. Buhari bent backwards to ask America to move the headquarters of the United States Africa Command ( USAFRICOM) from Stuttgart Germany to Africa. His request was made through Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. It is a welcome development because the US courted Nigeria in 2008 when AFRICOM became operational. At that time, Abuja rejected plans to locate the Intercontinental military formation on Nigerian soil. There were less security issues to deal with. I join my voice with that of President Buhari and add that AFRICOM should move down to Nigeria as soon as possible before we find ourselves in another Somalia. I have a feeling that Port Harcourt will serve as a suitable headquarters. The Garden City hosts some of our Petro wealth and as a port, will be useful in the fight against sea pirates in the Gulf of Guinea which may become a bigger problem if not tackled at the same time as insurgency, banditry and other nascent forms of violence. AFRICOM is like a Nigerian project. It was established on October 1, 2007. A year later, October 1, 2008, it became operational. The United States Special Operations Command, Africa became effective on October 1, 2009. These dates are historic. Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960 and a Republic on October 1, 1963. USAFRICOM: Burying Barre’s Ghost The first Commander of AFRICOM, General William ‘Kip’ Ward, served in Somalia as part of American intervention, known as ‘Operation Restore Hope’. Nigerian troops were also in Somalia at the same time. Ward a bagged a Master’s degree in Political Science, from the Pennsylvania State University. That is the story of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, our first president. Barre and Somalia should be eternally grateful to Nigeria. Unfortunately, we have been repaid in very bad coins. As AU Chairman, I guess Gen. Ibrahim Babangida tried to help a fallen colleague who was rejected at home and in Kenya. The man lived and died in Lagos. His body was taken back home for burial. Nigerian troops of the 23rd Brigade captured Mogadishu from Italy in February 1941, during the Second World War. In March, they took Degehabur and Jijiga, both in the Somali part of Ethiopia. Brave warriors of First Battalion, Nigerian Regiment, advanced to Harar and Dire Dawa. Barre was part of that East African campaign where Nigerians freed his country. The Nigerians returned to Somalia in 1993 after granting Barre assylum. They were part of a United Nations Peace Keeping F o r c e , UNOSOM II. Twenty three other nations were involved with the United S t a t e s assuming leadership. T h e contingent of 29 officers and 621 soldiers from 245 Reconnaissance Battalion, was led by Lt.Col Olagunsoye Oyinlola. On September 5, 1993, seven Nigerian soldiers were killed at Checkpoint Pasta in what drew reminiscences of the Second World War. Oyinlola accused Italian Peace Keepers under Gen. Bruno Loi of doing nothing while Somalians loyal to warlord, Mohamed Farrad Barre and Somalia should be eternally grateful to Nigeria. Unfortunately, we have been repaid in very bad coins. Aidid, fired at the Nigerians. The Italians had gone into a pact with the locals on how to man a particular checkpoint. That was unknown to ‘Ola Recce’ and his boys. Oyinlola was lucky to return to Nigeria in one piece and subsequently became Military Governor of Lagos and civilian governor of Osun State. Some of his soldiers came back with injuries. One of them had to plead for his life by telling Somalian captors that he was a Muslim like them. Somalia is an irony. The people are nearly united by one language and culture. Like the Fulani of Nigeria, they are pastoralists. At a time, Barre toyed with the idea of uniting all Somali in Somalia, Djibouti, Ogaden Ethiopia and North Eastern Kenya. He called the union Greater Somalia( Soomaaliweyn). And he embarked on war to achieve that lofty dream. In 1977, Somalia attacked Ogaden, Ethiopia. What began well for Barre ended in disaster as his erstwhile friends, the Soviet Union, abandoned him for Ethiopia and paved way for Cuban troops to join the fight. Somalians were beaten back. That was the Siad Barre that was later toppled by some of his former allies and forced to flee the country. He was a man of sorrow, tears and blood. Kenya rejected him. The Nigerian government welcomed the bloody man. In 1995, Barre died in Lagos. His evil spirit seemed restless. From a very peaceful nation, Nigeria has become a High risk location dreaded by investors. There is a subtle plan by the Fulani all over West Africa to settle in Nigeria something akin to Barre’s plan for the Somali in Greater Somalia. While on exile in Nigeria,Barre did not know that many Igbo who saw the Civil War detested him. Carl Gustaf von Rosen, the Swede who fought for Biafra with his five Malmo MFI-9 minicons, was killed by Somalian troops in Gode, Ethiopia during the Ogaden War. AFRICOM is the best thing to happen to Nigeria. The Commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend, was just 10 when Barre emerged as leader of Somalia in 1969. He was in service away from Africa, during the Battle of Mogadishu that consumed a platoon or more of American fighters. Nigeria will not become another Somalia.
C M Y K Iwill remember the scene until I die because scars don’t go away and this was a scar on the soul. The soul of a young boy. It was shortly before the Civil War. My school was on holidays and I was going home. The school bus took some of us who were travelling to the motor park and a senior ensured we were in the right bus. My bus – if you could call it that – was a wooden contraption that packed people like sardines. I was squeezed between adults in what looked like a long row. I knew it was going to be a long trip to Ibadan. Unfortunately, the trip was made even more uncomfortable by intermittent stops. If we were lucky, the armed soldiers who manned the checkpoints would wave us on after briefly stopping us. Occasionally, prying eyes peeped into the bus and scanned the faces. I noticed some people were uncomfortable. I noticed some people tried to avert their eyes. But what does a child know (kil’omodemo). Then came a stop where we were all ordered down. Apparently, some peering eyes were not satisfied with what they had scanned.Rude questions were asked by the armed soldiers. We were ordered back into the bus but without two squirming, shivering passengers. There were pleas for them by some passengers. But they were frightened pleas. They were led into the bush. The bus was waved on but the driver did not move; either from fright or compassion. The elders knew what was going to happen. I didn’t until years later when I was able to reconstruct the incident. This time, the driver was ordered to move. It was a menacing order. He obeyed. We hadn’t gone far when we heard gun shots. The Penultimate Monday night’s visit by All Progressives Congress, APC leaders Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande to President Muhammadu Buhari was perhaps the most visible show of concern by elements in the ruling party to the distress in the land. Tinubu came out of the meeting pleading with Nigerians to join hands with the government to address the many concerns about insecurity, economy, and other issues in the land. The call from Tinubu and his visit to the president undoubtedly reflected the unease he may have felt with the happenings in the land. Tinubu, of course had a duty to intervene. After all, he was a principal facilitator in the emergence of the All Progressives Congress, APC administration of Muhammadu Buhari. Even more, preserving Nigeria in one entity would also be to his advantage as his career goal of achieving the presidency of Nigeria would fail if the country were decimated. Campaigning with Buhari ahead of 2015, Tinubu had assured the electorate that more than President Goodluck Jonathan, that President Buhari was better positioned to address the issues that were prevalent at that time. At that time, Nigeria had just suffered the lamentable abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. Many Nigerians thought it impossible for such a kidnap to happen despite the fact the terrorist Boko Haram group had carved a niche for itself within Sambisa Forest in Borno State. Every ambitious politician – and ambition is another name for politics – had his own band of armed thugs. They became licensed to kill The growing list of Nigerians who are licensed to kill silence in the bus was deafening. Some eyes might have darted to the spaces left behind by the ‘disembarked’ passengers. If I, a mere young onlooker, can remember this incidentso vividly after about fifty five years, what about people whose loved ones were killed in their presence?What scars are they carrying? In the intervening years, we have had a bloody Civil War, we have had coups and counter coups. They all claimed lives. It soon became established in the n a t i o n ’ s consciousness that soldiers were licensed to kill. They could kill anywhere and with impunity. If there was a campus protest and soldiers were drafted in, a few lives would be lost. If there was a street protest and soldiers were drafted in, a few lives would be lost. It didn’t take long before policemen joined the fray. They too secured the license to kill harmless and unarmed civilians. Soon, lives were being lost for ‘refusal to cooperate’. A fellow could lose his life for as little as fifty naira or simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This licentiousness was too good to be limited to the Armed Forces. Politicians joined the unholy band. Whoever was deemed to be a clog in the wheel of their ambition was taken out. Every ambitious politician – and ambition is another name for politics – had his own band of armed thugs. They became licensed to kill. Religion felt it should not be left out as people felt the need to kill for God. Funny, this need to kill for God seems to be limited to a particular religion. And one that ironically calls itself a religion of peace.People were being dragged out and slaughtered for alleged blasphemy against the Quran. And because nothing happened to these self-styled ‘Army of God’, one can deduce that they are also licensed to kill. This army branched out to become more antagonistic towards education and modernisation. It also became deadlier. Herdsmen as we knew them were benign, harmless people who felt more comfortable with cattle than with humans. But they faced existential threat due to cattle rustling and desert encroachment. They were faced with two uncomfortable choices. They either change their age old way of life and adapt to a more sedentary lifestyle or force their ways into other people’s farms. They chose the latter. They needed guns to sustain this dated and unwholesome way of rearing cattle. The nexus between Hadiza, Tinubu and Pantami …while Ms. Bala Usman was suspended to allow an investigation into issues observed under her watch, Dr. Isa Pantami who has admitted with video evidence to have supported terror groups is given a wave of approval. The naira at that time exchanged for about 170 to a dollar, a rate many Nigerians thought reflected the failures as we assumed of President Jonathan. The APC mantra was Changi! Six years into the Change phenomena, the worsening orgy of unimaginable violence is better reflected by international reports that Nigeria is about the third most terrorized nation on earth. Despite claims by the government that Boko Haram has been defeated, decimated, and degraded, the insurgency has grown to the extent that Nigerian soldiers and now policemen have become endangered species. After the kidnap of the Chibok Schoolgirls, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman turned into one of the most visible advocates for the return of the schoolgirls under the aegis of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG group. Then only few outside the inside reaches of the Jonathan administration knew that she was also a fanatical trooper for the Buhari Change mantra. Though, she was not a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, she was like a secretary all about helping the members in their meetings. So, while she campaigned at the Unity Fountain in the daytime for the BBOG, in the night she was encamped with the Buhari campaign in laying strategies to remove Jonathan from power. Perhaps it was that intelligence that informed operatives of the Jonathan administration and Mama Patience into the folly that the Chibok abduction was a ruse. However, six years on, the comparison of school children’s abduction between the two administrations has turned sickening. Whereas Jonathan was smeared with only one major abduction, under Buhari, school children abductions have spread like cancer to the extent that it is no longer news for the international community. This week, the evil for the first time spread to the South with the abduction of students of the Abia State University, Uturu. After the abduction of more than 300 schoolgirls of the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangabe, Zamfara State last February, Ms. Bala Usman on February 27, tweeted thus: SATURDAY Vanguard, , MAY 8, 2021—19 They were not only supplied guns by the high and mighty, they were protected. They joined those licensed to kill. One top politician either from inebriation or stupidity or both said the Fulani herdsmen could be excused because they grow up valuing the life of a cattle more that human life. So the killings continued unchecked.Soon, the line between cattle rearing and banditry became blurred. Cattle rustlers became bandits. Herdsmen became bandits. They soon found out what their bosses in the city have always known; that crime pays. Especially crime with little or no consequences. Even as we speak, Abuja has not made up its mind on what to do with armed herdsmen and bandits occupying our forests. There is still a lot of double-speak going on. Others, especially in the South-East are asking why they should not join the list of those licensed to kill. So they sack and loot police stations. And so the killing continues; and so the mayhem continues. What had started as military killing has over the years degenerated into street killing. And with every killing that is not met with dire consequences, Nigeria loses respect for the sanctity of life. It is a sad commentary that right now, the life of a cattle is more valued than a human life. Enough should finally be enough. Only soldiers are trained to kill and it should only be at the war front. Otherwise, it is extrajudicial. Even there, war crimesexist to deal with excesses. All other forms of killing, be it police, political, religious or from herdsmen should be treated as murder.It is good that the government is trying to mop up small arms. There are too many guns in the system. It should look into how these arms are entering the country. Those in charge of the borders should be sanctioned for negligence or complicity. However, in order to overcome the trust deficit that this government has built up in the minds of people, the mop up should start with the aggressors and not with people trying to defend their homesteads. Self-defence has never been a crime in international law; especially when applied with a commensurate force. When the bushes and highways are swept clean of guns, the home dwellers will have no reason to sleep with guns under their pillows. The state of insecurity in the country that has led to the kidnap of Kagara boys and Zamfara girls need to be addressed URGENTLY...We can’t go on like this! Rescue our children and Secure our country that’s all we ask Broken heartBroken heartBroken heart...#SecureNorth #SecureNigeria... That tweet according to conspiracy theories laid the ground for a witch hunt directed at her that led to her suspension as MD of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA. As with such cases in which those in authority are questioned by subordinates, rumours were flying about on Friday morning about massive holes in billions of naira in the accounts of the NPA supposedly discovered by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. The alleged audit query according to sources is what led to Bala Usman’s suspension. Whatever, Ms. Bala Usman’s tweet about addressing the state of insecurity that led to the Kagara and Zamfara abductions have not been reasonably addressed by the APC administration. In any case, as some alleged on Twitter, while Ms. Bala Usman was suspended to allow an investigation into issues observed under her watch, Dr. Isa Pantami who has admitted with video evidence to have supported terror groups is given a wave of approval. Ms. Usman chose not to play the ostrich like some who would prefer not to see evil or hear any evil. Few would forget the fact that as Senator Smart Adeyemi lamented the anarchy in the land that Tinubu’s wife was widely reported to have heckled him for being unfaithful to the APC. If Adeyemi, Bala Usman and others who have the voice in the APC opt to keep quiet, the anarchy that we see would grow to consume them and their party. It was as such welcoming that Tinubu and Akande opted to see Mr. President. But having seen him, the outcome of the visit has largely remained intangible. Indeed, as Tinubu readies his political machine for 2023, a difficult question he would have to face is whether he would be sustaining the APC mantra of Change or Continuity. It is the devil’s alternative for him.
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08052021 - Benue youths resolve to fight back

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