Every well meaning Nigerian must condemn the consistent urge to legislate for the protection of the current ruling elite, instead of looking for far-reaching and enduring legislation that will benefit future generations of Nigerians. This legislative myopia is a threat to our collective well being. Laws should be made to protect every Nigerian, not a select few.

Democracy thrives when citizens are involved and informed. Democracy works when officeholders are responsible and accountable. On both flanks, be it that of citizens or officeholders, we have been failing; big time! Seeking the death penalty for “hate speech” shows the patent lack of critical thought in the National Assembly. In the case of Nigeria, it is shameful that the most ludicrous bills always come from the Senate.

Thoughtlessness is what we get when we elevate the indecent and idiotic to positions of power due to primordial thinking and shortsightedness. How does speech of any kind get equated to murder? How can words attract capital punishment? We have legislators who are completely ignorant of the Constitution of Nigeria. That, this piece of crap passed second reading is beyond stupid!

For whatever it is worth, I will like to give some advice to the technology morons in the National Assembly. Sorry people, information has become democratised! Get used to it! We understand you are angry that the various platforms of social and new media are threats to your primitivism and primitive exercise of power and impunity. We know you wish to continue having undue and unchallenged privilege. Blame President Obasanjo for giving us mobile telephony. The mobile phone is your enemy now.

That piece of technology is a genie and it is out of the bottle. There is nothing you can do about it. You are only looking at one dimension of the issue at hand. I can understand that, because most of you are linear thinkers, if at all. You are looking at how social media is curtailing your excesses and exposing your closets. You are not thinking about how the young are seeing lives from their cell phones, in well run and organised societies, and how this can spell doom for an unengaged and deprived demographic.

…the goal of the Sabi Abdullahi bill is not hate speech, but to shrink the political space. However, the constitution of Nigeria has enough protections in it against hate speech, instead of the judicial rigmarole that has now been invented to snare those who dissent. In a country where judgement is available for sale, where does this lead?

I am sorry! You can’t control information the way you used to any more, as in the days of information monarchy, when you had newspaper editors in your pockets and could buy off content. With social media, the traditional dynamics of access and inequality around news and information have changed forever! You are fighting a lost battle.

In 2016 and 2017, you sought censorship via a spurious social media bill and it fell flat on its face! While so much effort is being devoted to curtailing free speech, bills that will guarantee gender equality and protection for children get killed each time. Unfortunately for you, you will find no respite because the audience of Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp exceeds the traditional media in thousands of folds. Social media is our territory. We the people set the agenda.

We determine the control of news and information flows. Trying to control social media under the cover of “hate speech” is a violation of human rights, particularly the freedom of expression. It will not fly.

The nebulous explanation given by Sabi Abdullahi, the senator who introduced the bill for the establishment of Independent National Commission for Hate Speeches would have been laughable were it not for his attempt at hiding the obvious. Each time I read pronouncements from people like Abdullahi, I feel sad about the intellectual laziness of those who are supposed to be making the laws governing our lives!

What do this senator and his aides (if any) ever consider properly? If they did any research or a simple Google search, they would have come across several international, regional and national normative frameworks on social and non-regulatory mechanisms that can help to counter the production, dissemination and impact of hateful messages online.

There is a compedium of these frameworks on the UNESCO website. To those of us who follow and chronicle the careers of Nigerian politicians and power elite, the goal of the Sabi Abdullahi bill is not hate speech, but to shrink the political space. However, the constitution of Nigeria has enough protections in it against hate speech, instead of the judicial rigmarole that has now been invented to snare those who dissent. In a country where judgement is available for sale, where does this lead?

…to the power elite, be rest assured that your stupidity will always go viral because every outrageous, stupid, batshit crazy act and comment will cause people to click ‘hilarious’, ‘sad’ or ‘angry’. These reactions propel the algorithm of the platforms you loathe. The information ecosystem has changed for good.

Technology is a tool. There will always be the good and bad guy users. Digital media poses several challenges to democracy. An example is in Russia’s meddling with the United States’ past presidential election. We have seen the cloning of the identity of reputable media organisations, the escalation of intolerance and the rapid spread of misinformation and fake news via social media. Despite all these, we have reasons to be hopeful about the future of media and democracy, as shown by the galvanisation of the youth to vote for Buhari in Nigeria’s last presidential election.

Every well meaning Nigerian must condemn the consistent urge to legislate for the protection of the current ruling elite, instead of looking for far-reaching and enduring legislation that will benefit future generations of Nigerians. This legislative myopia is a threat to our collective well being.

Laws should be made to protect every Nigerian, not a select few. And to the power elite, be rest assured that your stupidity will always go viral because every outrageous, stupid, batshit crazy act and comment will cause people to click ‘hilarious’, ‘sad’ or ‘angry’. These reactions propel the algorithm of the platforms you loathe.

The information ecosystem has changed for good. We determine what the attention backbone is. Soon, with just a hashtag, we can determine your political fate. Watch out!

Big shock in the Italian elections. The Five Star movement won 32.6% of the votes, and is by far the largest party of the country. Its performance was particularly strong in Rome, Naples and in the south more generally.

Another clear winner is Le Lega, and Matteo Salvini seems to have won his bet: he transformed it from a regional party in Northern Italy (built around a centre-periphery cleavage) to a right-wing, anti-immigration Front National-type of party. In the 2013 elections, Le Lega won just 4% of the votes; today, with 17.4%, it has surpassed its main coalition partner, Forza Italia – the party of former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi (on 14%).

Meanwhile, voters heavily punished the party currently in power, Matteo Renzi Democratic Party, which only won 18.7%.

Despite a struggling economy, the main concern of Italians in the run-up to the election was immigration. In recent years, a large number of migrants, especially from Sub-Saharan Africa, have come to the country across the Mediterranean.

There are around 6 million migrants in Italy – the number is overall in line with other European countries– and according to recent estimates, around 500,000 are irregular migrants and around 200,000 asylum seekers.

In the public discourse, immigration was linked to high unemployment (around 11%, with youth unemployment at 32.7%) and to crime – although data suggest both a fall in crime rates across the country, and in the share of crimes committed by foreigners.

In terms of the economy, the Italian electoral campaign has been characterised by three main aspects. First, all the parties (the centre-right coalition and the Five Star Movement in particular) have made costly electoral promises, which would further increase public debt. Not much attention was given to how these promises could be financed, or to the risks that a higher debt might generate.

Second, the Democratic party tried to use the recent recovery to publicize its reforms while in government; but the recovery was actually quite shallow, and GDP and employment have not yet returned to the pre-crisis levels. On the other hand, the opposition parties often blamed Europe, the euro, or Germany – depending on the news of the day – for the sluggish recovery.

Third, almost completely missing from the electoral campaign was a discussion of the internal reasons of the poor economic performance of the country.

Political parties hardly discussed why Italian productivity is so low, how the administration, the judiciary and the education system could be reformed, why all the new jobs are fixed-term contracts, why Italy does not attract high-skilled jobs, etc.

The common theme is that Italian parties like to think that the factors holding Italy back originate outside the country – be it immigrants, the euro or Angela Merkel. In this vein, the victory of the Five Star Movement and Le Lega are only in part a protest vote.

If this is a protest vote, it is certainly not aimed at changing Italy’s deep-rooted ways of running the state and the economy. Sunday’s vote might indicate Italians’ persistent willingness to lose their own sense of responsibility for the country’s economic fortunes.

As things stand, there is no clear majority in the Parliament. Several scenarios are possible. It might be that the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, calls for new elections in the coming months – either with the current electoral law or after a caretaker government produces a new one(!). The centre-right coalition (Forza Italia, Le Lega, Fratelli d’Italia) has the largest number of votes and seats; but it needs to gather a substantial number of parliamentarians from other parties to form a workable majority.

That might be possible, but this is far from obvious. Alternatively, the Five Star movement might try to lead a coalition with parties either from the right (possibly Le Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, with whom they share some common concerns) or the left (the Democratic party).

In the aftermath of the election, Luigi di Maio, the Five Star Movement’s leader, has said that he is open to talks with all political parties. On the other hand, Salvini argued that Le Lega has the right to govern with the centre-right coalition.

The implications of this election for Europe could be rather substantial – particularly if we get a centre-right coalition led by Le Lega, or a coalition between it and the Five Star Movement. These parties might not necessarily make plans for withdrawing Italy from the euro (at least not in the short term), but it is still likely that conflicts between the Italian government and EU institutions will increase.

A new Italian government will probably want to exceed the 3 percent deficit-to-GDP limit under the Stability and Growth Pact to fund public investments or reduce taxes – challenging the convergence of macroeconomic policies in the eurozone. It will also want to scrap the so-called Legge Fornero (an unpopular pensions law setting the retirement age at 67), which would further increase the country’s debt.

The clashes with the Commission that would follow might further polarise Italian public opinion on Europe, possibly strengthening the country’s euroscepticism. This scenario might also hijack France’s and Germany’s plans to reform the Eurozone: it is difficult to see the German government agreeing on a bigger budget and a single finance minister for the currency bloc, if it sees concrete risks coming from a fiscally autonomous and irresponsible (in their reading) Italy.

And, what about the implications of the Italian elections on Brexit? Like other European elections, Brexit was hardly mentioned in the electoral campaign. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Le Lega and Fratelli d’Italia applauded the British public’s decision to leave the EU.

The Democratic party joined other mainstream parties in Europe in regretting the results of the referendum and in considering Brexit a dangerous product of populism. The Five Star Movement had taken a more wavering position on the issue.

But since then, Italian parties have largely forgotten about Brexit; even Le Lega has not used it as a frame to strengthen its cause against EU institutions and the euro. If anything, eurosceptic forces have slightly downplayed their plans for an ‘Italexit’.

The new Italian government will certainly contain less euro-friendly elements. But it is unlikely that the new executive will choose Brexit to start battling with the EU. Italy’s interests in the first phase are very much in line with the Commission’s approach – in terms of citizens’ rights and UK financial contribution to the EU budget.

In the second phase of the Brexit talks, a eurosceptic government might be less strict than other EU countries in preserving the integrity of the single market, and might be tempted to offer more favourable conditions to the UK. Italy, however, has been a rather silent actor in the Brexit negotiations so far, and to become an active shaper would require substantive diplomatic and organizational efforts.

Most importantly, Brexit is not salient enough for the Italian government to spend huge political capital on in a clash with the EU institutions. That capital might well be used for other, more important battles.

Nicola Chelotti, co-investigator at The UK in a Changing Europe and lecturer in Diplomacy and International Governance at Loughborough University.

A civil society group known as Concern Democratic Initiative Movement for Good Governance (CDIMGG) has threatened to embark on a nationwide peaceful protest by occupying and halting all Senate activities until Human rights as well as interests of all Nigerians are respected by the Senate President.

According to the group’s National Coordinator, Ado Mallam Rossi, the group resorted to such decision as a result of the recent alleged plan to suspend 10 pro-Buhari Senators who opposed the amendment of the 2019 general election time table set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, by the pro-Saraki Group of the 8th Senate, which they view as a deliberate attempt to deprive the senators their freedom of Expression as enshrined in section 39 subsection (1) of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria Constitution. The group called upon the leadership of the Senate to immediately withdraw the plan to suspend the 10 senators because it violates the Constitution, noting that the Senate President is also under trial at the Code of conduct tribunal and as well has been accused of refusing to pay tax as stated by the Paradise paper investigation Report but instead of him honourably resigning from his position, he is still clinching to the post and whoever opposes him or objects to his foul antics, is silenced by hindering him from attending the Senate in the name of suspension.

“Going by the happenings at the 8th Senate, we observe with utmost displeasure the body language of the Senate president of working for the PDP to sabotage APC-led agenda at all levels especially using his allies within the APC to stagnate all development programs, and appointments proposed by the Buhari-led Administration, in which the position which he (Saraki) occupies is in contrary to the Constitution of the Federal Republic as stated in section 52 sub section one; that ” Every member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall before taking his seat declare his assets and liabilities as prescribed in this Constitution and subsequently, take and subscribe the oath of allegiance and the oath of membership as prescribed in the seventh schedule to this Constitution before the president of the Senate or, as the case may be the speaker of the house of Representatives, which that allows him to contest for the position of any principal officers position in the assembly, which Saraki gave a false declaration of his assets and now facing the tribunal but despite violating the said section he was not barred from performing his constitutional duties”

The group further stressed that the country has never witnessed discrimination of right to freedom as said by section 42 (1) of the republic Constitution, were citizens of the country has the right to political opinion as is been recorded presently.

That the in order to achieve some selfish needs of some individuals, the suspended senators and the people from their constituency have been deprived their right of citizenship of the republic which violates their right as Nigerians are the senators were only speaking the minds of those whom they represent at the Senate.

“You see a vivid example of such is the recent suspension of Senator Ndume and now the Patriotic senators, all these we see as a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Recent reconciliation assignment embarked upon by the National chieftain of the APC, Asuwaju Bola Ahmadu Tininbu, directed by the president, this, the Senate President and his allies set to frustrate. “We want it to be on record that, if after the 7- days ultimatum starting from the 5th of March the suspended Senators are not called back to the Senate, we shall mobilise and occupy the Senate until our voices and call for justice is heard.

“Sadly, we noted, the ill agenda of the Senate president on all important and critical projects that will improve the socio-economic development of the nation, initiated by president Muhammad Buhari to mention but a few, is the absent of the Senate representatives with the exception of Senator Abubakar Kyari from Borno who attended the international conference on lake Chad despite the importance of the Abuja declaration made at the end of the conference which is estimated to cost 50 billion us dollars, and a long term investment that will boost agricultural activities, in Port and export and also provision of adequate portable water supply, refusal of confirmation of appointments submitted by the Presidency, and the quick passage of the 2018 Budget”.

CDIMGG, also urge the National leadership of APC to sanction and also dismiss those involved in frustrating efforts to reconcile party members, and yet working for the PDP to see the downfall of Buhari-led administration for a better Nigeria, especially those in the national Assembly.

Daily Times

Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency for 10 days on Tuesday to stop the spread of communal violence, a government spokesman said, after clashes erupted between majority Buddhists and members of the minority Muslim community.

Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites.

Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.

"At a special cabinet meeting, it was decided to declare a state of emergency for 10 days to prevent the spread of communal riots," government spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekara told Reuters.

He said some people were instigating violence through Facebook and warned of tough action against them.

The unrest in the Indian Ocean island's central district of Kandy began on Sunday after the funeral of a truck driver from the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community who died days after he was involved in an altercation with four Muslims, the government has said.

It was not clear why the initial altercation occurred but after the driver's funeral on Monday, a Sinhalese mob attacked Muslim shops, police said. The body of a Muslim youth was found in a burnt-out house early on Tuesday, police said.

Muslims make up about 9 percent of Sri Lanka's 21 million people. Buddhists make up about 70 percent and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, about 13 percent.

The government sent troops and elite police to the area on Monday and imposed a curfew. A curfew was reimposed in two districts of Kandy on Tuesday, police said.

The government ended a 26-year civil war in 2009 with the defeat of Tamil separatist rebels. Muslim communities were occasionally caught up in that violence but on the whole, Muslims managed to stay out of the war.

NDTV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Saudi Arabia had granted Air India [AIN.UL] permission to fly over its territory on its new routes to and from Tel Aviv.

There was no immediate confirmation from either Saudi officials or Air India. Netanyahu made the announcement during a briefing in Washington to Israeli reporters after he had met U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel and lifting the 70-year-old airspace ban would reflect what appears to be thawing ties between Israel and the kingdom, both U.S. allies with a shared concern over Iranian influence in the region.

Last month, Air India announced the planned thrice-weekly flights to Tel Aviv over Saudi soil, but the General Authority of Civil Aviation in Riyadh said at the time it had not granted such permission to the carrier. 

El Al Israel Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, flies four weekly flights to Mumbai. These take seven hours as they fly south toward Ethiopia and then east to India, avoiding Saudi airspace. Israel media have said that Saudi overflight routes could reduce travel time by more than two hours.

Reuters

Specialist officers from the counter-terrorism squad are helping investigate the incident, which also left a 33-year-old woman -- reported to be Skripal's daughter Yulia -- in a critical condition in what is feared to be a poison plot.

Skripal, a 66-year-old former colonel in Russian military intelligence, is also in a critical condition in Salisbury District Hospital.

Police did not confirm their names but did confirm that two people aged 66 and 33 were being treated for "suspected exposure to an unknown substance".

They also revealed that a member of the emergency services who helped deal with the incident remained in hospital.

A "major incident" was declared and the area around the bench where the couple was found slumped remained cordoned off on Tuesday, while a restaurant on a street nearby, Zizzi, was also closed in a "precaution".

The case revived memories of the death of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-Russian spy and Kremlin critic was who poisoned in 2006 with radioactive polonium in London on orders from Moscow.

The incident caused a deep diplomatic split between London and Moscow, and another death blamed on Russia would ratchet up tensions even further.

The chairman of the UK House of Commons foreign affairs committee warned that was where the evidence was pointing.

"It is too early to say whether it is certain or not, but it certainly bears all the hallmarks of a Russian attack," said Tom Tugendhat.

- 'Very unusual case' -

Britain's chief counter-terrorism officer, Mark Rowley of London's Metropolitan Police, said specialist members of his team were supporting the investigation.

"Clearly it's a very unusual case and the critical thing is to get to the bottom of what has caused this incident as quickly as possible," he told BBC radio.

Local police say they are keeping "an open mind", adding that they did not know yet if a crime had been committed, but said there was no risk to the public.

Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in jail in Russia in 2006 for betraying Russian intelligence agents to Britain's MI6 secret service.

He was pardoned before being flown to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap between Russia and the United States in 2010.

A British inquiry ruled in 2016 that Russian President Vladimir Putin "probably approved" the killing and identified two Russians, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, as the prime suspects.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that it had no information on the Salisbury incident.

"We see that such a tragic situation happened," he said, adding: "But we don't have information about what could be the cause, what this person did."

He said London had not made any requests for assistance in the investigation, but added: "Moscow is always ready for cooperation."

- 'Traitor to Russia' -

The incident made the front pages of almost all Britain's newspapers on Tuesday, with the Daily Mail speculating that Skripal may have been the target of a revenge "hit" by former colleagues.

Litvinenko's widow, Marina, told The Times newspaper that watching footage of emergency responders in hazardous material suits "was kind of deja vu".

William Browder, a British hedge fund manager who has campaigned against the Kremlin over the death in custody of his former employee Sergei Magnitsky, said his "first suspicion" was that Moscow was involved.

"This man was considered by the Kremlin to be a traitor to Russia," he told AFP.

"They have a history of doing assassinations in Russia and abroad. And they have a history of using poisons including in Britain."

However Lugovoi, who is an MP in the Russian parliament, responded to the British media reports by saying that Britain "suffers from phobias".

"Because of the presidential elections (on March 18), our actions in Syria, the situation with Skripal could be spun into an anti-Russian provocation," he told Interfax news agency.

Rowley noted that "Russian exiles are not immortal, they do all die and there can be a tendency for some conspiracy theories.

"But likewise we have to be alive to the fact of state threats as illustrated by the Litvinenko case," he said.

AFP

For those who have forgotten, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the current Inspector General of police was the Commissioner of Police in Kano state during the 2015 elections. He supervised an election in which one million  more voters turned out to vote for a Presidential candidate than the 800,000 who voted in the National Assembly polls that held simultaneously.

Unconfirmed reports said the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Alhaji Mukaila  Abdullahi protested the conduct of the elections. Six days after the elections, Abdullahi died along with his wife and daughters in a fire incident early morning.

Idris as  the state Commissioner of Police,  said preliminary investigation confirmed that Abdullahi and members of his family died out of suffocation arising from a fire, suspected to have emanated from electrical debunking speculations that the dead were murdered. He stated that there was no trace of sabotage at the scene of the incident.

His words: “Today (Friday) at about 4:30 a.m., the police men on guard duty at the official residence of the Resident Electoral Commissioner Kano state, Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi located at No. 2 Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road, Nassarawa GRA, Kano, observed a fire emanating from a split unit A/C in the sitting room.

“They made several attempt to get in touch with him, including banging the doors and breaking some of the toilets windows but he was not responding. The police men and local guards broke the door leading to the sitting room, and discovered the sitting room was engulfed by fire and smoke.

They then went to the side of the door leading to the masters bedroom, broke the door and entered; they were not inside the bed room and the Police then went to the bathroom, inside the master bedroom and found the REC, his wife and his two daughters unconscious on the floor.”

This forensic investigation carried out hours after the incident was the last we heard on the matter.

By July 2016,Idris was announced as the new Inspector General of Police by President Muhammadu Buhari.A news analysis by Vanguard Newspaper on 5th July 2016 said of the process that threw Idris up :

“Shockingly, the emergence of Idris has ushered in a total turn around in the Force. In fact, it was like the long awaited clean sweep. Just in the wake of the appointment, no fewer than 21 assistant inspectors-general of police were shown the way out of the Force in an exercise generally seen as a colossal loss to the Force.  Besides the AIGs,  also six deputy inspectors-general of police, DIGs,  most were mandatorily retired with their immediate boss.  Amongst the victims were most of the well trained, exposed and tested officers in the Force. Many believe that their unceremonious exit will, certainly, create a yawning vacuum in the beleaguered Force.

The victims: Prominent amongst the officers thrown out were Umaru Abubakar Manko, a former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State whose track records in crime fighting remains unequalled till date, Bala Hassan, an officer with a very sound intellectual base whose performances in different parts of the country especially, when he headed the elite Mobile Police Force, remains enviable; Kalafite H. Adeyemi, the only female victim, a lawyer and psychologist, she was the first female commissioner of police in Oyo, Osun and Taraba states at different times and also the first female assistant inspector-general of police at Zone 11 comprising Oyo, Osun and Ondo states. Adenrele Shinaba, Johnson Ogunsahaki, Edgar Nanakumo, smooth operator and achiever, Adisa Bolanta, the irrepressible and controversial Mbu Joseph Mbu and other achievers in the Force. Most of these officers have been trained both at home and abroad with tax payers’ money and still have many years to contribute to the unpliftment of the Force”.

Just like the paper predicted, the laurels have been coming in for the police under Idris.Nigeria has the worst police force in the world, according to World Internal Security and Police Index International, WISPI report released late last year for the year 2016.

While still savouring that global recognition,the Governor of Benue state conferred the boss of “the worst police in the world” with the title of “spokesman of killer herdsmen”.

The Governor gave the award in recognition of the clear demonstration by Idris that he seems beholden to special interest as against his constitutionally assigned role as the chief law enforcer of the country. The rampaging and murderous herdsmen have exposed the IGP as observing un-rule of law in diverse ways.

Shortly after the January 1 killings of 73 people in Benue, Idris declared that the killings arose from “communal feud” and that the killer herdsmen were Nigerians and asking for effect “are they not?”. He was later to deny the words we saw him pronounced on Television.

Shortly after the Police image maker, Moshood Jimoh was on Channels TV to declare the Benue Governor a “drowning man”. He was so adamant and it almost took the presenter calling off the programme for him to withdraw the crude and insolent statement. He is still keeping his job which suggests he was not speaking out of sync with the mindset of his boss. The lowest moment for Idris was his  technically renewing the license of  the herdsmen to continue their rampage  when he disclosed that the terror herdsmen pose to  farmers ( not the wrong word “clashes”) will persist until state Governors establish ranches for herders in their states.

The Police Boss insisted that the herders can only be arrested or punished for open grazing if ranches are provided by the states.

Speaking at the Northern States Stakeholders Security Summit in Kaduna,  he said:  “it is my humble suggestion that to reduce the incidence of clashes between Farmers and Herders in Nigeria, State Governments should endeavour to establish grazing ranches in their various states before enacting laws to prohibit open rearing and grazing. 

“It is when grazing ranches are established that herders can be arrested and punished for rearing and grazing on the open places.”

Ibrahim Idris said the establishment of ranches, “will make the law acceptable by all the parties concerned and other critical stakeholders in that all-important sector.

“It will do us good if we avoid the hasty formulation and implementation of such laws across the country in the interest of peace and unity. For instance, I have visited Benue and Nasarawa States and observed that the crisis trailing the Benue State prohibition of open rearing and grazing of livestock would have been mitigated if the State had first established grazing ranches before the prohibition of open grazing as provided in the State law established by the State Assembly”.

One should be laughing if this were not tragic for the Republic. A policeman who should enforce the law is now telling properly constituted authorities when to make law and the laws that some sacred cows will obey.This country is collapsing gradually unless we pretend not to know. I wrote here months back that many citizens of a dying country are preoccupied with existential challenges to piece together the death symptoms of their polity.

The argument of the “spokesman of killer herdsmen” is akin to saying that the Federal Government should first ensure that all citizens are in a position to satisfy their needs before the EFCC can prosecute anybody for corruption!

Idris brazenness flows from the Constitution that ensures that the federating units don’t have police to enforce their laws in a country where theirs is Hisbah Police to enforce unconstitutional Sharia in some part of the country.

It is gratifying to note that the land is not in lack of real Governors,not sissies,who can stand up to these shenanigans. Ekiti Governor, Ayo Fayose  said the IG had no power to order state governors around. He also said the IG was under an obligation to obey and ensure compliance with laws made by any state’s House of Assembly. The governor, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media,  Lere Olayinka, insisted that the state would not heed the advice of the police chief. He said: “The Inspector-General of Police has no choice than to obey the laws made by any state. It is the duty of the police to enforce the law.

Cattle rearing is regarded as a private business and it is not the duty of the governors to provide land for the herder. The real cattle owners are rich people who can afford land; they are not the nomadic  cattle rearers from the North to the South of the country.

Speaking in a similar vein, the Taraba State governor maintained that his anti-grazing law was not the cause of the killings being perpetrated by the herdsmen in the state. Rather, he said the law remained one of the solutions to end the unwarranted massacre of law-abiding people in the state by herders.

Ishaku who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Emmanuel Bello, said the law in Taraba State was promulgated to put a stop to incessant attacks and killings by the herders. He said: “We have already enacted a law, but we are still prepared to listen to any good idea that brings about peace and mutual understanding among stakeholders.”

Bello explained that the state government was planning a pilot scheme on the creation of ranches to demonstrate that the global practice was also achievable in the country.

Similarly, the Benue State governor, who spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja Jr., challenged Idris to approach the court if he was not comfortable with the implementation of the law.

Onoja said: “Ibrahim Idris’ directive to state governors to establish ranches before operating grazing laws is totally against the Nigerian constitution and the act that established the Nigeria Police.

“It is not his duty and he does not have the power to direct governors. The police is not to interpret the law but to enforce it. Therefore, it is not for the IG to determine whether a law is right or wrong. It is the duty of the judiciary to interpret laws. If a law is passed and the IG feels it is not good enough, the best thing to do is to challenge the law in the court for interpretation”.

The commissioner maintained that ranching remained a lucrative private business and that it would be wrong for anyone to advocate that government should establish ranches for herdsmen or whoever that is venturing into such a business.

By the way,Idris placed advertorials in some national newspapers on February 22 asking all those who have legal and licensed weapons to turn them in within three weeks but we are yet to hear him give a word on Fulani herdsmen who are carrying illegal and unlicensed weapons all over the place .

It is a season of un-rule of law in Nigeria!

 

Serena Williams believes now is the “perfect time” to return to the WTA Tour in order to gauge her progress ahead of the year’s remaining grand slam tournaments.

Williams, who claimed a 23rd grand slam title at last year’s Australian Open before hanging up her racket for the season upon discovering she was pregnant with her first child, also skipped this year’s tournament in Melbourne.

After using the time to work on her fitness, Williams featured in a Fed Cup doubles match for the United States last month and is scheduled to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells which starts this week.

“My expectations, I don’t know what they are,” the 36-year-old American told the BBC.

“I can’t go and say I expect to lose because that is something I will never say. It’s just a little different. I’m just expecting to see where I am more than anything.

“This is a good time to start for the summer. If I want to play in those grand slams (the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) and play well, I think now is the perfect time to start.”

Williams remains motivated to chase down Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slam singles titles but is also hoping to give her now six-month-old daughter a chance to have some memories of watching her mother in action.

“I’ve always been an extremely motivated person, but my main thing is that I would love for my daughter to be around with me doing great, and playing amazing, so that definitely gives me some motivation,” she added.

“I would have thought I would have retired six years ago, but I’m still here and I’m playing great, and I think I’ll still be playing good.”

Unseeded Williams is scheduled to open her Indian Wells campaign with a first round tie against Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Reuters

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday directed that any Fulani man found in possession of AK-47 rifles should be charged to court.

The President said this  in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital during a visit to  the state to commiserate with people that lost loved ones in the wake of violence that engulfed the area recently.

“Any Fulani man caught with AK-47 should be charged to court.”

He spoke at Government House, Jalingo, and lamented lack of oneness and inability of the people  to live together in peace as brothers and sisters.

He said his reason to visit Taraba State first was informed by the large-scale killing at Mambila Plateau which he described as more than the number of those killed in Benue and Zamfara states.

He said he will soon embark on the same visit to Zamfara and Benue states, also to condole with those who lost their loved ones.

The President called on the traditional rulers in the state to go to their chiefdoms and preach peace among their subjects for peaceful coexistence among their people.

He said traditional rulers in Nigeria were the main land lords, while politicians like himself as the President and Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State were visitors who might not stay on their seats for ever.

“Any Fulani man caught with AK-47 should be charged to court. You, the traditional rulers are going to remain on your stools till you die; Ishaku (the governor) and I may not last on our seats for long but you are going to be there till you die. “Please go to your domains and initiate peace among your people. These killings will not help us,” President Buhari said.

The representatives of Yandan, Fulani and Mambila tribes who were allowed to speak on the occasion, called on the President to instil justice in the land for the people to live in peace.

Earlier in his comment, Taraba State governor, Darius Ishaku, appreciated the President for finding time to visit the state for condolences.

Ishaku said the crisis in the state had hindered speedy development which the state government initially initiated.

He pleaded with with the President to mobilize more security personnel in the state to forestall further crisis among the people.

Vanguard