Iorliam Shija > BENUE- FAMILY MELODY BY AN IRREDENTIST TRIBALIST GABRIEL SUSWAM From Saleh Bayare It is very baffling that there are today such people like Governor Gabriel SUSWAM and his co-travelers in their train of animosity and hate of the Fulani.It is shameful and embarrassing that a man like the Governor of Benue State,Suswam,could make such a hate statement about a group of bona fide Nigerians:the Fulani.As a lawyer, Suswam should have known that his statement was unconstitutional,unpatriotic,reckless and irresponsible. Governor Suswam,we are aware is desperately looking for a new political relevance now that his gubernatorial term is terminating next year. Suswam is desperately seeking to be a senator next year.In pursuance of this senatorial ambition Governor Suswam seemed to have decided to swim along side his Tiv people whose sentiment he understands to be anti Fulani and Islam in order for him to ingratiate himself with his peoples sentiment. The Suswam that we knew who was quiet urbane,civilised,metropolitan and humanistic has suddenly turned into an intolerable,unreasonable and primitive jungle man! And yet,characteristically,those so-called middle belt ethnic and religious bigots have cashed on this topic or issue with the fury of hell as usual with no-holds-barred calling for the extermination of the entire race of the herdsmen,forgetting that Hitler failed to wipe out the Jews after killing 9 million of them.Ironically today that persecution has made the Jews the most universal people in the entire the world and the most daring,enterpri sing and feared.He is an embodiment of of all the evil in the world because he has seen it all and has leant all about it. Do you hate and venom filled fanatics of the middle belt want to toe the line of Adolf Hitler?You have already started and you can see the resistance already which who you shamefully call terrorism,jihad or even Boko Haram.Shame on you! You better call it what it is- a resistance.For whether you like or not that is what it is- RESISTANCE.Resistance to our extermination,resistance to the obliteration of our cultural values,resistance to the annihilation of our religion,resistance to the robbery,rustling,confiscation,sale and consumption of our most beloved ancestral and generation wealth of cattle which you know we are ready to die for having no alternative means of survival. Having understood this fully made you to strategically and sadistically target these animals for mass looting,destruction and consumption which are all economic sabotage which you fully well know is an equivalent of physically attacking and killing us (which you often do anyway)as you know we will eventually die without a means of livelihood.You know that as a traditional people with a traditional occupation,we shall be grave-bound without these cattle. You tell the world lies that we destroy your crops and refuse to take responsibility for it but the fact remains that as members of the All FarmersAssociation of Nigeria(AFAN), we have made it abundantly clear through our umbrella association,the Miyetti Allah Cattle Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria(MACBAN) that it should be informed and be held responsible for any alleged destruction of crops against us.But the farmers have mischievously refused to toe this line of peaceful intervention,preferring to hide behind the false allegation of our deliberate,mischievous destruction of their crops so as to justify their otherwise indefensible attacks against us. Finally,we hereby categorically state with all the emphasis at our disposal that we are ever ready for a peaceful co-existence between us and the farmers as it has been from time immemorial.There is no state in Nigeria that can beat its chest as afood basket of Nigeria without us.There can be no food on the table without meat and you say you have food. Have the Nigerian farmers ever thought of how much it would cost Nigeria to import the beef(protein) requirement of Nigerians that our national herd supply? Please refer to The Nation Newspaper of Wednesday,February 26,2014, page 53 and peruse the story with the title-Fed Govt Spends N125.3b on fish importation yearly,says Adesina The first paragraph of this story reads-The Federal Government spends N125.38 billion on fish import yearly, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,Dr.Akinwumi Adesina has said What is the fish consumption level of Nigerians compared to that of beef? Beef constitutes more than 75 per cent of Nigerias protein intake against fish.And you can imagine the huge amount of our foreign reserve that we save our nations economy and all we get in return from Nigerians is insult and threats of being flushed out of the borders of one state to another or even out of the country,through most of the times,the Nigerian authorities,in response to the calls of the likes of Governor Suswam. This is in addition to the calls and agitations of tribalist,ethnic and religious fanatics of the middle belt against us and all we ask of the government such as the universally accepted and provided animal herders grazing spaces( reserves) routes and water sources.According to these people we are not entitled to any space on the surface of the Nigerian nation as Nigerians. Haba! Why dont you give us an official landing bill to any other country you know that we belong to.Until then we remain the resistance.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 10:36:49 +0000
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