From Farmers-Herders to Miners-Herders

Source: Seaarts

Towards the end of the third quarter of 2009, there was a problem in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State. The administration of Jonah Jang, Governor of Plateau State at the time,   was evacuating some herdsmen who were immigrating to Plateau in large numbers.

In the previous couple of years, Plateau has recorded some of the most deadly conflicts that pitched native Plateau tribes on one hand and the settler Hausa-Fulani tribes on the other. The Jang administration, whose regime was marred by these conflicts, was afraid that immigration of these herdsmen, some of whom are said to have come from as far as Mali would only complicate matters.

Despite the effort of the Jang administration to move these herders back to where they came from, it did not work. The herders chose a strategy.  When they returned, it was deadly. Armed with some of the most deadly weapons, they would visit innocent native villages in the dark of nights and kill as much as they can. Whoever survives is compelled to move out, having no assurance that he will be protected in future. The climax was the death of two legislators, one a senator, the other a member of the Plateau State House of Assembly in 2012. This was the start of what was dubbed the Farmers-Herders Conflict.

The phrase wasn’t fair to the farmers. It suggested there was a conflict between the two sides, when actually the farmers were helpless and unarmed people who never knew where the herders were coming from let alone attempt to attack them in retaliation. It was a case of a lion and a gazelle, a case of a deadly bully and the weak.

The herders, seeing that nothing was done by the authorities to deter them, started casting their murderous nets to cover wider regions such that people who had argued in their support became their worst victims, as the killing fields broaden to include Benue, Kaduna, Zamfara  and Niger provinces.  In Plateau State alone, the attacks had displaced close to a hundred villages as at the year 2019.

They herders were initially interested in grazing lands. Now, they have become more daring and more ambitious, driving people away from villages that are rich in minerals, succour to the villagers who find themselves living arm and leg in contemporary Nigeria. In Zamfara and Niger States, the conflicts is said to be fuelled by gold deposits underneath the affected villages. In Plateau State, considered the nucleus of solid mineral mining in Nigeria, the story is the same. In Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Wase, Kanam and Jos South, all of which are rich in a diversity of mineral deposits, the attackers wait until your mining shafts reach the depth of the targeted deposits before they launch attacks, displacing everyone and returning to scoop the deposits.

The attacks, rather than slowing down, are becoming more vigorous, accentuating the weaknesses or nonchalance of authorities. It has gone beyond just grazing farms to minerals and wealth at large. Everything gets messier.

Suicidal Mistakes of Power Distribution Companies

Substandard Power Grid. Source: Seaart.

I connected to the national grid in 2014. I was on estimated billing. Eventually, my meter came in 2017. I noticed I needed 32 units of electricity every month. I kept adding the gadgets I needed to live a cosy life. My consumption rose to about 90 units a month. With the current categorized billing tariff that puts me on Band A, I have to pay about twenty thousand naira every month.  I am law-abiding. So, I have accepted it, despite the tariff digging a huge hole in my pocket.

Now, though, I coil and boil when I see neighbours using all manner of gadgets and paying five times less than I pay because they are on estimated billings. The feeling I get is that I am paying for the neighbours who don’t have meters. This is the first suicidal mistake of the power distribution companies.

When power consumers started getting categorized into bands so that consumers on Band A pay a thousand naira for just 4.4 units of electricity, it was on the condition that the distribution companies supply at least 20 hours of electricity a day. Should the distribution company fail to live up to the contract, there should be an automatic reversal to the old status. The distribution companies lived up to the agreement for a couple of months. Then the national grid started experiencing failures lasting for weeks. Yet, there hasn’t been any reversal of the tariff as was agreed. The failure to live up to terms of an agreement is suicidal mistake number two.

It is the duty of power distribution companies to take electric power to communities –they are the distribution companies. That is never done. Power consumers by poles and cables and still pay staff of power distribution companies for installations. It also means that the companies are not interested in improving on their operations. This is suicidal mistake number three.

Despite the huge profits power distribution companies declare (over a trillion naira by the end of 2023), they are still not interested in improving working conditions for their staff. The offices look very filthy and unbefitting for humans. Salaries are still extremely poor with the workers not being able to pay bills. The result is that the staff have joined hands with defrauded consumers and directives from the top don’t ever sink down to the bottom where it is intended. The consumers prefer to pay field staff so they get soft landings. Refusing to improve staff welfare in the midst of plenty is the most suicidal mistake of the distribution companies.

Proverb 15 verse 27 says: he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house.

The Magic of Diket Plang

 

Senator Diket Plang. Source: Pang's Facebook Gallery

Plang has always beaten his chest saying he never had to worry much about writing applications with the intention of seeking a job –his only applications where to the people from whom he sought political mandates.

Very early from graduation, he opted to be in politics, becoming a counsellor representing one of those words from Pankshin South. He eventually rose to coordinate the National Poverty Alleviation Programme under Joshua Dariye, who was the Governor of Plateau State between 1999 and 2007. During the Jonah Jang administration as the Governor of Plateau State, Senator Plang became an adviser to the Governor on Inter-Governmental Matters. That was when I knew him, following an interview he granted me while I worked actively as a journalist at the time. During the second tenure of the Jang administration, he successfully contested for the state assembly and won. In the eight years of Simon Lalong, he went into hibernation. At the end of it, he bounced back, this time as a Senator.  He taught us that patience is a powerful weapon in political strategy.

Obviously, there is something magical about his political life, given that he comes from a marginal tribe in Pankshin, where the Ngas are the largest tribe –our political culture is largely driven by sympathy to people with whom we share a common ancestry or religion. We cannot forget too easily that we are in the era of the Muslim-Muslim tag.  

So, what is the secret blueprint he has used to stay relevant all these decades? It is obviously, his generosity. I was prompted to write this after listening to what he had done to people in his constituency by given out one thousand bags of rice to folks at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Roughly, that amounts to about one hundred million naira, a largesse one can describe as staggering!

There was a time, early in Plang’s senatorial incumbency. It was when he was invited to inspect the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences in Jos with the intention of helping with a bill seeking to make the institute a university.  I went there and watched as he was been taken round the institute.  I thought it was a near-impossible task, but the man eventually delivered, a restatement of his laser-sharp political wit.   

This big-heartedness has been the recipe to his unvarying political victories. His detractors say that he has been succeeding by bribing the people with generosity. Anything wrong with that?  –politics is about irritability to the troubles of the people, helping the people to accomplish their individual and shared dreams.

Having became a Senator, there is just one rung atop the latter that he hasn’t attained. It is the position of a governor. Unfortunately, when he ends his tenure as a senator (assuming he winds the second tenure) it will be the turn of Northern Plateau to present the candidates. That is if we stick to the agreement which merely comes from our convictions that power should rotate. It is not a clause in the constitution and anything can happen. From his antecedents, it is dangerous to underestimate what the Senator is capable of actualizing.

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International, Jos

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International is an open-air centre of religious gatherings. It was built in Jos by Jonah David Jang, a man who has been a governor in three of Nigeria’s thirty-six states.  It is located between Doi and Ladura villages in the Du District of Jos South. People have come to refer to the monument as the Ten Commandments because of the spectacle of a giant tablet on which the Ten Commandments of God are engraved. The monument, built from Jang’s personal funds, was commissioned by erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2021. Jang had ended his time as governor in 2015 and as a senator in 2019.

In addition to President Goodluck Jonathan, who commissioned the monument, two former presidents of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and Yakubu Gowon, have also walked the soil of the monument. Obasanjo and Gowon were special guests at the maiden edition of a three-day inter-denominational event, which concluded on December 1^st, 2024, following the request of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, the current Governor of Plateau State. The coming of Generals Gowon and Obasanjo accentuated the epic standing of the monument –the event enjoyed record attendance, only comparable to the attendance recorded when Reinhardt Bunke visited Jos in the mid-1990s. 

The Ten Commandments is set in a picturesque location of Du District. It is designed such that the colourful sitting positions form a bow pattern, which faces an elevated podium behind which the tablet stands. The tablet’s giant size compares to human sizes as Gulliver compared to Lilliputians. The arena also boasts of water pools designed for baptism and have been used for that purpose since the inauguration of the monument.

Sometimes in 2010, I visited Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State and noticed the roads were curiously wide and dichotomous. They were also flanked by giant gutters that lessen any possibility of flooding. When I observed that the construction pattern was identical to what Jonah Jang was building in Plateau State, my host confirmed that the roads were actually built by Jonah Jang while he was the military Governor of Benue State. It is this obsession for urban renaissance that has helped Jang to become so powerful that he decides who becomes the governor of Plateau State.

When Jang’s construction turbo took off on the Plateau in 2007, it was relentless and ubiquitous under the Plateau sun, compelling President Goodluck Jonathan to stay for three days, flying across the state and commissioning a stack of projects Jang had piled within a short period of becoming governor. The roads at the heart of the construction were aimed at spreading the physical developments to all corners of the state as much as possible. This was so achieved until the end of his second tenure in 2015. Building the monument with his private funds makes obvious his undying love for Plateau State. The record attendance of the religious event has proven that when constructions spread further away from the city centre, they spur developments in the countryside.  

Within the short period Caleb Mutfwang has been in the state as the Governor, he has been able to demonstrate that he is a protégé of Jonah Jang. The volume of his projects despite the litigations that slowed him in the first year proves this. Mutfwang, who understands the role such monuments play in stirring prosperity, moved around with a broad smile on his face, greeting everybody. It is said that governance is a process, not an event. Unfortunately for Plateau State, this is only true if the People's Democratic Party is in charge. Clearly, the Mutfwang approach is a continuation of what Jang stands for.

There is something iconic about Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International: the monument carries an ambience that is reminiscent of the happy days last seen in the mid-1980s. As far as this is concerned, everyone on the Plateau is upbeat

Staying away from power is like walking into the distance. The more you walk away, the less distinct you become. The more years Jang stayed away from the government house, the more indistinct he became in the minds of Plateau people. However, building the Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International from the leftovers in his pouch has brought him back to the notice of the people in a manner that is so distinct that time will find it difficult to erode.

The constant prayer in the minds of kind-hearted people in Plateau State is for Jang to live long. Clearly, God is answering this prayer. 

What is “follow come” in Nigerian Parlance?

Every nation has its cultural uniqueness and Nigeria isn’t an exception. In Nigeria’s parlance, there is this expression, “follow come” that leaves many wondering what it means. “Follow come” simply means the better quality.

So, how did we get to this?  The question is best answered with an example.

If I buy a mobile phone, it comes with accessories like the power cable, for instance.  It is often the best quality for that phone.

Now, if the power cable gets damaged or gets lost, you have to go to the market to buy another. At the market, there are all manner of options, most of which are substandard. So, to avoid running into a substandard product, you tell the shop owner that you prefer the type that followed the phone and came with it. That is how the phrase came into the Nigerian parlance.

How I Ended My Romance with Cigarette

Cigarette smoking is a huge concern for many who have found themselves deeply engrossed in it and wish to pull out. They say that it has substances, such as nicotine and tar deliberately added to keep users hooked but, for me, I pulled out with ease –I never felt any riveting influence it is said to have.

While in secondary school, there were boys who were deeply into cigarette smoking. They were so involved they often absconded from class to stay in the hills, where they smoked without someone bordering them. Suddenly, it seemed there was something in it that I was missing.

I left that school for another, driven by a strong desire for academic excellence –I was more predisposed to books than anything else. There again, I met a guy who often had thick dirty lips, bloodshot eyes and left a strong tobacco stench in his trails. He would leave school to stay in the city, nightclubbing, girls hunting, puffing all the time and sleeping wherever night caught up with him. Though he was born and raised in the city, he never went home, giving his parents the impression he was in school.

My friend got a little serious, as final examinations neared –he wasn’t crazy after all. That was how we got closer with me taking up that habit.

After graduation, I was waiting for admission to a university and stayed with my elder brother in the city (though my parents were also in the city). It was during that period that my smoking habit flourished. Inwardly, I got the feeling that my brother knew about it, but pretended he didn’t know, especially since he never saw me with a stick of cigarette –I smoked only when I was out, sometimes with that friend and, sometimes, alone. I recall one day when I tried to smoke in a taxi. The driver stopped and requested that I get out. While I was getting out, I was conscious that I was drifting away from society’s acceptable standards.

Eventually, I found my admission and moved to the university. While attending the pre-degree bridging programme, there were girls from influential family backgrounds with whom we had struck a much-valued camaraderie. On the day we completed that phase of schooling, it called for feasting. While walking towards the gate, I bought a stick of cigarette and was smoking it when some of these girls were driving past. I tried to hide my cigar but they still noticed it. It was how my esteem in the eyes of those girls vanished –they concluded I wasn’t a good boy, after all.

I moved into the mainstream of the university programme. In my class, I found a guy with whom our lives rhymed –we both loved music and followed the trends. He was already into smoking. So, we blended with ease. But in addition to cigarette, he also was into weed. I tried to get him to usher me in, but he kept playing games until I gave up. Now, with hindsight, I understand he felt weed-smoking wasn’t for my type.

In our second year, we stopped smoking. It wasn’t planned. It just happened naturally. One day, we just realized we had not been smoking for some time. I learned something from this: smoking for us and for many others was a stage in the staircase of adolescence.

But it didn’t really end abruptly. There were times, I found myself in a party or an adventurous mood. I consummated such moods with a stick of cigar. While at the orientation camp of the National Youth Service, I had money that I couldn’t spend since we were fed three times a day. So, I sometimes spent the evenings at the mami market, drinking. In the end, there was always a stick of cigarette to go with it.

After national youth service, I returned from Benin, Edo State, where I had served. I eventually got a job as a mine manager. The job took me to a remote village, somewhere around the limit between Plateau and Taraba States. In that village, there wasn’t decent food, no clean water, no electricity, the people were antisocial, the housing was practically a tent, and there weren’t people in my social circle... The funk in the village was so deep I often felt I was in prison. When, eventually, I had time to travel to the city, it felt like party time and called for celebration. At such moments, cigarette often came handy. That was probably the last time I recall smoking cigarette. It was in 1997.  

How Asake is Crippling the Nigerian Music Industry

Asake. Image Credt: https://radrafrica.com

You may have noticed that the Nigerian music industry has been slowing down for some time –we are having enough of the old artists, yet there are no new arrivals from behind the horizon. Somehow, the industry has been all about Asake in the last year. It isn’t that no one has been active at all, just that the attention has drifted to Asake such that the other artists have been forgotten. Davido, in an attempt to save his career, chose to collaborate with Asake. His reason for wanting the collaboration was because “Asake has scattered every place,” to use his exact words. Davido said he was waiting for Olamide’s consent –Asake won’t collaborate with you without Olamide’s approval.

Asake wasn’t the cynosure until the release of his single, Lonely at the Top. That single launched him to the top, making him the most sought-after Nigerian artist globally. But then he released his Lungu Boy album. Before its release, Asake talked about how the album would be in Yoruba and that he is more comfortable singing in Yoruba. I cowered when I heard him say this –I believe his success, following the release of Lonely at the Top, had to do with the language switch –he chose to perform that song in English against his tradition of singing in Yoruba.

When Lungu Boy finally got released, there was a rush for it and it trended, especially on YouTube and TikTok, albeit for an unusually short period. When an album is a hit, it continues to trend for months, but Lungu Boy trended for a couple of weeks only. Thus, all the plays were for the sake of reviews, people playing to rate it. Now, the abrupt silence is their opinion about the album –it is as if no new album has been released.

Most of what I have heard from Lungu Boy is Amapianowish. Plus, he added other elements that made the music so complex, leaving other artists wondering how he did it. He moved so swiftly that other artists couldn’t keep up. Following his success with Lonely at the Top, he became the avant-garde. With this, every music executive became fearful of putting money on any artist to avoid a financial loss.  

With the exception, of Ayra Star, who played around with Comma, Asake chose to single-handedly carry the Nigerian music industry on his shoulders in the last year. Now that he has tripped, the whole industry comes to a standstill.

When an African-American man was asked why the Nigerians are the most successful artists from Africa, he echoed my opinion: the Nigerians sing in English. The question is: what is responsible for the failure of the new album, Lungu Boy? For me, just the word “lungu” turned me off. I don’t know if it is a Yoruba word or a word from another tongue or Asake’s jargon. In Hausa though, the word, “lungu” means an alley or a hidden corner, a place where bad things happen without people noticing. You can, for instance, trap a woman and rape her successfully in a lungu. Furthermore, the whole album turned out to be in Yoruba, as Asake had promised. It is vital to note that while Asake sang in Yoruba, he failed to find that universal appeal until the release of Lonely at the Top, which is in English.

The decision to sing in Yoruba messed up Lungu Boy. People argue that music is a universal language. Yes, but not absolutely. English in our contemporary world is considered a superior language –everyone, including narcissists, wants to speak it. If the music is in a tongue that others consider inferior, it explains why its reception has been frosty. The success of any artist globally comes only if he is supported by the Western world, the storeroom of the English language. It isn’t by design but what Asake has done is to get the Nigerian music industry befuddled.