FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSunday, April 15, 2018
[email protected]
Bonn, Germany

ANALOG NIGERIA IN A DIGITAL AGE (9)

Continued from Part 8

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself (Henry Ford)

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies (Ann Landers)

Whenever a political regime or religious establishment refuses to tolerate criticism, it advertises itself as repressive, backward, and insecure (Mark Knopfler)

A government for cows

ince Buhari became the president of Nigeria, the country has been treading the backward path, mostly wasting its time. Nigeria does not think much about the digital world, as it remains analog when most other countries have moved on. While we live in a digital world, Nigerians are still analog creatures. That must be the reason they elected a moron as their president. To add salt to the injury, Buhari has declared his intention to go for re-election to complete the ruining of Nigeria he started in 2015. For Buhari, remaining in power is the only thing that matters. He even insulted Nigerians by saying that the clamoring for his re-election made him to declare, and that Nigerians are appreciating his good deeds. This man is sick indeed!

A man of 72 and above will be a retired judge or a retired professor or a retired civil servant because senility has set in and his sense of judgment has become moribund, but in Nigeria, a man of that age is the president and wants four more years to lull Nigeria out of existence. I want to ask those Nigerians who voted for Buhari in 2015, and plan to vote for him in 2019 if they would allow a 73 year old to baby sit their child? If not, why should you allow a man of that age to decide for about 170 million Nigerians by voting him in as president again? Some might say that President Trump is also of that age bracket, but America is not Nigeria, because in America, and in the developed world, the institutions are already placed and are running those coutries, while in Nigeria the leader sees himself as the institutions.

We really have a problem in Nigeria for electing an analog president who lacks leadership, has a tendency to always place the blame for his lack of leadership somewhere else, and is a serial liar, as such that if you place him on a lie detector, the instrument will catch fire because it will not be able to tolerate all the lies this man has been spewing out.

Now, Buhari has no more living or dead Nigerian to blame for his incompetence, so, he has taken his blame game outside Nigeria and into the spiritual realm where the dead dwell. Do we need to ask why Buhari gives appointments to dead people if he can also blame them for his incompetence or lack of leadership?

What I'm talking about is that Buhari told Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, on Wednesday, April 11, that the farmers, herders clashes in Nigeria are caused by militias trained by the late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. How can Buhari blame Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed seven years ago, for the killings in Nigeria today? Buhari, who helped in emboldening Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen, which are on a killing spree in Nigeria, is shifting the blame. The man who has no respect for Christians at home, went to England to meet the head of the Anglican church, and was falsely explaining to him what he was supposed to be explaining to his own country people at home. What made the Archbishop to develop interest in Buhari? This is not the first time they have met. I hope nobody has promised anybody an oil well. Remember that Rex Tillerson lost his post as the United States' Secretary of State because he disobeyed Trump by meeting Buhari because of the promise of an oil well, if he helps to get Buhari re-elected by selling his stinking candidacy to the American government.

But how can Buhari say that the attackers are foreigners and not herdsmen, when everybody, including the victims, have insisted that the herders are behind the attacks? But why was Buhari lying to the Archbishop, afterall, the killings, according to PT, have long been linked to herdsmen, and some herders of the Fulani ethnic stock have claimed responsibility for the attacks - Fulani leaders have openly claimed responsibility for the killings, but said they were provoked by the wanton rustling of their livestock.

Fine; for the benefit of doubt, let's agree with Buhari that the attackers are foreigners. Imagine a man who calls himself the president of a country proudly saying that foreigners invaded his country and are killing his citizens while he cannot do something about it. Why then is he still the president, the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and even a retired General for that matter? in fact, Incompetence smells everywhere all around Buhari. How can a man who calls himself a president be unable to ward the foreign attackers off, and still, he has the gut to declare his intention for a second term?

I agree with Senator Abaribe, when he said (in the Senate):

"And we continued to look at all these explanations. Yesterday in London, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria and the president of Nigeria said the killings are as a result of the people who were trained by the late Muammar Gaddafi and so implying that these people doing these killings in Nigeria are from outside Nigeria and even if he says they are invaders from outside Nigeria, what it means is that now it validates my last point on this floor. When a commander-in-chief cannot take care of invaders, invading Nigeria why is he still a commander-in-chief, why do we continue to indulge? Why do we continue to indulge this president that everywhere goes along to tell everyone outside this country that he is totally incompetent. Because it is obvious.�

In the preceding part of this article, I wrote about the allegation that Yakubu Gowon, as the head of state, during the civil war, promised grazing routes to some Fulani from other countries, if they will help Nigeria in defeating the Biafrans who were proving more powerful than the Nigerian government has envisaged. Now, those Fulani from foreign lands have come to take what was promised to them. That is the mistake people make in life; some people will go to the devil to seek help, promising something in return, and it might take time, but when the devil comes for the payback, regret results. If acually Gowon did this then, did he envisage the waton destruction of lives and property that decision is causing today? Now, the worst victims, so far, are his own people- the Middle belters. Just look at the disharmony between farmers and herdsmen his decision almost 50 years is causing today. I respectfully ask Gowon to react to this.

To show that president Buhari knows something we do not know, and that he's one of the Fulani herdsmen' patrons, he asked that the grazing routes be kept free. Imagine a president of a country warning that people should not build houses on the so-called cattle routes. Governor Ayo Peter Fayose said this, after Buhari warned the governors, during one of their meetings: "The president of Nigeria was saying governors should go and make sure they don�t block cattle routes. He said people are building houses to block cattle routes. I was laughing; I didn�t know what to say in council. I just left.� Ena Ofugara chipped in: "When you vote a herdsman from the darkest pits of hell, this is what you get... zero pity for humans and endless love for cattle and the killer herdsmen".

The Fulani herdsmen and their cattle have been wreaking havoc everywhere: Despite the human lives and property they're destroying, they've also been threatening the safety of airplanes in Nigeria. But, tell me what cows are looking for on Airport Runways?

According to The New Telegraph, what would have been an air crash was on Feb. 17, 2018, averted as scores of cattle took over the runway of the Akure Airport, in Ondo State, preventing an Air Peace flight from landing. The incident which has become a regular feature at the airport premises occurred around 12:00 pm, causing initial disturbance to the airline and passengers, forcing the aircraft to contemplate returning to Lagos, but had to hover mid air for about 20 minutes.

According to the Paper: �The herdsmen foraged into the runaway causing some disturbance and preventing the aircraft from landing around 12:00pm. The incident lasted for about 20 minutes until Aviation Security personnel, (AvSec), arrested the situation.� The Vanguard added that staffers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, at the Akure Airport co-habit with the cows almost on daily basis. The fear of attack by the herdsmen, who have permanently sojourned in the vicinity, has made officials of the airport to continue to keep sealed lips on the threat that their presence in the restricted area is causing.

This incident was reminiscent of that of July 2005 when an Air France jet ran into cows at the Port Harcourt, Rivers State, causing damage to the nose cone and the landing gear of the aircraft. Also, on November 10, 2016, a fully-loaded plane of Air Peace had to abort landing at Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, when the pilot discovered that the runway had been invaded by cows.

The AirFrance one is very interesting, as it buttresses the need for competence. If the pilot was incompetent - that is famous feature in Nigeria - right from the president down, many lives would have been lost. The BBC wrote then that a plane ran into a herd of cows at Nigeria's Port Harcourt airport. The Air France plane, with 196 people on board, ploughed into the cows as it touched down at Port Harcourt in the early hours of that Wednesday morning. No-one on board was hurt, but the collision left seven cows dead and the runway was soaked with their blood.

IASA described it this way:

It was in the early hours of last Wednesday, precisely, 4.30am. On its way from Paris, Air-France Airbus 330 lowered its huge and bulky frame like an eagle about to perch, not on a branch of a tree or on a rugged mountain, but negotiating a touchdown at the Port Harcourt International Airport after hours of a smooth flight, across seas and large swaths of land.

As it approached the runway, with the front parts of the big bird raised up, and as its rear parts was lowered for its big rear tyres to land on the tarmac, the pilot, Mr. Cambus Patrick, had no idea he was landing, notAexactly on a regular tarmac but on a herd of fifty cows. There was a crash of sounds emanating from the violent impact of steel, bloated and heavy tyres with the sturdy and rugged bones and muscles of heavy and strong animals followed by intermittent clap of sounds like the roar of distant thunder. Seven of the fifty cows died immediately and for a moment, the Airbus 330 veered slightly, over a considerable distance at that frightening speed, from the runway.

The twenty years of flying experience by Mr. Patrick was brought to bear on those crucial seconds and he was able to bring the big bird fully on its course on the runway and eventually to a successful landing. According to the Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda, the "near-accident" was so expertly handled by the pilot who had flown 12,000 hours in his career that even the passengers in the bowels of the plane had no idea that something unusual had happened. Nigerians were outraged at the incident, saying they felt scandalized that cows could be roaming, at night, on the tarmac of one of the top international airports in the country.

To tell you the kind of government we have - the government of cows, by the cows, and for the cows: After the Akure Airport's incident on Feb 17, 2018, all that Buhari�s Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Alli, said was that Akure Airport Runway was invaded by cows because the Airport was built on Cattle Grazing Route, and that the Federal Government must relocate the Airport. What? A minister said that an Airport should give way for the cows. Are we living in another planet? That's analog Nigeria for you.

Not finished yet: When asked why the police did not arrest the herdsmen for taking the cows to the runway, the Nigeria Police Force said it cannot arrest herdsmen who allow their cattle to stray into and graze on airport runways in the country. Those were the words of the Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Mustapha Dandaura. That's Buhari's Nigeria for you!

To be Continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvvF1eYYac0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3TFW8Z84-A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q4n_yWHIBQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q4n_yWHIBQ

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 8

IMAGES IN THE NEWS