On Open Grazing and Restructuring: The Follow-up Questions Dr. Abati Didn't Ask.

When the President began his well-rehearsed ripost, emphasizing the archaic culture of grazing routes and grazing areas, I did expect Dr Abati to ask a follow-up question. He never did. Also, I did expect him to remind the President that the process he is hammering on (open grazing) is no longer realistic in light of the urbanization that is catching up with the rural communities and our countryside, unforced. Instead, they jumped to the Devolution of Power.

When the President asked for the definition of Devolution of Power, instead of jumping to legislative List hogwash, go into Resource Control, State Police, and the ability of the State Governors to exercise jurisdiction over certain elements of the security networks. They ran out of questions and the President veered the discussion into the same old defense of State Governors hijacking local govt funds. There is more to Devolution of Power and Restructuring than the sharing of funds between State Governors and Local Government Council Leaders.

The President is entitled to his defences, but you have to present the facts and stick to the facts, even if the President remains evasive. He talks about gazettes, encroachments, and compensations ad infinitum as if we are still in the 50s or 60s. How many of our farmers and victims of herders' brutality and destruction have been compensated after destruction? Which Gazettes? Is it hard to tell the President that the views he holds are no longer supported, not just by modern trends, but by the facts on the ground in Nigeria?

For instance, when I got to my village a few years ago more than twenty years after my last visit, I saw streets, roads, and houses where there were none when I left the country. I saw houses and a motorable road behind my Dad's house that was previously bounded by rubber plantations. That is the same story all over Southern Nigeria.

So, when the President kept hammering on the old and now non-existent grazing routes or reserves in the interview, what it shows is how far the President and Miyetti Allah have gone in an alternative universe. OPEN GRAZING IS SIMPLY NOT REALISTIC. The earlier his advisers counsel him about the futility of his antediluvian-held belief, the better for the safety of every Nigeria and our peaceful co-existence.

Besides, why didn't Dr. Abati and his crew remind the President that open grazing is not done in Dubai where his family members and his Executive team go shopping and rewind regularly. Is it only in Nigeria that we have Fulani Cattle Herders? Why are the Fulani Cattle Herders doing in Nigeria what they cannot do in Mauritania, Central Africa Republic, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, or the Niger Republic? Why are they killing indiscriminately, with brazen audacity in Nigeria? Is it because the Buhari's, the Miyetti Allah, and the Nigerian Fulanis are occuyping important strategic security positions in Nigeria? You are influencing and facilitating the exodus of foreign Fulanis into Nigeria, and continue to feign ignorance of their bestialities and barbarism.

If we cannot distinguish a Nigerian Fulani Cattle Herder from a Killer Fulani Cattle Herder from the Mauritian or the Central African Republic (as the President alluded to during the interview), then, under no circumstance will we allow any Cattle Herders of whatever extraction access into our region or territory? It is a no-no to Cattle Colony. Period.

Their major targets or bargaining chips are the Ndigbo communities and businesses all over the Northern Region. They are there, not necessarily as of right or under section 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution, but legally and awfully like any other non-natives, doing their things according to the laws of the land. Fulani Cattle Herders are killers, heartless, destructive, and barbaric on a conquest mission to sack native landowners from their ancestral homes and then convert the vacated land to their exclusive use and ownership. That is the mission. And that is the inevitable war that President Buhari and Miyetti Allah are forcing on Nigerian communities to fight.

That war of conquest and target killings has been ongoing in the Middle Belt and Southern Kaduna for many years. It is spreading like wildfire into the South West, South East, and South-South presently, and the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is adding and abetting the foreign Fulani invaders and Miyetti Allah in their conquest mission.

If President Buhari wants to hand over his Daura Community or Katsina State to them, that's his prerogative. This is the position of all Nigerians. It's about tolerance, peaceful co-existence, and respect for laws and orders. Miyetti Allah and the entire Fulani Cattle Herders do not subscribe to that. The children of the Miyetti Allah enablers or cattle merchants, live and attend schools overseas. And whenever they are at home, they live in gated communities and highly secured mansions. In other words, we live in a different world. Kidnapping and extortions are not on their priority list.

It is now left for all Nigerians to start asking the question: Do we stand by and allow Miyetti Allah and President Buhari to plunge Nigeria into avoidable intertribal war because they want to rear and sell cattle? No. It won't happen. The culture of open grazing has been overtaken by events. WE WILL NOT STAND BY AND ALLOW FOREIGNERS, NO MATTER THE EXTRACTION, TO TURN NIGERIAN INTO ANOTHER AFGHANISTAN. Nigeria is worth saving and it is greater than President Buhari and Miyetti Allah.

My Spiritual Encounter With Sr Prophet T.B Joshua.

According to the Gospel of Luke, "And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind, he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers[e] are cleansed, and the deaf hears, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” 

And that's how I saw Sr. Prophet, T.B Joshua. His spiritual works and philanthropy interceded unmistakenly on his behalf. 

I have never met him. But I have followed him religiously over the years since 2012 when one of my sisters at the time, introduced him to me. I didn't take her seriously initially. When she called the third time about the same issue, she said "I am not hanging up off the phone until you go to your laptop and turn into the Emmanuel TV broadcast and loud the audio for me to hear and know you are exactly there." To stop her from wasting her data, I did as she instructed. And the rest is now history.

Watching him the first time, was amazing. I didn't doubt what I saw. Nevertheless, I decided to go to Google to dig out more facts or information about the man. The only allegation that came close to being dubbed a fake prophet in the opinion of one European lady who published the story was that he prophesied that there was going to be a plane crash in a named country, but didn't happen at the time of the day that the Prophet said it was going to happen. And that was it, I couldn't see anything damaging, scandalous, or bordering on heresy.

However, the more I dig, the more videos, pictures, and stories of healing the sick and of philanthropic giving I see. Then I saw the video of how he started from scratch. I saw him sharing food on top of a bench with a kid after a day job, building his church. I saw him washing the toilet in his church. And I saw him in a white robe, in the rain, labouring to salvage his flooded makeshift church from ruin. So, seeing all that labour of compassion, commitment, and passion, spanning decades, I fell in love with him in spirit. And he was to save my life a few years later the way I did not expect.

When I first saw the story of departing to meet with the Lord around Saturday Midnight American Time, I thought it was an expensive prank and I went to bed, unconcerned. Waking up this Sunday morning to see the same story, flooding social media, left me dumbfounded.

I have completed an arrangement to visit his church on my next visit to Nigeria to meet with him on one and tell him about my dreams. And give testimony on how his Morning Water saved me in 2016 in Benin City during my last visit to Nigeria. Why I have procrastinated about it over the years remains unexplainable. May God forgive me. He was authentic and simply one of a kind.

I have seen a few great men in the dream, but not in the same magnitude that I have seen Senior Prophet, T.B Joshua. Four times in the dream in about ten years is unprecedented.

Yes, his Morning Water saved me. You may not believe it, but it is TRUE.

A few weeks after my recovery from the illness that lasted 30 days, something dramatic happened. Someone broke into my travelling bag, ransacked it, and didn't take my money, clothes shoes, or anything material or monetary. The person took the bottle of the Morning Water from where it was placed inside a secured and unseen wallet-size compartment inside the travelling bag, emptied the entire content of the Morning Water, and placed the bottle back. Yes, emptied the half-full bottle of Morning Water.

When I saw my travelling bag was tampered with, the Morning Water didn't come to my mind, for two reasons. Who would want to tamper with God's property? Besides, I didn't tell anyone I had it? And two, where it was placed inside the travelling bag was not visible - the zip to the compartment was also concealed. Yet, the intruder was able to find it and clean the entire content. But thank God, it has done its job already, saving my life.

This story might sound anyhow to you, but pray that what happened to me in Benin City in 2016 doesn't come near your doorstep. So, when you see me sharing videos of Sr. Prophet T.B Joshua or of Bishop Adeboye on my Facebook Wall, it is for real. I serve God with all my life and that's why I am still standing. He lives in me.

Sr. Prophet T.B Joshua saved me via his Morning Water. You went to bed healthy, and you woke up almost paralyzed, not able to walk normally. You cried out that something was wrong. You didn't go to any hospital for the surgery they anticipated. But you got healed. How? And that explains the invasion of my travelling bag.

My plan was to go to his Church and give testimony of what happened to me - the nature of the illness, the process, and how long it took me to fully recover. It was between me, my God, and the Morning Water for 31 days. And thank Sr. Prophet T.B Joshua for everything.

His passing, though sad, is a lesson. Do that thing now that you have the time. He played his part and played it diligently and fruitfully. He placed Nigeria on the global stage. To be a healer and a philanthropic at the same time, was most endearing. And he will surely be missed by all.

Once again, may his soul rest in peace and I pray that God gives his family the grace and strength to bear the loss. Amen.

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Professor Tamuno's Revisionism

 (1) I have yet to read where the late Papa Awo laid claim to the building of UI. Every student of my generation knows that UI is the premier university of Nigeria and not of the Western Region.

(2) The First Olympic-size stadium in Africa, at Ibadan was not a figment of someone's imagination.

(3) The First Television Station in the developing world at Ibadan was real and not a utopia

(4) The Present Nigerian House in London, England, was the Western House, belonging to the Action Group Party in the West. It was later converted into a Nigerian House.

(5) The Awo Free Education Program was the best organized in the developing world

(6) The economy of the Western Region pre-independent was stronger than that of Spain and Portugal.

(7) The Western Region was the first of the three regions to have a regional university (IFE). UI, ABU, & UNN, are federal institutions. 

The facts speak volumes and they are indisputable. With all due respect, I think Professor Tamuno is the one pushing a false narrative. 

PRESIDENT JONATHAN WAS UNLIKE YAR'ADUA AS PRESIDENT

Granted, former President Jonathan is now a celebrated man of valour, but he didn't come across as a man with a Bachelor's Degree throughout his five years in office as President. His former boss, Mr Yar Adua, with a Master's Degree, was more astute, more learned, and apparently more politically sophisticated. He didn't know who was who in the Nigerian polity. And he appeared too blank as an academic or a PhD holder from the ivory tower. 

He was just too shallow and his cognitive ability did not pass as one from the Niger Delta. Most often, he had difficulties putting a sentence together. That was the problem most non-aligned political commentators like Mr. Sonala Olumhense and his colleagues had with him. 

They expect him to cast a brand and dismantle the old order, but he gravitated towards them childishly.

Even though President Jonathan had all the so-called Easterners in his administration, he had more projects in the North than in his own region. How many International Airports did Stella Odua build in the South-East? There was no superhighway linking Delta State with Yenagoa and Port Harcourt. 

He was too afraid to use his power. Maybe naivety is the right word. For instance, President Yar'Adua locked up the entire management team of the NERC without trial over allegations of massive corruption and squandering of public funds in the Energy Commission. 

He removed Nnaji from the Energy or Electricity position over a stupid allegation. He also removed one Ibo guy from the Nigerian Population Commission because Northerners protested that a few years back, the guy doubted the authenticity of the Northern population's superiority over the South. 

By the way, the Senate Committee report on the bogus Petroleum Marketers should've made him a superstar President, but he tried to punch holes in the report, via Chief Otedola. Even went the Aig Imoukhuede Committee that he set up, established beyond a reasonable doubt in its report that the Marketers did indeed scam the NNPC and DPPPR of the Subsidy Funds, President Jonathan didn't know what to do with the report. Two of the fraudulent marketers were the children of the two previous leaders of the PDP.  

Today, he is a global hero, thanks to the Nigerian culture of low expectations and the bigotry of his successor.