What will be the fate of Nigerian federalism when affiliating clusters dabble in functions constitutionally assigned to the uppermost tier of authority?
In the first week of December 2016, Nigerian media space was decorated with headlines of the news that Governor Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State admitted to identifying, linking and compensating killers of Southern Kaduna people in the neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal.
Vanguard, on the 3rd of December 2016, reported that Mr. El-Rufai stated:
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic, and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensation for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.”
Mr. El-Rufai stretched further by piquing, "In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some…”
Reinforcing his earlier position, just before Christmas on 21 December 2016, while addressing the press after his altercation with nude women protesters in Southern Kaduna, Mr. El-Rufai reassured his willingness to soldier-on with his controversial and illegal scheme of paying foreign killers. To demonstrate his ‘never say die’ intentions, he said he could surrender the entire state treasury in his infamous project of compensating a genocidal group executing their well-orchestrated crimes against humanity in Southern Kaduna.
On realizing that he goofed, Mr. El-Rufai – the dull-headed and baby propagandist – fruitlessly attempted some damage control by postulating that he was misquoted and his scandalous statement was taken out of context. But his efforts could not quench the storm of criticism by individuals and groups. Some newspapers hemmed highly critical editorials that condemned Mr. El-Rufai’s fraternity with foreign terminators and arsonists. One of such commentaries was Sam Omatseyeon's weekly column, "The Herdsman Of The Year," published on 2 January 2017. Mr. Omotseyein's take was sharp like a surgical blade. People like Femi Fani-Kayode, an outspoken evangelical Christian and former Minister of Aviation, also scripted a series of articles that gave a novel insight of the situatiuon.
Mr. El-Rufai asserted that his action was guided by Gen. Martins Agwai's report of the committee to stamp out attacks on Southern Kaduna communities set up on 1 July 2015 and submitted its report in August of 2015. The governor of Kaduna State dwelled on a statement on page 20 of the report which said "...even though transhumance Fulani from the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, as well as Senegal and Mali, engage in killings because they were caught in the April post-presidential election crisis in 2011, they also carry out unprovoked attacks on villages and engage in armed robbery." That sharply contradicted what Mr. El-Rufai told his viewers while speaking on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on 6 April 2016. In that chat, Mr. El-Rufai claimed that over 800 people were killed in the 2011 post-election crisis and most of the killings took place in Southern Kaduna. That was the day he commenced his inglorious journey of creating a phantom history of an annual horizontal and vertical movement of Fulani herdsmen from many neighboring countries. He posited that the 2011 crisis caught up with them in Southern Kaduna and many of them lost cattle and relatives. This is an unintelligent attempt to create an event that is not contained in any history book. Apart from studying history up to the university level, I have been living for my entire life in Southern Kaduna, and I have never seen such a massive movement in my entire life.
Before Gen. Agwai's committee, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa constituted a peace and reconciliation committee that submitted its report in January of 2013. The 114-page document had no record holding that the crisis caught up with foreign Fulani in transit. While the committee was at work, victims appeared with their claims of lost lives and destroyed properties. This depth of work wasn't exhibited in Gen. Agwai's committee. One is still searching for the reason why the governor is only accepting unfounded statements in Agwai's report as against a more serious and thorough work done by the Yakowa committee. There is more than meet the eye in his disposition on this matter.
Now, back to Agwai's committee. Pages 22 to 28 had 19 recommendations. Nowhere does the report recommend compensation for transhumance Fulani living in Niger, Senegal, Chad, and Cameroon. Consequent to that, justifying compensation to trans-borders killers-cum-arsonists because of paragraph 3 of page 20 of the report is absurd and misleading.
The Gen. Agwai committee is one reason for compensating his genocidal gang; the other was unveiled on the night of 21 December 2016 while addressing the press in Kaduna. The compensator of killers of Southern Kaduna said, “Compensation is concomitant in Islam and Christianity.” The statement added another reason that triggered his illegal and immoral scheme. The pertinent question here is: are we practicing a democratic federal system or a mixed Christo-Islamic theocracy in Nigeria? Lest we forget, the two religions cited are only in the majority but there are animists, too, especially in areas the genocide is glowing. He failed to tell us animists’ positions in such and allied instances.
People have enumerated threats this action posed and immoralities attached, but little emphasis was devoted to understanding the looming danger of a lower layer of authority dabbling into areas set aside for the upper tier under our 1999 constitution. Mr. El-Rufai’s linking and talking with foreigners in their countries is a foreign policy action, and the country's 1999 constitution placed foreign policy on an exclusive list. Now, what will be the fate of Nigerian federalism when affiliating clusters dabble in functions constitutionally assigned to the uppermost tier of authority? His action is tantamount to a coup d’état or felony that must not be accommodated because of its long- and short-term repercussions. Criminalities concomitant with his actions were multifaceted because they involved trans-borders movement of un-recorded and un-appropriated cash, which is a financial crime.
At the height of the heat, Centrum Initiative For Development And Fundamental Rights Advocacy (CEDRA) drew the attention of President Mahammadu Buhari on this unnecessary misadventure by Mr. El-Rufai and called for a full investigation of his action. So far, the federal government's end is quiet like the Western Front. The reason for their muteness and shameless cold feet is not far fetched; they border political party fraternity, ethnicity, and other mundane variables. Some of us are flabbergasted by the federal government's disposition despite their puritanical and pontificative stance against corruption and other unethical behaviors by men in power. The adage that said if you want to know the true character of man give him power comes to play in this case.
Since the federal government consciously chose not to see nor hear this unprecedented criminality, it is instructive for our honorable members of the House of Representatives and distinguished senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to investigate this matter. Their delving into this matter will forestall further constitutional transgressions by either El-Rufai or any other overzealous governor from performing functions placed under an exclusive list as outlined in the Nigerian constitution. Failure to act will be catastrophic because sooner or later, some of them will start opening foreign missions and issuing visas to nationals of other countries.
We are quite aware that Mr. El-Rufai presently has immunity. But that should not deter investigations because his immunity will expire on 29 May 2019. Let the findings be kept in view pending when it will be legal to arrest and prosecute him for felony.
You can contact Dr. John Danfulani at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @john_danfulani.
