By Sule Oyofo

Good News to residents of the Federal Capital Territory,FCT. They have a new minister who has just assumed office.

The minister, Mr. Nyesom Wike, is not a small figure in the political parlance. As the immediate past governor of Rivers State, he stood out as an action-oriented leader and ended up being tagged as “Mr. Projects”.

He is variously described as resolute, rugged and a workaholic. 

What is clear is that he is not only bold, he is a reputed pacesetter. They also added that he is a man who stands by his decisions.

It is believed that he is out to replicate what he did in Rivers State-to right the wrongs in the society–in Abuja, the seat of the Federal Capital.

Wike is poised to halt the systematic destruction of the infrastructure and the environment through the movement of cattle on public roads, walkways and medians. Wike not only detests stagnant conditions, he is also not a friend to barriers and limitations.

 If he is told that the solution to a problem lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and the only way to access it, is through the “Titan Submersible”-remember this? Wike would go there! That’s the stuff he is made of.

 Wike is the archetypal “I belong to everybody and nobody”-not the ones who simply mouthed it and did the opposite.  

The news of his appointment as the minister of the Federal Capital City must have been received as bad news by pretenders and defaulters. 

Key stakeholders agree that as part of his agenda, priority should be given to finding an immediate solution to the menace of cows competing for possession of space with human beings along major highways. 

‘This practice is unacceptable”, the minister charged in his inaugural press briefing. 

“We are not going to tolerate the issue of having cows on our public roads. Yes, things are difficult, but you must not cause crises for other people,” he stated.

 In the heartwarming news to disturbed Abuja residents, Wike promised to tackle the hydra-headed problem headlong and restore sanity, beauty, elegance, glittering vegetation, and a soothing environment to the city. 

A key takeaway from his speech is that there will be consequences for breaking the law, which was largely absent in the last eight years. Abuja drifted inexorably into no-man’s land with all sorts, converging on the city and making life hell for lawful citizens.

 “I will step on toes, the big and mighty. I will step on your toes if you are doing something wrong”, he warned. The truth, however, is that people are

tired. The vision to transform Abuja into a world-class environment appears to have collapsed in the face of a siege of cows. When Okada riders tried the samething, a former minister and immediate past governor of Kaduna State promptly drove them out of town. Today, they are back in full force. The same applies to the herders who graze indiscriminately on any vegetation they find and defecate on the streets in open gutters, and other public places. 

The ordure and the ugly sight of dungs are difficult to contend with. 

The feces attract flies and therefore put children at risk of contracting cholera, not to mention mosquitoes that thrive in filthy environments-leading to outbreaks of malaria. The dangers of free-moving cattle can never be substantiated unless we are moving towards a Hobbesian society where anything goes.

 This is modern age and the world is going green. And the environment is supposed to be strenuously preserved. A degraded environment knows no cultural, ethnic or religious affinity. -just the same way as the zoonotic diseases usually transferred from cows to human beings (mad cow, anthrax, bovine, etc.) do not discriminate. Abuja, ranks amongst the best cities in the world and should discard whatever amounts to an aberration.

Can anyone imagine the discomfort if owners of wild dogs such as German Shepherd, Bulldog, Labrador Retriever,

Rottweiler, Irish Wolfhounds, Afghan Hounds are allowed to roam freely in the

streets? What about those who own tigers, lions, buffaloes, horses and snakes?

 Wait a minute, cows cannot be exempted because they may be classified as herbivores, but they have been known to be destructive whether provoked or not and develop strange symptoms of violence.

 Possibly, some may want to argue that this comparison is extreme or that all animals are equal but as it was in Animal Farm, some are more equal than others. Unless the constitution is amended to accommodate the free movement of cows on public roads, only then can their presence be tenable.

 We do not have to wait for them to roam carelessly in high security areas such as Aso Rock Villa, National Assembly Complex, the precincts of the Supreme Court and Federal Secretariat, before serious action can be taken.

 The situation is absurd and constitutes an eyesore. The threat to public safety and health is too much to be ignored.

If Abuja is a mega city, why not retain the status? Which mega city in the world tolerates open grazing? It makes a mockery of the government at the center, not to mention the toxic nature of their presence around human beings. To all right-thinking individuals, this is an abuse of privilege and rights of other road users. High Chief Mike Ozekhome in his submission while responding to an outburst from a certain part of this country, did not mince words; he described the free movement of cows as “anachronistic and primitive”. He questioned why the perpetrators have refused to grow and access modern provisions for livestock preservation. He insists that freedom of movement is only for human beings and not for cattle’s, sheep, goats. He said that if the sale of alcohol is banned and brutally enforced in certain parts of the country-even though it is the constitutional rights of the ethnic group involved to move about and sell beverages freely-why not extend the same to cows? 

He frowned completely at the practice arguing that if Cattle rearing which is a private and profit-making concern is tolerated as a directive principle of state policy, then other ethnic groups have the right to storm public roads with their Pigs, crocodiles, goats and perhaps elephants, in the name of proving their rights; let there not be commotion! “Sometimes we get lost in an effort to strengthen our fault lines”, he stressed.

 Giant of Africa! That’s what we call ourselves. Should there be any doubt about comparing our city with the likes of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cairo, Algiers, Riyadh?

 Should we remain stagnant and allow Kigali, Accra, Botswana to go ahead in hygienic matters? 

These are pertinent questions for all stakeholders to address. Keen observers say if government could introduce stringent laws like “Park and Pay” policy and enforce it clinically, what stops them from doing the same with regards to open grazing? 

Cows have been known to stray into supermarkets, petrol stations and even homes and cause panic and fear among children and parents.

Until the arrival of Mr. Nyesom Wike, mum had been the word. Everyone looks on as though nothing can be done. Much as we try, we wake up to find the same primordial and medieval setting. Who bell the cat? Read my lips-not my actions. For this degenerative ambiguity, Abuja may well now be a byword for disobedience-almost defaced by an army of youths on Okada and Keke Nape. If not controlled, one wonders what Abuja would be like in 10 years. But the biggest worry is the obvious misplacement of goals and priorities by relevant enforcement agents ranging from Vehicle Inspection Officers(VIO), Federal Road Safety Officers, AMAC agents who crudely block law-abiding motorists in vain pursuit of checking particulars-regardless of whether cows are roaming right in their midst. Modern countries have developed “chips” for checking vehicle particulars. But in Nigeria, VIOs have vehemently refused to embrace technology, preferring the decadent and corrupt means. 

Experts contend that should they muster the same energy in checkmating the movement of cows, perhaps there would have been sanity.