By Yinka Odunmakin
IT is said in the Yoruba country that when your relation feeds on insects and you think it is not your  business, just wait until his itchy throat  begins rumbling in the dead of the night . So it is with our compatriots in Arewaland who have sired millions of untrained and uneducated children despite being  in power for four decades out of Nigeria’s 55 years of Nigeria’s independence.

That army of lumpen youth  whom they have denied opportunities over the years have now become a problem not to the North alone but the entire country at large. If they are not Boko Haram bombing anything in sight, they are Fulani herdsmen kidnapping  Chief Olu Falae, inflicting machete cuts on him. As they are routing Agatu people in Benue, they are inflicting maximum damage on Lagosians in Mile 12 market in Lagos.

Yunusa Yellow and Ese Oruru

I cannot forget when Pastor Bakare mounted the podium in 2011 in the heart of the North and was  declaring ” Almajiris  are human beings. They deserve education. They should be given opportunities to maximise their potentials as God’s creation…” He went on with his special gift of the garb but he found no echo. Rather it was sneer looks that he gor for his effort.

There is hardly any community you go in southern Nigeria today that you don’t see these scruffy youth in droves. By the time you see five Okada riders, chances are that  three out them are from up north.

So it was that  Yunusa Dahiru went to Bayelsa state to do Okada business until sometime in August 2015 when he decided to steal 13-year old Ese Oruru and took her to Kano. He left enough trails for the parents to trace their daughter to Kano where they saw their daughter but were not allowed to move near her because they were “Kafir”.

Before the media could bring Ese’s matter to national consciousness, she has been converted to Islam and put in the family way at 14.

A  lot have been written about the Ese saga that I don’t have to repeat.Suffice to say that in this sordid tale is wrapped in all that is wrong with Nigeria and why we may not know real peace until we address our foundational issues.

All accounts so far showed that the Emir of Kano was in the full knowledge of the presence of this minor but appeared to be more interested in a soul coerced. The letter he authorised the emirate council to write to the police says it all:

“Sequel to our earlier letter captioned as above, reference no. KEC/ADM/5/V/ dated 26/8/2015, I am further directed to introduce to you a representative of Kano State Sharia’a Commission as well as A’isha Chuwas and her relatives for proper handing over of the said A’isha to the A.I.G Bayelsa State based on Law and Order, purposely to protect her dignity/religion.”

To the Emir the captive was no longer Ese but “Aisha” and the purpose of directing the girl’s return was ” purposely to protect her dignity/religion”(Islam).

More about religion

He went further to allude to the duality of ideology in Nigeria after the issue got to the public domain. In a bid to save himself the possible embarrassment that the issue was going to cause, the Emir said: “I ordered Ese'(she is now Ese!) since September 2015 through the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 1(I hope the Oonirisa will one day be giving “orders” to AIG!) but to my surprise,the issue is still hanging in between the Sharia Commission , Hisbah and the police”

See,see!There is a clash between the Nigeria law enforcement(the police) and the Sharia commission and its police(Hisbah) for seven months latter being null and void.Yet ,these folks say we can’t have state police around here!

Notice also it was after the public outrage that Emir Sanusi now acknowledged that Ese(“Aisha”) is a minor. Her religion was what mattered all along. Well, Senator Sani Yerima already blackmailed the Senate to reverse itself the day it voted that the age of consent should be 18.The former Zamfara governor who is renowned for marrying minors insisted it was a vote against Islam and he got the Senate to take another vote to say any girl that is married is an adult .

Ese as metaphor

Perhaps the most worrying aspect in the whole saga is the prospect of Ese as a metaphor for the shape of the expansionist project whose seed is already being sewn. An elder statesman in Yorubaland told me six out of 10 children  born in a certain flank in Yorubaland  have Fulani blood as their mothers were rape victims.

It was amazing that Ese in eight months is already speaking fluent Hausa as if she was born in Kano.This I confirmed from Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa who has interacted with her.

If Ese could be that indoctrinated in eight months,what would be the fate of Chibok girls by now? I hope the girls are found some day but they will definitely be a sorry site to behold given the degeneration in Ese  within the period she was abducted from Bayelsa and her rescue.

The children of the north have been unleashed on the rest of us and no one can predict when they will be done .

They have ruined Ese but let us hope her ordeal makes us realise that we just have to make Nigeria a proper federation where the various civilisations within it can have their full expression without one civilisation operating as superior to others and imposing its ways on the rest with impunity.

…Constant (24/7) electricity supply for the whole country, first, before we talk of agricultural revolution and every other thing

By Olarinre Salako

EVERYBODY is talking about the need for Nigeria to return to Agriculture business, but how much of such business can we do now, without 24/7 electricity supply, especially in our agrarian communities?

How could we preserve our fruits and crops, and dairy products in the farms, before they are transported to the markets? We need electricity to process and keep them fresh, especially when we are talking of  mass production for revenue generation. Otherwise, much of the products will perished before they get to the market. Such electricity supply should be at an economically cost effective price.

I wonderwhy it has been difficult for us to have 24/7 electricity supply in Nigeria. Are we that daft? Even if Nigeria is a thick jungle, that has never used electricity before, it should not be that difficult to put one in place! It is unimaginable that Obasanjo spent  multi-billion naira on the power project with nothing to show for it. Yet, the Obasanjo Farm has 24/7 electricity supply!

I know of one state in America, among numerous examples, that has coal which can last them for 800 years at the rate they are firing it to generate electricity. And electricity in this state is as cheap as $5 to $10 per month for a three bedroom flat (depending on usage – summer versus winter). Yet, we don’t know how much coal reserve we have in Nigeria, not to talk of how to utilize it. And coal remains one of the cheapest sources of electricity in the world, especially now that we have clean coal technology, with other supplementary usage. The US generates 45% of her electricity from coal, and this will remain so for many years to come, even with the campaign by environmentalists against the usage of coal and other fossil fuel.

Yet when you tell Nigerian government about how to solve problems like this, you only get discouraging answers (if you even get one, after many attempts to get their attention through emails, phone calls and text messages). They are too busy doing NOTHING!

One is tempted to ask if our politicians are that foolish?  But then the likes of late legendary Awo were thinkers, and they  aggressively pursuing common good, tapping inputs from various experts! How come we are now in this mess? Can we say God gave us the likes of Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Zik that are now  in short supply?  The other time, one Babatunde Raji Fasola, whom we thought is a little bit different, came out to suggest a process of extorting his people, to raise fund for the power investors! Who has bewitched us as a country?

The few good ones among our leaders need to be more aggressive in their thoughts and actions. And they must push the limits to achieve success for the common good. Some of us will keep them on their toes by reminding them about how things are done better in other societies. And we are ready to leave our comfort zone to help out our fatherland, for there is nothing nobler than that! Some people paid the price for a more orderly society we enjoy here!

But then, those at the helm of affairs need to wake up from their slumber! Only Nigerians can truly help Nigeria. Someone needs to tell Pa Buhari to think inwardly too, enough of one-way traffic outward thinking, seeking help only from outsiders! Also, it is good to fight corruption. Indeed, the singular act of fighting corruption is an encouragement for some of us to be ready to assist our country. But, fighting corruption alone is not enough! Other areas of national rescue mission must NOT be left unattended to.

*Salako, PhD, is a Research Geophysicist at the Energy and Environmental Research Center, North Dakota, USA. He has made several efforts to get the attention of Nigerian Government to what could be done to solve power generation problem in Nigeria, but without luck yet.