From Agatu to Akure to Aba the story is the same. For that matter from Abia to Zamfara states and the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal government and its security agencies have apparently created two classes of Nigerians – herdsmen and the rest of us. Notice, please that I did not add Fulani because they are not all Fulani or even all Nigerians. The reason is simple, I was once a cattle owner and several of the nomads engaged by the later supervisor, Yinusa Idi, who lived in a settlement near Gezawa in Kano State, were Fulani or Nigeriens.

A prominent Lagos pastor made it compulsory for all members of his church to contribute a minimum of N10,000 each to his church’s multi-billion naira building project. Surely it must have occurred to him that some of his members do not have that kind of money. But he would not be deterred. He was determined that his mustard-seed church must become a tree.

One of the puzzles yet unraveled in the Nigerian game of politics is why our annual budget has been a source of quarrel between the legislature and the executive since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. With the 17-year old quarrel operating as a yearly matter without exception, it seems obvious that how to grab money is a prime objective of the squabble. Following the inability of the Federal Executive Council last Wednesday to say when the 2016 budget would be signed into law, hopes of many citizens looking forward to the budget have been dashed. The current phase of the usual cat and rate game does not show that even an early submission of the budget in the future would resolve the matter. It appears obvious that irrespective of when it is submitted, the budget will always be delayed for as long as it takes those hustling for personal gains to achieve their targets. What keeps the hustling game alive is the claim by the legislature that it has the power of appropriation. Citing relevant provisions of the constitution, legislators insist that they can alter, reject or even rewrite the budget. Of course, such a claim of the legislature that every other contribution to the budget depends on its own whims and caprices is incorrect because that would injure the spirit of checks and balances.

The Vanguard reported on Friday that the Federal government had suspended the at-source deductions from state allocations from loans obtained by these states and guaranteed by the Federal government of Nigeria. It is apparently a short-gun measure to stem the financial crisis in the states, and to enable them fulfill their payroll obligations and stabilize the economy. In principle this sounds good. But its implications are a little murky. Rescuing states from insolvency is an act of charity that breaks the law. As a matter of fact, it is an unfunded mandate. It is constitutionally a mandate that must be backed by the Legislature of the republic. Every action of government connected to the expenditure of federal funds must be covered in the finance act as enacted by the National Assembly.

Because of this, some humanists consider it necessary to label their own version as ‘secular humanism’ or ‘scientific humanism’ in contrast to ‘Christian humanism’ or ‘religious humanism.’ For our purpose in this discourse, we shall adopt Smoker’s characterisation of ‘humanism’ as secular or scientific humanism, that is, a positive human-centred philosophy of life based on rationalism that is either atheistic or agnostic, being concerned with life in this world, not with imaginary deities or a hereafter.