PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
■ President Buhari’s regime over a year now, has been subjected to controversy over handling of various matters of public policies from the economy, political issues to managing ethics. What do you think? How would you rate his performance? This poll is very significant in measuring the regime’s progress.
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International Guardian – Houston, TX- Several news headlines exposing the hidden side of the Buhari’s regime have been rocking the news media. For instance, last week’s story that Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Tukur Buratai, and his two wives owning a Dubai property paid for in one transaction did not fall from the sky. Thus, influx of very revealing stories about the regime has been attributed to a final crash of long but complicated partnership between a supposedly, leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari.
Their political love affair has taken a new turn, leaving the President and his cronies dazed with multiple media attacks, including leakages of sensitive documents incriminating key members of the administration. Key bloggers loyal to Tinubu have already taken credit of the attacks, warning that “the worst is yet to come.”
Tinubu, it was gathered, had rallied his media, including major Nigerian news outlets, print, electronic, and social media to fight down the ex-general for entirely scorning his interests, and breaching major promises made during the electioneering campaign. The regime on its own part, has snubbed Tinubu’s advances and rebranded into action, its propaganda machine facilitated by Femi Adesina, Buhari’s Special Adviser (Media and Publicity).
“The blogs are hot; you may checkout what is happening right now, and more is coming,” a Blogger who identified himself as “Internet James Bond” told our newsroom. In the past two weeks, Buhari’s regime has been under pressure over trending news pieces regarding himself, family, and key members of his administration.
“The breaking news recently revealing how President Muhammadu Buhari, and his wife Aisha owns a sprawling Asokoro lakeside mansion in Abuja was not coincidental,” claimed a source associated with Tinubu’s camp. “We knew that Aisha and Buhari own this hidden property; we had this information even before the election, and we knew why all of a sudden the story is all over the media. Just don’t ask me, because I won’t say more than this… But tell them that more is coming”
Similar stories also made it to the newsstand, and swamped the social media with threads of commentaries. For instance, one Air Commodore Umar Muhammed (rtd), a top appointee of President Muhammadu Buhari, a member of the Presidential Investigative Committee on Arms Procurement made the headlines as he was arrested by the Department of State Service (DSS) over fraudulent arms procurement. In most humiliating context, Buhar’s regime were scorned when $1.5 million cash, about 18 luxury cars including Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Buggatti and many others were recovered after a search of Muhammed’s residence.
Femi Adesina’s team defending Buhari and the regime disgracefully ran out of steam with more outrageous headiness revealing the regime’s process deception and communication hoax. Shortly before President Buhari left the country early June for medical emergency, Adesina assigned to shield information from the public had swayed the national media with assurance that the President was in good health. A few hours later, the news of Buhari’s worsening health broke out, leaving the regime all embarrassed and confused about their own secrets. To cover-up his deceit, Adesina quickly issued a release that President Buhari will leave for London Monday for a ten-day break, to attend to his health issues.
International Guardian reliably gathered that other opposition factions in the APC might also be instrumental to exposing the regime’s rather selective approach in managing the nation’s resources. According to a source, “Buhari cannot bite the finger that fed him. Tinubu is still in control, and our people would find out sooner or later.”
Issues between Buhari and Tinubu started earlier in the 2014 Presidential Campaign, when the APC leaders secretly negotiated several tradeoffs concerning the post-election sharing of “political profits.” Tinubu purportedly negotiated with Buhari (then APC Presidential candidate) for allocation of oil wells in the Niger Delta and consideration of his picks in some ministerial positions. This was to compensate for Tinubu’s support and huge financial commitment to the party as well as Buhari’s candidacy.
Since the regime’s inauguration however, Tinubu’s camp has been angered by Buhari’s failure to live up the arrangements. Tinubu’s last major frustration about Buhari’s regime was expressed in his ten-paragraph statement, titled: “kachikwu needs to know that respect and good performance will do what magic cannot.” Emmanuel Kachikwu is the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. In part, Tinubu wrote, “With that I do reserve the right and the duty as a Nigerian to voice my opinion when I believe a member of this government has strayed from the progressive calling required of this administration.”
A snub of this letter by the administration, further angered Tinubu’s camp who are now leading the media war. “I don’t speak for Tinubu, but I can authoritatively tell you that Buhari is finished,” said an Abuja-based blogger who opted for anonymity.
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) have again disavowed a purported ceasefire with the Nigerian government.
The militant group, which has carried out attacks on oil pipelines and infrastructure in the oil-producing Niger Delta region since February, announced via its Twitter feed Tuesday: “The NDA High Command never remember [sic.] having any agreement on ceasefire with the Nigeria Government.”
Nigerian Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has said that the government is willing to negotiate with the NDA and other militant groups, who want a greater share of the West African country’s oil wealth. Kachikwu said earlier in June that the Nigerian military would scale down its activities in the Niger Delta in a bid to clear a path for peace talks. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to engage with the grievances felt by communities in the Niger Delta.
An unnamed official in Nigeria’s petroleum ministry confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday that a one-month ceasefire had been agreed with militants in the Niger Delta, including the NDA, but the Nigerian government has made no official announcement of such a deal being in place. A former militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)—which led an insurgency in the region in the mid-2000s—has also urged the NDA to negotiate with the government, but the latter group has denounced the former and accused it of selling out to the government.
The rise of the NDA has had a dramatic impact on the oil output of Nigeria, traditionally Africa’s biggest oil producer. Nigeria is currently producing around 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 2.2 million bpd at the start of 2016, and has slipped behind Angola as the continent’s top producer.
Abuja (AFP) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari returned to Abuja on Sunday, saying he was feeling well after a two-week stay in London where he received treatment for an ear infection.
“I’m ok. You can see me inspecting the guard of honour,” the 73-year-old told reporters as he arrived back at Abuja airport.
Speaking in the local Hausa language, he jokingly added: “I’m strong, If you want to wrestle with me, let’s wrestle.”
His spokesman Femi Adesina said the president would resume work on Monday.
Buhari left Nigeria on June 6 for tests on what the presidency described as a “persistent ear infection” that had forced him to pull out of a series of engagements.
According to the presidency, Buhari went to see an ear, nose and throat specialist in the British capital “purely as a precaution”.
The presidency has historically been reticent about disclosing health matters of the head of state and speculation has swirled for weeks about the seriousness of Buhari’s condition.
Ahead of the trip to London, he notably cancelled a planned visit to Lagos and missed a meeting of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.
Buhari had initially been due to arrive back in Nigeria on Thursday.
His delayed return prompted fresh concern about his health woes, which come at a sensitive time for the country as it grapples with the security threat from Boko Haram Islamists and economic difficulties.
Newsweek – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has broken his promise to end medical tourism by seeking treatment for an ear infection in the U.K., according to a senior doctor.
Dr Osahon Enabulele, a former president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), said in an open letter to the president that about $1 billion was spent funding foreign medical trips in 2013, mostly for Nigerian public officials.
Buhari traveled to London on Monday for a 10-day holiday, during which he will see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist for treatment of a persistent ear infection. The president has canceled several high-profile engagements in recent months, including a planned trip to the restive Niger Delta region to launch a clean-up operation in Ogoniland, a community affected by multiple oil spills in recent years.
The 73-year-old leader, who was elected in March 2015 on an anti-corruption ticket, said in a speech to the NMA in April that the government would cut back spending on sending public officials abroad for treatment when there was evidence of expertize in Nigeria. The office of the Nigerian presidency said Buhari traveled to London after being evaluated by his personal physician and an ENT specialist in the capital Abuja.
Enabulele, who is also the vice-president of the Commonwealth Medical Association, said it was a “national shame” that Buhari was seeking treatment in London, despite the presence of more than 250 ENT specialists in Nigeria and a National Ear Center in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria. Enabulele stated that the U.K. had some 3,000 Nigerian-trained doctors, most of whom had emigrated due to the Nigerian government’s failure to address problems in the West African country’s health service.
Enabulele even stated that he himself had received treatment from an ENT specialist in Nigeria in April “in line with my patriotic commitment to the Nigerian dream” and said he believed that Nigerian physicians “are skilled enough, and with the right equipment in place can handle any complicated ENT problem in Nigeria
Edward McKinney – The National Interest
Earlier this month, the Obama administration revealed that it is poised to sell up to twelve light attack aircraft to Nigeria in a bid to support the country’s fight against Boko Haram.
This might sound laudable at first glance, but in reality, selling arms to Nigeria would mean the United States essentially breaking the so-called Leahy Law. Passed in 1997 by amending the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, it prohibits the United States from exporting arms to “any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
The Leahy Law’s three-stage vetting process is stringent. It begins with the appropriate U.S. embassy carrying background checks on the individuals or units applying for assistance, by analyzing the Department of State (DoS) International Vetting and Security Tracking (INVEST) system, DoS Country Reports, cooperating with local police forces or even interviewing individual victims where necessary. If any credible information is found, the embassy can bar further support or refer to Washington.
In Washington, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) receives the results of the ambassadorial vetting and conducts investigations of its own. Again, if credible information that the violation or issue is serious enough to prohibit U.S. involvement is found, support is refused and the findings recorded in INVEST. Lastly, if further review of the information is required, then DRL will assemble a broader team of State Department representatives, who may request further information from the embassy in the country in question before a decision is made. With such a meticulous evaluation process, it is puzzling that there is any expectation that the Nigerian military will possibly pass the test.
Indeed, the Nigerian military is currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of illegal killings and unlawful incarcerations. In June of last year, an Amnesty International report claimed that, in the course of Nigeria’s war against Boko Haram, brutal conditions while in government detention have led to the death of at least seven thousand people, while an additional 1,200 have been “extrajudicially executed” by Nigerian security forces. A further twenty thousand have been “arbitrarily arrested.”
And the man elected to clean up the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, seems to be either thoroughly naive or thoroughly complacent. In June of last year, he called for a lifting of the Leahy Laws, arguing that the “unproven allegations” of Nigerian security forces’ human-rights violations had rendered his forces impotent against the might of Boko Haram. His statement ignored two very crucial facts. The first that, as the later proven human-rights abuses showed, the Nigerian military was certainly not sitting on its hands waiting for U.S. support in the fight against Boko Haram and second, the application of the Leahy Laws, never results in a “blanket ban” on whole countries, it is individuals or units who are assessed before assistance is either granted or refused.
Buhari’s questionable relationship with reality came to the forefront once more in December 2015, when he declared that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated”—a curious statement given the fact that the group’s body count rose by 62 percent in 2015, and in the first quarter of 2016 more than thirty-six attacks that left 422 dead were staged. And worryingly, Muslim herdsmen of the Fulani tribe also seem responsive to the clarion call of Islamic extremism, launching systematic attacks on the people of the largely Christian Benue state in north central Nigeria.
Terrorism and human-rights abuses aside, the country is, in UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s words, “fantastically corrupt.” And despite Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu retorting that Cameron “must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria,” the evidence suggests otherwise. In a survey of 168 countries carried out by Transparency International in its annual “Corruption Perception Index,” Nigeria ranks thirty-second from bottom. Sambo Dasuki, a former national security advisor in charge of weapons procurement was arrested in 2015 and accused of “stealing more than $2 billion from the military” by awarding phantom contracts to buy twelve helicopters, four fighter jets, bombs and ammunition—they were never delivered.
In a country like Nigeria, adding weapons contracts would only fan the flames of corruption and provide, quite literally, further ammunition to an army that is already making a name for itself for its flagrant disregard of human rights. The Leahy Law is there for a very good reason. The process of vetting individuals and countries is rigorous, and individuals and entities are considered on a case-by-case basis.
If Nigeria’s military keeps failing the assessment, the solution is for it to address the serious issues that permeate the nation, not for the United States to bend the rules.
International Guardian – Houston, TX.
Reliable sources in Aso Rock, seat of Nigeria’s presidency confided that a total lack of internal security apparatus has grounded the President, restricting his movement around the country. Buhari was expected visit to the Niger Delta—a major oil-producing region in Nigeria—on Thursday to inaugurate a $1 billion cleanup facility in areas affected by oil spills, but snappishly cancelled the trip, sending the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
While no official reason has been given so for the cancellation, International Guardian reliable gathered that Nigerian security forces are currently not well-equipped to defend the President, especially in the areas currently threatened by militants and hostile protesters. A brand new revolutionary group, the Niger Delta Avengers, has currently overrun the Delta at unrestricted capacity, carrying out multiple attacks on oil pipelines and facilities run by international companies in recent months.
Niger Delta Avengers had threatened to kill Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari if he visited. Confided a source close to Aso Rock, “these guys are equipped with sophisticated arms; they know the area, and they are good in the sea; and at this time, our security forces don’t even know what they have, and this is a major concern. We just want to be on the safe side.”
Another source told International Guardian that Buhari’s hasty decision was borne out of intelligence report linked to security threats from both Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra activists. “I can’t tell you everything right now, but just know that we are facing security challenges. We have little or nothing to fight with and risking the life of the President would not have been a good idea.”
The Buhari’s regime, it may be recalled has faced tremendous challenges procuring arms to fight overbearing security threats. Western powers have been skeptical selling arms to a country with high records of human rights abuse, and parades notoriously known security forces that might use the defense technology to tyrannize helpless citizens.
Nigeria might be spiritually haunted by the blood of Biafra’s genocide victims
Buhari’s cancellation was obvious, and expected. With an ill-equipped security forces, safety in the Delta region has totally collapsed to the militants who parade the region with sophisticated ammunitions, including fully equipped sea-assault equipment, surface-to-surface and ground-to-air missiles capable of taking down any air craft or target.
Earlier on Thursday, the day President Buhari would have visited, the group launched new attacks, vowing to bring Nigeria’s struggling oil industry to a total halt. The Nigerian army confirmed the attack, and reported that about six people were also killed on Wednesday when militants ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm, The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the Warri area. Earlier on Thursday, the group said it had attacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy’s ENI. “At about 2:00am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State,” the group said on Twitter.
The entire regions in Nigeria have been miserable recently. Since this year, this country has witnessed the ruggedness of fiscal austerity, borne out of inability of the ruling class to strategize on a constructive economic policy.
In the last few days however, the sociopolitical trauma and misery that plagued Nigeria have basically nothing to do with an excruciating economic hardship. The country is fundamentally going through what may be considered the “May Day” effect. This circle comes every May 30 – the anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra. Each May 30 period, Nigeria shivers of guilt and frustrated conscience; tormented by their total lack of remorse and scorn of a crime against the Igbos.
Biafra was proclaimed on May 30, 1967. Monday, the anniversary of the declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra, Nigeria, again trembled in confusion – especially when the President, Muhammadu Buhari took part in this genocide that terminated millions, including defenseless children who were starved to death in a failed bid to terminate the Igbo race from the face of the earth.
Even with a “No Victor-No Vanquish” declaration after the war in 1970 by the head of state, General Gowon (retired), the Igbos have been systematically denied their rights of true Nigerian citizenship; they have been socially and economically castigated by various regimes threatened by their ingenuity; they have in fact, been prohibited from discussing this war as well as reflecting on their terrifying plights.
Various regimes have been consistent with either destroying or suppressing war documents and narratives to cover-up proofs of mass slaughter and shield their individual roles. Even as history of wars of other countries are integrated in the Nigeria’s learning system, the government would always proscribed scholarly dissertations of her own civil war, as ‘hate message’.
For instance, officers who took part in this genocide would write books where they bragged about their various commands, whereas families of victims would be prosecuted for simply expressing their tribulations. Monday in Ebonyi State, the police arrested some priests who were conducting an inter-denominational service for members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). More than 200 armed officers had stormed the church, midway into the service and arrested the priests and other members. At Nkpor-Agu in Anambra State, the Nigerian Military attacked members of the Movement for Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), who were celebrating this anniversary.
In his own explanation in the past, President Buhari had actually said that Biafra was a hate word, and that mere mention of the name “Biafra” threatens peace and stability in the populace.
To pacify his prejudice of the Biafra’s issue, he had singlehandedly influenced the legal process in arrest and prosecution of Nnamdi Kanu, a United Kingdom-based political activist the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra. Kanu, it may be recalled was once granted bail by an Abuja Federal High Court, but was re-arrested with a fresh charge of treasonable felony. According to President Buhari, Kanu had smuggled equipment into the country just to preach hate messages.
It also might be interesting to know that in the Eastern Nigeria, still chastised by the system for being “Biafrans”, individuals are categorized as insurgents and jailed for as much as seven years for possession of handguns, whereas cattle herdsmen from the North walk around with assault rifles terrorizing villages. Also, organizations from the East –side, peacefully demonstrating for their social needs and interests are manhandled by ruthless security forces, whereas Buhari’s regime categorizes the Boko Haram terrorists as “misguided” brethren, releasing suspects from various jail houses and granting them amnesties. The regime has since procured comfortable camps to rehabilitate these members of one of world’s deadliest terrorist organization.
With this ruthlessly narrow-minded approach to handling issues related to Biafra, Nigeria’s pursuit for true unity has always, miserably remained in obscurity. President Buhari has arrogantly shown a disregard for democratic rights of thought, opinion, and expression of the Igbos; he has outlawed their rights of assembly, and demonstration; and to make it worse, he has clogged their access to justice – leaving them totally detached from the anchor of national unity.
Beyond a ruthless disregard by this regime, the circumstances surrounding Biafra’s struggle are facing other major challenges. For instance, most Nigerians believe that the term ‘Biafra’ stands for secession or revolt, and therefore, sees any person that raises the Biafran flag, or wears a Biafran tee-shirt as a secessionist. Yet, most Nigerians who witnessed this civil war from places other than Biafra saw with their naked eyes, the evils that were committed on this population. These Nigerians are a living testimony that the easterners who struggled for the Biafran state in the 60s wanted nothing other than their rights of self-existence and protection from a region where they were used, abused, hated, and frequently killed.
Today, the political landscape has totally changed, and Nigerians, and indeed the ruling class must understand that celebrating or advocating Biafra should not be ignorantly misread as a call to breakup Nigeria, but must be embraced as a mission for a needed dialogue on how Nigeria could be structured for better governance. Let it be known then that resourcefulness of the Biafran fraternity lies in her strength to stand their grounds; their ingenuity to weather a hostile political terrain; and their capacity to defend what they believe in. Thus, until Nigeria as a country respects citizens’ cause and advocacy for their interests, a peaceful and united region would be completely unattainable.
Until the leaders of this country righty create the necessary dialogue to address “Biafra” and reconcile the wishes of survivors of this genocide, the blood and spirit of millions of victims of this war would always torment the ruling system with policy disaster, service ambiguity and sociopolitical misery.
Nigeria ought to be worried that since the end of the war in 1970, this country is still struggling with leadership; dwindling from military coup to military coup – civilian regime to civilian regime; and unable to provide the very basic amenities to the citizens. Until the leaders of this country righty create the necessary dialogue to address “Biafra” and reconcile the wishes of survivors of this genocide, the blood and spirit of millions of victims of this war would always torment the ruling system with policy disaster, service ambiguity and sociopolitical misery.
Dr. Ogbo is the publisher of Houston-based International Guardian.
Newsweek/The Niger Delta is once again under siege. Seven years on from the end of a sustained period of militancy—which saw oil workers kidnapped and production cut to less than a third of maximum capacity—a recently formed group is leading a fresh campaign of attacks in a bid to cripple Nigeria’s economy.
The upsurge in attacks by the group has coincided with a dramatic fall in oil production in Nigeria, traditionally the continent’s biggest producer. Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said earlier in May that production had fallen by 800,000 bpd to 1.4 million bpd, the lowest in two decades. It’s a drop that means Angola has at least temporarily taken over the mantle of Africa’s oil king.
The NDA follows the pattern of other groups, such as the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta (MEND), which led the militancy campaign in the mid-2000s. MEND and some of its most notorious leaders, such as Government Ekpemupolo—an ex-militant also known as Tompolo who is wanted on money laundering allegations totaling 46 billion naira ($231 million)—have disassociated themselves from the NDA. But according to Malte Liewerscheidt, senior Africa analyst at political risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, the group’s membership is likely made up of disaffected ex-militants who have not benefited from the presidential amnesty program that brought the previous campaign to a close in 2009. The amnesty included monthly subsidies to reformed militants, but also afforded lucrative security contracts to former leaders, like Tompolo, for protecting oil installations.
The NDA came to international attention after claiming an attack on an underwater pipeline run by Shell in February, forcing the Dutch oil giant to temporarily shut down its 250,000 bpd Forcados terminal. According to Liewerscheidt, the attack showed a level of sophistication and expertise that suggests the group may have insider knowledge of some of the international oil firms working in the Niger Delta. “[Forcados] was not just another pipeline somewhere out in the creeks, it’s right under the nose of the largest [international oil company] out there, namely Shell,” says Liewerscheidt. “[The NDA] have proven their capability to strike major targets again and again.”
As well as links with former Niger Delta militants, the group also appears to have connections with the pro-Biafra movement in southern Nigeria. The NDA has avowed its support for Nnamdi Kanu, the head of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who has been in detention in Nigeria since October 2015 and is awaiting trial on charges of treason, which he denies. Pro-Biafra activists are campaigning for Kanu’s release and the realization of the independent state of Biafra, which was declared in southeast Nigeria in 1967 but was reintegrated into the country in 1970 following a devastating civil war.
“Operational links” exist between the NDA and IPOB, but the extent of these connections is not yet clear, according to Fulan Nasrullah, an independent conflict researcher based in Nigeria. “Publicly, the NDA has declared support for the Biafran struggle, while maintaining its separate agenda focusing on the Niger Delta,” says Nasrullah. If the NDA were to gain IPOB’s support, its manpower could be dramatically increased; thousands of people have taken part in protests in Nigeria demanding Kanu’s freedom, and IPOB has previously claimed to Newsweek that its global membership numbers in the millions, though this has not been independently confirmed.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to take harsh action against oil militants like the NDA. The president and leader of the All Progressive Congress party said in April that the “vandals and saboteurs” responsible for attacking oil pipelines would be dealt with “the way we dealt with Boko Haram.” Nigeria’s military has reclaimed much of the territory once held by Boko Haram under Buhari’s administration and has inflicted numerous casualties on the group, though Boko Haram continues to carry out occasional suicide bombings in the country’s volatile northeast.
While he has allowed the amnesty program to continue, Buhari has cut the subsidies and ended the handing out of security contracts to ex-militants. “[Buhari] has no interest in returning to the negotiating table,” says Liewerscheidt. “Both the actual costs of reinstating the amnesty program [to its former level], as well as the political costs, are now much too high for the government.”
Nigeria is heavily dependent on oil for its economy—petroleum products make up more than 90 percent of the value of the country’s total exports—and the recent fall in production has shown the ability of the NDA and others to impact upon the West African country’s most vital industry. Recent events suggest that the NDA is likely to pose an economic, as well as a security, threat to one of the world’s most important oil hubs.
Nsukka (Nigeria) (AFP) – The Fulani herdsmen attacked at 6:00 am, just after morning prayers in Nimbo, an idyllic village in southeast Nigeria where farmers grow yams and pawpaws.
At first the villagers thought it was a joke. The nomadic cattle rearers, who have clashed with farmers over grazing rights in central Nigeria for decades, had never come this far south.
But then they saw 20 young men descend from the hills and emerge from the palm tree forest, shooting AK-47 assault rifles in the air and waving machetes.
“We started hearing the sound of gunshots everywhere. They shot so many people,” Kingsley Oneyebuchie, a 31-year-old civil servant, told AFP.
“They shot one of my brothers, they used a knife on my dad, they killed so many,” he said from his hospital bed in the nearby town of Nsukka, bare-chested and wearing only red athletic shorts.
Oneyebuchie ran his fingers tentatively over a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) track of blue surgical stitches at the base of his scalp.
“They used machete on me. After using machete on me, they thought that I died,” he said.
Oneyebuchie was lucky to survive the attack on April 25. At least 10 people are thought to have been killed and scores of others injured.
– Ethnic lines –
In the past year, raids by Fulani herdsmen have increased in the southeast.
The worst happened some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away in Agatu, Benue state, in late February, where hundreds of people — most of them Christian farmers — were reportedly killed.
The bloodshed mirrors that after Nigeria gained independence in 1960, when Igbos dominant in the mainly Christian southeast, were pitted against Hausa and Fulani in the largely Muslim north.
The ethnic violence led to two military coups, hundreds of deaths — and ultimately a civil war, when the southeast broke away and declared an independent Republic of Biafra in 1967.
Some one million Igbos died either fighting for the fledgling nation or from starvation and disease in a brutal conflict that by its end in 1970 left the southeast broken.
Now, stricken villagers maintain the only solution to the Fulani attacks — and perceived northern domination of political posts from the president downwards — is an independent state.
“We need to know that this is Igbo and this is Fulani,” said Oneyebuchie. “We want them to leave our place so that we will be free.”
– Growing conflict –
According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 report, “Fulani militants” killed 1,229 people in 2014 — up from 63 in 2013 — making them the “fourth most deadly terrorist group” in the world.
Most deaths happened in Nigeria’s religiously mixed so-called Middle Belt states.
But the apparent migration south into Igbo territory is being used by an increasingly hardline pro-Biafra movement as an indication the Nigerian government doesn’t serve or protect the region and is stoking discontent in the southeast.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Hausa-Fulani who opposes the pro-Biafran movement, took until late April to speak out about the herdsmen, saying he had ordered military and police to “take all necessary action to stop the carnage”.
He has proposed setting up a grazing plan that includes the establishment of cattle ranches and importing grass feed from Brazil.
Critics argue his response is too little, too late and overly ambitious.
“I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres,” Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said recently, describing the ranch plan as “optimistic”.
– ‘A second genocide’ –
The arrest and detention of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu last year catapulted him and his more hardline pressure group into the mainstream.
“Buhari has authorised a second genocide on Biafra,” IPOB, which has been campaigning for Kanu’s release through public protests, said about the herdsmen.
“Biafrans are on the verge of being exterminated,” it added.
In Nimbo, the farmers use less emotive language but their underlying message is the same.
Today the village is deserted, with shiny new padlocks fastened on the wood doors of mud-brick houses and hectares of cassava and melon crops abandoned until safer times.
“We have been complaining to government, complaining to everyone, no help,” said Thaddeus Okenwa, a 65-year-old cassava farmer with a raspy voice and muscular hands.
“We are now just managing because nothing goes normal. If they can give us our own independence, let’s go.
“We don’t pray for war now, but this (the Fulani issue) can cause it because you can’t be a stranger in your home.”
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