Saturday, March 31, 2018

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Prof Akinwumi Orojide ISOLA

Below is a photograph from Right to Left of Prof Akinwumi Orojide ISOLA, Emeritus Prof Anthony Asiwaju and Prof Olatunji Oloruntimehin taken at the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization 2008 International Colloquium on Teaching and Propagating African History and Culture to the Diaspora and Teaching Diaspora History and Culture to Africa held at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 11 - 13, 2008).

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Adesegun Dosumu Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) 36/38, Broad Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria. 01-7744489, +2348083950755, +2348055404320

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Prof Akinwumi Orojide ISOLA

Below is a photograph of Prof Akinwumi Orojide ISOLA at the 2008 International Colloquium on Teaching and Propagating African History and Culture to the Diaspora and Teaching Diaspora History and Culture to Africa organized by the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization held at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 11 - 13, 2008).
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Oloogbe Ojogbon Isola Sun re e ooo!!!

Adesegun Dosumu Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) 36/38, Broad Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria. 01-7744489, +2348083950755, +2348055404320

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Inuit Oral History solves puzzle of Western History

This certainly emphasizes the power of oral history. Sadly enough, Mr. Kamookak may not have received  recognition if not for his solution of a European problem.


 GE



Professor Gloria Emeagwali

     


From: 'Patrick Effiboley' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 2:28 PM
To: Usa dialogue; Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Inuit Oral History solves puzzle of Western History
 
Thank you for sharing this story that will definitely empower us in recording oral history in the pursuit of the full discovery of the past on our continent.

Dr Emery Patrick EFFIBOLEY
Assistant Professor, 
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Abomey-Calavi 
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg,(2014-2016) 
www.researchgate.net/Profile/Emery_Effiboley
 


Le vendredi 30 mars 2018 à 12:57:45 UTC+1, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso <jumoyin@gmail.com> a écrit :


Fascinating.

Inuit oral historian who pointed way to Franklin shipwrecks dies aged 58 

Louie Kamookak, who tied ancestral stories to an ill-fated 1840s expedition to find the North-West Passage, to be honoured in Canada

Published: 17:26 WAT Thursday, 29 March 2018
 Follow Leyland Cecco

Growing up in the Canadian Arctic, Louie Kamookak was captivated by tales from Inuit elders of rusted utensils strewn along a remote shore and mysterious white men using ropes to haul a large ship through the ice.

Years later, he realized there was a striking resemblance between the stories of his youth and historical accounts of the ill-fated expedition of Sir John Franklin, whose two ships – and 129 crew members – vanished while searching for the North-West Passage in the 1840s.

Kamookak compared Inuit stories with explorers' logbooks and journals to develop a working theory of where the ships might be. 

Ship found in Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt

He shared these thoughts with Canadian archaeologists, and was eventually vindicated in a spectacular fashion when, using his directions, divers located the HMS Erebus in 2014and two years later, the Terror

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Both ships were found exactly where Kamookak had predicted.

Archaeologists and historians have paid tribute to the Inuit oral historian who helped solve a mystery that had confounded explorers for generations, after he died this week aged 58. 

He is survived by his wife, Josephine, their five children and seven grandchildren.

"Louie was someone who devoted three decades of his life to understanding the puzzles and the clues surrounding the disappearance of the two ships," said John Geiger, president of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, calling Kamookak "the last great Franklin searcher".

Born at a seal hunting camp and brought up in nomadic camps for the first decade of his life, Kamookak was long fascinated by stories he heard from elders.

With no written language for generations, Inuit have relied on oral history as a means of preserving knowledge of their surroundings, as well as unique and noteworthy events.

Sir John Franklin's men dying by their boat during the North-West Passage expedition.
Sir John Franklin's men dying by their boat during the North-West Passage expedition. Photograph: National Maritime Museum, London

For years, European explorers and historians ignored that oral history, but Kamookak became convinced it was the key to discovering the location of the Franklin shipwrecks. 

At least 36 expeditions from 1847 to 1859 searched for Franklin's lost ships, with dozens more in the 20th century. All ended in failure. 

"It's usually politicians praising traditional knowledge, but not really respecting it completely, or academics using it in order to get entree into communities that really don't want them there," said Paul Watson, author of Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition"Louie showed that traditional knowledge really does mean something."

In recognition of his "relentless dedication" to showcasing Inuit culture and history, Kamookak was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. He was also a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and its honorary vice-president. The Society plans to create a medal in his name, said Geiger. 

Louie Kamookak receives the Polar Medal from the governor general.
Louie Kamookak receives the Polar Medal from the governor general. Photograph: Sgt Ronald Duchesne/Paul Watson

Kamookak spent much of his adult life in the community of Gjoa Haven, a hamlet above the Arctic Circle, working as a teacher and educating youth about the importance of oral history. 

"He was concerned that the stories be passed along to young Inuit and that they wouldn't be lost," said Geiger. "He wanted to preserve the wisdom that comes from people who have lived for centuries on the land and understand it innately." 

Until his death, Kamookak remained steadfast in his pursuit of Franklin's remains. He knew of stories in which Inuit hunters witnessed the burial of a ship's captain, which Kamookak suspects was Franklin. 

"As recently as two months ago he was planning to return to the Arctic this summer and continue his search for the tomb or grave of Sir John," said Geiger. "He's someone whose search for understanding of the terrible disaster really never ended. It was with him until the very last days of his life." 


--
Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, PhD.,
Department of Political Science and Public Administration,
Babcock University,
PMB 4010, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. 
Official Email: yacob-halisoo@babcock.edu.ng
The Editor, Journal of International Politics and Development: jipad@babcock.edu.ng
Institutional Website: www.babcock.edu.ng
.....
Intelligence Plus Character -- that is the goal of True Education - Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnic Cleansing

Thanks for the nice comments, ABA. The truth is that   we learn from each other in this great forum. We have just heard  from "yagbetuyi@hotmail" about  the many challenges involved in teaching a course on the subject,  and  you gave us some very useful additional sources. I am  inspired to introduce a course on the subject, sometime in the future, as a result of the discussion.


On a different note, let me say that I am very excited today. Ethiopia could not have chosen a better person to

be the new Prime Minister, following the resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn February 15. 2018.

 

There is no guarantee that everything will go smoothly in the country from this point but with a doctorate in Conflict Mediation, experience in peace keeping in Rwanda and experience within the EPRDF coalition, 

Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali  is a great choice. His inauguration was today.


Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali  speaks Oromo and Amhara (and English) and comes from the region that could have  brought about the collapse of the regime  - if the writing on the wall had been ignored. He is the Chair of OPDO-one of the four members of the EPDRF coalition that emerged after the fall of Mengistu- and  is the first Oromo to be in this position. 


I can think of a few major issues that the 42 year old politician - who also rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army-  must address in the context of the  EPRDF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary  Democratic Front):


  1. Release of all political prisoners and dissidents, a process earlier initiated by Hailemariam in February, 2018.
  2. Completion of the GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) at  Benishangul - Gumuz, in the west,  that is over 70% complete- and negotiation with Egyptian  President, el-Sisi,  from a position of strength,  to enhance water accessibility  and generate electric power in eleven Nile countries (300 million people) in the region.
  3. Continuation of infrastructure expansion in the context of technology transfer.
  4. Wealth distribution and poverty alleviation across all regions.
  5. Adjustments to China - Ethiopian relations so that the new  industrial economic zones will benefit ordinary people through fair wages and  working conditions.
  6. Consolidation of the  reforms of 2017  vis a vis the Rastas at Sheshamane, and elsewhere.
  7. Improved relations with  neighbors such as  Eritrea, Somaliland, Punt and Somalia, where feasible.
  8. Reduction of Oromo-Somali tension within Ethiopia,  by solving the land and water issues that are at the root of the conflict.
  9. Expansion of youth employment programs.
  10. Persuasion of the TPLF (Tigrayan People's Liberation Front) to re-distribute some of the sensitive military and political posts equitably.
  • Congrats to the new Prime Minister.
  •     



    From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aassenso@indiana.edu>
    Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 8:10 AM
    To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; Toyin Falola
    Cc: Assensoh@uoregon.edu; anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com; ovaughan@bowdoin.edu; Dawn; doyinck@gmail.com; dejigiri@yahoo.com
    Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnic Cleansing
     

    Wow! Many of us are VERY grateful to our Big Sister and intellectual Supremo GE, indeed for such a priceless bibliography. In fact, I needed  such information when I taught my award-wining "Blacks and Jews in History" seminar at Indiana University. The constant argument between Black and Jewish students was: which was more horrific, Slavery or Hitler's anti-Jewish Pogrom/Holocaust?


    Also, Jewish students would often say to Black students in the seminar that "since Blacks did not die in the Holocaust", the Black students think that slavery was a lot more horrible. Yet,  the books by Lusane and Massaquoi could have helped to elucidate facts about Hitler's Black victims. In fact, for my seminr a regular bibliographic staple included African Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict (1998), edited by V.P. Franklin and others (et al). There were crucial chapters like "Black Sacrifice, Jewish Redemption" , "The Southern Jewish Community and the Struggle for Civil Rights" and "Black Zionism: Marcus Garvey and the Jewish Question". In fact, in discussing ethnicity in Jewish history in the class, we relied on The Russian Jew  edited by Bernheimer.


    As my Yoruba brothers and sisters would say, Big Sister GE, "Ese pupo" ( "thank you very much")!


    A.B. Assensoh.


    From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Windows Live 2018 <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
    Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 4:51 AM
    To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
    Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnic Cleansing
     
    GE.

    Thanks for this bibliographical  update. I consider myself a Holocaust specialist yet when we studied the Holocaust in the UK it was not possible to get a SINGLE publication on the fate of the Blacks in Germany during the Nazi era.  The bookstores and library bookshelves were completely deodorized of them  ( and it is still largely the case) so that it was made to look like it was a straight confrontation between only the Jews and the Nazis.  All in a bid to make it look like Blacks are owed no reparations (an inverted racism - after all they are fully BLACK in a way Jewish ideological separatism isnt.). 

     This deliberate deodorization of potentially offensive material was to the extent that when I sought to watch a notorious film The Wandering Jews at the British Film Institute I found that the real film had been replaced in the jacket with another harmless material that had nothing to do with the subject.

    My African American students regularly put me on the spot on this account later and since there were no publications to support systematic victimization of Blacks in the Holocaust as a group we all sought  agreement in the Toni Morrison epigram that the trans Atlantic  Slave Trade was a holocaust larger by several proportions in magnitude.



    Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


    -------- Original message --------
    From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
    Date: 31/03/2018 05:49 (GMT+00:00)
    To: usa <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
    Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnic Cleansing

    Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (emeagwali@ccsu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info


    I   found this  piece  quite balanced and informed as well but thought that the itemized list  of  the victims of ethnic cleansing in Germany should be expanded.


    Don't forget Hitler's Black  holocaust victims.

    Many Africans from the German colonies and other African countries as well as African American POWs and   Black Germans,  were sent to the concentration camps and died there. See Clarence Lusane. (2003). Hitler's Black Victims as well as Hans Massaquoi(1999). Destined to witness-Growing up Black in Nazi Germany.




    GE

    africahistory.net



    From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinibrahim891@gmail.com>
    Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 4:51 PM
    To: 'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
    Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnic Cleansing
     
    Yes indeed, thanks

    Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
    Senior Fellow
    Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
    Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

    On 30 March 2018 at 17:05, Anthony Akinola <anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com> wrote:
    Balanced and educative-we are warned of possible outcomes when law enforcement agencies have been compromised by the state and its corrupt politicians.The literature on the fall of the First and Second Republics is instructive.
    Anthony Akinola
    Oxford, UK

    On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 12:51 PM, Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinibrahim891@gmail.com> wrote:

    Alleged Ethnic Cleansing and the Military

    Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday column, Daily Trust, 30th March 2018

    Nigeria's former Defence Minister and Chief of Army Staff, T. Y. Danjuma, on Saturday accused the Nigerian armed forces of aiding the on-going killings in the country, especially the deadly attacks in his home State of Taraba. "The armed forces are not neutral," General Danjuma said at the maiden convocation of the Taraba State University in Jalingo; "They collude with the armed bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians." He added that the armed forces rather than protect the people, "facilitate" the movement of armed attackers and often provide cover for them. His conclusion was chilling: "If you wait for the armed force to stop the killing, you all die one-by-one," The way forward he said was for the people to defend themselves.

    There has been a national debate on his comments. This is partly because he rarely speaks and when he does people listen. People also know he is a close confidant of President Buhari and the expectation is that if he has a message for the Government, he has the access to directly reach the summit of the State. The consensus therefore might be no one is listening to him so he decided to speak out to create impact. The other reason for concern is that people know he chooses his words carefully so this is not an outburst but a decision to openly rebuke and express his disgust against the institution, the Nigerian army that made him.

    Many people feel that his statement might push people towards arming themselves and creating anarchy as they give up on security agencies and procure arms to descend on their neighbours who they have re-categorised as enemies. This is my own main concern. We all know that the armed forces often overreach themselves and violate the rights of people. We also know that currently, the armed forces are deployed in at least 32 States in the country where hey are engaged in operations. I recently served on the Presidential Panel Investigating Alleged Human Rights abuses by the military and there are three things that struck me from the evidence we heard. The first is that there are indeed human rights violations by the military but it is not systematic. The second is that when communities are asked whether the military should be withdrawn from their area, the universal response was NO because there are security concerns that only the military could handle. The third issue is that for most Nigerians, the police, who should normally be the agency to handle civil conflicts, is so bad that the military is the only viable option for now. It is for this reason that I am concerned about the blanket condemnation of the military by General Danjuma.

    The other concern I have is the assertion by the General that: "There is an attempt at ethnic cleansing in the state and of course, some riverine states in Nigeria. We must resist it. We must stop it. Every one of us must rise up." He did not say who was committing the genocide against whom. The assumption among those listening to the General is that the genocide is by "Fulani herdsmen" against indigenous communities in Taraba State. If indeed this is the assumption, then there is a problem. Taraba State is one area where there are credible reports of large-scale massacre of Fulani pastoralists and there is evidence that the killings go both ways. We need to be careful about the way in which we use concepts such as ethnic cleansing.

    The term "ethnic cleansing" came into wide usage in the 1990s, to describe the treatment suffered by particular ethnic groups during conflicts that erupted after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. It would be recalled that after the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence in March 1992, Bosnian Serb forces waged a systematic campaign of forced deportation, murder, torture and rape with the aim of expelling all Bosnian Muslim and Croatian civilians from the territory of eastern Bosnia. This violence culminated in the massacre of as many as 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. In his 1993 article "A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing," published in the magazine Foreign Affairs, Andrew Bell-Fialkoff writes that the aim of the Serbian campaign was "the expulsion of an 'undesirable' population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of those."

    Using this definition, historians have rolled back the term to apply to the aggressive displacement of Native Americans by European settlers in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries as ethnic cleansing. The case of Rwanda in the 1990s is also categorized as ethnic cleansing because members of the majority Hutu ethnic group massacred hundreds of thousands of people, mostly minority Tutsis, from April to July 1994. The most prominent example of extremist nationalism-fuelled ethnic cleansing was that of the Hitler regime in Germany and its campaign against Jews in German-controlled territory from 1933 to 1945. This movement began with cleansing by deportation and ended in the horrific "final solution"—the destruction of some 6 million Jews (along with some 250,000 Gypsies and roughly the same number of homosexuals) in concentration camps and mass killing centres. The term ethnic cleansing is often linked to genocide, and is today considered to be "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes." We therefore need to be care about the way we use it.

    The allegation by General Danjuma about the lack of neutrality of the armed forces is serious and should be thoroughly investigated. We live in a country with a long history of lack of neutrality of security agencies. During the First Republic, the NPC regime of Tafawa Balewa declared a State of Emergency in the Western Region to give the police full "freedom" to harass the opposition. In the North, the Native Authority Police was used as an instrument to harass and intimidate the opposition and these practices played a major role in eroding the legitimacy of the democratic order leading to regime collapse. During the Second Republic, the police were also used to intimidate the leadership of the opposition states and state police commissioners acted as if they were alternate governors posted to impose the "federal might". This created a huge political anomaly as state governors are supposed to be in charge of peace, security, law and order in their states. Now that the military is deployed all over the country on operational duties, the feeling of lack of neutrality could pose a real problem of State legitimacy.

     

     

     

    Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
    Senior Fellow
    Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
    Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

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    Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Why I told my people to defend themselves – Emir of Birnin Gwari

    This was a pretty disconcerting read. Even with the widening senseless mass murders everywhere, Buhari habitually pats himself in the back on his "achievements" in security. The most disturbing part of this interview, for me, though, is the emir's reference to Miyetti Allah coming out in defense of the killers when the Birnin Gwari people decided to defend themselves. I've said several times that Miyetti Allah is an out-and-out terror organization. 

    Farooq

    Farooq Kperogi, PhD
    Associate Professor
    Journalism and Emerging Media
    School of Communication & Media
    Social Science Building Room 5092
    402 Bartow Avenue
    Kennesaw State University
    Kennesaw, GA 30144
    Office phone: 470-578-7735
    Fax: 470-578-9153
    Cell: 404-573-9697
    Website: www.farooqkperogi.com
    Twitter:@farooqkperogi

    Sent from my 4G LTE Android device. Please forgive typos.

       

    On Sat, Mar 31, 2018, 3:20 PM Dr. Bitrus Gwamna <bgwamna@gmail.com> wrote:

     

     

    Dr. Bitrus Paul Gwamna

     

    From: yo440@aol.com <yo440@aol.com>
    Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 1:26 PM
    To: bgwamna@gmail.com
    Subject: Why I told my people to defend themselves – Emir of Birnin Gwari

     

    Why I told my people to defend themselves – Emir of Birnin Gwari

    By Andrew Agbese & Maryam Ahmadu-Suka, Kaduna | Publish Date: Mar 31 2018 2:00AM

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    Image removed by sender. Why I told my people to defend themselves  – Emir of Birnin Gwari

    The Emir of Birnin Gwari, Malam Zubairu Jibril Mai Gwari II, in this interview, speaks on the increasing insecurity in his domain, which led to the killing of 11 soldiers last week, and suggests how the issue can be tackled. Excerpts:

     

    Daily Trust: What do you think is responsible for the increasing insecurity in Birnin Gwari emirate?

    Malam Zubairu Jibril Mai Gwari II: First, we have a terrible road which has helped the bandits to do what they like. Only God can give the answer, we have been standing up against these people, fighting them in the hope that it would end, all to no avail. I must say that the Kaduna State government, particularly this present governor, has done his best, and I believe he is still doing so, but I think when you say somebody is doing his best, maybe their best is not enough. That is why, when they do something, it would look like they are succeeding, but then, eventually, the bandits find a way to unleash terror on us. 

    I have once said here that we are living in hell. All development projects, and everything good intended for Birnin Gwari, are blocked by these criminals. We are suffering, and even government does not want to come to us, nobody is sure whether his life is safe and this has been going on for a long time. Whenever we try our efforts, the security agencies would say that our local vigilante group is over stepping its bounds.

    DT: You set up a vigilante group in order to curb the menace?

    Mai Gwari II: Who hasn't? All over Nigeria, people have had to resort to vigilante groups because the police are not enough. Birnin Gwari is one of the largest local governments in Nigeria, and we do not have a hundred or so policemen. They can do nothing.

    DT: Has the setting up of the vigilante group made any impact?

    Mai Gwari II: The vigilantes have been there. They have been helping, but it is getting to 20 years that we have been facing this problem. When the thing started, I led the vigilantes, we went into the bush and we were able to deal with them, that was during the military era in 1995 or so. But we have been suffering since then. When this governor came, he was so passionate and concerned but I am telling you, he is getting fed up. We did not invite these people, we do not want them here, but they are here and the only people that can dislodge them are the security agencies. 

    When security forces  are deployed here, they would do some work, arrest or kill some of the bandits, and at one time they would be released back to us. And once they come back, they unleash more terror. Another batch of soldiers would be deployed, they would come, approach the bandits or disturb them and then they go away. The criminals would wait for a time and come back. About a week ago, government sent a special force which did well. But while in the middle of it, they were removed. I cannot give you the reason why the insecurity has lingered. What I can tell you is that we don't like it and we are suffering.   

    DT: From your interaction with some of your people, which aspect of their socio-economic lives have been affected most by this wave of insecurity?

    Mai Gwari II: Every aspect of life - religious, political, health, economic, all have been impacted negatively. In fact, if not because we are a resilient people, our economy would have collapsed. But if you had come here yesterday, at  our biggest market, you would have seen that people are striving, despite the insecurity. People come in from all parts of the local government and all parts of Nigeria, they have to travel by road and they run the risk of being stopped by bandits, but they still make it. 

    Our economy is really suffering, political life is suffering, our health facilities are suffering, and nobody can go there. Right now, teachers are being recruited, they are sending teachers to us. We do not know what will happen. No teacher will go to an area where soldiers have asked people to vacate.

    We heard that the president has visited many places where there were disturbances, and because people were killed. From January to date, bandits or whatever you call them, have killed more than 64 people, including the soldiers killed recently. This is a simple estimate. It could be more than that because in some villages, they kill people and they do not report. Nobody cares about it because we don't shout, we have no means of reaching the media, nobody cares about us. When you talk about Zamfara State, they are our neighbours, what they suffered, we have suffered, but the president was there two times! Everybody would say he heard about the town, but nobody cares about Birnin Gwari. Why shouldn't the president come here to see us and find out what is going on? Why is it that for over 20 years, these people are there, they are human beings, they have not been removed and nothing has been  done? The governor has done his best, he has spent money, and he cannot order soldiers or the police. It is very unfortunate. The road leading to Birnin Gwari is one of the most important roads in Nigeria, and many trucks ply the road because it is the most important road economically between the North and the South. They have given contracts for everything except the road. What have we done? The bandits are using the bad state of the road to attack and kill people, and  this figure I gave you is for people who were killed, not kidnapped. If we talk of kidnapping, it is worse.

    DT: Where do you think the bandits are coming from?

    Mai Gwari II: These are people we do not know. Like what you heard, they said they have killed Buharin Daji, and this incident of killing him started from Birnin Gwari area because they came here, they were fighting among themselves and they killed him. They are people we do not know, they could be Fulani or anyone. We are not tagging them as herdsmen like what many other people are doing. They are not herdsmen, they are armed bandits who could be anyone.

    DT: Part of the security measures adopted by traditional rulers that we used to hear in those days was that anybody coming into the town would first report himself either to the district head or the head of the town. Do you think this should be reintroduced?

    Mai Gwari II: Do you think somebody who has come to steal and rob will report to the village head? No, that system works when people live in peace. These people would come, they would go into the thick forest and put their camps with their gangs and just start unleashing terror on people, they don't report to anybody. More than a decade ago, they came into Birnin Gwari, they robbed and bombed some banks and went away and because of that, most of the banks have refused to come back.

    DT: Within the last one year, how many communities have been affected?

    Mai Gwari II: I can tell you that more than 30 communities have been affected, and these are just a few that we selected. If you take the case of about one or two years ago, one place near the Zamfara border called Nabango is not here, they went there and killed more than 20 people. These killings have been going on here, yet nobody cares, and nobody has come to commiserate with us. Our case is not different from the case in Taraba, Benue or Zamfara. We deserve a presidential visit. I have been attending meetings with the government, so I know what is going on. At one time the governor had said that in order to fight the menace, he would move the seat of government to Birnin Gwari, but he too is getting tired.

    DT: What should be done to tackle this?

    Mai Gwari II: What have they done in other places? Send in security agents, people who are ready to work. But they would instead bring a detachment that would go in, arrest people, and after three weeks, they say it is an operation and they withdraw. In some cases, they came here, arrested some bad people and released them after two weeks. What we want is for them to bring back the young people they brought earlier. When they came here, our people thought they were the normal soldiers they used to see, and they took food items to them which they refused and told them 'we get our food from Abuja'. That is a good soldier for you. When they were here, they arrested some people and dealt with them, things started to become normal, but all of a sudden, they were withdrawn. I am advising government to bring security agents who will come and work until they finish the bad people. We know the areas and we have been telling them where their locations are. But they would rather pick wrong people to show them the hideouts. They do not come to me, they would find some people in the villages and towns and say they are their scouts. They are the people who give them intelligence reports. They do not trust me. How can they work without me? I have been here, my parents fought and died here, I cannot bring any bad thing to my people.

     The government should deploy troops along the borders of Niger, Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara states. I bet you, within one month, they would finish the bandits. Otherwise, if you look at the area between Kaduna and Buruku, it is a zone for kidnappers. If security agents go there, they would deal with them.

    DT: People have been advocating for the conversion of  the adjoining forests into parks. What do you think?

    Mai Gwari II: The forest is large and  part of it is a national park where there are animals and where we are now protecting some species of birds and reptiles. They go in there because they know nobody would want to destroy the park. Apart from that, we have large, vast forests, thick ones, and they hide there and only come into town to buy food stuff in disguise and go back. They come back when they want to kill people. Look at what happened to the soldiers who were killed. I was told that the number of soldiers killed was more than the reported 11 because they found some dead soldiers somewhere in the forest. If they can attack soldiers with arms, what of a small village of 200 people: what can they do?

    DT: This must have you under stress...

    Mai Gwari II:  I cry every day because my people are suffering. I may look like I am okay, but I am not. I travel between Kaduna and here almost every week in order to keep our economic life going on. If I had stayed in Kaduna for fear of the bandits, most of our people would not venture out of Birnin Gwari. But when they see my car driving out, they summon courage and follow. I suffer too, as the road is terrible, but we move like that.

    DT: What is your advice to your people in the face of this?

    Mai Gwari II: A month ago, in one area called Anguwan Gajere, the bandits attacked a village, and the villagers fought back, in the process they killed more bandits than the people of the town. All of a sudden, we were told that the people who came were Fulani men, and Miyetti Allah was in the vanguard of protecting them. What we have been preaching to our people is that they should not sit down like fools and watch themselves and their families get killed. If you can do anything to protect yourselves, protect yourself and I will repeat it in front of anybody. 

    We can't be fools to wait for somebody that will not come. Nobody can stop me from telling my people to protect themselves. And that is what we are doing now, because the policemen that are in Birnin Gwari cannot protect. The soldiers that are being brought come and sometimes make matters worse. My advice to my people is that we should sit up and ask for forgiveness, whatever we have done, because this is beyond explanation. I am also appealing to the president to come and see things for himself, because we are also Nigerians.


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