HIGHLIGHTS OF TALK: *Fuel subsidy removal *Military bombing of Fulani herders on Nasarawa/Benue boundary *Ending multiple exchange rate *Tackling farmers/herders clashes
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Details of meeting of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with 14th Emir of Kano and Leader of Tijaniyyah Organisation in Nigeria, His Royal Highness Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II have been unveiled.
These came in the Emir’s responses to journalists after emerging from the meeting at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday June 15, 2023.
While lauding President Tinubu for solving, once and for all, the double hedged issues of fuel subsidy and multiple exchange rate regimes that have characterised the economic situation in the country over the times, Alhaji Sanusi II, who admiitted that he also wears many caps aside that of royalty, said he paid Tinubu, a long time friend since his first term as governor of Lagos State and his (Sanusi’s) days as a banker, to make his own contributions to issues of economy and security.
The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told newsmen that he was at the State House to also show solidarity for his friend because, according to him, he is taking all the right steps as Nigerian leader.
Sanusi said, “The first reason was to come and congratulate him formally, but also because I wear many caps, I wear the cap of an economist so I came to thank him for the steps he has taken to put this economy on course.
“As you know many of the issues that we’ve talking about; the subsidy that has cause a hemorrhage on the fiscal’s, the multiple exchange rates regime and on. These are issues that I have personally been talking about for a long time and I’m happy that on his very first day, he has addressed these issues and the markets are happy.
“It’s important when the government does the right thing for us to give them feedback. It’s not always when they do the wrong thing that we complain. So he has started on such a strong footing and as far as the economy is concerned, we have to come and support and encourage that we continue along that path and be advocates for the policies he has pursued”.
Sanusi also said he received the assurances of President Tinubu that the federal government will take a closer look at the Nigerian Air Force raid that killed at least 37 herders in Nasarawa State in January, this year.
His words: “I’m concerned with the issue of herdsmen – farmer clashes. He (President Tinubu) is also concerned. And we discussed steps that need to be taken to begin to look at some of those issues.
“But in particular, I came to appeal to him on the case of the 37 herdsmen who were bombed by the airforce in Nasarawa state a few months ago which we wrote a letter to President Buhari on.
“And we have now written a reminder because it was a matter we didn’t want to be swept under the carpet. The President has asked me to send him that letter and I’m sure that he will look into the matter,” Alhaji Sanusi II, who would never shy away from speaking for the rights of his Fulani people like he also does for the generality of Nigerian people across religions and tribes, said.
In January, 2023, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) accused the Nigerian Air Force of killing its members in the Rukubi community of Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
The DEFENDER reports that Rukubi is a boundary community between Nasarawa and Benue states.
MACBAN President, Baba Ngelzarma, alleged that the herders, numbering over 40 were killed by operatives of the Nigerian Air Force Base in Makurdi, Benue State.
A report by this newspaper relayed some Fulani leaders’ claims at the time that the military air forces acted based on misinformation believed to be caused by then Governor Samuel Ortom, who they believed saw his times in office as to wage war against the Fulani race.
Ngelzarma said the murdered herders were returning from Makurdi, the Benue State capital, where they went to retrieve over 1,000 cows seized by the Benue Livestock Guards.
He said that after the payment of fines totalling N29 million, some of the livestock were released to the herders by the guards. However, they were trailed and killed while offloading the cattle shortly after they reached their destination in Nasarawa.
MACBAN had condemned the attack describing it as a war crime under the Geneva convention that prohibits the indiscriminate killing of livestock.
