Gbenro Adesina
The Midwest Professors’ Forum (MPF) has identified the immediate and urgent challenges facing Nigeria to be the heightened insecurity occasioned by emerging ethnic hegemony with accompanying widespread banditry, the Boko Haram insurgency and rampaging herdsmen.
The intellectual Group identified other challenges to include unfortunate politicization of ethnic pluralism, the unequal yoking of the North and the South, a fractured federalism, and a Constitution which appears to lack popular legitimacy, concluding that these challenges constitute a threat to the survival of Nigeria as a sovereign state.
The Group stressed, “Nigeria’s economic woes and security challenges are clearly traceable to poor governance. Poor governance is in turn blamed on mediocre leadership, weak institutions, all of which are ultimately connected to a flawed Constitution and the dysfunctional federal/governance structure of the Nigerian State. The popular saying “oil boom has become oil doom” appears to be particularly true in relation to the Mid-West Area and the entire South-South geopolitical zone, with all the attendant negative socio-economic, political and environmental consequences”.
Consequent upon these challenges, MPF has advocated for the immediate establishment of a Mid-West Security Network (MSN) to be funded by the governments of Edo and Delta and stakeholders.
According to the Forum, the proposed MSN shall be involved in gathering and exchange of vital security information and intelligence to facilitate proactive intervention against the influx and activities of bandits, criminals and terrorists in the two states.
This was part of the resolutions made at the end of the Virtual Conference of Midwest Professors’ Forum (MPF) held on Saturday, February 27, 2021.
According to a communique signed by Professors Hope Eghagha and Edoba Omoregie, the group said, “In view of the security threats and breakdown caused by the criminal activities of criminal elements posing as cattle herders, the Forum advocates for a conference of stakeholders under the auspices of the governments of the two states with a view to setting up machinery to identify and take inventory of all cattle business owners operating within the Mid-West Area. Where it becomes unavoidable, the governments of the two states should activate all lawful steps to limit open grazing of cattle in their various domains in addition encouraging residents of the two states to boycott the eating of cow meat as a strategy to force full compliance with the ban on open grazing”.
The communique recommended that “The Governors of the Mid-West Area should urgently commence collaborations in other areas such as sports development, forest and water resources control under a joint, well-articulated Developmental Agenda For Midwest Area to be designed by experts and stakeholders gathered together by the government of the two states and other organized bodies from the two states. In this regard, the Forum advocates for a standing body of technocrats which should function as the think tank and clearing house on matters relating to the developmental agenda.
“The governments of the two states should as a matter of urgency take steps to promote massive investment in food production to mitigate the impending food shortage due to the displacement of farmers by herders nationwide. They should also jointly and severally encourage investments in the development of Timber clusters, Rubber clusters, Oil Palm clusters and Cocoa clusters which would in turn guarantee robust raw material base for agro-allied enterprises in the two state with positive impact on employment opportunities for our teeming army of the unemployed, particularly among the youth population in the states.
“The government of Edo and Delta States as well as stakeholders in the states should jointly and collectively articulate a robust way forward to protect the people of the two states from the negative consequences of threat to the continuance of the Republic and its possible but avoidable disintegration.
“Given the lack of critical voices from Edo and Delta Area on matters of national concern and even on matters concerning both states, except for the gallant efforts of Chief Edwin Clerk and the late Anthony Enahoro in the past, there is need for a strong advocacy group to emerge from diverse platforms within the area to address contemporary issues confronting the country and to act as umbrella advocate/promoter of Mid-West interests.
“There is an urgent need for deliberate efforts to be mounted to promote civic knowledge amongst the grassroots and traditional institutions in the Midwest Area particularly on matters of collective interests, including matters relating to the danger posed by the influx of potentially dangerous elements into the two states.
“All the 12 main ethnic nationalities comprising the Midwest Area should forthwith halt further occupation of their forest areas and reserves by anyone or group without the collective official approval/authorization by the governments of the two states, their traditional institutions and other stakeholders.
“The Midwest Area should vehemently resist the Water Bill currently being considered at the National Assembly as the Bill is an unwholesome attempt to capture the water resources as well as the flora and fauna of the two states, and other states affected by the Bill”.
