“Yet the privileged beggars continue to threaten hardworking indigenes with blue murder at every occasion. If it is not RUGA, it is Grazing rights, Waterways Bill rights or even outright threat to give up your ancestral lands for cows to dominate the farmlands or face severe consequences.”
One day, while driving I noticed the sight of group of young men, seems they were dropped off overnight nearby the Agege Abatoirs in the wee hours of the early morning by a trailer arriving from the North with cows.
I paid no serious attention and drove past. On my way back, I sighted these young men numbering about 15 lined up at a corner of the road each with its own walking stick, a bowl and some with a placard hung on their neck., it reads, I AM DEAF and DUMB, PLEASE HELP ME.
When I drove closer, they all swarmed at the car, each pushing out his hand asking for alms.
I took a closer look and found out all their right arm has been chopped off, and whoever that cut those hands off seems to have been more precise as they were all cut off from the same spot – 15 men in all, with only their left arm hanging with bowls and walking stick stuck on it, begging for money, food and whatever.
I sized them up and noticed these were all able-bodied healthy men except for the right arms that has been chopped off. I bawled in anger and asked them to “get out of my car, go and meet Buhari and your governor and tell him to restore your arms so you can work and live”
The response I got that day taught me a good lesson about beggars in the streets, especially the ones imported from Northern Nigeria by trailers carrying tomatoes and cows into Lagos overnight.
One of them pretended to pick up stone to haul at me, the other shouted “You get out, you Biafra, Damboroba Biafra, you criminal etc” – I was startled, at first, I thought these were weak beggars seeking sympathy for their deliberately chopped off arms and unfortunate conditions, asking for sympathy from Lagosians.
However, I was wrong, the fierce response I got – in petty English though, but the message was clear. I learned my lesson that day, never to talk back to any beggar parading as helpless weakling from the North or anywhere at that, parading the streets of Lagos, acting Blind, deaf and dumb! They mean business in their mission and the business was well defined. Deception and Oppression!
“The Spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Mr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, should, with due honor addressed this begarly mentality of Nigerians in the North and guide the people to embrace honest productive means of earning livelihood out of hardwork
No doubt Nigerians’ will remain forever grateful to the government of Muhammadu Buhari for helping them the illusion they have been living over the years and bringing out the likes of Governor Nyesom Wike, whom has gone beyond discovering himself but enlightening the entire Southern indigenes of a fraud perpetuated for far too long under the Nigeria 1999 quasi federal constitution, most importantly the issue of fiscal disbursement of federal allocation to the entire 774 Local Government in the federation.
Jigawa State was carved out from Kano State and each shared between 27 LGA and Councils to Jigawa and 44 LGA to Kano making it 71 LGAs in one single state divided into two 20 years ago.
Lagos has 20 Local Government Areas and has retained this since 1991 Jigawa was split from Kano. Lagos State sometimes ago during the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration even dared to increase the numbers but was statutorily halted while kano increased exponentially.
Today Jigawa could boast of 27 Local Government Areas including councils with a population of a little over 5 million residents while Lagos with a population of almost 20 million has retained the same 20 LGA’s, the same applies to Rivers State, Delta, Imo etc.
Most confusedly striking is the Population figures that always emerge from these regions before and after every electoral year.
Nyesom Wike in a statement related to the confusion over VAT and disbursement of the Federal Allocation by Abuja to the state governments; declared’
“The North cannot continue to churn out large number of voters from the desert region and unable to convert those numbers to tax for its own development – this is gross injustice” he stated.
Productive southern states cannot continue to suffer under the yoke of glaring discriminatory policies designed to keep the states and the people under perpetual subjugation and underdevelopment while others live as beneficiaries for doing virtually nothing to the economic development of the Union – this is the Lagos beggar tactics, appearing helpless, deaf and dumb but with a mission to deceive, oppress and rob.
Wike argued that “The states should be able to compete on the basis of innovation, education and productivity. There is no state in Nigeria – whether in the north or in the south that is economically not viable.
These are very critical issues that has been overlooked for too long until Nyesom Wike raised the alarm and pull the veil off the eyes of the Nigerian people.
Look at these figures: in the June 12 1993 Presidential election, these results were announced before General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) annulled the election.
“No country is ever built on the foundation of lies, propaganda, begging and criminal falsification of official data and records that are necessary for careful planning of economic development and productivity
1. Kano 442, 300 – Votes Cast
2. Lagos 1,033,297– Votes Cast
3. Rivers 1,011,551– Votes Cast
4. Oyo 627,000– Votes Cast
4. Oyo 627,000– Votes Cast
Now within 15 years, During the 2015 Presidential election, the total votes cast on March 28 reads.
1. Kano – 2,128,821 (the same Kano now)
2. Lagos – 1,443,686
3. Rivers – 1,487,075Kano has overblown in population figures while Lagos state that has by far the highest adult migration in Africa and continue to see the overnight surge of those one-arm and one eye dumb and deaf placard beggars could not generate such magical and flawless numbers of increment. But Kano did.
The recent 2020 VAT crisis raised by Nyesom Wike is a classic example that has revealed the deception inherent in these constitutional anomalies. If you remove Lagos, FCT and Rivers from the equation (as a result of the headquarters effect), you will discover clearly that Oyo State alone generated N64billion, which is far higher than the N24billion by Kano and N22.6billion by Kaduna.
Oyo State is one state, whose demographics and numbers are reflected clearly by empirical facts- VAT generation, IGR generation, School enrolment, Mobile Phone Sim Card registration, BVN, TIN
Yet the privileged beggars continue to threaten Southern states and hardworking indigenes with blue murder at every occasion. If it is not RUGA, it is Grazing rights, Waterways Bill rights or even outright threat to give up your ancestral lands for cows to dominate the farmlands or face severe consequences.
The southern leaders must insist on full fiscal federalism now. Governor Nyesom Wike has laid the great example of leadership by conscience that others has been running away from, Nigeria must consider revisiting the original 1960/1963 constitutional framework for a peaceful coexistence
The Spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Mr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, should, with due honor addressed this begarly mentality of Nigerians in the North and guide the people to embrace honest productive means of earning livelihood out of hardwork and not from taking pride in begging and more so, Hakeem Baba Ahmed should be reminded that beggars do not threaten their benefactors.
No country is ever built on the foundation of lies, propaganda, begging and criminal falsification of official data and records that are necessary for careful planning of economic development and productivity.
