Fulani leaders to register herdsmen, cattle in South-West
Leadership of the Fulani community in the SouthWest region rose from an emergency meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, on Saturday, with a resolution to embark on compulsory registration of all Fulani herdsmen and cattle in the area. The development, it was gathered, is to ensure effective monitoring of their activities by host communities and security operatives.
The meeting which lasted six hours was held at the Sasa Palace of the Sardauna Yamma and chairman of the Sarkin Hausawas in the 17 Southern states, Alhaji Haruna Maiyasin.
Addressing newsmen, Alhaji Haruna, who doubles as the Sarkin Sasa of Ibadanland, called for cooperation of the host communities on the proposed registration exercise.
He said the meeting also mandated Fulani parents to monitor their children and wards to ensure that they do not engage in crime. The Fulani community expressed delight over what it called proactive measures taken by the security operatives which led to the arrest and subsequent prosecution of suspected kidnappers of Chief Olu Falae, while advocating that severe punishment be meted out to all those found guilty to serve as deterrent to others.
The community however expressed reservations over the secession threat by Afenifere, saying, “the outburst by the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group was uncalled for, as that could heat up the polity and also create bad blood in the land.”
To this end, the Fulani community charged leaders of various ethnic groups in the country including; Afenifere, MASSOB, Arewa Consultative Forum among others to be cautious in their utterances and always make statements that would unite the country, rather than divide it.
“We should take into cognizance the fact that centuries of co-habitation between the Fulani and Yoruba in the South West had blossomed into intermarriages between the two ethnic groups, hence leaders from both sides should always preach peace and not discord,” they said. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Imo State Council has condemned attempt by Governor Rochas Okorocha to concession public health institutions in the state.
Chairman of the association, Dr. Hyacinth Emele, at a press conference in Owerri yesterday, lamented that concessioning the general hospitals and other health centres would exclude the poor from accessing quality healthcare.
He said it would also adversely affect the already poor health indices of the state.
Emele said the recent concession of the Imo Specialist Hospital, Umuguma to one Dr Sylvanus Amaeshi, former Senior Special Adviser to the government on health, was a bad idea.
He maintained that public health institutions are public trusts that serve as support for the poor masses to receive quality health services at affordable costs.
He pointed out that public health institutions provide preventive, therapeutic, rehabilitative as well as health promotion services to the public, hence the need for government’s intervention by adequate funding as well as coordinated supervision and management through an efficient hospital management board.
He said:”Effectiveness of these public health institutions should be judged primarily by health outcomes on the public, not by money generated”.
Emele said the NMA had earlier advised the Imo government to uplift existing facilities and invest in health by providing adequate manpower, equipment, finances, training and retraining of doctors and other health workers to build an effective system.
“Rather than heed to the advice, the government embarked on building 27 poorly sited new general hospitals without proper planning,” he said.
The group described the move by the Imo State government to hand-over the management of public health institutions to private individuals as unacceptable, insisting that health is one of the basic responsibilities a government owes its people.
The NMA chairman also called for the immediate payment of the eight months salary arrears of medical doctors and health workers in the state as well as the payment of corrected CONMESS and skipping to doctors working in the state.