Some online media, clearly out of mischief, devoid of patriotism to the nationalistic spirit, intended to instigate dissension between north and south ahead of the 2023 general election, when the challenges associated with the threat of herdsmen to vacate the south is gradually subsiding, have taken to disinformation, misinformation and misinterpretation intended to mislead the gullible public against the seeming fragile unity, which in the general opinion of the concerned citizens, shouldn’t be left unaddressed
The media have published misleading report apparently deliberately intended that “Bashir Ahmad, the Secretary to the state government, said the state government’s decision to disallow the sale and haulage of livestock out of the state to other parts of the country including Lagos, which collects about N35,000 levy on a cattle, was aimed at blocking revenue leakages and improving it’s internally generated revenue”.
Did the Adamawa SSG, Engr Bashiru Ahmad truly said this? Were the reporters under the hungover of the liquor, could have been taken to stupor a day before? Were they accomplishing their figmented desire of taking another angle by rewriting to misinterprete against the herdsman as SSG they have for long nursed hatred without cogent reason to have issued the misleading misinterpretation?
The online media, typical of incoherent, rather confused medley, eventually turned out to contradict themselves, justifying the degree of misfit their art and act of mischief can be when they quoted verbatim the SSG where he explained that “what we collect as revenue per head of cattle is far lower than what’s been collected along the road to the point of sale.
“People take cattle from Mubi market here, move it to Lagos, along the road they pay nothing less than N5000 per head in like, five revenue collection points.
“By the time they get to Lagos and sell it, another N10,000 per head is paid just for the cow to be slaughtered; while in Adamawa where the cow originated, we’re left with about N300 to N500 revenue per head.
“So we resolved that if this thing originates from us then we should be able to generate substantial revenue just as others are doing.
“As we’ve seen how much revenue is generated outside the state from our cattle, we decided to harness it to improve our economy”. Isn’t this a brilliant revenue generating idea?
For emphasis, the SSG said, “So we resolved that if this thing originates from us then we should be able to generate substantial revenue just as others are doing.”
Just as others are doing. Isn’t he frankly speaking right?
To earn more revenue, the state government considered another finished good; from cattle to a packaged beef model, where the SSG explained, saying “to achieve that from now, we’ll improve the value-chain of the cattle by moving it from the market to an abattoir within the state, slaughter it, process it by separating the hydes, the bones, the horns and we’ll package the beef for shipment to markets in Lagos and other states.”
What’s criminal in the innovation? Media pregnant with bias shouldn’t hit the polity due to selfish interest.
You may hate the herdsman. However, Adamawa State does not only belong to the herdsmen. Engr Bashiru is only the SSG, don’t give Adamawa state a bad name with hate speech, like the proverbial dog, to hang it.