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Simon Bako Lalong: Where are the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors? (2)

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Simon Bako Lalong: Where are the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors? (2)

By: Balami Lazarus

My questions are simple: Were there or not 400 Deutz Fahr tractors procured by ex-Governor Simon Bako Lalong? Where are the tractors now? Similarly, some people thought investigative journalism/writings were a mirage, not knowing that it is a long walk in the Sahara Desert to reach an oasis. You may wish to ask the Bedouin Arabs, who were the dwellers/masters of the wide and deep Sahara Desert thousands of years ago, whether there are patches of water or not in the desert. Yes, there are, which are called oases. Likewise, there were once 400 Deutz Fahr model tractors made in Germany on the Plateau, property of the state government and the citizens.

Therefore, the disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors was deliberate to deprive and cause agricultural harm to farmers on the Plateau with the intention to inflict injury on the agro-sector during the tenure of the Simon Bako Lalong administration, which was never serious with the state affairs.

This brings me to the distant past. As children, we were told in stories and proverbs that the tortoise and fox are among the wisest and cleverest animals in African folktales.

As a primer, I would like to paint this work to ensure that the surface is swept, sandpapered, and painted clean to be free of dust that might arise thereafter with dilution of criticisms that may not makesense. Therefore, the emulsion will be well applied herewith in the course of this writing. I will add some questions of the same shade. Now let me ask those that called me using bad language and threats that I have become immune to over the years.

I was further informed that there was no mention of these tractors in the handing-over notes from Simon Bako Lalong (APC 2023) to Caleb Mannaseh Mutfwang (PDP, October 29, 2023, to date). No wonder the present administration is mute on this state matter. Why are they not saying anything pertaining to the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors? I am beginning to think otherwise, that the Mutfwang administration is aware of the disappearance of these tractors. Or is this administration taking the matter for granted? I am appealing to the Mutfwang government to consider the cries of the people, especially farmers on the Plateau, to bring the matter of these 400 Deutz Fahr tractors to a conclusion. His Excellency Governor Caleb Mutfwang has given hope to the agricultural sector of the state recently by injecting 200 tractors of the Massey Ferguson model into the agro-system . Organized farmers societies, clubs, and associations are taking advantage of both dry and wet seasons for farming to increase agricultural production in maintaining the reproduction cycle of both food/cash crops and farming, where human, animal, and industrial consumption are in need of these products. Finally, if the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors matter is properly treated and explained to the people of Plateau, with my understanding of them with their large, kind hearts, they will forget about the disappearance of these 400 Deutz Fahr tractors and move ahead.

The sudden disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors at the close of Lalong’s tenure has qualified him as one of such animals, probably a tortoise who has used official executive powers in a questionable manner with some government officials in the vamoose of the aforementioned tractors cloaked and hooded in Ku Klux Klan (KKK) fashion of fraternity.

Balami , a publisher/columnist. 08036779290

Simon Bako Lalong: Where are the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors? (2)

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Africana First Publishers: Poor Reading Culture and the Challenges of Book Publishing in Nigeria

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Africana First Publishers: Poor Reading Culture and the Challenges of Book Publishing in Nigeria

By: Balami Lazarus

I was going through my bookshelf looking for a particular bestselling novel when I saw a file that has some records of my work with Africana First Publishers Limited, Onitsha. Going through them was a nostalgia and flashback of traversing around the north to the south of the Niger.

Interestingly, I recalled my colleagues when we used to converge collectively and corporately twice a year for the ‘Epiphany Sales Conference’ in Onitsha at the Book House, the company head office, to assess and evaluate each territory and strategize. It was a period and time for booing and jesting at those lacking behind in discharging their duties in sales and marketing as area managers and educational sales representatives, who are considered the minting arm of the company. I was indeed having fun.

With the resumption of yet another school year, the 2025/2026 academic sessions. And looking back at the book publishing companies in Nigeria, the likes of Africana First Publishers Limited Onitsha, one of the big names in the industry in Nigeria, before the economy started frowning and when the reading culture was above average, and a time when schools and parents were buying books for their libraries and for their children at all levels.

My years of teaching literature in English, where reading is paramount, have given me a continuous tense in the three literary genres: prose, drama, and poetry, and it is a must for students to have all the

texts. This experience has made me see practically that the reading culture is in its coffin, waiting to be nailed finally for burial. I now agreed with one of my friends who recently met me engrossed in a novel and said, ‘Do Nigerians still read books?’Well, for me, you cannot take away books from my life because I love reading, and it is one of my hobbies.

The book publishing business was not of interest to Nigerians until a few decades ago, when some businessmen began to get involved by taking over the control and management of some foreign book publishing companies. Far East Publishers is now Africana First Publishers. Longman is now Learn Africa Publishers. Oxford University Press is today University Press Ibadan. And Macmillan London is addressed as Macmillan (Nigeria) Publishers, among a few others. This tells you that nearly all books used before the emergence of indigenous participation are published by foreign firms and authors.

I came to understand that the book publishing business is capital intensive for what it takes to establish a book publishing company, and being a player in this industry with the current economic difficulties and the very poor reading culture is not encouraging.

Are you aware that there are great differences between publishers and printers? But most people wrongly put them in the same basket, while they are not. Publishers are more of an element in the nature of knowledge contributing to the economy. While printers do the finishing work by printing and binding them into books.

It is a pity today that most book publishing companies are winding up as a result of poor reading culture, economic challenges, and the internet that has sent some packing.

Balami, a publisher/columnist. 08036779290

Africana First Publishers: Poor Reading Culture and the Challenges of Book Publishing in Nigeria

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Deponents and the Consequences of Sworn Affidavits as Legal Documents

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Deponents and the Consequences of Sworn Affidavits as Legal Documents

By: Balami Lazarus

In the course of writing this article, three names came to my mind who are legal gentlemen. Though one of them is no more. These men have contributed to my knowledge and understanding of the law in conducting my real estate business as a registered broker and how it works in the courts of law. However, I am not a lawyer, and I have never wished or aspired to be one despite the opportunities and privilege of being alive and in good health.

The understanding of some basic aspects of the laws is far away from many Nigerians. Well, my knowledge and fair understanding of some laws is from personal self-development. While my late brother Barr. John Kamdadi Balami and my good friend Barr. (Dr.) Nankin Samuel Bagudu, one of the radical human rights lawyers on the Plateau, were instrumental to my understanding of some aspects of the law/court procedures. And what to do in running my business and living life as a law-abiding citizen who respects constituted authorities/orders.

Another personality who is a friend and a brother by extension, a fine legal gentleman whose name I will not mention, is today a respected Honourable member of the Bench and has also played a significant role in my understanding of the law and what to do when and if the need arises.

My dealings with the courts of law have taught me patience, because courts under judges are a calm body of the judiciary. It is a place where you are given a fair hearing and judgement.

Furthermore, courts are where you can obtain signed legal documents on oath to different kinds of affidavits on civil matters/issues that directly concern the deponents, knowing fully well the consequences of lying while under lawful oath. This is because affidavits are official prescribed declarations of what one writes and claims to be true under oath. And that when and if the court finds out one is lying, you are liable for perjury.

Moreover, my association and interactions with human and civil rights organizations/associations, including my activities and contributions in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) matters for peacefully amicable settlements and/orconflict resolutions, have further exposed me to understanding of what affidavits are.

The courtrooms under judges are interesting places to be in seeking legal redress. But I have observed that many are not comfortable with the courts of law, not knowing they are hallmarks of legal protection, justice, and punishments under the laws of the land. Judges are known to be kind individuals with large hearts. They are men of privilege under and outside the law. It is at their discretion to temper justice with mercy in either civil or criminal cases. And it has also exposed me to who legal practitioners are with their legal rhetoric in court before a judge.

Therefore, courts are not only meant for fair hearings and judgments but also for where you find justice and legal protections through legal redress and sworn affidavits.

Balami, a publisher/columnist. 08036779290

Deponents and the Consequences of Sworn Affidavits as Legal Documents

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Angry, Bitter, Frustrated Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe of Kanke and His Political Bandits

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Angry, Bitter, Frustrated Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe of Kanke and His Political Bandits

By: Balami Lazarus

I disliked joining or responding to partisan issues or arguments with individuals or groups of persons in any form or manner for or against, as the case may be. This is because most times many out there are not objective in such matters. Rather, they are damned and condemned in totality without consideration or a second thought. But here am I, doing what I don’t like. I will then be brief with this work, believing it to be my first short write-up.

My concern as an individual in a democracy has always been any individual who can bring changes and deliver the dividends of democracy through good governance to his people, not the political party as a platform. But this has been the norm for many citizens, likeNentawe Yiltwada Goshwe of Kanke and his political bandits.

The late Waziri Ibrahim of Borno, once a leader of the Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP), had the watchword

“Politics without bitterness” has been the guiding principle of his party and members. Meaning politics is not a do-or-die affair. Unlike Nentawe and his men on the Plateau, who have been blowing fouls against Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang’s administration since 2023, until when? Only God knows.

I will hereby narrow this piece of work and its context to angry, bitter, and frustrated Nentawe and others who are deliberately refusing to come to reality with the positive developments on the Plateau because of their disjointed, myopic, and comatose state of mind that has not allowed them to see anything good done and/oraccomplished by the Mutfwang government.

Their intent through Nentawe is venomous, demonstrated in his political attitudes towards the government and the people-oriented projects carried out by the state down to his village, Dungung Ampang East District in Kanke Local Government Area. The citizens are witnesses to these laudable infrastructural/social amenities projects.

I will also appreciate answers to these questions:Who is Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe in the last 20 years of Plateau State? What are his political pedigrees in the state?Can this Kanke man be trusted with the mantle of the state leadership?

Speaking recently on the radio, he descended heavily with a sledgehammer on the administration of Governor Caleb Mutfwang with frivolous unsubstantiated statements oiled with dead lubricants of lies of anger and bitterness with sword-edged extensions to the doorsteps of the Caleb Mutfwang family. “With the allocations coming to the state, there is nothing to show for it.” According to him, Mutfwang and his brothers are siphoning public funds meant for the state. Haba! Nentawe of Dungung.

For me, Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe and his political gangsters/mobsters are enemies of the state who are working with anger, bitterness, and frustrations in an attempt to politically discourage the good citizens of the state from supporting the able, progressive, and focused Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who has shown and displayed a high sense of political maturity and purpose in governance in piloting the affairs of the state against all prevailing odds, including that of Nentawe and his frustrated political bandits who were voted out of Little Rayfield, Jos, the seat of power.

Balami, a publisher/columnist. 08036779290

Angry, Bitter, Frustrated Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe of Kanke and His Political Bandits

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