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[OPINION] Machina Emirate: Where Snakes Pay Homage To King
Snakes are generally seen as dangerous reptiles, but in Machina Emirate, Yobe State, they are revered. Here, it is believed that royal blood runs in their veins. In fact, they consistently pay homage to the Mai Machinama palace, where their ancestor was born, together with one of their ancestral kings, as twins.
According to history, a queen gave birth to twins in the palace, a human being and a snake. Being a snake, it couldn’t stay long with its mother, thus, it found its way into the rocks behind the emir’s palace. It is said that its descendants still enjoy all the privileges that come with royalty.
It is also believed that, just like the Machina Emirate, the forebear of the snake procreated kings, queens and princesses that were of equal status with their relatives in the kingdom.
Corroborating the story, the Emir of Machina (Mai Machinama), His Royal Highness, Dr. Bashir Albishir Bukar (OON), said the snake started its generation like regular human family immediately after it went into the rocks.
“Since then, their lineage has continued, just like human beings. I am the 77th Mai Machinama, so there must be one snake that has attained the same position in their kingdom,’’ he said.
Bukar revealed that during his father’s installation as emir, many snakes came out and gathered at the palace entrance and socialised with people without causing any harm.
He recalled a mysterious encounter the snakes had with the media crew that came to cover the event. Out of curiosity, some of the journalists attempted to photograph the snakes, but the moment they fixed their cameras on them, they got out of sight.
“After the futile struggle, they all gave up and went back with miraculous stories to tell. It is only by our acceptance that one can get their pictures. Our children snapped pictures of the snakes within the palace because they consider them as their brothers,” he said.
Speaking on how they relate with the snakes, the emir said they occasionally come together as a family to share moments of happiness or sorrow.
“When I was turbaned, there were old snakes at the occasion, just like the young ones usually come to the palace whenever my wives are giving birth. So we are doing everything together with them in this palace.
“When I married my younger wife, a snake came to the house and spent more than a week. The guests were afraid, but I assured them that it would not harm anybody. In the morning, it would come out and spread itself on the wall, then varnish in the afternoon. It would do the same thing in the evening and varnish. Initially, my bride was afraid, but she later became used to it. So the snakes are our brothers; they don’t harm anybody in Machina.
“As I sit here, a snake could come and curl under my chair. I feel happy seeing them around. But each time I see them around, I will pray and hope it’s for good because something will definitely happen. Whenever my wives are about giving birth, you will see the young snakes coming out, a sign that something is going to happen,’’ he said.
One of the courtiers in the palace told our correspondent that one of the princes usually sleeps in the same bed with a snake. “Each time he goes to sleep and finds a snake in his bed, he will just push it aside and sleep alongside it,’’ he said.
Our correspondent also learnt that in Machina Emirate, killing of snake is forbidden because they are considered as having royal blood. The snakes don’t harm anybody; however, they retaliate when someone tries to harm them.
The Emir of Machina gave many instances when people disobeyed the protection law and persecuted the snakes and eventually paid dearly with their lives. It has become a norm in Machina that every visitor must be educated that snakes are not harmful and must not be harmed.
“I will give you three examples. There was a snake charmer who came to Machina. One night, a snake came out and his people started shouting. People said he should allow it because it would go its own way, but the snake charmer insisted that it was a dangerous creature, so he tried to kill it. He thought that as a snake charmer he had the medicine to do whatever he wanted, When he followed the snake, trying to step on it, it reacted and attacked him. He was rushed to his master’s house to get an anti-venom medicine, but he eventually died in the toilet while trying to bath with the concoction. Sadly, the snake also died.
“Also, there was a truck driver from another town who came to Machina to drive my father’s truck. He came with his first wife and married a second one in this place. One evening, a snake came into their house and the first wife, who is not from Machina, shouted. Her husband rushed in from outside, looking for the snake, but the woman from Machina told them not to bother, saying it would leave without harming anybody. But their husband said he would not stay with a dangerous creature in the house. The first wife pointed to a hole where the snake hid and the first wife boiled water and assisted the husband to pour it into the hole. Miraculously, the woman, who was pregnant, gave birth to a baby girl with features of a snake. She used to crawl like a snake. I knew the girl when I was young; if you heard her speak you would think she was a complete human being, but if you saw her, she was just terrible. She couldn’t walk, so her parents used to carry her in a basin until she grew up to the age of 18 when she died,’’ he narrated.
The emir further narrated that his father had a farm nearby, so servants and other people in the community went to assist him to clear it. A snake came out and people started shouting, As the snake crawled along the way, a stubborn youth killed and threw it on a termite hole.
“You know, during the onset of the rainy season, termites would come out en masse with grains. As the man threw the snake on the anthill, surprisingly, all the ants went back to their hole and none of them came out. In the evening, the young man’s house became filled with snakes. The man metamorphosed into a snake-like creature and started crawling, hissing and became terribly sick.
“Later, the young man was taken to the emir’s palace where clerics gathered. They prayed and he survived that day, but it became a seasonal sickness he suffered until his death.
These are just few examples I can give. That is why we don’t kill snakes here,’’ he added.
Asked if he had ever played or eaten with snakes, he said, “At times I personally rescue them, especially when they fall into a ditch. But my son was telling me that sometimes he would sleep with a snake in the same bed.
“In the olden days, there was a place we used to put milk for them.
If we made sacrifices we threw it around the area, believing that they would use it. But we don’t eat or play that much with them,’’ he explained.
When asked if there was any form of provocation between them and the snakes at any time, the emir said, “No. But there was a time when the perimeter fence of the palace collapsed, and in the course of rebuilding it, they forgot to leave a hole where the snakes used as passage to the palace. An hour later, the wall collapsed, they rebuilt it and the concrete collapsed again. Then one of the courtiers observed that a hole that the snakes were using to enter the palace was blocked. They turned the blocks and made some holes there before the wall stood.’’
Daily Trust.
Mal. Yusuf Ali
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‘If You Want It Dirty, You’ll Get It Dirty’, Benue Diaspora DG Escalates Threat Against National Record Reporter
By Our Reporter
The Editor-in-Chief of National Record, Iduh L. Onah, has raised alarm over what he described as ‘grave threats’ issued against one of the online newspaper’s reporters, Mr. Amos Aar, by the Director-General of the Benue State Directorate of Diaspora Linkages and Investments, Professor Abraham Tartenger Girgih.
In a letter dated June 25, 2025, addressed to Prof. Girgih and made available to the press, National Record condemned what it called “unwarranted threats” following the publication of a report on the funding challenges being faced by the Directorate under the DG’s leadership since its formation in 2024.
According to Onah, while the publication welcomes robust engagement in the form of rejoinders on stories perceived to contain among other things misinformation, misrepresentation or distortion, no one has the right to issue threats.
“While it is within your right to respond to perceived misinformation or misrepresentation and distortion or outright fabrication, in any publication, it is, however, beyond that right to issue a threat as grave as “dire consequences”, Onah stated.
The Editor-in-Chief further noted that the situation escalated after the publication of a follow-up report when Prof. Girgih called the correspondent and made what the paper considers to be a further threat.
“After the publication of the threat and other claims in your rejoinder, you again went ahead to issue what we deemed to be further grave threat when you stated: “…if you want it dirty, you will get it dirty”, among other words perceived as veiled threat, in a telephone conversation you had with our correspondent shortly after you may have read our follow-up report,” stated the Editor-in-Chief.
The management of National Record expressed deep concern for the safety of its correspondent and other staff, especially given the hostile tone of Prof. Girgih in his conversation with the reporter.
The media organization said it is taking steps to notify security agencies, the Benue State Government, and professional journalism bodies about the threats, while also demanding a written assurance from Prof. Girgih that no harm will befall Mr. Aar or any member of the newspaper’s staff.
“We demand from you a written assurance of Mr Aar’s safety from harm and that of our other staff, and a further commitment to desist from harassing, heckling, intimidating or bullying us in whatever manner,” Onah wrote.
While no official response had been received from Prof. Girgih as at press time, National Record expressed hope for civility going forward and reiterated its commitment to its constitutional mandate as a stakeholder in the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
The letter reads in full:
Professor Abaham Tartenger Girgih
The Director-General
Directorate of Diaspora Linkages and investments
Makurdi, Benue State.
Dear Prof. Girgih;
THREATS ON OUR PERSONNEL AND ORGANISATION
On behalf of the Management of Contest Communications Limited, publishers of National Record, I bring you warm fraternal greetings.
We wish to express our dismay and concern over your threat on our Benue State Correspondent, Mr Amos Aar, in particular, and generally, our entire organisation, as contained in your rejoinder to a report we had published on challenges being faced by the agency which you head.
While it is within your right to respond to perceived misinformation or misrepresentation and distortion or outright fabrication, in any publication, it is, however, beyond that right to issue a threat as grave as “dire consequences”.
After the publication of the threat and other claims in your rejoinder, you again went ahead to issue what we deemed to be further grave threat when you stated: “…if you want it dirty, you will get it dirty”, among other words perceived as veiled threat, in a telephone conversation you had with our correspondent shortly after you may have read our follow-up report.
While we intend to take steps to formally note these threats before the appropriate security agencies, the Benue State Government under which you are serving, as well as our professional organisations nationally; we wish to inform you that the life of our Benue State Correspondent, Amos Aar, and our entire personnel, remains insecure in the context of your threats.
In that regard, we demand from you a written assurance of Mr Aar’s safety from harm and that of our other staff, and a further commitment to desist from harassing, heckling, intimidating or bullying us in whatever manner from carrying out our constitutional mandate as key stakeholders in the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
As we look forward to relating with you in formal, civilised manner, and prompt action on our demands, please, accept the assurances of our esteemed regards.
Iduh L. Onah
Editor-in-Chief
National Record (https://nationalrecord.com.ng)
The Enugu State government has inaugurated a steering committee to eliminate Gender-Based Violence, GBV, in the state, declaring zero tolerance for the social malaise.
The inauguration took place at the Government House Enugu.
The panel, which is chaired by the Commissioner for Children, Gender Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ngozi Enih, draws its membership from the Nigeria Police Force, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ministry of Human Development and Poverty Reduction, Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education as well as the Civil Society.
Inaugurating the panel known as the Steering Committee for Strengthening Institutional and Community Responses to End Gender-Based Violence/Domestication of Enugu State Gender Policy using the Oputa Panel approach, Governor Peter Mbah restated his administration’s commitment to not bringing perpetrators of GBV to book, but also putting in place proactive measures – activities, infrastructure, and systems in place to prevent them.
Mbah, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said, “We take gender-based violence seriously. We have zero tolerance for it, and in Enugu State, we are ready to go the extra mile to deal with it.
“If you notice, the government has selected people that are very committed to this goal. This is not an activity where we just want to check-off the list. We will track this. We will monitor this, and we will have quarterly engagements on the successes that this particular committee has achieved in terms of reference that we are going to send.
“We will tighten those terms of reference indicators, so that we monitor what we are doing both in terms of cost input and the value added. It’s very important to us. Many people will be involved – civil society, the police and various ministries.”
He however, said that the effort was to protect everyone, men and women alike, as GBV was not restricted to any gender.
“The whole idea is to hold people responsible that are involved in matters relating to gender violence and deter people that by culture or by association get involved in that, protect women, protect our children, and in the case of violence against men, protect our men because most times we misconstrue gender violence to mean women, but it can also be men too.
“We encourage our men to speak out and to make sure they understand that the policy that Enugu State is soon going to domesticate is for everyone, and not only for the female gender,” he stated.
In her remark, Mrs. Enih, explained that the Oputa Panel approach was inspired by the need to cover all local peculiarities in domesticating the policy on GBV, restarting government’s confidence in the members of the panel.
“The approach we are going to use is the Oputa Panel approach, and in the Oputa Panel approach, we are going to tour the 17 Local Government Areas to get firsthand information about what our people are going through because policy is meant for the people, and a policy should suit the people.
“Again, every community has its peculiar problems, so that’s why the government decided that if we have to domesticate the gender policy, we have to hear from the people who own the policy and know the changes that they desire to see. That is the reason we are using this approach.
“The committee members are to also serve as judges. As we gather this information from our people, we will come back to tailor it in a way to suit the people of Enugu State, and then our policy is ready.
“We want the people to know that there is a gender policy for them. I can assure you that when the people are aware that there is such a policy, they will seek for the enforcement of that policy. So, this is not going to be one of those policies that will just lie on the shelf,” she said.
Digital solutions provider, Globacom, has congratulated Christians in Nigeria on this year’s Easter celebration, and urged them to emulate the noble qualities of Jesus Christ.
The company, in a goodwill message to the Christian faithful in the country, lauded their perseverance through the Lenten period which preceded Easter. It enjoined them to always promote the ideals of selflessness, love and peace among all as a way of demonstrating the virtues of the exemplary life of Jesus Christ.
“Peace, love and sacrifice are the central message of Easter. Christ offered himself in atonement for the sins of the world and he lived a life which made Him an eternal symbol of peace and goodwill for mankind”, Globacom added.
The company enjoined all Nigerians to share in the lessons of promoting selflessness, a necessary ingredient in the growth and development of every society. It also enjoined all Nigerians to join hands to make Nigeria a better place for all.
Easter is celebrated yearly at the end of the Lenten season of fasting and prayer considered as a ritual of purification for the Christian faithful. It also precedes the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday and His eventual resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The company assured its customers of seamless voice, data and Short Messaging Service (SMS) during and after the Easter celebrations, while urging them to avail themselves of the various data and voice offerings on the network.
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