UYO —
BIRD scientists have sounded the alarm
that the vulture, a scavenging bird of prey, is going out of extinction in
Nigeria because of the epic hunt for its eggs by fetish
politicians, who
allegedly use them to acquire mystical power making charms to win elections.
Those who
spoke to NDV, disclosed that the search by desperate politicians for the eggs
has intensified as 2019 approaches, cautioning that appropriate measures be
taken to safeguard one of nature’s chief vacuum cleaners from extinction. One
of them, an Associate Professor, Department of Forestry and Natural
Environmental Management, University of Uyo, UNIUYO, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, Dr.
Edem Eniang, told NDV that vultures
were now endangered because some Nigerian politicians use the eggs highly
demanded by native doctors for
supernatural power and preparation of
voodoo to win elections. A trader at
Akparandem Market, Uyo, who trades in birds, Madam, Etiowuwan Imoh, confirmed
that an egg of a vulture costs over N1million because of soaring demand.
Politicians, who prefer anonymity, acknowledged in separate chats with NDV that
some desperate power seekers could go to any length to win elections, but
others feigned knowledge of the bizarre practice.
Eniang lambasts fetish
politicians
Dr. Eniang, who confirmed that vultures were disappearing in the
country, maintained that unscrupulous politicians were capitalizing on its
spiritual potency to hunt the eggs for spiritual fortification. “The vulture is
a very special bird created by God to serve as a natural vacuum cleaner, they
clean-up all available rubbish, but the politicians and favour seekers hunt and
pick the eggs of these special creatures for their fetish needs, diminishing their population and not
allowing the eggs to be incubated and hatched,” he lamented. Eniang asserted:
“As it is, the existence of the vulture is greatly threatened, as Nigerian
politicians hunt desperately for its eggs. The bird is so important that the
United Nations set aside the first Saturday of September, every year, as World
Vulture Day.”
Vultures vanishing
The environmentalist bewailed, “Today,
vultures are disappearing; most people do not even realize the importance of
the existence of the vultures. They help us to clean our environment by feeding
on death decaying materials and save us from diseases that would have spread
around from the decaying materials.” Explaining the vultures role in the
natural cycle, he said:, “Mad persons, who die in our cities or along the
highways are allowed to rot away on the surface of the earth, spreading
diseases, but God created vultures to protect the environment. God in his wisdom created all things for the
purpose of partaking in the ecosystem so that the balance of life will
continue.”
Politicians engage youths to climb trees
According to Eniang: “They
sometimes engage community youth to climb very high trees to get the eggs for
them. These youth climb Iroko trees in the midnight to pick vulture eggs. They
climb at darkest night knowing that the vulture does not see in the night to
steal their eggs. “Unfortunately, the vultures do not lay many eggs and they
lay once in a year and the eggs are most hunted. He further said, “Nigerian
politicians are too desperate to get power. You do not need juju animism to win
an election.
Your antecedent and pedigree should pave the way for you, not the
eggs of the vulture. Do not depend on the mystical potency of the vulture’s
egg”. N1m to N2m per egg Inquiries by NDV showed politicians spend as much as
N1.2 million to buy a vulture egg untouched by human hands for spiritual power
allegedly embedded in the egg, while the one touched by the human hand costs
only N20, 000 in the local market. Besides politicians, businesspersons also
seek the eggs for vulture for its alleged supernatural power.
Stalking vulture
eggs
Vultures lay their eggs on treetops usually above 40 meters high in
the forest. The common standard
practice is contact hunters through go-betweens and they pay them lavishly to
supply just one egg. It could take a month and more for a hunter to locate the
nest of a vulture in the forest and make sure that the vulture had laid eggs
before engaging people to climb the tree at night, knowing that vulture does
not see in the night to harvest the eggs. Those, who climb, arm themselves with
dane guns, cutlass and bush lamps to search tree tops for vulture nests,
especially the ones with eggs. The providential hunters it was gathered removed
the entire nest with the eggs so carefully that they do not touch the eggs with
their bare hands. They drop their hunt into a sack bags and lowering it to the
ground with the help of a long rope before climbing down the tree to take them
home depending on how many eggs are in the nest. A chieftain of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, Elder Enefiok Ekefre, however, said it was
speculative as nobody can boldly come out to admit knowledge of the use of
vulture egg for spiritual purpose.
Politicians practice voodoo, hypnotism- APC
chieftain
He said the constitution of Nigeria does not restrict any citizen
from practicing any specific religion, saying, “We have Christianity, Islam and
African Traditional Religion. You can belong to any of the group, you will not
have a problem with the constitution. “Those politicians who go to shrines have
their rights. Even in Latin America, they practice Voodooism. Some Nigerian
politicians are in Ogboni and other fraternities. Some go as far as to India to
import Hinduism. I know they do some funny things like hypnotism to influence
any person or group of persons they want to influence,” he said.
Difficult to
trade in vulture – Trader
Madam, Etiowuwan Imoh, who spoke to NDV, at
Akparandem Market, said it was very difficult to trade in vultures because
everything about it was very expensive. “You must be a very rich business woman
to trade in vulture eggs. The whole of my life savings from this petty trade
cannot buy one vulture egg. Even if you buy the egg, who will buy from you?
“You have to wait for months before you can find one witch doctor who will ask
for the egg. Here, the fresh egg goes for nothing less than N1.2 million, while
the one that human hands have mistakenly touched costs over N20,000,” she said.
0 Comments