A friend once asked me what I would tell God, if He gave me the chance to suggest what He should do to make the world a better place. My response was that God should make it impossible for anyone to harbour a thought without the people around him knowing what he or she is thinking about. Every evil deed is preceded by a thought, and its execution would most probably be aborted by others, if they have a foreknowledge of it. Didn’t the good book say that the mind of man is desperately wicked and no one can know it? It follows then that the key to checkmating the manifestation of the mind’s wickedness is to prevent a deed before it is done.
With the scary incident in which 36 cows were struck dead by lightning in Ijare, a community in Ifedore Local Government Area, Ondo State last Saturday, there is another wish I would table before God, if He gave the chance to do so: turn all the forests that harbour killer herdsmen in the South West, the South East, the North Central and other parts of the country into sacred lands in the same manner as Oke-Owa Hill where the cows in question met their waterloo.
As the story goes, the unfortunate cows were led by some Fulani men to the top of the hill for grazing in spite of repeated warnings by some leaders of the community that the hill was a sacred ground that could only be visited by the traditional ruler of Ijare who has the grace to ascend it to perform some rituals once in a year. But like a hunting dog destined to get lost would ignore the hunter’s whistle, the herdsmen called the bluff of the residents and guided their cows to the hilltop. As the cows were busy devouring the lush grass on the hill, the sky roared in anger and instantly terminated their lives.
Reports say the owners of the cows described the incident as an act of God, while some people tend to see it as a mere coincidence. For the Olujare, the traditional ruler of the community, however, it was a manifestation of the wrath of the gods against the herdsmen and their cows for destroying many farmlands in the area. The Olujare said the community had repeatedly warned the errant herdsmen against their destructive acts in the area, but they would not heed the warnings, adding that the issue had led to open confrontation between the herders and the farmers in the community on many occasions.
“It has happened and there is nothing we can do,” said Olujare’s second in command, Chief Wemimo Olaniran.” We regard it as the act of God which nobody can query. There had been occasions like that with some individuals who desecrated the land. In the past, we did witness thunderbolt attacks when any part of Ijare, particularly the sacrifice places, was desecrated.”
The Ijare incident will certainly be bad music in the ears of blood-thirsty herdsmen who in recent times have constituted themselves into terrors in different parts of the country. Until now, they have enjoyed a free reign destroying the farmlands for which poor farmers have toiled for years, killing, maiming and kidnapping innocent people for ransom. But it would seem that a solution is about to be found to their reign of terror, and it cannot be a mere coincidence that the solution is coming from Ondo State where deadly herdsmen have repeatedly assaulted elder statesman Chief Olu Falae and abbreviated the life of Funke Olakunrin, the beloved daughter of another Ondo-born elder statesman, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
Since the Ijare incident was reported early in the week, the once obscure community is said to have become a tourist attraction not just for ordinary Nigerians and even foreigners, but for monarchs from different parts of the country who are desperate for a solution to the menace of killer herdsmen in their domains. They are said to be trooping to Ijare for clues on how their communities can be transformed into sacred lands in the same manner as Ijare such that they can scare away the herders who are bent on overrunning their domains and turning them into grazing fields for their cattle. It is the amazing extent to which a gratuitous incident can transform the fortune of an obscure community in the blink of an eye.
Even Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who only a few months ago was recommending massive production of Indian hemp as a solution to the economic problems of Ondo State, can finally heave a sigh of relief from the vitriolic jibes that have been hauled at him by his horde of traducers since he mooted the idea as a long-term solution to the state’s social and economic problems.
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