Penultimate week, Prince Tony Momoh, one-time Minister of Information, was advocating for a different nomenclature for the criminal herdsmen who had turned the once peaceful grazing fields of Southern Kaduna, Plateau and other parts of the Middle Belt region of Nigeria to their killing fields.
I, alongside many other Nigerians understand what Prince Momoh meant by saying that associating the Fulani name with the rampaging killer herdsmen may not be very charitable even when the herdsmen creating havoc across most parts of that region have been identified to be of Fulani extraction. The situation is a tricky one because in our nation we profile people based on ethnicity, religion and state of origin.
However, I sincerely empathise with all peace-loving, law-abiding people of Fulani heritage whose noble name has literarily been dragged in the mud. It can be a misnomer of circumstance when someone is declared guilty by association. This has been the experience of many of us from the Southeast who were believed to be supporters of the Indigenous Peoples’ of Biafara (IPOB) just because we were Igbo, even when we were never members nor subscribed to the idea of creating a sovereign Biafran state for that matter.
While we know that most herdsmen are Fulani, but are all Fulani herdsmen? The answer is definitely in the negative. The respected former minister was not quite apt in using the analogy of Igbo armed robbers, Yoruba Yahoo scam artists, etc. We know that in Europe among Africans, Edo girls dominate the flesh trade, but we do not describe all ladies of easy virtue on the streets of Italy as Edo prostitutes since it is common knowledge that women of other ethnic nationalities are involved in the oldest profession. The same is true for armed robbery, advanced fee fraud, treasury looting, oil pipeline vandalism, human trafficking, kidnapping, drug trafficking and other vices.
Some commentators believe that the skewed nature of our security administration emboldens the Fulani marauders who carryout audacious attacks on communities with reckless abandon. More so, the assortment of weapons at the disposal of these “so-called” herdsmen beggars description as it is now believed that the AK-47 assault rifle is their new weapon of choice.
The Fulani community needs to do more to promote the tenets of good neighbourliness amongst their people. The peripatetic Fulani follows the green pastures and water for his cattle. As the season changes in the north, he migrates further south. He is averse to settling down permanently in any one place. He will not make hay for his cattle, drill water boreholes or dam any rivers to provide water. He would rather trek many kilometres with his animals in search of conducive pasture. Like most nomads, he is a man driven by primordial instincts rather than choice. Along his route, he trades in milk and butter in exchange for maize, millet and any other staple.
In his new environment, within a “host community” the cattle occasionally trample on the farms of individual community members or even graze off their crops. This creates tension in interpersonal relationship, because the farmer believes that the negligent herdsman is being malicious or wicked by allowing cattle stray uncontrollably into his farmland, pollute streams and other communal water source.
The proposal that cattle herders should approach their business differently in the 21st century is a welcome development. Many Nigerians are of the opinion that ranches will equally be viable in Nigeria like elsewhere around the globe. It will help the herdsman create a more stable lifestyle rather than the current model where he is at the mercy of the climate and elements.
- By Chukwuemeka Otuchikere
Calabar, Cross River State