The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fulani

  • Is presidential kinship the Fulani herdsman’s new intoxicant?

    Yes, Buhari is not Obasanjo but must he always turn the other cheek or has presidential powers been diluted since he took over on May 29, 2015? 

    My dear aburo, the engaging essayist, Louis Odion, it was who first adverted his mind to this question when he wrote: “Now is the time for President Buhari, himself a cattle farmer, to go beyond the normal call of duty to stave the dangerously growing perception that seeming official lethargy – if not indifference – to the continued killings is dictated by the spirit of kinship he shares with the rampaging herdsman or that the normad’s renewed audacity, this genocidal reflex, feeds on the opium of expected solidarity from the top”.  For confirmation of the above as the reason for this resurgent ‘post-Boko Haram pestilence’, as Professor Wole Soyinka described it, seek no further than the totally arrogant article: “Ranches Or Prisons For Herdsmen”, written by one Sale Bayari, the self-described Secretary-General of  Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN) and  published in The Nation of 27, April 2016. Increasingly, these fellows make one sound like a bigoted ethnicist.

    But no matter the risk of being so accused, it is important to let them know that Nigerians are no fools. In the impish, thoroughly insulting and arrogant article, just a day after more than 40 indigenes of Enugu State were mercilessly mowed down by the murderous horde of Fulani herdsmen, with the day’s newspapers awash with pictures of a weeping governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, this guy comes out taunting, blaming the victims, lambasting everybody from the farmers to journalists and quoting profusely from the Nigerian constitution on freedom of movement and allied matters. Not once in his silly defence of the herdsmen’s  right to murder and mayhem, did he quote that portion of the constitution which permits these men with scanty cloths on their backs, to slaughter Nigerians like rams because of some cultural inanities. In vain did I search his thoroughly insensitive article hoping to see him empathise with the bereaved families. No, not Bayari, just as we have never seen the big men who arm these poor souls, who they hardly look after, apologise for the murders; responsibility for which Allah will hang vicariously on them, no matter how important they think they are. Nor did Bayari thought it fit to suggest a reasonable way out of this new ‘Boko Haramites’.

    All that concerns him is the rights only of the Born To Rule.  For ease of reference, let us quote from Bayari’s absurdity: “It appears the Nigerian Constitution is under an unprecedented attack and assault by farmers, their academic and media sons and daughters. Not only is the Nigerian Constitution under an aggressive, brutal and savage affront but also the government and all those law abiding citizens that seek to protect the country and its constitution. These fiendish and scurrilous attacks are all geared towards the herdsmen’s freedom or its curtailment in an effort to make their lives worthless. As much as Nigerians love freedom, both local, national and international, when it comes to the rights and privileges of the Nigerian herdsmen, constitutional freedoms and rights can go to hell.” See the illogicality:  just because non-Fulani Nigerians cry out against Fulani herdsmen’s totally unprovoked murders, the Nigerian constitution is now under unprecedented assault?  How illogical, but that exactly is how arrogant some people can be. I am aware that for a very long time Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Niger had been their killing fields but for their misadventure in Ondo State where they laid their filthy hands on a traditional chief, the highly regarded Chief Olu Falae, they have never been this aggressive, as we just saw in Enugu, in the South which naturally leads one to believe that their employers must have told them they can now get away with murders, however gruesome.But concerning this government, is President Buhari overwhelmed? As Professor Soyinka wrote: “It is not merely arbitrary violence that reigns across the nation but total, undis-puted impunity. Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no legal, logical and moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres which have become the nation’s identification stamp.  I have not heard an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated.

    The nation is treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents. … I have yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership, one that threatens a response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would make even Boko Haram repudiate its founding cleric.”

    And one needs say with all the emphasis at one’s  disposal, that this is sorely needed, not only in the herdsmen’s case but in all the theatres of the absurd we see all over the country like we do not have a superintending authority: when APC members are not being slaughtered in Wike’s Rivers State, they are being expelled from Ogoni land, being asked to self-deport from their villages as if this is not an APC government; the shenanigans in the judiciary are legion, like we did not see President Jonathan deal with even upright jurists, suspending them at will. Today, judges who received bribes for judgment, from lawyers, are still there giving their tainted decisions.  No, it is not like I don’t understand that President Buhari is operating on a Change mantra, but for God’s sake must people who saw him to victory be at the receiving end of these illegalities, even in his administration? Must APC members feel like orphans in many parts of the country, even when they can claim they are in government? No, I perfectly understand what a pain in the neck Saraki and his G.77, who are most probably sworn on oath are to Buhari, and I am not blind to what a mess a man being tried for corruption is making of both the budget and the judiciary with lawyers as  his pawns? But for Christ’s sake, is President Buhari obliged to tolerate these inanities?  Yes, Buhari is not Obasanjo but must he always turn the other cheek or has presidential powers been diluted since he took over on May 29, 2015? Nigerians, especially his party members, are waiting and watching as he works towards seeing the APC snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, come 2019. I am not asking him to be a dictator in a democracy but why, for instance, are fraudsters who illegally tampered with the senate standing orders not already on trial? Why is the Attorney-General shielding them or can President Buhari claim ignorance of this brazen illegality of protecting felons after Police investigation has confirmed same? What is happening for Christ’s sake? What exactly is this government seemingly afraid of? If it is the threat of impeachment, then this selfish senate must be ready for the mother of all battles with Nigerians.

     

    RE: THE 8TH SENATE

    “Although Dokun Adedeji text did not say so, perhaps his vilification is not directed at me personally as Orebe alluded. Perhaps!

    Hence, I apologise to Dokun, Femi Orebe and others whom I have disappointed for taking the issues so personal. We live and learn”.                       That is the concluding part of Senator Sola Adeyeye’s very mature reaction, published first on Sahara Reporters and later in The Nation of Thursday, 28, April 2016 to my article of Sunday, 24 April in which I literally made him carry the can for a very unfeeling senate. There, I think the matter should end except to add that a subsequent, very long telephone discussion with the senator conclusively proved that I could never have imagined half the pain he endures being a member of the 8th Senate. Having thus been convinced he spoke to Dr Adedeji out of frustration, not indignation, I can say without mincing words, that Professor Adeyeye is certainly an exemplar in that senate, always permanently counting with the few voices of reason, on the side of moderation and responsible behaviour. For the sake of all Nigerians, I pray that his tribe may increase in our overall national politics, not just at the senate.

  • Buhari’s prolonged silence on rampaging Fulani herdsmen

    I grew up in my native Ayetoro-Gbede community in Kogi State with a Fulani boy as one of my best friends. My friendship with Sule had evolved in natural circumstances as both of us were born the same day in the community’s only maternity home. Our mothers became friends from the maternity and later began to exchange visits. Sule’s mother would come with him to our house and my mother would go with me to theirs. Sule and I thus became friends, running around their bush-surrounded camp in fruitless efforts to catch grasshoppers.

    It later turned out that the primary school I attended was located very close to the camp. I benefited hugely from this because at break time, I would stroll to the camp to meet Sule who was not going to school. His mother would welcome me with open arms and give me free of charge a huge portion of cheese which my mates had to buy with their lunch money. I got the shock of my life the day I went to the camp and it was desolate. The entire Fulani family had left with their cattle and that was the last I saw of Sule and his loving mother.

    Other Fulani camps sprang up around the community thereafter. Although I was never close to anyone of them like I was to Sule’s family, their inhabitants were generally friendly. I recall a day in Class 3 when we had a lesson on the Uthman Dan Fodio-led jihad of 1804. As our teacher told the story, she looked out the window and saw a Fulani man grazing his cows. She beckoned to him and he gladly entered the class to shed more light on the subject. It was a session we thoroughly enjoyed as the Fulani man spiced the story with songs, leading us to clap and dance merrily.

    Of course, there were a few instances where some farmers came to my father’s palace to complain that some herdsmen had led their cattle to destroy their farms, such cases were amicably settled. The errant Fulani man would apologise profusely and even pay compensation in some cases. Many members of the community depended on the Fulani herdsmen for their supply of bush meat because in the course of grazing their cattle, they came across animals like rabbit and squirrel.

    The biggest weapon we found on them was the locally made rifle, which was barely able to kill an antelope. But the times have changed. Fulani herdsmen are now a species to be dreaded and avoided like a leper. They go about with machine guns, killing and maiming hapless farmers and other innocent people, so much so that they are now rated as one of the deadliest terror groups in the world.

    The rampaging cattle grazers are reckoned to have killed no fewer than 3,000 people since 2010 with states like Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau and Nasarawa the worst hit. They are also believed to be involved in criminal activities like kidnapping and cattle rustling. A report published by SMB Intelligence claimed that in 2015 alone, more than 2,000 people were killed in conflicts between the herdsmen and different host communities.

    The nation is now in clear and present danger in the sense that some ethnic nationalities are already threatening to resort to self-defence, if the federal government hesitates further to do something about the negative trend. This, to me, is a subtle threat of warfare for which you can hardly blame the groups at the receiving end. The right of an ethnic group to swing its arm must necessarily end where the right of another ethnic group to defend its nose begins. The big question would be whether the Fulani have got the capacity to cope with all the ethnic groups they have wronged in the event of simultaneous reprisals.

    Only recently, there were reports of a mass grave of murdered Fulani people discovered in a community in Abia State. Whether we know it or not, a tribal war is imminent except urgent steps are taken to arrest the trend. Unfortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari has not done as much as condemn the activities of the herdsmen in unequivocal terms; a situation that has led many to conclude that he is acquiescing the actions of the cattle grazers either because he is a Fulani or because he is a strong member of the umbrella association of Nigerian herdsmen. His recent call on the military and the IG to rein in the culprits is considered too tepid as to be an afterthought. It is not too much if he summons their leaders to the Presidential Villa and warns them in front of the cameras.

    On assuming office, President Buhari declared that he belonged to nobody and to everybody. That assertion is now under serious test. He must soar above it to sustain his reputation as an unbiased leader.

  • ‘Fulani herdsmen’s menace a time bomb’

    The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Calabar, Cross River State, Rev Tunde Adeleye, has said Fulani herdsmen are a potential danger to the nation.

    Addressing reporters in Calabar, Adelelye said: “It is a time bomb for Nigerians. Boko Haram is going to be a child’s play compared to what will happen if these people are not checked. They have penetrated every part of this country, where Boko Haram has not. They are moving unhindered. I don’t think it is normal for someone to follow cows from Kano on foot to Warri. I think it is more than just cows. With the types of weapons they carry, is it lions they want to kill with them? The cows are everywhere, even where there is no grass to eat.

    “Can’t these people be stopped? Is there no regulation on how they can move? We find the situation helpless. It is disheartening that this kind of situation can be happening and there is no one to help. Non-herdsmen are helpless and vulnerable to these people. It is unfair.”

  • Yoruba governors and Fulani herdsmen

    There are some discernible parallels in the response of Nigerian Police and the Yoruba governors to the menace of Fulani herdsmen. The only difference is that while the former has been hypocritical, the later has been comical. For instance the Inspector General of Police, after almost seven years of mindless killing of armless men, women and children without anyone being brought to book, now says the police will “continue to monitor them, degrade them and continue to amputate them whenever they come up”. Perhaps now that the police have pledged to do the job for which they are paid, it will not be out of place to remind IG Arase that if the report of the judicial inquiry instituted under Jonah Jang of Plateau in which a former IG was indicted cannot be revisited by the police, he has the latest Agatu massacre as a lead. At least the Gan Allah Fulani, which is the umbrella body, for Fulani herdsmen, has taken responsibility for the Agatu killings.

    For the South-west governors, their response has been as absurd as it has been comical.  While the battle rages, Fayose who seems incapable of appreciating the challenge facing the Yoruba people is amusing himself sharing “ponmo” (cow skin) with his grassroot supporters in local markets. Mimiko has been holding clandestine meeting with aggrieved farmers and elders who are preaching secession.  Aregbesola is said to be targeting production of 10,000 cows per annum while his counterpart in Ibadan has been dissipating energy on the biggest abattoir built in Ibadan by his political rival. The feelings one gets from the discordant notes is an absence of a coordinated effort at responding to the challenges of meeting the demand of those, who like the Epicureans, consume 10,000 heads of cows daily in case forces of demand and supply force the principals of the embattled Fulani herdsmen, driven only by profit motive, to seek a more profitable market.

    But first an ode to our South-west politicians. Being a politician itself is a major nightmare. It is often a call for rejection of candour, honesty and acquisition of special skill for the exploitation of our common infirmities. It also calls for brinkmanship to balance the interest of those impoverished by their class members without endangering the health of group members or posing a threat to their ill-acquired fortunes if they are to avoid  ‘the Saraki treatment’ after becoming the whistle-blower in the N1.6trillion fuel subsidy scam. To be a successful politician is to be faithful to Adedibu’s precepts which include engaging in public brawl or swearing falsely by the Holy Koran.

    How many of us who pontificate on the pages of newspaper are like Bode George, prepared to go to jail for helping party members? How many can, with the help of thugs attack a judge in his court premises, chase out elected law makers of town, take over the House of Assembly to pass an unread budget ? How many critics have the guts to collect $34m of taxpayer’s money from a president who says ‘stealing is not corruption,’ for the purpose of rigging an election? How many of us can, with Awo cap delicately balanced on our heads, join ‘PDP governors without character’ to publicly declare 16 greater than 19?  How many of us can, like Fayemi, Opeyemi and Oni, men whose dressing is incomplete without Awo’s cap delicately balanced on their heads, engage in a brutal war of attrition over the governorship seat  and after losing it by default  move to Abuja, seat of power as champions of Ekiti cause? How many can like ex-Governor Daniel of Ogun lock up the state House of Assembly and rule like a sole administrator?

    Our new political leaders are no doubt versatile, daring, courageous, adventurous and very ambitious.  It is just that their best is not good enough for the Yoruba. In this regard, they have the records of their predecessors who regarded public service as sacrifice to contend with. They are being challenged by the standards set by Awo, Bode Thomas, Rotimi Wlliams, Adekunle Ajasin, Osuntokun, Adesanya, Enahoro etc, all honourable men who cooperated to form a formidable class with faith in a common destiny and a single purpose of creating a more egalitarian society in the Yoruba country. They served selflessly. When Oba Adesoji, the then Ooni of Ife was rejected by the colonial masters as representative of Yoruba, no other Yoruba was ready to step into his shoes until the colonial government was forced to swallow its pride. When Akintola, who Awo said could debate the same topic from both sides and win, became a thorn in the flesh of the colonial masters and those he then regarded as northern feudal lords, was asked to be replaced, Awo said he had searched without finding any more competent man to represent the Yoruba. Akintola retained his seat. This is precisely why many believe the struggle for power and influence by many of our today Yoruba politicians are not motivated by service and altruism.

    And one way of validating this thesis is the ongoing menace of Fulani herdsmen and the challenge of 10,000 cows a day. Rewind back to 60 years ago. Awo and his group encouraged their compatriots who wanted to eat cow to domesticate one. They imported cow adaptable to the Yoruba environment from Argentina. In the Second Republic, Ajasin a leading member of that set of visionary Yoruba leaders established the Otun Cattle ranch. Ex-Governor Segun Oni was the only person who had the presence of mind to have revisited the project. But half of the cows he imported from South Africa died while the project collapsed under Fayemi.   Our new leaders seem to prefer the philosopher’s cap to his philosophy.

    The current Fulani herdsmen incursion to the South-west is an economic war by the elite and the response can only be economics. We run a capitalist system which is about the survival of the fittest. A group of privileged northern elites and others from the rest of the country invested heavily on cattle farming with the aim of harvesting huge dividends. Instead of establishing ranches, they opted to maximize profit by hiring and arming underprivileged children who must graze the cattle until they get to their designated market in the South-west. Within the capitalist system we operate, the Fulani’s herdsmen share a common fate with underpaid factory workers or underpaid journalist.

    When there is a demand that cannot be met locally, there must be supply usually in the form of imported labour of other people. The answer to the menace of Fulani herdsmen is therefore local production to meet demand and not secession. What the Yoruba want is a more organized federation without the tyranny of a centre trying to decree the education of our children, the water they drink and the air they breathe. Yoruba is receptive to other Nigerians who live by the rules and equally thrive among strangers in far away Sokoto, Kano, Jos and Minna.

    Our governors are not doing enough. We must be able to feed ourselves. As suggested on these pages not too long ago, Tinubu must return to Lagos to coordinate the activities of governors who unfortunately have been made Leviathans by the Nigerian constitution. His first responsibility is to the Yoruba. Awo who was a mere regional premier and Ahmadu Bello who rejected the option of becoming the Prime Minister in order to serve his people today live in the hearts of their people.

  • Three suspected Fulani kidnappers killed in Niger

    Three suspected Fulani kidnappers killed in Niger

    The police in Niger State have killed three suspected Fulani kidnappers. They rescued five victims.

    The incidents occurred during two operations.

    It was learnt that two suspected Fulani men kidnapped three people in Abuja. Police detectives traced the suspects to Agaie in Niger State.

    Our source said during the rescue, the suspected kidnappers engaged the police in a gun battle, which led to their death.

    He said a few days later, three Fulani men reportedly attacked two houses in Lambata, Gawu Babangida, in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State and abducted two girls.

    The source said the suspected kidnappers, who kept the girls, aged 13 and 20, in a forest for four days, demanded N10 million ransom from their parents.

    He said the kidnappers had a brush with the police at the collection point of the ransom, resulting in a shootout, during which one of the abductors was killed. He added that another was shot in the leg and was arrested, while one escaped.

    The Nation gathered that the arrested kidnapper took the police to the forest where the girls were rescued.

    Confirming the incidents, police spokesman Bala Elkana said: “We are determined to rid the state of kidnappers.”

    He warned abductors to relocate “because the police will not give them any room to operate”, and advised residents to be security conscious.

     

  • Suspected Fulani herdsmen kill two in Delta

    Suspected Fulani herdsmen kill two in Delta

    Suspected Fulani herdsmen have killed two persons in  Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.

    A member of the House of Assembly, representing Ethiope East, Evans Iwhurie, said the traces of the killers were unmistakable.

    The lawmaker said an employee of the Delta State University (DELSU) at Abraka, Francis Okotie, as well as an indigene of Oria-Abraka, Philip Obayendo, were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in separate attacks on their farms.

    Okotie (52) and father of eight, including a DELSU worker in the Library Department, was allegedly shot twice on the arm and on the back of his head on his plantain and palm oil plantation farm,.

    Iwhurie said: “It is easy to identify the culprits because they always leave behind trails of cattle excrement and damaged crops by their herds.”

    The lawmaker noted that Okotie’s death happened on the heels of a similar killing of Obayendo, who was reportedly shot and cut to pieces by his assailants on his farm at Oria-Abraka.

    He said: “The decomposed body of Obayendo was discovered five days after he was last seen going to his farm.

    “Though this is a menace that has been occurring across the country, these two cases are among the many that have befallen the people of my constituency, especially in Abraka area.”

  • Three Fulani Kidnappers killed in Niger

    Three Fulani kidnappers have been killed by Police in Niger state while five kidnapped victims have been rescued.

    The incidents took place in two separate operations within the state.

    It was learnt that two suspected Fulani men who had kidnapped three people from Abuja were traced to Agaie area of Niger state by police detectives.

    During the rescue mission, the kidnappers engaged the police in a gun battle which led to their death.

    Some days later, three Fulani men were said to have stormed two houses in Lambata, Gawu Babangida area of Gurara local government area of Niger state and whisked away two girls.

    The kidnappers who kept the girls in a forest for four days were said to have demanded for N10 million ransom from the parents of the two girls aged 13 years and 20 years.

    The kidnappers had a brush up with the police at the collection point of the ransom which led to a shoot out where one of the kidnappers was killed, another was shot in the leg was arrested while one escaped.

    The arrested kidnapper took the police to the forest where the girls were rescued.

    Confirming the incident, the Niger State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Bala Elkana stated that the police in the state was determined to rid the state of kidnappers.

    He warned kidnappers in the state to relocate because the Police will not give them any room to operate while advising residents to be more security conscious.

  • Fulani cattle breeders protest killing of members

    Fulani cattle breeders protest killing of members

    Fulani cattle breeders in Oyo State under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria have dissociated themselves from the destruction of farm lands in Ogbomoso and some areas in Oke Ogun allegedly by cattle rearers.

    Insisting that members of their association are law abiding residents of the state, they also frowned at the killing of two of their members, Abdu Chika and Buba Kajere, purportedly by some farmers.

    While disclosing that four suspects have been apprehended by security agents over the incident, the association in his reaction to the recent protest to the state House of Assembly by the Federation of Ogbomoso Students Union and some farmers, who alleged that the grazing activities of Fulani herdsmen have been causing damages to their farmlands, Chairman of the association, Alhaji Yakubu Bello, described the allegation against his members as false.

    The students led by Comrade Alagbe Lukman, had stormed the State House of Assembly last week with placards that read: ‘Cows must leave our lands; Fulani cannot stay; Cows are causing damages to our farms’, to mention but a few.

    Speaking with journalists in Iseyin yesterday after a meeting, Bello accompanied by his Assistant Secretary, Umar Garuba and youth leader, Alhaji Yusuff Haruna, dissociated members of his association from the destructive activities on farmlands in the affected areas, stressing that his group was ready to cooperate with their host communities and security agencies to ensuring a peaceful co-existence.

  • Fulani camp razed over murder of farmer in Edo

    Fulani camp razed over murder of farmer in Edo

    The camp housing some Fulani herdsmen in Okada community in Ovia North East local government area of Edo State has been razed following the killing of a 64-year farmer, identified as Alex.

    However, all the inhabitants of the camp have fled to an unknown destination with their cattle before the unidentified persons razed the camp.

    Alex was found brutally murdered in a bush near his farm.

    A search party, led by his younger brother, discovered the body after he failed to return home.

    His neck was sliced, stabbed in the stomach and had several machete cuts all over his body.

    The wife of late Alex, Margaret,  accused the Fulani herdsmen, saying her husband has been complaining about their activities on his farm.

    According to her, “They have killed my husband and left me to care for the children. The people that went there said they saw the Fulani people sandals in the place.”

    A youth in the community, who said that he followed policemen to the scene, said, “I followed the policemen and the family to the scene. There were cuts all over his body. They cut his neck and stabbed him in the stomach. What I saw made me sick.”

    The youth said they went to the Fulani camp and discovered that all the inhabitants have disappeared.

    Confirming the killing, Hon Omosede Igbinedion, the member representing Ovia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, described the killing as “another tragedy that has become a common occurrence in today’s Nigeria.”

    Omosede, who hails from Okada community, urged the state Commissioner of Police to carry out an immediate full scale investigation, with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book and make them face the wrath of the law.

    According to her, “I received with both shock and horror, the dastardly act perpetrated by someone who can only be described as “barbaric, inhumane and animalistic”.

    “We will not sit back and allow this to continue. I will bring the attention of the Federal Government to this gruesome murder which was allegedly carried out by ‘Fulani Herdsmen’.”

    “It is expected that these herdsmen co-exist with the indigenous people of Okada and Ovia in a dignified manner. They have no right over another man’s farmland, furthermore killing a man in cold blood.”

    “Every citizen of Nigeria should feel protected under the law. My heart goes out to the family of the deceased. I can only imagine what they must be going through at this moment in time.”

    Edo police spokesman, DSP Abiodun Osifo, said he was yet to be fully briefed on the matter.

  • Fulani herdsmen bogey

    SIR: The massacre at Agatu in Benue State is perhaps the most eloquent testimony of the beast-like cruelty and absolute sense of omnipotent impunity of the nomadic Fulani herdsmen wandering all over Nigeria. Clearly, these people who take pride in their stateless existence devoid of any nationalistic proclivities are consumed by a nihilistic disdain for every other group. The extent of their brutality far exceeds the most inhuman exhibition of cruelty performed by ISIS and its West African affiliate.

    The scariest aspect of this enduring and manifestly evil phenomenon is that theational authorities in West Africa have more or less buried their heads in the sand in a vain wish that the issue will just fade away. In Nigeria we have had a succession of administrations that have dexterously side-stepped the Fulani herdsmen’s bogey. Even though it must be acknowledged that we have had at the head of the various administrations Christians, Muslims, Northerners and Southerners. This fact alone underscores the myth that the nomadic Fulani tribesmen are untouchable.

    Obasanjo, a Christian southerner as president in all of his reputed bravado managed not to deal with the Fulani herdsmen regime of impunity, even when they slaughtered innocent farmers in the Yoruba heartland where he hails from. Abacha, a northern Muslim and presumed strongman dictator even at the peak of his power as a merciless supreme leader never broached the subject of the Fulani herdsmen’s impunity. It is difficult to say if a conspiracy exists at the highest echelons of power to just let the herdsmen be and give them perpetual immunity for their frequent crimes against humanity.

    The recent past has seen not just an escalation in the frequency of incidences of nomadic Fulani inspired massacres but a savage ramping up of the degree of brutality of the marauding herdsmen. The Agatu massacre being the latest and gravest of them all. Our President, a Fulani man, is in a unique position to decode their psyche and finally check their excesses.

    It is possible that providence gave us a Buhari at this time to once and for all deal with the menace of the Fulani herdsmen. So far he has not said or done anything to the best of my knowledge to significantly address the menace posed by the Fulani herdsmen. I hereby urge all persons close to our dear president to plead with him to address the issue. His failure to comment on the issue or offer a practical approach to dealing with it is capable of igniting ethnic conflagration at a time when we already have an insurgency and threats of secession to deal with.

    The Fulani Herdsmen menace is indeed a low hanging fruit for the President to deal with, as his ethnicity gives him the psychological advantage to deal with it. While the insurgency is localized to the North-east and the threat of rebellion is brewing in the South-east, the nomadic Fulani phenomenon affects every part of Nigeria. Deal with it quickly and you would have won the confidence of all Nigerians in your ability to deal with the other nagging issues.

     

    • Patrick Doyle,

     Lagos.