It is a lie to claim arrogantly that government has a monopoly of violence and one would have thought that Boko Haram has proved that beyond all doubt.
“Nobody can stop the government from acquiring land anywhere. Government is government. If anybody thinks that he is violent, government has a monopoly of violence”. –Senator Abdullahi Adamu –Chairman, Senate/House Joint Public Hearing Committee.
History, it has been said, repeats itself as tragedy. This we must try to avoid as Nigerians but since successive Nigerian governments had only been toying with the idea of having a genuine, and honest, national conference where we would tell ourselves the truth, and nothing but the truth, I think it behoves concerned individuals to try their humble best to help the country out of this conundrum. Resolving the naughty issue of the herdsmen is one issue on which we must allow history to guide us lest we further complicate our problems. Some of these truths have been coming out at the ongoing Joint National Assembly Public Hearing where the representatives from Benue and Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Edward Ujege, President General of Mdzough U Tiv and Dr Paddy Njoku , respectively, as well as that of Southern Zaria, vehemently objected to the Grazing Reserve Bill. Beyond the public hearing, at least two governors from the Southwest have equally voiced their opposition. These objections are the result of the sad experiences Fulani herdsmen had inflicted on people in various parts of the country, the most recent being the Enugu killing of about 40 persons and the Agatu blood feast which accounted for about 500 deaths but which Sale Bayari, Secretary-General of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN), rhapsodised as the consequence of the Fulani’s unforgiving spirit – if they kill 10, we kill 100 in return, he enthused in Sunday Punch interview. All the opposition is asking for, is simply that whoever armed these herdsmen should please disarm them.
Given the above circumstances, the time has come for the government to read the riot act to these murderous herdsmen and their employers who operate behind the mask. It is a lie to claim arrogantly that government has a monopoly of violence and one would have thought that Boko Haram has proved that beyond all doubt. Let me, therefore, suggest two ways in which the big men who own the businesses, and are arming these dangerous herdsmen can, in the interim, do their business unmolested in spite of the massive objections from the other geo-political zones. First, they should blow their cover and come out into the open. They should then submit a list of their herdsmen to government, disarm them completely and promptly enter into an agreement with the various governments, affirming their vicarious liability for any of their employers’ transgressions. Secondly, and for the long term, given the business’s contribution to the country’s growth and development , the business owners should look to the north for both their grazing reserves and ranches. The north should be turned, essentially, to the country’s grazing zone. As to whether constraints, science and countries like Israel have proved copiously that grass can luxuriate anywhere under the sun. And to effectively do this, they should approach either their banks for long term loans or their state governments for partnership. They should then exploit the entire value chain by establishing meat processing companies with incredible, and foreseeable possibility of a quantum economic leap. Not only would their animals be more productive and fetch more money, massive employment opportunities will open up for all Nigerians and many of our currently under utilised airports doting the entire country could be reconfigured for cargo haulage as the entire West African sub region could readily become their market. Nor would there be a shortage of buyers coming from the South to buy cows, as well as processed meat just like they come to the north today, to buy yams, tomatoes etc.
I assure any doubting Thomas that these are things I have thought over very well. Sometime in the 80s, I seriously considered exporting raw foodstuffs abroad, especially to both the U.S and the U.K where my children were then studying. Once I did the feasibility study, the very first practical step I undertook was to go to Kuta in Niger State, where my inquiries had shown was my best source for yam. Rather than go in a car, the gentleman who accompanied me, Mr Omole, and I went by public transport to properly understand what I was getting into. After discussions with some yam sellers right in the market and speaking to one or two farmers introduced to me, we bought yams which my partner then brought to a Medoya at Mile 12, Lagos, with whom I had agreed to help sell on commission basis. At Kuta, I noticed that unlike in the south, farmers do not have to make big heaps to harvest huge yams. I narrated this personal story to show that buyers from the south will continue to come up north to buy cows which will no longer have to be taken, months, through hundreds of kilometres from the north.
There is, however, another very fundamental reason which makes one believe that as a united country, under God, desirous of peace, and disavowing of all these unnecessary bloodletting, we should allow history to guide us in these very dangerous times. That brings me to the following Whats app message that has been trending for some time now. Titled: “WHY ANY GRAZING BILL MUST BE STOPPED”, the story is told of how King Yunfa, the Hausa Sarkin in Gobir (now called Sokoto) hosted a Fulani immigrant called Usman Dan Fodiyo and his group in February 1804. As a result of that act of hospitality, and the subsequent killing of Yunfa in 1808 by the immigrants, the entire Hausa kingdom has become lost, a booty to the Fulanis which has since become the Sokoto Caliphate; a venture that happened simply because the Fulanis were given access to grazing land as a result of the hospitality of their hosts (though they claimed to have been fighting syncretism -additions mine.) Nor did the Fulanis stop there. In Ilorin, they killed Afonja who had colluded with them and, in his place, installed the Alimis as kings over a predominantly Yoruba kingdom till today. And had the Yoruba not defeated them in Osogbo in 1840, there would most probably be Fulani emirs all over Yoruba land today. Continued the story: It is the descendants of these same Fulanis who are now angling for grazing reserves and a corridor through the entire federation. Such grazing reserves, if ever allowed, will see history repeat itself as tragedy because Fulani settlements,vlater, communities and, finally local government areas with their own elected officials will spring up all over Nigeria”. Concluding, the author wrote: “The grazing bill is a subtle continuation of the 1804 Fulani jihad by today’s fully-armed, and well- protected, Fulani herdsmen with the age-old agenda to overrun and Islamise Nigeria. The grazing bill is not an attempt to solve the problem, it’s a subterfuge to progress the agenda. It is an age-old political strategy: create a problem, come up with a “solution” that advances the cause, and then give it a legal backing to make it look like a win-win situation”. Those interested in this story should Google WIKIPEDIA -the free encyclopedia for more information.
All these may be hogwash, but my Yoruba people have a saying to the effect that: ina esunsun ki jo ni le e meji, meaning, you don’t make the same mistake twice. In reaction to the Whats app story, I have heard people say it is an attempt to dip the Quran in the Atlantic Ocean as the revered Alhaji Ahmadu Bello was rumoured to have once promised. It was further argued that whether it is a grazing reserve or a ranch, Fulani settlements would emerge everywhere in the country and given the Hausa/Fulani culture to always have a radio transistor on them, somebody, somewhere would one day just give the command or a fatwa to over run, and that would be all.
If, therefore, there is no such ulterior motive behind the quest for a grazing bill, which, ab initio, presumes that the federal government immorally wants to fund some peoples’ private business, I would like to repeat that the suggestions earlier made in this article should prove reasonable and viable; indeed, it should be a silver bullet to the herdsman’s palaver.
