•He has spoken well: killer herdsmen are criminals and should therefore be prosectued
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has received well deserved plaudits for the vigour, sense of purpose and effectiveness with which it has tackled and significantly curtailed the protracted Boko Haram insurgency that had laid large swathes of the North-East economically and socially prostrate. However, the menace of killer herdsmen attacking and destroying lives and property in communities across the country, purportedly in defence of their cattle from rustlers as well as to enforce the access of their animals to grazing land, has emerged as one of the most potent threats to Nigeria’s peace, cohesion and stability.
Indeed, some have contended, and not without justification, that the atrocities of these herdsmen constitute a far more dangerous form of terrorism and pose a more potent threat to national unity than Boko Haram’s violent religious extremism. But for occasional and infrequent forays to other parts of the North such as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as well as Kano and Niger states, Boko Haram’s destructive operations have been largely confined to the North-East. On the other hand, violent incidents between rampaging herdsmen and host communities resulting in large scale death and destruction have been witnessed across the country’s geo-political zones encompassing such areas as Benue, Plateau, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Enugu, Rivers, Kwara, Delta and Ebonyi states.
It is not surprising that in a complex plural society like ours, the herdsmen challenge has taken on highly combustible ethno-religious colourations. Over time, cattle-rearing has been associated with the Fulani who are also predominantly Muslim. Yet, the peaceful herdsmen armed with sticks and daggers to guide and protect their animals have inexplicably morphed into the contemporary variant equipped with AK 47 assault rifles, which they flaunt openly without sanction, and utilise to wreak havoc on communities with which they once interacted harmoniously.
Matters have not been helped by the perception that the audacity and impunity of the herdsmen have worsened under the present administration even though President Buhari, himself a Fulani and Muslim, has directed security agencies to deal decisively with the miscreants. Yet, the administration’s response to the killer herdsmen issue has often appeared tentative and tame. This contrasts sharply with the uncompromising resoluteness it has exhibited in dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy or pro-Biafra agitations.
Indeed, the claim by some top members of the Buhari administration that the killer herdsmen are not Nigerians but foreign terrorists has come across as an attempt to rationalise the indefensible. If this position is true, how do these alien herdsmen know the grazing routes so well across the country? In any case, does this not suggest a gross dereliction of duty on the part of the security agencies that are meant to guard the country’s borders and protect the lives and property of her citizens?
It is against this background that we commend the statesmanship of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who, while addressing a pan-Northern assembly in Kaduna recently, called on the Federal Government to treat killer herdsmen as the criminals that they are by ensuring they are prosecuted. In the Sultan’s words, “There are very terrible herdsmen who kill. But they are acting on their own, they are criminals and they must be treated as criminals. Therefore, the Federal Government should prosecute them. It is disheartening to hear when people say Fulani herdsmen want to Islamise Nigeria and that is why they are killing. Any Fulani herdsman who kills is not acting the script of the Fulani community in Nigeria neither is he working for the Muslim community”.
As the foremost voice of the Hausa-Fulani and Muslim communities in Nigeria, the Sultan has spoken with courage, integrity and wisdom. His is a worthy example. We urge the Federal Government to heed this patriotic counsel.
