4th December, 2016
With the massacres and incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country, Nigeria appears headed for another crisis, this time on too many fronts and with such devastating effect as could engulf the whole nation, and threaten its very survival as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.
This is indeed a dangerous development and it is unnerving that the President; himself a Fulani, has not responded with any sense of urgency to the danger already in our midst.
This is no time for political correctness; the Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Terrorism Index (GTI) has named the Fulani herdsmen as the fifth deadliest terror group in the world. Rightly or wrongly, there is already a growing perception of a hidden agenda that borders on territorial conquest and Islamization of Nigeria.
That not a single herdsman has either been arrested or prosecuted despite the havoc they have wrecked in many communities across the country, smack of official complicity. The other dimension of perceived government complicity beyond its deafening silence in the face of killings is the belated attempt by its functionaries to downplay the patterned mayhem inflicted by the Fulani herdsmen on Nigerians. When the Agatu killings in Benue occurred, the government said next to nothing and upon public outrage, belatedly ordered a probe, whose findings are still awaited. To add insult to injury, Interior Minister, Lt. General Abdulrahman Dambazau blamed social media for aggravating the herdsmen/farmers’ conflicts while the Director of the DSS, claimed the Fulani herdsmen were the victims, ignoring the cumulative atrocious acts they had perpetrated.
A perception that Fulanis have some exclusive right to graze anywhere in Nigeria is worrisome. It is unimaginable how cows are valued more than human beings that are being massacred all over the country. The classical Fulani invaders came with the Koran and Islamized a large part of northern and western Nigeria. Today, Fulani herdsmen are farming with AK47 assault guns, killing and maiming innocent people while their cattle destroy farm crops. What are cattle herders supposed to be doing with AK47s? Such impunity as the Fulani herdsmen are perpetrating in Nigeria today by wielding automatic weapons and the magnitude of their violent activities without intervention from any arm of the security forces, once again, smack of official complicity. By bearing arms and killing people, the herdsmen are demonstrating that they have a hidden agenda. The fact that the Fulani invaders seem to be enjoying some measure of immunity from the government is vexatious and provocative.
Indeed, the matter has become such that the Fulanis have been embolden to create a formal platform to fight their cause with the formation of Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). The MACBAN, by its confrontational stance, has chosen a path that will breed irredentism from other ethnic groups. The battle lines have been drawn in Ekiti, ever since the Ekiti State Government enacted a law to regulate cattle grazing in the state. MACBAN has challenged Governor Ayo Fayose in belligerent manner threatening the governor, and saying he was playing with fire for enforcing the state’s anti-grazing law. These threats to Fayose have not gone unnoticed by the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere. At this juncture it is pertinent to ask the Fulani what they want. It is not that anyone is fighting them, but this question has become necessary as a first step towards dealing with the problem.
There have been protests in almost all the three geo-political zones in the South and the Middle Belt against these rampaging cowmen. Even in faraway London, Nigerians protested the destructive activities of these dangerous herdsmen. Nevertheless, there are still fundamental issues that the killings by the Fulani herdsmen raise and which must be addressed immediately. Given the sadistic patterns of killings by the herdsmen, many Nigerians now believe there is something more sinister going on than mere clashes between farmers and cattle rearers. Fears are already being nursed that it might be a guise for insurgents bent on destabilizing the country. And the resort to the use of sophisticated arms by the herdsmen in various parts of the country, especially in the South and Middle Belt calls for introspection and a need to act fast.
A more sinister twist is that the Buhari government is poised to resuscitate the grazing reserve bill by other means. The president’s instruction to the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh to set up 50, 000 hectares of grazing reserves within six months, first in the north, before moving to the south is indicative. It is in fact akin to sections 21 (1) (2) of the old grazing bill which would have given power to a National Grazing Commission to acquire lands for grazing reserves and stock routes.
The desire of the herdsmen to have boundless access to grazing fields across Nigeria is certainly unacceptable. The Federal Government must be told in clear terms that it has no power to alienate lands from the people, for state governments hold land in trust for the people. The point should also be made; and with emphasis that cattle herding is a private business enterprise. The so-called nomads are mere individuals in the employ of big cattle owners. Need it be said that contemporary cattle business is done through ranching. Besides, Nigeria is a federal state and not a garrisoned centralized government to be ruled at the whims and caprices of a particular group. Any such move would only raise further tension in the polity and create all-round instability.
The continuing invasion of the farmers’ land, and the unending kidnapping, raping and killings by the Fulani herdsmen may result in a backlash of catastrophic dimensions. A statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu that the southward movement of the Fulani herdsmen was the result of desertification makes it more compelling for Nigerians to appreciate the gravity of the looming crisis and learn the right lessons. Indeed, with the influx of rifle-wielding herdsmen traversing the length and breadth of the country and the carnage they are inflicting on the nation, there is a basis for comparison with the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Drought forced northern Arabs into Darfur where they sought to displace indigenous southern ethnic groups and this led to conflicts in southern Sudan. The Arab government in Khartoum, however, intervened on behalf of the Arab migrants in Darfur by arming the Janjaweed bandits. The response of the indigenous groups was to seek self-determination with the formation of armed groups like Sudan Liberation Army. Nigeria cannot afford to go down this route.
The dangerous activities of the Fulani herdsmen have curiously become the third national security crisis in a country still smarting from the debilitating effects of Boko Haram insurgency in Northeast and Niger Delta militants. This is worrisome. And the deadly activities of the herdsmen have raised questions about the real motive behind the strategic invasion. This is not allayed by widespread killing, kidnapping and raping being perpetrated. Suffice to say that to seize land from one people and give to another is a recipe for chaos. Land does not belong to government per se, but it is held in trust for the people. With aggrieved communities, especially in southern Nigeria now literally resisting the destructive invasion of their communities by the Fulanis, tension has been mounting in many places. The Buhari government needs to listen to the voice of reason to avoid a catastrophe that may well be Nigeria’s greatest undoing.