On January 1, it was reported that about
20 people were killed in Rivers State. On January 7, it was reported
that a combined team of military and intelligence operatives had tracked
the leader of the gang, Don Waney, and some of his men to their Enugu
hideout and killed them. The pictures of their bullet-ridden dead bodies
were shown in the media as proof.
Last week too, the police in Lagos
arrested the suspected overall leader and the herbalist of the cult
group called Badoo. Badoo had killed so many people in the Ikorodu area
of Lagos by smashing their heads with stone.
Last year, the police and Nigerians
celebrated the arrest of Evans, the kidnapper, who specialised in
demanding his ransom in millions of dollars. He had evaded arrest for
many years. But the police eventually beat him.
Similarly, last year the Nigerian Army,
in what was named Operation Python Dance II, stormed the residence of
Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra. By the time
their operation was over, some people had been killed. The whereabouts
of Kanu and his father are still unknown till today. The Federal
Government also hurriedly designated IPOB a terrorist organisation, even
though other countries disagreed with that.
In December 2015, the Nigerian Army
invaded the homes of members of the Shi’ites Islamic sect and shot at
them. Their immediate offence was that they blocked the way of the Chief
of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai. The Shi’ites are minorities in
the North, while the Sunnis are the majority.
The director-general of the Kaduna
State Interfaith Bureau, Mr Muhammad Namadi Musa, told the panel of
enquiry into the crisis that he collected at least 347 bodies from the
army base in Zaria and the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital and
buried them after the attack on the Shiites. The bodies that were not
taken to ABUTH were not recorded. The leader of the Shi’ites, Sheik
Ibrahim El Zakzaky, and his wife were seriously wounded and detained,
till today, despite rulings by courts that they be released.
All the instances above are meant to
show how swift and effective the Nigerian security agencies can be when
dealing with groups and individuals that they see as enemies.
Last week, there was another attack by
Fulani herdsmen in Benue State. Gory pictures of people, including
children, butchered like animals, were copiously shared.
Anytime there is a massacre of people in
a state by Fulani herdsmen like it occurred last week in Benue State
for the umpteenth time, there is an outcry by Nigerians for the Federal
Government to take action. Most times, there is not even a verbal
response from the Buhari government. Even when there is a verbal
response, it is a plea for people to live together in peace or a promise
to arrest the perpetrators. But nobody ever gets arrested.
Just like in other cases, the Miyetti
Allah Cattle Breeders Association, which has President Muhammadu Buhari
as its grand patron, would usually give reasons why they carried out the
attack. In the Benue case, Mr. Garus Gololo, Chairman, Benue State
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, was quoted as saying on the BBC:
“We weren’t grazing. After the Benue
government banned grazing, we were relocating to Taraba State through
Nengere border town of Nasarawa State. They came and stole one thousand
cows from us, so we retaliated and killed them.”
Such comments show that the perpetrators
of the acts are not unknown. They appear at peace meetings and disclose
why they carried out their attacks on the concerned people. They go to
TV and radio stations as well as newspaper houses to grant interviews to
explain why they carried out their attacks. Usually, their reason is
that their cattle were stolen by the community.
When President Buhari returned from his
sick leave last year, he made a speech which showed, by its contents,
that it was primarily addressed to members of IPOB over their agitations
for a separate state. In that speech, he described the killings by
Fulani herdsmen as “farmers versus herdsmen clashes,” at a time
thousands of people had been killed by the Fulani herdsmen. It showed
his attitude to the killings. As far as Buhari is concerned, it is a
mere misunderstanding between farmers and herdsmen and nothing more. And
in that misunderstanding, the farmers are usually the aggressors
(having been named first by him), while the herdsmen are usually the
victims who merely respond to defend themselves “against those who don’t
want them to survive.”
Anytime you hear someone from the
North-West or North-East talk about the killings by Fulani herdsmen, you
usually see that they believe that Fulani herdsmen should be allowed to
graze as they have been doing since time immemorial. The argument is
usually that land belongs to nobody but to God and people should use it
and leave others to use it too; that the Fulani are nomads who don’t
believe in acquiring lands and so should be allowed to use land and move
on. The person also believes that because of desertification, to avoid
clashes and bloodshed, grazing reserves should be mapped out by all
states in the North-Central and the South for the Fulani herdsmen.
When someone from North-Central or the
South talks about the problem, they usually argue that Fulani herdsmen
should invest in ranches as is done in other climes, since they are
involved in business. The person argues that if the government should
create grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen because of desertification,
government should also create farming reserves and fishing reserves in
the North for Southerners whose homelands and waters have been polluted
by government’s exploration of crude oil.
When confronted with this point, the
Northern person either keeps quiet or says the cases are not the same.
But when viewed dispassionately, the case of the Southerners is even
worse, as the pollution in their land is caused by the Federal
Government, and the money obtained from crude oil exploration is used to
sustain the economy of Nigeria. In addition, those whose neighbourhoods
are polluted and thereby denied the opportunity of engaging in their
business of fishing and planting of crops need more attention from the
Federal Government.
There are those who wonder how Fulani
herdsmen can attack communities while also taking care of their cattle.
They wonder where they keep their cattle while embarking on the attack.
That makes them to argue that the attacks cannot be committed by Fulani
herdsmen. But it does not work that way. From the reports gathered in
the media about such attacks, those who rear the cattle are not the
attackers. The attacks are planned. Warriors are mobilised from
different states by the organisers. Before the attack, messages are sent
out to their people to leave such concerned communities. The warriors
come at night, carry out the attack and return to their different
locations, waiting for the next “call to duty.”
There have also been reports that even
when soldiers are in a community or close by during the attacks by
Fulani herdsmen, they either leave or take no action to prevent the
attacks.
In spite of his inauguration statement
that he belongs to nobody but to all, President Muhammadu Buhari has
shown through his words and actions that he does not see all Nigerians
as equal. His body language and attitude to issues have shown that the
way he treats issues concerning his kinsmen and people of his religion
is different from the way he treats others. The more people complain
about this divisive and unpresidential attitude to governance, the more
he carries on with it unperturbed.
For any community that is attacked by
Fulani herdsmen, the consistent message from the Buhari administration
in the past three years is that it will not take any action to stop such
attacks, neither will it punish the attackers. Translated into the
Nigerian parlance, Buhari is telling Nigerians that if Fulani herdsmen
attack your community, you are On Your Own (OYO).
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