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).
