Growing up back in Ondo State, South west Nigeria in the 80’s
in a village in Ikale, Okitipupa Local Government Area of the State, we
constantly see herdsmen around the village with their tiny sticks which they
used to control their cows. The highest weapon they had then were knives, known as daggers; the purpose for
which they were moving around with
daggers was because they constantly use it to let their cows loose in case they
are stuck in the bushes where they graze. Fulani herdsmen were friendly at that
time, anytime the villagers expressed displeasure at their conducts, they were
quick to apologies and leave immediately without returning either to graze or
cause any form of havoc to the inhabitants of such community.
These days, the level of arms in the cache of Fulani herdsmen
is alarming. The Government of Nigeria turned a blind eye to these marauding maniacs
parading themselves around villages with AK47 and other sophisticated weapons
in the name of grazing. In the past few months, thousands of farmers who dear
to challenge the Fulani herdsmen for destroying their farmlands with their cows
have lost their lives; in fact most of the attacks are well orchestrated and
properly carried out without anybody stopping them from perpetrating this
dastardly act. The case of Agatu in Benue State was so gory, chopped off bodies
littered the community, houses were burnt, farmlands/crops were destroyed by
the Fulani Maniacs without any iota of provocation. According to the residents,
more than Six Hundred People were murdered, today, thousands of the villagers
are currently leaving as refugees in their homeland.
Another recent case is the massacre in Enugu State by the
same Fulani herdsmen, in Delta State, a king was abducted by the same Fulanis
and latter murdered, another woman was also killed on the 13th of
May, 2016 in Delta State and many injured. Let us not forget the abduction of a
prominent politician in Ondo State, Chief Olu Falae in his farm who was
released after a ransom was paid and subsequently, another invasion of his farm
by the same Fulani herdsmen who killed his security guards. The case is plenty
all over the country.
One thing that baffles me is the culture of silence being
exhibited by the current President of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari, who himself is
a Fulani Man, a herdsman and the grand patron of Myetti Allah, the body of
Fulani herders in Nigeria. The president as a farmer understands the modus
operandi of these people and the big question is why he is always silence about
the activities of these people?.
How can a president keep silence when the blood of the people
he is ruling are being shed by a group who are bent on having their ways even
if it tramples on the right of others? ,In trying to defend the President’s
complacent in this matter, the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism,
Lai Mohammed said “The President is
working on this matter in silence”. How can a president of a country claim to
address such a sensitive issue on silence when there are open graves of
innocent souls crying for justice?, The Pan-Yoruba Social Cultural Group, Afenifere,
in one of its meetings to address the issues of Fulani marauding murderers in
the region, threatened to breakaway if the security of lives and properties of
its people is not guaranteed as it is being made worst by Buhari’s nonchalant
attitudes towards the ungodly activities of these blood tasty individuals .
The truth be told, when a President of a country who is the Chief
Security Officer, who is the only one that can direct the Police, the Army and
other paramilitary bodies to take action keeps mum in times of terror, it calls
for worry.
The implications of the President’s silence is very
dangerous, he should expect self-defence,
this is not only going to have a very negative implications and effects, it will further aggravate
the whole situation because a society where people are forced to enforce their
own laws due to the ineptitude of Government, anarchy will reign supreme.
According to Rudolf Ugoo, “When a government fails its people
at this fundamental level, that government has relinquished the pretense of
being a government and the people will have no option but to withdraw their
consent to be governed and assume governance on their own. It is called
anarchy. It is a dangerous place that no serious government wants to push its
people to.”
I smell proliferation of more small-arms in this country in
the next few months; it is a dangerous omen, in America for example, statistics
have shown that more young people are killed daily through indiscriminate
shootings than accident, diseases and other forms of death. This is due to the
liberalization of the use of guns and self-defence mentality that was once
promoted by the Government. It is worthy of note that despite the country’s
strong law enforcement capabilities, mopping of illegal arms from the society
has not been easy and may not happen in the next 100 years because of the
strong belief by the majority of Americans and gun sellers that the proposed
gun-control law by the Obama’s administration is anti-people and therefore
obnoxious.
If the Government of Nigeria allows our gun usage situation
to get to the level of America, I can bet that Nigeria will never survive it. The
only way for the Government to avoid this is to ensure the safety of its
citizens in the nooks and crannies of the country no matter their ethnicity,
religion of social status, ensuring killers like Fulani herders face the full
wrath of the law.
Another twist to the Fulani’s story is the overwhelming
supports they get from the Northern Senators, Governors and House of
Representatives members of the Northern extractions, who constantly threatening that labelling
herdsmen MURDERERS is a bad thing, they even threatened that if peradventure,
they (Fulani herdsmen) are asked to leave the South, they will secede!, imagine
such statement???, Their attitudes left
some of us with no choice to say that the marauding murderers are doing the
killings with the connivance of their elders and of course statesmen. In the
Northern parts of Nigeria, because of their communal lifestyle, the only people
the youths listen to are the elders and their politicians and when these same
elders/politicians throw their weight behind them, they don’t see anything bad
in what they are doing.
I am not a prophet of doom, but the most expected peace will
elude us as a nation if the same law that punish some offenders give some others
who commit the same crime a pat in the back. Law is law and should be melted on
anybody who violates the laws no matter who you are, where you are from.
I was one of the people who was strongly against the proposed
establishment of state police in the past; my fear, like many others is the
attitude of our politicians who might turn the state’s police to their arsenal
that they will use against opposition in the state. Our current reality, where
police in villages only take order from Abuja to enable them swing into action to arrest a situation is
very worrisome. This has left me with no option than to add my voice to the
voices calling for the establishment of state police. I think with proper
monitoring and clear cut definition of duties, there will be less problem in
terms of their functions. The essence is that, there is no way a police officer
posted from Calabar to Sambisa in Borno state will understand the terrain more
than the one that was born and bred that area.
Familiarisation is crucial, elders and people in communities
in Nigeria, usually know those who are perpetrators of crime, this is because
of the imminent love that hitherto existed among residents of communities who
usually see themselves as brothers and sisters. Therefore, with minimal or no
force, perpetrators of crime in such places can be brought to book swiftly with
the aid of state police who themselves are part of the communities they are
policing.
Also, there will be no need for a state Governor to
communicate with the President before giving order to the security apparatus
within his state like it is done in America and other developed world.
The President must wake up from his slumber by wading off
sentiments and ethnic jingoism from his day to day running; this is because
when a leader is elected, he becomes the leader of those that supported and
those who did not during his electioneering campaign.
The time to act is now before it is too late!
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