By Zik Gbemre
To say that Nigeria is at the brink of exploding, is to put it mildly. And the sooner the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration changes its present unacceptable body language and posture towards addressing the increased insecurity situation in the country that is about tearing the nation apart, the better for all us.
When the Fulani herdsmen/bandits’ terrorists’ criminal activities increased across the nation some few years ago, many did not know the magnitude and seriousness of the issue until recently, they have practically been emboldened to release videos online of their criminal activities, trying to justify it and even gain sympathy from the Nigerian people.
I saw one of such videos recently, purportedly made by Daily Trust Production, where the said criminal bandits in their full military-like regalia and sophisticated weapons/arms, noted that: “It’s been long they started their activities, not long after Zamfara State was created. When their leader was asked: “Why did you go into Banditry? He responded that: “We took up arms because we are herders and despite this country’s wealth, we are not carried along, we are not educated, we do not know anything. We don’t have security; we do not have any benefit. We are the ones being killed, but are always seen as the aggressors. We don’t have anything. Wherever a herder is, he is uneducated and has nothing. In this country, there is everything. But we are not carried along. It is as though we do not exist. We are just being killed.”
When the interviewer asked: A few years ago, there was move to strike a peace deal with you, why did it collapse? The bandit leader said: “Of course it has been breached. You have asked for armistice. An agreement was reached, but you left that person in the forest with a gun, and nothing to substitute. What do you expect? How do you want that person to survive? All the promises made to us none was fulfilled…. enroll the young ones in schools; we should be treated the same way. And give them jobs with the government and put them in schools. The Hausa, Yoruba and Fulani should be treated equally. The President should personally come and preside over the talks. When he was campaigning, he travelled all over, why would he not do it now? Now, he does not take these peace talks seriously and everyday people are being killed. There is no day that someone is not killed between Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina. No two days pass without someone getting killed in these places.”
“What kind of people, Fulani or?” He was asked. He said: “There is no tribe that is sparred. Gunmen kill, soldiers kill, vigilantes kill, whomever you see with gun today in Nigeria, he uses it to kill people. You may not know but if I were to tell you the situation of things in this country, you will cry. Even the president will cry. We supported this administration and accepted dialogue; it was because we thought he (Buhari) will fix the country. But he won’t fix the country. From the time he praised Goodluck, Obasanjo, and then Yar’Adua, these were not praise worthy. It would have been better if he had praised Abacha because under Abacha, pastoralists were being educated. During Abacha, there was allocation in the budget for the nomadic communities. There was no such thing again since Obasanjo became president.” “So, you mean since the transition to civilian rule, Fulanis have not been taken care of?” The leader of the bandit was asked again. And he said: “They stopped looking after them/Fulanis. Their forests and grazing areas were taken over. You’ll see one person having as much as 1,000 hectares, just because he is rich”
I have some reservations about the said video. Firstly, we are not sure if what was translated in English, was exactly what the said leader of the Bandit said in the video. And also, though the voice of the said Bandit leader seems as if it was in Hausa, but it also looked like he was not the one speaking the Hausa. It was as if it was another person’s voice that was used to exactly mimic and translate what they wanted to be said/heard and translated for the public. In other words, everything about this said video is clothed in suspicion and deception. But again, we might be wrong. However, whatever the case may be, there are other issues they raised, which does not make sense or justify their evil criminality.
If they are really herdsmen, then who provided them with such sophisticated weapons/armory? If they claim to be poor and neglected, how did they get the money and access to buy such dangerous and expensive weapons? And he repeatedly said they are being killed. But were they not the ones that started carrying AK47s to reign the onslaught and aggression against farmers/villagers, who also retaliated in defense, even as the security operatives followed too? If they had not resorted to carrying dangerous weapons in their nomadic practice, and they did this without trespassing on people’s lands/farms/communities, who would kill anybody?
Again, if they are complaining of being neglected by the Government and the country, why are they not fighting their fellow Fulani political leaders only, who have continued to cause the abject poverty in their States and in the Northern regions? Why are they attacking people from other regions? Kidnapping, Rapping, Displacing and killing innocent Nigerians?
Let us also note the fact that between 1960 from when we got independence as a nation, the Northerners have ruled Nigeria more than all the other regions put together. President Goodluck Jonathan was the only political leader in power that is from the South-South region. Olusegun Obasanjo, as the Military Head of State and as a Civilian President, is from the West. Aguiyi Ironsi was from the East, and Alex Shonekan also from the West, both were like ‘domi-heads of State’ who were in power for barely three months each. But the country from Independence, was ruled by Sir Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister, while Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a Ceremonial Head of Government with no Executive power attached to his office. In other words, the Northern Nigeria has been more favoured than the Southern parts of Nigeria in terms of political leadership of the country and in political appointments, including in the numbers of States and Local Government Areas they have, compared to the other geo-political zones.
So, if the Fulani herdsmen have issues with being supposedly neglected, it should be with their own elites and leaders, and not with the South-West, South-East and South-South people. The wealth of the country that is feeding the entire country in the last more than five decades, is from the South-South region. But go round the South-South, there is abject poverty written all over the place. Even the people they get the wealth from to cater for the entire country, are not killers. So, there is no justification whatsoever for the killings at all. If according to Shiekh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi, who has been meeting with these terrorists to broker so-called peace deal, that they Fulani herdsmen/bandits/terrorists took up arms because they were being marginalized. Even the Igbos that are marginalized, are not attacking people. They are only saying that they want to leave, and because of that, the Government is the one preventing them in their secession agenda. The oil, gas and condensate wealth from the South-South region is what has been used to foot the entire bills of the country. But the locals of the Sotuh-South are not going about killing people. Even when the militants were disturbing, their focus was on oil and gas facilities, and not killing fellow Nigerians. Now, we have this so-called Gumi, making excuses for criminality, saying that it is because they are marginalized. He does not even want to describe what these people are doing as ‘criminality.’ We are really in trouble in this country. But Nigerians will refuse to allow this present Government to make excuses for these criminals and then seek for amnesty for them. They will not use our collective national wealth to settle criminals that are deliberately killing fellow Nigerians.
And it sad that the Buhari-led administration has failed to stop these killings. Apart from the herdsmen terrorists’ killings, there are other violent crimes like robberies and kidnapping that is all over Nigeria. The level of insecurity is so bad that it is practically affecting everything in the country. That to me, is a country that can best be described as a failed State. And if President Buhari does not act fast, we fear the worse for this country.
As noted by Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka in a BBC interview: “…What do they expect of us to do now that this war is on our door step? Of course, there is going to be civil mobilization. And if we keep waiting for this to be centrally handled, we are all going to become (if we are not already), slaves in our communities. To me personally, it is no longer acceptable. It is intolerable. And whatever it takes, I stand ready to contribute in any manner. We are here, not just to live, but to live in dignity. Right now, our dignity is being rubbished. My forest is being taken over. It’s been shrinking and shrinking…”
When asked: “What do you think the President should do right now to drive home the message that is no longer business as usual?” Soyinka bluntly noted: “Address the nation! Address the nation in very stern, unambiguous terms. Say openly, yes! I know I am the patron of the cattle rearers Association, etc., and I am a cattle rancher myself. It’s a business. And I run my business, on business terms. I do not run my business by killing people. I do not run my business by raping, by displacing, by torturing, and I do not run my business by occupying lands that do not belong to me. And I am warning all business people in the food commodity. All you cattle-rearers; whatever comes to you, for illegal occupation, or for trespassing on people’s property, is your business. And I am ordering the Army, am ordering all the security outfits to back citizens efforts in flushing you out. I expect nothing less from President Buhari…. This is the language I would expect from President Buhari. As long as that language is not forth coming, I must consider him quite complacent in what is going on because the Buck Stops At His Desk… My biggest fear is, we may enter a phase of serious skirmishes, which would get more and more violent, become less and less focused, and swirl into a civil war, and a very untidy one at that. Unless action is taken…”
It is even more worrisome to hear some of their things that are coming out from the mouths of some of the designated officials of the Buhari-led administration. Few days ago, the reason given by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for not going after the Fulani herdsmen/bandits/terrorists, is that they don’t want to destroy the ecosystem of the forest. In other words, these criminal elements should be left to keep operating from the forests. Will a serious-minded Government be making such remarks and holding such positions in the face of the present insecurity crises in the country?
The same Lai Mohammed, recently said that school kidnapping takes place in other countries as well? Trying to normalize what is happening in Nigeria. In his words, “Last year (2020) in the US, we all witnessed at least 3 or 4 school kidnappings….” One begins to wonder where he got that information from because when researched, nothing of such occurred last year in the US. How did he witness the said school kidnapping in the US from Ilorin where he lives, whereas those living in the US and major International media houses are not even aware of it? Lai Mohammed should be reminded that he cannot just wake up and make up things as if he has monopoly over information, that can be disputed. Is it possible for school children to be kidnapped the way we see it here in Nigeria, and you won’t see it in international news media? By that statement, Lai Mohammed is saying that school children were kidnapped 3 or 4 times in the US, just as terrorist bandits have been doing in Nigeria. And as such, HE WANTS NIGERIANS TO ACCEPT IT AS NORMAL, AND MAKE NO FUSS ABOUT IT.
If he must know, the last time we heard about mass school kidnaping in America was in 1976, when 26 children and their school bus driver were kidnapped in California. We are not talking about parents kidnapping another person’s child or something like that. We are talking about kidnap for ransom. And this 1976 case was the largest kidnap for ransom in the US history. And all of the 26 children and the driver were rescued by the way, and the kidnappers were arrested, charged to court and sentenced accordingly. Not like the way we are doing it in Nigeria where the government of the day keep paying them huge ransoms without going after them, or arresting anybody. And that leaves these criminals with more money to buy more guns to kidnap more people. If the Minister wants to lie, he should not make up stories that can be disputed. The Governors of Zamfara and Niger States, and the so-called Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi have all been meeting with these terrorist bandits, so they know exactly where they are. Instead of going after them, the Minister wants Nigerians to ‘adapt’ – suggesting that, that’s how terrorist operate all over the world, so we should live with it as normal. What a shame!
Indeed, the Buhari-led administration has proven to not have the capacity and even the willingness to address the country’s insecurity challenges, and secure the lives and properties of Nigerians, especially those that are not of the Northern Fulani extractions. Like I have said, and will continue to say; no person forced Mohammadu Buhari to seek to be elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Now that it has become evident that he cannot handle the demands of that exalted Office, he should own up and say I don’t have solutions to end these killings and criminality going on across the country. So, Nigerians will know exactly what is their fate, in this nation that is best described as a failed State.
*We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes*
