Segun Steve Olukayode
By Segun Steve Olukayode
When the Buhari-led administration was wooing the masses for votes before the 2015 election with all manner of promises of change, little did we know that those campaign promises were a smokescreen approach meant to hoodwink the masses into voting in a government that will subsequently renege on election promises even before being sworn in.
Before the advent of this administration, terrorism, militancy, agitation for resource control, religious fanaticism and other social vices that plagued Nigeria were all classified together and dealt with appropriately by previous governments.
A hydra headed monster called “Herdsmen” which was before now termed a communal issue between wandering Fulani herdsmen and local farmers has now become a full blown monstrous beast with the advent of this administration. It is pertinent to note that these stark illiterate cattle rearers have been programmed over time that they can do whatever they like as long as it is their man that’s in power (Their belief that only a Northerner and a Muslim should rule the country) The genesis of this blood thirsty herdsmen started sometimes in 2012 after the (Boko Haram) Islamic fundamentalists had been declared a terrorist organisation by the whole world and clamped down on by the Nigerian Army; the Northern oligarchy vowed to make the country ungovernable and they systematically began to arm these stark illiterates with AK 47 Assault rifle. Even Vice Admiral Muritala Hammayero Nyako, a former chief of the Naval Staff and two term Governor of Adamawa State was quoted as saying that an average Fulani herdsman has been trained to strip, couple and operate effectively, his reason for arming these blood suckers was that farmers now resist his people from encroaching into their farms, and he asked a very funny question that when there is no grazed land, how do you expect the herdsman to feed their cows, he shouted down the reporter when reminded that dairy is a business and whoever is going into it should be prepared to bear all cost just like the farmers whose crops are being destroyed by this cows. This emboldened them to move south ward and set their cows on any farm with impunity and if challenged by the farmers, will result in death to the farmer for crying out loud.
The activities of these herdsmen got to its peak immediately after the inauguration of President Buhari who made a statement shortly after assumption of office that the farmers should be patient with the herdsmen pending the time the government will be able establish grazing reserves. Since then, the herdsmen have gone on a killing spree and thousands were killed in Agatu Local Government in Benue State. The security agencies were implicated of taking side by preventing a reprisal when it was glaring that they escorted the herdsman in carrying out the attack. It will also interest you that the President and the Islamic North did not issue a statement to condemn the killing of innocent farmers, instead the head of the Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto who happens to be a retired General in the army warned of hate speech when eminent Nigerians began to moot the idea of self defence and the next we heard is that the army will conduct series of exercises in various parts of the country (a show of force that we are in charge and we can do whatever we like) Even the Chairman of the Fulani Cattle Dealers Association known as (Miyetti Allah) boasted that no government can stop them from grazing their cattle anywhere in the country.
In 2015 and 2016, these Fulani herdsmen invaded the farm of a former Minister of Finance and one time Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Chief Olu Falae. The old man was kidnapped and was in captivity for about ten days for resisting the invasion of his farm and was released only when his family paid a ransom. Initially, the government denied that the kidnap was the handiwork of herdsmen, and they later said the herdsmen are from a neighbouring country, and that the government cannot control illegal movements in and out of the country. Those arrested have not been successfully prosecuted even when a policeman was killed. The government has come out with a new law that the Federal Government has the right to seize any land suitable for grazing and compensate the owners on their own terms and there is no room for refusing to give up your land.
The general question on the mind of Nigerians is “What right have this murderous people have to carry guns and kill innocent farmers? Why are they being aided or supported by the security agencies? Why forcefully confiscating people's land as grazing land for the herdsmen? Is the Federal government the owners of these cattle? Why is the National Assembly at this time trying to promulgate a law on hate speech when actually the people are voicing out their concern? Why are these herdsmen labelled businessmen when the IPOB and Niger Delta agitators are called terrorists and criminals? What will the government do to a group of Fulani youth called “Jonde Jam Fulani Youth Association” threatening to resist the eviction of herdsmen from the South Western States?
Nigerians are warning that the country cannot afford another civil war and the onus lies on the federal government to go beyond the present rhetoric and track down the backers and sponsors of these daredevils and query the source of their weapons, just as they did in the case of IPOB and reclassify this group as terrorist. It beats our imagination that herdsmen will enter a community, destroy farmlands, burn houses, kill some people, disappear into thin air and no cows are seen.
In conclusion, the President is supposed to be for everybody and not for a section of the country as he claimed in his Inaugural speech, and order the security agencies to stop taking sides and arrest anybody with a lethal weapon instead of the traditional long stick.
* Segun Steve Olukayode is the Mobilization Officer of the Movement for Progress in Nigeria.