lengthy but with lots of truth

by Marj and May

One of the most naïve things to say concerning this Fulani terrorists menace is that the communities attacked should protect themselves. I sincerely do not mean this as a sub. If you have not lived in it, it is easy to be bewildered by how they are able to succeed.

The first religious crisis that happened in Jos, took people by surprise. When push came to shove, I know for a fact the Berom women quarried granitic rocks for the men to use to fight. I am talking aboutbreaking so much rock that your knuckles are bleeding. Unless you live in a war zone, people do not have sophisticated weaponry. If they could afford it, it is not easy to findhow to get such things that are not sold in the open market.

Plateau people initially relied on the security forces. I am not talking about the police, I am speaking about soldiers. Why not the police? Kikikiki are you a Nigerian? Have youever seen a policeman strip his uniform in a high tension situation to avoid…death?

The very first crisis started on a Friday, Soldiers were not commanded to come out till Sunday. By then, many people had died. Soldiers work with commands. Please correct me if I am wrong. A soldier cannot carry a gun, enter into the civilian populace and begin to enforce order. They are mandated to by the authorities that be.

Over time, people in Plateau state stopped trusting the security men, the soldiers. At one point, the officers where driving big cars around town and rumours said that they were being ‘settled’ to look the other way while people got killed. I recall that they were withdrawn and others came (thetask force comprising of the Navy, Airforceas well as the regular soldiers).

The towns were mostly secured. Then the attacks on Villages started. Armed Fulani herdsmen descended on villages in the middleof the night and wiped them out. This was not a 10min operation. It was a group of men taking their time out for hours burningand killing. It was rumoured that during theDogo Nahawa massacre, soldiers that were stationed not far away did not show up till the whole deed was done. In Babale, on theway to Bauchi, there was a community that was attacked and soldiers nearby claimed not to have heard or seen a whole community burn. Mind you AK 47s and grenades and even rocket propellers are used. The people stopped trusting and relyingon security forces. The governor was not the commanding officer of these security forces on ground. Mind you, Governor Jang was a Berom man, his tribesmen were the worst hit.

Now that there was no trust, how were people going to defend themselves? Mostly small time farmers and low income earners cannot arm a village. It is not a matter of “Bring three handguns and 1 grenade.” Not at all. (The men that invaded Uzo Uwani in Enugu were said to be up to 200.) The enemies were armed to the teeth with ‘jigida’ of bullets crisscrossing their bodies. Sothe communities reached out (as it is rumoured) to the ‘big’ men from their areas.It is said that some were able to raise hugesums of money to arm their villages. This also meant training. People learn how to operate these weapons.

When there was another attack in a particular area, they were repelled easily enough. That was a shock to the attackers.

So all should have been well right?

Nope. Wrong.

Security forces began to conduct ‘sweeping’exercises to ensure that people were not armed. Guess who they started with. The ‘defenders’.

Protect people, na wahala.

Allow people to protect themselves. No.

Now there are other communities that couldn't raise the money to buy weapons. Some did and recruited retired force men to help them and the men took off with their funds.

The attackers are relentless. You cannot fight them with your mouth. Unless you have degrees in special effects martial arts, I am unaware of how you can deflect bullets with machetes.

Other communities were able to hide their cache of weapons, band together vigilantes that patrol every night and keep these attackers off. Lucky them.

Now in Plateau, there was some talk aboutBerom people being the cause of the wahala with the Fulani. While it hurts to see other ethnicities facing this, in a way we have been vindicated. Governor Jang was hated and accused of using state funds to buy weaponry for his Berom people. Even if he did, was it bad? If officially, his hands were too tied to do much, I do not blame him if it is true that he did anything unofficially.

I once wrote something passionate about the killings in Berom communities, some Igbo guy said.“Good for them, na God dey pay them backfor fighting Biafra. Yeye! Let them sit downand be crying and not look for how to defend themselves.”

You do not know half of what Plateau people have seen and done. It is my prayer that you will never have to go to the distance that Plateau people went.

Are you surprised when you hear that there was a time Plateau People were so incensed by the killings that some people actually ate the flesh of the attackers caught. Because they said the people killing women and children in the dead of the night were animals. And animals are food.

This is how bad it got.

What am I saying?
It is complicated.

Admit to yourselves. We are mostly sitting ducks. If a truckload of armed men drove to your area right now, could you stay and fight? If you called the police and the soldiers and they arrived 5hours after your area has been wiped off the map, what will you do?

I do not blame state governors. When you are doing what you can and powers beyond you are carefully pulling things apart, what can you do?

You want to put together state security men and women that you can guide and control to achieve peace but politics no go gree…

Finally Buhari’s handlers are obviously afraid.

They are afraid of offending him with the truth of the brutality of his tribesmen. I am assuming he doesn’t know.

I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody is quite clear. It is like everybody and nobody are one and the same… Fulani Herdsmen of which he is one.

originally posted on http://marjandmay.com/civilians-fighting-fulani-herdsmen-its-complicated/#.Vx9pbr7R7at.facebook

to be for-armed is to be for-warned

Such a Dilemma... Which way Nigeria?

Well said. I hope they learn from this.....

Threads like this make me cry




How will a stranger come to your home and overpower you evn wen you have home advantage, knowing your community than they do.

It really hurts.




It's high time we stopped relying on men in uniform to protect us.
They are trained to unleash attacks on Civilians not terrorist

Well written... this part shocked me...
Our south eastern brothers should learn to stop gloating and boasting

I once wrote something passionate about the killings in Berom communities, some Igbo guy said.“Good for them, na God dey pay them backfor fighting Biafra. Yeye! Let them sit downand be crying and not look for how to defend themselves..

my house is a one storey apartment.....all i need is a sniper rifle and some boxes of ammo.