Criminality emanating from bloody grazing (ranging from rape, murder and kidnapping to destruction of crops all perpetrated by some Fulani headsmen) has reached alarming proportions. So, when push comes to shove, and when government’s cardinal responsibility to provide security for life / property is not forthcoming, one does not need written permits to resort to self-defence.

In such a predicament, self-defence has priority over propriety. Those affected by the cold-bloodedness of herders’ dastardly actions and see it continuing unchecked are saying that the emotional and spontaneous self-defence by Sunday Igboho and his likes are not unnatural. The ordinary man is the most affected by the herders’ brutality. Ironically, many members of the ruling elite who are supposed to fight or speak for the people remain taciturn, as they are strategising to win elections come 2023.

As a result, many people in nearly all the geopolitical zones of this country are ready to take up arms to defend their territories should they find a Sunday Igboho in their zones. Hence, victims and prospective victims of herders’ barbarism in Ibarapa area of Oyo State are thanking God for the gift of Igboho. They see him as a selfless activist and true embodiment of self-defence. Similarly, many tribes see him as an eye-opener to stakeholders, the voiceless and the helpless.

The activist knew the consequences of his actions. Nevertheless, he courageously took a dangerous risk to rescue his people from rampaging Fulani herders. Although activists are always threatened and treated like criminals by constituted authorities, to the Oyo people, and the most helpless Nigerians, Sunday Igboho is a messiah. Many people are saying he brought a new dimension to self-defence, at a time a domineering tribe is treating others as nonentities and conquered tribes!

This piece is pivoted on a personal opinion. It is not a cascade of praises for Sunday Igboho. Its objective is to conduct a precise analysis of the Igangan-like imbroglio in this country to enable readers, as umpires, update their opinions.

Either right or wrong, Sunday Igboho has reasons for venting his anger. No matter the degree of an offence, the offender must have a sympathiser. For instance, a person committed matricide. While people were blaming him, somebody asked: “Do you know what his mother did to him?” Meaning that one person has looked at the case from a different perspective. And that is why opinions are personal.

It is disheartening to note we now live in a country where the dog-eat-dog philosophy is on rapid increase. The name “Fulani herdsmen” has been an affix to forest criminality. The rate at which these herdsmen flaunt militancy and get away with crimes makes many Nigerians see them as above the law.

In addition, herdsmen’s disrespect for culture and traditions of host communities, ready resort to deadly violence, misinterpretation of Nigeria's constitution for herders’ nation-wide claim to land-ownership, arrogance, muscle flexing, and exasperating utterances from some Northern leaders, give many Nigerians the impression they've been conquered in their own land. Hence, the urgent call for self-defence. Especially now the government’s security machinery is at a dangerously low ebb! Judging from these reasons, many Nigerians are saying Sunday Igboho falls within the category of self-defence. He is also protecting the interest of a tribe. Therefore, his arrest might precipitate series of crises.

So, viewing the present murderous scenarios from the perspective of Fulanis' jihad-oriented conquest, and based on the natural law of self-defence, many nationalities in Nigeria would certainly do the same as Sunday Igboho. In this regard, peace-loving people are saying, in order not to further heat up the polity, Igboho’s case needs to be handled with extreme care and fairness that lacks nuance of selective judgment.

Although for personal reasons, many southern elite pretend to be unconcerned with Fulani herdsmen’s invasion of the South, the grassroots who are living in trepidation, and many southern elite who are not aspiring to any political office in 2023, strongly support Sunday Igboho. They will also protect him, because he is fighting their cause.

Should we continue to issue threats, and presumably make life too difficult and unsafe for Sunday Igboho, and he decides to take cover somewhere and continue to fight underground, that may be tantamount to our leaders’ lack of crisis-management skills. Such a mistake may ossify the progress of our hard-to-rebuild one-Nigeria project. They who rebuke their child in public harden them.

From a constitutional point of view, Sunday Igboho has no right to issue an ultimatum, because the word “ultimatum” is a threat, it does not complement peace. It is a warning that there will be a negative or positive reaction that could result in breach of public peace if certain wrongs (as presumed by the reactionary) were not corrected. ‘Ultimatum’ is synonymous with force.

Although no individual has constitutional power to use force on anyone else, perhaps herders carrying AK-47s to forcibly graze on people’s farmland are exempted! The boom in kidnappings and all the havoc wreaked in Igangan, Oyo State, and other parts of the country were more than enough to detonate anger. Yet government is not listening to the people screaming bloody murder.

Based on utterances and body-language of some powerful Northern leaders, particularly the leadership of Miyetti Allah, herders’ blood-thirst and forest-crime bristling with impunity on daily basis, some tribes are saying the Fulani hegemonic and ethnic chauvinism the apex of arrogance. Others are saying they feel overrun and conquered in their own land. No doubt, Fulani herdsmen are tenaciously managing their armoury in virtually all zonal forests in the country, forgetting that you can win a war, but you can’t defeat the people completely.

Unless immediate and positive actions are taken to restore peace, wars are at our door-steps, because some Fulani herdsmen have injured national unity. Consequently, co-existence is at death’s door. Should we make the mistake of allowing the forthcoming self-defence syndrome in all the zones metamorphose into sophisticated zonal armies, how many wars can Nigeria simultaneously fight? If Boko Haram is so confident of victory, especially with the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, declaring the insurgency would last 20 years! What would the situation become when many other zones take up arms in self-defence?

Owing to lack of respect for ethnicity, crisis management, practice of pseudo-federalism, vituperative utterances, hatred and breakdown of security, the pillar of one Nigeria has tilted towards disintegration. It has never been this bad! Even the imbroglio that led to the Nigerian civil war was not this universally spread. Herders have surpassed beating the drum of war; they are already at war. The AK-47 forest-battle is a clear evidence of war against law-abiding citizens. But they forget that the ill-wind of crisis does nobody any good.

In conclusion, not minding the adverse consequences of crises, if we arrogantly go to war, we shall eventually end up at the roundtable. Therefore, it is prudent we settle for the latter now. Nigeria is overdue for a true and major restructuring that will reflect unpolluted federalism. Anything short of that is a threat to national unity.

SOURCE (abridged): https://punchng.com/herders-bloody-grazing-criminality-and-self-defence/

Private Ranching is the best way to go. Southerners should also embrace animal production just as they are doing in the poultry and fishery industry. This will guarantee quality beef production.