FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2012
Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde at 5:28 PM
Discourse 348: The Fulani and the Genocide Dream of Jang
Discourse 348
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
The Fulani and the Genocide Dream of Jang
The death of a Senator and a member of the Plateau State House
of Assembly has once more drawn the attention of the country
to the unending crisis on the Plateau, not because there was
cessation in the conflict before their deaths but because the crisis
has started to take a new dimension altogether. The list of
victims has, for the first time in the history of ethno-religious
conflicts in Nigeria, started to include the elite, and the
politicians especially.
While the sad development seems to worry everyone and there
are renewed calls for peace from many quarters, reports indicate
that the Joint Task Force (JTF), whose actions was responsible for
the escalation of the crisis recently, is busy destroying Fulani
settlements in Barikin Ladi amd Riyom Local Government Areas,
adding fuel to fire. Luggere, a Fulani stronghold, was destroyed
yesterday and its inhabitants forcefully dispersed.
"This morning", the Secretary of Miyetti Allah in Barikin Ladi Local
Government, Malam Mohammed Adam told the Daily Trust
yesterday, "soldiers came and started burning Fulani
settlements. As I speak to you now, they are busy burning all
Fulani settlements in Shong II, Wuro Bello, Gure Danegu, Dyola,
Rakweng, Sharu, Kuzeng, Luggel, Rachi, Matse and Afan. They are
backed up with helicopters and tanks."
Once more, in the quest for peace, the Nigerian authorities are
repeating the mistake they committed with Boko Haram in 2009.
They have not quenched that fire since. Yet, they are starting a
bigger one.
The Background
A proper understanding of the conflict must be located within
the framework of the genocidal agenda of the Berom. They have
vowed to cleanse the areas they dominate of the Hausa and the
Fulani. Today, except in their strongholds like Sabongidan
Danyaya, Barikin Ladi town, and few other tin settlements like
Dorawar Babuje, all the Hausa villages in Berom-dominated
areas have been wiped out. The countryside has been cleansed
of nearly forty such settlements.
The flight of the Hausa and sedentary Fulani was not prompted
by cowardice, I believe, but by the luxury of the alternative they
have. They could migrate into the comfort of other Hausa
communities in other towns in the state or neighbouring ones to
continue with their farming and petty trading. Of course, their
flight comes with a lot of loss of capital and property.
Nevertheless, they should be grateful to nature for endowing
them with that option, which it has denied the cattle Fulani. This
fact is at the core of the ongoing conflict.
It was not that the Berom spared the Fula naturalis in cognizance
of the longstanding association between the two groups. Not at
all. Many attacks have been moffered by Berom militia but, this
time, unlike in the case with the Hausa, the Fulani in all their
major settlements in Beromland have so far been repelling such
attacks successfully with equal, if not superior, force. It is this
balance of terror that has enabled the Fulani to stay put there,
while the fuel of genocide continues to burn in the heart of the
Berom emperor, His Excellency, Governor David Jonah Jang. The
Fulani has to do this because nature has not offered him a better
choice as it did to others.
Nature has consigned the Fulani to his cattle and in Africa the
cattle has consigned him to the bush. He has no option except to
live in the countryside where his master – the cattle – would
flourish. In the gospel of his survival, he must cherish the grass
and fight to the last drop of his blood for his natural master to
graze uncultivated forests and grassland. Since his appearance in
West Africa a millennium ago, he has obediently followed his
cattle to wherever they led him. There is hardly any country in
West, Central and, now, East Africa where he has not set his foot
on and he continues to press southward, following the African
Drainage Basin, until one day his herd drinks from the Orange
River in South Africa.
The conflict with the Berom has endured precisely because it is
among the very few cases where attempts were made in history
to expel the Fulani completely from a place. Nowhere has this
strategy ever succeeded in the history of West Africa since it
started in the period of Sonni Ali, one of the kings of the ancient
Songhai Empire. Conflict with the Fulani could be prolonged and
they may even sustain heavy casualties and disappear for a
while; but soon their cattle would guide them back, one way or
the other, to settle on the once hostile land. Only the tsetse fly
has succeeded in barring the them from some territories, before.
Today, even that threat is gone, with deforestation and the
availability of effective drugs against bovine blood parasites.
Their cows are today successfully grazing in the Niger Delta, on
the Atlantic coast.
This understanding is important in the scheme of any dream,
conflict or peace that involves the Fulani. His natural burden to
cater for the cow must be recognized. This has led him to the
innate belief that his cattle have a universal right to natural grass
wherever it may be, just as the Americans believe in mankind’s
universal rights to natural resources. Beromland cannot be an
exception. All the Fulani asks for is grass, water and respect for
his life and property. Nothing more. He is not interested in
competing with the Berom in politics, education or trade. Almost
all African tribes he visited so far have granted him those rights
and that of passage through their territory to wherever his
masters would take him.
If only the Berom, as many other tribes did, would appreciate
the burden that his Fulani brother carris and allow him to graze
the uncultivated fields without harassment or attempt to evict
him, peace with the Fulani would be as easy as breathing air.
Is this a special demand that the Fulani are obliged to beg for?
No. The Fulani are Nigerians as much as any other group. Every
tribe in Nigeria traces its origin somewhere outside the country
and from where, according to its elders, it immigrated. The
Berom, for example, trace their origins to Niger Republic!
Admittedly, the Fulani are the most recent arrivals, starting just
some 500 years ago, but that does not make them less bonafide
citizens of Nigeria. He is a native of Nigeria. By official
connotation, a native is any non-European living in the country
at the time of British conquest. The Fulani is entitled to
constitutional rights like any other Nigerian. He may be living
alone in the bush, with his nuclear family and herd of cows. He
may be illiterate with no knowledge of the constitution or
common law. He may be weak, without a political body
supporting him or protecting his rights. But Nigerian he remains,
undeniably.
Over the past 400 years, the Fulani herdsmen have lived on the
Plateau peacefully with all other native groups without any
major conflict. They have contributed to its rural economy,
including jobs for families whose members they employ to
attend to their cows. They have raised many children of other
tribes and benefitted them in various ways. A story that
Governor Jang is never tired of telling people is how he was
raised by a Fulani family and sponsored his early education. Now
he is paying them back with deaths and destruction! His majesty,
the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Mr. Gyang Buba, ascribes his Fulani
surname to a Fulani neighbour his family once lived with. And so
on. The two examples speak volumoft about the peaceful
coexistence that has developed over the centuries between the
Fulani and other tribes on the Bauchi Plateau - as it is properly
called in geography.
Escalation
The Fulani believe that the recent escalation in the crisis is
caused by a new Berom strategy. Knowing very well from
previous major encounters that his people are no match to the
Fulani even with the resources of government at his disposal (he
once offered to buy their men braziers when thousands of them
fled their towns after their defeat in one of those encounters last
year) and neither can he convince the federal government to
withdraw the soldiers from the streets, Jang has now resorted to
using the JTF under its new Commander to fight his proxy war
against the Fulani. If one commander could decline the offer, he
can be replaced by another whoEqui would take it.
And of taking it many people are accusing the new JTF
commander, Major-General Henry Ayoola. Thus, under him, the
death of a promiscuous, heavy drinking mobile policeman under
the JTF and the loss of his rifle at Karaku were instantly, without
any investigation, hanged on the neck of all the Fulani and
troops went on mass destruction of their homes and cows in
Bangwai and dozens of their villages in Barikin Ladi local
governments. Yet, when the Fulani complained of the
destruction, the JTF publicly denied knowledge of such attacks.
And it continues to claim ignorance on what is now common
knowledge.
Are we witnessing a repeat of Maiduguri here? Every rational
Nigerian will agree that the strategy of using crass force to settle
civilian issues does not work. This was the mistake that the
Nigerian authorities made in the case of Boko Haram and for
which the country is paying dearly today. When compared to the
international brotherhood of the Fulani, Boko Haram could just
be a drop in the ocean.
Government is punishing the victims of the Berom genocide
agenda. Why is the conflict in Plateau State now reduced to
Berom territory only? Are they the only tribe among whom the
Fulani live in the state? Why would, in the quest for peace, must
the homes of innocent citizens be destroyed? Why is the JTF
denying them the return to their ruined homes? How can the
death of a policeman and the loss of his rifle justify these human
rights abuses? Let us not forget that the conflict with Boko Haram
started by the shooting of their members at a funeral procession
who did not wear a motorcycle helmet. Is riding a motorcycle
without a helmet enough a justification to kill many Nigerian
citizens?
If the JTF had taken it's time investigate the killer of the
promiscuous policman, the crisis would not have escalated in
the first place. The lives of the Senator and many others would
have been saved. But many people believe that it is an agenda.
The Agenda
There is a general understanding amongst the residents of the
State that only the state governor has the key to its peace. That
key doe not have a duplicate. Unfortunately, as General Jeremiah
Husaini (rtd), one of the elders in the state, said this morning
over the BBC, the governor is not disposed to the peaceful
resolution of the crisis. He impervious to advice, said the retired
general.
One may dismiss Husaini as a persistent Tarok opponent of
governor Jang. He is not, at least on this case. Though the crisis
started before his tenure, by 2007 when Jang was sworn in as
the governor, most of the ethno-religious conflicts in the state
have ceased. Dariye’s dream of cleansing the Plateau of Hausa-
Fulani had clearly proved unattainable and abandoned especially
after he was rustled by Obasanjo and the EFCC. People of various
ethnic groups were moving about freely in the state without any
hindrance. Business returned. Some who fled had even started
returning. However, Jang renewed the genocidal dream by
committing himself to three Berom-centred goals: developing
his Berom homeland, cleansing it of the much bigoted Hausa-
Fulani, and vesting all political power in Jos and its environs in
his tribesmen. This is why the entire state is quiet, except
Beromland.
Jang has largely succeeded on all the three objectives. At the
expense of human lives, he has made other groups
inconsequential in the scheme of things in Jos and its environs.
That was his strategy behind conducting the local government
election of 2008 against all security advice. He has also built a
good road network in his entire Beromland, to the envy of other
ethnic groups in the state. The roads leading even to remotest
Berom villages are either completed and asphalt rendered or
about to be completed. He has, as we noted earlier, also
succeeded in expelling most Hausas and many sedentary Fulani
from most of the tin mining settlements in Beromland. The only
people he is yet to beat are the cattle Fulani.
Expelling the Fulani from Beromland is a record that Jang would
like to achieve but from what is going on, the Fulani have vowed
never to allow him win that gold medal. So long as grass will
continue to grow there, so long as the land and property the
Fulani legitimately acquired remain there, so long as their lives
and property are vandalized without the protection from
government, these African gypsies, from all indications, will
continue to fight for their dear lives and those of their masters.
Their basic constitutional rights are the minimum that I know
they, like any other group of Nigerians, will never compromise
on.
The Road to Peace
The road to peace therefore is one: the constitution as I have
always argued. Let the dream of cleansing Beromland of Fulani
end in the heart of Jang and he will find the Fulani instantly
willing to embrace peace. This has happened in other parts of
the state. As the governor, Jang has vowed to protect the lives
and property of all Nigerians under his domain. He must keep
that promise. Only then will Berom and Fulani live in peace.
Otherwise, this crisis will last for generations to come.
As a side note, the JTF under its new commander must not be
partial on this matter. If it cannot protect the Fulani, it must not
join forces with Jang to eliminate them and their property.
Attempting to do so will definitely lead to loss of more lives of
Berom and their supporters. The Fulani cannot be eliminated.
They have never been.
Let me assure all concerned that in spite of the ongoing brutality
the Fulani will survive this crisis. So far they have survived the
hostilities of ancient Mali, Songhai, Gobir, and Borno empires.
Some of those empires they crippled, some they stamped out
completely in spite of their small number, and with the rest they
were able to live peacefully until the present time. In all those
instances, they were equipped with nothing but three things
that nobody can deny them: the valour of the nomad, two, the
strength that they derive from their unmatched group feeling –
or ‘asabiyya as Ibn Khaldun would call it and, three, the strong
thirst for justice. That group feeling has been responsible for the
defeat of most sedentary dynasties in the past. It is also the key
to the survival of the nomads today. As for their thirst for justice,
they are never satisfied until it is served in full measure their
aggressors, either by the authorities or by them.
The power of Jang cannot match that of Ahmad Sekou Toure, the
longest serving Mallinke President of Guinea who revived the
hate of his ancestor, Sonni Ali. Toure assassinated and murdered
in cold blood over thirty thousands Fulani intellectuals, leaders
and tribesmen during his 26-year tenure. But they survived him,
using their estrangement to work harder until they gained
control of over 80% of the Guinean economy today. Jang, in spite
of the support he is able to buy, is not more than a child trying to
break a coconut with his teeth. Ridding Beromland of Fulani can
only be temporary and certainly makes it more vulnerable to
attacks by their brothers from other parts of West Africa. Take
this to the bank.
As a minority in the area and on the disadvantaged side in the
conflict, the Fulani were not successful in initiating peace with
the Berom in the past. All their attempts were rebuffed. It is the
move of the more preponderant and government-backed Berom
that would be successful, given their monopoly over land and
state resources. But the Berom, even if they want peace, are
under the spell of their emperor, Jang. He controls their
paramount chief and their youths. He has a choice between
peace and violence.
The choice of violence, on the one hand, is not a wise one
because violence is a two-way commodity: Pain on this side, and
pain on the other. With the egalitarian Fulani, you get just as
much pain as you give him. The road to peace, on the other, is
quiet and its results are three-dimensional: In this case, peace to
the Berom, peace to the Fulani and peace to other Nigerians
living on the Plateau.
With the support he enjoys from the press, his ethnic group, law
enforcement agents, Plateau courts and the state treasury, Jang
may foolishly choose to remain recalcitrant and prefer violence
to peace. We pray that he one day sees the light, become wiser
and listen to elders of the State such that the lives of to meddle
into Plateau affairs.
Lastly, may peace be upon the leader who brings peace to his
people. And already blessed are the people who seek justice, no
matter the odds, without surrendering.
Bauchi

These fulani and hausa trouble makers should relocate from plateau and go back to jigawa,bauchi or kano;at least they have enough land there.they come to beromland,build settlements and start fighting berom people,jtf should destroy all their settlements in plateau,benue,taraba.

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Look good