₦airaland Forum

PRESIDENT Buhari’s silence and inaction on the issue of Fulani herdsmen seems to have poured petrol on the long smoldering embers of the Fulani menace in Nigeria. So there is a need to raise two questions: (a) Is Buhari’s inaction part of his Caliphate hidden agenda? (b) Is the Sultan of Sokoto, as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MACBAN, the cattle breeders association, not the Grand Patron of a criminal enterprise – an enterprise that uses, for its economic gain, the crimes of trespassing, destruction of other people’s property, kidnapping, arson, murder, ethnic cleansing etc.?

Jonathan with Afenifere chieftains at Pa Fasoranti’s residence
In his Inaugural Address, President Buhari mentioned some security issues that he would solve as part of his change agenda. Among them was “herdsmen/farmer clashes”:
“Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people–friendly and well–compensated security forces within an over–all security architecture.” — President Buhari’s inaugural speech, on May 29, 2015  
Though he didn’t give it the priority and emphasis he gave to Boko Haram, these herdsmen/farmers clashes have quickly escalated into a security problem of far greater countrywide menace than even Boko Haram.
Countrywide menace
Yet he has said nothing and done nothing visible to solve it. Perhaps his change agenda does not include change in this long-established security problem in Nigeria. If so why? As we shall see further down in this x-ray, because of its territorial scope and its potential to ignite inter-ethnic war in 5 of the 6 zones of Nigeria, this Fulani menace is by far a greater threat to the lives of Nigerians and to the peace and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state than Boko Haram. Yet President Buhari has thus far chosen to leave it unaddressed. Why?
Reports of the criminal activities of Fulani herdsmen have captured the headlines since May 29. And Afenifere, the apex socio-cultural organ of the Yoruba nationality, stung by the exceptional provocation of the abduction of Chief Olu Falae, a distinguished Nigerian, Yoruba grandee and one of Afenifere’s leaders, reacted by renewing its threat of Yoruba secession from Nigeria.
Under the pressure of bad publicity and the Afenifere threat, the Caliphate has, among other measures, trotted out one of its Yoruba apologists to try to douse the political fires. Femi Falana has tried to minimize the problem by reducing it to one of effective law enforcement.
He condemns as “unfortunate” Afenifere’s escalating the matter to the constitutional and political level that threatens the integrity of the Nigerian territorial state. According to Femi Falana:  “But the crisis of insecurity of life and property in the region became exacerbated after the 2015 general elections  . . . the kidnap of Chief Olu Falae, a former secretary to the federal government in his farm in the outskirt of Akure, Ondo state last month added a new dimension to the kidnap saga in the region. . . . Chief Falae announced last week that his farm had been invaded . . . and taken over by a group of Fulani nomads. In a classical display of impunity, the Nigeria Police Force has failed to dislodge the lawless group.
Instead of calling on the security agencies to enforce the law by arresting and prosecuting the group some Yoruba leaders threatened that the south-west region would secede from Nigeria if Fulani nomads are not banned from entering the region! It is unfortunate that the senior citizens who issued the threat did not address the legal implications of their demand. It ought to be pointed out that every Nigerian has a constitutional right not to be expelled from any part of the country.
Criminal gang
Chief Falae is likely to be pained that the illegal occupation of his farm by a criminal gang may degenerate to civil disturbances between Yoruba farmers and Fulani nomads. More so, that Chief Falae was at the 2014 National Conference where it was unanimously agreed by delegates that “In the long term cattle routes and grazing reserves be phased out to lay emphasis on ranching” and that states which have large livestock populations should “endeavor to maintain grazing reserves.”
It was further resolved that “An integrated development and livelihoods modernization program should be designed and implemented to address the issue of settling nomadic herdsmen into settled communities based on established cattle ranches with fodder development technologies, and including abattoirs, processors and other businesses along the livestock value chain.”
The recommendations have been ignored by the Federal Government.
—Beyond Chief Olu Falae’s kidnap, by Femi Falana, on October 12, 2015  
I will later return to the Confab aspect of Falana’s submission. But let me start by quoting two newspaper reports that put the Falae matter in its countrywide and historical context. First, a February 2014 report from Benue State: Speaking with newsmen at the Government House yesterday, [Benue State Gov.] Suswam lamented that the Fulani mercenaries have continued to wreck havoc on his people despite several efforts by his administration to foster peace with the herdsmen.
He noted that the average Fulani man now goes about with AK47, and that if the situation is not quickly addressed, indigenes might be forced to defend themselves. “Yesterday morning, Fulanis numbering over 700 attacked and destroyed the Tor Tiv’s village house. For them to have targeted the Tor Tiv’s house is an affront and totally unacceptable,” he said. “I have been trying since yesterday to control the situation because emotions have risen.”
Tribal war
Consequently, “our people have congenially been displaced from their homes by these Fulani herders on a daily basis. Some of our children have not been to school in the last two years because they have been displaced. If the situation is not quickly addressed, I fear that it may result into a tribal war soon.” — Fulani attacks in Benue, Fresh attacks on Borno http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php/news/national-news/150242-scores-killed-in-fresh-attacks-on-borno  Published Thursday, 20 February 2014
Here is a more comprehensive magazine article that casts light on the constitutional and other aspects: On Monday, 24th February, 2014, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN wrote what many Tiv indigenes in Benue State, North Central Nigeria regarded as a highly provocative letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Titled, Mr. President, Call Governor Suswam to Order Now Before It Is Too Late, MACBAN argued that their movement with their cattle across the country is covered by Section 41, Subsection 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which says that “every citizen is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereof or exit therefrom.”
The group also contended that the Constitution also expressly under Section 42, Sub-section (1) (a) forbids the imposition of any disabilities or restrictions on any citizen by any executive or administrative action against any citizen of any ‘community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion…” MACBAN whose motto is Read, Rear and Farm insisted that the herdsmen have lost hundreds of their lives and hundreds of thousands herds of their ancestral and generational wealth of cattle to what they called “criminal, genocidal marauding tribal and religious murderers who are calling themselves indigenes, farmers and Christians.”
Causes of the crisis
The group also called on the federal government to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the crisis between the herdsmen and farmers in the North Central Zone. “When the committee is set up, the government would see beyond the facade of wicked falsehood and propaganda,” MACBAN said. Before the letter to the President, the Tiv also alleged that the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar said the “Fulani have been grazing on their traditional grazing land in Tiv land.”
So, it is against this background that on Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue state set out on inspection of Guma Local Government Area of the State which had earlier been attacked by unknown Fulani herdsmen numbering over 100. The attackers, not only burned down the entire village but also killed more than 30 people.
The governor was probably warned by his security aides not to underestimate the unknown killers, who during the invasion of the village were said to have used sophisticated weapons. As a precaution, he took on his convoy a detachment of soldiers from an army barracks in the state to strengthen his security which also included men of the Nigerian Police and Department of State Security, DSS.
But while approaching the besieged village, the soldiers suddenly stopped and informed the governor that they were instructed to turn back by their superiors whose names they never mentioned. The governor nonetheless proceeded on the journey but a moment after, he came under heavy gunfire from yet to be identified attackers, who laid siege at Tsekenyi where he stopped over to inspect the level of damage done by the invaders.
In trying to repel the attackers, the governor’s security engaged them in gun duel for almost an hour before they finally succeeded in whisking the governor away in his vehicle.


Read more http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/afeniferes-threat-to-secede-from-nigeria-open-letter-to-sultan-of-sokoto/

K

Ok

QuotaSystem:
Something concrete must be done about these criminal herdsmen. If the deadly Oyo ritualists of Soka Forest could be contained and brought under control, then containing the activities of ordinary cattle herders in a foreign land should not be a problem.

Mo rerin igba iwase...

Buhary, Tinubu and all SW leaders in APC are all silent about the heinous crime committed by this herdsmen...

I congratulate Tinubu, as your people adopted him as your hero in the north. (Power is back to the North)... Hurray!

Nigeria Sitting on a Keg of Gunpowder!

SW - Menace of Herdsmen.

SS - You know it

SE - Fix it

North - Terrorism

All boiling with one form of agitation or the other.

yorrober don suffer for this fulani people hand. hahahaha!

What's all that gibberish you're typing? Are you mistaken?

The bolded is because everyone knows it's a PDP agenda championed by Odumakin, FFK, Falae and other failed Jonathan boys in the SW.

Firefire:
Mo rerin igba iwase...

Buhary, Tinubu and all SW leaders in APC are all silent about the heinous crime committed by this herdsmen...

So, orun ya bo ni, ki se oro enikan..

QuotaSystem:
What's all that gibberish you're typing? Are you mistaken?

The bolded is because everyone knows it's a PDP agenda championed by Odumakin, FFK, Falae and other failed Jonathan boys in the SW.

The power is back to you people, I beg no release am again oooo

Another propaganda trend.

Hahaha...so they are now talking of secession,no way for that it's only the biafrans that will secede,you people have signed one nigeria with the fulanis till eternity.

...,,,

Yoruba's don't be cowards... Fight for your right and do not be deceived by your leaders because they have failed and betrayed you and they will keep on failing. Nigeria has expired and the Biafrans are making waves. Google the world mehn.. Nigeria is a cesspit.