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The thief sent by his own father breaks the doors with his leg
- Nigerian adage
[/size] The herdsmen in Nigeria appear to have gained a new spur. They have become much more defiant and deadly, now completely acting above the law. What is more, the Federal Government has been, at best, lukewarm about it. The patronizing silence of Government, States and Federal, about this treacherous development has only served as reinforcement to their new level of dangerousness.
There is a gathering of social forces forging their fresh impunity. In political life, the power of the front seat confers a special feeling on those who one of their own has come to occupy a high position of authority. The Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria should be feeling a new high on power, giving the fact that the President of Nigeria is of the same stock. The President doesn’t need to be more directly connected to the herdsmen or be their patron for this feeling to exist, and that is what is called Proximity to Power in Political Psychology.
If the cited political behaviour is a universal phenomenon, it then logically follows that those who are in positions of power have special roles to play in leashing and mitigating the excesses of their kinsmen. Under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Ijaw, especially former militants, hopped around like kings, drove choice cars, lived in mansions in Abuja and major cities, and junketed the globe. The ex-militant commanders got outrageous contracts, some in areas they knew next to nothing and made those areas of national concern contracted to them to grow worse. Such contracts ranged from sundry matters to national security. While wildly celebrating their proximity to power through their son, Jonathan did very little to curtail the excesses of his kinsmen and it counted gravely against him in the last election.
President Buhari cannot afford to fall into the same trap. The President, who promptly condemned the Brussels bombing and asked for peace in Burundi, owes it a duty to Nigerians to speak up and hold the herdsmen accountable. Even the security agencies appear scared to face the herdsmen apparently for not being sure of the stand of Mr. President. This explains why it took the soldiers weeks to mobilize to Agatu where over 300 citizens were said to have been massacred by herdsmen and dozens of houses razed; while it took them perhaps only hours to rise to the arrest of the Ugwuleshi 76 in Enugu. Notwithstanding the United Nation’s agency report that Agatu is in total ruins, there is still no official Federal Government reaction to the callous incident.
With this growing impunity, the herdsmen pushed east and have been engaged in bloody battles with many communities in Enugu and Abia States. The height of it was the said arrest of 76 farmers in Ugwuleshi in Awgu, Enugu State, for protesting the abduction of two underage girls from their community and herdsmen trampling on their farm crops. The farmers’ action, as a classic case of self-help, is a rash response to the refusal of State and the Federal Government to act like governments.
Governments exist for the protection of lives and properties. Here, inactions of Government are only promoting anarchy. In Nigeria, primary functions of government have been so poorly performed, leading to widespread civil disobediences and even terrorism. Governance being at the lowest ebb, most Public Utilities have all collapsed, thus forcing the citizens to provide virtually everything for themselves. Rather than fix the bad education sector, Government officials, past and present, use dubious means to send their children overseas for proper education, leaving the poor citizens to their fate in Nigeria. Such children return to choice appointments, reminiscent of the recent secret recruitments of only the children of top Nigerians at the Central Bank of Nigeria by the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as part of his ploy to retain his job.
President Buhari promised to do things differently and, for that reason, cannot afford to continue in the old ways that have brought the country only underdevelopment, disunity and disrepute. Years ago, it was Plateau State, a place once prided as the safest and most clement State in Nigeria but now, the activities of the herdsmen have succeeded in turning it into a nightmare. Even the indigenes of Plateau State are now scared of travelling home. Days ago, it was Agatu. A little before Agatu, Gabriel Suswam as Governor and his convoy were nearly wiped out by herdsmen in Benue State. And now, it is Ugwuleshi, Enugu State and the arrest of the 76 farmers. Nobody knows where next and the dimension it would take with the abduction of a catholic priest, fresh attacks on Agatu and more communities in Enugu State only days ago.
The arrest and detention of the Ugwuleshi 76 at the Umuahia Prisons raises many posers. They were said to have been arrested by soldiers and taken to Zone 9 Police Command in Umuahia. The army denied involvement, insisting that those involved could be fake soldiers. If indeed the soldiers were fake, how come the Police incidented the case? First Information Reports (FIR) supplied by a complainant is so vital that without it, the authenticity of a case is dead on arrival, in criminal matters. Yet, fake soldiers handed over as many as 76 arson suspects to the Police and the Police accepted them and permitted the fake soldiers to go away. It brings up also the kind of policing going on in the country.
Let us even for a moment accept they were arrested by genuine soldiers. Their offence was protesting the alleged abduction of two of their women and destruction of their crops by herdsmen and Government response was to only charge them in two Magistrate Courts on a five-count charge bordering on arson and illegal possession of dangerous weapons while allowing their attackers to operate freely.
The Land Use Act vests the ownership of lands in Nigeria in the State Governments. That explains why State Governments and the FCT constantly demolish illegal structures on lands not officially allocated and without approved building plans. Why then should the shanty settlements of the herdsmen be treated as though they are officially allocated and their building plans approved by the State Governments?
What is more, why would Governments wait for the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers to escalate to the point where farmers would have to attack and destroy such settlements and herdsmen forced to fight back in reprisal? What are State Governments really there for? Why can’t they create ranches and make money off them and ban roaming of animals in their domains? They have the constitutional powers to do so. But can they?
Nigerians are aware that these wimpy Governors are scared stiff, especially now that the President is himself, a Fulani. But they do not need to live in trepidation or act belligerently. Governors do not need to ban herdsmen in their States. They lack the constitutional right to do so but certainly have the powers to regulate their activities. Governors can, therefore, engage Mr. President constructively and together they can arrive at the route to peace. In other words, these incessant murders and arsons as a result of herdsmen-farmers’ clashes are a failure of governance. The families who lost loved ones and properties due to the inactions of Governments in this regard should seek legal redress in Nigerian and international courts for the criminal negligence and dereliction of duty.
Equally important, the opportunities being discounted in settled animal husbandry are enormous. The system of ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats) husbandry in Nigeria draws herdsmen from up to a dozen countries in West Africa who cross the borders through the bushes without visas and fight together from country to country. For very strange reasons, Government after Government have all been afraid to replace the time-worn method of nomadism and roaming of animals with ranching system of keeping animals in restricted environments.
The ongoing carnage and destruction being perpetrated against local communities across the country by the herdsmen just have to stop. The tepidity and indifference of the Government have to stop also. Though long before the Buhari administration, the herdsmen have been murdering innocent Nigerians with impunity and there have been hardly any prosecutions.
The overarching reason the President has to speak up and act decisively now is this: Boko Haram, presently regarded as the world number one most dangerous terror organization and the Fulani herdsmen, considered the fourth, have a good chance of forming a deadly symbiotic relationship to yield up a more dangerous terrorist force to the fulfillment of Governor Kashim Shetima’s prophesy that a group worse than Boko Haram is coming. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has also raised the alarm days ago that another dangerous group - “Gausiyya” - has already emerged in Kaduna. http://www.authorityngr.com/2016/04/Herdsmen-impunity-and-pregnant-silence-of-Mr-President/ |
