Nigeria is at the precipice time! This is a known fact. The daily killing of people by the fulani herdsmen has created fear in the mind of Nigerians. As we speak, no region is safe from the incessant attacks. The fulani herdsmen now carry AK-47; a sophisticated weapon to terrorise farmers who refuses to surrender his farm to be destroyed in the name of grazing. While people are been kidnapped on a daily basis by this so called herders.
A few months back, the Nigeria government made a law to give all African travellers visas on arrival from, dropping the requirement that they apply in advance.
President Muhammadu Buhari said it showed Nigeria’s commitment to “free movement of Africans within Africa”. This movement has allowed and opened the Nigerian borders to all Fulani who are not Nigerians to come into the country without hindrance. Hence, some of this people are causing mayhem and are been caught in kidnapping and other major offences.
Between 2017 and May 2, 2020, Fulani herdsmen conducted 654 attacks, killed 2,539 and kidnapped 253 people in Nigeria, a report obtained by ThisDay has shown
The report titled, ‘Working Document — Fulani Militias’ Terror: Compilation of News (2017-2020),’ revealed blood-curdling statistics of vicious attacks, deaths and kidnappings by the herdsmen.
It stated that the herdsmen assaults against farmers in Nigeria were “regular, systematic, targeted attacks.”
The author of the report José Luis Bazán, an independent researcher and analyst, based in Brussels, Belgium, said, “Nigerians are suffering widespread and systematic terrorist attacks by, mainly, Boko Haram, the ISIL-aligned Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), Fulani militias and Ansaru.”
Bazán, however, pointed out: “The Global Terrorist Index 2019 published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, indicates that the primary driver of the increase in terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa was a rise in terrorist activity in Nigeria attributed to Fulani extremists: in 2018, Fulani extremists were responsible for the majority of terror-related deaths in Nigeria (1,158 fatalities), with an increase by 261 and 308 percent respectively from the prior year.”
The report noted that most of the “Fulani attacks were armed assaults” (200 out of 297 attacks) against civilians (84 percent of the attacks).
A breakdown analysis of the document by THISDAY indicates that in 2017, there were 99 attacks resulting in the killing of 202 people while 12 were kidnapped. In 2018, the attacks intensified rising to 245 resulting in bloodbath that caused 1,478 deaths. The number of those kidnapped during that period rose to 29. Last year, 169 attacks, 524 killings, and three kidnappings were reported.
So far, in 2020 as of May 2, according to the report, there were 141 attacks, 335 people killed and 137 kidnapped.
There’s an unconfirmed rumours about the fulani agenda which says that The Visa on Arrival Policy is a deliberate effort to allow fulani settle in every part of the world to come Nigeria and dominate politically and population wise. It’s been claimed that on several occasions that Nigeria is the headquarters of Fulani in Africa.
The fulani still see themselves as a minority and to have the population that would give them that edge over others, the need for Fulani settlement in every part of the country would be a solution to accomplish their vision.
Another reason why Buhari has refused to stop the fulani crisis is because he’s the grand patron of herdsmen in Nigeria. Alot of people don’t know this! He knows them well and he understands their game plan. Mr President sees herdsmen as one of them and the herdsmen also see him that way. The herders believe that, they can’t be prosecuted for their wrongdoing.
Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, a few years ago labelled President Muhammadu Buhari as the Grand Patron of Fulani herdsmen when the fulani herdsmen carried out a deadly attack in Benue state.
Omokri, said President Buhari cannot arrest the killer herdsmen because he is the godfather of the mafia group.
Another vital point why Buhari has refused to call the herdsmen to order is because it’s generally believed in their (Fulani) midst that there suprioior and are more privileged than any other ethnic group. They believe they own everything especially land in every part of Nigeria. They even feel Nigeria belong to them. In an interview with the Daily Sun, the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, he released a bombshell stating that a cow may not mean much to other Nigerians, but to Fulani, a cow is worth more than a hundred human lives.
Bodejo stated this after he had earlier claimed that Fulanis have no particular settlement because they own every land in this country.
He insisted that cattle to them is “as a brother is to someone else”. He said cows don’t live in cities, therefore Abuja or Lagos are useless to Fulanis unless the cities are converted into grazing fields for their cattle. Bodejo made the statement while responding to questions in an interview with Daily Sun.
Asked why Fulani prefers forests over cities, he said, “We don’t need cities or towns. If you dash us FCT or the city of Lagos, we won’t have anything to do with it. We want a place where we continue to practice our age long culture of cattle rearing. We inherited it from our forefathers and it will continue till the end of the world.”
On why they don’t take permission before settling on lands or forests not belonging to them, he questioned, “Which forest, who has the forest?” Then added, “Any person who thinks he owns any forest should be taken to psychiatric hospital. Nobody owns any forest; forests are for Nigerians,” he declared assertively.
Speaking further, he said, “Fulani herdsmen have the right to move into any forest and settle there for their business.
“Why do farmers go and cultivate thousands of hectare of land and fence them, who gave them that land?
“Nobody is born with land in this country; people were just moving from one place to another for settlement.
“Fulani are settling in every community, but we are not claiming land, we are only interested on how our cows will have food to eat.
“Fulani can’t value 100 people’s lives like he values a cow because since he was born, he doesn’t have any business except that cow. The cow is like his own brothers and sisters. If anything happens to his cow, do you think he will leave you?
“You have two or three storey buildings and you park your cars, do you fold your hands and watch somebody come to that house to carry your cars, your clothes, your wife, and destroy the buildings? You must fight. The Fulani man values his cow just as you value your brother and sister and you go all out to protect them.
“They love their cows beyond description, you can’t separate them from their cows to go and stay inside town or city. The cows have names. The way you give your children names when they were born is the same way they name their cows.
“Even a person who has one thousand cows, gives each cow individual name and he knows them by name; the cows have fathers, grandfathers and grandchildren. What you have in human beings – the ways names are given to people, the same way Fulani gives names to their cows.
“We are cow lovers, that is why sometimes if they killed our cows somewhere, we’d go there to seek justice, because we take that like somebody has killed our brothers; we must go to see who did that and we won’t leave that person alone.” Bodejo reiterated.
-ISAAC ABIMBADE
READ ALSO: PRIMATE AYODELE’S PROPHECIES COME TO PASS
Send Us News, Gist, more... to citypeopleng@gmail.com | Twitter: @CitypeopleMagz
