FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiTuesday, May 10, 2016
[email protected]
Bonn, Germany

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THESE ARE NOT REAL FULANI HERDSMEN,
BUT, THOSE TRAINED TO SOAK THE BABOONS AND MONKEYS IN BLOOD (3)

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Continued from Part 2

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion (Cornelius Tacitus)

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future (Herbert Spencer)

We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world (British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron)

here's this insinuation that the groups of alleged herdsmen or gangs operating in the middle belt states of Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and even those that recently killed scores of people in Zamfara State, are Boko Haram sect members. The Vanguard wrote that this development came to light following the confessions of some arrested Fulani herdsmen that took part in the killings and burning of houses in Wukari, Taraba State. If that's true, then, it goes a long way to confirm what I have been saying that the attackers are not ordinary Fulani herdsmen herding their cattle, but, organized groups formed for the maximization of destruction of lives and property.

Mike Ozekhome touched on the above point when he wrote that "When I was growing up in the sixties and seventies, we saw Fulani herdsmen, herding their cattle along the then desolate Agenebode-Auchi Road. The cattle defecated on the road, in a trail that stretched across kilometres. We would clap, dance and welcome them with songs of "malu, kova, daba daba kova, ikpisa yeghe the lakhia, edu nukpotha mho abo, ne the gbe la kpu kpu" (cows with hooves, being led by idle old men, who wield sticks with which they flogged them ceaselessly). The herdsmen, sticks across their shoulders, large straw Panama hats on their heads, a pitcher of water, visible amulets on their necks and arms, would simply smile at our innocence, and pass by. The relationship between them and the natives was tranquil and cordial. These were those good old days. Not anymore. Times have since changed".

The point I want to make is that the attacks by the so called Fulani herdsmen may have been fuelled by the same ideology behind Boko Haram's onslaught on Nigeria. Boko Haram and the Fulani attacks may have the same agenda of conquering the south for the north. The words of some northern leaders, before or immediately after Nigeria's independence in 1960, may have been the force encouraging the Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen attacks. Remember that Boko Haram said that it will not rest until Sharia Law is implemented all over Nigeria, and that whosoever resists that will be killed. Now, some people are masquerading as Fulani herdsmen, and are perpetrating atrocities all over Nigeria. Also, the government wants to establish grazing reserves all over Nigeria, where people will be forced to surrender their land for the benefit of the northern cattlemen.

Tell me if the agenda is not to actualize the words of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu Bello, who was the Sardauna of Sokoto? Tafawa Balewa, who later became the first prime minister of Nigeria, said prior to independence, while speaking in the Northern Region's House of Assembly, in the presence of the British appointed colonial leader for Nigeria, Lord Lugard: "We do not want sir, our Southern neighbours to interfere in our development. I should like to make it clear to you that if the British quitted Nigeria now at this stage the Northern people would continue their interrupted conquest to the sea". And, The Parrot (Newspaper) on Oct. 12, 1960, wrote what Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, said, twelve days after Nigeria's independence from Britain: "The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate from our great -grand father, Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South as conquered territories and never allow them to have control of their future". Be the judge here!

The attacks by the so called Fulani herdsmen, if not checked, will lead to the breakup of Nigeria. Everywhere now, people are gearing up to protect themselves and their communities. This is a recipe for disaster. The government is not living up to its responsibilities to protect lives and property, so, the people will have to do it for themselves in order to live. Some of us read the story by Punch that "angry farmers, youths, and some local hunters in many communities in the country said they have decided to acquire weapons against unprovoked attacks by Fulani herdsmen. They also vowed to stop what they described as the mindless killings and destruction of their farmlands by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. According to them, they will no longer sit down and watch the herdsmen attack them and destroy the sources of their livelihood. They said they decided to resort to self-help because they had lost confidence in the security agencies' ability to protect them against attacks. Fulani herders have recently killed hundreds in Benue, Plateau, Adamawa and Enugu states, among others, with many of the suspected killers not arrested for prosecution, despite the repeated promises by the government, especially the police, to stop the nefarious activities of the killer herders and bring them to justice".

The South-East senators warned of imminent danger and possible threat to the unity of Nigeria if the Federal Government failed to urgently address the Enugu massacre carried out by Fulani herdsmen. After their meeting, immediately after the Ukpabi Nimbo's attack, the senators said that: "We can no longer sit and watch while our people are daily slaughtered like fowls without even attracting the cursory routine condemnation by the Presidency. We are even more appalled that despite the alarm raised by the Ukpabi Nimbo community of an imminent attack by the Fulani herdsmen and the associated vague assurances by the chairman of Fulani community in Enugu that such attack would not happen, yet the security agencies failed to prevent the attack that happened two days after the alarm. It is disheartening what is happening, and somebody has to take responsibility. That somebody has to be the institution of the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

There are calls that henceforth the Fulani herdsmen should avoid the south for their own safety. What the southern governors and leaders are saying is that instead of some mischief makers to be masquerading as Fulani herdsmen to unleash mayhem in their respective states, that it would be better for the real Fulani herdsmen to stay in the north, as they will not guarantee their safety again since tension has built up to an extremely dangerous level. So many states are forming vigilante groups to fend off any imminent attack in their territories; the dread Bakassi Boys are re-grouping in Abia State, so, anybody who knows what those "Boys" can do, will understand the repercussion of any Fulani attack in the state. My fear is that mostly the innocent Fulani herdsmen and other Hausa/Fulani people plying their trade peacefully will get caught in the crossfire, if there should be reprisal attacks against those killers and rapists masquerading as Fulani herdsmen.

Must the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle roam the south? The federal government can solve the problem of Fulani herdsmen attacks and the imminent problems which will crop up if the Grazing Bill should be passed by the National Assembly by establishing ranches for the herdsmen and their cattle in the north. The Sambisa Forest, we are told, is as big as Belgium, and since the government claims that it's defeating the Boko Haram terrorists who have made the forest their fiefdom, all that remains is for the security forces to flush the terrorists out, and the government will then turn the forest into grazing reserves with the grass seedlings it's importing from Brazil (although, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said that the National Assembly would not support the creation of grazing reserves anywhere in the country, noting also that there was no grazing bill before either arm of the National Assembly).

If Sambisa Forest is not good enough, we don't want the government to give us the excuse that the reason the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle must roam the south, or, the reason grazing reserves should be established in the south is because the northern soil is inadequate for the planting of grasses. President Buhari got it wrong, as usual, on Monday, May 9, 2016, when he lashed out at agitators for a break off of the South East from the federation in the name Biafra. He said his administration would ensure continuous existence of Nigeria as a united entity. Speaking at the palace of the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabiru Usman, as part of the activities of his official visit to his home state, the president recalled that over two million Nigerians were killed during the 30-month civil war between 1967 and 1970.

To know that President Buhari is a mooncalf, he got his facts wrong, as usual, when he said: "I always say the civil war was fought for the unity of Nigeria because then we hadn't even discovered oil let alone enjoying it. But two million people were killed". Illiteracy is a disease! In the words of The Trent: The president didn't get his facts right. Crude oil was first discovered in Oloibiri in President Goodluck Jonathan's local government area of Ogbia in Bayelsa State in 1956. By the time the Nigerian civil war started in 1967, Nigeria was an oil economy".

President Buhari then frowned at those asking the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle to stop coming to the south, in these words: "The way the Sahara is advancing, with Boko Haram, growing number of people and uncertainty over rainfall, in a land where we fought civil war leading to the death of about two million, for someone to just say he will chase us out? So where do we go?"

How can one explain it that a president of a country is using the "we" and "them" words for the people of his country? The president meant that "they", the southerners, want to chase "us", the northerners, out. A president who swore to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; who's the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; who pledged to see all parts of Nigeria as his constituency, sees only the northerners as his own people, then he has no business remaining in that office any longer, and from his statement, there's no basis for the country to remain one again. How did we elect such a person as a president?

Anyway, I will answer Buhari's question: I will tell the president where he and his Fulani kinsmen should go: They should go nowhere, but, should stay in their north. The encroaching desert or lack of rain should not be an excuse. The president mentioned Boko Haram as a threat and a reason for the Fulani herdsmen and the cattle to move to the south. But, I thought the government said it's winning the war against Boko Haram? How can a "defeated" Boko Haram be a problem again for president Buhari? Why is the government lying to Nigerians? I learnt that Boko Haram is giving our security forces bloody nose, killing their personnel in hundreds, while the government is telling us another thing.

I wrote previously that the Mid-Eastern and North African countries have turned their desert countries into lush lands of green, are more than self-sufficient in food production, and are exporting their excess to Europe. I also added that Gaddafi, as the leader of Libya, turned his desert country into a green paradise by drilling many miles underground to get to the underground water bed and using the water to turn dusty patches of land into green lush. Libya then was able to feed its citizens, Nigerian refugees who rushed over there, and still had enough for export. So, President Buhari can do the same in his desert north, so that they can grow the grass imported from Brazil over there, and then, his kinsmen, the Fulani herdsmen, will graze their cattle over there without crossing over to the south fomenting attacks. If this government can import grass from Brazil for the Fulani herdsmen, it can also afford to turn their desert into green by doing as Libya and other countries in the desert zone did.

Most of all, what Buhari should do immediately is to show leadership by disarming these killers masquerading as Fulani herdsmen. As the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, said: "the most potent strategy to end incessant attacks by herdsmen on farmers and other rural dwellers was for the military, police, and other security agencies to immediately disarm them"! We are waiting for the president to give that order now, as procrastination will lead to more deaths and destruction.

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEf3IH7Eyh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fZzrE97GXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv8VWmCcZS4&list=RDPWHhLtoBSZs&index=14

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 2

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