Unless the Federal Government takes an urgent and decisive action to tame the violent destructive activities of the Fulani herdsmen across the country, there is the likelihood of clashes that could snowball into a full-fledged war, analysts have said.
The analysts also expressed worries over the continued silence on the part of the Federal Government to the activities of the herdsmen despite outcries and appeals from different parts of the country for government intervention.
Observers, who spoke with BDSUNDAY, expressed shock that the Fulani herdsmen are having a field day and visiting fellow Nigerians with death and misery without any intervention from the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
An aggrieved lecturer from a university in one of the universities in the South-west, who simply gave his name as Kayode, strongly condemned the activities of the herdsmen, saying that the pattern appears to be backed by higher authorities.
“I don’t really understand what is going on. Quite well, we used to hear and read about the activities of these Fulani herdsmen in the past but the scale of their violence these days, particularly since the coming into power of this administration, suggests that they are drawing their strength from some higher powers,” Kayode said.
“They attack and kill people in their own land with such an impunity that tries to suggest that they have seen themselves as untouchable and above the law. I think it is high time the Federal Government spoke out and not only speaking out, taking some decisive steps to halt this dangerous trend,” he said.
An undergraduate who craved anonymity told BDSUNDAY that the body language of the Federal Government suggests that the Fulani herdsmen have the blessings of the powers that be.
“I don’t know which one is now more dangerous between Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. If the herdsmen can enter a community and kill everybody there, how then is Boko Haram more dangerous than they? Look at the stories we heard from Taraba, Agatu in Benue State and other places down South here, of wanton killing of innocent indigenes by invading herdsmen. Something tells me that they are acting out some scripts written somewhere,” the student said.
“The other day, the President warned that government would henceforth treat pipeline vandals the same way it deals with the Boko Haram. Yet, the same President has not made any comment on the dangerous activities of the herdsmen. If one may ask, which is more dangerous between economic saboteurs and bare-faced murderers which the herdsmen have become? Vandals are people who are reacting to economic situation in the country, hardship imposed on them by successive governments. They are reacting to the level of unemployment in the land and they decided to take to vandalism to eke out a living. Much as their activities are condemnable, the activities of herdsmen are more condemnable in the sense that not only do they want to drive away the original owners of the land from their ancestral homes, not only do their activities create famine and destruction of farmlands, they also carry out systematic murders,” the male undergraduate further said.
According to him, Nigeria may be in serious trouble.
“If people no longer have the right to their ancestral homes, including their farmlands; if people are now being hunted down in their own houses by strangers, there is trouble in the land. I foresee a situation where this thing will snowball into a full-fledged war in the land. This is because when you push people to the wall, they will be forced to defend themselves. The provocation is too much,” he said.
“We are in a civil rule; this is not a military regime where somebody can take over people’s land with the threat and barrel of the gun. Government must realise that it has a duty to protect every citizen of this country,” he added.
The National Assembly has also been accused of nonchalance in matters that concern the activities of the herdsmen.
Basil Okereke, a newspaper vendor, poured out his anger, saying that life has become very cheap in Nigeria.
“We don’t value lives here. America does not joke with her citizens; she could go to war because of a citizen that is killed by an enemy. How can senators and House of Representatives members keep quiet in the midst of wanton destruction of lives by Fulani herdsmen? If the President, who is the chief security officer of Nigeria and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, cannot produce the perpetrators of the heinous crimes, the National Assembly should use democratic instruments to compel him to do so,” Okereke said.
“The National Assembly should tell the President in unmistakable terms that should he fail to mobilise the security agencies, not only to fish out the perpetrators or end forthwith such senseless killings by the herdsmen, lawmakers would no longer cooperate with him in matters of deliberating on any executive bill,” he further said.
A community leader in one of the North Central states fumed: “Those who think that they can use the herdsmen to terrorise others must realise that it has the capacity to boomerang.”
A journalist, who craved anonymity, said: “In those days, the likes of the late Obafemi Awolowo were in the habit of advising the Northern leaders on the need to train the children in that region, warning them of the serious consequences of not doing so. Today, almajiris have taken over the entire north and they are being used to carry out some heinous crimes. Some have been drafted into dangerous groups and many of them are huge liabilities today. So, those who may think they are insulated from the Fulani herdsmen menace may regret their action tomorrow.”
A few days ago, reports had it that over 100,000 people were displaced from their ancestral homes in parts of Benue State. About 12,000 families were affected.
Boniface Otese, executive secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said 17 of the 23 local government areas of the state were affected in the attacks, while an area like Moor in Kwande Local Government Area was still being occupied.
“The most affected local government areas in the crisis include Agatu, Buruku, Tarka, Kwande, Logo, Makurdi and Guma, where some council wards, including Mbalai, Mbadwen, Uvir, Ndzorov and Saghev were wiped out,” said Otese.
ZEBULON AGOMUO
