While the so-called Fulani herdsmen have continued their rampage across many parts of Nigeria, killing, maiming, stealing, raping, burning down houses, destroying farms and sacking whole communities, Nigerians have continued to express shock at the Federal Government’s dangerous silence on the issue and failure to take any concrete action to halt the herdsmen’s murderous campaign.
Prominent Nigerians who spoke to BDSUNDAY expressly condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence over the menace of the herdsmen, whose activities have been described as perhaps the most dangerous threat to safety of lives and property in the country and who have been classified by a global report as the world’s fourth most lethal ‘terrorist group’ measured by number of people killed.
Describing the president’s silence as dangerous, they say it smacks of a tacit support for the murderous campaign of these herdsmen, adding that it may not be unconnected with a grand ploy to forcefully dominate and extend the kingdom of Islam to all parts of the country. They warn, however, that such action is capable of throwing Nigeria into a conflagration, a scenario the nation can ill afford at this critical time.
“Government’s posture to the menace of Fulani herdsmen has been simply shocking and almost amounts to official endorsement of what looks like a strategy of terror and pillaging to achieve an expansionist and hegemonic ambition,” said Opeyemi Agbaje, a public policy analyst.
“President Buhari’s refusal to comment on the issue reflects his ‘body language’ on the issue and itself speaks volumes. The activities of these herdsmen will contribute to future political instability and may already be affecting agricultural output all over the country, but particularly in North Central Nigeria,” he added.
Chuks Iloegbunam, a veteran journalist, condemned the fact that despite the rating of Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world, President Buhari did not mention it in his anniversary speech.
“In the broadcast’s 2,624 words, not once did he mention the words Fulani herdsmen, let alone address the real and present danger they constitute to Nigeria’s continued existence as one political entity. Was this unfortunate omission because he is himself of the Fulani ethnic group? Or was it because he considers a final stop to have been put to the herdsmen’s murderous rampaging throughout the country? Or is it because the destructive army is a law unto itself, above censure and sanction?” Iloegbunam queried.
“While Nigerians are being distracted by the diversionary hoopla about corruption, the Jihadists are going relentlessly forward to implement their long-prepared Arab imperialist agenda,” wrote Chinweizu, renowned scholar and author of the revolutionary book, ‘The West and the Rest of Us’, in a recent article.
“By the time the entertainment is over, non-Jihadist Nigerians will wake up in the Caliphate Jihadist prison where the Christians are reduced to the dhimmi status of permanent second-class citizens; and the polytheists are wiped out or enslaved for paganism, as prescribed by Islam,” he added.
Recall that in 2001, at an Islamic seminar in Kaduna, Buhari had reportedly told his Muslim brothers, “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.”
Meanwhile, in response to the herdsmen’s murderous campaign, many state governments as well as individual citizens have been mobilising for self-defence.
In Nasarawa State, 83 cows were reportedly killed at Adayi in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state, while about 20 people were said to have been killed at Loko in suspected reprisal attacks by gunmen who crossed over from Benue State.
In Ekiti State, following an attack on Oke Ako community in Ikole Local Government Area of the state where two persons were killed and others injured by suspected herdsmen, Governor Ayo Fayose banned cattle grazing in his state, urging his colleagues across the country to do the same as a step to stop the incessant killings of farmers by atrocious herdsmen.
“Before any herdsmen kill you, kill them! Before they rape your wives, kill them, and before they rape your children, kill them! I am giving you this order; before they kill you, kill them. You have to defend yourselves. Before they get you, you must get them down and take them out,” Fayose told hunters in his state, to whom he reportedly doled out N2.5 million.
“You should pursue them, go and search for them inside the forest. Anyone who comes to take your life, you must take them out. We will not leave our lands for Fulani herdsmen and in a system where the leadership of the country looks the other way while our people are being killed, we will have no option than to defend ourselves.”
In Sapele, Delta State, the Ovie of Idjere, Ethiope West Local Government Area, HRM Erhiekevwe I, reportedly ordered all Fulani herdsmen operating in his domain to vacate within nine days or face the wrath of his people.
“Farming is my people’s mainstay. The Hausas/Fulani people rearing cattle here have created too many problems, including killing of innocent people. They also defile our women and destroy their crops while grazing. They must leave in nine days or face the wrath of my people who I will unleash on them,” he said.
But in Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano has been more humane. He is said to have outlawed the bearing of sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles by Fulani herdsmen, and ordered security agents to seize the cattle belonging to any herdsmen flouting the ban and prosecute the owners.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
