BETWEEN DANJUMA AND NNAMDI KANU

Sonnie Ekwowusi argues that the authorities must do more to safeguard the people

Obviously the last word has not been said on T.Y. Danjuma’s agitation for citizens to take up arms in self defence against murderous Fulani herdsmen. Danjuma’s postulation has lately placed him in sharp political focus in pari passu with IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu who authored a similar thesis in 2014. Certainly Kanu is not a mentor of Danjuma in social thought. Before Kanu, Danjuma was. Whereas Danjuma is a respected Northern elite, a wealthy elder statesman and a member of the establishment, Kanu is a pauper still being hunted and hounded by the state as a “terrorist”. But on our hope for safety from the fierce tide of demonic energy called Fulani herdsmen we find a convergence in the postulates of Danjuma and Kanu. But why that of Kanu seems to carry the aura of triumphantism is that he predicted the coming herdsmen murder and hegemony as way back as 2014. In February 2014 Kanu said: “As they campaign vigorously for elections, you would think, they are coming to grow the economy, enthrone justice, breed unity and tolerance, love for one another. No, they are coming to elevate Hausa-Fulani supremacy, to reposition the security agencies by sacking all competent hands and replace them with their kinsmen to drive their ethnic domination of the Biafrans; the Fulani herdsmen will be armed and encouraged to slaughter us with impunity, and their masters will protect them. They are coming to ensure that my people are enslaved forever. Those who do not believe me will soon see it happens before their eyes.”

This was greeted with ominous silence. Instead of heading the warning contained in Kanu’s thesis and stepped up state security against the advancing murderous herdsmen the authorities, as usual, treated it with levity. As we have noted here on several occasions, toleration of injustices in Nigeria is producing barbaric injustices. Instead of tackling the injustices headlong we hypocritically resort to sweeping them under the carpet in the pretence that time will heal the wounds of the injustices. But unfortunately the effluxion of time has not managed to heal the wounds of the injustices in Nigeria. One injustice left unremedied begets another injustice. As Martin Luther King Jr. rightly stated “one injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. When, for example, genocidial attacks and killings were committed against the Igbos on the threshold of the Nigerian Civil War little did we know that 48 years after the civil war the entire spectrum of Nigerian society will be the target of the most vicious genocidial attacks and killings.

For many years, the Fulani herdsmen have literally overrun the different parts of Nigeria, killing, raping, maiming their victims and destroying farmlands. Within the last three years, they have successfully foisted their hegemony on the unwilling people of Nigeria. The question is: why the conspiracy of silence over the herdsmen dominance, colonisation and murderous activities in Nigeria? For example, until the Fulani herdsmen started killing the town folks of Danjuma in 2018 he had maintained a questionable silence over the herdsmen killings in Nigeria. For example, in July 2012: Senator Gyang Dantong and the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Gyang Fulani died in the stampede that ensued while attending the mass burial of about 50 victims of attack by herdsmen at Maseh village in Riyom LGA. On April 23, 2013: 10 farmers killed in an attack in Mbasenge community, Guma L.G.A by suspected herdsmen. Danjuma kept mute. In June 2015: Fulani herdsmen attacked Motokun village, Patigi Local Government Area, Kwara State. The Oro-Ago community in Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state was also attacked. Fulani herdsmen attacked Ninji and Ropp villages in Plateau State and killed 27 persons. Also, the same group reportedly murdered about 70 Christians. Danjuma kept mute. Then on April 25, 2016 over 500 armed Fulani herdsmen invaded seven villages- Ekwuru, Nimbo-Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Enugu-Nimbo, Umuome and Ugwuachara-in Ukpabi-Nimbo, a border town in Uzo-Uwani area of Enugu State, and left scores of citizens dead. Danjuma also maintained a sealed lip. In January 2018, the bodies of about 80 citizens of Benue State murdered by the Fulani herdsmen January 1 – 2, 2018 were given mass burial amid tears of sorrow. Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom said at that time that the Fulani herdsmen had murdered no fewer than 1,878 citizens of Benue State within the last three years. No comments from Danjuma.

But after the herdsmen attacked and killed the Taraba town folks of Danjuma a couple of weeks ago it dawned on him that human life was indeed precious and must be preserved. Consequently, while speaking at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba State University in Jalingo on March 24, 2018, the respected elder statesman said, “I ask all of you to be on the alert and defend your country, defend your state. This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria. These killers have been protected by the military; they cover them and you must be watchful to guide and protect yourselves because you have no other place to go.”

As I said earlier, there is a common strand in the thoughts of Danjuma and Kanu on herdsmen dominance and killings. Both agree that the herdsmen killings are ethnic cleansings. Both concur that the murderous herdsmen are being shielded by the state. Both agree that self preservation is a basic instinct of every human being. Both agree that self defence is appropriate in the face of Fulani herdsmen attacks and killings. Initially Kanu said that he would “use civil disobedience as a potent weapon” but later he was quoted as approving self-defence against the incessant attacks on Igbos by the Fulani herdsmen.

Sad, isn’t? Therefore the Buhari government must wake up. In the last three years the federal government has lost its mooring and so acts with little or no regard to the fulfillment of its constitutional responsibility to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Its beats the imagination that while the federal government was quick at declaring IPOB as a terrorist organisation it has refused to declare the murderous Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria as the greatest terrorists and murderers of all times. That is why Kanu and Danjuma are calling for self-defence. But some disagree with Kanu and Danjuma. With due respect, I disagree with those who disagee with Kanu and Danjuma. It is trite that where life is in danger or imperilled or in an emergency situation, the necessity of saving life may justify self defence. In his book, “A Constitutional History of Nigeria,” Prof B.O. Nwabueze, SAN persuasively argues, and I agree with him, that the doctrine of necessity recognised in both private and public law as a legal defence for an action otherwise unlawful but necessary to preserve the life of the individual or society.