The Miyetti Allah

Arguably, the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 as the president of Africa’s most populous nation and the touted largest economy on the continent threw up a large dose of expectations which, to many Nigerians, were not misplaced given the antecedents of their new bride.

With a man known to be a stickler for discipline and ‘apparently’ incorruptible in his first coming as military head of state, Nigerians expected an end to flagrant impunity, especially among the political class. They also expected an end to executive arrogance, lawlessness and flamboyance in government.

Judicial rascality reflected in frivolous court injunctions and ruling, and stinking corruption in the civil service heightened frequently with the infiltration of the service by political office holders, were also among the things that Nigerians expected a Buhari regime would put an end to.

On the flip side, Nigerians did not, in their wildest imagination, expect the crescendo in the macabre dance that is everywhere now in the country manifesting as kidnapping, wanton killing by known but largely unchallenged persons and groups. Nigerians did not expect the rise and rise of insurgent groups and ethno-religious jingoists hitherto unknown and practically non-existent as we have them now.

One of these groups is the Miyetti Allah. This is not an ethnic sociocultural group like the Ohanaeze in the Eastern part of Nigerian; Afenifere in the South West, and Arewa Consultative Forum in the North. But the group carries on with self-arrogated power and influence as though it is above any other group of people in the country.

Before 2015, the group was largely unknown, doing its business rather unnoticed, but with the coming of the APC government, they have been emboldened, and curiously, they seem to get government do their bidding.

By simple definition, Miyetti Allah is a trade association, just an equivalent of Onitsha Market Traders Association (OMATA) which is out to advance and protect the interest and welfare of its tradermembers.

Miyetti Allah is an abridged form of ‘ Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria’ (MACBAN). It is a loose partisan advocacy group centered on promoting the welfare of Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria.

Increasingly, the group is assuming a larger-than-size image that is making it see itself as being above the law. They have guts and are

extending their influence beyond borders. As a demonstration of this, the group recently brazenly and unilaterally established vigilance groups in states even without the permission or knowledge of state governments.

In a manner that truly portrays them as ethnic jingoists and also appears as though they have government backing, the group threatens people from other ethnic groups and goes scot free. They have been able to get government establish special radio station for them and recently, it was reported that they got government to release N100 billion to them for undisclosed projects.

Though this amount of money and the payment are still enmeshed in controversy, the group has arrogantly admitted receiving such a humongous amount of money from the government, pointing out that, contrary to media report, the money was for the construction of ranches and not for amnesty.

According to the commentators, the silence of Nigerian people does not mean they do not understand or are unable to read the handwriting on the wall. It simply means an understanding that, as a people and as a country, Nigeria and its governance have polarised into ethnic and religious divides and the president of the country takes government and governance to where his interest lies.

“The present government in the country is setting a very dangerous precedent; what is happening in the country today had never happened before in its almost 59 years of nationhood. A situation where a president who is supposed to be the father of all chooses to spank one child and spares another with a more grievous offence is absolutely wrong and condemnable,” said Hafis Alao, a social commentator.

Alao noted that power was transient, explaining that if the power was residing with one ethnic group and the man who is steering the ship is abusing the power thinking that it did not matter, “tomorrow does not belong to any particular man; another man from another part of the country will take over and it will be payback time. So, people have to handle power with caution and fear of God,” Alao warned.

It is not only that cattle breeders are private business people. They are also a violent and murderous group, yet they don’t get even a reprimand or scolding from the government for all their unwholesome activities, especially their many clashes with farmers. Many of the farmers have been killed by these herders for challenging the invasion and destruction of their farms.

Yet, the same government that looks away at these “dastardly acts” will hastily send troops on a Python Dance after armless people innocently and peacefully protesting injustice against them and their total exclusion in the scheme of things in their own country. Usually, government justifies their action by branding the protesters as terrorist groups undermining the peace and economic growth of the country.

Going violence

Until lately, cattle hearers were known to be innocent-looking, stick-wielding old Fulani men. Today, cattle breeders, who are members of Alhassan’s MACBAN, are young agile men fully armed with AK47, knives and all. With these lethal implements, they have destroyed farms, sacked communities and decimated villages.

But, to the government, they are not terrorists. It is only when government is at its wit’s end that it tells the world that these armsbearing killer-herders are not Nigerians; they are from Chad and other neighbouring African countries. Yet, for the same ‘aliens’ the government wants every state of the federation to donate free land to build ranches and settle them in villages and communities.

Perhaps, Nigerians would not have minded the existence of this group, but for their murderous activities. Clearly, it is their arrogant disposition, impunity and penchant to main, destroy and kill that make them a hated and loathsome group. It is difficult to take them in and wish them well.

At the peak of the RUGA controversy which the federal government has, in its wisdom, suspended, Miyette Allah arrogantly ordered its members to stay put wherever they were and to defend themselves from other ethnic groups in the country.

“The only thing we would say is that we will hold all the governors of those states responsible for their safety and security, but if any ethnic militia, by any name, attacks our members, they should defend themselves in a manner that nobody would try such again,” Alhassan was quoted as saying.

Continuing, he bragged again, “we are Nigerians and we have a history. Anybody that thinks he can wake up and take on the Fulani pastoralist is making a grievous mistake, we are well prepared to defend our fundamental human rights of movement in this coun