Factor in Nigeria

try”.

A group of people or a trade association with this mindset cannot be said to be friends; they are not bridge builders and, therefore, should be called to order. A radical, national and ethical re-orientation is what they need and urgently too before being given a place in decent communities in Nigeria.

But the growing incidence of farmer-herder conflicts and cattle rustling since 2011 brought the previously unknown group into wider consciousness, which now wields serious influence, especially forming vigilance groups in the country where many are still paid to safeguard lives and property of the citizens.

But before the advent of the groups, the Fulani herdsmen, (now over 100,000) have been breeding their cows peacefully. Even before and after the colonial rule, there were no violent incidents involving the herdsmen.

Today, the herdsmen and the spate of their killings make news headlines daily. According to the 2018 Global Terrorism Index, nearly 1,700 violent deaths were attributed to Fulani herdsmen attacks carried out between January and September 2018 alone.

In June 2018, at the height of the attacks of farming communities in the Christian dominated middle belt region, more than 100 people were killed on a Saturday night when suspected herdsmen attacked many villages in Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Jos South local government areas of the state.

In defence, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association of Nigeria said the killings were retaliation for the theft of 300 cows and also put up same defence for the Benue massacre that included two catholic priests.

“Herdsmen in the state had lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks. These attacks are retaliatory. As much as I don’t support the killing of human being, the truth must be told that those who carried out the attacks must be on revenge mission,” Danladi Ciroma, chairman, North-central zone of the cattle breeders’ association, said.

As much as the alleged theft was condemnable, social media went on fire with many asking if cows are now valued more than human lives in Nigeria.

Demola Oyemade, a human right lawyer, noted that in sane countries, the right thing would have been to prosecute the killers of over 100 people. As the government failed to do so, he thinks that the communities, like the Fulani herdsmen, would resort to carrying arms to defend themselves. “Nobody has monopoly of violence, and nobody wants to die. So, people in these communities are resorting to self-help to defend themselves, which is expected as government keeps paying lip service to the prosecution of the killer herdsmen”, he said.

Miyetti Allah and guns

Again, the incidents of some gun-wielding herdsmen in recent times keep questioning the sources of the sophisticated guns. On July 5, 2019, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, disclosed that the Federal Government was working with the Miyetti Allah group to discuss how to end the activities of killer herdsmen and also to retrieve the guns from ‘errant members’ of the group.

As well, the Buhari-led administration has come under fire recently after it was rumoured to be meeting with the Fulani group and offering them money in exchange for peace. Some people applauded the move as long as it would stop the attacks.

Obidike Asuzu, a public affairs analyst, said that the government’s request to retrieve the weapons was a contradiction of President Buhari’s repeated public claims that herdsmen do not carry weapons that can be used to cause serious harm and has also heaped most of the attacks blamed on herdsmen on foreign invaders who exploit Nigeria’s porous borders to wreak havoc.

Tracing the history of the attacks, Dagiri Alkali, a senator, said the herders have been facing many challenges in recent times and needed to fight back in order to survive.

The senator, who led a delegation of MACBAN to the Defence Headquarters, Abuja on May 5, 2016, said the Fulani moved into new territories in the country because they had been forced out of their territories in the North, especially north-east by the Boko Haram insurgence, with millions of cows stolen by them and other rustlers.

For Alkali, the problem is compounded by the fact that there are over 20 million cows in the country that need to graze and kept safe at the same time.

“When the reserves and forest were gazetted and reserved for cattle breeders, this incident was not there; but the increase in population has now wiped out the entire grazing reserves in this country ; 400 and something of them all wiped out . And you have a population of about 20 million cows, where do you keep them, and every one of us likes to eat meat”, he said.

Toeing same line, the Miyetti Allah group blamed others for the actions of armed Fulani herdsmen. “The current situation in our opinion is fuelled by the draconian laws put in place by some state governments with the singular aim of chasing our people out of the states simply for ethnic hatred. The anti-open-grazing law in Benue, Taraba and other states is nothing more than a symbol of intolerance and do not in any way intend to solve the farmers/grazers conflict as the livestock breeders interest is neither captured in the law nor in its implementation mechanism”, the group said.

The issue is still boiling with more people dying every day by the pullets of the herdsmen. There have also been efforts to resolve the situation. In June 2018, the federal government presented the National Livestock Transformation Plan, a N179 billion 10-year initiative targeted at putting an end to the age-long herders-farmers crisis, and to massively improve the livestock industry.

The initiative was condemned by many who said it was a way of confiscating land from other ethnic groups in the country, especially in the southern part where land is a scarce commodity.

Emmanuel Onwubiko, head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), warned against plots to confiscate ancestral lands of indigenous people and to use public fund to set up either cattle colonies or ranches or grazing lands.

But Bona Efere, a psychologist, noted many would not support cattle colonies and acquisition of grazing land because of the distrust among ethnic groups in the country fueled by religion, tribalism, nepotism and the fact that much of the land in the country are in the northern part of the country where the Fulanis domicile.

“If you look at the politics of Nigeria, where ethnicity and religion play major roles, most people do not see their interests protected, so they will not support any initiative that does not impact their existence. Again, government has also failed to represent the interests of all, it seems when your brother is in power, you do anything and get away with it. It is not ideal to proscribe groups that do not wield arms, while leaving those with track record of killings”, he said.

Miyetti Allah in the eyes of Nigerians

Just recently, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), turndown an invitation from Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), former head of state, to attend a roundtable on national issues and security scheduled to hold in Minna, Niger State.

The forum, in a letter jointly signed by Edwin Clark (PANDEF leader), Ayo Adebanjo (Afenifere leader), John Nwodo (president, Ohanaeze) and Pogu Bitrus (president, Middle Belt Forum), said they turn down the invitation over the