Open grazing: Nigerian Legislators Set To Make History

 By Tonnie Iredia

The Nigerian Senate elevated its leadership profile in the country last week when it opted to pass the second reading of a bill which seeks to ban open grazing and establish ranches for herders in the country. The bill was passed by a clear majority of the senators when their President, Godswill Akpabio, put it to vote.

All well-meaning citizens ought to commend the senate on the development which no doubt represents the first major pan-Nigeria attempt to address the interminable conflict between farmers and herders in the country. A few legislators who spoke against the bill were able to fulfil the democratic precept that although the majority must have its way, the minority must also have its say.

I Watched Fulani Herdsmen Kill My Parents – Faith Thomas, School Girl

By Faith Thomas Gyang 

*Faith Thomas Gyang

“My name is Faith Thomas Gyang. I am from Gashish District.

“On Sunday, 9th November, 2012 we were at home, myself, my father and my younger brother watching film. My father then told us that, ‘you know these days are bad’, and he asked us to go and sleep and he prayed for us.

“Around 8pm, we heard gunshots everywhere. My father then said 'these people have come'. He then came out and we all came out the same time with him. As he was trying to go out, my mum stopped him. She went out first and then he followed her. 

Nigeria: Herdsmen’s Endless Blood Lust (2)

By Lewis Obi 
[Read Part One Here]
In October 2000 when General Muhmmadu Buhari literally paralysed the Oyo State Government Secretariat numerous “lorry loads” of angry Fulani cattle rearers, his grievance, as he told the Oyo State Governor Lam Adesina, was that “Fulani cattle herdsmen and merchants are today being harassed, attacked, and killed like in Saki. In the month of May 2000, 68 bodies of Fulani cattle ‘rearers’ were recovered and buried…some arrests were made…in the massacre and they were immediately released without court trial. This was said to have been ordered by Oyo State authorities. The release of the suspects gave the clear impression that the authorities are backing and protecting them to continue the unjust and illegal killings of Fulani cattle herdsmen…”

*Buhari 

Governor Adesina tried to reassure the general and called the heads of the Federal agencies in the state to give their assessment. The Police Commissioner spoke first to the effect that Gen. Buhari must have been misinformed, his figures exaggerated. The Director of the Department of State Security (DSS) spoke at length and stated that “…you (Gen Buhari) said 68 people were killed and people driven away. I am not saying there were no killings, but they cannot be more than five.”

T.Y. Danjuma: The Hypocrisy Of A Chief Mourner

By Jude Ndukwe

When on Saturday, March 24, 2018, Gen T.Y. Danjuma sent out a shrill cry to Nigerians using the exalted pedestal of the Taraba State University’s first convocation ceremony as a medium to send out his message, one could see nothing but desperation, frustration and hopelessness all over him as a result of the incessant killings of Nigerians of diverse nationalities by the marauding Fulani herdsmen terrorists. 

*Gen Danjuma 

Such emotions are expected of a man whose kith and kin are directly in the line of fire.

There is no doubt that Danjuma’s call for Nigerians to rise and defend themselves in the face of the immutable failure of security agencies to come to their rescue is germane, it is however too late, too little and too feeble. This is in addition to the fact that Danjuma has since lost his exalted place in the scheme of morality before the ordinary Nigerian.

Herdsmen Attacks: A National Security Failure

By Abiodun Ladepo

As the National Security Adviser, you have to be grossly incompetent to not know how the Fulani herdsmen (yes, they are herdsmen and they are Fulani) conduct their raids. If you knew and just refused to do something about it, anything that would stop these mindless, gory massacres of unarmed innocent Nigerians, then you are just asinine or unpatriotic or both. And if you have laid everything out for your boss, in this case, the President, and he does not have the political cojones to do what he is required by law to do – that is, the protection of the lives and properties of Nigerians, the President has failed.

It must amaze and confound anybody with a scintilla of security awareness – how much more, national security awareness – that there are people roaming around the entire country with illegal weapons, even if they are not killing people with it. No serious security-conscious person, how much more, one with statutory responsibility and obligation to prevent such acquisition in the first place; and the confiscation of such weapons and prosecution of culprits, will sleep well at night knowing that the country is awash with such weapons. But what is even more galling is that the culprits are killing people in dozens, almost daily, and everybody who is getting paid to act is wringing their hands and praying to God to help them. Come on! 

Nigeria: Who Will Halt The Bestiality In Benue, Etcetera?

By Dan Amor

Irrational impulses are not surprising in the stress and tension that characterize a demented society. In an atmosphere of violence, reason is sometimes abandoned and humanitarian principles forgotten. The inflamed passions of the time lead men to commit atrocities. But the concern here is not with the psychological pathology of those who commit atrocities but rather with what has turned our nation into a slaughterhouse where human beings are daily killed with intimidating alacrity. Throughout modern history, atrocity propaganda has often mesmerized readers thousands of kilometres from the scene of the crime. Often, the improbability of the actions described suggests that the stories were little more than fantasies concocted for diverse reasons from even more diverse sources.

But the reading public in Nigeria has invariably evinced a morbid absorption with the most nightmarish aspects of this national tragedy. It is indeed fashionable to observe that material which should create a moral aversion to the cruelty of our present times often produces a perverse fascination instead. There is, candidly speaking, an alarming rate of mockery killings in Nigeria, especially under the Buhari administration. There are gruesome stories of rapes, mutilations, perversities and child and mother murders.

IGP Ibrahim Idris, The Conqueror Of Benue

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is not garlands from the citizens for a successful prosecution of an agenda to fight crime that Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris hankers after. There is a bigger prize he is ready to give up anything for, including his professional credibility – to be in the eternal annals of the herdsmen’s war of 2017 and 2018 as the conqueror of Benue.

*President Buhari and IGP Idris

Benue might just be the ultimate trophy for Idris. He might have considered victory in other parts of the country, including southern Kaduna, the south-east, south-south and south-west less stellar. In the south-west, for instance, a prominent son of the region, a former minister and secretary to the government of the federation, Olu Falae, has been subjected to traumatic experiences ranging from kidnapping to the burning of his farm by Fulani herdsmen.

Nigeria: The Fulani Herdsmen Militia Siege

By Alade Rotimi-John

There is an urgent requirement to investigate the circumstances, strategy, tactics and ultimate objective of the post – Pax Britannica oligarchy drawn primarily from among the descendants or heirs of the 1804 Uthman dan Fodio jihadist movement. It is necessary to identify their motives among which may be reasonably presumed the foisting of the movement’s ideology on all the constituent parts of modern Nigeria. To the extent that the mindless attacks of the Fulani herdsmen militia are targeted at communities that share dissimilar religio-ethnic views with theirs; also to the extent of the attacks’ deeply primordial nature our investigation becomes all the more important. A disinterested outcome of our investigation is likely to reveal or locate the truth of our search in the interstices of history.

The indigenous people of Nigeria never had to engage the kind of hostile or condescending external forces which the Fulani jihadists unleashed on them in the 19th century. The people’s social conduct had been deeply marked by the historical context of their livelihood.

Nigeria: Who Are Fulani Herdsmen?

By Hope Eghagha

Bala: What is this big noise and cry over herdsmen?

Ankpa: Have you been sleeping Bala? Don’t you know the terrorists, the bloody murderers, masquerading as herdsmen?

Bala: How can cattle-rearers be killers? Their business is cattle-rearing, not killing people.

Ankpa: That’s what we thought until we found some going about with AK 47 guns!

Bala: Are you sure the Boko Haram scoundrels, those anti-Islam elements have not infiltrated the herdsmen group?
Ankpa: that is left for the State to fish out. 

President Buhari And The Herdsmen’s Endgame

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Of the many traumatic marvels of the President Muhammadu Buhari government, its predilection for crashing deeper into the abyss when we thought that we would no longer be jolted by its blunders, is striking. If his linkage to marauding and bloodthirsty Fulani herdsmen were only a staple of blackmail sustained by his traducers, he has just stoked the suspicion of his fidelity to their ghoulish vision with his response to the killings in Benue State.

*President Buhari 

Buhari did not bother to visit Benue for a first-hand apprehension of the tragedies that the Fulani herdsmen inflicted on the people. Nor was he seen to have expressed deep regret over the killings, except the platitudes that were regurgitated by his aides after a grudging approval from him. Or is this not a true measure of his lack of humanity and a perverted sense of justice and patriotism that while the nation was gripped by grief, Buhari and the governors from his northern region were preoccupied with his re-election in 2019?

Benue Massacre: Are Fulanis Fighting To Conquer Nigeria?

By E.O. Eke

November 2016, after Fulani herdsmen attacked had innocent villagers in Benue and Anambra states, I wrote an article entitled, Is Nigeria Still A Democracy? (Published 16 November 2016).

This is the worst of times, this is the best of times. This is a time to think, this is a time to prepare.

You murder peace when you kill justice. You end unity when you justify discrimination. You lose the trust and confidence of people when you practice nepotism. You invite violence when you make peacefully change impossible. You provoke violent response when you brutalise people by responding to peaceful protest with disproportionate force. These are natural imperatives which hold constant as the law of gravity.

Stop These Savage Killings In Adamawa!

By Mike Ozekhome

The state of Adamawa lies in the northeastern part of Nigeria, with its capital at Yola. It was carved out in 1991 from part of Gongola State, with four administrative divisions, namely Adamawa, Ganye, Mubi and Numan. It is one of the largest states in Nigeria and occupies about 36,917 square kilometres.

The great people of Adamawa State are mostly renowned as farmers. This is reflected in their two notable vegetational zones, sub-Sudan and northern Guinea Savannah zone. Their cash crops are cotton and groundnuts, while food crops include maize, yam, cassava, guinea corn, millet and rice. The village communities living on the banks of the rivers engage in fishing, while the Fulani are cattle rearers. Little wonder that all these have been encapsulated in the slogan of the state, ‘The Land of Beauty.” A visit to the state will not be complete without going to Mubi. Mubi’s clement weather is scintilatingly accommodating for human habitation and Nuhu Auwalu Wakili’s Palace will keep your memory of the state at all times.

Fulani Herdsmen: Grim Statistics Of Their Bloody Exploits

By Dan Agbese

You probably thought it could not get more unsettling. You were wrong.

Here is some evidence. Former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, addressed a one-day forum organised by a group known as the Search for Common Ground on his farm October 30. In it, he released some grim statistics about the killings and maiming in clashes between Fulani herdsmen and peasant farmers in four states – Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Benue – in just one year. These figures are certain to chill your bones and make your eyes go rheumy for the present and the future of our country.

Here are the details he gave for 2016 only: 2,500 people killed; 62,000 people displaced; $13.7 billion lost to the clashes and 47 per cent of the internally-generated revenue in the affected states lost. 

The problem with statistics is that when they are about human beings, you cannot put faces to them. Human beings are thus reduced to stark, impersonal numbers. The death of 2,500 Nigerians and the displacement of 62,000 others may do no more than give you a momentary jolt only for you to shrug it off. You are not likely to think of them as struggling Nigerians in our rural areas who were doing nothing criminal but pursuing their legitimate livelihood as peasant farmers who fed the nation.

Nigeria: A Clear And Present Danger

By Anthony Cardinal Okogie

Does the life of the Nigerian have any value? If it does, can it be truly said that Nigerians appreciate the value of life? The questions are meant for all of us. We all have to take responsibility for protection of life and property in this country.

*Okogie

We live in clear and present danger. We are not safe when we are at home. Neither are we safe away from home. Life runs the risk of being cut short by armed robbers, kidnappers, dangerous drivers driving on dangerous roads, driving cars that are dangerous for transportation. And just when we thought we were gaining the upper hand in the battle with Boko Haram, violent herdsmen stare at our helpless faces while governors who ought to be at the vanguard of security, are accused of acting in ways that are prejudicial to security. Our politicians – our president, our governors, our legislators and judges, ministers and commissioners – are well protected. But we the citizens are not. What a nation!

Political leaders who cannot provide security are a total failure, their generation an unmitigated disaster. How then can any of them proudly introduce himself as President of Nigeria, or governor or senator or member of the National or State Assembly? How can they claim to be at the helm of affairs in a country so chaotic? To use a Yoruba expression, could it be that the average Nigerian politician is like the child who was miles away from home on the day shamefacedness was being shared?

Almost six decades after independence, almost 70 after the establishment of Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan, we still have to rely on medical tourism. But how many poor Nigerians can afford to spend one day in a hospital overseas? How many can afford to be away from their work for three months? When shall we cease to make our country a laughing stock in the comity of nations? We cannot reasonably dictate to people where they are to seek medical attention. But we Nigerians have the capacity to run good hospitals. All we just need is a leadership that enables, not one that disables. 

The Misplaced Call To Pray For Tyrant

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Permit me to begin this contribution with an aside. It is only a weak, insecure, paranoid, wicked, heartless, ignorant, lawless and callous government that refuses to identify, apprehend, prosecute and hang the bloodthirsty, psychopathic and murdering Janjaweed Islamist Fulani militants and herdsmen and instead arrests an innocent and accomplished young man like Audu Maikori who simply had the courage to cry out to the world about the barbarous genocide that the people of Southern Kaduna and members of his ethnic group and religious faith are being subjected to all over the north.

*Femi Fani-Kayode

I am convinced that my old friend Governor Nasir El Rufai has lost it. He has literally been driven mad by the power that he now wields. If he wants peace in Kaduna state and in the entire country is this the way to achieve it? Does he really believe that locking up his critics and those that have expressed concern about the mass murder and crimes against humanity that are being perpetuated in his state by his Fulani friends and kinsmen who he publicly admitted that he sends public funds to is the way forward?

Does he not know that the suppression of dissenting voices and intimidation will only lead to more anger, resistance, violence and dissent? Can he not build bridges rather than burn them? Can he not make friends rather than make enemies? Here is my message to him: the people of Southern Kaduna are NOT your slaves and neither are the northern minorities, the people of the south or the Christians of Nigeria.

You can kill and lock up as many of us as you like: our faith will only continue to grow, we shall continue to go from strength to strength and we shall oppose and resist you till the bitter end. At the appointed time the Lord will strike back at you for your power show and sheer wickedness and He shall deliver His people. I will not beg you to free Audu Maikori but instead I will strongly advise you to do so. This brings me to the meat of this intervention.

One of the qualities that a Prince must have is the ability to speak truth to power no matter the price, no matter the consequences and no matter whose ox is gored.

Today I will share a truth which many may not like but which, as a leader and a Prince, I am constrained to share. Some have suggested that every Nigerian is compelled by God to pray for our ailing President. I disagree. I do not wish him ill or wish him dead but at the same time I do not subscribe to the view that I am compelled to pray for him. I would rather save my prayers for the thousands of Audu Maikori’s of this world who are suffering persecution and who are languishing in dingy cells all over our country for doing absolutely nothing wrong. I would rather save my prayers for the souls and families of those that have been cut short by the guns and bullets of government security forces, the bombs of radical Islamic terrorists and the machetes and knives of the Fulani militias and herdsmen.

When the Holy Bible says we must pray for our leaders the author was referring to God-fearing and Godly leaders and not usurpers and tyrants. The Bible says we must ‘resist evil’ and few would dispute the fact that with the economy in shambles, with the naira at its lowest value in its entire history, with the level of impunity and corruption in government and with the amount of brutal persecution, politically-motivated arrests and prosecutions and the massive shedding of innocent blood that goes on in our country today, Buhari and his Federal Government are pure evil.

As a matter of fact they are a cursed government that have come to do nothing but spread death, disease, poverty, tears, hardship, suffering, division, hatred, persecution, injustice, destruction and wickedness. To those that insist that even evil tyrants are worthy of our goodwill and prayers I put the following questions.

Fulani Herdsmen And Endless Killings

By  Benedict Ahanonu

FOR most part of 2016, Nigeria was plagued by incessant letting of blood by a group alleged to be Fulani herdsmen. While some may claim that the real Fulani herdsmen are peaceful and essentially mindful of their flock, the fact remains that this marauding group is composed of herdsmen who appear in the garb of Fulani pastoralists.

That aside, their modus operandi is unwavering and follows a common pattern. From Benue to Enugu, Delta, Ekiti and now Niger, Kaduna it has been a gory tale of woe.

Thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed, cash and food crops destroyed, villages and communities sacked.
Because there seems to be no indication of readiness by the government through the security agencies to deal with these murderous offenders, they have got more emboldened even as they visit mayhem on Nigerians with flagrant impunity.
One had expected President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate strong leadership in dealing with these marauders whom it appears may not be Nigerians.

While there is “Operation Lafiya Dole” for the Northeast insurgency, “Operation Python Dance” for the Southeast Biafran agitators, “Operation Crocodile Smile” for the Niger Delta, there is none for this bunch of killers who have succeeded in inflicting pain on almost every part of the country.

It is even quite disturbing  and strange that the same President Buhari who is always quick to condemn such dastardly acts when they happen elsewhere has so far been unable to rebuke what seems like genocide taking place in Southern Kaduna.

Reacting, perhaps, at the behest of Buhari, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who spoke on a Channels Television programme, “Sunrise Daily,” said that it was needless for the president to speak on the destruction of southern Kaduna State since the governor assured that he was in full control of the violent crisis and had been briefing his boss regularly.