Fulani Cross-Country Cattle Grazing Menace

By Farouk Martins Aresa

Cattle grazing should not be a cross country menace across West Africa with Fulani’s philosophy that only God owns land. No ethnic group does in this century; because they only provide a marginal amount of Africa’s meat supply. It is about time their masters who are the real owners of the cattle measure up. They either provide modern facilities to feed their cattle where they are or face massive outrage in each of these countries treating them as cross-country terrorists.

The appeasement of granting grazing rights on properties that do not belong to them deprive the owners their wish to use their land as they see fit. It is myopic, dense and opportunistic. One would expect better cerebral solutions from the Schools of Agriculture in the universities and colleges of any country. Are they going to each country to negotiate land or just creating attraction for other Fulani into one privileged country until they run out of grazing land again?

Another philosophy within Fulani is that the life of a cow is more precious than that of human. If that philosophy is limited to their communities, as if that is not bad enough, extending it to their hosts in each of the country they invade raises a moral problem apart from economic and precious loss of lives. It becomes a clash of cultures, religions and laws.

The Hausa in Nigeria have been dominated by Fulani for over a century now. Hausa are proud people with their own indigenous civilized way of life and religion that ruled some of the Great Empires of West Africa. Today Hausa children of kings and queens are most of the impoverished talikawa in West Africa. Generally spread but mostly prominent in Nigeria as Fulani dominate the Hausa. Unfortunately, Hausa have taken to the philosophies and religion of their captors.