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.