By Julius Oweh
A lot of things have been said and written about the
menace of the Fulani herdsmen sowing destruction and death throughout the
length and breadth of the country under the bizarre veneer of cattle rearing.
They are all over the country destroying the crops and farms of people yet the
government is giving the unfortunate impression that these criminals are above
the law. Growing up in the village, my image of the average Fulani herdsman
was that of the magical stick and the myth then was that should he touch you
with the stick, he could transform you to a cow.
They were peace-loving and easily
mingled with the natives and havoc was not in their DNA. But today, the image
has changed into a criminal carrying dangerous weapon like AK47 whereas other
Nigerians with double barrel gun are chased by the police and other security
agents for not getting the license to bear arms. The question that staggers
the imagination is who is issuing license to those Fulani herdsmen that are
bearing sophisticated weapons and using same to attack and even kill their
hosts.
No week passes without one form of attack by these
Fulani herdsmen in the media. Recently, a legislator in Delta State
bemoaned the attack of Fulani herdsmen that led to the death of two people in
Abraka. There was also the case of the attack in Enugu that led to the death of some women
and when the men protested, they were arrested by soldiers and locked up and
they had to bail themselves for demonstrating against an evil ravaging the
land. In Benue state, it had to take the
intervention of a foreign body for the state government to acknowledge the
menace of the Fulani herdsmen that resulted in the death of three hundred people.
For how long will this menace continue to ravage the land and the federal
government and some state governments pretend that all is well?
That is why the cries of the National Christian
Elders Forum should be taken seriously by the federal government – the executive
arm and the legislative arm. The chairman of the forum, Mr Solomon Asemota
expressed displeasure over the federal government inability to stem the on-going
carnage and destruction by Fulani herdsmen. He lamented thus on this security
challenge: `It is shocking that till today, there had been no prosecution of any
of these marauders. For years, the Fulani herdsmen have been murdering innocent
Nigerians with impunity. It is sad to note that Boko Haram which is presently
regarded as the world number one most dangerous terror organization and the
Fulani herdsmen considered the fourth are both operating in Nigeria .
Meanwhile, the response of government to the menace of these individuals has
to date, been tepid and indifferent. Can a southerner go to the core north and
attack a prominent figure in the stature of Chief Olu Falae? The impression the
federal government is giving by its lukewarm responses is that there are two
classes of people in the country – the citizens and the subjects. The citizen
can commit a crime and go scoff free and he is above the law. The subject who
is the victim of the citizen`s lawlessness can be clamped into detention for
protesting the brigandry of the citizen as demonstrated in the Enugu example.
This is clearly a recipe for chaos and anarchy.