A Decade of Destruction, Arson, Kidnap, Murder by Fulani Herdsmen

A Decade of Destruction, Arson, Kidnap, Murder by Fulani Herdsmen

Here are some facts before we delve into this matter:

Ø  The Fulani herdsmen who roam the country killing looting and plundering are not the real owners of the cattle in question.

Ø  The real owners of the cattle are wealthy Fulanis comprising but not limited to retired directors from government ministries, retired and perhaps serving army generals, police and customs. For example our President admitted openly in his asserts declaration that indeed he own 150 cows! Can you imagine then the Ex-head of state trekking under sun from Katsina to perhaps Oturukpo!? You know that is not possible.

Ø  The wealthy Fulanis believe that they own the country and as such order their cattle herders to kill anyone who in any way says jack about their destructive activities and since the herders can’t afford a N150,000/weapon AK47 is believed to have been purchased for them by the cow lords.

Ø  What the Fulani cow lords want is, despite the fact that cow business is private business, that each state in the country map out several hectares of scarce land and apportion it to the cow herders so that they can roam as they want from Sahara to the mouth of Atlantic and since they know that would be a difficult thing to do the strategy is spill as much blood as possible anywhere the herders go so that when all states are tired of wedging pools of blood they would all beg the Fulanis to have as much land as possible!

Ø  Someone said  that perhaps the security forces have some form of collusion with the destructive herders, that is why for the past 10 years  no Fulani herdsman has been taken to court nor has any Fulani herdsman convicted for murder arson rape of kidnap! It is even doubtful if any of the arsonists has ever been arrested for serious breach of national security. It appears that security agencies look the other way when the Fulanis are doing it but once they finish and melt into safety security officers come out to shoot into the air and issue a statement that “The situation is under control”! For instance the killings in Enugu, the state Governor actually revealed that by 10:00 pm there was report of possible attacks and quickly he called the Commissioner of Police and other security concerns for a plan of action but by 1:00am when the hoodlums arrived none of the actions agreed on was carried out! This revelation has now thrown light to the possible reasons why the Fulani herdsmen has killed over 1000 people and damaged properties perhaps approaching a trillion Naira across the country in the last 10 years without  an arrest nor conviction; a) either the commissioner in Enugu was afraid of his life what the retired generals who own the cow could do to him if they found out he was the one that made their order of destruction not to be carried out or b) He called the oga on top and he or she asked him to stir action or a combination of a and b! hold it! I can hear you say that but the man has been “removed”! Whatever that meant, the least a commissioner of police engaged in such allusion to a serious breach of national security deserves is definitely removal but dismissal and arrest for prosecution but this kind of dubious move is a style established already whenever the fat cats are involved. For instance when former EFCC boss was accused of not remitting most of what he recovered from “corrupt ” politicians you recall first the admin says he would be investigated by the EFCC whilst he remains their boss! When reasonable persons questioned the integrity of such a directive he was never arrested nor investigated nor prosecuted instead he was asked to go home in a case we are talking of possible disappearance of one fifth of the nation’s budget! Hope you can fix the easy puzzle.

Ø  In all parts of the North, they set out some piece of land called sabongeri which is where they sell lands to none indigenes who wants to build a home to live in the North and do business so why do the Northern cattle business man want free land in the south when they sold the ones in their own domain?

Ø  To show that the entire North supports the activities of mass killings and looting by Fulani herdsmen, ACF (Arewa Consultative Forum) nor any Northern pressure group has made any statement condemning the killings of over 50 persons in Enugu and several scores of people in Agatu and indeed other parts of Nigeria. However if there is one single reprisal attack especially from the South AGF would come alive swiftly and accuse whoever of killing Northerners! What is more to stark up other willful provocations Arewa Consultative Forum  kept, dubious mute you may have to recall the number of girls important people in the North, of South origin adopts or kidnap and proceed with criminal conversion to Islam or marry out to whoever they care over eighty percent of those girls are of Igbo extraction and yet Arewa has not deemed it necessary to condemn such criminal, primitive and idiotic acts of highly placed Northerners yet if it were to be Southerners that commit such atrocities ACF would immediately swing into action. The North should sit down and respect themselves instead of willfully poking the bee hive..

Way Forward

Ø  The president apart from removing of Enugu state commissioner of Police which in itself  by my thinking is smart maneuvers just to douse tension. It is paying attention to symptoms instead of cause of disease so to pay the initial attention to cause he should order immediate disarming of all herdsmen across the Federation after all Southerners who do business in the North do not carry even a pen knife, then he should also swiftly order an enquire whose cow lord herdsmen carried the attacks in Enugu and Agatu and get the guys arrested and prosecuted. Failure to do all these in good time is an indication the President is not ready to ensure security of lives and properties and so the governors who feels reasonably aggrieved as well as state regulatorsshould put everything in place to guarantee security of lives and properties in their respective states pending the time the President is ready to tackle the national security problem getting out of control

Ø  Following serious developments in the last 50 years in most part of Nigeria particularly the South,  plot of land per person has dropped to a terrible level that more than half of grown males in Igbo land for instance have less than a plot of land for farming and living space! So apart from the fact that Northerners sell lands to non-indigenes in their place there is simply no land to give to private Fulani cattle readers and so the government must work out an incentive to empower the Cow Lords to build ranches and  feed their cattle with modern feeding method and transported with vehicles or rail! I did submit this proposal to former President Jonathan’s office:

The Ranch Proposal

As part of strategic agaric reforms to reposition the nation’s economy, the FG must target key agaric sectors namely animals(cattle), palm oil, ground nuts cocoa. Part of the most important reform for the animals sector and in particular cattle is for FG to allocate substantial amount of money to build several ranches in the North in corroboration with major cattle dealers in the North. It is expected that each ranch covering several hectares of land equipped with very deep strategic bore hole that would produce ample water to irrigate the ranch and meet water need of each ranch. Each ranch may take as much as ten or twenty major cattle dealers as such a primary school as well as a small secondary school is to be established to carter for the educational needs of the cattle attendants. They would only leave the ranch for a university education by then they must have spent a minimum of 12 to 15 years in the ranch.  There are now new improved variety of cow with shorter maturity time higher yield of milk and sometimes even meat, the FG is expected to replace the each old stock of cattle with two improved variety and weed off all old stock out of circulation for good as per the food that is where palm kernel chaff and ground nut cake mix comes in as strategic food of the animals or any other food source experts would come up with. In addition as a supplement the irrigated ranch would produce grass the cattle have to feed on a scheduled interval but main food is as narrated earlier. The government is also to supply that food free for five years before gradual dis engagement by reduction to subsidizing cost of feeding to final hands off of the feeding. There is also going to be a 5 years moratorium on taxes just like it was done for GSM operators. With that the cattle farmers can bounce back in a good way to sustain the nation’s meet need and in no time have enough to grow allied industries like hides and skin industry, in no time banks insurance companies and other financial services would spring out around various ranches creating a more robust employment for the locals and others as well. When the FG is Able to replicate this in other agaric subsectors who says we cannot be on our way to industrial revolution. For instance a barrel of Nigeria palm oil is almost four time that of crude oil so why can’t we target AS A NATION TO PRODUCE 2 MILLION BARRELS OF PALM OIL PER DAY.