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The Fallacy Of Herders-farmers Crisis by abouzaid: 4:40pm On Jul 20, 2021 |
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
FORMER Lagos State Governor and
chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, made a
profound statement when he paid a
condolence visit to the family of elder
statesman and Afenifere leader,
Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure on July
14, 2019. Fasoranti’s daughter,
Funke Olakunrin, was gunned down
two days earlier at Ore junction on
the Sagamu-Benin highway, and her
driver, Tayo Ogundare, said hooded
men emerged from the bush to attack
them.
Announcing the tragedy the same
day, the then Afenifere spokesperson,
Yinka Odumakin, blamed herdsmen
for it. His claim was echoed by the
deceased’s brother, Kehinde
Fasoranti, who told journalists that
policemen at Ore police station
confirmed that his sister was killed
by herdsmen.
Tinubu was not impressed and
cautioned against stigmatising
herdsmen. “I am extremely
concerned about security but I don’t
want stigma. I can go through history
of kidnapping and we know how it
started, where it all started. There are
lots of copycats. How many years
ago have we faced insecurity in this
country and cases of kidnapping?
Is Evans a herdsman who was
arrested?” he asked. Then, what
seem like an alibi for herdsmen. “I
don’t want to be political, I will ask
you where are the cows?” he asked
journalists. Tinubu was right even
though he was being sarcastic and
many Nigerians, particularly his
Yoruba kinsmen, rightly took
umbrage at what they perceived as
an unfortunate sarcasm.
But speaking tongue-in-cheek, as he
did, does not detract from his
message, which is, can there really
be herdsmen without a herd of
domesticated animals? The answer is
no.
False narrative
A herdsman looks after a herd of
animals such as cattle or goats. And
those who killed Olakunrin were not
herdsmen. They were armed
terrorists. For too long, Nigerians
have been deceived by their leaders
that there is a conflict between
farmers and herders. But that is a
false narrative that obfuscates issues
and misleads.
What have those who go in the dead
of the night to sack entire villages,
kill and maim indigenes and occupy
their ancestral homes got to do with
the quest for herders to rediscover
age-long grazing routes? What has
farmers-herders conflict got to do
with abduction of students and
demand for millions of naira ransom?
Do they want to convert the schools
to grazing reserves? This false
narrative has been pushed by no
less a person than President
Muhammadu Buhari and top officials
of his administration. But there is no
intractable conflict between farmers
and herders in Nigeria, at least not
one that accounts for the ongoing
horrendous bloodbath. Fulani
herdsmen have always co-habited
with other ethnic nationalities across
the country. Desert encroachment is
not a new phenomenon.
So, when Buhari tells his Attorney
General and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami, to dig up a so-
called First Republic grazing gazette
as a solution to the acts of terror that
is about to consume the country, he
is being economical with the truth.
Adopting the euphemism of banditry
is equally deceitful.
This is terrorism. Simple! Many
people have wondered why the
country is unable to tame these
hoodlums. The answer is simple.
Those in positions of authority are
pretending that what ails Nigeria is
malaria (herders-farmers crisis) when
it is malignant tumor (full-blown
terrorism).
And Buhari knows it. That is why
there is no solution in sight. But he
should be very careful. Enabling
terrorists and terrorism is a slippery
slope. Anyone in doubt should ask
Buhari’s alter-ego, Nasir el-Rufai,
Kaduna State Governor. On July 15,
2012, el-Rufai tweeted boastfully:
“We will write this for all to read.
Anyone, soldier or not that kills the
Fulani takes a loan repayable one day
no matter how long it takes.”
And what was his angst? He was
miffed that the administration of
President Goodluck Jonathan was
waging a war against terrorists, some
of them Fulani, in the North. And true
to his word, when he became
Governor in 2015, he told his Fulani
kinsmen that one of their own has
ascended the throne.
Rather than waging war against
terrorists, he went looking for them in
their own countries with sacks of
tax-payers’ money for alimony. But
as John F. Kennedy, former U.S.
President once said: “Those who
foolishly sought power by riding the
back of the tiger ended up inside.”
El-Rufai has found out to his chagrin
why those who ride a tiger are
always afraid to dismount.
This week, his government disclosed
that bandits killed 222 people,
injured 266 and kidnapped 774 in the
last three months, and have started
collecting protection levies from
farmers in communities across the
12 local government areas of Kaduna
State.
“Many farmers in these areas, fearing
for their lives and safety, have
abandoned their fields altogether.
This has already begun to affect crop
yields, and the threat of food
insecurity looms large,”
Commissioner for Internal Security
and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan,
told el-Rufai and other top
government officials on Tuesday.
Receiving the security report, a highly
flustered el-Rufai simply called on
citizens to be law-abiding – whatever
that means. The swagger is gone.
That is the danger inherent in
condoning evil and pampering
terrorists. In the same Kaduna State,
terrorists have attacked five schools
and abducted 204 students since
January. Last Friday, the State
Commissioner of Police, Umar Muri,
told the visiting Inspector General of
Police, Alkali Baba Usman, that
Kaduna State, the capital of Northern
Nigeria, has become a failed state,
literally.
Highways in the state – Kaduna-
Abuja highway, Kaduna-Birnin Gwari
Road and Kaduna-Zaria Road – are
no-go areas for law-abiding citizens.
Terrorists hold sway. Schools are so
unsafe that the state’s chief security
officer, secretly withdrew his son
from school to be taught at Kashim
Ibrahim House, the only safe haven
in the entire state.
He has shut down 13 other schools
because of terrorists. El-Rufai, the
roaring lion, is now a lily-livered
executive governor, subdued by the
same Frankenstein Monster he fed.
What is happening to him is poetic
justice, many insist, a deserved
comeuppance for the injustice he
has meted out to non-ethnic Fulani
in the state.
A highly distressed CP Muri narrated
his ordeal to IGP Usman thus: “From
our records, the schools that have
been attacked and students abducted
in Kaduna State from January 2021
to date alone include: “College of
Forestry and Mechanisation, Mando
Afaka where 37 students were
kidnapped on March 11, 2021 and
subsequently rescued.
Green Field University along Kaduna-
Abuja Highway where 23 students
were kidnapped on April 20, 2021
and five of the students were
gruesomely killed by their abductors
while the rest were released. Nuhu
Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria where two
kidnapping incidents were recorded,
first involving three students on
December 14, 2020 who were later
released by their abductors and the
second incident was recorded on
June 10, 2021 involving two lecturers
and seven students.
“The National Centre for Tuberculosis
and Leprosy in Saye, Zaria LGA of
Kaduna where eight staff were
kidnapped on July 4, 2021 and
Bethel Baptist Academy, Maraban
Rido, Kaduna where 135 students
were kidnapped on July 5, 2021 out
of which 28 were rescued and the
remaining 107 victims still in
captivity.”
To be sure, none of these students
was rescued. They either escaped or
were released by their abductors
after their parents paid millions of
naira as ransom. In Kaduna, the state
is none existent, literally. Terrorists
are the lords of the manor. When in
2018 kidnappers abducted a
prominent traditional ruler in the
state, Maiwada Raphael Galadima, the
Agwom Adara, and murdered him
after demanding N18 million ransom,
el-Rufai chastised the victims rather
than going after the villains. Today,
the chicken has come home to roost
for both him and Kaduna State – as
it has, indeed, for both Buhari and
Nigeria.
Buhari should jettison this herders-
farmers fallacy and wage a decisive
war against terrorists. If not, the fate
that has befallen Kaduna State under
El-Rufai’s watch will also befall the
entire country and history will be
harsh to the memory of Buhari. I
hope it is not too late for him to
listen. And to take action. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/07/the-fallacy-of-herders-farmers-crisis/ |
Re: The Fallacy Of Herders-farmers Crisis by KillMNKnow(f): 4:41pm On Jul 20, 2021 |
Too long |
Re: The Fallacy Of Herders-farmers Crisis by BeardedMeat(m): 5:05pm On Jul 20, 2021 |
No paragraph, comma etc. Only few people would read the post. |
Re: The Fallacy Of Herders-farmers Crisis by Okoroawusa: 5:30pm On Jul 20, 2021 |
How do I read this nice write up now? E dey pain for eyes to follow...i think the op should rework it and repost. |
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