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History records the eastward migrations, through the Sahel to most of West Africa and parts of Central Africa. Sunni Ali, who made flourishing Gao into his capital city, extended the epic Songhai Empire eastwards – from Mali to most of Northwestern Nigeria.
From religious proselytising of pre-colonial Hausa kingdoms, aliens from West Africa also interfered in the politics of modern Nigeria.
Obafemi Awolowo confirmed that as Leader of Opposition in the First Republic, he contacted an influential Muslim cleric to recommend his political party, the Action Group, to the Muslim electorate of Northern Nigeria.
In his defence, as the 27th accused in the treasonable felony trial of 1963, Awolowo stated: “(Ibrahim Imam, the 4th Prosecution Witness) was asked to visit one Shehu Ibrahim Nayas of Koula in Senegal… He (had) insisted that if I could send a message to Shehu Nayas, he would instruct his religious followers in the North to adopt the AG.”
But things have become violent these days, as hostile herdsmen from West Africa forcibly enter into farms that belong to native Nigerian farmers, destroy their crops, sometimes kidnap or kill them, and pillage their communities.
Though “Fulani,” has been bleached from the narrative, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has publicly confirmed that herdsmen, who clashed with farmers in his state, are Fulani from other West African countries. He admitted to paying them off to prevent reprisals.
They come into Nigeria, expecting, rightly or wrongly, to be protected by their tribesmen, in politics, exalted traditional thrones, and senior positions in Nigeria’s military establishment. It seems to be playing out that way – going by the lamentations of a former Minister for Defence, Gen Yakubu Danjuma.
A former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, explained: “To do away with herders-farmers’ conflict, we need to settle our nomads and those who breed animals. We want to put them in a place that has been developed as a settlement, where we provide water for their animals, pastures, schools for their children, security, agro-rangers, etc.”
As laudable as this seems, it is a strange that Nigeria is making concession to accommodate external aggressors. How do you seek accommodation with an enemy that makes your life miserable?
The questions that Ogbeh and President Muhammadu Buhari must address are: “Where are the so-called nomads coming from? Where have they been all this while? Where do they keep their cattle today? Is it on other people’s property?”
Natives of North-Central Nigeria recall how some Fulani, who came to work in the Jos mines in the 1930s, ended up acquiring land, and enthroning their leaders as emirs, with the support of the government that gave them staffs of office.
Southern Nigerians do not want such in their domains. For the Yoruba, the loss of Ilorin to the Fulani is like a bad dream that won’t go away. Annexing, or compulsorily acquiring land from people, for the occupation of those whom they fear are out to harm them, is a disaster in disguise.
There is an argument that the cattle colonies, cattle ranches, RUGA settlement, or “whatchamacallit,” are ploys by government to deploy eminent domain to acquire territory for herdsmen coming in from West Africa, even though the Land Use Act vests lands in state governors.
Economist Katch Ononuju is more direct in expressing the opinion that the RUGA plan is to acquire land for Fulani from West African countries, to skew the demographics of Nigeria for electoral purposes.
Ononuju adds that the “Town Fulani,” who are Nigerian citizens, already have territories, and therefore need no RUGA. A former Director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Col Tunde Togun (retd.), reports: “These (alien) herdsmen now kill native (Nigerian) Fulani, and rustle their cows (as reported in Zamfara State); they rape their wives.” Even native Fulani are now victims. Who was that Indian who used to say, “Blimey!”
Togun adds: “These people are Fulani from Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.” After declaring that “They have come to own Nigerian land,” he asks, “How can the inheritance of our future generations be given to foreigners?”
Abdul Azeez Suleiman, of the Northern Coalition Group, threatened that southerners would be evicted from Northern Nigeria if the Federal Government failed to rescind its decision to suspend the RUGA scheme within 30 days.
Though Suleiman appears to be waltzing out of that threat, it is necessary to ask if the “Northern Nigeria” that he is talking about includes Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory built with funds largely appropriated from Southern Nigeria.
Whereas Northern Nigeria’s only Premier Ahmadu Bello brazenly declared that his Nothernisation policy would rather employ an expatriate than Southern Nigerians, the NCG has the audacity to want to compel the South to give up its land – for the use of alien Fulani.
By attributing economic migration from West Africa to climate change, President Buhari has unwittingly confirmed that his government’s plan to acquire territory is only in the interest of immigrant herdsmen.
His “I am for nobody; I am for everybody,” declaration, made in his first inaugural speech, is now suspect, as he increasingly appears to be looking out only for the interest of his ethnic group, especially those who are non-Nigerians.
Some sceptics suggest that President Buhari’s signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement was hastily done to further a surreptitious relocation of West Africa’s Fulani to Nigeria. The President must formally deny this allegation.
The five South-East state governors, those of Taraba, Benue and Ondo states, the Yoruba Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and South-West governors, who initially wanted to speak with both sides of their mouths, have rejected the establishment of RUGA settlements in their states.
For the Yoruba, the loss of Ilorin to the Fulani is a bad dream that won’t go away. Annexing, or compulsorily acquiring land from people, for the occupation and use of those whom they fear might harm them, is truly disaster in disguise.
The Midwest Movement asks the Federal Government “to immediately rescind its planned veiled colonisation of our peoples, while enjoining the governments of our home-states of Edo and Delta to reject the same in clear and unequivocal terms.”
The pressure group adds: “While not opposing the desire of the Federal Government to settle nomadic herdsmen (and any other such groups whatsoever), this should be done in areas and land that are native to such groups.”
The Federal Government must address the real fears of Nigerians, who think that the ulterior motive is that RUGA will be used as Forward Operational Bases for a future Fulani invasion of their territories.
Senator Shehu Sani, formerly representing Kaduna State Central Senatorial District, reportedly tweeted: “Establishing a ‘Rugan Fulani’ settlement in some states where spears & swords are flying over heads & without facilitating a comprehensive inter communal peace plan & MoU, will be a recipe for disaster. The architects of the idea are viewing the problem from their tinted window.”
Nigerians shouldn’t be forced to accommodate their so-called brother Africans. Awolowo recalled that even Kwame Nkrumah, protagonist of Pan Africanism, who preached, “Africa Must Unite,” expelled Nigerians from Ghana in 1958!
When a Yoruba says, “Roo’re o,” he doesn’t mean, “Stir it well,” but to think it through. President Buhari, leave the RUGA initiative to states. Incidentally, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, is already thinking of a ranch.
–Twitter @lekansote1
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