I think it is a great pity that the Buhari presidency, which started with a promise of change and hope for Nigeria, is now letting itself be defined by the most primitive development that this country has ever experienced. I refer to the series of barbarous invasions of various rural communities and small villages across Nigeria by the people whom we all call Fulani herdsmen.
In the past few years, the rampage has been mostly in the Middle Belt, where a long succession of destruction of villages and massacres of their inhabitants has ultimately painted an unmistakeable picture of deliberate and systematic genocide. Today, no serious minded Nigerian can doubt what the citizens of the Middle Belt have been saying – namely, that there is a plan by the Fulani to wipe out some Middle Belt peoples and take over their territories.
This Middle Belt picture is bad enough. The fact that it is taking place in today’s Nigeria disqualifies Nigeria to be regarded as a member of the modern world’s comity of nations. Worse, it is enough to eliminate Nigeria’s claim to be one country at all. And it continues, without any hope of letting off.
At first, only few scattered forages of this sickening crime reached the states of the Nigerian South. But that has now changed. The rampage has now spread fully to the states of Southern Nigeria, even all the way to the states in the thick, and sometimes mangrove, forests of the Atlantic coastlands where there is not much grass to attract cattle. Suddenly bursting on rural communities in the dead of night, blatantly killing, maiming and seriously wounding men, women and children, burning homes and barns, and, reportedly, raping women, and then slinking away in the dark, this army of invasion has struck in almost every state of Southern Nigeria. A couple of weeks ago, the governor of Enugu State burst into tears when he saw the scene of total horror left behind by the invaders in a part of his state. Today, the Governor of Ekiti State is mourning the dead and struggling to save the lives of the maimed and wounded men, women and children of the small town in his state where the invaders struck a few days ago.
It is getting worse. From the way this whole thing is shaping up, it can only get worse and worse. Nigerians are wondering why none of these desperadoes are being arrested. From time to time in the war against Boko Haram, we get reports that some of the Boko Haram terrorists have been captured and arrested; we are even shown pictures of these in the media. Nigerians cannot help asking, why the difference? Why are these people not being arrested?
Indeed, why are they still able to move across this country at will and strike at will wherever they choose to? Why does it seem as if nobody, no authority, is doing anything to stop them – or even to restrain them even a little?
Yes, Nigerians know that the president has ordered the military and police authorities to stop these people’s attacks on villages and farmsteads. But why is it that the president’s order seems to be producing no measurable result? Why, in spite of the president’s order, are these killers still freely and boldly spreading across Nigeria, killing, maiming and destroying, and getting away through long distances, all without encountering any disturbance by Nigerian law enforcement?
Can Nigerians be blamed if they say, as they are now increasingly saying in the open media, that they suspect something fishy in this whole situation? Can Nigerians be blamed if, for instance, they say, as more and more of them are openly saying that they suspect that Nigeria’slaw enforcement authorities are afraid to deal with these killer herdsmen as they would deal with all other citizens because the killer herdsmen are the ethnic kinsmen of President Buhari?
Moreover, since the Nigerian government has chosen to give little or no information to Nigeria about this killer gang, about its ways and means of operation, and about its purpose and objective for its hideous brutalization of peaceful Nigerian citizens across the face of Nigeria, is it surprising that Nigerians are themselves finding ways to fill the information gap? We have all tended to identify these people as Fulani herdsmen, but most of us are now saying that, though many of them are indeed Nigerian Fulani herdsmen, very many others are neither Fulani nor herdsmen. That very many are foreigners who have come to Nigeria.
Very importantly, President Buhari himself has strengthened these suspicions. Without directly informing Nigeria, President Buhari let out the information in an interview with the CNN in London some days ago that many of the killers are indeed Libyans, elements from the highly trained and well-armed private militia of late President Ghadafi of Libya, most of whom fled south into West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. Nigerians at home and abroad are wondering and asking, why did President Buhari not give this very important information at home and to his country? Why has he not done so even days after his London CNN interview? Why?
Is President Buhari aware of the implications of that information to the CNN? Can’t he and his officials see that our president has said that foreign militia elements entered our country – invaded our country – and are killing people at will across our country, and our government has done, and is doing, nothing about it?
How is it that they cannot see that a full statement – a full explanation of all circumstances of this crisis – has long been due from the President of Nigeria? Are we to live with the disturbing surrender to the fact that such a statement will never come from our president?
The effect of this whole shady handling of this crisis is being reinforced daily by the kinds of statements emanating from significant Fulani citizens. Since these significant citizens know that foreign militiamen have been involved in the attacks on various parts of Nigeria, why have some of them been repeatedly claiming that the attackers are all Fulani herdsmen, Nigerian Fulani citizens who, as citizens, are free to go anywhere in Nigeria? Why that huge piece of misinformation?
Is it surprising then that Nigerians are now increasingly coming to the belief that some very major, some extraordinary, objectives underpin this whole development. Many Nigerians are asking openly in the media whether this is not a heightened phase of the old Hausa-Fulani efforts to establish their sole and perpetual control over Nigeria, or to forcibly Islamize the whole of Nigeria. That is, have some in the Arewa North elite now gone so far as to recruit and bring into Nigeria Ghadafi’s uprooted private army, to hide among Fulani herdsmen, and to masquerade as Fulani herdsmen, for the purpose of intimidating the rest of Nigeria into some sort of surrender?
Inevitably, over-arching the whole atmosphere of fears and suspicions generated in this crisis is its impact on the Buhari presidency. If President Buhari does not hurry to come open before the people of Nigeria, to give them full and ascertainable details about what is happening in their country, and to announce and convincingly follow up with plans to rid Nigeria of this terrible threat, his whole presidency could be doomed. Already, he must be aware that his stock has been falling gradually. Even his anti-corruption war, which started with a great deal of excitement and support, is losing enthusiasm and support as this Fulani herdsmen crisis grows bigger and bigger. It would be a great pity to see Buhari lose his once considerable political capital over this squalid issue. It would be a greater pity to see Nigeria fall over it.
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