In my dear country Nigeria, the notion that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’, is adopted and applied in a typically absurd manner. As a people, we seem to thrive on the basis that there must always be a smouldering fire to keep us busy. Moreover, rather unfortunately, for our wholesome interdependent coexistence, we have become very adept at creating or perhaps inventing fires. In the period since the return of civil rule, we have successfully dowsed the Sharia fire. In perhaps Obasanjo’s finest leadership moment, he cut off the oxygen from those who were fanning the embers. We dowsed the 2015 election fire. In perhaps Jonathan’s only leadership moment, he threw the lighting rod in his possession into the creeks rather than the highly combustible basin of ethno-religious substance that was clearly within reach. In the past few weeks it is evident that the Boko Haram fire is being successfully extinguished and even though the ash still smoulders in different places, our rejuvenated gallant military seem poised to choke out any remaining life in that fire.
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An informed analysis will show that all the incidents of fire making material that have troubled our dear country always assume dangerous combustibility when the material is addressed in sectional or religious toga. The most potent weapon of the army of fire-mongers is the manipulation and exploitation of our fragile sectional and religious fault lines. The most effective way to inflame the passion of our people is to spin every occurrence, as part of the orchestrated supremacy war between sections or religions. Our people, unfortunately and for different motivations fall for these and miss the real story. Missing the real story results in needless distractive posturing and causes more harm to the development of our collective interests. For instance if the Boko Haram insurgency had been properly isolated as pure terrorism, the national movement needed to crush it ab initio would have been forged and we will not be where we are today with that. Rather it was dressed as a Muslim versus Christian matter and an attempt to Islamize Nigeria. How such an absurd impossibility got any traction is a discussion for another day.
The fire mongers were setting the stage to dress the President Buhari regime as being on an Islamization mission or its central anti-corruption focus as a sectional agenda. Conscious of the gullibility of a disenchanted and long-suffering people, the government seems to have deprived the fire-mongers of any flammable material in that regard. So just when it seemed we will enjoy a conducive national atmosphere where we could collectively deal with our developmental issues – enter the herdsmen!
In the midst of economic hardship confronting its citizens across the entire country, the last thing this country needs is daily news of marauding herdsmen sacking villages and killing citizens, seemingly for the heck of it. What we do not also need is any attempt to address the troubling development from a sectional prism. By focusing on the Fulani in the herdsmen, we are unwittingly distracted away from uniting to confront the menace. Granted we have security agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property, they cannot properly discharge their functions without the understanding and support of the citizenry. The support and understanding of the citizenry will not be available in the present atmosphere of divisive rhetoric and threats, suspiciousness and propaganda of hidden ethnic agenda. Yes, we have Fulani herdsmen, but we also have Fulani farmers, Fulani cattle owners and Fulani cattle rustlers! The Fulani farmer, who also endures the brunt of primitive cattle rearing practices, is likely to see a herdsman as a rival for limited land resources and nothing more. The fact of their common ancestry will not solve the problem because the problem is economic and not tribal or religious, as the fire mongers in our midst will like us to believe.
Disputes over land is an endemic national problem and several communities across Nigeria have suffered severe casualties from resultant communal wars. It always confounds me how just one errant farmer can start a full blown communal crisis by simply albeit wilfully trespassing on land belonging to or claimed by another neighbouring community. Whereas the errant farmer will personally own any products resulting from his trespass, the offended community usually takes up arms against the whole of the neighbouring errant farmer’s community as if it was a group decision. Surely, properly isolating and dealing with the trespass could avoid the shocking and needless loss of innocent lives that usually follows. Similarly, we make a serious and dangerous mistake when we use the term ‘Fulani herdsmen’ as if the Fulani people are accountable for the horrendous crimes committed by herdsman who may or may not be Fulani. Are we unwittingly or mischievously starting a fire in our house when the culprits are perhaps from elsewhere? Surely, we must unite and first defeat the violent herdsmen and begin the implementation of a long term solution.
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The emotive reaction I hear to the proposed grazing reserves idea is indicative of deep seated but misplaced prejudice. Unless we ban cows from our agricultural scope, is there really an alternative to government supporting the modernization of that industry, by the provision of dedicated land? Who are the beneficiaries of that industry, if not us in our entirety? It does not make sense to suggest that cows should be reared, only on ‘Fulani’ land, when it is for our entire benefit. That is the proverbial ‘throwing away the baby with the bath water’.
In 1998, on the road from Damaturu to Gashua, our vehicle ran into a herd of cows on the expressway and hit one or two cows. I naturally and being oblivious of the herdsmen problem thought we should stop and inspect the damage to the car. My two Hausa companions screamed for the driver to speed off. My friends in their frightened state explained to me that the herdsmen would have slaughtered us had we stopped! Therefore, I could have been killed, all those years ago because government and the people did not have the will to pursue a policy to domesticate herdsmen and cattle! Fast forward to the present, I am more convinced that my life and those of other innocent victims is worth much more than the ‘sacrifice’ of land for agricultural purposes. Will it make sense, if ‘Igbo armed robbers’ robbed and killed a Yoruba family and the two tribes now engage in war as a result? It will not and likewise it will be a disservice to our good people, if we cloak terrorists in the toga of ‘Fulani herdsmen’ and get distracted from confronting these dangerous bandits with the unity of purpose required to stamp out these acts of terrorism.
EDO UKPONG – LEGAL PRACTITIONER
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