“The report counters the farmer-herder clashes narrative that has been used to describe the violence in the Middle Belt and northern Nigeria, noting the casualty asymmetry. The report clarifies that the research and focus are on the armed, violent, radical Fulani militant groups… The report notes that attacks by Fulani militants often happen at night or in the early morning while the community members are at home, unsuspecting of attacks and unable to respond, again countering the claim that the attacks are a result of clashes. The report also describes the advanced weaponry used by the militants and how the attacks are often well-coordinated, with militants arriving by motorcycles en masse and even by boat. The report relates cases where the rules of engagement used by the Fulani militants liken those of Islamic Jihad, with Fulani militants sending threatening messages prior to an ambush, ‘your land or your blood’…”
Let us hear it from Jubilee Campaign, an internationally acclaimed human rights and genocide evaluation non-profit organisation that holds consultative status at the United Nations, from their November 2020 Report titled, “Nigeria - This Genocide is Loading: Finding Reasonable Basis to Believe Crimes Against Humanity Occurred – Report To The International Criminal Court”, as summarized by Genocide Watch:
“The report counters the farmer-herder clashes narrative that has been used to describe the violence in the Middle Belt and northern Nigeria, noting the casualty asymmetry. The report clarifies that the research and focus are on the armed, violent, radical Fulani militant groups… The report notes that attacks by Fulani militants often happen at night or in the early morning while the community members are at home, unsuspecting of attacks and unable to respond, again countering the claim that the attacks are a result of clashes. The report also describes the advanced weaponry used by the militants and how the attacks are often well-coordinated, with militants arriving by motorcycles en masse and even by boat. The report relates cases where the rules of engagement used by the Fulani militants liken those of Islamic Jihad, with Fulani militants sending threatening messages prior to an ambush, ‘your land or your blood’…”
Several experts and observers have pointed to President Buhari, a Fulani, and his government as being complicit in this genocide-Jihad by armed Fulani. The entire security apparatus of the country is headed by Fulani. The Minister for Communications is a Fulani with controversial approval of global Islamic terrorism (but of course denied). The Ministers for Immigration, and for Customs are both Fulani. Fulani head the three arms of government, as well as key ministries. It is under such a situation that the military headed by Buhari, who is Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, has “set up cattle ranches nationwide” in almost all their divisions and brigades (barracks), ostensibly to improve the economy. In Nigeria, cattle are associated with Fulani herdsmen. There have been reports such as at Okitipupa, Ondo State of army barracks being the accommodation for large numbers of Fulani herdsmen/migrants. This has, not surprisingly, been denied by the authorities. It all comes at a time when Fulani herdsmen, also known as Fulani militia, were in 2014 named the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index. What we learn from survivors of Fulani raids is that their attackers are well armed (having camps inside barracks would certainly be useful for that!), and the military either helps them escape after a killing spree or does not come to help those being attacked. A former Minister of Defence, retired General T Y Danjuma in 2018 warned Nigerians about what was coming.
He said, “The Armed Forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians... If you wait for the Armed Forces to stop the killing, you will all die one by one.” He said that rather than protect Nigerians, the security forces “facilitate” attacks by armed invaders. Gen T Y Danjuma advised Nigerians to resist the “ethnic cleansing” and to defend themselves, otherwise given what would happen, “Somalia will be a child’s play”.
Further to this, written and video news items have shown a massive ongoing influx of fighting-age Fulani and Arewa males into the South and Middle Belt, hidden in trucks, including during the COVID-19 lockdown when indigenous Nigerians were forbidden to move around freely. French philosopher-intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy said this, “A slow-motion war is underway in Africa’s most populous country. It’s a massacre of Christians, massive in scale and horrific in brutality.” He had visited Nigeria in 2019 to find out what was going on and reported his findings in the Wall Street Journal under the title, “The New War Against Africa’s Christians”, where he mentioned “Fulanization” happening, with Fulani he met having an ideology that Nigeria is their “promised land”. Lévy ended by saying, “But as my trip concludes, I have the terrible feeling of being carried back to Rwanda in the 1990s, to Darfur and South Sudan in the 2000s.”
Nowadays, the word on the streets of southern Nigeria is: “Afghanistan is loading!” The aim of the ongoing Fulani Jihad is for a violent and cataclysmic collapse of Nigeria from which would rise the Fulani Islamic State of West Africa, as they action Ahmadu Bello’s Declaration that Nigeria should be an “estate” of the Fulani.
An alternative ending is possible. For, on the other hand, we have the NINAS Movement with its ORDERLY PROCESS of Constitutional Force Majeure (CFM), declared on 16 December 2020 with Propositions on the Table that would give Nigerians a safe landing. The CFM would deter further Fulani Jihad and contain the Islamic terrorism introduced into Nigeria. It would also Decommission the 1999 Constitution, a Forgery, and resolve the Union Dispute. The NINAS strategy began some 22 years ago soon after the 1999 Constitution was foisted on Nigerians, its goal being to Take Down that forgery. The forgery-1999 Constitution was REPUDIATED throughout the South and Middle Belt (NINAS territory)) during various Solemn Assemblies. Then that REPUDIATION was enforced via the said CFM. That means that the forgery-1999 Constitution is DEAD, ie, having been officially REPUDIATED, its provisions are not binding, and Nigeria is a DISPUTED PROJECT.
Taking the matter of the Fulani Jihad: The forgery-1999 Constitution empowers it by putting the ability to acquire guns and ammunition in the hands of the Federal Government (thus under Fulani control), and it prevents State Governments from arming their people to defend themselves against armed invaders. So NINAS has given marching orders to State Governors to create ARMED Security Agencies – NOW! NINAS said that Governors must immediately step into the role of filling the gap since Federal Government is not coming to defend the people. Rather, Federal Government is complicit in the attacks.
1)Governors must now: Send Bills to their State Assemblies. The State Assemblies should pass the Bills, and Governors sign the Bills into Law to issue firearms to Security Agencies that they are going to create to defend their people.
2)These new ARMED Security Agencies will defend their people against ARMED invaders. These Agencies are NOT state police, they are NOT anything the National Assembly has to approve of, they are NOT anything that the Inspector General of Police has to approve of.
Now, the matter of the forgery-1999 Constitution means that Nigeria has a fraudulent constitutional arrangement, which will no longer be tolerated. The CFM Propositions is that Elections 2023 that would renew the life of the REPUDIATED forgery-1999 Constitution are to be suspended, and there would instead be a time-bound Transitioning (Transitional Government) when the Union Dispute would be resolved by indigenous Ethnic Nations having multi-Regional Referendums.
It is up to the true Owners of the land, ie the indigenous peoples of the NINAS Territory to decide whether they will allow the immigrant settler Fulani using a forgery-1999 Constitution to bring upon them a cataclysmic collapse by Jihad, or, whether they prefer a safe landing by the NINAS Plan.
Ndidi Uwechue is a British citizen with Igbo heritage from the Lower Niger Bloc. She is a retired Metropolitan (London) Police Officer, she is a signatory to the Constitutional Force Majeure, and she writes from Abuja.