Friday, 17 November 2017

THE MARAUDING FULANI HERDSMEN AND THEIR TREATMENT WITH KIDS GLOVES by SHABA Mafu.

Nigeria is a country besieged with almost intractable challenges. The challenges revolve in cyclical format to the extent that in the bid to solve or resolve an issue, another one surges up, and appeared to be more sinister and devastating than the preceding one at the verge of resolution. The two major challenges in Nigeria since its independence from the British overlords are those of corruption and insecurity. These two challenges that have graduated to problems have birthed other ancillary problems destroying the corporate and peaceful existence of the supposedly blessed country. The corruption in Nigeria is so deep-seated that efforts are constantly being made by the perpetrators of this misdeed to institutionalize it. The corruption saga is prominently evidenced in salient areas like the Police Force, the Power sector, the admission processes into institutions of higher learning, employment processes into Federal, State ministries in the federation, etc. Worst of all these, is that corruption is no longer as a mere theoretical concept, but now translates to an entity to fight back those who want to uproot it from the society. The government of President Muhammadu Buhari has been making frantic efforts to sanitize the stinking society, but it needs to do more. It has to do more starting from within the ruling government system itself.  
Another serious challenge the nation is facing is the issue of insecurity. Though insecurity is a global problem, the developed countries have the capacity to minimize the devastating consequence of the phenomenon.  But the developing countries are still facing a lot of challenges of securing the country. Worse of all of this is that the security operatives collude with the corrupt politicians to embezzle the funds meant to purchase the outfits for national security. An example of this is the Dasuki-gate in Nigeria, where the former National Security adviser to the then President Goodluck Jonathan , in collaboration with his kind, embezzled the funds meant to deal with the boko haram insurgence. This underscores the assertion that corruption is the mother of all evil, especially In Nigeria.
Another daunting challenge of insecurity is the multiplication or the ubiquitous nature of that illness in Nigeria. Critically looking, there is no region in Nigeria that does not have fundamental security issues.  Without mincing words, the most peaceful region in Nigeria as at now is the south-Western Nigera which hosts the Yoruba nation. The other regions which include the Niger-Delta, (South-south), North-East, the North-central, the South-East are hotspots with major security problems. The Niger-Delta is sufficiently bedeviled from time immemorial as their cry has been on marginalization and environmental degradation by oil drilling and spillage by the exploitative multinational companies in collaboration with succeeding governments in Nigeria. Much as their cry is very genuine, the problem with them is that they hold only the federal government by the jugular without asking their state governors what they do with the federal allocations to their states each month for several years.
The South-east is another problematic region especially as their recent protests is fired up by their sectional sentiments. Without any intention to exaggerate, the protesters under the body of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), detest President Muhammadu Buhari and his government and would do all it can to pull down his government. While Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did almost nothing to develop the region, the Ibos were much more comfortable with him and his administration than the present government making efforts to develop the region just because he (Goodluck) was from the sister region – the South-South region. The indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had been on the front burner of all agitations against the Buhari administration under the guise of declaring for an independent nation called the Republic of Biafra. The South-east region is one that had suffered natural disasters, yet not even IPOB members itself had tackled the state governors and asked questions on the underdevelopment.  All they had asked for wrongly or rightly is the independence of the Biafra State.
The North-East had suffered more devastating consequence of rebellion, insurgency and the direct aftermaths of corruption. The boko haram insurgency has dealt severe blow on that region. Many lives have been lost and properties of incalculable worth had suffered damages on that region. Though it appears that the capacities of the insurgents have been considerably decimated, much needs to be done to put a total eradication of these recalcitrant demons. The present government must again be commended for its genuine and calculated efforts to end the insurgency.
At the central part of Nigeria is the marauding Fulani herdsmen who rank second in their ferocity and high level of destructive tendencies and capacity, after their kinsmen, the boko harams. These marauders attack farmers who dare raise any eyebrows if any of the cows belonging to the Fulanis grazed their farms. Their style of attack is so deadly that the victims are normally left with no opportunity for self-defence or escape. They attack the victims in the wee hours of the morning, when their victims had surrendered to the cold hands of sleep and the over-powering sweetness of same… the early morning sleep…then the murderers would attack. Many people have been killed in Kaduna State with incalculable properties destroyed. Presently, the marauding murderers have migrated to the middle-belt to continue to wreck havoc which had been their traditional way of living and thriving.
The herdsmen are so bloodthirsty to the extent that many villagers have been either been killed or the villages sacked by these natural demons. Most painful of these experiences is the kids gloves with which the federal government has treated their ferocious activities. Different flimsy excuses have been adduced to justify the government’s failure in tackling the activities of these night marauders. The government ha once claimed that these Fulanis are migrants and not Nigerians. I thought that this would been a catalyst to wipe out these foreign vampires who come only to destabilize the fragile peace we are battling to keep in almost all the regions of the country. Rather than take a drastic action against them, they are left roaming from region to region to continue to wreak more havoc and devastation.
I want to strongly suggest that the same punch that was dealt on the IPOB should be used on the Fulani murderers who are insurgents. The saying that “the cooking pot for the chameleon is also the cooking pot for the lizard” needs apply here. The Fulani Herdsmen who were only hitherto known to be gentle and peace-lovers, armed only with sticks, have suddenly turned to wielders of sophisticated AK-47 guns, to attack innocent citizens. As a matter of urgency and the sake of justice, be summarily proscribed. The government should launch a deep punch on this devilish sect and put a sudden and lasting end to all their murderous and nefarious activities. If IPOB which has not engaged on any murderous spree at anytime but seen to be a potential danger to the unity of the country could be proscribed, then the Fulani marauders deserve equal or even more decisive treatment by the federal government of Nigeria. They and whatever they represent must be proscribed and declared a terrorist organization as well. The government must desist from treating them with kids’ gloves.