In the midst of the
enduring violence occasioned by the Fulani herdsmen obviously suffering from
megalomania, and the consequent Committee set up and chaired by the
Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the federal government is considering
the establishment of cattle colonies across Nigeria. This singular move has
beaten my imagination hollow. Questions that had become a nightmare have engulfed
my heart and have refused to diffuse away even when I am wide awake. Can this
move of the federal government be considered as official wickedness or thoughtlessness
and an unsolicited concern for these societal deviants?
Cattle-rearing is a
private business in Nigeria. Why is the government so particular in its attempt
to create cattle colonies to murderers whose delight is to mercilessly
extinguish life from fellow citizens with abandon? How much tax do these
abnormal nomads pay into the government coffers? What value do they add, in
terms of national economic development, than to deplete the enviable and indispensable
human resources of the Nigerian nation? How many empowerment programmes has the
government been pursuing with these kind of vigour, for those in genuine quest
for a productive and clean business enterprises devoid of human bloodshed?
The Committee set up is not
only to appease these Fulani vampires, but it is best described as window-dressing approach to deal with a
burning national issue. No one has heard
of how many of these Fulani marauders have been arrested, not even as the
Inspector-General of Police has shifted his abode to the theatre of violence,
and given two weeks by the Nigerian Senate to arrest the perpetrators of the
violence. I think that the first step that would have assuaged the anger and
pains of the families of victims and the entire country is to apprehend and
prosecute the murderers, so as to also seek justice for the dead. It is not
setting up of committees first, (though that may be a way of looking for long
term approach to end the crisis), but this appears to show the government’s complicity
in the entire drama of this carnage. The government should also stop the myriad
of promises that the herdsmen’s carnage will soon end. It is not a festival with an end-date. This carnage
must end and end now!; the impunity must stopped and the murderers If convicted
punished according to the law of the land. Enough of kids’ gloves on these
devils called the herdsmen! Former President Jonathan had once said that his
political ambition does not worth the blood of any human being. He stood by his
word...that is integrity! But contemporarily, it appears that the lives of
gaunt cows are worth more than the blood of 75 humans.
Whenever the government
claims to distribute fertilizers to farmers in those days, no government
official monitors to ensure the effective distribution of such products with
such suspicious zeal as deployed in this herdsmen case. Once the project is
announced, it is left entirely in the hands of political villains. The
government does not intervene with the interest and vigour it is showing to the
herdsmen who are of same parentage with the boko harams. If the government is
fighting the boko harams with all the ability it can muster, why are they now petting
the issue of these unrepentant murderers and marauders? The N100 Billion purported
to have been released by the immediate past government of Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan, in the bid to resolve the
carnage of the herdsmen and the farmers; where has the money sunk into? No one
has been able to account for it till now. The National Parliament stands aloof
on this.
Now, the government is contemplating
cattle colonies. I ask, will the government eat up their conscience to
cut a piece of land, for instance, from same Benue State itself and cede it to
the Fulani herdsmen for grazing of their cattle? Or will the government use the
burial ground of the 75 murdered people on a New Year day, in Benue State as
part of the colonies perhaps when the place has grown enough grasses for the
cows’ consumption? No reasonable State
will cede any part of its land to these roaming book harams as Cattle colonies.
The implication of
establishing Cattle colonies is that when these marauders settle in such a
place, they reproduce in binary numbers and in quick succession for the purpose
of dominating and overwhelming their hosts in population. Very soon, the entire
place will be dominated and infested with these herdsmen and their children. To
further compound the problems, these are damned and irredeemable illiterates
who lack the societal orientation of cohabiting with normal human beings in a
sane society. They will soon expand the boundaries of their so-called cattle delineated
colonies, thereby creating boundary disputes resulting in another protracted
bloodbath. No Southern State and middle belt part of the country should abide
by the antics of the federal government. There are enough grasses in the
Sambisa forest. Let the so-called herdsmen be restricted there if the
government so loves them. There is enough vast land in the North where these
Fulani herdsmen could establish their cattle-rearing business. No numbers of
cows equals a single human life.
The government can at
best establish Cattle Ranches for them in their states of origin, just like the
example President Muhammadu Buhari has shown when he visited his cattle farm in
his hometown in Daura, Katsina State. The President’s cattle were not moving
from place to place with their herdsmen attacking and killing their hosts. They
simply stayed put in their ranches and looking well fed and comfortable. The
Ranches have reduced the risks of attacks from wild animals and other threats
of both the animals and their keepers in the course of moving from one place to
the other. There will be longevity to both the animals and their keepers,
adding to a greater economic value. Let all the herdsmen (if they are truly
one) return to their States, erect ranches, take care of their cattle and then reach
out to other parts of the country for the purpose of marketing their products. The
government must invent more sophisticated ways of rearing cattle in our contemporary
world, instead of staying glued to archaic and anarchic methods of traditional
cattle rearing. It is through this way that we can have an enduring peace and
lasting solution in the country on this issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment