"They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone. They are now combined and internationalised with ISIS in control. It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria, which it began as, it is now West African Fulanization, African Islamization and global organised crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining, and regime change." That was former President Olusegun Obasanjo in a speech titled, "Mobilising Nigeria's Human and Natural Resources for National Development and Stability." It was at the Second Session of the Synod of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Anglican Church at Oleh in the Isoko Local Government Council of Delta State.
Despite everything, I do not subscribe to the Islamization or Fulanization theory as propounded above by former President Olusegun Obasanjo a few days ago. That Obasanjo is mischievous and insensitive, as the spokesperson of the Presidency asserted in reaction to Obasanjo's speech, is, to say the least, slippery in reasonable judgment, and it is tantamount to giving a dog a bad name to hang it. The President Men, the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and the heads of our Security networks are the embodiment of mischiefs and insensitivity, based on their actions and inactions in response to the reign of terror unleashed on defenceless Nigerians by armed Fulani Herdsmen in the past four years. They are terrorising the entire Nigerian landscape, killing and kidnapping for ransom unhinged. They have destroyed farmlands and rendered numerous communities uninhabitable. And what's most stupefying is that the loyalty of the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces, as well as the much-revered culture of esprit de corps of any regular armed forces, is now in the air in Nigeria. Thanks, no doubt, to the wanton Fulanization of the Nigerian Security networks.
March 17, 2016, according to verified newspapers and television reports, 'Armed men in Military uniform invaded the Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State and arrested 76 of their youths on elders on the allegation that they were planning a counterattack against Fulani Herdsmen who kidnapped two of their women. According to the villagers, some Fulani herdsmen who settled in the community without permission had, over the years, engaged in indiscriminate destruction of their farmlands, destroying their cash crops and making it generally unsafe for the villagers to go to their own farms due to incessant attacks and harassment of their women. On this particular day, following the reported abduction of two of their women, the villagers met with the elders to map out plans to rescue the victims. As the meeting was unfolding, they were confronted by men in military uniform who came with Military trucks. When it was all over, about 76 of them were arrested and taken away in the Military trucks to Umuhia Prison. They were detained for two weeks.'
At the time of this essay, that is about four years later, no one could give an account of the sincerity of the military invasion, and whether or not they were a contingent of the Nigerian Armed Forces, or on whose command they acted. In spite of the fact that they came in Military trucks and were fully dressed in military fatigues, the Military did not claim responsibility. And that's mischievous per se.
April 25, 2016, armed Herdsmen, about 500 of them, descended on Nimbo Village in Enugu State before dawn, and at about 7 a.m., they went about killing every human being on sight. Before the attack, the Governor was alerted. In turn, he alerted the Commissioner of Police. And Abuja was alerted. But no counter-attack came from the Police or from any of the nearby Military units. They entered the village. They killed. And they went away. Untouched. Later in the day, the Governor was seen on TV weeping profusely over the sight of butchered cadavers.
It was the same story at Aguta village in Benue State and all over the Middle-Belt, South-West, South-East, Mid-West, and South-South, too numerous to recount.
What am I driving at? It is not Obasanjo who is insensitive or mischievous over the barbarism and militarisation of the Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria. The Federal Government and the leadership of the Buhari Armed Forces are the ones who are grossly mischievous.
ANALYSIS
This administration openly enlisted captured members of the Boko Haram sect into the Nigerian Army. And at the same time, it is strategising on how to conquer the sect and eliminate the scourge of insurgency. How reasonable is that, and in whose interest?
An attack was planned and executed, and the perpetrators evaporated into the air, unseen. On the other hand, village folks came together to strategise on rescuing their women abducted by herdsmen, and from nowhere came members of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Military trucks. They arrested the elders and the youths on sight and took them away. So, who is mischievous here?
It is no news, the President and all the Governors El'Rufais of the Nigerian leadership would rather Nigerian finest (members of the armed forces) are slaughtered, than one cattle-herder or a member of the Boko Haram sect is shot and killed.
Obasanjo is not alone in the Islamization or Fulanization theory. His opinion resonates with those of the majority of Nigerian Middle-Beltans and the entire population of the geographical South. The earlier reasonable men like former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State assimilate and digest that reality, the better for the country and the safety of everyone. Condemning Obasanjo is not the solution.
That the sect and the Fulani Herdsmen are barbaric is not debatable. Heartless, yes. That they are on a conquering mission is unequivocal, yes. But for what underlying agenda? I believe it is about cattle-land acquisition and grazing rights. Therefore, I do not subscribe to the theory that the Boko Haram sect wants to impose its religion on the rest of us. That is a futile endeavour in totality. And that's where the former President and I do not reach or share the same conclusion.
On the capitulation theory or near helplessness of the Federal Government in surmounting the scourge of insurgency, there is ground for concern. That helplessness and ample proofs of the unwillingness of the Armed Forces to forcefully engage militarily with the armed Fulani Herdsmen and the Boko Haram sect, focused intently on total annihilation, makes the eventuality of self-help a necessary evil. There is no debating the fact that the sincerity of Burutai (President Buhari's top Army Chief) and his Military subordinates in their war against insurgency is skewed to be indecisive, prolonged, and unwinnable. That the Herders are above the law has become a part of our reality.
THE EVIL OF SELF-HELP
In the event of self-defence, that is, in the event the local communities resolve to take up arms to defend themselves and their farmlands in their own ways, the Nigerian Armed Forces, which is openly pro-Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram sect, would be massively handicapped in logistical terms in surmounting the self-help mission. Deploying military trucks and personnel to every corner of the country as they did in Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State to forestall nationwide coordinated revenge against the herders would put the Armed Forces.
The Nigerian Armed Forces, though dominated at the Officers' level by the Hausa/Fulani folks, is not a homogeneous or tribal military establishment. It is a concomitant of Nigeria. Invading numerous villages at the same time to strengthen the onslaughts of the Boko Haram sect and the land appropriation mission of the herdsmen would be the fastest way to escalate a mutiny in the Nigerian Army. After all, it is the Nigerian Armed Forces, and not the Hausa/Fulani Armed Forces.
From all indications, it is the mischievous appetite and religious zealotry of the untouchables few who are heading the present administration, that would hasten the culmination of True Federalism and Restructuring, if not a total dismantling of this country. Reading the jejune and ridiculous excuses tabled by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory following his supervised destruction of Nightclubs in the City about a month ago shows the level of his insensitivity and the general intolerance of other cultures by some of the President's Men. It manifests a grave discount from reality - our reality, our diversity, which is the major ill of this administration. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation-state. Abuja is seemingly blind to that reality in light of the unreasonableness of some of the developments mentioned in this essay. Therefore, there is a credible foundation, no doubt, for Obasanjo's fear. And though we may differ on the objectives of the killing campaign, the capitulation of the Presidency in the face of clear and present danger posed by the Boko Haram sect and Fulani Herdsmen is worse than Islamization and Fulanization theories.
