The article written by one Sonde Abbah, a guest columnist, under the above title and published on the Back Page of Blueprint newspaper of Wednesday, May 3, 2017 is as false and provocative as it is inciteful. In his attempt to vilify President Muhammadu Buhari and his less than two year-old administration, Mr Abbah betrayed his pathological and unbridled hatred for the entire Fulani race and Muslims in Nigeria.
This resort to hate speech is quite unfortunate, regrettable and reprehensible and should be condemned by all men of good conscience who desire peaceful co-existence.
In his warped sense of reasoning, the said Sonde Abbah took religious bigotry and ethno-tribal chauvinism to a ridiculous height. He said in the piece under reference: “No sooner did Buhari assume power on May 29, 2015, however, than his credibility started being called to question. The world watched in disbelief as he appointed only his fellow Northern Muslims into virtually all the nation’s top security positions. Not only were these sectional appointments in contempt of the Federal Character policy, they elevated nepotism to a sickening level. The impression given was that only a Fulani – Muslim was fit to be a security chief.
“More was to come from our man in Aso Rock, however. As heavily armed Fulani herdsmen stormed various parts of the country killing, maiming, raping and destroying with unprecedented abandon, Mr President maintained sealed lips. He saw no evil in the serial genocide which his kinsmen were wrecking all over Nigeria. On the other hand, he acted without hesitation when the same herdsmen arm–twisted the security agencies to raise a panel for the protection of their cows. Buhari was personally there to empower the panel. To them and a certain PMB, Fulani cows are more important than the lives of thousands, nay millions, of Nigerians”.
This is most bizarre, quite uncharitable and an uncanny manner of reasoning, to say the least. It is obvious that having made up his mind to smear and profile an entire tribe as well as play up primordial religious sentiment, this hatchet writer willfully gave deaf ears to the reechoed historical analysis on the resurgence of the clashes between herdsmen and farmers. For the avoidance of doubt, it is instructive to state that the clashes between nomads and farmers are neither exclusive to Nigeria nor an entirely Fulani affair. It is, in fact, a phenomenon that transcends Nigerian borders to other countries like Niger, Cameroon and Chad, among others.
If Mr Abbah also agrees to subject himself to rational and deductive reasoning, he will come to terms with the fact that the nomads, in most of their conflicts with farmers, have been merely reactionaries rather than the aggressors. Due to the peculiarity of the activities of the herdsmen, they move from one place to another in search of pasture. In this process, the herdsmen have reportedly encountered cattle rustlers and made complaints to the relevant authorities who fail to investigate the issue, hence their resort to self-defence.
This much has been explained by the Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria Baba Othman Ngelzarma. Speaking on Thursday, April 28, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Ngelzarma said herdsmen are victims of the perpetrators and also branded as the culprits. He however, admitted that criminals have infiltrated the Fulani herdsmen, adding that those that carry AK-47 are cattle rustlers.
In the same vein, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, has said Fulani herdsmen moving with guns, causing violence and fighting with farmers were not Nigerians but foreign terrorists. The Sultan, who made the remark in a recent interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said these are foreigners coming into Nigeria to cause a breach of the peace.
He said: “They are, therefore, terrorists and should be treated as such by the Nigerian security agencies. The Nigerian herdsmen are very peace-loving and law-abiding.” The Sultan, who noted with concern that some “bad eggs” had infiltrated the Fulani herdsmen, challenged security agencies to be proactive. He, however, acknowledged that there were problems between the Fulani herdsmen and the farmers, which should only be resolved through dialogue.
The writer also made reference to President Buhari’s ill-health but he was clever by half to ignore the unprecedented constitutional feat recorded by the president. It is on record that for the first time in Nigeria’s chequered history, Buhari transmitted a letter to the National Assembly mandating Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to be acting president while he was away on medical vacation in London. This is no mean achievement and must be acknowledged. Also, the fact that Buhari has chosen to work from home does not contravene any known law and goes to no issue in disparaging him.
From the foregoing, it beats one’s imagination why Mr Abbah would pretend to be so myopic as not to be able to see and decipher the truth from outright falsehood and ethnic profiling. If the writer has any issues with President Buhari, in any material particular, he should deal with them meritoriously rather than playing the ethnic and religious card. This will not do Abbah, his pay masters or the larger Nigerian society any good. Nigeria has had enough of its share of crises. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
Danjuma wrote from Kafanchan, Kaduna state
