On 3 April 2014, the Defence Headquarters through its spokesman said that it will start operations aimed at eradicating terrorists in Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna States. The operations have started. So far, three Fulani settlements have been affected. However, the conduct of the soldiers in the communities they ‘operated’ left much to be desired as they proved to be fatally terrible surgeons. The soldiers, like in many previous engagements recently, have left in their trail scenes of massacres, arson and narrations of dehumanizing conducts. The picture of this post says it all.
If what happened in those communicates would be the modus operandi of the entire operation, then it can be conclusively said that the Nigerian military is on its way to creating another monster after Boko Haram. Whose interest would that motive serve is anybody’s guess.
Examination
Let us examine what happened in the three communities as reported by eyewitnesses.
1. Ladduga. Kaduna State. Sunday, 30 March 2014. Soldiers in 35 trucks and 4 armoured tanks arrived at the village around 3am while its inhabitants were asleep. For eight hours, they went about searching houses, beating its inhabitants and humiliating parents before their children. They herded the villagers in one place, dragged the village head to the place and stripped him naked before his subjects. No weapons were found, except four hunting guns, some machetes and hoes. The soldiers arrested the owners, 25 in number, and took them to undisclosed location. Thank God, the villagers did not resist their visitors
Ladduga, as the inhabitants disclosed, has never witnessed any unrest. Its majority Fulani have been living in peace with the native Ukulu in the nearby villages like Sabon Kaura. Yet, the commander of the operation told the villagers that he has information that Fulani from Ladduga are planning to attack Kagoro, a town not less than 150 km away.
2. Kiyana. Nasarawa State. 2 April 2014. Some Fulani were sitting, mourning the death of an old man at Rugar Ardo Sodangi, near Kiyana town. Suddenly, without any provocation, soldiers arrived and opened fire on them, killing 8 people. They proceeded to Rugar Mohammed Adam where they killed two. Later, they would cap their “operation” at Rugar Gagare where they killed additional five. Like in Ladduga, the armless villagers did not put any fight against the attacking troops.
The Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hoore, whom I interviewed, said there has not been any conflict in the area for the past six years and to avert the influence of what is happening in the neigbouring Benue state, the Tiv and Fulani of Kiyana area had just concluded a peace deal that was witnessed by an AIG from the office of the Inspector General of Police.
The Local Government Chairman condemned the attacks saying they were unwarranted as the area is living peacefully. The army claimed responsibility saying they were looking for gunmen. The commissioner of police said it was a mistake and the killings will not contribute to peace in the area.
3. Ganawuri. Riyom LGA. Plateau State. 4 April, 2014. Yesterday, at around 7.30am, soldiers from the STF invaded about 30 Fulani settlements in the Ganawuri area of Riyom Local Government. By afternoon, all houses belonging to the villagers were burnt and the population dispersed to bush and surrounding mountains. The death of one Ganawuri man was reported on the BBC this morning. Nobody has been arrested and the soldiers have left.
The natives of Ganawuri have been living in peace with the Fulani in the area, even as other parts of the local government inhabited by Berom often witnesses unrests.
Observation
A number of things characterize the attacks by the soldiers in the name of ‘operation’.
One, the attacks, as the Fulani will label them, are carried out in areas that have not witnessed any unrest recently. In fact, two of the three locations never witnessed any unrest.
Two, no suspected weapons have been discovered in any of the communities. In Ladduga, the soldiers, who apparently realized the futility of the mission, arrested the four people they found with hunting guns; the rest were found with machetes and hoes.
Three, only Fulani settlements are attacked, while houses and settlements of other ethnic groups in the states affected are left in peace. This shows that the military has swallowed the Tiv and Berom propaganda that Fulani are terrorists.
Four, the humiliation of parents and community leaders before their subjects was a deliberately act of provocation. Had the villagers resisted, the trigger happy soldiers, as they repeatedly, would have been massacred by the invading troops. Luckily, the former kept their calm.
Analysis
The governor of Benue State has recently been on the air selling the idea that his state is invaded by people he termed terrorists. It is now his turn, after his Plateau State counterpart has carried out a similar campaign in 2012. The aim has always been one: the use of the Nigerian military against Fulani herdsmen whom they have been trying to cleanse their states of, after failing to achieve it on their own. The Presidency bought the idea in 2012 and organized a military campaign in five communities of Barikin Ladi and Riyom LGAs of Plateau States. The inhabitants were displaced and in the end, not a single weapon or terrorist was discovered.
The propaganda by the Benue State governor has gone as far as claiming that the Fulani attacked his convoy. Surprisingly, neither he nor any of his aides was killed. He would have realized, from how the soldiers in his convoy abandoned him and withdrew during the attack that there was more than meets the eye; it could not be a Fulani making. He said helicopters were used to supply the terrorists with weapons. Which Fulani could buy or fly a helicopter? He said the Fulani that the Tiv know carry only sticks and knives, that the attackers are foreigners; yet, his people and Nigerian soldiers go about killing the same Fulani that have settled in these areas for over hundreds of years.
Even the Director of NAFDAC, a Tiv, was brought in to add sensation to the story: he said chemical weapons were used in the Benue attacks. Does he think chemical weapons are like the ‘pure water’ he is testing in his laboratories? What gas was it that could differentiate a Tiv from the Fulani attackers, as nobody saw any mask on the face of the attackers? How was it delivered? Does he expect Nigerians to just accept the story without any proof?
Wait a minute! The proof, according to Tiv propagandists, is that some people died without any sign of physical injury. So, if we may ask, must there be a wound before anyone could die? Don’t people slump and die in fear of death? At the same time, the propaganda contradicts itself when they say the Fulani destroyed the evidence by burning the bodies of the victims. So which victims were attacked with chemical weapons then? Those who died without any wound or those burnt to cover the evidence?
It is very unfortunate that the Presidency and our military are buying this nonsense. The truth that they want to cover is that governors in these states have become ethnic champions who believe that the best emancipation they can afford their people is to cleanse their surroundings of Muslims. This is the agenda; no more, no less. Today, more than forty Hausa settlements have been cleansed of Muslims on the Plateau through the gruesome massacres of 2001, 2008 and 2010.
The houses they built and the fields they used to work have been taken over by Berom. The Fulani that remain in some districts of Barikin Ladi and Riyom are resisting that fate. That is the sin. Yet, when the Berom realized that they are no match for the Fulani, they instigate Nigerian authorities against them. The Nigerian military is now ready to do the dirty job.
The same thing is taking place in Benue. The Tiv are known to be very violent people. They have always fought their neighbours. The Jukun who suffered their assaults for over a decade can tell us better. The Fulani are no exception to their violence. For generations, their relationship with the Tiv has been swinging between love and hate. At peace, the Tiv will joke with the Fulani and even intermarry with them. At war, the Tiv will kill the Fulani without mercy. Forty years ago, Tiv killed over forty Fulani elders in Kagarko. The difference between then and now is that the Fulani today are ready to resist such violations. They will continue to defend their legitimate rights to life and property without blinking an eye.
That is the basis of the propaganda of foreign attackers using helicopters and chemical weapons “against the peace loving people of Benue State.” However, unlike his Plateau counterpart, the Benue states governor asserts the right of the Fulani as Nigerians to live in his state and I his interview with Sunday Trust even went as far as saying, “We are not talking about the Fulani who live here; we are all Nigerians and are supposed to live anywhere we find ourselves. We are talking about those who are coming to create trouble. The Fulani that lived in Benue did not create problem…” Yet, surprisingly, in response to his outcry, soldiers are hunting the settled Fulani whom the governor has vindicated.
It is surprising to see how the media handles the crises. Channels TV apart, even NTA had a whole thirty minutes program Tuesday Night dedicated to airing the interviews of only side, without letting a single comment from the Fulani. What kind of journalism is this that is devoid of balance? Is it because one side has state treasuries at its disposal to settle the piper and the other has anything?
The law enforcement agents too have questions to answer. Only Fulani are arrested in Plateau, for example. Berom, even at peace, have continued to kill Fulani herdsmen, children and individuals. They constantly cart away with hundreds of cows to the full knowledge of the police and the STF. In fact, the Berom have the temerity to kill even Fulani that are in the custody of the STF as it happened in Barikin Ladi LGA earlier in the year, and all what the soldiers could do was to watch and later lament to relatives of the victims. No Berom is arrested even when the criminals are identified. They have a free hand.
Similar things are happening in another part of the state. For over a year now, the Emirate of Wase has been under constant attack by Tarok from the neighbouring Langtang LGA. Many are killed and whole villages burnt. The town of Wase itself is under constant attack, which the inhabitants have been repelling successfully. However, surprisingly, none of the attackers is arrested. If anybody is ever arrested, it will be the Muslim. What game are the military and the police playing? How could there be peace if the assailant is let free and only the victim that resist him is arrested? How can there be peace when institutions including the Governor, STF, police, SSS, judiciary, etc., side with aggressor because he belongs to one ethnic group and punish the victim because he belongs to another?
On the Fulani in particular, there seems to be a concerted effort to create in them another monster, like Boko Haram, which will be used to open another goldmine for the Nigerian military. It is time for Nigerians to block this move by asking the military to stop its acts of provocation against innocent civilians. Law enforcement agents, we concede, have every duty to arrest criminal elements in the Nigerian society wherever they are and we the citizens must support them in that.
But they do not have any right to molest the innocent and defenseless, burn their houses or kill them in cold blood. These are war crimes, if taken seriously. So far, this is all the new military operation has achieved. It must be called off or else it will be reported to the ICC.
This essay will not be complete without touching on the reported criminalities ascribed to some Fulani in many parts of the country. Like any other ethnic group, Fulani have their bad eggs. However, Nigeria has many tribes that have their criminals too. Why is it that never has any tribe been associated with the crimes its members commit? If a Fulani commits armed robbery or banditry, why must the name Fulani attached to the criminal? Why have we never heard of Igbo armed robbers, Edo prostitutes or Yoruba fraudsters, Berom killers or Tiv thieves, for example? Is the Fulani a different species of Homo sapiens that descended from the moon, whose tribe name must be mentioned in criminology? Is it an attempt to stereotype them in preparation to exterminate them?
If what the President is saying about involvement of foreign powers in attempts to destabilize Nigeria is true, then he and the armed forces he command must focus their attention in identifying those powers and shielding the nation against them. For sure, as their ‘operation’ has shown, those powers do no live in Ladduga, Kiyana or Ganawuri. There is nothing therefore that war crimes committed against Fulani in these areas will achieve except further destabilization of the region which will serve the foreign powers more than it will benefit Nigeria.
Finally, I think it is time for all Fulani in the country to rise to this new challenge. They are too many to be vilified. Let them pull their resources together and fight back the propaganda that aims at pitching other Nigerians against them. Let them in future record – and tell the world instantly – every act of oppression meted against them. Let them also work hard in identifying the criminal elements among them and support the even hands of authorities in dealing with them. Let them make other tribes realize that they are also Nigerians whose fundamental human rights have been enshrined in the constitution, whose innocent must not be killed, whose property must not be destroyed, and who have the right to live anywhere in the country, like any other Nigerian, without hindrance.
Let the military understand that for the Fulani as it is for everyone else, this is the irreducible minimum for peace in any society, not massacres, arson and humiliation.
