It’s easy to exploit Nigeria’s security arrangement and get away with it. As soon as a crime that ought to be subjected to fair litigation and then judgement becomes a trending topic of national discourse, it polarises the nation. So many times we let a tragic event unfold without properly addressing it or trace its origin or form legions “supporters” and “opposers” to trivialise its impacts and implications.
The history of the crisis between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and sedentary farmers is one replete with lessons which, if taken note of in its earliest years, would’ve been a template for avoidance of the national calamity the relationship of the two groups is today.
At our villages, the incidents of herdsmen hacking farmers to death or the latter retaliating in what often result into a cycle of deaths is a common narrative. Some of us grew up to these crises mismanaged by poor interventions of the Nigeria Police or the traditional authorities through certain simple Alternative Dispute Resolution methods.
The questions we haven’t all answered is, were the herdsmen this mercilessly violent? Were they the same people we once teased as they guided their cattle through our settlements? Of course there is a backstory to their evolution into the paranoid, insecure and bloodthirsty invaders that now terrorise poor sedentary citizens.
We created these monsters the day we failed to mediate in resolving their disputes with the farmers. The Nigeria Police ought to be the resort of both parties when a transgression is registered, but we have a country where the citizens no longer have faith in the security system.
The common scenario of the herdsmen – farmers clash is: one herdsman is involved in a clash with a farmer resulted into the death of the latter. The reason, as usual, is that the deceased’s farmland was made a grazing field. In retaliation, the farmers’ kin pounce on any herdsmen sighted in the period. It doesn’t matter whether the victims know or are related to the offenders. This is a crisis often mismanagement.
Another scenario is: the case of cattle rustlers, which is still a troubling tragedy, especially in the north, is one in which the herdsmen are victims. The perpetuity of this thefts of their only assets gave them a sort of moral justification to form a militia for protection of their kith and kin, owners of cattle.
That transpired in Plateau State, a place already notorious for clashes of herdsmen and farmers. Since the herdsmen are Muslims and categorised as members of the Hausa-Fulani political group, who are seen as enemies in the political tussle in the state, they are treated as such by the self-emphasised indigenes of the state. The story of plateau state is another heartbreaking example of our naïveté in countering obvious security lapse.
The report of another attack on a community in Enugu State has finally instigated the needed debate on the role of government and our security agencies in safeguarding the people from the criminal activities of the herdsmen. Even though the discourse has followed the course of our ethno-religious divisions and sentiments, that we are enraged to the point of expression our bitterness and disappointment is a welcome development.
President Buhari’s loud silence on the activities of the herdsmen, who are of his ethnic, regional and religious descent, is now being likened to Jonathan’s. His predecessor once famously exonerated the militants also of his ethnic, regional and religious descent from October 2 bombing in Abuja, restating the polarising stunts of the policymakers expected to provide for our safety.
As we hold our leaders accountable, we must not let a criminal be a representative of his race, religion and nationality. This approach, this dangerous stereotyping, has been the reason for these many conflicts we are still unable to resolve in this damned world. We must embrace our humanity, the only thing we all have in common, if we’re indeed interested in resolving our racial, religious, political, regional, territorial and ethnic conflicts. May God save us from us.
