FOR those who have been wondering at the temerity of the armed Fulani militias ravaging the Middle Belt and Southern communities of Nigeria with impunity and without repercussion, a picture of an insidious international conspiracy is beginning to emerge.
There are some Nigerian groups with roots beyond our borders. There is nothing strange or wrong with this. But when some elements among them openly betray loyalties more to their cross-border group agenda than those of Nigeria in which we share common citizenship, then we are no longer on the same page. If the international conspiracy begins to threaten the lives and property of Nigerians (as the herdsmen have been doing) with the active connivance and support of our fellow countrymen, then it is time to wake up and face the danger squarely.
Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State recently addressed the media in his office and answered part of the question: who are behind these invasive cattle breeders? These bloodthirsty newcomers are totally different from the peaceful and even friendly Fulani nomads who, for ages, have been allowed to roam freely with their livestock through the grasslands and forests of the country outside their ancestral homelands. These newcomers have a sinister agenda which is shared by some powerful elements occupying governmental offices, including political, bureaucratic, military and security posts.
According to El Rufai, when the killings in Southern Kaduna were going on under the regime of the late Governor Patrick Yakowa, he (Yakowa, a Christian from Southern Kaduna) sent people to go round and “beg” leaders of the Fulani communities around the West Africa sub-region to stop the killings. Strangely, Yakowa himself was killed in a mysterious helicopter crash in Bayelsa State after attending the funeral of the father of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Dr. Oronto Douglas, who is incidentally late too. Let’s not even go into the conspiracy theory surrounding the crash.
El Rufai would have us believe that these “foreigners” killing fellow Nigerians are on a vengeance mission because many of their kinsmen and cattle were caught in the post-election violence in parts of the North in 2011. To the best of my knowledge, the killings targeted mainly Southerners, especially Youth Corps members who were seen to have helped “rig” the election against Muhammadu Buhari in a few core Northern cities. Fulani herdsmen were never targeted, as the conduct of the election was none of their business. There was no violence in the Christian Kaduna South. El Rufai has not explained how come the “foreign avengers” now descended on non-Muslim communities in the Middle Belt of the North and the Southern parts of Nigeria, with their cattle. Do people on revenge mission move with their commercial goods like livestock? Does it make sense?
Please, join me in considering the meaning of this famous quote attributed to Governor El Rufai by most newspapers, which he has not denied till date. He declared that after the fact-finding committee headed by retired General Martin Luther Agwai learnt about Yakowa’s “begging missions” to Fulani leaders around West Africa:
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop the killings.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some…”
Since when did governance descend to this low level, oh Nigeria! Foreigners (as he described them) come in to kill and displace the people who elected you into power as their Chief Security Officer to protect them and make their lives more abundant. Rather than mobilising the Police and the Army to flush them out and restore peace in your domain, you use tax payers’ money to “compensate” them for alleged but unsubstantiated loss of livestock! Is it not obvious, even to the most cretinish moron, that it is this money that the “foreign” invaders use to purchase more arms to expand the theatre of their barbarian operations further and further South?
Any surprise that a menace that used to be isolated in Christian Minority communities of Kaduna, Plateau and Nasarawa States suddenly surged to Benue, Kogi, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Delta, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun and others, all within the past eighteen months?
So, they should stop the killings because a Fulani is now governor? When he stops being governor they can continue? Or they should move to areas not under governors of Fulani stock? Who is playing this dastardly ethnic card here? El Rufai swore an oath to perform his duties to Kaduna people without fear, favour or ill-will. He swore not to place his personal interest above those of the public. Has El Rufai forgotten his oath of office and allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Why are the interests of “foreign” cattle business owners of greater concern to him than the lives, property and well-being of his own citizens, granted that cattle is more valuable to the “foreigners” than human lives as they were quoted as saying?
The sad thing about this issue is that El Rufai is just one of these unpatriotic-minded people occupying high public offices and pushing the same ethnic imperialistic agenda against fellow Nigerians. We saw it coming in the shape of establishing “grazing reserves in all states of the country”, which would now grant these so-called foreigners permanent access to the ancestral lands of indigenous Nigerians, and powered by the Federal Government. We have seen it in the refusal of those in authority to protect Nigerians being killed by these hoodlums. And we have seen it in the eagerness of armed forces and security personnel being used to deal with those who lift their fingers to defend themselves.
According to a press statement credited to Senator Danjuma Tella Laah, who represents the Kaduna South Senatorial Zone, Governor El Rufai has threatened to compile the names of the people calling on those being killed to defend themselves for arrest and prosecution! People should just lie supine and allow themselves to be butchered and their land stolen by “foreign” invaders?
What manner of mindset is this? And why is it now suddenly so widespread among some sections of the current political leaders in power? Just how did we manage to get to this low level? Why is Nigeria the only country in the whole West Africa sub-region that has become the favourite hunting ground of agents of foreign land grabbers? And why are Nigerians not being protected by those they entrusted with their electoral mandate? Are Nigerians suddenly under a spell while this goes on? I am shocked!
The most important thing is that this loose cannon, Governor El Rufai, unlike his co-travellers who prefer to keep conspiratorially mute, has confirmed that he pays foreign invaders and killers “compensation” to stop killing the people of Southern Kaduna. In turn, they use the money to buy more arms and deploy more people to kill more Nigerians. I leave him to the people of Kaduna State to render accounts on how he spends their money.
But as for the human deaths that the arming of the “foreigners” may have caused, El Rufai may be above Nigerian laws, even after he leaves office. But Nigeria is still a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, where matters like these are looked into.
