Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Agatu Killings_2016.doc

Thanks, Kwame.

Self Sufficient  Capitalists and Parasitic Capitalists : Comparing Igbo Business People and Fulani Pastoralists

True, complaints about Igbo domination of trade in particular goods is well known.

 What are the similarities and differences between Igbo traders, other Igbo  business people  and Fulani pastoralists?

What are the differences between them in terms of the point  I make about private businesses having to source the platforms for their business using their own  resources rather than having them handed to them by the state or the state impoverishing others to favor some businesses and their associated ethnicities   at the expense of others?

I expect that the strategies through which Igbo traders achieve dominance in particular trades are not difficult to understand if one looks closely.

They are not achieved through concessions from any party, whether local govt, state or federal govt.

Fulani herdsmen dominate the cattle business in Nigeria.

I wonder if they have any competition in the first place.

Igbo traders and Fulani herdsmen are both highly migrant, although in different ways,  and often operate  in terms of concentration of members of the same ethnicity in the same location.

 Igbo traders are self sufficient  capitalists who live by the understanding of significant self sufficiency on the part of the business person, self sufficiency demonstrated by operating according to the rules of the communities in which they live, the central aspect of which, in this context,  is creating a space for their work by paying for their shops.

 The Fulani herdsmen, on the other hand,  are often parasitic capitalists, capitalists who insist on making  others bear the operating costs of their business by developing a culture of grazing their cows on farmland belonging to others, and resorting to maiming and killing when challenged in this nefarious act, compounding this culture through rape and armed robbery in the South and ethnic pogroms in the North Central, decimating entire communities and taking over their land as the Nigerian govt looks on.

Igbo traders and Fulani herdsmen are in very different social worlds.

Rivalry vs Pillage and Pogroms

I wonder what you mean by rivalry in relation to this situation.

Rivalry involves competition btw groups but what is at play here is outright stealing of what belongs to one by another, not rivalry.

Perhaps you meant to indicate 'conflict' with reference to the South and the ethnic tensions in the North Central in relation to tensions between the Fulani and natives in the North Central.

The current crisis in the North Central has gone beyond simply being describable in terms of 'conflict', or 'ethnic tensions' but is a war of occupation by the Fulani, who armed with sophisticated weapons sweep on defenceless communities and massacre their inhabitants, men, women, children, the elderly.

Why the Accommodation of a Terrorist Group?

The question being asked is why this carnage by a terror group which has made itself into one of the world's deadliest has been ongoing for years without the decisive intervention of the Nigerian govt?

Why has this terrorist group escalated its destruction, as demonstrated by the Agatu massacre?

Pointing  to such ecological factors as desertification as prompting the movement of the herdsmen militia is inadequate because nothing prevents these herdsmen from seeking sustainable solutions rather than operating through a policy of theft,murder, massacre and conquest.

It is more realistic to see the choices made by the Fulani herdsmen in terms of a vision of Nigeria which sees the country more as a space for pillage than as a space for equitable co-existence.

Dialogue has been ongoing  on this subject, representations have been made to the authorities on this subject, but these efforts have resulted largely in the Fulani herdsmen growing stronger in their level of military empowerment and destructiveness.

A search for 'Fulani Herdsmen' on the site Information Nigeria, gives an update of these developments up till the Agatu massacre and its fallout.

Why cant the Fulani herdsmen/militia  use the resources used in acquiring the kind of weaponry they employed in almost subduing an army unit on one occasion in addressing the need of their cows for grass to graze on?

I am not able to see where further accommodation of these terrorists by anyone comes into the picture.

It is dangerous to allow them move freely anywhere outside their own  territory in the North bcs they are highly armed, very dangerous and destructive and absolutely non-accommodating.

It is not possible for a terrorist group to operate freely in a nation without decisive, frontal  challenge by the govt in the absence of collusion by the govt.

I am arguing that the influence of Fulani in Nigerian politics, predating this administration, is the source of that collusion.

Buhari's silence at the Agatu massacre and his later response after protests at this silence escalated, reinforces this understanding.

The fact that the militia continued on their decimation of the Agatu communities even after Buhari eventually spoke up, blaming the situation on a quarrel btw neighbors indicates that the Fulani terrorists  are not deterred by buhari's  claim of commitment to justice.

The fact that no prosecution is forthcoming, for these killers of innocent people, a situation repeating past cyles of such destruction, reinforces the understanding that these horrors have escalated bcs of a greater enabling factor, Buhari's presence and indirect collusion through silence or downplaying or ignoring the reality of the situation.

Charles Ogbu presents part of the picture in his Facebook status update of Wednesday, 9th March 2016 at 5.54 am :

'Before now, the Fulani were known to attack their victims in the middle of the night and withdraw immediately after the attack before security agents could arrive the scene but since their Patron -Buhari became President, they became more daring and emboldened in their approach. They now attack, kill and maim communities and still remain right there at the scene of their crime telling us to our faces that they killed hundreds of innocent people in revenge for the death of their cows in the hands of those people. And the security guys will be there just listening without doing anything.

What's more, rather than prosecute them, the govt will be busy spending billions looking for grazing field and special Brazilian grass for the same people who just massacred hundreds of innocent villagers right there in their sleep.

The kind of state sponsored impunity and gross injustice going on in this country is enough to make anyone regret being born here'.

thanks

toyin

On 9 March 2016 at 00:13, kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com> wrote:

Brother Toyin,

Thinking through your comparative point about Igbo merchants and Fulani pastoralists, one might also note that some Nigerians complain about Igbo domination of local markets even as they tolerate that (perceived) domination. I pass no judgement on that question. My point is simply to say that solving the farmer/herder crisis will require concessions on all sides.  Lastly, this rivalry precedes Buhari (as you acknowledge) so its not clear to me that Buhari's presumed bias on these matters provides a simple explanation for the intensification of these conflicts. Last, I struggle to find the "dialogue" in the letter you posted. The tone is polemical. Whilst it is clear that some of this is driven by politics, it is equally true that dire climatic change (i.e. desertification) is also a major concern. Would not a true dialogue make some mention of the role that climate change plays in this conflict?

Forward ever, 

kzs

On Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 5:48:12 AM UTC-6, Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

A rich one, Samuel.

I wonder, though, if, on some of the points you make, you dont theorize to the point of losing touch with concrete socio- political realities.

The argument being made is not that the Fulani herdsmen/militia have not been engaging in murder, rape and pogroms in the past, but this destructive culture has escalated with Buhari's ascension, a pint reinforced by Buhari's response to the crisis in general and to the Agatu massacre in general., which is to maintain silence and when he was compelled to respond, perhaps after Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor and his major critic, publicly  decried his silence as deeply disturbing, he responded by a simplistic description of the massacre as a quarrel btw neighbors, neither is there any suggestion of prosecuting  those who massacred more than 200 people in various communities in Agatu, while he approved the murder of peaeful pro-Biafra protesters and the massacre of Shites described as belonging to a rival Islamic group in opposition to the majority Sunni Islam in Nigeria.

So, people are asking -what is the rationale for this pattern of impunity demonstrated  by the Fulani militia in Nigerian history?

Why has the state under successive Nigerian govts proved unable or unwilling to prosecute these characters?

I conclude that it is bcs of the influence of the Fulani in Nigerian politics.

Others build on similar perspectives in relation to the  current situation and argue that the recent escalation in the activities of the Fulani herdsmen militia  is due to the national ascendancy, of Buhari, their life patron.

If you observe that the north central state communities are described as  having been made  to turn in their weapons under a peace arrangement but the Fulani never did, going on to acquire sophisticated weapons,  even more and they struck  again even after Buhari stated he was setting up an inquiry into the issue after his initial silence, its clear the belief has some merit.

As for the question of allocating land across Nigeria to Fulani herdsmen, the greatest itinerant traders in Nigeria are Igbo traders.

Does anyone allocate shop space to them?

No.

As business people they pay for the space they use for their commercial activities, which is what business all over the world do.

Why are Fulani herdsmen being made beneficiaries of a plicy of unjust exceptionalism?

Why should land belonging to others be used to placate people who have made themselves into a terrorist group, internationally known as one of the the deadliest  in the world?

Is it even safe for anyone to allow Fulani herdsmen to lease or rent land on their territory?

I dont think so.

They are too dangerous.

Also, Nigerian political organization is primarily ethnic and if we are to go beyond that, not to the detriment of anyone.

You cant be governor in state different from the genetic ancestry of your parents in spite of how long you have lived in that state.

It would be greatly unjust to argue for allocation of land to Fulani herdsmen on the basis of  a universal Nigerian ownership of land across the nation  when that principle is not operational in Nigeria, and the Muslim North, where the Fulani herdsmen militia come from, is the witness, across the years since 1945, of recurrent massacres of non-Northerners.

The Fulani hdersmen should remain in their homelands in the North, and perhaps get logistical assistance help from the govt in growing grass in ranches they open there.

A state in the SW is described as banning them from practicing nomadic husbandry within its territory.

I pray other states follow.

I also urge the various communities in Nigeria to arm themselves and build independent military forces.

thanks

toyin

On 8 March 2016 at 07:22, Samuel Zalanga <szal...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just took some time to carefully read the press release. I am very sorry for this situation. To live with such insecurity in one's country is terrible. The way the information was presented, however, makes me wonder about how this issue is complex but it was reduced simply to the presence of Buhari in office.  It seems to be assumed that his being president made it possible because he is their patron. I know Toyin has posted many news items about this. Many people in this forum in the past have made insightful contributions about the nature of the problem.

With regard to such communal killings and fights, a lot of it had taken place in Nigeria in the past. I remember attending one annual meeting of the Association of Third World Studies, and one senior colleague who is a Nigerian and from Benue State and a high ranking military officer in the U.S., made a presentation about how some military officers under the regime of President Obasanjo went and killed many Tiv people in a community. I still remember how in his presentation he analyzed the song written by one traditional music composer and singer in the community. I remember how touching and painful it was for me to listen to his analysis. I felt the song writer felt they were like "orphans" in Nigeria or totally not seen as citizens. I know how such feeling of helpless is having grown up such communities and paid much attention to the struggles of the poorest of the poor, i.e., people who are treated like "non-persons."

There is no doubt that this situation indicates what I will call institutional or state failure. But the government failure is at different levels, federal, state,and local governments. I will add, even community failure. The fact that "Nigerians" as human beings even without government cannot see the dignity of others irrespective of ethnic,religious, class or regional differences is a much serious failure that accounts for this. If the black man cannot see the humanity of another black man, what is the moral grounds of criticizing a white person who is from far away? Charity begins at home. Killing others is not a sustainable strategy for living. I recognize the role of government but a situation where without government playing some role, people as a community cannot self-regulate their affairs just indicates something like "Hobbesian state of nature," and  how the nation has failed. It is as if, the people were all along living under dictatorship and never had some autonomy to understand the value of life on their own without someone regulating them. Such stories make me feel terribly bad.

As others have long ago said, this problem is a problem of development failure, state failure, institutional failure and the failure of community leadership. Given the fertility rate in Nigeria, it is obvious that when population is rapidly increasing with scarcity of resources, this would constitute a major challenge resulting in conflict, if left alone. Often communal and political fights in Nigeria are at their core, a kind of strategic positioning in the competition for scarce resource and in some cases, ways of getting advantage in labor market competition. Beyond that, when you have large number of cattle herders and fifty years after independence, with increased population and demand for land,someone still assumes such traditional mode of livelihood  will be a viable way of life as it is, without creating conflict, one is setting the country up for trouble.

I understand the argument that was made in the press release that is kind of rooted in the romanticist concept of citizenship and nationhood being something shared between present and future generations, but we can think better than that. Some Nigerians have been living in the U.S. for over 30 years now. Even if their communities have lands, that was not a strong romanticist heritage to keep them there. Some live in Nigeria but they have prospered in other parts of the country without relying on their ethnic homeland.  I see nothing wrong with that. Some are even buried away from their homeland. They only return to their ethnic homeland from time to time. Their children were probably born in another part of the country or world and will live their and die. I met many people like that in Jos last year. My point in bringing this up is to stress the fact that personally, all I need to know is that the persons killed are human beings with dignity and they deserve to live and be cared for, whether it is their intention to benefit from the land or not and whether their future generation decide to restrict their future to the land or not. My father's ancestral home is in Yobe but my commitment to humanity is not rooted in some narrow sense of ancestral origin. Anthropologically, that sense of person-hood is recognized but only a step in the long process of human evolution.  Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development will classify such thinking as level two, where people sense of morality or justice is defined by the demands of their group instead of a broader and universal concept of human dignity. And I still believe that with good leadership in Nigeria, many will one day live and return to visit their hometowns but not necessarily having such a direct connection with land. How many people in the U.S. rely on ethnic homeland for survival?  With great human capital, hopefully Africa will change and if one is qualified and is in demand, his or her future does not need to be tied to his or her ethnic homeland. The real issue for me is the human dignity of those people as human beings, period.

If we do not address human development and fertility problems in Nigeria, this kind of clash will continue. Indeed, more types of clashes will even emerge because there is a whole generation that is suffering owing to state and national failure across Africa to plan for the youth. The term that is used to describe such people is "WAITHOOD GENERATION." They have attended college, got Master's degree but still have no job and cannot get married or treat themselves as adults with full civic responsibilities. They are still waiting. This is a time bomb. Such people can use and capitalize on any primordial relationship to survive even if they are not really oriented to such kind of behavior. Some Nigerians on this forum are older than me, and so they may have a better insight, but my feeling in the Nigeria I grew up when I was young compared to one that is existing now, is that even though we had problems before but this kind of lack of respect for human life in the name of ethnicity, religion etc, did not exist to this degree as I witnessed it.

I have no way of assessing Buhari's direct involvement in this massacre as the release tries to claim, but I know that the problem is more complicated than Buhari because we have had such communal clashes in the past under different regimes e.g., Jonathan.  There was one serious one in Nasarawa state. We must as much pay attention to social, economic and demographic forces as underlying causes and explanations for such conflicts just as we pay attention to human involvement and failure. What kind of national development in a country would fail to anticipate all these long ago? I was in Nigeria for a short time but I can just feel the demographic pressure and how it will lead to conflict in the future.

Furthermore, we should note that not all Fulani people are involved in this situation or that like this kind of conflict. In the long run, I will assume that the Fulanis involved will not feel secure too because in today's world, the instruments of violence are equally available to other people if they are pushed to the wall; in any case,  people have the right of self-defense. But that is not the kind of country we want our people to live in. Why the governments and community leaders cannot get their heads together and get to the bottom of this problem truly bothers me and often makes me sometimes doubt the capacity of Nigerian people to solve their problems.

Samuel

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 11:56 PM, 'Zacharys' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

This release on the Agatu killings may interest someone.

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Zacharys Anger Gundu
Department of Archaeology
Ahmadu Bello University,
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