Toyin, I sincerely hope that my framing of the issues in no way minimizes the horror of the massacres. I read some of your posts and others on Miyetti Allah, though I must confess that I could not keep fully abreast of the flow and possibly miss some of your arguments and facts that you and others present. However, many of the materials I have read, including yours, I know have associated Miyetti Allah with these ongoing massacres and to varying degrees have inculpated members of the government.
It seems clear that a profile of the stated responses on this issue by the president who is said to have been a patron of the organization reads rather careless until in recent times. It is also clear that the incendiary and provocative statements of a couple of irresponsible individuals associated with the organization that justify some of the previous atrocities stand in utter condemnation. These stances send a signal to the attackers that the central government is not wholeheartedly after them. They inure them to the inhuman criminality and utter deplorability of their actions and position. If the charge of treasonable government collusion were really clear, one or the other brave successors of Tarka and Dabo should see their way clear to the courts, among other steps that can be taken. But one thing is clear, President Buhari's record when it comes to reading the destructive character of these situations is, unfortunately, poor as was the case when he and many other leaders of Nigerian north saw the fight against Boko Haram at first as an attack on the north.
But it heightens the already high concern that new ever deadlier patterns are emerging in these attacks. The most recent attacks seem to be of a different type. Here you have very mobile large numbers of armed killers erupting in unsuspecting villages in the night, killing and burning, and disappearing. They are not directly associated with any community of herders; they used motorized four-wheelers to make their lightning attacks and escapes, and they are said to use sophisticated weapons. These are the hallmark of professional operations by elements who might as well not be residents directly involved in a grazing land/farmland conflict. These are indeed militias – but based out of where? Do we have to factor in such international networks as Boko Haram, ISISI, Al Qaeda, and their structures across the desert from Libya down to Mali, Niger, Chad etc . What is the official appreciation of this crisis. What are its scope according to official intelligence?
It does not minimize the horror of the attacks that Miyetti members have been associated with to ask whether other forces have imbricated themselves into this crisis. When killings were associated with cattle rustling in Kebbi or was it Katsina, it was clear; where the immediate cause of the problem was crises due to charges of grazing cattle on farms and killing of cattle, it was clear. It seems that the outline of Miyetti's involvement in the crisis in the past in Oyo, Ekiti, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Niger states, was rather clear. Right now, they are clearly and at least officially disassociating themselves from these later massacres in contrast to earlier massacres which some of its membership argued were staged either in self-defence or as reprisals. A few powerful patrons of the organization have been coming out to condemn these atrocities and disassociate the regular membership of the organization from these massacres. Perhaps these are masks?
But in terms of practical actions, what to do> MA distances itself from these atrocities and the federal government is not seen to be responding effectively. The local community distrusts the armed forces members who have been posted to secure the region and have recently been said to have confessed to themselves attacking and killing in revenge against their members who were misidentified as killers and were killed.
Meanwhile, the victim communities are daily been slaughtered with nobody seemingly able to identify who the attackers are. That is why I unload my frustration on the governor and ask what the governor and the various elected officials of the people of Benue who - the direct victims -are doing as members of one of the official arms of government. Why have they not brought matters to a head legally. Can ECOWAS help. Can the AU assist? What about the UN. For how long they would wait on a federal government that does not realise that one of its constituent states is under invasion.
I mist say that it's a little reassuring to read in a newspaper yesterday that the Benue HA has summoned the governor to come to tell them what steps he is taking to protect the people. He is in the same position to the people of Benue state as the President is to Nigeria. He and other elected reps of Benue should move their offices and sessions to the suburbs and to these places where the attacks are taking place. That might give them new urgent ideas on how to begin to deal with this situation - and I don't mean to be sarcastic or blame the victim. If massive protests in support of Benue happen in Abuja, in Lagos and elsewhere too, supported and encouraged by governors and elected reps from the affected places, that may also begin to give this horror the spotlight it deserves.
/Femi
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2018 4:23:09 AM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Protesters Shutdown Benue Over Killings by Fulani Herdsmen Militia [ Right Wing Fulani Terrorism in Nigeria]
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2018 4:23:09 AM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Protesters Shutdown Benue Over Killings by Fulani Herdsmen Militia [ Right Wing Fulani Terrorism in Nigeria]
Femi,
The killers are Fulani herdsmen militia coordinated by the Miyetti Allah pressure group, led by elite Nigerian Fulani. Miyetti Allah is making it clear they are responsible.
Miyetti Allah has the explicit support of the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Defense, and the tacit support of Buhari who has publicly enjoined the people of Benue to 'accommodate their neighbors', the Fulani herdsmen terrorists.
The governor has made it clear that Buhari and his government are working agst the people of Benue by aiding the terrorists. Civil veteral and ex-defense minister Theophilus Danjumahas suggested same, declaring the army is colluding with the terrorists and has urged self defense by the people as an urgent necessity against ongoing ethnic cleansing.
There is an ongoing terrorist onslaught by the Fulani led Nigerian government and its security agencies against Nigeria with their current focus being on Benue, although the spread of their colonising belligerence is nation wide, as evident in their coordinated military/political atrocities and strategies across the SE, SW and Midwest, a strategy unifying terrorist activity and demand for grazing routes and cattle colonies across the nation.
A state of emergency would give this political/pressure group/militia alliance their chance to complete their job with minimal resistance.
Even if you don't buy the idea that this is govt sponsored terrorist activity across the nation, what is your view on the known facts of this horror, facts which your response does not address even as you describe part of the unfolding horror, your non-reference to those facts actually diluting the horror, facts which I have pointed out in terms of names of specific people and groups and the actions they have publicly taken on this subject?
Or is it that you are not aware of these facts?
Are you contesting them? If you are can you say why, with reference to the historical records I have just pointed out?
Toyin
On 26 April 2018 at 16:50, Femi Kolapo <kolapof@uoguelph.ca> wrote:
I applaud and support the people of Benue state and all other people making every effort to compel the federal government into taking the necessary critical action to stem these killings.But, what have the Benue House of Assembly and the Governor been waiting for that they have not officially required that the president make a proclamation of a state of emergency in the state yet? Why have they not considered the situation dire enough to do so or do they think voting for a state of emergency to be declared is counterproductive?Given the frequency, the obvious planning demonstrated in these killings, the methodical razing of villages and towns, and the sophisticated execution of these horrific acts, why would it be wrong to consider that an act of war is being committed against Nigeria. Do we not have major breakdowns of public safety, endangerment to life, and a clear threat to the existence not only of Benue state but of the Nigerian state itself? What are the conditions required to invoke a state of emergency and compel the federal government to institute all the legal requirement to ensure the sanctity of life of and protection for the people?What actually is the federal government's conception of these attrocities? What is the strategy being employed to arrest this situation – peace keeping, or counterinsurgency or attacking the enemy/ies? If you have an irregular war ongoing that kills as many people over a short period of time as a regular war would and those tasked with ensuring the security of the people fail to recognise that they have a war in their hands, what chances are there that countermeasures appropriate to the calamity would be implemented.
More questions. What solid information has been generated regarding these attackers. Are they associated with specific geographically identifiable communities - with names, local leadership, etc? Are they located within Benue state, outside of the state, or from across the border of Nigeria? Has any of these killers been captured and for those shot during encounters with troops, what is their profile? How much of all this is herdsmen/farmer driven; how much is banditry and crime cashing in on herdsmen/farmer clashes, how much is driven by international terrorist linkages from across the borders of Nigeria. There has been no statement from the federal government indicative of its certainty regarding who the enemy is and where it is located. I hope I am wrong.But I think Nigerians should take up the responsibility of calling the government out. There are three arms of government legally equally empowered to steer Nigeria in the right direction. Why at this critical moment wouldn't the other arms of government establish their critical agency in keeping Nigeria and all Nigerians safe by performing their constitutional duty – without waiting for a befuddled central government. If they do, they not only help the federal government but further strengthen their own independence and relevance as autonomous arms of government.As far as I am concerned, and clearly based on the views of people of Benue state, what we have ongoing is a state of war. It is unfathomable to not acknowledge this and respond appropriately; even more surprising because the president is a retired army general as are many members of the government.
______________________________
________________________ Femi J. Kolapo,
(Associate Professor of African History)
History Department * University of Guelph * Guelph * Ontario * Canada* N1G 2W1
Phone:519/824.4120 ex.53212 Fax: 519.766.9516________________________
Managing Editor,
SPREAD Journals of African Education
African Journal of Teacher Education
Review of Higher Education in Africa
Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia and Latin America
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Gbemi Tijani <tijanigbemi@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2018 9:02:18 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Protesters Shutdown Benue Over Killings by Fulani Herdsmen Militia [ Right Wing Fulani Terrorism in Nigeria]sad-what a retrogressive carbuncle! What a plastic heart this stubborn invaders have been using to cause an ethno genocide right in their own land ? What else can done to this unruffled set of concerned officers & community guards i/c from below to the helm of security matter especially this monstrous presence of armed herdsmen destroying lives asif they dealing with rats? why the malevolence for BENUE PEOPLE -right in ther own landscape?nb Nigerian people need correct information and education & Human Rights literacy to enable us use Restructuring & Integrity -compassion for humanlives as precondition quality /program for voting for any candidate in 2019 Godwillingly.gbemi tijani,--
On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 3:09 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tvoluade@gmail.com> wrote:
--
Protesters shutdown Benue over killings
Makurdi, the capital of Benue State has been brought to a standstill by protesters over the ongoing killings in the state..
The protesters, DAILY POST gathered have taken over major streets of the state, calling on the federal government to come to their aide.
DAILY POST reports that over 100 persons have been killed between yesterday and today in Guma, Gwer and Logo areas of the state by suspected herdsmen.
Our reporter observed that the protesters, mostly women garbed in black attires are currently matching around the Bishop of Makurdi Dioceses house, weeping while singing corrosively, 'Go and tell Buhari they are killing us.'
More to come…
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