Fulani herdsmen have been largely radicalised into terrorism.
Accommodating them on your land is inviting chaos and eventual disposession.
There is plenty of land in the Fulani centres in the North, much more than land in.the South, one argument goes.
Why not ranch in your vast Northern lands and transport your cows with trucks to the South?
Why insist on the lands of others, to the point of using terrorism to disposess them of their own lands?
Thanks
Toyin
On Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 15:58 Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
--Dear Bolaji Aluko,
Kindly permit this lengthy response of mine to your answer to my question on nomadic pastoralism. My question was not directed at people like you but to the axis of non-adult Nigerian intellectuals, who in the 21st century still see Nigeria's socio-economic problems, mainly, from ethnic and religious perspectives. Even if you are a Christian by faith, you do not bear known Biblical (Hebrew or Roman) name which would have qualified you to be a Crusader with intention to wipe out all Muslims in Ekiti or Southwest as mischievous ethnic mandarins insinuated. Reading the two sentences in item 6 of your essay jointly exonerates you completely from the accusation of incitement against Muslims in Ekiti/Southwest. That accusation as I did point out was only a pretext to demean you on the insignificant typographical error by who would like to make a chicken out of a feather.
The geek or is it a seer, pretending to answer my question about if nomadic pastoralism should still be in vogue in the 21st century Nigeria averred, "The Fulani should build their ranches in the North, their geographical centre, and transport their cows by truck." He did not say where the cows would be transported to, perhaps for obvious reason that in Southern Nigeria 20,000 heads of cows are consumed per day. The star gazer did not explain either which economic theory supports his mode of transporting cows with trailers, presumably, from the North to the South. Although my question is limited to if the model of animal husbandry in the 21st century should still be nomadic, the question can be expanded to other areas of vital economic importance to the life of Nigerians which are still being carried out with archaic methods, e.g., crop farming with cutlass and hoe etc.
Before your article was published, it was the order issued by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State to herders to quit forest reserves in Ondo State within seven days that sparked off acrimonious debates. President Buhari's spokesman on media and publicity, twisted Akeredolu's order to imply that herders, presumed by him as being only Northerners, should quit Ondo State and therefore, dubbed the order unconstitutional. The axis of non-adult Nigerian intellectuals soon joined the fray to condemn Governor Akeredolu, even when it was clear to them that his order to herders was to quit Ondo State forest reserves. They claimed in unison that the Constitution of Nigeria permits Nigerians to live anywhere in the country. (including forest reserves?) To begin with, and according to Section 1 of the Land Use Act, 1978, all lands within the geographical territory of a state in Nigeria is vested in the Governor of the State. On the usage of the land, Section 12 (1) of the Act empowers the Governor to grant licence or permits to anyone entering or using a land. Section 12 (5) empowers the Governor to revoke the licence if the conditions under which it was granted is breached. Further in Section 28 of the Act, it is stated that "it shall be lawful for the Governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest." Under the Ondo State Forestry Law, adopted from the old Western Region (later Western State), in Section 42 (1) (e & g), it is criminal trespass for an individual to occupy a forest reserve without obtaining permit from the State Governor through the State Forestry Department. Entering the forest reserve without permission consequent upon which the trespasser is capable of tampering with the forest produce and ecosystem is an act of trespass punishable under the law. In the old Western Region in which Ondo State was a component, there were government employed Forest Guards, called ASÓGBÓ in Yoruba. Worldwide, I must add, forest reserves are primarily established for the purpose of conserving indigenous plants and faunas and not for cattle grazing. In view of the foregoing, the Governor should have directed the law enforcing agency to arrest and prosecute Ondo's trespassers of forest reserves instead of issuing seven days quit order.
Concerning the establishment of ranches instead of nomadic pastoralism, the idea was planned by the Federal Government in 2018/2019 but just like other projects in Nigeria, it collapsed at the point of implementation. The National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on 17 January 2019 approved National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) based on the recommendations of a Technical Committee set up by NEC and chaired by Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi. NEC's Technical Committee was composed of Governors of Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Edo, Plateau, Oyo and Zamfara States. Initially, 13 States agreed to implement the pilot project to transform the livestock production system in Nigeria along market-oriented value chain. The 13 States are Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo and Edo. On 13 March 2019, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, addressed a letter to Aku Uka of Wukari in Taraba State introducing Dr Kyantirimam Ukwen who was to conduct mapping assessment in Taraba State as part of the federal government strategy for tackling farmer-harder crises. While mapping and assessments for the implementation of NLTP were still ongoing in the 13 States that had voluntarily accepted the pilot project through their Governors, the project was secretly hijacked and renamed Rural Grazing Area (RUGA). Nigerian online media reported that Dr Hussain Adamu, Director of Procurement, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development wrote a letter to an Abuta Contractor (name not revealed) on 21 May 2019 stating, "I am directed to inform you that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting held on 8th May 2019 approved the award of contract for the construction of 8 Nos RUGA Infrastructure with Sanitary Facilities (Red Brick Structure) each in Taraba State as detailed in the attached to your company at the sum of N166,336,380.00 (One hundred and sixty-six million, three hundred and thirty-six thousand, three hundred and eighty naira)." It was a contract without competitive biddings. Although the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development at the time, Innocent Audu Ogbeh, is from Benue State, and the Governor of Benue State was one of the 13 Governors that had accepted to participate in NLTP pilot project, none of them was aware when RUGA project was planned to begin at Otobi in Benue State. Solar panels were to be purchased at ten million naira each and boreholes were to be procured at an average cost of twenty million naira each. The reaction of Governor of Benue States to the Otobi project in Benue State sparked off outrage across Nigeria, according to the online Nigerian Vanguard of 6 July 2019. That was how Taraba RUGA project became known to the public and even to the members of NEC who were behind NLTP project.
Following public outrage against RUGA, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Alhaji Muhammed Umar Bello announced that the Federal Government had started to establish RUGA Settlements for herdsmen in 12 of the States of Nigeria as a pilot scheme for a nationwide programme designed to curb farmer-herder clashes. Buhari's Presidential spokesman on Media and Publicity confirmed Ruga as Federal Government's project. Thus, the General Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), Baba Uthman Ngezarma, issued a statement as if the organisation is an integral part of the federal government, "This RUGA settlement model is a component part of the livestock development and transformation plan that is being implemented under the office of the Vice President." The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo reacted to the bluff of the general secretary of MACBAN, Baba Utman Ngezarman, saying "RUGA settlements scheme is not consistent with the National Economic Council (NEC) and Federal Government approved National Livestock Transformation Plan." https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/06/28/osinbajo-faults-miyetti-allahs-claim-says-im-not-supervising-ruga-programme/The activities of the proprietors of RUGA had nothing to do with improving the conditions of labour of nomadic pastoralists. Those who were pushing for RUGA programme were doing so for personal pecuniary reasons. At last, NLTP was suspended and RUGA vanished after the permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture had expended N7.2 billion to purchase a dilapidated house for RUGA settlement. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/revealed-how-plan-to-fleece-govt-bungled-ruga/
In reality, it was not RUGA that was bungled but NLTP. What led to this situation is that Nigeria has an elected Vice President who is a member of Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Chairman of National Economic Council (NEC) as well as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Innocent Audu Ogbeh. Yet, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Dr Muhammed Umar Bello, could announce that the Federal Government had started to establish RUGA settlements, but the Vice President, a key member of the federal government, did not know when RUGA decision was taken. The Director of Procurement, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Hussain Adamu, claimed in a written letter to a ghost contractor that the FEC had awarded to it over 166-million-naira RUGA infrastructure contract without the knowledge of the Vice President, who is a member of FEC. Whereas the Vice President had never heard about any project called RUGA, the General Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), Baba Uthman Ngelzarma, attributed the implementation of RUGA settlement, as a component part of NLTP, to the office of the VP. To crown the whole mess, the spokesman to President Buhari on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, clothed himself as the spokesman for FEC and NEC to confirm the authenticity of RUGA as a Federal Government's project. The same intellectual oik, who contributed to the sabotage and the ruin of NLTP, is now posing as a lover of herdsmen whose right to rampage in the forest reserves of Ondo State is constitutionally guaranteed.
The axis of non-adult Nigerian intellectuals seems to believe that only the Fulani can be herders and, as such, see the establishment of ranches as favouring Fulani people of Nigeria in spite of the fact that crop farmers are also favoured with all kinds of subsidies. RUGA as it is being contemplated is a settlement for Fulani as a people while NLTP is a ranch for cattle breeding and production of beef and other dairy products. While RUGA is restricted to ethnic Fulani, NLTP incorporates all Nigerians who desire to participate in its activities. In 1950s, the government of Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo established Õdua Investment which owned Õdua Farms Cattle Ranch. From Oyo to Oshun, Ekiti, Ondo and Ogun States in the then Western Region, now designated Southwest, Õdua Investment acquired vast areas of land. In Imeko, Ogun State, it acquired 4,000 hectares of land while in Ekiti at Oke Ako via Aiyedun Ekiti after Ipao, Õdua Investment acquired 12,000 hectares of land. Õdua cattle Ranch at Akunu, Akoko in Ondo States with a damn covered 8061 hectares of farm lands. Awolowo's plan was to safeguard the food security of the people of the then Western Region. He brought in Alfa Lawal from Sweden to help start production of milk named zamco that was used in wetting the mouths of people in Western Region and Lagos towards the end of 1960. In some of the ranches, Fulani people were employed in their capacity as experts in handling cattle. However, ranches and crop farms established by Awolowo were allowed to degenerate and have been abandoned. They can still be revived and settled Fulani in each state who are experts in animal husbandry can be employed in the ranching system if they cannot be subsidised to own a ranch.S. Kadiri
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 January 2021 07:17
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sunday Musings: On the Matter ofFarmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State - by Mobolaji AlukoNomadic pastoralism may or may not stop,but not at the expense of other Nigerians.
The Fulani herdsmen should build their ranches in the North, their geographical centre, and transport their cows by truck.
The Fulani herdsmen have been radicalised and militarised by ethnic supremacist leadership, such as the head of Miyetti Allah declaring that all land in Nigeria belongs to the Fulani, a declaration of war which all parties are pretending was not made, while Southern Nigerian intellectuals are busy in their ostrich head-in-the-sand business.
The 2015 era maxims designed to deprofile Fulani herdsmen in the terrorist culture they have been cultivating are no longer of any use.
In terms of historically verifiable incidents, it is safer to recognise that-
Fulani herdsmen have become an ethnic supremacist internal colonisation group, working through groups of terror cells as well as theough a militia force.
Fulani herdsmen are galvanized and directed by ethnic supremacist Fulani represented by Miyetti Allah, by Buhari and his govt.
Education and civility, which some Southern Nigerian intelligentsia are wearing like peacock feathers, are priceless but they become self destructive when used as aids to avoid reality.
The right wing ethnic supremacist Fulani live in a world of their own to which no one else is admitted.
They are worse racists than Trump.
They will never regard others as human beings of equal value as themselves.
They are living in the world of the religious conqueror and imperialist Usman Dan Fodio, who, in the name of creating religious and social reform, built through warfare an ethnically centred empire, embracing various peoples but with his fellow Fulani as the apex leaders, till the present day.
So, if you like, bend over till you break in constructing maxims of interethnic integration, of anti-ethnic profiling, the people who made massacre in Borno routine, occupying others' lands there after driving away the occupants and jusfying this massacre culture to the world, as the right wing Fulani led Nigerian govt left them to get on with it, even as peaceful IPOB was attacked with tanks, it's members either killed or driven into exile, a terror campaign spread across the nation and fed by policy initiatives and pronouncements by the fed govt, will never accept you as an equal.
It's like the ethnic supremacist Biblical Isrealis believing they are chosen by God and promised landbelonging to others whom they are empowered by the same God to decimate even to the last living thing and occupy their land, being expected to accept other human beings as equals, talk less the people of Jericho and other places they are determined to occupy.
The right wing Fulani are immersed in a deadly cocktail of triumphalist history fed by imperialist empire building and international ethnic solidarity.
They are the most destructive force in Nigeria.
The only way they can be defeated is for the nation to be aggressively renegotiated or broken up.
These interethnic palliatives from the Southwest Tinubu/Fayemi/Aluku/Kadiri school are at best efforts to avoid reality.
When Borno was being massacred, the East attacked in Nimbo, the SW was untouched except for the attacks on Falae.
We can see the great progress the SW has made in the hands of the ethnic supremacists.
The SW Tinubu group is likely to get the 2023 Presidency but at the price of acceding to Fulani expansionism, as we can see with the transformation of Akeredolu"s eviction notice to "you can remain in the forests, just register".
The SW needs to reexamine it's collective political intelligence.
Thanks
Toyin
On Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 03:55 Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
S. Kadiri:
The answer to your last question is a big, fat "No!" Nomadic pastoralism must stop in Nigeria, even if there was not a single criminal Fulani herdsmen, because it is atavistic and inefficient.
So I thanks (sic) you for your intervention. My aim in Point 6 was to warn off all otherwise innocent persons about accusation of complicity if criminal herdsmen are accommodated in their midst due to religious, pecuniary, ethnic or other considerations. Evangelization was the least on my mind on this occasion.
There you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 01:05 Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
Like a bull, the Associate Professor of English, Farooq Kperogi, always see red in whatever Professor in Chemical Engineering, Bolaji Aluko, writes for which he has to be gored. Inspired by the current debates caused by the quit order issued to herders occupying Government forest reserves in Ondo by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, Professor Aluko wrote an 8-point essay on farmers-herdsmen clashes in Ekiti State. He began with six maxims in item 1 with which he established the facts that, not all criminals in Ekiti State are Fulani; not all Fulani are criminals; not all Fulani are herdsmen; not all herdsmen are criminals; not all herdsmen are Fulani; and no criminal is desirable in the society, Fulani of not herdsmen or not. Exhibiting his characteristic behaviour of a bull seeing red in anything written by Bolaji Aluko, the Associate Professor of English cited the first sentence in item 6 to gore at Aluko.
Quoting Aluko, Kperogi wrote, "Our Muslim Yoruba citizens must decide whether the Umma principle of brotherhood is greater that [sic] the collective security of our Yoruba citizenry." The real reason for the Associate Professor of English, Farooq A. Kperogi, of citing the first sentence in item 6, is to humiliate Professor Aluko with bracketed [sic] before the word 'that' so as to indicate that Aluko misused the word. Every normal reader would understand that it was a typographical error when Aluko wrote "greater that" instead of "greater than" but the Associate Professor of English language seized the opportunity to humiliate Aluko. Since Professor Braggadocio could not do this openly, he had to hide under the pretext of defending minority Muslims in Ekiti State, whom he claimed Aluko was inciting the Christians majority in the State to attack. However, Farooq Kperogi is exposed of dishonest and false accusation against Mobolaji Aluko in view of the contents of the 2nd sentence in item 6. Aluko wrote, "Similarly, the Kabiyesis, top politicians/society bigwigs and government functionaries who are said to own large heads of cattle, and who use these herdsmen to herd and multiply and secure their investments must measure their financial livelihoods against our threatened lives." Unless one intends to be consciously stupid, will one believe that the *Kabiyesis, top politicians/society bigwigs and government functionaries who are said to own large heads of cattle and who use these herdsmen to herd and multiply and secure their investments* in Ekiti State are all Muslims.
As I stated earlier, the primary purpose of Farooq Kperogi's engagement with Aluko is just to point out that he, Bolaji Aluko, committed typographical error and not because of the hallucinated incitement of attack on Muslims in Ekiti. A times, when we write we have no time to read over before sending out and, in the process, grammatical and spelling errors occur. In the long run fair minded readers would tolerate such errors in silence as long as the errors do not distort the sense of information being conveyed. In the fourth paragraph of his 25 January 2021 diatribe against Aluko, Associate Professor of English language wrote, "Yorubaland is the only part of Nigeria where Christianity and Islam co-exists [sic] largely peacefully, where nuclear families adhere to different religious faiths without tensile stress and mutual suscpinions [sic] and where one looks up to for religious tolerance." No one is above mistake and even a professor of English can commit grammatical and spelling errors as confirmed above. Whatever grammar we may blow, and whatever religion we may adhere to, the big question I have for our overeducated Nigerians is, should nomadic pastoralism still be in practice in the 21st century Nigeria?S. Kadiri
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Sent: 26 January 2021 00:11
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sunday Musings: On the Matter ofFarmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State - by Mobolaji AlukoProfessor Aluko,
There is no justification for that paragraph. None whatsoever. "Reframing" won't salvage it. Only expungement and a sincere apology would.
You didn't write "Ekiti Muslims"; you wrote "Yoruba Muslims." There's a difference between the two. Writing "Yoruba Muslims" renders you vulnerable to the legitimate charge that you're talking about Muslims in all of Nigeria's Southwest since, in any case, this problem isn't limited to Ekiti. But let us for the sake of argument agree that you're talking only of Ekiti Muslims. Well, most of my points are still valid. In fact, limiting your exoticization of Muslims to Ekiti State makes your bigotry even more dangerous. Here's why.
Muslims are a minority in Ekiti State, and you're inviting non-Muslim Ekiti citizens to be suspicious of their Muslim brothers and sisters on account of their faith because Fulani brigands are supposedly Muslims who are fighting on behalf of Islam. That's a dangerous and inaccurate narrative that shouldn't come from a government official (who is also a close friend of the governor.)
You are imposing on Ekiti Muslims the double burdens of existential anxieties over Fulani brigandage (since their Muslim faith doesn't immunize them against it as we have seen in northern Oyo and in northwest Nigeria) and the Aluko-created incubus of unhealthy suspicion from their fellow Ekiti citizens. Since there is no record anywhere, including in the predominantly Muslim far North, that being Muslim has ever caused Fulani bandits to fraternize with and spare would-be victims, this was not only unnecessary but also inciting.
Farooq Kperogi
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiNigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 5:32 PM Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
OAA:
Thanks for coming to my aid!
I am lucky that Farooq Kperogi found only one point in my piece problematic, otherwise I would have been drowned in his famed critiquing vitriol. Without it, he would probably not have made any comment at all, not even the partial commendation, for which I thank him all the same.
Maybe he can reframe that paragraph appropriately - or it is beyond repair?
I thank you.
Bolaji Aluko
On Mon, Jan 25, 2021, 23:05 OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Aluko wrote about Ekiti state and not the whole of Yoruba land. The Muslim /non Muslim ratio in Ekiti is not the same as Oyo, Oshun and Ogun. It was not that high in those states before but converts thought the ' Umma brotherhood' principle will transcend ethnic considerations and lead to inter ethnic collective security, aiding more conversions but tragically this has not been so.
So Farooq is buttressing Aluko's argument that in security matters religion should not count and not refuting it.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>Date: 25/01/2021 20:00 (GMT+00:00)To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sunday Musings: On the Matter ofFarmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State - by Mobolaji Aluko
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Many great points, Professor Aluko, except for your inability to transcend unhelpful political partisanship and toxic religious particularism. You wrote:
" 6. Our Muslim Yoruba citizens must decide whether the Umma principle of brotherhood is greater that [sic] the collective security of our Yoruba citizenry."
This is wrong on at least four levels:
First, you exoticized, needlessly put Yoruba Muslims on the spot, and created a false binary between being Muslim and being Yoruba, even though (nominal) Muslims constitute the majority of people in Oyo, Osun, Ogun (?), and Lagos states, and Islam has been in Yorubaland centuries before colonialism.
Second, Yoruba Muslims are themselves victims of the homicidal fury of Fulani brigands. In fact, northern Oyo, where a violent clash happened between Fulani herders and Yoruba people last week, is a predominantly Muslim area. It shares a common boundary with my local government, and I have many relatives from there. If being Muslim hasn't immunized Yoruba Muslims against sanguinary clashes with Fulani people, why should they be singled out as people who are suspect, as people who might betray non-Muslim Yoruba people to the Fulani out of "the Umma principle of brotherhood," which, by the way, is nonsensical, meaningless verbiage?
Third, this claim assumes that all Fulani brigands are Muslims (they are NOT) and that they are committing their crimes on behalf of Islam, which would predispose them spare Yoruba Muslims in the spirit of "the Umma principle of brotherhood." But nothing can be more ignorant and bigoted than that.
If "Umma principle of brotherhood" (whatever the heck that means) were a thing, Muslims in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, and elsewhere (who are also incidentally Fulani, Hausa, or "Hausa-Fulani") wouldn't be killed, kidnapped, and overawed by criminally bloodthirsty Fulani brigands. That should tell anyone that this isn't about religion or even ethnicity.
Fourth, your assertion undermines the famed, praiseworthy religious ecumenicalism of the Yoruba. Yorubaland is the only part of Nigeria where Christianity and Islam co-exists largely peacefully, where nuclear families adhere to different religious faiths without tensile stress and mutual suscpinions, and where everyone looks up to for religious tolerance. Aluko wants to disrupt this. And he is an Ekiti State government official who is also very close to the governor.
I think it's unconscionable and irresponsible to exploit a tragedy of this magnitude to stealthily evangelize your faith and to demonize and alienate innocent people who don't share your faith. We can do better than that.
Farooq
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiNigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 7:01 AM Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
*Sunday Musings: On the Matter of Farmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State*
My People:
I wish to make a few observations, comments and suggestions on this vexing matter.
1. Not all criminals in Ekiti State are Fulani. Not all Fulani are criminals. Not all Fulani are herdsmen. Not all herdsmen are criminals. Not all herdsmen are Fulani. No criminal is desirable in society, Fulani of not herdsman or not. These six maxims are irrefutable.
2. The identity of all Ekiti citizens, down to the ward level, must be ascertained and documented. This has both planning and security advantages. The ongoing NIN registration may be such an opportunity, with ancillary state action. This way, nobody will say that we are asking for documentation of just one ethnic group and not of another. We can claim thereby equal treatment and protection under the law.
3. There are about sixteen (16) Local Government Areas LGAs, one-hundred and thirty one (131) towns with crowned Kabiyesis of different grades A, B and C, and maybe three-hundred and thirty (330) Communities with known community leaders in Ekiti State. Those entities that border other states, and particularly that border the North where herdsmen enter, should be given special attention.
4. There are ten Forest Reserves in Ekiti State. Those towns and communities in and around them should be identified and given special attention.
5. All the Serikis/Sarkis of Hausa and Fulani citizens in the communities in question must be identified and tasked to ensure obedience to the law and restriction to influx of unknown and undocumented persons. In the time being, the granting of traditional Seriki titles as part of our Yoruba chietaincy tradition must stop.
6. Our Muslim Yoruba citizens must decide whether the Umma principle of brotherhood is greater that the collective security of our Yoruba citizenry. Similarly, the Kabiyesis, top politicians/society bigwigs and government functionaries who are said to own large heads of cattle, and who use these herdsmen to herd and multiply and secure their investments must measure their financial livelihoods against our threatened lives.
7. We must enforce:
i. Our anti-trespass laws;
ii. Our anti-homicide laws;
iii. Our anti-thievery laws;
iv. Our open and unlicensed arms-carrying laws;
v. Our traffic obstruction laws.It really does not matter whether it is Fulani or not rampaging our farms, eating our crops or raping and murdering our people. Laws already exist, and so we must de-ethnicize and de-mystify trade, publicize these laws, prosecute offenders and publicize the guilty verdicts.
8. Ekiti State must fully operationalize Community Policing, of which the newly-established Amotekun Security Network is but one example. Spotty security coverage and enforcement compromise (bribery, ethnic favoritism and tip-offs, etc) are rife with our current dependence on Abuja-controlled national police, army and other security forces
Now, I also know that there are two tendencies that cloud all of these discussions:
1. The political opposition - particularly the ardent anti-Buharists - who want to portray the ruling political party as incompetent and even complicit. Buhari's aides do not help matters by their rushed side-taking interventions.
2. The Separatists - the "A-fe-pin', Oodua Nation enthusiasts- who act as agent-provocateurs - egged on episodically by pro-Biafrans - and who want to hype the matter so as to speed up the dissolution of the "marriage of inconvenience that Nigeria's mere geographical expression is" (mixed quote solely mine please!)
Both tendencies are not helpful, but to the extent that they exist, cannot be ignored.
Finally, there are two other over-arching issues which have to be tackled over the points above:
1. Sensitization about and financial incentivization with respect to modern animal husbandry. This puts the modernists of ranching against the traditionalists of itinerant grazing. The victims of farm destruction, rape, murder and land grabbing must make a forceful case for cattle ranching and set some examples in our region. We must convince the traditionalists about the modern practice and make their traditional practice less profitable until they give it up.
2. Suspicion that the itinerant hersdmen are seeking not just pasture, but rather that that is a mere foil for territorial hegemonic political agenda. In that case, the targets must say it loud and clear that they know the real agenda - land grabbing hegemony - and use the force of law to prevent this, and cause the would-be hegemonists maximum penal pain.
There you have it for now.
Bolaji Aluko
January 24, 2021--
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