That is the crux of the matter. They are living in an incestuous bubble, Buhari and his men, removed from the growing anger that permeates the country. It's a self-inflicted malaise really, because if you're Buhari and you have no cosmopolitan bone in your body, why would you pack your administration with similarly parochial kinsmen who will only entrench you in your ethnic cocoon, instead of surrounding yourself with cosmopolitan kinsmen and non-kinsmen who will challenge you to look beyond your clannish loyalties?
And you're absolutely right. This Defense Minister who justifies the violence of the armed herdsmen did not even ask the basic questions of 1) why the herdsmen, even if their grazing routes are "blocked" as he alleged, would take the law into their hands and murder farmers who allegedly "blocked" the routes; and 2) why, in clear, brazen violation of Nigerian law the herdsmen are allowed to walk freely around with AK-47s and other military grade weapons with which they commit atrocities and sack communities and then take over their lands and farms for grazing purposes. Is this not the state-sanctioned culture of impunity that embolden the culprits?
I am afraid for what is left of the country, Prof.
On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 8:45 PM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Moses:Greetings from Nigeria. I think Abuja is misreading the level of anger in the land. There is a level of callousness, too, in dealing with thousands of displaced people who rely on their land for survival.
Can the govt. not:1. Disarm citizens who carry AK47 around? Herders used to carry sticks.2. Apply the full force of law to anyone with guns without license.3. Appeal to sedentary farmers to cultivate grass and sell them in inter-regional trade. This becomes a win-win situation.
The nuclear optionBoycott beef.
Sent from my iPhone--"Since Independence, we know there used to be a route whereby these cattle rearers use. Cattle rearers are all over the nation, you go to Bayelsa, you see them, you go to Ogun, you see them. If those routes are blocked, what happens? These people are Nigerians, it's just like you going to block river or shoreline, does that make sense to you? These are the remote causes. But what are the immediate causes? It is the grazing law. These people are Nigerians, we must learn to live together with each other, that is basic. Communities and other people must learn how to accept foreigners within their enclave, finish!"
--Defense Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, January 25, 2018.
Take a moment to digest this. This is Nigeria's defense minister, speaking to reporters today after the security council meeting, not the spokesman of Miyetti Allah. He is echoing the official position of the government on the herdsmen issue, a position indistinguishable from that of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the genocidal herdsmen body that regularly admits to, and threatens communities with, mass murder.
The highlights of his rant are, 1) the remote cause of the problem is the "blocking" of grazing routes by farming communities, and 2) the immediate cause is the anti-open grazing laws passed by three states, never mind that the Agatu massacre of 500 villagers by armed herdsmen preceded the Benue law and that the anti-open grazing laws passed by three states were a response to the violence of herdsmen, not the other way round.
The minister apportioned absolutely no blame whatsoever on the armed herdsmen militia. They are the victims, the wronged side, according to Defense Minister Dan-Ali. There is no pretense of balance and even-handedness. The solution, for him, is not to mobilize the military might of the state to go after the armed herdsmen mass murderers. The solution for him and the president is to urge to farming communities to grant the herdsmen unfettered access to grazing lands in their communities because according to him, "these people (herdsmen) are Nigerians."
These are the people advising Buhari and shaping his attitude and response (or lack thereof) to the herdsmen violence. No wonder, Buhari told the Benue delegation that visited him to "in the name of God accommodate your countrymen." That is what he and his inner circle and security team believe to be the problem: the failure of Benue and other states to accommodate the herdsmen. Herdsmen must be "accommodated" for peace to reign.
This is what clannishness can do to a leader. It traps him in a bubble of provincialism, in which he gets only skewed counsel. It creates an incestuous, provincial world that reinforces the leader's own preexisting parochialism and hubris. Clannishness blinds the leader to a broader reality, causing him to remain completely out of touch with what is really going on. It causes him to value above all else the deceptive but comforting narrative of kinsmen advisers who are moored to ethnic loyalty and given to navel gazing.
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