By Erasmus Ikhide
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he revelation of the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, in his recent outburst, that himself, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, and a host of other influential Emirs in Northern Nigeria are the patrons of the murderous and genocidal Fulani herdsmen is a clear indication that these disoriented oligarchs are worse than the animals they have unleashed on Nigerians.With the recurring attacks on defenseless indigenes of various communities across Nigeria, there is no doubt that the Fulani herdsmen have the intention to destroy the rest of humanity that don’t share their faith and space. In what look like desecrating the grave of the 73 Benue citizens who got slaughtered on New Year night, Sanusi seemingly averred that they deserved their deaths.
This is exactly why peace will forever elude Nigeria unless President Muhammadu Buhari takes drastic actions to tackle the anarchy represented by Miyetti Allah. It has to be done in a manner the President of Ghana settled the menace of Fulani herdsmen.
However, hope dims for Nigeria as to the possibility of Buhari arresting the herders’ brutality, being a herder and a patron of the terrorist group, himself.
Sansusi’s disclosure and position is antithetic to justice and peace. Martin Luther King Junior had the cast of Sanusi in mind when he said: “Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.”
What’s the difference between Sanusi and the herders? And those who say Miyetti Allah is a privileged terrorist group are absolutely right. Emir Sanusi’s terrorist-patronizing gesture and bloodcurdling affinity with the herders have shown that. It’s a deliberate design and catchment to conquer the entire nation, by every means possible.
The Kano Emir seems to find a willing tool in a Christian Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, a man who has sold his soul to the devil for political gains — a pawn in the hands of expansionist zealots — for complete dehumanization of his people and the rest of the country.
Plateau State under Governor Lalong since 2015 has witnessed one of the deadliest bloodbaths between the herders and farmers that left hundreds slaughtered. The governor has remained a pathetic slime, sly, wily, serpentine and a sluggard.
It is sad that Lalong has failed to ensure that far-reaching measure/legislation is put in place to checkmate the herdsmen’s murderous activities and territorial encroachment inclinations.
If Lalong was not Godless, he would have been acquainted with Exodus 22:5 which says: “If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in another man’s field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard.”
That’s the more reason Lalong was not moved with the televised swaths of slaughter, somber vista of caskets and funeral parlor in Benue State; his belated and afterthought apology, notwithstanding. He has already played into the hands of irredentist personalities.
Expectedly, Sanusi has found Lalong’s perilous stance on the Benue massacre and castigation of Governor Ortom of Benue State as a launch pad to ventilate his abiding love for the unwashed dogs and his hatred for the governor’s mandate to rid the state of bloodshed.
Sanusi’s lust for expansionism beclouded his reasoning to know that Governor Samuel Ortom is constitutionally vested with the ownership of Benue land in trust for his people, as long as he remains the governor of the state.
Sanusi was too blinded by his Fulani herdsmen terrorism obsession to rein in his bloodthirsty group to obey the anti-grazing laws in Benue state that Miyetti Allah refused to obey — which led to the bloodbath in the first place.
Asked in an interview with the Punch newspaper at the weekend whether the anti-grazing law in Benue State is the right approach, the Monarch said he shared the view of Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State that the law was divisive and unfair to the Fulani herdsmen.
Sanusi said the law deepened the indigene/settler dichotomy and made the herdsmen feel isolated. The Monarch added that he had appealed to the Taraba State governor to delay the implementation of the law in the state but all his pleas had fallen on deaf ears.
The emir stated, “I fully support all efforts to attract investment into cattle rearing. This is global best practice. Capital is put into the development of ranches and grazing areas, herdsmen settle. Their cattle are healthier and fatter, they sell milk and milk products and beef, their children go to school and they are economically much better off.
“This is what we all want. But in Benue and Taraba, the approach has not been one of including and supporting and regulating herdsmen but of isolation and hate. I am happy Governor Lalong of Plateau has publicly stated that he advised Governor Ortom of Benue to tread carefully. I can confirm that I personally spoke to Governor Darius Ishaku before his public hearings on his law and begged him to slow down until he has worked out proper implementation but he refused.”
Again, the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor (CBN) revealed what Nigerians have been suspecting about the patriotism of the Nigerian security apparatuses’ penchant for shielding the Fulani herdsmen from prosecution: “The Sultan of Sokoto, the Lamido of Adamawa and I have been quietly speaking to top security personnel for months; telling them that the failure to provide justice and the clear involvement of political leaders in genocide, especially in Taraba, is causing anxiety”, Sanusi said.
What else do we expect Sanusi and his co-travelers to discuss with the nation’s service chiefs who are all Hausa Fulani, themselves?
Now, this: the Nigeria Military has yet to deny the allegation that it reportedly shot dead eight people during the protest organized by the National Union of Benue State Students (NUBESS) against the criminal Fulani herdsmen militia who have upped their violent killing of farmers since Mr. Buhari became president.
Whether the Nigeria Army denies killing of protesting youths in Benue State or not, Nigerians are familiar with their unconstitutional and criminal meddling into the duty of the Nigeria Police that is constitutionally mandated to quell internal unrest.
In the same Benue State in 2016, while violence was visited on the people of Agatu, the Nigeria Military was alleged to have either remained aloof or supervised the butchering of the inhabitants of Tomater village in Sengev Council Ward, Akor village in Nzorov Council Ward and Bakin Kwata village in Umanger Council Ward of Guma LGA.
Sometime in June, 2017 a similar incident played out at a protest in Ewu, in Esan Central Local Government of Edo State. While the youths were protesting the raping and slaughtering of their mothers and sisters, Nigerian soldiers came to the scene, allegedly shot and killed some protesting youths at point blank.
Several of them were injured while the soldiers were harping on order from above! It took the intervention of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the Governor of Edo State to arrest the carnage.
Governor Obaseki paid the bills of a young man whose legs were amputated as a result of military brutality and compensated the families of the victims of military’s mindless incursion into police duty.
Sanusi’s philosophy of balance of the deads between the herders and farmers in Benue State is misplaced and uncharitable, indeed. Emir Sanusi’s position is far from the solution to the crisis of cruelty and savage of early man the herders visited on the Benue people for mere theft of cow.
The Emir of Kano said Fulani herdsmen have never been the aggressors, even when their atrocious pillaging of people’s farms and lives have been daily documented across the country.
Nigerians are aware of the real reason behind the push for cattle colonies proposition by President Buhari’s government across the country: it will be from Cattle Colonies to Emirates!
We have been here before. History has it on how King Yunfa, the Hausa Sarki in Gobir (now called Sokoto) hosted a Fulani immigrant called Usman Dan Fodiyo and his group in February 1804, as a result of this and since 1808 the whole of the northern region lost its kingdoms and were replaced by Fulani emirates.
King Yunfa is said to have been killed in 1808 and the Fulani warrior (Usman Dan Fodiyo) established Sokoto caliphate, making himself Sultan. Gradually, other Hausa kingdoms were pillaged and taken over by the Fulani emirs.
The ethnic groups in the core north were the first victims of Fulani imperialism, a venture that occurred because the people were given access to grazing land as a result of the hospitality of the hosts. They however failed to overrun the Bornu and Jukun kingdoms, so the Shehu of Bornu and Aku Uka remain paramount till today!
But the Afonja dynasty compromised by allowing a Fulani warrior known as Janta Alimi to settle in Ilorin, and the Fulani guerrillas killed Afonja in 1824. And Ilorin, a Yoruba town under the Oyo Empire, fell into Fulani hands, becoming an emirate under Sokoto caliphate till today!
Even the attempts of the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) to revert to status quo ante and crown an Onilorin of Ilorin became an exercise in futility. The Yoruba warriors got wise and defeated the Fulani jihadists in Osogbo in 1840. If this didn’t happen, there would most likely have been Fulani “emirs” as rulers in Oyo, Ibadan, Owo, Osogbo, Ede, Ado, and Igede Ekiti today!
If the Bini Kingdom did not fight and repel the jihadists, they would have penetrated the Edo/Delta region beyond the present day Edo North Senatorial District which caved in and allowed the jihadists to overrun and islamize them.
Therefore, it will not be farfetched to conclude that the Fulani herdsmen are pawns in an agenda to overrun all towns in Nigeria! The intention is to have emirs in Owerri, Enugu, Benin, Agatu, Wukari, Abeokuta and other towns where the Federal Government intends to create “cattle colonies” for Fulani herdsmen.
These cattle colonies areas will, in the future, become Fulani settlements, later communities and finally local government areas with elected officials. If you are in doubt, look towards the once beautiful and serene Middle Belt state of Plateau.
That Governor Lalong’s memory is so calcified to the point of ignoring the evil of these sociopathic and psychopathic elements, and the havoc they have wrecked on Plateau State over the years because of political correctness is a matter for another day.
The only way to avoid the repeat of these ugly scenes of bloodbath, brutal pillaging of human lives and continued distrust between the north and south is for those who are into the business of cattle rearing to go into ranching in their own domains, which is the global best practices. Anything short of that will see the end of Nigeria, as we know it.
Erasmus, a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Lagos. Email: ikhideerasmus@gmail.com
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @ikhide_erasmus1
