I saw a traumatised community in shock and despair. I saw a dead body. I wept. I wondered what has become of our quest for a united, peaceful and prosperous nation. —Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
The Gonernor was visibly pained as he relived his efforts to nip in the bud the herdsmen gruesome attack on Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State on April 28. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi battled not to betray emotion as he read his speech last Friday while constituting a judicial panel of enquiry into the dastardly act. As I watched him on television I felt his pains as he recalled all he did to stop the attack as soon as he got wind of it. According to him, he mobilised the security agencies to forestall the attack and they assured him that everything was under control.
It turned out to be otherwise; nothing was under control. Rather, everything had spun out of control not because of lack of resources and logistics, but because of the failure of some security agents to discharge their duties. Why were the security agencies caught flatfooted in the wee hours of April 28 when the herdsmen struck in Nimbo? Were they outgunned or outnumbered? Or is it that they just decided to look the other way when some of their compatriots were being massacred? As Ugwuanyi noted when he asked a similar question while constituting the probe panel “only the security agencies can provide the answers.”
But, it is quite revealing that our security agencies failed on that crucial occasion. The nation has been battling with the menace of herdsmen for sometime. There is virtually no part of the country today that they have not struck, leaving death and destruction in their trail. But, Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states seem to bear the brunt of their attacks. In one fell swoop, herdsmen killed over 500 people and rendered 7000 others homeless when they invaded Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State on February 29. Herdsmen were never known to be this vicious. At least, the herdsmen that I grew up to know were not killers; they were genial, lovable and friendly.
We ran and sang after them as they herded their cattle through the streets without any fear of molestation or attack. At times, they even laughed at our jokes which they did not understand. But because they saw us laugh, they also laughed. That was the Nigeria of the good old days where everybody was his brother’s keeper. This was what Governor Ugwuanyi was seeking answer to when he asked : ‘’I wondered what has become of our quest for a united, peaceful and prosperous nation?’’ Really, what has become of the Nigeria where we looked after one another’s interest? Where did we miss it? What went wrong and when did things go wrong?
Why is it that herdsmen have suddenly become killers? Are they being treated as outcast in their host communities? When did such hostile treatment begin? Something must be behind the sudden transformation of these herdsmen. If they had been living peacefully with their hosts for ages, why is it now that they are unleashing terror on the communities that have been home to them? Their progenitor also lived and did business in those communities. Something must have transformed the hitherto simple and easy going nomads into monsters. We must do something to tame this monster of herdsmen killings before it consumes us.
Irrespective of where we come from, this is not the time to look at this matter from an ethnic prism. If we do that, we will not be able to find lasting solution to the problem. As things are now, something can still be done to salvage the situation. But if we start to talk from both sides of the mouth, we will achieve nothing. Rather, we will exacerbate the problem. The Fulani are known to be cattle rearers, a trade they have been into for eternity. If you go round the country today, anywhere you find a herd of cattle, a Fulani will not be far away. I have never seen an Ijaw, Bini, Itsekiri, Igbo or Yoruba herding cattle. I have never seen it. I may be wrong; but until I am proved wrong I will maintain my stand.
We cannot deny what is obvious and this is clearly what the northern governors attempted to do last Friday when they met in Kaduna. When a finger brings oil, according to a local adage, it stains the whole hand. The herdsmen atrocities have portrayed the Fulani in bad light; but that does not mean that the race is evil. No, far from it. I know where Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima was coming from when he said in Kaduna : ‘’We want to unequivocally condemn the recent killings in Enugu and other parts of the country. But, we equally condemn the politicisation or permit me, the ethnicisation of the whole crisis. It goes beyond Fulani. If anything happens, they say Fulani herdsmen. To me, it is an insult’’.
I beg to disagree sir. Nobody is pointing finger at the Fulani. It is a well known fact that the herdsmen are Fulani. Nobody is trying to give the Fulani a bad name in order to hang them. It is the northern governors that are trying to ethnicise the whole thing by their position, which is not good for the stability and unity of our country. Rather than speak the way they did they should join hands with other leaders to stop these killings before other groups start hunting down the herdsmen. The governors should be mindful of their exalted office and not inflame passion with their utterances. They should not pour petrol into a fire which is threatening to engulf the country.
Because President Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulani does not mean that we should close our eyes to the evil being perpetrated by the herdsmen. Neither the president nor the northern governors sent them on those deadly missions. Our leaders should condemn what is bad and the perpetrators of such evil even if they are their kinsmen. That is the hallmark of a true leader. I know that blood is thicker than water, but the unity of Nigeria should be paramount and non-negotiable.
Never say never
Leicester City Football Club aka the Foxes are today the toast of English soccer having won the Barclays Premier League. Nobody gave the Claudio Ranieri-managed team a chance in the 2015/2016 season. With their chances put at 5000-1 at the beginning of the tourney, they were not expected to do better than they did in the last season when they escaped relegation by whiskers. This season they shocked the soccer world including themselves with their feat. Leicester had never won a major title since it was founded in 1884. By winning the Premiership, they have written their name in gold in a way that some football legends, such as the gentleman Gary Lineker, who passed through the club, never did. It is the can-do spirit that saw the Foxes through. When everybody wrote them and their coach off they believed in themselves and today they have made history. All hail, the new soccer kings. Will it be an encore next season?
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