THE MENACE OF FULANI HERSDMEN IN NIGERIA

Nigeria is a country notable for experiencing multi-faceted security woes with Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen stealing the show. The claim that Fulani herdsmen are a thorn in the side of Nigerians is no exaggeration. Nigerians have been expressing serious concerns over the activities of marauding herdsmen who have launched myriads of incessant attacks with terrible mayhem against host of communities across Nigeria in the past few years. This is describable as a bane on the country’s feeble democratic structure.

The macabre report of rampages by this group is without records of kidnapping, robbery, maiming, rape, killing, etc. in the country. Benue State alone is home to over 10,000 Internally Displaced Persons. With the recent mayhem of killing, slitting the throat, raping of women among other dastardly acts, it has raised a lot of questions as to the innuendo surrounding the killings that are unleashed on communities.

Irritably, the story that the scrimmage to secure land for the cattle to graze has prompted the marauders to take law into their own hands is no longer tenable and does no longer appeal to the people in the least.

What could have justified the terrible killings of innocent civilians at a wedding party?
Volley of gunshots in the thick middle of nights?
Violation of women?

The whole truth is that the cataclysm of the menace has taken a new dimension of the finest political undertone. The ego that the incumbent Nigerian President is of the Fulani descent waxes the thirst of the bandits for more bloodletting and restiveness; it is a stark reality that cannot be overruled by a mere stroke of the pen. In fact, in a recent statement credited to the head of a notorious Fulani group, the mantra is that Nigeria belongs to them!

More worrisomely, the government’s role to quench the growing cantankerousness is miserly and left much to be desired even though insensitivity is not a novel culture in the Nigerian political history. It as well had a grandiose influence in the chronology of happenstances that culminated in the collapse of Aguiyi-Ironsi’s government or Gowon’s. This piece is not to argue history but the unrepentant poor disposition of the government to nationwide predicaments has continued to trail the gamut of problems despite it is an institution that houses the caliber of people who have sworn to safeguard the welfare and security of its citizens with utmost
priorities.

Why has none of the marauders been tried and made to face the full wrath of the law? The lackadaisical attitude is giving ground for speculations which can only be dampened by the government’s readiness to relinquish the Machiavellian conspiracy that has catapulted Nigerians into being a victim of circumstances.

Conclusively, one is now tempted to suggest that pastoralism is a favorite magic bullet to the herders/farmers frosty relationship. One hopes that the government will look into the possible

Harmonization of relevant laws that govern grazing reserves such as the review of the Grazing Reserve Law of 1965. If the government becomes pro-people and consider the adoption of ranching as it is being practiced in the developed world as a mechanism to sabotage this inherent dehumanization in the hand of marauding herdsmen, it will put the furor and the growing discombobulation on a check.

To conclude,

a country that does not heed history is doomed to repeat it. The unending stony- hearted and compassionless response of the political hegemony of the country is hara-kiri and the people are at the receiving end.