A psalm for Nigeria’s licensed killers

Did you read the story published by the Nigerian Tribune this week titled “Gunmen kill breastfeeding mother, injure two others in Plateau”? Listen to this: “The gunmen terrorising some communities in Plateau State have killed a 32-year-old breastfeeding mother and injured two other women in the Riyom Local Government Area of the state. According to a statement issued by the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), signed by its Secretary-General, Mr Bature Iliya Adazaram, the women were attacked at about 11:21 am on Tuesday while travelling on a commercial motorcycle to their farm. The armed Fulani ambushed the unsuspecting victims, who were on a motorcycle from Bangai to Riyom, unaware that the attackers had pinned them down with arms, which they used to open gunfire on the victims. After shooting at them, the Fulani proceeded to hack the victims, one of whom, Mrs Kangyang Benjamis, succumbed to her injuries at Riyom General Hospital. The deceased’s eight-month-old baby, named Dalo Benjamin, along with Mrs Mary Monday, 52, and Mrs Regina Monday, 50, sustained severe injuries.”

Well, according to the people you call leaders, the Fulani killers have the right to bear arms. Here’s Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Press Week of the state’s Correspondents’ Chapel: “The Fulani man is practising the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism; he has been exposed to the dangers of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth, his cows. He had no option than (sic) to carry Ak-47 and defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.” Seriously, how do you share the same nationality with these depraved individuals? This is why some people blame Oduduwa for alleged illegal and meaningless departure from Saudi Arabia (where France forward Karim Benzema used half a day’s wages to buy a BMW this week!) which denied them of Saudi citizenship. Can anyone shoot/behead a person in Saudi Arabia and go scot free?

The way the Fulani terrorists carry on, you would think other ethnic groups in Nigeria had no history of warfare. But nothing can be further from the truth. The Abam warriors from Igbo Ohafia were renowned for chopping off enemy heads with just a strike. As for the TIV, here’s a quote from the British-Nigerian historian, Max Siollun (Tiv Resistance to the Sokoto Caliphate):  “The Tivs, who lived in the lower part of Northern Nigeria, had fought off frequent slave raids from the Caliphate, maintained their independence, and refused to be converted to Islam. Such attempted invasions made them resistant to strangers and they became feared for attacking intruders with their mysterious and deadly poisoned arrows. British authorities referred to them with a derogatory Hausa word, ‘Munshi’, and regarded Tivland as dangerous bandit country.” In Yorubaland, Ogedengbe of Ilesa, Fabunmi of Okemesi, Oranyan, founder of the Oyo Empire and Ajaka his son, not to mention Aganju of Oyo, were all warriors, as were Alaafin Ojigi, Atiba Atobatele, Bashorun Oluyole, Lagelu Adio, Sọun Ogunlọla and even Oduduwa himself. During the Osogbo War of 1840, Ibadan warriors taught Fulani scavengers led by Ali, the Hausa Balogun of Ilorin, the lesson of their lives. The Ibadan forces led by Balogun Oderinlo launched a midnight assault on the Ilorin camp, using the watchword “Elo ni owo odo?” (How much is the ferry fare?) to distinguish friend from foe. They captured several Ilorin war chiefs, including Jimba and Lateju, and executed two Yoruba traitors. One of these days, stories of bravery will be retold with modern-day warriors taking care of terrorists, and it will be far from funny.

I don’t know the pact that the Fulani terrorists, many of them from foreign lands, have with our government that gives them such audacity. It is a no-brainer that if an ethnic group continually launches murderous or genocidal attacks on other communities in a country and the government fails to respond, there will be escalating violence and retaliation, polarization and divisions, humanitarian crises, regional instability, and a government legitimacy crisis. In Rwanda, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi by the Hutu majority, which claimed over 800,000 lives, was enabled by governmental failure to address earlier violence and incitement. The Bosnian War witnessed ethnic cleansing and genocide, particularly against Bosniaks, but before then the Yugoslav government had consistently failed to address nationalist tensions. In Sudan, the government’s arming of militias targeting non-Arab populations has bred anarchy since 2003. At a stage, the elders of Plateau State had to call for UN protection following the Federal Government’s failure to protect the state from murderous herders, a call which, in my view, was perfectly legitimate under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle. I am sick and tired of the tribe of murderers who continue to rape, murder and rob with impunity. May God Almighty wipe them out completely!

As the Yoruba say, if you tie down a dog, tie down a leopard, then hand over the leopard’s tail to the dog, surely the matter won’t end well. A dog cannot be the leopard’s bag-carrier in the forest: each party has to hunt on separate grounds. If you and your forefathers recognise only violence, then learn, very quickly, that the person on whose head coconut is cracked will not wait to partake of it. Proverbs to the dogs from distant lands who have made this land crimson with innocent blood. The dove recites incantations as if the pigeon has no ears: the pigeon hears, but exercises caution only because it wants to avoid a bad name. Your dundu (fried yam) is getting surfeited with pepper: your sigidi (mud god) asking for a swim is descending into destruction. The world was not made for you; the bata (drum) that sounds too loudly is ready to burst. Fulani killers, your rain of shame is about to fall. You will not just be disgraced; you will sit on disgrace.

The day you get weary of killing and destroying is the day your killing and destruction will start. May your posterity dissolve in brimstone, you bunch of depraved, callous killers! May your maidens die on wedding day. May your grooms perish as they laugh. May your pregnant women die in agony before midwives, and may the midwives lose skill and mind. May you use your accursed hands, the same hands with which you recently threw an innocent woman’s newborn twins to your dogs for a meal, to bury your children. May your kings be hung under the midday sun, and may your chiefs be paraded naked around town before being donated to sharp knives. Your home will have no peace; your roads will be confused. The luckiest of you will die like Samuel Doe. Isaiah 3:11: “Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given to him.” Amen.

READ ALSO: Fulani terrorists behind killing of Catholic Priest in Niger, IPOB alleges