O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! –Deuteronomy 32:29
AT this stage, only a lunatic can deny the murderous agenda of Fulani terrorists in Nigeria, which is to wipe out indigenous communities and take over their land. It is an agenda I have long noticed and addressed. If you have lived in Plateau State, as I did as a corps member, completely astonished at the audacity of settlers in Shendam calling the traditional ruler “the king of infidels,” you cannot doubt this submission. In case the Fulani of Nigeria have not smelt the coffee yet, let me say it loud and clear that the name is becoming an execration across the length and breadth of Nigeria, chiefly on account of the sadistic, murderous activities of the tribe of terrorists called Fulani herdsmen, a major factor in Nigeria’s representation on the Global Terrorism Index. Take a poll covering different sections of Nigeria today and you will find that the only people that love the Fulani are the Fulani themselves. That is clearly portentous.
Of course, on a governmental plane, everyone is pretending that all is well, that we are One Nigeria, and that the problem is only with a few criminals among us. I am sorry to disappoint those who genuinely hold that view: we are not more united than a hound dog among a pack of hyenas. How do you put a baby and a scorpion in a crib and expect a peaceful, prosperous and united community in which everyone is their brother’s keeper? Across the length and breadth of the North, there is brewing conflict between the Hausa, a group brutally subjugated for centuries now, and the Fulani, their overlords who are also implicated in genocidal attacks across the land and are creating enmity for them (Hausa) everywhere on account of ethnic/religious affiliation. Sadly, the more hatred builds up in the minds of Nigerians for the Fulani, the more Fulani terrorists worsen the case, writing open invitations to retributive justice.
In April when outcry over the Uromi killings in which 16 Hausa youths perished was at its peak, the Hausa were crying to whoever would listen that they are a distinct ethnic group, but it is instructive that the attackers thought that they were Fulani, and had taken part in the countless terrorist activities to which their communities had been subjected. The Uromi attackers mistook Hausa for Fulani, but the point that cannot be ignored is that they were reacting to decades of Fulani criminality. Now, what do you think that the Hausa, who knew that their children died on account of being mistaken for the Fulani, think of the Fulani, particularly Fulani terrorists? Do you think they are in love with them? Absolutely not. And that, precisely, is the case across the length and breadth of Nigeria, and I can clearly see the budding seeds of terrible conflict ensconced in Nigeria’s future. I do not know what the Fulani murderers causing outrage everywhere think they are, but it is clear to me as day that there will be reprisals very soon. You just do not kill, rape and destroy other people for years and think that you have a future sweet as sugar. That is stupidity of the highest order, and I have the Mind of the Spirit on this matter. Laugh me to scorn, but your future lies in fire and brimstone.
Today, Fulani terrorists stage bloody onslaughts on the Igbo, the Yoruba, the Hausa, the Tiv, the Jukun and the Merniang, the Berom and the Tarok, the Bini and the Urhobo, completely ignoring the sad fate that lies ahead of them. In June 2021, suspected Fulani herders killed 50 people the Odoka Ishieke, Obakota Ishieke and Ndiobàsi Ishieke communities of Ebonyi State, an incident the state governor, Mr. Dave Umahi, described as gory and bestial. During that attack, the terrorists raped and murdered even children. The dust was yet to settle on this incident when they turned attention to Igangan community in Oyo State in the early hours of Sunday, June 6, 2021. They murdered many people and burnt down houses, shops, a petrol station, and the palace of the traditional ruler of the community. A resident of Igangan, Musa Lawal, said: “The attack was apparently premeditated. Almost all residents of Igangan sought refuge in the bush. We called security agencies but they didn’t respond to our distress calls. Only our local hunters, who were employed as members of the Amotekun security corps, confronted the Fulani herdsmen.” Yes, security agents always disappear into thin air when Fulani terrorists go haywire, showing their faces afterwards to lecture the rest of Nigeria about kinetic and non-kinetic warfare, and to lament, like CDS Christopher Musa did this week, that the locals gave them accommodation, food and women.
Readers, do you remember the June 2022 mass shooting and bomb attack at a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State? Where are the attackers? Do you remember the New Year Day massacre staged by this same set of depraved, blood-thirsty lunatics in Benue State in 2018, an occasion in which nearly 80 persons died in the most gruesome fashion? On that occasion, President Muhammadu Buhari asked the victims to accommodate their killers, “their countrymen.” Are you aware that these offspring of murderers launched terrible onslaughts in Enugu State this week, killing people for sport?
Several sociological theories address genocide. They include strain theory, which suggests that societal stress and strain can contribute to violent behavior and genocide; social identity theory, which proposes that individuals derive a sense of identity and belonging from group membership, which can lead to in-group favoritism and out-group hostility, potentially escalating into violence, and realistic conflict theory, which addresses competition for resources and power as a factor for conflict between groups. There is also structural theory, which looks at the role of social structures such as institutions and power dynamics, in enabling or perpetuating genocide, and symbolic interactionism, a theory that focuses on how meanings and symbols are used to construct and perpetuate violence. One cardinal undercurrent of these theories is the social consequence of violence. When Adolf Hitler and his Aryan supremacists swept through Europe, trying to recreate Roman overlordship in Europe, they probably didn’t contemplate suicide via cyanide. The time will come when suicide becomes an attractive option to many of those littering this land with innocent blood.
If the genocidal attacks are to stop, then communities must take their fate in their own hands. As former Army/Defence chief Theophilus Danjuma once pointed out, any community waiting for the military to rescue it from terrorism will simply perish. It is a terrible thing to say, but the data in his defence is overwhelming. The way things are going, you have to think of the fact that your community existed and defended itself long before the colonial enterprise, let alone the present provocation in which even the protesters lamenting genocidal attacks on their communities are doused in tear gas. The desire to wipe out the rest of us and take over our ancestral lands will fail most spectacularly.
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