Fulani herdsmen, farmers and the rest of us

IN 418 BC, Herodotus, the Greek Philosopher said “a man who does not know anything about the events that took place before he was born will remain forever a child”. In 1957, Sir Ahmad Bello said “we the people of the North will continue our stated intention to conquer the South and dip the Quran into the Atlantic Ocean after the British leave our shores”.

The above statement is a pointer that there is no way you can look at the herdsmen’s atrocities in the country and give the president a clean bill of health, not because he sponsored or instigated the Fulani herdsmen, but because of his own reputation of tackling security issues since he got into office.

President Muhammadu Buhari is a victim of his own reputation, we all remember how we condemned and blamed former President Goodluck Jonathan for his attitude towards curbing the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, and most importantly his vacillation when the Chibok girls were kidnapped. PMB should know that security of life and property of every citizens of this country relies on him, he should in a jiffy react to this murderous killing of innocent farmers across the country, and if he cannot stop the rampant killings by herdsmen under his watch, how will history remember him?

In less than two days herdsmen destroyed University of Ilorin multi-million naira research farms and the training farms, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Sulyman Abdulkareem, said that they went to the extent of uprooting tubers of cassava for their cattle to feed on.  Again, they even went ahead to sack the Ondo council secretariat and chased out the workers following just a disagreement, they wounded council workers and it took the intervention of security agencies to put things under control.

There comes a time in a man’s life when he has to reflect internally and evaluate his age to know how old he is and try to approximate how many years are left since death is inevitable. It is, therefore, time to take stock of the gains of yesterday and not the pains of yesterday. We should put our eyes on the path ahead which is more glorious, brighter and better, rather than the ugly past.  Nigeria as a nation is facing her fair or unfair share of global challenges that are overwhelming even greater nations of the world. But if we can stand together as a nation and fight together we shall overcome the storms, because greater is he that is with us than he that is with our enemies.

All of this agony is caused by our selfishness. Respectability and accountability died long ago and there is no difference between statesmen and those who seek to execute us.

Ademola Orunbon,

Oke-Posun, Epe