My son and I can contest for any political post in Lagos —Bambado, Sarkin Fulani, Lagos State

Mohammed Abubakar Bambado is the Sarkin Fulani of Lagos and chairman, Association of Fulani Chiefs in South West Nigeria. He speaks with TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE on his business, the influx of Hausa-Fulani youths into the South-West Region and Lagos State in particular, the incessant bloody clashes between herders and farmers, and the alleged Fulani agenda, among other issues. Excerpts:

How would you describe  the Hausa-Fulani relationship with the Yoruba and other tribes in the South West?

Firstly, I have a long family history attached to Lagos. My family has been in Lagos for more than 100 years and I‘m among the third generation and my children among the fourth.  I was born in Lagos and my children were also born in Lagos. So, Lagos is home for us. That is the same way to many other Hausa-Fulani in Lagos and other parts of South West. That is, many of us have lived for so many years here.  On relationship, I can categorically say the Yorubas are very accommodating and understanding. We have been together for long. And that shows our relationship generally is  cordial and beautiful.

Relationships, in which areas?

Many areas. For example, we have lots of inter-marriages. We go to the same schools, the same mosques and do many other things together. Even my late father married a Yoruba woman. So, I have step brothers whose mother is Yoruba. So, we couldn’t have spent these long years in Lagos and we can’t accommodate or owe ourselves a trust. It is when you trust somebody that you get married to such person- man or woman. So, we Hausa-Fulanis see Yoruba and other non-Yorubas in the South West as loving people.

What then do you see dividing us as a country?

God has destined us to be together. I cannot figure out in my thinking what will divide us. Even if you also go to the north, you will see so many Yorubas and people from other tribes, like the Igbo, who have been there for more than 100 years, married northerners and take the North as their homes. During the Civil War period, many soldiers from the North married many Igbo women and some as first wives. So, where do we start from? Go to Idi-Araba in Mushin, Lagos, where we have concentration of Hausa-Fulanis, you will find out that many of them have Yoruba as wives. There was a period we had crisis in the area, they then realised that they were killing themselves. Because when you get to a home, you realise that Yoruba woman is a mother of the house and then what do you have to do in that case. So, it is going to be very difficult for Nigeria to break. Honestly, I don’t even know where to place such thought. Or what are we even dividing for?

10 soldiers killed, nine injured in insurgents’ ambush

What of religion?

With religion, we don’t have the problem that can cause our separation. All this thinking is that people have politicised everything including religion in Nigeria. Though, no doubt, people in the north use religion more than people in the south.  I have this instinct that I always say concerning the three major ethnic groups- the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and the Igbo that we have in Nigeria. While the Ibos think,  most, of their  business,  Yoruba is culture, while the Hausa-Fulani is religion. And so, if you want to see an Ibo man fighting you, just touch his business. When you come to the Yoruba, their culture and for the northerners, it is their religion. And that is why you find more of religion problem in the north than the south. The politicians use that to cause confusion.

But what comes to your mind when you hear that Fulani herdsmen, in the South West, now kidnap, kill and maim?

They cannot be genuine Fulani herdsmen that are killing people. And do you even know that most of the victims of these attacks in the bush are the Fulanis?  They are the ones mostly affected and the attacks are by bandits.

How?

The bandits come, kill and maim Fulani, rape their wives, burn their houses and all that. They even carry their children and initiate them into banditry. So, who are the people living in the bush if not the Fulani? They are mostly affected and that is the truth. It is because the Fulani don’t have  the media. We don’t talk. You can easily count the media houses in the North, unlike in the South where they are so many. It is very important to have platform through which you can express your feeling. So, to me, Fulani record more casualties than farmers. Apart from this, some people are using the issue to settle their political differences. For instance, when you were growing up, I am sure one way or the other farmers and Fulani herdsmen had been co-existing and having problem, and  with no interference from a third party, they settled their disputes themselves. Maybe a Fulani man encroached on somebody’s farm, they would sit down and settle their differences and nobody would get to know. That was the situation years back. But why is it  now  that everything  is exploding, and people are making noise out of it? It is because some people are behind it. They are using it to achieve their own selfish gains. So to me, we all have to live and work together. It is not about Fulani,  Yoruba or Igbo, it is about one Nigeria. Truly, there could be  bad eggs among the Fulani,  as there could be in every tribe and in even every family. Years back, during Obasanjo and even Yar’adua regimes,  we were having this Niger Delta issue.  They were kidnapping foreigners.  And when Yar’Adua came, his government introduced amnesty and it worked. So, why has this one become intractable? We just have to come together as one to fight it and other insecurity issues.

But we hear of herdsmen going about with sophisticated weapons?

This is the reason I disagree when people call the attackers herdsmen. They are bandits. A herdsman does not carry gun. The Fulani herdsmen rear cows and what they go about with is stick and again maybe cutlass. The machete is to clear the bush where and when necessary.  And don’t forget he can also be attacked by maybe animal and he will use that to protect himself. But gun or any other serious weapon, no way. So they are simply bandits. Most of these bandits are foreigners. They come from our neighbouring countries. There are so many cases that show that those people are foreigners just because of our porous border then.  So, the government will need to do a lot to protect our land borders the more so as to curb the infiltration of foreigners into the country. Again, I will say that our military would need to change their tactics of fighting insurgents, bandits and kidnappers.  We need more sophisticated weapons that can easily solve our insecurity issue in the country. You can’t be defensive as a security operative. You need to take the war to your enemy’s camp. You don’t sit back and say you are waiting for them to come. You need to crush them right at their planning stage.

But some believe that there is an agenda by the Fulani people.

Does that even make sense? Where, by who and how? It cannot be possible. Do you know what it means to say that you have more than 700 languages in a country? We are not China that  has only one language. We are not America that has one language. We are not Arabs that have one language. How then is it possible for one race with about 40-45 million people out of over 200 million to wake up and overrun the entire country? It’s even unheard of. For me, I can’t just wake up and begin to say Yoruba wants to Yorubalise Nigeria, Igbo want to Igbolise Nigeria, or Ijaw wants to Ijawlise Nigeria. It doesn’t make sense to someone like me and that is why I don’t believe in all that, because it cannot work. To do that, won’t it be tabled in the National Assembly, before it is  passed into law? And so are all the lawmakers Hausa-Fulani?  Come on, that is a child talk.

 But many see the influx of northerners into South Western part of the country as a dress rehearsal towards that.

People move from one geographical area to another, for many reasons. But in answer to your question I will say this. Every Nigerian has the right to live wherever he or she chooses in the country. For example, I can decide today to go and live in Kano or Osogbo or in Enugu or Uyo. All that is required is to be ready to live in peace and harmony in my host communities.  Another major factor which is also why many travel abroad is for greener pasture. I might not know the main reason my forebears decided to come to Lagos, but I have been in Lagos for many years and  have contributed, and still contributing meaningfully to the economic development of the state and the country at large. For this, I can contest for any political office in Lagos State and likewise my son. The issue of saying that people are leaving a place for another is their choice.  Honestly, that people from the north are rushing to Lagos should be a non- issue. They come because they believe here is where they can make it.

Nigerian Tribune