Restructuring is key

The Presidency has just confirmed that Fulani herdsmen killed over 756 people within two years during the previous administration. Why is the government telling us this? Is it to say that the current onslaught by the Fulani herdsmen is justified? The Buhari administration is being defensive that the killings did not start with this government. So what?

Why should Fulani herdsmen kill their fellow countrymen? Why should they deprive a human being his own life in order to give life to cattle? Why are these herdsmen destroying what others have developed with time, money and energy?

These Fulani herdsmen are frustrating other people’s comfort in order to create comfort for themselves. We received them to rear their cattle and live on our land but they paid us back with evil.

I can’t measure the magnitude of frustration that will be felt by a farmer who has worked tirelessly on his farm under the scorching sun for months or years just to get to same farm and see that the crop he is looking forward to harvesting and selling in order to earn a living has been destroyed by the people who sought refuge on his own land. With what is currently happening in the nation, the frustrated farmer has two options; to either accept his fate or challenge the unfortunate farm destroyer and get killed.

The Fulani herdsmen have killed thousands of Nigerians. They killed our people, raped our women, looted our money and destroyed our farmland and properties. They are the real terrorists. The government knows this but because all security apparatus in the country is in the hands of Fulani, the herdsmen are getting away with murder.

The President should remember his own words; “I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody”. No killer Fulani herdsman should be allowed to go scot-free.  Meanwhile, I share no faith in the belief that establishing grazing areas in all part of the nation will solve the problem. Why? We should know that the Fulani herdsmen are not only killing people because they want to get food for their cattle. The killing of over 70 people and destruction of property worth millions of naira in Benue state is a testimony to this. What has the killing of 70 people got to do with the feeding of cattle?

Indeed, Nigeria has reached a defining moment in its history, there is problem everywhere. The Fulani herdsmen are killing people everywhere, IPOB is agitating for secession, the Niger Delta militants are coming out with renewed vigour and our president is asking the World Bank to focus on his own region; it is time to renegotiate our unity as a nation.

We need to restructure. Our structure is too Abuja-centric, power must be devolved.

Jamiu Idowu Esho,

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.