sacred cows: Who will tame these herder-terrorists?

Are the Fulani herdsmen enjoying official protection from government as claimed in some circles? DARE ADEKANMBI looks at  the issues in the frequent clashes between the herders and the farmers in the rural communities where they graze their cattle.

MEDIA reports of herdsmen engaging in deadly fight with members of their host communities no longer sound strange to most Nigerians. Even the reports of pogrom against communities in the North-Central, especially Benue, Nasarawa and other areas with rich vegetation in that belt or the allegation that armed herdsmen had sacked villages hardly draw excitement. Such horrendous instances have become commonplace.

Nigerians, especially  those in the now redefined axis of their evil operations, southern Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Enugu, Ekiti and Ondo to mention but a few understand the new brutal reality is not just Boko Haram: it is the armed herdsmen.

Hitherto notorious for weaponising sticks into bow and arrow and cow horns into lethal daggers and blades, they now carry dangerous assault rifles, the most common of which is Ak-47. Thus armed, they bulldoze any hurdle, human beings inclusive, that will not allow their precious cattle to feed, even if the object to feed upon is the crops being nurtured by toiling farmers for human consumption and for import in order to improve the health of the economy.

Farmers and residents of rural communities in Enugu, Benue, Ekiti, Imo, Delta, Nasarawa, Oyo, Ogun, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau and other states have suffered varying degrees of misfortunes at the hands of Fulani herdsmen. Of particular concern to observers is the escalation of herdsmen’s attacks on farmers since 2014 till now.

About 23 months into the administration, about 36 of such attacks have been recorded in the various parts of the country, with attendant losses of hundreds of lives and wanton destruction of properties. Casualty figures are difficult to authenticate, with some claiming the attacks have claimed between 5, 000 and 8,000 since 2014 till now.

The United Nations, in its Global Terrorism Index report of in 2015, put the number of deaths arising from the Fulani herdsmen’s activities at 1, 229 in 2014 alone. In 2015, the UN designated the Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, coming closely behind IS and Boko Haram.

The murderous activities of the Fulani herdsmen militia have raised security concerns in the country to a new level. Though “degraded and reduced to feeling ragtag” as officials of government claimed, Boko Haram is still a major security headache for the administration. Just this week, tens of deaths were recorded in Maiduguri, Borno State, known for being the sect’s headquarters. The militants in the Niger Delta also constitute a major security issue for the administration.

It must be said, however, that not all herdsmen are guilty of the alleged murderous activities. In fact, many of them have co-existed and are still living peacefully in many communities beyond the North. They are regarded as part and parcel of those communities. Whenever there are frictions, they have mechanisms to resolve such in place.

From Saki, Iseyin, to Ighoho in Oke-Ogun, the Yewa region in Ogun to Okene, Lokoja in Kogi and other areas in the South-West spread to the South-South and South-East of the country, cattle rearers shared a history that was totally different from that of the present blood-thirsty group. The history they shared, that of conviviality and peaceful cohabitation with their hosts.

But the present arms-totting group has changed that history. Today, it is difficult to identify the friendly herdsman from the dangerous one. Now every herdsman is treated with suspicion and many of them often indeed exhibit such frightful carelessness as they march their cattle on people’s farms, causing a lot of destruction.

Allegations of government protection    

The Tiv Professional Group (TPG) in an advertorial in a national daily on Tuesday, March 21, pointedly accused the government of shielding the herdsmen. The group listed conscious efforts by the Federal Government to protect these herdsmen and their businesses by calling for appropriation of other people’s lands as grazing areas, while also listing the casualties of the herdsmen brutal terror in as many states.

According to TPG “Between 2013 and 2016 …herdsmen killed more than 1,878, men, women and children… in 12 local governments in Benue State… killed over 4,000 men, women and children  in Taraba State…” The TPG went further to accuse the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), The Pastoral Resolve (PARE) and Gan Allah Fulani Association of complicity in the activities of the armed herdsmen across the country. The group used the advertorial to call on President Muhammadu Buhari, who it said, is the life patron of MACBAN to  “break his silence on the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen…”

TPG would not be the first ethnic organisation to level such an accusation against the government. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and many others had at one time or the other roundly condemned the government for its tacit endorsement of the herdsmen. The fact that the government has failed to bring out the big hammer to deal with this group as it has done with the agitators for the state of Biafra (Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) and other groups has further festered the feeling of deliberate protection by the government and endorsed the feeling that the herdsmen are sacred cows. Even their own cows enjoy some immunity; they are not ordinary.

Dr Fredrick Fasehun, founder of O0dua Peoples Congress, agreed whole-heatedly with the claim that the herdsmen are the new powerbrokers. In an interview with Sunday Tribune, Dr Fasehun said the herdsmen “see themselves as untouchables” and that, he said, gave them the audacity to wantonly commit all their atrocities.

“You can see Fulani herdsmen, who are well armed, operating openly on our highways and nobody arrests them… they are not just untouchables; these are people who see themselves as untouchables,” Fasehun stated, adding that such brazen impunity does not help any society. “When there is injustice as seen by the entire community, then law and order and peace will break down. Justice must be seen to be done equitably…,” he said.

Similarly, the chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Reverend (Dr) Goddy Madu and the Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Enugu State chapter, Reverend Dr Jospeh Ajujungwa, had in their separate reactions to the activities of the herdsmen in Enugu also blamed government on its perceived indifference on the matter.

Reverend Madu, who described the herdsmen as “Boko Haram in disguise, said:  “We are not happy over the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari over these attacks. He should make a strong statement to stop these useless and wicked attacks by Fulani herdsmen. He is busy sending soldiers after Boko Haram [Niger Delta militants] and the rest, with the exception of Fulani herdsmen, who now terrorise good citizens of Nigeria without recourse.”

The dimensions to the crisis

A lot of meanings and innuendoes are being read into the crisis. One angle that has set tongues wagging in the crisis inspired by herders is the seeming protection they enjoy from government. Findings revealed that 95 per cent of the cattle, which are usually grazed indiscriminately on farmlands and crops, belong not to the herders, who shepherd the cattle about, but the nouveau riche and political elite in the North.  There are allegations that these rich people and the patrons of the Fulani herdsmen are the ones financing and arming the herders under the guise of preventing cattle rustling.

In the heat of the public outcry against the activities of the herdsmen, President Buhari in July 2016, dressed in a military camouflage, went to Gusau, Zamfara State, to flag off a military operation against cattle rustling (a euphemism for cattle stealing).

“Let me use this occasion to reiterate that government is determined more than ever before to deal decisively with any threat to the security of this nation from any quarters.  Part of the reasons I am personally here in Zamfara State, is to flag-off the military operations aimed at rooting out the menace of cattle rustlers and armed banditry,” Buhari said on July 14, 2016, during the launch of the military campaign codenamed Operation Harbin Kunama.

This decision drew the ire of those alleging that the powers-that-be have seemingly treated the danger posed to national security by the Fulani herdsmen with kid gloves. The question asked by the group was: if President Buhari could flag off a military campaign to protect the herders’ cattle from being stolen, why couldn’t he do same for those whose lives, crops and property have been wantonly destroyed by the herdsmen?

Sunday Tribune gathered from insiders in the power corridor that the disposition of the powers-that-be to the whole matter of Fulani herdsmen’s conflict with their host communities is one that pushes for the creation of grazing reserves for the herders to avert further clashes.

When the herdsmen struck in some communities in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State on March 15, 2015, reportedly killing about 100 people and destroying homes and other properties, the official line from the presidential spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, who had not been appointed a spokesperson then, was widely condemned. Shehu, in a statement to the incident, urged both the herders and the farmers to come to an agreement and embrace a give-and-take approach to the resolution of the crisis. According to him, “interested parties to recognise the rights of each other and make compromises for the sake of peace.”

It was this disposition that generated wide condemnation on the call for grazing routes when a bill to that effect was said to have been surreptitiously found itself to national parliament as a private member bill.  The bill was shot down by Nigerians who expressed indignation at an aspect of the bill which gives the grazing commission the right to acquire any parcel of land for the use of the herdsmen. The concept of grazing routes, it is argued, has no place in mordern society.

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, is one of those who chided the Federal Government for its reactions to the seeming killing spree being carried out by the Fulani herdsmen. “When I read a short while ago, the presidential assurance to this nation that the current homicidal escalation between the cattle prowlers and farming communities would soon be over, I felt mortified.

“…Cattle ranches were being set up, and in another 18 months, rustlings, destruction of livelihood and killings from herdsmen would be ‘a thing of the past’. Eighteen months, he assured the nation. I believe his Minister of Agriculture echoed that later, but with a less dispiriting time schema.

“Neither, however, could be considered a message of solace and reassurance for the ordinary Nigerian farmer and the lengthening cast of victims…It is not merely arbitrary violence that reigns across the nation but total, undisputed impunity. Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no legal, logical and moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres have become the nation’s identification stamp.

“I have not heard an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated. The nation is treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents.

“The leadership of any society cannot stand idly and offer solutions that implicitly deem the massacres of innocents mere incidents on the way to that learning school. For every crime, there is a punishment, for every violation, there must be restitution. The nomads of the world cannot place themselves above the law of settled humanity,” Soyinka had said.

In what was perceived as another move to officially pamper the nomads, Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, in December last year, disclosed that some army officers had been sent to Argentina to acquire knowledge in modern cattle rearing and use the knowledge on returning to the country for the resolution of pastoralists-farmers’ clashes.

“Officers of the army have been sent to Argentina to look at how cattle are reared. Argentina has a population of 41 million people, but it feeds about 400 million people around the world with its beef,” he said.

Just recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, revealed plans by the Federal Government to train 3, 000 members of the peace corps to protect the herdsmen from cattle rustlers. He spoke in Kano during the 2017 wheat harvest ceremony.

In the face of seeming inaction of the Federal Government, some governors have taken the bull by the horns. Samuel Ortom of Benue, who state has suffered most terribly in the hands of the marauding nomads, has ordered the nomads out of the state. But the police chief in the state disagreed with him. A law banning indiscriminate grazing has been enacted in Ekiti State as part of local solution to the crisis.

A review of the actions taken by the Federal Government and its agencies has shown that there have been more concerns for the security of the Fulani herdsmen than farmers who suffer for their refusal to yield their farmlands to the nomads. This is why the claim of official backing for the nomads has gained currency.

Recourse to self-help

Though there was a lull in the activities of the herdsmen in recent weeks, last week attack on another Benue village was a clear indication that the herdsmen had merely observed a self-declared ceasefire. The attack has also prompted the renewed call for concerted communal efforts against the herdsmen. The TPG in its advertorial gave such order, calling on its people and other Nigerians to be vigilant and be ready to defend themselves.

Like the TPG Reverend Madu had also called on the various South-East communities to initiate steps towards defending themselves. According to him,  “you should not fold your arms and watch these wicked herdsmen destroy your villages. You should try to safeguard your lands and farm.

“Our people should be security conscious and protect their churches and villages from these wicked people who kill and suck blood of innocent citizens of Nigeria.”

The herdsmen attacks have encouraged ethnic militias’ presence in some states with the official stamp of their governments. In Abia, for example, The Bakassi Boys have returned in earnest with the mandate to police the communities. Enugu has initiated Neighbourhood Watch to tackle the menace of the herdsmen. The OPC has restated its readiness to defend the interest of the Yoruba many times in the past few weeks. Therefore, creating the scenario that all is not well in the polity and fuelling more angst against even the ordinary harmless herdsmen.

Herdsmen… not religious group

Different meanings have been read into the herdsmen attacks. The TPG alluded to the dominant of the meanings which is an attack on Christians. Madu also said as much. This has not been helped by the perceived indifference of the Federal Government, especially whenever the role of President Buhari as life patron of cattle breeders is reviewed. But How Islamic is the herdsmen, who appear to enjoy bloodletting so much?

To Muslim Scholars, the killings of people by suspected Fulani herdsmen is an un-Islamic. Islam pointedly frowns on such murderous intent as the herdsmen’s.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III the head of Jama’atuNasril Islam (Society for the Support of Islam – JNI), and  president-general of the Nigerian National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs  had also during his visit to Enugu condemned in its entirety the sad activities of herdsmen even as he said that not all herdsmen are evil.

Abubakar said that it was erroneous for some people to say that the armed herdsmen that have been killing people and destroying farmlands was a form of Islamising Nigeria.  He cautioned against inflammatory remarks, use of ethnicity and religion to undermine the unity of the country, saying God has a purpose for bringing different ethnic nationalities such as Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani into a corporate entity called Nigeria.

According to him, government and political leaders should avoid using religion to divide the people but to fish out those responsible for the killings, instead of tagging them “Fulani Herdsmen” because of their religious affiliations or ethnic backgrounds.

“It is not about religion or Islamisation. It is different. It is about extremism and we must put hands together to defeat extremism. Let us not spoil the relationship that already existed between us. The government and the people must join hands to fight extremism”.

Abubakar also made case for those innocent and harmless herdsmen who have been stereotyped as killers. “There are some Fulani herdsmen that are not criminals as we made them to look. There are some good ones among them. But I believe that those who are found to have invaded people’s lands or kill innocent lives should be made to face the law. Some of these herdsmen militias you see are not Hausas. However, we do not support our people to engage in crimes. Islam as a religion does not support the killing of innocent lives.

“We are not to kill anybody because of religion.  We must now allow bad ones to spoil our unity.  There are many good Nigerians. There is no compulsion in religion. Our problem is extremism. Islam does not support violence. As a good Muslim or Christian, we must love one another,” the Sultan admonished.

Taming terror herdsmen

Many stakeholders believe only the Federal Government can conveniently put an end to the herdsmen menace. The body language of the present government has encouraged the impunity to continue. According to many of them,  the idea that government is openly canvassing for grazing for herding is enough indication of support, saying what government needs to do for the herdsmen is to create the enabling environment for them to thrive in a ranching capacity and not by appropriating other people’s lands through stealth.

Government, however, has denied shielding the cow terrorists. According to some its security agencies, the marauding cow herders are usually from foreign countries and not Nigerians. This has been the claim of the police. A claim that the Miyetti Allah has also corroborated while defending its members.

The leader of the cattle breeders association, Mr Garus Gololo, in a statement obtained by Sunday Tribune after the last attack on Benue village,  said that those who invaded Buruku communities last week were stranger and not known to the communities and that the herders came from Taraba. Gololo had argued that members of his association are respected members in their communities and would not have engaged in such heinous acts against neighbours they have lived peacefully  with for a long time. He denied the involvement of any of his members.

Indeed, policing the borders of Nigeria, it is said, is a serious problem. The Chief of Army Staff, General M. Buratai, admitted this much to Sunday Tribune, in a recent interview. Nigeria’s borders, he  had declared , “are very porous”. he had outlined the difficulties in containing the influx of foreigners who share common cultural and language affinities with Nigerians border communities in all parts of the country, especially in the Northern region.

But Buratai, while also acknowledging that the borders need adequate protection disclosed that the military was already taking actions that would curb the incursion of criminals into the country.

The need to restructure Nigeria

Providing the way out for Nigeria’s numerous problems, including herdsmen and other ethnic militias,  Fasehun said government must restructure the country to reflect the differences that allow human enterprise to flourish.

“We have been calling for restructuring of the country; we have been advocating the report of the 2014 national conference should be revisited, and justice done to the recommendations. These are some of the things we can do; we don’t need new laws to prescribe law and order for our country. These laws have been in existence for years. Let the police visit them and re-read them.”

• Additional reports from Jude Ossai and Johnson Babajide