The beginning of the end?

“The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of bad people but because of the silence of good people!” – French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

In Nigeria, we suffer from a combination of the violence of bad people and the silence of good people; and to regurgitate the words of the inimitable Dr Tai Solarin, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end. Soon, Chinua Achebe, author of “There was a country,” may turn in his grave. The Fulani herdsmen, who, following in the footsteps of the German Third Reich leader, the murderous Adolf Hitler, and his infamous “Aryan” or superior race postulation, and infused with the destructive, Janjaweed mentality of their Sudanese cousins, are a terribly bad and viciously violent people.

Because of them, virtually every ethnic group other than theirs suffers in Nigeria today. The mayhem they have levied and the destruction they have caused is unequalled in recent history. The fact that they go scot-free again and again gives them the airs of the untouchable. Most of those holding the critical levers of power today belong in the same ethnic group as these destroyers and except it can be said that government is powerless against the destroyers (which is not the case), then, the next plausible conclusion is that government acquiesces in the crimes of this group, supports and shields them from prosecution.

There is a deliberate attempt to set this ethnic group apart as the Nigerian “Aryan” race superior to other ethnic groups in Nigeria, where this fawning “superior” ethnic race can ride roughshod over the “inferior” ethnic races and where the lives and property of the “inferior” races are good sport for the “superior” race on the road to the “superior” race subjugating, even totally extirpating, the “inferior” races in the pre-determined goal of perpetually lording it over them and cornering their land and other natural endowments.

Land, euphemistically referred to as grazing rights, is at the heart of the Fulani herdsmen’s rampage; and just like President Muhammadu Buhari, himself a Fulani, owner of herds of cattle and the patron of the herders, was quoted as saying, with desert encroachment driving the herdsmen downwards from the far North, they head nowhere but down South to commandeer grazing rights. Having or taking the land needed to graze their cattle becomes a matter of life and death. It is this “where are they driving us” mentality that has led to the Fulani herdsmen’s battle of survival, never minding that their own rights impugn on those of other tribes who are mainly farmers. In fact, the ethnic groups at the receiving end of the herdsmen’s uncommon brutality also have their own battle of survival to wage in that being farmers, cattle grazing on their land has meant the wanton destruction of their own means of livelihood.

They have a serious disadvantage, though: Their own people are not the ones holding the levers of power where it mattered most; thus, they are at the receiving end. While the Fulani herdsmen have ample supply of the deadliest weapons and are free to roam about with them and unleash mayhem on everything and everyone that catch their fancies, their victims are restrained from lifting a finger in their own defence and where they did, were descended heavily upon by law enforcers who have themselves become as notorious as the herdsmen in their brazen partisanship on the side of Nigeria’s emergent “Aryan” race.

That was the case recently at Ile-Ife in Osun State. If it was novel here, it has been the given for quite a while in the Middle Belt.

Former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, made a very instructive statement not long ago when he described himself and a handful other ex-military top-notch as the “military wing” of the then ruling PDP. He did not say anything new aside from the self-confession it implies. Politicians contesting election know they must amass a private army. Political parties who know their onions and have the wherewithal nurture a military wing; the more vibrant, the better. For the party in government, the whole coercive powers of the state, meant for the defence of citizens, is often confiscated, bastardised, and deployed as its military wing. We have seen that happen again and again.

Going by the IBB postulation, the Fulani herdsmen are being seen by many as the military wing of the Fulani elite and political class. The tragedy of other ethnic groups or political elites/class is if they continue to operate without an effective military wing of their own. They will continue to be mincemeat to the well-oiled military machinery of the Fulani. At the moment, the herdsmen have a double advantage: They are well armed and, possibly, well-funded. More importantly, they have political support. Their back is well protected and they have little or nothing to fear from the angle of the law.

Again, witness Ile-Ife where two communities traded tackles and all those arrested came from only one community! Who sent the police team to Ife? And who was the head of the police investigation panel? The outcome of the panel’s “investigation” reveals it all. Such audacity! Such impunity!! But for how long can the Fulani hierarchy sustain this banality? Will they always continue to maintain the current nauseating advantage that they have appropriated to themselves? They have deliberately chosen to deploy their advantage to the chagrin of everyone else but will it always hold? They are burning bridges rather than building them. Interestingly, it would appear that their political elites see nothing wrong in this. It seems as if, to them, it will have no negative impact, either now or in the future. They must be joking! They are already jostling for 2019 when they should be condemning and working to reverse the negative image the herdsmen have given to all Fulani. If there are good people among them, to quote Napoleon, that is what they should be doing right now. But then, is there any?

 

FEEDBACK

As usual, I “ate” the dish of last Sunday’s “On the Lord’s Day” Although I am not familiar with the Stephanie/ Suleman issue, the message was clear to the Christians and ‘politicians’. May God deliver us from this contraption or aberration called government! – 0803 595 9270.

Tears welled in me when I read last Sunday’s “Three storms in three teas cups”. Why should my race (the Yoruba) pull one another down when they get to positions of authority? I was in Minna, Niger State, before Babangida became military Head of State; shortly thereafter, the city was transformed admirably.  The curse on Yoruba, if any, must stop. Let Fashola and Ambode work together to make the anticipated 10-lane expressway from Oshodi to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport a reality.

 

Tewogbade Adegbenjo (retired Baptist pastor)

I am happy you remembered your politics of bitterness in Ekiti. If Aketi invites you to work with him, please turn the offer down. You will be better outside than inside to speak truth to power. – Destiny, Benin City.

Re: “Tasks before Akeredolu”; what a good write-up! You actually opened him to many facts which were all straight to the point. May God continue to enrich you with wisdom and knowledge!  – Oluwaseyi J.S.  Lagos.

The “Tasks before Akeredolu was a nice piece. He is a bit slow off the blocks and I am just afraid we might not get there; they are pussy-footing already. I have a suggestion for the governor: “Ajasin’s memoirs and memories; A masterpiece in governance in Ondo state which, sadly, is out of print. I have a copy, though. – Taiwo (0802 598 8815).

Congratulations for the victory and inauguration of your townsman, Rotimi Akeredolu, as governor of Ondo state. I also want to appreciate your frank and candid counsel to him. I hope and pray he takes to them. One issue that bothers me is the fate of opposition in this political dispensation. It seems there is no opposition as PDP is unable to pull its acts together and APC is benefitting from it. Opposition is an important ingredient of democracy. It would appear as if APC wants to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.  – Wale Ajao, Ibadan.

Your incisive piece titled “Three storms in three tea cups” (Sunday Tribune of March 12, 2017) refers. I can bet that you will receive a lot of reactions from readers because of this particular article just like the “Akeredolu’s faltering steps”. I doubt if Fashola will not be taken to the cleaners by your teeming readers. It is Fashola’s own big gaffe. May God kill the vendetta attitude in our politicians, big and small! I am always in your support in your consistent campaign for a change of attitude amongst Yoruba leaders so that they can be of help to their own people while in good stead to do so. Please do not dither. Your rebuke of, and counsel to, all Yoruba leaders, Fashola and Ambode must (excuse my commanding tone) be seriously considered and heeded or else Yoruba will be the laughing stock of other tribes. Your interjection is very timely and I believe the write-up will not escape the attention of Fashola and Ambode in particular and, by extension, sundry Yoruba leaders. The way you felt about the whole issue was no departure from my personal feelings and concern. But I refrained from commenting on the Fashola-Ambode brouhaha because I had dealings with the two gentlemen during the launching of my two books on Urban Planning; one in 2014 during Fashola’s tenure and the other in 2016 when Ambode became Governor of Lagos State. By their policies and urban regeneration programmes, they both meant well for Lagos State; therefore, the more reason the on-going personal wrangling should be urgently nipped in the bud before it degenerates to “roforofo” (dirty) fight. I see the immediate intervention of Kabiyesi Rilwan Akiolu, the Oba of Lagos, as very pivotal here. There is nowhere in history where two wrongs make a right. As you rightly stated, when “two elephants fight, it is the grass – metaphor for Lagos State and Lagosians – that suffers.  – Yacoob Abiodun, City of Hayward, California, USA.