Don’t force herdsmen into resistance

A security officer to Lord Lugard is reported to have written 10 major characteristics of the Fulani (herdsmen) where he began by describing the Fulani as ascetic and generous but never fight a war (hot or cold) with them because they have: One, no rules of engagement (they just hit again and again). Two, no […]

A security officer to Lord Lugard is reported to have written 10 major characteristics of the Fulani (herdsmen) where he began by describing the Fulani as ascetic and generous but never fight a war (hot or cold) with them because they have: One, no rules of engagement (they just hit again and again). Two, no Prisoners of War (POW) they don’t take prisoners. Three, no mercy once they pick you out as enemy. Four, no fighting fatigue (they are forever fit and prepared, due to their lifestyle). Five, no need for adequate provisions and permanent abode (they live on very little and sleep in the wilderness). Six, no end to hostilities (they fight to finish). Seven, no ignorance of the terrain and location (their lifestyle makes everyone of them a human GPS). Eight, no deterrence due to causalities (they are strategically distributed all over West and Central Africa and highly mobile). Nine, no need for tranquility (they have no permanent settlements which need peace to thrive). Ten, no fear of consequences.
I have tried to verify the authenticity of this statements, source and author, without arriving at an indubitable conclusion. However, the statements, from my point of view and research, holds true in some respects of this statement, especially at the time the statement was alleged to have been made in 1902. Since 1902, the Fulani or the herdsmen have evolved a lot and so much has changed in their ways of life as a result of the dynamics of time and evolution especially changes due to globalization. In summary, I think about 60% of the statement was (is) true or is still critically and analytically pointing to the fact that there have been some interpolations in this statement. The reason, in my view, is simply to portray the Fulani as a potential threat to other people and to put them on edge against the Fulani as a people that are dangerous or that could be irrationally pugilistic and bellicose.
Be that as it may, the truth of the matter is that the Fulani are fearless and brave who cherish taking revenge against those who recklessly, deliberately offend them, unduly took advantage of them and visited human calamity and catastrophe on them. They could also be passionately loving, friendly, generous, jovial, humorous and accommodating. They hate to be betrayed and stabbed in the back more than anything else. Unlike other people, they often mean what they say, often times bluntly which make some people see them or think of them as snubbish and peacockish. Because of their jungle and isolationist life, other people just fear them and see them as a people close to the demons. This ethnic, religious, political and economic woven cobweb around the herdsmen is highly subversive and sophisticated. In fact, it is a war – an unjust war.
My fear is that with the current ethno-religiously biased media reports, government, security negligence, evident bloodletting crises, mayhems, cattle rustling, kidnapping, robbery against the herdsmen, lack of grazing spaces and other economic squeezes may sooner or later, if not carefully handled, may lead the herdsmen into a resistance,  the form of which no one can predict now. The modern day form of technological resistance is obviously the use of arms of war. Already, these symptoms are everywhere among both the herdsmen and the farmers – the bearing of various forms of arms, especially the ubiquitous Ak-47. An unjust peace makes war. The general impression that people try to convey that there is peace until their own are at the receiving end can never bring peace or a solution. The major cause of resistance is injustice.
There are basically two types of resistance – violence and legitimacy. It’s often the failure of legitimate means of securing justice that result into violent means of seeking justice. Once there is equality for all before the authorities and the law, the people would have fraternal bond of love and solidarity of nationality instead of tribe, ethnicity or religion. An unjust peace which breeds war has been imposed on herdsmen. They suffer untold human tragedies in the hands of government, security  agents, farmers, rapists, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and judges in silence as a people rendered incommunicado by the forces of modern technology of communication such as the newspapers , radio, social media, etc. Their own side of the story is never heard, no matter how tragic and cruel.
It is an irony today that in such states like Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa, to mention but a few, where the herdsmen lost thousands of lives between 2001 to 2016, yet there are reports everywhere in the mass media that the herdsmen have murdered, on a genocidal scale, uncountable number of farmers these years!!!. Following the 2001 Jos and environs ethno-religious crisis, there were reports that herdsmen had killed hundreds of Berom in Jos- South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi. By the time we took inventory of the human and animal losses of the herdsmen before Justice Niki Tobi Judicial Commission of Enquiry in 2002, the entire State was shocked. The full names, addresses of the victims which included women, infants, children, the young and the old who were massacred in cold blood as noncombatants in noncombat zone or areas exposed the level of conspiracy and the long time-planned genocidal agenda against the herdsmen.
Their full names and other details are there for all to see in the Niki Tobi Report and the White Paper, produced by the Governor Jonah Jang Government in 2009. The sheer wickedness committed against the herdsmen forced Niki Tobi to recommend the establishment of our four Grazing Reserves in four Local Government Areas where these atrocities took place namely: Jos South, Barkin Ladi, Riyom and Bassa. To this day, both the report and the white paper have remained buried, perhaps, forever just because it gave a solution nobody contemplated- the order or directive to the Government to create four Grazing Reserves for the herdsmen. I fear the resistance may be called Kiwo halal
I wish to conclude by leaving you with the words of Rev. Phyllis M. Sortor, an American Missionary, Nigeria’s Coordinator of the International Child Care Ministries of the Baptist Church, in her presentation of Memorandum on “Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG). The solution For Cattle Breeders In Nigeria” at the State House and National Assembly during the House of Reps Public Hearing on the establishment of  a National Commission on Grazing Reserves and Cattle Routes, Abuja, 2013. She said: “It is a pleasure and a privilege to stand before you on behalf of my friends, the great Fulani people of Nigeria”. She went on, “It must be said from the beginning that I have found the Fulani, as a people, to be among the most generous, loyal, faithful and hardworking that I know. As a people, they have also suffered more than any I have known”. The Missionary tearfully concluded with the words: “I am not the one to recount the horror stories – the killing of cattle and herdsmen, the retaliatory killing and burning of villages. That is not for me to do. Rather, I am here to set before you what I know to be the only real solution” Rev. Phyllis finally submitted “Designate grazing land in each local government area for the Fulani herdsmen and provide at least, one borehole, for each fifty hectares of land”. Hear what a foreign Christian missionary is saying about the herdsmen while fellow Nigerians such as the Benue State House of Reps caucus led by Rt. Hon. Orker Jev are making inflammatory ethno-religious sentimental statements such as “We decry the lukewarm attitude of the Federal Government towards this ‘jihad’ being waged against our people by the herdsmen ……” What a nation, what a people?!!

Sale Bayari is the National Secretary of the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association.