Treating violent Fulani herdsmen as terrorists – Punch

Fulani herdsmen are the new face of terrorism in Nigeria. Having graduated from carrying bows and arrows, their deadly arsenal now boasts sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 assault rifle which they deploy against host communities across the country. In their latest atrocity, hundreds of cattle herders descended on Ukpabi Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State last week, leaving a bloody trail. In all, the herdsmen killed 46 people, injuring several others. They burnt down houses and vehicles in the village. This is callous. The criminal herdsmen should be given the same kind of treatment being dished out to the Boko Haram terror group.

The Global Terrorism Index provides sufficient ammunition for the President to act fast, and quell the raging turbulence. In its November 2015 report, the Sydney, Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, which codifies the GTI, labelled Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror organisation in the world after Boko Haram, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and al-Shabab. “There have been reports of a link between Boko Haram and Fulani militants, particularly in regard to smuggling and organised crime. However, unlike Boko Haram who are now affiliated with ISIL and align with the establishment of a caliphate, the Fulani militants have very localised goals, mainly greater access to grazing lands for livestock”, GTI says.  In 2013, GTI recorded 63 killings against the herdsmen, which jumped to 1,229 in 2014 because of the Nigerian government’s half-hearted approach to tackling them. The institute said Fulani herdsmen murdered 847 people between January and November 2015. When the deaths caused by the herdsmen are added to those of Boko Haram, Nigeria, in 2015, became the third most terrorised country in the world out of 162 countries, just behind Iraq and Afghanistan. All these killings could not have been carried out in self-defence as a few apologists have argued.

The attacks, once again, confirm the weak security system in the country. What is the use of intelligence gathering? The question is at the core of the rampage in Nimbo. On the eve of the attacks, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had convened a security meeting that involved the then Police Commissioner, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, the Department of State Services Director, the military and civil defence commanders in the state because of an intelligence report of the imminent assault. But despite the promise of the security chiefs to prevent the attacks, they didn’t do so. This is tragic.

But we are more concerned about the failure of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to provide a strong leadership in dealing with this obvious national crisis. He was pretty late in giving his crackdown order on the marauders to the military. When criminals – no matter their political, ethnic or religious leaning – brazenly hack other Nigerian citizens to death in their homes, the President should go beyond issuing a belated press statement. It is disturbing that the President has not reached out to the community in person. This is what statesmen do in other climes when the corporate existence of their polity is at stake.

We are alarmed because the herdsmen menace is capable of threatening our corporate existence. Nobody wants another internecine war after the 1967 to 1970 experience. But a sober review of the attacks by Fulani herdsmen suggests that another ethnic uprising cannot be ruled out soon if the bloodletting continues. It takes just one act of retaliation from an ethnic group to set the country on fire. The excesses of the herdsmen in March are still fresh in Agatu LGA in Benue State, a carnage that reportedly left over 400 people dead, and their communities confiscated.

There is tension in several states over the activities of the herdsmen. Two weeks ago, some residents took over the Benin-Asaba Expressway in protest against Fulani herders, who had destroyed farmlands in 63 communities in Delta State, and had killed Akaeze Ofulue, the monarch of Ubulu-Uku, Aniocha LGA. The herders have recently perpetrated similar crimes in Lagelu, Oyo State. In January, herdsmen killed 30 people in Adamawa State, including Okezie Okoroafor, the Divisional Police Officer in Girei LGA. In April, 15 people lost their lives in a Taraba State attack masterminded by herdsmen.

The President should not pretend otherwise, as his predecessors in office did, looking the other way and allowing the herdsmen to overrun defenceless farmers. Sadly, it is the same official pretence that allowed the Boko Haram insurgency to metamorphose into a deadly terror organisation that the country has been battling with for the past seven years.

Buhari should discard his pacifist approach to the issue, and come down hard on these criminals. What we see here is a disarticulated police force. These acts of mayhem are about crime and punishment, which the police should be able to handle. Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has put the task before the President in proper perspective. “I’ve yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres that have become the nation’s identification stamp,” Soyinka says. “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. I’ve yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership….” This resonates with Nigerians who desire that their President would behave like a true leader with a grasp of what to do. Therefore, he should follow through on his directive to the security agencies to root out the herdsmen.

Buhari should remember that the whole of Nigeria is his constituency, as the President. He raised such hope in his inaugural speech, when he said, “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.” He should live up to this mantra. Modern governance requires a proactive, hands-on leader. The police should review their modus operandi on how to protect Nigerian communities from what seems like a Fulani army of occupation.

Fulani herdsmen must be disarmed. No group should be illegally granted an exclusive right to bear arms. It will be dangerous to think that the murderous savages won’t attempt to seize other communities. For one, they still possess enormous arms and ammunition. Security operatives should use intelligence to locate their sponsors and prosecute them accordingly.