The Emergence of Fulani Militias: A Prelude to Another Civil War. Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State was on his way to assess casualty and damage in some Tiv villages that were attacked overnight leaving scores dead and houses burnt to the ground. Livestock and food barns had not been spared either. But before the Governor could get to the sites of the overnight attacks his convoy came under fire at Tee-Akanyi village. The Fulani had laid in ambush. This was on Monday March 10 2014. Next in the wee hours of Friday, March 14 2014 the Fulani attackers stole on Daudu, a few kilometers to Makurdi. By the time they were done thirty headless corpses lay on the ground. In the dead of the night on Saturday March 15, 2014 Ungwar Sankwai, Ungwar Gata and Chenshyl in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State were attacked. In addition to livestock and food destroyed 119 people were shot and then cut open by marauders. Survivors said that their attackers were Fulani. On the same Saturday March 15, communities around Wukari and Takum in Taraba State were attacked. The attacks in Benue and Taraba are not out of the blues. Since the second half of 2010, after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 5 of that year, when it was obvious that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was going to seek to be elected as President and thereby denying the ‘North’ a second term, killings by “Fulani herdsmen” have become a recurring decimal. But why would the Fulani target the Middle Belt states? The truth is that not only Middle Belt states have been targeted. Apart from the Middle Belt states of Kwara, Kogi, FCT, Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Adamawa and Taraba, Imo in the South East, Oyo, Osun and Ogun in the South West have endured attacks from the Fulani. Earlier in April 2009, several trailer-loads of Fulani arrived Wase in Plateau State. The trailers arrived days apart and the ‘’Fulani’’ numbering a few hundreds started building tents and houses. They had no cattle or other livestock. Many of them did not speak English, not even the pidgin variety. They did not speak Hausa, fuelling speculations that they were not Nigerians. Governor David Jonah Jang of Plateau State, who had been battling with night time attacks on Plateau State communities, could not understand the sudden influx of persons who could not speak Hausa language. Instructions were issued and the ‘’Fulani’’ were sent back to wherever they came from. The expected uproar materialized. Why should fellow Nigerians be expelled from any part of Nigeria, many Nigerians queried. Dr Reuben Abati, then an opinion writer with the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper, now a Presidential spokesman, was among the vociferous critics of Jang. In an article titled “the expulsion of Fulani in Wase” Abati argued that not only should Jang allow the expelled Fulani to return, the Plateau State Government should pay them compensation for destructing of the tents and houses that they were building. Over 100 members of the House of Representatives sponsored a motion condemning the Plateau State Government over the expulsion. In the past ten years, the Middle Belt of Nigeria has played host to several thousands of Fulani herdsmen who are not of Nigerian descent. They speak French, not English. One reason for this development is the desertification of Nigeria’s northernmost fringes and across the border to Niger and Chad. Also, the rinderpest epidemic of the 1970s dealt a devastating blow to the livestock of the Fulani and their capacity to make a living. In the late eighties and early nineties, the effect of the loss of cattle by the Fulani became noticeable. The roads of the North Eastern part of Nigeria (Bauchi – Maiduguri; Bauchi – Gombe – Yola; Yola – Mubi – Maiduguri) became very dangerous. Abuja to Jos, and Abuja to Lokoja also became unsafe. Armed robbers called “Kwanta Kwanta” meaning “lie down, lie down” as the robbers were wont to order, operated on the aforementioned roads. Robbers, thought to be jobless Fulani dispossessed travelers of their valuables and killed some. Late Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Rimi, flamboyant politician in his lifetime, it is believed, died after an encounter with the restless “Kwanta Kwanta” on the Bauchi-Kano road. The North East was also visited by the Udawa at that period. The Udawa are foreign herdsmen who came into Nigeria to rustle cattle. They sacked many villages. The military government under General Sani Abacha had to deploy troops to man the roads of the North East. Later military helicopters were deployed to bomb the Udawa, Fulani and Touareg in the main. At that period, factions of Chadian rebels also invaded North Eastern Nigeria, sacked villages and mounted road blocks. While the attacks outside the old North may be explained away as vengeance, what started in the second half of 2010 as warning shots in the face of the obvious romance of Middle Belt leaders with the idea of a Jonathan Presidency, blossomed into what was coined “post-election violence” and has been sustained as “attacks by Fulani herdsmen”. In March 2014, the President of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Dr. Ephraim Goje, lamented that government and security agencies had proved unable or unwilling to protect the lives of the people of Southern Kaduna. Atakar and Moroa, bordering Plateau State are preferred destinations for the Fulani herdsmen. Goje promised that since the government and security agencies were unable to defend them in the face of the unofficial jihad declared on Southern Kaduna, they had no option but to defend themselves. A disturbing trend since the attacks by the Fulani started in 2010 is the alleged role played by Nigerian troops. In Dogo Na’hawa in 2010, survivors alleged that soldiers believed to be of a particular religious persuasion aided the butchering of over 500 persons. On March 10, 2014 the day that Governor Suswam’s convoy was attacked he was escorted by a detachment of the Army. Three kilometers to Tee-Akanyi, the army detachment excused itself saying that they could proceed no further in keeping with their orders. Three kilometers after the army detachment delinked from the convoy, the Fulani struck. Did the leader of the army detachment know something that the Governor did not? All over the Middle Belt there is palpable angst. People now talk glibly about letting the North go its own way if it is impossible for them to live together with others. The feeling is that Kanuri Muslims are the ones behind the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, while Fulani militias roam the North Central and North West wreaking havoc. General Buhari is the Life Grand Patron of Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association whose members have been engaged in the slaughter. In a press release issued on March 18 2014, and signed by Hon. Aminu Zang, the Middle Belt Dialogue, an organization of Middle Belt elites, asserted “the people of the Middle Belt are known to be peace loving. It is also very well known that Middle Belt officers and men played a commanding role in the successful upturn of the secession of Biafra. Before the Civil War, before the forceful birth of Nigeria, the Middle Belt halted the Fulani Jihad of Othman Dan Fodio. We and the Fulani are no strangers to each other. What their ancestors could not achieve in open warfare, these present day pretenders seek to achieve in the dead of the night through the cold blooded murder of women, children and the elderly. If we could successfully prosecute a war in terrain that is not ours, the result of a war on our terrain is a foregone conclusion. If it is not too late, the funders and patrons of the Fulani militias should bring them to heel. We shall not issue another warning.” One factor that has . Belters the most is that almost always, nobody is apprehended for the gruesome murder of their people. In Southern Kaduna, Dr. Goje says when arrests are made those arrested are seen moving freely on the streets a day later, giving the impression that the Fulani are above the law or that the lives of Southern Kaduna people are not precious enough to be defended. Security sources, as published in the social media, confirmed that Fulani were sighted in three sacked local governments in Benue State tending their cattle. The District Head of Kwajafa in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State received and settled ten trailer loads of Fulani in his domain who claimed to be refugees. Around Garkida and Ganda of Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Fulani have been trooping in in trailer loads. Tongo of the Ganye chiefdom of Adamawa State has also been receiving ‘refugees’. What all these point to, according to the same security source, is an attempt to diffuse populations before the 2015 elections towards an articulated objective. An interesting international angle to the unfolding scenario surfaced on YouTube on Tuesday March 18 2014. Voices allegedly belonging to Mehmet Karatas, an assistant executive of Turkish Airlines and Mustafa Varank, an advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could be heard discussing the supply of arms to Nigerian groups. Karatas, obviously suffering an attack of conscience was saying that he had not been feeling well with himself over the role he played in the arms supply, as he did not know if they would be deployed to kill Christians or Muslims. Observers were quick to assert that one of the sources of arms to Boko Haram and the marauding Fulani is now known. Another source of arms for the Fulani, security experts who spoke with Today in Abuja contend, is looted Libyan arms. Just before the fall of late Libyan leader, Muamar Gaddafi, members of his inner circle looted arms belonging to the country and many of those arms found their way to West Africa and can be picked up at the right price. In addition to arms, our source says, are Fulani mercenaries from the Futa Jalon heights, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Niger and Chad. Should there be a war in Nigeria involving the Fulani, he continues “it will not be prosecuted by only Nigerian Fulani. Fulani from the rest of West Africa will join”.Implications Embedded in the threat of the Middle Belt to defend itself against the Fulani is that it, the Middle Belt, will arm its communities so that they can defend themselves anytime the Fulani come calling. Such an arms race will worsen a bad situation because even when the immediate reason for the race disappears the arms will not. A spike in violent crimes is what every post-conflict society reaps. With the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, a picture is being painted of Nigeria as a country in perpetual conflict. Should an open confrontation erupt between the cattle breeding Fulani and the crop cultivators of the Middle Belt Nigeria will face a food crisis. The bulk of the food consumed in Nigerian homes is farmed in the Middle Belt while the cattle of the Fulani contribute significantly to the country’s protein intake. If the two providers engage each other in open hostilities food production would be the last thing in anyone’s mind. Which way Nigeria? Is this a war that we are condemned to witness? Is Nigeria now bound to violence?
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:41:35 +0000
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