Gen Dambazau Stop the Fulani attacks On Nigerians Now

By Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

I will assume sir, that you’ve been briefed by your people about the very sad occurrence last week in Agatu LGA of Benue State. I am assuming because there was no sign that you were aware well over forty-eight hours after the community was attacked and sacked by rampaging Fulani herdsmen.  Like your principal who was at the time seeking spiritual interventions for the problems of Nigeria in Mecca and inundating us with pictures every step of the way, there was no official statement of any kind from your office which is most unfortunate.

As a well-read individual and a retired army general, one will expect that you appreciate the importance of prompt communication in crisis situations. It is therefore very baffling that over 200 Nigerian lives (some say 300, it depends on who you are reading) can be lost within the country and your office does not deem it fit to make a statement, even if just to acknowledge said event and reassure the rest of the citizenry on what steps are being taken to stem the killings and rehabilitate the displaced.

That said, one must note that the killings in Agatu came barely a week after similar events happened a little further South in Abi community of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State. These are just two of the most recent occurrences of these dastardly assaults on Nigerian citizens which have indeed become a reoccurring event in parts of the middle belt and southern Nigeria extending to the South West and Eastern heartlands. To put it more succinctly, we are witnessing a silent genocide and government seem to be pretending that it is not happening. The question is, are we going to allow this to continue? Are we throwing our hands up in surrender? Are we saying we cannot solve the problem of Fulani herdsmen in this day and age? Are we inadvertently giving the impression that the herdsmen are immune to the law?

Providing answers to the above questions is the reason you have a job, sir. Suffices to state here that it is high time we as a people, tackled the Fulani herdsmen issue head-on with the sincerity and sense of duty that it deserves. Our country cannot survive these cycles of barbarity. A group of people no matter the grievance cannot continue to operate outside of the law and take lives whenever it pleases them and without any consequences whatsoever.

There is no mystery around the bone of contention here. No need to setup fact-finding committees as governments is quick to. The report of many committees of times past has never been implemented anyway. So we don’t need new ones. The issue is simply that of grazing cattle and the destruction of farms crops in villages along the path of the nomads. You might wish to note that the strategy of papering the cracks in which government hurriedly convenes a meeting of actors on both sides at the end of which you declare that ‘peace’ has been negotiated and television cameras roll away has not helped anyone. As long as desertification continues, and the Fulani herdsman has to go deeper south to get green pasture for his cattle, these clashes will continue if we do not do something intelligent about it.

Mention has been made for grazing reservoirs, for the definition (and demarcation) of grazing routes, for the domestication of the Fulani herdsmen, for working with them to go from nomadic animal husbandry to a structured farm style husbandry. But mention must now also be made of finding out the source of the sophisticated weapons these herdsmen bear, the need for proper surveillance of communities and the creation of a robust internal security architecture that is not reactionary but able to predict crises and nip it in the bud. This again is the reason why we pay you handsomely.

Failure to deliver on these will among other things mean your tenure as Internal security Czar was a failure and that those that died in Agatu and Abi and many other communities before them, died in vain. Remember, they too are Nigerians and share fully in the commonwealth which guarantees you round the clock security protection. They deserve better. The protection of their lives and properties is sacrosanct. It is enshrined in the constitution as their right and we cannot continue to fail them so.

Honourable minister, we have glossed over his Fulani herdsmen issue for too long and it is becoming as much an embarrassment as it is an indictment on us all Nigerians especially those of us who live in the relative peace of cities and semi-urban areas far from the killing theaters.  The conspiracy of silence has run its course. It is time for use to do something. We look up to you and your team to provide leadership in this area.