Hundreds of local Fulani young men and old have been arrested on Kaduna-Abuja express road in the past three years, heavily armed with war weapons, and their trade is not cattle rustling but “armed robbery” and “kidnapping.” The kidnapping and armed robbery in and around Kaduna became a problem after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the army to flush out and deal with cattle rustlers. The cattle rustlers who are almost all Fulanis themselves were flushed out of the bush and as cattle rustling became tough and rough because the federal government focused attention on that section, the cattle rustlers changed their trade to armed robbery and kidnapping. Witnesses and victims have told the world that they were kidnapped or robbed by Fulanis. With their distinct looks and accent everyone knows local Fulani men in the North.
Why is there so much weapons in the Fulani communities? Supporters and sympathizers of Fulani herdsmen have argued that it is because of protection from cattle rustlers. Is it? Now it depends on how one wants to see it. I don’t think it is. Both people who have herds and those who don’t have herds in the Fulani communities are heavily armed nowadays with AK 47 and other dangerous weapons. It is simply a trend. Roaming around West Africa and far to graze, in an unstable region, they started replacing their stick with AK47 and other weapons that it has become a new culture. Every household now must have a weapon, not necessarily because of farmers cattle rustlers but because it is fashionable and to protect themselves from themselves. 90% of the cattle rustlers arrested by the President Buhari administration in Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna and around the north have been Fulanis, both Nigerians and foreigners.
Most of the photos we have seen that resulted to farmers and herdsmen clash hasn’t got much to do with rustling. Angry farmers usually massacre the cows and leave them there over destruction of their farmland or reprisal attacks on their communities.
The Fulani community in Nigeria before now have always been organized with an armed militia they use to attack communities whenever there is clash between them and the communities decades before now. With guns everywhere nowadays and having access to guns, army uniforms and even police uniform in an unorganized country like Nigeria, they increasingly became emboldened knowing that they can get away with anything, knowing that they would be backed by powerful politicians, especially in the north and exploiting the North/South, Christian/Muslim divide in Nigeria.
From the look of thing one can easily see Muslims governors defending and standing up for the Fulanis even against their people’s wish as the case of Kogi State Governor who wants to look good in the eyes of Muslim North to consolidate power in his State and make the Benue State Governor look like a hater of Fulanis. When the Fulani/farmers clash is not about religion, religion is used to define what is going on and it influences reaction by different communities. Hundreds have been killed in Zamfara State by these Fulani militias but the government and people of Zamfara State are not perturbed and have refused to state the facts, obviously because they see Fulani as their people, in a State where government doesn’t care about how many people are killed.
What is going on is that there is so much guns in the Fulani communities as having a gun become part of the new Nomadic Fulani man’s culture. When the federal government went hard on cattle rustlers, the cattle rustlers who are mostly the same Fulani people now started targeting soft target, stand along Kaduna-Abuja express road and rob, snatch cars and kidnap and demand for ransom.
It is obvious that some of these Fulani kidnappers and armed robbers were part and parcel of the militia group some of these Fulani organizations inside Nigeria use to attack villages.
If the police and other security agencies are doing their jobs, they would have known all these and more. But there is a deliberate attempt not to investigate these matters further but leave it at kidnapping and armed robbery. Villagers around Southern Kaduna and in Plateau State and others have complained that the people who shot at them and killed their people were army severally. Some of these Fulani armed robbers and kidnappers were caught wearing complete army outfits. Why has the police been treating these cases as just armed robbery cases without furthering their investigations?
The federal government of Muhammadu Buhari has taken a position and it is simple. The farmer/Fulani herdsmen clash is a communal clash, and no government has a right to make laws to stop open grazing, even if the massacre of their people continue by the Fulani militias. The way the federal government is handling the matter has twisted it and given it a religious coloration. It is very dangerous.
The Fulani communities in Nigeria have to be disarmed, all of them. This culture of every family arming themselves is not going to work, it will only encourage other non-Fulani communities to get arms too. Arms race in Nigeria is going to be disastrous.
By George Onmonya Daniel
