INSECURITY, HERDSMEN ATTACK IN NIGERIA AND MATTERS ARISING

I crossed over from 2017 to 2018 in Ilorin, Kwara state of Nigeria, and because I am a Christian, I had to go to church for the crossing-over service.

We were on our way in a bus carrying worshippers from the church, passing through the Taiwo-Isale area of Ilorin city at about 3:00am when we met a barricade on the road – some people had set fire to a tire on the main road to stop vehicular and human movement and had also supported that with heavy stones, trees, etc. The driver and indeed all of us, having no prior knowledge, had thought it was just some youths celebrating the new year and wanting some handouts from vehicle owners; it was on that assumption that the driver proceeded to drive past the burning tire only to find that it was beyond our collective assumption.

Amidst shout of Stop! Turn back! and all that, we were met with heavy sticks, stones, and clubs. The bus glasses were completely broken by the irate group while those of us inside were either praying, shouting, crying or doing all three. The driver was forced to turn back on that road by climbing the pavement. A coaster bus was forced to turn on that tiny road, how it did not fall over is still a miracle to me. We made for the Police station to lodge complain, only to be told that they were aware and that some ladies had actually been raped and some young men stabbed by the same group. Obviously, these were some unlucky people on their way from a nearby church. I remember one of our attackers had boasted that even the police had had their share of their ire. Anyway, the police at that station asked us to report to their division because the station could not do anything about it. We tried to go through Unity road but soon found that it was useless because another batch of the attacking group was there. What was responsible for that attack, and why the ill-advised Muslim youths did it is still a mystery.

Just a day after we survived the ugly incident, men, women, and children in some four villages of Guma local government of Benue state had a never-to-be-forgotten experience. In some gruesome manner, they were butchered in their sleep like animals, some hundreds of them, by Fulani herdsmen – a clear enemy of the state that must be so addressed by the government. And they were not alone. In Southern Kaduna and Rivers state, residents in those regions had similar experiences. This is not the first time this is happening; as a matter of fact, the Fulani herdsmen have been more emboldened to carry out their dastardly act, to kill and maim innocent people at will and without provocation more recently. We hear that some states in the country who have passed the anti-open grazing law have been targeted for such attacks.

The Federal Government of Nigeria claims to have technically defeated the insurgency and indeed scores itself high on that note, but they have failed to acknowledge the new face of the insurgency. They have failed to realize that whatever gains they made with Boko Haram has been eroded by the Fulani herdsmen. In fact, the herdsmen have killed more than the Boko Haram insurgents. International bodies recognize them as terrorists, but the Federal Government under the current dispensation especially has used all euphemistic expressions for them except to call them what they really are. While the Buhari-led government is quick to tag an aggrieved protesting people in the south-east a terrorist group, it is reluctant to call a free-killing, largely unchecked Fulani herdsmen a bad name. And who would check them? The people know nothing really will happen to them, after all, are they not the President’s kinsmen? Who will check them? They can act like nomads in the daytime and turn something else at night, as far as they act according to the script they have been given, who will check them? They can make threats of attack on communities, scare the men away, attack the community, rape the women and butcher them and their children, they extend the privilege of quick death to the men who appear to be brave among the community dwellers because of course, as nomads, they hide their ammunition, and as attackers, they hide their sticks, who will check them? They can almost wipe out an entire community like they did to the Agatu people also In Benue state, but if any of them gets hurt by the hand of the community people, it is the police and indeed the army that will lead the arrest of the persons who dare to touch them, like they did to the Ile-Ife people in Osun state. Who will check them?

Mr. President’s disposition to his kinsmen murder vocation is, to say the least, unimaginable. You know what he says? Nothing! You know what he does when attacks like this happen? He goes ahead to launch new coaches of a train and sets up a campaign committee for his re-election bid. That is his response. If there had been arrests, and prosecution, if people had been made to face the wrath of the law because of their actions, security would have improved tremendously, but the army, police, politicians and every other sycophant want to be in the good books of the president so they dare not touch his kinsmen, in fact they must protect them.

This is not leadership.