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| Fulani expansion war, a federal pet, by Ochereome Nnanna - Vanguard News |
| 2025-04-23 |
| A backgrounder on Nigeria's internal dysfunction. [VANGUARDNGR]Before his sudden, mysterious death, former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, left us with an enduring, prophetic soundbite. He said: “If an insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, then, know that government has a hand in it”. Way back on May 8, 2014, The Cable newspaper published a retweet of the late General’s daughter, Ms Gumsu Abacha, quoting exactly the same one-liner in response to Boko Haram “exploits”. What would you say of the Fulani expansionism “insurgency” which has lasted 25 years? By “federal”, I do not necessarily mean the President Bola Tinubu administration, though it is also complicit as will be shown shortly. “Federal” here means the machinery of the Nigerian State, the ruling Establishment or dispensation, the power that be which produces and dictates to successive Federal Governments. Since 1999, this power dispensing machine has produced five presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu, always making sure it does not fall into “wrong” hands. Only such mechanism could enact the magic of making Obasanjo president from jail, ensuring that no Northern candidate would stand against him. To the best of my knowledge, the Fulani wars of conquest started around 2001 in the Plateau area. Armed Fulani “herdsmen” were routinely massacring the indigenes to take over their fertile farmlands. The military, police, security and what have you, have failed to stop them despite several eye-service deployments. But when the Tarokh people armed themselves and retaliated in May 2004, President Obasanjo declared a state of emergency and removed PDP Governor, Joshua Dariye, who was seen as encouraging his indigenous people to defend themselves. What did Dariye do later? He joined Muhammadu Buhari’s APC and helped the party capture the state in 2015. Buhari pardoned and released him from his 14-year jail conviction for allegedly stealing N2bn. Dariye could not beat them. He joined them, and was rewarded by Buhari himself, just as Adams Oshiomhole had promised all who join APC. Lionhearted governors who were crushed became a lesson to others. Fight the State and pay for it; collude with the State against your people and be rewarded. When you see Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State running kitikiti-katakata to lick the toes of fellow governors from the North over the Uromi lynching, you know the fear the State exerts over occupants of powerful or lucrative positions. When Buhari came to power in 2015, he saw himself as the Nigerian variant of Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, who armed Arab pastoralist militia, the Janjaweed, to conquer and annex the lands of black Sudanese, thus sparking the Darfur crises. Buhari was determined to make Nigeria the new home of his Fulani kinsmen from everywhere. He tried to enforce his Ruga grazing routes, water resources and Livestock Plan policies throughout the country, but these were stiffly resisted. Buhari then threw open the borders for armed Fulani and their families, especially the nomads from everywhere, to relocate to Nigeria. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, he and his powerful kinsmen used food and cement trailers and trucks to distribute armed Fulani youths in forests all over the Middle Belt and Southern states. It was clearly a well-organised operation aimed at forcefully grafting alien, violent Fulani elements among unwilling indigenous communities. They were camped in the forests where they killed people in their farms and harvested organs for sale. They kidnapped for ransom and used livestock to destroy farms. They flushed people out of their ancestral lands and occupied communities. The Federal Government and its organs of security and coercion protected them from those seeking to defend themselves. They were promptly released when arrested by vigilante groups and handed over to the supposed law enforcement agencies. Government and (unfortunately, sections of the media) deceived the public, calling attacks on innocent Nigerian farming communities “farmers-herders clashes”. Government kept promising displaced people they would be restored to their ancestral lands but have now become permanent occupants of Internally-Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps. The invaders are settling down and renaming conquered communities. The Federal Government refused to even acknowledge Fulani invaders as terrorists. Instead, they turned around to falsely slap that moniker on the Eastern Security Network, ESN, formed by the concerned diaspora Igbo through Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to defend Igboland. When Tinubu controversially won the 2023 presidential election, I consoled myself that Buhari the Fulaniser was out and Tinubu, being a Southerner, would check the Fulanisation agenda. It has also been wreaking even more havoc in the South-West, Tinubu's home zone. But we were in for a shock. After initially arresting and detaining Bello Bodejo, the leader of the loquacious and violent Miyetti Allah Kyautal Hore, Tinubu quickly released him when the Fulani elite threatened him. He even went ahead to create Federal Ministry of Livestock to appease them, thus fully resuscitating Buhari's Fulanisation agenda. Tinubu holds on to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu even after releasing Fulani's Bodejo and Sunday Igboho of Yoruba Nation. Under Tinubu, the cuddling of Fulani herdsmen terrorism continues unabated, and so do the endless barrages of meaningless condolence messages and empty promises. The entire landscape is filled with cowardly governors and political leaders who sell out their people for political power and lucrative posts. At this rate, the indigenous people of Nigeria are doomed. Retired Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma warned before (and has just repeated the warning) that the government is an enhancer of Fulani expansionism. ''They collude,'' he says. ''They will not protect you! Arm and protect yourselves''. Danjuma, a hero of the Nigerian side of the civil war, has written off the armed forces he once served and led. Who are we to believe otherwise? Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and ESN have once again been vindicated, even by Danjuma! Self-defence is the first law of nature. The ball is in our court. Related: Boko Haram: 2025-04-22 1 soldier killed, 13 terrorists arrested in military operations in Niger-Xinhua Boko Haram: 2025-04-22 BREAKING: Boko Haram Terrorists Attack Yobe Community, Kill Three Soldiers Boko Haram: 2025-04-22 Boko Haram now on TikTok, operates unmanned drones - Security expert Related: Fulani: 2025-04-21 Real identity of Boko Haram Commander in Kwara, Mahmouda revealed Fulani: 2025-04-21 Gunmen kill at least 56 people in central Nigeria Fulani: 2025-04-16 Scores killed in attack by gunmen in central Nigeria Related: Bola Tinubu 10/02/2024 We eliminated 300 Boko Haram, other banditry groups' commanders - Tinubu - Vanguard News Bola Tinubu 09/20/2024 What China's New African Strategy Will Mean for Russia and the US Bola Tinubu 08/06/2024 About 40 arrested for waving Russian flags Related: Olusegun Obasanjo 03/13/2024 Ethiopia, TPLF discuss ceasefire implementation Olusegun Obasanjo 06/14/2023 Tigray and Amhara leaders reconcile in Ethiopia Olusegun Obasanjo 03/23/2023 Ethiopia parliament removes rebel Tigray party from terror list Related: Goodluck Jonathan 11/17/2024 Millions Of Dollars Meant For Boko Haram Fight Invested In U.S. Luxury Real Estate Tied To Ex-Nigerian Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, Allies Goodluck Jonathan 05/27/2021 Mali's president and prime minister resign following military takeover Goodluck Jonathan 08/23/2020 West African mediators arrive in Mali seeking reversal of coup Related: Muhammadu Buhari 11/17/2024 Millions Of Dollars Meant For Boko Haram Fight Invested In U.S. Luxury Real Estate Tied To Ex-Nigerian Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, Allies Muhammadu Buhari 12/29/2023 Nigeria: Christmas Massacre Death Toll Hits 195, 10,000 Displaced, More Than 1,000 Homes Burned Down Muhammadu Buhari 07/26/2023 Local Priest: Nigeria Trying to Blame Its Christian Genocide on Climate Crisis Related: Plateau: 2025-04-21 Gunmen kill at least 56 people in central Nigeria Plateau: 2025-04-17 Nigeria confronts new ''drone threat'' from ISWAP Plateau: 2025-04-16 Scores killed in attack by gunmen in central Nigeria Related: Joshua Dariye 05/19/2004 Another Oil Problem in the Making? OPECâs Nigeria in state of emergency. Joshua Dariye 05/18/2004 Nigeria Leader Declares State of Emergency Joshua Dariye 05/13/2004 Nigerian governor fingers al-Qaeda in recent violence Related: Adams Oshiomhole 01/22/2018 My husband has a secret room where he keeps bombs -- Wife of suspected Boko Haram IEDs manufacturer Adams Oshiomhole 10/31/2004 Nigerian Strike to Target Oil Exports Adams Oshiomhole 06/12/2004 NIGERIA: Unions call off strike as fuel prices drop Related: Edo State: 2025-03-18 Herdsmen killings: Time to ban open grazing Edo State: 2024-09-03 World's police in technological arms race with Nigerian mafia Edo State: 2023-06-15 High school football player Jordan DeMay driven to suicide after Nigerian sextortion scam Related: Omar Al Bashir 04/20/2018 Sudan President Bashir fires foreign minister Ghandour Omar Al Bashir 02/04/2015 Somaliland Govt sends huge arms consignment back to Sudan Omar Al Bashir 06/05/2012 Malawi warns Bashir of arrest at summit Related: Janjaweed: 2024-12-03 ICC top judge pans ‘appalling’ US threat to penalize court over Israel arrest warrants Janjaweed: 2024-11-16 Sudanese paramilitary commander slapped with US sanctions Janjaweed: 2024-10-23 Top RSF commander defects, joins Sudanese army Related: Darfur: 2025-04-18 Sudan doctors group: Over docs 200 killed, 9 docs raped by RSF forces Darfur: 2025-04-18 Seven killed in El Fasher market shelling as army repels attack Darfur: 2025-04-15 Balancing economics and security on the Nigeria-Cameroon border Related: Eastern Security Network: 2024-05-08 Nigerian Army, Police NG Burn Down Enugu Community After Gunmen Killed Two Policemen, Four Others Eastern Security Network: 2023-06-02 Nigerian Police Arrest Four ESN Commanders Over Fatal Attack On US Embassy Convoy In Anambra Eastern Security Network: 2023-05-19 Two Arrested In Connection With Killing Of US Embassy Officials, Others In Anambra —Police Related: Igbo: 2024-05-14 Meghan Markle declares Nigeria as 'my country' during visit with Prince Harry Igbo: 2024-03-19 16 soldiers killed in southern Nigeria during fighting between communities Igbo: 2023-07-27 IPOB Will Confront Asari Dokubo's 'Islamic Militia' If It Encroaches Into Igbo Land Related: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu 03/28/2023 Armed Men In Masks Abduct 11-Year-Old Boy Mazi Nnamdi Kanu 01/16/2023 Terrorists Camping In Anambra, Southeast Nigeria, Planning Invasion, Attacks On Communities, IPOB Warns Mazi Nnamdi Kanu 04/24/2022 IPOB Vows To Protect Hausas Against ‘Jihadists’ Attacking South-East Residents Related: Biafra: 2025-01-28 Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner Biafra: 2024-06-23 120, 000 Boko Haram fighters surrender to Nigeria army in North-East — Chief of Army Staff Biafra: 2023-12-16 Nigeria: Separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu to remain in jail after supreme court's ruling Related: Yoruba: 2024-05-14 Meghan Markle declares Nigeria as 'my country' during visit with Prince Harry Yoruba: 2024-01-01 Good Morning Yoruba: 2024-01-01 Yoruba Council Calls For State Of Emergency In Plateau Over Massacre Of Residents |
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