OPINION
By Olusoji Daniel
“it’s another form of colonization, something we may term ‘the colonization of the South by the Fulanis’”
…some places, the Fulanis decide what crop you can plant on your farmland and if you don’t have such clearance they likely would invade such farms with their animals.
It is such a time in the annals of time when the rich and the poor, the educated and the non-educated, the tall and short, fine and not-so-fine, the lazy and hard-working and every other stratum of human separatism becomes humble and mostly without a solution to the issues that have overnight become their uniting factor.
The Beginning
For decades, the Yoruba clan has played host to millions of people from all walks of life, the Yoruba region even became the first in Nigeria to vote non-Yorubas into political offices in their territory, this do not only show how receptive the Yorubas are, it also shows how non-nepotic they may be in some instance.
Yoruba is the only tribe where every family has a member who’s of a different faith but still bonded and probably living under the same roof with the rest of the family. This is not to say other tribes are not religious-tolerant but the possibility of meeting such circumstance in Yoruba-land is higher than in other tribes.
There are families where Imams are married to Deaconesses of churches, or knitted with a brother who is an Archbishop in the Catholic. In my family for instance, my grand-parents were Muslims, only my maternal grandma was Christian, my father and mother are Christians, most of my cousins are Muslims, I attend a few Islamic functions with them in the Mosque, and with my full blown bearded-gang membership ID (as evident on my chin and face generally), you’d think I’m a Sheik. The Hausas have Kings in Yoruba land, most of whom were appointed by Yorubas. All of these atotonus (explanations) are proves on how welcoming and warmly the Yorubas relate with strangers.
The Break
The North has about 19 states mostly speaking Hausa and Fulfulde. Their major trade is agriculture with the elite being the big-boys in cattle-rearing. I learnt that the Fulanis are known for being constant migrants. In their bid to feed their cattle, they are always on the move seeking green lands to feed their ever-growing animals, which they sell to the south and east as their biggest Nigerian market (BTW prices of animals in the north are way cheaper than it is in the south, and this I know having done meat-sharing business very well).
They have co-existed with the south for decades and with the warmth established in the afore paragraph, they start establishments that may be referred to as settlement with their own leaders known as SERIKI. The spotlight wouldn’t have shone on their activities if not for the recent development of insecurity spread across the country.
There were series of unrest in the north, initially by the dreaded Boko Haram sect, there were lots of suicide bombings and assaults on northerners and by northerners, rumor had it that that top politicians in Nigeria are behind the unrest. The Federal Government supposedly did its best, which apparently yielded zilch.
The interesting twist about this security challenge is that over 70% of the security chiefs in Nigeria are northerners. It’s a waste of ink trying to reiterate where the President is from or how kids were kidnapped right under his nose some weeks ago when he visited his home town, needless to remind us again of how a king or community leader as the case may be in his hometown was also kidnapped and ransom paid.
We have heard stories of how Police senior officers were kidnapped and ransom paid. The initial gist was only about the endless romance of these evil perpetrators with the north, but little could the rest of the country do, if the security arm, political heads of this nation and globally influential traditional and religious leaders with roots and homes in the north, has done very much close to nada.
Before the end of 2019, the Kaduna highway leading to Abuja became a no-go-zone as terrorists or young people took to the trade of ‘kidnap and ransom’ on this spot, but politicians in the north rather built the train as alternative and flew over that route.
Edo-Ore-Ondo-Oyo highways later became their annexes, they didn’t kidnap for ransom alone there, they killed people after collecting the ransoms agreed.
Let me take you back a little bit, some months or even a few years earlier, there were a number of clashes between farmers and herders, herders would take their grazing cows into farmlands of people, and their animals would feed on crops, plunder heavy investments of farmers, and go away. This resulted into a lot of misunderstandings and sometimes, litigation when the leader of the culprits became identified, I was in the Republic of Benin in the same year and the farmers in that neighboring country complained bitterly about how Nigerians came to lay-to-waste their farmland, it took the saving grace of videos and pictures of some of their deeds in Nigeria also before they understood that the Fulani herders were the ones and not Nigeria as a country.
Now back to 2021, the issue of kidnapping and herder/farmer clash had degenerated or metamorphosed in some sort of way; remember the issue of kidnap started as a lucrative business in the north, the herders in the south started going about with AKs, killing people in the communities they find themselves.
The new year hadn’t settled in when news broke out about a professor who had worked in America for over 20 years but came back home to give back to his fatherland, he started a large farming business with hundreds of paid staff, his farm got plundered by herders and he went to speak with the leaders of the herders only to be kidnapped and tied like an animal, he was reportedly beaten to stupor, an unconfirmed ransom of 11 million was said to have been paid by the friends and family members contacted. He never left the kidnapper’s tent alive.
This brings to mind that the herders who were allegedly keeping arms to protect themselves and their animals (from god knows what) may be doing a side hustle with the kidnaps recently becoming a popular news in the south.
This news caught my attention and my ‘aproko’ (investigative) mind set to work as I started tracing everything I can find in the news about it. I read from contact on my Facebook list who lived in border towns like Iseyin, Oke-Ogun, Edo, Ondo and environs how that the Fulani had dispersed many people from the villages and took over their lands. I was told that in some places, the Fulanis decide what crop you can plant on your farmland and if you don’t have such clearance they likely would invade such farms with their animals. I felt really uncomfortable at this discovery, because its not just insecurity we are about to deal with, it’s another form of colonization, something we may term ‘the colonization of the South by the Fulanis’.
I read about how a popular traditional medicinal Doctor was killed by the same set of criminals, and how a popular Afenifere leader’s daughter was gruesomely murdered by suspected Fulanis. I really do not like to make this about tribe but it’s hard to talk about herders and not make reference to Fulani.
In a nation with a complete military arm, well trained police, and many other civil security outfits being funded by Nigerians with their hard earned monies, this is the least expected problem that should be added to the already unbearable lifestyle of Nigerians. This went on and on and the leaders in the south thought to develop their own security outfit, which was code-named ‘AMOTEKUN’.
Amotekun was greeted with smile and an expectation of relieve by the southerners who believed it would be structured for their use of traditional/metaphysical security apparatus and intelligence but the reality dawned on southerners when politics took over the goodwill the people had reposed on the said security project.
The advent of this made people like SUNDAY IGBOHO step into self-defense mode. I know a lot of you don’t know who Sunday Igboho is, and I’m not about to start writing his praise but he was birthed by an Ifa priest who trades with Isegun (Ifa consultation).
Always getting into trouble as a child, he was later discovered to have a destiny with defending anyone being cheated, his father took him on a walk into the spirit realm and the rest is history. His fame first broke out during the Ife-Modakeke war, where he fought for the small town he believed was being cheated and won with a lot of mythical stories on how he commands ammunition from the unseen world unto his hands and how he is unkillable by bullets and fire.
He has since then been named in one activism or the other and of-course, not an activism of placards but of bullets, and Salina (as they call it in Port Harcourt street parlance). He’s not so much of a good orator especially in English, but who says an Oduduwa-born needs Anglo-acceptance to defend his land.
That’s all I am willing to write about Sunday now. He got wind of how the son of his village King was also kidnapped by these criminals, and many other atrocities and decided it was enough! He went into the forest where the abductors hid, pursued the Fulanis who hide there in their thousands and told- in clear terms, the king of Fulanis in that area to vacate the village with every other Fulani-whether good or bad, in seven days-else there will be blood-letting.
On hearing this, I became unhappy at his approach, but a few hours after reading the antecedents, I felt he had a noble cause,” ba mi tan, ko mean wipe ko fami nitan ya” (living with me shouldn’t cost me my life).
The federal government whose primary assignment is the security of lives and property has deemed it fit to do nothing, their job is to unite and keep united the entity called Nigeria, and not a job for a Sunday. I had thought Sunday would cause a civil war but failed to realize like many others that we are already at war.
How else do you describe being taken on your way to work and asked to pay huge ransom only to still be killed in your own fatherland, to make matters worse, to be killed by foreigners who seek refuge in your own fatherland
At the threat of Sunday Igboho, the Seriki instead of seeking how the state can bring both parties to a round table discussion, was seen calling it bluff and saying they cannot leave the forest (as seen on BBC Yoruba), when he knew quite well how many people had been killed to gun wielding Fulanis under his watch, I learnt the Seriki usually is the one to take the ransom to the hideouts of the kidnappers, how true that is, I can’t say.
The Governor of Oyo state, on the other hand who should be the protector of the people who voted him-took to air, only to threaten Sunday with Police arrest.
Governor Akeredolu of Ondo state took after Sunday by giving Fulanis in Ondo seven days to vacate his State too, which the Presidency has spoken against and even threatened to intervene if such threat was implemented. I wonder what the presidency thinks these people will do when they are faced with an option between their life or a threat of sanction from Abuja.
The People can’t drink water and drop cups in their homes anymore because they played host to some people. People can’t go to farm or let their girls walk freely on the road as they may be victims of rape or even be killed after being violated. The southerners had a habit of sleeping in their compounds when the weather is hot, no one dares such anymore.
Sunday Igboho against the threat from the Governor and the army went ahead to pursue the Fulanis he gave a 7-day ultimatum.
The Nations reported today, the 23rd of January 2021, that the Army has escorted thousands of Fulani to relocate into Ogun State and it was also reported that villages where the refugees were denied entry, the army flogged those who stood in their way including the kings in those communities, and enforcing a relocation into Ogun state.
If nothing else depicts a total disregard for the ethnic institutions of the Yorùbá people, what else could be worse than this? I hope the rest of us who live-in or share the Ogun spirit can stand to our feet and take up the baton as passed by Sunday our brother in ensuring that our children, wives, husbands, farmlands and properties are not exposed to the insecurity that may result from this orchestrated move.
*Olusoji Daniel writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State.
soji_dan@yahoo.com
@therealsojidan
THIS WRITE UP IS PURELY AN OPINION OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT A REPORT BY NEWSHEADLINE247
