The full title of this essay ought to be, “Where are the Fulani herdsmen who terrorized the country between 2015 and 2022? However, because of the ethics governing titling, I have summarized the title in a simple question: where are the Fulani herdsmen? Of course, the title bears innuendoes. It also interrogates a historical and political occurrence in our country. So, it has a context. Context, like perception, is everything in presentation of ideas, facts and figures. The question is specific of ‘the Fulani herdsmen; not ‘Fulani herdsmen! There is a difference! When we search for Fulani herdsmen, we may need beef or cowhide. But when we ask after ‘the Fulani herdsmen’, we refer to the murderous gangs who invaded villages in Benue state and in Enugu, in Plateau state and other places! Let me quickly say that if they have disappeared from the public space and national discourse, it is good riddance to bad rubbish! But they have not.
Between 2015 and 2022, Fulani herdsmen became part of the national discourse, on radio, television, town meetings, and press conferences. ‘A 2020 Statista survey stated that 7400 persons were killed by jihadist Fulani herdsmen’. Their spokesmen developed insulting arrogance and openly threatened ethnic groups over grazing routes in geographical locations outside their areas of domicile. They were gregarious and ascribed their strength to the man in Aso Rock was their father! They also became ubiquitous both metaphorically and physically. They were found and discussed in the most unlikely places. I daresay that they featured in daily security briefs to the president, governors, and foreign embassies. Physically, we found them on streets in cities, towns, and villages, far from Fulani country. I was once part of a delegation that went to a community in Uwheru in Delta state where some nine local persons had been murdered by herdsmen who had invaded their lands with cattle for grazing. We confirmed that farmers were compelled to pay a fee to these invaders to grant them access to their farmlands!
Sometimes I wonder if my imagination is concocting coincidences where is none. Have the notorious Fulani herdsmen who kidnapped victims with great impudence along Sagamu-Ore Road, in Ogun State, on the Benin bypass, between Patani and Agbarho in Delta State, on the highways in the southeast, between Aba and Port Harcourt, in Benue state, the scoundrels who attacked a sitting governor’s convoy, simply disappeared from the land? Are they still violently active but under-reported or not reported at all? Or, were the scoundrels not from the Fulani ethnic group? Can cessation of the violent activities of the herdsmen in the country be associated with the end of tenure of the last administration? Was there a collaboration between a cabal and the herdsmen for some nefarious objective? Is there a point man in the current administration whose presence in the ticket was enough to call the criminals to order? What are the implications of this on belief in one Nigeria? What about the rampant killings in Kaduna? Have they ceased, abated, or hidden under the radar? Are there circumstances that could make them return in future? Too many questions begging for answers.
Sadly, the men and women who are constitutionally charged with the responsibility of asking questions are either compromised or have moved into other spheres to secure the notorious stomach infrastructure! Memory is not one of our strong points. We forgive without meting out justice. Those who are at the receiving end of institutional injustice stay bitter and disenchanted. There are no reparations. We protect impunity. History is weak where consciousness is low. These thoughts took shape in my mind recently when I read Chief E.K. Clark’s comments about the late General Murtala Mohammed in his autobiography. If the man was such a bigot, a plunderer, and an irridentist, why did the six months misadventure as Head of State blindsight us into making him a national hero? Why did we forget Onitsha and the Asaba massacre? Is he a hero to Asaba people? I guess not! Why did we forget his anti-CBN activities in Benin during the civil war? Why did we forget Abagana? Why did we forget how he ruined the federal civil service with his ill-conceived purge of dead woods and corrupt men and women?
