Return to North now, northern elders, youths order Fulani herdsmen

*We’re not aware of return to North order – MACBAN

Members of the Northern Elders Forum and the Coalition of the
Northern Groups have asked Fulani herdsmen to leave the southern
part of Nigeria.

They said the herdsmen should return to the North where their
(herdsmen) safety and that of their property could be
guaranteed.

The northern elders and the youths said they were worried that
some southern leaders had allegedly openly threatened war against
the Fulani herdsmen.

They claimed that for this reason, all the herdsmen from the
North living in the South should return home.

Recall that the controversial Ruga policy suspended by the
Federal Government generated various reactions with southern
leaders rejecting it.

The southern leaders had argued that it was wrong for the
Federal Government to take people’s land by force and give it to
herdsmen who were operating personal businesses.

The rejection was further fuelled by kidnappings and killings of
innocent men and women by the suspected herdsmen.

Also, the Coalition of the Northern Groups had given the Federal
Government a 30-day ultimatum to resolve the objection raised by
the southern leaders.

However, at a press conference after a meeting of the NEF with
the CNGs on Tuesday in Abuja, where the youths demanded the return
of all the Fulani herders to the North, the NEF’s chairman, Prof.
Ango Abdullahi, also backed the youth’s position.

However, Abdullahi said the call on the herders to retrun to the
North was borne out of the alleged realisation that their lives had
allegedly been put at risk due to the recent actions and utterances
of the southern governors.

Abdullahi said, “We are worried about their well-being. If it is
true that their safety can no longer be guaranteed, we rather have
them back in areas where their safety is guaranteed.

“The bottom line is that their safety is far more important than
their stay there. This is a country we all wish to keep together
but not at the expense of other sections.”

Abdullahi, who is a former vice-chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Kaduna State, also called for the establishment
of a judicial enquiry that would be saddled with the responsibility
of determining the quantum of loss of properties by herdsmen and
farmers.

This, he said, should be done with a view to paying compensation
due to each of the warring parties.

Also speaking at the event, the CNG’s spokesperson, Abdul-Aziz
Sulaiman, who presented the position of the northern youths to the
elders, alleged that the southern governors had on July 9, 2019,
jointly agreed to stop the movement of herders and cattle in the
South.

He also said the governors even arrogated to themselves powers
to decide which category of herdsmen could be allowed to live in
the South and others whom he said they allegedly tagged as
criminals.

Sulaiman also regretted that herdsmen were being blamed for the
killing of Mrs Funke Olakunri, daughter of the Afenifere leader,
Chief Reuben Fasoranti.

He said this was wrong as the culprits had yet to be
identified.

He noted, “Throwing caution to the winds, Gani Adams,
Fani-Kayode, Yinka Odumakin and a host of other southern
regionalists shamelessly insisted on changing the narratives around
the killing of the Fasoranti lady.

“In the process, they threatened all forms of violations and
breaches against northerners including the threat of an all-out
war.

“With all these statements and steps taken by the southern
governors and opinion leaders, we are worried that none of the
northern governors or federal official has deemed it apt to caution
them.

“The failure or neglect of the police to trace a connection
between the Fasoranti daughter’s murder and the seeming prearranged
conduct of Fani-Kayode, Odumakin and Adams by their haste to shift
the blame in order to render the Fulani object of attack is
certainly suspicious.

“We are concerned about the sincerity of the Federal Government
in implementing the NLTP going by the manner previous efforts at
executing developmental projects like the Mambila hydro-electric
power project and several initiatives on the herdsmen dilemma were
invariably stalled.

“We are equally worried that the NLTP is vested in the office of
the vice-president that is believed to have frustrated previous
projects meant for the North.

“We find it difficult to trust the commitments of this
government ,which has for the past four years, failed to execute
any positive initiative towards resolving the herders’ problems nor
shown any encouraging concern for the dilemma of the Fulani who
have been attacked in various states.

“Based on the above observations sir, and the fact that the
instigation of hatred against the Fulani persists, we feel obliged
to advise the leadership of the Northern Elders Forum to consider
calling on the Fulani to forgo their right to live and flourish
anywhere in the South and relocate to their various states in the
North to ensure their safety.”

We’re not aware of return to North order –
MACBAN

But when contacted to know whether the herders would heed the
advice, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria
told one of our correspondents that it was unaware of the recall of
herdsmen to the North and refused to speak further on it.

The National Secretary of MACBAN, Baba Usman, said, “I am not
aware of this development. I didn’t know anything about it. I am
just hearing it from you now. So, I have no comment on it. I don’t
know anything about it.”

Culled from Punch

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