There are two issues agitating my mind and both would be the subject of this article this week. The first is the issue of the rampaging Fulani herdsmen in the south while the second is strictly on the just unveiled ‘wisemen’ who have been selected to pilot the affairs of this country alongside President Mohammadu Buhari.
The issue of Fulani herdsmen invading farmlands, destroying crops has always been a recurring decimal, especially in the southern part of the country, most especially the south west. Hardly is there any community in the zone that has not experienced the invasion of the cattles and their shepherds, with most having harrowing experiences to narrate.
In the southwest, Okaka town, an agrarian community in Itesiwaju local government of Oyo state was at the receiving end of this menace about two years ago. Cattles destroyed several farmlands in the community leading to widespread fear of hunger among the farming populace.
During the locust-like invasion, several farmers had tales of woe to tell. Those who lost their farms to herdsmen included the Nigerian Cassava Growers Association which lost 97 hectares of cassava, estimated at about N20m. Two individuals in the community also lost 60 hectares respectively while another Lagos-based farmer lost over 100 hectares.
Another victim, described how he lost N300,000 worth of yam seedlings he had taken to his farm the previous day. According to him, he had carefully laid out his yam seedlings at his farm and covered it as he had always done in the past. The next day, to his chagrin, they were all gone.
Resolved to stop this widespread ravage of their community, the farmers sprayed DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) on their farms which led to the death of several cattles. Of course, this recourse to self help by the people further heightened tension between farmers in the community and herdsmen who wanted to avenge the death of their prized possession.
In the middle belt region especially Benue and Nasarawa states, it had been a constant battle between communities and herdsmen leading to many deaths and displacement of several people from their communities.
But most worrisome in the present development is the pillaging, killing and now kidnapping by the so called herdsmen. Stories have been told of some of these ‘shepherds’ attacking several communities with sophisticated assault guns like AK-47. For these rustic individuals, the question that one would want to ask is where they acquired such sophisticated weapons. For people who live or move around in the rustics, how do they get to acquire the guns they now use to attack the different communities? One can only conclude that the guns were acquired by some elite cattle owners and given to the herdsmen. Such guns are not what you pick on the streets, and the acquisition could only have been achieved by a sophisticated individual or individuals who have the wherewithal and the savvy to know where to look for such guns. When did our less than ordinary ‘daran-daran’ as we use to call them in my local community acquire such sophistication. I need not say more than that. Equally worrisome is the attacks and rape of women in such communities, all these points to the fact that the herdsmen were not really defending their grazing field but had another purpose in mind. A different dimension has now been introduced-kidnap.
As it happened in the case of Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the monarch of Abo community and a leader of the Yoruba race. Just imagine if something worse had happened to Chief Falae, it would have been a different story entirely today. One then tends to ask, why have the herdsmen turned to kidnapping? The average herdsmen we see around do not look or seem capable of such sophisticated thinking or embarking on such dangerous assignation. They look quite harmless with their staff which they use for directing their ‘wards’. The only weapon we saw with them in those days was their bows and arrows or a little dagger attached to their waist. They hardly attack people along their grazing path. So who are the people perpetrating this act, are they truly herdsmen or people pretending to be one?
This is a major challenge to our law enforcement agencies. I want to bet that the so called herdsmen are common criminals using the cover of cattle grazing. It could also be a perfect cover for insurgents. We all know that herdsmen are from the north, if truly some of these herdsmen are kidnappers, why have they not tried such criminal acts in the north and collect ransom? It is rare hearing cases of kidnapping in the northern part of the country or is it that northern elite are not ‘commercially viable’ and the herdsmen see them as bad business? I disagree. Those kidnappers are not herdsmen. They are people with criminal intent using the cover of cattle grazing to perpetrate crime.
As stated earlier, the names of ministers have been released. And what most Nigerians came with from that exercise is that the president’s list did not yield too many surprises. From the hype that preceded the act, one would have thought the president would do better, with more fresh faces unlike what we presently have which a Facebook post described as compensation for those who supported the president’s election or those who had been with the president during his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) days. So if the president was going to nominate people based on their relationship with him, why must it take more than four months to come up with the names? As someone observed, the list is a recycling of the people that had been in government or played one role or the other in previous administrations in the country. In referring to one of the nominees, Chief Audu Ogbeh, one commentator said he had appeared before the Senate of which the father of the present Senate President was a member about 39 years ago, today, he is set to appear before the son for another ministerial assignment. The commentator concluded,’that is stagnation’.
The obvious lesson from the comment is what has been said earlier- recycling of old hands and tired legs, and a major pointer to the fact that we are not progressing as a nation. World over, people making impacts are less than 40 years old. When would our under 40s who had been told that the youths are the future of any nation, I am not saying under 40s are youths except in Nigeria, start contributing to national development? When they are past their prime? These are points to ponder.