A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Festus Keyamo, has lambasted those pushing the idea of a “Fulanisation” agenda in the country, saying it is no more than a scare tactic deployed by crafty politicians to keep their people in perpetual servitude.
Keyamo, who was official spokesman to the Buhari campaign in the 2019 election, stated this in a series of tweets on Monday while reacting to the controversy generated by the proposed Ruga settlement for herdsmen.
The Federal Government has said that the Ruga settlement was being implemented to bring an end to the frequent herdsmen/farmers clashes across the country as well as increase animal production.
However, the policy has been the subject of widespread condemnation, with many describing it as a ploy by Fulani hegemonists to take their land.
However, Keyamo stated that the fears were misplaced and being fuelled by deceitful politicians.
According to him, the same politicians promoting the idea of “Fulanisation agenda” never miss any opportunity to dine with their friends from the same tribe that they are demonising.
He said, “From time immemorial, we were hospitable as a people to welcome many southerners into settlements known as ‘Sabon Gari’ in the North and we have always had the ‘Hausa Quarters’ in Warri and many southern cities. They NEVER claimed those lands as theirs. They pay rents till today.
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“It is very disingenuous for those with ulterior political motives to insinuate that in this modern age of proper documentations on land transactions, a stranger will wake up one morning to lay claim to a land allocated to him to trade. It only happened in pre-colonial times.
“This whole hoopla about ‘fulanisation’ is nothing but a scare tactic employed by crafty politicians to keep their people in perpetual servitude.
“They pretend to be warriors fighting an imaginary ‘war’ with ‘invaders’ of their land, whilst stealing the resources of their people.
“And for the unfortunate people, they become blinded by the hatred deliberately instigated in them by the rogue politicians as to the imaginary invaders of their land that they hardly notice that infrastructure are decaying and salaries are unpaid. The villain becomes their hero.
“Every single crime that has always existed have suddenly become the handiwork of imaginary invaders of our land.
“Suddenly, all the thieves, kidnappers and murderers in our midst have either left the stage overnight or they changed their nationalities to Fulani. It’s unfortunate.
“After scaring their people with these false alarms and narratives about other tribes and after securing their votes, they end up every weekend partying and parleying with their friends and colleagues from these same tribes they have so demonised. It is disgusting politics at play.
“At the end, because of the desire to continue to enslave the minds of their people for political power, the rogue politicians DO NOT want a permanent solution to the farmers-herders’ clashes. Every solution put forward is turned into a political discourse in order to thwart it.”