Nothing New Here
Twenty years ago, unprovoked attacks were launched against innocent Fulani herders in Plateau State. The State government under Dariye and virtually all the political, religious and traditional leadership either encouraged the violence or looked the other way. Just like the entire leadership in South West and South East Nigeria is behaving today.
The violence went on for nearly two years. There was no kidnapping then. So to justify the crime, they said Fulani herdsmen were settlers and had migrated from Mali, Niger, Guinea etc to colonize their land.
Thousands were murdered in cold blood. Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee the State. Wealth accumulated over 100 years was destroyed, looted or burnt.
The media, especially the Yoruba controlled one, fanned the embers and flames of the ethnic pogrom.
The Federal Government under Obasanjo pretended that nothing was happening. No one asked how many died and why. No one bothered what happened to the survivors. No one cared about if they needed a rehabilitation or compensation.
Similarly, ethnic bigots in Nasarawa, Taraba, Southern Kaduna and Nasarawa enabled by a complicit Federal and State governments and elite joined the party.
They attacked the herders using whatever pretext or even no pretext available. In all cases, authorities behaved like no crimes were being committed.
Survivors ran to wherever was safe. They rebuilt their lives. And prepared for retribution. Today, almost 20 years after the initial attempt at ethnic cleansing, peace has largely returned to the Jos Plateau and other places where similar pogroms took place.
Large numbers of the Fulbe herders that once populated the States or parts of them have left for good. But the Fulbe are still there. Within the period, they survived Obasanjo and Jonathan's complicity. They survived Umaru's incapacity and Buhari's inexplicable murderous indifference.
They have also taken measures to avenge, to a good degree, the blood of their kin killed. Despite the propaganda and profiling, they have taken care to only fight those that attacked them. Those who directly participated in the killing of their loved ones and looting of their property.
They never took revenge missions in any community where they are majority because their kin have been killed elsewhere. They have never blocked the roads to pick out for murder members of a given or religious group. In towns and villages where they are majority, members of other ethnic groups have been guaranteed their peace and security.
So, for the Igbos and Yorubas up north, or where the Fulbe have numerical advantage, be rest assured that your security is guaranteed.
This is not how we do it. We have a clear unadulterated sense of justice. We know the culprits. They'll pay the price.
For some of our Hausa neighbours and friends that have been gloating, it is not the best way to go about this.
There are also those up North (Town Fulani, Hausa-Fulani, Hausa etc) that feel ashamed associating with our misery and suffering, and had therefore joined the former chorus of Fulani killer herdsmen, and have the present noise of Fulani kidnappers.
Please remember that 9 out of every 10 beggars in Nigeria and beyond is Hausa, but no one has so far profiled the Hausa man as a beggar tribe.
Up until 5 years ago, every armed robber and kidnapper anywhere in northern Nigeria had been an Igbo man or at least someone from the South. No one profiled the Igbo or the Southerner an armed robber and asked them to leave other parts of Nigeria.
Up until today, 9 out of every 10 drug crimes committed by Nigerians around the world are done by the Igbo man. Same figures for the Yoruba man in credit card fraud.
Nigerians of every ethnic persuasion, and the national image, have suffered irreparably from these crimes wherever and whenever we traveled. No one, not even the foreigners have asked that Nigerians of Yorubas or Igbo extraction be killed by organized mobs because they predominate in such crimes.
So, for the 99% innocent hardworkingFulani herders, we owe no one an apology, or explanation for the crimes of the 1% or less. We reject the profiling. We reject the generalization.
For the rest of the North in general, and Muslim community in particular, please know this, it's not really about the Fulani man. If for anything, the Fulani herder living in wilderness, is not their problem. He enjoys no electricity, no road, no water, no education, no social welfare, no security.
Uneducated, he competes for no employment or social intervention program with them. And he is also a very good source of quality and cheap protein of all kind. The ultimate price is not him. It's you the elite that is in the civil service, in politics, in industry. It's you that competes with them in leadership and the sharing of looting of the national cake.
They are only clearing a potentially virulent irritant and valuable military asset that knows the terrain and has the discipline to stand in their way in the most inhospitable of environments.
When they're done with us, they're coming for you. I know it's futile reminding you, but let it be on record that you have been warned. Let it also be known that when the push becomes unbearable, the Fulani herder will take care of himself with or without you as they have proven time and again.
And Yes, whenever the government fails to protect us and allows an organize mob to kill our men, women and children, we will defend ourselves by whatever means available. We will do this at a time and occasion most convenient and suitable.
So, really, it makes no difference whether it's an Ogboho or some Kanu or Tershaku or Baba Alakiyo or even a Jonah Jang.
Alhassan Kuba
National Secretary
Kautal Hore
