The death of a Senator and a member of the Plateau State House of
Assembly has once more drawn the attention of the country to the
unending crisis on the Plateau, not because there was cessation in the
conflict before their deaths but because the crisis has started to
take a new dimension altogether. The list of victims has, for the
first time in the history of ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria,
started to include the elite, and the politicians especially.
While the sad development seems to worry everyone and there are
renewed calls for peace from many quarters, reports indicate that the
Joint Task Force (JTF), whose actions was responsible for the
escalation of the crisis recently, is busy destroying Fulani
settlements in Barikin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas, adding
fuel to fire. Luggere, a Fulani stronghold, was destroyed yesterday
and its inhabitants forcefully dispersed.
"This morning", the Secretary of Miyetti Allah in Barikin Ladi Local
Government, Malam Mohammed Adam told the Daily Trust yesterday,
"soldiers came and started burning Fulani settlements. As I speak to
you now, they are busy burning all Fulani settlements in Shong II,
Wuro Bello, Gure Danegu, Dyola, Rakweng, Sharu, Kuzeng, Luggel, Rachi,
Matse and Afan. They are backed up with helicopters and tanks."
Once more, in the quest for peace, the Nigerian authorities are
repeating the mistake they committed with Boko Haram in 2009. They
have not quenched that fire since. Yet, they are starting a bigger
one.
The Background
A proper understanding of the conflict must be located within the
framework of the genocidal agenda of the Berom. They have vowed to
cleanse the areas they dominate of the Hausa and the Fulani. Today,
except in their strongholds like Sabongidan Danyaya, Barikin Ladi
town, and few other tin settlements like Dorawar Babuje, all the Hausa
villages in Berom-dominated areas have been wiped out. The countryside
has been cleansed of nearly forty such settlements.
The flight of the Hausa and sedentary Fulani was not prompted by
cowardice, I believe, but by the luxury of the alternative they have.
They could migrate into the comfort of other Hausa communities in
other towns in the state or neighbouring ones to continue with their
farming and petty trading. Of course, their flight comes with a lot of
loss of capital and property. Nevertheless, they should be grateful to
nature for endowing them with that option, which it has denied the
cattle Fulani. This fact is at the core of the ongoing conflict.
It was not that the Berom spared the Fula naturalist in cognizance of
the longstanding association between the two groups. Not at all. Many
attacks have been moffered by Berom militia but, this time, unlike in
the case with the Hausa, the Fulani in all their major settlements in
Beromland have so far been repelling such attacks successfully with
equal, if not superior, force. It is this balance of terror that has
enabled the Fulani to stay put there, while the fuel of genocide
continues to burn in the heart of the Berom emperor, His Excellency,
Governor David Jonah Jang. The Fulani has to do this because nature
has not offered him a better choice as it did to others.
Nature has consigned the Fulani to his cattle and in Africa the cattle
has consigned him to the bush. He has no option except to live in the
countryside where his master – the cattle – would flourish. In the
gospel of his survival, he must cherish the grass and fight to the
last drop of his blood for his natural master to graze uncultivated
forests and grassland. Since his appearance in West Africa a
millennium ago, he has obediently followed his cattle to wherever they
led him. There is hardly any country in West, Central and, now, East
Africa where he has not set his foot on and he continues to press
southward, following the African Drainage Basin, until one day his
herd drinks from the Orange River in South Africa.
The conflict with the Berom has endured precisely because it is among
the very few cases where attempts were made in history to expel the
Fulani completely from a place. Nowhere has this strategy ever
succeeded in the history of West Africa since it started in the period
of Sonni Ali, one of the kings of the ancient Songhai Empire. Conflict
with the Fulani could be prolonged and they may even sustain heavy
casualties and disappear for a while; but soon their cattle would
guide them back, one way or the other, to settle on the once hostile
land. Only the tsetse fly has succeeded in barring the them from some
territories, before. Today, even that threat is gone, with
deforestation and the availability of effective drugs against bovine
blood parasites. Their cows are today successfully grazing in the
Niger Delta, on the Atlantic coast.
This understanding is important in the scheme of any dream, conflict
or peace that involves the Fulani. His natural burden to cater for the
cow must be recognized. This has led him to the innate belief that his
cattle have a universal right to natural grass wherever it may be,
just as the Americans believe in mankind’s universal rights to natural
resources. Beromland cannot be an exception. All the Fulani asks for
is grass, water and respect for his life and property. Nothing more.
He is not interested in competing with the Berom in politics,
education or trade. Almost all African tribes he visited so far have
granted him those rights and that of passage through their territory
to wherever his masters would take him.
If only the Berom, as many other tribes did, would appreciate the
burden that his Fulani brother carries and allow him to graze the
uncultivated fields without harassment or attempt to evict him, peace
with the Fulani would be as easy as breathing air.
Is this a special demand that the Fulani are obliged to beg for? No.
The Fulani are Nigerians as much as any other group. Every tribe in
Nigeria traces its origin somewhere outside the country and from
where, according to its elders, it immigrated. The Berom, for example,
trace their origins to Niger Republic! Admittedly, the Fulani are the
most recent arrivals, starting just some 500 years ago, but that does
not make them less bona fide citizens of Nigeria. He is a
native of Nigeria. By official connotation, a native is any
non-European living in the country at the time of British conquest.
The Fulani is entitled to constitutional rights like any other
Nigerian. He may be living alone in the bush, with his nuclear family
and herd of cows. He may be illiterate with no knowledge of the
constitution or common law. He may be weak, without a political body
supporting him or protecting his rights. But Nigerian he remains,
undeniably.
Over the past 400 years, the Fulani herdsmen have lived on the Plateau
peacefully with all other native groups without any major conflict.
They have contributed to its rural economy, including jobs for
families whose members they employ to attend to their cows. They have
raised many children of other tribes and benefited them in various
ways. A story that Governor Jang is never tired of telling people is
how he was raised by a Fulani family and sponsored his early
education. Now he is paying them back with deaths and destruction! His
majesty, the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Mr. Gyang Buba, ascribes his Fulani
surname to a Fulani neighbour his family once lived with. And so on.
The two examples speak volume about the peaceful coexistence that has
developed over the centuries between the Fulani and other tribes on
the Bauchi Plateau - as it is properly called in geography.
Escalation
The Fulani believe that the recent escalation in the crisis is caused
by a new Berom strategy. Knowing very well from previous major
encounters that his people are no match to the Fulani even with the
resources of government at his disposal (he once offered to buy their
men braziers when thousands of them fled their towns after their
defeat in one of those encounters last year) and neither can he
convince the federal government to withdraw the soldiers from the
streets, Jang has now resorted to using the JTF under its new
Commander to fight his proxy war against the Fulani. If one commander
could decline the offer, he can be replaced by another who equally
would take it.
And of taking it many people are accusing the new JTF commander,
Major-General Henry Ayoola. Thus, under him, the death of a
promiscuous, heavy drinking mobile policeman under the JTF and the
loss of his rifle at Karaku were instantly, without any investigation,
hanged on the neck of all the Fulani and troops went on mass
destruction of their homes and cows in Bangwai and dozens of their
villages in Barikin Ladi local governments. Yet, when the Fulani
complained of the destruction, the JTF publicly denied knowledge of
such attacks. And it continues to claim ignorance on what is now
common knowledge.
Are we witnessing a repeat of Maiduguri here? Every rational Nigerian
will agree that the strategy of using crass force to settle civilian
issues does not work. This was the mistake that the Nigerian
authorities made in the case of Boko Haram and for which the country
is paying dearly today. When compared to the international brotherhood
of the Fulani, Boko Haram could just be a drop in the ocean.
Government is punishing the victims of the Berom genocide agenda. Why
is the conflict in Plateau State now reduced to Berom territory only?
Are they the only tribe among whom the Fulani live in the state? Why
would, in the quest for peace, must the homes of innocent citizens be
destroyed? Why is the JTF denying them the return to their ruined
homes? How can the death of a policeman and the loss of his rifle
justify these human rights abuses? Let us not forget that the conflict
with Boko Haram started by the shooting of their members at a funeral
procession who did not wear a motorcycle helmet. Is riding a
motorcycle without a helmet enough a justification to kill many
Nigerian citizens?
If the JTF had taken it's time investigate the killer of the
promiscuous policeman, the crisis would not have escalated in the
first place. The lives of the Senator and many others would have been
saved. But many people believe that it is an agenda.
The Agenda
There is a general understanding amongst the residents of the State
that only the state governor has the key to its peace. That key does
not have a duplicate. Unfortunately, as General Jeremiah Husaini
(rtd), one of the elders in the state, said this morning over the BBC,
the governor is not disposed to the peaceful resolution of the crisis.
He is impervious to advice, said the retired general.
One may dismiss Husaini as a persistent Tarok opponent of governor
Jang. He is not, at least on this case. Though the crisis started
before his tenure, by 2007 when Jang was sworn in as the governor,
most of the ethno-religious conflicts in the state have ceased.
Dariye’s dream of cleansing the Plateau of Hausa-Fulani had clearly
proved unattainable and abandoned especially after he was rustled by
Obasanjo and the EFCC. People of various ethnic groups were moving
about freely in the state without any hindrance. Business returned.
Some who fled had even started returning. However, Jang renewed the
genocidal dream by committing himself to three Berom-centred goals:
developing his Berom homeland, cleansing it of the much bigoted
Hausa-Fulani, and vesting all political power in Jos and its environs
in his tribesmen. This is why the entire state is quiet, except
Beromland.
Jang has largely succeeded on all the three objectives. At the expense
of human lives, he has made other groups inconsequential in the scheme
of things in Jos and its environs. That was his strategy behind
conducting the local government election of 2008 against all security
advice. He has also built a good road network in his entire Beromland,
to the envy of other ethnic groups in the state. The roads leading
even to remotest Berom villages are either completed and asphalt
rendered or about to be completed. He has, as we noted earlier, also
succeeded in expelling most Hausas and many sedentary Fulani from most
of the tin mining settlements in Beromland. The only people he is yet
to beat are the cattle Fulani.
Expelling the Fulani from Beromland is a record that Jang would like
to achieve but from what is going on, the Fulani have vowed never to
allow him win that gold medal. So long as grass will continue to grow
there, so long as the land and property the Fulani legitimately
acquired remain there, so long as their lives and property are
vandalized without the protection from government, these African
gypsies, from all indications, will continue to fight for their dear
lives and those of their masters. Their basic constitutional rights
are the minimum that I know they, like any other group of Nigerians,
will never compromise on.
The Road to Peace
The road to peace therefore is one: the constitution as I have always
argued. Let the dream of cleansing Beromland of Fulani end in the
heart of Jang and he will find the Fulani instantly willing to embrace
peace. This has happened in other parts of the state. As the governor,
Jang has vowed to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians
under his domain. He must keep that promise. Only then will Berom and
Fulani live in peace. Otherwise, this crisis will last for generations
to come.
As a side note, the JTF under its new commander must not be partial on
this matter. If it cannot protect the Fulani, it must not join forces
with Jang to eliminate them and their property. Attempting to do so
will definitely lead to loss of more lives of Berom and their
supporters. The Fulani cannot be eliminated. They have never been.
Let me assure all concerned that in spite of the ongoing brutality the
Fulani will survive this crisis. So far they have survived the
hostilities of ancient Mali, Songhai, Gobir, and Borno empires. Some
of those empires they crippled, some they stamped out completely in
spite of their small number, and with the rest they were able to live
peacefully until the present time. In all those instances, they were
equipped with nothing but three things that nobody can deny them: the
valour of the nomad, two, the strength that they derive from their
unmatched group feeling – or ‘asabiyya as Ibn Khaldun would
call it and, three, the strong thirst for justice. That group feeling
has been responsible for the defeat of most sedentary dynasties in the
past. It is also the key to the survival of the nomads today. As for
their thirst for justice, they are never satisfied until it is served
in full measure their aggressors, either by the authorities or by
them.
The power of Jang cannot match that of Ahmad Sekou Toure, the longest
serving Mallinke President of Guinea who revived the hate of his
ancestor, Sonni Ali. Toure assassinated and murdered in cold blood
over thirty thousands Fulani intellectuals, leaders and tribesmen
during his 26-year tenure. But they survived him, using their
estrangement to work harder until they gained control of over 80% of
the Guinean economy today. Jang, in spite of the support he is able to
buy, is not more than a child trying to break a coconut with his
teeth. Ridding Beromland of Fulani can only be temporary and certainly
makes it more vulnerable to attacks by their brothers from other parts
of West Africa. Take this to the bank.
As a minority in the area and on the disadvantaged side in the
conflict, the Fulani were not successful in initiating peace with the
Berom in the past. All their attempts were rebuffed. It is the move of
the more preponderant and government-backed Berom that would be
successful, given their monopoly over land and state resources. But
the Berom, even if they want peace, are under the spell of their
emperor, Jang. He controls their paramount chief and their youths. He
has a choice between peace and violence.
The choice of violence, on the one hand, is not a wise one because
violence is a two-way commodity: Pain on this side, and pain on the
other. With the egalitarian Fulani, you get just as much pain as you
give him. The road to peace, on the other, is quiet and its results
are three-dimensional: In this case, peace to the Berom, peace to the
Fulani and peace to other Nigerians living on the Plateau.
With the support he enjoys from the press, his ethnic group, law
enforcement agents, Plateau courts and the state treasury, Jang may
foolishly choose to remain recalcitrant and prefer violence to peace.
We pray that he one day sees the light, become wiser and listen to
elders of the State such that the lives of to meddle into Plateau
affairs.
Lastly, may peace be upon the leader who brings peace to his people.
And already blessed are the people who seek justice, no matter the
odds, without surrendering.
Bauchi,
12 July 2012
Important Update:
As at yesterday (13 July 2012) evening, things have calmed down after
the JTF has destroyed Fulani homes in Riyom and Barikin Ladi local
government areas. They did not kill any Fulani though. The Fulani, it
is reported, got a wind of the invasion. Even last week when they used
helicopters and when fires were exchanged, most of the JTF fire
unfortunately fell on the favoured Beroms. I learnt from three
independent sources that in the fights last week, the Fulani sustained
only one death and two injuries.
You can see my point now. Jang can never be sure who will suffer most
when he attempts to unleash violence on innocent people. I was
speaking yesterday in Jos to someone a Jarawa from Yelwa who lost a
brother when Berom youths killed 26 passengers at Haipang railway
crossing last Sunday. Among the victims, he said only about six could
be said to be Muslims. The rest from their looks were of different
ethnicities now known to include some Tarok from lower Plateau. The
youths were then just killing any Nigerian travelling on the highway.
They have done this repeatedly since 2010. Nobody is arrested.
Whatever it is, one, violence is not the answer, but peace. Two, the
gene of the Fulani cannot be eliminated on the Plateau. A clan of the
Berom, according to Berom historians, originated from a Fulani
ancestor. The Fulani have therefore already done the damage: their DNA
is permanently stamped on the Plateau. And they will continue to share
it with other Africans wherever they go.
LATEST (14 July 2012)
A quit notice was served the inhabitants of many Fulani settlements in
Barikin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas this morning, signed by
the Media Information officer. The text of the notice:
(1) This is to inform the people residing in Barikin Ladi and Riyom
Local Government Areas that a military operation is ongoing. The
inhabitants of Mahanga, Kakuruk, Kuzen, Maseh and Shong 2 are to
evacuate immediately with their property within the next 48hrs.
(2) Meanwhile, residents of Kura Falls, Kuzuk and Sharuk Rim of
Gashish and Bachit districts respectively are enjoined not to panic
and to be careful of their movement within the area and avoid places
of military operation until further notice. People are enjoined to
report any suspicious movement and activities in their areas.
(3) You are please requested to use your medium to disseminate this
information to the general public. It is to be announced routinely
throughout the period of the operation in order to avoid any hazard to
human lives and property. Salisu Mustapha (Captain), Media and
Information Officer (RESTRICTED).
Readers are left to judge for themselves.