Says the desire of the Fulani to be treated as an exclusive “race” cannot be allowed to continue in a free and egalitarian nation

Urges FG to, in no distant future, close all IDP camps to end the shameful and sinful policy of building such refugee camps 

By Henry Umoru, Abuja

Leaders of thoughts, elder statesmen from four of the six geopolitical zones of the country, under the aegis of the Southern and Middle Leaders Forum, SMBLF, have written to President Bola Tinubu, saying that the buck of nipping in the bud, the incessant killings and wanton destruction of property in the Middle Belt, and threat to Nigeria’s continued corporate existence stop with him.

According to the leaders in the letter, they hold as indisputably self-evident that all ethnic nationalities were and have settled in their portions of Nigeria before the amalgamation and establishment of Nigeria in 1914, and if not stopped immediately, the current rabid territorial ambition and quest for the alteration of the demographic structures of the federation will lead to chaos and internecine wars, the end of which may be the dismemberment of the fragile Nigerian Federation.

The leaders said that urgent steps must be taken to restructure Nigeria in line with the tenets of true federalism and to legitimise multi-level policing so that states and communities will provide commensurate security for their people.

The letter, which was made available to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, was signed by the leader of SMBLF and South-South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark; Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader, Afenifere; Chief Dr Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide; Dr. Pogu Bitrus, President, Middle Belt Forum; and Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, National Chairman, PANDEF.

The letter read, “The unrelenting massacre bordering on ethnic cleansing and armed occupation of the territories of the indigenous peoples of the Middle Belt and most parts of Northern Nigeria by identified ethnic militias have shown without any doubt that the Nigerian state, its government, and security forces have continued to fail in the fundamental duty of the security and welfare of citizens as the primary purpose of government as stated in Section 14(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Former President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately handicapped himself with the deceitful mindset that people of the North-West were of the same tribes and religions and wondered why they were fighting amongst themselves. 

The truth, however, is that the north-west geopolitical zone is most diverse in ethnic content, and the war therein is orchestrated by the desire for new territorial spaces for the Fulani both within and outside Nigeria against the other ethnic nationalities, especially the Hausa majority, which has for ages been falsely touted as being indistinguishable from the Fulani.

“Mr President, unfortunately, and as it was with the Buhari administration, rather than accept the reality of the danger posed to the corporate existence of the federation by an extra-territorial agenda of the Fulani ethnic nationality, backed by organized and well-armed militias, which was, since 2018, declared by Amnesty International as the “4th most deadly terrorist organization in the world,” your administration has also, now, in bad faith, dressed this evil in the false garb of “herders/farmers’ clash” and the blood-thirsty ethnic militias as mere bandits. It is a conflict where one side, fully armed, continues to attack and kill the innocent, who are being deliberately defanged by agents of the government.

“SMBLF holds as indisputably self-evident that all ethnic nationalities were and have settled in their portions of Nigeria before the amalgamation and establishment of Nigeria in 1914, and thus, the current rabid territorial ambition and quest for the alteration of the demographic structures of the federation will lead to chaos and internecine wars, the end of which may be the dismemberment of the fragile Nigerian Federation.

“Mr. President, your predecessor had all the facts and evidence of an ideological Fulanization agenda but preferred to pander and prevaricate rather than bring justice to the victims of oppression and genocide.

“In light of the foregoing, the SMBLF, moved by the patriotic desire for the corporate continuity of Nigeria and the peaceful and mutually respectful coexistence of its diverse nationalities, strongly urges that you, Mr. President, consider the following:

“Your government holds an honest and truthful security inquiry to determine communities wherein the original inhabitants have been displaced in the last 2 decades and enforce the immediate return and resettlement of the people in their ancestral homes.

“Further to the above, the government should, in no distant future, close all IDP camps to end the shameful and sinful policy of building such refugee camps for the indigenous peoples while their ancestral homes are allowed to be occupied by the armed invaders.

“That the security agencies, including the police, the Civil Defence Corps, and others, be specially trained and equipped to rise to the challenges as Nigeria is fast becoming a banana or pariah state of its kid-gloves treatment of terrorism.

“That the Nigerian state, which fought a tribal civil war to secure its corporate existence, should not allow another internecine war of diverse tribes brought about by its permissive handling of provocative activities of local Fulani militias aided by collaborators from the West African sub-region and the Sahel.

“The desire of the Fulani to be treated as an exclusive “race” cannot be allowed to continue in a free and egalitarian nation. They should seek land for their trade in the same way other Nigerians buy and manage land, and stop this sense of entitlement.

“That you, Mr President, should rise to the occasion and dare the powers that be; decisively deal with the perpetrators of the senseless killings, end the massacre, and guarantee the safety of lives and property of citizens in all parts of our country, especially the Middle Belt Region, and restore the dignity of citizens and national pride; for which you will ever be remembered!”

The leaders further said, “The joy expressed by you in your New Year message in welcoming your “compatriots to this brand new year 2024” cannot be understood or shared by several millions of our countrymen and women, particularly the people of Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State, where over 200 innocent villagers were killed by terrorists, with more than 300 persons injured, several properties destroyed, and thousands of people displaced, between Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th, and Monday, December 26th, 2023.

“The SMBLF commiserates with the affected families and people of Plateau State and commends the United Nations (UN), Amnesty International, the Pope, and the International Community, generally, for their unequivocal condemnation of the killings on the Plateau, while urging that the world be conscious of the grave implications of these happenings on the corporate existence of the Nigerian Federation.

“The cycle of attacks, government inaction, and provable official complicity engendered a situation where no less a personality than General T. Y. Danjuma Rtd, former Chief of Army Staff and former Defence Minister, openly advised victims of terrorism to arm themselves, since the government appears unwilling to stem the atrocities being committed against the indigenous peoples.

“Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, a former member of an elite group of intelligence officers in our military, posited on national television that a list of sponsors of terror was in the hands of the government, with names of those behind these dastardly acts in the country. In addition to the list, the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), admitted to having received a list of terrorist sponsors from the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Of course, nothing was done!

“The audacious and reckless assertions by some prominent personalities of Fulani Extraction like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, and Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, who ought to be more “civilised,” lent credence to the Fulanisation agenda. Nasir El-Rufai reportedly threatened that “whoever kills a Fulani herdsman, including the army, takes a death loan, repayable in 100 years,” on an alleged plan by the military to dislodge a Fulani-occupied settlement on other people’s ancestral homes in the outskirts of Jos, Plateau State. He warned that “if the Nigerian Army goes and removes the Fulani settlement, any person wearing a Nigerian Army uniform in 14 Western African countries is at risk.”

“Governor Bala Mohammed, on his part, justified the possession of AK-47 weapons by the Fulani herders as self-defence in “practicing the tradition of trans-human pastoralism” throughout West Africa with no regard for national boundaries, not to mention ancestral lands of other groups, which have no affinity to the Fulani.

“The Buhari administration tried all the tricks in its wits to create Fulani settlements in other people’s territories throughout Nigeria by different strategies of “land grabbing” in the guise of RUGA, grazing routes, cattle colonies, or contrived integrated agriculture schemes, where new estates would be built for pastoralists with better amenities than the host communities whose lands would be acquired by the Federal Government, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, which make land use regulations an exclusive state affair. The then-presidential spokesman betrayed the mind of the government when he advised the people that “it was better they release land than lose their lives.”

“The horror of the Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau State is not different from the situation in Benue, where several communities, particularly in Kwande, Gwer-West, Guma, Makurdi, and Logo Local Government Areas, are perennially attacked by the pampered armed Fulani ethnic militias who have taken over other people’s lands and homes.

“In Kaduna State, and particularly in Southern Kaduna, Chikun, Kajuru, Kachia, Zangon Kataf, Kauru, Lere, Birnin Gwari, and Giwa Local Governments are largely under the control of terrorists. The operations of these armies of occupation claimed to be foreigners were allegedly boosted by El-Rufai’s admission of payment of huge amounts of money to Fulani militants across West Africa, only to end up lamenting that these associates of his invariably made Kaduna State ungovernable.

“The situation in Niger State is not different, if not worse, as according to the immediate past Governor of the State, Abubakar Sani-Bello, terrorists (he called them bandits) have taken over 12 local government areas in Niger State, as confirmed during his visit in 2022 to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the Central Primary School, Gwada. The worst-hit local governments in the state include Rafi, Munyan, Shiroro, Magama, Mashegu, Mariaga, and Wushishi, some of which the terrorists not only hoisted but also collected taxes and levies in a state bordering the FCT.

“In the Zuru district of Kebbi State, terrorists are so much in control that they audaciously opened fire and killed military men deployed to the area following an earlier killing of scores of vigilantes, otherwise known as Yan-Sa-Kai by the terrorists.

“In Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina, peasant farmers of the Hausa as well as other non-Fulani nationalities can no longer access their farms as a result of Fulani terrorism. The case of Zamfara is worst, having been virtually rendered ungovernable except for the state capital, Gusau.”

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