By AMINU JAHUN

The wanton ethnic killings in central Nigerian states are symptomatic of a substantially weakened Nigerian state.  This should make not only the warring communities lose sleep, but every patriotic Nigerian concerned about the future of this country. The conflict is projected to the intellectual realm by the “immigrant” and “indigenous” brethren of parties to the conflict. J.A. Maton’s response to Dr Umar Ardo’s “Call to Halt the Villification of Fulani in Nigeria” could be percieved in this light.“The substance of Ardo’s piece is that millions of patriotic Fulbe who are as concerned with the killings in Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, etc, as any other patriotic Nigerian citizens are regarded complicit in the mayhem.“Since the Fulbe is the only ethnicity that is negatively profiled due to the terroristic disposition of some of their kith and kin, Ardo calls for an end to the ethnic profiling due to its backlash on national cohesion. Maton’s response is that since Fulani aggression is expansionist and political, it becomes a collective ethnic affair, making every Fulani leader liable. And thereafter, he indulges in what is no more than indigenous fairy tales.

First, his solution to the conflict is that  since the Fulani have overstayed their welcome in Nigeria , they should therefore, return to wherever they came from. There could be non-Nigerians among the Fulbe aggressors.  But it would be the responsibility of the Nigerian state to nab them and deport them from Nigeria.“It would be hallucinatory to entertain the thought of decitisinising 30 million Fulbe  by an indigenous declaratory fiat. As citizens by birth, Maton, a barrister, knows that constitutionally nobody has the power to strip of them of their citizenship, talk less of marching them out of the nation. They are neither citizens by registration nor naturalisation, whose citizenship is at the pleasure of the president, to be  conditionally revoked as he/she deems fit. In Nigeria, immigration has lost its integrative value, it has been negatively transformed into an ethnic and cultural baggage. In this vein, the history of many  ethnicities, would be a history of cultural and ethnic baggage.

According to Professor Saad Abubakar, besides some autochthons, all the ethnic groups in the Upper Benue Valley have traditions of movements, some over long distances, and others within the geographical zones, transforming them into immigrants like the Fulbe. Presently the Tivs are in conflict with the Jukun as they are with the Fulbe. As the Tivs regard the Fulani immigrants and settlers, the Jukun regard the Tivs immigrants and settlers in Benue State. Jukun Wanu, a Jukun national association, claims that it was British colonialism which forced the Tivs on Jukun lands in 1929 and 1934, which were since the 17th century under the control of the Riverine Jukun. Though the 1999 Constitution( as amended) is silent on it, the conflicts in the central Nigerian states raise  fundamental questions: how long do immigrants have to settle in communities before they become indigenous to them? Is it by marrying an indigenous spouse?  Or, is it only the children of immigrants  born there, who could become indigenous? Or, is it an exclusive cultural and ethnic affair beyond the reach of profiled others?

The stipulation in section 25(a) of the 1999 Constitution( as amended) that before one becomes a citizen by birth, his parents or any of them must belong or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria, tragically empowers ultra indigenous chauvinists to weaponise indigeneity and elevate it above Nigerian citizenship.“Despite the global campaign to protect aboriginal and indigenous communities, citizenship should take precedence over indigeneity. But according to the Matons a  Fullo could be a Nigerian citizen, but no matter the duration of his stay in some communities, he would never become  indigenous to them. Secondly, in a fairy tale style Maton posits that the Fulbe have no stake in the theatres of the conflicts. They may be descendents of immigrants, but that doesn’t preclude them from being stakeholders in the conflict prone areas. Their economic survival is dependent on lands, forests, markets and cattle routes in host communities. This dependence and the rise of indigenous nationalism and the politicisation of the conflicts block mutually satisfactory avenues to their resolution.

Thirdly, if the existence of Fulbe militias and groups constitute grounds for the collective guilt of the Fulani elites, then each of of these ethnic groups: Kanuri, Igbo and the Yoruba have the equivalents of Miyetti Allah and other Fulbe groups, but neither the Kanuri, nor the Igbo and Yoruba elites are regarded liable for the atrocities of Boko Haram, IPOB and OPC. A few conspiracy theories could move us beyond Maton’s indigenous fairy tales. The conflicts could hardly be divorced from alleged neo-imperialist plots to destabilise the nation and transform it into a prolonged war zone, another Iraq, Libya  or Sudan to facilitate the imposition of a puppet regime, theft of our resources, and highly lucrative defence contracts for the American and Western military and industrial complexes. Why not start by igniting conflicts in a zone defined by multiple fault lines, the weakest link for national unity in the North?

Some pundits regard the conflicts as a local plot by Northern fifth columnists in cahoots with their Southern allies to perpetually destabilise the North, preparatory to restructuring parts of its zones out of the Nigerian federation. Others attribute the crises to the emergence of fascistic subnational leaders diverting attention from their corrupt deals and misgovernance, by imploding the region with negative ethnic and religious profiling and attendant conflicts. Had it been in any other democracy, neither the Presidency and the National Assembly, nor the Judiciary, media and civil society organisations would rest their oars till the crises are amicably resolved. The failure to resolve them and their escalation lend credence to all or some of the conspiracy theories.

The Terwase Akwaze( Gana)-led murderous gang which terrorised Katsina Ala, Logo and Ukum LGAs of Benue State a few years ago, and the recent revealation by Governor Charles Soludo that most of the unknown gunmen in Anambra State are Igbos  reveals a lot about the ‘give-Fulani-a-bad-name-to-hang-them’ nature of Nigeria’s insurgency politics.

*Jahun, a public affairs analyst,  wrote from Dutse, Jigawa State