Cow grazing route to Nigeria’s conquest – Godwin Etakibuebu

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State escalated the discuss on Fulani herdsmen’s palaver into a new but most dangerous frontiers last week in an online television program [The Osasu Show] in Makurdi, the State capital. What he said during the program may not be totally new to most Nigerians but the emphasis he laid upon the revelation was stunning and chilling.

It drained courage out of many that were otherwise offspring of bravado. And for those lacking in the realm of audacity, the Governor’s statement sent them to the land of comatose, at least for now.

Governor Ortom said the attacks on Benue was an act of “vengeance by herders for losing the 1804 Jihad”, stressing that “Benue people stopped them from penetrating the state through Sokoto”. For them in Benue State, according to Ortom, Fulani herdsmen’s deadly attack on the people is more of revenge affairs and beyond.

The Fulani Jihadist were on a mission to the “Sea”, according to the Governor, and this aggressive mission was truncated by the bravery of the Benue people who stopped the Jihadist from further advancing on their mapped target, which of course was the “Sea”. This was in 1804.

But which Sea was the target of the Fulani jihadists that the Benue people frustrated them from reaching? The “Sea” must have been the same as the “Coast” referred to by the Scion of the Fulani Empire [Caliphate]; Usman dan Fodio when he was quoted as saying that the “sword of Islam that has gone up in the desert will never come down until it comes to the coast”. This was about 1804 also.

In interpretation therefore, the Fulani Jihadist’s inability to access and wage a brutal war against the people of what later turned out to be present day Niger Delta region of Nigeria was blamed on the resilience of the people of Benue region as it was then. Given this revelation, the brutality with which the Fulani herdsmen have dealt with the Benue people in the past few years, even up till date, is to revenge the blockage of its jihad’s onslaught into the whole of the “Oceanic region”, as it were then.

The Governor assured that until this matter [of Fulani herdsmen] is settled through the application of the Nigerian laws by the Federal Government, there will be no electioneering campaign in Benue State for 2019 general election. He was emphatic that the fact of Benue State being part of the ruling All Progressive Congress would not change the status quo about the decision of the people [of Benue State] until the right thing is done by the Buhari’s Federal Government. In his lamentation the Governor debunked the lies waved around the Fulani herdsmen quest for grazing as the reason for the mayhem all over the country. This is how the Governor put it:

“These people [the Fulani herdsmen] have gone beyond grazing; it is about invading the land and taking over. All the places they have attacked, they have chased the people away and they are using their farmlands’ produce as feed for their cattle.

They are conducting international conferences, issuing press releases and writing on social media and they have come out to say look, in 1804 Jihad, it was Benue people that stopped them from penetrating from Sokoto to the sea. This time around, they are not going to stop. They will make sure that they mobilise all Fulani men across the globe, especially from the West African sub-region to ensure that they acquire arms and come and invade and take over the land”.

“Because they also said Nigeria is the only land that God has given them, so no other person will supervene on this land except them; that it is their own land, they got this land by conquest and we have no business staying on this land. It is unbelievable. The statement is coming from Miyetti Allah.

Well, I wouldn’t know about their patrons or the extent of their involvement. But one thing I know is that the people that have been issuing these press statements are known. They are living in Abuja; they are living with the powers-that-be.”

These are very serious revelations that President Buhari need to address and urgently too. The man in the President would “die if he keeps silent at this terrible time of Fulani herdsmen tyranny”, in the words of the noble laureate; Wole Soyinka. Buhari was not voted to the presidency by the limited votes of Fulani which is not up to 7% of the Nigerian population. He cannot therefore, under all seriousness, bring to conclusion the failed vision of Usman dan Fodio in bringing the “sword of Islam to the Ocean”, in a present day constituted Nigeria. Yet, the Nigerian people outside the Fulani stock are worried because of obvious attempt on the side of the federal government in bringing the “dead ambition” of yester-years to come to past.

Appointments of security henchmen all over Security strata give reason for concern. For example, all the Parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Interior are not just headed by Northerners but strictly Fulani Moslems. These are scenes that make one to question if we are really operating one Nigeria. It becomes most difficult therefore for a true Nigerian patriot of another tribe; outside the Fulani stock, agreeing with the Governor of Benue State’s submission. And this is not too good for unity of the citizenry. There is one more point l would want to make here before drawing the curtain.

Within the past three years or thereabout, the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle are found practically all over Nigeria, mostly the whole of the Southern geo-political zones. Fulani herdsmen and their cattle have been doing continuous havoc to the people [killing and raping] of Abraka in Delta State. They [herdsmen and their animals] occupied the heart of the forest in that community, with rumours that a certain helicopter has been so regular with their [herdsmen] supplies. And these herdsmen, according to the story, are fully armed with sophisticated weapons.

There is this serene Ijaw village by name Ojobo that is only accusable by sea from another village [Ogbogbaghene] after Bomadi Town in Delta State. It takes a well-equipped speed-boat about One and Half Hours to arrive Ojobo from Ogbogbaghene. As of the last count, a frightening numbers of cows with some Fulani herdsmen were found in the community. This is how they [herdsmen and their products] are found all over the country.

Sometimes, they occupied classrooms [very rampant in Edo State], at other times they are climbing and descending some pedestrian bridges in Lagos. Yet at other places, they occupied international airports’ runaways.

Could it be, in line with the revelation of the Benue State Governor, these cows and the herdsmen are deployed as foot-soldiers to “occupy until the Jihadists arrive”? Whichever way we look at it there is an urgent need for President Buhari to say something or do something so that the catastrophic doomsday conspiracy can be avoided.

OBASANJO AND THE NIGERIAN PROJECT.

The former President, the one that President Goodluck Jonathan called “Boss of bosses” and directed Atiku Abubakar to go and please if he really wants to be president of Nigeria, Chief Okikiola Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, was in Bayelsa State for three days last week as Guest of the State Government. Of course, there were official/State functions he performed. These were not supposed to be my worries until the news came that he visited Goodluck Jonathan and in fact had dinner with him in his Country-Home in Otueke. That was when l started having running stomach

If we count and check on those that Baba Obasanjo from Owu in Abeokuta dinned with in their houses in the past, it was always bad news for the hosts. He, as President, went to Audu Ogbeh’s house for dinner when the latter was Chairman of the People Democratic Party, that same evening Obasanjo forced the retirement of Ogbeh as Chairman of their Party at gun-point. Obasanjo also visited the house of the late Chuba Okadigbo when the latter was the President of the Nigerian Senate. The late Oyin of Oyin feted his great guest [Obasanjo] with pounded-yam and vegetable soup only for him to be removed the next day as Senate President by machinery Obasanjo put in place against him.

You can now understand my worries when on Thursday last week; Obasanjo was in Jonathan’s house in Otueke, having dinner. Yes, Obasanjo had succeeded in “his little way by helping to overthrow Jonathan in the 2015 general election”, a little feat he even celebrated, in his inimical and cynical way. It means there is no other throne he [Obasanjo] can remove Jonathan from, at least for now or even in the far feature. Yet, l am worried because Obasanjo’s dinner with political associates is always a pending disaster. I pray there is none on Jonathan this time around.

Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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