By Mike Odeh James
President Bola Tinubu has sparked controversy by proposing to construct special settlements for nomadic cattle herdsmen blamed for mass village raids and displacements across several states.
The proposal, announced by Vice President Kashim Shettima, on September 12 has come under fire, with critics arguing that it could legitimize land grabs and impose Islamic dominance, particularly in states like Benue, which have been severely affected by herdsmen attacks.
“There are more than 2 million displaced persons in Benue, thousands of homes destroyed, and many more dead as a result of the attacks launched by Fulani terrorists on Benue,” said U.S. based Nigerian human-rights attorney Emmanuel Ogebe.
“Giving Benue lands to the Fulani’s would amount to attempts to change the religious and ethnic composition of the state to favor imported Fulani’s,” said Ogebe, leader of the Nigerian Law Group in the United States. “During the Administration of Goodluck Jonathan, hundreds of schools equipped with infrastructure were built for the Fulani’s and other Northern tribes, but they refused to make use of the land; rather, and most of the schools rotted away,” he said. https://guardian.ng/news/jonathans-n15b-almajiri-schools-rot-away/
“Guilty of genocide”
The Fula people, often called the Fulani, are considered the largest nomadic group globally. An accurate number of the total population is unknown due to controversies over who is a Fulani ethnic, but it is widely agreed there are 20 million individuals spread across West Africa and some estimate the number is above 35 million. https://www.frstrategie.org/en/programs/observatoire-du-monde-arabo-musulman-et-du-sahel/fulani-people-and-jihadism-sahel-and-west-african-countries-2019
More than 10 million Fulani reside in Nigeria alone. https://africacenter.org/spotlight/understanding-fulani-perspectives-sahel-crisis/ It may be an overestimation.
In Nigeria, the Fulani form the most populous and politically influential ethnic group among the 250-plus ethnic groups in the country, as reported by World Watch Monitor. This predominantly Muslim tribe has a centuries-old heritage centered around nomadic herding of cattle, sheep, and goats. A militant faction within this community has been held responsible for numerous genocidal massacres in Nigeria, resulting in six times more deaths compared to those attributed to Boko Haram, according to the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), an international nonprofit based in the United Kingdom. TruthNigeria has reported on the problem as well. https://truthnigeria.com/2023/08/islamic-state-the-goal-of-foreign-terrorist-attacks-nigerian-lawmakers/
Protest in Benue on 11 August
This year in Benue alone, Fulani militants killed more than 590 residents by the first week of June, according to Intersociety, an international crime tracking nonprofit. https://saharareporters.com/2023/04/13/benue-killing-field-and-nigerias-humans-slaughter-slabs-bolaji-o-akinyemi
The latest incident on September 7 saw three people including two citizen guards killed in Ugba, the seat of the Logo county by armed men suspected to be Fulani militants. Nigerian mainstream news media have attributed the attack to “unknown gunmen”, a popular phrase used by the Nigerian authorities to avoid responsibility after attacks. The attack followed days of sustained Fulani raids that killed several residents leading to mass protests by women on 11 August. https://punchng.com/gunmen-kill-three-in-benue/?amp
One person was killed close to the protest venue in the east of Guma county just two hours after the police and community officials assured the demonstrators they would track the criminals and jail them.
Another five people were killed one mile away just three days later in what residents say was a daily routine ignored by the government and Nigerian mainstream media. https://punchng.com/gunmen-kill-six-in-benue/
The attacks aimed at occupying land and a forceful imposition of Islam, according to lawmakers speaking to TruthNigeria.
“Even the federal government has admitted that these are foreign terrorists from Niger republic, Libya and other places but nothing is being done about it,” according to Simon Mwadkwon, a member of the Nigerian Senate. The lawmakers have seen the Fulani taking over more than 400 Benue communities in recent years. https://truthnigeria.com/2023/08/islamic-state-the-goal-of-foreign-terrorist-attacks-nigerian-lawmakers/
Yet, the President Bola Tinubu administration on September 12 proposed to build 1,000 houses worth more than $64million for the Fulani in Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and Benue States as part of efforts to address armed attacks on local communities. The houses will be equipped with schools, clinics, and ranches constructed, according to Shettima.
“The Bola Tinubu administration should resettle those displaced, rebuild houses, and destroy farmlands rather than build houses for Fulani’s who are actually guilty of crimes involving genocide in Benue,” said Ogebe to TruthNigeria by telephone.
“Legalizing land-grab”
Tribal leaders in Benue have also rejected the proposal which was previously attempted by former President Muhammadu Buhari without success.
Representatives of two dominant tribes in the state, Mr. Toni Adokwu, an Idoma leader, and Mr. Iorbee Ihagh, a Tiv leader, in a joint statement insisted on the resettlement of displaced residents instead.
“Without mincing words, we want to tell President Bola Tinubu that he should call off the project, direct the relevant agencies of government to without delay commence a resettlement and rehabilitation process for IDPs in the state to return to their ancestral homes, and further ensure that the IDPs are assisted to live normal lives,” they said, rehashing earlier concerns by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state which accused the federal government of attempting to legitimize land-grab.
Benue tribal leaders vow to resist planned Fulani colony https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/09/fgs-1000-houses-benue-tribal-leaders-vow-to-resist-planned-fulani-colony/amp/
“It is unjust and ultimately insensitive to have a colony established for the Fulani with all the facilities for modern living in a state where victims of the genocidal atrocities committed by those same Fulani are still displaced from their lands and means of livelihood and living in sub-human conditions in camps that bear semblance to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during the Second World War,” wrote the spokesman for the party in Benue, Mr. Bemgba Iortyoyem in a press statement.
“It is inhuman to even contemplate settling those oppressors in comfort while their victims are languishing in hellish conditions, and this amounts to thumbing-up criminality while rubbing the nose of the victim into his blood spilled by the oppressor,” Iortyoyem wrote.
Benue PDP rejects establishment of proposed fulani colony https://tribuneonlineng.com/benue-pdp-rejects-establishment-of-proposed-fulani-colony/
Governor Fr. Hyacinth Alia, the recently elected governor of Benue, who belongs to the ruling All Progressives Congress Party has denied the federal government was planning to take land from displaced locals to build homes for the Fulani.
Instead, the government intends to rebuild houses destroyed by terrorists in the State, wrote Mr. Alia in a statement issued by his spokesman, Tersoo Kula, on 11 September.
“Be rest assured that in Benue, the homes are for our people and not for any colony, whatsoever,” wrote Governor Alia.
“It is a burning desire of Governor Hyacinth Alia and the present administration to return the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their homes, as soon as possible. Since most of their houses have been destroyed by the gun carrying marauding herders, the federal government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has agreed to sponsor the reconstruction of new homes for our Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),” Alia wrote.
Mike Odeh James is an independent conflict reporter based in Kaduna city and covers politics and crime news for TruthNigeria.com
