What is a life worth in Nigeria?

There is a pattern I have noticed with president Buhari. Any time there is a terrorist attack or tragedy in another country, he’s one of the first leader to condemn the attack and or offer condolences for the avoidable loss of live(s).  That is good and commendable. At least it shows to the world Nigerians are opposed to terrorism. The only problem is that when terrorists strike in his own country and dozens or even hundreds of people are gruesomely killed, he keeps mum, especially when the suspected terrorists are Fulani herdsmen.  Violent clashes between farmers and cattle rearers are a fairly common phenomenon in Nigeria, but wholesale massacre of communities or systematic ethnic cleansing by marauding Fulani cattle rearers usually with sophisticated weapons are fairly recent and gained notoriety with the ascension to power of president Buhari. Little wonder in 2015, the Australia-based Institute for Economics Peace, which tabulates the Global Terrorism Index, ranked the Fulani herdsmen as the fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world, after Boko Haram, ISIS and the Talibans.

 

Sometime in February 2016, Fulani cattle rearers in combat gears, armed with AK – 47 rifles invaded several villages and farm settlements in Agatu local government area of Benue state in broad daylight, gunning down children, women, men and the elderly alike. According to reports, the Fulani invaders were not only content with killings, but also burned down houses, churches, police posts, food and farm items. Over 300 people were massacred in just one incident alone.

 

Over the next four months, the terrorists moved all around Benue state killing and destroying communities unchallenged and with so much confidence. They even gave reasons for the killings. Saleh Bayeri, the Interim National Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Association, in an exclusive interview with a national daily, defended the actions of his kinsmen by saying that the killings were a reprisal attack by his people against the Agatus who he accused of killing, in 2003, a prominent Fulani man.

And what was the response of law enforcement agents? Instead of arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators, they were rather invited to a peace meeting where the killers boasted of their ability to exact vengeance on the communities for one wrong or another.

At a stakeholders meeting organised by the Inspector General of Police, in Makurdi between the Fulanis and Agatu community both in Nassarawa and Benue state, the leader of the herdsmen in the community, Ardo Boderi admitted the Fulani community carried out the massacre but, this time, on the allegation that the Agatu people killed over 10, 000 of their cattle. With their new-found confidence, the herdsmen proceeded on their killing spree to Enugu, Delta, Ekiti amongst others, unchallenged.

 

While the killings were going on, the presidency pretended as if nothing was happening. It took severe rebukes from the citizenry for it to respond by half-heartedly and belatedly ordering security agencies to stop the killings. Not a word of condolence or even condemnation of the killings was heard from the presidency.

 

Now the killing fields have shifted to Southern Kaduna. According to the statistics from the Catholic Doicese of Kafanchan, a total of 808 people were killed in 53 villages across the three local governments of Jema’a, Kaura, ZangonKataf local government areas in the state while farm produce estimated at N5.5 billion were destroyed by the invading forces. Going further the statement disclosed that a total of 1, 422 houses and 16 churches were burnt during the attacks. While the IG of Police has disputed the figures, he failed to provide any figures of the death or loss suffered.

 

And as usual the presidency has refused to make any comments. This is in sharp contrast to citizen Buhari, who usually lead delegations of Fulani cattle rearers to state governors in the South to complain that his people are being killed.

 

But the most bizarre response to the criticism of the silence of the president came from his spokesperson, Femi Adesina. Speaking on Sunrise daily, a TV programme, Adesina berated those who insist the President must speak on the matter: “You don’t have to hear from the president on that matter. You see, when it pays us, we talk about federalism and true federalism, yet you want the president and presidency to talk about everything,” he said. “When things like this happen in a state, there is a chief security officer, he is supposed to be on top of the matter. Governor el-Rufai was at the villa on Thursday to brief the president, so why should the president then be talking about it? “True federalism is the governor should be in charge and he is in charge of it.”

 

This is an outrageous and insensitive statement. How does one describe a president who comments on every terror attack in the world and sends condolence for loss of even a single life in those attacks but keeps mum when thousands of his own citizens are killed in terrorist attacks? Evidently, the deaths and the lives lost do not matter and silence is usually the best way to communicate that reality.

 

But how is governor el-Rufai on top of the situation? On Christmas Eve, the governor declared a state of emergency with a 24 hour curfew to boot. Security agencies were also deployed to the affected areas. But the murderous Fulani herdsmen still managed to storm the area unchallenged killing and terrorising the people as usual.

More concretely, the governor has adopted the deceitful policy of appeasement, which too, we must emphasise is not working. In December last year, the governor said the government is paying the murderous Fulani herdsmen to stop the killing. Hear him: “We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.”

What does that say about the government and its capacity to protect its people? Does that also show that the governor is on top of the situation? Besides, does the governor being in charge enough restitution for the lost lives and destroyed property? Or are some lives more valuable in Nigeria than others?

Contrast the silence and inaction of the president to the killings by herdsmen to his swift reaction to the problem of cattle rustling in some northern states. The president quickly summoned governors of about ten northern states to a meeting in Abuja after which Operation Sharan Daji was launched with great success. Happily, the problem has been contained.
Sadly, the president’s attitude has continued to feed growing perception that he is obviously protecting and encouraging his Fulani kinsmen. This is providing further ammunition to those who accuse him of being clannish and an ethnic champion.

 

How can one convince the people being abandoned by the governments to be killed by terrorists not to resort to self-help? After all, self-preservation is the first law of nature.

 

Christopher Akor