An armed mob recently stormed a police station in Udege, Nassarawa State and killed Umaru Muhammed and Adamu Sule, two Fulani herdsmen detained for grazing cattle on farmlands (Daily Trust, May 9, 2012, page 8).
In Ghana and South Sudan recently, nomads were attacked and killed by locals, who burnt their houses, stole their cattle and abducted their children for ransom. Within Nigeria, violence has erupted between nomads and farmers in Nasarawa, Taraba, Benue, Plateau and Adamawa states recently. Today, farmer-nomad conflict is second only to Boko Haram among dangers threatening Nigeria. What is the root cause, and is there a solution?
The Fulani were probably all nomads in times past, but some clans later settled in towns and villages (settled Fulani), while others continued nomadism (nomadic Fulani). The two groups are otherwise similar in all respects. However, while the settled Fulani see cattle-rearing as a hobby, the nomadic Fulani considers it a way of life.
It is not known when the Fulani first settled in Nigeria, but by 1535, they were living in Hausaland, and by the late 18th century, they had spread across Kanem Bornu and present-day Congo and Sudan. The rise of the Sokoto Caliphate further widened the gap between settled and nomadic Fulani. While the settled Fulani built new settlements, the nomadic Fulani took advantage of better grazing opportunities to spread across the West African Savannah. With the advent of colonialism, cattle-rearing was no longer practicable for the settled Fulani, whose towns had grown into cities and administrative centres. Instead, they imbibed western education in return for job opportunities in Native Authority administration and teaching. Today, some settled Fulani live in mansions in Abuja and Lagos, while their children study abroad. Father and son communicate with iPads, and only get to see cattle on television.
In contrast, the nomadic Fulani remain attached to cattle. They would set up tents in areas with abundant water and grass. When these dried up, they migrate to greener pastures, moving north or westwards when it is rainy season in the Savannah, and reversing direction during the dry season. Whenever others discuss the plight of nomads, they espouse the benefits of beef and milk to the Nigerian economy, and propose better cattle-routes to allow nomads move without hindrance. Perhaps, they do not realize the price nomads pay in pursuit of nomadism. For a perspective on nomadic lifestyle, i here quote a conference paper:
"Lack of a home, and grazing land for his cattle, has forced the nomad to move throughout his life. He and his family are exposed to extreme weather conditions under inadequate shelter. His children are born and brought up under ... (a constant) menace from snake bites and tsetse flies, (and) he has nowhere else to put his head. He lives on mud-water, and carries Guinea worm and other diseases. ... He is isolated from his compatriots, and therefore, enjoys no rights and privileges. (The nomad) lacks good water, access to health facilities, good roads and good food. He is driven from one place to another, either by fellow humans or by natural forces, sometimes resulting in losing his life or the lives of members of his family, or all, including his cattle" (Hamidu Alkali, In Gidado Tahir, 1991, Education and pastoralism in Nigeria).
Cattle routes and grazing reserves have existed in Nigeria since colonial times, but they still lack the basic amenities required for use. Due to official corruption and pressure on land caused by rising populations, a cattle route followed by a herd moving from North to South in October is filled with farmlands next June, making it impossible for the same herd to return to the North on that route. In most instances, this is the cause of farmer-nomad conflicts.
Conflicts aside, there is no justification for a nomadic existence in 21st century Nigeria. Yes, nomads exist in Canada, Scandinavia and Kenya, but the Innuits, the Lapps and the Massai all enjoy the benefits of modern life available to their countrymen, and are never lynched by farmer tribes. No doubt, beef and milk are invaluable to any society, but nomadism is not the only way to cattle-breeding. Among the world's largest beef exporters is Australia, where there no nomads, and cattle are bred by settled farmers who own large farms and use modern technology.
The government should settle our nomads and integrate them fully into Nigerian society. Our grazing reserves have enough capacity for millions of cows and humans, if amenities are put in place. Villages can be built within grazing reserves, with each having water reservoirs, schools, a health centre and an animal clinic. Settling the nomads will not only help improve literacy and reduce disease burden among that group, it will also free up cattle routes for local farmers, thus solving the problem of farmer-nomad conflicts permanently. Our past inaction has led to deaths. If we learn from that, perhaps Mohammed and Sule did not die in vain.
Alkali is Consultant Neurologist, National Hospital Abuja.
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Unlike me, Mr Garden-City Boy is not man enough to publish his real name, and resorts to bigotry in denouncing my call for government to settle the Fulani cattle-nomads of Nigeria. While this fool harped on the “corruption of northerners” and the sufferings of Niger Delta fishermen on the Daily Trust website, here he uses a different tactic, placing the blames for the 1967-70 Nigerian civil war on the Hausa-Fulani. Perhaps he hopes to score cheap marks from Ibo readers. I will like Mr. City Boy to answer the following: 1). Did the Tivs, Yorubas, Nupes, Igalas, Idomas, Egbiras, Kanuris, Biroms, Angas, and Binis, not fight on the federal side during the Nigerian civil war? So, why pick on the Hausa and Fulani only? 2). What has the civil war got to do with settling Fulani nomads? Are they to be settled in Iboland, or with money from the 5 Ibo states? 3). Northerners may be corrupt, but are Alamasiegha, Ibori and Igbinedion not southerners? Are they not the only 3 state governors to have been convicted of corruption in Nigeria since 1999, in a country with 36 states and many more ex-governors? 4). Over the years, have federal agencies like OMPADEC, NDDC and the ministry of the Niger Delta not spent billions to make life easier for people of the Niger Delta, including fishermen? So, what is your grouse with nomadic education, or settlement of the nomads? Do you think denying nomads a place of abode and clean water, and the right to education and healthcare, will solve the problem of Niger Delta fishermen? 5). If you feel sorry for nomadic fishermen, why didn’t you publish an essay on their plight, and ways to help them, instead attacking me and other northerners for proposing a solution to a serious national problem that often results in ethnic conflicts and deaths? But no, you would rather see Fulani and Tiv kill each other, simply because you hate the Fulani.
6). Well, I have got news for Mr. City Boy. A bill is already in the National Assembly for improving our cattle reserves and making them functional for cattle nomads. The long-term goal is permanent settlement of the nomads in the same reserves. I dare you to stop it, you semi-literate hate-monger.
Nura Alkali should give us a break and bury his fat head in shame. The case he makes for settling recklessness is a non-sequitor. Alkali is way off the mark and his effort to falsify records has not helped him any. In recent days, the Fulani nomads have formed into an organized militia, armed with AK-47s to terrorize innocent Nigerians. Their brutal impunity is not only restricted to Nasarawa, Taraba, Benue, Plateau and Adamawa states. They are all over the place, in the South-East and South-West, killing, maiming, raping, ravaging farmlands, and burning houses and property, sacking whole communities and engaging in deadly armed robbery on major inter-state highways nationwide. It is deceptive characterization to refer to these bandits as "Fulani Herdsmen". They are bands of out-of-control militia and the fifth column unleashed to press a political grand design. Once I had a 3-plot maize plantation in Lagos. Under the cover of darkness, these irresponsible, trouble-making militia drove herds of cattle into the plots, devastated the entire farm, leaving us with steaming heaps of cow dung. Not one twig was left standing as morning approached. I was only about 10 days to cropping. That was in Lagos; you can then imagine what those farmers in the upland states go through. To expect locals to let such impunity to go unchallenged is myopic presumption for fellows like Alkali. Rather than regret this incendiary of Hausa/Fulani creation, Alkali canvasses for the “settlement” and reward for the mayhem they stoke, in the spirit of the Hausa/Fulani “doctrine of settled issues” brainwash. And that is Hausa/Fulani logic. In the characteristic clan dishonesty and insincerity, Nura Alkali -the modern day "Fulani Settlement" advocate- shies away from letting his readers know how this nation spent a fortune on the money guzzling NOMADIC EDUCATION program. The scheme neither had cattle ranches, nor indigenous veterinary professionals nor schools to show for the colossal investment that went on for decades. We saw no integrated animal husbandry projects in the aftermath. That money was simply fed to a clan of voracious squirrels, to the last kobo; it ended up in the private pockets of the rapacious Northern elite. While it went on, there was no consideration for “FISHERMEN EDUCATION” for their counterparts down South. Some clan has refused to outgrow the leach mentality; everybody else must be made to pay "settlement" money for every Hausa/Fulani indiscretion. Now, because the Fulani nomad's "children are born and brought up under ... (a constant) menace from snake bites and tsetse flies, (and) he has nowhere else to put his head. He lives on mud-water, and carries Guinea worm and other diseases. ... He is isolated from his compatriots, and therefore, enjoys no rights and privileges", it becomes everybody’s problem. For those and many other reasons, the Fulani is justified to constitute himself into some rampaging, bloodthirsty nuisance, and must be ‘settled’ with money payouts. It must not be forgotten that this is a lifestyle the Fulanis chose for themselves voluntarily. Having declined state efforts to save them from themselves, they only have themselves to blame. Simple logic! The choice to live settled life has always been an available option. But the wild living has been aggressively promoted as treasurable culture by the feudalistic Hausa/Fulani elite, like the Nura Alkalis. These are the fellows that need to explain where all the tons of money thrown at them for NOMADIC EDUCATON went. It is disgusting for Alkali to pin the filthy stigma of disease vector on the Fulani nomad. He appears to sound a health hazard alarm of an imminent epidemic. Should these roving, wide-eyed terrorists then be immediately quarantined to prevent the spread? It is unconscionable for Nura Alkali to advocate for settlement payouts to compensate for a culture of feudalistic kleptomania. Over 50,000 Igbos were massacred by the Hausa/Fulani butchers back in 1966. It is only 4 years shy of half-century; yet millions who survived the pogrom still await answers and justice that may never be served. No thought is given to compensation for millions of brutalized Igbo survivors of the pogrom, or for those who lost dear ones. However, we must ‘settle’ vicious vagabonds who chose a life-style with which they must hold us ransom.