Bem Japhet Audu take on Fulani herdsmen menace

The attack by alleged herdsmen on Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau states and other parts of Nigeria is nothing short of WAR. The earlier we accept this and address it the same way we are handling Boko Haram insurgency the better for all of us. It beats my imagination how we choose to refer to these attacks as ‘herder and farmer clash’ when a single attack on Agatu claimed over 300 lives, sacked, burnt and displaced thousands in over 10 villages. Why is the FG so reluctant in calling the herdsmen attacks what it truly is? Who are the “Dogs of War”? is ethnic cleansing a mere clash? By all standards, even by Clausewitz’s conceptualization, the herdsmen attack is simply an act of WAR, heinous crimes against humanity and must be addressed properly, deploying all necessary paraphernalia of the military to end it. The tactics and strategies adopted by the mercenaries who are conscripted by the herdsmen pass for nothing less than WAR. The sophistication of assault weapons used against defenceless indigenous farmers, women, children and the elderly cannot and should not be referred to as mere “farmer/herder clash”. Such euphemism is applicable only where our leaders refuse to be responsible and responsive to their duties.
Yes! It is an internal WAR, imploding within and with an international dimension. The attackers are foreigners, hired and paid in cash or/and cattle. Since 2011 these attacks have followed a particular pattern: they are random, spontaneous and predictable. The herdsmen conscript foreign mercenaries who attack villages, kill and displace villagers then the pastoralists come in and occupy the deserted lands with their herds of cattle to graze. WAR of occupation is what it is, and requires a military solution.

Written by Bem Japhet Audu (Excerpt from facebook)

I have always in my post referred to the crises as that of fulani INSURGENTS. And I use the word insurgents with full knowledge and consciousness of its meaning

PRESIDENT BUHARI: 7 THINGS YOU MUST DO NOW! by Dr Victor Oladokun

President Mohamedu Buhari

I found this on facebook and thought I should share.

PRESIDENT BUHARI: 7 THINGS YOU MUST DO NOW!

Sir, In civilized climes and especially in the event of a catastrophic loss of lives, sensitive and politically astute Presidents fly back from foreign trips or cancel international meetings altogether, no matter how important. Their goal is to take charge of the situation back home and calm the public's fears and concerns. Not you Mr. President. You are about to jet off again.
Two weeks ago, I provided detailed reports about the carnage in Benue State; reports that were later confirmed by the media. Last week, several towns and villages in Adamawa State were sacked by Fulani herdsmen. This weekend, the Rector of Ekiti University announced the destruction of millions of Naira worth of farmland and crops by Fulani herdsmen. Also, this weekend, none other than former Nigerian Senate President David Mark and his security detail were brazenly attacked by Fulani marauders while inspecting Agatu and surrounding areas in Benue State. Such is the defiance, fearlessness, and determination of the Fulani nomads. They really don't give a rat's behind about who is or is not in any convoy.
I have no clue who your advisors are. But this much I can tell you. They are doing a lousy job.
I have been informed by some that you pay no heed to even constructive criticism. I want to believe that in this matter, that will not be the case. I have also been warned that I will be labeled an 'enemy' for stating the obvious. If that be the case, and I hope it is not, then so be it.
However, in my humble opinion sir, wisdom and tact dictate that you do the following -
1. Address the nation directly on TV and radio.
2. Commiserate with affected communities and deliver a message of peace and hope.
3. Promise the rapid delivery of compensation and restitution to the survivors, the wounded, and the families of those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods.
4. Go on BBC and other relevant radio services that Fulanis have a tendency to listen to. Speak to them in their own language, and in no uncertain terms state that this nonsense must come to an end quickly.
5. Set up and empower a Rapid Task Force with a view to stopping future violence and preventing a national conflict that might be much more difficult to contain.
6. Personally visit the affected communities to see things for yourself.
7. As Grand Patron of Myeti Allah, the umbrella association of Fulani cattle herders, meet with the leadership pronto and explain in vivid detail what the consequences of future conflicts could be.
I recall your righteous indignation in 2000, when you stormed Ibadan to meet with Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State in order to protest the alleged killing of Fulani herdsmen, when the fact of the matter at the time was that the Fulani were the aggressors. Today, there is complete silence from you in particular.
Mr President, you owe it to Nigerians, to the many Fulani herdsmen of no determinate nationality who rampage and roam Nigeria, and to future generations, to be seen at this time to be alive to your responsibilities; to the plight of affected communities in word and deed; and to the security implications of these most barbaric and medieval acts.
So far, you have failed to squash Boko Haram as you had us believe during your electoral campaign. Many now believe the Fulani herders are actually Boko Haram in disguise.
If you have not been told already by the fawning advisors who tend to obsequiously kow tow to Presidents and only tell them what they want to hear, please know this. Today, in the seeming absence of security and the denial by government officials of the massacres by Fulanis, Nigerians in large numbers are talking about the necessity of arming themselves by all means possible. They are beginning to realize that dead men and women do not write history.
Sir, for your good, and the good of Nigerians, I respectfully ask you to act and speak now, before it is too late!
Sincerely,
Dr Victor Oladokun
A Concerned Nigerian

Of IGP Arase and Fulani insurgents menace - The idiocy of idiosyncrasy .

The plaque of the so called fulani herdsmen (the diversionary disguise name for the new dimension of civil insurgency aimed at the actualisation of some treacherous agenda) that has befallen a section hence the entirety of the nation needs no emphasis nor introduction. The nation is agog with protests, condemnation, and outcry against the tactical genocide and land grap that is going unchallenged in various parts of the country.
And while the masses and civil society continue to condemn and blow their whistles and trumpets against the continues spat of killings around the country, the men and institutions saddled with the responsibility, by oath, of rescuing the situation continue in their act of silence that can be taken as consent  to the fulani herdsmen scourge. They have also continue to proffer solutions riddled of common sense and elementary reasoning while making idiotic, mindless, careless and incendiary utterances laden with explosives capable of shocking the senses of any rational mind and shattering the already weakened tolerance of those directly affected by the situation at hand. I must enunciate here that what we rashly define as peace in Nigeria is actually the unending sacrificial tolerance at self peril of a section of the country to the recklessness, excesses and oppressiveness of the other. If we are to define peace as what it is, being a state of true justice, equity and mutual respect of human rights and freedom, then Nigeria is far from being at peace.
That stated, I return to the main objective of this article, to illuminate the nonsensity of some statements I have been reading in the news attributable to the IGP of police Mr Solomon Arase. For simplicity of understanding and following, I shall present the various statement ascribed to the IGP one after the other then run a diagnostic analysis on each one of them to elucidate the degree of their preposterousness
The IGP while addressing stake holders recently in Niger state was reported to have said that the extent of killings in Agatu by the supposed Fulani herdsmen was being exaggerated. To buttress his point the IGP reportedly made the following statements.
1. “I was around; I travelled to Makurdi, I did not see where 300 people were buried" IGP Arase.
While the fulani insurgents are having a field day and killing spree in Agatu and recently Logo local government areas of Benue state, our intelligent IGP went to makurdi, the state capital to appraise the situation and look for the graves of people killed and left to rot in Agatu and Logo in Makurdi. I guess he came with some hi-tech binoculars with which to see from such a distance against geographical and structural obstacles. The IGP should have as well gone to Cameroon so he can have a closer perspective of the situation on ground. People are being killed, sacked and their lands occupied by fulani herdsmen in Agatu and Logo and the IGP confidently without shame said he was in Makurdi to look for their graves. Is the IGP telling us that he lack proper intelligence and information about the security situation that he went to Jerusalem to confirm what was happening in Jerico? How do we justify this statement from the number one man as long as internal security of the nation is concerned? Where is the sense in it.  Common reasoning will tell you better than to come openly and make such statement to the audience of the whole world. It is humiliating to say the least.
2. “If you kill, you don’t just bury; you must take the corpse to the Police station before you bury. We don’t have that number of people.” IGP Arase.
And here comes the mother of all idiocy. Absurdity of reasoning can't get worse than this. By this statement, the IGP is telling the world that the supposed fulani axe men are supposed or mandated by some law of sort to take the corpse of those killed in their attacks to the police station for the police to confirm that such killing really took place. So, the murderers will gather the corpse of those they killed, take it to station and say; "officers, here are the bodies of those we killed, record it so that we can go bury them, we are coming back with more". Lord have mercy. I am yet to see a more embarrassing, humiliating, sense deprived and reason impoverished statement coming from a highly placed and respected figure in the person of the IGP.
So the IGP is telling us, the entire world, that he, in his intelligence as an experienced officer of the law, actually expects murderers, cold blooded killers, to bring the corpse of their victims to the police station before going to bury them? As what? Head count? Or to collect some bounty? It is like saying a thief should bring the items he stole to the police station before proceeding to sell or use them. What kind of absurd reasoning is this my people? I consider this statement by the IGP an embarrassment, both to himself, the Nigerian Police and the entire nation. It is appalling, it is unthinkable, it is utterly unbelievable that a man of such high standing would be associated with such lowly gutter reasoning.  Am still in shock. No, I don't want to believe this.
So until the fulani insurgents start bringing their victims to the police, then the police wouldn't believe or be aware that people are being killed in their homeland. Such deplorable intelligence.
3. The IGP was also reported to say that the killings in Agatu is being exaggerated.
Now I ask, is it that there is a requirement of the number of people to be killed and the number of properties to be destroyed before an action is taken by the police and other relevant law enforcement agencies? That the people of Agatu have to exaggerate the number of those already killed in an attempt to meet this required number? Is this why nothing is being done to stop the madness of the fulani herdsmen? Is this why the government seem to have taken a "sit down look" approach on this issue? What has happened to our humanity and sensitivity to the sanctity of human life? Is one death not enough to elicit immediate government reaction? How many have to die before something is done? Maybe they should just let us know so that we can save our breath until the number of those killed gets to the required figure.
Before I drop this point let me quickly reiterate that contrary to what is being sold by some media houses, as I read on thisdaylive, what is happening in Agatu land and other parts of the country is not a clash between Agatu people or farmers and Fulani herdsmen. It is an outright attack, an orchestrated military pattern offensive carried out by hired mercenaries, who raid people's lands, kill men, women and children mostly in the wee hours of the day, sack them from their ancestral land and occupy it with gusto, confidence and audacity that suggests a sort of backing from high places.
4. According to the punch news sometimes last month, the IGP, during a visit to Ondo state and neighbouring Ekiti was reported to have said that the notorious, trouble making herdsmen are not actually Nigerians but Malians and Chadians who gain entry into the country due to the porous nature of our boarders. The IGP went further to say that the Nigerian herdsmen are predominantly law abiding.
My question for Mr IGP is this, how are we to differentiate between the law abiding and non law abiding herdsmen? Since they all look practically like copies of each other.  Is there like an insignia or mark to show which herdsmen is from Nigeria and which is from Chad, or which is peaceful and which is a messenger of death?
5. The IGP went further to say;  "But when people come from outside with their cattle, we should not deny them entry because of ECOWAS protocols, good neighborliness but, at the same time, we should not allow them to embark on criminal activities.” IGP Arase
And here is another ridiculous, ill thought statement from the IGP. Which ECOWAS law or any other international law for that matter says you must allow a sect of people that have been identified as trouble makers and lawless into your territory in the name of good neighbourliness? The same people the IGP described as notorious trouble makers who have been identified as agents of destruction of lives and properties for decades, yet the IGP stands to tell the world that we have to keep letting them into the country with their cattle as good neighbours? Maybe we should as well let in ISIS and Al Queda when they come knocking, as good neighbours and hospitable host. After saying we should not stop known criminals from entering our territory, the IGP went further to say that we shouldn't allow them embark on criminal activities. It's like saying, let a thief into your home but don't let him steal. It's like saying, let a virus gain access into your system but don't let it multiply and crash the system. And by the way, who are the "we" the IGP talked about when he said we should not let them embark on criminal activities?
I just want to believe that the IGP made much of these statements in a rush and without passing them through proper scrutiny of reasoning. I consider them absolutely ludicrous, reprehensible and ridiculous of his personality.
Before rounding up this piece let me quickly react to another statement by the IGP: "I have taken suggestions about how we can develop big ranches so that they can stop grazing on farmlands,”.
As much as I have criticised the misguided utterances of the IGP, I must commend him on this one statement. For acknowledging the fact that the employment of ranches and banning of open grazing is the surest way of putting a halt to the menace of cattle and their herdsmen around the country. And not the 16th century establishment of grazing reserves as suggested and supported by many including our highly esteemed members of senate. But in as much as I applaud the IGP for his accepting the idea of cattle ranching, I hope it would not be another case of using tax payers monies and public funds in sponsoring private businesses. The cattle breeding business is a huge private sector industry. It is the personal businesses of the cattle breeders from which they amass enormous profits, hence they should take the sole responsibility for the cost of running their business. Cattle should be ranched and ranched at the cost of the owners of the business not from public funds. Otherwise it amounts to another form of financial misappropriation tantamount to corruption that the present administration has vowed to root out.

Humour rumour

President Buhari backs West Sahara AKA Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on self determination from Morocco. But vows to clamp down on Biafran self determination ambition. Question number 1: They always say God made Nigeria to be one. So is it Satan that made West Sahara to be one with Morocco that Buhari feel they should be separated? Question number 3: why do West Sahara have the right to self determination but Biafra doesn't? Question number 2 coming soon. Am not a Biafran enthusiast. But I know that what's good for the goose is good for the gizzard. Wetin goat survive no go kill dog.

9ja is blessed

I call it liquid talent. Talent so tangible it can be felt literally.
The Nigerian born artist Oresegun Olumide who is a 2006 graduate Yabatech  released some mind blowing and mesmerising paintings that so many people are still having a hard time believing they are actual painting, including yours sincerely. Cos they look so real as though they are actual pictures from a high power camera. I thought it would be injustice not to illuminate this source of national bride.
I took the liberty of getting some of his works to upload for your viewing pleasure and bafflement.  He has a thing with bare bodies and water though.
Damn, this guy should not be allowed to paint the social economic situation of the country oh. Lol

Grazing Lands For Herdsmen Beheading men

The Federal government recently, through the minister for Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbe, said they will create grazing lands in the south to feed the cattle from the north.

Do you know what that means?

It means if you do evil so well and you are very good at doing evil, and you do it so much as to attract national attention, you will be rewarded.

Creating grazing lands for Fulanis in the south is another way of rubbing shit on our faces. Another way of telling us that this country is the inheritance of some elect and select who can do what they want, kill who they want and take what they want.

So, a group of marauders, trained mercenary in the veil of Fulani herdsmen, who most probably are not even Nigerians, attack, slaughter and massacre a people, in their own homeland, including women and children, pregnant women in a carnage of barbaric gruesomeness and our government wants to do what? Give them grazing lands in other people ancestral home? Probably the land of a man that was cut down like weed with his entire family by the so called Fulani herdsmen, just to make room for cows to feed on his planted crop. These same people that should be facing the firing squads and gallows will instead be rewarded with grazing lands?  In another man's land? Is it like a certificate for graduating from the school of animalistic propensity. How preposterous.

Let's bring this issue home for some of us still finding it difficult to assimilate and understand the gravity and enormousity of the absurdity of this situation.

You are in your house, living in peace and going about your business. Suddenly you were attack, the attackers killed one or more of your children, took some of your belongings and left. After a while they came back, killed more of your brothers, took some properties from your house and left. Then they keep coming back, killing more of your children, until one day, they chased you out of your house and occupied your home like it's theirs .Now, here comes someone who has being given the authority, responsibility and mandate of safe guarding your life and property. This person now comes and say, "in order for peace to reign, you will have to give a portion of your house to the assailants". Can you fathom that reasoning? I mean, it's totally ridiculous. It's disturbing to the sensibility. It is embarrassing to say the least. Devoid of any form of rationality. My mind can't even grapple the rationality of such reasoning.

Such reasoning can only be conjured and accommodated  in the minds of tyrant and marauders and raiders. Maybe I would have found this easier to swallow many centuries ago. When the primitive lifestyle of men was centered on "raid and take". Invade others people land / territories and take what you want. And if they want peace, they negotiate. Either they keep paying you royalties, or they offer you an instant price of money or land or whatever you wish to demand or you can even annex the land. But the baffling thing is, even in those primordial days, a community or an organized group of people do not attack themselves. They do not. They only organize themselves to raid other territories while protecting theirs with their life.

One will begin to wonder, why then do we attack ourselves now (that we are supposed to be more civilized) without blinking? Why do Nigerians raid other Nigerians in Nigeria? Does this go way to buttress the suggestion that we are truly not one entity? Does it cement the allegations that many so called Nigerians, including those in places of governmental authority are actually truly not Nigerians if their origin is well traced? No need stressing the fact that the so called "fulani herdsmen" directly involved in these heinous acts are mostly foreigners from Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Mali and other bordering countries who has taken and continue to take advantage of our highly porous borders to increase our population each year. That of course is an open secret. But the people behind the mask of "herdsmen". The real owners of these cattle. The ones buying the automatic and assault rifles. The ones employing and paying for the services of these killing machinery. Many of them the so called high and mighty in the society. What about them? Why do they feel no remorse, no empathy nor sympathy, no qualms, no feeling whatsoever in taking the lives of other Nigerians? Why are they comfortable raiding their own territory if the territory is truly theirs. If they truly feel belonging to the territory? if they even truly belong to the territory?

These are questions we need to hold  in a corner of our minds as we fight against insidious and treacherous elements in high places sponsoring, supporting and encouraging these crimes against humanity as witnessed in Agatu land and several other places in Nigeria.

Creation of grazing land for murderers who should be hung in gallows is an insult to those who were brutally murdered by them. It's spitting on the decaying bodies of women and children hacked, macheted and shot down in their own homeland and left to slowly drown in the pool of their own blood.

Creation of graze land for fulani herdsmen and their bosses in another man's land is a spite on us all. It's handing cold blooded murderers a golden trophy for a job well done. It's encouraging such acts of brazen, reprehensible and nauseating callousness and wickedness. It is desecrating graves and rottening corpse of men, women and children whose lives has been violently snatched from them in this systematic genocide.

If ever there was a way of identifying these herdsmen what should be the most appropriate course of action? Handing them large expanse of land? Or making them see the brutal face of justice met with the same measure of mercy they showed to their victims as they hacked, slaughtered and gunned them down.

As much as I admit that identifying and fishing out the culprits and sponsors of this herdsmen menace is not a stroll in the park, I am also aware that is neither a rocket science. There is the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). They are cattle breeders, it is their industry and hence they are conversant with the nitty gritty and privy to certain information that can prove valuable in apprehending the culprits and their sponsors. What we are witnessing is an organized crime. And such crimes are usually a chain. Crime investigators will tell you that in such crimes, there is usually somebody that knows somebody that knows something . And as providence will have it, words are, that our distinguish president, His Excellency President Muhammedu Buhari is an influential figure and member of MACBAN. So it is my believe that, if there is truly a will to act, and if those responsible and bound by oath to the protection of lives and properties of the citizens will put their words to work, getting to the root of this matter will not require so much digging. It still come as a shock to me that up until yesterday that I checked, no troop nor police, nor any form of help has come the way of the locals of the affecting areas. As Fulani herdsmen are still seen confidently walking around with their cattle, brandishing sophisticated weapons and bringing mayhem on survivors of the previous attacks. Recently it was even rumored that they are moving to claim more grounds. All these continues as the government continue to” investigate”.  

My people be the judge of this matter. Open your eyes oh people of the southern lands. Awake from your sleep and slumber, shake off any spell that is cast upon you and stand for what is right and just. Stand for something or fall all the time. Instead of the government doing the right and sensible thing, in placing and enforcing a ban on open grazing in the country, in the face of this repeated and incessant attacks by suspected herdsmen, they want to defile common sense by awarding grazing lands to them. If the Fulanis and their ogas that owns the cattle wants to raise their cattle, they should do so in their own land and farms. Just as I raise my fishes in my own farm and not in another man's farm or space. They have made enough money from our rapacious appetite for beef. They should do like other cattle breeders in other sane countries does. They should ranch their cattle. They should raise their cattle in a ranch. Not grazing them on peoples crops in peoples land. The able minister for Agriculture said, the creation of grazing lands in the south to feed cattle from the north will be done as it is DONE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.  Then I ask, which other country? Tell me in which sane country will you find herdsmen roaming around with their cattle openly in towns and cities as we usually find them here even right in the heart of Abuja the capital city of Nigeria? When in such countries you can easily get sanctioned for letting your cat stray into another man's property let alone cattle. In sane countries cattle are raised in ranches.

Let us, with one united voice, unequivocally send this message to the government. Creating grazing land in the south for fulani herdsmen and their bosses is like as described in a song by the legendary 2Baba Idibia, “creating excuse to use excuse to buy chance”. But the excuse they create is in the blood of an innocent infant macheted as he cries for a help that will never come until he slowly and painfully pass away, it is in the scattered pieces of flesh of one heavily pregnant woman butchered like "namma". It is in burnt houses and destroyed farm barns.It is in the gruesome murder of you and I.

NO TO GRAZING LANDS, YES TO RANCHING.

#NoToGrazingLands

#RanchYourCattle

#DisarmFulani

#UnmaskTheRealHerdsmen

#ProtectAgatuAndOtherAffectedLandsNow

Blunt Talk - The myth of a nation

Have you ever been on any public political platform online?

If truth will always prevail, Nigeria will peacefully, respectfully come to a consensus to disintegrate.

We are just unsuccessfully lying to ourselves everyday and living in failed make believe.

One Nigeria till now is a myth. It's a yet to embraced wish.

It's the most brazen lie ever told.

The land mass may be one (or three like the major rivers partitioned it) but the people are far from being one. The tribal and religious gully between us is too wide and apparently unbridgeable.

There is literally this palpable hatred and disgust in the atmosphere capable of choking one to death.

Crocodile smiles and Judas kiss are all we parade.

No, Chief Audu Ogbe, other sane countries ranch their cattle.

The minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbe said recently that the Federal government will create grazing lands for fulani herdsmen in the south to feed the cattle in the North AS DONE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

My question is, which other country? In which sane country do you see herdsmen roam around towns and cities with their cattle?

But in Nigeria, you will see these herdsmen roaming with their cattle right in the heart of the capital city Abuja. Messing the city up and constituting an intractable nuisance.

In sane country, if as little as your cat stray into another man's property, you will be sanctioned.

Cattle are raised in ranch. If Nigeria wants to toe the path of other countries, we should toe the sane path.

Creating grazing land is exploiting the already deprived, murdered and plundered. It's rewarding evil. Its injustice. Its larceny.

#NoToGrazeLand

#RanchYourCattle

#DisarmFulani

#UnmaskTheRealHerdsmen