THE MURDER OF THE FULANI: YUGOSLAVIA UNFOLDING By Femi Fani-Kayode

The Department of State Security (DSS) have claimed that five Fulani herdsmen were abducted, killed and buried in a mass grave by members of IPOB in Abia state a few days ago. They have also claimed that there were up to fifty more bodies in that mass grave and that they are all Fulani.

The implications of this announcement is obvious. It will create more tension and fear in the land and it will lead to reprisal killings in the north. Violence is never the way out and I have always believed that it has no place in any civilized society. Yet what I find curious about this announcement is the fact that it is unique and historic.


I say this because thousands of Igbos, Yorubas, Niger-Deltans and Middle Belters have been killed by Fulani militants and herdsmen over the last ten months since President Buhari came to power yet the DSS has never announced it and told the country about the details and ethnic identities of the victims.


When one thousand Shiite Muslims were slaughtered in Zaria and buried in mass graves the DSS did not speak. When five hundred Idomas were massacered in Agatu by Fulani militants the DSS did not speak.
When hundreds of southern and Middle Belt farms were raided by AK-47-wielding Fulani herdsmen who murdered, raped, burnt down and took over the land of their victims the DSS never gave us details of the victims or made any announcements.


When our leaders in the south were kidnapped and when men witnessed their wives and children being raped and butchered by the Fulani militias before their very eyes the DSS made no announcements.


When the International Terror Index told the world that the Fulani militias in Nigeria are the "fourth most deadly terror organization in the world" the DSS said nothing and neither did they give us details about their activities or their victims.


Worse of all is the fact that our government and our President, who himself happens to be a Fulani, has never deemed it fit or necessary to condemn the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and militants and neither have they expressed any sympathy or displayed any empathy for their many victims.


Let me be clear: the murder of anyone, regardless of their ethnicity or faith, is unacceptable to me. I deplore murder and violence and in my view the killing of one innocent soul diminishes the humanity of every single one of us as a community and nation.

However it seems curious that the minute that Fulanis are killed in the east the DSS is quick to rise to the occasion and express concern about it whilst they do not express the same concern when Nigerians from other ethnic nationalities are killed by the Fulani in their own homes and land.

Therein lies the double standard and it is sad and unfortunate. Furthermore not only is it very dangerous but it also confirms the view that our government and security agencies are not only partial but that they are also attempting to implement an ethnic and religious agenda.


Three questions must be answered: firstly who is funding the Fulani herdsmen and where do they get their weapons from? Secondly why does our government not only turn a blind eye to the mass murder and genocide that they regularly indulge in but also go out of their way to protect them?


And thirdly why do the government and security agencies have so much hatred and contempt for those that the Fulani regularly target and their victims and why do they believe that those victims do not deserve to enjoy the full protection of the Nigerian Federal Government?


Could it be because they are regarded as slaves and second class citizens? Is Fulani blood and are Fulani lives more important than others? Indeed do non-Fulani lives matter in President Buhari's Nigeria?
Are we compelled to begin a ‘’non-Fulani lives matter’’ movement which is based and fashioned on the ‘’Black Lives Matter’’ movement in the United States of America before we can draw the attention of the world to what is going on in our country?


Is it not obvious and logical that when the security agencies refuse to protect the citizens from the murderous hordes and herdsmen from hell those citizens will eventually seek to protect themselves and go on the offensive? That is human nature and it is to be expected.


Is it not clear to those in power that when a people are convinced that their government is no longer impartial in any conflict and that the security agencies of that government have been directed to go out of their way to actively and openly support those that constantly and regularly slaughter their people it will eventually lead to open war?


Is it so difficult to accept the fact that no government and no force from hell or on earth can compel or intimidate a man into lying down passively and silently watch his family, loved ones and kinsmen being butchered and slaughtered morning, day and night without trying to protect them and without indulging in some form of retaliation?


With the sort of things that are going on in our country today it is time to tell ourselves some home-truths. No-one wishes to accept it let alone say it but sadly war will come to Nigeria again within the next few years. I do not want war and I consider it to be the ultimate evil but I am constrained to speak the truth and say things as I see them.


The fact that a war is coming is a testimony to the fact that we have all failed to manage the peace that God has given us since 1970 and the cessation of hostilities after our brutal civil war. We have failed so badly that the remote and immediate causes of that civil war are back with us today even though we hate to admit or acknowledge it.


Our country is like Yugoslavia unfolding before it exploded and violently broke into five separate countries. All the signs are there. Anyone that knows about the history of Yugoslavia or that is a student of world history will agree with me and appreciate what I am saying.


Consider the dangerous mix. A crumbling economy. An inept, weak, failing and paranoid government. A hungry, angry and increasingly desperate civilian population. An ignorant, obsessive, arrogant, insensitive, corrupt and self-absorbed political class who are out of touch with reality.

The ruthless implementation of an ethnic and religious agenda by a government that refuse to consider the implications of such a course and that have an early-‘60’s mind-set. The growing unrest, ethnic killings and sectarian murders.
An ethnic and religious division within the Armed Forces and security agencies. A relentless clamp-down on and persecution of the opposition and all dissenting voices by the government and the use of fear as a tool of governance and control.


The constant and open abuse of power. The impunity and insensitivity of the Buhari administration to the plight of the masses. The hunger, hardship, poverty and suffering in the land. The failure of the government to get rid of the fuel queues and supply electrical power.


The demonisation of peaceful and law-abiding self-determination groups and the unlawful incarceration of their leaders. The breach of the constitutional rights of the citizens and the ignoring of court orders and judicial processes by the government.


The attempt to intimidate and control the Judiciary and Legislature by the government and so much more. The list goes on and on and history proves that such a mixture of circumstances is dangerous and can only lead to open conflict if not halted.

The country is badly divided today and the people are suffering as never before. The division and hatred amongst some of our ethnic groups has reached pre-civil war levels.
We in the south must prepare for the worse and not be found wanting when the trouble starts. That is my greatest fear. We must not end up like the Bosnians did during the Yugoslavian civil war.


They were the only ethnic group in Yugoslavia that was not prepared for it when the war started. They had no arms, no plan, no allies and no fall back position.
When the fighting started they were caught unawares and for two years they suffered immeasurably for their stupidity and naivety whilst their people were killed like flies and their women and children were raped and enslaved. God forbid this should happen to our people.



The reason that they suffered for two years was because there was an international arms embargo placed on all the ethnic groups and warring militias and armies in Yugoslavia when the war started.
And sadly the Bosnians were the only ones that did not buy and stockpile arms in preparation for war months and years before it actually broke out.


Plagued by a cowardly and weak-minded ruling elite and a naive, self-serving, servile, ignorant and intellectually-challenged middle class the Bosnians just kept talking, writing newspaper articles, appeasing the aggressors and their tormentors, praying and hoping for peace whilst all the other ethnic and religious groups and warring parties were quietly preparing for war. Sounds familiar?


They suffered immensely for their lack of understanding, insight and foresight and their civilian population paid a heavy price. For two years after the civil war started the Bosnians could not even buy a gun or bullet to defend themselves. Their towns were besieged and blown up whilst their women and children were raped, enslaved and butchered.


Their men were rounded up into Second World-like Nazi concentration camps and starved and tortured to death and their dignity and self-respect was taken from them. They Bosnians were turned into an internally-displaced people and their land was transformed into a sea of desperate and suffering refugees.


It was a nightmare from hell and suffering on this scale had not been seen on European soil since the First and Second World Wars. It was after the international community silently watched them being slaughtered by their Serbian and Croatian compatriots for two long years that they were compelled, as a consequence of pressure from the people of the world and on moral and humanitarian grounds, to lift the arms embargo on them so that they could buy arms to defend themselves.


The war dragged on for more years after that but at least the Bosnians, though two years late, were now able to fight back and defend themselves. It took the intervention of NATO, the bombing of Belgrade by the international community led by the Americans and the eventual break-up of the entire country into five pieces to stop the carnage and barbarity of the Serbs and eventually bring the civil war to an end.


It was during that war that the term "ethnic cleansing" was first used by CNN to describe what was being done by the Serbs to the Bosnians, the Croats, the Kosovars and the Monte Negrans, all of whom represented the other four ethnic groups. Eventually the country broke up and each of them got their independence from the dominant Serbs and one another.


If such a thing could have happened in the heart of Europe in the early 1990's why on earth would any reasonably intelligent person dismiss the notion that it can happen here? The only difference would be that if such a thing were to ever unfold in our country it would be far worse than what happened in Yugoslavia due to the sheer size of our population.


The signs are already there and it left for us to recognise them and prepare ourselves for the worse or ignore them and, like the Bosnians, eventually pay a very heavy price. I pray that I am wrong but as far as I am concerned, for Nigeria, the bell is tolling.
END

This article corroborates the last post I made on this blog just yesterday night. I am delighted to know that we have a few men whose mind are free and eyes open to the reality facing us. If I do not command enough audience and influence to reach a wider audience , at least FFK does. And it is my ernest prayers that the men who God has given the privilege of respond to this clarion ans awakening call, get the message and act appropriately.
I do not wish to be caught on the Bosnia end of any Nigeria Yugoslavia play back.
See below for pictures of the gruesome activities of fulani herdsmen (a nickname for something bigger) around the country - Nigeria.

.... on the allegedly attack of fulani herdsmen - The script, the Plot and the cast.

This Samson Babalola man should really go have his head checked. It is obvious he is acting the script of some insidious forces with sinister motives that will only culminate in the destruction of an already incendiary nation. And the DSS too are doing a good job of setting flame on fuel. The aim of this script is clear
1. To emasculate international sympathy and in its place elicit indignation for the cause of the IPOB and other related groups. This is a pathetic attempt to give a dog a bad name just to have it killed.
2. To incite hate and resentment and kill any iota of sympathy the IPOB and related groups may have managed to garner domestically.
And consequently knowingly or unknowingly
3. Fuel an ethic crisis similar to the pogrom of 1966 that led to the agitation for Biafra and subsequently the civil war. One would wonder whether this is a plot to set the conditions rolling through which they can "finish the job".
This dramatisation by both the DSS and this script narrator Samson Babalola goes to foster my argument that in Nigeria, killing and destruction of a section of the country is the prerogative of another section of the country. It is the exclusive right of one section to kill at will and the civic duty of the other section to be killed. The sacrificial lamb theory.
Why do I say this? Let's assume the DSS was right that some Fulanis were indeed killed by allegedly IPOB members. For how long have we been hearing true stories with hard evidence of fulani herdsmen killings and destructive activities across the nation? Only recently this spat of massacre, killings and destruction of properties carried out by both allegedly and proven fulani herdsmen have received a kind of boost. There is hardly a week that goes by without news of one fulani herdsmen menace or the other in the length and breadth of the nation. A more critical case as witnessed in Benue State where up to 500 people have been reportedly killed in their own homeland by fulani herdsmen with sophisticated war grade weapons, thousands sacked from their homes and their crops used to feed cattle by these same fulani herdsmen.
In all these the government seem to be silent and adamant over the cry of the people in the wake of these increased hellish activities of fulani herdsmen across the nation. Instead of coming out strong in words and decisive actions against these fulani herdsmen and their barbaric acts of mindless massacre and destruction, we mostly find top government officials passing comments that either shields, support or exonerate the herdsmen. From terming the herdsmen "peaceful", to exonerating the Nigeria herdsmen and blaming "imported herdsmen" for the destruction of lives and properties.  And also postulating policies that one may consider a reward to the herdsmen for the barbaric carnage they wrath on the nation. Such polices like the creation of grazing routes and importation of Brazilian grass as reported. And to further add salt to injury, and pepper to the eye drop, I believe some treacherous elements have decide to employ diversionary measures by employing the likes of Samson Babalola to put up publications painting the Fulanis herdsmen as the actual victims of aggression and not the perpetrators.
But the news of some fulani herdsmen allegedly killed by IPOB members is a case of national security that the DSS is showing particular interest in. And this paid piper Samson Babalola is in the news threatening hale and brimstone. We are not fools Mr Samson. Telling us that other ethnic groups before now condemned the maltreatment of the IPOB and are even looking to stage a solidarity protest or match is a cheap, pathetic and ridiculously devious lie aimed at nothing but mischief. Your purpose and intent is as clear as the sun at noon day to any rational thinker. And your intent is to craftily add fire to the flame of resentment for the IPOB and the Biafra cause in the hearts of other ethnic groups in the country. But sir, your method is not just obviously miserable but scornful to yourself. Only a man devoid of the basic unit of reasoning would be so dumb enough not to see through your glaring obnoxious calumny and decipher your cheap blackmail and insidious motives.
But you put up quite a show though, and for that I say, well done. So many people will surely buy your trash.
And to other hidden and open treacherous elements working frantically to see to it that Nigeria finally goes back to what it was meant to be before the 1914 unfortunate wedding ceremony, I say well done.
And to my fellow southerners, as I have always said and I will always say, WAKE UP!! OPEN YOUR EYES. Shake of the spell. Realise their "divide and rule" antics and emancipate yourself from mental slavery.  The Boko-lani herdsmen are everywhere, we are literally surrounded. Just in case.
I rest my case - for now.

Frankly Speaking

When the hausa/fulani man say "One Nigeria", it is with the same interpretation with which Pharaoh told Moses "The Israelites must remain one with Egypt "(paraphrasing) .
It's a one-ness for servitude and slavery. For what is a master without a slave.
The most painful part of the Nigerian scenario is, the slaves are to clever and too bewitched that they don't know they are slaves. That's why a Southern man will stupidly sing the one Nigeria pledge.
A country united by the blood of a section of the country that is spilled with more ease than that of a mosquito. In the early days, the sacrificial lambs had always been taken exclusively from the stead of the Ibo race. So it didn't matter to the Yoruba man, or the Jos man or the Benue man that had been one of the blades by which the lambs was slain as witnessed in the 1966 pogrom. It didn't matter cos it was those obnoxious Ibos that are heavily resented and "deserves" whatever they get.
That why I have decided to end my outcry  in the face of the Fulani herdsmen attacks and other "persecution" of mostly the southern parts of the country currently going on. I see the chicken going round to roost. Now the Tiv man is being slaughtered , the Ibo man is being slaughtered , the Idoma man is being slaughtered, the Rivers man is being slaughtered , the Yoruba man is being slaughtered, the Benin man is being slaughtered. The gesture that has being exclusively served to a particular tribe is now being passed round.
Maybe just maybe we will wake up from our disillusionment, maybe just maybe the spell will be broken finally, maybe just maybe we will finally be united by this common problem and rise from our slumber and say "enough is enough ". Now that we seem to have a common problem, maybe, just maybe we will see the need of a common course.
We think we are at peace but the truth is that we are just shifting the doom days to our children. What cowardly parents we are. We are just saving the fight for our children. Cos I believe a generation shall surely come that will be illuminated and brave enough to say "enough is enough, we can't continue to be slaves and sacrificial lambs just for a master slave relationship to continue".
God created the heaven and the earth not Nigeria. This is for those using religious propaganda to deceive the people and make them believe that God made Nigeria to be one. They try to  justify this by saying, "If God never wished Nigeria so, we wouldn't have been brought together ". The senselessness of this justification for the unity of servitude and slavery is best illustrated by saying; "if God never wanted the Israelites to remain in Egypt as slaves, he wouldn't have led Joseph and his brothers into migrating to Egypt ". We are on earth and the bulk of what happens on earth is the doing of men not God. The colonial masters insidiously formed this country. Unless we are calling the British "God" otherwise God had no hands in this marriage of convenience.
If you ask me, I will tell you that the will of God on how the geographical area now called Nigeria showed be is clearly depicted on our map. One look at how the major Rivers partition the land space now called Nigeria is a clear presentation of nature's will for us.