“Fulani elites who own the cattle should learn from the Igbo spare parts dealers and simply ranch their cattle.” ―Ebuka Onyekwelu
Yesterday, two key members of the Buhari government went full throttle unleashing untold abuse of public sensibilities to already distressed citizens of Nigeria. No less than Inspector General Usman Bala who is the Acting Inspector General of Police, and Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, were involved this time around.
To buttress, the Police Inspector General is the person in charge of the order, ensuring public safety in accordance with the laws of the country. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice is the chief legal officer of the country. Essentially, therefore, these are key officers in the administration whose responsibilities are central to addressing not just the increased insecurity in Nigeria, but also ensuring public order and decency for the peaceful co-existence of all citizens. Given the reality of public office in Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, SAN and Inspector General of Police (IDP) Usman Bala, are both the law and enforcer, respectively, and this is the more reason their utterances are larger than life.
At the launch of “Operation Restore Peace” by IGP Usman Bala in Enugu yesterday, the police IG instructed officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to go all out with vicious force and ignore the media while doing that. “Don’t mind the media shout, do the job I command you. If anyone accuses you of human rights violation, the report will come to my table and you know what I will do”…the Inspector General of Police said.
The only thing new here is the audacity of the police boss to admit to this practice in public.
In other words, the IG is instructing members of the team for the operation in the Southeast to carry out this operation without regard for human rights. This carries with it the implication to possibly kill at will, innocent people and nothing will happen. Furthermore, this also implies that he is ordering them to go at any length and do about anything and that they should be assured that he is going to protect them when petitions arise against them which, he admitted will be brought to his office. In frankness, the only thing new here is the audacity of the police boss to admit to this practice in public. The mere fact that he admitted to this speaks to the level of executive arrogance and impunity that is going on under the watchful eyes of this government. Special care must be taken to note that the police chief did not say this to a group of people in a private meeting or to an individual while they are having a casual discussion. He said this in public while addressing members of the new team assembled for the purpose of ensuring peace in the Southeast. I now leave you to make what you can out of this.
Just to recap, attacks on police formations and other security outposts throughout the Southeast and parts of South-south, is condemnable and reprehensible such that no right-thinking person will condone or applaud it. But we must not forget that the current level of insecurity in the Southeast and other Southern, including North-central parts of the country is an offshoot of the very brazen provocative actions of Fulani herdsmen who lead their herds to graze on cultivated farmlands and allow them to eat up cultivated food crops. They also lead their herds into people’s compound to graze on family house vegetable gardens and flowers. These same herdsmen have now become more daring and are laying siege on unsuspecting female farmers in farm settlements, to rape them. They now kidnap and demand ransom.
Today, sights of herdsmen and cattle are common on major roads across the federation during rush hours in the day and even at night, both within the city and on highways which are outskirts, many times leading to accidents. Each of these has so many instances of occurrence throughout the country. The Southeast is not an exception. It is now exactly five years since Fulani herdsmen attacked Nimbo Uzo-Uwani in Enugu state. Five years after the attack which left no less than eleven people dead, there was another attack in Ebonyi which left over twenty people dead. Till yesterday the IG visited Enugu to launch a new team for Southeast security, not a single Fulani militant is under arrest. Not one person. So when the IG instructs his team to go all out with brute force and without recourse to our laws, in fighting insecurity in the Southeast, what message he is sending to the people of Southeast who are critical partners in arresting the rising security challenge in the region?
Coincidentally or by meticulous design, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria Abubakar Malami, SAN was on Channels TV yesterday evening and he spoke on the decision of Southern governors to ban open grazing. Just like the IG who spoke in public earlier in the day in Enugu, the Attorney General spoke to the public on national television and quite comfortably compared the illegal and infuriating activities of herdsmen in different parts of the country, to motorcycle parts dealers. “It is as good as saying”, the Attorney General said, “Maybe the Northern governors coming together to say that they prohibit spare parts trading in the North. Does it hold water? Does it hold water for a Northern governor to come and state expressly that he now prohibits spare parts trading in the North?”, he asked rhetorically.
It must be noted that comparing spare parts dealers who conduct their business in their own shop or one paid for, to herdsmen who lead their cattle to obstruct traffic, graze on people’s cultivated farmlands, invade people’s homes, rape villagers in their farms, attack and kill people who question their audacity, is spiteful and disingenuous. Spare parts dealers all over Nigeria are mostly Igbos. And they conduct their business right in the market, inside their own shops, or any other space they occupy after duly paying the owner. Fulani herdsmen cannot in all intent and purposes be compared to Igbo spare parts dealers. It is therefore clear what the Attorney General wants to accomplish with this kind of comparison comprehensively bereft of coherence and commonsense. All the country over, anywhere you find a spare parts dealer, the spare parts he sells is inside a shop where he conducts his business or in a warehouse where he keeps the goods. Not by the roadside, and not in a makeshift compartment in people’s lands or on public or private properties. Now, the shops the traders occupy are fully paid for by the traders. If it happens that the trader owes the landlord, both seek ways to sort it out. And so if anything, Fulani elites who own the cattle should learn from the Igbo spare parts dealers and simply ranch their cattle. They should buy land and build it to serve the purpose of ranching their cattle. It is their private business and they should not be causing disaffection and bad blood, illegality, and public nuisance with the manner they conduct their private business, worst of all, trying to use political power to normalize it.
One would have thought that the Attorney General would have admitted this truth on national television as a tactic to rebuild mutual trust and encourage Fulani herdsmen to adopt a sustainable approach to their business. This would have positively impacted the ragging security challenge and the agitation in the Southeast and possibly disarmed all aggrieved groups across Southern Nigeria. But the Attorney General chose to echo defined parochial, sectional interest and place same above fairness and peaceful co-existence of other Nigerians. Yet, both the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation somehow still believe that Nigeria will attain the fullness of its potentials under this very circumstance, especially given their position on these disquieting issues, particularly for those at the receiving end.
♦ Ebuka Onyekwelu, strategic governance exponent, is a columnist with the WAP
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