Nigeria is a country with multi-ethnic orientation and background. This feature has been a blessing and at the same time, it has been the bane of development in the country. Nepotism, tribalism and favoritism have override meritocracy and patriotism.
Of lately, all over the country there have been unison outcry about the bloody activities of herdsmen who are majorly of the Fulani extraction. From the North to the South, there have been reports and records of killing and maiming. Of recent, the group allegedly killed a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Fatai Aborede on his farmland last December.
Also, seven people were reportedly killed at Ayete in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State in herders clash with officers of the Nigeria Police. The bloody clash in Ayete happened three days after similar clash happened in Tapa, another village in the same local government area.
If nothing drastic is done, Oyo state may be the next epicenter of the farmers and herders clashes that are currently witnessed as regular occurrence in various states especially in the Northern part of the country.
Unfortunately, the bloody clashes in that part of the state without concrete intervention of the government both at the state and the federal level is a reflection of the attitude of the government to the excesses of the herders across the country.
In Benue State, the state government was left with no option than to ban open grazing after the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari refused to take tangible action to stem the excesses of the herders. In fact the president’s attitude to the bloodletting of the group is questionable. Since his assumption to office and with the series of attacks carried out by the herders, the best the government has been able to do is to publicly condemn and promise to find lasting solution to the issue. The nonchalant nature of the government to the activities of the herdsmen contributed to the widespread of the terror to other parts of the south.
More disturbing about the stand of the president on the issue is the comment by the national President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo that the Fulani did not need any permission to enter any community in any part of the country.
All these are cause of concern for us as a media house, since the government has different hands for various ethnic related groups in the country. We recall how the governing dealt decisively with the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other groups in various parts of the country. We challenge the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency extend the same iron hand it used against the IPOB on the bloodthirsty herders to put an end to their carnage in the country.
