More To It Than Meets the Eyes…. By Victor N Amadi

What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours. I can’t say that because am hungry I’d just go into the herd of cattle of a Fulani man and take a cattle, kill it and eat it. So why should a Fulani man because he wants to feed his cattle come into my farm and kill my crops to feed his cattle? Am really bemused because this should be a no brainer, but it seems to be proving very difficult. Is it because we can’t do anything about it or we don’t want to do anything about it?
  

If you look at the two pictures you will see a typical Fulani herdsman and a “modern day Fulani herdsman”. I have tried to analyze what is happening in places like Agatu, even as far as Enugu where supposed Fulani herdsmen attack villagers with sophisticated arms. We have all seen the horrid pictures of women and children murdered by these heartless people. What more do we need to jolt us? Is it until they come into our own houses that it will dawn on us that we are under siege? 

I then ask if it is normal for people to now go around with such arms. There have been numerous reports of such and I have not even once heard our authorities talk about it. Am I allowed to carry a machine gun in my car when am going to work on a site in a hostile area? Am I allowed to carry a gun on me when traversing the “very dangerously Omo Onile” infested Lagos? Why haven’t any arrests been made of these gun toting Fulani herdsmen? If it that they are above the law? 

Why should a foreigner think he can come to my land and do as he pleases to my detriment?

Now I even ear the boasting that not even government can stop them from grazing their cattle anywhere they want. 

For God’s sake let’s be serious for once in this our dearly beloved country. What is wrong is wrong and we should not waste time in condemning it. Government should call these people to order by arresting anyone found with such firearms. Or are they more than the herdsmen that they are supposed to be? This was how we looked on and Boko Haram slowly crept up on us and has become the menace it is today. 

Who is giving these people the firearms they have? Who is sponsoring them? These are questions that am sure you will all agree with me need to be answered. 

If you ask me, I’d say these are not ordinary herdsmen. There seems to be more to them than meets the eyes. Let’s wake up and smell the cooking in d kitchen. We are being attacked by a new set of terrorism and we are folding out arms and watching. Very soon the handshake will go beyond the elbow and we will start wondering how we got to where we are. It’s only a boy that doesn’t know his mother’s boyfriend that calls him uncle. “My people perish for lack of knowledge”. To be forewarned is to be fore-armed. A word is enough for the wise.