Minna Round-table: Jinxed From The Very Beginning
The Oasis Reporters
August 2, 2019
There is this inextricable relationship between crisis and development. Many believe that crisis and or conflict are the fuel which powers development. Japan for instance was almost flattened before World War II ended in 1945. Japan though has gone ahead to become one of the most developed economies of the post war era.
In Nigeria, one crisis or another eventually drove this nation to fight a civil war. For almost 4 years, the Nigerian Civil War raged, finally ending in 1970. I was a kid when the civil war was fought but can still recall seeing some of our uncles leave home to join the Nigerian Army driven by patriotic zeal to defend a nation that many did not understand their place in. Many of those soldiers left but never returned as they became casualties in the battlefield. The narrative in the other segments of this nation and particularly the North was ”To keep Nigeria One is a task that must be done”. The effort did succeed in keeping the nation as one entity. The Civil War was fought essentially by other ethnic nationalities but in the end it was the Fulani Oligarchy and elites that actually benefited from it as their position was cemented with the blood of the patriots already mentioned.
Is it not curious that since independence, any effort aimed at ensuring a balance ended up with what was then the North maintaining its advantage over the other parts? This part of the nation has always maintained and retained an advantage over the others. The 12 States structure of the General Gowon government provided for 6 States for the North and both West and East had 6 each making up the 12. Exactly what the considerations were which ensured that even after Jigawa State was created out of the old Kano, Kano still ended up with 44 Local Government Councils the highest whilst Lagos State possibly with a higher population has only 20.
What about Katsina State created from out of Kaduna having 34 LGAs while Kaduna has only 24 even with a much larger landmass and population? Since most of the local government areas depend on the Federal government for funding, it simply means that the North has an unfair advantage over the others.
It is imbalances like these that have been at the core of the political instability and agitation in the land. All efforts at ensuring a balance and fairness have always been cleverly snubbed. The nation came close to a decision that could have ensured some kind of balance with the Constitutional Conference of the President Goodlock Ebele Jonathan era which recommended amongst others geopolitical regions but lethargy and or atrophy at implementation could partly be responsible for our current travails.
The present state of affairs under the PMB regime is such that virtually every top appointment in the government is the exclusive preserve of his Fulani kinsmen. Worse still is the menace which the so-called Fulani herdsmen have been constituting in many farming communities in the country. As if by prior arrangement, Fulani herdsmen from across the West African belt have technically invaded our country wielding AK47s with which they have despatched many to their early graves. Community after community have been sacked, farmlands and property destroyed, while governments looked the other way. The victim communities are now asking questions and demanding explanations which are not forthcoming.
The Federal Government then committed the blunder of the Ruga project to resettle in my humble view mainly foreign Fulani herdsmen on other people’s lands across the nation. It was at this point that the scales fell from the eyes of many. Many of the communities and State governments particularly in the West, East and South East have been crying foul and have made it very clear they will not be tolerating any herdsmen on their lands given their proclivity to belligerence.
The greatest error of judgment by this current government being the policy of elevating Fulani interest well and above those of other ethnic groups. Questions have and are still being asked by many concerned Nigerians if elevating Fulani interest well and above those of other tribes is not on account of the connect between them and the president who is a Fulani himself?
Because government action is largely driven by ethnic or religious considerations, they hardly factor in the feelings of other bona fide Nigerians resulting in the current bedlam.
As Nigerians, we are all concerned about which way the leadership in this country is taking us. Until something is done and quickly, you will not be needing a Nostradamus to predict where we are heading because we are heading downhill and gathering momentum. Rather than those we elected as our leaders taking the issues which have conflated to threatening the very fragile peace in the land seriously and deliberating on them, they are rather more focused on feathering their own nests. Shockingly, the leadership at the highest level does not appear to know or are interested in the crises which is unfolding. This is why some individuals are seizing the initiative to attempt some trouble shooting measures.
Surely, the name of General Abdusalami Alhaji Abubakar simply referred to as triple ”A” a former Military dictator himself rings a bell in this country. He handed over power to yet another former Military dictator General Olusegun Obasanjo and retired to not too quiet a civilian lifestyle. Much more importantly, he is the Chairman of the National Peace Committee alongside some religious leaders. Aside wading into many issues designed to broker peace in a number of crises in this nation, it is arguable if the National Peace Committee of which Bishop Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese is Secretary has achieved anything of worth thus far.
We thank this Committee though for being there. General Abdulsalam is not giving up on Nigeria yet as he set up the Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies in Minna. It is under the aegis of this Institute that the former Head of State is attempting to find a way through Nigeria’s current security travails by organizing what is now called the Minna Roundtable. Prompting the roundtable is essentially the insecurity in the country aggravated by the move to setting up of Fulani enclaves called Ruga across many states of the country. The apprehension in the country is caused by the belligerent nature of the largely foreign Fulani herdsmen who surreptitiously have invaded our country wielding AK 47s. The entire project appears a deliberate effort at altering the demographics on the land by injecting the foreign Fulani to occupy empty spaces everywhere by government fiat much in the style of Laduga in the Southern Kaduna part of my State.
The problem with this country is that the leadership would rather play the ostrich than looking at the problems which are not in any way hidden and taking the required measures to address them.
How then can peace be maintained?
Invitees to the Minna Roundtable included the leadership of Afenifere, representing the South West geopolitical zone, Ohanaeze representing the South East, PANDEF representing the Niger Delta Region, the leadership of the Middle Belt Region, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders etc.
It is my humble view that the organizers of the Roundtable forgot to invite the governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Nasiru el Rufai given his penchant for creating problems where there is none in the State. Recall that this character has primed up an explosive device of sort by creating Emirates and installing his Fulani kinsmen as emirs much in the style of Usman Dan Fodio in other people’s land while at the same time making a caricature of the indigenous traditional rulers chosen by the indigenes. Is it therefore possible in the circumstance for any arrangement no matter how well intentioned to resolve any disagreement between parties not present during the discussions?
It was a few days to the Roundtable taking off, that some of the invitees took exception to the invitation extended to Miyetti Allah and yet another Fulani body Allah Fulani Development Association. Miyeti Allah has all along been putting out a belligerent and highly incendiary rhetoric since 2015 when the Fulani terrorist gangs embarked on their campaign aimed and directed at supplanting many ethnic nationalities from their ancestral lands starting first in Southern Kaduna and Plateau State. While the killings, maiming and destruction went on, the Federal government kept silent. Afenefere, Ohanaeze, MBF and PANDEF took the view that it is an insult on their sensibilities for them to sit down on the same table with the same criminal bodies responsible for disrupting the peace on the land.
In my very humble view those staying away are doing so on solid grounds. Is it not curious that Miyetti Allah has been strutting about corrupting the space with combustible rhetoric as if there is no law in this country without a voice of reason calling them to order or at least for them to exercise some restraint?. Miyetti Allah and or its affiliates if any have been behaving as if the whole space known as Nigeria is their personal property.
Will anybody blame them?
Of course not since they have a guardian Angel at the highest level watching over them. While not seeking to draw parallels it is clear that if any other body or group had said what has come forth from Miyetti Allah such would for a long time have been either banned or designated a terrorist organization but Miyetti Allah is walking free. Who is there to put them in check?
I have a serious worry with the Minna Roundtable for it is not very clear how the organizers of the Roundtable view Miyetti Allah. To many of us, Miyetti Allah is the raison d’être for most of the security infractions in this country and they have not made any secret of it. Trending are many videos of some of their members bearing and wielding AK 47s while boasting of their exploits. Its members called by a more subtle word ” Herdsmen” have the effrontery to go down to the South and East to challenge the people there over their land.
I worry too that in the past, gatherings of this nature were used to justify outcomes agreed even before the meeting. If the Roundtable scheduled for 29/30 July did go ahead without the groups protesting the participation of Miyetti Allah, it would have to that extent made complete nonsense of itself. Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, King Alfred Spiff, Lt Gen Martin Agwai, the Emirs of Minna, Katsina and Kazaure as well as other notable Nigerians did attend. That the earlier invitees absented themselves removed the wind from the sails of the Roundtable. As a face saving measure, it is said that the outcome of what may have been discussed in Minna will be forwarded to the Federal Government for implementation. Knowing our governments for lethargy and or atrophy, you can bet that after presenting such a report, it will if treated with despatch to find accommodation on some counter somewhere and left to gather dust like others before it. One way or the other a way must be found to assure all of us as bona fide citizens of this country that we, and not only Fulani do matter and that the Nigerian State is there for all of us. Only genuine dialogue will be the elixir to Nigeria’s current difficulties.
Written by Col. Dauda Gora (rtd).
He writes from Southern Kaduna in North West Nigeria.