Abiodun Awolaja
In life, it seems that certain things will never change. That is why, confronted by certain predictable behaviours, the tribe of talking drummers called bata drummers say the following: “Iwa ata o pada (2ce)/E e ba l’ata lolo, ke e g’ata lodo, iwa ata o pada.” Gloss: “The pepper’s behaviour does not change/Though you grind it on a grinding stone, or pound it in a mortar, the pepper’s behaviour does not change.” Proverbs to Fulani terrorists, the abiku who have made Hausa medicine-men mere liars. These outlaws are like the bird called aparo (quail), which sticks to the (Hausa) yam till death. Stung by the ruination of their lineage and name, the Hausa, one of Nigeria’s most culturally subjugated groups, have been telling whoever cares to listen, since the Uromi tragedy of two market weeks ago, that they are no Fulani. As the story goes, Hausa hunters were mistaken for Fulani terrorists and brutally silenced in sizzling flames, and neither the Nigerian hen nor the rope on which it perched has known any peace since then. The Fulani know that the Hausa will always be at their beck and call once they dress hegemony in religious garments. They know, as our people say, that a free drum is beaten till it bursts (Aluya nilu ofe). They know, as our people further say, that few animals are as foolish as the horse: the horse neglects its own offspring, carries other people’s offspring about. (Eranko to ya were bi esin o opo, esin f’omo e s’ile o n gbe omo olomo kiri). As the Hausa groan, their overlords sleep soundly, without the slightest care in the world. Sea storms won’t prevent fish from sleeping and snoring.
Fulani marauders hunt down the Hausa in every corner, and kill them in cold blood. The are abiku: they care nothing about a mother’s tears. At the moment, Fulani terrorists are in Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Ondo and other places, making many motherless, fatherless, spouseless and childless. In Plateau and Benue, in particular, the terrorists are continuing their decades-long project of wiping out indigenous populations and the powers that be are shedding no tear. You see, the Plateau/Benue dead are not the right dead: they have long broken free of the Fulani hold and they carry no foreign burden on their heads. And so when they die, the overlords do not mourn.
Following the Uromi tragedy, the Establishment has tired itself with rage. This week, the deputy governor of Edo State, Idahosa Dennis, received the deputy governor of Kano State, Alh. Aminu Abdusalam Gwarzo, the Emir of Rano, Alh. Muhammed Isa and others on a “fact-finding” mission to Edo. Governor Monday Okpebholo himself stood as he spoke while his chief visitor sat, and the Federal Government is still also huffing and puffing fire. But how about the lives being cut short by Fulani herdsmen in Plateau, Benue and Ondo now? They are not the right dead: their living is not in service of any hegemonist. And so the ex-governor and senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, Seriake Dickson, may blame state failure for the recent attacks in Benue and Plateau states, describing the incidents as “dastardly and callous massacres” till he is faint: the North, the real North, does not care. Hear Dickson, no doubt a patriot: “Not only are armed gunmen terrorising and ransacking hapless communities, and committing mass murders in these states, but the level of banditry, kidnapping, and killing has affected many other states as well, almost to the point of eclipsing the Boko Haram insurgency that bedevilled the Northeastern part of our country years ago.” Well, the North is not mourning. I now throw an open challenge: let anyone show evidence of a visit by the core North to Plateau/Benue State following any massacre between 1999 and 2025.
Fulani terrorists killed at least 60 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days in Bokkos, Plateau State, but the (core) North only reacted through diffident, half-hearted statements. Never mind that that was the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023 when the terrorists killed more than 100 people in the same district. There was nothing like the fire-breathing, rage-filled reaction to the Uromi incident. The Jama’atu Nasril Islam warned that the situation could degenerate into anarchy if not urgently addressed, as France24 spoke of “suspected intercommunal violence in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state”. Intercommunal violence kill you there!
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Olufemi Oloyede, declared that more troops will be deployed to the troubled parts of Bokkos, and the IGP is sending his own complement of “tactical squads”. If history is any indication, this is just another huge joke, a trivilialization of Christian/Middle Belt deaths, the same kind of nonsense that once made the elders of Plateau State to ask for UN protection. In Plateau of blood (May 27, 2023) I wrote: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, King Solomon the son of David wrote in his day, “the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” And that’s why instead of national mourning and a search for the killers of the over 130 souls (the counting is still on) who perished under the sword of Fulani terrorists in Plateau State last week, some people are staging carnivals over their impending national heist. I have been writing on the Plateau bloodshed since 2009 but nothing has changed; abiku has made the medicine man to look like a fraud.” I challenge anyone to disprove this. Show me the year since the return to democracy in 1999 that Fulani herders have not committed genocide in Plateau State.
In 2018, Theophilus Danjuma, a former Army chief (and Minister of Defence in and out of uniform), asked Nigerians to defend themselves against killers. Speaking at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University, Danjuma said: “The armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits. They kill people, kill Nigerians. They facilitate their movements, they cover them. If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one.” In a Man-in-the-news piece titled “The damning data in Danjuma’s defence,” I provided details backing up Danjuma’s submission. Just how could Southern Kaduna, the Middle Belt, and Southern Nigeria have lost so many souls without state inaction? The terrorists still shedding blood at will across the land collect hundreds of millions of naira/hard currency from victims and they manage to get home (and sail through Nigeria’s borders), and someone is still saying that Sani Abacha was wrong in his submission that the government has a hand in any insurgency that lasts for more than 24 hours?
Well, a rising tide lifts all boats, but not in Nigeria.
