Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has faulted remarks made by former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, who had justified the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the South West.
Senator Kwakwanso had said over the weekend that “the issue of conflict between the farmers and Fulani herdsmen is not common to the South West alone. It is not even common to Nigeria. It is all over the sub-region.
In a statement, Afenifere’s Publicity Secretary Yinka Odumakin said, “In a replay of the sordid episode of 2000 when Arewa leaders rudely stormed the office of then Oyo State governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina on behalf of nomadic cattle rearers, former Kano State governor and serving Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso came with verbal daggers to the same city at the weekend asking the age mates of his father to “shut up.”
According to Odumakin, it is another sad day for the clash of civilizations within the Lugard cage when a man who has occupied all the offices Kwakwanso has held opens his mouth in a people’s domain and all he vomits make listeners confuse him with a herdsman or Boko Haram chieftain.”
The statement reads: “Kwankwaso’s grouse with Yoruba leaders was our call for an end to the criminal activities of Fulani herdsmen in the region at the recent summit in Ibadan and that the Yoruba nation may reconsider its place in a union that could not protect us and would not allow us to protect ourselves if we did not see any sign to restructure Nigeria into a proper Federation.
“The declaration is not anywhere near the statement of Gen Yakubu Gowon on August 3, 1966: ‘There is no basis for Nigerian unity, which has been so badly rocked, not only once but several times.’ or the theme of the North’s revenge coup of July 29,1967 titled, ARABA, a Hausa word meaning ‘let us divide it’.
In addition, Afenifere said, “In all his ramblings in Ibadan, Kwakwanso did not condemn the abduction of Chief Olu Falae, the killing of innocent farmers, raping of women and destruction of crops and farmlands in the course of the grazing activities of Fulani herdsmen. He only tacitly justified their activities by offering excuses for their criminal conduct.
“The issue that we are talking about, education is very important. If all Fulani are given opportunity to go to school, I don’t think they will risk their lives and their animals going into the bush, where there are reptiles. I think the key thing is education.
“Kwakwanso wants Yoruba ‘understanding of the situation’ while his kinsmen continue to draw their blood, violating their women and destroying their farmlands, until Mallam decides to give them education may be when we celebrate another centenary.
“The double speak of Kwakwanso is galling as he was a few months ago celebrating the hordes of Almajiris in the North as a positive development that provides a demography that could easily be herded for electoral process.
“Rabiu Kwakwanso, in an interview he granted Vanguard Newspaper on April 26,2015, lambasted the wife of former president of Nigeria for ‘insulting’ the North over the menace of Almajiri children which he considered a thing of ‘pride,’ saying, ‘Look at what the wife of the President said about us – northerners. She was just castigating the North almost at every opportunity. You cannot insult us and think that you can get away with it. This democracy is a game of numbers, and that is why we went back and put almajiris together to get about two million votes.
“’The issue of almajiris have been opened to abuse in this country and turned into insults for us. Almajiri here is a positive word but the way they see it is that we are beggars, that we produce so many children that we cannot take care of, and that is what the First Lady was saying and we kept quiet because we had our own way of answering her and we did exactly that on the 28th of March.’”
“Kwankwanso further said that the Fulani should be given the opportunity to go to school as if the Yoruba were the ones who denied them such opportunity in almost 40 years that the North has held power since independence.
“With the uncouth, rude and insensitive remarks of Kwankwaso and his ilk in the North which are like pouring salt on injury, it is coming clear to us that there may be a grand agenda with the activities of the Fulani herdsmen either as an advance party of Boko Haram into our territory or an expansionist project.
“The Yoruba leaders therefore stand by every word in the Ibadan declaration,” said Odumakin.
‘Shut up!’ – Kwankwaso tells Yoruba leaders threatening Fulani herdsmen
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State, told Yoruba leaders threatening to sack Fulani herdsmen from the South-West geo-political zone to “shut up”, saying such utterances only thwart efforts to achieve a peaceful Nigeria.
He made his remarks in a chat with newsmen in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, at the official opening of a N40 million prefabricated structure, comprising two-bedroom and three-bedroom flats donated by Vitafoam Nigeria Plc to Government College, Ibadan, to mark the jubilee celebration of 1965 to 1971 set.
Prominent Yoruba leaders, two weeks ago rose from an emergency summit in Ibadan, and handed a red card to Fulani herdsmen in the South-West.
In the communiqué of the summit, they sought an end to Fulani herdsmen grazing in Yorubaland and directed all nomadic herdsmen to wind up their activities.
The summit was held against the backdrop of the recent kidnapping of Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation by Fulani herdsmen.
But Kwankwaso, a Fulani from Kano State, said crises between farmers and Fulani herdsmen are not peculiar to the South-West, adding that the same issues recur in northern Nigeria; Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroun are no an exception.
Kwankwaso said sacking Fulani herdsmen from the South-West is not the solution, but all and sundry must understand the situation.
His words: “It is not only peculiar to the South-West. We just have to have a lot of understanding of the situation. Some of the issues being raised by the people, especially politicians, do not help anybody. If you sack the Fulani from here or you fight them, maybe it is because you are here. If you are a Yoruba man based in Kano, I don’t think you can contemplate sacking the Fulani. I am from Kano, but right now, I am in Ibadan. Where you are is your home. Today, Ibadan is my home. God forbid, if something bad happens here, it will affect me. If it happens in my village, I am not there; they won’t see me.
“I want people to go round Nigeria to know that everybody has got land. It is good for people to go round, at least, this country or beyond to realise that Nigerians are Nigerians; everybody comes from somewhere. But it is good for us to go round to see other places, to understand them, interact with them so that we can have a very peaceful Nigeria. This is what we are working for. So, when you see those people making the threats in the South-West, advise them to shut up.”
On the solution to the incessant crises between local farmers and Fulani herdsmen, Kwankwaso, called for their education. “I am Fulani. My parents settled many years ago. My father went to school and I have been to school. My children have gone to school. Now, I don’t think I will get cattle and go into a forest; that is education for you.”
-Vanguard/Today
