Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN has expressed deep concerns over the continued bloodbath arising from Fulani herdsmen and farmers clash across the country with credibility question on the persons of indigenous Fulanis.
The National Assistant Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Abdullahi, who expressed the concern of his association exonerated his members from the heartless maiming and killings and fingered their counterparts from other countries with a call on federal government to live up to the responsibility devoid of politics.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The AUTHORITY, Abdullahi recalled that the feud between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria has been there for long but the dimension it has assumed in recent years leaves much to desire.
He the situation on political class, influx of foreign herdsmen and of course, the federal government and security agencies manning the nation’s borders for shying away from their responsibilities.
“I am deeply worried over the dimension Fulani’s and farmer’s clash in the country is taking. The clash has been there for many years but it has never resulted in fighting and killings”, he lamented.
Abdullahi recalled that Fulani herdsmen have a tradition of settling their dispute with farmers if they encroached into somebody’s farm with their animals and caused damage, without trouble.
According to him, “whenever a real Fulani man encroached into a famer’s farm land with his animals and caused destruction, he pays compensation in cash or kind commensurate to the damage to appease the farmer.
“This has been the tradition. It is not in our character to fight and kill whenever anything like this happens.
The dimension that the problem is taking these days is really worrisome because it has left credibility dent on the persons of Fulani that are known to be peaceful and friendly with their host communities.
Abdullahi alleged that the problem is degenerating because it is being manipulated by politicians for selfish interest and unfortunately, the federal government is not living up to expectations in relation to “free movement of transhumance across West African countries”
Thus, he urged the government of Nigeria to “ensure the implementation” of related protocol provisions to which Nigeria is a signatory, for security purpose and health wise.
He pointed out that for the interest of their citizens, other countries like Cotonou, Niger republic etc. are religiously observing those protocols but regretted that “unfortunately, they are not being applied in Nigeria even though every signatory country is supposed to adhere strictly to the terms and conditions of the protocol.
“From all indications, indigenous Fulani herdsmen are not involved in the clash that has become something else in Nigeria today. Our members are not known to be carrying sophisticated arms not to talk of AK47.
“If at all you have seen any Fulani man carrying AK47, he is not a real Fulani man that we are talking about here. We want government, security agencies to look into this development and work with the stakeholders in order to bring it under control”, he requested.
@Baba Mono Haxor
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