Confusion trails mass return order on Fulani herdsmen to North by lead bodies
As time ticks on the 30-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government by the Coalition of the Northern Groups (CNG) to reinstate the suspended RUGA Settlement scheme, the recent killing of Afenifere leader’s daughter, Mrs Funke Olakunri, associated reactions and endless accusations of Fulani herdsmen on killings in the South have forced the leadership of Northern Elders Forum (NCF) and CNG to asked Fulani herdsmen to leave the southern part of Nigeria.
The northern elders and youths, who met in Abuja earlier this week, said they were worried that some southern leaders had allegedly openly threatened war against the Fulani herdsmen which translates to insecurity of their lives and property.
However, late Wednesday, the Federal government reacted and countered the mass return order by the two northern groups, saying there is no cause for alarm with assurance that the safety of every Nigerians in any part of the country is guaranteed.
Recall that the recent north-south misunderstanding started with the controversial introduction of RUGA by the Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which was roundly rejected and interpreted by the entire south as a surreptitious ploy by the government to forcefully annex their limited land.
The southern leaders had argued that it was wrong for the Federal Government to take people’s land by force and give it to herdsmen who were operating personal businesses.
At a press conference after a meeting of the NEF with the CNGs on Tuesday in Abuja, the CNG’s demand for the return of all the Fulani herders to the North was supported by NEF’s chairman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, who argued that the call on the herders to return to the North was borne out of the alleged realisation that their lives had allegedly been put at risk due to the recent actions and utterances of the southern governors and opinion leaders.
Abdullahi said, “We are worried about their well-being. If it is true that their safety can no longer be guaranteed, we rather have them back in areas where their safety is guaranteed,: arguing that “The bottom line is that their safety is far more important than their stay there. This is a country we all wish to keep together but not at the expense of other sections.”
In his remarks, spokesman of the CNG, Abdul-Aziz Sulaiman, recalled that the continued stay of Fulani herdsmen in the entire South was further put under pressure when the southern governors had on July 9, 2019, ruled that henceforth, all movement of cows to the region must be on trucks and no more foot.
However, security experts who spoke to Business Hilights expressed fears on the way and manner these critical security issues are being handled without clear arrowheads in the positions of Ministers of Defence and Internal Affairs, who it was under their purview to manage the frayed nerves before they burst into breakdown of law and order.
Whereas the experts welcomed the recent call by the Senate for a national security summit, it expressed worry on the official silence of the presidency ever since the CNG handed down the ultimatum for return of RUGA in 30 days or they unleash terror on southern businesses in the parts of the north.
It would be recalled that one of the key positions of the latest open letter by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Buhari is to make haste while the sun shines to avoid the Rwanda-type of genocide which nearly wiped out a tribe during the 1990s.
