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•Fulani will be at the receiving end if ECOWAS attacks Niger
The National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo has advanced reasons a war against Niger Republic by the Economic Community of West African States would be to the detriment of the Fulani population in Nigeria.
He spoke on that and other issues with VINCENT KALU, insisting that 75 per cent of Fulani in Nigeria live like refugees.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
The situation is tough; people are crying because of the economic situation in the country, prices of everything are going up on daily basis, especially food items. This is the aftermath of the removal of fuel subsidy.
How are your people coping since you always say they operate from the bush?
Nigerians are now suffering like the Fulani herdsmen. Everybody now is at the same level of suffering. My people’s own is different because they are already used to suffering because nobody, no government remembers them, unlike other Nigerians. The suffering of my people started since 1999, when this political dispensation started; they are not given the same treatment given to other Nigerians. Nigerians are crying because what they are passing through is new to them, but for us, we are used to it. The only problem we have is the different threats from every part of the country. Their problem is not how to eat, but how to survive.
How are your people being threatened?
Nigeria is for every Nigerian. You can see a Fulani man, where he is settled was where his forefathers lived, but now you see people would come to such settlements and begin to attack them; asking them to leave the place and if the governor of the such state and the local government chairman are not peacemakers, then serious fighting takes place and in the process they kill many Fulani. Those were the places their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers were born, and the present occupants don’t know any other place; it is the only place they know, but somebody would come and ask them to leave the area, that it doesn’t belong to them. If our people go to Emir’s place or any traditional ruler to lay their complains, they are not given attention.
Take for example, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, there were many Fulani settlements there long before it was conceived as FCT. There is this 75-year-old Fulani man that was born in one of the settlements, but recently some people came and asked him to leave because the place doesn’t belong to him. However, if it were the Gwari, Gwandara or other tribes, nobody can ask them to leave.
The constitution of Nigeria says that if you have lived in a place for a certain period of time, you are an indigene of that place. This thing is disturbing us. As it is in FCT, so also it is even in Taraba, Katsina and Zamfara states. Even in Sokoto, Kebbi, the people are Fulani, but if you are into cattle rearing, then there is a problem. Some Fulani have gone to school and are educated and contested an election and became senators, House of Representatives members, etc; they have left the rural areas, and then it has become a difficult thing for them to help the herders for fear that it will taint their political career. Herders are treated very badly in this country.
Remember, there was a time the Southern governors were talking about Fulani herdsmen, the Bauchi governor, Bala Mohammed came and said that the herders should be allowed because they have equal right like other citizens of the country, many people attacked him of making a case for terrorists.
I have instances where some ethnic groups even met Fulani where they had settled, but now they are claiming the place. This is because nothing concerned the herders with grabbing lands, going to government to get papers for land allocation. In the areas where they have settled for a century, they wake up to see surveyors surveying the land, claiming to have the papers for the land. Thereafter, they will drive them out. You are about 30 years old, you come to claim a land where people have been living for over a century.
The herders don’t get justice in this country. As you are travelling or going by road, if you see any herdsman ask him, if he has ever visited a government hospital or enjoyed any government facilities. Those in Taraba, they are chasing them out, some went to Adamawa, and they pursued them too. Their offence is because they are cattle rearers. This is rainy season, they are moving here and there as there is no particular place to settle. They are used to suffering and about 75 per cent of them are living in their country like refugees. Nobody visits them; nobody goes to find out what their problems were. Look at the crisis in Mangu, Plateau State.
They are accusing your people of killing Mnagu people in Plateau in order to take over their land. What do you say to grave allegation?
I have the history of that crisis in Plateau because I’m part of the state; over 60 per cent of my relations are in Plateau. The problem is that the Birom people and other ethnic groups want to drive out the Fulani in the state. You can’t come and drive a people that have settled there for 200 years because you want to collect the land, and you are using unapproved force to do that – you are not military, police or DSS. There is nothing that concerns the Fulani with land grabbing. If Fulani were interested in claiming land, I can tell you nobody will have a place to stay in Nigeria because before you enter your bush, Fulani are there. Before you start farming in any bush, they are there. It is a lie; Fulani are not interested in claiming anybody’s land.
In this Mangu crisis, over 320 Fulani people were killed and it was not reported because nobody cares about them. So, is it that the people who are trying to dispossess you of your land are the ones killing themselves? It doesn’t sound logical.
Now, our people who were driven from that place are now in Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe states. In Bauchi State alone, there are about 6,000 of them as refugees. Because you want to take your land back that was why you pursued them, killed their cows, killed their children, their mother and almost everybody.
God will punish those who are damaging Fulani name and accusing them of instigating the crisis and other atrocities in Plateau State and other places. My people are the victims. Before the crisis, many Fulani in Barki Ladi, Ryom and other places were killed, and I can name some of them. I can send you the list. The former governor of Plateau, Simon Lalong tried as much as possible to halt any crisis, but the moment this new governor resumed office, this crisis started. He is supposed to wake up and make sure that there is peace everywhere because Plateau is for everybody, and not only for the Birom, Ryom, Angas and other major ethnic groups. It is a land God gave for everybody to live peacefully and carry out their activities.
Government has promised to give palliatives to cushion effects of the fuel subsidy removal. What kind of palliatives do you recommend for the Fulani since they are mostly in the bush?
During the time of former President Muhammadu Buhari, we were hearing on the radio, television that the government was giving palliatives to most vulnerable people in Nigeria, but nobody remember those Fulani in the bushes. I have told you earlier, for a people who are facing threats everywhere, who can even remember them when good things are coming? The other day, I had an interview with the BBC World Service in Hausa. Before then, they had interviewed the chairman of Karo Local Government in Nasarawa State, who said he wanted to take back some of our people who were forced out of the crisis to give them food, palliatives and other things. I asked about those who were killed and are scattered everywhere? Since the military left in 1999, nobody cares for our people. Like during the time of Buhari, I suspect it is going to be the same; nobody will remember the Fulani in the bushes when they are talking of palliatives. They will just play politics with it and pocket the money meant for them. Some of them don’t even have bank accounts.
Are you not supposed to make a case for your people so that the government will send the money to your organisation to distribute to them?
We can contact the government so that whenever they are giving the money, through our organisation, the Fulani in the bushes will for the first time benefit from such a programme.
How is the coup in Niger affecting your people here in Nigeria and other countries, as you are the Fulani leader in West Africa?
It is affecting our people because we are everywhere in Nigeria and in the Niger Republic. We are opposed to Nigeria going into war with Niger to bring back the former president. They are our brothers. As a typical Fulani man, I don’t need a vehicle to move from Sokoto to Niger. They should resolve the issue diplomatically, because if it results to war, Fulani in the bushes will be at the receiving end.
You supported President Bola Tinubu so much during the election. Did you make any input in the composition of the ministers?
We were not consulted and I’m not bothered. My only interest is for Nigeria to be in peace so that everybody will go about his or her business unmolested. We are doing everything we could to make Tinubu’s government to succeed. Nigeria is for everybody. We are together with them.
