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National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo has said that President Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba man, has hearkened unto the prayers of the Fulani by creating the Ministry of Livestock Development. He regretted that Tinubu has done what a Fulani man, former President Muhammadu Buhari, couldn’t do for his people. He spoke in an interview with VINCENT KALU.
The government is giving out food palliative to the poor. How are your people, the Fulani living in the bush, benefitting?
Have you ever seen any palliative the government has given to the Fulani before? We usually see the federal government giving food palliative to people on the television or read it in the newspapers, but the Fulani are yet to partake in it. No Fulani man has received palliative from the state or the federal government.
The Finance Minister was quoted as saying that the federal government has given N25, 000 cash to about 25 million poor Nigerians. Are you saying that the Fulani people haven’t received theirs?
We usually hear this on the radio or see it on the television. Nobody can claim that the Fulani are benefitting from any form of palliative or cash transfer from the government. If there is such a person, let me see him or her. When things like this are coming, the so-called Fulani leaders and the charge and bail Fulani are usually jumping from here to there; from one office to another seeking to collect such money because they understand, speak and write English. Some people are surrounding Tinubu and using the Fulani to obtain one favour or the other from him. Mind my word, I said some so-called Fulani leaders are trading with the name of Fulani to curry favour from the president. In Kaura Local Government, there is a warehouse filled with rice since the Ramadan. The bags are branded with Tinubu’s photo. This is a palliative they collected from the Federal Government meant for the people. But up till now, the rice is still there, and some people collected some to go and share to the poor Fulani people in the bushes and the rice could have expired. We don’t have an option.
If you want to do something for the Fulani in Nigeria, whether you like it or not, I must be connected or be involved with it because the Fulani believe in my leadership. Now, some former senators, former governors, former ministers and some emirs want to be Fulani leaders because they want to do politics with the Fulani name. That is the difference between them and me. Sometimes, they say, Bello Bodejo is claiming to be the only Fulani leader. One thing about the Fulani is that if they believe in you and your leadership, they won’t look behind, but if they don’t believe in you and your leadership, no matter what you give to them, they won’t follow you. Fulani are very intelligent people; they know the truth and follow it. You are supposed to have a connection with the Fulani before you claim to be their leader. If you want to control them, you must have a connection with them. They are different from other tribes, they believe in leadership and if you want to control them without identifying with them, they won’t allow that. If you have suffered or are suffering for them, they know it. Nobody can go and give them expired rice or wrapper for them to accept the person as their leader. If a Fulani man doesn’t want to be with you, no matter what, they can’t follow you. They believe in leadership; you can’t give them money to control them. Some people when they see me, they say, ‘see this small boy, he is calling himself the Fulani leader.’ Yes, nobody gave me the Fulani leadership, but God, and the Fulani themselves believe in me. If they need something, I listen to them and if they have any problem, I will go to them and find out what the issue is all about.
The Tinubu administration has created the Livestock Development Ministry, which you have been agitating for over a period of time. What are your comments?
Like this Livestock Development Ministry that has been finally created, I have been pursuing it for a very long time. We have written to successive presidents, we have carried out media campaigns – press conferences, advertorials in the newspapers asking for this specific ministry. Thank God it has been created, but nobody has asked about this group of people that championed it, or said, let us ask them if they have an idea on how to make the ministry achieved its purpose. I, the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the Fulani socio-cultural organisation, am not seeking an appointment in the ministry. My interest is on how the Fulani man will have and enjoy peace, how herders and farmers can dwell peacefully in this country.
You campaigned for the creation of the ministry for a long time. What do you expect from the minister?
The minister should realise that if you are not connected with the Fulani, you will not know their problems and challenges. You are educated and you stay far away, you won’t know their suffering. All the people around the minister, I believe they are Fulani. If you want to help the Fulani who are in the bushes and rearing cows, you are supposed to separate the three categories of Fulani. The problems of the Fulani in the bushes are very different from the elite Fulani, whose interest is to fight for political appointments. The second category is the Fulani that have nothing to do with the Fulani people in the bushes or rearing cows. This category is the ones I refer to as charge and bail. You see them moving from one police station to the other; from one police commissioner’s office to the other; from one SARS office to the other.
The third category is the Fulani leaders that stay with these poor Fulani through thick and thin, and they know the problems of these Fulani. I’m calling on the minister to have a meeting with the typical Fulani leaders that know the problems of the Fulani herders and hear from them. From now till the end of the world, if they don’t connect directly with the leaders of these downtrodden Fulani for which the ministry was created, the Fulani problem would be difficult to solve; the herders –farmers’ crisis may not end. Some people are looking for what they can get; the sitting allowances they get after meetings, hotel allowances, while they don’t have communication with the Fulani in Taraba, Wukari and other bushes.
The problems the Fulani had in 2019 are different from what they have now. The problem they have in Taraba is different from what they have in Katsina; the problem of the Fulani in Kaduna is different from those in Plateau. If you use only the so-called leaders, you can’t solve any of their problems because these elites don’t know what the Fulani in the bushes need. If you use the charge and bail Fulani, they can’t solve any problem because they are disconnected with the Fulani cattle rearers.
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For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t need any appointment in the ministry. My interest is for the Fulani to have peace and let them cohabit with the farmers peacefully. Again, let the downtrodden Fulani benefit from this ministry.
If a Fulani man insults President Tinubu, I will ask the person, ‘our Fulani brother was the president before Tinubu, did he create this ministry for us?’ This is a Yoruba man and yet has given the Fulani what they have been yearning for. I expect the minister, Idi Mukhtar Maha to do the right thing. Two days ago, I received a phone call from somebody asking me to come to Zone Four to meet with the minister. I don’t know the day the minister office was moved to Zone Four. So, I didn’t go.
Some people argue that the ministry of Livestock Development ought to be a department in the Ministry of Agriculture. What is your reaction to this?
There are so many confused people in this country and some of them should visit psychiatric hospital. I don’t see the reason any right thinking person should be kicking against this ministry that came at the right time. We have a problem in this country. People must pick holes in every good policy. More than 99 per cent of cows consumed in this country come from individual Fulani. They are making very big contributions in this country, but some people are not appreciative of that, and that is why their thinking is bad. They have introduced tribalism because it concerns the Fulani. The ministry came at the right time when there is the need for peace and understanding between the cattle herders and farmers.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
Things are actually very difficult. People are suffering and complaining. There is no money; there is scarcity of food. This was caused by the astronomical increase in the price of petrol. Before, we were spending between N30, 000 and N40, 000 to fuel my car from Nasarawa to Kano, but now, we spend between N140, 000 and N160, 000. It is a very difficult situation. Even onions and tomatoes that used to be very affordable are now out of the reach of people. Some people are still managing. The reality of the situation would dawn on you if you go to the village. You will pity the poor people. Some people would come and tell you that their children have not eaten that day. Some would send pictures of their children or relations on the sick bed, asking you for money to continue their treatments. People are seriously suffering.
Before, the coming of President Bola Tinubu, the suffering being experienced by the Fulani in the bushes was much; so, the Fulani are used to suffering. But now, everybody is suffering and complaining. Fulani are living like refugees – no food, no shelter. Because of the situation of things now, they are finding it difficult to transport their cows from the bush to where they will sell them. The transport fare for their cows from Nasarawa to Lafia or from Keffi to Lafia, and other locations have more than tripled, and they have no option than to pay. Things are very difficult.
Like I said, before Tinubu came in, Fulani were suffering, but now, everybody is passing through what we were passing through, and no one was interested to hear our agony. So, the rest of Nigerians have joined us in suffering. The suffering is open to everybody now.
Why did your group suspend its National Director of Information, Bala Bayero?
If anyone under an authority wants to do certain things, he must get an approval for that. You cannot just issue a publication without getting approval from the appropriate authorities. We suspended him after the Endbadgovernance protest. We had meetings and resolved that we were not going to participate in the protest and he disobeyed. That was the reason we suspended him. Everybody has his opinion, but so far as he was working under us, he should abide by our resolution.
Why didn’t you want to join in the protest?
Yes, we didn’t join the protest. Those that participated in the protest, what have they benefited? There was no benefit. God saved Nigeria that we didn’t join the protest. If we had participated in the protest, it would have been a different thing entirely. Our people are many and they have been suffering for a long time. Their problems, frustrations and anger have been there for long, so we worked on them not to join the protest. If they had participated, they would have unleashed their years of frustration, anger and suffering on the country and it would have been disastrous.
The love we have for the country made us not to be part of the protest. More so, President Tinubu has created this ministry we have been fighting for over the years. Some people have accused us of having a different agenda for not allowing our people to protest. I told them that it is the love for the nation that held us not to get involved because we don’t have any other country except Nigeria. No matter your tribe, Nigeria belongs to everybody and we have to make it work.
