By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
23-4-2025.
For many of us not in the know, now is the time to know that NOT all the cattle we see with the herders belong to them (herders). Most (actually) belong to some big people in the country, many of whom are non Muslims. Immediately after his inauguration in the present regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a minister promised to “rid the FCT of these wandering nuisances and their owners”. But upon realising who the real owners are, the minister maintained an undignified silence, never able to carry out his earlier threat.
Like the ‘out of school children’ roaming the streets of most major towns, especially in the North Western part of the country, it should be noted that very few of them are ACTUALLY NIGERIANS. The so called killer herders are any tribe who speak the Fulani language, know and can ape their mannerisms very well. An Ishan group in the South South said as much in as many words.
In a widely circulating video clip, the Ishan head of cattle buyers in Uromi town of Edo state, alleged on ‘HERO TELEVISION’ that most of the kidnappings for ransom in the area were carried out by people indigenous to the area, who could speak the the Hausa/Fulani language and ape their mannerisms. He claimed that real herders (Hausa/Fulani) demand between N500,000 to N1 million as ransom whenever they kidnap, whereas the indigenes of the area ask for any amount from N20 million to N50 million, which is almost always made whenever there is a kidnapping in the area.
According to their leader, “My uncle was kidnapped, my in-law was kidnapped. What I found out about the people who did it, they were Ishans, they were not Hausa/Fulani people. They collected N15 million ransom.
“Just few days ago, some people came from Benin to Uromi and destroyed a house in the town. That house did not belong to Fulani, it belonged to the popularly known Felix Apama, and it was the government that destroyed it. Apama is a member of the group that stops some vehicles passing the road and carry the women to the bush.
“Let me tell you a story, the people doing most of these things will wear Hausa clothes to make people believe that it is Hausa. They will wear this Babar riga, and put a big cap to hide their Identity. Me I am a bonafide citizen of Edo state, I am from Iruwa, based in Uromi. I have been here for twenty (20) years, and the little that I know now is that my uncle and my in-law were kidnapped and ransom was paid. But the kidnappers were NOT Fulani people but ISHANS.
“The people who were behind it are pure ISHAN people. They are the ones doing it. Let us call a spade a spade. Let us stop hiding under the sheep of Hausa. If a Hausa man mistakenly kidnaps, he will ask for N500,000, N1 million, but these people that are doing it are Ishans, our brothers and once they are behind it they will be asking for N50 million, N20 million, N30 million. So we know, those are not the time you will suspect. Once you catch somebody who is kidnapping, Ishans or anybody, speak the truth out.”
Many of the killings or ‘RETALIATORY’ killings in the Middle Belt part of the North Central and attributed to the ubiquitous herders, are actually perpetrated by MILITANTS, many of whom were created and sponsored by local politicians to settle scores with an opponent or opponents. Some of the killings were carried out by militants of an ethnic group from another state to avenge, or show superiority over another ethnic group in an adjoining state. But the mayhem is always blamed on the ‘herders’.
“Suspected killer herdsmen have again invaded Gbagir community of Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State claiming at least ten persons and many others wounded early Good Friday”. This is the narrative often reported in and by the many Southern and Middle Belt mainstream and online media.
It is most often a religious, political, or a supremacy war between militants, belonging to opposing groups, all set up by local politicians and other supremacists to kill one another, which is done and reported ALWAYS as committed by ‘herders’.
Above all that, many of the killings were done by terrorists groups brought in by some interests, and whisked away the moment the fatal deed is done, and the ‘HERDERS’ are suspected to be responsible for it. But the high ups know the people responsible for the killings. They are anybody but the accused ‘herders’.
There are some people from another part of the country who have never wished well for the denizens of the North, but live in the North more than they do in their place of origin. Still, they want most their hosts dead, judging by their nefarious activities in their ‘new’ Northern home. They are into importation of fake drugs, expired drugs, banned drugs (many of which are abused, and are therefore subjected to strict government control), to the Northern region where Muslims are concentrated, in their bigoted bid to destroy their hosts at all costs.
Recently, officers from the Kano state office of the National Drug Law Enforcement Administration (NDLEA), stopped a driver coming from the Southern part of the country back to his KANO base in a Toyota Siena (bus). Cleverly concealed and hidden from ordinary scrutiny were hundreds of thousands of the banned drug TRAMADOL, that is widely abused by youths all over the country. The ‘good’ neighbour, who resides in Kano, makes the trip periodically bringing death from his neck of the woods to Kano. He runs a chemist as his business, where the intoxicant is sold to his many customers under the counter.
The alleged ‘herders’ attacks are mostly motivated by money and religion, because one of the two main faiths in the country frowns at the acquisition of wealth without regard to its sources (legal or illegal), while another preaches the importance of making lots of money regardless of how it was made. While one teaches piety, the other teaches prosperity, by all means. Those in support of prosperity, therefore have a natural hatred for those who have some piety in their heart.
Foreigners too are alleged to be involved in these fatal acts, but even them are doing it to end the influence of Islam in the region, particularly in its North Western axis, where piety is very high. The US and France, with the connivance of some very greedy, selfish and irresponsible people are killing Northerners by their tens every now and then, just to clear the space of Islamically biased Hausa/Fulani people, and steal their God given mineral resources buried beneath the ground.
Meanwhile, the Minister of DARKNESS, Adebayo Adelabu, told Nigerians with tongue in cheek that the country had never had it “so good” in terms of electricity supply as Under the regime of President Tinubu. But the President himself claimed to be spending N10 billion to fuel the generators in the Villa to get light. Then Mr. President should tell Nigerians the whereabouts of all the monies borrowed from the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As well as the reason for the retention of the overwhelmingly underperforming minister of power during the last federal cabinet reshuffle.
The minister can afford to say that since he and his boss always smile their way to the bank. They are making untold billions for the DARKNESS he provides regularly to the country, particularly the Northern region.
May God do for Nigeria what her supposed leader appears not to have the political courage to do, the sacking of all underperforming ministers in his cabinet, with himself too for being a disastrous failure to the nation.
Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.
