By Akinwale Kasali
The Eminent Elders Forum, EEF, comprising of very top ranking senior citizens that have transversed all spheres of human endeavours has alleged President Muhammadu Buhari is a promoter of ethnic profiling that has plunged the nation into disarray.
The Group says it is, apolitical, non-religious, non tribal/ethnic, non racial and a non discriminatory body which membership is over 300, and cuts across the nation.
At a three-day virtual Meeting/Discussion – 8th-11th August, 2021- on the topical national issues of Ethnic Profiling, Ethnic Cleansing, Dispossession of Indigenous Ancestral Lands by Foreign Invaders and the Heightened Separatists Agitations Across The Country Nigeria, the Group said that the President Buhari administration is largely responsible for the ethnic profiling of the Fulanis through his utterances and actions particularly since he came into power in 2015.
Going down memory lane, the Group pointed out that in Cairo, Egypt, during the African Union Summit in 2018, President Buhari gave free entry into Nigeria to foreign Fulanis from all over the continent. These, the Group said are the same Fulanis who on arrival to Nigeria occupied the forests all over the country, from late 2019 through 2020, during the lock down occasioned by the ravaging Pandemic – COVID-19.
It also added that no sooner did these foreign Fulanis occupy the forests, that there was all manners of killings, kidnappings, destruction of farmlands and properties escalated across the nation.
In the communique issued after the three day deliberations, the Group alleged that an ethnic group associated with the current President of Nigeria has been fingered in the various odd happenings in Nigeria presently.
Information, the members said have filtered through talks by eminent persons that confirm the unfortunate involvement of that ethnic group in the mayhem plaguing the country.
It also stressed that by virtue of the age old occupation of the Fulanis as cattle herders, the Fulanis under Miyetti Allah cattle breeders association believed they owned grazing routes in all parts of the Federation and therefore are entitled to possess, by force of arms, these routes for the grazing of their cattle.
And that migrating with their cattle causes confrontation with indigenous land owners. However, the magnanimity to accommodate the roving band or nomadic people shouldn’t translate to abrogation of traditional rights of land ownership.
In the communique signed by Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the Group’s Steering Committee, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the Group Alternate Chairman and nine others, the Group called for a rebirth that would bring the nation out of the woods.
As regards the ethnic cleansing, the group said that a lot has been said about the killings and destruction of properties and total disregard to the sanctity of lives in Nigeria, but there are factors that showed clearly that the current killings have pogromic and ethnic cleansing intents, which are meticulously planned and systematically executed with the support of the Leadership.
It also said that “some Fulanis have nursed the ambition of conquest of Nigeria which they also believe is naturally endowed to them. This has been demonstrated by the Feudal Fulani Leadership, the ruling class in the North as represented by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto in the sixties. What we have today in respect of the killings and ethnic cleansing in the Middle Belt, South East, South South and South West is a deepened effort to perpetuate the whims and caprices of some Fulani Feudal Machine.
“This is also demonstrated in the thinking and actions of the present Government headed by Major-General Mohammadu Buhari, a Fulani man. That Major-General Muhammadu Buhari considers himself the Madhi i.e. Messiah of Islam in Nigeria and therefore seems to be in full support of whatever will deny the rest of Nigerians their lives in order to make the Fulanis the Feudal Lords in Nigeria and for Nigeria to become a full-fledged Islamic.
“This has been on for sometime but since 2013, it became an open secret that escalated to full invasion and occupation by foreign Fulanis with the silent and subterranean support of the present Government Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.
“This is evident in Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue and most recently in Niger and Ebonyi States among others.
The current Government of Kaduna State should be held responsible for the ongoing pogrom/genocide and destruction/ sacking of the settlements in southern Kaduna.
“It is generally believed that whatever we are witnessing today as a Nation was as a result of the foundation laid by the Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He seems to have sustained the process through the negative instrumentality of the use of executive powers. It is his body language and silence which demonstrated in no small measure his approval of the massacre and ethnic cleansing in Kaduna, Middle Belt, South East and South West.
“The President has never openly condemned these killings, neither has the perpetrators been brought to book or prosecuted in any Court of law”.
The Group spoke about the Heightened Separatists Agitations Across The Country, saying that it is a direct consequence of the prevailing situation of perceived injustice, lack of security of lives and properties, nepotism and religious bigotry.
Though agitations for restructuring have been on the front burner since the late General Sani Abacha days, the demand for separation has now spread beyond South East and South West and now includes the Middle Belt and minority groups within North East and North West.
Stressing further, it pointed out that in some parts of the Middle Belt and Kaduna, indigenous land owners were wiped out by the criminal Fulani herdsmen/terrorists, who renamed ancestral villages and took over their lands. They renamed the indigenous ancestral places and even appointed administrators over the seized Areas.
“The heightened separatist agitations have assumed unprecedented dimensions in Nigeria, first in period immediately preceding and during the civil war from 1967, and now during the Buhari led administration.
“Nigerians are no longer one, but many. Enmity has taken over in the midst of distrust, injustice, unfairness, zero-someness, winner-takes-all, breakdown of values, institution of mediocrity, ethnic bigotry, feudalism etc.
Such tense environment of insecurity and threat of pogrom and ethnic based massacre which is the body language of some leaders have heightened the call for separation.
“President Buhari is largely responsible for the ethnic profiling of the Fulanis through his utterances and actions particularly since he came into governance again in 2015.
“The main terrorist groups, whether they are called Bandits, herdsmen and/or kidnappers are mainly Fulanis, especially the Fulani mercenaries from Libya, Mali, Niger and Chad which this Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime seems to have facilitated easy access to Nigeria through highly compromised national institutions.
“The early Fulani cattle-herders we knew pre- Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, did not carry AK47 to pasture their cattle.
“The influx of these murderous Fulani invaders started when the APC, the political party of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, brought them to participate as agent provocateur in the 2015 election to enure that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari emerged as President of Nigeria.
“Buhari attended AU summit in Egypt three years ago where he made a public pronouncement to grant Fulanis from all over African continent free and unfettered access into Nigeria. This he did without recourse to and/or approval from the National Assembly.
Now the same Fulani mercenaries are occupying the forests all over the country.
“This absurdity was surreptitiously and especially accelerated from early 2020 when Nigeria was expected to be under the pandemic COVID-19 lockdown.
“The ethnic cleansing and dispossession of indigenous ancestral lands by the Fulanis especially the aided foreign Fulanis said to be invited into the country by Mr. president’s political party has been ongoing in the last 6 years and has recently escalated to full blown invasion with the silence of the Government in power. This is evident in Plateau, Kaduna, Benue and most recently Niger States among others.
“The present Government of Kaduna State should be held responsible for the ongoing pogrom in Kaduna. Mallam El-Rufai, the current Governor of Kaduna State, like Major-General Muhammadu Buhari are both Fulanis perceived to be using their official positions to further a supposedly clandestine Fulani agenda”.
The Group demanded that the President Buhari should change his attitude, utterances and his style of governance.
It also called on the All Progressives Congress, APC, led government to have respect for the rule of law, justice and fairness to all, and also respect the spirit of Federal character in all appointments into Federal executive positions.
It added that the armed forces should be more pro-active to stop the killings, abductions, kidnapping and banditry; flush out the foreign invaders from Nigeria territorial space and restore security of lives and properties of citizens across the countries Nigeria and the immediate replacement of the 1999 constitution (not Amendment) with the 1963 constitution with amendments to reflect today’s realities in Nigeria.
Its other demands include;
Restoration of peace to all occupied land in all the States, rehabilitate and settle all the displaced people in the IDPS back into their homes and ancestral lands.
Remembering our first National Anthem at Independence:
Nigeria we hail thee, our own dear native land, though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand etc.
The last verse “ O God of all creation, grant this our one request, help us to build a nation where no man is oppressed and so with peace and plenty Nigeria may be blessed.
The first National Anthem was the spirit that prevailed across the country. We say with all sense of responsibility that, if we cannot re-enact such spirit in this nation called Nigeria, then without mincing words: to thy various tents oh Nigerians becomes a sine qua non.
We can part in peace to allow each ethnic groups/nationalities to develop and manage their affairs at their own pace.
JUSTICE, equity and fairness must return to our polity (society) in all RECRUITMENTS/APPOINTMENTS particularly into various Federal Government Ministries, Agencies and Parastatals among others.
APPROPRIATE application and respect for the law.
PROPER handling and prosecution of reported cases of attacks and killings in the communities across the country
THE solution is either: total mutual disintegration or deliberate restructuring of Nigeria in line with the vision of the founding leaders of Nigeria.
We would rather prefer the latter to avoid the former.
TO find a way out of the quagmire, we will need to do the followings:
(i). ACCEPT that there is a deep-rooted problem plaguing the nation and accept faults where necessary and make amends.
(ii). AGREE that Nigerian people have the right to determine if and how they want to continue to live and be governed
PUT in place a constitution drafting committee that will consult across the country to draft a people’s constitution that must be subjected to a referendum.
EQUITY, Fairness and Justice must be the norm and not the exception that it is today.
ETHNIC cleansing are grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions and 1977 additional protocols and must be stopped forthwith.
NIGERIANS especially those aggrieved by the present obnoxious governance system should team up and exercise their electoral franchise to ensure that no person known to be grossly biased ethnically or a religious fanatic should ever occupy to any political and/or administrative office in Nigeria going forward.
THE issue of religion(s) should be separated and distinct from State affairs.
The government has no business in religious affairs.
Nigeria is a secular state and should be seen to be secular in all ramifications of governance in the country.
PREVENT the present administrations both at federal and state levels by all reasonable and lawful means from causing further collateral damages in the remaining tenure of their administration.
TOTAL Restructuring on the basis of the 2014 national confab resolutions or as may be reasonably modified.
REPEAL the 1999 constitution and re-introduce the 1963 constitution with necessary amendments to reflect today’s realities in Nigeria.
