Whichever way one looks at it, the fatal tenor that has been imported
into Nigerian politics since the defeat of the PDP in 2015 will leave
all of us casualties with the way things are going in Nigeria. That we
admit the truism in this statement or deny it makes no difference but
the fact remains that we are collectively endangered by the vicious
politics that had been made to dominate the country’s affairs since
2015. Even as those that mischievously sow this dread naively think
they will be immune from the fallouts of their mischief, no one knows
who will bear the greatest brunt of the present tendency to lay enough
political booby traps on every issue in Nigeria.
Take the Ruga policy as an instance. I can see the mischievous glints
in the eyes of those that are frantically trying to grow hate against
the Fulani just because Buhari who toppled their applecart in 2015 is
Fulani but we all know that when the fan hits the shit, there is
nothing that suggests the Fulani will bear the biggest chunk of the
troubles that will come from this silly effort to cut the nose to spit
on the face. Stripped of all the malevolent politics and divisive
slants built into the Ruga policy by those that see the pulling down
of the Nigerian polity as enough vengeance for their loss of political
power,the Ruga policy is a competent effort to stop the
over-politicized and over-dramatized herdsmen/farmers clash which had
been made to dominate our national narratives since the PDP lost power
in 2015. As is well known, herdsmen migration in every remote part of
Nigeria is as old as the nation itself. Even then, the clash between
herdsmen and farmers predates the Buhari regime. But it became such
noxious case since Buhari, a Fulani came to power. Even as regimes
before Buhari witnessed more vicious cases of clashes between farmers
and itinerant herdsmen, there was no effort to elevate it to such
divisive heights as had happened since Buhari came to power.
BeforeBuhari came, clashes between herdsmen and farmers were
accommodated as just one of the numerous security glitches that tug at
the soul of our nationhood. Activities of herdsmen were accommodated
as just one of the cultural aspects of our national history. But since
Buhari came, herdsmen and their age-old activities have become
illegitimate acts that other Nigerians cannot live with clashes that
exerted larger tolls before Buhari came had been made to look like new
events and every effort have been made to re-baptize traditional
crimes and anomalies in Fulani herdsmen light. All these are efforts
to get back at Buhari for the singular ‘crime’ that he led the
electoral rout of the PDP in 2015!
So the Rugapolicy was meant to voluntarily set up cattle colonies in
willing states where cattle-rearing is restricted and make such
colonies livable for the cattle rearers and nothing more. What should
be the crime in such policy except for the obnoxious, deadly politics
that has seized the country since 2015? Why should those who have
mischievously promoted the politics of herdsmen invasion since2015
feel repelled by the Ruga politics if not that they are seized by
insensate political vices that see no solution to their antics by the
Buhari government? What should be the opposite of Ruga if not the
continuation of herdsmen activities, which, by the way, predates our
independence history? Why should those who have been fixated in
raising ceaseless hoaxes about the activities of herdsmen since 2015
be opposed to domesticating cattle rearing activities if not that they
are seized by an insatiable gale of political mischief that will
certainly consume them in the long run?
Some aspects of the Ruga policy that are lost to the hate-mongers and
divisive tendencies that have mounted a strident opposition against it
is that it is purely voluntary and not forced on any state. So it can
only be worked out in any state that voluntarily donates land for it
and no more. Again, there is this silly, purblind and self-deprecatory
feeling that Ruga is exclusively forFulani. This is a way of saying
that it is only Fulani that breed cattle or has the capability to
breed cattle in the entire world. Stripped of bland myopia that
encases opposition to Ruga, we have the borderless opportunities Ruga
opens to people that hitherto don’t engage in cattle breeding as well
as the limitless frontiers it offers for the expansion of local
economies. We are not even going into the healthier quality of cattle
the policy stands to produce. The silly feeling that cattle is for
Fulani and any mention of cattle connotes astounding illiteracy that
can not find a place in the modern world. So nothing stops any state
from engaging inRuga exclusively for its own citizens and tap the
benefits from that new frontier of agriculture and economy.
But, from all intents and purposes, the opposition to Ruga is purely
driven by political self-interest and the desire to turn over the
table to satisfy hurting political feelings and nothing more. This is
why some who should know have allowed themselves to be blinded by the
primitive division, rabid hatred and dangerous intercalation that they
have imported into an otherwise laudable program that will not only
curb the cases of friction associated with nomadic animal husbandry
but reflate the economy of any entity that chooses to engage in it.
The rabid devilry built into the opposition to Ruga comes unraveled
when we consider the fact that the past Jonathan regime, which was
defeated by Buhari and for which the rabid merchants of the present
hate and division have admiration for, approved a huge sum of N100
billion for cattle ranching as its own way of curbing the
herdsmen/farmers clashes. Not even one of the people desperately
sowing hate and division over the Ruga program presently raised
opposition to this and not disappointing its corrupt, clueless
predilection, the regime did absolutely nothing on this and never
accounted for the huge approval until it was voted out of power. What
more, it was Gabriel Suswan, former governor of Benue were the
apostles of hate and rabid divisive politics presently anchor their
trade that headed the committee that recommended this policy to the
Jonathan regime. Curiously, all those seriously inciting hate today in
the name of opposing Ruga are agents, supporters, beneficiaries and
enablers of that regime and its party, PDP! What has changed that has
made cattle breeding crime and made any policy geared towards finding
a practical solution to the herdsmen/farmers clashes criminal today?
PDP lost the power it used in the main, to despoil and plunder the
commonwealth and who led the routing? Buhari aFulani. So everything
associated with Fulani has suddenly become evil and the various
prebendal groups that benefitted from the Byzantine corruption of the
PDP era feel so good feeding this dangerous politics.
Sure, the government has suspended the Ruga policy; ostensibly to do
more work on its implementation but it remains the best way to deal
with an age-old problem that has been twisted to look like a recent
one just to tar Buhari and expand the boundaries of division and hate
in Nigeria. The government should know that to those that shoot this
poisonous dart, Buhari is stuck by being a Fulani and nothing he does
will vitiate their resolve to ensure that head or tail, he will be
heckled with the kind of mischief they are desperately sowing now n
this herdsmen issue. Was it surprising that as soon as Atiku, a
Fulani emerged as PDP presidential candidate, every form of Fulani
herdsmen-tagged killings stopped and politics around Fulani herdsmen
ceased till he was defeated and the devilry was restarted?
We have seen the saber-rattling by different fronts of these political
war-mongers against Ruga. We have seen the exhuming of deadly
religious, tribal, ethnic, primordial sentiments against a policy that
should ordinarily not have any religious, tribal, ethnic coloration.
On the other side, we have seen the war cry ofNorthern radical youths
against syndicated politicization of Ruga. All these speak of a nation
on clear tenterhooks because of the ravaging selfish interests of
displaced political share reapers who would care no hoot if Nigeria
burns as a way of assuaging their feeling of hurt over their loss of
power. But surely, Nigeria will survive this and will tap the benefits
of Ruga and such other policies this government has painstakingly
pursued to recover anation battered to the bones by ultra-corrupt
tendencies who are behind the present opposition to Ruga as well as
behind the opposition to very many policies the Buhari regime has
undertaken to recover Nigeria from the ruins they left here.
Peter ClaverOparah.
Ikeja,Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com