Thread by @Aloo_Tordue

The Benue Anti grazing bill & Gov Ortom fake glories.

A thread.

THE POLITICS OF FULANI HERDSMEN

At a time in the history of Benue State, a Rev Gentleman, Pst. Edward Dooga (Ded) began a revolutionary

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Movement- Movement Against Fulani Occupation (MAFO).

The movement was aimed at securing the Benue Valley from the Fulani's who at the time had began to visit mayhem on our local farmers, displacing them & occupying their farmlands. It was also intended to forestall any further

Infiltration and aggression. He argued that the Fulani's have an agenda in the Benue Valley, and it was to take over the land.

His vision was shared with and bought by another Revd Gentleman, the cosmopolitan Revd Fr Solomon Mfa Ukeyima. They began to mobilize like -

minds across board to support this movement. At the time, the present Gov of Benue State was a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the party upon which he first became Governor in 2015.

When the movement began n was gathering momentum, the APC led Government of 9ja

was vehemently opposed to it while the Benue State Government maintained neutrality. There were those who believed that the government was against it even though Benue had experienced Fulani attacks and they were still pockets of attacks in different parts of the State.

They government was suspicious of the movement. Some saw it as an anti - party movement designed by the PDP that was then in opposition to discredit the APC Government in the State. The controversies that surrounded MAFO at its earlier stage were manifold.

The relationship and interaction between Pro - MAFO proponents and the Government then was fraught with tension & suspicion. Nevertheless, the movement continued up to they point that a bill was proposed. When eventually the Government decided to set up a committee to look at th

born of contention, one of their terms of reference was to identify indigenous and non - indigenous Fulani's in Benue State - a clause in which a member of the committee insisted must be expunged, arguing that no Fulani was indigenous to Benue State.

Then, part of where City Bay Park is used to be Cool Off Park. That's where MAFO in most cases used to congregate. Pro - MAFO rallies were held carrying blackcards with different inscriptions like "stop the killings", "give us our land", "we want peace", "Buhari must go" etc.

Some Pro - MAFO protests were blocked. And when the Anti - Open grazing Bill was drafted, it was greeted with dramas and controversies. It took sustained pressure to have the Government to accept it. When it finally did, it took forever to have the Governor's assent. The people

became suspicious that the government was playing foul and began to demand for their bill which they learnt through the backdoor was missing at the vault of the State's Assembly. How could such important document be missing?

Protests continued and the bill was found. The version

of the bill which was brought forward for consideration was found out to be doctored. Some of the provisions were altared. The people rejected it arguing it was not the same with the one they originally submitted. The already existing lack of trust on this matter was heightened!

A public hearing with critical stakeholders invited from all works of life was held for a clause by clause review of the lost but found bill. The move was to make sure the content conveys the aspirations of the people.

In all of this, it was believed that the Federal Government

of Nigeria was opposed to the bill so the Governor of Benue State was being careful not to offend the powers that be if that would cost him the Party's ticket to run for a second term amongst other issues.The Governor had also began to have a rustic relationship with his then

godfather whom together were brazenly mismanaging public funds. The question as to whether he, the Governor would be given the Party's ticket to run for a second term was one of the questions in public domain begging for an answer. Eventually, we would hear that some youths in

protest blocked and stopped the Governor's convoy from going to Abuja.

On the 22nd May, 2017, at an elaborate occasion, the Bill was assented to by the Governor. Revd. Fr Solomon Mfa Ukeyima and other important personalities graced the occasion. The Government was hailed for

taking side with the people. The honor was more to the Government than to the people as though the bill was an executive bill. Signing of the bill into law was a big win for the Governor and Benue State. It was a move that saw the Governor as taking side with his people in spite

of the Federal Government's refusal. In fact, all his "sins" were forgiven. He became the good boy and that singular act became the stem of further political actions and wins.

Pst. Edward Dooga who began the struggle could not live to sing the Nunc Dimittis.

He did not live to see the glory day - the day the Government signed the anti - open grazing and Ranches Establishment Bill into law. May his soul continue to rest in perfect peace. Amen.

His death became a metaphor for others who would be killed on account of the newly signed

law for resisting Fulani occupation. The Fulani herdsmen protested, the literate and illiterates alike, on conventional and non conventonal media, they protested. Although there had always been perennial killings as a result of farmers/herders crisis but after the signing of the

bill into law, it metamorphosed into an industrial scale. Villages were attacked, people kiled displaced & the herdsmen occupied with their cows. As it stands, Benue is littered with IDPs Camps as a result of Fulani herdsmen attacks & many communities remain under their control.

There was what was like a pogrom on the 1st January, 2018 where at least 72 persons were killed in a renewed Fulani herdsmen attack. A mass burial was held in their honor. I remember vividly, the state was thrown into mourning. Based on the demeanor of the APC led FG and the

association of the Fulani's with attacks, both the APC as a party and the Fulani as a tribe became symbols of death and perceived antagonists in Benue State. So anything associated with those two would go on to be seen as adversary of an ordinary Tiv man.

From 2017 to the build

up of 2019 General Elections, there were sporadic attacks and killings as a result of farmers/herders crisis. It became clearer that the Governor would not be given the APC ticket to run for a second term. Reasons abound in that effect and public analysts are divided about that.

There are those who argued it was so because of the Governor's poor performance in office and, those who upheld that it was because of his firm stance against the Fulani's.

There would always be differences in opinion. Nevertheless, in his place, Bar. Emmanuel Jime

was filed in to be the APC Governorship candidate while the incumbent Governor decamped from APC to PDP and became the Party's candidate in the 2019 Governorship Election.

Sen. Akume remained in the APC. Both Akume and Jime were all seen as cohorts, antagonists and, enemies of

the ordinary Tiv man because of their membership of the APC and association with President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani man. The Party and Fulani sentiments became a beacon of campaign. The APC is a Fulani party with agenda to islamize, fulanize and take over the Benue valley

while the PDP is a Christian party with the agenda to liberate and secure the Benue valley.

The personality of Bar. E
Jime was dragged into this sentiments. That he was a creation of the "Fulani Presidency" and a conduit for them to actualize their agenda in the Benue valley.

Attempts were even made to falsely associate his maternal lineage with the Fulani just to buttress the propaganda. Within the circumstances that attacks claimed to be perpetrated by the Fulani herdsmen, Jime would go on to lose the Governorship Election to His Excellency, Samuel

Ortom in 2019. But I'm also not naive to know that his party within the State lacked coordination, mismanaged campaign money and the fear from some quarters that he might want to contest for the 2023 Governorship all worked against him.

Today, a Fulani man is the PDP Presidential Flagbearer - His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar. He is no doubt a Fulani man and rumoured to be the single largest owner of herds in Nigeria. Ordinarily, the Fulani theory should subsist and be counted against him if truly a man is

unsuitable because of his tribe and party. But
the people who made us believed that the Fulani man was and is an enemy are celebrating him and campaigning for him.

Meanwhile, it was Oby Ezekwesili, the Convener of BringBackOurGirls who conined this word - Butiku, meaning, both Buhari and Atiku are one and the same.

May God protect Benue State

~Simon