I am Fulani by tribe. By this simple fact, I have admitted to be a criminal or rather I am a criminal in the mind of those who seek to profit from such an unjust generalisation. They are never right, anyway. But I must be condemned for the crime I never committed because I am Fulani.
Nothing could be more wrong, farther from the truth, and unfair than this. But this is what ethnic profiling entails. The categorisation of an entire ethnicity based on the crimes of a minute fraction of the ethnic group in order to unacceptably pass sweeping judgement on them, is abhorrable.
According to the elders of my family and records available, my paternal great great grandfather, Modibbo Muhammadu migrated with his nuclear family from Gombe, precisely the area of Dukku about two centuries ago. One of his sons Modibbo Abdullahi Hammanadama was my great grandfather. They stayed for sometime in Jibu before proceeding to Kufai, then finally, to what is now called Sansani in Taraba State. Together with the other inhabitants, they were some of the pioneers to inhabit that place.
Thus, my great grandfather was one of the first traditional titleholders in the village. He was later made a ward head, and was first made the Wakili. And therefore, my family has since kept this title. I am not here to brag about anything. There is nothing in our family’s humble history that warrants such. All I seek is to state some facts for the purpose of this topical discourse.
My great grandfather married from many tribes, mainly of Jukun ethnicity. My great grandmother, Adama was a Jibu woman from the family of Kur-Jibu Bali, a 2nd class Chief in Taraba State. My grandfather, Mai unguwa Salihu, Wakilin Sansani married my grandmother, Rabi Mai Damisa, a Hausa woman from Zaria, whose maternal family is from Karim Lamido in Taraba State. My dad married my mum, a jibu woman from Bali, whose mum was from Jalingo, where my mum was also born. This is how it is with almost all my family members. For so many scores, they have married and inter married with other tribes that so many of my family members’ ethnic identity is difficult to be ascertained based on appearance or physique. This is also true in most Fulbe and other tribes’ homes in Muri, especially where there are so many tribes cohabitating.
However, for people like me, even if I were not Fulani, my physical appearance might have suggested that I was. It is an arduous task to convince anyone to believe otherwise. I write as a Nigerian proud of our common heritage, lineage, and above all, interested in bringing an end to the impasse which has seen Nigeria sitting on a keg of gun powder.
I am directly or indirectly affected in all that is the source of these ceaseless conflicts. I can never support the wanton destruction of property let alone the elimination of people even if my kinsmen are involved. In fact, I won’t pay lip service even if it were my siblings or children if I had any. But the bottom line still remains sincerity. We must be frank, if we truly want to solve this issue of farmers/herders’ crisis. I am a Fulani man but I have never herded cattle, mind you I don’t mean it is a crime to do so. I recall once following my cousin to a nearby bush, where few of my uncle’s cattle grazed. That was the only time in my entire life that I could have said to have herded cattle.
But I have farmed right from when I used to plant things with my siblings, cousins, and friends, as children as some sort of play. The fact that we are blessed with fertile land in Taraba State, the little maize and groundnuts seedlings we planted always ended up with good yield. As little children, the farm was located just a stone throw from our residence, in Mutum biyu, headquarters of Gassol local government of Taraba state. I recall, with great delight how we savoured those groundnuts. And of course, the sizeable corn. It was one of those lovely childhood memories that I would continue to cherish.
As I grew up, despite the drudgery associated with Agriculture, I graciously started farming in commercial quantity, with my friend and confidant, Abdussamad Adam Usman, a Patriot and a gentleman. Abdussamad and I engaged in farming for three good years. In all these years, we encountered numerous problems, chief among them the destruction of our farm by cattle. First in Didango, Karim Lamido Local government, second, in Agure, a village in Namnai ward of Gassol local government. And finally, in Bantaje, Wukari local government, all in Taraba state, Nigeria.
However, I will dwell on the last one in Bantaje, as that was a farm I managed. It was my brother’s friend’s farm. I had difficulty in accepting to manage it. There were numerous reasons. But the central logic was based on my ordeal in the hands of herders and some other farmers. My friend and I had lost a lot of money as a result. As we are both poor, it was hard for us. But we accepted in good faith in the two instances. We didn’t know how it would be received by others, if it occurred again and they were affected. I asserted all my fears, and told my brother and his friend point-blank that I won’t manage his farm. But I change my mind after persuasion by my brother and his friend.
To put it succinctly, the farm turned out to be a bad yield , that is after a lot of money, time and energy were invested. Thus, we were hoping to recoup the cost or at best get a little profit, when the sesame which had been raised and tied to fully dry in the process of harvesting, was further destroyed by some cattle who stayed overnight.
It was a hard pill for us to swallow, though we had anticipated that when the Sesame wasn’t due for harvesting. But not when it was ready for harvesting. We expected there would be destructive activities of cattle not properly herded and with few people to supervise the farm before the harvest-time. Thus, we were quite vigilant, especially those that supervised the farm. When it was harvest-time we tightened up, by adding more people in order not to be caught off-guard. All these ended up being an exercise in futility, as on the day our farm was destroyed, the people were not around to watch over the farm. Hence, we were caught off-guard.
After series of investigation, we found out that the people that destroyed our farm came from somewhere and left. These things occur. But ours is just a minor case. There are those farmers who have faced worse things than us. There are criminals who unleash mayhem on people hiding behind their trade. Any unfeigned stakeholder won’t support this.
However, there are cases of farmers’ and herders’ clashes which have escalated to the dangerous state it is now. There are many cases, but i will discuss just a single one. My sisters and other relatives’ cattle were rustled. After an exhausting search without success, they left everything to fate. Some years after that, some of the cattle were found and the herdsman confirmed in the rustling. But by then, one of my sisters had died. Only a paltry sum from what they lost came as compensation.
This cannot be accepted in the 21st century. We must adopt modern methods of farming as well as animal husbandry. This is not rocket science. Certainly, we are confronting a severe security problem which can and must be solved. Both farmers and pastoralists are caught in this hazardous security web orchestrated by criminals, political desperados, economic saboteurs, and those who have failed to take responsibility in leadership.
Make no mistake, I am under no illusion about how serious these security challenges are. This is not a cheap avenue to settle age-long ethnic scores, it is not the time for us to allow do or die politicians to score easy political points, and for crisis entrepreneurs to cash in on this. The war merchants must not be given a free ride. Already, our country is on the verge of collapse. We have to win these wars against those who don’t mean well for anyone.
Criminals must first be treated as criminals. We will not win these wars by ethnic insularity, growing polarisation of this country. Things must be done the right way. Let us for example say, a certain tribe in Nigeria has 99 percent of all the criminals in Nigeria, is it justifiable to criminalise the whole tribe? I don’t know how you view things. As for me, I wouldn’t criminalise a whole tribe, ethnic group, region, or religion based on the criminality of a certain percentage of its members , if just a single person does not engage in that let alone a lion’s share of its millions of people are not.
There is nothing personal here. But I find it highly insensitive to profile an entire ethnic group with a crime. Whenever gunmen sporadically shoot at oncoming vehicles, they don’t usually think whether there are Fulanis inside or not. Therefore, this inhumanity has nothing to do with Fulanity. If you are the most famous Fulani since Shehu Usman Danfodio, on the day you’re caught on the wrong side, you’ll know that Fulanity has no space in the equation.
I have never thought any tribe is superior to any. I believe anyone that thinks any tribe is superior to any is doing nothing but blatantly displaying inferiority complex. Have you ever sat down to ponder on the increasingly demanding problems of our country? What can we do to transform the country? Is it by celebrating ethnic champions? Can the ethnic insularity pushed by these people lead us to the most craved prosperous society?
The situation we have found ourselves in today, is akin to cleaning the Augean stables to say the least. One that requires all hands on deck to amicably proffer lasting solutions. Scholars, policymakers and security experts have espoused ways to go about it. We must accept with open mind the best solutions for all to address this. But I insist that we be honest in our approach.
Sansani wrote from Turaki B, Jalingo, Taraba State.
