GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Showing posts with label fulani cattle conflict makes boko haram look tame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fulani cattle conflict makes boko haram look tame. Show all posts

Sunday, May 1, 2016

NIGERIA'S NOMADIC CONFLICT, DEADLIER THAN BOKO HARAM - MARK AMAZA

For the past six years, the Boko Haram terrorist group has run riot in Nigeria, carrying out fatal attacks and kidnappings across the northern part of the country. It has claimed lives of up to 20,000 people and displaced more than a million. 

But while the worst actions of Boko Haram, which have grabbed global headlines, now seem to reducing in frequency, another conflict has been going on in Nigeria for almost two decades with next to no media coverage outside the country. Pressured by the conflict between climate change, modern agricultural economics and a centuries-old tradition, it now threatens to explode into a full-scale criss.
The low-level clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and farmers used to be confined to the northernmost regions of the country, but due to the increasing desertification of nomadic grazing land in those areas which are traditional cattle-rearing territories, overgrazing and lower rainfall; the nomadic herdsmen have been pushing farther and farther south in search of grass and water for their herd.
This has caused clashes with farmers whose farmlands are being destroyed in the country’s middle belt, where Nigeria’s north and south meet and is the country’s most fertile agricultural belt. 

According to SBM Intelligence, a socio-political consulting firm, there have been 389 incidents involving herdsmen and farming communities between 1997 and 2015, with 371 of these attacks happening after 2011 in the Middle Belt. It is believed many more are not reported.
These increasingly deadly clashes have started taking place more frequently in the southern states, something even Boko Haram has yet to attempt to date. There have been attacks in states including Rivers and Enugu in the southeast, and Ondo, in the southwest, where a former presidential candidate, Olu Falae was abducted from his farm by herdsmen for days. So far, it is estimated Nigeria loses about $14 billion annually to these clashes. 

In February, about 300 people were killed and a further 7,000 persons displaced in four communities in just one local government area Agatu, in the middle belt state of Benue.
Despite being overlooked by the international media for the most part in recent years, the herdsman-farmer clashes are on track to be a significant destabilizing security issue for Nigeria over the next few years. And unlike with Boko Haram which was ostensibly defined by religious boundaries, these clashes have more potential for a ripple effect within Nigeria when the sensitive issue of ethnicity is added to the mix. The herdsmen are Fulani, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that spreads across West Africa and is the world’s largest nomadic people; the farming communities, particularly in the middle belt and south, are made up of many smaller predominantly Christian ethnic groups. It is not uncommon to hear references to the Fulani Jihad of Sheikh Othman Dan Fodio of the early 19th century and claims that the attacks are a continuation of the ancient religious military campaign.
So why has this crisis persisted for decades without any long-lasting solution to it?
For starters, the warring sides continually exploit the inability of the Nigerian government to maintain law and order as has already been seen with the early days of Boko Haram. Successive governments have been unable to end the violence whether it is by tackling either its immediate or remote causes. President Muhammadu Buhari's order for an investigation into the attack more than a week after the attack is late, but still a much better response than that of the previous administration who did not as much offer a statement when the clashes occurred in the same area last year. 

The danger in this is that both sides will continue to wage this bloody battle for supremacy in order to not just survive, but to also control the economic prize of fertile land for farming or grazing. As it stands, the firepower advantage lies with the Fulani herdsmen but it will only be a matter of time before other communities and ethnic groups try to catch up in an emerging arms race in the region, and worsen the conflict.
The conflict also highlights the prevalence of weapons in the hands of non-state actors in Nigeria. A 2009 Small Arms Survey put the number of illegal small arms and light weapons in Nigeria at between one million and three million, a number that is bound to be an underestimate as it was before the start of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has increased the number of weapons in circulation.
The flow of arms within the West African sub-region increased after the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddhafi and the disintegration of the Libyan government, worsening conflicts in the region from Boko Haram in Nigeria to Tuareg rebels and Islamist groups in Mali and other parts of the Sahel. It is not inconceivable that these arms also flowed into the hands of ethnic militias like the Fulani herdsmen, in addition to arms smuggled into the country through the ports.
Ultimately, these conflicts have also persisted because of refusal by the herdsmen to embrace ranching for their animals, citing cultural reasons for sticking to nomadic rearing. This is despite some research showing ranching results in better meat products and hides and skin, provides easier access to agricultural extension and veterinary services and will bring in more income to the herders. 

However, there has been some shift amongst some of the herdsmen who are now leading a campaign for the establishment of grazing reserves in every state in Nigeria and for a federal commission to maintain them.This is already sparking off opposition from states that traditionally do not play host to Fulani herdsmen.
It is very likely that Nigeria will witness more clashes between herdsmen and farmers, just this week 40 people were killed in the Southeastern State of Enugu by suspected herdsman who also burned down a local Catholic church. When the extra factors of religion and ethnicity are factored in, it represents a serious risk of escalation.
The more these attacks happen without security agencies able to stop the attackers, the risks of the people self-arming to protect themselves or even carrying out a reprisal attack on people who have similar ethnic and religious affiliations as the herdsmen becomes increasingly likely. Such a reprisal attack will likely set off another reprisal attack and it will be an endless cycle of violence.
It is urgent that in the short-term, security agencies work to prevent further attacks especially in the rural areas which is largely un-policed, apprehend and prosecute those behind these attacks. In the long-term, the issue of grazing routes and nomadic rearing is addressed sufficiently. 

Seemingly, only a transition to ranching by cattle rearers will bring an end to these conflicts which is rapidly escalating into a crisis.