RAMPAGING FULANI HERDSMEN CANNOT TURN BACK THE HANDS OF THE CLOCK!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 143. 8th May, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

RAMPAGING FULANI HERDSMEN CANNOT TURN BACK THE HANDS OF THE CLOCK!

Social analysts strongly believe that a nation's diversity of tribes, tongues, cultures or traditional values should serve as bond of strength to build a very solid foundation for peace, unity, and good governance. For instance, if 500 tribes of about 250 diverse tongues, traditions and cultures, were annexed to brainstorm and harness their innate abilities,skills, talents, capabilities, and prowess in areas of arable farming, agriculture, animal husbandry, damming, mining, architecture, building, communication, administration, transportation, art, music, etc, as divinely apportioned to each tribe, to build ONE virile nation of immense social opportunities as it obtains in other climes, definitely a classic Utopia should emerge!
Nigeria is one country where national diversity has become a bane and a curse instead of an advantage and a blessing which was why the Spirit of Truth could not indwell many citizens, who preferred to pursue the doctrine of national deceit whenever their tribal brethren ran foul of the law! Until Wednesday, 4th May, 2016, when a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria disclosed that Nigerian Fulani Herdsmen "were pushed to the wall to retaliate", the criminals who razed down the entire Agatu Community in Benue State and killed over 40 people and also those who massacred 46 citizens on 25th April, 2016, in Nimbo Community of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State, were alleged to be MALIAN BANDITS who penetrated the Nigerian borders to perpetrate the mayhem! When the Boko Haram sect, as a small Islamic group in Maiduguri, Bornu State, began to preach hateful controversial doctrines/ideologies, and subsequently upgraded into armed insurgency, tribal brothers keepers said they were not Muslims but some miscreants who planned to desecrate the religion! Nigerians have all suffered the consequences of national deceit with the loss of over one million citizens and billions of naira worth of goods and properties in seven years of a mindless war of attrition! Nomad Fulani herdsmen have fundamental rights under the nation's Constitution to their vocation just as the farmers also do; and though, the herdsmen have no such rights as to graze their animals on the private farms of others, this had been the trend for many years now!

Let us refresh your memory with some part of our publication of over TWO YEARS; Edition No. 30. of 9th March, 2014, in which we warned the Federal and State Governments about the imminent dangers posed by Fulani herdsmen.
Please read as follows: "THE NOMAD FULANI ‘MILITANT BASE’ IN BENUE IS A TIME BOMB!"  In spite of the move by President, Goodluck Jonathan, to assist Benue State to dislodge armed nomadic Fulani herdsmen who were threatening their peaceful co-existence, they, (nomads), succeeded in attacking and killing several people, mostly Benue farmers, last week!
The nomads’ strategy is to create an assault launch- base in this Central State, from where they could attack in any direction round-about, to Plateau, Nassarawa, Kaduna or even, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. These Fulani  are extremely dangerous because, they are always fully armed, itinerant and can easily disappear into bushes and forests without ever being apprehended after any attack, and there is virtually no Nigerian farmer who has not had a ‘deadly’ brush with these nomads in any part of the federation!
The Fulani herdsmen/ farmers clashes over grazing rights in Nigeria, has
always been a bone of contention between the two parties from time immemorial. In some cases, amicable solutions were proffered, while others, resulted in bloody clashes with fatalities!
A renewed and sustained assault of these herdsmen with Tiv farmers in Adeke Village, a suburb of Makurdi, erupted late 2013 and spread with impunity to Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Bornu, Imo, Enugu, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, in January 2014! In all, hundreds of human lives, including some soldiers and a Senator’s nephew in Oyo State, were lost; over 200 houses were razed!
We are aware that all security agencies are at ‘red alert’, but the most important and very urgent action is a quick resolution of this grave conflict which poses a time bomb, just waiting to detonate! Though, the right to free grazing routes across Nigeria seems to be the crux of the incessant conflict, it is believed that, some fifth columnists, are supplying arms and ammunition to the herdsmen in order to make the Nigerian State ungovernable for their selfish political gains through these itinerant ‘foot combatants’!
We must not forget that the Fulani nomads are mere custodians and serfs to the millionaire owners of these cattle, goats and sheep.
Second, we must also be wary that if cautious steps are not urgently employed, insurgents may infiltrate their ranks to penetrate other parts of the nation! There are also Fulani cattle rustlers, mercenaries who would work for the highest bidder! With the right incentive, they had invaded well-stocked cattle ranches, maimed and killed watchmen and guards, carted away stolen cattle to their principals for disposal in the black market!
We are aware that there is a Bill in respect of the need for approved grazing routes before the House of Representatives which deserves urgent attention to avoid further violent clashes between these two groups which play vital roles in our agrarian and livestock economy. The problem seems recalcitrant: will the Buhari Administration proffer the political solution; we do not have much time!

"E Pluribus Unum", is the United States of America's motto which appears on the nation's coins, currencies and many of its public monuments; and it simply means, "From many, one"! America, a nation of immigrants of different nationalities boasts of a population of over 300 million people of diverse tribes, languages, cultures, castes and traditions with which it has built a united nation in which the American citizen's welfare remained government's priority of action and with such an uncommon policy, is globally classified as the best democracy in about 300 years of existence as an independent nation! One must therefore salute the ambition for lofty ideals by Nigeria's patriotic leaders, who fashioned the nation's 1999 Federal Republic Constitution, as a replica of that of the United States with a view to emulating and attaining to their high standards of monumental and international acclamation but, did they pause to study the US Blueprint, that their democratic foundation to serve the people who must be respected as "sovereign" in all matters, was laid in a righteous, faithful and faultless Declaration Of American Independence since 4th July, 1776? Did they bother to dig into the achieves to understand the history of how the now giant Republic developed from colonial beginnings, like Nigeria, in the 16th Century, when the first explorers arrived to mingle with the native Americans in 1580, until the modern times when it attained the Olympian heights as a world power of great economic opportunities? But in spite of the fact that Nigeria's very first inspiring National Anthem which lyrics was written and composed by expatriates, Lilian Jean Williams and Frances Berda; and sung between 1960 and1978; can Nigeria in 56 years of independence, boast of maximizing its diversity positively and dwelling as one united nation?

The famous fist stanza of the 1960 Anthem states as follows:
" Nigeria we hail thee, our own dear native land; though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand; Nigerians all and proud to serve our sovereign motherland." In today's 21st Century Nigeria, are issues of tribes and tongues: indigenes and settlers; north and south, east and west; religious and political affiliations, diverse cultures and traditions, not creating serious, dissensions, strifes, disagreements, boundary disputes resulting to the vicious levels of communal clashes in which scores of lives and properties were regularly lost, in most cases without compensations? Unlike the US, Nigeria's diversity since the year of independence in 1960, had always manifested as a curse instead of a blessing for the following reasons:
1. With only five years of freedom, on 16th January, 1966, Military officers, mostly of Eastern Region extraction, executed a coup-de-tat (the first in Africa), and seized political power from legitimately elected politicians! In that intervention, only politicians of other tribes were summarily executed while those of the coupists were spared and from then, the bitter seed of tribalism, ethnicity and religious bigotry was wickedly  introduce into the polity and still growing wildly and uncontrollably in 2016, in spite of efforts of the present administration of Muhammadu Buhari to bridge the gap!
2. The battle for supremacy between the North and South took deeper root in that same year when in a reprisal move, soldiers, mainly of the Northern extraction struck in a bloody counter coup which eliminated the Eastern Nigeria military Head of State and other officers across the three regions and a Northern Head of State was installed to run the affairs of the nation. The military has ruled for 30 out of the 56 years of the independent republic!
3. Nigerians have never enjoyed peace ever since because military mentality of divide and rule, introduced since 1966 has its tentacles firmly rooted in the socio-economic and political activities of the nation and only divine intervention would save the situation!

Urgent Solutions Open To The Change Government!
1. All culprits of the several mayhems must be apprehended according to Presidential orders and subjected to the rule of law.
2. Federal/State Governments should rise in unison to rehabilitate affected communities and also pay adequate compensations for their losses.
3. More security personnel should be deployed to work with neighborhood vigilante groups to forestall any future occurrences.
4. The Bill in respect of the construction of grazing ranches now before the National Assembly should be expedited to accommodate all interest groups and stake holders in the animal husbandry industry across the nation since cattle rearing is not an exclusive preserve of the Fulani’s! The National Reserve Grazing Bill should be the long-term panacea to incessant confrontations and mindless killings of citizens by fellow citizens in an economy that should be, not only a pride to Africa, but by extension, the world at large if the diverse advantage was diligently, meticulously, and professionally managed!
There is in existence, a National Grazing Reserve Act 1965, which had become obsolete due to population explosion/creation of 36 States from former THREE REGIONS and we believe that it should be repealed while Committee stage of the present Bill should be accelerated and passed in consensus, to restrict the nomad herdsmen to their reserves according to its innovative clauses! Some enemies of the people whose relatives were not affected by the killings have begun to politicize the Bill by accusing its sponsors of trying to ISLAMIZE Nigeria through "forceful acquisition" of SOUTHERN LANDS for the North! For how long would we remain at daggers-drawn against one another as a nation? The nagging crime of kidnapping is equally in the front burner to make matters worse! We congratulate the quick response of a delegation of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), which included Ibrahim Shetima of Bornu State, whose statement should be commended by all patriotic Nigerians. "We are one nation with a common destiny. The killers should be treated as criminals and should fished out and dealt with. Since our travail of years of Boko Haram insurgency, the empathy of those of you outside of that region had been our strength. Times like this call for maturity, calmness, leadership role - we are one nation."

Can the DSS Be Exonerated From Culpability in the South East Herdsmen Attack?
When shallow graves of 50 persons were discovered in Umuaniyi Forest of Abia in March 2016, the Department of State Service (DSS), Headquarters, Abuja made an inciting statement through one Tony Opuiyo that FIVE of the dead persons were identified by DSS Operatives as Fulani men who were reportedly abducted from Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State and killed by the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB), members! In less than one month of the condemnable DSS Statement, Fulani herdsmen struck in neighboring Enugu State and hacked down 46 innocent and defenseless Nigerians including women and children with the same "modus operandi" deployed in Agatu, Benue State! Abia Government and IPOB have denied all allegations of ethnic killings by DSS and asserted that the shallow graves were the handiwork of kidnappers who murdered their victims! Must the volatile national debacle of rampaging Fulani herdsmen be further fueled through tribalism, nepotism and incitement by a security agency which should play the role of an ARBITER?  It is most unfortunate that the DSS boss, Lawal Musa Daura is not a detribalized Nigerian like Mr. President, he is an indigenous FULANI MAN!
ALL NIGERIANS SHOULD FEAR GOD AND RESPECT HIS SOVEREIGNTY OVER THEM BECAUSE HE (GOD) CANNOT BE DECEIVED! WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT HE WOULD SURELY REAP IN QUANTUM! (Read Galatians.6:7-8).

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.
If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.