By UbongAbasi Ise
Avalanches of dust have been raised in the media since President Donald Trump’s post dropped with a heavy thud on Truth Social, referencing his instruction to the US Department of War to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria should the Islamic terrorists continue to attack Christians in Nigeria.
Of course, talks of a powerful man are always agreeable, and a lot of well-meaning Nigerians who are tired of incessant killings in Northern Nigeria are not hiding any modicum of joy given the fact that, this time, the norm of killings by the Islamic terrorists will meet its Waterloo as a no-nonsense President of a powerful nation is now wielding a big stick, raring for a strike if there is a repeat of any craze of massacre of Nigerian Christians. Oppositions of the ruling party and those who are tired of Bola Tinubu’s presidency have now seized the opportunity to prove a point of Tinubu’s cluelessness and his government’s perfunctory disconnection from the yearnings of the Nigerian masses.
We have heard a war drum like Trump’s before; the rhetoric to justify invasion is not new. The aftermath of America’s intervention in countries like Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya will always remind history adherents that not every armed intervention ends well. Today, the aforementioned nations are reeling in shambles. The case of Nigeria may not be different. The United States military may come into the country, do their job, and leave Nigeria more ethno-religiously polarized than before.
Before Trump ventures into this debacle, he should be well-furnished with enough information about the composition and texture of Northern Nigeria. The northern societies are complex and highly volatile. It is not only about Christians and Muslims, it is also about shifting economic balances and ethnic diversity: there are majorly Fulani and Kanuri who are predominantly Sunni Muslims living in the Northwest and the Northeast respectively; there are Berom, Ngas, Jukun, Gbagyi, Tiv, Igala, Nupe, Idoma and scores of other ethnic minorities occupying the North-central region commonly referred to as the Middle-belt Nigeria. The only thing that gives all the regions in the north a sense of uniformity is the Hausa language, a lingua-franca spoken and understood by virtually all the ethnic nationalities in the north.
The majority of these Middle-belt people are Christians while a minority are Muslims living together as relatives and neighbors. One may hardly see Muslims within the same community rising up to exterminate their Christian relatives and neighbors. It is only the Fulani invaders who usually rally themselves to raid these Middle-belt communities in the night. But why is this happening?
Middle-belt’s lands are naturally arable, vegetative, with a high agricultural value. With tours to places like Adamawa, Benue, FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Taraba and the southern part of Kaduna situating in the region, a visitor may appreciate some gentle, rolling hills with scenic landscapes, a blend of forest and Guinea savanna ecosystems, influenced by a unique climate and major rivers like Niger and Benue.
Oftentimes, the splendor of a land could bring blessing and a curse upon the indigenes. Its alluring sight can attract competing outsiders, thus putting its indigenes at risk. Owners of the land may find themselves defending their homeland with their blood, sacrificing peace to protect their ancestral grounds. And this is a story of the Middle Belt people.
It is important for Trump to know that the alluring vegetation of the Middle-belt contrasts with the neighboring Northwest region which is predominantly occupied by the Fulani ethnicity. The Northwest land is significantly challenged by aridity, extreme weather, overgrazing, and low fertility. One needs to take some trips to Funtua, Kankara, Tsafe, Gusau, and nearby places and see how a large swathe of this region is challenged by soil degradation, and limited water resources. The Fulani, who are largely pastoralists, are often in need of where to graze their cattle. In this case, they find the Christian-dominated Middle Belt a sort of paradise, a territory to conquer, and a prize to lay claim on.
The nature of recent Fulani attacks in Plateau and Benue States doesn’t seem to follow typical religious conflict patterns. This is evident in the mode of the militants’ operations. They visited the communities with sophisticated weapons like AK-47 and bombs, setting houses, vehicles, and other properties ablaze. If it was a religious clash, the killings would have been perpetrated among the indigenous people across Muslim-Christian religious divides within the same communities. When you see invaders attack a community without provocation, slaughtering women and children, and destroying houses and livelihood, know that these attackers want to drive their victims out permanently and take over their lands.
What the world may not know is that the militants recklessly attack everyone irrespective of religious affiliation. Both indigenous Muslims and Christians cry the same tears arising from atrocious victimization inflicted upon them by Fulani militants. It is a genocide, an ethnic cleansing, and a serial attempt to dislodge indigenous Middle Belt people from their ancestral land.
The issue of allowing cattle to destroy farms is central to incessant crises in the Middle-belt. This always results in cattle rustling by some host community members. In turn, the Fulani herdsmen would team up with mercenaries to revenge, targeting humans instead. They would now destroy the community involved, burning houses, businesses, and farmlands. This is more of an ethnic genocide than an attack on Christian faith.
There is the need to be circumspect in investigating the Northern Nigerian crises as the character of the attacks has changed from mere religious reasons to ethnic cleansing as well as defense of ancestral land. There is probably a Muslim side of the story that is not heard enough. Someone once told me in Abuja that the Fulani are not good in the use of media. There may be a kernel of truth in this. There could be some hidden facts that could be uncovered if interrogation is taken to another level.
No matter how emotional the killings in the Middle-belt Nigeria are, it is a known fact that Trump’s threat of ‘gun-a-blazing’ in Nigeria’s sovereign space is invariably a threat of force against the territorial integrity of an independent nation, which is prohibited by Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter to which the United States is a signatory. This armed intervention may have a contagious effect in the international system, leaving a dangerous precedence for powerful nations to be invading less powerful nations for whatever reasons with no recourse to international law.
Relevant stakeholders should look for a way to promote a large-scale irrigation system in the Northwest, introduce drought-tolerant forage species, and adopt up-to-date grass growing technology including a grazing system that would help keep herdsmen within their domains.
Let him come… It’s too much here