Fulani Herdsmen Are Not Killers But Victims, Elder Statesman Declares

In spite of several deadly attacks carried out in the middle belt of Nigeria which were blamed on the Fulani herdsmen, an elder statesman, Professor Jubril Muhammad Aminu, has absolved the herdsmen of any wrongdoing.

The former Senator and ex-ambassador, an indigene of Adamawa State, said the herdsmen are rather victims in this case.

According to an interview he granted to Vanguard newspaper, the professor of cardiology said the federal government should be blamed for the attacks, noting that unless something is done urgently to curb Boko Haram attacks in the country, insurgency will not end.

Aminu said an average Fulani man is presently bearing the brunt of dictatorial rule of the Fulani has painted by history.

He noted that during colonial rule, there were cattle routes and the Fulani herdsman goes about his business without stepping on toes.




“They used to have cattle routes in the days of the British in the first republic. You have cattle routes everywhere. And no farmer will come to farm on these routes. But you now find out that they pass through this route this year, next year they come to find out it is either somebody’s house or somebody’s farm,” he said.

On the issue of grazing reserves promised by the government, Aminu said: “They have not established anything for them. And these people supply meat, milk, hides and skin, manure. But they don’t care to look after them. The only time they are looking after them is to tax them. Gen. Gowon abolished the tax. Today, they pay tax yet they are not looked after.”

Asked whether his points are justification for terror unleashed on people in their own lands, Aminu said the cause of frequent fight between the Fulani herdsmen and their hosts communities is because they are always denied access to use the farmlands they have been using for years for grazing.

On Boko Haram attacks in the country, the former senator said the federal government needs to start seeing the insurgency as war.

“We are not pursuing it like a war. This is a very important war, a terrible enemy. But we are not pursuing it like that.

“You can’t go round killing your own people or allowing them to kill others. To stop them from killing others is not by killing anybody who looks like them. That’s not what you will do,” he said