The Gospel According To Fulani Herdsmen

Literally gospel according to the Concise English Dictionary means the teaching or the revelation of Christ or the record of Christ’s life and teaching in the first four books of the New Testament. 

There is also the gospel truth; something that is absolutely true. So it does not often come as a surprise that when the phrase ‘the gospel according to’ is used in a sentence, a biblical discernible person will quickly averts his or her mind to the aforementioned gospel of the opening books of the New Testament. 

However, good as that is with the different books, the gospel according to Fulani herdsmen has a rather complicated network of different books and chapters that leaves all who have been at the centre of their nefarious activities with bouts of snafu-ish nightmare, and that is for those who have been lucky enough to survive their menace. 

They have become a pest that has continually defiled pesticide. From the greenery of Benue to the plains of Taraba, and the forest reserves and farms of Edo, they kill, rape and destroy farm lands with impunity like a set of outlaws that are laws unto themselves.

For this, the gospel according to Fulani herdsmen takes the shape of the following volume of five books here.

            

            The Destruction of Farmlands

Fulani herdsmen are nomads that move around with their cattles, and this movement is common place in the dry season when the vegetation in the North is low which inevitably results in movement to the south which has more vegetation for their cattle, but these cattles do not just feed on vegetation by the road side, rather they end up in people’s farms destructing cash and commercial crops without regard for the efforts that these farmers have put into planting these crops. 

In January this year, hundreds of such cattles invaded a forest reserve and farm settlement in Uhunmwonde Local government Area of Edo State, these cattles destroyed plantains, ate all the yams that were harvested and left at some farm huts in these farms, and they practically destroyed what they met on their path. 

These led to the premature harvest of some of these crops from the few the farmers could savage. A common trend amongst these Fulani herdsmen is that they leave these cattles to wander around people’s farms while they disappear from site. Any attempt to inquire from them for these acts of agricultural sabotage is most times met with aggression which often leads to dead. 

All over the country especially in some of the North Central states, Fulani herdsmen destroys farm lands, and when they are challenged in return, they end up burning houses and driving away people from their homes. After their act of destruction, they suddenly disappear from site.

·        Possession of Firearms and dangerous weapons.

A common trend with Fulani herdsmen is that they always bear knifes and arrows. What is even strange is not the fact that they do this openly, but the fact that those that defend this, often claim that their possession of these weapons is part of their culture of dressing. 

However, culture of dressing all not, it’s the fact that they have used these weapons to send persons to their untimely grave just because, they had the temerity to ask them to leave their farms.

However, bearing of knifes is and has gradually become rather archaic. They now bear sophisticated firearms that some of Nigeria’s security agents cannot boast off.  

On February 7, 2016, a group of vigilante accosted two Fulani herdsmen in the Ikpoba Hill axis of Benin City, there were not with any cattle, but in their possession were two double barrel guns. Their defence was that they use it for hunting.

In a country where possession of firearms is to be illegal without the necessary permits, it should beat anybody hollow that some group of persons could openly bear firearms as if we are in a society without laws. 

And that is practically what plays out all over the place. You see a Fulani herdsman with his herd of cattle in front, with a gun and knife, and you begin to wonder, whether this is not a scene from 18^th Century Wild West.  And it is the same firearms and weapons they use in killing and maiming unsuspecting members of the society.

Which begs the question, how do they come about these weapons? In a country where there are so many questions where you cannot find direct answers, such inquiry is better left to the realm of imaginations, because it always a case of seeing less, whenever you try to look more as far as certain questions begging for answers in Nigeria is concerned.

·         

     Killings, Kidnappings, Robbery and Rape

The number of persons that have died from the activities of Fulani herdsmen cannot be quantified, especially when you consider the fact that the death of persons here is treated like a set of numbers rather than a genuine feel that a life or lives have been lost. 

Throughout the farm settlements of Ovia North East and Ovia South West Local Government Areas of Edo State and many other places throughout the country, women have been continually raped in their farms. 

There was a case of a woman, whose husband was hacked to death in their farm by some of group of Fulani herdsmen, while they also raped the woman there. 

Just in January, 2016, two brothers in Ovia North East went to farm, one of them left the other to go home, unfortunately for the other one, he met some Fulani herdsmen who had just kidnapped somebody and they were moving to their hideout in the bush. They shot him, and left him for death, he bled for two hours before his brother returned. In his dying declaration, he told his brother what happened. That man was in tears when he spoke live on radio. 

That was a Nigerian living a peaceable life by farming and tending to himself, yet his life was cut short by these agents of destruction. Throughout most of the farm settlements in Edo South, there is now a palpable fear from farmers especially women, who would rather stay at home than go to farm.

A person known to this writer, narrated how his neighbour went to his farm in the last quarter of 2015, and he saw group of Fulani herdsmen bearing AK 47 rifles. That man has not gone to that farm ever since, and he confessed that it was God that saved him. 

You have to ask yourself sometimes, what is wrong? Farms in Forest reserves used to be some of the most pristine places for farmers to hide away from the society while they tend to their crops, but many of these places have become so dangerous because of the activities of Fulani herdsmen.

There were times during 2014 and 2015 when a gang of Fulani herdsmen continually robbed passengers along the Benin-Auchi Highway by Ehor. They would abandon their cattles, and at certain time of the day, would rob several passengers traveling in buses to the Northern part of the State or country. When they were eventually caught after police set up surveillance, they were all Fulani herdsmen.

·        Environmental Nuisance

It is common place for these herdsmen to move with their cattles at night. But these cattle leave in their trail all manner of environmental nuisance with the faeces they defecate all over the place. 

At times, it can be so bad that you would be looking for a spot to put your foot when walking pass certain places. 

Besides that, these herdsmen sometimes leave their herd of cattle in the compound of individuals. 

A couple of years ago in the Uselu quarters of Benin at Medical Stores Road, a man suddenly woke up to sounds and lights of moving objects in his compound, a spiraling compound measuring 100 feet by 200 feet, when he got out from his house, he discovered several number of cattles ravaging the compound of eight flats, it is a fenced house, with gates, yet they found their way in. they messed up the entire place. 

And yet despite the fact that the cattles where in the compound, the Fulani herdsmen were nowhere to be found. 

They eventually showed up, and the 

inhabitants of the compound woke up that night, immediately the herdsmen saw them, they took their heels, and the cattle as if working on a remote followed their master in running out of the compound. 

Unknown to those in the compound, there were six other cattles somewhere in the compound that did not run out, it was little surprise therefore that some group of persons showed up in the morning to ask for these cattles. These are the principals of these Fulani herdsmen.  

Although, these cattles were eventually released to them, it was on the condition that they were never to bring the animals to those parts any longer.

The list of experience is endless for many that have been at the receiving end of these activities. All over the place, it is a signature of cattle faeces when you walk through your neighbourhood and in major roads during the dry season.

·      

            They Are Above The Law?

Many of these Fulani herdsmen that have been caught and arrested end up being released. And police officers will sometimes confide off the record that their hands are tied most times when it comes to dealing with the menace of these Fulani herdsmen. 

Except few that have met their death at the hands of security personnel, they are often left off the hook. In short, there are times; police do not like taking reports concerning the activities of Fulani herdsmen, because to them, their efforts most times end in futility in trying to investigate such matters. 

This is why there is a reticence on the part of the police to treat these matters with the seriousness it deserves.

Do this people operate within their own set of rules? The situation is such that what is applicable to other members of the society seem not to be applicable to them. 

These Fulani herdsmen are not direct owners of these cattles; rather they are agents to an affluent principal somewhere. It is this principal that pulls all the stunts to see that they are released whenever they are arrested for a crime.  Though there are admittedly bad eggs amongst them who embark on a frolic of their own.

Nigeria should practically be the only country in the world where herdsmen are allowed to wander about with cattles in the open across people’s farmlands, neighbourhood and build up areas at night and so on. 

There have been continuous talk of setting up ranches as it is done in most advanced countries in the world, yet as is mostly the case about so much talk, nothing has been done to make it work. And as a result, the Fulani herdsmen continue to wreak havoc through their various gospels of destruction.

Benin City: A Paragon of Uncleanliness

by Eromose Ileso

The ancient city of Benin and by extension Edo State is referred to as the heartbeat of the nation, and rightly so, because it got that moniker by virtue of its strategic location in being a link to the North, West and Eastern part of the country via it network of road.  

However over the last couple of months, one of the oldest state capitals in Nigeria has gradually descended into a heartbeat of dirt. Several sections of the city are littered with little refuse here and there that looks like an art work, or drains that are like sand dumps and roads that make a mockery of the few that where reconstructed or rehabilitated by the present government.

Benin City, the Edo state capital has expanded over the years, whereas, most of it development was previously restricted to just one local council, Oredo local government Area, today it has expanded to four other local councils, namely, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, Ovia North-East and Uhwunwonde. 

Yet as the city has experienced expansion with new private structures springing up, the government has not been proactive in making sure that the new satellite towns that are effectively an extension of the city meet up with the required environmental standards that would ensure sustainable development.

What you see in most of this new areas, is a complete lack of government presence, and an haphazard planning of the area, without a pre-conceived plan from government to provide the basic infrastructure like road network that would easily link these new suburbs to the main city, it is no wonder that most of the emerging extension of Benin are already having environmental issues with gully erosion now ravaging some areas.

While the new areas of the city reeks of lack of developmental planning and environmental impact assessment to ensure that structures are not erected in low lying areas which would inevitably distort the flow of water, it is the main areas of the city which should have been paragon of pristine cleanliness, that has instead turned into an arena of dirt, foul smell and roads that make the lanes of South Sudan’s capital, Juba to look like a Formula One race track in comparison.

From the city centre at the Kings Square round about, popularly called the Ring-Road to the Government Reservation Area (GRA), there is little or no place in the city that is a bastion of cleanliness, instead what you get is dirt almost everywhere.

The GRA used to be a place that took people’s breath away with it well paved roads and serenity, the place has become a sorry sight, where there are more roads that fit for fish ponds than actual roads, from Giwa-Aimu, Boundary, Capionna, Ihama and several roads, it is really a sad commentary of a place that should shed light on the beauty of the city, rather it is a case of a system working against itself. 

Granted several roads have been worked on, but it is the complete abandonment of some key road network which plays an important role in linking several parts of the city that has left many in bewilderment. 

Most of these roads have failed portions that would not take much to fix, yet they are left unattended to, from where they become like ponds. The state of these roads have robbed the GRA of the beauty it once enjoyed, besides you are likely to be greeted by flood water when it rains in the GRA rather than a sense that you are in the area of the city where the government house is located.

The irony about Benin City is that even the paved roads are not devoid of dirt and filth. When it rains, moving around the Ring Road, Saponba Road, Murtala Muhammed Way, Oba Market Road, Stadium Road, Plymouth Road and New Lagos Road around the market, you are more likely to walk on a mud than a paved road, this is because the spate of unchecked street trading has made some of these areas so dirty that when it rains it makes the entire place to be filthy.

The less said about the state of market in the city, the better, as that is where the dirty nature of Benin City is really at its zenith.

Moving around Benin City whether in a vehicle or through taking a walk in some areas, you see refuse on the road, along the walkways, even in some flood prone areas, the walkways have become a curse rather than a blessing this is because the drains are too modicum in size to absorb the volume of flood water.

In the Upper Mission Road part of the city, around the Ewah Road axis, where the drains were constructed in such a way that it under the walkway, while a little outlet by the side of the walkway was provided for water to flow into the drains, however, what you get is that when it rains, the flood water instead flows on the paved road rather than through the drains, thereby causing more problems.

In several capital cities in Nigeria, there are places that are really quite beautiful and clean that you can easily differentiate it from other part of the city, after all that is what obtains in most cities in the world, but Benin City has become a city where you cannot draw a line between a place that is clean, and the others that are not, the entire areas of the city can be lumped into one category, because most of it is all dirt.

Visitors that arrive through the Benin Airport, with a ride through the well paved Airport Road, could easily fall into a false sense of the beauty that that part of town gives the city, but that is where it mostly ends, a drive through the network of roads in the GRA which the Airport road is part of, is a complete contrast.

Benin City is blessed with a network of roads few state can boost of, but what it has in good road network, it lacks in maintenance. In reality, there is no area of the city that you cannot assess even when there is a lock jam, you can beat it by using these link roads, but the state of these adjoining roads really paints the true state of the city. Most of the link roads are in such a bad state that they look like dump site.  This is reflected more by the state of roads in the Evbotubu axis of the city.

The filthy nature of the city is also reflected in the attitude of the people, most of them wait for the rains for them to remember to dispose their refuse. 

What they do is that they empty their waste into the drains without recourse to the consequences. It is not restricted to drains alone, in suburbs that have a sloppy terrain, those at the top, usually empty their waste in the flowing water for it to flow down to those in the low lying areas, where they will now have to feel the brunt of the moral bankruptcy of others.

The reason why the state of the city has reached this status of uncleanness is not far fetched; there is no longer a sense of responsibility, because the government of the day is gradually winding down. 

With just a little over a year left, there are few things going on. Little wonder that the city is now in such a state that it is an unclean republic. The local councils that should play a role in this are complicit in their inertia. This is not to say that the government of the day has not tried in the last seven years that much is obvious, but the standard has indeed fallen from the enviable heights it previously set.

The unfortunate place in which Benin City currently finds itself is reflected in some of the entry points into it, coming from the Eastern part of the country, you are greeted by the terrible state of the Benin-Asaba expressway by the bypass, on an unfortunate day when an articulated vehicle falls into one of the bad spots, travelers can spend man hours there with queues of vehicles stretching for long kilometres. 

The same can be said of the Benin-Auchi road, where coming into Benin from the Northern part of the country, the failed portion close to the headquarters of the Electoral body, INEC results in serious traffic problems.

The road leading to the Federal High Court which is close by is now a stream, while the compound of the nearby Court of Appeal, Benin Division is a tributary of that stream, as the place is a right off when there is heavy downpour.

It is difficult to find any level of cleanliness in a place where there is litany of bad roads that is exactly what the state of Benin City is at the moment. Nobody can possibly go into a road filled with water and mud to carry out cleaning exercise.

The state of affairs has been exacerbated by the rains, with the dirt and filth now more pronounce.

It can be forgiven when the various extension of Benin City whether from Ikweniro in Uhwunwonde, Oluku in Ovia North-East to Obagie in Ikpoba-Okha is littered with dirt, this is not to say they should not be clean, but it is unforgivable that the City Centre and the GRA all in Oredo are all unkempt. It is an indictment on those saddled with keeping the city clean.

It is not enough for the government to air jingles on the need for people to keep their environment clean when it gets to the monthly environmental exercise, the government has to show concerted effort to turn the state of Benin City around, the fact that there are several roads in a state of disrepair does not preclude the government from at least making sure that the Edo State capital attains a minimum standard of cleanliness.

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

by Eromose Ileso

A picture they say speaks more than a thousand words, so does the bare mention of a place evokes a meaning or description of some sort to the subconscious of many. 

For example, the mention of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil sparks an image of the popular Copacabana beach, so does Paris echoes images of the Eiffel Tower, the mention of Cairo elicits legends of the pyramids, while the River Thames and the Big Ben would forever be associated with London. And landmarks of such nature dots cities across the world by which their identity becomes known.

Conversely, when most cities are mentioned, they evoke positive images, even if not all can boast of such good attributes, but there are some areas that have become forever associated with negativity, that the entire social vices one can conjure up in the books of dark arts are linked with such places. And such is the state of a suburb in the city of Benin City called Uselu.

The mention of Uselu evokes an immediate fright in the minds of those that have had unsavoury experiences there. It used to be a suburb associated with persons who were embolden by the nature of the environment by the way they channeled difficult experiences to positive use to better their lives. 

But those good mannered traits of channeling difficult experience to mold lives are well and truly gone, with the recent trend now a case of teenagers and youths becoming kingpins of cult groups, while firearms is to them, what gloves are to a goalkeeper in a football team.

While Uselu has always been associated with unsavoury things, it has assumed a different dimension in recent years especially with the proliferation of street cult groups over the years.

For a start, Uselu is not just a suburb in the ancient city of Benin; it is one that has a strong historical significance in the annals of the Benin Kingdom. The heir to the throne of Oba of Benin traditionally lives there, and assumes the title of Ediaken of Uselu. Traditionally, there is a rite of passage that is done by the would be Oba in Uselu on a span of land called the Traditional Ground before the Oba assumes the throne, he has to walk through that place to the palace.

With such significance, you would think such a place would be a scenery to behold to anybody, but what is on ground is a place that has itself been forsaken by nature. It is a suburb that is on a slope, but it is not noticeable until it rains.

When the heavens opens, the place becomes a deluge which could easily be described as River Uselu. From the spans through the Benin-Lagos Expressway, through the interior of Anigboro street, Ebo street, Ediaken Primary School road, Second Federal Road (a road that is not passable whether in rainy or dry season, during the rains, it could best be described as a mangrove forest), down to the back of Oluwa Primary School, it is a tale of woes whenever it rains. 

To highlight how bad the situation is, ninety percent of Uselu is always under water when there is heavy downpour.

Yet this is just nature's disservice to that part of the city because of it topography, as well as government insensitivity.

However, that is nature, yet the other part has little to do with nature's script. The street cults, the avalanche of cult related killings, the arm robberies, the burglaries, and all the social vices you can think of are like water you drink in Uselu. To better understand the free reign of the dark acts there, a description of what regularly happens is necessary.

A bus coming from Lagos stopped over at a filling Station in Uselu just a few yards from the popular Uselu Shell, a passenger was to alight there, but before he could get down, the driver went into a rage, "Uselu is a bad and useless place" he said, "my friend was robbed here, and his relative killed." "Why would people stay here" he queried, the person alighting from the bus had to pretend that he does not live in that area. The driver's account is what Uselu is and has become.

For instance, a man was recently shot in front of his house early this month, in trying to prevent being shot in his head he used his right hand as a shield to protect it, as at today he has lost that hand to amputation after the bullets damaged several tissues.

Then there is the robbery incident where everybody was robbed in a house whether phones, money, and all, nothing was spared at 5am, with the robbers all masked, which draw strong lines that they are boys from within the community.

On the other hand, robberies between 7-9pm are regular recurrences. While some are lucky to escape with just being robbed, other robbery incidents have been followed by fatalities.

The number of teenagers and youths who are cultist there are on the increase, flexing of muscles are regular occurrences when there are tensions brewing between cult groups, but you will not see muscles being flexed in a manner befitting a wrestling bout, rather its a case of the person that can fire the first shot from whatever firearm to send their victim to the state of thy Kingdom come. Baby faced teenagers could be mistaken with an air of innocence that paints a picture that they cannot hurt a fly, but in the dark acts, they could be seen turning a male-man into an object of ridicule if care is not taken. 

Whatever the picture paints of the suburb of Uselu, it is one frost with a web of negativity, even the hand of nature has not been kind to that part of the city, neither has the environment being kind to persons that grew up there, this is not to say there are no good mannered people with strong morals there, so also it can be said that good things and good persons have come out of the place, but they are diminishing by the day.

To complicate the state of Uselu, it is a place lacking in government presence despite it being a Local government headquarters. It is a place crying out for a police station to be sited there because of the high crime rate, although there are at least three police stations (Textile Mill Road, Okhoro and New Benin Police stations) that could easily be called upon when there is trouble, due to distance, the deed of the deviants would have been done before they arrive.

The question now is who and what can salvage Uselu from the hands of the deranged and deviants? And can it ever assume a different description to what it is today? As Bob Dylan puts it, the answer my friend is blowing in the winds.