Nigeria’s 2011 presidential election was marred by deadly post-election violence in Northern Nigeria that left 800 people dead and 65,000 displaced after angry supporters of the CPC’s Muhammadu Buhari went on a rampage after declared results had him losing to the PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan.
Our country has always dealt with inter-ethnic rivalries and hostilities, one of which led to a costly civil war, but with what the country has gone through in the aftermath of the fractious 2015 election campaigns and the divisive nature of the Buhari Presidency, it is safe to say that Nigeria is arguably more divided than it has ever been and at times like this, leading members of society must be mindful of what’s at stake and look to minimise the likelihood of flashpoints for violence developing and leading to an even worse round of inter-ethnic electoral violence.
This is why it is troubling when state governors make blanket statements that categorise entire ethnicities as violent criminals and enemies, especially in places like Benue that have seen a lot of inter-ethnic violence not even related to elections. Samuel Ortom is the Benue governor under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and was supportive of the candidature of Nyesom Wike in the PDP presidential primary election that Atiku Abubakar won.
In the aftermath of the primary election, Governor Ortom and other Wike allies have maintained a confrontational stance with their party’s candidate. This is not an issue for the general public in of itself as it’s basically politicking, but Samuel Ortom has chosen to frame a personal political pursuit as a hostile institutional inter-ethnic situation that places Atiku Abubakar and all Nigerian Fulani as somewhat responsible for the murderous activities of transnational Fulani terrorist blocs that carry out attacks in the Sahel, West Africa and even parts of East Africa.
The itinerary of soldiers from other African countries isn’t something we’d usually expect Nigerian state governors to pay attention to, but Sam Ortom could benefit from knowing a little about what the Chief of Staff of the Benin Republic Army Brigadier General Candide Ahodegnon Gbaguidi has been up to this year.
On 23 July 2022, Brigadier General Gbaguidi visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial and Campaign against Genocide Museum to pay his respects to the memories of the victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed the lives of almost a million Rwandans after ordinary citizens were incited by local officials to attack their Tutsi neighbours.
Paying respect to the dead was important, but it was not the primary reason for the visit of the West African Army Chief to the East-Central African country. General Gbaguidi went to see the Chief of the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF), General Jean Bosco Kazura, and hold bilateral talks to secure the assistance of the Rwandan Army in helping the Benin Republic deal with a growing spate of terrorist attacks from Jihadist movements that are coming from the Sahel region and are targeting the Benin Republic and other West African countries.
Mr Ortom should be mindful of the possibility of triggering widespread inter-ethnic violence and also recognise that his position demands that he adopts a measured, strategic approach to keeping Benue safe and fulfilling his political agenda. Ortom has to accept that Atiku and most non-nomadic Fulani Nigerians are not responsible for the violence.
If anything, Atiku’s offer to push for constitutional amendments that would give all Nigerian states the freedom to establish state and local government police departments are a useful institutional step that would serve as a significant deterrent and boost efforts to improve security.
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Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo have also faced these attacks that were initially an exclusive preserve of countries like Burkina Faso and Niger, which are closer to the Sahel. The Benin Republic is looking to Rwanda for logistical support and expertise. It has secured a commitment to receive 350 military personnel from the Rwanda Defence Force in what is increasingly becoming a multinational coalition to deal with the Islamist wave that has grown in the aftermath of the Libyan crisis.
Ortom should also note how the Rwandan crisis caught fire and consider how the Benin Republic’s approach to the Jihadist crisis takes note of the transnational nature and roots of the problem. The Fulani herdsmen issue has to be seen in the proper context. With an estimated population of 20 million broadly spread out around West Africa, the Fulani are arguably the world’s largest nomadic group. They are primarily found in Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.
The nature of nomadism itself plays a role. The failure to set down roots because of frequent movement impacts how nomads are socialised, affecting how the Fulani that maintains migratory patterns relate with other groups and even with other Fulani.
These nomads are largely herders, and growing desertification has shepherded millions of Fulani and their herds down to the southern portion of West Africa and the Nigerian Middle Belt, where states like Benue and Plateau are is a treasured location because of its cropland and proximity to Northern Nigeria with its culturally familiar Fulani and Muslim population. This migratory flow has been tainted by the injection of Jihadist and criminal elements whose actions set the Fulani nomad communities against the locals.
Governor Ortom’s anti-Fulani remarks have been roundly condemned and he has apologised in muted tones but the provocative remarks tend to go much further and have a lot more impact than the muted apologies that come after there is backlash.
Nwanze is a partner at SBM Intelligence
