Bauchi Ex-Gov Backs Bala Mohammed On Need For Fulanis To Protect Themselves

Former Bauchi State governor, Isah Yuguda, has defended recent comments by his successor, Bala Muhammadu, who argued that the Fulanis have to defend themselves against onslaughts by criminal elements who rustle their cattle (being the group’s major revene earner) and rob them of their belongings.

Yuguda, while defending the current governor, said that the Fulanis have a right to defend themselves but not with AK-47 rifles.

He also lamented that the tribe had been sidelined in the scheme of things in the country despite that they provided necessary revenue to kick start the region’s development when the colonial masters under Lord Lugard setup government in northern Nigeria.

Yuguda stated this on Monday during an interview with newsmen shortly after his revalidation of the ongoing APC registration in Bauchi State.

He said, “this is a very sensitive national issue and given that I am a Fulani man, when I make comments, people will think i am siding the Fulanis no, but I think the cattle rearers who have been herding for the past 200 years all over the country cannot just wakeup in the morning and all of a sudden become AK 47 killers and mostly importantly, the neglect of the Fulanis, especially the cattle rearers who are presently giving Nigerians a minimum of one million cattle to slaughter and take as beef, their treatment by the Nigerian states have been most unfair.

” When the white man came, he respected them because they were his source of revenue, not only that he provided cattle routes from Maiduguri to Otukpo; from Sokoto to Lokoja and Illorin and these infrastructures were provided by the White people and today where are the grazing reserves; where are the cattle routes?” he asked.

He however defended the obliteration of grazing routes, attributing it to the country’s growing population.
“You cannot blame Nigerians because we are giving birth, because in the 60’s, we were still 60 million in population, but today, we are about 130 million Nigerians in the northern part of the country, so everywhere have been dominated.

“Where were those in power with their brains that they never thought of resettling these people and make them an economy? ”

The former Bauchi governor appealed to Nigerians in the South to understand the plight of Fulanis, adding that “the mindset especially down south is that the Fulanis are gun carrying people, there have been clamour by senior citizens of this country that we should carry weapons, but Governor Mohammed made a remark to that effect, everybody was sentimental.

“When a senior elder statement said we should carry guns, where were you guys, nobody wrote about it, until Governor Mohammed spoke about it. These people deserves the right to defend themselves, let us stop being sentimental for God sake” he said.