The proposed cattle colonies of the Muhammadu Buhari regime is allegedly in pursuant to late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello’s ‘Fulani supremacy agenda’, says constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze.
Nwabueze, who made this claim in a keynote address titled ‘President Buhari should not lure us into the deadly trap of establishing cattle colonies for Fulani herdsmen in every state of the federation’, warned Nigerians of the dire consequences of yielding to the demand by the Federal Government.
Speaking in Enugu on Tuesday, the head of the ‘Igbo Leaders of Thought’ warned that ceding ancestral lands in different parts of the country to Fulani herdsmen may have legal, religious and political repercussions.
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He recalled that Chief Audu Ogbe, the Minister of Agriculture, had previously said a colony of 30, 000 cows can harbour about 300 herdsmen.
Nwabueze’s address reads partly:
“In considering the religious implications of establishing cattle colonies in every state of the federation, it is necessary to recall to mind what Sheikh Gumi wrote about Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.
“According to Gumi, the Sardauna’s well-known agenda of consolidating and perpetuating the idea of Northern Nigeria as one united entity “was not borne out of political consideration only,” but was also conceived as “a personal mission” handed down to him by his forebear, Sheikh Dan Fodio.
“The agenda had an accompanying ideology whose object, as articulated by the Sardauna, is to maintain Northern Nigeria as a theocracy ruled by a Muslim claiming to be divinely directed, with utter disdain for democracy, and with the Sharia as the supreme governing law; the non-Muslim minority ethnic groups in the North are to be used as “willing tools” and the South is to be subjugated and reduced to “a conquered territory,” which is not to be allowed to “have control over their future.”
“The Sarduana had conceived a kind of jihad, for the pursuit and possible accomplishment of his agenda, an agenda which President Buhari has now vowed to carry on to a finish.
“Thus was Hausaland together with other conquered lands, Islamised, and a caliphate established over Sokoto, with Dan Fodio as its Sultan. That was the price the Hausa paid for their hospitality in granting access to grazing land to the Fulani immigrant settlers.
“The minister’s (Ogbeh’s) emphasis on the process of acquiring land for the colony is misdirected. The issue is not so much about the process for acquiring land, but about the ownership of the land after it is acquired and, more important, about the right to the exclusive use, the management and control of the land so acquired.
“Does the ownership of the land belong to the Federal Government, or to traditional communities, villages and families supposed to have been divested of it? Does the right to the exclusive use, management and control of the land belong to the Federal Government, the cattle owners or the herdsmen?
“Perhaps, more worrisome, is the issue of the relationship of the Fulani herdsmen settled on the land and the political authorities in the state – the state government, the local government authorities and the traditional authorities, the town unions, the community development associations, the civil defence and vigilante groups, etc.
“Will the Fulani herdsmen settled on the land, the cattle owners and their association, the Miyetti Allah, not constitute themselves a “state” within a state?”
“From the minister’s presentation, the cattle colony scheme may magnify the problems beyond what they presently are.
“The scheme is not intended to, and will not, stop the open grazing practice, which is the main cause of the problem. It may well reduce, but will not completely stop it,” he said.