A Tear of Pity For Fulanis in
These are stories of Fulani communities that many people would never want the public to see.
Local militias raid their homes, burn houses, steal valuables and livestock, and sometimes slaughter the stolen animals to make pepper soup and sell those that were rustled, occasionally with the knowledge or cooperation of people in the host communities. Then everyone goes back to business as usual and pretends as if nothing happened.
But when some victims eventually retaliate after repeated attacks, the script suddenly changes. It is then that you will start hearing labels like they are Islamist terrorists allegedly bent on wiping out Christians and hoisting their flag in our land. Which flag, bro? You guys are thieves.
The painful reality of the Plateau crisis is that violence rarely begins in a vacuum. Every incident has a history, a trigger and root causes. Anyone telling you this is simply a religious war is lying to you. Anyone telling you that someone was planning to come and chase you out and take over your land is lying to you. They are arming you with propaganda in order to continue fighting and hating each other.
Much of what is happening is criminality being weaponized along ethnic and religious lines, and ordinary civilians on all sides are paying the price. While the criminals just walk away.
The irony of the matter is that some people are hell-bent on cashing out on the crises. Every day, we see NGOs making appeals for the people they term persecuted Christians in Nigeria, but how much have they given back to the people? Some of those communities were among the most underdeveloped.
This is why it is very easy for your politicians to hide under the guise of championing your cause to continue to win elections without doing anything. Likewise, the state government. Have they built good schools and hospitals? How many people have they lifted from poverty? What are the programmes initiated to get the youths involved in meaningful activities rather than engaging in mining and alcoholism, thuggery or criminality?
Few people are cashing out on the crises in the international community while telling you to endure, hoping that they will come one day to help you chased out the Fulan’s. When will you start asking simple questions like? If the international community claims they really care about us, why haven’t they acted despite all the reporter killings?
