MACBAN decries stereotyping of herdsmen as killers, claims over 15,000 killed, 4m cattle lost in 10 years

The leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has decried the stereotyping of Fulani herdsmen as killers and aggressors in any conflict that involves them and natives in any part of the country.

Background:

Over the years, clashes between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in different parts of the country had always been attributed to the menace of the herdsmen who, more often than not, are seen as the aggressors.

Farmer-Herder clashes:

Many of them have also been known to attack and sack communities especially in Benue and Plateau States where they have been known to have caused untold damage and deaths.

Apart from the regular clashes, herdsmen have also been known to attack communities over grazing rights while some of them have engaged in outright stealing of food items from the attacked villages.

Herdsmen turn bandits:

Many bandits who have been arrested for various crimes like kidnapping have turned out to be of the Fulani stock which have made Nigerians and security officials to inadvertently tag them as criminals.

Easy targets for security agencies:

They have also been targets of overzealous security operatives like a famous drone attack by the Nigeria Air Force last year on a Fulani village in Nasarawa State where scores of herdsmen and their family members were killed.

All of the above and many other instances, made the National President of MACBAN, Baba Othman Ngalzarma, raise the alarm at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the body held in Paiko, the headquarters of Paikoro local government area of Niger State on Sunday, where he claimed that pastorlist herdsmen had lost over 15,000 members in farmer-herder crises across the country as well as bandits’ attacks, and kidnapping in the last 10 years.

Ngalzarma added that in the same period, over four million cattle belonging to the Fulani people were also lost to cattle rustling.

“A lot of Nigerians are being deceived to see an average pastoralist as a criminal. The pastoralists are the victims because they are at the receiving end of all these crises including kidnapping, cattle rustling, farmer/herder conflicts and banditry,” the MACBAN President said.

“Whenever you hear of banditry, you will also hear of cattle being rustled by bandits. The pastoralists, who are referred to as Fulani, are 95 per cent of the owners of cows in the country.

“So, we are at the receiving end of all these crises. We are more of victims but Nigerians are being deceived to see us as culprits.

“Though there are criminals among pastoralists just as there are criminals in every society of Nigeria, however, this does not mean that the entire Fulani are criminals,” he said.

He noted that his people were also concerned about the security challenges facing the country, and called on all hands to be on deck to address the challenges of insecurity in the country.

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