Miyetti Allah’s claim on indigenous Fulani settlements in South-West mischievous – Afenifere Group

The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has criticized the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) over its deliberate misrepresentation of the indigenous demography of Yorubaland.

The Secretary-General of MACBAN, Usman Baba-Ngelzerma, had during an interview on television claimed there were indigenous Fulani settlements in the South-West.

He said: “In Ondo and most of the Southern states, we have indigenous pastoralists whose fathers were brought up in those states and those who are there today were also brought up there.

“So, if you ask them to go, they won’t know where to go because they know these states as their own states.”

However, in a statement issued on Sunday by its Publicity Secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, ARG said there was no Fulani settlement in any part of South-West Nigeria that fits the definition of indigenous.

The group described the MACBAN’s claim as a mischievous, deliberate distortion of facts, and a devilish plan to redraw the demography of indigenes of South-West Nigeria.

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The statement read: “There is no Fulani man or woman living in any part of South-West Nigeria that can own the ancestral history of the community as his or her family’s history.

“Conversely, there is none among the Fulani families that first settled in Yorubaland whose history of migration cannot be told by the indigenous Yoruba people.

“The deliberate use of words that confer on the Fulani people a status that is not theirs constitute a security threat and does not portray MACBAN and its members as peace-loving people.

“The subtlety in Baba-Ngelzerma’s choice of words is another confirmation of the MACBAN’s alleged surreptitious plan to grab and claim ancestral land for its members through inappropriate means.

“Baba-Ngelzerma’s claim that there are Fulani people who do not know any other place as their ancestry other than their place of birth owes its plot to mischief, deliberate distortion of facts, and a devilish plan to redraw the demography of indigenes of Southwest Nigeria,” it added.

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