KIDNAPPINGS: FROM FUGUS TO FUDMA

KIDNAPPINGS: FROM FUGUS TO FUDMA

                           By

                 Nurudeen Dauda

                10th October, 2023

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Permit me to add my voice on the issue of the incessant Kidnappings in northern Nigeria which is sadly becoming a new normal in our society. Kidnapping in our society is increasingly becoming very alarming which must not be condoned by all right thinking persons. It has crippled many businesses and has frightened many of our farmers away from their “farms". The present trend if left unchecked will certainly scare away many of us from sending their "children" and "wards" to schools.

It is sad to note that unspecified number of female students from off-campus hostels of the federal university Gusau (FUGUS) Zamfara state were kidnapped and before we recovered from its shock, the news of another kidnapped of five students in the neighbouring federal university Dutsinma (FUDMA), Katsina state filtered. What a sad moment!

It is alleged that the two kidnappings in "succession" is a consequence of a one-sided "ongoing negotiation" between the constituted authority and some bandits leaders to which the alleged left out "factions" want to prove their strengths. Our governments at all levels must be reminded that their primary responsibility is the protection of lives and property of their citizens. 

In my view, whatever it is this is not a time for promoting "conspiracy" theories and "whipping up" of political, ethnic, religious, and regional sentiments by commentators, but a time for all hands to be on "deck" in finding a lasting solution to the crisis. 

In my thought, the best way to address the issue is to thoroughly understand the "genesis" of the crisis. It is a "local crisis"which requires all the "seven" state governors of the north- west geo-political zone of Nigeria and by extension Niger state which are the epicentre of the crisis to be on the "same page" and not to continue to be on "different pages" that they are now. We must take a "uniform" stand on how to approach the crisis otherwise it will be one-step forward and two- steps backward.

In my thesis , perennial farmer-herder clashes and cattle-rustling led to the aggravation of armed banditry and Kidnappings in our society. Although the history of farmer -herder clashes is from time immemorial as captured in our "religious scriptures"we have not as a people and as a country properly "managed" the issue with all the seriousness its deserves. We are into conflict "settlement"as against "resolution.

From independence to date both human and cattle population have increased significantly, but the size of our "land resources" remains or even reduced due to "desertification" and or "climate change". For all these years we have not "modernized" cattle business as in other countries instead we bastardized grazing reserves and cattle routes. 

As a country few years ago when cattle-rustling was at its peak we did not manage its properly. Our general attitude of “playing the ostrich” to sensitive issues aggravated the crisis. We turned a “blind eye” and “deaf ear”on the issue of cattle -rustling from the outset. We often treat life threatening issues with kid gloves. It was largely alleged that many herders who lost their cattle to cattle-rustling "resort" to Kidnappings for "ransom" which is more lucrative. 

However, one must quickly add that, cattle -rustling is not the only factor responsible for kidnappings in our society. Despite spending billions on nomadic education stark illiteracy in both religious and western education remains among our fulani herdsmen.

In my thought, our major fault are: one, we have failed to accept that the crisis is of land resources not "ethnic" or "religious" one , two, we have failed as a country to secure our borderlines against at least the foreign nomads, three, we have not been managing the nomads' deliberate straying into farms, four, we have not been managing the alleged extortion of nomads by their Ardos who are supposed to protect them, five, we have not addressed the allegations of connivance of local chiefs, Police and magistrates against the herders, six, we have not been managing jungle justice in terms of maiming and killings of nomads and their cattle.

Seven, we have bastardized cattle "routes" and "grazing reserves", eight, we have failed to modernize cattle business and nine, we stopped "Jangali tax" which would have helped us know the population of our local nomads, their cattle and the presence of foreign nomads .

Although the perpetrators of this evil act cut across different tribes the fulani herdsmen are in the majority based on many arrest so far. There are still decent herders who are neither kidnappers nor bandits which could be use to get to the root of crisis. Our porous borders and large swathes of ungoverned spaces have worsened the crisis.

May God bless Nigeria