The source of the tension behind the two contradictory statements, in less than 24 hours’ interval, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and Miyetti Cattle Breeder Association of Nigeria issued is now open.
MACBAN whose approach in the press release is conflict resolution and passive resistance sympathises with President Muhammadu Buhari—and indeed the APC—government. Buhari is their life patron.
Kauta Hore which calls on its members to give for tit for tat should any militia groups in the south attack the herdsmen is sympathetic to the PDP. Former President Goodluck Jonathan is their life patron—he has been since 2014, in the run up to the 2015 elections, when he promised the herders his multibillion-naira ranching policy for them.
How Nigerian presidents got into this romance with Fulani herdsmen now considered the fourth deadliest terrorist organization in the world is intriguing.
It’s about politics.
Buhari, a Fulani and cattle breeder, had MACBAN, registered in 1986, for keeps until 2010. Then a splinter of the association decided to stand alone—using same trade name Miyetti Allah.
“We tried to ensure that they were not registered because of the similarities in names, but politicians who wanted to use them against us ensured they were registered by force,” said Baba Usman, MACBAN national secretary.
So the belligerent Miyeti Allah Kautal Hore was formed, with a rebellious streak, always taking adversarial positions against the Buhari-led group.
Which was why it adopted a non-Fulani, Jonathan, with no head of cows, as its life patron and presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2015 election.
MACBAN, too, which adopted Buhari in the 2014 and the 2019 elections, aligns directly or indirectly with the APC government policies.
When the ranching and Ruga settlement policies were floated, MACBAN was all for them, rapping the southeast governors that opposed the decision.
And when Buhari gave in to pressure to cancel the plans, the group took it calmly, suing for understanding as the south now prepare to sack the herdsmen in the region, following unceasing violent attacks allegedly carried out by the herders.
“Even though we are a group mostly known as Fulani cattle breeders, we are only interested in actions and discussions that will improve Nigeria’s peace and stability,” Musa said.
“Nigerians should not see us as agents of destabilisation,” he said in a smart damage-control move, adding MACBAN is planning a media enlightenment campaign about the two groups.
But the PDP’s Kautal Hore, the opposition, didn’t care about dialogue.
“They (herdsmen) are Nigerians, so they are entitled to stay where they are. They should remain where they are and defend themselves against ethnic militia and assert their citizenship in this country,” said Saleh Alhassan, the group’s spokesman.
“We are Nigerians and we are not going anywhere. Our attachment to the land is opportunistic; we don’t farm the land. So, if anybody is thinking that because he has cultivated the land in a particular place for long and he has rights there more than us, then we would ask where is the grazing area that the colonial masters created for us?”
He urged politicians to leave the faction leave out of it this crisis.
Many analysts have also said until the government unveil the moneybags and politicians who own most the herds the nomads goad across the nation in search of sustenance, not much will happen in solving the escalating herdsmen violence in Nigeria.