Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has faulted his Southern counterparts, and Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, for the rash of quit notices dished out to herdsmen, and their handling of the farmer-herder clashes.
At the closing ceremony of the 2021 Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bauchi State Council on Thursday, Feb 11 at the Command Guest House, unlike his Kano colleague, Umar Ganduje, explained that
Fulani herdsmen carry AK-47 for self-defence because they are being attacked by cattle rustlers.
Ganduje in a television interview on the same Thursday explained that herdsmen, most of whom he said are foreigners, carry guns to protect themselves against farmers.
Recall, that two other Governors, Darius Ishaku of Taraba and Ortom have been strong advocates for other Nigerians to arm themselves for protection against killer herdsmen.
But speaking on the theme, ‘The Role of the Media in Promoting Peace in Nigeria,’ Mohammed said, southern governors were wrong in their negative attitude toward herdsmen.
His words, “On the herders-farmers clashes, you have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility, ‘you are wrong’.
“But the person that is most wrong is the Governor of Benue State, my brother and my colleague, Governor Ortom. He started all these. If you don’t accommodate other tribes we are also accommodating your people in Bauchi and other places.
“We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi; has anyone asked them to go? We have not, because it is their constitutional rights to be there.
“We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has told them to go; some of them have risen to become permanent secretaries in Bauchi, Gombe and Borno.
“And now, the Fulani man is practicing the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism, he has been exposed to the dangers of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth, his cows, he had no option than to carry Ak-47 and defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.
“It is not his fault, it is the fault of the government and the people; you don’t criminalise all of them because in every tribe there are criminals. You should be very sensitive.”