National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo has berated the Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Njidaa Tafida, for calling on members of his emirate to kill Fulani herdsmen in the forests after the expiration of the one-month ultimatum issued to them to vacate. The emir had, during the last Sallah celebration, issued a one-month ultimatum to herdsmen to leave the forests in his domain or get killed.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the leader of the Fulani socio-cultural organisation, who said the Emir needs psychiatric examination, absolved the Fulani of the killings in Southern Kaduna, adding that his people are actually victims of the carnage in that area.
Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Njidaa Tafida, has given the Fulani herdsmen a one-month ultimatum to leave the bushes and forests in his domain or get killed by his people. What is your reaction on this?
That Emir of Muri should be taken to a psychiatric hospital. From the way he is talking, there is no doubt that he requires a psychiatric examination. He claims to be a Fulani, but there is no right-thinking Fulani who can issue such a threat to his people. How can he give such an ultimatum? He is not a law enforcement agent or a security agent. He is just an ordinary emir, who is not fully recognised by the Fulani.
If you observe, you hardly see him in any Fulani activity or programme in Nigeria because the Fulani do not recognise him. Maybe he has a problem in his palace and so started issuing threats to those he perceived were not loyal to him. Where is he asking them to go? Taraba State is for everyone, so he doesn’t have the power to evict our people from where they are doing their business or trade.
Are you saying he is not a Fulani?
It is very difficult to ascertain. If you see a pure Fulani, you are not supposed to ask. Mind you, there are different categories of Fulani in Nigeria or the entire world. We have up to 70 categories of Fulani. I don’t know the stock of Fulani he came from. If he claims to be a Fulani, let him come up and tell us the stock or the house of Fulani he comes from. We have the Egeriji, Rahaji, Pakataji, Baneji, Fufildi, Banaguin, and others. I want to know where he belongs. If he is a Fulani, he may not be a pure Fulani.
A pure Fulani man, even if he was chained on both hands and legs, even at the point of death, it is very difficult for him to issue such threat to other Fulani, who are practising their age long culture of cattle rearing. The emir said that before the Fulani were fighting with the Kalfure and they won them, and now they want to fight the Fulani to finish. He doesn’t know the history of Uthman Dan Fodio fighting the Kalfure.
Dan Fodio wasn’t fighting the Kalfure (Kalfure is someone who is neither a Christian nor a Muslim; an atheist or pagan), the only thing he was doing was to preach Islam, teaching the people how to do ablution, how to pray; but he didn’t force anybody to convert to Muslim. The Emir of Muri doesn’t know the history, but the other emirs who know the history would tell you that nobody fought with Kalfure. I’m surprised hearing him raise the issue of Kalfure.
The Emir of Mambila in Kardona Local Government, Awdu Baju could be recognised in a meeting organised by the Fulani at Jalingo, where the Galadima represented the Emir of Muri. The Emir of Mambila at that meeting told the world what the Fulani in Nigeria are passing through and where they have been pushed to, but for the Emir of Muri to came out to threaten us, surely, there is no Fulani who can do that.
When that one-month ultimatum expires, what will you do?
We don’t recognise him and his authority, and since we don’t recognise him, we can’t obey his directives. Before the expiration of the ultimatum, we are going to write the Governor of Taraba State to remove him as an emir. We are going to write all the Fulani in Nigeria and beyond not to recognise him as an emir because he is calling for a genocide against the Fulani people in his area. Who is he to call for the killing of our people? He is a non-Fulani. How can you claim to be a Fulani and you are calling for genocide against your people? Even my friend and brother, Samuel Ortom, Benue State governor, has not called for the killing of Fulani, but he is trying to find solutions to his own problem. He is a Tiv, but he is not calling for genocide against the Fulani.
I’m calling on all Fulani in Muri to continue with their activities. Taraba is my state of origin, and I’m calling on the governor to quickly dethrone this emir before he caused bloodbath in the state. He doesn’t deserve to be an emir. A person who is pan Nigerian should take over from him. We are also calling on the Inspector General of Police and the DSS to invite him to explain what he meant by his people to kill Fulani. He gave them one month to do what? Is it only Fulani who are committing crime? Go and find out the arrest of criminals by IGP IRT headed by Abba Kyari. About 70 per cent of them are not Fulani. I don’t know why the emir will go to this extent, or he has agenda against the Fulani? Has he prepared any state or country to take these Fulani to? Nobody can go anywhere. Before he was born, Fulani were rearing cows in Jalingo; before the creation of Taraba State, Fulani were doing their activities there. If he doesn’t know, let him ask for the history. How old is he? He may be in his mid 70s or if he is up to 85 years, then old age sickness has taken over and that may be the reason he is talking like that.
To my surprise, he made the statement on the Sallah Day, when everybody is happy. After Imam is done with prayers, the emir is supposed to talk about peace and what Allah says about peaceful cohabitation, but he didn’t. He started issuing ultimatum and threats to kill.
Have you reported him to the Taraba State Traditional Rulers Council?
We are going beyond that. We are also going to report him to the Sultan of Sokoto, the United Nations, embassies in Nigeria and other international organisations, like International Criminal Court over threat to commit genocide against us. In Mambila and even in Adamawa State, you see some people speaking Fulfulde, don’t allow them to deceive you; they may not be Fulani. Many people are learning the Fulani language.
Have you met the emir one on one to complain about the statement he made and his position?
It is a waste of my precious time to meet him over this issue. One of his brothers called me to apologise over what the emir said about the Fulani. He also said that some boys have gone to the social media, especially, Whatsapp to write all sort of things against us, and he was going to tell them to remove all those posts. I asked him if it was the emir that sent him, and he said, no.
So, meeting him is a waste of time. What he said has gone viral. I’m calling all the stocks of the Fulani to know where he is from. This can help us know him well because no Fulani can be so harsh to his people. There are some whose mothers are Fulani and their fathers are not Fulani, and they claim to be Fulani. All the tribes in Taraba are doing banditry, not only Fulani, as some people erroneously believe. There are security challenges in Taraba State, which the police are working hard to fix, but for you to come now and say you have dealt with Kalfure before and now you want to deal with Fulani is not acceptable. He called Fulani Bororo. I’m a Fulani, but the stock of Bororo. About 99 per cent of Fulani are Bororo. For him to say he would deal with Bororo, that is why I’m interested in knowing the stock of Fulani he comes from. We cannot accept his call for genocide against us. The security agencies should investigate him.
The Southern Kaduna people are accusing your people of the killings in their communities. What do you say to this?
They are lying. It is not true; instead, they are the ones killing our people. In 2011, the Southern Kaduna people killed over 517 Fulani people. From that time, the killings have not abated. Anybody who says Fulani are responsible for the killings is not telling the truth. We are not terrorists. Our organisation, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore does not support any crime, killing or violence. If the Southern Kaduna people have any information that can help arrest those responsible for the killings, they should divulge such to the police and other security agencies, and we are in support of this. Only God will judge these people who are carrying out this needless propaganda against the Fulani and our organisation.