From Paul Orude Bauchi
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has criticized his Benue counterpart, Governor Samuel Ortom for what he terned the latter’s poor handling of the herders-farmers clashes in Benue.
Mohammed opined that Ortom’s lack of foresight has triggered the current negative perception of Fulani herders in the country.
He made the disclosure while speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Correspondents’ Week Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Bauchi State council, held at Command Guest House, Bauchi, on Thursday.
Responding to the theme for the Week entitled The role of the Media in Promoting Peace and Unity in Nigeria, the governor cautioned Ortom and some governors from the southern parts of the country to guard against utterances and policies that threaten the peace and unity of the country.
He said: “Unconstructive criticisms bring a lot of hatred and sometimes we are quick to go to the press on issues that are dividing us. I will tell you something that I tell my colleagues about the farmers-herders clashes in Nigeria.
“You have seen what are colleagues in the southwest are doing and some of them from the south east are doing. We have told them with all modesty that they 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, there will be challenges because we also accommodate other tribes in Bauchi and other places. We have many Tiv people farming in Alkaleri, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro in Bauchi State. Has anybody told them to go? No because they have inalienable rights to be here. We have people living in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria., nobody is talking to them to go and some of them have risen to become Permanent Secretaries in government in Bauchi, Borno and so on”
Governor Mohammed lamented that pastoralists in the country, particularly Fulanis were being maligned even though most of them have become victims of cattle rustlers who have dispossessed them of their common wealth and they “have no option than to carry AK47 because the society and the government are not protecting him”
Mohammed, who shot to prominence when he moved the Doctrine of Necessity at the Senate in 2009 which eventually paved the way for Goodluck Jonathan to become Acting President, and later President when Umar Yar’ Afdua died in office, called on Nigerians to stop labeling Fulanis as criminals because every ethnic groups has criminals
He called on journalists to be cautious in their reportage and exercise restraint and avoid takings sides in the issues of herders-farmers clashes to safeguard the unity and peace of the country.
“Something that is so bad and can destroy us, something that is threatening the peace and unity of the country, we must not toy with it. In this regard I must commend the Governor of Plateau State, Governor Simon Lanlong for promoting the peace of the country.
“Despite Lanlong’s minority’s background, he is leading the northern governors forum, Lanlong is focused and unity driven. We need people like Lanlong because the fights between herders and farmers in Plateau State has stopped because of justice and equity, because of patriotism and comFulmunity engagement and fostering understanding between the diverse ethnic groups and that is what we are doing in Bauchi. Everybody is important and so the media must make sure they promote unity and peace of the country,” he said
Earlier in his address, Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel, Malam Ahmed Mohammed, cautioned journalists against misusing their constitutional power to promote disunity and disaffection among Nigerians.
“I want to yet again appeal to my dear colleagues to be cautious in their reportage. One wrongly-worded headline can spark a fire that may burn down the entire nation or cause irreparable damages to the society or the person(s) affected. One of us may feel that he can retract a story, but news stories are like oil. You can attempt to wipe the spill but you may never get it all back,” the Chairman said.
This gobbledygook Farmers-Herders Crisis is nothing but an attept by the
aliens Fulani Neo-Colonilaists to impose their primitive nomadic way of
life upon us, their sedentary Kwa/Bantu Host Communities.
They simply go about their bid to Fulanize and Islamize us through banditries,
kidnappings and killings of innocent people.
Since Mallam Muhammadu Buhari took over the Presidency in 2015,the
Fulani Herders have been washing our earth,forests,lakes,mountains,rivers
and streams with the innocent blood of native Nigerians.
The have been pillaging and sacking our Villages,Farmsteds and Hamlets,
destroying of framlands and crops,raping our women folks and daughters
and killing those,who dare stand on their ways.
They contaminate,defile and pollute our environments with cow dungs,
urines and untreated human wastes,bringing in their wake pests,diseases
sicknesses and deaths to our communities.
Could Governor Bala Mohammed please rationalize on why we , native
Kwa/Bantu Nigreians must continue to endure the onggoing pogroms and
incipient genocide visited upon us, these past five years by the Fulani cattle
drivers?
But Governor Samuel Ortom and his people of Benue State have borne the
brunts of the ongoing ”Futahat” Campaign of pogroms and ethnic
cleansings of native Nigerians from their ancestral lands by the so called
Fulani Herders.
Thus, Chief Samuel Ortom has all the right in this world to speak up and damn the
devils over the ongoing barbaric and gruesome acts against his people.
Enough is enough ojare.
Nigeria We Hail Thee.Lol!
No to the status quo ante bellum!!
Down with Hausa/Fulani Islamic hegemony!!!
I don’t blame you at all Mohammed. You are just as good as your intelligence permits. The likes of you, but for providence should not actually be in position of leadership and therefore cannot really be blamed that you are there and of course given airspace to spew rubbish. You have people from all other ethnic group resident in Bauchi since time immemorial. Tell us then, when was the last time such persons took up arms and unleashed mayhem on Bauchi indigenes? During all the wicked, barbarically violent religious disturbances in Bauchi, please tell the world which ethnic group in Bauchi suffered the most? As an example, are you aware that your kinsmen have attacked particularly the Igbos who own and run better businesses in Bauchi than your entire kinsmen put together? Have you ever heard of reprisals from the Igbos in Bauchi as a result of this injustice? With other ethnic groups resident in Bauchi who do not share the same faith as your kinsmen, are you aware that your kinsmen seize and forcefully convert the sons and daughters from these ethnic group to Islam under your watch and nothing happens? Have you ever heard or seen any reprisals from these group as a result? Have you ever heard or seen any persons of different ethnic group resident in Bauchi take up arms, rape, kidnapp, kill or delibrately violet any set Bauchi state laws? Could you say that about your kinsmen resident elsewhere in the country and or even in Bauchi state? You dare speak of Ortom in that manner. You are indeed a celebrated reprobate.