From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani Socio-Cultural Association on Thursday hailed Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for standing by pastoralists, describing him as an emerging leader.
National Secretary of the Association, Saleh Alhassan, in a statement said, Bala’s intervention in the ongoing herders/farmers conflicts was to simply situate the conflicts within the proper context devoid of the current politicization with hope to find a sustainable solution rather than playing to the gallery.
To Saleh, the entire Fulani pastoralists and the majority of the northerners are behind the governor and applaud his consistent courageous position that every Nigeria has a right to live in any part of the country and pursue his economic livelihood within the constitutional provision.
“Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed Executive Governor of Bauchi State has gradually emerged as the only lone voice among his peers in the North to come out openly in the defence of the Fulani pastoralists that are being persecuted across many states through the enactment of negative obnoxious laws against their means of livelihoods and the issuance of illegal eviction notices from their places of abode against the constitutional provisions.
“Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has tread where angels are scared to tread in the past. He has taken what every politician will consider political risk in the past by holding divergent views where others have failed or chicken out. So his current position on the herders /farmers conversation is not strange or out of context.
“The audacity of H.E Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed strides visible came to limelight when he was elected Senator in April 2007. Remember “the Doctrine of necessity”, when the then-ailing (late) President Umaru ‘Yaradua was incapacitated and the making of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the acting President. This was because he believed in the unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as one indivisible entity where every citizen has equal right and privileges.
“Despite the loud hues and cries from the dissenting voices across the country and threats from then cabals that were holding sway at the villa he did not buck. He did it out of conviction and to douse the rising tension in the country then.
“He was never scared nor intimidated of speaking the truth. And we believe that Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed should be applauded for providing this kind of purposeful leadership, particularly to the north at this very trying moment in our national history.
*Those attempting to silence him are only undertaking an exercise in futility as the majority of the northern masses particularly the pastoralists that have seen a leader and saviour at this critical times are solidly behind him.
“Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has refused to be like Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, whose only achievement in the rising of ethnic militia and gang leaders that have been vising mayhem of killings in his state. The whose only evidence of dividends of democracy to his improvised citizens is the creation of obnoxious anti-grazing laws.
“He has refused to be like Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is a Senior lawyer (SAN) but has proved to be a disgrace to the legal profession. Akeredolu after creating an ethnic militia (Amotekun) that is now unleashing terror and mayhem on innocent herders and northerners living in the south-west against unconstitutional and blanket eviction notices for herders to vacate places were their livelihoods.
“Akeredolu will be held accountable for the ongoing genocide against innocent pastoralist and northerners living in the south-west”, Saleh said.