was on my way for a marriage and i saw this on
a newsstand and was irked. What audacity?
what is this,DEMAND?. In any case, they have
started on the right part by forming an
association which can be sue and sued. I think
they should fight for a ranch by their dam up north instead of looking for people's land

Apparently fed up with the incessant clashes
involving them and farmers over grazing areas,
some 12 million Fulani cattlemen have stated that
their right to fend for themselves and their
livestock as citizens of Nigeria are being
infringed upon across many states because of their age-long nomadic way of life. Consequently, they have now formed themselves
into social groups to demand that the federal
government address the issue of food security
and grazing rights in the country, with a view to
securing grazing land rights for the Fulani
nationwide. Commending the northern governors for setting
up a committee to wade into the crisis between
farmers and herdsmen, one of the seven groups,
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association of
Nigeria, asked that the committee’s work be
extended to southern states where they also face grazing challenges. The association lamented that 12 million Fulani
herdsmen were currently living under the fear of
losing their means of livelihood, as clashes
between them and farmers continue to escalate
especially in Plateau, Taraba and Kaduna States.
The cattlemen said they were being arrested or expelled from their homes and settlements by the
authorities. In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP
WEEKEND, the protem national secretary of the
association, Saleh Bayari, said: “The Fulani man
has been at the receiving end of insecurity in this
country. To say that the Fulani are marginalised is
an understatement. There are 12 million cattle rearers whose children are not in school.” Also, the executive director, Pastoral Resolve, Sale
Momale, stated that “the challenges being faced
by Fulani cattlemen have gone unattended to by
all tiers of government for many years because
of discrimination against them. The fact is that
they are in remote rural areas and their high level of illiteracy makes it hard for them make formal
complaints under the modern system of
government.” While desertification is forcing them to migrate
southward, Bayari said: Fulani cattlemen do not
have children as councillors, that is, at the lowest
level of the political strata. They do not have a
chairman of a local government or member of a
house of assembly. They virtually have nobody in government.” Debunking claims that Fulani have been the
aggressors in some of the clashes involving them
and farmers, Bayari said: “There is nobody who
rears animals that wants conflict. Conflicts
destroy lives, including the lives of animals. So, it
is always very difficult for the Fulani person to go into any agitation that will at the end of the
day hurt his livestock. He would prefer to suffer
deprivation of all kinds than engage in armed
conflict that will not spare his livestock.” He stressed that the conflicts were taking a huge
toll on the Fulani’s economic wellbeing. The federal government, he alleged,“ has never
sat down to address food security like other
countries do. In Nigeria, thunder would strike a
Fulani person and kill about 200 of his cattle.
Flood, ethnic or religious crisis also continue to
decimate the Fulani’s cattle without any compensation from government. “That is what happened in Plateau where we
lost about 3.5 million heads of cattle in the crises
between September 2001 and January 17, 2010.
Within a period of 10 years, we lost 3.5 million
heads of cattle and nobody is talking about it;
not Plateau State or the federal government.” Bayari added: “You can imagine how much we
have lost, even at N100,000 per cow which is
the average cost. This is money that can take
care of 5 to 10 million people. If the federal
government had addressed the issue of food
security in this country, then, the Fulani man would have come to the fore. “But I think the government has begun to feel
the pulse and realise that if something is not
done, this country could erupt, in the sense that if
you deprive 12 million people of their means of
livelihood, then, you should be prepared for a
very serious situation. We are beginning to see some people make some efforts.” Momale said: “Discrimination against the
pastoralists cuts across all tiers of government,
even at the village and district levels. The modern
system introduced since the colonial times gives
priority to a formalised system for laying out
grievances, which favours the educated elite. “In 1990, only 0.02 percent of the pastoralists
were literate. By 2005, after 15 years of nomadic
education, their literacy level stood at 2 per cent.
Right now, according to the Federal Ministry of
Education, the Fulani pastoralists have three
million children that are out school. “With this level of illiteracy and the complexity of
governance, they have nowhere to lay their
complaint. The only government they know is
the village head and the village head cannot
influence policy. He has no say in the affairs of
government. And with a government that is not concerned with reaching out to its citizens, you
can understand why the problems of the Fulani
have gone unresolved.”

leadership.ng/nga/articles/34438/2012/09/08/12m_fulani_herdsmen_demand_land_rights_36_states.html