A
medical doctor and neurologist with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University
in Bauchi state, Nura Alkali, has weighed in on the Fulani herdsmen saga
as he revealed how strongly he is opposed to nomadic cattle-herding.
The doctor also revealed how he stopped to take pictures of herdsmen
fleeing with their cattle in December 2017 after their people were
attacked in Numan, Adamawa State. Read what he shared on Facebook earlier today; The
mutual hatred among us is so pervasive that I wonder if we are truly
civilized. In fact, some of us are so hateful that they hate themselves
to spite others. You know yourselves. Your landless kinsmen are so much
hated that even their infants are killed in cold-blood. But rather than
help them acquire land in safer areas, you urge them to remain landless,
which in your twisted mind, is a revenge on their enemies.
You
are their worst enemy, like it or not. By "you", I mean everyone
supporting nomadism while avoiding its dangers and enjoying sedentary
life in our towns and cities. I'm also referring to past and present
leaders who are ostensibly Fulani but did little to help nomads adopt
modern methods of animal husbandry that would allow them lease/own land
and access healthcare and education available to other Nigerians.
You
are motivated by misplaced ego, but you are not alone. So-called
"Fulani leaders" also did little to solve the problem, preferring
instead to promise "bringing perpetrators to book" after each deadly
conflict over farmland versus grazing land. But why am I not surprised?
If the children of nomads can be doctors, engineers, lawyers and
accountants like us and our children, who can we oppress again? Who will
rear our cattle?
I took these pictures during a trip to Yola
from Gombe on 1st December 2017, at around 8:30-9:00 am. These nomads
were fleeing Numan, Adamawa State, after a hostile tribe massacred 54 of
their women and children a few days earlier. I told my passenger that
it was a sign for a revenge attack. I was so sure that I parked to take
the pictures. That also gave me the chance to throw a jibe in Fulfulde
at a group of herdsmen:
"Nomadism in this age is not bravery,
but stupidity. Educate yourself and you would rear cows in comfort". He
was aghast, but he still found the voice to tell his comrades that I
was talking sense. An uneducated youth of 19-20 years. And here you are,
a graduate or postgraduate insisting he should forever remain a nomad.
Shame on you. Unfriend me if you hate my opinion since I'll always
oppose nomadic cattle-herding.
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