"If they used Boko Haram to upturn our administration, we will use fulani herdsmen to confuse him" - Otunba Biodun Ajiboye writes in support of Buhari

Former IT consultant cum politician, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye has just shared a lengthy piece on Facebook in defence of President Buhari concerning the Fulani herdsmen menace.

According to him, 'the perverted narrative is simply orchestrated by the opposition and political enemies of Buhari to say because he is a Fulani man he is silent and allow Fulani's to kill innocent Tivs, this is most unfortunate'.

Read his full piece below...

It is no longer news that our media has been infiltrated and polluted by technology mixed with psychosocial dynamism called social media, everyone that has a phone today is a reporter and everyone that can scholarly put an essay together becomes a writer, this has brought in so much confusion into our National information management and public communication, this same confusion has gotten our official information managers frustrated, since this government doesn't appear to be able to match even opposition in the area of investment In Information Technology. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

Permit me to make it clear that I have no apologies putting this issue on its right and proper perception. We need not join the bandwagon to condemn an action we do not understand deeply. We need to solve these problems before we get totally hijacked. Cultivating the attitude of restraint is a great virtue and responsibility on our part as citizens which is fast becoming most crucial to us as a country.

FALLACY OF BUHARI'S INACTION:

We need to know that politicians and detractors who detest Buhari are forever seeking opportunities to discredit him, they reasoned, "if they used the BOKO HARAM to upturn our Government, their government of 2014, we will use the Fulani herdsmen to confuse him", that is the conspiracy. Let's go back to history as of background to understand how long we have been dealing with the issue of herdsmen menace.

HERDSMEN MENACE IN THE LAST 10 YEARS IN NIGERIA. 

The last administration battled so hard with this same problem and there were series of interventions and research in respect of the herdsmen's grazing issue. A lot of studies by different agencies have proffered different solutions over the years.

President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 inaugurated an Inter-ministerial technical committee on grazing reserves, tasked with proposing strategies for ending the herdsmen crisis. Gabriel Suswan (PDP), Former Governor of Benue state (Benue has always been the hot spot hence the choice of Suswan) was appointed by GEJ to head the political committee on Grazing Reserves. The committee got to work and the final reports recommended recovery of all grazing routes encroached upon by farmers and recommended that CBN be mandated to release N100 billion to the 36 states for construction of ranches.

The National Economic Council, NEC under President Jonathan approved this recommendation and thereafter the Central Bank actually released the N100 billion. 

Having released the funds to the state Governors, one expected that they would have done the needful, the State Governors took the money but none of them constructed the ranches. That being the case, the root cause of the problem not far-fetched.

Upon the realisation of seeming fraud on the part of the Governors, the House of Reps set up a committee to investigate reports of looted funds by the Governors and give their reports within 4 weeks to the house in plenary, one will would need to ask the Governor of Sokoto what happened to the investigations and its reports, since he was the speaker of the House of representatives, the public was kept in a limbo, as if there was no report being expected.

THE APC GOVT AND THE HERDSMEN'S MENACE. 

The current APC government thereafter followed up on the earlier ranching plan formulated by the Jonathan government (which N100 billion was released to the governors for) and in 2016 presented a plan to the Nigeria Governors forum to map out grazing areas in all states as a temporary solution to the herdsmen crisis, amazingly, central and southern states opposed the plan, hence it was indeed a great set back.

It is instructive to understand and appreciate that those who received money to solve such bloody perennial problems and made away should be made to account for the bloodshed, the blood of the innocent should be on them, perhaps a clarion call on the EFCC to take a deep look at this heinous negligence of National Responsibility. Again as this genocide happened where over 55 people were murdered in cold blood, same politicians that caused and sponsored the carnage are now still attempting to pass the buck.

We need to come together to disallow the politicians play politics with the matter of our lives, for them at all times it is about politics of election and not about developing our land.

MUHAMMADU BUHARI USED AS A FALL GUY:

We are not anymore surprised how they have blamed Buhari for all the disaster, this is where politics of misgivings come to play, they have hijacked the whole saga to play like Buhari's negligence.

The perverted narrative is simply orchestrated by the opposition and political enemies of Buhari to say because he is a Fulani man he is silent and allow Fulani's to kill innocent Tivs, this is most unfortunate,

At the wake of this crisis, Buhari met with Former Gov. George Akume and Barnabas Gemade to find out the cause of this current crisis on Sunday 7th Jan, by the 8th of Jan. he met with the Governor of Benue, shortly after which he ordered the IGP to relocate to the scene of the crisis, which he has since done, .. In one of the meetings, Buhari acknowledged the love the Tivs and Benue people have shown him and how emotional he is about their plight. The president set up a committee of Governors of Kaduna, Benue, Niger, plateau as headed by the minister of interior to further look at this crisis.

Buhari personally again mandated his close ally, Sen. Abu Ibrahim to go with the senators to see and give him First-hand information. From Information gathered , the criminals are not the traditional Fulanis that have lived in the same communities for hundreds of years. 

These perpetrators are sponsored to cause mayhem and whoever is behind this shall be brought to book, the president vowed. 

Buhari seems to have finally scheduled to meet the Benue leaders on Monday 15th January. 

National Emergency Maintenance Agency, NEMA has equally been mandated to take charge of palliatives to assuage the loss of the bereaved. The president equally dispatched a battalion as against the rumour making the rounds that the president folded his arms and looked on while his kinsmen killed the Benue people... 

Furthermore, the President is reported to be meeting the Fulani groups to make them understand the meaning and importance of order and caution against reckless statements. 

All hands are now on deck to permanently resolve this problem, it has suddenly become a threat in our polity, the government has seen why it has to look beyond the communality nature of the crisis, it has indeed been infiltrated.

It is shocking to learn however that the arrested members of the killing squad neither spoke Fulani nor Hausa, that convinced everyone that this menace was no longer that of communal clash nor Fulani herdsmen as many won't believe. Again this has not exonerated the Fulani from the menace of the past in the area of cattle destroying farmlands of people, the argument of the people against the Fulani is simply that the menace is unbearable, Government must find a lasting solution.

West Africa is witnessing an unprecedented influx of arms, particularly Nigeria. The fleeing members of the Boko Haram are settling somewhere still Causing havoc. We must secure our Nation. The time is now.