By Fredrick Nwabufo
Security is everybody’s business.
No individual, group, institution or organisation is nugatory in matters of
security. All efforts are needed and all
hands must be forged into one fist in the pursuit of peace. In fact, it
imperils security if any stakeholder to the peace is “quarantined” and
stereotyped.
On Wednesday, I read a report on
a security briefing by Audu Adamu Madaki, commissioner of police in Adamawa
state. In that compte rendu, he revealed, essentially, the importance of
working with critical stakeholders in retarding criminality.
Madaki said three kidnappers, who
surrendered their arms and divulged crucial information on the artifices and
operations of their criminal genre, were led to his office by an official of
Miyetti Allah ( a show of resolve in helping to curb the menace).
Hear him: “Yesterday, we
harvested three repentant kidnappers who voluntarily walked into my office,
confessed to have been kidnappers; but have now repented and surrendered two
AK-47s to the command.
“The herdsmen explained to me
that they normally concealed the firearms in sacks of personal effects and
strap them on the back of a cow and then immigrate to a chosen destination.
“They told me that they purchased
them from the Republic of Cameroon and moved them into Nigeria through the bush
path to beat immigration and other security agents along the border.”
I believe, there will be more
gains in the effort to wrestle down banditry and kidnapping if the people, who
can prevail on or sway these outlaws, are involved in the “sumo.” It is the
reason I am strained by the sectional condemnation of the request by Miyetti
Allah to help in fending off the brigands from the southeast.
At the Southeast Security Summit
in Enugu on Thursday, Alhaji Bala Usman Ngelzerma, national secretary of
Miyetti Allah, said the association was willing to help in strengthening the
security architecture of the region through its vigilantes.
He said: “The Fulani Youth
Vigilant body will be working with the security, the neighborhood watch or
vigilante to ensure security in all communities, as it was done in Enugu state.
“We will solicit for your support
and cooperation in adopting dialogue where problems exist as a means of
brokering peace and to report cases against our members to either the Fulani
Youth Vigilante Group, state or local branch of the association.”
Ordinarily, I see no distress in
this imploration. To me, the hue and cry over Miyetti Allah’s entreaty are
emotionally charged and sentimentally invoked. It should be considered as a
gesture of good faith because it is commonsensical to fight criminality of this
ilk with those girded with information and knowledge about the culprits.
On the one hand, there is an
outrage over killings by strayed herdsmen in some parts of the southeast, and
on the other hand, there is uproar over the entreaty by the monolithic
association for herdsmen to help in checking this scourge. So, where do we go
from here?
Although, I understand the
concerns of those remonstrating, but is it not sagacious to involve some
members of Miyetti Allah in the vigilante groups securing the southeast? I
think, the pickle is assuming that an entire group is a culprit in the crimes
of a few. This is the corollary of
stereotyping and the concomitants of conspiracy theories of “Fulanisation and
Islamisation”.
With the frightening level of
insecurity across the country, no region should rebuff a gesture of help from
any party of interest. The argument that the north is worse hit by insecurity,
so, Miyetti Allah should centre its effort there is vacuous and irrational. These people have been profiled because of
the crimes of a few, and now they are taking the pedal in the purge of their
own; yet stereotyped and rebuffed?
We must give no room for
conspiracy theories – of domination, invasion or conquest. These are the
byproduct of distrust and fear. And instead of running wild with emotions, let
us give space to rational thinking and disciplined conversations.
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My comment is simple and direct. I hope they have formed the same fulani youth vigilante in Zamfara and other northern states. It's also worthy to note that we are ready to help in the north as ogbo youth vigilante in Kastina state and other northern states.
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