It’s no longer a joke; the Fulani bandits have made possible what the Yoruba thought was not possible. In broad daylight, they raided Oriire Community near Ogbomoso in Oyo State and carted away a school principal, two vice principals, three teachers, and about 39 pupils ages 5 to 12 years. For so long, the Yoruba of South West Nigeria thought of banditry as a distant dream that could only happen in the far away North East, North West, and the middle belt. But now the war has been brought to their doors.
The Fulani who retreated when Ibadan fought and defeated them at Osogbo are back, and this time smoking. The war is not about occupation or about religion; it is about money. The Fulani bandits have found gold, and this expensive mineral is all over Nigeria. They have located a very lucrative industry that still locates them in the forest but provides them with money in a quantity that their forefathers never dreamt of.
When they began experimenting with raids in Ondo State, the governor of Ondo State, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, pushed them back ferociously. Akeredolu was ready to break the Constitution to achieve defense for the Yoruba; he was ready to defy the rule that a state can’t have its own police, a thing that the Fulani government of late Muhammadu Buhari used to begin a gradual Fulaniization of Nigeria. For Buhari, conquering the proud Yoruba with his Fulani was a delight.
Akeredolu was ready to create a force and arm it with guns to fight off these invaders that Buhari was ready to subtly encourage. Akeredolu got his colleagues in Yoruba states together to form Amotekun to engage in this battle. Amotekun would not carry sophisticated arms, but it could use what the head hunter of Ibadan forces, Balogun Oderinlo, used to defeat the Fulani; Amotekun could use juju. Young boys were recruited, and they began the fight. The Fulani bandits were pushed back, but only for a time. Akeredolu died, and his colleagues went to sleep. Amotekun were soon occupied with other duties that were not in their callings when Akeredolu conceived the force. They began to follow the governors in their tours, follow the governors’ wives, and were used to harassing thugs of opposing parties. The gap thus created gave the Fulani bandits time to observe and plan.
When they raided Oriire local government, they signaled that they were ready to take on all of the Southwest, Amotekun notwithstanding. Oriire is one of the five local government areas of Ogbomoso. Ogbomosho is one of the five cities in Oyo State. Once Ogbomosho was captured, the Fulani signaled that no city or town or village in the Southwest would be difficult for them to capture.
When the insurgents and the bandits got to the Yoruba area of Kwara State, the governors of the Yoruba states got together to, as they told the people, map out a strategy to defend themselves. They displayed some braggadocio, but it was no more than that. They posted videos of each of them talking tough, warning the invaders to steer clear of the southwest. They told the people they had acquired drones and were ready to fish the invaders out of the Yoruba forests. They were battle ready. But the recent raid in Oriire in Ogbomoso has made a lie of their braggadocio; it was no more than propaganda and a lie. In broad daylight, the bandits carted away pupils and teachers not through the deserts of Katsina and Zamfara states but through the thick forests of Ogbomoso. The drones of the governors, if ever there were any, did not pick the bandits.
The Oyo State government issued propaganda that the bandits have been trapped within the forests of the National Park and there is no way of escape for them to the neighboring states. But the bandits have continued to post footage of their captives… appealing to the Federal Government of President Bola Tinubu, the Oyo State government of Seyi Makinde, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, and the Nigerian people to come to their rescue and resolve the matter peacefully. Peacefully was added for effect. Any attempt to try anything funny with the government forces will be calamitous.
The bandits’ messages were targeted at the federal government, the Oyo State government, and the CAN. Obviously the bandits know these governments have a lot of cash. APC governors have allegedly just contributed 800 billion naira to President Tinubu’s campaign fund, so they want their own cut from the largesse. The bandits also know that the churches are bulging at the seams with money, which they generate from their church members, and the bandits also want their cuts.
Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, is the new kid on the block. The latest revelation in the country. He will soon finish his eight-year tenure in the state, and he wants immediately to become president. Seyi Makinde cannot even wait for Tinubu to finish his two terms; he wants to replace him immediately. The bandits must have calculated that the only thing that could have given Makinde that kind of audacity was a huge cash in his hand.
In Nigeria, being in politics means being in much money. President Tinubu has been giving so much money he got from the removal of the oil subsidy to the governors, and Seyi Makinde must have gotten a lot too. If Seyi Makinde will not willingly share with them, he must be made by some force to part with some cash. Seyi Makinde cannot but bow to the demands of these bandits. Tinubu himself, through his NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, had bowed many times.
Seyi Makinde announced his presidential ambition at a rally tagged “mega” just a day before the invasion. Seyi Makinde must remember the men in the bush too. If Tinubu and Seyi Makinde do not send their children to school and if they do not give them medical attention, they must send ransom to them in the bush to take care of these needs. In Nigeria, the doctrine is “each man for himself, God for us all.”
The Fulani have come full circle. Gradually they are abandoning their cattle herding, which does not provide them much but leaves them in the forests with all the attendant dangers. Their elites can continue to dominate government and politics in the cities; they will be king in the forest. They will use their knowledge of the terrain to make money for themselves and their family. If Tinubu wants, they can send him taxes from the forests; they are good citizens too. They will settle their families in the cities and take the huge cash they make to them in the cities. With their dominance in the forests and the dominance of their elites in the cities, the vision of their progenitor, Ahmadu Bello, is realized. Shi ke nan!.
First Published in METRO
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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
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