By Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, PhD.
I have written this many times in the past, but I won’t get tired of reiterating, because even though I am not a professional psychologist, I have come to understand through years of involvement in public communication and mass orientation that beliefs are built through constancy in messaging. The most destructive messaging percolates minds through consistent publication and the same should be with messages that are positive and upbuilding.
One of the most grievous misinformation spearheaded by the proscribed and terrorist IPOB and their convicted leader is the falsehood that “Igbos are in perpetual enmity with the Fulanis” or that we are in some kind of cold war with the Fulani tribe of Nigeria and by some extension, the Hausas.
It is common among IPOB supporters and sympathizers to see the word “Fulani” as an invective. If an IPOB member does not agree with you in anything, he calls you a; Fulani agent, Fulani born, Fulani eediot, etc. They call these names as if it some kind of a crime to be a Fulani man or to be associated with the Fulani. I believe strongly that like every other ethnic group in the world, the Fulanis have had people among them, just like they have good people, and the good people are in larger majority in that tribe. Their good deeds may not be often talked about, but there are more of them who are good than there are bad ones.
I have worked very closely with Fulanis in my livestock farm. In fact, I had one of them retained as a local vet for my cows for years and he never disappointed. I lost most of those cows to a strange illness after he relocated to a new place and my Igbo brother who came to buy some for his business, poisoned them when we couldn’t agree on a price for them. He poisoned them believing that if I saw them dying I would have no option but to call him to come and buy them up at giveaway rates. When I didn’t call him to come and pick them up, he was calling me desperately, but I would have rather allowed those cows to die and buried them to allowing him pick them even at the highest price.
Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who led the Eastern region of Nigeria in a civil war with the larger Nigerian State never spewed the kind of hateful rhetoric that Nnamdi Kanu made his trademark during his ignominious reign. Ojukwu understood that while the majority of military and political leaders who wielded power in Nigeria during the period preceding the civil war were mostly from the North, there was and there is still not any evidence that the Fulanis had or has any entrenched animosity towards Igbos.
I am aware that there are many Igbos doing their businesses in Fulani lands, and they are getting as much support and patronage as they require from their hosts. I have not heard or seen an incident where the Fulani barred Igbos from doing business in their lands or treated them as enemies because of the activities of some Igbos who are armed robbers or engaged in other criminal activities. It is therefore unfair to treat every Fulani man or woman disrespectfully because of the criminal activities of terrorist herdsmen who are Fulanis.
It is important for us to teach our children that the Fulani man is not our enemy and that it is not every Fulani herdsman that is a terrorist. Fulani farmers and law-abiding pastoralists also fall victims to the criminal activities of these terrorist Fulani herdsmen. Every criminal, be them, Fulani, Igbo or Hausa must be treated as one and made to face the full wrath of the law for their crimes.
May Nigeria Prevail!