The spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum
(NEF), Prof Ango Abdullahi, has described the
herdsmen crises in the Middle Belt as a plot by the
South to divide the monolithic north.
PoliticsNGR gathered that Abdullahi also dismissed
the report on Restructuring by the APC, saying that
it is the position of some party leaders and not
Nigerians. In an interview with Sun, Abdullahi said;
“That is the bottom line. It is politically driven. We
have been having herdsmen for over 200 years or
300 years ago in Nigeria, particularly we in the
North. I haven’t seen how this crisis between
farmers and herdsmen would lead to attacks and
loss of lives.
This is a politically driven agenda, perhaps,
intended to split the monolithic North; we have
been talking about the monolithic North for a long
time politically in this country.
I have been involved in debates against some
respected people from the southern part of this
country who believe that this country is not
balanced because the North is too big; because the
North is too politically united, so there must be a
way of disrupting this unity, and this is what we are
seeing on ground today, and the elements that are
being used are the Fulani herdsmen.
This matter would be looked at properly; political
alliances and so on are welcome. You don’t need
to lose blood, or property to engage in political
alliance or whatever you want, or still, you don’t
need to introduce excuses that will lead to loss of
lives. We saw this when the Boko Haram was on
ground; they said the Northerners created the sect
to disrupt former President Goodluck Jonathan’s
government, which led to his failure in the last
election, and so on.
Now that Boko Haram is out of the way, the new
excuse is the Fulani herdsmen.
This is what is happening in other places except in
areas that you are talking. We have seen what they
called a new handshake across the Niger; it is
political, and we have seen the mourning that has
taken place in Benue and other places to show that
the northern North is not in tandem with the
Middle Belt; it is all politics. Our Middle Belters
don’t need to take the agenda that appears to be a
thing of distrust. We are not going to force
anybody into a relationship politically or otherwise.
We see this as a political agenda.”
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