Catholic-led Researchers Decry Veiled “settlement of jihadists” Plan in Nigerian States

According to Intersociety, suspicions are especially higher in Enugu State under Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah that communal land faces grabbing “for Fulani ranching or settlements.”

“The State Government under Peter Mbah has strongly and widely been accused of coercing some communities in the State with large acres of farm/bush/forest lands into ceding or surrendering large part of them for mechanized farming or cow ranching,” Intersociety says, adding that the move has been seen as “a camouflage for Jihadist Fulani settlements” in the State.

The team of Nigerian researchers, criminologists, and human rights activists says that in Enugu State, acres of communal land if ceded or “donated”, may end up as “Jihadist Fulani settlements” likely to have been disguised as Enugu State Government Cow Ranching/Mechanized Farming/Agro-Industrial Settlements.

Already, some natives of the affected communities have expressed their concerns that the move by the State Government is politically motivated.

Some leaders of the affected communities have expressed their fear that they will be witch-hunted by the Government of Enugu State if they publicly or informally reject the land cession request, Intersociety says.

In Anambra State, Intersociety has also raised alarming concerns that the Nigerian State is witnessing a large influx of Fulani herdsmen, most of them ferried in at night.

This, the Catholic-inspired research team says, is happening under the watch of the drafted security forces and the leadership of the Anambra State Vigilante Service (AVG).

Additionally, Intersociety says it has traced the current food insecurity in Nigeria, including shortages and price hikes, to “Islamic-Fulanization” and terrorization of the country’s food baskets.

The food producing States in Nigeria, which have been under constant attacks by jihadists, according to the research entity, include Ondo, Ogun and Oyo in South-West; Delta and Edo in South-South and Benue State.

Others are Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi and Niger in North-Central; Southern Kaduna and Southern Kebbi in North-West; and Taraba, Southern Borno and Northern Adamawa in North-East per Boko Haram and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. 

In the March 11 statement, Intersociety notes that Governors involved in Nigeria’s ranching projects are “strongly advised to back off” from such moves.

The Governors are also advised to withdraw from “whatever disguises or camouflages aimed at establishment of herders’ settlements in any part of their respective states.”

“These moves must be done away with in the entire South-East or be lawfully and popularly resisted,” Intersociety says, adding that the moves are “tantamount to the Voice of Jacob and the Hands of Esau.”

Fears about the current ranching policies, Intersociety says, are driven by the way the then Muhammad Buhari-led government handled its rural agricultural policies and programs since 2016.

According to the team of researchers, the then government “not only promoted primitive Fulani cattle grazing and its networks as a national policy but also had it militarized.”

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“The then government was also widely accused of promoting and protecting non-state actor terrorism perpetrated by Jihadist Fulani herdsmen,” Intersociety says, adding that one of the platforms on which the Jihadists thrived was the then infamous ‘RUGA’, a Fulani word for “human settlement using rural grazing routes”. 

In Buhari’s ear, other “Fulanized” federal agricultural policies and programs, according to the Intersociety report, included Waterway Control, National Livestock Transformation Plan, Nigerian Military Ranching, and National Cattle Ranching/Fulani Settlement programs.

Intersociety says it has conducted investigations that revealed the presence of Jihadist Fulani herdsmen “in many, if not most” of the facilities used for such agricultural policies and programs.

The team of researchers have expressed their fear that the Buhari-led government’s public policy and program “blunders” are being replicated by some authorities in the current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government.