*Yusuf says Fulani Grievance Caused Banditry
*Odinkalu Says Fulani have no monopoly of grievance
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There was a disagreement on the origin of banditry in Nigeria on Thursday between the Former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Odinkalu.
Giving his opinion on the origin of banditry during his keynote address at the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) series titled ‘Nigeria’s Insecurity: Addressing the Challenges of Banditry and Kidnapping,’ Yusuf traced the origin of banditry in Nigeria to Kogi State.
According to him, kidnappers from Edo State hired herders from Kogi to keep their victims and shared part of their ransoms with the herders.
Upon realising how lucrative the business was, the herders returned home to begin kidnapping.
Yusuf, who is a haematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation professor, said, “A bandit told me that all kidnapping in Nigeria started around 1999 to 2000 in Kogi State. What happened was that many of these young herders were told by their parents to take their cattle down South for pasture. They spent months and came back up North during the rainy season. He told me there is a forest around Kogi where kidnappers from Edo would bring in their abductees into the forest for these Fulani young men to hold for them.
“Once they get the ransom money, they come and give it to them and they took the abductees back. So, they realised there was money to be made from this criminality; and they started doing that. They started getting involved in drug; they started getting involved in alcohol”.
Prof. Odinkalu did not agree with Yusuf. He opined that there had been a proliferation of arms in the North before the 1987 Kafanchan crisis which were imported from various West African countries. Former President Babangida tried to chase the foreigners who brought the arms into the country at the time.
According to him, there were drugs in Kano and Fulani settlements years before Lawrence Anini, a famous armed robber in the southern part of the country, came to the limelight, adding that the Kafanchan crisis was a crisis of banditry over artisanal mining.
He further disagreed with Yusuf’s assertion that Fulanis’ grievances were responsible for insecurity ‘catching up’ with the country.
“In fact, several other Nigerians could possibly argue that Fulanis have dominated the country. This is an uncomfortable conversation, but I think Nigerians must have the conversation about grievance and domination and hegemony.
“If everyone who has a grievance resorts to shooting, there is not just going to be enough people to be destroyed in the country,” he said
He added that there were 379 to 383 ethnic groups in the country, with everyone having its sense of grievances. “The Fulanis have no monopoly of grievance or capacity to shoot their ways into grievance or out of it. I think that needs to be made very clear,” he stated.
Other discussants at the virtual meeting were former senator representing Kaduna Central Shehu Sani; Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian newspaper Martins Oloja, and Executive Director of The ICIR Dayo Ayetan.
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