The Simmering Outrage at Fulani in Nigeria: Holding a Tiger by the Tail

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Agatu 2015. The massacre that signaled the explosion of terrorism by Fulani imperialists, enabled by the newly installed Fulani President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, continuing in a sucession of massacres in the Middle Belt  serially justified by the civil society pressure group Miyetti Allah Fulani Sociocultural Orgsnization, which became an unoffical partner goverment to that of Buhari.

So much blood.

The monster then metastasized.

It spread from the Middle Belt across Nigeria. They were untouchable.

Buhari seized guns from all Nigerians even as his violent kinsmen ravaged the nation freely, wielding AK47s.

The Fulani militia was named by international terrorist watch agencies as one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world even as the Nigerian govt pretended not to know.

The savagery metastasized again.

Pushed back from decisively establishing strongholds in the South in spite of enabling strategies by the Buhari govt, the terrorists concentrated themselves in the North, turning even the President's Katsina State into horror, becoming a parallel govt in a significant sweep of space in regions of the North even as various insurgent groups from the North laid siege to national institutions in that region.

The horror metastasized again as it began to move decisively towards the South, with raids, massacres and abductions in Kwara until they reached Oyo State where they kidnapped  and  have held schoolchildren and teachers for more than a month after pubkicly beheading one of the teachers in a widely shared video.

This is 2026. Buhari is gone but the flames he was central to fueling continue to blaze higher.

Outrage is steafily growing against Fulanis in Nigeria.

The argument is that they are often complicit through open statements, equivocation or silence.

A few Fulani have condemnded the terrorists. Some try to absolve Fulanis genetally.

A fire is burning.

Toyin