Wole Oyedele
President Muhammadu Buhari’s last week’s visit to Taraba State, which was hurriedly put together in order to bring the raging clashes between the Fulani’s and the Mambilla ethnic stock to a halt might have failed to achieve the objective as the clashes continued unabated days after he left the state.
Also, hopes by the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of some sorts of succour from the President during the visit was dashed as he neither visited the troubled communities nor any of the IDP camps within Jalingo, the state capital.
The President’s visit, which had a heavy security presence with two helicopters hovering over the town particularly the Government House where he held meeting with stakeholders, equally failed to find solutions to the cause(s) of the incessant crises. Rather, he shifted the e task to traditional rulers as he mandated them to resolve the Mambilla and other ethnic clashes in the state.
In his words to the traditional rulers at the stakeholders’ meeting the President said the traditional institution, rather than the federal or state government, was better placed to find a lasting solution to the crisis due to its closeness to the people.
Buhari, who was emphatic that he was in the state to condole and symphatise with the victims of the Mambilla crisis despite the fact that other parts of the state had also witnessed violent clashes that claimed several lives and properties, told the traditional rulers to go and sit down with the people to find solutions to the problem just as he urged them to continue to preach peace in their domains.
Giving reasons for mandating the traditional rulers to do the reconciliatory job, the president, who was accompanied on the trip by the Ministers of Information, Defence and Women Affairs as well as Service Chiefs stressed that himself and Ishaku would one day leave office as president and governor but the traditional rulers would remain with the people.
“I am in Taraba State to condole with the victims of the Mambilla crisis and symphatise with them over their losses. The traditional rulers are in a better position to find solutions to the problems.
“Myself as President and the governor would leave office only the traditional rulers that will remain with the people. Therefore, the traditional rulers should go and sit down with the people to find solutions to the problem and continue to preach peaceâ€, he said.
Buhari further noted that he chose to visit Taraba before other troubled areas because more people were killed on the Mambilla Plateau than in Benue and Zamfara States.
Reactions started trailing the president’s visit even before he left the state. Reacting to the president’s assertion that more people were killed in Mambilla than Benue or Zamfara, the President of Tiv Cultural and Social Association, Mr. Goodman Dan Dahida, described the President’s claims as unfortunate.
Dahida said over 150 people were killed in Wukari, Gassol, Ibi and Lau local government in Taraba State, dozens were killed in Adamawa and hundreds others in Benue, which did not attract the attention of the President.
“The President has just proved to Nigerians, where he belongs and the people he belongs to. He is specific about Mambilla killings, because his kinsmen were involved. Killings have been going on in Taraba and other places by Fulani herdsmen, but he has not visited any of these places.
“In June last year, he sent his cronies to visit Mambilla, because Fulanis were reportedly affected in the crisis. I think the President should grow pass ethnic favouritism and treat all Nigerians as one. Every life of Nigerian counts,†he said.
And for being silent over the killing of over 80 people by Fulani herdsmen in Lau, the representative of the Yangdan people, Dr. Alfred Kobiba also has scathing remarks for the President.
Speaking to newsmen after the meeting with the President, Kobiba noted that he wrote a letter to Governor Ishaku, detailing the number of casualties recorded in the crisis as well as those missing and copied same to the President, DG DSS, National Security Adviser and the Chief of Staff to the President but was shocked that the President did not make any comment on Lau but was only interested in Mambilla.
According to him, “When Fulani herdsmen perpetrated the worst evil in our land in January, I wrote to the governor stating that 68 people were killed and 15 others missing and copied the letter to the President, DG DSS, NSA and Chief of Staff to the President but we are shocked that the President only talked about Mambilla without saying anything about the killings in Lauâ€
Even though the President’s visit was expected to bring the clashes on the Mambilla Plateau to a halt, days after he left the state, killings and arson continued in the troubled area.
Speaking to THISDAY in Jalingo, Chairman of Mambilla Progressive and Cultural Association (MAMPCA), Marcus Bovoa, said they were yet to ascertain the number of Mambillas that were killed at Yelwa, Maisamari and Tunga Ahmadu villages and in other areas while a source among the Fulani community also revealed that no fewer than twenty of them died during the crisis.
Though the President had come to Taraba and gone, it would take a very long time for the dust generated by his visit to settle. Reactions trailing his visit have shown that rather than bring the people together, it has further polarised the various groups in the crisis.
