Nyesom Wike’s latest declaration can only be viewed as the replication in Abuja, of his anti-herders/Fulani policy when he was Rivers State Governor
By Abu Shekara
The Tiktok video gone viral, of the banter between a Fulani nomad kid, driving cattle on what appeared to be an outskirt highway of the FCT, and a motorist, who sounded like a Southeasterner, aptly mirrors the Nigerian situation, vis a vis politics and inter-sectional and ethnic relations.
The tone of the motorist, who also seems to be the recorder of that clip, as he alerts the young herdsman that “Wike is coming”, suggests that his message is not a mere jest but rather a warning that the days of herders sharing the streets of the FCT with other residents are coming to an end.
The obvious subject of the short banter is the declaration by the new FCT Minister and former Rivers State Governor, Neysom Wike, that he does not want to see cows on the streets of Abuja. Beyond that short, hilarious incident, the statement by Wike brings to the fore, another subsisting and contentious issue between Northern and Southern parts of the country.
It can be recalled that before the general elections of 2023, Southern governors, among whom was Wike, under the auspices of their forum, unanimously banned the open grazing of cattle by nomads from their states, with the justification of protecting their territories from the influx of armed bandits, who are generally identified to be Fulanis from Northern Nigeria. And in many Southern states, the execution of the ban was zealously carried out by regional security groups like Amotekun and the separatist Southeast Security Network.
Nyesom Wike’s latest declaration can only be viewed as the replication in Abuja, of his anti-herders/Fulani policy when he was Rivers State Governor. What the new minister has failed to understand however, is that even though it now serves as Nigeria’s capital, Abuja is a settlement in Northern Nigeria, where the sight of livestock on city streets is a feature that is as old as the urban centers themselves and thus banishing pastoralists from the FCT is not as easy as driving them away from Rivers State.
The new FCT Minister ought to therefore, brace himself for the culture shock of sharing the boulevards of Abuja with herdsmen and their livestock, as much as a Muslim Hausa/Fulani settler must endure mingling with wheel-barrow pushing hawkers of schnapps and other alcoholic drinks on the streets of Port Harcourt. Otherwise the bid to extend the same policy to Abuja can only be seen as a cultural conquest agenda, motivated by intolerance and contempt for other people’s cultures and norms.
Wike would not be the first former state governor, to be appointed minister of the FCT. One of his predecessors, Senator Adamu Aleiro, was among Northern governors, who banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in their states with the promulgation of Shari’a in that part of the country in 1999 but it never occurred to Aleiro to outlaw intoxicants in Abuja when he later became FCT Minister for the obvious reason that the city belongs to Nigerians and non-Nigerians from all ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
Aleiro, whose religion as a Muslim prohibits alcohol, he banned it in his state when he was governor but did not try to prohibit liquor in Abuja, when he was Minister. So Wike, a Christian, who declared his state a Christian state, ought to have been guided by his faith against banishing shepherds from Abuja or even for that matter, Rivers State.
The mindset with which Wike comes to Abuja as FCT Minister and the antecedents of his posture and policies when he was governor, do certainly give reason for so much foreboding amongst a section of residents of the capital city. There are fears that he has assumed office with a baggage of resentments and a list of scores to settle with certain individuals and groups.
There is the fear harbored by Muslim residents that Wike, who as Governor was widely accused of demolishing a Jumu’at Mosque in Port Harcourt, may re-enact a similar policy in Abuja. And this apprehension is heightened by his subsisting quit notice to herdsmen.
If these misgivings about Wike are justified, FCT residents, visitors and Nigerians as a whole should brace up for the rule of an invading conqueror, who has come not only to demolish physical structures but also eliminate the historical, cultural values and norms of the inhabitants of the occupied territory. The early warning has already been sounded to a boy-herdsman in jest. Other potential targets may not be so fortunate.
* Shekara wrote from Sokoto.