The National President, Kautal Pulaaku (Sarkin Fulanin Buzaye), Alhaji Muhammad Hussaini, has said that Fulanis in Nigeria are being subjected to stereotype, victimisation, stigmatisation, and all forms of harassment, which he said have led to the loss of lives of innocent people and the destruction of multi-billion-naira property.
Hussaini, who spoke in Bauchi on Sunday during the inauguration of the National Leadership of the Kautal Pulaaku Fulbe Association of Nigeria, charged the new leadership to ensure peaceful coexistence among members, saying the positions are not for their personal aggrandisement.
He said, “Today, the plight and challenges the Fulanis are facing are worrisome, especially the stereotype and stigmatisation. Fulanis face isolation and victimisation that have resulted in indiscriminate attacks and caused the loss of innocent lives and property worth billions of naira.”He decried violence at community levels and “unfair treatment by security agencies, cattle rustling, kidnapping, blockade of cattle routes, and diseases” as major challenges facing his people.
He warned his members to desist from acts that could jeopardise the integrity of the tribe while pledging not to condone acts of criminality from his members.
Also, the Chairman of the occasion, a former governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, charged Fulanis to unite, embrace modernity, and conduct their businesses peacefully in their communities.
According to him, “My major message here is for you to be united. Secondly, enrol your children in school and seek medical care at hospitals.”
The special guest of honour, Governor Bala Mohammed, represented by his deputy, Hon. Auwal Jatau, assured the Fulani community of fairness and the security of their businesses in any part of the state.
He said that his administration has given a sense of belonging to all the ethnic groups in the state through appointments, projects, and programmes that have meaningful impacts on their lives.
The programme was attended by prominent Fulani personalities and top government officials, including the Senator representing Bauchi South, Shehu Buba Umar, among others.
Last month, The Guardian reports that a former Senator representing Kaduna Central in the Eighth National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has challenged the Fulani ethnic stock to save their name, image and unborn generations from banditry, terrorism and other forms of criminal acts.
Sani spoke to the gathering of the Fulani ethnic nationality in Zaria, while lamenting that the ethnic stock is responsible for the present insecurity in the North and most parts of the country.
The former legislator, who delivered an address at the Fulani Pulaaku Day, organised by the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Chapter of the National Fulbe Students Association, in Zaria, at the weekend, noted: “We don’t have peace presently in the Northwest, and most part of the North,” adding: “This peace that we lack is coming in different forms.
We have banditry in the Northwest, terrorism in the Northeast, and we have a mixture of banditry, terrorism, ethno-religious violence, herder-farmers and settler-indigenes conflicts in the Northcentral part of Nigeria. These are all associated with the activities of the Fulanis.”
