The raging incrimination of the Fulani herders in armed banditry and kidnappings, climaxing with the quit notice issued them in Oyo and Ondo states, Southwest Nigeria, has continued to generate various reactions from the Fulani ethnic community.
Consequently, Muhammad Ardo, president of the association, at a news conference in Kaduna, Monday, called for the revival of nomadic schools to educate and sensitize the herder-children on good citizenship and law-abidance.
Ardo maintained that the dying state of the nomadic education programme had left the minds of the herder-children for the breeding of crimes.
The Fulani youths also called on the government to establish a special adult education programme for the adults and aged among the herders to show them a sense of belonging to the Nigerian nation and inculcate good citizenship in them.
Arguing that “99 per cent of us are innocent (with regard to the twin crimes), only one per cent of us are criminals,” the youths announced plans by the association to form a vigilante group to, henceforth, comb the remote herder communities and fish out the criminals among them and hand them over to the law enforcement agents.
Reacting to the recent destruction of the house of the Serikin Fulani in Oyo, Southwest Nigeria, the Fulani youths reiterated that the federal constitution of Nigeria allows every law-abiding citizen to live wherever he wants.
It argued that any law-abiding Fulani should be allowed to live wherever he/she wants.
“No tribe has the monopoly of crime, hence the Fulani deserve fair hearing according to section 36(1) of the 1999 constitution as amends.”
They appealed to Fulani youths across the country to be calm and law-abiding, as they appealed to the federal government to assist and hasten the arrest of the perpetrators of the attack on the Fulani in the Southwest.
Nigeria has a National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) which was established in 1989 to implement the Nomadic Education Programme (NEP).
The NEP is aimed at providing and widening access to quality basic education for nomads in Nigeria, boosting literacy and equipping them with skills and competencies to enhance their well-being and participation in the nation-building process.
But 32 years after, it is not clear if the commission is still achieving its mandates.
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