Buhari’s US Visit And Unveiling Of New Foreign Policy Of CattletocraticIslamism At Whitehouse
(Intersociety Nigeria: 4th May 2018)-The recent visit by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to President Donald J. Trump and People of the United States is nothing short of unveiling of the Administration’s new foreign policy of Cattletocratic Islamism at the Whitehouse.
The central Government of Nigeria has also long before the recent Presidential visit to USA turned Nigeria into nomadic enclave with its national army establishing cattle ranches throughout its formations in Nigeria. There are also pro “grazing” State and Federal passed laws or those in making as well as Government stigmatization of Fulani Herdsmen terrorism and other atrocious acts as “Fulani Herdsmen-Farmers clashes”, etc.
This position of ours (unveiling of Cattletocratic Islamism at the Whitehouse) is as a result of careful study of the visit and its relations to socio-political security and wellbeing of the citizens of Nigeria. Our informed conclusion is further derived from unrepentant and impunity posture of President Muhammadu Buhari especially as it concerns his strong defense of Fulani Herdsmen and their atrocities including killing of Christians and destruction of their sacred places of worship in Nigeria since mid 2015.
The Nigeria’s President American trip, therefore, is two sides of a coin and harmful to collective security of all Nigerians; whereby the said central Government bought its way to the Whitehouse with huge procurement of 12 super tucano war jets and other related war equipments from borrowed funds; and at same time seized the opportunity of “thank you for your patronage of our arms industry invitation” to announce or unveil the Nigerian Government’s new foreign policy of Cattletocratic Islamism.
By Cattletocratic Islamism, it is a newly adopted national security policy of the Buhari Administration whereby lives and safety of herds of cattle are elevated far above lives and safety of populations of men and women particularly on the grounds of faith and ethnicity. That is to say men and women of Muslim faith are allowed and treated equal in matters of welfare and security with herds of cattle while other human population of Christians and members of other non Muslim faith are treated or regarded as inferior to the lives and safety of herds of cattle in Nigeria.
This new national security policy of Cattletocratic Islamism, which just got further elevated as Nigeria’s new foreign policy at the Whitehouse; has also been dangerously adopted at the State actor level as a violent medium of religious conquest (i.e. Jihadism). The Cattletocratic Islamism is originally a ragtag non State actor mode of violence maintained in Nigeria by “Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria”. The name literally translates to “warriors of Allah surviving and thriving using enterprise and bloodshed in cattle herding”.
The group and its violent activities, now fully recognized, adopted and elevated by the present central Government in Nigeria; moved from its ragtag status to relatively sophisticated and regimented status after the return of civil rule in Nigeria in 1999 when some fanatical Islamists and politicians in northern Nigeria infiltrated and hijacked it in pursuit of enthronement of Islamic Caliphate in Middle Belt including Plateau and Benue States and other political motives. Its sophistry and State actor involvement became more suspicious, advanced and deadlier since mid 2015 on account of the emergence of its Grand National or Lifetime Patron as the sixth civilian president of Nigeria.
It is widely and credibly suspected that there are killer squads or terror brigades within Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria, drawn from Fulani Muslim population, service personnel and related others; and armed, controlled and funded by some radical Islamic public officials or State actors; with strong protection from the powers that be in the country.
The well coordinated terror or killer brigades within the group work closely with pastoral cattle herders (Fulani Herdsmen) relying heavily on the latter for access and vicinity or terrain intelligence against their target populations. The killer brigades mostly apply guerrilla or hit and run tactics against victim populations especially at night; with killer elements or Jihadists in the lopsidedly composed armed forces of Nigeria and police as accomplices. Present headships of the Nigerian security forces including the Armed Forces and the Police are mostly occupied by members of the Nigeria’s Northern Muslim population.
Therefore, President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent rise at American Whitehouse in strong defense of Fulani Herdsmen terrorism and killing of Christians in Nigeria is not surprising. Primordialism, they say, kills conscience and beclouds sense of judgment. Mr. President swore by the existing Constitution of Nigeria on 29th May 2015 not to allow his sentiments and primordial interest to override his sense of judgment and public interest. Yet his major pre-occupation during and after honoring of “thank you very much for your patronage of our military industry’s invitation” by President Donald J. Trump has remained futile and false defense of atrocities of terror Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria. Even after his visit, Mr. President has continued his indefensible defense in his various foreign media outing including a recent interview Mr. President reportedly granted to the Voice of America (VOA).
Sum total of Mr. President’s defense and denial of terrorism of Fulani Herdsmen is not only a big international embarrassment to the Government and People of Nigeria but also criminally indictable and further confirmation of his central Government’s new national and foreign policy of Cattletocratic Islamism. The Government and People of Nigeria further received the greatest embarrassment of international dimension when Mr. President exposed Nigeria’s woefully failed intelligence and securitization fact-sheet by informing President Trump, who is also the symbol of world policeman and security intelligence that “those killing people in Nigeria are Ghaddafi trained mercenaries from Libya”.
Mr. President also untruthfully claimed that “President Trump was misinformed over killing of Christians in Nigeria” and that “Fulani Herdsmen do not carry guns (AK-47s) in Nigeria but sticks and machetes for foliage cutting”. This is nothing short of taking official ignorance and falsehood beyond the borders of Nigeria. His assertion in local and international media on account of his recent visit to USA that “there are more people killed in Zamfara than in Benue, Taraba, etc put together”, is highly regrettable and clear admission of incompetence and gross regime failure.
Mr. President must be told in clear terms that by such statement of his using rival Muslim killings in Zamfara State to excuse his Administration’s woeful failure to arrest the killers and end the killing of Christians and destruction of their sacred places of worship in Nigeria by his violent Fulani kinsmen as well as strong accusation of his Government’s complicity; he has observed in gross breach his oaths of office and allegiance under the existing Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Mr. President of Nigeria must further be made to understand that he got elected and sworn in to protect the lives and properties of all Nigerians irrespective of ethnicity, religion and class. Human death outside the law and convention is globally reprehensible and condemnable irrespective of the religion, ethnicity and class of the affected persons or population. That is to say that neither State actor nor non-State actor/government engineered killings in Nigeria are acceptable, excusable and permissible no matter the circumstances of their occurrences and perpetration.
Further ulterior motives behind the mad rush by the present central Government of Nigeria to acquire war jets and other weapons of death using borrowed funds were further exposed few days after Mr. President of Nigeria’s visit to President Donald J. Trump and People of the United States on 30th April 2018. Recall the just recent announcement by Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar of deployment of four attack war planes and related others to the Southeast Zone. The announcement exposes the Federal Government’s policy of psychological and physical terrorization and extermination of lawful civilian population on one hand and weaponization and protection of violent ethno-religious group members of the Nigerian population on the other.
It deeply saddens our heart as why such war jets in the Southeast Nigeria-a zone without any record of group violence or armed resistance; whereas the Nigeria’s troubled zones and violent ethno-religious groups where war jets and related others are direly needed are left with little or no weaponization and securitization; thereby leaving the criminal actors to continue with their atrocities including unending bloodshed against Nigerian Christian communities and Igbo People of Nigeria.
We commend President Trump’s bold and strong worded statement against the killing of Christians and destruction of their sacred places of worship particularly in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and his Administration’s firm promise to monitor and respond to it proactively and headlong. But by rolling out red carpets for Mr. President of Nigeria including weaponization of his Administration in Nigeria through the sale of 12 war jets and other weapons of death, despite serious human rights concerns against him from several quarters, President Trump has also become a complicit by proxy in the killing of Christian and unarmed members of the Igbo People of Nigeria.
However, the world is watching President Trump to match his words with action on killing of Christians and destruction of churches by terror Fulani Herdsmen through strongly suspected Government complicity. He should also ensure the cessation of killing of rival Muslims by Muslims in Zamfara State and insist on discontinuation of President Buhari Administration’s national security and new foreign policy of Cattletocratic Islamism.
The announcement of deployment of four attack warplanes to the Southeast-Nigeria’s most non-war related nonviolent zone; calls for serious concerns and demand for President Trump’s immediate proactive diplomatic attention as it concerns Nigeria’s newest arms procurement deals with USA using borrowed funds. This is of uttermost importance particularly bearing mind serious human rights concerns severally raised by independent bodies against the present central Government of Nigeria.
To be borne in mind by the Trump Administration too is the possibility of turning such war jets and other war equipments against defenseless civilian populations in the country in pursuit and execution of hate agenda and religious bigotry. Evidential documents at the disposal of the US Government include the Leahy Human Rights Act of the United States and its recently released “2018 Report on the State of Human Rights in Nigeria”.
The killing of Christians and destruction of churches and other Christian sacred places of worship in the country are undeniable and well documented by local and international media, churches, human rights, humanitarian and research institutions. Just recently the This Day Newspaper and other publications released a timeline of killing of Christians and ors in the Middle Belt Nigeria since 1st January 2018, showing graphic evidence of over 860 Christian deaths in the hands of terror Fulani Herdsmen in the past four months of 2018.
This figure was not exhaustive as there were “dark or grey figures of crimes” or those that were perpetrated but went unrecorded during the same period, bringing the factual total number of Christian deaths to over 1000 in the past four months or between January and April 2018. Between December 2017 and April 2018, a period of past five months, no few than 1, 150 Christian deaths and destruction of dozens of churches were recorded in Northern Nigeria including over 50 rural Christians bombed to death on 4th December 2017 by Nigerian military jets in Numan, Adamawa State and Fulani Herdsmen’s inter-religious killings in Taraba and Adamawa States as well as Southern Kaduna in the same month of December 2017.
Signed:
For: Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist & Graduate of Security Studies)
Board Chairman
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