Why assume that the so-called Fulani herdsmen are being armed by somebody -and to what end? The Fulani jihad was a revolution carried out in mostly Hausa Muslim kingdoms (Borno was also a Muslim empire). The Benue valley and the Plateau weren’t the Jihad’s focus areas, Benue especially wasn’t contiguous with any Hausa kingdom. Governor Ortom may indeed be ready to explore options for peace, but how do you square that with the arrest of armed men by the Nigerian Army who claim to having been armed by the Benue State government? Nigeria’s task is to separate this from ethnicity and religion and then it will be amenable to a win-win resolution.

Source: The Guardian January 23, 2018 03:56 UTC