Fulani Herders with fire arm
Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lead counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has described the ongoing attacks by Fulani herdsmen across Nigeria as a national disaster.
In a strongly worded statement titled “Monday Musing: A Nation Burning from Within The Monstrous Trail of Fulani Herdsmen,” Ejiofor warned that Nigeria is “sitting atop a keg of gunpowder” and decried the silence of national leadership in the face of widespread atrocities.
“There comes a time in the life of a nation when silence becomes betrayal betrayal of the living, the slain, and generations yet unborn,” he stated.
According to the human rights lawyer, the bloody rampage of Fulani herdsmen has escalated beyond sporadic clashes into a national crisis ,systemic, widespread, and dangerously unchecked.
“What began as isolated tensions in the Middle Belt has now morphed into a full-blown security and humanitarian catastrophe, consuming entire communities with chilling impunity.”
Ejiofor added that:”It now bears all the hallmarks of an ethnic cleansing campaign: calculated, methodical, and unapologetically brutal.”
He referenced recent atrocities, including the murder of a family of five in Imo State, allegedly by Fulani herdsmen. In Benue, the violence has become tragically routine:
“From Guma to Logo, blood flows so frequently that even mourning has grown weary. In Plateau, death moves with rhythm and precision, leaving behind scorched villages and shattered lives.”he stated .
Ejiofor emphasized that the crisis is no longer confined to religious or tribal divisions but has taken national dimension.
“This is not a Christian versus Muslim conflict. Even Muslim communities are not spared. This is life versus annihilation. The monster respects no faith, no ethnicity, no age. It spreads with vicious intent into every nook and cranny of our towns and villages.”
“We are living atop a keg of gunpowder.” Ejiofor added.
The human rights lawyer said that Fulani herders attacks ,no longer random violence but has becomes Acts of War
“These are not random acts of violence. These are acts of war. Yet we carry on numb, divided, distracted a nation sleepwalking toward catastrophe.”
“When did human life become so cheap in this land of promise?”he said.
He posed searing questions that strike at the core of the nation’s failing security architecture, noted how do these heavily armed herdsmen move undetected across state lines unchallenged?
“Who is supplying them with sophisticated weaponry?
Who is guiding them to fortified hideouts, shielding them with silence or complicity?
Has our security apparatus been compromised?”
“Let us stop pretending we don’t know,” he urged. “The harsh truth is that some state governments are becoming overwhelmed, helpless, and increasingly paralyzed.”he asked.
Ejiofor recounted a disturbing incident in Amanasa, Awka North LGA, Anambra State, where alleged herdsmen reportedly approached the community to “negotiate” terms with residents after attacks a brazen display of power.
According to him,in Uzo Uwani, Enugu State ,once a flourishing agricultural hub fear now dictates daily life:
“Entire communities have abandoned their ancestral lands. Farmers no longer go to their fields. Fear now tills the soil. Crops rot in place as children cower behind shuttered windows. Uzo Uwani is fast becoming a ghost town — a haunting emblem of a nation too weak to protect its own.”he added .
Ejiofor also condemned the Enugu State Police Command for summoning Hon. Chijioke Ezeugwu, the Executive Chairman of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, reportedly for organizing local security measures to assist overstretched law enforcement.
“His ‘offence’? Trying to protect his people from marauding herdsmen. The implication is chilling — that a chairman who dares to defend his people is seen as having crossed a line.”
“We must ask: Is self-preservation now a crime? Is this the Nigeria we have become — where terrorists roam freely and those who resist are reprimanded? May God help us.”he stated.
He decried how these herdsmen now move with impunity beyond arrest, above the law, emboldened by a system that either looks away or has lost the will to act.
“What we are witnessing is not merely a failure of security, but a collapse of our moral foundation. A nation that cannot protect its farmers, its mothers, its children sleeping in ancestral homes, has forfeited its legitimacy. And nations that lose legitimacy do not endure.” The human rights lawyer stated.
Ejiofor made a solemn appeal for national reflection and action on the disaster consuming the country.
“So this Monday, let us reflect not just on what is happening, but on what lies ahead if this dangerous silence continues.” He stated.
He posed three final, sobering questions:
“How many more villages must be razed before we act?
How many more children must be orphaned before we raise our collective voice?
What will remain of Nigeria if entire regions are left to bleed in silence?
“The time for passive observation is over. The time for mourning must now give way to action.”
“Let this Monday awaken our national conscience. For history will not be kind to those who saw the signs — and turned away.”
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