Foremost Fulani activist, Professor Umar Labdo says Yoruba people in the north would be expelled if purported plots to evict Fulani people from some South-West states do not cease.
He stated this while reacting to quit notices issued to Fulani herdsmen in Ondo and Oyo states in recent times.
Labdo condemned Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu’s decision to evict Fulani herdsmen from the state’s forest reserves, describing the order as “wrong”.
The Fulani activist said the governor’s action amounted to stereotyping a whole tribe as criminal because of the activities of a minute few.
The Professor of Islamic Thought also berated Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho for ordering Fulani people in Igangan in Ibarapa North local government area of Oyo state to leave the community.
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He stressed that such quit notices were “unhelpful” and capable of exacerbating ethnic tensions in the country.
Labdo said he recognised that open grazing was a major cause of frequent farmer/herdsmen clashes in many parts of the country but hinged the clashes on encroachment of livestock grazing routes created by British colonial masters.
The professor stated that the grazing routes were incorporated into Nigerian maps produced after Nigeria gained Independence.
He explained that the farmers’herdsmen’s clashes have political, economic and social reaons undertones.
“The political reason is very, very important. At the moment, politicians are using this to lure the electorate. Now, in certain places in Nigeria, you become an instant hero if you hate Fulani.
“Now, look at this governor who is issuing quit order to Fulani, maybe he wants to contest for President in 2023. That is why he is seeking for cheap popularity from a people who maybe are not well enlightened. He is actually courting trouble for his people.
“This is because you cannot expel others from your land and expect your people to be welcome in other people’s land.
“For example, this Governor Akeredolu, he is a Yoruba man, he is expelling my people, the Fulani, from his own state. Now, we have Yoruba in Fulani states. We have Yoruba in Kano, we have them in Adamawa and we have them in cities and very small villages, they are living in peace. You find them where the arms of the law cannot reach, where there is no presence of police at all.
“So people, in retaliation, can do whatever they want to do to them. Just like their brothers are doing to us in the bush,” Labdo told Saturday Sun.
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