Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Fields Organic Farms, Mrs. Olajumoke Awosika, has questioned the rationale behind the decision by the Buhari administration and Northern Governors, to allow herdsmen bear arms, but not farmers who are themselves, victims of attacks by the same herdsmen whom the Federal Government gave the free license to own arms.
Awosika who said she was forced to abandon her N20 million farm in Ibaayin village, Ibadan in Oyo State, by rampaging herdsmen, also questioned the value of a cow compared to a human life, saying if cows need protection, then human beings need it more.
Her statement however, is a stark contrast to the views shared by the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, claiming a cow may not mean much to other Nigerians, but to a Fulani man, it is worth more than a hundred human lives.
Bodejo had also claimed that cows are to them, as a brother is to someone else. He also said cows don't live in cities, therefore Abuja or Lagos are useless to a Fulani unless these cities are converted into grazing fields for their cows.
He said, "Fulani can’t value 100 people’s lives like he can value his one cow because since he was born, he doesn’t have any business except that cow. The cow is like his own brothers and sisters. If anything happens to his cow, do you think he can leave you?
"You have two or three storey buildings and you park your cars , do you fold your hands and watch somebody come to that house carry your cars, your clothes, your wife, destroy the buildings? You must fight. The Fulani man values his cow just as you value your brother and sister and you go all out to protect them.
"They love their cows beyond description, you can’t separate them from their cows to go and stay inside town or city. The cows have names. The way you give your children names when they were born is the same way they name their cows.
"Even a person who has one thousand cows, those cows have individual names and he knows them by name; the cows have fathers, grandfathers and grandchildren. What you have in human beings – the ways names are given to people, the same way Fulani give names to their cows.
"We are cow lovers , that is why sometimes if you kiII their cows somewhere they go there to look for justice, because they see like somebody has kiIIed their brothers; they must go to see who did that and they won’t leave that person."
But 57 year old Awosika, disagrees. She said, "It is surprising that Fulani herders publicly carry gun and some governors in the North are telling us that they need the guns to protect their cows. What is the value of a cow compared to the value of a human life? Why can’t I, as a farmer, also bear arms to protect myself and my farm? I remember some years ago, the Buhari government said everyone should surrender their arms. We did, but the Fulani never did."
“We have to tell ourselves the truth, what we have in the South-West is not herders-farmers clashes; no farmer is fighting with the herders, farmers don’t have guns. These (herders) are armed militia with sophisticated guns. What the armed Fulani men are trying to achieve is what I don’t know. I speak French very well and I listen to the videos of these herders, they are francophone, our borders are wide open for Fulani criminals to come and attack us in Nigeria.
"It’s like they have an agenda. We surrendered our arms and as a farmer, I am now a sitting duck for attackers; I can be killed, I can be raped, I can be kidnapped for ransom.
“In America where I lived for over three decades, if I don’t have a criminal record, I can bear arms. I can protect my life, it is in the constitution. Even in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, I have a right to defend myself. If a Fulani man is carrying AK-47, as a farmer I should also be able to a carry gun and stand up to defend myself.
"If I am licensed to carry a gun, I swear to God, I will arm those boys on my farm, we will not run and we will stand our ground and l will see the Fulani man that will say he wants to kill me on my own land! If the government cannot defend us, we should have a right to defend ourselves. The way forward is self-defence and it is a shame on this government that human life has no value,” Awosika said.