Unprecedented infrastructural project that will employ tens of thousands simultaneously are needed to address this insecurity problem

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] As we agonise over the incessant upsurge in violence across our beloved Nigeria, we have to ask ourselves if we are any closer to a solution. If you ask me, we have not come up with answers to the problem because rather than have a serious intellectual debate on the way forward, our people are more interested in throwing religious and ethnic bricks at each other

[2] What makes this crisis unique is the Fulani colouration of the whole matter. Most Nigerians cannot differentiate between a Fulani and Hausa man and more Fulanis speak Hausa as their first language, so it is very hard to actually come up with a solution, when you have this kind of problem identifying it in the first place. All we do know is that if you go to kidnappers camps around the country at the moment, the armed men manning them speak Fulfude. The situation is the same with herdsmen killers and highway armed robbers across Nigeria. Violent crime is fast becoming the largest employer of Fulani youths in Nigeria

[3] Anyway, we have to deal with the situation as it is, so ending the indiscriminate massacre by herdsmen has got to be our number one priority. We are in this problem because as with everything else in Nigeria, once the federal government is not interested in a matter, we suffer immediate collapse. This lack of a civil society capability to fill the vacuum created by irresponsible governments is one of our biggest banes as a people

[4] As things stand, it is crystal clear that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot bring himself to act against the Fulani and it will make his heart bleed to arrest the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (Macban) leaders. Faced with the government being so paralysed and decapitated, I actually think the Christian Association of Nigeria should have moved into the void long ago

[5] Can someone please explain to me why the Christian Association of Nigeria has not called a series of 1m man marches this year? Can you just imagine the impact it would have had if say 1m people had marched in Abuja, another 1m in Lagos and then maybe another 1m in Jos? You know, if President Buhari knew that he would get 1m marches in a state capital every week, it would force his hand

[6] Has anyone come up with any solution to the crisis? Now, there are 15m Fulanis in Nigeria, of which I guess about 80% of them have no hope, future or prospects. No matter how you look at it, there needs to be a massive industrial programme to soak them up in hundreds of thousands. Macban is not going to come up with an industrial programme, neither is Aso Rock - It falls down to ordinary Nigerians to do so

[7] Anyone who has read the book Grapes of Wrath, will understand what I am on about. In 1929, following the Wall Street Crash, the US was hit by the Great Depression. However, it all ended in 1939 when World War Two began and the US had to start manufacturing armaments for the allies. In 1941, when the US entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbour, America enjoyed full employment as armaments factories, industrial plants, food processing companies, etc, were working flat out. Women had to be drafted into what were previously considered men's jobs because demand for labour was so high. Nigeria needs similar industrial expansion badly at the moment

[8] Basically, If Nigeria has enough major industrial projects that can soak up say 3m youths in one go, we will be home and dry. These are the kind of proposals bodies like the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Governors Forum, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, etc ought to be debating but alas, our intellectual laziness has got the better of us again

[9] Build the world's largest hydro-electric plant at Lokoja, the world's largest solar farm in Sinkafi in Zamfara State, the world's largest groundnut farm in Biu in Borno State, the world's largest wildlife farm in Sambisa Forest, the planet's biggest sorghum plantation in Kaura Namoda, mankind's largest food processing plant in Kano, all simultaneously and we will be home and dry. I would actually aim to employ 5m youths directly and indirectly. I doubt, however, if President Buhari is even thinking along these lines at all

[10] We have to stop waiting for Aso Rock to come up with solutions to all our problems my people. How do you expect one office, with less than 500 people to find the solutions to the headaches of 200m men, women and children? Let us consider this Fulani armed saga our first test in that regard. I look forward to the day Nigerians will actually solve a major national problem without the government,. The day we do, it will mark the beginning of the end of our intellectual laziness!