The recently recirculated press statement dated April 9, 2023, credited to a shadowy group styling itself the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM), bears all the hallmarks of a concocted script, hurriedly patched together by desperate political actors who, having suffered electoral defeat, now seek to stage a comeback through chaos.
Behind the crude grammar of pastoral agitation and ethnic posturing lies a failed political project, cloaked in the blood-soaked fabric of propaganda and fear. What is presented as an ethno-nationalist outcry is, in reality, a decoy – a wool pulled over the eyes of the unsuspecting public to obscure the identity of those truly responsible for the orchestrated violence in Benue State.
A closer intelligent sweep reveals that the document is less about herdsmen and more about hurt pride. The repeated invocation of electoral victories, “defeated candidates,” and “our government” betrays the truth: FUNAM is a phantom mask used by rejected politicians who now seek to reinsert themselves into the political bloodstream of Benue State by riding at the back of blood sown in the soil and tears in the eyes of the people.
This is no longer about land; it is about lost legitimacy. The real “herders” in question are not those leading cattle – but those herding narratives to serve their unholy trinity of revenge, relevance, and return to power.
The statement’s obsession with former political gladiators – calling some “stupid” and blaming for Fulani woes – further exposes the desperation of the propagators. If indeed the named former political gladiator is the adversary, why are innocent farming communities, women, and children being slaughtered across the state? The dissonance between the stated enemy and the actual targets of violence is a glaring contradiction.
This is not mere hypocrisy – it is a tactical diversion, a classic strategy in asymmetric warfare, where the real enemy masks as the victim, and the arsonist poses as the fire brigade.
From the tone and content of the so-called communiqué, one detects a desperate effort to harvest political capital from bloodshed. The reference to electoral performance suggests that violence was used as an instrument of voter suppression, demographic displacement, and psychological warfare.
The political undertone is loud and clear: “We lost at the ballot; we shall win by bullets.” And thus, a sectarian conflict is manufactured to justify the illegitimate use of terror as a tool for political leverage.
There is an old African proverb that says, “The monkey whose tail is lit with the torchfire should not be the first to shout ‘arsonist’ in the forest.” Those parading as liberators of Fulani interests are, in fact, the very architects of the chaos; they ignite the inferno, then point fingers to avoid scrutiny.
But the signs are too clear to ignore. This document, by its own contradictions, exposes the outlines of a failed political establishment now hiding behind ethnic smoke to escape the judgment of the people and the law.
From an intelligence perspective, the document is less a declaration and more a confession of complicity. The coordination, the threats, the specific mention of state policies to be “reviewed,” and the timeline for repeals – all indicate prior negotiations or at least insider complicity.
In truth, FUNAM’s threats are simply the mouthpiece of men in suits who once occupied public office, now retreating to the shadows to orchestrate bloodshed as a substitute for governance.
To the people of Benue, this is the time to rise – not in vengeance, but in unflinching vigilance. The attempt to reframe terror as triumph, to baptize political ambition with the blood of farmers, must be condemned with one voice.
This document, this “press statement,” is a script for manufactured consent, a manifesto of deceit, and a desperate cry of those who have lost the people’s trust and now seek to steal their land, voice, and future by force.
They will be known by Their Deeds. Let it be known that the days of hiding behind faceless militias will soon be over. The people should see through the veil. The world should see through the lies. Those who light fires in the bush should be made to find themselves encircled by the same flames they stoked.
This is a clarion call to the vigilant conscience of Benue State and Nigeria at large. Let no one be deceived: what FUNAM represents is not Fulani interest – it is the last gasp of failed political interests – the kind that connived and ousted President Goodluck Jonathan – gasping for air in a democracy that has moved beyond them.
*Prof. Qrisstuberg Amua*
_Convener, Tiv Education Advancement Fünd; and Advocate for Justice, Patriotism and Peaceful nationalism_
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