‘Why Fulani remained most pampered stock’

A Professor of History from the University of Ibadan, Olutayo Adesina, has said that pampering of the Fulani did not start with President Muhammadu Buhari, pointing out that it is historical.

According to the university don, who is an elder brother of the President Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, “the Fulani people have remained the most pampered in the history of Nigeria.”

The professor gave these submissions while featuring on a weekly radio show, Parrot Xtra Hour anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on the radio arm of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), Oluyole 98.5 FM, Ibadan.

Adesina said that it should not be a surprise to anyone that almost all the other tribes are against the Fulani because of the general belief that the group is being ‘favoured and pampered’.

He submitted that this was not created by the President Muhammadu Buhari led-administration but as a result of the administrative deficiency and favoritism on the part of Nigeria’s British colonialists.

The don further said that the problem started when the colonial administration created cattle routes from the North to the South, which led to the ‘grabbing’ of land from the original and indigenous owners, thereby causing disaffection between those affected and the Fulani.

He described the relationship between the Fulani and the Yoruba specifically as ‘age-long’ dating back to years before 1800.

He said: “Over the centuries, we have seen the relationship between the herdsmen who came from across the Sahara to Yorubaland and at the beginning of the raining season, they moved back to the edge of the Sahara.

“It was the farmers that use to invite the Fulani herdsmen after harvest to come to their farms so that the cattle dung will serve as manure for the farmers”.

“Our people in the South-West of Nigeria really need to study their neighbours and understand them. Specifically, I do not think we, the Yoruba, understand the Fulani.

“They look fragile, harmless and friendly. But we really need to understand them. I will not say more than that.”