The National President of the Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA), Sir Joseph Gwankat, speaks with Isaac Shobayo on the raging hostility in the Mangu Local Government area of Plateau State, allegations of external influence, and other issues fueling the crisis. Excerpts:

What is responsible for the recurrent killings in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State?

I wouldn’t know exactly because when you have not provoked anybody and he suddenly attacks you for the reason best known to him to achieve what he wants to achieve, based on what has been happening in other communities, I want to believe that the motive is nothing but land-grabbing to take over the places for grazing. I want to believe that because, if you look at what happened in Riyom, Barakin-Ladi and Bokkos, where they have taken over some of their lands, so based on that history, it will appear to me that they want to take over our land for grazing. My people are predominantly crop farmers, so you can see a conflict between crops and animals; crops have no legs but animals have legs; animals can destroy crops but crops cannot destroy animals. So the herders want to take over the crops so that he will have more fields for grazing. I want to believe that is what is on their minds. We have lived in peace with them for a decade; they embraced us, and we equally embraced them. We accommodated and kept our animals with them; we are intermarried, and some of them speak Mwaghavul better than I do. Already, there is pressure on land; there is drift from the north as a result of desertification to the Middle Belt as a result of pressure on land. So I want to believe that it is land-grabbing.

If you have been living in peace before now, why the conflict at the moment, and are those behind these attacks the residents Fulanis, or mercenaries?

I recall when this thing happened and the former GOC was in Mangu and there was a parley between us and leaders of the Fulani called Ardos, and they alluded to the fact that we had lived peacefully with them and that we have a history of peaceful co-existence, but the leader of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association at the meeting made a statement that one of the causes of these things was external influence. I thought the GOC at that time would have asked him what he meant by external influence, but that question was not asked. Based on what he said, one would draw the inference that what he said was nothing but the truth. From all these attacks, if you see the Fulani that you have been living with during the attack, you will know them. If you don’t know the person attacking you, you will know that he is coming from outside or that he is a mercenary. They always attacked in large numbers, so they couldn’t have been resident Fulani. I want to believe that they were hired mercenaries both within and outside the state.

The State Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Nura Mohammad, posited that in one of the recent attacks, the natives and security men colluded to raid Fulani settlements, destroy houses, and kill his members in parts of Mangu Local Government (cut-in).

This is a spurious allegation to cover their misdeeds; when has an aggressor become a victim? We have never had a history where we attacked anybody or a group of people. Have you ever heard Mwaghavul men waking up in the night to attack Fulani? We don’t have that record of history. I don’t even know if Operation Rainbow is functional; therefore, he should tell Nigerians where he got the information that Operation Rainbow and the natives attacked Fulani settlements in Mangu. This was a spontaneous reaction to the attack in Kombu; when they came in the night to attack, the youths squared up with them, and they fled because the anger was too much. Can he assert that Operations Rainbow was stationed at Kombu in the night? This is just a spurious allegation to whip up sentiment and get people’s sympathy.

Sir, he equally stated that the Fulani settled in Mangu before the Mwaghavul and likewise in Berom lands. What is your take on this?

(Laugh) I don’t know where he got that history from; I am not historian, but with my elementary history in secondary school, I read about how the Fulani came from Futa Jallon to Sokoto, and I know the migration of Mwaghavul men from the Chad Basin to settle here; it was a virgin land. When you say you are indigenes, it means you have settled in a place where there are no people; therefore, you become an indigene of that place. Is he saying that when the Mwaghavul came, there were Fulani here? Did he trace that history? All these have no historical backing; he simply wants to say something to justify their act of terrorism. It is a known fact to every elementary historian that the Mwaghavul, Berom and others arrived Plateau before the Fulani. There is no dispute about that, it is a known fact. Is he saying we came to conquer them? There is a history that they came from Bauchi trying to subdue the Magwahwful, and we rooted them out, and they went back. Also in Jos, they were repelled. So Nura is just ranting and speaking upside down; it is a figment of his imagination.

What is your assessment of the military operations in trying to arrest this situation?

Like what happened in Mangun, we told Operation Safe Haven, but it was when it happened that they moved to the place. If they had taken a proactive step, what happened in Mangu wouldn’t have happened. But the good news I heard was that the GOC has temporarily moved to Mangu. I pray that his movement to Mangu will bring a stop to the killings. No one gains from crises, and if you want to explore your potential, there must be peace, and you know Mangu is a commercial center next to Jos. So my prayer every day is that there should be peace so that everyone can continue with their economic and social activities. Fulani are our brothers in the context that all of us are created by God, so I cannot see Fulani as an enemy. (Saturday Tribune)

Update news