Prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, says the Federal Government should calculate all the money it had spent on the Niger Delta region and do the same for the Fulani.
He said the government can only end the ongoing war in the country when it creates a Ministry of Nomadic Affairs, as it did with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in 2008.
The cleric said the agitation of the Fulani is due to their feeling that they were abandoned while the world progressed.
Gumi spoke yesterday in Abuja at the maiden Interactive Policy Dialogue and Cultural Festival organized by a Fulani socio-cultural association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, with the theme: The Future of Fulani Pastoralists in Nigeria.
He said: “The children that were killing and kidnapping people opened their doors freely to us when we visited them because they heard we were there to preach. All they want is to dialogue. Send them people who they respect to dialogue with them and they will listen. By the grace of God, this problem will be resolved.
“Everyone is to blame for their actions, including the bandits. They feel the world has developed and left them behind, with all the injustice being meted out to them.
“How do we resolve this? We need to walk amongst them, embrace and ensure that all they deserve is given to them. The havoc they are causing is hindering farming; villages have been displaced because they feel that they were also displaced from their homes.
“We are at war and the solution is what was done for the people of the Niger Delta. The government got them justice and even gave them a ministry. Why can’t the government give us a Ministry of Nomadic Affairs? Education should be inclusive with empowerment and hospitals.”
