PART 1 OF 3 THE GENOCIDE ON THE MAMBILLA, THE FULANI PERSPECTIVE

Without ever setting foot there, I know enough about the geography, topography, water resources, the people, the agricultural and tourist potentials of the Mambilla Plateau, in Taraba State. One word that easily comes to mind is "idyllic". Having spent a year in Jos, Plateau State, I could just imagine life on the Mambilla. I wish I had the opportunity to visit that paradise say thirty years ago when I was much stronger and in a position to take a robust 4 wheel drive up those dangerously winding curves on the upward climb to Gembu. The Mambilla came to my mind again when the Federal Government indicated renewed interest in the hitherto abandoned giant Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project. Having understudied the US Freeport Inc's Copper/Gold mine and processing development project in the mountains of Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, this was one project in which I would have loved to lose myself. Doing stuff! # It is on record that the leading Nigerian dam designer, Dr Josephat Okoye, of Water and Dam Services, who cut his teeth at Irian Jaya, is/was(?) the Lead Consultant at Mambilla as the Federal Government sorts out its love/hate relationship with the original designers, HydroQuebec of Canada. As a no nonsense professional he had a well reported spat with one of President Goodluck Jonathan's junior ministers in the power portfolio. The lady was so silly and ill-advised. # So much for the Mambilla Plateau and all its potentials. As it is, I may never be able to go there even as an old man tourist. What with the goings on up there, the bloodletting, insecurity, suspicion, etc. Earlier reports, also with video footages, accused the Federal Government of President Buhari of not just the usual looking-the-other-way, but of actually reinforcing the Fulani cattle pastoralists with armaments and men of the Nigerian Army and Air Force. I am yet to see a firm and well documented denial by the government. # And now the Fulani Perspective of these SAME events. We leave readers and viewers of these videos to draw their own conclusions. In the fog of war, that's what this is certainly, we may never get the whole truth since truth is usually the first casualty. I must state that I have found this new report to be rather "too smooth" kind of a job. I then wonder if the see-no-evil Buhari administration had a hand in producing it, IN THE FACILITIES OF THE NTA? Meanwhile many commentators, including this writer, had decried the ceaseless brutal murder of fellow Nigerians. These sentiments don't change or disappear simply because the victims are Fulani. Then again, I wonder how and why the Presidency, with all the intelligence resources at its disposal, did nothing to protect Buhari's own people the Fulani up on the plateau. Failing to do so does not by any imagination gain him any points. It is despicable. # One thing is clear here. The government has lost it. Completely. The security situation, even if the Buhari administration is proven not be complicit, has gone completely out of control. We do not trust the government to protect us, not in Uzo-Uwani, not in Chibok, not in Ogun State, not in Falae's Ondo State and of course not in Agatuland and Okpokwu LGA of Benue State. A state or condolence visit by our president cannot in anyway address this failure. In a more civilized clime, this calls for an impeachment or resignation of the government. But then this is Nigeria. Many have asked over and over again, "What is one human life worth?" President Buhari, please answer us. $