A little known Fulani group that calls itself the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) may have stoked ethnic nationalism in Nigeria with its claims of Fulani ownership of the country while giving notice of a planned conquest of the entire territory from Sokoto to the Atlantic Ocean.
FUNAM, which made a similar provocative statement in 2018, following the Benue massacre by herdsmen, returned to its familiar territory in a statement that further sharpened the ethnic cleavages in Nigeria.
While the statement was a reaction to recent killings in Plateau State by armed Fulani herdsmen, its claim of the existence of a Fulani Strike Force that coordinated what it called a retaliatory attack against Birom people in Barkin Ladi, in Plateau State may ignite an arms race by Nigeria’s various ethnic groups.
President of the group, Badu Salisu Ahmadu was unapologetic about the killings, in which 15 people died.
He said the killings were justifiable as the Fulani had been attacked before the counter-attack.
He also laid an operating philosophy of the ethnic nationality: “For the avoidance of doubt, our heritage is that “any attack on a single Fulani is an attack on all. Any of such attacks must be countered with triple measure”.
Ahmadu claimed that Plateau-Benue and the rest of Nigeria is an indigenous territory of the Fulani people.
But his claim is a pure distortion of history as the Fulani migrated into Nigeria around the 18th Century and set off the Jihad in the 19th Century.