Response to Dr. Ardo’s “Call to Halt Vilification of Fulani in Nigeria”

A Response to Dr. Umar Ardo’s “A Call to Halt the Vilification of the Fulani in Nigeria”

By Barr. John Apollos Maton

While Dr. Umar Ardo’s article pleads eloquently for national unity and the protection of the Fulani against ethnic profiling, it conveniently avoids the real, consistent and well-documented crisis of Fulani-led terrorism, aggression, and occupation that indigenous communities across Nigeria have endured.

This is not about ethnic scapegoating—it is about identifying the face of organized violence that has declared war on communities from Benue to Plateau, from Southern Kaduna to Taraba. The Fulani are not being vilified—they are being held to account for attacks which they have publicly claimed and justified as a collective ethnic pursuit.

The Fulani are not being blamed for the actions of a few. They are being named for the actions that they themselves, as associations and militias, have taken responsibility for. Whether it is Miyetti Allah issuing threats, Fulani Nationalist Movements giving ultimatums, or Fulani gunmen sacking villages in the dead of night, the pattern is not speculative—it is real, systematic, and consistent with conquest. There is a difference between ethnic profiling and pattern recognition based on facts and first-hand community experience.

No other ethnic group in Nigeria operates a known militia with open ethnic allegiance that justifies violence in defense of cattle routes or “ancestral migration rights.” No other group, when aggrieved, mobilizes armed units across borders to inflict mass casualties while issuing communiqués and conditions for peace.

The Fulani are not facing injustice; they are manufacturing one to justify domination. They demand lands that do not belong to them, and when denied, they unleash terror—not as individuals, but as an ethnic front.

Dr. Ardo’s repeated attempt to compare the Fulani terror problem to the actions of criminal individuals among the Igbo, Yoruba, or Kanuri is disingenuous. Drug dealers or cultists do not act on behalf of the Igbo nation. Internet fraudsters do not issue press releases in the name of Yoruba supremacy. But Fulani terror groups have issued statements, made demands, and even negotiated with state actors—all from the position of ethnic identity. The Fulani problem is not isolated criminality; it is ethnically coordinated violence.

One must also reject the claim that the Fulani have a stake to defend in many of the territories they are attacking. They are not indigenous to the Middle Belt or the South. They did not own the lands they now occupy through violence. They were not historically settled in most of these regions. Their incursions are rooted in a colonial-era mindset of migration-turned-domination. You do not invade a land, burn its people, and claim rights. That is not a claim to citizenship—it is an act of terrorism and land-grabbing.

The most troubling part of Dr. Ardo’s submission is the refusal to address the fact that Fulani are not Nigerians to begin with. Across Niger, Mali, Chad, Senegal, Cameroon, and beyond, the Fulani exist as a migratory people. And yet, we are told to accept them as part of a national mosaic even when they bear arms against the Nigerian people. How can an invading force enjoy the same protection as a lawful citizen?

How can immigrants have the same rights as indigenous people?

We do not know how to distinguish between the purported peaceful Fulani immigrants and their genocidal invading militant forces, so how can we not lump them all in the same boat? The challenge is not that all Fulani are painted with the same brush, but that we should not pretend that a Fulani identity has not been weaponized by violent actors. This weaponization is precisely what victims are responding to. It is not the Fulani identity that people fear—it is Fulani militancy, backed by silence from Fulani elites and politicians, that the indigenous groups and people rightly resist.

It is not hate to defend one’s community. It is not profiling to name your attacker. When Fulani militias attack, they often make no attempt to hide their ethnic identity. They wear it as a badge of pride. Victims and communities are then told to keep quiet for fear of appearing “tribalistic.” That is both absurd and unjust. Silence in the face of terror is cowardice. Naming evil is not hate speech—it is a civic duty.

If Fulani leaders like Dr. Ardo are genuinely interested in peace and justice, then the place to start is not by defending the group wholesale, but by naming and shaming the Fulani terror groups that have desecrated every value of citizenship he now wants to enjoy in a country that is not his own.

Where is the public condemnation of Fulani Nationalist Movements? Where is the repudiation of Miyetti Allah’s threats? Why is there no strong Fulani voice standing with victims instead of hiding behind vague calls for national unity?

What we are facing is not mutual misunderstanding—it is targeted ethnic cleansing. The goal of these Fulani invaders is to uproot indigenous peoples, settle on their lands, and rewrite Nigeria’s demographic history. When Fulani militias kill, they do not seek ransom—they seek territory. This is what distinguishes them from bandits and criminals of other regions. Their war is political, ethnic, and expansionist.

This must be treated by the government as what it is: an invasion of a foreign/immigrant armed military force invading Nigeria and compromising the lives, property and sovereignty of her people. Said invaders must be met by the military in defense of Nigeria’s sovereignty, not dialogued with and pampered!

Even if there are peaceful Fulani in Nigeria, they must understand that their silence in the face of this horror is interpreted as complicity. You cannot enjoy the privileges of the illegally gotten Nigerian citizenship while remaining mute as your kinsmen torch villages. It is not enough to say “not all Fulani”—you must prove it through resistance to Fulani terrorism, advocacy for justice, and cooperation with state authorities to expose the criminals among you.

Nigeria cannot afford to sacrifice truth at the altar of a fragile unity. True unity must be based on justice, not forced silence. Until the Fulani take full and public responsibility for the militancy carried out in their name, they will continue to be viewed with suspicion, not because Nigerians are prejudiced, but because they are not blind.

The question is not whether all Fulani are bad—it is whether enough good Fulani will rise to end this evil. As long as communities continue to be massacred by gunmen who declare themselves Fulani, and Fulani elites focus more on defending image than demanding justice, this perception will not change. The ball is in their court.

We can no longer accept the moral equivalence being peddled by intellectuals who compare regional cultists to organized ethnic militias. This is not about perception—it is about blood, fire, and memory. Those who have lost everything to Fulani terrorism are not seeking revenge—they are seeking justice, safety, and truth. Their pain must not be dismissed by articles crafted in detached comfort.

The facts must be clearly stated
No other immigrant group has enjoyed the tolerance the Fulani have been afforded, this is seen in the fact that they have been allowed to force their way into leadership for over 20 years in Nigeria, a country not their own as opposed to the two indigenous groups of Nigeria which are the Yoruba with barely 10 years and counting and the Ijaw (HE. Former President G. E. Jonathan) with barely 4 years! They saturate all our top government offices and control our wealth diverting trillions of dollars to themselves! Ardo should not then insult our intelligence by claiming they are vilified!

Despite this, no other immigrant group has ever been a problem as a group the way the Fulani has!

Finally, let us be honest: If Nigeria is to survive, then all peoples must respect boundaries—physical, legal, and historical. The Fulani have crossed all three. If they wish to remain our guests in Nigeria, they must renounce conquest and embrace peaceful immigration under the law. If they reject that, and continue to denounce our laws while carrying out their agenda for genocide and conquest, then perhaps they should return to wherever it is they come from. Nigeria was never meant to be conquered by its guests. And we, the indigenous people, will not stand by while it happens!

The government, like done during the Shehu Shagari (A regime that greatly promoted Fulani agenda) administration, the government under President Tinubu should make an executive order sending Fulani out of Nigeria and back to where they are from. Like the Fulani conspired and had enshrined as “Ghana Must Go”.
International Law allows deportation of uncooperative immigrants who do not respect the laws and sovereignty of a state — which is essentially what the Fulani are.