El-Rufai Explains What He Meant When He Said That Anyone Who Kills A Fulani Man Takes A Death Payable In 100 Years

Kaduna state governor, Nasir El Rufai, posted a
controversial tweet in 2012 in which he said
that any person, soldier or not, that kills a
Fulani person, takes a debt that is repayable in
100 years.

Many found his tweet inciting and
called him out for it.

El-Rufai was a guest at the Social Media Week
in Lagos yesterday where he said that his tweet
was never a threat but rather a call that helped
avert a major crisis.

"People are making reference to what I
tweeted in 2012. What did I tweet? I
tweeted that any person, soldier or not,
that kills a Fulani, takes a debt that will
be repayable in 100 years. It is a
statement of fact. It is not a threat. It is
not an incitement to violence and there
is a context to it. In 2012, the General
Officer commanding of 5 divison of the
Nigerian Army in Jos, gave an instruction
that it behooves on the governor of
Plateau state to wipe out two Fulani
settlements just outside Jos on the
suspicion that they have weapons.

This
was reported by the governor of Plateau
state and the commander gave the order
and I heard about it. I called and said
please don't do that. Go and surround
the place and search for weapons. But
that was not the objective. The
Objective was to remove them from the
settlement because they are settlers and
people that think that that land is their
ancestral land, want to take the land. It
is not because they had weapons. Now I
know the nature of the normadic
Fulanis. My great great grand parents
used to be such people. If you kill any of
them unlawfully, they organise to take
revenge no matter how long it takes.
Now for me, the danger is that if the
Nigerian Army goes and wipes out a
Fulani settlement, any person wearing a
Nigerian Army uniform in 14 West
African countries is at risk because
these Fulanis may have relations in Mali,
Ghana, Serria Leone, Guinea, and word
would go round that the Nigerian Army
has created genocide against the Fulanis
and anywhere you see a person wearing
a Nigerian Army Uniform, is a target for
retaliation and I warned the commander
that this will happen. He did not listen
and that is why I put it on the record so
that when it starts happening, nobody
would say he was not warned. Ultimately
because of that tweet, the commander
retracted his plan and they went and
surrounded the settlement and searched
for weapons and found none. To me,
what I did averted a potential disaster
but that is being put as if I tweeted
something inciting anyone. If you don't
believe what I tweeted, go and do what
the army wanted to do and see the
consequences"he said