The growing fear and stigmatization of Fulani among the Nigerian public is likely to prove counterproductive, undermining both national cohesion and the fight against Boko Haram and other forms of violent extremism. This essay seeks to show that Fulani herders and Boko Haram have separate ideologies and interests and that cooperation between Fulani herders and Boko Haram has been limited, though not entirely negligible. It is therefore important to look beyond the sensationalist rhetoric and unpack the Islamization discourses to capture the true essence of the Fulani herders’ crisis as well as Boko Haram’s declared Islamization objective, especially in light of the fact that Boko Haram has so far failed to expand into southern Nigeria. Many Yoruba now voice interest in forming an independent state, though secessionist violence has not reached the same levels in the southwest as in the Igbo-majority southeast, where IPOB escalated its operations in the spring of 2021. Nigeria’s unity thus appears to hang in the balance. ![]() ![]() Miyetti Allah has issued threats against northern residents of southern origin and blocked shipments of farm products to the south, for example. Expectedly, this southern resistance to a perceived Islamic incursion, as well as ongoing discrimination against Fulani people in southern Nigeria, has provoked retaliatory actions from northern political groups such as the Miyetti Allah, a powerful herders’ union. Southerners have reacted to perceived Islamization and “Fulanization” by forming regional vigilante outfits such as Operation Amotekun, which is supported by governors in the Yoruba-majority southwest, and IPOB’s Eastern Security Network in the southeast. These fears of Islamization have helped fuel cycles of vitriolic rhetoric and ethnoreligious violence in Nigeria, undermining the country’s stability. Many Nigerians no longer distinguish between Fulani herders and Boko Haram, seeing both as a singular terrorist front whose sole aim is to Islamize Nigeria. This herder-farmer crisis has expanded into southern Nigeria and assumed a dangerous religious dimension as southerners, who are mostly Christian, fear an encroaching Islamist threat that is much bigger than Boko Haram alone. ![]() In Nigeria’s central Middle Belt states, herder-farmer conflict between Fulani pastoralists and non-Fulani farmers persists after many years. In southeastern Nigeria, the military is clamping down on the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group seeking the secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria. In northwestern Nigeria, there are alarming rates of kidnapping for ransom, cattle rustling, and other forms of terroristic violence known locally as “banditry,” much of it committed by ethnic Fulani pastoralists. In northeastern Nigeria, the jihadist group Boko Haram, along with its now-larger splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has maintained an active insurgency since 2009, leading to the deaths of over 30,000 people. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state, faces intersecting and multidimensional security crises in nearly every part of the country.
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