Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
This incident is not a crisis (by African standards).

This is Nigeria's current crisis:

Nigeria orders probe into 'missing $20bn' of oil money

Now back to the side-show at Katsina...

From the BBC:

Nigeria attack: Scores killed in Katsina state


So this 'crisis' has been festering for some time then... Can this be blamed on the colonial power? I suggest not. More an indication of incompetence by a government more interested in stealing oil money than governing the country.

These land issues where herders and farmers compete for the diminishing land resources - mainly due to population growth, over grazing and poor land husbandry - are common place. Something has to give.

The Brits would probably have given the Fulani an ultimatum to surrender the perpetrators and when they were not produced conducted a punitive raid where they confiscated cattle - say 100 for each person killed - and handed them over to the surviving victims.

This of course would just cause the Fulani to conduct raids to steal 'their' cattle back.

So send up some military helicopters and shoot 5,000 or so Fulani cattle and engage any tribesmen who fire on the helicopters. On second thoughts, make that 10,000 cattle to make sure they get the message and also reduce the pressure on the grazing land available.

Happy hunting
A few points:

A. Lucky Brits, they happened to rule Nigeria when AK 47s weren't easily
available.
B. We actually have elections & democracy - so you don't win votes by demanding 200 cows from (or whatever) from an ethnic group.
C. Yes, the Nigerian government has been incompetent & corrupt - since Independence, but you can't play "Cecil Rhodes" here, not even the Brits can.