- If they are not caught in the intricate web of the complex narratives about Nigeria’s insecurity, then they are sure to be found wrestling with the emotional burden and financial loss occasioned by the death of their animals after being dealt a fatal blow by nature.
Nigeria’s challenges come in different shapes and sizes. While many are man-made and by design, a handful are natural occurrences. One of the group of people who have found themselves at the intersection of these two types of challenges are pastoralists and herdsmen. If they are not caught in the intricate web of the complex narrative about Nigeria’s insecurity, then they are found wrestling with the emotional burden and financial loss occasioned by the death of their animals after being dealt a fatal blow by nature.
While they’ve had to condone the constant accusations of fueling the insecurity in many parts of the country as their nomadic style of cattle rearing put them on a collision course with farmers and locals, the herders have also had to put up with the vagaries of nature, especially lighting, which has been vicious and brutal to their trade. The focus of this article is not on herders’ involvement or otherwise in the deepening security crisis across the country, but the killing of their cows and cattle by lightning and the impact of such natural occurrences on them.
Recounting the death of cows caused by lightning in recent times
On Saturday, May 21, thirty-two cows were struck by lightning in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State. The incident happened at about 12 p.m. after torrential rainfall in Osara, Obantoko area of Abeokuta, the state capital.
According to reports, the affected cows were reportedly owned by both the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba communities in the area.
On April 8th 2025, Lightning killed eight cows in the Ori-Ohin community in Ifon, Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State. The incident happened on Sunday evening during a heavy downpour.
On April 1st 2025, at least twelve cows and a teenager herding them were killed after they were struck by lightning in the Matuak Giwa community in the Bondon District, Moro’a Chiefdom of Kaura Local Government Area in Kaduna State. According to Village Head of Matuak Giwa, Chief Simon, a herder was taking shelter with his cattle and waiting for the rain to let up when the lightning struck and killed the animals.
On the 19th of September, lightning reportedly struck dead 15 cows at the outskirts of Ikogosi Ekiti community in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State. The incident, according to Asaoye of Ikogosi, Chief Ayo Ademilua, was a natural occurrence, which he said was strange in the town
At least 36 cows were reportedly struck dead at Oke Owa in Ijare community, Ifedore local government area of Ondo state sometime in September 2019. The cows were killed by lightning shortly after they strayed to a mountain where the monarch of the town makes sacrifices on an annual basis.
Sometime in November 2019, no fewer than 19 cows belonging to Fulani cattle rearers were killed by lightning bolts in Iba, headquarters of the Ifelodun Area Office of Osun State. The cows were reportedly struck to death at Apala farm on the outskirts of the town.
Conspiracy theories and conjectures
As it is their wont for happenings they lack a logical explanation for their occurrence, many superstitious Nigerians have often attributed the death of these cows by lightning to comeuppance or even retribution for the impunity and atrocities of the Fulani herders. According to this category of Nigerian, many of them traditionalists, this retributive justice is often dispensed after some rituals have been performed to seek the deadly intervention of God in their standoff with the herders who invaded their land.
But there is no hard evidence to prove that the call for divine intervention or resort to spiritual solutions is the reason why cows are struck to death by lightning as similar incidents have happened in areas where there is no fracas between herders and farmers.
Financial loss and its toll
The business of cattle rearing is a lucrative one. Even the primitive and archaic manner in which the business is done in many parts of the country does not erode its profitability. But the financial loss that comes with the sudden deaths of cows, especially if such deaths are caused by lightning strikes, is monumental and could take a heavy toll on the life of the owner of the cows.
For years on end, anyone who could offer an opinion regarding Nigeria’s security crisis has suggested ranching as the panacea to the nation’s perennial insecurity, especially the aspect fuelled by nomadic and wandering herders. But that is as far as it goes, there is only so much ranching can do to shield these hapless animals from the force of nature. Ranching may reduce the deaths if the cows are sheltered in a covered and enclosed area whenever it rains, but that cannot totally remove the threat of natural occurrences or make them impervious to it.
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