Eloquent impotence

Editorial

A paradox is emerging in the country. The state governors north and south, now hostage to the fear from killings, kidnaps and other atrocities, have stepped up solutions. The federal government is playing spectator.

So, there appears some unanimity, across Nigeria’s geo-political divide, that open cattle grazing has no place in a modern society. The Northern Nigeria Governors Forum (NNGF), early last week, collectively aligned with the view, that the system operated by many herders in the country is no longer sustainable; and must be stopped. The forum, at a virtual meeting of members held on February 8, resolved that the system be reviewed, in view of increasing urbanisation and population of the country.

A communique from that meeting signed by NNGF chairman, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, and issued in Jos, said northern governors would “aggressively sensitise herdsmen” on the need to adopt ranching and other acceptable modern methods.

But the forum also urged the Federal Government to support states with grants needed to undertake pilot projects of modern livestock production, ahead of full implementation of the new methods.  Among other measures, the governors as well resolved to engage elders and youths of the region in robust discussions towards dousing tension in the North; and to seek solutions to the dire security challenges.

Prior to now, individual governors from the North, like Kano State’s Abdullahi Ganduje and Kaduna’s Nasir el-Rufai, had advocated modern methods like ranching and cattle husbandry value chains, which they urged pastoralists to adopt in place of open itinerant grazing, that often pitched them in conflict with farmers.

Both Ganduje and El-Rufai also reeled out the value chains — milk production, leather processing, better abattoir technology, veterinary clinics and allied industries providing jobs for millions of jobless youths, and even schooling opportunities for hitherto itinerant herders and their families  — that modern ranching guarantees.

The communique, from Monday’s meeting, meant pushing for modern ranching is becoming a collective pitch of the northern governors.  That should be welcome news to all.

Before the northern governors came to their joint realisation, the view to abandon itinerant herding, had long taken root in other geo-political zones, whose natives bear the bitter brunt of roving herders’ aggression.

Late in January, South West state governors, at a meeting in Akure, Ondo State, with national leaders of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), resolved that free-range grazing must be stopped to upend conflicts between farmers and herders.

Other decisions, from that meeting, included the appeal that MACBAN should “embrace and be committed to modern breeding processes by creating grazing reserves and practising ranching to prevent cattle roaming about” and that underage as well as nighttime herding be banned because these pose threats to societal security.

Even before the South West resolution, leaders in other geo-political zones like the South East, South-South and North Central had, several times, announced decisions to outlaw open grazing by herders, in preference to modern cattle rearing methods.

We consider it helpful that a national consensus is now crystalising on how to end security challenges linked with pastoralism: farmer-herder clashes and herdsmen criminality, shown up in killings, kidnappings and rape of hapless Nigerians in their communities.

But it must be stated again that it is awkward the ongoing drill for peace is being plied by state governors who do not have control of the security agencies, whereas there is inaction on the part of the central government, which has such control. Amidst a flurry of moves by the state governors and fringe stakeholders to tackle the security challenges associated with rogue pastoralists, all you see at the centre is pronounced impotence.

Meanwhile, collaboration by sub-nationals can hardly be as effective as it could be without coordination, or at least motivation, by a strong presence at the centre. Kaduna State Governor el-Rufai hinted at this difficulty early last week when he said, on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service interview, that lack of unity among northern governors, on how to deal with banditry, kidnapping and related crimes, was a major impediment to routing the criminals. He argued that but for differences among North West governors, bandits would long have been neutralised in the region.

The absence of the voice of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the armed forces’ Commander-in-Chief, in the concert of efforts to turn the tide of insecurity in Nigeria, has become eloquently disturbing. Early last week, presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said on a television programme that his principal isn’t typically talkative and so shouldn’t be expected to speak on every idea that comes up in the country, including those relating to the herdsmen crisis.

We argue, however, that such disposition is contemptible of democratic practice, because it is better for the President to be a chatterbox in giving direction amidst national crisis than being a recluse. State governors apparently are stepping up to damage-control, owing to the absence of central direction.  Still, there are initiatives they may find appealing but would not head up in deference to Mr. President; or lack of authority to pursue such. That makes ongoing efforts feeble.

Part of the evidence of an impotent centre is the impunity persisting in some Ketu-Yewa speaking villages in Ogun State where soldiers from 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta manhandled community folk for rejecting herders grazing on, and destroying, their farmlands as exclusively reported by The Nation newspaper.

Since that report outed, Defence authorities are yet to apprehend the personnel involved; and now the impunity is compounded by the soldiers returning to the villages and attempting to compel the victims to deny media reports that they were flogged; and threatening those whose names appeared in the story with arrest.

Simultaneously, Force Headquarters in Abuja has invited the villagers for questioning, a move the villagers have interpreted as a suspected ploy to detain them, and have shunned. We expect the soldiers to have been berated openly by the army hierarchy and the culprits punished.

National challenges can’t be effectively contained where people carry on as law unto themselves.