In criminal law, the motive for commission of a crime could be valuable in investigation and in seeking conviction, for the crime. So, while searching for the offender, investigators look out for those with motive to commit the crime, and when a person is put on trial, proving that he/she has a motive helps the judge reach a verdict of guilt, especially when the evidence is circumstantial.
Motive therefore, is of importance, in criminal jurisprudence and the sociology of crime. In dealing with the prevalent mass murder, particularly in the middle belt of our dear country, allegedly by marauding Fulani herdsmen; seeking for the motive, is therefore fundamentally important. That could also be helpful, in finding a solution, if the federal government genuinely wants to stop the despicable acts of terrorism that could upend our national cohesion.
According to Wikipedia: “A motive, in law, especially criminal law, is the cause that moves people to induce a certain action”. It goes on: “Motive, in itself, is not an element of any given crime; however, the legal system typically allows motive to be proven in order to make plausible the accused’s reasons for committing a crime, at least when those motives may be obscure or hard to identify with”. It went further: “However, a motive is not required to reach a verdict. Motives are also used in other aspects of a specific case, for instance, when police are initially investigating”.
From the foregoing, what could be the motive for the mass murder and dislocation of natives, in the middle belt region of our country? By many accounts, the prime motive is access to food and water for cattle and the protection of cattle. Evidentially, the middle belt is predominately a fertile land which grows lush green grass, more particularly in the Rivers Niger and Benue trough. This is unlike the northern part of our country, forming part of the Sahel that is under the threat of desertification.
According to a BBC website, Bitesize: “The Sahel region of Africa has been suffering from drought on a regular basis since the early 1980s. The area naturally experiences alternating wet and dry seasons. If the rains fail it can cause drought.” It went further: “In addition to natural factors, the land is marginal. Human activities such as overgrazing, over-cultivation and the collection of firewood can lead to desertification, particularly when combined with drought conditions.”
The result is that across the Sahel, there is “crop failure, soil erosion, famine and hunger: people are then less able to work when their need is greatest. It becomes a vicious circle and can result in many deaths, especially among infants and the elderly. In Niger in 2004, the situation was made worse when a plague of locusts consumed any remaining crops. In these cases, people rely on food aid from the international community.”
To make matters worse, the Lake Chad which use to support about 40 million lives, across five countries around it, has shrunk from about 25000 square kilometres in the 1980s to about 1350 square kilometres presently. According to many accounts, the ability of the Boko Haram bandits to continuously recruit fighters is linked to the Lake Chad crisis. It is also believed that the murderous activities of the herdsmen has great impetus from the tragedy of the Boko Haram insurgency.
So clearly, the herdsmen have the motive to want to control the middle belt which has the essential grassland that has become very scarce in the Sahel. To have a permanent access to grasses, the herdsmen have to try to exterminate the natives and take over their land permanently. It is logical therefore to argue that the desire to have a permanent access provides the motive for the killing and destruction of the homesteads we are witnessing in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Nassarawa and even northern part of Enugu State.
On the other hand, there is the argument by the president that the marauders in the middle belt are remnants of the dispersed army of the Libyan strongman late Muammar Ghaddafi. The proponents of this alternative theory have not provided the plausible motive why the killers would concentrate in the middle belt of Nigeria, and why they should after successfully dislodging the natives, leave the herdsmen to take over the lands and benefit from their criminality.
The other theory by the Minister for Defence is that, it is the anti-open grazing law promulgated by the Benue State government that is the cause of the mayhem in the state. He had repeated that argument severally. But with the mass murder of about 200 women, children and men in Plateau few days ago, that argument was deflated, since Plateau State, had no anti-open grazing law and was touting its peace deals as a panacea to the crisis.
Unfortunately, Governor Simeon Lalong’s much-praised appeasement tactics has not yielded the desired result. Indeed, the people of Plateau State were mocking the governor’s appeasement tactics as they protested against the latest killing. Chanting songs they matched into the government house, in search of their governor, and seemed ready to visit the poor fellow with jungle justice, if not for the intervention of the security men. Considering his outburst that he had advised against open-grazing law, when Benue State was attacked, Lalong must be sulking over his failed appeasement.
As I had argued at the beginning, in dealing with the sociology of crime, motive is also helpful when seeking solution to the problem. Instead of trading blames and looking for scapegoats as top federal government officials have been doing, they need to find solution to the crisis. In the immediate, the federal government must move into the crisis zone to stop any further killing, while they bring the culprits to account. As quickly as possible an alternative for the primary source of the crisis, which is food and water must be settled.
The federal government must also appreciate that when it tries to scapegoat the governors of the concerned states or other leaders through vile propaganda, it undermines its ability to find a solution to the problem which could consume the country. Again, when it pretends that there are no motives for the wanton killings, destructions and displacement going on in the region, it gives impetus to the argument that it is a partial arbiter, or that it supports the obnoxious agenda of the herdsmen to colonize the region.
A more permanent solution to the crisis will be to reverse desert encroachment, rejuvenate the Lake Chad, and change the archaic culture of itinerant herders. Until the federal government begins to address the causes of the mass murder now prevalent in the middle belt, many of such despicable killings will continue. Importantly, it is not enough to just have a template, to sympathize with the victims.