Participants at the two-day National Summit on conflict resolution tagged “Towards enduring peace” have been suggesting ways to end incessant clashes between itinerant herdsmen and farmers. The discourse, holding at the Nigerian Air Force Conference Centre in Abuja, is organised by Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation and TV Continental, report Tony Akowe, Victor Oluwasegun, Faith Yahaya and Moses Emorinken.
A professor of Agriculture with the University of Ibadan Prof. Mohammed Yahaya Kuta yesterday urged the Federal Government to lead the battle against incessant farmers/herders’ clashes, threatening peaceful coexistence of the country.
Prof Kuta, a former Secretary to the Niger State government, spoke at the National Summit on Conflict Resolution organised by The Nation and Television Continental in Abuja. He was the Chairman of the opening session.
According to him, the government should take practical steps to demonstrate its commitment to putting an end to such conflicts.
He said that if the government is interested in having ranches for herders, it should begin by putting something on the ground for the herders to see, pointing out that if ranching could be successful in other countries, there was no reason why it could not succeed in Nigeria.
According to the professor, over 80 per cent of the land mass in Nigeria remained unutilised
He said: “The government must take the lead in terms of demonstration. Whatever we want to achieve at the end of this, there must be sign post. If you want ranches to come up, why not demonstrate where these herders can see that there is an innovation.
“We should have a place they can see because like the saying goes, seeing is believing; we have seen how it has worked in other climes. Botswana is a leading light in terms of the success story; Namibia is another success story, South Africa is another leading light.
“So, why can’t it happen in Nigeria which unarguably the largest nation, with the largest land mass, with the largest potentials of agriculture and arable land for crop production.
“Why is it that less than 20 per cent of this land is utilised. How do we do something in terms of pastoral development and ranching as well as animals so that this country will take the lead again and transform the people positively.
“The world summit on communication concluded that communication is about people and that people are very critical mass in human development and therefore, communication initiatives make the difference. So, we must commend you for adding your voice to the ongoing conversation on conflict mitigation and resolution.
“Within this year alone, the Ahmad Bello Memorial Foundation has organised two sessions with different stakeholders on the same subject matter and concluded that the ongoing conversation must continue until we get to the end of the matter.
“So, for you to bring all these stakeholders together as concern people to come and talk about the subject matter especially given the climate of herders’ farmers’ confit is commendable.
He noted that agriculture extension workers were excluded in all discussions and meetings so far held to resolve farmers’ and herders’ clashes in the country, describing them as critical stakeholders that should be carried along in the entire process.
Kuta said: “But there is a missing link. When discussion about agriculture takes place, those agriculture extension workers are always missing and those are the key stakeholders. They are well trained in the act and principle and strategies of relating with the key actors.
“So, next time when discussions on this are taking place, agriculture extension must be given priority to avoid talking to ourselves without the real professionals who will help bring about the desired result.”
Stakeholders Proffer solution
In their presentation, members of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fuani Socio- Cultural described the search for enduring peace between farmers and herders as fundamental to the attainment of food security, development, progress and Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs).
The association said: “For enduring peace to reign in rural communities, there are short-medium and long- term which, include a review of the Land Use Act to accommodate the interest of all land resources users.
“Halting of aerial bombardments of pastoralists’ communities in Zamfara by the army in the name of targeting bandits but rather adopt critical intelligence to target the real base of bandits and criminal elements masquerading as herders.
“Accelerate the establishment and development of grazing reserves by the government as an intermediary strategy for the eventual modernisation of the livestock sector.
“The suspension of recent anti–grazing laws enacted by some states which they said, have become ‘recipe for conflicts.’
“The immediate release from detention of hundreds of pastoralists languishing in jails without trials particularly those arrested in Benue on pretext of violating anti-grazing laws.”
It also said that perpetrators of conflicts should be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others and that support should be given for community based conflict resolution mechanisms through communications, campaigns, public enlightenment for peaceful co-existence.
Besides, the association in its position by National Secretary Saleh Alhassan said that livestock tracking, using the GPS technology should be employed.
Alhassan, an engineer, said: “It is, however, very sad that the ranging conflicts between herders and sedentary farmers in recent years is making peace elusive between this two important economic groups.
“Though this conflicts are not a new phenomenon, as revealed by previous studies of herders’/farmers’ conflicts in Nigeria. Conceptualising the conflicts as conflicts over the control resources such as water and grazing lands between competing groups situate the emphasis on distribution and therefore allows for essential insights into the socio-political economy of the land conflicts that have resulted in preventable deaths and anguish.
“The ongoing resource conflicts are not just a contingent phenomenon but are to be viewed against the background of a history of active alienation, mass displacements, cultural and physical aggression and political marginalisation of pastoralist population in the country.
“Today, the agricultural policies and some state legislations on land, are heavily bias towards sedentary groups and agriculture in continuity with the tradition which began under the colonial period administration and sustained through the post-colonial era, culminating with the promulgation of the Land Use Act of 1978 that made access to land very difficult.”
He noted that systemic marginalisation has led to embedded tensions over ownership rights, identity issues as well as breakdown of the social contract between the people and their government.
The collapse of trust between communities, he said, has sown the seeds for the conflicts over the land resources in the country.
He said major conflict drivers include, increased competition for land (driven by desertification, climate change and population growth), lack of clarity around the demarcation of pastures and stock routes, and the breakdown of traditional relationships between pastoralist and farmers.
Alhassan said: “The grazing routes and reserves were clearly mapped by the colonialists. However, due to lack of strict implementation of urban and regional laws, an array of other conflicts further inflame tensions between pastoralist and farmers communities and disrupt the markets upon which rural livelihoods depends, including disputes over land access and ownership, market-place clashes, perceived biased responses to security incidents.”
He also blamed the conflicts on the exclusion of local communities from public decision-making and preferential treatment of indigenous communities in access to jobs and education.
“These conflicts undermine security, development and economic growth by destroying productive assets, reducing production, preventing trade, deterring investments by private sector and eroding social cohesion, he said.”
He named key actors in the conflict as herders and farmers fighting over access and competition for land resources, mercenaries and outlaws, as a full-time way of making a living; cattle rustlers for purely criminal economic motives and aggrieved young men out on revenge missions for past injustice.
The mobilisers/organisers of the conflicts, according to him, include arms’ dealers, vigilance groups and ethnic militias, local chiefs and elders in the communities for economic and political gains, local politicians, to sustain their corruption and cover up for bad governance and politicians to maintain power through the promotion of tension.
He alleged that “security forces”, with vested interests in not only intervening but in bias intervention could be facilitators and administrators of such clashes.
Alhassan noted that security agents could take advantage of their missions in rural areas to perpetrate crimes against the community they have been sent to keep peace due to the existence of their kith and kin /clan/ethnic ties).
Others factors, he said are: foreign/international interest to prevent economic stability and political organisation for strategic interest (for example oil and ore deposits) and media organisations and individuals that spread fake news and promote hate speeches
The National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN, Baba Usman Ngelzarma said: “The farmers’/herders’ clashes have been hijacked by crisis merchants, who are politicians of questionable character, religious extremists as well as their arsenic and bigots.
“However, our major concern is the Fourth Estate of the Realm which is the media who should be the vanguard of peaceful existence. Unfortunately, recent events showed that the media has taken sides and has portrayed the herdsmen as the criminal as well as the terrorist and this is unfortunate and does not in any way portray the true story.
“The major issue is the generalisation of the group as bad. This generalisation must stop. There is no community that does not have its challenge of bad eggs amongst them and the herders community is no exception. Crime and criminality must be identified and treated as such without profiling and portraying an entire ethnic group as criminals.”
He noted that MACBAN members have been portrayed as aggressors rather than the victims.
“It is on record that we have suffered untold hardship and suffered unmitigated harassment from security agencies, lost our only source of livelihood through organised cattle rustling and otherwise killing of our cows.
“As at today, our members have lost over two million cows as a result of cattle rustling and other criminalities and during the insurgency that took place in the northeastern part of the country, our members were the worst hit by the crisis.
“Many statistics abound on this issue. In Benue State alone, as a result of the anti-grazing law we lost 300 of our members and over 7000 cows in Benue. In Zamfara, we have lost over 16,000 people, and billions of naira of property as a result of the crisis. In Nasarawa State, we have lost 421 herders as a result of this crisis and in about five months ago in a part of Plateau, we lost 300 members but all these were not reported by the media.
“Our members remain victims but today because of media profiling, our members are considered by everybody as the culprit from the actual victims that they are.”
According to him, there were 415 grazing reserves across the northern part of the country with only three in the southwestern part of the country.
“”All the grazing reserves are located in the northern part of the country and about 144 of them have laws backing them.
“They are there and some have been neglected, some are encroached upon by farmers and because of the neglect of government, some of the infrastructures are dilapidated and no longer work.
“In Plateau, we have about 18 dams in Wase but none of them is working.”
On the way out of the crisis, he said: “compensation of loss from the crisis. The Federal Government must begin to pay for the loss in order to alleviate the frustration on both sides because both sides lost lives and properties.
“Modern animal husbandry must be put in place by the Federal Government and the grazing reserves have to be attractive to the pastoralists. Also, the ranching model that would suit the pastoralists should be put in place.”
To the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, the conflict has taken an unfortunate dimension as gangs take advantage of the clashes to further wreak havoc on communities.
“What I want to draw out and emphasize is that the herders’-farmers’ conflicts had developed into some criminality. Whether it’s in Zamfara, Benue, Nasarawa or Plateau, one thing I’ve noticed is that there are gangs that are armed and hide under the guise that the crops of the farmers have been devastated by the herders.”
Idris who was represented by the DIG in charge of Operations, Habila Joshak, further stated: “”Today, there are so many gangs waiting to intercept the herders with their cows. Sometimes, they take out these animals, slaughter them and when they don’t finish the meat and when you go out with security operatives on patrol, you see a lot of meat littered on the rocks and in the field.”
He said the trend has made it difficult to draw a connection between the slaughtered animals and the allegations that they had eaten farmers’ crops.
The IGP also alleged collusion sometimes between herders and Fulanis to perpetuate criminality against others.
According to him, jobless youths in some communities take up criminality as a way of life, thereby compounding the problem.
In an opening remarks, former Lagos State Information & Strategy in Commissioner Dele Alake said Nigeria was at the crossroads that is in contrast to the country of peace and harmony envisioned by its founding fathers.
He noted that Nigeria remained uniquely blessed with abundant natural resources and ‘has what it takes to be at the top.’
The police boss said: “In recent times, we have been challenged and confronted by all manners of threat to, our political stability. We won’t sit and watch till the apocalypse.”
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), who was represented by the director of Civil and Military Relations, David Aluku, said: “Today, security is citizen-centred. So, every member of the society is a stakeholder and that is why we are here. When we consider the role of nation approach to national security, we as part of the security community will just take notes, articulate the various input from this summit alongside others to enable us have full security operations and such will reduce collateral damage and ensure that it is only those that are supposed to be taken out that are taken out.
“Security agencies are working hard to ensure that everybody who is a citizen of this country realizes and contributes to National security. So, we will take note, articulate and improve operations.”
Rotimi Williams, one of the farmers, said: “Peace is a choice and it is one that we must all explore and I think this perhaps is an area we have all failed in.
“I have listened to speeches and nothing was said about partnership or coexistence? How do we all live together? I grow rice in Nasarawa State and in 2015, I got a call that about 15 hectare of the land I use was destroyed by the cattle and I could hear commotion from the background.
“I told them to hang on because at the end of the day, it is my money and my farm. So, we went to meet them, the herdsmen themselves were willing to make payments for what they destroyed but I knew that it won’t be sustainable because if they pay me, how much can they possibly pay?
“So, I suggested if they could work with me instead and I will pay them. By that suggestion, we were able to stop all these intrusion of herdsmen and destruction of the farm.
“Also last season, I remember that it was harvesting time and the men in the villages were trying to seek for jobs for their wives because of the bumper harvest. We discovered that the women were even doing better than the men and since 2015, we have not had the intrusion of herdsmen and I just wonder why the government has not explored the partnership of training the herdsmen and the partnership between the herdsmen and the farmers.
“In my community where I have 45,000 hectares, I have it on lease for the next 50 years and what I found out was that the agreement was done by the Tunga Development Board which represents everybody and the Fulani make up of about 40 per cent of the community. So, my way of making them feel included is by also making them participants of the scheme.
“I think there is a lot more to this crisis because the crisis starts, I try to kill it but from the board of Tunga, they feel excluded and they are the main community members. In the comnunity, the Fulani carry guns and so also members of the community and I feel the police need to check it.
“If we really want to tackle this issue, then we have to go down to the root and stop picking sides. I choose peace in my own case when my farm was destroyed, I could have fought because I had every right to, but like I said, peace is something we must all explore.
“Also for the Miyetti Allah group, I feel some of the herdsmen following the cattle are too young. I think more mature men should be sent along with cattle because the young boys cannot be held responsible for anything. Mature men can make more rational decisions on where the cattle can graze. I think the crisis would be quelled if this is considered.”