THESE are certainly not the best of times for Governor Dairus Ishaku of Taraba State. The ride is turbulent for him as he grapples to keep the rudder of the state stable. His is like someone presiding over a state fast sliding into ruins for no fault of his. The year began on a sour note. In January, 68 people were gruesomely killed in one local government area alone by herdsmen using sophisticated weapons. The dead were given mass burial as flags flew in half mast.
The canvass of blood is now wide. Every day, scores of people are maimed and killed, homes and pricey properties set ablaze. For residents of Taraba, there is no peace in sight. The people are in mourning mood. They are angry too. As they mourn in the day, they go to bed at nightfall to hear gun sounds. At the crack of dawn, they count several people dead. There is fear (of the herdsmen) in the land. On Wednesday, nine persons were killed and their homes torched by the rampaging herdsmen in a dusk attack on Tutuwa village of Ussa. The Ussa council chairman, Rimansikwe Karma, and the police spokesman, David Misal, confirmed the killings to newsmen. Hunger is looming, as farmlands have been devastated. The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has continued to increase in camps. The IDPs live like people without hope. School buildings have become their new homes.
The women give birth there without proper healthcare. The rooms lack ventilation. They sleep on the floor and mosquitoes feast on them. But above all, they do not have enough to eat. They have no idea when they will return to their homes, most of which have been destroyed. Many are still missing, while those injured are lying ill in the hospitals, a situation which has overstretched hospitals and clinics in the state, forcing the Darius Ishaku administration to employ more health workers. The socio-economic life of the state has been ruined by the herdsmen. Yet, there seems to be no end in sight to the hostilities by herdsmen. The herdsmen/farmers crisis has ruptured the peace of the state and grossly hampered development. The ethnic groups, which even inter-married, are now starkly fractioned into ‘farmers and herders’ camps with a bitter rivalry between them over grazing fields. “When I took the oath of office, I promised to provide development if my people could give me peace. For development, I am providing, but there is no peace to consolidate and sustain the developmental efforts,” Governor Darius Ishaku was quoted as saying in exasperation. Farmers have accused herdsmen of provocation by allowing their cattle to feast freely on their crops and going about with AK-47 rifles and double edged machetes with which they unleash terror.
The herdsmen, in turn, accuse farmers of rustling their cows. For the herdsmen, it is human blood for a cow. As the population of residents grows at a geometric progression, the need for land expands, not the least for agricultural and livestock purposes. Thus, the crisis lingers. The killings continue. And troops deployed to violence prone areas seen to be helpless. The troops cannot remain there for eternity. Once they depart, the herdsmen will strike. Stephen Ibrahim Agya, Chairman of Kurmi local government council and Chairman of ALGON in Taraba State, said: “The Fulani herdsmen killing people are not the Fulani we know.” He said they are not the Fulani herdsmen who go about with quiet face, with a stick in hand, a wide hat for protection from the scorching sun, watching and guarding cows munch away on verdant fields. “These ones move with AK-47 rifles and poisoned machetes with which they unleash terror.”
Witnesses said they often invade at night when the residents are fast sleeping. They open fire and disappear into thin darkness like guerrilla fighters. In the morning, several bodies are counted. In Taraba, hell has become synonymous with herdsmen. And their fear is the beginning of wisdom. So, why are these Fulani herdsmen different? Governor Ishaku said their violence is a drive for territorial control. So, why such a blind ambition to conquer and occupy other people’s territory? “Taraba State is a mini-Nigeria with over 80 ethnic groups and three religions to handle. It is not easy to always balance things up here. The state is contending with a different breed of herdsmen who are militias moving around with AK 47 rifles to remove anything in their way, unlike the known herdsmen who had cohabited with the people for decades without skirmishes. “The problem is never between the locals. The local Fulani and other tribes blend without issues. We have a new breed and specie of herdsmen militias who move around with sophisticated weapons; they are poised to remove anything in their track. They must be arrested now before it degenerates to something we cannot contend with,” Ishaku said. He added: “Taraba used to be the most peaceful state in the northeast geopolitical zone before the current crisis. Nearly 150,000 persons have been displaced and this has put a strain on the state’s health facilities.
“The insecurity has put a lot of pressure on our health facilities, much more than you would anticipate. So, we have to do more; we have to engage more doctors, nurses and specialists, but we thank God.” The wave of the clashes between the herders and farmers has thrown up new ideas on how to end the problem. The most controversial is the cattle colonies. Ranching is a popular option. Taraba Governor, Darius Ishaku, like his Benue state counterpart, Samuel Ortom, thinks he can end the clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Taraba State through the instrumentality of the “Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law.” Thus, his administration enacted the anti-open grazing law. But opposition came from the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, which vowed to flout the law and resist arrest. In spite of the law, open grazing goes on, sparking off violence and killings. NEC intervenes Worried by the spate of killings in the country, the National Economic Council (NEC) constituted a 10-man working committee, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, to address “the impunity regarding the killings and violence by herdsmen, to ensure the perpetrators are prosecuted.”
The governors of Taraba, Kaduna, Zamfara, Benue, Adamawa, Edo, Plateau, Oyo and Ebonyi states are members. The committee, in February, led by Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, visited the affected states, including Taraba, for “fact-finding over the security challenges and to work on resolving the conflicts between farmers and herders.” Umahi’s team brought every stakeholder together: farmers, herdsmen, members of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders and Farmers Association, all ethnic nationality representatives, government officials, women and youth groups as well as security agencies. All the groups made their submissions, orally and in print. It was agreed that open grazing led to bloodbaths and must stop, but other conditions must be put right first. That the state has the right to make laws, which individuals and groups must obey -whether they like it or not, but can only complain to the authority on any sections that infringe on their right, or go to court.
That before the law, there were clashes and people were killed. Thus, there must be dialogue, since war cannot solve the problem. It was therefore, resolved that ranching of animals is the solution, but the anti-open grazing law be revisited and necessary infrastructure provided to address the fears of herdsmen. The governor (Ishaku) should give “more months of moratorium to allow the ranching in line with the law to take off and the state and federal governments to invest in livestock production, while cattle movement be restricted. TY Danjuma intervenes Former Defence Minister, General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), in a rare outburst, at the Taraba state university maiden convocation, said, among others: “The armed forces collude with the bandits that kill Nigerians.
“They facilitate their movement. They cover them.” The otherwise tarciturn General called on the people to engage in self-defence as a drastic solution to the problem. Danjuma’s indictment of the military came on the heels of a similar allegation by Amnesty International (AI), an international human rights watchdog, which earlier stated that little or nothing was being done to curb the mayhem by the herdsmen.
Danjuma spoke on March 24. Eleven days after, the herdsmen struck in his home town -Takum, killing a couple and their two kids. Few days after, herdsmen attacked Jandeikyula village in Wukari Local Government Area. The presence of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and a military panel probing the allegation by Danjuma did not deter them from carrying out the onslaught. Ishaku backs Danjuma Governor Ishaku backed Danjuma on the latter’s allegation that the armed forces “are not neutral” in the attacks on innocent Nigerians by “bandits.” Speaking before the military panel investigating the allegation, headed by retired Major General Joseph Nimyel, the governor said the people of Taraba State were fully in support of the statements by the former defence minister calling on Nigerians to defend themselves. Ishaku said the remarks by Danjuma, who once headed the Nigerian Army, should be carefully looked into rather than being criticised.
As a long-term solution to the intractable problem, Governor Ishaku believes that the call for restructuring needs to be taken seriously. This, according to him, will enable the governors to take total control of the police. He said without total control of the police, governors are mere toothless bull dogs. He said: “I am a governor sworn in to protect lives and property, with a crown without a sword. How can I fight and keep control of my power, since I rely on the federal might for help? ‘’How can you be the chief security officer of your state when you don’t control the power that goes with the army and the police? It makes you a naked guard. “We rely on people who, when you give them instructions, they tell you to wait until they get clearance from above. “Before that clearance comes from Abuja, you have lost hundreds of lives. This is absolutely absurd and disappointing, particularly when you meet people like me who want to work with zeal. “How do you develop when there is no peace? You can’t do anything. Even when you provide development, it would be destroyed.”