Muhammadu Buhari is a man beseiged by wild drama. As President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is thrust in the hungry maw of a plebeian spectacle. The resultant scenes prove him an unlikely hero, who keeps battling the lure of chthonian nemesis.
Yet there are two facets to his presidential character: the fabled, passive Spartan and his innate, earthly antagonist. Both aspects of him incarnate multiple personae thus his unfurling like a cast of thousands played by one.
The antagonist, however, overwhelms the Spartan, recurrently rifling through his politics, thus making his ultimate threat more perceptual and self-embowered.
His proposed implementation of the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) as solution to the recurring conflict between nomadic herders and farmers, for instance, has incited outrage among all classes of Nigerians. Camp Buhari says he means well. His virulent critics state otherwise.
And while the idea is cleverly depicted by the RUGA acronym, its precepts flare disconcertingly across public circuits. Ruga also translates to cow settlement in Hausa and this irks several nationalities of the country’s southern divide.
Commentary on social and mainstream media meanders wildly, from abject horror to shock over what certain leading commentators have termed the presidency’s brazen insensitivity to sections of the country on the receiving end of the herders-farmers’ conflict.
Besides pillorying the initiative as the crudest form of assault on inclusivity in a multi-ethnic Nigeria, Buhari’s critics downsouth insist he flirts with mayhem. Left to them, the initiative reeks of a desire for landgrabbing and conquest. Is it?
In response to the widespread outcry and condemnation of the proposed project, the presidency’s spokesmen have dismissed apprehensions about the project.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Umar, announced on Tuesday, June 25, that the settlements will house nomadic herdsmen who breed animals.
“We want to put them in a place that has been developed as a settlement, where we provide water for their animals, pasture, schools for their children, security, agro-rangers, etc.
“We are going to change their lifestyle, take them away from our streets and from wandering in the bush and develop districts, hamlets and towns and definitely in the next five to 10 years you will never see a nomad moving about, wandering or kidnapping. And this will end all these security challenges,” he said.
In the same vein, the presidency, in a statement, said the RUGA settlement/Ruga was conceived to address the clashes between farmers and herders in the country.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, condemned the “unhelpful comments regarding the plan to stop roaming of cattle herders with the attendant clashes with farmers stressing that beneficiaries will include all persons in animal husbandry, not only Fulani herders. He also stressed that the Federal Government was planning the programme to curb open grazing of animals that continue to pose security threats to farmers and herders.
“The overall benefit to the nation includes a drastic reduction in conflicts between herders and farmers, a boost in animal protection complete with a value chain that will increase the quality and hygiene of livestock in terms of beef and milk production, increased quality of feeding and access to animal care and private sector participation in commercial pasture production by way of investments.
“Other gains are job creation, access to credit facilities, security for pastoral families and curtailment of cattle rustling,” he said.
And it gets quite interesting as Shehu added, that, “Stripped of the politics and howling that has attended the recent comments, there is no government plan to seize state land, colonize territory or impose Ruga on any part of the federation. Government has made it clear time and again that the programme is voluntary.
“So far, twelve states have applied to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture…Unfortunately, some state governments that have not signified interest in the scheme and, therefore, are not on the invitation list have been misleading people that the Federal Government is embarking on a scheme to take away their lands.
“Mostly, these are state leaders that have no explanation to offer their people for continued non-payment of workers’ salaries. It is true that government at the centre has gazetted lands in all states of the federation but because the idea is not to force this programme on anyone, the government has limited the take-off to the dozen states with valid requests,” he said.
Vintage Shehu. With spokespersons like him, President Buhari may be assured of an eclipse of goodwill perhaps. Although he stressed that the presidency seeks a permanent solution to the unwanted conflicts, and that “efforts must be made to ensure that no innocent person faces any kind of deprivation or loss of right and freedom under our laws,” Shehu failed to address what measures have been put in place to compensate victims of the herdsmen’s murder sprees as they invaded southern farmlands to forcibly feed their herd.
Benue still smarts from the maniacal massacre of 73 villagers and farmers, mostly women and children, in Guma and Logo local councils, by suspected herdsmen. Alleged mastermind of the attack and leader of the herdsmen gang, 40-year-old Alhaji Laggi, and cohorts: Mallam Mumini Abdullahi, 34 years; Muhammed Adamu, 30 years and Ibrahim Sule, 32 years old, reportedly confessed to the crime, acoording to the police. So did Muhammadu Bimini, who was arrested by riot policemen on March 8, at Daffo, Plateau State, with an AK-47 rifle with serial number: HC2614.
Late Omowole Orimisan stays interred six-feet under, after he was murdered at the Hands Down area of Ore, in Odigbo, Ondo State.
Suspected herdsmen killed Omowole while he worked on his farm. Four of the five culprits were arrested. They are Ibrahim Yussuf, 19; Soja, 20; Halti, 20; and Musa 25.
Critics argue that via Ruga, the criminally-minded among the herdsmen, may get compensated for the mayhem and death they visited on helpless, indigent farmers. And what do the farmers get in return? Garba Shehu may consider himself truth-sayer, but the Ruga cynic likens him to the proverbial huckster, who would market dystopia to seekers of Eden.
Rather than attack dissenters for their apprehensions, Shehu would do better to highlight plans by his principal’s administration to pacify bereaved victims of herdsmen attacks knowing that the latter’s brazen cuddling via RUGA/Ruga ought to be accompanied by mitigatory measures in the interest of their victims. If there aren’t such plans, he would do right by his principal to propose such initiatve.
On the flipside, Buhari’s critics should quit attacking his presidency as that is akin to shooting peas at Gibraltar, and instead, direct their grievances to their state governors and other elected representatives in the National Assembly. The governors and lawmakers, they would find, are merely paying lipservice to the ongoing protest against RUGA/Ruga.
Buhari and company would do better to reconsider the RUGA/Ruga venture. Let them be guided by Eze Onyekpere’s implied wisdom. Niger State, for instance, he opines, is about 76,363 square kilometres and home to the great Shiroro and Kainji dams.
“It has water and provides the environment for all year-round farming and cattle rearing. Compare this with Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states with a combined land mass of 29,525 square kilometres, which is less than 40 per cent of the size of Niger State.”
Such is the tenor of the argument against RUGA/Ruga. Of course, all Mr. President’s men would object.
