For two days in Abuja, the police, traditional rulers, the Leadership Group, and others sought answers to perhaps Nigeria’s most pressing challenge, PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU and FAITH YAHAYA report.
‘We must provide an enabling environment for the herdsmen who do not require electricity or road. All they need is water and it is not being provided. I am an individual, I drink water and it is a private thing but animals also have the right to survive. When we bring in the argument of private business, we are linking it to ethnic or religious dimension; we are not looking at it from the business angle. Markets, dams, roads and others are provided by government. If we should tell a taxi driver to construct a road for himself because he plies the road, it makes mockery of Nigeria’
The horrors of herders-farmers clashes are everywhere in their gory details. People, among them women and children, are murdered in cold blood, farmlands, houses are destroyed, herds are killed or rustled in thousands.
Socio-economic activities are brought to a halt in affected communities, which affects the economy of the nation. Hunger, poverty and unemployment become the order of the day, posing grave threats to national security.
No fewer than 12 states-Adamawa, Zamfara, Kaduna, Ekiti, Delta, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra and Taraba-are battling with the crisis, apart from such other security challenges as communal wars, kidnapping and armed robbery.
This was why the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris convened a national security summit in collaboration with the Leadership Group and the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN).
Participants at the two-day summit held at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, expressed worries that the herders-farmers clashes might break the country if nothing was done to stop it.
The participants included Governors of Kaduna, Benue and Gombe states, Nasri el-Rufai, Samuel Ortom and Ibrahim Dankwabo respectively, Minister for Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau; Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, Emir of Gumi, Justice Lawal Gunmi, Chairman, Leadership Group, Sam Nda-Isaiah, Professors Oshita Oshita, Sani Luga, Jospeh Golwa, Hamidu Sharabutu, Olu Ogunsakin and Armstrong Adejo, Director General, Awareness Trust, Dr. Lydia Umar, legislators, as well as representatives of herders and farmers.
They agreed there should be a standard operating procedure for livestock farming, just as the issue of forest guards, rehabilitation of grazing reserves and adoption of cattle ranching topped the discussions. The participants also suggested a harmonious relationship between the wives of herders and farmers, noting that it would nip clashes in the bud.
IGP Idris said the way out of farmers-herders conflict was for Nigerians to be tolerant with each other.
He said, “The main way to tackle the issue of herdsmen and farmers is for us to be our brother’s keeper. We grew up in this country and we saw how people migrated to other places and settled peacefully. I think it is just the element of give and take that is lacking and like somebody observed, Nigerians are becoming intolerant of each other. Until we stop the intolerance and believe that we have to forego something in order to get something, the communal clashes and ethnic disagreements would continue. The reason for the summit is for all stakeholders to assemble and proffer solutions to improving security across the country.”
Nda-Isaiah suggested that the government should use the same force it deployed in tackling Boko Haram on the farmers-herders crisis, adding that the police should be equipped and deployed not only the military.
Sharabutu, who’s the President, Veterinary Council of Nigeria, said the standard procedure would minimise open grazing and also stop young Fulani children from being herders. He said it would make the herders responsible for the actions of their cattle, adding that it would also stop night grazing.
Sharabutu presented a paper on “identifying regulatory controls for movement of livestock and the cultural relationship with farming communities: Options for peaceful co-existence.” He said the lack of infrastructural provisions for grazing was the main cause of the conflicts.
He lamented that the established and developed stock routes for grazing have been either overtaken by buildings, farmlands or abandoned, noting that the development has forced herders to keep moving in order to save their cattle.
According to him, cattle need at least six hectares of land per year to survive and there were approximately 19million grazing cattle in the country, forcing herders to scavenge.
Sharabutu said though there were 417 grazing reserves to cover four million hectares, only about 170 were gazetted, just as he pointed over taxation from authorities and lack of water for the cattle as other reasons herders avoid road shoulders.
On the way forward, Sharabutu said all herders must be registered and identified, adding that government should provide necessary infrastructure that would encourage people to establish livestock farms and settle down.
He said: “The issue of infrastructural provision for the existing grazing reserve is the main thing. Why we keep talking about maintaining animal farms, those establishment (grazing reserves) particularly in the northern parts of the country, have no deliberate allocation that would solve the problem of these livestock farmers.
“If we have to do that, then we must provide for them in the budget and make sure that these established grazing reserves must work at all cost. The Ministry of Environment must provide forest guards to police our bushes.
“Most of our security agents are resident in town. It should look at the issue of forest guards. If we had forest guards that are operational in Sambisa forest, Boko Haram would not stay there and dug tunnels, where ammunition were buried without people knowing.
“Already, the Minister of Agriculture has brought the issue of Agro Rangers but that is to protect farm lands and crops, forest guards are meant to protect those areas and they are to be provided by our own institutions in this country.
“Everybody will tell you cattle rearing is private business. Agriculture and farming are private business. Who gives them the feeds and who promulgate policies? Who build access roads and markets for traders? Who gives them loans? Why can’t the government provide dams for the herders?
“So, there is an extent to which we talk about private business. We must provide an enabling environment for them. The typical herdsmen do not require electricity nor road, all he needs is water and it is not being provided. I am an individual, I drink water and it is a private thing but animals also have the right to survive.
“When we bring the argument of private business, we are linking it to ethnic or religious dimension; we are not looking at it from the business angle. Markets, dams, roads and others are provided by government. If we should tell a taxi driver to construct a road for himself because he plies the road, it makes mockery of Nigeria.”
Sharabutu talked about the functionality of traditional rulers and prosecutors, whom he said, are usually heads of professional bodies such as the blacksmiths, farmers and herders.
“Now if we make them functional, they will be very serious and thereby solve the problem at the beginning point. Traditional rulers must be given a proper standing not the ceremonial kind of leadership. We have cited example on how they are commended but they do not have any legal backing to actually implement their activties.
