•Federal Government must listen to his clarion call to disarm cattle rearers
It is a tinderbox waiting to spark into a conflagration but sadly, the Federal Government seems to be at sea as to what to do. However, the now calamitous Hausa-Fulani cattle rearers’ matter may be inching towards a certain denouement as the supreme leader of the Muslim faithful in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has lent his voice to it.
In his Eid-el-Fitr message last week, he averred: “The real herdsmen do not carry guns, they only move with their cows and sticks.
“Agreed, there are bad eggs among the Fulani, but those carrying arms and perpetrating heinous killings are not herdsmen. Those carrying arms are criminals and they should be treated as such.
“The government should therefore probe the sources of these weapons and take appropriate action so as to minimise these attacks.”
Since the menace of the nomadic cattle breeder took a dangerous turn about two years ago and its devastating effects became a problem of national magnitude, no call has been this strident and poignant. Initially, the refrain emanating from northern leaders, including some governors, had been that the marauding herdsmen were foreigners from across Nigeria’s borders. But for the first time, the narrative seems to be changing and about time too.
The Federal Government must urgently take a cue from the admonition of the Sultan and initiate a series of actions towards finding a lasting solution to the problem. The reason is that the tempo of attacks has risen sharply just as the trouble spots have increased. From Taraba to Benue, Edo, Ondo, Delta, Enugu, Ebonyi, there is hardly any state in Nigeria where the herdsmen have not left their ugly imprint.
For instance, just as the Sultan spoke in Sokoto last week, a shootout was going on in Ileyo Village in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State. It was between the police and herdsmen who had invaded the farm of Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Falae who was abducted on his farm by herdsmen in 2015 had invited the police when he noticed grazing on his farm.
The herdsmen on sighting the police, reportedly opened fire on them; they claimed that the place was their grazing area.
Two days after the Akure North incident, the streets of Ekpoma, the headquarters of Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State were in turmoil as residents marched in protests of the alleged beheading of a woman.
The woman was said to have been beheaded in her farm the day before and her body was found in the morning of the following day. Three weeks earlier, another woman was reportedly shot in Auchi by Fulani herdsmen in the presence of his husband and two children as they returned from the farm.
But all these were child’s play compared to the mayhem that was unleashed on Sadauna Local Government Area of Taraba State in the feud between Fulani herdsmen and the Mambilla tribe in the Mambilla Plateau community. As at last week, it was reported that over 200 people and a lot of cattle had been killed. And it seemed morning yet as the augury is dark in that hitherto serene plateau community.
It is against this backdrop that the Sultan’s call is most auspicious and must be attended to with utmost urgency. It must be noted that the Federal Government has been particularly remiss on this matter.
While government must move quickly to disarm the herdsmen and curb rustling, there is need for a holistic intervention to this matter. Nomadic mode of animal husbandry is no doubt obsolete; therefore government and all stakeholders must draw up a medium-to-long term plan to create a new template.
We note again that what is at stake here is beef, milk, leather and all the auxiliary businesses in the livestock value chain. It’s business, stupid.
