22nd January, 2018
A Public Analyst, Mr Adewale Kupoluyi, has advised the Federal Government to continue to engage the leadership of the herdsmen by making them realise that open grazing is no longer fashionable globally.
Kupoluyi, of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAA) told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday via an email that “countries now raise their large herds of animals in ranches.”
He wrote against the backdrop of the hostilities by herdsmen pastorialist in various parts of the country.
Kupoluyi, said that animals supplied with feeds were healthier.
“The position against open grazing should be driven home with superior argument that animals deliberately supplied with feeds and other nutrients are healthier and better fattened as against the itinerant breeds as found here in Nigeria.
“The animals face many risks while looking for what to eat. To be fully convinced of government’s sincerity and sustainability, necessary policies should be put in place to assist farmers in the supply of pasture and other nutritious feeds to cattle.
“The government should douse the tension in the land by discouraging open grazing and confining all itinerant herdsmen to established ranches.
“This is in tandem with some of the recommendations made in the 2014 National Conference that is not receiving the deserved attention of government.
“Traditional and religious leaders should intensify efforts by appealing to their subjects to embrace peace while those apprehended should be dealt with,” Kupoluyi said.
He said that poor handling of the menace was giving audacity to herdsmen to continue to wreak havoc across the country.
“A major crisis at the moment is the continued hostilities, wickedness and havoc being wreaked by herdsmen pastoralists in various parts of the country with recent cases recorded in the middle-belt region.
“Many people believe that with the poor handling of the menace and the audacity of the herdsmen, they could well be described as a new terrorist group distinct from the dreaded Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and other militant groups.
“It is instructive that the Global Terrorism Index 2015, had reported that Fulani militants remained the fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world.
“Apart from the palpable fear caused victims, the most pathetic part of the calamity befalling our people is the blatant manner in which the unprovoked attacks are carried out.
“On the defenceless, innocent and law-abiding members of communities across the geo-political zones of the country, as children and women are not left out in violence against humanity. People have been made to become refugees in their abode,” he said.
Kupoluyi said what continues to be the crux of the matter is the illegal grazing of farmland which, invariably, infringes on the right of farmers to plant and harvest their crops.
According to him, herdsmen forcefully and indiscriminately allow their cattle to graze and cultivate other peoples’ sweat and farmlands by destroying valuable crops.
Kopoluyi said that any attempt to stop the herdsmen from illegal incursions often resulted into killing, raping, destroying farmlands as well as sacking the whole communities.
He added that mixed reactions have continued to trail this unfortunate development with myriads of suggestions on the way forward.
He said: “It is on this premise that I find as very informative and revealing, two research reports from the Nigerian Working Group on Peace Building and Governance as well as the Chinua Achebe Centre for Leadership and Development on Fulani herdsmen attacks.
READ: Anti-open grazing: Taraba to implement law gradually – Deputy governor
“On one hand, the Nigerian Working Group on Peace Building and Governance, has observed that pastoralists-farmers’ conflicts in the nation had grown, spread and intensified over the past decade.
“It notes that Nigeria has about 19 million cattle, mostly in the hands of pastoralists. This phenomenal increase of the population has put enormous pressure on land and water resources used by farmers and pastoralists.
“One of the outcomes of this process has been the blockage of trans-humans routes and loss of grazing land to agricultural expansion, while the increased southward movement of pastoralists has led to increased conflict with local communities.
“The group recommended the establishment of grazing reserves, that would provide the opportunity to practice more limited form of pastoralism as the nation had only gazetted 113 out of its 417 grazing reserved,” he said.
It regretted that one of the greatest difficulties in addressing and resolving matters surrounding pastoralism was the politicisation of legal regimes and erection of blockages to the enactment or implementation of laws that can redress key challenges.
Similarly, the Chinua Achebe Centre for Leadership and Development said the herdsmen terrorists are mostly non-Nigerians and mainly migrants from Chad, Niger and other Fulani enclaves outside the country.
“They were said to be major actors and catalysts to recent conflicts in the Central African Republic. It noted further that herdsmen terrorists do not own cattle as most of them are employed by the cattle owners as `security men’.
“The cattle are owned by prominent Fulani leaders in the country while they increase their wealth astronomically through cattle rearing. The herdsmen do not follow the cattle around, but move in separate vehicles along a defined route.
“The report revealed that instead of investing in ranches and buying of grasses from the south, the herdsmen chose the cheaper alternative of taking the cattle from the north to south seasonally.
“Using the entire Nigerian space as their ‘grass kingdom’. This is rather unacceptable, ” he `noted.
Kupoluyi urged the Federal Government to delpoy the same security machinery as with the Nigeria Delta Militants and Boko Haram to address the excesses of the herdsmen activities.
He said the presidency needed to put in place a concerted effort to address poverty, unemployment, injustices among others which were causes of inter and intra-communal clashes.
He expressed the hope that the attacks would not have a political undertone as with the Chibok girls and former President Good luck Jonathan’s administration.