Bumpy ride for FG c’ttee on farmers – herders’ crisis

Between 2014 and 2016, the nation has witnessed some of the deadliest clashes ever in its history with loss of livesin Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger and pockets of attacks in some areas in the southern part of the country. Thousands of sedentary and nomadic farmers died, farms destroyed, villages abandoned and mounting […]

Between 2014 and 2016, the nation has witnessed some of the deadliest clashes ever in its history with loss of livesin Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger and pockets of attacks in some areas in the southern part of the country.

Thousands of sedentary and nomadic farmers died, farms destroyed, villages abandoned and mounting fear of insecurity in the volatile agrarian states-those so scared to go to farm moved to stay with relations in the cities creating another problem – the growing number of urban poor.

The conflict has significantly affected the agricultural and economic lives of the people, and the economic growth of nation, while escalating poverty in affected communities.

On Monday (November 7, 2016), the federal government through the Ministry of Interior inaugurated a peace committee to look at ways of ending years of bloodbath between these important agro communities.

The committee, which has two weeks to submit its report, is expected to come up with pragmatic strategies that will draw the curtains on the carnage so that farmers will look up to peaceful years of prosperity and productivity.

Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, told themembers to draw a blueprint that will bring all the relevant stakeholders to fashion the way forward to address the lingering disaster.

Dambazau told the committee: “You will recall that the conflict has been escalating at every passing year with more violent proportion, different dimensions and increasing geographical spread.”

The 16-man committee led by Professor Oshita O. Oshita, the Director-General of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, has a rocky road ahead considering the various dimensions and proportions the conflict has assumed.

The changing nature of the conflict

The crises, which were first triggered by competition for grazing and farm lands between sedentary and nomadic farmers, degenerated into full scale war in many agrarian communities.

The crises also took ethnic, regional and in some communities, even religious coloration sending signals that something must be done to tame the ill now to save the nation.

Beside the new dimension of the conflict, mercenaries from neighbouring countries are becoming part of the conflict, making it extremely difficult to curtail and even bloodier-a situation that is tricky.

This was confirmed by Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar when spoke at his palace in Sokoto recently saying that the herders moving about with guns and causing violence are not Nigerians.

The Sultan, who is also President General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) said, “These are foreigners coming into Nigeria to cause a breach of the peace …They are terrorists and should be treated as such by Nigerian security agencies.”

 In the same vein, the Director of the Centre for Democratic Development and Training (CEDDERT), Dr. Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed, said bandits from neighbouring countries are to blame for the incessant conflicts between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria based on research findings in the three communities of Dansadau in Zamfara State, Sabuwa in Katsina State and Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna State.

 The committee will have to identify how these mercenaries infiltrate the nation and how to deal with the situation. 

Other causes of the conflicts between herdsmen and sedentary farmers are destruction of crops, cattle rustling, overgrazing of farmlands, encroachment by farmers and/or taking over of cattle routes among others.

Socio-economic implication of the conflict

 The socio-economic effect of this long conflict include proliferation of arms across the country as we have seen lately; drastic drop in the productivity and income of farmers and destruction of their economic goods and livelihood; destruction of lives and property running into billions of naira; displacement of many productive communities and increased hunger and malnutrition.

 The conflict has made states like Ekiti to come up with what some called “anti-grazing laws” which restricted grazing to certain areas and time in the state.

 Considering the long history of the conflicts which have been underestimated by previous governments and their failure to implement some of the recommendations of stakeholders on the matter in past, the Dambazau committee has a huge task especially with the new dimensions of the conflict.

What experts think should be done

 Dr. Ochinya Ojiji is a renowned Social Psychologist and expert in Peace and Conflict Resolution. He led the team under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria that resolved the conflict between farmers and herdsmen in Mambilla Plateau, Taraba State in 2004.

 In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, Ojiji said he was not too comfortable with the idea of setting up a committee to look into the conflict because we are dealing with conflict that has a history and is not something that can be solved by any committee, adding that we have been with the conflict for a very long time.

 The bridge builder said, what the country needs is to strengthen the institutions already in place, like the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution which has worked in many areas of peace and conflict resolution including farmers-herders’ conflict, stressing that they already have some capacity in terms of understanding the issues involved and how to go about it.

 Dr. Ojiji, who developed the peace process that resolved the farmers-herders’ conflict in Mambilla Plateau along the border with Cameroon in 2004, said the cou ntry can draw lessons from the approach used in resolving the conflict.

 The UN-trained peace expert, who had worked with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, said there have been series of committees with robust recommendations but that never saw the light of the day, noting that the nation needs to go beyond setting up committee as the conflict has a long history and is now assuming more dangerous dimensions. 

 To solve the problem, the don opines that government must be careful not to place so much power in the hands of the elite in resolving the conflict, pointing out that it would not get us far because they would use it to their own advantage and it will not benefit the local people who are the ones involved in the conflict.

  “What we did in the Mambilla Plateau was to literally take power away from the elite and then concentrate on the local people on the ground because when it comes to fighting, it is the local people that will fight. So we went down to the grassroots to meet the local people. Government needs to identify the leaders at the micro level with the assistance of security agencies who know where these people are,” Dr. Ojiji stated.

The conflict, farmers and Nigeria’s economic prosperity

 Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, the national leader of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in a telephone interview with Daily Trust on Sunday said the association has not received any information regarding the committee but stressed that the issue is one that needs urgent attention.

 According to him, the conflict is taking a toll on Nigerian farmers, adding “I’m under pressure from members to end this conflict. If you go to my village now, you will not find cattle around because of the situation and those of us into yoghurt production are finding it difficult.”

 Sedentary farmers in the affected states and other places where pockets of attacks still happen are distraught as their wealth,crops, harvests, property are destroyed.

 Their inability to go back to farm for agro production itself would affect the nation’s economic prosperity and the drive for food self-sufficiency.

 At the moment, the conflict rages on in some communities of Godogodo, and surrounding villages of Gidan Waya in Kaduna State, other places in Zamfara and other states, assuming even more deadly proportions.

Herders’ future in the midst of rustling and hostilities

 The crises also threaten the nation’s livestock subsector as the herdsmen are severely affected by the activities of cattle rustlers who kill, rape and deprive of their livelihood and wealth.

 In Zamfara, for instance, there are reports of some communities stripped clean of their animal wealth. It is very difficult to find communities of herders with many animals in the state-something that has affected the people adversely.

Activities of bandits and Boko-Haram in the North-west and North-east respectively have forced most of the nomads down South creating another frontline of hostilities and confrontations in the North Central, South-west, South-south and South-east.

 Alhaji Abubakar Suleiman, Chairman, Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN) and former vice chairman, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), FCT chapter, said government should intervene by going to the villages, communities and volatile places to initiate peace processes than dealing with leaders who mostly are not the ones fighting at the frontlines.

 But Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,said recently that the federal government would grass-up 50,000 hectares of grazing reserves across the northern belt of the country, in order to keep the nomadic farmers in reserves to avoid incursion into farmlands, invoking deadly response from sedentary farmers and to solve all the problem associated with moving animals.But that is yet to happen.

 However, the Senate on Wednesday suspended the consideration of three bills seeking to regulate and restrict cattle rearing and movement in the country.

The bills seek the establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency, establishment of National Ranches Commission and the one on the Control of Movement of Cattle in the country.

The bills were stalled when they were listed for second reading due to disagreement and harmonisation among the sponsors.

The committee must go beyond rhetoric 

If there is anything that the Nigerian farmer needs now it is peace and economic prosperity and “that is what we voted for”, a farmer Ayuba Anjugu, said adding that “we have seen blood flow, and our livelihood destroyed. We need to move ahead.”

 For any significant success, Professor Oshita, and his committee members must bring his experience as the D-G of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution to bear, to drive through this murky and rocky road and come up with recommendations that will aid in solving the problem and it must be seen pushing for its implementation.

 The committee must be holistic and take into consideration all the stakeholders involved, failure to look at their concerns and roles in the conflict might just be another waste of time and hard-earned tax-payers’ money.