The Ruga: Good thinking, not so good product

No topic in recent times has taken up as much passionate discussion as the Ruga Project the Federal Government suddenly put in place. I am not surprised that the Federal Government is taking much flack and is at pains to explain itself. In all the hotspots of farmer herder clashes nationwide, Government has done poorly […]

No topic in recent times has taken up as much passionate discussion as the Ruga Project the Federal Government suddenly put in place. I am not surprised that the Federal Government is taking much flack and is at pains to explain itself. In all the hotspots of farmer herder clashes nationwide, Government has done poorly to negotiate truce, peace and harmonious coexistence between the contending forces. In affected areas, herdsmen have lost access to grazing land and watering points, towns and villages have been ravaged, farmlands abandoned, and families dislocated and exposed to the vagaries of the weather and exploitation, nothing significant by way of rehabilitation has been done to displaced communities who continue to suffer. Even as the rains have settled, armed herders are camped in known forests strategising to attack. Against this background, even in Northern States where 12 States are reported to have been signed on by their Governments for the development of Ruga settlements, the fears are real, and the anxiety deep and wide.

In all my advocacy, in all that I have written, I have promoted a situation whereby the farmer and the herder can co-habit the land, sharing the God-given resource without recourse to deadly conflict. I come from Numan Federation where the communities of the Local Governments have conceded 31,000 hectares of land on the Benue River valley, to Savannah Sugar Company, supported by irrigation from the Kiri Dam over River Gongola, with benefits to nearly 5000 people in the labour value chain. At the height of the conflicts I asked the question, if the communities could concede 31,000 hectares of land, what would cause war to break out over a farm of less than 3 hectares? I have tried hard to convince my audiences that the herder-farmer clashes have neither been religious nor ethnic, but exploitative of competition over the land resource by political opportunists and bigotic charlatans. Poverty and ignorance of the struggling farmers and herders was being exploited to fleece wealth and gain political capital of the victims. These in turn give the ethno-religious colouration.

I was privileged to have been in the team led by the twin monarchs of the Bwatiye of Numan Lamurde and Demsa Local Governments, Hama Bachama Honest Irmiya Stephen, and Hama Bata Alhamdu Andersen Teneke to meet with the Federal Government, represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. It was at that meeting that then Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbe articulated the idea of cattle colonies as being promoted now with the nomenclature of Ruga Settlements. Even at the meeting with the Vice President, the proposal for COLONIES was shouted down. I recall drawing the attention of the Vice President to the fears of ethnic minorities in conceding vast lands and designating them as colonies to an endless influx of one ethnic group which in no time would establish a hegemony with attendant implications on ethnic conflict. But we all agreed that herders need grazing land even as farmers need farmlands. We noted that nomadism is already a culture and norm and underlined the fact that you could not forcefully settle Fulani nomadic herdsmen to colonies, more so given the glaring misunderstanding of the intentions of the government even by the Fulani themselves. I offered the Jigawa Template of Stock Routes along all highways, in addition to designated grazing reserves albeit through the acquisition and allocation of land for ranching. We even suggested the immediate recovery of vast fenced lands acquired by prominent elite whose promoted farm projects for which the lands were acquired have failed. Yet the vast lands remain furlough and fenced even as herders and farmers are squeezed to their conflict territories, killing each other by the hundreds. That the Government came up with the elaborate National Livestock Transformation Plan is assurance that the people were heard.

The idea of the Ruga is hard to swallow, as admirable as it sounds. The value chain in the rearing of livestock which support production of beef and dairy products in the modern sense is imagined. These include veterinary clinics, markets, basic infrastructure, like roads, schools, hospitals or clinics that would surely promote development and peace as in the past before abandonment in over 20 years of military rule. But to call it a Ruga and not a Grazing Reserve or a Cattle Ranch like pre-independence Obudu, or Mokwa is the concern. What is in a name?The Ruga denotes seizure and ceding of land to grazers, and you can not blame farmers from resisting. You can not blame Governors from quoting the land use act in denying land for the purpose. Ranching however, would give landowners a stake and value on their land, and denotes cohabitation in the pluralistic ownership, and one sees this in the National Livestock Transformation Plan.

Government sadly appears in a rush to implement the Ruga Project without winning hearts for land itself, or even the acceptance of forced settling down among the nomads. In this, we are seen taking land from folks who would rather not give it to settle nomads who would rather not settle down but roam after the lush green grass driven by natural seasons. I can see failure even before take off. Many States will typically accept the Ruga for the money and have it go the way of all such similar interventions – spent Federal funds and no Ruga to show, save for poor folks killing each other for land resource they could more easily have negotiated use of amicably as has always been the case.

Nothing underlines the Federal Government rush more than the intriguing flight of the Ruga Project piloted by the Ministry of Agriculture, parallel to the National Livestock Transformation Plan by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in conjunction with all States of the Federation, also to create a “conducive environment for the transformation of the livestock Sub-sector that will lead to economic development, peaceful go-existence and food security for Nigeria’s growing population which includes ranching.” Both flights are aimed at the same objective and headed in the same destination. Without care to carry the populace along, the flights are bound to land empty.