Wanted: National Program to End Pastoralism

A series of insecurity events in Nigeria in recent times have sparked thoughts about the future of pastoralism in Nigeria. Agatu is the issue of foremost concern these days. In the past several weeks, nomadic herdsmen have been accused of attacking villages, burning them down and killing an estimated 500 people in this community of […]

A series of insecurity events in Nigeria in recent times have sparked thoughts about the future of pastoralism in Nigeria. Agatu is the issue of foremost concern these days. In the past several weeks, nomadic herdsmen have been accused of attacking villages, burning them down and killing an estimated 500 people in this community of Benue State. The latest orgy of violence in Agatu is but a resurgence of a conflict between farmers and herdsmen that has flared on and off for many years. Efforts by the police, military, state and federal governments and even the North’s most prominent royal fathers to find a solution have so far failed.
The common narrative in the newspapers is that “Fulani herdsmen” attack Agatu and its surrounding villages “without any provocation.”  This cannot be true. Communities all over this country have an intimate knowledge of the pastoralists. For the most part they are simple, peaceable, easygoing people. Here and there however, they get involved in conflicts with farmers, either due to cattle straying into farmlands, or because some people steal the pastoralists’ cattle. As a result of Nigeria’s rapidly increasing population, farmers bring old grazing reserves as well as age-old cattle migration routes under cultivation or block the cattle herds’ access to water. Farmers and their urban supporters have a much louder voice than pastoralists and they shout in the newspapers, radio and television and demonstrate to the National Assembly whereas the pastoralists’ grievances are mostly not heard. 
Conflicts between farmers and pastoralists have become more frequent and more deadly. Once they were waged using sticks but these days firearms are freely used. As communities in many parts of the country have also found out, the herdsmen have different rules of war. They tend to hold an entire community responsible for the theft of their cattle or for the killing of their folks. They also have a long memory; they may come for vengeance many years after a conflict, which is why farmers often say that “the attack was unprovoked.”
Apart from the killings, newspaper reports increasingly indicate that disaffected youths from pastoral communities are behind the cattle rustling epidemic and rural banditry that have enveloped many Northern states in recent years. Hand in hand with cattle rustling, other pastoral youths also took to kidnap for ransom. We must add that they did not invent kidnapping, but many pastoral youths took to it as a more lucrative venture than cattle rearing. On top of these is the fear that large cattle herds are contributing to environmental degradation in the Sahel region.
These crises are likely to intensify as competition for land and water resources increase. It is therefore time for the Federal Government, in close partnership with state and local governments, traditional rulers, other stakeholders, NGOs and international partners to evolve a national program to end the pastoral way of life within a generation. We say within a generation because pastoralism has been around in many parts of the world for thousands of years. At present, the pastoralist population in Nigeria numbers in the millions, with its very rich cultural practices. It cannot be wished away or ended overnight no matter the agitation by farmers.
Some Nigerians think the pastoralists are a nuisance. Far from it, they have contributed immensely to national prosperity and they control a precious national asset, 14 million heads of cattle. Over the centuries these cattle herds have converted otherwise useless grasses to precious protein. Even poor Nigerians eat beef in quantity because the pastoralists accept very low living standards: no housing, no education, no health or other welfare facilities. Besides, the cattle herds have also helped to fertilise farms with their droppings. Many farmers actually invite pastoralists to camp in their farms during the dry season in order to fertilise them.
All these must now end. Side by side with the desire to end clashes between farmers and pastoralists, it is also time to upgrade the latter’s living conditions. The obvious solution is to settle the pastoral communities and their cattle herds in ranches. This cannot be done overnight but we urge the Federal Government to take the lead, mobilise all stakeholders and evolve a national program of doing this within a generation. All the knotty issues involved in the program should be ironed out. They include where the ranches will be located, who will own them [governments, the community, businessmen etc], fodder for the cattle, water provision, security, as well as educational and welfare facilities for the newly settled communities.
Obviously this is a task in which every stakeholder must have a say. All tiers of government, all traditional authorities, the private sector, NGOs as well as the pastoral peoples must all buy into any national program that is evolved in this direction for it to have any chance of success. We must identify and avoid pitfalls. For example, this country has a tendency to move from solving one problem to creating another. Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbeh recently spoke about importing the seeds for a nutritious grass to feed our cattle. It is easy to see how such an idea can derail and Nigerian businessmen will go into importing grass by the shiploads allegedly to feed cattle in ranches. All such potential pitfalls must be identified and suppressed.
 Nigerians should also understand that an end to pastoralism is an end to cheap meat, at least in the short and medium term. The increasingly arid environment will however be saved from continuous denuding. Nigeria as a whole will reap immense benefits if the government works out such a program and faithfully implements it. The time to start is now.