Why Tiv/Fulani crisis keeps erupting – Suswam
The recurring communal crisis between Tiv and Fulani in Benue State seems to have defied measures conceived to contain it. Why? It was a crisis between the farming communities of Benue and Fulani herdsmen. You know that the Fulanis are not staying in one place. They are nomadic people who move from one place to […]
The recurring communal crisis between Tiv and Fulani in Benue State seems to have defied measures conceived to contain it. Why?
It was a crisis between the farming communities of Benue and Fulani herdsmen. You know that the Fulanis are not staying in one place. They are nomadic people who move from one place to another, and because the Benue people are fundamentally farmers, the crisis is as a result of the Fulanis who are most often trespassing on farm lands. That has generated quite a lot of problems. I have tried to address the issue and set up committees, but when you think that the crisis is diminishing, something will happen and the crisis will erupt again. Now, because the communal crisis are happening in Benue, the Fulanis, too, ran to Nasarawa state and launched attack on Nasarawa people. It, thus, appears as if Nasarawa State is part of it.
I want to say that Nasarawa indigenes are not part of what is happening. Fundamentally, it was Fulanis who ran from Benue to Nasarawa State that are attacking the people of Nasarawa State. I have been talking to the governor of Nasarawa State. As a matter of fact, we drove together from Abuja to Kaduna and most of the issues that we have discussed are how we can address the issue of communal crisis. Now, the northern governors have taken a number of meansures to proffer solutions to these problems. First, you know there is a fast growing and expanding population in the north, just like any other part of the country. That has created a problem because we now have more people in the region. If we did not move fast to address this, it’s going to be even worse than what we are experiencing. There is urgent need for us to address the issue of unemployment through promotion of farming.
In Benue state, what I am doing now is to try to go into serious commercial agricultural farming. I have laid the foundation and by next year, a lot of activities in the area of commercial agriculture are going to start in Benue state for us to be able to address the issue of communal crisis where you will now involve the communities to work on the farms.
Another step is for us to continuously educate our people that we are one. If there are issues of conflict, which should not necessarily lead or degenerate into destruction of lives and properties, we must be very alert on security issue between our various states. I have tried a lot, otherwise Benue happened to be volatile state and within the first four years, I was able to contend with that.
The relationship between you and your predecessor, Senator George Akume has turned sour, why?
In politics, at times when you disagree even on issues based or principles, you can part ways. As far as I am concerned, for the first two years, we were together and, to a large extent, managing ourselves. Sometimes, we disagreed quite on a number of issues, and so we went our separate ways.
It was reported that the relationship was strained because you failed to carry him and some of your close friends along?
You know, it’s only in Nigeria that instead of people talking about provision of infrastructure for the general good of the people, they are talking about taking care of few individuals. This is government property; it is not for the few individuals. What does the constitution talk about government? It doesn’t say that you should share money among the people; it doesn’t also say that you shouldn’t assist people where it’s necessary. Once there is a group of people who believe that government’s money must be shared to them as a right, I don’t agree with that because at the end of the day, it’s the governor who will be held responsible for any wrong doing. When there are issues of corruption or embezzlement, they will not mention their names.
They will even deny that you give them anything. It’s the governor in question that will account for the money. You can’t go and account for the money and say look, I gave this one N5,000, I gave this one N10,000, no. It will be that I provide this project for the good of the people. If you go to Benue, you can give a testimony that Benue money is well spent.
In fact, I am trying to get across to the president to come and commission some of the projects before Christmas. That is the way government’s money is supposed to be spent. There is nowhere in the world where a group of people will sit down and say that government’s money should be shared to them. That is not to say that in situations that are genuine, you will not assist. The way people sit back at home and say look, every month, you take government’s money and share to them at the expense of the things that you are supposed to provide for the people.
I made that clear when I was campaigning. I said Benue State lacks infrastructure. Today, there is no single local government in Benue state that you go, that you will not see one project or the other going on in the state. There is no single local government in Benue state that lacks social amenities in Benue State. I believe that, those are important because if I share this money to few people, how many are they? Benue is 4.7 million people. These people you are talking about don’t even constitute one percent of that population. If you take the money and share to them, what do you do with the over 4.69 million people? If you go to any local government, there are road projects going on. There are projects, there is rural electricity, and there are schools. Now, I have budgeted N4 billion. We are going to advertise for the construction, rehabilitation among others. These jobs are in thousands, we are going to cover the entire schools in Benue state. If I take the money and share to people, what will I do with the schools? That is not to say that I am not assisting people who need genuine assistance. To carry government’s money and share to people, that I always said and maintain my stand that I will not do.
How will you react to the allegation that you forged your certificate?
For people to engage in such campaign of calumny, it is laughable. I completed my secondary education from Government College in 1982. That year I went to School of Basic Studies (SBS) Markudi, I went to the University of Lagos to read Law. I went to the University of Lagos in 1986 and by 1989 I graduated. At the time that I finished secondary school, Government College is at the centre of Makurdi. You can just walk through and results are there for you to check. None of these people that alleged I forged result have ever been to that place to ask the principal if they can take a look at the result because the master sheets of all the results are in the Government College. At the time that we finished in 1982, if you looks at the result they are parading that I forged, there is a passport of a matured person on it. When I finished secondary school, I was 16 years old. At that time, no result carried any passport on it.
When I finished secondary school in 1982, I went to SBS, I went to UNILAG and I won election twice. What is my motivation of forging result in 2005? It doesn’t make sense; they want to tarnish my integrity before Nigerians. But, I have not given it a thought. Somebody will definitely go to prison for forging result because while they have presented a result, any other person parading any other result means that he has forged result. So, people want to engage in campaign of calumny for politics.