Why we oppose anti-open grazing laws – Miyetti Allah
Daily Trust: How do you view the recent anti-open grazing law in Benue State? Engineer Saleh Alhassan: We cannot accept this law because it discriminates against us, against our means of livelihood and our fundamental human rights, and it is a threat to national security. If you go through the law, you will see that […]
Daily Trust: How do you view the recent anti-open grazing law in Benue State?
Engineer Saleh Alhassan: We cannot accept this law because it discriminates against us, against our means of livelihood and our fundamental human rights, and it is a threat to national security. If you go through the law, you will see that it makes no provision for pastoralists. As far as we are concerned, the law justifies cattle rustling that has been going on along the Benue border communities for years. In the law, there is a provision that after seven days, cattle arrested can be auctioned. We see that as a grand design by well-armed groups who have been operating in the Benue border communities and who have been rustling our cattle for the past three years and which was one of the fundamental reasons for the crisis. They can use that law to rustle our cattle from other states, bring them to Benue and auction them within seven days in the name of that obnoxious law. Will that kind of law bring peace or anarchy?
DT: You recently addressed the media on your opposition to the law, have you received any response from the Benue State government?
Alhassan: We have received several reactions, they have called for our arrest. They have denied that the law is against our economic interests. We however urge Nigerians to look at content of that law. It is totally against pastoralists. In our briefing, we did not threaten anybody, we said we would resist it legally. We have briefed our lawyers and they are going ahead with the case in the law courts. As far as we are concerned as pastoralists, nobody, not even the federal government can contemplate outlawing our economic activities because that is the only thing we know and inherited from our parents. And we are ready to protect our interests within the laws of the land. We cannot sit by and allow state governors and ill-informed state legislatures to be formulating laws that can precipitate crisis in the country.
As leaders of the herder’s organisations, we are going to mobilize all necessary stakeholders. We will soon contact all organisations that have dealings with cattle, including butchers.
DT: You said butchers and others in the meat market chain would also be negatively affected, how is this so?
Alhassan: They would be affected because we source their raw materials. If they do not join us in this fight for justice, it means they would be out of business. The cows, sheep and goats that they slaughter for business are from us. They are not buying cattle from the ranches. The milk we are supplying this country is also under threat.
DT: Taraba and other states are also legislating against open grazing, how do you see this?
Alhassan: This is one of the reasons why we raised the alarm. We see a grand agenda to frustrate pastoralists, especially in the north-central region of Nigeria, which is the grass land savannah where we have the bulk of pastoralists now because of the issue of climate change that forced them to migrate from the extreme northern part of the country and also the problem of Boko Haram insurgency that forced them from the north-eastern part of the country. We have a lot of pastoralists in the north central, so we see this design as an attempt to use the law after they had used other means like sponsoring armed groups to raid our settlements and killing our people for over 10 years on the Plateau. Now they want to use the instrumentality of the law to frustrate the economic interests of pastoralists, especially in the north. There are many advocacies, including those by international organisations. The recent was the one by the Merci Corps of the United States, which did their research within Nasarawa, Plateau and parts of Abuja. It is a grand design and we are ready to face the challenge. We also believe it is an attempt to destabilize the present government. I cannot imagine a state particularly in northern Nigeria contemplating banning open grazing. It is like telling the farmers not to farm unless they are mechanized. What level of mechanization is our agriculture enjoying now, we all operating at subsistence level. Even the Tiv farmers the governor is trying to protect are nomadic. They operate extensively using shifting cultivation. They farm here and move to other areas, this is how they move from one border community to others, creating problems even among farmers.
DT: The Benue State chapter of Miyettti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) said your group is not legitimate but was created after some of your leaders lost an election, how do you see this?
Alhassan: You see that Garus Gololo is not even a Fulani. Anyone can be a cattle breeder, where is Gololo village? He has been permanently residing in Makurdi and working for Governor Ortom. We don’t know him as a Fulani leader. How can you claim you are leading some people and a law was passed to alienate them and you back that law, what kind of leader is that. He should come out and tell us how that law benefits the pastoralists. A look at that law and the operation of ranches is impossible. We are out to protect the interests of Fulani pastoralists and you cannot be a member unless you are a Fulani because it is a socio- cultural Fulani group. We have been at the forefront of enlightenment and peace initiatives. So we don’t consider a hired goon as important.
DT: How do you react to his claim that your organisation is a rival to MACBAN?
Alhassan: There are eight active organisations that are working for the interests of cattle breeders in the country. We have the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, we have the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore which we are leading, we have the Tibittal Flakul which is even international in nature, we have the Ga Allah Fulani Breeders Association which is run by a former secretary of the cattle breeders, we have other organisations and we are all working to ensure the interests of pastoralists are protected. We are playing complementary roles and we need voluntary organisations to come out and work form the wellbeing of pastoralists.
DT: There are pockets of attacks allegedly by herdsmen in Edo, Delta and other states including in the south-south and south-west, what measures are you putting in place to ensure that herdsmen live peacefully with their host communities?
Alhassan: The issue of conflicts across the country, particularly rural banditry, is as a result of the failure of the security network in the rural areas. We have cattle rustling, criminal elements in the rural areas. So it is myopic to attribute every criminality to herders. Can the Fulani rustle their cattle? Today in Benue, the bulk of killings in Benue have been attributed to a group led by one Ghana, who was a special assistant to Governor Ortom and he is still at large. Recently the police paraded some of the gang members with sophisticated weapons. Are those people herders? The kidnappers and armed robbers across the country, are they herders? Even before the herdsmen and farmers’ clashes there were crimes along the axis. If you look at the Daily Trust on Monday June 12, you will see kidnappers from the Lagos axis that were paraded, are they herders? The challenge we are having is that these criminal gangs see cattle rustling as a cheap means of making illegal monies and sometimes the herders don’t have option than to defend themselves, after all there is no insurance on cattle in the country. And the whole of their lives and those of their families are on their cattle. A crime should be treated as a crime. All security agencies should do their work and treat criminals as they are. What we will not accept is to criminalize our people and our occupation. Armed robbery is treated as a crime and so if a Fulani man commits a crime it should be treated as such, like other ethnic groups in the country and not profile or label all Fulanis as criminals. Some even said herdsmen are jihadists just to blackmail us. They wish they would just wake up one day and wish us away, it is not possible. In fact, pastoralists in diaspora consider Nigeria as their home, whether in Ghana, Cameroun or wherever.
If we have been cultivating the lands those who domesticate the land now would not have been laying claims to them because they met us there and they know. We want government to reactivate the grazing routes and hand it over to us. Ranching is elitist and requires massive financing. There is even no scientific study on ranching in Nigeria, you cannot just wake up one day and say you want to ranch millions of cattle, it is not possible.
DT: How do you see the ultimatum by some northern youths to Igbos?
Alhassan: We as pastoralists reject such calls, about 40 percent of pastoralists are in the southern part of the country, how can they say some ethnic groups should leave? They are being sponsored by some politicians that have lost relevance and want to destabilize the country. What they have done is treasonable and the security agencies must do their by apprehending them.