BUHARI IS A PURVEYOR OF MACABRE WHO DOESN'T WANT FARMERS-HERDERS CONFLICT TO END ANYTIME SOON. (Kay Aderibigbe)

 

Nigeria, of recent mysteriously became a country that is uniquely in a league of its own. This awareness dawns on the people whenever they expect an action or authoritative statement from the commander-in-chief, but oftentimes, all they get to hear is "the presidency says . . . .". This made some of us, who do not indulge in speculations, purposely and reluctantly, to synonymize the term 'presidency' with the word 'president' in order that we might move on with our lives.  

The truth between these terms was eventually revealed on the 10th of June, 2021, when Arise Television, a media house based in Lagos, granted an exclusive interview to President Muhamadu Buhari; where he, Mr. Buhari, spoke in the manner that is typical of those that have been speaking on his behalf since 2015. 

The important question of Farmers-herders conflict asked Mr. Buhari by one of the presenters was answered with so much riddle wrapped up in an enigma. Having sarcastically and jokingly retorted that the interviewer wanted him to contradict his AGF- Attorney General of the Federation; the President then went into an obviously inconsequential and unconnected illustration to justify his answer. 

A simple breakdown of Mr. Buhari's reply on how Nigeria government can nip in the bud the menace of the gun-wielding Fulani herders is that, he tasked the state Governors to conjure or invent the powers they do not have; whereas, such exercise will simply exacerbate the current security crisis. What is the fuss about cattle rearing business and why are the herders always at loggerheads with the farmers? Why the incessant crisis? What is the mystery behind this national question?.

For the sake of good governance, students of politics and those whose right to study history has been taken away, we may need to dissect the issue of Farmers-herders crisis in order that my readers can understand the problem and infer from my analysis: who has the right to say what and to what extent, on the perennial problem of Farmers-herders crisis.

Let's start with the evolution of the concept of grazing reserves/routes and how it became an issue of concern. Originally, grazing reserves were areas earmarked for the feeding of cattle by the Fulanis who conquered and ruled Northern Nigeria. This concept received the colonial government's attention in 1950, when Mr. Hamisu Kano put forward an idea which became known as the 'Fulani Amenities Proposal' in 1954.  

Ten years later, the federal government had, in the name of the proposal, gazetted 3.4 million hectares of forest reserves in Sokoto, kabba, Bauchi, Zaria, Katsina and Ilorin as grazing reserves (Hector and oladunjoye,1970).  Semiarid zones of the present day Zamfara, and Wase, in plateau state, were also captured in the forest reservations of the grazing plan.  

All efforts to improve the Fulani man’s welfare through the transformation of the herd business culture informed Northern Nigeria’s Law no 4 of 1965 which gave birth to the Grazing reserve Laws of Northern Nigeria (Fatai Rotimi A. Williams, 1969). The totality of the government's investment in establishing land security for nomadic Fulani settlement was contained in all the development plans executed by the General Yakubu Gowon’s administration(1966 -1975). 

Despite the magnitude of government’s commitment towards the sedentarization of the nomadic pastoralists, the Fulanis couldn’t attain equilibrium in their productivity; follow the tide of time of modernization and change their mentality; nor ensure self-sustainability of the facilities contained in the grazing reserves acquired and developed by the government  which was later handed over to them. 

One of the veritable cases was that of the Wase Grazing Reserve, established in Plateau state, in 1965, which has 74,000 hectares capacity; all facilities inclusive -school, market, hospital e.t.c. This vast land was overwhelmed in 1975, due to the failure of the land tenure scheme (Hurumi in Fulfulde language); despite the joint venture of the Federal government of Nigeria and U.S.A.I.D. Abandonment of grazing facilities also happened in Sokoto, Bauchi and other places across the country.

Another problem with the said gazetted grazing routes is the failure of the government to secure legal title and fair compensation for the indigenous land owners. I explained this important problem elsewhere, in 2019,in an article titled "Farmers-herders crisis: one of the agonizing features of a dysfunctional state", where I highlighted that . . . "Politicians stole the compensation money meant for the indigenous land owners,re-appropriated the same grazing reserves to themselves as farm lands and also declared that pastoralists have routes for cattle in places where there were and places where there was none." 

Each time pastures dried up in the reserves, herders wander into agricultural farmlands in order to ensure the survival of their stock. Also,due to overpopulation and land scarcity, there has definitely been some incursions into the reserves over the years by some agronomists. Some of which are original\indigenous land owners who were robbed by the state in the name of the Grazing Reserves, while some of them are new farmers whose old vocations were rendered unlucrative due to economic retrogression.  Apparently, there will be confrontation between agronomists and pastoralists in this manner.  

Against the above backdrop, the Land Use Act of 1978, in connection to other land tenure problematic factors made certain, without ambiguity, in Sec 2(1) (a) and (b) that, "the management and control of all lands in urban areas is under the sole control of the Governor of each state". Having clarified earlier that the Grazing Reserve Law was birthed in the North and was meant for the Northerners, it then becomes imperative that we expatiate the position of the Land Use Act in relation to the President’s statement and herdsmen overlordship of lands in Nigeria, viz-a-viz the Asaba Declaration of May 11, 2021 through which all the 17 Governors of Southern Nigerian unanimously banned open grazing in all the states of the South.  

Mr. Buhari, who resorted to asking his unintelligent Attorney General of the Federation to dig up old gazette did not know much about the treachery and frauds with which some of the acquired grazing reserves were established nor did he understood the details of the Northern Nigerian Grazing Reserve Law and its limitations. Little wonder he spewed political venom and created more confusion instead of reasoning along the line of cultural emancipation of ranching that sought to ameliorate the lot of the Fulani herdsmen. 

Since the ideas of Cow Colony, RUGA – Rural Grazing Areas, and the National Grazing Reserve (Establishment) Bill of 2017 were all defeated on the floor of the National Assembly, Mr. Buhari thought the gazetted lands would host his brainchild, i.e. the idea of NLTP - National Livestock Transformation Plan, in all the states of the federation. This is absolutely unrealistic because only the North is subject to the grazing law which could be exploited for this purpose. Moreover, the Land Use Act in Sec 28(2)(b) talks about the condition under which the federal government can acquire land. In addition to this, Sec 51(1)(a) - (h) explains in detail the meaning of 'to put land to public use' and it does not, via any wording, mean, to exclusively appropriate land for a particular section of the Nigerian society and their private businesses.

In fact, if by the virtue of admonition of peace and national tolerance, some Southern states are willing to allow the NLTP, there is an illuminator in that regard, i.e. the Land use Act which already made an irrefragable provision in Sec 6(2) that "no single customary right of occupancy shall be granted respect of an area of land in excess of 500 hectares if granted for agricultural purposes, or 5,000 hectares if granted for grazing purposes". 

Summarily, the manner in which the federal government of Mr.Buhari is going about the issue of farmers and herders leaves so much to be desired. looking at the enormity of landed resources and availability of hundreds of thousands of hectares in the North, why is Mr. Buhari bent on stuffing the already overwhelmed and overpopulated South with those aggressive and chronic conservative nomads who are known for violence and land trespassing?  

For instance, the Global Terrorism Index Report (2020), puts it clear that, herdsmen killed about 2,400 people between January and November. Over 300,000 people have been displaced; while more middle-aged people are injured casualties of these attacks within that same period. This is rather unacceptable, ungodly and totally unhealthy for the political and economic well being of any progress seeking society.

This matter is generic; it is volatile, and it is an important problem that should be handled seriously by the governors of Southern Nigeria and all lovers of democracy so that tyranny would not triumph against the wishes of the people.  

As long as Mr. president couldn't proffer a lasting solution to the issue of farmers-herders conflict, but rather stands as a stumbling block to those who are trying to ensure there is peace and progress; it means, President Buhari is either a trouble maker, an irredentist ethnic jingoist, whose action doesn’t make him any better than the so called secessionist agitators he criticizes today. Or he is either a secret missionary who doesn't want the herders-farmers conflict to end probably because he needs the instrument of crisis or societal unrest to propagate a sort of preconceived negative social re-engineering in order to actualize a certain hidden personal agenda.