Suspected Fulani herdsmen paraded by
the Guards Brigade in Abuja…yesterday
PHOTO: KARLS TSOKAR
President Buhari’s directive to the
security agencies to deal with herdsmen
rampaging farming communities,
mostly in the North-Central and
Southern states of the country, cannot
be the panacea to the terror acts. First,
were there lessons from the Boko
Haram debacle. Are they to be engaged
like the insurgents or are they only to
be arrested for criminal prosecution?
The herdsmen are formidable in
formation and lightening in attack and
retreat, which may not be lightly
dislodged if challenged while bearing
arms. That is the crux of the matter. It
is imperative that they are first
disarmed and demobilised, with their
sources of weapon cut off and their
principals fished out, if they are to be
reined in at minimal cost any time
soon.
Our security agencies always cue in on
the body language of the powers that
be. For example, they stood by while
Western Region’s political crisis
escalated from 1962, simply because it
favoured the agenda of the ruling
Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) for
the domination of the country. That
crisis then triggered the first military
coup d’etat of January 15, 1966, leading
to events which redefined Nigeria for
worse. In the present case, they might
have read the President as indifferent
to the terror of the herdsmen who are
believed to be of the same Fulani stock,
for the fact that he initially seemed
unperturbed over the massacre and
ransacking of the communities. The
Police, at least, would have been
booking them for trespass, rape,
murder, arson and illegal possession of
firearms, if they were not glued to his
body language.
Second, the deployment of force may
only yield temporary reprieve because
there can be no lasting peace without
justice, even in a garrison. But the
complementary measures must ensure
that farmers maintain their farmlands
in peace, without further trespass and
loss while herdsmen become less
nomadic and yet able to bountifully
feed their cattle and earn better returns
without incidents.
In this regard, it is most sagacious to
have cattle-growing states (and other
interested states anywhere) collaborate
with the private sector to develop
commercial feedstock farms and state-
of-the-art ranches where cattle can be
best husbanded to global health,
productivity and return-on-investment
standards, without hindering crop
farming. It will galvanise employment
and internal revenue as well. The
option of grazing routes and reserves or
settlements nationwide is predatory,
prone to incident, unsustainable and
antithetical to lasting conflict
resolution. This, in the face of
diminishing arable land and vegetation
(owing to environmental challenges,
population explosion and urbanisation)
and given the diversity in agricultural
practices among geographical zones.
Land is particularly scanty in the South
and, in most cases, individually (rather
than communally) held. The whole of
the South-East will be smaller than the
typical state of the North. The
opportunity cost of the reserves would
be too high in that case.
Third, no matter what leaders of the
North may now spin, the Fulani are the
dominant cattle entrepreneurs of
Nigeria and must be the reference point
in the escapades of the herdsmen who
have mostly been identified as Fulani in
all the narrative of incidents. Though
gentle in mien, the impression is that
the Fulani (including the herdsmen
among them) are, generally, master-
strategists, conquest-oriented and brook
no opposition, as evidenced in the
attacks. In the absence of resistance
from both the government and the
communities to the raids, they will now
be conditioned to a higher degree of
suzerainty. Their forefathers had also
conquered the larger part of the North
and imposed Islam. And they have
outwitted everybody in the political
arena since setting foot on Nigeria in
1804, through to the days of British
rule, till today.
Given this propensity to subjugate
others, including benefactors
(remember Dan Fodio vs Yunfa and
Alimi vs Afonja) a lot of people are
uncomfortable with the idea of the
Federal Government carving out titled
districts (amounting to federal
territories) for them, in the name of
grazing reserves and settlements,
throughout the country. The
psychological and sociological
dimensions cannot be ignored.
Perception could be stronger than
reality as a motive force.
Fourth, if we had not been laid back,
we would not be in the chaotic
conditions of today. There is the
Ministry of Agriculture at both national
and state levels. We have a multitude of
research institutes, extension
departments and universities. But there
is insufficient evidence of cross-
fertilisation of ideas between them and
the farmers, most of who are still
burning farmlands and cultivating with
hoes and cutlasses.
This situation brings to the fore the
need to restructure Nigeria. The First
Republic was economically successful
because substantial fiscal, political and
administrative independence was
devolved to the regions to take their
fate in their hands. The leadership of
each region was compellingly Spartan
and frugal, with a sense of mission to
make the best of the region’s assets for
the benefit of all the people.
Conversely, concentration of political
and economic controls on the Federal
Government, with states as vassals for
revenue sharing (rather than
generation) has resulted in the
predatory attitude to one another by
individuals and groups, exemplified by
the terrorism of herdsmen for random
grazing and the excision of farmlands,
from both cattle-growing and non-cattle
growing states, for grazing reserves for
a group, at the expense of other citizens
and occupations. We are like spoilt
children of a polygamous home
squabbling over limited food in the
kitchen instead of each mother daring
the weather to the farm with her
children to compete and harvest food in
abundance. “The harvest is plentiful
but labourers are few”, as if the Lord
Jesus Christ was talking about
Nigerians. Significant fiscal
independence will compel federating
units to exploit their respective
resources to produce and galvanize
Nigeria to prosperity.
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