Ballason
Gloria Mabeiam
As the war against fundamentalist terrorist abates, the conflict between cowboys and farm steads is degenerating into full blown disasters. An estimated 1500 conflicts has occurred in various communities across Nigeria; leaving in its trail over 5,000 deaths of farmers and pastoralists, destruction of farms, houses or means of livelihoods, upsurge of rape, abduction and kidnap.
Ironically, nature’s blessing is now the inhabitants’ curse. What is even more disturbing is the dimensions of the conflict, the interpretation of analysts and government interventions which though intended to resolve are exacerbating the problem.
The farmer-herder conflict which has now been hijacked by militia is not unique to Nigeria. In Mali, approximately 42percent of land use conflicts in the country are of herders and farmers and usually stems from disputes over rights to land and water resources.
In 2011 for instance, the village of Kirabaye located at Mali’s Niger Delta experienced a dispute between a farmer community and a herder community over a pond. The conflict led to the loss of many lives while several persons were displaced.
In East Africa and particularly Tanzania, about 80% of the entire population comprises of farmers and pastoralists that live in rural areas in which their life rely on land for economic activities such as crop production and animal husbandry. In Usangu and Kilosa, the areas were invaded by hostile pastoralists and President Jakaya Kikwete ordered the deportation of pastoralists as deliberate measure to rescue the Usangu plain for agriculture. Because the government did not skillfully manage the situation, conflict broke out and many lives were lost.
The Texans of the United States of America also had their history which I believe is instructive for the peaceful resolution it exemplifies.After the civil war, about 5million cattle roamed wild and got into farmlands farmers did not want trampled or grazed upon.The transhumant routes were bedeviled by bushwhackers and rustlers. Cowboys had many enemies to contend with and had to look for solutions when it appeared they were hemmed on every side.Mexican ranchers had developed a ranching technique that allowed them breed heftier,blooded stock which they fenced into controlled ranges where they could be fed,watered and protected.By mid 1880s, Texan cowboys traded their sedentary culture for a ranched lifestyle which made life easier for them and safer to their community.
Reflecting on the Nigerian situation, it is obvious that a logical and decisive solution is yet to be found to a problem now threatening to trump insurgency in scope. The conflicts arising from the encroachment of transhumance paths, the brazen and vicious use of arms by herdsmen militia on host communities call for concerted and deliberate search for solutions that will last for all time as was the case in Texas.
Ten tips for this resolution drawn from my role as mediator in the Fulani-Farmer conflict in Southern Kaduna are herein evaluated. It is hoped that moderating voices and people of goodwill will move from apportioning blames and join in the task of providing solutions until every citizen of our dear country can go to sleep with two eyes closed.
First, we must call crime by its name and give it its due reward. Cattle are rustled systematically on a daily basis. People are shot by sophisticated arms by people who have no license to own neither arms nor rights to maim kill or terrorise. If the perpetrators of these crimes are still walking on free soil or we call the crimes in descriptions that undermine their seriousness then the government has failed in its role. No crime should be allowed to be shrouded in mystery. If herders report the loss of their cows and communities report the use of sophisticated arms and these reports are left unchecked, then there is no foundation for the resolution of this crisis. Thankfully, crime has n limitation laws.
The police and the Ministry for Justice should rise to the occasion so as to instill confidence that there are no sacred cows but more importantly, causing offenders to face the wrath of the law is necessary because tension boil on the boulders of impunity and a lack of legal accountability.
Two, confront and diminish the ethno-religious narrative of the conflict. Recently, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association has decried the profiling of the Fulani people by the media as terrorists. Profiling is dangerous for its ability to put the good, the bad and the ugly under one umbrella. The militants in the Niger Delta are now termed as “Niger Delta Militants”. The Fulani boys wielding sophisticated arms are termed “Fulani gunmen”. Leaders of note who ought to exercise restraint have taken sides thereby amplifying the challenge for a beleaguered country. Disclaimers by communities and faith-based organizations can strip the conflict of ethnic and religious flavor so miscreants are left bare and exposed to the law.
Three, public resources should be used for the public and private resources for private use. The call for grazing reserves as a follow up to grazing routes may look great at the moment but creates a big challenge for Nigeria.The bill which seeks to alongside creating reserves in states provide incentives and facilities such as functional earth Dams, water Points, dairy processing centres and their like are appurtenances to a bill which if passed into law would lead to the establishment of National Grazing Commission that would be empowered to enforce Gracing Reserve Laws across the country.
There is a Nigerian culture of a quick fix to the loudest agitator. When the clamour for resource control became deafening and the vandalisation of pipeline became incessant, a Niger Delta ministry was put in place alongside sister commissions and projects. Today, environmental degradation of the Niger Delta and pipeline vandalisation are still very much here with us. Let’s talk about grazing routes: By 1980, Nigeria had established 2.3 million hectares of grazing reserves, at the close of 1992, the government has identified over 300 areas with twenty-eight million hectares for grazing reserve development. About forty-five of these areas, covering some 600,000 hectares, have been gazetted.
Eight of these reserves, totaling 225,000 hectares, are fully established. Already, 350 of the projected 950 pastoral families and 11,600 of the planned 46,000 cattle are using these reserves (N.L.P.D. record 1992).What the government as a continuum failed to do was to look at the constitutional implication of section 42 (1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution which states that a citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not by reason only that he is such a person be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizen of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religious or political opinions.
The government as continuum also did not look into the future and envision 2016 where the population of Nigeria would explode to 170million on same land and that people will jostle and scramble for scarce resources. Today, politicians and power brokers have converted some of the land for private use.
Tomorrow if grazing reserves are made, the same fate will recur. But it should be stated on the strength of section 42(1)(b) that cattle being a private resource as opposed to public resource; farmlands being private resource as opposed to public resource should be private concerns. In the wisdom of section 28 of the Land Use Act Chapter 202 laws of the federation of Nigeria. Private land can only be retrieved for overriding public purpose
