Proffering 21st Century Solution to Farmer Herder Clashes

Fela told us that Culture and Tradition are the teachers of the government, so we can understand why the government has over the years approached the menace of herdsmen and farmer clashes with kid gloves. It would not do to further point out that majority of the Presidents we have had tended to come from the same clan as the oppressors in these cases.

However, the tensed situation observable across the country is finally reaching boiling point and if drastic and lasting measures are not put in place to prevent a complete breakdown of law and order, the scenario where other Sunday Igboho’s taking the fight to foreigners whom they believe are responsible for acts of crime in their home community.

After the meeting of the South-West Governors with MACBAN and various security forces, the major take away was that all the states were going to abolish open grazing and upon reading the released communiqué, I immediately recalled that as far back as 2018/2019 Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had in his capacity as chairman of the National Economic Council, proposed the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan to forestall these sort of clashes, offer conflict resolution and administer justice and peace.

Only the most stoic and archaic followers of the tradition of herding cattle from the North to the South in accordance with the rainfall season would argue that it should still be employed, in the first instance, the population explosion has necessitated that previously available land for grazing designated as grazing routes in the 1960s are no longer available. Secondly, climate change has influenced a greater number of cattle being grazed southwards due to the drying up of the Lake Chad, clearly, this points towards 21st-century problems but we are still hoping to employ 19th-century solutions.

To fit square pegs in square holes would be the not so gradual shift to ranching by our brothers from the North. To fast track this, state governments need to copy Adamawa state in the full implementation of the NLTP or else we would continue to lose 2kg of beef and 15litres of milk daily due to the stress of herding these animals.

Other benefits of this 21st-century solution include adopting all advantages of modern technologies and advancements in ranching, improving human capital development; gender equality in participation, reduction in underage workers, who can then focus on acquiring an education, and finally the gains in research, information and strategic communication. All these would deescalate the embers of war before they ignite into a conflagration that could consume us all.

Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nicholas Adesina Writes in from Ibadan