Famers/Herdsmen conflict: Presidency to hold stakeholders conference

The Presidency has said that it would come up with a conference
of stakeholders on infrastructural and agricultural development to
put in place a plan for immediate relief and long term plan for the
expansion of agriculture in the country with a view to finding
short term and long term solutions to the frequent conflicts
between farmers and cattle rearers.

The conference will tap into experiences and best practices to
draw up a planned development 20-30 years ahead based on population
and development projections and will take into consideration
environmental impacts.

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu in a
statement on Tuesday, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has been
concerned about these conflicts each time he received those very
gruesome pictures of mayhem from several parts of the country,
especially as it affected Benue and neighbouring states.

According to him, Buhari is equally worried about some public
pronouncements and finger-pointing that are, in most cases very
unhelpful to peaceful coexistence of our diverse peoples.

Shehu stated that the President was conscious of his duty to
Nigerians, not least because he is held accountable for everything
that goes wrong. He deeply sympathizes with the families and all
the other direct and indirect victims of this violence. He is
determined to bring it to a permanent end.

The statement read: “While there are many Nigerians who see the
conflict between the nomadic herdsmen and peasant farmers as an
ethnic problem, others point to religious differences and
agenda.

The President does not subscribe to such simplistic
reductionism.

President Buhari holds the view, as do many experts, that these
conflicts are more often than not, as a result of major demographic
changes in Nigeria. When Nigeria attained independence, the
population of the country was estimated at about 63,000,000. Today
the population is estimated at close to 200,000,000; while the land
size has not changed and will not change. Urban sprawl and
development have simply reduced land area both for peasant farming
and cattle grazing.

It is therefore both unfair and unkind, for anyone to keep
insinuating that the President is condoning the spate of killings
in Benue and other neighbouring States.

President Buhari has publicly condemned the violence at every
turn. He is prepared to permit every possible step that can lead to
the stoppage of the killings. It is on account of this he brushed
aside an opinion that the federal government should challenge the
constitutionality of the anti-open grazing bill. He wanted to give
a chance to the State government to succeed in stopping the
senseless killings.

It will be recalled that as he did in dealing with the Boko
Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, which required sustained
action from the government before it was finally curtailed,
President Buhari gave the relevant mandates to the country’s
security agencies to put a stop to the Benue killings.

The killings must stop and the security agencies have the
President’s support to do this as quickly as possible.

Whipping up hate may captivate the public and score political
points on social media, but it will not bring an end to the crisis.
Let every stakeholder instead sit down with the government and
security forces and carry everyone along in finding an
all-embracing solution.

As a father, a military General and a statesman, President
Buhari has maintained lasting relationships with Nigerians, Muslims
and Christians among every ethnic group. It is also a known fact
that the young people who trek the whole distance of thousands of
kilometers tending the cattle do not own the cattle. In fact many
of the cattle are not owned by Fulanis or Muslims. The point is
that it is too simplistic to see the conflict as ethnic or
religious.”

He maintained that the President seeks the support and
cooperation of all citizens and the media in particular, to join
hands with his administration to find permanent solutions and not
to aggravate or escalate tensions in all conflict areas of the
country.

He continued to say that it is 402 days to General election and
all political parties are not adhering to elections guidelines, all
the political parties are guilty of that offence as they have
started campaigns already with posters and billboard all over the
place.

Kassim revealed that their acts is having a penalty of five
hundreds thousands Naira to One million Naira as provided in
section 1999 of the electoral act and therefore they should desist
from all undue campaigns.

“All the political parties are guilty of this as I’m seeing
posters all over the place, those activities are not allow until
ninety days to election (90) and now it is not yet time for that.”
Kassim appeals

He however thank the members of the general public for given the
commission all the necessary cooperation as there is even plans on
ground to invite all the relevant stakeholders to review activities
of the Commission in the state in this January.

The Presidency has said that it would come up with a conference
of stakeholders on infrastructural and agricultural development to
put in place a plan for immediate relief and long term plan for the
expansion of agriculture in the country with a view to finding
short term and long term solutions to the frequent conflicts
between farmers and cattle rearers.

The conference will tap into experiences and best practices to
draw up a planned development 20-30 years ahead based on population
and development projections and will take into consideration
environmental impacts.

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu in a
statement on Tuesday, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has been
concerned about these conflicts each time he received those very
gruesome pictures of mayhem from several parts of the country,
especially as it affected Benue and neighbouring states.

According to him, Buhari is equally worried about some public
pronouncements and finger-pointing that are, in most cases very
unhelpful to peaceful coexistence of our diverse peoples.

Shehu stated that the President was conscious of his duty to
Nigerians, not least because he is held accountable for everything
that goes wrong. He deeply sympathizes with the families and all
the other direct and indirect victims of this violence. He is
determined to bring it to a permanent end.

The statement read: “While there are many Nigerians who see the
conflict between the nomadic herdsmen and peasant farmers as an
ethnic problem, others point to religious differences and
agenda.

The President does not subscribe to such simplistic
reductionism.

President Buhari holds the view, as do many experts, that these
conflicts are more often than not, as a result of major demographic
changes in Nigeria. When Nigeria attained independence, the
population of the country was estimated at about 63,000,000. Today
the population is estimated at close to 200,000,000; while the land
size has not changed and will not change. Urban sprawl and
development have simply reduced land area both for peasant farming
and cattle grazing.

It is therefore both unfair and unkind, for anyone to keep
insinuating that the President is condoning the spate of killings
in Benue and other neighbouring States.

President Buhari has publicly condemned the violence at every
turn. He is prepared to permit every possible step that can lead to
the stoppage of the killings. It is on account of this he brushed
aside an opinion that the federal government should challenge the
constitutionality of the anti-open grazing bill. He wanted to give
a chance to the State government to succeed in stopping the
senseless killings.

It will be recalled that as he did in dealing with the Boko
Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, which required sustained
action from the government before it was finally curtailed,
President Buhari gave the relevant mandates to the country’s
security agencies to put a stop to the Benue killings.

The killings must stop and the security agencies have the
President’s support to do this as quickly as possible.

Whipping up hate may captivate the public and score political
points on social media, but it will not bring an end to the crisis.
Let every stakeholder instead sit down with the government and
security forces and carry everyone along in finding an
all-embracing solution.

As a father, a military General and a statesman, President
Buhari has maintained lasting relationships with Nigerians, Muslims
and Christians among every ethnic group. It is also a known fact
that the young people who trek the whole distance of thousands of
kilometers tending the cattle do not own the cattle. In fact many
of the cattle are not owned by Fulanis or Muslims. The point is
that it is too simplistic to see the conflict as ethnic or
religious.”

He maintained that the President seeks the support and
cooperation of all citizens and the media in particular, to join
hands with his administration to find permanent solutions and not
to aggravate or escalate tensions in all conflict areas of the
country.

He continued to say that it is 402 days to General election and
all political parties are not adhering to elections guidelines, all
the political parties are guilty of that offence as they have
started campaigns already with posters and billboard all over the
place.

Kassim revealed that their acts is having a penalty of five
hundreds thousands Naira to One million Naira as provided in
section 1999 of the electoral act and therefore they should desist
from all undue campaigns.

“All the political parties are guilty of this as I’m seeing
posters all over the place, those activities are not allow until
ninety days to election (90) and now it is not yet time for that.”
Kassim appeals

He however thank the members of the general public for given the
commission all the necessary cooperation as there is even plans on
ground to invite all the relevant stakeholders to review activities
of the Commission in the state in this January.