Tinubu Urges Govt To Convert Unoccupied Public Lands To Ranches

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•Proposes 4-point solution as way forward
•Seeks compensation for losses incurred by ‘innocent, law-abiding
farmers, herders’

The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, yesterday called for a stakeholders’ meeting to find
an enduring solution to the recurring clashes between herders and
farmers across the country.

Tinubu, in a statement on the crisis, said the proposed meeting
should have in attendance state governors, senior security
officials, traditional rulers, religious leaders and
representatives of herders and farmers.

Their task is to “hammer out a set of working principles to
resolve the crisis.”

There should also be a follow-up meeting in each state, called
by the governor to “refine and add flesh to the universal
principles by adjusting them to the particular circumstances of
their states.”

The state meeting’s focus will be drawing up specific plans for
the state.

Such plans will encompass maintaining reasonable and effective
law enforcement presence in affected areas; putting in place
appropriate legislative and administrative measures required to
make this a reality; and employing new technology and equipment to
enhance the information gathering/surveillance and response
capabilities of law enforcement.

The plans should also help the herders’ transition to more
sedentary but more profitable methods of cattle-rearing, including
allocation or leasing of unoccupied public land fenced into grazing
areas or ranches to herders on a very low-cost, nominal basis; and
assisting farmers increase productivity by supporting or providing
subvention for their acquisition of fertilizer, equipment and
machinery and, also, by establishing commodity boards to guarantee
minimum prices for important crops.

Besides, the proposed peace deal should seek the establishment
of a permanent panel in each state as a forum for farmers, herders,
security officials and senior state officials to discuss their
concerns, mitigate contention and identify trouble and douse it
before it erupts.

Tinubu was unhappy at the acute and violent dimensions the
herder-farmer dispute has taken, especially in terms of destruction
of lives and property.

He was particularly saddened by the action of those he said
should know better but ended up inciting matters by “tossing about
hate-tainted statements that fall dangerously short of the
leadership these people claim to provide.”

“We all must get hold of our better selves to treat this matter
with the sobriety it requires,” he said.

The statement: “The herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and
violent dimensions. It has cost too many innocent lives while
destroying the property and livelihoods of many others. It has also
aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension.

“Despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high
responsibility and public trust, the crisis has not significantly
abated.

“Sadly, others who should know better have incited matters by
tossing about hate-tainted statements that fall dangerously short
of the leadership these people claim to provide. We all must get
hold of our better selves to treat this matter with the sobriety it
requires.

“Because of the violence that has ensued and the fretful
consequences of such violence if left unabated, we must move in
unison but decisively to end the spiral of death and destruction.
Only when the violence and the illogic of it are halted can logic
and reason prevail.

“Until the violence is rolled back, we cannot resolve the deep
problems that underlie this conflict. We will neither be able to
uplift the farmer from his impoverished toil nor move the herder
toward the historic transformation which he must make.

“Yet, as vital as security is to the resolution of this matter,
we must realise security measures alone will not suffice. Enhanced
security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only
step. Nor do we resolve this by hitching ourselves to emotional,
one-dimensional answers.

“More to the point, those who cast this as exclusively a matter
of ethnic confrontation are mistaken. This is no time for reckless
chauvinism of any kind, on either side of this dispute. This matter
is not ethnic in factual origin or actual causation although in the
minds and hearts of too many it has become ethnic in recrimination
and impulsive action.

“There have been sporadic disputes in the past but this one is
more severe. The reasons for the greater violence of this current
dispute are myriad. Economic hardship and its resultant
dislocation, proliferation of weapons, generalised increase in
criminality, and weakening of social institutions all play a role.
“Desertification, increased severity and length of the dry season,
diminution of water resources, impairment of land fertility and
population growth also contribute in no small measure. Thus, any
durable solution must get at most, if not all, of these issues.

“Farmers have a right to farm their land unmolested. Herders
have a right to raise their livestock without undue interference.
However, when conflict between these groups arises to such an
extent, we must set forth clear principles and policies to remove
the tension in order to allow both to proceed toward their stated
goals and to live in harmony and according to their respective
rights.

“Just as I cannot go into your house and take your shirt because
I do not have one of like colour, no one can destroy the crops of a
farmer or seize the cattle of a herder simply because such
destruction sates their anger or their selfish, short-term
interests.

“If such a condition were to hold, then all would turn into
chaos; all would be in jeopardy of being lost. To destroy the crops
or seize the property of the innocent farmer or herder is nothing
if not an act of criminality.

“Here, I must state two fundamental realities. One has been
previously mentioned by me and others as part of the solution. The
other reality is hardly discussed.

“First, the situation of the herder is becoming untenable. Their
nomadic ways fall increasingly in conflict with the dictates of
modern society. This way of life is centuries old and steeped in
tradition. We can never condone or accept violence as a valid
response to any hardship.

“However, we all must recognise and understand the sense of
dislocation caused by the sudden passing of such a longstanding
social institution.

“I mention their dislocation not to excuse violence and other
excesses; I raise it to underscore that we must realise the true
complexity of this crisis. What is happening has been terrible, but
it is not due to any intrinsic evil in either the herder or the
farmer.

“The calamity now being faced is borne of situational
exigencies. It is but the tragic outcome when often desperate,
alienated people are left too long unattended and when their
understanding of the modern socio-economic and environmental forces
affecting the very terms of their existence is incomplete.

“An ethnically fuelled response will be to vociferously defend
the nomadic way believing this tack will somehow protect the herder
and cast the speaker as an ethnic champion. However, careless words
cannot shield the herder from relentless reality.

“Such talk will only delude him into believing that he can
somehow escape the inevitable. We do both herder and farmer grave
injustice by allowing the herder to continue as he is – fighting a
losing battle against modernity and climate change. In that fight,
desperation causes him to flail and fight the farmer, who too is a
victim of these impersonal forces.

“Second, to help the herder and leave the farmer unattended is
unfair and will only trigger a resentment that tracks already
heated ethnic fault lines.

“The times have also been perilous for the hardscrabble farmer.
He needs help to survive and to be more productive in ways that
increases national food security.

“Farm productivity and incomes must be enhanced. Soil
enrichment, better irrigation and water retention as well as
provision of better rural roads, equipment and access to modern
machinery are required to lift him above bare subsistence.

“Both innocent and law-abiding farmer and herder need to be
recompensed for the losses they have suffered. Both need further
assistance to break the current cycle of violence and poverty. In
short, the continued progressive reform of many of our rural
socio-economic relationships is called for.

“Based on these strategic observations, I recommend the federal
government convene a meeting of state governors, senior security
officials, herder and farmer representatives, along with
traditional rulers and religious leaders. The purpose of this
meeting would be to hammer out a set of working principles to
resolve the crisis.

“After this meeting, governors of each state should convene
follow-up meetings in their states to refine and add flesh to the
universal principles by adjusting them to the particular
circumstances of their states.

“In addition to religious and traditional leaders and local
farmer and herder representatives, these meetings shall include the
state’s best security minds along with experts in agriculture
(livestock and farming), land use and water management to draw
specific plans for their states.

“To accomplish this goal, wise policy must include the following
elements:

”Maintain reasonable and effective law enforcement presence in
affected areas. The proposed reform of the Nigerian law enforcement
apparatus towards state and community policing can help in this
regard. The legislative and administrative measures required to
make this a reality should be expedited. In addition to alleviating
the present farmer-herder crisis, this reform will also bolster
efforts against the banditry, kidnapping and robbery plaguing
communities across the country. Governments need to employ new
technology and equipment to enhance the information
gathering/surveillance and response capabilities of law enforce
ment.

“Help the herders’ transition to more sedentary but more
profitable methods of cattle-rearing. Unoccupied public land can be
fenced into grazing areas or ranches and leased to herders on a
very low-cost, nominal basis. The leasing is not intended to
penalize herders. Rather, the nominal fee is intended to ensure the
herders are invested in the project and incentivized (by reason of
their investment) to use the land provided. This aspect will also
mitigate any resentment over herders being given land for free.
Government, in turn, being a responsible lessor, must help with
supplemental feed and water in these areas. This will enable
herders to better maintain and care for their livestock thus
enhancing their incomes. Herders can augment income by becoming
suppliers to the leather goods industry. Additionally, herders can
also develop a more symbiotic relationship with farmers by, for
example, trading animal compost to the farmer in exchange for
animal feed.

“Assist farmers increase productivity by supporting or providing
subvention for their acquisition of fertilizer, equipment and
machinery and, also, by establishing commodity boards to guarantee
minimum prices for important crops. In the medium to long term,
resources must be dedicated to establishing better irrigation and
water catchment systems to further improve farm productivity and
mitigate the dire impact of flood and drought cycles brought about
by extreme climatic conditions.

“Establish a permanent panel in each state as a forum for
farmers, herders, security officials and senior state officials to
discuss their concerns, mitigate contention and identify trouble
and douse it before it erupts.

“We are a populous nation of diverse ethnic groups. We are a
people of potential richness yet to escape present poverty. We have
resources but not wealth. Often, our words speak of hope and fear
in the same breath.

“While we all hope and strive for the best, many fear that there
is not enough of what is needed to go around and that they will be
left out. In such a situation, harsh competition and contest are
fated to occur. In the unfolding of this social dynamic, one group
of actors has been pitted against another over dwindling water and
fertile ground.

“The confrontation has resulted in the needless loss of life and
destruction of property. If left to itself, this situation may
spread and threaten the progress of the nation. It could call into
proximate question the utility of the social compact that holds
government and governed in positive bond, one to the other.

“We have a decision to make. Do we attempt the hard things that
decency requires of us to right the situation? Or do we allow
ourselves to be slave to short term motives that appeal to base
instinct that run afoul of the democratic principles upon which
this republic is founded and for which so many have already
sacrificed so much? In the question itself lies the answer.”