Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja AN All Progressives Congress chieftain, Bola Tinubu, has asked the government to immediately convert unused land to grazing routes as this will curb incessant clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
We have to face the reality that modernity is making the nomadic way counterproductive and inefficient.
In the long run, this will enable herders to better maintain their livestock and thus their own livelihood.” Tinubu, who was represented by an Executive Commissioner of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Sunday Dare, said contrary to speculations, the crisis was not caused by religious or political differences but by water scarcity.
Also speaking, a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, noted that the crisis had nothing to do with the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was a Fulani man.
Ribadu, who is also a chieftain of the APC, said, on the contrary, most nomadic Fulani herders felt marginalised under the Buhari government.
“They think he is listening to the others and that he meets people from Benue, Plateau and never gave them an audience.
He is not taking sides in this struggle, but he cannot change himself because he is a Fulani man or claim that he is no more a Fulani man because it has become an issue.” Ribadu said many of the herders were migrating southwards not only because of desertification but also because of the high rate of insecurity in the North.
“There has been only one attempt to address the problem and that was the nomadic education programme.
Many of those who participated in the nomadic education programme are PhD holders today and those that are working are helping their communities.
Other than that, I have not seen any effort geared towards solving their problem.” In his remarks, the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bodejo, said some of the solutions to the current crisis included the immediate suspension of the anti-grazing law as well as the release of herders arrested in Benue in the course of enforcing the law.