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Tinubu Breaks Silence On Farmer-Herder Crisis, States Four-Step Solution

Published

4 years ago

Mar 13, 2021.

Former Governor of Lagos state and National leader of the All progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a statement on the Farmer-Herder crisis rocking the country.
According to the APC chieftain, the herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions and it has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others

Former Governor of Lagos state and National leader of the All progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a statement on the Farmer-Herder crisis rocking the country.

In a statement obtained online by EKO HOT BLOG on Saturday, Tinubu analysed the problem and proferred solutions/steps the government must take to resolve the crisis.

According to the APC chieftain, the herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions and it has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others.

He also stated that the lingering crisis between farmers and herders has aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension, adding that despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high responsibility and public trust, the crisis has not significantly abated.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

He stated: “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 realize 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.” He stated

The former governor noted that there have been sporadic disputes in the past but the recent one is more severe. According to him, the reasons for the greater violence of this current dispute are myriad.

He said further: “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.”

Tinubu therefore recommended that the federal government convene a meeting of state governors, senior security officials, herder and farmer representatives, along with traditional rulers and religious leaders, stressing that the purpose of the meeting would be to hammer out a set of working principles to resolve the crisis.

Stating further that: “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.

“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.”

Tinubu also recommended that there should be reasonable maintenance of effective law enforcement presence in affected areas. He also proffered that farmers should be assisted to increase productivity by supporting or providing subvention for their acquisition of fertilizer, equipment and machinery and by establishing commodity boards to guarantee minimum prices for important crops.

In conclusion, he recommended that: “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.”

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Tinubu Breaks Silence On Farmer-Herder Crisis, States Four-Step Solution

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