The herders - farmers crisis in Nigeria has lingered for quite a long time now, the crisis has persisted for over a decade which has resulted in incessant loss of lives and properties worth hundreds of millions of naira. Thousands of people have been made homeless and displaced from their ancestral homes and made refugees in their own country. Nigerians wake up almost on a daily basis to the sad news of wanton killings and destruction of properties, farmlands, livestocks by these two warring groups fighting for supremacy of ancestral lands. The genesis of this crisis are attributed to the struggles for land grabbing for agricultural purposes, political power at the community level and supremacy over others. The pastoralists who are majorly Muslims from the hausa -fulani extraction and the local farmers who are majorly christians and self- acclaimed indigenes are at the centre stage and the drivers of this conflict in Kaduna state and other sorrunding northern states in Nigeria. These differences makes the whole issue to be very dicey considering the social and religious backgrounds of both parties. This crisis also escalated to other southern regions in the country with a few pockets of crisis with the herders and the indigenous local farmers. The herders - farmers crisis in Nigeria is more prevalent in Northern Nigeria.
FULANI HERDERS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA.
The herders - farmers crisis in Nigeria is one of the many crisis bedevilling Nigeria as a country which has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion as many seems to believe. But unscrupulous elements among us have made the crisis seems to be ethnic and religious war or genocide of a particular ethnic group. It is rather a crisis between herders and farmers as a result of misunderstanding, intolerance and lack of mutual respect for others with different views, perspectives and deep belief system and not ethnic or religious crisis. The continuous loggerheads of these two groups in Nigeria has caused severed relationships between the fulani ethnic group and the locals. This crisis has been hijacked by the Nigerian politicians and given ethnic and religious colourations to further fuel the crisis and divide the people the more along ethnic and religious lines. The contentious issue fuelling up the crisis between herders and farmers in Kaduna state and other Northern states in Nigeria as a study is the issue of indigene and non-indigeneship status between the local farmers and the fulani pastoralists. One ethnic group feels more Nigerian than the other and sees the other group as settlers. The Nigerian government must make decisive policies and laws to tackle indigeneship issues seriously and expunged it in the Nigerian constitution if there is such, and makes laws that sees every Nigerian as Nigerian irrespective of where one comes from.
A LOCAL FARMER IN HIS FARM.
There has been accusations and counter accusations between herders and farmers in Nigeria. Farmers accuses herders of intruding into their farmlands using their animals to graze their farmlands. And herders in turn accuses local farmers of cattle rustling. These are the immediate causes of herders - farmers crisis in Nigeria. The Nigerian government on her parts to put an end to the herders - farmers crisis in Nigeria established the rural grazing area (RUGA) settlements for the fulani pastoralists to graze their animals so as not to intrude into local farmers farmlands to reduce the crisis to its nearest minimum. But the policy by the Nigerian government was greatly opposed by Nigerians and political elites as a means to empower the hausa - fulani pastoralists economically to grab other people's ancestral lands for political, economical and religious conquest. The RUGA settlements policy was rescinded by the Nigerian government and it died a natural death.
The Nigerian government in her quest in finding lasting solutions to the myriad of problems associated with this crisis has set up committees at the federal and state levels of government for dialoguing, mediation and reconciliation with stakeholders and warring parties to stem the tide and nip the crisis in the bud. The Nigerian government have made concerted efforts to resolve the conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria, but they still need to do more by promulgating policies and laws that will be fair and transparent in handling the crisis between both parties. And also stiffer penalties should be put in place and meted out to defiance that takes the laws into their hands to commit heinous crimes against humanity to serve as deterrent to others. Lastly, more dialogue and mediation meetings between the government, representatives of the pastoralists (Miyaetti Allah) and the local farmers should be strengthen for peace to reign in the trouble spots and flashpoint areas across Nigeria.
#SDG16 #GlobalGoals #PeaceJusticeAndStrongInstititions #PeaceEducation #PeaceBuilding
Comrade Enobong Ekwere is a social influencer, blogger, human rights activist, SDGs advocate and a global citizen. He is the program manager of children and young people living for peace (CYPLP) a youth focused and a think-tank non-governmental organization based in Kaduna, Nigeria. He can be reached via: Tel: +2347082558952.
Email: julyenobong2020@gmail.com
: enobongekwere825@gmail.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/enobongekwere
Website: www.cyplp.net.ng
Comments
Post a Comment