Nigeria’s cattle-grazing crisis has become a national security threat, sparking ethnic tension nationwide. Amnesty International estimates that more than 2,000 deaths in 2018 alone resulted from clashes between herdsmen and farmers over access to water and pasture and the destruction of land and property — particularly belonging to farmers in the country’s middle belt region.
Now the influential former leader Olusegun Obasanjo says he sees Nigeria going the way of Rwanda if urgent steps are not taken.
Herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic region in the north have brought their cattle to other parts of the country to graze for generations. Climate change, rapid population growth and desertification in the north have made it difficult to breed cattle.
The brutal violence has been a problem for some years. In 2014 the Global Terrorism Index judged Fulani militants to be the fourth most deadly terror group in the world, behind Boko Haram, Isis and the Taliban. Last year, Nigeria’s National Economic Council took action.
It came to the conclusion that the development of designated cattle ranches would be the best solution to the problem.
The ministry of agriculture also developed a National Livestock Transformation Plan to address food security and promote industrial growth.
The NLTP committee, chaired by vice-president Yemi Osinbajo, also advocated ranching. Tension escalated late last month when the government of Benue state in the middle belt complained the federal government had improperly created “Ruga” (rural grazing area) settlements in the state.
Unlike ranches, these are cattle colonies for herdsmen from across different states to relocate to. But the project is widely seen as a strategic ploy enabling herdsmen to claim subsidised land, in the same areas where they have caused serious unrest.
“The current government wishes to dissolve diversity in favour of an ethnic programme,” said Odia Ofeimun, a poet and polemicist.
The press secretary to the Benue state government, Terver Akase, says open grazing in the state has been phased out: “Anyone who wants to rear livestock in Benue has to go through the due process.” That process entails obtaining a licence from the state ministry of agriculture.
The federal government must also seek the state’s permission for land allocation, as required by Nigeria’s 1978 Land Use Act, which they did not do.
This undermines the government’s separation of powers and shows serious disregard for Nigeria’s diversity, of nearly 500 ethnic groups.
Pressure from citizens and stakeholders led the government to suspend the Ruga project on July 3. Ruga’s supporters, such as the Coalition of Northern Groups, gave the president an ultimatum: either it should revoke the suspension within 30 days, or have southerners living in the north of the country face a serious threat.
This is a problem that policy will not be able to solve without taking into account the region’s cultural history. Nomadic herdsmen have for thousands of years taken their cattle along routes to more states with better resources.
The cutting of these cultural ties has made the herdsmen feel victimised. They see a threat to their means of survival. Meanwhile, farmers feel overwhelmed by the volume of cattle.
Without the right incentives, both groups remain reluctant to adopt different ways of farming and raising livestock.
One attempt by the government to change this is through a Fulani radio station with programmes aiming to educate Fulani listeners.
But critics see this as partial and biased treatment in favour of an ethnic minority that includes President Muhammadu Buhari.
The government must take this dangerous bull by the horns; the longer the situation is mismanaged, the more insecure Nigeria becomes.
The tension will only mount: Nigeria is set to become the world’s third most populous country by 2050 and we are still recovering from the horrific Biafran civil war almost 40 years later. There is no room for any more ethnic division.
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