Farmers, herdsmen in South-West need each other to survive —Dr Oyedepo

Dr Bola Oyedepo, a farmer, held a number of top positions in the Oyo State civil service before he retired as Director, Livestock Services in the state’s Ministry of Agriculture. The doctor of Veterinary Medicine speaks on way out of the spate of unrests between herdsmen and farmers in the South-West and across other parts of the country. KUNLE ODEREMI provides excerpts.

 

Farmers and herdsmen have always co-existed in Nigeria. So, where did things go awry?

For age-long, there has been a cordial co-existence between herdsmen and farmers, even though there were occasional minor clashes because even the teeth and the tongue do quarrel, as they say. So, there have always been pockets of misunderstanding or conflicts out of the cattle straying into people’s farms.  One of my senior colleagues told me that when he was being interviewed for employment into the civil service in 1965, one of the questions they asked him centred on the herdsmen/farmers’ clash. He was asked how he would manage in case it happened. If as far as 1965, such question was considered necessary and germane, it shows that the problem had all along been a major one. But we have lived so much together to the extent that there are places in Nigeria today, especially in the South-West, that you cannot separate herdsmen from the farmers; the two have lived a symbiotic life. I am fully aware that when such minor skirmishes happened, government would set up a committee to settle the issue amicably.

Why has the issue escalated now? One, I think we should not shy away from the fact that grasses are now limited for the cattle of the rising number of herdsmen to graze. Two, as the herdsmen migrate to the South, they would have discovered that the grasses are no longer readily available for the cattle to feed on, and so, the cattle could entre farmlands to graze. And we must realize that majority of the farms are not fenced. So, the cattle tend to overrun them. While the farmers will want to protect their means of livelihood, the herdsmen also try to mobilise themselves and scare the farmers

As a livestock expert, I know that we need each other for survival. Is there any community in this country where people do not consume beef? You find the Fulani herdsmen in the riverine areas; visit the length and breadth of the South-West, and as you are entering Lagos, you find the Fulani selling raw milk called wara. You find people selling it in Ibadan. So, I will regard our association as mutual and symbiotic; it is mutual because we benefit from each other.

 

You occupied a strategic position in the Agric sector in the Oyo State civil service before you retired. What were some of the concrete measures taken by the authorities then to check skirmishes between farmers and herdsmen?

One of them that I can quickly recall was that the Federal Government introduced what was referred to as cattle routes. The herdsmen and their cattle were required to migrate through those routes during the dry season from the North to the southern part of the country. We also called them stock routes, and a route required that you also left some parts of the setback of the river for grazing by the cattle while migrating to the South. I equally remember that when it was discovered that farmers were beginning to encroach on those cattle/stock routes, the government came up with a policy, when the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, was the chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Through the Ministry of Agriculture, the authority redefined the stock routes; as part of the agric component of the PTF activities, the authorities re-routed the stock route from the North to the South and one of the stock routes from the North-East passed through Oyo and Ogun states, which also served as resting or water places, where the animals, during migration, could have access to good water.

Another intervention by the PTF was the creation of grazing reserves in each local government area. Some state governments complied by giving out some areas as grazing reserves. So in every local government area, there was supposed to be one. However, the PTF could not complete the project before the agency went under. But later, the National Livestock Project Department of the Federal Department of Livestock Services, took over those places and sponsored the project in collaboration with state governments by establishing grazing reserves in each local government. Each earmarked between 5,000 and 10,000 hectares of land for the itinerant Fulani herdsmen through that route. Therefore, the herdsmen stayed there for some time before going back to the North. And the grazing reserves had provision for health and water facilities. It was an attempt to domicile the herdsmen.  Unfortunately, a number of states did not key into the arrangement, but Oyo State complied, to an extent. There were two of such grazing reserves: one in Igangan, which is in Ibarapa North Local Government Area; we had the other in Ayegun, which is under Iwajowa Local government Area. The two were developed to some extent. I wouldn’t know what has happened to them now. And the other local government areas were to follow suit because the state is the most populated in livestock in the South West. So, these were a few of the measures introduced that time in order to accommodate the Fulani herdsmen. There were also interventions introduced by missionary bodies on how the animals should move. So the laws are there but the problem is that many of the laws that have been in existence are never implemented.

 

The spate of killings by suspected herdsmen has led to calls that the authorities declare the group a terrorist group? Isn’t such demand justified now?

I am not a security man, but from the position of a layman, you are sleeping and you are woken up by someone who threatens you with a gun, what would you call that? That’s terrorism; there is no other word other than that. That is what is making some states say they could no longer tolerate the activities of such people in their own territories. The leaders of the Myetti Allah should call their people to order.

 

Many have also raised the issue of grazing reserves with some calling for caution.

Grazing reserves can only constitute a temporary measure. You have three formats: the short term, medium term and the long term approaches. General development, civilization, climate change and other factors beyond human control have altered the ecosystem and man’s way of doing things and life as a whole. A lot of cattle routes have been converted to farmlands. In the past, the herdsmen did not stay permanently when they migrated to the South with their cattle. Now, there has to be a law that provides that they would come especially during the dry season; where they would be when they enter a local government area, that is, the grazing reserves.  Such land should be leased temporarily. That is the short term. The medium term is the ranching a lot of people have been debating. Ranching should be the ultimate because the Fulanis are now in business. They are breeding their cattle as businessmen and anybody with a contrary opinion is not being honesty. Since it is their own way of doing business, they must be prepared to fulfil all righteousness like other businessmen.