Herdsmen everywhere: Are the Northern leaders sincere?

NO one would deny that the violent outbreaks we have experienced in recent years in parts of the North central and even the Southern states are traceable to the crisis of managing herdsmen, whose attachment to age-old animal rearing tradition appears legendary.

And beyond Southern Kaduna, the hotspot right now, the crises had boomeranged in different other spots. It destroyed the once serene and likeable Jos environment, destabilised the food belt of Benue, Adamawa and Taraba and reared its ugly head in skirmishes in Enugu and Delta.

A number of commentators have spoken out in attempts to pin point solutions, the latest being the voice of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who told a Congress Committee of the House of Representatives in the United States of America that the solution to Southern Kaduna crisis lies in the implementation of 2014 confab report.

We are not really lacking in suggestions at ending the spate of violence that had gripped the country in far mightier dimension since 2016, what appears missing is a true diagnosis of the source of the troubles.

We have failed to understand that the acclaimed herdsmen, who carry arms against defenseless citizens in Enugu, Agatu Kafanchan and Plateau, did not just wake on the wrong side of the bed to grab the weapons of war. There are socio-economic and cultural issues. There are environmental factors and some would add religious issues. The CAN and Christian leaders have spoken; the same for the JNI and the Miyetti Allah group.

Recently, a leader of Miyetti Allah group appeared on the Sunrise Daily, a breakfast show of Channels Television to make some insightful comments. I have taken time to distil the submissions and discovered that his take runs so close to the facts behind the crises.

The representative of the Miyetti Allah group, while commenting on the crises rocking Southern Kaduna, said there are six “international grazing routes” that pass through Southern Kaduna and that obstructions on those routes create tension between farmers and herdsmen. The young man, who spoke in flawless English language, did not mention how the routes came about since Nigeria is not a vassal state of any other country.  He added, however, that on those routes cows can graze almost unaided from Nigeria up to Cameroon.

His claim struck me in many ways. It brought to the open that the root cause of the crises being perpetrated here and there is not just raw criminality on the part of the perpetrators but clearly as a result of failure of leadership and deceit.

There are many questions left hanging by the interviewers of the Miyetti-Allah chief, which will however continue to trail his views and those who hold them. Who demarcated the “international grazing routes?” How did the people behind the routes handle issues of international boundaries? Were there agreements signed by different countries involved to surrender portions of their lands in favour of the international grazing routes? How are the grazing routes maintained year in year out in view of population growth and desertification? What do the countries involved gain in return for creating the international grazing routes?

Now back to the key causes of the violence as stated above, failure of leadership and deceit. It is so simple to link these keywords to the crises, yet it looks quite so elusive at the same time. Educated Fulani and Northern leaders are quick to defend outbreak of violence as possibly out of excesses of farm owners or some criminality by cattle rustlers. This is because, as they tell us, Fulani cattle herders are nomadic in nature, traits they inherited from their forebears. But for their sake, the Nomadic Education policy was introduced under the General Ibrahim Babangida regime. The policy was aimed at taking education to the herders in their natural habitats. But how successful that policy was remains to be seen. The fact, however, remains that successive Northern leaders have failed to educate the bulk of the Fulani herdsmen to also adopt modernity in their trade.

If diversification of the economy has become the sing song of this administration and those before it, why can’t the leaders who understand the language of the Fulani herdsmen preach modernisation to them and help them live normal live by breeding their cattle in particular spots, while feeds are procured and supplied by some other persons.

If those who have been speaking for Miyetti Allah were not sent to formal schools, how would they be in position of leadership today? It raises the question of deceit and subjugation. Is it that some leaders just want to keep the lowly Fulani perpetually subjugated so as to continue to lord over them? If that is not the case, why would someone argue or encourage herders to graze from Kaduna to Cameroon and back in today’s Nigeria? Will the cattle get the requisite nutrients to produce appreciable volume of milk? What happens to the quality of beef from such weather-beaten cows?

Rather than emphasizing the age-old practice of grazing routes or “international grazing routes,” one expects educated members of the Miyetti-Allah group and Northern leaders to educate the Fulani herders on evolving an urgent and compulsory modernisation pattern for the cattle business. In a way, cattle breeders could form cooperatives and establish grazing farmlands whereby they can do their businesses without interference. Insisting on the existence of some imaginary “international grazing routes” and encouraging herdsmen to continue to wander about in the forests at the mercy of elements in this age will just open door for endless clashes with farmers and communities, with its attendant threat to food security.