Demand by Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore for the gazetting of 415 grazing routes in the country has sparked a fresh row, with insinuations about a plot to introduce some unpopular legislation through the backdoor, write Bola Badmus, Isaac Shobayo and Johnkennedy Uzoma
WITH the buildup to the 2023 general election beginning to take shape, different groups and organizations are making multifaceted demands from the political parties and their candidates. While some of the demands have been real, others have been sublime and imaginary. The demands are going against the unveiling of manifestoes by candidates of the major political parties. Simulated events designed to pressure the candidates to look at their directions are being put together by non-professional groups that have been in the news for good of bad reasons in the political space in the last few years.
Issues bordering on restructuring, socio-economic political reforms, establishment of state police and fiscal federalism are among the demands of ethnic nationalities making up the country. But the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a Fulani Socio-cultural Association has introduced a weird twist to the plethora of demands by sundry groups. Rising from a meeting on Monday, the body tabled its own terms that government and communities must take to restore lasting peace, unity and tolerance among farmers and herders in various troubled communities in the midst of frenzied preparations for the general election. One of the conditions is immediate designation, gazetting and development of 415 grazing reserves across the states. It was among the key resolutions contained in the communique of the expanded National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the body under the leadership of its national president, Alhaji Bello Bodejo. The designation, gazetting and development of all the grazing reserves, according to the organization, is the only first strategic step in addressing the challenges confronting Fulani herders in the country. The national secretary of the association, Saleh Alhassan, who read the communique at a press conference in Abuja, added that the NEC demanded an end to the alleged profiling of pastoralists particularly by a governor through an alleged “satanic” anti-grazing law. Warning against imminent self-help options if the police top hierarchy failed to set up a panel to unmask those responsible for the alleged killing of some pastoralists in Taraba State to ensure justice is done to the victims’ families, Miyetti Allah disagreed that farmers-herders conflicts constituted a major catalyst for instability and insecurity in the country.
What appears to be most curious to other stakeholders in the country was the demand for a Federal Ministry of Nomadic Affairs, with a mandate to broaden educational opportunities and address pastoralist challenges across the country. For the 2023 elections, it declared that its Political Awareness and Mobilisation Directorate had been directed to embark on massive enlightenment campaigns and voter education. “In few weeks to come, we would hold a peaceful rally to take a position on our choice candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections. Meanwhile, our people have been mobilised to register and obtain their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) ahead of the elections,” it stated.
The dust raised by the conditions listed by Miyetti Allah has continued to elicit reactions from prominent mass-based organizations in the country. The Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere and the Middle Belt forum, in separate views expressed indignation. Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, said it is regrettable that a seeming non-governmental organisation could have the effrontery to dictate the terms for peace in the country. According to Afenifere, through its spokesperson, Comrade Jare Ajayi, the tone of the communiqué of Miyetti Allah is contemptuous because it appears as if Miyetti Allah or those it speaks for are above other groups in the country. “The tone of the communique by Miyetti Allah is contemptuous. It’s as though the body and/or those it speaks for are above other groups in the country. It’s as though the laws by which they operate are different from the ones that the rest of us are governed by,” Afenifere said.
The pan-Yoruba organization wondered why any group or individual could still be calling for the restoration of the assumed grazing reserves, advising whoever wants to operate ranches to follow the laws governing private businesses. “Assuming without conceding that there were ‘grazing reserves’, questions would certainly arise regarding the circumstance of creating the 415 assumed reserves that Miyetti Allah is talking about. Livestock farming is like any occupation. In a capitalist system, the type we run in Nigeria, it is a peddler of a particular trade or business who would invest in the business.’We are not begrudging livestock farmers. But they should stop the habit of demanding special treatment in a multi cultural and multi ethnic society like Nigeria. If there had been a thought of grazing reserves in the past, Nigeria of today cannot afford earmarking public funds for a project that would serve not only a narrow interest but cause disaffection across the country. The possibility of such causing violence between farmers and herders too cannot be ruled out,” Afenifere stated.
The organiation described as condemnable, the disparaging manner by which Miyetti Allah referred to state governors who enacted Anti-Open Grazing law. It restated: “The governors made laws that they believe would serve the best interest of their people. If you cannot operate under the laws of a given state, you can move to other states. Afenifere has been unrelentingly agitating for the restructuring of the country. If the country is restructured and true federalism is in place, each section would be in a position to implement policies it considered as best suited for its people.”
Another prominent group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) frowned at the seeming arrogance of Miyetti Allah to give conditions for peace in the country, describing such request as not only criminal and treasonable but a clear call for disunity. The publicity Secretary of OPC, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, alleged that the set of demands by Miyetti Allah was an admission that the association could not absolve itself from the core challenges besetting the country. Besides, Oguntimehin alleged that its declaration further gave credence to the purported attempt by Miyetti to grab ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples of Nigeria through the back-door in the guise of prospering a private business scheme. He, therefore, called on federal and state governments to outlaw the association.
The Igbo umbrella organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, with its president general, Professor George Obiozor warned that the Igbo had no land to give out for grazing. Obiozor insisted that those who want to carry out their grazing business should buy land, describing the lands in the South East as ancestral lands owned by families or even the deity. He said: “it is not in our character to just give out land to anybody that enters our area.” According to him, the people of the South-East also buy lands when they want to carry out their business, adding that the Miyetti should do the same: “That is what we do when we want to do something with land, so they should go and buy land where they can for their grazing business.”
Similarly, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) faulted the Miyetti Allah on the conditions it demanded to guarantee peace in all the troubled communities. The national president of MBF, Dr Bitrus Pogu, likened the demands as subtle threats by the group to coerce the Federal Government to do its bidding and further an expansionist agenda. Pogu noted: “By giving such conditions for peace, they are fishing for trouble. All this while, every community has exercised restraint. Conflict has displaced many from their ancestral communities and lands, and the government has continued to look the other way round as if they are special people. The government’s attitude in this regard has further emboldened them. And by giving these conditions for peace, they are calling for serious trouble, and all along we have been telling the government that every community knows their local Fulani. If the government provides the right policies and enabling environment, the local Fulani will be accommodated without any problems and they can change their lifestyle from nomadic to ranching.
“But the Fulani nomads said they will not go by modern techniques; we have to bend and accept the rules. Some of them have continued to bring people from other African countries; we have tolerated them for a long time. We are waiting to see how the government will handle these conditions and threats.”
He advised the group not to push communities in Nigeria to the wall to avoid consequences. Concerning the demand that the 415 grazing reserves should be developed and gazetted, Pogu said: “They cannot impose their ways of life on us; it will not be acceptable. The modern way of animal husbandry is ranching. Population growth is there, and there is no free land in Nigeria. Every nationality has their own territory. Let the government bring out a policy that would accommodate everyone.
“On the threat to resort to self-help if the Inspector General of Police did not unmask those responsible for the killing of pastoralists in Taraba State, I want to say that the threat is not new; they have been resorting to self-help.” He implored the Federal Government to come up with a comprehensive policy that is not discriminatory. According to the MBF leader, “The government needs to do the needful. Government is not for nomads or farmers. Before Nigeria became a country, every community in Nigeria had their own territory and that territory was defined. The government needed to do the right thing.”
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