Why we are setting up paramilitary outfit —Jigawa Deputy Governor

Jigawa State deputy governor, Mr Ibrahim Hassan, speaks on the decision of the state government to promulgate a law to control the increasing violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers, threatening agricultural development, peace and stability in the state. ADAMU AMADU brings excerpts.

The state government recently sponsored a bill in the state House of Assembly which became a law that imposes severe sanctions on cattle encroachment on farmlands. Was the government aware of its political implication?

It is not a new law; it has been there before the advent of our administration. When we came into office, the issue of Fulani cattle and farmers came up at a council meeting. This has been a perennial issue and the council decided that a committee be set up to look into the issue. The committee was chaired by me and it had all emirs, farmers and herdsmen’s association and all the security agencies, as members.

The first thing I did was that I called for a copy of the law establishing the Farmers and Herdsmen Board and study it very careful. I called for an inaugural meeting and by the time we listed out all the eleven problems that we believed are responsible for the clashes, I came to realise that all these problems could be solved with prudent application of that existing law.

I explained this to the members and I told them we need not waste time holding several meetings on the issue. I made copies of the law to everybody and we had one meeting where we all agreed, on a point-by point-basis, that all the identified problems could be taken care of if this law was applied.

What I realised was that even the members of the farmers and herdsmen board were not conversant with the law; they didn’t care or bothered to look at it. This is a law that calls for the establishment of a paramilitary group within that board that would be responsible for guarding grazing reserves for ensuring peaceful coordination and ensuring that these herdsmen, when they come in at a particular time of the year, are restricted to their cattle routes and their designated places.

These rangers, apart from being a paramilitary group, have been empowered by that law to arrest violators of the law. Their power of arrest is more than that of the police because they can arrest on mere suspicion while the police will need a warrant. This law bans night grazing, grazing in group, and sending under-aged on grazing, among others. Most of the crises that happened take place at night and penalties are spelt out in the law for anyone caught grazing at night and other offences.

This law provides that any herdsman that strays into a farmer’s land and destroys his crops can be arrested and all his cows caught in the destruction of the farmland would be confiscated. The law also said you should get a court order and sell the confiscated cows to compensate the farmer and also pay the expenses for the implementation of that particular law. This law designates cattle routes to control the entry and exit of herdsmen.

But the clashes persist between the herdsmen and farmers. What could have gone wrong?

Unfortunately, a lot of attention has not been paid to the plights of farmers who fall victims to Fulani herdsmen and every time we raised questions, they tell us they are not local Fulani people but itinerary Fulani herdsmen coming from other places. We found out that it is not true as we sold some cows recently which, from all indications, belonged to the people in the localities. A few arrests have been made and what we intend to do is to apply the full force of the law as inherited and contained in the laws establishing the Farmers and Herdsmen Board. There is nothing new that we have introduced; it is not a new bill or a new system. It is the same law and it is the staffers of the board that are implementing these policies. It is simply a question of us waking up to our responsibilities.

You earlier mentioned a paramilitary outfit, the rangers, enforcing the law. Does the government have the intention of establishing such an outfit in the state?

Absolutely! The law provides for them; we are supposed to equip them; provide them with uniforms and train them in a special method of enforcing this law. We are already discussing with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) because the corps also have a special unit set up to checkmate cattle rustling. So, you would find out that it is also something similar. By the time we engage them with that unit, we would combine them to be a joint patrol to ensure that our grazing reserves are protected. That is what our neighbours are doing in the Republic of Niger. If you go there, if they catch one stolen cow in your herd, even if it is 2,000 cows, you will lose them all. There, if you come into one state with your cows and you are given permission to stay, it is there you must stay. While you are in that state, you will be buying grass at your own expense for your cows, and you will hardly hear a case of conflict. A Fulani herdsman cannot come all the way through five countries in West Africa, passing through Senegal and Niger and obeying all their laws, but at the moment you cross over into Nigeria, you become lawless because you don’t respect our laws here; we cannot allow that to continue.

The state government, at a recent meeting, faulted the police in curtailing Fulani herdsmen/farmers’ clashes. Does that mean your administration has no confidence in the police?

We can’t say we don’t have much confidence on the police. I’m talking about specific references where we are providing logistics for the police to go and chase out those herders. Sometimes, we don’t know what happens when they make arrests and sometimes we are told those arrested have been released. Sometimes, the police will go to the scene of a clash and the farmers will show them where the Fulani herdsmen are. But the police will say they have not been trained to cross water; the water that is beneath your ankle. So, we believe there are individual policemen or maybe heads of divisions who are not as cooperative as we want them to be.

That is why the issue of establishing the paramilitary force is very important to us. These are people we will have under our control and who have been given the training. If need be, we would train them to swim so that, no matter where Fulani herdsmen cross to with their cows, we would be able to track them. We have been getting supports from the police; virtually all the arrests we have made, in the two or three instances where we have confiscated cows, we have used the police and we have used the NSCDC to guard these cows where they are being kept. We have gotten our court orders according to the law. We cannot say we are 100 per cent satisfied; we have one or two issues, but, in general, I think the police have done well to support our efforts.

How many cows have been confiscated since your committee started working?

We confiscated 58 cows in Marma Village. After two weeks of investigations, we found out that those particular cows were not those that inflicted the damages in the village. After we had cross-referenced, we released the confiscated cows to the owner and even paid him to transport back to his remaining herd. We have arrested another set of 18 cows in Iwo Village, in Kirikasnma Local Government Area, which have been sold off, even though the amount realised was not enough to pay for the compensation.

These cows were being sold in the presence of the court; in fact, the court was the one that took charge of the process last time-in the presence of Miyetti Allah; in the presence of security agencies and in a fair and transparent manner.

Right now, we have in our custody about 30 cows and we are in the process of getting a court order to also sell them, even though I understand that the owners have appeared and are trying to arrange a settlement.

What I will always say is that the law must always takes its course as the law provides that your cattle should be sold if you are caught in the act. So, it is not about the individual farmer or a herdsman; we need to show examples that we are serious about this. Even if we are going to become one state that would ensure a peaceful farmer and pastoralist relationship, we will do everything at our disposal to ensure that this is achieved.

What are you doing to maintain the preservation of grazing reserves for Fulani cattle breeders?

There is no incidence so far that is as a result of inadequate grazing reserves or farmers blocking cattle routes. If there were farmers that have encroached into any grazing reserve, the law would be applied, even if you have built a house there, we will demolish it; we are working for both sides. Our grazing reserves are intact; they are being gazette. As at now, we have gazetted about 12 out of about 74 grazing reserves that we have and we are in the process of developing them; development means physical demarcation, either with drums or some typical objects and then try to remove poisonous weeds and as time goes on, during the rainy season, we will try to receive them with good pastoral grass.

The issue of grazing reserves is also about our mentality. These people are nomadic in nature and there is no scientific report that has not shown that it is better to keep your cows in one place and feed them, rather than roaming round the whole continent, burning up energy. It is something that will take time for it is a cultural thing, but we are trying to change some of these habits.