Conflict between farmers and animal keepers (otherwise called Cattle Herders) is not new to Nigeria. Many countries around the world faced similar crisis. They worked to find the appropriate solutions. Some of the solutions were brutal. Nigeria is currently facing challenges to its peace and stability, but does not seem to be seriously working to resolve to restore the peace we so badly need for our progress and development.
For many countries in the Americas and Europe livestock rearing is an important source of employment and a key economic activity and a main contributor to the national economy. So it was in Nigeria until recently when it became a national calamity.
Nigeria is estimated to have among its ethnic population groups some 20 million people whose livelihoods entirely depend on animal husbandry: rearing of cattle and sheep. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are may be as many as 20 million cattle and about 40 million sheep in Nigeria. Most of these two categories of domestic animals are in the hands of the nomadic population, most of them of the Fulani stock.
There are two types of Fulani: the settled town Fulani and the cattle rearing Fulani in the rural areas (popularly referred to as Mbororo’en). The settled Fulani live in towns along with other Nigerians and participate in the social, economic and political life of the country. But they are a dying tribe.
I am a Town Fulani man and I herd cattle. Although I am a pure Fulani, my children are what is today called Hausa/Fulani, whose first language is Hausa. Today, only a few of them speak my language, Fufulde, and are therefore easily recognized more as Hausa than Fulani. Of my 11 grandchildren, five do not understand a word of my language. Some of them cannot even speak the Hausa language.
When I was growing up in the town of Yola, Adamawa State in the 1930s, only the few educated school teachers understood the Hausa language as the lingua franca was Fulfulde. If a first time visitor who speaks only the Hausa language entered the town and was asking to be guided to his destination, no one would understand him. Today, if you only speak Fulfulde, there may be no one to understand you. For me, there is sufficient evidence that the much touted Fulani political domination is mere hallucination with political motives designed to achieve certain objectives. If there was any such thinking in the past it is obvious that it’s coming to an end.
Of the Fulani emirs that are still on their thrones in present day Nigeria, very few speak the Fulfulde language. In Sokoto the seat of the Fulani Empire there hardly anyone left speaking the language or practicing the culture. That is why I cannot understand how this dying clan can Fulanise not only Nigeria but the whole of the West African sub region.
Nor can I see how the other Fulani clan, the Mbororo’en, uneducated as they are, living in the wild can Fulanize 180 million other Nigerians, considering that they hardly have any educated people among them; do not live in cities, are not members of political parties, cannot contest elections; do not vote and have no representation in any local government council, or House of Assembly, the House of Representatives or Senate. They are equally absent in the public services of the local, state of Federal.
Even among the Mbororo’en (the cattle rearing groups) who are presently the major speakers of the Fulfulde language, it is rapidly disappearing as well. The Mbororo’en have no homes or any land of their own. They mostly live in the remote transit camps known from the beginning of time as Rugas. They roam around the countrysides, in search for fodder and water for their animals.
However, they pay their personal income tax called Haraji, pay the cattle tax called Jangali or other taxes that exist in different forms. They are invariably the only group of people in Nigeria who pay tax on their capital assets but receive nothing in return from government in form of social services or protection.
As is well known their access to education and health facilities is severely limited. There are no longer any veterinary services in this country, the only service they needed in the past and used to get in return for the tax they paid in colonial times.
They are on their own, separated and denigrated by the rest of the society. They may not be even aware of the debate now going in their name and about their future in this federation.
The Nomadic Problems of Nigeria
When the population of Nigeria was small, less than 40 million around the early 1950s, grazing lands were plentiful and free open range grazing was possible. There was land everywhere. Access to lush grasses and watering points was easy and there was no reason for friction. All lived in peace, love and friendship complimenting each other in the use of the land resource as well as access to farm resources after each harvest and scarcity.
Today, the population of Nigeria is around 200 million people. Desert encroachment, coming together with the world wide climate change have combined to effect climate change that is changing the pattern of rain distribution. Access to land and its resources has now become virtually impossible. Livestock owners who continue to practice free open grazing as in the past cannot now gain access into grazing areas without trespassing on farms and causing damage and inviting violence.
In the past, there existed traditional mechanisms that settled disputes between farmers and herders. Since the Local Government Reforms in 1976 or thereabouts, the traditional system of mediating peace transferred to the police and the judiciary. Judicial corruption and police extortion have made peaceful mediation impossible.
Both the herders and the farmers have lost confidence in the police and the judiciary. For this reason farmers and herders have to resolve to self-help, which could imply people taking the law into their own hands to resolve even insignificant conflicts. This often leads to violence, deaths and destructions.
Early Recognition and Action
The inevitability of this crisis was foreseen as far back as early as in the1930s. The Katsina Emirate took the first early steps to set up grazing areas for cattle, sheep and goats, popularly called hurumis, which in later years transformed into the grazing reserves in Northern Nigeria during the First Republic. Stock routes that would allow free movement of livestock were established and protected. All designed to reduce the possibility of conflict occurring during the normal movement of animals to and from grazing areas.
The First Republic Government of Northern Nigeria established by law grazing reserves to avert the impending crisis, such as the ones we are witnessing today. The grazing Reserves were established in all of the 12 provinces of the Northern Region.
The Land Use Decree now an Act of the National Assembly is entrenched in the 1979 and all subsequent constitutions of the country. The Act makes specific provisions for land for livestock production and for the regulation of all lands in the country. The provision made in the Act was to provide land for all Nigerians interested in livestock production, not just for the Fulani cattle herders.
Perhaps, in order to clarify what this crisis is about, it is necessary to explain the livestock situation of the country. Up to now we have practiced free range grazing, which has become unacceptable. We need to find ways of managing the livestock (cattle) population of the country. First attempts were to set up grazing reserves into which all herdsmen and cattle and sheep would be confined. After over 60 years of its practice in all the 19 states of the federation, this solution has now become unacceptable in many parts of the country where the idea is totally rejected and at least in two states outlawed.
Federal Intervention
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture in the early life of the current administration announced that it would import grass seeds from Brazil, give the herders the seeds to plant. Crisis resolved and so resolve. What the Ministry must have forgotten was that the wondering fulani herders own no land to plant the grass; lack the knowledge to prepare the land to plant the grass and manage the pastures so created and do not have the money to buy land, clear and prepare to plant and to manage the pastures. The project never took off.
Without any explanation, the Ministry said it would establish colonies for the cattle men. The idea like its predecessor the grazing reserves was rejected by many states, the print media and all who care to comment on the subject.
Now we are engaged in an angry debate about Rugas. All the Southern States have rejected all proposals for any solution on the table. They are even insisting that those states that have accepted the idea should abandon the thoughts. They have proposed no solutions which suggests that they would prefer that the uncertainty and violence should continue.
Although the crisis of the livestock industry started well before Nigeria became independent from Britain and the matter was debated in the British Parliament in later 1954 without a solution, the British Parliament is today becoming involved. Should we wait for the British for a solutions?
Some newspaper columnists and commentators have condemned any idea of using public money to finance the lifestyle of a single tribe; the Fulani people. They forget that Nigeria from the beginning of time have engaged itself in the creation of facilities with public money to facilitate private sector investment. To mention a few, the following come to mind:
1) Industrial Estates with road and rail access; water, electricity;
2) Allocated lands to private investors for Plantations; Cocoa, Palm Oil, Rice and Orchards, established ranches in Mokwa,(Niger) Galambi (Bauchi) Zonkwa (Kaduna), etc.
3) The Federal and state governments provide fertilizer, agro chemicals, irrigation pumps and tractor hire to farmers at highly subsidized rates. While bank loans for commercial business attract interests as high as 27%, farm loans are guaranteed single digits loans underwritten by the public treasy.
Agricultural machinery and equipment are imported free of import duties.
Tax holidays and exemptions are routinely granted as incentives; both foreign and native federal and state governments routinely provide for crop farmers.
4) In order to protect crop farmers, the Federal Government restricts the importation of many food items.
The Fulani herdsman could ask why the same consideration should not be extended to him.
The present existing order of rehabilitating or developing new grazing reserves is now under challenge from various quarters around the country.
In recent years animal rearing, especially cattle’s rearing, is only associated with the Fulani and all the political fault lines associated in Nigeria with the entire Fulani people. This crisis when objectively viewed is beyond the Fulani question. The animal species in Nigeria include sheep, goats and pigs. They also need to be cared for and found the space to thrive.
This whole problem has become a national security issue, a political campaigning issue and a religious issue: all combined to threaten the very existence of the country.
Under the Nigerian Constitution, land matters are the exclusive preserve of state governments. Grazing reserves have traditionally been established and managed by the Regional Governments, now state governments.
The Federal Government is involved largely due to the fact that the practice has now become a serious National Security issue. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture is charged with responsibility for the regulation and development of the livestock industry of Nigeria, just as it is with crop production. The Federal Livestock Department of the Ministry has always been responsible for the development and regulation of the Industry. In the last 40 years or more it has done very little to discharge this responsibility. The current stagnation of the sector and the ensuing crisis of the sector is the fallout of this failure.
The state governments whose main duty it is have, without exception, abdicated their responsibilities and are now complicit in escalating the crisis. Politicians and religious leaders are now among those actively promoting the religious and political conflict and violence.
Since the return to civil rule in 1999 the conflicts between herders and farmers have been escalating and getting out of control with little pragmatic intervention by all tiers of the government in Nigeria. Neither the Federal Government nor any of the state or Local governments in the past 20 years where cattle grazing is practiced can deny that they failed to appropriately intervene. For this reason, very little or no action has been taken to avert the dangerous consequences that have today become a national crisis and shame, but which could have been averted.
There are, in existence detailed reports compiled on some of the most serious clashes, which culminated into loss of lives, destruction of properties and disruption of the social and economic life in many parts of the country. Such reports, sometimes prepared by government themselves and many others by other society groups, were not only circulated to the concerned states and federal governments, but also to the National and State Houses of Assemblies.
Even in some of the worst of such events like that of the Mambilla Plateau when as many as a thousand people were killed, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives seriously investigated, nor intervened. Governments generally chose to do nothing.
On coming into office in 2015, the new Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that he would “bring pasture seeds from Brazil and distribute them to herders to cultivate pastures to feed their cattle. He did not explain how this could be done.
As far as we are all aware, herdsmen do not own land on which to establish pastures. Even if they were given the land they would not be in any position to establish and maintain pastures. This is because they lacked the knowledge and skill necessary to establish and manage pastures. They don’t have the money to invest in the machinery and equipment for pasture management. The result is today, four years after, there are no developed pastures anywhere in the country. And the crisis is worsening.
The Herder/Farmer conflict in this country is over access to, and use of land based resources. It is not religion or tribe as is portrayed in the media. It is now totally politicized.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has talked about “creating ranches, colonies and now Rugas.” Commentators, both those who understand what is intended as well as those who least understand, have waded into the discourse, with many casting aspersions and eliciting ethnic and religious sentiments. Many of those who have addressed the issue have rejected all those slogans as unworkable. None has suggested what solutions would work.
It appears from the news reports that officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture went to Benue with contractors on tow without the knowledge and consent of the state government to start work on land owned by the state government not the Federal Government to start work. If the reports are correct, there is something fishy here. How was the contract awarded and by who? When? Could officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture award contracts in silence, and why the rush to execute the contracts even beginning with states that are the most violently opposed to such initiatives?
The Office of the Vice President, which is said to have the mandate to execute a new policy of the Federal Government that is intended to solve the crisis denied any knowledge of what the Federal Ministry was doing.
Something is certainly wrong here. Is it possible for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to award such contracts without the approval of the Federal Executive Council which has the Vice President as member and whose office therefore, must have all the information of what is going on? Ordinarily, money for any government project must be included in the budget of the government that is approved by the National Assembly. Is the contract sum awarded for the Benue Ruga reflected in the 2019 Budget? If so how could the office of the Vice President be ignorant of what is going on?
It seems, sadly, that the government is not functioning as one entity, and without any necessary coordination.
Under these circumstances, is it not right to investigate whether there are active sabotage cells within government to frustrate any action to resolve the Herder/Farmer crisis.
Why should Benue, of all the 36 states, be the first point of call, when it is well known that the state government is the bitterest opponent to any form of cattle activity in its area? Why sneak it in? Why not start with any of the 12 states that welcome the project? Why is the issue being subjected to public debate in such a manner as is currently being promoted?
As has been mentioned above, provision for allocation of land for grazing and other livestock production purposes is mentioned in the constitutions. It has existed in Nigeria since the beginning of time. There have existed grazing reserves in most parts of the country, many of which have been encroached and obliterated. With both the federal and state governments doing nothing to check it.
Resolving the Crisis
In order to resolve the crisis, there is need to at least resuscitate the established grazing reserves. Call them any name: Reserves, Colonies, Ranches and Rugas. Regrettably, because of the politicization of the issues, there seems to be a determination to extinguish cattle rearing, an important socio-economic activity in this country. This debate seems to be led by some political groups who wish to exploit fault-lines for political gains.
In practice, the opposition to the allocation of land for grazing purposes is difficult to understand. The land required for the purpose of grazing is not any different from the land being allocated for banana, cocoa, rubber orchards or for housing estates or play grounds.
Since the Federal Government has to be involved, it should do so with all sense of urgency. The government policy on livestock transformation should be revisited and be made workable.
Our development partners and the professionals across the globe and the African continent can help us in formulating and financing the implementation of the initiatives.
The National Assembly must now be involved and the issue discussed in the full glare of the public. The state governments and the state Houses of Assembly must act without delay to end this crisis.
The media should not allow itself to become a platform for groups determined to promote ethnic and religious bigotry that will undermine the social cohesion and progressive development of the country.
Major Recommendations
The major problem is that of lack of coordination within the organs of government. Clearly, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development cannot now be the agency of the Federal Government that can address a responsibility that has always been its mandate but which it has failed to address in more than 50 years of independence.
Therefore, it is recommended that the Federal Government should create by law a NATIONAL LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY to be charged with the specific duties of:
Reforming Rearing and Managing the Livestock Industry of the Country
Since Livestock keeping has become an issue that threatens the security of the Country; it be domiciled in the Presidency with direct access to the President. There are precedents; the Niger Delta Commission, the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the North-East Development Commission Law.
All the states desiring to participate should pass their own laws or domicile the Federal law establishing their Livestock Development Authority.
The law or laws should provide for roles for local community interest and involvement.
It is important that everything we do must be carefully considered in the greatest POSSIBLE details to anticipate any future fault lines. Equally important is for consideration to the gradual integration of the herders and other members of their various cohabitants.
Ahmed Joda
