Picture Credit: bbc.com
Recently, Fulani herdsmen under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore Socio-Cultural group issued a strong warning to State Governors in Nigeria through their Natio al President Abdullahi Bodejo.
According to the Sun, the National President was quoted as saying Governors who want to enjoy peace in their States must create a particular area for the Fulani and equip them with moder amenities
The herdsman and farmers clashes is not new in Nigeria. What is worrisome though is the increased spate of mayhem and death resulting from the clashes between the two players in the agricultural food chain in Nigeria. There is no denying that beef is a cheap and important source of protein for many Nigerians however the method of rearing the cattle has become , as many have said, out dated.
The Fulani are pastoralists who move from place to place grazing their cattle. This is their ancient way of living and have continued to follow this ancient way of life even in these modern times. Other countries once had herdsmen moving from place to place with their cattle and faced similar challenges with agrarian farmers. To bring the conflict to an end, most developing and developed countries have chosen to end the open grazing method and adopted the ranching method.
What is Ranching?
According to nationalgeographic.org, ranching is the practice of raising herds of animal in large tracts of land.
As good as ranching might seem to be, it has a flip side. According to globalforestatlas.yale.edu, ranching is the largest driver of deforestation in Amazon countries. According to their studies, because cattle use energy to convert grass in to protein several times the amount of land is needed to produce an equal amount of beef as poultry, and about 10 times the amount of land than needed to produce grain. In Brazil according of the report, pasture land outweighs planted cropland by about 5 times.
https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/land-use/cattle-ranching
The Miyetti Allah leader further stated that the Fulani issue in Nigeria is being used to play politics. Hear him: "We have grazing routes and grazing reserves and if Nigeria wants to solve the herdsmen and farmers clashes once and for all, just create a particular area for the Fulani and equip them with ,modern amenities."
As strong and reasonable as this might sound coming from the leadership of the cattle breeders association, many still insist that it is not the correct approach but only an avenue for land grabbing by a section of people. They argued that the Fulani entered into the entity called Nigeria through conquest of some northern areas via Islamic Jihad. They took over those areas and imposed their way of life, especially their religion on the people while setting up their Sultanate and Emirates along the way. Military conquest and taking over of land by that means is no longer an acceptable practice in our modern society.
Cattle grazing route and reserves.
The British while occupying the territory of Nigeria as Colonialists established the use of grazing routes and reserves. The cattle from the North were moved to the South through these routes especially as the seasons changed. The North is Arid or semi arid with vast grasslands suitable for cattle breeding in open land. But in the dry seasons which is longer in the North, the land becomes dry and not conducive for breeding and rearing of cattle hence the need to move southward where the land is almost always green all year round. This necessitated the routes for the cattle to move. Cattle reserves were created in Kaduna South, Kaduna State and Obudu in Cross River State but despite the infrastructures put in place by governments of the day, mismanagement, lack of maintenance and other factors saw to their abandonment.
Climate change contributed a lot with the shrinking of the Lake Chad and other water bodies in the Country. It also affected the activities of the agrarian farmers who depend on the soil. Population explosion also contribute the skirmishes. Most grazing routes delineated by the colonial authorities and other regimes in Nigeria have turned to built up villages and towns.
The argument for better funding
The Miyetti Allah leader further stated that whereas rice farmers have gotten support running into billions of naira from the government through the Anchor Borrowers Scheme there is no corresponding support scheme for the cattle breeders. But this argument dies not make sense to many Nigerians who believe that cattle breeding like every other business gets incentive from the government in one way or the other. In the past, a Nomadic Education system was established in Nigeria in 1989 by Decree 41 now Nomadic Education Act, N20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. It is a system of education that involves moving the schools with the nomads thereby adapting their schooling with their way of life. Despite the funds set aside for this and the establishment of a Federal Commission to cater for its development, the scheme failed principally because of the inherent challenge in the system. For the scheme to effectively work, the teachers would have to be moving with the herdsmen and their herds. It also means that the school edifice has to be non-permanent structures. Many also argue that the owners of the cattle are quite distinct from the herdsmen who are merely servants to their masters. Their owners can therefore approach a bank for loan including the Bank of Agriculture. But, because of Their frequent movement from place to place, it would be difficult for any Bank commercial or government to lend to them as monitoring via identification is is an essential part of lending. How then will a bank monitor cattle that is perpetually on the move.
Why the popularity of Anti Open Grazing laws
Anti open Grazing laws are popular in several States in Nigeria because the indigenes of such places have been afflicted by the herdsmen for a long time. Stories abound of mayhem, murder and displacing of entire communities by herdsmen. No community would want "foreigners" to take over their land and way of life.
Abdullahi Bodejo also argued that State Government make a lot of revenue from cattle business. Whereas this is true, it is also true that State Governments rake in revenue from many other forms of business including but not limited to public transportation, commodity trading, artisans and others.
Even As the group insist they are peace loving, such statement from them do not come out as from persons with peace in mind. They should therefore desist from making such statements and reign in their members and their servants who indulge in harassment and unlawful grazing in farms. The Federal Government of Nigeria should on its part stop playing the Ostrich when in comes to matters affecting Miyetti Allah just as they rolled out guns in an attempt to silent IPOB. Hereas internationally, Miyetti Allah group has been listed as a terrorist group IPOB has not been described as terrorists except by the Nigerian Government. Perhaps that is the reason for the audacious statement ascribed to their leader.
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