DECIMATION OF FARMERS. (THE LOOMING FOOD CRISIS IN NIGERIA
DECIMATION OF
FARMERS. (THE LOOMING FOOD CRISIS IN NIGERIA)
C.
(2018) C NDUBUISI 12/02/2018 WEEK 7
Peace be
upon you.
It was Thomas
Paine, who averred that;
THESE are the times that
try men’s souls.
Benue State that calls itself “The Food basket of the Nation”
has been so decimated and now the “War Zone of the Nation”. Farmers are under
threat all over the country occasioned by grazing routes problems.
Farms are plundered, crops
destroyed and the commitment to keep planting keeps waning because of incessant
attacks on farmers. The outcome of this is that farms are deserted and harvest
left to rot away making food security as enunciated by UNDP becomes a forlorn
hope, the SDG goal NO.2 ZERO HUNGER becomes more hunger. “When Nigerian farmers
cannot plant and harvest crops, foreigners will supply that short” fall and the
vicious cycle of poverty continues. How then can we build “the Africa we want”?
A report
by SB Morgan noted that;
At the
turn of the New Year 2018, two days of violent confrontations left no fewer than
fifty people, including nine members of the Benue State Livestock
Guards
dead in what appeared to be coordinated attacks on Tom-Atar and Umenge, Akor
villages in Guma, and Ayilamo, Turan, Ngambe-Tiev in Logo local government
areas of Benue. Guma is the home town of the Governor of Benue state, Samuel
Ortom.
At
the 30th Ordinary Session of the
African Union Assembly(2018), “the Assembly reaffirmed commitment to end
hunger by 2025 through strengthening development policies as an effective
investment in the human capital of our countries; and recommitted to end child
stunting by reducing stunting to 10% and underweight to 5% by 2025 and in
particular, focusing on the first 1000 Days as the only window of opportunity
during which permanent and irreversible physical and mental damage would be
avoided”. The African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) Initiative was created to
drive this process.
How can
these lofty goals be achieved when all the 8 indicators of positive peace are undermined.
Positive peace is the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and
sustain peaceful societies. The 8 indicators are (well-functioning government, sound business environment, low
levels of corruption, high levels of human capital, acceptance of the right of
others, free flow of information, equitable distribution of resources and good
relation with neighbours)
A historical effort at
addressing this issue “led to the
Nigerian Grazing Reserve Act of 1964 which provided for grazing areas and paths
for the passage of livestock. Following the collapse of Nigeria’s First
Republic, the paths set out in 1964’s Act slowly went into disuse. Areas
previously designated as grazing routes were given out for real estate
development, road construction, and industries, forcing the herdsmen into
farmlands.”
In
a bid to close this gap, some affected state governments resorted to banning
open grazing within their territory.
However, in 2017, the Secretary-General of Gan
Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN), Sale Bayeri, warned
that banning of open grazing in Benue, Ekiti, Plateau and Taraba states, will
create more problems than it intends to resolve. Bayeri noted that the Fulani
do not know any other method of grazing their cattle, “and any attempt to confine
them to a place was a sure invitation to anarchy.” Which, we all witnessed
in Benue in January 2018”. We have seen such conflicts in Oyo, Taraba, Adamawa
states respectively. No more secure property rights in Nigeria.
Of
particular note is the effrontery by the herdsmen when in
December 21, 2017, an Alpha Jet and an
EC 135 Helicopter deployed by the military, in an attempt to resist interventions
in the troubled communities of Numan and Demsa Local
Government
Areas of Adamawa State. The Air Force
refused to engage the herdsmen despite being fired upon.
However the
incident in Benue, led to street protest with calls for President
Muhammadu Buhari to “act
now or resign.”. “The Nigerian police in an attempt to control the aggrieved
protesters fired live bullets at them, causing injuries to protesters.
Following this action by the police, many in the Middle Belt referred to the
December 21 incident involving the Air Force as evidence that the Federal
Government has taken sides with the Fulani in this conflict”.
Why have
herdsmen morphed into murderers? What about the cry to silence the Guns by
2020?
How can we estimate, how much
that have been lost in terms of crops destroyed? How can we have sustainable
food security in an atmosphere of crisis? How can property rights be protected?
How can the herdsmen adapt to the demands of contemporary farming demands?
Lately, the Federal Government
gave its support for state police creation as a visible means of addressing the Farmers-Herders crisis. So many national
questions remain unresolved to help check growing restiveness and extremism in the country.
Other countries should be
studied and the best way for cattle rearing adopted rather than trampling on
the property rights of others.
Peace be with you.
Further
Reading
3. Dele
Sobowale THE PRICE FOR RAPE OF AGATU
January 21, 2018 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/price-rape-agatu/
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