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
1.          SB MORGEN “IT IS GETTING WORSE; THE DEEPENING PASTORAL CONFLICT”  http://sbmintel.com/
2.    SB MORGEN “THE PASTORAL CONFLICT TAKES A DEADLIER TURN” http://sbmintel.com/
3.        Dele Sobowale THE PRICE FOR RAPE OF AGATU    January 21, 2018        https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/price-rape-agatu/

Dele Sobowale THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF HERDSMEN/FARMER CLASHES.by · January 29, 2018 https://www.delesobowale.com/the-economic-consequences-of-herdsmenfarmers-clashes

Dele Sobowale THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF HERDSMEN/FARMERS CLASHES – 2  February 5, 2018  https://www.delesobowale.com/the-economic-consequences-of-herdsmenfarmers-clashes-2/.

 

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