In support of ban on open grazing in south

By Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

SIR: Open grazing of cattle is a big source of conflict between farmers and the herders throughout the country. The rate at which the clashes regularly occur is very alarming and indeed unsettling. This ever rising conflict has become a notorious national tragedy which has failed to draw the deserved urgent attention of those in authority. Many local farmers and herders alike have lost their lives while crops worth millions of Naira have gone down the drain as a result. Therefore, the expediency of banning open cattle grazing in Southern Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised.

It was reported by International Crisis Group that; “the surge of attacks and counter-attacks has exacted heavy humanitarian and economic tolls, with potentially serious political and security repercussions. The humanitarian impact is particularly grave. From September 2017 through June 2018, farmer-herder violence left at least 1,500 people dead, many more wounded and about 300,000 displaced – an estimated 176,000 in Benue, about 100,000 in Nasarawa, over 100,000 in Plateau, about 19,000 in Taraba and an unknown number in Adamawa.”

The major factor fuelling the killings according to group are also; “climate-induced degradation of pasture and increasing violence in the country’s far north, which have forced herders south; the expansion of farms and settlements that swallow up grazing reserves and block traditional migration routes; and the damage to farmers’ crops wrought by herders’ indiscriminate grazing.”

According to Amnesty International, “the Nigerian authorities’ failure to investigate communal clashes and bring perpetrators to justice has fuelled a bloody escalation in the conflict between farmers and herders across the country, resulting in at least 3,641 deaths in the past three years and the displacement of thousands more.

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In a new report, “Harvest of Death: Three Years of Bloody Clashes Between Farmers and Herders”, Amnesty International found that 57 per cent of the 3,641 recorded deaths occurred in 2018.

The losses in both human and material terms and the dangers it poses to peace, unity and corporate existence of Nigeria should have been a reason for government to take drastic measures aimed at peace building and ensuring return to normalcy.

Apart from banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram, the killings and arson carried out by unknown gunmen, there is no state in Nigeria at the moment not contending with one farmers/herders crisis or the other. The conflicts have overwhelmed many state governments. Although helpless, citizens now see their governors as accomplices to their daily insurmountable tragedy.

As it is, every right thinking, peace-loving individual and government should embrace the ban on open grazing and buy in to ranching. There is no gain repeating the fact that ranching and sedentary tendering of cattle and other animals are healthier and productive all over the world. It is also less cumbersome for the herders. Basic amenities like schools, hospitals, houses, water and electricity could then made available which is a far cry from what is obtainable in the bushes.

The right thing is right and should be done in the interest of peace. The collective decision of the southern state governors should be backed up by legislation.

Our country cannot make the desired progress when politics, religion, tribalism and ethnicity are deliberately injected into every national policies and issues. One is constrained to disagree with positions and unwarranted claims that calls to end open grazing is an attack on the traditional animal husbandry culture of the north and means of livelihoods of the herders. The two Miyetti Allah organisations (Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) should for once tell the herders the truth. Southern state governors should also take a deliberate step further by enlightening the herders on the need to end open grazing. Nobody takes pride in suffering. The herders too don’t.

• Sunday Onyemaechi Eze, sunnyeze02 @yahoo.com