To find short term and long term solutions to frequent
conflicts between farmers and cattle rearers, the Presidency is coming up with
a conference of stakeholders on infrastructural and agricultural development to
put in place a plan for immediate relief and long term plan for the expansion
of agriculture in the country.
The conference will tap into experiences and best practices
to draw up a planned development 20-30 years ahead based on population and
development projections and will take into consideration environmental impacts.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been concerned about these
conflicts each time he received those very gruesome pictures of mayhem from
several parts of the country, especially as it affected Benue and neighbouring
states. He is equally worried about some public pronouncements and
finger-pointing that are, in most cases very unhelpful to peaceful coexistence
of our diverse peoples.
The President is conscious of his duty to Nigerians, not
least because he is held accountable for everything that goes wrong. He deeply
sympathizes with the families and all the other direct and indirect victims of
this violence. He is determined to bring it to a permanent end.
While there are many Nigerians who see the conflict between
the nomadic herdsmen and peasant farmers as an ethnic problem, others point to
religious differences and agenda. The President does not subscribe to such
simplistic reductionism.
President Buhari holds the view, as do many experts, that
these conflicts are more often than not, as a result of major demographic
changes in Nigeria. When Nigeria attained independence, the population of the
country was estimated at about 63,000,000. Today the population is estimated at
close to 200,000,000; while the land size has not changed and will not change.
Urban sprawl and development have simply reduced land area both for peasant
farming and cattle grazing.
It is therefore both unfair and unkind, for anyone to keep
insinuating that the President is condoning the spate of killings in Benue and
other neighboring States.
President Buhari has publicly condemned the violence at
every turn. He is prepared to permit every possible step that can lead to the
stoppage of the killings. It is on account of this he brushed aside an opinion
that the federal government should challenge the constitutionality of the
anti-open grazing bill. He wanted to give a chance to the State government to
succeed in stopping the senseless killings.
It will be recalled that as he did in dealing with the Boko
Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, which required sustained action from the
government before it was finally curtailed, President Buhari gave the relevant
mandates to the country’s security agencies to put a stop to the Benue
killings.
The killings must stop and the security agencies have the
President’s support to do this as quickly as possible.
Whipping up hate may captivate the public and score
political points on social media, but it will not bring an end to the crisis.
Let every stakeholder instead sit down with the government and security forces
and carry everyone along in finding an all-embracing solution.
As a father, a military General and a statesman, President
Buhari has maintained lasting relationships with Nigerians, Muslims and
Christians among every ethnic group. It is also a known fact that the young
people who trek the whole distance of thousands of kilometers tending the
cattle do not own the cattle. In fact many of the cattle are not owned by
Fulanis or Muslims. The point is that it is too simplistic to see the conflict
as ethnic or religious.
The President seeks the support and cooperation of all
citizens and the media in particular, to join hands with his administration to
find permanent solutions and not to aggravate or escalate tensions in all conflict
areas of the country.
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