Against the background of calls that he should speak to Nigerians personally on the growing tension over farmers/herders clashes as well criminal actions linked to herders, Akani Alaka writes on how the actions and inactions of President Muhammadu Buhari are contributing to the festering insecurity in the country.
For Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka and other Nigerians who have been clamouring for an address from President Muhammadu Buhari as a way of dousing tension over the growing insecurity in the country, it is doubtful if the statement issued by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu on Sunday evening will suffice.
Obviously issued in reaction to the festering deadly clash between Hausa and Yoruba traders in Shasha market in Ibadan, the senior special assistant on media and publicity to the president had in the statement quoted his boss as assuring that his administration will not allow any ethnic or religious group to stoke up hatred and violence against other groups in the country. “In a reaction to reports of the breakout of violence in some parts of the country by some ethnic and sectional groups, President Buhari warned that the government will not allow any ethnic or religious group to stoke up hatred and violence against other groups,” the presidential aide quoted his boss as saying. “The President condemned such violence and gave the assurance that his government will act decisively to stop the spread of any such violence,” he added in the statement.
True, the situation in Oyo State where a dispute between a Hausa tomato seller and a Yoruba trader last Friday had spiralled into killings, burning of houses and shops between gangs aligned to the two ethnic groups is dangerous enough for peaceful co-existence among the people of the country to warrant the assurance and warning from the Presidency.
But the situation in the capital of the old western region is just a small part of the insecurity consuming lives in scores in different parts of the country every day for which Soyinka and others have been agitating for a firmer response from the president. A tally by a national newspaper compiled from state government’s press releases indicated that no fewer than 121 people have been killed in Kaduna by so-called bandits in the first 44 days of the year.
Spreading Insecurity
This is aside from hundreds of others who were either injured or abducted, houses and shops burnt in the attacks in communities across Birnin Gwari, Chikun, Giwa and Igabi Local Government areas of the state. The attacks have continued despite the regular press releases by security operatives indicating that the bandits are being eliminated in scores.
Niger State where 21 passengers travelling in the state government-owned transport authority’s bus were abducted over the weekend has been recording killings and kidnappings of people in their scores almost daily across the vast territory for many months now.
The situation is not different in other Northern states of Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina where the state Governor, Aminu Masari, admitted on Sunday that kidnapping by bandits has become a booming business in the country. Masari lamented that bandits who, hitherto, engaged in cattle rustling graduated to kidnapping on realising that they could make thousands or millions of naira from ransom payments.
Masari who was speaking at a seminar in Katsina condemned the rising insecurity, especially in the North-west part of the country. “There is no doubt that this country is facing divergent security challenges. Although the problem of Boko Haram has reduced, banditry and kidnapping are still with us. Nigeria being the richest among countries in the Sahel region has suddenly drawn the attention of those engaged in kidnapping business and selling of guns and so on, because here, they can kidnap somebody and get N10,000, N50,000, N100,000 and millions more.”
On Sunday, the Benue government also raised the alarm that no fewer than 100 people have been killed by herdsmen across the six local government areas of the state. The Special Adviser to Governor Ortom on Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ken Achabo, gave the information while also raising the alarm that armed herdsmen had occupied some parts of the local government areas, grazing, destroying farmlands and harvested crops. Achabo, in a statement made available to reporters in Makurdi, named the councils as Gwer West, Guma, Makurdi, Logo, Kwande and Agatu.
Of course, states in the South-west have been in the news over attacks and kidnappings by herdsmen in most parts of the region with Oyo, Ondo and Ogun being the most affected.
The insecurity ravaging different parts of the country was also a key talking point at the second plenary of the Nigerian Senate for the year, which held last Wednesday. Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice had kicked off the debate with a catalogue of recent killings attributed to herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers in Ondo, Edo, Oyo, Imo, Kaduna Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa and Kebbi states.
The Senator had also noticed that the insecurity and lack of appropriate responses from the government have led to issuance and counter issuance of eviction orders by those he described as ethnic entrepreneurs and ethnic nationalists.
Most lawmakers who contributed to the debate had blamed the Buhari administration for not rising to the challenge of insecurity confronting the country. But the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who was the first to speak on the motion, said the security situation in the country is grievous enough for the president to throw in the towel.
Abaribe accused the Buhari government and its spokesperson of engaging in propaganda over the state of insecurity in Nigeria with claims that the country is safer now than when it was elected into power while killings, kidnappings and other criminal activities are festering in communities across the country. The blame, he said, should be on the president’s and not on any of his appointees’ neck. “Nigeria did not elect the IGP, we did not elect the chief of staff, we did not elect the joint-chiefs or national security adviser. We elected the government of APC in 2015 and re-elected them in 2019. The reason we re-elected them is that they continued to tell us that they had the key to security. When you want to deal with a matter, you go to the head, so we will go to the government and ask this government to resign because they can no longer do anything,” he said.
As expected, Senate President Ahmed Lawan stopped the Abia Senator before he could advance further in his postulations.
Fulani-Biased President
While others like Prof Soyinka will not go as far as calling for the resignation of the president over the state of insecurity, they, however, believed that his failure to speak to the country, especially on the issues of herdsmen blamed for the insecurity in many parts of the country was worsening the situation. Soyinka spoke following the controversies that trailed intervention of popular Yoruba rights activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known Sunday Igboho in a series of killings and kidnappings purportedly carried out by criminal herdsmen in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State had also around the same period issued an ultimatum to herdsmen inhabiting its forest reserves to either quit or register with the government following rising incidents of farmers/herders clashes, killings and kidnappings attributed to the criminal herdsmen.
Kidnappers said to be herdsmen operating on Akure-Owo road, Owo-Akungba road, Akure Ilesha expressway, Ise-Akoko Isua-Akoko road and other parts of the state have been indicted in series of kidnappings, which sometimes ended up in the death of their victims.
The herdsmen were blamed for the killings of a first-class traditional ruler, the Olufon of Ifon, Oba Isreal Adeusi late last year. Thus, Akeredolu, as part of moves to curb the rising insecurity in the state had issued the directive after a meeting with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Akure, the state capital. In reaction, the Presidency had issued a warning that Akeredolu’s directive could have an unexpected effect across the country as the Constitution of the Republic guarantees the right of every Nigerian to live in any place of his choice.
But the Ondo government, through Donald Ojogo, the state commissioner for information had fired back at the Presidency, noting that it did not ask the herdsmen to vacate the state, but its forest reserves. “The governor said herdsmen who are unregistered should leave our forest. The statement from Garba Shehu is a brazen display of emotional attachment and it’s very inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria,” Ojogo said while insisting that the directive of Ondo State will not be overturned. “Presidency states in a breath that the Governor fights crime with passion while it is prevaricating on the atrocities,” said Ojogo. “The question is, are the herdsmen who are perpetrating murder, kidnapping, and robbery more important than government and even the Federal Government in this case?” Ethnic nationality and activism on the part of anyone hiding under the Presidency or Federal Government is an ill wind,” he further asserted.
Yet, the Ondo State Government is not the only state government accusing the administration or indeed, the president himself of pandering to the interest of his Fulani ethnic group at the expense of other Nigerians. In a recent statement, Governor Samuel Ortom whose state has also witnessed mass slaughter attributed to criminal herdsmen accused the president of the inaction as insecurity propelled by herdsmen spread across the country.
The governor noted that while the Buhari government has always been quick to defend herders like in the case of Ondo, it usually keeps quiet when they unleash mayhem on the people. “I heard of the statement issued by the Presidency when the governor of Ondo issued an ultimatum to herders. The Presidency came out swiftly to issue a statement but when armed herders kill our people in Benue and other parts of the country we never hear that kind of swift reaction. It is unacceptable,” said Ortom. He added that the Buhari government should have demonstrated its determination to stamp out criminality in the country by directing security agencies to arrest the leaders of Miyetti Allah who have owned up to be behind the killings and various acts of criminality in the state: “They have taken responsibility that they have killed, maimed, raped and also carried out all sorts of atrocities, yet their leadership is in Abuja, and nobody is confronting them. Why is the Federal Government silent about these Fulani people? When will the Federal Government come out to criticize and arrest herdsmen carrying AK47? Are we second class citizens in this country? What makes a Fulani man superior to other citizens of this country? We are not their slaves. And so the Federal Government must act fast.”
Address Nigerians/ End Open Grazing Now
On his part, Soyinka advised the president to address Nigerians to disassociate himself from the criminal activities of some herdsmen in parts of the country to avert another civil war, especially with the crisis at the doorstep of the people of the South-West region.
According to him, Buhari should “address the nation in very stern, unambiguous terms, indicating that he is not in support of running cattle business by displacing others from their lands and engaging in all sorts of criminal activities, while also directing security agencies to go after the criminals. “I expect nothing less, even at this stage. It is very late but this is what I expect from President Buhari and as long as that language does not come, I must consider him quite complicit in what is going on because the buck stops at his desk,” said the Nobel laureate.
Others have also said the president’s continuous support for open grazing of cows across the country instead of encouraging the shift to ranching is also tantamount to the encouragement of criminal activities perpetrated by the herdsmen.
Last week, the 36 Nigeria’s state chief executives under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF declared their support for an end to open grazing, declaring it as out of tunes with modern times and increasing population of the country.
Indeed, the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje had called for legislation banning the movement of cattle on foot through the forests from the northern to the southern part of the country. According to the governor, the northern part of the country has enough land space to accommodate the cattle businesses based on a ranching method.
The Senate had also called for the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan – a modern scheme designed to eliminate open grazing and prevent farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria. The lawmakers also called for measures to checkmate proliferation of firearms and enforcement of the laws against illegal possession of firearms to ensure the arrest and prosecution of anyone in illegal possession of arms.
Also, the Senators advocated the review of ECOWAS protocol on the free movement within the sub-region to help check the influx of criminals into the country. “It is an indictment on our leadership that people are coming into Nigeria to rape, maim and kill our people. It is upsetting and we must rise up to this occasion. I rise that the president needs to speak and calm the nation. The president can sign an Executive Order banning open grazing. There are actions that he can take immediately but nothing is being done,” the Senator representing Ogun West, Tolulope Odebiyi, said during debate on the motion.
Stuck With Open Grazing
While the president has not reacted to the recent rash of calls for a shift to ranching, he had indicated his preference for the retention of open grazing in some instances before now. This was regardless that the National Economic Council, NEC headed by his deputy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is also championing the National Livestock Transformation Plan in which willing state governors would provide land for the development of ranches as a service to the pastoralists including the construction of earth dams.
For example, the president had during a discussion programme organized before the 2019 election condemned promulgation of anti-open grazing law by Governor Ortom, affirming that it is wrong for the Benue State governor to stop cattle from openly grazing and foraging for grass and water.
The president was responding to questions on how he would permanently stop the herders/farmers killings. Also during the meeting with Katsina State Elders Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in October last year, the president had insisted on the rediscovery of old grazing routes as a way of stop farmers clashes with herders and the attendant criminalities. “The President told the meeting that he had charged his ministers of agriculture to work with the states to rediscover the lost animal grazing routes and reserves as a means to ending the frequent outbreak of violence between farmers and herders,” Buhari was quoted as telling his visitors in a statement issued by his spokesperson.
But analysts insist that the option of the reestablishment of the grazing routes is no longer feasible with the ballooning of Nigeria’s population from less than 50 million in the colonial times where they were fashioned out to the present over 200 million.
Recalcitrant Miyetti Allah
While a branch of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association has given conditional support for the move towards ranching, its counterpart, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, which allegedly claimed responsibility for Benue killings had been opposed to it.
National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhassan Saleh said in an interview with a national newspaper on Sunday that Fulani herders will continue to retaliate against attacks from other communities where they have gone to graze cattle in one way or the other.
He also insisted that nobody can evict herdsmen from southern Nigeria or stop those from neighbouring countries from coming to Nigeria with their cattle: “All those who travelled to the Benin Republic and others are coming back home. All those saying they will bar foreign herders from entering Nigeria are just playing to the gallery because if they are aware of the ECOWAS Protocols, they would know they cannot chase them away.”
The insistence of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore on continuing with open grazing seems to have the support of a section of Northern elite as demonstrated by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State’s declaration of support for the use of AK-47 by herdsmen in the course of their traversing through forests in Nigeria.
“The Fulani man is practising the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism, he has been exposed to the battery of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth – that is his cows – he had no option than to carry AK-47 because the society and the government are not protecting him,” the Bauchi state governor said while condemning his counterparts in the South-west, South-east governors, and the governor of Benue State over how they were handling farmer-herder clashes within their boundaries.
Governors Akeredolu and Ortom have since replied Mohammed, accusing him of encouraging the descent of the country into anarchy and confirming with his statement, that the herdsmen were indeed behind most of the violence being witnessed across the country.
But to Dr Dipo Awojide, a social commentator, the Bauchi governor was speaking the minds of decision-makers from some parts of the country. “Bala Mohammed is openly defending Fulani herdsmen who carry AK-47. I didn’t hear him condemn killings. He is speaking the minds of a lot of influential decision-makers. That exactly is where the problem is and why it doesn’t look like they are ready for a solution any time soon,” Awojide said.
However, Many Nigerians, including Prof Soyinka believe that the President Buhari can rein in the recalcitrant Miyetti Allah group and even open advocates of anarchy like the governor of Bauchi State if he took to the microphone to declare his opposition to open grazing and criminalities associated with it as well as support ranching.
Buhari Needs Not Speak Personally to Nigerians
But this may not happen very soon as the Presidency said the president is already showing by his action that he is not in support of attacks on farmers and residents in parts of the country by herdsmen.
“When Femi Adesina or myself speak for the president, people should accept that it is the president that is speaking. For this president, it is the actions that should speak for him; he (Buhari) is not a showman, he doesn’t have to be there,” Garba Shehu said on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Monday. He added that the president has not stopped security operatives from prosecuting anybody arrested for any criminal activity in the country, noting that many herdsmen involved in crimes are being prosecuted, especially in Benue State.
“So, for everybody to say there is no political will, is anybody complaining? Is the IG of police saying he is unable to do his job because he doesn’t have political support? This president allows you to do your job,” Shehu said.
No, Buhari Sleeping On Duty
However, to Adamu Garba, businessman and a former presidential aspirant on the platform of APC, the President has rather been sleeping on duty. “The matter at hand, from North to South is on the verge of exacerbating ethnic tensions. Blames and counter blames, accusations and counter-accusations, yet the silence from the president?” Adamu Garba queried while asserting that he president has the responsibility to restore order and assure the citizenry of their safety and security in the face of rising tensions in the country by taking control of the media narratives.
“Sometimes I wonder, I genuinely wonder whether President @MBuhari is leading Nigeria or catching cruise with our trust. How can the country be in tension, killings all over the places, yet no categorical statement from the president? Why the silence at this very critical moment? Why must we always talk, ask and insist before we can hear from this president?,” Garba said in a statement released via his verified Twitter account on Sunday.
“There is no region, tribe or religion, no matter the attachment or loyalty to the president, that will be happy with the present situation where everyone is left to advance their individual narrative to the complete absence of the Commanders-in-chief’s. None!” he added.
