Recurring menace of cattle herdsmen
If there is one issue, that for long has occupied a notorious limelight within the national space, it is that to do with marauding cattle herdsmen. No day passes without this group of people engaging in bloody conflicts with their host communities over grazing ground. In the event of such altercations, many people have been killed, seriously injured or forced to flee their communities.
Recently, some Fulani cattle herdsmen attacked the Agatu Local Government Area in Benue State and turned several communities, houses and farmlands into wastelands. Incidentally, Fulani herdsmen leaders in Makurdi claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as payback for theft of their cows. The destruction was a reprise of several such other invasions across different areas of the Middle Belt — in Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba, Nasarawa and Adamawa states.
The Agatu episode is symptomatic of the menace that cattle herdsmen pose to numerous communities all over the country. From the East to West and from North Central to South South, the presence of these rifle-wielding nomads has become something of national embarrassment.
We condemn in all entirety the attitude of Fulani cattle herdsmen towards their host communities and call on the authorities to intervene with a view to finding amicable solution before the situation escalates beyond control. Unfortunately, there is a pattern to these murderous acts, given that they are not random, spontaneous acts. The pattern is predictable, even as the cattle herders never deny the killings. Instead, they are ever ready with a familiar alibi: the stealing of their cows and the eventual retribution.
Such logic is not only strange; it is inconceivable to equate the lives of cattle with those of human beings, including those of women, children, and the elderly. Strangely enough, those responsible for these acts are never arrested or held accountable for their actions. More galling is the fact that many of these attackers are foreigners who are conscripted by the herdsmen from such countries as Mali and Niger.
Many arguments have been made to justify the actions of the cattle herders, including that of seeking for territories to graze their animals. It should be established that these crises involve roaming nomads who are seasonal migrants, so why should they want territory for their cattle?
This search for permanent grazing territory has become a zero-sum goal pursued at the expense of the local communities. Fearfully, it is intensifying as a result of two realities: Nigeria’s population is increasing rapidly, bringing more land into cultivation and habitation; and the arid Sahel region is expanding rapidly in correspondence to the southward expansion of the frontiers of the Sahara desert. Sadly, the Fulani nomads are yet to realise that their brand of cattle rearing is outdated.
Continuing in this tradition precipitates clashes and resentment with local farmers. What is more, nomadic grazing exposes cattle to the vagaries of disease, pestilence, and natural disaster and puts them out of the reach of advanced veterinary and scientific interventions that could protect them and improve their yield. That is why the Federal Government should establish permanent grazing grounds for Fulani herdsmen to save their local hosts from the troubles and tribulations their activities bring on communities.
