Between Gov. Badaru and Gagarawa farmers
The relationship between the government of Jigawa state and a Chinese entrepreneur over a 12,000 hectare land is currently threatening 48,000 farmers in Gagarawa local government area with displacement and raising concerns over the destiny of the affected persons.
Gagarawa is semi-arid and its farming population lives at the mercy of annual rains, in addition to animal husbandry. They had been at peace as such, until Mr. Lee showed interest in their farmlands, ostensibly for sugarcane production.
Although he is known more for manufacturing plastic shoes in neighbouring Kano, Mr. Lee’s new venture in Jigawa somehow gained momentum and apparently some favour with the immediate past governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido. Towards the end of the administration, news leaked to the Gagarawa community of government plans to seize their farmlands. However, the matter soon died down under the heavier storm of the 2015 general elections. Consequently, with their anxieties still unabated they went to the polls with high hopes in Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, then only a contestant. However, contrary to their expectations, the process of confiscating their lands even gained greater impetus, after he was sworn in.
Granted that the governor is motivated by the commendable desire to accelerate massive sugarcane production and Mr. Lee is excited by the prospects of the high profitability of his legitimate venture, still the raised concerns of the peasants over their only means of livelihood needs to be given, in fairness, the due considerations it rightfully deserves.
The land in question being completely dry all year round is not any good for sugarcane to survive, let alone thrive profitably. It is curious that Mr. Lee showed a surprising preference for it, instead of the naturally more favourable swamps of the Auyo Hadeja axis of the Jama’are River where there would be no need of pumping water 18 kilometers away, as he expressed his readiness to do, at Gagarawa.
Even of greater concern, in addition, is the curious support he enjoys from overzealous government officials.
These officials are opposed to the anchor borrower arrangement enthusiastically proposed by the peasants. Because, apart from allowing them to retain the ownership of their lands, this tested programme also empowers them to attain higher output levels.
The rejection of this ordinarily workable and mutually beneficial option was not only startling but also suspicious. Then the secretary of the local government was unceremoniously sacked allegedly for supporting them. This action in particular, cowed other concerned civil servants and traditional rulers into submissive silence and further exposed them to alarming despair.
Dispossessing the people of Gagarawa of their farmlands is tantamount to willfully pushing 48,000 people (12000 families, 30 villages) to the extremes of poverty. It is evidently a matter of profound magnitude with far reaching socioeconomic and perhaps even security implications. This massive occupational displacement in favour of just one profit-making enterprise, being recklessly counterproductive, cannot be justified, notwithstanding the envisioned prospects of boosting production. Moreover, the Jigawa State government, in candid terms, does not have the capacity and preparedness with the requisite rehabilitative package to avert the resulting socioeconomic impacts of its action. Neither is its compensation plan satisfactory enough. To say the least, it is exploitative, by which reason only about 15% of the peasants grudgingly accepted the peanuts ranging from thirty to one hundred thousand naira offered. The rest in anger, refused to take any of it. With the evident failure to satisfactorily compensate the farmers or even rehabilitate them adequately, governor Badaru Abubakar should, on humanitarian grounds rescind his decision, return back the ownership of the Gagarawa farmlands to the people of Gagarawa community and source for another piece of land for the Lee enterprise.
Mustapha Aminu Jigawa State. Yusuf, Dutse,