Pastoralist/farmers crisis: The Fulani narrative on the search for moderation
Following its fact-finding visit to Benue State on the 19th and 20th of January 2018, the Nigerian Bar Association held a meeting with the Benue State Branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in its Abuja Headquarters on January 27, 2018. They said that their association was established in 1986 with the Sultan of Sokoto, Emirs of Kano and Zaria and the Lamido of Adamawa as trustees so they are a legal entity with responsible leadership. They pointed out that they should not be confused with Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a different registered organisation. They also said they know nothing about a certain Fulani Nationality Movement, which has been issuing statements recently. The NBA was led by its President and 1st Vice President.
They started with a briefing on the general crisis of pastoralism in Nigeria. They said that there were 415 grazing reserves all but three of which were in Northern Nigeria, which would have provided sufficient forage for pastoralists had they been developed and water and services provided. Farming, they said, has expanded a lot in Nigeria reducing the space available for pastoralism. They pointed out that even the 30 metres on each side of trunk roads, where the law has banned farming are today mostly farmed so access to pasture has become extremely restricted.
The delegation complained bitterly about how the Nigerian State has abandoned them for decades. They claimed that they suffer from extortion and racketeering by the police, other law enforcement officers and judges on a daily basis. The police arrest them without just cause and refuse to release them until they sell their cattle and pay bribes ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 Naira. They added that the largest number of people regularly kidnapped in Nigeria is a Fulani pastoralist. They are routinely kidnapped by criminals and only released when their families sell their cows and pay huge amounts as ransom. In addition, they said that they are victims of cattle rustling and have lost over two million cattle to the rustlers.
They also complained bitterly that the media is not telling the story of their plight. Rather, there are very negative messages by the media against them. The approach of the media is to accuse the herdsmen after every incident before trying to investigate what actually happened and establish the veracity of negative stories that have been spread. A lot of the stories on “killer herdsmen” are false, according to them, but today people are afraid of the herdsmen assuming that they are all evil men seeking to massacre people at any time.
They added that Nigerians should try and understand that for pastoralists, cows are not just an asset but also food, social standing, heritage and prestige. The association also made the argument that ranching is not necessarily a solution. They said that in Gembu in Taraba State, many of them had bought land where their cattle were grazing. Subsequently however, those they bought the land from came back and started farming the land again and when they complained they are attacked and 723 Fulani, mostly women and children were killed, and although the perpetrators were known no arrests were made.
They also spoke of Numan where they said pastoralists had been settled for over one century and they were expected to pay traditional rulers an annual access fee for access to a stream. Although they had paid the fee, access was denied. When they complained 104 community members, six of them adult males and all the others women and children were killed. There are many such incidents, which they said confirm that they are the most vulnerable community in Nigeria.
Miyetti Allah admitted however that they have one main fault, they often send out their cattle with young boys who are unable to properly control the cattle thereby creating incidents in which people’s crops are destroyed. They said they were engaged in educating their people to stop such practices.
On the current crisis in Benue State, they said they have excellent relations with the people of Benue and that the three of them coming from the Benue branch of the association were all born in Benue and consider themselves indigenes although unfortunately their indigeneity has not been recognised. The livestock guard established and armed by the state government, they said, provoked the crisis.
On recent laws, they said they have no problem with the Ekiti law, which is focused on preventing night grazing. They are of the view that night grazing poses the risk of destruction of crops so they accept that it should indeed be banned. They however consider the Benue law punitive, First, they were not consulted when the law was being processed and were not invited to the public hearing; they only heard about it in the news. The law prevents them crossing the state to graving areas in the south, which is unfair. The law also required them to buy land to establish ranches but unfortunately, all their attempts to buy land has been frustrated by communities who have collectively taken the decision not to sell land to them. In any case, they point out, most of them are not educated and do not know how to operate ranches.
On 1st November, they were told the law had come into effect and since they had not established ranches they had to leave the state. They said they appealed to the state government for temporary grazing areas while solutions were being sought for but they were refused. From the 27th of November, the Livestock Guards who were well armed started killing and/ or seizing their cattle. At that point, they decided to move out to Nasarawa State but the Livestock Guards followed them shooting and killing their cattle in all Tiv speaking areas of the state. They claimed that many of the Livestock Guards were recruited from criminal gangs and thugs and were simply interested in depriving them of their cattle rather than law enforcement. Their kith and kin in the Idoma speaking area of the state however did not suffer the same outcome.
On the killing of Benue people from January 1, 2018, they said they were not involved at all explaining that they were conscious of being a small minority who are bound to lose from any inter-communal violence that occurs. They argued that there were high levels of violence between different Tiv communities where some political leaders have recruited armed thugs to fight on local issues resulting in many killings and such killings were always wrongly attributed to them. They also said that there was a very high level of violent criminality in rural Benue, also leading to killings. I found their total denial of being engaged in the killing not convincing especially because they spoke a lot of what was done to them and it would be reasonable to assume that they must have responded.
One of the high points of the meeting was the Association’s passionate appeal on the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Audu Ogbe to drop the idea of cattle colonies. They explained that they are being falsely accused of being colonisers and the use of the term colony by government is being used to victimise them as agents of the said plan. They added that they are not colonisers and government should stop associating them with the concept.
They called for dialogue and appealed that as stakeholders, the Benue State Government should listen to their concerns, as they are open to negotiation. Their request is for the implementation period of the law to be pushed forward until the issue of access to land is resolved. The pathway of reprisal and revenge killing has always been a direct route to mass suffering and the time has come to seek urgent solutions.
The minister should immediately drop his crazy pet idea of cattle colonies, which has done so much damage already. Law enforcement must rise up to the challenge of seeking and finding murderers and ensuring that they are prosecuted and punished. There is a massive amount of hate speech, conspiracy theories and propaganda circulating on the issue, which does only harm to Nigeria, it must stop. Finally, a workable solution on how to organise animal husbandry in a nonconflictual way must be found.