STIRRING BAD BLOOD
James Aboki writes that Darius Ishaku is committed to peace and development in Taraba
It is no longer in doubt that there are subterranean attempts to sabotage peace that presently reigns in Taraba State. While the government is working hard to ensure that peace is sustained, some people are walking peace in the opposite direction and are using every instrument of public information to achieve their evil goal. This is unpatriotic to say the least.
A few days ago, a radio station – Dandalkura International – allowed one of its programmes to be used to promote falsehood on the recent crisis in some communities in the Taraba South senatorial zone. A member of the Miyetti Allah Fulani Cattle Breeders Association who featured on the programme blatantly accused the Taraba State government of doing less than expected about the crisis and as a result of which many of the victims were still unable to return to their homes for fear of being attacked. Nothing can be further from the truth.
The promotion of peace is a critical programme of the present administration in Taraba State. The Ishaku administration came into the state at a time the state was in turmoil. He called for peace with his famous mantra – “Give me peace and I will give you development.” He took the Olive branch to all nooks and crannies of the state, sometimes at the risk to his personal safety. The people listened and they honoured him by embracing peace. It is, therefore, unfair, if not mischievous, for the same person or his administration to be accused of doing less to promote peace.
The truth is that the peace that the state is enjoying today is a product of Governor Ishaku’s sweat. And the sustenance of peace in the state remains a cardinal part of his agenda. There is no day and time that he had the opportunity to talk to the people, be it public or private forum, that he did not preach peace. Those who recently went on a radio station to accuse him and his administration of bias and not doing enough for peace in the state should cry onto their God for forgiveness for turning the truth tragically on its head.
No past administration in the state showed as much commitment to peace and sacrificed so much for it as that of Governor Ishaku. It was prompt and decisive in its handling of the present case. The administration promptly dispatched a high-powered delegation led by the Secretary to the Government of Taraba State, Mr Anthony Jellason, to the crisis spots in the affected Local Government Areas. Members of the team included security men and other influential persons from those communities. They met and pacified victims on both sides of the divide and gathered information on their immediate needs for succour.
The team promptly arranged for people who were displaced to be taken to care centres where caregivers sent by government were waiting to attend to them. This was done and, I say this for the sake of emphasis, on both sides of the divide. Even those who expressed preference for particular camps for the displaced persons were granted their wish. Cows abandoned by their fleeing owners were taken to military barracks by persons appointed to do so by the team. Large consignments of relief materials were then ferried to all the refugee camps created by the government team. There was nothing more that government was expected to do that was left undone.
Thereafter, the team submitted a detailed report to Governor Ishaku on the crises. That report has proved a useful document for the decision government has further taken to bring about stability in the affected communities. The governor subsequently held several meetings with various interest groups and security agencies in connection with the crisis. With these steps taken, how can anybody in his right senses accuse government of negligence and bias? In fact, if government had not taken these steps, those who spoke against the governor and the government on Dandalkura would not have been able to get to the station alive. Herein lies the nakedness of their allegations.
Peace is a necessity for progress in every society. Nobody can walk around and do anything meaningful in a community where people are at war. Just as everybody needs peace in order to do anything meaningful, every individual must contribute meaningfully for peace to be attained and sustained. Peace cannot be fully attained and sustained if some people are, for selfish reasons, promoting ideas and sentiments that can lead to a breakdown of law and order. The ideas and sentiments expressed recently on Radio Dandalkura belong here and it is unfortunate. Such ideas cannot help the peace process in Taraba State.
The main cause of crises in Taraba and many other states in Nigeria today is herdsmen invasion on farms and attacks on farmers. These have often resulted in violent and bloody conflagration for which the federal and affected state governments are cracking their heads for a workable solution. The modest effort required from individuals in the affected communities is to support such efforts and not to resort to media propaganda that can only inflame rather than douse bitterness and acrimony.
Governor Ishaku is a leading opinion on the need for a comprehensive policy on grazing that will adequately accommodate the interests of herdsmen’s flock. He has always advocated that ranching is the best alternative and that all state government should make provision for the development of that policy. It is, indeed, the right way to go. The present practice whereby cattle wander into farms and eat crops, the economic resource of those individuals, cannot help our national drive for food security and should not continue. Something must be done quickly to safeguard the farms and that must be built on a policy that restricts the herdsmen and their flocks from wandering into people’s farms and eating up crops. Such a practice is no longer acceptable in this present age and times.
And now for the management of Dandalkura Radio International and other members of the media, some words of caution. They must realise that the instruments of mass information that they control are sensitive and powerful. Their deployment must help the society to develop and prosper and not facilitate its destruction and denigration. That is the reason they must sieve and choose very carefully what they disseminate for public consumption. They must reject the idea of allowing their organs of mass information to be used to preach hate and other sentiments that divide rather than unite the people, no matter the temptation.
Peace in Taraba will not be compromised for whatever reason. The government has sacrificed a lot to achieve the present level of peace. For Ishaku, it is forward ever and backward never on peace and development. What the people owe him is their support. They can do so by becoming more patient and tolerant of other people and their opinions. They can also help by not promoting ideas and sentiments that are injurious to the peace process. Everybody is in a position to do something to help achieve peace. It is not a government project to be executed by government alone. Aboki wrote from Jalingo, Taraba State