Despite incessant killings in conflicts between farmers and herders in the country, there has yet to be an appropriate legislation on the clashes or towards curtailing them by the country’s legislature- the National Assembly, and most state assemblies, checks by our reporters reveal.
Nigeria’s history is replete with agonizing incidences of clashes between farmers and herdsmen over pasture, often resulting in many deaths and destruction of valuable property in several parts of the country.
Not until recently, farmers and Fulani herdsmen had co-existed peacefully in various communities in Nigeria. Since the past two decades however, frequent violent alarming conflicts between farmers and Fulani herdsmen have emerged over grazing land. This has led to killing of farmers as well as Fulani herdsmen. Many have attributed the conflict to various trends – from lack of pasture to resource governance.
Some feel that resource governance is a major cause due to the inadequacies and insufficient laws on how land should be acquired and used.
In some instances, a great number of inhabitants of communities are killed or maimed, farmlands are destroyed and residents are displaced in conflicts resulting from the struggle for grazing lands. In most of the clashes, the ire had always been on the nomadic Fulani from northern Nigeria, who are known to be the predominant tribe that lives off herding, and quite often, are assumed to be the aggressors, battling grazing spaces from farmers as they move about, though in recent times, it has come to be known that herding transcends any particular tribe, and the struggle for grazing lands exists among as many as engage in the business. Herder–farmer conflicts in the country, often misrepresented as ethnic or religious conflicts, especially in the Middle Belt, appear to have exacerbated since the return of democracy in 1999.
But a closer look shows that it is struggle for access to land, or pasture. Certain factors including desertification and soil degradation have prompted movement of Fulani herdsmen to change routes in the continuous quest for pasture, but this has met stern resistance from original land owners, resulting in conflicts.
From Kaduna to Taraba, Plateau, Kogi, Enugu, Ekiti and Benue, among others, the conflicts have been violent, but appear to lack any political solution, as they have not been so properly addressed, either as a result of political will or lack of role performance by traditional authorities.
Conflict zones
The list of such conflicts abound, in recent times spiraling from 2015 with over 800 deaths to date with further conflicts with many deaths in Agatu area of Benue in 2016 while herders were said have in April 2018 killed 19 people in an attack in Enugu State, and burnt many houses.
Similarly, over 200 people were killed and 50 houses were burnt in Plateau State in June 2018 in such clashes, while herdsmen in October 2018, killed at least 19 people in Bassa, Kogi State.
Media reports also said herdsmen attacked a village in Jema’a Kaduna State, killing 15 people and injuring at least 24 others on December 16, 2018. There had also been attacks on an Adara settlement named Ungwar Bardi in Kajuru LGA of Kaduna State by herdsmen on February 11, 2019, and a reprisal by the Adara later left many dead in Fulani settlements. Other killings were to follow after that, as in January 2018, 10 people were killed in conflicts between herders and farmers in Numan, Adamawa State.
Over 400 herdsmen were reported in May 2018 to have attacked Lamurde, Bang, Bolk, Zumoso and Gon in Numan and Lamurde, all in Adamawa State, killing many people. A lot more of such attacks and killings have taken place and still continue in several parts, some reported while some are hardly ever carried in the media due to lack of first hand accounts.
Attempts at solution
Arguments have been adduced for the establishment of new grazing corridors, even as the present administration in 2019, tried to create what it called Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlements. It however met fierce opposition as it was interpreted to be an attempt by the government to forcibly give people’s lands to the Fulani.
Lethargic legislative processes
In 2016, when clashes between herders and farmers became intense, there were moves in the eighth Senate to establish grazing reserves and cattle ranches across the country. But the efforts suffered setbacks due to constitutional limitations.
In March 2016, a motion titled “Tackling the Perennial Conflicts between Farmers and Cattle herdsmen” was sponsored by Sen. Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu), who noted that the clashes between farmers and herders posed grave danger to national security, harmonious communal life and national unity.
Sen. Utazi suggested that ranches and grazing reserves be established rather than grazing routes as it might encourage the violation of rights of settled land owners and farmers whose crops and communities bear the adverse effect of nomadic cattle grazing.
Later, at a public hearing on the motion, the then Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, said nomadic cattle rearing had become obsolete and this was why ranches were a necessity to provide adequate food for cattle and to forestall unnecessary clashes.
He said with ranches, livestock would be healthier and more productive, while herdsmen would avoid attacks.
Same year, three bills related to cattle grazing and ranches were presented in the Senate.
They include; ‘A Bill for An Act to Provide for the Establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency and For Other Related Matters 2016’ sponsored by Senator Rabi’u Kwankwaso (Kano-Central) and ‘A Bill for An Act to Provide for the Establishment of National Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation and Control of Ranches and for Connected Purposes 2016 sponsored by Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North-East).
The third is ‘A Bill for An Act to Control the Keeping and Movement of Cattle in Nigeria and for Other Related Matters Thereto 2016’ sponsored by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu-North).
Kwankwaso’s bill proposed acquisition of land in all the states for the purpose of grazing, Gemade’s bill sought to establish a National Ranches Commission for regulation, preservation and control of ranches, and Utazi’s bill sought to control keeping and movement of cattle in Nigeria.
Bills later withdrawn
Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president in the eighth senate, who opposed the bills, said the National Assembly had no power to legislate on them.
“I believe therefore that it is a residual matter. It is for states to decide how to deal with it. I believe the matter here concerns everybody, given the level of carnage and the conflicts going on in different states.
“So, I feel the concern of my colleagues but unfortunately we do not have powers to legislate on matters relating to livestock in this assembly. It is a matter reserved for the states,” Ekweremadu had said.
Reps motions not specific on farmers/herders clashes
Most of the deliberations about farmers, herders clashes at the House of Representatives was during the 8th assembly.
Although there is no exact number of motions moved about farmers/herders on the floor of the House since 1999, many had been presented by members, mostly at the height of the clashes between the Fulani and farmers mostly in Benue, Plateau, Taraba and some other states in the southern part of the country.
However, lawmakers from Benue, Taraba and Plateau which are the hardest hit, raised the issues on the floor of the House in forms of motions mostly, “Matters of Urgent Public Importance.”
Most of the motions were however not specific on farmers/herders clashes but dwelt on various security challenges in many parts of the country.
Some of the motions adopted by the House while considering clashes between farmers and herders as their main point, also spoke on kidnapping, cattle rustling and armed banditry.
The motions also suggested ways to reduce or completely eliminate the crisis through laws to be enacted in the affected states as the legislature lacks jurisdiction in most of the issues being raised.
A motion sponsored by one of the members from Benue, John Dyegh, called on the House to prevail on the National Security Council over its call on some of the 36 states to suspend the anti-open grazing law.
According to the motion, trying to stop states from enacting the anti-open grazing laws contradicts Section 4 (7) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which it said gives powers to state assemblies to make laws that would make life better in the respective states.
In the motion, the lawmaker also urged the executive to provide funds through a supplementary budget to states that agree to donate land to cattle herders for cattle colonies.
Speaking on the matter, a member of the House of Representatives from Plateau State, Solomon Bulus Maren, said they had presented motions on the floor of the House in the eighth assembly calling for solutions to the incessant herder/farmers clashes.
“We had a lot of them during the eighth assembly,” he said.
According to him, the issue cannot be discussed in isolation but must be tackled alongside other security challenges affecting the country.
He said the deliberations were played down at the National Assembly because the states were doing everything possible through their assemblies to address the situation through various laws.
“In Plateau, the governor is doing well and trying to tackle the situation. Although there are challenges being faced, but progress has been made. We hope that very soon everything will come to an end which is possible if we are really committed,” he added.
When contacted on the ninth Senate’s effort to finding a lasting solution to the clashes between farmers and pastoralists, the spokesman, Senator Godiya Akwashiki’s mobile number was unreachable.
Senate on it as a general security issue
It would be recalled that the senate on January 29, 2020, set up the ad-hoc committee on security chaired by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, to interface with the security agencies on the level of insecurity in the country.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan had two weeks ago, said the upper legislative chamber would engage with the executive on the resolutions of the committee as contained in its report.
Lawan, who stated this while considering a motion on attacks in Adamawa, added that the Upper Chamber would also work closely with the House of Representatives and other Nigerians to ensure that solutions were found to the security problems in the country.
“The Senate discussed and debated so much on the insecurity in the country and set up an ad-hoc committee under the leadership of the Senate Leader.
“The committee is working very hard, we are trying to look for solutions to the insecurity bedeviling the country. We are not going to rest on our oars until we are able to provide solutions,” the Senate President said.
Meanwhile, a bill to compulsorily take land from Nigerians for the purpose of grazing is still in the House of Representatives.
The National Grazing Routes and Reserve Bill, 2016 is sponsored by Sunday Karimi from Mopamuro/Yagba west/east federal constituency in Kogi State. A similar bill was rejected by the senate in November 2016.
The chairman, House committee on rules and business, Emmanuel Oker-Jev, told newsmen that the bill had been consolidated and would come up for second reading, after the first on February 17, 2016, at the lower chamber, but it was later consolidated with two other bills — National Grazing Reserve Establishment Bill, 2015 and Cattle Ranching Bill, 2015. It seeks to establish a National Grazing Route and Reserve Commission “which shall acquire lands in all the 36 states of the federation for the purpose of grazing and ranching.”
Efforts by state legislatures
Benue
Many state legislatures appear to be docile on this, but Benue State, one of the worst hit states in farmers-herders clashes, seems to be on the forefront of legislative battles on the conflict. Precisely, on May 4, 2017, the Benue State House of Assembly passed the bill prohibiting open rearing and grazing of animals in any part of the state.
The lawmakers’ action under the then Speaker of the House, Terkimbi Ikyange, followed the agitation for the bill to be passed by people of the state and some non-governmental organisations who had spearheaded several protests which forced the assembly to expedite action after it held public hearings on the matter in March, 2017 across the three senatorial districts of the state.
The law became effective on November 1, 2017 after its enactment by the House of Assembly and subsequent accentuation by Governor Samuel Ortom in May same year.
Among other things, the law seeks to prevent clashes between nomadic livestock herders and crop farmers as well as protect the environment from degradation and pollution caused by open rearing and over grazing of livestock.
Sequel to the “Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017, of Benue State,” there were frequent frictions between herders and farmers in many communities in the state.
For instance, over 40 major and deadly attacks in 14 local government areas of the state by suspected herders within the space of three years were said to have necessitated the anti-open grazing law according to the leaders of socio-cultural groups in the state.
The groups consist of three main socio-cultural organisations of the people of Benue State including the Mdzough U Tiv, Idoma National Forum and Ominy’Igede.
To this extent, the essential element of the law which now abolishes the roaming of cattle and the carrying of arms by herders in the state is aimed at permanently putting an end to the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
It bans “Open Grazing” which under the law means the act of pasturing livestock to feed on dry grass, growing shrubs, herbage and farm crops in an open field without any form of restriction against the background that farmers have suffered untold hardship in the hands of herders in terms of destruction of lives and property.
The law in Section (4) further prohibits open rearing or breeding of animals as it frowns at movement of livestock on foot. Livestock in the estimation of the law shall only be transported by means of automobile or locomotives from one destination to another in the state through rail wagon, truck or pick-up wagon.
Our correspondent recalled that, the then Speaker of the Assembly, Terkimbi Ikyange, presided over the clause by clause deliberation on the bill before its final passage at the floor of the House following unanimous acceptance by the lawmakers.
Step up security – FG told
All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirant in the 2019 general election in Benue State, Arc. Asema Achado, appealed to the federal government to take urgents step to ending the resurgent insecurity in Benue State.
Achado stated in Makurdi yesterday that the renewed killing of rural people in Benue a few days ago by suspected herders was disheartening and required proactive action from government.
“As an ardent member of the All Progressives Congress, I plead with the APC led federal government to take more proactive steps in bringing the resurging security situation in Nigeria and Benue in particular under control. Outside this security situation, Nigerians have very little negatives to talk about our party and government.
“I acknowledge the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Army through Operation Whirl Stroke in Benue but the number of people still living in the IDP camps and the influx of armed herdsmen into Benue show that more needs to be done. Many farmers have been driven away from their ancestral lands and their homes occupied by the armed herdsmen,” he stated.
The APC chieftain who applauded the Benue State government over the anti-open grazing law, also called for more sincere implementation in distancing the law from politics.
He added, “I call on people of the state to put politics behind them and collectively emancipate the citizenry from the trouble that is enveloping us.
“Herdsmen do not spare APC, PDP, APGA or SDP members and the earlier we remove politics from the attacks, the more united we will be in confronting the marauders.”
Ekiti
The Ekiti State Anti Grazing Law attempts to protect farmers against attacks from herdsmen in the state. It was a response by the state government to address the menace of violent herdsmen attacks on farmers in the state.
Before then, a study assessed the anti-grazing policy and conflict resolution between Fulani Herdsmen and farmers in the state. The incessant conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the area resulted in the Ikole attack, where people were killed on May 20, 2016 and in Oke Ado on May 21, 2016. The attacks prompted the Ekiti State government to enact the anti-grazing law. The Ekiti State government passed into law, the Anti Grazing Bill 2016 to resolve various conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, and set up the Ekiti Anti-Grazing Enforcement Marshal
who implements the law. The state government partners with the 16 local governments on allocation of lands to herdsmen for cattle grazing. It was established that the government also collaborates with the herdsmen association in Ekiti to maintain peaceful implementation of the law.
Reports say the state’s anti-grazing policy has succeeded in resolving conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in the state.
Kaduna
Years of farmers/ herders clashes in Kaduna State have mostly concentrated in the southern part of the state’s Sanga, Kachia, Kaura, Zangon Kataf and Jema’a local government areas where hundreds have lost their lives and property worth millions of naira have been destroyed.
Though the crises have led to motions and discussions in the state House of Assembly, no definite bill or legislation has been initiated by the House.
The Clerk of the House of Assembly, Bello Idris, said it had not initiated or passed any bill with regard to the issue of farmers/herders crisis but said the state Peace Commission which encompasses all crises in the state including the farmers/herders is backed by a law passed by the assembly in 2017.
Governor of the state, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, had said the peace commission was inaugurated based on the recommendations of past commissions of inquiries set up by previous governments to proffer solutions to the lingering crises in the state.
The commission comprises representatives of the farmers association and pastoralists association among other members and has a function of developing models of conflict prevention and management for intra-pastoralist conflicts, and conflicts between grazing reserve settlers and host communities, among others.
Plateau
Disputes between farmers and herders have claimed many lives and property in Plateau State, especially since 2002, but in 2016, the 9th assembly enacted a law that paves way for the establishment of a Peace Building Agency to find a lasting solution to the lingering crises.
Our correspondent reports that prior to the establishment of the agency, a special committee on peace and security was set up in 2015 by the House which went round the trouble areas, identified the usual causes of the crises and made recommendations on how to ensure peaceful coexistence.
Speaking on the agency, Hon. Saleh Shehu Yipmong, the House Deputy Speaker and two term member (Dangi constituency), told Daily Trust on Sunday, “The agency was established after a legislation by the House. It was set up primarily with the responsibility of organising programmes and meetings especially in the hinterlands to proffer solutions to crises, including farmers/herders conflicts.
“The agency was not only initiated to intervene during crises but also to be looking at the day-to-day living of people in their various communities so as to nip in the bud any unforeseen circumstances capable of causing violence in any area.
“It also engages in bringing locals (farmers and herders) to preach on the need to live peacefully with one another. According to him, such efforts have been helping the state a lot in achieving relative peace.
Another effort according to the lawmaker is that after the recent attacks in Kulben and Kwatas villages of Mangu and Bokkos local government areas where many were killed, the House inaugurated a special committee in February this year, to spot out the activities of the Operation Rainbow, a security taskforce established between 2011 and 2012 by former governor David Jang to see what had been hindering the effectiveness of its operations, adding that the committee had since started its work.
Operation Rainbow which was established between 2011 and 2012, comprises of police, military, civil defence personnel and civilians drawn from the areas. The civilians often serve as informants, providing crime related information and intelligence reports to the law enforcement agencies.
Yakubu Sanda, the member representing Pengana constituency, said several motions to curtail the menace had been moved by the state assembly and the governor had been very supportive, adding that the motions were aimed at curbing the crises.
Hon. Sanda added, “By the nature of the problem, everybody is supposed to be a policeman because soldiers and policemen can’t take care of the situation and that is why community policing has become very imminent so that we can help the police and other security agencies in arresting the situation.”
The speaker of the House, Hon. Abok Ayuba, in his recent submission on the attacks in Mangu and Bokkos, pledged that the assembly would work with the executive to end the killing of innocent persons in the state.
A statement signed by his director of press Mr. Bulus Atang Azi, after the recent attacks said, “The governor has taken serious steps to curb these attacks and legislators we will work closely with him to ensure that Plateau people stay in peace.”
Hon. Ayuba added that the attacks had thrown a challenge to the people of the state, adding that an attack on one Plateau person is an attack on all. He urged all to unite in the trying times, describing the attackers as enemies of the state that wanted to break people that had resolved to stay in peace.”
Enugu
The Enugu State House of Assembly is yet to make any known law on herders/farmers clashes.
“At a point, the House of Assembly started the process of making such law but somehow, along the line, in fact, at a stage it was suspended,” an official of the House of Assembly who pleaded anonymity said.
Also, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the House of Assembly, Mr. Richard Ede, confirmed that a process of making such law was put in motion but was later put on hold indefinitely.
“I know there was a time they were going to make such law but it was not completed,” Ede said.
But the Enugu State government had in September 2019 set up a security committee to mediate between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the state to reduce or stop the frequent clashes involving the two parties.
Its terms of reference include; no farmer should injure or kill a cow belonging to a Fulani herdsman, no Fulani herdsman should use his cow or personally destroy farm crops of any farmer, no Fulani herdsman should carry guns, no Fulani herdsman should graze cows in the night, according to the secretary of the security committee, Barrister Emmanuel Mbamalu .
In an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, Mbamalu explained that in the event of destruction of farm crops by Fulani man’s cows, the owner would have to negotiate with the farmer and they would reach an agreement on how to compensate the farmer for the loss incurred.
He emphasized that the same measure was applicable when a farmer kills a Fulani herdsman’s cow. The farmer would compensate the owner of the cow based on the negotiation and agreement they reach, he said.
“Since 2019 the security committee was set up, it has been able to mediate between the farmers and herdsmen in Enugu State whenever there is a reported issue. And ever since, it has resolved or settled many cases that could have resulted in fights and more serious troubles like the Nimbo crisis involving herdsmen and farmers. So the measure is working effectively and efficiently,” he said.
