The revelation by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that more than 81, 000 Nigerians are presently in need of assistance, with 73 killed in recent clashes between herders and farmers in Adamawa State, is quite disturbing. The report indicated that the clashes left houses burnt and businesses destroyed.
Coming on the heels of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic that has exposed the fragility of Nigeria’s health care sector and vulnerability of its economy, the clash and other forms of banditry raise more concern.
Appropriate agencies of government are trying to rise up to the challenges posed by the situation but a lot still need to be done to avoid escalation. In many parts of the country when such clashes occurred, they had left behind deaths and avoidable destruction.
Many Northern states have borne the brunt of the clashes at various times. Other states have also been affected in the recurring conflicts that have led to thousands of deaths and displacements.
There is no doubt that the banditry are caused by greed and quest for material wealth, while herders clashes are caused by issues bordering on land and water use, dispute over grazing routes, livestock theft and crop damage. Pressure on land occasioned by migration from the far North to the Middle Belt region and the South due to drought and desertification, has also resulted to disagreement between the farmers and the herdsmen.
In a situation where the herders, mostly Muslims, migrate to the largely Christian settlements of the North-Central and the South, the fragile relations between the two leading religions are readily activated. In the absence of mutually accepted conflict mediation mechanisms, like the type instituted in Anambra state, such disagreements easily escalate to violent clashes.
Responses to the crisis at both the federal and state levels have been poor or inadequate as shown in not much being done in arresting and prosecuting perpetrators of the clashes. The causes of the attacks have not been addressed, while the victims are yet to get justice.
We urge the government to rise beyond the current lethargy in tackling the menace. This calls for increased intelligence gathering by the security agents through establishment of early-warning and rapid response systems. The federal government and other state governments should visit Anambra state and copy the state’s conflict mediation model in settling herders and farmers clashes.
Security of life is the major reason government exists. It is also one of the major promises of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He also promised to fight corruption and revamp the economy. In as much as the administration has not rested on its oars in checkmating banditry in the country, we call on the Federal Government to ensure that banditry as well as herders clashes are checked. Government should use its monopoly of the instrument of coercion for the common good.
The concern by elder statesmen like former Chief of Army Staff, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and erstwhile Steel Minister, Paul Unongo, that Fifth Columnists and dangerous elements within the system may be behind the clashes should not be dismissed. Those caught fomenting trouble or behind the skirmishes should be dealt with commensurately.
The recurring clashes between herders and farmers as well as continuous kidnapping and other forms of banditry in some parts of the country constitute a serious threat to the country. The banditry and conflicts, which mostly take place in the food-producing zones of the country, impact on food security and can escalate poverty and hunger in the country. The government should pay serious attention to the matter.
PROF. ANTHONY EZE
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