By Emmanuel Mogbede
Abuja – The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum, has said that the way to address the re-current clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the country is for the government to maintain neutrality and adopt sociological means.
The group made this known in a statement issued by Mr Akin Malaolu, its Secretary General on Thursday in Abuja.
“In our honest and solemn views, the solution that can remedy our situations is to go the sociological way whether we like it or not,“ he said.
According to him,the three main elements necessary for conflict resolution which are justice, fairness and neutrality are absent, “in our desire for peaceful conducts”.
He said these elements could only be explained through sociological investigations duly carried out by experts.
Such experts he said, should have the neutrality and know-how on how to conduct thorough investigations from all sides and from past and existing records.
Malaolu noted that the history of the crisis between the Fulani pastoralists and farmers was just two decades old but its increasing menace baffles every knowledgeable person and Nigerians.
He added that it was a known fact that Fulani nomadists had good relationships with communities they had contact with in centuries and in Nigeria in particular.
He, therefore, wondered why the present communal bloodletting had defied solutions.
Malaolu noted that by regulation, Fulani herdsmen had grazing routes and fields from which they could feed their flock and settle before the next movement up North or down South.
He further noted that in the past 20 years, Nigeria had witnessed increased population size through birth and migration from neighboring countries and particularly from Chad, Niger and Sudan.
Malaolu said the increasing inter and intra migration had for some years encroached into the lands used as grazing trails and fields by Fulani herdsmen without reactions from appropriate authorities.
According to him, the issue of lands is therefore an important element in the whole conflict aside from cattle rustlings.
Malaolu added that it was evident that both parties in the conflict were extracting justice all by themselves, without the intervention of elders and governments.
This, he said, were anomalies that should not be allowed from both sides, adding that government must allow absolute liberty by its citizens.
He noted that the idea of government was to reorder citizen’s lives and stop impunity.
The forum`s Secretary General said the locals wanted justice for the destruction of their farmlands and crops by the Fulani herdsmen.
He added that on the other hand, the fulani herdsmen would not tolerate encroachment on their allocated areas for either farming activities or erection settlements by the locals.
“Governments must find a way out, but not through regulations that do not promote neutrality.
“Whosoever must give justice must give same with clean hands and must be neutral to both sides. It is only through justice that parties can show gratitude.
“Security Agencies and Administrative Officers in Government seldom show neutrality in their decisions and judgement.
“Religious leaders including those of both religions are mostly obstinate in errors and they still do not want to learn” he said.
He added that the way out was to act better in knowledge than in ignorance, adding that policies aimed at changing the pastoral and nomadic lifestyles of Fulani herdsmen must be acceptable to those it was meant to change.
Malaolu said that we could not change centuries old styles of living or moving and of tradition by fiat, stressing that government at the center must engage the services of professional sociologist to carry out inquiry.
He said sociologist were in better position to give a neutral view of what can be done to ameliorate the condition of things with regards to conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and local communities.
He noted that governments of other nations now use professional sociologists to find out information that could help bring peace to their nation, saying that; “Nigeria must look that way too“.
“Plateau crisis and like others are not of today but had been with us for years due to our carelessness and lack of neutrality to get at quick solutions,“ he said.
He noted that ethnic and religious divisions had been our bane as a country.
He stressed that the likelihood of solutions would remain elusive if we do not put heads together with Government to proffer quality advise and solutions to the problems.
“Abusing the President and calling him a grandfather of Cattle Traders are quite unfortunate and should not be the way to follow in conflict resolutions,” Malaolu said.
(NAN)