ABUJA (Sundiata Post) As the killings continue wide across Nigeria, The Revive Nigeria Group, a non- governmental organisation registered as Restore our Future Foundation, ROFF, has suggested a number of ways to the government in order to bring an end to the conflict between cattle herders and farmers in several states in Nigeria.
This conflict has led to the loss of lives, properties and peace without any significant security measure to stem the tide.
The Revive Nigeria Group in this statement below has suggested a detailed measure in order to achieve peace and bring the conflict to an end.
Read full statement below:
The unfortunate outbreaks of communal violence such as experienced in Jos recently and in other parts of Nigeria is a stain on our humanity and identity as Nigerians. The senseless loss of life and property does not enrich the purveyors of violence but rather makes each and every Nigerian poorer in spirit, in values, and ultimately in well-being. We, at the Revive Nigeria Group (RNG), believe that it behoves every responsible citizen, individual and corporate, to assure itself that its words are heard, and its actions seen and that we all rise to the higher values of our humanity at times of crises such as these.
We do not seek to apportion blame, as the causes of such violence are too complex for any one perspective to prevail over all others. We do however believe that the desired outcomes of any communal co-existence are simple enough – it is to provide and ensure the conditions for each and every Nigerian “to freely progress economically, socially and spiritually”. It is what we at RNG call “our Super Story”. We also believe it is the intent and purpose of our laws to secure these simple outcomes.
We are not naïve in thinking that there are quick and easy fixes to the multi-faceted and combustible problems that are at once economic, socio-cultural and unavoidably political. RNG however suggests an approach that is transparently consultative, reflective and consensual.
As a consequence, RNG offers a series of observations and recommendations that may help contextualize the situation while also creating the platform for de-escalating the cycle of violence, exposing the grievances that lead to violence and support the channelling of energies toward constructive ways for resolving and accommodating our individual and collective differences.
We make four main observations that are germane and contributory to defining the context:
- A perfect storm of population increase, environmental stressors (including pollution in the South-South and water scarcity and desertification in the north), combined with chronic under-performance by successive federal and state governments resulting in a lack of economic opportunities for our teeming youth and an escalating crisis of failed expectations, have created the conditions for conflicts to flare up in different parts of Nigeria under the guise of religion and ethnicity.
- Our population demographics where 7-in-10 Nigerians is under 40, all seeking to navigate the dislocation of the socio-economic, cultural and digital divides of the 21st century, viz. the socioeconomic and other disparities between those people who have opportunities and skills, enabling them to benefit from economic system and resources, and those who do not have these opportunities or skills, creates a sense of urgency all by itself, to find lasting solutions that present alternatives to violent nihilism
- The latest violence in Plateau state has demonstrated, conclusively, that though government has the pre-emptive intelligence and coercive enforcement
capacity, the continuous failure to secure the peace and lives of Nigerians means they are sadly not being deployed adequately, if at all, to arrest the now credible threat of a descent into anarchy.
- In the perceived absence of a resourced security apparatus, the threat of anarchy is further exacerbated by the repeated allusion to a foreign component of the marauding insurgents.
- In the specific case of herdsmen/farmer conflicts, federal and regional government policies of the colonial and independence era presciently designated vast tracts of land for forest and grazing reserves, gazetting same for posterity, with the intent of securing the mutual benefits of co-existence of future generations of herdsmen, farmers, their communities and the overall public at large.
These policies have largely been ignored, and/or bypassed by successive administrations in disregard for the destabilizing effect on these human ecosystems, clearly identified as far back as 1956 as inevitable sources of conflict as the ecosystems evolved. However, the changes that have occurred over the past half a century are irreversible and policies that seek to turn back the clock are futile and doomed to fail.
While there are no doubt other salient factors at play, we believe the foregoing offer the broad outlines of a problem definition around which it is possible to frame and proffer recommendations as follows:
Immediate (6 months): DDRR – Disarmament, Demobilisation –Rehabilitation – Reintegration
Demobilize and disarm all flashpoint communities through government initiatives with the support of communities and international agencies and mobilize FG security forces;
Reconstitute national security apparatus to assuage and restore confidence of all citizens and communities in the impartiality of the operations of the institutions.
Federal and state governments to lead in the design of sustainable interventions to rehabilitate and re-integrate communities that have suffered violence, dislocation and displacement.
Need for opinion leaders, politicians and elites as well as the media to exercise restraint and be more circumspect in their comments/coverage of the crises across the flash points, in order to avoid exacerbating tension and expanding the theatres of the crises, while aggrieved Communities, on both sides of the divide, are encouraged to exercise utmost restraint and avoid taking laws into their hands/reprisal attacks on perceived culprits.
Near Term (12 months): PR&R – Policy Review and Reform
Federal government to improve coordination among security agencies to interdict and deter future violence.
Review our Policing architecture to determine the adoption of worldwide best practices.
Constitute a National Joint Action Committee on Internecine Conflict through stakeholder representation, independent of both federal and state executive and legislature which are perceived as partisan and sectional.
Federal and state governments should conduct a review of public lands, gazetted green spaces – forest reserves, grazing reserves, carbon sinks, with a view to accessing resources such as Green Bonds and climate change financing and support mechanisms. This, however, needs to take into cognizance the extant realities of phenomena such as rural/urban sprawl, commercial ranching, river basin projects, wildlife reservation, and the construction of roads, railways, schools, airports, dams and other large scale infrastructure that a critical to the realization of the 21st century economy desired for Nigeria.
Federal and state governments, as part of broader national and food security initiatives, should mandate and invest in the adoption and continued use of RFID tags with GPS trackers to help monitor cattle movements in the same way vessels and vehicles are tracked.
Medium Term (18-24months)
Federal and state governments to review policies and institutional mechanisms for sustained conflict resolution.
Federal and state governments to accelerate initiatives that boost job and wealth creation through the facilitation of employment opportunities and entrepreneurship development for Nigeria’s youth, including massive support for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) via industry-led programmes to produce the skilled talent to meet industry needs; and generous investments to raise the quality of education and develop talent with both the knowledge and skills, and ethics and morality, to thrive in a globally competitive and dynamic environment.
Federal and state governments to review Agricultural policies, lead and support the transition to sustainable livelihoods enhancement and restoration in the context of the realities of the 21st century economy desired for Nigeria.
On the issue of Grazing Reserves, RNG notes the United Nations (UN) Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) position – “For grazing reserves to develop effectively they must be integrated with the broader social and economic environment, particularly as livestock producers depend on cooperation with cultivators. Settled pastoralists need markets for sale of their products and purchase of household goods and farm inputs. Almost all sedentary pastoralists grow subsistence crops and they often hire labour for crop production. “Unfortunately, reserves have all too often been planned as exclusion zones to separate the two communities (pastoralists and farmers), in part because of the belief that the primary need was to preserve land from arable encroachment. The consequence has often been to exacerbate rather than alleviate inter-community tensions.” (FAO Corporate Document Repository-http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ilri/x5516e/x5516e04.htm#TopOfPage).
In the context of peaceful co-existence, grazing reserves are only viable and sustainable as a consensual proposition between the community members, and not as enclaves mandated and designated by federal or state governments
RNG believes this represents a start and can easily be integrated into federal and state government planning. RNG is convinced that sincere, transparent attempts to address this challenge will meet with tremendous support from all who love Nigeria and Nigerians.