Will FG’s Plan to Engage Agro-rangers to Protect Farmlands End Herdsmen Attacks?

The proposed agro-rangers which the Federal Government said would lead herdsmen to move their animals from one cattle colony to another cannot stop the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen. How will that work? How many of them will they engage to move the animals? It is like they want every state in the country to continue to have a share of the atrocities of these herdsmen. This cannot work at all.

Which state has not been at the receiving end of these killings? So, the government wants it to spread round that is the way I see it.

Their agro-rangers cannot stop these people from killing. I have lived for so many years in Europe and I am still a resident of the strongest country in Europe, which is Germany. In Germany, there are so many cattle ranches owned by individuals, you don’t see these cattle and other animals on the road for any reason. In Australia, where the population of animals far exceeds that of human beings, their animals don’t move on the road in search of pasture or for any reason. The ranching system does not make their animals unproductive; they are productive much more than our animals here. I don’t know where the people got this theory from that if their animals don’t move round, they won’t be productive. It is not true. That theory is not scientific at all. Why is there an upsurge in the destruction of farms and killings by herdsmen? Do we have more animals today than we had in the past? Certainly no! There is a scheme and people may not see it. The scheme may be political, religious or anything but there is a scheme. In Australia the number of animals is about 50 times the number of human beings; still their animals don’t roam the streets because they rear them in localised ranches and they make a lot of profit from doing that. Why should our own be different? •Prof. Clement Adebooye (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Osun State University /Agronomist)

I don’t know much about agro-rangers but what I do know is that security remains a cardinal responsibility of the government. Protection of lives and property remains the responsibility of the government. As a representative of Benue citizens, what we need is for the government to guarantee our security. I don’t know how the government will do it but all I know is that the security architecture, as it is at the moment, has not proved to be good enough. I don’t know about rangers and what they should do but I know most Nigerians will agree with me that security is not sufficient and they feel the government is not doing enough to protect them. I recommend reinforcement of security across the nation. I believe that the police and the military are enough. What is lacking is that they are not well equipped and not motivated. If they were equipped and motivated, they would have been able to nip this current crisis in the bud before it escalated to the current level. So, sharing of intelligence, equipping of the police and military would do a lot more than introducing an entirely new institution. I don’t know about the rangers and I hope such a new force will not be abused. It is true that herdsmen move around with sophisticated weapons. For instance in Benue, police personnel have been killed and these are people that went to protect lives and property in Logo. These were policemen that went with AK-47 rifles to protect lives and they were overpowered. So, this may mean that those who killed the policemen may even have more sophisticated weapons. So, it will be stating the obvious to say that the herdsmen are armed. In essence, I don’t know what the agro-rangers will do. •Terna-Kester Kyenge (Member, Benue State House of Assembly)

Any decision of the government to protect the state is a welcome development. But if you want to trace the precedence and previous incidence in this country, one will easily tell you that the Federal Government does not seem to be sincere. For now, I will tell you that I believe that the government is playing games and being laconic with the truth, in terms of the security and protection of citizens. Does the government need to wait up till this moment before coming up with the policy now that these attacks have become a recurrent decimal? These people (ranch rangers) you are going to engage, are they not going to be trained? Are they not going to be equipped? Would they not be taken round to know the terrain? Would they not be trained on the modus operandi of the mindless killers? The security agencies already in existence know all these issues. So, it is better for the government to fund them adequately and be sincere.

We saw what happened in Benue and people who were killed. So, we would be happy if government does the right thing by protecting its citizenry. With the way these incidents have be taking place, you would know that a powerful bloc has been protecting the Fulani herdsmen and the people behind them. And you can see that it is a kind of an unknown militia because if you look at it, the herdsmen cannot manipulate an ordinary gun. But they are being backed by some mindless persons who have been using them to destroy villages.

The farmers who lost their farmlands for which they took loans were not compensated. But the same Federal Government is protecting a private cattle rearer and giving him a colony in a location that is not his. Can you see the insincerity and wickedness against the farmers? So, how does it want the ordinary Nigerian to believe that it is sincere in tackling the issue? It has not come up with a viable option. •Sam Abasilim (A-Benin-based legal practitioner)

Frankly speaking, in the world of today, nothing happens without political will. From all indications, this Federal Government, the Presidency and perhaps the Ministry of Agriculture, have their own unique take on how to solve this monstrous problem. I am also aware that the governor of Benue State has his own ideas which are very unique to him which are based on ignorance and irresponsibility.

What the Benue State government did with its version of state rangers is worthy of mention here. He recruited thugs and miscreants and gave them enormous powers to seize cattle and collect illegal taxes from herders under the guise of enforcing the anti-grazing law. I don’t know how this will work at the federal level. •Dr. Junaid Muhammed (Ex-Federal Lawmaker)

Before saying yes or no, I will like to state a few things, because we don’t think the Federal Government will just decide to leave important things undone. It is very bad to experience what we are facing presently in many parts of the country but it is also important to state that those who rear cattle are farmers as well. They are part of us; everybody is involved in his or her own business. Those who plant are in their business, while those who rear cattle are also in their business and we must all understand this. What we are doing is that we are now trying to echo to the government what should be done. It is not just for you to come up with a policy, the policy has to be implemented. So if the Federal Government believes that the introduction of agro-rangers will solve the problem, then we don’t mind. All we want is peace so that everything can move as expected in the sector. We made our submissions to the government when it came onboard as regards the agricultural sector. We will be happy if the government can think of measures that will solve this lingering problem between herdsmen and farmers.

We are not happy at the moment and we want this problem not to repeat itself because most of our farmers cannot feed themselves anymore. Many of them have fled and left their farmlands because of the activities of herdsmen. But I must mention that we are all one and I pray the crisis do not repeat itself as seen in the past again. The policy on agro-rangers can also help but we want to see it implemented adequately in order to curb all the clashes and menace we experience across the country. •Otunba Femi Oke (The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria)

Compiled by:  Success Nwogu, Femi Makinde, Eniola Akinkuotu, Okechukwu Nnodim and Alexander Okere
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