A former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, and a number of other stakeholders have called for the resolution of herders/farmers clashes to avoid national food scarcity.
They lamented that the frequent clashes had negatively affected agriculture and the nation’s quest for industrialisation.
Those who spoke on the issue are the Chairman, Special Royal Farms
Limited, Ora-Obbo Ile, Vice-Admirral Samuel Afolayan (retd.); a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mallam Yusuf Ali; the Vice-Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malete, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah; and the Provost, College of Agriculture, KWASU, Prof. Olawale Aliyu.
They spoke on Wednesday at a symposium on ‘Pastoralists and crop farmers’ crisis: A discourse on proactive measures to prevent conflict in Nigeria’ organised by the College of Agriculture.
Gambari, who is a former Ambassador of Nigeria to the United Nations, said it was imperative to address the herders/farmers’ conflict in order to remove the threat to national survival and food security.
He said, “Nigeria has a landmass of 98.3 million hectares, 82 million hectares of arable land of which about 34 million hectares are currently under cultivation. Pastoralists move their animals to locations to access opportunities. This system of production is breaking down today as violent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers have arisen and created a major national crisis.”
Ali lamented that the pastoralists and farmers conflicts had remained the most predominately resource-use conflict in recent times in Nigeria.
Na’Allah said the conflicts between herders and farmers were threatening industrialisation, national development, integration, growth, national food production and security.
By: Success Nwogu,
Punch News
