Monday, April 25, 2016
State of Emmergency Against Attacking Fulani's Herdsmen.
The reported Fulani herdsmen attacks at Enugu State on Monday, 25/4/16, and previously at Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Ekiti etc, will leave people with no choice but to seek self help. Self preservation is "sine qua non" for our existence. Agreed that President Buhari ordered an inquiry into the clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Benue at the end of February 2016. But drastic actions are needed immediately. These attacks have led to loss of lives and properties. It Must stop. Communities are advised to form vigilante groups and liase with security services to check the excesses of these herdsmen. Communities should organise 24 hours surveillance. It would be necessary to produce a database of Fulani herdsmen heading down South. Mr President, please declare state of emergency against Fulani herdsmen.
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It is good to suggest declaring a State of Emergency. But that will produce nothing. It is like trying to quench an inferno with oil. The problem underlying these migration of Fulani Herdsmen deeper and deeper into the southern regions of the country has its basic roots in the negligence of our degrading environment by successive governments since the famous Sahel Drought of the mid- 70s. Uncontrolled Felling of Trees has led to "wild" Desert Encroachment in the North. Almost half of Yobe and Borno States are now real Deserts with Sand Dunes like in the Sahara proper. The cattle herdsmen have no alternative than to move southwards (instead of the usual North-east to North-west movements and back). Of course in the South, Climate Change has not made things better; rising sea-level is driving the coastal dwellers "northwards". I personally met Fishermen in Lokoja, who said they relocated from Bayelsa - now fishing in the Niger River. They said that's their only source of livelihood. We are sitting on a time bomb. Drought and Desertification is driving millions of people (not only the Fulani herdsmen) southwards. At the same time, rising sea-levels, uncontrolled deForestation (logging for timber, charcoal and Fuelwood) and serious Gulley Erosions in the south are pushing people northwards. So we are all doomed to meet in the middle Belt - which with all due respect (and despite Benue being tagged "Foodbasket of the nation") cannot accomodate 180 million people. The consequences are wild and babaric incidents like the Agatu killings and elsewhere in the middle belt.
ReplyDeleteNo Government to date has taken this Problem of Climate Change serious. We are always gushed with nice rhetoric but no action follows. Nigeria presented an overwhelming INDC at COP21 in Paris. But when it came to the historic signing of the Protocol in New York last week (22nd of April - Mother Earth's Day), Nigeria was not among the 175 countries which appended their signatures on the Document (even though our Hon. Minister of the Environment was in New York - just posing with celebrities and twitting it!). This shows how serious our country takes the Climat Change issue. If 92 year old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe could drag his feet to New York to sign the accord on behalf of his country, I see no excuse whatsoever that Nigeria would have to absent herself, apart from not just being being serious.
So I believe declaring State of Emergency on this Fulani Herdsmen saga will not solve any problem but only aggravate it. The Government should wake up to its responsibilities, Reshuffle the Ministry of Environment if need be (by sacking unproductive elements and replacing them with creative ones) and rather Declare a State of Emergency on Climate Change instead.